Visiting the Donut Machine

Ever had one of those feelings of love, hope, excitement and joy all wrapped into one little emotion all at once? Been stunned by the mere sight of something you have not seen in a long time? We get that feeling with people, but machines? Well, I had those feelings yesterday when my son Jim and I went to Las Vegas to see the doughnut machine my parents had their Donut Shop when I was growing up . To make a long story short, my brother and I gave the machine back to the company that originally made it (DCA/Moline Manufacturing in Duluth, MN) and they restored the machine and now send it around the world to baker's conventions and make donuts with it for conventioneers!

We were met at the convention by Charlie Heinmuller of Moline Manufacturing and led into the giant hall where the machine literally was positioned in the middle of the arena. As we turned corner of the exhibit and spied the machine, the visual of the machine and smell of the heating oil wafted me into a sea of dreams. There I was, back in the Donut Shop in Hoopeston with Mom at the end of the table icing those treats and Dad adjusting the air pressure to make them perfect.

A lump rose in my throat as Charlie explained how they had left many of the pieces, including the motor, intact and had retooled some gears. We laughed as he told me how the machine draws crowds overseas when it is at exhibitions there and how many foreigners clamor for the doughnuts it puts out. These people want to buy the machine, but they are rebuffed by Gary Moline and the others at Moline Manufacturing because of the machine's history both with their company and with America. The machine, he tells them, is priceless.

I went to the side of the machine, peered inside at the spider where the doughnuts are separated so they can cook. It looked as though it was still 1964, and was just as clean as it was then.

The smells got even more powerful and the images clearer as the two men responsible for running the machine, Bob and Chris, were introduced to us. I told them how my dad used to dress in khaki pants and a V-necked T-shirt. They looked at each other, and broke out in laughter and recounted how they wanted to dress in khakis and then each unbuttoned their shirt to show me their V-necked T=shirts! We roared! As I explained to Bob and Chris how Dad used to coax the machine into getting the just right pressure, they constantly chuckled and said, "We have to do that, too!" At one point, Bob turned to Charlie and Don Moline (the Chairman of the Board of Moline Manufacturing who had joined us) and said, "We ought to hire him to run this thing!" We met the entire Moline family from Gary the President to his sons. It was good to see that the machine was involved still in a family business where many of the employees were also multi-generational.

Chris backed out of a small storage area carrying a mixing bowl full of dough. Though smaller than the one Dad used, he climbed on top of a small ladder and poured the dough into the machine. As he did this I told him how Dad filled the plugged cannister on the ground, then lifted it onto the machine and pulled the plug just as he got it over the cutter. He agreed that would be much easier. (the next file might be a bit sideways!)

Next came the moment of truth.... Bob and Chris turned the machine on and let it do its magic! The orginal motor chummed like clockwork and the gears ran flawlessly. The dough dropped magically into the hot oil and floated around the moat, getting flipped after 27 seconds by a flipper and 45 seconds later emerged from its circuitous route as a delicious globule of glutenous delight!

We all stood there transfixed by the metaphysical relationship that frying doughnuts work on the human psyche. As they rolled out the fron chute onto a table similar to what mom had, I had the urge to pick one up and place it into some ghostly bowl of icing. Chris reached over with a stick much like Dad and Mom used and placed it gently on the wire basket to cool. a lump rose in my throat that could only be choked down by a bite from that first one! Like Dad had done so many times, I picked it up, broke it into two pieces to check for doneness, and popped one piece into my mouth! For a fraction of a second, Mom and Dad stood next to me and I defied the laws of physics and went back in time. The doughnut was perfect!

The batch continued to run until the inevitable end where the "crippled" doughnuts came out. (I know, it is not PC, but that is what we called them.) For old times sake, one even got caught under the flipper in the back and had to be rescued. (In my book, Arnold Schuff would have gotten these.) There was no icing, but Chris did put about a dozen of them into a sack of sugar and coat them.

Bob and Chris were gracious enough to sack up a half dozen for us (I am sure I could have had more.) and Jim and I bid adieu to that doughnut machine. Mom and Dad get to spiritually go to places they could otherwise never see, and whenever I think of them and that machine, I will not see the rusted piece of junk that was in my garage for so many years, but rather I will remember that iconic piece of my childhood and Americana and the two loving people who taught me to always "keep my eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole!"

Doughnut

To Sheldon,my brother.

One of life's greatest joys is family. One of life's greatest frustrations is family. One of life's greatest enjoyments is family.... I think you get the picture.

During my trip back to Illinois to publicize my book, GROWING UP DOUGHNUT, I had the pleasure to stay with my brother Jim in the tiny hamlet of New Salem, IL. Jim is a few years older than I am, and, he would say, wiser. Me? I got the looks in the family jeans.(the misuse is intentional)

During the course of our visit, my brother Jim seemed to me to have picked a bit of a compulsive behavior. Maybe it is his advanced age (He is, after all older than I.), or maybe he has always been this way and I never noticed. He has to have things just so, and he has become a creature of habit. For instance, I first recognized this problem when I was in the bathroom weighing myself and my luggage for the return trip. After I had concluded the exercise, I put the scales back where I thought they were. Jim immediately moved them 1/4 inch closer to the wall. He said that he had, "calculated the required space needed to look over his stomach and see the numbers..." Apparently being a little too far away might have made him weigh more.

In the "having things just so" file...When he drives, he has to have the passenger visor at just the right angle, or it makes him feel out of sorts when he drives. When he mows, he makes sure that his lines are straight. Me? I have to worry about whether my rocks get raked just right in my desert lawn.

All this came to a head when we were watching The Big Bang Theory. I realized that Jim, who is highly intelligent, had traits similar to those of Sheldon. So, I have taken to calling him Sheldon. I wonder, does this make me Leonard, Raj, or Walowitz? (Jim might say my actions resemble Walowitz's mom.)

Jim made an astounding observation when we were traveling the back roads of Pike County looking for deer during my stay. ( I have to say, for a county that boasts that it "harvests" 10,000 deer a year, I saw only 4...they were in Calhoun County, not Pike. Do deer know about this harvest?) The observation was this... it is amazing that two rather large guys from such a small mother could be so vastly different. He is a small town guy who likes to live in relative seclusion without all the hubbub of people. I, on the other hand, have migrated to the big city and now like the sights and sounds and interactions I have with people on a daily basis.

He is probably right. We are vastly different. But we still have one thing in common that I never told him. That is...when he is not around, I miss him.

Keep mowing Sheldon, and make sure your lines are straight.

Doughnut

Trip Update

Blogging? I ain't been doing no stupid blogging!
Finally! I got some time to write something, and I have to say it has been so long, I barely know how to put my fingers on the keys of the keyboard, let alone put words together in to phrases, sentences and paragraphs. You don't use it... You lose it, I guess.

Many of you know that I have been away from home for a while. No, I did not run away (although in my youth I thought of it... wanted to go and see the world), I have been on a "World Tour" promoting "Growing Up Doughnut."

To some the term "World Tour" conjures up far away, exotic places; meeting with thousands of throngs of people who clamor and hang on my every word. Well, that is exactly what I did. And for good measure, I added a "reunion" to the title. So, I went on the "Growing Up Doughnut Reunion World Tour."

I went to exotic places like Pittsfield, IL; Champaign, IL; Paxton, Loda, Hoopeston, Cheneyville, and Griggsville, IL. I spoke to Women's Groups, Reading Clubs, Libraries; just about anyone that would listen to me about my pride and joy from the depths of my psyche--Growing Up Doughnut. I went to out of the way places in Iowa and Missouri. And saw my old house in Hoopeston, the sweet corn canning factories, the Sweet Corn Festival and learned of the crowning of the National Sweetcorn Sweetheart, Brittany Hagan of Indiana, the second most beautiful girl in all of America. ( I say this because her chances are good that she will be Miss America like 5 other contestants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sweetheart )

The real orders of the trip, though, was to sell the book, sign the book, talk about the book, and reconnect with old friends; some who I had not seen in 30 years. I met up with Roger Beatty (who is in the book) and learned that he is now called "The Stink Ditch Guy" because of our escapades in the book. I also saw my good friend Don Smith from Carterville, and the Drollinger girls who came from West Lafayette and Georgia. Harold Simpson treated me to a Diet Coke at his Dairy Queen on Main Street, while Molly Culbert opened her shop "Flowers and Gifts by Molly" for a book signing. In Paxton, Andy Hudson let me have a table to greet friends and sell books in his store, "Hudson Drug and Hallmark Store". And Jane Addams Bookshop gave me a great deal of help promoting the book to folks in Champaign. Anne Dill of WCIA-TV and Dave Bennett and Jennifer Ketchmark of WCFN-TV put my story on the morning and evening, and I found two old friends in Wendy Doan-Mingee-Davis and John Green working there.

My family back in Illinois helped by lodging me: pseudo children Ryan and Elizabeth Carlson not only put up with me, but also saved the trip by letting me borrown Elizabeth's car. My former partner-in-crime, Jim Flaherty, gave me a bed and beer, while his lovely wife, Pam, fixed food for me (something she rarely does for Jim, according to him.) My real cousin Joan entertained me and my nephew and niece, Nick and Erin with a meal, and stayed up way past her bedtime to catch me up on the 30 years we have missed with each other. Despite having knee problems, Linda Martin let me crash on her couch on a stormy night in the Sweetcorn Capital of the World.

One of the greatest things happened to me when I was speaking at the Hoopeston Library on Sunday, though. (Thanks here to Linda Mitchell) While I was speaking about the book, two women entered from a side door and approached me at the podium. They just stood there and did not say a word. I was flabbergasted...who were these women that they would block the public's view of an important figure like me? As I stared at them, the age on their faces dripped away revealing two lovely ladies whom I had not seen in 20 years. There before me were my cousins from Chicago, Vera, and Suzie! Their grandfather was the man I owed my name to! I almost broke out in tears.

Overall, the trip was fantastic, and I have more stories to tell. Watch on Friday for a story about my brother, Sheldon!

Doughnut

I'm back!

Hey! I am sorry for not writing in so long... I have been out of touch with reality with promoting the book back in Illinois (lack of internet helped, too.). But I PROMISE I will start writing again on Monday... and I have some very important news to relate...

Doughnut