We are obviously not quite out of the Dog Days of Summer and my curiosity is piqued as to who else George Bauer would have visited with during those days that at times would have been almost intolerable because of the heat in most of the buildings.
I understand your curiosity and the name of an old friend comes to mind, namely Lou Soens.
Lou was the type of person you couldnt help but like. He had a hard countenance but when he smiled he would draw you in. He was not a large man, even though he worked with iron and steel almost every day. His blacksmith shop was located at the southwest corner of 2nd Street and South Main. Tim and Penny Lashinsky live there now and much of the house dates back to Lous time.
Lou also had a granary just to the southwest of his blacksmith shop. He would take in all kinds of grains, grind them up and sack them during the fall then he would sell them to families as winter approached.
Lou lived to the east of his shop, to the east of where the Catholic Rectory would be located. He and his wife, Arabella, played varying roles in the community but the one thing they regretted as they got older was that they had been unable to have any children.
Lou knew blacksmithing inside and out but only had 17 weeks of formal schooling. He also loved to play the big bass horn and it could be heard many an evening during the summer months. Your mother had a picture of a float and the band in her book and even identified the men in the band, Lou being one of them.
Just to the east of Lous blacksmith shop was an opera house that had been erected by Harry Davis, who, only a few years later would play a vital role in the erecting of the two story brick and mortar building that became known as The Opera House. The Davis opera house burned down three years before the construction of the Opera House now owned by the VFW.
For decades masquerade balls were popular with the town folk and Lou was no exception. He loved to attend the balls dressed as an Indian chief.
One of the favorite things with the boys at Halloween was to tip over outhouses. Lou did not like putting his back in place every year so one year dug four holes and put beams in each hole and nailed the outhouse to the beams. That only slowed down the boys who sawed off each beam at ground level and then tipped over the outhouse. Lous good nature was not to be found the next morning and his tirade was loud enough to be mentioned in the Mancos Times the following week.
Lou passed away at the age of 68 in 1930 and his wife, Arabella, passed away in 1938 at the age of 76.
