The following are an assortment of stories, most often told by Lou to his family and friends over the years. Like all stories from Lou, the authenticity may be suspect, the memories are fun to recall. A couple stories towards the end cover some of his life.
STREETCAR ANTICS
When Lou was young the street trolley would turn around at 6th and Center. The trolley would be traveling south on 6th and make a Y turn by turning onto Center, backing back onto 6th St. and pull forward to resume the route the other way. The car would sit on 6th St. for several minutes before starting back up. While the car was parked Lou and a friend would sneak up behind the car and pull the rope to disconnect the trolly from the electric cable above. As soon as it was disconnected, they would run off in opposite directions so the operator wouldn’t catch them. He had to stay and re-hook the trolly. When they were braver, while the driver was reconnecting the trolly they would circle around to the front, open the headlight cover and unscrew the headlight. When the driver got back in to leave, he would realize there was no light. Of course, when he hopped out to fix that they would sneak around to the back to disconnect the trolly again. One day they did this often enough that the streetcar, which used airbrakes, lost air pressure and the car rolled back on 6th street, ran off the rails and slammed into the Rinky Dink Bar. Tow trucks had to be called in to pull the streetcar back onto the tracks. Back then the streets were brick and getting all the wheels lined up to roll back onto the tracks took a lot of effort. Meanwhile, Lou and his buddies hid behind the bushes and watched the spectacle. After a while, Lou was riding his bike and was caught by the driver while Lou was pulling the rope. The driver grabbed the bike and Lou slid off the seat landing on the center bar between his legs. The pain was not pleasant. He rolled onto the ground and started moaning as the driver laughed at him. “That’ll teach you” he exclaimed. Eventually, Lou, the driver and his buddies became friends and would exchange things like cookies and other treats.
PORK CHOP STORY
One day, when Lou and Lory were young, they noticed their mom making an apple pie and preparing a pork chip dinner. They were very excited about the upcoming dinner, but their mom called them in and informed them their Uncle Lou and Aunt Jo were coming for dinner. But since she only had eight pork chops, and there would be ten people, she instructed the boys to be polite and not take a pork chop. Though they were very disappointed they knew they had to obey their mom. When dinner time came and the plate of pork chips was getting passed around the table, it came to Lory and Lou. They dutifully said no thank you and passed the plate on. But they knew there was pie and they would get their reward at dessert time. When it came time for the pie their mom divided the pie into eight even pieces and passed it around the table of ten. When the pie came to Lory and Lou their mom gave them a stern look and said, “Lory, Lou, you didn’t eat your pork chop. No dessert for you”!
CATCHING SPIT
Lou, and his brothers Al and Lory, shared a bed when they were growing up on Martha Street. Their bedroom was in the attic of the house. Lou, being the smallest usually slept in the middle. One night as they lay in bed Al said to Lory, “Lory, if I spit straight up in the air do you think I can catch it?” Lory replied, “I don’t know but it’s worth a try.” Lou wasn’t sure about this idea working, especially being in the middle. Al and Lory decided to try on the count of three. They proceeded to work up a good spit and counted… As soon as they hit three Lou pulled the covers over his head. Al and Lory then let out a big fart under the covers.
IN TROUBLE WITH LORY
Lory and Lou were messing around in the house one day. Their father told them several times to knock it off before they broke something. Sure enough, they accidentally knocked over a lamp and broke it. Their father heard it and came into the room yelling at them. The boys made a break for the front door with each of them receiving a smack on the back of the head as they went out. Both went tumbling down the front stairs, landing in a pile at the bottom. They both stood up and looked at their father still scolding them from the top of the stairs. Lou has started sniffling but Lory leaned over and whispered to him to stop crying, don’t let their dad know he got the best of them. Lou, taking that as a challenge snapped back at his father, “That didn’t hurt!” The race was on. Their father came flying down the stairs straight for the boys and they took off running as fast as they could around the house and down the street. They didn’t dare return home for hours.
EYE ACCIDENT
Lou was blinded in his left eye as a child when his brother Al accidentally shot him in the eye with a pencil from a slingshot. Lou struggled with the eye over the years and eventually, after unsuccessful surgery, would have the eye taken out and replaced with a glass eye. Al told Lou if he died first, he would donate one of his eyes to Lou.
HIGH SCHOOL PROTECTORS
Growing up Lou was not one of the biggest kids in school. Once he entered South High School, his brothers weren’t around to protect him. In high school, he would have several lifelong friends who he would call his protectors. No bully would dare pick on him with them around. They included the Powell brothers, Dave and Del, and Buzz Dworak. Del and Lou maintained a great lifelong friendship.
DRIVING THE POP TRUCK
Lou was 15 years old riding in the pop truck with his brother Al. Al looked at Lou and told him to drive because he’s not feeling good. They were driving down Dodge St back when it was two lanes. Lou tries to sit up as high as he can because he can barely see over the driver’s wheel. About that time a cop car passes in the other direction. Al says. “Oh my God. Get up!” Lou says “What?” and Al snaps back “Get up!” So, Lou tries to stand up behind the wheel so Al can slide beneath him and take over driving as Lou slides back over the passenger side. The cop had turned around and pulled them over. The officer asks Lou “Were you driving this truck?” Of course, Lou says, “No, not me.” Because there is nothing else the cop can do at this point, he lets them go.
BOTTLING POP
While in high school he worked at his father’s pop plant. He, Marv Alexander and another friend worked the night shift. They were given a list of what to make by his dad, Al, which was usually 100 cases of different flavors of pop, load the trucks for deliveries the next day and clean up before they left. Lou would run the pop machine; the friend would put the empty bottles into the cleaner which fed the machine and Marv would stack the cases in the warehouse and load the trucks. When all that was done the three of them would clean up and head down to Peony Park for a night of music, dancing and girls.
During this time his dad signed a deal to start bottling and selling Squirt. This was its entry into the Omaha market. When the Squirt rep came to the bottling plant, he told Lou that the bottles had to be filled to a specific level to meet their product criteria. Well, because his dad ran the plant on the thrifty side a lot of makeshift adjustments had been made to the equipment which resulted in the bottles never filling correctly. Some were short and some were filled to the brim. Part of Lou’s job was to stand at the bottling line with a bottle of carbonated water and finish filling the bottles that were low, and pour out the ones that were overfilled. The rep looked at the machinery and said he was very familiar with it as it was also used by other plants around the country. He showed Lou that if he replaced the rubber band holding a couple of parts together with a proper O ring, and tightened it up, and if he adjusted a couple of other parts that weren’t put together right and replaced another worn-out part the bottler would fill the bottles just fine. And it did! With that solved he asked Lou why the machine was running so slow. It was filling about a case a minute. He explained the machine was designed to go 4 times that fast. He showed Lou a couple of sprockets that worked like a car transmission and that the machine was set at the lowest gear. He showed him how to change it so it would run faster. Lou was shocked. Suddenly those long nights trying to get things done as quickly as possible could be done in a flash.
Lou got Marv and their friend together and laid out a new game plan. Lou would crank the machine up in the higher gear and the three of them would work together to feed bottles and pull the cases off. Then they would load the trucks, clean up and head out for dancing. All in two or three hours instead of 5 or 6. After a few days of enjoying their newfound freedom, Lou’s dad happened to come into the plant one night for something and found no one working. The boys were gone. He looked around to see what was going on and he saw that the pop was all made and stacked up. The trucks were all loaded and the floors were all cleaned. So, he went home and waited for Lou to come home.
Boy, was he mad. He asked Lou what was going on, how did they get all the work done so fast and had left so early. Lou explained what the sales rep had shown him, how he had made the adjustments and how they were able to get done quicker. Naturally, Al was suspicious and said he couldn’t do that; it would wear the machine out faster. Lou said it wouldn’t matter. It would wear out at the same rate as they made pop, it was a wash. Al still wasn’t happy and had to think about it. The next day when the boys came in to work Al explained to them that if they were going to run it that fast they would have to make 400 cases of pop in a shift and gave them a longer list to get done. Now the boys were unhappy with the unfortunate turn of events, but they still managed to get things done a little earlier and head out looking for girls at Peony Park. To this day Lou says this is where he learned about machinery and cycle times. The faster you could go with fewer interruptions the more you got done and the more money you could make.
BOTTLED THE FIRST SQUIRT IN OMAHA
After their father had converted the Willows Springs company from a beer brewer to a bottled pop business, he picked up several national lines of pop including Dad’s Root Beer, Orange Crush, 7 Up, Dr Pepper and Squirt. Lou proudly bragged that he got to fill the first bottle of Squirt when they started producing it. Years later the entire product line was pulled from the business and given to Mid-Continent Bottlers. As Willow Springs began using their new name of Cornhusker Beverage (they are still licensed with the state as Willow Springs Bottling name) they began making Goody pop. In the early 2000’s they stopped producing pop altogether
CAREER DECISION
When Lou returned home from St. Martin’s University in Olympia, Washington, he went back to work for his dad making pop. At this time it was his dad, his brother Al and his other brother George. Al was the outside salesman and George ran the plant. Since he was still living at home at that time his dad told him he would pay him $45 a week to work but he would have to give his mom $30 for room and board. Lou knew that his mom would turn around and give his dad most of the money to buy sugar for making pop. Lou didn’t like the deal at all and felt he was taken advantage of. He decided to leave and went to work for a builder. After a short while his father-in-law, Charlie Watkins, offered Lou a position at the block company as a bookkeeper and dispatcher in the office. His dad Al still wanted him back. He offered Lou part ownership in the company. His dad had already brought his sons Al and George into the company and was planning on bringing his brother Lory in also. But Lory hated working there and with his mom’s help had joined the Army instead. Lory unfortunately was killed in in the Korean War and never returned home. His dad offered Lou Lory’s share of the company to come back. Lou remembered how his dad would run things to his advantage and was not convinced it was that good a deal. As his brother George said many years later it didn’t matter how good a year they had there was always something that prevented the company from making a lot of money and giving raises or bonuses, whether it was a new truck or repairs to the machinery. They just never seemed to get ahead. Lou decided to join his father-in-law and never looked back. He helped build the company from the smallest of four block companies in Omaha to the largest in Nebraska and Iowa.
NEBRASKA FOOTBALL
One football Saturday Lou took his friends, police sergeant Ray Herzberg, bricklayer Tony Iwan and Fr. Dan Soltys to a Nebraska football game. Nebraska was playing Notre Dame. They were getting ready to leave Tony’s house for the game where they had to have a Bloody Mary before they left. Tony’s wife Joanne was giving them a hard time, “There you are, look at the four of you, bottles hanging out everywhere and it’s just drink, drink, drink.” She finally tells them to “Get outta here!” So they go out and get in the car with Lou and Tony in front and the cop and the priest in the back with the cooler between them. He’s getting ready to pull out and looks in the mirror and sees Joanne running towards the car yelling “Wait, wait, wait!” Tony rolls the window down and asks “What do want Joanne?” She says, “You forgot your bottle of rum.”
Now they are sitting in the parking lot across from the stadium. It was an excellent parking place and they noticed a car parks next to them with a Notre Dame bumper sticker. Fr Dan looks at it and rolls down his window and yells “Hey!” to the driver of the car. The driver yells back “What?” Fr Dan asks him if he knows what an atheist is. The driver yells back “No, and I don’t give a damn!” Fr. Dan goes “Really?” and pulls his collar around so he could see he is a priest. The driver asks if he’s really a priest and Fr Dan says “Yes”. The stranger says “I like Notre Dame, get out Father, do you want a martini?” After sharing a martini for a bit, the guy asks Fr. Dan what is an atheist? Fr Dan says that’s a guy that goes to a Notre Dame-Southern Methodist game and doesn’t care who wins.”
AUNT RUTH
Lou relates, “I remember when Ruth was ill in the hospital and buying her a little radio because she loved polka music. I also gave her a couple of tapes with polka music that she would listen to. I placed them by her bedside so she could listen to them. Debbie was in the room with Ruth at the hospital. Debbie was talking to her and Ruth was just struggling. Debbie said she had to go into the hallway for a while because it was such a difficult time. Debbie leaves and I’m alone in the room with her. I pull up alongside her and lean over and tell her, ‘Let go, Ruth. Let go, you’re alright. Everything is gonna be fine. Let go.’ She looked at me and closed her eyes. The doctor walked in and she died right then. I walked out into the hall and said “Debbie, she’s gone. I’ll never forget I said it and I don’t even know why. I just said let go, and she did.”
LAS VEGAS PART ONE – DEL WINS
During Lou’s bachelor days he would occasionally take a trip with friends to Las Vegas. He would usually travel with Del Powell and Tony Iwan. They knew Jackie Gaughan, who grew up in Omaha and owned the El Cortez Casino, among financial stakes in other casinos. We’ll leave Jackie’s Omaha bookmaking history out of this story. One night, after a long day at the tables, Lou and Tony decided to call it a night and went to their room to crash, leaving Del at the tables. A few hours later there’s a big racket at the door and Del comes bursting into the room. He stumbles in, obviously smashed, and hollers “I’m rich!” and throws wads of cash in the air, bills floating all over the room. Del promptly fell onto a bed and passed out, sound asleep. Lou and Tony look back at the door and see a rather large, well-dressed gentleman standing there. He explains he had been keeping an eye on Del as he knew he was drawing the attention of a couple of unscrupulous fellows. He said he saw the Shriners ring on Del’s hand and felt it was his obligation to keep him safe. They looked down at the man’s hand and saw he had a Shriners ring on as well.
LAS VEGAS PART TWO – SINATRA
Lou loved to tell the story of hearing Frank Sinatra sing in Vegas. If you wanted to hear it again, just ask him. On one of the above trips, he knew Sinatra was singing and Lou wanted to hear him. They used their connections with Jackie Gaughan to get tickets. Tickets that got them in the door. But he wanted to sit up front, so he gave a big tip to the maître de when they entered the theater and they were promptly taken up to a table in the front row. Lou was starstruck as he sat and watched him sing, as big as life. Lou would say his performance was so powerful that if he commanded the ceiling to come down, it would. Lou’s favorite Sinatra song was My Way.
LAS VEGAS PART THREE– DEL DRIVES
Lou, Del Powell and Tony Iwan were returning from Las Vegas one time and because of the long drive Del said he would take the “graveyard shift” because he was a truckdriver and knew how to stay awake. They were driving Lou’s station wagon and had the back seats laid down so the others could sleep. Lou and Tony flopped in the back and fell asleep. Next thing they know the car is bouncing wildly and it apparently had left the road. They jumped up to see if Del was okay. He was obviously drowsy, but more awake now. They threw him into the back and took over driving while Del slept, for hours. They found out later he had taken what he thought was “speed”, but it was not. It was some sort of downer that made him drowsy. So much for the expert truckdriver.
LAS VEGAS PART FOUR – THE COPS
On another return trip from Las Vegas, they were driving through Kansas, they believe, in Lou’s station wagon. One man driving, two sleeping. Just as the car was coming over the crest of a hill, suddenly, the whole car was lit up like the middle of the afternoon. Floodlights and police cars lined the road. They had driven into a police trap. After stopping and being confronted by the police they were told they had been followed for a while because they were looking for three men headed east and driving a station wagon. They were responsible for a big robbery. Fortunately, after dragging them all out of the car the troopers realized they didn’t match the description of the robbers and were let go.
WATKINS BUYS CORNHUSKER RACEWAY
Watkins Concrete Block’s primary business in the 50s and 60s was supplying block for the home basement market. As the city of Omaha grew, the homes were farther away from the plant. Interstate 80 had just been built between Omaha and Lincoln. It was referred to as “The Golden Highway”. Builders knew Omaha was going to grow in that direction, and it did. Knowing this, Lou, Chuck and Bob understood they going to have to expand out west. Operating out of the small South Omaha location was not feasible. Meanwhile, the Cornhusker Raceway was operating at 144th & Giles. It had three things they needed, lots of land, flat and out southwest of Omaha. As a bonus, it also had a fair amount of asphalt paving in place. As fortune would have it in one year they had three major races scheduled with national racers. But the weather had different plans and all three were washed out. The drivers at that level get paid regardless of their racing or not. The Raceway went broke. Enter Watkins Concrete. The three boys, as they were referred to by Charlie, broached the idea of buying the land for future growth. The idea was to first build a plant, then move the office out there. Charlie was dead set against it. Charlie was dead set against many of the ideas the boys had for growing the business, including: selling clay brick, concrete pavers, retaining wall block, and moving out west. The property was purchased in 1973. The first building, built along the staging area of the racetrack, was built and opened in 1977. The block plant was built in 1979 and the office and first warehouse were built in 1982. With Lou at the helm of all of it.
WATKINS IS SOLD
As related by Chip Riedmann
I remember sitting in the conference room at the 144th St. office and it was time to decide on whether to sell the company or not. There had been rumors of the sale of the company to an outside party for some time. The interested buyer was Tim Moylan who made his money in the gas business. He had worked for Northern Natural Gas and started his own company working as a middleman in selling the gas from the wellhead to other parties. He had the idea of partially converting the plant to make wood pellets that could be used for burning. He looked at the plant and saw it was not running 24 hours a day, and therefore not operating at peak efficiency. He had approached Bob Watkins through a third party asking if the company was interested in selling.
It was 1986 and it was an uncomfortable period for the family. They had just come through a horrible recession, the two Watkins boys were very frustrated with their father, with Chuck taking most of the badgering from his father. Such as calling him on Sunday and asking why this or that hadn’t been done. Mostly regarding collecting money from accounts overdue. After years of this, it had taken a toll. Each of them were continually questioned and Charlie did not agree with the direction of the company, despite the fact it was growing, and competitors were either struggling worse or going out of business.
Bob brought the question of selling to Charlie, Lou and Chuck. I was not originally included, but started hearing the rumors too. Our drivers would make deliveries on jobsites and the contractors would ask them about it. None of us, drivers, office staff or I, knew. The leaks, we felt, were coming from the lawyer’s offices. Omaha is a small city and everyone knows someone who knows someone. Gossip spreads fast. Eventually, I was told, but I was instructed to deny everything. For me, that’s hard to do. I don’t lie well.
Eventually, the rumors got to Don Rogert who owned Hartford Sand and Gravel. He supplied Watkins with their aggregate for making block. He also supplied the ready-mix concrete companies which generally shut down in the winter. Watkins produced year-round, and Don did not want to risk losing that business with a new owner who had no ties to him. Don counter-offered. Essentially the boys wanted one million dollars to sell and they trusted Don more than Tim.
After several meetings and breaking down the deals on a whiteboard, Bob would do the math, it came to decision time. The three boys were in favor. Charlie knew he was outvoted at that point. He had previously given enough stock to his sons that he didn’t have controlling interest. Charlie begrudgingly agreed. My vote was too small to count. The offer was accepted from Don Rogert and the agreement was reached on July 2nd, 1986 with the sale completed on August 5th. The Watkins sold all their shares and ownership to Don. Lou and I maintained our stock ownership.
WATKINS IS SOLD, AGAIN
In 1988, the Lyman Richey Company approached Don Rogert to buy Hartford Sand and Watkins Concrete. This time it was going to be different, but not in the way any of us expected. As soon as the conversations started, I insisted that the employees be told. I didn’t want to go through the rumors again and lie to the employees. I remember telling the drivers what was coming early one morning before they were heading out for work. A couple of them thanked me for letting them know. Most of the negotiations were held by Don and my father. This time we would be selling our interest in the company as well. Job security was good for most of the employees. They still need people to make and deliver the block.
Lyman Richey was a much larger company and had many divisions. They owned the largest ready-mix concrete operation in the area, sand-gravel pits and a cement company. The fit would make sense for them. What Don didn’t know was one of his employees, Bill Green, was working behind his back to cut a deal between Lyman Richey and NEBCO out of Lincoln to split off the block company and sell it to them. NEBCO also had a block plant in Lincoln, though smaller, controlled the ready-mix business in Lincoln and a couple smaller ready-mix plants, precast concrete, and a sand-gravel pit, in addition to other related businesses. NEBCO was also in the process of building a new office, and eventually a plant across the creek from Watkins. On January 3rd, 1988 Hartford and Watkins were sold to Lyman Richey, in the morning. That afternoon Lyman Richey sold Watkins to NEBCO. It was a shock no one saw coming. Most people came out okay. The lower you were on the totem pole, the better. Several of us took demotions and pay cuts. Twenty percent in my case, plus some benefits. Two sales employees in sales quit shortly afterward. Even though their jobs were not in jeopardy, one had work for NEBCO years before and was let go just before Christmas. He wasn’t going to let that happen to him, so he moved to a competitor. Lou kept his position as president as they knew he was the person who held everything together. He understood block production, truck maintenance, how to work with people in the company and had made friends with many of the customers.
ODDS AND ENDS
Charlie used to always complain about the temperature in the 42nd St. office. Too hot or too cold. He would always be adjusting the thermostat and driving everyone else nuts. One day, when Charlie wasn’t around, Lou stuck a thermostat on the wall and didn’t tell Charlie it wasn’t connected. Charlie would adjust it as much as he wanted and never knew the difference.
Lou and the plant foreman, Ron Pritchard, were always upset because tools would go missing in the plant all the time. They knew guys were taking them home. To solve the problem, and get their attention, he called a meeting with them and gave everyone a pair of pliers. Then told them there shouldn’t be any missing pliers now that everyone had a pair.
Lou was talking to Warren Larson one day. Warren owned Larson Cement Stone, their main competitor in the residential housing market. Larson always had production problems. Poor quality or always running out of block. He bought truckloads of block from Watkins in the 60s and 70s. Warren told Lou the story that he called his plant employees together to complain about the poor quality of the block. They were soft and would shatter very easily. Next to him was some half block from Watkins and he said theirs should be as good as Watkins’. Much to his surprise, when he threw one to the ground, not only did it not break, it nearly bounced off the concrete floor. After hearing the story Lou realized the block Warren had thrown had possibly cured for a year and couldn’t get much harder.