Have you voted? If not, you'd better hightail it over to the polls today and weigh in on the candidates and the issues.
Meanwhile, a man says he backs West Fargo.
Jim Throndset of Fargo notes that many people write Neighbors about Fargo and Moorhead and their histories, but few write about West Fargo.
Jim corrects that by mentioning past West Fargo businesses.
Two of them along Main Avenue were Fradet's Fish Market and Johnny Lehman's Save on Surplus.
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Fradet's was owned by Michael Fradet.
Johnny's store went by its initials: J.L.S.O.S.
Those stores along with Armour's packing plant were major West Fargo businesses when DeWitt Batterberry came to town in 1959.
DeWitt says West Fargo's business district was small back then, and those businesses dominated the retail landscape.
DeWitt, still of West Fargo, retired in 1992 after serving as athletic director, basketball coach and assistant principal of West Fargo High School.
Vote for the Goose
If the Galloping Goose could run for office instead on the tracks, it probably would win wheels down.
Many people continue to relate memories of those old trains.
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One of them is Don Dresser of Dilworth, the retired WDAY radio guy.
Don says he never rode the Goose, but he certainly remembers it coming through New York Mills, Minn., where he was born and raised.
Don was with WDAY from 1960 until 1994.
The Goose stories also hit home for Frank Sonnek of Aberdeen, S.D.
Frank, 82, was a brakeman and conductor for the Milwaukee Road for 45 years, working trains between Aberdeen and Harlowton, Mont. So he knows the Goose.
Frank is a native of Marmarth, a small town northwest of Bowman, N.D.
More Goose stories are on the nonpolitical platform waiting to board future Neighbors columns.
If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107; fax it to 241-5487; or e-mail blind@forumcomm.com
