By Fred Steiner
11:11 a.m. on the CNB clock. Dec. 26, 2009.
Ben Luginbuhl, always man-about-town in Bluffton, now of Portland, Ore., gets at the wheel of his parent's 1994 Dodge Caravan with 198,500 miles logged on it. There was a half tank of gas, peanuts on the floor mat and two cups of Common Grounds coffee to go in the cup holders.
He's in town for a few days and wants to get caught up on the slander and libel of the place. I want to cruise in the Caravan. It's an even trade.
He asks me if I've ever bagged it. I say, "No. What is it."
He says you go dumpster diving at McDonald's. Get a tossed out bag, fill it with sand. Duct tap the bag to the roof of your vehicle. Then cruise around town. People start pointing, saying, "Hey, you left your meal on your roof."
We didn't do this, but sounded like a good thing to try.
Next thing you know, Ben's talking about everyone on his Lima News paper route.
I ask what year we're talking about.
He says 1991 when he was a third grader. He and Alison, his sister, had the Harmon, Poplar, East Kibler Street route for several years. Passed it on to Newt Sommer. Later took the Lawn and Grove route, which was larger. About 55 customers at its peak. Made $50 a month. Not bad for a grade school kid in the '90s.
"It was huge cash," he said. "But, you had to leave sleepovers early to collect."
Then he started harping about some of the customers on the route. It was pretty interesting. You'll need to inquire about this with him.
This Dec. 26 Bluffton cruise, by the way, took in just about every alley in town. Some were forgotten and that made it all the better.
We starting talking about people, just as we passed Karim Awad's mother's house on Lawn. There a sign in Karim's bedroom window (he is visiting from Connecticut) which read "History Matters."
We debated the meaning of the sign for one block and then things really got interesting. Several years ago Karim passed around the most fascinating recording of a so-called series of phone calls supposedly taken from his telephone answering machine.
Anyone who has hear this knows that the key word is "Dugen," Canadian jive.
Seems Karim worked at a cable company. Some guy called in about 20 times in one hour leaving message after message, complaining that his cable was was off.
Ben and I figured the whole thing was a hoax. It was really too well done. Ben claims Josh Weaver has a copy. He's going to ask Josh to send it to me.
Just then we turned from Kibler on to Main and saw Jon Wietholder turn from Main to Kibler. Must be headed for Sunset.
Seeing Jon reminded Ben that he was once on a Bluffton Little League baseball team with Ben Rothlisberger. Jon's dad, Brad was the coach.
"I beat Ben (Roethlisberger) in horse," says Ben-at-the-wheel.
I marveled at this fact as we headed north on Main. Meanwhile other names that entered the conversation included Mike Mooney, Roger Brodman, who we saw walking down the street, Julia Hangsen (who lives in Ashville, North Carolina) and some guy, who was on Ben's Lima News paper route.
I asked Ben if Newt was still collecting Soviet Union memoriablia. Ben didn't know anything about that phase of Newt's life, so I went on to someone else. I think Ben next told me that Michael Kingsley is a chef and a very good one. He said this as we passed Michael's old house on Jackson.
Ben then told me what he does for a living. He works for L'Arche, which is an international organization that is a care provider for adults with developmental disabilities. He's done this for the past five years.
By then the CNB time and temp read 12:12. I exited the Caravan. Took a pix of Ben. Said, see you later and off he cruised into the haze of Bluffton. Just then I realized I left my coffee in the coffee holder.
Even so, it was the most interesting 61 minutes I'd spent in some time.
