I remember, too

I enjoyed the article by Michael Gartner (“Memories of 715 Locust St.,” May 30). I have never met Mr. Gartner, but we seem to have parallel lives concerning The Des Moines Register and Tribune. He was born in 1938 and graduated from Roosevelt in June of 1956. I was born in 1939 and graduated from Roosevelt in January of 1957.

My father, Rene Lundgren, was a photo-engraver at the RNT for 35 years. He was known as Rainy. I would ride the bus to the paper after school to meet him. The engraving department was on the fourth floor. The lobby had huge J. Ding Darling cartoons on the wall. I always stopped by the pictures of the 20-Year Club members. I remember the Christmas parties at the KRNT Theater and the summer picnics hosted by the paper. I started reading the paper as soon as I learned how to read. I took both papers and made time to read them. I continue to take The Des Moines Register, and the first order of my morning is to get my coffee and read the paper from first page through to the funnies. When my daughter and two of my granddaughters played high school basketball, I first read the sports pages. I read all the editorials — conservative and liberal.

Calling their bluff

I read with interest comments on the drop in The Des Moines Register circulation in Civic Skinny today (June 13). Perhaps others have been impacted by a new policy at the Register and have decided (at the Customer Service Department’s own suggestion) to cancel.

I called Customer Service to suspend my subscription while on vacation. The response was that I would receive credit for the print portion but would have to continue to pay for the online portion of the subscription. I said that I did not want the online portion, have never used it and would not even be able to access Internet while traveling. I asked how much I would be charged for the online portion if I decided to suspend, and she said that she did not have that information: Just sign here, and we will let you know how much you will pay?

The final word was, “The only way you can do this is to cancel your subscription.” So I did.

I have never heard of a company that offered the option of cancelling your subscription/membership or whatever as a solution. It must have been established by the same person who wrote the original letter describing the “new print/online service pricing!”

A funny postscript to this story is that delivery of the print newspaper was resumed on the date I originally requested. No invoice yet, but I will hold out for the 50 percent rate!

CORRECTIONS: The Des Moines Public Library paid Quality Books, Inc., $5,619.02 for the purchase of 289 books total on the week of May 20, (Money, June 13). We reported it paid that amount for only nine books.

In the June 20 Cityview, Food Dude suggested that Lynn and Sarah Pritchard were involved with the operation of Shane’s Rib Shack. They were not.

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