Posted June 30, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
One of the world’s largest swimming pools operated from 1922 through 2001. My summers as a kid in the Quad Cities were not that much different than most other kids’ during the early 1990s. There was a dirt park a half-mile away from my home where I would ride my
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Posted June 02, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
The origins may be a bit hazy, but the memories are clear. I have been a patron of the Roosevelt Barbershop for nearly 10 years, and I expect to be for years to come. Next to Pope’s off Ingersoll, this may be one of the oldest barbering spots in the
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Posted May 05, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
Des Moines’ forgotten history includes the making of feature-length Christian films in the 1970s. It actually goes back to the late 1960s with a man named Russ Doughten from Carlisle who saw an opportunity to produce evangelical Christian/faith-based films and distribute them through church organizations to be used as learning
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Posted March 31, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
Many most of us take for granted that we can get most anywhere in the metro area in less than 20 minutes. We are all used to waiting until the last minute to go somewhere because we can hop onto I-235 and hustle our way to our pre-determined destinations quickly.
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Posted March 03, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
Millennials can be split into two groups: those of us born in the 1980s and those born in the 1990s. The 1980s-born kids still had a chance to enjoy life before the Internet, which included climbing trees, renting videos from a store, and trying to steal our old man’s Playboy.
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Posted February 03, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
It might be a little out of season to be thinking about summer festivals, but a reader reached out to me with a topic that I have been curious about for several years. The Iowa Renaissance Faire has yet to physically lure me in, but I have a handful of
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Posted January 06, 2021in Des Moines Forgotten
Do you remember when The Doors played Des Moines? No? Well, they did, and it went down in history as the worst show in their entire history of performing. Ouch! Bob Modersohn should be credited as co-author of this piece, as he brought this to our attention. Modersohn was a
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Posted December 02, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
The holiday season is in full effect, and those close to me know that this is the time when I typically fall into my normal Scrooge behavior. Why? Well, it starts with Thanksgiving, then numerous November and December birthdays, then Christmas, then New Year’s. Before I know it, every weekend
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Posted November 04, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
November is the annual food issue here at CITYVIEW. For the size of Des Moines, we have a lot going on when it comes to restaurants and food — maybe even too much for our own population to really sustain. However, to better understand where we are today, we need
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Posted September 30, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
I love radio. Faithful readers may recall my column earlier this year on the history of Ron Sorensen and KFMG. This month I’m opening the history book of Iowa broadcasting on another familiar voice for many of you — Dic Youngs, “The Ole’ Youngster.” His era was before my time
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