Posted September 02, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
I moved to Des Moines in the early summer of 2007. My first dwelling was on the southside where Gray’s Lake Apartments are now, located behind what used to be AIB College. At age 22, I spent most of my time watching movies, one of the few things I could
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Posted August 05, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
Many of you YouTube junkies have likely stumbled across a shot of the 1980s video documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” where a bunch of teens are tailgating outside of a Judas Priest concert in Landover, Maryland, in 1986. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and get on your
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Posted July 01, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
July is “America’s Party Month” to me, and a few weeks back we accepted the decision that the Iowa State Fair was going to be postponed due to that thing most all of us have been talking about since March. In fact, much of our customary summer fun has been
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Posted April 01, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
These are strange days for us all, but we will push ahead. Like Mathew McConaughey said in a YouTube video, “Right now we are at a red light, but there is a green light on the other side.” Leave it to McConaughey to take a break from massaging the new
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Posted March 04, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
On the morning of Wednesday, June 29, 1977, residents of Des Moines woke up and began to carry out their regular morning habits: They got out of bed, opened their living room curtains to observe the rising sun, and drank their pre-timed brewed Folgers. Some of those who left their
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Posted February 05, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
The numbers on the dial changed, but Ron Sorenson’s commitment to the station and the Des Moines community remained consistent through the years. Ron Sorenson had no interest in a radio career. He loved music. He listened to it on the radio. He even played in a folk band called
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Posted January 01, 2020in Des Moines Forgotten
So’s Your Mother and The Laughing Iguana Most of my faithful readers are aware of my weekly music program on 98.9 FM KFMG called “Iowa Basement Tapes” — a show that plays Iowa’s history in DIY music dating back to the rockabilly and psychedelic acts of the 1960s, the political
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Posted December 04, 2019in Des Moines Forgotten
P.T. Barnum would have been impressed by the showmanship. The holidays have arrived whether I want them to or not. We have worked all year for this moment when we spend our hard-earned money on the people we care about the most — and those who we can’t get away
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Posted November 06, 2019in Des Moines Forgotten
It was my soul food. I am a Chinese food junky, especially old-fashion sit-down places. When I was growing up in the Quad Cities, my dad would take me to a place in Milan, Illinois, called Shanghai. Shanghai was an old-school, sit-down Chinese place. It was also affordable, so it
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Posted October 02, 2019in Des Moines Forgotten
Did you ride the “Hydrotube”? The new season of “Stranger Things” has sparked nostalgic interest in shopping malls. The show highlighted an abandoned mall that was brought back to life as a surging metropolis complete with a pretzel shop, a food court and shopping options as far the eye could
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