By Bob Copperstone
You Can’t Bank On a Tree
In July of 2019 people at the Wahoo State Bank, next door to the Wigwam, planted a tree out front. The city ordered it removed, sparking a minor squabble amongst Wahoovians. I put in my two cents:
* * *
July 13, 2019
A tree grows in Wahoo.
Or does it?
A newly planted young sapling juts out bravely from its nursery spot in the “bump-out” curb in front of the sleek new Wahoo State Bank building.
It is straining to put down roots, as all the while certain people aren’t sure the baby tree should even dare to exist.
To the surprise of many, probably including the people who planted it, this fragile sprig has triggered a mini-storm of controversy.
Solid arguments have arisen at a City Council meeting and around town, both pro and con, and they all carry weight.
The City Council has ordered further study of the matter, guaranteeing a fair hearing for both sides, and there should be little worry that a reasoned decision will not result.
But whether the young tree stays or is uprooted, there are two facts that should be kept in mind for future meditation:
1- That trees and their silky leaves absorb carbon dioxide, a main contributor to climate change, and release oxygen, which we are glad to inhale.
And,
2- That the bank, without asking taxpayers for a dime, planted the tree in good faith, no doubt with the beauty and benefit of the downtown community in mind.
Good deeds should not go unrewarded.
* * *
Unfortunately, my two cents didn’t buy the sapling a reprieve, and it was yanked out. The controversy was a pleasant give-and-take, though, and the bank’s CEO wrote me a nice thank-you note for taking his side. I don’t know what happened to the sapling, but I hope it was adopted by a kind tree-hugger.
Bank Clock’s Time Was Up
As a small boy, I had a powerful attachment to a huge, impressive time machine.
When this wonderful machine called to me, I fled my favorite Tonka trucks, my Lionel train, my toy bulldozer – even my trusty bike, and ran to the corner of Fifth and Linden streets in downtown Wahoo.
For some reason, I considered that my clock worship was considered consummated if I stood directly under that giant when it clangorously broadcast its Westminster-chimed message to all of downtown.
Because this machine did, indeed, call to me. Loudly. Often. Regularly. You could set your watch by its calls. And a whole lot of people did exactly that.
My time machine was the huge, four-faced chime clock that jutted proudly and heavily from the south-east corner of the Wahoo State Bank.
You see, the bank is two doors east of the Wigwam Café, where I spent a good part of the days and evenings. My parents, Hank and Irma, had owned and operated the place since 1949 and I was 10 years old.
My pilgrimage successful, I could return to my more conventional playthings.
* * *
The old clock’s impressive size and its deep, resonant tones remain forever in my memory.
I can even sing the notes in tune with the famous chime sequence. (Nobody ever has, nor probably ever will, desire to hear me sing those notes, but they are there, stuck in my brain, just in case).
I think the clock struck the hours, quarter-hours, half-hours and 3/4 hours. To be frank, I also remember that my mother, Irma, among other merchants and employees who had to listen to the cacophony, complained about the continuous parade of gongs.
Actually, such public clocks came into use at the turn of the century, when relatively few could afford the luxury of a timepiece.
McClintock-Loomis Co. of Minneapolis made these bank clocks for only nine years, from 1908 to 1917, so that would probably help date the age of my massive musical friend.
When the venerable old clock was replaced by the digital box, I, for one, was happy to always know the temps, and I marveled at the state of modern progress that brought them to me.
The original clock had four faces, visible from all directions. If I remember correctly -- and I don’t know if it was even mechanically possible -- the four dials didn’t always keep the same, identical minute.
Today’s clock pre-dates the founding of the Wahoo State Bank itself. A photograph from the Historical Society Museum’s Anderson-Haney Collection in Wahoo shows the building’s name, chiseled in stone, as the Saunders County National Bank, its corner graced by the imposing, four-faced clock I knew and loved all those years later..
(In fact, one of my now-out-of-state relatives recently toured her hometown and just assumed that the present clock was the old one).
* * *
For a more complete overview of the clocks’ histories, I refer to excerpts from an excellent item in the July 1, 2020 issue of the Wahoo Newspaper:
By Lisa Brichacek
WAHOO – A piece of history anew now hangs above the corner of Fifth and Linden streets in Wahoo.
A new clock arrived at the corner where construction is wrapping up on the new Wahoo State Bank and was hoisted into place on the front of the building.
Wahoo State Bank President [now CEO] Greg Hohl said it was a big day, given the clock is one of the elements that speaks to the long-history of the bank.
The clock is a replica of one that once hung on the corner of the old bank building.
[Editor’s note: The replica clock has three dials, or faces, not four, like the original].
Hohl said that first clock was taken down in 1966, but many people in town still remember it. The reproduction company, Electric Time Company Inc., in Massachusetts knew it well too.
“Once I showed her a picture, she said it was a McClintock model immediately,” Hohl said.
Watching it be uncrated and lifted into place Friday morning, he agreed, too, that it looked like the clock that once hung from the bank that his great-grandfather helped to open on that corner in 1932.
Hohl has heard from many people that they were glad to hear the replicated clock face was coming back.
That original clock was sold. A digital clock and sign had replaced it on the corner.
“I think sometime after they regretted they took it down, but they didn’t save things like that back in the 60s,” he added.
* * *
So, what happened to that clock?
If it was sold, no one seems to know to whom, nor where it is now.
The actual clock, like so many other touchstones of my youth, has evaporated into the past. But it continues to serve me with happy memories, and will do so for the rest of my lifetime.
Oh, how time flies … away.
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