By CARDINAL CHARLIE GILL

The next year he said Max Maxey was able to wrangle a ride with Bill Fickenger, who lived on Green Street.
Bill’s mother was related to the Upsons of Benton Harbor who made washing machines.
Mrs. Fickenger drove a big Packard limousine with a phone between the driver and the back passenger. She also had a special place to park at Notre Dame.
Gifford Fox gave Cart his first haircut. Gifford’s father, Joseph, married him and Nancy in the Church of Christ on Oak Street, as the Federated Church where Joseph was pastor had burned down (Peg and I were married in the same church Cart was 49 years ago).
Leon Staley had two cars, a Wellys and Whippet. He always had the engine out of one or the other, as he had his own chair-hoist.
The Daily News used to have a “sandwich” board and major stories that missed press time were hand-headlined and placed out in front of the office or in the window.
He said that’s where he read about Will Rogers and Wiley Post crashing in Alaska (I don’t recall a sandwich board). He remembers old Indian Joe Mandoki. Joe was kicked out of the A&P store for drinking vanilla extract in the store and not buying the bottle.
Cart said another story and was not sure if it was true or not. Joe worked on a farm. When the farm family was going to church and not far down the road from home, his car overheated, and he had a dry radiator.
When he went back to the farm, there on the barn floor lay old Joe. He was dead.
He had crawled under the car, opened the radiator spigot and drank the antifreeze (I never had heard this story before).
Burlingame and Stahl’s drug store used the to have a fiber barrel filled with Sergents dry dog food. They also sold dog biscuits. They used to get old rubber inner tubes from Springsteen’s garage and made rubber guns. (Do you remember hot patches on those tubes?)
Cart tells of a hobo jungle north of Helen Haven nursing home (I remember the one down southeast of the depot by the creek near the Overton factory.) He remembers the freshman/sophomore games and the tug of war at the creek near the waterworks.
Cart won $600 at the Century Theatre on a Thursday night (bank night).
He told of the Heddon’s strike and how the state police closed the Silver Creek tavern before trouble could start.
He mentioned Heddon’s beautiful presidential fly rod. When I worked there in the shipping room, I packed one to be sent to Errol Flynn the movie star.
Cart told how he got a job for Dick Berry working for Trig Lund.
He remembered Walt Willman who did some work for Heddon’s on reels. Walt held the world record for the longest cast from a fishing rod. I used to watch him cast out of the window of the shipping room.
“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. Email him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.