Memories Cooperstown ND Main Street

A Walk Down Main Street and Back

by David G. Lura (class of 1965)

I had a chance to visit Cooperstown for a few hours the summer of 2005. After looking at the photos of Main Street from each end these memories came flooding back:

(walking east to west on the south side of the street)

Working for Uncle Einar Overby in the market renamed for him (from C & D) on sale days mostly stocking shelves and deliverying groceries with Rodney Askelson.
Buying licorice and bubblegum (with baseball cards for trading and to fasten with clothespins on my Schwinn Hiawatha bicycle) at Gorseth's/Torgerson's Variety.
Getting family photos taken in the studio later owned or run by Russ Edland and then Gene Trautman.
Attending a variety of functions through the years in the American Legion Hall. Especially, Bruce Paulson and I playing cards with Helen Sayer and Marge Lee the night the class of '65 graduated from high school as it was snowing slightly.
Visting dad, George Lura, when he worked some winter months for John Frederickson in Gambles' Hardware Store
Visiting dad's friend, Bill Nelson, the barber in his shop and remembering the smells of the after shaves. I never did have a store bought haircut until I was in college as dad always cut our hair at home.
Never needing to visit Dr. Allen's eye shop
Always stopping in to visit with Kenny Ellingson, the jeweler to look at all the neat stuff and/or for a good story. Kenny probably does not know to this day of his influence of my decision to enter the navy seeking to be a chaplain's assistant like he was.
Pouring over the vast array of items in Roger and Nissy Bakken's Coast-to-Coast store. A gold mine of items (like the Christmas tree stand and the card table and chairs) to be purchased as Christmas gifts for mom and dad.
The Oasis was off limits to a child. I remember as an adult feeling guilty the first time I walked through the doors.
Dad has business at the ASCS office. I do not recall ever going in there until it became the library in more recent years. I bumped into Rita Rhinehart (Mrs. Campbell's daughter and a sometimes childcare sitter for the Lura boys) there in 1999, the year that my mother, Alyce Overby Lura died.
Around the corner and down the street south was the Sentinel-Courier office of Boosty and Duna Frigaard (what great names).
Across the street was Almklov's Pharmacy (with as Ell Multer points out "lots of good stuff").
Next was a grocery store (I think) at one time and later a florist.
Then came the Cooper Theatre where I saw The Blob, The Ten Commandments and first put my arm around a girl.
Stone's Cafe was great with candy display inside the front door, Cocoa Cola and the booths for hours of converstion.
I recall only being in the Windsor Cafe and the Grand Hotel once for my mother's high school reunion where my brothers, Denny and Duey and I sang.
My grandfather, P.A. (Pete) Overby was a tailor in the cleaners next door. My mother worked there some as well.
I always liked visiting with Julian Morozla in Model Clothing near the end of the street.
Across the street west was the Hildre John Deere implement dealer with Peterson-Biddick just south where we picked up bottles of milk and 2lb. rolls of creamery butter. That was before Elroy and Marge Lee and girls (Nancy, Wendy, Laurie, and Cathy) moved to town to take over the creamery.

(walking west to east on the north side of the street)

Whoever put up the funds to build the bowling alley in Cooperstown is a hero in my eyes. Across the street east from the Crane Johnson Lumber it provided a wonderful sport and indoor diversion for youth and adults alike. Will Harter was manager in the early days as I recall.
Ell Multer spoke of the skating rink which was for years on the corner next to bowling alley.
Across the street on the corner was the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank with the community library in the basement before it moved to the ASCS office. Dave Sayer's dad and Roy Solberg were the head guys in those days. I remember making deposits in my savings account there.
My dad worked some years for the Tang's who owned a tavern or bar on that block next door I think to the Sons of Norway building. Dad and Oscar Tang were friends over many years.
The Larsen Store is where Einar Overby got his start in the grocery business. I remember the double screen doors out front in the summer time. Tupper Howden later had his pharmacy there having moved from further down the street.
I think that there was a furniture store in there somwhere also.
Eddie Zutter's Red Owl was on the corner where Fred Ashbey had one of only two identical popcorn carts in the country. The other (so the folklore goes) was in Disneyland.
Around the corner and up the street north was the Post Office with Oscar Tang, postmaster. It is now a restuarant by the same name). My parents had the Star Route contract for 15 years carrying the mail to and from the train in Hannaford.
Loder International Harvester implement dealer was on the north corner.
Across the street was and is City Hall including the Police Department.
On the corner again at Main was First State Bank. It was on the east corner of that building the town cop, Mike Lentsch, opened a box each evening at 10:00 p.m. to sound the curfew siren.
Several small shops came next including Ellingsons Jewelry and Allen's Optometry which later built a new building together and moved across the street.
JC Penny which Michael White's dad managed after Ellen Ann Brown's dad was in the building where Coast-To-Coast resided in more recent years.
A basement tavern was located in the basement lovingly called "The Hole."
Each year Trinity Lutheran Church would sponsor a lutefisk dinner. We Lura boys would be allowed to walk up to the Orpha's cafe' for a "store bought" hamburger and a Coke.
Mayor Bender and sons had an LP gas store front.
An automobile dealer was on the corner.

I likely have some buildings in the wrong order and names mixed up. One last memory was in the brick building on the corner across the street from Overby's Market. Doc Bailey was the dentist. I can still remember seeing the equipment moving and the smell of the drilling for my first cavity. Perhaps my strongest memory was to walk up the street from the east past the Presbyterian church on a cold winter night and view a snow-covered Main Street with Christmas lights criss-crossing the street.

Thank You Cooper Brothers for creating a town that I still remember fondly as my "home."