Along Our Way
Randy Bunkers, co-owner with his wife Phyllis of the Bunkers Dunkers Bakery on the east side of the courthouse square in our county seat town of Jefferson, has just turned 60 years old. On Saturday, January 14, the Bunkerses celebrated with free ''donut holes'' – the little balls punched out of their famous glazed donuts – and free coffee for much of the morning, and the place was packed. Everybody was telling their favorite ''Bunkers Dunkers'' stories.
[FOR A STORY & THE PHOTOS IN IN LARGER FORMAT, CLICK HERE.]
Chuck Offenburger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins follicular lymphoma cancer on July 10, 2009, had six months of chemotherapy & started a maintenance program. Carla Offenburger underwent surgery on April 26, 2010, for removal of a jaw tumor which was found to contain adenoid cystic carcinoma cancer. She underwent six weeks of follow-up radiation in June and July, 2010. Since then she has returned to good health, but she continues to have close medical observation. Two days after Carla finished radiation, Chuck noticed a pain in his left hip, and within days, a small mass near his tailbone was diagnosed as more aggressive large-cell lymphoma. In the fall of 2010, he underwent intensive chemotherapy, and had a stem cells transplant in November, with follow-up radiation in January, 2011. Since then he's been doing well, too, but continues to have regular check-ups. We post updates frequently here, including brief insights from Chuck, Carla and at least one of you readers.
“Chuck, in the past year, I’ve seen you with long hair, no hair and now this short hair. This is best.”
Here's looking at life
at Simple Serenity Farm
We've had very little snow so far this winter. Saturday morning, January 14, brought a reminder of just how pretty a light snow can be. Just over an inch fell in the wee hours, and the countryside was beautiful at wake-up time. Click here for larger format
Chuck Offenburger's
latest book on sports
legend Gary Thompson ''GARY THOMPSON: All-American'' is the new, 352-page biography of one of the state's genuine sports icons. From 1950-'53 Gary Thompson led the Roland Rockets to high school sports glory in basketball and baseball, giant-killers from one of Iowa's small schools. Then he led the Cyclones at Iowa State from 1953-'57, becoming the college's first two-sport All-American. He's had major success in broadcasting and business, from his home base in Ames. And he and his wife Janet have a family as solid as they come. "I'm the luckiest guy around," Thompson says.
Celebrating the time
when Gary Thompson
& the Roland Rockets
were the talk of Iowa
In the three years that Gary Thompson was in the basketball line-up for tiny Roland High School from 1950-'53, the Rockets went 35-1, 31-3 and 32-2 and played in the state tournament every year. Talk about March Madness! Roland lived it! Now, 55 years later, we celebrate with three of Thompson's old Roland pals doing the Rockets fight song. Brothers Harris "Pete" Twedt Jr. and Jerry Twedt are the singers, accompanied by Mary Severseike on piano.
Gary Thompson was first-team All-State three consecutive years. I cant imagine theres ever been an Iowa high school athlete who was more idolized than Gary Thompson, said Alan Hoskins, who played against him for rival Zearing. Heck, back in Zearing when wed play pick-up games, wed pretend to be Gary Thompson!
Des Moines Tribune sportswriter Tony Cordaro, known for the unusual hats he always wore himself, decided in the 1956-'57 season that when he picked a "Prep of the Week" in Iowa, he'd get a photo of the star wearing this hat and induct him into "Cordaro's Coonskin Cap Club." Here is Thompson at his "induction."
The ol' hometown has never forgotten Gary Thompson, "the Roland Rocket" as many people still call him. Here he is in 2005 at a sign on the edge of town. But as he always points out, "Roland was good long before me," and after him, too. In fact, the Rockets did not lose a home basketball game from 1946 to 1958!
Where the Rockets were launched
Old Roland High School, home of the Rockets, is gone. In 1969, the schools in Roland and Story City, a larger town five miles to the northwest, were consolidated. The high school is located in Story City and the middle school in Roland. The old brick building that had been Roland High was demolished in 1988, and was replaced by a new building for the middle school. However, the gymnasium Gary Thompson played in, which was built in 1941, has been well cared for and is still in use by young athletes.
