You may never have heard of Dallas City, Illinois, but to the folks who grew up there, Dallas City was idyllic. The town had a small but diverse business community. Crime was rare and mostly petty stuff. The local streams, creeks, and woods fed a child’s curiosity. And the biggest playground, the Mississippi, challenged and calmed young and old.
Jon Kukuk is one of those folks whose childhood was shaped by the rhythms of life in this small town next to the Mississippi. Kukuk composed a CD’s worth of songs and wrote a book about growing up in Dallas City. He called both collections Uncharted Currents, and they are loving tributes to the family and neighbors from his childhood.
In this episode, I talk with Jon about growing up as a free-range child in a small town next to the Mississippi River. He describes his favorite places, the family and friends who brought joy to his life, the tight-knit nature of the community, and the small businesses that kept folks supplied with the stuff they needed. He also explains what a slop jar was, and why you wanted to handle it carefully, and shares why music has also always been important to him.
Jon’s stories tell us about life in a time and place often overlooked by standard historical texts. I hope Jon’s efforts will inspire you to document and pass along your own stories of the people and places from times too easily forgotten.
Show Notes
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Transcript
Mon, Jan 27, 2025 9:34AM • 1:14:21
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Dallas City, Mississippi River, Jon Kukuk, Uncharted Currents, family history, small town, community, childhood memories, local businesses, river life, music, family recipes, historical preservation, river safety, free range kids.
SPEAKERS
Jon Kukuk, Dean Klinkenberg
Jon Kukuk 00:00
Its population has varied over the years. It’s never really been more than around 1300. It’s not a famous town by any means, but it was a wonderful town to grow up in.
Dean Klinkenberg 00:36
Welcome to the Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast. I’m Dean Klinkenberg, and I’ve been exploring the deep history and rich culture of the people and places along America’s greatest river, the Mississippi, since 2007. Join me as I go deep into the characters and places along the river, and occasionally wander into other stories from the Midwest and other rivers. Read the episode show notes and get more information on the Mississippi at MississippiValleyTraveler.com. Let’s get going. Welcome to Episode 55 of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast. Well, maybe you never heard of Dallas City, Illinois, but to the folks who grew up there, Dallas City was an idyllic place. The town had a small but diverse business community. Crime was rare and mostly petty stuff. The local streams, creeks and woods fed a child’s curiosity, and the biggest playground of all the Mississippi ran right next to the town and challenged and calmed young and old alike. Jon Kukuk is one of the folks whose childhood was shaped by the rhythms of life in this small town next to the Mississippi. Kukuk composed a CD’s worth of songs and wrote a book about growing up in Dallas City. He called both collections Uncharted Currents, and they are loving tributes to the family and neighbors from his childhood. So in this episode, I talked with John about growing up as a free range child in a small town next to the Big River. He describes his favorite places, the family and friends who brought joy to his life, the tight knit nature of the community and his deep roots in that town and the small businesses that kept folks supplied with the stuff they needed. He also explains what a slop jar was and why you needed to handle it carefully, and he also shares why music has always been important to him. John’s stories tell us about life in a time and place often overlooked by standard historical texts. I hope Jon’s efforts will inspire you to document and pass along your own stories of the people and places from times too easily forgotten as always. To find the show notes for this episode, go to MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast, you’ll find links to some of the things we talk about. Patreon supporters. Love you. Love the support. Love the ongoing support. If you want to join that Patreon community and make me feel good. Go to patreon.com/deanklinkenberg, or just go to MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast you’ll find out how to join the Patreon community for as little as $1 a month, you can become a member. And one of the benefits as you get these episodes a couple of days early. Don’t feel like joining Patreon? Well, buy me a coffee. It’s another great way to show me some to show me some support, to find out how to buy me a coffee again. MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast, and now let’s get on with the interview. Today’s guest, Jon Kukuk performs with his wife in a band they call Jon and Lisa, makes sense. So let’s transition to the interview with a clip from one of their songs, Uncharted Currents, and I’ll play a little bit more at the back end of the interview too. John Kukuk grew up in and around Dallas City, Illinois, with the Mississippi River is his backyard. His family has deep roots in the area, which he describes in his book Uncharted Currents. He’s also a musician, and has composed a series of songs that reflect similar themes about his hometown and his life. The book is what I think a loving tribute to his family and his hometown, and I’m really looking forward to getting into some of those stories today. Jon, welcome to the podcast.
Jon Kukuk 04:59
Thank you. Thank you. For having me.
Dean Klinkenberg 05:02
So one of the things that well, first of all, I want to say, as a person who’s done a fair amount of genealogy and family history research myself, I was so envious of the depth and range of stories that you have in your book. How is it that you were able to collect so many good stories about your family’s extensive history?
Jon Kukuk 05:27
Because I had relatives that love to transpose their stories into words and actually write them down, and that was a big help. My aunt Connie Farrell was a huge historian on the Dallas City, Illinois website. She still have stories of some of the things that she did, and she liked to go over the a lot of the stories that were first published in the Dallas City Enterprise, and review the the old, old stories that were kept in the archives, and she would, she would go over those, and in she wanted to pass this information on, because otherwise it would be forgotten. And the same with my mom, my mom always took a lot of pictures, and she she wrote things down as well, and she left me a book of her, not so much a book, but more of a like a bunch of written notes. And my uncle Jerry Logan, who was a very loved coach out there at Carthage. He wrote a book also, but it wasn’t. Was more of a just a family, family type book. I don’t think there’s very many copies published, but he wrote down his memories as well. So there’s a, like a conglomeration of several people writing things down, and what I did was just go back through them and try to do word for word the way they wrote them, except for fixing grammatical errors and and ramblings and things like that, but I tried to stick with everything they wrote down, and I make note of that in the book.
Dean Klinkenberg 07:49
Fantastic. It just reminds me of how important it is for all of us, really, to sort of document those the stories of our lives that we can pass on to folks you never know who’s going to be interested in them. And in your case, it helps to have an audience, somebody who recognizes the value in those stories and who’s willing to collect them and preserve them for future generations as well. But somebody’s got to begin the process, right? Somebody’s got to start recording those stories. And if nobody in your family is doing it now. Why not be the person to start it right?
Jon Kukuk 08:23
That’s correct. And the thing is that we would tell the my wife, Lisa and I, would tell these stories to to certain people that we met over the years and and they would say, you know, you have some really, really great stories you need to, you should put them in a book. And I was like, well, who’s gonna want to read this stuff? You know, these this is just, it’s history, but it’s, it’s a lot of family history. I mean, is that really going to hold people’s interest? And I think it has, I it it took a lot of time to research. This book took two years and seven months to put together, and so it wasn’t a quick process, and I wanted to make make sure that my, at least most of my facts and figures were accurate. I don’t claim that it’s 100% accurate, but, you know, I tried to stick with their with their stories, and in the type of life that they went through, because if you don’t tell it, nobody’s going to remember. I mean, people die and the stories go with them, and at least in this respect, I put them in in book form. Tried to do it the best I could. I one of my one of the things I say in the book is if it was possible for my relatives to. To go through this book, because they all passed before it was published. But if it was possible for them to do that, that they would be proud to have been a part of what Lisa and I put together.
Dean Klinkenberg 10:15
Right? Well, I applaud you for it, and I’m even if, like 1000s of people aren’t interested in reading this book. You’re not writing for everybody. You’re writing for the people in your family. You’re writing for the people who have some connection to the communities. But I think it’s also of interest to people who want to understand what our communities were like a couple generations ago and the kinds of lives people lived. It’s a good window into all of that, I think. So with that note, but let’s kind of help folks out a little bit. You and I, you know, we’re both kind of river rats, and we know where Dallas City is, so kind of help locate where Dallas City is along the Mississippi, and then give us kind of a quick overview of how your family came to live there.
Jon Kukuk 11:01
Dallas City is right on the banks of the Mississippi between the towns of Burlington, Iowa and and Fort Madison, Iowa, up and on the Illinois side. So it’s like, was it mile marker three 300 something? I don’t know. It’s upstream from from Keokuk, from the very famous Keokuk dam, and south of the Quad Cities. Its population has varied over the years. It’s never really been more than around 1300. It’s not a famous town by any means, but it was a wonderful town to grow up in, and my family, my relatives and I’m related to a lot of people that I tell in the book, Edwin Hubble, James Buchanan the president, Festus off Gunsmoke. There’s a lot of people that I’m, I’m distantly related to, possibly never been proven. Could be totally wrong, but my aunt Katie and my my uncle Jerry Logan always, always said that we was related to Daniel Boone. I have no idea, but you never know. But anyway, my family somehow migrated to this part of the country and kind of set up shop. A lot of farming, and total around 180 years of my family’s involvement in this general area.
Dean Klinkenberg 12:49
It’s an amazing, lengthy history. It’s at least two great grandparents back from you that your history goes there, and it’s as I remember, right? It’s mostly on your mother’s side that the roots are that deep, right?
Jon Kukuk 13:04
Right. My dad was from Geneseo, and the name “Kukuk” is German, and I am second generation American because, well, by my grandfather, Gustav came over from Germany, and then my dad was born in Geneseo and and then that was me, So, but, so, Yeah, the Logan side is the side that was originally from from the area,but, you know, somehow my dad ended up in Fort Madison, and my one of my uncles introduced him, and the rest is history.
Dean Klinkenberg 14:01
So by the time John Kukuk came along, there were already, there was already a lot of family in the area. You came into a world where you had family relationships to a whole bunch of people in the community.
Jon Kukuk 14:14
Oh, absolutely, my, my grandfather, my great, great grandfather was the first full time pastor of the First Christian Church of Dallas City, and that that brought him from Missouri into the area and the Logans, I think they, they just kind of meandered in from Ohio and places like that. I really don’t know how we really ended up in the area. I mean that. Was a long time ago, but I’ve tried to put all that in the book and spell it out the best I can.
Dean Klinkenberg 15:08
So what do you what do you remember from this town? What did it mean to you growing up in Dallas City? What was your What was your childhood like from day to day?
Jon Kukuk 15:16
The river, obviously, is, is the main, main thing. And I know that’s, that’s your theme, and that’s the, that’s what, that’s the reason I found you in first place was you’re talking about the river towns, and the towns that are, I feel are special and in Dallas City. Well, since I was born in Fort Madison, my my parents moved to Dallas city about two weeks after I was born. They was living in an apartment in Fort Madison, my dad worked at Lerche Jewelry when it was still around and and after I was born, we moved six miles upstream to the Dallas City side, because that’s where my mother’s family was. So it was just a natural progression to go there.
Dean Klinkenberg 16:22
So, yeah, go ahead.
Jon Kukuk 16:24
So my my parents lived in with my aunt Katie for a couple weeks, and then they bought a it was able to to buy a house in on Noah Alley. The Noah Alley, if Dallas City, is, is laid out pretty much in a straight, narrow line. And of course, the river bank is the huge part of it. It’s a very narrow town. As far as it’s not wide, it’s really longer, and the river bank is, is the whole thing.
Dean Klinkenberg 17:07
Yeah, it’s one of those river towns that stretches, you know, long along the river. But because of the bluffs, it doesn’t go too far to the east, right, right?
Jon Kukuk 17:17
And my, my Aunt Katie, as I said, put them up for a couple weeks before we found the house, and then we, we lived in that house, I think, like 14 years in Noah Alley, and it was, it was very special place to grow up because of the of the time, I feel blessed to have witnessed a lot of things in the town. It of course, being a fishing town, there was the fish markets, ones I remember were Walker’s Fish Market and Hamm’s, and they, they played a major part, a lot of the, of course, the clamming operations for the button factory back in the day, and that provided a lot of income. Dallas City was a very, very resilient town at the time. It came, as you’ve mentioned on your website, there was a some influential people that all came together and and and had the beginnings of the town and and the railroads helped quite a bit. And but the the town itself to grow up in was very laid back. You could walk the streets. Of course there was crime, but it wasn’t like major stuff, it was petty stuff. I You could feel safe there and and I after I learned how to ride a bike, I rode everywhere in that town. There wasn’t a street I never visited, and that was a lot of fun.
Dean Klinkenberg 19:33
What are some of the like, favorite landmarks in your memory? Some of your favorite spots you would go?
Jon Kukuk 19:38
Well, most everybody who goes there knows about Lincoln’s Rock. And of course, you know, we spent a lot of time on that. That rock is Abe Lincoln did not necessarily stand where that rock is and and talk, I think, from what I. Know he, he visited more than once, and probably spent time with a lot of different people, but that’s probably the most famous thing was, was Abe Lincoln’s visit. The town really isn’t known for. There wasn’t a whole lot of huge industry over there that really made a name for it, although the Burg factory, now that’s one of the few few things that that did stand out. Lewis Burg came in and he built three buildings, one of which eventually became the famous landmark, the Riverview Supper Club, which become a very, at least local, very famous local institution before it burned down. So but as far as industry, it was mainly people working for themselves and in in in creating their own niche markets for for stuff.
Dean Klinkenberg 21:25
But give us a sense of like so the variety of businesses you remember from in town when you were growing up?
Jon Kukuk 21:31
Well, I made a list in the book, and I it’s not a complete, comprehensive list, but of course there was, for its time, having the two railroads. There was the Nate Hendricks built the beekeeping plant, the beekeeping equipment plant that I worked there for an for seven years, and made honey extracting equipment. The Moulder’s Friend. The Moulder’s Friend created a machine that it was a rather large machine that had a big brush on the front, and it was clean molds, and the brushes were steel brushes, and it would rotate, and that was a landmark for a while the fisheries, the clamming, the button factory.
Dean Klinkenberg 22:48
And as I remember, your family ran a grocery store too, right? There were two grocery stores in town.
Jon Kukuk 22:53
Oh, there were multiple grocery stores. But yes, my grandmother Ruth had Logan’s grocery store, and it had the best place to be, because it was right there, on on the corner. And you know, it was the best place, because Casey’s General Store eventually ended up there, and that is the focal point. The four way stop is the is the focal point of the of the town does everything. The two highways meet there, and can’t go any further than the river, so you’ve got to, you’ve got to stay on those two roads, and everybody meets there, so that that corner was very big, that’s where the businesses were. The bank, of course, was there. Kirk’s Department Store, Gambles, Ault’s Furniture and Appliance store, and my mother’s, my grandmother’s store was on that corner, and it just was the place.
Dean Klinkenberg 24:20
Those those grocery stores, could sometimes be kind of the little beehive for the community too, right? It was, it was more than just a place to buy things. It was a place people would get together and talk and touch base during the day.
Jon Kukuk 24:32
It was. The most, a couple of the more prominent stores after my grandmother’s store, were Brown’s Big Value, and Fred Superette and they, they both had niche markets within the within the town. There was Terry’s grocery store. There was, I know. There were, were many others that kind of came and went, but Dallas City could kind of fend for itself. For the big ticket items, you’d have to go to Burlington or Fort Madison, but at least for a time, you were able to go to the grocery store without going a great distance. You had the you had the Dallas City Enterprise that told all the all the town news and and you had, of course, you had all the bars. Dallas City, according to my my Aunt Connie, Dallas City was wide open at a time. You know, there was a lot of there was a story of my my Uncle Whitfield, that he he got into several, several fights and and one night, he lived out toward toward Durham, and his his his wife met him at the lane, and she had a butcher’s knife in her hand, and she threatened to cut his black heart out. And he he, but he later became, he stopped drinking and became an alderman. And, you know, they set up a boarding house. And, you know, he turned his life around. But Dallas CIty said he it just the place had a power plant of all things. How many towns had their own power plant for a time. I mean, they were pretty, pretty self sufficient. You had the river supplying the water for a time before the wells were put in. You had the lumber yard. That was a big, big deal. I mean, they diversified. They built modular houses for a time. That’s impressive. You had the car dealership Anguish and Wolfenbarger. There was just so many things. The dry cleaner, the insurance places. It was just a self sufficient town.
Dean Klinkenberg 27:45
You had just about everything you could need there, except for maybe a couple of big, big ticket items, like you said.
Jon Kukuk 27:50
Right. Anything that was that was huge. I mean, obviously had to go to to other towns, but, but the railroads played a big, big part in this, because people didn’t have some people didn’t have cars. My Aunt Katie never had a car. My My great grandfather Robin never, never had a car. In fact, I think he was even afraid to to get in. So you didn’t need, necessarily need to have a car, because you could take the Doodlebug on the CB&Q and you could go as far, you know, as far as you wanted.
Dean Klinkenberg 28:44
Yes, tell us, tell us a little bit about the Doodlebug. that the picture was, was so fantastic, but it’s not a giant luxury passenger train. It was local. It was a local service.
Jon Kukuk 28:56
Yes, the Doodlebug is a self contained, um, vehicle, railroad car. It’s self powered. It was it was run on this particular one was run on gasoline, which very dangerous fuel, but the it would run between Burlington and in Quincy, of course, on the Chicago Burlington, Burlington and Quincy railroad. And at one time, there was two railroad stations in Dallas City, one for the Santa Fe and one for the CB&Q. And there was two other short lived railroads long, long time ago. I don’t know whether they had stations or not. They probably did, but the CB&Q station was very special to me because it was, it was up past fourth street up on the going on the bluff, because the railroad ran kind of catty corner past the past the recreation park and and past the Burg Auto Factory and past the cemetery and the Doodlebug was the main transportation. the Santa Fe also had a Doodlebug. Basically, it’s just a self contained Pullman type passenger car that was used for mail service. It had a a cab in front, and obviously a motor and it it carried passengers, not a great deal of passengers, but it, since it was self powered, it could connect to a to a second passenger car and and pull more, but generally it was just run by itself. But it, I mean, they depended on it for mail delivery or milk delivery from from local farmers would put their milk cans on it and drop it off as a station. Of course, the mail was dropped off, and of course, people would run between the bigger cities to to get the things they need, because the roads really were not in good shape. The roads were before they were paved were basically just dirt, rut filled roads, and the railroads supplied the majority of the transportation. Well, that and steamboats. Steamboats were also a huge, huge thing, which you already know, and Pontoosuc was a big parking lot for steamboats, and they would traverse the river, also carrying a lot of cargo and people. So between the river traffic and the railroads, that was the main focus, before the roads became really passable, you know, with horse and buggies and so forth.
Dean Klinkenberg 29:09
On the the Doodlebug it ran like twice a day, right? So you could take the train up in the morning. You get on train in the morning and go up to Burlington, and then you can catch the afternoon train to go afternoon train to go back down to town.
Jon Kukuk 32:44
I believe so. Yeah, I mean, it stopped running before I was, yeah, old enough to remember it. I think I was born. I don’t know the exact date that it stopped running through town, but I think it was more of a travesty what it did, because life was a whole lot easier as far as you didn’t have the congestion of all the cars. You could just get on the train, get on the steamboat, and that was it. You could go.
Dean Klinkenberg 33:26
Hey, Dean Klinkenberg here, interrupting myself. Just wanted to remind you that if you’d like to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guide books for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that is set in places along the Mississippi. My newest book, The Wild Mississippi, goes deep into the world of Old Man River. Learn about the varied and complex ecosystem supported by the Mississippi, the plant and animal life that depends on them, and more you can go to experience at all. Find any of these wherever books are sold. So let’s talk more about like your childhood with the river then too. As I know you wrote in the book about your dad built a boat. Is that right? He built his own boat, a Jon boat?
Jon Kukuk 34:16
Well, no, he didn’t build it. Volney Canfield was the was the boat builder. He was, he just lived, like about 100, 150 feet from us. He had a kind of a Quonset hut building, and he built custom boats. And it was really fun for me to go down there. I, I would play with his nephew, Mike, Mike and I would watch Volney build boats. And he built, he built Jon boats. Yes, he built, I’m pretty sure he built my dad’s racing boat. The boat races, which I know you want to touch on, was a big thing, but, but Volney, that was his thing. He sold boats and motors. He had a showroom on on one side, and he had, like a his, his, for lack of a better word, factory. It wasn’t factory. It was just a big room. He full of sawdust with his saws. And he would build boats, I’m guessing, out of marine grade plywood by hand. And he builds a lot of boats for a lot of customers.
Dean Klinkenberg 35:45
And the your father’s boat, your family’s boat, then it got a fair amount of use from the sounds of it.
Jon Kukuk 35:52
Well, my dad had three boats that I’m aware of, one of them for anybody who lives on the river knows what they were, are is, is a Jon boat, a narrow, long boat with a couple three seats in it and just put a motor on it, and just your basic open boat used for fishing, clamming, things like that. But he also had a runabout and if you’ve ever seen the movie, who hasn’t Indiana Jones, and the third Indiana Jones movie, where they’re in Venice, and they, they get on the was the Knights Templar chasing them. And they, they get on those, those runabouts and get shot at, you know, those. He had that type of boat. I don’t know how else to describe it. It was more of a pleasure boat. And I, I got to drive it. I mean, he put me in the driver’s seat. I was probably around four or five years old. I learned how to drive a boat.
Dean Klinkenberg 37:12
You learned how to drive a boat before you could drive a car.
Jon Kukuk 37:15
Absolutely.
Dean Klinkenberg 37:17
Like a river town.
Jon Kukuk 37:19
It is, it is and, and the river was totally different back then. It it since I was born, it has become filled in from farm runoff. And there’s, of course, the sand bars come and go and and the major islands, you know, are still there, but the river has changed so much since I was a boy. It’s, it’s a lot more shallow and filled in. And back then it was, it was a lot deeper in places and not as word I’m looking for. It was just a more open space, I guess.
Dean Klinkenberg 38:14
And so your family would take a Jon boat out like you go out and picnic on an island?
Jon Kukuk 38:22
Yes, absolutely, that was some of the most fun times getting in in the boat. My before I was ever born, my dad would take my mom out and just go to the islands, and one time in particular, and you and I have talked about this, but one time in particular, after I was born, I wasn’t very old, I don’t remember the exact age, but probably around four or fiveish, and we went to a sandbar, and I waded out away from my parents. I mean, they I wasn’t very far away. They could still see me, but I waded out deep enough. I was just a small little fry. I wasn’t very big. And I waded out and I stepped in a hole, and I went in over my head, and I I could, I was standing on my tippy toes, and I yelled to my dad, and he, he came and rescued me. But I still think about that a lot, because the river is very, very dangerous. It it has taken many lives, and it could have easily have taken my life more than once. And fortunately, my dad got to me, and I wasn’t I wasn’t worse. Downstream, or anything I was, I was, but it, it is something that I I recall, and it’s something I think about, and a certain person that I went to school with in high school drowned duck hunting, and that had a big impact. And other people I’ve known have also drowned in the river, and it’s nothing to mess with. It’s, it’s, it’s a serious thing. I mean, yeah, you can go out and have fun on the river, but it can be just as deadly as getting in a car wreck, I take it very seriously, except for the one time I told you, I I had a lack of judgment around 1979 when I had a couple goats and and I walked my goats down to the river in a blizzard late at night and decided to walk out onto the ice. Why I did that I have no idea. And this is down to grain elevator, where the barge traffic runs, because there’s a there’s a channel there for the barges to to drop off. And I was out probably 50, 75 feet, and there was a crack, and I high tailed out. Fortunately, I did not fall through. But that’s, that’s another, I don’t recommend ever doing that. Yeah, but there was, there were people when the when the weather would get really cold, it would take cars out of place and drive at and I’m like, really, you really want to do that? I mean, if that ice cracks with weight of the car and falls through, I mean, that dangerous situation, you know, it’s been done. I don’t know that anybody ever died doing this.
Dean Klinkenberg 42:19
Yeah, it’s one of those things that’s probably far more common much further north from Dallas City, where the ice is reliably thick by usually by the by Christmas or so. I lived in the La Crosse area for six years, and it wasn’t unusual for people to be driving out onto the ice every winter. But you know, it got a lot colder, and stayed colder up there that I think probably Dallas City did.
Jon Kukuk 42:43
Before this was warming trend that we apparently are in now. Yes, it did get very cold. You know, from historical fact that people would go out and cut blocks of ice before refrigerators. I mean, they had to. That was the only way they could. They could preserve it. That was another industry, pretty
Dean Klinkenberg 43:09
ingenious system, right? They, they cut the ice in the winter time and they throw them in a warehouse or a barn somewhere with with sawdust or Yes, and it would last through the summer.
Jon Kukuk 43:20
Yes, there was a special there was a special building that that was constructed that was full of sawdust, and they would stack the ice and put sawdust between layers, I guess. And before refrigerators became a novelty, they that’s how they had to cool everything, and the ice man would would deliver ice to your house. And that was another thing. That was another story in the book, was people probably, are probably getting uncomfortable with this, but people had what was called slop jars, and they went along with out houses. And so when you got to go, you got to go and and so people had, in the winter time, what was really cold, people would have slop jars so they could go in the slop jar, and it would have to be emptied the next day. And one time, there was a story that I put in the book of the ice man somehow dropped ice in one of the slop jars and made quite a mess. And I don’t remember the story in its entirety, but yes, slop jars were a thing, and the iceman cometh.
Dean Klinkenberg 44:56
And they didn’t. They were not meant to intersect. So it was.
Jon Kukuk 45:00
No, yeah, absolutely not.
Dean Klinkenberg 45:03
So one of the things I was thinking about, let me ask this. So you did spend a fair amount of time doing things along the river as a kid too, though, like it wasn’t just a family trip, but you would hop on your bike. You must have gone to roam around the river some and all of that was just sort of a part of the day to day life of a kid there, right?
Jon Kukuk 45:25
Skipping stones into the river. Uh, fishing along the riverbank. Of course, fishing was not really conducive along the riverbank so much as you know, you really needed a boat to get out there. I don’t know how long my dad had his boats. I know there was. There used to be a along the river bank, there was a couple big Quonset huts. And for the people who don’t know what Quonset is, it’s like a half moon type building, generally built out of metal, and it had a cement floor, and it had a winch, an electric winch in it, and a dolly system. And local residents would keep their boats in there and out of the weather. And they would park them on a dolly, and you would hook up a hook. You would push the it was like on rails, and you would push the dolly to the center rail and put a hook on it, on the winch, and you would, it was at an angle going down into the river, and you would winch, turn on the electric winch, and it would winch the boat down to the dock, and when you came back, the process was repeated. Just took the winch on and pull the dolly up and park it. And that that building sat there till like around the mid 1960s when a big wind storm came up and just tore it to pieces, and they had to destroy it. But I would play down there a lot, walk in the river banks. I had friends that would come down from the Quad Cities, our neighbors, and they’re in the book also. And we would, we would go down to the river and, and I don’t know if you want this in there or not, we would have peeing contest along the river bank. And we did things like that, just generally playing out there. But again, the whole, the whole thing of not going out too far and getting in a hole and not being able to get back that I basically stayed on the bank.
Dean Klinkenberg 48:04
Right. And I hope I’m not putting words in your mouth with this, but what I hear you basically saying is that you learned to respect the river, but you didn’t fear the river so much, right?
Jon Kukuk 48:16
Right. I mean, I love being out on absolutely love being out on the river, but in the back of my mind, I know use common sense and watch what you’re doing and make sure that you have the proper equipment to be out there. Don’t get caught wishing you had your throw pillows or life jackets or whatever. Just, just be careful.
Dean Klinkenberg 48:51
Absolutely, yeah. Let’s see. Oh yeah. So I guess the other thing I was thinking about too is I throughout a lot of your book, you you write about how important it is to you to be out in nature, to spend time outdoors. You feel, it’s very clear you feel a pretty strong connection to the natural world. Is that a fair representation?
Jon Kukuk 49:16
Oh, absolutely. I one of the things I would love to do that I love doing as a boy was I love exploring the creeks and going, following the creeks from their start or as close to the start as I could find, and following, you know, walking them and clear down to the river, to where they emptied into the river and and that was a lot of fun being trying to catch bullfrogs, tadpoles, water striders, you know, watching out. Water moccasins and things like that. But, but, yeah, there’s, there’s three creeks in Dallas and flow into the river there, within the within the city limits. And I, I went all on, on all of them.
Dean Klinkenberg 50:20
I think maybe that’s this is an experience that you and I both shared when we were younger, and maybe we consider ourselves lucky for this, but it’s what’s jokingly these days called free range kids. Yeah, I lived in a lot of suburban communities and some smaller towns, but my parents let me just go play in the woods and the creeks and things, and I think that has a lot to do with why, as an adult, I still love being outdoors and exploring outdoors and feel that connection as you described it too so many it’s a I think that’s probably an important part of the experience, isn’t it to get started as a kid and get out there and let your curiosity run and roam around.
Jon Kukuk 51:02
When, when we moved from the Noah house or the Noah Alley house, we moved up on the bluff we built. My parents put in a double wide mobile home, and they had nearly in three quarters an acre, three there was three lots, and at that time, it was all wood. Today it’s totally different. Back then you could go into the woods, and it was just a total different situation. Dallas City, well, the whole area was, was a lot more. What I will say, not as developed before people started moving in, and you could after, as I said, once I learned to ride my bike, there wasn’t a place I didn’t go. And I would, I would go as far out as Disco, if you’ve ever, ever heard of Disco, between Dallas City and La Harpe. So I would go seven, eight miles out on my bike, riding around past farms, and just because of the way the roads are laid out, you know, in square miles, you know, you could go from one road and cut over and go to a totally different road and follow that for a while. And I did that and went fishing in Camp Creek, went out to the Recreation Park. That was a big thing. There was just so many things that a little boy could do that you really can’t do anymore. People have moved in and the properties become private. You just it’s the amount of people that have built houses has taken all those special places away.
Dean Klinkenberg 53:18
Yeah, well, I’m grateful we had the chance to explore the way that we did.
Jon Kukuk 53:24
Absolutely. The CB&Q railroad. I loved following the tracks because, you know, there wasn’t very many trains on so I could walk the tracks, and I did that, and and the trestles, the the train trestles were were, to me, they were works of art the way they were built. And that’s why I put pictures of it in the book, because they were totally wooden structures for the most part. And of course, when the railroad tracks were tore up. They were cut down to the steps, and which I think is is a tragedy. There’s there’s several things that I think should have been on the National Register of Historic Places, including the high school. The high school building is a very was very special building quarried out of local limestone. We was blessed to to to have gone to a high school that was basically a landmark. Dallas City had a first for its size. It had an excellent school system, I think because you it was small, but you. Yeah, there was enough diversification in it that you could you could learn things if you wanted to. I didn’t choose to learn very much. I was one of those rebellious kids, but the Dallas City school system was a wonderful school system to grow up in.
Dean Klinkenberg 55:25
So I know music is also really important to you, and I want to make sure we have a few minutes to talk about that. And in fact, the book itself is kind of the written version, the printed version of an idea that you first expressed via music. Tell us about that.
Jon Kukuk 55:41
It is the I know because of my grandmother Ruth and because of my other relatives. They were. I come from a musical, artistic family. My Aunt Connie was a very good painter, an artist in her own right. My Grandmother Ruth was what I term a rock star of sorts. Before there was a rock star, she taught herself, she had lessons, but she mainly taught herself to play piano on her own and she got good enough at it that she was invited to tour with a regionally with a gospel revival group. And she also played piano for the silent movies. And Dallas City had a very nice, what was originally an opera house turned into a theater, and she played piano for the silent movies, and she was, as I said, she had some lessons, but she was basically self taught, and I I credit her with my my desire to learn how to play instruments. And my mom, you know, we went through the usual, oh, well, I’ll get you a clarinet or a trumpet. Mom, I want to play drums, you know, and and so eventually, that’s what I did. I picked up drums, and from drums I wasn’t satisfied with that was in bands, and learned how to play bass, to some extent, guitar, piddle around on the on the keyboards. Don’t have the most fantastic voice, but I do everything myself. Basically, I was in bands, but for a long time played regional bands and things, but I decided just to go out and I quit playing bars, and I just went on my own. I never really the only thing I really did was I put out a music out, and I the music is all my own from I play everything on the album. I a guitar, bass, drums, some synthesizer. Wrote all the, all the lyrics, all the, all the music. It became the basis for the book it is. It is also called Uncharted Currents. It is 11 songs are on the album, and 10 chapters and a preface are in the book. And this book, I feel, is unique because it’s based off of the off of the record album. Every song is a chapter in the book, and which I felt was a unique thing to do. I don’t know if it’s ever been done previous to that or what, but for me, it was my my thing. So the lead off song, 98 being when I wrote majority of the material, 1998, is just a short intro, guitar drum piece, and that is the preface in the book. And then from there, you have the Island Pelican and all the other song and chapter titles, and so they go together. They were, they were meant to go together, but there was only 100 copies of the of the album ever printed. There’s very few left. It. But yes, again, the book and the album are meant to be as one. And they were meant to tell your your story, basically, and the story of your family and your community, correct? Yeah, they were the basis for for all the chapters and and in in the river itself. Now there’s one song that’s not on the album, and it wasn’t written at the time, and I kind of wish I’d been if I ever rerelease it, it will be on there. But the actual title song, Uncharted Currents, which I’ve given to you, for you to listen to. And the lyrics are in the book, and it pretty much tells the story of the river. And in my my version, and so my music, a lot of people don’t, probably aren’t interested in it, because it’s the the album’s instrumental. In other words, some of the songs had had lyrics and singing in them, I chose, for whatever reason, to make a totally instrumental album at the time, because I didn’t feel I would do it justice with my with my voice, and since I did the whole thing myself, the only thing I didn’t do, I sent it to be mastered at a mastering house. But basically I wrote everything and recorded everything in my bedroom, and all the drums, guitar, bass, everything was all put together in a bedroom. It’s not a professional sounding album by any means, I suppose, but it’s not the worst either.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:02:09
Yeah, there are plenty of professionally produced albums out there that are pure crap anyway.
Jon Kukuk 1:02:13
So, yeah, but I did the best I could with it, considering my circumstances, and it is what it is.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:02:26
Yeah, absolutely, I know at the end of the book you also included some old family recipes. And I know you this is your next project you mentioned is collecting family recipes. I was just curious, like, what are like, one or two dishes that you remember from your childhood that make you smile every time you think about them.
Jon Kukuk 1:02:44
Well, my mom fixed a mean spaghetti, but my Aunt Katie, bless her heart. She was, she was just the most wonderful, wonderful person. But she made these, not pound cakes, but they were mainly for Christmas. They came in a tin. She baked them in a tin, and she had all this stuff in it. And I just, I love my Aunt Katie, but these just did not settle with me. That’s, that’s, that’s probably it. I did want to mention my Aunt Katie. I I know we haven’t gone there yet, but my Aunt Katie, everybody around town knew my Aunt Katie, if she was, she was sophisticated, yet kind of a hillbilly. She, she was very family oriented. She, when my my Aunt Irene, I tell the story of my Aunt Irene in the book, who, at two years old, had a very high fever. And she, she, she had the mentality of a child after that, they didn’t have the medical expertise that there is today, and they couldn’t, they couldn’t treat her as well, and she she became kind of a burden to the family, because she never progressed past the past, like a six year old or something. And Aunt Katie stepped up. And Aunt Katie never married, and she took care of Irene till the day she died, and that. That is very special in itself, but Aunt Katie worked at Anguish and Wolfenbarger. She, she knew all the car parts. She had them memorized. She, she had a filing system. She, she was a bit of an accountant. She, she worked for the school system, and she, she never had a driver’s license. She was one of those that never had a driver’s license. But she, she put together minstrel shows, and I touch on that in the book. And one of the things she did was, most every year, at least that I recall, she would have a float for the Dallas city parade, and her floats were very special because they were very undone. Let’s say, in other words, where a lot of floats have flowers and they’re made to be so pretty and beautiful, and everything Aunt Katie’s was just the opposite hers was, let’s make it as bad as we can. And so she had a lot of times. It was the shotgun wedding of the hillbilly bride was the scene, and she had Eddie Walker pulling, pulling a borrowed tractor from the Anguish and Wolfenbarger facility, because at one time they sold tractors, and she had a hay rack made up, and there was an outhouse on it, and she had her, her, her Washing paraphernalia there, and in the slop jar, the whole famous slop jar, except there wasn’t anything bad in this slop jar. What she did was she would put cut up paper at it, make a petty and what she would do is the audience didn’t know that along the route, and she would take that slop jar and she would throw it on they was all. They would cower, and then, you know, they would, oh, we’re gonna get all this stuff on us. And oh, no, no, it was, it was just paper confetti, you know. And a lot of us grandkids and close people, we got to write on those floats. We got to be part of the act. And my job, on several occasions, was sitting on top of the outhouse with a with a fake gun being the lookout. And she did it most every year. And she would also take the float over to Fort Madison on Labor Day in Fort Madison, as you know, they have the rodeo parade. Well, she was part of that. And back then, there was a radio station in Fort Madison called KXGI, and they would have broadcasts of the parade. And on one certain occasion, there was a announcer that just could not believe my Aunt Katie’s float was in the parade. You know, she was just throwing a tantrum over it, and but my Aunt Katie got the last laugh. She won first prize.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:08:28
Very good. You know, I have to say, like from reading your stories about her, I every family needs an Aunt Katie. So that’s fantastic.
Jon Kukuk 1:08:38
Between my Aunt Katie, my grandmother, Ruth, my aunt Connie, my Aunt Anna Bell Hardy, the Nichol kids, Robin and Virgie Nichol had five kids, and Katie was was the oldest. My grandmother, Ruth, my Aunt Irene, my Uncle, George. George was, he was something else. He he did. It’s in the book, I’m not going to repeat it here. He did certain things. He saved a couple lives, and he, he became a hobo, and he went to California, rode the trains as a hobo to California. There was just a lot of mischievousness, but it was fun times, you know it. It was a great childhood to be a part
Dean Klinkenberg 1:09:47
Absolutely and it’s it’s great that you have found a way to record these stories to preserve them for future generations. I’m sure your kids and grandkids are going to love here and appreciate having these stories that bring that time to life.
Jon Kukuk 1:10:01
Well, that’s just it, when I’m when I’m passed, and Lisa’s passed, and Lisa is my wife, of course, and and Dallas City is her adopted hometown as well. Once we’re gone, it was my, my hope that these stories would be passed down because they’re just they’re too precious to lose.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:10:26
Yeah, well, we probably need to wrap this up, John, I I’m very grateful you took the time to talk with me today and and share these stories from growing up in Dallas City about your family. So you know what I forgot to ask you, before we got going on this, is there any place people could get copies of the music or the book, if they’re interested at this point, is there any place that’s available for sale?
Jon Kukuk 1:10:52
Yeah, the book is available online through lulu.com it’s it’s print on demand, so there isn’t any copies really laying around in stores or anything. It’s it has to be ordered online. It is through Barnes and Noble. It is on Amazon, all the usual places. But, but being print on demand, the publisher is Lulu Press, so just lulu.com/shop and you can, if you search for it, just search for “Uncharted Currents: My Life Growing Up On the Mississippi River,” it’s it’s available. The music, as I said, I only made 100 copies of the original. I don’t know that I’m ever going to put any more out. But our music, Lisa and I are a band, John and Lisa, and our music is available on bandcamp, JohnandLisa.bandcamp.com Other than that, no, it’s if somebody wants a copy, just get a hold of me.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:12:26
That’s about it. Alright, very good. I will post links to your book through Lulu and your bandcamp site. Those will both be in the show notes. John, thank you so much for your time. Say hi to Lisa for me, and hopefully our paths will cross again in person sometime in their future.
Jon Kukuk 1:12:43
Well, remember, we’re we’re supposed to get together there in the future.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:12:47
Absolutely.
Jon Kukuk 1:12:48
We’ll be up that way.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:13:21
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the series on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss out on future episodes. I offer the podcast for free, but when you support the show with a few bucks through Patreon to help keep the program going, just go to patreon.com/DeanKlinkenberg, if you want to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guide books for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that’s set in places along the river. Find them wherever books are sold. The Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast is written and produced by me Dean Klinkenberg. Original Music by Noah Fence. See you next time you.
