Right you are Phil.  I didn't grow up in the midwest, but still, 
there was much to identify with, especially the stuff about the 
Cold War, and the 1950's in general when many of us on this list 
were pre teens and teenagers.  Jim WA6EKS

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 17:12:13 -0700
Subject: Re: OT, a great book about growing up in Des Moines

Jim,

My youngest sister found that book and I checked and found it on 
NLS so I
read it about a year ago.  It was great.  He grew up there about 
the time I
did so it was one of the neatest books I read since I could 
identify with so
many of the things he wrote about.

Phil.
K0NX





----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]
To: <[log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 4:01 PM
Subject: OT, a great book about growing up in Des Moines


 Phil, have you ever read a book called The Life and Times of the
 Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson? If not, you should get it from
 NLS.  He grew up in Des Moines and wrote about his childhood
 there.  He has also written numerous other books all of which 
are
 great in my opinion.  Jim WA6EKS

 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Date sent: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:55:19 -0700
 Subject: My Favorite Tall Tower

 I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa where one of the radio and TV
 stations had a
 building downtown with a weather tower, so called, on top of the
 building.
 It was a 4-legged tower that tapered up from the 4 corners of 
the
 building
 to something like heavy gaged rohn tower at the top where the
 lights were
 displayed.  This weather tower was seen from all over and about
 20 miles,
 and more, in most directions.  I recently typed in the old call
 letters of
 the TV station but couldn't find info on the tower today so I
 typed in the
 newer call letters and found it listed as a weather beacon.  A
 youtube short
 video talked about damage to the tower during one winter of 
harsh
 cold
 tempes and ice build up on the tower.  When ice chunks broke off
 when
 melting, it broke 250 of the 4500 lights so they had to be
 replaced.  The
 tower, I learned is 500 feet plus the 2 or 3 stories of the
 building below.
 No guy cables; it is free standing.  Each of the 4 colors of
 light has a
 little rhyming jingle but I don't know if I can recall them all.
 Let's see.
 When it shines red, it means warmer weather is ahead.  Green,
 nothing new
 foreseen.  White means colder weather is in sight and I believe
 blue refers
 to rain.  If anything is blinking, precipitation is in the
 forecast.  I
 lived in far northeast Des Moines, almost where the highway I80
 crosses
 north of Des Moines, which wasn't there when I was born but 
built
 later in
 the fifties.  Anyhow, I went to a friend's house out in the
 country, north
 of the highway, and standing in the yard, I could see the tower
 during the
 daylight hours without any trouble and I would have been at 
least
 20 miles
 north of the weather tower.  I'd sure like a 3 element 40 up on
 top of that
 baby.  I was please to see the tower was still up and being
 maintained and
 used by Ioeans to check the weather.  Even during my tower
 climbing days, I
 wouldn't have touched that tower with a ten foot pole.  I'm
 guessing an
 elevator is used internally but I believe I heard once, years 
ago
 from a
 commercial tower guy I knew, that you have to stop at one point
 and climb
 the 110 foot top to manually change the bulbs that are a foot
 apart but I'm
 not certain of that.

 Phil.
 K0NX