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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, beautiful cool day. Get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, put a sweater on, grab a bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $5.63 a bushel. 550lb steer calf $5.56 a pound on the top end, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $3.33 a pound. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. Okay. So today, we'll be looking back on history. I love history. US history coupled with Phillips County history and more specifically Malta, Montana history, the kind I like the very best. But to start with, I will find us a bible verse to set the stage.
OK Solberg:Now it comes from the Old Testament, Old Testament book of Joel. We don't hear from that one very often. Old Testament book of Joel chapter 3 verse 9. Proclaim this among the nations. Consecrate for war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Again, Joel 3:9.
OK Solberg:So our Bible verse and our US history will be tied to World War II, and that verse let all the men of war draw near. Well, guys, that was the battle cry in The US after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on 12/07/1941.
OK Solberg:Now did you know there were things rationed during World War II? In fact, I'm too young to have seen it firsthand, but I can guarantee it was a real thing because I have two booklets of ration coupons from the 1940's in my office. I like that kind of stuff. A keepsake, a relic, a reminder of how things used to be. So as you probably know, coffee, gasoline, and sugar were rationed.
OK Solberg:America needed to save as much as we could for our fighting people across the ocean. Well, sugar, coffee, and gasoline weren't the only things rationed. Copper was in high demand. So what happened in 1943? You know, pennies were made with copper back then.
OK Solberg:In 1943, they stopped making the traditional penny, and they used steel coated with zinc. The zinc made them have a silver gleam to them. In fact, in that year, they saved enough copper to manufacture 1,250,000 shells of ammunition. Now with the stage being set for US history, let me now pull in local history. I know a person who was a young girl in Phillips County back then, and her brother and her drove to Malta to pick up a sister who was coming from the East on a train.
OK Solberg:Well, they got to Malta early, and the brother, well, he liked to play cards at the Pastime bar. But he wasn't gonna take his 13 year old sister into the bar. No. It can't do that. So he reached in his pocket and pulled out a dime and told his younger sister she could go to the movie over there at the Palace Theater.
OK Solberg:Well, she got to the Palace Theater right here in Malta, Montana, and she handed the ticket taker her dime. Because, guys, remember back then, it cost only a dime to go to the movie. What a deal. Well, the ticket taker who happened to be Billy Jim Campbell's younger brother, Josh Paul Campbell, he looked at the coin the young girl handed him and he said, this isn't a dime. It's a penny.
OK Solberg:Well, the young girl was brokenhearted. She clutched the silver coin in her hand, walked back to the car that was sitting outside the Pastime bar, and waited till her brother came out. It was a long wait and no movie today, all because a penny looked like a dime. Now, guys, I just learned that story today, and I couldn't wait to share it with you. In 1944, the US Mint went back to making pennies out of copper.
OK Solberg:What was their reason? I'll tell you. They went back because they rusted, they confused vending machines, and they were frequently mistaken for a dime as is the story of the young girl's case at the Palace Theater. That's just a good story. I don't care who you are.
OK Solberg:That's just fun. But it also happened to happen in good old Malta, Montana. Now, guys, I have 3 Palace Theater stories. Pat Murdock, Jimmy's mom, remembers that the Saturday matinee cost only 9¢. Oh, yes.
OK Solberg:They enticed more business on Saturday afternoon by dropping the price by 1p. Then, of course, you remember Gary Fado's story. He was outside the Palace Theater as a young boy, and he had a dime in his hand, and it was a real dime. It was winter. It was cold.
OK Solberg:And he dropped his dime in the snow, and he looked and he looked and he looked, but no success. And that brought the young lad to tears. But a kind lady saw him crying and asked him what the problem was. He told her she opened her purse and gave him a dime, a real dime. Nice lady, good story, but it didn't end there.
OK Solberg:Gary was a thinker, so he thought it over and he realized if he had dropped a dime, other kids might have dropped their coins as well. So he knew where the city piled the snow when they removed it from the streets and sidewalks.
OK Solberg:He waited till spring, the snow melted, and he took a careful search and ended up walking home with a dollar and 22¢ that day. That there is a money making deal. It's fun to have fun. If you have a Palace Theater story, you make sure you let me know. I love old history.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.