Moments with Mr. Grossenkemper

One of the great things about living in a rural area with a small main street is the people you run into that you probably should’ve run into a long time ago.
One of the sweetest families I’ve ever known gave me a canvas painting of my mother and Kelsey taken from a photo at Kelsey’s graduation from FMHS. It’s one of my favorite pictures and they had it digitally converted into a paint-by-number and then went to work over several years. It’s very ornate and detailed and the faces of Kelsey and mom pop off the canvas.
They gave it to me over the holidays and, for some unforeseen reason, I couldn’t cry. I think my tear tank is just empty. But I put it back in the box and hadn’t taken it out until Thursday morning because I didn’t want any dust on it and I let my birds out for a couple hours a day to fly around the house. Needless to say I have to chase them around to clean up afterwards, but I just can’t stand seeing them in the cage all day.
Anyway, I took that painting down to Frame ‘N Art at 608 Avenue G in downtown Fort Madison. I wanted to spend some money to make sure that painting is preserved.
There I ran into this crusty old guy named Bob Grossenkemper. Bob’s been in Fort Madison most of his life, outside of a very admirable stint in the armed forces.
Bob was in the back of the frame shop working on something with what I observed later to be rigid and old, but diligent and experienced fingers.  He said “Hello” from the back of the shop and shuffled his way to the front to meet this tall, goofy dude with a box in his hand. He smelled a sale. He was right.
He walked me through how the process worked and pulled frame samples off a wall of carpet where they were velcro’d to the surface – a very efficient yet primitive form of display. I wasn’t overly concerned with the price, which is very odd for me, but this painting needs babied.
He then asked for my phone number and my name.
“Do you own a newspaper,” asked this 70-something grizzled dude with a lifetime of experiences in his facial expressions.
“I own Pen City Current,” I said
“I have that on my phone. I’m not the tech guy of your generation, but I scroll through that every morning.”
My tear tank almost found a reserve. He knew my name.
After about 10 minutes of looking at frames and being talked into a non-glare glass, we had a plan of attack. He convinced me to not leave the painting under glass for decades as the canvass would dry out. “I didn’t know that,” I said. Of course I didn’t.
I stayed and chatted with Bob for about an hour and learned everything I needed to know, not only about framing and protecting heirlooms, but also about Fort Madison.
In pricing the frame, which will be a rich dark walnut that will match the dark chocolate crown molding in Fred and Kitty Winke’s old Italian home, I heard some stories about the history of Fort Madison.
Then I heard about the history of Charlie and Deborah Scoville’s home. The carriage house at back and the renovations that took place after the Scoville’s took over the former Hesse home. I learned about the history of the home that Judge John Wright lives in and even a little about my own.
This man grew up just a little bit from where the library is now. He said it was all cornfields back then and talked about they used to hunt rabbit back in the Peavine area between his home and Rodeo grounds.
My imagination took me to this young man running around in the woods firing off hip shots at rabbits and whatnot and living that prairie life. He talked about how he started working at 14 painting trim and learning from that industry how to frame art, because they did it all.
I had to get back to work, so I backed my way to the door and thanked Bob for the stroll down Fort Madison’s historical corridor.
I haven’t been able to get the conversation out of my mind since then. I find it somewhat remarkable that I haven’t met this man before. It’s not like I’m a Fort Madison lifer, but I’ve been here since 2001 and I grew up 20 minutes away.
Either way, it tells me that we shouldn’t take anything for granted in life. Sometimes when we’re busy, it’s worth it to just stop and engage with someone, listen to some stories, and take in the smell of walnut and framing glue.
Because sometimes moments are fleeting, like Iowa State’s run in the tournament, right Gordy, Andy. But hey, they'll rebound, or....maybe not – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.