Under the Water Tower Lovilia News

Saturday evening from 5pm to 8pm you can come to the community building in Lovilia and have supper, buy some homemade baked goods, and bid at an auction.  All proceeds will benefit the family of Colton Matthew Groenendyk, infant son of Stephanie Pearson and Matt Groenendyk of Lovilia.  They are having time off from work and extra travel expenses to tend to Colton in the hospital in DesMoines.  Come support them and have a good meal and shop at the auction.

Do You Have Empathy for the Acmes and Nadirs of Human Experience?

The what?  If you do not know about the acmes and nadirs, you are not alone.  This phrase was in a report from my daughter’s college in a story about a professor who is also a writer.  It tweaked my curiosity so I pulled out the dictionary to solve the mystery.  Acme is the highest point of something and nadir is the lowest point of something.  So now you have it and you can thrill your family and confuse your enemies by lacing your conversation with those two words.

Economic Downturn

The news is full of negative data on the stock market, unempoyment, layoffs, and cost of living. So I think it is time to put it all in perspective.

Mr. Moore wrote from Guatemala that he was at an annual village festival   He noticed a poorly dressed family standing and watching the music and so on.  A man was nearby selling ice cream cones for ten cents each.  Soon the father went over and paid for one cone and returned to his wife and two small children.  They then passed the cone back and forth until all four had some of the ice cream.

A laywoman who works for a church mission in Chile said their rental home had a woodburning stove that heated one room and that is all the heat for the home.  They longed for more warmth.  Then one day a neighbor lady and her young daughter came to visit.  Everyone sat near the wood stove and chatted.  The neighbor said the warm stove was very nice.  The little girl said yes but I will really miss the warmth when we leave.  Then it struck the missionary that most homes in town had no stove to heat the home in winter at all.  She realized her wood stove was a luxury in Chile.

So, we have to put everything in perspective. If we have food on the table daily, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads we should count our blessings.

And when we have a shortage of funds we still can offer our time and talent. As quoted from Pauline R. Kezer,”When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better”.

Lent

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 25th.  Attend the church of your choice and start the journey to Easter.  The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s organization to support the family and do community service has fish fry suppers every Friday of Lent at the KC club in Albia.  The Lovilia members will be serving the meal on March 20th.  If you enjoy a catfish or shrimp meal, be sure to go.  All the profits from the fish frys go to local community charities.

I hope other churches in Lovilia or nearby who have members in Lovilia will send me announcements about their activities so I can post them here on the website.

John has not only one business, he has three.  He instructs adults and children to play musical instruments, he records musicians or singers on CDs, and he repairs recording studio equipment.

Music intstructor

He teaches children starting at age five on up to adults in their eighties.  The studio has  rock key boards and a grand piano for instruction on keyboard.  Guitars can be acoustic, electric,  steel and lead guitar or bass.  Drummers can get lessons to on a trap set.

Lessons are available on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 1pm-8:30pm at the studio 1614 E Avenue in Lovilia directly across from city hall.  Lessons are $50 per month for a half hour lesson each week. John’s favorite music is rhythm and blues or jazz but he will teach all music styles.  He currently has nearly 20 students but last year had forty before these hard economic times hit town.

Last summer he formed a rock band with several students so that at their lessons they could learn to jam and play together as a group.  At the end of the summer they performed on the bandstand at the Knoxville square.  Later they performed in concert at the Marion Co. Fairgrounds and had 1000 people in the audience who were enthusiastic about their music.  The band was named Magnum Chromatic and they are still doing gigs together.  Matthew Showers, son of Rod Showers who grew up in Lovilia and now lives in Knoxville, is a member of the group.

John has a group of senior students made up of retired persons who want to form a band and practice together this summer.  Maybe we can get them to perform at the community building outdoor stage for us.

If you would like to inquire about lessons, call John at 641-946-8160.

John’s background

He grew up east of here near Lake Miami and attended and graduated from Albia High School. He played keyboard and guitar then and  had lessons on them until graduating from school  . He started teaching music right away and has given lessons now for twenty years.  He also played with a blues band called “Yetti Blues Band” that was honored by being inducted into the Iowa Hollywood Rock N Roll Hall of Fame at Okoboji in Arnold’s Park. Each year there is an annual concert and new inductees are brought in to the Hall of Fame.  He is currently playing in a blues band that plays in Melcher, Sigourney, Johnston, and DesMoines.

Location of Studio

John and his family had out grown their studio and living quarters in Knoxville and were looking for a larger site.  His friends and customers said he needed to be in Des Moines.  Then Martha Sweem told him when he came to get his mail that the former De Long building was for sale.  John told her it was out of his price range but Martha said she thought they would be willing to negotiate a price and to call the CEO in Grinnell, Iowa.  He did.  They did.  He has the studio and it is just what he needed for space.  He has  customers come regularly from Boone and Des Moines.  After high school John put in seven years at Vermeer in Pella.  Always having the nagging desire to go into the music business full time,  he made that leap about eight years ago.

Recording studio and repair of recording equipment

John is set up to repair equipment in the buildings basement and has projects going there all the time.  At the recording end he not only records but designs and engineers studio equipment.  He is doing research and development in that area now.  If a customer wants to record say, a demo CD, they can show to potential clients, they pay John $50 an hour for the number of hours needed.  Some can do a demo in five hours, others could take up to 50 for a longer session.  He can do a CD in Lovilia .  If a person wants a vinyl recording he can do the master here and send it away to be done in vinyl.

Family

His wife, Karen, was a Farrington and grew up just northwest of Lovilia.  She and John have two daughters.  Sylvia 11 and Sophie 6.  Both girls are learning piano and guitar.

New citizen

Colton Matthew was born January 15, 2009 at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. His parents are Stephanie Pearson and Matt Groenendyk of Lovilia. His grandmother is the late Kendra Pearson and great grandparents are Ben and Charlotte Pettyjohn.  Colton arrived three weeks early and it will be a while before he can come home to Lovilia.  Let’s keep Colton and his parents in our prayers.

Wedding Anniversaries

25th anniversary celebrated by Jim and Debbie Gass on Jan. 21

50th anniversary celebrated by Tom and Donna Romanco on Jan. 17

60th anniversary celebrated by Darwin and Bonnie Gordon Jan. 2009

You show us the sign of lasting love and vows.  May God bless you now and always.

Assault  on Four Men on East side of Lovilia

Last week as four men were working in a garage, a mouse rushed out to terrorize them.  All four men were caught of guard but rallied around one man who after several attempts dispatched the mouse.  Breathing a deep sigh of relief, the men can be thanked for returning peace and safety to the east side.

Memory notes

Bob Wallace died recently.  You will remember him as a former postmaster at Lovilia for several years.

His son Rob, owns and operates Wallace Tire shop on Hwy 5 in Lovilia.  Our sympathy to Rob and his family

Chris McCombs died last week.  He is the son of Chris McCombs of Lovilia  His mother is Judy Cooley and his stepfather is Bob Cooley of Lovilia. His brother Fred and family are residents too.  Our sympathy to all his family.

May both of these men rest in peace.

New website for fun

You can have fun at this new site plinky.com which lets you answer fun questions and then post to your blog or twitter, etc.  Wesley Beary is one of their computer programmers and has worked on the site for over six months and it just launched about a week ago.  Wesley attended K-4 at Lovilia with super teachers and then through high school in Albia. He received a bachelor’s degree at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.  He now lives in California and works at the Plinky office in Lafayette.

Lovilia Community Building

Volunteers are busy doing maintenance and upgrades to improve the kitchen.  We are looking forward to seeing the finished work.  The building is supported by rent, donations, and fundraisers.  No tax money goes there.  We thank all the volunteers and supporters who keep this asset to the community available to us all.

Recent Robberies

Due to recent break-ins in Monroe County, we suggest you not leave valuables or keys in your vehicles and leave your homes and businesses locked.  It appears they tried cars until they found unlocked ones and then stole stuff.  So heads up…………………………