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The Dodgeville Chamber of Commerce held three ribbon cuttings last week signifying the opening of three new retail businesses. Ederer's Hardware  Dairy Supply was on Wednesday - at the same time they held a "Business After 5", another chamber promotion. You can find them in the former Humane Society building on Bennett Road. Here, Angie (Ederer) Merritt cuts the ribbon with two of her brothers holding the ribbon. Several of the store's employees as well as other business owners and city officials were there in support. Actually Ederer's has been open awhile as a Dairy Supply Store, and only became a hardware store after True Value closed in the downtown here. Oh, and Terry Carroll (True Value) is an employee a Ederer's!
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The other two ribbon cuttings were held on Friday with the first one at Time and Again Vintage in downtown Dodgeville. Terry (Crubaugh) Olson did the cutting honors for that one with her mother (Florence Crubaugh) also in the photo. The two share the Linens & Accents building.
The third one was at the Wild Weasel with owners Wynn and Jennifer Neis doing the ribbon cutting. During the lunch hour Friday they served organic burgers from Seven Seeds Organic Farm that is located north east of Dodgeville near the Pleasant Ridge Store. They tasted pretty darn good! I went to school with Louise (Peterson) Erpenbach, one of the seven generations of related families who have run that farm!
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Speaking of downtown businesses and Linens & Accents, I had a chance to attend a "SURPRISE" birthday party for Florence Crubaugh on Sunday at Dodge Point Country Club. She is the owner of Linens & Accents and the wife of "My Late Buddy", who was known as "The Dirty Old Baker"! When Flo walked into the room where her party was being held, she said something like "You're going to pay for this". I don't think she was talking to me because she knows I don't have any money! She was totally surprised and really had a great turnout of family and friends. Speaking of family, Mark even came back from Arizona. Her kids - David, Mark, Terry, Brian, Mary, Joe, Chris and Sheri - put on a special slide show about her life. I think it was mainly Sheri who produced the slide show. The 21 grandkids sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for Flo as she is a big Brewers fan. Granddaughters Leah, Emma and Matty led it and boy can they sing!
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I made the trek to Waterloo, Iowa Saturday to catch up with son Michael for a little while. He had to sleep until about 3:30 from working the night before, so all we had time for was a little supper and some conversation as he had to work again that night. His wife Jolisa has taken a "cop" job in Muscatine and is nearly finished with her probationary period. He just got accepted for a job at a HyVee there, so they are planing to move probably in June. His job will be similar in pay to what he's making now and will be during the daytime hours, which will be nice. It will take him quite awhile to get himself adjusted to new sleeping habits!