Looking for the Address of the West Town Quality Bakery in Chicago - Part 1

Recently someone posted a photo in the Forgotten Chicago Discussion Group on Facebook of the West Town Quality Bakery.  I currently don't have permission to post the photo here, so I will describe it.  There was a sign in the window indicating the proprietor was J. Klimacek, and the bakery would have its grand opening on Saturday, September 6.  An awning above the bakery window had the bakery's name and the number "1143" on each side of it.  That may (or may not) be part of the address.

The gentleman who posted the photo stated that "My grand-uncle and great-grandfather owned and operated this bakery in Chicago. We really have no memories or knowledge of where it was located exactly. Based on the name I would assume it might have been located in West Town. That side of the family is Slovak too."

In the 1930 census, I found a John Klimacek, born about 1883, a baker with his own shop, living at 1141 (S.) Western Avenue.  When I asked if that was his family, the gentleman replied, "That would be my great-grandfather most likely. His son my grand-uncle is also named John."  That matched with the other family members - son John in the family, wife Elizabeth, and five other kids, Elizabeth, Anna, Susie, Mary(an), and Steve.  

Here are the images - John and his wife at the bottom of one page, the six children on the next page.  I've also included the addresses on either side of them, and the headings and footers for the pages, as I'll be coming back to some of this additional information.  Click on the images to make them larger.

Above:  John Klimacek Sr. family on the 1930 Census.  Images from "United States, Census, 1930", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSG8-1K2 : Fri Oct 17 07:37:54 UTC 2025), Entry for John Klimacek and Elizabeth Klimacek, 1930.

My immediate thought was that the bakery was next door at 1143 S. Western Avenue.  Often a business would be on the first floor, and the owner (or others) would live upstairs (notice the people living at 1143 in 1930 are renters).  So I decided to do some research to support that hypothesis.

But first, I needed to determine the time frame.  That involved researching the John Klimacek family, to determine when they were in Chicago.  John Sr. and John Jr. were both born in Czechoslovakia, in 1883 and 1907 respectively.  John Sr. died in Chicago in 1938 and John Jr. probably in Berwyn, Illinois, in December 1971 or January 1972.

However, if you look at the details on the children in the 1930 Census, the four middle children (all girls) were born in Pennsylvania.  The youngest child, Steve, was born in Illinois, about 1920 or 1921.

I found Steve's (Stephen's) birth certificate in FamilySearch.  He was born November 24, 1920, at 5800 S. Loomis St. (now S. Loomis Blvd.) in Chicago.

Above:  Stephen Klimacek Chicago, Illinois birth certificate, 24 November 1920.  Accessed through "Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1953", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N774-CL3 : Sat Jan 18 00:14:28 UTC 2025), Entry for Stephen Klimacek and John Klimacek.

Just a few weeks later, 14-year-old John Jr. - who for some reason had stayed behind in Czechoslovakia after his parents emigrated in 1907 (father) and 1909 (mother Alzbeta/Elizabeth) - arrived in New York City, on December 21, 1920.  His passenger list indicates he was going to join his father Jan Klimacek at 5800 Loomis Street.

Above:  Passenger list (left and right side) for Jan (John Jr.) Klimacek, entry #15, from "New York, Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1925", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J6HF-1JH : Sat Jul 04 18:41:04 UTC 2026), Entry for Jan Klimacek and Jan Bielcik, 21 December 1920.

I couldn't find the family on the 1920 census.  They may have been in transit from Heilwood, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, where the youngest daughter Maryan was born in November 1918 (per her grandson; supported by the 1930 census and her husband's family history narrative).  They were not at 5800 Loomis in Chicago in the 1920 census, nor were they in Pennsylvania.

The next record I could find for John Sr. was an index card for his 1924 naturalization.  (The actual naturalization documents are not online.)  At that time, he was living at 1531 W. 18th Place in Chicago.  He was also at this address in the 1923 city directory, but his name was recorded as Jos (Joseph) instead of Jno (John or Jonathan), and it says he is in soft drinks.  I believe the typesetter for the directory mixed him up with various men with the last name of Klimas who were in this business and also lived on W. 18th. 

Above:  Naturalization index card for John Klimacek, from "Illinois, Northern District Naturalization Index, 1840-1950", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XKG4-D8R : Sun Mar 29 01:33:19 UTC 2026), Entry for John Klimacek, 1924.

Below:  John Klimacek in the 1923 city directory, from https://collections.newberry.org/asset-management/2KXJ8Z8MI3EDK?FR_=1&W=1920&H=1083 (4th image)

However, by the time of the 1928 Polk reverse (criss-cross) directory for Chicago, John Sr. had moved his family to the 1141 S. Western Avenue address.  John Sr. also gave this as his address when he witnessed the petitions for naturalization for Mrs. Mary Valoch (formerly Mary Klimacek, probably a relative) on February 15, 1929; for Mrs. Anna Klimacek (probably another relative) on May 7, 1929; and for Edward Valenta on March 19, 1930.

John Sr. also appears at the 1141 S. Western Avenue address in telephone directories (White Pages) in Summer 1930, 1932, September 1933, June 1934, December 1935, September 1936, and June 1937.  Note that in all these cases, the address is listed as his residence, not as a bakery.

Above:  Klimaceks in the June 1937 Chicago White Pages telephone directory, from https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.usteledirec04783x/?sp=350&st=image&clip=3978,610,880,879&ciw=968&rot=0

In the September 1936 and June 1937 (pictured above) telephone directories (White Pages), John Jr. has a separate listing (just under his father's residential listing) - for a bakery, at 3329 W. North Avenue.  It is also listed in the Yellow Pages under Bakeries, Retail, in August 1936 (pictured below) and in August 1937.  

Above:  Klimacek bakery in the August 1936 Chicago Yellow Pages business telephone directory, from https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.usteledirec04781x/?sp=318&clip=5170,619,864,383&ciw=951&rot=0

However - all Klimacek entries disappear from both directories in 1938 and 1939.  John Sr. died on September 29, 1938.  At that point, he had been suffering from chronic myocarditis for about two years, according to the death certificate.  The certificate also indicated he had been working as a baker through January 3, 1938.  It may be that John Sr. turned over the family bakery business to John Jr. when he became ill, and perhaps the business was also relocated to 3329 W. North Avenue at that time.  

Above:  Death certificate for John Klimacek (Sr.), from "Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1948", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQB9-LX3 : Mon Jan 27 22:10:32 UTC 2025), Entry for John Klimacek and Martin Klimacek, 29 Sep 1938.

Note that John Jr. was listed as the informant, and gives his address as 3046 W. 54th Street.  That was also his address on the 1940 census (line 50, enumerated April 5) and on his World War II draft registration card (October 16, 1940).  See both below - click on all images in this post to make them larger.

Above:  John Klimacek (Jr.) on the 1940 census, line 50, from "United States, Census, 1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWB9-9RH : Fri Mar 08 21:34:30 UTC 2024), Entry for Peter Valach and Anna Valach, 1940.

Below:  World War II draft registration card for John Klimacek (Jr.), from "Illinois, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPZC-WCG7 : Tue Apr 08 02:28:00 UTC 2025), Entry for John Klimacek and Robert Vesely, 16 Oct 1940.

These two documents have some important clues.  On the census, it states John Jr. is a baker in a retail bakery - but the "PW" in the next column (#30) means he is a "wage or salary worker in private work," not an employer or working on [his] own account.  And the draft registration indicates his employer is a Robert Vesely, place of employment 748 S. Pulaski in Chicago.  Robert Vesely's 1940 census indicates he is the proprietor of a retail bakery.

So what does all this mean?  It means the West Town Quality Bakery, at an address beginning with 1143 in Chicago, had to exist sometime between November 1918 (when Maryan Klimacek was born in Heilwood, Pennsylvania) and April 1940 (when John Jr. was clearly not operating a family-owned bakery).

In Part 2, I'll show why I think 1143 S. Western Avenue was the address of the bakery at the time the photo was taken (which I think was 1930).

And an important note - when I checked all those Chicago city and telephone directories (1919 through 1939), I could not find a listing for a West Town Quality Bakery or a West Town Bakery in either the White Pages or the Yellow Pages.  No easy answer there!

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Happy Birthday, My Love

Mark Gresham would have turned 85 today.  This photo is from 50 years ago - taken sometime in or before November 1976, the processing date on the color slide it is from.  All of the slides on the roll were taken at a beach in the Corpus Christi area, probably on Padre Island or Mustang Island.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

August 17, 1983: "The day before the hurricane"

Mark sent me the mounted and matted photograph pictured below in December 2003, when I was living in Edmonds, Washington.

The day before the hurricane / © Mark Gresham / All rights reserved

Below the photograph, he wrote, 

The day before the hurricane

Corpus Christi, Tex.  1983

and signed it with his first initial and last name.  The same information is written on the back of the photograph.  He also included the following note:

The black-and-white photo underlying the image was shot on Ilford 35 millimeter film at McGee Beach on Corpus Christi Bay.  Here is another print from the same negative:

The day before the hurricane (black-and-white) / © Mark Gresham / All rights reserved

Mark used Marshall's Photo Pencil Set to color the photograph.  Two books in his collection that he might have used for advice were Handcoloring Photographs by James McKinnis, and The official Marshall's handcoloring guide & gallery: The tools & techniques of handcoloring using Marshall's materials by Grace & George Schaub.  Below is a photo of Mark's handcoloring supplies, which I still have.  They include a set of Marshall's Photo Oils, which were mixed in the palette pictured, and applied with a variety of tools like retouching brushes, Q-tips, and toothpicks and skewers wrapped with cotton from cotton balls.

I sent Mark a Christmas card after receiving this, and in the letter I enclosed (he saved the card, letter, AND envelope), I asked if it was "from Hurricane Alicia...?  I know that hit in Galveston around August 18.  Or was it Barry that hit south of Brownsville 10 days later?"

I didn't get an answer, then or later, but I'm pretty sure it was Alicia, meaning the photograph was probably taken on August 17.  Below is a photograph taken from the VISSR instrument onboard the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) GOES-5 satellite of Hurricane Alicia on August 17, 1983, at 6:30pm CDT (Central Daylight Time).  At the time this image was captured, Alicia was a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 110 mph.  The lower left part of its outer bands are over the Corpus Christi area, accounting for the clouds in Mark's photograph, which was shot looking towards the northeast - where the hurricane was strengthening.

Hurricane Alicia on August 17, 1983, at 6:30pm CDT [cropped] / The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alicia was the first hurricane to make landfall on the United States since Hurricane Allen struck South Texas in August 1980.  Allen did a lot of damage in Corpus Christi, and Mark spent a lot of time dealing with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) afterwards.  So the city was pretty nervous about Alicia, as it developed rapidly from a tropical depression in the western Gulf of Mexico on August 15.  Originally it was heading due west, straight at Corpus Christi.  On August 16 at 11am CDT, a gale warning and hurricane watch was issued from Corpus Christi to Grand Isle, Louisiana.  

By 8pm CDT that same day, Alicia had become a Category 1 hurricane, and a hurricane warning was issued from Corpus Christi to Morgan City, Louisiana.  By this point, it had turned more clearly to the northwest towards Galveston.  The eye of the storm, by then a Category 3, crossed Galveston Island about 25 miles southwest of the city at 2am CDT on August 18.

The hurricane warning for Corpus Christi was lifted at 11am that same day.  Effects of the storm were minimal there (not so in Galveston, Houston, and surrounding areas).  Highest sustained winds were measured at 16 mph on August 17 at 4:50pm CDT, with no peak gust recorded.  No rain or flooding or tornadoes, no beach erosion, tides 1-2 feet on Gulf of Mexico beaches, "maybe one foot in the inland bays."  In fact, the Corpus Christi Prelimenary [sic] and Final Report on Hurricane Alicia from the National Weather Service further stated that "on the 18th the circulation from Alicia brought in southwesterly winds and we had the hottest day in 5 years in Corpus Christi.  It was 101 degrees."  Corpus Christi did okay, compared to the report from the Galveston National Weather Service office.

It's possible Mark took this photograph with the approach of Hurricane Barry on August 28 - but I think that is unlikely.  A gale warning and hurricane watch was issued for the coast between Brownsville and Port O'Connor (north of Corpus Christi), but a hurricane warning was not issued for the area north of Port Mansfield (which is south of Corpus Christi).  The storm track stayed south, and a satellite image from the storm's peak intensity (Category 1) while making landfall in Northern Mexico on August 28 shows little cloud cover in the Corpus Christi area.

Mark's son Drew also has a handcolored copy of this image framed and hanging in his home.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

August 6-10, 2003: Mark's Oregon Photo Trip

Above:  Oregon Sand Dunes, August 2003 / © Mark Gresham 

I've been sorting through some of Mark's files and looking at his negatives and contact sheets lately, and I found more information about the photograph above.  

In his files were details about the workshop Mark attended where he took this photograph (and the others in this post).  It was conducted by nature photographer Charles Campbell, who was apparently living in Eugene, Oregon, at the time.  The workshop was called "Magnificent Seascapes" and was held twice that summer of 2003 on the central Oregon coast.  Mark registered for the session running August 6-10, a Wednesday through Sunday.  The workshop cost $675 and only six students could enroll.  From the online description:

"Highlights: Photograph star fish, sea stacks, sea lions, sand dunes and coastal seascapes on the Central Oregon coast. This photo-rich field expedition includes Cape Arago, Shore Acres Park, Bandon Beach Sea Stacks, Heceta Head, Cape Blanco and the Umpqua Sand Dunes. We'll also shoot some fabulous waterfalls at Golden and Silver Falls State Park."

Campbell sent out nine pages of information in advance, most about recommended equipment and other supplies.  Attendees were responsible for their own hotels and meals.  Campbell recommended spending the first two nights at Capt. John's Motel in Charleston on Coos Bay.  The Shooting Star Motel in Bandon, further south on the Oregon coast on US Hwy 101, was recommended for the final two nights.

Sometime in 2004, Mark sent me a mounted and matted print from this workshop. (He cut his own mats with a Logan 40” Intermediate Mat Cutter Model 401 that I still have.)  The matted image Mark sent me was (I am pretty sure) from the Umpqua Sand Dunes.  As you can see from his mat of the image below, he simply titled it "Oregon Sand Dunes 2003" and signed with his first initial and last name.  If there was a note accompanying this photo, unfortunately, I did not keep it.

Above: "Oregon Sand Dunes 2003" matted / © Mark Gresham 

Below:  Detail on the back of the print of  "Oregon Sand Dunes"

On the back of the print, Mark wrote the information above.  "Exp" is short for exposure.  My daughter Diane now has the Bronica camera and its lenses and other accessories (more about that camera in a future post).

Mark primarily used his Bronica SQ-Ai large format camera on this trip, which he'd just purchased (used) on June 24.  These pictures were shot with Fuji NPC-160 color negative film (discontinued the following year, 2004) and Agfa Optima 200 color negative film (discontinued in 2005).  He also took some of the same shots with two black-and-white negative films for the same camera (in separate film backs):  Kodak 125PX (Plus-X - discontinued in 2011) and Ilford SFX 3748 (commonly known as Ilford SFX 200, commonly known as Ilford SFX 200, still available)..  He may have processed the black-and-white film himself, at his darkroom at home.  He had at least one other camera with him with color slide film (recommended for the class). 

His slides, contact sheets, and negatives show images of Golden Falls and Silver Falls (albeit with low flows, since it was August), the Bandon Beach sea stacks, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, tide pools and beach scenes, and what I think are the Umpqua Dunes area.  There are also images on the same films of Wizard Island at Crater Lake National Park (which he must have visited on his own, perhaps driving to and from his then-home in California, or to/from an airport closer to the workshop, or perhaps even a visit to his sister Ann near Husum, Washington, just north of Oregon across the Columbia River).

Here are some of the other photos he took on this trip, scanned from the original negatives except for the Wizard Island image, which was scanned from the original contact sheet (because I couldn't get the color right from the negative).

Above:  Bandon Beach Sea Stacks, Oregon, August 2003 / © Mark Gresham 

Below:  Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Oregon, August 2003 / © Mark Gresham 

Above:  Golden Falls at Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area, Oregon, August 2003 / © Mark Gresham 

Below:  Wizard Island at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, August 2003 / 

© Mark Gresham 

Above is a map showing some of the places Mark went on this trip.  Click on the image (or the link in the previous sentence) to make it larger.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today: Mark Out at the Ranch

The photo above was taken on July 28, 2007, at my brother Mark's ranch near San Saba, Texas.  My Mark is pictured with my brother's puppy Johan.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Mark's Fishing Gear

This is a long overdue post about Mark Gresham's fishing gear, and who has what now.  Click on the links for more photos and information about the various items.  I'm hoping the family members who ultimately receive the items will enjoy using and/or displaying them, and that they bring back good memories.

Above and below:  Mark Gresham fishing in the Merced River at Yosemite National Park, probably autumn 2003.  He is standing in front of the Swinging Bridge just below Yosemite Falls (which would be dry this time of year).  In the photo above, there is a green canvas bag on the ground to the left - in the photo below, he is wearing it on his shoulder.  It's a World War II Army ammunition bag he used for fishing tackle - I've kept that. 

Above:  Mark Gresham fishing in Corpus Christi sometime between April and October, 1974.  He's using a spinning reel, and I think the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod I'll write more about in a bit.

Below:  Mark Gresham fishing at Lake Lawtonka, Oklahoma, probably in 1960.  Can't tell anything about the rod, but it's definitely a spinning reel.

Mark tried to teach me how to fish in 2006, since we were living in an apartment right on Lake Granbury, but I just couldn't get the hang of it.  I'm so uncoordinated.  I never saw Mark fish - ever - not in Corpus Christi, and not in Granbury.  I would have been glad to accompany him.  I'm not sure if he ever went out fishing alone in the 18 years we were in Granbury.  He would have had to climb on a ladder to take the rods down from the place where he stored them, above the door in the garage that leads to the back porch.  I remember my dad always said he would go fishing when he retired, but I think my dad decided he'd rather sleep in than get up early to fish, because he only went fishing when he took his grandchildren to teach them.  Maybe Mark felt the same.

In May 2024, our neighborhood was holding a street-wide garage sale, and I decided to participate.  I did not push Mark to sell any of his things, but he suggested putting his fishing gear in the sale.  In retrospect, that should have been a sign to me that he was not feeling well.

In researching to figure out prices for the reels in particular, I discovered some were quite old and possibly valuable.  The next four photos are from May 2024, when I photographed almost everything before pricing items.

Above: Top row, left to right - extra spool for Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 casting reel (pictured later), spool from a broken Pflueger Supreme 1573 casting reel (I have the top and bottom but not the handle, reel seat, guide, or other parts), South Bend Perfectoreno 775 Nickel Silver Model A reel, Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE level wind casting reel.

Bottom row, left to right, all saltwater reels - Kmart 207 level wind reel, Ocean Side 207 level wind reel, Penn Peer 209 level wind reel, Penn Beachmaster No. 155 reel.

Below:  Top row, left to right - Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning reel, Garcia Mitchell 306 spinning reel, Olympic Model 81 spinning reel.

Middle row - Four extra spools for the Garcia Mitchell 300 or the Olympic 81.

Bottom row, left to right - a trolling weight and a Down - East Sportscraft rod holder.

Above:  A Zebco 20/20 spincast reel on a Shakespeare Wonderglas Standard Taper 5'6" rod, what Mark described as a kid's rod and reel.

Below:  Top row, left to right (all fly fishing reels) - first three are two extra spools and a Pflueger Medalist Model 1492 reel, then a Shakespeare Russell 1895 Model GE Single Action reel, lastly a Sears Model 312. 31130 Single Action reel.

Below that are a package of flies, and two Fenwick fly rods in original socks and tubes, an FF75 and an FF112.  These rods date back to 1963-1971 and (along with the fly reels) probably belonged to Mark's father, Francis Edward Gresham (1911-1990), who by that time was living in Bremerton, Washington, where he'd have more opportunities for fly fishing than in Guam, Florida, or coastal Texas.

Of the items picture above, the only ones that sold in the garage sale were the trolling weight and the flies.  Before the sale, Mark pulled the Shakespeare Triumph and Ambassadeur reels to keep for display, and I pulled all the other items pictured before the second (half-price) day of the sale.  We did sell two old rod and reel combos, six miscellaneous rods, and two tackle boxes with a lot of very old tackle in them.  There were a few other items that didn't sell that are pictured further on.

After Mark's death on August 2, 2024, his son Drew and wife Carolyn came to visit on Labor Day weekend.  Drew took the South Bend Perfectoreno 775 Model A reel and the Penn Peer 209 reel as mementos of his dad.  The South Bend Perfectoreno 775 apparently dates back to at least June 1940, so was likely used by Mark as a youth.

In November 2024 I got together with some of my Aggie classmates, and asked some of the guys to look over the rods and reels.  Below, Glenn, Joaquin, and Dale (from left to right) are trying out the Fenwick fly rods.  Click on the photos to make them larger and look for the rod tips.  

Above, Dale about gave me a heart attack when he bent the Fenwick FF75 fly rod to show how flexible it was.

The guys also looked over the other rods I brought and tried to pair them up with some of the reels.

Above:  The Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE reel paired with the second Shakespeare Wonderglas Standard Taper 5'6" rod (the one without the Zebco spincast reel).  At left are three other rods I brought along.  From left, a Horrocks & Ibbotson 2-piece rod marked Utica (more on that in a bit), a True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod (more on that later too), and a Berkley 6' rod (no other markings to indicate the model).

Below:  The Berkley rod paired with a Garcia Mitchell spinning reel.

Above:  The Horrocks & Ibbotson rod paired with the Kmart 207 reel.  

Below:  Detail of the label on the Horrocks & Ibbotson rod.

The closest matches I could find online to the label above are pictured below.  As the rod is two piece and fits in a Weber Dot Line telescopic rod case that ranges from 40" to 70" long, and because I *thought* I measured the rod and found it was closer to 9 feet, I think it's more likely to be the 8' 6" Lucky Strike - although that full label is not an exact match either.

Above:  label on a Horrocks-Ibbotson Lucky Strike 8'6" Model #1308-1-2 rod.

Below:  label on a Horrocks-Ibbotson Sportsman 5'9" Model #2346 XL rod.

In December 2024, I contacted Big John's Rod Repair in nearby Weatherford, which also cleans reels.  John Penner was traveling, and long story short, I didn't reach out to him again until March 2026.  I was lucky as he was winding down this side business, but since I'd first contacted him over a year before, he looked over all the rods and reels, and agreed to clean and repair (if possible) the two Shakespeare Wonderglas rods and the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod, as well as all the reels pictured below (plus the Zebco 20/20).  The Kmart 207 saltwater reel, the Fenwick fly rods and all the fly reels did not need any work, and the Horrocks-Ibbotson and Berkley rods were beyond repair - he suggested displaying them as "well-loved and well-used."

Above:  the Ocean Side 207 saltwater reel, a Johnson Century Model 100B spincast reel (originally mounted on the other Shakespeare Wunderglas rod), and the Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE reel, before cleaning and repair.

Below (clockwise from lower left):  the Penn Beachmaster No. 155 reel, the (red) Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 reel, and the three spinning reels, before cleaning and repair.

As it turned out, the large Garcia Mitchell 306, the Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE, the Zebco 20/20, and the Johnson Century Model 100B reels could not be repaired and were for display only.

Mark had the photo below hanging on the wall in our home - plus another copy that I put in an album.  It is of daughters Kim and Noël with a fish they caught in Corpus Christi, and was probably taken about 1976.  Mark processed the black and white film and printed it in his darkroom, adding a blue toner, and then hand-coloring (with Marshall's oil pencils) the girls' skin and life jackets (and the fish).

If you look closely at the rod and reel - it appears to be the Shakespeare Wonderglas Standard Taper, and a spincast reel - perhaps the Johnson Century 100B, which was produced from 1962 through 1979.

Therefore, I asked Mr. Penner to mount the two spincast reels (even though they weren't usable) on the two restored Shakespeare Wonderglas rods - which are very usable.  They are pictured below.  I then took all the restored equipment to Kim's house for Easter, April 5, 2026.

Kim chose the rod with the green Johnson Century reel.  She also took the Ambassadeur 5000 reel and extra spool (a reel her dad definitely remembered using in his youth), the Fenwick FF75 fly rod, and the Pflueger Medalist Model 1492 fly reel with its two extra spools.

So on July 7, 2026, I drove to Chapin, South Carolina (via Charlotte, North Carolina, where my son was living at the time) and took all the items pictured below (minus the old fishing tackle box they are in, which I kept), plus the Fenwick FF112 fly rod (in its sock and metal tube), the second Shakespeare Wonderglas rod (without a reel and in a Rod Caddy Travel Tube), and the previously mentioned 2-piece Horrocks-Ibbotson rod in a Weber Dot Line telescopic rod case.  I gave these things to Noël and her family.

Pictured below are the Down - East Sportscraft rod holder, an Umco Model 10 Double-Sided Tackle Box, Shakespeare Triumph 1958 Model GE reel (for display), the Zebco 20/20 spincast reel (for display), the Penn 155 reel, the Kmart 207 reel (red), the Garcia Mitchell 306 (large) spinning reel (for display), the Garcia Mitchell 300 (small) spinning reel, the Ocean Side 207 reel, a Beltline bait box (to be worn on a belt), the Sears Model 312.31130 fly reel, the Shakespeare Russell 1895 GE fly reel, and two extra Garcia Mitchell 300 spools with cases.

According to a site with more information about Shakespeare reels, the Triumph 1958 Model GE dates back to 1946 - so Mark certainly used this as a youth.  

So what did I keep for myself?  The green canvas bag, the broken Pflueger Supreme 1573 casting reel pictured above (just the top, bottom, and spool, which rotates between the other two pieces), the Olympic 81 spinning reel and two extra spools (this to go on a rod that wasn't Mark's, for my son Eric to use, and also partly because Mark's using a spinning reel in so many of these photos), the Berkley rod that's unusable, and the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod that's also not usable - but nicely restored, as you can see from the photos below.  The hose clamp just to the right of the cork part of the handle, just above the reel seat, also marks a spot where there is a small crack.  I feel certain Mark used this True Temper rod in Corpus Christi - and that makes it special to me.  I'll be hanging the two unusable rods on the wall in the study.

Above two photos:  labels wrapping around the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

Below: wooden handle of the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

Above:  cork grip just above (to the left of) the reel seat of the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.  Note the hose clamp, which is also near a crack in the rod.

Below:  line guide and wraps on the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!