Folks of the Midwest
Quintin Black | Council Bluffs, Iowa
“At the gym, I’m a coach. I like weight lifting; I want more people to get into it. Most people are just weak. If people strength-trained they would be much better off. That’s only one of my jobs. I’m also a machinist. I make all sorts of parts, gears, shafts. For someone who never went to college, I’ve got a lot of skills.”
Marc Jones & Nikky Smith | Omaha, Nebraska
Marc: “I’m a member of (the band) Strap on Halo. Nicky and I met at a Wasted event. Wasted is basically a night for us to listen to the music we want to hear and drink good beer. She was sitting all by herself.”
Nicky: “I had just moved to Omaha for school. I’m a grad student at a university here. I’m also a burlesque dancer for the only burlesque troupe in Omaha.”
Kara Verlaney | Omaha, Nebraska
Who/what was your first love?
“Oh, Justin Timberlake.”
Kelsey Saboe | Omaha, Nebraska
What do you love about Omaha?
“The fact that it’s a big-little city. You can do the six-degrees of separation here, everyone somehow knows everyone or is a friend of someone.”
Fred Griffin | Chicago, Illinois
“Where did you get this ring in your nose? Like a pig. I grew up on a plantation and my daddy used to put rings in their nose like that. … I ran away when I was 15 from Chelsea, Miss., and came to Chicago when MLK got killed.”
Greg Pelo | LeClaire, Iowa
“Well, this store was purchased by my grandfather on Feb. 2, 1945. In this store, there used to be a jukebox by that back wall that they put my bassinet by. I came home from the hospital and went right there. I’m 68 years old, and I’ve been here for 68 years. So, I suppose forever.”
Tom Stott | LeClaire, Iowa
“I was a retired teacher. When they opened, we came and I told them to memorize my wife’s face. I told them to memorize her face because she told me we wouldn’t see 44 years of marriage unless I found something to do.”
Clearly that worked since you got the job.
“Yeah, I gave them my business card. It just said my name and ‘retired’.”
Starla Williams | Bettendorf, Iowa
“I moved here 30 years ago. My degree is in drama. When that’s your degree, you don’t ask where you’re going, you just go where there’s work. I came to work here, but I met my husband who is from Davenport. The rest is history.”
Diane Frascello | LeClaire, Iowa
“I moved here 25 years ago. It was because of a guy. Now he’s so far an ex, he’s a ‘Z’.”