Still knocking them down
97-year-old John Haagensen is going strong at local alley
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Sunday, March 15, 2009 12:10 AM PDT
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| Larry Meyer | Argus Observer
John Haagensen, 97, gets ready to bowl at Sunset Lanes Thursday during senior league bowling. |
FRUITLAND —He is 97 years young, and if you don’t believe it, just watch John Haagensen, Fruitland, bowl.
Haagensen bowls about three times a week at Sunset Lanes in Ontario with other senior bowlers. While Haagensen leaves his mark on the lanes — he bowls over 200 on occasion — he also made an impact locally as a businessman.
After World War II — when Haagensen worked as a sheet metal foreman for the Kaiser Ship Yards — he joined his younger brother to start up a new business. After driving around the region, the duo arrived in Weiser.
“Weiser then was the most active in this area,” he said. “It was a lively town.”
About every automaker had a dealership in town, Haagensen said. Safeways and a Albertsons both had store in the city.
“We started a chain of ice cream stores — the Weiser Ice Creamery, the Payette Ice Creamery and the Emmett Ice Creamery. We introduced this country to the softy,” he said.
The health of his brother went down so they sold the ice cream shops, and John Haagensen bought into Turner’s Wholesale Sporting Goods.
“That’s when we started the Outdoorsman. I managed the Outdoorsman, and John Turner took care of the wholesale end,” he said.
The Outdoorsman was directly across from the Moore Hotel.
The store moved after Haagensen sold out.
He then managed the Statewide store.
He retired, but then went to Weiser to manage the co-op store in Weiser for a friend, and retired a second time.
He has been retired about 32 years.
Now, Haagensen, who was born in Minnesota, keeps his focus on the lanes, and he is no bowling slacker.
He regularly uses a 14-pound ball and sometimes goes back to his 16-pound ball.
“I’ve got to keep moving,” he said.
Haagensen, who lived in Montana as a child, said he began bowling as a young man.
“I bowled in Butte,” Haagensen said. “I bowled with the Safeways bunch — when they had only two finger holds in the ball.”
It was in 1936 or 1937 that he said he saw bowling balls with three finger holes.
But he did not bowl much longer. In fact, he had not bowled for more than 60 years when he started up again in 1997, with the encouragement of his second wife, Viola. Thursday, Haagensen recorded a 197 and shot a 210 on his birthday. He concedes age has affected one element to his game.
“I’ve had to slow my approach,” he said.
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Daniel Collett wrote on Mar 17, 2009 7:49 PM: