The Waumandee Rod and Gun Club

WOW!  Evidently, Rudy Hesch was quite a sportsman.  Larry found this newspaper photo from July 1969.  We don't really understand what he's doing to win cigars.  Maybe someone who actually knows could leave a comment, or email me?


(Too bad the photo isn't clearer, huh?)
**see below ☺
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And look: Rudy was into racing stock cars!  Here ►, he was in an "old timers" race, and came in second.  I believe Anna Maria mentioned his racing when she wrote--isn't that cool?  


(BTW, Rudy was the son of Valentine Hesch, who was Mathias' son (see byline above).  Val already had a family in Waumandee when his parents moved to Minnesota around 1910, so Rudy grew up in Waumandee, Wisconsin, too).


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Oh, and here's an article from 1933 that explains the "new sport" of  STOCK CAR RACING.  Yeah, Rudy was racing 30 years later, but the article explains it pretty well.
(More info from Wikipedia:
 "In the 1920s, moonshine runners during the prohibition era would often have to outrun the authorities. To do so, they had to upgrade their vehicles and eventually started getting together with fellow runners and making runs together. They would challenge one another and eventually progressed to organized events in the early 1930s").  Ahhh! 
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WOW!  Looks like Rudy owned a souped up garden tractor in 1969--doesn't it sound like a fun contest to watch?  Coincidentally, the article was published on my 20th birthday, when I was in Denver going to floral school.  I wouldn't have noticed except for seeing July 28th, ya know?

This is a whole different side to Hesch men for me.  

BTW, these articles were all from between 1966 and 1969.

Thanks to Larry!

** Here's an answer!  
(AGAIN, we need to thank Larry!)


From Popular Science Monthly, 
September 1933