• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Politics / Govt / Candidate discussions turn to early years

Candidate discussions turn to early years

September 2, 2002 By admin

Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson recently spent a day with Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack, and a day with Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Gross, and she heard some interesting stories…As I rode in a car with Gross, the conversation turned to his days in a Catholic elementary school, and I learned his sixth grade teacher, Sister Noreen, would sometimes go to the back of the room and stare out the window, crying, while she had Gross teach the class. Gross said it wasn’t that hard, because Sister Noreen gave him the answer book. I asked Gross what she was crying about, but he said that’s not something a sixth grade boy would ask a nun. And Gross told me he rarely had to save money to buy his mother gifts, as he would win the Catechism contest at school, which earned him a statue of a saint. Gross says his mother loved the statues, and created a little shrine for ’em in their home. As I walked along a highway with Vilsack, the Governor told me about being a cab driver in Pittsburgh during his college days. Vilsack’s last fare was a wild ride. He saw a black guy getting beaten up by four white guys while cops watched nearby and did nothing. As the black man in the back of Vilsack’s cab jumped out to intervene, the woman who’d hailed the cab pulled out a gun. Vilsack eventually escaped unscathed, got the couple in his cab to the airport — which was a huge fare — but they stiffed him. Vilsack told me he turned his keys in afterwards and never drove a cab again, but to this day Vilsack makes sure he tips cabbies well.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Politics / Govt Tagged With: Republican Party, Tom Vilsack

Featured Stories

Exhibit features lesser known works of Grant Wood

Testing finds 21 new CWD cases in deer

It may become a crime in Iowa to use fake urine in workplace drug tests

February trending 18 degrees below average temperature

Iowa House Education Committee votes to end tenure at UI, ISU, UNI

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

New look and new format at girls’ state basketball

Youngstown State takes action against assistant football coach

Iowa’s Jack Nunge lost for the season

Key stretch begins for #9 Iowa

Drake’s Roman Penn lost for the season

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC