More on Bill Vollmer

Filleting a Wall-eye, with Tongue

Reference, last post on the Willys Jeepster:

There is a correction on the price for the Vollmer house on Hawley Rd. I just remembered without anyone telling me, it had been priced by other realtors at $40,000. I raised it to $44,900. $44.900. It sold for full price, anyway; that was right.............

Many a time I went to the Vollmer's after they moved to Marinette. Bill and I would go fishing on the Menomonee River putting in across Twin Island road from their house, whence came the oriole nest.

Right now I would pay plenty for another mess of Vollmer Wall-eyes, cooked by Jane in her cast-iron frying pan. When I drove up for Bill's funeral I drove back home along the river. Eagles were soaring over the water where Bill and I used to catch Wall-eyes, maybe looking for Bill to send sacrificial carp their way, or mystically honoring their too soon late benefactor.

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The Vollmers had a Marinette Co. forty-acre wooded parcel with a cabin that they often visited when still living in Milwaukee. When Dee and I got married, 11/11/83, they loaned us the cabin for our honeymoon. We went and had a fine time, Dee eventually getting used to the big-eared mice peeking over the blanket-tops. Mostly unoccupied, the cabin was the wildlife's usual home.

Later, back in my realtor's cap, we were zeroing in on selling that property for Bill amd Jane. In the course of my research from my distance in Waukesha, I discovered that the cabin was not on their property, exactly. It straddled the lot line. Bill bought the cabin on a handshake (w/o survey) years ago and wasn't going to pay for any damn survey now, not now or ever!

I insisted that a survey was needed to dis-prove the recorded evidence that the neighbor's survey showed the cabin over the lot line.

Bill fussed and fumed. He was NOT going to pay for any god-damn survey! That handshake was from a trusted friend.

The matter was resolved when, shortly thereafter, there was big storm. Bill advised me over the phone. that l-i-g-h-t-n-i-n-g must have struck the cabin and it burned to the ground.

His voice was gruff as usual, but I think he was smiling.