George DeVoe took his wife’s car to the Lisbon Street VIP last week because it wasn’t riding quite right and balancing the tires hadn’t helped. DeVoe, a World War II veteran from Lewiston, wore a ball cap that mentioned Iwo Jima, and during the test ride with service manager Peter Lary, the two got to talking about the war.

Lary minored in history. He asked if DeVoe had seen action in the Pacific theater.

The 85-year-old talked about cleaning up after the Battle of Iwo Jima, “which just about made my jaw drop, to walk in there with a flashlight, cleaning those tunnels out,” Lary said. “He was a fantastic gentleman to talk to.”

He determined two of DeVoe’s tires had a manufacturing defect and a third had a bruise, like maybe someone had hit a curb. He got the OK from the district manager to replace all four, for free, and slipped away with the Buick.

“I looked out, there were six men taking the tires off my car. I said, ‘I didn’t order that.’ The guy said, ‘We’re taking care of you,'” DeVoe said.

DeVoe served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. He was a half-track operator, charged with shooting down enemy planes. In telling him the tires were his, no charge, DeVoe said the men also thanked him for his service.

“I had a little tear come to my eyes. I was really taken aback,” he said.

He told his wife he wanted to do something to thank VIP, and she suggested, you ought to go to the newspaper, which led him to the Sun Journal lobby Monday.

– Kathryn Skelton

She’s no loafer

Dara Reimers, the Auburn bread baker who opened The Bread Shack on Tuesday, had to display a sold-out sign each of her first two days of operation.

“I am running all out here,” she said a little breathlessly Wednesday afternoon. “I made as much bread as I could make Monday and sold out by 11. So I tripled production today and ran out by 1.”

Her solution: hire another baker to give her and two other bakers a hand producing the artisan breads that have been Reimers’ passion for the last 20 years. With the extra help, she hopes to have the display cases full.

“I’m sorry to turn people away, but most have been very nice. They understand that we’re just starting up,” she said.

So aside from breakneck sales, what else has impressed her about opening the bakery?

“It’s so beautiful to see how interested in the bread people are,” she said.

Ahh. Culinary curiosity on the rise.

– Carol Coultas

Maine kiwis?

Bev Oliver’s hardy kiwi plants were fruitless for a while. But this year there is an abundance of kiwi fruit that look like oversized oval green grapes.

Hardy kiwi means it will survive in Maine’s cold climate, she said.

When fully dormant, hardy kiwi can withstand temperatures to about minus 25 degrees F, maybe lower, according to kiwi fact site.

Oliver said when she started the crop she ordered a female and a male plant but they didn’t bear fruit. She sent samples away to find out what the problem was and discovered she had two females and they couldn’t cross pollinate.

She devised a plan to do her own cross-pollination by getting some male blossoms from a friend’s plant.

She climbed a ladder in the back yard to reach the plant vines and did her thing, rubbing the blossoms all over the female leaves.

Though she now has a male plant, it takes a few years to get settled and cross-pollination efforts to work.

“This year I had to go see my friend again and make like a bee,” Oliver said.

– Donna M. Perry

Ketchup or mustard?

Culture lovers relax.

The Oscar Meyer Mini-Wienermobile aims to cap off the summer arts season with a tour of Maine, including stops in Oxford and Auburn this Friday and Saturday.

The 16-foot replica of an Oscar Meyer wiener is scheduled to visit the town’s Wal-Marts from 1 to 6 p.m. each day. According to a statement, folks may sing the iconic TV jingle, show off their wiener whistle talent or “get a picture with the only Mini-Wienermobile in the world!”

One might even do all three.

– Daniel Hartill

A family’s good deed

There’s good in Lewiston. Plenty of it.

On Monday, when Eric Welzel, owner of Maine Park & Rec and Easy Dock, and his employee Carl Frederick were working at the Farwell School in Lewiston, a father with his young son and daughter stopped to talk to them about their project. Easy Dock had installed the playground equipment at Farwell, and Welzel and Frederick were at the school to move the equipment to a different location on that property.

In the midst of conversation, the children asked the men if they were thirsty or hungry, which they were. The family said their goodbyes and came back some time later carting Gatorade and a package of Grandma’s cookies.

“It was a super nice thing for them to do,” Frederick said, make a special trip to the store to buy the workmen a treat.

Frederick didn’t get the father’s name, but said he was really impressed with the gesture. “It’s certainly a nice way to bring up your kids,” he said. To include his children in such a kind deed, Frederick said, is something that their father is “instilling in their little hearts as they grow up.”

– Judith Meyer