The Story of the Schell s Border Batch-Part 3
By the time the 1980 s rolled around the Schell s Border Batch was running strong. The hobby was
very popular, brewery s were pumping out collector cans and our chapter was adding members
left and right. We started producing collectible items such as pins, patches, and glasses with the
chapters logo on them and selling them at shows. We were one of the first chapters to do so and
when we set up a table at the
national Canvention, we had a
hard time keeping stuff on the
table to sell. It was a lot of fun
and really added to the
chapters bank account so we
were able to pull off several
years of the annual show in
Albert Lea called the BBBS. We
always managed to have the
BCCA president and his
contingent show up for our
two day show and Bob was
always pulling off some special
gift and or program to help
entertain everyone during the
show. The band we always
booked for the Saturday night
party was called Beek and they would allow members of the chapter to come on stage to sing
songs with them. Lapper Lueck was an incredible Elvis impersonator. One year Nona Veirkant
went on stage and sang a country song and everyone was amazed how good she was. That must
have planted a seed because a few weeks later Bob called me and said that Nona had written a
song about the beer collecting hobby and he thought we should record it. I knew a guy that I had
gone to school with that ran a recording studio in Rochester so I called him to ask about the
possibility of doing a recording. Sure come on over he said. We headed over on a Thursday night
to the Welhaven recording studio. Kevin from the band Beek was her guitar player. She wrote the
song Beer Can Widowed Wife and when the guys at the studio heard it they said that s a hit. They
sat down and recorded it in one take. Ron from Welhaven asked OK now how do you want to
market this? We can press 250 copies on 45 s for you. We were thinking, even if every chapter
member bought one we d still have over a 100 left should we do this? After several rounds of
cocktails with the guys at the studio we figured what the hell, we have the money let s just do it.
To say it was a good decision was an understatement. Nona debuted the song at the Chicago
Canvention and the people went nuts. We ended up doing at least three more pressings of the
record after that.
Continued on page 8
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