Hank for President

Although Shelia claims that “the float themes were never heavy or controversial,” they were often politically motivated, or as Mick pointed out, “All of these floats had a political knife in them. We always jabbed somebody.” In 1980, the club members, unimpressed with the two candidates running for president that year (Carter and Reagan) decided to run one of their own members, Hank Thompson, as an independent, third-party candidate. Mick's fond recollection of the float is as follows:

“Our very best float was Hank Thompson for President. We had the Whistle Stop Express. It had an engine and a caboose. Mickey Hegg and I were engineers…I think we built it off of your Dad's plow truck, so we could make the engine's cow catcher go up and down with the hydraulic. Hank Thompson had a little wood heater in his boat to cook his coffee on. That's what was what made the smoke go up the stack, and we had an air horn. Of course we had your Dad as one of the secret service guys; he and Bob Scheck. Hank had a great big red, white and blue top hat, off the back of the caboose. And the secret service men were working the crowd. When we got down in front of the judges' stand, Hank Thompson, who raises pigeons, let out all of his pigeons, about 30 or 40 homing pigeons, in front of the judges' stand, and we struck up the band. It was good! It was good! God was that fun. Hank gave a speech and gave his demands as president. Most of them came to pass. Cheaper beer one did. Beer is a real buy...”

In September 1980, the Ontonagon Herald recapped the parade by noting the Stein Club captured first prize with their Hank for President entry and even published pieces of the Stein-O-Cratic Party's Platform which was distributed on fliers to the crowd. The platform included,

A Barge in Every Garage

Save the Ontonagon Bridge but relocate the River

A Hatchet for every wife (99/34).

Each of the items on the party platform either documented just-for-fun promises or addressed controversial local politics. For example, Hank actually bought his wife Carrie a hatchet for Christmas one year, upon her request. The bridge spanning the Ontonagon River is one of the few swing bridges in existence, but with climbing temperatures in the summer, the concrete bridge swelled and occasionally jammed, restricting boat entry into the marina. Community leaders discussed tearing it down and building a new bridge up river, which finally came to pass in 2006, but many community members disagreed with the decision. A barge in every garage is the club's spoof of Ontonagon's huge, tug-barge, ship building company fiasco in early 1980.