Cook / Tower / Orr / Surrounding Communities in the summer we have mosquitoes ready to carry someone away. In the winter we have some of the coldest temperatures in the country. If we are “lucky,” there is enough snow for snowmobiling. A lot of people will say, “Oh my, what a horrible place.” I had friends up from Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Denver over the last couple of weeks. To a person, “OH, MY GOD, it is so beautiful up here.” It’s kind of unfortunate and fortunate that more people don’t get to experience it.

But here’s the hidden secret that people don’t know about in the Cook area: the people and the businesses. My brother-in-law Warren and I remodeled a bathroom this week. Bob from the Building Center came out to the house and measured everything to make sure it was correct. Then they delivered all of our supplies. We did everything but the shower and were trying to find a plumber, however, when we installed the vanity we broke off the handles to turn the water on and off. I tried calling a couple of plumbers and struck out. Now we had no water in the bathroom; not good.

I drove into town headed to True Value. It’s all I could think of doing; possibly Jake or Joe would know somebody who could fix it. I came through the door and was greeted by Joe. I held up the broken handle, he laughed and said, “Yeah, I’ve done that.” He said follow me. He took me to the plumbing area, pulled out some pieces and said do this, then this, then that and it will be fixed. I asked, “You think I can do this?” He laughed and said absolutely and call me if you get stuck. I went home and 30 minutes later everything was repaired. Then I drove back in and told him about the shower. Asked him if I could do it and if so how? We went back to the plumbing area and got a bunch of parts and he showed Warren and me what and how to do. Two days later — new shower.

I’ve lived in 8-10 states. People talk about how good the help is at Home Depot — they’ve got nothing on people like Bob, Joe and Jake. You see this throughout the town. I went to the bait shop and he told me exactly what to use for bait, depth, etc. and later that night we had a fish fry. I went to the golf course and spoke to Bill Peterson, told him I needed about 23 trees taken down and discarded. On Saturday, Travis showed up, took down the trees and hauled four truckloads away by Sunday night. That guy was incredible. I told him I was sure he was going to hit the house on one of the trees. I didn’t see any way it could be avoided. He never came close. Once the trees were gone, I realized I needed to level out the area and sod it. I texted Jeff Chaulklin and he was out Monday morning to look at the job. Where else can you get businesses and people who respond quickly, sell their product or services, but then also teach you in the process. I can’t tell you how special this type of environment is. It’s easy to expect it up here. Just know you won’t find it in any large city.