Heard on the Street

THROUGH THE PAST, DARKLY. In honor of the SBJ's 19th anniversary, this column reconstructs happenings in 1980, that long-ago era of American hostages in Iran, boycotted Olympic Games, a pending Reagan Revolution (the future president accepted the Republican nomination July 16 in Detroit), the deaths of Peter Sellers and the Shah of Iran, the murder of John Lennon, and 8 percent one-year CD rates.

ARE YOU DONE WITH THAT? Tom Rankin is now president of Rankin & Company. The precocious 1980 Tom is busing tables at the Colonial Restaurant, on the cusp of making the leap to cashier. If he is smart, he will gather his wages and plop it down on some Branson property, in anticipation of the coming boom more than a decade away. But Tom isn't that smart.

WILD CHILES. The Chiles brothers, Mike and Dan, are hatching an idea to start up their own company. Heatway, they're thinking about calling it. Dan Chiles said entrepreneurism is a hereditary condition. "It's a genetic thing with us. Our family is a long line of business owners." The brothers are developing the idea for their company in the wake of the late-'70s energy crisis. The business will use solar panels to transfer heat to radiant tubing in a home's floor. Though the Chileses have no way of knowing, it could be that the energy crunch isn't what it's cracked up to be. The solar aspect of their business may evolve into strictly floor heating. The brothers are talking to Kyle Dye of the Bank of Springfield about financing the venture. "Our expertise is product development. We're like prospectors," Dan Chiles said. When asked to project to the end of the century, Dan Chiles said he figured he'd say: "I had no idea how difficult it would be and how competitive a market we faced."

STILL RIGHT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Dick Jackson, with the idea of Barker-Phillips-Jackson Inc. still four years from hatching, is toiling at Consolidated Jackson Corp. in Mountain Grove. The agent in 1980 is also serving as president of what was then the Independent Insurance Agents of Missouri. Joe Teasdale is governor of the Show Me State, and he proposes a bill for prior approval underwriting of insurance. IIAM opposes the change from the file-and-use, open-rate system in place. Teasdale's proposal is defeated, and Jackson thinks history will vindicate the decision. If he had a crystal ball, Jackson might say: "We were right and he was wrong." States that in this period adopted prior-approval measures will see rates go up and in the future will revert to open rating. Also this year of 1980, the state legislature approved (with IIAM's blessing) increases in the minimum liability coverage for automobile insurance. Minimums went from $10,000 per person, $15,000 per accident and $10,000 for property loss to 25-50-10. Insurance consumers in Missouri could get used to the new minimum limits: In 1999 they'd still be the same, unchanged from 19 years ago.

GLEAM. John Twitty, a young insurance agent for Miller's Mutual Insurance in Rolla (where he was transplanted after a stint at Pershing Junior High), is expecting his first child with wife Jean Twitty. It will be 11 years before he returns home to Springfield with his family and begins at City Utilities. Twitty will work his way into the deputy general manager position. It will come as no surprise to Twitty, though, that he'll still be in sales, as he says everyone, no matter what profession or position, is in sales. "It's always about taking care of your customers and looking for new ones."

SUCK UP, COWORKERS. The Greene County Planning Department welcomes Dave Coonrod as a staff planner beginning on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, the same day the nation elects Ronald Reagan its 40th president. County voters resoundingly defeat a charter form of government for the county. Coonrod is still a graduate student at SMSU, working on his master's degree in resource planning. In his spare time, he plays Ultimate Frisbee and sketches in his mind yard signs for his 1984 campaign to serve as a county commissioner. He'll lose. But fellow county employees would do well to ingratiate themselves to their colleague and future boss because a decade hence he'll be elected presiding commissioner in what no one has yet called the Coonrod Revolution.

WELCOME WAGON. A hearty Ozarks hello to Mike Williamson, new at the helm of Empire Bank, to be acquired by Central Bancompany in August. Empire Bank has assets of $126 million (Did the strategic plan in 1980 call for assets of $520.8 million by the end of 1998? If so, Williamson's projections were on the money.) With the acquisition of Empire Bank, Battlefield National Bank remains the only locally owned commercial bank.

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