Max Armstrong is telling us about stories from his book, More Stories of the Heartland, due out this summer.

Max Armstrong  remembers vividly one special trip to the Garret Brothers grain elevator in southwestern Indiana. He can remember jumping out of the truck and grabbing a coca-cola from the office.

Then he and his dad would go in to grab the dump ticket.

Well on one trip, his dad shared a story about 6 -year- old Max obliterating the family’s rhubarb patching thinking it was weeds and he was helping out.

The group at the grain elevator soon gave Max the name, “Rhuberb (not Rhubarb) Max.”

The damage was done and the name stuck for years.

18 years passed and I thought I passed the name and it came back again—one day after his radio show had aired.

Ham Barner, Vice President of Quaker Oats, called Max to ask him if he knew the Garret Brothers. He had bought corn from the grain elevator at one point for Quaker Oats.

And the memories came rolling back for Max.