Inside the Portage County line By GENE KEMMETER of The Gazette WINTER REMEMBRANCE: A bit of Stevens Point history moved to Oshkosh last weekend. Larry "Gomer" Buehring purchased an ice saw powered by a one-cylinder engine Saturday at an auction at Midstate Distributors, 4800 Industrial Park Road. He collects the old saws. Midstate sold its beer distributing business earlier this year and was liquidating items in its warehouse, including hundreds of beer signs. Pat Casey, who ran Midstate since the late 1960s, said the saw was from the early 1900s and hadn't been used since the early 1970s. It had been stored in a Quonset hut behind a warehouse on W. River Drive and then moved to the new warehouse when it was built in the 1970s. Originally, the saw was used by Olson Pure Ice Co. to saw ice on the Wisconsin River during the winter months. The ice was then stored and sold to residents and businesses during the year. Midstate was one of the last commercial ice cutters in the area, cutting ice for the Soo Line Railroad and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which used the large ice blocks for an ice sculpture contest on the lawn of Old Main during Winter Carnival activities. The railroad no longer uses ice in its refrigerator cars and UW-SP has discontinued the Winter Carnival celebration. * * * A LONG, LONG TIME AGO: Third- and fourth-grade classes of Laurie Lampert, Sara Mitchell and Jami Stuettgen got a lesson on life in Wisconsin in the early 1900s Tuesday. Gene Koci, a retired teacher from Durand, donned the persona of "Grandpa Mike, " his grandfather, who settled in northern Wisconsin in 1905 after coming from Europe and first moving to Chicago. "Grandpa Mike" told his stories in a darkened classroom, illuminated by a kerosene lamp, and introducing the students to everyday life in a small home. He showed them a rug beater, mortar and pestle, an iron heated on a woodstove, a bath pail, a wash basin, a stereoscope viewer, a washboard, a butter churn and a cant hook. Students had plenty of questions after his presentation. One wanted to try the coffee he was heating on his "stove." Other questions involved telling time, sawing trees, riding logs and fishing. To end his presentation, "Grandpa Mike" showed enlarged photos, including one of a 1923 Ford with skis mounted where the front wheels would be. He said the vehicle was used to deliver mail during the winter months.