Frank's Great Outdoors

So Frank and Margaret put down the $100 and signed an agreement with the lot's owner. And none too soon, because a short time later, the owner was offered more money for the lot by someone else. With the agreement signed, though, Frank and Margaret owned their dream property in 1945.

I recently had a chance to sit down and talk to siblings Gary Gorske, Judy Zawislak and Larry Gorske, who represent the second generation, and Larry's two sons, Pete and Andy, who represent the third generation, about the history of their family business started by the first generation, Frank and Margaret.

Gary and Judy still vividly remember the first time as small children that they accompanied their parents in 1945 to see their new home, and how excited their father was to show it to them.

They followed a drive lined with white logs to a wooden house on the birch-filled lot that had a small detached garage near it. The house had a basement that had served as a "blind pig" during Prohibition days and still had dusty glass mugs lining the walls.

Frank Gorske was an avid outdoorsman to the core who had grown up during the Great Depression and had hunted and fished to help feed his family during hard times.

With World War II at an end and folks travelling and spending more money on recreation than in the past, Frank had great plans for the future and decided to start selling minnows for bait. Highway M-13 near Linwood was the perfect location.

This all began with a livestock water tank placed in the basement to hold minnows and a sign out at the road advertising such. Frank worked at The Dow Chemical Co. and in his spare time seined minnows to keep the water tank filled for customers. It was up to Margaret to sell the minnows while he was away.

Gary and Judy remember that their first job in the family bait business was to sit at the head of the stairs whenever their mother went down into the basement to sell minnows. Margaret was not all that comfortable continually dealing with strangers, and Gary and Judy weren't sure what they as little kids could do in regards to being "security," but it all worked out.

Then, one day, two strangers showed up to buy minnows, and one of them asked where Frank was. Margaret said he was at work, but the stranger said he wasn't, because he was Frank's boss and hadn't seen him in two weeks.

That is how Margaret discovered that her family had just gone into the fishing bait business full-time. Needless to say, this opened up a literal can of worms, and Judy wasn't sure how her father survived while explaining matters to her mother when he got home that day with a load of minnows.

Regardless, the die was cast and Frank's Bait and Tackle was born.

Margaret's parents, Joe and Lydia Deshaw, stepped in to lend a helping hand, with Lydia tending to the kids while Margaret sold bait and tackle, and Joe helping Frank catch the bait to sell. Besides selling minnows, they also sold worms and nightcrawlers, which had to be found as well. A favorite place for this "worm gathering" was at night in a cemetery near Bay City, where they had permission to do so. Joe was none too fond of this atmosphere, but he diligently helped Frank, anyway.

Gary Gorske remembers becoming big enough to help his father in seining for minnows in the various cuts and rivers in the Thumb, and how hard the work was. He remembers how skilled his father was at reading the water and where to spread out the 80-foot seine, and how often it came in filled with minnows.

Then there was the job of hauling the minnows in five-gallon buckets to the waiting water tank on a truck. This often required carrying a pair of buckets filled with minnows (which are actually quite fragile) up steep and rough creek banks and sometimes across fields. Gary remembers doing all this while carefully stepping over rows of beans. During it all, his father, Frank, set the example by always being the hardest worker present.

Gary also remembers that the hardest part of seining minnows was handling "the lead" on pulling the seine in, a task which Frank generally handled.

Judy readily remembers the time when she and Gary were supposed to be watching their little brother, Larry, while their parents sold bait, but got a bit sidetracked and suddenly realized that the toddler was missing.

They immediately raced to the minnow tank and retrieved Larry, who had been kept afloat by an air bubble in his rubber pants!

Other siblings would come along and become a part of the family bait business -- including Frank Jr, Elaine and Don.

Judy remembers when her dad decided to dig a "worm pit," which he stocked with worms he had purchased up north. It was Judy's job during the summer to use a fork to dig up worms and fill 20 cans with them each morning, which at the time sold for 25 cents per hundred.

Judy fondly remembers her Grandpa Joe frequently coming out to help her put the worms in cans while he sat on a box, chewed to***co and told her stories.

A large pond was also dug behind their bait shop to store minnows, and it served a dual purpose by also providing ice. Frank had learned that ice added to the water increased oxygen, which distinctly aided longevity for minnows in a bucket and even in the large tank when transporting them.

Frank's always made sure that fishermen purchasing minnows from them, even in the summertime, had a free chunk of ice. Of course getting and storing this ice in a specially prepared location (using sawdust for insulation) wasn't an easy task.

In the beginning, Frank's used a large hand-powered saw that had seen use for collecting ice in a bygone era, but Gary remembers when his father purchased a circular saw powered by a four-horse Wisconsin engine, which made cutting the ice in 300-pound blocks much easier.

These ice blocks, in turn, had to be pulled up a ramp to be stacked, using a rope pulled by a truck (Gary says that Judy always had the "gravy job" of driving the truck) from the other side. According to Gary, you always wanted to be standing to the side, because if the block of ice broke loose, it came crashing back down the ramp.

Besides bait, Frank and Margaret began selling fishing tackle in 1948, some of which they hung from hooks on a tree outside. In 1950, they obtained $1,000 of fishing tackle from Bay City Hardware on credit and stored it in the small garage.

Unfortunately, shortly after that, the garage caught fire and burned down, destroying all the new tackle. Gary remembers folks passing by -- many of them customers -- and stopping to give a hand during the fire by throwing water on the nearby house to keep it from burning, too. They used minnow buckets and water from a minnow tank, leaving minnows flopping all over the house's roof -- but the house was indeed saved.

Nothing in the garage was insured, but Frank and Margaret paid off the debt and continued stalwartly on. In 1951, they built a cinder block building which was used for storage and added a stone building on the front that would serve as the store.

In 1974, this was replaced by a large metal pole-barn, which would have six additions as the business grew. Frank's also began selling ammunition, fi****ms, archery, kayaks and clothing and eventually needed even more space. A 30,000-square-foot building would replace the pole-barn in 1999, and the family business would become "Frank's Great Outdoors."

Larry Gorske's sons, Pete and Andy, would soon become the third generation in the family business, adding new insight by offering a whole catalog online as well as creating mail order.

When not in school, the fourth generation is now playing a role in the family business, too, so there is no doubt that the legacy begun by Frank and Margaret Gorske in 1945 will continue.

The slogan for this family business is: "If you take care of your customers, they will take care of you." Thank you! Have a great day!