Perhaps you remember the flamboyant goodbye to Lawrence that came from the owner of Payless Furniture. If you don’t, I can give you the family-friendly version of that event: Payless owner Robert Fyfe in May parked his furniture delivery truck along the store’s busy Iowa Street frontage and plastered it with signs that proclaimed Lawrence the “commie & candy (rear-end) capitol of Kansas.” He also had a big one that said “Goodbye Obamaville.”

Well, I guess goodbye doesn’t mean what it used to because Fyfe is back peddling mattresses and other such furniture in Lawrence. Hey, even candied rears need a cheap mattress to rest upon, and you can’t blame a good communist for wanting a particle board coffee table. (What, are you going to just throw the manifesto on the floor?)

Fyfe, however, isn’t selling items under the Payless Furniture name, or at the store’s former Iowa Street location. He’s selling furniture out of a warehouse he owns on Bullene Avenue in eastern Lawrence. But the furniture is just stuff that he couldn’t sell at Payless before he closed.

I stopped by and asked Fyfe why he was still trying to sell goods in a town that he so clearly didn’t like. He was honest: money. It would cost him too much to ship the furniture somewhere else to sell. I asked him if he thought people might be mad that he was still trying to make a buck in a town that he essentially gave the one-finger salute to. He pulled no punches in that answer either.

“I couldn’t give one rat’s (rear end), to tell the truth,” Fyfe said. “(Expletive) Lawrence.”

But, hey, if you need a mattress . . .

Fyfe also tried to give me a bit of a hard time about bringing up his former business, Payless Furniture. He noted that he didn’t have that name anywhere on any of his signs advertising this “wholesale mattress and furniture sale.” I told him I happened to notice that. I asked him if he thought that omission might actually make some people more upset. How many folks may think they’re just getting a cheap mattress without knowing they’re supporting someone who gets their kicks trying to anger a whole host of people? (In addition to the political stuff, his signs in May also disparaged the developmentally disabled, the homeless, teachers and others.)

“They can kiss my (rear end),” Fyfe said. “If they don’t like it, (expletive) them.”

I’m sure if I would have stayed longer, the shtick would have gone on with the same old tired lines. That’s what you can count on from Fyfe: Despite a goodbye, it never really ends.

In other news and notes from around town:

• You really don’t have to worry about Fyfe reopening his store at 2800 Iowa St. As we’ve previously reported, Dale Willey Automotive has bought the property to expand its auto dealership. If you have driven by lately, you’ve noticed the building has been gutted and is getting a whole new exterior look.

I ran into one of the general managers of Dale Willey at last weekend’s 4-H livestock auction at the Douglas County Fair. He said he hopes to have the new showroom — which will house used cars — open in September.

Speaking of the livestock auction, I’ve meant for the last several days to say a thank-you to all the businesses and other buyers who supported the 4-H kids at the auction. (Full disclosure: That includes my two pig-raising kids.) The auction is just one of many worthy fundraising events that happen in Lawrence. This year’s auction had 145 animals that were sold and raised $183,809 for the 4-H kids who owned the livestock. That is kind of astounding.

Some other charities benefited as well. For example, Dale Willey continued its tradition of buying a couple of hogs and donating the meat to the food bank operated by Just Food, and I know at least one area church was the beneficiary of a large donation of meat as well. There were probably others, and I apologize for not knowing all of them. If you know them, feel free to list them below.

• I hope you take time to read Sara Shepherd’s piece on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Also, take time to read some of the articles that web editor Nick Gerik pulled together from the archives of the Journal-World during that time period. It gives you a sense of just how new and how many questions were emerging as the world tried to understand the Nuclear Age.

70 years after Hiroshima: Perspectives on the atomic bomb

One article predicted that in a few years we all would be driving cars that had engines the size of “your hand.” We haven’t quite seen that yet, (unless you guys have larger hands than I think you do) but we have seen the world change a lot. There was one small reminder of that at Tuesday’s Lawrence City Commission meeting.

The timing was just coincidental, on the week that we’re remembering the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, city commissioners agreed to spend $2,500 for a “friendship garden” in the homeland of our other great enemy in that war, Germany.

Lawrence has long had a sister city relationship with Eutin, Germany. Eutin is hosting the state garden show for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein in 2016, and as part of the event it plans to build a friendship garden honoring its relationship with Lawrence.

Commissioners, at the request of the Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board, agreed to donate $2,500 to the cause. The local Friends of Eutin group plans to raise another $1,500. Together, the Lawrence contribution will cover about half of the cost of the Eutin garden.

Plans call for the garden to have sunflower, prairie grasses, and some silhouettes of bison, prairie dogs and other animals that are native to the range. (Note to self: Round up some prairie dogs for Mass Street before the next Eutin group comes to visit. We don’t want to disappoint them.)

I’m sure the garden will be neat. What’s even neater, though, is to think about what can grow, if given 70 years of peace.

In addition to Eutin, Lawrence also has a sister city relationship with Hiratsuka, Japan.