I was at the comic book rack in Overaker’s drug store doing free reading and drinking a vanilla Coke (10 cents for the large size in 1960).

My attention was caught by the conversation at a table near the back. It was a group of society women who gathered every afternoon for Cokes and gossip.

I heard a lawyer’s wife say, “The Trutters have been everywhere in the world, and next summer they are going someplace else.”

That was a view of Kitty and Phil Trutter shared by many on the southwest side of town. And it wasn’t far from reality. During their marriage they visited more than 100 countries.

I had known the Trutters all my life, playing with, and riding to school with, their twin daughters. Our grandparents had been friends, and, in fact, my mother’s first date was with Phil Trutter, who took her to a tea dance at Illini.

Since they lived half a block away and were interesting people, some of us hung out at their house occasionally. Kitty and Phil were both night owls, welcoming visitors to chat at their kitchen table at any hour of the night.

In those late hours Phil would be working on his latest project, either an intricate jigsaw puzzle or a piece of jewelry.

The jewelry which he designed usually featured a gem which he had purchased on a trip to the Orient. The jigsaw puzzles featured pictures on a wooden backing cut into pieces with his jigsaw.

Each puzzle had a theme which was carried out by shaping the pieces. A puzzle with birds as a theme would have some pieces in the shape of different birds. Or the theme might be countries, with some pieces the shape of Italy or Peru. The theme was in the picture, but also in the shapes.

Phil got into puzzle-making because Kitty spent evenings across the kitchen table putting jigsaw puzzles together. She had a vast store of them in the attic.

When there was no new puzzle at hand, she would bring down previously worked puzzles, lay them out on the table face down and complete the puzzle only looking at shapes and not getting any guidance from the picture.

As they rambled through the world the Trutters met and befriended natives who became their friends in the country and later kept in touch through letters. Often one of these people, traveling in the U.S., would come to visit.

Cocktails or dinners at the house might include a guide they met at Persepolis, an Indian government official or the Chinese son of one of Chiang Kai-Shek’s generals.

One of my favorite visitors was Lady Pleasance, a member of the English nobility, who came for a week. She was charming, witty and was a great fourth for bridge. A bridge game, on the screened front porch, was almost certain every summer afternoon.

Lady Pleasance’s visit stretched to a second week, and a third, and a fourth. It became apparent she had no desire to leave. Finally, though, Kitty made it clear the British invasion was over.

They also welcomed foreign nationals who had made Springfield their home. They served as a clubhouse for many.

The Trutters had been involved in the Muni. They were great supporters of the Art Association. The couple was fascinating to kids who had not been out in the world as they had.

I look back and remember Kitty in her blue Mexican dress always smoking a cigarette and Phil lounging on the floor of the living room, wearing a kimono and leaning against the couch. Above was a huge painting of a Chinese gate which had been his master project as he finished architecture school at the University of Illinois.

The house was full of souvenirs...art and oddities.

In the den was furniture Phil made from a walnut tree which a storm downed in their yard. Above might be a pastel of a South American shaman, or a display of arrows from some Pacific island.

In the hall was an imposing glass cabinet.

On one shelf was a half-used cigar, a reminder of a dinner which U Thant, the U.N. Secretary General, had hosted for them while smoking the stogie.

Always there were tales of travels in exotic lands. One would start, then often say to the other, “Dear, you tell it, it’s your story.” And seamlessly the other partner would finish the tale.

Though Kitty and Phil are gone, there are echoes of those evenings in the halls of the Trutter Museum which they endowed at Lincoln Land Community College.

As its latest exhibit, the museum has mounted a show of small works of art collected by the Trutters on their travels from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. The exhibit, “Small World – Near to Far,” features nearly 70 items, with 43 small pieces, from the Trutter world heritage collection. The exhibit runs through May. The Trutter Museum is open Monday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A visit to the museum brings back lingering memories of these two unique Springfield residents who traveled far when such trips were rare and who brought back exotic things for us to see.

Phil Bradley of Chatham lived down the block from the Trutter family for many years. They taught him bridge, how to make a terrific Old Fashioned, the art of the raconteur and that soy sauce can be had in gallon tins.