Tuesday

I haven't really done "History" for a while.

That trip to Ottumwa last week triggered many memories.  Interesting to the extent that my visits have been so infrequent in the last dozen years or so that the emotional side of the memories was largely tempered.  Maybe that's just another sign of aging.  Few of the places that I visited carried the same names except the public buildings and the churches.  The streets had the same names.

My life through eighth grade was spent mostly on the Southside of Ottumwa.  (The Des Moines River runs through town, and while the river tracks generally from the northwest to the southeast, the townspeople were considered either Southsiders or Northsiders.)  St. Patrick's parish and the South Ottumwa Little League fields were where I spent most of my time when away from the farm.  The Church and school dominated my non-farm life from September through May, and the Summer was baseball season.

We always said that it was six miles from the farm to town.  On the "old highway", there were several curves and hills that made the trip more of an adventure.  And I don't use that term gratuitously.  The road was narrow, the shoulders weren't much, and there was always lots of traffic. And like most highways back then, there were rounded "curbs" on each side of the road, especially wherever there was a grade, to channel water.  Mother and Tahoe Phil each rolled cars on the last hill into town within a week of one another one Winter, and a picture made the Ottumwa Courier for their troubles!

The "new highway" was completed when I was a junior or senior in high school.  This road was decidedly modern and took out many of the curves in its predecessor.  The curbs were gone, and passing lanes were even added on the longer hills.  I remember a night out with friends walking/hanging out on the new pavement just South of town before the road was open to vehicles.  (A non-alcoholic event!) I don't recall Mother and Daddy ever saying that the trip was less than six miles, although it had to be with the direct route.

St. Patrick's Grade School was a busy place for us.  Mother was a cook for the school for many years when "hot lunch" was the regular deal.  That was my first exposure to "dining hall" food.  Goulash was one of my favorites.  Lots of potato dishes.  (Michelle O would have a cow!)  Milk was sold for a nickle or dime by the school (white or chocolate) in the paper, half-pint containers that you see now in the dairy cases for creamers. 

By the late grades, Mother wasn't cooking anymore, and I graduated to the standard Brown Bag Lunch of bologna sandwiches (PB&J on Friday's!), chips and Hostess Twinkies.  Why wouldn't I?  By eighth grade, we were sneaking over to a little "lunch" place called Mamie's (I think) just to the South of the school for a pop and a Snickers.  For a quarter!  This pic from last week shows Mamie's still there (see the school roof in the background), but converted to a (very small) residence!

The church and school held many evening and weekend functions.  And I must have had to wait for rides after school quite a bit as I became buds with the school janitor (who became a big fan of mine when I played basketball a few years later).  Mass was always on Sunday morning.  Our Sunday meal was always fried chicken with mashed potatoes.  (Mother told us after we were grown that Daddy was a bit of a picky eater!  But I'm guessing that finances came into play in that equation as well.)  Some Sunday's in the Summer, we would stop at a gas station on Madison Avenue on the way home for a 30-40 pound block of ice that would be used as the "ice" ingredient to make ice cream in an old hand-churner.

(On school days, we often got to stop at a Dairy Queen-like shop also on Madison Avenue on the way out of town for a cone.  I clearly remember a 5 cent cone!)

In those grade school days, Ottumwa still had it's own "sale" barn on the Southside where livestock was bought and sold.  The sale was usually on Saturday morning, and I remember going there with Daddy.  He would always sell male (bull) calves born to the dairy cows, and would occasionally sell grown cows who had either become too old or too ornery for milking.  The sale barn had a lunch counter and I'm guessing that I got a small treat while Daddy sat with other farmers for a cup of coffee.

Not far from the sale barn was Shumaker's Feed Store.  This was another frequent Saturday stop.  That was where Daddy bought feed supplements for the cows  like soybean oil meal, salt blocks and miscellaneous other farm supplies.  Think of Shumaker's as a period Farm and Fleet store with no "Fleet" department.

The Ottumwa National Little League fields were just  a couple hundred yards or so from the sale barn and Shumaker's.  I played there from age 8 to 12.  There would be a couple of games each week and at least one practice session.  I'm sure that the folks, as well as my older brother and sisters must have grown tired of getting me to the ball park for those Little League games.

Ottumwa had two other Little League leagues that played at other locations in town.  The American League played on the West side of the Southside, and the Midwest League played somewhere on the Northside.  Following MLB tradition at the time (I say with tongue in cheek) there was no inter-league play until the city tournament.  My team was the Olsen Sporting Goods Dodgers.  We were always pretty good, but I think we won the city championship only the year that I was 12.  And our National League All-Star teams never won more than 3-4 games in the tournament that leads to Williamsport.

(Ottumwa always had a lot of baseball.  I even played on a town team through college.  As the town re-developed in the '70's and '80's, new baseball diamonds were constructed in the city parks that were constructed in low lands on the Southside salvaged by big dikes from the Des Moines River.)

One other activity that took up some time and transportation was the Green Cornhuskers 4-H Club. These monthly meetings were usually held at a Township house a few miles from the farm. I'll add more on 4-H another time.

Really not sure how I got here tonight.  When I edit this tomorrow, maybe I'll figure that out.

BCOT