My Life in the Little Brown House, part 16: Friends, Bicycles, and Newspapers

Another friend I had was Everett Johnson. He was an only child, his parents operated the local IGA grocery store. In one of the rooms upstairs in their home he had all his toys — cars etc. — and this is where he played with them. Again I was entranced by the extent of his toys, but I was struck by his dismissive attitude toward the lot. I guess he had long since tired of them. His interest at the time lay more in adapting his wagon etc. into a simulated car, resembling one of the little cars in the Sears or Wards catalogs that one could pedal and steer. I guess it wasn’t only adapting his wagon for this purpose but actually constructing the vehicle from pieces of wood and wheels. They were steered by having the front wheels turn as the axle to which they were attached swiveled, actuated by ropes (which in turn were either pulled as with the reins on a team of horses or alternately coiled or released from a rotating rod attached to the steering wheel).

There was another aspect of my young life which in retrospect I find somewhat surprising and that was the extent to which I reached out for social contacts. This is certainly different from my personality as an adult which was always characterized by a certain diffidence and indeed a preference for solitary pursuits. I recall a number of times when I spent a short visit in the homes of my young compatriots, overnight or maybe even two nights. The two I specifically recall were with Leland Christianson and Vernon Telleen — both families represented lived on farms and I was introduced to the farm regimen, although I don’t have any specific recollection along that line. I have remembrance though of the bed I shared with Leland during the visit with him; also the outdoor plumbing the family used.

Of the visit with Vernon I only remember that, as a person interested in athletics, he had constructed a high jump facility. During the visit to use it he donned a pair of shorts and his mother on seeing this said it was too cold for that kind of attire and made him change. I recall Vernon on a return visit to my parents’ home. I also have a vague recollection that I may have also similarly visited overnight with Arthur Holmer — his parents lived on and rented my grandfather Strand’s farm. Whether my sisters or brothers ever had similar visiting experiences I don’t know.

One “toy” I had was a bicycle, and this came about because when I was born on my Uncle Carl’s birthday (and therefore perforce acquired his name) he must have felt a certain affinity for me because he gave my parents $25 for me. Somewhere along the line this became known to me and when my desire for a bicycle developed my parents agreed that the money could be used for it. The bicycle I finally selected was one offered for sale at the local Lennarson & Johnson’s hardware store. I remember my first tries at riding it, on the road in front of the little brown house. I would quite often accompany a young friend, Harris Magnusson, when he made his late afternoon rounds delivering the Des Moines Tribune or when he was making his weekly collection from his customers on Saturday morning. At that time the Des Moines paper published the morning Register and the evening Tribune. Sometime over the years the two “Tribune” may have now been dropped.

One noticeable characteristic of the Register was the color of paper used in the sport section — sort of a buff-orange. The papers were first delivered to the local M & St. L. [Minneapolis & St. Louis] Railway station but later on (perhaps as the passenger service on the line was reduced) they were delivered by car. One of the local Gowrie residents, one Ed Wynn, distributed them to a number of towns in the general area. I think there were at least two Tribune routes in Gowrie in addition to the morning Register routes. The Sunday paper was the Register and was delivered by Harris early in the morning; I was never allowed to accompany him on this delivery. I believe I broached the subject of having a paper route, but I seem to recall my parents not being receptive to the idea, perhaps because of the Sunday a.m. commitment. Sunday morning was not the time for such activity. In retrospect I have the feeling that my parents were more protective and restrictive of their children’s activities than were other families in the community.

The newspaper that my parents subscribed to was not the Des Moines paper (either of them) but instead the Fort Dodge Messenger. It was a smaller paper than the Des Moines paper and its circulation areas was probably pretty much restricted to Webster County. It arrived in the mail each day — no local paper boys. At that time in my life I was mostly interested in the comic section — I can’t ever remember actually reading the news items in the paper. I recall that the Messenger at one time revamped and expanded its comic section and I greeted this change with considerable enthusiasm. Amongst the new strips was one entitled “Scorchy Smith” — sort of a barnstorming air pilot of the (much later) Steve Canyon genre. I don’t remember the others.

















Scorchy Smith comic

Before and after the change there was one strip that somehow sticks in my memory, but I can’t remember the title now. The two main characters were sort of a bumbling man and his rather sharp-tongued wife, and the continuing low-level contest of wills between them. It was actually one of the better cartoon strips of the day and had a subtlety of humor that mostly escaped me at the time. But it did penetrate my understanding enough to be marginally attracted to it.

Although the Messenger did not have a Sunday paper we were not bereft of the multi-colored Sunday comic section. Several doors away from us lived Albert and Molly Rosene and when they had finished their leisurely perusal of their Sunday paper they gave it to us (mostly to me I think, I was the one who was mostly instrumental in getting it). The Sunday paper was their paper for the week — they didn’t get the daily paper. At that time, several of the comic strips would have paper dolls and these were eagerly cut out to supplement what we got out of the old Sears and Montgomery catalogs.