Carl Johnson and Family

The IGA store was operated by Carl F. Johnson and his wife — they were parents of Everette Johnson, who was in my class at school and at church and with whom I played on occasion. Everette was an only child and one of the upstairs rooms of their home was filled with a collection of toys which I am sure raised envy in my youthful mind.



Everette Johnson, high school graduation, 1938

The IGA store was first located on the north side of the main street in Gowrie in a rather ramshackle building but it later moved across the street to a more substantial brick building. After our move to the farm and the decline in the fortunes of the Leader store, most of the family grocery shopping was done at the IGA store. On Saturdays it was a bustling hive of activity and this pace continued on through the evening until close to midnight. Mrs. Johnson served as a clerk in the store, and despite the late hour in the store on Saturday nights invariably showed up on Sunday morning to sing in the church choir. Her husband seldom if ever made an appearance at the Sunday morning service. I don’t recall seeing Everette ever working in the store but I suppose he may have.

Earlier on before we left for the farm the store employed a Leonard Anderson who was a good friend of the Duane Anderson of the Leader store. One year after the Leader store acquired their little Model A delivery truck, the two young men used it on a trip out west — I suppose to Yellowstone, etc. and I suppose they slept in the vehicle.

One of my remembrances of Carl F. was on a winter morning when I was waiting in the store perhaps having finished the Saturday morning Confirmation class instruction. For some reason he needed to go outside the store for a brief errand but he wouldn’t go without getting his hat and putting it on his head. He made some remark that at his age he wasn’t about to go out in the cold without a hat even briefly. I recall thinking at the time that such an attitude was silly, but now being older and wiser consider that he was quite right.

As far as grades were concerned Everette was my closest competition in school. I can recall my mother mentioning that Mrs. Johnson had remarked to her rather plaintively that despite Everette’s efforts he didn’t match my record gradewise.

I have all my report cards from high school days — when I looked at them I noted my record was rather spotty, particularly in the earlier grades. Arithmetic and spelling I excelled in, but not some of the other subjects. It wasn’t really until high school that a more consistent level of achievement was reached and even there the situation improved in later years. This pattern of achievement continued into junior college, but at the University of Iowa the performance sequence of high school was repeated, with improved performance in my second year there.