Old Main Street

Thanks for the kind comments on the previous post. Its been many years since I perused those old Homecoming photos! What's so neat about scanning the old photos onto the blog is then being able to click and enlarge them, and seeing all the faces and details in the background!! (I love the group of faces in the background of the third photo in the previous post!) I had great fun recollecting the Homecoming memories and writing them into a blogpost! Believe it or not, I've never been one to talk much about my past with anyone, not even my own kids. Oh, I told them about being Homecoming Queen, and, of course, they played with the crown, but I've never related many details to them.

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This photo looks west down Main Street in Dunkerton, Iowa, in the early 1900's. The tallest building on the right side is the bank.

Even in 1975, Dunkerton's Main Street still looked almost like a Wild West town, with square wood facades remaining on the storefronts and the raised walkway in front of the stores.

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We included a Dunkerton history page in the back of our 1976 yearbook, The Raider. This photo is from that page.

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Homecoming 1975

Well, September has arrived........time for cool nights and high school football games, and memories of the same from the mists of the far distant past. Yes, as odd and fluky as it may seem, and, indeed, it DID seem fluky to me at the time.........I was a Homecoming Queen in September of 1975.

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Above is the Queen (me, at the back of the float) and her court, sitting atop a decorated hayrack float in the middle of Main Street in Dunkerton, Iowa, participating in a community pep rally!! Can you hear my mother hollering from the somewhere in the crowd: "DAUGHTER........SIT UP STRAIGHT!!!" In the background is the old bank building which was torn down a few years ago; there's actually not much left in the downtown area anymore, due to several rounds of serious flooding in the last twenty years.

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Before the marching band and the float paraded downtown, there was a coronation ceremony in the school gym, with most of the grades, K-12, in attendance, plus parents and anyone else who wished to be there. In the photo, I'm being crowned by the previous year's Homecoming Queen. Following that, I had to say a few words........(gulp)......"Uh.....uh......thank you very much......this is definitely a surprise!" Then a schoolmate named Kent, who had a beautiful voice, sang "May You Always Walk in Sunshine", an annual tradition at the coronation ceremony. (I have a photo of Kent singing.......in his double-knit sportcoat, plaid pants.......and 70's hair style!) Also, the Boy's Glee Club sang "The Yellow Rose of Texas", in honor of our football coach who was from Texas! There was a special speaker, too, a former standout athlete from our school. Then we all paraded downtown for the community pep rally!! (Hey, formal dressing for high-school girls was a bit different back then, wasn't it?! Less skin........more fabric!)

Truly, it was a complete surprise to me to end up as the Queen, for I had not even made the "Bottom Five" as a junior. The voting process at our school involved the whole high school first voting for ten junior and senior girls (we didn't have Homecoming Kings back then). The top five vote-getters were the "Top Five" and the others were the "Bottom Five". Usually, if you made the "Bottom Five" as a junior, you could be assured of making the "Top Five" as a senior. Thus, I was stunned to have made the "Top Five" that senior year........the votes from the incoming freshman class must have pushed me to the top; my sister was in that grade, and alot of her friends knew who I was. We voted the final time on the Friday before Homecoming Week; and during the following week, a couple times when I passed our stern-faced principal in the hall and no one else was around, he would start whistling the "There She Is......Miss America" theme song. I just rolled my eyes at that; I thought, "NO WAY!" (Besides, he probably whistled that the other candidates that week, too.)

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In this next photo, I am surely shouting, "Mighty Raiders.......Ye had better win ye olde Homecoming football game tonight, or ye will be thrown into yon dark, dungeon-like coal bin behind ye olde boiler room at ye olde school!!" Yes, I was determined that my queenly reign would be authoratative.......no wimpy royalness for me!! Our team did win that night, but it was the last victory of the season-----our excellent quarterback was sidelined for the rest of the season after spraining his ankle in this Homecoming game. We ended up with a winning season that year, but I think it was one of the last ones the school has had since then........they switched to 8-man football this year, and had a big win last week, so perhaps they'll earn their first winning season in possibly 30-some years! (And, yes, I firmly believe that bloggers should post only VERY "attractive" photos of themselves on their blogs.......one should attempt to put forth a good impression at all times!)

I'm quite sure these black & white photos were taken by my classmate, Sara, the yearbook photographer; she let me have quite a few of the extra photos from that school year of 1975-76. (Sara has been a lawyer in California for many years, but is moving back here to allow her kids to finish out their growing-up years in Iowa!) I was yearbook co-editor, and had arranged for a professional photographer to take pictures at our Homecoming ceremony; we had contracted with his studio to cover special school events thoughout the year. Well......guess what.......he snapped photos throughout the ceremony with NO FILM IN HIS CAMERA!!! Yes, he called a few days later to tell us what had happened. Great......just great. I can even recollect what spot I was standing in in the yearbook advisor's room when the news was told to me, and my initial extreme consternation. We decided to ask around to see if anyone else had taken snapshots at the ceremony. Fortunately, the dad of one of my classmates was an avid photographer-----actually, we thought he was a bit loony for taking so many photos all the time-----and he saved the day by providing us with snapshots for the yearbook, though they weren't nearly as crisp and clear as what the professional ones would have been......IF the "professional" guy had been on the ball!! We did the best we could with the layout of those Homecoming pages, but the photos of the ceremony are fuzzy. It makes for an interesting memory, at least! (And, this fact suddenly comes to mind: My parents' nickname for me when I was very young was "Fuzzy Bear", due to the fuzz on my baby head. How fitting!)

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In this scene we're parked on Main Street in front of the general store in town, with a tavern next door. Across the street was the old drug store, of which there is a photo of in this blog's sidebar.

I was provided with a tin-foil-covered scepter, a banner to wear, and a glittery crown. The dress was one I really liked.......we bought it at the Miller-Wohl clothing store in Oelwein, back when downtown Oelwein was quite a shopping mecca, boasting several dress shops, shoe stores, a Penneys, Sears, Monkey Wards, Spurgeon's, and two dime stores----Woolworth's and Ben Franklin. All those stores are nonexistent in Oelwein now.

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My Homecoming crown is still in existence, though, even after being played with over and over by my two daughters and their friends when they were little. Now the teddy bears have to fight over it........(until little granddaughters come along, perhaps)!

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In honor of our old football coach from Texas, I'll hum the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas".........I'm unsure of most of the words, except for these: "You may talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosalee-ee........but the Yellow Rose of Texas is the only girl for me!" The coach was single and drove an orange Carmengia; after our class graduated he married the art teacher and they moved back to Texas! He talked with a thick Texas drawl, which we made terrible fun of. He taught History and Government classes, and one time we were taking notes and he started talking about "pension grabs" and it sounded like "pinch & grab", in fact that's what I wrote in my notes at first! We never let him live that one down.......he was a good sport, though, smiling his way through all the teasing.

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And now, just for you blog readers:

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May you always walk in sunshine

Slumber warm when night winds blow

May you always live with laughter

For a smile becomes you so.

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May good fortune find your doorway

May the bluebirds sing your song

May no trouble travel your way

May no worry stay too long.

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May your heartaches be forgotten

May all tears be spilled

May old acquaintance be remembered

When your cup of time is filled.

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And may you always be a dreamer

May your wildest dreams come true

May you find someone to love

As much as I love you.

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(By Larry Markes & Dick Charles)

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I'm singing those words to you right now! Have a sunshine day!!

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Old Bridge Survives Again

Once again it has survived a flood.......this old cement, one-lane bridge in Dunkerton, Iowa. So familiar is the unique bridge, I hardly notice it. Back in the early 1900's-----so I was told long ago by my grandma-----it was a pretty fancy way to reach the once-bustling Main Street. In this photo, taken yesterday, Crane Creek is still running very high. The photo was taken from the much newer Hwy. 281 bridge. In the bad flood of 1968, when I was ten years old, we stood near this more modern bridge, as it hummed and vibrated from water surging along underneath.......we wondered if it and the old bridge were about to be washed downstream. That year, in late July, our area received FIFTEEN inches of rain in a 24-hour period, resulting in massive flooding. As I remember, practically all the bridges in our area were washed out that time; you couldn't get anywhere!! The old bridge in the photo obviously survived the flood of 1968, and all floods previous and subsequent! It must be well-built!  (Info about the bridge.)

Near the left end of the bridge was a blacksmith shop when I was a kid. An old guy named Joe was the owner/operator. When Dad went there with parts that needed repaired by welding, my sister and I would go along. We weren't supposed to watch the welding process for the sake of our eyes, so we'd skip over to the general store next door to get a treat of bubble gum or a candy bar.

From the blacksmith shop, if you go across the old bridge, you'll find yourself in the city park. Swings, slides, teeter-totters, merry-go-round, and monkey bars----they kept us occupied there, along with a wheel of bars hanging from chains that we'd reach up and grasp onto and run as fast as we could, allowing centrifugal force to then swing us round and round with our feet way off the ground. Great flying fun! It was my favorite! That was the only place I ever saw that particular type of plaything......I have no idea what it was called, and I doubt its there anymore. It would surely be too dangerous in some way.

On our school playground, too, there were merry-go-rounds, swings, slides, monkey bars. Two-Square and Four-Square lines on the asphalt, too, in order to play those games with a bouncing ball. And tether-ball poles........we had several of those. My kids have no idea what tether-ball is........it must have lost popularity in the years between my schooldays and theirs. Probably too dangerous......the ball would hit kids in the head sometimes. Knock some sense into us, maybe!!

What was your playground favorite?