THE JOURNEY FROM HOME TO THE SCOOPING LOOP! part 1

       It was a typical Spring day with beautiful blue skies and a bright sun overhead. I was working for Art DeWitt, a nearby neighbor and farmer just to the north of our place. I was doing a little spring plowing for Art on one of his tractor's and getting the field ready for corn planting later. At sixteen years old, I was doing OK making $1.00 an hour and there was nothing better than being outside on a beautiful day with a "Swisher Sweet" cigar clinched between my teeth. Yup! Nothing better than a little Iowa black dirt mixed in with the rum soaked juices of that cigar rolling around in your mouth.

       All I could think about was the fact that it was Saturday and that in a few short hours I would be behind the wheel of my 57' Chevy and headed to the big city of Marshalltown for a little "scooping of the loop" and who knows what else the night would bring. I'm not sure what I really did that particular night, but, I would like to give you an idea of a typical night in the early 1960's for a sixteen year old boy living in rural Central Iowa and headed to a town with a  population of 20,000 or so.

       First, one of the most important things to do before heading to the big city was to make sure the Chevy was washed and cleaned inside and out. Since we lived one mile east of highway 14 which was paved, I had to drive slowly on the gravel road from our farm to get there. Some old bath towels were always carried to wipe the car down once you got to the pavement. You couldn't let the Marshalltown guys see you in a dusty or dirty car as they would know for sure you were a farm kid.

      Then once on highway 14, it was another 3 miles to Laurel where one gassed up at Ingraham's Skelly Station or Clyde Eddy's (my brother-in-law) Standard Oil Staion. Gas was around 25 cents a gallon back then and $2 or $3  worth of gas would get you the ten miles to Marshalltown and loop scooping and back home. Most of the vehicles had V-8 engines and would get around 12 to 14 MPG. Another side note was that in a lot of rural areas there was no actual speed limit. Most signs read-" Speed Limit-Safe and Reasonable."

       -------------to be continued.