WHERE I GREW UP/ GROUP EFFORT OF TOWNS!

       Lots of people today live in large Metro areas like Des Moines, but, live in an adjacent suburb like Clive or Windsor Heights, while your kids went to West Des Moines schools. 

        When I was growing up we lived in northern Jasper County. (SE 1/4 of Section 2, Range 81, Township 18) Our address at that time was Rural Route, Gilman, Iowa with no zip code at that time.  Gilman was about seven miles to the east of our farm. 

      Three miles to the north was Laurel, which was our school district, in Marshall Countyand where we attended school. It was where our telephone office was located. As a side note our telephone number was 3 on 5, or by using the old ringer type phone it was one short ring followed by three long rings. Laurel was where our church (United Methodist Church) was located and local shopping.

      Newton was 19 miles to the south in Jasper County and our County Seat although we didn't go there often for shopping. The most shopping was going to Hawkeye Chevrolet for car trades and service.  Marshalltown was just about 10 miles north of us and was where we did go for major shopping and most of Mom's relatives lived there. Kellogg, a town about nine miles straight south of our farm was where we went for livestock processing and meat locker storage. 

       As you can see if living in a rural area many years ago could have a degree of complexity just like today in the big city. It sometimes took "several villages."