We lived in the bottom part of an old two-story house that was right across the street from Mapleton school.  The house was owned by an old German emigrant named Godberson (His son now owns Midwest Industries in Ida Grove which makes Shorelander boat trailers).  Old "Gobberson" (as we called him) was mean and grumpy, had a heavy guttural German accent, and was an ardent and vocal supporter of Adolf Hitler.

At home were Mom and Claud, Ward, Darrel, Winnie (for a short time), and me; and Claud's children, Martin and Virginia Sammons.  Carol was married and gone, as were Paul and Edwin Sammons (Ed was in the CCC camp).

I started Kindergarten in Mapleton.  I don't remember any of my teachers, but I remember a few of the other children:

My girlfriend's name was Kay Bratt.  She had a little red and blue cape with a hood on it, (just like Red Riding Hood's, I thought).  She carried a little parasol and wore black patent leather shoes.  I thought she was really neat!  In contrast to Kay Bratt was Elain Pauley and her sister Gretchen.  They were very poor, and the other kids made fun of their old raggy clothes and shoes.  I always felt very sorry for them, and to this day can remember the haunting look of their eyes and of them crying because others taunted them.

Roger Moore was my best friend.  We played together a lot.  I was fascinated with his ability to carve chains from a piece of wood.

Another friend, Richard, lived on a farm and took the school bus every day.  I decided to ride home with him one day because he said he had tinker toys to play with.  His folks weren't very glad to see me, but fed me supper then drove me back into town just as it was getting dark.  I had them let me off at the park (about two blocks from home) and walked on home from there.  Darrel and Virginia met me on the way home, and were elated to see me (they thought the gypsies had taken me).  Everyone in town was looking for me.  When I got home, I got bawled out but (to my surprise) didn't get a spanking.

I remember other things about the school, such as when the new gymnasium was built, and of being the unofficial mascot of the basketball team (they called me "Gunner").  I used to stand up with the cheerleaders and knew all of the "yells" (the only one I still remember is, "Wash 'em out, ring 'em out, hang 'em on the line. We can beat Onawa any old time!").  I remember all of the pep rally bonfires, and how everyone would haul anything that was combustible including lumber, boxes, furniture, tires, old farm wagons, old out-houses, etc. to make a huge pile for burning.

Playing marbles in the schoolyard after school was a very popular pastime.  I was pretty good, and won a lot of marbles, though Darrel was the real expert.  "Aggies" were the real prize, and "commies" (made from fired clay) were usually not acceptable as real marbles.  If you had a good "aggie shooter" or a shiny "steelie" (ball-bearing) you were really lucky.

It seems we only lived there a short time and then moved about a block down the street a big old two story house with lots of room that we rented from the county.  We lived there until we left Mapleton.  It was a big yellowish house with a cindered driveway part way up one side of the lot.  It had a huge, windowed in back porch and a big shed out by the alley.  We thought we had the finest house in town when we moved there.

Now and then, Mom would give me a penny, and I would walk over to the little station on the highway (about two blocks away) and buy a piece of penny candy.  They had a display case full that included tootsie rolls, all-day suckers, bubble gum, hard candy, taffy rolls, little candy bars, and "Guess Whats".  It took 10 or 15 minutes to decide what to buy (looking was the most fun).  I usually ended up with Guess Whats.  Each one contained 2 large candy kisses and a prize wrapped in colored paper like a little loaf of bread.  The prizes were Japanese trinkets such as tin whistles, chain puzzles, tin soldiers, rings, etc.  I don't ever remember being disappointed in the prize.  It was always something neat.

For toys, we made things ourselves to play with.  We cut up old rubber intertubes to make rings for rubber guns, and rubbers for sling shots.  Our lumber supply for making all kinds of things was provided by discarded orange crates and lath.  We carved rubber guns out of orange crate ends.  We made wooden scooters out of orange crates and lath with an old pair of roller skates flattened out and nailed to the bottom.  We used to guide a barrel hoop around with a T made from lath.  We also used lath T's for swords and daggers.  We made push carts from orange crates and an old pair of buggy wheels.  We made necklaces from discarded keys.  We made darts from matchsticks with a pin in one end and paper "feathers" on the other.  We made little wind-up tractors out of thread spools, matchsticks, and a rubber band.  We used a big button on a string to make a "whizzer".

My brother, Darrel, made the best slingshots in town.  He would cut a crotch from an ash tree, bark it, and wire the two arms together to form a perfect arch.  Then he would bake it in Mom's oven until it was dry, trim it up and notch it out for the rubbers.  He tied the rubbers and the pouch (made from an old shoe tongue) on with string.

Darrel used to take me "junking".  He would tie an old model T coil magnet on his belt with a string, and I would carry a burlap "gunny sack".  We would go up and down the alleys testing the scrap metal in everyone's junk pile with the magnet.  If it didn't stick, we threw it in the sack.  When we got a sack full, we took it to the junkyard where the man sorted it out, threw out anything that was suspect, weighed the rest, and gave us (on a good day) a dime for our day's effort.  We then blew the dime on candy.

Every house had a junk pile back by the alley.  All garbage, junk, tin cans, etc. was thrown in the junk pile and burned. When the pile of burned out refuse got too big, Dad got hold of the "junkman" to have it hauled away.  His name was Ross Dorothy, and he drove a huge wagon pulled by a pair of horses named "Nip" and "Tuck".  Ross was a pleasant man who really liked kids.  He hauled junk for everyone in town, so was always busy and was never hard to locate.  He loaded the wagon with a scoop shovel and hauled it south of town a mile or two to the town dump. Along the way, kids (including us) would jump on the wagon for a ride and sometimes travel all the way to the dump with him.  While he was unloading, we would rummage around in the junk to find some castoff article that, by applying some imagination, we could make something to play with out of.  The dump was entirely open and smoldered from numerous fires.  It contained all types of refuse including junk, garbage, animal carcasses, etc. and for obvious reasons, didn't smell too good.  When Ross was finished, we would jump back on the wagon and ride back into town.

It seems to me that "Mucky Creek" was located not too far from the dump.  This area was timbered, and had little grassy plateaus along the creek that were ideal for playing games such as hide-and-seek, tag, and capture-the-flag.  Each plateau was roughly 20 yards wide and surrounded by small ravines or draws.  The area had a unique, mystical aire about it because it was dark and shady, and because the Indian tribes supposedly once lived there.  There were also stories about great battles being fought there among the Indians.  Whatever the case, we found many artifacts such as arrow heads and axe heads in the area.  It was always fun to go there with a bunch of other kids and play games or just look for Indian artifacts.

My Dad (Claud) worked at Bill Haubrich's lumber yard (where he made $23 a week.)  Next to the lumber yard on one side was a coal yard and on the other was a sale barn in a small park.  The whole area was fronted by a railroad track, and was only a couple of blocks from downtown.  I can remember hanging around the sale barn at auction time and marveling at the fact that the farmers seemed to understand the constant, unintelligible barking of the auctioneers.

I can also remember when the gypsies would arrive in town with their colorful wagons, and set up camp in the small park.  All of the mothers in town would caution their kids to stay away from the gypsies because they reportedly kidnapped children and hauled them away with them. The town marshal hung around keeping an eye on them, and the merchants followed them around in the store.  It was always a relief to everyone when they left town.

The carnival used to come to main street every summer for about a week.  The street was blocked off and all of the rides were set up in the street.  Rides were a dime, and kiddie rides were a nickle.

One year, my father Harry Hindman and his wife Jeanette lived in Mapleton for a short time.  I stopped by his place one day as it was right across the street from the gas station that had the penny candy.  He lived upstairs in an old house.  He was glad to see me and gave me a DOLLAR !  I decided that I wouldn't feel comfortable having a whole dollar in my possession, so I asked him to keep it for me and I would get part of it as I needed it.  I left with visions of all of the Guess Whats and candy that I would be able to buy for all foreseeable future.

For days, I looked at things in the dime store that a dollar would buy, but couldn't decide on anything worth spending my precious dollar on.  The next week, the carnival came to town.  I loved to ride the little brightly painted kiddie cars that went round in a circle on a platform.  They had a steering wheel that you could turn and a little squeeze horn on the side.  I decided to get a quarter of my money from my father to spend on riding the little cars.  I walked 6 or 8 blocks to my father's, got a quarter, went back to the carnival, and rode the little cars until the quarter was gone.  I repeated this three more times until the last nickle was spent.  The next morning, it hit me that I was once again a pauper, my precious dollar gone, and all of my dreams about unlimited candy, etc. gone with it.  I was depressed.

I remember some of the kids that lived in our neighborhood that we played with.   Next door was Buddy Kuncle.  Buddy was a little older than I, and didn't like to play with me much because he thought I was too little.  I remember that he got very sick and finally died from something called leukemia, and I was very sad.

Janet Newbom lived across the street.  She was a cute, pleasant little girl, and I liked her.  I used to swing her on her tire swing.  She had Polio, and walked with braces and crutches.  Johnny Martin lived across the street and on the corner.  He was older than I, and was my hero.  He could climb anything like a monkey, and showed me how to climb trees, swing on ropes (like Tarzan), and jump off of sheds without hurting myself.  J.P.Cook was really Darrel's friend, and was about his age. 

Winter was an anticipated event and I remember some of the fun we used to have.  The sledding hill was called "Slimer's Hill" and was at the edge of town not far from the school.  We used to sled by the hour on that hill, and I don't remember the cold bothering us.  Another thing I remember doing with our sleds is hooking a ride on the back of Ross Dorothy's wagon and being pulled all over town.

Christmas is not well remembered, except that we each got a toy and had a big family dinner.  The Legion Hall downtown gave each child a bag of Christmas candy, nuts, and oranges each year.  We would go downtown to their building and stand in line for our goodies. 

About two blocks from our house was a big park.  It was just grass, bushes, and trees but afforded a great place to play games with the other kids in the neighborhood.

On a summer evening, everyone used to gather there and we would play hide-and-seek, kick-the-can, or capture the flag until after dark. In the winter, we built snow forts and had snowball fights.

Every week, Mom would give us each a dime allowance to go to the movies.  The Saturday matinee cost a nickle and a big box of popcorn was another nickle.  I used to sit in the front row and watch the movie more than once before I left.  One time, I fell asleep curled up in the seat, and didn't come home for supper.  Everyone was out looking for me all evening, and thought I had been kidnapped.  They finally found me in the theater, and I was still asleep in the front row.

As I said earlier, Mapleton was a great place to live for a kid in the 1930's.  I remember other bits of trivia such as the hobo jungle down by the rail yards, a big flood of the Maple Valley one year, an airplane flying over town and dropping fake money leaflets, the swimming pool, and the noon siren sounding every day, the day Dad came home with a "new car" (a '36 Plymouth to replace our Model A).  I have very happy memories of Mapleton, and remember the disappointment we all felt when the folks announced that we were moving to Onawa in 1941.  I was in the third grade...

-Lee   LVHindman@aol.com

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1933-1937 Onawa

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