Iowa winters...remember them well. Land of the tall corn....where I was born.
My formative years were in a small town in NW Iowa, Ringsted. Dad was school superintendent, first place we had with electricity and running water, plus a funace. Total population: 650, except on Monday nights when all the stores stayed open until 9:00pm. We had two gas(filling) stations, grocery stores, and two restaurants during those boom years immediately after WWII. The restaurants alternated being open on Sundays, otherwise nothing was open so you did your shopping and gasing up by 5:00pm Saturday night. Banking? Forget it after 2:00pm on any day, never on weekends. The Lutherans were so strict we had no bars...so you noticed!!
But everybody knew the fire/police station and two cell jail had a very active basement clientele. If you ever watched the old TV program in Mayberry with Andy, Opie, Barnie, etc., you have a good idea what the jail was like. We had two local drunks that were regulars, they always ended up in there Friday and Saturday night. The cells weren't locked, just gave them a place to sleep it off....same as the TV program. They would wake up in the morning, get cleaned up a bit and wander out into the new day and go to work. Every year the carnival came to town, got my butt kicked for sneaking into the sideshow just about every year, but it was worth it. One year I won the greased pig contest but they said I cheated, snares weren't allowed....I managed to get it around his "jewels" and hung on to it with my teeth while I grabbed his hind legs. They used a female porker the following year.
Winters were at least a rough as R J odes to, more than once I either skated or skied to school. With the skis I usually tried to hook a ride on the back of a car, soon found out I needed shorter skis. Once dad heard about it....the skis disappeared.
