Grandpa Bob goes to the fair
Grandpa Bob’s annual childhood vacations started at 4:30 in the morning…
“We’d…do our chores, and we’d leave by 6:00. We used to come in (from Adair County) on old Highway 6. By the time we were approaching Des Moines we’d been in the car for an hour and half ‘cause you could only do about 40 miles an hour. And about this time we’d go by Living History Farms which at that time was a state prison farm. They’d be out there with their guards on the side hill with their striped uniforms on, hoeing, planting, out with horses making hay. We’d (siblings) get pretty rowdy in the backseat by this time. We’d get to fightin’ and punchin’ each other and so on and so forth, and my dad would say, ‘ok, either straighten up or I’m going to let you out right here and we’ll put you on a hoe, just like those guys.’ We were always good when we went by the prison farm.
“The only vacations that we ever took were to the state fair. We were a farm family, and livestock doesn’t take care of itself, so our vacation was simple – to come to Des Moines for one day to go to the fair.
“We’d get to the fair by 9 or 9:30. We never parked where anyone else parked. We parked down by the horse barns and we always tried to find a tree so there was shade so we could come back there for our picnic. My mother always packed a picnic lunch and dinner. We never bought anything to eat.
“The first thing we did was walk through all the barns. Next thing was all the machinery. Then we would come back and have our picnic, and then we went to the afternoon theater or grandstand. Then we would come out and we got to spend a dollar a piece at the Midway. We always rode in that Tunnel of Love or whatever (Ye Olde Mill). Then we went back to the car and ate supper. Then we’d go back in for the night show and fireworks. Then we’d drive home and we’d get back home at 1 o’clock in the morning.
“That was our vacation – it was to come in here (Des Moines) for one day.”
Last week, Grandpa Bob made another visit to the state fair to receive his Century Farm plaque. Each year, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation awards families who have owned and operated their farms for a century.
Just like those vacations 70 years ago, Grandpa Bob’s trip to the fair still traveled down old Highway 6 (now from his home in Waukee), and went by the old prison farm (now Living History Farms). But, there was no “fightin’ and punchin’” by children in the backseat, and there was no trip in the “Tunnel of Love.” And it wasn’t a vacation from the farm, rather an award for keeping that farm alive that brought Grandpa Bob to the fair this time – with his wife, his children, even a great-grandchild in tow.
Of course, no opportunity to tell a story is lost on Grandpa Bob, who, upon receiving his award, was interviewed by the Des Moines Register and the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, which can be heard below.