I moved to a dairy farm northwest of Lovilia with my parents and sister when I was six months old. My father’s farm backed up to the Blackstone Coal mine on the north. I grew up going to a one room school for my education. I entered high school in the fall of 1950 and graduated with the Lovilia class of 1954.
My earlier memories of Lovilia were when I was about three years old. I would go with my father to the Cummings barbershop and while he was getting a haircut and shave, the barber would ask me if I could sing a song for him. I would sing “You Are My Sunshine” and when I was finished singing; he would give me a shiny new buffalo nickel. He asked me what I was going to do with my nickel. I told him I was going to see Mr. Dave and get me a strawberry ice cream cone.
While sitting and waiting for my father I would look out the window to the activity on Main Street. An old white haired gentleman asked me, “Little lady, what do you think of the big town of Lovilia?” I told him I thought Lovilia was a small town. I liked to go to big towns like Ottumwa, especially at night. They had big street lights that looked like five big vanilla ice cream cones. He said,”My, little lady, you sure like your ice cream. Lovilia was a big town once, why when I was your age before the turn of the century I bet 1200 people lived in Lovilia. Back then the Buxton, Miami, and Lovilia coal mines were all running full bore. Why at one time there were 9 churches and 13 saloons in this town”. I have never been able to substantiate his word on this.
When my father was finished, we would go to Mr. Dave’s Drug Store and get the supplies we needed for the various things we needed on the farm. We would need gauze, tape, and various antiseptics (because there were no band-aids at that time in history). I would stand on tiptoe and slip my nickel up on the soda fountain counter. Mr. Dave would say, “What flavor are you having today?”, as he reached behind him and pulled a cone from the cone holder, nestled between the two mirrors behind the soda fountain. I would proudly say, “Strawberry”. Other times when I would go in the drugstore Mr. Dave would say,”Strawberry? I would say,” Yes”. Mr. Dave would say, “Do you have a nickel?”. I would say, “No”. He would tell me,”Crawl up on the stool at the end of the counter then and sing me a song”. I would sing for him and he would hand me my luscious strawberry cone. Mr. Dave would then collect up the supplies my father wanted and ring him up. Mr. Dave would then open a drawer and take out a clean wash cloth, wet it, and wipe my face and hands clean. Mr. Dave would then pick me up in his arm and ask if I had a hug and a kiss for him today, which I gave him gladly.
One of my friends in high school told me, “Jerry you eat more strawberry ice cream than anyone I know”. I told him, “Where do you think all my auburn hair comes from”.
My father told me years later that he would slide a nickel across the counter to pay for my cone as I was crawling up on the stool to sing my song. He told me Mr. Dave would push the nickel back at him and tell my father that he got more out of this than a little ice cream would ever cost him. Oh, how I loved Mr. Dave, not because he had an unlimited supply of strawberry ice cream, but because of the goodness of his heart. Everyone who was ever around the Lovilia area knows by now I am talking about Dave Papich’s Drug Store.
This drugstore held fond memories for me. The drugstore always seemed to have what you needed. School supplies, medicines, strawberry ice cream. The grocery store and the drugstore were the only places in the early 50’s the girls could hang out since they were not allowed in the pool hall.
Now Lovilia houses hold the farmers who have retired to town or the off spring of previous Lovilia residents who choose to commute to work to surrounding big towns. They choose to stay in Lovilia and raise their children far from big city life. Should anyone from another area of the United States drive through the town of Lovilia, they would view Lovilia as just another sleepy Iowa town gasping for its last breath. I did not view Lovilia this way. It may not be the roaring town it was before the turn of the century the old man described to me; nor the busy town of the Korean War days of the early 50’s, but it was a viable town, nevertheless. If the streets of Lovilia and the halls of the high school could talk, they would be able to tell grand tales about the ancestors who lived there who are now in the cemeteries. Also, tales of the present population, as well as tales of those like me who grew up and moved away.
I feel badly that I will never again be able to experience the feeling on a hot July day of walking into that drugstore on Main street Lovilia. Of plunking down my nickel and sinking my lips into the creamy texture of a strawberry ice cream cone, and with my teeth, pulling out a ripe red strawberry. From now on when I eat a strawberry ice cream cone, I will have to plunk down 2 bucks, but a beautiful memory from the past will come floating back to me as I devour its creamy goodness. Yes, time marches on, but for people like me who grew up around the Lovilia area, we have been left with a bazillion beautiful memories.
Editors note:
Jerry is a free lance writer who writes under the pen name of Jerry Martin Ethell. Jerry is a 1954 graduate of Lovilia High School, a 1977 graduate of Des Moines Area CommunityCollege, and a 1981 Graduate of Drake University. She and her husband, Larry, are retired and live on their 200 acre grain farm southwest of Sandyville in east central Warren County. They retired at age 70 in 2008 and like to travel around in their Ford truck and Lance pick-up camper.
Jerry is the only living survivor of the original Verla and Hazel Martin family who resided 6 miles NW of Lovilia. Her older sister was Gwen who married Bob Sims. Gwen and Bob were both in the Lovilia graduating class of 1948. Her other sister was Arlene who was married to John Wilson. Living in John and Arlene’s house at the farm is their son Marty and his wife and children.
If you would like to contact Jerry she can be reached at:
jerryethell@yahoo.com
or
20554 Kirkwood Street, Milo, Iowa 50166-6667
Phone: 641-942-6296