Phyllis McElheney Lepke is serving as our volunteer coordinator and stories may be sent to her at Rippey150@gmail.com.
This “I Remember Rippey” is composed of selections written by Jerald Fessler of rural Rippey. He published his collections of stories, poetry, and remembrances in 2004, 17 years prior to his death.
At Mary Weaver’s request, his son, Clark, shared the publication with her recently. As we are getting close to Halloween, here are two of the “jokes” Jerald wrote about.
In writing his journal he reflects on people known within the community, as Jerald spent lots of time visiting with others at the local hangouts, Secress Café, or Sparky’s. This excerpt is entitled LAVERNE GROVES:
Vern hired a man to help pick ear corn one fall. The man was also going to stay at Vern’s house during the harvest. He was under a doctor’s care with instructions to check his urine on a daily basis. He placed a coffee can under his bed for this purpose. Vern’s brother-in-law, Guy Rice was also working there. Guy was putting food coloring in the empty can, using a different color daily. I guess the fellow was just about driven nuts before they told him what was going on.
The next category is FUN AT THE CAFÉ. Jerald writes:
During the time that we played cards daily at Roy Brobst’s Café, we would play right up until noon, go home for dinner, then go right back.
When GTE took over the telephone system in Rippey, they installed a phone booth on the sidewalk by the Legion Hall. While the man was installing the phone, “Dud” Kelleher was hanging over his shoulder watching. Franklin Johnson walked over from Roy’s restaurant to read the number on the phone. He returned to the restaurant and dialed the number while the rest of us watched from the front window. Dud couldn’t resist when the phone rang. Franklin pretended he was calling another person in another town and Dud was trying to tell him he was talking to Rippey, Iowa. After talking for some time, Franklin asked Dud if he would blow into the phone. We saw his cheeks swell, at which time Dud realized he had been pranked and hung up.