What Do You Remember About Rippey?
The Rippey, Iowa, Sesquicentennial will be held on Saturday, August 1, 2020. If you have personal remembrances of Rippey, you are invited and encouraged to share those memorable stories. Just send your remembrance via email and we’ll get it posted on the Rippey News Web site, as well as on Facebook sites of the Friends of Rippey and the Rippey Sesquicentennial. You write down the anecdote or story–a page or two–and we’ll do the rest. Phyllis McElheney Lepke is serving as our volunteer coordinator and stories may be sent to her at Rippey150@gmail.com.
Basketball Games by Linda Young
One of my first memories of, well, anything was going to basketball games in the old Rippey gym with my parents.
I was 3 or 4 years old in the mid 1950s and I recall we would head for the balcony to watch my short but savvy sister, Mary Ann (Young) Miller and equally short and savvy cousin, Jean (Young) Spradley, try to help the Bulldogs win some games.
Well, they would watch and I, um, wouldn’t, even though I might have wanted to.
Our seats for every game (I thought they must be assigned) were directly behind the old wooden backboard attached to the balcony on the side of the court. I was always planted between mom and dad so, while they paid close attention to the game below, all I ever saw was the wrong side of the backboard. But I’m sure the games were all terrific.
Luckily for me the beautiful school addition was then under construction and would be completed before either of my athletic relatives graduated, so I did enjoy seeing them play in the spacious new confines.
But I often wondered why my parents would plant me somewhere where I couldn’t see anything.
Decades later I found the answer. I was visiting in town, dropped by the school and peered into the gym below.
Sure enough, the old backboard was still there as was the railing which, I soon realized, was constructed in such a way that it would have been very easy for a small child to fall through to the floor below. That certainly wouldn’t have been good for my health and might have distracted from the game!
Anyway I’ve taken away two things from the experience. One, Paul and Betty Young were indeed pretty good parents and, two, Rippey had a terrific school.
Happy birthday No. 150 to my wonderful home town.
