A special thank you to all those who have participated in our “I Remember Rippey” series. Your remembrances have allowed readers to share in our town’s history, activities, sports, school, church and daily life covering 150 years. We will continue collecting your stories through April 30. Phyllis McElheney Lepke is serving as our volunteer coordinator and stories may be sent to her at Rippey150@gmail.com.
There are many more wonderful articles to enjoy if you click on this link to reach the Rippey Library website: https://www.rippey.lib.ia.us . Then from the home page, click on Rippey History/Genealogy and you’ll be taken to a wealth of articles and news clippings, many provided by Rippey historian Jean Borgeson. Jean is a tireless researcher and great story teller, so you can continue to read about Rippey into the future.
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Lucky To Be From Rippey by Fred Grow
I think back at how fortunate I was to grow up in Rippey. I was lucky to have a lot of family born and raised in Rippey, who lived there their whole lives and were a big part of the community. Like many other small towns back then, Rippey was a “community involved” town. During my childhood and teenage years, numerous little memories come to mind.
Baseball was a big part of the community. A large, white, square sign was put in the middle of Main Street letting everyone know there was a home game that night. There were Wednesday night band concerts in the middle of the downtown during the summer. On Tuesday and Friday nights, we went roller skating at the outdoor skating rink. Saturday afternoons during Thanksgiving and Christmas times, everyone came to town for the turkey drawings. And, Farm Union dances were held at the Rebekah Hall one Saturday night a month.
I grew up on a farm just east of Rippey. At the age of five I got my first pony, and I always had a riding horse of some kind for the remainder of my days living on the farm. At that time you couldn’t imagine how many town and country people alike had riding horses. One of my fondest memories was when all the people in Rippey with horses would meet most Sunday afternoons at I.J. Burk’s horse barn and trail ride to Squirrel Hollow. We would have a potluck meal or a hot dog roast, and then ride back to Rippey together.
What a fun time. I am so glad to have had Rippey in my background.