Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt

By Editor | July 22, 2026 |

This week’s photo shows future congressman and senator Tom Harkin asking support from my mother, Sue Perry. The photo was taken in 1974 at 406 W. Madison St. in Mount Ayr. Fifty-two years ago, politicians went door-to-door soliciting support. This is my seventh article surrounding my memories of Mount Ayr in the early 1970s.
My newspaper route afforded me the opportunity to see different neighborhoods, other than my own. My route was bordered on the east by Taylor Street with one exception, Bob Poush on E. Van Buren. Monroe Street was the furthest north for me and West Street was my western border. Going south I went to Dan Cunning’s house and no further. Most houses had unattached garages then. Some had no garage at all. Nellie Cook lived on S. Pierce Street and I remember her house because of the exterior covering. It was asphalt roll siding in a brick pattern, just like my great-grandmother’s house in Gentry, Mo. A very antiquated look.
On my route were four filling stations with the trademarks of Phillips 66, Conoco, Texaco and Amoco, all within a block of each other. A man named Bethards lived in between Conoco and Phillips 66. I collected for the paper every two weeks on Thursday and it was a pain. People weren’t home or didn’t have change or cash. It really slowed the delivery process and I would get home late. That was the worst part of my route. At Christmas I made about $50 in tips and that was the shock of my life at that time.
Cameras contained film cartridges that were removed when the frames were shot. The cartridge was then taken to the drug store and the customer received their prints in 10 to 14 days. My family did not shoot many pictures in the 1970s.
There were areas of Mount Ayr that had nicknames like Junk Ditch Road or Lawhead’s Corner. Prentis Hatchery had a chicken house to the east of Lincoln Street and south of Columbus Street. Columbus Street was gravel back then and we called that road Chicken Manure Lane, or something similar to that, because of the chicken manure odor.
Summers were full of activities like roller skating, swimming, baseball, the movies, stock car racing, fishing, camping, the Dari Sweet, bowling, shooting pool and occasionally work. I remember getting a job walking beans (cutting corn and weeds out of a bean field) at $1.65 an hour. I believe we got the job through Manpower. I think there were three of us and all went well until we got to the end of the rows and there was the river. From the bank we could see carp swimming in the river and each of us had a machete in our hands. So, we spent the rest of the day chasing carp up and down the river with our machetes. Needless to say, we were dismissed from our employment and we got sunburned, but a kid has to do what a kid has to do.
Another job I got was picking up bales of hay which was common every summer. I was too small to pick up hay so I drove the tractor for one cent per bale. I made about $5 for a day’s work and that was a big chunk of change in those days.
We scooped sidewalks in the winter but the winters were fairly lean. Trapping and selling scrap metal to Sweeney and Butler salvage yard were a couple ways to get some fun money. School and school activities took up a lot of time in the winter.
We were a little on the wild side so some of us got hurt and some of us got in trouble, but Mount Ayr was a great place to spend our teenage years. The town square was full of young people on Saturday night and now the square is abandoned on Saturday night. That can’t be good.
Sometimes I drive around Mount Ayr remembering who lived in what house 55 years ago. Many of those houses are gone now like Vern Millsap’s grandmother’s house. I spent a great deal of time there and I’m not the only one.

Posted in Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt