Growing up Vail meant fending for ourselves when it came to recreation. As Marty has shared, often the fending for fun could edge toward activities parents today would find horrifying. Hell, for all I know, our parents were horrified too. We didn’t have a pool, as has been told, and our efforts to cool off… Continue reading Off To The Races!
Tag: Vail
A Brief Tale
Have you ever gone skinny dipping? If you were a boy living in Vail, Iowa, during the 1950s and 1960s there was just about no way to avoid the practice of diving into a farm pond sans clothing or swim trunks. Before the tiny town of Vail, Iowa, had a swimming pool for the town’s… Continue reading A Brief Tale
Teen Curfews Can Be Comical
A recent blog was focused on how us Vail, Iowa, kids got our exercise during the day. We didn’t stop there; we also exercised at night. Nighttime exercise was more vigorous than daytime exercise. The town of Vail hired nightwatchmen for years. My grandfather, John Ryan, was a nightwatchman for Vail. I’ve heard stories about… Continue reading Teen Curfews Can Be Comical
The Vail Independent Basketball Tournament
The Vail Independent Basketball Tournament was a cornerstone of our youth in Vail, Iowa; a waymark in the passage of every year, for every kid growing up in Vail. The Tourney was sponsored each January by the Knights of Columbus, and it was extremely popular in the region. Growing up in the late 1950s and… Continue reading The Vail Independent Basketball Tournament
Midnight Saving Time
The town of Vail, Iowa, has a population of fewer than 500 residents. Nonetheless, it has a swimming pool. It’s not a publicly-owned government pool, but a community pool ran by community activists and volunteers which has been in existence for over 50 years. In the 1960s, kids in town were getting bored and getting… Continue reading Midnight Saving Time
42 Capons
During my packing plant career in the 1970s and 80s, I would spend Friday afternoons or evenings in a Vail, Iowa, bar. Whether it was Lucky’s, Homer’s, the Longbranch, or the American Legion Club, I could be found in one of them. Vail, with a population of fewer than 500 residents, managed to support four… Continue reading 42 Capons