{"id":1977,"date":"2021-10-20T09:04:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2021-10-20T09:06:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:06:04","slug":"picking-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1977","title":{"rendered":"Picking Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>George Powers was a neighbor.\u00a0 He lived on the southern end of our block, two houses away.\u00a0 Johanna Scanlon lived between us.<\/p>\n

George\u2019s property contained a small orchard.\u00a0 He had a pear tree, a peach tree, a couple of different apple trees, and two beautiful cherry trees.\u00a0 I often climbed the cherry trees and sat in them, eating cherries with delight until George came out the back door and yelled, \u201cyou damn kids get out of those trees!\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but hey, that\u2019s what confession was for.\u00a0 \u201cBless me father for I have sinned.\u00a0 I ate cherries from the \u201ctree of the knowledge of good and evil\u201d in George\u2019s backyard.\u201d\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t know was that I could be imprisoned or be required to pay a fine.\u00a0 The 1958 Iowa Code states (in part) that if \u201cany person (I suppose that could be an 8 year old kid) . . . mischievously enter the inclosure [sic] of another with intent to knock off, pick, destroy, or carry away\u00a0 . . . any fruit or flower of any tree, . . . he shall be fined for the first offense not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars, with the costs of conviction, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeded thirty days.\u201d\u00a0 Mom would be pissed.\u00a0 However, it would be one less mouth to feed for a month, and in those days, that could have been a big savings.<\/p>\n

My fruit pilfering didn\u2019t end at George Powers\u2019 orchid.\u00a0 Johanna had some of the best rhubarb I have ever seen in my life.\u00a0 I would pull a stalk of it occasionally, rip off the big leaf on one end, the bright red root from the other, and peel back the outer skin.\u00a0 What was left was the sour tasting green fruit within.\u00a0 It made me pucker, but I loved that stuff.\u00a0 I was more afraid of George than Johanna.\u00a0 Not until I was older would I realize how poor she was.\u00a0 Looking back, I often wonder if she had electricity.\u00a0 I never saw a light on in her home.\u00a0 She once paid me something like a nickel to bring in some heating oil from a 50-gallon drum outside her back door.\u00a0 Upon entering her kitchen, I noticed a lack of any furniture other than the table positioned up against the east window and a chair next to it.\u00a0 I often saw her reading a newspaper at that window.\u00a0 There were some stacked newspapers, but that was it.\u00a0 I can\u2019t recall seeing a refrigerator or range\/oven.\u00a0 I am going to assume that she used newspaper and other inflammable materials to burn in order to stay warm \u2013 or, as I believe now to keep from freezing.<\/p>\n

Jail for carving initials on desks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another 1958 law that caught my attention was one that was punished with a fine or imprisonment in the county jail for willfully writing, making marks, or drawing characters on any schoolhouse, or on any furniture, \u201cor willfully injure or deface the same.\u201d\u00a0 I attended St. Ann\u2019s Grade School.\u00a0 Our desks were probably made in the 1800s.\u00a0 Each desk had an inkwell.\u00a0 How long has it been since you used a fountain pen?\u00a0 The sides of the desks were heavy black wrought iron and the seats folded up when you didn\u2019t need it.\u00a0 You could easily fit two children in a desk at once, and it happened more than you think.<\/p>\n

From grade one through eight, every desk I was assigned had carving from a previous student.\u00a0 I imagine some of them were dead.\u00a0 Those former students could have been imprisoned for defacing those desks.\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to determine when those carvings were made, but when I was in school, none of us carried pocketknives, at least, not to my knowledge.\u00a0 Besides, if the nun teaching the class caught you, the punishment could have been beyond corporal and close to capital.\u00a0 It could have been worse if Father Clark was going to be involved.<\/p>\n

Juvenile delinquency<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juveniles of 1958 didn\u2019t have a chance.\u00a0 Look at these definitions of a juvenile delinquent.\u00a0 Habitually violating any \u201ctown or city ordinance?\u201d\u00a0 Curfews were meant to be violated.<\/p>\n

Section 232.3 “Delinquent child” defined. The term “delinquent child” means any child:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
      \n
    1. Who violates any law of this state punishable as a felony or indictable misdemeanor, or habitually violates any other state law or any town or city ordinance.<\/li>\n
    2. Who is incorrigible.<\/li>\n
    3. Who knowingly associates with thieves, or vicious or immoral persons.<\/li>\n
    4. Who is growing up in idleness or crime.<\/li>\n
    5. Who knowingly frequents a house of ill fame.<\/li>\n
    6. Who patronizes any policy shop or place where any gaming device is located.<\/li>\n
    7. Who habitually wanders about any railroad yards or tracks, gets upon any moving train, or enters any car or engine without lawful authority.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Some of those immoral persons (C) were relatives \u2013 uncles, cousins, parents.<\/p>\n

      That reference to \u201cidleness\u201d (D) must have been to encourage child labor.\u00a0 And what Madam would allow a teenager to frequent a brothel (E)?\u00a0 Maybe one with money and curiosity?<\/p>\n

      A policy shop (F) is defined as \u201ca gambling place where one may bet on numbers which will be drawn in lotteries.\u201d\u00a0 No convenience store in Iowa would be safe for a kid today.<\/p>\n

      What kid in a town with railroad tracks (G) didn\u2019t wander \u201cabout any railroad yards or tracks, get upon any moving train, or enter any car or engine without lawful authority?\u201d\u00a0 Every kid I knew in Vail had to put a penny on a rail to see it get smushed by a train traveling through.\u00a0 We all played in empty boxcars, grain cars, and under the railroad bridge.<\/p>\n

      It was a rugged life in 1958.\u00a0 Staying out of trouble was about as difficult in 1958 as Huckleberry Finn had it in the middle of the 19th<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      George Powers was a neighbor.\u00a0 He lived on the southern end of our block, two houses away.\u00a0 Johanna Scanlon lived between us. George\u2019s property contained a small orchard.\u00a0 He had a pear tree, a peach tree, a couple of different … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[899,901,897,902,898,900],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1958-iowa-code","tag-delinquent-child","tag-george-powers","tag-huckleberry-finn","tag-johanna-scanlon","tag-st-anns-grade-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1980,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/1980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}