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| The first home of Jon and Lois Rute at Pammel Court, Ames, Iowa |
I was born in Ames, Story County, Iowa on Mother’s Day in 1958. My parents were a young newlywed couple: my mother Lois had turned 20, two weeks before I was born, and my father Jon was
a 23-year-old Army veteran and college student. One could say my parents should have waited a few more years before starting a family but I arrived nine months and two weeks after their September 1, 1957 wedding. But never-the-less I was happily accepted as a new member of the Rute/Wallin
clan. Mom and Dad both worked, at first, my mother worked for Standard Oil company in Des Moines, a 40-minute drive in good weather. After my birth, my mother found full-time employment with the Swine
department in the College of Agriculture. My innocent city-bred mother had to take dictation about the reproductive habits of pigs from stogie smoking professors. She learned a lot about the habits of swine in that job. She also became an expert technical typist. In the days before computers, typists had to manually change typewriters to a special typewriter with fonts used for adding technical notations into the text, then switch back to their regular manual typewriters. My Dad was an electrical engineer so she was able to save money by typing his thesis full of math formulas herself. Occasionally she made extra money by typing papers for those who didn't have the time or couldn't type. My Grandmother Gwen taught typing, so it is surprising my father never learned to type.
There was a grocery store close to Pammel court, but Rute family food budget was helped by frequent trips home where family members stuffed extra home-canned goods into the Rute car as they were leaving. My grandmother Blanche and her sister Lorie-Rose canned chickens, which found their way into homemade chicken-pot-pies. Papa Joe Matuska, Mom's grandfather owned a meat market, so fresh bologna, sausage and hotdogs were sent back to Ames, as were fresh eggs and vegetables from Dad's Aunt Laura.
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| Bud Vanderwell makes sure Lori Rute and D.J. Vanderwell stay on the horse. Inside a trailer at Pammel Court, Ames, Iowa. ©Lori Rute Fortner |
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| Lori Rute plays outside at Pammel Court, Ames, Iowa ©Lori Rute Fortner |
The budget of a college student did not allow for much in
the way of entertainment, but my parents meet other young families became life-long friends living in the trailer park. The traditional “Pot-Luck”
supper was a friendly way for the newly married women of the trailer court to practice their cooking skills. Hungary husbands and children were all too happy to eat whatever made it to the table. Card and board games were a popular way to blow off steam
at the end of a long week. Babies were put to bed in the same crib while the parents enjoyed a fun evening of cards to be topped off by a homemade dessert. When the weather warmed up, neighbors brought something for the table and their lawn chairs as they gathered for an evening around a campfire.
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| The photo was taken at Pamela Court, Ames Iowa 1959. ©Lois Wallin Rute |
Mom struggled with cooking at first but became proficient after my Dad endured many dinners of burned peas and fried bologna. He never once in 60 years of marriage complained about my mother's cooking! She said her time at Pammel Court taught her how to make a pound of hamburger feed an army. My parents
formed life-long bonds with trailer court neighbors Nancy and Gary Frahm and
Bud and Jane Vanderwell. Both families lived in the student trailer park and
Debbie, D.J. and I were all born within a month of one another.
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| Debbie Frahm, D. J. Vanderwell and Lori Rute outside playing at Pamela Court. Late May 1959 ©Lois Wallin Rute. |
