My father, who will be 71 this year, wrote the following memories down the other day about his time as a paper boy in rural Iowa:

It’s 1950, I am 11 years old and my first chosen occupation was to have a paper route with the Waterloo Daily Courier. When the paper boy who delivered our family newspaper left, I told him I was very interested in having his route. He introduced me to his supervisor, and I was hired to deliver in North Cedar and Cottage Row. I had approximately 30 customers to start. Two years later, the route had grown to 45. I had lots of fun, as my dog Velvet was at my side, and we managed to discourage other dogs from interfering with the delivery process. The streets were very sandy with some gravel. On wet days it was difficult biking with a load of papers hanging from the rear fender rack of my bike. The bike that I bought on layaway from the Coast to Coast store in Cedar Falls was bought with my earnings from my paper route. Collection was the most difficult part of my job. With my long, leather, ringed collection book in my hand, I would go from door to door, collecting each week, always on Friday. Too many times I was told to “come back next week.” I always went back with my chrome changer attached to my belt to collect, many times as much as five weeks. I would tear off the stubs with freezing fingers and collect well after dark.

Without Gortex and synthetic wools, my front and back paper bag filled with papers gave me warmth and wind protection. I can still smell the newspapers in that white sailcloth canvas bag with the red letters Waterloo Courier. It fit me good.

Summer was another story, as I could put all my papers in a cart pulled behind my bike. It was always faster to just walk, as I could cut through yards and take shortcuts home. My dad always got his paper last!
Lyle Calease, Cedar Falls

I give thanks to the gods for Danny Wilcox Frazier.

Responsible for chronicling the Midwestern way of life in multiple mediums, he is true to the cause of his homeland and to the powers that live here, unknown to those on the coasts who dare not venture out of their safely *cool* havens for parts much more obscure and full of possibilities, much like the places and oral histories captured in Danny’s latest, beautiful film, Driftless.

Danny, lately I am raising my glass to you and your work.

Cheers.

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Received this from MediaStorm today:

We are excited to announce a special premiere of our soon-to-be released documentary Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier on Monday, May 18, at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

The screening of the film will be followed by a Q&A with Danny and the team from MediaStorm. Books and DVDs will be available for purchase, with signings both before and after the film.

Where: Galapagos Art Space
When: May 18, 2009
Time: Doors open at 7pm, the film will start at 8pm.

For guaranteed seating, RSVP to rsvp@mediastorm.org.

About the Project:
Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them.

The tension of contemporary rural life plays out: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, migrant labor, the country butcher’s role, and the aged fading from Iowa’s mythical landscape. Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever. As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl across the globe, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities.

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