MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1960 - College Years II

State Center

During the summer, Winnie sent out letters hunting for a job near Ames, Iowa, and finally found one teaching Home Economics at State Center, just 30 miles east of Ames on Hwy 30, which was called Lincoln Way in Ames and on campus. We found a small apartment again upstairs in a house where the owner, a widow, lived downstairs with her mother and another older woman who was 100 years old. Fortunately, it was only a couple blocks from the school so Winnie could walk to work since I would have the car to commute the 30 miles to Ames and back 5 days a week.

The commute for the most part was uneventful except for the fact that the Ford had trouble starting in the morning. It would crank and crank and crank and just before the battery was about to give up, it would start. Once started it would run perfectly no matter how many times it was shut off and started again. During the coldest part of winter I had to take the battery out and bring it inside to keep it warm so I could get it started in the mornings.