Entertainment in the Early Years

Amusement was practiced in a smaller and less expensive way in the days before radio, movies, and motorcars, not to mention television. The great social events of the decades before the turn of the century were the weddings and the scheduled activities of the community. Parties were held to celebrate the harvest and many other occasions. Ice cream socials were held in the summer by each of the three Marne churches; each family would bring a hand-cranked freezer of ice cream, a pail of berries and cake to the Town Hall or an appointed house. The Marne churches often held their annual Sunday School Picnics in the grove near the old Altig farm south of Marne where Mildred McCarty now lives. Each country school also held an outdoor event and picnic in the summer. Each family brought a meal and spent the day at the school listening to the recitations and speeches and witnessing the athletic events. The Marne Band sometimes provided entertainment at these affairs in addition to the regular activities in town. The Marne School and the schools in the country also held "box socials" during the school year. Each girl would bring a brightly-wrapped package containing a meal for two, and the boys would bid on the box. The high bidder bought the meal and the right to eat with the girl who brought it. Usualy no name was on the boxes, but the word often got out as to who brought which box. School events were often funded with the proceeds of the box socials. Even the Depression of 1894 proved unable to stifle the local social activities. The people of Marne held hard time parties during that summer and winter. Each family brought food items to be served at the event. Wilbur Sarsfield remembers one hard time party held in Marne that year; everybody coming to the party had to wear their best clothes under their oldest and most ragged clothes. At some point during the party, the old clothes were ripped off to reveal a well-dressed and seemingly prosperous person beneath the rags. One young man had come dressed in his good clothes only and was later seen running out the back door cluthching [sic clutching] a bare spot where his hip pocket had been. The children had a much large responsibility in the family than at present. Water often had to be carried to the livestock and the horses had to be fed and tended. Farm boys had chores which lasted for several hours in the morning and the evening. Even the town boys often had to tend to the family cow and the chickens. The boys still found time to raid the neighbor's watermelon patch or apple tree. May baskets sometimes included stray kittens or unwanted puppies. The boys in Marne sometimes greased or soaped the railroad tracks east of town and then hid in the bushes. The locomotives leaving Marne could not get enough traction to ascend the grade and would have to back the train west past Marne to get a running start. The kids also used a tic-tac, which was a fifty-foot length of string or cord with a sharp tack at one end and several twenty-penny nails tied about a foot from the tack. The tack was driven securely into the top of a neighbor's bedroom window sash and the other end of the cord held by the boy. The cord was then pulled back and forth, but you had to stay well-hidden, because a ten-guage [ sic ten-gauge] shotgun scattered lead all over the place. In later years, free movies were shown beginning in 1934 and until about 1948 except during the Second World War. These movies were presented outdoors at the Bandstand for some time and later at the then-vacant lot on the northeast corner of Second and Washington Streets. Marne has always been a sports-minded town and has been especially proud of the hometown baseball teams which won top honors at the tournaments held here in the 1950's. These baseball teams were reorganized several years ago and have enjoyed considerable success and strong support from the community.

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Transcribed from "The First Century, A History of Marne, Iowa 1875 - 1975", published in 1975, Marne, Iowa: The Marne Centennial Historical Committee, pp. 20-21. Transcribed (2015) by Cheryl Siebrass and contributed September, 2019.