Guest Column

One small town, a giant rooster, talkative folks: A good place for a young reporter to learn a lot

By JARED STRONG
June 2, 2005
GLIDDEN, IOWA

The most important trait a journalist can have is curiosity. My basic reporting class taught this idea. My advanced reporting class taught this idea. My professors not only teach it, they tout it as the key ingredient to writing great stories and creating great journalists. As heavily indoctrinated as I’ve been with this fundamental of my future profession, until very recently, I didn’t have a good grasp of the concept.

Curiosity is easy to understand, right? Just be curious – how hard can that be?

It may sound crazy, but curiosity is a skill developed through practice. And an opportunity for me to work for one of the smallest papers in Iowa has proven to be an asset to my growth as a curious writer and professional journalist.

Glidden, a west central Iowa town of 1,250, is the home of a small, 116-year-old weekly paper called the Glidden Graphic. Its editor Doug Rieder recently took a much-needed vacation to Boston, and that left half of the normal crew to produce the last issue of May. That’s right, two people run the Graphic. Rieder’s counterpart, Marie Stokes, is a ''jack-of-all-trades'' – at least that’s what she prefers as her official title.

Rieder’s departure prompted the Graphic’s owner, Rick Morain, to invite Chuck Offenburger and me to fill in. For two days beginning Monday, May 23, we turned the town upside-down as best we could to deliver a great paper.


The heart of the business district in Glidden, Iowa. Note the American Legion Post in the foreground is named after Merle Hay, who was the first Iowan and one of the first Americans to die in World War I. (Photos by Jared Strong)

I was a little concerned before arriving Monday that we’d have a tough time filling the paper with stories. After all, how many newsworthy occurrences can happen in a town the size of Glidden? I’m ashamed of ever doubting the ability of a small town to make news. Not only did we fill the paper, there wasn’t enough room for everything we’d intended.

Chuck, who is the master of writing small-town feature stories, didn’t even get an opportunity to write a column. Granted, with an upcoming Memorial Day, a once-in-a-blue-moon Glidden state track champ and the opening of a long-awaited swimming pool, we didn’t have to dig for a lot of story ideas. But even without those big events, there was still a lot going on in Glidden.

I re-visited the town this week to get another glimpse of the lives of people who openly accepted us into the community for our short stay.

To catch up on recent city happenings, I visited the most popular spot in town at 10 a.m. during the week – Cal Hughes’s garage, which is by far the cleanest, most organized garage I’ve seen in my life. Hughes has been hosting a coffee gathering since the turn of the century when the last coffee shop in town closed. The same basic group of friends has been congregating for 18 years to tell jokes and discuss current events.

“Monday is the most lively day,” said Hughes. “It’s when Kenny brings the 'Sunday School papers' with him.”

When Hughes says ''Sunday School papers,'' he means Internet jokes that Kenny Sherer gets from a friend. At age 92, Sherer is the oldest of the group, and he is a character. Drinking from a coffee mug that bears his name in bold letters, Sherer told me about his time abroad during World War II.


The Glidden Graphic weekly newspaper is run by editor Doug Rieder and ''jack-of-all-trades'' Marie Stokes.

“I got the [Glidden Graphic] sent to me when I was overseas,” Sherer recalled. “They always thought it was so funny how you had to hold your hands out so far to read the paper.”

The Graphic is about eight inches wider than a typical newspaper when open.

I arrived about 15 minutes late and consequently missed a quiz everyone else took at coffee. It came from a bi-weekly Topeka, Kan., publication called Capper’s. I looked over the 10 questions and didn’t know one of them. I mean, seriously, who knows which state is ''the Evergreen state''?

Many of Hughes’ friends are former farmers, and a lot of them had a subscription to Capper’s. Carolyn Conner remembered the publication, which she thought people received free with an insurance policy, or vice versa.

“I can’t remember which was the incentive for what,” Conner said.

Another coffee-goer said her husband was shingling a round barn roof, and she thought they collected money from the insurance company when he fell off.

“What? $25?” said Conner, inciting laughter from the group.

After almost an hour at the Hughes garage, I went to grab a bite to eat from Dairy Mart, a great local greasy spoon on U.S. Highway 30. I regretted not trying the maple soft serve ice cream the last time I was in town. Alas, maple had come and gone.

There are many reasons to eat at Dairy Mart. It’s cheap, the burgers are decent and they have crushed ice. But perhaps the best reason to visit is the giant plastic rooster -- bigger than a man -- that sits out front. Chris Hinners, who’s managed the place for three years, said he wasn’t sure how long the rooster had been there in the restaurant’s 50-year history. He wasn’t even sure why it’s there. Nonetheless, it’s a sight to behold.


The giant plastic rooster outside the popular Dairy Mart restaurant and ice cream stand has become a regional landmark.

After treating myself to a delicious vanilla ice cream cone, I made my way to the public library to find a book by Glidden native Carl Hamilton. Hamilton chaired the Iowa State University Department of Technical Journalism for a few years during the 1960s and also served as a key ISU administrator. For the last two years, I have studied and worked on the ISU campus in Hamilton Hall, which was named for Carl in 1984.

His book, “In No Time at All,” is a reflection on farm life in Iowa between 1910 and 1940, with many of the stories from his boyhood around Glidden. I thought it’d be an interesting read and was surprised the library didn’t carry it. The librarian didn’t seem to be aware of the book at all.

Despite the small amount of time I spent in Glidden, I was able to find story ideas everywhere, which taught me a valuable lesson – there is literally a story behind every face, every place and every giant rooster.

Working for the Graphic also made me think about my future. I had always planned to work for a large paper, like the Des Moines Register, for the rest of my life. But now, I don’t know. Writing for a small paper just might be more interesting and challenging.

In any case, thank you, citizens of Glidden, for teaching me something I didn’t and, perhaps, couldn’t learn at Iowa State. I’m confident I could go back to Glidden at any time and have many more stories – so Glidden, if you see me drive in with reporter’s notebook in hand, have the answers ready. I want to know about the Dairy Mart rooster.

Jared Strong, a native of Atlantic in southwest Iowa, is an Iowa State University graduating senior, with a double major in journalism and computer science. He is spending May and June interning as a columnist and reporter at Offenburger.com. You can find Strong''s earlier columns in this site''s Archives under ''Jared Strong''s columns.'' You can write him at jared@Offenburger.com

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