March 29, 2024

Growing up in uptown Creston in the ‘70s

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Devon Leith remembers her childhood in Creston as nearly idyllic. She loved growing up in Creston, riding bikes all over town.

“We jumped on our bikes and were just gone for the day,” she said.

Often she would end up at the ball field at Division and Devoe streets. Sometimes it would be with the boys from her block playing touch football. Other times it would be with friends making up their own games and rules. There were no parents and no referees. They were their own officials. Rock, paper, scissors often decided sticky issues.

All ages of kids played together: baseball, softball or kickball. There were special rules for anyone under eight; you could stand in a different spot to hit the ball. When there weren’t enough players, you could throw the ball at the runner to make an out – that rule was later abolished due to a black eye and a scolding.

Sometimes, Leith and her friends would go to the old drive-in north of town. They would play kick the can or touch football amid the leftover pieces of the drive-in.

Leith feels that kids were more creative then because they “weren’t force-fed a lot of fun” – they had to make their own.

McKinley Park was another favorite destination. In the summer, there was swimming at the pool. In the winter, they would clear the snow off of parts of the lake and skate or play hockey with broomsticks.

Uptown Creston held wonders for a child in the late 1970s. According to Leith, “Every door had a thriving business.” There were five or six clothing stores to wander into, as well as a J.C. Penny. Leith recalls being able to buy candy with a dime at Petznicks: Sixlets, Chick-O-Sticks, Pixy Stix, jelly fruits, and candy cigarettes. Leith said Petznicks hasn’t changed, “It still smells the same.”

Leith and her friends would often buy candy at Petznicks and eat it before or after going to the Strand theater, where they would sit in the balcony to watch movies. She remembers seeing “Benji” and “Grizzly Adams” and throwing an entire bucket of popcorn in the air when the head popped out of the bottom of the boat in “Jaws.”

Dairy Queen was uptown at that time. A twist cone was just the right treat after a hot bike ride. DQ was also a great place to stop on the way back from 4-H dog training. Jinki, the dog, would get the top half of the ice cream in a cup.

Playing in the basement at her dad’s store, Evans Bros., was sometimes a bit dark and scary, but she and her brother did manage to find some of their Christmas presents ahead of time.

Leith became an expert at wrapping presents for customers at Evans Bros., which was instrumental in landing a part-time job in customer service at Sernett’s when she was in high school .

Winter time was for building snow forts.

“We would spend hours in snow suits out back building forts,” said Leith.

One winter, Leith said the drifts in the backyards were 10-feet-high. They dug out chambers in the snow through Paul and Cheryl Somers backyard.

“It was like an entire house back there,” she said.

Inside, there were board games and card games such as pitch. Leith and her friends still play the same card games – and Jenny (Holm) Cooper still makes up her own rules.

With high school came music, theater and cars. Like many generations of Creston youth, Leith looks back on “scooping the loop” as a weekend activity: down Adams Street, to McKinley Lake, out to Lil’ Duffer (where Taco John’s is now) and back again.

In band, Leith played a dozen different instruments. If there was a need for the French horn, she picked up the French horn. She loved being able to do that but does regret missing the opportunity to really master one instrument.

She also played piano from grade school up through college, taking lessons from her best friend’s mother, Dee Decklever, for 13 years. Once again, riding her bike to and from lessons each week.

In 1984, Leith was part of a group that brought home a banner from All State Speech in Readers Theater. For Readers Theater a group performs from a script with no props. The presentation is judged on how well the performers establish the mood and setting of the piece using just their voices as well as how well they interact with each other and the audience. Leith’s group performed “A Room of One’s Own” under the direction of Jim Lippold.

Mr. Osthus, high school math teacher, was Leith’s favorite teacher. She said he “had a gift” of knowing who understood the concepts and who didn’t. If a few students were struggling, he would present the lesson differently until “every light bulb went on in the room.” If all the students were having problems with the material, he would hold a “Heinz” day, where he would check in with each individual student until everyone could catch up.

Leith left Creston to attend The University of Iowa in Iowa City, but once she earned her degree, she returned to Creston and raised her four sons in the same environment where she grew up.