Banker Recalls Gopher Paws, Handshake Loans and Counter Checks All In a Row

NORWAY - Karen Himmelsbach was only 22 with no banking experience and had three jobs in the last five years.

"No way would I hire you," I say, glancing up from her application.

"I was a job hopper," Karen admits with a laugh. "I didn't have a good job history, did I?"

Nope.

But, that was 47 years ago - Aug. 23, 1964 - when handshake loans were common in small-town banks, when "who you knew" was more important than "what you knew" to land a job and when gophers were such a problem a bounty was paid for their paws.

Not long after Karen started at the Benton County Savings Bank a man walked in with a brown paper bag.

"He dumped them right out on the counter, gopher paws," Karen says, cringing to this day.

It might have been a dime a paw, Karen isn't sure. But, she started at $55 a week because that's what she asked for on the application.

"That must have been what Prentiss (Folvag, bank president) told me I'd be paid," she says. "I must have already had the job."

Growing up in Norway, Karen graduated from high school in 1959. Prentiss ran into her on the street and asked if she wanted to work at the bank. She'd already lined up a job at the school.

After a year, Karen became an operator at Norway Telephone Company, plugging wires into a switchboard to connect callers. But that job ended six months later when automated equipment made her job obsolete. She was commuting to Iowa National Mutual Insurance in Cedar Rapids when she reapplied at the bank.

The application asks how long she planned to work. Her response: "...‘till we have a family. I am not able to say when that will be."

She had Lori in 1966, Mike in 1968, and soon divorced. As a single mom, she couldn't afford to quit, not that she even thought about it.

Able to type 68 words a minute, Karen enjoyed learning to operate the posting machine. These were the days when accounts didn't have numbers but went by names. When you could write counter checks for purchases. When coins were counted and put into rolls by hand. Of course, there were no computers, no ATMs, no debit cards.

In 1973 Karen helped hire Marj Becker, current vice president and branch manager.

"When I came in to interview for the position," Marj says, "I was totally intimidated because she was sitting behind the counter."

But, they've since become best friends.

The bank changed hands a couple of times and was renamed BankIowa in 1998. Karen advanced from secretary/teller to assistant cashier, cashier and vice president in 1991. But, in a bank with four or so employees, she always waited on customers.

"I've had excellent people to work with, excellent customers," Karen says. "That's the hard part, like a second family."

But, after being part-time for a couple of years and turning 70 on Dec. 5, Karen decided, somewhat reluctantly, to step into retirement

"I'm having a hard time," she says, "picturing me not working."

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