Memories of Marion in Days Gone By

MARION - Marilyn Prouty, 84, lives just around the corner from where she grew up and can't help but reminisce in her colorful way.

She'll talk about walking the streets of Marion with her grandfather when she was a child and the stories he'd tell. She'll laugh about working as a telephone operator after graduating from high school in 1945 and recall riding a trolley car, the Interurban, to Cedar Rapids. She'll tell you about being the only child of a single mother and raising 11 children of her own.

"I write things down every once-in-a-while but then I can't find the piece of paper," Marilyn says. "What in hell fire good does that do?"

Born Nov. 19, 1927, at Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids, her parents had already split.

"My dad (with her in the photo) left three months before I was born," she says. "I think he lived in Cedar Rapids for a while."

Eventually, Carl, a mechanic, moved to Minneapolis and married another eight times.

She and her mother moved in with her father's parents, Chris and Sopha (Sophie) Johnson, because they felt bad about their son leaving them. That was at 535 Eighth Ave., not far from 742 Seventh Street where she lives now.

The house had plumbing then, so her grandfather filled in the outhouse and turned it into a chicken coop. "It still looked like a crapper," she says.

And she'd often help her grandmother make cookies. "I'm sure I was a big help. I'd stick my finger in the bowl and take a little taste."

Her mother, Mary Estella, who went by Stella, became a clerk at Owens Drug Store, later Sorg's Pharmacy, where she worked 40 years.

Her grandfather was born in Sweden as Christ Johnson, but dropped the "t" because he didn't want to be called Christ. She says he became streets commissioner.

"My grandfather was always nosing around," Marilyn says. "When I'd walk up town with him when I was little, he'd see people. Are you doing this? Are you doing that?"

The Hallwood Cafe (now Zoey's Pizza) was a popular hangout but, even more than that, used to handle emergency calls for the police and fire departments. She was told, after a call came in, a red light would be turned on to signal them.

Later, Marilyn's husband, Daniel, a longtime sheet metal worker at Ilten's in Cedar Rapids, frequented the cafe. "They had a place where the men went to have beers," she says. "The women and children couldn't go."

They married July 15, 1946 - "It was on his birthday," she laughs. "He got a real package, didn't he?" - and had 11 children. "One and one is supposed to make two, but in our case it works out to eleven," she says. "The kids tell me that."

With dozens of grandchildren and great grandchildren, they rent a hall to hold family reunions.

"At Christmas, I love it," Marilyn says.

Of course, that's an excellent time to reminisce, too.

Maybe she'll talk about the telephone switchboard. "I was an evening chief operator which is supposed to be a feather in your cap. I was 18. I had to boss older ladies."

Or maybe her rides on the trolley for a nickel and then a dime.

Or maybe about leaving Marion and her return because, sometimes, it's just nice to hear those old stories before we can't hear them any more.

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