Ramblin': Smile and people wonder what you’re up to

INDEPENDENCE - Lyle Luloff smiles as he hugs the women and shakes men's hands as a greeter for the noon meal at the Buchanan County Senior Center.

He smiles as he drives Amish people to appointments.

He smiles when he rides a Farmall tractor, when he writes a joke or short story for possible publication in Our Iowa magazine, and every Friday night when he and wife Ivadell hold a hootenanny at the senior center.

Lyle, who turns 92 on Feb. 10, never lets the corners of his mouth droop.

“No, he's never quit smiling,” chuckles Ivadell. “That's how I know he's up to something.”

Lyle smiles at that, too.

“Work hard, love much, laugh a lot and trust in the Lord,” he says.

Yep. Let a smile be your umbrella. Always look on the bright side.

“My dad always told me,” Lyle says, “if you're going to freeze at a farm sale, you better make some money.”

Lyle once bought a tractor and sold it within an hour for a $100 profit.

“You can learn a lot from your dad if you just pay attention,” he says with a grin.

Lyle's dad, Otto, lived to be 86. Plenty of time to dispense his wisdom on Lyle, the youngest of four children who grew up north of Brandon. Plenty of time to tell stories, a gift of gab Lyle quickly picked up from his father.

One of Lyle's favorite stories is how he met Ivadell “across the fence.”

Seems his family's Holstein bull had constant run-ins with her family's Guernsey bull. A load of buckshot into the Guernsey's hind end sent it racing home, where it destroyed an oat bin.

A couple of years later, after Lyle and Ivadell were dating, Lyle asked her father for her hand.

“If you don't marry my daughter,” he said, “I'm going to give you the same treatment you gave my bull.”

Is it true?

“No,” Lyle says. “But it makes a good story.”

“He's always pulling the wool over your eyes,” Ivadell laughs.

On March 23, they'll have been married 70 years. Both admit it hasn't all been roses, but it helps that she reads the Bible aloud to Lyle every morning after breakfast.

“Sometimes,” she says, “you have some pretty tough sledding, and this old Bible can pull you through.”

Duct tape holds the Bible together. Lyle says it holds him together, too.

Lyle, who farmed for 30 years, became a crop insurance adjuster for another 20. Always one to stay busy, he collected Farmall tractors (owned 10 at one time) and likes to drive in area tractorcades. He usually receives the oldest driver award. Standing just 5-foot-2, he might be the shortest, too.

Lyle became friends with Amish residents after making quilt racks, deacon benches and clocks he'd sell on consignment at their stores. He regularly drives them to town for shopping, errands, medical appointments, even for the delivery of babies.

“I tell them if they don't name it Lyle, to put it back,” he says.

Folks tease him that his coveralls are his “Amish Tuxedo.” But he wears one of his 14 suits to church every Sunday, making the 40-mile trip with Ivadell to Zion Lutheran Church nine miles southwest of Jesup.

Fridays are reserved for the hootenanny, where area musicians entertain 50 or more folks who love bluegrass and like to dance. It keeps him and Ivadell, 87, young.

“My dad always said you‘ve got to have some young friends,” Lyle says, “or before you know it, you won't have any.”

Dad also said to keep smiling.