Loyal Iowans Reunite as Boone Companions

One man remembered taking baths in a big metal tub. Another man had skinned a skunk on his way to school and was sent home because he smelled so bad. A third stole watermelons for fun.

These folks--and about 150 other men and women--gathered at Knott’s Berry Farm on Saturday to remember the good times they had in the small Midwestern town of Boone, Iowa. They’re part of a society formed in memory of the town, which boasts ownership of what they describe as the last steam engine train.

Boone is a town of 12,000 people, a few miles east of the Des Moines River. Named after the youngest son of frontiersman Daniel Boone, the town began in the 1860s as a major train depot and a mecca for corn and soybean farming.

The folks gathered together Saturday love the little town. In fact, the annual meetings have become so popular that “Booneites” flock from all over the country to attend. This year, one woman traveled from Maine just for the meeting.

“It’s crazy that this many people get together,” said Jackie Bennett, who married an expatriate Boone resident. “I can’t think of a town smaller than Boone.”

Nevertheless, Jackie Bennett joined in with gusto as her husband, DuWayne, and other Booneites ate chicken and mashed potatoes at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. As part of the ceremonies, they also sang the “Iowa Song,” demonstrating how natives talk: “We’re from I-oh-way!”

It’s believed that the Boone, Iowa, Society of Southern California started with a handful of families who, beset by unemployment, moved to California and kept in touch with one another through yearly get-togethers, said society president Arney Tuttle.

The tradition grew, evolving into the 76th annual event Saturday.

“It’s just a small town with friendly people,” DuWayne Bennett explained.

Back when he grew up, playing hooky and sneaking off to the swimming hole or going fishing were leisure activities. For work, he detasseled corn and weeded bean fields.

“We used to steal watermelon. That was entertainment back then,” he joked. “There was never much to do in Boone.”

At age 17, he enlisted in the military and eventually moved to Southern California.

A large part of the exodus landed in Southern California--so many, in fact, that Bill Dickson, 74, at first believed Long Beach was actually called Little Iowa when he moved there during the Depression.

Dickson attended the luncheon to see lifelong friends.

So did Ruth Wooten Hawes. The 73-year-old woman came all the way from Maine to see her long-lost friend from school, Louise Dorrance Sallows, also 73.

“We lost track of one another and haven’t seen each other for 57 years. We were best friends all through school,” Wooten said. “Louise translated Latin for me. I wasn’t smart like she was.”

“You did other things,” Louise Dorrance giggled.