Duke and I are in Manchester, Iowa helping clean out his Dad’s house. We found this suitcase in the attic. Can any one guess why it says Keokuk on one side and Ames on the other?
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My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
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Love the suitcase question. Did Duke’s folks have kids in college in both towns? That could explain the names on both sides. I bet when my kids are going through all of our stuff, they will have lots of opportunities to ask, “What WERE they thinking when they did this?!?”
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Local So-and-So commented on another post “Duke’s dad was hitchhiking, no? The suitcase looks circa 1935. Cardboard wasn’t invented until WW II. Am I right? Great suitcase. I hope you guys are keeping it.”
He is exactly right. Duke’s Dad used the suitcase to hitchhike between college at Iowa State in Ames and home in Keokuk, Iowa in the early 1940’s. He tells us that hitchhiking was faster and cheaper than the bus. He said that at the end of the term you would see 40-50 guys with their suitcases on the road outside of Ames. We brought the suitcase home with us on the plane. I think it was it’s first plane trip.
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