Did you know that a train on the tracks was once a valid excuse for being late to school or work?
Or that Perry school children used to be able to see the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile up close?
These and other topics will be shared in the next installment of the Perry Public Library program series, “Re-Awakening History By Telling Our Own Stories,” to be held Tuesday, May 24 from 6-8 p.m.
The program will be presented by Hometown Heritage Board Member Mary Murphy of the Perry Public Library in the upstairs conference room of the Towncraft Center at 1122 Willis Ave., adjacent to the Paley Arches and Soumas Court.
This month’s program will include several stories by Perry residents, including:
- “Perry: The Beginning – 1869” – Story told by Mary Murphy
- “The Creation of the Paley Arches” – Story told by Jim VonBehren and Bob Renze
- “Perry Volunteer Fire Department” – Story told by Brian Eiteman
- “How Perry Pulled Together to Attract A Pork Processing Plant” – Story told by Bill Clark
- “Pork Plants in Perry” – Story told by John Palmer
- “One Small Business’s Story – Pucci’s” – Story told by Larry Vodenik
“Perry has a long tradition of being a community made up of dedicated, go-getting individuals,” said Murphy, “and that is evident from the very beginning and throughout Perry’s history – from the founding of the community and bringing the railroad to town, to groups working together to attract industries that have helped shape the community, as well as the individual dedication of small businesses that create vibrancy in the community – and this program on Work will share a variety of those stories.”
The public is invited not only to hear the stories but to share their own memories of Perry’s working history.
Additional installments in the series are planned for Thursday, June 16 from 6-8 p.m., when University of New Orleans Professor Emerita Pan Jenkins will discuss loss and home at the Carnegie Library Museum, and Tuesday, July 26 from 6-8 p.m., when Hometown Heritage President Bill Clark will discuss faith at the Hotel Pattee.
A sixth and final installment will make a capstone for the series, including videos created from the community interviews. More details on the final program will be forthcoming.
For more information about this program or Hometown Heritage at the Carnegie Library,
contact Murphy at 515-465-3569 or mmurphy@perry.lib.ia.us.
