DECEMBER SNOWSTORM

Garmoe Building as it appears today

During the first six years of their marriage, Ed and Helen lived on one of Michael Jondle's farms south of Fort Dodge.  There were several other Jondle families (Michael’s brothers and sisters) living on farms in the immediate vicinity. When Betty was about to be born there was a snowstorm on its way. Ed and Helen went into Fort Dodge and Betty was born in an apartment located on the upper floors of the Garmoe Building on Central Avenue.  The building was owned by Michael Jondle.  It was an important building in downtown Fort Dodge, located on a prime corner on Central Avenue next to the City Square. Betty was born on December 17, 1922.

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Here is a post card view of Central Avenue in Fort Dodge. The Garmoe Building is on the left. You can also see the clock tower of the Webster County Court House in the distance. There appears to be a trolly car line in the center of the street.

Betty had told me that she was born in the building due to a snowstorm. It is not clear to me whether her parents had gone into town where they could get help if there was trouble, or if they were already in town and stayed at the Garmoe Building because of the storm.

When I was a kid, before the mall and Wal-Mart had sucked all of the life out of downtown Fort Dodge, this was a beautiful building. It had a hardware story on the first floor. Steve and Betty bought me a bike there.