Postcard from the middle of nowhere

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, May 10, 2007 – Page 3

Recently someone asked me about creating a website for a group of friends who try to get together every year and want to be able to keep up on their home town of Ricketts,
I like to think of it a suburb of Charter Oak or Schleswig. It’s a burgeoning metropolis of say 150 people.

So, I tried to do a little research on Ricketts on the internet. Here’s some of what I found:
Dave Ricketts from Pottstown, Pennsylvania was 28 years old when he broke into the big leagues in 1963, with the St.. Louis Cardinals.

Rickett’s career batting average was .249 during his six years with the Cards, His high was .273 which he hit in 1969.

Pretty impressive, but he has nothing to do with Ricketts Iowa.
“Doc” Ed Ricketts was a marine biologist friend of legendary writer John Steinbeck from Monterey California. Doc is one of the heros in Steinbeck’s book, Cannery Row. The two men co-authored a book about a trip they took down along the coast of Baja Mexico.

Did you know that in Monterey, they don’t call it “Monterey Jack Cheese,” They just call it “Jack Cheese?” Not that it matters, because Doc Ricketts has nothing to do with the city of Ricketts either.

Of course, “Rickets” (one T) is a of Vitamin D deficiency. This disease involves softening and weakening of bones. This softening occurs from a loss of the mineral calcium from the skeleton.
The British Navy fought this by feeding their sailors limes, that’s how we got the ethnic slur “Limies.” Or was that Survey? Isn’t that a vitamin C deficiency? Whatever.

This ailment DEFINITELY doesn’t have anything to do with Ricketts, Iowa. AS far as I can tell, Ricketts is mostly a nice, clean, picturesque little town. But I do suggest you take your vitamins.
The USS Ricketts was a destroyer escort launched in May of 1943.

The Ricketts sailed from New York in February of 1944 on the first of 12 escort voyages to Northern Europe and back. One night, two merchant tankers collided, and both ships were badly damaged and burning. The Ricketts snatched 33 survivors from the sea, which was covered with blazing gasoline. Her commanding officer was awarded the Bronze Star for his part in this daring rescue.

But again, no evidence that this WWII ship had anything, whatsoever to do with Ricketts, Iowa. But they’re very patriotic people there. Lots of Legion members.

Civil War General James B. Ricketts was wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek. In 1849 he became the Regimental Quarter-master. General Ricketts was wounded in the first battle of Bull Run and taken prisoner.

Very noble, but- and I’m sorry to report this, he had pretty much nothing to do with Ricketts, Iowa. The town wasn’t founded until 1899. Of course, I’d like to think that they would’ve stood on the side of the Union if they had beed a town during the Civil War.

There’s a Dave Ricketts who is (or at least was) the parking and transportation director for the University of Iowa. (not to be confused with the Dave Ricketts who played for the Cardinals.)
Guess what? Yep, not from Ricketts. By the way, you’ll find plenty of parking in beautiful downtown Ricketts for your moped, Vespa, Razer scooter, or whatever small two-wheeled vehicle you ride. Of course, they don’t have a biker bar, but maybe if they had some bikers there first... who knows.

Oklahoma University Softball’s Samantha Ricketts was honored by USA Softball as one of 25 finalists around the country selected for the National Player of the Year Award.
On May 23 the list will be cut to three and those final three players will travel to Oklahoma City for the announcement of the winner at the 2007 NCAA Women’s College World Series.

Frankly, I highly doubt Samantha has ever been to Ricketts, but who knows, maybe she’s been to Iowa at least. If I were her, I’d take a road trip to Ricketts, just so she could take some pictures of herself next to Ricketts signs and stuff. That would look pretty cool in a scrapbook, if you ask me.

The Ricketts House is one of the four original fraternity houses at Caltech. Ricketts traditions include fire related activities.

Ricketts House was known for athletics and student government in the 1950s, but in the past few decades Ricketts has been known more for activities which push the motto “Take me as I am” to the limit. They’ve been pushing their school’s administration with increasingly envelope-pushing displays of self-expression.

This real life “Animal House” certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Ricketts, Iowa- It’s a quaint, quiet, picturesque little town. Sure, some of the folks there have probably raised a little Hell once in a while, but most of the time, they’re pretty much, well-behaved law abiding, and God-fearing.

If you grew up in Ricketts, be sure to plan on attending their annual “Ricketts Kids’ Reunion” the third Saturday in July. This year it will be July 21.

While I like to poke fun at it, I appreciate- no, I ADMIRE the affection that folks from Ricketts have for their town, and for each other. You gotta love a town that’s this small and yet SO German, that it has THREE Lutheran churches!

Visit the brand new Ricketts Reunion website: http://rickettsiowa.blogspot.com

If you grew up in Ricketts, be sure to plan on coming to our annual reunion, the third Saturday in July. If you have memories or pictures of Ricketts to share, email them to me, their webmaster: ted.mallory -at- gmail.com

If you have other funny, kitsch, or corny "Not the same Ricketts" ideas, send them too. Help put Ricketts on the map!