The Emanon Club (an Ames neighborhood social club) was established October 28, 1929 to promote neighborhood friendliness.  Nell Berry, Louise Carlson, Clare Fitz, Eula Hiland, Carrie Link, Grace Murphy, Jean Stone, and Lillian Larson were the group’s founding members.  The club’s territory originally included homes on Roosevelt Avenue between 10th and 13th Streets; later, the territory expanded to include Marston Avenue.  However, club membership was limited to 24 (due to the size of most living rooms), and new members were admitted by vote.  The group met monthly in members’ homes to socialize, enjoy an evening program, or sew for charity.  An annual picnic has been held in the neighborhood since 1930.  The group continues as an active club to this day.

The Emanon Club (no-name spelled backwards) began with Nell Berry’s surprise party on October 28, 1929.  Eight ladies wanted to surprise their neighbor after she had recently recovered from an illness, and that evening they decided to start a women’s club for their developing neighborhood.  Today, at 76 years, the Emanon Club is Ames’ oldest continuing neighborhood association.

A typical meeting includes three parts: a program, a business meeting, and dessert.  Programs of the past have included discussions of flower arranging, napkin folding, travel abroad, collecting African violets, or solutions to war-time beauty problems.  Sometimes the hostess gives the program herself; other times, she invites a guest to educate and entertain.  During the business meeting, attendance is taken, hospitality chairs report on the news from their street, and plans are made for future meetings.  The evening always closes with dessert and coffee, allowing the women time to socialize.

Through the 1970s, it was typical for around twenty members to attend a meeting.  As homes in this area are not large (my own living room is 10’x15’), a hostess often had to go to great lengths to prepare for the evening meeting:  one senior member remembers removing the television and other large pieces of furniture to accommodate everyone.  Today’s meetings, however, tend to attract a smaller crowd (usually no more than ten members), making their setup a bit easier.

The Emanon Club maintains some timeworn traditions.  Each October, the members celebrate Emanon’s anniversary with a potluck supper—in the 1940s and 50s, this event was often a masquerade or hard-times party, with prizes for best costumes.  The December meeting features a gift exchange and sometimes includes entertainment provided by the neighborhood children.  (When our gift exchange began in 1932, the price limit was ten cents; today, inflation has raised the limit to one dollar.)

An important component of Emanon’s holiday meeting has always been a consideration of those less fortunate.  Today, we collect nonperishable foods for donation to the local food pantry, but before these agencies existed, food and homemade blankets were given directly to local families in need.

Off and on since 1930, the club has hosted a neighborhood-wide potluck picnic in June.  People of all ages share food and good stories as we get to know our neighbors.  Also, since the Club’s 50th anniversary, we have celebrated major anniversaries by enjoying a dinner out with some of our former members.

As members and their families pass life’s milestones, the ladies of Emanon have been at the ready with a small but memorable gift.  For many years, a handkerchief was the standard gift for a member moving away from the neighborhood (and thus giving up her membership).  On one occasion, three members were leaving around the same time and Florence Austrheim called it a three hankie affair [March 22, 1978, Emanon Minutes].
Reading through the minutes kept from each Emanon meeting since the Club’s inception, one gets a feel for the passage of time and how our changing culture is reflected locally:

• In the first several years, members were referred to by their formal names (Mrs. Berry).  By 1945, most members were referred to by their full names (Nell Berry).
• In the 1930s, the ladies often spent Emanon evenings sewing for the Red Cross, reporting in December of 1932 that they had tied one comforter and made sixteen baby garments.  In February of 1936, Mrs. Eula Mae Hiland asked the ladies to collect clothing and canned goods to help the Martin family, as the father had passed away and several small children were left behind.  After the goods were delivered, Mrs. Claire Fitz reported to the Club that Mrs. Martin was very grateful and thankful because she said it was rather unusual for white people to take an interest in colored people.... [March 12, 1936, Emanon Club Minutes]  [i.e. the Al Martin family whose father had died that year.  Al was a younger brother of Archie Martin, who housed African-American students attending Iowa State College at a time when they could not live on-campus.]
• The program for the March 1938 meeting was a book review of the popular novel, Gone with the Wind.
• At one meeting, the women purchased $39.75 worth of Defense Stamps [Feb. 1942, Emanon Club Minutes].
• In 1944, the neighborhood ladies baked fifty dozen cookies for the USO Center.
• In 1947, the women had a lively discussion on the length of women’s skirts.
• Television was the night’s entertainment for a few meetings in 1951.
• A donation to the Polio Fund was made in 1954.
• The evening’s program for April 28, 1976 brought in Mr. and Mrs. Farwell Brown to present a program on the history of Ames.
• On the evening of October 29, 1987, the ladies discussed the recent decline in the stock market and some of the elder members shared about living through the first ‘crash’ and how their families managed with less.
• In the summers of 2004, the ladies of Emanon operated a popcorn stand raising money for the Roosevelt Summer Sundays Concert Program.  This concert series has brought many local musicians to the neighborhood for toe-tapping good times.
• Since the closure of Roosevelt School in 2005,  the club has hosted school board candidates and a city council member as guests, using the opportunity to voice neighborhood concerns about the school’s closure and other local issues.
 


More Excerpts from Emanon Minutes 1929—1999