Every morning, when the corn's good and high, Lloy Hand climbs a stepladder into his weather-beaten pickup and drives to a farm near Des Moines where he fills the truck with just-picked corn.
 Golden tassels emerge from the ears of corn which blanket the Iowa landscape east of Adair, IA. Due to favorable weather this year's crops are yielding a exuberant growing season for the area farmers.
Then he heads to a Route 6 parking lot where he sits on an old plastic Valvoline can under a home-made tent covering the truck bed and waits for customers.
Not bad for a 92-year-old guy missing a knee cap in his right leg and two fingers on his left hand.
But it's no big deal to Lloy. He's glad to be working again after the kneecap was removed in 1985.
"This is just something to do," said Lloy, who's been selling corn since he got back on his feet in 1992. Even now, he hobbles around on a crutch and uses a little stepladder to help him climb into the pickup. Each step on the ladder is a precarious adventure, but Lloy doesn't want a helping hand.
The knee still hurts, especially in humid weather, Lloy said. He'll roll up his overalls to show you the long, jagged scar and the empty spot where there should be a knee.
 92 year old Lloy Hand from Elkhart, IA. drive to Des Moines, IA to sell sweet corn from the back of his converted pickup truck in a parking lot. Lloy empties another bag of corn as he awaits more customers.
And he'll gladly show you how to find the best corn. Just feel along the ear for the soft spots; that's where you'll find bad kernels.
Lloy sold 25 dozen the first day of the season in early July. Within a week he was up to 40 dozen.
"Today I bought 50 dozen. I've got three dozen left and then I'm going home," he said. At home, he'll take it easy and go to bed early. That's part of his recipe for a long life.
The recipe must work, Lloy said he passed his driving test "with flying colors," earlier this year and last week the doctors gave him a clean bill of health.
Lloy, who records every sale in a ledger, is a reminder of the past in a city where the metro area is sea of highways, malls and cookie-cutter stores.
"He's become quite a fixture," said customer Charlie Mathis of East Des Moines. Like Lloy, Charlie's been around long enough to remember Des Moines when it was a smaller city and downtown was the hub.
"This was the far edge of town when I first came here," Charlie said. Of course that was 50 years ago.
Lloy said Des Moines is growing out and the suburbs are growing in.
"It's just getting too damn big. There's places where the city limits meet," Lloy said. That will sound strange folks in the Northeast where every most every town bumps up against another. But, out here, there are plenty of unincorporated areas.
Now here's the rest of Lloy's formula for a long life.
"Stay single!" the lifelong bachelor said. "Keep out of the beer parlors and do not smoke," he added, pointing a finger at me as though he were Uncle Sam on an old recruiting poster.
And, one other thing.
"Drink lots of milk. I drink about three gallons of whole milk a week," he said.
Hmmm. Good thing Lloy's folks didn't "stay single."
BOTTLEMAN
Long before roadside cleanup projects were fashionable, Ernie Meyer was picking up bottles and cans along Route 6 in Iowa.
"It's a hobby," the retired Maytag employee said as he made his rounds in the small town of Victor.
But if you chat with Ernie, you'll find that his hobby is also a comment on life. He thinks Americans are no longer thrifty people.
"They shouldn't be throwing these things out," he said as he walked down the road to pick up a few bottles he spotted from his car. "But that's the values of our country now. They say 'what's the big deal about a nickel.'"
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, he said. Ernie sees a spend-happy nation that will collapse under the weight of its debts.
"We are going to wake up one day and the bottom will fall out. It's going to be just like 1929. I'm just sick about it," he said.
Ernie says he picks up about 50 bottles a day. He drives a few hundred yards, gets out walks along a stretch of road, and then brings the orphaned bottles to his
But he says his little effort doesn't change the big picture.
"We're over half-a-billion dollars in debt this year. We're all going down with the ship. But what can I do?" he said.
Part of the Route 6 Walk is a search for America's heartbeat at the start of new century. And Ernie has put his finger on one change.
Not long ago, thrift was considered a virtue. Now - we're a throw-away society.
If you want proof, just check the roadside - before Ernie gets there.
WHITE POLE ROAD
More than a century ago, some folks say, farmers placed stakes in the ground to guide prairie wagons as they headed west through Iowa between Des Moines and Omaha.
Later, those stakes became white poles that guided cars along the roadway that eventually became Route 6, nation's main coast-to-coast highway. Around here it was called the White Pole Road. Even airplanes used the poles as markers.
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"Before they put these poles in, there was absolutely no way for anyone to know where they were going," said Jo Ellen Arn, retired newspaper reporter who is collecting White Pole Road stories. Back then - the road was little more than dusty or muddy path, Jo said.
That was a very, very long time ago, of course, and the original white poles are long gone.
But now white poles are making a comeback - this time as a marketing tool in towns like Dexter, Stuart, Menlo, Casey and Adair which are trying to lure drivers from nearby I-80 into their communities.
"We want people to stop off and see what we have. The white poles are a bridge between the towns," said Liz Gilman, a member of the White Pole Development Corporation, which was created to transform the gimmick into tangible results.
 A tractor side rakes a hay field - which turns the field into rows of hay, so a bailer can collect and combine the hay into large bailed rolls, which would be used to feed cattle.
These are not glitzy, touristy towns, but Liz hopes people will come to see farms and fields up close, then stop for home-made pie at the Menlo Cafe or browse for antiques in Casey.
Liz and her husband, Ben, grew up tiny Menlo where village center is barely a block long. They remember when it was a bigger town with a grocery store and even a movie house.
Like many young people, Liz and Ben moved away because there's little work here now, but they commute back to work on the white pole project.
The development corporation's challenge is to get people who pull off the highway for gas or coffee to drive just a little deeper into the towns.
"If we can get just one percent of the people on I-80 stop off, that would make a big difference," Liz said.
Youngsters painted the utility poles (as high as they could reach) white. A local resident created the signs to mark the White Pole Road.
 Tractor Days brought in around 32 vintage tractors dating from 1941 to 1972, which traveled to five Iowa communities along White Pole Road (also known as Rt.6). Organizers intend to make this a yearly celebration.
Now the development corporation is promoting community events like last week's tractor run - where nearly 40 farmers drove their rigs along the White Pole Road. The farmers suggested the event and did most of the organizing, Liz said.
"I thought it was a great idea. It creates activity," she said, adding that it "brought in people from 40 or 50 miles away."
There are about ten businesses in downtown Menlo. Casey isn't much bigger, but it does have a 40-foot-long, three-story high mural dedicated to the nation's 20th Century soldiers.
The mural includes nearly a dozen scenes. There's a large image of Omaha Beach on D-Day, a sunken battleship at Pearl Harbor and sailors laying wreaths. There are soldiers in a Vietnamese jungle, a Korean war soldier comforting a comrade, a Gulf War pilot flying in formation, and soldiers raising the flag at Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. There's a WWI era image of Uncle Sam in a top hat and goatee and there's a WW II image of Rosie the Riveter.
 Part of a War Memorial located in a alcove in downtown Casey, IA honors US service men and women. Ray "Bubba" Sorensen (an area college student) created the mural which stands 3 stories high and about 40-ft long.
In the center of the mural, giant letters say "Thank You, Veterans, For Freedom."
The mural is the work of area artist Ray "Bubba&Mac178; Sorensen, a college student.
"You have a lot of people come by here to look at that," said Carole Moore who owns a nearby antique shop. When she's not in the shop, Carole, a Maine native, tends her ailing husband. It's not an easy life, but Carole has a smile, a laugh and a little advice for visitors.
"Life is too darn short. If you've got to choose between laughter and tears, choose laughter every time," she said.
HILLY IOWA
If you don't believe Iowa can be hilly, just walk along the White Pole Road from Casey to Adair. It's one hill after another. Each time you climb a hill, you're sure it has to be the last one, only to reach the top and see another, bigger hill - or series of them.
Adair was the high point on the old Rock Island rail line. Water from one side of town flows into the Mississippi. From the other side, it flows into the Missouri.
Adair is also the site of the first moving train robbery in the West. Jesse James and his pals did it July 21, 1873. It's still a big deal out here.
There's a marker in town and another at the robbery site, just west of town. There's even the annual Jesse James Chuck Wagon Days (July 23 and 24 this year.) And you can read all about the robbery in a special edition of the local newspaper.
East of Casey, you'll find vast of cornfields with stands of trees that look like islands in the distance.
Overnight, the corn changed from oceans of green sprouts to seas of golden yellow tassels. Blackbirds by the dozen sit atop the corn stalks.
On Sunday morning, the road is quiet enough to hear birds chirping, bugs buzzing and cars humming on the interstate a mile away.
You can see families driving to church and nearly everyone who passes by waves.
Copyright: Route 6 Walk.
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