Iron Man Of The Month

'Although I consider myself semi-retired I manage to keep quite busy helping my son with the farming and also driving a school bus,' says Mouser. 'And on Sundays we always attend church where my daughter-in-law sings in the choir.'

Missing the rhythm of the barking stack and the whine of the old separator, when The Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Reunion organized at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Stanley Mouser attend.

'I've never missed a one of the Mt. Pleasant Reunions,' says he. 'Although I never got to run a steam engine in the field when we threshed, I always get plenty of opportunities to climb up on an engine and run it there. I was elected to the Old Threshers Board in 1960, served two terms, and still work on the Engine Placing and Parade Committees. My wife says I have steam, not blood, in my veins.'

Meantime the Mouser steam Engine mail box has taken on an additional service in the way of helping to preserve the Iowa agricultural ecology. For what better place to keep her little fledglings warm is there than atop a Russell boiler (even a mail box model) where Mrs. Robin neatly tucked her summer's nest, hard by the big fly-wheel. All of Which added more worries to the daily rural carrier juggling the Russell firebox open and shoving the Mousers' mail in without jostling the speckled eggs.

But we feel quite assured that the Stanley Mousers have everything under control, what with that picture Stanley sent showing the giant corn they raise out Iowa-way, being loaded by a railroad crane, one ear at a time one ear to a car.

For his efforts in preserving the steam dynasty atop his mail box post, and going one step further in the nurturing of nature's lovely ways, we humbly reserve a seat for Stanley J. Mouser in our Iron Man Hall of Fame. May the Good Lord grant him many happy years around the Mt. Pleasant steam throttles and much lingering in by-gone memories as he reads the Iron Man Album by the Russell mail box at the end of the lane Where Robin Red Breast sings his song.

Keeping the birds happy, polishing the old Russell and growing the corn tall and straight That's Iowa Iron Man Heaven. And Brother, that's not all for the birds!