They're all ears

SPIRIT LAKE - Come Labor Day, in Spirit Lake, and you know where to find Jerry Millsap.

Cooking corn.

It's tradition.

"I've been here 40 some years. I've missed it twice because of work," the veteran said Monday morning. "I do this every year."

There, in front of the Robert J. Mackie Memorial Hall along Highway 41, Millsap and Clif Davis were monitoring three pots of boiling water filled with ear after ear after ear of bright, rich, yellow corn.

"Let those go a little longer," Millsap said as Davis lifted a lid and tried to peek past the steam.

This was after friends, neighbors and grandchildren shucked 500 ears of corn donated by Kevin Miller of Harvest Foods.

Sure, it was 80-some degrees. Sure, it was darn hot along the highway. But the free corn at Spirit Lake's City Park must go on.

"We are going to continue with our corn," said Millsap, a member of Roy Racy VFW Post 1473.

It's a simple process.

Boil the ears for 10 minutes. Done. No salt or butter is added.

If people want salt they can add it after the corn is transported via truck in foil-lined plastic containers.

At noon, come and get it.

"We butter up there with paint brushes and we have towels," Millsap said, smiling.

The free corn served by the VFW continues to be one of the most popular traditions among Spirit Lake's Labor Day festivities. Ears are snapped up in about an hour, perhaps longer if the weather is bad. Some years, there's corn left over. Not often, but it happens.

No problem.

"Us guys just take it home and freeze it or we take it down to a bar and give it away," Millsap explained.

He said while the membership has declined at Roy Racy VFW Post 1473, there's never any talk of ending this culture of the corn.

It just wouldn't be Labor Day in Spirit Lake.

"We do this every year and we'll continue to do it until there's no more vets," he said.