“Fort Dodge has changed a lot since I have grown up,” said Naylor, who will speak on growing up black in Fort Dodge on Saturday at 10 a.m.

The program celebrating Black History Month will be at the Fort Dodge Public Library.

As a child in the 1940s, Naylor lived on 11th Avenue Southwest in an area commonly known as The Flats in Pleasant Valley.

“We lived in The Flats and The Flats had everybody,” she said. “Mexicans, blacks, whites — you had all the races in The Flats. As far I was concerned, it was a natural childhood.”

Her mother, Sally Reddick, baked cakes at Tyler’s Bakeshop, which was located across from Daniel Pharmacy at one time.

Naylor never knew her father. He died before she was born.

“I had a mom and that was the rule I grew up under,” she said. “A woman’s rule.”

Segregation was limited in Fort Dodge, but Naylor recalls a few restaurants that didn’t allow blacks to be served.

“Unless you were taking care of a caucasian,” she said, “because they didn’t served coloreds, as we were called back then.”

She added, “They had colored people working for them, but they wouldn’t serve them. I could work for you, but you can’t serve me. That never made sense to me.”

Overall, though, Naylor doesn’t have too many complaints.

“Life was good,” she said. “We weren’t rich, but we weren’t hungry.”

In Pleasant Valley, doors were left unlocked and other parents helped police the neighborhood.

“Everybody played in everybody’s yard,” she said. “But if you did wrong, they told your mom what happened and it was worse what happened at home.”

Naylor attended Pleasant Valley School during grade school before attending South Junior High and eventually Fort Dodge High School.

“Everyone went to South Junior High and everyone went to the high school,” she said.

High school students didn’t drive to school like they do today, according to Naylor.

“When I was in school you didn’t have snow days and you walked,” she said. “Everybody walked. You didn’t see anyone driving to school. Kids didn’t drive to high school.”

Fort Dodge did have bus routes.

“Bus fare was 5 cents,” Naylor said. “That’s been a long time ago, I guess.”

She was 19 when she started working for Geo. A. Hormel, a meat-packing plant that employed about 900 people at its peak.

“I remember when I started I was only going to work there until I got enough money and I was going to go out to New York where one of my sisters lived,” she said. “Well, the money got good and I never did leave. It was a good job. It took care of me and my baby.”

Naylor had one daughter, Fortunata Green.

While pregnant with her, Naylor took maternity leave.

She moved to Omaha, Nebraska, for three years in the 1970s.

“When you took a pregnancy leave, you were off until they called you back,” Naylor said. “It took them three years to call me back.”

As a result, she almost took another job, but the other company she was considering called back around the same time as Hormel.

“I got the call from Hormel, so I came back and have been back ever since,” she said.

At the plant, Naylor did a little of everything.

“When I started, I worked nights,” she said. “I went from three in the afternoon to 12 at night. I worked in bacon, and from bacon I worked on the kill floor, the cut floor, and I worked in hams and Spam. That about covers it.”

Hormel closed its plant in 1982.

After 32 years in that business, Naylor was ready to move on.

“I had a chance to work in Nebraska, Wisconsin or California,” she said. “But that was enough for me. I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Naylor witnessed how Fort Dodge changed as businesses moved throughout the city or moved out altogether.

In the 1970s and 1980s, for instance, a lot of stores flocked from the downtown area to Crossroads Mall.

“Everything was downtown,” she said. “When the shopping center came in, Fantle’s moved to the shopping center, Younkers went out the shopping center. Sears went out. JCPenney went out.”

Fantle’s, a women’s clothing store, was Naylor’s favorite shop.

“A lot of people didn’t realize what was on Central,” she said. “We had five shows — the Dodge, the Rialto, the Iowa, the Strand, and the Park.”

Naylor was married to her husband, Walter, for 53 years. He passed away in 2017.

“I know one thing,” she said. “I miss my husband. Sometimes you don’t miss what you have until it’s gone.”

Most of Naylor’s friends have come and gone too, she said.

“I grew up with Jane Burleson (former Fort Dodge city councilwoman),” she said. “She’s in Milwaukee now. Families have moved away, and even a lot of the ones that have moved away, have passed away.”

But she appreciates the moments she’s had with friends and family and has embraced life’s transitions.

“Fort Dodge has changed a lot,” she said. “Some for the good, some not so good. But you take the good with the bad, the bad with the good and be thankful you are still here.”

If you go:

The Black History Month program is Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Fort Dodge Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Julia Naylor will give a talk entitled Growing Up Black in Fort Dodge.

Charlene Washington will discuss some Mississippi home remedies folks used when doctors were not available.

Bill Douglas will speak on his life growing up in Detroit and moving to Fort Dodge.

Fort Dodge historian Roger Natte will show a short film from the Pleasant Valley of yesteryear, as well as display pictures and articles.

John Van Wei will sing one of the songs he wrote reflecting on his life.

Cameron Nelson is the program’s emcee.

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