We have a question from Dave Wistey (1959) that we hope someone can answer. He would like to know

"Got a question for ya... what is the correct pronunciation of Watanye, as in the club that my mother used to belong to in Clear Lake? I am not sure if that is the correct spelling, either. Thanks. Dave"

I happen to be a Wa-Tan-Ye member. WTY is a word of Indian origin meaning "Foremost." Our purpose - is expressed in our motto "Service Foremost." This means service to the community as a whole with special emphasis on one's own community needs. History - Mason City, IA is listed as the "Mother Club," for it was there, March 10, 1921 our service club, patterned after the men's service clubs, was organized. Our emblem is a chiseled arrow head that rests upon a key. The key unlocks the door of Friendship; the arrow is you and your profession. Our club has 23 members and average age must be 80! I'm really one of the younger ones! The ladies water the plants here at Southbridge Mall (where I'm the manger) and that's done weekly and we pay them $100 per month. With our income/funds we offer an $800 scholarship to a Mason City High School senior or Newman senior - we rotate - this year it will be MCHS senior.

We pronounce it Wa - Tan - Yee. I'm not sure who Dave Wistey is - but Helen Wistey used to live just north of our home on South 8th Street.

Glenys Merwin Schloemer (CLHS 1963)

My Aunt Helen Brooks was a Wa-Tan-Ye member. Her husband Gerald Brooks was my mother's brother. My mother being Ferne Brooks Melcher. Helen was a wonderful woman and a wonderful Aunt. I loved them both dearly. Helen was a reporter for the Clear Lake Mirror and Reporter for many years. They lived on North Shore Drive, just on the left as you went up hill just after the turn away from the Beach. Helen was not eccentric, but she was very much her own person, with her own traits and personality. My mother gave a speech at the Wa-Tan-Ye club one noon. She was talking about habits, I believe, and the way people can be counted upon to act. So she set five or perhaps ten chairs in row up front and asked some of the ladies in the audience to come up and sit. Then she asked them to leave the room for a moment. And she then told the audience to watch, that when they came back they would naturally return to very seat that they had left. She called them back, and my Aunt Helen promptly went to a different seat. Mom used to laugh about how she should have known that Helen would do that. Mom is still alive, but she has Alzheimer's. She lives in Florida, where my sister Linda is taking care of her. Not much of a story, I know, but that's what I remember about Wa-Tan-Ye

Love to all you old Clear Lakers, Mark Melcher (CLHS 1958)