-Photo by Robert E. Oliver
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Jerry Wells, author of the newly released \u201cDavy The Magic Doodlebug\u201d book, poses with the \u201cworld\u2019s largest Doodlebug\u201d sculpture in downtown Webster City at the corner of Second and Seneca streets. Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Doodlebug Club of America, the Webster City-based organization that sponsors a website of Doodlebug technical information, and hosts the annual Doodlebug Reunion, which begins this week at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.\n<\/p>\n
In 1950, 14-year-old Jerry Wells had saved up $65 from his 35-cents-an-hour job at The Webster City Greenhouse. Like every teenager in town, he coveted a Doodlebug scooter. Its \u201chorse-and-a-half\u201d Briggs & Stratton engine could drive the little scooter at 25 miles per hour, a speed of which pedestrians or cyclists could only dream. <\/p>\n
More than speedy transportation, a Doodlebug meant independence and the little red scooters delivered it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn those years, if you were a teenager, you wanted a Doodlebug. Even girls rode them,\u201d Wells recalled. <\/p>\n
Two years later, Wells got his driver\u2019s license and with it his father\u2019s 1937 Nash Lafayette. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first car in town with a metallic paint job,\u201d Wells said, \u201cand I\u2019ll never forget that color: Hawaiian bronze metallic.\u201d <\/p>\n
His little red scooter was put away and eventually sold.<\/p>\n
In 1999, Wells attended his first Doodlebug Reunion and the old, familiar feelings of freedom and exhilaration he\u2019d known riding his first bug 50 years earlier came roaring back. Before he left the fairgrounds that day, he\u2019d bought a reconditioned Doodlebug and asked organizer Vern Ratcliff if there was anything he could do to help out at the reunion. <\/p>\n
There was lots to be done at the Doodlebug Reunion.<\/p>\n
For the next 20 years, Wells and his wife Carol shared the duties of secretary and treasurer of the Doodlebug Club of America, headquartered in Webster City. <\/p>\n
\u201cCarol did all the detailed treasurer\u2019s work and brought organization to every aspect of the reunion,\u201d Jerry Wells said. <\/p>\n
People attend the reunion for many reasons. Becky Dockum, for one, attended the 2023 reunion to assist her brother, a long-time Doodlebug enthusiast, in selling several of his scooters. <\/p>\n
Carol Wells, who tries to meet every attendee and make sure they\u2019re having a good time, struck up a conversation with Dockum, in the process mentioning Jerry was working on a manuscript for a book about Doodlebugs. Dockum\u2019s business is to help authors self-publish their books. She said she\u2019d like to see Jerry\u2019s manuscript. <\/p>\n
\u201cJerry had written a beautiful story, and I only cleaned it up a little bit,\u201d Dockum said in a recent phone interview. \u201cIt was such a pleasure working with Jerry and Carol. They\u2019re kind, forgiving people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jerry Wells was immediately at ease working with Dockum. <\/p>\n
\u201cI knew right away she was the person who could help me get the book published.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is \u201cDavy the Magic Doodlebug,\u201d a 30-page soft cover book that\u2019s not easy to classify.<\/p>\n
Dockum says it isn\u2019t just a children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a story a young child can understand as an adult reads it to them, but also a story an adult can read and relate to their own childhood.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the story opens, we meet 11-year-old Billy, who spies \u201ca rusty old piece of metal almost hidden in a large clump of grass\u201d while climbing a tree. It turns out to be an abandoned motor scooter in rugged, but salvageable condition.<\/p>\n
Jerry Wells has heard a number of stories of how real-life Doodlebugs were rescued and restored from what many would consider a pile of junk. <\/p>\n
In the book, Billy learns on the internet that his scooter is a Doodlebug, made by Beam Manufacturing Co., of Webster City. Between 1946 and 1948, the company made 40,000 of the tiny red scooters. He names his scooter Davy, the Magic Doodlebug.<\/p>\n
At that moment, Davy works a bit of magic of his own, becoming the world\u2019s only talking Doodlebug, thanking Billy for rescuing him, and giving him that name.<\/p>\n
After an exciting first ride, Billy\u2019s little sister, Emily, asks if she could take a turn. She\u2019s discouraged by Billy\u2019s big-brother answer: \u201cGirls don\u2019t know how to ride something like this. Besides, you\u2019re only nine years old and way too young to do something so dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
The book is laid out so each page of copy, printed in a large font size, and a colored illustration done by Dockum in water color pencil are across from each other. Although Dockum claims she isn\u2019t a professional illustrator, the story can easily be understood just by looking at the illustrations in sequence. <\/p>\n
Near the book\u2019s end, Davy hopes Billy will feel \u201cforever young\u201d whenever he rides. <\/p>\n
It may be the same feeling those Webster City teenagers felt when they first stepped aboard their own \u201cbugs\u201d back in the early 1950s. <\/p>\n
In a final bit of advice, Davy also tells Billy: \u201cBy the way, your little sister Emily should be allowed to ride, after all, girls do ride Doodlebugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last drawing in the book, a very happy Emily is going for a ride with Davy. The smile on her face is all the proof that Doodlebugs, the storied little red scooters from Webster City, truly are magic.<\/p>\n
Copies of the book will be sold for $15 each at the Doodlebug Reunion, at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds Sept. 10-13. Admission is free.<\/p>\n
For those wishing to buy the book, but who are unable to attend the Doodlebug Reunion, contact Jerry Wells at 515-832-9194. <\/p>\n
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