MILFORD, Iowa | Mabel Lockey sold her first night crawlers, or "nite crawlers," as the sign suggests, back in 1952. She and husband Bill Lockey built Bill's Bait along Highway 71 at the edge of Milford at the time.
"This was a corn field one year earlier," Lockey says with a giggle. "We watched farmer Dick Scott plant his corn with a planter pulled by two horses."
Thousands of cars, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles zip past on a cloudy Monday afternoon as Lockey embarks on her 64th year in the bait business in Milford, playing her role as businesswoman and red carpet provider for those visiting the Iowa Great Lakes.
"I'm 88," she says with a wide smile. "When you get older, time goes by faster because you're going so slow."
Bill Lockey, who worked in construction, was crazy about fishing. So crazy that he joined the U.S. Navy during World War II in his effort to avoid the U.S. Army.
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"He figured he'd be drafted into the Army, so he joined the Navy first," his wife says. "He wanted to be in the Navy, because that would give him a better chance to fish. And, he did. He fished in the ocean off his big ship."
Bill Lockey came home from World War II in June 1946. Less than two months later, he and Mabel wed in Spencer, Iowa. Six years later, they built a home and business on the north edge of Milford, surrounded by milking cows and horses, farm neighbors all.
"I'd have supper ready for Bill when he came home from work at 5 o'clock," Mabel says. "He'd eat and then head out to fish."
She'd stay behind to serve the anglers who stopped by for bait, tackle gear and information on that week's hot spots when it came to bites.
"Fishermen are happy people," Mabel says. "And this was a fun business because you're dealing with people who are happy. Maybe that's why I've lived so long."
Her life's chief regret involves the life of her husband. Bill suffered from lung cancer and died on Sept. 30, 1999. He was 73.
Mabel kept the business and kept the name, an homage to her late fisherman. She kept stocking bait and finally raised the price to $3.50 per dozen for night crawlers.
The anglers she served decades ago as boys are now grandfathers themselves. Some of them return to a brick-and-block business site that hasn't changed a whole lot through the years.
"I noticed business really slowed in 2008 when gas rose to more than $3 per gallon," Mabel says. "And people might not fish near as often as they did. A lot of them stay inside and play with technology."
While revenue streams aren't as healthy as they once were, Mabel likes the pace of life here. She rises not long after dawn, takes a few steps to the east and turns the sign at Bill's Bait from "Closed" to "Open."
"And then I just wait for customers," she says, noting her "hook" is the "Open" sign and the fact she's been in the same place, behind the same counter, working the same tourism mecca, since the Eisenhower Administration.
"People have said to me, 'You mean your kids still let you work?'" she asks with a tone of disbelief. "I say to them, 'I don't tell my kids what to do and they don't tell me.'"
Besides, she concludes, her health is fine. Her 1973 Ford pickup with 130,000 miles on it is just like her, still very much able to operate.
"I have my driver's license until I'm 90," she says. "My truck will have to last at least that long."
And, very likely, so will Bill's Bait. Just as long as Mabel Lockey can dig up a dozen "nite crawlers" for her paying customers.
"If Bill could have lived longer, I'd be happier," she says as a pickup truck with boat in tow turns north at her corner. "But he was too sick to live, so God is taking care of him now and that's OK.
"I've had a good life."
