I do it like this, even though it looks like a hack it works every time:
ls_of_things = ['apple', 'car', 'truck', 'bike', 'banana']
first = 0
last = len(ls_of_things)
for items in ls_of_things:
if first == 0
first = first + 1
pass
elif first == last - 1:
break
else:
do_stuff
first = first + 1
pass