Part
II
MY LIFE STORY
MY YEARS FIVE TO SIXTEEN
(1940-1952)
The WWII Years -
The nineteen-forties were huge years in the world and in my
life. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected for an unprecedented third
term and inaugurated in January 1940.
In the world, the war in
Europe continued from the prior decade, Japan bombed Pearl
Harbor and declared war on the U.S., WWII continued in
Europe, Asia and the Pacific for three and one-half years
until V E day and V J day, both in 1945.
The development of the atomic bomb was completed in 1945,
the dropping two of which,
resulted in a quick total surrender by Japan.
After V E day, Germany was divided into four sections
with the USSR (Russia), the UK, France and the U.S. each
responsible for a section.
Additionally,
after V E day, Russia resumed pushing
communism into
neighboring countries and essentially controlled all of
Europe east of a divided Germany.
Western Europe was substantially rebuilt in the later
one-half of the decade and continuing on into the 1950s as was
Japan, however Eastern Europe -
Communist Europe - continued to stagnate.
Generally, the world economies were strong in the second
one-half of the
decade fueled by the demobilization and the reconstruction in
Europe and Asia.
The United Nations was formed in 1945.
The United States lost 407,000 killed in action during the
almost four years of WWII.
Another 670,000 were wounded.
The U.S.
population at that
time was 131 million.
These casualties were about the same as the UK, which had
384,000 killed in action but had a population of only
48 million.
France suffered 200,000 killed and had a population of 41
million. Russia
suffered 11 million killed with a population of 190 million.
Germany had 5 million killed with a population of 70
million. Japan lost
2 million with a population of 72 million.
In total some 25 million members of the world’s military
were killed in WWII!
Counting the loss of civilians from the war, famine,
genocide and the military actions some 80 million people or some
3.5% of the world’s population were killed during WWII!
After V E Day, Berlin was in the Russia sector of a divided
Germany. A “free”
corridor from the free sector (the UK, France and US) to Berlin
enabled Berlin’s access to supplies from the west, however,
Russia decided to close that corridor isolating Berlin.
The Allies organized an airlift which flew the needed
supplies into Berlin, until Russia finally relented and reopened
the Berlin corridor, eliminating the need for the airlift.
Russia built a wall separating its Germany sector from
the free sectors of Germany and extended the wall north and
south between the Russia controlled portion of Europe and the
free countries of Europe.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill named this wall
“the Iron Curtain”.
The Iron Curtain was in place preventing most citizens on
one side from accessing the other side, frequently separating
families. The Iron
Curtain was finally dismantled in 1991.
Those countries east of the Iron Curtain, i.e., the
Soviet bloc, trailed substantially the countries in the free
sector in economic development and other progress over the
decades following WWII.
(As related later in this autobiography, I was at the
Iron Curtain in Berlin in 1991 as it was being dismantled and
secured two small pieces of the concrete from the wall.)
The U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb required a highly
organized, crash program to take
theoretical concepts of two different bombs based on two
different technologies, as well as the construction of
several
very large manufacturing
facilities to make the necessary raw materials and supplies for
these two bombs.
This massive and very successful effort was conducted with the
help of UK scientists and a number of European scientists who
had fled Germany.
This achievement was a result of a critical race with the German
scientists to achieve the first atomic bomb.
The accomplishment shortened the war with Japan
significantly and
saved thousands of U.S. military casualties by avoiding the need
for the Allies to invade Japan.
Unfortunately, while Russia was fighting Germany along with the
other allies, it was also positioning itself to export communism
after WWII to neighboring countries and indeed around the world.
In retrospect the U.S. government was heavily infiltrated
with communists and communist sympathizers.
The U.S. supplied Russia a tremendous amount of war
materials to enable Russia to battle Germany basically on credit
virtually all of which was never paid.
These war materials also included a significant amount of
technology, e.g., the latest technology for substantial sectors
of a country’s economy, including petroleum refining, vehicle
manufacturing, etc. complete with the detailed designs of the
most up-to-date manufacturing plants.
All of this was supplied to Russia in exchange for
keeping it
successfully fighting Germany and incurring
unbelievably high casualties.
However, the communists and communism sympathizers
further enhanced the U.S. transfer of materials and technology
to Russia which strengthened its ability to successfully export
communism to neighboring countries.
I remember learning about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor on
Sunday, December 7, 1941.
I was spending the week end with my mother’s parents in
Albion. It was a
sunny, nice, fairly warm day for December in Iowa.
I was walking around the small town that early afternoon.
I stopped
and sat on a bench outside the town’s hardware store, when
someone told me that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor that morning.
Hawaii’s time was five hours earlier than the Central
Time Zone where we were.
I didn’t really comprehend the significance of this
event, however we later listened to President Roosevelt’s
address to the nation which further described the attack and the
U.S.’s reaction to it.
WWII was a terrible war, but possibly not quite as brutal as WWI
with the use of poison gas in that war (poison gas
was banned after WWI).
Many, many families were disrupted.
Many young men were conscripted into the military.
Fortunately, for us Dad was except from the draft because
of a serious leg bone infection when he was in high school,
because he had four children and because he was a farmer.
Fortunately, none of his four brothers/brothers-in-law
were called to serve in the military for various reasons.
His younger brother, Bud, was already serving as a
submariner, having joined the Navy in the mid-1930s.
He was deployed in the Pacific
theater. Bud
was the only close relative we had on either side of
the family who was in the military during WWII.
Bud saw considerable action during the almost four years
of WWII, and
fortunately, survived it all.
Bud left the Navy after the war.
Dad’s youngest sister, who was separated and then widowed
during the war
married one of Bud’s fellow submariners.
He/they spent their entire career in the Navy.
We had several neighbors who served during the war and to
the best of my knowledge we fortunately did not know a single
one who was killed or came back seriously wounded.
One particularly, depressing event was written about extensively
in the local and other Iowa newspapers in 1942.
That was about five brothers from a single family in
Waterloo, IA, with the last name of Sullivan.
All five of these young men were in the U.S. Navy,
serving on the U.S.S. Juneau, a light cruiser.
This ship was sunk on November 13, 1942 in the battle of
Guadalcanal, one of the early major Pacific
battles. All
five men, and a total of 600 sailors were lost on that ship.
This was, and still is the worst single family loss from
a single event in U.S. Military history.
A movie was made about these brave young men in 1945
which I remember seeing.
The sunken wreckage of the U.S.S. Juneau was located in
11,000 feet of water in March 2018.
I remember seeing numerous advertisements, particularly in
magazines and on recruiting posters, presenting US Marines and
other military branch members as robust, good looking larger
than life men attacking smaller, less robust Germans
and Japanese military men.
I also, remember one day, possibly in 1943 that dad
received a phone call which turned out to be from his brother,
Bud, who was on leave from the Navy and unknown to his parents –
or I believe any of his family – had arrived in Marshalltown by
train. Bud wanted
dad to come to the train station to pick him up and take him to
visit their parents
who lived about seven miles away from our home.
I was invited to go along.
Bud had a full face beard, the first man that I remember
having such a beard.
My grandparents were surprised and thrilled by Bud’s
surprise visit. I
don’t remember him being on leave at any other time during the
war – everyone was needed in that fight.
During the war, there was rationing of many materials, e.g.,
gasoline/diesel fuel,
imported foodstuffs, fats and vegetable oils, sugar and
many other things of which there was limited supply or the items
were needed for the military effort.
We were issued a gasoline rationing coupon book from
which we were required to provide a stamp when purchasing
gasoline for our car.
Dad was able to get all the gasoline he needed for the
tractor for farming.
Also, as part of our effort to support the military/war
effort, we saved all of the left over cooking fat and donated it
at a collection station in Marshalltown as the glycerin in this
fat was recovered to make nitroglycerine.
Nearly every physically fit, eligible male between 18 and 30
years of age, was drafted into the military service, if he had
not already enlisted into one of the branches of the armed
forces. Many of the
younger women volunteered for non-combat roles in the military,
including nursing, operating transportation vehicles in
non-combat areas, communications and flying – ferrying - planes
to their needed location.
Everyone was encouraged to purchase war bonds/stamps, to
participate in groups that made certain items of clothing for
the deployed military and to contribute to the war effort in any
way he/she could.
During the war, wage and price controls were implemented which
governed the wages that could be paid and the prices that seller
could charge for their products.
The price controls applied to many commodities, such as
grains and meat animals.
I followed the progress of the war through both radio and
newspaper reports.
Also, each week there was a movie update shown in the theaters
prior to the featured film, which provided the latest war
updates. Most of
these reports were designed to be promotional of the Allied
forces success against the Axis forces.
I remember the reporting of the Normandy landing on June
6, 1944 which was the beginning of the end of the war in
Europe. From
that day on, the Allied forces unrelentlessly closed in
on Berlin. The last of the German forces surrendered on May 8,
1945.
President Roosevelt was re-elected for a fourth term and
inaugurated in January 1944.
He did not live to see the end of the war in either
Europe or the Pacific, as he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on
April 12, 1944 and
Vice President Harry Truman took the oath of the Presidency on
that same day.
I remember the reporting on the battle for Okinawa in the
Pacific which was the
prelude to invading Japan.
The Okinawa campaign began on April 1, 1945.
The American forces faced terrific resistance, as the
very determined Japanese forces knew the next battles would be
on the Japanese Homeland Islands.
The battle in Okinawa lasted until July 2, 1045.
During most of 1945 the Japanese war material factories
and its major cities were subjected to intense bombing by the
American forces.
All of this was in preparation for a landing of US forces on the
Japan Homeland, with an expected very heavy loss of American
men.
On August 6, 1945 the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
It was estimated that 2/3 of Hiroshima’s 90,000 buildings
were destroyed or badly damaged by the bomb which exploded 2000
feet above Hiroshima.
There were some 140,000
casualties, one-half of this total dead or missing, from
this bomb. On August 9 a second American bomber dropped a
plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.
This bomb exploded 1750 feet over Nagasaki with a
resulting estimated casualties of 35,000 dead.
On August 14, 1945 Japan
unconditionally surrendered and on August 15, 1945.
President Truman had made the decision to drop these two
bombs (the only two that the U.S. had assembled at that time) to
avoid the potentially brutal campaign of invading Japan.
Our Life on the Farm During the World War II Years -
On a personal and
family level, the nineteen forties were also very significant,
we acquired electricity for the farm, dad purchased his first
tractor and some tractor pulled farm equipment, I began
school in 1940 – 1st grade – having just turned five years old,
sister Nancy was born in December, 1940, brother Dick was born
in December, 1942 and sister Jaynane was born in July 1946.
Wage and price controls
were ended shortly after the conclusion of the war.
Mom’s parents both died of natural causes.
Mom and dad purchased the “home” forty acres (that forty
acres which included the buildings) from Mom’s parents. Mom,
aunt Bea and uncle Lisle each inherited 40 acres of remaining
120 acres my grandparent Ware’s farm.
Mom and Dad purchased aunt Bea and uncle Lisle’s forty
acres. Mom and dad
financed this purchase utilizing the Federal Land Bank.
Before the U.S. was attacked by Japan and entered the war
against both Japan and Germany, we experienced several major
events at home – electrification of the farm, the purchase of a
tractor and tractor mounted/pulled equipment and I began school.
Getting electricity to the farm was huge.
Four wood power poles about 25’ tall and 10” diameter at
the base were spaced evenly in our front pasture between the
rural road in front of our
property and our farm buildings.
These poles supported the electric lines which delivered
electricity to a central location within the farm buildings and
the house. A
slightly smaller pole was positioned near the house which
supported the power lines to the house.
The meter to register the amount of electricity used by
us was mounted on this pole.
As soon as we had electricity in the house, dad purchased a
refrigerator and an electric powered milk separator.
The need for harvesting and storing ice was eliminated.
Electric lighting replaced our kerosene wicked lamps and
candles. An
electric motor replaced the gasoline powered clothes washer and
wringer. Gradually,
hand powered and gasoline powered equipment was replaced with
electric powered equipment.
Initially, we had limited access to electricity in the
house as the house needed to have electrical wiring installed.
Dad purchased an
International Harvester (Farmall) Model H tractor and a tractor
pulled plow, disk and harrow (also called a “drag”) to replace
these horse powered farming tasks.
He also purchased a row crop cultivator which was mounted
on the tractor.
This changed significantly the amount of manual labor required
in the planting and tilling of crops.
Dad no longer had to walk behind the horse
pulled plow, which was a challenging task as the horse
typically moved faster than
man walks, meaning that dad had to almost jog to keep up
with the horse and the plow.
The same applied to the harrowing/dragging.
Moreover, it was
easier to sit on the tractor to do the disking and the
cultivating than to sit on the disk or the cultivator behind the
horses to do these tasks.
Finally,
with the tractor when the day’s work was done,
there was no more work putting the horses into the barn,
removing the harnesses, feeding and otherwise caring
for the horses, so they would be ready for the next day.
The Model H tractor was designed to pull a two bottom
plow, a disc about 12’ wide and a harrow about 16’ wide.
It was the workhorse farming model for International
Harvester at that time.
A bit later they marketed a Model M with was very similar
as the Model H but had sufficient power to pull a three bottom
plow and corresponding larger other pieces of farming equipment.
Dad continued using horses for planting the corn and
soybeans, seeding the oats and hay, picking corn by hand and
various other chores for several more years.
I attended our nearby school a few weeks in the spring of 1940
to see if I would be prepared to begin school that September.
I was, although I don’t remember my parents prepping me
for school as they each had a full plate with the farm tasks and
caring for my siblings..
I entered first grade that fall and walked the
approximate ¼ mile to our one-room school.
The building which was
single story measuring about 35’ by 50’ had a small
8’ by 12’ ante room at the lone entry for storage of
boots, coats and supplies. There were four casement windows on
each side of the building which provided plenty of light
although the building did have electricity.
I don’t remember there being storm windows for use in the
winter to provide better heat containment nor screens to enable
opening the windows for fresh air when the weather was nice.
A blackboard stretched the width of the front wall.
Above the blackboard were the letters of the alphabet in
script form, which served as models for our penmanship classes.
The building was heated with a coal burning stove located
in the mid-front center of the classroom.
The teacher would come to
the building early in the winter time to build the fire
and begin heating the room.
The school was named Hurricane #5.
There were about sixteen students in the eight
grades. Every student walked to school with the longest
distance for anyone being about 2 miles.
There were two girls and me in my class.
One teacher, Ms. Simcox, taught all of the students – all
eight grades!
Books, which were well worn and limited in number, were at a
premium. Ms. Simcox
would assign one grade several tasks, then move to the next
grade to do the same and so on throughout the day.
She taught all of the subjects which were required for
grades 1 through 8.
While she was instructing one class, the other classes would be
team teaching/ learning/practicing their studies.
The individual learning involved many drills, use of
flash cards for math and spelling and considerable cooperation
among those in each grade.
The teaching task must have been gruesome for her and
other teachers who had several/multiple classes to teach
concurrently. Some
of the better upper class students would teach a portion of the
younger student classes. I was tasked with this a considerable
amount of the time.
Mrs. Nelson replaced Ms. Simcox beginning with
my fourth grade.
Throughout my seven years in this school, I only had the
two same class-mates.
There was a morning and afternoon recess and a lunch
period. Each
student carried his/her own lunch.
The school yard, which was about an acre in size,
included swings, teeter-totters and lawns for frolicking when
the weather cooperated.
The school work was easy for me and I typically excelled.
We had no home work.
During these years, I was also tasked with watching
(baby-sitting) my siblings if my parents needed to leave the
house for a few hours.
I was given considerable responsibility and opportunity
to grow as a youngster.
The highlight of these contemporary memories was the driving
trip to Connecticut (CT) in 1941 with my grandparents Ware.
I don’t remember anything about the drive except we were
in the car a long time – this was before Interstate Highways and
autos that could cruise 60 or more mph.
We must have stayed in a couple of motels during each leg
of the trip but I don’t recall that.
I remember us visiting my favorite uncle Lisle, his wife
Helen, their adopted children David and Linda.
Lisle was working for a YMCA organization in CT.
David was a couple years younger than me and Linda was a
baby at the time.
We stayed with them several days and visited the local sights.
I had my first sighting of an ocean and swam/wadded in
the Atlantic Ocean. My aunt and uncle were living in a
relatively new, nice home in suburbs but they were longing to
return to the mid-west.
One day we drove into Manhattan to visit mom and Lisle’s
first cousin who was an executive with a pharmaceutical company
and had an office in a “sky scraper”.
I believe he was on the 40th floor and had a
wonderful view of the city.
(This cousin was a 1931 Harvard MBA who 22 years later
convinced me to apply for the
Harvard MBA program!)
This road trip was a wonderful first of many driving
trips for me.
Grandparents Ware And Jim, In CT 1941
In 1942 the folks bought us a Shetland pony, a mare that stood
about 40” high. I
was to share her with my brothers and sisters as they reached
pony riding age. We
named her Beauty.
Initially, it was my responsibility to feed and water Beauty.
I soon mastered saddling and bridling her and as she was
already broken for riding and began
riding her shortly
thereafter.
Brother Bob soon joined me in riding Beauty. Shortly thereafter
we celebrated my 7th
birthday with my first “official birthday party”.
Attending guests included friends, Billy and Karen
Tomlinson, Richard, Donald, David and Billy Wagoner and Janice,
Patty and Mildred Holmquist, who were visiting from St. Paul.
We rode Beauty, played games and enjoyed home-made ice
cream and cake with seven candles.
During these years I became very interested in building model
airplanes, using balsa wood (a very, very soft and light weight
wood) and tissue paper.
It was a national popular past-time and retail stores
existed to satisfy one’s every need for different models of
planes, as well as all of the additional supplies needed to
participate in this wonderful hobby.
It may be the only true hobby I ever had.
I powered a few of the planes utilizing rubber bands
connected to the propeller, which when twisted tightly and then
released as the plane was hand launched into the air managed to
pull the plane some 50 yards.
I believe that the war effort and interest in flying
motivated me to this avocation.
Indeed, I told my mother that I would be a pilot
some-day. (Alas, I did take private flying lessons in 1962 and
soloed twice.
Shortly thereafter I decided that I wanted to attend graduate
school and that private flying lessons were not financially
compatible with graduate school.)
Early in these years, dad had a hired man to help with
the farm work as he began renting nearby land to add to
our 160 gross or
about 125 tillable acres.
The hired man’s name was Jeff
Davis, no relation to
our family. Jeff
lived with us and had no car.
He would hitch-hike to town for an evening on the
weekend. Jeff was
with us about five years.
During that time, dad was renting a nearby farm
consisting of about 140 acres of tillable land located about ½
mile away to our east - the Mitchum place.
I believe that Jeff worked for dad until Grandma Ware
came to live with us in 1946.
At that time dad purchased a Farmall Model B tractor as well as
a tractor mounted row cultivator for it.
This tractor was not powerful enough to do all that the
Model H did, however, it was driver friendly, as the driver’s
seat was mounted to the side of the engine centerline and made
it more “user friendly” for cultivating row crops as the driver
was placed directly over one of the two rows of crops being
cultivated. Hence
it was easier to keep the tractor and cultivator in position to
not disturb the crops as they were being cultivated.
As I grew up, indeed as all of we siblings grew up, we were
assigned various responsibilities and tasks helping mom in the
house and helping
dad on the farm.
From an early age, possibly five years old I would feed the
chickens, harvest the eggs, bring in firewood for the kitchen
stove, get the milk cows in the barn and ready them for milking.
I would take care of Beauty, our pony.
I would run errands for mom and dad.
I helped with the
washing of dishes after meals, setting the table for
meals, preparing the meals and the clothes washing.
All of these tasks were year around.
In addition, when school was not in session, typically mid-May
to after Labor Day
and on Saturdays during school, I would help dad with the
planting, tilling and harvesting of the crops or whatever work
the farm required.
I began driving the tractor when I was seven years old and
before I was ten years of age, I was driving the tractor to
prepare for planting the crops, caring for the crops, mowing
and preparing hay, for storage, grinding corn to feed to
the cattle and hogs and a myriad of other chores.
We took advantage of the winters to connect the draft horses and
later the ponies to the sleigh and go visiting our neighbors by
sleigh if there was sufficient snow on the roads.
The fields at that time were fenced into parcels of some
10 to 40 acres, thereby preventing much cross country sleighing.
We kids had sleds and frequently eagerly awaited the
first sledding-friendly snow fall.
We normally had such a snow fall by Thanksgiving.
In the spring and even into the early summer, we occasionally
had very heavy rains which caused the creeks on our farm to
overflow. We had
two creeks which joined not far from our farm buildings and in
total the length of the creeks exceeded a mile.
We had pastures along about 1/2 of this distance and crop
land along the balance.
Occasionally, the waters would be as much as 100 yards
wide during the height of the flooding.
Any crop land that was planted and the plants not firmly
rooted was very susceptible to being washed out.
If it was early enough in the season that replanting,
even with a different crop was possible, some product could be
salvaged – otherwise it was lost.
These floods of our creeks were compounded by all of the local
creeks which drained into the four-mile away Iowa River.
It too flooded, frequently over the roads and bridges
crossing the river and resulted in thousands of acres of land
under water.
Typically, the land near the river was woodland or pastures, as
the frequent floods made it uneconomic to farm this land.
However, it was wonderful pasture land as the grass was
lush and the proximity to water provided ideal areas to raise
and/or feed cattle.
One of the recreational activities during these floods was to
wade in the muddy, muddy flooding water looking for fish,
typically large Carp which would be in the relatively shallow
water looking for food .
One could spear the Carp with a pitchfork if one was
adroit enough.
However, the Carp were not good eating.
In the summer, the creeks ran with a reasonable amount of water,
as they were spring fed.
Playing in the shallow creek was a favorite past-time on
hot days. There
were occasionally small fish in the creeks, along with muskrat,
mink, opossum and water-foul.
However, in the Iowa River, the water was sufficient to
sustain larger fish, e.g.,
Bass, Bluegill, Catfish and Bullheads.
It was fun to spend a Sunday fishing in the river, and if
conditions were accommodative, to swim in the river.
One of the things we had to check ourselves for after
river swimming was leeches, which would attach themselves to us
and need to be forcibly removed.
In the winters, particularly after the farm was
electrified and we no-longer stored ice in the ice house, we
would harvest ice from the creeks or the livestock water tank to
use for freezing ice-cream.
During these early years dad would trap muskrats, a large land
based “rat” like animal, possibly 15” long not counting a
rat-like tail which was frequently 15” long.
There were numerous muskrats who created a den, somewhat
like beavers do, but in the soil bank of the creek.
The entrance of the den was below the water line
preventing certain predators from disturbing the young muskrats.
We would place leg traps, which were attached to a chain
staked to the earth, at the entrance of the den and capture the
muskrats as they entered/exited the den.
We would check the traps morning and evening, before and
after school.
Typically, we had two dozen traps set.
In a good year we would get as many as one-hundred
muskrats. The
muskrat pelts were worth several dollars each at that time.
Also, the muskrats caused the creek banks to become
unstable and collapse, causing more soil erosion and the loss of
farm acreage.
Dad attempted to trap mink, also in the wild and near the
creeks. The
mink were exceptionally wary and it was difficult to capture
them. We
attempted to capture them with the same traps as the muskrats,
however the mink had above ground entrances to their dens making
it even more difficult to trap them.
The mink pelts were selling for about $25 each at that
time. As we
got older, my brother, Bob and I would set and check the
traps.
In the late spring, as soon as the weather warmed enough, we
farm boys would shed our shirts to get a sun tan – actually a
sunburn, which over the weeks became a sun tan.
We did not know about the hazards, particularly melanoma,
from too much sun.
(Fortunately, even though I probably was well tanned for at
least seven summers, I have been remarkably free of skin cancer.
I had a modest basil cell cancer removed at about age 75
and a few “spots” frozen during my annual dermatology visits
since then. I have
been very lucky in this regard.)
The Post WWII Years on the Farm -
The United State economy was very strong after the war as there
were many veterans returning from the military service, who
wanted to (1) get a college education and benefit from the GI
Bill, a government program
which paid for veterans college and trade school costs,
(2) get a job and begin a career and (3) get married and start a
family. The United
States population was relieved with the ending of the war and
the war restrictions which were in place for the four years of
war. These persons
wanted to get on with their lives to start businesses, start
families, travel and enjoy our country and it’s freedoms again.
Additionally, wage
and price controls that were in effect during the war were
terminated. All of
this benefitted the economy as our citizens purchased houses and
home furnishings, automobiles and other large ticket items,
disposable goods and personal needs.
Additionally, many of the technological and product developments
for the war effort were modified for the commercial market,
e.g., Jeeps, airplanes, all kinds of communications equipment,
war surplus merchandise and more.
Many industries, products and technologies benefitted
from the discoveries and other improvements made in supporting
the war effort. The
strong pent-up demand as a result of the war effort propelled
many companies growth.
The wage and price controls were rescinded shortly after the war
ended. (Unfortunately, they were rescinded two weeks after dad
sold a load of fattened calves.
Had we waited another two weeks, he would have cleared
another $5000, which was a lot of money in 1945!)
Dad purchased a milking machine to help with the milking
chores and rebuilt the milking parlor complete with concrete
floor, a room for the milk-cream separator and the central
control/operating equipment for the milking machine.
Throughout the following several years dad continued
upgrading and adding to his farming equipment, adding a Farmall
Model M and a mounted two-row corn picker for the M.
He also purchased a combine for oat thrashing which
resulted in the oats being harvested in one operation instead of
the previous five operations (cutting, binding, shocking,
hauling to the threshing machine and thrashing the oats from the
straw).
Additionally, he added a three bottom plow, a larger disc and
harrow. He
also added power hand and table mounted tools for accomplishing
the necessary farm maintenance jobs.
In
1945, we took our first family vacation.
I don’t recall my parents taking any vacation prior to
this. Bob and I,
traveled with our parents on a driving trip
through South Dakota, visiting Mount Rushmore, Wild Bill
Cody’s final resting site, a number of other tourist places in
South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.
We also visited my mom’s brother, uncle Lisle and his
family in Boulder, CO.
Aunt Bea stayed home on the farm with our younger
siblings. I
remember going to a movie one night during the trip.
My dad was wearing a pair of trousers which looked like
military issue and the theater sales clerk asked if he was in
the military, in which case he could attend free.
Dad acknowledged that he was not in the military.
The memories of this driving trip conditioned me for my
many driving trips later in my life, particularly to visit the
western United States.
I never tire of visiting/observing the beautiful vistas,
the towering mountain’s snow covered peaks, the natural rock
formations, the animals and the native inhabitants.
I have never lived in these locations or taken sufficient
time to hike and camp some of these wonderous places.
When I was about ten years old, Bob and I joined boys 4-H, an
agricultural organization for young men and women who wanted to
learn to raise and care for cattle, hogs, sheep and even
poultry. We
had a local 4-H club which included about 12 members ranging
from our age to seniors in high school.
The primary project for most of our clubs members and all
of our family members was raising beef calves, called “Baby
Beefs”. We
would purchase a
beef calf weighing some 250 pounds at the beginning of the year
– late December or early
January. We
were responsible
for caring and feeding the calf until it was time to show the
calves at the county fair, in September.
We were responsible for keeping track of the amount and
cost of feed the calf was fed through the nine months.
We were responsible for teaching the calf to lead via a
rope and halter. We
were responsible for showing the calf at the county fair in
competition with other 4-H members for the best Baby Beefs.
Our siblings followed in our footsteps, joining 4-H when
they were old enough.
All of us saved money for college/nursing school as our
parents weren’t in a financial position to pay our way through
college even though they dearly wanted each of us to get
whatever education we wanted.
The judging of the livestock was a serious portion of the 4-H
responsibility; however, we were primarily interested in the
economics of the livestock feeding.
A few of the 4-H members purchased expensive purebred
animals hoping to end up with a grand or other major prize.
We just wanted to make the best return on our work and
dad’s feed. Dad
purchased the calves for we children and provided the feed, all
in exchange for each of us helping on the farm.
Each of us
was responsible for caring for our “project”.
We then took the Baby Beef(s) to the county
fair where the calves were judged
to determine the best calves.
Upon completion of the judging of our livestock entries,
the livestock was sold in an auction at the close of the fair.
Frequently, the livestock was purchased by a local
butcher shop or other meat market which paid a modest premium
for the animal.
Other animals were purchased by the meat packers.
The proceeds from the sale of the beef calf, which at
that time weighed nearly 1000 pounds, were ours to keep in our
college fund. It
was a wonderful way to save money for college.
One of the events at the annual county fair,
for the 4-H members was a greased pig contest for twelve
year old boys in which I participated.
The event involves coating a dozen pigs, weighing about
forty pounds each, with axle grease –
almost a paste of grease.
The pigs were loose in an enclosed lot about 100 feet by
50 feet.
Twenty four boys were selected by a lottery and stationed inside
the pen fence.
On a signal the boys scrambled to capture a greased pig.
Fortunately, I was one of the successful boys.
Each of us who had captured a greased pig and carried it
to the finish station, had a pig to take home and add to the
herd of pigs already there.
In the following year, I participated in a calf scramble,
which much like the
pig scramble, except the calf was not greased.
Again 24 boys selected by lottery pursued twelve calves.
The calves weighed about 100 pounds and we were given a
short piece of rope to put around the calf’s neck to “capture
it”. Again, I was
successful and that calf was my 4-H project for the following
year.
The annual county fair was a major social event.
In addition to the 4-H livestock competition and sale,
individuals entered projects/products that they had designed and
made or that they had grown in a garden, e.g., a 300 pound
pumpkin or some such.
Many retailers of farm equipment and supplies and of
unique new products would display and present these items to the
fair attendees.
Additionally, there was the proverbial “mid-way” with
rides, games and other attractions.
Each night the grandstand would be filled for the evening
show/attraction, such as auto racing, horse racing or a famed
singer/performer.
Typically, there would be a headline entertainer for the entire
fair as a supplemental draw.
The greased pig and calf scramble were conducted as part
of the entertainment. After all of the counties had their fairs,
there would be a State Fair, although sometime it was held in
August before some of the county fairs.
We bred Beauty to a quarter horse stud owned by a neighbor.
The result was a sorrel colt some eleven months later
which was my horse.
I named him Rusty.
Rusty was bout 48” high when he was fully grown.
I worked with and trained Rusty as he grew.
When he was two years old I had him reasonably broken for
riding. My brothers
and sisters then were able to ride Beauty, as I had moved on to
Rusty.
Rusty was a head strong pony that loved to run and frequently
would head for the barn at a full gallop, anxious to rid himself
of me. One Sunday
morning, I was riding Rusty in the back pasture before church.
He decided that he had had enough and headed for the
barn, but on the way to the barn there was an old Willow tree
that had blown over in a manner which left about five feet of
clearance under the tree.
Rusty wanted me off his back, so he ran under the tree
resulting in not only knocking me out of the saddle but leaving
me unconscious.
When I recovered consciousness, I was bleeding from my
nose but otherwise seemingly unhurt.
I walked the two hundred yards to the house where the
folks were talking with my visiting aunt Bea prior to dressing
for church. They of
course were concerned about any injuries that I might have
resulting from the episode.
Fortunately, I had none.
I returned to the barn to unsaddle Rusty and stable him.
We then readied ourselves for church.
I continued to ride Rusty and never let him unseat me
again. My brothers
and sisters rode Beauty and other ponies but none of them
rode Rusty because of his being so head strong.
Rusty died on our farm after I had graduated from
college.
One summer day, when I was about ten years old, my folks left
the farm to run an errand taking our siblings with them except
for me. I decided
that we needed to clean out some small trees and other brush in
the edge of one of our fields.
I took a double bladed axe and some other tools on one of
the tractors to the
location which needed clearing.
I made good progress but as the day was ending, I hoisted
the axe onto my shoulder and headed back to the tractor, which
was about fifty yards away.
As I was walking, I inadvertently released the axe
handle, thereby allowing the axe to fall behind me.
The sharp blade clipped my ankle and apparently cut a
fairly significant blood vessel.
I managed to stop the bleeding and returned to the house.
I did not tell my
parents and did not bandage the cut.
During the night the cut opened up and bled somewhat
extensively, severely soiling the sheets on my bed.
The next day my mother stripped the bed for laundry and
saw the blood. She
was horrified, concerned and upset with me for not telling her
about my accident.
Fortunately, the cut healed well, no stitches and no
complications resulted from this mishap.
Such was life on the farm.
Injuries, even somewhat serious injuries were
self-treated and
seldom did we go to
the doctor. I only
remember one injury of mine which involved a doctor’s care –
that was a cracked wrist from a fall at school.
In 1946, we “bored” a water well about 33 feet deep (using a
truck mounted and powered auger about three feet in diameter)
about 100 yards south of our house in a pasture as the well
which had generously supplied the farm very good water many,
many years was
slowly declining in its ability to
keep up with our water demand.
However, the capability of this new well was not
satisfactory.
Hence, we drilled a second new well just twenty feet west of our
house to some 130 feet in depth using a commercial well drilling
contractor. This
well bore was fitted
with a 6” carbon steel pipe and used a submersible pump located
in the water aquifer. The water was pumped to a pressure tank
located in a well pit at the well head.
This well provided ample wonderfully tasting water for
the entire farm’s needs.
Beginning
in September 1947, our local Hurricane #5 school was closed.
Bob, Bev, Nancy and I began attending LaMoille
Consolidated School.
Most of we Hurricane #5 students were bussed to LaMoille
Consolidated about five miles south from our home (a few of the
students choice to attend the Clemons or the Albion Consolidated
Schools). The total
attendance at the LaMoille School for grades 1 through 12 was
probably about 125 students.
The facility consisted of a fairly large three story
building with individual rooms for each
primary school grade and a large assembly hall for some
40 to 50 students in grades 9 through 12.
In addition, there were a number of smaller class rooms
located around the assembly hall for individual classes, a
kitchen and eating area for “hot lunches” which also doubled for
the Home Economics classes, a wood working shop for manual arts,
a small gymnasium with very limited seating on one side of the
gym and a stage located on the other side.
Chairs for observers of student performances would be
placed on the gym floor when needed.
There was a small baseball diamond located on the
property along with a modest amount of play ground with a modest
amount of
play-ground equipment.
There was a two story “teacher’s house” which had four small
apartments contiguous with the school grounds.
The school’s location was about five miles from
Marshalltown, however there were few rental opportunities in
Marshalltown or the surrounding areas for the teachers
who frequently only taught a few years at LaMoille before
moving to another assignment.
Consequently, providing housing for some of the teachers,
particularly married teachers was necessary to attract faculty
members.
Interestingly, my future wife’s parents who were both school
teachers/principles and superintendent in small consolidated
Iowa schools interviewed for these positions at the LaMoille
School in the late 1940’s when some of my siblings and I
attended the school.
Her parents were both offered positions at the LaMoille
School . However,
after visiting the school and the housing provided by the
school, the Swansons, whose daughter was the same age and in the
same class as me, decided that the housing offered by LaMoille
wasn’t acceptable.
They declined the job or Karen and I might have met at the
LaMoille School.
We typically had about 8 students in my class and were offered
only the basic studies.
Again, school work was easy for me and the classwork was
not particularly challenging.
I excelled in my studies, seldom had home-work, had
virtually no studies outside of book work with the exception of
the one-half year I took “manual training/shop” which was taught
in a poorly equipped shop.
We had no science labs at LaMoille.
The teachers were all dedicated and did their best to
educate us, however, the facilities were very limited.
I played both basketball and baseball when attending LaMoille,
although I was not very good at either.
Our basketball and baseball competition were local
comparably sized schools.
We typically played basketball games on Tuesday and
Friday evenings competing with about a dozen other neighboring
schools with attendance about the same or modestly larger the
than our school.
I believe that there were four categories of teams in the
state, all based on the total attendance of the high school.
The games were played in months of November through
February with tournaments in March.
The winners of the local tournaments moved
on to sectional, then regional and finally the state
tournaments.
We would ride a school bus to the away games and a few of the
team member’s parents would drive to the away games.
Attendance at our home basketball games was quite limited
by the size of the gymnasium.
In basketball, I played guard most of the time and found myself
in the starting line-up somewhat in my sophomore and my junior
year. I did not and
do not have a decent outside shot, nor was I very good in
handling the ball but I also didn’t have much competition from
other students. I
don’t believe we had a winning season in any of my years on the
team. I made the
baseball team all three years of high school that I was at
LaMoille. I enjoyed
baseball and played catcher most of the time.
I was a bit better at baseball than I was at basketball,
but alas our teams were never very competitive.
During my freshman year, I fell on a set of concrete
steps at school and cracked my left wrist.
It was in a cast for four weeks.
Fortunately, that is the only bone I have broken/cracked.
It kept me from playing basketball for those four weeks
and did not help my basketball prowess.
I was a cheerleader during my junior year for the
girls basketball games.
Other students led the cheers for the boys basketball
games. Since we had
very limited attendance at our sporting events there weren’t
many students or parents to join in the cheering.
At that time girls basketball was played basically on
one-half of the court, six players to a team, three forwards and
three guards. The
offensive team would in-bound the ball from the center of the
court and the three offensive players would try to score over
the three defensive players.
If they scored the ball went back to center court and the
other offensive team would then try to score.
Iowa and Texas, I believe were the only two states that
played girls basketball that way at that time.
The juniors and
seniors at LaMoille,
had a class play in which members of the class would
compete for various roles and our parents and other interested
community persons would attend the performances.
In 1948 our family acquired our first television set which had a
circular 15” screen and had a roof mounted antenna to pick up
the signal. We
could access three television stations, NBC and ABC ( Des Moines
stations) and CBS (a Cedar Rapids station).
The programing was limited – the stations signed off at
midnight and resumed at 6 AM the following morning.
The black and white picture was not very good, frequently
disrupted by lots of fuzziness on the screen and adversely
affected by inclement weather.
Soon afterwards we modified the antenna to have remotely
controlled directional positioning antenna which improved the
signal reception and thusly the picture.
Gradually, additional stations were available and
programming progressively improved.
Television then became our primary source of news,
weather and crop/livestock prices.
In winter of 1949, when I was thirteen plus years old a
neighboring farmer,
Mike McClure, needed surgery.
He hired me to live with he
and his wife, to do the morning and evening chores and
any other necessary farm work.
At that time, he was milking about eight cows - by hand -
feeding about 50 feeder cattle and about 100 hogs.
In addition, he had a goodly number of hens, laying eggs.
The morning chores took about 90 minutes and the evening
chores about two hours.
I lived with them, sleeping on a single bed in very small room,
eating breakfast and dinner with them after doing the chores,
including separating the milk into the cream and skimmed milk
and rode the same school bus as previously to and from their
farm to school.
When all of my work was done on the weekends,
I walked about a mile to my parent’s home and caught up
with our family developments.
In all he hired me for about two months.
I don’t remember what I was paid, but I do remember, that
I felt that I earned every bit of it.
The money went into my college savings account.
The following summer, he hired me full time to help him
with his field work, as Bob and Beverly were able to pick up the
load helping dad in the field.
Our hired man, Jeff was no longer working for us.
In June 1950 the U.S. was drawn into the Korean War as a member
of the Allied Forces.
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 6th.
By moving south of the 38th Parallel which was the
then common border between North and South Korea.
The Allied Forces of which the U.S. was the major
fighting element joined South Korea in first stopping the North
Koreans from overrunning the entire Korean Peninsula and then
driving the North Koreans deep back into North Korea.
U.S. Army General MacArthur who was the Allied Forces
Commanding Officer wanted to drive the North Koreans across
their border with China. At that point China entered the war on
the side of North
Korean and General MacArthur was relieved of command
by President Truman.
The bloody battles continued until a stalemate was
reached and a peace negotiated in July 1953 whereby both Koreas
agreed to observe the 38th Parallel as the common
border of both countries. The U.S. military losses were 37,000
killed and 137,000 wounded, including Karen’s brother Ed.
The South Korean’s lost 217,000 killed and 429,000
wounded. The North
Korean and China losses were over one million killed and over
2.2 million wounded!
In the autumn of 1951, our Hartland Church building was in
desperate need of repair and upgrading.
The original building was built in 1858 on stone pillars
which were deteriorating and there was need to expand the
capacity of the church for various activities.
It was decided to construct a full basement under the
existing building and to install a central heating furnace, a
kitchen for food preparation to accommodate modestly sized
meetings and a restroom.
The building was lifted in place from the pillars on
which it rested and men who were members of the church dug the
basement with a “skipjack” basically a large bucket pulled by a
horse which excavated about a cubic yard of dirt at a time.
An operator walked behind the bucket and insured that the
bucket excavated the correct soil.
It was a time consuming process, but eventually the
necessary soil was removed, foundations poured, walls
constructed of concrete block.
The project was finished
in about 3 months, and included the completed basement
as well as a make-over of the almost 100 year old building- new
pews, windows, walls, floors and some carpeting.
It was a very nice improvement.
Note: There
was no building permitting at that time.
No inspections as to complying with health and safety
standards, etc.!
Post WW II Years National Economy
During the post WWII years, the national economy was strong as
it benefited from the pent up demand resulting from the war, the
strong employment growth, the need for new housing and the
commercialization of technologies developed in the war effort.
The farm economy also benefited from
the strong
national economy.
Demand for agricultural products was good, prices were strong
and costs were generally under control.
Our country substantially helped rebuild Europe which was
substantially destroyed by the prosecution of the war to defeat
Germany. I don’t believe that we helped Japan that much in its
reconstruction.
There
continued to be tensions
between the free democratic countries and the communist
countries, mainly the USSR.
A cold war was developing between the USSR and the
European and U.S. countries.
These tensions were initially, primarily over the divided
Germany. Germany
was divided into four sectors upon the finalization of Germany’s
surrender in 1945. The British, French, Russian and U.S. each
had responsibility for a sector.
The Russians had the East Germany sector and the other
three, western sectors were controlled by the Brits, French and
U.S.
Berlin, the
German capital city, was located deep into the Soviet sector,
but it was also divided into four sections.
In June 1948, the Russians – who wanted all of Berlin –
blocked all highways, railways and canals from the western
sectors into the western controlled portion of Berlin.
The Russians believed that this would make it impossible
for the people who lived there to get food and other supplies
and this would drive Britain, France and the U.S. out of the
western sectors of Berlin.
Instead of leaving, the U.S., Brits and French agreed to
supply the western sector of Berlin by air.
Thusly, was born the “Berlin Airlift” which lasted for
over a year and delivered some 2.3 tons of cargo into West
Berlin. Russia
finally relented and the ground resupply was resumed.
As tensions in
Europe increased, on the opposite side of the globe – as
mentioned earlier -during the summer of 1950 the friction
between North Korea
and a South Korea exploded when the North Korean’s with military
support from China and the Soviet Union invaded South Korea.
As a result of the Korean War, the military draft was
continued and many troops, especially those with certain
specialties were recalled to duty.
This second disruption of these men’s lives was
particularly galling to them, particularly to fight in
this deadly foreign war.
However, as the Korean War wound down, the conflict in
Viet Nam was being kindled and the U.S.
was again drug into a war protecting non-communist
countries from being taken over or being invaded by communist
countries. These
proxy wars basically between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would
continue for years.
Finishing High School and Looking Toward College -
During my junior year in high school beginning in the fall of
1950, I began zeroing in on what I thought I wanted as a career.
I never really considered farming, although I enjoyed the
work, appreciated the challenges and knew I would be successful
at it for a career.
One of my reasons was that with five younger siblings, I
felt that one or more of them might be attracted to farming as a
career and might even want to take over the family farm when
that time came. I
also knew that math and what little science I knew came easy for
me and felt that these strengths would serve me well in an
engineering career.
At that time, I knew little about management and even less about
specifically what an engineer would do.
Regardless, I decided that engineering was probably my
calling.
Having decided that I would go to college and study engineering,
I decided that LaMoille didn’t really serve me very well in
preparing for college and for engineering.
I discussed with my parents the possibility of
transferring to Marshalltown Senior High School for my senior
year of high school.
They supported my decision (Since the school district
within which we lived was an independent district, its students
could attend any Iowa public school without any complications.)
Dad said that he would buy me a car and that I could live
at home and commute to Marshalltown High School.
I turned 16 years old that summer, earned my driver’s
license and received a 1946 Plymouth sedan for my birthday.
I enrolled in Marshalltown High School (MHS) for my senior year
of high school in the fall of 1951 and signed up for
physics and mechanical drawing (drafting) classes which I
thought would help prepare me for college and a major in
engineering. I also
took required classes in government and English/composition.
To help cover the costs of commuting and also to
supplement my college savings funds, I worked two jobs during my
senior year. I did
not participate in the various high school activities and was
not yet dating. I
worked for the cafeteria director, depositing the daily cash
receipts at a local bank, which required me to drive about two
miles each way at the end of the school day.
Since I was driving to school daily, I had an inside
track for this job which earned me free lunches for the year.
Secondly, I
worked in the meat market of the Corn Belt, a Marshalltown
grocery store at which our family shopped weekly.
Each day after school, I would work three hours and on
Saturdays eight hours in the meat market.
These jobs and the forty minutes a day commuting time left
little time for homework. However, I
had an hour study hall each morning at 8 AM, which
usually sufficed.
(In study hall, I sat across the table from an older sister of
Jean Seberg. Jean’s
father owned and ran a pharmacy in Marshalltown that we
frequented. Alfred Hitchcock picked, Jean Seberg, who had little
to no acting experience to play St. Joan in his 1957 production,
Joan of Arc.) I had
very little social life and engaged
in virtually no dating in high school.
Our contacts in the community and LaMoille High School
were fairly limited and transferring to MHS for my senior year
placed me in a totally new environment of some 145 class-mates
and 500 total high school students.
However, living ten miles from town and working after
school plus Saturdays left little time and occasions for dating
and socializing with my class-mates.
I began considering where I would attend college.
My uncle Lisle who was Director of Development, at
Colorado University (CU), Boulder, CO lobbied me hard to
live with them some few blocks from the CU campus and attend CU.
The prior year, he had arranged a campus tour and an
interview with the Dean of Engineering at CU when our family
traveled to CO to visit them and to spend part of our Christmas
break in Boulder.
The offer was
tempting,
however, I decided
to attend
Iowa State College (ISC), now Iowa State University (ISU), which
was only 40 miles from home, less expensive than CU and had a
well ranked Engineering College.
(Interestingly, my parents nor uncle Lisle, aunt Bea or
cousin Willard Ware, the latter three all William Penn College
graduates never suggested that I consider WPC for at least my
first year of college.)
I did well in my studies at MHS, made good grades to add to the
grades that I earned at LaMoille and graduated 16th
out of 146 MHS graduates in 1952.
I would have been in the top ten percent had it not been
for a grade of B in my physics class, not because of my work and
course grades, but because the teacher who was the Dean of
Marshalltown Community College (MCC), which was co-located at
MHS, wanted me to attend MCC the following year prior to
enrolling at ISC.
When he learned that I was enrolling in ISC he found a reason to
lower my grade from an A to a B and that made the difference!
(About a year later I learned that one of the co-valedictorians
of our MHS class also enrolled in engineering at ISC, was not
doing as well as I was grade-wise in our first year at ISC.
While we were not competing at ISC, I was surprised he
was having so much difficulty with college work.
He subsequently took five full years to complete his
college engineering course while I finished my college work in
four years.
He however was an outstanding air force pilot flying with the
Thunderbirds for several years.)
Our family was not one which celebrated milestones as many
families do, particularly today.
My commencement from MHS was recognized by my parents
gift to me of a Hamilton wrist watch, which I still have,
although it no longer is operational.
I believe that we had a family dinner at a Marshalltown
restaurant, attended by my family and Aunt Bea.
I did receive congratulatory cards from relatives, but it
was not a big occasion in anyone’s mind, including mine.
Our commencement was not particularly memorable with my
parents attending.
There were no awarding of scholarships or to the best of my
recollection even a recognition of many honors.
James H Davis May
1952
High School Commencement Picture
As I finished high school and prepared for college in the fall
of 1952, I needed to earn additional money to finance my college
education. I did
not want my parents to pay for my college, as I had five younger
siblings who hopefully would also go to college and they would
need more financial help than I.
Consequently, I applied for a manufacturing job at the
largest Marshalltown factory – Fisher Governor Company.
I was accepted, even though they knew I would only be
working through August.
I was trained to operate a contour lathe which made
stainless steel valve parts.
The lathe was relatively high speed and operated using a
template as a guide for the cutting tool movements to make the
proper diameters and other finished surfaces.
Most of these parts were components of control valves
used in the various chemical, petroleum and related processing
plants and transmission systems.
I worked the graveyard shift, 11 PM to 7 AM.
I would be able to help my father on the farm during the
day and get sufficient sleep to sustain myself.
The plant had maybe a 1000 employees with about 100 on
the graveyard shift.
It was a union shop, however, as a summer employee, I was
not required to join the union.
Never-the-less, it was an eye-opening experience for me
as there clearly were “production rates” which were established
by the permanent employees, many of them long time employees.
I was not very observant of these rates and usually
produced more than the regular employees wanted me to.
I was advised several times by the other operators that I
shouldn’t make so many products on my shift.
I was a “rate buster” which does not ingratiate one in a
work environment.
Regardless, I did my job to the best of
my ability and spent no time with the other employees as
there was work waiting for me at home helping dad.
I don’t remember how much I was paid for that summer’s work, but
I was able to bank all of those earnings which added to my
proceeds from the sale of my 4H baby beefs and my
other jobs all of which provided me a good start on
financing my college work.
Earlier that summer, I pre-registered for enrollment at
ISC, in the Engineering College, but not designating a specific
major within engineering.
I received the schedule for first year orientation, for
registration, for a physical exam and other related materials.
I learned that the older son (John) of my last teacher (Mrs.
Nelson) at Hurricane #5 was also planning to attend ISC.
John was a year older than me and had attended MCC for
his first year of college.
Our parents thought that it might be good for us to room
together at ISC and neither of us were particularly interested
in living in one of the ISC dormitories.
We agreed to rent an off campus room
together.
The two of us traveled to ISC located in Ames, IA some forty
miles from our home,
with our mothers to locate a satisfactory room to rent.
We had a list of rooms available to rent and found a
satisfactory room in a rooming house just two blocks from the
west gate of the ISC campus.
We signed a one-year contract and paid a deposit.
Our room was the only second floor room, which was about 8’ by
10’ with a bunk bed and two desks, two small dressers and a
moderate sized closet.
It was accessed by way of a separate entrance to the
house, for which we and the owners had the only keys.
An interior set of stairs also enabled us to get to the
room. The bathroom
was just outside our room at the top of the stairs.
There were laundry facilities in the basement which we
were permitted to use, thereby reducing the amount of clothing
that we needed to send home for laundering.
There were two other ISC first-year students renting a
room in the basement of the house.
The rooming house was owned by a kind, older couple who
took in roomers to help meet their expenses.
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