Growing Up In Iowa

I grew up in a mid-west agricultural, river community before WWII. Our lives revolved around the four seasons. Climate was always a concern. Rain or drought conditions were never far from a farmer's mind as planting and harvesting took place. Local businesses geared their inventories and hours to the seasons as well as the farmer's needs. Hot summers and cold, snowy winters determined our clothing.

In those pre-war days the great depression and the catastrophic dust storms tested the metal of the country's leaders, but in my small town, days repeated themselves with the sameness of the day before.

Of course radio broadcasts and newspapers kept us informed of national and international concerns so we were aware of President Roosevelt's attempts to stabilize the economy and the dire news of Germany and Italy threatening war.

Dad worked for the telephone company from the time I was a baby until he retired after WWII. In the early years with the company, he was transferred from Spencer, Ia to Charles City, Ia, then to Iowa Falls, Ia where we lived until his transfer to San Francisco, Ca after the war started.

I had already graduated from high school and was going to the local community college when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. After Pearl Harbor, the lives of all Americans changed, including that of our family.

At the height of the depression we moved to a small 7 acre asparagus farm on the edge of town. Moving from town to the country was a big change for us. The house had no indoor plumbing. Water for drinking and cleaning came from a well. The out door toilet, aka, privy, was some distance from the house. There was no second story, all the rooms were at ground level. There was electricity so we had a large refrigerator, but rather than a gas stove, we had a large cast iron wood stove for cooking.

The acreage not only had asparagus, but there were long, wide rows of black berries, red raspberries, a huge strawberry bed, a very large vegetable garden and a back field where we grew field corn for the 2 cows and hogs we raised. We also had chickens. Dad learned from government brochures how to raise bees and we had 7 or 8 hives of honey bees. The car port was a Concord grape arbor.

Dad's parents came to live with us and Grandpa, with Mom's help, took charge of the little farm. Dad went to his office at the phone company everyday.

During the cutting season we all went to the fields before sunrise and worked until all the asparagus had been cut, washed and packaged for delivery to the stores. While the work was being done in the fields, Grandmother fixed breakfast for us and then it was time to get ready for school. Adeline and I walked to school in town. We took shortcuts across a creek and thru pastures to get to the high school. Mom drove my other siblings to and from a country school with only one room and one teacher for all the grades.

During the summer we all worked in the garden and every week day morning, Mom drove us to town to sell vegetables and honey door to door. We each had baskets of fresh picked vegetables and worked both sides of the street. The little ones, Dick and Jerry always sold out and had to come back to the car for more veggies.

During my senior year in high school I worked in one of the local dime stores. I got the job thru a work program at school and got credit as well as earning money. During the summer my hours were increased and I was able to buy some of my own clothes. After graduation, the acreage was sold and the family moved to a house one block from the college, and I started classes there in the fall.

The shocking news of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th was so bewildering we couldn't relate it to it; we just heard that it was some place in Hawaii. Little did we realize how that event would change our lives.

Asparagus Bunches