Remembering Roosevelt and Getting Out the Vote

Mom and Dad met on a blind date arranged by Mary Hill, a close family friend. She asked Mom, “Would you like to meet a really neat guy?” Ethel and Floyd went roller-skating on their first date. They were married in Moline, Illinois on November 6, 1928. Elva and Frank Melton stood up with them. Frank Melton and Dad worked together at John Deere Plow Works and were good friends. Elva and Frank and their four children were close family friends through the years. Elva told me years after Mom and Dad died that they didn’t go on a honeymoon, but the four of them went out for dinner and a movie after Mom and Dad got married. Mom was a stay-at-home mom and ran the inside of the house. She managed the cleaning, cooking, sewing, painting and caring for the children. She didn’t consult Dad about colors for painting, what to cook for supper or how to care for the children. She just made the decisions and did the work. Dad brought home the paycheck and ran the outside of the house. He took care of the garden, yard, car, repairs, and building projects, and seldom consulted Mom. Life was no bed of roses in the Forties. Mom and Dad worked very, very hard every minute of every day. That’s what people did in those days. I used to kid Mom in later years saying, “Mom, why didn’t you just run away?” Her simple reply, “Where would I have gone?” They were always there for our neighbors, helping whenever they could. Eilene Peterson told me Dad would help her start the mower after her parents passed away and Mom helped her with 4-H sewing projects. Our parents promoted a solid sense of family values long before the term became popular. They didn’t talk about family values such as honesty, integrity, and duty, but they lived them every day of their lives. Mom and Dad raised kids that today not only love one another, but are good to one another. What better legacy could your parents leave? WHOSE DEAL?

Mom and Dad played a lot of cards. They liked: Poker, Pinochle, Euchre, 500 Rummy. Also Dad played a lot of Cribbage with Grandpa. In the early years, they played poker every Friday night with our neighbors, the McFarlands, Nickelsons, Vergaines, and others. They played Pinochle with Art and Eilene Cordingly and Ruth and John Reichenberg. After Daddy died, Mom played cards with Florence Britz almost every night.

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE

Mom and Dad were strong Democrats all their lives. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were their idols. They listened to Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats on the radio and had confidence we would win the war. Mom cried when he died in April of 1945, just before the war ended. For one full minute all radio transmissions stopped in the entire United States as a tribute to him. We had a picture of him hanging on the wall in the living room for years. Mom worked on election day by phoning people to arrange rides to the polling places and reminding them to go and vote. She worked with Virginia McFarland and Mrs. Welander, mother of Pat and Lois. She was always up on all the candidates and knew the issues and never failed to vote.