Theme
Childhood
Barbara's Chapter
Sisters’ Comfort in Kindergarten
When Barbara started Kindergarten at Roosevelt grade school, she cried every day and asked for Diana, Delores or Carol to come comfort her. She eventually adjusted but still missed being with her sisters.
Barbara's Chapter · 1945 and early childhood
The Baby of the Family
Barbara recalls being born on May 26th, 1945, the fifth daughter and youngest of seven children. She slept in a baby bed in her parents’ room for six years. Her earliest, hazy memory is playing school with her sisters on a blanket beneath a large tree in the front yard.
Barbara's Chapter
The Night Diana Came Home
Barbara remembers feeling shy around Diana when she came home from the hospital, and jealous because Diana was getting all the attention.
Barbara's Chapter · Childhood through shortly before Mom's death in 1988
Mom's Card Tables and a Perfect Hand
Barbara remembers Mom crocheting over morning coffee, hosting Club with tuna casserole, yeast rolls, sweets, and nuts, and praising the prizes the children bought at the Highland dime store. Annual Club picnics at Riverside Park featured homemade food, flavored pop, swimming, cards, and watermelon. Shortly before Mom's death, during a card game at Carol's house while Diana visited from Florida, the players secretly arranged a perfect 500 hand for Mom and never told her. Barbara also recalls the haunting story of a Club lady losing a finger in a Mix Master, tentatively identifying her as Olene Allerdyce.
Barbara's Chapter
The Everyday Care That Made a Home
Barbara gathers memories of Mom's familiar sayings, childhood in Dunseth at the foot of the Turtle Mountains, and skiing over fences to school with her brother. Mom treated colds with crushed aspirin, sugar and water, and Vicks covered with flannel. Before Dr. Menton's house calls, Virginia McFarland helped tidy the house. Spring cleaning and Saturday chores kept the home spotless despite the coal furnace. Barbara recalls a music box bird she thinks Bernie bought in Paris, Mom's treadle sewing machine, the girls' Peppy Steppers 4H projects, and handmade Easter outfits for Sunday School. She adopted Mom's red-ribbon suitcase custom. Jennifer passed along Gramma Guild's recollection of tonsil removal before telephone work, and Barbara remembers Mom's lifelong red hair.
Barbara's Chapter
Daddy’s Lap, Garden, and Backyard Workshop
Barbara warmly remembers curling up in Daddy's lap and describes his old-time remedies, including cigarette smoke for earaches, hot lemonade with booze, Samon Salve, and an overpowering experiment with menthol crystals in a furnace-connected vaporizer. Family activities included drag races, wrestling, golf, gathering nuts and grapes, and working hard in the garden and orchard. She recalls reading in an apple tree, his embarrassment-inducing old cars, his objections to girls attending college, Friday grocery and library trips, Christmas gifts, singing, trading, and inventive repairs. She also remembers helping him adjust and repair the television and his name for homes south of Coal Town Road: “Frogtown.”
Barbara's Chapter
Fourth of July with a Favorite Uncle
Merlin fondly recalled Daddy's Fourth of July visits to family reunions in Brainerd. He loved seeing his favorite uncle and the entertaining Aunt Gertie. Daddy's new cars made relatives think he was rich. The visits stopped sometime after Bernie and Bob were twelve or thirteen, disappointing the family.
Barbara's Chapter · When Clarence was fourteen
Clarence's Long Recovery in the Stone Shed
Dad's favorite full brother Clarence was helping take pigs to market when he jumped out of the truck on a hill, ran alongside it, and fell beneath a tire. After his lower abdomen was run over, the family took him home rather than to a doctor or hospital. He survived nine months of recuperation in a small stone shed without medical care.
Barbara's Chapter · When Daddy was a child and sixteen years old
Gus Falk Opens a Door to Moline
Daddy spent much of each summer with a nearby Minnesota family. Their grandfather Gus Falk, who lived in Moline and worked at John Deere, visited to hunt and fish and took a liking to him. Following Falk's promise of work at Deere, Daddy quit school at sixteen and went with him to Moline. Minnesota relatives thereafter called Daddy the rich relative.
Barbara's Chapter
Merlin Remembers the Older Generation
Merlin recalled disliking his grandmother Olive, who stuck her tongue out at him and prompted his mother to switch him. He related that Olive had five children before meeting Dan Guild and moved in with him after Clarence Vosberg died. Olive and Dan married quickly because Bessie was expected, a revelation that still disturbed Merlin. Dan was remembered as quiet, mechanical, and a poor dirt farmer. The account says Olive had eight children by three husbands and Daddy had five half and three full siblings; it separately calls Gertie Dad's stepsister.
Barbara's Chapter
Childhood Outings, Popcorn, and Sunday Sandwiches
Barbara recalls being told she got lost at Starved Rock Park when quite small. The family often walked to 41st Street to catch a bus downtown or to the library, and walked to the show in Highland. The Wizard of Oz frightened her, and she was told Virginia carried her out. Other pleasures included a huge pan of popcorn for the drive-in in Milan and Sunday nights making fried-egg sandwiches with ketchup and pickles with Diana while watching Lassie.
Barbara's Chapter
Visits and Stories with Gramma Hobson
Trips to Geneseo Illinois brought visits with Gramma Hobson, Billy Johnson’s grandmother, whom Barbara remembers as tall and very charming. They loved hearing her stories about Diana’s time in Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Barbara's Chapter
Dog Days Rest and a School Vaccine
Barbara remembers Bernie and Bob having ringworm and wearing nylon hose knotted on their heads. Mom required afternoon rest during the “Dog Days of August,” which Barbara thinks had something to do with Polio. In about third grade, nurses came to school and gave the children Polio vaccine, described as experimental at that time.
Barbara's Chapter
Unannounced Visits and Amusement Park Adventures
Barbara recalls that the family seldom traveled because there were so many of them. They occasionally visited Arjean and Ray Moos in Elmhurst without calling ahead. Their hosts took them to Riverview Amusement Park, where adults played Bingo and children enjoyed rides and midway games. Bob impressed everyone by riding the parachute fall, while Barbara was terrified by the “Red Mouse” and retained a dislike of roller coasters.
Barbara's Chapter
Tin-Tub Baths and Saturday Night Movies
Barbara recalls Saturday baths in a kitchen tin tub with stove-heated water before Daddy and the boys built an addition with a bathroom. She describes crowded sleeping arrangements, a two-seater outdoor toilet, brown-painted iron beds, wool army blankets, and chenille bedspreads. Other memories include late Saturday movies while her parents played cards, Sturdevant Milk advertisements, visiting salesmen, and listening in on party-line conversations.
Barbara's Chapter
Treasured Presents, Music, and Bicycle Rides
Barbara remembers Iris’s gift of a comic-book subscription and Bernie’s love of Mario Lanza records and thoughtful birthday presents after leaving home. Bob teased her and helped her do flip-overs; she took Carol’s outfits while Carol worked, and Dee styled or cut her hair before school. Barbara played most with Diana, riding bicycles on 39th Street, where a dog once tried to bite Diana but 'got the wrong leg.'
Barbara's Chapter · One Easter during Barbara’s childhood
An Easter Flood’s Sweet Aftermath
Iris and Bill’s Ben Franklin Store flooded one Easter. While the other children remembered the cleanup work, Barbara remembered the back porch filled with chocolate bunnies, gooey yellow chicks, and chocolate-covered eggs salvaged from the disaster.
Barbara's Chapter · When Barbara and the other children were quite young
Plum-Tree Spectators and Garden Treats
Children watched from the plum tree in the Reichenberg’s back yard as Ruth and John butchered chickens. Barbara recalls chickens hanging on the clothesline and having their necks chopped, but explicitly says, “I know this can’t be right.” The children shrieked as headless chickens ran about. She also remembers stealing kohlrabi from the Reichenberg’s garden and admiring Mrs. Britz's gladiolas and chocolate cakes.
Barbara's Chapter · Barbara's childhood
Neighborhood Friends and Games for Every Season
Barbara remembers her closest neighborhood playmates and the pretend games she shared with Margie Britz. Childhood pastimes included swimming at Riverside Park, Popsicles, catching lightening bugs, lemonade stands, jump rope, cards, treasure hunts, yard games, and Jacks at school. She describes the frightening nighttime chasing game One O’clock And The Ghost Isn’t Here. Winter brought snow games, sledding, cocoa, and warming up on the register; fall brought leaf piles and Halloween treats and pranks. Quiet pleasures included reading Little House in Big Woods and watching clouds beneath sheets on the clothesline. Children also played in summer rain, although they were warned about “Night Air.”
Barbara's Chapter · Barbara's childhood; television received at age ten
Radio Evenings and the Gift of a Television
Before television, the family gathered around the radio for The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and The Shadow, while Mom listened to My Gal Sal as she ironed. Iris and Bill gave the family a black and white TV when Barbara was ten. Barbara lists many favorite shows and remembers having a screen placed over the television to draw on for Rudy Kazootie.
Barbara's Chapter
A Chase Through the Orchard
Barbara remembers Sonny Joiner peeking at them through the bathroom window. Daddy would chase him through the orchard with a shotgun full of salt.
Barbara's Chapter
Remembered Faces, Flowers, and Childhood Play
Barbara lists people and families she remembers: Mrs. Rohrer shared flowers from her beautiful garden, and Mrs. Johnson asked Barbara to zip up her formals. She also recalls Old-lady Clyde, Earladine and Jean Hoglund, the Petersens, especially Eileen, and Sis Vergaine and her son Stevie, whose possible imprisonment she questions without confirming. The Hancocks had an abandoned little house where the children liked to play. The Ferrys and The Gillersteads are also remembered by name.
Barbara's Chapter
Sandwiches, Sunday Chicken, and Treats from Mom's Kitchen
Barbara recalls radish, fried bologna, and sugar sandwiches; gravy and mashed-potato dishes; homemade cocoa; garden vegetables; cookies dipped in Daddy’s coffee; Sunday fried chicken; Swiss steak; stovetop popcorn; vegetable soup with rutabaga; coffee cake; and cherry pie. She remembers fearing the pressure cooker and Dad’s saying, “The more white bread the quicker your dead.” As a very small child, she saw rabbits hanging from the clothes-line pole for Daddy to skin; despite assurances, Mom’s fried rabbit never tasted like chicken to her. She also remembers squeezing coloring into oleo, possibly putting it into a form afterward, and hovering around Mom for jelly roll cake trimmings, raw potato, or cabbage heart.
Barbara's Chapter
A Midnight Drive to The Pits
While recalling learning to drive, Barbara confesses that she took someone's car in the middle of the night while everyone slept. She thinks it was Carol's car. She picked up friends and drove out to The Pits, identified as strip mines, to swim, ending her confession with an apology.
Barbara's Chapter
Radio, Sock Hops, and Teenage Days
Barbara recalls listening to KSTT—1170 AM and WLS—890, cruising Rock Island's One-Ways with girlfriends, Maid Rite sandwiches, and Whitey’s ice cream, where her mother always chose a strawberry cone. Her teen memories include sock hops, poodle skirts, crinolines, cinch belts, saddle shoes, Capezios, and curling irons heated on the gas stove. She remembers ten-cent fries after McDonalds opened during junior high, lunchtime dancing at Coolidge Jr. High, homecoming floats, 4-H and the County Fair, baby-sitting, work at Turnstyle and the Hasty Tasty, ironing even pillowcases, pizza's growing popularity, televised basketball tournaments, and hearing about the first man going into space over the school intercom.
Diana's Chapter · Childhood and later reflections
Learning to Ride and Growing Up as One of the Kids
Following medical advice, Diana's mother treated her like the other children. Her parents offered special companionship when she could not join her sisters at the swimming pool. By experimenting with balancing and rolling a bicycle, Diana unexpectedly taught herself to pedal, an accomplishment she still recalls and shares with clients when discussing fear. Looking back, she credits steady love and practical parenting with helping her cope. She recognizes both anxiety and achievement in her drive to overachieve at school and closes with affectionate humor about her own resilience.
Diana's Chapter · Childhood, beginning at age three
Early Morning Journeys and Friendship in the Hospital
Diana traces the unexplained falls and progressive skin and leg changes that led Dr. Menton to refer her to Illinois Research Hospital in Chicago. Early morning family drives combined the comforting smell of coffee and cheese sandwiches with the fear of examinations and long waits. As illness interrupted school, Mrs. Lynch tutored her at home. Repeated hospital stays brought painful procedures and treatments, but also friendship with Loopy Gonzalez, hallway races, water-balloon mischief, Friday hamburgers, parties, special dresses, chapel services, and visits from family and friends. She also remembers homemade food and a church-donated basket from which she could open one present each day.
Diana's Chapter · Childhood
Facing Surgery and Finding Pride in a New Leg
After diagnosing localized scleroderma and abandoning treatments, doctors decided to amputate Diana's left leg, apparently to save her life. Her mother's practical explanation initially excited her, but her father's angry response left her ashamed; older siblings later told her he cried after the surgery. Diana recalls terror during ether anesthesia, pain in the absent leg afterward, restraints, and her initial refusal to use crutches. A therapist-led tour of other patients prompted her to walk. After discharge, her father closely followed construction of her first prosthetic leg in Davenport and learned to adjust it. His fascination and pride became a distinctive source of bonding.
Diana's Chapter · Childhood through high school
Seven Children, Shared Adventures, and Sisterly Mischief
Diana remembers Iris cutting hair, Bernie rescuing her from punishment and playing records, and Bob driving four younger sisters to school and building an igloo with Billy Johnson. Carol served as a second mother, led 4-H meetings, and accompanied Diana to the State Fair. Dee was a card-playing companion and peacekeeper. Diana and Barb shared sleeping space, television suppers, prank calls, forbidden games, and adventures with Carol’s car. Family outings included the drive-in, ice cream, carnival rides, and drag races.
Diana's Chapter · Early childhood through grade school
Strawberry Patches, Saturday Baths, and Childhood Play
Diana recalls Carol’s frightening knee injury, punishment for charcoal writing and throwing rocks, and fear during her mother’s pneumonia. She describes the small house before bedrooms and a bathroom were added, Saturday baths in kitchen tubs, outdoor games, dolls, jump rope, and Jacks. School memories include crying on her first day, health inspections, and a sixth-grade ribbon.
Diana's Chapter · 1926 onward
Lee's Many Talents and a Scooter Ride into the Family
Diana traces Lee's childhood near his extended family, work in his grandfather's grocery store, school achievements, Naval service, ministry, teaching, and successful insurance business. After his first marriage failed, Diana met him three years after his divorce. Her father initially regarded Lee suspiciously, but a bold scooter ride with Diana became a memorable turning point. Lee and her father remained friends, and Lee took him to the hospital when he had a stroke. Lee also formed a close bond with Mom and managed his best friend Sy Fox's campaign.
Diana's Chapter · 1968 and early childhood
Welcoming Kelly and Raising a Florida Baby
Diana recalls her delight in pregnancy and Kelly’s birth, her mother’s help, and Lee’s tender care for their baby. Kelly disliked clothes and shoes. During a holiday visit to Moline, she refused to walk in the snow, then undressed indoors and was found dancing on the back porch singing “coolding!”
Diana's Chapter · Kelly’s childhood
Daredevil Friends, Favorite Foods, and Cards with Grandma
Kelly and Byron Huntsberger shared bicycle mishaps, neighborhood pranks, and elaborate Halloween costumes, including a painful pea costume Kelly rejected. Kelly celebrated her love for her father with a nursery-school card declaring she loved him more than macaroni and cheese. Family traditions included fishing trips and games of 500, with Kelly and her grandmother always partners.
Dee's Chapter · 1940 and later
From Pudge to Gramma Dee
Delores recounts her birth as Ethel and Floyd Guild's third daughter and fifth child, her mother's choice of her name, and the nicknames given by her grandfather, father, and grandchildren. Gramma Dee is the name she feels suits her best.
Dee's Chapter
A Family Remembered with Love and Pride
Though her childhood memories are vague, Delores remembers warm and happy feelings. She lovingly describes her grandfather, parents, and six siblings, expressing gratitude for her life and pride in the family her parents created.
Dee's Chapter
Floyd, Tootsie, and Seven Children
Delores remembers her handsome, sociable father and her parents’ dancing at the Coliseum. She recounts the birth order of their seven children, her father naming Iris, and her mother naming the rest. She thought the oldest and youngest were spoiled but secretly believed she was Daddy’s favorite girl.
Dee's Chapter
Lessons from Daddy’s Shed and Garden
Delores spent hours with her inventive father in his shed, where he named her Sputnik and improved tools and Saturday auction finds. His demanding plowshare work at John Deere was followed by meticulous gardening. The children helped harvest and sold polished apples and tomatoes at Sam’s Market, keeping the proceeds. Delores remembers shelling homegrown popcorn and picking walnut meats with him, his humorous nose-straightening pose, his unusual favorite foods, and the elk he brought home from a western hunting trip that her mother refused to use.
Dee's Chapter · Mom’s childhood
Mom’s Lighthearted Memories of North Dakota
Mom grew up by the Mouse River in North Dakota and told even difficult memories lightheartedly. Blizzards buried the house and required an exit tunnel, but she enjoyed skiing to school, where she did well. She also remembered the deafening arrival of grasshoppers that stripped the countryside of green leaves.
Dee's Chapter · After Mom’s marriage through her senior years
Flour-Dusted Hands, Pretty Nails, and a Day of Curls
The narrator remembers Mom’s full-time work at home, her habit of dusting off her hands after tasks, and her lasting pride in her appearance. Susy recalled how Mom displayed polished nails but concealed damaged ones. Mom taught the girls beauty tricks, and she and Virginia spent a whole day giving five girls home perms. The narrator refused school the next day because her hair was too curly, though she later loved curls.
Dee's Chapter
Sunday Chicken and Cakes from Scratch
The narrator recalls Mom's weekly fried chicken dinners, believing the fresh chickens came from their own chicken house. Daddy dipped the slaughtered chickens in hot water to ease plucking. Ruth Reichenberg's pursuit of a headless chicken frightened the children and became a humorous memory. Mom browned flour-seasoned chicken in a cast-iron skillet before baking it in a blue roaster, serving it with potatoes, gravy, rolls, garden vegetables, and homemade dessert. Carol took charge of desserts when old enough. Everyone ate the same meal at assigned places and on time. Alice Atchison shared memories of coffee-cup measurements and testing oven heat with her hand; the narrator wonders whether Mom used such methods but remembers her insistence on exact measurements except for pie dough.
Dee's Chapter
Diana, the Dishes, and the Party Line
Dishwashing was assigned to the girls, never Dad or the boys. The narrator says Mom never had to wash dishes because she had five daughters, then jokes that only four did the work: Diana never washed or dried a dish, being occupied with friends on the telephone, reading in the bathroom, or homework. Their first telephone shared a three-way party line with two other residents; three rings signaled a call for the family. The narrator recalls the possibility of listening to others' conversations and wonders what the other subscribers could have said about Diana's frequent telephone use. The claim that Mom never had to wash dishes contrasts with the subsequent recollection of Mom doing dishes with her parakeet on her shoulder.
Dee's Chapter
Pretty Bird, Fluffy, and the Attic Mice
Mom's green parakeet, Pretty Bird, perched on her shoulder while she washed dishes, chirping with the clanking dishes and repeating his name. Mom loved him, but he flew away when the front door was left open. The narrator also remembers Fluffy, a big white cat who chased mice, joking that he kept them from eating Barb. Barb feared the attic mice would climb into her bed, and she and Diana heard them at night. The narrator was more disturbed by mouse droppings found while searching boxes of hand-me-down clothes in the attic.
Dee's Chapter
Mom's Quiet Hour Before the School-Day Rush
Mom rose early, dressed, got Dad off to work, and packed lunches from supper leftovers. Before the children got up, she enjoyed black coffee, a cigarette, and crocheting doilies that became family treasures. She served hot breakfasts individually around the children's schedules. A timed bathroom routine followed Dad's installation of a new bathroom. The children rode the bus in grade school and walked in junior high until Bob got his first car and drove them. The narrator affectionately marvels at Mom's orderly management of the household.
Dee's Chapter
Monday Laundry and a Fright at the Ringer
Monday laundry required Mom to haul well water, heat it on the stove, and carry it to the basement. She washed whites first and Dad's dirtiest clothes last. While helping, the narrator had her hand and arm pulled through the ringer; Mom released the top immediately, leaving her more frightened than hurt. Mom cooked starch, hung loads outside, and folded dry clothes into ten piles. Embroidered initials helped identify underwear and socks, while at least three baskets were sprinkled with water for ironing.
Dee's Chapter
Tuesday Ironing and the Intriguing Mangle
Mom ironed on Tuesdays, working late at night when the children were young and during the day with their help when they were older. Listening to the radio, she pressed household linens and clothing, including Bob and Bernie's white shirts. Grampa bought her a mangle to ease the workload. The narrator describes its revolving padded barrel, foot pedal, and heating panel, wonders whether it really helped, and remembers that the fascinating machine was strictly off limits to the children.
Dee's Chapter
A Love of Cards Passed Down
Mom taught the children 500 and Hearts and enjoyed Scrabble with them. The narrator also played Canasta with Mrs. Nicholson, as did Barb, Diana, and neighborhood children, and remembers basement games of 500 Rummy. Adult visits to Mom always included 500 as a way to talk and remember. The tradition reached the grandchildren: Susy recalls Kings Corners, Cribbage, and Bunko with her grandma, Ruth, and Florence.
Dee's Chapter
Friday’s Shining Floors and Poker Nights
Friday began with thorough housecleaning and waxing the kitchen floor. Mom then dressed for grocery shopping at the A&P Store in downtown Moline while Daddy napped in the car and the children chose shopping or the library. Supper was pancakes, bacon, and eggs, followed by hurried dishwashing before poker company arrived. The Cordinglys usually joined Mom and Dad for games played with chips, never money. Drinks, midnight snacks, and Mom’s seemingly tireless work rounded out the weekly routine.
Dee's Chapter
Saturday Baths and Mom's Banana Curls
With no running water, the family pumped water from an outside well and heated it on the stove. Saturday baths took place in a gray metal tub beside the kitchen heat register, screened by towel-covered chairs. Mom scrubbed the children, cleaned and clipped their nails, shampooed their hair with Halo, and set it in rags for banana curls before Sunday School. Despite over 30 years as a hairdresser, the narrator still marveled at Mom's curls. She also remembered Iris rinsing her hair with lemon juice and brushing it in the sun.
Dee's Chapter
Saturday Auctions, Peanuts, and Picture Shows
Dad, Bernie, and Bob attended Saturday auction sales, bringing home things Dad put to use. Afterwards Dad stopped for beer at a Highland-area tavern while the boys enjoyed peanuts and soda pop. Some Saturday afternoons the family went to the Highland Movie Theatre on 23rd Avenue, usually for a double feature. Dad gave each child thirty-five cents for admission and a snack; Roy Rodgers and Gene Autrey were remembered as popular stars.
Dee's Chapter
Buttered Popcorn and Cool Sheets on Summer Nights
After Saturday baths, Mom served a big blue roaster of popcorn with plenty of butter and salt, or a large batch of fudge on a buttered platter. On hot summer nights she spread a clean white sheet over the living room rug, where the children fell asleep with a fan blowing on them.
Dee's Chapter
Mom’s Sewing and a Sewing Machine’s Second Life
Mom sewed the girls’ school and Sunday school dresses, full circle skirts, shorts, and halter tops for Camp Shebonie, as well as sewing for the McFarlands. Virginia did Mom’s ironing while she sewed. Delores recalls Mom’s ease and speed at the pedal machine and humorously suggests it helped keep her legs and ankles trim. After Mom replaced her White sewing machine with an electric one and discarded it, Mrs. Poston rescued it and turned it into a marble-topped table for her restaurant, The Hasty Tasty, where the narrator says it remained at the time of telling.
Dee's Chapter
Summer Nights and Apple Butter Sandwiches
The narrator recalls her parents working hard to feed their children: Dad grew vegetables and fruit, and Mom canned over two thousand jars each year around harvest time. Mom worked mostly at night when it was cooler and the children were asleep. The narrator thinks Grampa sometimes stayed up to help. Mom made many preserves, pickles, and canned tomatoes; her apple butter was the narrator's favorite. Thousands of Ball jars and huge crocks filled the basement.
Dee's Chapter
Christmas Cookies, Stocking Oranges, and a House Full of Gifts
Dee recalls a Christmas season filled with Mom's cookies, candies, fudge, and carefully chosen gifts. Dad bought the real tree at the last minute; Dee speculates that freshness and fire safety were his reasons. Bernie decorated outstanding cookies and called the children to the window to see Santa, who was always gone before they arrived. Daddy filled stockings with large oranges from Lagomarcino’s, especially treasured during wartime scarcity. Dee carried the fruit tradition forward with Susy and her grandchildren. Carol's Christmas Eve birthday brought a homemade angel food cake, with the leftover yolks used for noodles served with chicken over mashed potatoes. Christmas gifts included homemade clothing, dolls, sleds, BB guns, and school-made presents. Daddy continued Grampa's gift of twelve pairs of stockings to Mom after Grampa died. Dad's insistence on slowly fried mush and his breakfast invitations added to Mom's work while she also prepared turkey dinner. After Iris married, the growing family gathered at her larger house on Christmas Eve, where gifts piled toward the ceiling.
Dee's Chapter
Easter Eggs, New Bonnets, and Homemade Rolls
The narrator remembers coloring three or four dozen eggs, admiring Bernie's beautiful eggs, and racing to find eggs hidden indoors and outside. Mom made new Sunday dresses and spring coats each year, and the girls wore new accessories to wait for the Sunday school bus. A large dinner of ham, deviled eggs, candied yams, and homemade rolls completed a holiday rich in tradition.
Dee's Chapter
Pudge's Memories of a Lovable Grampa
Delores remembers swinging on Grampa's leg and sitting on his lap. He called her “Pudge” for her dimpled cheeks; Bernie says she was his favorite, probably after Bob. She recalls his horseradish garden and his grinding radishes outdoors because of the smell. She also witnessed his sudden fatal heart attack in the hallway on a Sunday and remembers her panic as the ambulance took him away.
Dee's Chapter
School Vaccines and Memories of Dr. Menton
The narrator recalls lining up in the junior high gymnasium for an oral polio vaccine and comparing smallpox vaccination scars with friends before school. The children all went to the hospital on the same day to have their tonsils removed by Dr. Menton, whether or not they were sick. He also made house calls. She recalls a scandal involving his wife's drug theft, arrest, and imprisonment, followed shortly by his departure from practice. Mom was upset to lose a doctor she valued.
Dee's Chapter
A Red Quarantine Sign and Homemade Applesauce
With ten people living in the house, the narrator marvels that illness was not more frequent. Barbara contracted scarlet fever as a baby, and health inspectors posted a red QUARANTINE sign. The narrator thinks Daddy stayed elsewhere so he could work. Mom offered homemade applesauce after the unpleasant preventive medicine. The narrator also remembers disliking Cod Liver Oil.
Dee's Chapter
A Painful Dentist and Lasting Reluctance
Annual school dental checks led Mom to choose a dentist for follow-up treatment. The narrator remembers him as rough and rude and the treatment as intensely painful, leaving her reluctant to visit dentists as an adult. Despite these memories, she praises Mom and Dad for keeping the children healthy.
Dee's Chapter · 1949; the Fifties; later recollections
The First Television and the Music That Stayed
The parents returned from Diana’s 1949 leg operation in Chicago with the family’s first black-and-white television. Dee contrasts television with the radio programs that had fed her imagination. Bernie bought a record player after starting window-display work, and Dee repeatedly played Patty Page’s The Tennessee Waltz. Bob and Sue danced, Barb and Margie adored Pat Boone, and Barbie and Diana played instruments. Years later, Diana’s warped violin was discarded, rescued by Mr. Sajben, repaired, and played by his son; Dee regretted being unable to recover it.
Dee's Chapter · Childhood; includes recollections at ages two or three and six or seven
Jacks, Paper Dolls, and a Childhood Full of Imagination
Dee remembers a happy childhood despite wartime film shortages and few toys. She recalls punishment for peeling airplane wallpaper, fear after The Wizard of Oz, Virginia’s ketchup prank, and endless games with Pat and neighborhood children. Paper dolls from Iris comforted her during an ear operation. Bicycle rides, a clubhouse, swings, and imaginative play filled the days, although large dogs frightened her and Hannah’s dog once bit her.
Dee's Chapter · Childhood; about age eleven; summer at age thirteen; kindergarten and freshman year
Midwest Seasons, Family Outings, and the First School Bus
Dee recalls gardens, suntanning, summer treats, drive-in movies, and Fourth of July fireworks. Family trips took her to Chicago’s Museum of Art and Science and The Loop, then to Clarence’s farm in Worthington, Minnesota. Halloween brought homemade treats and Bernie’s prizewinning window paintings; winter brought sledding, snow figures, and Bernie and Bob’s newspaper-worthy igloo. Her earliest school memories are of crying before the kindergarten bus and refusing warm milk at Roosevelt school, where Mrs. Johnson played piano.
Dee's Chapter · Childhood through later reflection; calendar years not stated
Learning to Hear and Accept Herself
Delores describes her congenital left-ear deformity, hearing loss, early speech lessons, and a year at a special school where she felt accepted after being called stupid at regular school. Dr. Williamson reconstructed her ear at about eleven, partially restoring hearing, but missed schooling led to repeating a grade. At twelve, her first hearing aid revealed family voices, birds, and insects so vividly that she cried. Her father called her “Sputnik” because of the aid's modern technology. Later, Diana helped her understand that her impairment did not mean she was stupid and encouraged greater self-acceptance.
Dee's Chapter · Fifth grade
A Mother's Appeal for a Note-Passing Sentence
Caught passing a note asking a friend to play jacks, Delores faced a classroom debate and vote on her punishment during a unit on the judicial system. The class sentenced her to write “I will not pass notes” five thousand times. Before going to card club, her mother spoke with Mrs. Plumly and reduced the sentence to five hundred repetitions. Delores says she never passed another note.
Dee's Chapter · Teenage years through 1959
Circle Skirts, School Dances, and Teenage Confidence
Dee recalls crafts in the Peppy Steppers 4-H club, teenage fashions, and her lack of interest in food preparation, contrasted with Carol’s prizewinning baking. Though shy and unsuccessful at sports even after getting glasses, she loved school dances and a satin polka-dot dress bought at Kay Bee. She remembers her first crush on Merle Ericson, spending her socially difficult senior year with Carol and her friends, trying pizza at Frank’s, and graduating in 1959 with straight A’s in art.
Dee's Chapter · About age nine through high school
First Earnings and a Room to Be Proud Of
Selling flower seeds door to door earned Dee two bedroom lamps, and she also babysat for the Hancocks and Iris. She recalls Iris meeting Bill at Cozy Corners, Iris’s wedding and emerald ring, and a frightening night babysitting in Iris’s large house, when she hid a knife beneath a sofa cushion. Summer work at Tasty Treat brought unlimited root beer and paychecks that Dee and Carol pooled for twin beds, turquoise bedspreads, a lamp, and a rug; Mom made matching curtains. Dee also praises Bernie’s lasting plasterwork in his room.
Dee's Chapter · 1942 through the time of writing
An Enchanted House Full of Family Memories
Delores remembers moving at age two into a four-room house on an acre, originally addressed 3209 39th Street. The house, garage, and land cost $2,750, with another $100 for the chicken house; payments were $25 monthly after $500 down. The orchard and yard were a childhood wonderland, while the small house eventually held ten people. She describes crowded sleeping arrangements, hand-pumped water, an outhouse, coal heat, rabbits, and time with her father in his workshed. Her father added two bedrooms and a bathroom without professional help in 1950. Later changes included removal of an interior wall, new carpeting, and white vinyl siding with hunter-green shutters. After three-quarters of the land was sold, the address became 3205 39th Street. Preserving the house helps her keep family memories alive.
Dee's Chapter
To Barb, with Love: Braids, Laughter, and Kindness
Dee's affectionate poem celebrates Barbara from her braided-hair childhood and shared fright with Diana over attic mice through marriage to Norman, homemaking, parenting, studying, and world travel. It recalls whaling in Alaska and admiration of Monet in France, and praises Barbara's hospitality, giggle, flowers, quilts, and caring resemblance to their mother.
Dee's Chapter
To Diana, with Love: Games, Dreams, and Caring
Dee's affectionate poem celebrates Diana's talkativeness and recalls shared mischief, puddles, mud pies, May baskets, hollyhock dolls, and dandelion games. It praises Diana's academic dedication, recalls her bringing home a cat to debone after driving from Wesleyan, and describes her meeting Lee in Chicago. The poem closes by honoring Diana's sensitivity and the caring conversations Dee treasures.
Dee's Chapter
Carol, a Sister Always Near
Dee's affectionate poem celebrates Carol as her childhood playmate and a sister who shares her appearance, mannerisms, and unspoken understanding. She recalls Carol's scooter injury, her skill in cooking, and her marriage and years in Germany with Charlie. The sisters cared together for their mother in her later years, and Dee affirms their enduring closeness despite living miles apart.
Dee's Chapter
Iris, Our Gentle Second Mother
In a loving poem signed Dee, Delores thanks her sister Iris for the care she gave her six younger siblings. An only child for over five years, Iris became like a second mother, feeding, bathing, hugging and comforting the children while helping their busy mother. Dee remembers Iris’s gentle ways and expresses lasting gratitude and unconditional love.
Carol's Chapter · Around 1943 through the time of telling
Childhood Warmth at the Old Brass Register
Carol recalls the brass heat register near the kitchen door in her childhood home's living room, installed when her father added a basement and furnace around 1943. Children warmed themselves and dried boots and mittens there. Despite repeated remodeling, the register remained unchanged, and standing before it on return visits brings back childhood memories.
Carol's Chapter · 1938 and infancy
A Christmas Eve Baby in a Wicker Basket
After her mother began having contractions while trimming the Christmas tree, Carol was born on Christmas Eve 1938 in Moline. Her father named her Carol Mae for the season. She joined Iris, Bobby and Bernie at the family's apartment; the later births of Delores, Diana and Barbara made her the middle child. Remembered as a very small baby, she was carried on a pillow and kept in a wicker basket on a bedroom shelf beyond her brothers' reach.
Carol's Chapter · 1942–1953 and later recollections
An Acre and Four Rooms to Call Home
Carol remembers moving to 3209 39th Street in 1942 at age four, running through empty rooms and jumping through windows. The $2,187 house stood on an acre in South Moline Township and initially had four rooms, an outhouse, and a well, but no bathroom, basement, or garage. Her father built a basement. A family of ten shared the small house, with the girls' living-room beds put away each morning and Grandpa Williams living there until his death in 1953.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s–about 1950; later recollections
The Garden That Fed the Family
The orchard and garden supplied fruit, berries, and vegetables that Carol's mother preserved for winter, with help from Grandpa Williams and Iris. Carol recalls shelling peas, snapping beans, apple pies, and the sound of canning lids sealing. About 1950, she helped her father prepare tomatoes for sale to Sam Gnatovich at three dollars a bushel and kept the proceeds. Her father later sold the garden land to George and Evelyn Sajben. In later years, family members could not reproduce their mother's dill pickles and suspected her well water made the difference.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s and later
Ice Deliveries, Party Lines, and Summer in the Basement
Carol describes well water pumped beside the sink, water heated on the stove, an icebox supplied by an iceman, and glass-bottled milk delivered during the war years. She contrasts her family's circumstances with school friends Juanita and Lavelle Nelson, who lived in a boxcar and cooled food in a hillside hole. She recalls distinctive party-line rings and secretly listening to conversations. In summer the family lived and ate in the cooler basement; her father eventually cut up their oak dining table to make a punching bag ceiling-mount.
Carol's Chapter
Washday Work and the Wonder of the Mangle
Carol recalls the all-day weekly laundry routine, usually on Monday, for a household of ten. Mom used a wringer washing machine, reused the wash water, and rinsed clothes in two tubs with bluing and Borax among her laundry supplies. She carried wet laundry upstairs to hang outside, arranging sheets to hide underwear, or dried it in the basement during winter or rain. Clothes were folded away or dampened for later ironing, and clean sheets marked the end of a hard day's work. One year Grandpa Williams bought Mom a mangle, and the children were so impressed that they fought over turns helping iron.
Carol's Chapter
Coal Hills and the Work of Keeping Warm
Carol recalls the family's coal-burning furnace. Daddy took Bob and Bernie to an industrial coal yard, where the car and trailer were weighed before and after loading to determine the coal's weight. While Daddy shoveled, Bob and Bernie climbed and slid down coal piles, blackening their clothes and angering Mom. At home, Daddy shoveled coal through a small basement window that he repeatedly broke. Tending the furnace required banking it every day and night and removing the cinders and ashes.
Carol's Chapter
Brilliant Colors from a Cinder
Carol recalls making cinder plants by finding a pointed cinder and putting iodine on it. She describes it growing brilliant, iridescent, multicolored stalagmites.
Carol's Chapter
Saturday-Night Baths in the Warm Kitchen
Carol recalls lining up with her brothers and sisters for Saturday-night baths, oldest first and youngest last. They bathed in a round galvanized wash tub in the kitchen, warmed by an open oven. Their mother screened the girls with towels draped over four chairs, added hot water to the shared bathwater, scrubbed each child, and dried them with oven-warmed towels. She kept all seven children clean and groomed, with clipped nails and clean, starched, pressed clothes.
Carol's Chapter
Iris, a Big Sister and Second Mom
Carol remembers Iris, the oldest child and six years older than Bernie, as a second mother. Iris played with her siblings, bathed and dressed them, babysat, cooked, and cleaned while their mother experienced many pregnancies over fifteen years. Iris married when Carol was ten.
Carol's Chapter · 1942–about 1949 or 1950; later reflection
Goodbye to the Outhouse on 39th Street
Carol recalls living in four rooms on 39th Street and the family's happiness when Daddy added an indoor bathroom and two bedrooms. Their gray-board outhouse had two holes, no heat, and sometimes Sears Roebuck Catalog pages instead of toilet paper. Nighttime trips were frightening, and Mom accompanied the children with a flashlight. Carol concealed the outhouse from school friends because she associated it with being poor. Daddy initially kept it as a backup after indoor plumbing arrived, but her brothers demolished it while he was at work and got into trouble. Carol ends by imagining a prettily decorated modern outhouse with decorating advice from Martha Stewart.
Carol's Chapter · World War II and afterward
Lloyd’s Wartime Letters and Keepsakes
Although the family saw little of Lloyd, Carol remembers his return from World War II in uniform. He brought Mom two fringed rayon “sweetheart” pillowcases embroidered with colorful flowers, which she kept unused in her cedar chest. Photographs of naked natives from the Philippines, where he was stationed, remained in the strongbox. He also sent “Victory” letters on thin stationery that folded into its own envelope.
Carol's Chapter
Carefree Days and Dandelion Crowns
Carol recalls happy childhood days spent outside between meals. At about four or five, she watched insects and searched for four-leaf clovers. She and Dee spent hours making dandelion jewelry and crowns, fashioning hollyhock dolls with toothpicks, and plucking daisy petals for an imagined boyfriend.
Carol's Chapter
Close to Dee Across the Miles
Carol describes her lifelong connection to Dee, with whom she was inseparable as a child. Despite living half a country apart, they often independently buy the same clothing, purses, or craft items. Dee did Carol's hair perfectly for thirty-five years, and since moving to Florida Carol has not found a hairdresser who understands her preferences as well.
Carol's Chapter
Imaginations, Paper Dolls, and the Warmth of Home
Carol remembers childhood games with her sisters and neighborhood friends when store-bought toys were scarce. They played House on an army blanket, dressed in cast-off clothes, played in a canvas tent and a deserted trailer, and enjoyed paper dolls. Quiet play in the kitchen while Mom ironed and listened to the radio gave Carol a lasting sense of security. The children made newspaper kites, Kleenex flowers, and Kool-Aid stands, played street games, and sledded through steep wooded hills before warming themselves at the brass heat register.
Carol's Chapter
A New Red Bicycle to Cherish
The children usually rode old bikes, mostly boys’ bikes, mounting them from a cement block wall by the chimney. One year Daddy called Carol into the front yard, where he stood beside a new red bicycle. She nearly reached it before noticing it. She remembers her pride and how precious something brand new was in their household, though she cannot remember her age.
Carol's Chapter
Jump-Rope Rhymes and Fun Without Batteries
Carol recalls chants used while jumping rope, including counting kisses, a broken milk bottle, and teddy-bear actions. She remembers playing many different games and entertaining themselves for hours with simple things, without batteries.
Carol's Chapter · When Carol was about eight or nine years old
A Scooter Scar and a Strawberry Laugh
Carol fell from her scooter near the strawberry patch and badly cut her right knee. With Mom unable to leave Barbara, who had double pneumonia, Virginia arranged for Mrs. Hannah to drive them to the doctor. Carol received four clamps and retained a visible scar. Back home, her sisters, Marilyn, and Patty claimed to have found flesh from her leg, but Virginia identified it as strawberry—a mistake they still laughed about.
Carol's Chapter · The Forties
Clean Sheets, Warm Flannel, and a Family Doctor
Carol recalls doctors making house calls in the Forties. However sick the children were, Mom had them leave their beds so she could put on clean sheets before the doctor arrived. Mom also treated colds with Vicks and warm flannel cloths. Carol remembers Dr. Menton as their first doctor; he went to jail after being caught supplying illegal drugs to his wife. His successor, George Cook, provided medicine expecting more children to fall ill, visited frequently, and became a lasting family friend.
Carol's Chapter
Green Stamps and Two Brand-New Purchases
Carol recalls that the family never had new furniture, appliances, or cars, and that she was ashamed of their old cars. Daddy selected second-hand household items without criticism from Mom. Mom obtained new presents, small appliances, and accessories by saving S&H Green Stamps, and accumulated silver-plated dinnerware for eight using box tops redeemed for catalog points. Carol then remembers two things Daddy bought new: a turquoise Comet, financed with his first-ever loan through the John Deere Credit Union, and a kitchen table with three leaves and ten chairs from Phil Vinar’s Furniture Store. Her parents did not have a checking account until all the children had left home.
Carol's Chapter
Family Visits and Long Sunday-Style Drives
Carol recalls that the family never took what she considered a real vacation. Daddy visited his relatives in Brainerd, sometimes taking Iris or the boys, but Carol never went or met her paternal grandparents. He also took the family on long drives toward the Wisconsin border. They visited Bessie and Harry Means and their children in Cordova, and a family named Rogers nearby. Bessie worked at the East Moline State Hospital.
Carol's Chapter
Elmhurst Visits and a Zoo-Day Treat
The family made short trips to visit Ray and Arjean Moos and their four boys in Elmhurst near Chicago. Mom held a book in front of her eyes to avoid watching Daddy's fast driving and weaving on two-lane roads. The trips were special treats, often including a day at Lincoln Park Zoo.
Carol's Chapter · 40’s and 50’s
Watching for Burma Shave Rhymes
Carol remembers enjoying the Burma Shave signs along the roads. She describes sets of five signs, with four forming a catchy verse and the last reading “Burma Shave,” and says she still remembers a few.
Carol's Chapter
Free Air Shows and Sand-Burr Blankets
Carol recalls Daddy taking the children to watch airplanes at the airport and attend air shows. They sat on blankets in surrounding fields, where thorny, sticky sand-burrs clung to their clothing, but the outings were fun and free.
Carol's Chapter
An Ice Cream Stop at Roselles
On trips with Daddy, the children begged for cones whenever they passed Roselles on 23rd Avenue. Although Daddy often refused, occasional stops brought great happiness. The store sold Sealtest Ice Cream, and some cones contained a “Free Cone” note in the tip.
Carol's Chapter
Remembering Fluffy, the Family's White Cat
Carol remembers Fluffy as a big, fluffy white cat and the only family pet she recalled apart from Daddy's later canaries. Mom said the old, sick cat went into the woods to die. Years later Virginia McFarland told Carol that Fluffy had distemper: Daddy could not bring himself to shoot him, so Dale did. Virginia also recalled sharing coffee with Mom and hearing Fluffy using the children's potty-chair.
Carol's Chapter · Childhood and junior high years
A Place on the Bench and Cake for Supper
The family gathered around a rectangular table with three leaves and a wooden bench Daddy made. Carol remembers sharing the bench with Dee and Diana, while Mom sat beside the youngest child to help. Large homemade meals included bread at both ends of the table and dessert after every supper. Carol later thought the bread compensated for limited seconds. In junior high she made a two-egg cake almost every day, with leftovers packed into school lunches.
Carol's Chapter
Mom's Kitchen, Backyard Roasts, and a Special Sunday Dinner
Carol recalls homemade meals, sweets, Friday-night treats, and bedtime snacks, including Lloyd teaching the children to dunk peanut butter sandwiches into cocoa. She remembers coloring margarine and refusing ten cents to eat liver. After the move to 39th Street, Mom raised chickens, Bob had a pig, and Grandpa Williams raised rabbits. Watching a chicken being killed terrified Carol, though chicken dinners and competing for the wishbone were memorable. Daddy prepared backyard wiener roasts. Restaurant meals never occurred and dinner invitations were rare, making a Sunday ham dinner with Ruth and Tom Johnson especially memorable.
Carol's Chapter
Sunday Pies, Shared Chicken, and the Funnies
Sundays were reserved for family, with Mom rising at dawn to bake pies with lard crusts, crescent rolls, and cinnamon rolls. Favorite noon dinners included Swiss steak or fried chicken with mashed potatoes. Carol jokes that ten people shared one chicken, then adds that surely there were at least two. Mom ate the wings and Dad the back, liver, and gizzards, saving the meatiest pieces for the children; Carol now enjoys wings herself. After dinner, Barb usually escaped to Margie’s house and Diana read behind a locked bathroom door, leaving Carol and Dee to do dishes while Bob snapped towels at them. Afterward, they read the Sunday paper Dad brought from town, especially Carol’s beloved funnies.
Carol's Chapter
Small Birthdays with Cake, Ice Cream, and Stories
Carol recalls small family birthday celebrations with a favorite cake, usually angel food, and ice cream. Her mother bought one pint each of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, cutting each into four slices. Ice cream was otherwise rare. Few early photographs survived to help recall gifts, but Carol remembers 365 Bedtime Stories, which her mother read repeatedly, and a View Master with fairy-tale and children's-story reels.
Carol's Chapter · Childhood; about 1986
A Treasured Doll Comes Home Again
Carol received her last childhood doll at about eight or nine years old. The bisque doll had yellow braids, opening and closing eyes, and a pouty mouth; Carol dressed it in outfits her mother made. After years in storage, she rediscovered it while unpacking after moving to 11th Street in Moline and told Dee how remarkable its survival was. A few years later, about 1986, Dee secretly had a friend mend its body and provide a new dress, wig, shoes, and socks. Dee presented the restored doll on a stand for Carol's birthday, making it one of her best birthday gifts. At the time of writing, the doll was over fifty years old and proudly displayed on Carol's dresser.
Carol's Chapter
Saturday Chores and a Sack of Candy
Carol recalls the girls helping Mom clean every Saturday morning, including changing sheets, cleaning rooms, and washing the insides of windows. Carol disliked dusting Mom’s foot-treadle sewing machine but did it anyway. After sponge baths and dressing up, they shopped downtown, enjoying the New York Store elevator and visiting Penney’s and Block and Kuhls. At Kresge’s dime store they received a small toy and candy to share and savor. Grocery shopping at the A&P or Shinner’s Meat Market finished the day. Carol also recalls a scandal over Shinner’s selling horse-meat just after the war, when good meat was scarce.
Carol's Chapter · When Carol was about twelve or thirteen years old
An Easter Coat and Mom’s Quiet Generosity
Carol saved her baby-sitting money to buy a pink, short, lamb’s wool coat for Easter Sunday at Penney’s. While she tried it on, a woman stole the wallet she had set on a chair. The clerks could not catch the thief, and Carol went home crying without the coat. Her mother comforted her and gave her the twenty-five dollars she needed. Carol believed her mother must have gone without something that week, though her mother never mentioned any sacrifice.
Carol's Chapter
Clothes Made with Care on Mom's Treadle Machine
Carol remembers her mother's skill and industry in sewing childhood clothes on a White treadle sewing machine, including dresses, slips, pajamas, and coats. She especially loved an orange-and-white three-piece outfit made when she was in first or second grade. Her mother also sewed for Marilyn, Patty, and Iris' daughters and crocheted a baby dress for Linda. Virginia exchanged ironing for sewing for her girls. Mrs. Vandergeist sometimes helped with machine-made buttonholes, inspiring Carol's father to buy a button hole attachment. Carol does not remember her mother using flour sacks for clothing, although she notes that this was common in the Thirties and Forties. The family also wore hand-me-downs and used clothes from friends, with her mother reassuring her that they were fine to wear.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s
Saturday Matinees and Cowboy Heroes
Carol remembers almost weekly Saturday matinees at the Highland Theater, with twenty-five-cent admission and nickel popcorn. Roy Rogers was her favorite cowboy, though she also liked The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry. She was fascinated by cowboy movies featuring Indians and recalls their clear division between good and evil. Double features included cartoons and news reels with World War II clips.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s
The Witches That Sent the Girls Home
Virginia McFarland once took Carol and other girls to see the Wizard of Oz. Frightened by the witches, the girls ran to the concession area, and Virginia had to take them home.
Carol's Chapter
Riverside Picnics, Warm Rolls, and Watermelon
Carol recalls favorite family picnics at Riverside Park, followed by swimming at the Moline Swimming Pool and playground play while the grown-ups played cards. Picnics with families from Mom's 500 Club featured each family's specialty foods. Mom rose at 5:00 a.m. to prepare cinnamon rolls and credited careful kneading for their texture. Bernie and Bob arrived early to save tables. Watermelon finished the outings; Carol accompanied Daddy to choose melons, which he tested for ripeness by cutting and tasting a wedge with his pocketknife.
Carol's Chapter
Christmas Trees, Stocking Treats, and Family Togetherness
Carol recalls Daddy waiting until close to Christmas to buy inexpensive trees, once paying fifty cents, and drilling holes to rearrange branches. The family decorated with paper chains, popcorn, ornaments, saved tinsel, and fiberglass angel hair that made their skin itch. Their everyday socks held fruit, walnuts, and candy; they later learned Daddy bought the biggest apples and oranges at Lagomarcino’s. He traditionally gave Mom two pairs of nylon stockings. Larger family gatherings moved to Iris and Bill’s for Christmas Eve. Christmas was Mom’s favorite holiday: after the children left home, she usually put up her tree by early December, shopped with Barb in Normal, and enjoyed specialty shops and tearoom lunches. Norm took the group to the Apple Barn for apples and cider. Mom also finished ornament balls at Barb’s and taught Amy and Jenny to make them. Carol believed Mom especially loved the holiday because it brought the whole family together.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s–1950s; around 1950
Howdy Doody and the Neighborhood's First Television
Carol recalls movies in the Forties giving way to television in the Fifties. Around 1950, when she would have been about twelve, the McFarlands had the neighborhood's first TV, a large black-and-white console with a small screen. She visited daily to watch Howdy Doody and remembers its opening song and characters. Her family soon acquired a TV. Her father watched endlessly from his reserved favorite chair, while her mother seldom watched but liked game shows and possibly Arthur Godfrey.
Carol's Chapter · 1950s; recollection extends to the time of writing
Wrestling Heroes and Barbara's Teasing
Carol and her father loved Wrestling From Hollywood. She remembers Gorgeous George and Verne Gagne as heroes and Mad Dog Vershon as a villain, describing their appearance and behavior. Carol considers this wrestling more entertainment than sports, but Barbara insists that Carol still believes it is real.
Carol's Chapter
Growing Up with the Peppy Steppers
Carol recalls being very active in the Peppy Steppers 4-H Club for many years, starting at age nine, despite not living on a farm. The club leaders were Mrs. Earl Holder and Mrs. Earl Bustard.
Carol's Chapter
Rainy Days and Sunset Campfires at White Eagle
Carol attended White Eagle 4-H Camp with Dee and Eilene Peterson, wearing halter tops her mother made for the three of them. They slept in tents, ate in a communal dining room, and used latrines down a long wooded path. Swimming in the river, making crafts, singing around sunset campfires, and making S’mores kept the week enjoyable despite constant rain.
Carol's Chapter
The Family Camper and Her Summer Songs
Carol was a Brownie and then a Girl Scout. Her father drove her to Camp Shabone in Port Byron many summers, and she remembered herself as the family’s “camper.” She recalled songs about making new friends and the upward trail, as well as Tell Me Why and Down in the Valley.
Carol's Chapter · Childhood–1995
A Lifetime of Faith at Calvary
Carol recalls riding the Sunday school bus to Calvary Lutheran Church as a young child. Her father never attended church, but her mother joined after his death and worshipped with Carol every Sunday until she died. Carol participated extensively in church life through teaching, singing, office work, groups, and council service. She was baptized and confirmed there at fifteen on May 16, 1954, married her first husband Don Boney there, and recalls Chris's baptism and confirmation there. She describes over fifty years of membership before transferring to a church in North Port, Florida, in 1995.
Carol's Chapter · 1948–1998, with earlier childhood memories
Next-Door Friends and a Lifetime of Kindness
Carol remembers the McFarlands as next-door neighbors and closest friends. She played daily with Marilyn and Patty and attended school with them through high school. Virginia and Carol's mother supported each other through hard times over coffee and cigarettes. Despite working outside the home, Virginia helped with housework, ironing, babysitting, and overnight stays, once washing the girls' hair outdoors with collected rainwater. The two women were charter members of a 500 Card Club founded in 1948 and belonged for over forty years. The McFarlands moved into town in 1952, and Pat later moved away when she married. Carol and Marilyn remained close. Carol recalls the losses of Dale in 1994, Virginia in 1996, and Marilyn's husband Bill in March 1998.
Carol's Chapter · 1944–1951
Banana Curls, School Games, and a Love of Reading
Carol remembers starting kindergarten at Roosevelt Grade School in Moline in 1944, riding in Mrs. Hogland’s improvised station-wagon seating, and wearing clothes her mother made and carefully arranged banana curls. Kindergarten included naps, a plaster handprint she still kept, and Drop the Handkerchief. Later memories include learning to read with Dick, Jane, and Baby Sally, riding the school bus, having tonsils removed with Marilyn and Bob, and loving fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Grafton. In fourth grade she learned time and multiplication, discovered boys, and began wearing glasses. In fifth grade she won a reading contest with over sixty books and became an enthusiastic comic-book reader. The section heading says First to Sixth Grade, although the account begins with kindergarten.
Carol's Chapter · World War II; August 15, 1945
War Stamps and Joyful News in Carolyn’s Yard
Carol recalls buying ten-cent Savings Bonds stamps at school as family finances allowed. A book holding $18.50 in stamps could be exchanged for a $25 War Bond redeemable in ten years. Her parents used ration stamps for food and gas, including rationed meat, coffee, sugar, and butter. While Carol and Carolyn Reichenberg played in Carolyn’s yard, a radio announced the war was over. Ruth and John tried to explain, and the children jumped, clapped, and shouted. Carol dates the memory to August 15, 1945, says she was about six, and states that the war was officially over that day.
Carol's Chapter
Carol's Favorite Comics and Books
Carol lists the comics she read: Donald Duck, Wonder Woman, Mickey Mouse, Archie and Jughead, Little Lulu, Felix The Cat, Popeye, Spooky, The Ghost, Batman, and Superman. She recalls enjoying Little Women, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Nancy Drew mysteries, and Bernie and Bob's Hardy Boys books. Reading a good novel remains her favorite thing to do.
Carol's Chapter
A Blue Ribbon for Jacks
Carol remembers playing Jacks endlessly in fifth grade and winning a blue ribbon at school, which she kept in the family scrapbook. She describes scattering ten jacks and collecting them in increasing groups, from onesies through tensies, while tossing, bouncing, and catching a ball. A missed jack or ball ended a turn. After completing the basic game, players attempted harder variations, also progressing from onesies through tensies. She directs readers to the Our Childhood Games section on page 427 for those variations.
Carol's Chapter · Carol's fifth and sixth grades; recollected later
Names and Verses Tucked Away
Carol invites comparison of family signatures and recalls Bernie's report that Dad's birth certificate spelled his name Floyde, leaving the reason uncertain. She still keeps her grade-school autograph book and shares playful verses and coded messages written by family and friends.
Carol's Chapter · Carol's sixth grade
Blue and Gold and Belonging
Carol remembers feeling part of the 'in' crowd as a sixth-grade cheerleader. Her mother made her short blue satin circular skirt and long-sleeved gold satin blouse. Carol wishes she had a photograph of the outfit and reproduces two remembered school cheers under 'Coolidge Cheer.'
Carol's Chapter · Carol's grade-school years
Scrubbed, Starched, and Sent Off with Lunch
Carol recalls Mrs. Shadle's periodic ringworm inspections, teachers recognizing the immaculately groomed Guild children, and strict expectations of behavior. With no school cafeteria, her mother prepared six labeled lunch sacks each morning, carefully matching individual tastes. Room mothers occasionally provided hot spaghetti served from a large electric roaster.
Carol's Chapter · 1951–1954
Woodland Walks, Taffy Apples, and Junior High Days
Carol recalled seventh through ninth grade at Coolidge Junior High School. She often walked through a slightly frightening wooded shortcut and stopped at King’s Apple Orchard for a taffy apple on her way home. She earned good grades without much studying and was a favorite of her Home Economics teacher, Mrs. McManus. Her social life included slumber parties, pin curls, record shopping in soundproof listening booths, and jukebox sock hops. She bought her first seamed nylons for her first dance, attended football and basketball games, and played intramural sports.
Carol's Chapter · 1954–1957
Full-Circle Skirts and the Clothes Snatchers
Wanting to fit in as a teenager, Carol followed fashions including rolled jeans, stiff crinolines, full-circle skirts she made herself, cinch belts, bobby socks and saddle shoes. Barb and Diana secretly wore her clothes to school until wrinkles from rolled waistbands gave them away. Carol also describes boys' duck tails, crew cuts, sweaters and shoes.
Carol's Chapter · 1954–1957
Nickels for Favorite Records
Carol remembers loving records, repeatedly spending nickels on jukebox favorites and faithfully listening to the Top 40 on the radio.
Carol's Chapter · Carol’s junior high and high school years
Summer Helping and Cottage Adventures
Carol earned spending money baby-sitting, mostly for Iris and Bill. During summers she moved into their house as a mother’s helper and joined their Wisconsin cottage vacations, fondly remembering boating, swimming, fishing, and their enduring kindness.
Carol's Chapter
Carol’s Extra Basket of Back-Then Memories
After the book was finished, Carol collected memories Bernie said there was not enough room to include. Her nostalgic list moves from Mom reading the funnies, homemade treats, and Dad's comparison of a Studebaker to a two-row corn picker to Bob's Davy Crockett hat, Bernie's stilts, school dances, fashions, childhood games, illnesses, street names, music, and remembered entertainment quotations.
Carol's Chapter
Three Wonderful Months Together in Europe
Mom spent three months visiting Carol, Charlie, and Chris in Germany, a highlight of her life. Bernie also visited, and the group traveled throughout Germany, Denmark, and Holland. Favorite stops included Anne Frank's house and hideaway in Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum with Rembrandt's Night Watch, Tivoli Gardens where ten-year-old Chris got lost, The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, and Hans Christian Andersen's home and the Museum in Odense, Denmark.
Carol's Chapter
Morning Crochet and Keepsakes of Love
Carol remembers watching Mom crochet at the kitchen table between Daddy's departure for work and the children's rising for school. Mom made hundreds of household pieces, individually designed Christmas ornaments, wall hangings, wreaths, and painted bread dough figures with Diana. Carol sees these crafts as expressions of creativity and treasures even the ornaments that have faded or fallen apart.
Carol's Chapter · 1940s and later undated years
Summer Visitors and Backyard Memories
Carol remembers meeting Floyd's three sisters from Brainerd and his warning that they might think the family rich and stay forever. Uncle Clarence, Francis, and their five children visited before Floyd's illness and death. Other memories include wartime hand-rolled cigarettes and smoke rings, later chewing tobacco, hunting trips with Bernie and Bobby, and playing house in Floyd's former backyard workshop after he moved into the new garage.
Carol's Chapter
Daddy's Favorite Foods and Familiar Ways
Carol recalls Daddy's food preferences, dislike of milk, insistence on Sayman Salve, warnings about sun exposure and swallowed bubble gum, control of money decisions, and objection to Mom wearing shorts or slacks. He kept canaries, bought a motor scooter, slept in a characteristic pose while watching television, and enjoyed neighborhood conversations so much that Mom sent the children to find him at dinnertime.
Carol's Chapter · Childhood–December 1966 and later years
A First Job and a Friendship That Lasted
After graduating from Moline High, Carol obtained her first full-time job through church friend Vendla Solmonson at Augustana Book Concern. She handled Sunday School material subscriptions for Lutheran churches throughout the United States, starting at a dollar an hour. She commuted with lifelong friend Eilene Peterson, whose family had been close neighbors, and stayed until December 1966.
Carol's Chapter · Childhood–1999
Chris: Backyard Friendships, Soccer, and a Life in Music
Carol's determination to live in the Coolidge school district placed Chris near three boys who became lifelong friends. His enthusiasm for soccer led to memorable football kicks and the captaincy of Moline Senior High School's first soccer team. At Northern Illinois University, he turned toward guitar and a college band while earning his degree. He later released a CD, founded a record company, supported local musicians, wrote music journalism, and compiled a family recipe book presented at the 1999 reunion.
Carol's Chapter
Grandchildren, Joy, and the Gift of Encouragement
Carol identifies Charlie's daughters Megan and Paige and their children. She reflects on the joy her grandchildren bring and the laughter, curiosity, wonder, and patience they have taught her. She hopes to make them feel loved and a little spoiled while encouraging them to try new things, take risks, and explore life.
Bob's Chapter
A Mother's Everyday Care and Treasured Handwork
Robert remembers his extraordinary mother's work raising seven children with help from her dad, Iris, and neighbors. Childhood in the four-room house on 39th Street included Saturday baths in a galvanized kitchen tub, an outhouse, clean school clothes, cocoa with a peanut butter sandwich, and repeatedly reused lunch bags. His mother made thirteen-egg angel food birthday cakes, tended and canned a large garden's harvest, and silently taught him to pick beans thoroughly by collecting three more buckets after he said he was finished. He treasures her doilies, Christmas ornament balls, and Santa dolls; his boys Steve and Brian also have ornaments.
Bob's Chapter · One summer
The Golden Ear in the Popcorn Field
Bob and Bernie planted popcorn in a field next door after Dad promised they could keep the sales money if they cared for it. By harvest they were weary of the work, but Dad's claim that one gold ear lay in the field prompted them to pick it in record time. They never found a gold ear. They sold the popcorn for ten cents a pound, and Bob thinks they made a little money.
Bob's Chapter
Dad's Workshop, Lessons, and Lasting Tools
Bob remembers Dad as someone who could fix anything, an excellent mechanic and welder whose projects brought many trips for parts, advice, and conversation with friends. Dad worked hard at John Deere, where friends called him Casey, tended a half-acre fruit orchard, participated in Dad’s Club, and took the children to Scout meetings. He taught them to make willow whistles and homemade kites. The family visited his brothers in Minnesota without announcing their arrival. His tough car negotiations embarrassed Bob but secured good deals. Bob recalls Dad's handsome appearance and enjoyment of his motorcycle and camper in retirement, and remembers him whenever he uses the tools he kept.
Bob's Chapter
Laughter at Oscar Peterson's
During a visit to Oscar Peterson's, Dad and Oscar were drinking a few beers. Dad gave some to Oscar's cat, which acted crazy, making everyone laugh. Bob recalls this as an example of Dad's humor and the laughter he shared with friends.
Bob's Chapter · Grade school and Junior High School years
A Special Glove and Trips with the Team
Robert recalls playing baseball in fifth and sixth grades and how special his new glove felt. As Junior High School football team manager, he enjoyed getting to know players and coaches and traveling to away games. His childhood games also included marbles, yo-yos, and a little hopscotch.
Bob's Chapter · Childhood through adulthood, including the 90’s
A Lifetime of Cheering, from Wrestling to the Packers
Bob describes his lifelong enthusiasm for watching sports and reading the sports page first. Before his family had a TV, his father took them to Iris and Bill’s apartment to watch wrestling, with Argentine Aroca their favorite. During the 90’s, Bob and his son Steve regularly attended Milwaukee Bucks basketball games. After many years in Wisconsin, he describes passionate loyalty to the Green Bay Packers, complete with hats, T-shirts, and sweat shirts, win or lose.
Bob's Chapter
Bob's Bright Fragments of Childhood
Bob lists vivid childhood memories: neighbors, a gasoline burn while playing with a toy steamshovel, Barbara refusing medicine, Bernie's skating injury, and Tom Johnson knocking out power lines with a falling tree. He recalls visiting the Rodgers in Cordova, swimming at Campbell’s Island, annual Riverside Park picnics, Iris’s wedding, and poker games with Art and Eileen Cordingly. Other memories include orchard camping and spraying, gathering walnuts, toys and homemade kites, fireworks, homemade foods, hauling water when the well dried up, building a house addition, basement heat relief and flooding, coal heating, backyard tomatoes, and the surviving mailbox millstone.
Bob's Chapter · School years
A Shortcut and an Unforgettable Apology
Robert remembers a “two-mile walk” to school even in twenty-below weather, with shortcuts through King’s Apple Orchard and Ferry’s Woods. While playing with matches in the woods, he and others started a fire that got out of hand. Iris took him to Ferry’s house to apologize, an experience he never forgot.
Bob's Chapter · 1942–1955, with later educational reflections
From Kindergarten Tears to a Published Sketch
Robert recalls crying on his first day of kindergarten until Iris came for him, attending several schools after a move, and graduating in 1955. He remembers junior high plays, working on scenery and props, taking art classes, and having a log cabin sketch published in Illinois Junior Historian. He reports good grades and continued learning through classes, workshops, seminars, and the school of “hard knocks.”
Bob's Chapter · Early Fifties and later
From Dad's Rebuilt Chevy to Beloved Station Wagons
Robert recalls starting to drive at thirteen around the 39th Street neighborhood and earning his license in a stick-shift car his father built from two junk Chevys for taking the children to school. He thinks Bernie and Carol also drove it. His own cars began with a black ’48 Ford he washed daily, followed by a succession of Mercurys, Oldsmobiles, Chevys, Pontiacs, and Dodges. His yellow ’57 Olds saw plenty of drive-in movie outings, and his ’69 Pontiac wagon was his first brand new car. Friends teased him about his station wagons, but he prized their hauling capacity. He always wanted a red Corvette convertible and says the red Mustang convertible comes close.
Bob's Chapter
Rabbit Hunts with Dad and Backyard Target Practice
Robert recalls Dad buying a twenty-gauge shotgun when Robert was around thirteen or fourteen, taking him rabbit hunting, and teaching him to clean rabbits safely. Dad told of hunting rabbits in Minnesota and filling a car's back seat with them; Robert wonders whether a photograph exists. Robert also remembers quail and pheasant hunting, backyard handgun practice with Dad and Dale McFarland, his favorite Red Ryder BB gun, and childhood fights using homemade slingshots and green grapes.
Bob's Chapter
Bob's Many Welcome Nicknames
Robert Ray Guild recalls being called Bob, Robert, Robbie by his dad, and Bobby by others. In junior high school, his small size earned him the nickname Pee Wee, which he still hears at class reunions. He welcomes all of these names.
Bob's Chapter · 1947 (picture referenced from the trip)
Dad Takes the Wheel at the Bridges
Robert remembers traveling to Minnesota with Dad and Bernie to visit Dad’s brothers. Bernie, eleven and a half and newly driving, was hesitant to cross the narrow bridges and stopped so Dad could drive across. Robert says he was ten.
Bob's Chapter
A Baby Pig and Fluffy the Wandering Cat
Robert recalled receiving a baby pig from a neighbor as a child. The family raised it in a pen behind the garage, greased it, and rode it before Dad eventually sold it. He also remembered a white cat named Fluffy, which stayed with them a long time and repeatedly returned from days away looking beat up and ragged. His own children later had a dog, a hamster, and some fish.
Bob's Chapter · When the narrator was around twelve or thirteen
A Circus Ticket Earned Under the Big Tent
The narrator asked to help a circus that set up in Moline and helped erect its big tent. He was impressed by elephants pulling up the tent poles with the canvas attached. His payment was a free ticket.
Bob's Chapter
Garden Chores and a Popcorn Enterprise
The narrator recalls the family's orchard and garden chores, including planting and watering vegetables by hand. He thought Mom and Grandpa did most of the work and noted that, with five sisters, he seldom did dishes. Dad bought a seed-planting device that the narrator and Bernie used to plant popcorn on land loaned by neighbors. They were allowed to keep the proceeds and sold several hundred pounds at ten cents per pound.
Bob's Chapter
Cocoa-Dunked Sandwiches and Saturday Candy
Bob lists favorite foods from childhood, tentatively recalling milk at ages 0–5, daily peanut butter sandwiches dunked in cocoa at ages 5–10, and macaroni and cheese with double cheese at ages 10–15. Weekly Saturday A&P grocery trips included one bag of candy to share; his favorites were Orange Slices and Circus Peanuts. He also remembers the PX restaurant's chili and French fries as the world's best and refers readers to Chris Bonney’s Ethel Guild family cookbook.
Bob's Chapter
Love Shown Through Work and Protection
Robert does not remember outward displays of affection in childhood, but recalls Dad checking on a stranger near their street and Mom sometimes receiving no pork chops when the plate reached her. Looking back, he recognizes his parents' hard work as their most important expression of love. He also remembers Dad's loving advice against joining the Navy.
Bernie's Chapter · 1936
Bernie's Arrival Just After Midnight
Bernie recounts his birth as the first son and second child, in his parents' rented Moline home just after midnight on April 11, 1936. He weighed ten pounds. His mother later told him that after a colicky infancy he became healthy, happy, and talkative, saying “Bernie” as his first word at eight months.
Bernie's Chapter · Possibly around age three
Little Glimpses of an Early Childhood
Bernie recalls playing with the rubber buttons on his sun suit, a vague sensation of bouncing on Grampa’s Williams’ knee, a humming red top, and a wooden duck toy. He does not remember his birthplace house, but introduces the fragmented memories of the family's second house at 127 35th Street as material for a poem.
Bernie's Chapter
Railroad Treasures and Childhood Days by the River
In a sequence of childhood memories, the narrator recalls locomotives, Grampa's walks to kindergarten, gathering fallen coal for Mommy's stove, and finding treasures near the foundry. He remembers his fifth birthday, first-grade lessons, a printing prize, and a teacher locking out Arnold for lateness. Life in a big white house includes celebrations, baby Carol's arrival while Mommy is sick, Mommy returning with Baby Delores, games with Bobby and Iris, penny treats, a tavern visit, May baskets, and the fascination of a river the children are forbidden to approach.
Bernie's Chapter · July 16, 1942, and subsequent decades
The Little House That Grew with the Family
Bernard remembers the small house on 39th Street that became the family's enduring home. He believes Mom secured the loan to move the children away from the river and railroad tracks. Dad gradually transformed the four-room house with a basement, furnace, well, enlarged kitchen, bedrooms, indoor plumbing, siding, garage, and work shed. Memories of moving day, Grampa's songs and knee rides, the McFarlands, and freedom to play convey the deep closeness of the family.
Bernie's Chapter
The Homestead's Shade, Blossoms, and Sweet Fruit
Bernard recalls the elm Dad called a Piss Elm, which survived the children's climbing and sheltered Grampa Williams's food preparation and the girls' summer activities. He describes favorite bushes, rhubarb, poplars, mulberries across the road on Britz’s side, colorful flowers, and unusual garden crops. He remembers stomachaches from overeating mulberries and ends by joking that the homestead's fauna consisted of children.
Bernie's Chapter
The Orchard Chore That Took So Long
Dad made Bob and Bernard cut tall orchard weeds with a two-handed scythe they could barely lift and trim around trees with a hand sickle. They hated the time-consuming work. Later, Dad did the mowing himself with a cutting blade pulled behind his homemade tractor.
Bernie's Chapter
Karo Cans and Grampa's Free Berry Patches
After harvesting the black raspberry patch near the outhouse, the children wore long sleeves and followed Grampa to wild raspberry and blackberry patches in the woods. Empty Karo Syrup cans hung around their necks left both hands free for picking. One year's blackberry harvest was so large that Grampa sold berries house to house to rich people in Villa Park.
Bernie's Chapter
Pepper Zinnias and Comic-Strip Mischief
The children sprinkled black pepper on flowers for Mrs. Rohrer, hoping for exaggerated sneezing like something from the Nancy comic strip. Instead, she thanked them and commented on the unusual pepper zinnias. The narrator also recalls a favorite Nancy strip about taking revenge on a grapefruit.
Bernie's Chapter
Dirt Hills, Chugs, and Adventures in Ferry’s Woods
The children played King of the Hill on dirt piles, often ending in fights, and rode crude homemade go-carts called chugs. They planned but never built a Soap Box Derby racer because the wheels cost too much, instead watching the races on 7th Street Hill every year. In Ferry’s Woods they climbed oak trees and played cowboys and Indians, sometimes naked until Mabel Rosener objected to the risk of lost clothes. The narrator lost his new shoes for two days; his father found them and punished him. Throwing hedge balls instead of acorns also led to a painful injury.
Bernie's Chapter
Dress Ups on the Chicken-Coop Stage
Playing with sisters sometimes meant House, School, or improvised performances in an old chicken coop with its front wall removed. Known as The Play House, it held a trunk of musty old clothes contributed by neighbors for Dress Ups. Brothers, sisters, and neighborhood children watched the performances from the grass along the garden.
Bernie's Chapter
Green Plaid Bags and Marbles for Keeps
Bernard remembers the drawstring marble bags Mom sewed for him and Bob, Bob's remarkable shooting skill, and his poison-green peerie. He describes the rules of their games, the many marble varieties, and the temptation to use steel ball bearings to shatter another child's marble despite a forfeiture penalty. A favorite marble was called a “Baby” and usually kept out of play. More than once, parents made them return winnings from children they had lured into playing for keeps.
Bernie's Chapter
First Jackknives and Fierce Games in the Dirt
At about seven or eight, the narrator and Bob each received a small bone-handled pocketknife from Daddy and immediately learned Mumblety-peg. They also played a competitive knife-throwing game in their dirt marble circle, claiming territory according to where their blades landed. Billy Johnson excelled at this game. The girls protested and reported them to Mom, especially when the players showed off by rapidly jabbing knives between their fingers.
Bernie's Chapter
Shrill Whistles from Willow Branches
The narrator describes making whistles with pocketknives from four-inch sections of weeping willow branches: slipping off the bark, cutting a notch in the twig and a corresponding opening in the bark, then replacing the bark. Dad could make one with his large pocketknife in a minute.
Bernie's Chapter
Childhood Secrets and Iris's Tea Parties
Later, Toby and Bernard played doctor in the woods. Iris and a girlfriend saw them and threatened to tell, leaving Bernard worried for a long time. He nevertheless remembered Iris as generally kind to him and recalled Mom saying that Iris welcomed his arrival as a permanent, witless guest for her tea parties.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator was about ten
A Summer Hailstorm Becomes Peach Ice Cream
While Bernard and Toby Fry played Crow on the Frys' porch, a sudden summer hailstorm left a thick covering of quarter-inch hailstones. Mrs. Fry had them gather the hail and used it with rock salt to freeze cream, sugar, and peach slices in nested cans. Singing and laughing, she joined the children in rolling the can across the kitchen floor. They then ate all the ice cream on the porch.
Bernie's Chapter
Hopscotch Lines and Double Dutch Flourishes
Delores asked Bernard to draw Hopscotch courts on the sidewalk or in the dirt. He disliked Hopscotch but enjoyed Jump Rope, especially the accelerated finish of Double Dutch. Carol taught him Jacks, which she, Dee, and Diana could play for hours.
Bernie's Chapter
Dirty Feet and Heavy Water Buckets
Bernard remembers getting filthy playing in the dirt. Mom did not require washing before meals but insisted on clean feet at bedtime. He thought the labor of carrying well water and heating it on the stove might explain this rule. He and Bob helped carry buckets they could barely lift. Mom kept a clean house but often said, “You need some germs to fight back with,” a view Bernard retrospectively endorsed.
Bernie's Chapter
Rainy-Day Toys and the Joy of Coloring
Bernard recalls indoor play during rainy days and winter: an Erector set, wood-burning kit, crystal set, painted figurines, and an electric train surrounded by Lincoln Log houses. He and Bob refused to box each other, disappointing Dad. He made comic books with newspaper strips and homemade paste, played Chinese Checkers with Grampa, and folded paper toys for Barbara. Coloring was his favorite distraction, inspiring a teasing aside to Diana.
Bernie's Chapter
Summer Baseball on Grampa's Philco Radio
Bernard remembers adoring Grampa Williams and following him as a toddler. His most vivid memories include Grampa's accident and death in his arms, but especially summer days when Grampa listened to baseball at the kitchen table while Mom ironed and listened too. Grampa meticulously recorded games and players on cardboard from Shredded Wheat boxes, saving every score card. The sounds of baseball broadcasts still bring Bernard an immediate, fond memory of Grampa.
Bernie's Chapter
Long Winter Rides Through the Big Woods
Bernard recalls eagerly awaiting Christmas and snow, and the transformed winter landscape of Ferry’s Woods. He describes approaching the woods by the Frys' farm and navigating a steep, winding sled run with Bob on their shared Christmas Flexible Flyer. They extended their rides onto a frozen creek until a log near a small pond stopped them; the long climb back in heavy winter clothing made this hard play.
Bernie's Chapter
A Shell Sign Toboggan and Happy, Tired Walks Home
A smaller, treeless ravine near the Vergain’s house offered safer sledding for girls and drew many children after heavy snow. Children used sleds, cardboard, boxes, and sometimes skis. The narrator's father made a toboggan from half of a metal Shell gas-station sign and attached a pulling rope. Its sharp-edged, rounded body carried three or more children in fast, spinning rides among other sledders and milkweed patches. Bernard remembers trudging home cold, wet, chafed, exhausted, and happy.
Bernie's Chapter
The House and Garden He Built in His Mind
Daddy's talk of buying a two-story house on 41st Street inspired Bernard to imagine its decorations and garden repeatedly, including geese to weed strawberry patches. Talk of moving to Walla Walla, Washington offered similar excitement, though he later understood these plans as only talk. The family did not have top sheets, and Bernard retained a preference for sleeping under just a blanket.
Bernie's Chapter · 1946 and later childhood and high school years
Small Gifts, Family Pride, and Big Dreams
A modest tenth-birthday gift made Bernard feel poor, especially beside Billy Johnson's new bicycle. His parents encouraged hard work and ambition, while Mom insisted the children should be proud of themselves and dreamed of travel. Inclusion in Jenny Swanson's luncheon for poor children wounded his pride. In high school he hid his modest home from wealthy friends, a choice he later regretted.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator was about ten
A Chicago Visit and a Lasting Lesson in Thanks
Bernard visited Grandma and Grandpa Hobson in Chicago with Billy Johnson and Billy’s parents. They ate lunch at Marshall Field’s, ordering from a huge giraffe-shaped children’s menu, and Bernard bought Bob a toy roller coaster. After they returned home, Tom Johnson scolded Bernard for not thanking others for their kindness. Bernard kept the embarrassing incident from his parents and never liked Tom afterward, but never forgot to thank anyone again.
Bernie's Chapter · When Bernard was about seven
Daisy Guild at the Halloween Party
Iris dressed Bernard as a girl with spit curls and took him to a church Halloween party, introducing him as “Daisy Guild.” He remembers bobbing for apples and getting water up his nose. No one guessed he was a boy, which he humorously attributes to Iris's convincing costume and introduction.
Bernie's Chapter
Halloween Windows, Rackets, and Mischief
Bernard describes making a noisy Halloween device from a notched thread-spool, string, and nail. During junior and senior high, he painted storefront windows each Halloween, including a motorboat-race satire whose reference to parking and making out at the airport went entirely unrecognized. Someone put watermelon rinds in the Peterson’s chimney after they refused treats; Ray Rohrer or Butch Hannah was suspected. Bernard recounts stories of cruel tricks on children that he considers probably urban myths. He denies overturning outhouses himself, is uncertain whether Bob did, and recalls Bob's fondness for matches.
Bernie's Chapter
Hayrides Around Moline
Bernard never went on a hayride because he was too young to have a girlfriend to take, while Iris went on many. He recalls hayrides declining in popularity as horses disappeared from small farms around Moline.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator was twelve or thirteen
A Lost Friendship and a Lifelong Lesson
Bernard remembers Sonny Joiner as a giggling childhood friend living with his working mother. Although Bernard doubted accusations that Sonny watched girls bathing, he chased and punched Sonny after another accusation one late-fall evening. Sonny cried without resisting, and Bernard immediately stopped in remorse. A few days later, Sonny’s mother told Bernard that Sonny had undergone surgery that very day and had fresh stitches. Bernard says the lost friendship and her warning haunted him, and he never struck anyone again.
Bernie's Chapter · World War II
A Child's View of War News and Gifts from Uncle Lloyd
Bernard recalls not understanding the stakes of war while playing with metal military toys and imitating racist wartime caricatures. He secretly read Iris' censored letters from servicemen and listened to Gabriel Heater's radio reports with his worried family. Uncle Lloyd served in New Guinea and returned wounded with souvenirs for him; an unnamed sailor boyfriend of Iris also gave him cherished sailor's pants.
Bernie's Chapter · World War II
Making Do with Ration Books and a Victory Garden
The family had ten Food Ration and three Gasoline Ration books, and Bernard remembers little hardship from rationing. Iris and his mother improvised stocking seams with makeup. The family's established vegetable garden became a source of Victory Garden pride, with John Reichenberg supplying advice and shared seed catalogs. His mother displayed a blue-star service banner, his father refused to surrender potentially useful junk to scrap drives, and Bernard participated in Boy Scout paper drives.
Bernie's Chapter · 1945 and afterward
Victory Celebrations and Frightening Lessons About War
Bernard places V-E Day in late summer 1945 and remembers pride mixed with incomplete understanding. His mother wanted to join a celebration parade, while his father wanted to remain home. He recalls his father's draft exemption for dependents and wartime work making machine gun parts and tank tracks at John Deere Plow Works. After V-J Day, overheard accounts of atrocities made Bernard decide never to go to war. A later Royal American Shows exhibit in Moline terrified him with photographs and wax figures; he also recalls an unexpected glimpse of an exotic dancer at the carnival.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator and his companions were about eleven
Billy's Wonderful Pony and One Wild Mount
Billy Johnson acquired Gypsy, an old brown-and-white Shetland pony that was blind in one eye, missing patches of fur, swaybacked, and fat. The children nevertheless admired her as a luxury. While Tom Johnson watched, Billy rode around the peony bushes and then invited everyone to pet her. Ray Rohrer leaped onto her back, alarming the pony and angering Tom. Gypsy was soon returned to her farm because the children could not act civilized around her.
Bernie's Chapter · After Gypsy was returned to the farm
A Trial Brother for Billy
Ruth and Tom arranged for an older boy from the local orphanage to be Billy's trial brother, hoping companionship would address what they regarded as a discipline problem. The narrator says the Guilds considered their rules absurdly strict. The boy made realistic crepe paper roses but was more interested in neighborhood girls than in staying home with Billy. He was eventually returned to the orphanage, a parallel the narrator draws to Gypsy's departure.
Bernie's Chapter · 1940s
The Dogs on the Ride Home
Bernard rode about a mile to Coolidge Junior High School, where bicycles stood unlocked in large racks. His ride home took him past Forrester's two police dogs. Throwing lit kitchen matches failed to deter them, and avoiding them would have required crossing fences and the ravine in Ferry’s Woods. Dad confronted Forrester about the dogs biting at Bernard and tearing his pants. After Dad threatened a dangerous deterrent involving rags on car wheels, the dogs were fenced in.
Bernie's Chapter · 1940s
Night Rides, Bells, and an Ooga Horn
Large nighttime bicycle outings worried Ethel, while Daddy defended the boys' adventures. He fitted Bernard's bicycle with a generator light and loud steel bands that imitated a motor until they began wearing through the spokes. Bernard treasured four bells and an ooga horn, carried passengers on the rear carrier, and avoided a front basket because of a childhood belief that baskets were for girls. He envied Bob's chain guard and recalled boys rolling up their right trouser legs to protect them from bicycle chains.
Bernie's Chapter · 1940s
Learning to Ride and Making an Old Bike Shine
Bernard loved his repeatedly repainted bicycle. Daddy proudly declared him a remarkably quick learner, unaware that he had already practiced on Iris’ bike with Bobby's help. The children enjoyed spraying gravel with dramatic starts and stops. Bernard learned to ride hands-free, but copying Ray Rohrer's seat-standing stunt left his knee full of gravel. Bicycle errands included buying Mom's Marvel cigarettes at Fredrickson’s Market with no money left for treats.
Bernie's Chapter
Bike Rides and a Hideout with Ray Rohrer
Bernard recalls his unlikely childhood friendship with Ray Rohrer, a boastful, tough-acting boy whose badness he admired. Ray claimed a fight had broken his tooth, though Bernard later learned he had fallen off his bike. Bernard speculates that Ray's domineering behavior reflected being bossed around by his older brother Dick. Ray introduced Bernard to dirty jokes, an “eight-page bible,” and profanity. On a tiring bicycle expedition through woods and along a creek, Ray led Bernard to a cardboard-floored cave hideout near Coaltown Road, where Bernard tried a strong homemade corn-silk cigarette that briefly burst into flames.
Bernie's Chapter
Childhood Beside the Peterson Family
Bernard contrasts his mother's gentle handling of accidents with the Petersons' fearful household, where children faced beatings for accidents or insufficient study. He remembers Eileen becoming a sweet person despite this treatment and believes the harsh rules troubled the boys, especially Billy.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator and Billy were maybe ten years old
Standing Up for the Kittens
Billy called Bob and Bernard over to watch him kill kittens in a rusty burn barrel with a BB gun. Bernard seized the gun and ran away before Billy could kill them. The gun's sharp sight cut Billy's palm, and Billy became Bernard's enemy. Bernard felt proud to oppose his cruelty.
Bernie's Chapter
Billy Stuck in the Strawberry Patch
During a tremendous rainstorm, Bob and Bernard walked with Billy through his strawberry patch. When Billy became stuck knee-deep in mud, they left him there without telling anyone, recalling it as a way of getting back at him.
Bernie's Chapter
Watching the Sky from the Soul Bowl Hillside
The family attended public fireworks displays sponsored by the Moline Daily Dispatch at Soul Bowl in Silvis. They watched from the grassy hillside around the playing field, enjoying Mom's enthusiastic reactions and wishing the show would last longer. Sometimes they caught chiggers in the grass.
Bernie's Chapter
Fourth of July Sparks and Childhood Mischief
Daddy brought home fireworks every Fourth of July, and the family eagerly waited for darkness to enjoy fountains, roman candles, sparklers, and pinwheels. Daddy also performed a risky trick with tiny firecrackers; Bob and the narrator burned their fingers trying it. Bobby and the narrator experimented with launching cans using firecrackers, and Bob once destroyed a model plane he had made. The narrator fondly recalls Snakes and expresses frustration with restrictions on home fireworks.
Bernie's Chapter
Freebies at Herby's Fireworks Tent
Herby Spahn ran a fireworks stand on 23rd Avenue for a few years, stocking it through trips to Saint Louis, Missouri. His selection included expensive skyrockets, Bob's favorite whistling Bottle Rockets, and M-80's. A chicken-wire fence separated customers from the merchandise for theft prevention and fire safety. Herb rewarded the narrator and companions with freebies for lingering at the fence to attract customers. The narrator admired the colorful wrappers and foreign-looking graphics nearly as much as the fireworks.
Bernie's Chapter · When the narrator was about eight and Bob about seven
A Frightening Summer Ride and a Childhood Misunderstanding
On a muggy summer night, the narrator's father took the boys and a .22 rifle to Harry Means's home on Campbell’s Island. Sent by Bobby to listen at the screendoor, the narrator overheard that they had to shoot someone and assumed a man would be killed and dumped in the river. The boys heard a rifle shot and waited terrified in the closed car. Much later, the narrator overheard Harry explaining that his hunting dog had been put down with Daddy's help. Embarrassment kept the narrator from telling the story until adulthood.
Bernie's Chapter
The Farm Boy Puppet That Never Came Home
After skipping fourth grade, Bernard entered Miss Carlson's classroom. The former nun devoted the semester to making papier-mâché marionettes for a planned show rather than teaching lessons, and took some pupils flying without permission. Bernard spent months crafting a carefully jointed farm boy puppet, with overalls and a red shirt made by his mother. Miss Carlson was fired and never returned; the children imagined she had been taken to jail. The school confiscated the puppets, and Bernard remained angry that his was never returned.
Bernie's Chapter
Barefoot Summers and Toughing Out School
Bernard recalls being a good student despite never liking school. His parents' insistence that education offered a better life helped him persevere, but he eagerly awaited summer vacations and wished they would never end. He jokes that, if he were in charge, children would run barefoot until age ten before starting school.
Bernie's Chapter · Age eleven; sixth grade
A Broken Arm and Left-Handed Palm Trees
Bernard broke his arm trying to play Crack The Whip before mastering ice skating. His father paid seventy-five dollars to have it set and unsuccessfully sought reimbursement from the fire department responsible for the Riverside Park pond. Bernard remembers his father’s sympathy and belief in letting children learn through mistakes. Unimpressed by the newspaper’s description of a fractured wrist, he nevertheless turned the injury to advantage by earning an A-plus for a three-dimensional Yucatan Peninsula map made with his left hand and decorated with green ricrac palm trees.
Bernie's Chapter · 1952 and later, dates unspecified
A Robin’s Egg Blue Chevrolet and a Cherished Ford
At sixteen, Bernard acquired a ’36 Chevrolet to drive to Moline High School. Its unfinished robin’s egg blue paint, missing parking brake, and shabby seats embarrassed him, but Dad kept it running and Bernard bought seat covers with his own money. He cruised Moline on a dollar's worth of gas and drove to Chicago with Herman Nelson one New Year's Eve without permission. He fondly remembers a black ’41 Ford with chrome and a radio, priced at $150, but cannot remember whether it replaced the Chevrolet, was shared with Bob, or belonged only to Bob.
Bernie's Chapter · 1947 and later
Learning to Cross the Bridge
Bernard learned to drive on Dad's homemade tractor and, at eleven, during a 1947 trip with Dad and Bob to Grandpa Dan Guild's funeral in Brainerd. Required to drive half the way, he initially refused to cross bridges, leaving Dad to take over. On the return trip Dad refused to cross the last bridge for him, and Bernard drove across in terror while Bobby laughed. He recalls lasting nightmares about bridges and never learning to swim. By the time he paid twenty-five cents for a driver's license at the postal booth in Schlegal’s Drug Store in Highland, he had driven for over four years; his Driver's Ed teacher excused him from road practice.
Bernie's Chapter
High School Honors, Art, and a Touch of Rebellion
Bernard recalls academic and artistic successes, including a poetry prize, an art award, six plays, and graduating in the top 10 of 300 just after turning seventeen. Frank disputes his reported I.Q. of 149. Alongside these achievements, Bernard remembers pretending to be a “Hood,” buying a switchblade, and keeping misbehavior from his parents. High school introduced him to differences in wealth; he also remembers struggling in PE and being relieved that he was too young for the Korean War draft.
Bernie's Chapter
A Reluctant Rabbit Hunter
Bernard dreaded hunting rabbits with Daddy and deliberately missed his shots. Daddy followed up, and the wounded rabbits sickened Bernard. Iris was an excellent markswoman, likened to Annie Oakley, while Bob was a good shot who enjoyed hunting.
Bernie's Chapter
Peanuts, Radio, and Time with Dad
Bernard warmly remembers Dad sharing peanuts from a penny vending machine at a gas station with him and Bob, and sitting close to Dad listening to favorite radio programs until Mom called them to supper. Watching Dad tinker made Bernard want to grow up like him.
Bernie's Chapter
Three Hours Through the Blizzard
Bernard walked home alone from school during a “Blizzard of the Century,” taking a shortcut through Ferry’s Woods ravine in three-foot-deep snow. He arrived after three hours, proud of himself, but Mother was hysterical. He recalls a razor-strap spanking of one or two swats as his worst punishment. The strap hung visibly on the back porch beside Daddy’s hunting vest.
Bernie's Chapter · 1947 and other undated visits
Minnesota Visits, Grandma's Sandwiches, and Northern Lights
Bernard recalls visiting Dan Guild's Minnesota grave, where aunt Myrtle seriously suggested digging him up. He remembers attending Dan's funeral at eleven in 1947, Grandma Olive's kindness over a fried egg sandwich, and visits with his father's relatives around Brainerd. His memories include attic sleeping, fresh warm milk at Uncle Clarence's farm, glowing swamp gas, brilliant Northern Lights in 1947, fishing, and mosquito bites.
Bernie's Chapter
Junk Trades, Cold Kayo, and Daddy's Infectious Laugh
Bernie recalls frequent, sometimes daily car outings with Bobby and Daddy that he considers significant to their socialization. Daddy told Mom when they would return but never their destination, and the girls were rarely included. The outings revolved around junk trading, often with Daddy's best friend Hugh Chase, who welcomed the boys with cold bottles of Kayo. Trades could involve guns, furnace parts, and elaborate arrangements among three or four people. Daddy delighted in recounting how he had gotten the better bargain. His teasing stories, habit of calling people “Good Looking” until he remembered their names, and infectious laughter made him a welcome visitor.
Bernie's Chapter · Childhood; ringworm episode after W.W.II
Family Remedies and Memories of Childhood Illness
Bernard recalls ringworm treatments for himself and Bob, crediting Daddy's use of Kerodin with becoming a standard treatment after the Arp doctors heard of it. He remembers Daddy's foot fungus and recurring malaria, Gramps's weather-sensitive rheumatism, and Mom deliberately exposing the children to whooping cough. Despite saying he cannot remember childhood sickness, he recalls ringworm, measles, and chicken pox. Other memories include Mom's sewing injuries, sunburn and bursitis, his own dog-bite scar, a girl's scarlet fever that he tentatively attributes to Carol, and the family's belief that childhood vegetables would protect them from cancer.
Bernie's Chapter · When Diana was a little girl
Diana's Courage and Nightly Prayers
Bernard recalls loving Diana deeply and praying every night for her painful leg to heal, fearing she might lose it. He calls her illness the worst thing that happened to the family, while crediting her bravery and constant smile with making the tragedy bearable.
Bernie's Chapter · Age twelve; later, the day before and day Kennedy was shot
A Blue Merry-Go-Round and News from the Sofa
Dad told stories of pulling childhood teeth with a string and door knob. Bernard's own tooth extraction under gas at twelve produced a vivid vision of a blue merry-go-round above a blue lake. Fear of another anesthetic experience led him to avoid the other children's shared tonsil-removal day. He eventually had his tonsils removed the day before Kennedy was shot and remembers eating potato chips on his sofa when Walter Cronkite announced the shooting.
Bernie's Chapter
Floyd Guild’s Well and a Father-Son Secret
Bernard recalls Daddy locating water with a forked willow divining rod near the kitchen door, then spending much of a summer casting a dozen massive concrete rings. Daddy dug inside the stacked rings as they sank into the ground, creating a secure thirty-three-foot well. Bernard and Bob played in the rings and helped haul dirt until neighbors took over. A leftover ring became a play space in the orchard. Before water was reached, Dad and Dale secretly lowered Bernard into the cold well in a rough rope halter. Bernard recalled seeing stars in the daytime sky from the bottom. Threatened with the razor strap if he told Mom, he kept the secret until late in life; she claimed she had already known, which he doubted.
Bernie's Chapter · Childhood through adulthood; dates not stated
Mom's Firm Hand and Comforting Presence
Bernard recalls being difficult to discipline, fearing his mother's threat to send him away, and finding comfort in her presence at his sickbed and her care before school. Her tears when he left for California made him feel guilty. He also remembers her advice about marriage and keeping his personal life private.
Bernie's Chapter · Childhood, including age sixteen or seventeen, and later recollections
Quiet Kitchen Talks and the Supper Call
At sixteen or seventeen, Bernard treasured quiet kitchen conversations while his mother ate a small sandwich and drank her last coffee of the day. She spoke of missing Grampa, worrying about Diana, and Dad's hard work without complaining. Overheard parental discussions revealed a cooperative decision-making partnership. Bernard also remembers listening to radio serials beside Daddy until Mom's familiar supper call, her delicious meals, and Dad's singing and whistling. He could still recall Mom's earlier voice but remembered Dad's speaking voice chiefly from later telephone calls after moving to California.
Bernie's Chapter · When Bernard was about eight or nine
A Friendly Greeting in the Hotel Lobby
Bernard's father took him into the LeClaire Hotel in downtown Moline and turned him toward a black man shining shoes. Having only seen white people before, Bernard was speechless when the man smiled and offered him a shoe shine. His father then led him away. Bernard is unsure whether prejudice was intended and thinks his father may simply have wanted him to see the man.
Bernie's Chapter
A Mother's Lessons in Equality
Bernard recalls discriminatory songs and limericks performed by his grandfather and father. His mother repeatedly countered them, out of his father's hearing, by teaching that no person was better than another. He believes her teaching, his own experiences of discrimination, and his liberal education helped him reject prejudice. He also recalls Dale McFarland's complaints about black workers at Farmall and abuse directed at Swedes and Belgians in Moline, ending with a hope that prejudice would end with his generation.
Bernie's Chapter · At age sixteen, with reflections fifty-some years later
Bernie Boy Learns to See Beauty
Selected by the Women’s Club of Illinois, Bernard attended a week of art classes at Robert Allerton Park. Robert Raushenberger used an ordinary rock to demonstrate how beauty emerges through observation and association, giving Bernard a lifelong way of seeing. Bernard also made two close friends and spent several nights exploring the estate’s trails, statues, architecture, gardens, and sunrises with them. When his father returned, he noticed Bernard’s weight loss and asked whether he had been fed. Bernard remembers the week as an exhilarating immersion in beauty and reflects on how much that awareness has meant throughout his life.
Bernie's Chapter
One Chance to Learn to Swim
Bernard recalls his father putting muslin water-wings on him and throwing him into the Rock River to teach him to swim. He sank, feared he would die, and cried after his father grabbed him when he emerged. His father carried him out and concluded that he would never learn to swim. Bernard says he never did, and that the swimming requirement later ended his advancement toward Explorer Scout despite his love of Scouting and more than twenty merit badges.
Bernie's Chapter · 1940s; after the war for the surplus-store recollection
Forties Memories: A Surplus Periscope and a Hidden Photograph
Bernard recalls a War Surplus Store opening in Moline after the war, much to his father’s delight. He and Bob obtained a small periscope and unsuccessfully planned to use it to watch Sis Vergain undress, but her shade remained closed. He also recalls ordering a glossy photograph of Jane Russell in “The Outlaw” and hiding it in his dresser because he felt uncertain about whether he should have it.
Iris's Chapter
Little Tea Sets and Dreams of a Welcoming Home
Iris recalls being the first child and having her own room before Bobby and Bernie were born. Uncle Lloyd brought treasured china tea sets, which she carefully repacked in their original boxes after playing house. She imagined dressing beautifully, dancing, and serving tea. Looking back, she feels those dreams came true in a lovely home where she entertains friends, and expresses gratitude for God's help, her husband, and her loving siblings.
Iris's Chapter
Penny Candy, Hollyhock Dolls, and Front-Porch Days
Iris recalls a small grocery store in a converted home's front room across from 1015 29th Street, where bread, milk, and penny candy were available. Living between the river and railroad tracks, the family received visits from hobos seeking food, and Mom shared despite the family's own limited supplies. Grandpa gathered dandelion greens for Mom to cook in bacon drippings. Iris remembers River Drive, Dad's beloved Model T Ford, a short-lived rabbit hutch, and making dolls from hollyhock blossoms beside the garage. One summer she badly hurt her knee falling from her bicycle on a black-cinder-covered street and spent long days recovering on the porch swing and cutting paper dolls. After Carol's birth, Mom was ill and weak for a long time; Iris tentatively recalls Grandpa being there part of the time and remembers Uncle Lloyd's brief visits. Grandpa Williams and Dad exchanged sharp words, while Saturday evenings also brought card games with Mom, Dad, and friends.
Iris's Chapter
Childhood Visits to the House in the Woods
Iris remembers her grandparents’ Minnesota woodland home, built by Grandpa and divided into sleeping and living areas with sheets hung from ropes. She brushed Grandma Olive’s hair outdoors, while Grandpa Dan entertained chipmunks with sunflower seeds in his pocket. Milk and butter were kept cool in a deep well, and mutton stew simmered on the stove—a smell Iris disliked. Weekend family picnics featured strawberries, homemade ice cream, fried chicken, biscuits, and singing; she tentatively recalls the men playing horseshoes.
Iris's Chapter
A Bicycle Rack and Two Country Routes
After moving from River Drive to a new country house at about eleven or twelve, Iris delivered the Moline Daily Dispatch to eighty homes after school. Her father repaired a second-hand boy’s bicycle and built a wooden newspaper rack for it. She also used the rack for Saturday bread deliveries, collecting bread from Peter’s bakery at an old farmhouse and taking customers’ orders for the next week. She loved the work and saw it as an early sign of her interest in business.
Iris's Chapter · Second World War
Singing All the Way Through Wartime
Iris recalls walking everywhere because of gas rationing and singing popular songs together along the way. She lists remembered titles and lyrics, explains the nonsense words of Marzy Doats, and names The White Cliffs of Dover as a favorite.
Iris's Chapter · Second World War
Quilt Squares and Dime Stamps for the War Effort
Too young at eleven to fully understand the war, Iris nevertheless responded to President Roosevelt's radio appeal. On Saturday mornings she made quilt squares at the YWCA for Red Cross ladies to sew into quilts for GIs. At about thirteen she sold dime war savings stamps outside a grocery store, wearing a patriotic hat and apron. She recalls, with uncertainty, that a hundred stamps filled a book, says twenty-five dollars bought a war bond, and had two bonds by war's end. She also recalls why her father and grandfather were not drafted and mentions a boyfriend who joined the Marine Corps after the war.
Iris's Chapter · Second World War
Garden Food and Carefully Mended Stockings
Iris remembers the family's customary large garden becoming part of the wartime push to grow and preserve food. Ration stamps were required for scarce foods, including coffee, sugar, and meat. She stood in line at the New York Store for nylon hose, repaired stocking runs with tiny stitches, and learned from her mother to draw stocking seams on makeup-covered legs.
Iris's Chapter · 1948–2000
A Good Life in the Homes We Shared
Iris recalls marrying Bill on September 11, 1948, and beginning married life in cramped shared quarters during a postwar housing shortage. Their next home was a fifty-five-dollar-a-month upstairs apartment in Moline, where Daddy brought the kids for Monday-night wrestling, potato chips, and Pepsi. They bought a small East Moline house where Linda, Beth, Jeffrey, and Laurie were born, then built a home on 4th Street Court in 1957, where Kurt joined the family and the children grew up. Iris traces later homes in Roscoe, a northern summer place, the sale of their house in The Ledges, a newly built Arizona home, and their move to a three-level Rockton home in spring 2000, calling it a good life.
Iris's Chapter
Songs, Dancing, and Days Outdoors with Dad
Iris recalls singing with her father in the car, especially on long trips to Brainerd. His favorite songs included Red Sails In The Sunset, which brings back a happy image of him singing beside her. He taught her to dance and, when she was about twelve, to shoot. She remembers using a twenty-two rifle, though she acknowledges the uncertainty of memory. He proudly praised her shooting, took her hunting without her shooting anything, and took her fishing during visits to relatives in Brainerd, where she caught fish.
Iris's Chapter
Leaving the Rock River House by Boat
Iris has vague memories of a brief stay in a house on the Rock River with a large screened-in front porch and many mosquitoes. During flooding, the family loaded belongings into a boat and left. She thinks this may have been her parents' second house in Moline.
Iris's Chapter
From a Second Mother to a Cherished Friend
Iris reflects on her second-mother role in childhood and the friendships she now cherishes. She recalls Bernie's broken tea sets and playful dish-towel chases, taking little Barbara everywhere, soothing Diana's ulcerated leg with lard, helping reposition baby Carol's head until the neck grew stronger, regretting Delores's scoldings after her hearing problem was discovered, and understanding quiet Bob's pointing without his needing to speak.
History of the Guild Family · 1904–1907 and Floyd's youth
Dad's Beginnings and Family Resemblances
The family recounts Floyd Raymond Guild's farm birth, parents, inherited appearance, and full and half-siblings. They remember the infant death of Harold Herman and state that eight of Olive's ten children lived well into old age. The passage contains conflicting ages and dates for Olive and calls the Vosburg children both half-siblings and stepsiblings.
History of the Guild Family · 1904–1925 and later recollections
Hard Work, Strong Tempers, and Lasting Family Ties
The family describes poverty, shared winter coats, uncertain meals, Dan’s mechanical ingenuity and repair shop, and the heavy household work borne by Olive and her daughters. Severe arthritis and unproved suspicions of infidelity colored Olive’s marriage and behavior. Recollections differ sharply: some emphasize harsh discipline and complaints, while grandchildren recall kindness and others see a devoted couple with stubborn tempers. Dan’s brief 1925 departure ended in his return, and they never divorced. The narrative also remembers affectionate sibling bonds, Floyd’s signature practice, and Olive’s willingness to shelter daughters between marriages. Sweeping judgments about the Vosburg and Guild children are presented as family opinions rather than independently established facts.
History of the Guild Family · When Merlin was seven or eight
Merlin and the Unfortunate Sack of Onions
While visiting his grandparents, Merlin urinated from an upstairs window at night to avoid waking them. Unknowingly, he soaked onions Dan had left drying on the porch. Olive’s bean soup and liver and onions were spoiled and went into the hog’s slop barrel. Merlin received a willow-switch whipping but remembered the accident as getting even for punishments he considered undeserved.
History of the Guild Family · 1875 and later; most events undated
Sophrona's Children and the Love That Helped Edith Heal
Adah Sophrona Guild Beckman died of tuberculosis at 38, leaving eight surviving children after Samuel's fatal poisoning at two. Her widower Frank married Clara, who severely abused little Edith and was imprisoned after Frank discovered the abuse. The family concealed the imprisonment with a brain-tumor story. Frank later married Mary, whose love helped Edith recover. Edith became a tender mother, and her daughter Gerri supplied details. The account also recalls Adah's lost inheritance and Frank's later Wabedo Lake resort.
History of the Guild Family · Emanuel's teenage years
Manny's Forbidden Dance
As a teenager, Emanuel defied his father's religious prohibition on dancing to accompany a girl he admired. His father sent him to a distant farm for intensely hard labor to end his 'dancin’ phase.' The family account says the girl never married.
History of the Guild Family · 1911–childhood
Red Hair, Handmade Knickers and North Dakota Snow
Ethel's early life in Newburg included a comfortable home, her Norwegian immigrant mother's skilled sewing, and harsh winters. Agnes made her knickers from a catalog picture, making her the first girl in school to wear them. Ethel remembered tunneling through snow to the barn, skiing over fences to school and learning to walk on tiny snowshoes.
History of the Guild Family · About 1921; after 1930
A Frightened Train Ride to Grandma's Quilts
While Agnes was in a sanitarium, Ethel and Lloyd traveled fearfully by train to spend four or five months with Michael and Millisa Lehman in Astoria. Lizzie was remembered for her quilts and Michael for strict discipline. Ethel did not question the difference between her father's surname and theirs; Mary later told her the unspecified “bigamy” story after Iris' birth in 1930.
History of the Guild Family · 1916–after 1922
Loss and Growing Up Too Soon
Ralph died of double pneumonia despite a snowstorm sleigh journey to hospital and a blood transfusion. Agnes died in 1922 after tuberculosis and complications from swine flu. Ed moved Ethel and Lloyd to a boarding house run by Mrs. Howe. As he began drinking heavily, eleven-year-old Ethel took on care for herself, Lloyd and her father. Ed continued managing a diner and dance hall; Ethel recalled being caught by him kissing a dance partner in a car.
History of the Guild Family · 1926–1965 and later
Uncle Lloyd’s Visits and Cocoa-Dunked Sandwiches
Lloyd moved to Moline, married and divorced, and later lived in Savannah, Illinois. His Army Signal Corps service included injuries during an amphibious landing in New Guinea, followed later by lung surgeries. The account says a 1965 surgery kept him from his father's funeral, although Ed's death is elsewhere dated 1953. Lloyd eventually disappeared from the family's lives, but his beloved visits left a lasting breakfast tradition of sandwiches dunked in cocoa.
History of the Guild Family · Manny's teenage years
A Dance and a Father's Hard Lesson
As a teenager, Manny attended a dance with a girl despite his father's objections and the religious prohibition on dancing. The next day his father sent him to a distant farm for intensely hard labor to end his 'dancin’ phase.' The girl reportedly never married.
History of the Guild Family · 1909–1925
Red Hair, Snowshoes, and a Mother’s Handmade Knickers
Ethel’s early life in Newburg combined material comfort and her Norwegian mother’s skilled sewing with severe winters. Ralph’s death and Agnes’ tuberculosis disrupted the family, sending Ethel and Lloyd on a frightening train journey to their grandparents in Astoria. After Agnes died, Ed’s grief and drinking left young Ethel caring for her family. Friends and dancing brought happiness, but her father refused her wish to attend college and sent her to work.
Our Childhood Games
Keeping the Guilds’ Childhood Games Alive
Carol Sutton recalls fond memories of the Guilds’ favorite childhood games and encourages passing them on to children and grandchildren. She emphasizes their simple requirements, personal contact, and lasting memories. The passage gives a counting rhyme for choosing who is “It” or selecting teams, followed by instructions for tag.
Our Childhood Games
The Guild Children’s First Circle Game
The passage identifies Ring-Around-the-Rosy as the first game Mom taught the Guild children. Players join hands in a circle, sing the traditional rhyme, and fall down on the last line. An accompanying note claims that the lyrics originally referred to plague sores, flowers used to mask the smell of bodies, and victims becoming ashen or their bodies being burned.
Our Childhood Games
Drop the Handkerchief: A Circle Game
The passage explains how to play Drop the Handkerchief. Players hold hands in a circle while “It” walks outside with a handkerchief, chanting a rhyme beginning “A tisket, a tasket.” On one of three designated repetitions of “dropped,” “It” may drop the handkerchief behind a player, who then chases “It.” If tagged before reaching the empty spot, “It” continues in that role; otherwise, the chasing player becomes the new “It.”
Our Childhood Games
Taking Turns Under the London Bridge
Players form a bridge with their joined hands while the others march beneath it singing “London bridge is falling down.” At “My fair lady,” the bridge players capture a player and waltz the prisoner away and back during the prison verse. The prisoner becomes a bridge partner, allowing everyone a turn. The narrator includes additional verses about building with iron, steel, and stone, noting that the family did not know those verses.
Our Childhood Games
Guessing and Tagging in Blind Man’s Bluff
A blindfolded player stands inside a moving circle of players and stops it with three handclaps. The blindfolded player points to someone and guesses their identity. A correct guess leads to an exchange of places; otherwise, the selected player enters the circle and tries to avoid being tagged. Once tagged, that player stands still while the blindfolded player identifies them by touching clothing, facial features, and hair. The identified player wears the blindfold for the next round.
Our Childhood Games
A Secret Button on the Living Room Couch
Players sit on the living room couch with their palms pressed together. The person who is “It” passes closed hands between each player’s hands, secretly leaving a button with one person. Everyone guesses who holds it, including the holder, who must bluff. Whoever guesses correctly becomes “It” for the next round.
Our Childhood Games
Fox and Geese in the Snow
Instructions for a snow game: players stamp out a circle twenty to fifty feet in diameter, divided into eight pie-shaped sections. One player, chosen to be “It,” starts at the center while the others line up on the outer edge. Everyone must run only along the marked lines. A player becomes “It” when tagged or when stepping off the lines.
Our Childhood Games
I Spy with My Little Eye
One player chooses a visible object in the room or immediate surroundings and gives a clue about its color. Other players guess in no particular order, and the first to guess correctly chooses the next object. A variation uses the object's first letter as the clue.
Our Childhood Games
Jacks: A Guild Girls’ Obsession
The family describes jacks as a Guild girls’ obsession, explaining the basic progression from onesies through tensies and how a missed jack or ball ends a turn. More difficult variations included Sweeps, Eggs in the Basket, Double Bounce, Crack the Egg, and Pigs in the Blanket.
Our Childhood Games
Kick the Can in Front of 3209
The family recalls frequently playing their own Guild version of Kick the Can in the street in front of 3209, sometimes limiting hiding places to their yard and McFarland’s yard. They describe choosing a kicker, counting to fifty, searching for hiders, and racing to the can to capture or free players. Weak kicks drew shouts of “baby kick,” and anyone caught skipping numbers had to count again. Their rules allowed tripping, shoving, and tackling to protect the can. The family admits that players sometimes deliberately kept an inept child “It” for the entire game.
Our Childhood Games
Taking Turns Ruling the Hill
In King of the Hill, one player guards a small hill or mound while others try to push or pull that player down and take over. The crown changes hands continually, and prolonged play usually becomes roughhousing.
Our Childhood Games
Giant Steps and Baby Steps with Mother
The family explains Mother, May I?, in which players seek permission to advance toward a player acting as Mother across start and finish lines about twenty-five feet apart. Carol appears in an example requesting giant steps and being offered baby steps instead. Players who move without asking must start over, and the first to reach Mother wins. Taking turns as Mother gives everyone a chance to direct the game.
Our Childhood Games
Playing Red Rover Together
The passage explains Red Rover: two equal teams, each with a captain, take turns calling an opposing player to try to break through their linked hands. A successful runner gains a player for their team; an unsuccessful runner joins the opposing team. The team with the most players after a set playing time wins.
Our Childhood Games
Claiming a Dirt Circle in a Schoolyard Knife Game
After playing marbles, players took turns flipping knives into a circle drawn in the dirt. Those whose knives stuck inside rushed in after the last throw to claim parcels by drawing straight lines aligned with their blades; the largest parcel won. The lines were then erased for another round. The family recalls this as a wild and dangerous game: someone received a knife cut to the face, but no one remembers who. In a variation called “Kingdom,” players made repeated throws to enlarge their territories until one controlled the whole circle. Strategic play could prolong the game, and a player forfeited when their remaining portion was smaller than their hand.
Our Childhood Games
Daredevil Stab: A Risky Childhood Game
The passage describes a childhood game of stabbing a pocketknife between outstretched fingers, moving forward and back as quickly as possible without pausing or cutting oneself. It ends with the exclamation “Yikes!”
Our Childhood Games
A Game of Mublety Peg
The passage describes a pastime for improving skill: a player balances an open pocketknife on the back of his hand, then uses his other hand to flip it downward against the handle, trying to make it stick in the ground.
Our Childhood Games
Splits: The Guild Version of a Childhood Game
The Guild version of Splits is described as a game for boys only. Two players stand two paces apart and take turns throwing pocketknives into the ground near the other's feet. If a knife sticks, the targeted player must move his feet to that spot; otherwise, he need not move. Play continues until one player is doing the splits and cannot stretch any farther, making the other player the winner.
Our Childhood Games
Playing Twenty Questions Indoors
The family recalls playing Twenty Questions like the television show, asking, “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” The passage explains how two or more players share a total of twenty questions to identify a secret object classified as animal, vegetable, or mineral. Answers must be yes, no, or possibly, and a no passes play to the next player. The person who guesses correctly chooses the next object; if nobody guesses within twenty questions, the answering player reveals the object and chooses again.
Our Childhood Games
Schoolyard Yo-Yos and a Name Carved in Wood
The family recalls a Filipino yo-yo salesman visiting the school yard for two days to demonstrate tricks with a Duncan loose-loop yo-yo. His demonstrations persuaded them to buy yo-yos; buyers who returned the next day could have their names carved into them. The passage explains basic yo-yo movement and free-spinning tricks, including Walking the Dog, Cat’s Cradle, Swing, and Trapeze.
Our Childhood Games
Hours of Squiggles with Bernie
Bernie entertained the family for hours with Squiggles, a two-person drawing game. Each player uses a differently colored pencil to scribble on paper, then exchanges papers with the other player. Within about two minutes, each must turn every bit of the received squiggle into a picture. Ingenuity matters more than artistic ability.