Theme
Hard Work
Introduction
The Gift of Memories
Chris Bonney introduces the book as a gift wrapped in words and images, inviting readers to explore its memories like an unfamiliar trail. The introduction encourages openness to both warmth and difficult reflections, honors the work that made the pages possible, and urges readers to share the gift.
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
The Wringer and the Scent of Summer Laundry
Before the automatic washer and dryer, the family used a round agitator machine with two rinse tubs, one containing a wringer. Everyone feared getting an arm caught in it. Clothes dried outdoors on lines in summer, acquiring a smell Barbara loved, and on basement lines in winter.
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
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 through college, with later reflections
A Car for College and a Family That Always Helped
Diana recalls demanding study habits, family gardening and tomato sales, and her anxious departure for college. Iris and Bill’s gift of a car made nursing school feasible. During an earlier John Deere & Company strike, Iris brought groceries when the family lacked money. Diana describes her scholarship, difficult college years, friendship with Martha Kawada, and graduation. Memories of planting a flower garden and helping haul water from the water works lead to gratitude for the family’s enduring support and resourcefulness.
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.
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 · After retirement; strokes three years after retirement
Daddy’s Turn to Enjoy Life and His Last Concern
After years of providing for his children, Floyd bought a beloved motor scooter, a turquoise blue Comet, and a travel trailer, despite Ethel wanting nothing to do with them. Three years after retirement he suffered a series of strokes. He wanted to be baptized before dying and to see everyone. Delores recalls his insistence on seeing Iris’ husband Bill so he could ask Bill to take care of Ethel, a devotion she deeply admired.
Dee's Chapter · Before marriage, wedding day, and years later
Switchboard Work and Sweet Memories at Lagos
Before marriage, Mom worked in a button factory and then as a telephone operator. A fire at Schmidt Beauty Supply kept her working extra hours transferring calls. Dad courted her at Lagomarcino’s, and after their wedding, with Elva Melton as maid-of-honor and witness, they went to the movies and then to Lagos. Years later, the narrator and Mom lunched there together.
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
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
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
Mom's Top-to-Bottom Spring Cleaning
Every late March or early April, after the coal furnace was shut off, Mom scoured the entire house to remove black soot. Curtains were washed and dried outside on an adjustable wooden stretcher fitted with pins. Cupboards were emptied and washed, dishes cleaned, and shelves lined with fresh paper, including decorative scalloped borders. Winter clothes were stored with mothballs and hand-me-downs set aside. Storm windows came down, windows were washed before screens went up, and mattresses, rugs, and the family's one carpet were taken outside and beaten. The narrator remembers that Mom maintained this annual routine throughout her life, whether it was needed or not.
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 · After Dad died
Pine Cones and Christmas Treasures
After Dad's death, Mom developed her craftwork, turning the basement into a hobby shop for pinecone wreaths and Nature Trees. Carol and the narrator took their children along to gather natural materials with her. The narrator still collects pine cones for the memories, despite Susy's restraint. Mom later made Christmas ornaments for family and friends, carefully providing one for everyone to choose during holiday visits. A newspaper featured her crafts and tree. The ornaments remain precious reminders of her generosity and love of hard work.
Dee's Chapter · Mom's senior years, after Daddy died
Tuesday and Saturday with Mom
The narrator recalls Mom's busy senior years, her pride in getting seven children through school, and her family, friends, card parties, and crafts. Carol and the narrator stayed in Moline, married, had a child each, and worked at the Moline Dispatch and a beauty salon respectively. After Daddy died, the narrator cared for Mom on Tuesdays and Carol on Saturdays; both followed similar routines of errands and lunches paid for by Mom. The narrator humorously insists Mom's light auburn hair was natural. Mom traveled to visit children from California to Florida and to Germany after Charlie's transfer. Family contributions included clothes from Bob's boutique and goods from Iris and Bill's Ben Franklin store. The narrative closes with gratitude for Mom's care, strength, and devotion, including keeping ten people fed and dressed.
Dee's Chapter
Grampa's Hard Work and Courage
Grampa suffered a serious leg burn after falling into a vat of lye while working nights at a foundry. A newspaper article described a new treatment that healed the burn but left a terrible scar. Delores is unsure whether his cane use was connected. Her mother recalled his taking on the duties of judge, postman and coroner during a Swine Flu epidemic in their North Dakota hometown, apparently immune while many others died. After his wife died of tuberculosis when their daughter was eleven, he raised the daughter alone.
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 · 1959 and beauty school afterward
A Scholarship Hidden in a Desk Drawer
During her senior year, Dee entered an essay contest about becoming a beautician with Diana’s help. Only after graduation did she discover the notice awarding her a three-hundred-dollar scholarship to Hurley’s Beauty School. She enrolled and credits Diana with the essay and her rewarding career. Her first patron insisted on old-fashioned pin curls rather than rollers; despite Dee’s frustration, the patron liked the result enough to book another appointment.
Dee's Chapter · Thirty-five years of hairdressing through the time of writing
Dee Finds Her Calling Behind the Salon Chair
After graduating from Hurley’s, Dee began at the Powder Puff Beauty Salon in Moline, wearing the legally required white uniform and shoes and shampooing hair while building a clientele. Her first paycheck bought a red synthetic turtleneck at The New York Store that she still wears. After marrying Ernie, she opened the immediately successful Dee’s Beauty Salon in Coal Valley. Her career brought joy and lifelong friendships, including loyal customer Faye Swears.
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 · At the time of writing
A Mother and Daughter's Butterfly Garden
Delores and her daughter Susy landscaped the entire yard by hand, turning it into a bird and butterfly sanctuary. Susy helps add flowers and shrubs to attract butterflies. They hope to tag Monarchs the following season and follow their migration to Mexico, as gardening becomes an avid hobby for Delores.
Dee's Chapter
Delores Remembers Her Parents' Love and Lessons
Delores thanks her mother and father for teaching her to work hard, play fair, and never give up. She credits their teachings as the foundation of her success and remembers their kindness, tender mercies, and love.
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 · 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
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
Sharing Water and Learning to Save Every Drop
Carol recalls a family well that repeatedly went dry. Their water tasted and smelled good, unlike some neighbors' sulfurous water. Mom hauled water from Reichenberg’s well for laundry. Ruth and John Reichenberg and their children, Kent and Carolyn, were close friends and neighbors. Daddy fitted a wagon with a five-hundred-gallon tank he had made and fetched water from town two or three times a week to replenish the family's and neighbors' wells. These shortages taught Carol lasting water-conservation habits.
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
Twice a Year, a Fresh and Clean House
Carol recalls the thorough spring and fall housekeeping required by the dusty, sticky residue from the coal furnace. Wallpaper was rubbed clean with a pink, gummy material, lace curtains dried on a nailed wooden stretcher, rugs were beaten, and bedding and draperies aired on the clothesline. Her mother also painted and wallpapered, teaching Carol to paint. Seasonal window changes included washing every window inside and out. Limited storage, a damp basement, and an impractical attic made clearing out unwanted belongings and rotating seasonal clothing essential. Her mother ended each cleaning season proudly admiring the home's fresh appearance and smell.
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 · 1881 onward
Gramps’s Helping Hands and Generous Heart
Carol recounts Edward Williams’s birth, marriage to Agnes Tomitum, and family losses. After Agnes died of tuberculosis, he raised Mom and Lloyd alone and moved with them to Moline in 1925. Despite arguments with Daddy over drinking, Gramps was a valued family helper. He contributed two thousand dollars for a house addition, worked in the garden, helped with canning and childcare, and paid for Mom’s false teeth and occasional dresses. Mom’s “good” dresses for 500 Club meetings were cotton housedresses costing two dollars and seventy-nine cents in J. C. Penney’s basement.
Carol's Chapter · late Forties or early Fifties
Experimental Treatment for Grandpa’s Injured Leg
While working as a fireman at Herman Nelson in downtown Moline, Grandpa Williams accidentally stepped into a vat of lye, severely burning and eating away the skin and flesh of his leg. Doctors used ACTH and Cortisone, described as experimental drugs at the time, to heal it. The Dispatch published an article about the treatment; Carol thinks it is in the family scrapbook.
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
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
Popcorn Profits and Fifty-Cent Discoveries
Bernie and Bob grew popcorn one year in McFarland’s vacant lot. Daddy promised they could keep the sales money and encouraged harvest help by offering fifty cents for each ear of Indian corn found among the popcorn. The boys dried the ears on the garage roof, used a popcorn sheller Daddy bought, and bagged the kernels in the basement. Daddy then drove them to movie theaters to sell their popcorn.
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 · 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 · Summer between Carol’s junior and senior years in high school
Carhop Trays and Late-Night Reassurances
Carol’s first part-time job was serving root beer, hamburgers, and malts as a Tasty Treat carhop. Owner and neighbor Mrs. Mary Poston hired Carol, Dee, and Marilyn McFarland; Carol recalls that they made about seventy dollars plus tips that summer. Mrs. Poston also owned Hasty Tasty Restaurant, where Barb washed dishes on second shift. Despite being frightened when returning home around 1:30 a.m., Barb joked that she was protecting Carol from Peeping Toms.
Carol's Chapter · 1928; the Forties; later years
A Roller-Skating Beginning and a Legacy of Care
Mary Hill arranged Ethel and Floyd's blind date, and they went roller-skating. They married in Moline on November 6, 1928, with Elva and Frank Melton standing up with them, then celebrated with dinner and a movie rather than a honeymoon. Carol remembers their independent household responsibilities, relentless work in the Forties, kindness to neighbors, and family values demonstrated through everyday actions.
Carol's Chapter · 1911; later years unspecified
Mom’s Records and a Lifetime of Devotion
Carol recounts Ethel's birth in Newburg and her search for baptismal records when she needed a passport to visit Carol in Germany. The record supplied the spelling Kathrine, listed her father's first name as Edwin rather than the family's remembered Edward, and revealed a birth year of 1911 rather than 1909. Her already-engraved grave marker would remain incorrect, but she enjoyed learning she was two years younger. Carol also honors her mother's tireless work caring for the family, her support and guidance, and her life without an outside job after her first baby or learning to drive.
Carol's Chapter
Mom, the Quiet Heart of the Family
Carol remembers Mom as the glue holding the family together: patient, calm, private, warm, kind, and uncomplaining. Mom had no vacations or days off during the children's upbringing and was seldom ill. She enjoyed novels, especially The Thorn Birds, loved Pepsi, and dressed impeccably. Every Tuesday, Dee devoted her day off to making Mom “Queen for a Day,” doing her hair, taking her to lunch, shopping, and running errands.
Carol's Chapter · 1904–1965; later reflection undated
Casey's Lunch Bucket and a Life of Providing
Carol recounts Floyd's birth, conflicting family accounts of his birthplace, and his thirty-nine years at John Deere Plow Works. Known at work as Casey, he arrived early for his preferred parking space and carried six sandwiches in a black lunch bucket. Writing about his demanding life helped Carol appreciate his devotion to providing for the family.
Carol's Chapter
Daddy Could Make or Mend Anything
Floyd traded with Hugh Chase and proudly repaired and resold a broken chain saw at a profit after using it. Herb Spahn remembered his riding-sprayer, motorized plow, help to neighbors, and protective rule against swearing around his girls. Carol recalls his metalwork, woodworking, car repairs, plumbing, electrical work, and walnut carving, skills that kept the household from needing hired help.
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 · 1973–two years following the 1976 marriage
A Dance with Charlie and a Wedding Abroad
After jobs at Moline Daily Dispatch and Franciscan Hospital, Carol began working at Rock Island Arsenal in 1973, first as a secretary and later as a budget analyst. She met Charlie there, but their romance began at a January 1975 dinner-dance. They married in Berne, Switzerland, on April 30, 1976, and spent two years overseas.
Carol's Chapter · 1931–1986
Charlie's Path from Kansas to a Career of Service
Carol recounts Charlie's birth in Troy, Kansas, his place as the oldest of six children, and his mother's family connection to Amelia Earhart. After high school, Charlie served four years in the Air Force, including a year in Korea. He then used the GI Bill to earn a geology degree at the University of Kansas and worked twenty-seven years as a Department of Defense ammunition inspector before retiring in 1986.
Carol's Chapter · July 1978–September 1979
A Short Florida Stay and a Return to Moline
After leaving Germany in July 1978, Carol and Charlie worked at the 31st ADA Brigade at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. They returned to Moline in September 1979 and resumed their careers at the Rock Island Arsenal.
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
Canning Shelves and Grandpa's Special Sausage Crock
Mom preserved the garden and orchard harvest every year with help from Grandpa Williams and Iris, reusing hundreds of jars. Jelly was sometimes sealed with paraffin or covered with waxed paper and a rubber band. Dad built basement shelves like library stacks; jars sometimes spoiled and exploded, especially peas. Iris recalled catsup, spiced pork, pepper hash, and cabbage and cucumber relish. Bernie remembered pork sausage and sage patties preserved under solidified pork grease in a decorated gray crock on the cold porch. Made especially for Grandpa Williams, the patties were eaten cold straight from the grease. Bernie still has the crock.
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 · 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
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 · 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 · 1953
Stockroom Work and Unpaid Clothes
At fifteen, the narrator began what he called his first job in the real world, as a stock boy at Kay Bee Clothing store in Moline. Bernie had held the job before him. The store sold clothing on credit, and the narrator's duties included visiting customers' homes to repossess unpaid merchandise, where he met some memorable characters.
Bob's Chapter · After three years in Oshkosh; 1983, 1972, and 1988 as written
Learning the Business and Building Stores
At Iris and Bill’s suggestion, the narrator left Penney’s and learned the Ben Franklin business at Bob Retzlaff’s Madison store. He reports opening Bormann’s in 1983 as part owner and manager, with Bill Retzlaff cosigning his first loan, and five successful years of business. He also states that he sold out in 1972 to become manager and partner with Iris and Bill in Elliott’s in Janesville for eight years. These dates conflict and are retained as written. In 1988 he bought a Janesville Ben Franklin Store and converted it to an all-crafts store. He also served five years on Rock County Bank’s board, finding it especially interesting to learn who borrowed money for country club dues.
Bob's Chapter · After high school; 1962 and three years in Oshkosh
Handing Out Roses with Mr. Penney
The narrator followed Bernie into work at the J.C. Penney Store in Moline, became the men’s department’s best salesperson, and entered management training. Transferred to Oshkosh for a new store opening in 1962, he spent several days working with Mr. J.C. Penney, handing out roses and checking the registers at his request.
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 · 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 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
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
Junkers, a Workshop Sign, and Lasting Gratitude
The family's troublesome cars reflected limited money and Dad's enthusiasm for fixing junkers. Bernard and Bob learned mechanical skills from him. The children struggled to contain his junk piles, and Bernard's workshop sign urging a place for everything amused Dad without changing his habits. Bernard closes with appreciation for both parents' hard work, devotion, and sacrifice, and regret that he did not do more for them later.
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 · 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
A Garage Raising and a Last-Minute Ham Dinner
Floyd Guild recruited neighbors for a garage raising, promising a ham dinner but telling Mom only the day before. Virginia helped assemble and prepare the food and jokingly warned Floyd that people had better come to eat it. The garage was successfully built in a day. George Rohrer, who helped, attempted the same thing a year later, but no one came—not even Daddy. George built alone, and Daddy later contrasted George's sagging roof with his own straight one.
Bernie's Chapter
Hours Beside Dad's Forge and Tools
The garage became a well-equipped workshop with a hand-cranked forge, wood- and metal-turning lathes, grinding and burnishing wheels, several saws, a drill press, and welding equipment. Daddy made parts for his inventions there and produced excellent arc welds. The narrator remembered the forge's brilliant fire and sparks, and the hundreds if not thousands of hours he, Bob, and the girls spent watching Daddy work.
Bernie's Chapter
Daddy’s Pride-and-Joy Tree Sprayer
Daddy built an elaborate tree sprayer from an old Willys chassis, a homemade pump, and eventually a wooden tank from King’s Apple Orchard. Despite wearing a mask, he often became drenched in DDT or Malathion, as did Bernard. Daddy hoped to sell spraying services but never asked the neighbors, leaving the machine chiefly to serve the family’s dozen orchard trees. Bernard also drove it while Daddy guided a heavy scoop to level the driveway and dig a wastewater ditch behind the garage. Dale McFarland thought a shovel would have been faster, but Daddy insisted his machine saved work.
Bernie's Chapter
Borrowed Tractors and Five-Dollar Gardens
While working in Deere’s experimental department, Daddy invented at least four important agricultural devices without receiving royalties. He sometimes brought a tractor home in spring to plow the family’s truck garden. When he returned to work, Bernard—and perhaps Bob—used it to plow neighbors’ gardens for five dollars. Bernard’s memory was vague, but he believed they were never caught because the consequences would have been severe.
Bernie's Chapter
Popcorn and Lessons at the Plow
Bob and Bernard learned to drive a tractor and maneuver its plow while planting a half-acre of popcorn on McFarland’s empty lot. Bernard also plowed many other gardens that year under Daddy’s supervision. He remembered his right biceps becoming huge from repeatedly raising and lowering the plow at the ends of the furrows.
Bernie's Chapter
Daddy's Strength, Hard Work, and Playful Spirit
Bernard recalls Daddy's characteristic work clothes, muscular build, and tireless labor, both lifting plowshares at work and building or repairing things at home. He remembers how handsome Floyd looked dressed in a suit, his rose-scented hairdressing, and his prematurely gray hair. A playful exchange with Mom about shaving illustrates his love of getting a rise out of people. His happy nature and good intentions endeared him to others, and his children regarded him as a hero.
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 working life; dates not stated
A Lifetime of Gratitude for Hard Work and Equal Love
Bernard sent his parents money every payday and found motivation in making them proud through advertising honors and promotions. He recalls his mother's exhausting work as the children's needs grew, and Jesse McFarland's praise of her as a saint and an exceptionally hard worker. The children wished Jesse would marry Iris. Bernard acknowledges taking Dad's work for granted and honors Mom's honesty, neutrality, and equal love, regretting that he never fully told her what those lessons meant.
Bernie's Chapter
Selling Shoes and Saving for Art School
Bernard saved his shoe-sales salary and substantial bonuses at J. C. Penny’s to fund art school. He humorously describes his sales technique of praising both the shoes and customers’ feet. Once he had enough for tuition and a little rent, he felt ready to leave familiar meals behind; the passage ends before stating his destination.
Bernie's Chapter
A Streetcar Search and a Fifty-Dollar Lifeline
With rent due and only five dollars left, Bernie searched Chicago retail stores by riding different streetcar lines. A trip along Clark Street to Granville Avenue brought him a shoe-selling job at Winsberg’s with hours that fit his classes. After he sold a customer five pairs of shoes on his first day, Mr. Winsberg advanced him fifty dollars.
Bernie's Chapter · September 1954 and five years in the Chicago office
A First Layout and a Warm Welcome at FCB
After deciding he had had enough art school, Bernard crossed the street to Foote Cone and Belding and was hired despite his slight portfolio and lack of advertising knowledge. Six months later, he won approval from a difficult Armour Chemicals client on his first assignment. He recalls five happy years in the Chicago office, an award in his first year, and pioneering television work with an animated Dial commercial called “Mr. Oops.”
Bernie's Chapter · A few months after the San Francisco arrival
A First Taste of Europe with Bob
FCB sent Bernard on his first European trip to create a Renauld of France sunglasses campaign in Paris and a Beauty on the Beach suntan lotion ad in Cannes. Traveling with account executive Bob Leefeldt, he discovered fine restaurants, antique shops, and Versailles. Bob’s example of the good life encouraged Bernard to work harder.
Bernie's Chapter · 1962–1973 and through the time of telling
A Love of Architecture, One House at a Time
Bernard describes architecture as his greatest love and recounts buying, remodeling, decorating, and selling homes at increasing prices. A loan from Rick’s father helped with the first down payment at 248 Day Street. Successive homes included 333 Laurel Street, a house in Sausalito, and 373 Cumberland Street, where he still lives at the time of telling. The profits brought investments and a sense of financial independence, while the houses themselves deepened his enjoyment of architecture.
Bernie's Chapter
Two Sweet Advertising Triumphs in Hawaii
While working together at FCB, Bernard art directed advertisements and commercials written by Frank. Two C and H Sugar commercials were particular career highlights: a boy paying for a cookie with a marble at Lanoa’s store, and a child trading a wagon of puppies for sugar cane. They traveled to Hawaii to produce the commercials and successfully resisted their South African director’s attempts to rewrite them.
Iris's Chapter
Hot Water and Ice Deliveries at the River Drive House
Iris remembers a large green iron stove with a hot-water tank, which supplied the house's only hot water as far as she knew, and a bathroom shared with the couple upstairs. Her mother heated heavy irons on the stove; Iris is uncertain whether there were multiple irons or interchangeable bottoms with a single detachable handle. The household also had a wooden icebox, replenished by an iceman carrying a block of ice on his shoulder with ice tongs.
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
Soda Fountain Work and a Treat for Mom
At sixteen, Iris took an after-school job at the Cozy Corner restaurant. She especially liked working behind the soda fountain. Her mother waited up when she worked late, and Iris sometimes brought her deep-fried chicken and French fries.
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 · 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
Mom's Tomatoes, Pepper Juice, and Canned Pork
Iris remembers her mother sorting tomatoes on her hands and knees beneath the large backyard tree, separating them for whole canning, catsup, and juice. She fondly recalls her mother's pepper juice and canned pork, regrets not learning to can pork, and says she misses her mother.
Iris's Chapter
Mom’s Patient Listening and Labors of Love
Iris remembers calling Mom with complaints and receiving the patient reply, “I don’t know what to say about that.” Mom never took sides, talked behind anyone’s back, or told secrets. Iris also praises her baking, especially with yeast, and recalls learning crocheting, cooking, and clothes-making from her. She fondly remembers Mom working late at night at an old treadle sewing machine in the kitchen to finish something needed the next day.
Iris's Chapter
Gus Falk's Friendship and a Fresh Start in Moline
Gus Falk met Daddy, Uncle Clarence, and the other sons through stops at Grandpa Dan Guild's radiator repair shop in Brainerd during his annual Minnesota hunting and fishing trips. He offered to help them find jobs at John Deere in Moline. Upset by Grandpa's decision to cut down and sell the black walnut trees, Daddy left for Moline at sixteen. Gus secured him a job at John Deere Plow Works, where he worked for thirty-nine years. Iris also recalls Daddy driving a truck for a WPA road-building company during some early Great Depression years. He jokingly claimed his inexperienced crew built a particularly bumpy road section on the way to Chicago, but the family never believed him.
History of the Guild Family · 1884–1899
Olive and Clarence's Farm Years and a Sudden Loss
After marrying in St. Mathias, Olive and Clarence Vosburg traveled on horseback to a North Dakota farm, raised five children, and returned to Minnesota in 1898. In summer 1899, Clarence was crushed by a boulder while clearing a field. Myrtle's account, relayed by Orville, attributes the accident to a broken wedge pole and rejects other reported causes. Olive was left with five children.
History of the Guild Family · 1830–after 1901
Inventive Hands and the Fortunes of an Inheritance
Newton’s mills, repair shop, patents and royalties illustrate what the family calls the Guild tinkering trait. The account also credits Thaddeus Fairbanks and Mr. Morse with scale and engine innovations. After Newton’s death, Dan supported his family with his inheritance, Bernal became a traveling salesman, and Frank Beckman lost most of Adah’s share in a failed furniture store venture.
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 · 1898–1909, with earlier family background
A Snowstorm, an Open Door, and a Growing Family
Drawing partly on Floyd’s accounts, the family recounts Dan and Bernal’s rented farm and Olive’s desperate appeal after Clarence Vosburg’s accidental death. Dan offered shelter in exchange for cooking and housekeeping, initially unaware of her two oldest daughters. Olive and Dan married in 1899 and had five children, two of whom died young. The account also recalls Carrie’s devout household and Bernal’s departure after Newton’s death to sell sewing machines, including his meeting with Belle Woodley.
History of the Guild Family · After the foreclosure around 1918; ownership noted in 2001
A Sawmill and a Small Home on Falk’s Farm
After stating that Dan lost everything, the account says he retained the sawmill. Harold Falk let him build a small house on his farm in exchange for sawing logs into boards. Dan also used sawdust to preserve winter-cut lake ice for summer sales. Iris, Merlin, and Bernie remembered the plain two-story tar-paper house, where tarpaulins divided living and sleeping spaces. A barn for cows and pigs was added later. The 103 acre farm included part of Round Lake and two rivers and was still owned by Marvin Falk in 2001.
History of the Guild Family · 1917–1951 and later family visits
From the Old Farm to a New Start in Moline
Family memories follow Dan and Olive on the Falk property, the mysterious driveway inscription, Myrtle's minnow sales, and Bessie's diphtheria quarantine and marriage. After Dan lost the property, Clarence moved to Bessie's home and Floyd stayed with Uncle Bernie, learning horse care and practical jokes. Gus Falk helped Floyd move to Moline and find work in 1921. Relatives admired his success, and visits and reunions continued through his parents' later years. The passage preserves contradictory dates in Olive's calendar account and the boys' refusal to admit writing the inscription.
History of the Guild Family · About 1926–1968
Floyd and Ethel: Dancing, Work, and Seven Children
Floyd and Ethel met on a roller-skating blind date, courted through dancing and picnics, and married in Moline in 1928 with Frank Melton and Elva as attendants. They raised seven children. The passage says Floyd worked his entire life for John Deere, while also recording a roughly year-long Depression layoff when Lloyd helped him obtain WPA truck-driving work. Remembered as hardworking, playful, outspoken, and devoted to family, Floyd died of acute kidney failure in 1968 after an earlier severe stroke and is buried beside Ethel.
History of the Guild Family · Age 17 through 1905–1910 and later
From the Sunshine Store to a New Name
Manny and Harvey owned a successful hardware and grocery business in Astoria. According to an account Ethel reported long after his death, Manny discovered his young bride with another man, beat the man, allegedly burned the house, and fled after withdrawing half the store cash and bank savings. In Newburg he worked on a wheat farm, then managed a lumberyard with an attached restaurant and dance hall, subsequently becoming its accountant and prospering. Between 1905 and 1910 he adopted the name Edward Williams. The passage offers speculative explanations involving prosecution or bigamy when he married Agnes Tomitum, while stating that secret correspondence with Harvey revealed that the assaulted man had survived.
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 · 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 · School years–1988
Brownie’s Dancing Days and a Lifetime of Mothering
Despite grief at home and being refused a college education, Ethel found happiness in friends, dancing, and work. Mary Hill introduced her to Floyd, whom she married in 1928. Together they raised seven children, while Ethel survived a serious goiter and worked several jobs. In widowhood she enjoyed crafts, cards, grandchildren, and travel, including a cherished 1979 European holiday funded by Bernie. She died during a visit to Diana in 1988, remembered for her unqualified love.
History of the Guild Family · 1926–1953
Grampa’s Helping Hands at the House on 39th Street
Ed Williams became a permanent member of Ethel and Floyd's household around 1934, helping raise seven children and handling housework, gardening, and canning. He contributed earnings and savings toward enlarging the house. A severe acid burn at work ended his later employment, though treatment healed his leg. The family remembered his affection and help, alongside episodes when Floyd had to retrieve him after drinking. He died of a heart attack in 1953 and was buried without a headstone.
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 · Age 17; 1905–1910
From the Sunshine Store to a New Name
Manny and Harvey owned the successful Sunshine Store in Astoria. According to a later report by his daughter Ethel, Manny discovered his first bride with another man about six months after they were betrothed, beat the man, and allegedly burned the house after ordering his wife outside. He took half the store cash and bank savings and fled by train to Newburg. There he worked as a wheat farmhand, then managed a lumberyard with an attached restaurant and dance hall, and subsequently became its accountant. He changed his name to Edward Williams between 1905 and 1910. The family speculates about avoiding prosecution or a bigamy charge when marrying Agnes Tomitum, while stating that secret correspondence with Harvey revealed the other man had survived and the first wife had disappeared.
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.
History of the Guild Family · 1925–1965
Dances, Seven Children, and Grampa’s Helping Hands
After moving to Moline, Ethel met Floyd through Mary Hill and married him in 1928. They raised seven children, while Ethel worked several jobs and survived goiter surgery. Ed became a permanent member of their household, contributing childcare, housework and money, despite drinking and a serious workplace injury. Lloyd served in the Army Signal Corps, suffered lasting injuries and eventually lost contact with the family, leaving fond memories and a cocoa-dunking breakfast tradition. The passage gives conflicting dates for Ed’s death and funeral.