Theme
Military
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.
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 · 1944–1988
Chris, the Sunshine of Carol's Life
Carol recalls her 1965 marriage to Donald M. Boney, Chris's birth in 1967, and the joy her son brought her. After the 1972 divorce, she and Chris moved in with her Mom. She remembers Don as a supportive father, recounts his Navy Corpsman service and decorations, and records his death after years of cancer.
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.
Bob's Chapter · 1963
Bob Finds His Strength in Boot Camp
Bob recalls three years in the Illinois National Guard during his twenties. His six months of active duty in 1963 included eight weeks of winter Boot Camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he gained fitness and a better understanding of his endurance. He finished active duty with an Artillery Unit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
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 · April 1955
Back to the Drawing Board, with a Party to Follow
Having just turned nineteen, Bernard received a 4F classification after a brief draft examination. He walked back to FCB and resumed his layout, then used his going-away gift money to throw a party for his coworkers. Mr. Fairfax Cone, pleased he was staying out of the army, asked him to help save the San Francisco office and offered to pay his train fare home if he disliked it.
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 · 1940s
Gathered Around the Radio: Music and Wartime News
Iris recalls the constantly playing radio and the Moline Daily Dispatch as the family's main news sources, including news that might affect Uncle Lloyd in New Guinea. The family mourned President Roosevelt around the radio, but also enjoyed singing and dancing to popular songs and big bands. She recounts Bill's description of overseas propaganda broadcasts mixing favorite music with frightening, specific military information; she attributes that information to spies within the U.S. government. She remembers divided reactions to the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, her father's approval, and Harry Truman's presidency.
History of the Guild Family · 1445–1676; house legacy continuing to the time of writing
Across the Atlantic to a Lasting Family Home
The family traces its line to Mr. William Fairbanks in Yorks in 1445, then recounts Jonathan Fayerbanke's marriage to Grace Smith Lee, their seven children, and their voyage to Boston in his own ship in 1633. Jonathan moved to Contentment in 1636, built the enduring Dedham house, acquired land, joined the township covenant and eventually the church, and prospered as a farmer. The house is described as America's oldest standing timber frame dwelling, a National Landmark continuously owned by the family and never mortgaged, with replicas including one at Boston Commons. The passage also describes the wider family's political activity, Patriot and Union service, and slaveholding by some landed members. It retains inconsistent arrival chronology and contradictory wording about Jonathan's death relative to Grace's.
History of the Guild Family · Perhaps about 1918
An Unexpected Inheritance and a Granary Home
An elderly bachelor left his wooded 160-acre property and operating sawmill to the poorest family in St. Mathias Township. The township elders chose the Dan Guild family. Floyd and Clarence saw a hopeful future, while Olive feared Dan would ruin their good fortune. Dan, Olive, Floyd, and Clarence made the windowless granary livable by sealing its open slat-work. Bessie had already left home to marry Ira Ringering, recently returned from World War I, and Pearl had died of diphtheria at 16 a year earlier.
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 · 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 · 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.