Theme
Money
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
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
A Remembered Visit to Brainerd
Barbara once accompanied Mom and Dad to Brainerd to visit relatives. She remembers little except her impression that everyone seemed very poor and that the cousins were cute.
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 · After moving to South Florida; before 1995
Fishing, Not Catching, in the Florida Keys
Lee and Diana spent weekends at the Hurricane Motor Lodge on Marathon Key, fishing all day Saturday and Sunday. During their first year, Diana handed Lee her rod while she stepped away, and a huge Sailfish took her bait. Lee landed it, and The Marathon News printed his picture. They declined to mount the expensive fish, expecting more catches like it, but neither encountered another Sailfish.
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
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 · After the children were all grown
The Canning Jars Dad Hauled Away
While Mom was at card club, Dad decided she would no longer do any canning. He packed up all her jars and large crocks and took them to the junk yard. Mom was furious when he told her, and the narrator is unsure whether she ever forgave him. The narrator reflects that those jars and crocks would be valuable today.
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 · 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; 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 · 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 · 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.
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 · 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 · 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
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
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
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 · 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 · 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
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
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 · 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 · 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 · 1954–1957; remembrance of 1996
High School Rides, Beautiful Papers and a Beloved Sister-in-Law
Carol recalls Bob driving the girls to high school and picking up Sue Warner, who later became his wife and Carol's beloved sister-in-law. Sue died on Carol's birthday in 1996. After school, the girls met their father at the A&P Store for the ride home. Carol describes her courses, clubs, satisfactory A’s and B’s, enjoyment of research and Bernie's elaborate term-paper covers. Nursing was financially out of reach, but she later felt glad she had not pursued it. She also remembers relatively minor classroom discipline problems.
Carol's Chapter
A Green Chevy and a Ticket to Freedom
Carol recalls intimidating tenth-grade driving instructors who also taught Industrial Arts. Only four of about fifteen students finished and received permits, and her leg shook during parallel parking. Her father opposed the children getting licenses because he needed his car for work and could not afford another car or repairs after a wreck. After graduating and getting a job, Carol lived with Iris and Bill and saved all her earnings for three months. Her father then helped her find a green 1948 Chevy for three hundred dollars, which she used to obtain her license. She and her sisters drove it for years, cruising with friends even after it lost one of its gears. Carol remembers gasoline costing about twenty-five cents a gallon and the car representing freedom.
Carol's Chapter
Buck Night and a Car Full of Friends
Carol recalled popular drive-in movies, where staff initially washed the front window before the show. On Buck Night, a dollar admitted as many people as could fit in a car. Once, her group put a couple of friends in the trunk because the front was full.
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
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
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.
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 · 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
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 · 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 · During the Elliott’s period; five years
Sue’s Candle Store and a Lucky Montreal Trip
The narrator says they bought Sue a Wicks N Sticks candle store, which she operated successfully for five years. Trade shows brought travel and lasting friendships. Their favorite trip was to Montreal, where Sue won nine hundred dollars in a raffle.
Bob's Chapter
Bob's Pocketbook Politics
Bob describes his practice of voting straight Republican except on local issues. He connects his voting to pocketbook concerns and recalls telling politicians that giving money to someone who did not earn it means taking it from someone who did.
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
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
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
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 · 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
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
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 · 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 · 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
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 · 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
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 · 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 First Friend and a Little Hope at Art School
On a hot July Monday, Bernie begins figure-drawing classes at Ray Vogue in Chicago. Overwhelmed by the nude model and anxious about fitting in, he meets Byron, an Army veteran studying on the GI Bill. During a cigarette break, Byron's openness and encouragement leave Bernie both unsettled and smitten. With tuition paid but only a week of rent money remaining, Bernie needs a part-time job. By day's end, a new friendship and the discovery that he can draw as well as his classmates give him hope.
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 · 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.
Bernie's Chapter · 1957–1961; heading and arrival date conflict
A New Home and a Life of Art with Rick
Bernard recalls meeting Rick at Kitty Sheon’s in Chicago, moving into his apartment, and later sharing a home on Surf Street. Following a farewell party, Bernard flew alone to San Francisco on New Year’s Day, stated as 1960 under a 1961 heading, and was astonished by snow. Rick followed a day later and found a new apartment with a bay view. Bernard bought a white 1961 Volkswagen convertible and received an alarming hill-driving lesson. Their shared enjoyment of travel, theatre, and fine arts enriched Bernard’s advertising work.
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.
Iris's Chapter · Forties (explicitly identified for the hairstyles)
Poodle Skirts, Penny Loafers, and Pin Curls
Iris explains how to make a felt poodle skirt and recalls cinch belts, turned-up collars, suede shoes, penny loafers, oversized sweaters, and jeans rolled to the knee. She made her own skirts and bought blouses with money earned babysitting for a dollar fifty a night. She also describes cutting and setting long hair with pin curls and using a mesh “rat” to create rolled hairstyles and buns, calling these styles the look of the Forties.
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 · 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
Dad’s Night in Jail and Friends Who Came Through
One summer evening, Floyd Guild called Bill from jail in Rock Island, asking for an attorney. Bill enlisted their friend Julie Lytton and found deputy sheriff Jack White at the jail. Floyd complained about surrendering his belongings and receiving bologna sandwiches instead of the steak dinner he had left at home. After a night in jail, he appeared before Judge O’Neil over an unanswered court order to pay property taxes. Julie explained Floyd’s impression that he did not have to pay, referring to Cook County. The judge instructed Floyd to read court letters and fined him seventy dollars, which Bill provided. After retrieving his possessions, Floyd discovered rain had soaked his car seats through the open windows. Julie never charged for his services, and Mom later found the court letters unopened in Daddy’s dresser drawer.
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 · 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 · Around 1918
The Trees Stayed, but the Sons Left
Dan mortgaged the inherited land for $800 to buy eight dairy cows, but the herd failed to turn a profit. After a missed payment the bank foreclosed. Floyd and Clarence wanted to sell birch trees for pulp to pay the mortgage, but Dan refused to cut them. His sons left home, and the account says Dan lost the farm, land, trees, and cows for want of $200.
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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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.