Life in Iowa

The photo of Tony was taken by his grandfather. Note all the hair! The snapshot of Patti and Tony was taken by me. You can tell she liked her little brother!

I had never seen so much snow in all my life until we moved to Iowa! I think 1960-61 winter set records for snowfall in the area. The parking lots had huge piles of snow and one had to be very careful driving because the snow blocked the view. My first purchase were new snow boots!!

The Iowa Department of Education would have honored my teaching certificate. I would still need 9 credit hours to renew it, just as in Kansas. We decided I would be a stay-at-home mom so I didn't accept a teaching certificate.

Mom gave me her mother's electric Singer sewing machine. So I began learning to sew for Patti. At first, I was not very good at sewing or picking out appropriate fabric for a little girl's clothes, but I did learn!

Patti was a quiet baby, even her cry was quiet. I used to lean over her crib to be sure she was breathing. Part of that had to do with the fact that I am asthmatic and I didn't want her to have asthma.

She was used to me going to work so she never cried when I left for work or went somewhere without her. She would just wave "bye-bye."

It was a long drive from Cedar Rapids to Coldwater and/or Ness City. So our visits with our parents were usually once or twice a year. I never thought much about how much Mother missed us until Lisa, my daughter-in-law, said how hard it must have been for Mom when we moved so far away, especially since she was alone.

Tony was born in February 1961, exactly 25 months after Patti. We named him Anthony after a professional singer his grandparents knew and Blake after the character in a book we read.

Tony's first bed was a dresser drawer for the first few days until Patti moved to a big girl's bed. Then he slept in the crib.

We called him Anthony until he decided he wanted to be called Tony - but that was after he went to school. My Mom called him "A.B. the baby!"

Tony had a rubber dog that could be used to prop his bottle when he was big enough. The dog had a bone that just fit in Tony's hand. He carried that bone all over!

Tony had so much hair, as you can see in the photo, that he needed a hair cut before he was three months old. His grandfather did the honors. Not only did he have lots of hair, but he had a double crown!

My mother-in-law came to help out when Anthony was born. She stayed for a couple weeks. I don't remember when my Mom first got to see him. Needless to say, I was a busy mom with the two little ones.

More Bracelets

These images are my blog this time. I am in the process of writing additional posts but they are incomplete at this time. So enjoy the jewelry! I love making it!

The top bracelet has a fancy button; 2 - uses magatoma beads; 3 - Edwardian Lace pattern; 4 - clasp is on top of wrist; 5 - dark caterpillar; 6 - 6-strand bracelet using some large "cane" beads.

1959-1960

I lacked self-esteem at this point in time and because of this I was very jealous. I knew I was a good teacher but I wasn't sure what I knew about myself. I think I probably suffered from post-natal depression but we didn't know there was such a thing back then.

We had been living in Junction City but decided to rent a small house in Ogden. It made us closer to the school. Our landlady was a young, attractive woman. My father-in-law bragged and bragged about how attractive she was and seemed to be pushing Chuck toward her.

Trust issues surfaced. When trust is broken - or even appears to be broken, that is the time to do some patching up or it will only get worse. It is easy to see this from my perspective in 2009.

Visits home to my Mom were very stressful because she expected so much of me. It was somewhat easier for me to visit my in-laws because they did not expect so much of me. Those visits were stressful, too.

When I received my wages for June, July and August, I rented an apartment in Junction City. Patti and I moved there and I signed my contract to teach 1959-1960. After we moved out, I saw more of Chuck than I did when we were living in the same house. Mom came to visit and took care of Patti for several weeks.

Patti was always at the window when it was time for me to come home. She would be all cleaned up and looking so cute. The photo is of Patti.

I was able to make this work even though I didn't have a car. I rode in the car pool to work and if I needed to run errands, there were a couple of friends who would take me.

Fall 1959 Chuck interviewed with Collins Radio in Wichita. He was hired to work in Cedar Rapids. He never asked me to move with him. It was just taken for granted.

I taught the first semester and subbed for a month or so before we left for Cedar Rapids. Chuck went on ahead and came back to pack everything. We moved to Cedar Rapids in February. The African violets even made the trip successfully. My class gave me the African violets.

Chuck had been working in a furniture store in Manhattan before he interviewed so he was able to get a really good deal on a new electric stove, washing machine and fridge.

He had rented a room with a family on 19th St. SE until we found a house to rent. The house was a story-and-a-half on the SW side. It was across the block from the grocery store.

I was very lonely then. I only knew the young family next door - mom, dad, and three little kids. We didn't attend church so it was hard to get acquainted.

Chuck worked the 3 to 11 shift as a test tech. I was afraid to stay alone but I did. In the evenings after Patti went to bed, I got out our pistol and kept it on the sofa by me.

I was a small town girl living in a new very large (to me) city. I didn't know how to drive any place. We had one car and unless I drove Chuck to work, he had the car. We lived in this house for about 18 months.