When did you start your family...having kids (and how you picked their names)...

When Grandpa and I were first married and decided to farm we moved into the tenant house next door to the big farm house. We were really fortunate to live next to Grandpa’s parents. They were so good to us and I learned a lot from my Mother-in-law Bessie Neal. She was always there when I needed some advice and was very helpful. I learned a lot about cooking from her and various chores around the farm. She was a good teacher. She also helped me learn to plant a garden and take care of it. My Dad was retired by then and lived in Cedar Falls and he used to like to come out to the farm and help me with the garden. It is always good to have parents around when you need help, even after you are married. We found that out. Grampa was glad to have his Dad around to help with the farming. Galen always got along so well with his Dad and appreciated his help!! We later moved into the big farm house when Galen’s folks moved to town.

We were so happy to find out I was pregnant with my first child in 1944. There was only one baby Doctor in the clinic in Waverly. This was during war time and a lot of the Doctors were called to help over seas. Dr. Hartwig was my Doctor and he was a very good one and very busy!I
In those days we did not find out if we were having a boy or girl until they were born. Carol Jane Neal was born on January 15th 1944!!
We named her Carol because she came close to Christmas so she was kind of like a special Christmas present. She was actually born two weeks after her due date so we were thrilled when she finally arrived. She was born in the evening on Jan. the 15th at the Waverly hospital. In those days it was the rule for the Mother & Baby to spend 10 days in the hospital before they went home. Dr. Hartwig came to the hospital every day to check on us. I could always hear him almost running down the hospital hall because he was such a busy Doctor. I was so fortunate to have Galen’s Mom to help me when we came home. I don’t know what I would have done without her. My Mom also came and stayed with us for about a week to help with her first Granddaughter. My parents were thrilled with their first Grandchild. I was excited to have a new daughter who was my first real relative since I was adopted when I was a baby. Carol has always been a Daddy’s girl. As soon as she was old enough to walk she followed him around and as she got older she used to love to ride on the tractor with him. Carol was a born farmer! She still loves it out in the farm!

Robert Ray was born three years after Carol. He was our only baby with dark hair and brown eyes. We were so happy to have a boy! Galen gave him a nick name right away. He called him Junior and the name stuck, we always called him Junior. We had a hard time finding a formula that would agree with him and the Doctor thought there was a blockage that the food could not get through so we took him to the hospital to have an operation for paloric stenosis. Little did we know that we would get a call from the hospital the next day that even before the operation he was having trouble breathing and wanted us to come to the hospital right away. That was the worst day of my life!. Robert Ray died later that day. What a sad funeral later that week! Robert was named after Galen’s best friend Robert Hickle. I am hoping to see our baby in heaven some day. I look forward to that. I will never forget what Carol (who was about 3 years old then) said to me. She said, “Don’t cry Mommy, you will have another baby some day!” (Robert Ray was born on December 17, 1947 and lived just 8 weeks, but he already had a personality and we loved him so much it took me a long time to be able to go up to the Shell Rock cemetary without crying.

Carol was right! We were so happy when Bill was born on March 27th, l949. He was such a cute baby and was an answer to our prayer!William Galen Neal was named after his Father and we liked the name William. We called him Billy for a long time. Bill was very special because a new baby son was just what we needed to help get over the loss of Robert Ray. Bill has been a wonderful son and brother and Grandson too in our family. When Betty was born inj 1950 that completed our family. We named Betty after Galen’s cousin Betty Rowley!
I think Bill & Betty were so lucky to grow up with their big sister, Carol. She was such a help to me because she seemed to really enjoy having a little sister and brother. Since I was an only child I know how lonesome it is to grow up without any brothers & sisters! I wish I could tell you about all the fun times we have had in our family. We really enjoyed being together and taking trips together through the years. It is always so special when our family and all the grandchildren get together. We have so much fun and so much good food!!

How did you and Grandpa meet? What was dating like at that time? How did he propose?

In my first journal that I wrote about when I first remembered my parents when I was probably 3 years old. I also said that the first place we lived in was in Walker, Iowa. When I was in first grade we moved to Clarence, Iowa. In those days it was typical for Methodist Ministers to move about every 5 years. The District Superintendent and the Bishop in those days decided when and wherethe minister's moved to. They had a conference in September and about 6 weeks after school started they had to move. The reason I mention this is because I wanted you to know I was not happy about having to go to a new school and leave all my friends that I had known for 5 years. I always had my favorite friends that I really missed! When we moved everyone knew me, but I didn't know anyone! We moved to Brandon, Iowa when I was in the fifth grade and then a few years later he moved to Melbourne, Iowa. When I was a sophomore in high school we moved to Parkersburg, Iowa. Believe it or not I found out it was fun to be the "new girl in school" then! Guess why? I was 15 years old then and met some boys I liked and they liked me too. I had my first date when I was 15 with a boy I met at a party at the church soon after we moved. They had a theater in Parkersburg so Gene and I went to a movie together. We double dated a lot with other couples and I found out that meeting new kids my age was a lot of fun. I was in lots of different activities in high school including band, chorus, and Girls Glee Club. When I was a junior we moved to Shell Rock. It was fun by this time to meet new friends and attend all the school activities. I got my drivers license when I was 16 and I remember it cost 50 cents! I remember my dad telling me that I shouldn't drive to Waverly to often because it cost 1 dollar everytime I drove to Waverly and back! I graduated from Shell Rock high school in 1938 and then attended Wartburg College and took a 2 year business course to be a secretary. I had gone with quite a few boys in high school and college, but believe it or not...I had not met my future husband yet. Galen had graduated from high school in 1936 and was attending college. One weekend when I was home from college I met Galen at a youth meeting at the church. Love and marriage begins for Galen Neal and Lois Bearse after we met at that church in Shell Rock. Our first date was to a boxing match at Electric Park in Waterloo! We double dated with Bob Hickle and his girlfriend. That is the one and only boxing match I ever attended. Since we were both going to college we usually would get together on the weekends. We both liked to go to movies and lots of times Galen invited me to come out to his home for Sunday dinners. I loved going out to their place for dinner. We always had such a good time and his mother was a super cook. Usually Galens brother, Donald, was home on the weekend too and sometimes his sister and her family were there too. I really enjoyed being with his family. Galen and I dated for 2 years before he ask me to marry him. He asked me to go with him to a jewelry store in Charles City and we picked out my diamond and a wedding ring. We were married on September 12th 1942. For our honeymoon trip we went to Boloxi, Mississippi and also visited one of Galen's college roommatea and his new bride in New Orleans. We celebrated our 25th anniversary visiting Galens sister and husband in Hawaii. Galen said his favorite anniversary was our 50th because we received a vcr from the children. You all know Galen liked to tease me a lot and you all laughed at his jokes. We had lot a lot of wonderful trips together. Little did I know we would have so many more trips to visit our children and grandchildren in Hawaii. I am so glad we traveled as much as we did when you were young! I have such good memories of the family vacations we took every summer. We had so much fun!

What is a memorable historical event in your life, how did it effect you?

December 7, 1941, “The Bombing of Pearl Harbor” made the biggest impact on my life. At the time I was 21 and working as a secretary in Charles City, Iowa. I was living with my parents at the time and was engaged to be married to to Galen Neal who lived on a farm near Shell Rock, Iowa.

I remember December 7, 1941, was on a Sunday. My parents and I were invited out to some friends for a Sunday dinner and had such a good time visiting. When we came home in the afternoon I turned on the radio and heard the terrible news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese!That evening I went to a youth meeting at the church. This was the a Methodist Church near Charles City where my Father was the Minister. All we could talk about at the meeting was that the terrible news about Pearl Harbor. All the young men at the meeting were worried that they would have to go to war. The girls my age were thinking about their brothers and boy friends who would probably have to go to war.

The next day everyone turned on their radio to hear President Roosevelt declare war. The last lines of his address to the public were these words: “with confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph so help me God”

Since we didn’t have television yet all our news about the war came from the radio and newspapers. I could not imagine what a terrible day that was in Pearl Harbor. I had never been to Hawaii so I did not even know where it was. Later on I saw the first movie of Pearl Harbor and saw all the ships being destroyed and the horror of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Many years later Galen and I went to Hawaii on our 25th wedding anniversary and we had a tour of Pearl Harbor and stood on the Memorial built above one of the big ships that went down with
all the sailors on it and to this day there is still oil bubbling from the ship under the water. It is awesome! Losing all those ships & men at Pearl Harbor was a big loss for the U.S. The first movie of Pearl Harbor was very good. Everyone should see it!

The reason all this made such an impact on my life was that it was just at the time when I was engaged to be married and Galen was not sure if he would be drafted or not. He had to appear before the draft board and because he had so many allergies and occasionally this caused breathing problems he was exempt for the draft. Galen’s Father wanted to retire and so Galen and I got married and moved to the farm. They needed young men to stay home and farm too. Galen lived on the same farm all his life and had learned farming from his Dad who was honored at one time as a Master Farmer. I was fortunate to become a successful farm wife and Mother of three children. I think you can understand why Pearl Harbor made quite an impact on my life.