Before I tell you about our jobs I should give you a little summary about our High School and College days. Grandpa graduated from Shell Rock High School in 1936 and there were 36 in his class. After High School he went to college for three years. The first year he attended Wartburg College, the second year he went to UNI and the third year he went to Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. I don’t know why he went to so many different colleges. I guess I never asked him. I do know that Bob Hickle was attending UNI and since they were good friends I think they drove to college his second year. Cornell was a Methodist college and he had a cousin, Betty Rowley, attending college there so that probably was the reason he went there. His plans were to be a teacher eventually. He would have been a good teacher if he had finished his last year of college, but then he also thought about farming and of course was always around in the Summers to help his Dad with the farming. It is too bad he didn’t finish his last year of college, but at that time I think he thought he should stay home and help his Dad. As I explained in one of my other blogs that when the war came along in 1942 and his Dad decided to retire from farming he gave up the idea of teaching. Galen did enjoy reading and studying. After we were married he was nominated to be on the Rural Electric Cooperative Board (they met once a month) and we really enjoyed our “get togethers”with the board members & their wives. Once a year we got to take a free trip to the National Conventions. That was a real treat!! We got to go to St. Louis the first year and that is when we really got acquainted with our friends Edna and Leonard Hauser. They were so much fun!! We kept in touch with them & their family for years Later on Galen was chosen to be on the Butler County Mutual Board and also went to a school to learn the Insurance Business. That was a good business when he got older and hired a farm manager. That turned out to be a very good thing since the farm manager had a lot of good ideas on how to improve the farm. All the years we were farming we were trying to buy the farm. That was not easy since farming is quite a gamble! However it was a good life and at least I could be a stay at home Mom and help with the chores. We did have a hired man some of the time when we had the tenant house on the farm. Bill really enjoyed being in the 4-H Club and took some animals to the Allison County Fair every year. He had lots of fun going to the fair with the Harms twins. Carol was such a help to her DAD. She started running the tractor and cultivating corn before she even had a driver’s lisence. Her Dad said she could cultivate crops better than anyone he could hire. Bill & Betty had a pony to ride called Princess. I wish we could have had enough money to get Bill a nice riding horse when he was older, but he really liked his pony. He could handle the pony and horses can be dangerous. I didn’t worry about the kids riding their pony. We didn’t have a lot of money. but we always took a trip every year and we really enjoyed our trips together. I remember we really had a wonderful trip to the Black Hills one year! Bill always liked to stopat a motel that had a swimming pool. I remember when we went to California one year that was the most important thing was to find a motel with a swimming pool after we crossed the desert.
When I graduated from High School in 1938 my parents wanted me to go to Wartburg college and take a two- year business course. I wanted to work in an office and be a secretary. I really enjoyed my two years at Wartburg and got acquainted with a lot of nice students. I also enjoyed being in the Wartburg Choir. After I graduated from Wartburg my first job was working as a secretary in a Dentist’s office on the 7th floor of Black’s Bldg. in Waterloo. I made $6.00 a week and my room and board.WOW!! I worked there a while and then Galen’s Father told me about a job opening at the REC Office in Allison. I liked that job much better and liked living in Allison. Galen was living at home then so we got to date on the week-ends and he also got a new blue ford!!. I loved working at the REC Office. I learned a lot there and the workers there were all very nice. I found out that working on electric lines is a very dangerous job!. I would not care to be a line-man! My folks lived near Charles City then so my last job I had was working at the Oliver Tractor Works in Charles City in the office & then Galen proposed to me and we went to a jewelry store and he bought me an engagement ring and the rest is history. When we started farming after we were married I had to learn to hunt eggs, raise chickens and 3 kids. It took me a while to learn those jobs, I couldn’t go to college for that job! I have had a very busy and happy life so far and being a Grandma and being with my friends here at the Meadows is a wonderful life! I am so glad I have so many grandchildren and great grandchildren!! I have two wonderful daughters, Carol and Betty and a wonderful son, Bill, to take care of me also!!. I don’t mind getting old as long as I can enjoy my family and friends.
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