Alysia's interview with Grandma Neal

This is the Interview that Alyisia did in 5th Grade. This is her interview with Grandma Lois Neal:-
--
The meaning of Lois is a lively woman who is intelligent, natural looking, and nice. All these traits fit my Grandma very well! My
Grandma Lois Neal has always been an interesting person, but by doing this interview, I have learned a lot more. I think you will
find this as interesting as I did. So, join me now as we take a quick look at Lois Neal’s life.

My Grandma Lois (Bearse) Neal, also known as Blondie to close friends was born on July 27, 1920, in an Iowa City hospital. Only a few weeks after Grandma’s entrance into the world she was blessed to be adopted by two very loving parents, Rev. James W. Bearse and Rose (Lodge)
Bearse. To this day Grandma feels very lucky to be adopted by such great people. According to her parents they picked her out of several babies.
Grandma Neal was an only child who liked, and still does like to play the piano. Although she liked to play the piano, she was not a big fan of
practicing! Now Grandma wishes that she had spent more time practicing.

When Grandma got older she attended school in Walker, Iowa,and her first teacher was Miss Cherry. Although Miss Cherry was one of her
favorite teachers she also thought her third grade teacher was very beautiful, and dressed very classy; Grandma wanted to be just like her. She always wore high heals and Grandma’s Mother noticed one day that Lois kept walking around home on her tip toes. Lois said she wanted to walk just like Miss VanOstrand!! Just like most kids Grandma had to walk to school every day and then went home for lunch at noon.Although
Lois was a good student who enjoyed school one of her most embarrassing moments happened in kindergarten! I’m sure most of us can relate to this, you go ask the teacher something and instead of calling her by her name you call her MOM. Ever experienced that?

For play. Lois’ favorite toys were roller skates and riding her bicycle. Grandma had best friends from each town they lived in. She still keeps in touch with her friends and usually sends and receives Christmas cards from them,. In the summer Grandma and her friends enjoyed going swimming and in the Winter they liked to go sledding and ice skating. Basically, the same things kids enjoy doing now in Winter and Summer months. Although Grandma enjoyed her friends’ company and playing with dolls and teddy bears, she also had some close companions that
would sneak up from the basement to sleep with her. They were her dogs. Lois always had a dog. They were part of the family! One of her dogs she remembers was a little black dog named Queenie, who was a very good watch dog too! Lois has always loved dogs just like a brother or sister since she didn’t have any brothers of sisters.

Grandma’s teenage years were filled with lots of fun and no worries! Although she had fun, her parents told her she had to set good examples
since she was a Methodist Minister’s daughter. Two very exciting things happened when Grandma was 16, the two things every teenage girl
awaits. The first one was that she got her driver’s license, and the second was that she went on her first date. Her first date was with a boy from her Parkersburg school. His name was Gene and he was the basketball star on their High School team. On their first date they went to the movies. Two years after all these exciting events Grandma had her favorite birthday party. The reason Grandma thought that that
is was such a good party was because her friends threw her a surprise party!

Grandma liked her parents very much. She said she could remember her parents being really good storytellers, especially her father. Her father used to tell her stories about growing up in Cape Cod, Mass. In addition, her Mother used to tell her stories about growing up in
London, England, and then coming to America in a big boat when she was 16 years old. It took a whole month tocross the ocean in those days.

Grandma enjoys doing many things but her hobby is traveling and she has had many opportunities to travel to Hawaii to visit her son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.

an interview with Grandpa Neal

a note from Grandma: I told you on my last blog that I would copy Alysia’s interview with Grandpa. I thought I would send that for you to put on my blog before I answer the last question you sent. Galen must have been about 79 when she interviewed him. This was a project she did in school when she was in 5th Grade. I thought everyone would be interested in what she wrote about Grandpa: (Have you ever met someone who seems to be so intelligent they seem to know the answer to everything? Well, I know one person for sure! This person is my grandpa, Galen Neal. Now, does this seem like a person you’d be interested in getting to know? If so, join me now as we journey through the life of Galen Neal. Grandpa Neal had an ordinary life for a boy growing up in his time. Galen was born on November 11, 1918 (our birthdays are only two days apart) 7:30 p.m. at Waverly Hospital by Dr. Kern. Grandpa was a well-behaved kid that only got into trouble when he teased his brother, Don. This is common in almost every household with more than one child. When Grandpa did get in trouble his Mom would use a narrow board to punish him. During Galen’s school years, he attended Shell Rock Elementary. My Mother went to this same school too. The way to school for Grandpa was two miles, luckily he had the privilege to ride the bus.Grandpa Neal’s first grade teacher was Miss Van Vlack. She later married Lloyd Gibson. She was a memorable teacher along with Miss Sperry and Miss Bowen. Every day Galen would carry his lunch to school and it would it would consist of a sandwich, an orange, soup and cake. For fun a game Grandpa liked to play was a good game of marbles and ride his bike. Not only did Grandpa like playing marbles, he made a hobby of collecting them. Grandpa’s best friend was, and still is Bob Hickle. In the Summer months when Grandpa got a little bit older, he liked to play his cornet in the band. During the Winter, Grandpa enjoyed going bob sledding. During Grandpa’s Neal’s teenage years he thought the best thing was to be able to drive and have more freedom. One of the “not so good”things was that his girl friend moved away. While we are on the subject of girl friends, Galen’s first date was when he was 16 years old. They went to the Junior Senior banquet together. For sports Grandpa enjoyed playing baseball and basket ball.)