Alysia's interview with Grandma Neal

This is the Interview that Alyisia did in 5th Grade. This is her interview with Grandma Lois Neal:-
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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.)

What kind of wedding did you and grandpa have?

You will be surprised that I am copying my answer about where we got married and the whole story from an interview that Alysia Gabe Countryman wrote when she was in fifth grade. Can you believe that? I have kept it all these years! For the answer to the question about our marriage I will copy what Alysia wrote! (In future blogs I will copy what she wrote about the interviews she had with her Grandpa Galen Neal and Grandma Lois Neal separately.) She called her story that she wrote about our lives & marriage-- TOGETHER FOREVER—WRITTEN BY ALYSIA GABE IN 5th GRADE Love and marriage for Galen Neal and Lois Bearse began when they meet at the Methodist Church in Shell Rock. Their first date was to a boxing match at Electric Park in Waterloo, Grandpa was 22 at the time and Grandma was 19. Galen drove a 1941 blue Ford. and they double dated with a couple of friends.Grandpa and Grandma dated for two years before Grandpa asked Grandma to marry him. They were engaged for one year and then united in love on September 12, 1942, in Princeton, Missouri. For their honey moon, they went to Boloxi, Miss. Grandpa and Grandma will have been married for 57 years on September 12. Out of all their anniversaries Grandpa says that their 50th was his favorite because, they received a VCR from their children. Grandma says her favorite was their 25th because it was their first trip to visit Grandpa’s sister in Hawaii. GRANDMA LOIS NEAL’S ADDITION This is Grama Neal writing a little addition to what Alysia wrote in out interview with her. To explain why we did not have a church wedding was because Galen had an offer to teach Mathematics at an Air Corps in Biloxi, Miss. He had to be down there to accept the job in two weeks! In Iowa when you got a marriage lisence there was a 6 week wait before you could get married. Remember this was just after Pearl Harbor was bombed and Galen was so excited to be chosen to teach at an Army Air Corps Base in Biloxi. We asked Dorothy (Galen’s sister) and her husband Don Walter to go with us to Princeton. Dorothy was expecting a baby in January so she did not feel like going. Consequently,since Don and Galen were such good friends ( Galen had played in Don’s band for several Summers by then) so Don consented to go with us. When we arrived in Marshalltown it was early in the morning and Don was always so jolly and so much fun that it was a great trip. Don liked to sing so we had entertainment all the way there. We arrived at the court house in Princeton and got our marriage lisence. Galen knew I really wanted to get married in a church so he inquired if there was a Methodist Minister in Princeton. They told him that the Methodist Minister lived right close to the court house (which was quite convenient) so in no time at all we said our wedding vows in the home of the Methodist Minister and the Minister’s wife and Don Walter was our witness. ( War time causes a lot of changes in plans.) We stayed at the Russel Lampson Hotel in Waterloo on our wedding night and the next day was Sunday and they were having a Neal Reunion near Shell Rock that day so we went to the Reunion with Galen’s folks and everyone congratulated us when they heard we were married. We left for Biloxi the next week and Galen could have had the teaching job, but we could not find any place to live down there so we came back through New Orleans and visited Galen’s former room mate at Cornell College and his new bride. It was a wonderful Honeymoon trip anyway!!. We came back to the farm and as I told about in a former blog we decided to move into the tenant house on the farm and I am so glad it turned out that way. It was wonderful that we could be near Galen’s folks while our kids were growing up. They loved their Grandpas & Grandmas. My folks, Grandpa and Grandma Bearse, were living near Charles City at the time. (I forgot to mention that the St. Charles M. Church where my Dad was a minister at the time heard I got married so they had a surprise wedding shower for me. That was a lot of fun since I had lots of good friends in that church.) Galen and I lived happily ever after! Well, most of the time anyway! Ha Ha

What jobs did you and grandpa have? How was working different? What was the pay?

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.

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.