Recipes for Living Eva Mae Shannon

My father was born in South Bend, Indiana. He, his two brothers, and his father came to Iowa to work on the west bound railroad track. His father was killed in Pocahontas. One of the brothers took the body back to Indiana for burial and stayed. The other brother drowned, but my father got a good job on a farm and stayed. The farmer's niece was a school teacher, and they fell in love. However, they couldn't be married immediately because schools didn't hire married women, and she needed her job to feed her brothers and sisters. But in 1925 they were married. Dad was in the service during World War I and was gassed, so he was always sick with stomach trouble. He would have liked to drive a gas transport truck, delivering gas to farmers, but he couldn't stand the fumes. They resettled in southern Iowa, buying a farm where land was cheaper. They had five children and I was next to the oldest.

Our 160 acre farm was south and east of Arispe, and we raised beans, hay, and corn. We did all the farming with horses and milked 18 cows. The cows grazed along the road, and a job we kids had was keeping them on the side or off the road. That was before lots of the present day conveniences were available. In the country, where we lived, we didn't get electricity until 1948. So we milked by hand and carried milk to the basement to be separated. Because of my father's health, we sold the cream and drank goat's milk. Des Moines didn't have a Veterans' Hospital, so he used the services of the one in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was told that the best thing for his digestion was to drink goat's milk. So we raised goats, and all of us drank goat's milk and had cow's cream to sell. We didn't eat very many chickens or eggs because we had to sell the eggs to buy sugar and flour. But we had all the vegetables and fruit that we raised. We canned a lot of them as well as butchering the goats and canning the meat. I still can chicken and beef for two of my married grandchildren. That is what they want for Christmas. They are working, and it makes the base for an easy, quick meal.

Our family was very poor which gave me the advantage of having to try harder for some of the things I wanted in life. I always wanted to be a teacher, but I graduated from country school and four years at Arispe High School without thinking I had much of a chance to go on. I expected that I would have to go back to the farm to work with the animals and help take care of my younger brothers and sisters because we didn't have money for me to go on to school. However, in those days we had County Superintendents who visited all the schools. She knew I wanted to be a teacher and she needed teachers. She came to our house and talked about my going on to school and said that, if money was the problem, she would help me. She went with me to the bank and got a loan for $200. That made it possible for me to attend summer school in Corning, where there was a branch of Cedar Falls Teacher's College. I went 12 weeks and in 1947, I started teaching in a country school. I had a nice building to teach in. It had electricity and a basement and not too many country schools had basements. There was a coal furnace, and in the spring we had desks and lights downstairs so when it was hot, we had school in the basement. I was 18 years old in February and started teaching in August. I haven't had sense enough to quit ever since. I still teach every day and love every minute of helping kids learn and to make the best of their lives.

We didn't get very far from home in those days, and the fellow I became interested in was our neighbor, Charles Shannon. At that time he was hired to be a farm hand, which he liked to do. A great advantage was that when electricity came, the farmer knew about wiring and plumbing, so Charles learned wiring and plumbing from him. Later Charles did all our wiring and plumbing and taught our boys how to do it. We didn't date a lot. Work and responsibilities dominated my life. There were chores to do after school. In the summer-time, there were four younger children to help get ready to go back to school in the fall. I was too tired to be interested in going out nights. But Charles has been a great husband and father to our children. We have lots of interests in common. One in particular is horses. We have been members of the Murray Saddle Club and gone on trail rides and overnight campouts. Charles also restores tractors, and we travel with our camper and tractors to tractor shows.

My family's financial situation affected my art opportunities as well. I think I have always done art, but when I was a child all that was available to draw on were brown paper bags from the store, or sometimes Mother gave me a piece of wall paper, or if there was a letter in the mail with nothing on the back, I could have that beautiful piece of white paper to draw on. I was always drawing. We had a neighbor lady, Lucille Beaman, Lonna McDonough's mother, who was taking art lessons at Indianola. She came to the house one day and asked if she could draw a goat. I held the goat for her and she took an interest in us kids. She took us to Creston to a movie. I don't remember how old I was, but I know I wasn't in high school. That was the first movie I had ever seen. Getting to know her was another step in my drawing, and I enjoyed teaching art in classrooms. I always had wall paper for the kids to draw on, and I always encouraged them. I have given some private lessons, but I discover that I would much rather teach children than adults, who are too fearful they will make a mistake.

After our kids were out of high school, I decided I wanted to learn to paint with oil on canvas, so I took classes from Doris Canavan at Osceola. I always wanted to paint horses, but she started us on trees and buildings, especially barns. One day when I was absent, the assignment was to draw a barn. I had missed that, but I did draw a barn and more barns, and then I started putting a horse in my barnyards. The next step was when Doris began talking to me about doing portraits of people. My first reaction was, "Oh, my goodness, no. I could never do people." She reminded me, “You do horses and their eyes," so I began with my granddaughter. I set up my easel and began just as though I knew what I was doing. Doris came by and saw what
I was doing, and she was so excited. She helped me, and it really was a nice painting. I won first place with it in the Iowa Arts Contest in the area and then in the state, and I won first at the Women's Club state convention and first when they sent it on to the National. They kept it for several months in a Washington, D.C. office and I began to be worried about getting it back, but I did. I've won a lot of awards with my paintings and drawings. I painted a picture of my daughter's horse and when someone saw it they asked, "How do you get him to hold still that long?" It is kind of hard at 2:00 in the morning, which is when I usually paint. That is about the only time I have. Actually, I use snapshots. Also I use the grandkids' school pictures, and I have done all their portraits.

I love to teach art to kids, to inspire them to try, even if they aren't sure they can do it. Pretty soon they are saying, "Yes, I could do that/' and that is what I like to do with all the subjects - reading, spelling and phonics. We don't teach enough phonics from the very beginning. They need lots of phonics; we need to be preaching it to them every day. They need to learn all the rules, all the syllables, consonants, vowels, why words are divided into syllables - everything!

I also had a desire to play the piano, but that opportunity didn't come about early in my life. However, about a half-mile from the high school, there was a lady who gave piano lessons. One day a week during the PE period I could walk over there and take lessons. I always wanted to play the piano beautifully and I practiced so I could. I played while I was in country school when I taught in Ellston. I taught music in another teacher's class and she taught art in my class. In those days we didn't have separate teachers for those subjects. Later, when we moved to Murray we had a piano but I didn't have time to practice.

I taught in country school for four years and intended to quit when our second child was born. We were living a little east and south of Arispe. Charles was driving a grain truck for Farmers' Co-op in Afton. My sister was teaching in Ellston. Her husband was overseas and even though he came back to the states for a furlough, he wasn't going to get to come home. His parents were going to see him and invited her to go along. The school board gave her permission, if she could get someone to fill in for her. So I took our own kids, stayed in her apartment, had someone stay with the kids in the daytime and taught for her for two weeks. In March, they needed teachers again. The superintendent and president of the Board asked if I would take a position. I told him that I hadn't really planned to take a fulltime job, but they said they would get me a housekeeper if I would come, and they did! their main emphasis was that they wanted me to be firm with the students. These were third and fourth graders and in those days you didn't usually have naughty kids. The very first day, sitting on the front row, was the board president's son. It was a bit intimidating, but I got along all right. I was there for three years. The community was wonderful to me.

Teachers felt a lot of uneasiness in 1959. There was reorganization of schools and lots of them were being closed. Ellston and Tingley closed and students were sent to Mt. Ayr. We were living on a farm and had no phone. In those days there could only be so many people on a line, and we weren't on a line, so we couldn't have a phone. I was driving about eleven miles to Ellston, Charles was driving to Afton for his trucking job, and the roads were not improved. I drove a Model A, and there are times I wish I still had it. If I got stuck and the motor flooded out, I could lift the hood, take out the fuel pump, dry it off, and be on my way again. I had a babysitter at the house and one girl in school. When I learned of an opening in third grade in Murray, I applied for it and was thankful to be hired. It was then we moved to Murray. At that time our property was on the edge of town, but in intervening years, Prairie Meadows bought land, divided it into lots which they sold, and we have eight new houses west of us.

Both Charles and I like working with kids, and we had four of our own, born in the summer so that I could teach in the fall. We had a housekeeper, Cleo Garrison, from Murray, who worked for us for seven years, doing the washing, ironing (in those days we ironed), besides cooking and cleaning, and the kids loved her. There was a day when the last one declared he wasn't going to school. He wanted to stay home with Cleo.

In addition to teaching, both Charles and I have been active in the community. We've been 4-H leaders, Charles has been a Little League coach, on the Fireman's squad, in Lion's Club, and I also taught catechism classes at St. Bernard's Church in Osceola.

I have been active in and coordinator for C.R.D. (Community Resource Development). We have accomplished quite a few things, which required raising a lot of money. Along with Mary Klein and Faye Leaps, we have made scrapbooks and we nearly always win some money with those. We have had bake sales. Wal-Mart is not only willing to let us have them at their store, but they are generous to give us a donation. Mary baked 25 pies for one sale and people were eager to buy them for $7 each. Someone told me to put the sale on the Trading Post and they went quickly. We had a bike-a-thon, a wiener roast at Murray's Roadside Park, and many other things. With the proceeds we have built tennis courts, put up street signs, and supervised window washing. One of the most challenging ideas was bringing a schoolhouse, "Brush College," into town. That cost more than we ever thought it would, and there were people who thought it was foolish. But we had lots of help. Mary and Merle Klein, Jr. McNeal, Danny Johnson, and the kids were good to help. They did a lot of the painting. If you make it fun, people are willing to do almost anything. Charles and I used to have "Kids' Day" at the stables. They would come for the whole day. After our kids left home, we sold all of the big horses except mine, and I would show them what was required to get a horse ready for a show - how much work it was. We have replaced our big horses with miniature ones. We had three miniatures and we bought a harness and little red wagon for the team to pull. The kids could ride and drive the horses.

We also had a pen with chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and the kids could pet the cats. At we noon we had a cowboy dinner with baked beans and we roasted wieners on a stick. We were surprised at how many children had never put wieners on a stick or taken them off. I discovered that paper plates blew away so when Mrs. Fouch had the second hand store, I bought a bunch of plastic plates. The mothers would help with dinners and sometimes high school kids helped too. We charged $8 a day for one child or if a family had more it was $4 for each additional child. We didn’t charge the big kids who helped. We have pictures of them trying to break the little colts to lead.

I tried never to have favorites in school. I remembered that, when I was in school, I was always tired and didn’t do well. I felt I might not have been a teacher’s favorite and always wanted to be, so I was particularly conscious of that. A child who feels badly doesn’t do well. One first day of school, a little girl tripped and fell on a step. She looked up at me, expecting to be scolded. The other kids laughed. Right then and there, we had a lesson that not all of us are perfect and we don’t always do perfectly. I remembered that a college teacher said, “Never send a child home upset. If they had a bad day, try to work it out and make them happy.” Then they’ll want to come back tomorrow.

Another advantage of being poor was that I learned to make my own clothes out of hand-me-downs, and I am still sewing. I sew for other people. I finish quilts for other people. I made and donated five quilts for our school house, and we sold raffle tickets two different years. For one I did last year, we sold: $1,100 worth of raffle tickets. I did four and the fifth one my granddaughter made. Our saddle club needed a cook shack and we applied for a grant for it. They gave us half the money. My granddaughter made a quilt with horses on it and sold raffle tickets for the other half.

Everyone was surprised when I took early retirement in 1991, because they knew I enjoyed teaching and kids were my life. However, I was offered an attractive retirement plan and Wanda Davidson, who had also taught a long time, decided to do so at the same time. We were about the same age, and thought we could do some fun things. We had a camper and a neighbor to do our chores. Besides, I knew I could still substitute so I wouldn't be away from teaching completely.

I have had lots of opportunities to sub. There was always somebody I knew, who would call and ask me to come. I started at Murray when Doug Latham was the principal of Elementary. I went to Afton to sub and then that principal went to Creston, and wanted me to do some subbing in Creston. Venita Escher from Murray was teaching at Interstate 35 and wanted me to go there, and a lady at Leon wanted me to go there. I have subbed often at Clarke Community and gone to Leon a few times, but that is quite a ways away. All need subs badly, and I enjoy it. I like seeing all the other schools and meeting their teachers. I like comparing schools, but find they are all pretty much alike. The kids come and ask for white-out or pencils and I can say, "There are usually some in this drawer," and there are. Sometimes I am asked what I do if a teacher doesn't leave lesson plans and I say that I find out what they did yesterday and go on from there.

Our family has stayed close in several ways. Two of our boys live in Murray. David drives a semi, so he is on the road a lot. He has two little girls that spend a lot of time at our house. They like to cook and sew and ride horses. They broke two of our horses to drive so we bought them a five-step cart that I can get in and we sold our old buggy. The girls are active in 4-H, with projects of cooking, sewing, making jelly and baking bread. They have a wonderful mother, Ronda Ewaldson, originally from Woodburn. She sees that they get to church and Sunday school and goes with them.

The girls are now 12 and 13, 11 months apart. The parents used to have a baby sitter for them, but when they were a little older they could take care of themselves and had chores to do. They would get up and chore and go to the sitter's for dinner. But they preferred to be with us, so the next year the girls just came to our place. The one has a natural way with animals. She has a goat, and their dad got them a cow and a heifer. She would take the calf to the pond and ride it back. She wanted to take the calf to the Fair, and her father told her she couldn't win because it wasn't black, but people were so impressed by her handling that she won Grand Champion for showmanship. The belt buckle is so big people told her she'd have back trouble from wearing it. Working with animals doesn't come quite as naturally for her sister, but once she tried it, she found out it was fun. She has trained horses for other people.

It is quite a sight when the girls come over. Charles sometimes says he is too tired to go out, so I go out with them. Pretty soon we hear the door squeak, and here he comes. He sits in his chair and watches. Sometimes he gets on one of the miniatures, and the girls think that is really funny. He is about as round as the horse. Then we had a little poodle that would bark until they put her on the horse, too. We had to have the poodle and our other house dog put to sleep. We still have a beagle that is being trained.

Our son, Bruce, does tool and die work in a machine shop in Murray. He had a son, Charlie, and they build garden tractors into little pulling tractors. Our oldest daughter, Judy, married Larry Wood. She is a nurse on the staff of Good Samaritan Home in Fontanelle, and has been there for years. They have three children, two of whom are married. Sheila has been a teacher of handicapped and behavioral disorder kids for about six years. She and her husband have a baby, 19 months old. Their son is a chemical engineer, and his wife is a massage therapist. Their church asked for quilts for the homeless, and their Sunday school class took them to Des Moines. I made five quilts for them. They took 43 quilts all together, and said that when they were received, some of the recipients remarked, "Some of these quilts are new!" They hadn't expected that. Another boy, Scott, is not married. He works at a glass factory in Greenfield where they make big sections of glass for patio windows.

Our other daughter, Donna, married Steve Morey. They live near West Bend, where Steve farms lots of acres with his dad. Donna works for conservation on the state level, and they have two children in grade school. We have a house full and a good time at Christmas and Thanksgiving when they all come home. We have a wrap around porch and a big deck and lots of fun.

What I have tried to emphasize to children is what life has taught me: to be saving of what you have, to be responsible, and to appreciate life. We recently had a day off from school and I asked the kids what they would be doing. The answers were, "stay in bed...watch TV....hang out with my friends." My thought is that if you are given another day to live, make the most of it!