Recipes for Living Everett and Marie Van Scoy

In July, 1999, Marie and Everett will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary. Stepping inside the home they built for themselves and their family at 810 West McLane, Osceola, Iowa, a visitor can perceive a great deal about them. There are many well-filled bookshelves, plus, Everett said, "A big box of books under the bed in the basement." His woodworking skills are evident in items he has built for the house-a fireplace on the first floor and one in the basement; a table with patterned wood top above which is a large framed painting by their daughter, Pat; a grandfather's clock and many other items. They built a "home" in every sense of the word.

As we sat down to begin their story, Everett positioned the three of us, saying matter-of factly and good-naturedly, "I hear better with my left ear and Marie with her right. Be sure to take care of your ears. When hearing goes, it is gone! We marvel at people who hear what a person in another room is saying."

Everything was completely different in the days when Marie and Everett were growing up. Everett said that he hesitates to tell how things were because in these days they sound almost unbelievable. Every few miles a small town was established and each was a thriving community providing for all the needs of customers throughout the area. The railroad was very important. Everything came in on the railroad and every town had stock yards and grain elevators. Farming was a major industry and each farm made it possible for the tenants to live independently and self sufficiently. It was not until, perhaps, the mid-1980's when "bigger is better'' became a rule of thumb and, for a variety of reasons, farms could no longer adequately provide. Young people left for the cities. Roads became highways making short and long distance travel customary. Trucking replaced railroads. Small towns by and large became extinct.

There is much to tell about the full lives of Everett and Marie. Both had grown up in the town of Lucas, Lucas County, in southern Iowa. Everett has Dutch, Scottish and Irish ancestry. His father operated a store that had general merchandise but mostly groceries. Everett was called upon occasionally to help in the store, which didn't appeal to him. He preferred to earn his money by carrying newspapers and selling magazine subscriptions. He had three sisters, one older, two younger than he. Everett and the younger sister are the only ones still living.

Marie's maiden name was Skidmore, her family background having been Swedish, Dutch and English. Her grandparents lived on a hill at the edge of Lucas, and her grandfather owned a coal mine down below it. His sons and employees worked the mine and Marie's father became a miner. The name of John L. Lewis, organizer of the CIO (coal miner's union), is associated with Lucas and substantiates that mining was a big industry in that area in earlier years. The last mine was started in Lucas when Marie was in the 8th grade. She had an older brother Edwin, a sister Ruth, and brother Melvin, who died recently, leaving Marie the only living sibling.

Both Marie and Everett received their education in southern Iowa, primarily in Lucas, although Marie had also lived in Chariton and Knoxville. Her remark: "I prefer a small town." Before consolidation every town had its own school, and there were country schools planned on a grid of one every two miles. They closed during a period from the late 1950's to the early 1960's.

It is hard to think of all the ways in which schools differed from today. In the Lucas school, there was an assembly room divided to accommodate all four high school classes. The classes were not large because many young people, who had no expectation of going on to college, dropped out to go to work, primarily on farms.

There was no lunch program. Town children went home for lunch and those from the country brought theirs. Occasionally Everett's mother let him take his lunch so that he could eatwith the country kids and what a treat that was! Teachers took turns staying and supervising during the lunch period. They were hired from out of town and had to find room and board. For a time they were housed in an old, abandoned bank building.

Classes were not as strictly set as might have been the case. For instance, when a community of Italian people came to the area to work in the mines, in mid-year Everett was shifted to another class to make room for them. When the high school basketball team needed another player, Marie was allowed to play even though she was only in the 8th grade. She therefore could participate in the basketball program for five years.

They had no music teacher and no music program. They had a playground with some equipment-a slide, swings and a contraption that probably could be called a whirligig. They did have some sports. There was a baseball diamond but the school was on a hill and it was not a satisfactory lay-out. They had tried to form a football team but at the first practice a boy broke his arm, so that ended football. Their basketball court was in an old, unused opera house and players had to dodge around four posts that were still there. This is where they also had school plays. After Marie and Everett were out of school, a gymnasium was built southeast of the school building. "It was about as crude as they could make it but it served the purpose."

Both Everett and Marie played basketball. They had a pretty fair girls' team and played all the little towns around Lucas. Fans would follow them if it wasn’t too far; but the team traveled as far as Hiteman, near Albia, and in that instance had to go by train. For one game the train was late, arriving just in time for the game to start. There were no sidewalks in the town and the girls had to walk through mud, and then go right onto the court. That might have contributed to their losing, although Hiteman had a good team.

There was quite an intense rivalry between towns. One time when they played Chariton and won, one of the Chariton girls sat down in the middle of the floor and cried because of the humiliation of being beaten by Lucas! Sometimes that rivalry lasted for years.

The wood frame school in Lucas burned in 1932. In the years when Everett and Marie were involved in that school system, it was considered a pretty nice school for a small town. Graduates could keep up with students from other schools when they went on to college. As for discipline, as there are now, there were class comedians. It was nothing for one student to whack another over the head with his tablet, but there was nothing vicious. They recognized that they were in school to learn.

Everett and Marie had known one another in school, although they did not have a close acquaintance because of a difference in their ages. When Everett was 16 and Marie 20, that difference seemed huge and one of their first encounters was when Everett noticed that "the teacher'' (Marie) was having trouble ice skating. ("I simply could not skate-my feet went every which way.") Everett came to her rescue and walked her home when the event was over. "Walking Marie home" constituted their relationship until Everett was 18 and she was 22, when the age difference seemed irrelevant. Everett also had four or five good buddies that he chummed around with. "What one of us couldn't think of another one could but we never really got into trouble."

Of the thousands and thousands of contacts and experiences, it is fascinating to realize the ones that stay with us most vividly. Marie told about a high school field trip to a farm, when Mr. Mathewson was with them. "He was a wonderful teacher but, while there he found an egg, broke the shell at the end, sucked out the contents and swallowed the egg!" Marie still shuddered when she told it, although not at all when she talked about killing snakes.

For a $600 benefit to the superintendent, high school boys were required to take a term of each Animal Husbandry and Farm Crops, but Everett's career turned another direction. With arrangements approved by his father, the superintendent, and the station agent, he began working at the depot. His hours would range between 4:30a.m. and 7:00p.m. It was at that time that he learned telegraphy.

In Marie's graduating class there were 12 students, six boys and six girls of whom only four are still living. In Everett's class there were 13, eight girls and five boys, and he is the only one left. "One disadvantage to living a long while is that no one is left to corroborate the way you remember what happened."

Beyond high school Marie came to Osceola for a Normal Training course and taught two years in a one-room country school, during which time she lived with the Pfimmer family. This name will have more meaning to long-time members of the Osceola United Methodist Church to know it was the maiden name of Mrs. Fred (Charlotte) Kelly. Marie lived in their home and recalls particularly the difference between the way the Pfimmer family and her family ate. They worked hard at the physical labor required in farming and ate accordingly.

Marie had never even seen a country school before she started teaching and it was a rude awakening. After the first day she said there was no way she would ever go back. Of course, she did. Some of the children were larger than Marie and some "full of the old nick'' but none of they were mean. There were a couple of times she had a discipline problem. In such a case she had the children form a line and made the unruly one walk in by his or her own self. The humiliation took care of the situation.

Textbook learning was complemented by other activities that involved the parents. There were plays and school programs, the latter in which each child had some part. The kids couldn't wait for these and Marie couldn't wait until they were over. There were also box and pie suppers for which women baked pies or decorated boxes of food which were auctioned to the highest bidder. The person who prepared the food and decorated the boxes was kept secret. They were bought by the men and, when a man discovered the name inside the box, he learned who his partner for the lunch would be. It made for much hilarity and good camaraderie. After two years in the country school system, Marie taught grades five and six in Lucas.

In May of 1928, Everett informed the railroad company that he was ready to become an agent telegrapher. He was asked to go to Ottumwa to relieve a clerk in the freight house for the month of June, which he did. After one week he returned home and he and Marie became engaged on June 10. On July 1, he was tested for proficiency, had a physical and was placed on the extra list as 10th man, at which time seniority started. Extra men filled in when absences occurred in the agencies, second and third tricks, lever towers, yard offices and on loan to relay offices which were separate crafts and consisted almost entirely of pure telegraphing.

When assigned to small towns it was almost always necessary to board and room with a family or an elderly couple. Everett's first small town was Pilot Grove, one of several German communities, and on a branch line from Batavia to Ft. Madison. He boarded with a widow lady whose husband had been killed in a farm accident, leaving her with two small children. Her three single brothers ate their meals there and the oldest always prayed in German before they ate.

There was an ad in the paper for airplane rides in Fort Madison, and Everett invited the middle brother, Al, to go with him on Sunday to go up in the plane. Al backed out because a lady ahead of them had gotten sick during her ride and thrown up in the plane; but Everett took a ride in a Waco open cockpit plane out over the Mississippi River and the prison. He found it very enjoyable.

After being in Pilot Grove for five weeks, there were mostly shorter stays in various places until just before Christmas, when he was ordered to West Point, the last town on the same branch before Fort Madison. He was told to go prepared to stay for some time. It was a very icy winter and he did not take the car so was unable to get back to see Marie and his folks until May.

In 1928, highway 34 was rerouted through Lucas and Woodburn and was put to grade with horse and mule drawn equipment. A camp for the workers was set up west of Lucas and in 1929, just as paving started, the agent at Lucas got a felon on a finger and was in extreme pain. Everett landed the agent's job for seven weeks. The cement came in box cars in heavy cloth bags, which were emptied from the car and baled up, then returned for refilling. They had to be kept from getting wet. The rock came in gondola cars and was unloaded with clam shells, with the peak day being 50 cars. This brought highway 34 out of the mud. It was never rocked.

Marie and Everett enjoyed much time together during this seven week period. From there he had shorter jobs, a new 1929 Whippet car and paved roads to travel on. Winter came on and Tower 307, five miles west of Albia, was being abandoned in favor of modern remote control from the Albia depot. Twenty-nine levers became twelve toggle switches. The regular levermen were bidding out to other jobs, and three from the extra list worked the last six weeks. From then on, although still busy most of the time, Everett went back to being 10th man again. He got a job running an oil station for Standard Oil Company in Des Moines.

Everett and Marie were married July 12, 1930, and their lives changed. He remained with Standard Oil Company for 1 ½ years and then took a job as traveling salesman for the Great American Tea Company in Des Moines. The Depression was hitting the area hard at that time. To put it in historical perspective, by this time Franklin Roosevelt had been elected. "I even hate to tell stories about it," Everett said. "The suffering people went through is so unbelievable." The area in which he traveled included Altoona, Mitchellville, Colfax and Prairie City. Within a twoweek period, the bank in each of those towns closed. This was not unusual and there was a time when there was not a bank in Clarke County.

One day as he was returning home, he stopped in the little community of Ivy and was told by the restaurant owner that the lady on a nearby farm would be a good prospect. It was a good farm and when he went he was given a sizeable order to be delivered the next time he came through. However, by the time he returned the farmer had taken cattle to Chicago for sale, received a check which, unfortunately, he deposited in the Mitchellville bank. There was no money to pay for the order.

He remembers one family whose electricity had been turned off and all they had for light was an oil lamp burner and chimney stuck down in a fruit jar filled with kerosene. Comparing that time with now, "admittedly there are many things we could do without but I'm glad we don't have to. I am sorry we are giving our children the kind of world we have at the close of this century."

While living in Des Moines, they went to a concert by Gallicurci, the famous Italian soprano accompanied by her pianist and violinist. They also heard Alfalfa Bill Murray in an open air theater in a park. He was running for president at the time. He probably didn't get on a ticket but that was his aspiration. They also had a frightening experience at a filling station operated by Harold Cunningham. He wanted to collect a bill and asked if Everett and Marie would stay there until he returned. In those few minutes a gunman came to rob the station. He locked them in a restroom and Everett climbed out a small window. In spite of being pregnant with Pat, Marie followed him. When Harold came back, he found the money gone, but no one was hurt. These were hard times and hold-ups were common. Harold had about three more later and one time was roughed up.

There came a time when it seemed wise for Everett to quit the tea company and move back to Lucas where he built up an oil business, hiring Marie’s brother, Edwin. He recalls a time while he was in the filling station that he was offered a hog to be butchered for meat. He asked the farmer the price and the 200-pound hog could be bought for $7.50. He made the deal and with the $7.50 the farmer bought three calves.

The railroad had begun calling back former employees as they were needed and, after seven years, Everett quit the filling station business and went back to work for the railroad. The men were more than agents but also worked in the towers, relay and yard offices in places like Ottumwa and Burlington. At one point he was given an opportunity to go to Wyoming but he understood it was pretty wild country and the family was growing. Pat was born in Des Moines in 1932, while he was working for the tea company; Mary Lou in 1935, after they had moved back to Lucas; and at the time he was given the offer to go to Wyoming, in 1937, Bob was about to be born. Understandably, he declined.

Marie had much of the responsibility of raising the children. Lives of young mothers in those days were demanding. She can recall only two modern houses in the town of Lucas at that time. The Van Scoys had a cistern and well for water and the outhouse. "There was lots of baking and cooking" all without the conveniences we are accustomed to today. And children were as inclined as they are now to get into mischief.

The garage was under the house and there was a porch with an area under it where the children made a place to play. One day they made mud pies but also smeared the mud on their faces. The Van Scoy and neighbor children-five in all-with mud all over them! Another time Marie had the three dressed up for company when the neighbor children came to the door, wanting them to come out and play. She explained that they couldn't come, which made the others angry. To retaliate they spit on the front window and rubbed mud all over it. Still Marie was able to excuse them saying, "They were good kids. They were just angry."

Marie recalls another time when Mary Lou had on her prettiest dress ready to have her picture taken, but she got the scissors and cut out the entire front of it. "We were so hard up and not in a position to replace it."

One very hot August week, Everett was asked to go to Shenandoah on account of floods on the Missouri River, and trains were being detoured on the line between Red Oak and Hamburg. He had to stop in Creston for a physical, book of rules exam and issuance of a Social Security number. After four days in Shenandoah he was back on the extra list of the Ottumwa, not Creston, division.

Marie was left alone with the children while he was here and there, but not for long in any one place. He was usually back home weekly and often, without other demands on his time, he ran the oil station. When he was away, his brother-in-law Edwin took over. One time he came home with the flu and gave it to the rest of the family.

There were another two years-1937 to 1939-when he was on the extra list. He has no vivid memory of anything exceptional happening except for the little town of Yarmouth shipping 98 cars of soybeans during October of one of those years.

In all, from 1928 until retirement, he can count 42 different locations were he worked. At last, in the spring of 1939, he had a regular job as agent at Birmingham just south of Fairfield, the first station on the Batavia to Fort Madison branch. The family was only there a few months but long enough to have a garden. Marie and the children were with him from then on. In the fall, they moved on down two towns to Hillsboro with a little better paying job, only to discover the electricity was 25 cycle instead of 60. The only appliances that worked were the iron and radio. Any motor driven appliance would not. Even though he had worked there more than once before, he had not heard of that. They managed the situation by buying an ice box and hiring the laundry done. Everett supposes that he swept the floors. The two-story house they rented had a pipeless furnace with one large register in the floor between the kitchen and dining room. It got very hot and one day Mary Lou fell on it and was imprinted with its grid.

They had a good, leisurely time there with a new '40 Chevy two-door. Unlike the oil station, in this location he had a work week of eight-hour days, six days a week. The whole family fished, and Everett also fished with an old fisherman.

In 1941, the family moved to Truro, which was closer to their home town and, with a gas booster station, was somewhat more advanced than most small towns. They rented a nice house for a few months and then bought their own. Truro was on the branch from Osceola to Des Moines and Marie could ride the train early afternoon and return in the evening.

Much occurred while they were in Truro. For a time, while Marie's brother, Melvin, was in the service and his wife followed him to various bases, they took care of their daughter, Judy, who was just a toddler. On one occasion Everett and Marie took her by train to Battle Creek, Michigan, to see her dad before he went overseas.

They had more social life in Truro than had previously been the case, and the people were much more prosperous than in other places they had been. Besides the town population, the booster station had 16 houses for employees, who considered Truro their town. A Lions Club was established while they were there, with the Osceola club as sponsors. On one occasion Larry Van Werden's father spoke at a meeting.

Madison County got together to organize a scrap iron drive. A day was set in each town in the county, with a bin in each town for collection, and the proceeds were used to buy a Red Cross bookmobile for those in the service. The goal was met but the Red Cross did not want a bookmobile and, because they used the Red Cross name in the advertising, the organization demanded the money instead. Everett feels confident that it went to a good cause.

The WAC (Women's Army Corps) training center was at Fort Des Moines and the recruits from the west came in on the main line and up the Truro branch in special trains. At least twice they stalled on the hill between New Virginia and Truro and part of the train had to be brought into Truro, set on the side track and return for the rest...At that time Miles and Gene Husted won grand champion for one of their steers at the International in Chicago...The company made application to abandon the Truro line and was refused more than once. There was some uneasiness although other jobs were available due to the war and shortage of manpower.

At one point Everett was asked to go to Knoxville for a 3:00-11:00 job that had just been established. The suggestion was that Marie could be left in charge of Truro, but Everett pointed out that she could not telegraph and had never posted up on any part of it. The company advised that the agent at St. Charles could copy telegrams and phone them to her, but Everett still demurred until there was an agreement to go one week, with the St. Charles agent alternating with Everett, and the agent’s wife and Everett running both. They did this for awhile until the St. Charles agent tired of it and Everett made a deal with these provisions: He would keep his title to Truro; they would not rebulletin (put the operator's job up for bids) for the Knoxville job for one year; they would pay away from home expenses and one hour overtime a day; Everett and Marie would sell their home and move to Knoxville. The company agreed with the exception of rebulleting, pointing out that if someone asked them to do that, they would be obliged to comply.

Marie did an outstanding job at Truro and had to deliver the first casualty message--a missing in action. At first there was no procedure set up for family notification, just a Western Union message. Soon, however, that was changed. Marie got her Social Security number on this job. RRS.S. (Rail Road Social Security) numbers are in a separate series from others because of their unique pension plan.

The Van Scoys were able to sell their house in short order and rent a nice two-story one in Knoxville. Many things were rationed at that time, including gasoline, and they had to give up their spare tire and any other excess useable tires, for which they were paid. Knoxville had morning and evening passenger trains each way, with the evening eastbound taking groups of inductees to St. Louis and the westbound both morning and evening, bringing ones back from the war front to Veterans' Hospital. Some were in straight jackets and had an attendant. The hospital was growing and the freight business was booming.

Gas rationing caused folks who worked in Des Moines to ride the train on Sunday evenings and stay for the week. Sometimes the number of passengers made it necessary to put one of the depot's waiting room benches in the baggage car, and it would be returned on Monday morning.

The stay in Knoxville was temporary for the Van Scoys and in the fall of 1945 they were awarded the agency at Osceola. Housing was scarce in the post-war years. Despite Everett's diligent searches and Marie coming to Osceola to help, they were unable to find anything suitable. They remember looking at one very small house that Marie says was as dirty a place as she had ever seen. There were bottles strewn all around and no mention was made of it being cleaned to be ready for renters. However, it was not a problem because the owner wouldn't rent to families with children. Everett rented a room in the Depot Hotel and ate at B&H, Paramount and the Depot Cafes.

Eventually Fred Reed Sr., of Truro, became aware of their need and advised them that his elderly mother-in-law was going to live with him through the winter. The Van Scoy family could rent her furnished home in Truro until spring when she would want to return. It was a lovely home and they felt very fortunate in spite of there being a 16 mile commute from Truro to Osceola.

Bill and Addie Evans, Marie's cousin, lived on a farm north of Lucas and east of highway 65. They had bought the farm between them and the highway and, in 1937, had built a new house on the highway leaving their previous house empty. The Van Scoys could rent it, which they did. There was a pasture available, a cave, bam and other buildings. Finally Everett's high school course in Animal Husbandry was useful. They bought two cows, one of which had a calf, and 100 baby chicks. Even with the inconvenience of commuting 16 miles again, they felt fortunate to no longer have the pressing problem of housing.

Marie's father had a black Labrador dog. One morning Everett left the car door open while he ran in with milk and, on arriving at work, reached behind to get his lunch bucket and there was Nig. He looked up with innocent eyes and Everett had to find a rope for a leash and put a sign on the office screen door, "Do not let the dog out."

Before winter they found the perfect place to rent in Osceola, a large house on East McLane, highway 34. It was very clean but the bathroom had been papered with leftovers from rolls used elsewhere, and there were various patterns, designs and colors on the walls. The layout of the property suited them perfectly because there were two pastures that extended from back of their house and behind the neighbor's house, providing for their two cows, a calf and chickens. At that time they could have bought a large house and additional lots on Dewey Street for $3,500. They turned it down. Fred Kelly later bought it and built three houses that are still standing and occupied.

At the end of 1948, they bought the property at 810 West McLane from real estate agent, Kate McKee. The basement was already poured. They put a roof over it and lived in it for a time. They began building with an attached garage first, "so we’d have some place to put the junk." A carpenter crew framed, sheathed and roofed the house and put in windows and doors. Except for the plastering, Everett and Marie did all the rest.

At the time the Van Scoys moved to Osceola, there were still brick streets around the square. It is possible to see some evidence on the southwest corner. The spring rains caused mud to seep up between the bricks and, when it dried, it turned to dust which flew everywhere. The transition from bricks to cement was a lengthy process and at one point water accumulated on one corner of the square. It was allowed to remain for a prolonged period of time and, perhaps to protest the messiness, some wag put his boat out there.

During those years the railroad still had steam engines and there was service to and from Des Moines twice daily, two passenger round trips and a night freight train. Marie recalls riding the train when it was so crowded that she had to sit on a box in the baggage car, which was the customary arrangement in that instance. The Q-Pond had a pump house, treatment plant and water tower. When steam engines were phased out, Dale Gracey got the water tower, which was barrel-shaped with redwood staves. He sold the wood for caskets.

One early morning when Robert was a senior in high school, a conductor brought a Korean boy, Pong Sauk Lee, into the depot. He was to be enrolled in Simpson College but he had been routed through Chariton. The conductor asked what he should do with him and Everett suggested that he take Pong off the train here and Everett would send him to Indianola by bus. Bob talked the young man into going to school with him in the afternoon until bus time and later into staying for the evening with the promise that the family would take him to Simpson. Pong was very curious about our ways and even got down on his hands and knees to examine the basement drain to see where the water went. All of his shirts were dirty and Bob loaned him one of his. When he returned it, it was in a shirt box, folded like a new shirt, but just as he had worn it-not laundered.

The registrar's office was still open when they arrived at the college and there was a big GI who had served in Korea. It made Pong very happy. At their invitation, he visited the Van Scoys several times on weekends. He was also hosted by Marie and Ralph McGee. Ralph was on the Simpson College board. "He was a good kid and we very much enjoyed knowing him."

While the children were growing up Everett and Marie were involved in their activities. Marie was a Den Mother and Everett a Cub Master. Everett served on the school board from the time the children were in high school until the independent school became Clarke Community.

Daughter Pat was a drum majorette and graduated in 1950. She went on to Iowa Lutheran Hospital for nurses' training, and for psychiatric training to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Mary Lou graduated in 1953 and also went into the nursing profession, receiving her training at Iowa Methodist and Barnes. They married brothers whose aunts originated the T.T.T. organization.

Pat and her husband, James Stewart, live in San Antonio, Texas. They have five children: Doug, David, Deborah, Dan and Drew. Doug's death left a wife and two children. David is an attorney; Dan a CPA. Their father had invented a backboard for practicing tennis. It proved successful and the youngest son, Drew, manages the factory. All live in San Antonio except Debbie who is married and lives in Australia. She and her husband have what is called a "head-hunting" business for the placement of executives.

Mary Lou married Robert William Stewart. She lives in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she has a business doing billing and transcription for the medical profession. They have five children: William, Kathi, Dick, Karen, and James. Jim is a computer programmer and has a business that he operates out of his home in Vancouver, Washington. Bill went through medical school, earned a bio-medical degree and works for a dental equipment company in Portland, Oregon. Kathy is a registered nurse and a homemaker in California for her husband, who works for Hewlett Packard Company, and their two sons. Dick, who survived a serious car accident, is an engineer who worked for Boeing. He recently went back for more schooling in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Karen works with Mary Lou's company.

After graduation from high school, Bob went on to the University of Iowa through college and medical school. He spent a year's internship at Philadelphia General Hospital and was in the Navy for two years at Cherry Point, South Carolina, before becoming a physician with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His wife, Patricia Ann, is an engineer and works with computers at the clinic. They have four children: Sarah, Mike, Rebekah and John. Sarah is a pediatrician in Littleton, Colorado, which name connotes terror as this is being written (April, 1999); Mike is a physician in Duluth; Rebekah is a physician in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her husband is a surgeon. John is a mechanical engineer and works for a company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Everett and Marie stay in close touch with children, grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren that are located in Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Australia. None are in Iowa.

Before and after Everett's retirement in 1975, he and Marie did a great deal of traveling. They celebrated their 50th anniversary for a week in Custer's State Park in South Dakota. The children and grandchildren (at that time 13 or 14) were there and each family had a cabin. They decorated the car as though for newlyweds. The grandchildren determined that they were not going to eat buffalo meat, but they did before they knew what it was and didn't grumble.

They have been to Europe three times, the first in 1971. The tour was designed for visiting major cities and on that trip they became special friends with a Jewish couple, the husband being a teacher in a Catholic college in Vermont. The second trip was a tour of Scandanavian countries, and the third was in the company of Pat and her husband to a medical radiology meeting in Salzburg, Austria.

They also have been to Hawaii with Bob and his family at a time when the flowers were just coming into bloom. Marie exclaimed about how beautiful everything was. They took an Alaskan cruise with Mary Lou and her youngest son, Tim. They didn't get there in time to join the rest of the group so they were taken to the ship in a water taxi provided for just such a circumstance. They had to climb a rope ladder to board. Another time they went from Winnipeg, Canada, to Hudson Bay by train and lived on the train for a week except for one night in a hotel. They have been to Mexico several times. Marie particularly enjoyed seeing Mexican handwork and bought a huge hemstitched tablecloth and 12 napkins for practically nothing. At that time a quart of strong, pure vanilla was one dollar.

Retirement was not a difficult adjustment for them. Marie became interested in decoupage and worked many church dinners. Everett made a grandfather's clock for each of the three children and one for themselves; he built bookshelves for the church as well as those aforementioned for their home; he made small walnut tables for each of the grandchildren before they were married.

This has been the life story of a long-married couple, who have survived good times and not-so-good, who raised children and now are seeing grandchildren and great-grandchildren making significant contributions to society, and who truly give a "Recipe for Living."