MICKEY THOMAS

I was born in Iowa City in 1929, the year the banks closed. My father lost his account in First National Bank in Iowa City. He had saved a cigar box of Indian head pennies that he kept in the bank and they called to say he could have them if he would pay their equivalent in money. Dad didn’t even have that. I never felt neglected but we always were prudent. I don’t recall ever being deprived of anything materialistic that I ever needed.

We lived in a one—bedroom home in what was at that time the faculty area of Iowa City. We were surrounded by great big homes and our little house was pretty tiny; but there were probably three deans of the University in the neighborhood that were an inspiration even though I didn’t exchange any ideas with them. I have one older sister.

One of my earliest memories is that I wanted a pony and I couldn’t have one because I had eczema so badly and was diagnosed as possibly allergic to animal hair. I did have a dog and I named him Rags because I could say that without stuttering. I was conscious that there was something wrong with the way I talked and that caused tension. It follows that the more tension and self-consciousness I had, the more difficulty I had with my speech.

I became a guinea pig at the Speech Department of the University. I was right- handed and there was a theory that if you were right-handed and stuttered, the left hemisphere of the brain was dominant and that had an influence on speech. They tried to change me to being left-handed and I remember bouncing a tennis ball repeatedly with my left hand and learning to write with my left hand. By the time I got to the sixth grade they decided that was not correct so they told me I could write with either hand. Consequently to this day I can’t write well with either hand. I have trouble spelling because I did very little talking as a child for fear I would stutter.

They were searching for a physical cause for stuttering and they kept experimenting. I was in and out of the Speech Clinic and when I was in eighth grade they began to decide the cause for stuttering was environmental. Mrs. Wills, a candidate for a doctor’s degree in Speech Pathology, was given my "case" to study. She was probably pioneering in the study of causes of stuttering by looking at the environment, one of the theories, and, as far as I know, it is probably still the main theory, in the treatment of stuttering.

The thoughts were that speech repetitions are normal; therefore everybody probably stutters to a degree. The onset of stuttering is when parents are teaching the child to speak and draw attention to the speaking repetitions. My teachers would say, "Repeat that slowly.“ They would label the normal repetitions as stuttering and develop in the child's mind that he must speak fluently without repetition. This is impossible. Nobody can do this. Actors and public speakers will sometimes purposely add repetitions to their speech in order to sound more meaningful, natural, and sincere but the stuttering child develops anxiety about speaking. The more fear and anxiety that develops the more difficult it is to speak fluently.

What they did for me was to help me overcome the fear of speaking. On the same principle that if you are afraid of water the only way to overcome it is to get in the water and learn what to do, they first had me learn to stutter on purpose so I could see that I was the one that was doing the repetition. I would have an assignment to go out on the street and approach 30 strangers and ask for directions, purposely stuttering.

I also was a popular speaker to the Speech Pathology and Psychology classes and spoke to them about what I was learning to do. When I gave these speeches I would purposely stutter at the start of the speech. I was interviewed on the college radio station when I was in 8th grade. Without my knowledge Mrs. Will visited with my teachers and Scout master, and minister, and encouraged them to give speaking responsibilities to "this boy". The interesting thing is to discover that you are controlling the way you speak and you can overcome it. Eventually, from all my therapy, and based on my progress, a pamphlet was published that became one of the leading written works on the treatment of stuttering.

What I learned from all this is that the more I speak, the less fear I have of stuttering and the less fear I have of stuttering, the less I stutter.

When I was in college, I dated a girl who was a Physical Education major and her department sponsored a Square Dance Club. I listened to the square dance caller and realized he was calling in rhythm and one fact is that when stutterers talk in rhythm they never stutter. In those days square dancing was simple. We would teach the dance and then call it. The first one I ever did was to the tune of Red River Valley.

It goes: The first couple lead down the valley
And you circle with the couple on the hill
Then swing the girl in the valley
Then you swing with your Red River girl.

I think square dance calling probably helped me to overcome my fear of speaking more than anything I’ve ever done in my life. I had my own square dance band at the University of Iowa and we put on many square dances for the Iowa Student Memorial Union and at fraternity and sorority parties. And one of the first things I did after I came to Osceola was to persuade the Lion’s Club to have a fund—raising event of a square dance. That event was at the Chevrolet Garage. Francelia Reynolds and Steve Evans, County Extension Director, and myself organized the Do-sceola Square Dance Club which is still active.

I called square dances all over southern and central Iowa. I always started my dances the same way - I said "I am Mickey Thomas. I stutter, and I don’t give a damn and I don’t think anyone else does either. I want everyone to have a lot of fun." To this day I have people that I haven’t seen for a long time come into the store asking if I still call square dances. I think one of the reasons that I went into retail is the therapy it gives me on a daily basis, talking to so many people. I thoroughly enjoy this.

One of the keys to conquering is to learn to laugh at yourself.  If you can do that you have taken some pretty good medicine. I regard it as funny that in the first job I had in a sporting goods store the boss had a dictaphone and wanted me to dictate a letter. By the time I had finished I had used up a whole tape.

There is joke that a fellow who stuttered read an ad in a magazine that said, "Cure your stuttering; guaranteed.” He told his friend that he was going to take this course out of town and would be back in six weeks. When he came back he saw his friend who asked how it had gone. He replied, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." His friend congratulated him, "That’s great!" And was answered,"Y-Y—Yeh, b-b·but wh—wh-who w—w·wants to s—s—say th-th—that a—a—all the t—t—t—tirne'?"

I went through elementary, high school and college all in Iowa City. My college degree is in Speech Pathology, and I did 15 hours of graduate work. I met Betty at the University, through the Iowa Mountaineering Club. She had graduated from the University of Nebraska and was working at the University Hospital. She is extremely intelligent. She was salutatorian of her high school where one of her class-mates was Johnnie Carson. When she took her State Boards in Nebraska she received the highest grade in the state. Betty has always helped me make good decisions and supported me when I’ve made poor decisions. She‘s frail looking but I never realized what a strong person she is until last year when she endured four surgical operations on her back and was hospitalized for most of six weeks while they were trying to correct a leakage of spinal fluid caused by the first operation when the surgeon nicked the spinal cord. This took a lot of strength and courage.

We have three daughters: Becky, Sue and Judy. Becky and Sue are in the Washington, D.C. area and in Virginia; Judy is in Brooklyn, NX. The schools of Osceola were good to our children. They went on to earn Masters Degrees. They are married and have responsible jobs. We’ve always tried to instill in our daughters that they can do anything they set their minds to do.

One thing I have always liked to do and been good at is selling. As a child, in a family that was poor, we had a vegetable garden and the way I got my spending money or for our vacations was to sell vegetables to our wealthy neighbors. Later I had a magazine route at the fraternities. I sold Liberty, Saturday Evening Post and Look. I could never say Liberty without stuttering and I sold more Liberties than anything else, and sold more magazines than anyone else in Iowa City.

When Nile Kinnick won the Heisman trophy, became All-American and his picture was on the cover of the magazine I sold a copy to every member of his fraternity. Nile Kinnick roomed next door to our house and I recall that he studied late into the evening and it impressed me that hard work is one of the keys of learning.

Rich Robinson was an uncle by a third marriage to Betty’s aunt. I applied to Rich for a job a couple of years prior to his inviting me to Osceola in 1955. I knew he was an outstanding merchant and I wanted to pick his brain. I thought I would only stay in Osceola 3 years and I ended up living here 41 years. We like the community, and the community has been good to us and our family. Through the years we became limited partners and Rich gave Bernard Linder and me an option to buy the business at a future time.

I think being around people is a real medicine — my mother would say "it’s good for what ails you." Integrity was something else my parents instilled in me and I think I have been able to develop credibility with my customers and friends and the community in general Credibility was the asset I had that enabled us to raise $113,000 in donations to save Grade Lake when the DNR condemned the dam. The properly owner stockholders around the lake, of which I was not one, had given up on the prospects of being able to save the lake. l felt it could be saved. I convinced the City Manager of the importance of the lake to Osceola from the recreation standpoint, and from the reservoir for the storm sewers — half of Osceola drains into Grade Lake. The mayor, Gerald Clark, felt the way I did. We convinced the Board of Supervisors that this was important and it was the first project that I can remember that the two governing bodies worked together to save the lake. Key decisions were that the County would allow their engineer Ray Henely to donate his services to design the reconstruction of the railroad grade, that $110,000 could be raised and the stockholders would donate their ownership of the lake to the city. The city in tum would accept it as a public park. Then I raised donations from people who believed me when I said, "This is important."

Both my mother and father were active in organizations and I think from both of them I consciously learned that if the neighborhood is good to you to have a responsibility to put something back into that community. I have tried to do this through the years. I especially like the Lion’s Club because it is a group of persons who are dedicated to serving the community. Our motto is "We serve" and by giving our limit of time available and pooling it as a group we have been able to accomplish a lot for the community; i.e., eyesight programs, the cornea bank at the University of Iowa. We were instrumental in the development of the tennis courts in Osceola. Almost all the shelter houses at the Parks were built by the Lion’s Club. We gave a little park by the swimming pool to the city of Osceola. I’ve adopted my parents’ philosophy that if you ta.ke things from the community you have an obligation to serve the community.

I like hiking, siding, mountain climbing and tennis. I consider physical activity real important. Some of the people that I admire the most have been physically and mentally active all their lives and I feel that exercise is good physical and mental therapy. I love to whack at a tennis ball and to walk to work. I get my best ideas when I am walking. As I go I observe. I am very conscious of our eyesores in the community. I have never wanted to own anything that I couldn’t be proud of. And if somebody lets me use their property I feel that I have an opportunity to take care of it.

My father always said, "Son, it is not what you save when you buy something but how you take care of it." Dad was probably the best customer Sears Roebuck ever had and saved every parts list. He knew Sears Roebuck stood behind all their guarantees. I still have the last car my father ever owned — a 66 Dodge Coronet and I’ve tried to take care of it through the years.

I consider that what we are is directly related to how we live and think and respond. I attribute this to my parents. I don’t know if my father is in heaven but the way he lived has influenced my decisions to this day. Both my parents are gone. Mother came from a very poor family and her dedication to hard work and thrift has had a big influence on my life. She taught me the value of money in relation to how hard you have to work for it.

I am not a regular participant in formal religion, but try hard to practice on a daily basis the teachings of Jesus.

About everything you have to be optimistic. There is always a good decision if you can find the information to make the decision. There is always somebody in the community that knows the information. Problems can be solved some way. My father always said, "Don’t make a decision when you’re angry or excited. Wait until the next morning and it won’t seem so important"

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 1996 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised April 29, 2012