Recipes for Living Harley and Helen Hale

The timing for writing the Hale's story was exactly right because on Thursday, June 10, 1999, the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune spotlighted Harley's life, emphasizing that he had been one of few students that attended Hopeville High School. Years ago he had told that to Melvin Goeldner who encouraged him to write about it but he never had until Bill Oehlert learned of it and alerted the newspaper. This is what they wrote:

"Harley Hale of Osceola is one of the students who attended high school in Hopeville. He was born north of Murray and attended country schools southwest of Murray.
"In 1920, after going to school at Doyle No. 3, he went to third grade in Hopeville for the one year the schools were consolidated there. It was in the Christian Church. He rode to school in a hack pulled by a team of horses.
"He returned to Hopeville for his freshman and sophomore years. This was in a two-room school house two blocks south of the square on the southwest corner. There were five freshmen and 10 sophomores his freshman year.
"Flora Padley taught all subjects except math, Hale said. He rode a horse to school and rented a stall on the west side of the square.
"Hopeville used to have a blacksmith's shop, two grocery stores and three churches.
''Now it is mostly known for the Hopeville Music Festival and the Old Timers Reunion that are both held in the fall.
"After his sophomore year, Hale's grandparents, who lived in Osceola, wanted him to live with them and finish his education.
"His older brother attended school through ninth grade at Doyle No.3 under William Hines and continued his education in Murray. He rode on horseback more than seven miles to school. He died of a ruptured appendix in March of 1925, just before graduation.
"Hale thinks his parents thought the ride contributed to his brother's death and they sent (Harley) to live with his grandparents. He was the only one from his class to come to Osceola. The others went to Grand River, Thayer and Murray. He graduated from Osceola High School at the building on Highway 69, in 1929.
"There are only a few of his Osceola graduating class of 1929 left, he said. They no longer hold reunions. Three still live in Osceola.
"Hale returned home after graduation to help on the farm. He married Helen Fenn from Murray in 1935. She is his best friend and became his partner on the farm and later in business, he said.
"The Hales farmed until 1953, when they rented it out and moved to Colorado. "They returned to Iowa in 1956 and sold their farm in 1958. Hale went to work for Kimball Implement in Osceola. The Hales later owned an implement and used car business in Murray.
"They moved to Colorado for the second time and found it wasn't the same now that their children, Marilyn and Merlin were grown. They returned to Iowa for good. From 1966 until 1970 they ran a used car business by where the Lunch Box Cafe was located and where Countryside Creations is now.
"The business moved in 1970 to where Clarke County Tire is now.
"Thayer Toney purchased the business in 1974. Hale continued to work there until the following winter when he and Helen stayed in Texas. They continued to do so for the next 20 years.
"He used to elk hunt and liked deep sea fishing. He likes to tinker with anything that needs fixing, especially clocks, he said."

This was an encapsulated version of the life of Harley and Helen Hale, who were willing to be more thorough for this book. The main point of the newspaper article was his attendance at Hopeville which many people did not know ever had a high school. It was consolidated for one year when Harley was in second or third grade. Harley went to high school with four other students for his freshman and sophomore years.

Helen was born on September 5, 1913, to Orlo and Edith Dewey Fenn. Helen had two sisters, Lucille (Eggnik, now deceased), and Alice Edwards, now living in Osceola; three brothers Richard (deceased), Everett and Clarence both living in Murray. The family lived on a farm at the edge of Murray. Helen went to school in Murray, always walking to school and home for noon lunch. She remembers her first grade teacher, Ruth Morgan. Helen was quite shy and Miss Morgan was like a mother to all the kids. She also remembers the superintendent, who they called Professor Johnson because he was such a good teacher. He taught algebra and geometry, which Helen could grasp because of the way he explained it, even though mathematics was not easy for her.

After she graduated from high school, Helen helped her maiden aunt take care of her Grandmother Fenn. She would have liked to become a nurse but was not able to pass the physical to get into the training program. However, life gave her several opportunities. The first was when she helped with the care of Grandma Fenn until she died, at which time her bachelor uncle and maiden aunt moved to Salem, Iowa. She stayed with them for four months.

Helen and Harley were dating at that time. Harley had been born to Charles and Iona Smith Hale, November 24, 1911. He had an older brother, Olin (now deceased), born October 17, 1928. He was a guiding force for Harley's life. They had a sister Eva (Wetzel) born July 26, 1914. She too is deceased. Eva had two sons - Dale of Storm Lake; and Robert of Omaha, Nebraska.

Harley went to school in Clarke County, mostly at Doyle #3, and to Hopeville for 9th and 10th grades. He didn't get to go on to college because he was needed on the farm. He joined the United Methodist Church at an early age with his brother Olin and was baptized by Rev. Leo Wolfe, in Grand River, west of Hopeville.

Harley and Helen met at Epworth League and went together about four years before they were married in Helen's home, on April 21, 1935. They lived all their lives in Clarke County except for 6 1/2 years in Colorado. After they married Helen said she was simply a farmer's wife, a businessman's wife and salesman's wife; but wives particularly know there is more involved than that.

After the wedding, the couple moved directly to a rented farm seven miles south of Murray. Helen knew nothing about living that far from town. They didn't have electricity; the road to the east was nearly impassible; and she felt she had come to the jumping off place of the world. One day when Harley was in the field, a carload of gypsies came through. They went to the door and asked for directions to Osceola. Helen sent them east and took off for the field. She rode with Harley on the tractor the rest of the afternoon. He thought that was because she really loved him when the truth was that she was afraid the gypsies would come back.

Two children were born - Marilyn on February 15, 1938; and Merlin, June 9, 1939. Both the children went to Doyle Center country school having a pony for transportation or they walked.

When Merlin was five, he had polio, or infantile paralysis. This was a terror for parents in those days before the Salk vaccine. It was as frightening to parents as any pronouncement that a doctor would make. It was the nature of this disease that it could not be diagnosed with certainty for several days so, when Merlin became ill, Harley and Helen brought him to Osceola to Dr. Stroy, who told them to take him back home and return later when the symptoms would be more clear. Two days later, Dr. Stroy confirmed his diagnosis saying that they should take him to the Sister Kenney Center in Des Moines. This name was very familiar at that time. It represented hope, for this nurse from Australia had developed a method of treatment and established centers to train practitioners. A branch of the Minneapolis Institute was in Des Moines.

Even though Harley was in his overalls and had not come prepared for such a trip, he was ready to go immediately only to be informed that there would be at least a two-week waiting period. Harley and Helen had known enough about the disease that they knew timing was crucial With no other option, they went to see Dr. Lauser, father-in-law of Ruth Lauser. Merlin had hold of Harley's finger and Dr. Lauser asked what was the matter with him. Harley explained the situation and Dr. Lauser asked if they would do what he would do if it were his child. They assured him they would. He told them to wait until his temperature went down and then to begin alternating hot and cold packs and giving him rubbing alcohol massages. Every day Dr. Lauser called to inquire how he was getting along and to give additional instructions.

Helen remembers well that she would wring out a towel in water as hot as she could stand and put the hot pack on Merlin's back where he was affected, then the cold. They credit Dr. Lauser for the fact that when Merlin was well enough to return to school, he could walk or ride his pony. In recent years he has a slight "hitch'' in his walking but this is the only sign of his ever
having had it. Within the last few years, a podiatrist has fitted him with orthotic supports in order for him to perform his work as a professional painter.

Marilyn graduated from Arvada High School in Colorado and Merlin from Murray High School. Both attended Northwest Missouri State College, now a University, and taught for a time. Marilyn met her husband, Richard Murphy, when both were teaching in Keokuk and they now live in Erie, Illinois. Marilyn taught remedial reading, social studies and spelling in middle school and retired this year, after having taught for 30 years. Richard taught music in the only provision the school was able to make-a trailer. Harley visited one time and didn't see how he could stand it. Richard decided that if two bond issues for a new school didn't pass, he would resign, which he did.

Marilyn and Richard (Dick) have two children - Leah now Mrs. Myron Gwinner, and Michael Leah and Myron both graduated from Central College in Fayette, Missouri. Leah has a degree is psychology and Myron in religion. He manages a Methodist Camp in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and they have two little boys, Caleb, three, and Joshua, seven months.

Michael graduated from Illinois State in 1999, with a major in computer science, a minor in accounting. While receiving his education, he was employed by John Deere and was awarded a presidential scholarship by the university. It was required that he spend a semester in Australia, the United States, or England and he chose Canterbury, England. He lived with an English couple and a boy that he knew from the United States. He is now working in Moline.

Merlin lives in Glenwood. He taught biology in high school for 14 years but quit because of the lack of discipline of the students. Those in his classroom were no problem because it was a selective course and the students were interested and wanted to learn. However, he also had study halls and supervision of hallways. He was unaccustomed to the language he was subjected to and changed professions. He was married in 1962, to Peggy Leslie.

Merlin and Peggy have two children, Stephen and Christina (Tina). Stephen was in ROTC while he was student at Northwestern University and was 2nd Lieutenant when he graduated. He is a Major in the Army with a Master's degree in hospital administration and is married to Melissa Blankenburg, who is also in the Army and is getting her Master's degree in Nursing. She is head of the maternity ward in Fort Stewart, Georgia. Stephen's duty took him to Germany for five years. They have two daughters, Natacha, seven, and Samantha, five.

Christina married Todd Purdy and they both graduated from Northwestern Missouri University. She has her Master's degree in banking and Todd has his Master's in pharmaceuticals. Tina and Todd have two little boys-Grant who is 5, and Garrett who will be two in November. He was born on Harley's birthday.

Harley and Helen bought a farm about 7 1/2 miles south of Murray in 1943. In 1952 Harley went to Mayo's Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was told he should change occupations to something not as much of a strain on his back. He drug his feet for quite awhile but, in 1953, they moved to Colorado where Harley managed a small real estate firm. They became involved in the United Methodist Church in Arvada, Colorado, and Harley was on the board, was an usher and had a role in selecting a pastor that stayed with that church for 21 years, during which time they built a new church.

They rented their farm but noted that it was not being kept up as they would wish so they returned in three years and resumed farming and leased out the crop land. They went back to Colorado in 1963, intending to make it their permanent home. Harley became a car salesman and was doing well but both his parents needed more care than his sister was able to give them and Harley and Helen moved back to Osceola in 1966, to 115 Sunset Drive, where they still live. They have an added attraction in 1999, of a mother fox and two kits who have moved into a culvert on the alley. They see her occasionally and one time she became bold enough to climb onto the roof of a garage and look into Leota Broyles' window.

When Hales returned to Osceola in 1966, Harley went into the business the newspaper article referred to and in 1974 sold it to Thayer Toney. Harley went to work for Duayne Fletcher that summer and in that year they went for their first time to winter in Texas. In the summer of 1975 he worked at Underwood Auto Supply.

Harley and Helen continued to go south in the winter until 1994. By draining their pipes and, of course, having no electricity on their bills in Osceola, for the first years it was cheaper there. Then prices changed.

"Winter Texans" know what close relationships are formed with neighbors in the trailer courts. Alice and Floyd Edwards from Osceola lived next door to them in Magnolia Park, Donna, Texas. Another who became a close friend had come from Canada. Just one winter Helen and Harley went to Apache Junction, Arizona. During that year they attended the Desert United Methodist Church, and it was in that year, 1980, that the Canadian friend died. Helen has felt badly not to have been there when her friend needed her.

For 19 years they went to the same park, Magnolia, the last seven living in the mobile home they purchased. For some time Harley had health problems which cause was diagnosed as a hiatal hernia. In 1985 doctors gave him a treadmill test and they were suddenly flying back for him to have a six-by-pass surgery at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. At that time Mercy was the major place in Des Moines for such an operation. That would have been the year for them to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The children had it all planned but the very day of the anniversary was the day he was released to come home. They celebrated their 55th instead.

Some years later the Hales’ path crossed with that of the daughter of Rev. Wolfe, who had baptized Harley. They had been grateful for all Rev. Cliff Haider’s visits while Harley had and was recovering from surgery. While they were visiting Merlin in Glenwood, Merlin asked if they would like to visit the church where Rev. Haider was serving, the Broadway United Methodist Church in Council Bluffs. While there Stephen recognized them at once and they sat with the family. A member of the congregation, whose daughter happened to be Cliff’s secretary, introduced herself. Her name was Lavor Orr but her maiden name was Wolfe and she was the daughter of Rev. Wolfe. It is interesting how these things happen.