Recipes for Living Cameron Miles Family

Cameron's story: I was born in Clarkson Hospital in Omaha to Lynn Miles and Phyllis Cabbage Miles. Yes, Cabbage is an unusual name, and it is spelled with one or two "b"s. The difference can be traced to two brothers who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War. Feelings apparently ran so deep that one of the brothers changed the spelling of his name to one "b." Mother's family was Pennsylvania Dutch. Miles is English, Gaelic for "warrior." "Cameron" is Gaelic for crooked or bent nose, and it is interesting that I have had my nose broken several times.

Grandpa Miles was born in Pana, Illinois, and, when he was young, the family moved to Huron, South Dakota. As he became old enough to do so, he spent summers working with a crew harvesting grain all around South Dakota and Nebraska. Grandma grew up in Callaway, Nebraska, and she and Grandpa met when his crew was working for her father. This was probably in the mid-20s. They married and Grandpa started farming near Callaway.

They had five children-four boys and one girl. My dad was the middle one. The oldest boy stayed and worked on the ranch, and the others spread to different parts of country. My grandparents built up sizeable ranch but, in the mid 1970s, four years of drought and low cattle prices made clear that they needed to get out of ranching. They prepared to have a farm auction. Dad and another uncle went to help Grandpa and the uncle who lived there get ready for the sale. They spent the first day lining up machinery and making decisions about the next day, and Grandpa died of heart attack during the night. They postponed the auction for a few days.

At some point Grandma started talking, in detail, about how to make Grandpa’s breakfast. She made quite a point of his really liking burnt toast, which prompted one of the uncles to tell her that, about a year earlier, Grandpa had told him that the first morning after they were married, the first time she made his breakfast, she had burned the toast. She asked how he liked it and he said he really liked it that way. Now, that is my definition of true love-eating burnt toast every morning for 50 years!

Dad worked as claims adjuster for Union Pacific Railroad and we lived in Omaha 1 1/2 years before he was transferred to Salt Lake City. While we were there for three years, my sister, Michelle, was born. Then we were moved to Kansas City, where we lived less than a year; and it was probably under the threat of being moved again that Dad left the railroad and we moved to Clarinda, which had been my mother’s home.

Dad went to work as an accountant for Hygrade Meat Packing Company that made salami sausage. He then became an accountant for a grain elevator and a few years later bought an elevator in Coin. I was 8-10 years old at that time, and it was in this job when I began to remember him most.

Along with that work, he developed a sideline of making signs for agriculture. In the mid- 1980's, when the farm crisis started, the sideline became the mainline. Four or five years ago, Dad sold the elevator and went into the business he still operates from their home. Mother was his secretary in the elevator and now both are involved in the Miles Sign Company of rural Clarinda. They now use a computer to lay out signs. Dad has been fascinated with the computer and e mail for a long time he used it to send me jokes, but seldom get around to open my mail so he sends them less often. It is possible that the novelty has worn off.

Our family has always been close. Dad had bought a small acreage and we raised lots of chickens, hogs, and sheep. I always had sheep for 4-H and, through the years, raised enough to pay for the first couple years of college. I worked for my grandfather on his farm two or three summers.

I started and had all my schooling in Clarinda. My extracurricular activity was band. I played the drums and for eight years was in marching, jazz, pep, and concert bands. My junior high band teacher was my mother's high school band teacher; and an older lady, who was an occasional substitute teacher, was my mother's teacher when she attended a one-room country school.

I suppose the teacher who most influenced my life was my high school accounting teacher, who had previously worked for a bank. He was a member of the National Guard, although he didn't talk about that. I knew it only because I ran onto him when I was in the Guard. He talked mostly about banking. He was also my first computer teacher. I took the first computer course ever offered in Clarinda, in 1981.

On March 22, 1983, I convinced my parents to sign a waiver that would permit me to join the National Guard. A waiver was necessary because I was only 17. Ten years earlier people joined the Guard to avoid Vietnam, but I saw this as a way to earn money for college. Patty and I was dating and I somehow thought it important to talk it over with her. In the year between high school and college, I did basic training with the Guard, at Fort Benning, Georgia. That's when I lost my hair. They shaved off my thick black hair. They shaved it and it never grew back.

I graduated from high school in 1983 and enrolled at the University of Iowa. At the end of my first year Patty and I were married. Patty had graduated with an Associate Arts' degree from Iowa Western Community College in Clarinda and then transferred to the university.

Patty and I had come to know one another when we were both in junior high band. She played the flute and piccolo. At some time during our school years, I had asked her out, but she wouldn't go with me. Later she called to ask me to an Air Supply Band concert at the State Fair. I said I would, but later called to say "no." Patty brought back a puppet monkey on a stick to show me that I’d missed out on something. That resulted in a dinner appointment and we began going together. We dated for a couple of years and were married on May 26, 1984, at the United Methodist Church in Clarinda by Rev. Martin Miller. I didn't really know him. Rev. Harlan Gant is the minister I remember, although I was never an enthusiastic church attendee. I remember my folks making me go.

Patty picks up the story at this point: I was born in Greenfield. My dad's name was Fred Baze and mother was Ila Fern (but goes by Fern) Malone Baze. They were both from Chariton. Dad's father, Joe Baze, two uncles and my dad worked then, and still work, for the gas company, Iowa Electric. Dad was transferred to Fontanelle and then to Greenfield, where my older sister, Pam, and I were born. We are just 18 months apart and people have thought we were twins.

I started to school in Greenfield and Miss Ryan, my 1st grade teacher, is the reason I decided to become a teacher. I don’t remember why but ever since then that was what I wanted to be. I remember being excited about coming home from school one day because Mom was going to be home from the hospital with a brand new baby. This was my brother Derek. I also have another sister, Jenny, born after we moved to Clarinda. Pam now lives in Virginia Beach. Her husband, Dan, is in the Navy, so we have several military people in the family. Derek is in Kansas City and is being married the very month we are writing this story - June, 1997. We will all be gathering for the wedding. Jenny lives in Osceola.

Mid-year of my first grade, Dad was transferred to Clarinda and all the rest of my schooling was there, including my two years of community college. When I was about 10 years old, we lived catty-corner from the Westminster church. I remember the night it burned. The folks woke us up to watch it and they were hosing down our house. There is no sign now that it was ever there. A new church has been built and looks as though it has always been there.

My school activities, you have read, were band and I was on the varsity team in tennis, playing both doubles and singles in local and district competition. During the summer my sister and I spent a lot of time at the library. We won all the awards in the summer reading program. When I was in junior high, we rode bikes to the pool. I didn't like swimming all that well. Dad wanted us to be on swim team but we didn't pass. The truth is that we didn't like working at it. We just wanted to swim. Now Clarinda has an indoor pool. It is amazing how things change.

The family didn't go to church. Mom’s parents had made her go to church every Sunday but when she married Dad, who never went, she followed his pattern. It is interesting that he is such morally upright man. He never swore, drank, or smoked, but church was never part of his life. When we kids came along our parents let us decide what we wanted to do, and we chose not to go. I was baptized later when I attended confirmation class and joined the church. My sisters have been baptized, also.

After my two years at community college, I followed Cameron to the university, and we were married on May 26, 1984, two days after I graduated. Because of the timing, the rumor around Clarinda was that we had to be married; but we chose that time because he had to leave immediately for bask training. Our first child was born five years later.

We bought a trailer house and lived on the south side of Iowa City for three years, until we were out of college. We graduated in 1987- Cameron with a BA in business administration, with a specialty in finance; I having earned a degree in Education, with a license to teach K-six and a specialty in reading. After college we moved back to Clarinda and Cameron tried selling life insurance, which didn't support us. I spent a couple of years substitute teaching in all grades. When the music teacher became ill, I spent a month filling in for her at the end of the year. It was then I discovered I was pregnant.

In the fall of 1988, we spent six months in Fort Benning, Georgia, for Cameron's officers' basic course. It was quite a year! Most of the other couples lived off base; but there was a shortage of family housing and they allowed us to stay together on base. We were in a dorm-type setting, with all the fellows. I was the only woman, pregnant, and in a tiny room designed to be quarters for two guys. We shared a kitchen with 12 to 24 rooms. It had one teensy-tinny refrigerator, with one shelf to hold all our stuff, which wasn’t as big a problem as it might appear because all the fellows ate out and we ate out a lot, also. Fast food wasn't the best for a pregnant woman, but I survived. A benefit was that we had maid service. They may have been typical southern maids. You could hear them singing in the halls and they told me they loved to clean our room because we had shoved our two single cots together and made it like one-king sized bed. I had brought my grandmothers’ quilts and they loved to look at those.

'Twas the night before Ashley
and all through the billet,
No dinner was stirring
for we had not a skillet.

The pizza was ordered,
toppings chosen with care.
I sat down in hopes
That it soon would be there.

When out from the bathroom
a concerned voice spoke,
"What should we do?
My water has broke!"

"Call the doctor, I guess.
I've not done this before."
"He said come to the hospital.
Please open the door."

So we waited for pizza,
then out like a flash.
Down the stairs to the car,
"Please try not to crash."

In the dark we could see,
By the headlights bright glow
"Past the cavalry stables
is the best way to go."

Toward the heart of Ft. Benning,
not far from the middle,
We soon parked in the lot
of Martin Army Community Hospital.

Through the emergency doors
Then up to floor three.
"The delivery room's busy,
but soon will be free.

Climb up on a Gurney"
(A bed on a cart) Contractions getting closer,
but still far apart.

Then down to admissions,
to get us signed in.
Before filling out papers,
I borrowed a pen

From a friend in Ranger school
with a jaw made of glass,
Broke in a football game,
trying to win a 3-day pass.

Back up in the room,
the nurse applies jelly,
To the monitor's censors,
then sticks to her belly.

After reading the printout,
the nurse says to me,
'Will be several more hours,
two, maybe three."

So back to the billet,
my Ford Tempoflew
to sup on cold pizza
and a soda or two.

Then back to the hospital,
up on third floor,
I at in the corner,
and tried not to snore.

I awoke quite abruptly,
to the sound of a scream.
I knew in an instant,
this wasn't a dream.

"The contractions are closer,"
her voice, it did boom.
The nurse moved us next Door,
to the delivery room.

The Captain came in,
I don't recall his name.
But the look on Patty's face
told him I was to blame.

In a moment of joy,
in a ·moment of shock,
The doctor said calmly,
"2:21 on the clock."

And I looked at the baby
all purplish and bluey.
And covered in something
that made her all gooey.

And then it just hit me,
I'd missed the wrong class,
And hoped that this rainbow of colors
would pass.

But the nurse cleaned her off
and said, "Don't you fret."
Then weighed and gave her to Patty,
all covered in sweat.

The look on her face,
new mother so fine.
The memories of pain,
replaced with a shine.

The doctor then said
that her head would reshape.
And she'd soon change her color
from that of a grape.

Then he turned and he left,
and as he walked out of sight
He said, "Congratulations,
and have a nice night."

Cameron's poem is a sample of his humor. That’s one of the qualities that attracted me to him, and that has kept us together and made our lives fun.

Cameron picks up the story again: The plan, after Ashley was born, was that Patty's mother would come to stay and she got there the day she was born. That was Martin Luther King Day and I left the next day for field exercise. So I saw Ashley for one day and then not for a week. When the training was over, we went back to Clarinda for a month and I found a job as loan officer for I.T.T. Consumer Financial Corporation, in Beloit, Wisconsin. We moved to Wisconsin and lived there three and one half years until we came to Osceola.

Emily was born in Beloit just before we came to Osceola. We almost didn't get to the hospital in time! I was at work. Patty called to say that contractions had started but, when she called the hospital, they said they weren’t close enough. Let them know when they were a half hour apart. So I worked until noon, went home, had lunch, and, when the timing seemed right, we took Ashley to the baby sitter's and left for the hospital. There were no wheel chairs available, so Patti walked in. The elevator was out of order so she walked up the stairs to the second floor and into the maternity ward. They assigned her a room and put her into a hospital gown. She sat down on the side of the bed and about that point she began having severe contractions. A nurse came in to see how Patty was coming along, said, "Oh, my God" and left. I knew she had seen the devil himself and that nothing good was going to happen to anybody from then on. Other nurses came and the doctor got there just a few minutes before Emily arrived on Aug. 12, 1992.

Patty commented, "I have always thought that Emily was my guardian angel. I didn't like Beloit. I thought about having to start the children in school, and I didn't want them go there. The very next day after Emily was born, Cameron was talking to my father, who told him he had talked to someone who told him about a job available in Osceola. That was welcome news for me!"

I started working here October 1, 1992. We moved on Hallowe'en. For the month between, I stayed with my sister in Des Moines.

The pattern of our lives, now, is that I have Guard one weekend a month. I have what I think are fascinating hobbies: Sometime when I was a kid, my uncle gave me grandfather's stamp collection. I went into it seriously in college and my interest has increased. I've tried to get the kids to do it because there is a lot of history to be learned from stamps. I also am intrigued by railroads, maybe in part because of Dad working for one. I have plans to build a model railroad to replicate the Humeston and Shenandoah railroad as it would have been in 1900. I plan a model of four towns: Humeston, Clarinda, Van Wert and Shenandoah because those were where the railroad intersected with others. That line ran just north of where my parents now live. I suppose I feel a connection, also, now living at the other end of it.

Patty and I like to take the kids places and show them things. When we lived in Wisconsin, Ashley and I used to go to a lot of Beloit Brewers' games. They are the minor league team for Milwaukee. Since Emily has been born, we enjoy the zoo and want to go to Adventureland. One of my goals is to show them my grandfather's grave. They have never been to Callaway. My grandmother moved near my uncle when Grandpa died, and they moved to Lincoln. My vacations are actually spent at Guard.

I am a member of Optimist Club and was president of Chamber of Commerce in 1996. That was the year of the Morman Trail Ride through Osceola, and the Chamber was involved in all aspects of that. We are members of the Osceola United Methodist Church. This particular Sunday (June 22, 1997) Patty and I will be greeters. We did that the last Sunday that Rev. JudyMiller was here. Now, we are doing it again the last Sunday for Rev. Churchman. It appears to be a trend. Ashley is an acolyte.

Patty is on the Education Committee and Administrative Council at church, and, every since Ashley started there in 1994, has been on the Board of Kiddie Karousel Pre-school. Patty tells of her intense interest in genealogy. Every opportunity she has, when the family goes somewhere that there is a family-related cemetery, she makes an opportunity to go through it. She tried to get her dad's dad to talk about the past but he was reluctant to do so. He passed away three years ago and she wishes she had more information about the family. She thinks it is so important to get this information before the family members are gone.

Patty's dad worked during the day and for 25-30 years her mother has worked on a night shift, doing film stripping for Clarinda Company. Perhaps that influenced Patty to prefer being home, particularly when the children come from school and she can hear all about their days. She does babysitting, and also has a cross stitch business, Miles Craft. She displays her work at craft shows with her mother-in-law, sells and takes orders. She says she does get way over busy.

From combining their stories Cameron observed that each story takes on a different slant for each one who remembers how it happened, and in retrospect will look different still.

ASHLEY MILES
As told March 13, 1997

I'm Ashley and I'm eight years old and I'm glad I was born so I can help my Dad. I have my mom and dad and sister Emily. She is four. My aunt was married June 22nd last year but her husband found a new girl so she moved here from Cedar Rapids and lives with us. Mommy stays home and Daddy works in his office at a bank and makes money for us.

We have a dog named Sandy. (What color?) The color of sand! That's why we named her Sandy. She is two kinds of dog- Basset Hound and something else that I forget. She likes to play around and bark and whine. (How does a dog play?) She has toys-lots of toys. For Christmas Mommy made her a stocking that had dogs on it.

My favorite subject in school is reading because I'm very good at reading. We also have math and phonics and spelling, social studies and science. We have questions on the chalk-board and we have a log. That's what we know about stuff. Yesterday was about dinosaurs and how they move. They walked around on two legs. They had bone feet and little hands or paws (and she put out her hands, close to her body), like these.

Our teacher is Mr. Boldon. I like him and he likes me. He's nice. Mrs. Sams (one "m") and Mrs. Kleunder are also in our classroom every morning. They check things. When we get a paper done we put it on their table.

Day 1 we have computer lab. That's when we get to go to the computers. Mr. Boldon teaches that. Day 2 we have P.E. and music and the teacher is Mrs. Laubenthal. Day 3 we have Library with Mrs. Rude - but she's really not rude. She's nice. Day 4 is Guidance with Mrs. Gebhart. We learn about what you can do if people are mad at you. You make eye contact and if they don't stop you tell the teacher.

Day 5 is music and p.e. - see, on day 2 we had P.E. and music and on day 5 we have music and p.e. On Day 6 we have art with Mr. Brause. We knew him but on the first day of school we didn't know how he was going to write his name. He wrote it silly and then turned and smiled at us.

I write left-handed but sometimes when I'm coloring and my left hand gets tired, I change to my right hand. When I'm writing in my work book, my hand gets really tired.

I ride the bus to school and go out at 7:45. I just have to walk a little way. I get home about 3:00 or 3:15 and friends come- Ashley, Jessica, Trisha, and Tiffany. We play school or anything. Emily can play school. She makes her name but she can do problems only with zero. When she plays school with us, I have to whisper the answer in her ear. Nicole is a good friend. She doesn't come to the house. She is a friend at school.

I watch television, too. I like the Simpsons and Home Improvement. Tim's really silly.

Not this summer but summer after this, we're going to Yellowstone.

Second Visit, March 27, 1997
I don't really remember when we moved to Osceola from Beloit, Wisconsin. I was 3+ years old. Emily was just two-months-old. She was born in August, 1992, and we moved in October, 1992.

The first house we lived in was near the trains and I liked to watch them. I could see them from the park. That was the Little Indian Park. We lived next to it but I couldn't go there alone. Mom went with me. There was a merry-go-round, swings, a teeter totter, and a wooden jungle gym with a little bridge.

I went to pre-school, Kiddie Karousel. I especially remember Mrs. Mason. She was nice. When it was time to go home, we sat on the floor in front of our tags that had our first name. We sat with our legs folded like a pretzel. I was the only Ashley, but now, when Emily goes, there are two Emilys so they have Emily M. and Emily K.

There is a new addition to our elementary school. Our class is in the old part but probably we will be in the new part next year. There is an elevator for anybody that needs it.

In the summer I like to play games. We had t ball, that is like baseball. It is for both boys and girls. Our coach was Brandon's dad. He is called Mitch (Harmsen); last year we had Trish Scadden. I play soccer in the fall. Daddy says that is sponsored by the Optimist Club.

I like to read. I read 35 or 40 books last summer and got a free ticket to an Iowa Cubs game. There were a whole lot of boys and girls there that day. We all got a bat but we didn't have a ball to play with it; and we also got a little kid’s newspaper. I cried because they didn't hit a foul ball to us. I also cried because they gave door prizes if you had a certain seat number, but I didn't have the right number.

One time everybody from the bank went to a game because Mr. Lampe sang the National Anthem. That time I had the flu and I was really sick. I didn't have a good time.

Daddy and I collect stamps. I have a blue notebook and put in stamps in order of denomination, 1-cent, 2-cents -- Daddy's is in order from oldest to newest. We take stamps off of envelopes by putting the paper in a bowl of hot water, a few at a time. We wait until the water melts the glue, then we have "stamp tongs" (tweezers) and take the stamps out and put them in warm water to get rid of the rest of the glue. Then we put the stamp on waxed paper on a towel and press them down with boards and a heavy dictionary that we put on top. We wait a couple of days. Then I put mine in an orange box until I put them in my book. We are always getting more but I now have more than 100. We have never gone to a stamp show but we go to "Stamp and Stuff' in Des Moines.

I went to a sport show one time with grandpa and family. They had travel trailers and a tank with fish. I didn't fish that day but I went fishing once with my grandpa, Fred. Grandpa Miles doesn't like to do that. He likes to work in his wood shop.

Daddy goes to Guard some weekends. He goes a lot and has been going for longer than I have lived - 13 years. I have never thought about what he does there. He just goes. Once I went to a Christmas party they had. And I remember that the guys gave Daddy pink underwear. They were working with the flood at Hamburg and they had to buy new underwear. Daddy's was pink. When he comes home I sometimes put on his helmet. It is heavy.