Recipes for Living Chaney Twins

What is that hidden quality within individuals that incline them inward or outward? Whatcauses some to be self-indulged and others concerned and involved with what they can do for others? Not only Osceola but all of Clarke County and beyond has benefitted greatly because of a set of twins, who even though in their words, "We tried not to always have the same job but sometimes it worked out that we did," are known throughout the area as "The Chaney Twins."

Lyle has the distinction of being the older brother, having arrived three minutes ahead of Dean, born November 22, 1946, in the Clarke County Hospital to Loyal and Vona Chaney. Three pregnancies produced five children. Dennis was a single birth, four years later, the twin boys, and four years later than they, another set of twins, Janice (Mrs. Jim LaPlaunt) and Janiece (Mrs. David Emm). The fellows believe they all weighed about the same – 6 1/2 pounds, and each set of twins were classified as identical. As adults they still look-alike.

From their service time, they have pictures taken of the two of them together and neither could tell which was which until they found separate billfold size ones on which they had written their names. Dean is on the left, Lyle on the right.

The family lived about 6 ½ miles east of Osceola, until the boys were about four years of age, when they moved to the Weldon area and lived on Ray Overholtzer's place. All the children went to country school. The boys remember they were in sixth or seventh grade when they went to the Weldon School, and when they were in eighth grade, the schools were consolidated. At that time they came to Osceola, and went into eighth grade at West Ward, which was the building west of the post office. It has now been replaced by West Ward Manor. They graduated from Osceola.

As others have reported in their stories, Lyle and Dean did not consider country schools a detriment. In fact, they believe it wouldn't hurt kids now a day to have a dose of that kind of education. Their teachers were Mrs. Lyle Cooper and Mrs. Alta Kimberlin, "very nice ladies, there to teach kids. No fooling around. Country school was different than most kids realize. We had to carry our own drinking water from our parent's place. We'd walk over in the morning and get a three gallon pail full of water and bring it back, then go over in the afternoon and fill another three gallon pail. Most of the time we walked to school. At first it was about a quarter of a mile, then the routes changed and it got to be a mile or 1 ½ miles. Very seldom did we have a ride. That was the deal. You walked to school and walked home, winter or spring, muddy or dry. There were mostly mud roads, very few were graveled. Kids now can't imagine what that is. They don't know what it is to walk. We learned a lot in those classrooms because there would be five or six grades in the same room, and all recited aloud.

"Farm kids had chores. We were in 4-H and took care of our own livestock. We put up hay and did the needed farm work we could at whatever age. Lots of other kids had football and basketball practice; we had cow milking contests and stuff like that. The milking contests were between four of us because when the girls got a little older, they milked, too. We probably milked 40 cows at one time, all by hand until about the last five years when we went to automatic milkers. Living 10 to 14 miles from town we rode the bus home, did our chores and that was about it. But it was fun.

"As we were growing up, Dean drove a truck for Thayer Toney for a couple years, hauled livestock for Don Davis for two or three years, and drove a school bus. Current bus drivers often find that job stressful, but I had pretty good kids. It is different now. In those days if kids got in trouble away from home, they faced more when they got home. That doesn't seem to be the way it is now.

"We graduated in 1965. There was a large group graduating that year – I believe 120. After graduation, we were called to the US Army. We entered the service in March 1966, and were sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for eight weeks of basic training, back there for eight weeks of A.I.T. (Advanced Infantry Training) in advanced wheel maintenance. After that we came home for a weekend then were sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for eight weeks of training on tank maintenance."

From a news item discovered and saved by Dr. B. Lee March, January 10, 1967: headline, "Weldon Soldiers Leave For Germany: Pfc. Lyle and Pfc. Loyal D. Chaney, sons of Mr. and Mrs. L.R. Chaney of Weldon spent the holidays with their parents and friends upon their return from Fort Knox, Kentucky. They will leave January 7 for Fort Dix, New Jersey, from where they will leave for a tour of duty with the Army in Germany."

"We were home for two weeks and were deployed to Germany for the duration of our tour of duty. We were in Kaiserslauttern in Western Germany, which was a pleasant place about 50 miles from Frankfurt. We were in the 6th maintenance battalion working on wheel maintenance and tanks. We were sometimes out for a week at a time but mainly we were working right there in the shops. We could walk to one shop up the hill about six to eight blocks or down the hill to the other shop about the same distance, so we were close to our work.

"We were close to an the Infantry Division, which was out in the field 30 days at a time doing their normal routine work on their equipment, and what they didn't work on was brought in to us to be worked on. We were there a year and never did know exactly why or what our troops were doing there. That seems to be typical of many military forces in peace time. We toured a few places but not many. It was during the Vietnam era and we were within two weeks of finishing our tour when we were called up to go there. However, we were sent home and discharged in July 1968. As part of the tour, Lyle was required to spend an additional two weeks at summer camp at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. They called it R and R (Rest and Recreation or Recuperation). That was our involvement with the military but we both are lifetime members of AMVETS."

The fellows returned from the service, back to the farm, where they did lots of custom work. From there Dean went to work for LeRoy Jackson doing service station work and wrecker business. Lyle worked for Rich Vets at the Amoco station and when Rich offered to sell Lyle the business, Lyle foresaw this could lead into being tied there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so he suggested to Dean that they go into business together. They decided to purchase it and that was how it came to be Chaney Twin's Amoco Service on the "four corners," the intersection of highways 34 and 69.

In conjunction with other services, they ran a wrecker service. When Amoco wanted to make a convenience store of their business in Osceola, the twins left, taking their towing service to a building north on Highway 69 by the Wilkens' Grain Elevator just south of the Plumb building. That is still their location. The Amoco convenience store now is closed.

The contribution the Chaney twins have made to the community in a wide variety of services was acknowledged in 1986, when, along with Mickey Thomas, they were given the Community Service Award.

Wrecker service for 30 or more years. Dean became acquainted with wrecker operation beginning with his employment by LeRoy Jackson so for him it was a continuation when they owned their own service for 13 years. They choose not to talk about the accidents or victims. There have been travelers from everywhere, on the highways for a variety of reasons. Many were local people and it takes little imagination to realize what the twins experienced in those cases. They choose not to elaborate on that but the nature of the service calls for response day or night, weekdays, holidays, Sundays; good weather and bad, in all seasons. "We've seen lots of accidents, some really bad, some minor, some in which people were lucky, others in which they weren't so lucky."

Volunteer Fire Department: They were on the squad for more than 20 years, Lyle 23 years, Dean 21 years. During those years, they were on hand for fires of the lumber yard in the 200 block on South Main, Myers Ford Auto Center across the street from it, the J.C. Penney building in the 100 block on the same street, and many others. They tell about their experience with the VFD:

"Osceola has been fortunate to have a good, efficient, Fire Department. We were well trained. We trained once a week on our own, attended summer classes in Ames where they taught how to handle fires from liquid propane and heating fuel; car fires, house fires, building fires, search and rescue, on and on. We had a "smoke house," where we went in with air packs on and a breathing apparatus. Everything pitch black and we had to find our way through it. We had CPR and first aid training once a year. In earlier days only some of the training was mandatory. Nowadays it is more intense and every part of it is mandatory. It is getting to be almost a full-time job."

Many individuals and organizations could give personal testimony of services done for them by the Chaney twins. In the case of CPR (Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation), Virginia Ogan, then nurse for Clarke Community High School, tells there was a time when all the school staff and administrators needed to be able to apply CPR. This included not only teaching staff but cooks, bus drivers, custodians, coaches - anyone who worked with children. The total was about 250 people to be taught by the two school nurses - Virginia and Beverly Edwards. Year after year Lyle and Dean gave up a weekend day to assist with the teaching. This is but one example of all the fellows’ volunteer to do.

Like everything else, the VFD equipment has grown and become more complex. Some years ago a heat detection item was available. It is a helmet type deal with an infra-red camera in it, so the fire-fighter can find someone who happens to be lost in a smoky building. They work well, and are very expensive, but, in Lyle's words, "What is expense if you can save somebody's life?" We invested in those. Now there are seven fire trucks. There is a 100-foot aerial truck, 2 big pumpers, big equipment truck, grass attack vehicle, a 4-wheeler to drag the trailer to haul the equipment around if that becomes necessary.

In their days, for many years, the VFD also sponsored the 4th of July celebration. The twins were deeply involved in all aspects of it. Lyle was chairman for five years in a row, getting the carnival, food stands, parade and fireworks scheduled and coordinated. "It is still marvelous how we get a crowd here for the 4th. I don't think I've missed more than one parade in all the years I've been active. This year they were packed from the starting point on East Cass Street, around the square to the finishing point at West Cass. To alert people this was the day, Lyle and I took large fire crackers to each end of town, synchronized our waches and pow! Time to begin the day!"

Sheriff's Posse: The twins believe they were involved with that for 20 years. "During our time, the ambulance and rescue services were all run by the Sheriff's Posse. That took a lot of time and work to get it done-all by volunteers. In fact, the ambulance and equipment were bought with proceeds of raffles and soup suppers. It was purchased from Joe Winters, a gentleman in Osceola, who had the GMC (General Motors Company) dealership. Later on they bought a Dodge and the box was built for it at the local MacLander factory. The posse were involved in this service for lots of years before the city decided to have people paid to come in and do it. In this case, also, there was lots of training required, once, twice, three times a month or even nightly in some periods, but it paid off. Lives were saved."

Neither of the boys was married until they were in their 40s. In 1988, Dean married Betty Ethington who had grown up in Macksburg-Creston area. She had previously been married to Ed Scrivner, who died of cancer in 1986. They were the parents of four children, who are now grown and away from home. Rodger is presently in Okinawa in the service, but will be discharged and home in another month or so. Like many young men, he doesn't correspond, so they are not acquainted with what he does. Christy is a school teacher at Adair/Casey, teaching mainly children who are challenged. Kathy works in Osceola at McDonald's, and Bob is employed by ADP, a company that does payroll and other benefits for large companies in Des Moines. Dean and Betty have been married 19 years.

In the early 90s, Lyle married Vicki Mitchell. She, too, was widowed when her husband, Dick Mitchell, died of cancer. They had three children - Michelle, Dana, and Dennis. Michelle lives in Rock Port, Texas, and she and her husband do missionary work and nuclear outages. Nuclear plants create nuclear energy, and when there is an outage, Michelle and her husband go in and do all the clean-up work. It is very interesting. They make good money, but people who hear about their work have all sorts of negative response - because of all the nuclear rays their children won't be normal, etc. The fact is they are more closely watched than people who do x-rays at local hospitals or dentists' offices. They have two young children. Their boy is the older. He is eight years old and there is a younger girl.

Dana lives in West Point, Nebraska. She is a weight lifter, body builder, and does air brush painting. She has two boys that go to school in West Point. Lyle says, "I call them my grandsons."

Dennis is a truck driver, who hauls automobiles. He lives here in Osceola. "I have six grandchildren, all good kids."

Vickie also died of cancer and Lyle remarried. His second wife was Vickie Anderson from Lamoni area. She was a social worker for years. She has one daughter, Heather, who lives in Liberty, Missouri. Her husband is in construction work, "So if we need something done, we call him and he comes to take care of it."

The Chaney parents moved to town and retired. As the fellows remember, this was the only time their dad had made a major decision without talking it over with their mother. "Dad came home one day and told Mother he'd bought a place in town. He bought that place, bought a new car, came home and said he had done it." The machinery and everything was sold and they moved to 518 East Ayers in Osceola. It was a wise decision. Mother had diabetes, and had done lots of hard work throughout the years - lots of canning, cooking, and they had lots of visitors. We had to put her in a nursing home and she didn't live long there. Dad had emphysema and died like he wanted to. He didn't have to go to the nursing home. They lived a good life and provided well for us.

Currently: Dennis farms just north of Osceola, east of the Nursing Home and works at M & M Ag Service north of town. He was County Supervisor for awhile. Janiece is a beautician, and works east of the square for John Page's wife. Jan has worked for over 20 years in the Miller Products factory. She gets greasy and dirty every day.

Both Lyle and Dean work at Terrible’s' casino complex. In December, Lyle will have been there eight years. Dean has been there about 1 1/2. Lyle is leader for TGS (Transportation Guest Services). He drives to the airport to meet the flights of entertainers and others, and brings them to Osceola. He and Dean are also in valet service, shuttling between the casino and the visitors' parking, truck lot, etc. When one is on duty, the other is not, except for about an hour twice a week when their times overlap. "It's fun. We meet a lot of people."

Not all the dire predictions of what would happen when the casino came have proven true. There was an unusual situation last week (in July, 2007) involving four people and a dealer who conspired to swindle the casino. The dealer spent $12,000 of the casino's money paying these people. The DCI (Department of Criminal Investigation) which has representatives there all the time, discovered this when they ran through the tapes showing the dealer who had been there two weeks. He has a pretty stiff fine on his record. Among other things, he will never deal cards again. The four were Asian from the Des Moines area.

The crime rate, however, is very low. The presence of the DCI primarily takes care of that. Local law enforcement may get called for somebody locking their keys in the car, for instance. Once in awhile somebody gets picked up, but in that case it is usually because they have a warrant somewhere else. They show up here, are discovered and sent on. The only people barred from the casino are those who bar themselves. They sign a piece of paper saying, "I don't want to come back. I don't want to spend any more money. I have a problem and I want it taken care of" They don't come back. There are very few who have done that. One lady barred herself from Altoona before she barred herself here. Another lady came in and said, "I don't want to do this anymore." She signed the form and from then on, she is barred. Those people can't even come on the lot. Most people know when they have a problem. There is always somebody there from Bets-Off who will help those who need help.