Recipes for Living Jack Heilman Family

My family history in Osceola goes back a lot of years. My grandparents on my mother's side were John and Lily Overton who lived on Fillmore Street near the hospital until they passed away, my grandfather in 1948 and my grandmother in the 1960's. Before living on Fillmore, they lived on what became known as the Christmas Tree farm. Grandpa farmed in days when it didn’t require much land in order to make a living. He raised a few hogs and hauled stuff from the back of grocery stores for feed. He also drove a dray wagon to do general hauling. Even though I was very young, I remember riding in the wagon with him. Grandpa was a wonderful man, one of the kindest men I ever knew.

My maiden name was Babberl and I don't know much about my grandparents on that side. My grandfather Babberl lived with my folks when I was real little, and they told me he had come from Germany with his parents when he was a boy. Whether or not it was true, the story was that he had run away from home to join the circus.

My parents were Orville and Mabel Babberl. Mother worked at the Puritan Cafe, which was behind the old Conoco station on the southwest comer of the intersection of highways 34 and 69. Nellie Tygart owned the cafe. Child labor laws to the contrary, I worked there, too, beginning when I was so young that I stood on a box to wash dishes. Mother then worked at Snowdons and was there until she retired. It is impossible to name all that our parents teach us but throughout my life I have put to practical use some of what she taught me-how to cook, dress chickens, and sew. ·

My father worked at Robinsons Store, stocking shelves. I lost both my parents in the same month, January, of the same year, 1960. My father died of a stroke and Mother of a heart attack. I was 30 years old, and it is needless to say that it was the most devastating time of my whole life. I' remember how I envied people who still had their parents. In my grief I realized how much we have when we have our parents and how much we lose when they are gone. We take too many things for granted.

With the exception of 1 1/2-years at Weldon and one year at Hopeville after Jack and I were married, I have lived in Osceola my entire life. I was born at home, delivered by Dr. Dean, on a farm west of Osceola. I may have been a mistake. I had three brothers older than I - Lyle, Stanley, and John. Our parents had their priorities in the right order. We never had many material things but lots of love. Lyle became another loss for me in the early 60's when he died of a heart attack. My other two brothers live in Des Moines.

I can skip rather quickly over my schooling from kindergarten through 12, because the practical education took place beyond the classroom after those years. My formal schooling was all in Osceola. I attended all four schools - East Ward, West Ward, South Ward, and high school - always walking the mile to school because my parents didn't have a car. Come to think of it, this would have been true even if they’d owned a car because that was the way we did things. All the town kids walked.

Nothing and no one stands out in particular during those school years, but I know that I had Nellie Bonham as my first grade teacher, and she later taught one of our sons. Edith Brown was my second grade teacher, and in high school I had Zilpha Beaver, who also taught John and Bill. They were all good teachers but none surpassed Lola Hunt, who taught our boys, and was the most wonderful teacher that ever was.

All of Jack’s schooling was in Weldon, and he went into the Navy as soon as he was out of high school. We didn't meet until he was out of the service. We met on a blind date and were married just after I was out of high school Jack was born in Centerville. He had a half-sister older than he and two brothers and two sisters who are younger. His grandparents were deceased by the time he and I met. His dad farmed all his life and his mother was like a mother to me. We would have done anything for one another. She was a wonderful person! They moved from Centerville to near Weldon until they moved to a farm about three miles south of Osceola. When they retired in the early 70's, they moved into town in Osceola.

The first six months after we were married, Jack and I lived in the house his parents vacated when they moved to the farm near Osceola. We moved to the Lloyd Hidy farm south of Osceola, then for one year rented a farm near Hopeville owned by Harley and Helen Hale. At the present time we live on a farm we bought at 2101 highway 69 and have been there 36 years. Prior to that time for five years we rented from Dr. Kierulf, a dentist in Osceola; from Robert and Joann McCann; for 25 years from Ben Miller, even after we bought our farm. It is unheard of now, but we had only an oral contract with him. That was all that was needed between them. We have added to our farm by purchasing "the Lavendar place" owned by Ben's sister. We
presently own 377 acres.

Within those years our children were born - John in 1949, Bill in 1951, and Mark in 1955. They were three little stair steps and good kids. It would be possible to write a book about all that happened as the boys were growing up. Like all parents, we wanted the best for them and made the best decisions we knew at the time. There were incidents that made us laugh and made us cry, there were crises and joys. When Mark was 19 he went hunting, fell, the gun went off and shot him through the ankle. We thought he was going to lose his foot but the doctors saved it.

The period while the boys were growing up was a busy time! Besides caring for the boys and the homemaking details, I raised a big garden, delivered chickens to town, milked cows, and sold eggs, milk, and cream. It was the latter items that provided the living and the crops paid for machinery.

Of course everything is totally different now. We could then be described as just general small time farmers. At that time it was possible to make a living on farm. It is interesting that in spite of a whole new economy, the price of corn is not a whole lot different than when we were starting out. In those days we could get by with a small amount of machinery; in fact, a tractor and a few other pieces of equipment would suffice. This was partly because farmers worked together. Everybody in the neighborhood pitched in when someone threshed or baled hay.

Neighbors meant a great deal to us. In addition to working together, we got together for entertainment. We always got together one night a month. We had parties, potlucks, and picnics. We took advantage of access to the swimming pool at Leon. It is sad that all that was good about those times have gone. Now there are not a lot of young people on the farms. They can't make it there and it is a struggle when they try. They are better off financially to get a job in town- at least they have some promise of a future. Our sons John and Mark would have farmed if it had been a lucrative career. Bill was never a farmer.

The boys helped their dad with the farm work a lot. In addition to what it did for us, it didn't give them a lot of free time to get into mischief. Bill had an excellent scholastic foundation because Lola Hunt taught him in kindergarten and 1/2 year in first grade. He had Nellie Bonham for the second half and I will never forget when I asked how he was doing. Her answer was, "He reads like a real person." I've never known what that meant because I always thought of him as a real person.

John also had Lola until the fifth grade and school was always easy for him. He was also a big help to his dad when we were so busy farming and still is a great help to us.

Until Bill was in second grade, we didn't know he couldn’t see. He was given eye examinations but he thought of that as any other test. He listened to what the other kids said and responded like they did. When he got glasses, he was so amazed at what he saw. He exclaimed, "the trees have tops to them!"

Bill was more inclined than the others to participate in school activities. He was busy all the time and his teachers all liked him, mainly because he kept class discussions going. He was president of the junior and senior class until one day he came home and announced that he had been impeached. We never knew why but perhaps, like his mother, he said something he should not have said.

Bill went on to Creston Community College for two years and then to Northeast Missouri State at Kirksville, Missouri. He chose accounting for his major but his outside job as an orderly in the hospital proved very interesting for him. He served a term in the Army to get money for his education, and when he came back, he returned to Kirksville but changed his major to
nursing.

Bill and his wife Lu met at Kirksville. When they graduated and began applying for jobs, they were attracted to a warmer climate with the result that they both became registered nurses in the Duke University Hospital at Durham, North Carolina. About a year ago Bill took another hospital job. He has a title but says it doesn't matter because that isn’t what he does. He is working with statistics, building data bases and doing all kinds of computer work for the doctors, nurses, and hospital. Lu is head nurse on her floor and Bill built a data base for her to keep track of licenses for all employees, indicating the status and when they need to renew. It is, of course, extremely important because they cannot work with an expired license. Others found out about it and now he has 20 to build.

John worked for Bob Schader in his plumbing and heating business before he went into the service. He was in the Air Force serving back and forth in Vietnam and the Philippines for about three years. When he came back, he was stationed in Texas, where he met his wife, Barbara. They came to Iowa where John farmed and worked again for Bob Schader. He is presently in a supervisory capacity for Clarke Electric Co-op. Barbara is Secretary/Isolation Room Supervisor for Clarke Elementary School, but she also is in charge of getting substitutes for all the teachers in elementary and through high school. It requires her working often from early morning until late night to get replacements. John and Barb have three children-Jim, Tracey, Carla- and 12 grandchildren.

The name John has really predominated in the family. John and Barb have a grandson, John. Mark and Carole have two sons - John and Jesse, and John's baby they also named John. My grandfather was named John and I have a brother named John. Jack’s father’s name is John and Jack’s real name is John.

Mark lives 1/2mile south of us on land that he bought from us. Additionally he is a foreman cement finisher traveling all over the state, working for a construction company. He and his wife, Carole, have just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and have their first grandson.

I started working at Snowdon's Factory when Mark started school in 1961. This was one of the earliest of Osceola's industries, beginning as Rollins Hosiery Factory in the early '40's, and converting to a lingerie factory. At their height they employed around 250, primarily women. They had several locations through the years. They were upstairs over what are now the Reynoldson law offices, behind what was then the Ford Garage on South Main, and eventually they bought the Methodist Church, which was on the northwest comer of South Main and Cass Streets. The congregation had replaced it with a new structure at 130 West Grant Street.

The company was based in Chicago but David Kaminsky was in charge locally and I worked for him for 19 years. Nearing the time when the factory was to close, Avice Lynn was the plant superintendent and I was in charge of training employees, setting up piece rates, making all the samples, and getting them out to salesmen. In other words, Avice and I had the number one and number two jobs in the factory operation. We just naturally became friends.

There came a point in the early 80's when we kept reporting for work and there would be nothing for us to do. David knew what was happening but he had such a tender heart that he couldn't bear to tell us that we didn't have a job. It is my personal opinion that there were a number of factors involved in their closing - the owners in Chicago were getting older and David had only a small part in the corporation. It probably became too much of a hassle, and could very well not have been as profitable. There came a point when Avice and I went to David to tell him we would leave, and we both left at same time.

The two of us, with the help of our husbands - we couldn't have made it without them went into business as an outlet store, selling factory seconds, discontinued garments, and all left over fabrics, laces, etc. We named our company LARK, for Lela, Avice, and Ruth Kaminsky, although Ruth was a silent partner. Our first store was in the old Methodist Church. Probably what had been the pastor’s office became my office. I often thought, when I went in to work, that people who were reluctant to give up the old church would have realized the need if they had to clean up after the pigeons before they could go to work, which we did morning after morning. I found some old ceiling lights that had a cross on the globes. They were laid back in a corner and were getting broken, so I took one home and made a lamp, which I still have.

Our business went very well. I wonder how many quilts and other items are still around, made from the fabrics we sold. They just don't wear out. There came a point when we knew we must move and we located to the corner of West Jefferson and South Fillmore, and then bought the old theater building on the north side of the square. We continued there as long as we were LARK Outlet.

The business expanded until we had four stores but during that time we realized that we would need a place to sew items that we couldn’t get any longer from Snowdon's. We two couples - Jack and I, Kenny and Avice - started a sewing factory upstairs over the store in the theater building. We called that business LeAnn and continued there until our husbands told us they weren't going to carry material upstairs any longer. We rented a building from George McCann just off highway 69 on what the city named LeAnn Drive. We looked out one day and saw one of the realtors taking a picture of it. By then we had put a lot of money into making it what we needed, and for fear that the realtor planned to promote a sale, which would force us to relocate, we bought it.

The period until we went out of business was fruitful but in later years was terribly stressful. Avice and I had developed a relationship closer than sisters. She loved us and she and Kenny really loved Mark. Having no children of their own, she asked one time if they could adopt him and I said no, but Mark had all the qualities they would have wished for a son of their own.

Mark began working for us in early 90's. There was a day when he and I disagreed and I told him he needed to change his attitude. He quit and Avis was furious. She insisted that I apologize, which I did.

She and Kenny's latter days were tragic. Kenny developed emphysema and Avice had a series of strokes. I have had several experiences with stroke victims and have seen what happens to them. Jack’s mother had a stroke eight or nine years before she died, and until her very last hour, her mind was sharp but her speech was garbled. It was so frustrating for her because she knew what she wanted to say and the words wouldn't come.

After Avice’s first stroke she was able to come back to work but the effects of the stroke were clear. It had caused a personality change. Her second stroke happened while she was meeting with a salesman and began talking jibberish. We knew something was wrong, of course, and took her to the doctor who put her in the hospital. By that time she had regained her composure and promptly discharged herself. The following day Kenny couldn’t get her to respond, although she did respond to Phyllis (Lynn) and me. This was the pattern for the following years.

She lived about five years, the first ones at home after Kenny's death, and then she was with Rhonda and Darrell Nerness near Woodburn. She was very happy there because they made her feel like family. They took her fishing, to church, and everywhere they went. She had surgery for colon cancer and lived about three weeks longer.

All of this impressed me that we don’t pay much attention to our brains or other gifts that we have until we lose them. Watching Avice deteriorate was almost more than I could bear. She was certainly one of the dearest friends I ever had, if not the dearest, and I still miss her terribly. Avice had appointed me as her conservator so I was able to honor her in ways she had specified and that I knew would be pleasing to her. She had made Mark her chief beneficiary.

I continued in the business without her but closed it in 1997. We were doing contract work for Zoodas and a children's factory in Chicago. As that factory didn't pay us a large amount of money they owed us for work done, and Zoodas sold out, we decided to close down.

I discovered, once I retired, that it is almost impossible to quit. Through the years I learned how to bake pies, and now work two days a week at Family Table. I make pies, cakes, noodles, and salads. Standing in heat, I sometimes wonder why I am doing that. But having worked away from home since I was 14 or 15, it is hard to quit. Jack and I do some traveling and have recently returned from visiting Bill and Lu in North Carolina.

Jack is still farming but not as heavily as before. He has talked of retiring but just hates to give it up. We are very fortunate in our older age to have two of our sons and their wives living within a mile of us and we rely on them more all the time.

We are avid collectors of Jewel Tea Autumn Leaf dishes and Moon and Star dishes. Lots of years ago the Jewel Tea man went house to house selling cleansers, cooking supplies, and other products similar to Watkins Company. The dishes were premiums. We have been collecting for about 30 years and now have a collection of several hundred pieces. One we bought for $7 is now worth about $265. I have suggested that we dispose of some and Jack chooses not to do so.

The conclusion is that I have been very fortunate. I have a good husband and three good boys, who have grown into responsible, hard-working husbands and fathers, and who have given us wonderful daughters-in-law and grandchildren. What more could we ask of life?!