JOHN AND BARBARA HEILMAN

John

I was born, raised, and educated in the Osceola area, graduating from Clarke Community High School. My parents were farmers — Jack and Lela Heilman, and I have two brothers, Mark and Bill. Our family's story is in Volume V of Recipes for Living. I graduated from high school in 1967, and spent about a year working for Bob Schader in his plumbing and heating business.

When I knew I was about to be drafted, I opted for enlisting in the Air Force in June 1968. I took my basic training in Amarillo, Texas. Most of the Air Force guys went to San Antonio, but they still had a training base in Amarillo, so I was sent there. It was said of Amarillo, there's a girl behind every tree and not a tree for 50 miles. It was just flat old Texas.

I was there for six weeks, and was sent on to Chanute Air Force Base in Champagne, Illinois. I went to school to be an Air Craft Electrician, which was mainly studying aircraft generators and the wiring that goes to the controls — ignition controls and all. We were into inspection, repair, and trouble-shooting — all those kinds of things. We also took care of the battery shop. We mainly worked on C-130 cargo aircraft, which have 24 volt batteries and we kept those charged and tested. It was a 12-week school and I graduated with honors. I was kind of proud of that.

In January or February of 1969, after I was through the training in Chanute, I was sent to the Philippines. There were two bases — Civic Bay, which was a Navy base, and Clark, the Air Force Base. I was with the 463rd Tactical Squadron, which flew C-130 aircraft. Those planes moved cargo in and out of Vietnam. I spent 8 months there.

Ours was quite a different experience than our troops had three decades earlier. We found that most of the Filipino people spoke English and were friendly. We were just outside a little town called Angeles City— translated "City of the Angels." That was where we spent most of our recreation time. We'd get off work, go downtown, and be bad boys. We spent a lot of money with the natives. They closed Clark Base shortly after they had the big earthquake in the Philippines five or ten years ago.

I went on TDY (Temporary Duty) assignment to Cameron Bay in Vietnam, right on the ocean, where the planes from the Philippines stopped off for repairs and loaded cargo. The C­130 planes were propeller aircraft, medium size cargo planes, that has the capability to take off and land on short runways. They were vital to the Vietnam conflict because a lot of the landing strips weren't very long. They are dependable aircraft, still being used by the Air Force.

There were various missions throughout Vietnam. Lanny Robbins, Randy Dunbar, and! Lanny Jones were some of our fellows who were over there about the same time I was or a little bit after. The nice thing about being in the Air Force was that we weren't out there slogging through rice paddies, and usually not attacked. We were mortared once and had a rocket come in and hit the dining hall while I was there, but other than that we didn't see too much hostile fire. I was never in combat or spent much of my time flying back and forth. Our work was right there at Cameron Bay.

When my duty was finished in the Philippines, I came back and was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, where I spent the remainder of my tour of duty. That is beautiful country, but the base is no longer there. It has been converted to more of a Naval Station. They may still have a hospital.

It was at Bergstrom where I met my wife, Barbara. She was working in the NCO (Non­commissioned Officers') Club. We were married six months later. When I was discharged in 1972, I brought her back to Iowa and we started farming on my great-aunt Anita Overton's farm. It was north of Osceola by the quarry, where she and Floyd had lived. She was widowed at that time and not living on the property, so we rented it. And that is a story in itself.

Barbara was a city girl and her dad was career Air Force. She'd lived in England, Alaska, Colorado — various parts of the world, but never in the country, miles from anybody else. She knew nothing about raising cattle and hogs, or being a farmer's wife. Also, she came from a warm-to-hot climate, so the first shock happened shortly after we came to Iowa in June. July 4th was the usual big event, but it was unseasonably cold that year! I don't think it got above 55° all day. We wore jackets and froze.

We made it through that, and then came a colder-than-usual winter, leading up to the snowstorm/blizzard of 1973. The snow drifts were so high we couldn't get out of the house for a couple days. When Barb didn't leave after that, I was pretty sure she was going to stick around. It took a lot of fortitude for her to get through the first two or three years. She was a good sport. What really helped was that she came to be a truly good friend of my mom, probably Mom's best friend. They dearly loved one another! Mom's death was a severe blow!

The time came when I had to give up farming. I either wasn't a big enough operator or smart enough to generate the income we needed to support a family, so I went back to working for Bob. We still live on the farm. I have a few cows, and I truly enjoy living out in the country. The only time I haven't lived on a farm was about four years when I was in the service. A year and a half of that time we lived in an apartment in Austin. I hated that with a passion! It is probably what keeps me from moving off the faun and into town now. I enjoy being out where there are no neighbors I have to worry about.

Barbara and I have three children — a son and two daughters — Jim, Tracey and Carla; 12 grandkids, and two great-grandkids. Our grandchildren range in age from two years to 22. The four oldest are out of school.

I am manager of Technical Services at Clarke Electric, in charge of the heating, cooling, and electrical wiring that we do for a number of consumers in Osceola and the surrounding area. Our customers aren't required to be members of Clarke Electric Co-op for us to serve them. We specialize in Ground Source or Geo-Thermal Heat Pumps. Tom Killibrew was the manager when I was hired and one of his goals was to grow the Ground Source Heat Pump installation in the area.

This is a system that uses heat from the earth. There are pipes in the ground with water circulating through them, and as the water circulates, it picks up heat from the ground or takes heat from the house and puts it in the ground. It is an electrical heat pump system which is a source for heating, cooling, and water heating.

We are putting these in lots of commercial places like office buildings and stores. Many people are becoming aware of the advantages. When I first started, we had to do a lot of convincing but today most people know about their perfonuance and they are coming to say, this is what I want. Usually word-of-mouth by a user persuades them because they are practically maintenance-free, and they operate at about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the operation of a conventional gas system. So even though they are expensive — about twice the cost of a conventional heating system — the payback is made in the following years. People can recoup the money on their investment in 8 to 10 years. Normally most of these are going into new houses, but some of our customers are taking out gas furnaces and water heaters and are replacing them with this method of heating or cooling. There are three heating/cooling guys and an electrician in our department. My work is mostly quoting estimates.

Barbara is employed by Clarke Community School. She is the Elementary Suspension Monitor — in other words, if a kid is acting up in class and the teacher doesn't want to put up with his or her silliness any longer, the child is put in Barbara's room for kind of a time-out. But her main responsibility and challenge is that she gets all the substitutes for school. The phone starts ringing at 5:30 a.m. with people calling in sick or with some emergency.

Another very important part of my life began about 10 years ago when I got my life turned around. We had been involved with Amway, which gave me leadership training. I'm not involved with them any longer, but they led me to know there was something missing in my life, something I was looking for. Shortly after that Barbara started going to Christ'sway church. I still wasn't a church attender, but after she had been going four or five months, she talked me into going with her and that was it.

There was no climactic, electrifying experience such as some people tell about. It was just a gradual knowing that I was in the right place, and those who attended were my "family." We have a good mix of young and old, with an energetic youth group. We are very informal, we don't expect people to dress up to attend. Elizabeth Simpson, our pastor's wife, described us well in her story in Volume 11 of Recipes for Living. She told that we have single moms, couples who are struggling to make it day by day, just everyday people who care about one another, and don't come to be seen. They come to worship God in Jesus Christ.

Christ'sway started with four families who split from an established congregation, and met in each other's homes. As they grew, they began meeting in the old cafeteria of Clarke Elementary School, moved to the new cafeteria for two or three years, then moved into the building where we are now. This had been Mom's factory when she and Avice Lynn had LeAnn sewing factory, an outgrowth of Snowdon's lingerie factory. My brother Mark was their mechanic and cutter. We have remodeled, and are still trying to make it what we want it to be, with larger classrooms and enlarging the platform in the sanctuary. We are delighted that our growth has caused these changes/ and we will be glad for the need to make more.

Barbara

I was born in 1946, in Fort Worth, Texas, to James E. and Dolores Smith. My dad is a career Air Force serviceman. He was not in the war, but went in after the war, and he wasn't a pilot. He was an accountant, who did payroll and that sort of work. He was stationed in Japan when I was born, and when I was very young, his grandmother died, so he came home on leave for her funeral. When he returned to Japan, my mother was pregnant, so I have a brother who is only 10 months younger than I am. He actually was a twin born very prematurely. Mom was only 6 1/2 months pregnant and, in fact, they called the birth a miscarriage. The twin didn't live, Bill did. I have two brothers. I am the oldest, then my brother Bill, 10 months younger, and then Barry, who is nine years younger than I. We are the three BJes — Barbara Jean, Billy Jim and Barry Joe.

When I was about two years old, my parents separated. They lived apart for probably two years when they were divorced. They were divorced for ten months and remarried. That was when I was about five. Altogether, they were married for 62 years. Mom died about 1 1/2 years ago.

As I was growing up, the most exciting things in my life had to do with my dad's career. When I was nine, he was deployed to Alaska for three years. It wasn't even a state at that time, and it didn't become a state until 1959, after we came back in 1958. Dad was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force base, in Anchorage. Part of Alaska is close to Russia, divided by the Bering Strait, but that is far north of where we were. If there was any fear of Russia at that time, I wasn't aware of it. Of course, I was very young and my parents were very protective.

That is where I spent my fourth, fifth, and sixth grade school years. The first year Dad was stationed there, there was no place on base for us to live, so we lived in Anchorage and I attended school off base. However, it may have had a military flavor because of the number of GIs' children who attended. The other two years I went to the base school, where the curriculum was pretty much like the elementary here. Other differences were pretty apparent. The snow was deep, but we kids didn't mind that as long as we had proper clothing, which our parents provided. However, being in "the land of the midnight sun," I walked to school in the dark and came home in the dark. Part of the way was through a little wooded area, and I still remember one time I was about "this far" from a moose. It snorted and I jumped and screamed!

Summertime lasted only about three months and for the rest of the year, the days were very short. There were few hours of daylight. It was really dark by 4:00 in the afternoon, but in the summertime, it was so bright that at midnight it would be possible to sit by a window and read the newspaper. If someone had a problem sleeping, he would have to put up dark drapes to shut out as much light as possible. It was difficult to get adjusted. We moved there in June, and Mother had a really tough time getting acclimated.

But there were great sights! We spent a lot of time going to look at glaciers, and to fish in the Russian River. I remember a time when Grandmother came to visit from Fort Worth, and we took her to the Russian River to go fishing. To this day, I find that river most fascinating. I believe I remember it more vividly than anything in my life. It was a fairly wide river, and when we stood on the bank and looked across, one side of the river was turquoise and clear. The other side was milky, as though someone had poured cream into it. The two parts remained divided. It was explained that it was two rivers that came together, one came from the mountains and the other was a land river. The mountain side was much colder than the other, and they didn't mix.

The whole Alaskan experience was one of the best. When my grandparents sold their restaurant and retired, they moved from Fort Worth to California to be with my uncles, so when Dad got his leave, we drove from Fort Worth, Texas to San Diego, California and spent several weeks with my grandparents and uncles. An exciting part of the trip was that Dad had just bought a new '55 Mercury, so we traveled in it.

That was the year Disneyland opened, so we went to Disneyland, and then we drove to Seattle, Washington — across the Golden Gate Bridge, up highway 101, through the Redwood Forest. I remember while we were going through the Redwoods, we visited a gift shop inside a tree! There was a staircase that went up to the second floor — still in the tree! The highway ran through tunnels that were cut in the trees. We saw the Paul Bunyon statues, and scenery all the way up to Seattle, Washington. There we got onboard ship, and they put our car onboard, too, down in the hold. I think it took us five days by ship to get from Seattle to South Hampton from where we took a train to Anchorage. I saw whales, dolphins, penguins — things I'd never seen. Barry was with us too, but he was just a baby. Even though he was probably four when we came back from Alaska, he doesn't remember anything about that trip.

There was another adventure when Dad's deployment to Alaska was completed. The Alcan highway was being built and for our trip home Mom and Dad decided we should use it. We started from Anchorage, came through Canada, and saw all the different places — White Horse, Dawson Creek, forest fires and other sights. The emphasis is on the highway being built. There were places were the road was just rocks. By the time we got to Helena, Montana — on the way to California to see my grandparents, Dad had to stop and buy jump ropes to tie the car door shut because the car was so badly beaten up. Those were probably the three most interesting years of my life — from nine to 12.

However, Dad had another deployment that had some complicated family issues. It came about when I was almost 16, Dad was deployed to England, and I didn't want to go. How much I didn't want to leave the country is evident when I say that his first orders were to go to Hawaii, and I didn't want to go there, either. His orders were changed and he was sent to England. At that age, I was in my junior year in high school, all my friends were there, and I was dating a boy — my first-love. They expected me to leave all that to go to another country? I didn't think so and persuaded my parents to let me stay here and be married. Mother and Dad were married when they were 16, so my age was not a deterrent. My "intended" agreed that I could finish high school so that removed another road-block. My parents would have to sign papers giving me permission. Mother agreed to do that, and I was married the day after I turned 16.

Jumping ahead, we became parents of a son, James (Jim). At that point my husband reneged on his promise that I could finish high school. Now I belonged at home taking care of our baby, so my education was interrupted. I did graduate, went on to beauty school, got my license to do hair, and later earned an associate's degree in accounting.

While he was in England in 1963-'64, my dad was given an assignment which gave him the opportunity to further his education. He became one of the very first to learn computers. He was probably 36 or 38 at that time, and they sent him back to Texas to learn how to do payroll on a computer, after which he went back to England to use his education on the base in London. He was then given a TDY (temporary duty) assignment in Germany to teach it there. In those days the computer took up the whole room. It was huge I have a picture of him leaning over a computer bank, which was a whole wall.

While Dad was home (in Texas, 1963), John F. Kennedy was shot. I had just seen him that morning. He was visiting at Carswell Air Force Base and they had a motorcade. Everybody lined the highway so we could see the president. He was shot later that day in Dallas.

It is not surprising that my marriage didn't last. We were not mature enough at 16 to handle the problems. Glenn had a great personality and a good heart, but he turned out to be abusive. At first it was just a slap when he was unhappy about something, but if things did not go his way, he became more violent and began beating on me. By the time Jim was a year old, had started walking, and was beginning to mess with the TV, I became afraid that Jim would do something that would annoy my husband — turn off a game or a show he was watching — and I didn't know what might happen. There was no way I could live with that. I stayed in that situation for two years before I took Jim to England. We lived with my parents. I was still young enough that Dad could declare me as a dependent.

My mother always worked. When she and Dad got to England, she put her name on a list to get a job on base. They had been there almost two years when James and I arrived, and her name had come to the top of the list. This was her first grandchild and she was always really attached to him, and he to her. Mom made friends really easily. She was the kind of person everybody loved, so she went to the employment place with a proposition. Would they put my name in her place on the list, and she would stay home and take care of her grandson while I worked? That was what we did. I went to work on base and she babysat.

First I worked in a warehouse where all the stuff for the BX (Base Exchange) came in. We priced it, labeled it, and sent it to fill orders all over Europe — to Germany, France, all these countries. For the country's economy, 85% of their employees were to be citizens of England, so I associated every day with local people. Many were housewives, some married to the GIs, and were older than I, so I was the exception to the rule in several ways. A lot of them were black, and they liked to tease me. They knew I was from Fort Worth, Texas, and hadn't been around black people, so they deliberately said things to shock me. What they didn't know was that I didn't have a prejudiced bone in my body.

We often played cards during our breaks, and they taught me to play Bid-Whist, which is a lot like Pitch. One day as we were playing cards, Lucy said to Gwen, "If I come over tonight, will you give me a perm?" I was surprised but I didn't say anything. They kept it up and when we went back to work, Lucy came by where I was sitting and said, "We give each other perms to straighten our hair." They were always saying things like that but it was all part of a wonderful experience. Not only did I become acqainted with a different country but another culture. I became really good friends with a couple young people about my age, and by the time I left England, you would not have known I wasn't English if I didn't want you to. It was just easier, when you went into a shop, for instance, if they didn't know you were American. I loved it. I had a really good time over there. I ended up knowing a lot of people, a lot of interesting people.

I was in England at the very best time for somebody my age. I was there from when I was 18 to 21. The Beatles were famous from 1964 to 1967. The Rolling Stones also became famous, and they were my age. (Actually a little older than I.) I got to go to the London Palladium and see both groups live!

One time a bunch of friends and I followed an antique car "race" to Brighton. It took us forever. That was the longest 75 miles I have ever gone! It started at Middlesex and took us all day to get to Brighton because the roads were so narrow. We drove old Model Ts and other vintage cars.

My dad's deployment ended and they returned to the States, but I stayed on another year before returning. When I returned to the U.S., I lived in Colorado for awhile and ended up moving to Austin, Texas. I worked on the base and that is where I met John. He tells that we met at Bergstrom Air Force Base where I was working in the NCO (Non-commissioned Officers') Club. He tells about our being married and coming to Iowa, where we have been for 36 years.

I have loved Iowa and the people but from the time John and I came here, his mom, Lela, was not just my mother-in-law. We were best friends. She was a confidant and mentor. She was always there for me. I am on the school staff at Clarke Elementary, and went back to visit my parents during our school summer breaks. Nine times out of 10 she would go with me and we'd stay at Mom and Dad's house. When my mom became ill, Lela would travel with me to visit her. All my family thought she was awesome. My brother called her "Mom."

We seemed to have such rapport that we could share spiritually, also. She and I were both seekers. She went with John and me to Christs'way Church, which meets in the building where she and Avice Lynn had their factory. She and I went to Bible studies. There formerly was an afternoon study here, which I attended after school. When it stopped, Mom started going to one in Des Moines. It was during the day when I couldn't go. It is a world wide Bible Study Fellowship. I started going on Tuesday nights by myself. Then Lela and I would talk about them because she went Wednesday mornings and I went at night. Now, 2008, there are four of us that drive to Des Moines from Osceola for BSF, and we would love to have more.

Lela helped me learn about and how to live forgiveness. I could share with her things that had happened in my life, things people had done that I had not been able to forgive. Then one time I was reading the Lord's prayer. I had read it countless times but this time a little tiny word jumped out at me: AS. Forgive AS you have been forgiven. We talked about it being our nature to hold on to grudges and pain. But when we think about Christ and his dying on the cross for my sin, even in his utmost pain he said, "Father, forgive them." And I'm going to hold this grudge against this person we'd been talking about? We admitted that we didn't have the capacity to do that, but we have Christ's Spirit, his power, to help us.

I could also confide in her some things in my life that I wish had never happened, and through our studies and through Lela, I began to see that those were blessings, because I learned from them. I feel Christ loved me enough to give me that rope and help me fmd my way. I also am blessed because I had a mother who loved me and took us kids to church. It was a big factor in my life.

The Bible says we are to be thankful in all circumstances, and I used to wonder about that, but the bad things that happen are what give us character and make us stronger for the next things that happen. In this day and age we are always going to have things happen. Every time I begin to judge someone I'm reminded of that. But there is another AS in Jesus' teachings. He said "Love AS I love." It is so simple — the greatest command is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself. You don't have to go farther. That's it. It is all right there.

I was watching something on TV and the documentary told how many millions of years it was before there was anything living that had eyes. I can't figure out why it is so hard for people to believe we have a Creator, but they can believe that something went "bang" and created us? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It is like taking a box of parts - screws, bolts and throwing them into the air — they fall back into a box as a watch? That makes as much sense to me. Those were the kinds of things we talked about and had in common. One of the things I wish I were better at, is being able to talk about this to other people. I see it around me every day in people who are struggling and unhappy. I think of the help Christ can be and I want to ask them why they resist giving him their lives and all the burdens. I find it difficult to do that.

And then in 2005, Lela died! It was such a big shock because we thought my mom would go first. She'd been sick for years. My brothers were almost as upset when we lost Lela as when we lost our Mom. I miss her like crazy, but the memories I have of our Bible studies and discussions, the inspiration she gave me, I can and do use very day of my life. I am greatly blessed!

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