MARILYN MCBROOM

I’d like to begin with Mom and Dad. They met in South Dakota. I think Dad’s parents were living on a farm near Woonsocket and Mom was also raised there. They double dated with cousins and were married in a double wedding ceremony. They moved to Russell, Iowa where Dad drove a rendering truck for about two summer months which my Mom said was the worst job anyone could have. The smells were horrible!  Dad’s clothing reeked of the smell that even washing didn’t get rid of.

They moved to Des Moines after this and Dad drove a bread truck. This is where Doug was born in December, 1935. It was one of the drought years. Mom and Dad talked about everybody sleeping in the yards or on the porches because of the hot, dry weather.

I was born in June, 1937, eighteen months later than Doug. Mom felt very sorry for herself having two youngsters so close in age with all the diapers and paraphernalia that go with raising children. We lived in an upstairs apartment and there was a frightening event when three of us — me in the stroller and Doug and Mom after me — fell down the stairs. Luckily there were no serious injuries but Mom said it was horrible.

Another crisis when we lived in Des Moines was that I developed pneumonia when I was six months old. There were no drugs such as penicillin for treating pneumonia at that time. It was difficult to deal with.

The spring after I was born we moved to Osceola. We moved into R. D. Brown’s farm house, four miles west of Osceola. The war was over and R.D. and Verna Brown were returning home. He was a colonel in the Army and remained active in the military even after he came home from the war.

My grandma and granddad Price lived on the Gilbert farm about a quarter mile south of us. Within a couple of years they moved into a tiny new house that was built on another Gilbert farm a mile and a half south and west. Our family, then, moved into the house where my grandparents had lived.

Kathy and Anita were born while we lived in that house. Kathy was born in January, 1943 and Anita in January, 1945.

Doug and I attended school at Ward Center #5 which was less than a quarter of a mile south of where we lived. When we started to school, the building was a 1-room school house, not modern. About four years later the school districts around it merged and the school house was modernized. During the summer of 1945 or 1946 it was enlarged to two rooms with full basement and indoor plumbing. It was the only modern school house in the county. Bob Schader’s dad, Glen, installed the plumbing and heating.  I was very impressed that Glen could write on the blackboard with both hands simultaneously. During this time Doug and I got well acquainted with Bob who was my age.

After the building was enlarged, we had two teachers, one for lower grades and one for upper grades. I was in a class of six students when I was in 6th grade. One of the classmates was Edward Denly who developed cancer in his leg during 7th grade. Cancer was relatively rare in those days. In his 8th grade year Edward wanted to go to town school because he had a lot of friends in town so our class was down to five kids. Edward died before 8th grade graduation.

Doug and I both graduated from Ward Centex. Other students that I remember were Deloris and Delaine Osborne, Peggy and Marcile Boggs, JoAnn and Ron Edgington and their little sisters and brothers, Don and Duane Sanderson, John Poortinga, Kenny McComas, Mary Lou and Jim Simms, the Van Loon children: Iona, Wilma, Wanda, Karen, Ivan, and Galen; and there were others.

My dad continued his interest in trucking. He bought a brand new Chevy truck from Lewis Chevrolet. No new vehicles were bought during the war and this would have been one of the first productions after the war ended. Dad hauled lime, gravel, and grain, managing the different types of hauling by changing the boxes on the truck, so where the extra boxes were kept was off limits to us kids. In fact, at that time Dad owned two trucks. Floy McCloney told me that Ray’s brother lived in a. Quonset hut close to our home and drove a truck for Dad.  Art Bright also drove a truck for my Dad for awhile.

Dad also farmed. He had farmed with Granddad Price who was still farming with a team of horses. Dad had a Farmall F20 and was moving toward modem farming. We had a hired man, Bob Jenkins, to help with the farm. He lived in a shed that had been converted from a hog house to living quarters. It was heated with fuel oil or bottle gas. During the winter months, when it was extremely cold, he moved to an apartment in town. He ate his meals with us.

In February, 1947 Dad died. I remember Mom coming and sitting on the edge of the bed where Doug and I were sleeping and told us he had had a heart attack and died suddenly. He sat up in bed, gasped and was gone. There is no way to put into words what a traumatic shock this was for all of us and it changed our lives tremendously. If Dad had insurance it was minimal and Mom went to work. Kathy and Anita had a baby sitter, Jean Penick, the older Jim Penick’s wife. She came to the house. Kathy started to school the next year and Anita stayed with various neighbors - Simms, McComases and others. I hated being a child in school with only one parent. That was uncommon then. I know there are things blacked out of my memory from that time. I suppose Mom took care of them.

Mom stayed active in farming with the help of the hired mam, but, to supplement the farm income, she worked at Snowdon’s and hated it. She would get up and start dinner before she went to work and I would put it on the table. We had to heat water for washing dishes and bathing. Saturday baths were a true occurrence. Mom had a wringer washer in the basement. We were taught we had good clothes and chore clothes, and we always changed clothes when we got home from any kind of outing which was pretty common back then.

Mom only worked at Snowdon’a for a few mouths and then got a job at Robinson’s Department store in the women’s wear department. One of the fun things we did at this time was going to town on Saturday nights. Mom had to work and we kids were free to do whatever with our friends. Deloris and Delaine Osborne, and Peggy Boggs were my age and we spent many Saturday evenings together. I was also asked to go with them on weekend excursions around the state. I remember going to Muscatine where they made buttons from shells and there were other trips.

During the winter months a favorite place for me to go was the Library where Lura Goeldner was librarian. She was one of my favorite people. She was kind and helpful suggesting books. I liked anything about horses. I also listened to the Lone Ranger on the radio when other girls my age were listening to and reading "True Romance".

We kids did what other farm kids did in those days. We had chores. One was milking cows. Dad had bought a little Guernsey cow and she was just great. We also had Shorthorn cattle. We separated cream and fed the skim milk to the hogs or chickens. It was fun calling the hogs from the pasture with "soooo-eee". They really came running. We also took eggs to town and part of our chores was to gather the eggs. Our house was heated with coal and one of our jobs after school was to build a fire in the furnace. We had been taught well, but Mom still worried about us.

After Anita started to school it was my responsibility to look after my little sisters. Mom didn’t have time or energy to clean house properly and so we kids did a lot of it. I grew up in a messy house and still hate to clean house. We had running water finally - they had just put it in before Dad died. Until then we used the outhouse at the end of the sidewalk, which had to be swept in the summer and shoveled in the winter. In those days farm yards weren’t kept mowed except with a sickle mower so our front "lawn" would grow very tall. The back yard where we played was fairly bare of grass.

Granddad and Grandma Price retired from farming in about 1951. We moved to town into a house on North Fillmore -- I think it was owned by Farleys. A good neighbor while we lived there was Florence Monroe. She and Olin lived in an apartment next door. That fall we moved into a new little house Mom had built on the corner of Webster and Dewey. By that time Mom was county treasurer which increased her income a lot. It was unbelievable the difference that made.

Also at this time there was a new law that gave children Social Security from a deceased parent. It was a small amount but every little bit helped. We kids marvel now at how well Mom managed. There were times when she had to charge groceries at Rindy’s grocery store on the east side of the square. I am still grateful for Rindy’s help.

Doug and I were among the few town kids that were allowed to drive the family car to school. We would take Mom to work and then go on to school. We went home for lunch at noon — this was easier during the times when Mom’s mother, Grandma (Karine Nicoline — Norwegian names) Slaybaugh stayed with us and would have it ready. Kathy and Anita at this time were attending East Ward School — they must have walked.

I was in chorus, co-editor of the Annual my senior year of high school, basketball manager for 2 years. I was a member of the National Honor Society, scholastically in the top 10 percent, as were two other classmates from Ward Center — Deloris Osborne and John Poortinga. Because of my love of reading, school came easy. However, I was very shy and lacked confidence. Doug played some basketball but he was small until after he graduated. He was in FFA and baseball, which he loved.

I worked at Robinson’s starting my freshman year sacking purchases on Saturdays and during Christmas shopping. I also worked there during summer months. The summer of my 16th birthday I worked at Osceola Drug for Bayard Shadley, cleaning and stocking shelves, waiting on customers generally and in the soda fountain. Schoolmates that worked at the same time were Katie Kerr (Morgan), and Linda Smith (Reed).  Allison’s and Jerry’s drug stores were the favorite hang-outs for kids my age. I remember Merlyn Wetzler and a good friend of his were frequent visitors to the store to read the comic books. Shad wasn’t too happy about this but it continued. That same year I started dating Rex McBroom. Rex was running the projector at Shipwright’s Osceola Theater on the north side of the square where Dr. Lower’s office is now. Doug ran the projector at the Lyric Theater on the west side of the square. After working at Robinson’s and Shad’s I went to the theater where Rex worked which made Mom very unhappy with me.

Rex was a year older than his classmates and was very mature for his years. His Dad had built army camps in Missouri and Kansas during the war. The family moved frequently. The schools were of varied levels so he missed a year of school. Rex had left home and rode ponies for Dr. Paul and lived with Ralph Tabler who was Dr. Paul’s horse trainer. Ralph and Rex became friends from spending so much time together. Coming home late from horse shows Rex would spend the night with him. Ralph was a bachelor and became almost a substitute father.

Doug and Rex became friends during their freshman year while we were still living on the farm. Rex and I became friends then but Mom wouldn’t let me date until I after my 16th birthday. Rex always had his own car and was generous with hauling kids.  When we dated we would take Kathy and Anita swimming at East Lake Park and to Lake Ahquabi. We also went to the rock quarry until Mom found out and forbade us to go there again.

We each dated others but always seemed to end up back together. He graduated in 1954 and at that time I probably thought we had broken up for good but after I graduated in 1955 we started dating again. I was working at Robinson’s. This was the year they put cash registers at each door instead of one in each department and I was hired as the first check out girl. That fall I was offered a job for Drs. Armitage and Lauvstad. Their office was where the Buttertfield-Hunsicker office is now. I was receptionist-bookkeeper. Ruth Camp was the nurse.

Rex and I were married in November, 1955. He was now into building and had done remodeling with his dad. We moved into a new house he had built on Roosevelt Boulevard and while we were living there he built four small houses on East Ayres Street. Beth was born when we lived on Roosevelt.

Rex had a dream of farming and after we sold these houses we bought 80 acres two miles west of town. Roc was born in April after we moved to the farm.

We bought 80 acres that adjoined our farm. We sold Grade B milk from a herd of 20 Holsteins and then expanded the herd, purchased a bulk tank and upgraded to Grade A. John Fisher was our milk man and we became good friends.

We also raised turkeys for two years on our own and joined with Perin Hatchery of Chariton and Saylor Feed and Grain. Perin furnished the poults, Saylors furnished the feed and Rex was in charge of the labor. For two years we raised up to 40,000 turkeys; 10,000 in a batch. The poults were first taken to a broiler plant where Q-Pond Park is now, west of town on Clay Street. The poults were housed in these buildings until the age of eight or ten weeks. They were then moved to our farm until ready for market.

We employed helpers. Good full time workers were the Graham boys, who had learned their job from Velma and Arcel Luce. We hired mostly high school kids to help load the turkeys when they were ready for market. They were loaded on semi-trucks which had individual cages four rows high. The loaders would jam (there is no other word to describe it) four or five turkeys into a cage in the case of toms. The hens were smaller so more would fit. We usually loaded on Sundays or early in the week. I came to depend on Van Underwood to find a crew of loaders. Some only helped once. It was hard, dirty work which we realized and paid more than hay crews were getting.

The good market for turkeys had peaked the year we started raising them. The biggest benefit we received was from the manure. We didn’t have to use nitrogen for our crops for a couple years after we quit raising them. One of the neighbors told the fertilizer salesman he wanted to use the same fertilizer Rex McBroom used, not realizing that it had come from the turkeys.

After we quit raising turkeys Rex built houses for a contractor in Chariton for two years. We were still milking cows and felt very confined. It was hard to find someone to milk so we could take a vacation. After we had lived there 10 years we decided to sell. The price of ground seemed very high at the time and lots of houses were being built in Osceola and throughout Clarke County.

In 1969 we moved back to town, rented a house from Ruby (Boor) Herron where Ruby now lives, while we were building a new house on the west edge of Osceola, north of where the American State Bank is now. There was nothing in that area at that time. The ground had been purchased by the Clarke County Development Corporation but nothing had been developed. Beth and I rode our horses over the ground where our factories are now.

Altogether, over a 40-year period, we have built one house in Warren, two in Madison, one in Decatur, one in Ringgold counties and more than 90 in Osceola and Clarke County. It has been a family venture. Roc has been building with us since 1977. During their junior high and high school years both kids worked during the summer. Beth was small so could get into tight places and helped with the plumbing. Roc did wiring from the time he was in 8th grade. I did all the bookkeeping, kept house, hauled supplies from Des Moines, laid out 2x4s and helped line up plywood on the floors and roofs until it got beyond me. That was hard work!

During our kids’ high school years AFS (American Field Service) was hosting foreign exchange students both in the U.S. and abroad. From August of 1974 through July of 1975 we hosted a student from Costa Rica whose name is Danilo Sanchez Rojas. We have stayed very close and have visited him in Costa Rica. We all gained from the experience and his use of English has benefitted him financially in every job he has had. He is married and has a daughter eleven years and a son four years old. He has been back twice for class reunions.

We built a house on property we had purchased and moved there in November, 1981. When we purchased this property Rex said it felt like home and we continue to live there, feeding the birds, watching the deer and putting up with the squirrels and raccoons.

Mom had met and dated Fred Harlan who had served on the County Board of Supervisors. Both he and Mom lost re-elections, Mom for county treasurer, he for supervisor. They married and had four years before he had a stroke and died. So Mom experienced the burial of two husbands.

Several years ago Mom discovered that she had a lump in her breast. Dr. Kimball examined her and warned her that it was probably malignant. She had surgery in Des Moines. She went through a chemo series and had just gotten to the five-year mark when it redeveloped. She went again through chemo and radiation. It spread, developing behind her eye and in her bones.

During this time I asked Mom how she had kept from getting discouraged throughout her life and she said, "I always had faith that everything would be all right." She sold her house on Dewey Street, lived for awhile in Saylor's apartments on South Jefferson and eventually moved to an apartment in the Saylor complex at 219 East Cass.

I want to say parenthetically that when we consider how Saylors have benefitted the community with their various developments we can appreciate why Eddy was given the Community Service Award. He has had much influence in attracting the industries to Osceola. His brother Gene was in my class and we have always heard that he was the person responsible for bringing Jimmy Dean to Osceola. He would do anything for anybody.

It is hard to describe how much pain Mom was in during her last years. She continued treatment in Des Moines until three months before her death in October, 1991. Since I was the only child not working we became very close on our monthly trips for treatment and as I helped her get through each day. Her friends helped keep her going to coffees and birthday parties and get-togethers of various kinds. I still feel very close to the ones who were so good to her.

I went to work at Bethphage after Mom died and it seemed like I had more time on my hands. I was a Direct Care worker which consists of helping the residents in all facets of their daily living. This was a stressful job. I was working mainly in the evenings until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. I quit after two years and in April of 1995 I was offered a job in the church office.

Beth graduated from ISU Veterinary School in 1983 and is practicing in Kirkwood, Illinois, where she is a senior partner in the Kirkwood·Stronghurst Veterinarian Clinic. Her main emphasis is small animals but on her weekends and nights on call she also treats large animals. She is married to Jim Vollbracht. Jim has 4 children from a previous marriage and Beth is enjoying her ready-made family.

Roc married Tracey Heilman and they have two children.  Frank was born in 1983 and Miranda (Randi) was born in 1985. Roc and Tracey are divorced and share custody. They both live in Osceola.

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 1996 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised April 29, 2012