My parents were Herman and Gladys Lambertson Kerns. Mom was born at home south of Murray. My father was also born at home in northeastern Clarke County. The place of birth was traditional in early 1900s. Somewhere along the way they met, and I am not sure how it happened. Church was a significant part of social lives at that time, and young people gathered for "Christian Endeavor." I believe that is where they met.

I was born in Harken's Hospital, which no longer exists. I was the youngest of our parents' four children. We lived in the east part of town. We lived in only one house the whole time I was growing up but at this point in our lives, we are pretty scattered geographically, and we also range in ages. I have a brother, Jim, who lives in Chariton. He was a HyVee employee, now retired. My brother Donald's career was in electronics. He is also retired and lives in Westminster, Colorado. My sister, Marjorie (Schwenker) lives in California. Marjorie was 17 years older than I, and I don't remember her living at home. I just remember her being married to my brother-in-law, John. It was always Marj and John, never just Marj. We've enjoyed each other, but because of the age difference, never had the opportunity to be sisters together in the nonmal sense of the word . After she was married and had a family, she was, pretty much a stay-at-home mom. They lived in Burlington for many years, then moved to California.

My dad worked at Clarke County Grain Company with George Wilder, and had his own trucking business prior to that. He did more agricultural things than his brother, Uncle Ray, who was the mechanic and in the oil business. Our mother was a stay-at-home mom, which was not unusual in those days.

I went to school at East Ward, which is the location of our present elementary school; from there I went to South Ward, which is where the United Methodist Church is located. That was our temporary sixth grade and junior high because they were building the new elementary school. Then I went to junior high in the old West Ward, now where West Ward manor is, and from there to the high school, which is where the apartment building is on North Main Street. They kept tearing the schools down behind me. I graduated in 1963, from the high school which is in its current location.

I remember a lot of my teachers. My kindergarten teacher was Geneva Kierulff. My first grade teacher was a neighbor and someone I dearly loved — Theodosia Gripp. She was a long time friend with whom I communicated into her later years. She had a big impact on a lot of children. Other teachers that really were special in my life included Minnie Hertz, who was rather unique because she was getting up in years when I went to school to her. She had taught in country schools and had the honor, perhaps, of teaching all of us including our parents. When I graduated from eighth grade, we sent her roses from all six in our family to let her know how grateful we were that she had taught for so many years. She was an amazing teacher, a firm disciplinarian! She put up with no nonsense, but she had a great sense of humor and was very good at conveying what she wanted to convey to kids who are not so easy to teach — junior high is not a simple time for teachers, parents, or the kids themselves. She was very firm but very fair, and always had a twinkle in her eye. She was pretty special.

High school teachers — we had lots more at that level but ones that I remember included some other old-timers: Miss Nelson — I'm not sure I even know her first name. She was always just "Miss Nelson," Miss Beaver and Miss Nutting. They were all long-time teachers, all pretty much like Minnie Hertz. They just seemed to have a firm grasp on the kids as well as being very knowledgeable about their subjects, and made their classes interesting. I think especially of Miss Nelson. I would love to know her opinion of our world today because she really had a handle on it back then. She predicted there would be major conflicts in the Middle East, which we are now living with. That may not have been a hard thing to see as an adult, but as children, we didn't understand those things.

I had a good time in school. I was involved in chorus, and worked with the student newspaper. I was not an athletic person. I preferred music. I also participated in "The Student Chief," which was a paper we put together at the school, and it was printed as a section of the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune. There was quite a staff of students. A senior was usually the editor because of their former newspaper experience. Various students wrote articles — on sports or music or other special events that involved the students, and I remember going to the newspaper office on Saturday mornings to proofread the articles, to make sure they were correct and the words were spelled correctly. That doesn't seem to happen anymore, because I see too many errors in all newspapers and even published books. That must be kind of a lost art.

The Student Chief is still in the newspaper twice a month. It is usually a pull-out section and has changed somewhat, although it is still a good little paper because the students are learning the various aspects of writing a story. They interview people and ask questions, get students opinions and things of that type. I believe there is still a Question of the Week. I went to journalism school workshops a couple of times at Iowa State and had the honor of attending one that was run by Jack Shelly. That was before his retirement. He was on WHO radio, so primarily a radio personality, although he may have appeared on television from time to time. It was a very special experience to meet and be taught by him for a workshop.

I have forgotten how many were in my graduating class. I think between 85 and 95. It has been too many years ago for me to be sure. After graduation, Art Pritchard and I were married. He grew up in Van Wert and graduated from there. I first saw Art at a football game, probably a couple years before we were married, and I discovered he worked at HyVee. I would see him there occasionally and we kept running into each other. A mutual friend also worked at HyVee. She probably let him know I was interested in him. Art and I finally went out together —we probably dated for a year before we were married.

We had children soon after we were married, so we were grandparents and even great-grandparents at a young age. We have a son Arthur who lives in Osceola, and he has three sons, who also live in Osceola. His oldest son works out at Hormel, now he has a son, which makes me a great-grandma, and I love it! It is a wonderful thing! The second oldest works at Kentucky Fried, and the other one is still in school. Our daughter, Mary, lives in Des Moines and she has two boys. The oldest just graduated from Lincoln High, and works at HyVee. He plans to go to Vaterott College in the fall. Austin will be entering Lincoln High. So the grandchildren are pretty well grown up or getting there. The two youngest grandsons are both 14, soon to be 15. They are not twins but they were born 25 days apart so they are very close. Our daughter's son, Austin, was born the first day of September and on the 25th of September the same year our grandson Colton, Arthur's son, was born. We call them our twins.

When our kids were small, just before Mary started to school, we moved to 318 South Adams. We have lived there now for 38 years. It was a perfect location because they could walk to school. We were just a block and a half from elementary. It is also close to town, and gave Art easy access to the highway in the 40 years when he commuted to work at Creston. It is a good neighborhood and we have had wonderful neighbors. Over the course of time, they have changed, and we are pretty much becoming the old folks on that street. There have been two households in which people have lived here longer than we have. Dr. and Margaret Tindle still live on the corner south of us, and Joan Edgington lives across the street.

Those who come to visit us know they are at the right house if the dogs bark, because we have had dogs our entire married life. We had a dog until about the time our son was a senior in high school. He came home with a second dog that needed a home. From then on we've been a two-dog household. The rationale is if you start with two and one of them goes away, the one left behind is very lonely, so in order to keep harmony in the home, we discovered we'd better have a second dog. Every time we lose one, we replace it. We've gone through numerous four-legged family members. Presently, we have a Jack Russell mix, who drives us crazy with all her barking, and we have a Border Collie who is the most intelligent dog we've ever owned. He is amazing. We like the companionship, we all love them and consider them part of the family, but I swear when these two are gone, I'm done. I think it is time to quit having dogs, and be through with the burden of arrangements when we want to go places and do things.

After our children were born, I worked a little bit here and there — part-time for Penney's, briefly at Clarke County State Bank. That was not my favorite job because I was in the back room filing papers, doing things that didn't involve people and I am definitely a people person. I stair-stepped from doing some retail things right into Tupper-Ware, which became my life career. It was a good fit for me, and a great fit for my family. I could be home when the kids went to school, and I was home when they came home. When I was gone in the evenings, Art was home to be with the kids or, as they got a little older, he might be working with their teams. He loves athletics, especially baseball, so for a long time he coached various baseball teams. When our son was playing Little League and even after he outgrew it, Art continued on because he loved it. He is the athlete and I am not. The point is, as the kids were growing up, there was very little outside care involved. I've sold Tupperware now for nearly 32 years. During those years, I earned the privilege of driving company cars. I got a new one every two years which was wonderful for our family because we could use them for personal as well as business use. I traveled many, many miles in all my years of selling. I tried to stay within a radius of two hours from home maximum, and usually lots closer than that. I've made so many wonderful friends, some of whom have become very close friends. I met people I'd never have known otherwise and cherish all the warm relationships that came from my business. We traveled to Hawaii a few years ago, compliments of Tupperware, and have earned many wonderful rewards over the years I've worked with them. I am working at my business at a more leisurely pace, but am not ready to quit any time soon.

Over the course of years, Art worked for Highway Lumber, then for my dad at Clarke County Grain as a truck driver, then at Hylton's grocery store. That store brings back wonderful memories. In contrast to today's supermarkets, this was a family owned, family operated grocery store. It was very small in comparison to today's stores, which allowed them to provide a lot of personal attention. Customers could order their groceries and Bud Paschall, their delivery person, would deliver them to their homes. Today I believe they put groceries up for people and perhaps they are delivered by cab. I don't know how they get them but I have seen them putting up orders. It is different than the delivery service used to be.
Hylton's had their own meat cutters and they would do about anything you wanted, but what I remember best was the produce. When we bought a bunch of carrots, they still had the tops on them. Now they come in a plastic bag. Lots of things have changed that way and some things were quite seasonal. We didn't have the opportunity to get produce from distances like we do now. There might be times we couldn't purchase certain vegetables or fruits because they weren't in season, so we took what was available. Galen and Mabel were special people.

After that, Art went to Creston to work for Hills McCanna, now known as Fansteel Wellman Dynamics, which is a foundry that produces aluminum and magnesium castings for commercial and some government projects, primarily in the aero-space industry or making parts for helicopters or airplanes. It is totally unrelated to the midwest, totally unrelated to agriculture. He was called a core-maker. His job involved taking specialty sand and pressing it into forms which shaped it the way they needed it. They let the sand dry and harden, then poured the metal over the core for casting. After the metal cooled, they broke the sand out in order to make the parts they wanted. They worked with all different kinds of sand. What we see of sand is very coarse, theirs was extremely fine. Some of it was black sand, some white, and treated it with various chemicals in order for it to work the way they wanted it to work. Art's was a very skilled job. He worked there almost since it opened, having opened two years before he went to work. He worked there for nearly 40 years, and retired a couple of years ago.

We have always traveled quite a lot because we have had family living on both coasts. We went by car and took time to see national parks and other points of interest along the way. When I was a child, Mom and Dad took us on trips to the east coast to visit an uncle, so we saw quite a lot of the New England states, New York City, and other places. California was always a destination because my aunt and grandma lived there, and now my sister also lives there. When our kids were growing up, we continued to travel, and we took them because they enjoyed it and we wanted them to experience some of the natural beauty of our country.

We stayed at motels or with relatives and I think my favorite place to go, which I think of as the top of the world - is Rocky Mountain National Park, and we go to the top because there is such a beautiful view from up there. It is so quiet! And except around the lower edges, it will probably never be developed the way so many other national parks are. We've done a lot of other things in Colorado. My brother lives there and I can remember when I was probably in my teens, he and his wife, who were very adventurous, took us off on some of what they called "God-awful roads." Those were gold mining roads, barely passable, but just passable enough that we could get into really rugged areas where they mined gold. I remember getting out of the car at one place they called "the glory hole." It was very, very deep and very steep but it was absolutely beautiful. I loved it!

We love going to California because we can go to the ocean and to San Diego to visit the zoo and see the pandas, which are my absolute favorite animal on the planet. We have watched California grow into whatever it is now. It is so huge, it is overwhelming, but I can remember when it wasn't so crowded. When I was a child, they still had lots of orange groves and countryside. All of that is filled in now with city and development. But there is still that charm of southern California that is unique to that area. I love visiting but I wouldn't live there.

Our two children, Arthur and Mary, have active lives. Arthur loves sports and has always shared his father's love of the New York Yankees! They try to see every game they can on television and have attended games when the Yankees played in Kansas City, Minneapolis and even Anaheim, California when visiting my sister and her family.

Arthur and his family live in Osceola. He has three sons who all enjoy sports. They have played football and baseball, and are also great fans of the Yankees. He has always enjoyed sporty cars as well.

Mary and her family live in Des Moines. Their two sons also enjoy sports, and have played soccer, as well as baseball and wrestling. Mary loves to run and over the past 14 years, she has participated numerous times in a variety of competitive runs, including Red Flannel Rim, Dam to Dam, and many others in the Des Moines area. She did her first marathon last year in Minneapolis with her running group. She and her family also enjoy camping when they can find time to go.

Needless to say, we have attended many sporting events to watch as our grandsons participated. We've always enjoyed it and have learned a lot about the various types of sports in which they played.

Art and I have always been involved in our church — The First Christian Church in Osceola. We have served in various capacities and various offices. At one point in time, Art and I were custodians of the church. That was many years ago. They needed somebody and we had the energy at that time to do it, so we did. We loved doing that. It was a lot of work but through it we were able to do little things for the church that someone hired from outside the church doesn't see to do. So we were able to serve our church in a whole other capacity. We just did it for a few years and then moved on to something else.

I taught Sunday School when our kids were little. . . I was involved with Bible school every year. . . I served as a deacon of the church, as elder, I have been chairperson of the Board, and now I chair the worship committee. This is a responsible position just now because we are in the process of looking for a new minister. It is up to me to make sure we have a minister in the pulpit every Sunday. We were so blessed to have Duane Churchman fill it for awhile. I hated it when they were going to move. He would still be with us if that were not the case because he was enjoying it, too. But there are always some blessings. In this case, were I not chairing that committee, I probably wouldn't have gotten to know him so well, and I am really grateful I had that opportunity. He has become a good friend. I didn't get to know Darlene as well because she was having some health problems. She wasn't able to get out and go and do and that was too bad. Hopefully her upcoming surgery will take care of the problem.

I attend a Sunday school class taught by Frances Wilder who has taught for more years than I can say. She will be celebrating her 80th birthday with an open house a month early because her children are all going to be home the same weekend. The Wilders have been a very important part of our church.

Last year ago some of us were looking for something a little different to do and I happened to read in the Des Moines paper about a church there that did a nativity display, and with the help of some of my friends we decided we would present this also. Our church had received a wonderful large nativity that was on display in the baptistry every year. We decided we would enhance that by adding these other figures. The baptistry is about six to eight feet wide. We put in a platform or floor that is at least four foot across, on which to display the nativity. The platform extends probably another 18 inches in front of the baptistry. Probably the total platform from front to back is about six feet, eight to ten feet wide. It had to be large to accommodate a rock made of a kind of plastic. It is about three feet wide at the base, and holds some of the figures. That is the centerpiece of the display. It is a fairly good-sized set — the elephant for instance, is probably at least 12 to 14 inches tall and about 16 inches long; and the figurines of the people range from eight or nine inches to maybe 14 inches tall. I don't even know how many pieces. Last year, 2007, was our first year of what we plan to do annually, inviting our church members and friends to share their personal nativity sets. We put them on display for a weekend for the public to come and see.

That year we also had the community choir concert at the church so we did these at the same time. We had a wonderful response, a big turn-out of people for both events. That was about three days before the ice storm hit (on December 9) so the timing worked out wonderfully. We missed the really bad weather and people were able to enjoy all of that.

Both Art and I "retired," but there is a new meaning to that word these days. Art has surprised me. In my wildest dreams I would never have expected him to be a volunteer at the level he is. He was chosen by Chamber/Main Street as their 2007 "Volunteer of the Year." There was a banquet in Des Moines which honored people at the state level and he was honored there, too. I was very proud of him, happy for him, and happy that it happened. He is very quiet and he just goes quietly about his business and gets things done. He is pretty much responsible for helping put up all the Christmas lights in the courtyard. He is very active with the 4th of July committee and anything else they call and ask him to do. I never would have expected that he would get out and do things like that, but he loves it.

This winter we decided, "By golly, we're going back to work." So we are both working at Wal-Mart. Art works full time and I work only part-time. Maybe one of these days we will wake up and say, "This isn't working, we're not going to do this anymore," but right now we like it. Again it offers me the opportunity to be around people and it gives him something to do because he likes to be busy. I work in customer service so I take care of people who need to bring back things to return, or if they have questions or any kind of problems. We do a variety of things: we wire money, we sell money orders, we cash paychecks for people, just a variety of things that hopefully make people's lives a little easier.

There are over 150 people working at Wal-Mart because it is open 24 hours a day seven days a week. There are people there all the time and people in different categories. Customer service and cashiers are pretty much one category. Then we have supervisors for all departments, and they have what they call "in-stock," which means they are the ones who check to make sure we have inventory and that it gets out where it belongs on the shelf. Or if customers want an item and the space is empty, we can look and see if we still have some or if it needs to be ordered. That is Art's job.

There are people shopping pretty much around the clock. I think it is because we have industries that are open 24 hours a day. Hormel has people working around the clock, as does the casino. So there are people working non-traditional hours. We get really busy from about 11:00 until 2:00 in the afternoon, and it suddenly occurred to me these are the second shift workers. People who have slept until late in the morning, have time to do their errands and then go to work at 2- , 3- or 4:00 in the afternoon. So we see a pattern of why stores need to be open 24 hours a day because not everybody works from 8:00 to 5:00.

The manager who came here, is young, energetic and very nice. The family has moved to town. He came originally from somewhere in central Missouri, so he is a mid-westerner. He grew up in Missouri but I think anyone working their way up in any kind of industry, has to travel around. He was transferred here from Anchorage, Alaska, so coming to the midwest after being in Alaska, I'm sure has been a big change for them.

That is where we are at this stage in our lives. I am telling this story on July 3, 2008. Tonight we are going to participate in the Oldy Wed game uptown and I can hardly wait to see the kind of questions they ask. I sometimes have a hard time realizing that by chronological age I am an "oldy" because I am definitely not that age. I don't even want to think about my chronological age because I don't think I will ever grow up. Mentally I have no idea how old I am. It doesn't even matter, because I choose to see life as good, try to find something good about whatever the situation may be, and I try to help other people feel better about what is happening in their lives. Like our daughter, I choose not to dwell on what may be wrong. Maybe I don't do things as well as I once did, but I find a way to get it done, maybe in a little different way. But I'm not going to give up, and I feel like I will always be a young thinker. I grew up around parents that were young thinking and they were working and doing crafts and things of interest to stimulate their minds and bodies right until their last breath, including my father who was on oxygen and still would sit and paint pictures and draw and do things that maybe weren't spectacular or outstanding, but his mind never stopped working. I want to be like that. I want always to be using my faculties as long as I can.

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 2008 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised October 18, 2014