Recipes for Living Arden and Doris White

Arden: I was born in Afton, Iowa, September 14, 1927, to two wonderful parents, Dewey and Florence White. Dad had a laugh that went from the top of his head to the toe of his boot. He was a very loving husband and father. We knew he definitely was the head of the family. He was strict; but he probably should have been more so, and I might have grown up to be a better person. Ron was just two-weeks-old when Dad died in 1955. He had what in those days was called dropsy, now it would be known as congenital heart disease. He finally was not able to speak; but on the day he died, I held up Ron up over the bed, and Dad whispered, "Isn't he a dandy?"

Mom believed in living every day to the fullest and that continued right up to the day she died. I never saw a time when the mountains were too high for her to cross. Somehow she would find a way to get across them. For instance, after she was 75 she became diabetic; and there came a day when the doctors said they would have to take off a leg. The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell her. She cried for a few minutes, but that very same day a niece came and they talked about it. Matter-of-factly she said, "They'll just come in with a chain saw and cut off the leg.”

She had always said that she never wanted to go to a nursing home, but would go if she had to. When that time came, we took her to Steele's Guest Home in Osceola. We saw her often and one night my sister, Ardella, my wife, Doris, and I took her out for supper. It was a cold winter night and she was in her wheel chair. On returning to the guest home, I tilted the chair on its back two wheels and ran up the sidewalk with her. The artificial leg dropped off and we ran over it. We laughed so hard we could hardly get her to her apartment. No one was hurt. We got her safely to her room and, when we did, we sat on the bed and laughed for 30 minutes.

On the last day of her life, July 5, 1990, she was going to a birthday party for Dad's cousin, Arthur White, in Afton, Iowa. She walked across the yard in her walker and met someone who had been a family friend for 70 years. It had been 30 years, at least, since she had seen her. They had a good visit and we went on in to the Community Center. We had gotten just inside the door, when she collapsed and was gone. The rescue unit came and took her to the hospital in Creston. I remember thinking that this would be another hurdle she would get over; but, even though there were attempts to revive her, it was not possible. What a wonderful way for her to end her life! It was pretty much the way she hoped it would be.

I am the oldest of eight children. I have three brothers and four sisters. My youngest sister and second youngest brother are twins. We come from a mixed heritage of Scotch, Irish and Dutch. Our family genealogy goes way back. Our ancestors came to New Hampshire and some of the families are buried there.

We lived on a farm 5 ½ miles northeast of Afton, which was quite a community in those days. There were three grocery stores, a 5-10¢, Gamble and two implement stores-John Deere and International Harvester, a theater and hotel. CB&Q railroad ran through Creston, Afton, Talmadge and Thayer in Union County.

Dad rented 160 acres and they supported the family. We milked 16-20 head of cattle and sold milk and cream; Mom had 100 chickens and we sold eggs. She had almost on acre of garden and the family ate from it what she didn’t can-tomatoes, green beans, peas and corn. One year she canned 120 quarts of black raspberries. We kids had picked them all. We did our own butchering and Mom cold-packed beef. The only way to make mince meat pie is from that good home-canned beef.

There is a family story that one day when they were butchering an old sow; a friend was there to help. They had a barrel of hot water ready to scald her so that they could scrape the hide. This required a pulley and rope to hoist her and let her down into the barrel. Well, Dad's friend, Verne, told a story. They laughed so hard they couldn't get the hog back out of the barrel. Time was important because if it was left too long, the hair would set and be impossible to scrape off. A lady named Mary Glick was helping take care of my third sister, Norma. She came across the lot, around comer of the barn, to see what was going on and she was the one who helped get the sow out.

My first memory goes back to then I was about three and our parents were going to Greenfield. What usually happened was that they left my sister, who was about one-year-old and me with Grandpa Stoner. That particular day I didn't want to be left. I wanted to go to Greenfield. Nevertheless, Mom and Dad left us and proceeded to drive out the front gate to leave and I ran after them, bawling and screaming through the orchard and met them on the road. Mom took pity on me and took me along.

When I was about five, in 1932, Roosevelt was elected president. I remember the day well. Dad's neighbor, John Caldwell, had a nice carriage and we all went to the election-Elvin, Ardella, John Caldwell, Dad, Mother and I. They set me in front between Dad and John Caldwell, and I rode up there like a big wheel. I was really cold and, to keep us warm, Mom took bricks that she had heated in the oven. I remember when we got there, my dad's third cousin, who was a staunch Democrat, said, "Well, all the Democrats are coming out to the election." During the time we were there, it snowed and we drove home in four inches of snow, but the bricks were still warm and we were comfortable.

Holidays were big events. We had either chicken or a turkey dinner. I recall going to my aunt's house for Christmas when I was seven or eight years old. It was a cold, wintry day and we had a big sledding party. Dad's sister and my grandparents lived five or six miles the other way from Afton. It was just wonderful to go to visit our grandparents. Our grandmother always had cookies that she made with sweet cream. They were about four inches across, with scalloped edges. She kept them in a big two-gallon can that said "Campfire Marshmallows" on the side and that was the first place we kids went when we got there.

On New Year's we usually played cards with neighbors. One time when we went, we kids went to sleep in a comer of the room, and the grownups played all night long until 6:00 in the morning, went home and milked cows!

There was also a Breezy Ridge country church which was torn down about the time I started to school. My brothers, sisters and I all went to Breezy Ridge country school, which is still standing. I thought it was the only school in Union County with a basement but that was not true. We had a furnace that many country schools did not have and we could always be warm. We kids helped carry in the coal and wood for fuel. We didn't have indoor plumbing so we also carried in water from a well outside the schoolhouse door. We didn't even have to use a dipper but instead had a crock water cooler with a spigot on the side. I am well acquainted with dippers, however, because that was what we used with a bucket of water at home.

I had only four teachers for all nine years, from kindergarten through 8th grade. All eight of us kids went to the same country school. One of my best memories is the smell of home baked bread, sometimes cinnamon rolls, when we came home. Those rolls disappeared pretty fast, the outside ones first and then we got to the middle; but they were all eaten. It took a lot of food to feed that family and Mom baked bread every day.

I got my only spanking while I was in grade school. Every day, on the way home, we stopped to get mail. Mother had told me not to fool with the mailbox because it was government property, but one day I put its flag up and couldn't get it down. Dad came and showed me how, and when we had walked about ½ mile to the house, he asked me to come out back and I got a couple swats with razor strap. It was non-habit forming, the only time Dad ever struck me but he let all us kids know he was the boss.

We walked 1 1/2 miles to school and I always beat my sister except for one day, in 1937. We had such a severe sleet storm that the only way she could make it up a hill was to crawl, which worked fine because she had a real coarse-grained snow suit. I had to get off in the ditch and pull myself along by grabbing weed. In 1935 and 1936, we also had bad winters to contend with. We built igloos in our yard. We lived off the road about ½ mile. Neighbors picked up everybody and went to town for groceries. They went right through our front yard, drove over fences and followed the ridge clear to Afton. For fear of shortage, coal was rationed to us. One bushel per customer was all they would let us have. It remained so cold after the snow recessed, that, in order to heat the oil pan and get the car started, Dad had to light a pan of cobs, let the fire go out and put the coals under the Model A.

We all graduated from Afton High School and a funny thing happened on the last day of school when I was a senior. My dear story teacher, Mrs. Bliss, saw six of us spitting on the sidewalk. I have no idea why we did that-maybe we thought we could get away with it because we were seniors, but she sent us to the superintendent's office. There wasn't any punishment that I can remember. I think he just kind of chuckled.

I took typing in a class of three boys and five girls and I got the best grade because the teacher graded on correctness. I typed real slowly and the girls, especially, went fast and weren't too accurate. They never understood why I got the best grade. I did well in math and helped lots of the kids with Algebra I. I think most all the girls in my class would say that they wouldn't have made it through if I hadn't helped. I had a friend who liked history so we got through on my math and his history.

Halloween was always a big event. Nothing really destructive was done. One year we put a spring wagon on top of the high school, with the tongue hanging down. It took only four of us to put it up there and it was a lot harder to get it down than put it up. We had to do that, too; but everybody had a wonderful time doing it. A big thing in those days was moving the outhouses and I wasn't involved in that. It's not to say I wouldn’t have been, if somebody had come along and suggested it.

By the time I was 16, I was operating my own thresher, making money to buy a car. The first one was a used Model A. It had been Dad’s car that I bought from him and he got another. Of course, long before I was 16, I had been driving.

The year after I graduated, I stayed working for a neighboring farmer for $90 a month. One cold day, when I was pitching hay off the stack into a hay baler, Irving Sparboe, who was a block man for John Deere Company, wanted to talk to me. He offered me a job as parts man for the dealer in Afton. I talked to him the following week and discovered that the job paid $35 a week, which was a big step up. I took it, lived at home and drove back and forth to and from work. My sister, who was still in school, rode with me.

In 1947, southern Iowa had tremendous floods. On our way to work and school, my sister and I came to a crick bottom that passed under the 12-Mile Bridge, which was on the road we were traveling. The crick was out of its banks and there was water everywhere. I decided to stop and inspect the bridge to see if it was safe to cross with the car. I stepped on to the end of the bridge and the dirt which I had just walked across fell in the crick. The water and dirt were spinning and whirling in a giant whirlpool at the end of the bridge. There I was on the bridge and my dear sister, Ardella, was in the car on the other road on the other side of the dirt and churning water. She was scared and crying her eyes out. I managed to walk across on the bridge abutment, alongside the churning water. We took another route to town and made it O.K.

I worked from 1947 through 1953 at John Deere Company, as parts man and mechanic for Jim Reipe, Kenneth Wallace and Glen King. After that I went to work for the Iowa State Highway Commission and moved from Afton to Leon on January 2, 1954. I worked there for five years and took care of mechanical work for Decatur and Clarke counties.

The only severe tragedy our family ever had was when my 41 year-old brother took his life. Apparently there was some quirk about his nature because it wasn't the first time he tried it. This is so hard to understand. He was the most care-free, easiest going one in the whole family. He left a wife and five children, the youngest of which was two-years-old, the next was 3 1/2, and his family meant so much to him. She managed to raise those five children all by herself and they all grew up to be responsible citizens. She's a terrific woman!

I met Doris on the square of Afton, Iowa. On Saturday nights the girls walked around the square one way and the boys walked around the other way and we met. I took her home one night, and on our second date, which was probably the next night, I slid off the end of her dad's driveway and got stuck. I had to go get his old John Deere D tractor to pull my Model A out of the ditch and had to replace the rear end of the car. Doris and I were married June 22, 1949.

Doris has now been my ever caring, understanding, loving partner for 49 years, and we have five wonderful children-two girls/and three boys. Doris has done a great job of raising husband and children. She has been a good mother, homemaker, business partner and all of those other duties that wives and mothers do.

Barb and Deb being our first and second-born had much to do with helping the three younger brothers grow up. Barbara made Debbie kind of a trial judge when they were small. Barbara made the mud pies and cookies on the sidewalk outside our back door. One day Mom Doris found Debbie on the walk with a telltale circle around her mouth. She had been judging the mud cookies.

Then little blond-haired Greg came along. With help from Mom and three older siblings Greg learned to talk quite young. Our friends and neighbors would come to visit us and hear the little guy talk.

A few years later our youngest son, Jeff, came along. Jeff was his own person, also. He was a very industrious little person, who tested his mother and all his older siblings. When he was big enough to ride a big-wheel tricycle, he never once rode it but just completely wore the front wheel off pushing it around a dirt track that his older brothers had built in our back yard. He learned to ride the second big-wheel trike that we bought him.

What a wonderful family Doris and I have! We have had many good times and memories. We certainly hope for many more.

Barbara and husband, Doyce DeVore, have our three oldest grandchildren-Chad, Natalie and Chris. Chad and spouse, Pam, have our second great-granddaughter, Alexa Rae. She is growing up fast-a little shy, but is making friends with grandparents and great-grandparents as long as Mom Pam is around.

Natalie and husband, Joe Cooley, have our first great-granddaughter, Carter Lynn. She challenges her parents every day of the year. This pretty little girl always greets you with two big dimples in her cheeks and a million dollar smile. Carter is a little jealous when Grandpa holds Alexa Rae, Cady Marie, or Madison Olivia. She had to be held on Grandpa’s other knee and get some attention, also. Natalie was generally prompted by big brother Chad and her uncle Jeff to ask for something they wanted for the three of them, when they were small. It seems like Grandpa could always see through the three of them and their antics, but Natalie still sits on Grandpa's knee sometimes to talk or when she needs something.

Chris, our second grandson, was always my shadow until he started to school. Chris and I would sit in Grandpa's big chair and watch Sesame Street. I taught him to do the pledge of allegiance and he knew his ABC's backward and forward when he was a little past three years old. He always liked to ride in Grandpa's big red truck.

Debbie and husband, Mike Owen, have two of our grandchildren, Andy and Ann. Andy, also, liked to ride in Grandpa's big red truck, whenever they come from West Branch, Iowa, to visit Grandpa and Grandma. Ann is the little girl that dethroned Natalie as being the favorite granddaughter, but Natalie has not lost everything. She will always be our first granddaughter. In a recent visit to our house, three-year-old Ann was rowdying around a little and having fun with Grandpa, then turned to Grandma and remarked that Grandpa was certainly silly, putting much emphasis on the word "certain."

First son, Ron, and his wife, Sue, have two of our grandsons. Brady and Trevor also like to ride in Grandpa's big red truck along with cousin Andy. We took Brady and Trevor to the Des Moines zoo. They both wanted to ride the camels and Brady rode O.K. but thought it was kind of boring because the camel handler led the animal and Brady would have preferred to ride by himself. When it was Trevor's turn, he had lost his enthusiasm. He simply slid his little body back between the rails in the fence and refused to come out. We finally coaxed him to go with us to see the rest of the zoo. Trevor and Brady both rode the big land turtles. Trevor called them tur-turs.

Second son Greg, and wife, Donna, have two of our grandchildren, Alex and Carly Marie. Alex, who is learning to read a little younger than some of his older cousins, was being challenged as to what he was able to read. The cousins showed Alex a diet coke can and asked him to read that. Alex said, "Diet coke." Cousin Shane said, "Da" apparently thinking that anyone knows that. But Alex said, ''No. Diet coke, not da!"

Carly Marie will soon be one year old. She makes Alex a nice little sister. Alex thinks she was the nicest Christmas present he could have had.

Third son, Jeff, and wife, Kim has our tenth grandchild and fourth granddaughter, Madison Olivia. Natalie has to share her grandpa with three other granddaughters now. Madison is almost six months old and definitel1her own person and lets her parents know it. Madison is growing up, too, and looks a lot like her daddy.

I was born in 1930 in Taylor County to Mabel Ridenour Wolf and Roy Wolf Arden and I come from the same size families. I was the sixth of eight children, having four brothers and three sisters. Our father's great grandfather came from Germany and the family first settled in Ohio before they came to Iowa.

Dad farmed and was also a carpenter. Mother stayed home, raised and took care of produce from big gardens, and canned everything like Arden's mother did. We started with gooseberries to be picked in the timber, then black raspberries, dewberries and blackberries. Mom canned them all. The first money I earned was by picking and stemming gooseberries and, with my first $3, I got my first perm. Mom also made all our clothes, although I don’t believe she made the boys’ jeans.

Our parents moved several times but we were always in Taylor County. My birthday is in December so I was six before I started 1st grade at a country school. We moved two miles north of Sharpsburg and I walked those two miles to school. The first day I had to walk alone, I wasn't sure about the house. That was scary, but, of course, I eventually found it.

I went all four high school year to Thayer. Of all my teachers, the only one who stands out is Harriett Matthews, whom I had in 2nd grade. I remember her as being very kind and helpful.

Every Sunday we went to the Methodist church, which was the denomination in most of the towns we lived close to. I remember best the Pleasant Valley church, where I was baptized. The present pastor, Duane Henrichs, was one of my school mates. Every Sunday after church, we would go to Hopeville to get ice to make homemade ice cream. It didn't take eight kids long to take care of that. Like Arden's parents, mine enjoyed playing cards with neighbors-pitch, pinochle and Canasta. Among our neighbors was Don Reasoner’s family. We lived just about five miles apart, and attended the same Pleasant Valley church. His sister Avis and I were close friends.

Big events were Sunday dinners, which were important. Christmas was always big, and at our house, Santa came on Christmas Eve and we opened packages Christmas morning. We always had huge Christmas dinners with chicken, sometimes goose, and for awhile Mom raised turkeys, so we had those.

Chickens don't rate very high with me. There was one chicken who saw my sisters and I go into the outdoor toilet. It would stand outside the door so we couldn't get out. My sisters and I had to gather eggs in a five-gallon bucket and it wasn't our favorite chore. One night we argued about whom was going to carry it to the house and we both let go at the same time. The result was scrambled eggs and mother was not happy. If what she thought wasn't bad enough, we were spanked as well.

I was 16 when Arden and I met and began going together. My parents thought he was a good kid. We were married in the Osceola parsonage by Rev. Lloyd Latta. That house is now on South Jackson Street, Osceola. We were married on June 22, and on July 4, we stood up with the couple who had stood up with us. Both marriages "took". In 1999 we will celebrate our 50th anniversary. They are ahead of us in children. They have seven and we have five.

We first lived north of Afton on a farm on the old creamery road. The rent was $15 a month for an old house, barn, chicken house and wash house. The buildings were all torn down.

We lived there just a year and moved into Afton, where Barbara was born in 1951. Deb also was born in Afton in 1953, before we made the move to Leon, in order for Arden to begin working for the highway commission. Ron was born in Leon; Greg and Jeff in Osceola, where we moved in June, 1959. I-35 came through and Arden saw the opportunity to take care of just one county instead of two.

On August 25, 1969, Arden bought the petroleum business from Jim Hamilton. With a tank wagon he began servicing the area farmers and commercial accounts, such as the airport, and heating oil customers in town and country. I kept books, answered the phone, and took orders, which I could transmit to Arden by two-way radio.

Arden: I was involved in Little League, helping to put up steel bleachers for the slow pitch diamond at the Little League Park, and in Lion’s Club. The Scouts did a lot of work out there at East Lake Park but Lions Club built almost all the big shelters. The first one was named for Melvin Goeldner; the last was the Redfern's. When the Osceola Lions built the northeast "Lion's Pride Shelter'', I built the long stairway that descends from the shelter down to the patio. John Klein could not believe I had built it in one day. The Lions also helped build the lookout tower.

Eldon Allen and I put in hundreds of hours. I watched him put the light in the northeast shelter. He tied his ladder straight up the light pole. He then climbed right straight up that ladder and hung a yard light on the top of the pole. Eldon was a very dedicated citizen and always did his work in a very right, quiet, and caring way. He was an exceptional man.

We also did a lot of work on the Methodist shelter at Q-Pond park. It is more off the beaten path than the ones at East Lake, and has been vandalized more often. It is a sad situation when we can't have something nice, but I am not sure we are blaming the right people when we blame the kids.

Doris was also involved in Scouting. She told: I had a Brownie Scout troop in Leon and I led a Girl Scout troop in Osceola. One year, on Cindy Tindle's birthday, we were not allowed to have the party at the Scout House on East Washington because it was under Moingona management. Cindy's mother, Margaret, decided we would take Cindy and her friends, which included our Barbara, and camp out at Red Haw under the stars-no tents, just under the stars. In the middle of the night, there was a thunderstorm. We all spent the night in an outdoor toilet and the next morning Margaret cooked bacon and eggs over a campfire. She had come prepared, to the detail of cutting both ends out of a tuna can to put in the skillet so the eggs would be
round. All in all it was quite an experience.

In December, 1993, Arden sold his petroleum business to Kevin Emanuel and continued to drive for him for six months. Since then we have retired. We go to Florida each winter for about three months to visit Greg and Donna and their two children and enjoy the weather. We see quite a bit of Florida while we are there.

We have lived at the same address, now, for close to 40 years. One of our greatest joys is our family. We are planning a family get-together this coming weekend, July 25, at Honey Creek State Park at Rathbun. We and nearly all of our five children and most of the grandchildren have trailers or tents and we have had these family weekends, now, for 15 years. We have five great kids, two sons-in-law, three daughters-in-law, six grandsons, four granddaughters, one great granddaughter-in-law, one great-grandson-in-law and two great-granddaughters. Most are planning to be with us on this occasion. There would be nearly 100 people if all were able to come.