Recipes for Living Charles and Beverly Tangeman Edwards

I have had a wonderful life! If I could have hand-picked each member of my family-my parents, my husband, our offspring and their families, I could not have done better.

Mom was raised in Omaha, Nebraska by her father, William Helvie, and her mother Edith Helvie Booth. She went to high school in Omaha and graduated from Tech High. Her mother and Mom moved to Hawarden, Iowa and that is where Mom and Dad met. He had been born in Danbury, Iowa, and at that time worked for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company.

Mom was so short that she had to wear high heels on her job when she was hired as a telephone operator for Northwestern Bell. That was back in the days before all the automation and telephone operators performed a crucial role in the conduct of life. They were, in fact, referred to as "Central" rather than "Operator." All business and sociability was routed through their switchboard. There must be times when those who recall that arrangement and now are served by touch tone phones and computerized voices, yearn for the real live Central who was willing to answer all their questions, and respond as needed to emergencies.

Dad’s work, likewise, was different than now. He worked on a crew when he started with Northwestern, climbing poles and repairing lines. He went on to a managerial position. Mom and Dad moved to Hull, Iowa, where I was born. We lived there until I was two years old. We moved to Sioux Rapids and lived there until I was in the fourth grade. Dad continued to work with the same company. Married ladies weren’t employed, so Mom was not allowed to work.

We moved to Akron, Iowa, and I graduated from high school there. The folks lived there another five or six years. Dad fell from a pole and sustained a back injury, so the company transferred him to Sioux City and gave him the position as head of supplies.

Maybe it was partly because I was an only child, but my parents and I was always a unit. Mom and Dad belonged to a card club, and I always went with them. When I got tired, I curled up on a couch and went to sleep. Likewise, they were totally involved in every aspect of my life. I don't think they ever missed an event all the time I was in school. Akron was a small town with a small school and small church, which gave me some advantages. I was in everything. The church choir was made up mainly of high school kids. There were only two adults, one of them the lady pianist. I was active, also, in MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship). In school I was in speech and we went to state with one-act plays. I played French Horn in band, and was also on a basketball team, even though I sat on the bench a lot-maybe because I was shorter than most.

All during this time my parents were part of it all. They entertained the ball teams at our house with food, games, and even decorations. One year for a basketball dinner, Dad cut figures, out of plywood and Mom pasted faces on them. We lived right next to the football field. There were no concession stands, and my parents sold sandwiches and pop on game nights. They always sponsored an Easter breakfast. I knew that no matter what need was ever mentionedtransportation, for instance-I could say, "My folks will drive."

Mother was an extraordinary seamstress. I would come home, give a description of something I'd seen, say "I'd like something like that," and she would make it. She made my junior and senior formals. I was on the Homecoming court. We didn't tell Dad I was on it and I sneaked my formal to school. Someone told Dad that they had seen me and if he hadn't known before, he would know when he got the bill for my dress.

One year when midriffs were fashionable, I was going to camp and wanted something similar. Mom designed a top that was not quite so revealing but it was truly special. The material was a print with panda bears and it fastened with what seemed like dozens of little tiny buttons. I remember white chiffon formal that had a white satin slip underneath. On the slip. she had painted red roses and leaves. It was gorgeous. Another was black velvet with yellow trim, and the finishing touch was that on the skirt she had sewn black sequins. She had the patience of Job as well as an ability that I don't have. I never could visualize anything. I had to see it when it was done. But she could somehow know ahead what it would look like.

Years later, Mom made both of our daughters’ wedding dresses. Debbie knew the dress that she wanted, but Cheri picked out parts of different dresses and explained that she wanted this kind of bodice, these sleeves, etc. Mom put it together for her. It gave her so much pleasure to do this for us. One Christmas she made a 4 ½ foot Raggedy Ann doll with red yarn hair. She was still working on it the night before Christmas, about which Dad remarked, “That's her. Working until the last minute."

After I graduated from high school, I went to Omaha for nurses' training at Nebraska Methodist Hospital. I had been encouraged by Cecil McGinnis, who taught biology in Akron. He was more recently the superintendent at Murray. At the same time there was a critical shortage of teachers and our superintendent thought I should become a teacher. I had exposure to both teaching and nursing. I taught kindergarten in public school for a week with supervision, and I taught Sunday school almost all the years I was in high school. I loved the children and still remember a Christmas program when one little kid wanted to sit on my lap while he recited his piece. I also had some experience in the medical field. When I was in high school, I worked in a drug store, and one time I went to a hospital to watch a surgery. Mom asked how I liked it and my only answer was that there was not as much blood as I expected. I chose nursing, but it has occurred to me that I surely fulfilled both men's ideas for me by becoming a school nurse.

I served as elementary school nurse for 26 years. There are people who think a school nurse is merely a "band aider," but they would be surprised at how many children come for support, encouragement, to share problems or what they think are problems. We screen for eyesight, hearing loss, and lots of things the parents may not be sure of, like pink eye, chicken pox, and other childhood diseases. There are times when the school nurse can learn something that is bothering a child that the parents haven't known about. The school nurse often has occasion to make home visits and is able to share with teachers what kind of home life the child has. It can reveal why the child is as he is and reacts as he does. It can be a real eye opener. I learned that it isn't always a child from a single parent home or a poverty situation that is having difficulties. Sometimes there are problems that are hard to understand from outward appearances.

School nurses do lots of things that don't seem very important, but they may keep a child in school. One time I went to a home that had no running water. The child sometimes came to school not as clean as was acceptable. I often washed him and occasionally took his clothes home to wash them. It didn't seem like a big deal, but years later I saw that boy participating in a wrestling meet and knew that he wouldn't have made it that far but for the help he'd had. The biggest reward was when parents of current children came to say thanks for what I’d done.

Being in that position for 26 years meant that I was a school nurse for two generations. One mother asked, "Doesn't it bother you that you were the school nurse when I was in kindergarten and now I have a child in school?" I answered, "If it did, it would have bothered me a long time ago."

I was in a three-year program and my roommate during my last year was from the Bridgewater area. A bunch of her friends came to Omaha and she introduced them to a bunch of girls in training. That was how I met Chuck who had just gotten home from service. One of my classmates wanted to know about our date, and I said, "I met the man I'm going to marry and I'll probably even have a diamond by Christmas." I was actually pulling her leg, but shortly after Christmas I got a diamond.

Chuck was from Richland Township, east of Orient, Iowa, and he went to the Avondale church. He was the youngest of six children. His father died when Chuck was two. His mother, Caroline Edwards, went through the Depression, saved the farm, and raised the kids. She often stayed with people who were ill. Chuck's schooling was in Richland, and his mother moved to Fontanelle, Iowa before Chuck left for the service. At the present time Chuck and one sister are all that are left of his family. His mother lived to be 102.

(At this point Chuck picked up the story) In the summer of 1945, I began my military experience when I enlisted in the Merchant Marines. I was in New York City until I was given a medical discharge. Because I would be a senior in high school, I returned to school in October and graduated in 1946. I worked on construction until the government passed the peace time draft in late 1948. A friend and I were taken to Des Moines a day before the official draft was started, so we were the first two inducted in the draft. They said we wanted to beat the system. I served that time in Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Belvore near Washington, D.C., and then to Fort Lewis, Washington in the Construction Engineers until my enlistment was up.

In 1950, the Korean War was requiring a lot of servicemen. I was recalled to service in July of that year. I was shipped to Korea and worked from the south tip to within five miles of the 38th Parallel. As the enemy was driving south, their avenue was across the Han River. Our first job was to rebuild a railroad bridge over the Han River near Seoul. First we had to remove the wreckage left when this bridge was blown up by the U.S.

The removal of wreckage was accomplished by building a big barge with a small caterpillar aboard for winch power. After the wreckage was removed we drove piling, using large poles. After this was done, the job was to get 12 steel beams four feet high and 100 feet long across the opening. It was done with the barge.

After this I was assigned many small bridges and depots for ambulances to pick up the wounded G.I.s. The last year in Korea, this is what I did with a squad of 12 men. We used Korean workers and we would supply material and machinery. Not being able to speak each others' language made things more difficult, but I found that by picking the largest, meanest looking Korean and making him the Number One man, it was a big honor for him and the work went more smoothly.

I think the most rewarding part of being there was our house boy. We had just landed in Korea when an older Korean woman with this small boy asked us to take him with us. She knew he would be safer and get fed regularly. He was about 12 years old but was small and a hard worker. He kept our tent in ship-shape and kept thieves away when we were working. I returned to the U.S. in December 1951 and received my discharge.

(Beverly resumes :) Chuck and I were engaged for a year before being married in 1952 in Fontanelle. Chuck ran a filling station, and I worked for two years at the Greenfield hospital as surgical nurse. I had an adjustment not only as a new bride, but coming from the northern part of the state to the southern area was very interesting. Our lifestyles had been completely different. Chuck's mother used to tell about coming in a wagon from "way out east in Scott County." I had the impression that she had come from the eastern states, but she was talking about Scott County, Iowa. Chuck talked about his school days when he walked 1 ½ miles from his home and then drove a horse-drawn bus. In the winter it would be so cold that they put "bed-warmers" (heated rocks) on the floor of the bus to keep their feet warm. When the sister, who is still living, took normal training in Greenfield, she had to stay in town. It would have been too difficult to go back and forth from home. That wouldn't have happened where I was raised.

When our kids were little, Chuck's family had reunions. One of the relatives each year made a quilt and the newest baby got the quilt. A 4th of July tradition was to have hard boiled eggs dropped in beet juice to turn them red.

We moved to Winterset where Chuck opened a new filling station, and we were there for five years. Debbie was born there June 11, 1954. It was such a hot summer! We lived in an apartment on the square. There was a time Debbie had a fever and I had to take her to the square to cool her off. We moved in next to the Wiggins family, and Cheri was born on November 10,
1955.

This was a situation about which we could adapt the line, "the best of times and the worst of times." I didn't like Winterset, but it wasn't their fault. They extended invitations for me to be involved but with a new business, two small children, and trying to make ends meet, I kept saying, "No." Our pattern was that I would take lunch to Chuck at noon and he would try to get home for supper. I became accustomed to having a girl on an arm and one on the shoulder. But there are special memories evidenced by the home movies of the kids having fun playing ball with their dad. There are lots of pictures of my dad and the girls.

I started back to work when Debbie was about 24 months old. I worked nights, the 3:00 to 11:00 shift. A baby-sitter was with the girls until Chuck came home at 6:00. When I first started, I had the evening meal nearly ready, but little by little I got to the place where I'd have the table set and the rest was up to Chuck. At that time, he sold the Winterset station and went to work for Mormon Feed Company.

While the girls were little, they went to see their grandparents in the summer. The year the tornado hit the north end of Osceola, I was bringing them home from a visit to Chuck's mother. One week in the summer they would go home with Mom and Dad. The first time that happened, out of the blue Debbie said, "I'm going home with you." So they took her home. They went to a park where there was a swan. They went shopping for Cheri, and suddenly Debbie said, "Grandma, I've been here an awfully long time.” It had actually been a day, a night and part of another day but that was long enough for her. We met at Manning and picked her up. As the girls grew older, every summer my parents took them somewhere-the Black Hills and other places.

After a year in Greenfield, we moved to Osceola. Debbie was in second grade and Cheri had started kindergarten. They both graduated from Clarke Community Schools. In high school Debbie worked for Ralph and Marie Kimmel at what was called the "Pink Store," did baby sitting, and then worked for Rindy and Ruth at Super Value. During her last two years of high school she dated Roger McCloney and they were married in 1972. They moved to Des Moines and have three children, all of whom have graduated from college. Two are married. Roger manages a mobile home court of 300 lots, Val Vista Estates. Debbie works for Blank Hospital at Student Health on Drake Campus and enjoys it.

Their oldest child graduated from Ames, and worked as an engineer at Siemens. He could have lost his job but fortunately he went into the National Guard. Presently he is in the service, stationed in Georgia, but is in a helicopter unit out of Boone, Iowa. He is married and his wife had two little boys, Josh and Jacob. It was a big adjustment for their family because they had not been married long when he received his assignment.

The daughter Elizabeth married Ryan Davis. Both were students at UNI (University of Northern Iowa). She is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and started working for the state, then transferred to Short Traveling Center and has done well. It is a company that has expanded a lot, and she travels often to Kansas City and Waterloo. Ryan is in computer science.

Debbie and Roger's youngest child, Cheryl, graduated from DMACC (Des Moines Area Community College) with a child development degree. She worked at Methodist Hospital in the child care department for almost two years, then was offered a job with a company that does billing for other companies and she loves it.

Cheri and Ron will celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary this year. She worked at the telephone company in Des Moines in the managerial department and met Ron Brennan from Rockwell City. They were married in 1976 and have three children. Cheri has not worked since the children were born.

Ron is a salesman for a Veterinary Pharmaceutical Company. He travels three or four days a week and they have lived several places-Des Moines, Van Meter, and Oskaloosa in Iowa, Bloomington in Illinois, Kentucky, and back to Bloomington. The boys have had lots of experiences in school and they love it. Cheri substitutes as secretary in schools in Bloomington.

Justin, the oldest son, will graduate this December from Mississippi State, on their PGA (professional golf) program. Jake was going to the University of Kentucky and transferred to a college in Chicago. He is having a hard time deciding what he wants to do. He is definitely an outdoors person and works for UPS (United Parcel Service). Joe will graduate from high school this year and plans to go to Eastern Illinois University.

Mom came to live in Osceola about 26 years ago and has continued to be active. She has been a faithful member of UMW (United Methodist Women) and Esther Circle. She helped a lot with courtesy dinners and sewed goodness-knows-how-many school bags for ingathering kits. For a number of years she helped with Creston District check-in on Ingathering Day. She was involved in Woman's Club and through that association organized and conducted tours with Jefferson Bus Lines. She would discuss with friends what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go and Jefferson Company would help her. They went a number of places-often to Branson, Missouri. Later she organized one-day trips to see Christmas lights or the fall colors.

I officially retired in 1992, but neither Chuck nor I have wondered what to do with our time. We took care of lawns for awhile and now Chuck helps regularly at the Funeral Home. I took over Mom's work with courtesy dinners. With a nursing disposition and a caring nature, there is no end to opportunities. Virginia Ogan and I talk often about that. You don't ever quit being a care giver. Virginia's misfortune gave me the opportunity to spend a year as high school nurse, and I got to see kids I'd known in elementary and how they matured. Virginia has been an inspiration in that she has never allowed her diagnosis of cancer to be the last word. She has always had a positive attitude and has never said, "Why me?" I doubt that there are very many in her situation or similar ones for whom that question doesn't come up.

I've also done Hospice work for 12 or 15 years. That is service to the terminally ill and includes support of both family and patient. People often think it is great that I do that, but the rewards far outweigh the little we give. I have discovered that there are very few things in which good doesn't come out of bad.

I had one interesting learning experience. I had known this lady in a relationship through my girls and wasn't particularly drawn to her. There came a time when she needed help and had no one to care for her, so I stepped in. We even did some traveling together and I came to know her better and appreciate her more. There is a lesson in that. I have helped at Casual Living and met several who needed help with bathing or maybe an errand to be run. One of many advantages of a nursing profession is that there is always a way to be involved.

We are planning an exciting trip in September. We will celebrate Chuck's and my 50th wedding anniversary, Debbie’s and Roger’s 30th, and Cheri's and Ron's 26th by taking an Alaskan cruise. We look forward to a wonderful time. God has been so good to us!