Recipes for Living Jerry and Faith Reynolds Bowlsby

Being called for jury duty threatened to interfere with beginning my life story, but an emergency surgery changed plans and we were all excused. It was a relief because I only take Mondays off to do things like this.

I was born in Manchester, Iowa, where Dad worked in a newspaper office. Mom and Dad, Darrell and Linda Siefkas Reynolds, were born and raised near Osceola. Dad's parents, Frank and Helen Reynolds, farmed northwest of Osceola. Mom's parents, Virgil and Hazel Siefkas, farmed south of town, near Weldon. After he graduated from Clarke Community High School, Dad went to linotype school in Iowa City. Mom worked at the state capital. They were married April6, 1963.

We moved to Clarinda, where Dad had another opportunity to work on a newspaper. I went to kindergarten and first grade there, and that is where Heidi was born. Mainly what I remember from Clarinda was an older couple that lived across the street from us-Holly and Ella. I spent a lot of time at their house. They were like adopted grandparents.

The folks decided, about the time I finished first grade that they wanted to come back to Osceola and they bought the Motor Inn Motel on West McLane. They operated it for a couple years before Dad sold it and got back into newspaper work for Stack and Jean Samuelson. He has been at that location for over 30 years, from working for Samuelsons through their sale to the Morlans. He has seen lots of changes in the nature of his work during those years as they have gone from linotypes to computers. F & M publishers are grateful for his perfectionism. They credit him with the professional appearance of the Recipes for Living books.

Through the years Mom has worked for Underwood Auto Supply, Butterfield Insurance, and has been at Siemans for a number of years. Additionally, since about 1984, my parents have bred, raised, shown, and sold Shetland Sheepdogs, and Mom collects Hosta plants.

I started in the Clarke Community system in second grade, taught by Mrs. Mae Cooper, and went all through school here, graduating in 1982. I was involved a lot with music. I had taken piano lessons from Eula Goodwin and Daphne Dunn, and played keyboard in a little band called Canadian Mist with Bob Turner, John Friday, Lori Short, and Ron Hamell. We had lots of practices at the Friday house, and performed for functions for the church and other organizations. I was also in concert choir, madrigal choir, chamber choir, and swing choir. Mrs. Waltz was our director.

Ed Swaney was a positive influence in high school. I took every class I could take from · him including bookkeeping and business law. He was the COB (Cooperative Occupational Education) instructor, for working outside of school. I worked at Osceola Drug for Roger Kentner, who was a wonderful boss! He was always positive and good to his workers. It was a fun environment.

Our family usually was in church and I was in the youth group, led by Shirley Woods. She was such a great leader, totally dedicated. She gave all her thought and time to us kids. An older group had taken some more extensive trips but we went to Wesley Woods for an overnight and that was fun.

After high school I enrolled in a beauty school, Creston Iowa Hair Tech. This was something I'd always wanted to do, but the first week I thought, "I don’t want to do this." I was left handed and the instructor, Sunny, was right handed. When we were working with our hands that made a big difference. Sunny’s method was like a drill sergeant. She was wonderful, and we loved her. She taught us a lot. She passed away from cancer some years later. She was the mother of Betty Chaney, who lives in Osceola.

For our training, we worked on mannequins for several weeks in an enclosed room. We cut and curled their hair, then moved on to textbooks in the mornings. In the afternoons we worked on people. We had courses in anatomy, electro logy (removing facial hair), and rules for doing hair. We had hair Boards, for which we demonstrated that we could finger-wave, pin curl, use rollers, and complete a written test. The course required our satisfactory completion of 2100 hours. Additionally, we were given the opportunity to work extra evenings, and go to hair shows. I was in school before we had computers, which they now use. We used to wait four to six weeks to get the results of our Boards. If there was a big yellow envelope in the mail, we had done well. If it is a small yellow envelope, it was bad news. Now, with computers, students know almost immediately whether or not they passed the course.

I finished my schooling at the end of June 1983, and went to work for Toni Held and Karen Page at Hair Styling Unlimited. I worked for them several years before I opened my own shop, Shears and Shapes. After four years, my partner, Melody Shell, went on to a different venture, and I went back to work for Karen Page. I was there several years, then decided to be my own boss again and opened a shop on Jefferson. That worked better because I could arrange my schedule according to what worked best for my family. I take Mondays off, and work Tuesday through Saturday. My hours usually are from 8:00 a.m. until evening, but that varies. I love my work. I like people and appreciate the differences in them. My regulars become like family.

I want to mention that the children's grandmas and grandpas helped out a lot. Mothers’ in-law sometimes have a bad reputation, but mine is wonderful. I couldn't do this without them, and feel so fortunate that our children have and know all their grandparents. That doesn't often happen these days.

Jerry and I were married August 17, 1985-17 years ago. His parents are Clyde and Dorthy Bowlsby, and even though he grew up in this area, we didn't know one another. Jerry's sister, Susan, baby-sat for me, but I never thought I would be marrying her brother. We became acquainted when I cut his hair. On one occasion, he asked me out on a date and we continued from there.

Jerry comes from a large family. He has four sisters: Susan, who married Steve Proctor, now has three children. Sharon married Carl Mattson, and they have four children. Kathy is a single mom, raising four children. Debbie had one child, Joey, who died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Debbie died a tragic death, and Joey was raised by Jerry's parents until Clyde passed away. He worked at John Deere Company, and died of cancer. After that, Dorthy raised Joey alone.

When I married Jerry, I acquired two children from his previous marriage, Jeremy and Josh, who are now 23 and 22. They came to live with us when they were about 9th graders. I will admit that step-parenting is an adventure, definitely a challenge. Like so many other experiences in my life, God helped me through it. I sometimes questioned why I was being challenged, but it was worth it. The boys totally respect us now.

Together Jerry and I have Justin, who will be 16 in October, Jarod who will be 14 in October, and our surprise, Hailey, who just turned five in August. Justin is in tenth grade and Jarod in eighth. The boys are both active in 4-H. Justin had an interesting experience this past summer. In the Farm Bureau cookout, he won the teen-age division with Teriyaki steak and new potatoes, Julienne carrots and green beans, and a tropical pie. He can't wait until next year.

Both the boys love music. Jarod sang in church recently and sings in school occasionally. And all three love animals. We live on one acre, which is good, because the kids have three dogs, four cats, a bird, four ducks, and a pony. Jarod says that some day he wants to be a lawyer, and Justin wants to be a chef. At this point in her life, Hailey is just being a little girl, spoiled by everybody. She is in Over the Rainbow pre-school, which is at the Lutheran Church, and is taking tap and tumbling dance lessons. · .

Jerry worked at Jimmy Dean until they closed, took some schooling, and is now at Siemens Energy and Automation, Inc. We have our fingers crossed that they will stay open. Jerry likes fishing and hunting. He has started going fishing yearly in Canada with his brother in-law, Steve Proctor. He primarily hunts deer with a bow.

My sister Heidi graduated in 1986 and went to DMACC (Des Moines Area Community College) in Ankeny. She married Shawn Burris from Truro. They live in Osceola but commute to Des Moines for Shawn's work at AE Dairy, and Heidi works on computers at Principal. Their daughter, Joni, will be four in October. We are excited that they will be moving to our grandparents' place and we will be neighbors. We live about nine miles north and west of town, at 1601 170th Avenue, and they will be at 1687. Our little girls are best friends, and they will have fun being together.

Another important person in our lives is my aunt Linda. She has done a lot of things with our kids. She is always there for them. They know they can depend on her.

Another important presence is God. We may not make it to church every Sunday, but God is a big part of our lives. Any time there is something we think we can't handle, somehow he helps us through it. Great-grandpa Reynolds passed away this year, and that was very hard for the whole family. Grandma is at Evelyn's Guest Home. We are grateful that Grandma Siefkas is still in her own home.

God was with us through Joey's cancer. Joey had accepted Christ and he wanted everybody else to do that, too. He talked about that a lot. He knew early on that he had cancer, and that assurance surely helped him through his illness. It was very hard for us. He was like one of our children.

Mom had breast cancer and Dad had his hip replaced. Usually people recover quickly but after months, he wasn't getting better. They retested and found he had cancer in his kidney. They removed the kidney and we are very grateful that the cancer was contained. After that, he had a hernia repaired. Mom will have back surgery September 30, 2002, but even though it is a serious operation, we have confidence that God will see us through it as well.