Recipes for Living John and Sue Lowe Family

When we told our children that this morning we were going to tell our life stories, they asked what we would have to say because our lives are so boring. This kind of kidding goes on all the time at our house and we didn't let that stop us.

I came from Gays Mills, Wisconsin, a town of about 600 people. The town got its name because John Gay had two grist mills on the river that runs through the town. My parents were Lorenzo and Ida Lowe. My father was a car salesman and my mother was a longtime teacher of first and second grades, which probably influenced my choice of career. Lorenzo passed away in 1974 and Mom still lives in Gays Mills.

I was raised in the Methodist Church which was about a block from our home. For such a small town, we had a good sized group of kids in the church, and an active youth group. I was probably a typical kid. I was in sports. In music I was in band and chorus. I graduated from high school in 1969 and from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1973.

I had considered several colleges and had been recruited to play basketball at the University of Wisconsin in LaCrosse. I had mentally made the decision to go there, but before I announced it, the LaCrosse paper ran a news article stating that I would be coming. That turned me off and I immediately called Luther and enrolled. It is interesting how things happen - that is where I met Sue.

When I think back to people who influenced my life, my high school teacher, Mrs. Kegal, comes to mind. She was an old-time English teacher, very tough. Kids didn't like her at the time. Everyone was afraid to go to class if they didn't have their work done, but when we went back to town later, we discovered that she was the one we looked up to say, "I did okay. You helped me a lot."

In college the most influential teacher was my basketball coach, Kent Finanger. He was a great all-around person - a Christian, a positive motivator, and a great role model I have discovered that role models are the people who set goals that you want in your life. In these days children have so many negative influences that it becomes important for parents and teachers to be good role models for them. Sue and I have noticed in our 21 years of parenting, that we have a new realization about our upbringing. Suddenly we can see that our parents were teaching important lessons when we thought their rules were questionable. Now we realize that they were giving us the model for the kind of individuals they wanted us to become. Our hope for our own children is for that revelation to come about.

Sue and I were married in 1973. I had majored in education in college and my first teaching job was near Decorah, where I taught for four years. After Sue had completed her college education, she taught fourth grade for two years in Decorah. At that time we began exploring other job opportunities and came to southern Iowa. We moved to Osceola and I took a position in the Mormon Trail school system for one year. In 1978 I came into the Clarke Community system teaching seventh grade social studies, which is geography. I have now been a teacher and coach for 27 years.

Sue and I have three children, but I have been involved with kids all my life. I taught Sunday School for 10 years, coached Little League softball and baseball, and led a basketball program for eight years. During 22 years of teaching, I have coached basketball, golf, softball, and track. I have taught Drivers' Ed for 23 years, which requires a lot of patience, but there have never been any major crises.

In extracurricular activities, for years I gave seventh graders the experience of riding AMTRAK. We drove to Creston and rode the train back. For eight years I took junior high students to Washington, D.C., where we saw all the usual sights- the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian, Mt. Vernon, and others. Jeff Ehrhardt, who teaches seventh grade math, has taken over that project.

I feel perfectly at ease around children and we relate well, even when they are at a young age. It may be a carry-over from the years when I was growing up because my father nicknamed me Play Lowe. In a snowstorm I would shovel the snow off the walks to shoot baskets. Even now I probably act younger than my age of 49.

We feel fortunate that we were able to build a house and establish a permanent residence in Osceola. With some remodeling we have lived in the same house all these years. Our neighbors, also, have been permanent. They have really been a blessing to us and our children. Leland and Lola Hunt lived next door and have been like second grandparents to our kids. Patsy and Bill Holst are our neighbors on the other side. Our children are close in age and Patsy was the one who came to our house at midnight to stay with Amy and Kari when we went to the hospital for Erik to be born.

Throughout our children’s lives Sue and I have found our biggest enjoyment attending events in which they were involved. Additionally, we have lots of family oriented activities. We have had wonderful trips. We have gone to Disney World; we rented an RV and went west to tour Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and other scenic places. On that trip Grandma Lowe went with us. It has been such fun to be able to give kids these experiences! We have a leisure-time family activity in the summertime when Sue's brothers and sisters, their children, and we congregate, usually in August. It is like a family retreat. We go to northern Minnesota to Sue's parents’ lake home. We do water skiing, jet skiing, relaxing, biking on trails, and have campfires down by the lake. Grandpa had to add on a sleeping cabin to accommodate the growing family.

It will surely become evident to readers that we are a healthy family, and we are very health conscious. Sue and I like to take walks and golf together. We like being active. Our menus reflect our interest in proper nutrition, and we believe it has paid off.

We continue to be active in church. I mentioned having taught Sunday School and I have been on various church committees. Presently I am on the Staff Parish committee; I usher and occasionally serve as liturgist.

Sue

I was also born in Wisconsin, to Arnold and Jeanette Nelson. We lived there only two weeks before we moved to Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and then relocated permanently in Northfield, Minnesota. Both of my parents attended St. Olaf college there. Dad was a teacher and coach in the Northfield public school system. He is now 73, retired from teaching, but is still involved in home construction, which was his summertime occupation for many years.

Mom presently enjoys the real estate market. She got her license after the children were raised. While we were growing up she was a stay-at-home mom for seven children. That was the era when dads were the breadwinners and moms did the home-front things. I sometimes wonder how she remained so calm, but she did a wonderful job. She was the disciplinarian.

In 1971 when my parents dropped me off at college, Mom was pregnant with my youngest brother. It was quite a novel situation that a freshman in college was expecting a new brother. My older brother at St. Olaf and I have contests on our dormitory floors to name the new baby. When the birth occurred in December, we put up "It's a boy" signs.

We siblings got along well. I loved growing up in a large family. We were usually given the responsibility for taking care of our younger brothers and sisters. I was on the older edge and had a lot of baby sitting experiences. It is fun now to have brothers and sisters who have families and our children have lots of cousins. Most of them live in Minnesota, one family is in Utah, but we all get together in the summertime.

I attended Northfield public schools. Minnesota did not have school-connected sports for girls like they did in Iowa so my connection to sports in junior high and high school was cheer leading. That was my social group. I participated in orchestra. I played the violin but didn't like it at all I did it because someone wanted me to. However, I liked music and took piano lessons.

Northfield had a population of about 10,000, and two church affiliated colleges-St. Olaf and Carleton. However, I chose neither of those. I thought I wanted to be a teacher and St. Olaf didn't offer elementary education at that time. Additionally, the idea of getting out of town appealed to me. I had an older sister who attended Luther College in Decorah, so I was familiar with it and its beautiful campus. I enrolled there in 1971.

I met John in 1972, during my sophomore year. I had begun noticing him - - - big man on campus...sports guy...good looking. We started dating and in August 1973, after he graduated, we were married in the chapel of St. Olaf college. We moved to Decorah and John began teaching.

I graduated in 1975 with a degree in elementary education. I taught fourth grade for two years in Decorah before we moved to Osceola in 1977. My first teaching position here was fifth grade at the time when fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were in the North Elementary building. Frances Carson was the principal who hired me. I taught fifth grade until1982, and transferred to third grade at East Elementary, which is now Clarke Elementary. I am still teaching third grade.

In 1995 I started working toward my Master's degree through Morningside college. I had the advantage of satellite classes. I commuted to Greenfield every Wednesday from January through May of 1995. I took graduate classes, night classes, and summer school classes for three years. I had to go where classes that I needed were offered, and some of them were in Ottumwa and Denison. I graduated in 1998 with a Master's degree in elementary education with Reading Specialist endorsement. I could not have done this without all the support I had from my husband and children. John knows how and was willing to do laundry and cooking. Men should know how to do those things.

Our daughter, Amy, was born October 11, 1979. The night before she was born we were at Hunts' for Lola's 61st surprise birthday party. One of the Cooley boys asked if I had a basketball under my shirt. The Hunts have played such an important role in our children's lives-showing the kids how to garden, calling them over to see a spider on a web. There was a space under their front steps and Lola occasionally invited the children for a tea party of Oreo cookies and milk. Leland shared his knowledge of tools, took the kids for rides on his riding lawn mower and gave them other enjoyable experiences. They have been part of our family!

Amy is currently a junior at Simpson College, a math major. She is a good athlete, a good student, an all-around good person. This summer she is back home, working. We miss the kids when they are gone, but when they come home it is like they haven't been gone at all.

Kari is also a good student and athlete. She is creative and musically talented. She is a wonderful pianist and has provided the special music for church. She played an instrument in concert band and was the head drum major for three years in marching band. She was born December 10, 1981, and this fall will be a freshman at Luther. Both girls have had majorreconstructive knee surgeries and worked very hard to get back to participating in activities - basketball, track, and volleyball. In Amy's case, she also played softball.

Erik was born March 11, 1983. He will be a senior at Clarke, an outstanding player in basketball and football teams, and runs on the track team. He has a gift of non-judgmental acceptance of everyone. We are so blessed by our three wonderful kids. They have been very good in band and all are in the National Honor Society. They have been role models for each other, supportive, with no overt competition to each other. What is really unique is that they enjoy each other's company. Our family likes to do sports things and be active.

We have family fun together. Sometimes it is planned fun and sometimes it just happens, like the other night when we went out for ice cream. We were sitting at a picnic table eating our cones when the tip of John's cone came off and he flipped it across the table not intending to hit anyone. It did, and that person immediately flipped back a part of their cone. This developed into a family food fight and continued until John got a chunk next to his eye. We were all doubled up laughing. Admittedly there are times of irritation but our senses of humor carry us through.

Another member of our family is an 8 year old Sheltie, which was a surprise Father’s Day gift for John. We had gone to a mall following a doctors' appointment. In a pet shop we saw a puppy too big for his cage. The clerk told us a sob story, and the kids promptly followed with, "Please get him! Dad won't mind!" It didn't take much to wear me down. Shelties are family oriented dogs, the kind that will follow you from room to room. We brought him home and John didn't mind. He takes most of the care.

In the summer of 1985, I started running, so I have been running for 15 years. At that time a neighbor, Kathy Wignall, was doing some jogging as weight loss conditioning. She enjoyed it and encouraged me to give it a try. I was a real novice. I didn't have shoes with thick soles for cushioning. However, I did try it and discovered I liked it a lot. I used to run seven miles a day, now just six. During the school year I get up at 4:30 and go running before school. I use the high school track or road run. I am not a team runner. I like to go by myself and find it good mental health time besides being physical aerobics time. Such activity, I firmly believe, helps us age more gracefully.

John and I are so grateful that we each came from strong Christian families and have had good Christian families to help us raise our children. We feel this is so important and we have made the church a part of our lives. I have taught Vacation Bible School, am currently on the Education committee, and chair the scholarship committee. I grew up in the American Lutheran Church which is now the Evangelical Lutheran of America and my parents sent me to a Lutheran college to meet a nice Lutheran man. Instead I met a nice Methodist man, but we have the same values.