Recipes for Living Marvin and Joyce Hardisty

Marvin and Joyce were glad to move to Osceola in January 2000, because they were coming "home" to southern Iowa. Both had been born and raised in the Corning area. The parents of both had been farmers. Joyce tells their story this way:

I was the second baby born at the new Rosary Hospital in Corning, Iowa on May 5, 1951. My parents were Robert and Janice (Molyneux) Swartz. I went home to the family farm south of Carbon, Iowa, where I joined a three-year-old sister, Janet.

My memories of early childhood are limited. Most of our social activities centered on the family. After church, our Sundays were almost always spent at one of our grandparents' homes or with them at ours, visiting and playing cards. Our home was considered a family gathering place. My father was one on whom everyone leaned. Friends and family members looked to him for help and advice. There were over 40 Swartz cousins from Dad’s six siblings, and we hosted zillions of family dinners with rousing games of pitch, softball, volleyball, and horseshoes. We had a lot of relatives in the area so there were usually cousins to play with, either at our house or at Grandma's. We still have an annual picnic at Dad’s one remaining brother’s farm near
Brooks, Iowa, and we still go there to enjoy catching up on each others’ expanding families, eat a lot, and play all the familiar games.

My father farmed land he bought when he returned from World War II. In addition to the small family farm, he served as a county supervisor and worked at a feed mill. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. She had been a teacher prior to marrying Dad, and then became a homemaker, caretaker, and volunteer.

My parents instilled in me basic values and so much more that gave me a wholesome background. I appreciate very much that my mother could be home as Janet and I were growing up and regret that more young women do not have the opportunity. I think of the difference in attitudes between those days and now. One instance is in regard to credit. My parents were of the old school when nothing was bought on time. If they didn't have the money, they didn’t buy. It is a wise philosophy.

I remember activities at the country school that Janet attended and how special it was for me to get to visit there for a day when I was pre-school age. The older kids at school always made over me like I was something special. This year, when I began volunteering in the elementary school in Osceola, I was in the classroom of Mrs. McCoy. On my second day in her room, she asked if I was Bob and Janice Swartz’s daughter. She recognized me from my preschool days, when she was one of the "older kids" in the country school. It was such a pleasant surprise for both of us, and I must say that she is as compassionate today as when I was four years old.

I started first grade at that same one-room schoolhouse, but by the middle of the year, we moved to my Grandparents Molyneux' farm just outside of Corning, and I transferred to the "big city" school. My mother's father had a heart attack and her mother had been disabled with strokes, so we moved our family into their home in order for Mom to care for them. Grandma Molyneux died when I was in second grade. I remember that, even though she was never healthy, she was a most pleasant, soft spoken, loving person. I always remember her sitting in her rocking chair with her cane hanging on the arm. I have that rocker in my home now and will always cherish it.

I spent the rest of my childhood on that farm near town. I always thought I had the best of both worlds, being on the farm and yet near enough that it was easy to get to any activities I wanted to attend in Corning. We were always the last ones on and the first ones off the school bus, which all the other kids envied.

My school days in Corning were happy days. I always liked school and worked hard to be a good student. I wasn't involved in a lot of activities. I was in the Y-Teen organization, Girls' Recreation Association, Future Homemakers of America, and chorus. I earned academic letters and the Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow award-a prophecy of what was to come! I took piano lessons for many years, also.

I graduated from Corning High School in 1969 and went to Warrensburg, Missouri to attend Central Missouri State College in the fall. Marv and I had started dating the previous summer and he was a student at Iowa State University (ISU) in Ames. The distance between southern Missouri and central Iowa was more than we wanted to deal with, so after one semester I transferred to finish my first year of college at ISU, where Marv was a junior.

Marvin was from the Carl community where his parents, Paul and Evelyn, also farmed. Like my mother, Evelyn was a stay-at-home mom. She was very active in the Carl United Methodist Church and Marv had lots of attendance bars on his Sunday School pin. Small churches require participation by every member in order to survive. This is particularly true as I write this story. Family farms cannot support a family: Young people are leaving and older folks are left to provide the support. Regularly scheduled church dinners bring in revenue and the Carl United Methodist Women work year round to do their share for missions through the annual Ingathering.

Marv and I were married in May 1970, and continued our life as students. Marvin majored in computer science. He worked full-time in the computer science building on campus before and after he earned his degree. He continued there for 10 years. I worked in the Food and Nutrition labs and at the ISU library part-time as I completed my second year of college. ··

Christopher was born in July 1971. That was the end of my working and school days as we agreed that having a mom at home was the best way to raise children. In our minds the value of my being there with and for the children outweighed the luxuries the extra income would have provided. It was the way Marv and I had been raised, and I guess we thought our lives were pretty much perfect. Marv worked full time at the computation center and continued trudging through school a few hours at a time. He eventually ended in the accounting office at the Computation Center at ISU where he worked ten years while sometimes doing three or four computer consulting jobs on the side to make a living for his family.

1972 was a big year for us. Marv finally graduated from Iowa State, we bought our first new car, and our first home in Nevada, Iowa. We agreed that we wanted our children to grow up in a small town and attend a relatively small school. We never dreamed on the day we bought that starter home that we would live there for 24 years!

October 1974 brought us a little girl, Charmi, and 18 months later, in May 1976, we were blessed with another-Carrie. She was born the day before my 25th birthday, so I had all our children by the time I was 25. Here we are going on birthday #50. My! How the past 25 years have flown by!

Once the children were in school I started working part-time but made sure I was in a flexible position where my family could come first. I was always active as room-mom in their school, as Cub and Brownie Scout leader, as Sunday School teacher, as well as helping with the children's after-school times at church. As the kids grew more independent, I expanded my social life. I joined the Hospital Auxiliary, bowling leagues, and Federated Women’s Club, as well as my involvement in the United Methodist Church in Nevada, in Circle and United Methodist Women (UMW). I worked five years at the Kiddie Kampus pre-school in Nevada, and following the sale of the facility, I subbed at two pre-schools and started doing data entry from my home for the R.H. Donnelly Company in Nevada. I also worked part-time at the Nevada library for awhile, as did both Chris and Carrie during their high school years. We are a reading family!

After ten years, Marv left ISU and in 1982, started working for Pioneer Hi-Bred. He has worked his way up to management. His job has taken him all over the world-to Zimbabwe, Thailand, and South America. He has spent lots of time in Australia, and has gone so often to Mexico that it doesn't seem like an out-of-the-country trip. The scariest time for him was when he was in Japan and wasn’t able to communicate with the Japanese.

I consider that this has worked backwards. He did his traveling when the kids were in school and I could not go with him. Now younger fellows are going, leaving their families behind. I would love to travel now that I am free to do so, particularly to visit Australia, but I will admit that I would not have been a good sport about taking trips with him. I would like a first-class hotel, especially in tropical areas where he has seen lizards on the walls. I would wish for more sight-seeing, whereas Marvin's travels were an extension of his work, and he had to contend with all kinds of inconveniences. I realize that overseas travel has become less appealing in recent years.

The early '80's and '90's were spent on bleachers; following as many of the kids' school activities as possible. They were involved in sports as managers, statisticians, and cheerleaders. They were in band, vocal music, and drama activities, as well as church and Scouts. I regret none of the time I spent on the bleachers as I have seen them mature into responsible young people.

Christopher has always been a perfectionist, "age 10 going on 25." He went to ISU where he earned a political science degree. He is now in Alexandria, Virginia, working as the information management person for the Tarrance Polling Company. One of the many polls they do are the infamous Battleground Polls for Presidential elections. He has purchased his first home and we made a trip to help him move in May 2001.

Charmi furthered her education at UNI with a degree in Spanish. She worked with Norwest Financial and Principal, and is now back in Ames working as a dispatcher for the Ames Police Department. She is having her eyes opened to the problems of the city-the homeless population, those with various addictions, and all the rest. Such awareness becomes a mind-set, alerting her to precautions she needs to take at all times -precautions that would be good for everyone to note. Charmi will be married next April to Terry Geerdes from Nevada.

Carrie attended Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Ankeny and then ISU to get her communications degree. She has been working for the last several years as a counselor at a shelter house in Ames, dealing with young people at risk. Carrie thinks it is her calling to save them all. She is great at what she does, but it is an emotionally draining, high burnout occupation, and she is in the process of changing careers at the present time.

In 1995, after all the kids had graduated from Nevada High, I went on a mission to find us a new home closer to Marv’s office in Johnston. We ended up on a little acreage between Grimes and Johnston where we spent five years not really belonging anywhere. We had a Grimes address but were in the Johnston school district, and there was no friendly neighborhood main street where I could shop and meet people I knew on the street. It was there that I found out I am strictly a small-town girl.

I worked at Maurice’s Distribution Center in Johnston for four years, packing clothes to be shipped to the Maurice’s stores nationwide. I made some really great friends in my job. It was during this time, in 1996, that we lost my dad to brain cancer. They were so supportive of me and accepting of all the time off that I took as I helped take care of him. I still miss working there but gave it up in 1998 because of health reasons. I took a job as part-time receptionist for Reflections Hair Design in Johnston and still do some fill-in work during vacations, etc.

We were back on the lookout for a larger acreage further from Johnston, closer to our friends in St. Charles. Marv was spending too much time at the office, which was only five minutes from home. In October 1999, we took a drive to try to find an acreage that was for sale near New Virginia. The realtor accidentally directed us to turn south on a gravel road when he should have told us to turn north.

We drove for what seemed forever and finally decided to give up and turn west on the first paved road that might take us back to the interstate. The pavement was Highway 152, and there just happened to be a "For Sale" sign on a nice looking acreage on that one-mile stretch of road. That is now our home near our new hometown of Osceola. I have always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that God is guiding us every step of every day. You will never convince me that it was by accident that we happened by this place that day!

Officially we moved to Osceola in January 2000, but Marv believed our house would sell better if it was furnished, so we left the furniture behind and it wasn't delivered until June. Those months were like camping-we even slept on a blow-up bed on the floor. But now we are settled and I find myself back where I started, with the best of both worlds-my land and the closeness to the Lord that I feel when working that land. Yet I am near enough to a small town, full of friendly people, where I can be active in various organizations.

I have enjoyed my first year in Osceola. We became members of the Osceola United Methodist Church. I really enjoy the people I have met through the church and they are introducing me to the community in various ways. I met Fern Underwood at a worship service, and as soon as I told her that I wanted to get involved with volunteering in order to meet people, she came to call. That led me to the elementary school where I became reacquainted with my childhood neighbor. Fern also invited me to Esther Circle. I joined that group and love helping with the activities at the church.

I have been invited by others I met at church to join the T.T.T. Sorority, Research Club, and the hospital auxiliary, where I will work in the gift shop on scheduled days. When I went to visit and saw the craft items, it reminded me that I need to get out my materials and renew my interest in crafts. I enjoy my computer and e-mail, bird watching, but when spring comes there may be no time for hobbies. I look forward to another summer of mowing, mowing, and more mowing about six acres of lawn.

My recipe for life is to live by the great example my parents set. They taught the important basic values that used to be the norm and are now lacking in so many homes. Those values included being in worship on Sunday mornings, being honest, respectful, dependable, hard working, and with a faith that gets you through anything you encounter. They lived their lives "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you." I only hope that I have passed those values to my children, and that they will grow to pass them on to theirs.

Although Dad is gone, he and the life he led still have a great influence on me. He was a man who enjoyed life and lived it with a smile of warmth that couldn’t help but touch everyone he met. He suffered daily with pain and disability from his war injuries, but he suffered in silence. So many times I witnessed him just shutting his mouth instead of arguing about something even when he knew he was right. (I wish a little more of that had rubbed off on me.) Mom is now 80 and continues to live her Christian faith. She remains extremely busy doing for others.

One of Joyce’s distinctions is that, when they came here, she chose to become involved in the United Methodist Church generally and in UMW (United Methodist Women) specifically. She is like a breath of fresh air for those who have struggled to keep it a vibrant organization. There may be no other organization that has been as adversely affected as UMW by the changing culture. The 1997 edition of Recipes for Living traced the history of UMW, which began under another name, but provided fellowship and intermingling of young and older women of the church. By pooling their pennies, which amounted to dollars in those days, they added to the improvements and furnishings of the church facility and parsonage. Joyce had grown up observing her mother being involved in UMW, and expected to do so as well. She was active in the Nevada church. However, her attempts to recruit new members were met with the realization that potential members were mostly working women who were not available for meetings or had other priorities. That is a national situation.

That does not deter Joyce from wanting to see an active, vital UMW, and she has been willing to volunteer to work at funeral dinners and other projects older ladies have done for years. Along with a group called Roots and Wings, it provides one more way to become acquainted with and fellowship in the church family. When they moved to Osceola, she was excited to realize that she and her mother would be in the same church district, and her mother will be coming to a Mission Study in the Osceola church the very week this is being written.