Recipes for Living George Allen "Toad" and Edna Mumper

There may be people who have known Toad for years without knowing his given name. George acquired the nickname Toad because he was born a little fat baby with two toes webbed together on each foot. This was the case with all the men on the Gracey side of the family. Their big toes and the one next to it were connected. When his grandfather first saw him, he said, "He looks just like a little fat toad," and that name stayed with him all his life.

Toad grew up in Osceola. His dad and mother were Bill and Lena Mumper. They were a sociable family. His dad was quite musical and played in a band. He could play every instrument. His mother played the piano and drums. They were members of the Oddfellows Lodge. His folks lived for years and years in the small house on the street just beyond the Fillmore Street underpass. Immediately turn left, and they lived in the corner house. There was a lot of extra land so when Toad was old enough to have his own business, he built his garage on his parents' land, and that was his location until he went into the service.

Toad went through school in Osceola including junior college. When he was a boy, his father was a mechanic in the Ford Garage. I don't know how old he was when he began going up to fool around in the garage. As he grew, they let him wash the cars, and some time later, they took him on as a salesman. He became acquainted with a dealer at Chariton and went to work for him. They got along so well that he offered to set Toad up in the car business and put him back over here in Osceola selling used cars. They were partners for a few years until Toad decided he wanted to go on his own.

When the draft came for WWII, he didn't want to wait until he was drafted because he wanted to be in the Air Corps. He sold his cars and went into the service. He wanted to be an instructor and that was the school he was sent to. He had gotten acquainted with a girl who lived on a farm and one day he had a student with him when he flew over the farm where she lived. I suppose he was showing off and went through a tree. Mickey Thomas also wrote about Toad in his "Tales from the Aisles." He added that what made it hard to explain the accident to his superiors was to admit that was the only tree on the farm. The student wasn't hurt but something of the plane went through Toad's foot and banged him up pretty good. That was the end of his instructing.

He went from being an instructor to being a pilot, from $600 a month to $50, and was to be sent to Hastings, Nebraska, to train for service overseas. However, when he was ready to go, they found out he was 38 years old, and there was no way he would be sent overseas, so they sent him to San Antonio, Texas. He got his instructor's license back, and when he was out of the Army, he had students he taught to fly.

There was a provision for discharged servicemen who didn't find a job, that they would receive $20 a week until they were employed and had an income. That sounded okay to Toad so he loafed around for awhile. At that time, I was a partner in the Puritan Café with Nellie Taggart, and Toad and I began dating. I was making pretty good money, so I teased him, showing what I made that week compared to his $20. He decided to show me, so with some money I loaned him, he bought a few used cars and sold them, and that was what got him started back in his business.

However, used car dealers weren't very popular with the dealers who sold new cars, so he couldn't get a license. He went to Des Moines and reminded them that when he went into the service, he was told he would have a job when he came back home. "That was my job — I had a garage and was selling used cars. So you can come down and arrest me if you want to, but I'm going back into my business." There was a bunch of men in charge and they said, "What are we going to do with him?" One said, "We are going to give him back his license." So he came back home, built a showroom, and operated his business just beyond the viaduct for a long time. One year when we went to the State Fair, he saw a Butler building. By that time he had bought the land where the parts store is now located, just off the intersection of 69 and 34. He bought a Butler building and put it there. That was where we stayed until he retired in the mid-70s, when we sold the garage to Donna and Jim Hamilton.

Toad and I became acquainted when I worked in the Puritan Café. My maiden name was Powell and I was raised on a farm north of Woodburn. I went to a country school, first named Prairie Gem and then Powell School, so named because of the number of Powells that lived in the neighborhood. At one time there were 32 kids in that school, and except for three boys, we were all related. If we weren't cousins, we were cousins of cousins.
There was one teacher for all those kids. She taught all the grades. I was the only one in my grade, and when I finished one book, she'd give me the next, so I took first and second grades in one year, then I took the third and fourth in another year. In the fifth, there was finally a boy in the grade with me so he slowed me down. I went a half-year to Woodburn High School and then my Grandma Maria Jane Powell died and left dad some money. He bought a farm south of Lacelle and we moved there. I thought I had all the education I needed so I went to work for Eunice and Glen Stickler in Stickler's Café on the south side of the square. Romane's Meat Market was where the Booth Attorney's Office is now. As I recall, they were on one side of the alley and the Stickler's Café was the second building on the other side of the alley. I worked for Stickler's for $1 a day and meals, seven days a week.

I'm not sure why, but I changed locations and went to work for Bernard and Faye Lowrie at the Paramount Cafe. It was on the south side of the square close to where Dr. Harris' Dental office is now. I worked there for 10 cents an hour from 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00. That was when I met my first husband, Curtis Campbell, we were married and moved to Leon. We had two daughters, Alecia (Glen) and Anita (Van Scoy). The marriage didn't work out and we were divorced. After years of being good friends, Toad and I were married. He also had been married before, to Evadna Reece.

I worked ten years for Nellie Taggart in the Puritan Cafe, and then she made me a partner, so I guess I worked for seven years and was a partner for three. I believe at that time there were 14 restaurants or places that sold food in Osceola. Bernard and Faye Lowry had bought the B&H Café, and were having trouble with it so they asked if I wanted to buy it. I didn't have enough money, but Toad and I had become pretty close friends and he told me that if I wanted to buy a restaurant, he would go in with me. So when they asked if I wanted to buy it, I told them to go ask him. We did buy the B&H in 1948, and kept it 8 1/2 years. It was in the little stucco building next to where Dr. Fred Wood's Veterinary Clinic is now.

Toad's father developed cancer of the throat and when they operated on him, he died in Iowa City. His parents were wonderful in-laws and they took my girls like they belonged to them. They were the grandparents. Toad had more education than I, but he was a good teacher.

By this time my daughters were grown and educated. Anita married Bill Van Scoy and they lived in Murray. They both worked at Murray Products, Bill for 21 years, Anita for 27. They had four daughters — Cherie, Karalee, Brenda, and Christie. They have all married and I have a total of 10 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren. Bill is deceased and Anita continues to live in Murray.

Before Alecia went to college, she kept books for Toad and me. In those days, changing a title for a car involved sending $5 to Des Moines to be registered and they sent the title back. The process took about three days. Toad had an idea that there was no reason they couldn't take care of it in our own courthouse. It took a little while for it to go into effect, but after it did, it saved car buyers an inconvenience through all the years since. Lois Price was the County Treasurer, and Alecia was well acquainted with the title process so when the new regulations came through, Lois hired Alecia for that part of the work. After Alecia quit, Nancy Jones Price took her place. At the next election Bessie Childers became the new County Treasurer.

Alecia and her husband, Dave Glenn, went to Maryville, earned their degrees, and both of them got teaching jobs in Liberty, Missouri. Alecia taught at the same school for 38 years, the last two in their new building. They have one son, Bruce.

Getting her education and teaching position, of course, meant Alecia could no longer take care of our books, and at the same time the Interstate was being constructed. This would take traffic from Highway 69, and seriously cut our business, so we decided it was time to get out of the restaurant business. Toad said, "We'll sell this and you come down and keep my books." I knew nothing about the business. I'd worked in restaurants all my life so I knew how to cook and wait on people but I didn't know anything about operating a garage. I said, "I don't know to keep books." He said, "Your daughter can teach you," which she did. I kept books 17 years before we sold out.

An accident changed Toad's life. He was cleaning motors on cars. He bought used cars, we cleaned them up and put them out on the lot for sale. He was preparing to steam a gas tank that had gas in it. He drained the gas into buckets that were sitting there. We closed up at noon and went across the street to the Highway House for lunch. It was a hot day, and when we came back, he opened the door, but didn't turn on the fan. He lit the steamer, it exploded and burned him badly — both hands, back and chest. He was in the Veterans' Hospital for 40 days before he was able to come back. The doctors didn't think they would be able to save him but he came through it.

Because we had a good mechanic and car painter, Dale McAninch, we didn't close the garage, and when Toad was released, he went right back into the car business. He continued for several years, but was never really well again. Dr. Bristow said, "We don't know what it is about being burned but somebody who has been real healthy, after they have been burned like that, just everything happens to them."

We retired in 1974, after which he spent his days visiting, which he liked to do. Every morning he would go up to visit with John DeVore who had the barber shop in the hotel, then he would go to the restaurant, drink coffee and visit with the customers. In the afternoon they went to the Family Table, where they had a long table set up. Some of the fellows who gathered were Musberger, Selsor, Con Hall, Wesley Ford, Silvan Cole, George, and maybe others. There were surely a lot of world problems solved around that table.

But Dr. Bristow was right when he said, everything happens to burn victims. George developed a blood clot in his lungs. They removed it and then a blood clot went through his heart. He was laid up quite awhile with that. His heart was damaged and was never strong again. The final blow was a light stroke. George died in February 24, 1985.

His obituary tells: "George Allen 'Toad' Mumper, 78, died Sunday, February 24, 1985 at his place of residence. Services were held Wednesday, February 27 at the Kale Funeral Home in Osceola with the Rev. Neville Clayton officiating at the 2 p.m. rites. Military rites were performed at the gravesite by Davis Pence Post #69. Interment will be in the Maple Hill Cemetery."