Featured Guest: My Dad

One of my goals this year for my blog, is to share with you people I know and want you to meet. My plan, if all goes well, is to feature at least one guest a month.

Much of the month of January I have dedicated my posts to organization and routine. I have thought a lot about how much routine helps our children; and have secretly wondered how much of the ADD issues of today would either be solved, or at least, helped if our homes were homes of routines.

(My Dad and Mom this past Christmas)

As I have tried to get more organized in my home, make and maintain routines I have thought of how ladies back 60 years ago lived out their daily lives. Routine was part of every one's life back then. It was then that I started thinking about my parents. What was their life like back in their childhood.

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My Mom and I talk a lot; and in the course of our conversations through the years I have heard her tell of her childhood. I have head her tell of her memories - some good -- some bad - (as memories always are...); and to some extent I somewhat know bits and pieces of her life - although not as well as I would like. However, my Dad and I have not had the opportunities of conversation that Mom and I have been able to enjoy.

It is for this reason, that I have chosen my Father to be my first featured guest on my blog. It is with pride that I introduce him to you. I love him with all of my heart and will forever be indebted to him for all the sacrifices he has made for me through the years. I can honestly say that I had no idea how much I would enjoy this interview with my Dad.

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I served him questions and he volleyed back answers to each one. I got off the phone with my Dad - and can not express how I felt. I got to know him better. Stories from his childhood allowed me to get acquainted with the parts of my Dad that made him who he was when I knew him as a little girl.

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My Dad was born on a farm in Norton, Kansas. He spent a lot of his childhood however, in Arvada Colorado. My Dad has the bluest of blue eye, a laugh that will make even the grumpiest man smile, and love to drink hot tea with milk and sugar. His hand wrapped within mine always made me feel safe. My Dad was a auto mechanic all while I was growing up; and to this day I love the smell of auto part stores - - so many many memories.

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I trust you enjoy getting to know him - and are inspired by the memories from his childhood. Here is the interview with my Dad:

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(Dad enjoying the outdoors with his dog Chester)

Martie: What time did you rise in the morning?
Dad: I would say about 7 in the morning.


M: Did you have a regular daily morning routine when you were a child?

D: Yes, we ate breakfast first. Then I had 3 cows to milk. I would then feed the calves, then the rest of the cows (we fed them hay), then I did the separator with the milk from the milking . After those things were done, I headed to school.


M: What do your remember eating for breakfast?

D: We had hotcakes and eggs for breakfast with cereal - (hot cereal). Sometimes we would have biscuits and gravy.


M: Was Grandma up when you left for school?

D: Oh yes, always, she was up for an hour or two before I got up. She had to get the fire ready and the wood stove going so it would be ready to make breakfast.


M: Was she dressed and ready for the day - or did she go through the morning routine in her robe and then get ready for the day after you left for school?

D: Oh, no! She was always dressed and ready for the day.


M: How did you get to school and how far was your school from your house?

D: The school was about a mile and a half one way. If there was not snow on the ground I would ride my bike to school; but in the winter I walked to school. I also walked home or rode home from school every afternoon.



Rachel wondered if it was uphill both ways; but I forgot to ask... LOL)


M: What was your afternoon routine when you got home from school?
D: I had to clean out the barns, get the feed ready to take to the barn (they stored it in their garage and then hauled it to the barn in the afternoons). Sometimes when Dad got home, I would help him grease the truck ( the dump truck - my grandpa hauled sand and gravel for a living). Then it was about dark and time for supper. We would eat supper and then right up to homework.

(Dad harvesting from the garden this past Fall. The smile on his face is exactly how I remember him looking when I was a little girl.)

M: How long did your homework take?

D: I would say, about and hour. In Jr High we purchased a television and sometimes I would get to watch the news with Dad. Other wise, there was not much on.


M: What chores do your remember doing around the house?

D: Hauling ashes out from the stove. Getting coal and wood for the mornings. I think I made my bed about 50% of the time - otherwise my Mom would make it while I was at school. (we laughed about that!) I would walk to town with Mom to help her carry the groceries back home.


M: What was your favorite toy or hobby as a boy?

D: We did not have many toys. I had a Shetland pony and I liked spending time with him.



*He told me how in the winter Grandpa would flood the bottom of the pasture and the hill going down to the pasture. They would use this for their sledding hill. A wood sled with runners was used to go down the hill. An old metal scoop shovel also made a great sled! Grandpa hooked up a flood light by the hill so they could play after dark. Neighbors were invited to come and sled also. Many came because the kids used one of the town's roads as their sledding hill - the parents all thought that their \ yard was safer than the road. He recalled having a lot of people there to sled and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the bond fire that was burning to keep folks warm.

(Taking a nap with one of the puppies)

M: What type of food did you eat for dinner?
D: Meat and potatoes, soup and hamburgers. On the weekends Mom would always make something like a baked chicken - a big meal for lunch, and then we would just have something small for supper that night.


M: Where did your meat come from?
D: We butchered our own. We had beef that we would butcher. We also had chickens. I remember cutting their heads off, sticking them in the boiling water. Mom would dress them after we killed them. All the meat was from our place.

**He told about how they screened in the back porch and would hang the meat in the porch area in the winter. Then when Grandma would need meat for dinner he would go in and cut her off a slab of meat for the evening meal. In the summer he told about how they rented a 'locker' in town and stored the meat and butter there.

M: What did you talk about at dinner?
D: I don't recall us talking at the dinner table. We just sat up and ate.

M: Why did you not talk at the table? Was it because you did not get along?
D: NO, no, we just were at the table to eat -not to talk. We all got along fine. We just sat there and ate.

M: When did you take your baths?
D: Every Friday night.

M: What was your school wardrobe like?
D: We had one pair of school shoes that we got before school started every year. We had two pairs of pants and two shirts for school. I remember Mom patching mending the clothes throughout the school year. She patched a lot of socks too. We changed out of our school clothes as soon as we got home. Our work clothes were old clothes from the last school year. I remember Mom making me mittens made from cloth with a thumb sewn it it.

M: How did Grandma wash clothes?
D: She had an old Maytag washer. I would help her bring it into the kitchen and hook it up by the sink. It a wringer on it - then she would hang the clothes outside. I remember in the winter helping her bring in the frozen sheets from off the line. She would put the sheets by the wood stove for them to thaw.

M: Do you remember any childhood illnesses?
D: I remember the doctor being at the house when I was really really little. I was very sick. They called Dad home because they thought I was not going to make it (they did not tell me that; but I remember them all talking and being concerned). I think later Mom told me I was really sick with pneumonia. I remember having chicken pox, measles and those things; but I don't remember being really sick. I do remember the polio outbreaks. That was really scary.

*He then told me a story about a boy named Billy that got polio and died from it three days later. He said it really was scary; because no one knew quite where it came from. Every Saturday they would walk to town and see a movie; but during the polio outbreaks they would not allow kids under 10 to go into the theater. He was too young and could not go like normal. He said they would also show children in iron lungs as a way to get people to give to the March of Dimes. He said seeing the pictures of kids in the iron lungs would scare him.

It was just wonderful to talk with Dad and have him tell me about his childhood. For my next post I will share his memories of being a child during World War two. I was completely fascinated! I have read with great curiosity of life during this time - completely forgetting that my Dad lived through those times!!

This Sunday is my Dad's 73rd birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you!! Thanks for sharing your memories with me - it meant more to me than you will ever know. I think you also have opened a new curiosity within me. I am pretty sure that there will be more interviews in the days to come. I want to know EVERYTHING you can remember!! Hope you have a wonderful day. I LOVE you. Happy Birthday!