I was born in a small tenant house owned by my Grandfather Schafer on Feb. 10, 1920, near Grandview, Iowa. My parents already had two children, a girl, Marian and a boy, Bob. Shortly after I was born they moved about 100 miles north near Manchester where my father farmed with Fred Porteous. I do not remember too much about timing but as I heard it told, by the time I was two they had moved to a Riley farmhouse near Ryan and from there to the Wright house in Ryan. When I was two they had another baby boy named Kenneth who was stillborn. By that time Dad was working in the creamery in Ryan as an assistant buttermaker under Louis Ross. The Rosses had a boy I thought was pretty nice. 
I remember it must have been my fourth or fifth birthday he came running across the yard yelling, "Wanda, Wanda, I have a handkerchief for you."
When I was in first grade I got up one morning with a sore throat. My mom called the doctor who took a culture and told her he would let her know what it showed. A couple days later I insisted I felt fine and went to school. The county nurse came that day as my culture had come back positive for diphtheria. Marian's also came back positive. Mom was quarantined in with us kids but a few days later she was sick and Dad got quarantined in with us. I remember Dad telling that when all of the dishes were dirty, he would stand Bob up on a chair and make him start to wash dishes. Bob was seven and I bet the dishes weren't washed very well. Poor Mom, the doctor gave us shots in the side to make us better that really hurt when he pulled the needle out, Marian and I each just had one shot and she had to have two.
We lived in the Wright house for several years. While there my younger sister Nina was born. She was named after a sister of my dad's who had died at a very early age. The picture they had of her showed a very beautiful child with long curls, sweet smile, etc. (Note: this picture is currently in the possession of Daniel Eckberg) They sent us over to the neighbors' the night she was born. About that same time I needed to lose my two front teeth. Mom tied some strings to them and I insisted Dad had to pull them and walked up to the creamery with two strings hanging out of my mouth. Dad wasn't there so I walked back home again with the two strings still hanging. Mom finally convinced me the neighbor could pull them for me as well as Dad.
While I was in grade school I got interested in spelling and found that I was good at it. There was a county-wide spelling bee every year and I wanted to enter it when I was in seventh grade. My father wasn't so sure I should, however, and offered me 25 cents if I wouldn't enter the spelling bee, thinking I'd embarrass myself, and him too. Imagine his surprise when I won the spelling bee for the whole county! Then I went back the next year and again did well, placing second!
Sometime after this the buttermaker quit and Dad was made buttermaker and we moved to an apartment over the creamery. That was nice, we had indoor plumbing, not a bath but plumbing. We had a storeroom where Dad liked to make beer. Marian and I slept in a room just off the storeroom and quite often after he had bottled it we were waked by loud pops, Dad's beer had blown the caps off. While we lived in the apartment above the creamery, when I was fifteen, a baby brother was born. Mom and Dad could not agree on a name and since it was during the world series, Dad said we would name him for the winning pitcher on Sunday, which was to be Game 5. Sunday came, the starting pitchers were Schoolboy Rowe and Lonnie Warnecke. Bill Lee came in to relieve Lonnie Warnecke and they won the game, so my brother was named Lonnie Lee. Can you imagine calling Uncle Lonnie, "Uncle Schoolboy?"
Shortly after Lonnie was born the doctors told Dad that the trouble he was having with his back was the humid conditions in the creamery and said he should get a job outside. So he had to quit making butter, bought a truck and started hauling cream. My parents had to move from the apartment above the creamery and moved to a house on the southwest side of Ryan. While we lived ther Marian and Lloyd Lee were married. My grandparents came up for the wedding and always after that, when my grandfather talked about it, he said it was when they came up for the funeral. My folks did not live long in the house on the southwest side of town before moving to the Cummings house.
My brother Bob wanted a bicycle very badly. The drugstore had a contest, they gave a ticket with each 10 cent purchase and you could vote with it. Bob stationed himself outside the store and as people came out he asked them if they wanted their ticket and if not he asked for it and wrote his name on it. He won the bicycle. I felt he should teach me to ride it. I badgered him until one day he and a friend on his took me up to the top of the cindered alley behind the creamery and got me balanced and sent me off, without telling me how to stop, or anything. 
Naturally, I fell on the cinders, got up, went in the house and never asked to or tried to ride a bike again for years. Bob also had a paper route and hired me for a nickel a week to deliver one end of town for him. When he graduated from 8th grade and went to Grandpa Schafer's to go to high school, I inherited the whole route. They had a contest each year to see who could get the most new customer and winners had three days at a camp along the river. I had certain friends that always subscribed during that period so I won both years I had the paper. That was a great experience for me.
