Back In The Day

40 years ago last night Jan and I were married in the Central Reformed Church where Jan attended. My brother Bill and my sister Beth were ring bearer and flower girl. Beth was 5 and Bill was 8. I was 18 and Jan was 19. My parents were 40. 

40 years ago our honeymoon was to northwest Iowa for the weekend. For the past number of years we have spent a week together in Arizona before things get really busy.  

This year the Commodity Classic was in Phoenix. Fellowship of Christian Farmers always has a booth and dares to talk to folks about their eternity. They also sponsor a church service on Saturday evening where I gave the message.

We also visit Aunt Ruth when we go to Arizona. Her and her husband who has since passed away moved down to the valley in 1961.

Her 1986 Crown Victoria still looks like a new car. All her life she has enjoyed getting and reading all her old home town news from the Pella Chronicle and saving many of them.

So while the girls talk I enjoy looking through her old newspapers. The article below is really old and talks about a group of folks in Pella splitting off from the Dutch Reformed Church and joining the Christian Reformed faction. 

I was 8 years old and still remember Pella Christian High School burning down. We lived where Elmer and Ruth live now northeast of Osky. My Dad's cousin Dick was over visiting and saw all the black smoke some 25 miles away. They went to check it out and wouldn't take me along no matter how hard I begged.

I remember going for a ride to see the construction of a brand new dam on the Des Moines river and being surprised at all the building sites which were still down in what was going to be the bottom of the lake. Those sites were to be excavated at a later date. I remember stories telling how it filled so fast much of that never happened.

Sixty years ago a tillage study came out suggesting there was a 3-4 bushel advantage by fall plowing over spring plowing. The article states the spring plowing made 67 bpa. and the fall plowing went a whooping 70 bpa.

Some things become so popular their name replaces what they actually are. A Knipco is a brand for a kerosene portable heater however everyone calls them Knipco heaters. A Glencoe Soil Saver instead of a disk chisel. A Gosselink building instead of a granary. Even though I cleaned them out dozens of times I never did care much for scooping out those Gosselink granaries.  

My parents helped me start a checking account when I started 4-H at 10 years old. Jan and I banked at Leighton when we got married. We used to have 100 acres of hay that we small square baled with wire tie. We would sell semi loads of small bales to dairies in Missouri. We would weigh those loads of hay on the scale at the FS service station in town. The truck driver and I would arm wrestle for who had to pay the $1 scale fee. Since most Missouri truckers paid for hay in cash I would sometimes send Jan to Leighton with lots of cash to deposit.

Along time ago my Grandpa and his three boys used to own and operate an auto service and sell Hudson cars. The building still stands today just east of where the Pella Light Plant used to be. It was back then on the main highway. Pictured below was Lenard, Germ, Pete, Charles, and Jake.

Back to more recent history. I attended a legislative Bible Study this past Thursday morning before talking to folks about some recent legislation. Our family is hosting a legislative forum this coming Friday morning at the cabin. Give me a call if you are interested.

Pella Middle School has done some remodeling and had some no longer needed school furniture. This group of volunteers help load two trailers and two pickups yesterday. We took the school desks, shelves, tables, etc. to Joshua Christian Academy in east Des Moines, a mission Christian school for lower income kids. Thanks Cheryl. I'm still surprised your father was Cleo, my father's old Cen-Pe-Co oil salesman back in the day from the Lynnville-Sully area.

When a person looks back once in a while so much has happened over the last 40 years. Someday soon I'm going to write a story for my grandchildren. That's how they shared back in the day even back to Bible times. My prayer is at the end of the story my grandkids can say, Grandpa loved his wife and family. He loved his job. He loved his Lord.