My Moment of Salvation

 As a young child of age 6, I responded to a Pastor's invitation to receive the free gift of Christ's salvation by praying a prayer in which I told God that I believed in Him, I repented of my sin and wanted Him to come into my heart and be my Savior.  I had gone to the front of our church, knelt down and immediately felt that someone else had just knelt beside me.  When I opened my eyes to see who was there, I saw that it was my mother.  She asked me if I was ready to ask Jesus  to come into my heart.  I told her, "Yes".  She listened as I prayed my prayer.  I'm not sure of her exact words at that time but I'm quite certain that she assured me that God had indeed, come into my heart because of my belief, repentance and trust in Him. 

The photo below has the five Groves kids lined up outside of the Nazarene Church in Winona, MN. Our family attended this church for the first years after we moved from a farm near Viroqua, WI to a farm near Fountain City, WI which was seven miles from this church.  I'm not sure of the date of this picture but it must be about 1952 or 1953.  Perhaps it is Easter Sunday.  Margelyn was born in October of 1950.  Barbara and Kathleen are wearing the dresses they wore as flower girls for the wedding of our Aunt Mildred Groves to Riley Burchfield.  Jim and I, Linda, have new Bibles,    It was in  this church during a service that I went forward and received God's gift of salvation. 

Though that experience happened about 70 years ago as I begin this new blog in 2020, I have a very clear memory of that experience.  I truly believe it was the moment in time when I personally accepted God's free gift of salvation because of Jesus' death on the cross and I became a child of God with the Holy Spirit welcomed inside of me.   

This decision has guided me throughout my whole life and has been the best and most significant decision I have ever made.
With this blog, I have two main goals.  The first goal is my response to several verses of scripture passages which I have found in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 6: 5-7
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Psalm 71: 17-18
Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.  Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.
Psalm 78:  4b; 5b-7
...we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done...he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.  Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
My second reason to start this blog is to tell some of the stories of my life and of other family members - most of which will be what I remember of those who have gone before me.

November 1, 1948 Memories...

This blogpost is the transcription of some email messages shared between my parents James and Edna Groves' 5 children in November 2021.  It started with myself, Linda, sharing some entries from the diary of her mother, Edna, which had been written as James and Edna and their 4 children moved from Viroqua, WI to Fountain City, WI in November 1948.  These memories are shared in the hopes that future generations will find some information about earlier generations, who they were, how they lived and what their lives were like.

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I, Linda Groves Worden begin the email I sent to my four siblings and their families. 

Nov. 1, 2021

I want to remind us about the day our parents moved themselves and four of us from the farm in Viroqua which was owned by Minnie B. Cox Groves to the farm Dad and Mom bought and that we remember the most about near Fountain City.

While I was visiting the Berndts in La Crosse in June, we got out some boxes the Berndts are storing that have items which belonged to Dad and Mom.  We went through things and disposed of items in a few different ways.  As I prepared to leave, I asked Marge if it would be OK if I took Mom's diary that covers the years 1946-1950.  I had never read any of Mom's diaries and wanted to read about 2 major things - the 1948 move to Fountain City and the Jan. 1949 car accident when I had 6 baby teeth knocked out.

Today I am going to share about 2 weeks of entries made from Oct. 26, 1948 - Nov. 7, 1948 + a few extras...

Oct. 26 Tues 1948  A memorable day! Nellie &  I dressed 12 chickens. Put 10 in deep freeze.  Paul & James picked up corn.  All men & Uncle Harvey came & we settled with Gram.  She owed us $832.38.

Oct. 27 Wed 1948 Went to town in a.m. & tended to business matters.  James went to Foun. City. Took inlaid linoleum up.  Hazel Morrison had a party for Gram.

Oct 28 Thurs 1948  Scott, Thelma, Henry (or Harvey) & Iiva McClung & I went to Foun. City & laid inlaid linoleum.  Scott had been very ill yesterday with v.b. nose bleed.  Got home about 9.  James took a truck load up.

Oct 29 Fri 1948  I got our clothes in order to go to Halloween party & farewell for us at the School house.  Nellie helped pack.  Party collection $18.69.  ($18.69 in 1948 is worth $212.73 today.)

Oct 30 Sat 1948  Helen & kids came down & Gen, Norma & John also.  All packed Gram's things & James took them out to Gen's.  Rainy dreary day !

Oct. 31 Sun 1948 Had to work all day in order to get ready to move.  Washed clothes & did quite a bit of packing.  Fuel pump went bad on Pick-up.  Had to get a new one & put on.

Nov 1 Mon. 1948 Got up at 4:10 a.m.  Got all our things packed & were ready to leave about 11:30.  Jas & I had dinner at Tryggestad's.  Zube's took children to F.C.

Nov 2 Tues 1948  Tried to straighten up the kitchen a bit.  Gas man came & installed the stove in afternoon.  I took Jimmy to meet his new teacher.

Nov 3 Wed 1948  I was exhausted!  Felt terribly dizzy & weary so slept 2 hrs. when kiddies did.  James went to Viroqua & divided the cattle.  Olaf Walby & Uncle Harvey helped.

Nov. 4 Thurs 1948  Semi brought 27 head of cattle.  Had fuel pump trouble. Bad rainy day.  Half died on the way.  Others were down & almost died but revived when they got air. Jas. brought a load of hogs.

Nov 5 Fri. 1948  Bad, rainy day.  James had to leave the Ford truck in Winona last night so I took, him down today to get it.  Put linoleum on table top & ledge in pantry. 

Linda Groves Worden's Grandparents...

Minnie B. Cox Groves

I have a few memories of some of my Grandparents but unfortunately my life has not been blessed with long periods of time in which to know my Grandparents.   

When I was born on December 7, 1944, my family and I lived in the home of one of my Great-Grandmothers.  Her name was Minnie Brithomart Cox Groves. She is pictured in a photo probably taken about the time I was born. 

My parents were married in the yard of that home on June 7, 1941. 

I have a picture showing those who attended that wedding.  The photo shows Pastor Ferguson, his wife, an unnamed person just behind my Great-Grandmother Minnie B. Groves,  my paternal Grandparents, Minnie's son, William, his wife, Amanda Isaacs Groves, my parents James B. Groves, Edna Matson Groves, my step-Grandmother Ella Lind Matson and my aunt Mildred  Groves.  Below those folks are my Dad's brothers, Hubert and Vernon.  I do not know the names of the woman or child.

Life's Changes...

When I was a child, one of the chores on our dairy farm that needed to be done each day during the summer months was to "get the cows."   This chore meant a person had to hike into our woods to find where the cows were eating or resting and get them to head "home".  In other words get them to walk back to the barnyard so they could be let into the barn for milking in the evening.  As soon as the cows were found, roused and standing they knew where to go and how to get there.  Sometimes we had a dog that helped with the round up of the cattle and sometimes we had our horse, Patches, to ride for this purpose.  This was frequently my job.  Especially during the beautiful autumn days, I loved to do this task.  Our woods had  lots of maple and oak trees whose leaves turned brilliant golden, crimson, russet and amber each fall.  We had hickory nut trees that bore immense crops of nuts that carpeted the ground below their branches.   There were wild apple trees with juicy, fragrant fruit that provided a delicious snack for the interested child following a herd of cows home.   And when this was my privilege, I would occasionally pick a few apples and sit leaning against the trunk of a hickory nut tree and dream about my future.  I felt my surroundings were gorgeous.  I must have been an adolescent just beginning to imagine that some day I would meet a Prince Charming and when that happened I wanted to bring him to my beautiful spot where we would dream together about an exciting and meaningful future.  In the future I imagined, we would not live on a farm.  My Prince Charming would be a tall, dark and handsome Pastor or missionary who would serve in a church or another country far from the United States.  I had already decided that I wanted to some day be a Pastor's wife.  At that time I thought a Pastor's family got to host missionaries when they returned from the mission field and came to speak about and present their work to a church congregation.  I loved to attend those services at our church and I imagined how wonderful it would be to get to know those people better which I assumed was a privilege of a Pastor and his family.  I definitely wanted to be a mother so I imagined having a family and having the joy of all that brings with it.  This is how I imagined my life would unfold.  Is this what happened?

I grew up on a 200 acre dairy farm in Wisconsin which my parents owned and operated.  There were 120 acres of tillable land and 80 acres of wooded pasture land on that farm.  My Dad milked an average of 26 cows twice daily until he retired at age 65.  He then sold the farm and retired with my mother to a home on an acre of land where he could have a garden but no cows, pigs or chickens.  My Dad had been raised on a dairy farm so grew up doing farm work year round.  He took on full-time farming after he completed high school and a one year Normal school course to become a teacher.  He must have had a challenging  experience while student teaching because he decided after that to return to the career he had grown to love which was dairy farming.  He and his younger brother, Hubert, had been farming their Grandmother’s farm following the death of their Grandfather so he continued with that opportunity.  His brother decided to pursue education to become a pastor about the time my parents met and married.  My parents continued living on that farm until they decided to leave the tobacco raising area of Wisconsin for another dairy farm they bought 75 miles away from my Great-Grandmother’s farm.  In her advancing years she was moving in with one of her daughters for six months of the year and a second daughter for the other six months of a year so she sold the farm.    My parents had four of us children when we moved to the dairy farm near Fountain City, WI.  Another sister joined the family after the move.

What is Something Crazy That Has Happened to You?

 I am having some trouble answering this question because I don’t seem to be a very crazy person and not much happens to me that could be described as crazy. Recently, however, I was relating a “childbirth” story and when the person I was talking to responded with, “That is crazy,” I knew that I would write a story about the “crazy” things that happened when my first son was born.

Fifty years ago, I was pregnant with our first child. Since we did not know the gender before birth in those days, we did not know that I would be having a baby boy. My due date was June 11, 1971. I was a school librarian at a Middle School at that time and June 11th just happened to be the last day of school that year for teachers. My husband was a student at Trinity Divinity School at that time and commuted each day to classes 50 miles from Racine, WI where we lived. We lived very close to Mitchell Jr. High where I worked so I could very easily walk back and forth to my job.

After I learned I was pregnant during the fall semester of 1970, I learned from my Principal that teachers who became pregnant during the school year were required to resign following the end of the semester in which they learned of their pregnancy. This was very difficult news for John and me. I was earning our income while he was a student. If my job ended, our income ended and that would make it difficult for him to complete his Ministerial program to become a Pastor. Fortunately for us, my Principal knew our situation and wanted me to be able to continue in my position until the year ended or the baby arrived so that John could continue his seminary education. My principal took my situation to the Superintendent of Schools and advocated for a change in the policy in my case. That request was granted and I continued my job as the school librarian as I continued to carry our first child.

Since babies can arrive early, I wanted to make sure I saved my “sick” days until the end of the school year in the event our baby would arrive early. I had very good health that year and did not use any sick days during that year.

Spring Banquets For Teens...

This story is about an event I attended annually as a young teen through my college years known as the Spring Banquet.  In my teenage era, Christian youth were strongly urged not to attend dances so most teens did not go to the prom during their high school years.  But there was an event held for teens that took the place of the prom and allowed for very nice suits and dresses to be worn.  This event was called the Spring Banquet and included a special program following a lovely meal.  The program would usually include a speaker, special musicians and sometimes a Christian teen movie but no dancing.  It was a very special event which I looked forward to each spring.

While I was in high school and before my brother graduated from high school, the Groves girls would attend the Spring Banquet with our brother.  The first photo below is of my brother and me which was taken in the front yard of our farm home. The photo was developed in June 1958.   I would have been in seventh grade that spring and my brother would have been a sophomore in high school.

Stages of the Buildings on the James & Edna Groves Fountain City, WI Farm 1948 - 1978...

James and Edna Groves, my parents, bought a farm that was five miles from Fountain City, WI in 1948.  They had been living and farming on my Great-Grandmother’s farm which was near Viroqua, WI.  The decision about whether to buy that farm or move to another area of WI in order to leave behind the tobacco raising area of WI was not made in haste I’m quite sure.  Both of my parents had lived in the Viroqua area most of their lives and had many relatives and friends in that area.  But WWII had ended and soldiers were returning to their homes in the states.  Many of those soldiers had become addicted to nicotine because of the free cigarettes which had been supplied to them in the military.  My parents did not raise or use tobacco because they felt it was not something Christians should do.  But the land around Viroqua seemed to be good for raising tobacco and tobacco was in high demand.  Therefore that land was higher priced than other WI farm land outside the Viroqua and Westby area.  My parents found a farm seventy-five miles from Viroqua and decided to buy it.  The farm was at the top of a hill above the Mississippi River.  It was 200 acres - 120 acres of tillable land and the rest was pasture for the dairy herd our family had or it was wooded areas.  I was nearly four years old when we moved there.  I had an older brother and two younger sisters.  We would have another sister born after we moved to the farm near Fountain City, WI.

 The story I am writing today is one in which I share photos primarily of the barn and outer buildings as they were in November 1948 when we moved to the farm and additional photos that document the changes and additions that were made to the barn and barnyard during the years we lived there.  

This is the oldest picture of the barn that I have.  This is probably what my parents saw when they first saw this farm and when they moved there in November 1948.  A chicken coop is partially shown on the left with the granary partially shown on the right.  A hog shelter is shown to the right of the barn.