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. 

Fountain City, WI Farm Pets...

Since I grew up on a dairy farm, there were animals around all the time.  Some of those animals provided the reason for our income as was true of the milk cows.  Milk cows gave birth to a cute calf every year but I didn't consider cows or calves pets.  We also had hogs that provided some of the farm income.  Sows had litters of pigs several times a year but I didn't consider sows or their progeny pets. We had chickens most of the time and they provided part of our food chain so I didn't consider them pets either.  

We did have a dog most of the time but our parents had some rules for a dog that was allowed to live on our farm with us.  Those rules were that the dog had to be good with cattle and had to always live outdoors.  The first dog I remember our family had was a collie named Pal.  We must have had that dog from the time of my birth as I remember that it was around as I started school at age six.  I remember liking Pal but I don't remember how long he lived.  He was good with cattle and went along with me when I walked into our pasture to get the cows headed to the barnyard for their evening milking.  Pal was good at nipping cow back legs and making sure they headed in the direction of the barn.  We had other dogs but I was not a lover of dogs like my three sisters were so I didn't spend much time pampering the dogs.  

We also had cats on our farm.  Basically, the same rules that applied to dogs also applied to the cats.  So the purpose of the cats was to keep the mice and rat population down and be able to live outdoors as they weren't allowed in the house either.

Food was not purchased for our dogs or cats.  The dogs were fed table scraps and the cats supplied their own food from their hunting expeditions in the barn.  Cats were given milk to drink during the time of milking both morning and evening.  Dogs probably drank water from the same water sources that the cows had which was an outdoor stock tank in good weather and drinking cups at their stanchions during the winter months.  Rain provided much of the water needs of outdoor animals.  

My mother loved singing canaries so she usually had a canary in a cage in our home while I was growing up.  I listened to the singing canaries but didn't get attached to them.

But there was an animal on our farm which I really loved and that was Patches, a riding horse.  Patches was probably bought primarily for my brother, Jim, who was nearly three years older than I am.  Jim had a period of time in childhood when he wanted to be a cowboy.  He got a lariat and roped fence posts and his three sisters. He and a friend, JoDell Jerrod, even started to build a cabin so he could live outdoors like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. So one day, a horse was bought and a corral was built where the horse would live.  Jim may have been about eleven years old when Patches joined our family.

Some Disagreements With My Parents During High School...

What's something I really disagreed with my parents about?  That is rather difficult to consider because it seems there is a difference between disliking and disagreeing.  Parents have a very important role to play in the rearing of their children.  That role is perhaps more difficult for Christian parents who not only want to raise kind, respectful, smart, happy, well adjusted children but also want their children to become followers of Jesus as taught in the Bible.  Children seem to be born with a pretty strong stubborn streak that puts them in opposition to many of their parent's desires.  

In my case, I seemed to realize that my parents were doing their best to disipline and guide me and my siblings to be all of the things I listed in my opening paragraph.  They had these goals for their children because they practiced these ways of living themselves.  I had great models of how to live as a godly, loving and industrious person.  There was no doubt that my parents loved me and loved the Lord.

Though I probably realized my parents were working hard to make a living as dairy farmers with its financial and labor intensive challenges, there were many requirements for me that I did not "like".  Here are some of those things:
 1.  Helping with housework - vacuuming, dusting, mopping

2.  Helping with laundry - carrying clothes to the outside clothesline to hang for drying, taking it back in when dry and folding and ironing as necessary

3.  Helping in the kitchen - doing the dishes, setting the table, peeling potatoes, etc. etc.

4.  Gardening all summer - planting, weeding, harvesting, helping with canning, freezing etc. etc.

5.  Farm work outside - getting the cows from the pasture, carrying pails of milk to the milkhouse, cleaning the barn gutters, feeding hay, throwing down silage, helping with haying, thrashing, silo filling etc. etc.

6.  Helping to saw wood for the wood burning furnace and kitchen stove - even when the outside temperature was well below zero degrees!!!

7.  Getting up at 6:00 AM to help in the barn before getting picked up by the school bus for school.

High School Organization Highlights...

When I was in high school, I did not have the use of a car to drive to and from school.  A school bus picked me up at the end of our driveway which was a short distance from our farm house.  All five of us Groves kids rode the same bus to whatever school we were attending - elementary grades 1 - 8 or high school grades 9 - 12.  There were very few if any students who drove themselves to school during my years of high school.  Maybe there was an  after school bus later that took boys home if they stayed for football, basketball or track practice but there were no school sports for girls at that time so girls never needed to stay after school for a late bus nor were girls in any organized sport programs.  

Band and choir were separate elective classes and I was in both of those classes all through high school.  In the band I played a baritone saxophone which was owned by the school for my first three years of high school (shown far right in the photo below) and then

transitioned to a Tenor saxophone when an older student graduated

and I was able to play that school owned instrument for my last year of high school.   The Pep Band which played at home basketball games was also an extra-curricular opportunity for me and my saxophone.

My Story of Being Lost One Time As A Child...

I do not remember ever getting lost as a child but I must have gotten lost at least once when I was probably about three years old.  I have heard this story a number of times about something that I did  but I don’t honestly remember it happening.

When this happened, I could not have been older than three because this incident happened during the time our family lived on my Great-Grandmother’s farm near Viroqua, WI.  We moved from that farm to another farm just before I had my fourth birthday.  

As I write this story, a few parts are facts and other parts are “probably” the what and why of this story.

I must have been an active toddler who loved being outdoors.  Apparently, one warm, beautiful day I decided to explore beyond the yard of our house and our farm buildings.  A paved road stretched along the front of our farm’s buildings.  The photo below shows me standing beside the paved road years later with my Great-Grandmother’s farm behind me.

 Alongside our farm, above the buildings, was a gravel road which led from the paved road to some of the fields of our farm as well as to another farm beyond our property.  It also led to an area known as the Maple Sugar Grove.  This was a working Maple Sap producing grove.  My father and mother spent time during each spring with the work of collecting the sap of the maple trees and getting maple syrup made.  They did some of their courting in that Maple Grove before their June wedding in 1941.