Author: Robert
Year: 1940
Place: North English
"You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream." In my youth ice cream was fairly scarce. Most people in the country did not have refrigerators or home freezers. If you wanted ice cream, you went to the drug store soda fountain or most restaurants had ice cream. OR you could make your own ice cream. This involved going to North English and buying a block of ice. Usually we took a gunny sack to put a 10 lb. block of ice in. Lots of people had ice boxes (old type) and bought ice on a regular basis for them. Mom would mix sugar, eggs, cream, milk & vanilla to make the ice cream. Dad would take an axe and bust up the ice in the gunny sack. Then the fun began. Everyone would take turns turning the crank on the freezer. Of course it quit being fun real quick, because as the ice cream froze, it got harder to turn the crank. When it finally got done, all agreed that it was worth the effort. Our ice cream freezer was a White Mountain 6 Quart model. Lots of people would come and borrow our ice cream freezer to make ice cream. If you read this and have never had home-made ice cream, consider yourself deprived.

Author: John
Year:  1936
Place: South English
We had a neighbor. He never married. There were four boys lived close to him. We just about drove him up a wall. He lived to be 107 years old. He farmed his whole farm with walking machinery. Walking plow, walking cultivator. And people would say, “Why don’t you get a riding cultivator, you could afford to do that.” And he would say, “I just like to walk.” And he would walk one bottom at a time all around those fields year after year and he lived to be 107.

Author: LaVelda
Year:  1948
Place:  Iowa City
Memorial Day was a big weekend in our family. Mother would take flowers from her lively flower garden days in advance. She had a green thumb and had many beautiful plants she transplanted to small pots to take to the cemeteries. The day before was spent fixing chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad and cake to fit into a box. The hot foods were wrapped in layers of newspapers and towels. Water was frozen in tin pans and the ice wrapped to put around cold dishes and drinks. Old plates and silver and cups were used. No paper plates or ice coolers were used then. A couple of old blankets completed the load. All of us piled into dad’s Plymouth and made the trip to Ewart’s cemetery on Ewart Road. We would go to Tiffin to our sister’s grave. From there, we would travel to South English for Mother’s brother and other relative graves. Usually about this time a little country school would be found where blankets were spread and the delicious food would be eaten. The outhouses at the school served as a rest stop. The roads were mostly gravel and traffic went both ways on two lanes. Gas stations were in the small towns that we passed through. Gas pumps were round and you could see the gas in the top. In the Amanas, you couldn’t get gas on Sunday and English wasn’t spoken then – only German. A person who spoke English during the week didn’t know it on Sunday. Attendants pumped the gas, cleaned windows, checked tires and oil. Gas was $1 per gallon or less. Tires had inner tubes. A patch on the inner tube would fix most problems. After decorating the graves, we would visit relatives in Conroy, South English, North English, Keswick, Kinross, Wellman, Keota and Harper. This was a time for families to get together.

Author: Ethel
Year:  1933
Place: Iowa County
My parents lived on a farm in Iowa County. The community was called Armah. My grandparents lived just a short distance down the road from our farm and were also farmers. It was hay making time and when the loose hay was brought to the barn in a hay rack it was placed in the barn by means of a large fork with a locking device on the end. The fork was attached to a rope and a system of pulleys raised the forkful of hay into the barn loft. A horse pulled the rope in order to raise the forkful of hay. It was decided by my parents and grandparents that I was old enough and strong enough to lead the horse. I don’t remember the name of the horse but I am sure it was one of Grandpa’s most trusted animals. I looked down at the horses feet and thought them so enormous that they would surely crush me if the horse or I misstepped. I did however, persevere and finished the loads of hay. Now it was time for my compensation, Grandpa gave me four quarters. That seemed very good pay but what I secretly wished for was a dollar bill. I walked back down the road for home with my four quarters tightly clutched in my small hand and arrived home to be met by my mother who informed me I must give two of my precious quarters to my sister because she had to stay home.