Back to Narratives Davis Henry Mahana 16 Nov 2004
My parents lived on a small 21 acre farm one and a half miles east of Indianola, Iowa on Highway 92. I was born May 1, 1931 and weighed only 4 ¾ pounds. The hospital was a house converted to a small facility. There were very few rooms for patients. I had formula problems and was not very healthy. I was finally put on a goat’s milk formula. I developed allergies to wool, bacon, orange juice, and feathers. My parents had to remove the wool carpets in the house to help me. I was in the hospital several times during my first 5 years. When I attended Kindergarten at Hawthorne school I had to put on my corduroy snowsuit and leave before the other kids got their wool coats and shook out the wool fibers. I loved school and all the kids to play with.
I was about 3 years old when I gave my pet gold fish a rest. I caught it and laid it on the back on the davenport so it could rest from all the swimming. My mother found it later and of course it was dead. I was very sorry.
I had no children to play with near our farm. I had to entertain myself and did so with a good imagination. There was a large Mock Orange shrub in our back yard. It grew with a large arch with its branches which made a good space for a hide away. I had a blanket under the shrub and played hours with my Hollyhock dolls. I made families of the different colors of blooms. I had them doing all kinds of activities.
It was my job to take the apple and potato peelings out to the chickens. I would call here chick chick and they would come running. I would throw the peelings out on the ground. The first chicken would pick up a peeling and run. All of the other chickens would immediately run after that chicken leaving all the rest of the peels on the ground. I laughed and laughed at how dumb they were. They never learned to pick up the peels first. They would finally come back and eat all the peels after a lot of chasing.
When I was 5 years old I took tap dancing lessons. Mother made me a cute costume for the coming recital. When it came time for my dance for the audience I was too scared to go out and do it. They finally convinced me to run out and bow and then come back. The teacher was so mad at me that she refused to give me any more lessons.
One time my Dad had just finished putting up a new haystack. I was cautioned not to get on it. There was still a ladder up one side of the stack. Later I went up and down many times and made a mess of the stack. I was royally spanked but it sure was fun. Then I sat and sat for a long time getting the straw out of my hair.
I liked to go to Grandma Johns house for a vacation for a few days. She lived only a few miles away. She made great chicken and noodles. She had a large marble top on the counter where she rolled out the noodle dough. She also used this for pie crust and bread dough. They had cows and chickens. She made cottage cheese. I remember it in a cheese cloth hanging so the excess liquid could drain out. She kept milk, cheese and freshly churned butter in the ice box. I liked to help churn the butter. Sometimes the cream made butter quickly and other times it took a long time. She had to heat her iron on the stove to get it hot for ironing the clothes. We played cards at night around the table with an Aladdin lamp in the middle. They had no electricity or indoor plumbing. There were feather ticks on the bed, which was great in winter but not the summer. There were no screens on the windows so flies were everywhere. The telephone was an 8 party line. Each person had special ring pattern on long and short rings to distinguish who the call was for. Of course everyone could hear when a call came. For fun we could lift the receiver and quietly listen to the conversation of the neighbors.
December 13,1937 was a day of joy. My long awaited baby sister was born. It never occurred to me that it could have been a boy. I was impatient for them to come home from the hospital and called the Dr. Shaw and asked when my mom was bringing my new Betsy Wetsy home. My sister’s name was Betty Ann. No children were allowed at the hospital so I had to wait 10 days to see her. I was delighted when I could hold her.
In January one morning as I was getting ready for school someone came and banged on our door yelling “your house is on fire.” The Indianola fire department was called as well as my Dad at the Post Office. They came very quickly but the fire could not be put out. The water supply was not adequate to save the house so it burned to the ground. Cars were parked all up and down on Highway 92 as people came to help. They carried all the household furnishings out in the yard. There was no snow on the ground. The fire burned slowly and they were able to take up the bathroom fixtures of tub, toilet, and lavatory. All the saved furniture and other items were stored in the garage until we found a place to live. A few days later we moved into a rented house in town on North Howard Street. I had to walk about 10 blocks to and from Hawthorne School.
In July we moved to a house at 301 North D Street. I then went to Irving Elementary School that was only 3 blocks away. I had lots of neighborhood kids to play with. We all had wooden stilts and the goal for us all was to walk 2 blocks without falling. We had a version of hide and seek as teams. Our team once hid on the fire escape of the science building on the Simpson College campus. A skeleton hung in the room and looked out at us as we were hiding. We really hadn’t planned for that view.
In 4th grade the teacher chose me to read aloud to the class. This was from a book of long stories. Today kids would call them chapter books. The teacher then used this time to correct papers. I loved to read and used to check out 8-10 books per week from the public library.
One winter I came down with Small Pox and the house was quarantined. My Dad had to go to work but couldn’t stay in the house. He slept in the garage in January and had food brought out to him. I was very sick and there were specialists that came from Des Moines to see this rare case of Small Pox. I have scars to this day that I must have scratched. No one else contracted the disease so we were very pleased.
Summertime came and I enjoyed riding my bicycle out to the farm. Daddy spent most afternoons there taking care of animals and farm duties. I liked to go to the pasture and with his help shoot a 22 rifle trying to knock tin cans off fence posts. I was a real tom boy. One time when he wasn’t there I went in the pasture where the 2 farm work horses were. They were very tame and knew me well. I coaxed the one named Buster over to the wooden gate and climbed on. I just had his mane to hold on to as I rode around the pasture. The pasture was visible from the highway and someone driving bye saw me. They called my Mother who instantly had a fit. She was afraid of everything but I wasn’t afraid of anything. I wasn’t allowed to do that any more.
I was always a good traveler. In 1941 the family went to Seattle, Washington to visit my aunt and uncle. Betty was car-sick the whole way and Mother was afraid of the roads. I sat up in front with my Dad and had a great trip while Betty and Mother sat in the back seat. We visited Yellowstone Park and a bear came right up to our car as we were getting ready to leave. I saw the bear and ran back to the cabin. Mother was sure I was going to be eaten alive. Not many people were able to travel so far at that time for a vacation. I had wonderful stories to tell plus a good grasp of geography for school show and tell.
I decided it was time to learn to cook. I loved scalloped potatoes so I wanted to make that for supper. I got the potatoes peeled and followed the instructions properly. When it came time to take the Pyrex dish out of the hot oven I had a disaster. The oven rack was slanted as I pulled it out to get the hot dish more easily. The dish came sliding out and hit the floor in a million pieces of glass and scalloped potatoes all over. I cried and cried. I don’t remember what we had for supper that night.
Walking around the city square on Saturday evening with friends was the social highlight of the week. We parked our car early so it could be on the square and face the sidewalk. This was so you could see everyone go by and then people would stop and visit with you for a while.
My memories of World War II were listening to the radio for news. The newspaper pictures were all the graphic images that we had. The movie theaters had news clips before every movie. The grocery store had a barrel to collect and recycle gum wrappers and other aluminum foil. We had coupons given out by the county government for purchasing your allotment of gas, meat, sugar and other things. We used honey for baking instead of sugar. We made clothes from sacks that flour, chicken feed and etc. came in. When purchasing feed we bought several sacks of the same design. They had patterns on the material sacks so we tried to pick out several of the same design so we had enough fabric to make the intended clothing. You even traded with your neighbors to get enough of the same sacks. My Dad was a rural mail carrier so he had a big amount of gas available to be able to deliver the mail. His route was about 50 miles each day. If people wanted to go to Des Moines to shop they got together and all went in one car to save gas. No one could take any vacations or go very far to visit any relatives. The speed limit was set at 35 mph to conserve tires and gas.
After the war we were the first to apply for a new car. Daddy’s car had many miles on it from driving the several years during the war. One day the car had mechanical problems and he was helping the mechanic. He got a piece of metal in his eye and eventually, after surgery that wasn’t successful, had to have his eye removed. After he returned to the mail route his depth perception had changed. He could not judge the distance from the car to the mail boxes. The right side of the car was dented and many boxes were knocked down and had to be replaced.
At Christmas time I liked to go on the route with Daddy. He was well liked by all the people on his route and many put a special gift in the box for him. Sometimes the snow drifted and made going very difficult. These times, since he knew the road so well, he would say hang on, push the accelerator to the floor and hope to plow through the snow. By this time you couldn’t see anything but snow all around you. Most of the time he made it through but if he didn’t he would walk to the nearest farm house and someone would come and pull him out.
Since our house burned to the ground in 1939, we had lived in town and had gone back and forth to care for the livestock and farming operations. In 1945 we decided to rebuild on the farm. Since the war all the materials for building were in very short supply. We had to get permits for purchasing many things. One permit specified that if we rented space in the new house to a returning veteran we could purchase bathroom fixtures. We agreed to do this and upon completion of the house rented the upstairs rooms to a veteran and his wife. They had to go through our kitchen and living room so privacy was not possible. We all got along reasonably well. We had lived in a very small house across the road while the house was being built. I was glad to move into more space.
Living in the country gave me the opportunity to join 4-H Sunny Servers Club. I really started learning cooking and sewing skills. I was on a demonstration team to show how to make baking powder biscuits. I practiced so many times that my Dad was tired of biscuits and more biscuits. I had sewing projects another year and made many of my own clothes. I made a dress and was in the Style Review for the County Fair. I was chosen to go to the State Fair and model the dress. One year I was elected as a County Officer. I had many great experiences in my years of 4-H participation.
I rode the school bus to school every day. I was active in Mixed Chorus where we gave programs, went to contests, and helped with school play productions. In 10th grade I was a Library apprentice at the Indianola Public Library. In my junior and senior years I worked after school and on Saturdays for the J. C. Penney Company. I enjoyed this a lot and spent money on new clothes. I have fond memories of high school.
I was baptized as a baby and joined the First Presbyterian Church as a young adult. We had a very active Sunday evening Youth group which was a lot of fun. I sang in the church choir for several years.
I dated Harvey Henry during my 11th and 12th grades. I received an engagement ring on my birthday May 1,1949. We were married in the First Presbyterian Church September 4, 1949. We went to the Black Hills in South Dakota for a honeymoon. We had a cute cabin in Bacon Park in Rapid City. It cost us $2.50 a night—we stayed 3 nights! We went back many years later to see this memory spot only to find that it was a parking lot for a large mall.
We returned to Iowa and moved our things to Ames, Iowa. We started at Iowa State College. Harvey was enrolled in the Architecture program and I was enrolled in Home Economics. We first lived in the basement of Harvey’s Uncle Charley and Aunt Fern Henry’s house at 234 South Franklin Street. (Harvey had designed this house earlier.)
The next summer we were on the farm with Harvey’s parents. Fall came and we went back to Ames and lived in a very small house on a turkey farm near Ames. After one quarter of school we moved into a house at 220 South Riverside Drive in Ames. I had the responsibility of cooking and caring for two daughters of George Hagen who was deaf and divorced. He had to have a care-giver in order to have custody of the children. We moved in and were a family of five. At 19, I was responsible for meals, cleaning, shopping for food within a budget, washing and ironing and general care of the girls. While the girls were in school I also was in school and carried 13 credit hours. We were all very busy. Sharon was 12 and like a sponge for learning everything in the kitchen. She wanted to help cook everything. It was fun to teach her. We all got along very well. We learned sign language so we could talk to George without getting pen and paper. He could also read lips very well. If I asked to have the potatoes passed at the table and he saw me say it he would respond
The next year we moved to Pammel Court on the campus at Iowa State right north of the railroad tracks. The buildings were World War II barracks. I took care of the neighbor girl and continued school. Marsha was born in June 16,1952 and was a very fussy baby. I tried nursing her for six weeks but she was not gaining weight as she should. Harvey took a sample of my milk to the Dairy Industry Building for testing. They were surprised at the request for the test. It showed practically no butterfat content. I was basically giving Marsha water to drink! We tried several formulas before getting one to agree with her.
It was so hot that summer that we all suffered. The barracks building had high windows, very little insulation, a cinder drive in front, and a railroad embankment behind it. No cooling breezes could get to us. We had only one small fan so in the evenings we would go for car rides to cool off and get Marsha to sleep. When winter came I dried her cloth diapers on the top of our oil-fired space heater. They were very stiff when dry and Grandma Henry said Marsha would be bow-legged from those diapers.
Martin was born February 15, 1954 and weighed 8 pounds. He was a hungry baby in the hospital and cried a lot. When we got home in four days I gave him larger amounts of formula and he was immediately a happy baby.
Harvey graduated from college in May 1954 and secured a job in Waterloo, Iowa with the Thorson, Thorson, and Madson architectural firm. We moved to Cedar Falls to a nice bungalow house with a great yard and lots of Oak and Hickory trees. Marsha at last had windows that she could see out of. We had a patio, sand box, a swing set, and a fenced yard for play. It was such a wonderful contrast to the Pammel Court barracks living.
We had a big garden on a lot in Cedar Falls where we planned to build a new house. When we went to work in the garden I gave Marsha and Martin each a weed and instructed them to pull weeds that matched their weed. It was a good family project. When the green beans produced I picked a bushel of beans and brought them back to the house for canning. Marsha and Martin and their friends from across the street snapped all the beans as they watched TV. I washed jars and processed the beans.
I was a 4H leader for two years and taught Sunday School and Bible School for several years. I took a few credit hours at Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls to add towards a Home Economics degree. I did my practice teaching while pregnant with Darrell. I had 10th grade girls for a sewing unit. They thought it was neat that their teacher wore a “hatching jacket.” We got along just fine.
Darrell was born May 4, 1957. We got a dryer to go with our washing machine. Darrell was a happy baby and delighted us all. At about two years old he was so attached to his blanket that when I washed it he sat in front of the dryer waiting to get it back.
Denise was born April 6, 1959 and we were so happy for a girl to make it even. She was a happy gal and fit into everything going on. I sewed most of the girl’s clothes. It was fun to see some expensive dress at the store and then search for material, combine patterns, and have a similar dress. Denise loved stuffed animals and wanted them all in bed with her. It got so there was hardly room for her so choices had to be made.
In the fall of 1962 we moved to Iowa City, Iowa. We lived for a year in a rented house at 516 Holt Avenue. We found a 1.5 acre wooded lot north of Iowa City in the country. It had 63 Oak trees and 2 Hickory trees. We designed and started building a house. We had to be out of the rented house before our house was completed so we lived in our travel trailer for two months. We put up rods in the garage for hanging clothes. We either had to be in bed or eating as the space was so restricted. We moved into the lower level in late fall. Marsha, Martin, and Darrell rode the school bus to school so they were gone during the day. Work on the house progressed but the windows were not delivered until February. We installed temporary framing and plastic to cover the openings. The plastic didn’t stop the sound so it was like being outdoors in the wind and storms.
I could not move into the kitchen until the cupboards were all built and finished. I sanded and applied stain and then two coats of polyurethane finish--sanding between each coat. I have enjoyed my kitchen very much through the years and, except for new appliances, it is much the same as when built.
I was a Campfire leader for five years for mostly the same girls. These were Denise’s age. We had lots of fun as they learned many things over the years. At one time I drove our station wagon while the girls picked up trash along two miles of road between our house and town.
In 1970 I helped start the Four Seasons Garden Club. We have learned about growing many kinds of plants and arranging flowers to beautify our homes. I helped plan many trips for the garden club over an eleven year period and served as the tour director.
I have always liked to travel. Many vacations as a child and as an adult have taken me to all 50 states. I treasure the family trips to show our children wonderful scenery and good times. We have gathered extended family (17 of us) for one-week vacations in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, and Door County, WI. My friend Bernie Knight and sister Betty and I have had many trips seeing gardens and birds.
Now that the children are all gone from home other interests can be considered. Our yard has many tall Oak trees that provide an over-story of shade for growing Hostas. Starting in 1978 we have grown and accumulated many Hosta varieties. We have a large display garden of mature Hostas and companion plants. We have an electric fence around the yard and garden to keep out the deer who love to eat Hostas. I don’t choose to feed the deer. Gardening is the big summertime activity.
Genealogy is a fun wintertime hobby. I took a class in genealogy research in 1995 and have been involved since then. I have data about the Mahana family back to 1778 in Delaware. This is my Grandmother John’s family. The John family records are back to William John in1745 in Wales. My maiden name of Davis was researched by a cousin who shared the data. It goes back to Nathaniel Davis I in 1700 in Wales. My father’s mother’s name was McCampbell. I have researched that family back to 1688 in Northern Ireland. This has been a challenge and great fun. I still have bits and pieces to find. Now the job is to put it all together in a form to be enjoyed by others. I especially like to know stories about all the ancestors.
We have prepared computer records of many families including hundreds of photos. Hard copies have been preparedBack to Narratives Davis Henry Mahana