Marvin Johnson remembers nearly 80 years of Iowa farm life.
Marvin Johnson remembers sledding to country school
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Marvin Johnson remembers nearly 80 years of Iowa farm life. |
“I remember pretty near to 80 years.”
That’s how Marvin Johnson of Red Oak begins an afternoon of reminiscing and sharing stories. Marvin, who will be 85 this fall, grew up in Page County, born on the family’s farm near Bethesda in 1924.
“That was when doctors made house calls,” he smiles.
The youngest of three sons, Marvin and his brothers—Claire and Virgil—attended Center School. Most of the time, they walked the nearly two miles, but in weather such as this winter, they’d pick a different type of transportation.
“When there was snow on the ground, we’d take the sled to school. Sled down one hill, then walk up the next one,” Marvin recalls. “I’ll never forget one time when I’d ridden the sled to school in the morning and by afternoon it had thawed some. I sledded down this one hill and the sled stopped, but I didn’t!”
Johnson remembers his country school teacher, Miss Falk, with much fondness. She taught all eight grades, organizing Christmas programs, field trips, and class picnics. Marvin’s father served as a school director, so he saw a different view of school.
“There were a couple years when the district didn’t have enough money and the teacher had an eight month contract at $40 a month,” he remembers. “Dad had to sign off for the teacher to get paid.”
Marvin remembers the schoolhouse itself, with one large room. All grades worked together and the younger students learned from the older ones. In addition to providing warmth, the room’s pot-bellied stove provided a place for warming lunches.
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Marvin purchased this small Ford tractor years ago and it became his trademark transportation. |
“The stove was in the corner and the chimney in the center,” Marvin recalls. “If conditions were right, things would go ‘boom’ and the stove door would pop open! She’d just shut it and go on.”
After eighth grade graduation, Marvin attended high school in Essex. While many country kids stayed with relatives or friends in town during the week to attend high school, Marvin found suitable transportation back and forth.
“A neighbor had a Model A and I walked over to his house and rode with him,” Marvin recalls. “You brought your lunch and, of course, you’d leave it in the car. In the winter, sometimes those old oranges would be hard as a stone when you tried to eat them!”
Snow days were seldom in those times, but Marvin remembers the winters of 1934 and 1936 were particularly tough – cold and snowy – and school was cancelled for several days. He remembers that counties did not have snow removal equipment as they do today, so dirt roads often remained impassable for days and weeks at a time. During those times, families helped each other, taking turns making the perilous journey to town.
“Whoever went over to the highway (48) would bring back the mail and distribute it to everyone,” he explains.
“We used to sled over the drifts, skate over the creeks.”
The Johnsons were a typical farm family of that era, raising cattle, hogs, chickens, row crops, a huge garden, and fruit trees.
“We had a rotation,” Marvin remembers. “Now it’s mostly corn and beans, but back then we didn’t have soybeans. It was corn, oats, and hay.”
Horsepower or in Marvin’s case, mule-power, was the mode of the time, although Marvin’s father had purchased an International Farmall regular, new, in 1924. The steel-wheeled tractor didn’t take second to the family’s horse and mule teams, however.
“I liked the mules we had,” Marvin remembers. “Those big guys. They worked hard and you didn’t have to worry about them foundering themselves if they got a lot of corn. And they knew when it was noon and time to go home!”
In 1942 Marvin graduated from high school in Essex and began farming with his father. Both his older brothers served in World War II—Virgil in the Army and Claire in the Air Force—but Marvin received a deferment.
“I was ready to go and had my physical, but then they decided we needed farmers, too, so they sent me home,” he remembers.
Marvin’s first car was a 1938 Chevy he got from his brother Virgil when he went into the Army. Gasoline cost about 19 cents a gallon. Prices were a lot different in Marvin’s youth, but so were wages. He remembers the going rate for a farm hand was $40-50 a month and admission to the local theatre cost 25 cents.
“When Jean and I were running around,” Marvin smiles, "We’d go to Shenandoah to the theatre. It cost 25 cents apiece to get in and at the Candy Kitchen it cost 15 cents apiece for a ham sandwich and a Coke.”
Marvin and Jean married on Feb. 1, 1948.
“It was summer weather the day we got married,” Marvin recalls. “We went down to St. Jo and the next morning it was so icy you couldn’t leave town!”
Marvin and Jean farmed in the Nyman area for several years then moved into Montgomery County, farming both south and north of Red Oak, before moving to Jean’s home place in Grant Township. Marvin remembers that their first farmhouse had electricity but no running water.
“In the winter, you didn’t tarry,” Marvin laughs.
The couple farmed for many years, raising cattle and hogs, corn, hay, and then soybeans. They remain on the farm today, although retired from the actual farm labor. Marvin still marvels at the changes from farming in his youth.
“I remember one year, we had 20 acres of corn that made 100 bushels an acre and people came from miles around just to look at it,” he recalls. “Today, think what corn makes.”
Marvin also remembers picking corn by hand, although he quickly admits that he was not an expert in that area.
“It was us three brothers and Virgil could pick more than me and Claire together,” he laughs. “When we’d go to the field, we’d want him in front because he could out pick both of us!”
After Marvin’s father retired that original 1924 Farmall, Marvin took it over and used it for several more years before he advanced to a Farmall F20. He remembers paying $90 for a 4-row International planter and remembers being excited about an Allis Chalmers combine with a five-foot head!
“The equipment today is so much bigger and fancier,” he says.
Marvin was involved with 4-H throughout his life, as well as the Lutheran church, and many farm-related agencies and boards. He and Jean have one daughter, Roberta, who retired last year after a career as a teacher in Omaha. Health keeps Marvin off the tractor these days, but he quickly points out that despite some setbacks, “I’m still a going!”
Always blessed with the gift of gab, Marvin enjoys people and maintains that no matter how difficult times might have been, “I wouldn’t trade my experiences growing up on the farm. We had some bad times, but we had a lot of good times, too.”