1979 - 1980 Orient, Ia

This would have been spring, 1979.  I am expectant, sitting in the beautiful, favorite and favored Red Volaire.  I don't know who took this photo or why . . .  or what Lanny was doing.  We can only imagine! 

Here, Johanna is 3 days old.  We almost got her in the picture!  We did get her lovely round head in the photo.  We took Johanna home to "Helen Speed's house" on highway 25, across the street from the O-M School. 

Oh my goodness, what a welcome for this darling baby girl!  Kristy and Erica were of the "playing house" age and Johanna would have been a great baby doll!  The first couple of days, they held and petted and doted on the new baby so much, that Johanna was just exhausted.   Craig, too, was enchanted with the baby. 

"Helen Speed's house was nice sized.  It had a kitchen, good sized living room and it seems like the dining room table was in the south end of the living room?  There were two bedrooms down but you went in one room and on thru to another bedroom.  How did we get to the bathroom?  Where was the bathroom?  I can't remember!

Kristy, Erica and Craig stayed out to Gramps and Granny's while Mama was in the hospital.  I might have stayed in the hospital 2 night and 3 days but I was in a hurry to get home and have my three children with me!  Three children and a newborn baby girl : )

Little Johanna is sleeping in her infant chair inside a borrowed bassinet.  I'm sure this was to keep her up and away from Craig and give her some peace from her sisters --  but also, we didn'thave a crib right away and I'm pretty sure LaDonna loaned us this bassinet.  Soon after, we found a used crib and mattress and painted it yellow and installed Johanna in her new bed. 

Johanna was jaundiced as so many babies are, right after birth, but I had escaped the hospital before she got too bad and we used the old-fashioned remedies and gave her water in a bottle and parked her in the sun to sleep.  A few days or a week later and her complexion was back to pretty pink!  (You all had some jaundice, to some extent.  I think it is more common in nursing babies?  I nursed you all.  Nursed you each as long as I could.  Some I nursed longer, some just a couple of months before I went back to work.

There was a baby boom in Orient the spring of 1979.  The community had planned and carried out a surprise baby shower for Johanna.  Somehow they got us to the firestation under false pretenses and lo and behold, it was a baby shower!  The first one I had had, too.  So what a surprise and I just truly felt blessed;  Johanna received many nice things.  Let me see if I can name some of the other babies . . . Mandy Feick, which Killion, oh boy!  I can't do it!  I'll have to get Johanna's babybook out.  I might have written shower details in the baby book.  Renee David is here, probably Kim Feick, Ronna Ross and I see Craig at the right end of the table. 

 Yes, there's your Gramma a smooching on Johanna and Craig is in my arms. I don't know where Kristy and Erica are -- did you come to the shower at the Fire Station?    You are both probably outside with the older kids playing tag in the summer evening. 

Well, Blogger just won't let me work with photos tonight.  They are going to do just exactly what they want to so we will have to put up with the pics NOT being in chronological order.  I will . . . if you will! 

 I cannot separate these two photos above.  Blogger won't let me and they are turned around, in date order.  The one just above this was the first day home from the hospital.  Johanna is tiny; look at those tiny feet and skinny legs: )  Craig is pleased as punch . . . and a big sister gets to help. 

That gold "throw" on the back of the davenport was crocheted by me.  We had it for years and I had forgotten about it until now but guess at some point it got so worn or I got so tired of it that I threw it out.  The "throw" is made with huge Granny Squares, as they were called.  Then the squares all sewn together. 

June 1980

Johanna's 1st Birthday

When Johanna turned one, we were living in the Lobaugh House east, behind the grocery store.  The dining room was in the southeast corner of the house, I think.  Patty Wilson made Johanna's birthday cake.  Running shorts were in and Johanna's little cheeks are red with eczema.  It was shortly after this I started buying goat milk and within a week or two, her cheeks cleared completely up.  I bought raw, farmer's goat milk for Susan McIlravy for a year or so.  Would get it in a gallon glass jar and then return the jar when I got the next gallon.  After awhile, we gradually just put Johanna back on boughten cow's milk.  In the winter, she and Kristy might get some eczema in the fold of the elbow or behind the knee . .  then come spring and summer and it would go away. 

This is taken in the Lobaugh House.  It looks as tho Johanna is going to take off at a run!  but she can't be more than a year, here.

Isn't this cute!  Johanna sure seems to be laughing out loud!

This old green lazyboy recliner was bought new in Sioux City and got humped and bumped from house to house.  I cannot tell you how many times it was wet on, thrown up on and spilled on!  It was a good old chair though and cleaned up pretty well.  I will always be able to recommend buying Lazyboys!  I think we may have moved this to Creston?  But eventually, we got Gramma Sychra's brown lazy boy so maybe the two are mixed up in my mind. 

 This photo is on the front porch of the Lobaugh house, I think.  I am surprised that the porch needs painting like that.  I sure don't remember it as being run down.  Correct me if I'm wrong . . . but I'm pretty sure this is the front.  Maybe this is the back porch?  No . . . help me out!  Anyway, that summer Johanna gnawed on many a corn cob.  We probably didn't want her having too much corn so we'd let her chew on the cob. 

This is Erica's 6th or 7th birthday.  If I could find the photo, I could tell you for sure!  Another Cake by Patti Wilson.  I wonder if she is still making cakes for her boys and grandchildren?  What a talented woman she was . . . sewing and baking, anyway.  I don't know what else she created. 

1979.  Johanna is just a "sitting" baby, not walking yet.  She has eczema on her dainty little cheeks.  We are at Granny's house for Christmas, I imagine.  Craig has a Dukes of Hazzard car.  Granny's front living room "stepped down" two steps.  It was built on as an after thought.  Gramps and Granny built a 3 bedroom ranch and found out there wasn't room for the clan . . . so Gramps and sons and company, bumped out the living room and stepped it down.  That made for a really nice house. 


This is out front of Shagbark.  Erica was corraling the little girls.  This is just plain adorable of them all:  April, Terri, Erica and Laura. 

Well, there's a stack of photos yet to be scanned and many a memory to recall.  Summer gets a little slow in the story telling as every other week is off to the cabin but I plan on telling stories and scanning photos for another 20 years or more . . . so sit back, be patient and send in suggestions and questions!