Mom dated a lot in college and had a lot of fun dating. One time she had two beaus at the same time. In order to assert her independence from both of them she decided to play a trick. She had long hair and was mulling over whether to cut it at the time so she asked for advice from both of her beaus. One beau said "Cut it off!" while the othersaid, "Leave it long." Mom wrote reply to both, letting each one know that she was taking his advice over his competitors.

So one letter said: "Dear Joe, I'm cutting my hair for you."

While the other read: "Dear Sam, I'm leaving it long for you."

But then she deliberately switched the envelopes, so that each beau would get the reply that was ostensibly destined for the other.

Apparently the ploy worked. "No one ever mentioned my hair again after that," she said.

As you can see she was a very independent-minded woman. She was also a very fun-loving, outgoing person. And very pretty, with dark eyes and dark hair, as you can tell from the photos of her as an adult. She loved Creston and refused to move, even when my husband and I invited her to move down to Florida and live with us.

When she and her twin brother Monty were born there was a grocery boy who would take orders around town and then delivery the groceries to folks' houses. In those days expectant families who'd just gotten the good news would hang ribbons in the window to signal a boy (blue) or girl (pink). Well after my mother and uncle were born the family hung one ribbon of each color in the window and when the grocery boy got wind of this he went to all the other houses on his route and tried to spread the news. I say "tried to spread the news" because you see, it was April 1st, so no one would believe the news he was trying to deliver.

Being twins my mother and uncle learned early that if they ran in opposite directions the mom (or whoever was minding them at the time) could only catch one of them and the other would be home free. Grandmother outwitted them however, by hooking them both up to the clothesline to keep track of them. What an image that conjures up!

I was born when Mom was 39 and Dad was 52 so I don't have some of the "young mother" memories of Mom that my siblings have. I was last out of three. When the doctor told Mom she was pregnant again, she gasped. The doctor said: "Don't you want this baby?" and Mom said: "Well I don't know. I think I can do everything all over again, except for that damn P.T.A."  In spite of what that sounds like, in later years Mom told me she was grateful to have another child around because I kept her young.

I told you that Mom was a teacher in Creston, which is also where I went to school. Unfortunately for me, when I was in junior high Mom was the only science teacher. And by the time I got to high school she was the only English teacher. When I raised my hand in class I didn't know what to call her: Mom? Teacher? Mrs. Healey? Nothing sounded quite right...

One time a friend and I decided to play hookie. As a teacher's child I knew there was no way for me to escape detection so I just decided to save everyone a lot of trouble by announcing my intentions to the school authorities in advance. At the first opportunity I marched up to the Vice Principal and said: "Mrs. ________, I'm going to be playing hookie today, so don't look for me in class, because I'll be shopping in Des Moines."

Somehow I even got away with it.