Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 10

National Twins Day: December 18

Ten babies were born to Clabe and Leora Wilson. Four of them were sets of fraternal twins.

Twins Darlene and Dale Wilson, 1927, south of Dexter, Iowa

Leora already had three little ones by the time Dale and Darlene were born in Stuart, Iowa, in 1921. Two more singles were born before the next twins, Jack and Jean, arrived in Dexter in 1929. Jack and Jean were just infants when all nine Wilson youngsters came down with whooping cough. They were the only two who succumbed to the disease.

Grandma Leora said that she’d had miscarriages before both sets of twins. I believe the first time was a result of her suffering so during the influenza pandemic. So many who died of that pandemic were young parents. If a pregnant woman survived the influenza, her unborn child likely would not.

I couldn’t find any other twins in the family until I discovered that Clabe Wilson’s father (Daniel Ross Wilson) had a twin brother who didn’t survive. I’ve heard that twins tend to arrive every other generation.

Are there twins in your family?

There’s a Song in the Air

Do you have a favorite Christmas carol? You rarely hear my favorite one, probably because it covers quite a range of notes, making it difficult for most folks to sing.

The words were written by Josiah Holland, the founder of Scribner’s magazine, in 1872. While assembling a new Methodist Hymnal in1904, Karl P. Harrington, a Wesleyan University music professor, set the poem to music.

There’s a song in the air! There’s a star in the sky!
There’s a mother’s deep prayer and a baby’s low cry!
And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing,
For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!

There’s a tumult of joy o’er the wonderful birth,
For the virgin’s sweet Boy is the Lord of the earth.
Ay! the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing,
For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!

In the light of that star lie the ages impearled;
And that song from afar has swept over the world.
Every hearth is aflame, and the beautiful sing
In the homes of the nations that Jesus is King!

We rejoice in the light, and we echo the song
That comes down through the night from the heavenly throng.
Ay! we shout to the lovely evangel they bring,
And we greet in His cradle our Savior and King!

By Josiah G. Holland, Public Domain

Click here to listen to a beautiful version.

I’ve been a Mom for 50 years!

Son Dan will be 50 on Friday the 13th of December. He was also born on a Friday the 13th, in 1974.

“What did we have?” I kept asking after being sedated for a C-section.

“I told you, a boy.”

“What do boys play with?” I’d grown up with one sister and several girl cousins.

A baby son, in Colorado. He was the only grandchild on either side, so there were soon heart tugs to return to Iowa, when we did when he was two years old.

Meeting the national longest-serving governor, Terry Branstad, at a Scout activity.

The next couple of decades were filled with “adventures,” answering his notes to the Tooth Fairy, homemade Halloween costumes (Bilbo, Gandalf, Darth) volunteering for whatever he was involved in: school, AWANA at church, Cub Scouts (yes, a Den Mom), driving him to piano lessons and Boy Scouts, the first Star Wars movies and taekwondo, and to work at Target (until he got his license).

We hadn’t figured on parenting an only child, but I lost the next two pregnancies, so we are especially thankful for Dan! He and his wife Renee have a seven-year-old daughter, Kate. He works as a CPA (with a law degree) in the Twin Cities.

Dan’s parenting style. And they’re reading the Narnia books these days.

What did boys play with, at least before Pac-Man? Dan’s favorite was Crossbows and Catapults.

Christmas 1935 and hand-me-downs

During the Great Depression, brothers Del and Don Wilson were the best boys about writing home from the Navy. “We just couldn’t stand it very good if you didn’t. That’s the brightest ‘spot’ to us–you boys’ good letters,” their mother wrote toward the end of the second year of their enlistment, 1935. 

Leora had mailed them a package of homemade divinity fudge, just like she had the Christmas before. The nuts in the candy were from “down on Jim Creek, south of the big spring where you boys got water when you were hunting squirrels,” their dad wrote. Black walnuts. 

Men with sons in the Navy or CCC were cut off relief (welfare) jobs first, including their father Clabe, so he stayed busy trapping. He’d start out early by moonlight to check his traps, but was often disappointed.  Only six skunks and five opossum so far that fall. He shipped eight skunk and five ‘possum pelts to Sears, writing to his sons that at least it’s a good healthy job. Clabe had sold their “roadster” a year earlier and they had no vehicle. 

You may remember that earlier in the year, Clabe was desperate enough that he’d hiked into Dallas County asking farmers for work.

Clarence Goff was one of Leora’s younger brothers, one who was allowed to complete high school. His heating business in Omaha had doubled, and he expected the same for 1936. Clarence, or C.Z. as he was known, sent his sister’s family $10 for Christmas. Another brother, Wayne Goff, shipped a box of very welcome fruit from California, since Iowa in December is pretty colorless, the homeliest month of the year.

Willis Goff, another of Leora’s seven brothers, lived in Southern California, where the USS Chicago was based that winter. Willis and Ann invited Delbert and Donald to spend Christmas with them and their daughters, Connie and Shirley, who’d asked for a Shirley Temple doll for Christmas. 

Leora took a photo for their “Navy boys” of the five kids at home on Christmas Day. Doris and Darlene look like the daughters in a well-to-do family, don’t they? Doris said she altered hand-me-down so no one would recognize who used to wear them.

Christmas Day 1935: Dan, Junior with Spats, Dale, Doris, Darlene. Dexter, Iowa.

You may find more Depression Era stories of the Wilson family in Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

 

Sleighbells and Bobsleds

Not the Goffs nor the Wilsons, but the photo does show the moveable runners under the bobsled box. Large bells on leather straps were added to the horses’ harnesses to jangle as the horses trotted. Oh!

Christmas, Early 1900s

From the memoirs of Leora Goff Wilson: “We went [to our Jordan grandparents’ home near Monteith, Iowa] in a bobsled one Christmas. We put straw in, covered it with a blanket or two to sit on. As we went down the lane, Pa [Sherd Goff] says, ‘Look at the reindeer tracks, Santa’s  reindeer.’ They were cow tracks, but we believed Santa was there. We were so thrilled and happy.

“I had hung my stocking on the back of a chair Christmas eve, but in the morning my stocking with a beautiful doll in it was on the cabinet close by. Mamma said, ‘Santa thought it might fall from the chair,’ so that was a good thing, I thought, for Santa to think of.” 

That memory was from when Leora Goff was about ten years old. I hope sleigh bells were part of this scene, although she didn’t mention them.

Christmas 1924

Two dozen years later, Leora had married Clabe Wilson and had six children of her own by the Christmas of 1924. This is a memory of her oldest daughter, Doris, when the family lived southeast of Dexter, Iowa, where Clabe was a tenant farmer for B.C. Hemphill.

Christmas dinner was at Leora’s folks’ home in Dexter, about three miles away. Because of a nice snow the night before, Clabe filled Mr. Hemphill’s bobsled with hay to soften the ride. The bobsled was a wooden box with moveable runners, front and back. He hitched up a pair of horses and harnessed them with bells on leather straps.

Dale and Darlene Wilson, age 3, November 1924, Dexter

All of the Wilsons bundled up, with the three younger children snuggled under quilts with their mother. Delbert (age 9), Donald (8), and Doris (6) stood up front by their dad, who held the reins. The delighted family glided over the snow to have Christmas dinner with Grandpa and Grandmother Goff, and the rest of the clan living with them in the small town of Dexter. Bells jangled, horses snorted frosty breaths.

 Brothers Merl and Jennings Goff lived with their folks, along with Jennings’s two motherless children. Clarence Goff, a younger brother, was came from Omaha for the feast. Doris perched on the piano bench, she remembered. Grandfather found catalogs to boost the smaller children to better reach the table. Grandmother served squares of cheese on toothpicks, which was a new wonderful thing to the youngsters.

And oh, those sleighbells (listen) on their way home!

Sleighbells

Christmas 1934: Leora’s Divinity Fudge

Clabe and Leora Wilson’s older sons joined the US Navy in early 1934. For Christmas that year, their mother mailed them a package, “so you’d have just a little from home for Christmas. Doris and I made some–I guess you can tell which kind–the divinity fudge I used to make and you boys used to like so well.” Leora didn’t have a candy thermometer nor electricity.

Clipping of the recipe in Leora’s small Memorandum book: 

Divinity fudge is also called “heavenly bliss,” either name is fitting. 
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup chopped nut meats (almonds, filberts or walnuts)
whites of two eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the sugar, water and syrup together until a drop of the mixture becomes crisp when dropped in cold water. Beat the whites of eggs until stiff, Add the not mixture, beating all the time. When fairly stuff, add nuts and vanilla, continue beating until very stuff, then pour into a buttered tin. When cool, cut in squares.

The Wilsons gathered a lot of black walnuts in local wooded areas. Leora chopped some for her divinity fudge.

By the Christmas of 1934, Clabe had sold their Model T “roadster” (the one on the cover of Leora’s Dexter Stories). In fact, they had no automobile of any kind until they moved to Minburn five years later.

It was always a treat when Leora’s brother, Clarence Goff, came from Omaha. Their mother, Laura Goff, lived near the Wilsons, in a house that had electricity. That Christmas of 1934, Clarence brought his mother a dandy electric mixer, a box of candy, and an already-dressed turkey. He also brought a box of ‘kerchiefs for each of the “the girls,” a football for his nephew Merrill, a pound of Prince Albert and some “cough medicine” (alcohol) for Clabe and brothers Jennings and Merl, along with candy and nuts for everyone.

Clarence Goff, a 1923 graduate of Guthrie Center High School, had his own heating and cooling business in Omaha.

Neighbors  O. S. and Nellie Neal gave the Wilsons a nice fat hen, which Leora served for Christmas dinner, along with potatoes and gravy, dressing, celery, Danny’s favorite cranberry sauce, pickles, fruitcake, and Clabe’s favorite lemon pie. 

The Christmas of 1934, their Navy boys were blessed with plenty to eat (even without their mother’s divinity fudge), visits with aunts and uncles and cousins on the West Coast while their ship (USS Chicago) was in port there, and they were able to send a little money home. The younger five siblings–Doris, Darlene, Dale, Danny, and Junior–were thriving, doing well in school, enjoying winter activities.

Both Clabe and Leora came down with grippe, but all in all, things felt more hopeful that Christmas.

You may find more Depression Era stories about the family in Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

Leora Wilson Celebrates 90th Birthday

Leora with great granddaughters, Deni and Christa Scar

My mother and her sister (Doris and Darlene) held an open house in 1980 for their mother, Leora Goff Wilson, when she turned 90. Some of her great grandchildren were there to celebrate with the woman (born in Guthrie County, December 4, 1890) who had given birth to ten children, raised seven to adulthood, only to lose three during WWII.

Later she’d made a home in Guthrie Center for her own mother for fourteen years, then she lived alone for another two dozen years.

This is probably from the Guthrie Center newspaper:

Leora Wilson Celebrates 90th Birthday
Sunday afternoon, Nov. 30, was a beautiful warm fall day, setting the scene for the celebration of the 90th birthday of Leora Wilson. The open house took place at the First Christian Church in Guthrie Center. The tea table was decorated with an arrangement of mums in rust, bronze and gold shades and Mrs. Wilson's daughters Darlene Scar and Doris Neal of Dexter presided at the serving.
Rev. Jerry Palmer gave a birthday blessing and a thank you to all who attended to honor this longtime Guthrian, formerly of Dexter. A table of photos were displayed of every years and the family. The surprise of the day was a gift from the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A wall hanging compiled of quilt blocks sent from each one on paper and then transferred to material, painted then quilted by granddaughter Joy Kidney of West Des Moines. Gifts, cards, and phone calls from family members came from Colorado, California, Washington and Florida.
Ladies of the church helped in the kitchen to make the day possible and a memorable one. Others helping where granddaughters Gloria Neal and Chris Scar and greatgrandchildren Deni and Christa Scar and Dan Kidney.
Leora thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon visiting with 120 guests, family and friends from Earlham, Dexter, Stuart, Casey, Atlantic, Lake City, Guthrie Center, and Omaha, Nebr.
With Thursday, Dec. 4, the actual 90th birthday for Mrs. Wilson, she was with the Rebekah Lodge mending ladies at the Guthrie County Hospital doing their charity work. A courtesy was extended to Leora after the group completed their mending, and refreshments were served.
Mrs. Wilson has been mending there every week for 23 years, seldom missing the opportunity to share in the benevolent project sponsored by the Rebekahs.

Each family member designed a quilt block. Aunt Darlene Scar used fabric paint to set each on fabric. I stitched everything together with fabrics that went with Grandma’s couch. Dan Scar now owns the 90th birthday wallhanging.

What a delightful 90th birthday party!

Jet Perfume

A small bottle of Jet perfume arrived from Dale Wilson for his mother’s December 4th birthday in 1943. He would graduate from Advanced Training at Roswell, New Mexico, in just a few weeks.

“Thanks for the lovely birthday present you sent me!” Leora wrote from the Minburn farm. It had arrived right on the day. She tried it out right away but was keeping it in her box of handkerchiefs to make them smell nice. A woman in those days owned a collection of hankies. Fancy ones–embroidered or with tatted lace edges–were saved for dressing up. Every birthday for years, Leora had received one from her own mother.

“Dale, we are sure proud of you! You are sure doing fine, and more power to you. You just do your best. You are going to like the twin-engine school, I’ll bet, after you get started, and it will be better than the single, as Delbert and the boys say they are better protected in combat.” Bombers on missions were protected by squadrons of fighter planes.

Later that month, Dale sent his folks a Roswell Army Flying School Christmas card, with silver pilot’s wings embossed on a holiday scene. Dale’s neatly penned letters were now written on Flying School stationery—a ferocious eagle diving with a torpedo, with a formation of advanced trainers flying over.

Poignant reminders of a beloved son who became a bomber pilot, whose B-25 was shot down a year later. Dale Wilson and five others on the crew have never been found.

Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II

What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers

Review of What Leora Never Knew by “MacTrish” in the United Kingdom

How grateful I am for this review of What Leora Never Knew by someone overseas! 5.0 out of 5 stars More about the Wilson family and the impact of WWII

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2024

Verified Purchase I have read several of these books now about the Wilson family thanks to Joy Neal Kidney’s painstaking research and archiving of the family’s documents and letters. The last one I read told of the impact of WWII and this book takes that a stage further..Five of Leora’s sons went off to fight in the war. Two of them joined the navy and the other three became pilots..Tragedy struck all three airmen. Dale’s plane went down near Wewak, New Guinea, and his parents received a Missing In Action telegram. Daniel was shot down in [Austria] and buried there originally, and Claiborne Junior crash landed near Nordheim [Texas] and was buried in the local cemetery [Perry, Iowa]..The author points out that they’d visit the three graves and leave flowers on them, but she didn’t like to ask any questions in case she upset the older relatives. It therefore came as a shock when she discovered that only one boy was actually buried there..The book is an account of the digging for information that Joy Neal Kidney did to find out all she could about the three boys. Some of it was heart-rending. Dale’s plane ditched in the sea but there were radio broadcasts that said he’d been captured by the Japanese. This was really unsettling for the family..The research involved contacting the people who had worked with the men who gave their accounts and who often kept in touch through the years. The author also contacted the military authorities and was allowed access to a considerable body of information..As with all the books, what comes across are the strong bonds within the family. They wrote to each other often and the letters are affectionate, newsy and humorous. There are some lovely photographs too, and the boys were certainly a handsome bunch of young men..This is a moving and informative account and it’s reassuring to know that people keep the monuments and stories going to remember all the brave men who fought for their country.—–

What Leora Never Knew is my journey of research into what happened to the three Wilson brothers who lost their lives during WWII.

Ben Cahill, a newly sober alcoholic with no idea how to move forward–Compelling novels by Steven Rogers

A Year in the Room by Steven Rogers

Reluctant pilgrim Ben Cahill steps off a flight from Israel facing an unrelenting list of challenges—a fractured family, no job, no place to live, and a dubious grip on his newly-found sobriety. He has no plans for the next steps in his life.

Ben starts over, settling into a small, rented room and working three part-time jobs. As his first year of recovery unfolds, Ben fights an unrelenting spiritual war against his personal demons and the consequences of his past actions. Can a chain-smoking, no-nonsense grandmother, a retired navy cook, a crusty old Scotsman, and an unexpected pilgrimage to the legendary Scottish Island of Iona, clear away the wreckage of Ben’s life and lead him to hope? Join Ben on his journey in this sequel to the award-winning novel Into the Room.

My thoughts: Ben Cahill is an alcoholic. He thought he’d made peace with God about it during a reluctant trip to Israel, but trying to patch his angry family back together and live a sober life back home isn’t working. Ben is wonderfully sarcastic and so relatable because of it. He’s “benignly abducted” by wonderful characters, some “holy rollers” from the past and present who send him on a “Pearl Itinerary” to the island of Iona. A terrific stand-alone novel is the compelling sequel to Into the Room.

Into the Room by Steven Rogers

Can a journey across the Holy Land redeem a reluctant pilgrim?

Ben Cahill’s life is an alcohol-saturated mess. After an insincere effort in a rehab facility, he is alienated from his family, out of work, and determined to continue his habit. To make matters worse, he finds himself on a tour of Israel, along with, as he calls them, a bunch of holy rollers.

As the trip progresses, Ben experiences the Holy Land’s major historical sites and is exposed to God’s word. He interacts with his fellow travelers, gradually learning about their faith and their lives. Along the way, Ben becomes embroiled in a spiritual war, reinforcing his guilt and, in turn, forcing him to recall his past actions and behaviors. He also begins a different journey, one that leads him to redemption and a place in God’s family.

My thoughts: A reluctant and alcoholic traveler, struggling with the mess he’s left his family in, tours the Holy Land with a bunch of “holy rollers.” This masterful and conversational story reveals a man who is rotting from the inside out, step by hesitant step, reach a hopeful transformation. It’s a powerful novel demonstrating that at the right time, all stories are worth telling. This one certainly is!

The Author, Steven Rogers

Steven Rogers is an award-winning author and novelist. His novel Into the Room was the first place winner in the Spiritual Fiction Category for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The book was also named as one of three finalists in the Debut Novel category of the 2022 American Fiction Christian Writers Carol Awards. In 2023 it was a Runner-Up in the Christian Indie Awards. Steven’s second novel A Year in the Room was published in November of 2024.

Learn more about this author on his website.

Steven Rogers’ interview on PJNET.