In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
–Abraham Lincoln
I’m headed 72 years back to share memories in my life. I was born May 18, 1949 in Mennonite Hospital, the only daughter of Warren and Mary Ellen (King) Miller. I’m not sure where we lived as an infant but the first house I remember living in was the house on Rt 150 (we called it the hard road) outside of Carlock headed west toward Congerville. I would guess we moved there when I was about 3. There is a picture of Mom holding me, and Mike standing in the doorway of a jacked up house. I call this picture the Appalachian Mountain people picture. That’s how we looked! It was jacked up because Dad and others were putting a basement underneath. It was not a large house–enclosed back porch, kitchen with table in the middle(seemed large to me, Dad had added cabinets), living room with a front door and a bedroom downstairs. The upstairs (steep staircase) had 2 bedrooms, one large, one small. Mine was the smaller. Dad and Grandad eventually built a closet and vanity in one end of my bedroom. I still have the vanity bench that Grandad built. I loved that little room! Mike and Dan were in the larger room. I don’t think Chris ever moved upstairs. I know he was in a crib in Mom and Dad’s room. I can remember him crying at bedtime so I would sneak downstairs, take him out of the crib and walk him around the kitchen table until he went to sleep. I was 10 and I think we would soon move leaving behind my vanity.
The memories from the “hard road house” are many. One thing, for sure, we played outside a lot no matter the season. There was flag football in the front yard, playing under the redbud tree, running or sledding down the root cellar, playing horse and wagon (I was the horse pulling Chris around the house; that’s how I broke my arm), finding peace in the lily of the valleys, building farms in the sandbox and playing fox and geese in the snow. We had dogs, but I really just remember Adolf, a dachshund. I didn’t like him that much. Dogs were too rambunctious! I’m pretty sure we had dogs hit by cars on the “hard road”. We had other animals, too. We had a fairly large pasture and a couple of sheds for sheep and chickens (which Mom and Dad butchered). For awhile we had a goose which I didn’t like. He would come honking when I opened the gate to gather the eggs. Of course you’ve probably heard the duck story. It was my idea to teach the young ducklings to swim. Dan was my helper. We were not successful! We had a small funeral for one or two and buried them by the pussy willows. Later we had sheep in Carlock (about where the fire station is now). Mike road his bike on “the hard road” to do chores. Sometimes I would ride mine, too. Once I wrecked on the edge and a car was coming. I jerked my bike out of the way. Had a few scrapes, but all was good.
Between our house and our neighbors to the north there was a large pasture. We played with the neighbor boys (Brinings). They had a girl later, but she was always much younger than me. So you see I usually played with boys. We played baseball in the pasture. One summer we built a tree house until Mike fell out of the tree house bruising a kidney. Our property and that pasture sometimes were connected to a cornfield. We played hide and seek in the cornfield. Not a good idea! I did have girl cousins, Pam or Nancy, who came to play or I went to their house once in awhile.
Mom and Dad had a large garden. We all helped. I don’t remember it being a chore. We just worked together.
There were dangers in those carefree days. The one I remember was to beware of tramps. We had strict instructions if you see a hobo, come to the house. Sometimes they would come to the house asking for food. Also, there was danger of tornados. We were pretty sure a tornado took down a huge tree by the garage. It smashed our car and landed on the house. We had just made it safely to the basement. Mom and the boys were there. Dad had scooped me out of my bed and carried me to safety.
One memory remains with me still. Since we did not have air conditioning, we would take a blanket out to the lawn and look at the stars. So peaceful! We even saw the Northern Lights one night.
Chris could not stay in the crib forever so Mom and Dad bought Grammie and Grandad’s house in Carlock. They bought the Stauffer house where they lived until they died. My pre-teen and teen years were spent in this house. My class was the last class that went to Carlock Grade School through eighth grade. Then I went to Chiddix Jr. High School just for ninth grade. After that I attended Normal Community High School (class of ’67) until I graduated. It’s here that I met Stan. I remember I had stayed after school for something my sophomore year. I was involved with FTA and Pep Club. In those days activities were after school. I later served as president of both groups. Anyway, Stan was running stairs for wrestling practice. Christie Metzger and I were together and Stan was running with John Dameron. I think Christie and John had dated so we stopped to talk. Stan later asked me out. Our first date was to the movie to see Mary Poppins. Stan played football so I would go to games and watch. I even went to wrestling meets. We went to movies, but I mostly enjoyed being on his family’s farm. On Sunday evenings we would go to East White Oak Church. They mostly sang gospel hymns and I enjoyed that. Our favorite restaurant was the Steak and Shake. In those days teens drove from one Steak and Shake to another just to see who was out. We called it “toolin’ the gag”. Not sure what it meant, but we all did it. Stan and I loved steakburgers with triple pickle and orange freezes. After Stan graduated he joined the National Guard and went to basic training in Seattle, WA. I graduated and went to ISU. We became engaged and married during spring break my freshman year (I know, too young.) So I lived in the Carlock house until we got married.
My family were members of the Carlock Mennonite Church. We went together as a family most Sundays. I learned about the saving grace of Christ. I had good teachers. I enjoyed the Sunday School program and when I was in 7th or 8th grade I joined a class to take before baptism. It was called catechism. Mrs. Woodrum was my teacher. She was a soft-spoken woman and a great teacher for teaching us how to imitate Christ in our lives. I was then baptized by a sprinkle baptism. In that moment I gave my life to Christ. Later when I became a member at Eastview Christian Church, I followed their belief of baptism by immersion. As I shared with leaders at Eastview, I’ve always felt my “true” baptism was the sprinkle baptism because that’s when I became a Christian.
I had lots of different jobs when I lived in the Carlock house. I walked beans, detasseled corn, babysat, worked in the Carlock restaurant (not there any more) for a very short time, worked at Mennonite Hospital in the kitchen (made salads), worked at GTE until I got on at State Farm working part time while I went to school. I worked there until I needed to quit to student teach. My most valuable lesson came, though, when I was detasseling. I hated it! Dad said, “If you quit this job, you will quit everything you do”. I stuck with it and learned to persevere.
All in all, we lived a simple life. I’ve learned to appreciate the simple things and not to be extravagant. I think often of those who have so much less. Not to say, we never had fun. We did. We vacationed every year for a week or two in Watersmeet, MI. We stayed in primitive cabins on Lake Marion. It was such a fun place to be–fishing, swimming, playing in the sand, relaxing (as Sam would say being stress-free) and enjoying nature. We had great visits to the city dump to look for bears. Once Dad and Mike got out of the car (not sure why) and they had to rush back to the car when we spied a bear way too close. Scared me!
Childhood is such a precious time in life and yet I don’t think I appreciated it enough. Growing up seemed like it would be more fun. Why does the grass always seem greener on the other side? Be content in each stage of life. Look for the blessings there.
