A Carefree Life in the Country

In the summer after first grade, I believe my sister and I spent a great deal of time outside under our shade trees. We had a swing set, and we took our little wooden table, dolls, etc. outside to play house in our huge yard (We didn't call it a lawn in the country). Since we had no air conditioning, I assume it was more pleasant out there. The only thing I missed was more children to play with. During those years, parents were fearful of polio because the Salk vaccine had not been developed yet. Therefore, we had to go in and take a rest period in the afternoon so that we wouldn't get too tired and/or too hot. Doctors and parents believed that made children more susceptible to the disease. I didn't like to "rest", but I did love to read, and I think I was allowed to do that.

Second grade began much as first grade had because I was still in Mrs. Pritchard's room. I liked school and always did well academically, but I especially enjoyed being around all of my classmates. My teachers usually commented to my mother that I liked socializing too well because I talked too much in the classroom.

In November of that year, my next sister Kim was born. I remember staying with someone else while Dad took Mom to the hospital to have our sister. Paula and I didn't see Kim until they brought her home because we couldn't go to visit. Hospitals believed that children brought too many germs and too much noise, I guess.

I think we bought our first television when I was 5. The local stations didn't start broadcasting until later in the afternoon. I can remember sitting excitedly in front of the TV and watching the test pattern while we waited for "Howdy Doody" or whatever other black and white kids' shows we watched. When I was older, I stayed up until the stations went off the air, usually with a jet soaring through the air and music in the background...no 24-hour TV back then.

One of the chores my mom gave me to do was churn butter, definitely NOT one of my favorites. Since we drove to our neighbor's dairy to buy our pasteurized but un-homogenized milk, the gallon containers had 3-4 inches of cream on top. When we needed butter, my mom skimmed off the cream and put it in the churn. I had to crank the handle until it turned to butter. I can remember nagging my mom to check and see if it was about done because my arm was so tired. (The next time you are in a museum look for the glass butter churn with a handle on the outside and paddles in the container.)

My First Chance to Lead

Well, in September of 1955, I finally got to go to school. Because my mother had read to me so much and taught me the numbers and alphabet, I was possibly over-prepared for Mrs. Pritchard's first grade. However, since my small town school had 2 grades in each room, I could listen to the 2nd graders lessons as well as my own; I liked that. Plus, I enjoyed having some new books to read and riding to school each day with my mom in our new red and white 1955 Chevrolet.

My teacher was elderly and quite stocky, but I recall how soft her skin was when she touched me. I remember having a book named Phonics and doing exercises in it each day. I was especially excited when I saw my name in our reader. I think Penny was the friend or sister of the main characters in our book.

Living in the country with one sister, I was thrilled to have all of my classmates to play with at recess; I don't remember ever being afraid of new situations. I remember organizing the other children at recess, at least those who were gullible enough to listen to me. For whatever reason, we liked to play Robin Hood. I assigned the roles of Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Little John, etc. to grateful participants. (My little sister was probably glad to have me gone from home for a few hours because I bossed her around like that, I am sure.)

The only other recollection I have from that time period would be an incident that happened in the summer. We lived on a main farm road to our town's grain elevator, but it was not paved until 1956. Since my mom hated all of the dust that flew into our home's open windows from the gravel road, she was ecstatic when the county decided to pave it. My sister and I loved watching the big machinery in front of our house. That was fine until the day they put down the first tar layer. Evidently, we were watching so intently that we didn't realize how much tar was blowing onto us. My mom wasn't happy about our ruined clothes, and we weren't happy with the scrubbing it took to remove the tar from our bodies.

Life in the 50's

About a year after my birth, my parents moved to the farm which would be my home until I graduated from high school. The house was rather old and over a mile from town, but it met our needs. We had an outside well for our water, an outhouse for our bathroom, and a shanty attached to the house which we used for storage. I remember that mom told me not to go in there. (In case you were wondering, if I needed a bathroom in the middle of the night, I used a chamber pot and emptied it the next morning.) When I was about 5, my parents tore down the old house and built a new one on the same spot. We still had the well for our water source, but we had indoor plumbing then.

Right after I turned 3, my mom brought home a new sister for me whom they named Paula. I don't think I liked that very well because I was used to all of the attention. My most vivid memory of that time was when I dropped her. I was probably 4 years old. My parents were working outside, and Paula was taking a nap upstairs. My mom told me to come and get her if Paula woke up. Well, being an independent child, I thought I knew better than my mom. I tried to carry her down the steps and fell down with her. I think the fall hurt me worse than her, but I learned a valuable lesson. As she got old enough, we played together all the time, but we had our serious squabbles as well.

Since my small town school had no kindergarten, my mom taught me at home how to read and do simple arithmetic problems. I was very proud of myself. I vividly remember sitting on my grandfather's lap and having him give me addition and subtraction problems to do by myself. Of course, he complimented me profusely and that made me want to do even harder problems. At that time, a child had to be 6 years old by December 31 to enter 1st grade the next September. With my birthday on January 17, I was always the oldest in my class. I guess that is part of the reason why my mom taught me at home; I was VERY anxious to go to school.

A Penny From Heaven: My Birth Story

My mother, Wanda Lee Maxson, got married at the age of 17 a few months after her graduation from high school. My father Jack Goodwin, only a couple of years older, wanted to farm and raise cattle in the area of Edna, Kansas. Less than a year later, they discovered that, ready or not, they would be parents in a few months.

During her pregnancy, my mom pondered about what to name me but couldn't come up with anything she really liked. Then, she watched a movie entitled, "Pennies from Heaven". (Ever heard that song? An interesting side note is that many years later my husband enjoyed singing that song to me. :-) It was a moving story of a childless couple who adopted a little girl. They decided to name her Penny because she was a "Penny from Heaven" in their lives. That's when my mom decided to name me Penny. Since she chose my first name, she let my dad choose my middle name Diann.

About a week before I was born in January, 1949, a bad snowstorm hit our area of southeast Kansas. Because my uncle was afraid that mom wouldn't be able to make it to town if she went into labor, he suggested that she go to stay with her grandma in Coffeyville for a few days. Well, the snow melted, and still no signs of labor, so mom went back home to the country.

Two days after that, she was able to make the trip to Coffeyville and deliver a beautiful baby girl. I made my entrance into this world on January 17 at Coffeyville Memorial Hospital. We had to stay there for an extra 3-4 days because another snowstorm had hit, and the roads weren't safe enough to take me home in my mother's arms.

Perhaps, being born in the midst of a stormy month was a precursor to my personality, but you'll hear more about that in the following weeks.