Grampa Tom's family has owned the ground we live on for 100 years now. His Great Grandpa Heberer bought 135 acres in 1913. We only own 3 acres now, but it was very rewarding to me to raise a fifth generation on this land. My family was a transplant in this area. The closest relatives we had were 4 hours away, so roots were something I never had growing up. Grampa Tom and his mom would tell my kids about how they did the same things in the same places when they were children.
The first time I stepped foot on this property was in 1979, a couple of months after Grampa Tom and I met. This is the old house that my kids, Grampa Tom, his mom and his grandmother grew up in. His mom and his grandma were actually born in this house.
I was going to college in Keokuk and working at a disco in town. Grampa Tom was going to school Burlington, but he frequented the disco I worked at with his friends. That's kind of amazing given the fact that he doesn't dance! Anyway, that winter was a constant storm. Grampa Tom and I both lived in the country off the main roads, so getting home was often impossible. One of the guys I worked with had a fairly large house that was just 4 blocks from where we worked, so several people wound up living there whenever we couldn't get home. Grandpa Tom usually closed the place down so he wound up there quite a bit too.
After one particularly bad storm, we weren't able to even get out of Keokuk for 3 days. When the highways were finally cleared, Grampa Tom (who was just stud Tom then) and I went for a ride. He brought me up the highway just west of here and showed me where he lived. He said, "There's 11 kids and no adults there right now. " I was flabbergasted. He explained that his folks were on a trip and that the kids had a few friends over after school the day the snowstorm hit and their parents hadn't been able to come get them. I asked how far the house was from the highway. He told me it was about a half mile. I suggested we walk over and check on the kids.
He parked his truck at a neighbor's house and we crawled over the fence. The snow was waist deep. We thought it was probably just deep because of the fence and pressed on. It took us two hours to get to the house. The snow was waist deep all the way. We didn't get out again for another 3 days.
Up until that time, Grampa Tom and I had only been casually dating. I had been resisting a serious relationship because I'd had my heart broken too many times, but after spending 6 solid days with him, I pretty much gave up. While we were snowed in, I told him I needed to take a vacation from him because I was getting to attached, but I never did.
This picture is of Grampa Tom and I on June 22 of that same year. We were so cute!
God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue
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