Misc. Notes
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Following
notes provided by Imogene, January 1983.
"Yes, I
played basketball in high school and loved every minute of it. I also played basketball for the insurance
company I worked for in Des Moines. In
fact, it was through the insurance company that I met Paul. This was during World War II and several of
us girls at work started writing to several servicemen who were
policyholders. "Uncle Sam"
always said it was good for the morale of the GI's to get letters from
home. I wrote to about 5 different guys,
but Paul just kept on writing, and so did I.
He was in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in the Philippines, so it was
at least a year and a half before we ever met.
He was discharged in November, 1945, and
stopped in Des Moines on his way to Ohio.
Will, I guess that was it, as he moved to Des Moines in January and we
were married in April 1946.
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We built our
basement and were all ready to move into it when Ed was born in 1948, when it was
struck by lightning. So we had to
rebuild it, and for some reason we hadn't gotten insurance on it yet. Then in 1963 we were hit by a terrible wind
and hail storm that broke several windows and really
damaged the siding. That was about $2000
damage that time.
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PAUL &
IMOGENE, 1946
Then for the
third time (and hopefully the last) of damage to this house, we were hit by a
tornado on April 11, 1965. That was
really a shattering experience. During
the 6 months of rebuilding we rented another house here in Columbia. Paul was in the construction business, so he
rebuilt it himself.
Since his
work was so bad in the winter, I got a job driving a schoolbus in 1956. I
just retired in June, 1982 after 26 years. I should have written a book about all those
experiences with all ages of kids.
Since we are
both retired, we have a lot of time to take care of all the Christmas trees we
raise. We must have close to 3000 now,
and it takes most of every July just pruning them.
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THE BROWNS, 1959