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March Newsletter |
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 February 13th was our last Sunday in our old, cramped but cozy quarters on Gilmer road. It seemed eminently fitting that one of our founding members gave the final program. So with Erick's gentle and confident urging, Helen Ausman agreed to author the program if her good friend, Sheila McElroy, would read it, and her dearest friends stand by her. Thanks to all of them, we left with hearts overflowing On a hot sunny day in May of 1934, my family moved to Elk Mound Wisconsin, a small farming community of 376 souls. I was ten years old and certainly had no idea that down one of the country roads leading out of the village lived a young boy who would determine the course of my life. In 1934, our country was in the midst of a depression and a drought. Dairy farmers were driving their cattle down dusty country roads in search of greener pastures. Johnny Ausman lived on a farm two and a half miles from town. We were in school together from the six grade on, but because he rode the school bus I didn't see him after school or on weekends. Our social life revolved around school and church, and he attended a country church. I didn't really become aware of him until our junior year in high school. By that time I was as opinionated as I am now, very vocal, and in addition to that, I was the top student in our class of 19. This did not endear me to the boys in my class, particularly Johnny, and we started on a round of verbal battles. If I was for something, he was against it. My parents listened to several tirades against this boy. He was on the basketball team and after games we girls would hang around the gym waiting for the players to emerge from the locker room, watching them leave with their girl friend of the moment. I saw him leave often and with various girls. In our senior year, after one particularly heart-wrenching loss, Johnny was standing at the gym railing by himself looking as dejected as only a teenager can look. Some impulse of kindness caused me to go tell him that I thought he had played a good game. From that moment on, although neither of us realized that it would be the case, there was never any other girl for him, there was never any other guy for me.
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In those days, we didn't "date". Boys
rarely had cars of their own and seldom had the use of the family car.
In our little town there wasn't anyplace to go. Our relationship
consisted of sitting together on the school bus when we went to out of town
games. My church youth group scheduled a New Year's Eve watch night
party, an invitation affair. I agonized over whether or not to invite
him as my guest. I was afraid he would say "no". Finally, after my girl
friend said in exasperation that if I didn't ask him , she would, I worked up
the courage to extend the invitation and he said "yes". The night of
the party he hadn't shown up yet by the time I had to leave so I went without
him. When he stopped by to pick me up, my Mother had to tell him I was
gone. She said he was a polite boy. To his credit, and my relief,
he did show up at the church before the evening was over.
This was a sign of things to come. Johnny's father had a large farming operation and was also very active in politics. He had an older brother who was at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Johnny was the one who stayed home and worked, and work always came first. He was the one who kept the machinery running. When he was just 14 years old he was driving truckloads of cattle to the stock yards in St Paul, Minnesota. By the time we graduated from high school, although I had never actually been proposed to, we knew we were committed to each other and that we were probably going to live on a farm. World War ll started that fall and his father expanded the farm operation, including hiring a crew of Jamaicans to come for the summer months. My younger sister traveled in more carefree circles , and she would go out while I stayed at home waiting for the brief moments when John and I could be together. Johnny never earned a salary at home and didn't have a car. He got to take the family car on some occasions and the big old stock truck on others. I was not very happy going out in that vehicle. For one thing it was so noisy that the neighbors all knew what time I got home at night. The understanding was that when we got married, his father would set him up on a farm. So I quit college, went to business school and got a job in the office of a defense plant so that I could earn money. Finally, after going together for almost four years, we set a wedding date. His father had purchased a 560 acre farm on which we were to live. One night, two weeks before the wedding, Johnny came to my house to tell me that he was leaving home and that I needed to decide if I wanted to call off the wedding or take my chances on an uncertain future with him. His father had decided that there wasn't enough money to set us on a farm, that Johnny should work at home without a salary, and that I should get my job back to support us. I had quit my job in order to become a farm wife. There was never a doubt in my mind that I would not pursue any kind of future without him. I had saved $200. to buy furniture and he had $40. We didn't have a car and we didn't have jobs but I never doubted that my future with him would be secure. |
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