(The following was written by Frances on 02-12-88 about her life).

Fran spent her entire childhood east of Exeland, Town of Meadowbrook, attending the first eight years of school at the Brunette grade school – two rooms in the building, only one used for classes. The ‘North room’ was used for town meetings and playing when it was too cold to play outside – depending on the teacher – not all would allow it. She made the ‘big break’ by living in Ladysmith during the week, home on week-ends – to attend high school – the first three years. The first school year was rooming with sister Doris – she worked at the Ladysmith Milk Producer’s creamery – at the private home of Mrs. Lillian and daughter Vivian Diederick. We had one room, shared the bath with the family and kitchen privileges. Sister Lucile lived in town at that time – we loved visiting her and ‘bumming’ a meal as often as we felt we dared! My only one negative memory of a meal was – lamb stew! The meal at their home was delicious – Lucile gave us some to take back to our ‘home’ to heat up for lunch. Our mistake was in not heating it enough – have you ever eaten under-heated lamb? We really appreciated the free meals – she was a delicious cook – and still is!

Summers were spent weeding the garden, picking beans for the factory – usually only 1 ½ cents per pound! Going after the cows every afternoon, usually they were miles – it seemed, and always across the creek – and hoeing thistles! Doris and I had a real system to make it ‘fun’ – every hoe, we would be eliminating a Jap or German – as you see, this dates it to around WW II.

My Senior year of high school took me to Bruce High – riding the bus – the first year that it was available in our neighborhood – saving money and the pain of taking me to Exeland every Sunday evening to catch the SOO to Ladysmith, meeting the bus every Friday night so I could spend the week-end at home. My second year at Ladysmith, I roomed with Sister Lucile and family – Doris married in November, she was my ‘room-mate’ till then. My junior year – Lucile and family moved to a farm near Glen Flora or I believe I would have continued to room with them, I lived in the home of Mrs. Stewart and my room-mate was Florence Pickering - just a stone’s throw from the high school, as was the home of Lucile-John.

After graduation from high school, I was employed by the Rusk County Abstract Co. – Ladysmith, under the supervision of Leona Ohlfs. The company was owned by Y. V. Sims and their house was at the back of the Abstract Office – Mrs. Sims – a very sweet lady – would often pop out to visit for a short while, if she baked something she thought we would we would like, she would bring us out some.

In the spring of 1950, I met Ira – to save having to wait for the bus to go back home to Exeland, I would bum a ride with my folks milk hauler, Frank Waite, and after son Ira was was discharged from the Air Force, he would sometimes take the route for his Dad – and a couple of times, he did on Saturday when I wanted a ride. He was the talk of the Exeland girls – all betting who would date him first – he dated Norma Stiegen – my brother-in-law Bill thought it would be a good idea for him to date me – Bill got him to stop at a bar – saw to it that he had enough to drink to get up the nerve to ask me for a date – well, that is all history – we were married September of 1950. He worked for brother-in-law Bill, driving one of his milk trucks – I continued to work for the Abstract Co., till the following April when we packed up our belongings in the ’46 Plymouth and headed and arrived in Tucson, AZ in April of 1951. By that time, I knew Tonie was on the way – Uncle Lloyd had reserved a unit at the Eddy Court, next to him, wife Jeanette, dau. Tootie and step-son Don Ammerman. After three weeks of seeking work, he was hired by Grand Central Air Craft, working there till a big lay-off in the fall of 1953 – just weeks before the birth of Ted. To make a long story short, all four of our kids were born in Tucson, Ira had several jobs, I worked outside of the home for two short periods – in April of 1962 – we packed up our belongings in a U-Haul trailer, hitched to our little ’53 Plymouth Hard-top convertible! We lived in the Exeland-Ladysmith-Bruce area till moving to WI Rapids, the fall of 1966 – the spring of 1968, moving to our present home on Hwy. 73 South – buying the property from Roy Sweet. We now have our four kids, their spouses and 8 grandkids! Before we know it, it will be time to retire – Laddie has been with us since July 1, 1976 – the smartest dog I have ever seen and spoiled rotten by Ira!

(2-12-88)