The Old Neighborhood

Osil Steadman Mitchell's funeral is today, December 16, 2009, the sixth anniversary of Mom's death. Osil and Mom were neighbors east of Guss when they were teens. The Ridnour's lived in a big house on the west side of the road. (Where Walter Johnson's later live(d) for many years.) Steadman's lived south about 3/4's of a mile. North of Ridnour's on the east side of the road was the farm of Lee and Ruth Mitchell. They had two boys, Alvin and Paul. Mom's sister, Lois, married Alvin and Osil married Paul. Eventually Osil's brother, Byron, moved to the same neighborhood as my parents. (Byron & son, Bryan farmed Mom's land after Dad died.) Paul and Osil moved to Iveyville half a mile from where Joe & Delphia Ridnour had moved to in the 40's.

Further North on the west side of the road was where Firkins lived. One of their girls, Verlene, and Mom were lifelong friends. I took Mom and Aunt Lois to Sharpsburg for Verlene's 80th birthday celebration ten years ago.

George and Bessie Lynam and their 12 yr old son, Louis, and 4 yr old daughter, Leona, moved to the Ralph Harvey farm in 1929. That was about four or five miles NW of the Ridnour's. Louis attended Spaulding School 3/4's mile west of the Lynam farm. Ruth went to Mt. Pleasant school a mile north and a mile east of the Ridnour farm. The Ridnour's and Lynam's had lived in close proximity in Adams County. I'm sure they knew each other.

One of Dad's lifelong friends from his neighborhood was Art Kapple. They ended up living in the same neighborhood after their marriages in Jasper Twp. back in Adams Co. Art's brother, Roy, was also a friend and neighbor for awhile, moving to Council Bluffs in the early 50's.

One of the entertainments of my parent's teen years was putting on plays at the school houses on the weekends. Or they might have a visiting speaker. That would draw attendance from other school districts as well as their own. That might be where Mom & Dad met. Or maybe they met at one of the many "house parties" in the neighborhood. A family would host an evening of card playing and or music and dancing.

However they met, Ruth had at least two dates with Alvin Mitchell before she started dating Louis. From her diary of those years, it seems that once she and Louis started dating, that was it for both of them.

(You can see I did not finish this post when I started it. It wasn't going where I wanted it to go. I'm still not happy with it. But I will go ahead and publish and move on. I did not attend Osil's funeral, but noticed they used a picture of her from her younger years on the funeral program as we did on Mom's.)