Recipes for Living Jack and Donna Ames

Although Jack and Donna do not live in Osceola, they are a couple of its greatest boosters, and involved in many of the community activities. This is their story:

Jack regrets that he does not know more about his ancestry. His knows his dad's folks on the Ames side came from Illinois, and his mother's mother was a Bryson, whose family came from the Woodbine area in central Iowa. He knows a little more about his Grandfather Riley, whose dates go back to the Civil War. Jack remembers him talking about Melrose and the Irish community there, how they moved from Iowa to central Kansas before moving into Oklahoma, and about driving cattle into the Oklahoma Panhandle after the Cherokee Strip opened up. They came across barbed wire stretched across some land. It was the first barbed wire his grandfather had ever seen. The man driving the cattle probably cut the wire and drove the cattle through. It was a new thing and they weren't going to accept it. He told lots of stories about carrying guns in the old days, but there is ever so much Jack would like to know and doesn't. For 23 years, Jack has been hunting on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. A few years ago they went down to the Indian cultural center at Eagle Butte, where some of the older Indians were telling their stories, while young people with recorders were taping them. "It was wonderful. This will be the record of that culture."

After Jack's mother and father married, they moved to West Texas, where Jack was born in the city of Hereford. "My dad had been quite successful in West Texas. He'd gone there in the late 20s, at a very early age, when they were plowing up that country from range land. I was born on the XIT Ranch, which stood for 10 in Texas. That meant 10 counties, which they traded for the state capital in Austin. English investors and some from Chicago put money into the land, and the 10 counties became the XIT Ranch. It was along the western edge of the Texas Panhandle and reached almost from the northwest corner about 3/4 of the way down the Panhandle. When they broke up the XIT Ranch and sold it to individuals, there was a man from Oklahoma, who lived in Woodward. He bought land and Dad went out and farmed it.

Then came the “Grapes of Wrath” era. The Grapes of Wrath was a documentary of the people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas who, during the Depression and Dust Bowl, lost everything they had. When there was nothing left, most of the people went to California. They didn't have farm sales or any thing, they just pulled out and left because nobody had money to purchase anything. The Grapes of Wrath was a book, later made into a movie, about the migration of these people who were completely destitute. When some of the people who went to California were able, they began buying land. This was in the 40s, when the land was cheaper than it was later. These investors became extremely wealthy people.

''In the case of my folks, Dad put together an old Model A Ford that was road-worthy enough to get out of there. They moved back to Oklahoma and in the 30's John Jessen in Murray told him if he came to Iowa, he would give him a year's work. He worked there a year and then went to work for Frank Smith, a successful Murray businessman. He owned the lumber yard and lots of land. On that job Dad's salary was $30 a month, a quarter of beef, two hogs, a year of meat, and a house to live in.

"We lived in Murray for one year, then we moved south of Osceola. I attended the Groveland country school, until we moved and I went to LeRoy, which was one of the early rural consolidated schools. Later we became part of the Mormon Trail school district. For high school, I came to and graduated from Osceola. I was very active in FFA (Future Farmers of American), which gave me the opportunity to experience public speaking and that was a tremendous help when I got into the sales era of my life.

''Donna and I went together when we were both in high school," and she picks up their story. "I have a mixed ancestry: my mother was Scotch-Irish and English, and my father was Irish and American Indian. He was probably about a quarter-blood. I warn people about two things - they never want to get me drunk or angry. I don't allow either of those to happen because the characteristics I inherited would not do well with that. I tell our son he is the only blue eyed Indian I ever knew. People have asked me if I have gotten into genealogy, but there is nowhere to go. That long ago there may have been no records kept, or records were kept but destroyed. I know my father's family were Cherokee, originally from the Carolina area; they moved to Kentucky, then to Ohio, and then to Iowa. That is all I know. Mom's family was Scotch Irish and, as many families did, they immigrated in the mid-to late-1800s. My mother was born in 1893, and they lived on a farm east of Leon. They probably were never 20 miles from home until Jack and I took them on a trip to Arkansas. That was the biggee of their whole lives. People at that time didn't travel, and I think my dad got more good out of that than anything we ever did.

"I have always felt that our age group were the only kids who grew up living in Mayberry, USA. We may not have thought so, but it was probably the best time ever to be kids. After the war, people were a little more affluent - not rich, but had a little more to spend. We didn't know the poverty our parents had lived through. We enjoyed our school years because, even though most of us didn't own cars, we had access to them. If we could get $1 together for gasoline, which at that time was 20¢ a gallon, we could come clear to Osceola and go to a movie or do whatever we wanted. We didn't have a lot of other things to worry about - there were not drug problems, divorce was not prevalent, predators weren't preying on children, such as we have now. We probably had as nice a time to grow up in this country as there ever was.

"I was born and raised in Leon. I never lived anywhere else until I was out of high school. I worked in an insurance business in Leon after I graduated, until my parents purchased an apartment house in Des Moines. I lived with them about a year until Jack and I were married. We dated during our senior year in high school, and were married in May 1954. He was working for Solar Aircraft at that time, I worked for an insurance company, and we continued to live in Des Moines until his father was diagnosed with cancer, and died in February 1957. That was when we moved back to the farm where we still live. About that time I discovered I was pregnant and our only child, Andy, was born in August of that year."

Jack added, "I worked at Solar Aircraft when they made manifolds for jet airplanes. The plant was where Des Moines' Tech High School is now. It was an old Ford Plant and after the war they built on Bell Avenue, which was later Massey Ferguson. I worked there in the transition time when they were leaving downtown.

"We moved in 1946 to where we live at the present time, northeast of Weldon, just a mile from the Mormon Trail. I kept hearing older residents refer to the Mormon Trace and have since learned that the Mormon Trail proper went through Garden Grove, but on the other side of Chariton there was a split. What we call the Mormon Trail in Clarke County goes through Smyrna, where part of the Mormons followed the south side of the Chariton River and we live a mile from that. I think it was in the Lacelle area that they hooked back together and went on through Council Bluffs on the way to Utah. A couple years ago, we sold the better part of the farm and kept an acreage. That will have to remain ours because the farm is the only home our son, Andy, has ever known, which he brings up from time to time saying that has to stay as is."

Andy went to school in Weldon through the 6th grade and came to Osceola for junior high and high school. In this edition of Recipes for Living, there is a history or rural schools, with the information that four rural schools were kept open to keep grades one through six, and in 1959, junior high was brought in to Osceola. This was what Andy did. After high school graduation, he went to ISU (Iowa State University) on an ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) Naval scholarship. He went in as an Ensign, and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, he was in the Navy for six years, at the end of which time he was a Lieutenant. He went back to ISU and got a degree in Computer Science. He went to work for an insurance company in Des Moines and then worked at Principal for a couple years. He decided he wanted to get his Masters in English to pursue a Tech writing career, so he went back to school in the English Department. He says he was not a professional student, he was just eternally inquisitive.

Donna told about their dogs, which have, she said, "always been a big part of our lives. When Jack was growing up, he had hunting dogs, and his last dog was still there when we were first married and went to the farm. Her name was Daisy. A few years later, when Andy was about seven years old, my brother gave him a little dog that was half cocker spaniel and whatever else. We didn't have him for too long because we live too close to the road, and he was killed.

''For awhile we didn't have a dog, then one Sunday we packed Andy in the car and drove to Des Moines to buy one for him. Unbeknownst to me, his father had been reading the want ads, and someone had an English bull dog for sale. We drove clear through Des Moines, out to the north edge and Jack and Andy got out of the car, went to the house while I sat in the car and waited. Pretty soon here they came with a big white English bull dog on a leash. She looked frightening to me because I'd never been around English bulls. We had a station wagon, so we put her in the back with Andy. I told Andy later I thought by the time we got home there wouldn't be anything left of him but his belt buckle - she would have eaten everything else. But she turned out to be the sweetest, most even tempered, most loving dog we ever had. She was 11 months old when we got her, so she was probably as big as she was going to get, and she weighed about 60 pounds. Andy being an only child, he and Queenie grew up together. Andy put short pants and tee-shirts on her, and she ran around wearing those clothes. She had her own toy box, and Andy loved to put new toys in the box for her. Queenie was very good about taking toys out of the box but she didn't ever learn to put them back, so that was Andy's job.

"All that led to a job for me. We decided we'd given quite a bit for the dog, so to recoup our losses, we would raise a litter of puppies. We took Queenie to visit a gentleman dog and the result was nine puppies. We sold the nine bulldog puppies and decided this was the road to riches. We purchased two other female dogs, Pokie and Matilda, and established a kennel. We raised English Bulldogs for about 14 years, until Andy graduated from high school. We bred a National Champion, and all in all, it was a fun experience. We met a lot of awfully nice people, who came to purchase puppies. That was one prerequisite - we had to know our dogs went to good homes. I almost had people investigated before I would sell them a puppy. I have always had a warm place in my heart for all animals - horses, dogs, hamsters, whatever. I have a hard time hearing of anyone who would abuse or neglect animals. I feel that anyone who would treat animals this way would treat children in the same manner. They must have no compassion or capacity for very much love.

"After we no longer raised bulldogs, we got back into bird dogs. A friend of ours had a Viszla, which is a Hungarian breed of pointing dog. We raised two litters of puppies with her, and again enjoyed meeting a lot of nice people. The last four years we have been without a dog. At some time, we will surely have another, but not just now. We are retired and don't want the responsibility. We enjoy closing the door as we leave the house, knowing we don't need to hurry home to take care of the animals' needs."

Jack's mother is 94, going on 95. She is in an assisted living facility and has several health problems. The law is that a relative or guardian must go in and count out all the pills a resident needs, but Jack can sign a waiver that allows someone else to do this. He is very impressed and wants others to know there is a young man on the Osceola City Council who goes to the facility every morning, gathers the ladies around the kitchen table, gets out their pills, and the ladies take them. He won't take a penny for doing it. He just has a good heart. Jack says, "Sometimes we get cynical about what our world is coming to, particularly elected officials. I want people to know there are still individuals who do such things for their fellowmen.

"Before I retired, I had become involved in the Clarke County Development Board, and I continued with them, serving as Vice President for a couple years. During that time, there began to be rumblings that there might be a casino coming to our area. It seemed so far fetched that we all had a good laugh about it. However, at that. time the southern two tiers of counties in the state were very poor, farms no longer provided families' needs, and jobs were very hard to come by. This offered a possible way to alleviate some of the problems. Donna, myself, and others, made many trips to Des Moines, meeting with the Racing and Gaming Commission, pleading our case. This proposal had the potential of bringing 500 or more jobs to the area, which would be a Godsend. On our first visits they were not receptive, and it took about two to 2 1/2 years of meetings and pleading until they finally agreed that this area could sustain a casino. It became a reality.

"There is a law in Iowa that a certain percentage of the money generated by casinos will be used by the license holder for what I think of as charitable purposes, mostly non-taxable organizations like schools, churches, fire departments, etc. We have put that money in what we call Pillars grants. Any organization able to match funds is eligible to apply. It would be astonishing to know how much money has been given to all these recipients over the years.

"In the beginning it wasn't just Clarke County but all of southern Iowa. When Clarke was trying to get the casino, the surrounding counties - city councils, boards of supervisors, and others, wrote letters to the Gaming Commission trying to help us get the casino. So when it happened, we decided, since they had helped us, it was only fair that we help them. We put a lot of money into Union, Decatur, Lucas, Ringgold, and Wayne Counties, but two years ago the State Legislature passed a law that money from the casinos would be divided equally between all the counties in the state, except for counties that had a casino. At that time we decided we would keep the revenue for Clarke.

"This, of course, relates directly to the amount of revenue generated by the casino. At the present time Terrible's is generating as much money as it ever has and we get somewhere around $80,000 a month. Besides tax money, the city, county, and state, get income from the casino and we have had many improvements from it, within the city and throughout the county. The Pillars grant money alone amounts to about $60,000 a month. When I drive through the little towns in southern Iowa I wonder how they function without money such as we get from the casino.

"I've been involved in that from the start. It has really been rewarding to watch what has been done with this money. As I came to Osceola this morning I saw that an old filling station, which has been an eyesore, is being refurbished, a small percentage of it paid for by Pillars. Everyone driving through town on either highway saw how it looked and what is happening. The same is true with plans for a lot on highway 69. The parking lot on the comer of Cass and Main replacing a vacant lot is such an improvement. It was built primarily with Pillars money, as is true with many things being done or is in the planning stage. It is exciting to be part of it.

When I was growing up on the farm, there was always something to do. I was way too smart to ever tell my mother I was bored, because I'd not have been bored long. That has made me a poor loafer, so when I retired and had all the buildings painted and everything done that I'd been trying to do when I was too busy to do them; I found I had time on my hands. I tried the "coffee shop diversion," but I knew it wasn't my thing.

"When I was in the seed business I was fortunate to win lots of trips all over the world, so Donna and I have been to Europe and quite a number of places. In New Orleans I became fascinated with wrought iron on the balconies. When I farmed, I had a pretty good metal shop and a forge, and I always expected to use spare time doing something with wrought iron. However, one Christmas Andy bought me a book about making knives. I read the book, and instead of getting into wrought iron, I got into knives. I cranked up the forge and made a knife. Even though I still have the first knife I ever made, I have improved on them through the years. I felt that every knife I made ought to be just a little better than the one before it or I wasn't getting
anywhere. I make paring knives, butcher knives and all between. I went from a $35 butcher knife to now when my top knife sells for about $300. I sell an awfully lot of knives in the $150 range.

"When I started looking at custom made knives I discovered that very few of the makers have any interest in the leather sheaths. I made up my mind that if I was going to build a knife that a man has paid $150 to $300 for, I was going to make a sheath with workmanship of the same quality. If the knife lasted a life time, I wanted the sheath to as well. I make leather sheaths and once in awhile I have to sew up a baseball glove or something like that. From about Labor Day to Christmas, to keep up with the orders, I work harder than I really want to."

Jack tells about going to knife shows to display and sell them. People ask where he gets the raw material, but Jack says, "I have more raw material brought to me than I can use. Awhile ago a fellow said, 'I've been hauling something around in my pickup for six weeks that I picked up for you on our vacation in southern Texas.' He had found a native wood in northern Mexico called Mexican ebony. I can't find reference anywhere to Mexican ebony but it is a very dense wood and beautiful. He thought of me, got a big chunk of this wood, put it in his pickup, and had hauled it around all summer waiting to see me. Another man came with a beautiful piece of hedge that had been in his bam for probably forty years. These make beautiful handles.

"As I understand from other knife makers, this sort of thing doesn't happen in other parts of the country. Here in southern Iowa people see something, think of someone who could use it, and bring it along. Having people do this is touching. The man who gave me the ebony wood doesn't know it yet, but the next time I see him, I will show him how beautiful the knives are when I use it, ask him which one he likes and give it to him.

"Just recently the chef at the casino contacted me and wondered if I would contract with them to keep their cutlery sharp. They bought twice as many knives and cleavers as they needed. They have one sharp set, and I have the other half of their supply at my house sharpening them. Every other Friday I exchange them. I pick up 40 and leave 40. It is just one of the interesting things it is possible to fall into.

"I get up every morning and walk two miles - I prefer early morning because I have paths mowed on the back side of our property, down along the river. I see rabbits and deer, occasionally a turkey, come back feeling good, make knives and it's a nice day. Donna and I can hardly abide the bad and negative talk we hear. I don't know when we got into that mind set. We've always had some people who were negative but I think we have almost become a society of looking on the bad side of every situation, rather than trying to find the good in something or make an effort to have an upbeat attitude. It seems like we really want to be negative. We don't like that and try not to be that way."

Donna agrees, "People don't seem to enjoy their lives as much as they used to. I remember growing up, we had very little in the way of material things but my Dad sang all the time. Whatever he was doing, he sang as he did it. We had a meeting in Arizona a few years ago - a Corn Convention - and there was a guy, an older man, who played guitar and sang. People made requests, and everything they came up with, he could sing off the top of his head. He said, 'I've got one that none of you people have ever heard of.' He started and I chimed in and sang along with him. He looked at me and asked, 'Where did you ever hear that?' I said, 'My dad. He sang it when I was a little kid.' I could remember him singing that song. The fellow was dumb founded that I even knew what the song was let alone remembering the words. I don't know the title and probably never did. It went: 'When the curtains of night are held back by the stars, and the beautiful moon sweeps the sky...' That's as far as I can get, but it was fun to remember.

"We are so fortunate to be able to travel because when Jack was in the seed business, if he sold a certain amount, he'd win trips. We've been so many places we'd never have had the opportunity to go. I guess when you've seen the world and some of the dire poverty, it makes you want to come back and tell people, 'You should see some of the places where people are really hurting.' I guess what sells newspapers and TV commercials are the negative, critical views. We've been brain-washed and if something positive comes along, we don't dwell on it."

Jack said, "I'll tell you a feel-good thing: the Clarke County Development Corporation sponsors a program which has to do with housing. This is a two year course in the Murray and Clarke Community schools, and it also gives credits toward SWICC (Southwest Iowa Community College). They can go into a two-year course in carpentry. When it first started, we couldn't get enough kids in the two schools in our county, and we had young people come up from Mormon Trail and Central Decatur to make the 27 students we needed for a class. In the four years it has been going, it has become popular, and today we have more young people wanting the class than the instructor can handle effectively.

"We now have enough in Murray and Clarke Community, so Central Decatur and Mormon Trail have branched off having their own projects there. As of today, we took an old rundown house that was an eyesore in a nice neighborhood, knocked it down, and hauled it away. We ran a basement and the students will start next week constructing a house on it. Another house just west of it needed repair and a young man who does this as his livelihood, completely gutted it, put on new siding, and a new garage on the side of the house. We have absolutely changed the looks of the neighborhood. If you drive by it and see what has happened, it makes the day a little bit brighter.

"Hopefully, in years to come, other houses that are in disrepair can be knocked down and hauled away, and replaced by a nice looking structure. The first project we tried is now occupied by a retired couple whom were able to move out of a house larger than their needs, and are happily situated. In addition, again it completely changed the looks of that neighborhood. There was another house, an eyesore right on the highway, so that everyone who went through Osceola saw it. In a project called "Paint the Town Red," a man and his family did all the labor, renovated the house, and with matching funds from Pillars' grant, it has become a little showplace."

Donna added, "Jack and I consider the Hispanic families who have moved here to work at Osceola Foods to be another great asset. We can gain so much if we will take note of various aspects of their culture. One of the foremost is their care for family. It is refreshing to see them in our grocery stores, for instance. They come as a family, the father perhaps carrying a baby and holding another child by the hand while the mother, and perhaps other little ones, shop. Their children are not running up and down the aisles or whining because they want this or that.

"Even though we don't live in Osceola, we think of ourselves as part of the community, and we are excited about the new winery that is such an asset to the community. We'd never have dreamed of such a thing a few years ago. They had their ribbon cutting August 28, 2006, attended by probably 75 to 100 from the community. It was a very nice event. They told about their intentions, which include planting vineyards so people can see the grapes and how they are harvested. It has created jobs, gives people a reason to turn off the interstate, and stop to see what we have to offer. Those visitors will be very apt to wind their way downtown to shop, and see what is going on. I think there will be other businesses and industries coming here that we'd not have thought of a few years ago. We have an outstanding community and need to welcome them!"