Recipes for Living David and Joy Hodgin Tokheim

Joy and Dave are teachers in the Clarke Community School system, Joy following the chosen profession of her grandmother, mother, her father's sister, and her mother's two brothers. It is obvious that her family had a high regard for education.

Joy's maternal grandmother, Marion Tucker, had gotten her teaching certificate when the school that is now UNI (University of Northern Iowa) was a Normal Training School. Then she was widowed at age 45, Marion went to work as a cleaning lady in the dorms at UNI, but decided to go back to college and graduated with a four-year degree in teaching. She taught in a oneroom school in Fredricka. Joy remembers being included for picnics the last day of the school year. When Joy was about five-years-old, the state closed all the one-room schools, and Grandma Tucker began teaching at the big school in Tripoli.

Joy's father, Lyle Hodgin, was born in Nebraska, the only son in the family with three older sisters. They moved to a farm south of Waterloo when he was four-years-old and he grew up there. He was very young when he started to school, with the result that he graduated from high school when he was only 16. He began his further education at ISU (Iowa State University), but had to drop out when his father required major surgery. He always regretted that he was never able to return to get his degree but supplemented his education by being an avid reader. Accepting the situation, he helped on the farm and drove a school bus, which became the way by which he met his wife.

Joy's mother, Donna, grew up in Cedar Falls. She had two brothers, Bruce and Bob, who were both in W.W. II. Bob was a German P.O.W. (prisoner of war) until he was liberated by the Russians. Bruce was overseas at the time of his father's death and could not be located in order for him to return for the funeral, a fact which Joy's grandmother always regretted.

Donna was teaching at a small school in Orange Township, south of Waterloo, when one day the above-mentioned bus driver caught sight of her, took his foot off the brake and rolled into the bus behind him. That was when and how they met.

When Joy's father and mother were married, they lived with his parents on the farm. Joy was born 10 months later. They had no money, which could have been a significant disadvantage when it was discovered, even before they left the hospital, that Joy had a congenital hip displacement. That condition entails treatment that could have been costly. The ball and socket had to be forced together and held in the right place to keep it there. Luckily, they had a compassionate doctor, who decided surgery was not necessary and found creative ways to make the necessary hardware in cheap manner. In order to keep her legs at a certain angle, he devised a brace to go between them, made from a wire coat hanger, plaster used for casts, and wrapped with an Ace bandage.

Joy wore the braces until she was about two-years-old. "I could sit and lie and be carried, as long as my legs were kept at that angle." The next part of the process was to fit her with special shoes. Even then it was necessary to have a bar between them so that the angle was maintained. The bar was attached to the bottom of her shoes with wing nuts. The shoes were expensive and friends of her parents collected money for the family to be able to buy them.

Joy had gotten into the habit of sleeping with her mom and dad. One night they decided that habit must be broken. They forced themselves to let her cry. However, when the crying stopped, they became concerned and went to see what had happened. She had been able to swing her legs from side to side, until she swung herself through the bars of her crib. They found her at her crib, with her head resting on the mattress, sound asleep. The wing nuts on her shoes kept her high enough to prevent her from being strangled. Their compassion won them over and they never let her cry like that again. The family made a joke of the fact that she was "saved by wing nuts."

Joy had two younger brothers-Randy who was born when Joy was two, and Jeff when she was seven. "Our grandparents built a home about 1/2-mile down the road. We lived on the old farm and loved it. We'd go down to creek or play in our sand box. It was wonderful!"

When their parents decided to quit farming, they moved about ten miles to Hudson. They still live in the house they moved into and both Joy's brothers live and are raising their families there.

Joy graduated from high school in Hudson in 1971, and continued her education at Iowa State University. She and Dave met there and were married between Joy's sophomore and junior years. A Quonset hut community, Pammel Court, had been provided for the influx of service personnel returning to college, and Dave and Joy lived there for a year until Dave graduated and accepted a teaching job in Grand Junction. Joy drove back and forth to finish her last year of college.

Dave's great-grandparents on his father's side came from Norway. There is a town named Tokheim, in Norway. His mother's family was never really sure about their ancestry on her father's side. Dave's maternal grandfather was orphaned at a young age. He always claimed that his family was "blue belly Yankees". Dave's parents, Reva and Virgil, were both born and raised in Swea City, Iowa. Dave has an older brother, Tom; a younger brother, Steven; and younger sister Kathy. Tom lives in Joyce, Iowa; Steve, his wife and daughter, farm with Virgil and Reva; Kathy and her family live in Wheaton, Illinois.

Dave grew up on a farm and always loved living and working in the country. After his graduation from high school, he had gone to New Mexico to work on a ranch that belonged to his aunt and uncle. He had not been interested in college until it was about time for school to begin. At the last minute, he decided to try college at Iowa State University. He started in pre-veterinary classes but ended in Agricultural Education. After a year of teaching in Grand Junction, when Joy graduated, they moved to Swea City to help Dave's folks in farming with an emphasis on hog raising. Erin was born in 1976, while they were in Swea City.

The crash in the hog market in the late 1970's, forced Dave to find another means of income. He taught for a year in a vocational school in Blue Earth, Minnesota; worked as a carpenter for three years; and returned to teaching at small school in Lakota, Iowa. It was there that the school principal asked if he would be interested in teaching a foreign language. Dave had an interest in Spanish, dating back to his junior year in high school when he went to Spain as an exchange student.

When Dave was approached about teaching a foreign language, he went back to school to get the necessary credits to teach Spanish. He taught at Lakota, Sentral of Fenton, Burt, and Titonka, teaching both Spanish and agriculture. In the early stages of foreign language education, schools sometimes shared teachers and Dave often taught morning classes in one school and afternoon classes in another. In 1988, he decided it would be better to find a school where he would be offered one contract and teach only Spanish.

Jaime was born in 1980. Joy hadn't intended to work until both girls were in school, but necessity has a way of changing plans; and, when Erin started kindergarten, Joy began babysitting one child, then five or six, who were mostly teachers' children. When Jaime was four years-old, the local kindergarten teacher approached Joy saying that her contract had been part-time and she had been offered a fulltime job. Would Joy be interested in teaching in the preschool she was leaving? Joy took the job and taught pre-school two days a week and baby-sat the other three days. She loved it! Perhaps the number of teachers in her family background had made her resistant to going into that profession but through this experience she decided it was precisely what she wanted to do. Joy started back to school to work toward a Master's Degree in Education.

In 1987 Dave heard that part of the lottery money was to be used to finance graduate education for foreign language teachers. There would be a stipend for students who wanted to work toward their Master's degree.

Dave enrolled at UNI and the family packed up to live with Joy's parents for the summer in the nearby town of Hudson. Dave was in school the summers of 1987, 1988, and 1989. Joy also started in '88 but in her case, going summers and taking night classes, it took until 1995 to get her degree. She went to Cedar Falls on Monday mornings and came home Friday nights for several summers. During this time the girls were growing more self-sufficient, had 4-H projects or jobs to attend to. It was a "long haul; lots of road blocks", but Joy had the encouragement of her family and friends, especially an older family friend, Professor Mary Nan Aldridge, who convinced Joy that she could do it. "There were times when I thought maybe I was just fooling myself: but then remembered what Mary Nan had said."

In 1988 Dave was offered a position in Clarke Community Schools and the family moved to Osceola. It represented a significant change because they had lived for 13 years in small towns; both of the girls were born and were being raised close to family members; and they had a home that they liked. This move took them far from any immediate support from either family. How ever, within a year they felt at home, with an assurance that this is where they were meant to be.

Like many who have made the transition from northern to southern Iowa, they noted a difference. In northern Iowa there are large farms, requiring the use of huge implements. There was on-going competition to see who could get the crops in first, who was doing the best job with farm land, and who kept machinery in the best condition. It is very profitable for those who do it well, but the pressure is high. In southern Iowa the people seemed much more relaxed and easygoing. "We found the people in southern Iowa accepting of different ideas and more supportive of people who want to try alternative farming methods, like farming with draft horses, Dave's favorite hobby. We love it here!"

Dave had always wanted to farm but it hadn't been an option for him. The Tokheims lived in town the first two years, but continually were on the lookout for a farm. They saw a number of them but couldn't agree. The house would be fine but the land or buildings not quite right, or vice versa. One day Dave found an ad in the paper. A farm south of Osceola was being sold privately. It developed that a man had bought it for his son, whose marriage was being dissolved. When Joy came home, Dave took her to see it. It was so beautiful! There was lots timber and rolling hills. There were no buildings except for one little shed. Dave and Joy agreed, "This is it." They began building a house in 1990, but prior to that, Joy's career was taking off.

In 1988, Joy worked as the education coordinator for Head Start in the South Central Iowa district. After being there for two years, she took a job with AEA (Area Education Association) in Creston as Prevention Specialist. This included a lot of work with school systems and directly with children, teaching the dangers of drug and alcohol use, and how to make healthy choices in caring for themselves physically and emotionally. Her favorite way of working with classes was as a clown. For three years during the winter months, she and a co-worker put on elementary school programs on different topics. One year the emphasis was on how to avoid being fooled by advertising; one year for pre-schoolers it was on the dangers of eating or drinking things they weren't sure about, like someone else's medication or too many vitamins. They gave presentations on how to overcome negative peer pressure and make use of good sense in choices and decisions. They used humor, magic tricks, and involved the kids in various skits. The pupils seemed to learn and remember from year to year what the clowns had done.

The costuming led to some interesting experiences. If Joy had a program at a school a long way from Osceola, she would put on her costume and make up at home and drive to the school. It drew some interesting looks from other trave1ers. One day in Creston at a major intersection, her truck stopped. She had to go to a nearby restaurant to use the phone to call a repairman. One day when she and her partner were working at Clarke Elementary, they took the opportunity to go to Joy's home for lunch; driving back into town on highway 69, they had a flat tire. Both of them were in makeup and pulled into the drive of a farm not far from Osceola. They didn't know the people who lived there, but a young man came to the door with two tiny girls peeking around his legs. They asked if we could give them a ride into town. He graciously agreed and didn't even ask questions. It was as though there was nothing surprising about finding two clowns at his door, but the eyes of the two little girls were absolutely gigantic.

Joy's next job was with the East Union School District. They had a grant to build what they called a school-based youth services program, Joy was hired to coordinate the grant. She was there one year during which the group was able to establish a Family Resource Center in Afton. It still continues. In the East Union School District, she also helped establish positions that helped at risk students and families. It was in the middle of that job that she was able to. complete her Master's degree in the summer of 1995, and the following January discovered that there would be a fulltime substitute position open in Clarke Elementary Library. Joy's goal had always been to get job in the Clarke Elementary system in order that she and Dave could be in
same school district. She applied and got the job in the middle of the '95-'96 school year, after which she was placed as a teacher of 1st grade. She taught in that position for three years and in the fall of 1999 will be transferring to 3rd grade.

Returning to where the story left off in 1990, the Tokheims decided to build their own house. Dave's prior experience as a carpenter made it possible. They started in the summer of 1990 and finished in fall of '91. Except for professionals who laid the carpet and prepared walls to be painted, and the help of friends, Dave, Joy; Erin and Jaime did most of the work.

Erin used this as part of an FFA (Future Farmers of America) project, and both girls were involved in all the aspects of building-even helping with wiring and putting in insulation. Jaime claimed to be the only 11 year-old in Clarke County who knew how to put on sheet rock, and was very proud of it.

One major event was an accident Dave had when he and Erin were putting sheet rock on the ceiling of the garage. The lift they were using to hold the panel in place broke and gave way. Dave had his hand in the wrong place at the wrong time and severed his thumb. Joy and Jaime were in town so it was up to Erin to drive him to the hospital. Not only was she frightened, but only 15 years-old. She knew how to drive but didn't have a license or very much experience. Their road was graveled and she had a hard time keeping the pickup on the road. They would later discover that their old dog had been in back of the truck the whole time. He jumped out at his first chance and was not about to get in the pickup again. They finally got him into the car.

However, once at the hospital, the trauma was not over. Joy, Jaime, and Erin had to go back to find Dave's thumb. They were sent on to Des Moines, where a wonderful surgeon was able to reattach the thumb so successfully that if someone didn't know what had happened, they would be unable to tell. Dave has lost some use of it but for the most part, he has adapted.

The family was very touched by the many offers of help. It brought home to them what wonderful friends and neighbors they have. They helped the daughters with chores; members of the TLC Sunday School class of the Osceola United Methodist Church helped to do all kinds of things that needed to be done until Dave was able to work again. They helped unload and hang sheet rock, did wiring and so many things! It was such a true outpouring of generosity and caring that the Tokheims find hard to express how much it meant.

Joy summarized: "The two greatest blessings in our lives have been our two daughters. Erin seemed to have been born with a smile on her face, easy-going personality, always able to roll with the punches. Jaime seems more like she was born with her jaw set, fiercely independent and ready to conquer any obstacles. Although they are 3 ½ years apart and very different from each other, even as young children they were almost inseparable. They are both very intelligent, both have loved school and learning but each has had her own interests. Both love music but Erin was the conductor for the marching band, where Jaime was captain of the flag team. Jaime loved starring in school plays and dramas. Erin preferred to take part behind the scenes. Both have grown up to be happy, loving, responsible adults and both girls hope eventually to have a career that will help others.

''Dave and I are very happy with the way our lives have turned out. There have been rough spots but we have always known that we could depend on each other, our families, and our friends. We are so lucky to have found each other and still look at our girls with great wonder and pride. We are happy with where we are. I know that so many times we have been blessed by circumstances, the way coincidences have happened, and the way things have fallen into place. Looking back we can see that there has been a plan. It is reassuring to know that God is looking out for us and things are happening as they are supposed to happen. My family and I have been touched many, many times by people who have come into our lives at the precise time we needed them, providing us with encouragement, inspiration, advice, and love, almost like angels unaware. We are grateful for the wonderful lives we have."