Soapy: Enlightening Tale of My Life

By Don Harreld

This is the author's life story. He wrote it at the request of his children and grandchildren. It begins with the day he was born, goes into great detail as to what life was like growing up in Indiana during the 40's, 50's, 60's and ends with celebrating his 80th birthday with family and friends. The sole purpose was to document what his life was like and to leave something behind for everyone to understand his thoughts, feelings, experiences and incredible accomplishments. This book could be used as a guide to motivate and encourage others to write their autobiography.

"This book will forever be a family treasure. Keeping these stories alive in Soapy is such a unique and special way for Grandpa to share them with future generations." --Michelle

"Life has thrown my Father more than his fair share of curveballs; but he always bounced back with renewed purpose, enthusiasm, and strength. His story highlights this along with his love and devotion to family." --Angi

"I especially like Grandpa's story of how he got his nickname." --Matt

"I learned a lot about my friend reading Soapy and it inspired my Father-in-Law to write his autobiography." --Joe

"Reading my brother's book has brought back so many wonderful memories of growing up together." --Vicki

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889430964

Book preview

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Soapy

Enlightening Tale of My Life

Don Harreld

ISBN 979-8-88943-095-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88943-096-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Don Harreld

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

I am dedicating this book to my late wife and four children.

The Beginning

Grade School Years

Junior High School Years

My Parents Suggested That I Write the Following Article, Documenting the Details of Building a Hot Rod

High School Years

College Years

Early Family Years

Midfamily Years

Latter Family Years

Retirement Years

Life in Florida

Celebrating My Eightieth Birthday

About the Author

I am dedicating this book to my late wife and four children.

The Beginning

It all began on a chilly day in Marion, Indiana. It was November 10, 1941, and the excitement of a newborn baby was building at 1440 Horton Street, home of the Harreld Family. Mom knew the time was arriving for her second child to be born. Several women came to assist in the delivery. Now, back then, the gender of an unborn child was determined by how a mother carried the baby. My brother Bob was carried low just two years earlier, and so Mother knew all along he was going to be a boy. Conversely, she carried me very high, thus assuming I would be a girl. Mom and Dad chose the name Donna May.

They called the doctor, and he was on his way. They called my dad, and he left work to get home in time for the delivery. Our family doctor, Dr. Long, was out of town. Dr. Pierre Fisher substituted and arrived along with Nurse Elizabeth Martin, which was common back then.

Dad arrived, and while walking down the hallway, he fainted and fell on the floor flat on his back! A couple of women grabbed the rug that was under him and dragged him into the living room, well out of the way. This was rather uncharacteristic of him since he grew up on a farm and witnessed animals being born as well as butchered. His excuse was that he had given a pint of blood the day before, and it left him light-headed!

Nevertheless, the moment arrived, and I was born at 5:30 p.m., and to everyone's surprise, I was a boy! I weighed eight pounds and four ounces. Dad woke up, and together, they agreed to change my name to Donald Ray. Whew, what a start!

One year old

Word has it that I was a challenge from the beginning! Mom tried nursing me, and her milk made me sick. They fed me cow's milk, and that also made me sick. Someone in the family suggested trying goat's milk. That worked just fine. However, it was hard to get and was rather expensive! Mom and Dad had purchased a three-acre apple orchard just outside of the city limits on Meridian Street and planned to build a house in the near future. Dad purchased two goats and built a wooden goat house. They kept the goats there and drove back and forth to care for them and to milk them.

They purchased a mobile home and located it on the three acres, complete with a well and septic system. We lived there while having a foundation poured and preparations to build a house. They purchased a building from a filling station in town and had it moved out and placed upon the foundation. This building had a flat roof, typical of the day. They then had the remainder of a house built, and when ready, we moved in. The trailer was sold.

The house, when completed, had a two-car garage and cellar in the lower level. The upper level had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room.

We owned a cottage on Beaver Dam Lake, named Salt and Pepper, about fifty miles northwest of Marion. We used that for several years until it became too much to care for along with the three-acre apple orchard. The cottage was sold, and that money went to adding a storage room below, along with a very large bedroom on the main floor. Bobby and I shared this bedroom, and it had plenty of room for Brother Jack, who arrived later.

What I remember most about those years is that we were very close to relatives on both sides and spent a lot of time together. On Dad's side, there were four brothers and one sister, who were all married, and had a total of eleven kids. On Mom's side, there were two brothers and one sister and at that time, had five kids. Louie was twenty years younger than Mom and later married and had kids. We were always together on holidays and spent a lot of time playing with cousins.

Dad had a steel building erected out back of the house to store the Farmall Cub tractor, plow, disc, and a large sprayer. Every year, we planted vegetables and strawberries, which kept us busy, along with tending the nineteen apple trees, one cherry tree, and a mulberry tree.

We acquired a stray dog and named her Tippy because she was black with white paws and white on her tail. She was a mixed breed, very gentle, loving, and made a very good pet for us. She had several litters of puppies through the years, and we always gave them away to friends and neighbors.

During the winter of 1945, Mom became pregnant, and while walking down our long driveway, she fell on the icy snow and broke her leg. Thus, she was laid up and needed help. Dad worked, Bobby was in school during the day, and I was home with her. That was the beginning of my spending time in the kitchen. At the young age of four, Mom taught me to make sandwiches, open a can of soup and warm it on the stove, make other simple things to eat, wash dishes, and how to clean up the kitchen. There were times when I helped fix dinner, following Mom's instructions. Jack was born March 15, 1946, and was welcomed into the family with open arms. He was a very happy baby and easy to care for. Bobby and I learned a lot about how to care for a small child.

Mom's sister Mildred married Basil Walton and had four kids: Carol, Janet, Peggy, and Butch. Peggy was the same age as Bobby, and Butch was just a few months older than me. We often spent holidays at G'ma and G'pa Kessler's house. She was a great cook and always made plenty of good food for us. We played various games while the adults often played card games.

Mom's brother Bill (ten years younger than Mom) married Ruth, and they had one son, David. He was about Jack's age, and the two of them got along well. Mom's brother Louie (twenty years younger than her) later married and had children

On Dad's side: Lauren (Pete) and his wife had five kids. We did not know her because she was placed into an institution due to mental disorders. Herman and Mary Ann had two kids, Albert and Pauline had two kids, Harry and Mary Ann did not have children, Mary Ellen and Paul had two kids.

During this time, G'ma and G'pa Harreld lived on a large farm north of town and had cows, pigs, and chickens. On Mom's side, G'ma and G'pa Kessler lived in a big house in town on Washington Street. They had a large room called the Rose Room, where G'ma served food at times and sold used clothing at other times. G'pa had a shoe repair shop at the back of the house.

Louie, Maxine, Bill, Mildred, G'ma Kessler, G'pa Kessler

Grade School Years

It's September 1947, right after Labor Day, and we are off to school. I am five years old, and Bobby is seven. I will be starting the first grade, and he will be in the third grade. Kindergarten did not exist back then. We are going to a very small rural school, only four classrooms, named Fremont School (originally it was number 9 school). There were two classes in each room. First and second grades shared a room, third and fourth grades shared a room, fifth and sixth grades shared a room, and seventh and eighth grades shared a room. There was no cafeteria at that time. You can see in this photo that we each have a lunch pail. Mom packed our lunch each morning, and it included a drink.

On my way to school!

Will be six in November.

Looking at my report card, it appears that I was off to a fairly good start. I received a lot of As, missed ten days in the sixth month (the beginning of serious ear problems), and received all Bs and one C in citizenship! What was that all about? It appears I struggled in citizenship all six years, getting Bs and Cs. Had a little trouble fitting in and getting along with my fellow classmates!

Being in a classroom with two grades was interesting! The teacher would give the third graders an assignment to work on while teaching the fourth grade, then she would reverse the process and teach third graders while the fourth graders worked on their assignment. I was a rather fast learner, so while doing my assignment in the third grade, I would listen in on what she was teaching the fourth graders. I really liked that! However, the downside was when I was in the fourth grade, I would get my assignment done, and watching her teach the third grade was boring! I'm sure that explains the low grades in citizenship, I got caught misbehaving!

The one thing about school that I enjoyed most was recess time. We could go outside (with good weather) and play games. We had a break midmorning, lunchtime, and midafternoon. We would play marble games for keeps. That meant whoever wins gets to keep the marbles.

The other common game was softball. We would select two captains, and they would select their players. The thing I did not like about that was when you were the youngest, you were always picked last to be on a team! The biggest and best players were always picked first. Once I got to the sixth grade and got to be a captain, I found myself doing the same thing! I had no choice but to pick the best players first and to pick the worst players last. After all, we all wanted to be on a winning team!

Somewhere in the fifth or sixth grade, I had my very first romance! Her name was Phyllis Messerschmidt. She had dark curly hair, and she was so cute! There were times during recess that I would actually skip playing ball so that I could walk with her out behind the school, sit down, hold hands, and talk! I didn't understand it at the time. However, it always left me with good feelings! During the summer break, I would ride my three-speed Schwinn bike over to her house (about four miles) so we could play outside, hold hands, and once or twice, we kissed!

Do you remember the name of your first girlfriend/boyfriend? Do you remember your first kiss? What did that feel like? Memories—ah, yes, sweet memories—and like it all happened yesterday.

Fifth grade

Now look closely at the fifth-grade photo. Notice the stick of wood between my feet. I told my buddies next to me what I was doing, and they initially laughed! The photographer did not know why they were laughing. He asked them several times to stop laughing. Notice the smirks on their faces! Believe it or not, I was promoted to the next grade!

During this time, I was in the Cub Scouts, as you can see in the picture. We met weekly in a local Methodist church. We participated in various activities, learning how to make things, follow rules, be honest, and how to get along with guys our age.

Our family belonged to the Morris Chapel Methodist Church, and we attended regularly. It was located several miles north of our house, which meant we had to drive there. We had ice-cream socials often to raise money for the church. The women would bring in baked pies, cakes, and cookies and we guys would hand crank homemade ice cream. In between, we would play softball next to the church. It was a lot of work, but we didn't mind. It was always a lot of fun. There is no way you could do that today, not with all of the safety rules and laws!

March 31, 1952, Vicki was born. I had stayed overnight with Butch and Peggy and remember how disappointed I was to hear the news the following morning! First, she was a girl! Yuck! She was not an April fool baby! Nonetheless, we all learned to love and accept her. She was a very happy baby and easy to care for. Mom was especially elated to finally have a girl in the family!

Now it was about this time Bobby started taking piano lessons to soon discover his hands were small, and he could not reach one octave with his hand, so it was decided (by Mom, of course) that we would play another instrument. I wanted to play the guitar. She came home one day with a brand-new marimba.

Mom informed us Jean would be our teacher. There was only one music store in Marion at that time, and Jean wanted very much to get established teaching new students. Bobby and I did not even know what a marimba was! We soon learned, and since I was rather short at the time, I had to stand on top of a wood box in order to reach the keyboard. Dad worked at the local gravel company, and they used a lot of dynamite, which was received in wood boxes, so I stood on an empty dynamite box with the words dangerous—dynamite printed on the sides in order to play the marimba!

For some unknown reason, I was not able to read music! It just made no sense to me, and no matter how hard I tried, I was not able to figure it out. Jean would handwrite out all of the notes for every song I played. Each song would be played with either two, three, or four mallets. My next challenge was that I had no idea or feel for the rhythm of a song! Mom would work with me to get the timing and rhythm correct for each song. Once I played it several times, I could play it over and over from memory.

It was during this time Dad