Introduction

Our parents were not perfect.
How could they be? They were human.
All things considered, they did an outstanding job
and accomplished a lot.

​Dad was schooled through only the third grade.​​

​​Mama was heartbroken when Grandma pulled her out of
high school in Sidney because she was “needed at home.”
Education meant the world to her.

​Mama taught herself to play the piano with a cardboard keyboard
laid out on the window sill.
In Sidney, she stayed in the home of a piano teacher (Mrs. Rounce)
who gave Mama her first real piano lessons.
She had to leave that opportunity behind as well.

Over the years, Mama and Dad did a lot of studying and reading,
including a correspondence course in English grammar.

Mama taught us respect for our Dad by telling us what a fine man
he was, how smart, how people mistook him for a doctor
because of his quiet, dignified demeanor.
Well, he wasn’t a doctor, but he was in the Army Medical Corps 
during WWI in France.
There he served as an ambulance driver, hospital orderly,
and worked in a pharmacy.

Dad didn’t reciprocate in like manner for Mama.
It just wasn’t his style.
But we learned respect for our mother from strong,
sharp commands such as, "Don’t talk to your mother like that!”
or other orders to treat her with respect.

They made a good team, from farming and harvesting,
home remodeling and design, home upkeep,
and - not too bad a job raising a bunch of kids.​

Writing “Treks” has given me a renewed respect for our parents.     
Actually, it’s even made me appreciate my “little” brothers more.     
☺ Helen      

Brother Donald asked me, as the eldest sibling,
to write a chronology of houses we lived in
and interesting places we lived.
Included are memories of various events -
sad, funny, and otherwise.​​

Helen wrote nearly all of these Treks & Tales   (2005 - 2006)