I wrote this book for my children Elizabeth and David and all their cousins. This is what I want them to know and remember about our family. I also wrote it for my brothers and sisters — and me. I have been told that it is too idealized; this may be true. I tried to include the warts — or at least to allude to them — but not to dwell on them for our true story is one of triumph.

Gordon Sabine, former director of the School of Journalism at the University of Iowa and my professional mentor, was the impetus for this book. He said it needed to be done. The project took exactly a year. Initially, I relied on my recollection. Then I fleshed it out with details from my diaries and scrapbooks, and finally, I dug out my letters (I’ve never thrown any away) and reread Mother’s and Daddy’s letters to me from the 1950s while I was at the University of Iowa and on my first jobs. Paul, Marie, and Harold offered lots of details and corrections that I had missed. Several of the grandchildren offered their recollections, too, and I have included them as written. But the overall perspective is mine.

I am reminded of what I heard the late Abe Fortas testify at the 1981 hearings into the roundup of Japanese after Pearl Harbor during the dark days of World War II. During the ceremonial opening day of the hearings, the few surviving federal officials from that period testified, and Fortas was among them because he was an assistant secretary of the interior at the time. “I have no idea why I have been called to testify,” Fortas said, “because I always left an office with the only thing I brought to it — my hat,” a reference to the officials who leave a post and take with them truckloads of all their files. “Furthermore,” he said, “like my law partner told me the other day, I’m at an age where the things I remember best — probably never happened!”

My reward came from my nephews and nieces and their own recollections. Paulette wrote, “Doing this brought a few tears, some laughs and memories of a very happy childhood. It also gives me an opportunity to say how important my family is to me.” Gary wrote, “It is a powerful, moving account. You had me grimacing, reading sections out loud to Karen, and introspecting about my own past on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. You’ve told our story for us, and I’m grateful for all your work on it. Its value will outlast your life and mine.”

Wesley
Washington, 1990

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