Plans for College

Dr. and Grandma Burt were wonderful to Harley. She was the only grandmother he knew. Charley’s parents had passed away before Harley was born. Grandma Burt bought Harley new clothes for his senior year. He decided not to play sports at Roosevelt, although he was a very good basketball player. Dr. Burt had been involved in Golden Gloves boxing and he encouraged Harley to try that. Harley did start going to the boxing gym on 5th Street in Valley Junction and he became a skilled pugilist in a very short period of time. He actually won enough matches to get him into the local Golden Gloves tournament, and he won that. Charley and Lena were so proud of their son, who apparently was a natural athlete.

Harley’s grades at Roosevelt were exceptional also. His education at the local one-room Walnut School has prepared him well for the city schools. All his teachers praised him highly and he was on the honor roll every grading period.

Even though Harley did not participate in Roosevelt sports, he became good friends with some of the athletes. There was a young man on the basketball team named Mike McMichael. He was Catholic, and Harley’s parents, as older German Lutherans, were prejudiced against Catholics. Harley never told his folks that his best friend was Catholic, so he was allowed to bring Mike out to the farm to visit for several weekends. Mike really enjoyed trying out the country life, and both Charley and Lena were impressed with his work ethic. They found out that Mike was planning on attending the University of Iowa, and that their Harley was thinking that might be a good place for him to attend also. College! That is exactly what they wanted for their only son! Mike’s religious affiliation never came up for discussion. Harley loved his parents, but he let his friend know that it was just the way they had been brought up in the old days. He told Mike he thought he was a good friend and that it didn’t matter at all what his religion was.

The school year was going so well. Harley had been able to save a little bit more college money from his milk route since the new house was all paid for now and Grandma Burt had bought his school clothes. That Lincoln on the route had been replaced, by a new Lincoln! Harley loved the new one even more than the old one and imagined having enough money to buy a new Lincoln every year. The more he visualized that, the more determined he became. Harley knew he would make it happen someday. All he had to do was go to college, graduate, and start his own business. He wasn’t sure about exactly how all that would happen, but his mind was made up. Mike’s father was wealthy; he earned his money selling insurance. That didn’t sound like a good job to Harley. It sounded like a desk job. Harley wanted to find something that was more active, he was sure of that.

The harvest money from the farm was mostly going to purchase coal and food. Corn prices had gone down so far, some farmers were burning the corn for fuel, because it was cheaper than coal. Why sell the corn and then pay more per pound for coal? It was not a good time to be a farmer. Charley, still hoping he could get back to full-time farming, kept making progress and was to the point where he could walk down the hall and back with his crutches.

It was difficult for Harley to see his father like this. Charley had come back from his wheat shocking as a very strong, vital man. Even though he was becoming more mobile, slowly but surely, Charley was obviously never going to be completely recovered. Lena would never admit to this obvious fact, so she and Harley quit talking about it. However, not discussing it did not change it. A small share of the savings Harley had from his milk route money had to go to pay for food for the livestock. Charley refused to take any money from Dr. and Grandma Burt. They were already supporting Harley; that was appreciated, but it was all the assistance the proud farmer would accept.

All around the Midwest, farmers who could not pay the bank for their land or loans were having their farms auctioned right from underneath their feet. Harley was terrified that would happen to his parents. Lena would have gone back to work at the lawyer’s office or at the Commerce store, but there was no one who could take care of Charley. Besides that, the gasoline back and forth would have used up her wages. The Depression weighed heavily on Harley’s family, just like it did the rest of the country.

Then, when Harley was sure nothing worse could happen, it did. Dr. Burt died in an auto accident. He had been called to a home in southwestern Des Moines, making a late-night house call to an elderly woman with pneumonia. It happened just after Thanksgiving and there was a thin layer of freezing ice on everything. It proved to be a deadly layer. His car slid off the bridge going over the Des Moines River and his car plunged into the freezing water.

Grandma Burt was devastated. She had now lost two husbands. To make it worse, it came to light that Dr. Burt had a lot of debt. He had treated many patients without collecting payment, because he was the kind of man who often helped people who had no money. After his death and without his income, his wife was unable to pay all the bills. She was able to keep the house that was paid for, but their savings account was used up to settle the debts that she could. There was nothing left. It was another heavy blow to the family that was already burdened in these dire economic times.

Grandma Burt needed help now, so Harley started a job after school. He spent his afternoons working at a furniture store in Valley Junction. He swept floors, stoked the coal furnace, kept the storeroom straightened, and made deliveries. His pay was small, but it was better than nothing. His parents insisted he give the money to Grandma Burt and not to them. This made it possible for her to keep him at her house and keep him fed, so he could graduate from Roosevelt as planned.

Working at the furniture store was enjoyable for Harley. He liked it when people would ask him to help them pick out furniture, or match colors. It was really different than any job he had done before. He discovered that he was good at talking to people, listening to them, and he discovered that he truly enjoyed helping them. It was a learning process for him, and he became a good student of people.

As graduation grew closer, Lena and Charley both noticed Harley becoming increasingly more quiet and withdrawn on the weekends. Earlier in the school year, when he would bring Mike out for the weekends, he could be boisterous and rowdy. The house was filled with the two boys’ horseplay and energy. In the final spring of his high school year, however, he was more silent and thoughtful. Lena suspected something hard was on his mind, so she decided to ask him what was going on.

“Harley, can you come out here so we can talk a bit?” Lena asked as she tapped on his bedroom door. It was Saturday night; Charley was in bed so he could get up to have visitors on Sunday, and Harley was done closing up the barn for the night.

“What’s going through your head, son?” Lena asked. “You seem so serious and introspective lately, so I’m thinking something is weighing heavily on your mind. Am I right?”

“Yes, you’re right, mother. I have been trying to figure out how I am going to get to college in the fall, and I have no idea where the money is coming from. I just don’t know. Dr. Burt was going to help, and that’s not going to happen now. I had a small bit in savings but had to give most of that to Grandma Burt, so she could buy food for me. The University of Iowa isn’t an expensive place to attend, but I’ll need tuition, books, room and board. I can work once I get over there, but I need some money to get enrolled. I have practically nothing!”

“I’m so sorry, Harley. You know how much your college means to me, and I know how much it means to you. It’s your ticket off the farm. Your father knows it, too. He’ll always live on the land, but he wants you to find your own path. We have talked about this and we have prayed about this, but we have no answers. We have no money. You have all our love and all our prayers, always.” Lena had tears welling in her eyes, and Harley hated that.

“I don’t want you to worry at all. You have taught me to work hard. I will find a way. I haven’t given up. I haven’t even started to think about giving up. I will be at the University of Iowa this fall. I don’t know how, but I will make it happen,” Harley insisted. His tone shocked his mother out of her sadness.

“Well, with determination like that, I believe you. I don’t know how it will happen either, but if it is what God wants and if you are willing to work hard at it, I believe it will happen!” Lena felt so encouraged, and she reached out to squeeze her son’s hand. Harley reached for her and gave her a big bear hug.

“I love you, Mother, and I love Father, too. I will make you proud.”

“We are already proud, Harley.” Lena squeezed him back. He let his mother go and she turned to leave, starting her evening prayers before she even got the door closed.

Weeks passed, and Harley seemed more positive, more talkative and relaxed than before his talk with his mother. What he had done, but did not tell his parents about, was write a letter to his mother’s oldest brother, Gene, who lived in Washington State. Gene had an enormous sheep ranch and apple production operation there. Harley asked his uncle if he could come out there to work for the summer, so he could earn money for college in the fall. He waited for a reply.

One day in early April, a letter from Gene came to the farm’s big, white rural mailbox. It was addressed to Harley, so Lena didn’t open it, but she phoned Harley to tell him he had a letter from his Uncle Gene. Harley told her he would open it on Friday night, when he came out for the weekend. Lena waited. It was difficult not to read a letter from her brother, but it was not addressed to her, so she waited. It was probably an early graduation present, Lena thought. Hopefully, money Harley could use for college. She’d just have to wait two days to find out. Maybe it could be the start of his college fund.

Friday afternoon came and Lena sat on the front steps, watching down the gravel road for Mike McMichael’s gray Ford sedan.

Finally, here it came, in its usual cloud of gravel dust. It was hard to tell the dust from Mike’s car. She had the letter from Uncle Gene in her apron pocket, ready to hand to Harley. She didn’t want to seem too anxious, but she didn’t write to her own brother that often, so it seemed odd for Harley to have a letter from him, just out of the blue.

Harley leaped out of the car, ran to Lena, and held out his hand.

“Where is the letter, Mother?”

She pulled it out of her pocket and thrust it towards him. It was hard to tell who was more anxious, Lena or Harley. “Here, open it!”

He looked at it briefly, turned it over a few times, then tore off a short end. He blew into the envelope and took out two pages of paper. He unfolded them and glanced up to see a look of disappointment on his mother’s face.

“No cash or check?” she queried. “I hoped he had sent you an early graduation gift.”

“No money, Mother. I hope the news will be better than money.”

Lena was puzzled and looked like it. “I don’t understand. What you need for college is money, not news.”

“Let me read it, Mother, then we will know for sure what’s good news or not. Just give me a minute to read it.”

Harley started to sit down on the semi-circle front steps where his mother had been seated before his arrival. The concrete had been cheaply home-made and little rocks were already settling out of it, so he brushed a few pebbles out from underneath himself before he sat down. First, he read the front of the first page, then he turned it over. Then he read the front of the next page, and then turned that over. Uncle Gene’s handwriting was beautiful and large, so the letter was not really long, despite there being four pages.

This silent letter reading was about to make Lena go insane. “What’s Gene say, Harley…what’s Gene say?”

Harley looked his mother straight in the eye. “He says he has a job for me, Mother. He says I can come out there after next month and work with his sheep and in his apple orchard all summer. He says I can live with him and earn all the money I need to get started at the university. I’m going to college, Mother!”

Mike slapped his friend on the back. “Congratulations, Harley! What a wonderful uncle you have! Here we come, Iowa City!” He shook Harley’s hand heartily and slapped his back again. “Gotta run now. Pick you up Sunday night?”

“Yes, thanks, Mike. See you Sunday.”

Harley turned to his mother, as Mike headed down the driveway and back to town. Lena had sat down on the steps and was sitting quite still. She didn’t look as happy as Harley thought she should. “What’s the matter, Mother? This is wonderful news!”

“Wonderful news? What are you talking about? How did this idea come up? Did you write to your uncle?” Lena’s tone was changing from shocked and moving towards angry.

“Well, yes, I did. I told you I would think of something, Mother. Do you remember that talk we had earlier this winter? I told you I would find a way.”

“Not this way, son, not this way! That’s too far to go. How are you going to get there? Is he going to send you money for a ticket?” Lena’s questions were the right ones, but Harley knew she was not going to like the answer he had for her.

“Mother, I am going to ride the rails out there.”

“No!”

“Yes, Mother. I am going to ride the rails out there. There are so many boys my age doing it. I will have plenty of good company.” Harley’s voice brightened a bit, to give his mother some encouragement towards liking the idea.

Lena stood up. She turned her back to Harley for a moment and he could tell she was preparing to have a verbal battle with him. It was the way she stood up as tall as she could and set her shoulders back. She slowly turned around in front of him. She had that stern look in her eyes. “No. It doesn’t matter how many other boys are doing it. Those are desperate boys. You don’t know if they’re good company. They are most likely very bad company. I forbid you from riding the trains!”

Harley matched his mother’s stare for the first time ever. “I am a desperate boy, Mother. Desperate for college, for an education, for a better life. It’s my only chance.”

“No,” was Lena’s only answer. “No.”

“Uncle Gene says he has hired young men off the rails and nearly every one of them is a good boy. Some are my age, and some are even younger, like sixteen, or even fifteen. Their families couldn’t feed them, so they took to the rails.” Harley took his mother’s shoulder. “I will be fine. I promise.”

Lena shook her head, sadly. “No one can promise you will be ‘fine’. The only place your father and I can be sure you are fine is if you stay right here. Then, you will be fine.”

“I can’t stay here, Mother. You know I can’t. If I stay here, it will be years before I get to college, and I may never get there. This is the only way to do it right now. It’s not the best way, but it is the only way. I don’t want to get in a big argument about this, and I know you are going to worry like always, but perhaps it will be better if you just pray for me instead.” He was still matching his mother’s stare, but he added a slight smile now.

Lena had nothing else to say. She had no way to stop her son from riding the rails out to the west coast and she knew it. She had no idea how she would tell her husband. Charley had been making so much progress, but he was still not going to be able to get on a tractor again in a month and plant their fields.

Harley saw she was done with her arguments, and knew he was going to leave when school was out. He guessed what his mother was thinking about now. “You are wondering who is going to work the fields, right? Well, I am going to get the planting done before I leave, I promise. And, I am going to teach Mike how to till and do the rest. You know he really loves coming out here, and he’ll be me for the summer. He said he would like to help Uncle Lynn with the milk route, too. “

A hesitant “What?” was all Lena could manage at this point.

“Mike wants to learn how to do the jobs on the farm, Mother. He won’t let you down, I promise.”

“We love Mike, son, you know we do,” said Lena, “but you know we can’t pay him any wages. You know that, right?”

“Of course, I know that,” Harley assured her, “and Mike doesn’t want any wages. He doesn’t need the money and thinks it will be great fun to be a farmer for a summer before he goes off to college. He is always saying he is so jealous of me because I get to do ‘city’ and ‘country’. He wants to try it. He won’t let us down, because he knows him helping you out here is the only way we will be get go to the university together this fall. It’s perfect, Mother!”

“No, Harley, it’s not perfect. It’s nowhere near perfect. What would be perfect about you getting killed on the rails? Would it be perfect with you getting sick or something so far away from home? A whole summer of worry for me and your father? That’s not perfect.”

Harley looked his mother square in the face again. He had a kind, understanding look on his young face. “It’s perfect because it will get me to college. It will let me out of the comfortable place where I have lived my whole life. It will be my time to grow up, before I actually do grow up. I cannot live at home with you and Father forever. I have to do this. I will be safe.”

“I have no idea how to tell your father this,” Lena confessed.

“I will tell him, Mother, I will let you pick the time, and I will tell him. That is my responsibility. He will be responsible for helping me teach Mike how to be a farmer over the next month or so before planting starts, so I should tell him soon. I don’t expect you to tell him anything about this.”

Lena’s head was spinning. She couldn’t imagine her son riding the rails. She barely survived Charley doing it out to the wheat and back. It didn’t seem to matter to her that he would be staying with her oldest brother, or that there were even younger men than he riding the rails. Harley was her only child. She sat down on the steps again, head in her hands.

Harley was trying to conceal his total delight with the news from Uncle Gene. He had to tell his father first. Then he could spread the news to his friends. One step at a time. And perhaps his father could give him some rules for rail riding and how to stay safer. For now, he could go inside, sit down in his room, and write Uncle Gene a thank-you letter for this golden opportunity.

Harley returned from walking his thank-you letter to his uncle down to the mailbox at the foot of the driveway. He tipped up the red metal flag on the side, so the postman would get it from the mailbox tomorrow. He felt like his journey was finally beginning. He had a lot to plan. As he looked back up the rutted drive towards the yellow house, he noticed his mother had stepped out onto the bricks by the side door on the north side of the house. She had finished the dinner dishes and was drying her hands on a blue flowered apron she had made from some scraps of Mrs. Monahan’s old living room drapes. His mother’s motto ran through his head, “Use it up, wear it out, fix it. Don’t waste anything.” It was a saying for the hard times they were in. Harley was not going to waste the opportunity Uncle Gene was giving him.

“Harley, your father is waiting to hear from you. He’s rested and fed, but don’t get him upset. I told him you had something important to talk to him about, man to man.” His mother gave him that direct look she had, and he nodded agreeably.

“I’ll talk to him, Mother. I won’t upset him, I promise.”

Harley headed down the short hallway towards his parent’s bedroom. He cautiously opened the door, knocking gently on it. “It’s me, Father. I need to talk to you.”

Charley waved him in and turned slightly in his bed to face his son.

Harley began, “I need to talk to you about college, Father. I have a great plan to earn the money for this fall.”

“Harley, I heard you and yer mother talking. Every word. This house ain’t that big and the windows are all open. Sounds like ya got yer mind made up and like yer ma can’t talk you out of it,” Charley said matter-of-factly.

Surprised by this, Harley stood silent for a moment, trying to read his father’s face for his reaction. Was he going to try to talk him out of it, also? Harley figured and hoped he could ask his father for advice on riding the rails and just avoid another argument, so he said, “I am hoping you can give me some good advice about how to get there in one piece. You know, what to do and what not to do?”

“Well, son, pull up that ol’ chair over here, next to me. I’ll do what I can. A lot of it is luck and keepin’ your yap shut, to start with. Don’t join up with more than about two or three other men. Use your common sense. Don’t tell about yer private life, like your parents or goin’ to college plans. Keep clean. Take a bath or shower any chance you get. Watch out for lice. They itch like crazy and are just plain hell to get rid of. Don’t tell yer mother I said hell.”

“What? Did you get lice?” asked a surprised Harley.

“Nah, and if I did, I sure wouldn’t of told Lena. She hates ‘em more than mice in her pantry. Goes crazy just hearing the word. Be careful and sleep by the fire, but not too close to any other bum’s bedding.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise. Anything else?”

“Don’t get maimed or kilt getting on and off those trains. Watch how the other fellas do it and leave yourself plenty of room. Don’t take no chances. There will always be another train along. Listen, Harley, I’m gettin’ a little tired. You go make sure your mother is okay. I’ll talk to her later tonight.”

“A question. What are you going to tell her?” asked Harley anxiously.

“I’m going to tell her you’ll be just fine, son. You’ll be fine.”