Harley's Story Chapter 7

The first decision Charley and Lena had to make was where they were going to live. There was no money to rebuild the house and Lena’s sewing machine was gone, so the only extra income they would have was Harley’s milk route money. Charley was firmly set against borrowing any money from anyone, so they planned to sell the cattle and the goat. Mrs. Monahan agreed to take care of the chickens. The dog would go with Charley and Lena, wherever they went, and the cats could be fed over at Jim and Betty’s until they could get back on their own place again.

It was so uncertain when that might be, that Harley felt completely bereft. Not like an orphan, but like a kid without a home, for sure. His books and his Reader’s Digests were ashes blowing around the eighty acres, like so much fertilizer for the crops. Jim would help Charley harvest the corn and bean fields in the fall. Harley, it was decided, could go live with Uncle Lynn and Aunt Alice for a bit, while Lena and Charley got a cheap boarding room until they could maybe find a Valley Junction house to rent.

The bank could get paid from the sale of the livestock as well as take all the crop money. Lena would be able to harvest her garden and use Betty’s kitchen for the preserving work. Her canning jars were all destroyed in the fire, but maybe the ladies’ circle at church could each contribute a few that she could use, and she could help store up food for her family that way. Charley and Lena talked and brainstormed and plotted and schemed every way they could think of to make the best of this. Uncle Lynn was proud to give the old walnut chest of drawers a place to rest in his home for a while. Lena said a little prayer of thanks as she thought of the fortunate decision to buy that wood cleaner from the traveling salesman. If not for that, the walnut chest would have burned up inside the house. Those oily rags may have been the cause of their house being destroyed, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She just knew she still had the chest and that seemed to be all that she had left to hang onto; the chest, and her two men.

You know how things never seem to go quite the way you plan? Well, some things did go as planned for Lena and Charley, and some didn’t. The animals did get sold, and the crops were growing well. The garden’s bounty was canned and safely stored in Betty’s cellar, waiting for Lena to get a house rented. Harley kept doing his milk route with Lynn as the school year approached, but he went to live with Lena’s mother in Valley Junction. He would start his senior year at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines from there, and graduate with the Class of 1934. His grandmother’s house was closer to town than Lynn’s farm. Some neighbors out by Charley’s farm offered to let Harley live with them for the school year, so he could finish at North Walnut School where he had been going.This included Maxine Findley’s parents, but he wanted to stay closer to his family. His mother had raised him well.

The bank was given every cent the family could scrape together. Other farmers around them were going bankrupt because of high operating costs and low crop prices. Family farms were turning up vacant almost every week in Polk County, and some of the closing auctions were pretty rowdy; people were mad. It was also sad. The most populated county in Iowa was feeling the economic pinch wherever you looked, and farmers were hit especially hard.

Lena took a part-time job as a secretary at a law firm, thanks to a connection with her younger brother Mark, who was an attorney in Osage, Iowa. She also found another part-time job working at a little grocery store in Commerce. The homeless farm couple was also staying with Lena’s mother, but would be moving to a small rented house soon. Charley was feeling pressure from no one but himself, but it was there. He knew Lena did not want to hear about him hitting the rails to go west to work the wheat harvest, but there seemed no other way to get Lena into a rental house and to start saving for rebuilding at the farm. As harvest-time neared, Charley knew he had to make a decision soon, so he went to the co-op in Adel to inquire. Lena was furious when she found out.

“Those rail-riders are ruffians and rowdies! You know all the violence there has been? It’s in all the newspapers. They all fight and some get killed, and I won’t hear of it, Charley! I won’t hear of it!” He could tell Lena was serious, but in spite of that, he had made up his mind to do it.

“Can’t get nowhere sittin’ here, sweetheart. And you know they don’t all fight. Them newspaper folks only write about the ones that’s fightin’. They get all the attention. You know I don’t fight nobody about nothin’. If they was all fightin’, how would they get all that wheat harvested and make all that money? Don’t be worryin’!”

“I won’t have it, Charley!”

“What you won’t have is a farm and a house to live in. You know we ain’t got a pot to pee in, and I aim to get us a pot and a house, and to keep my farm! I done made up my mind. Quit yer fussin’, honey. Jest quit yer fussin’. I’m leaving Monday.” Charley looked her square in the eye, so she knew the discussion was over.

“Monday? This coming Monday? Why so soon?” She was thoughtful; not sure why he had picked that date.

“Well, two reasons. First of all, I checked with the co-op in Adel, and a train is going through there on Monday, headed for Kearney. I can git on it when it heads out. Second, it will give us the weekend to go see Jim and Betty. Maybe Alice and Lynn, too.”

“Harley will be so upset. He’ll probably want to go with you. We can’t have that!” Lena warned.

“Of course, we can’t, and we won’t! That boy is finishing high school this year and going to college, jest like his mother,” Charley insisted. “I can make enough by myself. I ain’t that old and feeble that I need a boy to help me. I can earn my way through those fields. I’m jest gonna miss you, something awful…jest simply gonna be so lonesome. Ya better write me every day!” Charley pulled out his adorable two-eyed wink and threw it her way,

“Oh, my Lord, Charley!” Lena gave him a little smile, but no laugh this time. “What am I going to do with you?”

“You are gonna give me lots of hugs and kisses between now and next Monday. And you are going to get Monday off from the office and the store, so you can drive me out to Adel.” Charley winked again, “And then you are comin’ home and write me a letter!”

The wink did not work this time and she continued to fuss at him. “Where on earth would I even send a letter? You’re going to be roaming all over the Midwest!”

Lena didn’t appreciate having this plan of her husband’s just pop up like this. The last time they had talked about it, she thought it had been settled that he was not going to leave the family. Times were already bad enough, so how could their situation get made any better by her husband leaving? She felt frustration welling up inside her, but did not want it to spill out. She loved Charley so much and she knew he felt worthless with no part in making money for the family. It had been his dad’s farm, and she knew he would do whatever needed to be done to keep it.

“I guess I’d better get some stamps at the post office,” Lena sighed, and made a mental note to get Monday off.