I was born on October 2, 1933.  My parents are Mildred Love and Harry Andrew Hindman.  I was born during the depths of the depression in the western Iowa town of Onawa.  Onawa is the county seat of Monona county, and had a population at that time of about 2000.  It is located in the Missouri River valley about three miles east of the river and about 65 miles north of Omaha.

My brothers and sisters are Mildred Carol, Winifred Geraldine, Frederick Ward, and Donald Darrel.

I remember little about my early years in Onawa, as I only 4 years old when I left there.  My earliest recollections are of living in an old frame house on the east side of town on a dirt street near the cemetery.  Our house was on the west side of the street in the middle of the block, and had a rutted dirt driveway that I played on with a little toy truck.  I also remember playing on the cellar door, and collecting June bugs in a jar.

1937 - Mom (Mildred), Winnie, Leon

My mother and I stayed with my grandparents on a farm near Onawa for a while.  The farm had a big barn, and the farmhouse was two stories high with a big, open porch on the back.  There were chickens, ducks, and geese that roamed the yard right up to the porch and the back door.  I remember being afraid of the geese, as they were aggressive and seemed to enjoy chasing me.

My grandfather had lost his left arm in a thrashing machine accident.  He ate with an instrument that was a combination of knife and fork.  My grandparents never had a farm of their own and knew many hard times.  They never seemed to be very happy.  My grandfather died not too many years later.

In addition to my grandparents, my uncle Herb, his wife Freda, and their two boys Jimmy and Harold lived on the farm.  Herb seemed to run things.  His two younger brothers, Dick and Ival (Ike), also lived there.  Uncle Dick was my favorite because he joked and laughed a lot.  He was my "barber" and used to set me on a blue lard can on top of a chair to cut my hair with hand clippers (I can still remember the pain when the clippers would pull tufts of hair from my scalp).  He would keep telling me that he was "almost done".  Uncle

Jimmy and Harold were almost the same age as I was.  Jimmy was a few months older and Harold a year younger.  We used to spend hours jumping in the hay mow.  My mother and I also spent some time at my sister Carol's farm.  There was a creek with a bridge over it, and their house sat on the side of the hill above.  The only things I remember about that stay were seeing the men cut up wood with a "buzz saw" (a big blade mounted to the rear wheel of a Model T Ford), and helping my sister find horseradish along the railroad right-of-way.

I don't remember when my parents separated, but I do remember the day my mother came to get me to take me to live with her and Shorty (Claud) in Mapleton.  She brought a coloring book and crayons and package rolls and some milk.  I was very excited that I was going to Mapleton to live with her...

-Lee   LVHindman@aol.com

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1937-1941 Mapleton