July 21, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in a world that moved a little slower, one little girl found her freedom on four wheels. Joy Neal Kidney takes us back to her childhood home just outside Dexter, Iowa, where a pair of roller skates and an open farmhouse created memories that stayed with her for a lifetime.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show
and now on our show, America is the Star. It's
not a perfect country, but it's a good and great
one filled with good and great people and beautiful people too.
And by the way, that's the purpose of this show
is to rally people around with something positive to listen
(00:34):
to every day in our world filled with anger, vitriol
and in the end ugliness. And this is a beautiful
respite in your day of content and programming and listening.
And by the way, if you want to help support
our cause, we are a nonprofit. And though the show
is free for you to listen to, it is not
free to make. Feel free to make a donation or
(00:55):
a contribution to our American Stories by going to our
American Stories dot com. That's our American Stories dot com.
And up next a listeners story. And we love doing this.
And this is a story from one of our regular contributors,
Joyneil Kidney. Joy listens to our show in Iowa and
WHO News Radio ten forty am a great iheartstation. Her
(01:21):
contribution today is called roller skating in the House. Take
it away, Joy.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I grew up in an old white American four square
farmhouse four miles of gravel south of Dexter, Iowa. Though
none of the rural roads were labeled then, and there
no longer was a creamery. When we said we lived
on old Creamery Road, everyone knew which one it was.
I love this house, but my mother did not. One
(01:55):
of my favorite parts of the house was the front
porch toward the road. My sister and I played cowgirls there,
played with whatever pet we had at the time, even
Rusty the squirrel, and washed rainstorms from there. All four
of us even bundled up in blankets on the porch
the fall of nineteen fifty seven to watch for Sputnik
(02:18):
go sailing over the farm. The front door led to
the kitchen with a round pedestal table and white Youngstown cupboards.
Mom decorated the room in pink and green. She even
had pink and green square malmac dishes, which were large
(02:40):
enough so that Uncle Bill didn't have to pile food
on top of food when he worked with Dad and
ate with us. The crank telephone was on the wall
near the table. Our number was five two one one.
Our ring was four shorts north of the kitchen was
the living with a smaller room off of it to
(03:02):
the west, where Mom's treddle swing machine was. An oil
stove heated the larger room. I remember pulling a tooth
sitting with my back against that cozy stove. The upright
piano was in that room, our very first television, black
and white, and a maroon, plushy sofa, where Dad sat
(03:24):
with an ashtray on a stand, its handle shaped like
a leaping greyhound. When the stove was taken down each spring,
that room seemed so much larger. Upstairs wasn't heated. Gloria
and I shared the north bedroom. Off that room were
(03:46):
two smaller ones, one empty and the other used for storage,
Mom's trunk with high school souvenirs and dads from the
Air Corps. The south bedroom upstairs was Mom and dads.
It had no closets. Dad installed some rods and Mom
shared blue sheets on poles to conceal their clothes. She'd
(04:09):
done the same thing when they were living in a
church in Texas during the war. Behind the kitchen downstairs
is what we called the mudroom until Mom changed our
terminology to the utility room. Men washed up for noon
dinner at that sink because it was right inside the
back door, the one we usually used from the garage.
(04:32):
The old cop burning stove was in there. It was
handy when the electricity went out. Once Mom sewed up
a baby pig after its mother had stepped on it
and kept it warm behind that old stove. I decided
then and there I'd never marry a farmer. When Dad
(04:55):
removed that old stove, Mom let us roller skate in there.
All the floor in the house were covered with linoleum,
and the floor in the mudroom even slanted. How I
love this old house. The other special places were behind
the pedestal table and under the stairway. We called them
(05:16):
cubby holes. Dad's was the smaller one above, where he
kept his watch and billfold and camel's cigarettes. The one
underneath was large enough for two young girls to sit
on the floor with our treasures, birds, nests, pretty rocks,
and whatever else we'd found as we explored the farm.
(05:38):
What I remember most about those cubby holes, though, was
the strong smell of mice. Mom had to set mouse
traps in most of the rooms, especially the kitchen, hating
to find mouse pellets among her dish towels, the mice,
the leaning floors, lack of closets, trying to heat the place.
(06:02):
My mother longed for a new house. She'd even drawn
up plans for it. Then one day, when Grandpa and
Grandma Neil were leaving after a visit, Grandma's foot broke
through a board on the front porch. That triggered some
earnest planning, and they eventually tore down my childhood mansion.
(06:23):
But my mother finally got her small, green, mouseproof.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
House and great job is always by Monty and a
special thanks to joy Neil Kidney and the story of
her childhood home. And you can see the large pink
and green plates to accommodate Uncle Bill's let's just say
(06:48):
hearty appetite, and that oil stove heating the large room
in the home, no heat upstairs, and then it would
get taken apart every spring, which of course the kids
love because they could roller skate in the house. And
there were days when people live like this. First black
and white TV three channels, by the way, I'm old
enough to remember three channels and a black and white TV,
(07:10):
and how happy we were to just have three and
my goodness, just a great and beautiful voice from our
affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, WHO News Radio ten forty
joy Neil Kidney on her childhood house, roller skating in
the living room. Here on our American story. Folks, if
(07:31):
you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:53):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show
and now on our show, America is the Star. It's
not a perfect country, but it's a good and great
one filled with good and great people and beautiful people too.
And by the way, that's the purpose of this show
is to rally people around with something positive to listen
(00:34):
to every day in our world filled with anger, vitriol
and in the end ugliness. And this is a beautiful
respite in your day of content and programming and listening.
And by the way, if you want to help support
our cause, we are a nonprofit. And though the show
is free for you to listen to, it is not
free to make. Feel free to make a donation or
(00:55):
a contribution to our American Stories by going to our
American Stories dot com. That's our American Stories dot com.
And up next a listeners story. And we love doing this.
And this is a story from one of our regular contributors,
Joyneil Kidney. Joy listens to our show in Iowa and
WHO News Radio ten forty am a great iheartstation. Her
(01:21):
contribution today is called roller skating in the House. Take
it away, Joy.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I grew up in an old white American four square
farmhouse four miles of gravel south of Dexter, Iowa. Though
none of the rural roads were labeled then, and there
no longer was a creamery. When we said we lived
on old Creamery Road, everyone knew which one it was.
I love this house, but my mother did not. One
(01:55):
of my favorite parts of the house was the front
porch toward the road. My sister and I played cowgirls there,
played with whatever pet we had at the time, even
Rusty the squirrel, and washed rainstorms from there. All four
of us even bundled up in blankets on the porch
the fall of nineteen fifty seven to watch for Sputnik
(02:18):
go sailing over the farm. The front door led to
the kitchen with a round pedestal table and white Youngstown cupboards.
Mom decorated the room in pink and green. She even
had pink and green square malmac dishes, which were large
(02:40):
enough so that Uncle Bill didn't have to pile food
on top of food when he worked with Dad and
ate with us. The crank telephone was on the wall
near the table. Our number was five two one one.
Our ring was four shorts north of the kitchen was
the living with a smaller room off of it to
(03:02):
the west, where Mom's treddle swing machine was. An oil
stove heated the larger room. I remember pulling a tooth
sitting with my back against that cozy stove. The upright
piano was in that room, our very first television, black
and white, and a maroon, plushy sofa, where Dad sat
(03:24):
with an ashtray on a stand, its handle shaped like
a leaping greyhound. When the stove was taken down each spring,
that room seemed so much larger. Upstairs wasn't heated. Gloria
and I shared the north bedroom. Off that room were
(03:46):
two smaller ones, one empty and the other used for storage,
Mom's trunk with high school souvenirs and dads from the
Air Corps. The south bedroom upstairs was Mom and dads.
It had no closets. Dad installed some rods and Mom
shared blue sheets on poles to conceal their clothes. She'd
(04:09):
done the same thing when they were living in a
church in Texas during the war. Behind the kitchen downstairs
is what we called the mudroom until Mom changed our
terminology to the utility room. Men washed up for noon
dinner at that sink because it was right inside the
back door, the one we usually used from the garage.
(04:32):
The old cop burning stove was in there. It was
handy when the electricity went out. Once Mom sewed up
a baby pig after its mother had stepped on it
and kept it warm behind that old stove. I decided
then and there I'd never marry a farmer. When Dad
(04:55):
removed that old stove, Mom let us roller skate in there.
All the floor in the house were covered with linoleum,
and the floor in the mudroom even slanted. How I
love this old house. The other special places were behind
the pedestal table and under the stairway. We called them
(05:16):
cubby holes. Dad's was the smaller one above, where he
kept his watch and billfold and camel's cigarettes. The one
underneath was large enough for two young girls to sit
on the floor with our treasures, birds, nests, pretty rocks,
and whatever else we'd found as we explored the farm.
(05:38):
What I remember most about those cubby holes, though, was
the strong smell of mice. Mom had to set mouse
traps in most of the rooms, especially the kitchen, hating
to find mouse pellets among her dish towels, the mice,
the leaning floors, lack of closets, trying to heat the place.
(06:02):
My mother longed for a new house. She'd even drawn
up plans for it. Then one day, when Grandpa and
Grandma Neil were leaving after a visit, Grandma's foot broke
through a board on the front porch. That triggered some
earnest planning, and they eventually tore down my childhood mansion.
(06:23):
But my mother finally got her small, green, mouseproof.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
House and great job is always by Monty and a
special thanks to joy Neil Kidney and the story of
her childhood home. And you can see the large pink
and green plates to accommodate Uncle Bill's let's just say
(06:48):
hearty appetite, and that oil stove heating the large room
in the home, no heat upstairs, and then it would
get taken apart every spring, which of course the kids
love because they could roller skate in the house. And
there were days when people live like this. First black
and white TV three channels, by the way, I'm old
enough to remember three channels and a black and white TV,
(07:10):
and how happy we were to just have three and
my goodness, just a great and beautiful voice from our
affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, WHO News Radio ten forty
joy Neil Kidney on her childhood house, roller skating in
the living room. Here on our American story. Folks, if
(07:31):
you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:53):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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