Alan's Story

The Genesis of The Flower Child

Alan was born in a Farm House on Clayton Ridge between Guttenberg and Clayton, Iowa. Both of these towns are on the Mississippi River in Clayton County. Alan was the first child born which would later become a family with six children - three boys and three girls.

The young family moved in the Winter of 1941 to another Farm near the Ceres Church off of U. S. Highway 52 which runs between Guttenberg and Garnavillo, Iowa. The date of this photo is unknown but it appears that I was standing in field of oats.

Because I was a February Baby I usually celebrated my Birthdays with snow on the ground. This picture was taken on my Third Birthday. It would appear that I was camera shy at this age. At least I was not looking at the camera when my Mom snapped this picture. I have fond memories of my Mom taking the family pictures with a Kodak Box Camera. Considering the time frame of our young family with four of us being born in 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1944 we are all well documented. My Mom kept "Birthday Books" on all of us.

I attended this one room country school which was on the corner of My parents 80 acre farm. Although it was not up hill both ways to and from school we did walk to school. We carried our lunch and because our home was so close to the school we had to also carry the pail of water that we all consumed during each school day. Thus we always knew that our drinking water was safe because a sample had to be sent into the State of Iowa Water Testing Lab each school year.

I attended this school for the first seven years of my formal public education.

I graduated from Garnavillo Community School in May of 1958. I scored at the 98th precentile on the Iowa State Test each of my high school years. I understand that these test now have a new name - "The Iowa Test of Basic Skills."

This summary is provided for your reading pleasure just in case you ever wondered how the Flower Child was educated.

Now you know!!