Edward Speer, Lenora Speer, and Kym Speer

00:03 My name is Kim spier and I'm 55 years old today is June 6th 2015. We are at the San Francisco Public Library and I am here with my parents Edward and Lenora spear.

00:20 Daddy it's your turn will turn. My name is Edwards. We are 85 year old years old.

00:33 Yeah, this is a June 6th 2015 library in California.

00:52 My two partners about a wife and daughter.

01:07 My name is Lenora spear. I am 84 years old. It is June 6th 2015. We are at the San Francisco Public Library and Edward is my husband.

01:25 62 almost 63 years in another week.

01:33 Well, I'm really glad that we finally had a chance to do this and tried unsuccessfully to schedule it before because one of the things we always thought about because I wasn't present at the time it was how you came to be in Stanwood in the 1950s small-town Stanwood population. What six or seven hundred starting a Veterinary practice in a real Community back before I existed?

02:08 We're in college and then

02:15 Subsequently

02:31 We were

02:39 We were we were married in my home.

02:44 I know my wife.

02:49 Hometown today Kansas and it's the truth. She attended church and

03:02 Birds are happily ever since most of the time.

03:11 Well, we were married shortly after Edward graduated from Kansas State University School of veterinary medicine and the doctor draft was on the van die due to the Korean war that was in progress. And so he figured that he was going to get picked up in that anyway, and so he just went ahead and enlisted in the Air Force Veterinary Corps. He served his

03:41 2 years first run Dr. Nation at Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and then was posted to a very new Base Wichita Kansas. We were kind of disappointed in this we were young and eager and wanted to see the world and you got sent back very close to his hometown of Clearwater, but you go where the government sends you and this base was later renamed as McConnell Air Force Base which still exists today and there he served out his two years as base veterinarian and our first two children two boys were born there and following that

04:30 The plan was always a t we go into large animal practice and so he sought a location for this which turned out to be to make the story short in Stanwood, Iowa. When you move to Stanwood, did you just open up shop and hang out a shingle or was there something to move into something to move into innocence in Thief River practitioner that he was not in the best of health and in the process of moving to California, but he stayed with me for one month.

05:20 In love in the practice and help me get acquainted with the country and with me.

05:30 What's the time when most of the farmers had Live start in this was a part of the country? Where are the chief livestock?

06:04 Methods of farming and so far and

06:14 Very good country to to raise cattle and Swine cards. So I meant San Jose.

06:33 Conversations Eskimos ax

06:41 Clarence

06:54 Video

06:58 Medicines that so far for today

07:03 Clarence

07:07 Was he on Deck using a metric type with a box in the back to drive drive around the Harvest car. I will put some stuff in the trunk and

07:26 In the backseat and I just drove around and

07:35 I didn't have that.

07:39 Two-way radio system to begin with C when taking calls on your phone and relay them to me and use the machine to have to call and

08:01 50

08:04 Person running Farmers to call me on the phone and she found whatever needs to be attended to and then how would she get that information to you? If you didn't have a radio and you're out and about and that's going to tell me to check with the office.

08:39 Yes, although if it was an emergency, I would ask the the farm life to if he was there and then the message could she take it to him and they were without a doubt they never defined because it could be them sometime too. And she might look out the kitchen window and say yes, they're still working down at the barn. So I knew he was was there or she would take take the message or she would say they're over at the next place or something. I'll go over and tell him and so to facilitate that and those first years, especially the first year, I would sometimes ride with Edward in the car maybe on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday. I think now I must have had a babysitter for the boys because

09:33 I don't remember having them in the car with me, but he would show me what years were someone's whole lives we go down the road aways now. Here's where Solon solos and I always remember I'm one of those first drives like that. We came past this beautiful pasture of Hereford heifers with their calves. It was a gorgeous sight in early spring the green grass the herefords and up on the hill.

10:05 First White farm buildings

10:08 And it was just like a picture and I said who lives up there and he said I don't know but I sure like to be doing his work and it was just a few months after that that Bo Jackson called for the first time and he became a very for flying a lifelong client with his purebred herefords and then his sons that succeeded him in operating the farm in the herd and all of that but I always remember driving along there on that site and what he said.

10:46 But though

10:49 That's how I learned to wear the different places were so I could call out on the phone and keep keep track of keep feeding him. So we didn't have to run back and then back and forth and that made made a lot of difference in his driving in a day's time. Will then when you got so how long did you operate like this before you can I really don't know. Do you know Edward when it was that you got the two way.

11:21 But he was kind of an innovator. He was a first one in the area to have an answering machine and that could be used if I was away and he was the first one in the area to use the two-way radio because it's you babe radio before I did. I like to know that no one that was assigned you back in and have the two way radio once we got these cell phones.

12:21 And then came the cell phone. So that was the modern era when his day book. That's right. That's right. We live by that. Absolutely. Well you were three years old when

12:43 You could all the rest of them are in school. Kristen wasn't school and

12:50 If I could hear him if I was working around the house and I would hear him call him because he would as soon as he got back to the truck he would call in to pick up the next call because it made a difference in how he drove to facilitate the mileage until for 7 time and if I heard him that I had nothing for him. You might be playing on the floor with your horses and I say Kimi go tell Daddy nothing new.

13:17 And you would run to the kitchen climb up the handles of the kitchen cupboard and Range Rover the top so you could hit the mic button and say nothing. No daddy and he would say. Oh, thank you. Kimmy are so proud. You know that because he knew if there was something I would get to the to the mic and then tell it but when there was just nothing and that was one way we could facilitate it. So now we're worried we were talking about how old was I when

14:00 Dad wrote the truck the red truck. I don't know you would been in school. I was at yeah.

14:12 Will you see he worked out of the basement initially doctor fitting that always worked out of the basement? And there was that one room was called the drug room and then I figured that the other day I was amazed to discover that he probably worked out of the basement for 10 years.

14:32 I don't think it was a baby.

14:37 Regular children that picture we have of the girls playing on the swing set that has the the barn in the background Barn came down. That's when the office went up the garage office, I went up the girls were about

14:58 Two and a half

15:01 4 1/2 somewhere like that.

15:04 When that picture was taken, so

15:08 How Kim was born in 1960 so somewhere around 63?

15:16 Air Force when you tore down the barn and I'm bills the garage Office 365 I want to hear about big born at home understanding both Kristen and I were born at home delivered by our daddy on purpose by having the baby and so I had to sort of a similar situation.

16:14 Cedar Rapids, and it's about 30 miles an hour and a half while half an hour drive or so. I went ahead and deliver them to children at home and lock your mom. So

16:38 Was a country doctor in in the good look was one of the fighters Darkness, but he was very plain-spoken.

17:00 When women deliver do they have time to get there?

17:12 See you soon. Can come to have a baby. So I'm 15 or 20 minutes to drive from Loudon, but he had questioned me about my deliveries with the two boys and they had all been very quick with no complications and so forth and he has said you can have a baby in a car but it's like playing a trombone and a telephone booth and he was playing spoken and he preferred that we not get out on the highway if it came down to another quick delivery, and so Edward always call him but

18:01 You girls arrive before he got there.

18:04 So but he would do a clean up operation Tyler chords and all that sort of thing. You did on Kim after you watched him do it for Chris.

18:26 I didn't go to the hospital. There was a need to and we put in a telephone call and Grandma came flying up from Topeka to take over the house Holden and it worked out fine.

18:43 I'm so Edward. How did you feel when you delivered your first daughter?

18:50 Turn the world was busy.

19:03 First professional work was delivering newborns Riverpark, and it wasn't anything that was totally familiar guy too strange to me. So I was very happy. We had a nice baby girl. So I'm so happy and

19:45 Triumphant cannot help her out.

20:05 Bass Hospital medical staff Sierra Estates Veterinary and

20:28 How's the walk? Well, this is a temporary office in a way because they were building the base and this is actually the hospital was in two officers.

20:46 Photos of theirs on the base and for visiting her

21:00 Ross's you were going through

21:15 I was present when the oldest boy was born in fact.

21:24 Participated is they were using a

21:30 Prince

21:36 Self-administered pain instead of being self-administered they have someone there to the doctor in charge if I was eating breakfast and he stuck his head around the corner and said that if you want to get it on there, she better get scrub scrub jobs around and hold up.

22:19 The anesthetic

22:23 Brownstoner refusing to see if it was ever made to be self-administered. There's a time when they were when they went under the weather and will drop away and takes baths with it. And so far they thought it was better to have someone administrator than so. That was what I did but it was

23:10 Well, it was very unusual. It was an unusual display for both of us and I was very happy that we had a nice maybe Brian and

23:23 Everything was he was he was actually a premature. It was smaller than usual and smaller than the need.

23:35 Baby was reusing and he with

23:41 Kept him in the hospital for several days and I weigh 250 lbs. I think it was.

24:04 They sent him a message.

24:11 Just that was one of the things that happens later, but he was a full term and his children will not a terribly ill serve because we were not allowed to watch TV except on Friday Saturday and Sunday nights after we had our practicing done, but now course that seems to be terribly I'm ahead of its time and and I've sometimes thought that you guys were kind of ahead of the curve on other aspects of child-raising. I don't know if that was

25:00 And if that was just happenstance or or or a deliberate decision must have been some form of practice.

25:15 Because of

25:19 Your mother was the one that is too she thought that school would be better served if you were doing your homework better than

25:33 Gorilla Zoe

25:37 Some other man smashes are killing cars from school now or later the instruments you had your practicing to get done.

25:56 And then you all had.

25:59 Personal interests Hobbies menu card, and we thought those were useful for you to explore and develop. So by the time you did all that there really wasn't a lot of time left. I am certain you were globally almost at me just in terms of how we were raised as kids. Did you guys compare notes on how you thought children should be raised or 4 U of A like mind on how to raise children or and how to say we had a more less of a like mind of what we expected the end result or what we wanted and we both had our own input as to how to get to that.

26:41 Could you say I always says it because I'm busy I had a solo practice. I was on that I didn't practice and I was always there were periods when I was very busy and I might know sees it my kids.

27:17 Wake

27:21 Is it illegal to lie like that? I have an emergency call or something is or why I never felt like that because he was The Guiding Light. I mean we were more or less of a similar mind. Generally what was expected or what we wanted, you know, and he supported me entirely and the pursuit of the music has a

28:08 Useful

28:10 Way to the end of the end. Yell. We never intended that any of you would be professional musicians. All you although you perhaps where the one who grabbed hold and ran with it so to speak but

28:26 You all had a wonderful School experience of participation and it was something that you all used in some way more or less when you went on to college and it was it was a it was a useful activity for you, but there were other things to you know like this.

28:51 And church attendance and just what you did to ready kids. So where did where did the airplane come into it? I just remember growing up and there was always an airplane everything. We know the Blue Goose hurt. You know, how did you get into that has happened in Cedar Rapids? And

29:24 Well before that, I guess I got my private license career in GI Bill.

29:41 Who played for the

29:45 Instruction, but I got to go get my license.

29:54 Course, I didn't have an airplane down. And so I rented one from a local flight service and we

30:05 Blue lives in Topeka, Kansas, and we were still in the Stanwood Iowa. I just made a convenient Messenger to go down for a weekend or

30:26 Mini vacation so to speak and I continue to sin lyrics we are supplying Reynolds and then I'm trying to find some in Cedar Rapids and they have to replace airplanes and so will use those into the inconvenience if we wanted to go and I will at first I guess we only had one plate in a regular Egg and I

31:18 I would want to make a trip and it will play might be busy and later. We got to but thank you for so better if we had our own place and they needed one that was big enough to hold for kids and wife in and they are playing so I had a chance to buy a used airplane aircraft Services big enough Jolie kids.

32:15 I didn't get as much as I would like to have it. So that was before the interstate system, of course, but then we also used it to fly up around the Midwest and up into Canada. We went as far as you could take a land Base plane in Ontario. And we also took it down into New Mexico fluid into the Buffalo pasture to land at Philmont Scout Ranch.

33:05 So I'm

33:07 We had a lot of wonderful adventures with it and the kids finally outgrew. I really couldn't stop them all in and then he converted it to a jump plane.

33:20 Flying a jumpers were there was an instruction fella giving instructions at the Tipton Tipton Iowa Airport, which is 10 miles south of us using that eventually sold it to the fellow giving me instruction and jumping who still has this plane down in Texas or what tell us about the spot Landing contest 190 500.

34:10 Antique airplanes by that time I guess but they were a good safe airplanes and they have a fly in on Washington Island Door County.

34:34 Northfield

34:40 It's north of Chicago actually, but anyway, we wait for the

34:53 It was usable with it was not a fancy set up but

35:06 So we won't be ready till I have this was not in there. I control the aircraft are for airports. They have no towers and who is the traffic and landed and but it was never quite a few. It was a 3-day deal. We only got it on the last 2 minutes.

35:35 They have a Sprint line living hell until still put some flour all over them and they could they were taken movies and Landing I guess and

36:00 So they called in the radio and told him we were going to Landon and so

36:13 A little apprehensive because I'm most of the pilots or many of the promise. It holds 195 to 10 time work professional climax in the book for individual private a little larger than most of the other light planes are flying that anyway, we went ahead and landed trucks it up to the parking area and maybe Cambridge.

37:01 What song is we opened the door or anything? Why he said that was a beautiful Spring Valley contest. When was the first day and then it was it 195 is a paragraph. It has a tail wheel and not enough. So real ones lyrics

37:46 In the context to be judged on the basis of your tail wheel Farm swap that was on the highway at a red light. And so we landed went up in this guy didn't even know where in the contest because it was just the first day and it wasn't it was the second day of it. We landed.

38:25 Fairly uneventful is it if you bounced you didn't it is a predator for one of the constants before you converted. It will know you had it. All right.

39:06 I don't think that a no. No, I was just as a matter of but there was a trip that we were all aboard to Mackinac Island. That was a great joy.

39:33 Last minute here. We have one minute left and it didn't bother you want to get on the record before we

39:40 Before we close. Well, it was a great saying when he built the garage and had office and then had the first truck to because that allowed him to drive in at night and it was a heated building and he didn't have to unload life with a car and carry everything into the back porch and then back out again and it's morning. So when I realized recently that he had done that for 10 years before you got the garage off as I am just astounded.

40:12 Excuse me.

40:16 Where's your out-of-town?