Jane Remembers Des Moines and her mother Edna Winter

Downtown Des Moines 1940, Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer.

Jane remembers that when she was a child she had to go to Des Moines to see the dentist.  It was in a very tall building and they could see all of Des Moines from it..an insurance building?  Her dad paid for braces ahead of time, but the dentist died before the job was done, and it was never finished.

Jane remembers discovering her parents stuffing money under the bed.  They had taken their money out of the bank for fear of a crash.  They told her never to tell anyone.  She always wondered whether they really thought it was safe to tell a child that!

Jane remembers that her dad hoarded coffee during the war.  There were bags of coffee in storage.  He just couldn't do without coffee and was worried that it would be rationed.

She remembers a trip to Washington D.C. to visit her mother who was working for the U.S. Census Bureau. She was in college at that time. The mother, my grandmother Edna Winter, was rooming with a WAVE friend and they had seen all the sights of the city.  Then Edna took her to all the city's sites -- she was exhausted.  They also went to a party at the embassy of some South American country.  It was all very exciting.  She remembers that when she went there she was in a sleeper berth on the train.  She also stopped in Chicago and visited friends on her way back to Iowa.  They took her to see the Chicago Art Museum. 

Edna had been a cook for Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls and various colleges.  She moved to the town of  Jane's college and was a cook there as well, to be near Jane.. 

I found this about Norwalk, Iowa, Jane's home town, on Wikipedia:
Norwalk's darker history includes this mass killing. "Mrs. G.R. McAnich killed five of her seven children and then turned the gun on herself in 1937."  I believe Jane mentioned this once.