Lloyd Clyde Shepherd Autobiographical Notes

Date: About 1925 to about 1947
Location: Guthrie County, Iowa
Surname/tag: Shepherd Ellis

Notes of first person narratives of Lloyd Clyde Shepherd as collected and edited by Roger A. Shepherd.

Interview Notes of Dec 2001

I went to 4th and 5th grade classes taught by my Grandmother Lake. One of my classmates in that bunch was Charles Anderson, who joined the Navy with me in 1941. After that, I didn't see him again until November 1947 when we were both discharged from the Navy.

I kept up with Grandma Lake through 1939 and 1940, when I was going to a junior college at Tabor, in the south west corner of Iowa. I would hitch to Menlo, stop at Grandma Lake's and do some work for her. She had a barn on the back of her lot in Menlo and she always had chickens and sometimes riding horses. So the barn always needed attention! I didn't mind, because after supper I was free to dig into her library.

Some time after my 5th grade year Grandpa Shepherd bought and moved into a farm about two miles north of Redfield, Iowa. His house set on the east side of the road and the other structures (barn, windmill, corn crib, and water tank) set on the west side. The sheep there had to be cared for, so, Lloyd and Ora took turns when Dad (Odell) could spare us. One time I remember Grandpa leaning over the water tank and the old buck sheep put him headfirst into it! We stopped laughing long enough to get him out, but I guess it wasn't really funny.

In the meantime, Dad (Odell) had moved his family to a 160-acre farm north and west of Panora. It was a nice place, about a mile from the river. I guess we must have had 10-15 Broad sows and about the same number of milk cows. Anyway, chore time came night and morning.

Dorothy continued her schooling at Menlo (where she graduated from High School in 1933 at the age of 17) and learned to be a school teacher. The three oldest boys, Ora, Lloyd, and John, went to country school. Then in 1931, Ora was off to Panora High School. There were no buses then; you walked or ran or took a horse (riding or driving). But if you took a horse, you had to take care of it, so Ora and I and John walked or ran to high school. Ora graduated in 1935. I graduated in 1937.