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Health & Fitness

Country Gal/City Woman: An Ode to an 'Uncommon Common' Man

"Dad"... A Quiet Man whose daily life spoke volumes!

George Clinton was probably as typical a farmer/small town sort of guy one could find in the whole state of Iowa.

On the family farm near Fletcher Chapel (down the road apiece from Atlantic) he toiled alongside his older bachelor brother, Ben, and his widowed mother, Rhoda Jane. It was no easy task eking out a living in the late 1890's, and the task was doubly hard when Rhoda D. Flint Cranston, his wife and mother of his three young sons (Earl, Jesse and Archibald), died shortly after the birth of Archibald McKinley. With the help of Grandma, Uncle Ben, Uncle John (another brother) and his young wife, Ella, the three young boys were lovingly cared for, and life continued on for the bereaved young family.

Dad met Mary Elizabeth and I know naught the details, except I firmly believe Mom had competition from another young lass (who later was my Arithmetic teacher in the Seventh Grade). Being blessed Irish and a little "fey," I could read all the signs and the signs over Miss Wissler's head read "Boing!"

Absolutely no favoritism was shown during the two years she was my teacher, but a day or two following my graduation from high school, Miss Wissler and I met on Main Street in Atlantic. Her face lit up and she said, "I am so very proud of you!" In the silly romantic way some girls have at looking at life without knowing all the details, I knew then that a "torch had been carried" some where back in our history, and it certainly wasn't for any Olympic event.  

At any rate, if there was competition among the two young ladies for the hand of my future Dad, I consider myself the "winner," having a Mom who became a mother of three little boys on her wedding date in 1903, and a terrific red-headed Math teacher who is mainly responsible for my check-balancing skills today. 

Back to Dad...he plied his trades as blacksmith and painter (of homes, not oil) and wallpaper hanger. Better known as "Smiley," his reputation was lauded throughout southwest Iowa as one of the best, if not the best, at each of these jobs.

As the four sons of his subsequent marriage to Mom came along, he introduced them and his Thirteenth Child (I sometimes went along to help scrape paper off the walls while Mom was busy with PTA, the GAR/the American Legion/VFW Auxiliaries and Bingo!) to the family occupation. Years later, we figured some Cranston family member had painted or papered perhaps 50-75% of the homes in or near our hometown of Atlantic.  Underneath the current wallpaper in some of the older stately homes in my hometown is the proof of Dad's "cut and paste" work. 

George and Mayme moved to 210 Birch, on the west edge of town, a few years into their marriage, and that address soon became headquarters for all ages of kids and grownups. It was a happening kind of home. It anything of importance was about to happen, you can bet it was first conceived on the wrap-around front porch!  Family friends would gather to swap "fish stories," play Poker and Bingo, and choose up sides for the Softball Games later played in Talty's Pasture at the end of the block. 

This soft-spoken, almost spitting-image of Will Rogers was an avid fisherman, hunter of pheasants, quail and wild gooseberries, a lover of animals, big and small. Next to his Haven of Peace, the now infamous Woodshed, stood a larger building that housed the Ford Model T, the fancy Bantam chickens and the egg-layer variety, a feisty duck, always a litter of pups, Betsy the Cow, rabbits raised to sell to the local Elks organization for their Annual Rabbit Feed, and an imposing 20x30 glass-covered wood-framed studio picture of President William McKinley (family history says that he was a relative to the Flint family). Picture this if you will: the President of these United States of America looking so authoritatively regal, presiding over that menagerie in The Barn, one of those incongruous situations where you have to ask...why not in a place of honor in the living room?

Dad's integrity...he once found a paper sack filled with money in the street while he was on his way to the market and delivered it to the local sheriff's office to be returned to the rightful owner. Who the owner was or what happened to the money after that has been the subject of several around-the-kitchen-table discussions. From that incident, it was confirmed once more that our Dad was made of the "right stuff!"

His faithfulness and loyalty to his wife and kids through seasons of despair during the Depression Years, his sacrifices of putting himself second to family members so that their daily household and personal needs would be met, his work ethics of showing up for every job undertaken and leaving late if it was important to get a job done...those were virtues he instilled in his kids by action and very few words.

Not so very long ago, Cranston Reunions were held on a semi-regular basis and were not complete without the retelling of "Remember when Dad (and Mom) did/said...?" kind of stories. Sadly, today, this Thirteenth Child is the only "remnant" left of the Cranston Family tapestry; and it is the precious moments of those long-ago days that I feel led to share with the younger generations of our family on the Internet, and of course, with you!

When Dad passed away at the age of 72 in 1945 after a long bout with cancer, the editor (Pulitzer Prize recipient E.P. Chase, a long-time friend of Dad's) of the Atlantic News Telegraph mourned the passing of George Clinton Cranston, Sr. in his editorial, as an outstanding and honorable longtime member of the community. That would have embarrassed Dad to no end.

 The Cranston Kids mourned their Dad as an "uncommon common" man.

* * * * * *

Do you remember the excitement you felt when you heard the Circus was coming to town, and that the unloading of the animals would begin at 4 a.m. at the nearby depot? Probably not unless you were raised in a small town ca. 1930 and the Ringling Brothers Circus was playing for a week in Atlantic, Iowa! Lookin' forward to sharing some of this stuff 'n such with you...."Til the next time

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