The Iowa That Was

You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't get the farm out of the boy. Wayne Gustave Johnson explores this proverb as he recounts memories of his early years on an Iowa farm rented by his immigrant Swedish parents. Nourished by these gentle parents, a little church, eight years of country school, and four older siblings, Johnson established the values that shaped his life. The labor-intensive farming of the 1930s grounded him in the dignity of labor and the sense of fulfillment which comes through cooperation with nature. A little church of fundamentalist leanings nurtured his love of choral music and gave him respect for the support provided by religious faith. While his eight years of country schooling would not quite classify as prep school experience, they did provide a basic grasp of the three Rs. Sex education--of sorts--is inevitable on an Iowa farm where the romancing of farm animals is open to view. The transfer of these observed activities to human experience was natural, but required some fine-tuning. At thirteen, the death of his father prompted the author to eventually pursue the big questions through the study of religion and philosophy.