Being Important

For my father, being important was important - and he devoted his life to this passion. And, in the last analysis, he failed.

You can't be important on your own, you have to be part of a group of people, who make some  members of that group more important than others. And if that group fails, as it did in my father's case - he failed along with it.

But I must back up in time, and explain what this meant.

The big event for him (and for everyone else) was the Depression. And he coped with this, by joining the Marine Corp, in 1930. Where he acquired an interest in Photography. He sent all his money home to his mother, in Ft. Madison, Iowa. And when he want back home, he used some of that money to buy a photography studio.

This was poorly located, on Main Street, that used to be important, as its name implies - but the business district had moved one block away, and the businesses on Main Street were failing. Dad had bought into a failing business, but did not seem to be aware of this. He always had poor social awareness.

He also had a poor taste in women - and married a woman, who was religious, and determined to dominate him (someone like his mother). I was born in 1936, still in the depths of the Depression.

We were saved by WWII, that created a boom economy. And Dad's studio prospered, being the only studio in town. We went from rags to riches, overnight.

And Dad developed an interest in Religion, in the RLDS church, that both his family, and his wife's family belonged to. Belonged is too mild a word, for their devotion to this church, which was complete.

The church let him be important.- and he took full advantage of this. He used his religious standing, to get tires for his car, that were very scarce during the War. And he quickly advanced in the church hierarchy, and he became District President.

Ft. Madison was an Industrial city - with the Santa Fe Railroad on the West End of town, and the Sheaffer Pen Company on the East End. And plenty of small businessmen, of which my father, was one. Money, and good jobs, were everywhere. And everyone assumed this would last forever.

It didn't. and this downfall is an important part of my story. And the part of my story, no one wants to hear.

The first effect of this decline, for us - was that the Smith Studio, started losing money. Veterans from the War, opened the own studios - and charged much less.

We had moved from Ft. Madison, to my mother's hometown, of Nauvoo, Illinois, just across the river, in 1947. Dad sold the Studio, and tried to open new a business in Nauvoo.

A new way of making Whole Wheat Flour had been developed, and Dad thought this way of making flour, had a great future. He bought high gluten winter wheat (good for making bread) by the carload, and stored it in bins that he assembled next to the mill.

He bought several of these new mills, and connected them with tubes, and stored the flour overhead. This arrangement was so interesting, many tourists came to see it. But the flour sold poorly. His new business was not working.

So he built a bakery, A new addition was built next to our house, and he bought a commercial oven, to bake the bread that he was now making. The bakery became a success, and he hired two local women to work in it.

What happened next I cannot explain - the folks sold everything, and retired to live in Mexico!

A huge change was taking place - and the folks lost their interest in being important. There was no longer any place left. for them to be important in.