3rd HOME - NOVINGER FARM, COLLINS, IOWA

It was a cold day, March 1, 1947, when we moved from Lucerne, Missouri, to the Novinger Farm, 2 miles south of Collins, Iowa, on Hwy 65. In fact it was a typical Iowa winter. There was so much snow that the trucks hauling the cattle and horses just backed up into a frozen snow drift and unloaded the farm animals onto the frozen snow!

Mom and Dad moved to Iowa specifically to buy more productive land, have a farm located on a paved road, and have access to a better school system for me and my sister, Dorothy Kay. It was a wise move, eventhough Dad's brothers thought he was crazy to pay $255 per acre when he could buy all the land he could ever use in Missouri for $75 per acre. Both states proved good for the "Novinger Boys" and 50 years later the $255 per acre looked like a bargain, as Iowa farm land was then worth $3000 to $4000 per acre.

The better schools in Iowa proved good for Dorothy Kay and me, as well as our brother, Jim, and sister, Jo Anne, who were soon born in Iowa. It was in Collins that I grew up from 2nd grade through high school. But the winters were cold and windy, with lots of snow and ice. Below is a picture of a mild and beautiful winter day.