Milly Kooi
One of 12 children born on a farm in Iowa. 11 children lived to adulthood, one child died at about 4 weeks. One brother passed away at 18 (her younger brother). She moved to Denver CO after her mother became a patient at Bethesda -- a hospital/sanitorium for people with Tuberculosis. She attended high school in Denver. At Denver Christian High School she played on the girls softball team. Her mother was eventually discharged and lived into her 80's. Milly came to Grand Rapids about 35 years ago because two of her sisters lived here.
Interview with Milly:
What do you remember most about your mother? That she knitted
Do you remember something she always said? “Eh”
What do you remember most about your father? He played the accordion
Do you remember something he always said to you? He liked singing in church
Do you remember your Kooi grandparents? No
Do you have memories of other relatives growing up? Cousins Adileena and Renzilla – we would run down and play by the creek together.
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What are your memories of your first home? It was in Iowa, It was a big house, 2 stories. I shared a bedroom with Verna and Irene and we slept in the same bed.
Did you have indoor plumbing? No, we had an outhouse.
What did you do if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? “We peed out the window”. (And Milly laughs about this-------
Did you have a bike? Yes
Do you ever do something naughty? Milly says she was a perfect child. When I asked my Mom about Milly as a child, she said that Milly was a very good little girl.
What games did you play? We played “Old Maid”. We built “houses” and “forts”. We had balls/gloves/bats and played softball at school.
She remembers that Verna and Irene were her playmates. She remembers reading to Elmer when he was sick. She remembers Gladys and Bernice playing with her and taking care of her as a child. She remembers patting Glenn on the head.
As an adult Milly has loved to play Bingo. She was still playing it in November of 2021 when I asked her what her favorite game was as an adult.
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Strangest food she likes: Liver
Food she tried but didn’t like: Sauerkraut
She is a “night” person.
The 1st TV shows she remembers watching:
I Love Lucy
Andy Griffith
Art Linkletter – Kids Say the Craziest Things
Later she watched
Sonny and Cher Show
Lawrence Welk
Carol Burnett
She has always preferred Talk Shows like Phil Donahue, Ohpry Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres to soap operas.
She was 12 when her family moved to Denver. She liked Denver right away, even though it was a big change from Iowa
They had a pet cat and a pet dog on the farm. She remembers calling the dog to eat, “Rover, Rover, Rover”. There was no store bought dog food. The dog ate table scraps.
Most vacations were to Souix Center IA to visit relatives, the Sybesmas and the Koois.
She can’t remember doing chores as a kid to earn money. She also didn’t get an allowance. Milly says, “I don’t think I had much money”. She did babysit for neighbor kids once they moved to Denver.
Although the “older” kids were paid a penny for every rodent (mouse?) they caught in the fields, Milly cannot remember that she did that.
Although Gladys remembers that they did not have a Christmas Tree in Iowa (not many trees in Iowa?), Milly remembers that they had one after they moved to Denver.
What was your first job? Taking in ironing. One of the families she ironed for were the Hillers (might be spelled wrong). Milly remembers how to iron a shirt: first the collar, then the shoulders, then the sleeves & then the body of the shirt. She says she enjoyed this.
She also worked at the Deville Motel in Denver cleaning rooms.
Memories of Elementary School. It was broken up into two classrooms: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th together, and then the older classes. Her 1st-4th grade teacher was Miss Swets. She doesn’t remember the teacher in the older grades.
What was the scariest thing that ever happened to you? Falling off a horse. And she was scared to go to the outhouse at night.
Do you remember taking vacations on the bus? Milly says she only took one bus tour and that was to the Grand Canyon. She bravely went alone. They ate at restaurants and stayed in motels.
When she went to Calvin she rode there in a car with a group of fellow Calvin College students who were driving from Denver to Grand Rapids.
She took driver’s training in H.S. but never got her driver’s license. Her parents didn’t think she was ready at the time.
Church:
1st church she attended was Hosper’s CRC. In Denver she attended 2nd Christian Reformed.
They went to church in a car in Iowa. When I asked how the whole family could have fit in a car, she said that not everyone went. Ma sometimes was home with babies. Eventually the older kids were out of the house. They could walk to 2nd Denver Christian Reformed.
In Iowa, the family filled an entire pew. They sat in order of age.
She does remember that the horse and buggy was also used – not necessarily for church.
Milly enjoyed the singing the most. The long prayer was her least favorite.
“Ma” gave the children peppermints at church to help keep them quiet.
She remembers the church picnic. Food and refreshments. Playing the 3 legged game and other games.
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On Saturdays they would drive into Sheldon to go shopping. Pa would drive. Milly believes that her Ma never had a driver’s license (probably true). The kids were given a little money to spend. Milly remembers buying paper dolls. Verna and Irene always came along.
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Milly had a boyfriend for a time in Grand Rapids. She was working at a sheltered workshop & her boyfriend worked there too. On a walk one day I asked Milly about him. She said his name was Dick. When I asked what was the thing she liked best about him, she thought a minute and then said, "I liked everything about him". I asked what happened to Dick -- he just didn't show up for work one day and they told Milly he had "moved". I asked Milly how she felt when that happened. She said she was sad.