The house at 307 East Third Street, Marshfield, WI was the second house purchased by Herb & Adele Johnson. The first home being located at 307 Concord St. The Concord St. house was a two-bedroom home, and Herb and Adele expecting another child looked for larger quarters.

The house was purchased in 1941 for $4,500 and the family moved on May 1st. The child, Paul, was born on May 5th.

The house was build about 1915 and is classified as a “Craftsman style bungalow” It has almost 3,000 square feet of living space with a full basement. When the house was purchased, Tony Kraemer, a well-known local painter and drummer in the 135th Medical Regiment Band (Herb’s National Guard unit) apologized to Herb for painting the oak trim in the living room, “but she made me do it” he said referring to the former owner. The painting was done about 1938.

Some research into the house style has indicated that all of the wood trim would have been stained and varnished as “Golden Oak.” This treatment can still be seen in the trim on the second floor. There is some conjecture that the downstairs doors may have always been painted. The doors are solid core birch doors and most likely were manufactured in Marshfield by the Roddis Plywood Company (now Weyerhaeuser). Originally the glass doors on the book cases flanking the fireplace were leaded glass windows. The leaded glass was replaced after a chair, propelled either by Paul throwing Charlie or vice versa, tipped over and went through one of the doors.

When the house was built, the porch was an open porch, although it had a full foundation which was probably the coal bin (not uncommon). There were two large exterior windows looking onto the porch. The house was also lap sided with a “Variable reveal” wood siding. Somewhere in the middle 30's the porch was enclosed using a casement style window on all three sides and retaining the two exterior windows on the living room wall. At this time a stucco exterior was applied over the wood siding. We believe it was at this time that the formal dining room was discontinued, the plate rail and the wainscoting removed and the pass through plastered over.

The house and porch underwent additional modification in the summer of 1961 when the casement windows were replaced with the two windows which were originally in the living room wall and the east and west sides of the porch were blocked in. The old stucco siding was removed and replaced with the fake stone siding. This siding was done by Justin Kopf, a plasterer who had just attended a course in the technique. He was looking for a house to demonstrate on, and Herb, being one of Justin’s plaster and cement suppliers worked a “deal” whereby Justin got his demonstration house and Herb got a low price and supplied the cement at cost.

At this time also the garage was widened to become a two-car garage and the “L” storage area was added along with the cement patio and wood trellis. The driveway was widened to its present width. There is an older portion of concrete (poured about 1958) which angles to the street. This angle was done because of two large trees (one Maple, the other Elm) which flanked the drive.

During this time also, all of the windows were scraped down to bare wood, re-primed and painted by Paul and Charlie. There are about 45 windows, all of which are double hung and many with multiple lites. For the next 30 years or so, the windows were painted as needed. The next through, down to the wood was done in about 1993 by Paul over the summer. However the upper windows were not done that year and the following summer the tradition of an annual family work get-together was started when almost all the siblings, including many spouses descended on the house and scraped down, primed and repainted all the upper windows and trim in a single day. Size of the contingent and scaffolding helped in this record setting effort. Other group work included the redoing of the front stairs and the painting of all the rooms in the house prior to it’s being put on the market.

Originally the living room was two rooms separated only by the wood arch, a living room and a formal dining room. The dining room featured a “pass-through” from the small service kitchen. The rear bedroom is supposed to have been the “maid’s” room. This is based on the fact that the floor is pine, while all other floors are maple. The room used later as the dining room would have been the “breakfast room.” It is supposed that the family used this room for most of the meals, using the dining room only for formal occasions. The “breakfast room” is noted for the inlaid marble tile floor and the abundance of windows. The kitchen was originally laved out with a large cabinet on the south wall opposite the formal dining room with a pass through to the dining room, the original wood stove was on the west wall opposite the sink and vented into the chimney in the corner of the room by the windows. The “ice box” was located in a small shed like structure that protruded past the foundation and there was a large pantry. When Herb & Adele moved in, the ice box and wood stove were gone, however the ice box shed could be used during the winter to keep large pots of chili and bowls of salad cool. The original sink was a large porcelain single affair with an integral drain board. While there is no direct evidence of a hand pump, the basement contained a large cistern which was connected to the roof gutter system. It has been supposed that there was a hand pump in both the kitchen and bath for wash water, why is a matter of conjecture since the house was always connected to the city water supply.

The house was originally heated with a coal-fired furnace. This furnace was a gravity feed type (or an octopus because of the large ducts radiating out of it.) It also had water pipes running through it to heat water and a fan to supplement the heat flow. Two large cold air returns were located in the living room and consisted of a wooden grill. The furnace was probably hand fired, but a stoker was added by Herb (who was in the coal business). The coal bin was located on the east side of the basement, part of what became a “work room” This furnace was replaced in the early 50's with a more compact forced air unit located in the southwest corner of the basement which was “bin fed,” the coal bin could hold up to 5 tons of coal and was directly fed into the furnace. This was more convenient that having to either hand feed coal every several hours or fill a stoker every day. However it did have its disadvantages, like the time the auger sheared a pin. The bin had just been filled when this happened and Paul and Charlie spent the better part of a day shoveling coal OUT of the bin to the outside so that the pin could be replaced, followed by another better part of a day shoveling the coal back in. The furnace was again replaced in the mid 60's by a natural gas furnace (even though it was natural gas that was one of the causes of the H. Ebbe Co. Going out of business) In about 1991, the furnace was again replaced with a high efficiency gas furnace. Barbara recently ran across a man who used to deliver coal to the house after the Ebbe Co. went out of business. He recalled that Herb always invited them in for coffee or a drink and loved to talk about the state of the coal business.

Because of the size of the original furnace, the basement was divided into much smaller areas. The front of the basement at one time contained a pool table (bought surplus from Didie Allen - the local pool hall owner and sports promoter) The table was a full slate table with leather pockets, and came complete with a light and markers on a wire. The table lasted only a couple of years and was replaced by a ping pong table and several pin ball machines. The pin ball machines did not fair well in the humid climate and were junked after only a year or so. (Paul & Charlie’s constant “repair” of them didn’t help)

The position of the furnace made a very natural raceway and the boys and their friends especially made use of it. Herb and Paul had constructed a soap box derby car (Yellow Streak) constructed of pine 2x2's and a nail keg. The design lacked flair and Herb added a front bumper and a body of oak. The racer was painted red with a yellow lightening streak. Steering was done with a simple rope. One night Paul and Charlie decided to take it for a test run. With Charlie pushing and Paul steering a head of steam was built up and attempting to take a corner around the coal stoker, Paul steered into the water softener, hitting the outlet and breaking it off and draining all of the water.

The basement also contained a cistern. Because Herb feared that one of the children would fall into it, he had a door cut into one side and plumbing for a shower installed. Memories of the older children include family showers, where the whole family would troop into the basement and shower. They would take turns being lifted to the shower head for a through rinse. On the east side of the basement, nest to the coal bin was a fruit cellar which contained a chest freezer and shelves. After the family began moving out to the “farm” for the summer, this room contained the fruits of the garden, especially a particularly potent dill pickle. Almost anything that could be canned or preserved was with various success. More than once Adele would have to bring bucket and mop to clean up a jar or two that had exploded.

One canning project about 1948 involved the purchase of bulk catsup (5 gallon tins as I recall). Catsup bottles, caps and a capper were also purchased. One Saturday Herb and Adele had friends over and the kitchen was converted into a bottling operation with the bottles being boiled, filled and capped. The venture was one of several cooperative projects in which a group of families would buy something in bulk, divide it and share it. Another such project involved the raising of 4 Hereford steers on the Johnson Farm. The steers were allowed to range for about two years on the farm. The last summer they were fed a corn mixture (supplied from the H. Ebbe Co. Feed Mill) and slaughtered. The quarters were brought to the basement where planks were set on sawhorses and Joe (last name unknown) who was the head butcher at the local A&P set to work cutting the quarters into chops, roasts and steaks for the families involved. As the cuts of meat came from Joe’s expert knives and saws, they were wrapped and marked by the other members of the group. While these kinds of cooperative ventures did perhaps result in some savings in food costs, It is believed that their primary purpose was to be the basis of a party.

The upper floor originally contained only the two large bedrooms. The dormer room and the upper bath were added by Herb & Adele in 1942 using attic space. The walls directly under the bath room and the dormer room were both thick enough to have become “wet walls,” in other words, thick enough and positioned correctly to run plumbing through them.

Originally Herb & Adele used only the first floor, the second floor was occupied by several teachers who rented rooms there. One of the teachers (unnamed) was remembered by Adele because she wore a padded bra. Coming down to leave for work she would inquire “Are they on straight?” Another teacher was named Toni and later became Toni Johnson when she married an executive with West Bend Leather. She stayed in Christmas Card contact with Adele for many years.

While Herb was in the Army (1944), the upstairs was occupied by Eldor and Sally Seimers (Adele’s sister and brother-in-law) and their children, Dale and Susie. Eldor was a veteran of Marshfield’s Company “C” and had returned after being involved in fighting in New Guinea. When Herb returned home in 1944, the family expanded into the entire house. Herb and Adele’s bedroom was on the second floor. There were two separate closets which were combined into a single closet with two entrances. This arrangement offered many of the children a great place to hide.

Another feature of the house throughout its occupation was “Dad’s Den.” There is no memory of a time when one room or another was dedicated to a place for Herb to have a home office. It was variously in the lower rear bedroom, the lower front bedroom and the lower middle bedroom. It was a place that not only Herb used, but most of the children for a place of privacy and doing home work.

During the childhood of the older children in the late 40's and early 50's, there were several “Mother’s Helpers” These were girls who came to Marshfield in order to attend high school. They were paid a small monthly stipend in return for helping in the household and receiving room and board. One mother’s helper that is remembered is Loraine. The running joke with Herb was about doing dishes. He would always offer to flip a coin, “Heads I win, Tails, you lose”

As the children grew and began to bring members of the opposite sex home, one of the most universal reactions was the number of people. Mary O’Brien, later Paul’s wife, was struck with the door to the upper floor. She compared it to the small car at the circus out of which came and endless number of clowns. Sitting in the kitchen she remarked that the door kept opening and there was another Johnson. In fairness, some of the people were friends.

The house also provided the Chronquist children, especially the boys, with a shortcut on cold winter days. They would walk in the front door, inquire what was for supper and walk out the back door. Mike Chronquist was notorious for showing up just in time to help unload the last bag of groceries, in exchange for fish sticks, malts and french fries.

The malts, so liked by the children and their friends came from a Hamilton Beach malt mixer which was one of several deals Herb found at Badger Store Fixture. Other deals included a set of blue restaurant setting. These dishes were virtually indestructible, though each Johnson found a way to destroy at least some. The advantage was that the dishes were purchased by the case and the basement yielded an almost inexhaustible supply. This came about because of the number of dishes needed by the family and the amount of breakage small dish washers, dryers and puter-awayer’s wreaked. Before the restaurant dishes, every day dishes included “Willow” and “Fiesta” patterns, now found only in antique stores.

Badger Store Fixture also supplied the kitchen furniture. About 1950 Herb and Adele somewhat remodeled the kitchen, moving the cabinet from the wall adjoining the living room to the wall adjoining the dining room and added a fixed table. The table’s based was cut out of solid core birch doors (surplus no doubt from Roddis) by Mike Bartel (the carpenter and cabinet maker employed by H. Ebbe Co. Lumber). These were fixed to the floor and a Formica top was added. Swiveling lunch counter stools were bolted through the floor. The stools were not all the same. Two of the stools were taller for the younger children while the stool in the corner by the windows was set back to accommodate Herb’s larger frame. When asked about the set up Adele made the comment that “it seemed a good idea at the time, but worked out to be most impractical” though the arrangement lasted many years.

Mike Bartel’s wood working skills (and availability as an employee) were put to use more than once. In addition to making many replacement storm and screen windows for the outside, he built many shelves and cabinets for several rooms. The lower middle bedroom received the most elaborate set. A set of glass front cabinets flanking and over the windows were built when the room was occupied by Charlie and Paul. The cabinets were for the many plastic models the boys built and displayed. In addition to the display cabinets, a “train cabinet” was also built. The cabinet was a self unit that had a swing down panel with a gate leg which formed a table. The track layout was nailed to the door and shelves held the train cars. The train set by the way was a Lionel and featured a double loop with two switches. The cabinet remained in the room while the boys occupied it and then was moved to the basement, minus its table and first as a back bar used for the many parties held in the basement and finally being moved to store paint in the former coal bin/fruit cellar

Given that the Johnson family occupied the house for 55 years, there was remarkably little structural change. Decor changes are another matter. Herb and Adele seemed to have done all the painting and wallpapering. One of the first projects, at least remembered, was stripping the paper in the living room. It was a light colored paper with very large flowers. The paper was stripped using a steamer borrowed over the week end from friend and painter Tony Kraemer. Since he borrowed only for the weekend and the living room was so large, Herb and Adele worked very late into Sunday getting all the paper off. In the middle 50's a plate glass mirror was added to the living room, as if the room needed to have a wall sized mirror to give the illusion of space.

The lower bathroom was changed only once about 1973 when the tile was chipped off, revealing an inlayed marble tile floor, the wood work stripped, the mop boards replaced and a poured floor put in around the toilet. The cabinet under the sink and the magazine rack was built by Paul using the workshop of the Trudeau family. The magazine rack was especially important to Herb who complained that he had spent much his time in the “throne room” without an adequate supply of reading material.

The various Johnson children exercised a great deal of freedom in creating their own decor in their own rooms (hence the cabinets in Paul & Charlie’s room). This freedom led to some unusual decor, especially between the younger siblings and especially in the 70's. Perhaps the best example (some would say most outrageous) was the paint job done in the dormer room by David. In between service in the Army and setting out to “find” himself. David occupied this room for more than a year. The ceiling was painted a royal blue and featured an elaborate paisley design. The west wall in the dormer itself was pained with a sunburst near the top while the north wall was covered with multi colored blocks radiating from a center black and white design. All of this artwork was painted over by David in anticipation of putting the house on the market. The large upper bedroom got a similar, by more understated sun burst design by Margaret and Annie. Painting for decoration started with Adele and her work in the basement. She decorated each of the doors with pictures appropriate to the room’s use (hobby room, fruit cellar, shower room, ironing board etc.) As well as painting vines twining up each of the poles in the basement. Much of the work was done on laundry days (with at least two children in diapers at this time, laundry days were frequent) Adele had an EZ spin washing machine which needed to be loaded often. She would take whatever children were at home and sit them in the teeter-babe or play pen, turn the radio to WLBL the state radio station, and even bring a coffee pot down and make a day of it.

Friends were another part of the Johnson household. Herb and Adele were very socially active, hosting bridge and canasta parties, progressive parties, Halloween parties, Tom and Jerry parties at Thanksgiving or any other excuse.

Their friends included Doctors, Lawyers and other business men of the community. One of the closest set of friends was the Colliers. Ernie and Herb were close friends from school and the National Guard. In addition Ernie was the Jewel Tea man. Each week, he would deliver a basket of various foods that had been ordered. Memory does not serve as to many of the particular products he delivered, but coffee was delivered weekly. There was a 2-pound canister with the distinctive Jewel Tea flowered decoration which hung on the wall above the sink. This canister had a sliding spout which delivered a measured amount into the coffee maker. The Johnson formula was 1,2,3,4 and a quick slide for good measure into an 8-cup maker. Another set of friends was the Parkin’s. John and Clieo were in the dairy business. For years Johnson’s had purchased dairy products from the Clover Cream Dairy. The milk, cream and other products were delivered to the rear door. At some occasion, John, who apparently had been fuming about that fact that he and Herb served on many committees in the community and were both very active in scouts as well as socially active was not a customer. “How can you work with me so closely, be friends and not buy from me” John asked one day? Herb replied “You never asked,” giving John a lesson in business he related many times over.

An aside to the dairy story. When delivering milk to the house, the route man left his horse and milk wagon parked on Third Street as was his custom. A dog new to the neighborhood charged the horse who spooked and ran up the front lawn, dragging the milk wagon with it. The wagon turned over spilling and breaking most of the glass milk bottles it contained.

Perhaps the best known party hosted by the Johnson’s was the annual Tom and Jerry Parties. Herbs had found a recipe for Tom and Jerry’s years before and make it for family at Thanksgiving. This eventually led to inviting all the Johnson friends, business associates and a host of relatives to partake on Thanksgiving Eve. Herb and Adele had acquired a Tom and Jerry set with eight or so mugs. Over the years the number of mugs increased, but for these parties, any and all cups were pressed into service. Upwards and over 60 people attended throughout the evening. Two of the more notable attendees were Drs. Art Macht and Elizabeth Baldwin. Dr. Macht was head of the Psychiatric Unit at the Marshfield Clinic and Dr. Baldwin was in private practice. While her husband, Dr. Robert Baldwin was an internist at the Clinic, Liz remained very separate from the idea of a group practice. At any gathering Drs Macht and Baldwin would spend some time discussing the nature of and philosophy of medical practice. These were never arguments but offered other party goers and the Johnson children with a fine example of two extremely articulate people discussing their differences.

One of the most regular of parties hosted by Herb and Adele were the gathering of the Side Saddle Fishing Club. The parties were held both at the house and at the farm. The Side Saddle Fishing Club was a group of friends who started out just fishing together after World War II. The name was given it during one fishing trip while the group was recounting various and sundry exploits while recuperating at a motel and bar in Fifield. Reacting to the every increasing improbability of the exploits Judge Ken Pucker remarked that “If you guys rode horses, you’d have to ride side saddle.”
The group did actually fish, but became a social club which had as an unstated purpose to be a meeting ground between the business and professional men and the Marshfield Clinic, then undergoing major expansion. The main explanation for the frequency of the parties was the traditional treasurer’s report given at the beginning of each meeting, that “all of our assets are liquid - so let’s have a drink.”

One Halloween, Herb and Adele invited their friends over to a haunted house. Card tables, some of which were borrowed, were set up from the front door to the kitchen door. The whole string was covered with blankets. Under the table an air mattress or two, and a cot mattress and several other textures were laid down. Objects like grapes and spaghetti, sand filled gloves and a Jell-O filled shirt sleeve were placed along the route to simulate body parts. In addition there were strategically placed holes through which rubber spiders and other objects were dropped. Each of the guests had to crawl through this maze in order to get to the party. The next night friends of the older children were also invited to crawl through the maze (with fewer gross objects) and the party was held in the basement attended with a session in the shower room with Herb spinning a horror story punctuated with shots from a .22 cal. pistol loaded with blanks.

Birthday parties also were sometimes elaborate. The birthday child invited their friends, got to pick the type of cake and food and often 8mm cartoons were shown. An article appeared in the 1942 social notes of the Marshfield New-Herald that Paul and Barbara entertained their friends at a Christmas party with an appearance made by Santa. The Santa suit did not make another appearance at the Johnson house again, but was passed around the circle of friends for their celebrations. It was found hanging in the closet, beard and all, when the house was being cleared in 1997.

In addition to the planned parties, friends would just drop over. One day, E. Richard (Dick) Paul (field scout executive) and Jerry Praschak (a scout volunteer) were over having coffee when Adele announced that the children were “to pick up the living room!” Jerry, having somewhat of a literal sense of humor, assigned each of the children and adults to a corner of the room and synchronized “picking up the room” with appropriate groans and grunts. This one time gag led to an ongoing ritual barely endured by Adele.

The occasion of the “room pick up” was the annual rug cleaning. At the time there was a wool rug with an Ozite pad. The rug covered all but about 12"to 18" of the room, leaving a border of maple floor and the cold air registers exposed. During spring cleaning the rug was rolled up, taken out to the drive way and vacuumed front and back while the wood flood was cleaned and the edges waxed. During this time the living room had all of the acoustic characteristics of a gym. Cleaning the couch was a job that was prized by several of the older children. Herb would come home for lunch and take a nap on the couch so the couch cleaners was often enriched by several pennies, nickel, dimes and even the occasional quarter that slipped from pockets during the nap.

Each of the children, as they grew, were assigned tasks starting with simple dusting to dishwashing to more complex tasks of lawn mowing and painting. Cooking, baking, mending and sewing, ironing and laundries were also part of the training. It is supposed that the boys were included either as a way of producing husbands that would participate in household chores or as a hedge against “who’d want them?” One baking exercise involved Barb and Paul baking a cake with a spatula still in it, and another recipe for crumb cake that more than lived up to its name. Cooking experiments were always graciously received regardless of its outcome. Adele did also experiment with new and different recipes and techniques. Notable was the experiment with Chicken Spanish cooked in a pressure cooker. The result of opening the cooker too soon was an improvised meal and a paint job to the kitchen ceiling.

Grocery shopping for the Johnson family was also an occasion for family activity. Adele rarely went alone, taking one or more of the children. The job of the children was to take part of the grocery list and fill a cart. It was not unusual for a week’s groceries in the late fifties (at the peak population of the Johnson household) to take upwards of 10 carts. It was said that the Martin Brothers would put on extra checkers just for Adele.

Food was an important element of daily family life and the family meal an important time. Herb and Adele were a “mixed marriage.” Herb was Protestant and Adele Catholic. Herb was not fond of fish and tuna casseroles and such served each Friday as was the catholic custom not to his taste. The older siblings grew up with more sea foods than many of their acquaintances. Shrimp, scallops and even lobster was served often. When asked Herb would reply “If I gotta be a mackerel snapper, I might as well enjoy myself.”

Christmas afforded some of the best memories for the children. The house was always decorated and the children participated in its decoration. Early on, the two older boys were taught the fine art of filling in a tree. A tree, taller than needed was bought and cut to proper height. The spare branches were then cut down, ends whittled and drilled into bare spots in the tree. There are no memories of lights that didn’t work because Herb never bought the “one lite out, all lights out” kind of light string. A tree was brought into the house with great ceremony and the entire evening (or day if it was a weekend) was spent laying out the light strings (Herb’s job until the boys got old enough) and unpacking the ornaments, which were spread out so that they could be hung without duplication. The final trimming was done with tinsel, a piece of aluminum foil about 12" long and 1/8 wide. The tinsel was stored in a shoe box and had to be separated out before it could be hung. A pack or two of new tinsel was always needed. When the tree was taken down (to serve as a bird feeder in the back yard) the tinsel had be taken off as it had been applied, one strand at a time, wrapped around a piece of cardboard and stored in the shoe box. Christmas gifts were purchased starting sometimes in the summer from mail order. Whenever gifts were bought, they were duly recorded in a ledger with what is was, how much it was and who the recipient was. The gifts were then locked in a closet somewhere in the house. Whatever closet served as Santa’s safe, needless to say, was an object of intense interest. It was a sign of coming of age when a child was allowed to participate in the wrapping of presents. This was, of course, accompanied by stern warnings not to reveal the source of Santa’s gifts to younger siblings. As all the children came of age, Santa was replaced with “The Committee” One Christmas, Paul was given a set of tools which went unwrapped because they were needed in the assembly of tricycles, bikes and other gifts which required “Tab A into Slot B.”

While certain rituals were observed throughout the years, others were tried, like the custom of the mother and children parading to the master bedroom with a lantern and singing to awaken the father so that gift unwrapping could begin. This lasted exactly one year. Midnight mass became a part of the regular celebration as each of the children participated in either choir or as a mass server. When the family returned it was a custom to celebrate with a glass of Mogan David wine. One Christmas eve, the family (minus Herb) returned home after midnight mass to find that several days of baking cookies had been wiped out by Herb entertaining Don Hoerl (the family lawyer) Dick Paul (Scout executive), Roy LaMere (news director for the local radio station,) Tony Knott (insurance agent) and Ernie Collier (Jewel Tea man and oldest friend).

Not all Christmas’ went without incident. Carol awoke early on Christmas Morn and woke her parents with the news that the tree had fallen over. The tree actually fell twice and after the second time was securely fastened by wire to either the drape rods if it was by the window or nails fastened to the mirror frame. One Christmas the older boys were given a wind up train set. Setting up track they watched as the train sped in its circle. One bridge and tunnel came with the set, however youngest sister (at the time) Carol was recruited to form yet another bridge. She was not yet potty trained and diaper less. The reader may infer what happened and speculate who cleaned up.

When Herb and Adele moved into the house, they were a minority since they were a “young couple” there were several other “young” families including the Kleinheinzes across the street and the McGinns who lived in a house that had been built by Betty McGinn’s father. The remaining homes were occupied by couples whose children were grown. The impact of young children was not always positive. Dr Heaton, a dentist who shared a back yard with the Johnson’s did not always appreciate young observers in his very large and elaborate garden. Mrs. Feckhelm (sp) also rued the day the older boys got a BB gun. There is the story that the police once came to the house to confront Adele about one of her son’s use of a BB gun - several years after the youngest boy had gone to college. It is speculated that the police had had so many complaints about holes in windows that they just assumed. David once commented that he learned the fine art of window glazing because of the BB gun. The lot the house stands on is small, but many efforts were made to maximize the effect of a green lawn and beautiful plantings. This effort was actually accomplished as the children grew up. Early in their residency, Herb was working on the front lawn, planting grass and roping off the areas. This was observed for some time by Dr. Hipke, retired co-founder of the Marshfield Clinic as he walked to work. He stopped for a few minutes, watched and then tapped his walking stick to attract attention. “Mr. Johnson,” he said, “It is my experience that you cannot grow a good lawn and good children at the same time.”