Once Upon a Time . . . on a
little farm near Lincoln, Illinois, a little girl played day after day with her
baby dolls. I loved babies for as long
as I can remember. Every September 8th,
my birthday, I received a doll and every Christmas I wanted dolls. When I was 12, my parents, Helen and Nelson
Betzelberger, told me that I was getting too big for dolls. They didn’t know that you are NEVER too big
for dolls and I still play with them—every single day.
My grandparents lived on an adjoining farm. Memories of my first 5 years are of walking
down 
our Ľ mile lane to
get the mail and walk to Grandmas house; laying on a blanket in the yard with
my dolls to imagine animals and shapes out of the cloud; sitting in the grass
making ballerinas out of the Hollyhocks; laying in front of the radio listening
to “The Lone Ranger”, and going to New Holland, Il to my other Grandma’s every
Saturday night. I had a wonderful time
with all of my cousins who also went to Grandmas every Saturday night. They had free shows, outside, right next to
my Grandpa’s John Deere Store and we would sit on blankets with all of the
other townspeople watching the movies.
My favorite was “Ma and Pa Kettle”.
A REAL important day to me was the day we got a bathroom in our house. I
was four years old. We also got a new
kitchen that day that had running water.
I was born in 1945. Some of the
neighbors already had those conveniences, but we didn’t at our house.
Right
after my 5th birthday we moved to my grandparents house and Grandpa semi-retired
and moved to town. He still came to our
house daily to help with the farming. I
didn’t get to see Grandma as much—always on Sundays though, since we attended
Church right across the street from their new house.
Chapter two
I
have wonderful memories of my childhood. My brother, Ron is two years
older than I am. We 
attended a one-room country
school that was 1 1/2 miles down the road from our house. Often times we
walked to school and when I got a little older I used to sometimes ride my pony.
I look back now and realize what a wonderful opportunity it was for me to
attend this school. There was only one other boy in my class the entire 8
years. The most total enrollment in the entire school was 19. We
had one teacher for 7 years. My eighth grade year, which was the last
year the school was open, I had a new teacher. There were only a few
girls in the school and they were either much older or much younger than I was
so most of my play time was spent playing softball, basketball or cowboys.
We had lots of fun with our ponies and cowboy hats. When I was at home my
time was spent playing with my dolls and begging my parents for a real baby to
play with . . . . .
Chapter three
I started taking piano
lessons when I was 5 years old. These lessons continued throughout High
School. I also played the accordion during my Grade School years. I
was in 4-H Club and raised Black Poland China Hogs. I enjoyed showing
these at the County and State Fairs. My daily prayers were answered when my parents
announced that I was going to get a real baby to play with. I was
absolutely ecstatic!!!! I was on cloud nine waiting for this
"real" baby to arrive. I was nine years old when my little
brother Scott was born. This baby was in my arms constantly. I am
sure he was glad when I had to go to school so he could get some rest! He
was definitely my real live doll baby. I even insisted that he sleep in
my room. I now think back and realize how lucky my Mom must have felt
that she had a built in "nanny" for the baby.