Herb Plambeck interview about journalism career, March 24, 1998

Section 1: Q: We are ready on all fronts. First of all, could you just tell us a little bit about...let's start with your newspaper days. I know that you actually spent a little bit of time in a newspaper. Do you want to talk about that and then how you made the switch from newspapers to the radio. A: I will be glad to. As for the newspaper aspect, that came in this manner. I was a county 4-H leader. I was not able to go to high school because of the fact that I was in the depression-era time. My father needed a hired man. He only had a boy, but he considered me a hired man. So, I didn't get to go to high school. But the 4-H Clubs gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet people, learn things, do things, including becoming a county leader. And, as a county leader, I wanted my boys to be recognized. So, I submitted, in my crude way, information about my boys, things that I thought might be interesting, to the editor. He liked it. It was pretty bad. It was really pretty bad because my journalism has been limited to two or three or four collegiate courses, but as a non-collegiate student. So, you know they weren't the big stuff. Well anyway, he called me and he said, "Herb, I like what you are doing. I like what you are writing. I would like to have you be our farm editor." This was the Davenport Democrat, which is now, of course, a part of...become the Quad City Times. Anyway, I was shocked. I didn't know what to think. But, I discussed it with my father who, of course, knew that he would lose part of me as a hired man, a hired boy, for doing chores. He thought I ought to try that. I tried it with many misgivings to begin with. It took me about three days at the most to realize that, "This is for me. This is what I want to do. This is what I can do, apparently." Because he used my material as I wrote it. It was really pretty bad, but people liked it. That is how I got into the newspaper game. I was with him for some time, a couple of years. You also asked me about the transition. If you are ready for me to give you that answer, I will tell you what the transition was. I was in Scott County where I was serving as 4-H county leader, as I have done. I had also been asked by the state people to become a state leader even though I didn't have the education that was necessary. I became an extension agent, a club agent they called them in those days, for Scott County. I loved that. This was working with these boys and forming clubs, getting them involved in their projects, and they had many projects. I think you probably know dairy cattle, beef cattle, hogs, corn. Whatever there was. I even started a pheasant raising club. Can you imagine that? Raising pheasants. We didn't have many pheasants in Iowa at that time. So, somebody in the conservation department thought maybe somebody ought to try to raise pheasants and, I guess, we volunteered. This was a lot of fun. I don't want to dwell on it, but just to give you an idea of how wide a range we had in our projects, I eventually had over six hundred boys with me. It was quite a project. I loved it, but this newspaper thing was even better. One day, a letter came to me at the Davenport paper. I didn't even bother with it to begin with. It was there and I didn't open it. I loved my work. I just loved to be with the people that I was working with. That's just not boys. This is everybody, now. I am dealing with everybody. And this letter was from a man named H.R.Gross who was, at that time, the news director at WHO. The letter simply said, "You have been highly recommended by Harry Lynn and some other people to be our farm director at WHO. I will be looking forward to your coming in and checking with me tomorrow or this week." I had a very sweet girlfriend at home at that time, she was a farm girl from a fine family, and I wasn't at all interested in leaving Scott County. I really wasn't. Well, I talked to her about it and she thought maybe I should look into this. My father, I remember I was carrying corn to the cattle, we were feeding cattle, I was carrying corn - I had it on my shoulder and he had his on his shoulder - and he put the basket of corn down on the post and he said, "Well, aren't you going to take that job?" Well, I certainly wasn't prepared to tell him right then that I was going to take it. But, I said, "I will go and look at it." The next day I took this girlfriend of mine and we went to Des Moines. On the way, I stopped at Cedar Rapids to talk with Ray Anderson who was the farm editor for the Cedar Rapids paper and he thought I should look into this. Radio might have a possibility. It might be something good. I went to J. S. Russell in Des Moines. He said, "yeah. That is quite a station. That is the biggest station in Iowa. That is one of the biggest stations in the country. If you can get that job, take it." So I went and I went to Mr. Gross. I don't think any of you knew Mr. Gross because this is a long time ago, but he was a gruff person. And when I came in, "You are Herb Plambeck. Hello. We are thinking about starting a farm department. There isn't anything like that in the country, but we are thinking about doing that. And you are the man we think we want." Well, I had to know a little bit about what he had in mind. I could get along with that fairly well. But finally, he never said anything about compensation. So, finally, I did ask the question. I said, "What can I expect to be paid here?" I was, at that time, doing a hundred and sixty a month for the Davenport paper. That is pretty good pay. "Oh," he said, "we have given that considerable thought. We are prepared to pay you a hundred and twenty dollars a month." I said, "Mr. Gross, thank you, but I have to make a telephone call." I went right downstairs and asked for a phone, called the Davenport editor, Mr. Seperle, and said, "Sep, is my job still open?" "Yeah," he said, "what is the matter?" "These clowns are offering me a hundred and twenty a month and I am home with Frances (my sweetheart) and I am getting board and room at home. Here, I can't begin to think of the..." "Wait a minute," he said, "wait a minute. I have always wanted a Des Moines correspondent. You are just the man I want. I will pay you fifteen dollars a week, sixty dollars a month, if you will stay there and you will send me one story, two stories a week, three stories a week, and do your other work." I went to my girlfriend and she said, "I think you ought to take it. This may have possibilities." Then I went back upstairs. I said, "Mr. Gross, I guess I will consider doing it. When do I have to report?" "Tomorrow." Everything is just hitting me like a ton of rocks. Tomorrow! I have got a girl with me. He didn't know that. I have got a girl with me and I have got to get her home and I have got to put her up here tonight because there is no train until tomorrow morning. I was in trouble. Those were the days when a guy like me didn't sleep in the same bed with his girlfriend. Well, I managed to get her into a room at the best hotel in Des Moines, five dollars a night, and I got another room, the Brown Hotel, three dollars a night. OK. We did it. I got on the air - I mis-spoke. He said, "I want you tomorrow and I want you on the air the next morning," which meant that tomorrow I had to get stuff in. I worked. I had been a Boone County agent, so I went up there and got myself some stories. I went to the State Fair and got some stories. And that night, she stayed over a night, she had the romantic experience of listening to my first broadcast plans for the next morning. That is how I got into radio. And when I left that first day, I was sick because it just was so different for me from writing and being at home. I had this obligation of taking care of...meeting expenses. But, in about four days, I knew I had what I needed. Because it was a great station and letters and cards were coming in. "We are so glad to hear you have got a farm director." "We are glad to hear Herb. We know who he is." And so forth and so on. Well, for a person's ego, that is pretty good. Well, I have taken twenty minutes to answer your question which should have been answered in two minutes. Q: What year was that, Herb? A: 1936. August 26. The State Fair was still on. That is when it was. It was sixty-two years ago and I am still trying to get it right. I am still on the radio and I am still trying to get it right. -- <br><br> Section 2: Q: One of the things that you did during your days in radio, and I want to come back and talk more about some of the farm things, but you were a correspondent during World War II. Could you talk a little bit about that? A: Yes. How many minutes will you give me? Q: However many you want. A: World War II is, without question, certainly one of the two or three most significant periods of my life for a number of reasons. Number one - it was a very important period in everyone's life. Nazism had taken over and we all felt pretty much the same way. On the other side, the Japs were doing the same thing and it was terrible. But, I had brother-in-laws and close friends who were going into the Army, one after the other. Of course, I was Farm Director at WHO and poor Mr. Mayland was losing one man after the other to the Army and he still had me. He talked with me sincerely about trying to get an arrangement where I could stay because I was essential, according to him. Not for me. I wanted to get in the Army. Although this is nothing to brag about, seven times I applied to get in the Army, seven times I went to the registration place, and seven times I was turned down. Turned down because there is a little spot on one of my lungs, it is probably no bigger than a quarter, that had been put there by a tuberculin cow we evidently had. And they said, "Herb, if you should be torpedoed on one of our liners up in the North Atlantic and you get down there into the ocean, you wouldn't last five minutes." I still remember my answer. I said, "Neither would anybody else." But that didn't make any difference. Finally, I got my draft board chairman to get me in the Army. He went out, he actually went with me, actually went with me, and he pleaded with them to accept me. So, they accepted me that particular moment. But the next day, they told me they couldn't use me. So, I was in the Army one day. I had to swallow my...it was tough. I really believe it was the toughest time in my life because I was a 4-F. I was a guy that wasn't good enough for the Army. If I had gotten in the Army, I would have probably spent most of my time handing out uniforms because I was, by that time, about twenty-six years old. I wasn't too good gun fodder anyway. Furthermore, I had had no background whatsoever. So, I would have probably handed out uniforms. I was sick. But along comes one of my fraternity brothers from England. He comes to Des Moines and calls and says, "Herb, I would like to visit with you." Fine, great. A guy over there. He can tell me something about what is going on in the London Blitz and stuff like that. So, we met at a restaurant at a hotel. Before the salad bar had been finished, in fact I am not even sure that I had had a bite, I had to confess to him that I had failed the Army. I remember him yet. He backed his chair up. "You mean to tell me you want to get into this goddam war?" I said, "Yes, I do." Oh, boy, I think it took at least thirty seconds. He finally said, "I can't get you in the war. But I can get you to where the war is at." I said, "How and when?" "Well," he said, "you will have to give me a week. I am going back tomorrow. You will hear from me within a week." Well, in the meantime, I had gone into the Iowa Guard where, believe it or not, we practiced with wooden guns. That was our training for the big battle. Wooden guns. And a lot of other things. What happened, of course, was young fellows who knew they would be drafted wanted to get some training. Old men who were too old to get in the Army wanted to get in. I was kind of in between. But I talked to my boss and he said, "Yeah. You go ahead." So, I was out there on what we called, well, I won't say what we called them, but I was out there and here comes a cable from England from this man. He said, "We would like to have you as one of five correspondents to observe agriculture while Britain is under the gun." Holy smokes! I could get over where the war was, even though I couldn't be there. I got over and I could make a long story out of that because our plane had trouble getting over. But, got there, and then I got into southern Ireland and I got thrown, nearly got thrown down the steps, because the agricultural man there had no use for Americans. Because southern Ireland wasn't on the right side. I got to London and the next day I went to the headquarters, General Eisenhower's headquarters, and I wanted to see as much as I could, so they gave me a guide. He took me around. We hadn't gone very far and along comes a fellow in a uniform and on his left arm, he has War Correspondent. So, I said to my guide, "What is that?" "That is a war correspondent." "What does he do?" "He goes and talks with the troops." "How do you get to be a war correspondent?" "I suppose his boss sent him over here. I don't know." "Where do you find out about war correspondents?" "Back there." "I would like to go back there." I went right back. I hadn't seen very much, but I went right back. London is a big place and when the Supreme Headquarters is in London, there is a lot of things to see. I never saw any of it. I went right back. And the guy said, "Well, if you can get your boss to approve it, we can accredit you as a war correspondent and you can get out with the troops." It was the Eighth Air Force. "And do the other things you want to do." Boy, did I get a cable off to my boss. And he sent a cable right back. It was over the weekend, but I got the cable on Monday morning in which he said, "Approve your application to be an accredited war correspondent, but need you back in three months." Three months. Boy, that was better than nothing. And I became a war correspondent with the Eighth Air Force. I actually flew in B-17's. I actually, one day, flew a B-17. I didn't realize my pilot had left his seat. I looked over there and he wasn't there and I had this thing in my hand and there were eight guys on the plane. I pretty nearly died. I just held that. I can still feel that wheel. And then a voice behind me, he said, "You are doing fine, Herb. Take it to the left." [Moves hand to the left.] "Great. Now straighten out." "OK." "Now take it to the right." [Moves hand to the right.] "Take it to the right." "Take it up." I pulled it back a little bit and up she went. Then he said, "Do you want to land it?" I said, "No." That is my story. You asked a question. You got a long answer. And then, later on, of course, I did get back. And when I got back, it is just utterly unbelievable, the number of people that wanted to hear a fellow who had been over there during the Blitz. And I was there during the bombing of Britain, believe me. I know what I was talking about. I was there when the farmers, or the farm women, were trying to get production. I had been with the Air Force. I had flown with them. When I got back, you just can't believe the number of appeals. I spoke morning, breakfasts, noon, night, and I was still carrying on a broadcast at the same time. It was a terrific time. But it was a marvelous time. I think I spoke two hundred and some times in a year and then I became...then I was sent over as a war correspondent, to the real thing. When I say the real thing, that would take hours to tell you what the real thing is. I was with Patton, the most profane man that ever existed. A good general, but a man who you couldn't ever learn to like because of his profanity and also his white trousers, you know white trousers, and a vest with all the medals here on it. And his cap with the four stars. Two silver pistols here. Boy. "And you better get your boots shined before you come here to our press conference." That is what he told us. That is what we were told. We had to get our boots shined before we could come to his press conference. After we had been out with a tank, or on a tank, all day long. Or with the troops out on the...artillery people shooting the guns. Or the infantry. All day. Dirty. Terribly messy. We didn't want to shine our shoes, but we had to to get to his press conference. And we had to be at the press conference. -- <br><br> Section 3: Q: Tell me about Dachau. A: Well, you asked me about Dachau. That is, without question, the most horrible thing I have ever experienced, ever seen. It will be my last memory when I say my last good-by because we...this is toward the end of the war. By that time, I had become very well acquainted with the Associated Press, the United Press, and the International News Service correspondents. In fact, we traveled together. We worked together. I had been there about six months with the troops. We had gone through a lot of things. Crossing the Rhine and all of that sort of thing. And one day, toward the end, the man from the Associated Press came to me and asked the United Press representative and me if we would care to go to Dachau because he thought it was going to be liberated that night or the next day. Of course, I wanted to go. We went. We got to the outskirts of the city of Dachau, which was, as you know, the pioneer concentration camp that Hitler and his crew had established. Where they conducted all kinds of terrible experiments and had some thirty thousand, thirty-two thousand, people enslaved and imprisoned. We got to the outside of that area, this was in the morning. We had started very early in the morning. We got there from our press camp. Outside was a railroad yards. There was a train there that was thirty-nine open boxcars on the track. As we got to the boxcars, we saw a fellow go up, climb up, to look in the boxcar and he came down. He was white. He was stunned. Well, it must be something there. I went up, I was the first of the three to go up, and looked down on the boxcar. This one boxcar. And in this boxcar lay approximately, I don't know, but I would guess it was somewhere between fifty and a hundred people, most of them naked or half naked. Some of them wearing their prison garb, parts of it. All of them dead. Terrible, ghastly looking figures. This was true of every one of the thirty-nine boxcars. Every single one. There was one person living. They got him into a jeep, one of our jeeps, and on the way to the hospital, he was killed because the jeep had an accident. We went in to Dachau, then, after seeing this. We were somewhat prepared. The next thing was probably even more brutal because, as we managed to get into a door or a gate, into Dachau itself, the first thing we saw was the bodies of guards who had been slaughtered by the prisoners who had just been released. And in some cases, there were no heads left. In other cases, they were so totally bludgeoned that...it was pretty rough. At least twenty-five of them. And some of them had been thrown into a small stream that was a part of the enclosure. There was a big wall around the enclosure. It was a part of the enclosure. And I can truthfully say I have seen a stream run red with blood, because it did. We went from there and we hadn't gone very far when some of the prisoners that had just escaped saw...there were three of us correspondents who were being escorted by a group, I don't know if you know what a V-wedge is, but a V-wedge is like this with one soldier here with a gun and a bayonet and then another one here and all the way down the line and we were inside so we were protected, we thought. But we weren't protected because these prisoners came behind the V-wedge and came in and I don't suppose I have ever been closer to death than I was at that time because they grabbed us. They just choked us. It was rough before they got more troops there to take them off. Next we went to a building where there was a big, huge wooden door. We wondered what was in this building. I was the first one to get a hold of that iron door closing, I was the first one to get it open, and I opened it and from that room came a stench that drove us back, drove me back, about six feet. I guess the others probably the same. In that room were row upon row of the bodies ready to be put in the gas furnaces. Up to ten high. Virtually all of them emaciated. Terribly, terribly thin. Some of them worse than that. But one row after the other. All the way through the entire building. You didn't stay there very long because nobody could stand that very long. Then we went to the furnaces themselves. There were eight furnaces. Sort of a circular thing. They were still warm. We could feel them. They weren't in use at the time. Of course, our troops had stopped that. But we went to the back where the ashes came out. This is longer than this room. And there were the little boxes, small boxes, into which ashes were put to be sent back to relatives. You can imagine what condition we were in by that time. Then we went to the barracks where some thirty thousand people had once been imprisoned. They were virtually empty except for those who could no longer navigate. And there were quite a few of those. I speak German. I saw a fellow laying there. He was obviously shaking. I had a feeling that he wanted a cigarette. I don't smoke but, in the Army as a war correspondent, you are given rations which include cigarettes. I got one out and gave it to him. Lit it for him and got it up to his mouth. He smoked it. The smoke drew from it. I could see he was dying. I spoke a few words in German to him. He tried to answer and couldn't answer. This was one. There were many others like that. From there, we probably did some other things. I can't even remember them. But, we got back into the jeep and the three of us, in the twenty or thirty mile trip back to camp, to think about the story we were going to write or speak, in my case it was speaking because I was working with RCA and it was always broadcasting, thinking what we would say. We three did not speak one word to each other the whole way. Couldn't. So this is the memory I will keep until my last breath. You asked for this. Q: Herb, what lessons did you learn from that about humanity? A: Obviously, it was hard to believe that such a thing could happen where some human beings were doing this to other human beings. And this was only one of twenty-some concentration camps. They said that Auschwitz and some other places were even worse. If they were worse, I am glad I wasn't there. I don't know whether I can answer your question, but it certainly made me wonder what in the word can people like Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo, what must they be thinking about to condone this kind of a thing. And, believe me, they condoned it. Six million in Europe alone died this way. I don't know if I learned any lessons, but I guess I learned pretty convincingly that this thing had to be stopped. And, of course, in time, our troops stopped it. -- <br><br> Section 4: Q: We are going to go on now and talk about, you got into television for a while. Tell me about that transition. What was that like? A: This was early on in the days of television. It has been quite a while ago, frankly. It was quite a transition. I was still a radio farm broadcaster. I was director of the station. I think I had four or five assistants at the time. In the noon period, at twelve o'clock, I would start the radio broadcast at twelve o'clock and after a while, after I had done a certain amount, maybe the weather and something else important, the main story, I would turn it over to one of my assistants. In the meantime, another assistant upstairs, one floor higher, was introducing our television program. Then, after four or five minutes, I would get up there and I would be the star on the television show, I am using that word "star" loosely, and would do whatever I had to do on television. Then I would duck out about three minutes before the end of the television show, these were fifteen minute shows, and I would go down and close out my radio show. Then, at 12:15, we had another radio show and I would start that one. See, I was down in the radio studio. Then I would go back up and do another television and then down and finish up the radio show. Our television shows were an experiment, a new thing. Our radio shows were very well established by that time and quite popular, it seemed. So, I was on both of these. Then, of course, came the news downstairs. Then I would get fifteen minutes of rest and then I would do another radio show at 12:45 for another fifteen minutes. These were different radio shows. And you know today, the different television shows by a long ways. We only had a commercial in the center of the show. And that was done by an announcer. Up to a certain point it was done by an announcer. So, there were little breather times in there, but it was a quite a difficult thing. Now I think you probably really want to know what it was like. Well, it was crude. We were trying our best. We had cameras that would take instant pictures, you know, and we would get them and somebody else would arrange them on the screen. We would talk about them. Occasionally, we had a movie, of course. But, something that had been done earlier somewhere. It was so different and it was so crude. And, also, you had to dress up, you know. You had to try to be as presentable as possible. I, frankly, did not like television. I was in it three years and did my best. Maybe I could have lasted if I would have gotten full-blown into television. But I liked radio. Maybe you don't agree. But I liked radio because radio was reaching my people. I was the farm director. Every single family on a farm in the state of Iowa had a radio set. They may not all be listening to me, but they had a radio set. But, back in those days, nowheres near everybody had a television set. So, I really would reach a lot more people by radio. In fact, in my book, there is a page in there which tells that on one single day I received 4255 cards and letters, in one day, in response to an offer that had been made on our show from forty-four states. Well, television didn't reach that far either. So, frankly, I am not sorry that I stayed in radio and I am still in it and still doing three broadcasts a week most weeks. Q: Who are you doing the broadcasts for now and what types of stories do you do on these broadcasts? A: Well, of course, they are very different than what I used to do. It used to be whatever was the Number One news story. Whatever was the Number One question or problem in agriculture. That would be tops. Today, that is no longer my problem. My wife and I do a garden program every Saturday morning on a station in Des Moines, KRNT, which has an excellent audience and we get wonderful response on that program. Because both of us are gardeners. She had gardened literally all her life. I have gardened for over eighty years. Beginning when I was nine years old. Gardening is a hobby. It's recreation. It's something that I like, and a lot of other people do, too. So, we talk about gardening things. Then there is WMT at Cedar Rapids has me on every Saturday on a farm feature. It will certainly not be whatever the main farm story was of the week. It might be an interview. It might be a feature. It might be an editorial on my part. I did an editorial the other day about family farms versus the factory farms. I have some strong feelings on that. And the other feature is on WHO where I have the opportunity any time that I have something, I will call them up and tell them, "If you want something, I can be with you sometime next week." And they have always accepted so far, at least. Now, I don't push that. One or two a month is all I want to do of that. -- <br><br> Section 5: Q: I have a question about commercials. You mentioned the commercial in television. I know you have a little episode you wrote about in your book. You know exactly what I am going to ask you. It is about reading a commercial on the air. Do you want to tell us about that? A: I think I know the one you are talking about. There was a company down in Kansas City that bought one of our radio shows. In the meantime, a number of things had happened. Among them, I had had to go to WHO and tell the folks that I could no longer be with them because they weren't paying me enough. Then they came up with the idea, "Well, we can't let you go. Maybe we can sweeten this up a little for you someway or another." I said, "I know how you can sweeten it up. You let me do the commercials. They will pay me to do the commercials." To make a long story short, we went to one commercial sponsor in Illinois and it took about two minutes and he was willing to pay me three hundred dollars a month, which was pretty good at that time. So, I said to my wife, "Let's go to Chicago and talk to another one. International Harvester." That took about ten minutes and we had another three hundred dollars a month. When we came back, some others found out I was doing it for International Harvester and DeKalb Agricultural Association and they wanted it, too. Finally, it got to be quite a...I was not very popular with the management at WHO because they had not done any of this. None of the news people or anyone else was doing commercials. But, suddenly, to keep me, they had to...and unwilling to pay me what I had to have, they let the commercial man do it. But when they did that, Jack [John D.] Shelley and everybody else said, "Hey, how about this?" So, it changed a lot of things. But, for me, it worked. And I would only take commercials that I believed in. Then they came up with this dress company. I had to talk about beautiful dresses. That didn't last very long. I think a week or less. Then there was another one that I had to use a word I didn't like at all. And it was in the commercial twelve times. I went to the boss and I said, "If you expect me to do that, you can forget about it. I am leaving today." He said, "What?" That was before I got into the commercial business itself. He said, "Well, you weren't supposed to do that. The announcer was the one." He didn't want to use the word either. Q: What was the word? A: You would think I would know, wouldn't you? Q: Women's unmentionables? A: No, it wasn't an unmentionable, but it was pretty degrading for a man to talk about this thing. Q: Don't worry about it. A: And, as I told him, I had a stroke in December and since then, some things don't come to me as fast as they did before. -- <br><br> Section 6: Q: Let's talk about some of the farm projects that you were involved in, and there have been many over the years. Tell me about how you got involved in some of them and why you felt it was important. A: Well, obviously, my main job was doing broadcasts which were of interest to agricultural people. That would include weather, markets, and farm news and other things, of course. Some general news. We always had headlines and that sort of thing. But there were other things that weren't being mentioned and other things that I thought should be considered. I am a great project guy. I told you earlier this morning about starting a pheasant raising project when I was a 4-H leader. When I became a farm broadcaster and was a voice on a fifty thousand watt station that was being heard all over the nation and in Canada and Mexico and other places, I just really felt I had some heavy responsibilities than just reporting markets or the weather. I came up with some projects. Some ideas. There were many different ones. I don't know that I could even recall them all. They are all in my book, I am sure, or most of them. But, I would do things like - what the women were doing. I would come up with some sort of a project of some kind. The biggest project that I undertook was starting plowing matches. Everybody, at that time, at that time, was using plows. Some people were using hand plows like I used to use them and some people were using four or five-bottom plows on tractors, but I knew about plowing matches up in Cherokee and a few other places. I said, "These are interesting things." And they were interesting to the people at that time. I said, "Why couldn't we do this on a bigger basis? Why couldn't we have a state plowing match and get the Cherokee and the people from Warren County and the people from other places?" And it just took off like that. Of course, this all went through the boss. And the boss, sometimes I wondered why he put up with me, but Mr. Mayland was, himself, formerly a farm boy from Minnesota and he really liked me. I would come in and I would say, :Mr. Mayland, I have something to suggest." "Oh, you do. Project number four thousand, one hundred and nine?" He always came up with something like that. I would tell him about it. "Well, maybe we should try that. What would it cost?" Stuff like that. And we tried it. The plowing match is probably the best example because we started that on a pretty limited basis. We started it at Mitchellville, Iowa, which is where our transmitter was located. It was our land right there. Eighty acres that we owned, so we could use that without offending or hurting anyone else. We started that in 1939. And, lo and behold, people wanted to compete. Six or seven thousand people wanted to see them compete. Mr. Mayland thought that was a pretty good idea. So, the next year, he or I suggested we try it again. We went to Boone County. That is where I had worked as a club agent and knew everybody, or knew a lot of people. A pretty good place to go. I don't know, we had twelve or fourteen thousand people come to that one. Again, it was quite a success. The next year, the third year, was the year before the war. We went Albia. They wanted us real badly down there. We went down there and we had over twenty thousand people come. By now, we had called it the Cornbelt Match. And a fellow from Missouri came up there and he really was interested in it. He said, "We can get you people from Missouri up here." Well, then came the war. We will skip these next five years. When the war ended, by that time, we already had the living history farm started and I was one of the founders of it. Got involved in that. And we went to the living history farms shortly after the war ended, about a month, and we had another match. We had some more people and honored some soldiers and things like that. By now, we realized we had a hot potato. So, the next year, we decided to call it a national match and invite other states. They responded and we had, oh goodness, we got the man, the head of the soil conservation work, because we were stressing conservation as well as straight-line plowing. We were including conservation plowing and other conservation things. We went down to Marion County and the chief of the Soil Conservation Service came out from Washington and made a wonderful talk. And, told us what a good job we were doing. By that time, we about forty or fifty thousand people come. Well, that led to even bigger things and to other states. Then we came back to Iowa in 1948. Harry Truman, President Truman, was our star that year. That is a funny story, too. Do you want to know how that happened? I had the idea that we might be able to get a president of the United States to come because it was obviously a good place for a president to do a political speech to a hundred thousand or so people. So, in 1948, one of my assistants and two other people went to Washington to have an interview with the president. Well, they arranged an interview. Ten minutes. Twelve minutes at the most. We did get in to the president. Well, he was an old farm boy and he had a couple of suckers with him there. He started telling about his experiences as a farm boy. Plowing and things like that. He talked for twelve minutes before we could ask one question. Our time was up. But, he told the person in charge of all of these interviews, all of these appointments, he said, "What is your question?" We told him. "Oh, no, no, no. I couldn't come. You wouldn't want me. You would have nothing but problems. Nothing but headaches." Well, we assured him we were prepared to do that. "No, there is no way." So, we went home and left it open. We went home and it was about three or four weeks before our match, which, of course, was scheduled and would go ahead anyway, comes this telegram from the president. It said, "The president has accepted your invitation." Oh, boy, from that time on...we learned he knew what he was talking about. Because, from that time on, I became a prisoner of the Secret Service. And remained a prisoner of the Secret Service. Because I was in charge of the plowing match, so I was the guy that...but it was wonderful. Harry Truman was everything that we could have hoped for. He gave the Republicans hell, and I am a Republican. And he just...some of us were very worried, very worried, about what he had said and how he had said it. But, after he was through with his first speech, with his scheduled speech, we had invited him to see some of the conservation work. So, we went out. I was on the left side of him and the soil conservation leader was on the right side of him. The three of us went to these things and a whole lot of other people behind us, of course, including the Secret Service. And, we would point out what we were doing in connection with this event that he had attended. At one point, a woman saw the president and us two from about fifteen or twenty feet on the other side. There were a whole lot of people there and she was in the front. And she had her camera. I could see, and so could the president, that she had it backwards and upside down. She was fumbling around, so nervous. And Mr. Truman put his hands out to the two of us and he said, "We will wait. Give her a chance. She will get it right." Then her husband said, "Turn that thing around." She eventually turned it around and got her picture, and we went on. That is the kind of a guy he was. He didn't need to do that. He didn't need to stop for a woman that had turned her camera around to get his picture. But, oh, he was impressed. He was impressed. And when we came back, somebody, I don't know who it was, somebody had decided that, another twenty-five thousand people had come who had not heard the speech, they ought to see the president. So, he was approached. He said, "Sure. Sure. Herb will do the interview." Me, do an interview with the president of the United States. No preparation. In front of a hundred thousand or some people. That was a bit of a challenge. But, I got up there and I started the interview and I found that it was going to be great. I can't repeat all the things he said, but he sure got that crowd laughing. He was tremendous as far as that part is concerned. Whether you liked him as a president or not is neither here nor there.