Arneal looks back at a century of life in North Bendby Nathan Arneal Maxine Arneal’s first memory was bouncing along in a horse-drawn wagon as her dad, Harold Mehaffey, yelled at her to sit down.
It was 1927. She was three. The wagon was loaded with the family’s possessions as they moved out of a house three miles north of North Bend. Maxine was born in that house on July 25, 1923, delivered by Dr. Andrew Harvey. A century later, Maxine Arneal is still going strong and celebrating her 100th birthday this week with a family gathering. She has lived in an assisted living facility in Beatrice since 2011, but her North Bend roots run deep. Last week she sat down with a reporter from the Eagle – her grandson – and shared 100 years worth of memories. That 1927 move in the back of the wagon took her family, including parents Harold and Ruth Mehaffey and older (by a year) brother Jack, to a house just south of Woodland Cemetery, on the place where Ralph Diffey now lives. A few years later, she and Jack rode ponies into town for school. At the time all grades were in the same three-story brick school building, which stood where the west wing of the elementary school now stands. During the school day they left their ponies in the barn of their Grandpa Robert Mehaffey’s house in town, a couple blocks southwest of the school. “The bell would usually be ringing when we took our ponies and left them there,” Arneal said, “and then we’d have to run to get to the school.” She remembers her pony, Trixie, shedding and getting hair all over her slacks. Of course, girls didn’t wear slacks to school, so she had to change into a skirt in the barn before walking – or running – over to the school. “We were usually kind of late,” she recalled. At school, she palled around with friends Charlotte Mines and Roberta Renter. “They’ve all passed on now, of course,” Arneal said. “I’m the only one living in my high school or college (classes).” Saturday nights were a big thing in North Bend in the ‘30s. The Mehaffeys and many other farmers took cream, eggs and other produce into town to trade for groceries at Watts’ store. At the time, Main Street was paved with bricks while most North Bend streets were still dirt or gravel. “We’d park our car and watch the people go by,” Arneal said. In junior high she started riding her pony to her neighbor’s house to the south (where Carol Clement now lives) where she took piano lessons from Lillian Diffey. Her mother promised to get her a piano at home if she promised to practice. “They never had to tell me to practice because I loved it from the beginning,” Arneal said. Music would become a major theme in her life. She wanted to go to college to be a music teacher, if her parents would let her. Times were tough. The United States was climbing out of the Great Depression as Maxine Mehaffey graduated from North Bend High School in 1941. “It was rough,” Arneal said. “Mother and Dad took their cream and everything to sell in Omaha just to make a living.” As tight as things were, Ruth Mehaffey was determined that her children would get a college education. Read the full story in the print or e-edition. <<Back to the front page |
