Work Hard, Be Honest by Mike Ransom (2024)
Pages: 116, Editing: Marjorie Toensing, Printing: Amazon Kindle Direct

To purchase on Amazon: LINK

This book is a tribute to James Harvey and Mildred Carol Ransom, my grandpa and grandma. They were born in the late 1800s, married in 1919, and farmed until 1966 in Clear Lake, Iowa. The book's genesis was a two-hour conversation with them that I tape-recorded at their home in 1976. I completed the book in 1997 and gave copies to family and friends. I intended it to be my gift to Grandpa and Grandma as a way to keep memories of such wonderful people alive, but it turned out to be their gift to me. My writing the book and seeing the joy produced from it prompted me to begin a career as a memoirist and personal/company historian that I still pursue today.
This year, in 2024, I decided to make a second edition of the book available to a wider audience. My dad wrote a book for our son, Ben, that contained stories of his growing up on the farm. He noted that one of the most important things he learned from his father was to work hard and be honest. I chose that to be the title for this edition. He also wrote that one of the most important things he learned from his mother was to be kind and gentle.
I loved visiting Grandpa and Grandma—on their farm, at the home they built in town, and during their last years at the IOOF (rest) home. We would talk (rather, they would talk, and I would ask questions and listen) for hour upon hour. I never tired of stories they would tell about people, crops, weather, early years in Clear Lake, and family.
I wrote this book to keep the memories of Grandpa and Grandma alive. Grandma died in 1980, Grandpa in 1985. I want my son Ben, his children, and their children to dust this book off and read it now and then, to relive what life was like for James and Mildred. It won’t feel the same to Ben or other readers as it does to me. But if this book can help carry the memories of Grandma and Grandpa from the distant past into the distant future, my time spent creating it has been worthwhile.

Mike Ransom