Earl Madden

I introduced my father, Earl Madden, yesterday.  He was an amazing man.  He grew up on a dairy farm in El Dora, Iowa.  He told me many stories about playing baseball with the children of migrant farm workers, kind of like "The Field of Dreams", but not exactly.

He told me that his mother, Catherine Madden, believed that children were created to be part of the farm workforce.  He said he was treated like a slave by his own family.  He was expected to work from sun-up until the darkness of night.School was discouraged.


So, he vowed, as a child, to provide a better life for his children and he did. 
When I was growing up inDaly City, California, we didn't own a car, but we did attend Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School.  My brother, John, my sister, Mary Delores, and I had the best education vailable  the time.  The Madden children were never used as slaves.  My dad thought it was child abuse.

More tomorrow.....