Excerpt from Citizens of Campbell:

If Earl Johansen had a nickel for every time he and Nearly Kelly got into trouble, he'd be living in one of those big, white, fancy houses instead of this tiny, pea-green, post-war box. He would be sitting at a large, round, maple table every morning. His steaming coffee would cool from the breeze moving the window curtains as if a tiny ghost were exhaling. The soft, sweet wind would carry the aroma of freshly mown grass and the sound of melodic bird song. In reality, the stench of the Karman's chicken-processing plant—the main employer in Campbell, Iowa—permeated as he heard his neighbor Al hacking and wheezing while trying to start his car.

Earl and Nearly weren't getting into too much trouble these days. They hadn't in a good long time.

Campbell was Earl's home, and most days he guessed he was fine with that. He lived on Social Security and what money he had saved from years of diligent work as a janitor at the Teachers Credit Union and Campbell Savings and Trust. He had a small garden and a couple of window boxes. This year they held geraniums and impatiens he bought at the grocery store. These were attractive plants even when crowded together in tiny, black plastic containers on wide metal shelves outside the Hy-Vee. Earl's grandmother always told him that flowers could spruce up even the most tired-looking, dilapidated houses on the block.

To pay off their father's various debts after he died, Earl and his younger brother, Mitchell, sold the family home. It seemed that every time their father raised his hand to them, or came stumbling back in the dark, another section of paint would peel, another piece of wood would begin to rot. Earl enjoyed working with his hands and was knowledgeable about basic construction, plumbing and electrical work. Mitchell did some painting and contributed money to the effort. When they finished and the for-sale sign went up, the house was in better condition than it had ever been when they lived in it.

Soon after the war, a year before their father passed, their mother, Anna, ran off with Pastor Underwood, causing a scandal that this small town was still talking about. Anna had a flair for the dramatic and her exit from their lives, though unexpected, was done in true soap opera fashion, complete with a tear-stained note to her boys.