UNDER CONSTRUCTION

PLEASE ADD YOUR THOUGHTS, MEMORIES AND PHOTOS. 

 The 90's would be a decade of many changes for Phil,

January 20, 1990, Phil's dad, David, passed peacefully at home after his battle with cancer. After a few weeks Phil was moved in to one of Bethphage's group homes. It was located on Bellevue Boulevard and Phil was there about nine months while continuing to go to day services at ENCORE.

Phil seemed to get along pretty well at ENCORE based on what he said and the quarterly reports from ENCORE that Jim attended. It did seem that Phil out performed their expectations based on one quarterly report. The supervisor stated that Phil was not meeting his daily work quota of placing nuts on the bolts provided to him. Surprised at this, Jim asked for details. They explained that Phil would place all of the nuts on all of the bolts and then with nothing else to do, he would remove the nuts from the bolts. Jim pointed out that Phil was surpassing their work requirements and all they needed to do was watch and when Phil had completed his daily quota, remove the completed nuts and bolts and give him a new supply. This hadn't dawned on the staff and Phil was soon honored as the leading producer. 

In early 1991, Phil was moved to Bethphage's Ralston home and was there about two years. Due to a number of factors, in 1993, Jim started a search for an alternative. At Bethphage's suggestion, Potencia (Poteet) Mallory, a former employee of Bethphage was recommended. Poteet lived in old Bellevue just east of the old runway and had another gentleman under her care.

Poteet was a godsend to Phil and his family. Poteet had married a serviceman stationed in the Phillipines and they had then been transferred to Bellevue. After she lost her husband, she started working for Bethphage and decided that taking care of two gentlemen in her home would work best for her.

When Phil moved in, the house was small so Phil resided in the basement. Poteet usually had extended family visiting or residing at the house. Not long after Phil's arrival, they all moved to a bigger home in a Capehart development just two miles from the farm.

Over the next few years, Poteet's mother, sister and her new husband, Ivory joined the household. Phil became a family member and since much of his daytime hours were spent in the family room with Poteet's mom watching Phillipino TV shows, Phil became able to speak and understand, the Tagalog language. 

Early 1980 Phil fell and broke his other hip.

In summer of 1980, Jim and Becky had thier first child, Betsy. This was the first niece that Phil could see regularly and as Betsy grew up, her relationship with Uncle Phil became very special and meaningful to both of them.

The spring of 1983, Jim, Becky and Betsy moved from Papillion to Becky's family farm where they had purchased the homestead. With grass now at both farms the cows and calves were grazed at both places in the summer and fall and then taken to Jim & Becky's for the winter and calving in the spring. This fulfilled on of Phil's most common demands, "THOSE COWS HAVE GOT TO GO".

On April 12,1987, Palm Sunday, as Kitzi was preparing for a dinner party in the kitchen, she fell over and was gone. The doctor later explained that her weakened heart that she had been battling, gave out.

Phil and David were not prepared for the many changes that came with Kitzi's passing. David had to prepare meals, do laundary and more closely work with Phil, none of which he had done before.

Phil began to go daily to the ENCORE(Eastern Nebraska Center of Rehababilative Employment) for developing his skills and to give David time to do other things. After about a year and half, life regained some normalcy. Daivd and Phill began enjoying things more and making plans to move from the farm to either a house on Beaver Lake or a condo in the Old Market.

David began to get headaches and forgetting things. An inoperable brain tumor was discovered. Radiation and chemo slowed the growth but only bought an additional nine months. 

In June of 1989, Dave came back and flew with David to Maine for the summer. At summer's end, two Maine natives, that had been caring for David in Maine, drove to the farm to care for David and Phil. They stayed into October, when around the clock home nursing care took over the care of David and Phil. 

With Jim at iowa State for college, Phil was the only child left at Random Acres with David and Kitzi for the first five years.

Jim returned from Iowa with a dog and several cows.The next two years involved helping Jim raise club calves and his job at the extension service. In 1977, Jim married Becky and they lived in Papillion. As Phil stated often, "When you are married, You are stuck".

Phil's bicycle was replaced with a large tricycle bike with a large basket that made bringing back all of the mail and paper easier but still challenging on windy days. 

Late in 1960 brother David's wife, Pepper moved to the farm when David was called into the Army and basic training. Early in 1961, Phil became an uncle as Anders Crofoot joined Pepper at the farm. 

Anne and Jeanne left the farm to attend college in Newton, MA. then marry and to return only for visits. During a phone call with Anne's new husband, Lee, Phil, restated his opinion of marriage and told Lee about Anne, " well you are stuck with her".

Despite frequent rough housing and numerous double crossers with brother Jim, during this period Jim outgrew Phil. This required Phil to change his standard saying " I'm biggger than you" to "I'm older than you".

In 1969, while pushing a load of wood, Phil fell on some ice and broke his left hip. The pain didn't bother him much for a couple of days until he finally complained to Mom and was taken to the hospital.. 

Phil was brought back from The Devereaux school since Kitzi and David felt what more Phil could learn was more than being offset by the bad habits and language he was picking up at the school.

They felt living on the farm would be a better environment and he was given chores around the farm including hauling wood and other items with his wheelbarrow and loading manure. His favorite daily chore was riding his bicycle out the lane to take out and bring in the mail and the paper. These tasks provided occasional challenges and if significant, one could hear him reciting his alphabet at a high volume. This response was considered much more desireable than the alternative language from Deveral.

The family was completed with the arrival of another younger brother, Jim, the summer of 1951. Phil took residence in his own bedroom and bath in the milkhouse addition. This suited him well and he could tend to his collection of comic books. 

Late fall in1953, David decided to take a sabbatical from farming, he sold off the dairy herd, chickens and hogs. With son David going to school at Andover, David and Kitzi packed up the car with Jeanne, Anne & Jim and towing a boat headed to Bradenton, FL for the school year and then on up to Maine for the summer.

Ever summer from 1955 on, Marie Keller and her husband, Milo, and their two children, Dianne and Charles moved to the farm to watch over things and take care of Phil during the Crofoot's annual trip to Maine, They would leave the third week of June and return around  Labor Day while Phil stayed at the farm. 

During this period, Phil spent his time at the Devereaux school in Philadelphia.

I wasn't present or cognizant during this period so I'm relying on others to provide stories or details to supplement this chapter of his life.

PLEASE ADD YOUR THOUGHTS, MEMORIES AND PHOTOS. 

Phil was joined by brother David Lodowick on January 10th 1939, by sister Jeanne on February 4th 1943 and by sister Anne Fitch on January 4th 1945. 

Initial schooling was at the Elementary school in nearby La Platte, NE. In 1948, Phil went east to Devereaux Schools in Philadelphia. 

David N. Crofoot & Katharine (Kitzi) Crofoot were married November 16, 1934.
They moved to the farm south of Bellevue, NE and Fort Crook Army base to the farm that David had purchased the year before.

David had returned home to Omaha in 1931, with his degree in business from Harvard University and decided he wanted to make farming his career. He started his education in that career by attending some short courses at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and then working a year and half at a dairy near Bennington, NE.

David was introduced to Kitzi in 1932, by a cousin, Esther Myers Stryker, who had another cousin in Dubuque, IA,, who know this nice woman that Dad should meet..Dad made several trips across the unimproved roads of Iowa to court Mom. 

Kitzi, was the only daughter of Dr. William and Amelia (Millie) Jeager. She had earned her teaching degreee in biology and was teaching when she met David. The one story I remember from Mom about her courtship was that, Dad showed up driving a Model T and it was tough decision for her since her then current beau was driving a Stutz Bearcat, that was really neat and he would let her drive it. Thankfully, despite the Bearcat, Dad's courtship succeeded.

In 1933, much to his family's angst, he purchased 120 acres on Hwy 73/75 a mile north of La Platte, NE. This occured near the start of the Great Depression and during one of the worst droughts in history. The farm raised corn, wheat, alfalfa, oats, pasture and had Guernsey dairy cattle, hogs and laying hens. With help of neighbors,  crops were raised and hay was made. With the help of a hired hand, the cows were milked, eggs collected and candled. Mom filtered and bottled the milk and from the rich cream made butter and ice cream. Dad made regular trips to the Army base to sell milk and eggs and took excess milk to Omaha for processing.

Mom and Dad were the city kids moving to the country to become farmers and were welcomed with open arms and a few snickers by their famring neighbors. One story told, was that during the house warming, the master bedroom was proudly shown off along with the elegant double bed and its fancy canopy. It became the main conversation topic around the area and shortly thereafter the canopy disappeared, never to be seen again.

In January of 1936, Mom was in her ninth month of Phil's pregancy and a bad storm was forecast so she was taken to David's parents home in Omaha that was near to St. Elizabeth's hospital on Tenth St to await Phil's arrival. The storm met and execceded forecasts and was later named the Blizzard of '36. Phil's birth was difficult and it was later determined that he had been oxygen deprived.

After the blizzard ended and the roads were cleaned, Kitzi and Phil came home to the farm, Random Ridge. Mom was assisted by live-in local help, first on the scene was Rosemary(Rosie) Keller and later, she was followed her sister, Marie. Rosie was a big part of Phil's early years. Marie and later her entire family became an intergral part of Phil's entire life.