Community roots
Mike Oswald has spent his entire life in Airway Heights
According to a recent survey conducted by the Population Reference Bureau, the average American moves approximately 11 times over a lifetime. West Plains resident Mike Oswald is definitely not average. He still lives in the house in which he was born 83 years ago.
From his shady front porch Oswald gestured to a towering fir. “That’s where the original three-room house sat.”
His parents met on a train. “She was going to Yellowstone,” he said. “They met in the dining car.” They married in 1911 and eventually settled in the West Plains. Their first home was a tent pitched on the 10 acres John Oswald had purchased. Though he worked as a machinist for the Great Northern Railroad, he would eventually own and farm 120 acres.
In time, the tent made way for a small house. The house was moved to its current location and more rooms were added. On Sept. 1, 1925, Mike Oswald was born in one of the back bedrooms. He joined four older siblings, also born at home.
Oswald said it was a wonderful place to grow up. “There were always kids around. We played in the woods.” There was also a lot of work to be done. The family had 500 chickens and a half-dozen milk cows. “I used to walk through the fields to school. Sometimes it was tempting to stop by the neighbors and play basketball instead of coming home to do chores.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Boy, would I get in trouble!”
And though he grew up in the midst of the Depression he didn’t know times were hard. The land and the livestock the family nourished provided for them. Oswald said, “We always had eggs, milk and meat.”
In 1939 he graduated from eighth grade at Sunset Grade School with two other teens. “I went from there to Lewis and Clark High School, where there was 2,500 students,” he said. “Talk about a lost soul!”
After high school he worked for a year to save money for college. He attended the University of Idaho, and for the first time lived away from the family home. But he wasn’t gone long.
“I met a girl named Enid on a blind date,” Oswald said. She was a year ahead of him in school, and as the time drew near for her graduation, she told him, “I think I’ll go to California.”
“Well, that was the end of my school,” he said. “I thought I’d better marry the girl.” She evidently agreed. They were married in 1947. Six months later, Oswald brought his bride back to the family homestead. His mother was alone, and the home and property had become too much for her to manage. He bought the home and property from her in 1948.
Mike Oswald sticks with things, whether it’s a home, a wife or a job. For 37 years he worked for Adams Tractor in Spokane Valley, eventually buying into the business. He and Enid were married 51 years before she died. They raised five children on the farm, but he did make a significant change. “When I bought the house, I got rid of the chickens,” he said. He hated those hens, so he bought animals he thought his own children would better enjoy. “When the kids were growing up, we always had horses.”
His children share his love of the area. Oswald’s youngest son, Jeff, and daughter-in-law, Paula, have lived down the road for 31 years, raising their children next to grandpa and grandma. Daughter Gayle lives nearby as well. Oswald’s children also share his tenacity. They’re all married to their original spouses.
During the holidays, the house swells with Oswald’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “The kids still like to gather here at Christmas,” he said, smiling.
Oswald has added on to the house over the years. The room where he was born is now the TV room, but he still owns 110 acres and still mows his expansive lawn each Thursday.
However, much has changed in the West Plains. While Oswald worked and raised his family, the community grew up around them. “I was here before Fairchild – here before Geiger Field,” he said, shaking his head.
In fact, when Oswald was 15, he was the water boy for the construction crew that built Geiger. He never thought he’d see a Wal-Mart just beyond his back fence.
Yet he’s determined to stay. Five years ago he married Georgia. When describing her husband, she laughed. “You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy,” she said.
Oswald’s roots in the West Plains are as deep as the fir that towers in his front yard. He looked out across his heritage and sighed. While many residents have sold their property to developers Oswald is a part of this land and will stay firmly planted. “I’m not going to sell it,” he said. “Why would I?”