1. Names? Virginia and Reno Milligan
2. Town where you live? Collins
3. Where did you grow up? I grew up in the country near Collins and my wife, Virginia, grew up in Mingo.
4. What is (or was) your occupation? Before I retir-ed, I worked the last 12 years at General Filter in Ames. Virginia is a homemaker (and a very good one at that) and worked for the fertilizer plant in Collins.
5. What do you wish was (or had been) your occupation? All I ever wanted to do was farm!
6. What is your favorite TV show? British comedies, a lot of the good shows are gone.
7. What type of music do you like to listen to? Virginia likes all types of music; I like the Big Band music.
8. If you could live in any other state, which state would you live in? If I had to leave, and I don't want to, I would want to live on the west bank of the Mississippi River. I have a lot of family that live in Arizona, and I would not trade my 160 acres in Iowa for any Arizona valley!
9. What's your favorite season? Harvest time
10. What was your favorite decade and why? The fifties was a favorite of ours; we liked to dance and did our share of it.
11. What hobbies or pastimes do you enjoy most? Gardening, tending flowers and building things
12. What's your favorite color? Allis Chalmers orange, and you can guess why!
13. Would you rather live in a very old house with lots of character or a new house where everything worked perfectly? Old house with character. Virginia wanted to do each room with different types of furniture, etc. I told her she had all that, they were just in different rooms.
14. Who is your favorite singer or music group? Perry Como, Nat King Cole and daughter, and Gaithers gospel group
15. What's the best book you've read in past years? The best book I have read lately is "Little Heathens" by an Iowa author, Mildred Kalish. It's about living in the '20s and '30s during the Great Depression. Reno's favorite is "Rising Tide," about the Mississippi floods in the '20s.
16. What's your favorite breakfast cereal? Not a cereal person, I like raisin toast. Ate oatmeal, doctored every which way for 40 years, because of a stomach problem
17. Who are the members of your family? Virginia and I have three children and several grandchildren. Mary Beth and Doug Atwood, and Shelley and Justin Atwood; Kelly and Cheryl Milligan and daughter, Toni, and husband, Ross; Julie and Dale Willis, Stephanie, Zach and Dani. They all live within 15 miles of us.
18. What's your favorite thing to eat with chocolate in it? Ice cream!
19. What was the best present you ever received as a child? Christmas is a big thing now for our family, because years ago there just weren't a lot of presents. Oranges and apples from church were a big deal! A toy tractor was probably my favorite.
20. Did you have a teacher who inspired you? Ralph Maddox, who was my ag teacher years ago.
21. What's one of your fondest childhood memories? My parents took my siblings and I (Reno) to the Black Hills. Virginia visited with family in Wisconsin.
22. Is there any song, which when you hear it, takes you back to your high school days? "Little Things Mean A Lot"
23. What makes a person a success? The attitude you carry with you determines your success in life. You don't have to have a lot of material things to be successful. Success is just a state of mind, to accept the way you are in life, and to make your corner of the world a better place for others around you.
24. What do you consider the "the good old days," and what do you miss most about them? We like the present best; modern equipment makes life much easier.
25. Who do you admire most in your community? Donnie Pointer, very knowledgeable, we don't always agree, but I do admire him!
Congratulations, Virginia and Reno Milligan, for being our Collins Grand Marshals 2009!
*Compiled by Donna Hampton, Collins Correspondent
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