GAIL WHITE Chickens and lean times helped family develop pluck

Every once in a long while you hear a story that just stops you in your holiday-rushing, store-hopping tracks.
There were times in the 1960s when Nancy DeLung of Girard didn't have anything to give her four children for Christmas except love -- oh yeah, and 18,000 chickens.
"We ate a lot of eggs and potatoes," Nancy said. "It didn't hurt us any. In fact, I think it helped us. It made us strong. We are a strong family."
Part of their strength came from necessity.
"You see so many sad people," Nancy says. "They really have no reason to be sad. They just need to get up and do something."
Nancy did chickens.
What started as a hobby turned into a huge and often overwhelming undertaking.
"I worked in the barn 18 hours a day," Nancy recalls.
So what were her children doing while Nancy slaved away in the barn?
Watching television?
No.
Hanging out with their friends and goofing around?
No.
Nancy's four children helped.
Hard workers
"Nancy was my right-hand man," Nancy says of her oldest daughter, who shares her first name. "She graduated summa cum laude from Ursuline and got a scholarship to Walsh College."
"Rob built automated chicken feeders in the barn when he was 15 years old," Nancy recalls about her oldest son.
"Myrle could clean a mean gizzard," Nancy laughs. "People think she was raised with a silver spoon," Nancy says of her successful daughter. "She's been through the ropes."
Once, at age 4, Myrle cleaned 300 gizzards in one evening. Her reward? A glass of pop.
"Richard works 18 hours a day," Nancy marvels at her youngest son's restaurant management hours.
"Wonder where he got that work ethic?" I ask ironically.
He still finds time to call and tell his mother he loves her every day.
Go figure. These kids had to work during their free time -- they got a glass of pop for 300 gizzards -- and they barely had clothes on their backs.
"Thank God they went to Catholic school," Nancy says. "They had to wear a uniform, or else they would have been an outcast."
What the kids think
"I thought we had a great life," daughter Nancy says.
"My mom is amazing," Myrle beams.
Great life? Amazing?
These kids must have inhaled too many chicken feathers in their youth.
How can work and hardship add up to amazing and great?
The answer, it seems, lies somewhere in how Nancy went through the hard times. You can't be a chicken when times are tough.
Leaning forward, Nancy whispers, "I hate chickens." Then she laughs loudly at the irony of it all.
Laughter, it seems, has been the chicken soup for Nancy's soul. For every story of hardship and trouble, she has two that are funny and bring a smile to her face.
"Once Nancy burned her hand on candle wax," mother Nancy said. "We stuck her hand between two frozen chickens!"
"Our Friday night entertainment was taking the dogs up to the barns to catch rats!" Nancy added.
Change in fortune
Then one day, Nancy ended up with the long end of the wishbone.
She got a job at Delphi Packard Electric Systems.
"I called up Campbell Soup and told them to come and take those chickens," Nancy said with a laugh. "We were living like normal people for once in our life."
The children didn't have to work in the barns. They had new clothes in their closets, and the movie theater replaced rat chasing.
But the damage had been done. Their years of watching their mother struggle caused them all to grow up and lead hard-working, successful lives.
Wonder which store I can pick that up from this holiday season?
gwhite@vindy.com