When I read her business brochure I asked Ann if she would allow me to share the family story it contains and she gave her permission.
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ABOUT ROCKING HORSE STUDIO
Rocking Horse Studio is owned by me, Annie (Hemer) Onnen. The name of my studio and how I created my logo all started with my father. Let me tell you about it ... I grew up on an Iowa farm, the eldest of 13 children whose genders alternated girl-boy-girl-boy all the way down to my youngest sibling, who, of course, is a girl! That means I grew up in a family of seven girls and six boys.
As the oldest child in my farming family, I grew up absolutely knowing the value of an honest day’s labor. But my dad, Roy Hemer, knew that everyone needs to have some fun in life also, and he always made time to play some kind of game at the end of every day. Often it was baseball or football, depending on the season. After all, when you have enough children to field a full team for either sport, why not go with it?
Dad was careful to include all of us, no matter what our ages. The smallest child able to try was welcome in our games. And I learned early to be generous to those who couldn’t do what I could, just by the example set by my father.
If we were playing baseball, and one of the little ones came to bat, Dad (who was always the pitcher) would move in a bit closer and toss the ball so carefully (and sometimes so often) that the miniature batter couldn’t help but hit the ball. Then the tiny batter would take off on a wild tour of the bases, while the rest of us managed to over-throw the ball, miss our catches, fall down, almost tag the runner, and so forth until the little tyke had scampered completely around the bases, making a home run! I can still see the thrilled look on their faces! No game was over until we could no longer clearly see the ball for the darkness settling around us.
This is just one of many happy memories and good life lessons from my father. He was a unique, gentle, wonderful man who died in 2000. I miss him every day. When I was just starting to form my business, I recalled how Dad used the name Rocking Horse as his CB radio “handle.” Dad used the radios on his farm equipment to alert Mom if he needed something or to call someone in another tractor or truck. And since his initials were R. H., he chose Rocking Horse for his handle.
As he grew older and spent more time in the house overseeing my now-grown brothers as they started taking over the farming operation, Dad commandeered one of the bedrooms that wasn’t used any longer for children. He moved his ample selection of pens and pencils in there (He had every pen and pencil on the market!) and set up a desk so he could write letters and notes to all of us kids, whether we had moved away, were in college, or just lived down the road. He also listened to his favorite old tunes in that bedroom and often recorded tapes of several songs that he thought one or another of us might enjoy. He wrote all his letters by hand on tablets of yellow, lined paper, and started every note to us all with the heading: “From Rocking Horse Studio…”.
So that’s how I came up with the name. If you look closely at my logo, you’ll see the stirrup of the saddle on the rocking horse is a heart and has the initials, “S.H.” inside. That’s for my extraordinary mother, Shirley Hemer, who made raising 13 rambunctious children look easy and uncomplicated. She handled it all with grace and good humor, none of which I really appreciated until I began raising my own family. That I made the stirrup in the shape of a heart is easy to understand... I love my wonderful mother. I put her initials in the heart-shaped stirrup because she was—and still is—always there to give a lift up to us kids or anyone who might be in need.
And since I’m pretty family-oriented, I wanted all of my family represented in my logo: We have the rocking horse for my dad, my mom’s initials in the heart-shaped stirrup, and the 13 Hemer kids are represented by the seven green shaded stars for the girls and six brick red stars for the boys. If you look at the ball near the front of the rocking horse, you’ll see shapes and letters on it, as you see on many children’s toys. This ball has a star with an A on it, a heart with a B, and a star with 3C stamped upon it. That’s for me, Ann, my husband, Bernie, and my three children, Corey, Cole and Cassady. Near the back end of the rocking horse are stacked children’s blocks with letters on them. The M block on the bottom row signifies my daughter-in-law, Megan, wife of Corey, and mother of my grandchildren, Shea and Evan, who are represented by the S and E lettered blocks. And on the top row of blocks, the L and E blocks stand for Luke, my son-in-law, husband of Cassady, and father to my granddaughter, Emerson.
So now you know the story behind the name of my studio and how I developed its logo. As I write this, I am remembering how we enjoyed Dad’s little notes or packages when they arrived in our mailboxes. Today I still treasure all those notes and tapes he made for me with such love in his Rocking Horse Studio. I’m sure he’s very happy that his legacy of creating treasures to share with others continues today in my own Rocking Horse Studio.
Thank you for the beautiful story about your parents and life with your close-knit family, Ann.
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