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- I'm a Rosie!
- Our Great Snow Storm
- Louis's First Car
- My First Year Being a Farmer's Wife
- The Official Hostfest Picture!
- More Recent Articles
- Search Grandma Viv's Musings
Last spring Denise found an article in the 'American Profiles' magazine about the 'American Rosie the Riveter Association'. Their purpose is to recognize and preserve the history of women who worked and volunteered to support the war effort during WWII. I called and they sent me information to join. Which I did and I just received my certificate of membership. I think it is pretty neat! :o)
You can find out more information at their website: www.rosietheriveter.net.
Sometime early Monday morning, it started raining and snowing. We woke up to thunder, lighting and light snow and sleet. When Ken and Denise went to the grocery store about mid morning, it had changed to corn snow. By afternoon it was snowing heavily and the wind had come up, so we had a real blizzard. It continued that way the rest of Monday, through the night and for most of Tuesday morning. We got about a foot of snow, that was piled into huge drifts by the wind. As you can see by the pictures, we couldn't have gone anywhere if we had wanted to. In fact, we couldn't get out the front door. Ken had to dive over the drift that was in front of the patio door to shovel us out. :o) I realize it isn't as much snow as North Dakota has seen this winter, but it is the most we have gotten in one storm since I moved here. Brought back memories.....
The view out Mom's bedroom window. Normally you could see the end of our cul-de-sac.
The snow drifts under our carport.
Our street (looking south) covered by at least a foot of snow, more where it has drifted.
The snow drift between our carport and the house south of us.
The snow drift across the back of our house.
The view from our patio looking over to the north east corner of our backyard, where our shed is behind those trees.
Below is a picture of Louis and his first car, a 1939 Chevy. He and his sister, Elizabeth, had purchased a car together earlier, but this was the car that he had bought on his own and he was so proud of it! :o) It was a bluish gray color. This is also the car in which I learned to drive. Living out on the farm meant that I would have to be able to drive into town for groceries and other things we needed. Fortunately, Louis taught me how to drive before we got married. I'm not sure he would have been as patient after the wedding. ;o)
One day that first summer we were married, Louis had to take his horses and wagon over to his brother, Art's farm. Since I was going to town for groceries, I was supposed to pick him up on my way home. Everything was going fine, I had bought the groceries I needed and was a short way out of Sherwood, when the car just quit. Not being familiar with cars, I hadn't thought to stop and get gas. I was lucky though, because Jesse Pulvamacher came along and went back into town to get a jug of gas for me. Louis teased me about that many times afterwards. :o)
As soon as our engagement was announced, people started asking me how I could live on a farm, when I was used to electricity and being able to run to the store downtown when I needed groceries. Also two of Louis's sister-in-laws and one of his sisters warned him that I wouldn't be able to handle being a farmer's wife. The one sister-in-law told a friend of mine, that they were quite upset. What was funny about that was that the sister-in-law had been from 'town' too, before she had become a farmer's wife. I wasn't concerned. The only thing town had was electricity and no animals to take care of.
(These are all items from the farm. The lamps are the ones Mom and Dad used. The sad iron is sitting down in front of Grandma Augusta DesLauriers' crocks. The wooden stool leaning against the milk can is one of Dad's handmade milking stools. Not elegant, but served the purpose.)
Instead of electricity, we used kerosene and gas lamps for lights. We had a Majestic coal burning stove to cook on. I used a sad iron that you heated on the coal stove to iron clothes. Louis had a gas iron, but I was afraid to light it. The clothes washer also ran on gas. Clothes were dried on the clothes line outside, unless there was too much snow in the winter. Then I had a clothes rack that I hung clothes on. Louis would set it outside till they froze, then bring it in to finish drying. The water that we had on the farm came from a well that had rust in it. In order to use it, we had to boil it till the rust came to the top so we could skim it off. It really smelled bad and stained the clothes! To keep milk and other perishables from spoiling, we put them down in the basement where it was cold. I offered to learn to milk the cow we had, but Louis said no, that my hands weren't big or strong enough. And that it would ruin my beautiful hands. :o) He did want me to get the cow into the barn, so that all he had to do was milk when he got home or in from the fields. I also had to clean the cream separator after each use. That was a slimy, sticky mess. We had chickens and I had to feed them, give them water and collect the eggs. I also learned how to remove the feathers and clean them. Another yucky job. Louis loved gardening (like his Mom) and always planted a large vegetable garden. He did the planting, but I did help with the weeding. (I didn't really enjoying gardening, because of the big garden that my Mother had when I was a kid. I didn't have to help seed it, but I did have to help with weeding. :o> ) The only canning I liked to do was pickles (cucumbers from our garden) and fruit (bought by the crate) and preserving jams and jellies.
(The copper boiler was used to heat water. The kettle was one of Augusta DesLauriers'. The lantern is the one Dad used to take to the barn during the winter to milk the cow.)
Not long after we got back from our honeymoon, I had my first experience with haying. Louis would cut the grass with the binder and bundle it into shocks. Then I drove the little tractor with the hay rack behind it, and Louis would walk along side and pick up the shocks and throw them onto the rack. Then Louis would put them up in the hayloft of the barn.
One day that summer, I was going to surprise Louis by making my first pie for him. It was a butterscotch graham cracker pie with a meringue topping. Everything turned out perfect and I put it outside on the big wood barrel on the porch to cool. When I went to bring the pie in for supper, I found a cat had discovered and was making a feast out of my pie. It was quite the sight to see, me chasing a pie-covered pregnant cat all the way to the barn.
When harvest time came around, all the farmers would help each other with the thrashing. (Arnie Benson had the thrashing machine that they used.) There would be a huge crew to feed, and Louis told me not to worry, because he had hired Agnes Coutts to stay with us and do the cooking. And boy could she cook! Every morning she would bake fresh bread. She made pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham and coffee for breakfast. We would take hot dishes and sandwiches, coffee and water, cookies or bars out to them for lunch. Then she would fix a big supper for them at night with pies for dessert. I really learned how to do a lot of my cooking from her.
I'll never forget out first Christmas together. Louis knew how important Christmas traditions, like decorating a tree, were to me. When he was young they had a tree, but because they did not have electricity, his Mom used candles and only lit them for a few minutes for fear of burning the tree. She also made most of their toys, carving wood animals and sewing and making dolls. That Christmas, Louis got us a tree about 4 or 5 ft tall and sat it in a pail filled with sand and dirt to stand it up straight. Then he surprised me with bulbs that he had painted green and red, and lighted by hooking them up to a battery. He was so proud and I absolutely loved it. I still don't know how or when he did it all. :o) Christmas eve we went into my family's for an early dinner and to open gifts, then Louis and I went to midnight mass. We also spent Christmas day at Mom and Dad's in town. Our first New Year's Eve together was spent at a dance held every year at the high school in Sherwood.
Well, it is finally here! You may remember that Mom had a professional picture taken with Daniel O'Donnell before the Sunday concert. The pictures and the meeting with Danny were sponsored by Touchstone Energy Cooperative and Hostfest. We were told that after the pictures were all developed they were sent over to Ireland for Danny to sign, then sent back to the Hostfest for them to send out. But, Mom was beginning to fret a bit that she would never get hers. To my relief, it arrived here Wednesday and Mom's happy! :o)
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