----Source: Greenwood Gleaner 28 OCT 1958 S. H.Miller (LaConner, WA)

OUT OF THE PAST

Letter to Editor: Mr. Albert NUENFELDT

Dear Ed:

While looking over some pay schedules the other day, I was reminded of a vacation I had back there about 1897.

That summer I could either have had a trip to the Pacific Coast or stay there and go to work on a farm. The old band had several engagements that summer and I decided I could have more fun if I stayed. So I got a job on the then SAWYER farm abut a mile and a half west of Longwood. Chris RICHLEAU was managing it then and he had three fine Norwegian boys working for him. One of them had been there for some time but his two younger brothers had not been over long. They could, however, talk very good in the new language so we got along fine and I liked them very much.

I was slated to get up at 3:00 a.m. and go down into the pasture and herd fifty cows up to the barn to be milked and then help in the milking. All five of us took part inthis and we could finish the job in a short time. Then to breakfast about six and then I had the job of hauling the milk to the creamery near Longwood. Returning from there shortly after seven I was commissioned to take the ax and go down to the woods where we were cutting underbrush from a large acreage. Once in a while Chris would sandwich in a job of cultivating 10 acres of corn and a lot of spuds and pull out mustard, etc. from the grain. But that job of underbrush was the main job and the hardest. That together with the mosquitoes was not the most enjoyable for a young buck.

But there were other things to compensate for that. We had a dance every once ina while. I remember one on a Saturday night when the older boy played a fiddle and we danced until about 3 a.m. and home just in time to get the cows and the milking and of course part of the day we could catch up with a little sleep. But that very Sunday evening we had just got to bed when a farmer boy came to get the fiddle player for another dance. He stalled a while and finally gave in when we promised to join him, so up we got and dressed and pushed off for another dance. That one didn't last as long as the first but we were all sleepy when we got home and only a wink until 3 a.m. rushed in on us.The trips with the band helped to keep me in good humor and finally the end of the vacation came and Chris came to me with a check for the three summer months at the exorbitant rate of 12.50 per month and they threw in the board. Board then could be hadfor 2.50 per week so that didn't enhance the total wage very much. Anyway, I had a worked of fun by staying home. Even if I did have to work from 3 a.m. till 7:30 in the evenings, we likely felt better and learned that wages were not everything as....today.