The apple and plum blossoms from the big orchard behind the house filled the air
with perfume.
Berdina thought the orchard was so pretty, like a big cloud of pink and white.
Pa had planted the orchard years ago.
Pa said, “At my home in Germany we had lots of apple trees and plum trees, also
currant bushes and grape vines. The orchard will give us lots of good fruit to
eat and fruit for Ma to can.”
There were all kinds of apples, some early dutchess for pies and sauce, also
harvesters to eat and strawberry and Whitney crabs for pickling. The apples that
came late in the fall, like wealthies and
greenings kept a long time in the basement.
Ma and the older girls were busy doing spring cleaning.
Ma said, “It is warm enough now
that we can take out the heater stove; the kitchen stove will take the chill out
of the house in the morning.”
Pa and the boys took the stove pipes down carefully so as not to get soot all
over Then they carried out the heater and stored it in the little room off from
the kitchen. Ma covered the hole in the wall
with a stove pipe cover; it had a picture on it.
Now Ma and Berdina’s older sister, Ruth, had to wash down the walls and
ceilings. Next, the windows had to be washed, inside and out. The curtains were
washed and starched. Berdina watched as Ma put the lace curtains from the living
room on stretchers to dry. It took Ma a long time to put the curtains over the
little nails on the stretcher frame. The kitchen curtains were ironed and put
back on the windows. Since it was such a nice windy day, Ma put all the quilts
on the clothesline to air out.
The mailman came and stopped at the mailbox, so Berdina ran out and got the
mail.
“You have a letter today,” said Berdina as she handed Ma the mail.
“It’s from Aunt Theresa,” said Ma as She read. “Her and Uncle Alvin are coming
to see us soon. They will drive down from Park Falls with some of the family.”
Berdina thought about Aunt Theresa. She was Ma’s sister. She and Uncle Alvin had
a big family, sixteen in all. They had seventeen but one baby died shortly after
it was born. Uncle Alvin was a school teacher. His school would soon be out.
One Saturday, Berdina’s older sister, Ottillie said, “Berdina would you like to
go to visit school with me this week? You can go with me Sunday night and come
home with me again Friday night.”
“Oh yes, I want to go,” said Berdina.
Sunday night they left. Berdina slept with Ottillie at the farm where she stayed
during the week, and each day she went along to school with her. Berdina had a
good time. It was fun being teacher’s little sister. Each day someone wanted her
to sit with them. The kids all treated her great. Berdina also got in on another
school picnic on Friday.
Now that school was out for both Rose and Ottillie, they would be home for two
weeks, then they would go to Teacher’s Summer School in Eau Claire.
The telephone rang, it rang two long rings and one short one. Ma answered, as
this was her ring. You could tell who was being called. Some folks liked to
listen in on other people’s calls as this was a party line. Each party had a
different ring. Ma wouldn’t allow anyone to listen in, and she was too busy for
that. But if a call came during the night, she would get up and listen as she
thought someone might need help.
If you wanted to get someone who wasn’t on your party line, you rang the
operator and gave her the number or name, then she connected you up. The
telephone operator was a popular person. She knew everyone for miles around and,
of course, everything about them.
The call came from Pa’s sister, Bertha, who lived in Neillsville. She told Ma
that Grandpa wasn’t feeling good. He had been to the doctor and was having
trouble with his heart again. The doctor thought he should quit working and he
shouldn’t be living alone.
Ma and Pa decided Grandpa should come and live with them. Pa was the only boy in
the family and he felt responsible.
Ma said, “We’ll paint the little room at the end of the attic and put a bed in
there. It will be all right for you girls during the summer months. We can put a
bed in the attic room for the older girls when they come home. Grandpa can have
the big bedroom.”
Grandpa was born in Zatten, Germany. He was a shoemaker. His name was Theodore.
Grandma, whose name was Rosa, had died in Germany when she was only thirty-seven
years old. Later, Grandpa came to America to join other members of his family.
He opened a shoe shop in Neillsville and bought a house there.
Now Grandpa closed his shop and moved his equipment into the little room off
from the kitchen. He brought his sewing machine, all his leather, rubber heels
and his hammers and tacks. He could still fix shoes for the family and the
neighbors. Berdina watched Grandpa as he worked. With tacks lined up in his
mouth, he would tack on the soles in a hurry.
Berdina was happy when Grandpa moved in. She loved the attention he gave her.
Grandpa was a kindly old man with a mustache. He seemed to enjoy telling stories
to Berdina as she sat on his lap in his big rocker on the front porch. He talked
a lot about Grandma and the old country. He would take out his gold watch that
he kept in his pocket on the end of the gold chain. He would let Berdina listen
to it, then snap it open, and check the time as if time was so important to him.
In those days, there were only a few airplanes. One might fly over once or twice
a summer. When a plane flew over, everyone came out of the house to watch it.
Grandpa said, “Someday an airplane is coming to get me and take me to heaven by
Grandma. You will miss me, but I am getting so old and miss Grandma a lot.”
The big rose bush on the side of the house was in bloom now. It was pale pink
and only bloomed for a couple weeks each year in June. It smelled so sweet. The
tiger lilies by the orchard were in bloom too. Ma liked flowers that didn’t need
a lot of care, as she had plenty of work with her garden even though everyone
had to help with it.
Rose and Ottillie were away at summer school now. Ruth was a lot of help to Ma.
She never liked school and didn’t want to go to High School. Later, when Lydia
and Berdina were older and could
help more, Ruth went to work for some folks a few miles away. She came home on
Sundays.
Ma was busy making pies this morning. A roast was browning on the stove. It
sizzled as it browned. Ma liked to brown the roast on the stove before she put
it in the oven to finish cooking.
Today was the day Aunt Theresa and
Uncle Alvin were coming. They would only bring the younger children in the
family with them. Their oldest daughter was a nurse and was working. The
older boys had jobs too. Anyway, they wouldn’t fit in the car.
As they drove up, Berdina could see the car was loaded with her cousins.
There was Jane, Marie, James, Diana, Kenny and many more. Even though Aunt
Theresa had had all those children, she still looked so nice. She liked to
dress up and had a big city look about her. Berdina and her sisters and
cousins had fun playing while the grown-ups talked, and laughed and worked.
Berdina’s youngest cousin, Andy, was only nine months old. The girls took
him with them and played he was their baby. They had a play house in the
corn crib where they could play house and not disturb anyone. When they got
tired of that, they turned the play house into a store by putting a board
across the slats in the corn crib for a counter. They had saved some empty
boxes just to play store with. In the afternoon, Ma gave them some cookies
and nectar to sell for a penny.
Berdina and her sisters and cousins all slept on quilts on the living room
floor that night.
Soon it was time for them to leave. What a lot of kissing and hugging!
Berdina knew it would be a long time before they would see each other again.
Next time, Pa would drive the family up to see them; it was a long drive.
One of Berdina’s cousins from Pa’s side of the family was getting married.
The wedding was in the Globe Lutheran Church. The wedding supper was at the
bride’s parents home, and also the dance. The furniture was pushed back and
the rug rolled up. Only a few could dance at a time, while the rest visited
and listened to the fiddler.
After watching the dancing for awhile, Berdina became tired and went to
sleep on the bed in the bedroom with the rest of the sleeping children. She
woke later when she heard some talking and laughing. She became frightened
when she saw some people dressed up in funny clothes. She lay very quietly
and pretended to be asleep. Soon they left the room and went into the living
room. There was a lot of laughing. Soon Berdina went back to sleep.
In the morning, Berdina asked, “Ma, what were those funny people doing?”
Ma said, “That is what we call a mock wedding. People dress up funny like
the wedding party. It makes a lot of fun.”
Berdina didn’t really understand, but if Ma thought it was alright, it must
be.
June was nice and warm this year. The lettuce, radishes and green onions
were ready to eat. They tasted so good. It had been a long time since they
had had them. Soon the beans would be ready to pick.
One warm afternoon, Ma said, “Why don’t you girls go to the pasture out back
of the barn and see if you can find some wild strawberries. They should be
ripe now.”
Berdina and her sisters had picked berries in the pasture other years. They
each took a cup and started out. As they got closer they saw where the patch
was. There were lots of orange and red flowers there. From a distance they
looked like flames. The flowers were Orange Hawkweed, but Berdina called
them Indian’s Paintbrush. The strawberries grew among them. The wild berries
were small. After picking awhile, Berdina and Lydia put their berries
together. They had only a cupful. Of course they had eaten a few while they
were picking. Ma was happy for what they brought.
She said, “I baked a white cake, I’ll use the strawberries in the frosting.”
She had to beat up egg whites, sugar and the berries. She had to beat a long
time with the hand egg beater, but finally she had a nice fluffy, pink
frosting for her cake. Those little sweet berries made it taste so good,
most of it was eaten for supper.
The cows were out in the pasture now, so there was more milking to be done.
Each night after the milk was put in metal milk cans and placed in the
wooden tank that had fresh water pumped in it, the milk had to be stirred so
the body heat from the cows could be cooled down fast. Berdina and her
sisters took turns stirring it. The stirrer was flat with holes in it. It
had a long handle so it would reach almost to the bottom of the can. In the
morning the cream would be at the top of the can. Ma would skim some off
before the milkman came. The thickest would be used for whipping, the others
used on cornflakes for breakfast. Cornflakes were the only kind of cold
cereal you could buy at the store. Ma always had plenty of cream for creamed
vegetables and cream gravy, to go with her chicken.
There was another tank on the farm. It was metal and the cows and the horses
drank out of it. There were two wells too, one in front of the house and the
other by the metal tank. The windmill pumped the water for the cattle. If
the wind was calm, the motor on the pump pumped the water. It was fun to
watch the cool water come out of the pump and run down the metal trough to
the tank. The cattle loved the cool water as it was pretty warm these days.
