It was so hot now that everyone rested after dinner each day for an hour or two.
They lay on the lawn in the shade of the pine trees.
The fall-winter Sears Roebuck catalog came in the mail. It seemed so hot to be
looking at winter clothes, but Berdina and her sisters argued over who could
look at it first, then ended up taking turns.
Ma called the catalog “the wish book”. It was a good name for it because it made
folks wish they had this and that and everything else. The catalog had most
everything in it. Berdina liked to look at the toys and clothes. Her brothers
liked looking at the guns and belts. Ma looked at the material for dresses and
aprons. Material was the only thing Ma ever sent for. Berdina and her sisters
could pick out a dress they liked in the catalog, then their sister, Rose, would
make the dress for them. She made her own patterns for each of the girls. She
cut them out of newspaper.
There was a lot of work to be done in the garden now, but that could wait until
in the evenings when it was a little cooler.
Ma had to do some canning now, but she always did it in the forenoon before it
got too hot. Ma would cook a hot dinner, then let the cook stove go out as it
made the house very hot. Supper was always a cold meal.
The hot weather was hard on Grandpa. He sat most of the day in his rocker on the
front porch dozing off and on.
The cows noticed the heat too. They usually came home at noon for a drink of
water. Sometimes they didn’t go back in the pasture but lay under trees in the
shade all afternoon. If they did go back in the pasture the boys had to go get
them before supper. They always took Shep with them. He would round up the cows
and they would walk home single file down the cow path.
One evening, Teddy and Fritz couldn’t find the cows so they came home without
them. Pa went with them this time, as he knew they must have broken through the
fence and would be deep in the woods. After walking the fence line, they found
the place where the fence was down; the cows were on the other side on a hill.
When the cows heard Shep bark they headed back through the fence and toward
home. Pa had brought a few tools along as he knew the fence would have to be
fixed before they could let the cows out for the night. As Pa and the boys
worked they noticed off in the distance a pack of wolves resting under a tree.
They finished their work and quickly left for home. Usually the wolves had
plenty of small game to eat and wouldn’t attack a person or the cattle.
The berries turned ripe with the heat and everyone went into the woods to pick
them. There were raspberries, black caps and later on there would be
blackberries. Ma would can them for sauce and make jam and jelly.
Berdina and Lydia were all very tanned now and their overalls were thin from
washing.
Ma said, “You girls must wear straw hats now. You are brown as Indians.”
Berdina wore her straw hat to keep the sun out of her eyes.
Each day they went into the woods for berries. They had to wear shoes in the
woods as there were thistles, thorns and poison ivy, not to mention snakes.
Soon Ma had enough berries canned; she had canned strawberries earlier. Vivian’s
mother, Hati, had given her some. She grew such nice strawberries. Ma would give
her some apples in exchange for the berries.
Hati was Pa’s first cousin. For some reason, Pa and Ma were close to Hati and
her mother, who was Pa’s Aunt and Vivian’s Grandmother. Berdina called her
Grandma, too, Grandma Mitte. Berdina never had a Grandma she could remember.
Grandma Schoenherr had died in Germany when she was only thirty-seven years old
and Grandma Steinberg died before Berdina was born. Grandma Mitte filled a need
in Berdina and her sister’s lives.
Pa and the boys were busy haying now. Pa cut the hay with horses and the mower.
After a few days of drying, it was loaded on the hay wagon. As Fritz drove the
horses, the wagon straddled the windrow of hay Pa had raked together. The hay
loader that was hooked behind the wagon took the hay up to the wagon where Pa
and Teddy would load the hay evenly on to the wagon, so they wouldn’t tip over
as they took it to the barn to unload.
The hay wagon was pulled into the barn and the horses unhitched, as they had to
be used to pull the rope that unloaded the hay. A big fork was stuck into the
hay, pulled up by the horses ‘til it hit a pulley, was run over to the hay
mow. The fork was tripped and the hay fell into the hay mow. Ma drove the horses
on the hay rope as they pulled the hay up into the barn. After each forklift was
dumped, the rope had to be pulled back into the barn. This was Berdina and
Lydia’s job. They also had to see to it that there was fresh, cold drinking
water for Pa and the boys when they came in with a load.
There was a lot of hay to be made, as hay was their main crop. There had to be
plenty to feed the cows and horses all winter.
There had been a good week of dry weather and most of the hay was in the barn.
Pa and the boys were hurrying to get the last load in. The sky was getting dark
and it looked like a storm was coming up. The lightning flashed as they finished
unloading. Fritz was closing the barn door when lightning struck the barn. It
traveled on the metal that the door hung on and struck Fritz. He was knocked out
cold. Pa and Teddy carried him to the house and put cold water on him from the
tank. In a few minutes he came to.
Everyone was so frightened.
Pa took Fritz into town to the doctor. The doctor said, “There isn’t much I can
do for him. He will have a headache for awhile. I will give him aspirin to
take.”
Fritz soon felt better, but later on he often had headaches. Ma was afraid of
windstorms. In this area there were cyclone type storms. The wind would be very
strong and take a much wider streak than a tornado.
When Ma was a child, a windstorm took the log cabin her family had lived in.
Everyone was out of the house except her baby brother, Albert, who was sleeping
at the time.
They all feared for his life, but when the men had carefully lifted the logs
away they found him safe under some logs.
When the sky filled with yellowish gray, low rolling clouds, Ma knew a windstorm
was coming.
Ma said, “Everyone in the basement!”
Ma was not about to take any chances and no one left the basement until the
storm was over.
Shep could tell a storm was coming before the rest of them. He would scratch on
the screen door. When Ma let him in, he would head for Ma and Pa’s bedroom and
crawl under the bed and into the furthest corner.
Ma said, “Shep was frightened when he was a puppy and some neighbors shot
dynamite close to him. He crawled under the corn crib and didn’t come out for
three days. He was finally coaxed out with
some food. He never forgot that.”
If a storm came up during the night, everyone was awakened and brought their
pillows and quilts and slept on the living room floor. In the morning, Berdina
and Lydia would run out to see if any damage had been done. They would have to
pick up the windfall apples after breakfast.
The weather cooled a bit and the air was light now. Everyone felt more like
working again.
Sunday was the Mission Festival at church. It was a chicken dinner held for the
public. The proceeds went to the Mission. It was held in the church park. A
minister from a neighboring church held a service outdoors in the forenoon;
another one had a service in the afternoon. The collection was also for the
Mission.
People came from neighboring towns for the service and dinner. Berdina’s Ma and
all the ladies of the congregation had to roast chickens, make potato salad,
bake beans and make pies, luscious lemon and berry pies. Cole slaw was made from
fresh cabbage and dill and beet pickles were served. There was a long table in
the park above the hill where the service was held. The ladies all brought their
best white tablecloths. There were two old wood cookstoves in the park to keep
the chicken warm and make coffee on.
Coffee was made in a wash boiler on one of the stoves. The stoves were set up
under the trees and stayed there all year round.
Since there was no electricity or running water, water was hauled to the grove
in milk cans.
There were two outdoor privies in the back of the grove. The minister had a cow
who pastured in the grove. She kept the grass down so it never had to be mowed.
One had to be careful where you walked.
City folks really seemed to enjoy eating outdoors in the park.
Everyone worked hard to make the day a success. Mr. Prock, the storekeeper,
always donated the butter for the homemade rolls even though he didn’t belong to
the Lutheran Church.
