Don’t get me wrong. It was not all work. From playing in the dish pan (for baths) to playing ball with neighbor kids and functions from church (ie. ice cream socials, Sunday School, Confirmation etc.) life was great growing up in a large family. Being number 6 of 12 (eight boys and four sisters) we enjoyed squabbling and loving one another. My mom asked me one day as I had just got home from school and was having some caca bread (just some homemade dough and flattened out and baked) if I had ever thought of being an only child. I replied, “not a chance”. I did not envy those with only a few siblings or none. After all how could those kids in town lay in a strawstack and listen to the Bobcats, Wolves and wildlife while looking at the Northern Lights.

Dishpan baths were the norm as there was no running water unless you ran down to the river to get it. I remember when I was about 12 we added our first indoor toilet and running water to replace the hand pump. I was one of several helpers my Grandpa Julius had to help (hinder) him. I believe it was a year or 2 before we built the new barn. That consisted of many trips across the river (at Toms Crossing) hauling stones on a stoneboat with the horses to put in the floor and foundation. Along with this Grandpa had built a sawmill with which we cut the lumber for the barn. The upper supports for the hayloft were cut from some creosote logs that the county had rejected from a bridge being replaced on Highway 59 just North of town. Brother Dennis was working as Assistant County Engineer and helping the Highway Department with this project.

Oops here i go working again. How about the Sunday School parties and the neighbor kids having fun at the ALC Lutheran Church East of town. There are many memories from this as that is where I was confirmed with 7 other school and classmates. Four boys and 4 girls were in the class and we studied hard. Pastor Brethiem was great. We rode the school bus out from town and he gave another classmate, Jimmy and I a ride home to the farm. It was a fun ride in his 1956 Ford down the river road at about 60 miles an hour sliding in the gravel singing hymns from the top of his lungs.

I missed the Country School experience by one year as Jimmy had his first grade there but the school in Lancaster had built the elementary grades that year 1950. The Poppleton Town Hall is where Lois through Jimmy started school. The elementary addition in town was not completed for about 3 months so we would be dropped off the bus at school and then trudge down the alley to the Lutheran Church to attend our classes.

Some of the best times were with neighbor kids playing baseball, hockey or playing cowboys and Indians (I know this is not politically correct). With baseball it was with a haystack for the catcher as we did not have enough players. Hockey was on a pond with tree limbs for sticks, crushed cans for pucks and catalogs tied to our shins for protection. I don’t recall if anyone ever won! When some new neighbors moved in the next farm with riding horses it was great to not ride workhorses. One of my first experiences was on Necco, about 15 hands, a quarterhorse who would buck on command. His companion, Tony, was a lot taller, about 17 hands and liked to RUN. I was a little over a mile from his barn when he decided he was going home. As he whipped into the yard, headed for the barn, all I could see was the top half of the barn door was closed. Just before I bailed out he skidded to a stop. Thank you Lord!

More later if you are not bored yet!

.