In the Winter of 1936

The Winter of 36

I was 8 years old in 1936 and I want to tell you some things about that winter.  My oldest  sister Dorothy was married on Dec 28 1935 and that memory stays in my mind after all these years.

We had lost our farm located 3 miles west of Geneva Minnesota  in 1935 and so we were forced to move and rent a farm about 10 miles from where I was born.

That winter we had an unusual amount of snow in Minnesota and my brother Don and I had a ½ mile hike to school.  Don had to break the snow drifts ahead of us as he was 12 and I was 8 years old.  We also skied to schools some days.  We had skies that fastened over our overshoes and we just kind of walked them to school over the snow.

That winter my sister Daisy contacted pneumonia and ran a fever of 105 degrees for quite some time.  The Doctor came out from Ellendale and cupped her on the back every day and he came with a horse and sleigh as they could not get the roads plowed out until we had another storm.

My little brother Dick who was 6 months old and I went over to my sister Dorothys and spent 6 weeks while my Mother was taking care of Daisy.  I missed that much school but did not seem to hurt me any.

Dick was a good baby and I remember teasing him a little and he would get so mad.  He knew I was fooling with him and he was so small.

My brother Lawrence and a neighbor boy and girl went to High School in Geneva and they had to go in a sled driven by one horse.  They parked the sled and hose in a livery stable in Geneva and then had to come on back home.  It was about 3 miles to Geneva and they had one teacher that taught all the subjects.  The students had to go to High School the last year in Ellendale to graduate by state law.

We moved to 2 miles south of Hope Minn in March and the neighbors came with their sleds and horses and moved us.  They had to dig out the last quarter mile so that the Model A Ford could get through.  I remember my Mother holding the mantle to the Alladin lamp in her hand all the way to Hope.

Don and I then started school in our local district and when the spring thaw came about it was another mess.  My Dad met us down by the creek one day and the water was running over the road.  He told Don and I to walk back to the railroad tracks and come through the field.  We had to walk the barb wire fence for about 10 feet as there was quite a bit of water in that field.

We started in the new school and did all right.  I think Lawrence walked across another field and caught the bus into Ellendale.  He was in 10th grade at that time.  The next year my dad bought a Model A Ford and the boys drove to Ellendale and took about 5 other young people going to High School.

That was a very different time and people cooperated more and helped out more with their neighbors than they do now..