THIS I REMEMBER Brother Victor showed his love for mechanical things as a small boy of maybe 4 years or earlier. He made "engines" and "machines" out of discarded stove pipes and other of Dad's discards. Later he made "bean threshers" on the farm and we pulled rag weeds and threshed them. In spite of all this Dad wanted him to be equally good at hoeing and pulling weeds in fields. It wasn't until Vic worked for the telephone co. and wanted to take a course in radio work that Dad gave in and paid for a correspondance course. After this Vic had clean sailing in his chosen field - electronics. Now in retirement he is maintenance man in a large apartment complex in Brown Deer, Wis. a suburb of Milwaukee. We had few toys but had more fun just inventing games, playing "house," building with stones and anything in reach. The corn crib after corn was out in spring and summer was an ideal place for a "play house," and how we did work to clean it, put down old rag carpets, used boxes for tables, chairs, cupboards etc. We used mud for baking pies, cakes and even at times some of the ground feed Dad had for hogs. Once when cousin Alexa Indermuehle was visiting at our house we made little cakes of ground grain and even baked them in Ma's oven and ate it. As I remember Alexa got sick as a result (upset stomach). We played ball with a ball made of string or occasionally a real baseball and a bat was a length of wood whatever we could find to use. Sister Paula was more of a tom-boy than I. She loved to work in the fields with the men when she was old enough, played ball with the boys, climbed trees - sometimes to the very top. Once she fell and got caught on a branch in the tree and the boys nicknamed her "Apple Blossom." I liked to climb an apple tree in our orchard on the farm and view the world from there - eating an apple in fall. I liked to lie on the lawn in summer and watch the clouds drifting into various formations. That was sheer bliss. Nights on the farm were very quiet and beautiful with the moon light casting shadows of trees and shrubs on our big green lawn. There is a creek that starts in the swamp east of our farm that was a good bullhead fishing place. Mosquitoes were thick and mean but we managed often to get a meal of fish on a summer evening. Paula and I used an old flat-bottom boat to row into the swamp and listen and look for song birds. Paula was good at bird watching and to this day has a store of knowledge about birds and can identify many. We liked to walk on the bogs in the swamp and sometimes missed and got wet feet. The creek was great for skating in winter and for a hike along its banks to explore nature. My brothers were great nature lovers and would get quite excited about the arrival of birds in spring and migration of ducks and geese in spring and fall. We had turkeys the first years on the farm but their habits were not good for raising their young and Ma gave up on them. She would walk in wet grass and long distances to try to find their nests, but we still lost most of the young turkeys. We raised chickens too. We had an incubator and it was great fun when the eggs hatched and through the window in the door of the incubator we would watch the chicks emerge and gradually dry off and get to be little fluffy balls. All this was a lot of work as we had to keep the little chicks warm and fed and watered. We had no electricity so kerosene lamps warmed the eggs and later the chicks. The lamps had to be watched carefully as they would sometimes burn too high and cause smoke and too hot a temperature. So Mother got up often at night to see that our eggs or chicks didn't get too hot. Once at the Eden location when brother Vic was about 2 or 3 years old we looked for him and called but no answer. Finally we found him in a hole that Dad had dug for a fence post. We never knew whether he fell in or climbed in. Once Vic started out to go to Dad when he was making cheese at the Eden factory and we were living in Waucousta. A friend saw Vic walking along the road and returned him to Ma. He had just wanted to go to be with Pa. My early experience with gypsies was at Eden when I was 4 or 5 years old. A gypsie mother and daughter stopped at our home to beg food. They must have come from a camp they had near by. Pa gave them some cheese and they were so thankful. When Ma told me after they left that they were gypsies I wanted to know more. Evidently what Ma told me made me afraid of them. Later that year a wagon of gypsies stopped at our place on a warm summer day. Uncle Ed, Aunt Alvina and family were our guests at dinner that day. I was very frightened as the young gypsies came to our well-pump for water. I was so afraid that I started to cry. My brother, Wally, was only about 2 or 3 years old but already so brave and ready to defend his big sister. He said, "Don't cry, Nona, I throw stones on them." The pump jack was still on the pump from Pa pumping water for the cheese factory so the girls could not get water at our well and soon went back to the wagon and the gypsies left. But my fear of them remained. The second summer on Sunrise Farm brought another covered wagon or two of gypsies to stop at our place to beg. Pa and Ma and the older kids were in the barn milking. I was left to watch over baby bother, Herbert, and I was studying my memory work for Catechism class. I saw a gypsy woman coming up to the house, so I picked Herb up and began to run to the barn - crying and calling my parents. The gypsy woman decided then to go to the barn instead of the house and Pa came out to see what I was calling about. He sent the gypsy woman away and she called to him, "God not bless you," evidently because Pa did not give her any milk for her children. One Sunday morning my brothers Vic and Wally "went hunting" with a gun carved of a piece of wood. A little later they came running home and Wally said, "Vic shot his hand and it's bleeding bad." Dad took Vic to the doctor in Campbellsport. Dr. Hoffman was in church - he was the organist at St. Matthews Catholic church. The doctor left church and they went to his office in his home where he amputated thumb and first finger to the first joint and bandaged his hand. To this day I do not know just how it happened, as the gun was only a piece of wood. People said that the former owner of our farm had blasted stones with dynamite and may have left caps in the stone fence where my two brothers were playing at "hunting." If they had any caps with them they never admitted it. The loss of part of a thumb and finger did not handicap Vic, however; In fact for some work he did later in life the stubs were an asset. My brother, Wally, was a great one for work and play and he really went at everything with a lot of enthusiasm. He took the milk to the cheese factory when he was old enough and sometimes liked to race with the other farmers on the way home. When our dad heard about that he laid down the law to Wally - that did not stop Wally from wanting to "show off." He later loved to challenge other men to test their horses' strength. He always liked to see his team of horses pull the largest load at harvest time. Wally also waxed enthusiastic over feeding chickens, hogs and cattle to make them produce better than any flock or herd of other farmers. He was always proud of the fact that he began milking cows at age 7. Herb and Hank were baseball players at an early age and the folks bought them each a base-ball suit. All my brothers played base ball with the Waucousta team at some time. These games were played against neighboring teams on Sun. afternoon in summer in someone's pasture or hay field. The Campbellsport team was our fiercest rival and rivalry was intensified when the new paved highway was built through Waucousta instead of Campbellsport. There were ardent fans too, that attended these games. It was an event to which a fellow took his girl friend on a Sunday afternoon. Once when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old and Paula was 6 years younger we both decided to walk to visit our grandparents Schultz who lived a mile or a little more south of our farm. We never told our parents we were going and gave them quite a scare. I guess we got a good spanking when we got home. We walked to our rural school that was located a quarter of a mile north of Waucousta. In fall and spring it was a very pleasant walk but in winter we got very cold. Often in very cold weather, especially when we had to walk through deep snow Dad took us with the sleigh and team of horses. Sometimes the snow was too deep even for the horses so Dad carried me over the huge drifts. On cold mornings Vic and I stopped at the home of Grandparents Pieper, halfway to school (They lived in Waucousta then). Grandpa warmed Vic's hands and Grandma warmed mine while we warmed our feet at their big coal burning heater. Grandma always saw to it that we had warm mittens so she knit them for us of the wool from their sheep. Mother also knit mittens, scarves, and socks of wool yarn. A farmer came one winter day to buy cheese from Dad. Before he went out he warned me not to go near the wood burning heater while he was in the cheese factory. Maybe because he warned me I had to try to throw paper into the fire. When I opened the door the flames came out and ignited my dress. I screamed and mother who was lying on the bed because she had a headache jumped up and with her bare hands put out the flame on my skirt. She burned her hands badly and I can still see her walking the floor because of the pain. They healed without a scar but she kept the burned remains of my dress hanging on a hook in the closet for a long time to remind me of what happened when I disobeyed. I remember the incident well, but I'm sure I disobeyed often after that, never-the-less. I remember autumn in Wis. as a beautiful, very colorful time. We had beautiful maple trees that had red and yellow leaves in fall and contrasted with a row of Arbor Vitae. That was a very beautiful sight. Our orchard had many trees with good apples to est. Dad also packed the winter apples in barrels we kept in the cellar to eat in winter. Other fruit was scarce in winter and too expensive so we enjoyed our snow apples, russets, greenings, very much. I also enjoyed getting in the late garden produce to store for winter use. Potato digging time was hard work and I remember how good supper tasted after we had picked up potatoes in the field for several hours after school or on Saturday. Sleigh rides in winter just for fun or to get to church and school or shopping in Campbellsport was great fun. A deep layer of straw in the bottom of the sleigh box and blankets and a buffalo robe to cover us made for quite comfortable warmth. In very cold weather we put heated irons or bricks at our feet. Once on Christmas Eve our sleigh tipped over when the roadway was higher on one slide than the other. No one was hurt and it was exciting. Grandparents Pieper were married on June 16, 1868 so on June 16, 1918 they celebrated their Golden wedding. It was a very important day. All the 9 children and their spouses and families were there. It seems we went to church in the forenoon, but I'm not sure of that. There was a big dinner at noon with a program in the afternoon at which my cousin Alexa Indermuehle and I had a part. All in German. The affair was in their Waucousta home. It was a warm sunny day so the crowd spilled out all over the yard too. An offering for Army and Navy Chaplains was taken as it was World War I time. Mother was a seamstress and did a lot of sewing for other people as well as for her 7 children and herself. I remember I had to go to old grandma Rosenbaum, a neighbor who lived alone a half mile east of our farm, to tell her that the dress Mother was making for her was ready to be fitted. While she dressed in her corset and all the other underthings to go with the new dress I ate the cookies and jelly or sauce she gave me. Then we walked to our house where Mother fitted her dress. Grandma Rosenbaum was not our grandma, but a dear friend and as with other older folks in the neighborhood, we called her Grandma. Every Christmas we girls had new dresses especially when we had a part in the school and church programs. One year Mother could not afford new material for my dress. She always found a way to make a beautiful new creation out of anything suitable at hand. That year I had a navy serge jumper made of a pair of men's trousers. The shoulder straps were of wide velvet and the blouse was a lacy summer dress. I felt very elegantly dressed. Once when Paula was a real little girl - maybe 2 years old, she was very quiet for some time. That made Mother suspicious, so she looked to see what she was doing. She found Paula in the pantry sitting on the floor with the cupboard door open, playing in a jar of lard. Needless to say it took quite a bit of washing with soap and water to get Paula and the pantry floor cleaned up. Once when brother Victor was about 6 or 7 years old he was found sound asleep out doors. When he finally awakened it was supper time and the folks noticed he had trouble getting the food to his mouth. He acted as if he were drunk - and he was. He had emptied the settlings in the bottom of empty (nearly so) wine jugs in the pantry. I guess he admitted emptying them. We had less then 100 acres of land at Sunrise Farm and most of that was in corn, oats, and alfalfa or clover for hay. Wild pasture on the more rugged land got short in dry weather so we had to "herd" the cows along the road and in the school yard. When we drove the herd back to pasture after milking we let them eat on the roadside so it took quite a while to get them to the gate. Along the road was a stone fence with wild raspberry bushes and blackberry vines so we ate all we could in season. That made the job an enjoyable chore. Mother often chose to herd the cows on the school grounds, so she could read the Abendschuhle or Deutsche Hausfrau when it arrived. Then we girls were asked to "keep house" while she enjoyed her magazine. When I was quite young, maybe 5 years old, I remember a cutter ride from Eden factory to Waucousta with my grandparents Pieper. It was cold and snow covered the ground. The moon and stars lighted up the landscape and the snow sparkled like diamonds. I always did enjoy watching the sleigh or cutter runners make tracks in the snow or the wheels of the wagon cut through dust or mud. At night often the shoes of the horses striking stone caused sparks. All these impressions I still remember and enjoy to this day. Most of the bridges we crossed on our roads in Fond du Lac County, Wis. were made of planks that rattled when we drove over them. My brother Vic seemed to like that noise so he called out each time we crossed a bridge: Holz, Holz, Holz (meaning: wood, wood). When we were quite small and before we could be in the Christmas Eve service we went away for a few days over Christmas. One year I remember I had gotten a beautiful doll - a few days before Christmas and we went by train to Juneau to spend Christmas at Uncle Chris and Aunt Tillie Indermuehle's home. That was wonderful. We attended the Christmas Eve service at the Oak Grove Lutheran church. Alexa was in the program. Several girls had dolls with them as part of their service. I blurted out loud so everyone heard me "Oh, haett Ich doch meine Puppe mit gebracht" (Oh if only I had brought my doll). After the church service we had carol singing around the lighted tree at Aunt Tillie's with gifts for everyone and a jolly good time. It was a Christmas I'll never forget. One year our parents and Wally, who was the baby then, traveled by train to visit Uncle John Pieper who was then pastor of a Lutheran church in Echo, Minnesota. The train ride was quite a trial for my parents as Wally wanted to ride in a wagon drawn by Molly and Daisy (our team of buggy horses). He threw himself on the floor in the train and cried and kicked and no way could he be quieted. he kept saying in erman "I want to go with Molly and Daisy." Mother also had another problem. She was wearing new shoes and when her feet hurt so badly she took off her shoes. When they had to transfer to another train in the Twin Cities she couldn't get her shoes back on and had to carry them and walk in her stocking feet. I do believe they enjoyed their stay at Uncle John and Aunt Lydia's home. When I attended confirmation class 4 days a week from Monday to Thursday I stayed with our pastor who lived in Dundee where the school was located. It was a cold drafty parsonage and sometimes when it snowed we had a little snowbank on the window-sill of our bedroom. Another girl stayed at Rev. Aeppler's with me. Every evening we had to study our memory work and go to the pastor's study to recite before we went to bed. I remember the delicious fried corn-meal mush we ate with grape jelly for breakfast. Mrs. Aeppler was a very good cook. During that winter I got sick and Dad came to get me home and the doctor came to our house. He said I had pneumonia and I do think I was very ill for a week or so. Hank was sick too and I remember he would keep spitting out the medicine the doctor left for him. It must have been during the years we lived in the house connected to the store and cheese factory at Waucousta when I was three or four years old that my mother found me playing with a grass snake in our back yard. She must have impressed me with the danger as I've been terribly frightened by snakes ever since. Even as late in life as at Monticello, IA. I got a terrible scare when I nearly put my hands into a whole nest of baby snakes while picking up branches and twigs after a wind storm. I still love trees and always did. On the farm near Waucousta when I grew up we had lots of them. On our front lawn was a large old oak tree, a row of large Arbor Vitae trees, a row of beautiful maples and several others, pine or cedar scattered around - also a large choke cherry tree besides plum and cherry and apple trees. Near the house were two large cotton woods and two large flowering locusts. That's a lot of trees on one yard, but we had a lot of yard in front and back and both sides of our house. There was a tree along the road (among many) that we called "knie-steh Baum" (kneeling tree). Also an apple tree we called "rauf kletter Baum" (climbing tree) because it was so easy to climb up and sit in it. I remember times we went to Fond du Lac, our county seat city, by train from Campbellsport. Once when my Grandpa Pieper was in the hospital in Fond du Lac, I went with Grandma to visit him. We went by train and from the station to some friends' house by "hack" (a horse-drawn cab). I also remember shopping with my Grandma Pieper in Woolworths in Fond du Lac. She bought the "makings" for a hat for me inch wide braid to be sewed together for the hat frame, ribbon and flowers for trim. Ma made the hat. In those days you seldom bought "readymade" of anything. For a new hat you might go to a lady who was known as a milliner to have a hat fashioned for yourself. The straw or braid frame was used over and over with new trimming - feather, ribbon and/or flowers. Some of them were bonnets rather than hats. I also remember walking on sidewalks in the city - not concrete but wooden slats nailed crosswise on "two by fours". I did not like crossing the river on these as I would see the water beneath. Our little rural school at Waucousta gave entertainments for the community - plays, songs, dances, recitations etc. I was in every play and loved it. My brother Wally did jigs and dances. He was a big "hit". During World War I we had patriotic meetings with speeches to urge people to buy Liberty bonds - to raise money to pay expenses of the war. In high school my sister Paula was a real "star" when she acted in the class play. I liked taking part in plays but was never as "at home" on the stage as Paula was. I think Adela was in class plays too. And, of course, brother Wally was - he could be a real clown. We had no gym or auditorium for these affairs. All was plain and primitive by today's standards. No electric lights - only kerosene lamps and lanterns in Waucousta. High school classes performed and played basket ball in the town "Opera Rouse" - a large auditorium in down town Campbellsport. The stage was improvised and built of saw horses and planks of lumber. Curtains were bed sheets on a wire in Waucousta rural school. The Opera House had a stage and electric lights. I remember my dad going to Fond du Lac to attend board meetings where prices for cheese and butter were established. Sometimes Ma and we kids went along. The horse was unhitched and put into the livery stable to rest and eat hay while we did the shopping. At noon we ate a lunch of boiled navy beans, bread and cheese at a restaurant run by the Taemke sisters. That was a real treat for us! These sisters belonged to St. Peter's Luth. Church in Fond du Lac and had hymnals, prayer books etc. for sale in their eating place. Verona Pieper-Gutekunst OCR from photocopy of hand-corrected typewritten original, by Carl S. Gutekunst
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