Reminisce

The excerpt below, “Number Please” is from Doris Stensland’s historical novel, The Music Man From Norway. This information was gleaned from a 1905 Canton newspaper, reflecting actual people and life from early 1900s. In 1905 telephone lines had been set up in the rural areas surrounding Canton and most farms were getting hooked into it. […]

All the pieces in her quilt are scraps from her aprons and dresses. A collage of her life in calicos and prints, a thing of beauty from leftovers. Entwined in the threads of the innumerable stitches are fragments of her time — hours and minutes invested and hidden in this labor of love. Today I […]

The below is an excerpt from Doris Stensland’s historical novel, The Music Man From Norway. This information was gleaned from a 1905 Canton newspaper, reflecting actual people and life from early 1900s. Wonder how many of you remember women wearing hats, especially at Easter? “Mother, have you seen the advertisements for the spring millinery openings […]

WEEDS – the crop that never fails. Weeds have always been the farmer’s foe. Back a number of years ago, it was the weed’s appearance in the soybean fields that gave the farmer problems. Members of our family still remember bean-walking days. Summer after summer, armed with sharpened hoes and dangerous corn knives, the mother, […]

Today only a few people can remember sitting alongside a milk cow and “milking by hand”. At milking time, twice a day the Holsteins waited for the farmer to open the barn door and then they marched each one to their own stall. At every milking, a family of cats and kittens were also a […]

Hidden in the happy memories of many of us is an old tire swing, just an old worn-out tire that hung from a tree in the back yard. It was fastened to a strong, far-reaching branch and was just the right height so that when you sat in it your feet were on the ground. […]

Today the combines harvest the ears of corn, but some of us can remember other days. In the past, the investment of a dollar husking hook was all that was needed to harvest his corn. The farmer would get out his faithful team of horses and the lumber wagon with its high bang boards and […]

It now seems a long time ago when we spent Saturday nights in town. During the summer months the stores remained open on Saturday nights. This was both a necessity and a social time for the farmer. He quit his work early, and the whole family headed for town. Mother had her grocery list and […]

If the farmer is to have a harvest in the fall, he must get the seeds in the ground each Spring. Deciding when to do this planting is important. Some farmers have a deadline or a certain date on the calendar. To some it depends on the weather and the moisture in the fields. However, […]

The vehicles that the farmer uses today are a pick-up, a truck or a semi, but Grandpa in his day did his hauling with his faithful lumber-wagon. Grandpa hitched his team of horses to this big open-topped wooden box with wheels, and with live horsepower he transported oats, corn, lumber, or whatever. Grandpa needed this […]

When you have a farmer’s-heart, it lasts a lifetime. From dawn to dusk you plant and reap, and fight the weeds. The years roll by. . . and then you retire! BUT Farming is still on your mind . . . . . You listen to the markets every day; still awaken at 4:30 – […]

Perhaps the psalmist first sang his psalms as he sat in the shade of a tree and played his harp. Many of his psalms were about trees. Trees were important to him. In Psalm one, he described a believer as a healthy tree growing beside the waters. When the pioneers came to the Dakota prairie, […]

O, Pink Peony! There’s not a flower that can compare with your beauty and grace. Your crowded petal arrangements develop into outrageous flowers, large and beautiful. You have been cultivated in gardens for over six hundred years and were popular way back in Victorian times. Peony plants are among the longest-living perennials, often thriving for […]

I remember meals eaten at oilcloth covered tables; These brightly colored tablecloths of flower or gingham design added style to Depression days when our family dined. If the coffee spilled, or baby tipped his milk, Mother wouldn’t cry; she had confidence this cloth would keep the table dry. Oilcloth was so durable and easy to […]

The thirties were known as the Depression days, and money was scarce. For that generation, thrift was the way of life when women patched clothes and darned socks. The food they ate was mostly what they had on the farm – eggs, milk and chicken. This doesn’t describe life today. Now you will never see […]

Some of my sweetest memories go back to when I was a young girl and our Christmas Eves were spent at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. What still stands out in my mind is the Christmas tree with real candles burning on it. They didn’t have electricity. The evening began about four o’clock when we heard […]

Overalls have stood the test of time and served their wearers well. A pair of bibs suggested ruralness and farming. This was illustrated by the famous painting of Grant Wood’s American Gothic, where the stern farmer and his wife stand with a pitchfork and he is wearing a bib overall. Bib overalls were introduced in […]

We’ve been told that it was you, Oh Wind, who brought the water up in days of old. On a quiet day you would have heard my Grandpa say…. “Blow, wind, blow; the water in the reservoir is low. I depend on you to make the windmill go, and pump the water up, So Blow, […]

Every morning about one-third of the people in the world have their first cup of coffee of the day to get them going. Some serve it black and very strong; some serve it with a little cream, and some need a sugar cube to go with it. Can you believe that coffee was first discovered […]

I remember Grandma . . . with a thimble on her finger and a needle in her hand, with her feet upon the treadle, she was an artisan. She could take a piece of fabric – be it crepe or calico, and produce a lovely garment, trimmed with rick-rack, lace, jabot. With a thimble on […]

Intertwined with my Grandma memories are Grandma’s yellow roses. There by her front gate grew this old-fashioned shrub rose. Each year when June arrived, buds would appear on it and the sunshine of summer forced the yellow blossoms to burst into bloom. As a little girl I’d watch Grandma joyfully clip yellow bouquets to bring […]

“Old Straw Hat! Old Straw Hat! My Old Straw Hat! I am so thankful for my old straw hat!” This little song was a hit when my younger brother, at age 7 or 8, sang it at a country school program many years ago. He stood there, a little country boy, in his overalls and […]

The swallows usually arrived at our farm in early May and then began building their nests. These were barn swallows, but every year there were some who would rather build their nest on our front porch. Using mud and dried grasses, we discovered they were very messy builders, dropping muddy stuff on our porch floor. […]

When we opened a box of Cracker Jack, we could hardly wait to find the toy surprise inside. It was always in the bottom of the box. What would it be? A plastic figure such as a tiny animal, airplane, whistle, or a ring? As kids, we looked forward as much to the prize inside […]

In the 1930’s we were recycling and we didn’t even know it! Many children attending country schools in those days came to school carrying shiny lunch pails. During those depression days, Karo white syrup came in a large size tin pail. It even had a heavy wire handle on it, so you could carry it. […]

Back in the ’20’s and 30’s, a cob basket or cob box would usually be seen in a corner of the farm kitchen. These containers would hold both dirty and clean corn cobs to be used as fuel in the farm kitchen ranges. With corncobs available, the farmer had no need to chop wood. The […]

When Grandma baked her cookies in her big black Majestic range, I always thought it was a mystery and also kind of strange how she could know how many corn cobs to make right oven heat for her cookies were always perfect coming off the cookie sheet. When the aroma of baking cookies was in […]

Clothespins. In bygone days these small pieces of forked wood were laundry-day necessities. But now their time has passed. I haven’t seen or used one in many years. Today I toss the wet laundered clothes into the dryer. But I have many good memories of those clothespin days. Hanging up clothes was my favorite part […]