First 30 Years of My Dad's 90-Year-Old Life

Dad turned 90-years-old on Christmas Eve. He is healthy, independent, and lives in the house in which he was born.

I was surprised he did not want to dispense advice, but like many of his age group, The Greatest Generation as fellow South Dakotan Tom Brokaw has dubbed them, Dad chose to reminisce.

What follows are some of the technological changes a farm boy from east central South Dakota experienced from 1924 to 2014. 

Part I: The First 30 Years 

Waldo ~ in his tweens

Farmers' Line: 1924-1934, Decade #1 
Primitive Living

In the 1930s, farmers formed groups and installed telephone lines. A household would agree to be a switchboard. My Uncle Johnny's parents and Mom's cousin Mary G's family were switchboard centers. If someone called outside the group, the switchboard would make the connection to the other group and could also listen in. That's how the community got news.

Dad told the story of a young girl telephoning that she couldn't find anymore cow chips. The woman on the other end of the line responded in German saying, "Dear girl, nothing to eat. Nothing to poop." It was the Dirty 30s, and cow chips were burned for heat. 

Eventually, those phone lines deteriorated, and the farmers didn't have the money to maintain or repair them. It would not be until 1957 that the rural landline telephone system was installed.

a teenage Waldo

Farming with Machines: 1934-1944, Decade #2
Rabbit Hunting when Pearl Harbor Attacked in 1941

After most of the horses died of sleeping sickness, Dad's father did not have enough horses left to pull the binder. So he traded all but two horses in and spent $200 to purchase an F-12 Farmall tractor with steel wheels that could only go four mph back in 1935. This tractor could pull an eight-foot disc and a two bottom plow. Grandpa used the remaining team of horses to make hay.

Six years later, Grandpa Pete traded in that tractor for a rubber-tired H-Farmall vehicle that could travel 15 mph and pull a three bottom plow. To finance this $900 tractor, he made payments along with the trade-in.

Also in 1941, Grandpa purchased a five-foot Allis Chalmers combine. This revolutionized the family farm, for now they could harvest without a thrashing crew. Stories about harvest work before the combine belong in another post.

Speaking of thrashing crews, seems Uncle Johnny and neighbor Elmer Wipf hopped on a train to Minnesota. They didn’t buy a ticket or sit in seats. They rode hanging onto the outside of the train or maybe even on top of it. After they arrived, they earned a dollar a day shocking bundles on a thrashing crew. This happened in '33 or '34, according to Dad, who heard it from Uncle Johnny—who was, by the way, a story teller.

high school graduation picture

Humbling Beginnings: 1944-1954, Decade #3
Young Adulthood 

Rural areas were still without electricity; however, they knew it was coming some time, so to prepare, the farm was wired and a light plant was placed in the garage in 1947. A little motor with a gas engine made the electricity. They had lights, but not much use for appliances until that year or the next when Aunt Mary and Uncle Jr. went to Chicago to purchase a truck and came home with a gift. A toaster. 

Mom & Dad

Before indoor plumbing, they did have a bathtub that was supplied with hot water from the cook stove that was heated with wood, cobs, cow patties, or whatever they could find.

"There was always a supply of warm water on the side of the stove," Dad said. "Just reach in with the dipper." 

Indoor plumbing didn't exist in the home yet because they couldn’t get water pressure until a pump was installed, and that required electricity. Once that convenience came to fruition, they went to Sears to pick out a plumbing package of a toilet, sink, and tub. Dad's recollection of this event was funny.

"Sears then sent out two old codgers," he said. "They took two suitcases down into the cellar, then went back out and returned with the cast iron pipes to install. I couldn't figure out what they had in those suitcases." After some snooping around, Dad found beer inside.

With indoor plumbing came the need for a septic tank and sewer tiles. Young people from the church helped. One such youngster was Dad’s cousin's son, Roger Wollman. He later became a South Dakota Supreme Court Justice and now sits on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. He too, had a humble beginning.
 

Dad & Mom with Elliott & Priscilla

Writer's Note: Part II, years 40 through 60, coming in the next post.


Any similarities between my dad's stories and your ancestor's? What was their first household appliance? Where were they when Pearl Harbor was attacked?


 

Seven Kids & Me

As a youngster with a married sister living out of state, late summer trips to Kansas were an annual affair. The 500 or so mile trip was tedious for me, but my Barbie dolls entertained me in the back seat of our Oldsmobile.

Don’t know how a kid stands a trip today with seat belt requirements, for I sat on the floor with Ken, Barbie, Tuesday Taylor (the doll whose hair could change color), and their entourage spread out on the back seat. I guess that’s why 21st century children get a personal DVD player.

I doubt Dad would ever purchased that for me though because I had to beg him when I was in high school to buy a VCR from the Sears catalog (back when those things cost over $500) so I could tape the NBA finals during the Lakers’ domination of league. But when it was all over, he returned it. I was so mad, but not too mad because I think he did that for me more than once. 

Anyway, for one Kansas trip, Mom and Dad decided to go see my cousin Wilmer and his wife Elaine and family who had moved to Meade, Kansas, where they lived in the country with all kinds of farm animals.

I remember it well because the next morning after I’d eaten some cereal, Cousin Jetta said, “You just drank goat’s milk.” I couldn’t believe it—don’t remember if I finished it, but Mom probably made me.

When we had arrived the night before, we learned that Elaine's sister, Georgiane's family, was also visiting.

Mom asked Elaine why she did not tell us they already had company. Elaine’s response was, “But then you wouldn’t have come!”

So there we all stayed. Six adults, my four Kleinsasser cousins and their three cousins, and me. Yes, technically, second cousins, but to me, cousins just the same.

I loved visiting my sister Brenda and then husband John in Kansas, but this was the best Kansas trip ever for a little girl who soaked up the chance at being around people her own age.

See, I lived in the country far from my school or church friends, so it seemed, but it was really back in the day when parents didn’t drop everything to go drive their kids around so they could have a social life.

Elaine cooked up a storm, no doubt, for a crew that size, and where I slept was probably a floor—I don’t remember.

Wilmer chauffeured us around on a buggy pulled by an old Shetland pony or some other beasts they called Thunder and Lightning—donkeys or something or other.

I just remember it was fun and I needed a bath.

I hope every child grows up to have a vacation memory like this—one in which love of family and hospitality abound.

What are some vacation memories of your younger days?

Seven Kids & Me. I am in back, second from left.             

Author's Note: This was part two of a tribute to my cousin Wilmer and his wife Elaine who will be married for 50 years this November. Part one was last week in the post entitled, Procrastination Pile Removed.