Tape 4: The grandchildren, the Seattle trip

0:06 The young Mennonite men tell why they might leave

So the boys start questioning the guy. He was standing there by himself. So they were asking him how it happened and all that. Well, he said, a week before they married us, he said, the elder, that's what he called him, the boss of the whole manna village and all the acreage around and everything.

He is the one, the elder they call him. He says the elder told the rest of them to go and spend every Saturday until they build us a home. Well, they didn't build only one home, but they built two homes right along the same one another.

And we was helping them to build a nice house. He said, we have a kitchen, a living room, two bedrooms, and a bath. And the other house is made indenting. It's all free work. Everybody chipped in and done the house.

this year work and women cooked and baked and they furnished the food and we had a fun and we built a homes and that's when the homes were finished that's when we found out that the elder picked out the brides for me and my cousin so the other fellow was his cousin and he says they married us the two days after the house was complete they furnish little furnish and everything.

My cousin, he is working out on the fields every day with the horses. We have no tractors, no cars, no other. And I was working in the manufacturing place in the shop where we make a manna freezers, a manna, frigidaires, or, you know.

And so I'm walking there. But we never see a penny of money. Well, how do you live? Well, we live. We can go in the store and buy anything we need. And if we start to be too frivolous and buy something that we wouldn't have to have, they just simply don't give it to us in the grocery box.

And we have men that do nothing else but make shoes for all of us. This is the kind of shoes we get there for church and for going away or working, same shoes until they worn out and they give us another pair.

And the clothes are made by seamstresses that do nothing but make overalls and jackets. And the children in school, they have to make these buttons. Let me show us the buttons, get six buttons on his jacket. And he had a homemade shirt on, too.

And here he was going on a three -week's visit, first visit he ever had. In these seven years, they were married. and he said we work every day we get our three meals a day and we go sleep and we're tired and next day same old thing we haven't got no choice of anything the elder is the boss and he said I resented very much and he said I don't think I'm going back with my family no more he says I can see how other people live and I think that's just holding my freedom.

Well, meantime, the other fellow come from the back end. His little girl wanted to drink because she seemed the other fellow's boy had a drink and he had to share with them. So then this one that didn't look so bright, he went and he bought a bottle apart and brought her to the child.

Then he stuck around. So they stuck, the girls, got into this act and the boys too, you know, and they start asking him, his name was Jim. He was introduced, you know, this first one, he says, that's my cousin, Jim.

So then they start asking Jim questions, but he seems like he wasn't as half as bright as the first guy. And he was well -pleased the way things were. And the girls, they couldn't help. they giggled and giggled and they may not at the boys because the girls knew what the boys wanted to ask so they asked this one that wasn't too bright he said did this elder tell you when to go to sleep with your bride and when to have children because how come that you have same age the five -year -olds the three and a half -year -olds and a year -old babies

both your wife's got the same. Well, the goofy one, he said, I don't know why it happened, but it seems like there was only a few days difference when my children were born and my cousins, see. So then he was a little red in the face, and then he walked back to his wife, and his smart one was standing there yet.

Well, he said, I wouldn't have gave you that kind of answer. you know he isn't too bright that cousin of mine and I didn't tell him that I'm going to leave but he says I want to own a car and I want to own a house and everything he said you know what got me is I caught the elder two times with my wife at noon when he didn't expect me home I come about half an hour earlier than I should have and there was the elder with my wife and he says I didn't like it and I wouldn't and I won't take it, and

so I'm going to not even go back. And the boy says, that's the way to think. He says, think like the rest of us. He says, why shouldn't you? You're the boss, and it's your wife. And, you know, so that's how it all ended.

Well, meantime, the

6:14 The midnight lunch wagon: coffee, pies, and boiled eggs at 2 a.m.

wheel was being repaired, and after to put no one on and new lugs and whatnot, here comes a Jeep, kind of like one of those one of those enclosed things, you know, that look like a truck, covered truck or something.

And he stopped right by the bus, and he jumped out, and he opened the back doors. There's two doors opened up, like, you know, like, and pulled some kind of a spring, and out comes kind of like a table, or I would say about three feet wide in the width of the Jeep.

And inside of that Jeep, inside of that van, was all kinds of shelves, and they were loaded with all kinds of things to eat. And on one side of that cheap, right by the door, he had a coffee urn with hot coffee.

On the other side, he had chicken noodle soup in the urn, and you could buy anything you wanted. There were sandwiches wrapped of different kinds of meats, and they had pies, all kinds of pies. He had about 20 pies or more pieces, I mean, quarters of a pie.

And he had a whole big kettle full of boiled, hard -boiled eggs and salt shakers. Well, so people start crowding out. We were bored staying there, you know. So we all started buying. One bought a pie and coffee, another one bought a bowl of soup.

And first thing, you know, he didn't know who to serve first, this man. and so it went on by gully he ran out of coffee and then everybody else got some more soup just 10 cents a bowl and three crackers wrapped up separately and everything and so it went on and oh and then the pies went like hotcakes and then a well -to -do look like a well -to -do man he was dressed just beautifully older man maybe 55 60 and he said And give them each one of them on eggs so you don't have to drag the doggone eggs back.

This was ready 2 .30 in the morning, see? So he started dishing out the eggs and counting him, and this man put his hand in the pocket and give him a 10 spot and says, is that enough? Oh, he says, yes, more than enough.

He says, I'll give you a change. Oh, no, he says, just wait until we eat the eggs. And like I said, we have to the coffee bottom and the soup already and the sandwiches are all gone. and, well, there was 40, 40, 45 maybe people there, and everybody bought something, see.

So we was having a ball, everybody laughed, and everybody joked, you know. Then there was about eight, nine pieces of different kind of pies left, see. And he says, you ain't going to drag that back home. He said, put the pies out on their table and let anybody who still got little place in the tummy take up piece.

I'll pay for it, so he paid for it. And I got a piece of apple pie. I didn't intend to buy one, but I got it. And he just pick it off that little table that was pulled out and hand it to people, stay wondering or not.

He just was handing him to him. So we don't. Well, when we got on eating, this hefty man, he says, well, do you need such a big hurry, are you? He says, why don't you talk to us a little bit?

We're just bored. He says, he's getting towards morning. and we're not moving yet. Well, they ask him how he happened to think of all this. Well, he says, I was in the army and while I was in France, I seen this stuff being brought in by the, you know, kind of like an oblongish buggy with one horse and this man had all kinds of things, soup, you know, and coffee and different things and different breads.

He cut the bread up there, this in France, like, in some kind of a town. And this soldier boy, he watched him do it, you know, and pocketing the money and everything. So he said, well, that's kind of a fairly good trade, you know.

But then he figured he'll go into shop, working in a shop like he used to before he went to the army. And when he got back, he couldn't get the job he liked that he had before. So he took his money that he had, what they call it, master out pay or something.

and he had few bonds saved up while he was in the army. So put it all together and borrowed three or four hundred and bought this here Jeep business and decked it out with these shelves inside, put them together, you know, good, and attached the shelves to the side of this here van.

And he says, I was in business. And he says, it's pretty good because he says, this is my third van. When the van is about two years old, I'd get a better one. you know, and deck it out and all that.

And he says, I've got about seven factories where I go from 11 o 'clock till one, which he visits at certain factories, and the workers where they get their 15 -minute coffee break there, he knows really what they really want and that, and he says, it goes like clockwork.

And then I go and fill up again, and then I go along, and if there's something like this happens, you know I see you're stuck here and that's why I offer my coffee and that's how it goes but he says I make it pretty nice now I'm not getting rich or nothing but I've got family of two kids already and a wife and and I manage he says the rent and clothing and the food for the children so I'm doing okay says I'm glad of that at least I got some kind of a job for sure see we were kind of pleased about the whole

thing and then first thing you know the bus driver says all aboard he says he says were grown in a few minutes, and so we all piled in and where we went. Well,

12:20 Sunrise in Indiana, and a last goodbye to her sister in Toledo

most of us must have dosed off then for a hour or two because the sun was kind of peaking out a little bit when we got into Indiana, I think. And, you know, from through Indiana, we're supposed to go to Ohio or Toledo on there, you know.

And we happened to look out, and here we see a buggy with the top on, you know, and a horse and another one after a while we've seen two, three of them. Always one horse one nice buggy, black buggy and nice horse trimmed and go and see.

And this man and I come out there and he says, I'm kind of glad that I told you what I told you. And he says I know you ain't going to snitch on me or nothing, but he says definitely I might run across you in some town or some place.

He says, I can work pretty good in them making these men of freezers and stuff, so I am not so that I couldn't do it. And then I'll have my own house and my own car. He wanted a car very badly and everything.

And I can buy my own clothes. I don't have to wear what they give me and all that. So he said, wish me luck. It's quite bright. and everybody shook his hands around there were that talk to him and listened to him and then his wife come all what you call it and she says I would like to have a breath of fresh here so the bus driver opened the window about three inches she stood with us for a little while nice looking woman and he says well let's go back to this in a little while he says I see them coming around with the

buggies so in the next town they already had to get off. And all those buggies and horses was centering and going in that same direction that our bus was going, so we kind of figured that's where they're going to be visiting, you know.

So I just wonder if he had the luck that he was wishing for and was freed by himself from that. But he was quite confident that he's going to pull it off, so whatever, you know. So then I finally got to Toledo and visit my sister.

And we had a fine time. The girls took me to different stores, Kroger store, and here and there, you know. So I could see something that I don't see out on an northern Wisconsin farm, you know. And I stay there a few days and then I'm back.

So that, well, I stay there for about a week, week and a half. And my sister was sickly. And she says, and she had a big tour. And she says, I don't think I'll see you again. and Edna, not alive, but we had some nice times together.

It was nice of you that you got. When she wasn't sick, she used to come with the children, two of them at a time or two or three of them at a time. And she'd stay four, five days, or a week and a half, two weeks.

You know, two weeks was about the long as she stayed. And so now she couldn't travel, so she was glad that I'd come and that. And when she was given me goodbye in Toledo, when I started going for home, And she went and embraced me, and she says, goodbye, Agnes, just be a good girl so you can get to heaven.

And I'll meet you there. I says, you'll be all right. I'll see you again. And so she was crossing the street after she left me stand by the Dastepo outside, you know. And she stopped in the middle of the street, whirl around, and she walked kind of hard.

But she walks back to me, embrace me again, kissed me. and then the two of my nieces took her, put her in a car anyway, went there's for the last I seen her alive. About two months later she died and I happened to get there to the funeral.

My son took me there and we just made it. But she was a wonderful sister, the oldest one. I was the youngest one. But she was very nice to me. The children still, it's already 15, 16 years ago since I was to her funeral.

and my niece's nephew's right to me and everything. They says, I'm the only one left, you know, now. I kind of little sad, but it can be helped. We all got to go one time or another. So that's it.

16:55 Butternut hunting with the grandchildren

And now I'll say a few stories for the benefit of my grandchildren because they ask me to, when they were small yet, the three oldest ones of my oldest boy, John, they went to the woods with me and we wandered around on different logging roads and stuff.

Then one day we ran across a wild apple tree and had apples on it, and that was quite exciting. Never dreamed we'll see any apples there. And there we've seen, oh, maybe about 20 of them. And the apple tree was maybe 10, 12 foot high, 12, 10 foot high.

And so we enjoyed it. We picked some apples and took them with us home. And then we spied some butternut trees, and they were loaded that year. And so we decided we're going to go butternut hunting. But we had to go home because their mother kept pretty close watch on them.

And when she said, you'd be gone an hour or you'd be gone two hours, she expects us to be back in two hours because she was starting to teach him to do little housework and stuff. I guess the oldest one was maybe 13 and down.

Then one was 11 and a half, and one was 8 and a half or something. And so we didn't want to upset her or get her angry at us. So we always tried to go and be on time.

So we got home, but at the same time, we asked her if it's all right, we could go about her not hunting the next day. She says, okay, we told them how far I would have to go and everything, so she gave us two hours.

And so we took a five -gallon paint pail, and I took an apron on, so if there were so many that I can carry some in the apron home, see? and we started after dinner the second day and we really enjoyed the scene it was so beautiful, sunshiny, you know, for all the time and these butternuts, they were just so, there were bushels of them, and so we've got a certain spot where we've seen young butternots where they were quite large hanging, you know, and it was across a whole 40 or more.

So we shook them and the oldest girl, she climbed like a good trooper up that tree and then we all helped her shake and all there was butternuts all over. So we picked about half a five gallon and left some on the tree yet and then we went down towards the road and we spied another bunch of big ones so we finished filling the pail.

And then we was getting closer to the road where we was going to go home when we spied another one and that had more and bigger ones than we've seen before so they shook some and I we picked them into my apron my I must have three gallons or more in my apron and so we were supposed to see foot and down towards the road and very happy over our loot that we picked you know and then we decided to sit down so we sit down on some stones there's plenty of them there in the front pasture and I said well while we're sitting let's

go and crack some of the nuts that we've got in my apron. So we did. And they found me a boulder about the size of my fist. And the big boulders that we sat on, they were solid enough and everything.

And so we start cracking them. Of course, we got our fingers all green from the juice off the outer covering of the butternuts. But that didn't stop us. We had a certain style. We had a certain style. We hit the butternut right on the edge of it, you know, where the blasts used to be, and it cracked right in half, and then I kept on cracking, and the girls, well, there's all three girls, they start pulling out the white meat and making piles.

We got handkerchiefs out and paper we had in the pocket, so we made four piles, one for me and one for each one of the girls. So then when we had, oh, maybe a cup full or more on each pile, we stopped cracking the nuts.

Then we put the nutmeats in our pockets, and we sat down and we peeled the outer skin. It feels so nice, and the meat was just like snow and delicious. So we ate until we ate up, each one of us, the whole cup full or more.

And then I took up my apron, and with one hand I held the apron, the other hand. And I carry, the 13 -year -old helped me carry the five -gallon. We got home plenty of time, and we had a good fun.

And now, after all these years, they still think of it, and they mentioned it to me. He said, do you remember when we went butternut hunting? And I said, sure, sure. So then the

22:22 Old logging roads, trout spawning, and tracks left by a 'Martian'

next time when a week or so later, we went, we went, just. up and down certain long roads. I used to know those logging roads when I was a young bride because I followed where my husband went to make wood and where he made logs and he kind of gave me the lowdown which way to go and all.

And of course I wasn't over the thing, maybe 20 years or so over the same long roads. And they asked me where I'm going to go someplace. I said, sure, I'm going to go look over the old longroads I used to travel when I was a young woman.

So they asked permission and they went with me. And I showed them the name of different kind of trees that had different for the bark and the leaves and everything. And they really were quick to learn and everything.

And that's why they love the outdoors like I do. And they are quite worse on the woods thing because their father is, their father is a logger and he's got quite a few pieces of land with logs on of the trees and stuff.

And then we went towards home from this woods and I knew a spot where the drug were spawning. So I show a tomb where it was. And the fish weren't scared of us at all. We could have caught them by hand.

That's how they were tame, seems like, but they had their spawning affair in their mind, I suppose. And so we looked how they laid the eggs in and put the white stuff over it, and then we went home.

So then one day again, we went, this was maybe a year later, you know, we went in the woods, not too far from the main road, about the middle of the middle of the middle, of March and there was snow maybe about six, seven inches deep already, but the rest of the snow was already torn out, you know, the sun was shining for at least a month, you know, every day.

So it was settling down. It was much higher before, you know. And so I said, well, that isn't so deep. Let's go through here and I showed them where I used to go picking the big balladus mushrooms, you know, the big red ones.

And it was kind of how I would say, a ridge, you know, and it curved from the place where I was going to build a cabin. The cabin wasn't built, but we looked over the spot where I'm going to have and everything.

And from there we went on this here ridge, and we went, oh, maybe two blocks from the place where I was going to build a cabin. And we spied a great big boulder, oh, it was as big as I would say as a tract or something, you know, about that big.

all by itself and we start discussing it that someday we're going to go and chop our initials in it with a wedge or something and a hammer, see? And then we glanced to a side and right a little ways from there, a few feet from there, we spied a track of a dress shoe, you know, how men folks wear dress shoes oxfords, you know?

Well, the same the heels and the pointed shoe and everything, and where this party must have been a man, because must have been at least eight, nine -sized shoe, both of them shoes were one next to another, right under a Christmas tree by blue spruce.

And then we looked all around from which direction the man or whoever had their shoes on went up to that spot. And, oh, at least seven, eight feet, or maybe more, there was no tracks where these feet were standing, you know.

So we started worrying about what kind of a step the party had to do, not to make tracks in the snow up to where these two indentation of these two shoes were. And it downed on us that there was none.

The man would have to have an enormous step, maybe a five, six feet or maybe more, before he could land under that tree with them to shoe marks. We got a little scared, and we decided to meet at home.

And I think that was the last time their mother let them go with me because we really, I got scared myself. And I never could figure out how the two tracks could get where they were, see? And they were good to say nothing at home, but I believe they must have blurted out right away.

And so that was the end. Well, the girl, the oldest girl was about 14, you know, and the younger ones said they had to help. So she was teaching her how to keep house and help her sleep and do this and that, you know.

So we didn't have much time. time to bloom around the countryside, so we never did then. Well, they would come and visit me many times after the cabin was built and everything, but once in a while we think of the, oh, and then, so of course, they got home and they said, it couldn't have been nobody else but a Martian.

Those days, the word Martian was quite common. Everybody was saying the Martians were coming and all that, you know. So they decided it must have been a Martian, just slid from the Martian. the sky and plant himself under the Christmas tree, you know, stood there.

So that end up the Martian adventure because we never went there no more or nothing. But every once in a while the girl says, did you go and see if there's any more tracks from the Martian up there, Grandma?

I said, no. Well, I says, I lost interest when you are not with me, you know.

28:39 A month and a half with the grandchildren: dress-up, a swimming-hole game, and a scare

So we had fun that way, you know. Well, then they used to come over to my house and once in a while, and when they had free time and how they let them. And then they dressed up in all kinds of clothing, you know, and furze around their necks.

I had all kinds of high heels shoes upstairs. I never wore. They put them on. And hats, I had lots and lots of hats, and they put the funniest ones on and had pictures taken. So we had our little fun.

I had more fun with my grandchildren, I believe, than with my own sons. Because they were working mostly ever since they were 8, 10, 12 years old. They were working on the farm like men already. And then they had a little time, a few hours for themselves.

They wanted to go trout fishing right in our creek. So I didn't have much time to fuss around with the boys. but I always wanted a girl, so I really took to the girls, and I was very grateful to my daughter -in -law that she let them come over and fuss with me a little while, every once in a while.

So then my younger son, he had five or six children already by that time, and they lived in Minnesota, so he let him come to visit us for about a month, month and a half, see. So I had lots of fun that month and a half with them.

I bought a new clothes. We went to church together, went to Rice Lake. And then we went for walks. I had them, you know, the three children. It was a girl and a boy and a girl. Well, we got, oh, we went to our fishing together and all that.

One day we spied a deep hole, maybe three, four feet deep. That big water, when we had a cloud burst or something, and the creek was running maybe three, four foot deep. Usually it's only six, seven inches. And when it went around the curve to go under the bridge, then it made a hole by itself, you know, as the pressure of the water, the curve didn't take the sand out.

And so we espied this here big hole. And so the kids, The boys took their clothes. The boys took his clothes off, only his underwear he left. And the girls stripped off all he had, little slips and panties.

And they was going to go in and see how deep the water was. Well, I said, be careful. And I sat on the bank, see? I watched them. And they had quite a fun. They were dunking and they were spraying and splashing one another and everything.

Then they got a bright idea that they'll hold their noses with their two fingers. Each one by itself will go first, the oldest and the next and the next. And I was supposed to sit on the bank and count how many counts how long they can stay under the water.

They crawled into this here thing, and it was up to their chin, the depth of it. But when they held their nose, then they sat down or squat inside the water, so it was over their heads. And I was supposed to count how long they can stay without breathing, see.

So, okay, so the oldest one, she stayed 10, count up to 10, you know, and she popped her head out me, she says, how many did you call this is 10? So then the boy went, you see, was his turn, so he went, and he says, I want to stay under as long as she does, Christy, so his name was Frankie, so I says, okay, I'll watch.

So I counted, and I waited until he had nine, and then I made emotions, got to get up, so he got out of the water. I think it was just as much as Christy's. Then the littlest one, she was, well, I would say, 10, 9 or 10 or something, and the other ones were older, two years older and two years.

Well, anyhow, she had something wrong with her foot. She had a couple operations and they fixed it up and she's fine. But at that time, she had a sore foot. Something was short in the back end of her in step or something, anyhow.

She had a corrective shoe, which she took off with the rest of them. Well, they took their tennis shoes off. And she whispered to me, I want to be under the water as long as they, so don't motion to me to come up.

She says, I'll stay. And I said, well, be careful. I said, you're so much younger than they. So she went And she was short enough That she didn't have to squat much yet She was under the water And I start counting And I count to eight and nine and ten And I got panicky And I was saying 11 And I jumped into the creek And reached down and pulled her By the collar of her dress She was there much longer than the other two And I thought she'll draw And she come up That first thing she says, was I there as long as they?

I said, you sure was. And they knew that she was there a couple of counts longer than they. But they didn't say nothing. Well, she was half dead when I dragged her out. She was too long without breathing, you know, because she had her nose clamped tighten.

And she was determined to be there as long as they. So finally, I dried her out a little bit, and I said, you can go there no more. I said, I think you was there longer than they were, you know, just telling her.

Then they start telling me, well, you're all wet. Anyhow, Grandma, why don't you come and Duncan, too? We'll watch how long you can stay under. Well, I says, I'm getting too old for that. Oh, no, you're not. You're just as young as we are.

We will count and we'll see if you can be there as long as we. So it didn't take too much persuasion. I figured, well, I got an old house dress on anyhow. When we get a whole, we change clothes.

So before they knew it, I was in the hole. Of course, I had to squat down and hold my nose. And I could stay there only to count of eight. And I popped up and I said, that's long enough.

Was I there as long as you? And he says, no, no, you was there only up to eight. Well, I said, that's more than I should have been. I could have drowned it, you know, kidding them. So then we went to a spot where we got a big springs.

There's a great big boulder And right from underneath it This here water boils with the sand Just boils and boils over and over again So we took a hole And we cleaned it all out We had a little tin can We used for drinking water You know, it was beautifully clean And very sweet and tasty And ice cold

35:56 The spring that shot 60 feet into the air, and the poplar that plugged it

And so we We fuss around there for a while Then I told him, I says, too bad, I don't know exactly where that, a pipe is that years and years ago, say, 40 years ago, they put in a pipe some kind of a fellas was looking for oil or something.

And they brought in a well drilling outfit, and they used the well drill to pound the casing in to find out to find out if they get oil. And I guess they went about 60 feet in the ground with this casing, and all of a sudden water burst out and it started growing higher and higher and higher.

And I was told by my husband that it was 60 feet in the air, flown that much out, but it was pure spring water. So it was flowing around for a long, long time. And then finally these men were disappointed, you know, that they didn't get oil, but they had the 60 feet of this casing in.

So they told the owner, we live on his place, his name was, his name was Glaser. They come to his house, and they told him that if he's willing to pay $2 for each foot of this casing, he can keep it there and the water would flow in the air that much, see?

and that would come to $120, you know, twice 60. And he says, man, I am a sick man, he was. He died there until time afterwards, I guess, or a year or so later. I actually don't know when he died, but he died.

But he was in bed at the time this man come to want this $120. Well, he says, I cannot give you nothing. He says, I'm glad my family is living and got enough. to buy him food, you know, groceries and stuff.

He says, I can't possibly, I just haven't got it. Well, then this man that had this machinery and owned the casing, he got kind of angry, I guess. And so he told a man that was helping him to dig with these casings and everything, a friend of mine that I knew, and he's the one that told me all about this.

And he said he ordered me to find the nicest, straightest, Popple, I can see. So I looked around. Finally, I found a nice straight one. And he says, chop it down. So he says, I did. Then he told me to slick the skin off.

This was in summertime or springtime. So he slipped the skin off on this here, Popple. And he don't remember how long it was, but it was long enough and nice. And he says, now drag it over here. And before the helper, the one that was telling me this, Before he could say anything, this owner of this rig, he says, help me stand it up.

So they put the top part of the tree first into this here casing. And then by force, he had the machine standing there yet, that he was, you know, well drilling for this year.

He started the machine and he started pounding, and he seemed to it that he pounded that popple. into this casing, and he pounded it real well, you know. So the man couldn't use the water. Well, the man didn't have no use for that much water, you know.

But he pounded it shut, and it bubbled a little bit water around the pole, but the casing was full of the pole, you know, and then he pulled out the machinery and everything. Well, it went like that for years and years.

the man was dead for many, many years then I got married and lived right across the road from this man's house where he died and then about 10, 11 years later 12 years later 11 about my neighbor boy, a year older than my oldest one and my oldest boy he was about 10, 11 years old they went to fuss around the springhole there and they spied about six inches of this casing sticking out of this spring.

So they come around and home, and they told us that somebody must have had a well there because about six inches of this year casing of some kind, the pipe is sticking out of the ground there in the springhole.

Well, at that time I was quite busy. I had a little fellow about five years old, and my father -law was sick. And so I never went there to see, see. And whatever happened, I don't know, but anyhow, the casing fell down, a little lower in, and we couldn't find it after we had the time to go and try to dig it out.

We couldn't find it even with the shovel. So the casing is still there, and the pole is there. But the spring start flowing around the casing, and it's boiling there and all that. A lot of people go and see it and admire it and have a drink of water and all that, you know.

So we, me and the children, we went up there, and we took a shovel and a pick and a rake, iron rake, and we raked all the debris there, you know, the leaves falling down, all that. We cleaned it all out real nice.

We was happy over the whole thing, and the next day we went to Rice Lake and got ourselves picnic stuff, like potato chips and popcorn and a big watermelon and all that. lemons for lemonade, and then the Sunday, after we bought all this, we had a picnic upon a hill.

We've got quite a hilly country, and from that hill we can see far, far away all around. So I guess the children didn't care to go back to Minnesota. All three cried a little bit. I told them, I says, well, next time you'll come and maybe your father will let you stay a little longer.

So we took them to the city by the lake, you know, and their mother come to meet them to pick them up in a car and took them back to Minnesota or the new soda. But I had my fun with my children, and now they're older and they got their own businesses and stuff.

42:40 Setting off for Seattle: a pickup, a trailer, and a night in St. Paul

So they go and come and visit me every once in a while. I enjoy them so much. So now I will start after a little while I'll rest And then I'll start a story of my big trip That'll be the last story, I think It was a big trip to Seattle A friend of ours And his wife come To visit their mother and father and sister And I was a very close friend of their mothers I knew their father good too, but I was really friendly with their mother.

She died. God bless her son. And so this guy said her oldest son, he says, would you like to go to Seattle with us? That's where they lived. This Mrs. Griffin, Nikki, her name was, she inherited 15 acres of beautiful land up there about 15 miles from Seattle, and towards Mount Rainier, I think.

And so I says, I'd like to go, but I don't know how my husband will feel about it. But he didn't want me to go, really, but he says, if you insist, then go, go. So I went, and I'll tell you all about the little different things that happened to me on the way there, on the way back, and on the time I stayed there for a week.

I'll do that next time. That'll be my last story, I think.

Well, I went that about 4 o 'clock. I was all set and ready. I had my little purse ready and my suitcase, and they come and pick me up and on the way they were to St. Paul. And on the outskirts of St.

Paul was his his sister, her name is Maybelle. And so we stayed there, we visit a little while, and we stayed there overnight. We had supper there and breakfast. And that evening, before they, we went to bed, we all went to some kind of a big supermarket and she bought bacon and eggs and all kinds of things we need to make in a hurry when we were eaten, like in the trailer house.

And so then we went to bed, like I said. In the morning, she had nice breakfast ready for us before. She woke us up, so we had a nice rest in bed. And so then we went. And, of course, I was all eyes.

I had to look at everything lucky that they had room that this pickup day were driving. Mr. was driving, and she could drive. She drove for a little two, a few hours here and there. And so the three of us sat in the front, in the pickup, and the girls were lulling around and playing violin and float.

Then they played, and they read in the back of the truck. But nobody dared to ride in the trailer house because that's against the law, you heard. So just in the back of the truck. And they had a nice little cubby pool.