The full tapes

1. Tape 1

   A letter from May 1986

   50:05 long · 12 stories

   Recorded May 25, 1986, Decoration Day weekend.

   Listen to Tape 1
   See the 12 stories on this tape

   1. 0:00 Hello from Agnes: Decoration Day weekend and Mary's graduation
   2. 3:33 Rose's little ones come to visit: new shoes and a mischievous toddler
   3. 7:53 Joey and his girlfriend drop by; Agnes paints her flower pots
   4. 11:12 A visitor, a lost-and-found dog, and a man who lost two toes
   5. 14:39 Sore feet, fallen arches, and money worries
   6. 17:52 A kind manager takes Agnes shoe shopping
   7. 22:52 Painting flower pots and another visit from Joey
   8. 26:02 Decoration Day: flowers for Grandpa and her husband
   9. 29:23 Painting for Mrs. Noha, and the fig tree that is starting to bud
   10. 34:27 The day Agnes's thirty photographs went missing
   11. 39:47 Tables to paint, 90 minutes of tape, and a little boy who wants to go fishing
   12. 44:39 Goodbye for now: Mr. Lark, flowers, and Mary's job hunt

2. Tape 2

   A Christmas letter

   29:48 long · 8 stories

   Christmas greetings recorded with Rose, Todd, Kirby and Agnes.

   Listen to Tape 2
   See the 8 stories on this tape

   1. 0:00 Merry Christmas, Aunt Chris! The boys say hello and sing
   2. 3:51 Decorating the house, and a few words from Great-Grandma
   3. 7:29 What does Santa bring? And Grandma's goose egg
   4. 10:47 Chicken lips photos, the new scroll saw, and the baby Jesus song
   5. 15:32 Agnes tells of her fall at Rose's house
   6. 20:31 Christmas plans: staying put, teeth trouble, and a hurt friend
   7. 23:09 Paper flowers by the dozens, daily cucumbers, and Christmas baskets
   8. 28:12 Earrings and a jealous boyfriend

3. Tape 3

   Life at the cabin and the bus trip

   46:18 long · 9 stories

   Birds at the cabin, a New Year's story, and the bus ride to Chicago.

   Listen to Tape 3
   See the 9 stories on this tape

   1. 0:00 The woodpecker couple who patched things up
   2. 3:50 The day Agnes tried to sing, and an owl chased her home
   3. 10:58 The pregnant bird: painting birds on the yellow cupboard
   4. 14:49 Singing with the birds, and a grandson who sings along
   5. 19:16 New Year's at the cabin: a path through the snow and a sip of wine
   6. 23:58 Half true, half imagined: the blizzard and the guardian angels
   7. 30:31 Off to see her sister: the bus ride to Chicago begins
   8. 35:07 The bus driver's story about the bride and the box
   9. 41:28 The wobbling wheel: a stranger saves the bus

4. Tape 4

   The grandchildren, the Seattle trip

   46:36 long · 8 stories

   The bus ride ends, then time with the grandchildren, and a trip to Seattle.

   Listen to Tape 4
   See the 8 stories on this tape

   1. 0:06 The young Mennonite men tell why they might leave
   2. 6:14 The midnight lunch wagon: coffee, pies, and boiled eggs at 2 a.m.
   3. 12:20 Sunrise in Indiana, and a last goodbye to her sister in Toledo
   4. 16:55 Butternut hunting with the grandchildren
   5. 22:22 Old logging roads, trout spawning, and tracks left by a 'Martian'
   6. 28:39 A month and a half with the grandchildren: dress-up, a swimming-hole game, and a scare
   7. 35:56 The spring that shot 60 feet into the air, and the poplar that plugged it
   8. 42:40 Setting off for Seattle: a pickup, a trailer, and a night in St. Paul

5. Tape 5

   Farm stories

   31:13 long · 6 stories

   Pigs, a shivaree, and a Halloween prank.

   Listen to Tape 5
   See the 6 stories on this tape

   1. 0:05 Getting a sow and her twelve piglets home across the creek
   2. 4:32 Tiny the pig: a baby in a baseball box, dressed up in earrings
   3. 11:27 A shivaree: a noisy 'wedding greeting' at Mr. Pajeda's farm
   4. 15:56 The shotgun blast that missed Agnes's ankle by three inches
   5. 21:24 A Halloween prank on Bill, the bachelor with the corn patch
   6. 29:39 A Sunday walk to the wild roses (the story starts here)

6. Tape 6

   Building the log cabin

   31:16 long · 7 stories

   From a dream among the wild roses to the cabin opening, and a neighbor's cabin.

   Listen to Tape 6
   See the 7 stories on this tape

   1. 0:05 Caught singing on the road, and the dream of a cabin of her own
   2. 2:17 Bulldozing a hillside for $5 and cutting the first logs
   3. 6:59 Agnes's $5 hatchet, her husband joins the work, and a horse for tomato gravy
   4. 10:55 Building the log cabin: logs, a sawmill, a roof, and a fireplace
   5. 17:33 A fire that roared, a Father's Day steak dinner, and 180 people at the open house
   6. 22:34 The deer who came to smell the flowers
   7. 28:56 The little cabin in the woods that came down

Prefer short pieces? Go to the 50 short stories.