The Simple Lives We Live
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The Simple Lives We Live
Ration Stamps and Blizzard Winters | Mert & Rella (Part 2)
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At their country school north of Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, their mom, the teacher, baked potatoes in the ash pan of the stove, and the kids could smell them for an hour before lunch. In Part 2, sisters Mert Popiel and Rella Abernethy take me through the 1949 blizzard that kept Mert in town from New Year's until Easter, World War II ration books and blackouts, a wedding party that showed up smelling like prairie fire smoke, and a priest reading his prayers by headlight outside Medora. As their mom always told them, "Education is something they can't take away from you."
Welcome to the Simple Lives We Live, where we open the old family photo albums and dust up the stories that made us who we are. I'm your host, Kylie Simiano, and each week I sit down with everyday people to capture their extraordinary life experiences, the moments of love, lamust, laughter, and resilience that echo through time. These are the stories that remind us of our roots, connect us to generations past, and show us that the simple lives we live are anything but ordinary. So settle in and let's listen back together.
SPEAKER_03Okay, now it's gonna be a little hard because now we kind of split off. Right? So Mert, you went for you said a summer. Where did your life take after go after that? After that summer. Did you meet your spouse long after?
SPEAKER_05Or no, I that's I went to college first before I worked at in Glendive. That's what I did.
SPEAKER_04Oh, did you?
SPEAKER_05And then uh then they needed a teacher out in Lindsay, Montana, and I taught. And you didn't like it? I didn't care for it, no.
SPEAKER_02What did you teach? Oh, country school. So you taught all the country. All the grades, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_05I think there was only five students in the school, so it was really simple, but just wasn't what I was cut out to be, I guess.
SPEAKER_03So what did you end up going? Did you end up going back? What did you do for work? Did you work? See, I don't know anything about work. So we're no after I total scraped.
SPEAKER_05Then I got married.
SPEAKER_03You did. So how old were you when you got married?
SPEAKER_0518.
SPEAKER_03You were 18. How did you meet your spouse?
SPEAKER_05He came to St. Lute to work at the drugstore. There was a drugstore in St. Little Butte that what did they do? They delivered cigarettes and candy around two different towns. And Paul came there until they found somebody to work. He was just there temporarily. And he ended up staying there. And then I met him there and we started going together.
SPEAKER_03How long did you date before you got married?
SPEAKER_05Two years.
SPEAKER_03Two years, okay. How much older than you? Was he six years? He's six years older than you. Okay. Rolla, how did you meet your husband?
SPEAKER_04He went with Mert when he was when I was about six or seventh grade. Oh, they were friends.
SPEAKER_05So he fell on and dropped me, I guess. I don't know. I didn't pay any attention.
SPEAKER_04You were gone past him a long time after that.
SPEAKER_03What older was your husband?
SPEAKER_04Four years.
SPEAKER_03Four years older than you. So that's but how you met you guys are from the same town in the sense, and you had met him.
SPEAKER_04So well, and we never knew that they didn't live that, they were probably five, six miles from us, but they were kind of neighbors. They were not anybody we knew before that.
SPEAKER_03So and how long did you guys date before you got married?
SPEAKER_04Through high school.
SPEAKER_03Through high school, yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03And then Mert, how many children did you have?
SPEAKER_05I have seven.
SPEAKER_03You have seven. And Rolla, how many do you have? Two. Two. Okay. Mert let's go through your. We're gonna be here all no, sorry. Um so go through your children. Go through your children.
SPEAKER_05Oh they're well um like me. Steve was born premature.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05And he's the oldest. He just today is his birthday. And uh and eighteen months later I had Ken. And then it was about uh two uh yeah, two years, and then Mary. And then Mary, and then Chris, and they're nine months apart. And then Tyler. And then I waited a few years and then I had two girls, Arla and Carla.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05So did you ever work? Not until the kids grew up. Yeah, I was just gonna say.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that would be like impossible to find out.
SPEAKER_05No, I never worked. Okay. Uh I stayed home and raised kids.
SPEAKER_03Did you enjoy that?
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Here were you guys in Sentinel Butte?
SPEAKER_05We lived right in Sentinel Butte. My husband worked at the post office.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05Then later on, he got a job at the post office, and he worked there probably five years. First five years we were married anyway, and then he got a job with the rural carrier. He was the mail carrier then. And went delivered mail out in the country.
SPEAKER_03And and then Rella, you have two girls, you said. And so what are their names?
SPEAKER_04La Don and Bobby. LaDonna's the oldest, and uh Bobby is about 15 months, 15 months younger.
SPEAKER_01Did you work while the girls were little? Or did you take some time?
SPEAKER_04Well, that I always sold Avon or something like that. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Something you could do kind of from home.
SPEAKER_04Okay. And when and then when we started college, then of course that was we um we both went to college, and my youngest brother stayed with us, and so then we arranged our classes. So one of them one of us was home with the kids girls all the time. Because they were like let's see, three, two, and three.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03And they graduated, they went to Beach. Did we go to school in Beach or where?
SPEAKER_04So then when we finished our two years, then we started teaching. We taught at a two-room school north of Williston, both Don and I. Okay, and he had fifth through eighth, and I had first through fourth, and the apartment was in the basement. And so we lived there eight years while the girls, LaDonna went first through eighth there. And Bob. Bobby went first through seventh, and then it was 18 miles from Williston. So then we either had to have LaDonna stay in town, or else we ended up moving to a town that had high school then.
SPEAKER_03So where did you guys go after there?
SPEAKER_04Tali, North Dakota. It's a small town between Kenmere and Mohawk.
SPEAKER_03Okay, how long were you there for?
SPEAKER_04Five years.
SPEAKER_03And then after that, where did you?
SPEAKER_04Then we came to the farm.
SPEAKER_03Then you came to the farm.
SPEAKER_04Okay. And stayed there.
SPEAKER_03And you've been there.
SPEAKER_04Ever since, yeah. And then I taught, started teaching in Weibo when we moved back here.
SPEAKER_02So how long did you teach for?
SPEAKER_04Uh 38 years.
SPEAKER_0238 years.
SPEAKER_0425 in Webo. I'm 13 in North Dakota.
SPEAKER_03When did you retire?
SPEAKER_04Uh 2000.
SPEAKER_032000. And you had been teaching in Weibo.
SPEAKER_04Those years.
SPEAKER_03What have you done since retirement?
SPEAKER_04Oh gosh, we have kept busy, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Well, a lot of people say we're busier in retirement than they are when they were.
SPEAKER_04I have to stop thinking. I started selling Mary Kay when I started teaching in Weibo, I think. And so that's just kind of a when, you know, not anything busy-wise. But uh then Don decided we should have the fireworks stand. And so we had that for nine years, I think. For that was only uh 10, 11 days in the summer, and Mert's granddaughters helped. Yeah, we always had grandkids.
SPEAKER_05I guess we had it till the grandkids were grown up. Well, my grandchids lived in Minnesota. So they would come here to beach and stay with us and work at the fire school. They loved that firework.
SPEAKER_03They loved it.
SPEAKER_05They just couldn't wait to come and it's always busy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So that was fun.
SPEAKER_03Um, what else, Merch? You said once you went back to or you started working once the kids were old, old enough? That you could did you ever go back to work?
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. What did you do once you went back into the workforce?
SPEAKER_05It's funny. Uh Paul and I used to come up to Beach for coffee all the time. See, we lived in Sentinel Butte. And we'd come up in the afternoon for coffee, and we went to the Park Cafe that was down the street there.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_05And I walked in, and Bev Wolf was running the cafe because the owners had gone on vacation, and this cafe had closed. And we walked in with Jack Satry, and and when I walked in, Bev's the tables were all covered with food and plates and whatnot. Do you want a job? She said, start cleaning off tables. And so I just went ahead and cleaned off tables. And then she said, uh, you can come back tomorrow morning at six o'clock. And so I had a job.
SPEAKER_03That was the easiest interview. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I never really had waited table or nothing. So I was really a learning experience for me. And I worked there probably two years and then it burned down. Then I didn't have anything to do. And then uh Holton's supervalue had uh these uh truckload produce sales out in the parking lot, and so Harley Holton asked me if I would help him with that. So I did that for a couple of summers. Then he asked me if I wanted to work in the store. So I worked there for 13 years.
SPEAKER_03Did you enjoy it? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Then I a job came open at home on the range in the laundry department. So I applied for that and I worked 15 years at home on the range.
SPEAKER_03You've had a lot of experience in a lot of different things. Yeah. But you're such a people person. I bet you did great at the cafe and stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_05That's yeah, it was. It was oh unreal, I tell you.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05And we were so busy because that cafe was closed, you know. And then a lot of times the railroad would have workers and they'd come over there and and have dinner. And oh my gosh, it was busy.
SPEAKER_03So you saying that about Bev Wolf. When did when did they take over this other restaurant when it was grandma's kitchen? Right, it was grandma's kitchen. Yeah, that was that was that's when I was little, that's what I remember.
SPEAKER_05That was uh was it Bev Wolf that had that? Yeah. See, Charlie Bush ran it for a while too, didn't he? And I don't know.
SPEAKER_04That was before after that. Before Bev. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So yeah, it was.
SPEAKER_03We talked a little bit about how you guys met your spouses. When did you get married? How was the wedding? So we'll start with you, Mark. What was your wedding like?
SPEAKER_05We were married in 1953, June 1st, and it was on a Monday. And it was before uh right after Labor Memorial Day. Memorial Day was the 31st of May.
SPEAKER_02So then the next day.
SPEAKER_05And the next day was our wedding, and we had such a time getting everything because everything everybody was closed. Uh that was the dumbest thing we ever did was get married before a holiday, you know. Yeah. But anyway, we got married, and and uh Rella was my bridesmaid, and Freddie Nunberg was uh best man.
SPEAKER_03Was it good weather? You ended up with good weather that day? Did you end up with good weather that day?
SPEAKER_05It was yeah, it had rained a little bit at at night, and then we had a reception, we had a big dinner. Uh we were married at 10 o'clock, and then after the wedding, we had a dinner. And then uh we later in the afternoon we had a reception, and I was the first one that used the new basement in the Catholic Church in Central Buddh. Um and so the Catholic Church was built in like the 1950s, then that was the old that was the old one, Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_03Oh, so then you okay, gotcha. Okay. And so then uh Did you always do the big dance?
SPEAKER_05We had a big dance.
SPEAKER_03We did have a big dance, okay. So they were.
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh, yes, we had and we went, our honeymoon was at Weeble Palace Cafe or Palace Hotel. That was where we stayed overnight, and then we never went any place else.
SPEAKER_03Did you have the um what's it called? The bridal shower? Like, did you have a bridal shower before?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I had a bridal shower. Marie Mouse put on a bridal shower for me, and it was so rainy. It rained the whole month of May. And I was living out at Westerheim at the and I had a terrible time. We had to walk two miles. We couldn't drive.
unknownIt was too muddy.
SPEAKER_05It was too muddy. The roads, the roads were not they didn't have finished this stage. They were just just um not, you know, they were kind of a cow trail, some of them. Yeah. And so we had to walk about two miles. We had to leave our car at Gordon Hill and walk home. And Marlon and Jim were with us, and we had to walk home, and then we had to, we were supposed to go to my folks for dinner that day. And so then we went there, and then we had to walk back to the car and got caught in the terrible rain. And then that evening was my bridal shower.
SPEAKER_03The things you remember though, right? And the weather related to it.
SPEAKER_05And so, and it was a nice big shower. Or, yeah, we got so many, I'll never forget, we got so many sets of sheets and towel sets. It was just unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03But as I have been hearing from so many others too, like when you got married, nobody had lived together before, nobody had really even lived on their own before. So we really were starting from scratch, and any little thing you got, whether it was towels or sheets, you so appreciated because you did not have any of that before you and we lived in a two-room apartment in the Butte Hotel.
SPEAKER_05The Butte Hotel?
SPEAKER_06We lived in an apartment.
unknownInteresting.
SPEAKER_05But the on our first anniversary, we moved into our first house.
SPEAKER_03And where was that at?
SPEAKER_05In Sentinel Butte.
SPEAKER_03In Sentinel Butte, and how long did you live there? Or did you live there forever?
SPEAKER_05For all the rest of our we never moved. Never moved for 50 years. We lived there. Paul built the house and we moved in and it wasn't finished. We had no furniture.
SPEAKER_03But that's okay, because you had a house. Yeah.
unknownYou're just happy.
SPEAKER_05So Marie Mouse, me Ben Mouse let us use the furniture we used in that apartment because they didn't have those, they didn't want those apartments anymore. That was so nice. So then we used their furniture. So we had uh tables and chairs and a bed, and that was a dresser, and that was about it.
SPEAKER_02We just how was your wedding?
SPEAKER_04We were married in the congregational church in Saint Labule. Okay, and um just had one bridesmaid, and uh Bob was the best man. Mert was going to be the bridesmaid, but she was pregnant with Steve. So then I had my friend Labon Brown was my bridesmaid, and um we were married in the afternoon. There was a prairie fire at Sentinel Bute that morning, and the guys that were in the wedding all were out fighting fires, so they came in smelling like smoke by the time.
SPEAKER_03Did you have to move it back because of the fire? No, no, so they were able to get the fire. They were able to get there.
SPEAKER_04And then we had I'm trying to, we had a reception, and then we had a wedding dance at the hall in St. LeBute.
SPEAKER_03And you had the bridal um what was it called? Bridal shower, you had one too?
SPEAKER_04We did, I think at the uh the ladies' aide at St. Le But at the Congregational Church in the basement there, and that's where we had the reception, was in the basement of the congregational church.
SPEAKER_03For the receptions, did you guys have somebody like cater in food at that point, or was it everybody's family kind of making the food?
SPEAKER_04I've heard different things from the ladies' aide at Saint Le But did mine. I know Catherine Smith made our wedding cake. Okay. And I dad, I told dad something about cat Catherine Smith was gonna make the wedding cake, and he said, Who the is Captain Smith?
SPEAKER_03Um I find it interesting, Mert, that you got married like in the morning.
SPEAKER_05And they didn't ever have weddings in the Catholic Church on the weekend.
SPEAKER_03And see, that's the only time you do now. No, it's a Friday or a Saturday.
SPEAKER_04And the weddings were always in the morning, weren't they? I think so. Yeah, I don't think there was everything.
SPEAKER_03Oh, because she got married at like I don't know if it's 7 45, 8 o'clock in the morning, and then they went and had her, the families had made like big breakfasts, so like your rolls and sausage and things like that, and that's what well that was it.
SPEAKER_05And my mother-in-law made the whole dinner for the she did, okay.
SPEAKER_03So they didn't cater it, and she made it.
SPEAKER_05She made the whole oh, she insisted on making my dinner.
SPEAKER_03So, what did she make?
SPEAKER_05She roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy, she did it, and uh lettuce salad. Like a big meal. You know, it was really a huge huge dinner. Oh, she had dressing too. Yeah, she roasted chicken and dressing. That's what it was.
SPEAKER_03And do you remember what you always have, Rilla?
SPEAKER_04I I think that we just had just had cake and and I and uh I don't think we had sandwiches or anything. I don't remember. No, I didn't for my reception. I just had and I'm trying to think, but it seems like we I can't even remember about supper if we ate it. I think we went to Jack's or to Jack's Club for supper.
SPEAKER_05And I know we got our pictures taken. Oh, yeah, we had right after the wedding, or right after dinner, I think it was. And we had to come up here to Elma Miller was the photographer.
SPEAKER_01Oh I don't think I've heard that one before.
SPEAKER_04Musty Miller. Oh yes, yes. So yes, that was his wife.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. So she did photography. Yeah. Was there a lot of people back then that did photography?
SPEAKER_05No, no one would think there would be. That was the only Photoshop here in town.
SPEAKER_03Oh, there was okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I see a lot of the um Mike will put some things on that Facebook page.
SPEAKER_04Who Welch.
SPEAKER_03Welch. Okay. That was a that was that would have been earlier. Earlier.
SPEAKER_04That was before early. She probably took over from them.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, she she had it for a long time. And she did our wedding pictures too, except she was in, I think she was in Rochester in the hospital. And so Musty took our pictures. Did he do the job?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, probably learned a lot from his life. Like, okay, I can figure this out, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I had to right at the church.
SPEAKER_03Did it right at the church? Did you guys do um did they do bridal pictures before the wedding ever?
SPEAKER_04We didn't have anything like that.
SPEAKER_03No, okay. I mean, I didn't either, but some people do that, I guess. So um talk to me about we're gonna go totally off topic a little bit, because I had to make a note about this. Some of the blizzards that we've had in our area. Can you talk about some of the blizzards, some of those big blizzards? Like there was one in the I believe in the 40s and the 60s. Do you remember some of those big blizzards? Any events around them? What were you feeling during lizards? Was it more because you didn't have the you didn't have the forewarning? No. You didn't have world reports. You didn't have weather reports. So, how were kids at school? Were they not at school? Like I'm trying to wrap my brain around some of how that happens and what everything that has to go on with something like that happened versus now.
SPEAKER_05Well, let's see, in 1949 I was in high school, and I stayed with a family that was living in my folks' house. In Gladys Boyce. And uh Rex was in college in Dickinson. And so Rex and I and our cousin Jean came to town on New Year's Day, and it was blizzarding, and it we'd get stuck and have to shovel out. And Gene and I were pushing the car, and oh my gosh, we had a time getting to town. And I never got back home until Easter. You said I stayed in town that long.
SPEAKER_03That long.
SPEAKER_05And Easter was like in the middle of April.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was just as if it was a little bit more than a little bit.
SPEAKER_05And it wasn't fun, it still wasn't very nice either.
SPEAKER_03How did you how did you even get? I'm just thinking how you even function like that because you don't have clothes then. Like some people don't like I know.
SPEAKER_05I I don't know how I functioned, to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_04You know, but I just you went with the idea of staying for the week for school. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I used to just stay like enough for one week and we're just washing clothes then. Oh no.
SPEAKER_05So you won't you had to do the laundry, and uh I think Gladys Boys, I think, did my laundry.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And we were in the country at the time. See, yeah. So and we were snowed, I mean, we were snowed in for they would come out, and there was no way of communication. Yeah, you know, to and I know I've often thought when there was a storm, several times uh Terry and Deanna Brown would go home with us and stay, and there was no way of letting sometimes, you know, often they'd walk home, which was about four or five miles.
SPEAKER_03But how would their parents know that they didn't get to the city? So they didn't know did they get there safely?
SPEAKER_04So they must have had some communic. I mean, they must have said if it's bad, we'll just take them home to our place.
SPEAKER_05I I yeah, I think mom said she'd just and either keep them at school or take them home.
SPEAKER_04But then we had to walk school. I mean, we always walked to school. Yeah. But and mom had made um masks for us out of wool coats so that just the eyes were strange somewhat warm. But anyway, yeah, it was the snow, I mean the roads were blocked for six weeks at a time.
SPEAKER_03And uh you didn't have the plows like you do now. I mean, there were different tractors they could use. I see.
SPEAKER_04They didn't even have that. They didn't even have a tractor. They had called in the National Guard and they plowed out to our place, and uh Howard Van Horn came behind the snowplow with a truckload of coal and had gotten a supply of groceries just I mean that's why it was easy to work because you didn't know what to stock up on food or no. And they must be miller or his dad would just put a load of groceries in, and there was always a bag of candy bars, yeah. And uh candy was and then by the next morning it was blocked full again.
SPEAKER_05Really? Because the wind blew all the time.
SPEAKER_04You know, the drifts were so high ten feet high. We would go out and dig tunnels in the snow and walk through them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna ask, yeah, even like King of the Mountain and all those fun things that kids like to play with with the snow.
SPEAKER_04But I mean, you think about you guys talking about how you had such a small house and you're stuck inside and blizzards and things like that, and not knowing I think we had school every day because we just yeah, whoever could make it.
SPEAKER_03Whoever could make it. Was there somebody in charge of that school or like to start the heater? Was it like to put the cool in? Like it's uh it's such a foreign thing for me. The teacher had to do that.
SPEAKER_04Mom did that. We did that. Yeah, we went every morning with her and it would be just freezing cold, and she'd start, you know, build the fire in the so she used to get there pretty early. You I would have to. Yeah, we would, and then we'd all stand around the stove till we got warm time. And we always had hot lunch meals. I mean, she would uh take potatoes and put them in the ash pan and bake potatoes and oh they were so good. Yeah, we'd smell those for an hour.
SPEAKER_05The skin on it was so crispy and so good.
SPEAKER_03And yet, can you even make those nowadays? Do you make it like that?
SPEAKER_05You can make it like you don't have a cold stove. So it's like and you she laid them in the ash pan, in the ashes. And that's what they and then you brushed off that ashes and you ate the peeling.
SPEAKER_03And you ate the peeling.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if that's healthy or not.
SPEAKER_04No, maybe not, but you know, but I guess it didn't affect us. Sometimes the mothers would bring them uh, you know, send a gallon of soup that would heat up on the top of the stove and have that.
SPEAKER_03Everybody was probably in charge of bringing their own lunch. Yeah, I would assume. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I still, I mean, I can't even imagine, but I know that I took five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. I mean five doubles. You did. And I thought, yeah. Well, we'd eat at recess time. We'd eat some at recess, and then we'd eat at the last recess. A sandwich at recess time.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so you could eat during that time. Didn't we have a recessive time for lunch? Or was it oh yeah? It was.
SPEAKER_05So you had that and you could eat at during time and we could, and especially in the winter time when you were in the school, it was you wouldn't go outside every recess because it was pretty cold.
SPEAKER_03How long were the school days? Were they like they are now or were they shorter? It seemed like nine too.
SPEAKER_05They were long. They were until five o'clock or four o'clock.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So more like a work day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I don't think there was anybody that did it differently then. It was always the same. Yeah, and we never had a day off.
SPEAKER_03Did you think long as they do now, or did was it shorter?
SPEAKER_05Or did they start later because of farm had they started later, and I know in the early days they would only go eight months for the rural schools. Yeah, because the boys had to help farm.
SPEAKER_03That's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_05That was a big thing for one, which is because they were trying to help. I don't know how they got away with it. I mean, there was no no rules about it, I guess.
SPEAKER_04But they yeah, seventh and eighth graders always had to take state exams before they could pass their grade. You had to take a state test, had to come into the county superintendent's office and take it.
SPEAKER_03Did did the boys during your guys' school time did they did many continue on after eighth grade?
SPEAKER_04Mo quite a few of most of them. Oh, yeah. So it wasn't a lot that dropped.
SPEAKER_03There were some that did to to do take over the farm in eighth grade, but work at home. Work at home, yeah. But they were still quite a few that were going through college or through high school.
SPEAKER_02Quite a few.
SPEAKER_03There were still so for each of you, this is maybe a different answer. So who in your family influenced you the most while you were growing up and in what way? That's a tough one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Put you on the thought a little bit. Whoever wants to do that.
SPEAKER_04I I just it seemed like everybody, you know, you had something that they influenced us in some way. And of course, mom was always helping you, you know, letting you know that you had to get more education. She always said you education is something they can't take away from you. So you have to do that.
SPEAKER_05I always said that I uh was influenced by Marlon and Rex because they always could ride horseback. Rail and I had to walk.
SPEAKER_01Didn't we have the two horses?
SPEAKER_05We didn't have horses. I mean, the horses were too high-life for us to ride.
SPEAKER_04One time dad bought a workhorse home that yeah that that we could ride so we could ride that a little bit.
SPEAKER_05Oh gosh, that was such a plug. Yeah. That wasn't even any fun to ride because it wouldn't hardly move.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_05And of course, Marlon and Rex, they were good horseback riders, and they their horses really moved. And they would go and pick up the mail, and we had to walk to go and get the mail. And that was what, five miles?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, by the time because we walked over and back to two and a half miles.
SPEAKER_03How has it been that you guys saying you're the last two of the siblings? Has that been really hard to slowly wash your siblings? I would imagine that'd be hard. I haven't lost a sibling, but I can't even imagine. And also such gratitude to have each other still too. Yeah. How's that been?
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, they were all at least they all most of them lived until they were elderly, which helped. Yeah. And the one thing I, you know, you always want to ask them questions about something that happened that you don't remember how it was. Our youngest brother was killed in a rodeo, so he died when he was 20. But um really hard.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That was probably the hardest. It's hard on my parents.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was just gonna say, so your parents were still. That was their youngest. Yeah. So where was he at when he had that accident?
SPEAKER_04He was going to college in Dickinson when we were, and uh so he was on the college rodeo team. And Don was older, so he went as uh as the chaperone. And they were in Vermillion, South Dakota for a college rodeo.
SPEAKER_02How did you guys find out about it?
SPEAKER_04Don had to call and say he had been injured and it wasn't good.
SPEAKER_03So and the other ones did live.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they lived to be all okay in their 80s.
SPEAKER_05I think probably Phil was the youngest, really.
SPEAKER_04I mean 80 something.
SPEAKER_05He was 90, I think, when he died.
SPEAKER_04I don't think, well, maybe Marlon was over 90.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Marlon was 93, and Rex was 95. He just died a couple of years ago.
SPEAKER_03But that is probably a little, you know, yeah, more comforting.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and of course, he he knew everything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yes. Oh, really? Like all this, well, he knew all the history because he, I suppose when you tell it over and over again, you know what else. But like with our grandpa cook, I know I asked him, and he gave me the whole story of how he happened to be working on you know building the railroad with the team horses and and all they're moving.
SPEAKER_03So what do you feel like are some of the biggest changes that you've seen in our world over the years and your thoughts on those changes?
SPEAKER_05Well, I thought the interstate going through that was quite a big ordeal.
SPEAKER_04That was a big ordeal and it has improved the travel so much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because otherwise it was just highways, right? Yeah, it was just too late. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And that when they put the blacktop on highway 16 clear to Williston, when we caught up there, we would come home about every weekend. And it was always scary roads all the way. We'd have flat tires all the time from that. Yeah. So it was, but I think that was finished after we were moved from there. And we didn't benefit as much. Um also, you know, the inventions like the TV is so amazing. I was thinking when the first year we taught at Williston, we took the eighth grade class to Regina for a field trip just then. And we were going through the museum in Regina. And they one thing they were showing was uh how in the future there would be telephones where you could see who you were talking to. And we thought, you know, that is never going to be happening in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_05And the television we didn't, yeah, you know, black and white television.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05And all you had to do is put up an antenna and you got television.
SPEAKER_04Which is mind-boggling at that time to think that you could have yeah, it was never a picture, you could hardly see it. It was snowy and oh yeah.
SPEAKER_05And then it was a little and then it went off. The TV went off at 10 o'clock at night.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03You know, there's probably what we maybe should go back to. Like there's some things that have been great, and then with it comes a lot of downside too. Right.
SPEAKER_04You know, electronics, you know, all the all of that that is good, but not so good in some ways.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I even look at the um parades that we used to have and how the um the floats were amazing, but people really did them up because they were they so looked forward, I feel like, to decorating because you got together with people. They always had a fun, it was a good excuse to get together and make make the floats extravagant in a sense. And now people don't want to do anything, they're like, I'll just have a train, right? And I think we've missed the whole we think we're connected because we can text or you know, see what's going on in their life, but we're really not because we never have those like face-to-face conversations a lot of times. Um, and I feel like the younger generation doesn't maybe know some don't know how to have that face-to-face conversation a lot of times, or very awkward or how to shake hands or things like that. We've lost, I think, a lot of that. How to communicate with people. Um, what do you guys think of cell phones? I I really want to get yours up on cell phones, social media.
SPEAKER_05Well, and then shopping malls.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Well, they're not, they're barely around.
SPEAKER_05We didn't always we didn't always have shopping malls. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They were well, and look at how big they made up. I mean, Dickens in Bismarck, Fargo, and now you have so many of those spaces that are even empty.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's it's that has changed so much from COVID time, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And everybody does online, yeah. Yeah, the physical storage.
SPEAKER_05We always ordered out of the catalog, you know. We got big catalogs and always ordered out of the catalog. We used to spend a lot of time just looking to the catalogs. No, just think that young people are ordering the option.
SPEAKER_03So I mean, yeah, catalog that was exciting. Oh my gosh, the catalogs were so exciting. I remember when I was little getting those and being like, ooh, all the different, but you know, you had to call an order. And I remember my mom like being excited when my mom would call because she was ordering this pair of shoes or shirts, and now it's like it's all at your fingertips, you know, which is so different.
SPEAKER_04Of course, we had to write out the orders and mail them.
SPEAKER_03See, that's yeah, I mean, there was no I wouldn't, I forgot about that. You guys would have to, and even houses, right? Sears were like houses. Like when I heard about that, I was like, how does that work? Yeah, how did you order it? How did it get brought? And you still had to do some building.
SPEAKER_05I mean, it still had plans in a sense, yeah, but yeah, that's I ordered my first kitchen cupboard set from Sears.
SPEAKER_03Really? So how did they come? Where you had to put them together?
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We had to put them together. We we had to measure each cupboard and get the right amount and everything.
SPEAKER_03And even to know how to hang them so that they would actually set so you could drop the sturdiness and whatnot.
SPEAKER_04Scares me when I think of all the weed and cupboards and how they stay up. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Because those bowls, even the big bowls, they're heavy and I know um when you think back about big world events, certain things, I'm just like assassinations, World Trade Centers, uh the World Trade Center, how what do you remember around those events? Like what you were doing, or do you remember um even with like say JFK's assassination? Do you remember hearing about it on the news right away? Like the sensationalizing? It's hard for me because with now with social media, we hear about things so instantly.
SPEAKER_04Right, when it happens.
SPEAKER_03How was it back then that you hear about certain events? Did the news didn't just come on? Did you hear about it on the radio?
SPEAKER_05Was it like well, I think we had we had TV at the time when uh Kennedy was assassinated. Okay, and I had the TV on because something always came on that I wanted to watch at that time, and then they had this bulletin that he. And I know it was I was doing something in the kitchen, and I left everything in the kitchen, and I sat and watched that all the time. I could not leave it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we were teaching at Williston at the time, and I think we had a hot lunch program, and then there were two ladies downstairs cooking, and uh they must have had a radio because they told us about it right away. And we did have TV then, so that after school was out, we watched it.
SPEAKER_03So you're so you teaching, you just went on with your day, didn't mention anything special about the city.
SPEAKER_04Well, we probably I'm sure we talked about it. I and with I had the lower grades, I'm sure the upper grades they've done probably talked a lot about it. Interesting. Um and then the World Trade Center, I yeah, remember that was on TV right on the news.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we saw it happen. That was right away. We heard about that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, at Neo Clinic when that happened, we were in the waiting room and saw that and still see that plane, and I thought, it is clear sky, why would it not? You know, it's going right toward that.
SPEAKER_05I couldn't it was kind of shocking to me too. Yeah, to think such a clear blue sky and the clear sky, and they had to run into that building. I couldn't figure it out.
SPEAKER_03I just yeah, it's interesting too because back like when you guys were growing up, you didn't know what was going on around the world, right? We just had no connection, no connection, and now it's almost sad that we know too much. We were too connected to some of that stuff. I think so too. It's too much information, yeah. And so when people say we were never met, I'm like, I really kind of agree with that. I don't think we were meant to be consuming so much of it all the time. Yeah, you know, because back then you went on with your life, and you were maybe it was better that we didn't know so much. Okay, so I want you guys to talk about World War II and what you remember about World War II. Okay, whoever wants to start, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I would we were talking about the rash ration stamps that we everything, so many things were rationed at the time, and you every person in the family was issued a book that you kept your stamps in, and it would take so much to get um, oh let's see.
SPEAKER_03I know something like sugar, sugar, coffee, too.
SPEAKER_04Coffee sugar, coffee, um, and then a lot of things like uh anything rubber, tires, tires, um and gasoline.
SPEAKER_05It's rationed.
SPEAKER_04And then you had to go to the store with that many and then buy whatever you needed, which had to have the ration stamped stuff.
SPEAKER_03Were there things that weren't rationed, or was pretty much everything? They rationed.
SPEAKER_05It seemed that it was the most important things were rationed. Milk, eggs, some of the no, because that's because everybody raised their own. Okay.
SPEAKER_03You know, they were still just the things that were coming. Flour? Was flour rationed too?
SPEAKER_05No, because I think they could build their own. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_04And uh and you were telling about the tin cans.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the tin cans then were saved, and then they would you could send them, give them to some organization or some, I don't know who took them, but you would save them for a long time.
SPEAKER_03Like was there like a drop-off spot for them?
SPEAKER_05Or did they think they come and picked them up?
SPEAKER_03Came and collected them up.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05But I can't remember. There was other things too that had to be saved, but I can't remember what it was. But the tin cans had to have the both ends cut out and then it had to be smashed flat. And I think they saved newspapers. Okay. And uh oh, I can't really think of anything else.
SPEAKER_04We used to fix a lot of Red Cross boxes to send it overseas.
SPEAKER_05The Red Cross was big at that time. And they would fix a lot of Red Cross boxes. And they would put home big goods in them and send them overseas to the servicemen.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And they'd have things like uh toothpaste, yes, bars of soap and soap, um pencils and erasers.
SPEAKER_03Kind of just those essentials to write letters using hygiene.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it seems like all the people in the service wrote letters. Mom wrote letters to everybody. That was in the service. Yeah. Um, what about the blackouts? Oh, that was always I was always so afraid. When we lived in St. La View at the time, when we were that was one of the, I suppose, first and second grade when I was going to school there, and the older ones were in high school. And there would be certain nights that we knew that there was going to be a blackout, and we had couldn't have any lights on in the house, and all the street lights were out, so it was just it's dark when you're used to having it.
SPEAKER_03So, what was the purpose of those blackouts?
SPEAKER_04I was I'm thinking it was in case of the enemy was come flying over something like that. Right. They wouldn't be able to tell where the towns were. And it was a practice, probably, so that if that ever happened.
SPEAKER_03You can kind of get used to it then. Yeah. So how about um what about Vietnam?
SPEAKER_04I I didn't no, I didn't think much.
SPEAKER_03I didn't have any really that wasn't as big of a raised in here as much.
SPEAKER_04No, okay. I uh don't ever remember. I guess we didn't have any family members, which makes a difference.
SPEAKER_06Anything else about World War II? You guys can remember.
SPEAKER_04Uh we had a cousin who was killed in Japan or Philippines. He was killed right after the war, and they were celebrating, I think, and he was killed on a motorcycle.
SPEAKER_03So made it through that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And our dad was in the service during World War I. Did he fight them? No, he said they were just he they were just starting across the ocean when the war ended, so they have to come back.
SPEAKER_03So we um any when you guys look back, do you have any regrets on your life? Things that you would have done different.
SPEAKER_05I sure don't know of any.
SPEAKER_04No, no. The one I said I right now, the way the times are, I wish I'd done more investing, but then that wasn't always the I mean, it hasn't always been the case, it goes up and down. And our dad was so against this investing in the stock market because he remembered of the 1929 crash. So that wasn't a thing to do.
SPEAKER_03But it was such a different mentality because of how they lived. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know. I was thinking, you know, all the way they lived during the depression. And mom raised turkeys for a living. I mean, out there that they uh and she would get up at four in the morning and herd the turkeys so they could eat grasshoppers and then bring them in by six because if she let them just wander, the coyotes would have them.
SPEAKER_03I know you think back in that was a hard life, so hard. Yeah, just yeah, it was just to have food was yeah, also makes me appreciate like when my grandma would because you guys probably knew my grandma's talk well, but how she would have like um she would keep all the little ketchup and mund, and we keep diplock baggies. I'm like, I appreciate what she went through, and that's probably what drove her too, because you just would never know, you know.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it makes you kind of understand their save every piece of tinfoil and every margin cart. I've done that for a while.
SPEAKER_05I finally I know I have too.
SPEAKER_03Probably all stained red from spaghetti or something like that. Yeah. What for each of you? What's something you would want people to remember about you when you're gone?
SPEAKER_06I don't want them to be able to do that. Just that I was that I was decent.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's not arguing, maybe you know, arguing or angry or whatever. Yeah, just as a happy person. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03What do you guys feel like has been the secret for you? You both look, first of all, amazing. You're nine, ninety, you said 92, 88, and 88. You both seem to be in fairly good health, too. Yeah, what do you feel like has been like your secret? Because now there's all these things, right? People are like, take this, this, this, do this, this, this. I don't have anything that I and you guys are probably like, I didn't lift weights and go work out and all, you know.
SPEAKER_04And we didn't, I mean, we weren't raised on a balanced diet or anything like that.
SPEAKER_03That's for sure.
SPEAKER_04And I just am so thankful I don't have aches and pains.
SPEAKER_03And yeah, what do you what do you feel like has has been the reason for that that you've been able to age so well?
SPEAKER_04I really don't know. The the last, I mean, I give up my credit, the last 10 well, 50 uh let's see, at least 10 years, I've taken juice plus the capsules. And I just really think that has helped. Because I'm such a poor eater, you know. I eat but you gotta make up for it. Yeah, I don't eat fruits and vegetables enough.
SPEAKER_03You mostly pretty active though. Have you tried? I feel like how you guys grew up, you were always active, we're always doing it. We always were active, but probably purposeful stuff.
SPEAKER_05And I suppose that's probably what has helped. I've kind of slowed down the last year, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Which I think probably just helps you both too. Because yeah, yeah. Because you can drag your, you know, yeah, that negative yeah, it's hard if you're around negative people for a while.
SPEAKER_03It's yeah, it's to be both are like looking amazing. I have and you both have such great memories, too. You know, it's wonderful. Um, I am gonna totally open it up right now to for you guys. Any memories, anything else that you would like to share? It's totally whatever. If you made notes about different memories that we did not talk about, I'd love to hear them.
SPEAKER_04So I don't I one thing I always laughed or thought was so funny. Mom always told about when they set, they always had setting hands, you know, and would put eggs, yeah, to put eggs under so they'd oh okay. And so she they put duck eggs under the chicken hand, you know, to have her hatch these so they'd have some ducks. And when the ducks hatched, there was a little pool of water right by the house, and they marched down there and never went down there and they jumped in the water. And they they said that hen just went around and around that clucking and squawking, trying to get those ducks out of the water. And then the next year they happened to put chicken eggs under the same hen, and she as soon as they hatched, she went right down to the pond and tried to get them to go in the water.
SPEAKER_03So they did those cute little stories too. Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Um there's any certain stories.
SPEAKER_03Do you have any fun stories about the the other siblings who have passed away? Well, I don't know if their families would like to hear.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if this is very interesting or not, but Marlon and I uh Marlon always had take me wherever she went, it seemed like. And uh we went to the neighbors and they made homemade ice cream, and we ate ice cream, we ate ice cream, and we got sick. And my Marlon could never eat ice cream after that.
SPEAKER_01How old were you?
SPEAKER_05I was only about four years old. Okay, but she was older, and I I couldn't eat ice cream for a long time either. And then one time at when we were I was married, uh we went to Home on the Range. Paul did a lot of work at home on the range, and so we were invited out to Home on the Range one evening for uh birthday party. Father Fahnlander and Don Wishow had birthdays the same day, and so we were invited out there to. There was other people there too, and Evelyn Cook was the cook out there, and she had a three-layer cake, and the pieces were that big.
SPEAKER_02Oh, each piece?
SPEAKER_05Each piece, and there was three scoops of ice cream on that.
SPEAKER_03That was more than a meal itself, right?
SPEAKER_05There was no way in the world I could eat all of that, and that was even after the race had had ice cream. Yeah, and that was a long time after I'd had ice cream.
SPEAKER_03Oh man. Yeah. That brings me back. I loved him. He was so great for coloring pictures for him when I was little, and being so excited to give them to him after Mass was done.
SPEAKER_05I have a joke to tell you about Father Fawnlander.
SPEAKER_03Oh, please do.
SPEAKER_05Well, it's not a joke, but it's really, it really happened. He would, uh, you know, when they started advertising the rodeos, and he even told this story about it. Uh, he and Roy Kettleson drove for him, and they'd gone to Fargo to meet with the Eagles to have them donate money for the rodeo and whatnot. And he had to give this speech, and they were on their way back, and of course, you know, priest has prayers that he's supposed to say before midnight.
unknownOh, okay.
SPEAKER_05And uh they were at about to Modora, and it was midnight, and Father said, Roy, I have to stop and say these prayers. So he went out and used the headlights to end these prayers. Uh car went by and they rolled down the window and they said, Boy, that must be a good book. Oh, so I always thought that was kind of cute. That is really funny.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. She had what turkey eggs? You know, I suppose they'd bring them in so they wouldn't freeze. She'd bring them in, put an X on them, then you had to turn them every day. The X was so you know which way they were. And then uh put them under a setting in one.
SPEAKER_01She's very smart. Yeah. Your mom sounds very smart.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they had a lot of. I mean, her family really had a lot of tragedy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they had a lot of tragedy.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_05Um five of them were killed in a train car.
SPEAKER_04Her and I was thinking the other day, mom was only 26 at that time when they were killed. What? Mom was only 26. Yeah, yeah. She had two little kids. But anyway, uh her mother and uh her dad didn't want to go, they were going to go to a wedding or to a dance at Yates.
SPEAKER_05And uh so mom's mother So the dance was down south like Gulver or something. Oh, was it? And they were coming back, but they had to go through Yates.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they had to go through Yates. Uh anyway, it was her mother and her younger sister who was like 16, and then another sister who was married to dad's brother, and then they had a little girl that was three years old. They were all in the car and coming back, and it was a storm, I think. And they didn't see the train coming, and they were hit by the train, and they were all killed, except for those little girls. Little girl. They found her in the barb wire fence, had 30-some stitches taken in her head.
SPEAKER_02She was three years old.
SPEAKER_04And she lived. And she lived.
SPEAKER_02Both of her mom and dad.
SPEAKER_04Then mom had a sister that lived in California, was married and didn't have any children, and they wanted to take her back. So they raised her, and she lived to be 75 years old.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she did.
SPEAKER_04But she had, I don't know, some disabilities. Yeah, she wasn't. She she always could remember everything. Everything everything.
SPEAKER_05She could remember everything.
SPEAKER_04But um but she had other she always wrote like a third grader. Yeah. She always had big printing. But she she loved coming back here and she remembered everybody that in the family. And then another brother of mom's. Uh let's see, I think. Both of the brothers. One was killed in an accident in a saw a sawmill in Nevada. A tree fell on him. And then the brother that lived Carlisle. Yeah. Uh was killed. A tractor tipped over on him and was killed. Goodness.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is a lot of trauma, like just tragedy.
SPEAKER_04It was. Yeah. No wonder she worried every time anybody was gonna do something.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. That also makes me think, I can't believe she wasn't more worried in the blizzards or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_04Because even that, things like that. I know I remember them telling dad would take, well, this is later years, even he would ride horseback. They kept the cattle about five miles away because they had uh draws that they could have for protection from the storms. And he would put a like a toboggan and put um a low, he always called it cake that he gave to the feed for the cattle. Okay. Put that on the toboggan and pull it with the horse. But he said if you just let the horse go, it'll find its way back home if it's stormy. Yes.
SPEAKER_03I've heard that. I've heard that the horse, if you can't see the horse will the horse knows where to go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Very light on that a lot.
SPEAKER_05I think he let that happen a lot of times.
SPEAKER_04And I remember us staying home alone when we weren't very old, and they would have to go cut posts for fence, yeah, cedar posts, and wait for them to see them coming over the hill.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you both. I really appreciate you guys coming in. I love all these stories. And now we get to like relive them through your own words, you know. It's it's been great. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you for listening to today's episode of The Simple Lives We Live. I hope this story reminded you that everyday life holds beauty, meaning, and lessons worth sharing. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to follow the podcast and leave a review. It helps more people discover these stories. Do you know someone with a story worth telling? Reach out and let me know. I'd love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Instagram at the Simple Lives We Live. Until next time, may you find joy in the ordinary moments and gratitude in the Simple Lives We Live.