The Simple Lives We Live
Some of the most extraordinary stories don't come from celebrities or history books. They come from everyday people - your neighbor, your grandmother, the man who runs the corner store, or the woman sitting next to you at church.
On The Simple Lives We Live, we sit down with ordinary people to uncover the beautiful, hard, faithful, and fleeting moments that shaped their lives. Stories of love and loss. Of grit and grace. Of family, faith, and the simple days we didn't know we'd one day miss.
So please join me each week as we capture voices and memories that deserve to be heard and remembered. Because the truth is, ordinary people live the most extraordinary lives.
The Simple Lives We Live
Mel Bosserman
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Mel Bosserman, 83, shares what it was like growing up on a disciplined farm in Beach, ND - balancing hard work with small-town joys like Saturday nights and one-room school days. He reflects on a life shaped by music, family, and farming, along with the changes he witnessed over the years. From raising seven children to traveling across the country and beyond, Mel offers perspective on hard work, fatherhood, and how quickly life moves.
Welcome to the Simple Lives We Live, where we open the little family photo emblems 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, lust, 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_02Welcome back. Today's quote is the measure of a man isn't in what he builds for himself, but in the love he builds into his family. Today, my guest, we have Mel Bosserman with us. So thank you, Mel, for taking the time out of your what I am sure is a very busy schedule.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_02Sure. So I want you to start how I have asked everybody else to start basically. How old are you?
SPEAKER_00I turned 83 this past December.
SPEAKER_0283. Where were you born?
SPEAKER_00Where? I was born at the hospital here in Beach.
SPEAKER_02Here in Beach, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02And how many siblings do you have?
SPEAKER_00Five.
SPEAKER_02Five siblings. So there were six altogether. Yeah. Six kids.
SPEAKER_00Three girls and three boys.
SPEAKER_02And so can you list them in order?
SPEAKER_00Sure. So my oldest sister, who is not with us anymore, uh, her name was Marjorie, or we called her Marge, and then Dorothy, and then myself, and then there's Larry, and then there's Vernon, and then the youngest is Marilyn.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and only the oldest has passed away?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Did you grow up in Beach, Galva? Where did you grow up?
SPEAKER_00Well, we were on the farm southeast of Galva all the time until until I finished my sixth grade in the one room country school. And then my dad bought a house, well, rented a house in Beach to start with because my older sister had to start high school. So at that time we kind of spent the winters in Beach when school was on, and then the summers on the farm.
SPEAKER_02Summers on the farm. Yeah. What were your parents like as a child? First, let's name your parents. Who were your parents?
SPEAKER_00Floyd and Florence.
SPEAKER_02Floyd and Florence.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And what were they like?
SPEAKER_00What were they like? Yeah. I don't know. Were they fun? Typical parents.
SPEAKER_02Were they disciplinarians? Were they strict?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my dad was a big disciplinarian. I always say you didn't argue with my dad. But um yeah, they were pretty typical farm family. You know, we we worked hard from sunup to sundown on the farm. And um my mom grew up west of Trotters, and um, and her mom came from Denmark when she was six years old. But um that was on the greenup side, and then on the Bossman side, they've been here since 1700 and something, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Long time, yeah. Was your mom stay-at-home mom, inside cooking, cleaning?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, she was always at home. Um, her her job more than anything else I remember was the garden and the chickens, and um she would send us every day to school with a fried egg sandwich every day. Lots of eggs, and because she took care of the chickens, got the eggs every night, and good to go the next morning with egg sandwich.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. What do you remember doing for fun as a kid?
SPEAKER_00Having fun?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what did you guys do for fun?
SPEAKER_00Well, I remember at the one room country school, which we that was about three miles southeast of Galva. We had to walk a mile and a quarter to school, but I do remember um playing kids' games, you know, on the on the school grounds there. All kinds of different games we'd play. If there was snow, we'd play that what was it, chicken and something or other. Anyway, make that big circle and all the spooks. Yeah, foxing. That's what we called it. Okay, yeah, yeah. So I remember playing that when it was snowing, and one night we walked home from that school, and there was quite a bit of snow on the road, and us kids decided we're gonna go back and forth, back and forth, making trails in the snow, back and forth, from one ditch to the other. And when we got home, then my dad came home from beach or wherever he was, and he said, Do you remember how, or do you guys know how many miles you made walk from you're supposed to be a mile and a quarter? We probably did three times that.
SPEAKER_02You had fun doing it though, apparently.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we thought it was fun.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember? This is not even on my list of questions. Did you guys have um growing up you kids more of the galoshes?
SPEAKER_03More what?
SPEAKER_02Like galoshes, like what were your winter boots like?
SPEAKER_00Oh, our winter boots? I don't know, snow boots.
SPEAKER_02They were just regular snow boots, they weren't the ones that had the buckles and no, no, just regular boots, huh?
SPEAKER_00No. I do remember a couple of times, just a couple of times, my dad hooked up the team to a sleigh and took us to school when it was really cold and a lot of snow. He took us to school once or twice, I think, is all that happened, but but he took us on a sleigh, and I remember complaining to my dad that I was cold riding in that sleigh. And he said, Well, what you do when you're cold? You get off and run behind.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00So I did. I got off the back of that sleigh and I just ran behind the rest of the way to school. By the time I got to school, I was sweating.
SPEAKER_02How old were you? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm gonna say eight or nine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you had to walk most of the time, you said, to school. There was only a few times that your dad would.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if it was really cold, yeah. A couple times in a sleigh, but then after that, I remember usually in a pickup.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. So you guys did have pickups when you were little?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think some vehicles in the right in right in that era, you know, of the late 40s and early 50s, why yeah, dad had a pickup and a car.
SPEAKER_03And a car.
SPEAKER_02And I should ask, you growing up, you said on the farm, was it farming and ranching that you did? Or was it strictly farming and ranching?
SPEAKER_00Farming and ranching, yeah. We always had we always had uh beef cows, we always had milk cows and farming.
unknownAnd farming.
SPEAKER_02So, what chores did you have growing up? What were some of the chores that you did when you were younger, and then as you got older?
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, we always had to feed the calves, the dairy calves. And then my oldest sister always milked those two cows, and then as us kids got growing up, why pretty soon it was four cows, and then it was six cows, and then it was 15 cows.
SPEAKER_02Wow, so it really expanded.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. After Edith and I got married about four years, we got married in 63, and then in 67, my dad and I built a new dairy barn, and then after that, we always milked 80 to 100 cows. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02If we go back to when you were little and you were in that one the country schoolhouse, how many kids were in that school?
SPEAKER_00Well, we had two Finneman families, we had one Kramer family, and one Nissler family and Bosserman family. So usually around uh 14 to 18 kids.
SPEAKER_02Okay. One teacher.
SPEAKER_00One teacher.
SPEAKER_02How many were in your uh class grade?
SPEAKER_00Two, two or three?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, two or three.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember any specific teachers that you really enjoyed in school in your school years?
SPEAKER_00Uh any what?
SPEAKER_02Uh teachers.
SPEAKER_00Oh, teachers, yeah. Oh yeah, I remember them all. Yeah. Um, Evelyn Weinreist the first year, and then it was Mrs. Castle. And then it was June Peterson, and then it was Mrs. Scott for my fifth and sixth grade. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean at that school at sixth grade, you said when you guys came into was it Galva or Beach? Beach Beach. Okay. And your sister was starting high school around that time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did two seventh and eighth grade at the grade school and beach, and then high school beach.
SPEAKER_02Was it the new no, it was the old school? Yes. It was the old grade school and high school that you went to and graduated from.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Any favorite subjects?
SPEAKER_00What?
SPEAKER_02Any favorite subjects? Did you particularly like math or history?
SPEAKER_00Well, probably egg class. I can easier tell you the worst, worst favorite one. So, what was the worst one for you? Algebra. So Aiden Miller was a superintendent, and one day he saw me walking down the hall of the old school, and he heard my clips on my heels clipping along on that hardwood floor. And he said, Mel, come in here to his office. And he said, Show me the bottom of your shoe. Of course, I had them steel clips on that were a no-no. So he said, You get them off when you get home. And then he asked me, he said, I see you got a D in algebra. Now, what did your dad say about that? Because he knew my dad pretty well. My dad was a county commissioner. And um being a smart freshman, I I told the superintendent, my dad said he never had any use for algebra. So that so Aiden Miller said, you get out of here.
SPEAKER_02Did he ever tell your dad about that?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02No, he didn't, huh?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02How about Christmases growing up? What were Christmases like for you?
SPEAKER_00Christmases?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I remember making those green and red circles out of construction paper, you know, to hang on. The chains? Yeah, yeah, to hang on the hang on the tree. And um, of course, to start with, that was when we were living all over on that what we call the old Denton place, that my dad had rented that house because that was one of the homesteaders that failed. And so we were living there until I was six, I think. And the one about my only memory of living over in that Denton house was I was really, really sad one day because my mom was telling me that my dad was going to be gone for, I don't know, four or five, six days. And I kept asking her, why, why, why? Well, she said he's getting on the train and beach, and he has to go to Fargo because he's the president of the Grain Dealers Association, and he won't be back till, I don't know, Saturday or Sunday. But anyway, that's the worst news I'd ever heard that my dad was gonna be gone.
SPEAKER_02What made your dad so special that you missed him so much?
SPEAKER_00So special that what?
SPEAKER_02That you missed him so much that he was gonna be gone and you're gonna be.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, a five-year-old boy. Dad is dad is uh, yeah, he's the he's your whole world.
SPEAKER_02Did he allow you to go and do things with him? Did he involve you in a lot of things at that age? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00When I was little, I remember going into the barbershop in Galva with him, going to St. Le Butte for parts with him over at the old international store. So yeah, I'd go with him quite a bit.
SPEAKER_02So he wasn't just the worker and come home, and your mom was always the one taking care of you? He took an active role. Oh, yeah. Even in those days, he was taking an active role by taking you guys with him and okay.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Any other uh traditions around Christmas that your family had?
SPEAKER_00Well, I recall one situation where, and this was back at the old Denton place, so I was pretty young, but I don't remember exactly saying this, but what my mom said that I said about the presents under the Christmas tree, I said I didn't peek, but there's an airplane in that package. So I recall that.
SPEAKER_02Any other gifts that you remember getting when you were little?
SPEAKER_00Other gifts? Yeah, yeah, after we had moved over to the new house that my dad built in 48, 1948, um my brother and I each got a uh like a dump truck, a little a little toy dump truck, and we just thought those were the coolest things. So we went outside and dumped snow, played in the snow, and dumped snow and hauled snow.
SPEAKER_02Did you play a lot with those in the summer too, with all the dirt and everything?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, get in all the dirt you could.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. How about birthdays? Were birthdays a big thing in your house growing up? Did your mom make them extra special?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Always have a birthday cake and put the candles on, and everybody sings happy birthday, and and uh other than that, I guess I can't think of no big parties, but more the family gathering together. No, I don't remember other people being there really. Like like sometimes they do now, have a whole bunch of people, but I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_02Did you get the big angel food cake?
SPEAKER_00Fruit cake?
SPEAKER_02Uh angel, angel food cake? Oh, yeah. A lot of people had angel food cakes for birthdays.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, I I love that stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What were summers like for you as a kid? Were they all about work being on a farm and ranch, or was there some free time that you got to kind of go and be more of a kid?
SPEAKER_00Well, it was mostly about work, but because so much stuff was by hand back then. I remember when dad sent Larry and I, my brother and I, out to shock a field of corn. It was like a 70-acre field, and we went out and made our first shock out of corn stalks. And after we had that first shock done, I looked around and I said to my brother, we will never ever get this done.
SPEAKER_02How old are you? Do you remember? Not that old. Not that old.
SPEAKER_00I think I was maybe 14 and he was 12. Okay. But it was a big job, but we did finally get it done.
SPEAKER_02Can I ask? Because I'm gonna be really dumb. How does one do that? What does that actually entail? Okay, so because I have no idea how you do that by hand.
SPEAKER_00So the binder had already shot the field. Cut them, cut them and put them in bundles with a string around them, a piece of twine around them. Okay, so they're just laying all over this field in bundles, and then you have to pick them up one at a time and stack them against each other like a teepee, so that they shed water. And then in the wintertime you can come and get them for feed.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you had to stack them like the teepee once you guys were doing okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then they would tend to shed water, you know.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00See oh, you're too young if you don't if you don't know how to shock.
SPEAKER_02Never had to do that, never had to do that. Um so a lot of work on the summers. You guys weren't coming in and going to the pool or um riding bikes with friends because you were out on the farm ranch, probably not necessarily super close to any friends.
SPEAKER_00I remember riding a bike on a Sunday afternoon on the farm. My brother and I would be riding around with our bikes. But uh back in them days in the in the late 40s, early 50s, all the farmers and ranchers came to town on Saturday night. So that was the one night that we would get to come come to beach, we would get to eat out, which we never got to do, you know. But there was like Derner's Cafe and and that, so Park Cafe. So yeah, we get to eat out that night, and then I remember the streets and beach on Saturday night were full of people.
SPEAKER_02That was the big night that everybody Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Saturday night, everybody was in town.
SPEAKER_02So, other than eating out, what were some of the entertainment that Beach had going on? Was it movie theaters? Was it dance?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the movie theater was open. Um yeah, other than that, I don't know. I just remember my dad and mom, you know, walking up and down the streets with us kids and talking to people and and going into stores, you know. There was the there was the penny store and the coast-to-coast store, and and uh there was a store down where the old hospital used to be, somewhere in that area that I got left. I do remember that. I got left. They took off.
SPEAKER_02How long before they came back?
SPEAKER_00Oh, not not very long, long enough that I was scared, but yeah, they come back, pick me up.
SPEAKER_02So that was and then Sundays there was nothing because that was church, nothing was open, I should say, right?
SPEAKER_00Right, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Or did they have any restaurants?
SPEAKER_03Places to eat on Sunday.
SPEAKER_02And the only reason I asked that is because Swenda remembers her mom working at her. Cafe that day. So they would go, so she didn't get to go to church, but they would go pick her up when they got done at one or two, something like that, and drive to Samadora.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess I cannot recall eating out on Sunday. But what we a lot of times did do after church, we'd always come to church here on Beach. And then a lot of times we'd drive up to Trotter's where my mom grew up and visit her folks. So that was a long drive back then, you know, it was all gravel. And uh it was like 35 miles.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you worked 180.
SPEAKER_00And what you weren't driving 80 miles an hour later, so no, no, but we always used to go up there a lot and for Christmas and everything, too. But uh we us kids really enjoyed going up there, yeah. And sometimes there'd be cousins there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that what made it so special? Is you got to see other family members, the cousins that you didn't get to see, or was there something else that was really fun to do there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was there's a lot of times cousins there, but also we got to roam around in the hills, you know, that was all Badlands, cattle country, and we get to go out and play wherever, you know, and just do stuff. And one time my dad called us, told us, don't go so far from the house, there's rattlesnakes out there, so gotta stay in closer by the house.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh. So, at what age did you start working? And now that's a did you ever work off of the farm ranch? Maybe that's what I should ask. That's probably a better question for you.
SPEAKER_00Well, I after high school, I went two years to college in Portland, Oregon. My older sister had picked out that college, so I kind of followed her out there. And and I did have a couple of jobs, you know, working while I was in college. But other than that, no. Um after my second year of college, my younger brother wanted to try that college scene. So I stayed home to help dad, and I got my heels dug in and never left.
SPEAKER_02Never left.
SPEAKER_00Never left.
SPEAKER_02What did you study when you went to college?
SPEAKER_00Just basic undergraduate stuff.
SPEAKER_02General classes?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah. But I did, I did take two years of Spanish, and I did not like studying a foreign language. And um maybe now I should have learned Spanish, but I I just never had a use for it.
SPEAKER_02Especially here, everybody around our area, especially, speaks English, pretty good English, so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I got my associate in arts degree after two years, so I was satisfied with that to stay on the farm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Did you get to do any sports growing up? Do I sports?
SPEAKER_00Sports? Oh, yeah. I played football in high school both in Beach here.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did you do basketball?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Football and basketball.
SPEAKER_02Basketball. Okay. No track?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_02No track. Okay. How about any vacations while you were growing up? Did you guys did your family take vacations? Well, you feel like that's hard to do when you have a farm and ranch.
SPEAKER_00I just remember one big-time vacation after World War II. Dad had bought a brand new Plymouth car, and I was six because I know I had to start school then when we got back home from California. But uh, my mom's sister lived in California. So we made that whole trip in that old Plymouth car, not old, it was a new Plymouth car, but it's still heated all the time in the heat of the desert, you know, getting to California. But um, yeah, I remember driving. Dad would drive late into the night to get to a certain place, motel or whatever. And uh I remember it being very hot, and my mom would have a water jug, and she'd we all had the windows open, no air conditioning in them days. So mom would throw a cap full, the cap on the water jug. She'd throw it out her window and it would come in the back window to us kids. And that was that was a treat.
SPEAKER_02Entertaining too, apparently. You know, that was a uh when you were little, what were your ambitions or dreams that you had for when you were older? Is there anything you wanted to be, things you wanted to do?
SPEAKER_00I didn't know what I wanted to do, and when I left for college, I was still 17. In fact, I was 17 when I came home from the first semester of college for Christmas, because I started at five, but um I didn't know what I wanted to do when I left for college. I didn't think I would ever come back to the farm. I didn't think I would. I'd been on that old international combine since I was 12 years old and no cab or nothing. I I I had enough of that. Yeah, but then you get out in this world and you see how other people live and work, and so many times they don't like their work, but they know they have to do it, and so I kind of picked up on all that and everything during them two years in Portland, and and um and the other thing that really settled on me when I was in Portland, it rained so much that I I was on I was on the choir, I was in the choir and on choir tour both years. The first year we came as far east as Bismarck, second year we went to Disneyland in LA, but but we'd be stopping every night and putting on a performance. And the first year coming out of the Willamette Valley there at Portland, we had not, when we come out of that city on choir tour, we had not seen the sun for 90 days. 90 days since we seen the sun.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00And then as soon as we pulled up on above, you know, probably an hour east of Portland, there's the sun. But we hadn't seen it for 90 days.
SPEAKER_02Kind of depressing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I had a hard time with that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Going off of that, you said you were in choir and you guys traveled for this choir. Was that Beach Choir?
SPEAKER_00Cascade Cascade College choir in Portland, Oregon.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, while you were at college, yeah. So are you really musically talented? Do you play an instrument? Is it more singing?
SPEAKER_00I played trumpet in high school and sang in the choir and in a men's quartet in high school. And then when I got to college, I was in the choir both years, and yeah, I love music. I absolutely love music.
SPEAKER_02Were your parents musical?
SPEAKER_00Uh, not my dad, but my mom played piano. Okay, and I would sing in church when I was in high school or even grade school, some with my mom on the piano. Yeah, but then after college, I I picked up the guitar. My mom had a guitar, she played guitar when she was young. So um I picked up the guitar and I played guitar in church for about 40 years, and then my fingers got to the point where I couldn't not as flexible and agile as they used to be. Yeah. So I kind of had to quit.
SPEAKER_02Were your siblings also musically talented?
SPEAKER_00Um my sister Dorothy was, and then uh I guess not really.
SPEAKER_03The rest of them.
SPEAKER_02You kind of were the one that was more inclined to it, huh? Yeah. Fell in love with it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Dor Dorothy always sang and played, but I I don't think any of the rest of them did.
SPEAKER_02Just you and your mom. Do you feel like did that make you closer to your mom growing up? Yeah, doing a lot of those things together?
SPEAKER_00Probably so, yeah, because she'd teach me a few things on the piano, but I never picked that up that well. But uh, but yeah, she'd play piano and I'd sing in church.
SPEAKER_02Who were you closest to of your siblings growing up when you were younger?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that would be Dorothy. She's just a year older than I am. Okay, yeah, yeah. We still talk, text and talk.
SPEAKER_02Did you guys get in a lot of trouble together?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02Growing up?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02No, no, you say that with a smile, like you're well.
SPEAKER_00My sister Dorothy would not get in any trouble.
SPEAKER_02Oh, she was a good employee. Yeah. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So that's who you were closest to. Did that ever change as you all grew up and got older as to who you were maybe more connected with at certain times of your life? Did it ever switch or no?
SPEAKER_00I don't think it ever really changed. Dorothy and I are still the closest ones of the siblings. Um she married a pastor and they're retired now in Wichita, Kansas. But we still talk and text quite a bit.
SPEAKER_02Nice that we have the cell phones that we can talk so frequently and text.
SPEAKER_00And she comes up, or has anyway in the past, come up and volunteered in Madora. So she'd be there in Madora for a couple weeks every summer and and of course stay out at our place. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, let's see, that's a hard one. I guess it'd have to be my mom and dad. I can't think of anybody else that really had a lot of influence on me.
SPEAKER_02I want to go back to your grandparents for a second, if that's okay, before we get into this other uh subject. But do you have any stories from your grandparents at homesteading? That was one thing Laura asked me to ask you, is if you can tell me anything about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, on my dad's side is a pretty interesting story because um they came from northwest Ohio in 1903 to Golden Valley County, and the story is that my great-grandfather and my grandfather came at the same time, and the reason they did that is my great-grandfather wanted his four kids to all be old enough to homestead. So they were, they were grown, uh, and I think you had to be 18 to homestead. So they came to Golden Valley County and homesteaded some of them southeast of Galva, some of them east of Galva. But um, they all did. They all did. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, and his three siblings all got a court and homesteaded on it. But it was just too rough. Most of them gave it up before they ever got it. What do they call? Yeah, I mean they had to dig a well and they had to plant trees, and if they got that done and could stay on that quarter for five years, then the government gave it to them free. But um my grandfather is the only one that stayed. The rest of his siblings said, no, just it's just too hard. So they moved west, and and most of his siblings settled in Idaho.
SPEAKER_02In Idaho, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So my grandfather is the only one that stayed out of the four. And even my grandfather lost his homestead during the dirty 30s. He did. But he was able to stay there. The banker that repossessed it let him live there and and uh rent it, you know, farm it.
SPEAKER_02That seems very um uncommon for the time that bankers would do that? Or was that actually something many did?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, quite often um a lot of the homesteaders. I think the statistics are that only a fourth of the homesteaders made it.
SPEAKER_02Really? Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I mean, so many of them gave up their quarter, their homestead quarter. But um I would say quite often that happened, you know. If if the homesteader wanted to stay there, even though he lost his quarter, um they would let him rent it, rent it out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did most end up buying it back then, eventually? Yeah, to where they actually did own it again?
SPEAKER_00They didn't.
SPEAKER_02They didn't to your grandma.
SPEAKER_00But my dad did.
SPEAKER_02But your dad ended up buying it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because the banker's daughter moved to Minneapolis, and she always told my dad, if we ever sell that quarter, you'll be the one that gets to buy it.
SPEAKER_02And she kept her word.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah. That was back in the 70s.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But as far as homestead, and then on my mom's side, when my grandpa and grandma Green up uh they were in Hettinger, and when they got married, they moved up to their homestead, which was about six miles west of Trotter's, a little bit south. And uh they moved up there in 1915 and then retired and moved into Beach in about 1955, I think.
SPEAKER_02Okay. No, you mentioned that you went to two years of college, you came back, and you stayed. Did you ever consider other jobs or living someplace else besides this area?
SPEAKER_00No, I I um had my fill to the West Coast and the gloomy days, yeah. And of course, we we traveled all the way from Portland, stopped every night to put on a choir performance, every night all the way down to LA, sang at Disney World, turned around and stopped every night, put on a choir performance all the way back to Portland. So I've seen a lot of the West Coast, you know, and um just wasn't very impressed with that.
SPEAKER_02So even back then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So I didn't, I guess I didn't really ever think of moving anywhere else.
SPEAKER_02Do you think that you having spent that time though on the West Coast, did that make you appreciate the conditions here, the living environment here more and made you maybe less, oh, I want to go try somewhere else?
SPEAKER_00No, it made me appreciate this area much more. And like even my kids and now my grandkids, we tell them you need to get out and either go to college or go somewhere and get a job and see how the rest of the world works, and then decide, you know, if you want to come home, that's fine. But if you find something you'd rather do, that's fine. But try try to get them out for a year or two.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I'm gonna switch gears a little bit here, and I want you to tell me who did you end up marrying? What was her name?
SPEAKER_00Edith Weinrace.
SPEAKER_02Edith Weinrace. How did you meet?
SPEAKER_00Well, Edith's mom always said that we were in school together in the first grade, and I didn't believe it. I said I would remember that. But no, looking through the through the school books that Judy Reidenhauer and some of them put together, yeah, it lists Edith and I, first grade and Berkey school together. But then she went to a different grade school, one room country school. I think they called it Hillside.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00But so I I never was in school with her except the first grade because she went to high school in Gulba, where I went in beach. So um we didn't hardly know each other. Well, we knew each other because of church. Yeah, we knew each other because of church, but other than that, no, didn't uh didn't hardly rub elbows during high school much at all. I mean, we knew each other, but but um but then she was a year behind me, so she went to two years at the uh National School of Business in Rapid City. And uh so she went to two years of college there, and I went to two years of college in Portland. But then after I was done with college and she still had a year to go, then we then we were dating.
SPEAKER_02And how did that how did you end up meeting and begin dating? Was there a certain event that you were at?
SPEAKER_00That we first met? Yeah, no, I would I was connected? I would say in church, yeah. We were in church, though, okay. We were in youth group together and in church on Sunday morning and um and up to Odins Dam water skiing on Sunday afternoon.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so it was more of a gradual getting to know her as friends almost versus over a number of years. Okay. How old were you when you got married? How old were you and how old was Edith?
SPEAKER_00I was 21 and she was 20 and a half.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And she had finished her second year already? Yeah. Then you guys got married?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. She had finished her second year of business college and had and was working for Orin Lovell. Oh the lawyer. Yeah. She worked for him for before we were married and after. I think she worked for him about three years.
SPEAKER_02And so you continue to farm and rent. She worked for him. Well, how long did you guys date before you got married? It couldn't have been too long. A year?
SPEAKER_00Like we were going together?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, before you got married.
SPEAKER_00I would say two years.
SPEAKER_02Oh, two years?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So then you get married. She continued to work for a little bit. And then how long before you had your first child?
SPEAKER_00Um Sherry was born in 65, July of 65. And so we were married in December of 63, so about a year and a half before our first born. And that's when she quit working.
SPEAKER_02She did. Okay. Can you tell me about your wedding date? Did you have the big church wedding, reception, dance? How was the wedding date? Or was it really simple?
SPEAKER_00Did you get married during the week or very simple compared to what goes on these days? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we got married on December 27th of 63. And we had the wedding in that little little evangelical church, South of Catholic Church. And um after the wedding, they took us for a little drive around town, and then we're back to the basement of the church to open our gifts. And then after that, no dance or nothing. We just took off for Dickinson on our honeymoon.
SPEAKER_02So no big meal.
SPEAKER_03No. No. No.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember? Did Edith did she make her dress? Did her mom make her dress?
SPEAKER_00Hmm.
SPEAKER_02Might not remember that.
SPEAKER_00There was a lady by the name of Ruth Kimball that did all the flower arrangements. I I can't say for sure if she made her dress or not. I'm I'm thinking she might have, but I don't know for sure. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And no, you and Edith ended up with seven children.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, four girls and three boys.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So start at the the firstborn and list them for me, if you would.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02I'm really gonna test your knowledge now, right?
SPEAKER_00Don't forget anybody. Oh, that won't be hard. So Sherry was the firstborn, and then Lori. Um, and then we had a boy, much to my delight, Mark. And um then it was about four years between Mark and Jason. And then when Jason was born, after that was Kim, Carrie, and finally Michael.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02So is that three or four girls? I think.
SPEAKER_00Four girls.
SPEAKER_02Four girls, three boys.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. What was your wife like? Talk to me about your wife.
SPEAKER_00She was a good mother. She was also a good disciplinarian. So um the kids didn't get by with very much under her watch. And um she was a hard worker, you know. We always had hired hands on the farm there, and um so between between the seven kids and and um two or three hired hands, oh, she put on a lot of meals, a lot of meals. Yeah, because back in them days, the employees, hired hands would always stay in the bunkhouse and and come over to our house to eat. So uh, yeah, she put on a lot of meals, but she was used to doing that, you know. She was the oldest of 12, so I mean, she was used to cooking, helping cook big meals.
SPEAKER_02Maybe you can answer this and maybe you can't. So it it's okay either way. Her you saying she was the oldest of 12, did and you guys having seven yourselves, did she always want a really big family? Did she go into marriage being um, I want to have a big family, I want to stay home and raise kids?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, she did, and uh, and uh actually I wanted eight, and she said, in the Bible, seven is the number of completion. So seven it is, and then it was yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did she ever then with the seven children? Did she ever work outside the home once you started having children? Never, never, she had plenty to do inside, like at home, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. You talking about hired um help, and she would help outside too, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh Garmeen, I'm sure, and all of that. That's it is a full-time job that she had. Let's be honest.
SPEAKER_03That is a lot of work with hired help.
SPEAKER_02Did you ever have any issues with hired help living in the bunkhouse? Was that ever an issue? Any or did you always end up with really good employees?
SPEAKER_00Well, no, you can't always say you had good employees, but but as far as an issue, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_02I mean There's never any of your daughters wanting to date any of them or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh um. No, I don't think so. I don't remember anything like that.
SPEAKER_02Of course, the kids were all younger too, but uh so once they were older, did you not have to have the hired help because you had older ones too much they were? Not as much, not as much. Okay, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not as much. So then we didn't have to have so many hired hands. But um but then out all kinds, it kind of comes full circle, and the farm gets bigger and more cattle and stuff. So now even with all the kids and grandkids around, I only still got you know more employees. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's usually eight or ten of us. I don't want to say they're all working, but there's but there's they're around. They're around.
SPEAKER_02Do most of your children still live in the area? Or are there some that moved out of the area?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Sherry and Lori. Sherry's in Colorado, Lori's in Nebraska. Well, Sherry's in Nebraska, some too, I guess. Um Mark is working out at Richerton for an oil company, Hall and Saltwater. And then Jason is with me. Kim is married to Mike Van Horn in Sentinel Butte. Carrie is with me, and Michael is with me.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. So still quite a few of them are in the area that you get to see regularly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, three of them are with me, and Kim and Sentinel Butte, that's four.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. What has fatherhood meant to you?
SPEAKER_00What's that?
SPEAKER_02What has fatherhood meant to you being a dad? Did it change you?
SPEAKER_00Well, I suppose it did, yeah, but I mean, I I just remember some of the things that were so funny, you know, growing up. Michael and I were having a pillow pillow fight one day when he's about two years old, and I put that pillow over his head and he said, he got it off, and he says, I can't get any cold breathe. And I remember one time we were trying to get some cows in a curl, and Jason was just little riding beside with me in the pickup, and we're trying to get these cows in a curl, and I said, I don't think this is gonna work. I don't think this is gonna work. And Jason said, but it's good to try.
SPEAKER_02And how old was he?
SPEAKER_00Old, just little, three or four, you know. So yeah, those little ones are just so special, you know. Yeah, of course. Now I have grandkids and I have one great grandkid.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00Ty Van Horn, Ty and Siri have that little boy.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's a what? He's here in two months now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Make life pretty special, don't they?
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is there anything you do different looking back on when you were raising kids? Is there anything you would do different in how you raise them? Or do you look back and be like, well, maybe I was a little too strict, or you seem pretty laid back. Well, I think But some people are different as parents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I I would say I was probably a little bit too lenient, and my wife was probably a little too harsh.
SPEAKER_02So that's a good balance, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, yeah, it balanced out well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, maybe she felt like she had to be because you were so yeah.
SPEAKER_00It could be now.
SPEAKER_02How many grandkids do you have? Oh you have one great grandson.
SPEAKER_00Well, I got more grades, but I have 23.
SPEAKER_0223 grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah. And I believe it's 11 grades, but sometimes Carrie has to correct me.
SPEAKER_02It's a lot to keep track of.
SPEAKER_00Well, the thing of it is they all live South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado. So I never hardly ever get to see them. And I think there's at least one that I've never seen. Well, that not maybe not. When Lori's Delaney got married, I think they were all there. So I I probably have seen them all. But anyway, with this little Wayne, I get to see him every Sunday. So um he he's a year and two months, I guess. So he warms up to me pretty good. And then um Carissa, Mike and Kim Van Horn's oldest Carissa, she's down here from Anchorage now with her two little ones. So um those are both greats. So Sherry's two-daughter has kids, and Lori has kids. I can't keep track of all them greats.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because this little Wayne of of Ty and Siri Van Horns is the only one that I get to see regularly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Going back to the um farming, what changes over your lifetime have you seen with farming?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's huge.
SPEAKER_02And Laura says that she wanted you to talk about irrigation, building the dam. Those are all I have in my hands.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. Oh, yeah, the change in this farming is huge. So um first tractor I drove was an international M, and and my dad, he liked international farmholes. He he didn't think much of John Deere, he didn't like that pop, pop, pop of them little old two-cylinder John Deere. He did not like he won, he had international red.
SPEAKER_02And uh I'm just gonna point out that you're wearing a John Deere hat. Yeah, so that's kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00Well, we drive, we drive almost all John Deere tractors now, but but growing up we had all red, and of course, no cabs or nothing. In the spring you froze to death, in the summer you rose to death, and uh it was way different than now. But um yeah, but it's been good. I mean, we we used to always have to have at least two tractors out in the field seeding and summer falling and working the ground, and now we just run one for seeding and one for corn planting because there's they're so just so huge now, you know, that you can get over the acres pretty fast.
SPEAKER_02How about the irrigation and and the the building of the dam?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so my dad and I worked with the government for about five years trying to get an irrigation dam built. And finally in 1971, we did get it built, and surprisingly, it filled the first year, and um so we were off and running in 72 with with two um center pivots, and then the next year we put up a third, and then the next year we put up fourth, and so we were running four pivots for quite a few years from 72 to somewhere in the 80s, and the 80s were so dry and so hot that we didn't have enough water in the dam to support that many sprinklers. So the first sprinkler we had put up was called a water drive, and they were very inefficient type of a sprinkler, so we retired that one and then ran three, and we ran those three until I think two thousand. Well, we irrigated about thirty-five years. So from seventy-two to two thousand five.
SPEAKER_02Why did you stop?
SPEAKER_00Okay, the reason we stopped was because our water got so salty that it was damaging our crops. So then we were working with NDSU. Why why has our water got so salty? And the answer appears to be as near as we can tell when no-till became the big thing instead of tilling the soil, no-till, we don't we don't get uh wash the water running off the fields anymore that carries the salt with it, and and uh we just don't get that anymore with no-till. So that's one of the theories anyway. But um it seems to be logical, you know, why our water got so salty. Um we were testing it in the dam, and we were testing it upstream from the dam, and it wasn't much different. So the irrigation specialist in Fargo said, What's happening is you just aren't getting those flushes like you used to when you get a hard rain, because with no-till this the stubble on the ground is holding that back and not letting the big flushes go.
SPEAKER_02Which would make sense. Yeah, I suppose too, if that water is really salty and it gets on the crops, isn't that just I mean, absorbs any type of moisture and then you get that heat, would it not just burn the crops or dry in so much more faster?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Our corn, when we first started irrigating, was like 10 or 12 foot tall, and then over the years it kind of got down where it was barely making head high, and we knew something was going on, but a lot of people looked at a lot of things and had a lot of theories, but I I think that's probably the most correct one.
SPEAKER_02Okay, which yeah, it does it does make sense, yeah. Yeah, um, okay, so I want you to talk if you would. How long ago did your wife pass away? What year?
SPEAKER_00She passed away in 2011 from cancer in the liver.
SPEAKER_02Liver cancer. Um how old was she when she passed away?
SPEAKER_0068. I I always say 68, it was one day short of 68.
SPEAKER_02Oh she was 67, but the next day would have been her birthday. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Um how long had she been sick?
SPEAKER_00Uh it was nine months from the time we we had just got back from Waterloo, Iowa, watched them build a tractor for us. And we just got home, and the next day, or the next day, I can't remember for sure, it was Sunday morning, and Edith said she didn't feel like going to church, and she said, I think I might have to go to the doctor. And I said, Well, let me know, decide what you want to do. So a little later in the morning, she said, Well, I think we better go to the doctor in Dickinson, and so I took her to the doctor, and we were only there for 45 minutes, maybe, and the nurse came back into the room and she says, Um, well, she says, I hate to tell you, but you've got cancer. And so we came back home. Well, actually, we stopped at Carrie's, I guess, and uh the kids all came up, and and so from the time that she was diagnosed with cancer, and then we went to Bismarck to the hospital, we went to Houston, to the Cancer Center, quite a few different times over the next few months, but but from the time she was diagnosed in Dickinson until the time. Day she died was nine months.
SPEAKER_02Did she have to was she mostly at home with you taking care of her, or did she spend a lot of time in the hospital being sick?
SPEAKER_00No, not really. She was in the hospital, you know, for checkups and this and that and the other thing following up on it, but but no, she was home most of the time. Yeah. Her sister Ruth came out from Dickinson a lot to help take care of her.
SPEAKER_02How has life changed for you since her passing? How has life just changed for you since her passing?
SPEAKER_00Oh well, it's different, that's for sure. Yeah, it's different because we were married 47 and a half years, so we got in quite a quite a stretch. But um, yeah, you know, it's it's different, you know. When you come in the house at night, nobody's there.
SPEAKER_02But have you has it been pretty lonely? Or was it lonelier in the beginning and getting better?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it gets better over time, of course, but but I'm so fortunate. I I've got four grandkids a half mile east of me, and I've got five grandkids a half mile west of me, so I have people to talk to and things to do, you know.
SPEAKER_02Not as lonely as it could be if you were right not in the situation between kids that you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I don't get lonely as much as I get bored. Yeah. Just, you know, a lot of days I I kind of get bored not having not having a lot to do anymore.
SPEAKER_02Have you had to learn how to cook and make more meals for yourself?
SPEAKER_00Or not really. I mean, Carrie brings me out more than I can eat. Oh, that's awesome. And so I I still don't do very much cooking.
SPEAKER_02They take care of you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's great, that's really great. Yeah, and then there's grandkids' birthdays and everything, you know, and basketball games to chase and all that. So, you know, it's it's fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, keeps you busy, keeps you busy and most of the time, yeah. What's an important life lesson that you've learned?
SPEAKER_00Well, I would say one thing is that life is very short. Because I'm eighty-three, and you cannot believe how fast eighty-three years can go by. So, yeah, life life passes very quickly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What is a memory from your childhood that you didn't realize was important until later in life?
SPEAKER_03Probably the importance of hard work, you know, is something that you need to learn.
SPEAKER_00Seems terrible at the time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh.
SPEAKER_02But it's important to learn that at a young age, and at the time, yeah. You definitely aren't thinking of the importance of it later in life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my dad had a hired hand that lived here in Beach. And so my dad and this hired hand were running those two international harvester combines that fall. And the next morning, the hired hand called out and he told my dad, I cannot come to work and sit on that combine one more day. He said, I can't do it. He said, My eyes are welded shut with all the dirt and the chaff and everything sitting out there. He says, I can't do it. And my dad looked at me and he says, You're appointed. I was 12. So I'd I've been on that combine ever since.
SPEAKER_02Not the same combine, but doing the the same purpose, the track has the same purpose. It's just maybe gotten a little cosier as time's gone by.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is there something that you always wished you did but never got around to doing?
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't know why this sticks in my mind, but I always wondered why as a family we didn't go to Yellowstone Park. Now my dad and mom took us to Yellowstone Park, but I don't think that we ever took the seven kids to Yellowstone Park. So that always kind of makes me wonder why. But um but we went a lot of other places, you know. We went camping up in the Baratus and Rapid City. We were always going to Lake Pact to look water skiing and boating and stuff. So I mean, but Yellowstone Park, I don't know why.
SPEAKER_02Isn't that funny that that's what you think of with that question, too?
SPEAKER_00Like it yeah, yeah. I can't remember that we ever took them there.
SPEAKER_02No, I hear you've done a lot of traveling, though. You've been to a lot of different continents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02How many of the states?
SPEAKER_00Well, I've been in every state. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You have been to every state.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But this is mostly since my wife died. That I've done a lot of, I mean, we did two. Edith and I, and some kids and nephews and nieces went to Australia, and and we'd been in Hawaii a couple different times. But but after my wife died, I've been in, I think it's 17 countries. And uh, and yeah, certainly on every continent. And my cousin and I went to Uganda, Africa on a missions trip. So um, yeah, I've I've done a lot of traveling since my wife died, but but uh I'm kind of done now.
SPEAKER_02So given that you've been to every state, you said you said you've been to pretty much every continent. What what were some of the highlights or where where were your favorite places?
SPEAKER_00Well, if I pick out my favorite place, all the places we've been, I think I would say Australia. Australia. Yeah, it I really enjoyed Australia. You know, my cousin and I, when we were coming back from Uganda, Africa, we spent three days in London and three days in Paris, and um only just to be there, see it, but now they don't have a very good standard of living in London for sure, England.
SPEAKER_02Is it dirtier? Is it dirty?
SPEAKER_00Um not too bad. There's an awful lot of homeless people that sleep overnight in the inset doorways in the businesses. They after dark they start bedding down there and stuff, and and um yeah, Britain doesn't have a very good standard of living. Paris might be a little better, but uh no, they're just they're just another big city as far as I'm concerned.
unknownInteresting.
SPEAKER_02I've never been to either, so that's why I asked. You're not missing anything, not missing anything, but Australia was great. Yeah. What other places did you really enjoy that come to mind?
SPEAKER_00Well, Hawaii is nice, but it's very expensive. Um but yeah, we stayed in what they call Darling Harbour in Australia, and it it's a big harbor, probably a mile across, and and it's ringed with all kinds of motels and eating places and everything, and and of course the weather was fantastic. Went to the Sydney Opera House. So, and then we went out in the country for kind of a tour thing, too. And uh yeah, I I just enjoyed Australia. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_02That's the one that you would, yeah. Yeah, how were your mission trips? Did you just do the one mission trip or did you have you done several? No, just one.
SPEAKER_00Just the one? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that something you feel like everybody should experience at least once as a mission trip?
SPEAKER_00It was an experience to be sure. Um, we we went with a group from Dickinson. There was about a dozen, 15 of us, and um flew from Minneapolis to London and London to Antebi, Uganda. And um then the orphanage picked us up at the airport, and we drove out in the country maybe 45 minutes or so, and the orphanage um they had these separate little thatched roof places where the kids all stay, and um and then the compound they called it where we stayed. Um they they had built concrete walls because the termites are so bad that they eat out the wood from underneath. And uh so one of the bigger jobs that my cousin and I had to do was replace a wood door frame in the concrete walls, put in a wood, they put in a wood door frame to hang the door, and the termites would eat it out from underneath. So we were supposed to replace this wood door frame. Well, first place, you gotta find some wood. Second place, you gotta figure out how you're gonna tear that frame out of there because there's no electricity, there's no, I mean, everything's by hand, you know. And then after we got that door frame replaced, then to hang the new door, we went into this little village about five miles away to try to buy some hinges, and there's no hinges. I mean, they're not available. So biggest thing I thought of over in Uganda if they just had steel posts. So the termites couldn't eat them out because they have to replace them in wood posts every year.
SPEAKER_02That's what I was gonna ask. How often did they have to replace them? Because we've seen it. Every year not very efficient then.
SPEAKER_00No, not at all.
SPEAKER_02And you said this is at an orphanage, yeah. With a bunch of termites.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, they're everywhere, and snakes. People walk on the roads all the time because they know there's snakes in the ditch. So they walk on the road and they get hit by cars all the time because there's nowhere else to walk. Yeah, they don't want to walk in a ditch because of the snakes. And so the second week we were there, they they took us on a kind of little safari thing where they drive through this park with all these different kinds of animals, which was interesting. But um we were asking our guide why do people walk on the road? Well, he said, because they know there's snakes in the ditch, they walk on the road. Well, we're buzzed by all these people walking on the road. And I asked him, I said, how many people get hit by cars every day? Oh, he said, probably two or three a day. And so I said, Well, what happens then? You you hit somebody. Well, he said, if you hit somebody, don't stop, because if you killed a person, then their family has the right to kill you. So he said, You you gotta go to the police station. Just keep driving until you get to the police station, tell them what happened, and then he said they go from there.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you're telling me do not go to Uganda.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it was all right. Yeah, we varnished a lot of shutters and and helped them build an addition to their little old barn and and hung a bunch of sheetrock and the the really newer modern places in Uganda have metal roofs instead of the thatched roofs. And now what they've discovered is that those metal roofs just get so hot in there that that heat just radiates down in the room because you're looking right at the inside the tin, you know. And so, because this is close to the equator. So um our job was to hang either sheetrock or plywood under the metal to try to as a barrier for all that heat. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You solve one issue but create another issue sometimes, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, where them thatched ropes, you know, stay pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, what do you remember about any historical events? Historic you had talked about World War II a little. You were young. Do you remember much about World War II?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00The only thing I remember is dad telling about Pearl Harbor getting bombed. But by the time I remember him telling us about this, it was had to be a few years later because I wasn't old enough to actually remember it.
SPEAKER_02So how about um JFK's assassination? Do you remember much about that? About what? JFK assassination. Do you remember much about that? Oh, yeah. Because how old were you? Well, you were already married and had right because you were married in 63.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's the year. Is that the year?
SPEAKER_02That maybe been the year that it happened. I just looked that up, November of that year, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So yeah, I definitely remember that when JFK was assassinated, and and uh when we were in Dallas, Edith and I and Carrie and Michael, I think. Did you go to the um, because you can go into the building and see where we went in the Texas book deposit everywhere that where it had the rifleman was, and and uh we were going to the Dallas Cowboys football game, and uh so yeah, we we did uh spend some time around that place where he was assassinated, but uh yeah, I definitely remember that, but then to uh 9-11. I happened to be on the tractor pushing silage up when I heard that on the radio, so I quick shut the tractor off and beat it up the house and turned the TV on, and oh, that was terrible, just terrible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, some of those moments where you definitely, as they say, the world kind of stops and you remember where you were at and what you were doing at the time. Yeah. Um, how about the moon landing? Do you remember anything about that? Was that a was that a big event in your house?
SPEAKER_00No, no, I wouldn't say that was a big event that I would remember. Um I don't remember that as much as the first the first um what do you call it? Just just when they first started taking people up. I mean, I was in college and they they just went up and back down like that, you know.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you remember that more than hey, they're gonna go land on the moon.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that wasn't yeah, because that was kind of a big deal, you know, the first time that they put a man into space. Yes, even though he came right back down, he didn't go really do anything, but right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Or the challenger. No, my brother remembers being in school and then bringing the TV or whatever for everybody to watch. And here's the explosion, and it was okay, let's go back to our classroom. No, I don't know if your kids remember that because they're about the age of um my brother who remembers that kind of stuff, but I don't because I was too little to remember it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was a kind of a shocker there.
SPEAKER_02If you could go back and give yourself a piece of piece of advice, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00Piece of advice.
SPEAKER_03I guess I can't think of anything.
SPEAKER_00Everybody should have some advice for themselves.
SPEAKER_02Well, let me ask you this. Looking back now at how you were just saying how it goes so fast, it really does go faster than you think it's going to, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do you ever look back at your the time when your kids were little and wish you had enjoyed it a little bit more or anything like that? Or shouldn't have worked so hard, or I shouldn't have I don't want to say they're necessarily regrets, but it's just things that we learn as we get older.
SPEAKER_00Well yeah, sometimes you think that maybe you shouldn't have worked your kids so hard. But then again, I I wish that everybody would get worked hard when they're young. As painful as it is. I wish everybody would have that opportunity. And the other thing that I say is I think everybody should have the privilege of growing up poor. Because that will set a course for them in their lifetime that they'll appreciate it when they if they ever if they ever get ahead of it, they'll appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02There's something about the empathy in you too, I think.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do you feel as though you grew up poor? Your family, your when you were a kid, did you guys grow up poor? What would be considered poor at the time?
SPEAKER_00At the time, I would say we were middle class. Middle class. You know, we we were poor and we weren't poor. I mean, you know, we always had enough to eat and and had clothes to wear. So um I would say at the time we were very normal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_00But when we were raising our kids through the 80s, there why things really got tough. I mean, really got tough. We had the perfect storm of Of drought and poor prices and uh things just really got tough on the farm. Which was maybe a good thing.
SPEAKER_02It definitely makes you pull back and realize what is important. Yeah. I think for a lot of people who have gone through that. And I think oftentimes now with social media, my own personal opinion, it's hard to realize that other people are going through hard times because they never put that on there. And you were never meant to know so much about so many other people, right? Yeah. Um so sometimes that can be hard to see that other people do struggle too. And sometimes those struggles that you said can be a blessing in disguise a little bit.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it sure makes you appreciate it when you can have you know at least an average standard of living.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02Uh what is something today that takes you back to your your earlier years? Is there any songs, smells?
SPEAKER_00Any what?
SPEAKER_02Like songs, smells that really take you back to a different year, whether it was when you were little, growing up, um, maybe when you had small kids. Is there anything?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know. I I on the radio I do like to play some of the moldies, you know. You still like those, yeah. Yeah. But um, yeah, other than that, I don't know. I I would say that probably the some of the best times in my life was when the kids were small and they were all at home and the family was, you know, all there. But then again, because of the 80s, how tough it was, then were some of the worst times. So, you know, the best times and worst times all happen sometimes. At the same time. At the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What's one thing you would want people to remember about you when you're gone?
SPEAKER_03Oh.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm just trying to think back, you know, three generations, my dad and mom, and my grandpa and grandmas. Three generations, and now four generations with Jason, Carrie, and Michael running the farm. So I I guess I just want them to be successful, but I don't want them to be too successful. But other than that, no, they'll probably just say they can say you're Henry?
SPEAKER_02No. That's the best. That is success.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02If you can raise kids that when you're gone, they say you were a good dad. That's huge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's huge. I hope that's what they'll say.
SPEAKER_02Any other memories that you want to share?
SPEAKER_00Memories?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, any other memories that you want to share. Whether it's of your kids, of Edith, of your parents, anything else that you want to share?
SPEAKER_03Well I'm sure there's lots of them.
SPEAKER_00But I can't think of an outstanding one. I remember riding with my grandpa green up to Trotter's to pick up the it was we were in a truck, and my grandpa grandpa and I and Larry were gonna go up there because Grandpa wanted to load up a whole bunch of old iron. He had already moved in the beach, but he wanted to load up all this old iron to take it to the place to recycle it. And uh we got it loaded, we got back out of the old ranch trail onto the road, and apparently my grandpa Greena thought I was driving too fast because he said the speed limit's 90, and of course I wasn't going anywhere near 90, but he must have thought I was driving too fast, so I I always remember that.
SPEAKER_03But and that was your grandpa? That was your grandpa, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was a big man, his hands were twice the size of mine. Big man, big kind gentleman.
SPEAKER_03Anything else?
SPEAKER_00Well, I wish I could have thought of a better memory, but that was just so no, that's great.
SPEAKER_02I think too, the great thing is it's sometimes those memories that aren't anything that we would think are special that are the memories that we remember. Yeah. You talking about how your dad took you in the car or the pickup to get parts. At the time for him, probably didn't seem anything special. I'm just taking my kid, but you remember that about your dad. It's an everyday thing. My brothers, you know, it's going to the grain elevator and they would get like a Coke that, you know, the old Coke, and then you could oh yeah, you get the top off and the old machine, you know. I mean, nothing that you think is special, but really when you look back, those are the things that you remember. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So everyday life.
SPEAKER_02Everyday life, yes. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing the interview. I really appreciate it. See, you said you were like towards it, you know, you would be amazed at how long you can talk.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's great. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you very, very much.
SPEAKER_01Thank 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 the next time, maybe find joy in the ordinary moments and gratitude in the simple lives we live.