On my Mom’s birthday and ‘Grandma’s Memories’

This Saturday, April 17, will come and go in a much different manner than is usual for members of our family. We will still celebrate my Mother’s birthday on that date and, quite likely, spend a portion of the day at her home on Forest Hill Road in Riley Township. But for the very first time in all of her 87 years, Marcella Witt Kloeckner will not be at that Forest Hill Road house on a birthday night when she falls asleep.

That thought produces a wide range of emotions.

While our family is grateful for the care and aid that Mom receives at Hazel I. Findlay Country Manor, we – like other families in similar situations – would like nothing better than to have her back at home, cooking, baking and laughing as she always did.

It’s a birthday wish that will not be answered in this lifetime.

For now, we offer a prayer that the wonderful and beautiful person who is our Mother will from time to time show the lovely smile and cheerful personality that forms the core of her being. We hold that thought in our hearts each and every day.

The celebration of my Mom’s birthday seems like a good time to turn this space over to her. At my urging about six years ago, she consented to writing down memories of her childhood and the early years she spent with my Dad, Clemens. There was no way of knowing at that time that just a few years later, these written memories would be so vitally important to our family – she is unable today to recall with any detail the people, places and events that played such an important role in her life.

‘Grandma’s Memories’ was printed out and given as a Christmas gift in 1998 to her four grandchildren. What a treasure that has become.

In honor of her birthday, we’d like to share her memories with our Indy readers. Part I of Grandma’s Memories appears in this issue; Part II, next week, takes up the tale from the point where she met and married the love of her life, Clemens.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Grandma’s Memories

(Written in 1998)

I was born April 17, 1917 in the house I am still living in on Forest Hill Road. The doctor who delivered me lived in Wacousta. He was our doctor for some time, and then we went to Dr. Cook in Westphalia.

The Wacousta doctor believed in home remedies. For a cold, my Mom would put an onion on a bed of coals in our wood-stove and roast it until it was "brown and soft," then wrap it in a flannel cloth. This was put on my chest to stop the cough. The old remedy for upset stomach - I had that a lot, too - was to beat up the white of an egg, and then take a spoonful of that - I hated it.

Before I was old enough to go to school, I would go to my Grandma and Grandpa Krumm’s often and eat with them at noon - we called it dinner then. Billie and Ernie were still living there. My Grandpa Krumm had a high, wooden stool beside him, and that is where I always sat. I assume all nine of their children sat there when they were little. He called me "Sackie."

My Grandma baked lots of bread, pies, etc. I always sat on "my stool" and watched her make pies. She always made me a "pie dough ball" to play with. She was a little, bent-over Grandma, but after raising nine children she was tired.

I liked all animals and always was with my Dad doing chores. I especially liked the baby lambs and baby calves. I always helped feed them and quite often they had to be fed with a bottle like a baby. I always did that, and I always picked the names if we kept them.

I remember one when I was probably eight or nine years old, I was helping my Dad get straw for the barn from the strawstack. He had big logs around the straw, and I crawled under it and the big log fell on me across my neck. He was in front of me and didn’t see when it happened. When he saw me, he got it off and I just laid there - he thought I wasn’t breathing. I was so scared I couldn’t talk - but I was okay.

The horse my Dad let me ride was named Dick. I loved him. I would drive him up to a gate and climb on him. If he wanted to eat grass, I let him. I liked all horses and helped my Dad "hitch up" to tools. I always drove the horses when we put up hay in the barn. I liked all outside farm work.

We had all kinds of apple trees. My Dad always had apple cider made – two big barrels in the basement. They also had a big bin where they stored apples, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. No fruit or vegetables were ever bought – there wasn’t any in the stores.

All the farmland was divided into 10-12 acre fields. Everything was done with horses – there were no tractors around here. To get feed ground for the cattle, pigs, sheep, hogs, my Dad would take the horses and wagon to Fowler – leave here in mid-morning and didn’t get home until night.

I went to Pratt School from age 6 to 15. This school was one-half mile west on Pratt Road from our house. There were 20 to 30 kids in eight grades. We walked to school. There were some who walked 1-1/2 miles. In the winter we went through the fields as the road would be filled with snow as high as the fences - no snow plows.

Our water pump was outside the school - we all drank from one cup. We had two outside toilets - one for boys and one for girls. If it was zero outside, you went. There was no toilet paper - we used Sears or Montgomery Ward catalogs. That is what everyone used at home - there was no toilet paper.

We had very nice Christmas programs and songs. The parents all came, and Santa came; we drew names for presents. Pratt School was known for putting on good Christmas programs. I could play the piano, and I did that. The boys played ball when the weather was good; I do not remember that I ever played ball. Our subjects were arithmetic, reading, penmanship, grammar, geography. I had good report cards. My Dad always was glad to sign it. I never did learn how to diagram a sentence – that was the grammar class.

When I reached eighth grade, I had to go to the St. Peter German School for instruction to be confirmed. My Mom and Dad had gone there, too. They had to learn everything in German, and their church services were in German back then. I can remember when it was that way - the men sat on one side of the church, and the women sat on the other side. In the winter it was so cold - the big heating stove was in the front, and everyone went down there to get warm.

They came to church with horses and buggies. They had sheds where the horses were tied, four to six horses in a shed. These were located all over the area where the school and hall now stand. In the spring the mud was deep in the road you could hardly get through, and those who did have a car got stuck. Church Road was just a narrow, dirt road.

German School as it was called then, was a large room built on the north side of the parsonage. We went from the latter part of August until the Sunday before Lent, which was always Confirmation Sunday. We were "questioned" and confirmed on Confirmation Sunday - that was the way we used to do it. The girls had to wear white dresses, and the boys wore black suits. We sat in the front of the church facing the people. During the six weeks of Lent there were no activities - it’s all different now.

At German School all we studied was related to religion, and we had to memorize all of the Catechism. If you didn’t know your lesson, you had to stay in over noon-hour recess and learn it. I never had to say in. Some of the boys stayed in many times. School was from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

I drove my Old Dick and buggy to school, and Edith Luecht went with me. The stalls were still there from when they had horses in the area where the hall and school are. My Dad put a big bag of hay on the back of the buggy and at noon I went and gave him the hay and a pail of water. When it got cold, I unhitched him from the buggy and put him in the barn across the road where Paul Krumm lives.

There were four girls and five boys in the German School. We had lots of fun. There I had my first boyfriend. He gave me a compact (where you put powder in) for Christmas. I never told my Mom or Dad.

After Confirmation I had to go back to Pratt School and started the eighth grade that February. As we only had three months left of the school year, we couldn’t finish the eighth grade, and had to go back again in August and complete our eighth grade. At that time all eighth-graders had to go to St. Johns to the County Normal School to write tests. Then, I was finished with school - no high school. Very few from around here went to high school. You had to have a place where you could stay in St. Johns, and I had none.

When I finished, I was 14 and old enough to get my driver’s license. It cost $1. My Dad got a new car every five years, so now he had a new car (a Chevy) and I could drive. The first car I remember him having was called Essex.

At age 16, I started to "work out" to earn money. Edith Luecht and I cleaned the hall. We each got $1. Then when I was 17, I started to clean house and help out when babies were born. I worked for Leon Schumaker, Herbert and Olga, Eddie Mohnke’s and others. Women then had to be in bed for a week after the baby came. I got $3 a week - that was big pay. I came home for Sundays. I got acquainted with Doris (Mohnke) at the Young Peoples Society at the hall, and we became good friends. She and I did housecleaning in St. Johns – 50 cents an hour, or $5 a day.

So, I had "my own money" to buy myself dresses and "make up" - that was really a big thing when my Mom let me do that. One time I heard you could put peroxide on your hair to "bleach" it - and I had some very streaked blonde hair. I was in trouble and never did it again.

We had "Young People’s Society" at St. Peter at the hall by the church every two weeks. Everyone went – that was a big thing. That is where all the young people gathered – I had so many good times there. Pastor Coellner was young and active and he fit in with all the young folks. We had ice cream socials, dinners, fish frys, and plays. I was in four plays.

When I was 18 or 19, my Dad let me drive around here at night, but not to St. Johns. There were dances at South Riley Grange Hall, Olive Grange, and Bingham. I could only drive to Bingham. I had dated different guys - some were nice, some I couldn’t stand.