I came across this on Facebook and thought it special enough to share. Many of our parents would be able to tell us that their life was very much the same.
Dale Jensen- The Forgotten Iowa Historical Society
I want to post a couple things this evening that should be of interest. I'm posting them in tribute to my mom who would have been 100 years old, tomorrow, March 17. First are these memories she wrote many years ago. It offers a broad view of Depression-era life on the farm.
My name is Frieda Laura Rehbein Jensen. My parents were Henry Ernest Rehbein, born in 1882 and Laura Daisy (Eichner) Rehbein, born in 1893. I was born March 17, 1921 at the home of my parents in Boone Township, Dallas County, Iowa. Our address was Waukee. I was the third of eight children. We lived in a frame house built with the help of my grandpa Rehbein. It had four small rooms and a pantry downstairs, three rooms upstairs, and was surrounded by a wrap-around porch. It was rather small, no real closets, attic, or basement, just under-roof storage space. Mom didn’t save things as there simply was no room.
School
I started school in first grade at age 5. We went to a one-room country school where one teacher taught all eight grades. Our subjects were: reading, language, arithmetic, spelling, phonics, history, geography, writing, drawing and physiology. We also had music, sewing, manual arts and how to conduct a meeting. I honestly believe we had excellent training. Each child was required to complete the eight grades. In order to pass the eighth grade, pupils had to go to a city school to take tests. Their tests and certificate were mailed to them from the county Superintendent’s Office. I’m sure I still have mine. Very few rural children went on to high school. The boys had to help farm and the girls had to help their mothers.
A typical school day began at 9:00 AM. We had recess from 10:15 until 10:30, lunch from 12:00 until 1:00, afternoon recess from 2:30 until 2:45 and dismissal at 4:00 PM. During recess we played games such as Blackman, Annie over, hide & seek, and baseball. Throughout the year we had programs for our parents. We learned many recitations. The last day of school each spring we’d have a potluck dinner. One door was taken off its hinges and laid across two desks for a table to set food on. Drinking water was carried from nearby wells. The teachers boarded in homes in the area. Our school had two halls. We entered and left from one. It also held the water pail or fountain, shelves for our lunch pails, and hooks for coats and caps. The other hall had storage shelves and was where we gathered to wait our turns to speak pieces or sing songs during school programs. A victrola and 78 rpm records provided some of our music. During World War II most of the country schools closed. The districts united with neighboring cities and all students were bused to the consolidated schools.
Children’s work
Back then children were raised to work and work we did! As the oldest children, we three girls not only did housework but also helped with the field work by cultivating corn, shocking oats, husking corn, driving the horses when putting up hay and taking water to the field for the men to drink in summer. We also harnessed the horses, milked cows, fed and watered chickens, gathered eggs, cleaned out the hen house, gardened and helped can meats, fruits and vegetables. All canned foods and the potatoes were stored in a cellar close to the house.
For some unknown reason it fell to me to get in the wood and cobs for the house stoves. Every evening as soon as I got home from school, it was my duty to get a wagon load of small pieces of wood for the cook stove, a wheel barrow full of large pieces for the heater and a bushel basket of cobs to start the fire in the morning.
Laundry & Spring cleaning
The washing machine was in a building also serving as the garage. There was a stove in the building. Mom always washed on Monday. There was always a large wash every week. The sheets and pillow cases were changed every Saturday. In the summer we girls would carry buckets of water from the house cistern to the wash house to fill the two large boilers on the stove. Mom would start the fire on Monday morning to heat the water. She first had just a single tub machine but later purchased a double tub Dexter. Each machine was powered by a gasoline engine. One tub of the double tub machine would have warm water and the second had very hot water. The clothes were washed twice then run thru a ringer through two cold rinse waters before being hung up. In the winter Dad shoveled a path through the snow under the clothes lines so mom could hang the wash.
When Mother cleaned house in the spring everything was completely removed from each room. The carpets were hung over the clothes line and beaten with a rug beater to remove all dirt. The beds were disassembled and every piece washed. The bed springs were open; it was quite a job to clean them. The mattresses were carried outdoors and laid on chairs to air. Walls were wiped down and floors scrubbed. The rooms sure smelled good in the evening when everything was put back and fresh bedding put on.
Farm animals
Every farm had its own livestock. We raised hogs for meat and to sell for money although prices were very low back then. Mother raised a lot of chickens. I recall an incubator kept upstairs in the house. She would turn the eggs every day for 3 weeks until the chicks hatched. Later a pen was fenced off in the hen house where hens would set on the nests for three weeks and hatch the eggs. The first chickens we had were grey Plymouth Rock, then Buff Orphington, Rhode Island Red and finally whites. The folks sold eggs to the Red Bird hatchery in Des Moines and bought baby chicks. Around July 4th the roosters would be big enough to eat. We had chicken every day till all the roosters were gone by autumn. When very cold weather was upon us several neighbor men would gather at each farm to help butcher. We usually butchered four hogs and a steer although not all on the same day. The men would dip each hog in a barrel of scalding water until the hair was soft enough to scrap off. Mom ground a lot of pork, fried it in sausage patties and canned them in glass fruit jars. The hams were cured and smoked in a shed used only for that purpose. She rendered the lard outdoors in a large black kettle. The remaining pork was cut up and canned in jars. All the beef was cut up, put in 2 qt. jars and processed in a large boiler on the cook stove.
We did all the milking by hand. I don’t know how many cows Dad milked at first but as the family grew so did the number of milk cows. We milked morning and evening. The milk was carried to the house where it was run through a separator, operated by hand, to separate cream from the milk. Some of the cream was churned into butter, some used for cooking, and some for table use such as mixing it with whole milk to put on our cereal. Excess cream was sold to creameries in Des Moines. Every week Dad would take the cream and eggs to town. That income paid for the groceries and clothes we needed. Leftover skim milk was fed to chickens and hogs.
Horse Power
Back then all farmers used horses. Dad had 14 at one time. An early team I remember very well was a white pair and both were blind. They were named Fannie and Bird. We had one wild horse named Nell. When dad came in from the field with her, mom would yell, “Get all the kids in the yard and shut the gates!” We named Nell’s first colt Beauty and what a beauty she was. Another of Nell’s colts was named Billy. He was as wild as his mother. Dad had to get rid of him. Beauty had a colt we named Hazel. She was very nice also. Alma, Pauline and I had to harness the horses, hitch, unhitch, and drive them where necessary. There was a strong wooden box in the barn we would stand on beside the horses to throw the heavy harness over their backs. It wasn’t always easy to put the bridles on and get the horses to open their mouths so we could put in the bit.
Cars
The first cars were built much higher than today’s cars and were equipped with running boards. All this was necessary because most roads were dirt and when it rained or thawed in the spring, the ruts could get so deep a car would drag on the ground. Many times when our car got stuck we children had to get out and push. The first car I remember was a two-seated touring car. It had a canvas roof but no windows. Isinglass curtains were snapped on if it was raining and in the winter. A single windshield wiper was actuated by the driver moving a handle inside the car. In the late 1920s, dad bought a Buick. It was a large car with built-in windows, much more comfortable in the winter, but we still put a blanket over our laps while driving to church Sunday mornings.
Sometime in the early 1930s, a road construction crew came to our area to upgrade the roads. Dad told Alma and Pauline to go to their camp and ask about selling fresh eggs and milk to them. The camp cook was a very nice lady. I don’t remember how many men where there nor what type of equipment they used. At that time I was sick with rheumatic fever and didn’t go to the camp site very often. After construction was completed, gravel was spread on the roads and traveling was greatly improved.
Winters in the 1930s brought much snow. Many times we could walk over fences. Dad had a bob sled that came in handy when the snow was very deep. There was no road maintenance back then. Families had to shovel out their own driveways and farm yards. Several farmers worked together to open roads.
Electricity
My parents got their first radio in the late 20s or early 30s. The aerial was wire stretched from the house to a pole in the yard. Sometime after that they bought a radio with batteries that were charged by a wind charger. We used it until the summer of 1943 when 10 neighbors brought electricity into the neighborhood. Wartime restrictions had made appliances very scarce so all we had were lights and the radio.
Holidays
By the time I was old enough to know what a grandparent was, all my grandparents were deceased. We spent every holiday at home with just our family. Mom always cooked a special big, delicious dinner on Thanksgiving. Our Christmas’ were very bleak. We probably each received only one present. We never had birthday parties.
Unwelcome Visitors
In May 1933 a large band of Gypsies came to our neighborhood and camped on a grassy area beside a creek. They came on a Tuesday and left Sunday afternoon by orders from the Dallas County Sheriff. Dad drove us kids to their camp every evening to see them. There were probably 12 or 15 tents. They got into a fight among themselves on Sunday and were told to, “Go, and keep going!”
Seed Corn
To plant corn Dad would pick out the best looking ears and shell off the top and bottom kernels. Then we kids would kneel around a bushel basket and shell the ears of corn by hand until we had enough kernels for the following spring planting.
Water
There was a windmill about 1/8 of a mile from the house to furnish water for the tanks up around the buildings. We would have to go to the windmill to turn it on when the wind blew and then run down to shut it off when the two tanks were filled. I remember clearly on summer evenings when the wind hadn’t blown, we three girls went down to pump water into the stock tank beside the windmill as the cattle and horses were in that pasture. We hand pumped a lot of water to quench all thirsts. The horses crowded out the cattle so they drank first, then all the cattle drank their fill. We pumped the tank full before we returned to the house. The windmill was in the pasture on our way to the one room school house. We used to carry a pail of water from that well daily to the schoolhouse for our drinking water until one day we pumped out a drowned mouse then each morning we went to a neighbor’s house for the drinking water.
In the late 20s Dad hired a two-man well-drilling team to dig a well close to the buildings. At 620’ it was very deep. A new windmill was erected and a hand pump installed. The well was so deep it was very difficult to hand-pump water. Dad bought a gasoline engine and a pump jack to pump water when the wind didn’t blow. On wash days we hauled the engine to the garage to power the washing machine. The water from the new well was said to be mineral water and was used for everything.
