Growin Up Years V

Above: The historic Crystal Theatre on Second Avenue of Flandreau, South Dakota was built in 1913.

We lived on a farm 18 miles north of Flandreau, SD.

We would have to go about 3/4 mile to catch the bus to go to high school in town. Now mind you our road was a dirt road and you can guess what that was like when it was wet.

We would have to get home to feed the animals. We didn't mind doing that as we got to know them pretty well. We had a name for each of them.

We had a pet pig that when he was a baby his mother accidently laid on him and broke his back. He would come to our back door and would squeal loudly to get us to come out and play with him. I don't think he even realized that he was a pig as he acted more like a dog.

We finally had to sell him as he was getting to big and it was getting harder for him to get around. We took the money we got from him and bought 2 lambs. We raised them and sold them and then got our bicycle.

Us girls would also sell Gurney Garden Seeds in the spring. That was fun as everyone seemed to be happy that we stopped by.

Growing Up Years IV

Hello again, it's just Grandma putting some more info into my blog.

You know that when you reach my age you're absent minded and a little slow on the trigger!! (LOL) It's good I'm still able to laugh. I always say aahh ouch when I get up in the morning. You see my old bones just don't like to co-operate.

So much for that, let's get down to business.

What would you do if you were like my sister and me when we first came to South Dakota?

We had never heard the crack of lightening and the bang of thunder (as they say: "It's only God in Heaven bowling and the angels cracking the whip"). We were scared to death and dove under the bed. That seemed to be a safe place although when you think about it: How safe could that have been as if God were to throw a planet at us how could that bed keep us safe? Oh well, maybe he would've broke his arm and couldn't throw.

Do you realize how big this world and everything in it appears to a young child?

It's HUGE!!

One time my sister was riding a horse and I a bicycle and we took off up the road and as we neared the intersection we could hear what sounded like baby kittens sooooo we decided to investigate and we did find some "kittens".

We took the "kittens" home to mom as we didn't see the mother so we thought that they had been abandoned and we felt sorry for them. Mom took one look and told us to get them out of the house and get back into the house and get our clothes off as we had to take a bath as we STUNK. You see the kitties were baby civet cats (they are really a spotted skunk). Even though they weren't very old yet their stinker worked just fine.

Here's a link about "civet cats" in South Dakota:

http://www3.northern.edu/natsource/MAMMALS/Easter1.htm


And here is what Wikipedia has to say about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_skunk

Until next time - God bless you all!!

Growing Up Years III

Well, Grandma is back with some more of her growing years.

Really, when I think about it now it was an interesting time and a time of almost pure innocence of both children and adults. There were few cars and no TV's. We played outside for entertainment. If only we could go back without bringing the war back too.

My mom's parents, my grandparents, lived up in the mountains. It was very pretty up there. The name of the town was Goldendale, Washington. It was a logging town at that time. I don't know what it is like now as I haven't been able to go back out there. Sometimes going back isn't the best thing to do as you expect to see things that were there then to still be there and most generally they not there anymore.

When I was 6 yrs. old, my dad got a letter from some of his relatives that his grandfather was dying and if he wanted to see him he should come as soon as possible. So we got our belongings together and started our journey to Flandreau, South Dakota.

We took a train and for us girls it was exciting and entertaining. You see, we had never seen running water in a fountain or an inside toilet and boy were they fun! That is, until the porter locked the bathroom and told us that he would unlock it for anyone who wanted to use it but then he would relock it. That took our sails out.

On this train was a lot of returning military people that were on their way home. They read to us and played games with us. I'm sure we aggravated them but when you're a kid, that long on a train ride becomes boring (4 days). Those days, the train would stop at just about every town.

When we came into South Dakota we had breakfast in the dining car to celebrate our birthdays (my sister and I were born on the same day but a year apart). That to us was really something! They had tablecloths on the table and fancy dishes! It would be fun to have trains like this now as you get to see the country and you meet such interesting people.

Needless to say that we didn't arrive before his grandfather died. One of his uncles asked my dad if he would work his farm for him as he wanted to retire and my dad told him yes.

I'd never been to such a small school before as the one in Flandreau. It was a one room school with 35 kids from all 8 grades and only one teacher. I really enjoyed it there. There was only one other person in my grade.

Until next time, when I continue my story....