Wednesday, July 26, 2017

THE WEDDING




We were married in the old church. Dan and Frances DeVries were married in the church a year earlier. Because church weddings were not popular in those days and most weddings took place in the bride’s home or the pastor’s house, we were only the second couple to be married in the church. Rev. Wiert Eckhoff did the honors, assisted by my Uncle Rev. Jerry Thaden. One of the selections sung at our wedding by Dan and Frances DeVries was “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” This has been our theme song through 48 years of marriage, and still is, for me. My brother, Bob, sang the Lord’s prayer; Uncle Bob Thaden sang “Oh Promise Me” and Cousin Marianne Thaden played the piano.

The reception was held across the lawn in the church hall (dining room). The church and hall were decorated with garden flowers and greenery. The wedding cake was special because it was made by my mother and her friend, Mattie Bossman. It boasted three tiers of angel food cake – no less – that had been beaten by hand by these two ladies. Remember, there was no electricity! Gifts were opened after the lunch of sandwiches and apple pie, thanks to my mother and Eddie’s sister, Marie Plucker. They made the pies.

We had a one-night honeymoon in a hotel in Sioux Falls. I don’t even remember the name.

We left for Sioux Falls in his coup, a two-door vehicle amid noisy tin cans, etc. tied to the car. I think we removed them after a few miles.

Then – back to reality – getting the rented vacant house west of the church livable. The sisters-in-law came and hung fresh wall paper and helped get our furniture moved in, etc. We had four cows and some 50 chickens given to us by our parents. We could buy groceries with the produce.

 


 
Wed In Country

          Church Sunday
   A pretty seven o’clock wedding ceremony took place in the Germantown Presbyterian Church “Sunday evening, May 19, when Miss Dorothy June Plucker and Edward DeVries repeated the marriage vows before a large number of invited guests. The Rev. Wiert Eckhoff read the double-ring nuptials, assisted by the Reverends Jerry and Clifford Thaden, uncles of the bride.
   Attending the couple were Misses Esther and Darleen DeVries, Pvt. Robert Plucker and Merlin DeVries. Duane Plucker was the ring-bearer and Jean Plucker, flower girl.
   The bride was attired in a white gown with full-length train and finger-tip veil. She carried a white Bible. The bridesmaids wore floor-length gowns.
   Before the ceremony, Miss Marianne Thaden, pianist, played the prelude, “Fantaisie” from Il Trovatore. Mr. & Mrs. Dan DeVries sang a duet, “Take my Hand Precious Lord.” A quartet composed of Arthur, Dan and Merlin DeVries and Bob Plucker also sang. Robert Thaden sang “Oh Promise Me” and Bob Plucker sang “The Lord’s Prayer” during the ceremony.
   A reception was held in the church parlors immediately following the ceremony where 180 guests were served.
   Mrs. DeVries is the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. M.E.J. Plucker. She was graduated from Lennox High School in 1944 and has taught in a rural school near Chancellor for the past two years. The groom is the son of Mr. & Mrs. John DeVries of Chancellor.
   The newlyweds will make their home on a farm northwest of Lennox.
 
 


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CUPID'S TRICKS

District #87 was the school I applied for and was hired at $125 a month. The first year I had eleven pupils; the second year only eight attended. There were two of the pupils who were developmentally disabled and two boys who spoke the German dialect – they spoke very little English. I stayed with a family across the road from the school – an old man, his bachelor son and old maid daughter.

Two years of teaching and old cupid was doing his best to end that career and start another one. One of the ladies in the district, Tillie Ulfers, had a bridal shower for me. We had the annual school picnic as described earlier and we set the date for our wedding for Sunday, May 19, 1946. The plan had been to marry on my birthday (June 4th) but since my brother, Bob, would be home from the service that week my mother managed to get things ready earlier.

Germantown Church was small but growing. There were no Sunday School rooms, classes gathered in various parts of the sanctuary and we tried to listen to our teacher even though it was noisy. The preaching service was in the High German language which Bob and I didn’t understand. We were permitted to walk home after Sunday School. Many times Stuart and Jewel Ulfers walked with us to our home where we played and tried not to get our clothes dirty. Ed and Tillie Ulfers were good friends of our parents. German services stopped in 1941 when John Bartell became the pastor.
 
May 19, 1946

MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS - AND BEYOND

Eddie & Dots getting to know each other in 1944



Dots and Eddie - going steady in 1945

My freshman year in high school was scary because I hardly knew anyone; my friends at church did not all go to high school. There were lots of new things to experience. Living with Grandma and Grandpa was OK; there was not much social life, but that was OK, too. I was used to that. I helped Grandma with household chores, did whatever she told me. Grandpa was the first one up in the morning to milk his cow and care for his other animals. When he finished that he heated a pitcher of water and took it upstairs for Grandma. They must not have had a water heater until later. My parents came and got me every Friday to spend the weekend at home.
Country kids, it seemed to me, were kind of ignored by the city kids. Perhaps it only seemed that way to me. They talked about their evening activities while our evening activities were helping with the “chores” on the farm. Every Wednesday, though, was reserved for church young people’s meetings led by the new church pastor, Wiert Eckhoff. Life at Germantown was lively in those years with the new pastor starting more activities. A choir was later formed, led by my father; he had previously started a men’s octet and things were going well.
During high school years several boys seemed to be attracted to me, but nothing came of it. I always went back to my first love – the boy in Germantown church. My senior year we were “going steady” as they said back then.
After graduation it was possible to take a twelve-week course and then be able to teach a country grade school. My parents and I inquired at Sioux Falls College and I was “enrolled.” I was able to come home every weekend; my parents usually came to get me on Fridays after class and Eddie brought me back on Sunday evenings.
 
 

GRANDPA'S WINDMILL


 Finally they were able to move to the 160 acre farm and lived there for several years. This is the farm with the windmill!

Before that big windmill was erected, an old fashioned wood tower mill was used to pump water to the cattle. No one now knows when the new mill was erected – perhaps in the 1920’s. This was a huge improvement over the wooden one because it had a “brake” and could be started and stopped to fill the water tank.

As was the custom for farmers in that era, the time for renters to move was every March 1st. So it was about 1930 when my parents moved to Grandfather’s 240 acre farm where they lived until my father’s death. He died in 1968 and my mother stayed on the farm that winter – a horribly cold and snowy winter – until she moved to a small house in Lennox the next year.

In 1946 Eddie and I were married and moved onto Grandfather’s farm, the same farm where my parents had lived when I was a small child. We used the windmill until electricity came to the farm in 1950; rural water came a few years later.
This is our farm as it was in the 1950's

Sunday, July 2, 2017

DOROTHY'S EARLY YEARS


 
Bobby and Dotty in 1929
 

Grade school Christmas programs were the highlight of each school year. We put on short playlets, singing and, of course, a visit from Santa was expected. The week before the program the school board (all farmers living close to the school) brought planks and cement blocks with which to erect a stage. The teacher would hang curtains on wires stretched across the stage from one side to the other. There was a gift exchange among pupils and teacher and finally lunch – sandwiches, cake and coffee.

At the end of each school year we had a picnic with much food and fellowship as well as ball games and other games for the smaller children. The teacher usually provided ice cream to go along with the pies and cakes.


Grade school days were fun and we did learn a lot, even though (perhaps because of) all grades were in the same room with one teacher. Bob and I usually walked the three-fourth miles to school except when it was too cold. Then Dad would take us. We had it figured out that if we planned it right we could catch a ride with the Ubben kids. They lived a mile and a quarter from school. They seldom walked.

 

Mabel Peters and I were in the same grade from the second through the eighth grades. We remained good friends even after grade school, but she went to high school in Chancellor. In our seventh grade we had a man teacher (unusual for a country school). Mabel and I both had a crush on him. My brother was the only boy in his grade for several years.
 
One of the things I remember about grade school picnics was the time a rain storm came up during the afternoon. No one seemed concerned at first, but when it was time to go home, we couldn’t get there. The creek west of the school was well over the road. The men deemed it not passable, nor was the south road. Water everywhere! What to do? We stayed with Wes and Irene Johnson until the next morning. All the farmers had cows to milk as well as other animals to care for. The cows had to wait until morning to be relieved of their milk.

 During these grade school days my Dad sang in a quartet with three of his cousins. Bob and I liked to go to the various homes for the practice times. I don’t remember going to any “concert” of any kind. I think they supplied various churches with special music at their services. This was the beginning of my love for quartet music. That was one of the things I loved about my boy friend/husband who was a member of a quartet. He sang bass.