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 4^th) 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