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.