She also brought me some more photos which I have added both here and in Frieda's story.
One of the main things I remember about Mom and Dad is the way they enjoyed dancing. We went to the Platte-Duetsche nearly every Saturday night. Back then, nobody heard of a “baby sitter”! Everyone brought their kids along. There was a bedroom with 3 or 4 beds with no bedding on them. Little kids were laid every which way on the beds to sleep when they got tired. Between dances, us kids ran and slid on the dance floor. It was almost always polka music. The folks knew every radio station that played polka music and they would dance around the kitchen table.
They celebrated their 25th and 50th anniversaries at the Platt-Duetsche. At their 50th, Catherine (Buettner) Minor over heard a couple of teenagers remark, “Look at those old people dance.” Catherine said she didn’t think they were so old.
Not to long after that their health began to fail, Mom had diabetes, and Dad’s knees started giving him trouble. Dancing became too much for them, so they played cards several times a week. I think pitch is what they mostly played.
Mom learned to knit and play the organ in later life and when Dad retired they did a lot of fishing, walking along the Platte River and Loup River banks. Barney gave them a recipe for “stinky catfish bait” that really caught the fish. “Stinky” was a good name for it. It was really bad.
We always had Rat Terrier dogs and raised a few puppies. Dad always bobbed their tails right after they were born. One day when Mom & I were cleaning Darwyn’s room, we noticed an awful smell. We looked around and in a drawer we found a small metal aspirin box with 4 little tails. He wanted to keep them. When we were small, the dogs liked to sleep under the cook stove. Darwyn wanted to get at them and got his head stuck under the stove. Dad wasn’t home and we couldn’t get him out. Thank goodness Arnold, Mom’s brother, showed up delivering fuel. He was able to lift the stove just enough to get Darwyn out.
We always had a few hogs and milk cows. I helped milk but only in the evenings. I don’t ever remember having to milk before school in the mornings.
We always raised a few ducks and a lot of chickens. The folks sold hatching eggs. Chicken feed came in large print cloth sacks. Mom and I would always pick out patterns we liked and bought enough sacks to have enough fabric to make something. I learned to sew with feed sacks.
The folks were faithful Farmers Union members going to local meetings one night a month and yearly state meetings.
We always butchered our own meat. We didn’t have electricity then so the meat had to be taken to town and put in lockers. Mom canned some meat too.
No electricity meant no fridge. We had an icebox and every week we bought a 50 lb. block of ice for it. A dishpan was kept under the icebox to catch the water as the ice melted.
We quite often visited aunts and uncles, usually for Sunday dinner. Several of the ones I really remember are: when visiting Ella and Ot they always had the Sunday paper with the colored funnies. That’s the only time I saw them and it was a treat to read “colored” funnies. Going to Ed and Hedwig’s was always fun, playing in the hay mow in the barn and playing house on top of the cellar. When we visited Arnold and Hattie, Darwyn and I would get to go to a movie or clamp on our skates and skate on city sidewalks.
The folks told about one of the motels they stayed in on the way to the Black Hills on their honeymoon. There were bed bugs in the bed. What a beginning. They laughed about it when they told it, but I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time.
Written by Rogene Buettner Behrendsen in May 2006…
Rogene told me that if Frieda knew I had posted her wedding photo in Rare Ramblings, she would just kill me… She always hated that photo.
in thier kitchen...
What memories this picture brought back...
I remember those plates on the wall, the tile and pink paint. Another thing I remember is that Frieda had one of those little vases that was the bust of a pretty woman with a hat on her head and a real necklace of pearls. You put the flowers into the top of her head. I see these vases at antique shoppes and always think of Frieda.
March 11, 1951 Rogene married Bernard Harders. They made their home next to his parents on a farm north of Wood River, NE.
Rogene and Berney adopted four children: Pam, Joel, Martin and Michelle.
They have 3 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
Rogene and Berney were later divorced.
Pam was born Sept. 21, 1952 and Joel was born Nov. 4, 1953.
They are real brother and sister and have 8 other natural brothers and sisters.
Pam married Lowel Baird Sept 20, 1973. They had two children before being divorced, Rex born April 12, 1975 and Angela born Oct. 24, 1979.
Rogene has 6 great-grandchildren: Pam's 6 grandchildren: Darcie, Dylon, Isaac, Owen and Madison are Angela's children and Rex has a daughter, Paige.
Marty was born November 4, 1968 and adopted by Rogene and Berney shortly afterwards.
she was 5 weeks old
Michelle (called Shelly) was born June 26, 1970
Kamin born June 12, 1993
November 3, 1990 Rogene married Edwin Behrendsen.
Rogene and Ed live between Glenwood Springs and Grand Juncion, Colorado in Battlement Mesa... Their address is Parachute, CO.
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1 comment:
I purchased a painting of 2 quail on glass that had your name and Wood River, Ne. address on the back. I have a painting in the same style from a lady in Carlsbad, NM. Yours appear to be scaled quail and hers were gambel.
I have a collection of game bird paintings and figurines. Yours will make a nice addition to the collection.
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