Jean's Family Stories: Part II DENA THADEN PLUCKER'S STORY

[Here is the rest of the story written by Dena herself in the mid-1960's.]

"All this led up to my being organist in the Willow Lake Presbyterian Church for quite a number of years, and much later pianist and organist in the Germantown Presbyterian Church, also for several years.

"As you can imagine, there were no automobiles in those days so whenever we went to town or to church, it was with a buggy in the summer time and a bobsled in the winter. My folks had a two seated buggy, so on Sundays all of the children went along with the parents to Sunday School, at least those that were old enough. It was not possible for all of us to crowd into the two seats, so usually two of the bigger boys had to s tand up behind the back seat. Those trips were very enjoyable because we all had time to really enjoy nature.

"The bobsled rides were something like this: First of all, a bobsled is just a wagon box mounted on runners. Usually we had a layer of straw in the bottom of the box to sort of keep our feet warm. A spring seat was mounted on the wagon box about in the center. This was for Mom and the smaller children. They were kept warm with horsehide robes and possibly a heated soapstone for their feet. Dad would be up front in the box so he could drive the horses, and the rest of the children would be standing up in the rear part of the box. If we complained about being cold, Dad would tell us to get out of the sled and run behind until we were warm again.

"By the time I was old enough to remember such things, my mother was no longer using the washboard but had a mechanical washing machine. However, it had to be manupulated by hand. There was a handle that had to be pulled back and forth. All of us children got a chance at that chore. One can imagine that a large family like ours had a lot of laundery every week. Also much food was consumed, so much that my mother had to bake bread at least twice a week. A bakery in town where bread could be bought wasn't heard of. Once a week we had to churn about five gallons of cream. This was done with a large wooden box with a tight cover. It was suspended between two uprights and it had a handle so it would tumble the cream back and forth in that box until the butterfat separated from the milk and we would have several pounds of butter.

[How many cows would have been needed to separate at least five gallons of cream each week?]

"The beds of those days were quite different from what we now have. Instead of foam rubber or inner springs or even plain cotton mattresses, we slept mostly on straw mattresses. These mattresses were made of very heavy cotton ticking, being almost as heavy as the canvas tents are made of. Thes cloth was sewn into the shape of a large sack the same size as the bed. This was then stuffed with clean straw, usually soon after threshing in the fall of the year. It was great fun for us children to go to bed the first night after this was done. the mattress would be about three times as high as it was supposed to be. We would climb on top of this huge mound and then sink way down. Of course, as time went on, the straw became more leveled off and things were back to normal.

[In the photo of the three girls, Dena is on the left.]

"After I graduated from the eighth grade I had a desire to go to high school. It was not to be, because there was a new baby every second year and my help was needed at home. However, my best girl friend from our neighborhood went to Dubuque, Iowa to the high school department of Dubuque college. She came back with such glowing accounts of her experiences that my parents finally consented to my going there for one year. What happened there is pretty well explained in the other part of this little story, so I won't go over it again. After a year I was home again and not too well satisfied with what I had to do. I began to inquire at different hospitals as to what my chances would be to enter as a student nurse. Finally, the Sprague Hospital in Huron, South Dakota accepted me as a student. After some two and one half years, that man of mine became so insistent that I, like him, became a dropout, and we were married.

"Certainly many things have changed since the time when I was a young girl at home. By the time we were married, many improvements had been made. For instance, the first washing machine we had after we were married was still the hand-operated type. It was while we lived in Princeton, Illinois that we got our first electrically operated washer. We kept this machine while we lived in Princeton and in Dubuque, but when we moved back to the farm, it had to be changed over. Since there was no electricity out in the country at that time, we bought a small gas engine which was designed for operating a washing machine.
"This little engine was the cause of much grief. Many times on wash day my man was out in the field before I got started to wash clothes. Then, of course, the engine refused to start and I would have to drop everything and walk to wherever he was and tell him to come home and start the engine. When electricity finally came in 1948, we lost no time in making the switch back to an electric motor.

"We did not get to use the lights very much the first day the electricity was turned on, because son Robert was in a play in Brookings, South Dakota. When we came home from there it was after midnight and high time to go to bed. Since that time electricity has changed from sort of a luxury to an absolute necessity."From that small beginning of one motor we have now progressed to the point where it takes 27 motors to keep us going.
"Before electricity, there was, of course, no refrigerator either, but we did buy an icebox that we used for several years. It was quite a thrill just to have it, so we would no longer have soupy butter and the milk and cream would not sour at the end of one day. Even though it meant going to town every few days to get forty pounds of chunk ice, carrying it across the kitchen while it was dripping, and emptying the pan of water from under the icebox every day, it was still a great help. Every so often the drip pan under the icebox would be forgotten and there would be ice water to be mopped up.
"To illustrate how thrilled we were to get the electricity, we turned on all the lights in the house and in the out buildings one evening and then drove a short distance down the road so we could see what the place looked like when it was all lit upl. Before this, we had a kerosene lamp in almost every room, and that meant washing the lamp chimneys at least once a week and refilling the lamps with oil. We also had a gasoline lamp that had to be filled every day with high test gas, not the same kind used in the car. Electricity did away with all of this, including the box of matches on the kitchen stove. Now, at last, we were free to walk into a dark room without first lighting a lamp so we could find what we needed.

"This just about brings things up to the present time. No doubt there were many small happenings that could have been mentioned, but we have tried to tell of only those things that would be of interest to you. Whatever happens now is known to you and has no real historic value yet. Perhaps when you granchildren arrive at the age we are now, you may feel like writing about some of the changes that happened during your lifetimes. We both feel that if as many changes occur during your lifetime as happened since about 1905 until the present, there will be a multitude of things that will be of interest to those who are living in 2030 to 2040."