PART SEVEN Oral Histories and Family Memoirs - Mountain Light ...

horse would be stopped and turned around to go back to the starting point to pull the next load into the
barn.
We also had two pie cherry trees and a crab apple tree on the sidehill above our house and we
picked the fruit which we took to share with neighbors and friends. Our cellar had a dirt floor so we
spread newspapers on the ground and spread them around where they stayed cool. We worked together to
pit and ready them for canning in quart jars. Water was put into a copper boiler and then the jars of fruit
were placed into the boiler. The cherries had a syrup of sugar and water poured over them until filled to
the neck. The rim of the jar was cleaned and the lids put on before putting in the water which was brought
to boiling for twenty minutes and then removed. As they cooled they sealed and were later stored out in
the cellar where they were cool and used during winter for pies and cobblers.
Our garden behind the house had vegetables of all kinds that we picked along with gooseberries.
We cut the berry branches and took them to shade to pick. We raised peas, beans, watermelons,
cantaloupe, potatoes, and corn. Mom would can many, many jars of vegetables and fruit and meat,
including homemade sausage. Hamburger patties would be fried until brown and then stored in melted
lard that would harden in the cellar. Mom and Dad made sauerkraut and put apples and cabbage hearts,
Dawsha, in with the kraut and they were very good. We dug potatoes in the fall that were stored in the
cellar and used throughout the year. We also cut and dried apples to use later in soup. We had a wash
house behind our home where we helped Mom with the washing. She heated irons on the stove to iron
our clothes.
Our simple toys were made with cans and wood. Karl Louis made and used garden tools to plow
and harrow his little fields. Before we had indoor plumbing, probably around 1934, we had an outhouse
and our toilet tissue was sheets from the catalogue or in summer we used the soft papers that were used to
wrap around peaches. We rode horses in the summer and also enjoyed a family summer picnic. In the fall
we had butchering bees with the families of Phillip Smick, Dan Lust, and R. D. Repp. Dad used to cure
hams and bacon and smoke them in the smokehouse. In the winter we took a horse and buggy to travel
toward Thera to visit R. D. and Tilda (Repp). During the winter when it was so cold outside we almost
lived in the kitchen as it was the only heated room in the house. At nighttime we took heated bricks to bed
to keep us warm. We also went to church and Sunday School every week even in winter and had a
wonderful Christmas program each year. I remember family get-togethers for holidays and on these
occasions Grandma Litzenberger always made a fruit salad with whipped cream dressing and overnight
buns which were very tasty and light as a feather. At times when I was very small we would be at my
Scheuerman grandparents in town.
Dad never worked on Sundays. Millie and Peg worked away from home at times while I stayed
at home and helped Mom. Our first eight grades were at the nearby Litzenberger School and then we went
to high school in Endicott. During confirmation I would stay in town weekends with my Litzenberger
grandparents and my two older sisters, Mildred and Margaret, stayed with them during the winter months
when they went to confirmation and high school. R. D. and Tilda Repp‟s daughter, Eleanor, started school
out at the Litzenberger School her first year but they kept her out during the winter months as they lived a
number of miles from the school. Then when school started up in the fall she stayed with Grandpa and
Grandpa Litzenberger and went to school in Endicott.
My folks used to board teachers who taught at the Litzenberger School #95 which we attended.
One of teachers who lived with us was Vera Longwell. She taught Millie when she was in the first grade
and stayed in touch with our family throughout her long life. We usually walked to school which was
located about a mile to the southeast near the present [Steve] Gerlitz home. If the weather was bad, Dad
would take us there by horse and wagon. During the winter there would be snow drifts and when it was
cold enough a hard crust formed on top of them on which we could walk. The children of one family
came to school with a team and buggy. They would put the horses in the barn and feed them during the
day. After school they would hook the team up and head for home. One teacher taught all eight grades
and there were generally three or four students of the same age.
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