Patter of drops on the roof,
thunder rumbling in the distance,
puddles in the yard below.
At the promise of
phone and forecast and
damp skies gray with
life-giving, crop-saving, drought-ending
inches, yes, whole inches of rain,
my farmer’s heart rejoices.
Filed under Uncategorized
Lena Turck was the second-oldest child in her family, born in 1873. She grew up on the family farm in Forest City Township, Meeker County, Minnesota. Her father’s brother, Philip, owned the farm to the east of theirs.
Jacob, Philip, Paul, and Christina Turck had come over from Germany with their father in 1849, followed a few years later by their mother and brother John.
In 1864, Jacob and his brother Philip got in a covered wagon and headed for Minnesota. They lived in the wagon for several weeks while building a log house. The rest of the family (except for Christina) followed.
Lena Turck’s parents—Anna Maria Ritten (or Rütten) and Jacob Turck—were married in St. Gertrude’s church in Forest City on January 1, 1871. Anna was 19 and Jacob was 30. She bore 11 living children and two who died before being named.
Lena finished eighth grade in a one-room country school. In 1891, she left home to attend St. Cloud Normal School.
“Normal school” meant teacher preparation. The brand-new state of Minnesota authorized three normal schools. The first, opened in Winona in 1860, closed because of the Civil War but reopened in 1864. A second opened in Mankato in 1868 and the third in St. Cloud in 1869. The St. Cloud Normal School became St. Cloud Teachers’ College in 1921, St. Cloud State College in 1957, and St. Cloud State University in 1975.[1]
Lena Turck was a country school teacher, by definition an itinerant with no job security, low pay, little respect, not even a home to call her own. Stories of country school teachers are preserved, if at all, in letters and diaries. Lena left none, so our best guess at her circumstances comes from contracts and public records, and from the accounts left by others of their own teaching days.
While many people, then and now, look down on teachers as somehow inferior to other professions, the teacher exams back then required an amazing depth and breadth of knowledge.
Lena Turck’s surviving documents contain some teaching contracts and some school and teacher examination records. In 1905, Lena passed North Dakota teacher exams in reading, writing, orthography, language and grammar, geography, history of the U.S., arithmetic, civil government, physiology and hygiene, physical geography, natural philosophy, psychology, plane geometry, and elementary algebra. Her papers include pages and booklets from a number of teacher exams. Generally, each subject matter exam seems to have 10 questions, with a requirement to answer eight of the ten. Here is a sampling of questions from those exam pages:
August 14, 15, 1913 Examination No. 1 GEOGRAPHY
1—Describe Alaska as to location, size, climate, products, and cities.
5—Why does the United States import more goods from Central than from South Africa?
8—Compare the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Great Northern, as to length, number of people served, and importance as a commercial route.
10—Draw an outline map of North Dakota, and locate the wheat section, corn region, the greatest dairy region, and the mining region.
December 1913, ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE
1—Name two breeds of the dairy purpose, two of the beef purpose, and one of the dual purpose.
4—Define the following: nodulus, humus, flax-wilt, silage, seed bed, rust
8—Explain what is meant by crop rotation, and by diversifying.
Reading Monday July 28, 1924, 4:15-5:45 p.m. [probably Minnesota]
Answer any eight.
III. A seventh grade history class is to make an oral report upon a topic. Select a topic that would be likely to come up in this work, and show how you would make the assignment so as to motivate the reading. State one reason why such an assignment is a means of getting results in silent reading.
VI. Why is it desirable to use a basic text in teaching reading in the lower grades? State briefly five things you would have in mind in selecting a basic reader for your first grade.
IX. Of what value is a reading table in a rural school? What should be found on this table for lower grades? For intermediate grades? For upper grades?
Physics: Wednesday, July 30, 1924, 10:15-12:00 M [probably Minnesota]
Answer eight.
I—Define gravity, mass, specific heat, visual angle, resonance.
IV—A ball is fired vertically with an initial velocity of 500 meters per second. Neglecting the resistance of the air, to what height will it rise, what is its acceleration, and in what time will it return to earth?
General History, July 30, 1924, 2:45-4:15 P.M. [probably Minnesota]
Answer any five.
III- How did any ten of the following earn their places in the pages of history?
Nebuchadnezzar
Socrates
Solon
Caesar
Gracchi
Luther
Sulla
Cavour
Cromwell
Moses
Bonar Law
Warren G. Harding
IV. Discuss the work of the following individuals under three heads: object, efforts, and results.
Peter the Great
Frederick the Great
Napoleon Bonaparte
Lena Turck graduated from St. Cloud Normal School in 1892, after attending for a total of 60 weeks. She was teaching in Minnesota by 1893, in some one-room school with students of all ages. From 1906 to about 1914, Lena taught in North Dakota. The earliest contract in her records shows her teaching in 1906 in in Noonan School District No. 18. The contract, dated April 23, showed a salary of $45 per month for four months. That seems like a strange period of time, but North Dakota sometimes had split sessions for school years.
“Most school terms ran between four months and six months. Some of the terms were split. For example, half of the term might be in the late fall after harvest had been completed and the other half in the early spring before planting began. In a split term, no classes were held during the cold winter months.”[2]
A four-month term beginning in April seems unusual, as if it would overlap the planting season. Perhaps the contract was not signed until school had begun. Or perhaps the older children simply did not attend school after the ground thawed and warmed enough for planting.
“When North Dakota became a state in 1889, it had about 1,400 schools. Of these schools, most were ungraded, which means that students were not placed in grades. Instead, each student worked at his or her own level. Many children did not attend school regularly because of work at home. When they returned after being absent for a time, they continued their studies where they had left off. A 16-year-old might be reading out of the same book as a 9-year-old. In the early pioneer days, the majority of the country schools were ungraded.”[3]
The next contract in Lena’s records is dated September 17, 1906. This contract was for six months, with a salary of $50 a month, and was in a different district: School District No. 3, in Creel Township in Ramsey County.
Ramsey County, located west of Grand Forks, is about 350 miles from Lena’s home in Minnesota. The county seat is Devil’s Lake, named after the largest lake in the county. Creel Township is located on the shore of Devil’s Lake, and Noonan Township is several miles north of it. The 1884 “Historical Atlas of North Dakota” describes the lake:
“Minnewaukan, or Devils Lake, has a length in a right line east-southeast and west-northwest, of thirty-two miles, but measured along the center of its channel it stretches out to a length of about forty-five miles. The water of this lake resembles that of the ocean, holding in solution chloride of sodium, magnesium, sulphate and carbonate of soda and lime, The lake abounds in splendid fish of the pike family, known as pickerel weighing from a few pounds to thirty pounds each. Bathing in this lake is highly recommended for nervous and rheumatic diseases.
“The water, which is exceedingly clear, varies greatly in depth, the deepest places reaching 100 feet or more. A broad and beautiful sandy beach extends along the margin in many localities, and in places a person can wade to a distance of fifty yards from shore without getting beyond depth.”[4]
Why would Lena move 350 miles to North Dakota to teach? Family connection is the likely answer. Her mother’s brother, Francis or Frank Rütten, had moved their family to Ramsey County, North Dakota in 1883. They homesteaded in Ramsey County, and became leading citizens. The large Rutten family in North Dakota lived near Crary, so they could have invited Lena to teach there.
The post office was at the Rutten house, and the first Catholic church services were held there as well, with the people who could not fit inside the house standing outside and listening through the open windows. Frank[5] donated the land for the first church building and helped to raise the money to build it.[6] John Henry Rutten, Sr., usually known as Hank Rutten, was one of the sons of the family, about five years younger than Lena. Hank Rutten farmed in the county his whole life, until he died in 1967 at the age of 89.
Lena taught in Ramsey County, moving from school to school, until 1914. Contracts show various lengths of school terms—four months, six months, seven months, even nine months:
Except for the first, all contracts have Duties of Teachers printed on the back. All require the teaching of
“orthography, reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, language lessons, English grammar, geography, United States history, civil government, physiology and hygiene, giving special instruction concerning the nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics and their effect upon the human system … All pupils … below the high school and above the third year of school work … shall receive instruction in this subject every year from text books adapted to grade in the hands of pupils for not less than four lessons per week for ten weeks of each schoolyear. …[P]upils in the lower three primary school years shall each year be instructed orally in the subject for not less than three lessons per week for ten weeks of each school year by teachers using text books adapted to grade for such instruction as a guide or standard. …”
That’s a lot of material to know and teach, for pupils of all ages and levels. While Lena was certified, as many as half of the teachers in the early years of North Dakota statehood were not. Some were even younger than their oldest students.[7]
The emphasis on teaching about “alcoholic drinks and other narcotics” is consistent with North Dakota’s commitment to prohibition. The state had a strong Women’s Christian Temperance Union from very early days, and prohibition was a part of the first state constitution.[8] Temperance crusaders in North Dakota also strongly supported a women’s right to vote. They won in 1917, with women gaining the right to vote in North Dakota three years ahead of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote across the United States.
Besides instruction, teachers had to keep students and schools in good order. That meant building a fire in the stove in the morning, keeping the school and outhouse clean, and maintaining discipline in the classroom. With no one else in the school, the teacher kept all student and school records and reported to the local school board and, when required, to the county and state. A strict code of conduct often required that teachers be single, and forbade smoking, drinking alcohol, or dancing.
Country school teachers boarded with families near their schools. Sometimes that was a good fit, sometimes not. In some school districts, a teacher might board with the same family for the entire school year, but often they moved from family to family during the year.
Gertrude Black La Due was a Minnesota school teacher in the early 1900s. Born in 1882, she seems to have begun teaching in 1901. She later became a Methodist minister, married, and had three children. Some of her early journals remain at the Minnesota Historical Society. The entry for December 1, 1901 shows that she paid eight dollars for board, though it does not specify the period of time that the payment covered. The entry for the first day of school in 1902 gives some idea of what teaching was like:
“Monday September 1st – 1902
“I went to the school house early. Swept. Had 18 pupils. They have not had training previously in their work so it is tedious. Some can not understand English. I hardly knew how t begin with them. Got along well tho. Mr. Pfiefer came to see me. Will pay me extra for teaching his children. Evening I wrote to Emma and Hanna Shirley. Am keeping close to Jesus.”[9]
La Due taught in Grygla, close enough to her family home so that she could return there on weekends and summers. But where did teachers go when they taught, and boarded, far from home?
Though we have no records from Lena, she could have returned from North Dakota to Minnesota by train. Back then, trains were a major mode of passenger transportation. The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company, which later became the Great Northern Railroad. reached Devil’s Lake, North Dakota in 1885.[10] While the distance was too great for weekend excursions, she might have gone home during summers or even during a long winter break in the school year.
In some summers, she took more university courses. The 1905 North Dakota Teaching Certificate has an endorsement on the back showing that she spent six weeks in University Summer School and passed examination of three subjects. In Minnesota, she had Minnesota Reading Circle Certificates for 1917 and 1923. While the certificate says it is “offered for credit towards teacher’s certificate,” she was already a long-certified teacher by then. For her, this was some part of continuing education.
Before and after her teaching years in North Dakota, Lena taught in Minnesota, mostly near home in Meeker County and Stearns County, and possibly for some time in Polk County. Meeker County is home, and Stearns County is next to Meeker, but Polk County is in northwestern Minnesota, adjacent to the North Dakota border. Lena passed the state teacher examination in Polk County in February 1914, giving her a certificate to teach in Minnesota for five years.
Lena’s papers include no contracts from Minnesota schools, but documents from the State of Minnesota Teachers Insurance and Retirement Fund shows that she taught in Luxemburg MN District 134 in 1893 and 1894 (Stearns County), and in Meeker County in 1891, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1915. She may have taught in Minnesota past 1915, but probably not past 1920.
At some point, she taught in a school in Kingston township, the township bordering Forest City. She lived on the farm at that time, and walked miles to the school each day. Maybe that was one of her final years of teaching, after she returned from North Dakota, but we have no records to confirm this guess.
A State of Minnesota Teachers Insurance and Retirement Fund certificate of membership dated 8/15/1917 says that she needs to teach two more years before being able to retire. A later certificate of membership shows credit for 18 years of teaching in MN and 7 6/7 years outside of MN. This certificate is dated 8/27/1919 and says all assessments have been paid and “the holder of this certificate shall be entitled to retire on the twenty-five year plan when she has taught NO years more in Minnesota.” Retirement was a substantial benefit, paying $500 per year in 1921.[11]
The 1920 report of the Minnesota State Board of Education lists Lena Turck as one of the teachers who retired in 1919. Retiring at age 46, even after 25 years of teaching, seems early by today’s standards. That age might not have been so young back then. The life expectancy for someone born in 1873 was less than 45 years.[12] Lena Turck beat the odds, living to the ripe old age of 90.
Lena probably returned to the family farm during the final illness of her mother. Anna Turck died in 1914 at the age of 63.
Lena spent the second half of her life mostly on the farm with her brother, Louis Peter, whom every knew as L.P. He was the second-youngest in the family. Born in 1891, he was 18 years younger than Lena, and still a baby when she left home to teach. Henry was the youngest brother, born in 1893.
In 1915, their father, Jacob Turck, sold the family farm to Lena and L.P. and Henry.
Henry Turck said that his father had mortgaged the farm and nearly lost it. Lena’s papers include numerous mortgages made by Jacob Turck over the years. Since her brothers had lived their entire lives on the farm, they probably had little cash of their own. Lena may have had savings from teaching. In any event, she took a strong part in managing the farm.
In 1916, Jacob Turck remarried, to the great disapproval of his children. They disapproved of the way that he handled the land, mortgaging it repeatedly and leaving them to pay off the mortgages after they bought the farm from him. They disapproved of the way he had had treated Anna, whom Henry called their “sweet little mother.” They disapproved of his new wife, and thought the speed of his remarriage was one more way of disrespecting their mother. Jacob Turck’s second wife died before he did, and he may have married a third time, perhaps to a woman in Wisconsin. When Jacob Turck died, in 1931 at the age of 76, he was listed as widowed and as a resident of Forest City.
In 1920, Lena and L.P. and Henry bought the next farm to the east, which had belonged to their uncle, Philip Turck.
In 1921, Henry Turck married Mary McCoy. Henry and Mary Turck remained on the farm where they had all grown up, and L.P. and Lena Turck moved to the former Philip Turck farm. The two families lived side by side during the rest of their lives.
L.P. was a little strange, so Lena probably helped keep him on an even keel and smooth relations with the rest of the community. When L.P. was a youngster, he was already “different.” Henry had to start school early, because the teacher needed his help to keep L.P. from hiding under his desk.
L.P. didn’t have much use for education. Henry said he learned to read and write and cipher and that was all. He had a high regard for education and deeply regretted being unable to have a good education. At that time, however, mandatory attendance laws applied to children between the ages of eight and sixteen, and required only 12 weeks of attendance during the year, though most schools were in session for longer periods of time. Farm boys were excused from school for planting and harvest time. The 1910 report of the state school superintendent noted that, “Approximately 75 percent of the pupils entering rural schools drop out by the time they reach the sixth year of their studies.”
Both Lena and Mary McCoy were school teachers. In Henry and Mary Turck’s household, Mary was the bookkeeper, though decision making was shared. It seems likely that Lena was the bookkeeper and possibly the senior partner in decision-making in the farming business that she and her brother shared. She was not only better-educated, but also quite a bit older than L.P.
The two Turck families—Henry and Mary and their children on the west farm, Lena and L.P. on the east farm—remained close through the years. When Mary needed a cup of flour or sugar, she would tie a note to the dog’s collar and send him over to Lena, who would send back the sugar or flour in the same way.
When Howard was a boy, L.P. and Lena took him along to Litchfield on Friday nights. That was the night that stores stayed open late, and many people went into town. Howard and L.P. went to the movies to see Tom Mix, while Lena sat in the Model A and watched the world go by.
Back on the farms, the traditional division of income seems to have prevailed. That is, most of the farm income is attributed to the man, with the woman claiming egg money for the chickens she tended. And did she tend chickens! Egg receipts from the time show 80 or 90 dozen eggs, which would mean hundreds of laying hens.
Though she took care of the chickens, she did not particularly like them. She called them “white bleachers,” which may have been the substitute for a swear word. (“Son of a biscuit!” was another substitution that I heard a lot, growing up.)
The Turck papers from those years also include records of crops and livestock sold, in the name of Louis Turck or L.P. Turck. All of the bills, receipts, and financial records use Louis or L.P. Turck as his name. The two exceptions: mortgages name both L.P. and Lena Turck, and some tax receipts show her as the person paying the real estate tax. All of the egg receipts are all in the name of L. Turck, not L.P.
While Lena stopped teaching, she did not retire from public life. On the contrary: she remained both interested and involved in political matters, and especially in education. She served on the school board for the one-room Forest City school located across the highway from her farm.
Dorothy Pennertz remembered her visits to the school. Lena brought her dogs with her, right into the school, to the delight of the students and the chagrin of the teacher. She quizzed the teacher and students, and put them through their paces. She could get away with all that, could do anything she pleased, because she was on the school board.
The school across the road from the farm was District 64, at least in later years. Lena Turck’s papers, however, include financial records from District 2. They have various dates, from 1930 to 1938. The receipts are for school expenses, ranging from $2.75 for library paste and ink in 1930 to a $90 monthly teacher salary payment in 1938.
Eventually, Lena ran for county superintendent of schools. She was the first woman to run for that position in Meeker County. She lost the election, probably because she was a woman. Or maybe there were other reasons. She had strong beliefs on morality and did not hesitate to tell people when she thought they were in the wrong. One example: she thought that playing cards were the devil’s playthings. Card games were a popular form of recreation, so her judgmental attitude could have cost her votes.
Lena’s interest in political and civic life may have been sparked by the women’s suffrage and temperance movements in North Dakota and Minnesota. Both states had strong women’s organizations and the two issues were frequently joined together. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union in North Dakota was a major advocate for women’s suffrage. North Dakota women won the right to vote in 1917.
Minnesota women were involved in the struggle for suffrage from the time of statehood in 1858, pushing for an amendment to the state constitution to give women the right to vote. In 1870, three years before Lena was born, Governor Horace Austin vetoed a suffrage bill before it could go to the voters. In 1875, the Minnesota legislature gave women the right to vote in school elections, but only in school elections. In 1877, the Minnesota House and Senate passed a bill to amend the constitution to allow women to vote on the “whiskey questions.” That time, the amendment went to the public for a vote, and male voters defeated it. In 1898, a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote for and serve on library boards passed by a wide margin.
Despite giving women votes on school and library matters, the legislature voted down bills for women’s suffrage legislature in 1893, 1911, 1913, and 1915.[13]
In 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Minnesota was the 15th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Finally, women in Minnesota and across the country could vote.
Lena Turck lived through first wave feminism and the struggle for suffrage, though those battles took place far from the farm. She was already 46 years old when women won the right to vote. Her independence, her stern morality, and her involvement in politics make her sound like those first wave feminists of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, fighting to close the saloons and open the voting booths to women.
Lena voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR brought the WPA during the Depression, so that people could earn a little cash money. Henry graded roads for the WPA, working to keep the farms solvent during those tough times. FDR also brought the REA, so farmers could get electricity. Howard remembered that when electricity arrived at the farms, the cows at the Henry Turck farm were scared by the lights in the barn. But, he said, the cows at L.P.’s farm paid no attention to the lights, because they had already seen lots of crazy goings on.
Lena faithfully listened to Father Charles Coughlin on the radio. He was a popular radio personality throughout the 1930s, until his anti-Semitic and pro-fascist rants got him kicked off the radio airwaves.
In the early 1930s, Coughlin denounced the Ku Klux Klan and strongly supported Roosevelt and the New Deal. He was stridently anti-Communist, which fit in well with Catholic dogma. But by 1936, he had turned against Roosevelt, and his broadcast became virulently anti-Semitic.
Did Lena like Coughlin because of his early years, when his message was pro-Roosevelt and also anti-capitalist and anti-banker and pro-labor? Was she swept along by his demagoguery, accepting into his later anti-Semitic rants? Or did she, like Chicago’s Cardinal Mundelein, eventually reject Coughlin and his poison?
When World War II came along, Lena insisted that Henry and Mary Turck’s son, Howard, leave the university and return home to farm. She would not hear any nonsense about either continuing his studies or enlisting in the army—he was needed at home, and she was going to make sure he came home. He did.
Howard was classified as a worker essential to the war effort and therefore exempt from the draft. He had wanted to leave the farm, to have a different kind of career and life. In later years, he said that Lena was the one who made him a farmer, tied him to the land whether he wanted it or not.
When the war ended and soldiers came home, farm workers were no longer in short supply. Howard Turck’s deferment ended in 1946. Lena tried hard to get him a continuing deferment, writing to Congressman Harold Knutson, but to no avail. In a letter dated March 16, 1946, Congressman Knutson told her:
“I don’t know how much I am going to be able to do to secure a further deferment for Howard, but am writing Col. Nelson, State Director of Selective Service at St. Paul today, as per enclosed copy.
“It is most unfortunate that the Government continues to take boys off our farms. Now that the war is over there should be no drafting of farm boys. As a matter of fact, they badly overdid that during the war and as a result we are having farm sales all over the country.
“When we have a report from Col. Nelson I will advise you.
“With personal regards, I am,
Yours sincerely,
Harold Knutson.”
Despite Lena’s best efforts, Howard was drafted and went off to Korea. He returned in November, 1947, back to farming, and soon starting a family of his own. I was the first child born to Howard and Millie (Erpelding) Turck in 1950.
Before Howard and Millie were married, Howard went to town with L.P. After Howard returned from Korea and began courting Millie, LP went alone. By then Lena’s memory was failing and she was sliding into dementia. When L.P. went to town, Mary Turck would sit with Lena, patiently listening to her, as Lena told the same stories, and asked the same questions, over and over again. She especially liked to talk about the cows. On Saturday mornings, Howard would ask his mother, “How many times did she milk the cows last night?”
I remember Aunt Lena as a spry, little old lady with long, silky, white hair coiled and pinned into a bun, a faded, flowered house dress, bright blue eyes, and a sharp tongue.
I remember L.P. as always funny and always a bit strange. Lena, Henry, and Mary were all members of St. Gertrude’s Catholic Church. L.P. wouldn’t go to church and was not a member, although he insisted that he was a Catholic: he just didn’t need priests and church. He was so much a Catholic that, in later years, he took up a garden hose and chased visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses away.
L.P. said he hung his head out of the bed first thing in the morning to get the wrinkles out of his brain. He had a lot of strange ways, but he was always good to us.
I remember Buddy and Lady, Lena and L.P.’s two beautiful collies and their house full of cats, a sharp contrast to our house full of children, where cats and dogs were kept strictly outside. We children were not allowed to pester Aunt Lena and L.P., not allowed to cross the fields to their house, so we saw them infrequently.
They came to our house for Christmas Eve, when we all gathered in the living room to await the appearance of Santa Claus. They came, too, for some of the big Sunday dinners, and for the Fourth of July picnic. I do not remember anything that Aunt Lena said, though surely she spoke to me at some point.
By 1960, Lena’s memory loss had progressed to the point that Howard was appointed her legal guardian. She grew too frail to stay on the farm, and moved into a nursing home. Lena died in a nursing home in 1963.
I wonder who she was inside her own mind: school teacher or spinster, independent woman or unmarried sister and dutiful family caretaker? Did she mourn her teaching career when she came home to the farm? Or did she prefer dawn to dusk farm work and her own house to the also-hard life of an itinerant country schoolteacher?
After her death, I learned Aunt Lena’s full name: Mary Magdalena. Working on family history years later, I discovered women named Magdalena or Mary Magdalena in every generation.
Mary Magdalene, their namesake, traveled with Jesus, helped to support him and the apostles, and was a witness to the crucifixion and burial. She is mentioned 12 times in the Gospels, more than most of the apostles. She must have been both independent and wealthy to lend support to the motley crew around Jesus.
Like many strong and independent women, Mary Magdalene ran into trouble with the patriarchs. Way back in 581, Pope Gregory I preached a series of sermons in which he identified Mary Magdalene with the fallen woman of scripture, perhaps a prostitute, certainly sinful. That became the official line, all the way through the centuries until 1969, when scholarship finally prevailed and separated the two women’s stories again.
I like to think that Aunt Lena and the other Magdalena women in the Turck and Rütten families over the generations were strong and independent like Mary Magdalene. I hope they felt some of that strength as they built lives and families and farms alongside their fathers and brothers and husbands.
I inherited my Aunt Lena’s gold watch, and had it engraved with her full name, Mary Magdalena. I treasured Aunt Lena’s gold watch for years, until my Chicago apartment was robbed. The burglar took Aunt Lena’s gold watch and my two Siamese cats. Maybe more, but those were the only things of value.
Though the watch is long gone, Aunt Lena’s memory lives on: an independent woman, a teacher, a political pioneer, a challenge, a puzzle, an inspiration.
[1] St. Cloud State Names (1869-Present) St. Cloud State University <https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/structure/names.aspx> (consulted 7/17/2022)
[2] Part 3: North Dakota Pioneers, Section 10: Schools. From 4th Grade Curriculum. https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr4/early-settlement-north-dakota/part-3-north-dakota-pioneers/section-10-schools I (Consulted 7/16/2022)
[3] Ibid.
[4] Excerpt From Andreas’ “1884 Historical Atlas of Dakota.” https://www.co.ramsey.nd.us/180/1884-Historical-Atlas (Consulted 7/19/2022). Note: during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, the lake shrank considerably. In more recent years, it has expanded again and has been a major factor in destructive flooding. For fascinating geological history bringing the story up to the 21st century, see “Runaway Devil’s Lake” by Douglas Larson in The American Scientist, January/February 2012 (Volume 100, Number 1, page 46). https://www.americanscientist.org/article/runaway-devils-lake (Consulted 7/19/2022)
[5] Ludwig Rutten family history (unpublished). Frank’s birth name was Franz Michael Hubert Rutten, born in Wehr, Region Heinsberg, Government seat in Aachen. He was Anna Rutten Turck’s half-brother. His mother died, and Anna was the first-born child of Ludwig Rutten’s second wife, Anna.
[6] Ludwig Rutten family history (unpublished).
[7] Ibid.
[8] Kautzman, Zach. The Prairie Fire Extinguished: Prohibition in Territorial and Early Statehood North Dakota, 1880-1900. (Middle Tennessee State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018. 10838326.)
https://www.proquest.com/openview/ef7bd5fedd9c4770a251822f471a0770/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 (Consulted 7/17/2022)
[9] Gertrude Black La Due diaries, 1900 – March 1906. 6 volumes. Minnesota Historical Society. (Consulted 5/4/2022)
[10] Great Northern Railway Historical Society https://www.gnrhs.org/gn_history.php (Consulted, 7/17/2022)
[11] Laws of Minnesota existing for the Public School System including the State Teachers Colleges and the University of Minnesota. Prepared under the Direction of Clifford L. Hilton, Attorney General, and James M. McConnell, Commissioner of Education – 1921. Section 417.
[12] Statista. “Life expectancy (from birth) in the United States, from 1860 to 2020*” <https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040079/life-expectancy-united-states-all-time/> (Consulted 7/19/2022)
[13] Jess Bellville. “Explore a Timeline of Women’s Suffrage Efforts in Minnesota.” TPT Originals, April 7, 2020. https://www.tptoriginals.org/explore-a-timeline-of-womens-suffrage-efforts-in-minnesota/ (Consulted 7/23/2022)
Filed under Uncategorized
This is Coco’s poem.
He started it, purring and content.
I am not content, not with
poetry
myself
or the world in general.
I am, however,
quite content with this cat.
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In the gender-segregated early 1960s, high school required home economics class for girls and shop class for boys. Neither was an academic class. They required making things: sewing, cooking, carpentry, metal work, and the like. Inferior to academic learning, I supposed, but perhaps of value to those on a vocational track, which also included elective ag and typing classes.
I didn’t like home ec. By junior high, I had been cooking for years. “Learning” how to fry eggs or bake cookies was neither challenging nor interesting. Sewing, however, proved to be a challenge that I could not master.
Oh, I could sew. I just couldn’t sew to the rules and requirements of that class. The green flowered pattern of that skirt and the lovely blue and green abstract of the empire-waist dress remain imprinted on my mind. I wore both of them, and they looked just fine, but they did not measure up to the standards of home ec class.
On the day that I got a C minus or D for my sewing grade, I got off the school bus in the afternoon and cried all the way up the driveway. Not so much for the grade, as for the feeling that I had let down my favorite aunt, and perhaps disgraced her in the eyes of her colleagues. Aunty Helen, you see, was a home economics teacher, with a Master’s Degree in Home Economics Education and on her way to a PhD.
She laughed when I told her about it, years (and many skirts, dresses, nightgowns, and other garments) later.
Home economics, properly understood, she told me, was about economics, not about how to sew or cook. The family is the basic economic unit of society. To understand economics at all, you must begin at home.
Walking along railroad tracks in St. Paul in the 1980s, we sparred over our differing philosophies of education. By then, she was teaching at the University of Minnesota and working for the state vocational and technical education system. and I was a young lawyer. Our arguments focused on the competing values of vocational education and liberal education. She went on to become deputy director of the Minnesota Technical Institute System (circa 1989), interim state director for vocational and technical education (circa 1990), and retired in 1998 as Vice-Chancellor for Vocational Education for the State of Minnesota.
Searching the internet for references to anything that Aunty Helen might have written, I found a citation in the September/October 1979 issue of Illinois Teacher. The citation is a footnote in an article by Bessie Hackett, “Review and Evaluation of Consumer and Homemaking Education Programs.” It cites a 1977 publication by Helen Henrie and Joan R. Wilkosz for the Minneapolis Public Schools, title “Home Economics Goals and Objectives,” which I have not been able to locate. The Hackett article says:
“Henrie identified some criteria, adapted here as guidelines, which could be helpful in deciding the problem areas around which to organize a curriculum for home and family resource management.
“1. The problem areas relate to the basic functions which families and individuals must
fulfill for survival.
“2. The problem areas are ones generally experienced in home and family living in the
current society.
“3. The problem areas are ones which can have significant effects on family members.
“4. The problem areas are ones which appear to be experienced by families from generation to generation.”
This summary points to a vision of home economics that is far broader than the cooking and sewing class that I endured in high school.
Years after Aunty Helen’s far-too-early death, I found her “Family Economic Autobiography,” which appears to have been written in the early 1960s, probably while she was getting her M.A. This paper focuses on the entire economic life of her family of origin, again giving a broad view of home/family economics. This vision sees far beyond what she calls “the usual household tasks,” which were the sole focus of my high school home economics class.
In this paper, she notes the participation of her mother in the economic life of the family:
“The main sources of income were from the farm and livestock. These were supplemented by the sale of wood which my father cut and by the sale of fur from animals which he trapped. My mother contributed her labor to the enterprises through the usual household tasks and in addition helped with milking, care of chickens and some field work. …
“The decision making process evident throughout the history of my family is one in which the wishes of my father have predominated in areas of major expenditure No decision to spend any sizeable sum of money or invest in a particular manner has bene made without thinking it through with my mother. However in areas such as machinery, automobile, livestock and other major decisions related to the operation of the farm business, my father would exert 95% of the decision making power. In matters of major expense pertaining to the house, the decision would be made on a 50-50 basis. My mother makes 98% of the decisions regarding the expenditures for food and clothing. Although my father makes the decisions regarding expenditures, it is mother who is the bookkeeper.”
Back in the day, farm women—my mother, Grandma Turck, Aunt Lena—were equal partners in the economic production unit that centered on home and farm. The farm, however, was considered their husband’s business, and the ultimate decisions were his.
The one area of difference was in “egg money.” Women fed the chickens, collected and sold the eggs, and butchered the chickens for Sunday dinner. “Egg money” was part of the farm’s production, but often seen as minimal and separate from fields and larger livestock. A few contemporary definitions summarize that difference:
Urban Dictionary: “Farming women would earn “butter and egg money” from their poultry to be used for clothing, shoes, extra treats like white sugar or oranges, and anything store-bought for the home. Men would use crop money to pay the mortgage, or buy livestock or seed for next year.”
The Free Dictionary: old-fashioned Extra money earned by a farmer’s wife by selling various things produced by the farm, such as (though not only) eggs and butter.”
The Smithsonian Institution: “In her diaries, Elizabeth [Robinson] also tracked how many eggs were collected from the chickens each day, how much money was made on eggs, and how much money was made on butter. At the end of each month and year, Elizabeth totaled the income from these items made and how many eggs were collected. In 1951, Elizabeth recorded making $151.90 on butter, $85.35 on eggs, $237.25 together, and collected 5062 eggs. Elizabeth recorded making $161.90 on butter, $49.40 on eggs, $211.30 together and collected 2880 eggs in 1952. In 1953, Elizabeth wrote, “took in for year from eggs and butter. $255.80.” From looking at only these three years, one can see that Elizabeth was bringing in significant income from her egg and dairy production. Elizabeth tends not to record amounts of money from other ventures, so clearly tracking the sale of butter and eggs and her egg collection was important to her.”
Aunt Lena’s 26 years of teaching, she was financially independent. Her salary—$50 a month—may have been small, but it was her own. Once she moved back to the farm with her brother, L.P., that was no longer true. They worked the farm together. The egg money, however, was likely still her own. The papers I have include stacks and stacks of egg money receipts along with some receipts for grain sales. The egg receipts are made out to L. Turck, while the grain sales receipts are made out to L.P. Turck.
Egg money, while the most visible evidence of farm women’s economic participation, is hardly their only economic contribution to the home and farm. For example, think of the economics of food. Even my tiny backyard garden produces hundreds of dollars’ worth of tomatoes and arugula and basil and cucumbers. The farm garden and apple trees, potato and sweet corn fields, wild gooseberry and plum bushes, produced exponentially more. When I was a child, we never purchased canned vegetables or fruits: all of these were home-canned, stored in glass jars on floor-to-ceiling shelves in the basement “vegetable room.” We didn’t buy meat either. Beef, pork, and chicken were raised by the family, for consumption as well as for sale.
Egg money and food production are measurable economic facts. The other labor of women: cleaning and maintaining the household, caring for children, preparing meals, and all the rest, are less often included as economic facts. When I read about the unpaid and unrecognized labor of women in the home today, I remember Aunty Helen. This is part of what she meant by home economics.
In 2021, a New York Times article noted that, “If American women earned minimum wage for the unpaid work they do around the house and caring for relatives, they would have made $1.5 trillion last year. … Globally, women would have earned $10.9 trillion.”
The article continued:
“It isn’t a part of G.D.P. calculations and rarely factors into other measures of economic growth. It is notoriously difficult to value because the normal market signals of supply and demand don’t work: Traditional expectations that caring for children, the elderly and the infirm should be done gratis within the family obscure the true economic value of this work. And yet what the example of Iceland shows us is that women provide a huge unacknowledged subsidy to the smooth functioning of our economies, which would grind to a halt if women stopped doing this work.”
The impact of the 1975 Iceland women’s strike, a symbolic one-day action, highlighted the vital importance of women’s work at home, as men banks, factories, schools, and some stores closed, and economic activity ground to a halt. Some 45 years later, the COVID pandemic showed that women’s work—both at home and outside the home—remained undervalued and underappreciated.
“The first year of the pandemic knocked 54 million women around the world out of work, widening the gender gap in employment. It could take years for that gap to narrow again.
“Of the women who lost jobs in 2020, almost 90 percent exited the labor force completely, compared with around 70 percent of men. …
“Not only did women suffer a disproportionate share of job losses but research suggests that their hours of unpaid labor increased as they undertook more than their share of child care, home schooling and elder care.”
Home economics includes the unpaid labor that women do at home, as well as their more measurable participation in the official labor force. We would all be better off, as individuals, families, and a nation, if our economic policies focused on the home as the basic economic unit. The economic security and stability of families should come before the ROI of billionaires and the profit margins of corporations.
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This is a paper written by Helen Ann Turck Henrie in the early 1960s, probably while she was getting her M.A. in home economics at the University of Minnesota. The paper focuses on the entire economic life of her family of origin. The ending seems rather incomplete, so the typewritten copy that I have could be incomplete or a draft version. It is a fascinating (to me) look at early history of our family.
FAMILY ECONOMIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Helen Ann Turck
(circa 1962?)
The eight stage family life cycle described by Duvall will be used as a tool In the description of my family’s economic history. My parents were married in 1921. My mother was 23 and had completed a year of teacher training and taught for a period of 4 years in rural grade schools. My father was 29 and had completed approximately 6 years of school. He had been working on the family farm up until the time of their marriage. The educational level of my parents, source of income and other general characteristics would place my family in the lower middle class.
My parents began their married life with a $250.00 debt which my father incurred to over immediate costs involved in getting married and establishing a home. Prior to my parents’ marriage my father, his brother and sister purchased the family farm from my grandfather for $8,000. In 1920 they bought another 160 acres adjoining the original homestead at $200.00 an acre for a total of $32,000. As a result of these various purchases my parents began their married life with an approximate debt of $20,000. The farms were purchased on the basis of the good prices at that time and the prospect that they would continue.
As assets they had a farm house approximately forty years old. It consisted of five rooms, no bath or plumbing and was heated with wood or coal. Cooking was done on a wood range. They had a new kitchen table, rocking chair and davenport plus some other household equipment. Livestock, machinery and farm buildings constituted other assets.
Sources of income during this establishment phase of the family were from farm crops and livestock. Personal property taxes were paid by hauling gravel for the county roads. My parents’ goals at this time were to pay debts and save to buy a car.
In 1923 my family moved into the child bearing stage when my brother was born. The delivery was a t home and so the total cost was approximately $75.00. This was considered a fairly large expense, but my parents paid cash for it. No other financially significant events occurred during this period.
During the pre-school stage, medical expenses in connection with a glandular condition of my brother’s was a recurring drain on the meager resources. In describing the level of living at this time, my mother recalls:
“We weren’t really poor, but not far from it. We were never hungry and one could be assured of a new dress as part of the celebration of July 4th. Christmas always found some little thing for everyone.”
Recreation consisted of neighborhood house parties and an occasional church party.
The main sources of income were from the farm and livestock. These were supplemented by the sale of wood which my father cut and by the sale of fur from animals which he trapped. My mother contributed her labor to the enterprises through the usual household tasks and in addition helped with milking, care of chickens and some field work.
Some time during this period, probably near its close, my folks bought their first car, a Model T Ford. To pay for it, they traded a horse and paid the remainder of the $433.00 in cash.
As my family moved into the school age cycle in 1929-30, my father was made completely inactive for a 9-month period by rheumatism. During this time, my aunt and uncle mentioned previously in the purchase of the farm helped with some of the work. Hired help was procured and the farm was kept on a paying basis. At this time, only interest payments were made on the debt. Some expense resulted from this illness but were not recalled by my mother as major.
The years of the Depression fall into this stage and were described as “very rough.” To clarify this statement, one need only recall that some 12 years prior to that time my parents had begun their married life with a $20,000 debt. The outlook for the farmer was auspicious. Wheat then sold at $3.00 a bushel, but during the Depression, it dropped to .59 per bushel. Corn prices fell from near $2.00 a bushel to .20 a bushel. In good times, hogs brought .32 a pound, later only .03 a lb. When prices dropped sharply it was a real struggle to make interest payments. Needless to say, nothing was paid on the principal. Although times were tight moneywise, food, clothing and shelter were adequate.
Also during this period, the drought came to plague the farmer. My parents were forced to reduce the livestock inventory in order to provide fodder for a smaller number. This would necessarily reduce the money income.
Near the middle of this period, I was born. No debt resulted from my birth and although I was a small baby, some 4+ pounds, and caused my mother worry, I didn’t need any special medical attention.
My father continued to farm during this period and again supplemented the income by doing road work. In the winter he used the horse-drawn snow plough to open the county roads near our farm and in the spring and summer, would grade these same roads. He continued to trap muskrats, mink, fox, and skunk, and sell their hides.
The beginning of the teenage stage was uneventful. My brother began high school and I grew and in the fall of 1939 entered first grade. One October, about midnight, my parents and I, while sleeping downstairs, were awakened by the sound of glass shattering. My Dad investigated and found the upstairs filled with smoke and my brother nearly unconscious. That night, the house burned to the ground.
No lives were lost in the fire and my brother did not suffer any ill effects from his exposure to the smoke. The table and rocking chair which had been wedding gifts were saved along with my brother’s schoolbooks. I saved my Dick and Jane reader: other than that the entire inventory of furnishings and clothing were destroyed. Insurance of about $500.00 was collected. Neighbors contributed food, clothing, and some cash in a community shower.
My parents considered rebuilding the house at this time. There were still debts to be paid on the land and undoubtedly the recent Depression and drought were still vivid memories in my parents’ minds. My parents decided together not to invest in a larger new house at this time. The insurance money was used to build a one-room house, 14×20 feet. This house was divided by a cloth curtain into two rooms. One included a kitchen, dining area and living room. A small area was devoted to a wash stand and water pail. The woodbox occupied another corner. The other part of the house included a dresser, closet, single bed and rollway (sp?), and double bed. Undoubtedly this housing would be classified as poverty housing. As a child and growing teenager, I didn’t realize it nor did I feel deprived.
During this teenage stage, prices began to improve and my parents began to build the livestock inventory. Machinery and tractors were purchased as farming moved toward mechanization. The Model T of the pre-school stage had been replaced by a Model A and in 1940 we bought a V-8 Ford. My brother finished high school and began college. This latter decision was made jointly by my parents. It may have put them a little into debt, but not a great deal. My brother of course worked for part of the money he needed and had a small scholarship. He completed one year of college. The outbreak of the war in 1941 interrupted his schooling.
Some time during this cycle, the debt on the farm was cleared up. I should have been old enough to remember any celebration of this fact: however, I have no such memory and so conclude that my parents were quietly happy and relieved.
With the farm paid for, my mother said the level of living was raised a little and they were “not so afraid to spend.” They began saving in war bonds toward the eventual building of the house. During this time, an adjacent forty acres of land became available and my father purchased this land. This undoubtedly put the building of the house off for a few more years.
The launching stage saw my brother leave for the army in 1946. No major debts were incurred nor was there any general change in financial status. This was a time of work for my folks as my brother’s labor was no longer available. I helped by driving tractor and doing other kinds of outdoor work. In 1947, plans were made for building the house. The basement was completed and we moved into this basement house. No debts were accumulated at this time.
In 1949, my brother was married and he and my sister-in-law moved into the basement. My parents and I moved into a farm house about 5 miles away, which we rented. There was no major change in financial status. In 1952, my brother and parents jointly financed the building of the top part of the house. My parents still owe $1,000 to my brother for part of this construction.
Following my brother’s marriage, my parents moved 4 times. Each time to a rented farm house. Their goal was to find a house in the general neighborhood with a minimum of land. Since none was available, it was necessary to move rather frequently.. My family was fairly mobile during these years. Basic orientation, however, was not toward mobility as a valued pattern.
My father was hospitalized for a time with a mild heart attack. These costs were covered by hospitalization insurance. At this time, my father and brother worked the farm jointly and shared in the income.
The launching stage for my family came to a close when I completed my college education. Again, the earlier decision to send me to college had been jointly made. My education cost about $1000 per year plus the small sum I earned myself. This was not a great burden on my parents as they were out of debt and prices were fairly good.
My family is now in a combination of empty nest years and retirement. My father has no regular responsibilities, at the farm yet he is there helping my brother almost every day. My parents have recently bought the land which belonged to my aunt in the original purchase in 1915. This cost $6,250 and for a short period of time they borrowed a small sum of money from the local bank.
At present my parents are living in a house which they recently bought. There is no debt on the house. Their sources of income are rent from the farm in total $4,700 per year and 155.50 per month from social security. The following is an itemized account of expenditures for one month for my parents. Some foodstuffs are grown and canned or frozen during the year. My mother does almost all of her own baking. Clothing expenditures for additions and maintenance would probably not be more than $6 to $8 per month.
Taxes 3.00
Electricity 9.50
Gas and wood 20.00
Insurance 8.00
Health insurance 18.00
Car and Pickup Truck (ins.) 8.00
Church 12.00
Phone 4.24
Gas, oil, repair (car) 15.00
Meat 30.00
Eggs 3.00
Butter 4.00
Milk 4.50
Coffee 3.00
Sugar 1.50
Flour 1.75
Cheese 2.00
Fish 1.50
Veg. and frujit 4.00
Yeast, crackers, spices, etc. 1.00
______
TOTAL 163.99
Assets which my parents now have are a 200 acre farm and farm buildings which might bring $250.00 to $300.00 an acre, a house valued at $50,000, savings of about $6,000, a 1959 Ford, and a 1952 pickup truck, life insurance of $2,000.
My mother describes the level of living as better than in the early years and I would say it is probably as good as it has been any time during their marriage when all things are considered. Their major goals are to improve the house and grounds. My mother would like to travel. I believe my father would be satisfied to stay at home and enjoy his present status. This brings to a close the description of my family’s economic history, I will now focus attention on some of the factors which are relevant and deserving of special attention.
The decision making process evident throughout the history of my family is one in which the wishes of my father have predominated in areas of major expenditure No decision to spend any sizeable sum of money or invest in a particular manner has bene made without thinking it through with my mother. However in areas such as machinery, automobile, livestock and other major decisions related to the operation of the farm business, my father would exert 95% of the decision making power. In matters of major expense pertaining to the house, the decision would be made on a 50-50 basis. My mother makes 98% of the decisions regarding the expenditures for food and clothing. Although my father makes the decisions regarding expenditures, it is mother who is the bookkeeper. Her level of education undoubtedly is the factor responsible for this. My father is completely aware of the financial status at all times. The division of responsibility in both decision making and bookkeeping seem to illustrate the principle of complementary roles.
Some major value orientations seem evident in the developmental history of my family. There has always been a strong commitment of family. The purchase of the farm with my aunt and uncle in 1920 was motivated by the desire to keep my uncle from being drafted. The purchase in 1960 of my aunt’s share of the farm was motivated in part at least in an attempt to provide for her medical and hospital expenses. The welfare and happiness of the family has been a major focus. Perhaps my parents’ perception of what constituted welfare and happiness may be somewhat different than my own perception or my brother’s. Indeed, their perceptions probably differed.
A joint value commitment seems to have been made to work and effort and to security., I believe that work and effort are seen as goods in themselves as well as a good because it is a means to an end.
I also believe there is a commitment to honesty and debt freeness. Only in cases of absolute necessity and after careful consideration are things bought on time or debts incurred. The motto seems to be “pay cash or go without.”
There is little concern or commitment to convenience or comfort in relation to goods and services connected with the house or personal living. the motivation to keep up with the Jones or to attain a better standard of living is not high for my father. My mother does desire these things to some degree. The “make do ethic” is strong.
I would hypothesize that the specter of early indebtedness and the hardship experienced then still looms large in my father’s decision making mechanism although there is never any outward evidence of this.
I believe it is rather clear that my father was a major force in the development of a life style which may be characterized as stable, honest, adequate in provision of food and clothing, barely adequate in provision of housing. Emphasis of savings and security.
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Thunder in the night
ice in the morning
slush shoveling
slip sliding
spring not yet, still
snow-lovely trees
winter-clad finches feeding
no sunshine but
a bright glow behind the clouds.
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A soldier, seeing Russian troops coming too fast for a remote detonator shouts farewell and runs onto the bridge blowing himself up with it. Thirteen guards on a tiny island, facing the enemy, hear "Surrender or we bomb you." Replying "Fuck you Russian warship!" they die. Brave Ukrainian patriots, men and women who have never held a gun watch internet videos and learn to fire Kalashnikovs. A woman confronts a Russian soldier: "You’re occupants, you’re fascists. Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here." President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks, defying invasion, staying in Kyiv: "We are all here. Defending our independence. Our country. And so it will continue." No matter how courageous the stories, no matter how inspiring the ballads, I want live people planting their own flowers, no more dead heroes.
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The bombs fall down and the markets go up
as financiers
weep crocodile tears
for rising prices of food and gas,
which at least they see–
unlike far away invisibly burning
homes and children.
And the beat goes on.
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Dusk descends a little later every day,
morning brightens earlier,
promising another spring, new life, warmth
in the teeth of west winds
gusting to 60 miles an hour,
so the radio tells me and I
feel less wimpy about giving up
and turning toward home.
I see no sign of spring except
the promise implicit in lengthening days,
which will have to be enough to carry me
through the waning days of winter.
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On my evening walk, I count a dozen dogs still romping in the winter park, schnauzer-size to Great Dane. At 17 degrees above zero, the Great Dane wears an elegant royal purple coast and matching boots. Canine apparel seems more fashion-forward than their humans’ parkas. I do not approach today, but other days I’ve enjoyed enthusiastic canine greetings.
On a farther hill, children and parents slide on bright red, orange, yellow, green sleds or saucers, cheerful, laughing, enjoying outdoors. Beyond the hills that I can see, beyond those I can count, more dogs and humans race and slide and play, on crisp snow tracked by hundreds of skis, boots, and paws.
Today, the stream and pond, the ducks and hills and snow are free. For a few frozen months, we roam freely through this winter park, until spring returns it to the golfing overlords.
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Fragments is written by Mary Turck, who lives and writes in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Her blogs include:
News Day
Immigration News
Fragments
Family and Friends
Citizen Journalism
Fragments 