ABOUT THRESHING SEASON

LaVonne Howland: I can just remember the threshing machine coming twice. When you had them coming to your home, a woman’s work was very hard because in a rural area, electricity just plain didn’t get there. Towns got it first. There weren’t a lot of farms that had electricity because of the fact that it cost a tremendous amount of money, and you paid for it to get to your door. A lot of the farms didn’t have it. So you had your wood cookstove, and you had to carry water. You started very early in the morning.

When it came to threshing, the thing I remember is you started carrying the water in right away. You started carrying the wood and the cobs because you had to get things going. You had to get something baked for the lunch in the morning for those threshers, and of course, you didn’t have cold cereal for breakfast. I mean, we had breakfast that consisted of pancakes and eggs or things of this sort because of the type of work that was done. Then you got breakfast out of the way as quickly as you could because you had to get in the oven whatever you were going to make for coffee. If it was cake, you had to get it in, get it baked, and get it out because you were feeding several workers at noon, which meant several pies. You had to get the meat going. You had all of this. Then as soon as you had all that figured out, you’ve got to figure out what you are going to serve for lunch that afternoon and probably that night for supper. So it was continuous all day long. The same way when the men were in the fields, planting, mowing hay, or whatever. You had to be planning because the type of work they were doing was hard, and they needed something for coffee. At noon, you didn’t just have a lunch, you had a full meal, and the same way at night. So you were always carrying in wood, carrying in the cobs, carrying the ashes out, carrying the water in, and such.

The women, from my standpoint, were always cooking. Laundry was done much differently than it is today. The thing I remember is heating the water; you carried it in and heated it. I can remember using the scrub board and then the first washing machine. It ran on kerosene and made this horrible noise, and you stuck an exhaust hose outside to let out the fumes. Then ironing was done with the iron that you set on top of the stove, and you had at least two so you could keep rotating them. I think we had three so that two were hot while one was being used so we could keep them going. The dishes. Running water was just not heard of...

Helen: This was even when you were on the Brinkman farm?

LaVonne: Yes, we did get cold water inside at the north place. I remember the kerosene lamps. Women didn’t work outside the home back then, not many anyway. There were a few who were a teacher or a nurse, but the majority were at home. That was a full-time job.

ABOUT THE CHURCH

LaVonne: The church has an important role. It gives a rural community a place to come — to gather together, very much like the old days — to thank God for the fruits of the year during harvest. Also, it is a place for people to replenish themselves. Things have changed because what people want today and where they put their priorities makes the church’s role more difficult. When our grandfathers were on the farms, the church was first. When you went to town, you went to the church; you went to the quilting bee. The church was the hub. Today, the church is closer to last in importance. We have kind of become mixed up, and yet the church needs to function to help keep peace in the turmoil. People still need that solace. They forget that they need it more than just occasionally, and the church needs to be there to provide it through illnesses, a crisis, the loss of crops, severe weather, hailstorm, and the drought that we experienced.