These stories can also be heard Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
June 18, 2023
In 1996 Marjorie Mortensen compiled a collection of her husband’s stories about his life growing up in the Wannaska area. She named it “Ray’s Stories”, and a copy of it was donated to the Roseau County Museum. I’ve been reading from a section telling about farm life during all seasons of the year. Last week I read about harvest time. This week I’ll tell about Ray’s memories of the role women had in that big job.
While the men were busy in the fields, the farm wives were busy, too. After a big breakfast, a lunch had to be prepared and taken out to the men. Then there would be a big lunch, which really was as large a meal as the evening supper. An afternoon lunch would be taken out to the men also.
Both noon and evening meals would consist of a couple of meat dishes, perhaps fried chicken and roasts of pork or beef, lots of potatoes and gravy, some vegetables, lots and lots of coffee, and then several kinds of pie. The mid-morning and mid-afternoon lunch was usually sandwiches, cookies, and jugs of coffee. A lot of bread would be available. All this meant the farm wife and older girls were busy baking the bread, cookies, pies, and cakes ahead of time.
Remember, all this cooking had to be done on a wood stove in warm weather. Also the clean up had to be done without running water, so the water had to be heated on the wood stove too. Lois says it was very exciting for the women also. Everyone was in good spirits, lots of teasing and joking went along with the meals. The women would feel good when the men expressed their appreciation of the good food served.
The family still remembers how embarrassed Julia was one time feeding the threshing crew. A large bowl of Jell-O topped with whipped cream was being passed around the table. One man’s hands were very greasy because he hadn’t washed them before coming to the table. When he took the bowl, it slipped and turned over. He caught it with one hand under the whipped cream, turned it right side up, said, “Whoops,” and passed it on to the next person, dirty cream and all. Julia didn’t know what to do or say. She didn’t want to embarrass the man. She really wanted to take the bowl away.
One time Ray was working for a farmer who lived quite a ways from Wannaska. He was a German farmer and had different customs from the Scandinavians. When a Scandinavian is asked if he wishes to eat with you, he or she always says, “No, thank you.” If the person doing the asking is also a Scandinavian, he or she will ask two more times. After the third invitation, it is proper to say, “Yes” to the invitation. Well, when the German asked Ray if he would like to eat dinner with the family. Ray politely replied, “No, thank you.” The farmer said, “All right, then,” and turned and went into his house for dinner, leaving Ray standing there hungry.
Ray said when he was small, he was fascinated with steam-engines. He would hurry home from school, change his clothes, and rush out to the fields to watch the machines and men work. His ambition in life was to be a steam-engine operator.
Orval’s ambition was to raise horses. Ray never realized his early ambition (by the time he was grown, steam-engines were no longer in use), but Orval’s dreams of horses came true when he raised and showed his Belgians on his small farm near Canby, Oregon.
After combines came in to use, the grain would be cut into swaths to cure. I first heard of this process as “swatting” the grain. Not wanting to show my ignorance, I pondered what was meant by the phrase “swatting.” Later I came to understand the diphthong “th” was not in the Scandinavian language, so the word I thought was “swatting” really was “swathing.” There are quite a number of words with the “th” sound said as if it is the “t” sound.
After the grain dried enough, the combine would come and scoop up the grain, separate the grains from the stems, pour the grain into waiting wagons, and throw the straw to one side.
Lois [Ray’s sister] said it was very disappointing for her when, after WWII, her cousin Leland Lee bought a combine that cut and separated the grain at the same operation. The combine driver was all the crew needed to harvest the grain, so there weren’t a lot of other people around. It must have been strange for Julia also.
One summer a group of cowboys camped near the farm. They had a herd of wild, unbroken horses they wanted to sell. All the young boys thought they wanted to be cowboys when they grew up. They would sleep in tents, eat beans, and have a wonderful time with horses. There was quite a bit of excitement for the few days these activities occurred.
Next week I’ll read what farm life was like after harvest, according to Ray Mortensen.
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