Part five of a series Three boys were arguing whose dad was the best. “My dad can take a scrap of paper, jot down a few notes, call it a poem and get $50.” Second boy: “My dad can jot down a few notes, call it a song and gets $100.” Third boy: “My dad jots down a few words, calls it a sermon, and it takes EIGHT people to collect all the money!” Sister Agnes Hafner … [Read more...]

Part four of a series  Little Willie rushed into the house, excitedly exclaiming, “Mother, I just saw a man making a horse! Mother told him that was not possible. Willie replied, Well, anyway, I just saw him tacking on the feet!” Sister Agnes Hafner included many jokes when publishing her recollections of growing up on a Houston County Farm in the early 1930s. She noted … [Read more...]

Part three of a series The Pastor wrote to his bishop, “I am sorry to tell you about the death of my wife. Can you arrange to send me a substitute for the weekend?” Sister Mary Hafner included many jokes when she published her collection of childhood reminiscences. During the early 1930s, there was a predictable weekly rhythm to life on farms in Houston … [Read more...]

Part two of a series begun in June, 2022 A certain man wanted to be the next Secretary of Transportation and phoned President Calvin Coolidge at 3 a.m. and said, “President, your Secretary of Transportation just died and I’d like to take his place.” Coolidge, aroused from sleep, replied, “It’s OK with me if it’s OK with the undertaker.” That was one of many jokes … [Read more...]

Second part of a two-part series “It is a wise move and not a moment too soon,” according to The Houston Valley Signal newspaper published on January 25, 1883, “A call has been issued for a meeting at the Hall Saturday evening to organize a Fire Company. Any day might witness a fire that would sweep the best part of Houston away in an hour. Due precaution would do much to … [Read more...]

Part one of a series They depended on flames in the 1880s and 1890s. Wood-fueled stoves were almost always used for cooking, and during long Minnesota winters, wood was burned to heat buildings. After dark, light came from oil-burning lamps. A fire getting out of control was feared but unfortunately, a common occurrence. “Lookout for fires these cold, windy days and nights,” … [Read more...]

Part two a two-part series Her mother put it under the feather tick (mattress) after she got up in the morning so it would rise. What it was - was bread. Mother baked a lot of sourdough bread. “We were never without it,” recalled Caroline (Petersen) Heimerdinger about her childhood in the 1930s. There was also white bread, made with a potato water starter. Caroline was … [Read more...]

It was Christmas in the 1870s on a South Ridge farm in Mound Prairie Township in northeast Houston County. After the children had gone to bed, their German immigrant mother Emilie Freischmidt Burow spread a white table cloth on the dining room table her husband Fredrich had built. She set out four plates on which she placed some candy, apples, popcorn, a toy or two, and nuts. … [Read more...]

Long woolen underwear in that day was not red, but according to one wearer, “was rough and coarse and itched like blazes.” That day was the 1890s and that wearer was C. J. McNelly (born 1883) who wrote of his youth growing up on a farm on Portland Prairie in southern Houston County. He described the 1890s as the era between the pioneer days and the modern advances in the … [Read more...]

The well known ditty, “A shave and a haircut, two bits!” was more than an often vocalized musical phrase, dating back to a song in 1899; it was a fact of life in the 1930s, at least at the Hokah Barber Shop on Main Street in Hokah, Minnesota. “Two bits” was slang for 25 cents, which had the purchasing power then as does about $6 in 2025.  Going to church on Sunday and going … [Read more...]