The Jacob Eide family lived above their store/post office, which was burned to the ground when lightning struck during a nighttime thunderstorm. After exiting, the parents took a head count and believed all the children were out of danger. But their count was incorrect; they forgot that a neighbor child had been sleeping over. Mrs. Eide went back inside to salvage a quilt that … [Read more...]

My great-grandfather died in a tragic sock accident. I asked my father for further details on his 70th birthday, but it was too soon. He couldn’t talk about it. My great- grandfather’s unfortunate demise is why I like to wear sandals. Sandals are safe because there is no need for socks and because I once had a pair of haunted socks. That’s another story. I like sandals … [Read more...]

Every day is a surprise. I walked on a moonless night when no star dared twinkle. It was as dark as a dark cloud with a dark secret. I walked without illumination because it was a trail I’d walked a thousand times before. I moved along in the vagueness until something hit me. Unbeknownst to me, a tree branch along the path had broken and become a hanger (widowmaker). I was … [Read more...]

By Lee Epps Ice business, part 2 In the 1950s, they were sometimes referred to as “ice boxes” when they were actually electric refrigerators. The true “ice box” was from earlier decades of the 1900s. Town and farm families had ice boxes to keep perishable foods fresh and for making hand-cranked homemade ice cream. The ice in southeast Minnesota was harvested in winter from … [Read more...]

$28 in pennies please “$28 in pennies please.” Puzzled eyes met mine. I smiled...“I’m doing a project.” She paused… “I’ll ask my manager.” She leaves - and I do some fast calculating. Do I need all $28? Maybe I could do it with fewer. I ask Google how many weeks it has been since the birth dates of my three kids. My breath leaves me - pausing under the weight of … [Read more...]

We talked all afternoon and never ran out of things to say. It was a Mayberry moment on a front porch. A friend talked of his childhood experience of working for a farmer who offered him Copenhagen (smokeless tobacco) with the promise it would make him a man. He tried it and described the noteworthy event as the closest he has ever come to dying. One of life’s greatest … [Read more...]

By Pastor Nissa Peterson Chatfield and Root Prairie Lutheran Churches Once while I was working at a summer camp, I stayed at a campsite in a wooded area that didn’t have a lot of underbrush. The bathroom at this campsite was a trail walk away from the main camp area – but due to the open area, the trail was hard to follow – especially at night. One evening I was the last … [Read more...]

It took a few weeks of hard work in the winter in order to keep perishable foods fresh and dairy products from spoiling through the summer. Before electricity reached rural southeast Minnesota and electric refrigerators became common in the mid- to late- 1930s, there were “ice boxes” in homes and grocery stores while meat markets and farms had “ice houses.” The ice itself was … [Read more...]