Peering at the Past – Playing Cards for Ice Cream and Other Old-time Recreation

A large horse-drawn sled, packed with blankets, called robes, and warmers would make the rounds to pick up the neighbors on the way to the host farm. In winter, dances would be inside a farmhouse. Rugs would be rolled up. An older youth or two might come along to babysit the younger children. There would be a fiddler or two, who would play square dances, waltzes and foxtrots.

Back in the first half of the 1900s, in the Winnebago Creek Valley of southeastern Houston County, “while life was far from easy back in the day, folks still found time for recreation and leisure,” wrote Barbara Scottston and Terry Atherton in their book, “A Creek Runs Through Me.” “When work was done, folks gathered with neighbors for simple, home-generated activities. Music and dancing and sports were popular, and so were card games.”

Neighbors took turns hosting winter euchre parties. On Sunday nights, there would be a tournament, changing tables after each game, with prizes awarded. While the adults were entertained at cards, the children would likely be playing upstairs. If an adult did not show up, a youth might be coaxed to join the card players. Rummy and later, 500 were also poplar card games.

In the backroom of a New Albin tavern, there were poker games. There were also Euchre tables where men played for drinks. A girl, at age 10 to 12, was there, waiting for her brother to finish and drive her home when a man she knew asked her to take someone’s place at euchre. She and her partner “had a lucky streak,” and she won and consumed six ice cream sodas – her favorite drink.

By 1931, there was an exceptional winter recreational alternative – a ski hill and ski jumping. The Winnebago Valley ski jump was built by Norwegian ski jumper Carl Laumb on property owned by fellow Norwegian Peter “Paddy” Gran, Jr. The Winnebago Ski Club sponsored annual ski tournaments, the first on February 12, 1932. It evidently was well promoted and attracted large numbers of spectators as well as skiers. One newspaper reported 1,000 spectators attending that first competition. Competitors were known to come not only from the local area but also from Wisconsin and Minneapolis. Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children, with free coffee being served. Those sums would have the purchasing power of approximately $5.75 and $3.20 in 2024.

The era of ski-jump tournaments was short-lived, coming to an unexpected and unfortunate end. The last competition occurred on December 30, 1934 and Laumb went to the Gran home to tabulate the winners and award prizes. Complaining of chest and stomach pain, Laumb went upstairs to lie down. He died a few minutes later of a heart attack at age 46. Overexertion, first in preparing the hill for the tournament and then while competing, was believed to have caused his death. According to his obituary, he had placed second among 15 competitors, observed by 600 spectators in his finale.

The ski jump was fashioned by dirt built up over a rock ledge. The property owner, about 2013, said only a pile of dirt remained.

Children and youth also participated in some downhill skiing. “Yeah – a big climb but you could go a long ways because there were no trees in the way,” recalled one former skier.

Ice skating on the backwaters of the Mississippi River was another winter pastime for area youth. In the village of Jefferson, some ingenious kids somehow came into possession of a railroad rail, which they placed upright in the river ice behind the historic stone warehouse. They placed a steel wagon wheel on top of the rail and lit fires on top of the wheel in order to skate at night. The rail was reported still visible into the 21st century.

In warmer weather, the river and creeks were again sources of recreation. In the 1930s, the Hurley sisters enjoyed and protected their secret fishing hole. They called it the “rat farm,” since it formerly had been a place, now abandoned, where someone had attempted to raise muskrats and mink. After their father had witnessed there plenty of fish flopping around, they found it a great place to catch bullheads, a fish valued for its few bones. The sisters would hide in the weeds when they went there to fish, so as not to reveal their secret bullhead site to passersby on the road.

Kids went swimming in the creek or climbed the bluffs and explored among the rocks. One former cliff scaler recalled building a fire and roasting marshmallows on the blufftop.

Children played softball and baseball on school days. Adult baseball was greatly enjoyed by both players and spectators. There were two teams from Jefferson Township – Jefferson Ridge and the Jefferson Swamp Angels.

There were excursion boats that, because there were not yet locks in the Mississippi River, could go back and forth between La Crosse, Wis. and nearby Lansing, Iowa. One former passenger said they used to go up to La Crosse for a few hours and then ride back to Lansing.

Dance venues changed during warm weather. With animals enjoying being outside the barn, some neighborhood dances became barn dances. And there was dancing in pavilions, some of which were completely enclosed. Others were open-air events on a wooden platform, known as a “bowery.”

Probably in the early 1920s, Reinhardt Jordan built “Jordan’s Pavilion,” a dancehall featuring side walls with no windows but instead doors, hinged at the top, that opened to the outside. The doors measured about 3 by 6 feet with no screens, allowing another open-air experience. It was a rolled-roof building constructed out of rough, home-sawed lumber about 30 by 70 feet with a stage at one end. Electric lights were strung along a line leading to a 32-volt generator. Refreshments were served in a small area behind the stage. After Prohibition ended in late 1933, refreshments could legally include beer, if in a separate building. A tavern was added, called Fisherman’s Paradise.

Source: A Creek Runs Through Me; A History of the Winnebago Creek Valley in Southeastern Minnesota, By Barbara Scottston and Terry Atherton, 2013.