Memories of Growing up in the 30'

Memories of Growing up in the 30's , 40's,50's
Judy's Detailed Memories as a Child
Del's Detailed Memories as a Child
Dad's service record
Remember When

We were married in Sioux City, Iowa in 1956.

St. Luke's Lutheran Church

8 o'clock in the evening Sunday, August 26, 1956 .

Judy, grew up in Wisconsin and Sioux City, Iowa where I graduated from East High School & attended Morningside College. Relatives lived on the farms in Wisconsin.

Del grew up in Nebraska near Beatrice until moving to Sioux City. Relatives on Mother's side of the family Ella (Waltke) Father was Christian T. Waltke Mother was Anja Franzen continued to live on the farm near Pickerell and Beatrice in Gage County.

Both Del and I have similar memories of our youth. I will try to list a few here.

Judy remembers: I was born on a warm day on May 21, 1937. I remember those cold winter days that Del speaks of only I was in Wisconsin. Leggings and a fur trimmed hat and muff kept me warm outside. PICTURE In later years I wore snow pants which were a must for all children. I was required to wear them through the fifth grade. I hated to have to wear them and tuck my dresses and skirts into the snow pants. My clothing was so wrinkled when we took off our winter clothing that I felt very conspicuous. By 6th grade I graduated to wearing slacks in the winter under my skirts. We removed our clothing and hung them on a hooks in the cloak room joined to our classroom. Our boots were all lined up against the wall under our hooks.

I remember... Defining moments

...My mother, Jean J. Johnson Haag, spending all day Saturday making pies, cakes, cookies, and breads for the week; and cleaning chicken for Sunday Dinner.

...picking violets in early, May and how there were so many in the field that it looked like a blue-purple blanket spread over the hillside. We would also pick white clover flowers growing everywhere to make a beautiful bouquet.

...when blackberries & blueberries were plentiful in the woods we would pick a bucket full. Eating as many as we picked giving evidence with black & blue tongues and mustaches. I loved the pie or the jams that mother would make from them.

...Laying in the sweet-smelling clover grass on a warm summer day and imagining all sorts of shapes in the puffy white clouds.

...Looking for and finding our treasured Four Leaf Clover. Pressing it in my Bible.

...Singing the song, "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover, that I've overlooked before" First is for sunshine, the second for rain, third is for roses that bloom in the lane, No need explaining the one remaining, for someone that I adore. I'm looking over a Four Leaf Clover, that I've overlooked before."

...how good rhubarb sauce tasted in the winter after picking it for free in the fall. First Rhubarb given to us after we married made pie, sauce, jam, cobbler. (A week of
rhubarb and Del complained! He never complains about my cooking, but has not forgotten that incident in our life. Ha!)

...how we would pick wild strawberries at grandma's house, and then we had to clean each one and hull them. It seemed to take all day, but we loved the shortcake with whipped cream and the strawberry jam that would be canned for winter.

Meals enjoyed during Depression WWII
Singing "A Frog went a courtin' He did ride Ahem. Ahem."

...making footprints on the frosted windows with the side of our hands and putting five toes on top of each to make it look like a footprint.

...making shadows with our hands on the wall before falling asleep.

...making angels in the snow by lying on the ground and moving our arms and feet and then carefully standing up and away so we would have a perfect image of an angel. PICTURE

...building snow forts, snowmen, and playing duck and goose.

...sledding down our hill and skiing across the vacant lots.

...skating on one of the neighborhood ponds which could be found on every mile in a park... My grandmother Maude taking us skating...Warming out backside next to the potbelly stove in the warming room by the skating rink.

...how we waited for the first veggies to pop out of the ground, that first tomato, those fresh peas.

...spending the day picking and snapping green beans and then boiling them in their jars for 4 hours to make sure they wouldn't spoil.

...canning bushels of corn and tomatoes and apples every fall during canning season for our winter supply in the basement or fruit cellar.. The entire family would get in on shucking, cleaning, boiling and cutting corn off the cobs until we could get the job done. In the 60's and 70's we had a freezer so it became less work as we could freeze all the corn and green beans which previously had to be canned for hours.

Del remembers:

'I was born on a cold snowy winter day in Beatrice, Nebraska, March 4, 1931. My parents took me home to a farm near Firth, Nebraska. My mother made a bed for me out of a top dresser drawer. Snow and cold blew in through cracks in the wall. We kept warm by a pot belly stove and cooking range. Feather beds and down filled comforters made from scraps of old clothing kept us warm."

I remember...

...sitting on the porch in the evenings of springtime, listening to frogs in the creek or ditches nearby, and smelling fresh sweet clover hay.

...eating Sunday Dinner at Grandma's house and kids playing outside after.

...playing Chinny chin chin while Grandpa Waltke was dying in his bedroom about 100 feet away.

...playing in the hayloft and on the haystacks. We weren't really allowed there; but it was so much fun! Only trouble was, if you lost something there, it was gone forever!

...milking my first cow and squirting milk in my eye. (Judy)

...milking a cow and the cow kicked with his back leg and hit the bucket and all the milk was lost all over the barn wall. (Delmar)

Judy remembers:

Mother would hold our arm so we couldn't move away and count to three. Now she would apply the metholate. We would both blow, blow, blow to help take away the hot pain. (Must have been loaded with alcohol.) Didn't always help completely as we would dance around the room with an ow, ow, ouch!

...Other families used the all popular IODINE or Mercurochrome. All similar treatments. the Iodine came in an ominous dark brown bottle with a label with a skull and crossbones, and it was kept in the medicine chest.

Mothers could purchase these first aid products from the all popular Watkins's Man who came in an old blue wooden bus. Always a kindly gentleman and we children loved to see him come because he brought us candy. (We didn't get much of that in our house. It wasn't healthy for kids.)

...sitting on a cactus when I was about 3 years old. Grandma held me across her lap with my bottom side up; and she and Mother picked each needle out one by one, Ouch! And to each was applied the all important methyolate, ouch! They would blow each time to help make it feel better. I must have looked like I had measles on my bottom after that ordeal. I didn't go near the cactus again, and to this day I wouldn't want to sit on one!

...our family vacation trip when I was 13 in 1950. The only one I remember. First stop Wall Drug, S.Dak. We just had to stop there after reading all the signs. We did get a glass of ice water promised. Disappointment as it was only a very small one room drug store with soda fountain in front and other items for sale toward the back. We enjoyed the animated cowboys out in front of the store. An experience!

...next stop Badlands, next Mt. Rushmore. An interesting old man who lived in a cabin on the edge of the ridge overlooking toward the carved faces in the Mountain. All wilderness area and this man who took his time to tell us the history and the making of the faces. He watched it being done there. No restrooms or restaurants. We just took a good long look and listened to his story and went on our way westward.

...next was Estes Park, Colorado and a trip in the Rockies. Beautiful stream along the road and majestic mountains were great memories.

Then on to Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the country. Yes, that is where Uncle John and Aunt Beth lived in a school house using the teacher's quarters in front to cook and sit and keep warm.

Mother wasn't too happy with the arrangement as Aunt Beth wasn't home. It seems she was visiting a friend in Denver (many miles away). The outhouses were terrible for my mother, as was sleeping on cots or air mattresses on the floor of the cold room which had been the school house. We slept among boxes and many other items stored there.

The kitchen had a stove which kept us warm and mom cooked the meals on a hotplate. Guess there is a reason why she never liked camping. It was too much work, and she didn't feel she had much of a vacation.

Uncle "Hank" ( I had a hard time changing from "Uncle Hank", the name I knew him by to Uncle John Wampole) was a good entertainer. At least we loved his tours around the area in his car with all the information you would get and more from any tour guide. He loved nature and could tell us about all the wildlife and plantings in the area. We also enjoyed his many slide and pictures of the same, but during this trip we saw the real things in action.

A few weeks after arriving home in 1951 my father, Waldro Rice Webert Haag, received a phone call (phone calls in those days were few and far between) while in a meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was then announced that he was an "uncle". A Real "uncle". His sister, Beth Haag Wampole, was visiting in Denver, when we were in Colorado,

...She now is a real mother of a son, Bryce. This was a big secret. After 16 years the family did not expect them to have children. What a good surprise that was! We had a cousin and the only one on my dad's side of the family, cousin Bryce.

Christmas 2005 in Mesa. Bryce, daughter, Calin
Aunt Linda, Uncle Chuck Bryce, Linda, Tammy.

Judy's Other
Defining Moments

...2003 Memories. Del and I had experience of a cruise around Hawaiian Islands. Later to Crater Lake, Oregon and Idaho, Nevada with our Motor Home. Winnebago Adventurer. 35 foot.

An unforgettable visit to Fanning Island, 1000 miles South of the Islands was included. Two days cruising to meet some of the worlds still most primitive peoples. A part of the Canary Islands Republic of Kiribati which capital was 2000 miles away across the ocean. An Australian ship brought them supplies once a year. For the past 3 years the Norwegian Cruise Lines made trips there.

We were greeted with song and dance in colorful orange outfits. Happy to see us all. No running water there nor shelter other than their huts. Beaches beautiful! People had their crafts displayed on tables along shoreline with anticipation of a sale. Crafts were made from shells along the coast of their country. The Island was 10 miles long & 1 mile wide. We rode out to the island from our ship on smaller boats. An experience of a lifetime. I don't think we will ever be back to Fanning Island again, but we do have a bit of first hand knowledge of what it is like to live in another part of our world.

In addition to Fanning Island and unforgettable visits of the island of Oahu and Maui's tropical gardens, and Big Island where it rained, we went to the tropical paradise of Kauai, a place that has justifiably earned its nickname "The Garden Isle". We saw palm trees swaying in the warm breezes, picturesque waterfalls and beautiful beaches along with lush vegetation.

We experienced authentic Hawaiian Luau all on board the cruise ship. The one offered on the beach was beyond our pocketbooks. ($75 each for the entertainment and eating. We got plenty of this on the ship so were not disappointed.)

Kauai's unique attractions were highlights of our trip. While visiting the north shore we could see the Coconut Coast and the World famous Kilauea Lighthouse perched 200 feet above the ocean. We saw this best from the ship coming and going. I have some great pictures so take a look.

"Whale season" off Kauai. We did have the opportunity to see those gentle giants in action.

Enjoy some of our photos under Trips
South Pacific Cruising Hawaii and Fanning Island

April we left home for our summer trip. See Summer 2003.

The Years 2006 AND 2007 We Celebrate 50 Years Together!

How Time Flies!

50 Years AGO in 2006

We celebrated at Sitgrieves National Forest Campground in Lakeside, AZ. White Mountains. Cool.

A few pictures here for memories.

Del began his life in Beatrice, Nebraska on March 4, 1931

My first bed was a dresser drawer, my parents told me. They kept me nice and warm there in spite of the very cold blizzard winter weather outside.

Growing up in the 30's & 40's was a fun time in my life. Sledding was our winter sport. I made a toboggan and skis. Snow ball fights were fun times and we had built a fort to protect us from out snow ball enemies.

After moving to Sioux City we lived in a hilly area. One day I slid down a hilly street and went right across the trolley track just before the trolley went by. I was so scared I nearly peed my pants. Later we moved to a Hill over looking the Floyd Golf Course. We spent many a winter sliding on those hills.

My father was a farmer and mother was a good housewife and mother. The depression was hard on my parents. Mother fed us many buckwheat pancakes and homemade bread. Some of the relatives would give us a chicken or some of their bacon so we could have meat. The farm was lost... everything on the farm had to go & a move to the city for work happened in 1944. Other relatives hung out on their farms, small as they were, but were very poor during the depression and war years. The Eggerts (Delores and Don) talk about how they would wait for the chicken to lay an egg so they could eat breakfast.

Dad worked for the packing houses in Sioux City and later was a large equipment operator for a plumbing company. In later years Mama worked for Winchester. A plant who made Zenith Radios. She suffered terribly from Rheumatoid Arthritis in her hands and knees during that time. Work was tedious! She kept plugging along and was able to save a little "nest egg" for their retirement.

We still own a Transoceanic Zenith Radio we purchased through Mama when she was employed with the company. We paid $99 for it, and it works perfectly to this day! That was 1959.

I attended grade school in Sioux City as we left Beatrice school when I was in the second grade. We moved back to Beatrice when I was in High School and within a year back to Sioux City again. I graduated from East High 1950 with everyone's brother and sister because of all our moving.

I worked with Dad for a while in a plumbing company; and in 1951 was drafted into the Marines and sent to Korea from San Diego, Camp Pendleton where I went through boot camp. Across the ocean we went in a big old ship. One night the Lord saved my life when a storm hit, and I was stopped from being thrown overboard. That was the first time he saved me.

While in Korea on the front lines we lived in a fox hole and fought by day going toward enemy territory. I carried out a buddy on a stretcher and scratched my leg on a barbed wire fence that we scaled as we were running to safety. That was my only injury. All the others in my platoon were killed or badly injured and taken away.

A few months before leaving Korea, I was assigned to duty on an Island near the mainland. That was the best duty of my tour.

From Veteran's Day Honor Book
November 9, 2002
Department of Defense USA
and Family and friends of Love of Christ Lutheran Church.
The following

Delmar Leroy Carstens
PFC (E-2)

Dates of Active Service: May 21, 1952- May 21, 1954;
Honorable Discharge May 21, 1960

Duty Stations: MCRD San Diego; Camp Pendleton; Korean Conflict; Tai Yon Poing Do; Quantico, Virginia

Military Job: Proof Tec Small Arms Infantry, Transport

Honors Received: National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Korean Service Medal with 2 stars.

Who did you respect the most in the military? "Col. Jones. "He related to us as enlisted men and took a Special Caring Interest. Rank didn't make any difference to him. I've often wondered what happened to him."

Notes: " The first two weeks Active Duty in Korea, I was the only one left out of 21 men in our platoon. I knew when I cam home again that God had another special plan for my life."

"When I returned home from duty I met Judy."

See Del &Judy Family -- our lives after 1956.
We Remember When...

Both Del and I have similar memories. I will try to list a few here.

I remember...

...My mother, Jean J. Johnson Haag, spending all day Saturday making pies, cakes, cookies, and breads for the week; and cleaning chicken for Sunday Dinner.

...when blackberries & blueberries were plentiful in the woods we would pick a bucket full. Eating as many as we picked giving evidence with black & blue tongues and mustaches. I loved the pie or the jams that mother would make from them.

...Laying in the sweet-smelling clover grass on a warm summer day and imagining all sorts of shapes in the puffy white clouds.
...Looking for and finding our treasured Four Leaf Clover. Pressing it in my Bible.

...how good rhubarb sauce tasted in the winter after picking it for free in the fall. First Rhubarb given to us after we married made pie, sauce, jam, cobbler. (A week of rhubarb and Del complained! He never complains about my cooking, but still remembers that time in our life.)

...how we would pick wild strawberries at grandma's house, and then we had to clean each one and hull them. It seemed to take all day, but we loved the shortcake with whipped cream and the strawberry jam that would be canned for winter. Singing "A Frog went a courtin' He did ride Ahem. Ahem."

...making footprints on the frosted windows with the side of our hands and putting five toes on top of each to make it look like a footprint.

...making shadows with our hands on the wall before falling asleep.

...making angels in the snow by lying on the ground and moving our arms and feet and then carefully standing up and away so we would have a perfect image of an angel. PICTURE

...building snow forts, snowmen, and playing duck and goose.

...sledding down our hill and skiing across the vacant lots.

...how we waited for the first veggies to pop out of the ground, that first tomato, those fresh peas.

...spending the day picking and snapping green beans and then boiling them in their jars for 4 hours to make sure they wouldn't spoil.

Judy remembers:

...getting hurt. Scratched, cut, and undergoing mother's first aid. METHYOLATE. Yes, out would come her little bottle of red liquid. scratches from barbed wired of scraped elbows or knees and that little bottle would appear. I don't know which was worse, the scratch or the treatment. and methyolate <sp?> is gone and they would no longer carried it. It is made from some substance with a mercury base. What I remember is how bad it burned ...
It was often thought of as the "branding Iron" because it burned so badly.

Mother would hold our arm so we couldn't move away and count to three. Now she would apply the methiolate, and then we would all blow, blow, blow to help take away the hot pain. (Must have been loaded with alcohol.) Didn't always help completely as we would dance around the room with an owie, ow, ouch!

...next was Estes Park, Colorado and a trip in the Rockies. Beautiful stream along the road and majestic mountains were great memories.

Then on to Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the country. Yes, that is where Uncle John and Aunt Beth lived in a school house using the teacher's quarters in front to cook and sit and keep warm.

Uncle John ( I had a hard time changing from Uncle Hank, the name I knew him by) was a good entertainer. At least we loved his tours around the area in his car with all the information you would get and more from any tour guide. He loved nature and could tell us about all the wildlife and plantings in the area. We also enjoyed his many slide and pictures of the same but this trip we saw the real things in action.

A few weeks after arriving home my father, Waldro Rice Webert Haag, received a phone call (phone calls in those days were few and far between) while in a meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was then announced that he was an "uncle". A Real "uncle". Dad's sister, Beth Haag Wampole, was visiting in Denver, when we were at her home in Colorado,

...She now is a real mother of a son, Bryce. This was a big secret. After 16 years the family did not expect them to have children. What a good surprise that was! We had a cousin and the only cousin on my dad's side of the family.

See more on Judy's Life Check our more of our life together at

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