Stories contributed by Aunt Marci and Aunt MargeAunt Frieda told of Grandma Rosa living with them. She was always walking with a cane and hobbling around when Henry and Lydia were around, but when they were out she would chase the kids around the table trying to catch them with her cane.

Aunt Etta told us a story of Sunday dish washing time. After the noon mead, the parents would take a nap leaving Etta and Arnold to do the dishes. As soon as the parents left, Arnold would take off and Etta would be left to do the dishes, and Arnold would always come back just as the parents came out, put the dish towel in his hand so innocently as if he had done his part.

Arnie was given his name because he was so sick and they were sure he would die. Dr. Costillo thought so too. So they had the minister in after church one winter Sunday and baptized him quick. (Winter could mean any time from Nov. to Mar.) It must have been Nov. because they hadn't figured out a name for him yet.

Names were important to Mom. I was to be Mary Lou. But the Milwaukee zoo got a new gorilla and they named it Mary Lou. And Herb was to be Rex, but one of the neighbors named their dog Rex and that ended that.

I heard that Arnold was very good with horse tricks. He was all set to join a circus or carnival and only his mother's tears prevented him.

I do know that there was a big fight between Arnold and his dad when he left home. He had worked the Iwert farm all summer (raised potatoes) and expected that to be the money for the beginning his marriage. (He and Mom were married that fall.) Henry insisted that all the money was his. I guess he let Arnold keep a little in the end.

Mom and Dad did well on the farm. They went to the Chicago's world fair, with George Graffs and Leonard Biels and I don't know who else. All went by train. That paper weight always meant so much to her.

Then the TB testing of cows was enforced and just about every farmer lost their entire herd. All positive tests had to be sold. They were driven enmass down the roads and to market. The same year, the stock market crashed. Thus a double whammy for farmers.

There is the story of the pigs and giving them salt during the depression. I think that is the last time that Dad ever listened to anyone else's advice without double checking it first. He never complained. Guess he felt he had it coming for trying to cheat.

The story of Elsie and the lightning coming through the house. Lightening hit quite often. The time Mom got hit, I was already gone from home. The barn was the most frequently hit. Several stories of horses down, going deaf, etc.

Dad never made ice. There was no place to store it. There was an ice house on Leslie's farm. We kept butter from melting by having the kids pump a cold pail of water every couple of hours and take it to the basement and the butter floated in it. That is about all that we ever kept cold.

Milk soured by the end of the day and became cottage cheese by standing on the back of the wood range for a day and then curds were drained and served.

I was always told that that place in the second woods where nothing grew (round bare spot filled with twigs and leaves) is where the Indians built their bonfire for their ceremonies.

The subject of keeping things cold came up the other day and I thought you might like to hear what my dad (Willard Braker) told me.

I asked him how they chilled the milk down before they had electricity. I could remember that when I was younger, in grade school, that the milk was put into milk cans and then into a stock tank that had large blocks of ice floating in it. The milk was left in the stock tank over night, chilling, and then as the milk cans were filled from the morning milking the next morning they were placed in the stock tank also. After breakfast they were loaded on a flatbed Omaha truck and taken down the road to the cheese factory.

Where did they get the ice in the summer time before electricity? Well dad told me that they cut enough ice in the winter to last until they cut ice the next year. I couldn't believe it. Wouldn't it melt in the summer time?

He said you don't understand and then proceeded to tell me this story.

After it had been way below freezing for at least two weeks they would go to the lake and check it out. First they would push 100 pounds bags of sand out on the ice. If the ice held then they would put the horses out on the ice. If the ice held the horses, then they would go.

Usually the ice was about 12 inches thick. They cut it with saws, loaded it on sleds and the horses pulled the sleds back to the house. Incidentally it is my understanding that the road that goes to the lake, that Uncle Herb and Aunt Marci now live on, was originally cut by Arnold Braker just to have access to the lake to cut ice.

When they got the ice home it was packed into an ice house. First they places 8-12 inches of sawdust on the floor, then pack the ice in solid leaving about 8-12 inches of space between the ice and the outside walls. This space was also packed with saw dust. When the first layer of ice was complete they covered the top of it with saw dust to keep the next layer from freezing to the first, then put in the next layer of ice, more saw dust around the edges and on the top, following this system till the house was full.

The ice house had a small entrance like a foyer. A large leather flap acted as a door between the foyer and the main part of the ice house. Its purpose was to keep the summer heat from blow straight in on the ice.

There was also a ledge in the ice house somewhere, either in the foyer or the main part where Grandma kept some things cold.
Roger B.