Elsie Vogel's Journal Entries
Elsie Lehecka Vogel (1915-2003)
Journal Entries
Tuesday Evening, March 13, 1979
Tomorrow is my 64th birthday. As I look back on my 63rd year, I believe it was one of the busiest and most challenging in a long time.
I’ll outline the highlights tonight and fill it in at another time.
January 1978: After Christmas, Dad was ill with severe depression – about March he felt better.
April 1978: I wrote my first column “Reflections.” Something new at 63. New field entirely. It’s been very well received which makes me feel good again. I know I miss being away from the public. It’s gratifying to know people like my columns.
· Rented the cottage to some people from Phoenix (Don Anderson). Hurry to clean the cottage.
· Joanne, Eric and Mark came for two weeks. Joanne’s kitchen was torn apart. Easter and Brian’s party at Steve’s.
· We planned a 46th Class Reunion for July 8th. I really coordinated the whole thing. The others were working. We had a wonderful reunion!
· Went to Yellowstone and Denver to see Del (Larson). Good trip!
· Family all here for Labor Day. Sister Walter came to stay. Her feet were bad. She had circulation surgery.
· I hurt my leg at the cottage. Swing broke. (It still hurts today). I was laid up for several weeks.
· All of a sudden I’m taking a course in Election Board Training. I’m to be in charge of Precinct I. Primary and Election day in November.
· Sister had leg removed below the knee. We tried to be with her as much as we could.
· Mary and Norm went to Atlanta. I took care of the children for a week and a day.
· Christmas is almost upon me. Joanne, Chuck, and boys will be here for two weeks. Leave just before New Years. We had a beautiful Christmas. Everyone was home for Christmas. We had Santa come on Christmas Eve. How the boys loved that.
1979: New Year’s Eve at the Senior Center.
· On February 6th, Dad and I flew to Ithaca to stay with Eric and Mark while Joanne and Chuck went to Mexico. Returned February 22. Coldest winter in Ithaca since 1917!
· Celebrated Rebecca’s 4th birthday and mine at Mary’s on Sunday.
· All in all – it hasn’t been dull and with writing the column, oil painting class on Tuesday and Ceramics on Wednesday, I have full, busy and quite happy days.
February 1, 1981: Dad and I are on our way to Palm Coast. We planned to leave early in the AM and we had our first heavy snowfall so it was 9:15am when we started out. We hope to stay with my cousin, Virginia, tonight.
Dad has already started his book about his childhood. I’m afraid if I don’t start this on our trip to Palm Coast (our first), I will never get this down.
I was born on the West side of Chicago. Mom and Dad were living in the Kedvale area. The parish was Our Lady of Lourdes.
I was born March 14, 1915 on a Sunday noon. Dad worked in a meat market on 15th Street. I heard them say he made $12.00 a week.
Dad wanted to come back to Minnesota – he had a job offer working in a neat market in Pine City for Henry Fara (good friend – he later was Tommy’s Godfather <Tommy is Elsie’s brother who was born when Elsie was 12>). I was 18 months old when we moved to Pine City.
About a year later, Dad bought the Meat Market in Finlayson. They also bought a house. I will have pictures of both in the folk’s album.
My first moment that I can recollect is sitting up I my crib. I had been ill. They moved the bed into the living room where it was warmer. From the crib I saw the big green Christmas tree in front of the dining room window. It must have been the Christmas before I was three.
My next remembrance was Mom sick in bed and Auntie Kate from Denham took care of her, me, and the house. That must have been the flu epidemic of 1918. I remember crying because Mom wouldn’t get up.
My early childhood was very happy. Growing up in a small town is the greatest, I think.
My cousin Jimmy Peterman and his Mom, Emma Peterman, used to come every summer by train from Chicago. They would stay about three weeks. Mom and I would also go to Chicago almost every summer and stay with Auntie and Uncle Jim (Auntie Emma was Mom’s sister and my Godmother.) Jimmy and I were very close and we thought up some crazy things to do.
Dad made several moves – he sold the store and house and we moved to Foley, Minnesota (near St. Cloud). He bought a Meat Market there. It was a two-story brick building and we had an apartment upstairs. My bedroom was an inside room and I had a big skylight which I thought was neat. I remember Mom having a big birthday party for me. I started school there and made my first grade from Christmas (teacher’s name was Miss Lord). That’s what put me a grade ahead of my age.
It was so hot upstairs that summer that the folks sent me on Grandma and Grandpa Lehecka’s farm. There was no place for me to play either except on the street.
Oh, how I loved it on the farm. Auntie Kate was on the farm, too. They were all so good to me. Grandma and Grandpa spoke Bohemian, very little English, so I had to learn to speak Bohemian and I understood it all by the end of summer. Auntie, of course, spoke English.
How I loved Grandma’s kitchen. The couch in the corner. I would lay on that and read. If it was a chilly day, Auntie Kate would fix me a hot water bottle for my feet. They did pamper me.
I remember the morning sun streaming into the kitchen. Grandma would make me a big plate of Kasha (Cream of Wheat) with lots of sugar and cinnamon on it. And toast made on the top of the stove. Fresh milk to drink.
There was always the glass spoon holder on the center of the table and in the evening the lit lamp was on the table. Sometimes they would let me clean the glass lamp chimney with newspaper.
There was a pretty kitchen cupboard in the corner – and that’s where Auntie always went for the money on the day we would “go to town.”
I loved the big kitchen stove. Grandma always seemed to have a soup kettle on. I remember the chicken soup with the very thin noodles. Grandma made her own, of course.
I also remember the roast chicken that she made in the big oven. It was my job to fill the wood box behind the stove. Behind the stove hung a double shelf and on this was a blue and light grey pottery canister set – big size for sugar, raisins flour, etc. – small ones for spices.
When I was getting married Bertha gave me the set and the shelves. Grandma wanted me to have them. I’ve had them in my kitchen since then. The shelves are at Steve’s at the present time. I love that set. It reminds me of a wonderful time in my life – maybe it represents the love I felt at Grandma’s. (Note: Joanne inherited the pottery canister set when Mom died.)
Along the wall was the place to wash up. There was the big wash basin and pitcher – the big pail of water – the water was so good and cold. The dipper hung on a hook. It was also my job to keep the reservoir on the stove filled with water.
Now to tell about a favorite room of mine. Just off the kitchen was the big store room and pantry. There was a window which looked out on the orchard – there were apple and plum trees.
There were shelves stocked with jars of pickles and vegetables from the garden and I still remember the aroma of the apples and plums in the big crocks. There were jars of jams and jellies and fruit (like wild strawberry) in rows of jars – what a beautiful storeroom.
At one end was the stairway leading upstairs. In addition to the kitchen was a huge dining room, with a big table and an oak China cabinet with curved glass and a desk. The China cabinet had so many pretty things to look at – glass and China dishes (wonder where it all went). There was a smaller room that was the parlor and there was a piano in there. There was also a small porch in front and a screened porch at the kitchen door. Upstairs, there were three bedrooms: one huge bedroom and two smaller ones.
Oh, how I loved to sleep in that big bed in the big room. We covered with “feather ticks” – big thick goose down and feather-filled covers – that’s all you would ever have needed on the coldest of cold nights.
In the morning you’d wake to the sound of the roosters crowing and the soft mooing of the cows. It was another beautiful day to look forward to. If this was wash day – Auntie Kate and Grandma had been up very, very early.
Wash day was a hard work day. The fire had to be built to heat the water. There was a boiler on the stove containing the white clothes. These were boiled in soapy water to make them white. They always used a wooden stick or spoon to remove the clothes.
When I was there in the summer, Katie, with my help, washed clothes outside in front of the pump hose. Katie would scrub the clothes on the scrub board. They used bar soap to rub on the clothes and then scrub up and down.
Then it was my job to turn the wringer. The clothes went from the hot soapy water, through the wringer into the rinse water – rinse water that was a beautiful blue color – all housewives used bluing in the rinse water. Wrung out again and then they were hung on the line to dry. Grandma and Katie had a little game going with the neighbor across the road. I guess the fastest housekeeper got her wash on the line first. What a race!!
“Going to Town”
A couple of times a week, we’d go to town for supplies. Katie would go to the cupboard to get her money. Then we would climb in the one-seater buggy and with a “giddy-up” and a slap of the reins, the horse started for town.
The town of Denham wasn’t very far away – about two miles. You could see the town from the farm.
Denham was typical of the small towns of the ‘20’s. There was the saloon, bank, two stores – one was Cunningham’s which also doubled as the post office. This store had clothing, hardware, etc. Merchandise, like lanterns, hung from the ceiling. Counters piled high with work gloves and overalls. Everybody coming for the mail spent time visiting with each other.
I was always so proud when Katie would introduce me as “John’s daughter.”
My uncle, Joseph Suk, who was married to Dad’s sister Anna also owned a store. This was a meat market with groceries, too. It was on the other street near the railroad tracks and creamery.
Now! Having an uncle who owns a store is one of the greatest things when you are visiting a town. He’d always let me pick out any candy I wanted and he’d put it in a little sack for me. I loved exploring around his store and I’m sure I poked my little nose into places I shouldn’t have been.
My uncle was considered a rich man. Besides the store, he also owned the dance hall and they showed movies there too. All of the Lehecka’s helped him (free) in his businesses. Before Dad was married, he ran the dance hall. They were all to share the wealth; but, it didn’t turn out that way.
They had the biggest house in town (it still is). I remember the huge kitchen and the beautiful living room had a parquet floor. Everything was up to date. I played with my cousins Helen and Eddie – they were the youngest children.
After shopping in the stores, we’d head for home and now came the best part. Katie would give me the reins and I could drive the buggy home to the farm.
I had so many cousins to visit and play with. There was Bertha and going to Bertha’s was an adventure in itself. We’d walk across the open field and then enter the woods. You followed the path and I remember a wet swampy area. We walked on or over the logs that were laid there. I thought it was real scary in the woods. I always wondered if a bear would chase me. Katie never let me walk to Bertha’s alone.
My other cousins, Vlasta, Alice, Blanch, Mildred, Joe Hrubes were older than I was. Milton and Bob were more my age and were the teasers – they’d tell me all kinds of wild tales about things in the woods.
(Alice stayed with us in Finlayson while she went to school and she took very good care of me.)
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