Ralph Heiden - Many people mentioned the Christmas Eve’s at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. What do you remember about those parties?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - After church everybody would come over and people would be all over the house, sitting in the bedrooms and everywhere. There were so many people in the house all at once on that night!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - I used to wonder why Grandma (right holding Bruce Eipperle) would set quietly in the background during those parties. Well, after I had all my children and grandchildren home at once, I could begin to understand. It gets so hectic.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - It got to be too much. Pa went down to the basement one time and put an extra brace under the floor because he was afraid that so many people being there at once would collapse the floor.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - The men used to try to play cards out in the dining room and the kids would race around the whole house. They would tear around that table. You could just see Pa get frustrated but he never said anything.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I remember Helen saying that the next morning she would find half-eaten sandwiches down beneath the furniture.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - There would be food everywhere and wrapping paper wadded all over the place. Christmas Day was never anything special for us. People would go to the other side of their families for visits. We would be all by ourselves, cleaning up the mess and returning chairs we borrowed from the church.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I remember Grandpa got plenty of shirts, pipes and tobacco for presents at Christmas.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Ma would sit there in the living room and unwrap her gifts. She and Pa both got a present from everybody who came. The children all drew names and then got a present from whoever picked their name. Sometimes your godparent gave you a present too.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I had seven godchildren to buy presents for each year. Five girls and two boys.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I remember one time Ma and Pa gave me a harmonica for Christmas.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - When we were young, we would usually get something like a sled or a wagon for all the brothers and sisters to use.

Ralph Heiden - Everyone would go to the service at St Matthew Lutheran Church on Christmas Eve. The kids were part of a Christmas pageant play. What do you remember about those?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Yeah, my heart was always beating like crazy before we had to stand up in front of everyone and speak our lines. I was so scared to do that sometimes.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I remember when they had the real candles on the tree in the church. Carl Miller stood nearby with a fishing pole that had a wet sponge attached to it. He was supposed to put the candles out when they burned down close to the tree.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We used to have candles on the tree at home too but Pa would never allow us to light them.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Pa was always concerned about fires in the house. 

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Carl, Leo and Lester were working at other farms much of the time while I was growing up. Hilda (Fuller) and Mildred (Eipperle) worked in Monroe and stayed at Uncle Fred Rambow’s during the week. They would come home on weekends. We all had our chores around home. I don’t ever remember Ma washing the dishes. We all did our share of ironing too.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I had to fill the woodbox with firewood for the stove in the kitchen.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The boys would do the farm work. The girls never did too much in the fields. We would help out once in a while.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Ma was always there though. She did the baking.
 
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Art worked over to Knapp’s farms.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Carl worked down to Rath’s. Wherever the boy’s worked, they stayed for room and board too.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - One thing that I hated was when Pa would let the cows out to graze along the ditches near the road. I was supposed to watch them and I was scared to death that they would get hit by a car on the road.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We had to pick raspberries, peas and strawberries from the garden.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - We used to hoe weeds out of the corn rows for 5 cents a row. When I would accidentally slice off a stalk of corn, I would prop it up in place praying that Grandpa wouldn’t see it.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We thought 5 cents a row was going to be a lot but the rows ran all the way back to the woods. You got to the end and you would say to yourself, “Ugh, there’s another 5 cents.” You would make about 15 or 20 cents a day at that rate!

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - We used to pick raspberries down to Brossia’s for 3 cents a quart.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - At Spewak’s we would pick beans and at Polley’s we would pick strawberries. I don’t remember how we got to those places but we did.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I can remember picking 80 some quarts once and I only made two dollars and forty cents. You guys would pick over 100 quarts and get over $3.00. Our hands would be all dirty and stained and then at noon, you had to eat your sandwich from a bag. It was all day long in the hot sun. Finally, Ma said, “You don’t have to do that anymore if you don’t want to.”