Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - That’s the city kid in him.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That smell when you put them in the hot water was enough to put anyone off chicken.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Talking about chickens. They have those Amish chickens every once in a while at the store and they taste like real chickens like we used to have on the farm.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I bet they’re corn fed. And they let them run in the field too.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I haven’t been able to find them since. They don’t have any chemicals and stuff fed to them.

Pat (Bicking) Klass - It’s amazing we eat anything anymore.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Ma would take the chickens in the house and light a rolled up newspaper and singe off the remaining feathers.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We had guinea hens too.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - They were like watchdogs. They would start to “holler” and make loud noises that would chase animals away.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The best time was when Pa would kill a pig. We would have fresh liver that night. Boy that was fresh and delicious! They would slice it real thin and they would make that dark, black gravy. Wilma never liked it but I loved that dark gravy!

I tried buying liver at Baisley’s and I brought it home but it was nothing like what we used to have when we lived on the farm.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I would just hate it when I knew they were going to butcher because I would come home and they would have liver for supper.

That is the only time I can remember that Ma bent her rules. Normally, we were expected to eat whatever was put on the table. But, I hated liver so much and almost got sick so finally she said, “Oh, all right, I’ll fry you an egg and don’t act so foolish.”

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Art used to talk about catching the blood from the pigs as they butchered them. They would make blood cheese and sausage.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - That was something I could never eat. I don’t remember them making it very much.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We were talking the other day about “souse” (spelling?) and head cheese and those things.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They also made that apple stuff with the cracklings and things when they butchered.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - That was from frying out the lard. They mixed that with apples.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Pa always made the mettwurst out in the smokehouse.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Boy, that is one thing that you cannot buy. Not that tastes like that did. Carl was the last one who could make it taste like that.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Remember all the wine and cider barrels in the basement? They’d tell us to go down and siphon off some of the wine with a hose once in a while.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I can still smell that wine down there. Remember when we got drunk that time?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We siphoned off too much. They were playing cards and they told us to go down and get a pitcher of wine. We would just empty off all the glasses before refilling them. Pretty soon we were.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember how mad they got?

Ralph Heiden - Was everything you used at home mostly homemade?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Everything. I don’t ever remember buying any canned goods back then.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - We used to have a grocery wagon come by every Monday. A guy named Jake Myers traveled around from his store in Strasburg (Michigan).

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - He had a big truck that he would drive around the countryside selling his goods.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Ma would go out to the road when he would come by with a basket of eggs and trade them for groceries.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I remember peaking over the edge of the truck and looking at the box of candies. I don’t know what you would get for a basket of eggs. Maybe some somersausage.

Ma and Pa would go to town, to Monroe, once in a while and come home with link balognas in buns with mustard on them.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - When we lived with Grandma and Grandpa, I can remember having to come down to the living room whenever there was a thunder storm.
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Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He was always afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get us down from upstairs if the house was ever hit by lightning. So, in the middle of the night, if a storm came up, we had to get dressed and come down and sit together in the living room until the storm was over.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We had to get dressed since we were not allowed to come downstairs in our night clothes. That’s the way us kids were raised.

When Marie got married and the first storm came along, she woke Brick up in the middle of the night and said, “Get your pants on and get downstairs.”

He came into the living room and asked, “What’s wrong? Where are we going?”

Marie said, “Don’t be smart! We’re not going anyplace. It’s storming.”

Brick said, “Oh, for crying out loud.” and went back to bed.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - It seems like we used to have more serious storms back then too.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember the balls of lightning that would come right through the telephone lines and into the house?

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - It did that once when we lived at Suchik’s. The lightning came right through the phone and blew it clear across the kitchen. It was a wonder that one of the girls wasn’t talking on the phone at the time.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Edna used to be very concerned about electrical storms. I used to stay up there with them sometimes.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That was probably because they didn’t have any electric lights. They just had a kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - When Henry (Rambow) (right) would blow that lamp out, it went pitch black in the house. You could hear the sheep “baa” out in the barnyard in the night. I used to lay there in the back bedroom saying to myself, “I hope it gets to be morning soon!” That was really scary.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - How about the time while Helen, Wilma, Marie and Helma were all still at home. Helma and Marie went out on dates one night.

Helma and Wilma were supposed to sleep together and Helen, Marie and I shared a bed. I always had to sleep in the middle.

We were scaredy cats so we talked Wilma into sleeping with us. When the others came home, Marie climbed in too so we ended up with four of us packed like sardines in one bed and Helma by herself in the other.

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.”  

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I have the 100th Anniversary Book for Bridge School if you would like to see it sometime, Ralph.

Ralph Heiden - When you reached the end of the eighth grade, then what?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - People back then always thought that 8th grade was enough schooling for anyone.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - You didn’t have to go on to high school in those days. I was the first one in our family to go. Harrison Dentel came to the house when I finished the 8th grade. He said, “She’s only twelve years old. What is she going to do here at home? She should go on to high school.” Pa didn’t like the idea at all.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Art wanted to go on to high school so bad too. But when he was in 8th grade, they wouldn’t even let him go to Ida to take the entrance exam.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They thought going to high school was foolishness. But finally, Harrison Dental talked and talked to them about Wilma and they gave in. Then, when my time came several years later, I had to beg and beg. Pa said, “All Wilma learned up there was foolishness. Going to parties and such foolishness.” But, they finally gave in and I got to go.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I was in the class play my junior and senior years. Elizabeth Johnson lived across the river and she would come to pick me up to take me to practice. When it was time for the play, they asked if my mother and dad were coming. I had to say, “No.” I wouldn’t have thought about asking them. Pa would have thought that it was really a lot of nonsense.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Back when I would have gone, you would have had to pay tuition to go to high school. The pastor’s kids were going to go and I could have gone with them but I would have had to walk to the parsonage to catch the ride every day.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Our road was mud at that time and we often had to walk to the corner to get a ride somewhere. You could usually get down to where Henry and Edna lived. When I started working at River Raisin Paper, I rode with John Beaudrie and I had to meet him down at the corner at 6:30 every morning.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I remember one Christmas Eve, everybody who came over for the party got stuck on the road. They had to get the tractor out and pull everybody out of the mud.

Ralph Heiden - Did you get snowed in very often back then?

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Oh, I can remember walking down the ditches that were full of snow.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We would still walk to the Bridge School no matter how deep the snow was then. It used to get a crust on top and it would be up as high as the fence posts. We would walk across that and have a lot of fun. There were always a bunch of us on the way to and from school each day. There would be Walter (left) and Lavern Berns, (right) Lloyd Rath, Junior Barnaby and Harry Karney. There would be a whole gang of us. I remember hitting Junior Barnaby over the head with my lunch bucket. He fell down and I thought I really hurt him but he was O.K. 

Ralph Heiden - Did Sally Eipperle live at Grandpa’s house for a while? I guess I never knew that.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Yes, she lived there about 7 years. John and her moved in after her mother, Mildred’s, death. He used to listen to the radio show, The Inner Sanctum, on Sunday nights and I would be so scared.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Everybody liked John.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - John and Jeanie tte were always good to the folks too. They would take them places in John’s car.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Ma and Pa never got to go anywhere so John took them up north one time. He took them up to Cedarville. There was Uncle Fred, Aunt Emmie, Ma and Pa and Sally and me.
We had three flat tires on the way. We stayed in a tourist home just over the straits. I don’t think there were any motels then. I slept on the floor.

Aunt Emmie brought a big can of Crisco oil to fry the fish in. They all went fishing and we all ate our fill of fish that night.

On the way up, we stopped in Cheboygan and we had dinner in a restaurant. I don’t remember Ma and Pa eating out very much around home. Ma order ham and she was shocked at the size of the portion they served her.

This would have been about 1940 or so. With all the people in the car, no wonder we had so many flat tires.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember how fast John used to drive? I can remember John and Mildred, and my Mother and Dad and I went down to Elkhart, Indiana. Mother kept telling him to slow down!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The more she would holler, the faster he would go, too!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - He took us up north one time and, by gosh, nobody was going to get ahead of him! Jeanie tte was sitting in the back telling him to slow down. I think I had the floor board nearly pushed through trying to hold on.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember, Jeanie, when John took us down onto the river ice pulling us on a sled behind his car?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The river had to be frozen at least a foot thick before Pa would let us skate on it. One Sunday while Ma and Pa were at Grandma Rambow’s, John let us hook the sled behind his car. He would head down the river and then he would slam on the breaks and yell, “Hang on back there!”

The snow was flying in our faces and we were just airborne. We could have been killed but it was a lot of fun!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - He was something else!

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - We used to stay over to John and Mildred’s when they lived on Dunbar Road and she would help us make popcorn and Kool Aid or lemonade to sell out by the road.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - That was always a highlight when they would come over to play cards. I would be sitting there and Mildred would tell me to ask if I could go over to their place for a few days. They took me to Woodland Beach which was a big deal in those days. They had a week’s vacation and they used to stay down there at some relative’s cottage.

There was this girl about my age there and she said, “Let’s take a walk around the lake.” I looked at the lake and thought I couldn’t walk that far. So about half way around, I started back and I got lost and I was praying and everything because I didn’t know where I was.

Finally, I got back and Mildred said, “Where have you been?”

I just said, “Oh, out walking.” I was so darned scared but I didn’t dare let on.

We went out on a raft in the lake and John asked if I could swim. I said, “No.” So, he threw me in the water. He pulled me out quickly but I don’t like the water ever since. 

Ralph Heiden - One of the things a lot of people have mentioned is Grandma’s cooking.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - At least three times a week, she would bake bread.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - She made the best sugar cookies!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - One time Art went over to their house and he came back and said, “Ma’s making bread today. Don’t you think you should go and help her?” I knew that he just wanted me to go and learn how to make bread like she did. So, I said, “With all the experience she’s had, I don’t think she needs my help!”

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She would make donuts too. The ones I liked best where when she would make those long stick, long-johns and frost them.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - A lot of the relatives from Toledo like the I’ve also got the cedar chest that Ma’s mother brought over from Germany. Ma used it as a hope chest.