Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I remember Helma and Herb’s shivery. That was impressive to me.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They went to Indiana to get married but when they came home, a bunch of relatives and neighbors said, “We’re coming tonight so have some beer ready.”

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I still have the receipt from Jim Malone’s in Ida where Herb went and got the beer. It was a dollar something a case. He got beer and candy and pop for the kids.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember they had the old metal wash tubs that they were banging on to make noise?

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - You always had to be careful because they would threatened to take the bride “for a ride” in the truck.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Did they take you for a ride?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - No they didn’t!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - You should have heard the noise. John Eipperle put something on his exhaust pipe that made the pipes “whistle” real loud. I remember everyone in the house just holding their ears. They made so much noise!

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - What year did you get married, Helma?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - 1938

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - So, I would have been 9 years old but I can remember it very well.

Pat (Bicking) Klass - The only place I ever saw a shivery was on The Waltons on T.V.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - They had one for Mildred and John Eipperle too. That was ten years before Herb and I got married though.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They had those big tubs of beer and everybody came and drank. They just had to have a party.

Word must have passed around the neighborhood and they just showed up at a certain time. You had to have some food and drink ready.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Did you know they were coming?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes. It was on the very first night back from being married. We got back from Hilda’s on Sunday and the shivery was on Monday night. All the relatives from Toledo were invited too. The house was full. The yard was full.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - People would make all kinds of noise banging on pots and tubs.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes, and then the newlyweds would have to show themselves on the porch.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Guess you’d say we were kind of a party family.

Pat (Bicking) Klass - At the reunions, I remember having those big horse troughs and everyone would be in there fishing around for beer and pop in the icy water.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - At Lester and Lila’s shivery, I remember them passing out drinks and fresh fried cakes.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Did Lee and Lou have one?

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I don’t remember, I wasn’t born yet! 

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.”