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Thanks to
Irene E. Olson’s Sunday am radio stories, often my work is made
easier. This is one of those times. This past summer Edna
Broten and one of her daughters, brought in the memoir, “SHARING
MY PASSION’ by Edna Broten.. With their permission we will
share a bit of her interesting life with you our readers.
Edna
writes: “I was born April 26, 1914 on the Peder and Georgine
Fugleberg homestead, About a mile and half NW of Fox. I was
the 8th in line of a family with 13 children. I was
told I was born with lots of black hair, and I was called
“Papoose,” the Indians wanted to buy me and they even left some
beads and trinkets in my cradle. Pa did a lot of talking with
them over me, telling them they could not have or take me, and Ma
was so worried over it, she didn’t take me out of her eyesight for
a long time. I had two sisters to keep up with, Lily would
carry me around on her hip, I was such a big baby and Ma kept
telling her she was going to have a hip that would stick out, of
course saying it in Norwegian. Norwegian was our
main language, but I’m sure glad I learned both.
“Ma sewed
everything for us girls, even our booksas (bloomers). She
taught us her many talents of sewing, crocheting, cleaning,
washing, cooking and baking. Ma struggled with me and my
left hand in crocheting. Rug braiding became my favorite.
Ma would needle stitch her braids together and usually made oval
shaped rugs. (Now my rugs are put together with old panty hose and
a needle make from an old toothbrush).
Chores were
expected from us kids, my first chore was churning butter, it took
a long time, and Julie and Lily helped me. When I heard the
thumping, then I knew it was done and we could drink some of the
buttermilk or it was saved for pancakes or doughnuts.
Monday was
usually washday—it was a long day. We usually had a big pot
boiling and 2 tubs for rinsing. White clothes were boiled
first. We used the washboard and would ring out the clothes by
hand. It took all day with our family, we used the clothes
lines all year round. The clothes would come in stiff as a
board in the wintertime, we would hang them near the stove, in
front of the oven, over chairs, Ma would try and iron on the same
day, irons were heated on top of the stove.
“Baking bread
took all day, but there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread.
Most of our food was canned, even the meat. A lot went into
preparing pork, our main meat for the winter. Ma would make
head cheese; split the head and remove the hair, she used the best
parts, like the tongue and cheeks of the pig, she used salt,
pepper, and onions, it was very good. Us kids used the pig’s
tail and chicken feet for our amusement as toys. We always
had company on Sundays, so chickens were always fried up for a
delicious Sunday dinner. Pa or the boys would chop the heads
off a few chickens, and pull the feathers off. I helped get
the pin feathers out and Pa always said to check the feed sack
from the chickens, you never knew what they would eat, maybe a
diamond ring would be found. (To be continued) |
