Memories of Budsin

We moved from Forestville to Budsin in October 1925. We had such a big house in Forestville and I sometimes worried about moving to a place where the house would be too small. That's exactly what happened. The house had an average sized kitchen which also served as a dining room, a very small living room, study, and bedroom downstairs. I believe there were just two bedrooms (maybe three) upstairs, and an open area at the head of the stairs where we set some of the excess living room furniture.

We girls, except Clara, left Forestville by train and went to our relatives in Portage. A day or two after the folks arrived in Budsin by car, my father picked us up. We had never been in this kind of country – the roads were just two ruts in the sand. When we arrived at the house we saw a lot of our furniture standing outdoors, as there was no room for it all in the house. Our poor mother was out there crying, while we girls got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. Well anyway, we got settled somehow although many things had to be stored in the barn. We were now really out in the country – big change even from the small town we were used to.

Isolated as we were, we still enjoyed this new experience. The general store was across the road, and evenings was a gathering place for the farmers in the area. They would sit around the pot-bellied stove and talk. When any of us girls walked in to buy needed items all talking stopped, which made us very self-conscious.

About a month after we arrived there Gertrude and I left for Milwaukee to look for work. I was only seventeen and Gert was eighteen.

Christmas 1925 was a very memorable one. "Going home for Christmas" was another new experience. Ernie was anxious to see our new home, so he said he would drive. (His wife, Esther, was pregnant and chose not to go.) The plans were to leave Christmas morning. Christmas Eve it started snowing, and it kept on all night. Gert and I got up several times to check, and much as we liked a white Christmas we wished it would stop. I'm not sure whether it stopped by morning but I do know we started out as planned. Ernie had only a little roadster – Ford, I believe – which was hardly the height of comfort. I remember stopping at a farmhouse along the way to ask for directions. We weren't too sure we would make it – it was getting colder all the time and the snow was very deep. How we made it I don't know, but we did. The distance was around 120 to 130 miles, and I guess it was early or mid-afternoon when we got home. It was such a thrill to get home. Mother prepared all the usual goodies, and dinner. After living in a light-housekeeping room for a month, home (though small) looked so good.

Gert and I had the week off between Christmas and New Year, which we loved. It was very cold, but in spite of it I can remember we all went out for a walk. No hill for coasting, like in Forestville. Ernie left in all that cold for the trip back to Milwaukee, and Gert and I went back by train.

Since our house in Budsin was really quite a bit too small, Mother immediately got busy with plans for an addition. By spring the building was already underway. An addition to the rear included a new kitchen, pantry, and bathroom – however, no plumbing was included. The living room was enlarged, and the former kitchen was converted to a dining room. The open area upstairs was walled off to make another bedroom. While construction was in process the family moved to a vacant farm house about a half mile to the south. That's where they were living when Gert and I came home to spend the summer months. We enjoyed the experience of briefly living on a farm. It wasn't more than a couple of weeks, perhaps, until we moved to our remodeled parsonage. It was none too soon, as we had a family reunion planned. John and Laura came from Missouri with their baby, Lois, who was about four months old, Jerry (Gerhard) came from Everett, Washington, Ernie (Ernst) and Esther came from Milwaukee (their expected baby written about earlier died soon after birth) and Dorothy (Theodora) and Ted Hinck came from Burns, Wyoming with their baby, Ruth, who was about nine months old. That made seventeen of us in all. Our "new" home accommodated everyone quite comfortably (?) and we all had a good time. Otto went back to Wyoming with Ted, while Dorothy and Ruth stayed a couple more weeks. Otto stayed in Wyoming for a few months and then came to Milwaukee to work. The three of us lived together in an upper flat until we all went home for the summer of 1927. Part of two summers, three Christmases, and the initial three weeks in 1925 were the extent of my time in Budsin. It was home, and I liked it.