REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMASES PAST … Bob and Joan Ludtke remember what Christmas was like on a rural farm near Boyceville

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By Missy Klatt

Even though they grew up on farms just down the road from each other Bob and Joan Ludtke have very different memories of Christmas. They grew up south of Boyceville on Spring Hill Rd. Before she married Bob, Joan was a Schlottman. She grew up on the home farm which was on top of ‘Lentz Hill’. They had a big house and her mom and dad spilt the house and her grandparents lived in the other half. They just had to build a lean-to on her grandparents’ side so her grandmother could have her old-fashioned cook stove.

Joan

Joan recalls that her grandmother would make the most wonderful meals on that stove. “I spent a lot of time there. All I had to do to go to grandma’s house was open the door and step through and I was at grandma’s.”

Joan has one brother Gerald who is eight years younger.

Joan remembers that they always had a tree at Christmas that they decorated. Usually they bought a tree but one year when she was in second or third grade her and her dad cut one. They didn’t have any pine trees at their place so they went down to her dad’s cousin’s place down by Durand where he had kind of a pine woods. “One year I talked dad into going out and cut one. So dad and I walked and walked, ‘this one, no that’s not right’ we walked and walked. Finally I found one, I suppose we walked a mile (Joan chuckles) and he cut it and when we got back home he said after this we’re going to buy a tree.” Joan said he probably didn’t like that she was so fussy about the tree but at the same time he wanted her to have the one she wanted.

“Mom always had a Christmas box and we put up the same baubles year after year. We had lights on it and one year we happened to get a set of bubble lights-Oh boy that was really it after that.” She can remember how happy they were about those bubble lights.

As for sweet treats, Joan’s mom always made fruit cake at Christmas time “that was our favorite” Joan states. Her Swedish grandmother, grandma Munson (her mom’s mom) would make all the Swedish treats. Joan noted that they would always spend Christmas and New Year’s with her mom’s mom and her brother Ed trading off with one of them hosting Christmas and then the other would host New Years’ and vice a versa.

Her grandmother who lived on ‘N’ just north of Boyceville didn’t have a telephone so her and her mom would write letters back and forth even though they would get together every two weeks throughout the year.

Joan’s mother always raised geese and ducks so for Christmas dinner it was always one or the other for the main course. For dessert it was her mother’s famous butterscotch pie. “And her fruit salad. No one could make a fruit salad as good as she could.” comments Joan

Joan laughs “when I married him (Bob) then we had the oysters and the lutefisk. I had to get a taste for that but gradually I liked it.”

Her and Bob both went to the same grade school, the Peck school on ‘K’ but Bob was seven years older than Joan. When Joan started school in 1943 it was the start of the war and you didn’t ask for much for gifts because folks didn’t have money. But she says they always had a Christmas party at school and they always put on a play or program and sang songs. She said the best part was that Santa would come and hand out candy sacks to everybody. “So we always looked forward to Christmas at school.”

Joan still has the dress that her mother made for her when she was in first grade for the school Christmas program. It was made out of flour sacks. Her Mom always made sure to have her dad get the same pattern so she would have enough to make a dress. It’s one of her prized possessions.

For Christmas they could ask for one gift. She doesn’t remember what she asked for when she was younger but when she was in the 7th or 8th grade she asked for a bike and got it. “I didn’t think I’d get it because it was pretty expensive in that day.”

One day shortly before Christmas her dad asked her if she wanted to ride up to the depot in Boyceville with him, he had to pick something up. He had a team of horses and a sled and they would take that to Boyceville. So off to Boyceville they went and there sitting at the depot was her bike. It was in a box and when they got home they put it together. “He said now you can’t ride it until summer comes.”  However Joan didn’t listen and when her folks were out milking she practiced riding her bike in circles through the adjoining rooms in the house. She said that she was very careful because she knew that if she broke or scratched something she’d get it.

Another gift that she remembers asking for and got was a portable radio that was tangerine in color.

Usually they got clothes or mittens. In those days new clothes were a treat. One year Joan recalls that she wanted buckle rubbers. “I got a pair and I was so happy with that, but after I started wearing them I would get caught in them, they would catch each other and then you’d bend those things. I think they only lasted a year on me.”

Other gifts Joan remembers getting were board games or puzzles.

“Best part at Christmas time was going to town with mom and dad.” Saturday night was town night in Boyceville where all the stores stayed open late. As long as there was somebody shopping the stores would stay open there was no set closing time. She really enjoyed looking at the different stores because they were full of toys and things for Christmas, “it was something to look forward to.”

Bob

Bob was the oldest of five siblings. “We didn’t have it quite as good as she (Joan) did. We had some bad luck. We had a heck of a time on the farm, that’s why I stayed home and worked all the time.” Bob went as far as eighth grade and then stayed home to help his dad farm. “I worked so my brothers and sisters could go to school.”

Some of that bad luck included a house fire when Bob was about six years old. While they were rebuilding they lived for a while in part of the chicken coop. Later when he was about ten years old his parents separated.

Bob can remember having a couple of little pine trees for Christmas when he was young with some decorations on them. “I remember one year we made some popcorn balls to hang on it.” He also remembers having some live candles on the tree. Bob recalls hanging up some stockings for Santa to fill but otherwise they didn’t have much.

“Goes to show you can get along with pretty near anything if you try,” commented Bob about the lack of things that he grew up with.

Even though they didn’t have much Bob said that they always had plenty to eat. His mom was a good cook and there was always cattle to butcher and potatoes in the potato bin. At Christmas time the whole extended family on his dad’s side would get together for a big party with lots of food to eat.

Bob remembers some of those same programs at school as well. He also remembers keeping the fire going in the stove at school.

Another school memory was getting to school in the winter. Ray McCarthy, Bob’s uncle who was about eight years older than Bob went to the same school as him one year and he would take Bob to school quite often.

One time they had rain and snow and ice and they decided to take the sleds to school which was about three miles down the road from his place. “Ray says get on behind and there was this long hill (Lentz Hill) we could go down and we could gain some time. We were going down over the ice and the snow banks and all of a sudden the sled sunk in and we went sliding over the ice.” Bob says they got all scratched up and bloody from scraping along the ice. They walked into school and the teacher wondered what happened to them. Bob just chuckles at this memory.

Sometimes they would go to his dad’s mom’s for Christmas Day. “She had a pantry back in the kitchen, she always had some special stuff (cookies and candies) in there for us kids.”

Bob states they didn’t get much for gifts, maybe an apple or some candy. One time he wanted something special and one of his aunts gave him a comic book. Slightly used but it was in good shape. “I was looking for something a little better” he laughs.

Bob and Joan

Bob and Joan got married in 1958 and their two children, Alan and John came along in 1962 and 1965. They bought the farm in Downing, where they are now, in 1960 and at that point they started to have their moms and others over for Christmas.

A lot of time they would cut their own trees from along the edge of the field but sometimes they would buy them. Things were pretty hard up for twenty years Bob jokes. Joan says she always liked to make a flocked tree and I couldn’t flock in the house so I would take it up to the barn and we had a wide manger between the cattle (they faced each other) so I flocked the Christmas tree in the barn and the cows would just look at me and wondered what was going on. The next morning it would be dry enough and he would carry it down to the house. I loved flocked trees.”

When they were kids Joan stated that they used to put icicles (tinsel) on the tree. “Oh I hated putting those icicles on but it looked so pretty when we were done.”

Bad luck struck again seven years after they bought the farm in Downing the house there burned. Fortunately they weren’t home at the time. After they rebuilt Bob said they had a lot better Christmases after that, always had presents for the kids.

Now a days Christmases are hosted by their son John and his wife Kirsten and their three daughters, April, Hannah, and Leslie. Their house has high ceilings that can hold a twelve foot Christmas tree. Bob says they have all kinds of decorations and all kinds of eats!