REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMAS PAST: Russell Roemhild: “After the funeral, we had candles on the Christmas tree.”
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RUSSELL ROEMHILD
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — One of Russell Roemhild’s Christmas memories is that his dad died when Russell was 10 years old.
“After the funeral, we had candles on the Christmas tree. We didn’t have it lit very long,” he said.
Years ago, before there were electric Christmas tree lights, small candles were clipped to the boughs of the Christmas tree and then usually only lit once, for a short period of time, to avoid starting the tree on fire and burning down the house.
Russell, who is a resident at the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center, grew up on a farm in Prairie Farm. After he and his wife, Louise, were married, they lived on the farm and raised their four children, two boys and two girls.
Russell and Louise lived in Wheeler for a few years before moving to Colfax.
When asked about the Christmas programs at school when he was growing up, Russell said he does not remember anything about the programs.
“I can barely remember them at church!” he exclaimed, adding, “I remember we used to have a piece to speak.”
When asked if he remembers any particular gifts he received for Christmas, he replied, with a hint of surprise in his voice, “After this many years?”
Russell was born in 1935 and is 86 years old.
He does, however, fondly remember the sledding hill on the farm.
Fondly, that is, except for one incident.
“I can remember we had a hill going down our driveway, both sides. I’d take my sled and slide down that hill. I’d go to beat 80,” Russell recalled.
“I can remember one time, there was a crust on the snow. My ma was going with my step-dad, and he came over, and we went to the hill. I cut through (the crust with the sled). I cut my face. That wasn’t so good,” he said.
While sledding was very much part of Russell’s childhood, ice skating was not.
“I ice skated a little bit when I went to school. But I really liked to roller skate, though,” he said.
Russell did most of his roller skating in the gymnasium at the school in Prairie Farm.
Walnut cake
Another fond memory for Russell is all of the baking his mother did at Christmas time.
“She did a lot of baking. She had one of those old wood stoves. Cookies and rosettes,” he said.
“And I remember she always made that maple nut cake. There was a cup of nuts for the frosting. It was awful rich,” Russell said.
Dumplings were a staple, too, although not only at Christmas but also during the rest of the year.
“She would make homemade dumplings with goose or duck. Me and my cousins carry that tradition on yet. Usually we have it for New Year’s Day. And me and my kids get together and make it once a year,” Russell said.
Two of Russell and Louise’s children live in Emerald and Elmwood, and two of them live near Menomonie.
When asked how many grandchildren he has, Russell replied, “Quite a few” and said he has not counted them.
“Ma used to raise her own geese. In the fall, my uncle and a couple of neighbors would get together, and they’d (butcher) geese and ducks,” he said.
“I was raised in the granary until they got the house built. Then they made it into a granary after the house was built,” Russell said.
“We milked cows and had horses, chickens, geese and ducks,” he said.
Sausage
Russell says he does not remember very much about Christmas when his own children were growing up.
“I do know it wasn’t as expensive then as it is now,” he said.
Finding a tree on the farm, however, was a part of Christmas that Russell does remember.
“We’d get a pine tree. We’d pick out a nice one. We had a lot of them. I had a lot of big pines on my place,” Russell said, noting that the trees were not pine plantation trees, but rather, were evergreen trees growing naturally on his farm.
“The kids and Louise always decorated the Christmas tree,” he said.
Russell also remembers that Louise did quite a lot of baking at Christmas.
“And we used to make homemade sausage, me and my cousins. I had to smoke it. That was good stuff,” Russell said.
“We’d butcher one day. That night, we’d cut the meat up. And the next day, we’d grind it, and that night, we’d stuff (the sausage skins). And then smoke it. It was pork and beef — 60 percent beef and 40 percent pork,” he said.
They spiced their sausage with mustard seed, salt, pepper and garlic.
“Oh, it is good. Then let it hang up for three or four days and eat it raw. Oh, does that make a good sandwich,” he said.
“We used to stuff maybe 150 rings. We had two on the stuffers and a couple doing the tying. It would take us a couple of hours. We’d have the casings all cut before,” Russell said.
“We’re all getting old now, though, and we can’t do it no more,” he said.
“It takes quite a while to mix that stuff up. We’d put it all in one washtub or two washtubs. Then you’d mix and mix and mix. Then you’d have to taste it and maybe add some more salt or pepper. Oh, it is a job,” Russell said.
“We’d get two (bulbs) of garlic. Cut it up in small pieces and put it on the stove and boil it and use the juice in the sausage. We never put the garlic right in the sausage,” he said.
“It was a lot of fun in them days,” Russell said.
Farming
Russell quit high school after two years to help his brother on the farm.
“My mother got remarried, so my brother took the farm over,” Russell explained.
They milked cows, and while they were able to use a milking machine for most of them, eight were milked by hand in another barn, he said.
When Russell’s brother went to the Twin Cities to find a job, “I had to run the farm,” Russell said.
Russell farmed until 1955, when he and Louise were married.
He worked at the Teegarden Cheese Factory for a while, and after that, went to work at the Knapp Creamery.
Russell was a laborer at Teegarden, but at Knapp, he was the assistant cheesemaker.
“I married the cheesemaker’s daughter,” he said.
“All of those little cheese factories are closed up now,” Russell noted.
In 1970, Russell started working for a sheet metal place in Prairie Farm.
He retired in 1979.
“I had a good job at Sheet Metal. I was a shipping and receiving clerk. They closed up. Then I helped my brother on the farm until I was old enough to get social security,” Russell said.
Russell had two half-brothers. One of them is retired, and the other has passed away.
Russell has been a milk hauler, too.
“I used to haul milk when I was 16. Hauled milk for two years. I screwed up my back (lifting milk cans),” he said, adding that he hauled two loads a day.
“There were lots of farms then. In those days, everybody farmed — I’d be in one driveway and out the other,” Russell said.
Jersey cross
After Russell and Louise’s children were married and had moved out on their own, the couple stayed on the farm for a while.
“For the last few years, I had one cow and took care of her and milked her for my own milk. Raised calves. Made a little extra money,” he said.
“When I moved to Wheeler, I had to sell her. I hated to do that. But I couldn’t take her along. She was a Jersey-Holstein cross. She had a big set of horns,” Russell said.
“I could go out in the pasture and catch her anyplace. Her name was Babe. She was a nice cow,” he said.
After living in Wheeler for five or six years, “my wife came over here (to the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center). She’s got Alzheimer’s. My knee is bad. I was scared if I fell. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll come over here, too.’ I like it here,” Russell said.
Part of what he likes about Colfax Health and Rehab is the activities. He pointed out two teddy bears that he won recently and a Santa Claus snow globe he had made.
He also noted that he had helped peel potatoes and rutabagas for the facility’s Thanksgiving dinner.
And then there’s the Peace Lily that was given to Louise as a gift several years ago.
Russell keeps the plant in his room and waters it every day.
The Peace Lily has grown tall and strong and blooms multiple times throughout the year.
Christmas 2021
Russell plans to go to his daughter’s place for Christmas this year.
He said his brother will be there as well.
And on New Year’s Day, Russell is planning to go to Prairie Farm to play euchre, which is a tradition that he has enjoyed for many years.
“About 14 of us get together, and we play cards until all hours of the night,” he said.