REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMASES PAST: Delphine Danovsky remembers Christmases on the farm

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By Renee Bettendorf

CONNORSVILLE – Delphine Danvosky was born in 1932 and grew up on a dairy farm north of Connorsville, she was the middle child in a family of seven children. In her family, kids were taught how to milk cows at the age of ten.

Delphine remembers being excited to learn how to milk cows, but then rethinking that excitement when she learned about the new schedule she would have to keep.

“At first I couldn’t wait to learn how to milk the cows. But then I had to get up at 5:30!” she said.

Delphine’s parents had between 20 and 22 Guernsey milk cows. She and her siblings each milked about four cows every morning and evening. The milking was done by hand since they didn’t have electricity.

In addition to milking, Delphine often drove a team of horses for her parents especially during haying season. She drove for the hay loader, a piece of equipment that picked up loose hay in the field and also drove for loading the hay into the mow.

“I liked it,” she said of her horse driving days.

During her early childhood, her family lived in a very small house that had two rooms downstairs and one room upstairs. Delphine and her siblings shared the room upstairs and her parents had their room in the corner of the living room.

“It was real primitive,” she said of the little house that her parents built.

For Christmas, they would decorate the house with popcorn strands that they strung together themselves. They also made daisy chains out of colored paper. The paper strands were glued together with a homemade flour and water paste.

Each year her dad would go out into the woods and cut a Christmas tree.

“I’m sure they weren’t much, but we sure thought they were,” she said of the trees her dad would cut.

For Christmas presents Delphine said the kids in her family got sleds or skis or games. Some of the games she remembers them getting were Rook, Chinese Checkers, Old Maid and later on, Monopoly. In their Christmas stockings, they got oranges.

“I don’t remember anyone ever getting any toys,” she said.

She does remember participating in Christmas programs at her school and church. Her family lived about a mile from Forest Grove School and about three miles from West Akers Church. They usually walked to church and school since her mom didn’t drive and her dad was usually busy on the farm.

They did drive a sleigh to her grandparent’s house in the winter. If it was really cold, her mom would heat up flat irons and put them in the bottom of the sleigh for extra warmth. 

One summer when Delphine was six years old, her parents built a new house. Her parents were no strangers to carpentry. When they bought their 80 acre parcel it had only one building on it, an old shack leftover from a sawmill operation with a big pile of sawdust next to it.

Her parents cleared land and built all the buildings on their farm.

“They worked hard,” she said. 

Before they started building the new house, they moved the old house off the basement. Then they remodeled the basement and built the new house over it. The old house was converted into a granary and they also used it as a playhouse.

The new house had a bathroom, but her parents didn’t finish it right away. They continued to take baths in the pumphouse during warm weather. During the winter they just washed up the best they could. She doesn’t remember taking baths in the winter before the bathroom was finished.

The new house also had electricity, but it didn’t have a refrigerator. So if they wanted to keep something cool, they would set it on the basement floor since that was the coldest place in the house.

“If we wanted to set jello, we would use the basement floor,” Delphine said.

Besides jello, Delphine’s mom made many wonderful desserts year round. Every Friday, she would make cookies.

“We never had any boughten bread or cookies,” said Delphine.  

For Christmas Delphine remembers her mom making raisin and date filled cookies, sandbakkelses and fruit cake.

Both of her parents were of Norwegian descent and there was no shortage of traditional foods from Norway during her childhood. Her mom made plenty of lefse on the family’s wood cookstove from potatoes that they grew themselves.

They also would have fruit soup, which is sometimes called Norwegian sweet soup, over the holidays. Delphine’s mom would make the soup with prunes, raisins and apples.

For Christmas dinner they always had chicken. Then on New Year’s Day her parents served the signature Norwegian dish: lutefisk. Delphine’s mom would boil the fish in cheesecloth and she had to be careful not to cook it too long or else it would turn to mush. 

Delphine said she and her brothers and sisters were not big fans of lutefisk, but they ate it. She has never made lutefisk but would sometimes go to church suppers where it was served.

“If you put enough butter on it, it’s not too bad,” she said.

Even though she is not a lutefisk connoisseur, Delphine takes after her mom in other culinary ways. She too likes to bake bread and cookies and that famous Norwegian flatbread.

“I make lefse a lot,” she said.

She prefers her lefse with just butter and skips the sugar. Her late husband, Wesley, liked his lefse with strawberry jam.

Delphine met Wesley at a wedding dance at the town hall in Connorsville in the 1940s. When they married in 1949, they had their wedding dance at the same place.

Their wedding ceremony took place at West Akers Church and Delphine’s mom made all the food for the reception which was also held at the church and the ladies aid served the meal.

After they were married, Delphine and Wesley moved in with Wesley’s parents for about six months. Then his parents moved to Connorsville where they owned and operated a pool hall.

“I only moved two miles when I got married,” she said.

Delphine and Wesley, had a herd of Holsteins. She prefers Guernseys to Holsteins since she found them to be more calm and friendly, but always enjoyed working with animals, helping with milking and feeding calves. 

About 10 years after they were married, they bought a neighboring farm that had a better barn. So they started milking their cows there. They also bought some other adjacent land at about the same time. 

At their farming peak, they were milking 45 cows on 428 acres. In the beginning, they farmed with horses, but eventually got an Allis Chalmers tractor. 

As a mom, grandma, great grandma and great-great grandma, Delphine continues to carry on many of her family’s Christmas traditions. She makes fruit soup, Christmas cookies and lefse every year.

She has many fond memories of hosting family Christmas parties on the farm. Now her children have taken over as hosts.

This year for Christmas she plans on attending the holiday at her daughter’s home where she will spend time with her four children, seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren and their families.