Liffengren: 02/01/2010

Memories of South Dakota in the 1930's

Luverne & Louise Liffengren graduated from the 8th grade in 1937.

My twin brother, Luverne Liffengren, drove us to High School in Draper. We went straight home when school was out at 4:00 pm. Most boys stayed to play basketball, mostly. Luverne had rheumatic fever when he was young which left him with a slight "hobbledy-catch in his getalong" (as Grandpa Eli Hullinger would have said.) so he didn't want to run or race, so no fuss was made about it by anyone as far as I remember. He & I began HS when Edyth Martin (Mrs. Sam Martin) drove to Teacher's Institute; she was driving right through Draper to get to Murdo (where the Teacher’s Institute for teachers was being held ) I think she & Mom got together&we rode with her. It was already the 6th week of school so we were way behind the other students.

The teachers were glad to have us (two more students made teaching more interesting) & handed each of us text books & assignments of what they'd already studied. When the 6 weeks tests were given we took them & I believe Luverne & I both of us had more answers right than most of the others, which alerted the teachers that we came to school to learn.(We’d learned a lot of history in the year after our 8th grade graduation when we attended the country school because Mrs. Martin said we could come & help her, too. (Dad believed we were too young to drive to HS) We studied history, geography, & I helped her correct papers, keep records, etc. I recall she sent us to the blackboard to learn how to parse sentences. She liked us & we liked her. Our classmates were Dale Allen, Doris Bauman, Peg Frisbie, Dorothy Gropper, Louise & Luverne Liffengren, Bill Masteller, Bernie McLaughlan, Gerald and Gene Miller, Mary & Eva Mollet, Bill Nielsen, Louis Saylor, Lillian Ziesman. For a while Donnie Harris went to Draper, as did a Gutherie. When we graduated there were 17 of us - I was valedictorian. (Because the school didn’t offer it some of us girls took shorthand by correspondence.).

I remember that once all the kids who could fit into a car skipped school & our parents had to sign that we had been told. Peg Frisbie's dad embarrassed her terribly by writing,"Excuse Peg. She doesn't know any better." I don’t know we did it but someone thought of it & none of us disagreed. However, none of us wanted to skip school again. I think maybe Bill Nielson had the car for the first time & came up with the idea during lunch. (Luverne must have had more sense.)

When we were seniors our class voted not to buy class rings (too expensive) & we voted against a skip day for the same reason. We all responded to the war effort. All farm boys were exempt from the draft, but Dale Allen enlisted. Bill Neilsen who was an only child enlisted also.

That fall (1942) my mother talked Mrs. Mollet into sending Eva to teacher's college, & she rode with us & we were room mates. Her Uncle John borrowed money to send her; & my brother Luverne paid my way which was $75 for room, board, & books (first semester.) (In the accepted way I paid Ida’s first tuition, etc. ) We stayed at the dorm. It never occurred to me that I might get lonely but I think that why Mom encouraged Eva’s Mom to send her too. (Mom had been sent to HS, & college & knew it’s not always easy to be far from home.) She was a great room mate, & we had both ordered new black coats (Sears Roebuck catalogue) for the cold months. (Since we were always together the teacher's could hardly tell us apart! )We were both in the Drama Club under Miss Lee Garrison. As I recall all boys were subject to the draft so there were literally no boys in school at Teacher's College. ‘

After college we taught rural school in Jones County. I stayed at Fuosses & walked 2 miles to school. Viola & Mary Ann Fuoss were very bright; all the kids were bright! Our school won all the math contests at the annual Rally Day.(I wrote the 45 math combinations on the blackboard & we practiced saying the answers before each recess, after school, etc. I changed a few around so they wouldn't just learn them in a specific sequence.) Our school also won the spelling contests too. The lady in charge of the contest that year had formerly taught Marshall school (which was now “my School”) & when “my” school won all the prizes she announced that she had been teacher there for several years! (Of course she deserved some of the glory!!) (but only “some!”

I remember teaching the kids how to play soft ball at recess — and I really didn’t know much about it.
Other memories, possibly best forgotten, are that the teacher before me had spent a good deal of time trying to teach the kids to play the harmonica. She had not spent enough time teaching the first grader so I spent a lot of time with her. I believe there was an eighth grader, also + 7 0thers. I spent two years in the Marshall School, then taught in Murdo=6,8. & 8 grades. That summer I worked at Magnvox in Fort Wayne, Ind., & when Hirohito got “atomic ache” I went back to school at SD State College in Brookings, and majored in Journalism, met Clif, got engaged, &* married,
Louise Liffengren Hullinger

My mother was Edna Sophia Anderson. She was born on October 13, 1901 in Ridgeway, Iowa. My father was Helmer Liffengren born in October 16, 1894 in Lake Mills, Iowa. His parents did not give their children middle names..
Louise Edna & Luverne Helmer Liffengren were baptized March 9 at Grandma Liffengren’s because it was too cold at church. (Louise married Clif Hullinger on June 6, 1946) (Luverne married Genevie Ernst); (Ida Ruth born Oct 3, 1926, baptized Dec. 26 1926,(married to Art Jansen); Opal Blanche born Feb. 29, 1932, baptized May 26, 1932 (married to James Cartney); Norman Ray born Feb. 9, 1939, baptized April, 1939, (married to Judy Roberts.)

The Liffengrens had migrated to Iowa, but went back to Norway after both my Dad (Helmer) and his sister (Olga) were quite small. After they got back to Norway they no longer appreciated it, and they returned to the USA and never looked back.

Many Norwegians emigrated from Iowa to South Dakota because they got word that free land was available. My Great Grandparents Ole and Barbro Tronrud Liffengren on land north of Van Meter (Where their youngest daughter eventually lived) and homesteaded there. My father Helmer finished his first 8 grades before they came to South Dakota.

Grandma (Barbo) canvassed the area and found there were enough Scandinavians to get a Lutheran church going. She was credited with gathering the people. I remember Egerdahls, Nordahls, Petersons, Strunks, Nelsons, Hauges, Monsons, Ankers, Andersons and others. All of us kids were baptized either there or in Grandma's house with Pastor Olson doing the baptizing.

We went to church every 3rd Sunday because the pastor traveled so far and had 3 churches to serve, so he preached each church every third Sunday. The mothers made sandwiches and cakes, and set out dishes, wiped down tables, and served coffee. The ladies sat on one side and the men on the other. Often Dad sat with Luverne; I remember how frustrated Dad was one time when Luverne kept swinging around his bow tie.

I think most of the men only had one “Sunday-go-t-meetin’ suit), which they wore only for Church, but that was important. It seems to me that we only gave money twice a year - one time was after harvest. The men walked up & around the altar, & laid their offering for that half of the year. There was communion the same day. In the spring they did the same thing but my memory is that there was very little money to give as an offering in the spring. However, whenever they butchered they would see that the Pastor's family got some of the meat. Pastor Olson was beloved by everyone.

I remember one of his daughters was named Beldora. His daughters would sing for us. Olga Liffengren played the organ at church. my Myrtle Peterson was also an organist. I remember the Monsons, Egerdahls, Neilsons, Severtsons, Peterson’s, Ankers, Strunks, Jorgenson’s, Newsoms, and others..

I remember that after church Luverne, Orville Floyd, Vic Peterson and Leonard Anchor would wrestle around. My uncles always claimed that I always stuck up for Luverne and if he wasn't winning I'd join him.

The cemetary was across the road from the church. I told you that my mothers brother Georgie was the first one buried there. Olga Liffengren's fiancee Johnson was the second person buried there. He was a soldier and died from the flu which took many lives. It was several years before Olga met & married Henry Fuoss.

Olga was a school teacher, and Donald Liffengren stayed with her so he could go to High School. Otherwise the Liffengren boys did not continue on after grade school but all were very good with tools, and Oscar took a course on repairing machinery. All the Liffengren men understand machinery and were in demand when any tractor, car, or truck needed repairing. Our yard was always filled with old cars waiting for dad to find time to fix them.

Grandma L made delicious cookies. Both she and "Dorty" worked outdoors a lot. They had an ice house the men filled in the winter. We sometimes spent the 4th of July together and would swim in the stock tank by an artesian well. I recall Uncle Oscar telling us he could make water burn and proved it by lighting the water as it came up from the spring (because it had natural gas in it.)

My Mom (Edna) had dark curly hair. She, too, was a country school teacher. They sent her back to Ridgeway and Bode Iowa to stay with relatives to go to High School. Some of the relatives lived in Decorah and she often spoke of them.

Her mother, Ida Kaasa Anderson was very education minded and it was contagious. There were many missionaries in her family (to China, etc.) and we met several of them.

When Luverne and I were confirmed Pastor Olson picked up Vic Peterson and Leonard Anchor who lived near the Van Metre church and instructed the four of us to there. We memorized the commandments, and What does this mean (all of which I think of when I'm on the treadmill.)

At the most we only went to church every third Sunday because that was when it was. But we would never have considered not attending. There was no Lutheran church to our Draper home at that time. Eventually the Andersons, the Henry Fuosses, the Kruses, the Preusses, Leirs, Scmidts and others started a "German” Lutheran church north of Draper. After Dad died mom joined that church. Ernst had always gone there. It was much closer but was Missouri Synod, while we had always gone to an Augustana church.

Whenever I stayed in town over the week end I went with friends to the Methodist church in Draper. When I was in college in Springfield there were no Lutheran churches so I attended Bible classes at a church where a favorite college instructor, Dr. Ewald, taught the Bible class. I think it was Presbyterian. I don't think we were ever hung up on a specific Christian church but we were hung up on thinking you ought to regularly attend church.

I taught the school at the Fuoss School, boarded with the Fuoss family there and walked two mites each way to the one room school house. All the kids were smart. Viola and Mary Ann were really smart but so were the Magnuson's and the Marshalls. The County Superintendent recommended me to teach in Murdo, so I did, but that was a room full of 6th, 7th and 8th graders and was still fun, but more work.

I met Muggs Hullinger at summer school. We hit it off and then decided we should work in a large city, since World War II was underway and they needed workers. Her folks thought we should stay with her Aunt Pearl in Fort Wayne, which ought to be enough adventure for her, so we got jobs at Magnaox and lived with her Aunt Pearl in the “big” city of Fort Wayne. Through her I met my husband Clif Hullinger, and the rest is history.

When the war was over that adventure to ended. I went back to College, and so did Clif. Muggs went to Washington with the Hulces.

You see how our adventures were quite "controlled."" Enough for now.

Love you all

Louise Liffengren Hullinger

My Grandparents Barbo and Ole Liffengren immigrated from Bagn, Norway in about 1895. My father Helmer was born in Iowa. Then my grandparents decided to move back to Norway. They did so, but after a short time they moved back to the United States, this time for good.

I remember my Grandma (Barbo) Tronrud Liffengren telling us about going up into the mountains in the summer in Norway where they tended the goats and (I think) the cattle and sheep. I recall she told of coming to America on a ship when she was 16 years old with her niece who was a year older than Barbo. Some one they didn't know offered them candy (I imagined it was a sack of candy which her niece accepted but she grabbed it and threw it away because "you don't take gifts like that from strangers." (I thought she was telling me something I probably would need to know).

I recall she made some kind of a pudding which she said was always served to new mothers. It was made by slowly cooking cream until it bubbled, and I think cinnamon and sugar were added. (It would "make the milk come in so nursing mothers would be able to nurse their babies. (I don't think we even had baby bottles.)

Grandpa Ole Liffengren seemed very tall, and called me Louisa with a soft "s." I remember feeling fondness for both of them. Grandma once gave each of us Liffengren kids (Luverne Louise Ida Opal and Norman) a young turkey which we were to raise and learn how to earn money. When dad trucked to Sioux City, Iowa our Mom went along once to sell the turkeys She brought me home a beautiful blue dress (which we called silk but may have been rayon). Each of us got something with the money we had earned, and I guess it taught us economics.

We certainly learned to count our pennies and not spend foolishly.

When we were kids we always spent Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson (Ida and Pete) and or Grandma (Barbo) and Grandpa (Ole) Liffengren (one was on Christmas Eve and one was Christmas day).

Many Christmas days were spent with my dad's sister, Olga and Henry Fuoss (her husband) and the four Fuoss children-Orville Floyd, Viola and Mary Anne. We were somewhat older what Mom's sister Sally who married Rex Orr and we spent lots of time with them. Their kids were such fun-Richard, Kip (Clifford), Lyle, Shirley. Madge, Keith and the youngest one whom I never got to know was Ilene.

I stayed with Aunt Sally (near Bonilla, SD) after HS graduation; it was a memorable summer. They had a new baby & I was to be a helper. I told the kids stories every day.

Last summer (2009) at our Anderson family reunion the first thing Lyle Orr said to me was "And how is Louise the Good Little Girl?" (That was the name I gave myself. I had a name for each of them. Richard the Rabbit, Kippy the Kangaroo, Shirley the squirrel, Lyle the Lion, Madge the Monkey. Then they would clamor, "And what is your name?" So the only euphonious thing I could think of was Louise the good little girl." and none of them have ever forgotten it.

It's a pleasant memory. I look back at that summer as possibly the nicest I'd ever had.

Enough from Louise the good little girl for today. February 10, 2010/

Liffengren

Feb 27, 2010

Feb 22, 2010

Links