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had worn one, we all would have been a disgrace to the whole country. Instead we bathed in

our underwear.
Aunt Clara’s mother was on up in age then, and she’d go in the water wearing her
nightgown. It was fun to see millions of tadpoles swimming around the water’s edge. One

day they were black with front feet and long black tails; the next day they had shed their long
tails and sprouted hind legs; then they turned into little frogs. I haven’t seen a sight like that
in many years.
We always had to wade across the branch or walk on a foot log. Even with a heavy

rainfall, the branch wouldn’t be deep enough for a big fish. Sometimes we saw a big fish that
couldn’t make its way up or downstream so we got an iron-tooth rake to rake that fish out
of the water. Ma would parboil some of the big fish and make fishcakes. We thought that

was good eating!

Sometimes when we were hoeing in the fields, we came across a soft-shell turtle. They
traveled back and forth from the prairie to Hagen Lake. One of us would' remain in the field
to keep watch so the turtle wouldn’t get away while the other one got Pa. He took the turtle

to the house to butcher it. Ma parboiled the meat and then fried it. The turtle was as good as
fried chicken. The female turtles carried as many as thirty to fifty soft-shell eggs.

Some of Pa’s brothers and several neighbor boys liked to have parties every Saturday
night. At that time my mother had an egg business and was raising baby chicks for about 500
laying hens. The feed man brought chicken feed and picked up several crates of eggs. Our

family had all the eggs we wanted to eat.
This gang of boys decided to have chicken pileau for their Saturday night extravagan­
zas. Every Saturday night we heard each one of the hens squawk as the thief plucked it from

its roost. My mother was scared to do anything, so we just kept quiet. This went on for
several years.
Then one of the neighbor boys started coming over every Saturday afternoon to see if

I’d like to go hunting with him. I was thrilled to go with him. He taught me how to shoot his

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