Lydia: Well I can remember, I remember school, I have a mile and a half to go to school. And I remember, we was living in a flat??? house and then later on we was living in a rack??? house. And with the pap??? on the, what's the, barricks. And in the spring we had more flowers on the roof than I think on the ground(laughing). And from there I was ten years old and we moved eleven miles east of there. And, uh, there we farmed and I went to school.
Diane: Now what was your school like?
Lydia: Oh, my school was alright. I planted flowers, I went and third grade. In that uh, in that school and then they took me out and brought me back to Milberger,??? Kansas in the German school.
Diane: Oh.
Lydia: And then when I was 13 years old I got confirmed. And then, why them years, ya know I had three years _______ years, I was 17 when I got married to Mr. Eichman.
Diane: Where did you get married at?
Lydia: In a,(big pause) Louisa what county?
Louisa: Barton County, Barton County.
Lydia: Yeah I was married in Barton County but the church...(seems unsure)
Louisa: Lutheran church, Lutheran.
Lydia: That a was there by grandpa and gradma Deutsch.
Louisa: Lutheran Church
Lydia: Thats where I got married in. And then we were on the same, on the same quarter of the land where the, uh um, church was on one corner and we was on the east corner. There. The church was on the west corner and we was on the east corner. And we stayed there and farmed just like _______ did. Milked cows and farmed, and raised chickens and all of that. And then we had four children. And then we moved to Hutchinson county in 7 years. We married in 1906, we married. And in 1916 we moved to Huchinson county.
Diane: I see
Lydia: And then we were on the farm until the dust storms came. I don't know what uh, what year they was. I forgot that.
Diane: Now what, what were the dust storms like?
Lydia: Oh they was terrible. They was _____. They, some days didn't know one day the dust storm came from this direction and the other day it came from this direction. And the dirt was just like powder. Fiiine. And the, the sand was just like the plowed land. The farm land. The farm land was _____ way down until ____ the plowed land. And it covered aaaalll the pastures up. And then from there we moved to Wilroads Garden. We got us a home ____. And then, in a, well, we was a, not quite a year. And we moved out a. No it was more then that in a year ya know we was about four or five years in Wilroads Garden. And in the fall we went to Rhinhards place about on high way 50. And uh, there we worked from August till April???? In '42. And then, uh, the, lets see what happened there? Now any how we went to Morris Thompson and Morris Thompson's ___ was a, a southeast of Howell. Howell, Kansas. And there we stayed oh about...
Background: Well you stayed in the flood of 1942, you was out here in that big flood.
Diane: Now ya we came, now that was before harvest, that flood came. And then we stayed until in harvest and then we went uh, uh, east of Ford, uh Ford uh Kansas. Ford, Kansas. We moved to Ben Finelmans??? (Thinelmans???, Kinnelman???) place and we stayed two years there with Ben Finelmans. And then we moved back, we bought us a little farm out here on high way 50. The second house in from the west. There's where we uh, there's where we landed. We bought that little piece of land. And my husband we was on the crook ya know. On uh, how do you call that?
Background: The express truck.
Lydia: Express truck.
Diane: Well now when you were a little girl did they, well did they farm with oxen? Or did they farm, what kind, how did they farm then?
Lydia: What?
Diane: When you were little.
Background: What did they farm with grandma? She can't hear you good Diane, talk a little louder.
Lydia: I uh...
Background: Did they farm with oxen or horses?
Lydia: We farmed in our start???? We farmed, we farmed with horses and mules.
Diane: Oh I see.
Lydia: And in a, and when we came out to the west, to Hutchinson county, we farmed a while with the horses. And then we got us a tractor. And a combine. And all that. But that was later in the years.
Diane: Um huh.
Lydia: And when we was out there I worked seven years at a Murry Hutchinson???? here in Dodge. And my husband he was a on a express trip for a while. And then he was _________.
Diane: Okay. Go ahead and tell about the dirt storm.
Lydia: Well I tell you. We was a, between those dust storms we didn’t raise no crops. And um, it was awful hard for us to put up, ah, get up the payments. Ya know. And then finally we lost everything we had. And then I worked at Fairmonts. Three years. Three years picking chickens down at Fairmonts. And uh, and then uh, to the dust storm we lost every bit of what we had. But __________
Background: But tell her how, you got your family married off then. How poor your family married off. Can you?
Lydia: (Laughing) Well, uh, uh, Mary and Alvin married first. And we sold chicken, ya know so we had could have a wedding (laughing). You still laugh you chickens???? And then that was in February.
Background: Tell her you borrowed ten dollars from grandpa to make Mary’s dress.
Lydia: Yeah.
Background: Tell her all of that.
Lydia: We borrowed from grandpa ten dollars f to get the wedding dress. We had to uh, uh, finish the wedding dress. And uh, so the Nufer’s and we got together and put a lot of eats together and invited our guests and our friends. And uh, we uh, we had a wedding for Mary and Alvin. And then, in July (laughing), in July Louise and Alec got married. And I didn’t need to buy the wedding dress. Mrs. Nufer did.
Background: _____ a three dollar dress.
Lydia: And uh (laughing), so they had a church wedding ya know. And we went home for dinner and it, it was not much there for a wedding. And uh,
***** At this point it sounds like there is data missing from the tape, a jump or something. I’ll pick up where it does. *****
Lydia: there, and I was working at uh, staying with my sister-in-law. She was in the hospital. And I stayed there with her family. And so, then after their wedding they come to the place, to Snyder and that was about 50 miles north from here. And uh, that’s where we was. And uh, dad come over there, her dad. And uh, she come over there and I fixed a supper for them. So that’s the way Elsie got married off. And then, it must have been about a year later…
Background: In February.
Lydia: In uh, in
Background: In February then. Or May I got married.
Lydia: I thought in uh January.
Background: Well okay.
Lydia: I think he married in January then. I don’t know the date any more. And so he told me to break out his uh, uh his suit. He said I’m leaving this afternoon. That was on Saturday. And he said Monday I’ll come back and be married. So I pressed his suit. And he uh, he uh went and got his bride and went up to LaCrosse and got married. And on Monday he come home by himself. He got married and he come home by him self. And then she had to go to school and we kept it a secret until in May. See she went to Jetmore to high school. And they didn’t want nobody to know that she was a married woman going to high school. See. Oh we had a all, we had all kinds of fun (laughing). (long pause) Well that was in uh, in January. And then it was almost a year and then, that Alec and Louise was married. And then Alvin and the youngest. They went on a Saturday and got married and then we took a family picture. And then the weddings was all over. And the children was all married (laughing).
Background: And you kept right on a working.
Lydia: Huh?
Background: Tell her. You kept right on a working to make a living.
Lydia: Yeah, we just kept on a working and working ya know, and that was the time we moved in to Jetmore, uh to Wilroads Garden. And uh, we kept on working ya know just like we did and that was the end of our life (laughing).