Grace Olson is a Loppnow, making her a descendant of the some of the founding members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in 1865. As you’ll hear, Grace has delightful senses of humor and curiosity. Grace comes from a family of six children, and speaks with thankfulness about her family of origin and the life of faith inculcated by her parents and key figures in the history of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School. Whether you’re a historian or love stories of a simple Christian life, you’ll be blessed to listen in on this conversation.
Recorded 15 April, A.D. 2024
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Florence, my older sister who is still alive at 96.
[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And then my other sister Jane and then another girl.
[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure and my mother always said they turned the bed around and then they got the four boys.
[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Hahaha.
[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And she had it they should have left the bed the way it was.
[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to Christ In All Things, a conversation about meaning and purpose.
[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_03]: It's based on a verse from the Bible, Colossians chapter 1 verse 17, which says,
[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together.
[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_04]: Christ In All Things is a listening ear into conversations about receiving and giving the love and hope of Christ.
[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_03]: These conversations are an invitation because as much as you'll hear and as much as we enjoy having them,
[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_03]: digital media operates from a distance and that's not what's best for us.
[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_03]: With God or with one another.
[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_04]: So thanks for listening and if you're in the neighborhood, we invite you to participate in person
[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_04]: in the life that finds its epicenter at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 210 East Pleasant Street in O'Connorwalk, Wisconsin.
[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to Christ In All Things.
[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_04]: I am Pastor Lance ODonnell.
[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I am Pastor Jason Schockman.
[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_03]: We are blessed with joy today and maybe even a little brilliance to have with us our friend,
[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Grace Beatrice Olson, join us on Christ In All Things.
[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_03]: So Grace, thank you for taking the time to come and sit and chat with us.
[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Well I know you took a long time in getting me here,
[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: but I'm happy to be of service to you.
[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Grace Olson.
[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I was born in April 15, 1933.
[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_04]: What's your maiden name?
[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Beatrice, he said it.
[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, the last name.
[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Your last name.
[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Your last name.
[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Olson?
[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_03]: No, the one before you got married.
[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Lopno.
[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Lopno.
[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Do you know what Lopno means?
[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Best I could find.
[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a place named in Pomerania.
[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_03]: A place in Pomerania.
[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Lopno is the name of a town.
[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_03]: It's currently still a town, but not called Lopno anymore.
[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_03]: It's called some other version of La Poyna and Ramune.
[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_04]: So Grace, as I understand, your family are original members
[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_04]: of St. Paul's going back to its founding in 1865.
[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_04]: Is that correct?
[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, my grandfather was, I just found out last night.
[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess he was married at St. Paul's where I went to school.
[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: My grandfather was married there in 1884.
[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_04]: So we're going to talk a little bit more about your history here.
[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_04]: But let's go back and talk.
[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_04]: Your first name is Grace.
[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_04]: Do you know what that means?
[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, for me, it means God's love and to send his only son down here,
[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: to take care of me and everybody else if we believe that Jesus died on the cross,
[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: which I firmly believe.
[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_03]: She answered that like a Lutheran.
[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm proud to be a Lutheran.
[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're glad you are too.
[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's such a good thing.
[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_03]: The name though comes from its Greek origin.
[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_03]: It was actually the name that pointed to a flowering brilliance and joy.
[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_03]: That's kind of fun, isn't it?
[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's me, but I try.
[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_03]: We'll try to make it more about Jesus.
[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_04]: So what's your middle name?
[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Beatrice.
[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_04]: And do you know what that means?
[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: No, I've never.
[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_04]: Pastor Shackman looked it up.
[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_03]: I did.
[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Really?
[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I did.
[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_03]: It has two meanings.
[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_03]: The first meaning is blessed.
[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And the second meaning is a voyager in life.
[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So a flowering brilliance of joy that voyages through life blessed.
[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_03]: There you go.
[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm assuming that's a Latin root.
[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I've got a lot of work to do to live up to that.
[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, see the whole point of though grace is that it's a gift.
[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just given.
[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Right?
[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_03]: And even being blessed isn't something you earn.
[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just something that's given.
[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So Grace, Beatrice, you've been blessed from the day you were named.
[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_03]: And?
[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I would tell a lot of people this.
[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I think my dad was a little disappointed because he wanted a boy right off the bat.
[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I got Florence, my older sister who is still alive at 96.
[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And then my other sister Jane and then another girl.
[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure.
[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And my mother always said they turned the bed around and then they got the four boys.
[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And she had it.
[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: They should have left the bed the way it was.
[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_04]: That's a great story.
[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_04]: So there are how many?
[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Seven of you?
[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Six.
[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Six of you.
[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_04]: And three, so three of each?
[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Three girls and three boys.
[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_04]: That's a great story from your mom.
[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_04]: That is a great story.
[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_04]: So the three girls were first.
[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_04]: And then your parents turned the bed around and they got three boys.
[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And they should have left the bed the way it was.
[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_04]: And that's what your mom said?
[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: My mother was a saint, almost.
[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: My mother and I were very close.
[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm named after my mother was born on a little farm in Lebanon, Sugar Island,
[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and up on a hill.
[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And she always said she ran down the hill
[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and her little girlfriend was living at the bottom of the hill, Gracie Frankie.
[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was blessed to meet her in 1977 at my mother and dad's 50th anniversary.
[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And she is now Gracie Dainy.
[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_04]: And so you met the lady you were named after?
[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_04]: That's neat.
[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Many years ago, many years since then.
[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: But they have always stayed close friends, my mother and she.
[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if she's alive.
[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_03]: The year that your parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary,
[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Gracie, that was the year I was born.
[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Really?
[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_03]: 1977.
[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my goodness.
[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_03]: So your parents celebrated 50 years, their golden anniversary, the same year I was born.
[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: It's unreal.
[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's unreal.
[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_03]: To have these young pastors?
[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_03]: And yet here we are.
[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I might add that five months later, no, four months later they were both gone.
[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh after their anniversary?
[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, their anniversary was February 20th, 1977.
[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And by July 10th they were gone and buried.
[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Do you remember how old were your parents when they died?
[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: My mother was 67.
[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: She died of a kidney problem.
[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And my dad was 84, I think.
[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: He died of a broken heart.
[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Five days later after my mother died.
[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_04]: So he was a decent bit older?
[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, 12, 13, something like that.
[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_04]: And so where, now where are you in the order of your siblings?
[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_04]: Who's first?
[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Florence Crawl, my older sister.
[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: She will be 97.
[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and she's doing wonderful.
[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Her birthday is in July 30th.
[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And Jane Ebert, my other sister died about five years ago.
[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: She and I were very close.
[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I must say all six of us were very close.
[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so for the listeners who may have listened to the episode that we recorded
[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_04]: with Mark and Renee Ebert, so who Grace just mentioned her sister Jane who died in what year?
[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_04]: About?
[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_00]: About five years ago.
[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So 2018, something like that.
[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: 2019.
[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: 2019?
[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's Mark Ebert's mom.
[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_03]: So for those of you who are keeping your St. Paul's Lutheran bingo card,
[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_03]: mark that one off.
[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_04]: Grace, I've been your pastor since 2012
[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_04]: and your husband Dwayne died in Gali, what was it?
[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_04]: Was it 18?
[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_04]: Was it, it seems to me it was, it just seems longer ago.
[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_04]: Such a, one of the reasons when we decided to do this podcast that one of the reasons,
[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_04]: you were one of the first people that we asked and you said no, no, no.
[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Why are you picking at me?
[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's what she said.
[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_04]: Why are you picking on me?
[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_04]: One of the reasons that we were so eager to talk with you is not, is, you know, you have this
[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_04]: deep, deep generational connection to St. Paul's.
[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_04]: But from my perspective, you had great stories to tell and most profoundly
[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_04]: I was struck by and still am by the grace with which you dealt with the death of your beloved
[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_04]: husband.
[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_04]: It's one of the, right Pastor Shackman, one of the great treats that we have as pastors is
[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_04]: seeing happily married families in, you know, that's what we're trying to, you know, help
[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_04]: and encourage.
[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_04]: And so being with you through your grief and watching you cling to Christ in your grief,
[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_04]: you know, getting to know, you know, your family watching you have to sell that home,
[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_04]: all that stuff.
[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_04]: So I'm, we're really thankful.
[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_04]: To have you here.
[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I am very blessed.
[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I give the good Lord credit.
[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: My faith has been so much stronger since Dwayne died because I rely on my good Lord every day.
[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I thank him so many times during the day.
[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I am so blessed to have my mind and pretty much okay.
[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I think.
[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And I give a lot of credit to that.
[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking out of turn here, but Mr. Paul and Mr. Arnall Poland, he was my seventh and eighth grade
[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: teacher here at St. Paul's.
[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_04]: How do you spell the last name?
[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_00]: P-O-H-L-A-N-D Arnall Poland taught seventh and eighth grade.
[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_04]: Here.
[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_04]: And that would have been in the 1940s.
[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I graduated in 48.
[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_04]: So, wow.
[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_04]: So you said you were born in 33.
[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_04]: 33.
[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_04]: 33.
[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_04]: And so you are, golly, eight years old.
[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_04]: You're in second or third grade?
[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_04]: Third grade, maybe fourth when the war breaks out?
[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, no, because when I was born and I'm maybe getting ahead of the story, but
[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_00]: we were supposed to go to a little country school where there are seven people
[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: total.
[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Five out of one family, two out of another family, and I know all those families.
[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But my dad said, no, he wanted us to get a Christian education,
[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and of course we had to go to St. Paul's.
[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But I was too little when I was six, so I didn't start till I was almost eight.
[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, you started school at about eight years old?
[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_00]: 1940 probably.
[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_04]: But you were too little.
[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_00]: We walked.
[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_00]: We walked three miles.
[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you don't know this story.
[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Tell, please tell the story about where you walked from.
[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, do you know Jim Junoluz?
[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I was born in that house.
[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Really?
[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Out on Morgan.
[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's right.
[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_03]: He's told me that before.
[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Three of us girls.
[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_03]: And you walked from that house?
[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we had to walk winter and summer and nobody believes that but...
[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_03]: I'll fill both ways.
[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, wind in your face both ways.
[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_03]: No, I'm being a little snarky.
[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_03]: But you had to walk?
[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_03]: But you guys had to walk to school.
[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_03]: So when you said you were too little to start school,
[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_03]: you were too little to make the walk.
[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, right, yes.
[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have fur-lined boots or anything.
[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We had rubber glashes and my parents,
[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they ever worried about us walking.
[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And we cut through the fields.
[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: It took us one hour.
[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm going to guess it's what?
[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Four or four and a half miles?
[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we always say three but I think it's more like three and a half.
[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it depends on how much you cut off as the crow flies.
[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yes.
[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: We kid it cut across the fields.
[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean driving the roads, it's four.
[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_04]: So you started then in around the time that the war began?
[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes.
[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_04]: Walking in three and a half miles to school in your galoshes?
[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah.
[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Matt Alboton.
[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: A scarf tied around and around our faces.
[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And we went to that little school here.
[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, before the present, so for those of you who are listening from a distance,
[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_04]: the our school is getting close to 150 years of continuous operation, but the main building
[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_04]: that people know as the school was built in 19, I think it was 1961.
[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_04]: The building, the addition that we're sitting in right now was built in 1997.
[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_04]: And you went to the school building which was not directly connected to the church,
[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_04]: right? But there was its own special.
[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Was that the original church building that was turned into a school?
[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I read the history of it and this is all according to the director.
[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_00]: That the Germans years ago that settled here bought this land for 350 bucks.
[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_04]: And by the way, we're on 600 feet of lakefront.
[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine?
[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Here in downtown Okonomouk.
[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_00]: There must have been a little tiny building or garage or something because it said
[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: the second building of the church was that little school that I went to.
[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's where they met for church.
[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't believe that.
[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_04]: Which is presently the site where our parking lot is, correct?
[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, right.
[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember so much about that school, but anyway,
[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: my dad wanted us to get a Christian education and a few more people in the school, he said.
[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_00]: So we talk about who is involved in the way I am.
[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: It was my dad.
[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I blame, I mean, I don't blame him.
[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I give him credit.
[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: What's his name?
[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_04]: Arnold Lopno.
[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_04]: Arnold Fredrick.
[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_04]: What did he do for a living?
[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: He was a farmer.
[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_04]: And what kind of crops did you have in your farm?
[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, corn and oats and hay.
[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_00]: We brought in the hay.
[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I have so many memories of growing up on it.
[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It was like the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie.
[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Probably a lot of it.
[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Does that make you like Laura Ingalls Wilder or one of your sisters?
[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Which one is Laura Ingalls?
[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Kind of a tomboy, actually.
[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's Laura.
[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's Laura.
[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I was really close to my older brother that was next to me, John and BD.
[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_04]: And so you said your father, when we asked you about what are the most influential things for
[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_04]: you in your life, and you list your father as right up there.
[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_04]: And so tell us a little bit more about him.
[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, if he wouldn't have made that comment, we would have been going to that little country school.
[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And I credit my school of St. Paul's all eighth grades.
[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And the teachers we had were fabulous.
[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Polin was so strict, but I learned more from him than I had from anybody.
[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I think he was the teacher, the principal, the organ player, the choir director.
[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: He was a little bit of everything.
[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And my pastor was Kisling.
[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah.
[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Kisling.
[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember all those homes here on Pleasant Street in St. Paul's.
[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_04]: I should have looked up the years because you're not the first one to mention his name,
[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_04]: but Pastor Theodore Kisling is really a legendary figure here at St. Paul's.
[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_04]: His picture's on the wall right outside.
[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_04]: I can go look.
[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_04]: That's Clowsing.
[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_04]: That's Clowsing.
[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_04]: That's Clowsing.
[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_04]: That's Clowsing.
[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_04]: Ooh.
[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, who's a more recent figure.
[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Kisling came here, I think right after the split that created St. Matthew's.
[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh yes.
[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_04]: So that man is, you know.
[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think Mr. Polin came about the same time.
[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_00]: About the same time.
[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And then my first grade, first and second grade, first, second and third grade teacher was
[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Clara Sasky.
[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And she was way up in the school.
[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00]: You came in the school, there were a lot of steps and Mr. Polin's
[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_00]: room was right to the left.
[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And then Mr. Engabrick, he would teach fourth, fourth, five and six.
[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And then Clara Sasky was way upstairs, first, second and third.
[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So I have a lot of memories of that.
[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Grace, did you say Engabrick?
[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Like E-N-G-E-R-B-R-I-C-H?
[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, C-H-T maybe.
[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_03]: C-H-T.
[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure.
[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Engabrick.
[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_03]: There are a few of those in the Lutheran Church of Missouri Senate.
[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, one of them who happens to be the president of Concordia University, Wisconsin right now.
[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_03]: No, that's Engabrick.
[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Engabrick.
[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Engabrick.
[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Engabrick.
[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Sounded the same to me.
[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, no, not the same.
[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Close.
[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_03]: No cigar.
[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think Engabrick's, yeah, I think he's a different.
[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Engabrick.
[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Not Engabrick.
[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Engabrick is a name that I know too.
[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Sure.
[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Why do I know that name?
[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_03]: There are several of them.
[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, Ed Engabrick is the editor of several relatively recently published volumes from Concordia
[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Publishing House, including the New Lutheran Study Bible amongst other things.
[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_04]: That's why that name rings a bell.
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, we had a school picnic, school and church picnic.
[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've ever heard about those across the street right from my parents' farm.
[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh really?
[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: We're in Juneau.
[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_00]: That big woods was a 75 acre woods and there were no homes in there.
[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's all built up.
[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_00]: But the church picnic was out there.
[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_03]: In the middle of the woods?
[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_03]: That sounds like fun.
[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_03]: All kinds of places for kids to hide.
[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was directly across from the farm and they had a beer tent and soda fountain.
[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_04]: God bless Lutherans.
[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Hamburger stand and ice cream.
[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And then there was a little pulpit kind of built around a tree, a makeshift thing
[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_00]: for Pastor Kisling to make a little welcome speech.
[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And then there was always a great big ball game and you can see out on Morgan Road now
[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_00]: where that big empty place is, that's where the empty of trees and that's where the ball game was going.
[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Baseball?
[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_04]: So you said your father had an especially profound influence because he wanted you
[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_04]: and your siblings to have a Christian education and with a few more kids around and thus
[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_04]: the march into St. Paul's for our school here.
[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, my parents, we didn't ever have Bible study class.
[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess there wasn't room time.
[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But we were taught lying, cheating, stealing was bad, bad.
[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And we lived our religion because every day, 8 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 5 o'clock,
[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_00]: we were expected to be around the table and we have said the prayers, you know,
[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_00]: be, come Lord Jesus, I know we'll give thanks.
[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_04]: So on the farm when you gathered for your meals, you did that all as a family?
[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_04]: Same time every day.
[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Every day.
[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And my mother had to be not 5 30 but 5 o'clock.
[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And what's your mom's name?
[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Linda, Linda Marie.
[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: She was a saint.
[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_00]: She was 18 when she moved into that place and my parents, my father's mother and father
[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: were living there and she took care of them till the day they died.
[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_00]: How about that?
[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Very German and my mother would send us back to the two back rooms to see what they wanted
[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_00]: for a meal and they talked to us in German and then we'd go back out in the kitchen
[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_00]: tell my mother in English what they wanted.
[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_04]: Did your mom speak German?
[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_00]: No, no.
[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00]: My dad did but so I can understand pretty much German but I can't speak it.
[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And then every Sunday afternoon my dad's sisters and one brother would come over
[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_00]: and they go and see grandpa and grandma of course visit and then my, well they were visiting.
[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_00]: My mother would lay this big table and 5 o'clock they would come out and
[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: then they sat down to a meal.
[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Well I was going to say they had to.
[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_03]: 5 o'clock was dinner time.
[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yes.
[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_03]: 5 30.
[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And us kids set the table and we always ate in the dining room there but when during the week
[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_00]: we ate in the kitchen.
[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course we didn't have running water, no bathroom inside, no refrigerator,
[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: a cook stove, wood, wood you know so my mother was got to be an excellent, excellent cook.
[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_04]: And working all the time well like the rest of you.
[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_04]: So there were animals on the farm as well?
[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yes we had cows and bulls and pigs and chickens and
[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_00]: ducks.
[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Whose job was it to take care of the pigs?
[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Well us kids did everything, we took care of them you know and my mother we had a lot of
[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: chickens and she would kill chickens every Saturday afternoon we were all sitting around
[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: the kitchen table pin feathering them and she would sell them to the doctors and lawyers
[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: on Saturday afternoon.
[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_00]: She'd come into town and that's what they bought the groceries with, that money.
[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_04]: That she sold the chickens yeah.
[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And the eggs.
[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Sounding a bit like Proverbs 31 here.
[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Not even kidding like amazing.
[00:26:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah and that's what you did.
[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes and lots of eggs and you know a Winger's Tavern is around there right next door.
[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_00]: One side was the egg station and the other side was the Felschneider's grocery store
[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and she would take the eggs and got a credit slip and go to Felschneider's and buy the food
[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_00]: you know for the week.
[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember the you know the time before the war you know the hard times and we didn't have bananas
[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_00]: or anything, we just ate you know.
[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_04]: You just lived off what you had, what you could produce on the farm.
[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Potatoes and corn and so.
[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Some tomatoes from the garden.
[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Big garden strawberries and on the driveway there were all cherry trees and she used to make a lot
[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: of cherry sauce and I remember all these people coming on Sunday afternoon to eat
[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_00]: there was always cherry sauce almost every Sunday so.
[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_00]: It was it was fun though.
[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes so I get to know all my aunts and uncles and now my cousins we grow up together.
[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_00]: We were like sisters and brothers rather than cousins.
[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I have a lot of relatives in this church.
[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Apparently yes.
[00:27:45] [SPEAKER_04]: So Grace that's we're going to come back because you talked about your dad Arnold,
[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_04]: your mom Linda we talked a little bit about Mr. Poland and I think we should come back to
[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_04]: St. Paul's school and some of the other things when we were going to come back in just a little
[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_04]: bit for part two of our interview as we take a little break right now.
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[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Christ in All Things is a production of St. Paul's Lutheran Church,
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[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_03]: For more information about St. Paul's visit splco.org.
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[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Intro and Outro Music, setting by Joseph Hurl.
[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Copyright 1998, Concordia Publishing House, Used With Permission.