Legends, Lore, and Laughs

 

Since I have run out of things to tease Captain about and I am spending so much time down the rabbit hole of genealogy, I decided to just drag y’all along with me.  You’re welcome!
 
Last Sunday, Captain and I drove down to Wabasha to visit my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Linda.  Jerry is the youngest of the five Brehmer siblings, and now the only one left.  So he is now my treasure trove of family secrets, lore, and misdeeds!  And boy did I learn a whole bunch of new stuff! 
 
Like for instance, the farm where I grew up was the home farm of my dad’s mother, Clara Francis Benike Brehmer.  Her brother, Alex Benike, lived on the adjacent quarter section.  When great-grampa Benike decided to retire and sell the home farm, Alex—who always acted like he was better than the rest of his siblings, according to Jerry—wanted the home place but waited too long to make an offer.  Grampa Albert and Gramma Clara Brehmer were able to purchase it instead.  Albert did not have the financing lined up yet when he made the offer to the realtor, so the realtor offered to finance it for him. 
 
When I was talking to Jerry, I learned that a story that I had heard multiple times as a child was actually false.  I had always heard that Grampa Albert never wanted to be a farmer; he wanted to be an electrician.  However—as the story was told to me—his mother was afraid of electricity as it was so new at the time and forbid him to do that and made him farm instead. 
 
Jerry cleared that up for me and said that his dad never wanted to do anything BUT farm (kind of like my dad), and it was Albert’s brother, Ruben, who was the electrician.  In fact, it was Ruben who wired the milk house for Albert and Clara after they purchased the farm. 
 
I remember Uncle Rube coming out to the farm when I was a kid and giving us candy bars from the vending company that he worked for when they were “out of date” but still tasted good.  I also remember him rabbit and squirrel hunting in the woods behind our house. 
 
I asked Jerry how Albert and Clara met.  This is one of those questions that fascinates me now that I never thought to ask when Dad was still alive.  Apparently, Albert worked for a neighboring farm of Clara’s family and they would see each other across the field and such.  One thing and another….and we have a family tree!

Photo courtesy of: 
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.amomama.com

 
Linda told a story about when she worked at the Kahler Hotel and they still had elevator operators at that time.  She got in the elevator to go to her office, and Roy Rogers was standing there in the corner!  Then this elderly gentleman got on using his walker and, thinking that Roy Rogers was the elevator operator said, “Sixth floor please!” 
 
Pets were another good avenue of conversation from Jerry.  He told me about a dog that Dad had named Skipper.  She always slept in Dad’s bed, under the covers, down by his feet.  Like most female dogs of that era, she ended up with child.  One morning, Dad woke up and Skipper wasn’t under the covers by his feet…because she was in his closet in a box of clothes waiting for mending having her puppies! 
 
For some reason, goats are part of the Brehmer family lore.  For those who are not in the know, please refer to my blog post about The Great Goat Float Incident.  Another goat of famous family lore is the one that my dad’s Uncle Emil and Aunt Esther had on their farm.  One day when Emil was away, Esther looked out the window and saw the goat pulling her clean laundry off the line and eating it.  Well, let me tell you, Esther was having none of that!  She got the shotgun out and ended the goat.  Problem solved! 
 
Finally, Jerry gave me the names of the kids in a school class picture of my dad’s circa 1945 from the one-room country school house they went to. 

 
Back row (left to right):  Sylvia Steiger, Virginia Robinson, Miss Dodge (teacher), ?? Southwick, Gwen Domke, Sylvia Syngfiel
Middle row (left to right):  Marvin Brehemr, Marvin Fellows, Herbert Brehmer, David Domke, ?Ken Benike,
Front row (left to right):  Sharon Hart, Joyce Benike, Janet Domke, Shirley Brehmer, Deanna Wolfgram, Elizabeth Domke, Jeanette Steiger.
 
Stay tuned for further family history stories!

You Don't Know If You Don't Ask

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com

I've said many times that I wished I had paid more attention back in the day when someone was talking about "the good old days."

Well, today, I listened. Mainly because I asked questions, but still, I listened.

I had lunch with my Aunt Donna and Aunt Linda. Donna's husband, Dave, and Big Brother and his wife, Annie, were also there.

The original idea when we made lunch plans was for just me, Donna, and Linda to get together to gab and giggle. Then I fell down that rabbit hole I wrote about in the last post, and I wanted to pick their brains about family history. That's how Big Brother and Annie got involved because--hey--they like family history stuff, too!

Holy flying Dutchmen, batman, did I learn stuff that I never, ever knew!

First off, it has always been something of a point of pride--at least for me--that my Gramma Prokasky was a live-in maid for Dr. and Mrs. Plummer. I found out today that she got that job because Mrs. Plummer specifically asked her to come and work for them. Gramma had been a maid at a boarding house prior to that. I forgot to ask why Mrs. Plummer was in a boarding house, but the story is still exciting.

Further exciting is that Aunt Donna, some while back, got in touch with the caretaker or curator or whatever they call the person in charge of the Plummer House now and said that she had some pictures of Gramma when she was working at the Plummer House and did they want copies.

They arranged to meet, and the--I'll stick with curator--saw them, she wanted them very much. Turns out that one of them had several of the maids swimming in the Plummer's in-ground swimming pool which made it a treasure as the curator said it was probably the only picture with that pool in it. The winter after that picture was taken, the pool froze and cracked, so the Plummer's filled it in and made it a flower garden.

Donna took the photos and put them in one of those multi-print frames and gave it to the curator, and it now hangs in Dr. Plummer's home office! How stinking cool is that? Pretty cool, in my book.

The remarkable thing was that, while I always knew that Gramma Prokasky was a maid, I never knew that Gramma Brehmer was also a maid in Rochester at the same time for Dr. and Mrs. Judd! Can we say co-inky-dink?! And even more coinkidinkier is that because of the practice of maids for one doctor helping out when another doctor had a big party, my two gramma's had actually met and worked together at such a shindig before their kids met and got married.

They found this out when Grampa and Gramma Prokasky had Grampa and Gramma Brehmer over for dinner to celebrate my mom and dad's engagement. During the after dinner conversation, this little nugget of family history was unearthed. Too cool!

That dinner was apparently a Big Hairy Deal for all parties involved. Donna said that Gramma Prokasky, as hostess of this engagement dinner, told Grampa that her tablecloth was too ratty to have when the Brehmers came for dinner, so he had to take her to town to buy a new tablecloth. At the same time (Donna learned later), Gramma Brehmer told Grampa Brehmer that her white gloves and good hat were much too ratty to wear to dinner with the Prokaskys, so he had to take her to town to buy a new hat and gloves.  The fact that they were both that nervous about that first meeting and then finding out they had know each other before was kind of ironic.  

See, I told you I paid attention!