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We have been learning about rural Milroy's Dorothy (Bossuyt) Swedzinski, whose mother, Irma (Cooreman) Bossuyt, grew up in Belgium before and during World War I. After the war, 14-year-old Irma and her family joined her father, Camiel, in the U.S. where they settled on a farm northeast of Tracy, Minnesota.
Irma met and married Alphonse Bossuyt, another Belgian immigrant who lived near Minneota. They married in January 1930; moved onto a farm near Taunton; and welcomed baby Dorothy to the family that November.
The Bossuyt's moved to another farm northeast of Milroy in 1937. That is the childhood farm of her memory.
Dorothy described her dad's roles on the farm.
"I don't know if he did anything much in the house, but the [outside] chores and the farming. He went out during threshing time on the threshing crew."
She explained that her mom managed the household work; served as family disciplinarian; and assigned the kids' chores. Her mom had major food management responsibilities, which included managing a large garden; canning the garden's produce; cleaning chickens; and canning the chicken meat.
Dorothy's earliest chores helped her mom.
"When I got old enough, I fed chickens and gathered the eggs. Carrying water and everything through the snow -- that was kind of hard."
Alphonse and Irma Bossuyt raised hogs, chickens, and beef cattle; managed a small dairy herd; and kept Belgian workhorses to help with the field work. They raised corn and oats for livestock feed and for market. The oat straw provided livestock bedding. As Dorothy grew older, her chores expanded.
"I helped milk cows. I probably only milked one in the morning and one in the evening besides doing chicken chores. But when Dad was gone on the threshing crew, then I milked more."
Dorothy explained the local creamery's importance to her family, providing services beyond paying for the cream her dad separated from their cows' milk.
"There was a creamery in Milroy that butchered animals, so they'd always have a steer that was butchered in Milroy and we had a locker in the creamery. When the man came out to pick up our cream, my folks asked him to bring a piece of meat for us at the same time. On Sundays when we went to church, Dad would go in the creamery and get a package of meat."
She smiled while describing the before-school chores she managed.
"The funniest part of it is you'd come in the house -- you know we don't have running water to take a shower or anything -- you'd just wash your face and hands and go to school. Nobody ever said that I smelled." (Dorothy chuckled)
Dorothy and her younger brother, Donnie, attended school at Redwood County District 68. She described its location: "From our farm, you went ¼ mile east, one mile north, and about ¾ of a mile east again. I did a lot of walking. Then we got bicycles. If it was really bad weather, Dad took us."
Dorothy well-remembered the school.
"There was an entry where we hung our coats; left our dinner pails; and where we washed our hands. And there was a wood-working table the boys used. That's where we set our dinner pails. There was a little sink and we had to get water from the pump outside. Inside, it was a kind of long, narrow school. I think there was three rows of desks. Back in the corner here was one of those great, big [pot-bellied] stoves. There was a shed outside, not far away, where the cobs, the coal, and the wood was kept and there was also a barn. I suppose years before, kids had been riding horses to school. And, of course, two outside outhouses." (Dorothy laughed)
Dorothy attended first through eighth grade at District 68 where the enrollment was seldom more than a dozen students. She remembered each of the five teachers who served over that period; Miss Pankey, Mrs. Cupavitch (three years), Miss Belfinney, Miss Wagoner, and Miss Vick. The unmarried teachers lived with the Liebschwager family, just down the road from Dorothy's farm.
The teachers organized the school day similarly.
"She started with the 8th graders' reading and then there'd be history, and geography, and arithmetic. She must have done that so the older students could work on their assignments after she started with the younger ones."
Recess was a big deal. The kids mostly played group games.
"I remember playing Pump-Pump Pullaway; Anti-I-Over over that woodshed and over the entryway to the school. We played Anti-I-Over that and then you had to run 'way around the school." (Dorothy laughed)
The highlights of the school year were the Christmas program and the spring picnic.
"We all had parts in the program; different plays; singing Christmas songs. Always Santa Claus would come and give us a package of peanuts and mixed Christmas candy. We had a picnic in the spring, so the whole family came to the picnic. Everybody brought something. When we had our spring picnic with the parents, us kids had to play [kittenball] against Dads. I put one Dad out because I caught the ball. It had landed on the roof of the school and I was able to catch it 'cause it came down kind of slow." (Dorothy laughed again)
Dorothy completed her 8th grade year and graduated to taking a bus to Milroy for high school - a scary proposition to her at the time.
I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com.