The John and Gertrude Milder Story continued...

Religion was always at major part of their lives and children always attended religion classes. They made the "First Friday" Mass and Communion. They said the rosary every day even if they fell asleep before if was all said. The entire family went to Mass together on Sundays and said grace before and after meals. John always cut the homemade bread at the table. According to an old Dutch custom, he would make a cross on the bottom of the loaf before cutting it.

Laundry was a big chore for the family and meant washing on the board or pulling the machine with wringers that were turned by hand. All of the laundry had to be hung outside or hung on racks over the floor furnace. The children usually had only about two outfits for school and would wear one while the other was being laundered. Of course, they always changed their clothes right after school.

Mishaps were bound to happen on a farm with so many children. Once, the family was ready to go to town and buy shoes and the ten gallons of cream were upset. Without the cream to sell there were no shoes. On other occasions, while churning in the big barrel churn, there were problems. Curiosity would get the better of the children and they had to have a peek in the churn to see if there was butter. Putting the lid back on was tricky and sometimes everything would end up on the floor. Gertrude would get very upset.

One Sunday the three children were playing in a meadow and decided to make a fire. When the fire started to get out of hand, they ran away and knelt by a haystack, praying that the fire would go out. Once Mary was enjoying herself, playing with her hands in the stock tank, when she fell in and nearly drowned. Most bruise and cuts were patched up at home. The Lord took care of them, though, because there was not one broken bone in the family.

The economy worsened after the war and farm products, especially corn, weren't worth selling. They burned the corn by the wagon load in the cook stove and furnace. At that time corn was 10 cents per bushel.

As interest rates were 10% in 1925, the family had its second farm sale. The sale went well as the family had good things to sell, and a good crowd attended.

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