- The following program
is a PBS Wisconsin original production.
*
I am one who believes that where we grew up
and when we grew up influences who we are today
in ways that go way beyond
in many instances, our knowledge of that factor.
How we see the world
how we see our relationship with other people
how we see the land and it's importance
how we view nature.
All of those, for those of us who grew up on farms
at a time when I did
are a part of who we are today.
For a long time I was not too pleased to share it
because I was enamored by the "more cosmopolitan" people
that I knew who had grown up in the city
and knew the ways of the city.
Today, I'm as proud as proud can be
of having experienced what I experienced.
I wouldn't change it for anything.
Not that it was all wonderful, because it wasn't.
We never made a whole lot of money.
And all during the later years of the Depression
when I was a wee little one
things were tough, but we had work.
Too much work, in my estimation as kid.
But we had something to eat
and I always had a roof over my head
and a pair of bib overalls.
New ones, once a year or so.
What more would you want?
And friends.
And a chance to have some fun
to go fishing and go for a walk.
What more is there that's important?
Jerry Apps, A Farm Story was funded in part by
Ron and Colleen Weyers
the Edward J. Okray Foundation
the Wisconsin History Fund
with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities
and the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
If you go back to the middle of the Great Depression
that's when I was born, in 1934
out here in Waushara County
which is in the central part of the state.
We had one of those terminal moraine farms
where the glacier stopped.
Oh, my gosh, it was stony.
It was sandy, and it was hilly.
As my dad said, in the spring
when we, every April, picked stones day after day
"If nothing else grows on this place
if nothing else ever comes up
we can depend on our crop of stones."
Our farm was 160 acres, quarter section
which was common in those days.
There were 80 acres
on each side of a country road.
A gravel, mostly dirt, country road.
Our farmhouse was a big house.
Many of the old farmhouses looked quite spacious
and they were.
We had no indoor plumbing.
We had no electricity.
That old house was the coldest place you could imagine
because it was not insulated.
People didn't know about insulation.
But I have fond memories of the place.
There were two doors into the house.
Everyone came in through the kitchen door.
There was a little porch around in the back.
There was also a front door, which led into the parlor.
We knew immediately, when someone came to the house
if they knew or did not know about country people.
If they were a sales person out of the city
they would stumble up toward the front door.
The front door wouldn't even open.
You could not get the front door open.
It was nailed shut.
Anybody who knew farmers
knew that you came around to the kitchen door on the porch
and you rapped on the kitchen door.
You were greeted by Fanny, our old farm dog
who would bark two or three times.
It'd scare the bajeebers out of these city salespeople
who didn't understand farm dogs either.
Because the farm dog
I suspected was a guard dog of fashion
but this big collie dog was as friendly as could be.
She was mostly announcing someone's coming.
I can remember my mother being so put out
with a salesperson who wouldn't get out of the car
because the dog was standing there barking.
She just let him sit there.
Kitchens on these old farm houses were enormous.
They were huge, bigger than the dining room
larger than the parlor.
We never used the parlor.
The parlor was for the city relatives.
It's the kitchen where everything happened.
The big kitchen table
a wooden table with an oilcloth on it
and a kerosene lamp in the middle
that was the center of all activity on our farm.
My dad had his place at the head of the table
my mother on the opposite end of the table.
I have twin brothers.
They sat on one side, and I sat on the other.
We never varied.
We sat in those same places all the time.
It's like the cows in the barn
always stood in the same stall.
We had our stalls for breakfast, dinner and supper
all gathered around the kitchen table.
The kitchen table is where
all of the decisions about the farm were made, as well.
What sorts of seed should we buy for the garden this year?
How are the cows doing?
My mother kept all the records.
In the winter time, that was a nice warm place.
There's the kitchen stove, the oven door was open.
My mother was always baking bread
and the smell of fresh bread
is something that I've never forgotten.
Now in the dining room, was our telephone.
We didn't have electricity, but we also had a telephone.
It was a party-line telephone.
It had a ringer-dinger on this side
and it had a listener on that side you held up
and a mouthpiece in the front.
When you spoke into it, you knew very well
that beyond the person that you were talking to
there were probably ten or 15 other people also listening in.
In addition to it being our connection to the outside world
it was our safety net.
In those days, there were no EMTs.
The fire truck would not leave the village of Wild Rose
which was our nearest town, four and a half miles away.
So farmers were on their own.
If there was a fire, the wind blew over your barn
somebody was gored by a bull
or whatever action that might have happened
you got on the phone
and you rang what was called a general ring.
A general ring was ding, ding, ding, ding, ding
ding, ding, ding, like that.
When you heard that, you rushed to the phone
because you knew
one of your neighbors was in dire straits.
No matter what you were doing
and no matter how little you may have cared about that person
because farm people like are everybody else
they don't all get along
you rushed to that person's place.
You knew that person was in trouble
and needed your help.
[old-time phone ringing]
Our ring was a long and three shorts.
That's what differentiated people.
They knew when it was their ring that the phone was for them.
But everybody else went to the phone, as well.
One ring, in particular, three shorts, ding, ding, ding
whenever that came in, we knew
we knew, there was something important for us to hear.
If not important, at least juicy.
Because this family had a wonderful reputation.
When they first moved in, the farm had been vacant for awhile.
Then we heard it had been purchased.
We all gathered at this house
and we all brought something to eat.
We all sat around the table.
We discovered that they had five boys
but we also discovered that these kids could cuss.
I mean, these kids were the best cussers.
They knew cuss words we'd never heard before.
I mean, they could string together cuss words
in such an eloquent fashion
that we couldn't help but just marvel.
My mother was sitting off to the side
being the good Christian woman that she was.
I could see she was not taking all this in too well.
She whispered to my dad, "We've got to go home.
This is not a good place to be."
By the way, when we were traveling home
my mother said, "I don't want you boys"
meaning my brothers and me
"I don't want you associating with those boys again."
My dad said, "Listen, Eleanor
they are going to associate with those boys.
We're going to associate with them
because they are our neighbors."
That's very important to remember.
As different as they were, as unusual as they were
and maybe as sort of raw and rough ashey were
they were still our neighbors.
I had such a wonderful experience in sociology
as a kid, without ever realizing it.
Because in our community, we had Welsh families...
We had German families.
We had bohemian families from Czechoslovakia.
Polish families.
And we had English people.
All of us assembled together.
We seldom talked about religion
because we had Methodists, we had Lutherans
we had Presbyterians, we had Catholics.
And we had a bunch of them
not belonging to anything, all working together
living together, farming together.
And to tell you the truth
having a wonderful time together, as you think about it.
It was just a fascinating time on the farm in those days.
I'm the oldest
so I'm expected to be out in the barn
at 5:30 in the morning helping with the milking.
We had two barn lanterns.
My dad had one and I had one.
I'd hang my barn lantern
on a nail in back of the cows on the north end of the barn.
In the south end of the barn
my dad hangs his lantern on a nail.
The cows are all lined up.
There's about 14 or 16 of them
all standing in stanchions.
I have my cows to milk and he has his cows to milk.
The barn on a winter day
is the warmest place on the farm.
Underneath a big, old Holstein cow
is by far the most comfortable place you could find
as strange as that sounds.
So I would crawl under this cow
put the milk pail between my knees
sit on a three-legged stool
and grab the spigots and start milking.
The cat comes by
and you squirt a little milk in the direction of the cat.
[laughs]
I'm tucked under this big, old Holstein
and she's looking around at me
and she's saying, "Good morning, Jerry."
I'm kind of half asleep, and I'm just getting warm.
I have the easy milking cows.
My dad has the tougher ones to do.
When they come into the barn they each knew
to come into their own stall.
There was Violet, Maisy, Dolores and Florence.
Everyone had it's own name.
We got to know every one of them.
Our farm dog knew their personalities better than I did.
She dealt with each cow in a very particular way
and in a mysterious kind of way.
There was a communication between animal species
that we don't understand.
That was going on with Fanny talking to these cattle.
They had great respect for her.
[dog barking]
Farm life was a quiet time during those years
before electricity, and tractors
and all the rest of the noisy stuff that came along.
That's when I got to know my dad.
He might be on a cow right next to me.
He would sometimes ask how things were going
but not usually.
I would usually have to ask some question for him to answer.
Now my dad was a wonderful story teller.
Oh, my gosh.
He got as far as fifth grade in school.
In his generation, by the time you got big enough to work
it didn't matter how old you were
big enough to work, you worked.
I learned something very important
from the fact that he had only a fifth-grade education.
Formal education
does not necessarily equate with being smart.
He knew how to fix most everything.
He knew how to take care of animals.
He had a wonderful way of figuring.
He could figure in his head faster than most people
could figure it with a calculator today.
He was very well liked by the neighbors.
He would help anybody with anything.
You look at his face
and you could tell by the satisfaction in his face
if you did something well.
But there was none of this "good job" stuff, and all that.
That was not-- we didn't do that.
In early March, when I would get up in the mornings
and go out the barn
now the days were somewhat longer already
I would look for the dripping of eaves
the first melt.
You get out to the barn and Pa might say something
like, "I can smell spring today."
And he was right, I could too.
He's getting anxious, because by the middle of March
he wants to get out in the fields.
There's work to be done.
There's plowing to do, with a team of horses
and a one-bottom, 16" walking plow.
How do you remember all that? Because I did it.
I talk to kids sometimes.
I talk about walking plows, they think the plow was walking.
The plow was not walking.
I was the one who was doing the walking
and the team was walking, Frank and Charlie were their names.
Plowing with a team of horses
requires about four or five eyes.
You've got to keep your eye on the team and the plow.
You've got to keep your eye on where you're headed
because you want to go in a straight line.
One of the things that you were prized for
was whether you could plow in a straight line.
You had a marker, maybe your handkerchief
was hanging on a tree a quarter mile away
and you see that and you're plowing towards that.
You got another eye looking for stones.
You'd hold on to the plow handles.
Whenever the plow would hit a stone
it would leap out of the ground.
You'd put it back in and go.
I mean, you're just beside yourself.
[sounds of farmer plowing with horse team]
I'll talk about my mother for a little bit.
She got as far as seventh grade in school
because, again, her folks said
"Well, it's time for you to find a job."
So she became a maid
when she was, I don't know, 13-years old.
My mother had two major projects
the garden and the chickens.
She ruled both with a heavy hand.
We were under her employ when those two things were involved.
We had probably 100-150 laying hens
white leghorns they were.
Every year we'd replace some.
The old chickens became stew in the fall.
We canned the chicken meat and all that kind of stuff.
But the new chicks we would order from a hatchery
someplace in southern Wisconsin.
They would arrive at the train depot.
George was the depot agent.
He would call on the party line telephone.
"Herman, your chicks are here."
I remember going down with my dad to the depot
and here are stacks of chicks.
The boxes were about like that
and they were divided into little squares.
I suppose there were 6-8 little chicks in each corner.
They were peeping their hearts out.
I mean, it's just a wonderful sound
all these little chicks just a-peeping away.
We'd stack these little chicks in the back of the car
bring them home, take them in the house
and put them in back of the wood stove to warm them up.
Because this was usually in April and it was kind of chilly.
It was kind of fun.
The little chicks were just grand to watch them grow up.
When the chicks had grown up
then they found their way into the hen house
and the ones that my mother
had declared, obsolete is the wrong word
but they're not producing well anymore.
We'd pull them off the shelf
and we would have a chicken butchering day.
I tell you, one time the city cousins were out
when we were butchering chickens.
They could not handle
the fact that there would be as many as two or three chickens
running around without their heads on.
We, of course, took all this for granted.
We never bought a chicken in a grocery store that I remember.
Never did that.
It sounds terrible, gruesome, and all the rest
but it was a very natural progression
from the chick to the hen house
>> HI, I'M JON MISKOWSKI,
DIRECTOR OF PBS WISCONSIN.
WE'RE WATCHING "JERRY APPS: A
FARM STORY" THAT TAKES US BACK
INTO THE '30S AND THE '40S,
AND SHARES THAT EXPERIENCE
ON WISCONSIN FARMS THAT WAS
MUCH MORE PERVASIVE THEN,
BUT YET, STILL INFORMS THE
ETHIC, THE VALUES OF OUR STATE
AND OUR UNDERSTANDING
OF WHO WE ARE.
JERRY IS A WONDERFUL
STORYTELLER...
BRINGS THESE STORIES ALIVE.
AND AS WE'VE TRAVELED THE STATE
WITH JERRY, WE'VE SEEN HOW MANY
PEOPLE JUST SORT OF NOD
IN APPRECIATION
AND HOW HE REALLY INSPIRES US TO
TAKE US BACK TO THAT TIME
TO UNDERSTAND THAT ETHIC,
TO UNDERSTAND THOSE VALUES,
TO UNDERSTAND THE POWER
OF THOSE FAMILY CONNECTIONS
AND COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS.
ALL OF THAT.
WE'RE SEEING TODAY ON "JERRY
APPS: A FARM STORY,"
A REALLY WONDERFUL WISCONSIN
STORY THAT WE'RE SHARING WITH
YOU BECAUSE OF VIEWERS LIKE YOU
WHO SUPPORT PBS WISCONSIN.
SO, WE WANNA ENCOURAGE YOU
TO COME TO THE PHONE,
TO GO ONLINE, AND CONTRIBUTE
TO SUPPORT THIS WORK.
LINDA?
>> THANKS.
I'M LINDA BERMAN, A VOLUNTEER
HERE AT PBS WISCONSIN,
AND IT TRULY IS AN HONOR TO TALK
TO YOU AND TO MEET JERRY APPS.
I KNOW YOU'RE GONNA BE ABLE TO
SEE AMAZING STORIES, ESPECIALLY
STORIES ABOUT TIMES THAT WILL
BRING A LOT OF NOSTALGIA,
AND FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE,
NEW INFORMATION,
SUCH AS WHEN HIS FARM WAS
ELECTRIFIED AND I DON'T MEAN,
YOU KNOW, STRAY VOLTAGE.
I MEAN ACTUALLY GETTING
ELECTRICITY.
BUT WE HAVE SOME
WONDERFUL THANK YOU GIFTS
WHEN YOU CALL IN AT THIS TIME.
FIRST OF ALL, IF YOU CALL IN
AT THE $10 SUSTAINER LEVEL,
YOU'LL GET THIS GREAT DVD,
A 60-MINUTE PROGRAM WHICH
WE'RE GONNA BE ABLE TO SEE PART
OF IT TODAY, AND IT IS FABULOUS.
I MEAN, YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND
WHAT'S GOING ON THE FARM
AND LIFE AT THE TIME.
AT THE $15 A MONTH, YOU GET
THE OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK.
NOW, THIS IS MORE THAN
JUST A COOKBOOK.
IT'S RECIPES AND MENUS
AND MEMORIES.
IT'S OUTSTANDING.
IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE
AT THE SUSTAINER $20 LEVEL,
YOU GET A FIVE-DVD SET OF ALL OF
JERRY'S PROGRAMS RIGHT NOW
AND THE COOKBOOK.
THIS CAN ALL BE YOURS IF YOU
MAKE THAT PLEDGE RIGHT NOW.
GIVING US A CALL AT
1 (800) 236-3636.
THEY ARE FANTASTIC WAYS TO
CELEBRATE LIFE AND, AGAIN,
LEARNING OUR HISTORY
HERE IN WISCONSIN.
REMEMBER GO TO YOUR PHONES.
MAKE THAT CALL
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> THANKS, LINDA!
AND JERRY APPS IS HERE WITH US.
ONE OF MY FOND MEMORIES OF THE
OF THIS PROGRAM IS SITTING WITH
MY PARENTS AND MY SONS AND
THE THREE GENERATIONS SORT OF
CROWDED AROUND THE COMPUTER,
AND HEARING MY PARENTS
TALK ABOUT THIS TIME, AS WELL,
IN THEIR OWN MEMORIES.
AND ONE OF THE THINGS
THAT YOU'VE WORKED SO
HARD ON AND ENCOURAGE PEOPLE
IS TO SHARE THEIR STORIES.
>> YES, I--
EVERYBODY HAS A STORY TO TELL
IS MY MESSAGE.
AND HERE'S ANOTHER ONE-LINER
THAT I OFTEN USE WHEN I'M
SPEAKING TO GROUPS AND IT GOES
SOMETHING LIKE THIS,
"WHEN WE FORGET OUR HISTORIES,
WE FORGET WHO WE ARE."
SO I THINK IT'S SO IMPORTANT.
AND I'VE TRIED TO DO THAT
WITH MY WITH MY WRITING
AND WITH MY TV WORK,
IS TO HELP PEOPLE SEE THE
STORIES AND HEAR THE STORIES
AND RELATE TO THEM,
AND SEE THAT THEY'RE NOT JUST
FRIVOLOUS THINGS TO ENTERTAIN,
BUT THEY ARE THERE TO INFORM AND
HELP US UNDERSTAND WHERE
WE HAVE BEEN BECAUSE I ALSO SAY
TO VARIOUS GROUPS, "WE CAN'T
KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING UNTIL
WE KNOW WHERE WE'VE BEEN."
AND IN THE UPPER MIDWEST,
ESPECIALLY IN WISCONSIN,
IT'S THE RURAL EXPERIENCE THAT
SHOWED THE WAY FOR WHO WE ARE.
IT CREATED THE VALUES
AND THE BELIEFS
THAT STILL REMAIN WITH US,
WHICH IS TO ME VERY INTERESTING.
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT A TIME
WHERE WE HAD, AS A KID,
WE HAD-- COMPARED TO TODAY--
NOTHING.
WE HAD NOTHING IN THE WAY
OF CONVENIENCES
THAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED,
LIKE INDOOR PLUMBING AND
ELECTRICITY AND INDOOR
AND CENTRAL HEATING,
AND MILKING COWS
WITH A MILKING MACHINE.
WE DID ALL THAT BY HAND.
AND YET, IN SPITE OF THAT, WE
LEARNED SOME IMPORTANT VALUES.
>> SO, THANKS FOR, JERRY,
FOR SHARING THAT.
I THINK THE DVD AS I'VE SEEN IN
MY FAMILY AND AS WE'VE HEARD IS
A REAL PROMPT FOR FAMILIES
TO SHARE THE STORIES,
SO WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO GIVE 'EM.
YOU'VE HAD THE DVD.
I'M SURE YOU HAVE PEOPLE THAT
NOT ONLY YOU MIGHT WANNA
SHARE IT WITH, WATCH WITH,
AND WATCH IT WITH
AND SHARE YOUR STORIES, AS WELL.
LINDA.
>> AND YOU CAN SHARE YOUR
STORIES THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
WITH THIS AMAZING DVD.
THIS IS THE FARM STORY,
JERRY APPS FARM STORY.
AGAIN, YOU CAN GET THIS AT.
$10 A MONTH OR ONE-TIME $120.
IF YOU'RE A SUSTAINER,
IT'S GREAT BECAUSE AT $15 A
MONTH YOU CAN GET THE COOKBOOK,
AND THIS IS A REALLY WONDERFUL
COOKBOOK.
SHARES THROUGH THE GENERATIONS.
STORIES, MENUS,
THINGS TO DO FOR HOLIDAYS,
AND NOW WE HAVE ALSO
A FIVE-DVD COLLECTION.
AND HERE ARE THE TITLES.
YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE THEM
ON YOUR SCREEN.
THESE ARE, YOU KNOW,
THE GREAT PROGRAMS
YOU'RE SEEING RIGHT NOW.
"A FARM STORY", WITH
THE "WINTER," AND "THE LAND,"
"NEVER CURSE THE RAIN"--
SOMETHING WE SHOULD THINK
ABOUT-- "ONE-ROOM SCHOOL."
AND, OF COURSE,
THIS "COUNTRY COOKBOOK,"
WHICH IS GREAT.
THAT CAN ALL BE YOURS
AT A SUSTAINER OF $20 A MONTH,
OR ONE-TIME $240,
BUT IT ALL STARTS WITH YOUR CALL
NOW 1 (800) 236-3636.
>> JERRY, ONE OF THE THANK YOU
GIFTS THAT LINDA JUST MENTIONED
WHEN FOLKS CALL
IS "OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK."
MAYBE TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT
THAT INSPIRATION
FOR THIS PUBLICATION AND ALSO
ABOUT YOUR CO-AUTHOR.
>> SURE, WELL, FIRST,
THE CO-AUTHOR, IS MY DAUGHTER,
SUSAN APPS-BODILLY.
AND WHEN MY MOTHER PASSED
WAY BACK IN 1993,
WHEN WE WE'RE CLEANING OUT THE
HOUSE, WE FOUND A RECIPE BOX.
AND THIS OLD RECIPE BOX WAS A
BOX THAT MY MOTHER HAD USED
DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS,
COOKING ON A WOOD STOVE WITH NO
INDOOR PLUMBING, NO ELECTRICITY.
SO, THESE ARE THE RECIPES
THAT SHE USED AT THAT TIME.
AND SUSIE, HER ROLE
IN THIS WHOLE PROJECT
WAS TO MAKE THESE RECIPES.
WERE DESIGNED FOR WOODSTOVE
COOKING AND TRANSLATE THEM
SO THAT TODAY'S COOK
COULD USE THEM.
AND SHE THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE
JUST A LITTLE BIT
OF AN EASY TASK.
IT WAS A HORRENDOUSLY DIFFICULT
TASK BECAUSE MY MOTHER, IN HER
COOKING, SHE TOOK FOR GRANTED.
SHE SAID, "EVERYBODY KNOWS
HOW TO DO THIS OR THAT,"
AND THEY DIDN'T.
THEY DON'T TODAY BECAUSE
YESTERDAY WAS A VERY DIFFERENT
FROM TODAY IN COOKING.
SO, WHAT I DID.
I DIDN'T--
I DIDN'T DO MUCH
WITH THE RECIPES,
BUT WHAT I DID WAS TO WRITE THE
STORIES CONNECTED TO THE RECIPE.
AND SO, THE BOOK IS ORGANIZED
DIFFERENTLY THAN MANY COOKBOOKS.
IT'S ORGANIZED AROUND EVENTS.
IT'S ORGANIZED
AROUND THRESHING BEES.
IT'S ORGANIZED AROUND CHRISTMAS.
IT'S ORGANIZED ABOUT ALL ABOUT
ALL THE KINDS OF THINGS THAT
FARM PEOPLE WERE INVOLVED WITH.
SO, WE HAD JUST A FUN TIME
DOING THAT BOOK
AND IT TOUCHED THE NERVE.
A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN
COMMENTING ON
OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK.
>> I THINK FOR A LOT OF US
JERRY, THE CULTURE WAS REALLY
FOR ME GROWING UP AND IT'S
REALLY MORE SO FOR MY PARENTS,
THE CULTURE, THAT ETHNIC CULTURE
WAS IN THE STREETS.
IT WAS ACROSS THE STREET.
IT WAS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
IT WAS AT THE LOCAL CHURCH
AND FOR REALLY FOR MY GENERATION
AND FOR MY SONS,
WE NEED TO SEEK IT OUT
AND WE NEED TO FIND IT.
THIS IS A WONDERFUL RESOURCE
THAT DOES JUST THAT AND SO THANK
YOU FOR CONTRIBUTING THAT TO THE
LIFE OF WISCONSIN AND THANKS,
FOLKS, FOR CALLING
(800) 236-3636.
>> AND JUST TO REMIND YOU
THAT YOU GET,
AT THE $120 LEVEL ONE-TIME,
$10,
THIS AMAZING FARM STORY.
AGAIN, MANY OF THE ACTIVITIES
AND REMINISCES
YOU WILL BE SEEING COMING UP.
YOU WILL ALSO AT $15 A MONTH,
ONE-TIME $180, THE COOKBOOK.
AND I WILL TELL YOU SOME MORE
ABOUT THAT OR AT A SUSTAINER OF
$20 A MONTH, OR ONE-TIME $240,
ALL FIVE DVDS,
PLUS THE COOKBOOK.
THE COOKBOOK IS AMAZING.
CINNAMON ROLLS, FRIED DONUTS,
REFRIGERATOR PICKLES,
CHOCOLATE CHIP SQUARES,
CHERRY PIE.
SOME OF THESE CAN BE YOURS
WHEN YOU CALL
AND PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT.
WE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR
WATCHING THIS AND WE'RE GONNA
GET BACK TO THE FARM STORY
VERY SHORTLY.
BUT WHILE WE'RE TAKING
THIS BREAK,
CONSIDER GIVING US A PLEDGE
OF YOUR SUPPORT.
REALLY EASY TO DO.
YOU CAN DO IT ONLINE,
PBS WISCONSIN.ORG,
OR GIVE US A CALL
AT 1 (800) 236-3636.
REMEMBER, EASY TO DO,
AND WE THANK YOU FOR WATCHING.
BACK TO THE FARM STORY.
Potatoes... when I was a young guy
was the major cash crop all through this area.
We planted 20 acres of potatoes.
We would spend the evenings
after we got home from school and after the chores were done
down in the cellar cutting seed potatoes.
Which means, every seed potatoes has a number of eyes
we'd cut so there was at least one eye on each one.
Then we'd have enough for the next day's planting.
We did that many nights.
We'd work the field up, plowed it, disked it,
dragged it, smoothed it down.
Then we marked it with a horse-drawn marker
that made little grooves in the ground.
The rows were 40" apart
because that's the width
of the back end of a draft horse, 40".
So it could walk down the rows and cultivate.
We would mark it both ways.
It's called checking, both ways.
Then we would plant, with a hand planter
wherever the marks crossed.
A potato planter is a metal device with a handle on it
you'd drop the seed potato in the top
and you'd hear a "clip," "clip."
It would open and close as you dropped the potato in
and it went into the ground.
You worked it all the way across the 20-acre field.
I don't a quarter-mile long, something like that.
My dad and a neighbor, or a hired man sometimes
would do that, I didn't do a lot of that.
That was hard work.
Work had an elevated level of importance.
"Work" was when you went out and shocked grain
or when you went to the neighbor's on a threshing crew.
That was work.
"Chores" were something you did twice a day
and in the middle of the day, too, if you were home.
You did chores all the time.
Especially on a small dairy farm.
Chores are hauling in wood, feeding the chicken
throwing down silage, carrying in straw, milking cows.
You never bragged about it, you never talked about it
but you talked about "work" often.
You talked about how many acres of grain you shocked.
You might talk about that.
You never talked about how many cows you milked
and how much silage you threw down.
Everybody did that.
There was nothing special about chores.
Everything special about work.
We're going to put this right here.
What is it? [indistinct answer]
I've got one that's not such a--
That's an early one, 67 days...
We had a big garden...
A big garden, a quarter of an acre garden.
A big enough garden so you could cultivate with a horse
in a one-horse cultivator, 40-inch rows.
I still have such a garden.
I've never gotten over that.
What did we have in the garden?
We did not have potatoes, because we had 20 acres of them!
We had plenty of potatoes.
But there were beans, and peas, and carrots
radishes, and lettuce,
and lots of cabbage, because of the sauerkraut
sweet corn, pumpkins.
Then all that stuff was canned and stored in the cellar.
My mother canned everything.
She canned meat.
She canned beef and she canned pork.
She canned beans, and peas, and carrots.
She canned raspberries and strawberries.
She made grape jelly and strawberry jelly
and raspberry jelly.
All of these were sitting on the shelves.
Further down into the cellar
was a bin of potatoes, a couple bins of potatoes
a half a bin of rutabagas, a bunch of onions,
carrots, pumpkins, squash, all of that.
The garden was very important.
I don't recall that my folks
ever bought a vegetable from a store, ever.
Yeah, they'll freeze off tonight.
It's not going to freeze tonight, is it?
Yeah, I think so.
Let's see if you've got any radishes here.
I don't think so, no.
Wait...!
[both laugh]
You can have that one!
Here, we'll share it!
[both laugh]
Starting in April it was non-stop
something going on all the time.
If something wasn't going on, a planting, or so on
or it would be a raining day, then we would hoe.
Oh, my god, we would hoe.
We would hoe the potatoes; we would hoe the garden.
We would hoe the corn.
We would hoe the thistles in the hollows.
We would hoe the quack grass.
We hoed a lot.
We got to, well, we learned how to hoe.
I can go at great lengths
telling you about different kinds of hoes
and different ways of sharpening them.
Different ways of making it through a day of hoeing
which is the most mind numbing project in the world.
But it gave you a chance to think about things
and to develop your imagination
to appreciate the world around you.
To listen to the birds, and lots of stuff.
You play all these games with yourself
when you're alone and hoeing, and you've got to keep doing it
because the old man is on the next row.
And if you're screwing up, he's going to let you know it.
So you keep on hoeing.
We didn't have any watches
so you learn how to watch the sun.
Pretty soon, "Oh, gosh, it's got to be a least another hour."
The old man had a watch
but he wouldn't look at it very often.
So we were always waiting
"Oh, when is it going to be time to eat?"
Especially for noon, oh, good.
By lunch time we were just starved.
When it got to be lunch time, we'd all would hurry on home.
My mother would have a huge noon meal
I mean an enormous meal at noon.
We would eat this big meal and we'd all go outside
under a shade tree, flat out
sound asleep for 15-20 minutes, half an hour.
The old man would say, "Okay, time to get back out."
Then we're back at it, whatever we're doing.
Geez, we worked hard, long, long days.
We started at the crack of dawn, before dawn sometimes.
Of course we were tired.
We were exhausted.
In fact, one of my dad's mantas was
when you're talking about juvenile delinquency
he'd kind of rolled his eyes when somebody'd mention that.
He said, "Just remember, a tired kid is a good kid."
[laughs]
There's some truth to that.
Making hay
a huge project on the farm when I was a kid.
Because dairy cows
in order produce anything in the winter time
you needed to have a good supply of hay.
We would grow, on our 160-acre farm
probably 30 acres of hay.
My dad would hitch the team, Frank and Charlie, to our mower
and head out to the hay field and cut the hay.
Then my brothers and I were faced with that onerous task
of coming out here and piling the hay into bunches
or as they were sometimes called, hay cocks.
Each of us had our own three-tined fork.
You started by piling little pieces of hay
one layer on top of the other
until it was probably four feet high or so.
You made it so it had a little cover on it
a little top on it, so it would shed rain.
Oufather was a stickler.
These hay bunches had to be made just right.
And they had to be in straight rows.
We were German.
It was a thing to see, though.
At the end of the day, there were hay bunches
from one end to the other.
We would often stand, leaning on our forks
looking out over that field of hay.
My dad was not one to talk about things artistic
but he had a sense of it.
We looked out over that hay
and he would say something like, "Isn't that something?"
And it was.
It was something to see.
Then when it was time to haul the hay to the barn
which would be a couple, three days later
once more, we would hitch the team to the hay wagon
and go out to the field.
We would pitch these hay cocks onto the hay wagon
until there was an immense load of hay.
Then we would pull that load of hay up to the barn.
In the haymow, on a warm day in summer
maybe it was 85 outside, it'd be 110.
In those days, my mother and dad made homemade Hires root beer.
My folks had a bottling machine and empty bottles.
To tell you the truth
I think this was left over from Prohibition
but we didn't talk about that.
[laughs]
These bottles of root beer, now
we stored them down in the cellar.
The big treat
when we would bring up one of these huge loads of hay
my mother would come out to the wagon
with a bottle of homemade Hires root beer.
It was wonderful.
The Fourth of July, when I was a kid
was a wonderful celebration
because we would have a half-day off.
Pa said, we can't afford
to get away from haying for a whole day.
But we'll work in the morning
and we'll go to Silver Lake in the afternoon.
Our mother would make a magnificent picnic lunch
and we would drive to Silver Lake.
There, under the pine trees
we would eat this big picnic lunch.
My brothers and I would jump into Silver Lake for a swim.
We did that every year.
Lots of people there, Silver Lake was a tourist attraction.
We always looked askance at all these tourists.
You could spot them, no problem at all.
A lot of them wore short pants.
A farmer never wore short pants.
That's dumb, you'd scratch your legs all to the dickens.
The fireworks were always at the lake in the evening.
But we wouldn't go
because we had the chores to do, milking to do
and all the rest of it.
Sometimes we would sit out on our back porch.
If it was a clear night
we could see the five miles or so to Silver Lake
and dimly, on the horizon, we could catch the fireworks.
Then the next day
it was back to work as it had been.
You got any more gear to move on the truck, Ralph?
Yep...
Threshing started after haying season.
Everybody in our community had from 20 to 30 acres of oats.
The threshing season
began when Pa hitched the team to the grain binder.
It was a far more complicated machine than a mower
because it had chains running this way and that.
Bundles would come spewing out of the side of the machine.
We, again my brothers and I, were faced with the task
of standing up these bundles into shocks.
If a grain shock fell down, then you were in trouble.
They needed to withstand the wind.
They needed to withstand the rain.
The grain shocks would stand there for maybe a week
and on threshing day, oh, what a deal that was!
Now, a threshing machine
was the most complicated piece of equipment
that ever came onto a farm.
Belts and pulleys running in every direction.
It was a wonderful machine
and once it began operating
it shook and the dust was flying.
We'd invite all the neighbors to come.
Some would come with teams and their wagons.
Some would come as pitchers, and some would come as carriers.
At noontime, the whole crew would pile into the house
and my mother would have prepared a wonderful meal
that was akin to Thanksgiving or Christmas.
What was also interesting
is that the farm women all helped each other
but they competed with each other, too.
You just knew it was going on
because everyone wanted to be known
as having the very best threshing meal.
Some of them weren't that good.
When we would come to a farm
were we knew the meal was not going to be a great meal
we would hurry everything up
so we would get finished and get on to the next place.
If we knew that that farmer's wife had a really fine spread
we would slow everything down
so that we might get an extra meal out of that place.
Everybody knew that we were doing that.
[laughs]
One of the moments that I remember most vividly
I was 14 years old, or so
is pitching bundles from the wagon into the machine.
It's a skill.
You have to keep them in order.
You can't put them in crossways.
They've got to be the same distance apart.
You're always looking to where to catch the next bundle
with your three-tined fork.
All the while, my dad is watching.
That was the most important days in my life, really
because the day that you were able
to pitch off a load of bundles into the threshing machine
was the day you moved from being a boy to a man.
My dad had this little smile on his face.
I knew when I finished, and my arms ached and my back hurt
and it's terribly hard work, that I had done it.
I've never forgotten that.
Going to town was a big deal
because we didn't do it very often.
Enormous place...
[laughter]
all 528 people that lived there at the time.
Main Street was just wonderful
because we had, besides the mercantile store
there was a dry good store, there was a harness shop
there was a restaurant, there was a hotel.
Hotz's Hardware store.
My dad and I, we would go down to Hotz's Hardware
and there in the back of Hotz's Hardware
were a whole bunch of old-timers gathered
to share stories with each other
lie to each other, I suppose you might say.
I was always along.
The stories were just wonderful.
I heard them over and over again
as these old-timers
would talk about how things were going
how the cows were milking, how the pastures were doing.
How it was last year, when things were better
and how 40 years ago, they were so much better still.
There are people who are natural storytellers
and many of these farmers were.
Some of them were tremendous embellishers.
They would tell the same story over and over again
and every time it's different.
We had one neighbor, he was so special
he just out and out lied.
He created stories out of whole cloth.
I'd just sit there listening.
This guy was telling stories that just made no sense at all.
But I thought, this is a wonderful story
it was so ch not true, I'm sure.
There's nothing better...
Pickles were a very important part of our life in those days.
To earn a little money
that we could use at the mercantile in Wild Rose.
Every farmer, in the days when I was a kid
in central Wisconsin
had a pickle patch, as we referred to it.
Cucumbers, a half an acre
sometimes an acre, the size of the cucumber patch
depended on the size of the family.
The kids did all of the picking.
We would pick them into pails.
Oh, what a back-breaking job it was.
But cucumber money was our money.
It was a way for farm kids, who didn't have any money
there wasn't such a thing as an allowance.
We didn't know what that meant.
It was money used to buy a bicycle
to buy Christmas presents, maybe a .22 rifle.
At the end of the day we would pile the sacks of cucumbers
into the back of the Plymouth and drive to Wild Rose
to the H.J. Heinz salting station.
They were dumped into a sorter
that separated the number ones, the little short gherkins
from the number fives, the big old dills.
Then we received our check.
In those days, number one cucumbers
sold for $25 a hundred.
But you never got a 100 pounds in a 100 years.
They were just little tiny things
the size of your little finger.
They number fives, that were fun to pick
because you could grab hold of them
and they weren't hiding under some leaf.
Well, 50 cents a 100 if you were lucky, sometimes a quarter.
That is an enormous, old Black Willow.
My, goodness.
I was looking to see if I could find the nail holes.
I couldn't find 'em.
Tuesday evenings, that was the night for free movies.
We would all hurry at the farm
to get the chores done and drive down to Wild Rose.
On the banks the mill pond there was a incline
and there had been set out planks for seating.
The operator of the free movie would arrive
and he would set up this machine.
The screen was a bed sheet
that he somehow fastened to a 2 x 4
that was nailed against a big, old Black Willow
that hung over the mill pond.
The main feature would sometimes be Gene Autry
sometimes it would be Roy Rogers.
I mean, it was absolutely wonderful.
As we sat there
and you could hear the bull frogs down in the mill pond
you could hear, later in the summer, the crickets.
I remember, this was in 1945, World War II.
Many, many young men from Wild Rose
had gone off to the war.
VE Day, victory in Europe, had occurred somewhat earlier
and now we were waiting for VJ day
when Japan would finally give up.
waiting for the movie to come on
and then we hear gunshots for heaven's sakes.
We all look around.
We look, and coming down Main Street
in kind of a jagged line were the World War I veterans
who were in the American Legion.
They were shooting their M1 rifles into the air
and they were yelling
"The war is over! The war is over!"
Pretty soon the entire crowd was joining in
throwing their hats into the air
and yelling, "The war is over!"
People were jumping up and down.
And the taverns, everybody poured out of the taverns.
Pretty soon, we were all on Main Street.
We were ignoring the movie.
Nobody paid any attention to Gene Autry.
Even my dad, who was not much for celebrating
I saw him celebrating.
My mother was celebrating.
My mother was especially interested in the war being over
because everything had been rationed especially sugar.
Then, all of the sudden, my dad put his hand on my shoulder
and he said, "That's enough celebration.
It's time to go home."
And we drove home.
In Wild Rose at that time
there was a huge sign on the front of the Village Hall
listing every young man who was off to war.
There were several with gold stars in front of their names
which meant they weren't coming back.
That evening when we were celebrating
there were people not only cheering
but there were a lot of people crying.
>> HI, I'M JON MISKOWSKI,
DIRECTOR OF PBS WISCONSIN,
AND WE'RE WATCHING
JERRY APPS: A FARM STORY.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS THAT
CAME OUT OF THIS STORY WAS
PEOPLE ASKING IS WILD ROSE
A REAL PLACE?
AND, OF COURSE, IT IS!
AND IF YOU LIVE IN WISCONSIN,
YOU KNOW IT IS.
BUT IT DOES REALLY FEEL SORT OF,
SORT OF OUT OF, YOU KNOW, A
THORNTON WILDER PLAY, OF COURSE.
BUT THOSE VALUES, THAT HISTORY
OF FARMING, WHICH WAS NOT EASY
AND YOU'RE SEEING JERRY
SHARING THE STORY OF HIS FAMILY.
AND I CAN TESTIFY
TO WATCHING PEOPLE
WATCH THE SHOW AND PEOPLE
NODDING AND REMEMBERING
THESE STORIES.
SO JERRY IS ABLE TO NOT ONLY
SHARE HIS STORY,
BUT I CAN TELL YOU IF YOU DIDN'T
HEAR THESE STORIES FROM YOUR
GRANDPARENTS, I WILL TELL YOU,
YOUR GRANDPARENTS
WHO GREW UP ON A FARM WOULD BE
NODDING ALONG AND SAYING
THIS WAS LIKE THEIR STORY,
AS WELL.
THIS IS A REALLY GREAT
OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT PBS
WISCONSIN NOT ONLY TO SUPPORT
THIS PROGRAM.
WE HAVE THE DVD AVAILABLE TO YOU
WITH YOUR GIFT
AND THIS IS A CHALLENGE BREAK,
WHICH MEANS YOUR DOLLARS ARE
DOUBLED BY CURRENT MEMBERS
OF PBS WISCONSIN.
SO WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR
CONTRIBUTION,
IT CAN GO TWICE AS FAR.
WHEN YOU CALL AND PLEDGE RIGHT
NOW.
THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL IS
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> HI, I'M LINDA BERMAN, A
VOLUNTEER HERE AT PBS WISCONSIN.
AND THIS IS SUCH
A GREAT TIME TO CALL.
YES, IT'S A MEMBER CHALLENGE,
BUT ALSO BECAUSE WE ARE SHARING
SOME OF THESE INCREDIBLY
HUMOROUS STORIES--
VERY VIVID TOO-- OF JERRY APPS.
NOW, TO CONTINUE THE ENJOYMENT
AND BE ABLE TO SHARE MORE,
WE ARE OFFERING YOU SOME
VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU GIFTS.
AT THE $10 MONTH LEVEL,
ONE TIME $120, YOU GET
THE DVD WE'RE WATCHING NOW.
YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE ALL
60 MINUTES OF THIS ON OUR AIR.
THIS IS THE FARM STORY.
AT $15 A MONTH OR ONE TIME $180,
YOU GET THE OLD FARM COOKBOOK.
NOW REALLY,
THIS IS MORE THAN A COOKBOOK.
AS JERRY SAID,
IT'S ORGANIZED BY EVENTS.
SO THERE'S RECIPES, MENUS,
AND MEMORIES.
AND IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE
AT THE $20 DOLLAR LEVEL,
$240 ONE TIME, YOU GET
NOT ONLY THE COOKBOOK,
BUT YOU ALSO GET THE FIVE DVDS.
THE PROGRAMS: THE STORY WE'RE
WATCHING, THE ONE ROOM SCHOOL,
FARM WINTER,
NEVER CURSE THE RAIN,
WHICH I LOVE, AND THE LAND.
NOW, MOST IMPORTANTLY,
IS YOU MAKE THAT PLEDGE NOW
WHEN IT REALLY, REALLY COUNTS
AND IT'S DOUBLED.
IT'S EASY TO DO.
GO TO YOUR PHONE.
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> YOU'RE WATCHING
JERRY APPS: A FARM STORY.
REALLY PROUD OF THIS WORK AND,
YOU KNOW, THIS WAS MADE FOR
WISCONSIN, WAS TO TELL
A WISCONSIN STORY,
BUT WE'RE ALSO REALLY PROUD
THAT IT'S BEEN SEEN
ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
AND IT'S REALLY STRUCK A CHORD,
JERRY.
>> IT TRULY HAS AND ONE OF
THE INTERESTING THINGS WAS THAT
PEOPLE SOMETIMES--
THEY WERE-- WILD ROSE,
WHAT IS THIS ANYWAY?
WHAT IS THAT?
AND INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH
THE PEOPLE CAME FROM FAR,
DISTANT PLACES
JUST TO SEE WILD ROSE.
THE LIBRARIAN REPORTED TO ME,
SAID PEOPLE HAVE COME IN TO
THE STORE, COME TO THE LIBRARY
AND THEY-- THEY'RE FROM
THEY'RE FROM ILLINOIS.
THEY'RE FROM IOWA,
FROM MINNESOTA.
THEY'RE FROM NEBRASKA.
THEY COULDN'T BELIEVE THERE
WAS SUCH A PLACE AS WILD ROSE.
WELL, THERE IS OF COURSE, AND
THAT'S PART OF THE STORY.
AND THE FACT THAT IT AIRED
ACROSS THE COUNTRY,
I GOT EMAILS AND PHONE CALLS
FROM EVERY WHICH WHERE.
ONE STORY I'LL SHARE.
THIS IS ABOUT 5 O'CLOCK
IN THE AFTERNOON AND THE
PHONE RINGS AND I ANSWERED
THE PHONE AND THIS FELLOW SAYS,
[CALLER] ARE YOU THAT THERE
FELLOW JERRY APPS WHO WRITES
THEM THERE STORIES AND
DOES THAT TV STUFF?
AND I SAID, WELL, YES.
[CALLER] WELL, I WANT YOU TO
KNOW THAT I KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT
OLD TIME FARMING, AS WELL.
I LIVE UP HERE
IN PALMER, ALASKA.
YOU KNOW WHERE
PALMER, ALASKA IS?
I SAID, YES, I DO.
I TAUGHT UP THERE
A COUPLE OF YEARS.
WELL, I WANNA TELL YOU ABOUT
MY FARM UP HERE IN PALMER.
AND HE WENT ON FOR 20 MINUTES
TO TELL ME ABOUT HIS FARM.
AND THEN, HE SAID,
BUT THERE WAS ONE THING
DIFFERENT ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE
THAN YOURS:
OUR DOG HAD A DIFFERENT NAME.
[JON AND JERRY CHUCKLE]
>> VERY NICE.
THANKS, JERRY!
WE'RE ENCOURAGING FOLKS TO
GO TO THE PHONE RIGHT NOW.
GET THESE SPECIAL
THANK YOU GIFTS.
YOU KNOW WHEN WE MENTIONED
WILD ROSE,
I HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT AS
MY MOTHER-IN-LAW WOULD HAVE SAID
MY WIFE'S PEOPLE
ARE FROM WILD ROSE.
SO WE'VE HAD A GREAT TIME
AND THANK YOU, JERRY.
WE HAD A LITTLE TOUR OF YOUR
FARM WITH MY BOYS AND IT'S JUST
A REMINDER OF THESE CONNECTIONS
THAT WE HAVE.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO FAR
TO FIND A LITTLE DIRT
UNDER OUR FINGERNAILS THROUGHOUT
WISCONSIN AND WE'RE SO HAPPY
TO SHARE THIS STORY.
LINDA?
>> AND MANY OF THE STORIES
ALSO SHOW THE DEPENDENCE
ON NEIGHBORS.
WELL, WE DEPEND ON YOU,
OUR VIEWERS TO HELP SUPPORT
AND KEEP THESE FABULOUS
PROGRAMS GOING.
IT'S REAL EASY TO DO,
ESPECIALLY NOW
WITH THIS MEMBER CHALLENGE.
IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE AT $10
A MONTH, OR $120,
YOU GET THE FARM STORY.
YOU GET THE PROGRAM
WE WILL BE ABLE TO SEE
IN ITS ENTIRETY TODAY.
IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE AT
THE $15 A MONTH, $180 ONE TIME,
YOU GET THIS GREAT COOKBOOK
AND, I MEAN,
IT IS A GREAT COOKBOOK.
I HAVE BEEN INSPIRED
BY THE CINNAMON ROLLS AND
THE CHERRY PIE, AND, OF COURSE,
THE CHOCOLATE CHIP SQUARES.
HAVE YOU NOTICE THAT
THEY'RE ALL SWEETS?
THERE ARE MORE THAN SWEETS,
BUT THAT'S WHAT HAS INSPIRED ME.
AND IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE AT
THE $20 SUSTAINER A MONTH,
ONE TIME $240, NOT ONLY
DO YOU GET THE COOKBOOK,
YOU GET ALL FIVE DVD'S.
THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO SPEND THE
WINTER OR OTHER JUST ACTIVITIES
TO BE WITH YOUR FAMILY.
IF YOU MISS YOUR FAMILY STORIES,
THIS IS A WAY TO TUNE IN
TO SEE AND HEAR AND ENJOY
JERRY'S FAMILY'S STORIES.
NOT ALL OF US WERE FROM FARMS,
BUT NOW YOU APPRECIATE
THE FARM CULTURE.
YOU APPRECIATE WHAT EVERYBODY
HAS DONE AND THIS IS A GREAT WAY
TO SHARE IT WITH YOU, WHEN YOU
CALL AND PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT AT
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> WELL, AS FOLKS WHO'VE
BEEN AROUND HERE A WHILE
KNOW THAT PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WAS INVENTED IN WISCONSIN
AND REALLY A PART OF
THAT PURPOSE WAS TO BRING THE
UNIVERSITY THROUGHOUT THE STATE.
BUT THAT PUBLIC BROADCAST
IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF
THAT PRE ELECTRIFICATION STORY,
AS WELL, JERRY.
>> WELL, IT IS.
IN FACT, WE DIDN'T GET
ELECTRICITY ON THE HOME FARM
UNTIL 1947.
AND PRIOR TO THAT TIME,
WE REALLY DEPENDED ON THE RADIO
FOR A LOT OF THINGS.
AND I SHOULD ADD THIS:
I ATTENDED A ONE-ROOM COUNTRY
SCHOOL FOR 8 YEARS AND I--
AT THE SCHOOL, WE DEPENDED
ON PUBLIC RADIO
TO PROVIDE LET'S SING, LET'S
DRAW, AFIELD WITH RANGER MAC.
THESE WERE-- THESE WERE PROGRAMS
THAT I HAVE IN MY HEAD TO THIS
DAY AND HOW IMPORTANT THEY WERE
AT THAT TIME WHEN WE HAD,
AS I MENTIONED EARLIER,
WE HAD NOT MUCH
OF ANY OUTSIDE CONNECTION,
BUT THE FACT THAT PUBLIC RADIO
WAS PROVIDING ALL OF THIS FOR US
WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING.
IT'S-- IT--
WELL, CAN YOU IMAGINE
A BUNCH OF US
TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO SING
BY LISTENING TO THE RADIO?
I MEAN, IT SOUNDS--
IT SOUNDS PREPOSTEROUS,
BUT IT WORKED AND PROFESSOR
GORDON WAS FANTASTIC
AT GETTING US ALL EXCITED
ABOUT SINGING.
I MUST CONFESS, I STILL HAVE
DIFFICULTY CARRYING A TUNE,
BUT I SURELY ENJOYED
WHAT WE'RE HEARING ON THE RADIO
IN THOSE DAYS.
>> YEAH, THOSE IMAGES THAT WE
HAVE OF PROFESSOR GORDON AND THE
GATHERINGS AND WHAT IT MEANT IS
JUST REALLY A WONDERFUL LEGACY
THAT WE'RE PART OF.
I WILL PULL OUT--
WOW, JERRY!
I HAVE-- I'M HOLDING
FIVE PROGRAMS THAT
WE'VE PRODUCED TOGETHER.
THE ONE THAT IS--
THAT LINDA HAS MENTIONED
THAT'S IN THE GROUP OF FIVE
IS CALLED ONE-ROOM SCHOOL,
WHICH REALLY IS, AGAIN, LOOKING
AT THAT EXPERIENCE AND INCLUDES
A STORY ABOUT ON THE RADIO.
THE ONE THAT REALLY SURPRISED ME
IS LET'S DRAW.
I MEAN, WHO'S IDEA WAS TO TEACH
ART AND DRAWING ON THE RADIO?
THAT SEEMS REALLY, REALLY
AMBITIOUS, SO.
>> WELL, JIM SCHWALBACH'S
WAS TEACHING AT THAT TIME
AND ONE OF THE THINGS
THAT JIM SCHWALBACH DID, AND IF
I COULD SHARE THAT LITTLE STORY.
HE DID NOT INSIST
THAT WE COLOR WITHIN THE LINES.
MANY OF US GREW UP IN THAT
"DO NOT..."
JIM SCHWALBACH HAD AN ENTIRELY
DIFFERENT IDEA
AND ONE THING THAT HE DID,
WHICH I WOULD NEVER FORGOTTEN,
HE SAID.
AND THIS IS A LITTLE,
A LITTLE ACTIVITY THAT HE HAD.
HE SAID, NOW I WANT YOU ALL,
I WANT YOU ALL JUST TO HAVE A
BLANK SHEET OF PAPER IN FRONT OF
YOU AND A PEN OR A CRAYOLA AND
PUT YOUR HEADS DOWN AND LISTEN.
I'M GONNA TELL YOU
A LITTLE STORY,
HE SAID, NOW, WE'RE ALL GOING
TO GO ON AN AIRPLANE RIDE.
WE'RE GONNA GO TO--
WE'RE GONNA GO TO NORWAY.
AND WHEN WE GET TO NORWAY,
WE'RE GONNA LAND AT A PLACE
CALLED BERGEN.
AND THEN WE'RE GONNA--
WE'RE GONNA VISIT, WE'RE GONNA
VISIT A FAMOUS COMPOSER.
HIS NAME IS EDVARD GRIEG.
AND THEN HE PLAYS
EDVARD GRIEG MUSIC AND
WE'RE LISTENING TO THIS
ON THE RADIO AND THEN HE SAYS,
AND WE'RE COMING BACK HOME
AND NOW, HE SAYS,
I WANT YOU ALL TO LOOK UP FROM
YOUR PAGE AND I WANT YOU TO
DRAW WHAT YOU JUST HEARD.
HOW MORE CREATIVE
CAN YOU BE THAN THAT?
DRAW WHAT YOU JUST HEARD.
AND IT WAS CLASSIC MUSIC.
I'VE NEVER HEARD
OF EDVARD GRIEG BEFORE.
BUT NOW I HEARD A PIECE OF
HIS MUSIC AND I HAD TO DRAW
SOMETHING THAT CAME TO MIND
FROM THIS TRIP TO BERGEN.
>> THANKS, JERRY.
THANKS FOR SHARING THAT.
AND THIS, FOLKS,
IT'S REALLY WONDERFUL.
WE HAVE FIVE HOURS
OF THESE WONDERFUL STORIES
AND THE STORIES OF WISCONSIN
TO SHARE WITH YOU
WHEN YOU CALL AND PLEDGE
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> AND THESE STORIES
ARE FASCINATING AND
YOU GET TO ENJOY THEM AND
SHARE THEM WITH YOUR FAMILY
IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE NOW.
IF YOU CALL AT THE $10 A MONTH
LEVEL, YOU WILL GET THE PROGRAM
WE'RE WATCHING NOW,
THE FARM STORY.
IF YOU CALL AT THE $15 A MONTH,
YOU WILL GET THIS OLD FARM
COOKBOOK AND I WILL TELL YOU,
THEY-- AS JERRY SAID,
IT IS BY EVENTS SUCH AS
THE CORN SHREDDING DINNER.
THAT'S BEEF ROAST,
BAKED POTATO AND GRAVY,
CARROTS WITH CREAM SAUCE,
COOKED RUTABAGAS, DILL PICKLES,
PEACH PIE, AND EGG COFFEE.
I MEAN, IT'S JUST TELLS YOU--
YOU CAN JUST ENVISION,
ALMOST LIKE WITH EDVARD GRIEG,
WHAT IT WOULD BE AND THIS
CAN BE YOURS AT $15 A MONTH.
IF YOU CALL AND PLEDGE AT $20
A MONTH, YOU GET JUST THE--
NOT JUST THE COOKBOOK,
BUT ALSO THE FIVE DVDS.
THESE CAN ALL BE YOURS BUT
AGAIN, IT'S ALMOST LIKE CREATING
A WHOLE NEW LEGACY OR CONTINUING
THE LEGACY OF YOUR FAMILY
BY ENJOYING THESE STORIES.
AND IT'S REAL EASY TO DO,
ESPECIALLY NOW WITH THIS
NEW AND OLD MEMBER BREAK TIME
TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP.
GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET THESE
WONDERFUL THANK YOU GIFTS, BUT
IT STARTS WITH YOUR CALL AT
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> IN THE SHOW A FARM STORY,
WE'RE SEEING JERRY REALLY TAKE
US THROUGH THIS REVOLUTION ON
THE FARM AND YOU'VE TALKED--
I'VE HEARD YOU TALK ABOUT WE'RE
GOING THROUGH ANOTHER REVOLUTION
ON THE FARM AND HOW A LOT OF
FARMERS ARE LOOKING AT THAT PRE-
ELECTRIFICATION ERA AS A WAY TO
INFORM THEIR WORK AND BE PART OF
A NEXT SORT OF REALLY DRAMATIC
CHANGES IN FARM LIFE.
>> YOU KNOW, THE COMING OF
ELECTRICITY, PEOPLE OFTEN ASK ME
WELL WHAT WERE--
AND WHY THEY ASK SUCH
A QUESTION, I DON'T KNOW--
WHAT WERE IMPORTANT
TIMES IN YOUR LIFE?
WHAT I HAD TO SAY, AND I'VE BEEN
ALL OVER THE PLACE AROUND THE
WORLD, BUT THE COMING OF
ELECTRICITY TO OUR FARM
HAD A MORE PROFOUND IMPACT ON ME
THAN ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE
THAT HAPPENED
BECAUSE OUR LIVES CHANGED
DRAMATICALLY AT THAT TIME.
IN WHAT WAY?
WELL, FIRST OFF,
ON A PERSONAL LEVEL,
MY FRIENDS IN TOWN IN WILD ROSE
THAT I'D GONE TO SCHOOL WITH
IN HIGH SCHOOL, THEY ALL HAD
ELECTRICITY AND WE WERE--
WE WERE ASHAMED TO INVITE THEM
TO COME OUT TO THE FARM.
WE HAD NO INDOOR PLUMBING.
WE HAD-- WE HAD NOTHING.
AND NOW WE HAD ELECTRICITY
AND WE AS FARM PEOPLE,
WE'RE ON A LEVEL WITH THE FOLKS
LIVING IN THE URBAN AREAS.
THAT LITTLE SOCIAL CHANGE, ASIDE
FROM HOW IT MADE LIFE EASIER FOR
US, WE COULD LIGHT OUR WAY,
WE COULD ADD ELECTRIC MOTORS
TO PUMP OUR WATER AND TO MILK
OUR COWS AND ALL OF THAT,
THERE'S A SOCIAL DIMENSION
TO IT THAT, TO ME,
WAS EVEN MORE PROFOUND.
>> THANKS, JERRY,
AND I THINK I WANNA
REPEAT ONE THING, YOU SAID.
AND THAT IS WHAT WE'VE SEEN WITH
THESE SHOWS IS THAT IT'S
INSPIRED PEOPLE TO HAVE PRIDE IN
THAT EXPERIENCE, IN THAT GROWING
UP ON THE FARM,
RECOGNIZING THOSE VALUES,
RECOGNIZE WHAT IT'S MEANT TO
THEIR LIFE AND THEIR FAMILY
AND YOU TALKED ABOUT IT.
SOMETHING THAT OFTEN IN
YOUR GENERATION, PEOPLE WANT
TO PUT AWAY AND
YOU'VE REALLY OPENED IT UP.
THIS CONVERSATION OF SAYING
THIS IS A WONDERFUL ETHIC AND
TRADITION THAT
WE SHOULD CELEBRATE AND
RECOGNIZE INDIVIDUALLY.
SO THANK YOU FOR THAT.
THANKS FOR FOLKS CALLING.
WE'LL BE BACK AFTER THE END OF
THE SHOW WITH JERRY AND HEAR A
LITTLE BIT MORE AND YOU CAN CALL
WITH YOUR SUPPORT AT
1 (800) 236-3636.
The country schools in those days
that was the social center of the community
obviously, the educational center.
Beyond that, it defined the community.
It ge a community a sense of identity.
When people asked you, "Where do you live?"
You would not say four and a half miles west of Wild Rose
You would say
"I live in the Chain of Lakes School community."
People knew where that was.
Country schools in those days
were, at least up in this neck of the woods
were pretty much the same.
It was one room with all eight grades in the room, one teacher.
In the front was a blackboard.
The desks were lined up, the little kids in the front
larger desks in the back.
In the front of the room was the teacher's desk where she sat.
There was a bell she had on the desk.
There wasn't any reason
why you shouldn't learn what was being taught
because it came at you several different times.
By second grade, or so, you were already helping.
I liked reading
so I was helping the younger kids with reading.
We also, of course, could listen
to all of the grades ahead of us.
By the time we got to that grade, we already knew
a whole lot about what they were going to be studying.
One of the really interesting things about it
is how we all worked together.
The idea of community was very much there.
There wasn't any of the little kids against the big kids
or the older against the younger.
There wasn't any of that.
I had potato vacation
as did everyone in our country school
for two weeks in October, so that could we pick potatoes.
Potato vacation was a miserable time.
It was cold in the morning and we were out there.
The way you dug potatoes
was two men usually with six-tine forks
shoulder-to-shoulder, would go down the rows
and dig the potatoes.
One kid would come along behind picking the potatoes
for those two diggers.
On a good day, you could pick 100 bushels.
I was paid to do this, a penny a bushel.
If you really worked, you could make a buck.
At the country school, we also had a Halloween party.
What we were doing then
I'm sure would be totally illegal today.
The teacher would bring a big washtub
and fill it with water, and you bobbed for apples.
Now to do that, you had to push your head
clear to the bottom of this thing.
So your entire head was submerged.
We'd come up spitting
and hoped to have bitten into an apple.
That was the Halloween program at school.
That was sort of tame.
But in the community--
Now I was never a part of any of this
you've got to recognize that.
The kids would do some shenanigans
that were, well, not so much appreciated.
The favorite one was, of course, tipping over outhouses.
Everybody expected to have their outhouse tipped over.
Occasionally, the person was in it.
That was not such a good thing.
But one of the favorite tricks, as I remember
was that one of our neighbors
I think it was Alan Davis, came out in the morning
and noticed that his cows were all harnessed
that the kids had harnessed up his cows
with the horse harnesses.
Our nearest neighbor was a half a mile away
and that was considered a close neighbor.
The other direction, there was another one
maybe three-quarters of a mile away.
Our good friends, with the boys
they were a mile away
a little more than that by the road
but we could go across the fields.
By the way, we thought nothing
of walking from farm to farm.
We would walk to Chain of Lakes
to ice skate in the winter, which was a mile and a half.
When we would get there, we'd build a big bon fire.
Oh, the nights in the fall and the winter were so dark.
The blessing of that is when we'd be walking to a neighbor
on a clear night in January
when it was maybe zero, and the snow crunched under foot
the whole sky was ablaze with stars.
You could see stars everywhere and in every direction.
It was a magnificent time.
We would ice skate at night, we would ski at night.
I don't remember ever having any problems seeing.
There wasn't such a thing as a flashlight.
We never used lamps or lanterns when we walked anywhere.
Yet we seemed to be able to see where we were going.
But back to the school year.
One of the major social events of the year
was the Christmas program at the country school.
Everybody, every kid, from maybe five years old in first grade
to the kid that might be 14 years old in eighth grade
was expected to participate.
Stand up on the stage and say their piece
as it was called in those days
in addition to being a part of the musical numbers
and little plays, and all that sort of stuff.
I was really fretting about this
because I was a shy little guy.
I said, "Miss, I'd just as soon not be a part
of the Christmas program.
It's something I don't want to do."
She whispered to me, "I have for you a secret.
I don't want you to tell anybody.
But here, if you do what I'm going to tell you
you will have no trouble saying your piece
standing up on the stage and looking out over the crowd..."
When she mentioned looking out over the crowd
I tell you, right away, the cold sweat
the idea of looking out, here are all the neighbors
the aunts, and the uncles, and the cousins
and the bachelors, everybody.
Everybody came.
It didn't matter if they had kids in school or not.
The idea of standing up there
just scared the bajeebers out of me.
Well, now it's the night of the Christmas program
and I've got tucked away in my mind
this little secret that she told me.
Here I am standing on the stage, fresh, new bib overalls
and I say the thing without any problem.
What was the secret?
She said, "Do you see the damper on that stovepipe
in the back of the room?"
I said, "I see that damper."
She said, "When you stand up there and give your talk
you look at that damper, don't look at the crowd.
They'll think you're looking right at them
but you're not, and you will do well."
I had been looking at the damper on the stovepipe ever since.
By the time we finished eighth grade
every kid in that little, remote country school
knew how to stand up on the stage and say his or her piece.
That's an invaluable lesson.
Many people don't realize
why country school kids were able to do that.
They had practiced from the time they were in first grade.
The people in the village, in Wild Rose
they all had electricity.
That went way back to the days
when the mill generated electricity for the village
but none of our neighbors had electricity
until after the war.
Everybody had lamps and lanterns
lamps in the house, lanterns outside.
Now go back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Part of his New Deal was to sign legislation
that created the Rural Electrification Administration
the REA.
Then they began stringing lines to farmers.
Well, World War II came along in 1941
and all that stopped
because there weren't any men available.
Copper wire wasn't available.
After the war
REA was now coming into the communities.
The farmers were responsible for wiring their buildings
prior to electric company
in the language of the day, "hooking us up"
to that main line.
We hired a couple of electricians.
They wired the house and they wired the barn.
They wired the milk house and they wired the chicken house.
They wired all of the buildings.
It took them several weeks.
They wired everything except the outhouse.
My dad said, "Whatever goes on in there
does not require extra light."
So the wiring was all complete
but not in time for the poles to be set before the freeze-up.
All the winter of '46-'47, we waited.
Of course, we were turning switches off and on
and all of that, because everything was there
but there wasn't any power.
One day I came home from school and my dad said
"We are hooked up."
Indeed, power surged through all these lines
that were all over our farmstead.
Now we're all gathered in the kitchen
and Pa's at the light switch.
We're standing there and he flips on the switch.
For the longest time, nobody said anything
because we couldn't see.
It was brighter than anything we had ever experienced before.
That night, we left the barn lanterns in the house.
We went out to the barn
my dad and I, to do the milking.
We, as people
had forgotten that not only did we have to adjust
to something that was so new, and so unknown to us
but all the animals had to adjust, too.
It took a week or so
before the cows became accustomed to all of that light
and would be normal as we milked them.
If there was anything that happened in my life
and I've traveled all over the world
doing all kinds of things
that single event
the day that we went from lamps and lanterns to electricity
is the most seared in my mind in it's importance.
My life changed dramatically that day.
Everything changed on the farm.
We wanted electric motors.
We wanted a motor to drive our pump.
We wanted a milking machine.
We wanted an elevator
to move hay up into the barn, and so on.
The end of World War II, was a momentous time.
Electricity came to the farm
tractors became more available.
During the war you couldn't buy a tractor.
That was the beginning of the end
of the farm community
that we knew in the '30s, '40s and early '50s.
The family farm was beginning to disappear.
Farmers began to buy each other out.
Larger farms were becoming the norm
and guys like me were displaced.
A handful of us were fortunate enough to go to college.
The rest of them who wanted to be farmers
I think one or two maybe had that opportunity.
The rest had to find work elsewhere.
It was the end of the threshing crews
as combines became available.
It was the end of the country school.
They began closing, consolidating.
School buses began running up and down the road.
Everything was changing, and changing dramatically.
Changing faster than most people were aware.
They didn't realize that not only technology was changing
but the social life was changing.
The definition of community was changing.
The relationship that people had with each other was changing.
The dependence that people had on each other
to make their lives worth living
socially, as well as economically.
They helped each other with their farm projects.
They also helped each other cially.
All of that was disappearing, and did.
One of the reasons that I do the writing that I'm doing
is to remind people of what some of the values were
from the days of the small family farm
and consider which of those values
are worth saving
though they may be applied in a different way.
Values like hard work.
Values like showing up on time.
Values like never doing a job that was good enough
but always trying to do it better
than you'd done it previously.
That to me is a powerful value.
When people ask you to do something
you do it the very best you can.
When people ask you to come to their farm
at 8:00 to do something, you show up at quarter to.
When people say
we're going to work until 6:00
don't hesitate to work until 6:30 if the job's not done.
Those sound, maybe silly today
but those were important values at the time.
This business of always on time
my dad drummed that into us.
There is no excuse for ever being late for anything.
In our house, our clocks were all set ahead by 15 minutes
so that we made sure that we were on time.
And by the way, the day that we sold the cows
when my dad quit farming
he set all the clocks back to the regular time.
I couldn't get over it.
A very poignant moment
>> HI, I'M JON MISKOWSKI,
DIRECTOR OF PBS WISCONSIN.
NOW YOU'VE SEEN A FARM STORY
AND IF YOU APPRECIATE
THIS STORYTELLING, WE HOPE YOU
GO TO THE PHONE AND LEND YOUR
SUPPORT WITH FAMILIES
ACROSS WISCONSIN.
WITH YOUR PLEDGE,
WITH YOUR PHONE CALL TO
(800) 236-3636,
OR YOU CAN GIVE ONLINE.
SO, WE'RE GONNA HAVE JERRY TELL
US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THESE FIVE
PROGRAMS THAT WE HAVE,
BUT ONE OF THE THANK YOU GIFTS
IS FIVE PROGRAMS IN THE SPIRIT,
EXACTLY OF WHAT YOU'VE BEEN
ENJOYING TODAY AND JERRY'S GONNA
GIVE US A LITTLE BACKGROUND
ON EACH OF THOSE,
BUT 5 HOURS OF REALLY WONDERFUL
STORYTELLING ALL ABOUT LIFE ON
THE FARM AND RURAL WISCONSIN.
ALL IN THE VERY SAME WARM,
WONDERFUL SPIRIT OF THE PROGRAM
THAT YOU'RE ENJOYING.
ALL OF THIS IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE
OF VIEWER SUPPORT, OF FAMILIES
FOR OVER 100 YEARS WHO HAVE
SUPPORTED PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WISCONSIN.
SO, WE'RE ENCOURAGING YOU TO
CELEBRATE THIS WONDERFUL LEGACY
OF RURAL WISCONSIN.
ENJOY THESE THANK YOU GIFTS AND
SUPPORT PBS WITH YOUR CALL TO
(800) 236-3636.
>> HI, I'M LINDA BERMAN,
A VOLUNTEER HERE AT PBS
WISCONSIN AND IT'S BEEN A
FANTASTIC HOUR OF THE FARM
STORY,
AND TO KEEP THE FARM STORY GOING
AND TO ALSO THANK YOU,
WE HAVE SOME VERY SPECIAL GIFTS
AND JUST TO REMIND YOU, NO
MATTER WHAT LEVEL YOU CALL AT--
THE SENIOR CITIZEN, AT $20,
$35 AND ABOVE-- YOU WILL
GET OUR AIRWAVES MAGAZINE.
IF YOU CALL TO PLEDGE FOR THE
FARM STORY, THAT'S $10 A MONTH.
THIS IS WHAT WE'RE WATCHING NOW.
WE HAVE JUST THOROUGHLY
ENJOYED THIS.
IF YOU CALL IT $15 A MONTH,
YOU GET THE GREAT
OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK
AND I MEAN, THIS IS GREAT.
IT'S BY, YOU KNOW, THEIR MENUS
AND RECIPES AND MEMORIES,
ESPECIALLY A WHOLE CHAPTER JUST
ON CHERRIES, WHAT YOU CAN DO
WITH CHERRIES AND IF YOU CALL
AND PLEDGE AT THE $20 SUSTAINING
LEVEL, YOU GET THE FIVE DVDS,
PLUS THE COOKBOOK.
THESE ARE ALL GREAT WAYS TO HELP
PRESERVE AND SHARE THE STORIES.
OF WISCONSIN AND SHARE THEM WITH
YOUR FAMILY.
THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GIVE US
A CALL.
IF YOU'RE A NEW MEMBER,
WE THANK YOU FOR CALLING NOW AND
IF YOU'RE RETURNING THIS IS A
GREAT TIME TO EXTEND YOUR
MEMBERSHIP AND GET SOME
WONDERFUL THANK YOU GIFTS,
BUT IT STARTS WITH YOUR CALL AT
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> THANKS, LINDA, AND THANKS,
JERRY,
FOR SHARING YOUR STORIES WITH
US.
WE'VE JUST SEEN A FARM STORY,
SO FOLKS KNOW WHAT THAT'S ABOUT.
WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME A LITTLE
BIT ABOUT EACH OF THESE IN THE
SET OF FIVE?
NEVER CURSE THE RAIN?
>> NEVER CURSE THE RAIN IS
A STORY ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE
OF WATER TO AGRICULTURE
AND TO LIFE ITSELF.
I TALK ABOUT HOW WHEN THE
WINDMILL QUIT TURNING ON THE
HOME FARM AND THERE'S NO WATER
FOR THE CATTLE,
THERE'S NOTHING...
THERE'S NOTHING MORE IN MY MIND
TO THINK ABOUT THAN THE
BELLOWING OF CATTLE THAT ARE
WITHOUT WATER AND WE CAN'T GROW
CROPS WITHOUT WATER.
WATER IS THE ESSENCE
OF THAT STORY.
>> AND THEN, FARM WINTER.
>> FARM WINTER IS BASED ON
MY BOOK FOR THE QUIET SEASON,
AND IT'S ALL ABOUT WINTER IN THE
UPPER MIDWEST AND HOW OUR
LIVES-- JUST TO SEE THE
UNDERLYING PREMISE OF THE BOOK.
HOW OUR LIVES,
THOSE OF US WHO GREW UP IN THE
NORTH, ARE INFLUENCED BY WINTER
WAY BEYOND ANYTHING
WE COULD EXPECT.
THAT'S ALL IN THAT STORY.
>> AND THERE IS THE GREATEST
CHRISTMAS STORY IN THERE
AS WELL.
SO, WE NEED ANOTHER.
10 MINUTES FOR JERRY TO SAY THAT
WHICH WE DON'T HAVE RIGHT NOW.
BUT IF YOU HAVE THAT VIDEO,
YOU WILL LOVE THE CHRISTMAS
STORY AND THEN THE LAND, JERRY?
>> WELL, THE LAND, I DID THAT
WITH MY TWO GRANDSONS,
JOSH AND BEN HARMON,
AND THEY-- IT'S BASED ON-- IT'S
BASED ON A BOOK CALLED WHISPERS
AND SHADOWS AND MY DAD ALWAYS
SAID, IN REFERENCE TO THE LAND,
LOOK IN THE SHADOWS.
LOOK WHERE EVERYONE
DOESN'T LOOK.
SEE THINGS THAT
WILL IMPRESS YOU.
LISTEN FOR THE WHISPERS BECAUSE
IT'S THE QUIET NOISE.
THE QUIET INFORMATION IS OFTEN
MOST IMPORTANT.
IT'S AN ENVIRONMENTAL BOOK.
IT'S A NATURE BOOK.
IT'S AN APPRECIATION
OF THE OUTDOORS BOOK.
>> YEAH, AND THANKS
TO YOUR GRANDSONS
FOR BEING INVOLVED IN THAT.
IT'S REALLY WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU
WORK TOGETHER.
>> THEY WERE VERY MUCH
INFLUENCED BY ALL OF THIS.
IN THE FACT THAT NOW JOSH,
HE JUST PASSED THE BAR EXAM.
HE'S AN ENVIRONMENTAL ATTORNEY.
AND BEN IS A
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER,
WORKING OUT IN SAN DIEGO.
BOTH OF THEM WERE A PART-- ARE
PART OF THE SHOW SO YOU CAN--
NOW, I JUST TOLD YOU WHAT
HAPPENED TO THEM AFTER THEY WERE
DOING SOME OF THIS WORK,
AND THEN, THE LAST ONE
I'M HOLDING HERE IS ONE ROOM
SCHOOL,
WHICH WE'VE MENTIONED BRIEFLY.
WE WANNA TELL FOLKS ABOUT THAT.
>> YUP, THAT'S ALL ABOUT MY
EXPERIENCE OF 8 YEARS
AT THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
WHERE I LEARN HOW TO READ,
AND I LEARN HOW TO WRITE,
AND I LEARN HOW TO APPRECIATE
BOOKS AND I NEVER GOT OVER IT.
>> THANKS, JERRY.
THANKS FOR JOINING US AND WE
ENCOURAGE YOU IF YOU HAVE THE
CAPACITY TO MAKE A GIFT,
ALL THAT'S $20 A MONTH.
IT'S A WONDERFUL COLLECTION
AND LOTS OF THINGS
THAT YOU CAN ENJOY SHARING
WITH OTHER FOLKS IN YOUR FAMILY.
SO, GIVE US A CALL WITH YOUR
PLEDGE AT (800) 236-3636
AND PUBLIC TELEVISION,
PUBLIC RADIO, 100 YEARS IN
WISCONSIN AND TO ENJOY OUR
STORIES WE HAVE SOME SPECIAL
THANK YOU GIFTS.
WE HAVE AGAIN THE FARM STORY.
JERRY APP'S FARM STORY.
WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO WATCH THIS,
BUT THIS IS THE KIND OF PROGRAM
WE WANNA SHARE WITH YOUR FAMILY
OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
AGAIN, AT THE $15 A MONTH LEVEL,
YOU GET THIS WONDERFUL OLD FARM
COOKBOOK, WHICH AGAIN,
IS MORE THAN MEMORIES.
IT'S MORE THAN RECIPES.
IT'S MORE THAN JUST MENUS.
IT'S EVERYTHING TOGETHER.
AND THEN FINALLY,
IF YOU PLEDGE AT THE $20 A
MONTH, YOU GET ALL FIVE DVDS.
THESE AMAZING STORIES THAT
JERRY'S JUST GIVEN YOU A LITTLE
HINT ABOUT AND THAT'S ALL IT IS
IS A HINT, PLUS THE COOKBOOK.
THESE CAN ALL BE YOURS TO ENJOY,
TO SHARE, TO JUST REFLECT ON.
AND WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?
IT'S YOUR OPPORTUNITY.
GIVE US A CALL
OR YOU CAN GO ONLINE,
PBSWISCONSIN.ORG OR CALL
1 (800) 236-3636.
>> JERRY, AS WE'RE LIVING
THROUGH AND LIVING WITH BEING
CHALLENGED BY THE PANDEMIC,
THIS SEEMS TO BE A GREATER
INTEREST IN POLIO.
YOU LIVED THROUGH THAT
EXPERIENCE AND HAVE A VERY
PERSONAL STORY TO SHARE.
AND HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT,
BUT MAYBE YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT
ABOUT THOSE CONNECTIONS
THAT YOU SEE.
>> SURE, THE COVID THING IS
DRIVING US ALL BONKERS
RIGHT NOW, OF COURSE.
BUT IN NINETEEN-- FROM 1945 TO
1955, ESPECIALLY IN WISCONSIN,
WE HAD A POLIO EPIDEMIC THAT
CAUSED MANY PUBLIC EVENTS
TO BE CANCELED.
FAIRS WERE CAN CELLED.
SWIMMING POOLS WERE CLOSED.
POLIO WAS A DISEASE
PRIMARILY OF YOUNG PEOPLE,
NOT ENTIRELY--
VERY DIFFERENT FROM COVID--
BUT PRIMARILY OF YOUNG PEOPLE,
AND I CONTACTED IN 1947,
DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED.
NO ONE KNOWS HOW BUT THAT
FOREVER CHANGED WHO I AM,
WHAT I'M ABOUT.
IT LEFT ME WITH A LEG THAT WAS
PARALYZED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS
AND IT LEFT ME WITH A FEELING OF
ABSOLUTE WORTHLESSNESS BECAUSE
NO LONGER COULD I PLAY
BASKETBALL OR SOFTBALL OR
BASEBALL OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT
MY FELLOW TWELVE OR THIRTEEN
YEAR-OLDS WERE DOING.
I COULD HARDLY WALK AND AS A
RESULT OF THAT, I, WITH THE HELP
OF A LOT OF PEOPLE-- AND I CAN'T
THANK THEM ENOUGH--
WHO POINTED ME IN A DIRECTION
THAT I HAD NO IDEA
I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN
AND THAT BEING WRITING.
AND ONE OF MY TEACHERS SAID,
JERRY, YOU SHOULD TAKE A CLASS
IN TYPEWRITING.
I SAID, TYPEWRITING, FOR
HEAVEN'S SAKE, THAT'S FOR GIRLS.
WHAT HE MEANT WAS THAT THE
TYPEWRITING CLASS-- HE KNEW THAT
THE TYPEWRITER CLASS WAS ALSO
THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE AND SO NOW
I'M A REPORTER FOR THE ROSEBUD.
WILD ROSE HIGH SCHOOL'S
NEWSPAPER AND THEN I'M THE
ASSISTANT EDITOR
AND THEN I'M THE EDITOR.
I'M WRITING ALL THE EDITORIALS
AND I'M LOVING IT.
I'M ALSO READING A LOT OF BOOKS
BECAUSE I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING
ELSE AND ANOTHER TEACHER SAID TO
ME, JERRY, WE NEED SOMEBODY TO
ANNOUNCE THE BASKETBALL GAMES.
AND NOW AT AGE 14,
I HAVE A MICROPHONE AND I'M
TALKING TO A CROWD
AND I NEVER GOT OVER THAT.
I'VE BEEN USING
A MICROPHONE EVER SINCE
IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
POLIO CHANGED ME IN WAYS THAT I
CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU.
LIMPING THROUGH LIFE IS
THE NAME OF THE BOOK
WHERE I DESCRIBE ALL OF THAT.
AND IT-- WELL, IT, ALONG WITH I
MENTIONED EARLIER ELECTRICITY,
WAS ONE OF THOSE ONE OF THOSE
EVENTS THAT FOREVER CHANGED
WHO I AM.
AND EVEN TODAY,
THE IDEA OF FEELING WORTHLESS
STILL IS THERE.
MY WIFE GETS SO DISGUSTED WITH
ME BECAUSE I'M AN OLD JIGGER,
I'M STILL WORKING
ALMOST FULL-TIME.
WHY?!
BECAUSE I'M TRYING,
I'M STILL TRYING TO HELP PEOPLE
UNDERSTAND THAT MAYBE IN JUST
A LITTLE WAY, IN A LITTLE BIT,
I MIGHT BE WORTH SOMETHING
AS A PERSON.
I KNOW I AM SMART ENOUGH.
I THINK TO KNOW THIS IS DUMB,
BUT IT'S STILL THERE
AND I'M CONSTANTLY TRYING
TO OVERCOME IT.
POLIO DID THAT TO ME.
>> WELL, THANKS JERRY.
THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR STORY
AND I KNOW WE TALKED EARLIER
ABOUT BEING IN THE CAR,
DRIVING ACROSS THE STATE, AND
HEARING THOSE EMAILS COME IN,
HEARING YOUR PHONE LIGHT UP,
AND PEOPLE REACHING OUT TO YOU.
WE'VE CERTAINLY SEEN THAT FROM
ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, CERTAINLY
ALL OVER WISCONSIN OF
RECOGNIZING WHAT YOU BROUGHT TO
THE STATE, WHAT YOU'VE SHARED,
THE LEGACY OF THE STORIES THAT
YOU'VE PRESERVED FOR US AND SO
WE'RE REALLY PROUD OF PBS
WISCONSIN TO BE PART OF THAT.
AND WE HAVE TO FIND A TIME
TO WORK AGAIN, ALRIGHT?
>> YES, WE DO.
>> THAT'S A DEAL.
ALRIGHT, WELL, WE MAY NOT
BE ABLE TO DO IT RIGHT AWAY,
BUT WE'RE WORKING ON THAT.
SO IT'S GREAT TO HEAR
AND SEE YOU AGAIN, JERRY.
AND THANKS FOR EVERYBODY
FOR JOINING US AND FOR YOUR
CALLS AND PLEDGES AND YOUR
WONDERFUL SUPPORT
OF PBS WISCONSIN.
THIS IS YOUR STATION AND IT'S
REALLY GREAT TO HEAR THE PHONES
RING IN SUPPORT OF
PBS WISCONSIN.
THANK YOU.
And the light came on
and there were five of us blinking
with the bright light from these long fluorescent bulbs.
My mother looks around the room
and she says, "Oh, my gosh!"
My dad said, "What's wrong now?"
because she wasn't too keen on all of this.
She thought the cost of electricity
was going to put us in, in those days
the language of the "poor house."
My mother said, "It's the dust!
There's dust on top of the ice box.
There's dust on the stove.
There's dust on the cupboards.
There's dust everywhere!"
And this was the kicker
"What did the Wisconsin Rapids relatives think
when they came here and saw all that dust?"
And my dad said, "Eleanor, if we couldn't see the dust
they couldn't see the dust either."
She commenced cleaning, and she cleaned for about a week
to get rid of the dust in the kitchen.
Jerry Apps, A Farm Story was funded in part by
Ron and Connie Weyer
the Edward J. Okray Foundation
the Wisconsin History Fund
with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities
and the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.