In the fall of 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, Pa said we should organize a 4-H club in our neighborhood. Back in the 1920s, Pa had shown cows at the county fair, and now he thought my brothers and I and the neighbor kids would enjoy the experience as well. The dairy project was a popular one for 4-H members. About half the kids at the Chain O’ Lake School were ten years old or older (I was eleven) and thus eligible to join 4-H. Pa drove to Wautoma and met with Henry Haferbecker, the county agricultural agent, to talk about how to organize a club in our school district. A week later, Mr. Haferbecker came out to school one evening and met with all of us ten-and-olders and our parents.
A scene from the Waushara County Fair in Wautoma in the 1950s
Soon we had formed the Chain O’ Lake 4-H club, elected officers, and decided on meeting dates. We chose to meet monthly, each time at a different member’s home. At our meetings we talked about our various projects—I had enrolled in the dairy and forestry projects—and afterward we ate a big lunch prepared by the host’s mother. The meetings were informative and mostly fun—but the lunches were outstanding. No one ever missed a 4-H meeting, I think in large part because of the great lunches following the meetings.
All the members of our 4-H club came from small dairy farms, and each member wanted to take his or her calf to the fair. We all wanted to stay over at the fair to take care of our calves, but where? A dormlike building had been set up for the girls, but there was no place designated for the boys. When I asked about it, Pa said he’d heard that the boys slept with their calves in the cattle barn. I thought that sounded fine, but a few of the parents thought we needed an alternative.
After World War II, surplus army equipment became available at very reasonable prices. Our club decided to buy a surplus army tent, one large enough to sleep six boys plus our 4-H leader, Clayton Owens. There were also surplus army cots available. The tent cost thirty-five dollars, and the cots were five dollars, if I remember correctly. But how could we come up with thirty-five dollars for a tent, when our club treasury had about four bucks in it? We decided to hold two community events: a box social and an ice-cream social. We would advertise them as open to the public, sponsored by the Chain O’ Lake 4-H Club as a fundraiser for a used tent for the 4-H boys to sleep in at the county fair.
On a Friday night in late April, our 4-H club hosted our box social at the Chain O’ Lake School. We had put up posters at the feed mill, at the Union State Bank, and at the co-op store in Wild Rose announcing the event. And we had asked all of the students at Chain O’ Lake School, including those too young for 4-H, to come to the event and bring their parents. On the night of the box social, the schoolroom was filled, almost as full as it was for the annual Christmas program. As I looked around, I saw several people I didn’t know—a good sign, as this meant our advertising in Wild Rose had paid off.
At a box social, the women and girls donate a lunch for two, which they prepare and then put in a box that they carefully decorate with tissue paper, ribbons, and whatever other adornments they can find. The boxes are auctioned off to the men in the audience; each winning bidder gets to eat with the woman or girl who prepared the lunch.
The boxes were lined up on desks at the front of the schoolroom. Clayton Owens volunteered to be auctioneer. Soon he was bringing in from two to five dollars for the attractively decorated boxes—most of them were shoeboxes, but a couple were cylindrical Quaker Oats containers. With the auction over, the successful bidders held up their boxes, and the women and girls who had prepared them held up their hands. It was a fun evening, with some people meeting and sharing a lunch with someone they didn’t know.
Some of the 4-H members’ mothers also brought along food to share, for those who didn’t make or buy boxes. We took in about twenty dollars that night, well on our way toward the cost of the used army tent.
With the success of the box social in mind, we confidently moved ahead to organize our ice cream and pie social. We decided to hold the event on a Saturday night in July at Clayton Owens’s farm, which was just a mile or so out of Wild Rose. The residents of the village would surely flock to our ice cream and pie social on a warm summer night.
The 4-H members’ mothers made the pies, but our club had to buy the ice cream. We also arranged for a neighbor boy, who had been away but was visiting his parents, to play the accordion during the event.
The crowd was decent, but not outstanding. Whoever was dipping the ice cream was overly generous, and we netted only about ten dollars after paying for the ice cream. It was a fun community event, bringing lots of folks together, but it was far from a money-maker. We were still five dollars short for our tent. Luckily, several of the fathers chipped in, and we eventually had a sturdy tent to sleep in at the county fair.
1 pound ground venison
½ cup chopped onion
1 can (10½ ounces) tomato soup
½ cup chopped celery
⅓ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup water or enough to make it the consistency that you like
Hamburger buns, for serving
Cook and stir the venison and onion in a skillet until the meat is light brown. Drain. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer over low heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve on hamburger buns.
Dressed-up Green Beans
1 can (14 ounces) green beans
1 beef bouillon cube
⅓ cup onion rings, thinly sliced
4 slices crisp cooked bacon
Drain the can of beans, reserving ¾ cup of the liquid. Combine the liquid with bouillon cube and the onion rings in a large saucepan. Simmer until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the beans to the saucepan, mix together, and heat through. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle on top of the beans before serving.
1 package (3 ounces) raspberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling water, divided
1 can (16 ounces) cranberry sauce
1 package (3 ounces) lemon Jell-O
1 small package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 can (8½ ounces) crushed pineapple, not drained
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 cup small marshmallows
Dissolve raspberry Jell-O in 1 cup boiling water. Add the cranberry sauce. Mix well and let cool. Pour into a 6-cup mold.
Dissolve lemon Jell-O in 1 cup boiling water and let cool. Add cream cheese, mayonnaise, and pineapple with its liquid. Let stand. After the mixture has started to gel, stir in the whipped cream and marshmallows. Pour over the raspberry mixture. Chill overnight.
2 to 3 pounds broiler chicken pieces (use breasts, thighs, and legs)
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
Enough vegetable oil to brown the chicken
Wash chicken pieces and pat dry. Mix together the flour, salt, garlic powder, paprika, onion salt, and pepper. Put the mixture in a paper or plastic bag and add chicken pieces, tossing to coat; or, put the dry mixture on a plate and dredge the chicken.
Fill a heavy skillet with vegetable oil to ½-inch deep and heat until it sizzles when a drop of water is sprinkled in. Add the chicken to the skillet and brown lightly. Don’t crowd the chicken in the skillet. (Use two skillets if necessary.) Turn the chicken with tongs and brown on the other side. Browning the chicken will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce the heat and cover tightly. If the oil is being absorbed too quickly, add 1–2 tablespoons of water to the skillet so the chicken doesn’t burn. Cook slowly until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Uncover for last 10 minutes to allow the outer skin to crisp.
OVEN METHOD:
Remove the chicken from the skillets after browning and put in a baking pan. Bake in the oven for 1 hour until tender.