Stories Archives - Life in Fountain Prairie

Brother Al

Albert Eme (Al) – born April 19, 1915 The fifth child was Albert and they called him “Aap” pronounced, “Op.” Jacob and Albert two boys were always close. We called them “Bop and Aap.” When they were called for supper or to do a chore, it sounded like one word: “Bop’n’Aap.” Throughout the drought and…

Wally Gets the Hook

Ted, his best friend Wally, and I decided to go fishing in the crick near Uncle Jake’s shanty. Catching fish was not only a fun activity, but during the Great Depression the fish we caught were a key part of our family diet. Even though Jake’s crick was dry during the Dust Bowl years, we…

Summer Job: Finding Food for the Cattle

When my brother Ted was 12 and I was 10, one of our jobs was to herd cattle. During the Great Depression and drought the pastures were dried up and there was nothing for the cattle to eat. However, there was some edible growth along the roadsides. We would take our whole herd of cattle out along the roadsides so they would have something to eat. Our job was to control the cattle so that they wouldn’t sneak into fields along the roadsides of adjoining farmland.

Homemade Toys…the Smith Way

Welding and Forging Toys The Smith’s were well known for their mechanical abilities. When neighbors needed help with their farm machinery, they called the Smith boys to help. Our parents expected us to entertain ourselves, and that entertainment often included welding and forging our own homemade toys in the tool shack. We spent hours in…

The Great Gopher Hunt

Daniel and Marvin as small children in Fountain Prairie

Pa announced that the gophers along the pasture were going into the cornfields and had already dug up the whole first row of the newly planted corn.

“If you boys can catch some of these gophers I’ll give you a penny a piece for them.”

Ted and I were really excited. If we could catch those gophers we would make a lot of money.

Ted said, “Let’s take our buggy. Let’s put a barrel on it and fill it with water. Then we’ll go out in the field and drown out those gophers. We should be able to drown out a whole lot of them with a whole barrel full of water. At a penny each we will be making a lot of money!”