Memory Lane

Featuring Gertie Hahler

By Shiloh Appel

She remembers the days when it was so dry that only thistles would grow. People mowed thistles to feed their livestock and grasshoppers were abundant and ready to eat whatever did grow.  She remembers living through winter snow storms and summer dust storms, and the many days spent in rural one-room schoolhouses. She remembers the war years, and the excitement of obtaining electricity. She remembers gardening, baking and canning food for the winter. And yet, these memories are only a few of the many, many memories Gertie Hahler, of Redfield, has accumulated throughout her 100 years.

Born on October 30th, 1917, in Venturia, North Dakota, to Christian and Beata Joachim, Gertie grew up in Agar, South Dakota, where she attended and graduated from high school.

"They didn't have any girls sports whatsoever when I went to school," said Hahler. "We played some outdoor games like Drop the Handkerchief and Pump-Pump Pullaway and Annie Eye Over. I also belonged to a 4-H club. I started when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old and I mostly did sewing projects for 4H."

Times were hard during the '30's, Hahler said.

"I had to make my own clothes, or else I wouldn't have any clothes," said Hahler. "We didn't have much money and everybody was poor in the '30s."

Growing up with four younger brothers, Hahler took on the role of caretaker. She looked after her younger brothers and did the household chores, which included a lot of cooking and dishes.

As for laundry, Hahler said that in the days before electricity, her mother would wash clothes on a washing board and run them through a hand-cranked wringer.

"We would hang them out on the clothesline to dry. In the wintertime, stuff would freeze just stiff and then we would bring it in," said Hahler. "I guess we thought it made the clothes whiter when they froze, but then they smelled really good when you brought them inside, too."

At the core of meal time was the family's wood stove.

"We had this big old Range stove which you had to keep feeding wood into. We cooked lots of things — well, everything, on the wood stove.  We didn't have anything else. My mother roasted turkeys in the oven and baked bread.  And when we were canning corn in the summer-time we would get corn from the field and can it. [The stove] had this big boiler, and you would put all of your jars in there. It took three hours for canned corn," said Hahler."There was also a reservoir that was built onto the side of the stove. We would put water in it when the stove was going and that would heat the water so we would have water to do dishes."

When not helping out at home, Hahler remembers riding in "buses" to Agar's consolidated school.

"The so-called 'buses' were sort of a wooden box built on the back of a truck. They had a door where we got in and then seats on the side," said Hahler. "Once in awhile, the bus driver would drive his own vehicle, and then we would have several of us packed in some how or other."

After graduating from Agar High School in 1935, Hahler went on to attend Northern Normal and Industrial School in Aberdeen (today known as Northern State University), for one year. Hahler received her teaching certificate after that first year and began teaching in one-room rural school houses in Sully County. Over the next six years, Hahler taught school and lived with families who had students that attended her school.

"I was about 19 when I started teaching," said Hahler. "I think I had only ten children that first year. You taught all grades and you taught all subjects and you made the fire when you got to school. One year, I had five first graders and there was a set of twins. But I don't remember anything really difficult."

To this day, Hahler said that she keeps in contact with one of her former students whom she used to live with. The two correspond every Christmas and catch up on family news.

Meanwhile, during her teaching years, Hahler met her future husband out in front of the Cresbard Drug Store, a popular hang-out for the young people at the time.

"It was  a small town and most everybody came to town on Saturday night. That was a big deal," said Hahler. "So we went to the drugstore and we would get some ice cream or pop. I met some of the young people from our church and we would kind of visit out there, and that is where I met [William Hahler]."

Gertie and William tied the knot on July 26, 1942, and began farming near Wecota, SD. The Hahlers raised cattle, pigs, sheep, turkeys, chickens and grain.

After marriage, Hahler no longer taught school, but kept busy on the farm raising a family and helping others during the war years. A member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hahler was, and still is, part of a women's group that provides food and quilts to those in need.

"Ladies Aid, they used to call it," said Hahler. "I think [the quilts] were sent to really needy people. And one time it was right after the war when we brought cans of non-perishable food and packed it up and I don't know how we did that, but it was sent overseas for the people over there."

Hahler has deep roots in the Lutheran Church and women's group in Wecota. Her husband's parents were the first couple to ever be married in the Immanuel Lutheran Church after it was newly built, her husband was baptized and confirmed there, and each of Hahler's three children were also baptized there. Hahler herself has been faithfully attending for 77 years.

"I am thankful I am still able to help the ladies at the church work on quilts that they give to local people. I don't quilt the little tiny hand stitches, but I sew the boxes on the sewing machine and also tie them together. It is something to do and I get to visit with some other ladies and I am thankful that I can get out to do it," said Hahler.

Looking back on the war years, Hahler is also thankful for all that she had.

"When I was growing up I thought we were poverty stricken, but when I was married and taught school, no. There were things we didn't have, but we weren't, what you would say, poor," said Hahler. "[During the war] we had coupon books and some kind of little tokens. you could only get so much sugar and butter and meat. On the farm, we had our own meat and butter, but there were different things you were limited in."

Among the many adjustments during the war, Hahler recalled people getting "re-treads," a new treading on your vehicle's tire if it "gave out," and people being limited to a couple pairs of shoes. Today, she still has a ration book with coupons in it that were left over from when one of her sons was a baby.

"It says, 'When you have used your rations, salvage the tin cans and waste fats. They are needed to make munitions for our fighting men,'" read Hahler from the back of the coupon book.

Those fighting men were all friends and family members in those days. Although Hahler's husband did not serve, his brother was drafted and Hahler herself had a brother in the Army and a brother in the Navy during WWII.

"My brother who was in the Navy was shot down over one of the islands in the south pacific," said Hahler. "He had a broken leg, but he was taken to a hospital and it got fixed and he was able to resume life normally."

Hahler said that her brother would write letters that were printed in the newspaper so relatives and neighbors would know how the troops were doing.

"My mother would take them to the newspaper because everybody always wanted to know about how everybody was doing in the service," said Hahler."Some might be missing in action. They didn't always know where they were."

After the war ended in 1945, Hahler said that Northwestern Public Service built their line, and her family was finally able to have electricity in 1946.

"It was easy to think of all of the things you could do when you had electricity and running water!" said Hahler. "After the war, they began to manufacture things. The manufacturing could go to making other goods rather than making stuff for the war. We ordered a refrigerator from Montgomery-Ward. We also got an electric stove. You think of washing machines and electric irons. It just made everything a lot easier!"

Today, many years after the war ended, and many years after electricity became a household necessity, Hahler has raised her three children, all of whom graduated from Cresbard, and now has five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She now resides at the PBC Apartments and still enjoys sewing, crocheting, quilting and embroidering.

As for advice to younger generations, Hahler had a few words to say.

"Be active. Think positive about things. Be thankful," she said. "There is always something you can be thankful for. Your faith in God helps, too. It helps a lot."