| Notes |
- I was born May 13, 1912 on a farm 4 1/2 miles south of Deer Creek, Ottertail County, Minnesota, the second child of Orrin and Belle (Fletcher) Vargason. I had one sister, Myrtle Imogene, that was 2 years older than myself.
As I have grown older, I can see so many changes that have taken place, things that we had to get along without back there. We lived on a farm, and at that time there was no electricity or running water as we have today, so my mother had a really hard life. She would scrub her clothes by hand on a washboard, and then boil her white clothes. Then she would hang them on a line to dry. One can imagine how cold her hands would get in the winter when the temperature would get down to 30 or 40 degrees below zero.
I remember on the farm where we lived all kinds of weeds grew...some really tall. There was one special weed that grew 4 or 5 feet tall and had a tassel on the top. We would take this weed and strip all the leaves off except for the top, and we made several that way. We called them our horse's reins. If I was the horse, I'd take 2 of these reins in my hands and Myrtle would drive me that way. One night it looked like it was going to rain and we didn't want our horses to get wet, so we took the reins upstairs into our bedrooms. Mama had emptied the "pot" and to save her a trip upstairs, she had set it on the steps. Well, "clumsy me" fell over it and both me and the pot came tumbling down the stairs. I hit my front tooth and broke a corner of it off. Dad took me to the dentist (more expense), but he said to wait until I was 16 and the tooth would be full grown. He did and then the dentist put a 3/4 gold crown on it.
Dad once gave me a little calf to raise. When it got bigger, I sold it and got the money. I don't remember what I did with the money, but during those days we were taught to use what we had wisely. I also had a pony and I learned to ride her.
I used to help Dad in the fields, raking hay, and stomping loads of hay so it would stay on the wagon better. Hazel and I used to go into the meadow and pick wild strawberries. We would bring them home and clean them, and that was our dessert for a meal. We also had a lot of raspberries, and that also made a good dessert.
Our school was only 40 rods from the house where we lived, so we would walk to school unless the weather was really bad. Sometimes in the winter it would get down to 40 degrees below zero, and the wind would blow up a real blizzard. Then Dad would take us to school with the team.
We loved to go to Clitherall, Minnesota where our grandparents lived, and where our church was located. We seldom got to go to church, as 20 miles seemed like a long way to go without a car. Later on Dad got a Ford touring car, but he never did drive very fast.
Hazel and I used to milk cows, and helped with whatever else we could. Mama also had a large garden and we used to help with that. We used to walk a lot whenever we had any spare time. We all loved to walk.
One time I was raking hay for Dad. We had worked all day and the horses were getting tired, so they decided it was time to quit. They started running for home and I fell off the rake. I rolled under the tines a few times before it released me. I wasn't hurt, but I was as black as coal. When I think back on those times now, I realize how innocent and fortunate I was. We would go out to the garden and pick peas for dinner. Then we girls and Mama would go out in the shade and shell the peas for dinner. We usually would have guessing games to help pass away the time.
Before going any farther, I'd better speak of the other members of the family. I'll list each in the order of their arrival: Myrtle Imogene - born May 22, 1910 and died August 20, 1973, Violet Marie (Ilo) - born May 13, 1912, Harry Fletcher - born January 29, 1914 and died April 24, 1914, Hazel Belle - born August 3, 1915, Laurel Loretta - born December 11, 1917 and died December 20, 1917, Grace Orena - born December 28, 1920, and Irene Rozella - born July 10, 1925.
We would usually go to Clitherall each summer, and stay at Grandma Rose's for a few days. She would teach me how to record the sales she made from the business in the store (they ran a grocery store).
In 1933 I was down to Richard and Myrtle's visiting, when Julian came by. He drove a truck and was loaded for Fort Lincoln, at Bismark and Dickenson, North Dakota, out near the Montana line. He had stopped to visit his folks over the weekend, and planned to go on out there on Monday. Richard, being curious as to what trucking was like, decided to go along, leaving Ronald (their younger brother) and I there to take care of the chores while he was gone. They left early on Monday morning, and going through Jamestown they were held up 3 days for lack of a Dakota liscense. They finally got unloaded at Bismark and Dickinson, getting back to Clitherall the following Friday afternoon.
Business being slow over the holidays, and being instructed to wait for a back load, Julian and I began visiting places and people we both knew until he surprised me by asking me if I would marry him. I'd always liked him so I told him "Of course I will", and on Christmas eve, 1933, we became "Husband and Wife". Now, 67 years later, we still are though now much older.
The week after we got married, we got instructions for Julian to pick up a load of steel headed for St. Joseph, Missouri. On New Years Day in the afternoon we took out for Davenport, Iowa getting as far as Alexandria, Minnesota that night. When we got to Minneapolis at around 9:00 A.M. the next morning, it had started to rain and then freeze, so the roads became extremely icy and stayed that way for the next 2 days. Ronald and I spent most of our time throwing blankets under the rear wheels of the truck, trying to get traction on the millions of hills (Ronald had decided to go back to Independence with us). Anyway, he sure came in handy as Julian had to drive the truck and Ronald could help with the blanket throwing. We finally got to Davenport on Thursday night, loaded the steel, and headed out for St. Joseph. The skies had cleared and the weather moderated, so we got into St. Joseph on Saturday morning. It took some pretty good talking to get them to unload on Saturday, but they finally did, and we were then free to take out for the 55 miles to Independence. We arrived there about 4:00 P.M. that afternoon, surprising everyone, as they had never heard the news yet of what all had happened. This started a whole new Phase of my life, but that's another story.
Ilo (Vargason) Whiting
!BIRTH :
MARRIAGE :
DEATH :
ORDINANCES :
GIVEN NAMES: Also shown as Violet Marie Ilo
!BIRTH :
MARRIAGE :
DEATH :
ORDINANCES :
BIRTH: Also shown as Born Deer Creek, Otter Tail, Minnesota.
GIVEN NAMES: Also shown as Violet Marie Ilo
BIRTH: Also shown as Born Deer Creek, Otter Tail, Minnesota.
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1912 - 2008 (96 years)