continued night for milking. That was generally my job. One time they ad gotten through the fence into some green corn. Now I used to take ahold of one of the cow's tail and let her pull me up the hill. That is one time when I should not have done so. I was a mess when I got back to the house and the worst part as that they all laughed at me. Bad enough to be covered with juicy green corn manure without being laughed at!
"The orchard was a large one with every kind of apple you could think of, so we always had plenty of apples in the winter me. There was a cellar under almost the whole house, hard dirt floor, no light, always cool, with big bins all around it with fruits and vegetables in them. Boy, what delicious odors came from that cellar. The back porch had a well and from the ump was a trough that ran down to the milkhouse which sat lower than the house and porch. In this milkhouse was a long
trough where they kept the butter, cream and other things. It was on the north side and was always cool. In summertime we 'would have to keep replacing the water in the trough with the cooler water from the well to keep the food cool.
"My Aunt and Uncle (Anthony and Sarah Huffman Helle) and their kids lived about one-half mile from us and they used to come over in the evening and we would make ice cream on the back porch; such nice quiet companionship that is a thing of the past. The kitchen was a place of heavenly bliss: always something cooking, canning, making preserves. Each year we would butcher a hog, make sausage, cold pack the meat, make head cheese, smoke hams and bacon -- WOW!
"One year when I graduated from one grade to the next, grandma Helle gave me a Bible with a page of writing in it. It as years later before I could find anyone who could translate for me. Finally a woman who worked at the Ledger, when it was on East Elm, was able to translate it, but she had a hard me as it was a different German than she knew. I forget what she called it. I wish I knew what happened to it. Somewhere long the way it got lost. So did I, I think. Still am yet . .
'I Remember
Martha Jane (Orwig) Moore (1897-1985), daughter of John and "Lizzie" (Helle) Orwig
I got to go to Grandpa and Grandma Helle's with Clara and Bessie Helle. Grandma gave us china plates to eat from, something which I had never gotten to do before because we children in our own home had only tin plates and cups. The plates did not match but I did not mind. However, Bessie, being used to such gracious treatment, complained because her plate was different. This prompted Grandpa to tell a story bout a poor girl who used to come into his bakery in Louisville. She would always choose the smallest loaf of bread because she had so little money. One day Grandpa placed a dime x one of the smaller loaves of bread before he baked it and saw to it that the little girl got that loaf of bread. The next day, he returned the dime explaining that she had found it in the loaf of bread purchased the previous day. He told this story as n example of honesty and to be happy with your lot in life."
'I Remember..
Henry David Orwig (1903-1985), son of John and "Lizzie" Helle) Orwig
"The Helle home place was close enough to the Spoon river Bottom that snakes were an ever present hazard and the apple orchard seemed to attract them. One summer afternoon when I was visiting Grandma, a snake chased me out of the orchard. Killing snakes was something for which I had a
Knack, so the next day I returned with a couple of cousins for support and we must have killed close to 100 snakes in that apple orchard, most of them rattlesnakes."
