My foster mother was the greatest child psychologist I have ever known. She never had any children. Neither have I. But our lives have been filled with the love and responsibility of many who were conceived by others. And we do know something about raising them. Ruby wasn't actually my foster mother. But my birth mother and father made more kids than they could conveniently manage, so from time to time they would farm some of us out for extended periods. Thus Stan spent a number of summers under the care of Ruby and Al Korkowski on their 160-acre farm north of Lake Chippewa near Brandon. It was a glorious time.
Around 1951, when I was about to turn four years old, I carefully steered Al's red Farmall around his hayfield in super low gear as he walked alongside, tossing hay bales into the trailer. The Vickermans across the road had a yellow Allis Chalmers. Nice, but certainly no match for a powerful Farmall, Al and Stan smugly agreed. When we parted at the end of the season, Al paid me $1 as hired man wages. I was stunned and immensely proud.Last week, my classmate Bev Roers Korkowski sent me a picture of that very hayrack with Ruby seated just behind where the horses would be hitched, her nose in a potentially unfortunate location. (Subsequently, the front wheels were removed and the rack modified to trail behind the new tractor.) This bright red rack also served as my jungle gym and teeter-totter.
Born in 1913, Ruby was teaching country school by the time she was eighteen. That was eight grades of children at once. After she married Al, she quit teaching and they worked the farm together. That's when I came into the picture and I have floods of memories of our happy life there.Ruby never raised her voice, but she always got her way. One afternoon, I did not wish to go down into the chilly farmhouse basement to shower. She asked me kindly, but I used my most wily pre-schooler tactics to avoid taking that uncomfortable journey down the stairs onto the cold floor, stubbornly preferring to remain dirty.
Ruby would have none of that. She looked at me with an absolutely straight face and said, quite matter-of-factly, "Well, if you don't wish to go by yourself, I will take a shower with you."
Horrified at the thought of being seen naked by a naked lady, I soon found a towel and took my modest little self down the stairs for a scrub.
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Top photo: That's Ruby with genuine Lutheran Church Ladies. She's the one with the white collar. Her sister, Josephine Elness, is second from the right. She was my sister Sosie's "Mama Jo." The school building in the other photo is District #48 where Ruby once taught.
Photo, left: On our way to the movies at the Andria Theatre in Alex on Saturday night, we'd all sing the Albert and Stanley song in honor of Stan and Al."I'm Albert, I'm Stanley!
We love to bring you cheer,
By painting signs that remind you of
Grain Belt Premium Beer."
Albert and Stanley were cartoon characters for St. Paul's Grain Belt Brewery. Not sure if my abstaining parents would know anything about that... or even approve of the song, so I guess we were being sort of naughty when we sang it.
We saw Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in "Partners." They played cowboys. There was baled hay on the movie set, and as an expert in hay baling, I knew that this was a mistake, because during cowboy times there was no such thing as a modern hay baling machine. Al agreed. Ruby and Al also took me to my first cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp." I could not understand why the sad, skinny little rat terrier didn't just walk through the bars and escape from the dog pound.
Coming soon: Al explains to Stan why he keeps a bull on the farm, even though you can't milk it.
