Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

This week, Mary (Anderson) Hill's notes from the past take her from her teenage years to past that of being married.

"Mom was sick again when I was 16, that's when she taught me to bake bread. Her kidneys stopped working and she was really sick, so we wrapped my brother Bill, 14 with lots of Clothes and sent him to Bloomington to get some medicine from Dr. Sparks. It was cold and the snow was deep when he started for town. Bill made it, but froze his ears. Meanwhile, Mother was in much pain, so she told me to boil some watermelon seeds in some water to make her a tea. I did, and it worked before Bill got back from town, as he had to walk two miles there and two miles back."

Mary was a type of girl that would rather work in the fields with her dad than do house work. She tells of helping him load hay and drive the horses. " I was my dad's helper. I always went to the fields and cultivated the corn raked alfalfa, helped stack it, and fix fence. Some of the others things I did was to go after the cows at milking time, cut and saw the wood, then take the team and wagon and help haul it to the house. Bill and I shucked a lot of corn."

"One time, I got a sandbur in my glove, and I'd seen Dad pick it out with his teeth and blew it out on the ground. I tried to do that, but I sucked it back into my throat and Mom and Dr Sparks had to take me to Hastings to get it out. I remember being 17 or 18 then."

"I followed Dad ever since I could remember. My dad was special, He was always nice to me." A. C. Anderson was certainly special to Mary. On the top of a page in bold letters, she wrote, " On Father's Day 1997 I think of you father often and miss you so much. You were great." Mary told me, "I should have been a boy, as I liked to go with Dad and help him. The rest didn't like to till Bill got bigger than then we both went with him."

Mary talked about cooking when she grew up. " I loved to cook, and the folks had asked Ted (Hill, her future husband) and his dad for dinner one Sunday. Mom said `you bake the apple pies,' When we sat down to eat, George, who was 10 years old, sat by Ten. When it was time for Pie, George said, ` Ted, Mary made these pies', they were good"

Mary graduated from Bloomington High School in 1930. Some time after that, she remembered these incidents; " When the gas company put the line through the creek on Dad's property, they hired my brother Bill, to help. It was in July or August and he had a heat stroke.

"We (Ted Hill and Mary) were married. Mom sent me home with Hazel to help her at threshing time. Hazel had one baby or may be two. Threshing was quite a job. Ted came up one day and said it was too much work, so he made me go home with him, Hazel got Harry's sister to help her finish. I was never very strong after I was sick with pneumonia when I was between 10 and 12 years old."

Mary's mother Anna Mae (Olson) passed away on October 1, 1946, leaving a life well lived behind. Alfred Carlos Anderson left this world on June 10, 1952. We can tell how much Mary loved her parents by the notes she left about them. After all, no matter how old we are, wouldn't we all love to run and jump on our dad's lap and feel the warmth of his love? To lay our heads upon our father's chest can only be a memory for many of us. In your mind, return to that place of contentment and remember what it felt like: safe from all out side harm. Bask in that love and give thanks for that wonderful memory.

Yes, death is at the bottom of the cup, and everyone that lived must drink it up.

William Howells

Rena Donovan, for the preservation of history and other memories.

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