Autobiography

What a beautiful autumn day October 1, 1929. Mother had washed clothes, scrubbed the wide board floors, baked bread and fixed daddy a nice evening meal. Her sister, my aunt Jessie and her friends, tell me that she saw her and went down to see her that day, and visited with her, and when daddy came home, mom had gone into labor, and daddy went to get his mother. Grandma Aldrich as she was a midwife, and brought her back and I Eleanor Le Ora Aldrich was born at 9:10 P.M. Standard time in Federal Dam Village, Minnesota, Cass County. My mother’s name, Tressie Leora Newman, Daughter of David Lincoln Newman and Mary Angeline Revels, and my daddy Edward Leslie Aldrich son of George Benson Aldrich and Mary Nicholes Brower.

I have been told that I only weighed less than 5 lbs and that I fit in a grape basket – that is a little basket with a blanket all wrapped around me. I had trouble from birth with my lungs and catching colds so easily. The story is told that my Grandma Newman, grabbed me from mom and blew into my mouth to get me breathing again. First CPR. What knowledge that these women had and how they survived without all the medical knowledge that we have in this 21st century . . .

Some of my earliest memories are living by Brooks. He worked for the railroad and they were nice people and we, Elaine and I, went out and it was winter and cold. The winds had blown and the road was all drifted with high amounts of snow, and Elaine decided we were going to meet daddy whom was walking home from work. Well, I got stuck in the big snow bank and couldn’t raise my legs out. They were so short and she just calling me “nana” don’t go to sleep, but you know you get warm when you are freezing and daddy cam and found us. Before I did go to sleep . . . But you know, mom had told us not to go out of the yard and yep we didn’t mind and it nearly cost me my life. I have two broken fingers to show of that incident. Where they rubbed so hard it broke my fingers to thaw them out.

Another time I remember living with Aunt Addie Court, my mom’s sister, upon the Iron Range, Calumet, Minnesota, and it was Thanksgiving and a beautiful day, and Aunt Addie had a nice dinner cooking for us and a knock knock came at the door. Here is this stranger and he was asking for food. My mom said, “Oh come on in and have dinner with us.” Then she remembered it was Uncle Harry’s home and she went and asked – and of course they were more than happy to share. He visited with us for a while, before dinner he was ready and I remember sitting by him and he did say a blessing on the food and blessed the household and that Uncle Harry would never be without work. You remember during this depression, and he ate dinner, thanks us left, mom went to the door to ask him something and he was nowhere to be found. After accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have wondered if he could have been one of the three Nephites. He had a long beard as I remember and was quite thin and older looking. Would be something if I sat beside an apostle of the Lord from the Nephi days. Could be maybe someday we will find out.

The old Brown Log Boy River Chapel, where we went to church for so many years, and even got to go to KYB (Know Your Bible) from school and also all the summer vacation daily bible schools we attended there it was just a part of our lives. It was just across the street from our Grandma Aldrich. The funeral Elaine and I sangĀ For The Little Lund Child. So many nice memories of the ladies aide, making quilts and the nice clothing people sent down and all the women would go through it. If it fit we got it and we were so happy to have it. The Organ we would go play when no one was around. What wonderful memories I have of it.

The winter was so cold, rainy, and icy. We had no indoor plumbing so we would go down this one hill to the out house and we couldn’t get back up it because it was so slick. Oh the thick ice . . . that is the year we got scarlet fever and had to be quarantined in and couldn’t go anywhere and Grandma Aldrich brought us potatoes so we could have food. We were quite sick.

It was here I learned not to sass momma, as Elaine did and got slapped across the mouth from daddy and he said, “You don’t do that.” I learned from her lesson.

Living out on Grandpa Aldrich’s farm was a fun time too. We had a nice garden and I remember ducks, that is when I remember daddy eating his hotcakes with lots of strawberries on them with cream as we had a cow. That is also when my little brother Leslie was born. It was the 4th of July. Mom was in labor and hurting so bad. Our Aunt Gladys came and got Elaine and I and took us into Boy river. I rember the cowslips on the pond and how pretty they were yes we walked. They had races and we got an ice cream cone. We had a fun day and when we got back, Leslie Edward Aldrich was born. We had a baby brother an how choice he became to us. We spoiled him – we all did. He was so darn cute and tiny. Elaine and I would go out and find the Kildare’s bird nests. How they would scold us and chase us. Their was a babling brook that was always a comfortable sound near by. Also close by was the fire tower. They would go there and look above the trees I guess 300 feet high. We would go and climb that – how did we survive? We would climb it clear to the top and look out across the country.

I think it was there that Uncle John lived close by and I remember him catching a freight train headed west to find a job. He would make whistles for us kids from the willows. It was hard times.

In second grade I remember Miss Margaret Batterton. I was her pet and she was a nice teacher. She married our bus driver Bob Neururer. He was so good to us. Always waited knowing that we would meet the bus and I guess we had about a mile to walk and sometimes the snow was so deep we walked by the fence post so we knew where we were at. He had us sit up front by hi so we could get warm by the heater – nice people. The school was in Boy River. One day Elaine got mad at her teacher Helen Byhre, and took us out of school. We went to Federal Dam School. Mom didn’t know for some time what Elaine had done.

I was in the second grade. I liked this boy named Russel Lego. He was in the 3rd grade in another room. When I went out for recess I would climb up and look through the window and wink at him – disturbing the whole class. Never did get caught.

It was in Federal Dam School, Uncle John was our bus driver. I remember walking through the woods and seeing cranberries growing on the bushes. We would pick them at times. But it was kind of scary.

We moved from Grandpa Aldrich’s farm to Croskrey’s Place. There it was that we caught fire bugs to light our tents with w