During the war many things were scarce and many things were made as cheaply as possible. The term 'war model' designated these generally barely suitable goods. For example cloth was scarce so we bought the feed sold in printed cloth bags rather than burlap bags. Some of our everyday clothes were made of these feed sacks.

One of Dad's favorite stories was about gasoline rationing. Gas stamps for automobile fuel were generally scarce enough to limit travel. Farm tractor fuel was another matter. Dad told that when he applied for ration stamps for farm use he was having difficulty answering the questions on the form like How many days a year do you use your tractor, how many hours a day do you use it and how much gasoline per hour does it use? Finally one of the clerks came to help him and asked, How many days do you use your tractor, what is the longest you run it a day and what is the most gasoline it will burn per hour? She then multiplied it out and gave him a thick book of stamps. When Dad protested that he didn't need that many she replied "that's alright, those people in Washington don't know what a tractor looks like anyway." I later learned that gasoline rationing was to save on rubber not gasoline. The U.S. had lots of gasoline.

Dean and Geraldine were born in 1945 as the war neared its end. With three children under the age of three, the folks hired help for Mother. The house got a little crowded also. The house had three rooms down stairs and two small bedrooms up stairs. The first adaptation was to put storm windows on what had been a summer porch. To heat it they bought the blue electric heater that was around forever. In order to put two baby cribs in the bedroom the dresser had to be moved upstairs to Linda's room. Because the dresser would not go around the corner to get into the stairway it was decided to put in the upstairs window. When the drawers were removed to take the dresser up the ladder a fountain pen was found that Dad had thought was picked from his pocket when they moved down from Laporte.

The year 1948 in my memory was a year of change. It was the year I got to do a little fieldwork (drive the tractor).

Once the farm was paid for Dad started thinking about remodeling the house. He contacted a carpenter about the job in 1949 and the carpenter suggested he consider building a new house instead. We took a trip to Wadena to look at some model houses that a lumber company was selling in kit form. The new house was a slight modification of a design we saw in Wadena. The basement was dug the first weeks of school and we moved into the new house in February 1950. I think that the house cost about $6,000 plus our own work. No new furniture was purchased and the first living room curtains were little more than paper.

Floyd, Nellie, Dick, and Connie stand in front of Floyd's DeSoto car.
Tractor in the shed is probably SC Case. Skippy looks to be in good health.
Photo was taken about 1949 or 1950.

An occasion to be proud of - Linda do you remember what?
It appears that this was before 1950. Note curtains on windows
and fuel oil barrel spigot pointed toward door. Also the gate and
fence on right separated lawn from farm yard.

South end of the old house - about 1954
Center section was kitchen, enclosed porch on right
shanty on the left - used for washing machine (note
opening for gas engine exhaust), storage and summer
cooking on kerosene stove.

I am sure that I took this picture in 1951
when the tractor was new. The combine was new
in 1950. The New House in distant background was
built in 1949-50.

This is the best picture I found of the comfort facility
we used before the new house was built.
It isn't pretty but it was how we lived.

Sometime after the little house was moved to the
back of the grove we put a double door on this end
of the garage and closed the single car door on the North end.