1. The Laas Family
2. Mary Heiden Cooking

Ralph Heiden - We were talking earlier about the Laas' and Mary Lou has a picture of some of them. Mary and William Heiden, Aunt Libbie Laas, Aunt Emma Laas formerly Ullrich?

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Who are they? I don’t understand what relation they are to us.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They’re Pa’s cousins. That’s where Alice (Laas) Berlin (left) comes in.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We always called them “Aunt and Uncle.” Uncle Will.

Laas was from Texas. He was the “rich” one in the family. Who were the Paulsens?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - They were relations to Aunt Emma.

Laas, I think. They were some of the leaders when it came to starting the annual Heiden reunion.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Lucille [Lehmkuhl] was a Burmeister wasn’t she?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Louie and Aunt Rikie Burmeister, she was a Laas too. Lucille had a sister, Mildred, who died of infantile paralysis. No, Lucille was the one on crutches.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Her sister, Florence Burmeister, was the Paulsen. She married a Paulsen. They used to come out from Toledo and they were the ones who made the lemonade at the reunion.

Actually, the members of the Laas' family were related to August Heiden's wife, Rika as shown on the following chart:
 

Ralph Heiden - One of the things a lot of people have mentioned is Grandma’s cooking.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - At least three times a week, she would bake bread.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - She made the best sugar cookies!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - One time Art went over to their house and he came back and said, “Ma’s making bread today. Don’t you think you should go and help her?”

I knew that he just wanted me to go and learn how to make bread like she did. So, I said, “With all the experience she’s had, I don’t think she needs my help!”

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She would make donuts too. The ones I liked best where when she would make those long stick, long-johns and frost them.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - A lot of the relatives from Toledo like the Laas’ and Berlin’s would come on Sunday night just in time for dinner.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Always!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They would come about 4 or 5 p.m. Ma would send us down in the basement to get some more jars of preserved beef. Boy, that made the best gravy! Or, she would make some pork sausages and fried potatoes.

Ralph Heiden - You wonder now about how people make such a big deal out of eating a pat of butter or having an occasional egg for breakfast when back then, they ate the fattest meats and sausages.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Ma would save the grease from bacon. Then when you fried potatoes you would use that grease.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Sometimes they would put that old lard directly onto bread and eat it like a sandwich! And we worry about eating a little bit of butter.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Art always talked about taking lard sandwiches to school.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I can remember coming home from school and taking a piece of fresh bread and putting the bacon grease on it for a snack.

Pa used to eat mettwurst and eggs and spicanse for breakfast.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I can remember him cutting the fat off pork and eating it. It would make us kids almost sick.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - On Easter Sunday, he would eat six boiled eggs for breakfast. That was his traditional meal.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - During Lent, we could never go to a dance or to the movies back then.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - You never got married during Lent either. There were a lot of February weddings because you had to get married before or after Lent.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Unless it was a shotgun wedding!