1. Fun with John Eipperle
2. Mildred Eipperle

Ralph Heiden - Did Sally Eipperle live at Grandpa’s house for a while? I guess I never knew that.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Yes, she lived there about 7 years. John and her moved in after her mother, Mildred’s, death. He used to listen to the radio show, The Inner Sanctum, on Sunday nights and I would be so scared.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Everybody liked John.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - John (left) and Jeanette (John's second wife) were always good to the folks too. They would take them places in John’s car.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Ma and Pa never got to go anywhere so John took them up north one time. He took them up to Cedarville. There was Uncle Fred, Aunt Emmie (Rambow), Ma and Pa and Sally and me.

We had three flat tires on the way. We stayed in a tourist home just over the straits. I don’t think there were any motels then. I slept on the floor.

Aunt Emmie (right) brought a big can of Crisco oil to fry the fish in. They all went fishing and we all ate our fill of fish that night.

On the way up, we stopped in Cheboygan and we had dinner in a restaurant. I don’t remember Ma and Pa eating out very much around home. Ma order ham and she was shocked at the size of the portion they served her.

This would have been about 1940 or so. With all the people in the car, no wonder we had so many flat tires.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember how fast John used to drive? I can remember John and Mildred, and my Mother and Dad and I went down to Elkhart, Indiana. Mother kept telling him to slow down!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The more she would holler, the faster he would go, too!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - He took us up north one time and, by gosh, nobody was going to get ahead of him! Jeanette was sitting in the back telling him to slow down. I think I had the floor board nearly pushed through trying to hold on.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember, Jeanie, when John took us down onto the river ice pulling us on a sled behind his car?

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - The river had to be frozen at least a foot thick before Pa would let us skate on it. One Sunday while Ma and Pa were at Grandma Rambow’s, John let us hook the sled behind his car. He would head down the river and then he would slam on the breaks and yell, “Hang on back there!”

The snow was flying in our faces and we were just airborne. We could have been killed but it was a lot of fun!

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - He was something else!

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - We used to stay over to John and Mildred’s when they lived on Dunbar Road and she would help us make popcorn and Kool Aid or lemonade to sell out by the road.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - That was always a highlight when they would come over to play cards. I would be sitting there and Mildred would tell me to ask if I could go over to their place for a few days. They took me to Woodland Beach which was a big deal in those days. They had a week’s vacation and they used to stay down there at some relative’s cottage.

There was this girl about my age there and she said, “Let’s take a walk around the lake.” I looked at the lake and thought I couldn’t walk that far. So about half way around, I started back and I got lost and I was praying and everything because I didn’t know where I was.

Finally, I got back and Mildred said, “Where have you been?”

I just said, “Oh, out walking.” I was so darned scared but I didn’t dare let on.

We went out on a raft in the lake and John asked if I could swim. I said, “No.” So, he threw me in the water. He pulled me out quickly but I don’t like the water ever since. 

Ralph Heiden - What did Mildred (Heiden) Eipperle die from?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - It was complications from pregnancy. She was only a couple of months along and she got kidney poisoning.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - If they would have had the antibiotics they had now, she would probably not have died.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I still remember her funeral. They had her for visitations right in their house and I can still picture in my mind, every chair in that room even though it happened in 1939.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Me too. They wanted me to go in there and touch her. I remember Sally walking in and looking for her mother but she couldn’t grasp what was going on. She was only two years old at the time.

John came right home from the burial service and went into his room and didn’t come out for a long time.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel -   We drove him home from the hospital after she had died.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - That was before sulfa drugs and penicillin. They told her to drink lots of water to try to clear up her kidney problem. That was about all they could do then.