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 [Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann arrived
and joined the discussion]
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking -
Where were you born, Mary Lou?
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - On Dixon Road at the
Wakefield place.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Where Betty and Rachel lived?
 Helma (Heiden) Nickel - No, there was an old house down by the ditch that crosses
the road east of Ma and Pa’s farm.
Edna and Henry (left) lived there when
they were first married.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Heinie Heiden lived there for a while too. And, the Weaver
kids, Arthur and Gilbert.
Mary Lou - That house burned down. There is a new house there on the
north side of the road now.
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 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I remember Helma and Herb’s shivery. That was impressive
to me.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They went to Indiana to get married but when they came home,
a bunch of relatives and neighbors said, “We’re coming tonight so
have some beer ready.”
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I still have the receipt from Jim Malone’s in Ida where Herb
went and got the beer. It was a dollar something a case. He got beer
and candy and pop for the kids.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember they had the old metal wash tubs that they were
banging on to make noise?
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - You always had to be careful because they would threatened
to take the bride “for a ride” in the truck.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Did they take you for a ride?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - No they didn’t!
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - You should have heard the noise.
John Eipperle put something
on his exhaust pipe that made the pipes “whistle” real loud. I
remember everyone in the house just holding their ears. They made so
much noise!
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - What year did you get married, Helma?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - 1938
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - So, I would have been 9 years old but I can remember it
very well.
Pat (Bicking) Klass - The only place I ever saw a shivery was on The Waltons on T.V.
 Helma (Heiden) Nickel - They had one for
Mildred and John Eipperle too. That was ten
years before Herb and I got married though.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They had those big tubs of beer and everybody came and
drank. They just had to have a party.
Word must have passed around the neighborhood and they just showed
up at a certain time. You had to have some food and drink ready.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Did you know they were coming?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes. It was on the very first night back from being married.
We got back from
Hilda’s on Sunday and the shivery was on Monday
night.
All the relatives from Toledo were invited too. The house was
full. The yard was full. Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - People would make all kinds of noise banging on pots and
tubs.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes, and then the newlyweds would have to show themselves on
the porch.
 Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Guess you’d say we were kind of a party family.
Pat (Bicking) Klass - At the reunions, I remember having those big horse troughs and
everyone would be in there fishing around for beer and pop in the
icy water.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - At
Lester and Lila’s shivery, I remember them passing out
drinks and fresh fried cakes.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Did
Lee and Lou have one?
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - I don’t remember, I wasn’t born yet! |
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 This
was a carry over of a 19th century custom in rural America where
a newly married couple were given a mock serenade performed with
pots, pans and homemade instruments. The word is derived from
the French word charivari which denotes the same folk
custom performed in France. |
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 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - When we lived with
Grandma and Grandpa, I can remember
having to come down to the living room whenever there was a thunderstorm.
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Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He was always afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get us down
from upstairs if the house was ever hit by lightning. So, in the
middle of the night, if a storm came up, we had to get dressed and
come down and sit together in the living room until the storm was
over.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We had to get dressed since we were not allowed to come
downstairs in our night clothes. That’s the way us kids were raised. When Marie got married and the first storm came along, she woke
Brick up in the middle of the night and said, “Get your pants on and
get downstairs.” He came into the living room and asked, “What’s wrong? Where are we
going?” Marie said, “Don’t be smart! We’re not going anyplace. It’s
storming.” Brick said, “Oh, for crying out loud.” and went back to bed. Helma (Heiden) Nickel - It seems like we used to have more serious storms back then
too.
 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember the balls of lightning that would come right
through the telephone lines and into the house?
Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - It did that once when we lived at Suchik’s
(8420
Dixon Road). The lightning
came right through the phone and blew it clear across the kitchen.
It was a wonder that one of the girls wasn’t talking on the phone at
the time.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Edna used to be very concerned about electrical storms. I
used to stay up there with them sometimes.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That was probably because they didn’t have any electric
lights. They just had a kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling.
 Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - When Henry (Rambow)
(right) would blow that lamp out, it went pitch black in
the house. You could hear the sheep “baa” out in the barnyard in the
night. I used to lay there in the back bedroom saying to myself, “I
hope it gets to be morning soon!” That was really scary.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - How about the time while
Helen, Wilma, Marie and Helma were
all still at home. Helma and Marie went out on dates one night. Helma and Wilma were supposed to sleep together and Helen, Marie and
I shared a bed. I always had to sleep in the middle. We were scaredy cats so we talked Wilma into sleeping with us. When
the others came home, Marie climbed in too so we ended up with four
of us packed like sardines in one bed and Helma by herself in the
other.  Helma (Heiden) Nickel -
Carl,
Leo and
Lester (left) were working at other farms much of the
time while I was growing up.
Hilda
(Fuller) and
Mildred
(Eipperle) worked in Monroe and
stayed at Uncle Fred Rambow’s during the week. They would come home
on weekends. We all had our chores around home. I don’t ever remember Ma washing
the dishes. We all did our share of ironing too.
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 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann -
Norma Miller remembered that Grandma Rambow
(right) was a crabby
old lady.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She was very strict evidently. We used to get instruction
before we went there that we were to sit quietly and not ask for
anything.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I remember going to Aunt Minnie Rambow’s and she would be
sitting there reading the Bible. You didn’t dare say a word until
she was done with her scripture. William and Minne Rambow were Mary (Rambow) Heiden and Fredarecka Heiden's brother and sister. They lived together through their adult lives at the family farm on South Custer Rd.  Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - One time Lu (Lucille Heiden, mother of Mary Lou Opfermann) (right) and I were wall papering at their house.
Uncle Will Rambow came out of the kitchen and stood in the doorway
because he had dinner ready.
Lu said to me, “We might as well go home now because he won’t let
her eat until we leave.”
So, although we had only one strip of paper to hang to finish the
room, we left for the day and came back the next day so they could
eat their dinner. Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That was the quietest house I was ever in, I remember.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I used to have to stay there all summer. That was torture.
That’s why I am such a quiet person. (Laughter)
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Tick Tok, Tick Tok, that old clock they had was so loud
in the quiet of the room.
  Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - At ten minutes to nine every night, Uncle Will (right) would get the
Bible and hand it to Aunt Minnie (left). She would then read to him in
German until 9 o’clock. And I’d set there real still, never saying a
word.
When she was done, he would take the Bible and put it back on the
shelf. Without saying a word, he would go upstairs to bed. There
wasn’t any talking going on at all in the house.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - There wasn’t anything for them to do. They didn’t have a
radio or anything. After Grandma Rambow died, Herb and I used to go
down there to visit. Uncle Willie just loved to play cards. We would
have a real good time. Edna and Henry used to go there and have a good time too. The two of
them were so used to just sitting there in the quiet by themselves.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - After Aunt Minnie died, Uncle Will finally got a
television.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He had a dog that he used to fry two eggs for each day.
 Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I would think that the Rambows and the Heidens came over
from Germany about the same time. They had some of the same type of
furniture. Remember that settee that you had, Helma? Grandpa and
Grandma Rambow had a similar piece of furniture in their house.
Maybe the two families knew each other before they came over from
Germany.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Well the Milhans all went to Bridge School way back then
too.
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August Heiden and family came to America in 1873 and Heinrich Rambow came in 1874. They were from the same small village in Germany, Gross Wokern. Wilhelmina Rambow's maiden name was a Milhan.
 The picture is of a typical 19th century German settee but, unfortunately, it is not the actual one referenced above. |
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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. |
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 Helen (Henning) Heiden - Was your brother,
David, born here, Mary Lou?
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - He was born while my parents lived here but he was born
in the hospital.
 Marie (Heiden) Tommelein -
Roger
(right)
was born over to the store on the corner of
Ida-Maybee
and South Custer.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Remember when you used to stay with us sometimes when you
couldn’t get home because the road was in bad shape?
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - The night he was born, your dad went to get Mrs Spohr.
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Mary
Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - What kind of
house was the one that I was born in? It has been
gone for a long time now. (8530
Dixon Road)
William Frank Heiden - It was a
nice enough house. I think it had one bedroom
upstairs. That was where Billy Miller and what’s her
name lived.
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein -
Helen MacDowell. He married that woman with a little
girl and we used to go to school together.
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 Over
the years, we have also received written memories and
remembrances about this person or topic from various family
members. |
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Ralph Heiden - What did the family do on the farm during a typical year?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Grandpa Heiden (August)
(left) was a mason and he built on the
dining room and kitchen after Pa bought it. Before moving there,
they lived down on South Custer Road at the Abby Place and the
William Frank Heiden -
Wilma, Jeanie, Wm Frank, Helma & Marie were
children of 
