1. Thunderstorms

1. Reunion Group Photos
2. Bridge School
3. World War II
4. Gifts from Mr Wakefield
5. Sparrow Hunting

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.

[Looking at some old pictures of the Heiden Family Reunion and family gatherings. Click on the picture to the left for a larger version with caption. ]

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Is that you in the back row there at the reunion, Brick?

Brick Tommelein - I don’t know. I only remember one time going to the reunion.

Ralph Heiden - That picture was taken over at the Grange Hall sometime in the late 40's.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - Yes, I can see Pa (Wm Carl Heiden right) there and I recognize a lot of these other people but I can’t tell if that is you or not.

Helen (Henning) Heiden - I have a couple of albums with some old pictures. Maybe you already have them all.

Ralph Heiden - You never know. I’d like to take a look at them.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - The caption under this picture says that’s Libbie and me sitting on grandma Heiden’s lap.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - We can spot you in all these pictures because you had that short, blond hair, Marie.

Ralph Heiden - What do you two (William Frank and Marie) remember about going to Bridge School?

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - I had Kenneth Bordine the first year I went there and then Harrison Dentel the rest of the way.

William Frank Heiden - We had fifty some kids all together in one room. He would teach one grade at a time. But I really don’t remember much about my childhood.

Helen (Henning) Heiden -   Seems funny he doesn’t remember any of his childhood about going to school and stuff.

Brick Tommelein -   I agree with William, I just remember a few bits and pieces here and there but not that much.

William Frank Heiden (left) - I remember Fritz Milhan hit me in the head with a ball bat. We would play toss up and he swung and got me good. I didn’t have to go to school for about 3 months!

Ralph Heiden - I have a scar underneath my chin. The teacher used to ring a bell at the end of recess and I was standing too close and she popped me right under the chin.

William Frank Heiden - You should have sued them for that, Ha!

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - Denny got us an old newspaper for 1945, the year we were married. It was fun to look through but sometimes you’d look at a price and say, “God, it couldn’t have been that cheap back then!”

I remember the first year after we were married, bread was still rationed after the war. We had a neighbor who used to go and stand in line to get a loaf of bread. She would take her 16 year old daughter along with our ration stamp and get us a loaf too. I was at home with the baby and couldn’t go.

You had to wait in line at the Kroger store to get a loaf of bread.

Helen (Henning) Heiden - We only had one car in those days too so you couldn’t just go when you wanted to either.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - No. You were lucky if you had one car!

William Frank Heiden - There was another small house down the road on the east end of the Wakefield farm and that is where Mary Lou was born. They had that little house for the guy who worked the farm to live in.

Wakefield lived where Jesse Barnes lived (8750 Dixon Rd) and they didn’t want to work the farm. Old man Wakefield gave me a cow on the condition that I would give them some of the milk. I used to take over a couple of quarts a day to them.

When Wakefield died, he gave me a gold watch and he left Art a horse and buggy.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - That was a nice watch.

William Frank Heiden - Here it is. I still have it.

Brick Tommelein - Does it run, William?

William Frank Heiden - Yes we had the movement replaced. It’s got a porcelain dial.

Helen (Henning) Heiden - We took it down to a jeweler to see how much it might be worth in case somebody might break in and take it. They told us it’s not pure gold because it wears off over time.

William Frank Heiden - I’ve had it seventy years and I rarely carry it in my pocket yet it’s all worn off. Old Wakefield must have carried it for a long time before he died.

Brick Tommelein - Some of those old railroad watches used to be worth something.

Ralph Heiden - Why did Mr. Wakefield leave things to you boys?

William Frank Heiden - Well, we always waited on him and did things for him all the time.

Brick Tommelein - Mil, was that when Art started courting you when he had that buggy?

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - No, he had an old Model T Ford by the time we starting going out.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - Remember we used to play tricks on old Wakefield? It was after we got a telephone. When Ma and Pa would be gone, we would watch to see when he was outside and then we’d call him up. As soon as he got in the house, we’d hang up. Later he would tell Pa, “Somebody kept calling me all day today. By the time I got there, they’d hang up!”

Ralph Heiden - I didn’t think you guys did that kind of stuff. (laughs)

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - Oh, yes we did but Pa never knew it.

William Frank Heiden - We used to go sparrow hunting with him (Billy Miller) back when there was a bounty on sparrows. He used to put the dead sparrows in his pockets and he’d go to divide them up and we’d sneak into his other pocket and take one out while he wasn’t looking.

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - I used to hold the flashlight for Art and Heinie Heiden (right) when they would go after sparrows at night. They got 2 cents a piece and I never got anything!

William Frank Heiden - I used to go into that house a lot of times. There was a barn across the road on the south side. They had a corn crib and chicken coop on the north side where the house was. The red garage out in our drive came from that house when they tore it down. The beams and things came from that old house.

English sparrows are a non-native species and in 1887 Michigan paid a bounty of 1 cent per dead bird brought to the county clerk's office. I was unaware of it as a boy growing up in the 1950s and 60s but technically, the law was still in effect until repealed in 2000.