11 November 2009 Gem Lake News - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 5 of 6 Lorraine Birkeland, who owns White Bear Floral in Gem Lake, experiences a profound sense of gratitude when she remembers Thanksgiving holidays during the Great Depression. “Things were very hard then but we always ate well. My mother put on quite a spread on Thanksgiving.” Now in her 80’s, Lorraine still works daily. During the Thanksgiving holiday season in the 1930’s things were very slow. “Very few people came in for floral arrangements or centerpieces like they do today. I think we might have been open on Thanksgiving a few times.” Lorraine’s mother, Elizabeth, was an orphan from Switzerland. She came to the United States when she was only 15 years old and worked for her uncle for two years to pay back the cost of her passage. During those years on her uncle’s farm, Elizabeth learned to cook. “My mother canned a lot. She was a wonderful cook and we never suffered for lack of a good meal during the Depression. On Thanksgiving she made a big meal, turkey and all the trimmings.” Elizabeth married Lorraine’s father Henry Wohletz and the couple had two daughters. They moved to Gem Lake at the height of the Great Depression and started a floral business, with the help of Henry Hoffman, who would later be Gem Lake’s first mayor. “I don’t know where I would be today without that man’s help. I have a lot to be grateful for.” Another Gem Lake resident, Dick Arcand, spent Thanksgiving of 1944 moving across Europe with the 7th Army. “We were usually right behind the fighting, setting up logistics.” I don’t remember ever having turkey or a holiday meal of any kind that year. However, I can’t even look at a can of Gem Lake Residents Reflect on Thanksgiving Holidays of the Past spam to this day. We ate a lot of C-Rations.” After the war, Dick married Henry Hoffman’s daughter Shirley and the two ran Hoffman’s Grocery. “For years, we stayed open a half day on Thanksgiving. I remember one Thanksgiving when Mr. Rooney (who ran the nursery down the street on County Road E) came in because he wanted Molasses for his sick cow.” Dick’s late wife would cook a wonderful Thanksgiving meal for the family. Sometimes we had a goose. During the Depression, people didn’t eat as much turkey, it just wasn’t as available. Things were pretty tough then, people ate mostly pork on Thanksgiving, as I recall. But later, after the war and the Depression, we ate goose and turkey.” Turkey wasn’t the primary entrée for the Thanksgiving meal for either Lloyd or Madonna LaBore when they were growing up during the Depression years. “People just didn’t eat a lot of turkey, it wasn’t around or it was too expensive, I don’t know which,” says Madonna. Lloyd grew up on a dairy farm, located on what is now the Gem Lake Hills Golf Course. “We ate chicken and goose, because these were animals we were raising on the farm.” Lloyd has some particular memories of Thanksgiving meals during World War II. While at boot camp in Idaho in 1942, he was served a large Thanksgiving meal, including blueberry pie that had a large nail in it. “They weren’t too particular about the food we ate then. It kind of sticks out in my mind now.” While serving in the Navy on Tinian Island in the Pacific, he missed one holiday meal while they were securing the island from the Japanese. “I do remember that we had a couple of great holiday meals while I was there. I remember turkey and cranberries and not much else, but the meals were pretty good.” Gem Lake resident Vern Grundhofer was too busy fighting in Korea during the Korean War to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal. He does, however, remember one Christmas meal delivered right to his fox hole. “It was hot turkey with gravy and mashed potatoes. I will never forget that. It was one of the best meals I ever had.” After Vern returned home, he moved to Gem Lake, married the daughter of Edna and Oliver Tessier and built a house next door to them on Scheuneman Road. “We usually spent Thanksgiving at the Tessier house. Edna was a great cook.”