Part 4 of Pete's Story - read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.
Pete went back to where he started in life, as a farmer. He purchased a 160 acre farm on the northeast quarter of Section 32 of Clyde township – or, in simpler terms, south of Huron, four miles west on the Virgil Road, and ¾ mile north. He raised cattle, hogs, and grain for feed, and later added another 120 acres. Ella had a big garden and raised chickens, and made sure the livestock was
watered and cows were milked. Ella did the household baking at that point. They worked together but fought and bickered a lot.
As with the bakery, Pete also made a success out of his farm. In addition to his crops, he sold his produce to local businesses – cream to the cream station, eggs to the local Red Owl grocery store and Manolis Grocery, and turkeys to the Swift & Co. processing plant.
Things were not always easy on the farm though, especially during the Great Depression, when a severe drought and dust storms had widespread effects across the whole country. Consecutive years of drought resulted in the once-fertile soil drying up and blowing away, carried far and wide. In Beadle County, Pete’s daughter Lillian recalled sealing up the house at the first sign of a dust storm but even with rugs rolled up against the door frame, the minute particles found their way inside the house, inside the cupboards, and permeated clothes and blankets. There was no escaping the horrendous dust.
Crops failed year after year. When the farmers failed, the local businesses failed. Between 1930 and 1940, over 50,000 people left the state. And of the ones who stayed, 40% needed public assistance to survive.
And then came the locusts – the voracious locusts. The scorching dry weather allowed them to reproduce and survive like never before, and Pete said the huge swarms of them actually blocked out the sun at times. From dirt blowing into the house, to crop failure, to locusts, life was a huge challenge.
July of 1936 found Pete desperately trying to save his crops from a severe grasshopper infestation. One local reporter visiting the Christensen farm said, “Grasshoppers were looming up in clouds, jumping from one green stalk of corn to the next one, utterly mowing it down as neatly as any farm mower could cut it.” Many other farmers were walking away from farming. But Pete remained optimistic. He had paid $22,000 on the farm and still owed $2500 on it, and had no intention of leaving it under those circumstances. “I’ve seen crops, wonderful crops; that’s why I’m sticking.” Though Pete’s grain and corn crops were devastated, he was still hoping to salvage his barley and wheat fields. Besides the grasshoppers, the lack of rain was a problem. Pete felt that if they could just get a good rain, it would help the grasshopper problem, and if it would just rain hard for three days it would kill them. But he got neither. Fortunately, all was not completely lost – he had good luck with his hogs that spring with each sow having a big litter. He had nine milk cows, but what he got for the cream didn’t begin to pay for his groceries. But it was something. He said, “I’ll stick as long as I own my farm. I’ve got to stick – and wait for a good year.”
And those good years did come. By 1940 the drought was considerably better for area farmers and the Christensens were no exception. Daughter Lillian and her husband bought a farm about a mile from Pete and Ella and daughter Edna and her husband were also in the area, both couples bringing grandchildren into Pete and Ella’s lives. “Grandpa Pete” and “Grandma Pete” saw a lot of those children and they all forged happy memories of spending time on the farm. Granddaughter Betty used to follow Ella around the yard, wearing her floppy hat and using rhubarb leaves as umbrellas. She’d sit on Ella’s watering cart, slide down the banister, and play dress-up with the old clothes in the attic. She’d help feed chickens, gather eggs, and look for hidden baby kittens of which there were plenty. She recalls that every day after lunch they’d lay down for a nap and the kids always knew when she was safely asleep as she’d snore quite loudly. That was their opportunity to get up and have some unsupervised fun. But on one occasion, grandson Bobby got his head stuck between the bars on the banister of the stairway! Ella was remembered as tough, but at the same time sentimental and soft and loving. She was also known for her singing, which was brutally off-key, which Pete loved to tease her about. There was a lot of fighting between them, but when push came to shove, they took care of each other.
When Pete wasn’t tending to his livestock and crops, he loved to listen to radio and had a large, battery-operated model sitting in their living room, there being no electricity at the time. He absolutely loved wrestling, and without a doubt tuned into the matches every chance he got.
To be continued...
