When I was 10

A few months ago, we asked our readers what their life looked like when they were about 10 years old. Thanks to all those who shared their stories and memories.

Here is what they remember about what they were doing at age 10...

I loved skating, playing pond hockey

By Diane Bias-Mosel of Gaylord

In 1964, I was 10 years old. I grew up on a farm in Holdingford, Minn., which was a great place to grow up.

One of my chores in the winter was keeping wood in the wood box next to the old wood stove we had in the kitchen. The trip with an armful of wood from the woodshed to the house seemed awfully far, but it was really only 20 feet or so. Heating with all wood did not keep a constant temperature but the smell of wood smoke today still brings back memories.

One of my fondest memories of winter is walking across the field to my cousin’s house where there were ponds that we skated on, playing hockey and/or crack the whip. It was sometimes so painfully cold but skating took precedence. At night, a fire was built next to the pond where we would put on our skates or warm up.

Summer was so fun because there was swimming at the lake in Avon or St. Anna. The neighbor would pile a bunch of kids in the back of the pickup and off we’d go. Also, my mom and I would go fishing in the evening, just using a cane pole and standing next to a stream. I loved fishing with my mom.

Plus, summer was a time I could sleep in my cousin’s amazing tree house, which enabled us to sneak out and head to main street without any adults knowing about it!

Moved from Milwaukee to a farm

By Howard Anderson of St. Peter

I was born in Milwaukee, Wis. (great city!). It was 1972 when I was 10 and on my 10th birthday we had grandpa’s funeral, June 27, 1972.

Every summer we’d go to the grandparents for the summer. The farm was outside of Argyle, Minn. When we were living in Milwaukee, I really didn’t have chores. We moved to the farm in 1973 at the age of 11. Then I started mowing the lawn.

When I grew up I wanted to be a chef. In my early twenties I was a cook at a cafe.

When I was 10 and younger we lived in Milwaukee. Oh such fun! The smell of the lake, sounds of the foghorns, the brewery. It was a lot to do when you are a kid.

At the age of three, I had open heart surgery at Mayo Rochester. At the time, it was a new procedure to fix the valve. I am the only survivor. The Vietnam War was on TV and the space flight was on also.

I am now 62 and I have heart failure, but my faith has kept me going. As I grew older, I have a lot of jobs -- motel work, chef, cook, so much more.

I have slowed down a lot. In 2019 I retired from Gustavus as a cook for 13 years. It was not COVID, it was my body that said it was time.

I have had a good life.

Grew up in an orphanage

By Michael McDonald of Mound

When I was 10, it was 1959 and I lived in St. Paul. We were at St. Joseph’s Orphanage on Randolph Ave. A fine place for me. We went to Holy Spirit grade school. As for fun, mostly playing in the open field behind the home. Winter we built snowmen and sang Christmas songs. Summer mostly played outside with the other kids.

For chores, we had to clean the dorms up on Saturday morning. Most of the other work the home took care of.

I just wanted to be placed with a good family.

St. Joe’s was a good place. It was run by the sisters of St. Benedict. Some of the nuns I stayed in contact with after the home closed in 1960.

Things worked out for me. In 1960 when St. Joe’s closed, I went to live with the McDonald family in South Minneapolis. They adopted me in 1962. I was very lucky.

I’ve been married 45 years to Pam, have four sons, and now 12 grandkids.

Loved to climb a big oak tree

By James Sorenson of Clearwater

When I was 10 years old, it was 1960 and I was living in Brooklyn Center. My fun was riding bikes around the neighborhood with my best friend, Larry Smack. My chores consisted of burning the garbage and doing the dishes. At 10, I didn’t think much of what I wanted to be or goals for life. I remember climbing a big oak tree to the top to sway in the wind. I lost my younger brother to a drowning at 2 1/2 years old. My folks filed for divorce.

Picking pickles to buy a TV

By Bob Douglas of St. Peter, Indiana

I’ve lived in Saint Peter (Indiana) for 51 years. It was 1951 when I was 10 years old. Then, my Mom and Dad, Aunt Dora and I were living on a 40-acre farm near San Pierre, Indiana (the Hoosier Saint Peter). Fate, destiny--call it what you will, but I went to school in St. Peter (San Pierre) and then taught school in St. Peter. My Aunt Dora who was a teacher would not have it any other way.

The big event of the summer of 1951 was buying a TV. Mom and I planted and picked pickles for the Squire Dingee Company to buy one. It was hot, back-breaking work, but we made enough cash to buy a Royal television set. We drove to Chicago to get it.

Mornings were chores--feeding the chickens and pigs, milking Mary the cow, and running the separator to get cream. I either plowed or cultivated with our John Deere H. But then, every day in the summer my afternoon was planned around two TV programs.

Lunch was always a ham salad sandwich and soup on a tray table watching Uncle Johnny Coon and the Little Rascals. This was followed by the Lead-off Man and the Cubs game. It seems like they usually won then.

As a 10 year old in 1951 I became addicted to ham salad sandwiches and the Cubs. So what if they don’t win much now.

Sold poppies with my sister

By Julie Kademan of Mankato

I lived in the little village of Welcome, Minn., I grew up and went to school there.

My fondest memories were as a young girl with my sister selling artificial poppies uptown for the veterans and also forget-me-nots for the auxiliary. helping them out. My father was a Navy veteran so had many stories he shared with us over and over again. We did odd jobs for earning allowances as children. We did lots of fishing with my grandparents, and also just our family.

I have fond memories of my sister and I selling Christmas cards door to door for earning money for spending for our Christmas shopping. We only had a couple of stores uptown to shop in, but my sister and I, and sometimes our other siblings, would walk uptown to our hardware store, which had a gift section upstairs and we usually did most of our shopping for family, friends, and teachers there. Sometimes memories seem like a Norman Rockwell picture, as we walked uptown in the snowy days and the joy of the beautiful Christmas lights, trees, and holiday decorations and people greeting each other. The sounds of the Christmas music playing was really quite beautiful and real exciting as a young girl. We had many fun times with our holiday baking and parties and my father played Santa Claus for friends and family, which brought many happy times for the young and older children alike.

We never had extravagant gifts, sometimes even some homemade ones. We always went to Christmas Eve church and had children’s pageants and choir singing. If we did real good jobs, we all got bags of peanuts, candy and fruit as we left the service. As a child, celebrating Jesus birth was very special and it continues to be now even more so the closer we get to heaven’s homecoming.

Best friend’s shoes

By Jean Steffenson of Onamia

I sat with my feet almost touching the floor from my old wooden desk in the once-upon-a-time funeral home turned Catholic school in West Union, Iowa. There was always a damp smell in the old building. 

It was 1962 and what I really dreamed about were little white canvas tennis shoes that I admired on my best friend’s feet. Susan Landis, who sat across from me, was the epitome of how to look for a 10 year old as her dainty feet gently kicked back and forth with the shoes that I desired.  We were in a huge lower room that combined my 5th grade with the 6th grade. It looked up to the 3rd and 4th grade rooms which were in an upper level room with glass windows. It was a very stark building. I was careful not to gaze too long at her shoes since the nuns would hit you on the head with a stick for not paying attention. The shoes were never bought. With four sisters, new shoes were only for the beginning of the school year and possibly Easter. They needed to be sturdy shoes and last since money was scarce.

How fun it would have been to dance in the shoes on a Saturday morning as my sisters and I watched and danced to American Bandstand. We had a large family room and we would stand in a circle dancing. I bet the shoes would help when we played “Kick the Can” or “Hide and Seek” with the neighbor boys too. Of course, the shoes might even help me climb the tree across the street from us. Oh, those shoes would add joy to my favorite activities.

Not too many months later, Dad came home with a tiny little black dog! He was a combination of a chihuahua and terrier. Oh, how I loved it. We put it in a cardboard box to sleep with a watch under an old blanket. The watch was supposed to sound like its mother’s heart. I could hardly wait for the next day. I woke up very early and went into the garage and held that soft little puppy that fit perfectly in my arms as I hugged it tight. I found it’s leash and we were off for a walk. It was easy to forget about the shoes at that point. That puppy was with us until my last year of college. I still remember its sweet face and big brown eyes surrounded by long black lashes along with its smell of the outside on its fur.

Ten was an age of imagining anything. I loved to read and escape from the world . I really loved when our new book order came in at school. My mom let us order one new book. A new crisp book that was opened for the first time with its pleasant scent lifted my spirits immensely. Those were special days to have that new book in my hands.

My aunt was Sister Jean. She was a Franciscan nun. I was her namesake. She was in Guam. I wrote letters to her and my mom was thrilled. I really only imagined being a wife and mother someday. The world in 1962 did not consist of many role models for girls. My mother had been an “A” student in high school but stayed home after marriage. I adored Jacqueline Kennedy but being first lady was not really a career choice! I am glad to see that there are many options for girls now. They can choose from many careers.

Accident lead me to nursing career

By Char Hanson of Alexandria

I turned 10 in December 1957 in 5th grade. I already loved to read, ride bike, and play with a classmate who lived across the field. As the oldest of eight in the summer of 1957, (a new baby sister in April 1957), I was expected to help with the younger kids, and also do simple ironing and dishes sometimes. My Grandma had been a teacher before she was married and that’s what I wanted to be.

We were living on a farmstead a couple of miles from a southern Minnesota community. It was a two-story house with an oil burner in the living room and no indoor plumbing. We rode the school bus on dirt roads and had a fairly short driveway to walk.

In August 1957, I was in a horrific car/semi crash while visiting, along with my eight-year-old younger sister, my Grandma and Grandpa in northern Minnesota. My Grandma was the driver of the 1953 two-door Chevy. She and my sister were thrown out of the car and died instantly. I was given “The Last Rites.” I was in the hospital over a month with head, jaw and facial injuries. These injuries resulted in many reconstructive surgeries over the next five or six years.

The care and support I received from the nurses led to my pursuing nursing to a BSN level and nearly 45 years in nursing in hospitals and public health before retiring 12 years ago.

Help in dad’s dental clinic

By Brooke Hamann of Frazee/Vergas

When I was 10, it was 1994 and I lived in Perham. I played Barbie dolls and played at St. Henry’s School playground. I watched my older sister play high school sports, loved arts, crafts and beadwork, puzzles with my dad, and reading with my mom. My regular chores were to clean my room, shake rugs, empty garbage cans, and help clean my dad’s dental clinic. I wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up.

I remember the smell of lilac bushes in our backyard, listening to loons at the lake cabin, the taste of mom’s pot roast dinner, Grandma Eunice’s French toast, and dad smelling like a dental office.

My family was building a new house at that time. I was excited but missed my old neighborhood and friends after we moved.

I got “bras” just before 6th grade, at age 11. This was a big moment in my life. My middle sister graduated after 6th grade so my family life changed. I felt rather like an only child but we took lots of trips to “The Cities” in years to come to visit my older two sisters.

I shot my first deer with my dad 

By Skylar Brooke Matzke of Frazee/Vergas

I lived in the country on Long Lake, between Vergas and Frazee and I am 10 years old. I turned 10 on March 15, 2024. For fun, I like to ride horses, swim in the LAPS Program, play with friends, watch TV, do different games on my Kindle and Legos, and play with my American Girl Doll, named Savannah. My regular chores are to fold clothes, clean my room, and clean the bathroom. I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up.

Scenes where I live: I hear the birds, smell spring and summer flowers, touch snow, leaves and grass, and look at Long Lake out our windows! A big event that just happened was I shot my first deer during the youth hunt with my dad. I also like to help plant gardens with my mom and sister, Kadence, in the spring.

I wanted to work for the railroad

By Charles Bjorklund of Melrose 

When I was 10, it was 1972 and I lived in Starbuck. I rode horses and my sisters and I would clean out the woods and make areas like a town to live in. I loved going to the County Fair and Waterama in Glenwood. I also went dancing on Sundays with the parents. For chores, I pulled weeds in the garden in the summer, fed the chickens and the pigs, and cleaned the house on Saturday mornings. I wanted to be an engineer and work for the railroad when I grew up.

I remember the sounds of birds singing, dogs and cats, and farm machinery. I alos remember right colors of country life--the fields at harvest and the bright blue skies. I remember the sweet smell of flowers, cleaning the barn with the cattle and horses, and mom baking breads and cookies. The taste of fresh strawberries so sweet, breads and cakes sweet and awesome, lemonade tart and sour, and sometimes the bitter taste of chocolate. I remember the soft grass and the soft touch of the cats and dogs. In the woods, the rough touch of different woods and weeds.

Some big events at that time were Watergate, Munich Olympics, and President Nixon announcing the start of research of NASA to man space shuttles. Also, The Godfather was a new movie.

I built a raft out of old gas tanks

By Leslie Wayne Craig of Granite Falls

I was 10 in 1941 and 1942. For fun I would ride bike and ice skate. I built a raft out of old gas tanks and floated it on the pond by the house along with my friend, Les Olson.

My chores consisted of feeding the chickens, bringing in wood for the wood stove, carrying the water in from the pump, shoveling snow, and walking down to the corner store for groceries for mother.

I went from wanting to be a cowboy to wanting to be a General and played soldiers with my friends. Life just felt normal.

Big events at that time were Pearl Harbor and WWII. I collected scrap iron and would look for pop bottles that I would get a penny at the store for them.

I went to the Smith Brother Junkyard with my dad and that is where I got the old gas tanks for my raft. I liked to help my dad and would go with him when he dug wells. My dad was in the Oklahoma Land Rush and in the 52nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Spanish American War.

I’ll soon be 93 years old. We were poor when I was 10, but I never knew it because I had everything I needed.

Lived on a small farm

By Eloise Nelson of Willmar

At age 10 I lived on a small farm near Foley, Minn. I was born in June 1945, making me 10 in 1955. My three siblings and I made our own fun. In winter, we played in the snow--sledding, snowball fights, make-shift hockey on the frozen barnyard pond. Spring and summer brought softball and a made-up game we called “tree-tag.” Fall was football, but mainly our fun was at school. Bad weather brought us indoors for mischief and board games.

Man, did we have jobs and chores! Mine were mainly in the house, but I also helped with gardening. Our mother got a job teaching in a country school in the fall. So, my eight-year-old sister and I were in charge of meals along with kitchen and household duties. At age 10, I had no idea what I wanted to be.

The outdoor scene was a well-kept yard with the sweet smell of lilacs, apple and plum blossoms in spring, fresh mowed grass and hay in summer, the special aroma of threshing grain in fall, and the drab scent of barren trees in winter until a fresh snowfall arrived. Of course, the ongoing dairy and barnyard odors were put up with or ignored. Wafting aromas from inside often could be detected including fresh-baked homemade bread. As a 10-year-old member of 4-H, I received a blue ribbon on my homemade bread at the county fair.

After the end of WWII and the Korean War, and the invention of the Salk polio vaccine, the USA had much hope for a peaceful and prosperous future in 1955.

Living as a 10 year old on a small family farm in 1955 brought much joy and enjoyment along with the struggles we faced. We had no modern conveniences. We did have a telephone and a battery-operated radio. Dad also made sure his subscription to the Minneapolis Tribune stayed current. We simply did not know anything different.

Made mud pies, forts on the farm

By Karen Nelson of New London

I am now living in rural New London, which is only five miles east of my home farm, which is seven miles south of Sunburg. I grew up on a dairy farm, being the 11th child of 12 children. We had a wonderful childhood. My sisters Amy and Cheri and myself were the youngest three, so known as “the three little girls.”

We had chickens, pigs and cows on our farm. We spent many days with our pet calves of which we trained to ride like horses. Amy and I had two bull calves that we rode daily-- “Big John” and “Missour.” Our poor dad didn’t know what to think, but it seemed to make him happy.

We made forts in the woods and made mud pies creatively using weeds that look like rhubarb.

We were responsible for feeding the chickens, picking eggs, and helping dad in the barn with putting hay down from the hay barn. (Not to mention the times we fell down the hay hole to the floor in front of the cows.)

I remember so clearly the wonderful, secure feeling it was when it would be -20 degrees, blowing, snowing, but when dad and I would walk into the barn and shut the door. That was one of the most wonderful memories to me.

I’m not sure if I knew this at 10 (in 1968), but I was quite young when I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I did get to serve my community as a nurse for 45 years. I loved it, and am so thankful I got to serve in the capacity.

I was raised in a Christian family. I believe it is only by God’s grace that mom and dad were able to raise all us children in the sunshine of “His Love.”

Watched when Nixon resigned

By Larry Magrath of Marshall

The year I turned 10 was a historic year for our country. It was one of those “I remember where I was when” moments in my life. Visiting my paternal aunt in Boulder, Colorado, she grabbed me one day and sat me down in front of the television. It was on Aug. 8, 1974 that President Richard Nixon addressed the nation and announced his resignation. This was serious stuff, and I knew it was that day because my aunt paced behind my chair excitedly talking and muttering stuff I didn’t understand.

I live in Marshall now, but my hometown is McCook, Nebraska, where I was born and graduated high school. I had been insulated by youthful ignorance of the national politics. Although there was a family breakup coming three years later, I was happy enough being a kid. I remember that summer the most. Activities included riding bikes and helping a bit with my dad’s veterinary clinic that was on our property on the edge of town. Trips to the lake and river with a friend and his family were common and enjoyable. It’s an interesting time to recall because it seems like you never expect things to change, until they do.

‘We’re in a drought’

By Kent Syverson of Willmar

I turned 10 in the summer of 1974. It was very dry that summer. I had learned in school what a drought is. When I noticed that we had gone a long time without rain, I said, “We’re in a drought.” In response, I was told, “Nope, nope, nope, this is not a drought.”

As the summer went by, I noticed that we still weren’t getting any rain. Every once in a while, I said, “We’re in a drought.” Each time, I was told, “This is not a drought.”

Then one evening, we were watching the news, and they mentioned ‘drought.’ Now all those people HAD to agree with me! Why wouldn’t they before? The one thing I can think of is that there aren’t that many people who are willing to take the word of a 10-year-old kid.

Strawberry picking with mom

By Jean Erickson of Sunburg

I live outside of Sunburg on five acres. When I was 10 years old in 1956, we lived on one acre in Beloit, Wisc. We had at least three quarters of an acre of fruits and veggies, with probably four long rows of strawberries. We would wake up at day break, eat breakfast and then start picking with Mom. She ordered one-quart wooden boxes that fit in a handmade carrier my dad did. Then there were big crates that held 16 quarts -- eight on top of eight separated by a slab of wood. I was fine at all this picking until a snake appeared and I quit (even though the pay was 5¢ a quart). We took the crates to a privately-owned grocery store called Foxes for them to sell.

If picking was light, my brothers (seven & eight years old) would take turns selling at the card table in the front yard. That “job” also paid 5¢ per quart.

Maybe some of you think that’s not much, but a quart was 35¢ so you be the judge. Other short supply would wind up as freezer jam, but the Kelvinator refrigerator’s square aluminum compartment would only hold four big jars. I imagine Mom made sauce via canning of other berries for enjoyment over winter.

Our daughters picked strawberries with me at Hawick and Spicer years ago. Their daughters also picked berries. Now our oldest granddaughter has gotten her two-year-old son doing the same at Sauk Centre’s Tutti Fruitti patch. He eats more than he puts in the pail. His photo is in the current Senior Perspective cookbook showing how to eat with a grown-up fork and spoon.

Sledding off the chicken coop roof

By Doug Bengtson of Wood Lake

I have currently lived in the town of Wood Lake for 24 years. When I was 10 years old, I grew up on a farm southwest of Balaton. The year would have been 1959. Many things were happening then.

I did many various things for fun. Living on the farm brought forth a great group of things. Sometimes in the winter I would take a sled or toboggan to some nearby hills on someone else’s property and have a fun time sledding. Or sledding off the chicken house roof. When dad would clean off the yard, my younger brother and I would dig caves in the snow pile. Or we would have snowball fights. It was always warm down there and we would play with our toys. Most of the winter was spent in school. We always hoped snowstorm would come up and we could go home.

In the spring we would drain the little water as the snow melted. When the creeks opened up and the water started flowing, we would go fishing. That would often carry over for summer and fall.

I had many chores to do on the farm. Too many to talk about.

Like I said, many things were happening when I was 10. The space race was going on, Ike or Eisenhower was President. Kennedy was running for President.

I also remember standing in line waiting to get a series of shots for various diseases.

Ironing my dad’s hankies

By Bonnie Huettl of Alexandria

When I was 10, I lived in Minneapolis and it was 1957. For fun, we played hopscotch, marbles, jump rope, red rover and roller skating. My regular chores consisted of dusting the house, ironing Dad’s hankies, doing the dishes, and making my bed every day. I wanted to be a teacher.

It was cool, calm and quiet where I grew up, except for buses. I lived by a river so it always smelled like water.

I don’t remember anything specific going on in the world at 10 years old. Personally, we had just moved to a new area, so I remember making new friends! Also helping my older brother with his paper route.

Church and potluck every Sunday

By Mary Beam of Fargo

I turned 10 years old in August of 1969. In July, Apollo 11 was launched the same day I got another brother. We had just moved from Hanska to Starbuck, Minn., to a bigger house on a beef farm.

I was now the oldest of seven, all but the baby slept upstairs. I was so happy to have my own room. It was my job to put the next two youngest, both boys, to bed. Instead of reading a book I told them to pick one out of my head. I made sure it was boring and long so they’d fall asleep fast.

The four oldest, all girls, took turns cleaning the kitchen after supper. Then mom sent us outside to play until dark. In the morning, we took a bus to school. I was in 5th grade. I remember the day our teacher yelled at us. At snack time, Mr. Frank handed out our latest tests saying everyone had failed and he was so very disappointed. I was passing out milks and started crying. Turned out he had used the wrong answer key.

Sundays were special, church in the morning and a pot luck at Grandma’s house in the afternoon. Kids would eat in the stairwell, grownups all over. There was lots of laughter, kids playing inside and outside until dusk when folks left to do chores.

When I was 10, I was blessed to be part of a big family and live in the country near many cousins, aunts and uncles.

The day Buddy Holly died

By Patricia (Tricia) Fladeboe Hamann of Perham

When I was 10 it was 1958-60. In the summer, I rode my green, Montgomery Wards bike (I still have it!), roller skated, read 100 books, played baseball and kickball, swimming lessons at Green Lake, car trips to visit cousins, made tents, and raced homemade go-carts. In the fall, I raked and played in leaves; Winter: ice skated, played with Tiny Tears Doll, piano lessons, sleepovers, card and board games, built snow forts; Spring: played with our dog Tuffy, baton lessons. 

For chores, I babysat my two brothers, ran errands to neighborhood “Friendly Store,” and vacuumed. I dreamed of being a singer, writer, teacher, or reporter when I grew up.

I lived on the east side of Willmar, on Julii Street. Kids laughed and talked, moms called kids home for supper, dogs barked, birds chirped and car engines roared.  We watched bats fly low at night between trees, and  listened to the trains whiz and whistle by in the railroad yards a few blocks away. I remember the comforting touch of mom tucking me in at night and listening to baseball games on the car radio with my dad.

Big events that affected my family and me: dad was a WW II Navy Veteran and he was concerned about the spread of communism in S.E. Asia (Vietnam) and in Cuba under Castro; I was devastated by the death of rock and roller Buddy Holly (whom I had seen on The Ed Sullivan Show), in a plane crash 10 days before my 10th birthday.

This was an idyllic time in my life--simple pleasures like laying on the grass and watching the clouds float by or sitting on a hill counting the train cars passing through the bustling railroad yards. Holidays were important to me, whether baking sugar cookies with my mom at Christmas, taking my brothers trick or treating when I was dressed as an Indian Maiden at Halloween, smelling the aroma of turkey and dressing floating through our house at Thanksgiving, celebrating Easter with church, chocolate rabbits, and a Cure 81 Hormel Ham from Juba’s Super Valu.

The day I became a ‘rock’ star

By Joyce Kuhlemeyer Wagner of Fargo

Sun-weary, with straw hats tilted back, the laughter of my dad and brothers stretched across the field of freshly baled hay. It was not unusual that my mom and I would bring a noontime lunch to them so they could best utilize their working hours. As they idled down the tractor’s engine, we would gather for a picnic of sorts in our alfalfa field near Vergas, Minnesota.

It had been a busy morning for us, too. Mom, keeping company with her Maytag washer on the porch, called back to me in the kitchen where I was to mix a pan of brownies. A novice cook at the age of 10, I added the ingredients as my mom recited them one by one from memory. Later, with the 8x8-inch pan of brownies still warm from the oven, and the chocolate frosting still not set, we compiled the remaining lunch items and drove out to the field to meet the “guys.”

Sandwiches and cold lemonade made for a welcomed break from the haymakers’ labors. Everyone “had their fill,” including our farm dog who’d also joined us. Therein the story changed: the brownies were inedible. Howls of laughter rang out at everyone’s failed attempt to consume what should have been a chocolate treat. The brownies were so rock hard that even the dog couldn’t chew them!

In good humor, I have frequently been reminded of my rock hard brownies. A forgotten ingredient formed a laughable baking story that has lived on for over six decades.

I loved riding w/ dad in the combine

By Dawn Winter of Alexandria

When I was 10 years old, the year was 1983. I grew up on a 2,000-acre grain farm north of Valley City, N.D. Notable events that year were the Reagan presidency, Valley City centennial celebration, ongoing farm crisis, and the death of my favorite grandma.

Wintertime fun meant sliding down giant snow piles in my orange flying saucer, and riding around the yard on a black inner tube pulled by my dad on his ‘M’ tractor. I loved riding my bike in the summer and fall. Other favorite activities included playing in the sand box,  helping mom plant the garden, playing “Horse” with dad, swinging high on the tire swing, and honing my mud “baking” skills with mom’s worn-out bakeware. Riding with dad in the combine ranked number one! I still remember the comforting smell of warm, harvested wheat and later toasty sunflowers. When not outside, I spent hours playing with my Barbie dolls, playing dress up with my little brother, reading books and practicing piano. Saturdays were a favorite because mom let us have sugar cereal, hot cocoa and watch cartoons! Saturdays also meant helping mom with dusting the house and cleaning my room.

Our family traditionally made the hour-long trip to Fargo the weekend after Thanksgiving. Black Friday mayhem was not a thing then. It was a family outing for many people. We stayed in a top-floor tower room at the Holiday Inn across from the West Acres shopping mall. Looking out over the big cityscape, shopping at the mall, dining out, and swimming in the pool were special luxuries.

Paper route paid for baseball cards

By Leif Wallin of Bemidji

When I was 10, growing up in Minot, N.D., I was a huge baseball fan. I got a job delivering newspapers and earned about $20 per month. At the end of my route, I’d walk to Sunshine Grocery and buy a pack of baseball cards. For 10 cents you got a pack of 10 cards and a stick of chewing gum. I still remember the sugary gum smell on the cards. I eventually collected hundreds of cards, which I sorted by team and division.

Daydreaming down by the creek

By David Witikko of rural New York Mills

I lived in Linton, N.D., the county seat of Emmons County. Highway 83 split the city into “old town” down the hill to the west and “new town” across the railroad tracks and up the hill to the east. We lived about two and a half blocks down the hill in “old town” in a small two story house. The house was “old” but it did have running water and an indoor bathroom, which we didn’t have on the farm when we moved into town one and a half years earlier.

I was 10 in 1962. I had seven siblings and was the third oldest. My two older brothers and I were the “big boys” and the remaining siblings were the “little kids.” Beaver Creek ran on the western edge of “old town” about three blocks west of our house. Bush’s had a farm across the creek where we would walk to with 50 cents and an empty one-gallon jar that we would bring home full of  milk. I enjoyed making this run. I remember going down to the creek alone and daydreaming about life. Doing this task was my inspiration for the poem I wrote as an assignment in the 5th grade.

My Paradise

I’d like to live by a flowing brook,

Where I cold catch some fish to cook.

Then scaring turtles from under the rocks,

I’d never take time to look at the clock.

Then taking a boat to flow down the brook,

and coming back up to check my hooks.

Then camping under the midnight skies,

I’d watch the flying stars go by.

I remember catching salamanders in the mud bottom of the cement window wells of the basement windows of the courthouse in the summer. They were creepy. The yards of the houses on our side of the street were bordered by never-pruned hedges on the sides. Our front yard had a large cottonwood tree as several other yards had on the street. In the spring there were always cottonwood seed drifts in the gutters of the street. In our backyard we had our clothesline. I remember helping mother hang clothes and beddings out to dry in the winter freezing temperatures. Items were soon hard as rock but after hours they were dry and they had such a fresh smell. This was long before I knew of the triple-point of water and sublimation -- I just loved the smell.

Our backyard was open to a grass field. To get to the Hi-Way grocery store, we would walk across on a path about half of a mile and up a wooded incline of 30 yards. Mother would give me a penny when I got sent to make a purchase. I could buy a one-cent Tootsie Roll or two-for-one-cent generic yellow candy that was in a white paper twisted together on the ends. I would usually get the two-for-one-cent generic.

Mumps, rubella, and rubeola infections went through our household during the school year. My school-age siblings got to miss school with these infections. Not me, I had all three of these during my summer vacation between 5th and 6th grade when I was 10. I was bed-ridden and home-ridden for half of the summer break. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t get to miss any school. Our walk to school was about 10-11 blocks, mostly uphill. After school was out, if we would go right down to the Farmers Union Station, we could catch a ride home in the box of Elmer Ehrman’s Studebaker pickup. He lived down the street from us, about a block from Beaver Creek. He would stop in front of our house to let us off as he drove home. That would shave off about six blocks from our walk home. Mom and dad both worked -- dad full-time, mom part-time. The big boys cleaned house on Saturdays, mopping and waxing the linoleum floors. We used Aerowax that came in the tall cylindrical cans.

I watched the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night on our black and white TV, channel 5-KFYR out of Bismarck, when the Beatles came to America while living in “old town.” That was 1964. I would have been 11 or 12. My youngest brother was born Aug. 10, 1965. We had moved to “new town” by then. My birthday is Aug. 26, 1952 so I was 12 years old then. A few different events are your memory time markers. It seems this was an era in my life.

No electricity, but we felt blessed

By Lavonne Selleck of Staples

Summer: Hoe a row of potatoes or beans and go jump in the lake. Repeat.

4-H projects: I received a blue ribbon on my 9-egg cake and got a write-up in the Farmer magazine for young baker.

We had no electricity so no TV (it hadn’t been invented yet), so WWII seemed far away. We bought saving stamps and bonds to support the war effort. Also saved tinfoil from gum wrappers and picked milkweed pods used to fill life jackets.

We walked 1 1/2 miles to county school in rain, snow, or 20 below and learned more than town kids. We had lessons from upper grades and reviewed them as lower grades recited. We came home to smells of bread baking in the wood range and maybe a warm cinnamon roll for snack, then chores of carrying in wood, feeding cows, etc.

We had winter fun of sliding down the hill on a Toboggan dad made for us. We shoveled off a skating rink on the lake and got cold so went up the hill to grandma’s for waffles and hot chocolate.

Evenings were dark so we used kerosene lamps for reading and playing games with family together.

Bedtime, upstairs was hot in summer and cold in winter when five of us slept in the room where the stove pipe brought heat.

Some might say we were deprived but I think we were blessed. We learned responsibility and hard work. We had the riches of family and work mixed with fun.

Shoveled coal in the furnace daily

By Ernie Freund of Alexandria 

When I was 10, I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. The year was 1948. I got a pair of skis for Christmas. They were wood slats turned up at the toe. Boots were held on by a leather strap. The skis often got to the bottom of the hill before I did. I lived a few miles from The Great Salt Lake, which was twice as big as it is now. Upside: You could float without moving a muscle. Downside: Any scratch, bite, or cut would sting intensely. Splash water in your eyes? Forget it.

My daily chore was to shovel coal from the bin in the basement into the furnace. For this I received a monthly allowance of two dollars. I had a paper route. I would walk to the end of the block where earlier the bundles had been dumped. I would cut the string, then sit for an hour folding the papers into squares, put them in my canvas shoulder bag, and fling them onto the porches as I walked. Many missed. I spent much time fetching them out of the bushes.

I first learned to ride a horse at a Y Camp in the Uintas Wilderness. My mount veered off the trail and walked under low hanging Aspen branches in an effort to knock me off. I sat with my family around the dining table on Sunday nights with a cup of hot chocolate and floating marshmallow, listening to such weekly offerings on the radio as  Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve, Ozzie and Harriet, The Shadow Knows, and The Lone Ranger.

My parents took me to church on Sundays.  Later, I retired after 55 years in the ministry.

When you’re 10, you never know…

Fun on the farm in North Dakota

By Kathy Withers of rural Osakis

When I was 10, in 1955, I lived on a farm in rural New Salem, N.D. Our fun consisted of large family gatherings on holidays, school when the roads were open, playing with siblings and caring for them (I was the oldest), an annual 4th of July rodeo in Mandan, which often included a picnic lunch and a birthday cake for me, and playing with some of my many cousins (between my mom’s and dad’s family, there were around 60).

For chores we had to gather the eggs (even when the hens wanted to peck at us), feed the calves, learn to drive the tractor, bring the cows home from the pasture, watch my siblings, help to feed the threshing crew, and carry water in buckets from the well house to the house. I can still remember the smell of freshly cut hay, lilacs and chokecherry blossoms in the spring, and the smell of chicken coops and animals in the barn. 

There was a gently flowing creek through the farm property, which was known for bull heads. Our neighbor fished there often and shared his catch with us. In the spring the ice on the creek would break up and the ice jams caused the bridge to go out. The bridge happened to be between our home and the school, so my mother became a home-school teacher until the bridge was repaired. Home schooling also occurred when we had a blizzard that kept us home until the roads were plowed out.

I wanted to be a teacher because I was so inspired by my 2nd grade teacher. As I got older, teachers would allow me to help younger students with their studies in our one-room school house (grades 1-8).

A particular sad time during that year was when a sister arrived (stillborn) in November. At age 10, I sensed my mother’s deep sadness, but did not know how to comfort her.

Life was hard with many challenges. Life was also fun – full of family gatherings, outdoor games and almost no electronics. We had a phone with a party line and a TV with two channels. Rural electricity was the cat’s meow. Life was good.

Had a pet raccoon on the farm

By David Ford of Dalton

I live on Sewell Lake in St. Olaf Township of Otter Tail County. At age 10, I lived on a farm in northwest Iowa. It was 1950-51. Fun was varied and largely self-generated or dreamed up. After getting home from school on the bus, Mom usually had milk and cookies or some snacks. Of course the cookies were homemade. The milk was from our own cows. We had a pasteurizer to kill ‘whatever’ that the milk might contain which was ‘fresh squeezed,’ so to speak, every day. Afterward we had some chores. I would seek out my dad to see what he needed done. It depended a lot on the time of the year-- spring, summer, fall, winter. I had two older brothers and three sisters who were younger. I’ll just reminisce from here....

We had a pet raccoon who entertained us quite easily. He had been discovered in the hayloft of the barn. His name was Coonie. We fed him milk from a doll baby bottle until he could forage for himself. We probably had him around for most of the summer and fall until he never showed up again. His fate is unknown.

I remember playing outdoor games like “Hide and Seek,” “Anti-Anti-Over,”  and“Pigtail!” We would weed the garden, mow the yard grass with a push-reel mower, hoe weeds from the corn or soybean fields, feed and water chickens, pick eggs, ride the horse, pick strawberries, raspberries and mulberries, search roadside ditches for asparagus, trap pocket gophers, etc.

At night after supper the family would listen to the radio (we had no TV yet)... shows like The Green Hornet, Gene Autrey, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny...

Our telephone was a wooden box on the wall. Cranking the handle would do things like calling someone else on the same line (a partyline) each family had a certain ring like two shorts and long or one long and two shorts or... a long crank raised the operator at the switchboard and you could ask to be connected to another party outside your partyline.

Our farmhouse had no indoor plumbing except a hand-pump at the kitchen sink. Water was heated on the cook stove. Saturday was bath day. A galvanized tub was set on the kitchen floor and when the water got hot on the stove it went into the tub. The tub was filled about half full. The three girls got to use the bath water first followed by the three boys. The water was pretty soapy and gray by the end, to say the least. Additional warm water was added as the process progressed.

The toilet was an outhouse a short walk from the house. Toilet paper was sometimes the fancy commercially made white paper similar to what we use today, but at times of shortage the newsprint pages of a Sears or Montgomery Wards catalog had to suffice. In the winter when temps were below zero a thunder mug (chamber pot) was kept in the house for the girls but the boys had to ‘bare’ it outdoors at the outhouse.

My favorite outing was when dad would invite me to accompany him to town in the new pickup truck, a 1951 Ford quarter ton. He was going into town to pay some bills or get something repaired at the village blacksmith shop. What made this trip exciting was Dad would stop at the grocery and buy two Almond Hershey candy bars. That candy bar was Dad’s favorite and it is mine also to this day.

The old farmhouse just had the cook stove in the kitchen and an oil heater in the living room for heat. In the middle of winter that space heater got a good work out. We all slept upstairs, no heat upstairs except body heat. So the beds had several layers of heavy quilts and you awoke in the morning feeling worn out from all the bedding weight to keep warm in the night. I assure you there was no lallygagging at bedtime or at arising time. Many times bedtime dressing and morning dressing was done downstairs near the space heater. I remember the frost on the bedroom windows would get to be quite thick from human breath at night. Sometimes we would take coins and press them against the icy window and the heat from our hands on the coin would cause an exact impression of the coin face.

Just outside the house we had a water-well with a hand pump. The well was hand dug to about 30 feet and was the best drinking water for miles around. When neighbors would gather at harvest time someone would usually comment on how good the water tasted. (Harvest time is a another story.)

Wanted to join the military

By Shirley Syverson of Alexandria

I grew up in Miltona and I am 80 years old now. When I was 10, I enjoyed playing softball, swimming, swinging, sliding, and skiing downhill.

Dad made a toboggan for us to use in the winter time. We also made forts and tunnels in the winter. I had to mow lawn, rake leaves and help garden. For chores I had to wash dishes and clean my room.

When I grew up I wanted to join the military. We lived in a small community and we knew everyone’s name. There were train noises, nice yards and homes. There were plenty of creamery and locker plant smells, as we lived nearby. I had my tonsils out and remember having all the vaccinations. We had four grades in one classroom and there were eight of us in my class.

Raking, playing games in the leaves

By Betty Schlosser of Alexandria

When I was 10 we lived in Miltona. I am 81 years old now. I liked to ride bike, slide, ski, and rake up piles of leaves. We played “bear held up for winter.” One person would hide under a pile of leaves and the rest of the kids had to find where the bear was under the pile. We had a lot of fun with that.

I had to mow lawn, rake lawn, water lawn, and shovel snow. I had to paint the muntins on windows. My most important chore was going to the sewer plant, noting the time if a pump was running, and wait and see if it shut off within 15 minutes. If it kept running I had to go tell Dad at the gas station where he worked. He would try to get away from his job and reverse the pump in order to dislodge debris that had been sucked up into the pump. I also drove tractor for one of my uncles on the farm.

 I liked to count train cars as they went through town. There were lots of trees and farmland.

I remember lining up to receive the polio vaccine. An oral-colored vaccine was years later.  A young girl from our church died of spinal meningitis.

Was 10 years old last year

By Hannah Mae Velde of Glenwood

I am 11 years old now and like playing softball, basketball, games, and doing puzzles. I like to go camping with Grandma and skiing. I also enjoy riding mini bike and ATV.

For chores I clean bunny cages, clean my room, and put dishes in the dishwasher. When I grow up I would like to be an interior designer.

Where I live there is car noise and lots of hills and pretty flowers. There was a pandemic of COVID when I was younger. I love sports and we have two cats.

When I was 10

By Marcy Tupy of Montgomery

When I was 10, I lived in rural New Prague, Minn. It was 1946.

In summer, spring and fall we spent much time outdoors. We sat in the shade drinking lemonade and reading comic books. We played camping in the woods, fishing in the pond by the barn, playing farm using sticks for cows. If it rained, we played school, house with dolls, coloring and reading comic books.

In winter we’d play in the snow and build snowmen. We helped mom cut rags and roll them up for rugs. I liked to wash dishes, sweep and clean up. I helped set the table. I’d pick eggs at noon. Also helped hoe our large garden. I wanted to be a first grade teacher. I’d wake to hear mom frying bacon and eggs. We’d have pork roast with skin and fat on and sauerkraut. What a wonderful smell! Also mom’s homemade breads baked in a wood range oven.

World War II was over, but I remember the rationing of coffee and sugar. We had books of stamps to use to buy shoes, tires and rubber boots. We probably had one pair of shoes and wore them until they fell apart.

Life moved a lot slower then. We enjoyed all three meals a day as a family. We had no television or computers. We listened to a radio. We’d hear Cedric Adams news, shows such as “Stella Dallas,” “Arthur Godfrey,” “Blondie,” “Inner Sanctum,” “Truth or Consequences,” and “Art Linkletter” show, and much more.