General Notes

[Joanne's Tree.1 GED.GED]

2  SOUR S332582
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004


[daveanthes.FTW]

LAURA (ANTHES) MOHNIKE grew up on a farm in Nebraska.  She worked in private homes and later she taught school for a while.  She married my father, LOUIS FRANCIS MOHNIKE.  After living on the farm, Dad decided farming was not for him.  He took courses in learning to be an automobile mechanic, and they later moved to Denver, Colorado, and then to Santa Monica, California.  Dad died from cancer of the colon at a young age. Mother was left with four little girls.  I was age four.

I remember Mother working for one dollar a day cleaning houses to provide for we girls.  Mother was a determined hard working German and full of life.  She was always optimistic, energetic and always planning for tomorrow.  She never let us know that we were poor, or she did not dwell on it.

When Kay needed help and a place for Connie, her daughter, Kay turned to Mother.  Mother adored Connie and cared for her the best she could.  When my husband died at age 21 in a plane crash, again Mother opened her arms and cared for me and my soon-to-be-born little girl, Kathryn Louise Keller (Kathie).

Mother could play the piano by ear and also did beautiful drawings.  I remember as a child at church, she would draw a beautiful picture and then tell a Bible story to children using the picture.  She also had a beautiful singing voice.

Mother was a God-fearing loving mother.  She had a very hard life, but never complained.  She taught me to love God with all my heart and soul. Mother taught me the value of life and a determination to succeed.

Excerpts from a letter sent by Mary that she said Laura had written. Unfortunately, Laura did not put a date on it.

When a small child I thought the world was a happy carefree place and all we needed to do was make our wants known and it was provided for us. This was the advantage of having good parents, a good home and the right guardianship.  Education of course was the best and most needed and as for me recreation was my hobby.  That consisted of pets and playmates. At all times we were well chaperoned and a sharp reprimand if we were at all in the wrong by a loving parent.  Entertainment was also a joy and we copied what we saw at home in school and among our friends.

As the years progressed we were moved from a progressive Midwest town to a large wheat growing and animal growing business on a large farm.  This was the joy of a young person who loved animals and the great outdoors, the timber, a river with all its fish, wild ducks and geese, hunting, and the fun of riding horseback.  Even breaking colts into the harness for farm work or driving the Surrey with the fringe on top to church or to town with the produce.

And can you imagine a growing youngster not enjoying trading butter, cream and eggs for all the goodies one cannot raise on a farm?  As we learned to produce our own needs the fun of loading a hundred pound sack of sugar and enough thread, darning cotton and knitting material was about the line of our purchase if we didn't need socks and work clothes. Those at home looked for us for hours to unload all our purchases.

This farm was l l/2 sections of land, it took loads of wheat to pay the rent, corn for our cattle to stock up for the sale of all our years things.  When all was said and done, very little was ever a profit if it was some, it was laid aside for the years crops that would fail us.

Preparing to become a school teacher meant going to Normal School.  If I failed the exam at the end of the year, I would start all over again and not fail the next examination.  Just imagine a room probably 30 x 40 feet wide with nothing but a cloak room and a room of 30 pupils, all ages all grades from 3 or 4 years to 16 and 17 years.  What a handful of joy to handle not mentioning all nationalities, but that all depended again on what kind of homes these pupils came from and I can say I enjoyed every one of them.  They passed county examinations and became teachers and leaders also.

As for society we had Literary gathering evenings where parents and children would put on a good entertainment.  I can hear you say "The Good Old Days."  And I've lived long enough to say they were.  It depends on how you interpret those days so long ago.  If my parents and grandparents were here they would agree with me because they would understand The Good Old Days.

I believe I can say the only machine we had was the 4 a.m. alarm clock and all the roosters crowing before daylight.  That was enough to get us all up at once for duties.  The coffee, the bacon and smiling Mama saying "Good Morning Children".