Introduction

Pomeranian Wedding Customs
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf talks about the day he served as Hochzeits Bitter (wedding inviter) for his sister. He describes his pay, his clothing, the horse's decoration, and the concertina player who often accompanied the inviter and played a wedding song in front of each house.

The Wedding Day & Celebration
Scope and Content Note: Three meals were prepared by the neighborhood women for the wedding celebration: fish soup in the morning, chicken in the afternoon, and ham at midnight. There was a barn dance for the young people, with square dances, waltzes, German and American songs. The older men stayed in the house and played cards: “66,” “Sheepshead,” and “31.” Women gathered and visited in a seperate room.

The Polterabend
Scope and Content Note: Friends of the bride gathered at her home, had a meal with wine, and played tricks on the bride afterwards. Mr. Hilgendorf's parents played the same kind of tricks when they were young.

The Charivari
Scope and Content Note: Charivaris were held on the night of the wedding. Friends of the bride and groom gathered in front of the house and played loud music on washboilers, kettles, and other instruments. The new couple had to pay the music players enough money to leave them alone. The players used the money for dinner and beer, and shook dice for drinks.

Dice Games
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf describes other dice games. One was held at a tavern on the way to visit a nephew in northern Wisconsin, others were held in a nursing home where Mr. Hilgendorf lived for a while.

Wedding Celebrations
Scope and Content Note: Weddings were a three-day celebration. Invitations were in either German or English, printed by a company in Milwaukee who could also print in Polish for the Polish people.

Language Difficulties
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf talks about his difficulty in understanding Swedish-Americans, and one phrase in particular.

Language Difficulties with Other Germans
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf recalls the trouble Germans from different regions had in understanding one another. He describes the Darmstadters as fast talkers, the Hunsrickers as speaking in half words, and the Pomeranians (himself) in low German (half-German, half-English). The problem existed despite the fact that these people lived in close proximity, and had been born in America.

Low German in Freistadt
Scope and Content Note: Some people in Freistadt can still speak low German.

Problems with the English Language
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf's father and his Irish neighbor could understand one another, but they had trouble with other people's English.

Parents' 25th Wedding Anniversary
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf describes a picture of his parents on their anniversary, when they received gifts of flowers and silver spoons.

Parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary
Scope and Content Note: Parents received a surprise party from their neighbors; meal of sausage and ham served.

Anniversary Ham
Scope and Content Note: Mother soaked ham in sweet milk overnight to draw the salt out, then rolled it in flour, and baked it in the oven. When the ham was done, she cut off the flour crust and threw it to the dog. The crust kept the ham juicy, and drew the salt out.

Barley Coffee
Scope and Content Note: Mother washed and dried the barley, browned it in the oven, and roasted it into coffee, which was served with cream.

Home-Made Beer
Scope and Content Note: Mother made beer every summer. She spread the barley on the floor, watered it until it sprouted, then cooked it with hops, and stored it in crocks. The beer was stronger than 4 percent.

End of Tape

Introduction

St. Nicholaus Day
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf describes St. Nicholaus Day (December 6), when they hung stockings outside the door for gifts, sung carols, and received presents at school.

The Christmas Tree
Scope and Content Note: The Hilgendorf family had a Christmas tree in the parlor. The parents and older sister decorated the tree with religious pictures, tinsel, ribbons, candlelights, and a star. They decorated the tree in secret, and would not let the younger children watch.

Christmas Presents
Scope and Content Note: The family exchanged ties, sweaters, stockings, and other clothing.

Three Day Celebration of Christmas
Scope and Content Note: People attended Church every morning, and visited one another in the afternoons. During the three days, the baptismal god-parents bestowed gifts upon their godchildren. This custom was known as the Patenfest. Children received gifts from their godparents until they were age 12, the time of 6th grade and confirmation.

Christmas Foods
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf's mother slaughtered and prepared a goose for Christmas. She cooked it with apples, apricots, oranges and prunes, and basted it with butter and brandy.

Christmas Visitors
Scope and Content Note: The women had their own conversations, while the men played cards, usually Sheepshead, in a seperate room. Visitors stayed for supper, and didn't leave until 9 or 10 p.m. The children stayed home to do chores while the parents went visiting.

Ice Skating
Scope and Content Note: Boys and girls skated together. Mr. Hilgendorf's parents did not skate because they did not know how. Otto learned to skate at school.

Geese
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf's mother took care of the geese from hatch to slaughter. He remembers how a thunder and lightning storm once trembled the earth and broke the goose eggs, which were ready to hatch.

Care of Geese
Scope and Content Note: Goslings fed oatmeal and dandelions. Four weeks before slaughter, fed corn to fatten. Mother butchered and dressed geese for market and private customers. She gave the geese to her husband to take to market, and never went herself. She also prepared sweet-sour for market and home. She cooked the wings, gizzards, blood, prunes, and apples together.

Butchering Geese
Scope and Content Note: Neighbor women worked together to butcher the geese and ducks. They cut the neck, bled the bird, then steamed the feathers loose for plucking. Feathers saved for bed stuffing or sold at market. Mr. Hilgendorf's paternal grandmother also raised geese and ducks.

Shelter for the Geese
Scope and Content Note: Geese kept in small shed near the house.

Children's Work
Scope and Content Note: As a boy, Mr. Hilgendorf took care of the calves and sheep. He fed and watered them daily.

Wool
Scope and Content Note: Sheared wool taken to woolen mills in Cedarburg. Some wool kept for quilts. Women worked together to clean and comb the wool, and to make the quilts.

Shearing
Scope and Content Note: Sheep sheared in the spring with hand clippers. Both men and women sheared. Mr. Hilgendorf explains how they sheared the sheep.

Care of Sheep
Scope and Content Note: Sheep turned loose in pasture during the summer, and they grazed with the cows. In winter, sheep kept in a shed, protected from the cold. While the sheep were in pasture, they were in danger of an attack from dogs. Cows offered protection.

Butchering Sheep
Scope and Content Note: Sheep raised from spring to fall butcher. Mr. Hilgendorf's father did not butcher sheep because he did not know how. Instead, he had a neighbor help him with the job. The fat had to be carefully trimmed. Mother put meat in sweet milk to soften and draw out the 'cattle life.'

Racoons
Scope and Content Note: Mother trimmed fat off meat, soaked it in sweet milk to draw out the tough taste. Racoon meat tasted as good as steak, and fooled the neighbor who couldn't believe he had eaten wild racoon.

End of Tape

Introduction

Hog Butchering
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf describes the entire hog butchering process, beginning with the slaughter. He goes on to explain how the hog was cleaned, quartered, and made into hams, bacon, and sausage. He remembers what tools were used, the cooperative work of his family, and how every part of the hog was used for food.

Making Sausage
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf's father bought hindquarter beef from the butcher for use in the sausage. He also smoked some of the beef in the smokehouse.

Butchering Time
Scope and Content Note: The Hilgendorf family butchered every fall before Christmas, and sometimes in the spring as well.

Smoking Sausage
Scope and Content Note: Sausage smoked by maple wood fires. Meat had to be smoked slowly and evenly.

Making Sausage
Scope and Content Note: To prepare the pork for sausage, Mr. Hilgendorf's mother heated the meat by the oven to make it warm and greasy, then pounded the air out of the meat with her hands. As a boy, Mr. Hilgendorf turned the crank to grind the meat, while his father held the casings open, then tied them shut with the help of another person.

Preperation and Storage of Sausage
Scope and Content Note: Beef, ham, bacon, and shoulders put in brine for six weeks before smoking. Meat smoked in smoke house until brown then put in flour bags and stored in barrels with salt on top to keep worms and flies out. If the meat became too salty, mother soaked it in sweet milk overnight.

Pig's Feet
Scope and Content Note: Hooves taken off, shanks mixed with sweet-sour, and stored in jars.

Squabs
Scope and Content Note: Family raised and dressed squabs for market.

Other Farm Animals
Scope and Content Note: Farm had cattle, calves, and horses. Mr. Hilgendorf remembers how he fed and trained the horses.

Planting Signs
Scope and Content Note: A neighbor of the Hilgendorf family planted crops that grew above ground by the full moon, and those that grew below ground by the new moon. Other neighbors used almanacs to plant by, but Mr. Hilgendorf's father used neither moon nor almanac. Instead, he planted “when the land was fit.” People commented on the neighbor who used the moon: “He should go with his moon, The moon is in the sky, not on the ground.”

Weather Signs
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Hilgendorf's father knew when the weather was changing by whether he could see the stars in the early morning or not. Moisture in the air made clouds which obscured the stars, and then he knew a storm was coming. He also knew a storm was coming if the steam was rising off Lake Michigan when he was in Milwaukee for market. If the southeast wind blew, it was another sign of stormy weather, and if there was a “blackeye” (thunderstorm) in the northwest in the morning, a storm would arrive “by 3 o'clock in the noon.”

Other Weather Signs
Scope and Content Note: One could tell if it would be a good day in the morning, but if the sun was too bright, the weather would turn bad. People used weather signs in the rainy season; in the dry season, it really didn't matter.

End of Interview