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My childhood school days Don Schmitz  Susan
Schmitz, my 87-years-old mother shared this story of her
childhood. This is her picture along with other members of the
family.“I was born on a farm in Dundas, MN and the oldest of eight children. We spoke German until I went to school. I remember the first day of school being teased for not knowing English. There were three big boys that laughed at me. I can remember their names to this day. One day, my ma and pa drove past school with the horses and I yelled in German, "There go my Mom and Dad!" I was the laughing stock of the whole playground; I learned to speak English fast! We had lots of fun at school. One day, while I was sitting in the outhouse, I saw a beam of light suddenly shine in on me. The boys figured out a way to remove one of the knots in the wall and were peeking in at me but I fixed them! I went and told the teacher and the boys had to split wood for the rest of the week! In those days, all the girls wore underwear called bloomers. The German word for bloomers is “goldybukz.” My mother made our bloomers out of yellow flour sacks. They consisted of a piece of elastic around the waist and two other pieces of elastic just above the knees. The boys used to love to tease us when we fell. They would shout at us ‘I can see your goldybukz, I can see your goldybukz!’ I was always so embarrassed. I remember other fun things too: learning how to gather maple syrup in the spring in Gillens' woods, chasing striped gophers, hauling wood in for the fire and playing hide and go seek. Two years behind me in school there was a cute little boy named Eddie. I liked him from the start; later he became my husband. We recently celebrated our 63rd Wedding Anniversary and I still like this little boy!” Don Schmitz is a popular speaker and writer on parenting and grandparenting. He is the author of The New Face of Grandparenting…Why Parents Need Their Own Parents and founder of The Grandkidsandme Foundation and Grandparent Camps. Don holds graduate degrees in Education, Administration and Human Development. He is the father to three sons and nine grandchildren. Contact Don@grandkidsandme.com
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