Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
The Family History Center in Crystal serves as a valuable resource for research. Page 3
Family Heritage December Issue
December 17, 2015
Three sisters recount their growing up years on an Owatonna farm BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Nadine Hondl has a lo ng history as a hairdresser in the Twin Cities, notably 32 years at the Pepper Tree in New Hope and most recently, five years at the Plaza Salon in Plymouth. But she and her two sisters have found a way to preserve the earlier history of their growing up years on a farm nine miles outside of Owatonna, Minnesota. The Steele County acreage has b een in t heir family since 1881. The girls’ father, John, spent his entire 89 years on that site. The results of their efforts, “Under Minnesota Skies,” were published in June 2015, in a b ook written by Nadine and her sisters, Bernadette Hondl Thomasy and Colleen Hondl Gengler. The book’s introduction says, “… this family history aims to explore how history and tradition both forgotten and upheld, come together to shape the past a nd the present.” Their story is rich in research collected by Colleen about their family’s Czechoslovakian and German roots, but also their individual recollections of cooking, gardening, canning, milking cows, candling eggs, and all the chores that go with raising crops, tending livestock and living on a farm. The three girls le arned to do a nything and everything, according to Nadine.
Once, when someone said, “It’s too bad your dad didn’t have boys,” Nadine replied, “Who needs boys? He’s got us.” The girls le arned to drive tractors and operate a side rake. “Hard work never hurt anybody,” Nadine said. “We worked together.” “We milked cows until I was 10, ” Nadine said. “We hauled the milk ourselves.” Then they converted to beef cattle,” Nadine said. “We never had to buy meat,” she said. They raised chickens, too, and sold the eggs. “We candled the eggs,” Nadine said. “They had to be perfect, no cracks.” The book stresses the work ethic and farm lessons the girls learned growing up on a li vestock and grain farm in t he late 1940s and through the 1960s. “… It was a special combination of living close to the land and the hands-on nurturing by our parents …. w e learned quickly that farm crops and livestock was how the bills got The Hondl sisters, with their Steele County farm in the background, are, from left: Nadine, paid.” “In the rural environment, with mini- Bernadette (holding the book they wrote) and Colleen. (Submitted photo) mal peer contact, we focused on our parents’ guidance and teaching; they gave us a solid foundation for our teenage and adult tools and equipment…we learned the dif- errands. ference between a cr escent wrench and They inherited the value of keeping “a years.” “Dad treated us like boys and expected a pipe wrench, a sp ike and a t en-penny neat and tidy farm site.” “Probably one of the most significant us to ha ve confidence in o urselves. We nail…” At ages 8 o r 10, t he sisters were put- responsibilities given was ha ving us t ake learned how to drive tractors, back them up straight, hook up a wag on and make ting simple meals on the table, helping care of the farm and livestock while our with housecleaning and laundry, carrying proper wide turns…” OWATONNA FARM - TO PAGE 3 “All of us daughters knew where to find lunchboxes out to the field and running