Jerry Apps's Blog, page 4

Meet Me on the Midway: A History of Wisconsin Fairs

 

With Wisconsin county fairs in full swing, I’m pleased to announce that my newest book, Meet Me on The Midway: A History of Wisconsin Fairs is available in a week or so.  It is the story of fairs from their inception going back thousands of years when a fair was partly a religious celebration, and partly a place for buying and selling goods.   The Romans brought fairs to Northern Europe in 200 BC and the emigrants to this country brought the idea for a fair with them.

  A publicist from The Wisconsin Historical Society Press, my publisher, wrote the following about the book:

            Meet Me on the Midway shares the stories of county and state fairs in Wisconsin.  From their earliest incarnations as livestock exhibitions to today’s multitude of exhibits and demonstrations, grandstand entertainment, games and rides, and competitions of all sorts.  Drawing on his extensive research, interviews, and personal experience as a 4-H leader, county extension agent, fair judge and lifelong fairgoer, Jerry Apps takes readers back through 178 years of Wisconsin fair history, covering everything from horse pulling and calf showing contests to the roar of gasoline engines powering the midway rides.  From cream puffs to carousels, he evokes the sights and sound of fairs through the ages while digging into the political and social forces that shaped the fair into an icon of our rural heritage.  Featuring the voices of exhibitors, judges, volunteers, and visitors, Meet Me on the Midway vividly captures the thrills and cherished memories of these beloved annual gatherings.

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I think you will enjoy reading this book.  I had a great time researching and writing about these Wisconsin treasurers.  The book brought back many memories.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Let’s celebrate one of rural America’s oldest institutions: The County and State Fairs.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 MEET ME ON THE MIDWAY: A HISTORY OF WISCONSIN FAIRS, is available later this month. You can buy it at your local bookstore. order online from the Wisconsin Historical Society bookstore, https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/books, bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

Fair Time Herman Apps Ribbons, Steve Apps Photo

 

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               My dad, Herman Apps, was a great lover of fairs.  He showed cattle at the Waushara County Fair in the 1920s, driving them along a dusty road the eight miles from our farm to the fairgrounds in Wautoma.  He followed his small herd of Holsteins with his team of horses and a wagon load of hay for the cows while they were at the fair.  He slept on the hay load at night.  He won many ribbons and was quite proud of his small herd of cattle.  He also showed his team of horses, but I don’t remember him saying they won any ribbons.

               When I talked with him about the fair, he said it was one of the most fun things of his life.  While he was at the fair, my mother was home taking care of the calves, chickens and hogs, and all the other chores that needed doing on the farm in those days. Not only did Dad enjoy showing his cattle in the show ring along with other Waushara County dairy farmers, of which there were many in those days, he became close friends with his competitors.

               I asked him what else he did at the fair—besides taking care of his cattle and showing them and his horses in the show ring. “Well, I didn’t have much money,” he said.  “But I did wander down the Midway on occasion.  One thing I remember was the sideshow at the fair, which attracted long lines of people.”

               “Tell me more,” I said.

               “There was a small tent with a big sign outside that read ‘See the horse with its head where its tail ought to be, 25 cents.’  Who wouldn’t want to see that?”

               Dad paid his quarter and went inside the dimly lit tent where he saw a big Belgian draft horse backed into its stall. The horse’s tail was against the manager—it’s tail where its head ought to be.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Fairs are for learning, meeting new friends, having fun, and much more.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 My newest book, MEET ME ON THE MIDWAY: A HISTORY OF WISCONSIN FAIRS, is available later this month. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from the Wisconsin Historical Society bookstore, https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/books, bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

Garden Update Jerry Apps Photo

 

How does your garden grow?  My dad often said June was the magical month for vegetable gardening.  It is the month with the most daylight hours, with the longest day of the year on June 21. What Dad meant was you’d better have finished replanting any vegetable seeds that hadn’t come up.  And, perhaps most importantly you’ve got to get rid of the weeds.  It seems that weeds have a nasty habit of growing faster than vegetables.  If not removed, and removed often, weeds will kill vegetables faster than any bug or disease.  How?  By cutting off the much-needed light that all vegetables need to grow and thrive, and stealing nutrients from the soil that all plants need to grow.

In mid-June, with four inches of rain falling within a ten-day period, our garden is thriving.  So far, we have harvested lettuce.  Nothing tastes better than leaf lettuce cut from the garden and eaten an hour later. The potato crop looks especially good, as do the tomatoes.  The sweet corn seems a little sluggish in getting going this year.  I doubt it will be knee high by the Fourth of July—the goal for all corn growers in Wisconsin.

I want to commend my son, Steve and daughter-in-law, Natasha, as they are the primary caretakers of our big Roshara Garden.  I call them “Weed Warriors.”  Roto-tilling, hoeing, and “down on your knees weed pulling” are what’s necessary to be a “Weed Warrior.” A weed doesn’t have a chance in our garden.

Those reading my previous garden reports will recall the bunny problem we had last year.  They ate almost everything green and growing—save for sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes and vine crops.  This year, Steve added a third wire to our electric fence that surrounds our garden.  The new wire is about four inches from the ground, and so far, fingers crossed, no bunny has tried to crawl over or under it—as best we can tell.  We’ll see what the following months have to offer.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Vegetable gardening—each year the same, each year different.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 Have you seen, GARDEN WISDOM, my book where I share some of what I have learned about gardening? You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

Canada Geese at the Pond Photo by Steve Apps

 

The two ponds at our farm are filled with surprises.  They are water table ponds; their water level rises and falls with the water table.  For the last few years, they have been at one-hundred years highs.  Ten years ago, they were but puddles surrounded by marshy land.

The ponds attract a wide variety of wildlife, from song birds to deer, from bull frogs to snapping turtles, and so much more.  We’ve had a pair of sandhill cranes nesting at the north end of one pond for many years. Each spring, the cranes always return to the exact place where they nested the previous year and the year before that.

For the last several years, a pair of Canada geese nested on the south side of the pond, across the water from the sand hill cranes.  I know that Canada geese, with their population on the increase; are despised by many as the geese enjoy grazing on wide open grassy areas.  Geese can digest grass, and they, being always cautious, like open areas so they can spot possible predators.  They leave behind little reminders of their being there—not appreciated by golfers and others who enjoy open, mowed grassy areas.

Steve and I spotted mother goose the other day with her two little goslings swimming on the pond.  Geese mate for life—one of their interesting characteristics.  They are a joy to watch, mother goose in the lead, the little ones lined up behind, paddling furiously.  We’ll watch the little ones grow up as summer moves along, provided a snapping turtle or some other predator doesn’t get them.  Mother goose is always on the lookout for these hungry villains, and is highly protective of her little ones, like all mothers.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Seeing the little Canada goose family reminds me that some things are still right with the world.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

Learn more about the history of my farm by reading OLD FARM: A HISTORY. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore 

End of School Year Picnic Photo: Apps Family Collection

 

The end of the school year picnic at our country school was the highlight of the year for both the students and their parents.  The school year usually ended about the time when the farmers in the neighborhood had their oat and corn crops in and just before haying season started.  So, the end of the school year picnic was well attended by the families of the students.

Everyone brought a dish to pass, called a potluck today, plus their own sandwiches and silverware.  The school board bought a couple of two-and-a-half-gallon metal tubs of ice-cream, encased in huge insulated containers to keep the ice-cream from melting. The event began with a huge meal, all laid out on planks on sawhorses—the same ones that were used for the school Christmas program stage.  The boards were covered with the mothers’ tablecloths.   

After the meal, the teacher spoke for a bit, thanking everyone for coming.  She especially thanked the parents for  their support during the school year.  “I couldn’t have made it through the year without all of your help,” she said.  And she was right.  For everyone did help out, from building the fire in the woodstove at the school, to making sure that the children did their homework.  The teacher then introduced the eighth graders who had successfully passed the county-wide tests, and were eligible to start high school.

The highlight of the day was the softball game between the students and their fathers.  I remember those games so well.  It was one of the few times I saw my dad play—he mostly worked all the time.  We students usually won the game, as we had been playing softball since the snow melted back in March.  We had played all the nearby country schools, so our softball skills were well tuned.  Occasionally a father would hit a long ball over the fence and into the country road.  But that was rare.

With the school year over, we said goodbye to everyone, and headed home.  Now the never ended summer work began..

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: For those of us who experienced them, fond memories of the end of school year picnic remain with us forever.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To learn more about the  happenings at a country school, see my book ONE ROOM COUNTRY SCHOOLS. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

Spring Garden Report Natasha mulching tomatoes. St...

 

Spring Garden Report      Natasha mulching tomatoes.  Steve Apps Photo

 

As of this past weekend, the remainder of the Apps vegetable garden at Roshara is planted.  Daughter-in-law Natasha and son, Steve, are now the garden managers.  I have been relegated to senior consultant.  I have a suspicion it means staying out of the way.

 

Following a practice we began many years ago, we make a map of our garden each year, and try to avoid planting anything in the same space as it was the previous year.  Also following a long-term practice, we mulch all the tomato plants as well as the cabbage, and broccoli plants. 

 

Last year we had a severe rabbit problem.  This year Steve added a third wire to our electric fence that surrounds the garden.  This third wire is but a few inches off the ground.  We’ll soon learn if it works.  If it doesn’t, we’ll have to install some woven wire around the rabbit loving plants.

 

We have planted a vegetable garden at Roshara, sometimes as large as a half-acre, since 1967.  Each year is different, some plants do better than expected.  Some don’t do well at all.

 

Here is what the team planted this year, row by row.

 

Sweet Corn -- short row

Sweet Corn

Sweet Corn

Sweet Corn

Skip a row

Zucchini / Cucumbers

Skip a row

Peas

Red potatoes

Kennebec White potatoes

Kennebec White potatoes

Onions (half row white and half row red)

Lettuce/Kale/Carrots and Radishes/Beets/Radish

Entry to garden -- walkway

Broccoli (8 plants) / Cabbage (6) / Pole beans

Bush bean / Pole bean

WI 55 Tomato (12) / Purple beans

Celebrity Tomato (2) / Early Girl (3) / Steak Tomatoes (3) / Purple beans

Magic Mountain Tomato (8)

Better Boy Tomatoes (11)

Better Boy Tomatoes (8)

Skip row

Squash - winter varieties

Skip row

Squash - winter varieties

Skip row

Pumpkins

Skip row

Gourds

Skip row

Flowers

Flowers -- variety / sunflowers

Flowers -- sunflowers

Flowers -- sunflowers and honey bee attracting flowers.

My dad always said, “Every vegetable garden should include some flowers.”

 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Plant a garden.  You’ll enjoy fresh vegetables, and be surprised at what happens.                                                                                                                                 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 Learn more about gardening by reading my book, GARDEN WISDOM. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, Amazon.com, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library500 Division Street Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

Remembering Early Potato Growing in Wisconsin

 

By the 1870s, many Wisconsin farmers turned to dairy farming and other crops (wheat growing was failing).   In central Wisconsin, in addition to milking cows, many farmers began growing potatoes.  According to the USDA Ag. Statistics Service, Wisconsin farmers grew 64,304 acres of potatoes in 1870.   That number exploded to 325,000 acres in 1922.

 

We grew potatoes on the home farm, 20 acres of them every year.  We planted them by hand, hoed them by hand, dug them by hand (with six tine-forks) and picked them by hand.  Our country school had a two-week potato vacation in October so all the kids could stay home and pick potatoes. 

 

Besides the potato bins in our farm house cellar, we stored them in a potato cellar built into the side of a hill just beyond the chicken house.  Every farmer had a potato cellar where the potatoes were stored in the lower part of the building and various farm machinery was stored in the upper area.  Potato prices were usually better in the late winter and early spring, thus the reason for storing them.  We kept a wood burning stove going all winter in the potato cellar to keep the potatoes from freezing.

 

Potato warehouses (with potato buyers) lined the railroad tracks of Wild Rose in those days.  In late winter, we spent many evenings after the barn chores were done, by the light of a barn lantern, sorting and dumping potatoes into gunny bags.  Pa hauled them to Wild Rose with a bobsled pulled by our trusty team. He selected a warmer winter day to haul the potatoes so they wouldn’t freeze on the four and half mile trip to the village.

 

Travelers in central Wisconsin can easily spot these little potato cellars as many of them remain standing. These little buildings have many stories to tell.

 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Wisconsin still grows lots of potatoes, third in the nation among all the states. Idaho and Washington State rank number one and two.

                                                                                                                                          

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 Learn more about Wisconsin potato growing by reading my book, WISCONSIN AGRICULTURE: A HISTORY. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, Amazon.com,  or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

May Basket Memories

 

One of the fun things we farm kids did during the month of May was to make little paper baskets at our country school and then play “May Baskets.” It was game where a couple of us kids, unannounced to the rest of neighborhood, would fill our little paper May Baskets with flowers.  Anything we could find, violets, apple blossoms, even dandelions.

 

Then in the dark of night, we would begin visiting the neighbor farms with kids.  We’d hang a May Basket on their kitchen door, yell “May Basket” and then run like the dickens.  The kids at the place where we hung the May Basket, would run after us, eventually catching us and joining us as we walked to the next farm.  The farms were a half mile apart, so before the night was over, we would have walked several miles.  But what fun it was on a warm May night, with all the sounds and smells of spring hanging in the warm air.   It was a way to share the spring spirit with our neighbors.

 

Our biggest challenge, as we walked from farm to farm, was dealing with the farm dogs.  Some were friendly, but a few of them would just as soon tear your pants off and chew you on the ankle as allow you to pet them.  I knew the names of most of the farm dogs, and tried to calm them as we hung a May basket on their master’s kitchen door.  Afterall, one of the dog’s jobs was to prevent the very thing that we were doing.  Sneaking up to the kitchen door in the dead of night. I don’t remember any serious dog confrontations, but a farm dog could never be ignored.

 

The May Basket tradition goes back as far as the 12thand 13th centuries In Germany.  Some believe the ancient Romans practiced the tradition.  Flowers have long been a symbol of the coming of spring, and thus should be celebrated.

 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Sharing flowers is one way to celebrate the coming of spring.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, Amazon.com,  or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

A Tonic for Spring Susan Apps-Bodilly Photo.

When I was a kid the first thing to pop out of the ground after the snow disappeared and frost left the ground was rhubarb.   It’s tough stuff.  I don’t remember it ever not coming up.

I grew up liking most everything on my plate.  But there was and continues to be an exception: rhubarb sauce.  That stuff was awful.  Pa insisted we eat it.  He said it was necessary to cleanse our body from winter and be prepared for spring. Ma’s recipe was simple:

                        3-4 cups chopped rhubarb

                        1 cup sugar

                        1/3 cup of water.

Put rhubarb pieces in a medium cooking pot, add sugar and a bit of water.  Start with medium heat, and then reduce to let it simmer as soon as it begins to bubble and boil.  Let simmer until the rhubarb cooks down, which should take about 25 minutes.  Let cool and keep in refrigerator.

            Curious as I am about these things, I begin wondering if my dad was onto something with his insistence that eating rhubarb sauce was a way to prepare our bodies for spring.   Five thousand years ago, dried Rhubarb roots were considered a medicine by the Chinese.

 It is a mild laxative.  But on the plus side, rhubarb is a good source of dietary fiber, has lots of vitamin C and K, plus calcium and potassium.  And as much as I detest rhubarb sauce, rhubarb crisp ranks right up there with apple crisp. And don’t forget about strawberry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb muffins, and rhubarb cake. But don’t eat the leaves as they are poisonous and can cause breathing difficulty and burning in the mouth.  Rhubarb leaves are not poisonous to the touch.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Eat your rhubarb sauce.  It’s good for you.

            .

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To learn more about rhubarb, go to my daughter and my book, OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street

Remembering Mother’s Day Mother’s Day, 2nd Sund...

 

Remembering Mother’s Day         

Mother’s Day, 2nd Sunday in May, brings back many memories for this aging farm boy.  Back in the later years of the Great Depression, my twin brothers and I had no money for fancy cards or any kind of Mother’s Day Present.  I ‘d obviously heard that Mother’s Day was coming, because we’d made homemade cards at our country school.

I think it was Pa who suggested that we might pick some violets for our mother for Mother’s Day.  On the far north edge of the woodlot, back of the house, was an open hilltop, where beautiful violets grew.  I was but a little shaver, and my brothers were smaller still, but we found our way to the edge of the big woods and picked a nice big bouquet of violets.

When we arrived home, and stumbled into the kitchen with our special present, Ma was more than a little surprised.  I noticed she had tears in  her eyes and I wondered why she was crying as she found a little jar, filled it water and  put our violets  in it.   Together we said, “Happy Mother’s Day.”

            “Thank you, thank you,” she said. “What a wonderful Mother’s Day present.”

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day a national holiday on May 9, 1914, and that it  should be celebrated the second Sunday of May each year.  But Mother’s Day goes back a long way before 1914. After the Civil War, a group of mothers began working to organize a Mother’s Friendship Day, as a way to bring the Union and the Confederacy once more together. Other groups of mothers in the late 1800s saw Mother’s Day as a way to organize and promote world peace.

Today, Mother’s Day is celebrated in some 50 countries of the world.  I read somewhere that more Mother’s Day cards are purchased than for any celebration.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Call your mother and wish her the best on her special day. You might give her some flowers as well.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books.