OCR Text |
Show ? o o o The Salt Lake Tribune. Sunday. May rt0 a iii i 20. 1073 ow Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm? Farm life is takes charge of eggs wife style. She also looks after three children, a large garden, hogs and chickens and cans a lot. Harriet Volk still traditional farmers but in You Couldnt Drag These Wives Away RUGBY. N D. Gloiy Mon-tosfci'ps in the grocery store, n she was up at dawn and smiles at talk about weatherbeaten farm wives in gingham dresses slaving over hot stoves d Glorys mother cooked for hired men, an chore. But because of mechanization, Glory has only one hired hand to feed. Her mother canned 500 to 600 quarts of meat and vegetables, enough to feed her family for a year. Glory makes jelly and freezes about 50 quarts of vegetables from her garden, but she wheels a cart once a week in a grocery store just like her suburban and city counterparts Some Like Pioneers There are, of course, farm wives who still spend their 15 kid This farm wife, Glory Monson, finds farm life much like any suburban or city dweller, even to regular grocery store trips. all-da- y like much time Glory Monsons mother did. But the Department of Agriculture reports that, on the whole, the lifestyle of farm wives is 8feociated. Pres. Writer Farm wives have more spare time. And women like Glory Monson are filling it with study, travel, the arts, changing. The Monsons farm covers acres of .ne black soil that has made North Dakota the nations largest producer of durum wheat and flax. The family lives m the same modfarm house est, where Glory grew up W iden Courses three-bedroe- Homemaker clubs, once the only outside activity of farm wives besides the church, have begun to widen their choices from traditional cooking and sewing to lessons on decorating, candlemaking, flower arranging and interior a sure sign of new Bicycles are m vogue. Ceramics, macrame and decou-pag- e are popular hobbies Though Mediterranean style furniture and crushed velvet couches are in style, antiques At have been discovered some auctions local people say prices get higher than they do in Chicago Oak organs are at a premium mused at Interest mechanically. becom- ing mechanized, too. A look around kitchens in Rugby, a farming community of 3,200, shows that dishwashers are fast taking their traces beside washers, freezers, clothes dryers, blenders, mixers and fondue pots There's room for creative things now, says Gloiy Monson, a former teacher who instructs a painting class, serves as secretary of the Village Arts Council and directs the community's annual musical production Participants Difficult Sosth Main Dial 534 3W0 Established April i5 !71, issued very morning by the Kearns Tribune Salt '.ofce C'ty Utah Coroorotton, 14110 Second class postage Lott City. Utah pota ot Sait All unsolicited articles, mono scripts letters and pictures sent to The Tribune ore sent at the Salt Lok owner s risk ond Keorns Tribune Cor oorotion assumes no responsibility for their custody or return SUBSCRIPTION HATES Carrier Oeiivery S3 SO mo Doily and Sund' , $4?00veor Daily and Sunday By Mail 13 50 mo Daily (Sunday by carrier! S3 SO mo Daily only S3 00 mo Sunday only U 00 mo Doily ond Sundov SO 00 veor Doily ond Sundov Ail moil tuosertationt poobie m advonce The Tribune it o member of the As The Associated Press It entitled eieiutlveiy to the use of ot ell local newt printed in oil A P toil newspaper at well news dispatches tooted Pfst a Member tions Audit Bureou ot Oscula- e The important thing is we have a choice, said Glory. Im sure if you would have told them back then, when they were canning beets and vegetables because raising they had to, that we would do it as a hobby, they wouldnt have believed you " fewer than 25 percent of American farms have chickens or milk cows. That means fewer farm women milk, tend chickens or gather eggs. More farm women buy their milk, butter, eggs and chickens at the store. And many of the farms which still have milk, cows and chickens tend them 143 leisure-exercis- classes Chickens, Cows Going At the same time, the agriculture says, department $hf jSalt Cakr Sribtnu 1967 1,500 Farm women, for instance, are becoming better educated Those 25 years old and older average 12 years of schooling, the agriculture department says. As late as 19b0, farm wives that old averaged on'y 9 2 years of schooling. Thirty-fiv- e percent of farm women between 20 and 64 years old, the department says, seek and obtain jobs off the farm At first, Glory found it difficult to get participants in the musical. She had to play the lead and direct the first two My Fair Lady productions, and The Sound of Music Last year, however, she had no trouble recruiting performers, and 1,700 people attended the production Each year the musical gets a little more professional, she reflected "In a way people here are more creative than the people on the West Cosast. They had to be so cre- - entertain themselves thers farm m volunteer work and, frequently, jobs. Reasons for the change, the Department of Agriculture says, can be found in both the women and the kinds of farm work they do. Farm kitchens are to for so many years before television and radio delicate woman who resembles Audrey Hepburn, she and her husband Bill, 34, a former University of North Dakiota basketball star, lived in San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif, for six years They returned to North Dakota to take over Glorys fa- Dee Wedemeyer cant remember the last time Gingham, in fact, is what this grain farmers wife uses to cover her dining room walls She wears smart, brightly-colorepants outfits, and she says her hours are no different than those of any mother of two small children. atue By Some of the older women are amused at interest among city dwellers m natural child birth, quilting, bread baking, canning and wine making Out here we do not use kits," said Glory . Fewer farmers wives are mil1 ing the tows and gathering the eggs these days. Gardening? Canning? The little lady in gingham is more likely to be wearing a pants suit, studying, tiaveling, directing plays or frequently, working in town. - - - One of the young activists in is Diane Fri-te32, who met her husband Bob, 28, traveling thiough France when she was a teacher in Germany and he was in the Army Has Masters Degree the community A Cleveland l, native, Diane has a masters degree She spent her iirst summer m Rugby organizing tennis classes and held the first tennis tournament. Rugby Now shes r.r.'.Vi- - - - five beets from a small garden She did freeze some corn and a few radishes . This year she plans to grow white asparagus and other vegetables. Ironically, at a time when conveniences are most available, some young farm women are going back to doing handwork - - nri and cans and vegetables pickles She no longer cans fruit because, with the price of sugar up, she says, it is not Now economical that she works off the farm, she no longer sews during the winter and she has her hair done in a beauty salon once a week city editor and only reporter for the Pierce County Tribune, a weekly newspaper. Diane misses the company of women who can talk about politics as easily as pickles, but she has grown to respect the farm women tremendously much They are really more talented than I am, mother-m-lasaid Diane. My had to show me how to plant a garden and I am a biology teacher . She has decorated their modest farm house with the purchases of an Egypther world travels ian pouff, brass rubbings from England, a Moroccan blanket, Afnean masks and the spear of a Masai farmer three-bedroo- Her first house-bakebread bounced on the floor and her canning was limited to d store-boug- Returns to Antique Susan Jorgenson, 23. who became engaged to her husband Larry. 26, when they were attending Anzona State University, plans to sew b; hand, not machine. Recently she discovered an old wnnger washer and was delighted to use it though she used a dryer to finish the job A pretty girl with long blonde hair, Susan has a degree m psychology and works as a secretary at the Heart of America Human Services Center m Rugby, a agency. She hopes to move on to counseling but also is anxious to set up housekeeping The Jorgensons are living m a basement apartment in Leeds, about 30 miles east of Rugby, while Larry farms in with his partnership bachelor uncle. Though many women are anxious to build new ranch-styl- e homes, Susan wants an old farmhouse she can fill W1..1 old furniture The one modern piece they will use is their kmg-sizwater bed, already a subject of cunousity in the community. Someday she would like to have a baoy at home, instead of m a hospie tal When I was a little gill, somehow you fell inferior because you lived on the farm It's kind of the reverse now. My daughter is so proud of living on the farm I know she will never feel what I did All the firms were slower getting electric lights and bathrooms and telephones Now more often than not you find the biggest, fanciest homes on the farm Though some older farm women have gone to work to fill the leisure time after their children grew up, many women work to supplement farm income. At the local day care center, of the children are from farms. Most women abandon few of their domestic chores when they go to work Hiring a cleaning woman is considered a sign of laziness or ostentation in some circles one-thir- d . Assists eterinarian Bonnie Teigen, 36, works 4i days a week as a girl fnday a veterinarian's in office, sometimes assisting in small animal operations In the summer, someone else takes the job so Bonnie can be at home with her three children. She took the job because, with the children in school and her husband, Curtis, 35, raising beef cattle and hogs, she was home alone much of the day I felt that going to coffee at someone's house was wasting their time and I felt this was more rewarding for my time, she said Bonnie still freezes chickens iwitn . . . vug? I "'77 r? fft- Friiel is farm wife with many other interests: travel, art, writing and editing. Diane |