Guests of Honor
August & Myrna Konsela
GROWING UP AUGUST
KONSELA
I was born on July 20, 1928, the youngest of 11
children. Ma was 45 at the time. I had 3 Uncles named August and they wanted
to name me that so that’s how I got my name.
I was an uncle and had 3 nephews by the time I was born. It was
OK. I grew up with my nieces and nephews
who were like brothers and sisters to me.
Ten of the eleven of us kids survived. My sister Barbara, born in 1919, and lived
only about 8 days. Something was wrong
with her and they said she cried a lot.
After she died, they didn’t talk about her very much but anytime she was
talked about, Maw would cry. She’s
buried at St. Boniface Cemetery in Waumandee.
When I was growing up I was by myself most of the time. Once in a while one of the neighbor kids
would come over so I wasn’t alone.
Augie, when you were born, your sisters Mary and Jennie were
3 and 5, your brothers Joe and Leo were 8 and 11. How does it happen that you see yourself
alone most of the time?
Says Augie, “Well, I couldn’t play with girls and my
brothers were older.”
I went to the country school in Buell’s Valley for the 1st,
2nd and 4th grades.
There were about 10-12 kids in the whole school. It was one room. I went to St. Boniface School for grades 3,5,6,7, and 8th and finished the 8th
grade.
I got along with Paw most of the time, but I was a “mama’s
boy”. My brother Joe was the “daddy’s”
boy. I got a spanking once with a limb
from an apple tree. I don’t remember
what that was for.
GRANDPARENTS
My grandparent’s names were Antone and Olga Obieglo. Pa’s Pa’s name was Frank and his Ma’s name
was Jennie. They came to this country
because they couldn’t get work in Germany.
There was no way to make a living so they came to WI and some of the
relatives took them in and helped them until they had enough to make it on
their own. They came on an old wooden
ship and it took 6 weeks to get here. Pa’s parents died about 1906 and on Ma’s
side Grandpa died in 1917 and Grandma died when I was 3 months old in 1928.
I remember only about 2 or 3 of my Uncles and Aunts. I don’t know anything about them and I’m not
sure about cousins. I met them only
once or twice but that’s all I remember.
They were older than I was.
PARENTS
Pa was 5 and Ma was 2 when they came over from the old
country and they didn’t come over at the same time. As far as changing the spelling of the name I
really don’t know. When they got here
their families lived not too far apart.
They might have played as kids together. They probably visited with each other
because Ma and Pa met, but I don’t know for sure.
Ma’s family lived on the Montana Ridge and Pa’s family lived
in Buell’s valley. Ma was second to
the last, of 5 kids in her family. She
went to school 9 days and she had to stay home and help on the farm. Maw couldn’t read and so couldn’t help you
with your homework. I remember Maw had
to have her way or she would just sit down and cry like a 2 year old.
Pa’s Pa bought the farm and my Pa (Robert) bought it from
him and lived on it all his life until he died in 1951. Ma and Pa were first cousins so that’s how
they met. They talked about being 1st
cousins now and then so I knew they were.
Both my Grandmas were sisters. I don’t remember them saying that it was a
problem and they got married in the Church.
Pa was farming on the home place and he needed help so he got my Ma to
help with the housework and that’s as far as she got. Ma was 22 and Pa was 27 when they got
married.
FIRST FARM
Shortly after Pa died,
I bought my own farm in Bennet Valley. I didn’t like Pa’s farm; it was too
hilly. I bought my own but I didn’t
like that either because you couldn’t support many kids on it; it was too
small. While I was in the army, from
1952 to 1954 the neighbors used the farm for pastureland.
ARMY
I was drafted into the Army in July, 1952 at age 24. I was in Brecken
Ridge, Kentucky for basic training and 7 weeks of mechanics training in Ida Gema, then went to Korea. I was stationed in a small town about 9 miles
from the border of North and South Korea where the fighting was. We could hear the bombs going off. We got used to hearing them.
When we had R & R I went to Japan to look around and
that’s where I got all my nieces and nephews Japanese jackets and the adults
got a pick of other things if they wanted.
Sending letters always took a long time. It took three weeks to get packages when
they sent them to Korea.
MYRNA
When I got out of the army in 1954, I went back to the farm,
met Ma (Myrna) the same year, dated and got married. I didn’t date other women after the army
except Myrna.
I met Myrna one mile from my farm in upper Bennett Valley
story shortly after I got out of the Army.
It was June, 1954. I wanted to
ask her out, but people didn’t mix marriages as far as religion was
concerned. I was the only Catholic in
the area. I was new in the valley and
didn’t know how they would have been about Catholics and Lutherans going
out. That’s why it took me so long to
ask her out. The first time was June 9th
and I waited until the 2nd of September to ask her out for the 2nd
time. I said if we go out long enough
to get married we were going to get married in my church. The 2nd
date was about 3 months after the first.
June 9th til the 2nd of September before I asked
her out.
Myrna took me home to meet her mom after we met and me and
her got along real good. When we started
going out her ma said she didn’t want her mixing with any Catholics but she
still let us go out anyway. As far as
she was concerned we were just going on dates, not steady, but she didn’t say
any more about religion after that.
On the 2nd date I asked her mom if we could get
hitched and she said she didn’t know why not.
Then she said “if she wants to go to church with you it’s alright with
me”. The next day after the 2nd
date she said we could get hitched. So I
went to see the priest and 6 weeks later we were married.
The old Monsignor came to the door when I rang the door bell
and I asked to see the assistant and he asked what for and I said my girlfriend
wanted to take instructions so he said we can’t do it this week as we have a
missionary here and we can’t do it next week, as they have a novena going on in
church. I asked when the assistant would
be available and he said tonight at 8 pm.
When we got there that night I told the assistant we wanted
to get married on Thanksgiving Day. He
goes to Stevens Point for Thanksgiving dinner.
Then he said if you come 3 times a week for instructions and get married
at 8 am he could work it out. That way
he could make it to Stevens Point. We
dated for a total of 2 months and 3 weeks.
We’ll be married 58 years this November 25, 2012.
We got married in 1954 and stayed on the farm 3 years. In 1957 we sold the farm, barely
breaking even and moved out of Bennet Valley in 1957 to Ladysmith. I got away from the family because they were
always telling me what to do. We took
off and didn’t tell anyone where we were going.
Everyone thought I should have taken care of Ma and no one liked Myrna
when we got married. We just had to get
away. That’s why we moved.
We lived just outside of Ladysmith on a farm we found for
$27,000. The house was small but
livable. It didn’t work out so we moved
to Tisch Mills because everyone out there was hiring. I got a job at Hamilton Industries in Two
rivers.
I worked at the saw mill in Ladysmith for 6 years and was
very cold and always freezing in the winter.
We moved to Tisch Mills in 1966.
I got a job at Hamilton industries in March. I worked there until I retired in 1990. When I was still working we raised pigs and
milked about 17 cows. I owned 80 acres
for a while with 10 acres on the home place and bought 70 acres about 3 miles
away. It was good farmland and the corn
got tall, but I don’t remember how tall.
On the home place the oats got about 5 feet tall one year. I showed the neighbor how tall it was by
standing in the field. The neighbor
told me to “stand up”. I brought a few
stalks out to show him I was standing up.
SOME MISHAPS:
Back on my farm in the early 50s I rolled a tractor over and
got pinned underneath it but Myrna got off and didn’t get hurt. She couldn’t get me out and I and broke my
left arm because it didn’t move when I did.
Myrna had to go over a half a mile to get the neighbors and they brought
a tractor and pulled it off of me.
Once I was using a chain saw and it kicked back and cut my
left leg and I got 25 stitches. When it
kicked I don’t really know how it happened, but I looked and the saw was about
15 feet away and I was holding my leg.
Then I got in the car and went home and then we went to the hospital in
Mondovi.
GREAT STORY: (Red
Green has nothing over on Augie in this story.)
One of my favorite places is in the shop making things or
scrapping things. I’m good at wood
working and metal working. I made baby
cribs when needed for Grand Kids. If I
need something made, I usually made it, be it metal or wood or whatever I had
to work with.
I made a small tractor with an old combine engine and
several various other parts. The
steering wheel was off of an old car and now I updated it to hydraulic power
steering with no steering wheel. I
started with the engine and made the frame around it. The transmission was out of a ‘53 or ‘54
Plymouth with one u-joint so it would fit together. The rear end was a 48 Studebacker and I cut 5”
out of each side and made it 10” narrower.
I made a blade for underneath it and raised and lowered it with my feet
as needed. I used an old refrigerator to
make a cab for it and when I plowed snow in the winter it kept the snow off of
me and when it rained I stayed dry.
Front tires were 12” and ‘49 or ‘50 Chevy hubs and cut the rims apart
and made the small tires to fit. It
worked real good.
ABOUT HARRY ALLEN
My pa’s brother in Bessemer,
Michigan, got Harry Allen out of the orphanage and after my uncle had
his own kids, they didn’t want Harry any more.
My pa took Harry to live with him.
He was 8 years old at the time and he lived there until he was 18. It was the only permanent home that he ever
had and got along good with Ma and Pa and the rest of the family. Harry never got married. In the 2nd world war he went to
California and worked in the ship yard for about 3 years. When he came back he met Erna Havel (I’m not
sure of the spelling). She had a little
farm and her husband had just died so Harry went to work for her. I guess he farmed there until he retired. She had an auction and he started buying
things. It wasn’t much but it was enough
to keep food on the table. Harry spent
the last of his days in the nursing home.
FAMILY LIFE
The advantages of a large family are that I had a lot of
remotes for the TV and now they are willing to help me when needed. My advice for them is to “get a job when you
can find one and save the money when you can.”
I always wanted to build Maw a
house which I eventually did. That was
after I sold the cows. Then later, in
1988 we moved out to the south of Manitowoc by Carsten’s Lake.
If I could change anything in my
life, I guess I’d just do it all over again.
I pretty much accomplished most of my things that I wanted to. My biggest accomplishment was to learn not
to listen to anyone but Myrna.
MYRNA’S POINT OF VIEW:
Augie’s good looks and charm were things that attracted him
to me. I met him at the country
store. He asked me if I knew how to
bake bread. I said, yes.
I am the 2nd oldest of 3 brothers and 2
sisters. My Dad died when I was age 11
and I started working out when I was age 12.
I worked to help Mom out. I made
it to High School, but didn’t get a diploma.
When I met Augie, I was working and staying the summers at
the store in Bennet Valley to help out the owner while she managed the root
beer stand in town. When there wasn’t
enough bread delivered or when more than usual was needed, I had to make a
batch of bread.
A big event in my life was getting married. I had Mike when I was 16 and my last child
when I was 27. I had 12 kids in
all. Nine are surviving.
Another big event in my life was getting a Social Security
number when I was age 30 and getting a job.
From then on, I worked a night job until my youngest child was in grade
school. After that, I worked day jobs.
M. Konsela and Brian Konsela
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Who is the Caterer?
I am the
caterer, Karen Scroch and I live just outside Arcadia. I started cooking, young. When I was 10 or 11 years old my
brother and I were the only two kids at home after our older brother and 2
older sisters left. My
brother helped outside with the farm work and I helped mom in the kitchen. Mom had health problems so she
would tell me what to do and I did it and that’s how I learned to cook.
I’ve been
cooking ever since. I
started my catering business in about 1980 and catered along with a job I had in
the cafeteria at Ashley. I
mostly like to cater for small to medium crowds, about 100-150 or even a few
more people. When the crowd
is up to 200-400 people I get nervous. I love people and I love to make food they like. My husband and youngest daughter often help me.
After all
these years of cooking, I don’t use recipes much anymore. I know what goes into each
dish and most of the time I don’t even measure. I enjoy cooking in a good kitchen. This museum/church has a good
kitchen and is fun to cook in. My
worst experience was cooking outside with no kitchen in 90 degree weather. I won’t do that again.
My sister Diane, who is 7 years older than I am, was the
baker in the family. When
Diane was home yet as an adolescent she took a cake decorating class. I watched her practice
decorating a cake, learned how she did it and later did it myself. That was my education in
cake decorating.
I learned to bake later and used the decorating techniques I learned
from Diane. Since then I
made many other cakes. One was a
wedding cake I made and decorated for my niece, Dana’s wedding. She and Diane loved it
* * *
Karen’s
sister Diane Adank Konsela added that Karen puts in extra seasonings to make
everything taste much better than it would if she only followed a recipe. She even embellished her
mother’s potato salad. Diane said Karen made a wedding
cake for her daughter, Dana.
”It was a beautiful cake” said Diane, “and she made it just exactly as I
wanted it and I told her several times how much I appreciated that. You know, when it looks so nice
and it is made by family you appreciate it more.” Now you know something about Karen Scroch, our caterer.And here she is . . .
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Who is Mark Pronchinske?
By Bev Keltner
If you read the scheduled events for the day you may have noticed Mark's name on it. No, he is not a first cousin. However, he knows many of us. I had the privilege of meeting him at a party a couple of summers ago at Augie and Myrna's home near Manitowoc. His gift to Augie at that party was a few pictures of Robert and Olga Konsela's farm near Waumandee.
I was quite interested when I saw the pictures and assumed that they had been taken many years ago. To my surprise, they had been taken very recently. The reason for my surprise was because some years prior to that, Jim and I took Mom and Dad on a Sunday afternoon drive near her "home place" and all we could see was a small shed. Mom told me that all the other buildings were gone. Mark set me straight on that.
After finding out that the homestead was still intact, I was very anxious to go and see it. However, I never did anything until I received word of the Konsela Cousins Gathering which spurred my interest again. I called Uncle Augie to see how I could find out who owned the farm today. He gave me Mark's name and phone number.
I immediately gave Mark a call and what an exciting and informative conversation we had! As a young lad, Mark and his family lived on a farm which adjoined Grandma and Grandpa's farm. He remembers Robert and Olga very well and shared with me many stories about them and some of our aunts and uncles. As the days went by, I received frequent calls from Mark with another story or bit of information that he thought of, and I must tell you that he is a wonderful story teller! When I see Mark's name on caller ID, I know that no matter what I am doing, I am going to stop and sit down for an enjoyable conversation. I think he has a "storytelling style with a smile!" In mentioning all of this to the planning team, they decided that he may be a wonderful guest speaker. His intent is to tell some stories, a bit about who owned the farm after Grandpa passed away, and answer questions that any of us may have. He will also be enjoying dinner with us and encourages you to speak with him informally at any time. His sister, Jane Sendelbach, will accompany him at the gathering. She has done a lot of genealogical work over the years and may be able to answer questions that we may have.
I will write more about my visit to the farm later. I will also share some photos that I took at the Konsela Cousins Gathering.
I will write more about my visit to the farm later. I will also share some photos that I took at the Konsela Cousins Gathering.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.