During the Armistice Day Snowstorm in 1940, my sister and I started walking to school. We had to walk into the north wind when we left our lane. The wind and snow from the blizzard was so severe I told my sister I couldn’t go any further. A pheasant dropped at our feet so we turned around and went home. If we had gotten to school the teacher would not have been able to get there.
With all the clothes we wore, scarves over our faces, long underwear, and long stockings we had frostbitten feet in the winter.
Some methods we used to alleviate the pain was to sponge our feet with kerosene and going barefoot in the snow. We just got cold feet from this.
Olga (Huntemann) Feyerherm
West Point, Nebraska
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
