Bible School

May 7, 1999 Grand Forks, N.D.

The other day Emily handed me the first blossom of a spirea bush and said, "Smell this, Mom. Doesn’t it smell pretty?" She told me she had just read about how smells often jog strong memories and I would have to agree. The sweetness of a blooming spirea bush will always in my mind be tied to my childhood days of Bible school at Zion Lutheran Church in Eureka.

Bible school was always the first two weeks in late May and/or early June, just after public school was dismissed, and each day’s session ran from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pastor Baudler led the Bible School but the teachers were the women of the church who in those days were freer to take on such commitments because very few of them had paying jobs.

I loved Bible school for several reasons. Studying the Bible stories, cutting and coloring and pasting art projects and playing "Simon Says" on Zion’s big front steps were just part of the fun. I especially loved it when we met in the Parish Hall at the end of the day and Pastor led us in singing "White Coral Bells" and "Oh How Lovely is the Evening" and other beautiful rounds and hymns. Also I remember the softball games at noon that pitted the Lutheran boys against the Reformeds or the "Congos" UCC Church of Christ, who also had Bible school during that time. The games were played in the old city park.

In my memories of Bible school the sky is always blue and the sun is always shining and the spirea, lilacs and peonies are always in bloom, especially the beautiful peonies in my Grandma Beck’s back yard, huge blossoms in creamy white and shades of pink. Grandma is another big part of those memories because we stayed at her house all week when Bible school was in session.

Grandma’s presence looms so large in my life. I always felt I was her favorite. Perhaps her other grandchildren felt the same thing but I always felt our relationship was special, and that is a powerful thing.

Born Ida Wolff, Grandma Beck grew up in a big farm family, the third of 14 children. Children in her day had chores to do as soon as they could walk. Grandma learned to wash on the washboard, butcher, cook and a hundred other chores at a young age. She even plowed with the horses. Occasionally she and her brothers and sisters were hired out to work for other families. The money they earned went to their father. He was the boss.

But even in those days there were moments of rebellion. When Grandma was a girl her father went to Texas with a brother-in-law who had just lost his wife and was looking for a change. Her father returned full of the wonder of Texas and big plans to move there. No way, said his wife. "You can go but the kids and I are staying here," she told him. And that was the end of that.

When Grandma was in her late teens one of her aunts died and Grandma was sent to her Uncle’s farm near Wishek, N.D., to take care of his house and care for his three little children. She lived and worked there until her young cousins were boarded with other relatives. Imagine any teen-aged girl you know today stepping into a position of responsibility like that.

At 20 Grandma married one of the neighbor boys, Gust Beck. She wanted a white wedding dress but wore navy blue because it was more practical. A lot of Grandma’s life was making due with what was practical. The farmhouse she and Grandpa lived in never had indoor plumbing. She gave birth to four of her five children at home. And she continued to work in the field, just as she had as a girl.

One of those little cousins from Wishek that Grandma had cared for was named Katherine and she grew up and married Ben Beck, which made her Grandma’s sister-in-law and closest neighbor. I saw Katherine last month in Eureka and she still likes to tell me about how Grandma gave her a wedding shower and a most wonderful wedding present: a hen and all its little chicks.

Grandpa had heart problems and died in 1951 when he was barely 50 years old, leaving Grandma a young widow with two teen-aged boys still at home. She never remarried and spent more years as a widow than she had as a wife.

Grandma endured hardships, but her life certainly didn’t lack in beauty, faith and love. She had a beautiful flower and vegetable garden and often had the neighbor ladies over to sew quilts that she stretched on a frame that took up her entire living room. She canned hundreds of jars of vegetables, fruits and jellies, enough to line half the shelves in her basement. She always had ice cream pails of delicious cookies in the freezer. She was a wonderful cook of all the German favorites such as kuchen and strudles but one of my favorite things to eat at her house was cottage cheese with home-canned peaches. When we came to visit her, the first words out of her mouth were often, "I got so much done today." It wasn’t in her to be idle. Even in her final illness she was still crocheting Barbie doll clothes for the little girls in the family.

Grandma had snow white hair most of her life. She wasn’t vain about her appearance but however sensible her clothes and shoes, she bought the best she could afford. She liked to read and next to her favorite chair was a stand that always had the King James Bible, "Good Housekeeping" and "Scope" magazine for Lutheran women. She used to watch a soap opera every day until some time in the 1970s when it got too racy. She liked the funny shows like "I Love Lucy" or "Gomer Pyle." She loved to have family over and visit and eat and laugh. Whenever she got a letter from a relative she would read it to me. The fact that I had no idea who this relative might be did not deter her. Family and church were the pillars of her life. She was devoted to Zion Lutheran and did countless works of service there and was much respected.

Grandma had almost no formal education but encouraged us in our studies and enjoyed our accomplishments. She also liked to travel and in the 1960s did quite a bit of it around the U.S. with a couple of her sisters. I still have the 10-cent Spiral notebooks in which she wrote about her trips in her distinctive shaky hand. They were in the drawer of her night stand at the nursing home when she died. Grandma had kept a record of how much money she spent on gas, food and motels, and where they went and what they did and descriptions of the countryside and it’s suitability for cultivation. Once a farmer, always a farmer. She wrote about sitting on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., driving through the giant sequoias in California and feeling the mist from Niagrara Falls on her face. Those experiences meant a lot to her.

Grandma hoped she would never have to go to a nursing home but when old age and illness overtook her she was the one who said, "It’s time to go." More than anything she dreaded being a burden or losing her dignity. When Grandma died (eight years ago today) we found that she had marked Psalm 73 in her Bible. In it the psalmist, before seeing the error of his thinking, complains to God about how the rich and powerful are enjoying one big party while his righteousness is going unrewarded. She had written "This is my funeral text" next to these verses: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And I desire no one in earth as much as you! My health fails, my spirits droop, but God remains. He is the strength of my heart. He is mine forever."

Grandma’s life was a living Bible school to me. She showed me that the love we share and the little bit of good we can do in this world are what is important. Money and things are nice but ultimately they can’t make us happy or fulfilled. I had so many more advantages than Grandma did, but often I hope I’m living my life half as well.

Your friend, Paulette