Around the family site
Her voice is the heart of this gift. These pages add a little about her life, her people, her book, and the places she names.
- About Agnes Her life, in the words she wrote and spoke. Open →
- Family People she names — and a few questions for the family. Open →
- Books Early Memories of Bohemia, and where to find it. Open →
- Photos A place waiting for family pictures. Open →
- Places From Lipov to Rice Lake, on a simple family map. Open →
Favorites to start with
- New Year's at the cabin: a path through the snow and a sip of wine Her grandson shovels a path through a six-foot snowplow bank so Agnes can celebrate New Year's Day at the cabin.
- The day Agnes tried to sing, and an owl chased her home At her little cabin in the woods, Agnes opens the windows and tries singing her mother's old Bohemian hymns from a handwritten songbook, but her voice is rough and she cries at how much has changed.
- Half true, half imagined: the blizzard and the guardian angels Agnes warns that the next story is half truth and half imagination.
- Tiny the pig: a baby in a baseball box, dressed up in earrings The smallest piglet, called Tiny, is raised by the boys in a baseball box with quilts, then tries to follow everyone around the house and gets stuck in the screen door.
- The deer who came to smell the flowers Agnes's neighbor, a woman her age who built a small cabin in the woods, asks for flowers and plants them along a bank by her driveway.
A letter from May 1986
Recorded May 25, 1986, Decoration Day weekend. 12 stories, about 47 minutes.
- Hello from Agnes: Decoration Day weekend and Mary's graduation Agnes opens the tape by checking that the recorder works, then starts catching someone up on family news.
- Rose's little ones come to visit: new shoes and a mischievous toddler Rose visits with her two little ones, and Agnes describes the five-year-old who fell on the patio, the little one who lost a brand-new shoe, and the kids who wore their shoes out running around.
- Joey and his girlfriend drop by; Agnes paints her flower pots Agnes tells how Joey and his girlfriend stopped in when she was already in her nightgown after a whole day of painting.
- A visitor, a lost-and-found dog, and a man who lost two toes Agnes is glad a friend has come to see her.
- Sore feet, fallen arches, and money worries Agnes's big toe has been hurting for weeks and the doctor says her arches have fallen, so she needs real supports and good shoes.
- A kind manager takes Agnes shoe shopping The administrator offers to drive her to the mall, where a friend of his measures her flat feet and fits her with good shoes that feel 'like velvet'.
- Painting flower pots and another visit from Joey Shoes like velvet, and now Agnes is painting every flower pot on the patio, hers and Mrs. Noha's.
- Decoration Day: flowers for Grandpa and her husband Johnny Jr.
- Painting for Mrs. Noha, and the fig tree that is starting to bud Agnes paints flower pots for her friend Mrs. Noha, who has only one hand and uses a wheelchair, and tells whoever is listening that she is about to mail this tape.
- The day Agnes's thirty photographs went missing Agnes lost a bundle of about 30 photos, including pictures that someone sent her of a car and other family things, after showing them to the ladies at bingo.
- Tables to paint, 90 minutes of tape, and a little boy who wants to go fishing Agnes plans to repaint the worn dining tables and chairs once the manager brings more paint.
- Goodbye for now: Mr. Lark, flowers, and Mary's job hunt Agnes tells how Mr. Lark, now in the home, can no longer talk, while his wife visits and cries.
A Christmas letter
Christmas greetings recorded with Rose, Todd, Kirby and Agnes. 8 stories, about 29 minutes.
- Merry Christmas, Aunt Chris! The boys say hello and sing Todd and Kirby's family gathers around the recorder to send a Christmas greeting to Aunt Chris.
- Decorating the house, and a few words from Great-Grandma The boys tell Aunt Chris about the soft-sculpture Santa on the stairs and how Kirby threw the tree bulbs across the room like baseballs.
- What does Santa bring? And Grandma's goose egg The boys are asked what they want from Santa, and Todd has some very emphatic opinions about a ball.
- Chicken lips photos, the new scroll saw, and the baby Jesus song Rose takes photos of Grandma with the boys to mail to Chris, and everyone says 'chicken lips' for the camera.
- Agnes tells of her fall at Rose's house Now alone with the microphone, Agnes tells the whole story herself: she went to get a glass of milk, tripped over the little hump and slid face-first into the rug, and got a swollen face and a black eye.
- Christmas plans: staying put, teeth trouble, and a hurt friend Both families have asked Agnes to spend Christmas with them, but she says she will stay where she is and have a good Christmas there.
- Paper flowers by the dozens, daily cucumbers, and Christmas baskets Agnes is making 15 to 20 paper-flower bouquets a day for the other residents, using paper and wire people bring her.
- Earrings and a jealous boyfriend Agnes says her new earrings are working fine, then tells how another man at the home teased her about having a 'boyfriend' and how she told him he could be her boyfriend for a while too.
Life at the cabin and the bus trip
Birds at the cabin, a New Year's story, and the bus ride to Chicago. 9 stories, about 46 minutes.
- The woodpecker couple who patched things up Sitting with her morning coffee, Agnes watches a male woodpecker drum on an electric pole and wait for an answer from a swamp.
- The day Agnes tried to sing, and an owl chased her home At her little cabin in the woods, Agnes opens the windows and tries singing her mother's old Bohemian hymns from a handwritten songbook, but her voice is rough and she cries at how much has changed.
- The pregnant bird: painting birds on the yellow cupboard A neighbor sold Agnes a steel cabinet cheaply, and she painted it bright yellow for the cabin.
- Singing with the birds, and a grandson who sings along One sunny day outside the cabin, Agnes sings a silly song and then a church song, and five different birds start singing with her.
- New Year's at the cabin: a path through the snow and a sip of wine Her grandson shovels a path through a six-foot snowplow bank so Agnes can celebrate New Year's Day at the cabin.
- Half true, half imagined: the blizzard and the guardian angels Agnes warns that the next story is half truth and half imagination.
- Off to see her sister: the bus ride to Chicago begins A letter from Agnes's sister says she isn't feeling well, so Agnes takes the bus from Rice Lake through Eau Claire and Madison to Chicago.
- The bus driver's story about the bride and the box Agnes takes the front seat of the new bus, right behind a group of college kids, and hears the driver ask them to keep him awake.
- The wobbling wheel: a stranger saves the bus At 2 a.m.
The grandchildren, the Seattle trip
The bus ride ends, then time with the grandchildren, and a trip to Seattle. 8 stories, about 46 minutes.
- The young Mennonite men tell why they might leave Waiting on the bus, the college kids question the two young Mennonite fathers.
- The midnight lunch wagon: coffee, pies, and boiled eggs at 2 a.m. While the wheel is being fixed, a Jeep-like van pulls up and the driver pulls out a table.
- Sunrise in Indiana, and a last goodbye to her sister in Toledo After a doze, the passengers wake in Indiana to a line of black Amish-style buggies; the young Mennonite man says he hopes to get away and own a car and house.
- Butternut hunting with the grandchildren Agnes tells how she took the three oldest children of her oldest son John into the woods, found a wild apple tree, and went back the next day with a five-gallon pail and her apron to gather butternuts.
- Old logging roads, trout spawning, and tracks left by a 'Martian' Agnes walks the logging roads she knew as a young bride and teaches the grandkids the trees, then shows them spawning trout that don't flee.
- A month and a half with the grandchildren: dress-up, a swimming-hole game, and a scare The grandchildren dress up in her old hats and heels for pictures, and Agnes says she had more fun with them than with her own sons.
- The spring that shot 60 feet into the air, and the poplar that plugged it Agnes tells how, about forty years earlier, oil drillers hit a spring that sprayed 60 feet high, and when the sick landowner could not pay $2 a foot for the casing, the angry driller hammered a peeled poplar pole into the pipe to stop the water.
- Setting off for Seattle: a pickup, a trailer, and a night in St. Paul Agnes announces the last story: a trip to Seattle with the son of a close friend.
Farm stories
Pigs, a shivaree, and a Halloween prank. 6 stories, about 31 minutes.
- Getting a sow and her twelve piglets home across the creek On the third day of trying to feed a sow and her litter in a hollow, Agnes and the boys finally work out a plan.
- Tiny the pig: a baby in a baseball box, dressed up in earrings The smallest piglet, called Tiny, is raised by the boys in a baseball box with quilts, then tries to follow everyone around the house and gets stuck in the screen door.
- A shivaree: a noisy 'wedding greeting' at Mr. Pajeda's farm When a neighbor boy returns from marrying in Chicago, the neighbors gather for a shivaree, a noisy wedding prank.
- The shotgun blast that missed Agnes's ankle by three inches The crowd keeps banging, until Mr. Pajeda comes out with a shotgun.
- A Halloween prank on Bill, the bachelor with the corn patch Agnes wasn't allowed to join the men's Halloween prank on a bachelor neighbor who grew corn on rocky land and counted every hill.
- A Sunday walk to the wild roses (the story starts here) After a big Sunday chicken dinner, Agnes stacks the dishes and walks the crooked old road to a stretch of wild roses she loves.
Building the log cabin
From a dream among the wild roses to the cabin opening, and a neighbor's cabin. 7 stories, about 31 minutes.
- Caught singing on the road, and the dream of a cabin of her own Among the wild roses, Agnes sings her hymn as nicely as she can, and it sounds gorgeous to her until a 19-year-old neighbor boy and his friends come around the bend and catch her.
- Bulldozing a hillside for $5 and cutting the first logs Twenty years after dreaming of the cabin, Agnes asks a neighbor with a caterpillar tractor to level a spot, since her son is too busy.
- Agnes's $5 hatchet, her husband joins the work, and a horse for tomato gravy Agnes buys a little hatchet and starts peeling the logs herself, and her husband, who said he wanted nothing to do with the cabin, comes along to see that she is on her own land, sharpens his ax and works beside her.
- Building the log cabin: logs, a sawmill, a roof, and a fireplace John lays a sand-and-cinderblock foundation and builds up the log walls, then works through winter while they price lumber and decide to cut and saw their own trees instead.
- A fire that roared, a Father's Day steak dinner, and 180 people at the open house The first fire in the fireplace roars so hard they have to slide an iron plate in to calm it, and it still warms the cabin in five minutes.
- The deer who came to smell the flowers Agnes's neighbor, a woman her age who built a small cabin in the woods, asks for flowers and plants them along a bank by her driveway.
- The little cabin in the woods that came down After a cloudburst the neighbor's husband went out to dam the water to save the strawberries and had a stroke.