Virginia’s Adventures in Nebraska

“It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.”

Cole Porter

            When I met Virginia for the first time I must admit I had a bit of an adventure. I’d never gone into a large facility for an interview before and when I finally found the room, there were two women in there. Both asleep. Panicking, I found a nurse in the hallway and asked her to help me (though it was hard to explain that I did not know which woman I was looking for.) She sighed and walked in with me, said Virginia’s name, and a petite woman with a kind face shot up, wide awake and ready to tell me her life’s story.

            Virginia has lived all over the United States, at times forgetting which state she lived in at what time, simply because there were too many to remember. She grew up during WWII, but nonetheless looks back to her childhood with fondness, telling her stories and taking her listeners back to country life in Nebraska.

Virginia was born in Minden on April 24, 1926. She lived there until she was five when her parents divorced and she, her mother, and her two sisters moved to Holdrich. Her mother remarried and she and her new husband had one son together.

            While Virginia was only thirteen years old she worked in a movie theater, sweeping up after shows. Often she would find coins on the ground, which she would pick up and store in her shoes. She always had spare change and would treat her friends to ice cream. At the time, ice cream was only five cents for a “dip,” but there was one bakery where it was only three for one dip. Virginia said that those weren’t as big as the ones they could get at Fairmount ice cream, though. “Oh, it was so good, we’d go down there and have glass of that [ice cream]…we really enjoyed it.”

During the war, Virginia’s mother and stepfather were sent to Washington to work in the Boeing Airplane Factory to help with the war work. Virginia, though, stayed in Nebraska so she could finish out her last year of high school with her friends.

To earn room and board she worked on a farm. Even in the wintertime, “we’d get up around 5:30 in the morning and go out and milk the cows,” she told me. “We had this one cow that was ornery and they let me milk her because they thought I could handle her.” This particular cow had warts on her udders, which is probably why she was so ornery. When Virginia finally finished milking the cow, the thing kicked over the bucket! “I just wanted to beat her!” she said. Despite the cantankerous cows, Virginia enjoyed life on the farm, learning how to make bread, take care of animals, and cook.

Her mother came back to Nebraska with some friends to get Virginia and bring her to Washington. They group came out in an old “rattle trap” of a truck. “I don’t know how in the world they got everybody out there,” she said. There were two young boys on the trip with them, one who had been complaining about a pain in his ear. One day Virginia’s mother was washing his ears when she found something peculiar… She called to the boy’s mother and said, “Come here I want to show you something; I’ll tell you why the boy’s ear is hurting.” As it turns out, the boy had a kernel of corn stuck in his ear and it had started sprouting!

She and her mother took a train to Washington, not willing to risk another trip in the old “oil-burner.” Virginia’s life in Washington is simply another chapter to her story…

My name is Jillian DiPersio and I am a sophomore at Windham High School. After learning the stories of my own grandparents, I have been interviewing the elderly. Through my research and interviews I have been able to dig up some incredible bits of history from the lives of local residents, as well as learn about people who are the products of a different generation. If you or someone you know would like to share your stories, please contact me at jillian@dipersio.com.