NZ Letters....Aunt Glad

October 23, 2017

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Dear Nancy,

Halloween always makes me think of my Great-Aunt Glad…and since I’ve been writing these letters to you, and telling my parents story….it makes me see her in a new light.

Gladys Soltau married Barnard Wolf in 1931 and they farmed in the Princeton area. Uncle Barney (we all called him that) was a talented machinist, and during WW II, he worked his way up to shift supervisor at an aluminum factory. He was promoted to be a plant supervisor at a larger plant in Indiana, but the move to a different state didn't work out. Uncle Barney had a “nervous breakdown.”

I’m certain he had an anxiety disorder. But, at the time, there was no diagnosis or treatment (it isn’t much better today) -- so they moved back to Iowa, to a quieter life with less stress.

They settled on a small Scott County farm. There was a deep creek behind the main house and Uncle Barney had to cross a homemade bridge to get to the fields. It was a very stressful thing for him to drive a tractor 10' above the water...and no matter how much work he did to improve and strengthen that bridge, he just could not deal with it.  After a few years, they "swapped" farms with another family. Uncle Barney and Aunt Glad moved 4 miles down the road and the Spies family took over the bridge farm on the Bluff.

Uncle Barney did carpentry work to make extra money. When we built our house in 1981, Uncle Barney helped built our screened-in porch.  I can still see him, throwing his hammer on the ground when a nail bent, or something wasn’t quite square…he’d throw things, and start cursing…WOW, could that man cuss!

 

In 1986, I was about to open my fabric store -- and Uncle Barney came to the warehouse where I was sorting through a semi-load of fabric.  He said, “this is one huge damned puzzle, honey…”  

He died of a heart attack two weeks later.

Aunt Glad was the complete opposite of her sister Pearl (my grandmother). Aunt Glad's home was modern, up to date and always immaculate. Pearl was a a terrible housekeeper and her appliances were older than she was. Aunt Glad was a happy person, who seemed to take things in stride. Pearl was always miserable, worried that somebody was taking advantage of her. Aunt Glad was the busiest old lady I ever met. She kept a daily journal, and she had some activity every week…card clubs, luncheons, Senior Citizen events. Pearl disliked her neighbors...and her outings were so infrequent -- she wore the same navy blue special-occasion dress for over 30 years.

After we moved into our house, we’d have Aunt Glad and Uncle Barney over for dinner. Uncle Barney’s favorite dessert was lemon meringue pie. I made that pie many times, and got pretty good at it. But it is A LOT OF WORK…after he died, I went about 20 years NEVER making it -- then, several years ago, Elliott told me lemon meringue is HIS favorite dessert -- so, now, I’m back to making it…and it’s still A LOT OF WORK.

  

When he maybe 9 years old, Ross made a salt-dough ornament for Aunt Glad. It looked like a teddy bear, and he wrote, “# 1 Ant” on the front -- and she hung it on the knob of her kitchen cabinet. It was there when she died.

love,

rita

This is a picture of me with one of my should-win-an-award lemon meringue pies!!

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