Aunt Sophie Ogdahl: Wanda (Dalager) Megers Wagner remembers

Wanda reminded me that she is Wanda Dalager Megers Wagner. On the E mail her address is wdmw.

As a young person Wanda worked as a hired girl for Aunt Sophie Ogdal. She had the fanciest home that Wanda had see at that time because she had a chandelier. Sophie had Wanda work in the house. She would set the table at night with all the plates up-side-down so ‘no critters’ would get on the plates. That is what Sophie told Wanda. She also had a dumb waiter. After the meal Wanda had to put the butter, milk, and everything that needed to be cool on the dumb waiter. It was then lowered to the basement which was more cool in the summer. The table was usually set for four which would be for Aunt Sophie, her husband Theodore, Wanda, and one hired man. All of the boys were gone. Theodore and Sophie had been married for 30 to 35 years and they were still on the farm.

Wanda said that Sophie could fry the best eggs. She would swirl them around in the pan and then with a flip of the pan, she would turn they over so that the eggs were fried on both sides, ‘over easy’.

Sophie dressed well and always wore a fancy hat. Wanda was about 12 or 13 when she worked there. She thought Sophie was really a neat person.One of Wanda’s daily duties was to wash the cream separator. One of the hardest jobs for Wanda was to wash clothes. Sophie did not have any of the newer washing machines and washed clothes by hand on the scrub board. Wanda remembered that her parents had a gasoline operated washing machine but Sophie did not have one. Sophie and Theodore had their own 32 volt electric generating system but no washing machine. A system like this would only operate a few light bulbs.

There was a back stairway and a front stairway to Sophie’s house.