Sunday School, Dandelion Wine, and a "Period of Retrenchment"

After Daisy Raschka became Mrs. John Fleck, Lesta was the oldest daughter still at home; but in the spring of 1921, at about 22 years of age, she was making plans to leave — destination: marriage. She was engaged to Otto Maicke.

On the evening of Friday, March 4, Daisy hosted a shower for Lesta at the Raschka home on Lake Street. "The evening was spent in social converse, during which a dainty luncheon was served," said the Hobart News. "Miss Raschka was the recipient of many beautiful gifts."

On Monday evening, Lesta brought her Sunday School class over to the house, and I hope her parents were home from their missionary board meeting in time for the fun:


(Click on image to enlarge)

That social column is packed with news of people we know — brothers Christ and Tony Springman drunk on dandelion wine; Albion Paine traveling from his farm west of Ainsworth to seek medical help in Chicago; and Paul Newman busying himself with a proposed tourist camp for travelers on the Yellowstone Trail where it ran with Cleveland Avenue into Hobart.

The last item in the column mentions the local effects of a depression the nation was going through. Among the men laid off by the Pennsy Railroad was our friend Peter Palm. I am not sure what his job with the railroad was, as the 1920 census is illegible on that point — but he described himself then as a farmer as well as a railroad employee, and he took the layoff in stride, saying that he had plenty of work to do on his small farm.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 10 Mar. 1921.