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SPEAKER: This is our hometown. You know everybody. It's got its advantages and disadvantages in a small town. But you know everybody.

And it's not like Bismarck. You go to a bar, and you sit there all night, you don't know anybody. Here, you go in the bar and you can talk all night. You know everybody. That's what's nice.

NARRATOR: Our Home Town, Strasburg, North Dakota. Population 643. This is one in a series of programs that explores the values, concerns, and character of life in small towns. And it is produced by Minnesota Public Radio Station KCCM, Moorhead, with funds provided by the North Dakota Committee for the Humanities and Public Issues.

Strasburg is a small farming community located in South Central, North Dakota, and settled in the early 1900s by German-Russian immigrants. Our sound portrait begins with residents telling why they like living in Strasburg, then pious craft traces the history of the German-Russian settlers and their descendants describe themselves. The interviewer is John Ydstie.

SPEAKER: One thing about it is you can look up at the sky at night, and you can see stars. Many of the cities in Milwaukee is bad. You can't even see a star at night. You can do things with your family much easier, more often in a small town.

My children are only five and six, but they go swimming by themselves. The swimming pool is just across the street here, but we only live a block and a half from it. But we don't have to drive them anywhere.

We don't have to worry about them. We don't have any trouble. I can't remember the last time my business was broken into. It hasn't been since I've been back in the eight years or seven years.

My biggest problem in being in business would probably be kids stealing BBs or 22 the shells, something small like that. It is just the whole lifestyle is different, too, in small towns. It's a slower pace. There are so many benefits that I don't even-- I can't even pinpoint because I'm used to them.

SPEAKER: For me, I don't know whether it has anything so unique as any other town, excepting that I feel at home here. I've lived here now since '45, the winter of '45. And we have our little church here. I have my friends here. And I know nearly everybody.

And it is pretty well-known, known all over the country because of Lawrence Welk, I guess. But he doesn't mean so much to us because we just take it for granted. My sister was a schoolteacher. And she was his teacher.

And he comes here once in a while. And he comes to the nursing home, and he dances with some of those old women. I wouldn't move to Strasburg for that, not that. [CHUCKLES]

And I have children living. I have a son in California, in Vista, California, a beautiful part of California way in the Southern part. And they want me to come there so bad. In my condition, they said it would be just the thing for me because I can't walk. But I said, no, I don't think you could pull me away from Strasburg. My roots are fast there.

And we have our cemetery here. My folks are buried here. My husband is buried here.

I lost a daughter a couple of years ago of cancer, the oldest one of the children. She was 65. And our oldest son died. And he is buried here.

Well, it's just home. It's just like-- even if you have a new barn, and you try to get a horse or a cow in that new barn, and there's an old shed where he used to stall in, it doesn't like that new barn. It wants to go back to that old shed. And that's the way it is with us. I like to be here. I just like to be here.

SPEAKER: The people are real friendly around here, which-- you go to some other small towns, which I have been, and I'll tell you the people aren't half as friendly as they are around here. I don't know what it is.

And every strange people that come into town, they always-- they can't get over it how friendly everybody is around here. And when kids come, younger kids that come here to visit, they always want to stay here. And they don't want to go home anymore. I don't know what makes it. I don't know.

They really like it here. And they even like to move back to Strasburg. Well, the reason why they do come back is they either have grandparents or uncles or aunts here. And I think then when they do come, they don't want to go back.

SPEAKER: Yeah, there was no place. Just Strasburg all my life. So I like it here.

And I think they're friendly. Everybody is friendly. And they talk German, and we are German. That's why I like it here the best.

[BAVARIAN OOMPAH BAND, "OH DU LIEBER AUGUSTIN"]

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

SPEAKER: My folks-- we come over here. Well, we come from the Ukraine. This is in south of Russia, that's in Russia.

All these people here, all these people around here, and the other towns and all regardless, over east here, we come over here in 1906, arrived here. We went by train to Antwerp from Southern Russia. These colonies there-- the people lived in colonies, not out on-- separately on their lands.

And then, we left there. And we boarded in Antwerp, Belgium. And we landed in Quebec, 12 days on a boat. And we come from Quebec to Aberdeen, South Dakota. And then we moved up here.

JOHN YDSTIE: Now, the people here are called German-Russian people, aren't they?

SPEAKER: Yeah.

JOHN YDSTIE: Why the Germans?

SPEAKER: Well, they are German. They originally immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine. In 1808, our people are-- 1808 to 11. The bulk of them came in there. There was some prior.

Well, at that time, they were living in Alsace-Lorraine, which is a little country between Belgium. And that little country was-- every once in a while, they had a war, Germany or France. And it belonged to Germany for a while and then to France for a while.

And then, this Kaiserin Catherine, under Peter-- what is it? Peter the Great or something?

Then, she invited these people over there. You see? She gave them land over there.

See, they wanted to populate that part of the-- that's a nice country there. Heavy, yeah, black soil.

And the native Russians there, the native Russians, they didn't do anything or something, I guess. Then, in order to build up that country, I assume, she gave them 60 desyatin, which is about the equivalent of a quarter. The first ones that came in, a lot of people, were three-- right here in this locality. --were three young fellas.

You see, as soon as they get up to be 21 years old, they had to register, and they had to go to military service. So some of them-- they skipped before that to get across the border. Bribery made it. They had usually some.

And then they come over here, and they found land out here. There was five of them. And then that was in 1888, out here, right here in Strasburg.

And then, of course, they wrote home back there, these people. And then, in the spring of 1889, 11 families came over, this settlement here. Yeah, that's our-- but they left on the county, and the land got scarce, too.

Land don't grow. You see, they didn't live in single families. They usually lived four, or five, or six families together. Everybody knew everybody when they settled.

You see, we had the Kuberniyas. That's a Russian word. Now, Kuberniya is something like a state. And we were from Kazansky Guberniya, Odessa, Uyezd. Uyezd is like a county or something like that.

And they crossed the river, Dniester River, coming, that formed the border between Bessarabia and these people in Southwest here about eight or nine miles. And they came from Bessarabia.

They had a little different dialect, but now it's all mixed up. They had these travel bureaus in Odessa, different travel bureaus. And people would go in and make arrangements, and you paid a fare. And do you know what the fare cost at that time?

From Rozdilna, which is a station, a railroad station, as a Russian word, to Aberdeen, South Dakota, we paid 140 rubles for a dollar of ticket. At that time, a ruble was only worth about $0.55. But now their money-- I don't know what it's now.

JOHN YDSTIE: It would have been about $70 then all the way from-- yeah.

SPEAKER: The whole thing. Of course, it wasn't first class. I know. On the boat, it wasn't a first class. It was third class.

On the Kaiser Wilhelm ship, I was not-- well, it was not quite 11 years old, you see? Of course, we can talk in English and all things, you see? But we got along well.

JOHN YDSTIE: What was Strasburg like when you got here?

SPEAKER: Strasburg? Well, there was two stores here, three already when I got here. There wasn't much, like all the little towns. Of course, then they grew fast when those people all come in.

Now, we got 650 or something like that, yeah. Those days, later, every town had a little band and a baseball team in those days, not anymore much. It's true.

Well, there was nothing else in entertainment. There was no radios and stuff like that. No, everything has changed now. Those days, everything was Germany, and even the churches and everything.

[THEME MUSIC]

[CHEERING]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

SPEAKER: We're a German-Russian community, I would say. And many our parents, most of them, still speak it. And many of us speak it fluently.

Some of our children speak a few words, a phrase here and there. They want to learn. In fact, some of our boys say, "Mom, why didn't you teach me German when I was smaller?" And they get in every word or every phrase they can.

SPEAKER: Well, I can talk German, yeah. But it doesn't mean that much to me. People are people. It doesn't make that big a difference.

JOHN YDSTIE: Does your family follow any old German customs or cook German food or anything?

SPEAKER: Oh, yes, my mother. She always cooks. We're German always, food, and talk, and everything almost.

SPEAKER: I try to be proud of my background and in no way apologetic. I think in the past, because of the history of the two World Wars, people have been somewhat have feelings of inferiority. And also the fact that most of them had German as their second language, or some of them German as their first language, so they were somewhat apologetic and have some feelings of inferiority.

At one time, it was probably considered. Now, I don't know why. But people didn't really care to let other people know that they have this Russian-German background.

I think when they left, they felt that it was a detriment. I think today, with the more liberal thinking, the breaking down of these ethnic groups and so on, I think it really doesn't affect them too much either way.

SPEAKER: Strasburger, huh? Well, I suppose we have an accent, don't we? [LAUGHS] Yeah, they've told me that already when I went to school.

And it's really simple. And I don't know. I suppose we all have a farmer's walk.

There's really-- as you can tell that there's always a lot of-- there seem to be a lot of work involved in or something. And otherwise, I wouldn't know if there's that much difference.

SPEAKER: I think they're very-- in most cases, they're ambitious. They're hardworking.

They try to get ahead. They do put value on education, although I think this has gone the other way. They're very competitive.

One thing I think that is detrimental, they're very prejudiced. They're very biased. They are very quick to criticize.

They don't like to-- they feel that their opinion is the right opinion. And they're a little bit too fast and that they're a little bit too quick to condemn, I think. I think they're-- just because there's a change doesn't mean it's bad.

SPEAKER: I was raised around here. I farm in this community. I went to school here. I never got away from home, you might say.

JOHN YDSTIE: Do you ever wish you had or are you happy--

SPEAKER: Not really, because I don't think I'd have the holdings, what I have today if I had roamed. A man can't accomplish overnight, lifetime holdings in overnight. And the longer you're on, the less chance you have.

I figure myself lucky for staying where I am. We don't have a very, very mixed community. It's not very mixed.

It's mostly German. And they all have pride in their German ancestry. And you either got to join them or leave them? I joined them.

JOHN YDSTIE: Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

Are you German?

SPEAKER: Oh, yes, yeah.

JOHN YDSTIE: How do you feel about that German-Russian heritage? Does it mean anything to you?

SPEAKER: Not really. No, my grandma talks a lot about how she came over and everything. But I was born in America, so I realized most of the people have came from the German-Russian thing. But I don't really care. I don't think about it that much.

SPEAKER: I go to the home quite often. And you'll hear some of these older people in the homes there that get together. And then they'll sing their German songs, the tears rolling down their faces.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

NARRATOR: One of the most colorful traditions still observed in Strasburg is the German-Russian wedding dance. Almost every weekend from March through October, a dance is held in Schneider's Blue room, a large Quonset roofed hall attached to a bar on Strasburg's Main Street. Now, Pius Krafft tells us about the old-time wedding dance. And then, we visit one in progress in Schneider's blue room.

PIUS KRAFFT: The traditions and the style of weddings and all that stuff, the customs they had, that was changed a lot since those days. Well, if there was a wedding, it took about two days, sometimes three.

JOHN YDSTIE: What was it like?

PIUS KRAFFT: Well, they had in the house. Well, they got the wedding. They get ready. They have the wedding.

And invite their relatives and friends or whatever. And then they had some musicians. And they had they would eat, and dance, and drink, see?

JOHN YDSTIE: For three days, you said?

PIUS KRAFFT: Well, the first day was the main then, and then the second day is usually leftovers. Then, it was a little smaller. Only the more close ones came.

You see? That's usually West. Came in, eat up, and drink up what was left, you see? It was much more fun than they have nowadays, by far.

[GUESTS SINGING]

SPEAKER: What you do there is the bride and groom lead the best men and bridesmaids in. And then, the parents are behind. And they're leading. We just go around in a circle.

JOHN YDSTIE: What are they doing?

SPEAKER: It's the tradition mainly, I think.

SPEAKER: It's the tradition.

SPEAKER: It's been going on for years like that.

JOHN YDSTIE: Did you guys ever think of having any other kind of wedding?

SPEAKER: No.

SPEAKER: It's just the basic here, and it's just carried on. I think everyone is similar. There's very few changes, and if there are any, it's minor.

JOHN YDSTIE: Uh-huh.

ANNOUNCER: OK, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we would like to extend our congratulations to Brenda and Richard.

[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]

And then, we would like to go on to the parents with Mr. and Mrs. Beattie Volt.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

Also, to Mr. and Mrs. Eloise Socker.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

Then, we would like to go on to the grandparents and so on with Mr. and Mrs. Alex Wolff.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

Mrs. Elliott Baechler, I think that's right. --and Mrs. Mariana Saunders.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

OK, from here on in, folks, this is for everybody dance. Everybody dance.

SPEAKER: That's the way it goes in Strasburg.

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: You're listening to Our Hometown, Strasburg, North Dakota, one in a series of programs exploring the values, concerns, and character of life in small towns, produced by Minnesota Public Radio station KCCM, Moorhead. Although most Strasburgers buyers have a German-Russian heritage, there are several families who are the descendants of settlers from Holland. Adriana Nieuwsma is one of those Hollanders. Now, she tells her personal history of Strasburg from the perspective of those Dutch settlers.

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: I was born in 1885 in an old-- it was a little-- I shouldn't say old. It was a new sod shack. It didn't have even have a floor in it or a door in it yet in Campbell County, South Dakota. I guess I was the first baby in that county.

My folks lived there for two years. And then these homestead rights came out. And he could-- went further into North Dakota to look for a homestead.

And he found a place that's about seven miles southeast of here, between here and Hague. And he filed on that as a homestead. And that's where I was really raised.

I lived on that place for over 50 years, spent most of my life there. In the first years, my folks set my folks farmed there. They had to bring their grain, their wheat to Eureka by wagon in oxen first and later by horses. And as time went on, the country progressed.

And they used to have horses. They bought their horses from Indians by the river. They called them Broncos.

Have you ever heard of that Bronco horses? They call them Broncs. They are awfully wild. But the Indians usually tamed them.

And they'd come through the country and sell them to the settlers here. And they were tough. That's how we had our first horses. I know. But I remember my dad plowing with the ox and ox team yet.

It surely took determination to come here. And they made good by my dad. They had their good times and hard times. But I think they were wise they came.

And it was, too, because of the military rules they had of being drafted. They had everybody-- every boy had to become a soldier if his health was fit. And he had to serve a term in the service if there was war or not. And they weren't satisfied with the government.

And then when the United States, of course, that seemed like that-- they got such good reports from the United States that these things were all so different. And everybody was his own boss, you might say.

And that interested them, I guess. And they were just eking out a living in the old country. And I guess they had just enough money to come across.

JOHN YDSTIE: What was it like to grow up out here in those days?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: I think people were happier than they are now.

JOHN YDSTIE: Are they?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: We never knew any better. We didn't have no shoes to wear. We walked barefoot during the summer and in the wintertime. Well, we little kids, we just stayed inside.

My folks had a sod house. And it was built like this. And then they had a tee to it with a barn for the horses and cows.

And then in there, there was a little hallway between. And we had our toilet, you might say, our back house, in that hall. We didn't have to go outside for that.

And then, the hay, my folks would get that in from the back. And they fixed a roof over the haystacks and hauled that full of hay. And then, right from the inside, they could get the hay to the cows and to the horses. And we lived indoors most of the time.

In the wintertime, we would usually sit around in that sod house. I remember that my dad spent most of his time in the winter reading stories. We had story books. We kids could sit there all evening. It was in Dutch.

We could sit there all evening, and he would read such an interesting story. And then we didn't want to go to bed. "Read some more, Dad. Read some more, Dad." Of course, that was all in Dutch.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was one of my favorite stories, that is the De negerhut. In Dutch, we call it De negerhut. We would have him read that over one-- more than once to get the full drift of it. And then there was another one that was The Lamplifter, Gertrude the lamplighter.

That was a book about a little girl that lived with her father in one of the lighthouses on the shore of the ocean. That was one of my favorite ones. And then we played checkers or something like that. And I don't know. Time never laid heavy on my hands that I can remember when I was a child. I got married when I was going on 20.

And then we raised a big family. We had 11 children. They say women don't work nowadays when they're a housewife. But I was a housewife, and I worked.

JOHN YDSTIE: The Germans and the Hollanders get along fine, huh?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: Oh, yes. We have had all German neighbors for so long, all our life.

JOHN YDSTIE: You never had any problem?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: We never had no trouble. No, we always got along fine, help each other out. But when we-- when our children were growing up-- and we children at home, we just wouldn't think of our youngsters dating with the Catholics.

And they didn't want their kids to date ours either. And we could keep that separate. But now they're in high school. They marry right and left together. And they just so they stay together, and that's the main thing. [CHUCKLES]

[THEME MUSIC]

JOHN YDSTIE: Is religion is important this community?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: Oh, yes. Yes, very much important, yeah. Even the Catholics they're good. Oh, they are good, solid Catholics, I tell you.

And they attend their church. If everybody would be as faithful attending their worship services as they are, we'd all be all right. We can live our religion in everyday life. We have to. If we don't show our religion in everyday life, it's no use to go to church on Sunday, and [INAUDIBLE] that pleased the Lord on other days, isn't it so?

JOHN YDSTIE: Did the people here do that, in this town? Do you think?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: Well, that's quite a deep question. I think, as a whole-- I think they do. I think they do live a religious life. Yes. Oh, yes. It's a Christian community.

SPEAKER: I would say our whole life here in Strasburg each stems out from our church. Our church is the center and our life. Our weekly things are all centered from the church as to the activities and everything you might almost say that we do. Everything is connected with the church almost. And if they have anything going on in town, it's usually one of the church groups that's doing it, like having a bake sale or getting in as a quilt, party group. That all stems out from the church.

JOHN YDSTIE: What does religion do for you or mean to you?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: Well, I don't know, but it's hard to explain. But see, I don't-- if you wouldn't believe in any god or anything, well, then you could just go and rob and steal and cheat anybody and not even bat an eye.

The only thing you'd have to think of-- well, maybe I won't get caught by the law. But if you have religion, you don't consider that. You think, well, maybe there's somebody up above that you're cheating.

You're not cheating. It's a right and a wrong. And that's all I do. I think really, in my opinion, if you raise your children without any religion, you almost raise them like an animal.

JOHN YDSTIE: Are the young people in town carrying on that religious tradition, do you think?

ADRIANA NIEUWSMA: No, not as strongly as the older ones are. Definitely not. I think maybe in the Catholic Church, maybe they got too lenient with their rules because they thought by changing the rules and being more lenient, you'd have more coming to church. But it seems like now more of them are dropping away from it because you don't really-- even at my age now, you don't really know. You go to one Catholic Church.

Well, they don't have to go to confession, or they can have church on Saturday night, and they'll count for Sunday. The next church you go to, it's vice versa. And that's kind of hard to swallow because you don't really know what's right and wrong.

SPEAKER: Religion is a big thing. You have to go to church and everything. Religion is just a really big part of everybody, especially older people. Other generations, I think, religion is just a really big thing in their lives.

JOHN YDSTIE: How about for the young people?

SPEAKER: Well, some people will be into religion a lot. But then again, some of the other people will just be against religion because their parents are shoving it down their throats. It's just amazing how the parents of the people think that somebody might not go to church on a Sunday, and that's really a horrible thing to do.

It's so big that-- they've been brought up on Strictly the Bible. You drifted from that a little bit, and you're a horrible sinner. It's ridiculous, I feel.

SPEAKER: We're having our annual church fair, and in the afternoon, we set up all these games for the children and the young adults.

JOHN YDSTIE: What kind of things are they?

SPEAKER: Oh, we've got a fish pond, and a dart game, a cakewalk, a roulette wheel. That's just for painting stuff, though.

JOHN YDSTIE: Why do you do this?

SPEAKER: To raise money for the church.

ANNOUNCER: I29. I29. N43. N43.

I17. I17. I18. I18.

I28. I28. G56.

SPEAKER: Bingo!

ANNOUNCER: G56 and bingo.

[GUEST SHOUTING]

GUESTS: (CHANTING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

SPEAKER: Oh, come on!

WOMEN: (CHANTING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

JOHN YDSTIE: Do you think you're getting an education that will serve you well when you get out of town?

SPEAKER: No, I don't. I just don't because I'm not learning. I don't think as much here as I would like in Bismarck or someplace like that. But that's just my opinion.

SPEAKER: No, I don't think so either. When you get out of here, you don't know too much usually.

SPEAKER: I think the only thing you know is what you-- not what you pick up in school, but what you pick up along the line growing up.

You get out. You learn different things. And then you go back to school, and before it, you're out. And I think it's what you learn out of school, not what you learn from your subjects in school.

SPEAKER: I do believe there are many disadvantages in a small school system. However, there are many things that are hard to measure. I do believe there is more of a unity in a smaller school.

You feel more-- I do think the teachers can spend more on a person-to-person basis with the individual students. Now, for instance, here in Strasburg Public, I know all the students. I know their background somewhat. I know their parents' background.

And many times, you can see the difficulties that result are because of some of these problems at home and so on. I feel in a larger city, you have more broken homes. You have more people that are just part of the institution. But I have seen students from Strasburg Public leave here and have done very well in both private colleges and in the universities.

So we can't say that it's a detriment to go to a smaller school. I think there's a lot of things to be desired. But yet, at the same time, there's a lot of things that we have that a larger institution does not or will not offer or can because of the very size of it.

SPEAKER: I've worked with high school students in Valley City, and I notice a difference here. I think the kids here are more open, and they're not quite so reserved. They're a little less sophisticated from where I stand. They're not quite so worldly. But really, when you come right down to it, I think they're just nicer kids.

SPEAKER: See, that's the advantage of a small town. Now, my kids, I don't have to worry about them. And we're working down here a lot. But they can go to the swimming pool. They can ride out the rodeo grounds. We've got horses for them. And I don't have to worry about them getting mugged or raped.

I just don't. You don't have to worry about that. Now, one kid will get into trouble driving too fast, maybe, or something like that. But that's about the limit to what they-- see, now that's the advantage of a small town. See, if we're in a big city, your kid leaves, and you don't know where he's at.

[CHILDREN PLAYING]

STUDENT: Come on! Go!

[CHILDREN RUNNING, PLAYING]

Wait, wait, wait. They got it on. They have to run around Schneider's house once and count up to 60.

STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE]

[CHILDREN PLAYING]

SPEAKER: Come on, let's go.

SPEAKER: Ready or not, here I come.

[RUNNING]

[INAUDIBLE]. Whatever beside the shed.

SPEAKER: What [INAUDIBLE] beside the shed.

SPEAKER: That shed.

JOHN YDSTIE: Is it a good place to grow up?

SPEAKER: In some ways, I think. And in some ways, it isn't. I don't know. It seems kind of far off from the other world.

And then, you learn a lot more here. Everybody knows everybody. And you're in everybody else's business and stuff. And in big cities, it wouldn't be that way.

SPEAKER: I'd say you get out. And you-- me being a farm boy, you learn how to. And you see more town boys getting out and learning how to run tractors and everything, whereas if you're in the city, you don't really know how to do nothing. You go to a factory and get a job, and you do one thing all day.

SPEAKER: The people are really nice, most of them. Everybody gets along with everybody usually, except one bad problem, the gossip. In a small town, if anybody does anything, everybody knows about it.

SPEAKER: Well, I got out this summer.

SPEAKER: Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: And I went to Aberdeen, South Dakota, and I really liked it. And I was glad that I left. And I don't know. I think more kids should do it, too, and then come back and go to school and stuff. It's really something.

JOHN YDSTIE: What's important to kids around here?

SPEAKER: The only thing I think that is important is what people think about you. That's always what you're worried about, what are they going to say?

SPEAKER: That's what you worry about?

SPEAKER: --to think about it, but I don't know-- I don't think you really worry about it. You think about it every now. You're careful where you are at the right time or something.

JOHN YDSTIE: What's important to you?

SPEAKER: Around here? Getting to school and getting out.

[LAUGHTER]

Getting away.

SPEAKER: There's got to be a better life somewhere else.

SPEAKER: Around here, I think maybe the older people like it. It's just a nice little town just to retire and listen to gossip. [LAUGHS]

STUDENTS: Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

SPEAKER: Oh, come on.

STUDENTS: Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

(CLAPPING) Strasburg!

JOHN YDSTIE: Do you think any of your children will come back here and make a living here?

SPEAKER: No, I don't think so because, with the doctor, they really tried so hard, and he would not come back no more. He's now in the service, but he would never come back to North Dakota.

JOHN YDSTIE: Why not? Why don't you think it would?

SPEAKER: Because he just thinks the people are so much different. The people interfere so much with their life that he just. They wouldn't like it.

JOHN YDSTIE: Not enough privacy?

SPEAKER: Yeah, not enough privacy, where in bigger cities, they don't pay that much attention to people, where in smaller cities, they have their-- they know everything about everybody else. So that's why he would never come back.

JOHN YDSTIE: How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER: Well, I feel the same way about that, that part.

JOHN YDSTIE: Does it bother you?

SPEAKER: It really does because everybody's interfering with whatever you're doing. They interfere with your-- whatever you're doing.

That's one thing that's good about the city because they don't know each other that well as they do in a little town like Strasburg. Everybody else knows everybody else's. So they make a big issue about everything.

JOHN YDSTIE: How about the concern and helpfulness? Don't you get that, too, in a small town?

SPEAKER: No, not very much. Not really. Mhm-mhm. I guess everybody has to care of themselves and don't get much help from anybody else.

JOHN YDSTIE: There's some notions about small towns that people have. I think one of them would be that you don't have privacy. Someone always knows your affairs and knows what you're up to.

SPEAKER: That may be true. And yet that's really, in a sense, not altogether real, bad either, in a sense. Sometimes, it can be good to that we're intimate and know each other's business. It might even help us a little bit to talking about religion, again, to shape up and examine our own Christian life, well, how are we living? If other people see then, maybe they're right. So there might be a disadvantage in that. It can be an advantage, I would say.

SPEAKER: Well, yeah, I don't think we need to be that private that we shouldn't want other people to know what we're doing. If we're doing those kind of things that we want to be off somewhere so that people can't tell what we're doing, well, then I think we're doing things we shouldn't be doing because we shouldn't care if anybody knows whether we're going here or going there.

One advantage is if people know what you're doing, when you go to the hospital, everybody's there to come and see you. That's one great advantage. Whereas if you're in a city and you get sick, you probably aren't going to have too many visitors.

But when anybody hears that anybody's sick, you're loaded with cards, you're visited. And perhaps when you come home, they'll help take care of your family. And, well, there's just a great advantage to that.

SPEAKER: Well, I think people in a small town probably do have a lifestyle that they pretty much live by. But it seems that, as I would see it in Strasburg here, they're pretty much all in agreement with, let's say, the same lifestyle.

JOHN YDSTIE: Would they accept someone who came in, who maybe wanted to live a different way?

SPEAKER: Yeah, that's kind of hard to say. I really wouldn't know what to say on that. I would rather say they would.

I would think anyone living coming in with a new lifestyle, I think would fit in because I don't think there would be that many complications really as I would see it.

SPEAKER: No, I think this party wouldn't want to be so different. He'd naturally just conform to their way and fall right into it.

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: As is the case with most small towns in North Dakota, farming is essential to the economy of Strasburg. Now, we sit in on a discussion about farming at the Farmers Co-op elevator, and we hear first from elevator manager Vic Derringer.

SPEAKER: How are the farmers doing?

SPEAKER: You just tell them right here, right now.

SPEAKER: They're doing good.

Vic Derringer: Well, I was just telling them that I was out on leasing sales, leasing land for the state of North Dakota. And they talk about the cattlemen. The cattle prices are bad and the cattlemen don't have any money, and that the farmers haven't got any money, and inflation has eaten up all the profit. But they sure are paying an awful price for that land.

I rented-- I think it was in Sargent County. I rented 80 acres of land for $25,025 for one year lease, 60 acres of cultivation and 20 acres of prairie.

JOHN YDSTIE: Well, how come I always hear the farmers complaining, then that they can't make enough money?

SPEAKER: --spend more than they make.

VIC DERRINGER: If you were a farmer, you'd complain, too, because-- for the simple reason because they've been used to high cattle prices. They'd take these cattle, these calves in. And last year, they got $300 a piece for them. Now, they're getting less than $100 for the same calf.

And then they go in and get this, the same thing that they have to buy, like a sack of bolts or repairs. That's probably up 50% or better. Their fuel is up 25% or 30%.

There's a fuel man right there. He'll tell you. And he could do something about it by bringing the price down, but he don't.

[LAUGHTER]

JOHN YDSTIE: Well, how about the grain market now?

VIC DERRINGER: Well, the grain market is really good. And I don't think the grain farmer can complain. The only thing he can complain about now is drought and grasshoppers.

A lot of farmers don't have anything to sell right now. This is what they're complaining about.

SPEAKER: It takes the average farmer that-- say, I've been here 22 years now. And you take what I'm worth, and you take a farmer, or you take like, oh, I could name some guys that started farming when I started here and let them sell out today. They're worth probably-- oh, I don't know, 200,000, $300,000 if they sold out today. And look what I'd be worth.

SPEAKER: Yet, the average guy-- when you took this job here, the average guy when you took the job, they envied you because they thought you had one heck of a good job. And they were out here in the farm milking cows and they didn't have any money to spend.

SPEAKER: --two days a week where I had to be here.

SPEAKER: Well, I don't know about that. But they didn't have any money to spend. You had your monthly salary check and--

SPEAKER: No money to spend.

SPEAKER: You were living high on the hog.

SPEAKER: They've been living higher than I have, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER: Well, I think the last 10 years they've been-- you've noticed a difference. But prior to that time, money was a little tight.

SPEAKER: I think what the farmer mostly complains about-- he probably has a few dollars at the end of the year, but then he has to have a new tractor. And he has to go in debt maybe 5 or 6,00. And maybe then the next year he's got to buy a new-- now, you go in debt more than that if you're going to buy a new combine. If your combines go out and it's 18-20,000. And, of course, you can afford to pay more for it because look what he's getting for grain.

But they always got them debts hanging over their head. And this is what they complain about. SPEAKER: No, I guess I'll farm another year, try it anyway. It didn't go so good this year. We didn't have much down there.

SPEAKER: If I would have quit two years before, I'd retire. I'd sit pretty than I did.

JOHN YDSTIE: Than you now?

SPEAKER: Yes, you see, I had died four years, two years hill and two years trout.

JOHN YDSTIE: Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER: And you know what it cost a year or two.

JOHN YDSTIE: To farm, huh?

SPEAKER: Yeah.

JOHN YDSTIE: That's for sure.

SPEAKER: Alrighty, and we have a rug and a rug and a rug. And we'll give 5 for the stack. Look at that rug. Look at there two.

[CHATTER]

Two now, three.

[AUCTIONEER CHANT]

And I never miss a bit if you bid that way. At $3 now, $4.

[AUCTIONEER CHANT]

Mrs. Pete Kelch.

SPEAKER: I still see we'd have a nice monument of Lawrence Welk here would be the biggest tourist attraction you can get.

JOHN YDSTIE: How much do you think you might [INAUDIBLE]?

SPEAKER: Well, I match them with about $12,000. You can get-- put one up--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

SPEAKER: First place, it should have been up there for all the money we've been getting from Lawrence. We could have won already. Now, they see we didn't get anything no more. We got dropped off because they make no use of the money.

SPEAKER: I don't think he'd even want to be up there as a staff member.

SPEAKER: That's yes, he wants to. The only thing he can't tell us are those things. He likes to see himself on TV.

NARRATOR: Strasburg is the birthplace of bandleader Lawrence Welk. And in many ways, Welk embodies the character and values of all Strasburgers. We conclude this program with a view of Lawrence Welk through the eyes of those who stayed behind. Pius Kraft, Lawrence Welk's younger brother, Mike Welk, and Al Kramer.

SPEAKER: I remember the first time he came out here. He had a hook up with-- was it Casey or Kelly? He was a magician or something. We had an opera house we called the Opera House there, Lips Cafe there upstairs.

And they had these traveling shows. It was a man and a woman, or maybe two. And they come out. They had a little magician and stuff like that. And he had hired him.

I remember then that was the first travel job, I guess, he had. And he came out and played the accordion on the stage, had that a nice tunic on with tight pants. And so I remember that smell.

It was very, very nervous. I was shy. It took him a long while till he could announce his own program. Very, very long time.

I know one time I was in went down by-- we stayed at the Andrews hotel in Minneapolis. And then his cousin Marcel, and he, this fellow, was down there. And he happened to run onto him.

And I knew him. And he says, Lawrence. And he stayed in the Andrews Hotel, just where we were.

And he was playing in the Orpheum there. And he says, we'll go over there tonight. He's got two shows on tonight.

So we went there for the second show after 9 o'clock. And we were on the back door, come in on the stage side. And when we come in, they were already going. And he was out on the stage.

And he came back in the change, and he was sweating and nervous. I said, Lawrence, I don't know, Kelly. He was so nervous that the thing when he came in to change clothes or something a little bit, and I thought he wouldn't c, he was so nervous that time. But then he got over it finally. It took a long time.

Well, he was afraid he couldn't speak English very good. Those days-- well, when he went to school, all you had English was in school. When you came home, everything and everything was German. Yeah, those days. Stores and everywhere, church, everything was German. So he still has that dialect. So have I some of it.

SPEAKER: I'm talking with Mike Welk, who's a native of Strasburg and younger brother to Lawrence Welk.

JOHN YDSTIE: What was he like as a young man?

SPEAKER: Well, he was a pretty good worker.

SPEAKER: --on the farm, yeah. But he didn't care too much. He she always wanted to go.

SPEAKER: He didn't.

SPEAKER: Play a little bit for dances.

[LAUGHTER]

Just as soon--

SPEAKER: But he was a good worker, yeah. He was pretty strong.

SPEAKER: Big, big guy?

SPEAKER: Uh-hum.

SPEAKER: Where did he learn to play? You see, my dad played and my older brother. And he had such a love for music. So he played when he was young already. He did.

Yeah, there was always the organ here. And I remember my dad when he-- in the evening when they were all done. And so he took the organ, a small one, and played a little bit over in the summer kitchen sometimes, yeah.

JOHN YDSTIE: Lawrence comes back every year, doesn't he?

SPEAKER: Uh-hum.

JOHN YDSTIE: Why does he come back?

SPEAKER: Well, see, we didn't come out there too often. Sisters and brothers are getting pretty old now. And so we go together a little bit in the fall and sometimes have a little reunion.

JOHN YDSTIE: Does he miss this place, do you think?

SPEAKER: No, I don't think so. I think it's so much nicer out there.

JOHN YDSTIE: Would you like to live out there?

SPEAKER: No.

JOHN YDSTIE: You wouldn't?

SPEAKER: Uh-uh.

JOHN YDSTIE: Why do you? Why do you like living here?

SPEAKER: Well, I suppose because I've lived here all my life. I've got my children here and my sisters, know everybody. [LAUGHS]

I've got fresh air out here. Sometimes, people-- they were out here from Michigan and so on. They drove over here. And the wind was blowing a little bit from the Norton.

I remember one fellow said, "Oh, that air, that is so nice." He said, "You're going to be 100 years old." [LAUGHS]

JOHN YDSTIE: He was probably right. What do you think you'd miss most if you had to leave here?

SPEAKER: Walking on the land. [LAUGHS]

JOHN YDSTIE: I was speaking with Al Kramer, who is a businessman in Strasburg. He runs the Penn Palace, bowling alley, and cafe here. What kind of influence is having a man like Lawrence Welk, a nationally famous person, have his birthplace here? Has it affected the place, do you think?

SPEAKER: Oh, very much so. I hear this every day as the tourists come through. Some go out of their way just to come to Strasburg, even if they didn't know they were this close to Strasburg. They just stop in and say they saw the signs. And they had to see something about Lawrence Welk's hometown.

And we do send them out to his farm, which is three miles west from here. And it definitely has a factor. It's It's the birthplace of Lawrence Welk. And it helps the business in town here.

JOHN YDSTIE: Do you think it would have survived had it not had someone unique like that being associated here? Would it still be the same town?

SPEAKER: I'm afraid not. I'm afraid not because there are a lot of towns that are a little larger than Strasburg and don't have a celebrity like we have that are not on the upswing.

Personally, I think it is one of the factors for Strasburg be surviving and on the upswing.

JOHN YDSTIE: What do you think accounts for Lawrence Welk's success? Is it something he got here, do you think, in Strasburg?

SPEAKER: Well, he came up through the ranks, and money was hard to come by in his days. He learned to work hard and save his money. And he's down to Earth guy. And I think that's what made him famous.

And that's what you can generally talk about all the Germans here, just about-- they're pretty hard workers. And they don't like to be up on the pedestal thing. "I've got the money. I don't know anybody anymore." It's not that attitude that people have here. And I think Lawrence Welk is on the same basis, make it the hard way and save it.

SPEAKER: That's the way it goes in Strasburg.

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: You've been listening to Our Home Town, Strasburg, North Dakota. This is one in a series of programs exploring the values, concerns, and character of life in small towns. The series is produced by Minnesota Public Radio station KCCM, Moorhead, with funds provided by the North Dakota Committee for the Humanities and Public Issues. Producers of this series are John Ydstie, Dennis Hamilton, and Bill Siemering.

[THEME MUSIC]