| February 2002 Feature Story Grandma’s Secret written by Evelyn Heim Dallmann |
| In the thrities times were lean. Many folks were often hard-pressed for food and necessities because of the depression. We farm folks, even though the drought and grasshoppers took most of our crops, salvaged some garden stuffs and had our own meat and dairy products so we never went hungry. Money was scarce for groceries or anything else! My grandmother, Ida Emerson Heim, had a locker at Smith’s Grocery Store. She had carefully counted her pieces of beef from the farm butchering. She mentioned to us that it seemed several pieces were missing from the locker box. One day we were surprised when she told us she had discovered who had been taking her meat. And that he would do it no more! She caught him red-handed at her locker box. I wanted to know right away who it was, of course, but I was amazed and angry when she would not tell. She said we girls would let out who it was and it would get all over town. I cried out that we would never tell and pleaded for her to reveal who the nasty thief was. I think that was the first and only time I was ever really upset with my dear grandma. But as I grew older, I realized the wisdom of her intergirty. Times were hard. A man needed food for his family. But even thought he was wrong in stealing, my grandma protected him from disgrace and ridicule in our small town of Dawson, Nebraska! I’m richer for being Ida Heim’s granddaughter |