Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 9

           The Klingler family didn't make much of a fuss on birthdays. But their home was always full of fun and joking. Both the children and their parents enjoyed making puns and playing on the meanings of words. They did a lot of teasing. When the Klingler youngsters were small the neighborhood children were not allowed to come over to play. They had enough children and grandchildren in the family to have lots of fun together. The children and grandchildren played well among themselves and provided their own entertainment. They played

games like Run Sheep Run; Hide and Seek; Pomp, Pomp Pull Away; and others. A horse was usually available for the children to ride. All of the children had fun riding in buggies pulled by a horse or team.

            Edna Cook Ririe, one of four living granddaughters in 1993 who still remembered Christine, recalls the fun of sleeping sideways in one of her grandmother's beds with three other cousins because it was too crowded the regular way. Norlene Buchmiller Kenison remembers being left at her grandmother's house to be cleaned up after milk was spilled all over her. The incident occurred while Norlene was riding in a sleigh and a can of milk tipped over onto her when the sleigh went over a drift. Berneice Steiner Heinz remembers the fun at her grandmother's house on Sunday afternoons playing with the other cousins - and eating some of

her grandmother's great cooking. Marvilla Steiner W. Fresh recalls Grandma Klingler's great annual Easter Egg hunts at the Klingler strawstack about a half mile south of the Klingler home. "She always gave a gift to the grandchild who found the most eggs." All of the grandchildrenwere welcomed with love whenever they came.

            Movies, or shows as they were beginning to be called, were not yet a part of Rexburg's entertainment fare. Once in a great while a silent movie would come to town and the family would all go and watch.

            Christmas Eve was a wonderful time of celebration and gifts. Christmas Day was magical, too. The children awoke to find a beautiful Christmas tree covered with decorations and candles. Because it was a holy day the Klinglers spent the time visiting friends and relatives. The next morning, December 26, the tree was gone without a trace. This was a typical German Christmas celebration.

            Sara, recalling her childhood, said, "We had good times. We were a happy family. Father was short, very kind, and not quick-tempered, but easygoing. He played a lot of tricks on us. Father made us speak German at home. When Mother said to do something, we did it. We could talk Father out of things, but not Mother. She was more serious and had a quick temper, but the whole neighborhood loved her. She spoke English very well. We always went to church on Sunday. We studied and read the Bible at home in our family."

376 West 4 South Rexburg, Idaho

            A new brick home was built on the southwest corner of the Klingler property in 1914. The construction was of logs covered with bricks. It was always cool in the summertime and warm in the winter. The old log cabin became a storage shed. The new home boasted some of the modern conveniences of the new century. It even had sliding doors between the dining room and the parlor. Life was more pleasant in the new home. Inside plumbing meant the end of the need for an outhouse and walking across the pasture for water. In 1917 Karl bought his mother the largest electric washing machine available. He had seen sales literature that urged readers to "Buy a Copper Washer for a Silver Dollar." The dollar was the down

payment. The washer was a great blessing for Christine.

            Luna May, wife of their son, Fred, died January 1, 1914, leaving five children motherless. They were twins Ora Averill and Cora Aerial, 10; Edna Mae, 6; Frederick Spaulding, 4, and Earl Newell, 2. Eva, then 18, tended these children in Fred's home for a while and then asked her mother and father if she could bring them over to their new, larger home. They granted her wish. Christine was still serving as Relief Society president. She just took her new responsibilities at home in stride. The children made their home with their

grandparents for three years until Fred remarried in 1917. Eva and Sara and some of the boys were still home and helped a great deal with the care of the younger children.

            Temple work was important to Christine and Friedrich. In October of 1906 they took all of Friedrich's children by his first wife, except Ernst and Barbara, and traveled with them to Salt Lake City to go to the temple. Ernst was in Germany and Barbara (Babette) was married to a non-Mormon at the time. There, on October 6, all of the children, including the three who died as babies, were sealed to their parents. Christine stood proxy for Friedrich's first wife, Anna Maria Bauer. Chris, the youngest son in the first marriage, was 20, and went through the temple for the first time on the same day. Barbara, Anna's oldest daughter, was sealed to them in 1955. Ernst was sealed in 1983.

            Ten years later the two Walz sisters, Christina Magdalena and Christine Gertraude, traveled with the Brenners to the Logan Temple. There, on Thursday, June 29, 1916, they were sealed to their parents. Their brother, Johann Conrad and the twin sisters, Philipina and Barbara, who died as babies, were sealed, too. Mary Brenner, Christina Magdalena's daughter, stood proxy for their mother.

           Christine was once struck by a lightning bolt. It came down a tree and jumped over to her. It affected her speech and burned her, but she recovered. Years later, in 1944, her son, John Buchmiller, was also struck by a lightning bolt. He carried the burn mark on his head for the rest of his life.

            When her daughter Emma had twins in 1916, Christine went to the Steiner farm home to help. The light gray brick home had just been built. Christine was not familiar with the floor plan and she mistook a doorway. Down to the cellar she fell. Even though she was hurt she refused to go home, as she knew her help was needed where she was.

            Karl was married in 1916 to Genevieve Cardon, "Gen," as she was called, remembered the many happy times she spent visiting with "Grandma Klingler." The younger woman was lonesome with Karl at work and without her own relatives nearby. She liked to listen to Christine reminisce about the past. She also loved the delicious soup that was often served for supper. Sometimes Karl and Gen were invited to stay and share it. When Gen was called to be the ward Primary president, Grandma Klingler offered to take care of their baby, Cardon.  Cardon was a "fussy" baby and his Grandma would sing to him.

            Christine always maintained she couldn't sing but she did sing and hum an old German tune to her children and grandchildren as she rocked them to sleep. Gen learned the song and sang it to her other children. Christine loved the old German sayings such as "Tomorrow, tomorrow, not today. All the lazy folks say." When her grandchildren were small she would hold them and say a rhyming fingerplay in German. The English goes something like this: "Batcha, batcha, cookies baker has made. Eggs and salt, sugar and meal. Saffron makes the cookies yellow."

            Christine tried to learn as much as she could, Gen recalled. When the Church started having annual Leadership Week at Ricks College, Christine attended. She was pleased that Gen was taking care of her son, Cardon, in a "new way" that each had learned in different places. He was in short clothes, was fed only every four hours, and Gen had learned a new way for putting on diapers.