Locals in the limelight; Alice Schmierer

Alice Schmierer comes from generations of farm families. We met in her spacious, lovely home in town which she and her husband built after they retired off the farm. You ring the doorbell and one of 25 songs happily chimes in the background. It is warm and inviting, full of cherished collectibles, quilts she has made and huge houseplants that show what an amazing green thumb she has. Her caretaker, Velma Provost tended to her lovingly, helping her out with anything she needed during the interview. With the exception of using a walker (she has taken a couple bad falls), you would never know this spunky lady is going to be 90 on April 8th, 2014.

Alice's parents were Conrad and Lena Stroh whom she described as gentle people. Alice had a brother, Lawrence, who was in the Navy and two sisters, Edna Peters and Martha Hart, who is still living in Spokane. The family was raised on the original homestead south of Hopp Road in Odessa. Her grandparents, Con & Anna Marie Stroh had landed there after her grandfather had saved enough money working in the Seattle shipyards. On the way to their home was a pretty steep hill that proved to be a challenge for their Model A Ford. The family would all lean forward as they sped up in second gear to approach the hill. The family would cheer as the car made it to the top. Alice described it as a happy home…complete with a big garden, chickens and pigs. Although the house is vacant and boarded up, Alice still visits the site and tells me that the most beautiful lilacs and yellow roses still bloom there.

The family's social life centered around the Lutheran church activities such as Sunday school, the annual church picnic and the Christmas program. Butchering day was an all day and night event where friends and family would gather to make sausage. Alice remembers getting on the school bus at 7:30 a.m. and her bus driver was Henry Derr. Her best friend was Marie Schorzman. They would often walk to town together. In the summer of 1942, Alice passed her senior life-saving test. As if the treading water for long periods of time and swimming many laps of different strokes weren't enough, they had to retrieve a sprocket (off of a combine) from the bottom of the pool and swim to the edge with it. She did it, and always loved swimming and summer water activities with her family. Originally, her husband, Al, was going to put in a pool for her at the residence she lives in now, until Alice had a vivid dream that their grandson, Bret, had a near drowning incident. That put an end to the pool idea, Alice told me.

When Alice was 16, she officially met Al, six years older than she, while roller skating in town at Joe Schafer's place. She would see him once a year at the Christmas program and told me she always had her eye on him. While skating, Al decided to show off for Alice with one foot on the floor and one on the wall. She was impressed, and let him walk her to her Grandmother's house. She told me it was a great relationship. They would go dancing in Marlin and Wilson Creek with Stan Wraspir's band providing the entertainment. Al was a great dancer. They married in the old Lutheran church (where the high school gym now sits), in 1942.

Al and Alice lived in the homestead house of Al's family 15 miles north of Odessa. They originally lived upstairs and had no electricity. They had a black cook stove that she had difficulty getting to light. Al would get the stove ready for her early in the morning and go to work until dark. He would take his lunch. Meat sandwiches with jelly on them were his favorite. They did not have a hired man yet and he would be gone from sunup to sundown. Alice said those were long days, she would play the battery operated radio for comfort.

During those idyllic years on the farm, Alice had lots of cats and chickens. Oh my goodness, she loves chickens, she has lots of them displayed on her wall and in her hutches. She sang to her chickens, she learned to chop their heads off and clean them. She would cook three at a time, she was eventually feeding a crew of 11 guys who were helping out at the farm. Henry the rooster was her favorite. He would jump on her foot every time she came out to the coop. "Did ya butcher him?" I asked. "Oh no," Alice told me. She was so fond of him, she had him stuffed after he died and he permanently resides in her basement. Although she has never been much of a dog lover, her grandson, Bret, had a miniature pinscher named Addy that Alice became very attached too. When Addy died, they waited three days to call Alice because they knew how upset she was going to be.

The Schmierers had a huge, irrigated garden out at the farm and have always loved gardening. They grew red potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, peas, onions and radishes which Al loved. They owned one of the first televisions in town. I'll bet that made you popular, I laughed. Not really, when you live that far out in the country, she said. Al wanted Alice to work outside the home, but Alice decided early on that she had more important things to do. For fourteen years of their marriage, they had several school children who needed a home living with them. She spent her time raising her kids, tending to their extensive garden, helping on the ranch, doing multiple stints of jury duty (at least six or seven she remembers), serving as a homeroom mother for her daughter's class, going on Rider's club rides with her favorite albino horse Whitey, and teaching the Bible for six years after a two-year extensive training course on the Old and New Testament. She usually delivers a piece at the Christmas program each year, a memorized passage of scripture. One of the funny things she learned early on, is that if she volunteered to "help" with something, she quickly became a committee of one, in charge of the whole thing.

Their first born daughter Michal (named after King David's wife), goes by Mickie and was a breach birth. She describes her daughter as always being a pretty little girl, a good girl, who learned to walk and talk at an early age. She is married to Lee Fichtner. Her son Bob followed and she described him as a challenge, somewhat ornery especially to his brother and sister. He was an accomplished football player in high school. As an adult, Alice described him as the most sensitive, and that he and his brother, Gary, are very hard workers. "Lots of tractor time," she said. Bob married Donna Wolff. Al was insistent they have a third child. Alice couldn't understand it because they already had a boy and a girl. Their son Gary was born about a year and a half later. "He was a true blessing and such a happy child," Alice said. "Such a genuinely nice man," I said. Gary married Terri Haase. Alice adores her daughters- and sons-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Everyone pitches in for harvest, butchering and working cows. Al would insist the family go on vacation each year. The family loved boating out at Pacific Lake, where her husband taught many kids to ski. They also frequented Twin Lakes and Curlew Lake. Many of these activities remain a tradition in the Schmierer family to this day. The clan also gathers at Alice's home during Deutsches fest where all of the traditional German foods are homemade by the family.

We talked a lot about Al, her husband of 64 years before his passing in 2002. He loved his family and she spoke of his generosity and bigger than life presence. After he died, she received about 200 sympathy cards. In all but four of them, people mentioned how they would never forget his laugh. Al had a candy drawer; he loved chocolate and would eat three Hershey bars at a time. Alice never touched them, she doesn't care for chocolate but laughed and told me she has baked "thousands of chocolate chip cookies."

She is known for her baking, which she learned from her mother-in-law, Bertha Schmierer, whom she says was always so kind to her. Even as a youngster, her favorite toy was a little, toy stove with a frying pan and a fish that went in the pan. I could hardly believe this. In fact, I asked her two or three times to be sure, but she told me that she baked an entire pie for Al almost every day of their 64-year marriage. She explained that it only took her about 20 minutes a day because Al always had the mixture for the crust prepared ahead for her. She might have a piece or two, but he ate a pie every day!! Did he have a favorite? "Hot or cold," she laughed, explaining that he loved them all. He started in the morning and that was his breakfast and then he would finish it off by the end of the day.

Ironically, Alice has survived two life-threatening illnesses during her lifetime, but Al "never got sick" she told me. In fact, he attended school for nine years with perfect attendance. When he developed kidney cancer, Alice told me it was awful and the progression was very quick. He passed away within a year. After his death, she spoke of her core group of girlfriends, the "awesome foursome," which consisted of Betty Smith, Joyce Praetorius, Ruth Kruckenberg and herself. They would go to senior lunches together, go to the show, and take road trips together. I asked her who drove, she smiled and said "I was the driver, we usually took my car." She misses her friends and said how much it helped her cope with his death.

Sewing is a huge part of Alice's life. She made her daughter's dresses all through school and college. She then began quilting and has an extensive studio set up adjacent to her kitchen with fabrics and thread galore. I looked at her older model Singer, just imagining all of the beautiful quilts that it has produced. She laughed and told me that people tease her because she still actually darns her socks. Her colored glass bottle collection is striking. I asked her if some of them were purchased. "I found every one of them," she said. Over the years out at the farms, she has collected beautiful glassware in multiple colors, all grouped together by color. And of course, her chicken collection is amazing, "chickens everywhere," as Alice explained it.

Aerial photos of the family homesteads adorn the walls of her home. With her husband now gone, she has become a presence in her own right in this family unit, a matriarch of a family currently 33 strong. She had made pages of notes for me over the past few days, reflections of her life and things she wanted to remember to tell me. Her neat cursive penmanship began, "I was born at a very early age." Anyone who knows Alice knows that is very in keeping with her wit and sense of humor. Alice can be reflective one moment and absolutely hilarious the next. She is real and down to earth. You don't have to put on pretenses around her. Warm and gracious, she insisted on giving me a big hug when I left. I wanted to take her notebook with me which took some prodding. "I'm not finished with my story," she told me. I realized that was a metaphor for her life and a lesson we all need to take with us.