One day we were waiting for our rooms to be checked by Mary, the house mother. We had cleaned them and straightened them up. This is something that we did every day. I shared a room with Sue G. and Judy B.. I Couldn't have had better room mates. If I only knew that Sue B. forgot to pick up something under her bed! It was probably just a sock or something! But Mary had to have everything perfect! She had a very large institutional size metal cooking spoon in her hand, and grabbed Sue B., hitting her with the spoon. She hit her very hard, over and over. I couldn't watch it, so I took the spoon away from Mary; but not before she had a chance to hit me over and over with it. She said that she was going to send me to Oregon. That was a reform school for girls in Oregon, WI. I knew a girl (Marie) that she sent there. I had heard that Marie died in a fire at the reform school. She had been in lockup. I knew that I had to do something very soon to get Mary in trouble with Mr. D. (Mary's Supervisor). Otherwise I would for sure go to Oregon. I snuck out, and ran to Mr. Ds' house. I ran, hiding behind bushes and trees, heading down the long driveway, taking a left turn to another long driveway, and ran up to the house, knocking franticly on the front door! I was able to talk to him, but I knew that he would have to talk to the other girls to be sure if I was telling the truth. I just hoped that they would tell him what they knew. Otherwise I would be sent to Oregon. To be continued...

I got to know all the girls, and the house parents, and all the rules. I got used to going to school every day, and to all the activities. I was in the band at school, so I was allowed to go to all the football games. After school, we had activities at the home also. I learned to make a lamp in woodworking. Sometimes we went on trips. We went to Devil's Lake, the Cave of the Mounds, horseback riding, and swimming. We also went to Camp Knuteson, in Northern Minnesota. We liked it so well that we begged the house parents to let us stay extra long. We spent much of the summer there. I loved it. We learned how to water ski; that is, until I broke my foot. I was running down the stairs to the beach one evening, on my way to go fishing with some boys. To make it even worse, the wrong boy carried me back to camp. I had to wear a cast for the rest of the summer, and part of the school year. It totally ruined it for me to try out for the Norwegian Dancers at school. It also was not easy for me to march in the parade with the band. Marching in the half times wasn't so easy either. I also remember trying to dance at the Homecoming Dance, and it was kind of clumsy! I went to the dance with Daisy's son. He played on the football team, and used to give me rides home from school because of activities or football games. To be continued...

I thought the rules were strict in Sparta; but at Martin Luther Children's Home, they were stricter. There weren't as many kids, but we were much more restricted. We caught the bus at the end of the driveway to go to school. We could only wear skirts or dresses that came down below the knee. We couldn't wear anything tight. We had to have short hair, above our shoulders. We couldn't wear much makeup. Before leaving to catch the bus, we had to pass inspection. It seemed that we were always getting demerits for every little thing. Then we had to work them off doing stuff like mopping whole floors; and sometimes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors, even. Sometimes we worked them off digging garbage pits, or doing dishes. Some demerits got us even more restricted for a certain length of time. The school was in a little town. Actually, I liked going to school better than being in the Children’s Home. I didn’t even mind staying after; except for the punishment that I would get for it when someone from the Home would have to pick me up. Mary and Carl were the House Parents weekdays; and Daisy was the House Parent on weekends. There was a Sub House Parent, but I forgot her name. Daisy was very nice. The kids got away with a lot of things when Daisy was there, though. I almost got strangled. I was starting to pass out, when Daisy stopped this one girl from strangling me. I think it was more dangerous for me there than at Sparta. It was like survival of the fittest. When someone threatened another, many times it was on the way down that long driveway to catch the school bus, that they would be beat up.

That first day seemed to take forever to get to our destination. It was like we were suspended in time. It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere. Finally we were driving toward a group of large buildings that were set back aways from the road. We turned onto a very long driveway that seemed like a road itself. It was lined with trees on either side. We drove past some buildings that looked like school buildings. Then, to the left, there was a much larger building, and I recognized it as the Boys Cottage. On the right was the Girls Cottage. There was a parking lot, and a lawn between the two cottages. These buildings were quite large, with three floors each. I had already been inside the Boys Cottage, and the building with the Gym in it. That was when I went to visit Ralph, when I was living in Wauwatosa. I got out of the car, and followed the Social worker to the first floor, and met the house parents, Mary and Carl. They seemed nice. They looked like maybe in their late forties or early fifties. They looked like they were no nonsense, straight laced people. I already felt like, maybe I had to be on my toes. Mary led us up the stairs to a large room with three single beds in it. It was a nice room with windows that looked out the front of the building. The walls and floors were solid marble. The halls were wide, like in a school. Down the hall was a large bathroom that looked like a school bathroom; except there was a room off of it without a door for privacy, and at least one bathtub in it. I noticed that there were several bedrooms on that floor. Some of them had more beds in than others. I had to get all my clothes and bring them upstairs, and put them away. That was after the house parents took them, and decided what I could have. My clarinet was locked up. I would be allowed to have it with permission; but it would be locked up when I wasn't using it. The Social Worker left, and I was shown around the building by some of the girls. To be continued...

I was getting used to Sparta, and I never could stay any place long enough to get used to it. It was just time to move on. It wasn't that I didn't like the place, but I think that I was getting "cabin fever". I didn't feel lonely there. There were lots of people that I was friends with. Things were going well for me. I just felt like it was time to move on. The first thing I did was get an appointment with my Social Worker. I told her the reason that I was sent there. She didn't seem to believe me. Somehow she was believing my mother's story about me being a juvenile delinquent, and uncontrollable. I knew that it was probably not going to work, but I gave it a try, to tell her about how I first got into the Welfare system when I was five going on six years old. I told her how a certain Social Worker, Miss B. took my two brothers and I away from my mother because she was an unfit mother, and how Robert was adopted out, and Ralph and I were put in a foster home. Well, it worked; and I was soon getting ready to move. I said goodbye to all my friends, and was leaving with my Social Worker for my new home in Stoughton, Wisconsin.