West Bend, WI – Joan Steffes grew up in a family with nine kids. In the 1940s during WWII life on the farm in Gays Mills, Wi, just east of the Mississippi River, was very meager. Christmas was celebrated but little was expected in terms of gifts. The younger kids wished for books and maybe a doll, but the family enjoyed simpler things like the return of older kids from the service and the togetherness of a warm home.
Born on the farm in 1933 in Gays Mills, Wi to Monroe and Elsie Johnson, Joan was No. 8 of nine children.
The older kids had gone off to service or worked on neighboring farms. Joan and her younger sister Jean anticipated the Christmas holiday but knew with money tied to necessities, little would be available for gifts.
The Johnson kids slept three to a bedroom. The rooms were only big enough to hold a double bed and chest of drawers.
“The bedrooms were tiny, but the living room and kitchen were bigger,” said Joan. “We used to say that my brothers and sisters went into the service so they could have a bed of their own.”
In the mid 1940’s during WWII sisters Harriet and Marian, who served in the Navy, came home for Christmas.
“My two older sisters were in the WAVES, that’s the Navy, and they came home for Christmas. I remember on Christmas Eve it was early, but we had to go to bed, my younger sister and me. We were probably 5 or something like that and we were very excited about Christmas not knowing what we would get, which was never that much; books and maybe a doll, but we were looking forward to dolls.
“It was time to go to bed and we had to go to the toilet, the outdoor toilet. We ran down there, and it was winter and while we were in the toilet we heard bells ringing. We had never heard the Jingle Bell sound, and we thought Santa must be coming, he must be there. So, we hurried up and ran back to the house, but Santa had already been there, and he left us each a doll and a couple of books.
“My doll was very little and my sister, who was younger, grabbed the first doll because it was bigger. My mother made a new dress for it which she wears now; the doll is sitting on my bedroom dresser.
“We were excited about it and that was all we got for that Christmas because maybe it was a little expensive. The next day, we got up went outside and had our picture made with the dolls and the weather was probably in the’ 60s and so we stood up there with our dresses on no coats and showed off our dolls for the picture.
“I still have my doll that I got. We played with it so much the dresses wore out. My mother managed to make this one and I think the hat is original and we played a lot with our dolls had tea parties and so on and we were delighted to get just almost nothing for Christmas compared to now; but it was the way we lived and how we grew up.”
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