My father was born in Germany and came to America when he was three years old with his parents where they settled in Nebraska and South Dakota. For a while they lived in a dugout sod home in the side of the hill until they got a wooden house built.
Then there were seven children in the family, two girls and five boys. Eventually they moved to Colorado and settled in the LaSalle area. Their parents had an 80-acre farm and my father, and two brothers bought adjoining farms. We were “po folks” but us kids didn’t know it.
My mother’s family also from Germany, lived in eastern South Dakota. My mother’s sister got tuberculosis and she was told by their doctor to go to Colorado for a better climate. So, the oldest sister and my mom came to Boulder, Colorado to the TB Sanitarium for a while and then went to the LaSalle area where there were some good German Baptist farmers who they could stay with. Annie, the older sister then fell in love with the oldest Meyer boy Helmut Herman Meyer. They married and had a baby girl, but Annie died in childbirth. So, the younger sister, Martha, stayed with the baby and father to help. They decided to get married, which was customary at that time for a widower to marry a younger sister. Eventually, they had my sister, Dorothy, myself and my beautiful curly haired baby brother, Jerry.
Farming was a struggle, so my dad wanted to do house painting instead, so he rented the farm out and moved us to LaSalle. I was 5 years old then and the depression hit the whole country. No one could afford painters, so we had to move back to the farm. We didn’t have electricity until I was in high school so we “roughed it:”.
I was 9 years old when Jerry was born, so I was “dad’s helper” until Jerry grew older. I loved the fields and the milk cows. I did a lot of field work and milking cows.
Our folks worked for long hard hours. When we had family worship in the evenings my dad would about fall asleep reading the bible. We attended the German Baptist Church in LaSalle. In winter, it was tough driving to church. No car heater and no way to keep the windshield clean. Jerry would sit in front on moms lap and we three girls in the back seat of the “Dort” under lap robes and warm soap stones to keep warm.
With cousins just up the road and around the corner we had good playmates all the time. In hot summers between chores we went swimming in the irrigation ditch and went carp fishing with pitch forks and gunny sacks. Myra had a bike, so we all used it.
When we were older and we girls could drive a car, we did a lot of the town errands and grocery shopping. The folks were too busy.
My sisters, Myra and Dorothy each married a hired man, really boys that worked for my dad.
We kids walked to “Big Bend” school across the fields, and when we got older we rode the school bus from there on to Greeley to go to “College High”.
In 1944, I went by train to my uncles place in Baraboo, Wisconsin and then with them went on to the “National Baptist Convention” in Milwaukee. I was going to return to Colorado after, but my relatives asked me to stay to be with my girl cousin.
My cousin and I got jobs at $100 a week at the Badger Army Ammunitions Plant where they made powder for gun shells and other explosives. It was WWII and everyone was supporting the war effort.
Because of gas rationing, I met my husband to be (Irwin Gaetzke). I loved the outdoors and my cousins wanted to take me to the “big woods” but didn’t want to use their gas rationing stamps so my boy cousin had a friend whose folks owned a gas station and they had extra gas stamps sometimes. This friend, Irwin, was willing to take us to the “big woods” for a picnic and to see their little wood cutters cabin. Irwin wanted to have a date with the “outdoorsy girl from Colorado”, which developed into a whirlwind romance. We met on Memorial Day, were engaged on the 4th of July.
We were married December 20, 1944. Before the wedding, I’d had an accident at the ammunitions plant which crushed my right foot when a buggy cart I was pushing with 700 lbs. of powder in it tipped over. I couldn’t work so I came back to Colorado. Soon after, Irwin followed me here and decided to marry. My cast was to come off two days before the wedding, but the x-ray showed it hadn’t healed yet. So… guess what? We got married with a cast on my foot and up my leg, at the pastor’s parsonage. We then went back to my folks and got out our suitcases to go on our honeymoon over to Golden. Mom had vegetable soup cooking and that was our wedding dinner. We borrowed my folks’ car and had car trouble when we drove up on Berthoud Pass.
We moved to Wisconsin to Irwin’s folks farm and lived in a trailer in their front yard. Our oldest son, Dan, was born there. Soon we bought a small farm a couple miles away so Irwin could still help his dad.
In 1949, we decided to sell and move to Colorado, so we bought a yellow Jeep pickup and small house trailer and pulled that 1000 miles to Colorado. Our second son, Tim, was born in Greeley in 1950.
Irwin got a job with the Colorado State Highway Department causing us to move to Nederland. Our boys attended all twelve grades there. As a family we did a lot of camping, hunting and fishing and had many wonderful times. I shot the largest buck and the first elk in the family. I loved fishing and when Irwin was at work and the boys at school, I would go fishing by myself and leave a note for them to come join me when they were done.
I have loved art work all my life and did some pencil drawings, chalk and oil painting. I always thought everyone had artistic ability because it was so easy for me. We started into painting on cut pieces of deer and elk antler which became very successful. Irwin cut and polished and I painted. We sold at fairs, craft shows, gift shops, trappers’ rendezvous, Buffalo Association meetings, and to anyone who came to the door.
When Irwin passed away that ended my art life and I thought my life to, but with God, my family and friends, I went on. I sold the Nederland home, moved to Fort Collins for a while, then to Longmont……
And now to Heaven.
Charlotte June Gaetzke of Longmont, Colorado passed away on February 15, 2019. She was 95 years old. Charlotte was born at home in LaSalle, Colorado to Martha (Stangohr) Meyer and Helmut Herman Meyer. She was united in marriage to Irwin Ronald Gaetzke on December 20, 1944 in LaSalle, Colorado.
She loved God, her family and friends. She enjoyed fishing, camping, hunting and was an accomplished artist whose work has crossed the oceans. She was preceded in death by her parents (Martha and Helmut Meyer), her husband (Irwin Gaetzke), her son Daniel Kent Gaetzke, and her sisters, Myra Krieger and Dorothy Oster. She is survived by her brother Jerry Meyer, her son Timothy Gaetzke and wife Karen, three grandchildren Travis Gaetzke and wife Shawn, Kristi (Gaetzke) Davis and husband Chris, and Kari (Gaetzke) Pollock and husband Eric, and four great-grandchildren, Abigail Pollock, Grant Pollock, Bradley Davis and Allison Davis.
Viewing for friends and family will be Thursday evening, February 21st from 4:00pm to 7:00pm and the funeral service Friday morning, February 22nd at 10:00am both will be held at Howe Mortuary in Longmont, Colorado. Internment will follow at 2:00pm at Crist/Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. Please visit howemortuary.com to read a full obituary and to share condolences.
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