Donald Lee Helle 15th generation

             By Marilyn Helle 16th generation

   Dad was a very hard working, fun loving man.  He

owned and operated his sawmill and also farmed,

raising corn and oats.  We always had a couple milk

cows.  We raised chickens and hogs for food.  Even

after we moved to Tiskilwa, Dad was into raising

animals.  Eventually he bought 55 acres outside of

Putnam where he raised cattle and sheep at various

times.

  

Dad loved to tease.  When Kenneth and I were

young, we had a bedtime that Mom was strict about.

Even then I was a little night owl.  On summer nights

I hated being sent to bed while the sun was still up.

I'd creep out of bed over to the window and look out

to see what was going on.  More often than not, if it

was hot, Mom and Dad would be outside.  One time Dad

spotted me.  He strolled out of sight then sneaked

around to the back of the house then let out a blood

curdling howl.  It didn't take long for Kenneth and me

to clear the upstairs and get out to Mom.  Dad was so

tickled it soon became a game.  We never knew when he

would try to scare us but it was often and a way of

staying up a bit longer.

 

Dad hated cats, but we had them on the farm for

rats and mice.  There was one big yellow cat I was

fond of.  Every morning before he went out to do

chores, Dad would get that cat and bring it upstairs

and put it in bed with me.  Later I had to be sure it

got back outside because Mom didn't like animals in

the house.

  

Dad had two passions.  Hunting and ice creams.  He

always had guns and foxhounds and loved to spend the

nights listening to his dog run a fox.  We spent many

a night when I was growing up parked along a dirt road

listening to the dogs run.  In the winter, Dad would

day hunt with an eye on profit.  Any fox he saw, he

shot for the pelt.  At one time I remember he had two

big bundles of fox pelts handing in the haymow.

  

Then there was the ice cream.  He loved it all,

especially fudgesicles and lemon ice cream.  There was

this filling station on the way to Fulton County that

always had lemon ice cream.  Since Dad was born and

raised in Fulton County and most of his family was

still there, we went visiting about every other

weekend when I was little.  Dad made a point of

stopping at that filling station for ice cream cones

all around.  When Mom went for groceries and there was

lemon ice cream she always got it and even if lemon

wasn't available, she'd get some other flaver.  Dad

had to have his ice cream.

                     

                                         Marilynn

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