I was born Diane Eileen Lindemann on March 24, 1948 to Loren and Eileen (Nieman) Lindemann. My Mom tells me that she and Dad drove around Mounds Park Hospital in St. Paul for most of that day thinking I was about to arrive. I waited for them to drive all the way back to our home in Old Cottage Grove and start dinner before I was ready to make my entrance. The trip back to St. Paul was a bit faster they tell me than the ride home had been.

In 1954 we became a family of 5 when my younger brother Daniel arrived. David, the first born child came in 1945 when my Dad was still in the service at the end of WWII. We lived in an upstairs apartment above my Grandparents until we needed more room. My parents purchased a farmhouse just outside of Cottage Grove that needed to be moved to our new lot about 5 doors down from Grandma and Grandpa. What a day that was!!! David and I attended a two-room country schoolhouse three doors up from my Grandparents that just happened to be on the road that our house would travel on. As the whole school watched our new home move by ever so slowly, we became the playground celebrities.

I loved school and learning. I was a good student because I worked hard at it not because I was so smart. Our country school had two teachers and a custodian. Mrs. Black taught the “little room” which housed grades 1, 2 and 3. The “big room” had Mrs. Jensen for grades 4, 5 and 6. Each room had a unheated coat room with hooks for our outer wear and a shelf for our lunches. When winter set in, the lunches came inside on a shelf behind the furnace. We also had a large crock water cooler and a slop bucket under the spigot – no running water. We used the water from the crock in a dry sink to wash our hands. The chemical toilets were attached on the back of the building – also no heat in them or the hallway to get there. We dressed warm in the winter believe me. For recess we could bring our sleds, cardboard or whatever else we had to use on the hill behind the school for sliding. Of course we always made sure we were at the bottom of the hill when the whistle blew calling us back inside.

Attached to the front of the schoolhouse was the bell tower which also served as a storage room for textbooks, art supplies and other necessities like paste! We loved it when we were assigned to the storage room for our reading group. We ate more paste than we did read our books, however.

Each classroom also had a five shelf book stand in the back called the Library. I know that over the six years I spent in that school I read every one of the library books in each room at least 3 times if not more. I loved to read then and still do today.

The playground consisted of a large metal slide, a set of what we called monkey bars, set of swings, and a wooden and metal merry-go-round. All four of which could have killed anyone of us at any time, especially the way we used them. We’d save the wax paper from our lunches and rub it on the slide to make us go faster. We’d twirl around until we were dizzy and then jump off the bars. One boy promised us he could fly when he jumped off the highest bar and knocked himself out when he hit the ground. The merry-go-round was a special treat when the big boys would lay underneath and use their strong legs against the braces to push us ever so fast. The swings were a special challenge to try to make them go up and over the top with someone hanging on for dear life. We had a few bumps and bruises but I never remember anyone really getting hurt bad. Well maybe Lyle when he “flew” off the monkey bars.

Grade School holds many fond memories for me. I knew I wanted to be a teacher at a very young age. Students and teachers alike, we all knew each other very well. I was in grade 6 when the “little room” teacher was ill for several weeks with no sub to be found. I and another classmate were asked to cover the lessons for grades 1 – 3 on alternate days so that we would not get behind on our own work. What a thrill to be actually teaching real students not just my dolls and stuffed animals at home. I knew the material well as I had already sat through 3 years of the lessons myself. That was the beginning of my teaching career. The values of and the lessons learned in that tiny two-room schoolhouse were instrumental in shaping the person I am today.

My parents taught us through modeling the importance of a good work ethic. If you said you were going to do something then you better by God do it. “If you can run around until all hours of the night on Saturday, then you better be able to get up Sunday morning and go to church,” were some of my Dad’s favorite words. We grew up with a lot of “If yous” but my parents lived by them just the same as they expected us to.

I came by leadership naturally. My father played a dedicated role of leader in our church and in our community as long as I can remember. Both of my parents gave their all to any organization or group that they were a part of. My dad was a founding father of the East Cottage Grove Volunteer Fire Department after a neighbor’s barn burned to the ground. He played a significant role in the building of the church building we still use today. Mom was a leader in the women’s group through church and the mother’s club through the school – they were both made up of the same women give or take a few. Family, faith and friends have been an important part of my life from the beginning – those three things make a solid foundation on which to build a life. I thank my parents for that lesson.

Thoughts On My Growing Up Days

Midnight Marauder in the Neck

Diane Interviews Book Illustrator Margarita Sikorskaia