“A breadth of experience”
Born in 1939 on the family farm in Ward County, David Kraft got a degree in music education with a vocal emphasis. “My mother taught piano. And that kind of got me started. And I had a couple of music teachers in school that were influential.”
David taught music from kindergarten through grade 12 at several schools then quit teaching in 1968. “Well, then I worked for IDS as a financial planner for about a year. I also sold liquid fertilizer. Then I went into a retail business here in Ryder I inherited from my uncle. Kraft’s Variety Store. I was in there for about three years, and then I bought out the grocery store and combined the two [into] Kraft’s Grocery. I was in business for 14 years between the two places. Between the two places, we only missed one day. We were open seven days a week.
“When I first started [in business] we did pretty well. But as the years went on, it was getting to the point where business wasn’t that good anymore, and I started checking, going up and down the listing of people. And there were about 50 percent less people in our trade area as when I started.”
So David had an auction and went back to teaching. He returned to Ryder and farming around 2000. Besides serving on assorted boards and committees, David sings at weddings and funerals. “Now I just do volunteer work. Oh, I work with the church, St. John’s Lutheran, when the need arises, preach.”
David volunteers as a cook, “I cook breakfast [at the senior center] six days a week. I’m usually there shortly after six. We have sausage links or patties; we have pancakes, eggs, toast. Two days a week we have biscuits and gravy. Most of the people [are] gone by eight o’clock.”
David and his wife, Lyla, have four children, six grandchildren, and one stepgrandchild. If his grandchildren feel a need for advice, David says he would “tell them to have faith in God, and to put their hands in His.”
David Kraft, Interview Aug. 19, 2014, County: Ward, City: Ryder
“You decide what kinda day you’re gonna have”
Born in 1947, Lynn Krueger grew up on family farm near Sydney. He attended a rural school. “I went [grades] one through three there. And then a family moved out that had five kids, so that closed the school, so then we went over to Sydney School. With no local high school, Lynn and his classmates attended Jamestown High School. The transition was not easy.
“As we walked in the first day the kids were greeting us with ‘here’s those dumb country kids comin’ to town.’ And they stuck us, all the country kids, down in a hole in the basement for our homeroom. That’s how it was. That’s what we started our day with our friends, our country friends.”
Now a retired teacher, Lynn passes on some wisdom, much he accredits to his father. “I learned how to be a man; learned how to work. The work ethic. The reputation of your name is based on how you grow up. I’ve tried to pass that on to students and definitely my son and get the kids to understand that when you’re in high school, you are working under your parent’s name, but when you get out o’ high school you’re working under your name.
“I had one kid that was just a pain in the butt. I finally said, ‘You’re a sophomore. When you get up in the morning and put your pants on you decide what kinda day you’re gonna have. And it’s nobody else’s fault how your day goes. You can either be a butt, or you can take your day as it comes and enjoy it.’
“I have—I don’t know, 200 and some people on Facebook that I keep tabs on or talk to occasionally, and I’ll bet you 170 some of ’em are students. Just saying ‘Hi, what you doin’? You gonna come visit sometime?’ It’s memories that we have given each other over the years in school.”
Now in his sixth year of retirement, Lynn enjoys living near where he once grew up in rural Sydney. His enjoyment is centered around the quiet rural life and interacting with his four horses and two dogs
Lynn Krueger, Interview Aug. 15, 2017, County: Stutsman, City: Sydney
“We ate lots and lots of pancakes”
Maxine Boots was born in 1928 near Charlson. “I have 11 brothers and sisters. I’m the oldest, so I worked very hard. I was Dad’s helper. Oh, I did a lot of stuff. Harnessed horses, hauled water, cut wood, milked cows, fed the calves, hauled the coal into the house. Oh, yeah. I was out in the field all the time.”
Living in a two-room tarpaper shack, sleeping was “anyplace there was. We had very poor clothing. Mom made shoes I wore when I was out in the field, made by an inner tube out of a tire. Dad would sew the ends shut, cut a hole in the top, and then they would sew the back shut, so my feet didn’t get cut in the field and the mice couldn’t bite me.
“Us kids were tough as heck. We were tough. I mean, never did get sick. Dad never smoked, but he would smoke and blow the smoke in our ear if we had an earache. If you had a toothache, Dad would have a plug of tobacco and put it right on your tooth. The juice would help, yeah. If we got a cold, Ma would put kerosene and rub it on us.
“We ate lots and lots of pancakes. We had a cow or two, so we had cream and milk. We had eggs. We had chokecherry syrup.” Maxine chuckles and insists, “[Now] I don’t eat anything other than pancakes. Yeah, oh yeah, I just love pancakes. Lots of time I will go down to the restaurant with the kids to eat, and I’ll say, ‘I’ll have pancakes.’
“Mom and Dad never fought or said nasty words to one another. And neither one of them drank, and neither one of them smoked [except in case of an earache].”
Maxine has known some tragedy: Her first husband, Calvin Poole, died of a heart attack at age 31. Her brother, Curtis, was killed in Vietnam. Brother Elgin died as result of a tractor accident. Sister Mava died from eating school chalk when she was two years old.
Maxine (Boots) Poole Rogues, Interview June 25, 2012, County: McKenzie, City: Charlson
(Editor’s Note: The following profiles of North Dakota residents were collected by author James Puppe between 2004-2018, covering 617 subjects and 113,000 miles. He has given permission for his book to be serialized in North Dakota Newspapers at no charge. To find out how you can read the entire collection of Dakota Attitude profiles go to dakotaattitude.com.)