by Joe Reinschmidt
Steve Z. was just the beginning of foster care children. Many more were to make their home here for at least a while over the next 20 years. By and large, they were not bad children, rather just victims of poor family circumstances fueled by the Depression. Sam S. was about 12 and the oldest child in his family which was struggling to survive because of a father who did little to provide for them. Sam felt it was his duty to help his mother and siblings so he stole groceries for them and was caught doing it. Social Services visited the home, learned of the situation and Sam along with his brother, Mauro, were placed in my parents’ care.
Although from the city they took to the farm like ducks to water, learning what it was like to care for animals, till the soil, plant and harvest food, and enjoy a stable family life. After they were here a while they dared to make a request. It went something like: “Mrs. Reinschmidt, we love your German cooking but we do miss our mother’s Italian food.”
And so it was that the Reinschmidts started eating spaghetti and meatballs, pasta wa zool (Anna’s terminology), dandelion leaf and burdock stalks.
Everyone had to pitch in and help with the farm and household chores. Discipline was administered as required but never extreme. At that time there was no indoor plumbing in the house. Heat was provided from a wood burning stove in the dining room and a cook stove in the kitchen. The rooms the children slept in upstairs had no heat or electricity. It would never be considered acceptable as a foster home today, but the social workers then literally begged Joe and Anna to take more kids. They did, and by the time the last one left in 1954 there had been 30 or more with us for varying periods of time. Sometimes there were three or four here at once.
There are other stories and events related to those children but that will have to wait for another time. The bonds that were created lingered long after they left. Joe and Anna were often asked to join some of their family events, such as the occasion of Mauro’s daughter’s wedding in 1973 where this picture was taken. Joe had died in 1970 but Anna was invited, and went. She was 71 at the time.
