Erika Anderson, researcher and author.

Born on June 17, 1899, on a ranch near Deers Ears South Dakota, Oscar Vansickel has seen his share of life. His 98 years have proven tough as well as rewarding. As the youngest son of Charlie and Annie Reber, he followed Rolland (Rip), Roy, and Ethel. Oscar has a century's worth of words, wisdom, and experieces to share.

When Oscar was about 4, Annie moved the family from the ranch at Deers Ears to Sturgis so the children could attend school. Charlie didn't like the idea of leaving the ranch and stayed. Soon after, they divorced. In 1908, as head of the family, Annie filed on a 160 acre claim that a soldier had relinquished. In 1909 Annie married James (Red) Hale. Annie and Red had one son together, Jimmy.

Even at an early age Oscar knew the meaning of hard work. When he was 10, his stepfather, Red, told him to take the team and buggy to Phillip and pick up a man's wife and daughter. This 150 mile round trip took Oscar about 4 days. Things went pretty smoothly until he got to Phillip. ``While we was there it rained, and rained, and rained. The water run down the streets in Phillip and the Cheyenne River came up and we couldn`t get home. Course we didn`t have no telephone, ya know. When we came back across (the Cheyenne River) we had to put the buggy on a row boat and lead the horses behind. And that`s how we got back across the river.``

Although Oscar only went to school through the eighth grade, he has a keen mind and a sharp understanding of how things ``autta be``. He attended school 3 months in the fall and 3 months in the spring. ``We never had the chance to go any further. We was lucky that we got through the 8th grade and that took me two years.``

Oscar continued to work on the ranch after he finished his schooling. In 1917, just after the United States had entered World War I, Oscar`s brother Roy, had to sign up for the draft because he was of age. Roy was rejected because he was too light weight for his height. After discussing the situation, Oscar and Roy left for Minneapolis to enlist in the cavalry. ``When we went to Minneapolis, we was in the bar talking to another young fella there and he said, `Well I`m going to go for the Navy` and I (Oscar) said, `Well hell, I guess I`ll go to the Navy too.``` Oscar and this new found friend, went to the Great Lakes together for 6 weeks of boot camp. By the age of 18, Oscar was on a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia, beginning his service. His duty on the USS Vermont was transporting soldiers to Brest, France, crossing the Panama Canel several times. Oscar was gone for only nineteen months, ``It was a pretty quick trip. It didn`t take long to straighten out the world then.`` Oscar explains that the conditions he was exposed to were not that of the stereotypical war. ``[Our conditions were]. . . good. We know`d where we was gonna sleep every night and where we was gonna eat every day. When you was in the Army, ya know, lot of times they didn`t even have no place to sleep.``

When the war was over, Oscar came home and went to work for his brother Rip. It was while he was working for Rip he met Juanita Lehman. ``She was looking after her dad`s cattle and I was herding my brother`s sheep.`` Of course they met on horseback-- just like everyone else in those days.

Juanita is the fourth child of Edward and Lillie Lehman. She joined Blanche, Paul, Esther, Grace, and Howard. Grace, however, died at an early age. Edward came to this country from Germany when he was 17 as a stow-away on a ship. With only a knapsack and a strong desire, he made his way to Morris, Minnesota.

Oscar and Juanita and Juanita`s sister Blanche and Carlos Fees were married in a double ceremony on June 1, 1922. As a wedding present from Juanita`s father they were given their choice of a cow. They later broke (trained) this beef cow to stand still and permit Juanita to milk her. ``We just kept getting another cow now and then and a few more horses and that`s how we started.``

Soon after Oscar and Juanita were married, Oscar moved them to the Frank Howell place. Though they lived there only a few years, they spent those years in ``. . . a big sod house`` as Oscar explains. ``Forty foot by forty foot square and all one room. Later we added a partition so we had two bedrooms and a living area, ya know. It was a good one [house].``

On October 16, 1922, Charles Vansickel was born. Since doctors and hospitals were virtually unheard of, Mrs. Peck, a mid-wife, came in to help. ``She was the nearest they got to a doctor`` Juanita explains. Oscar, Juanita, and Charles lived in that big sod house for about three years. Oscar then moved the family to the Ab Reber place.

``My uncle, Ab, had a ranch about four miles east of where we had lived during the first World War. He built a barn and sheds and mortgaged the place. He told me if I could pay off that mortgage, I could live there. And that`s where we continued to live.``

Their second son, Norman Ray Vansickel, was born on March 19, 1927. According to Juanita, ``There wasn`t much to it, they was just born.`` Raising a family in the 1920`s was not easy. Juanita commented, ``I don`t know as if they [the children] were raised, they just grew up.`` Oscar and Juanita had plenty to worry about with the work and all. Social issues were not something of great concern to either of them. ``We`re just not too worried about politics. We always had more important things to think about.``

``A couple years after we got married, a guy wanted some land broke so I used four horses and a single bottom plow to break these 50 acres. He said if I would get that done for him he`d give me an old Ford Model T. We was about a month. That fella was wanting to get that done, but we could only do so much a day, ya know.``

Oscar kept busy with a general cattle herd of 500 head and around 4000 sheep. Work was, of course, much more manual then than it is now. Hay was fed by hand. Herding was done on horses. Land was not plentiful. Because times were tough and money was short, Juanita did many odd jobs for extra money. In the children`s younger years, Juanita delivered mail on horseback with a pack horse. ``It was a dirty job.`` Juanita remembers. ``The mail bags were very heavy and dirt covered everything.`` Three days a week a typical run would include about a 50 mile trip. Juanita also collected dead wool off the fence and sold it to buy herself a set of sterling silverware. She trapped and skinned skunks for extra money too. With enough saved, she bought an eight piece set of Rosanne China, made in New York.

Life on the ranch posed many different challenges as well. As is today, the coyotes caused problems for many sheep ranchers. ``Very seldom we went to town when mother was driving and he (Oscar) had the shotgun out the passenger side.`` Norman remembers, ``I don`t think we ever had a car that didn`t have a broken window on the passenger side. He never rolled it clear down and when that shotgun would go off it would crack that window every time. I was usually in the back seat and had my feet on both sides braced handing him shotgun shells.`` Juanita admits, ``My folks said we`d demolish ourselves but we didn`t. We killed many a coyote that way. We demolished the coyote population, I`ll tell ya.`` Some might say you have never taken a wild ride until you`ve ridden with Juanita. It may be one of the wildest rides you`ve ever seen. ``I don`t think she ever did learn to drive.`` Norman comments.

In 1949 Juanita began keeping a daily diary. A former hired hand working for Oscar during the blizzard of `49 said to Juanita, ``Why don`t you put this down and kept track so we can see in later years just how bad it was.`` She recorded everything from the temperature to the company who stopped that day for coffee. In one instance, the diaries proved more helpful than anyone thought possible. A man came and wanted to know if Oscar`s cattle had been bangs vaccinated before they were moved into another county. Oscar couldn`t find his papers but Juanita looked back in the diaries and found it. The diary entry included information such as, hired men there for the day, the dinner prepared, and that they had in fact, bangs vaccinated. This inspector said, ``Let me see that (the diary).`` After looking at it the inspector told them that what he had seen would stand up in a court of law.

Oscar dealt with many obstacles in life. In 1947, Oscar was digging post holes when he got his glove caught on a power take off shaft (PTO). Norman recalls the day, ``I remember it very plainly. He (Oscar) was wearing a pair of chopper mittens and this post-hole digger was on behind a Ford tractor. Charles was running the tractor and when you stop the tractor, this PTO shaft usually dropped and then it would go to spinning. So that`s what he had done. He reached in there but he took ahold of it instead of just hitting it with an open hand. Well about that time Charles started the PTO an it took this mitten and thumb and away it flew.``

In 1955, Oscar was oiling belts on a silage cutter when he got his arm caught. ``I had broke my arm in two places before I got it pulled out of there. I got in the pickup and started driving home and I met this guy I was working with. He was coming back from unloading the silage. I got in with him, course I was bleeding all over ya know. I said, `Maybe you autta drive this thing home.` But when he got in and saw me, he killed the pickup. I thought I was gonna have to drive myself home.`` Juanita interjected, ``But I come to the rescue. I happen to drive up about that time and took him to Sturgis to the doctor.`` Dr. Griddly told him he would never use his arm again. I guess he didn`t know Oscar very well when he said that. Oscar had his arm wired back together and wore a cast or had his arm in a sling for nearly two years. At one point the cast got to smelling so badly he had to go back to the doctor. Juanita remembers, ``We had stopped at his brothers and he said, `For heavens sake, get to the doctor with that.` It was even dripping out of the cast. It sure was a mess and it did smell.``

Oscar and Juanita didn`t have many luxuries like we have today. They could have had radios, televisions, or even telephones, but they had to wait for electricity to be brought to them which did not become available until 1951.

Like their parents, Charles and Norman, grew up working hard. Norman entered the Army and served during World War II. Charles married Hazel Short in 1947. Together they had 5 children, Judy, Janet, Chuck, Marie, and Merle. Norman married Margaret (McGee) Schuelke on March 22, 1947. They had 4 children, Bill, Dick, Carmen, and Nina. Recently, Norman and McGee celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Juanita remembers the first time that McGee came to the ranch to meet them. ``She was always afraid to come to the ranch . . . (because) I trapped skunks. I had them hanging on the shed the first time she came to visit. I don`t think she thought much of that.`` McGee explains ``It was hard to tell what I was getting into when I first met her (Juanita). I thought that must be some kind of woman to go to all that work for a little money.``

In 1960, when Oscar was 61 years old, he moved off the home place a few miles away and began building a huge brick home for himself and Juanita to live in. Many thought this would be where Oscar and Juanita would retire, but retirement was out of the question. They still had work to do. They have worked hard to grow and care for a tremendous grove of trees, a plentiful garden, and some of the cleanest windows many have ever seen on a house.

Certainly Oscar and Juanita have worked hard for all they have acquired. Oscar started with 400 acres and left the ranch with just over 29,000 acres, more than a full township. The biggest change they have seen together was, ``probably from the horse and buggy days to the tractors and cars they got today, ya know.`` Oscar and Juanita are living proof that with hard work and determination, anything can be achieved. When asked about life in general, Oscar will most generally reply, ``Oh, it`s good fer ya!``

Oscar will turn 98 years young on June 17, 1997, and Juanita will turn 92 on September 22, 1997. On June 1, 1997, Oscar and Juanita will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Together they have welcomed 2 children, 9 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and 6 great great grandchildren. When asked what the hardest thing life has thrown their way, Oscar, after pausing for just a moment, lovingly looking at his beautiful bride of 75 years replies, ``Probably putting up with me.``

Oscar and Juanita Vansickel are my great grandparents. This exciting couple has affected and inspired many lives in many ways, including mine. They have instilled in me what it means to work and work hard; to live life to its fullest; to love and to be loyal; and to have determination and dedication. Their lives are testimony to the creed: ``If you try hard enough, you can have anything.`` I hope to live my life by those values, and to be as positive of an influence on my grandchildren as they have been on me.

Grandma and Grandpa, I love you both very much. Thank you for everything.

Love, Erika