Moving a houseful of memories
By: Jason Buzzell, Leader staff writer
09/16/2006

There's a twinkle in Norm Schuessler's eye as he looks north out over Nebraska Highway 370 from what used to be home so many years ago. This week, the house is making a move, but the memories will last forever.

"This is the place I loved because you looked out here and you could see all the planes," Schuessler said of what used to be a big screened-in porch on the old farmhouse. "We didn't have all these trees here like now."

Years and years of sights, sounds and smells from the home seem like they were just yesterday.

"I remember dad, hearing him first get up," Schuessler said. "We had an old cook-stove that burned wood and cobs, of course everyone burned tons of cobs, we had our own stack of them 20-feet high. He'd always build a fire with cobs in the morning to get a hot fire going.

"I'd come running down here, put my shoes in the oven and warm those up."

Cold winters, long summers and lots of work on the farm. It was a different time for those who chose to work the fields of Nebraska.

In 1945, Norm's family, which included four older brothers and sisters, as well as his mom Elsa and dad Walter, moved to the farm atop the hill that now lies near 25th Street and Nebraska Highway 370.

"This was the first house we ever moved in that had electricity and running water and an indoor toilet," Schuessler said. "It was pretty special when we moved in. We couldn't believe how modern it was."

The draught and grasshoppers of the 1930s devastated their family farm near Boelus, Neb. The Schuessler's had bought it from the railroad in the 1880s, but the conditions forced them to sell the land and sharecrop for four years in both Sarpy County and an area north of Omaha.

"Of course the folks were always going to buy," Schuessler said. "They were homeowners and farmowners so they couldn't get their own farm quick enough again."

With the help of the Schneekloths, the Schuesslers were able to buy the farm in Bellevue. Norm's sister Margaret had lived with the Schneekloths while she taught school, and "they were some really good people," Norm said. Walter and Elsa Schuessler had saved some money, but they needed some help to make the big purchase.

"It was a real isolated farm," he said. "We lived out here where you could hardly find us."

Back then, their driveway weaved down the hill to where 25th Street now crosses the Papio Creek. Norm recalls walking "just 1 ½ miles" to catch the bus near Betz Road.

"The driveway met the road down by where the bridge is," Schuessler said. "It's a half-mile drive just to the end. Most of the time when (the road) got really bad, you'd walk up."

Norm's brothers Earl and Paul both served in the military. Paul even fought in the Battle of the Bulge with Patton's 11th Armor Division. The oldest of them all, 10 years older than Norm, Margaret, taught school, even teaching Norm for a year. The older ones came and went throughout Norm's childhood. It was his job to tend the fields once the boys left for the war.

"When they went my dad couldn't ride the tractor," Schuessler said. "He had a hernia so when I would come home from school he had the tractors all set up with the equipment we were going to use...he'd have them all gassed up and tell me which field I was going to work on today and I'd hop on and I go work on it."

As Schuessler walked around the house last week for the first time in more than a decade, he remembered seemingly everything. He remembered the old Victrola phonograph playing tunes in his room. He remembered staying out once so long on the tractor one night he was too tired to eat supper.

After Norm's parents moved out, Schuessler's son-in-law did a bunch of fixes to the inside when he lived there with Norm's daughter. They then sold the house to the Zeigler family who ended up selling the land for the new UNMC hospital.

Habitat for Humanity will sell the house after the outside is redone to show off the original columns, said Habitat Executive Director Margaret Stamp. Norm's brother, Earl, also lived in a house right next door for many years. Both will be moved to Rose Lane Road. Earl's old house will likely be given to a Habitat family.

Back inside, Norm's twinkling eyes lit up as he spotted some old jars sitting on shelves in the basement from his mother's canning.

"She used to can everything in sight," Schuessler said. "I found one with a label that said 'Apples for Paul - 1991'"

The house is moving, but the memories are forever