Dorothy Dotty
Dorothy Dotty
Lifelong Eden Prairie Resident and Oral Historian
Work hard, so you can get ahead. Listen to what your folks have to say and your teachers. Be good kids. Don’t smoke. Finish school. Get all the schooling you can before you get out in the work field. Keep in touch and care about one another.
Dorothy Dotty
Lifelong Eden Prairie Resident and Oral Historian
My name is Dorothy Dotty. On June 14, 1916, I was born in Eden Prairie beside Long Lake. My dad owned farmland on the river bottoms near Shakopee.
For fun we had dances and went ice skating. We would go to a roller rink and skate. We would ski and toboggan. We would play with our dolls. In the summer the mosquitoes would get to be very bad in the evening.
We took a bath a couple times a week. We’d carry in the water and heat it on the stove to take a bath. We all grew up without electricity, except for [my] dad who had a row of batteries with an engine running to give some electricity.
Today they’re tearing down all the trees. There are too many houses. It bugs me; I have memories of rolling hills.
Three Strong Women From Eden Prairie
Honoring Dorothy Dotty
Honoring Rachel Hjorth, Irene Swartz and Dorothy Dotty
[CHORUS]
Three strong women from Eden Prairie
Milk them cows
Pick berries
Grow that corn
Pull them weeds
Three strong women from Eden Prairie
We worked all summer in the field
With a rag cleaned those wind shields
At the Flying Red Horse Mobil
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
We never got paid much
We had to walk home for lunch
No such thing as a school bus
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
When the leaves began to fall
We would throw an old rag ball
Up against the old barn wall
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
We went out on Anderson Lake
All together we would skate
Then roasted wieners we all ate
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
Dad set a trap in early morn
To catch a skunk eating the corn
Which scared my mom who’s city born
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
While their husbands were at war
The women handled all the chores
Laundry, dishes, farming more
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
Memories of rolling hills
Sunflowers, daisies, daffodils
Which we saw by an old windmill
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
Care for the past bring in the new
Plant more trees, apples, too
We still have me and you
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
Words of advice our elders said
Work hard so you will get ahead
Do not smoke, live well instead
Here in Eden Prairie
(Chorus)
Music by LARRY LONG
Words by LARRY LONG with Ron Case’s 6th grade of Oak Point Intermediate School
(Eden Prairie, Minnesota)
© Larry Long 2004 / BMI