"We had neighbors that worked with us. We gave them the land, and we worked 50-50 percent with a garden. We planted 2,000 plants of tomatoes. And we had watermelons and cucumbers. And we had bushels of stuff, wagonloads full of stuff. But then the army bug come through, and it stripped the tomato plants. We did everything we could think of. We made noises at the end of the field. We smoked [set up smoke pots]. We tried everything to try to get rid of those army bugs."
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Diena Thieszen Schmidt was born in the Mennonite community of Henderson, Nebraska, and still lives in the area 70 years later. Her father, John Thieszen, was a pioneer irrigator and Diena her dad every summer growing up. After the war, she went to college in Freeman, South Dakota, where she met and married Gordon. They returned to Henderson and built a successful agribusiness.
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