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Marlene Troester was born April 13, 1924 and raised by Barthold and Lillie Baack. She was the oldest of three girls. They lived four miles northeast of Hampton. One of her first memories was during the worst snowstorms. The mailman, Mr. Dixson, always got the mail to them by using a sled with horses that he drove to deliver the mail. Even though she lived through the worst depression that the United States has ever had, she never felt poor. One thing that does come to mind was in 1932; her father raised a large corn crop but they ended up using some of the corn for firewood in the house. Other things she remembers from this time were prices of food items such as eggs, which were ten cents a dozen and bread, which was ten cents a loaf. Hogs were also cheap. Her father sold five or six hogs for around six dollars. About this time the Government issued a farm program just after Roosevelt took office. It was designed to reduce the number of hogs and cattle that were being raised across the country. Every farm could only have so many or else they had to be brought to a place to kill them. The place that was designated in this area was Hampton. Marlene remembers that her dad was mad that they wouldn't even give the meat to the poor. They just put lime in the meat so it couldn't be used by humans and buried the meat in a ditch they dug. She remembers this as one of the only times that her dad didn't have a smile on his face.