By Tyler Dahlgren

Every quilt has a story, as does every quilter.

Fashion was Pam Johnson’s first love. A country girl who grew up cooking, gardening and taking care of the house, she figured that’s what she’d pursue after graduating from Campbell High School in 1981.

“As I started checking into that, I found out that to be a fashion designer, I was going to have to move to the city someplace,” Johnson said from her Family and Consumer Sciences classroom at Minden High School. “Well, I was a farm girl in love with a farm boy, and that just wasn’t going to happen.”

In the end, the big city’s loss was Nebraska’s gain. Johnson’s career plans pivoted, as she searched for an avenue that would allow her to utilize both her skills and her affinity for fashion.

“I loved my Home Economics class and I loved my teacher,” she said. “I just thought that I could do this. This would be fun. Teaching is what I landed on, and it was that teacher I had in high school that inspired me to go for it.”

If she was going to be a teacher, Johnson told herself, she might as well do something she loved. For 37 years, she’s shared that love with hundreds upon hundreds of students. After teaching at Campbell and then Silver Lake for 20 years, Johnson came to Minden in 2008. 

Here, she’s made FCS cool again.

“Home Ec has grown and evolved so much through the years,” Johnson said. “It’s no longer just cooking and sewing and that kind of stuff. There’s so many facets of it. More so now, it’s learning skills to help you survive in the real world. The FCS curriculum has changed with the times.”

It’s a Monday morning in Minden, and though the last day of school is just around the corner, Johnson’s classroom is humming with its usual stream of hustle and bustle. This school year alone, she had 49 students enrolled in Textiles class, a staggering number given MHS has a total enrollment of around 265. Those 49 students have quilted 55 full-sized quilts on the school’s computerized longarm machine. Since 2010, her students have produced more than 500 quilts.

We should talk about the machine, because it has an interesting story of its own. These machines are expensive, and not usually found in high school FCS classrooms. 

About 15 years ago, Johnson had a student who was making a quilt. Back then, the kids would either tie the quilts the old-fashioned way or send them to a business with a machine to have them finished. 

“Some kids’ quilts would just end up in a drawer someplace, unfinished,” said Johnson.

This particular girl wasn’t satisfied with any of those options.

“About that time, her grandmother passed away, and grandma was a big quilter,” Johnson recalled. “They used some of the memorial money to buy our first machine, which was a major purchase. We used that one for about five years until we basically wore it out. The family found out that the machine was going bad, and purchased us another one.”

The Minden community has always loved its Whippets. It’s one of the reasons Johnson fell in love with this place 17 years ago. This incredible act of generosity was just another example. 

“It seems like whatever we do, the public is behind us,” she said.  “No matter what it is, they just come out and support the kids so well here. It’s a town full of really nice people. We’re really lucky.”

Early each May, the school holds a fine arts show, an opportunity for Johnson’s students to show off their hard work. This year, they submitted a record 80 entries into the textiles show.

“It’s neat, because it’s not just our projects,” said Johnson. “The Art department brings down their projects. The Woods class, oh my gosh, there are woodworking projects that you wouldn’t believe. The Metals department does amazing work. This year they made these big arches that say ‘Home of the Whippets’ that are going to go over by the football field. There’s just so many cool things made by talented students in our four departments.”

For Johnson, knowing her students are acquiring skills that they’ll be able to use for the rest of their lives is comforting. The critical thinking in her classroom never stops.

“I never really planned to take this class, but it just worked out with my schedule,” said Junior Guido, a junior at MHS who is quilting a gorilla quilt for his six-year-old brother. “But I definitely liked the class. I like putting things together and it’s something I would definitely do as a hobby outside of school. I went from not knowing what I was doing to knowing the basics pretty well. Mrs. Johnson is really helpful.”

Johnson’s students have even been able to bond with older generations over their new skills. Junior Shelby Nelson has made four quilts this year, and her family even started holding quilting weekends.

“This is my third year in here, and I’m taking it next year too,” Nelson said. “Mrs. Johnson doesn’t make Textiles class feel old-fashioned. She makes it new-age and fun for everybody.”

Johnson’s students, you could say, are sewing the seeds of time. Freshman Zoey Seiler, for example, has enjoyed the new shared hobby with her grandma. A natural, according to Johnson, Seiler has made two quilts this year already. Other students have had similar experiences.

“It’s definitely something my grandma and I have bonded over,” said senior Aliena Osterbuhr. “This is a blanket for her, actually. She loves quilting, and it’s so fun getting to spend time together. It brings people together, even the students in here. We’re all chatting while we work. You can move your mouth and your hands at the same time.”

The environment is relaxed, but busy. Osterbuhr said that their teacher sets the tone, and she’s always there to help.

“Mrs. Johnson is very bubbly, very fun,” she continued. “She makes the rounds and talks to everyone. Even outside of the classroom, she’s an amazing person to talk to.”

Minden High School principal Don Hosick said that Johnson was instrumental in designing the current FCS classroom when the district built the new high school eight years ago. It’s state-of-the-art, with five kitchens (which play host to Johnson’s famous yearly chili cook-off) and a nice display area. Thirty-seven years Johnson’s been teaching either Home Ec or FCS, and still her students leave her amazed on a daily basis. 

“They do some pretty complex, outstanding things in here,” she said. “It’s fun, because they have a vision and I can see their personalities in their projects.”

When Johnson talks about her students, past and current, she can’t help but to beam with pride. She chuckles reminiscing on the time a former student at Silver Lake, a big farmer in his cowboy boots, approached her excitedly at the county fair to show off the patch he’d sewn into his jeans. She boasts about one student turning an old tapestry blanket into a pull-over jacket.

Mrs. Johnson looks at all these quilts, and sees more than a story. She sees her students, all of them, for who they were in that moment and who they went on to be. 

“I hope they’ll remember that I tried to build a good relationship with each and every one of them, because that’s the most important thing,” she said. “I hope they remember me and all the things that they learned in here.”

Though she is retiring, Johnson won’t be too far away. Her family farms south of town, and she enjoys attending Whippet activities. That won’t change. 

“I’m going to miss this atmosphere, but I’ll always be a Whippet.”