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Letter: 11

January 20, 1995

      DEAR KIDS: This is to tell you about the high finance I had to practice when I was a kid. I was 12 years old when the 1929 stock market crash occurred and then it was followed by the depression. My dad had three kids in college part of the time from about 1924 to 1931 and at least one all of that time. Then the depression broke him and Uncle Gus. The creditors let them stay in business because bankruptcy would have netted them very little against their debts.

      The folks bought me the clothes I had to have and fed me well. I had a lot of hand-me-downs from the three older brothers. From the age of 13 on, I never asked my dad for any money because I had the riches I had earned from working for Emerald. I didn't go to Emerald's every year and earned some money in Blunt anyway.

      One way was that I drove milk cows to and from the pasture in the summer time until they had to be fed entirely on winter feed — alfalfa and ground grain. Quite a number of people had milk cows in town in those days. They would be milked in the morning and then I would drive them to the pasture. In the evening I would drive them home for milking. The season started before school was out and lasted into the fall for a while after school started again. I got a dollar each month for each cow I drove. I drove Pa's three cows for free, but the others paid me. Most of them volunteered to pay me every month but Henry Prestons made me wait until the end of summer to collect the $3 he owed me. He lived next door to Fred McDaniels who was paying me for the third month now that the season was over. He said, "Henry, it's time we paid this boy,"and handed me a dollar. Henry said, "I guess you're right,”and he handed me a dollar, too. That made me mad enough to forget that I had been too shy to ask for the money monthly, and I said "You owe me for all summer. I need two dollars more." He paid me but pretended that he had forgotten that he hadn't paid me for the other two months. He even argued a little about it.

      The pasture was the school section leased to old Ed Carey who charged a small fee to graze the milk cows. Ed was always complaining about someone leaving the gate open and livestock would get out. Of course there were a lot of people going fishing on the creek, but the kids driving the cows got the blame. Ed was a mean old man and he accused me of leaving the gate open. I told him I didn't and he asked me who did. I told him I didn't know. He then told Stub Nolan that I told him that Stub had left the gate open. He figured that if Stub and I were mad at each other, he would somehow find out who did. Stub accosted me about it on the school grounds and picked a fight. Stub was older than I was but small for his age and we were about the same size. His brother Earl told him to pick on someone his own size (meaning his age) but Stub insisted on fighting. It was probably the most comical fight ever witnessed. We flailed at each other for some time, never landing a single solid blow and finally got tired enough for the fight to fizzle out. I think Stub was surprised that he didn't lick me and thought he might as well quit. We never did find out who the culprit was who left the pasture gate open.

      Earl Nolan was very finicky and Stub used that to his advantage. I was up to their house during lunch and they were about to have dessert. Stub wanted Earl's piece of cake as well as his own. In a very uncouth and obvious manner he started to pick his nose and pretended he was looking at what he had picked out. Earl was so turned off that he got up, left the table, and brother Stub got his piece of cake too. Stub was a mean little devil, but Earl didn't have a mean bone in his body.

      I mentioned in paragraph two that I never asked my dad for money after I was 13 years old. I was referring to spending money for any fun. They bought me most of my necessities. By the time I graduated from high school, my Dad's money was all tapped out by the depression and three previous kids going to college. I knew that he didn't have any money to spare to help me go to college and I wasn't going to bring up the subject of college and make that old man have to tell me that he didn't have any money to spare. I worked and saved enough money to pay for room and board at college and borrowed the tuition to go to business college.

      I also had a paper route. This was something that could be done all year around. I wanted a bicycle and was putting my money away for it. It was the end of summer and the county fair was in town. Several barnstormer pilots came and got permission to land on the school section next to the fairgrounds. I decided that it was about time that I had a plane ride and would tap my paper route-bicycle fund. My brother Hap was there and I had asked him to take me up because the pilot, George Ice, said I was too young to go up without a family member. Hap said he had to save his college money. Then George Ice said he would take me up for free if I paid for Hap to go up. I tapped into the bicycle fund and paid Hap's way. Howard Tjomsland, Hap and I were passengers. Hap was not very big and I was small and the pilot said he could take all three of us since we didn't weigh too much. I don't remember Hap thanking me for the ride. The bicycle had to wait another month or two. The Plane was a World War I Jenny.

      One time the snow got so deep that the snow plow on the train locomotive couldn't get the train through. The railroad said they would pay men $5 for a day of shoveling snow to get the train going again. I went down to volunteer but they said there were enough men there already. Lewie Walker, the railroad agent's son got to go. That was a big disappointment to miss out on that $5.

      One summer we had a plague of grasshoppers almost like the locust plagues in Africa. A boxcar load of poison bran sawdust and molasses was shipped in to spread out to poison the grasshoppers. It would have taken a thousand boxcar loads to make an difference but the government sent it in. I was hired at 65 cents per hour if I furnished the old red International truck which looked about like the model truck in your curio cabinet. The other kids were paid 35 cents per hour. We had to shovel the stuff into the truck and then drive down to the old mill (no longer a flour mill) and shovel it off into a storage bin. We were hired by George Otis who was a Democrat and in charge. The other kids didn't have the advantage of being trained to work by Emerald Reinecke and didn't shovel very fast and rested most of the time.

      I did most of the shoveling. As soon as the work was done we all went up to Otis's land office to collect. We knew he liked to beat his bills and sometimes wrote bad checks so we wanted to collect our check and run to the bank. He acted like we shouldn't even be asking for money because our great benevolent government had sent in the grasshopper poison. We asked for the money anyway and marched to the bank. His checks cleared.

      I don't want you to think that we felt sorry for ourselves. We didn't. I just want you to get an idea of how the country has changed in my lifetime. When I was a little kid, I would look out the window and see some farmer going by with a team of horses and a wagon. He'd slap the horses with the reins and they would trot a few steps and continue walking. It was very common to see road apples on the roads. The grocery stores and pool halls had hitching rails behind the place of business — not in front of the building on the street. I grew up in the tail end of the horse and buggy days.

      I got another Lupron shot December 29 and gave another sample of blood. My P.S.A. was down to 9.1 from 10.

      Grandma is feeling about the same. She thinks getting a permanent and going to Carl's for a Big Star Combo is a great outing. I had eaten when I picked her up at Montgomery Ward yesterday but she was starved. We went into Carl's. We really had a big date — I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry. Grandma cost me the big sum of $2.52 after the Wednesday Senior discount of 20%. We have a wild night life.

      Tell your Mom that I am mailing a package containing some nightgowns and pajamas which should get there soon.

      Our rain let up a few days ago and the weather has been nice. It's supposed to rain again in a few days.

      I'll close now. We love you all a lot and miss you.

      Grandpa

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