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Letter: 14

March 24,1995

      DEAR KIDS: This letter is to tell you some things about my dad, your Mom's grandfather and your great-grandfather. He was a good sport about a lot of things. One example is how we conned him into taking us to the circus.

      When the circus was coming to town or to Pierre they would put up a lot of handbills advertising it in advance. Pa would be sitting in his platform rocker with the radio on and reading the paper. One of us would say, "Papa, the circus is coming to Pierre. Will you take us to the Circus?"He would say "Oh I guess so,"not really registering on him what we had asked. He had a great power of concentration when reading the paper and ignoring the "activities" of eight kids. He really hadn't heard us. Then the day before the circus we would remind him that he had promised to take us. "Oh, I did?""Yes, you did Papa. You were sitting right there in your chair reading the paper."Then he agreed to take us.

      The old Studebaker had two seats and a couple of jump seats that unfolded out of the floor. We usually had an extra kid or two with us. When we parked to watch the circus parade come down the street, a clown would ask, "Hey mister, are all those kids yours?"Pa would answer back, "Yes, every one."

      One of the favorite things was to go up to Fairbank. Grandpa Spencer's ranch was called Fairbank because they thought a bridge cross the Missouri would be built there and there would be a town. They even thought Fairbank might be the state capital. The bridge was built at another location and the idea of a town fizzled out.

      Another attribute was that he was usually calm and could stand a lot of noise and exuberance from a carload of kids on a trip. It was 45 miles to Fairbank and took about an hour or more even though there was no traffic. It was always exciting for us to go to Fairbank. It's a wonder we didn't drive Pa crazy. On the way we would chant whatever we saw nearby. We'd say "Water, water, water" if there was water in the ditches or ponds, "Cows, cows, cows, wheat, wheat wheat,"and then one know-it-all would say, "That's barley not wheat."We'd reach out of the Studebaker and grab at sunflowers growing next to the road. Sometimes they nearly jerked us out of the car. Pa didn't seem to get ruffled.

      Pa was a very good mechanic and self-reliant. He didn't worry about any mechanical breakdowns because he was prepared to fix it on the road if he needed to.

      Pa never had a new car and the last car he had was a Whippet. He was a good mechanic so he didn't mind having to fix it every once in a while. One time when he and Mom and I went up to Fairbank (the older kids all away at the time) we had just pulled onto the graded road off the wheel track "road" and the Whippet just stopped. The engine ran but the car wouldn't move. It was late at night and pitch black dark. Mom was a little nervous wondering about when we would get back home. It must have been overcast because we couldn't even see the stars. Mom asked Pa, '“What is the matter?""The car won't run.""Why not?"By this time she was getting worried because we were miles from anywhere. "We have a broken axle.""What are you going to do?""I'm going to change it."He knew that the Willys Overland Company who made the car had made a lot of axles all of which had the tendency to crystallize and sooner or later they would break. He got out the extra axle he carried with the car jacked it up, changed it in the dark and we were on our way. He was just as happy as if all he had done was stop at a service station to get gas.

      Another time we got stuck in the two-track part of the journey because it had rained. Mom had confidence in Pa but she was uneasy about being out there and again it was late and dark. She said, "What's the matter?"knowing we were stuck anyway. "We're stuck in the mud.""Oh dear, what are we going to do?""There's a fence over there, not in use any more and most of the wire is gone. I'll wiggle a couple of posts loose and put them under the wheels."He put the posts under the rear wheels and we drove right out of the mud and on to home. A good thing — we were 25 miles to the nearest town.

      One winter we had ice on the creek two or three feet thick as usual and lot of people were driving down on the ice to let their cars slide around. It was quite a lot of fun. I had a carload of boys in the Whippet with me and we decided to drive on the ice. I didn't just drive around a little bit. I had to drive the whole length of the creek to the next dam and turn around. Just before getting to the dam there was quite a bump in the ice. Coming back the front end went down breaking the right front wheel. The car bounced up and the right rear wheel settled into the hole broken in the ice. We all got out of the car and came home leaving the car there. I went into Ma and Pa's bedroom and told Pa what had happened. He was lying on his left side facing me, but didn't move a muscle. Mom did sit up in bed and said, "What?"She had spent a lifetime economizing and the thought of losing even an old rattletrap car was disturbing to her. Pa asked, '“Did all the boys get out of the car?""Yah, they all got out OK.""Where did it happen?""Just east of the old swimming hole in the school section.""Well, we'll get it out in the morning. Why don't you go to bed and get some sleep?"

      In the morning we went down with the old International truck. Pa had a large pole about six inches in diameter with a beam across the top end and a rope hanging down each end. He cut a hole in the ice and put the shaft down until it sunk in the mud as far as it would go. All they had to do was pull down on the long end and the other end lifted the rear of the car out of the ice. This thing was used to get the first couple of ice cakes out of the water when they put up ice.

      Of course Harlow and a couple of Gus's kids were joshing me with a lot of their "witty" remarks and had great fun. Pa acted like it was a pleasure to have to go and get the car out. I think he enjoyed knowing that he knew how to do those things. By the way, he had an extra wheel for the car too. The reason the car broke through the ice was that the dam held water higher than the ice below it and water flowed underground and came up under the ice at ground temperature and melted a small place where the car broke through.

      Pa worked hard all of his life and didn't seem to mind. I remember being up at his shop one time and he remarked, "It's 20 years ago today that I shod my last-horse.""How come you remember the date Pa?" "Well this man brought a horse in to be shod and didn't want me to put him in the rig that I had to restrain a nervous horse. It didn't harm the horse. In fact it protected the Horse from hurting himself and from kicking me, but he didn't want it. I wrestled that horse and dodged being kicked and was worn out. When I was through, I said, "That's the last horse I'm ever going to shoe."A couple of men visiting in the shop said, "You'll be at it again tomorrow,"but I put the shop up for sale and went into the automobile business.""What kind of cars did you sell?""Fords, until we got mad at Henry Ford and switched to farm machinery. Ford used to send a man around who was supposed to suggest ideas to improve a dealership, but this man thought he was boss, and complained and criticized everything in a disagreeable way."Hap (my brother) had a paper route and the dray would deliver them to the store. The Ford man spied them on the floor. "What's this? Oh, I see you are even selling papers in case you can't sell a car."

      Pa and Uncle Gus talked it over and said Ford could go to hell and they ended the Ford dealership and became International Harvester farm machinery dealers. He thought they were not being treated fairly — one of the few things that made Pa mad.

      Pa didn't like to take advantage of people. I remember one time Pa had me, Dick and "Fat" Kjer go up to Fairbank to pick up a tractor that Harlow had left up there. Fat had a truck and he, Dick (my cousin) and I went up in Fat's truck to get it. Fat had agreed to a price for the trip, but it turned out to be a lot harder trip than we thought it would be. We had had a lot of rains and the truck with the tractor loaded on it kept getting stuck. We then had to unload the tractor, use it to pull out the truck and then reload the tractor. We had to fill the tractor radiator all the time because Grandpa's hired man let the radiator freeze up and it wouldn't hold the water for long. It took about three times as much time as intended. Pa said, "It took you a long time. Did you have trouble?"Dick said, "Uncle Leon, it was a hell of a chore,"and explained what had happened. Pa said, "Fat, you earned more money than what we first agreed on and deserve more."He then added a substantial percentage to the bill and Fat was a friend for life.

      By the way Fat Kjer lives in Santa Ana now. He turned 100 February 7,1995. He grows flowers and has a vegetable garden and lives with two sisters. He makes canes as a hobby. His brother Sofus (Slip) Kjer lived to be 98. Their parents were farmers who emigrated from Denmark and farmed east of Blunt.

      We have had a good rainy season — two good rains in the last three days. I wish the hills north of our house could be green year around. It's a pleasure to look out at them now. Craig's dog, Scari, (female for Scary) is still rambunctious. Bruster is a gentlemen now and a pleasure to pet. Scari has to claw us to death.

      Grandma and I are about the same—supermen. Grandma had a breast examination (can't spell the word) and the xrays showed no abnormality. Dr. Hom thinks I'm doing well. One thing that is very troublesome is that the premiums for our supplemental insurance and our share of the prescriptions and the deductibles add up to a fortune in a years time — I thought this money could be used for fun when I retired — lucky we have some savings.

      Jeff, I hear you are doing great on your job. Keep up the good work and the savings plan.

      Todd, Chris and Tawnya. Your Mom says you are all doing well in school which I'm very glad to hear. Try to have good health habits. Get plenty of sleep so that when you catch a cold it won't hit you so hard.

      We wish we could see you.

      Love,

      Grandpa

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