As I post this in April 2021, sad news came recently of the passing of cousin Scott Swanson, the youngest child of Melvin & Marie Swanson. Marie was the oldest sister to my mother, Hermene Louise (Guritz) Indig. In tribute to Scott and his family, it's a good time to post this oral history from his parents. I knew Scott best when we were kids, when my mom would take me and my brother to Minnesota for extended summer stays. The large Swanson farm served as a big playground, and Scott - being closest in age to us, but still 5 years older than me - seemed to enjoy entertaining his younger cousins. Bless all the Swansons still with us, and the memories of their family members who have passed.
The Swanson family: Janice, Scott, Orval, David,
with parents Marie & Melvin in the middle, and Leila in front.
Melvin & Marie Swanson, 1946
MELVIN AND MARIE SWANSON PERSONAL HISTORIES
These written histories were provided by Melvin and Marie’s daughter, Janice (Swanson) Reyes. From the ages of descendants noted, Marie’s appears to be from perhaps 1990; Melvin’s sometime before that. Melvin passed away in 1989, the day after Christmas, and Marie passed away in 2016. Some other loved ones mentioned here have also passed away since this writing.
MARIE (GURITZ) SWANSON
I, Marie Swanson, was born on June 5, 1925 to Herman & Maggie (Kalmbrunn) Guritz in Middletown township, Jackson County Minnesota. I don't remember anything about living on the farm. Dad and his brother Emil were farming together and Emil and his wife Ann and their two sons Rayford and Lyall lived in one part of the house and mom & dad, Ruth and I lived in the other part of the house. I was about 4 and Ruth 3 when they decided to split up. Emil bought Dad out and we moved to Jackson on Bluff Ave. Dad went to work as a mechanic for Watland Imp. That was in March then in September they bought a truck farm on Thomas Hill in Jackson. Dad continued to work for Watland's. Mom was kept busy with the truck farm business. I can remember all the things we had: apples, grapes, currants, goose-berries, pears, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus and all the other vegetables. It got to be too much for mom and us kids, so dad quit Watland's and we had a regular route for our produce. Ruth and I would go with dad. He and mom had weighed up the peas, green & yellow beans at home and put them in a grocery bags. Also, beets, carrots and asparagus were all in bunches. So, Ruth and I would go house to house with our produce. Dad would park the car on a corner and lots of the women would see us coming and they would come running out with their orders. Some ordered for the next day. It was a real good business, although at the time I hated it. Now as I am older I realize we were not peddlers as the women were glad to get fresh produce. We were up early in the morning to get everything picked, sacked and bunched. We usually went on the route by 9:30. I can remember when we got our new car. It was a Chevrolet. Before that we had a Model A Ford. I don't remember the year we got the Chev, but us kids were real happy. On the 4th of July we always went to Loon Lake with a bunch from Middletown Township. We got to go swimming! Only time of the year. On Saturday nights we would quit early so we could get a good parking place on Main Street. Mom and us kids would meet Rickie (my mom's sister) and her 2 daughters. We got an eskimo pie and would walk up and down Main Street. One time mom took us kids to Klimesh Bakery, and we got to have an ice cream sundae. We sat on some cute chairs and they had overhead fans. The sundaes had these lovely ice cream wafers stuck in each side. It was the most delicious thing I ever tasted. Also on Saturday nights dad gave each of us a nickel. I bet Klimesh's hated to see us come in. They had jars of all different kinds of candy and we would say a penny's worth of 5 different kinds and they would have to weigh each penny's worth separately. In later years dad worked for different people doing odd job as windows. He went to Spirit Lake at McClelland's Beach to work on Hasle's cottage and he took mom and us girls along. He gave Ruth and I a nickel to go to McClelland's store to get a pop. It was orange crush and I never tasted anything so good before or since. My first pop. I suppose I was 12 or 13. We always had Christmas Day dinner at our place with Hank & Rickie's kids. We always loved that. It seemed they could never get their car started to go home and we kids were always hoping they had to stay over, but eventually they got it going. I remember Grandpa Kalmbrunn coming to visit. One year for Christmas he gave me a watch. Ruth felt bad, but he said next year she would get one. I don't know if she did or not. He bought us our first radio and our first washing machine. I guess cause Mom never asked to borrow any money and his other kids did. One winter Dad made us kids a wonderful slide east of the house. He took snow & piled it up and poured water all the way to the end. So, we had a good hill to slide on with our sleds. We played with Ike & Eva Dunlavey quite a bit. They had to herd their cows on the road ditch so they came over. Mrs. Geo Mickelson was a real good neighbor to us kids. One Christmas during the depression she gave us each of us girls a bottle of perfume so we would get something. I don't remember too much of the depression except grandpa came over and said the banks closed and mom sat down and cried as most of my parents’ money was in the bank. But we always had plenty to eat as mom did a lot of canning and baking and sewed all of our clothes. Mom’s cousins (Mabel & Lillian Nagel) were telephone operators and always gave mom their nice clothes that they were tired of, and she took them apart and made clothes for us kids. In the winter we wore long underwear (1-piece outfits) and long cotton stockings. We slept in our underwear and in the morning we had quite a job putting our stockings on without the wrinkles from our underwear showing. On Saturday nights we got the tin washtub out and we all had a bath in the same water. Small kids first, then older ones, mom and lastly dad. Then mom washed the floor. Mom cut our hair. One time she nicked Ruth's ear. I got my first permanent from Edna Olson above Sathe's Furniture. It was with a machine. All the wires going from the machine to the curlers in my hair. It got real hot and she stood there with a hand fan or something and pointed it to where you said it was hot. I was 13 or 15 years old, and no set afterwards as that cost more and we couldn't afford it. Dad and mom took us fishing a lot. It was cheap meat! I graduated from High School in 1943 and went to work at Ben Franklin's for 19 cents an hour. E.R. Salom and his wife Bertha owned the store. On Saturday nights we were open till 11:00. I ate supper at Sinn's cafe then. Before that we walked to school and even walked home for dinners. No matter what the weather we walked. Did lots of ice skating on the Des Moines river.
I quit Ben Franklin's and went to work at Railway Motors in Fairmont but got homesick and quit. Then went to work at Musser in the office. Most of the boys that I graduated with went into the service as we were at war with Germany and Japan. After working at Mussers a couple of years I started at Hakes in the office until Melvin and I got married June 23rd, 1946. We were married by Pastor Olson in the parsonage of Our Savior's Lutheran Church. Barney & Ruth were our sponsors. We had a small reception at my folks home. We went to Mille Lacs Lake for our honeymoon. Come home to the place west of Lakefield; Harry, Irwin, Virginia, Sandra, Melvin and I all lived together.
OUR LIFE TOGETHER
Harry, Irwin & Virginia moved March 1st to a farm north of Lakefield, so we were by ourselves. Leila was born Feb 28th 1947 and how happy we were we had a little girl. We had an old Ford car 1942 model. We got a Model A John Deere in June of 1946 and a cultivator, HURRAY!!. There was no passenger seat so I sat on a toolbox where the passenger seat should have been. The back windows were broken out so Melvin put boards where the windows should have been. We would be driving along at night and the lights would go out so we always carried a flashlight and Melvin would drive with one hand and hold the flashlight out the window with the other hand. But it was all we could get as there were no new cars to be had. So we at least had wheels. We even went to the Spencer Fair with it several times Oh my weren't we crazy! We bought a Model A Coupe from Bill Temlitz for $125.00. In March of 1949 I fell and broke my ankle. So I was laid up for 6 weeks. I started working in the field that spring as she could ride the tractor with a cast on.
We were going to have another baby and Melvin said if it was a boy we would get a new car. David was born December 25th, 1949 and we got a new car 1950 Ford paid $1950 and we got our boy; that was something. David was about 6 weeks old when he got terribly sick. We rushed him to Dr. Rose. Dr. Doman had offices in the hotel (elevator has parking there now); Helen Malek was the nurse, and she took his temperature twice as neither she nor the doctor could believe it. It was 107.6. We had to rush him to Jackson Hospital as Lakefield didn't have one yet. He went into convulsions on the way. I opened the window (which was the best thing I could have done) and prayed. They put him in an oxygen tent and gave him penicillin shots. It was too much nitrate in our water. He was in the hospital 6 days. When he was 17 months old he had a hernia operation. We bought the farm May 1951; also Grandpa Swanson died June 11th 1951. Janice was born August 2nd 1951. Now we were happy again. We had 3 children and they were all o.k. Janice was born in Lakefield Hospital as it was just completed a year ago. Shirley Wulf Rossow stayed at our house and took care of the kids so I could help cut grain and shock. I had been on the binder the day Janice was born and she was the easiest to have.
When Melvin came home from threshing I had milked the cows, fed the pigs, chickens. He was glad as sometimes it was 9 at night before he got home. I hated milking cows more than anything else. Threshing time was hard for the women as well as the men. As we had to make morning lunch, dinner, and afternoon lunch. We had a cook stove that used cobs & wood and hauled the water in and out. We set a wash basin outside for the men to wash and a mirror and a comb. Grandma Swanson & Grandma Guritz usually came out to help. Don't know what we would have done if it hadn't been for my parents and Melvin's parents helping us with our work.
November 15th, 1952 we had another joyous occasion: Orval was born. It was a beautiful day, and we had another little boy. He loved to wear Janice's saddle shoes when he got older. He always said they were the fastest shoes in Jackson County. When he was 5 he also had to have a hernia operation. But we couldn't keep him down. When we brought him home he climbed on the straw stack and everything else. May 3rd, 1956 Scott was born. Boy was everyone happy there was another baby. The older kids wanted to hold him and everything. When he was in kindergarten he fell off the slippery slide in the park and broke his arm. In the summer we went swimming a lot at Spirit Lake and on the 4th of July we always had a picnic at Minnewaska State Park. We also took a trip in the summer. One time we went through Montana into Yellowstone and Black Hills. We had a tent and went around Lake Superior. We enjoyed our family and had lots of good times together. In 1961 we got a Falcon station wagon. 1969 we had a Ford station wagon, and in 1981 we got a Ford Fairmont station wagon. Grandma Swanson died March 25th, 1970.
BUYING THE FARM AND FIXING IT UP
In 1951 we bought our 160 acre from Grandpa Swanson for $150 per acre, but because I was not a blood relative I had to pay $190 for my half. The 1st building we put up was the garage. Richard Kopies was the contractor and Al Pauling (his son in law helped). Before that we had no garage; we put our car in the old granary and one day we got up and oats had pushed the one side into the alley down and our car was covered with oats. We really had to shovel. Before I forget Harry, Barney, Herbert and Irwin always helped with the new buildings too and then Melvin would help them back when they build theirs. We had a little tool house sitting where the cement is by the garage now. The next year we put up a machine shed and put tin on the barn. Chris Christensen and Louie Tordsen put the tin on the barn. They charged $1.50 an hour and got up on the very top. It made me nervous to watch them. In 1954 we put up a new corn crib. The Osborne girls helped pull nails out of the old wood. Martin Schlottach was the contractor. The next year we put a cupola on the old granary so we could put the elevator through there and not have to do so much scooping to unload the oats. We also put a new floor in the hog barn as the hogs had really tore that cement one up. In 1956 we put up a new chicken house. Carlyle Thaemlitz helped with that and I think Gordon Wedeking was the contractor. Now we had a swell place for the chickens. Warmer and better insulated than the house. But like Melvin and his parents and my parents always said the house never makes you any money. And I know that is true, but sometimes when we are carrying water in and out, with the wood, the cobs, the coal, and the pot, we wish it was different. In 1957 we raised the house. DeMoure Bros raised it and Richard Crisman and his brother did the block and cement work. Gordon Wedeking was the contractor, and Les Ward made the cupboards. We lived in the basement most of the summer until it was completed. How wonderful - we had running water, toilet, bathtub, and a furnace. We were in 7th heaven. So it paid off to wait until we could afford it anyway. We always had lots of pigs, chickens, and cattle. In the farrowing season Melvin and I took turns getting up at night to take care of the little pigs as it was cold in the hog barn. So we took the pigs away from the sows and put them under heat lamps and let them out every 3 hours to nurse. Sometimes before that we would put them in a basket and put them by the cook stove oven. Even little calves that had gotten chilled, we had to do that until they were warmed up. We were so glad when we got electricity out to the well where the windmill was. Before if we had an ice storm Melvin had to climb up there and knock the ice off so the wheel would turn so it could pump water to the livestock and us.
We got our 1st refrigerator when Leila was a baby. Before that we had an ice box. A big cake of ice cost 25 cents and we got it from Emil Rossow's gas station where Junior Thaemlitz's is located now. It was a wooden cupboard affair. The ice went in the top and below you set your perishable items and below that you put a pan for the water to run into as the ice melted. When we were first married there were 5 grocery stores, 2 ladies ready-to-wear, 2 men’s clothing stores, 4 cream buying stations, 2 drug stores, 1 dime store, 4 hardware stores, 1 bakery, 1 theatre, 2 pool halls, 4 restaurants, 2 dentists, 3 doctors, and 2 banks in Lakefield. I didn't know how to drive a car, so Melvin taught me, and I went to Weise Insurance, gave him 25 cents, and got my driver’s license. No test or anything. Time was going by. Our kids were growing up. Leila graduated June 1965 and married Gary Comstock August 1st, 1965. David went to vocational school after graduation from high school to learn to be a lineman. Went to Kingfisher, Oklahoma after graduation to work. He married Patt Spangler Sept 28th, 1968. They moved to Peterson Iowa April 1969. Janice went to vocational school in Jackson after high school graduation. She worked at Stensrud's then went to San Juan, Texas and worked at Roberts Chevrolet in Edinberg. She married Jesse Reyes Sept 6th, 1974, Orval went to cook and bakers school in Mankato. He worked at Ag Chem. Married Mary Taylor from Butterfield October 11th, 1974. Scott went to vocational school and got a job at Uni Vac. He married Sandra Anderson October 23rd, 1983. We retired from farming and had a farm sale in 1979. We have 16 grandchildren 8 boys and 8 girls. Melvin died December 26th, 1989; Leila died January 7th, 1990. David is still a lineman out of Peterson Iowa, Janice is a widow. Jesse died April 13th, 1988. She still lives in Lakefield. Orval is general manager of Valued Frozen Foods in Monte Alfo Texas and Scott is farming. Leila and Gary had Jeff, 20; and Sarah, 13. David & Patt have David Jr. 21; Jamie, 19; Tim 16; and Dan 10. Janice & Jesse had Julia 15, Jonah 10 and Jessica 9. Orval & Mary have Krissy 14, Erin 12, Jason 9, and Mary Beth 3. Scott & Sandy have Chelsey 6, Ashley 3, and Cody 8 months.
MELVIN SWANSON
I, Melvin Swanson was born Jan 14, 1908 to Swedish & Danish immigrant parents, J.A. Swanson & Julia Gustafson Swanson on a farm in Minneota township. I was the 5th child of a family of 10 children of which Art & Edna the 2 oldest were half-brother & sister; then Harry, Alta, myself, Andrew known as Barney, Harold, Virginia, Herbert & Irwin.
My mother told me that I was born with a cold so was never too strong. Also they wondered why I kept crying until they discovered somehow a pin had got stuck through my arm. When they took the pin out I slept like a good baby should. The first naughty deed that I can remember that I did - of course there were many to follow - was with my brother, Barney and I would sneak up to my brother Art's room to get gum out of his dress coat pocket (of course all big brothers had gum in their pockets and we younger kids never had any) and instead of gum I found a solid gold watch chain that had been sent from Denmark to my mother from her foster parents after their death. I took it and went into the grove and played with it and lost it and to this day it is still lost as far as I know. Our farm was situated very close to school district 113 so we usually had the teacher board with us, and many times in the winter during a snow storm the Swanson children -Harry, Alta, Melvin, & Barney, plus the teacher would be the only ones in school. We always enjoyed that because then instead of studying we would tell stories until 11 or so. In those days schooling was much different than of today. I remember when I went, there was 1 man, that was working at least 20 years as a hired man during the summer, and wanted to get more education so he went to grade school during the winter months. Some of my classmates were John Stinar children, Geo Stinar children, Erna & Herman Heidemen, Frances, Jacob Ukasik, Laddie & Paul Romen, Tom Olson kids, Hilda & Ardet Olson, Kinnan, Fred, Earl & Floyd, Dorothy, John Handzus, Frank & Albert Antolik, Frank Golitiko, Earl & Mary Powers. We always came home for dinner except in bad weather and mother had a large family to bake & cook for, so she usually had hot fried bread like donuts ready for us kids, We enjoyed our boarder teachers and especially after Mother got a piano in the evenings. Burget Morkrid (one of our boarder teachers) would play and we kids sat around and listened.
I remember before the cars came my sister Edna would go to the corn crib where we kept the surrey buggy with a needle & thread to repair the upholstery. I can remember well when she sent to Montgomery Ward and got a single horse buggy for herself. She bought it with her earnings from being a hired girl. The wheel shined in the sun so you could see them for miles. We had an old windmill built by my grandfather down by the creek by the road. Harry and I were out there pumping water one day when my Dad & brother Art came up in a new Buick car - they had been to Minneapolis. We jumped down from the windmill and followed behind the car trying to keep up with it. When we got in the yard my brother Art gave us kids a ride. My first ride in a car. What a thrill!! That was in the year 1913 or 1914.
From early until late fall, Barney, Alta and I were the cowpunchers, Dad always had a large herd of cattle and of course there were very few fences in those days. Dad always rented other farms and it was up to us kids to get the cattle into those pastures & back without getting into any corn or oats fields. It was an all-day job from early morning to late afternoon. I remember in particular how one Sunday we could see we had company at home, but we had to stay and herd those cattle. How we cried! There was 1 place west about 1 mile, the Antolik farm now, where we liked to go because there was an old abandoned house on the farm. We would go upstairs and look out the window and watch the cattle from there. There were so many birds in those days - we would examine all the nests. One time we tried to trap a shy poke. We found a nest that had 8 or 9 eggs so set a gopher trap on the eggs but all we got were a few feathers, so we gave up. One day when we were playing around the house we saw a big pile of mash of some kind. When we got home we asked Mom about it. She got a funny look on her face, so we asked Dad and he said there was some one making moonshine there, and we were not to tell anyone. So we couldn't play in the house anymore. We had taken care of those cows & calves for so long that we knew every critter by sight and which calf went with each cow. One fall day while Barney and I were herding cattle we saw a lot of caterpillars and we thought they were going to eat up Dad's corn field, so we gathered them up with corn silk and set them on fire to a hill that was unbroken prairie grass. The fire got out of control in the dry prairie grass and started to spread to the corn stalks. Dad and the hired hand came and put it out. That was the first spanking from my dad with a corn stalk.
We had a creek running through our farm and my Grandfather (being quite a fisherman) would come out from town in the spring and set up a net in the creek and there would be so many carp & pickerel trying to get through the net so we kids would have to put a net on the back side of them and then get in there with silage forks and throw them to shore. Then grandpa would smoke them, and we would have fish for all summer and fall.
I got interested in 4-H club work through one of my schoolteachers just before I entered Sioux Valley High School. I took calves. The first time I ever took a calf to the fair I won Grand Champion. Then I took my calf to the Junior Livestock show in St. Paul. We took the train from Lakefield to Miloma and then to the cities. My first train ride. I got placed within the 1st 15, which was quite an honor statewide competition. One of the following years my brother, sister and I had 4 calves altogether and we got Group showing Grand Champion. Then a couple years later I got Grand Champion at the county level and the state level. Over the years I won 5 gold watches and 2 trophies. One for Grand Champion angus and one for being in club work the longest in Minnesota. On one occasion I was given a trip to go to Montana on the train with my calf. We stopped at towns along the way and I would have to give a talk about my calf. This trip was sponsored by Mr. Hill, president of the railroad at that time. Our only expense was to tip the porters. I remember well one time when I came home from St. Paul, the train left me off at Windom about 2:00 am so I went into the station and sat on the bench waiting for morning to come so I could call my folks to come get me. I could hear the telegraph clicking away and all at once something was biting me. I looked at the bench and it just red with bed bugs. When I got home I told my mother, and she boiled all those clothes in kerosene. One other event that stands out in my mind is the time my father, brother Barney, and I, along with others from 4-H, were riding on a streetcar. The car was so packed we all had stand except Barney who was lucky enough to get a seat. We all got off except Barney who didn't realize we had gotten off. We looked until 1:00 am for him and finally found him in a police station. That was one dad and one brother mighty glad to see a little boy in a red stocking cap. Our folks took us to town the day before and Grandpa was to see that we got on the train the next day to stay with Mrs. Carlson. We used a room that another boarder had been using. When we went to bed it was dark and when we got up in the a.m. to find a pot there was a leg sticking out from under the bed and scared us half to death. It was a wooden leg.
In those days it was customary to drive the fat cattle to the stock yards in Lakefield. Dad would order a railroad car ahead of time to take the cattle to Chicago. He would go along and ride in the caboose. He always came home with a new muskrat or mink cap that he bought in Chicago. He always had a lot of interesting things to tell us about what was going on in the big city of Chicago. One day when Alta, Barney, and I were playing in the grove my sister Edna came and told us we were to go to Kinnan's and play with their kids. This was quite unusual as we always were sneaking over there to play and catching dickens because we were supposed to be home working. Anyway, we went and were having a good time when Mrs. Kinnan came and told were to go home as we had a new baby brother. Of course, we ran as fast as we could and there was a new baby brother, Harold. Mrs. Kinnan our neighbor lady served as a midwife.
I remember another time when I was playing at Kinnan's I was turning a hand grindstone while one of the Kinnan's boys was sharpening a tin can. As I changed hands my one hand slipped into the gears and ground the flesh. Mrs. Kinnan put turpentine on it. I still have the scars. Barney got a new bike, and I had an old bike with a poor tire and no coaster brakes, but we decided on a Sunday to have a real adventure, so we got on our bikes and headed for Community Point on Heron Lake. We got about 4 miles from home and my tire sprung a leak. In those days the bike tires had no tubes. We went to the fence and found a piece of wire which we bent into a U shape and stuck into the hole. We went on our merry way to the lake and it held until we got back home. About this time the Fetcho boys Art & Ray each had a bike, and they rode down their hill. They finally coaxed me inti riding down it even though we all knew I had no coaster brakes. I went down the hill so fast I shot across the road and landed in the opposite ditch. Luckily I missed the tree stump in the ditch. I was pretty well shook up, but still could get up and ride.
In those days wash day was a real chore as most of it was done by hand. But my mother was lucky as her father built her a windmill washing machine. It was a platform with handles and wheels in front and the washing machine sat on the platform and he also built a windmill to set on this platform so the wind could make the washing machine go. This machine was so constructed that it could be changed to set into the wind whichever way it blew.
One of the chores for us kids was to see that the cob and wood box was full. We had to go into the hog lot and pick up the cobs from what the pigs had eaten the corn from the cobs and pick up all the wood that was laying around the place. Another chore was to stop at the hog barn on the way home from school and pump water till the well went dry. Then I'd go up and eat a little lunch by that time there would be more water in the well so I could pump again.
MOTORCYCLE DAYS
One fall I was working for Geo Stinar plowing oat stubble when Ben Rue's hired man came over with a motorcycle he wanted to sell. He had it in the back seat of his car. It was a Twin Indian 37 cu. in. motor. I liked it so the next day when I took cream to town I took one of my CD's from the bank and wanted to cash it. The banker told me it wasn't due, but he would lend me some money, so I said O.K. Then he found out I wasn't 21 so he wouldn't lend me the money, but I needed the money, so he cashed my CD anyway. I paid the man $50 and the motorcycle was mine. Boy was I a happy guy. But my pop and mom and oldest brother Harry weren't. After I had it a short time I was told to get a license and being a kid, I didn't know how to get a license. As I didn't even have a title card for it, so I decided to se11 it. I sold it about 3 times and every time I sold it the guy would bring it back because he couldn't get any license. I would keep half of the amount I sold it for to repair it with then I would sell it again. It finally ended up being sold to Tom Wiezorek.
Then I bought a 4-cylinder Henderson with a side car in Spirit Lake at a garage. As I was driving it out of the garage in Spirit Lake I discovered there was no brakes and I almost smashed into a car across the street. I carefully drove home and made some adjustments. Then brother Harry wanted to take it for a ride, so he took it and went west about 1 mile and came back white as a sheet. He had never driven a motorcycle before, and he almost tipped it over. After that he didn't care too much for motorcycles. Later I sold this cycle to a junk dealer in Spirit Lake who sold it for me to a policemen in Spirit Lake. About this time my cousin in Des Moines wrote me and told me about a little Austin car he had that I could buy for $125.00. I wrote right back and told him to drive it up which he and another kid from Des Moines did. It was grain cutting time but my folks were so happy with the little Austin they let me off from work to take the two kids to the Intersection of Hyws 71 & 9 west of Spirit Lake so they could catch a ride back to Des Moines.
In those days everyone went to town on Saturday nights to get their groceries, so Harold, Barney, and I would crowd into the Austin to go to the show. In the wintertime we always took a can along so we could drain the car when we got to town as there wasn't such a thing as anti-freeze. Then we would put the can in the car and when we got ready to go home we had to put the water back into the radiator. While we were in the theatre someone was always monkeying with the car. If I parked up the curb when we came out it was backed up to the curb. Sometimes they had carried it across the street and parked it in the doorway of the Farmers Store (now Stensrud's). One time Harry Schumaker asked me to give him a ride which I did. He said go faster which I did, and it made quite a bit of noise. After I left Harry off, the policemen came up and gave me a ticket for making too much noise. I had to appear before Justice of the Peace Malek. I explained that the Austin didn't have a muffler. He never fined me, just told me not to drive so fast. About this same time a man came to me and wanted to sell his Harley Davidson 74. He seemed to have trouble tipping over with it as he was too short-legged to have such a big cycle. He wanted $60, and it was almost new, so I bought it. Now my brother Harold was very happy, as one day he would take the Austin, and the next day the motorcycle to Lakefield High School. He was even giving the teachers rides in them. I finally sold the Austin to a traveling salesman for the same amount I had paid for it, $125.00. We had lots of good times with it. In 1941 I moved with Ivar & Virginia Hodnefield (my sister) to the farm west of Lake-field. We farmed there until I was called into the Service in the fall of 1942.
ARMY LIFE
In the fall of 1942, I was drafted into the Army at Fort Dodge, Iowa. I was sent to Camp Hood, Oregon, near Klamath Falls & Crater Lake. I was trained as a cook. It was beautiful there. There were pear & peach orchards and as it was war time they could not get any pickers, so some of us G.I.'s were3 hired on our days off to pick and pack the fruit. It was very interesting and fun. I went up to Table Rock & Crater Lake many times. Mom, Scott, and I went there to see the camp in 1966, and now it is a shopping center. From there I was sent to Palm Springs, California. We saw lots of movie stars with their dark glasses and fancy clothes and cars. At night we would hear the coyotes barking as it was a desert around there then. From there I was sent by train to a camp by New York City. Some of my buddies and I went into the Empire State Building and up to the top. I had one furlough while I was in the states. I rode the train to Worthington and caught a ride with a bread truck that was going to the Four Corners. He left me off on old Hwy 16 west of the Four Mile corner and I walked home. It was real early in the morning and I could hear all the bulls bellowing. When I got home, everyone was in bed yet and they were real surprised to see me as I hadn't told them I was coming. When I got back to New York we all knew we were going to be shipped out overseas somewhere. It was dark and we walked and walked. We all figured we were going up a gang plank. It was really quite scary. It was always dark at nights because we didn't dare have the lights on. In the daytime we would see fish swimming alongside the ship. We landed in Cardiff, Wales. We had to go stay in people’s homes as there weren't any barracks ready for us. It was sad as the boys were getting ready to go to Normandy and we were cooking their last meal. Some never made it back. From there I was shipped to LaHavre, France. Felt so sorry for the kids. They would come begging for cigarettes or coffee etc. We always gave them the coffee grounds after we had used them. We also had German prisoners of war that we had to cook for. Felt sorry for them as some were so young. France was not a clean country. They had open latrines. I went to Paris, saw many interesting things. From there I went to Belgium and the war was over, so I was sent back to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin, where I received my discharge in the fall of 1945. Again, my folks didn't know I was coming home. So I got off the train in Lakefield and asked where my folks had bought their house in town and so once again I surprised them. Erwin and I stayed with mom and dad that winter. We worked at the bowling alley setting up pins; that was before the mechanical pin setters.
I was also trying to buy machinery so I could start farming again. Leona and Harold lived on the farm while I was in the service. Couldn't get any tractors or anything as we had been at war and all machinery plants were busy making bombs and planes, etc. Couldn't get a car for love or money, so borrowed dad's most of the time. Luckily Harry had some machinery so were able to get our crops in. I did buy a team of horses so I could plant corn with them and cultivate.
