Bert's Memory at Age 14
Dear Grandsons --
Happy 14th Birthday! In honor of your 14th, I thought I’d give you a memory from your Great Grandpa Bert Vogel (my dad) that happened when he was 14 and graduated from 8th grade. You will soon learn that being 14 in 1923 was not easy! Your great grandpa was born on July 13, 1909. This is what he wrote:
“Perhaps this is the time to write about my graduation from 8th grade and what happened during the summer.
At Easter time, I got a brand new suit of clothes – brown with a pin stripe. My first suit with long pants! In those days, boys wore short pants – knickers – they were called. They buttoned just below the knee and we wore long black stockings. Usually, you got your first long pants suit at Easter time and there were several reasons for picking that time. One was that everybody wanted new clothes at Easter so that was reason #1. #2 was so that you could wear it on your graduation, and #3 was that you could also make your solemn Communion and Confirmation in it and #4 was that you were supposed to be a man! Your voice also changed about that time!
I got the suit about in April and it was plenty big – you grew into clothes in those days. They were bought too big and you wore them until they were too small. Then, the next one got them.
Anyway, I was of normal size at that time, but by the time school opened in September, I had grown over six inches! I wore size 12 shoes (and they were tight), size 15 shirt. I was over 6 feet tall, thin as a rail, and weighted about 155 pounds! Gad! What a sight I must have been! I remember walking in rank two-by-two to church every morning and I could look over the top of every body. I was so embarrassed, would droop by shoulders and try to make myself as short as possible! It sure was hell for a few months, but by that time, one or two others had caught up to me.
The following year I turned fifteen in July. I was strong, tall, and skinny – fully able to do a man’s work; so, in August, I decided to work in the harvest fields of North and South Dakota. My dad would only let me go if I went to my Aunt Kate’s farm in Eden, South Dakota. So, they gave me $5.00 and I took the noon train to Fairmont, North Dakota, stayed in a hotel that night (for $1.00) and took a freight train the next day. It stopped at every station and took all day although it was only 90 miles. It was a great adventure to me. I was going out into the world – to make my fortune – it seemed so easy at that age – and I was in high spirits when I got there. I stayed at Aunt Kate’s for a day or two and everything was fine as long as I was with her. But then they sent me to schock grain at a brother of Aunt Kate’s husband about five miles away. I did not now these people at all and boy! Did I get homesick! Were any of you ever really homesick? I suppose Steve probably was when he went into the Navy. Believe me, it is a real sickness. I stayed in my room for two days pretending I had a stomach ache but by the third day I got over it and I went to work and worked along with the other men. There were two young fellows from Nebraska a little older than I and it wasn’t long before we were close friends. We stayed together all through the harvest season and then went north into North Dakota and worked the harvest all the way to the Canadian border where we picked potatoes for 10 cents a bushel. I forgot to tell you that we were paid 35 cents an hour for threshing and we saved our money. Boy, was I rich! I had never seen so much money. I put it in my shoe. Since we slept in the hay loft in barns, we hardly ever took our shoes off – except to wash our socks and then put them back on. When they had big holes in them, we would buy new ones. 15 cents a pair. Work shirts were $1.00; overalls $1.50 and a jacket about $2.00; a straw hat 75 cents. This is all we had except an old horse blanket that my Aunt Kate gave me. I would wrap my shirt and sox and jacket in the blanket, tie a strap around it and away we would go!
We would hop a freight train and go about a hundred miles north and try to find work. We would stay in the “Jungle.” Every town had a place near the tracks where the “hobos” would stay and since we were hobos in a sense (although we did not beg food), we would buy some hamburger (9 cents a pound), can of beans, a loaf of bread and cook our meal. The jungle always had some so-called pots and pans – some made out of tin cans – we would gather twigs and pieces of wood and build an open campfire and have a picnic. We helped one another. We shared everything. At night we would do a little stealing – find a garden and dig up a few potatoes – a head of cabbage – a few carrots, etc. and the next day we would have a mulligan stew. Sometmes there would be 15 or 20 men in one jungle – all helping each other. The regular hobos didn’t like us. We stayed away from them as much as possible. It was in one of these camps that the three of us became very nervous about all the money we were carrying. We all had over $200 each and we were afraid that the hobos would jump us and steal every thing we had. So – one of the boys from Nebraska had sent a Money Order once and he thought we should send most of our money home. I wasn’t too sure about this but he assured us that it was safe so we went to the Post Office and I sent $200 home and kept about $10.00. I worried about that until I got home a month or so later. Dad said they got the money and I never saw a penny of it again. Money was always short at our house. I was the oldest of seven children and you were expected to help out.
After re-reading the preceding, I think I had better explain a little bit more about jungles so that you get a better picture of why they were a necessity during the harvest season. The railroads were very lenient about workers riding the boxcars because they were in the business of hauling grain to the markets. The farmers raised the grain and needed help to harvest so – the workers were allowed to ride free – as long as they behaved themselves. And most of them did. It was the hobos who caused most of the trouble when it occurred. These people would not work – just moved from town to town – begged for food and clothing and money (to buy booze with). In short – not very nice people. You don’t see many of them anymore. They probably have all found a nice welfare income someplace.
Back to picking potatoes. What a tough job for a tall person. The short lean people could stand up and lean over to pick. Tall people like myself had to do it on hands and knees. I lasted about three days. Then, I couldn’t take it anymore. My back was so sore I could handle walk. My two Nebraska pals had also had enough and decided to go home. I met an older man with a Model T touring car and we decided to go to Canada and see if we could find some thrashing. However, everything had been threshed. We finally found a job – plowing with five mules! That is a story in in itself! A mule is the most stubborn animal on this earth. Most of my swear words were found here at this job. We received $1 per day – 10-11 hours and we stayed about three weeks. By this time, it was almost November so we decided to go home. My friend’s home was in Melrose – just a few miles from New Munich. It was 95 miles to Emerson, MN where we could hit the gravel road. The 90 miles took us 2-1/2 days all mud and just a trail. We got stuck at least 10 times. Sometimes we pushed ourselves out but most of the time we needed help. There were no towns in between very few farms. But, during one of our “stuck” times, a Northwest Mounted Policeman on a horse would catch up to us and would hook his lasso on the car and pull us out. We would keep on as long as we could and when we got stuck again, we would wait for the Mounty to catch up and help us out. This happened many times and I wish I had a picture of him pulling the Model T. He was in full regalia – red coat and every thing. Well, we finally got to Emerson where we found the gravel road. No pavement then. We started for home and burned out a connecting rod. I stayed with the car and my friend walked to the nearest town and luckily found a connecting rod and we put that rod on right there. So we went on and got home about two days later. Boy! I was glad to be home.
Mom made me remove all my clothes in the barn and I had a bath in a wash tub – the first in many weeks. I wasn’t “lousy”; but mom wasn’t taking any chances! It sure felt good after a bath and clean clothes!”
I hope you enjoyed his memories!
Love,
Grandma Mary
Comments
Post a Comment