Voices Across A Century: A Memorial to My Grandparents

A century speaks when you can hear it. Rob opens his family archive to share a carefully restored 2002 interview with his grandparents—two voices that carry Minnesota farm grit, German cadence, and the quiet strength of a marriage begun at sixteen. What starts as a personal memorial becomes a living piece of oral history: Depression-era setbacks, threshing crews and one-room schoolhouses, a boy who learned English after first grade, and a medic shipped through Texas deserts to India on Christmas Eve.

You’ll hear how work stitched life together—textile mills turning rags into wipers, long shifts at Armor’s, and the steady math that bought and paid off two homes. The war years come alive through field hospitals, penicillin lessons learned the hard way, and a Himalayan rest camp where cool air and careful roads offered relief. Then the light shifts to St. Paul: a wedding day with tough fried hens and a missing lipstick, two rooms with a shared bath when housing was scarce, and the hand-painted nativity set that became the heart of every Christmas. Faith isn’t abstract here; it’s a crib built by hand, a pew filled every Sunday, vows taken seriously, and affection practiced more openly with the next generation.

We move through the tenderness and the hard parts—sectarian jabs in a mill yard, the discipline that shaped character, a grandson’s death that still breaks the voice, and the fierce pride that spills over when grandkids serve Mass, finish college, or skate under winter moonlight. There are cabins and cocoa suppers, moon-bright sled hills, and the crunch of horse hooves on snow drifting across memory. There’s even a strange echo of history when our granddaughter works in India decades after her grandpa served there, set against the grounded skies of 9/11.

If you’ve ever wished you could bottle a voice before it’s gone, this is your nudge. Press play, meet our family, and think about the stories you want to save. If this moved you, subscribe, share it with someone you love, and leave a review with the one memory you’d record first.

Transcript

Preserving Family Voices And Accents

Interview Begins With Grandpa

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone. And uh welcome to something that's going to be a little different here. So, first, this is going to be an audio podcast uh episode only. That is because what you are about to listen to is a recording uh of an interview done by my cousin and godmother. Um same person, my cousin who is also my godmother, uh, that my cousin made of my grandparents about 24-25 years ago. So this was recorded, I believe, uh in 2002, which was uh a few years before my grandfather passed. And we interviewed them uh just about their lives. Um just telling the story of their lives, basically. And uh I'm I'm making this public. Um I I'd I've already a few years ago took that interview, which was done on uh had to be probably one of the earlier generations of digital voice recorders. I took that interview and um spent a fair amount of time uh kind of scrubbing the audio and mastering it to the best of my ability uh to make it available to my family. But I'm making it publicly available now to everyone, uh mostly as uh a memorial to my grandparents. My grandmother um just passed away a few days ago, as of the date I'm recording this. Uh so she passed away here in early uh 2026. Um my grandfather had passed uh about 20 years ago. Um but I'm I'm I'm making this publicly available mostly as a memorial to them just to help remember them. They were very uh instrumental in my life, very instrumental in in raising me in the faith. Um and I'm also putting this out there because we just don't have, I feel, in our world, enough uh stories um from uh from our families, from earlier generations. You know, they uh they my grandpa was born in the early 1920s, my grandma in the early 1930s. You know, my grandpa would have was born over a hundred years ago. Now, like it's this recording is from 20 years ago, shortly before he died. But um to hear the story um to hear uh a man tell the story of his life from over a hundred years ago is something special. To hear him tell it in his own words, just to hear the in the the different way in which he spoke. Uh my grandpa my grandpa only spoke uh German actually up until the age of six of six or seven. Um so you know he he in he grew up in Minnesota at a time when Minnesotans definitely had a Minnesotan accent. Um that's largely gone now. You know, uh I know Anthony talked about how you know he's got the Long Island accent, but his his kids don't. So we're we're losing little local differences like that, right? And I just think it's important to try to save the memory of things like that as much as possible, just even to save the way in which someone spoke. Um so yeah, I I'm I'm putting this out there kind of for posterity's sake. I think it's important for us and our children and grandchildren to hear stories of of earlier generations. You know, I grew up on these stories. These stories about their lives helped form for me as a person. Um in my kids, uh my kids won't really get those. My oldest is seven, so he he knew my grandma, he'll remember my grandma. Um but my youngest Sebastian was just born in August. Still have no memory of my grandma. He only got to meet her a few times, unfortunately. But through things like this, they can still grow up um at least a little with their stories. So that's why I'm putting this out there. I know it's different. I know it's not Anthony's loud boisterousness. Um, it's not where you're used to from avoiding Babylon. Um, if you don't like it, I understand. If you don't listen to it, I get it. No, no big deal, no problem. But uh hopefully a few of you uh enjoy it. Um and like I said, I'm doing this mostly as a memorial and mostly for posterity's sake. So if no one else listens to it or no one enjoys it, don't skin off my back. But anyways, that's what this is. You'll um you'll probably get to know me a little bit more through through this uh recording. Um you'll get to know my family a little for better or worse. But anyways, thank you all. And um, and here it is.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

And grandpa, how about we have you begin? Why don't you tell us uh when you were born and where you were born?

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Well, I was born uh March 13th, 1923. And I was born in Pinolison, Minnesota, and uh that's close to Sandstone. Was I 61 at that at that time and uh my dad had a Ford dealership uh in town at that time and uh uh selling uh Fords and repairing them and everything and we lived right in town, so and we lived just two years in in town. So that's uh where I was born. Wasn't your dad there before you were born? Oh he was he was sure he had uh he had uh the garage uh before he got married and came back to Winstead and my mom was in Winsted, and of course Winstead was their hometown, so I don't know how come he got way up there to start a garage. Uh I think somebody that he knew lived up there and but he uh uh he had a repair shop right at garage. And he went to Michigan to pick up these new cars himself. Yeah, he uh got on a boat and l and Duluth and went to Michigan, picked up his new cars and and uh of course uh uh they called it a mid midway garage. And I think was uh what they why they did that was because uh it was mid uh halfway from St. Paul to the that's and it wasn't uh right off the 61. So I mean it was the main route to look. But uh what else you wanted to say? Well he lost it. He lost it. Well you wanted me to say all that? Yeah, come on. Oh well, of course he lived in in uh depression if of course he had the depression started and he couldn't sell no cars and he and this and that and and uh kind of went broke. So uh he uh had a deal that he could uh a guy take the garage for a farm. So that's what they did. And uh he started farming, and of course up there you couldn't you you couldn't raise no crops. There was the it was too uh cold, too short of a season for corn, and uh the ground wasn't good enough for grain. All you could do is raise cattle and and grass, and so uh he couldn't raise too much up there, and the taxes was the property taxes were so high due to the new school and uh bus system they started up there that he couldn't pay the taxes, and the county took the farm for back to taxes. So he lost the farm. So they uh moved uh uh loaded all this cattle and machinery and everything up on a train and and they took it to Winston. And that's what he they rented the farm and started all over. And that's uh And they rented farms all your life until uh you were in the army. They finally bought a home. Yeah. They were they were running all the time until uh yeah, the first home they bought was uh in Winton in town. And dad was semi-retired, so he bought that or rented the standard service. Yeah. Jim and Jim and my brother uh ran a standard service station in in my hometown. Of course, then he then and my dad worked for uh uh Middleburn Brothers, which was uh they made uh different things. So he he did work. He he had he worked uh how many uh quarters? I think uh twelve quarters under Social Security to get Social Security. He so he did work after he was sixty-five even to get so many quarters and that we got social security. Because on the farm, you know, you never paid in the Social Security, so he never belonged to it. But uh uh he worked for somebody else with so many quarters and uh to get social security.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

How many brothers and sisters did you have?

Siblings, Births, And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_03 11:08

I had uh nine uh nine brothers and sisters. No, with you there was nine. Huh? With you there's nine. Nine. Eight brothers and sisters. They were I was the oldest one. And my sister Diane was the youngest, and I I wasn't home no more, Dan. When she was born? She was born, yeah. Why don't you name them there? And uh so uh but uh Ray was of course he was you know uh he was born in twenty-five and Ern was born at twenty six and uh Rose born in twenty-seven. Mars was born in twenty-nine, Bill was born in thirty-two, uh Mary was born in thirty-five, and Joe was born in thirty-six, and Diane in 43. So all them. When do you remember your mom having the first baby? You don't remember like Ern and Ray and those, but she always had a midwife. Uh uh no, Ray was uh had she had a lot of trouble with him. The the stories you heard, but you don't remember that. No, no, no. Well the only one I remember was was uh uh Mary. It was uh uh my dad my dad was out in the uh uh field in the afternoon, you know. And then my mom went out in the field to get my dad. My dad came right in. That was real early, you know. And he put the horses away and and kind of clean up and dressed, you know, he went to town. And uh so uh that was well six, uh five, six o'clock. And uh what is my mom got all dressed up and went and kind of went to you know in the bedroom, and here comes here come the doctor. Doctor came in, and of course my dad was in there and and everything, and and uh pretty soon, man, there was a baby crying. And that was uh uh about six, seven o'clock. We were all up, we were all in the kitchen, you know. And of course uh uh the doctor left and my dad and my mom got pretty sick, so uh then they had to go get the doctor again. So that's the only one that I remembered. I don't remember none of the other ones. You were eleven years old then? Was that when Mary was born? Yeah, I suppose. That would be like Chase. Yeah. The other ones. I don't I don't remember that. Joe, I I sure didn't remember, yeah. Should have, he must have been home. Oh I yeah, but that was maybe the middle of the night. Well that could be. I guess they had doctors most of the time. But most of the time my grandma was always scared. Nothing. You know. But this time she wasn't, so I don't know, um Why don't you tell that story about your mom was out on the hay wagon and she was pregnant? Oh yeah, she talked up though. Um of course she always, you know, even when she was pregnant, she she helped on the farm, she uh you know, all the hay and stuff like that. And once uh uh she you know, my dad had a huge makeup. In other words, there was a loader, you know, he it uh the hay was putting windroads, you know, on one straight rope. And in the back of the hay wagon, they had a thing that picked up the hay, brought it up, and dropped it on a load, and dropped it in the in the wagon, you know, hay wagon that and and my dad made made uh straighten it out and made good loads, and and somebody was always driving it real slow, so with with the horses. And of course, in the front of the hay wagon they had a like a ladder, you know, because uh the load gets real high and they used get up on the ladder to hold your reins, you know, to steer your horses. And uh and she was up there and uh uh the ladder broke and she fell down between the horses and on the pole, you know. And uh it you know she never went to the doctor, but she was boy, she was sore for a long time. And they were scared that maybe something happened to the baby, you know. And but uh everything was alright. Yeah. You know, a different thing, she so I know once uh uh she had a uh her leg was uh uh had a really funny uh funny you know, when she moves it up and down, her skin went up and down, see. Funny scar. A funny scar. Our kids remember that but the grandchildren don't. Our kids remember that but the grandchildren don't. Anyhow uh was on the brain binder and we had to put a canvas on a brain binder, see? And she helped her dad to put the canvas on and she was in the front. What it where the it cut cut the brain off.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

And um her brother was hooking the horses up. And when they were hooking the horses up, or she kinda jumped it in and and uh uh pulled a binary hit and the thing cut her leg, yeah. So uh uh course they they took her to the doctor and here to cut the cord. And when he s when he got the cord together, uh it kind of sold the skin right onto the cord. So every time he moved up, you know, moved the uh cord, the skin went up and down. So that's a terrible score.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

For the grandchildren, what was your parents' name? For the for the grandchildren that never met your mom and dad?

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Uh my dad was Robert. I don't know if he had a middle name. I don't think he did. And uh uh my mother was Marie. Or Mary? Marie? She went by both Mary or Marie. Mostly Marie though.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Any more questions? Do you want him to continue on more with his childhood or do you want to talk about yourself to move?

Christmas On The Farm

SPEAKER_03 18:48

No, talk about um Christmases at your house too. Christmases? Yeah. Well well, you know, uh, you know, a day day before Christmas we didn't there was no sign of Christmas. The only the only sign of Christmas was that my mom scrubbed the floor, you know. Nice clean floor. And before it was always dirty, full of mud, you know, because everybody came in with the shoes, you know. Isn't this funny that he would remember that on Christmas? I tell you, we could take off our shoes and and and we go walk around the house, it was really nice, you know. And there was no summer uh Christmas and of course everybody went to bed, you know, at the same time. Of course, we we were all excited.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

So we would go to bed early, you know. And next morning get up, we have the the tree was up, the crib was up, uh all the all the stuff was put out, you know, we didn't we never got too much, you know. But we got uh like uh a fruit and uh peanuts, all the peanuts and candy and stuff like that, and and uh everybody had their own space where they had their files, you know. We got a few toys and stuff like that. And uh I know some years is better than some, but uh it's uh you know, never never got too much. And then he surely all went to church together. Oh sure, that's that's definitely sometimes it's so cold and and we had a hitch up the horse to pull the car around to get it started because at that time uh your oils and everything was so so bad that uh we had to fight like hell to get a car started, you know, when it was real cold. Then uh uh snow was deep, but it's all you like you went to church.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

What was the relationship like with your parents?

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Like what?

Discipline, Work, And Threshing

SPEAKER_04 21:04

You mean like uh did you hug and kiss and all those things?

SPEAKER_03 21:10

I never remember being kissed by my ma or uh even hug. You know, you don't you don't hug uh or anything like that. And we d I don't ever remember kissing my ma or uh hugging my ma or my dad, you know. But uh uh we know or we knew they you know they loved us because they they sure wouldn't they would put themselves out like they did.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Well you know, really taking care of us. Working so hard, yeah. Yeah, working so hard and and and and and uh going without themselves. Oh sure. So but uh Jesus, you know, of course we didn't behave. We got it. We had we had a strict discipline. Mostly my mouth. Or she was rough, I tell you. She uh uh got too big, but she couldn't hit us no more with her hand. We had a they had a spanking stick. Well my dad never he never he never said nothing, he never uh spanked us. Uh but he when he got mad at you, he I never heard my dad sore once in my life. He never he said, doggone you, that's all he ever said. Even a even the horses or anybody, he wouldn't never heard him sore. And uh when your dad owned the trash machine, were they a little better off then? Did he make good money doing that? Oh he said, yeah, he made good money. I don't know. Uh I know I know uh uh when he thrashed, you know, uh they they they begged all year to get the to get the money. Oh to from the other people. Oh sure. They I know uh once he had a he had even guaranteed some checks, you know, print checks and stuff like that. But uh uh uh he didn't never got the money at one time. He had to beg for it all every uh all year long. So why even do it? Well, to get the money. To get, you know, to earn more money? Yeah. I mean, because he had them he had the machine, you know. Where did he get the money to buy the machine? Oh that detective before he was ever married, he'd had that.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Are you kidding?

SPEAKER_03 23:51

Oh yeah, well I thought that was on like the Schmaltz's place they were listening to. Oh no, no, no, no. He was he was young, he had a trash machine, he had a steam engine. And his steam engine and and uh I remember the steam engine yet, it blew the whistles, you know, and stuff like that. But uh he he had the trash machine before he got went up to Phyllison. And and when he was up in Phyllison, uh he had to come back every year uh to take care of his customers. So no, he had that all the time. He had it till till he quit farming. And later on, uh when I had left home yet, he had that uh big tractor and uh trash machine meat thrashed every year. Hard work, he was a hard working man, you know, and and uh uh to begin with uh years ago they never uh put uh you know, well of course there wasn't a combine, and they uh when we were farmers we sh we shocked all of corn and uh our our grain and and left it dry, and then they had uh people with uh horse and wagons go pick them up and bring them to a trash machine and trash it out. Well way before that the farmers staff make big high stacks and just left their brain dry that way and and stuff like that. And uh then my dad came and uh trashed. Sometimes he was still trashing when it was snowing because there was no hurry, you know. So uh that was a thing called stack thrashing, you know. I remember I remember when I came home for from the uh army on a furlough. Uh I went home, my dad was thrashing a neighbor, and he had stacks, and he he didn't have enough help. So my dad got me to uh take the bundles off the stacks and throw them in the machine. Me and another guy, you know. Man, I I didn't know how to do that, I couldn't kill myself trying to keep up, you know. So that was that was uh when I was in service yesterday, they were still making stacks.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

Why don't we talk about um school? You going to school and then going to the textiles and then going on to war? And then we'll go over to grandma to talk of about all these things with her then. So you want to start with school?

One-Room Schools And English

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Well, uh how do you start? I remember uh di well there was district schools, there was uh one room uh schoolhouses uh way out in the country.

SPEAKER_04 27:01

And that's what you describe as a district school.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Well, I guess uh every district had to have their own schools, see. But then of course they don't now. They got to the colony got, you know, I mean whatever it is now, but at that time every district had their own school. And uh I But how about when you when your mom took you the first time? Well, that was uh was right through our uh uh pasture and there was one there close. I mean about talking German. Well yeah, uh uh they they they took us there and of course I there was no kindergarten, so I started with first grade. And when they took me to first grade, well uh the teacher says I you know I can't teach Germans and I the only thing I knew was German. Because uh uh my folks talk German at home, and that's why I l uh uh learned how to talk, and so she says, Well, I can't teach German because you know, well I'm teaching English and that's sort of Breslau teaching. So she said, You go home for a year and learn English. And so my folks had talking uh English and at home, and that's how I picked it up. So uh I guess I was okay the next year or something like that. So I don't know how long I would stay in that school. Uh I don't remember or how many grades there was, but it was a few years there, and then we went to a diff a dis different district school, which is a little higher grades. I know I I had to go to the neighbor and carry water for the for for drinking, and uh haul wood in. We hauled wood in, made fire, like in the mor uh like uh the first thing in the morning the the teacher had to make a fire, you know, uh and uh out of wood. And then when we got to school was still cold, I don't know a couple times uh I you know carried uh my lunch and uh half a gallon, serial pills, and uh we had a shelf across over the window, you know, and uh put my lunch pail on that shelf, and when I go to go to eat it, uh it was the sandwiches froze to the bottom of the pills. So so she teaches how to put it by the stove, you know. So you know. Okay, and why you changed schools? Your mom and dad rented it and they moved, they kept moving to a better farm each time. Bigger and better. So you went to a lot of different schools. Well that that one, of course, that one was uh uh quite a way, so we had to walk from there all the time. I mean once and when the snow was too deep, my my dad uh uh took us with a sled and horses, yeah. So uh but we walked. How many of you were there then? Like you and Ray and Urn Rose? Well, uh I don't remember. I remember uh me and Ern, maybe. Rose, I think Ray is there too. Huh? Ray is older than Urn, so Ray must have been with you too. But uh then we later on uh we went to Leicester Preschool for one year or so. That was that was no district school, that was like a school like we have now, you know, in town all public regular public school. And uh we got uh of course some of us had to make first communion and stuff like that. I know once uh uh I was supposed to make first communion and I stayed with my grandparents, which is about three miles out of Winston, the two and then we walked into town and and uh go to uh go to Catney school. Then we made our first communion and uh but then later on uh we we I drove uh when I started drive, I drove uh all the most of the kids and us into town in Winston and uh uh went to the Canton school. But first I had a uh Paul Milk take milk to the creamery and uh course at at home uh I mean at night you know after school uh I came home with a car. Tell uh that story here now when you say you had to take milk to the creamery, but then people you you know, you said before you take it to the creamery in Leicester Prairie, yeah, and they were all Lutherans. Yeah. And what did they do to you? Well I mean they they uh well it was really a feed mill, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Mm-hmm.

Driving, Creamery Runs, And Tensions

SPEAKER_03 32:36

I had to take uh uh grain into the milling place in in town in West Fury. And uh uh I was I was kind of small, you know, young. And uh you drive up and you'd have to throw the grain up top of the on top of the dock and then they grind it uh and make cattle feed out of it, see. And I had a hell of a time getting it up there, you know, because the trailer, uh my trailer was low and the dock was way up, and so I had to get that grain up there, you know. And uh them guys wouldn't guys in there wouldn't help me, see. They they they tell me if I ate more wheat on Friday, I could have eat got them things up there, see? And then and they just they just wouldn't help me. And but they helped the guy, the kid hit him. Yeah, of course you know, they knew him. They they knew me too, you know. 14 maybe. Yeah, I I got no idea what far's age. Well I was old enough to drive, you know, of course he didn't have to be very old to drive, but uh uh of course they told my dad that and uh he went to talk to him. He wasn't a super anymore. But he reached out to him uh in the first place uh uh he got his own meal after a while. Oh yeah. We just and the same way with the creamery. We had a whole uh milk to that, Lester Curry Creamery, you know. But they weren't that bad there. You know, they this that guy there was pretty nice, so yeah, it it was terrible and and and less curry, they were they were genuine Catholic to us. Oh yeah, they they were the old German uh uh beacher, you know, of course. Wissler was all German too and they were Catholic. See in in in the in the old country they they they were uh kind of uh you know they were rival rivals, you know. And actually Westori and Wissler, which are seven miles apart, they were regular rivals, you know. Because the the priests were preaching on Sunday not to go to any of them uh Lutheran dances or anything like that. Because you're not supposed to, you know, you might uh get hooked up with one of them girls or you know. So in and and I know the ministers said the same thing because uh when I went to school, the kids kids used to tell me what the ministry used to tell them about the Catholic Church. So it you know, it wasn't it was terrible at that time, they preached against the Catholic Street.

SPEAKER_04 35:43

So but uh and then then from there, when did you go uh live with your uncle to work at the textile company?

Textiles, Wartime Work, And Draft

SPEAKER_03 35:53

Oh in uh 43, 42. Well you said you were in the eighth grade? Well, yeah, I and is that when you went to Ed after the A three? Is that 14 when well uh I was in the eighth grade and uh of course uh I had to quit. Quit early that spring. Not quit, but help help uh on the farm. And I just uh in May when you start planting your dad needed you at home, so you had to do that. So then in June when you Well even the fall year, you know, we uh school started and we had farm work to do, I had uh wood to make, had this and that. I I didn't go right away. Well then when I couldn't go when we do the farm work, how far I was way behind. So I I had a struggle all the time and then in spring I had to quit. This was uh second, eighth grade, and uh eighth grade uh when it comes to the exams, so uh I quit you know I stayed home and I never didn't know if I passed. I never got the report card. So I stayed home all that all that summer. And uh next next winter it was uh we had that terrible snowstorm that moved uh where uh a lot of people in November. Yeah. So right after that I I came to uh came to Winston. Uh came to cities here and uh got a job and I uh worked a lot I don't know, a couple years, three years. By that time uh in the textile mill? In the textile mill. In the textile mill, yeah. I got uh got a job there under under age. I wasn't they weren't allowed to uh hire me, but uh like my age and so they because that was your hand the boss there. Yeah, he was yeah, he got me a job there and then uh worked there a few years and uh I I I quit there and went to Armory. So and the weather was you you say we got about 17 cents that kind of seventeen cents an hour. But when I started at Armories, I know I got 47 cents an hour. So of course I don't know uh you know but then I worked at Armor's Punier Punier Year. And then uh of course I only worked there to say about uh eight or nine months. And then uh uh I don't know what's put it was Punier Year. And then I figured I was gonna you know I've heard I've heard in New Brighton they're getting a dollar an hour and uh all the hours you want. Why do the defense plan, you know? The defense plant because the war broke out. Yeah. The second world war. The second world war, yeah. And because things were, you know, like even even the textile, we were uh making wipers for the navy and the army. Now tell them what wipers are. Uh wipers uh are old rags that people got rid of. They sold old rags to just about any, you know, to the sheenies or whatever. And uh explain what a sheeny is. It's a guy that comes through the alley and the taller's rags, rags, you know. And you give them anything you had that you wanted to get rid of, like we do now with with Goodwill Salvation Army. Of course, that could have been anybody, but the most of them were Jews, you know. So most of them lived on the west side down there. You know, Plato and in there now where the Red Cross is. Well, that's where all these red chimies lived. They all had a like a community there. And I think they sold them to the textile mills as they Well, they're and then they they came from Mollica. Yeah. They came from big bills and stuff, and we did. And then they uh uh I worked in a laundry room where they we washed them all uh and uh and then we took them they took them upstairs and then they they cut they cut the they cut the uh buttons off, cut the collars off, and then they had made all nice wipers, you know. They had uh uh handy wipers like flannel, they had uh colored wipers, they had white wipers, and there was all there were all sorts of what were the wipers for? Uh for anybody, garages bought them, uh the navy bought them before their equipment, but you know, just a white thing, wash things, white things, that's the need. And that's what the text out was.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

And then you left to go to Armory's, and how long were you at Armory before you got drafted?

SPEAKER_03 42:04

Uh I I see what I was gonna say is I worked for nearly and then I was gonna quit and go to uh uh New Brighton. New Brighton and for a dollar an hour, and I went to the uh uh the Armory's employment office and he's gonna tell him I'm gonna quit. And so I, you know, didn't fill up my papers and get my checks and stuff like that. They says, uh, okay, sorry, we we quit. He says, but as soon as you quit, return your name and a draft board. So he says in two weeks you're gonna be drafted. Well, they don't pay to go to two weeks. I don't want you to get. So I I I just stayed there at almost in a in a in a about six weeks I was drafted anyhow. So but at least that way I when I got back, I hadn't I had my job. See, they had to say my job. And uh I didn't have any intention of going back when I got back from the almost. But uh uh I was just taking time off and stuff like that. And pretty soon I was broke. Oh man, I I'd better I'd better go to work. I my job awaiting there. So I might as well go to work and get it get a few checks and then I'll look for a better job, a different job. And of course I was there 38 years. I never did quit. So what did you do, Thomas? Smoke wingers. I started and smoked off the first day, first day I there, and made all saw us and made fires and and then uh smoked wieners and uh thirty-eight years later I was still still there. So I mean of course I was you know, a hit smoker after a while, but After all the bull guy died off, so he had five weeks vacation? Oh yeah, five weeks vacation. For many years. Made it made enough money for uh uh my wife to uh sell to I don't know, stay home and take care of the kids.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

What what year did you go into the war when you worked in Ireland?

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Um 43, 1943.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

And where did you go? Where were you stationed?

Training As A Medic

SPEAKER_03 44:36

Uh we left here uh inducted at Fort Snelling here. It took like uh uh physical Fort Snelling. We the first day I got Fort Snelling, I put my clothes in the uh in the locker room and was stripped naked all day long, just going from one area to one after another till about four o'clock in the afternoon, and then we got our clothes up. So that's all I didn't look too. All then gone, stripped naked, and you know there's no place to put a hand. That was terrible. But that's how it works. But then uh I was classified as uh heavy equipment maintenance, man. And then when the order the order came in, they wanted uh I don't know how many companies of medicine at Camp Archie. So they shipped a whole troop training uh out of there and went down to Camp Barclay. And it makes no difference. When you was we had cartners, we had uh uh masons, you know, that had trades. They were all down, went down to Camp Barkley to for medics. We're trained as medics, uh first aid, uh like in the infantry and stuff like that, and stuff. From Camp Barclay went to Camp Barcelona? No, Camp Barclay went to Longview, Texas. I was stationed after we had basic uh stationed in the uh General Hospital where all these guys come back, you know, with uh and I was just there for that was it it wasn't bad, you know. Of course we worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Never had no time at home. Uh as a war boy, he drew your patient on the work. Is that where you gave shots? Yeah, I gave shots on there and I'll never forget, you know, I was giving pencil shots, you know. At that time penciling was new, you know, and you got shots, you know, uh every three hours or something like that. And I I thought to myself, boy, you know, I got I got a real small needle, you know, and uh gave the guy shots and needles. Boy, they like that, you know. They all wanted me to give shots. And and until they found out, the doctor found out the kind of needle I was using, I damn near got court-martialed. I was supposed to use them big long ones to get to get deep, you know. Boy, didn't that didn't go over, I guess. Yeah, you wake up during the night till you clock on your anyway. That that wasn't long you then we got uh transferred out of there, uh bunch of us guys and set up a field hospital. Huh? Where? Uh we got transferred to Camp Roberts, California and trained for a field hospital. It's kind of desert like there at Camp Roberts, like well yeah, it it was yeah, it's like a desert. Yeah. And uh uh we you know uh formed a field hospital and and uh of course we had our own equipment and everything canceled and everything. And we trained and because we had a uh train, so we uh it was in case we have to retreat or move out. Uh we we packed everything, mutations and everything, all the equipment, and and I think about 25 minutes we were on the move, we had them at all and talks moving up. So uh that was pretty qu pretty good. Of course we then we we boxed all our uh all our equipment and were to be shipped overseas and we had uh had orders to the league but we didn't know where. And so all our equipment went on a boat and we went on the plane. Uh we got transferred and down at uh Miami, Florida, and we had a uh a big fancy hotel the army at. It went in right on the beach and everything, and the whole the army had the whole thing. And of course that's where we had we had Thanksgiving Christmas uh Thanksgiving dinner. And well it was a big a nice dinner too. Uh uh then we all left on the plane. You know, a different plane. We stopped for Puerto Rico and I know we stopped on our island. Somewhere in the middle of I don't know what island that was. I only had one for y'all.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Uh uh.

India: Heat, Hospitals, And Rest Camp

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Yeah. And there was to refuel or something like that. And then we had to take off uh before night because at night uh the birds come on the runway where it's warm. So we had to make sure that we get off and uh uh was it a small plane? Well uh C47. Sure, two two far plane. Sure, we all we did is uh you know we put our luggage in the middle and then we had seats, you know, against the wall. You know, buggers. Yeah. And we got the crotchy in the end and uh found out that uh Jack took our area. You know, we supposed to set up a field hospital for the Chinese in in in in Burma. And uh the Chinese were fighting the Japanese. Of course they they f they fought for a hundred years, they've already been, you know, but anyhow uh by the time we got there the Japs took over the area, so we had no place to go. So I don't know what happened to our equipment. Uh we formed a station uh hospital in uh uh long uh in Tezport. Yeah, but now you said before this was getting now about Christmas time. Oh yeah. On your way to Tesco. 'Cause how do you remember it was Christmas time? Well it it was Christmas Eve when we was on the way. No Christmas, yeah, Christmas Eve. It was Christmas Eve. And of course, Christmas Day was still on the troop train. But uh troop train in India? Yeah. Wasn't it just their regular trains? Well there was their regular train, but the tr the the troop was on it, yeah. Our troop was on there, sure. Tell them about the train. The tra well the train, all it was is like uh uh well had just uh open windows, had a roof on it, had uh the seats on through the middle, and then on each side and and uh there was a hole in the floor for you to go for you to go, you know.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

So like that, Grandpa.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

Is it yeah? The trouble is when you look down there's a hole in there, but the wheel is there, and when the when you while the train is moving, you go there, it's uh the wheels keep going. But let's let's stop this interesting. Oh, the reason why I remember it was Christmas Eve, because uh, you know, it uh it didn't bother me too much because I was loaded on that. But it was uh you know, it was real dark at night. There was no lights on a train or anything like that, but the moon was shining through the tree and and uh the guy was trying to do the guy. He I knew he had married he was married, he had his kid in his home and stuff like that. And uh when the lights shine on the street, you know, the moon shined on the face between the tree. I knew he was crying or you know, uh tears trying on the idea. So then we got to uh uh transport and set up our uh station hospital and took care of uh we took care of three airports. See, it was the Dem Needs Airport in India. It was a we were put to a swallow. All supplies from the United States to China. That's like the only thing that we were there for. And all these airports that just were they shipped their stuff. Gas leaving, uh uh anything the Chinese wanted, you know, we we hold to. Weren't they coming from Britain too though? Great Britain so weren't there British soldiers and yeah, British soldiers were there, but they they they were there because they owned the country.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Oh that's a good point.

Prostitution Controls And Field Life

SPEAKER_03 54:38

Yeah, they were they they were they weren't staced there or they were residents, they were you know and and uh so it was it was terrible that it was hot and heat rash by the water. And he never never cooled off, he never died off. It was uh really hot. Of course I I kind of lucked out. Uh there were about eight, nine of us kind of lucked out. We uh was uh stationed on transferred to to set up a station uh a dispensary in a rest camp up in Schlong I know Schlong. That was Pestport. No, but we were in Pennport. And where we were going is in Schlong and that's uh way up in the Himalayan mountain. Uh you you had to go uh halfway up to 12 o'clock, you then there was the area where you stop, you know, then at one o'clock then you went the other way. So if you if you didn't make it, well you better you had to get off the side or uh go over the cliff or something. Or the traffic was one way. Yeah, the traffic is one way. In other words, the halfway up you meet there about one o'clock, and then you go the other one. Everybody meets halfway in one place. So uh but they were they were nice up to us. It was uh we wore a little heavier clothes, uh uh was uh the weather was nice and cool, the uh the scenery was pretty, and the people were uh uh more civilized, they were they were Cathy people and they were uh Christians and uh educated and a lot of them spoke English, so it it it was it was nice. We just set up a dispensary for a rest camp. So rest camp, I don't know, it was n well the scenery was nice and stuff, and the weather was nice. So uh first I and another guy got stationed downtown, and we set up a uh dispensary the treatment uh place the army was uh checking uh prostitutes. You had a you had a uh a prostitute had a glimpse once a month to be checked, and if they did, then you were off they were off limits. And you guys couldn't see it. And if you guys got caught there, you got a fine or you got you got punished. So of course we we were we had uh station where they they come from treatment because it uh if you didn't take this treatment and you got a uh Daniel you had a pay for you where if you had a uh signature proof that you had uh treatment, then of course you didn't have to. So that's why we were down there for. So there was then of course that only lasted about eight months. And uh we got down that valley and stinky and dead animals uh laying all you know buzzards eating them up sacred cows. I'll never forget. Burning dots. Well that was that was a child cutter. Uh I didn't been see the um water buffalo y'all. We went to uh uh the first sergeant was captain and uh he knew I was captain. So he kept bugging me. I'm going to church that day. I'm leaving as phones all and you know forcing a few milk it, so yeah, he wanted to and but uh there was all it was a mission, you know, and uh I don't know who the mission was is uh Frank Sure was a missionary that was there and so he liked he liked the GIs because they gave him they gave him money, you know. The rest of them never did get another I never forget, you know. There was uh pretty old, you know, uh I don't know how old can say but she was pretty old. She was pretty one, you know, a girl that walked into camp starts making and she was well developed, you know. Uh boy the guy really uh took off on that or that the first sergeant took her right away and pressed her and brought her to that next condition for me. Because she was something wrong with her, you know. It was she wasn't all right. But then uh from there when the war was getting just about over with, and I think they closed it, they closed that uh hospital up, and then whoever was in the army longer did we they went 400 points. And uh the five points they got they went hand right away and got discharged, and and I of course I was low points. You know, you you spend you spent a month month in the hospital uh a month in the a service uh for one point. And I have spent a whole year in that service where a married person got 12 points. See so if he was married, he had 12 points right away, and he, you know, so they he'd go home.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Where then I got transferred over to this place and transferred to that place and uh just all over.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:28

So tell us about two for you on volunteering in regards to that.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Well, when I first went in, you know, you were talking about points for extension. Okay. Uh when I uh uh I was low on points and then uh they come out uh with a deal that you uh you go to this uh form of this organization to go up in the Himalayan mountain. You gotta hike up or they kick you up with a doctor or uh to uh check all these uh plane accidents and crashes and stuff all over, you know. And they want to see what they want to see, they'll report on it. And uh season find dog tags and stuff. And when when you got them all covered, when you when that our project is done, you go home. So we you got it make no difference how many points you have. I got I uh I thought, well, yeah, that's a deal. I think I better sign up on that. Then I thought, well, geez, you know, I get up there and I'll get bit one of them snakes or uh break my leg or or do something, you know. Oh the hell I'll I'll I'll uh and here I was discharged and home, I mean out home and everything, and they were still up in the mouth. So I was glad about that. And the first time I I knew about uh volunteering is when I got down to Camp Barclay, you know, it was all car people shafts and and uh streets are all dirt, and of course we had to kind of straighten it out and everything. And and uh the sergeant asked uh anybody, anybody, do I want to drive a truck? Well, everybody raised their hand, then they said, Well, you you you and you uh uh go get yourself a truck and a spiral and hear it again, wheelbarrow. And the rest of the guys, well, there held about a hundred of us who you know took one shovel to fill the wheelbarrow, and and and they them guys, you know, they they had to run their wheelbarrow over there. They did run the hell out of them guys, you know, and they were nothing like that, but that's that's a good button right there. So I never won't care.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:16

Okay, grandma, why don't you start on the where and what date you were born on exhaust?

Points, Transfers, And Coming Home

Volunteering Lessons And Army Humor

Grandma’s Beginnings And Family Home

Falling In Love And A Young Marriage

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

Okay, I was born in St. Paul, August 14th, 1931, to an unwed mother. Um my d Susan Byrle. And um she was born with my dad and got pregnant, and they were not married when I was born. They got married October 10th, 1931. And my dad, it was Leo C. Cosman. And um, I know my mom must have been um kicked out of Urban because after I was born, uh, she took me and went and lived with my Aunt Stella, who I named after she's my godmother. Um so uh I think Aunt Stella was already married then to Harvey Chandler, and he's my godfather. So I don't know how long they were there, and then they after they were married, they rented a house, and uh, you know, um my dad was a truck mechanic all his life. Car mechanic, truck mechanic, whatever, he was really good at that, and that's what he did all his life. And we two rented uh houses until I was about ten, and then they bought the house on him where it was our family home from from my mom. So uh my mom always stayed home and took care of our kids until I mean her kids. us kids until later years then she went and got a job after we were all well in fact I was in high school and wanted to get out of high school. I hated it. I went until uh just a freshman and then mom signed papers saying that I was needed at home because she had to go to work. So that's how I got out of high school and she did make me stay home free now so and I had to mix uppers. My dad teased me all the time about all I knew how to make was hamburger. But when I think about it now that must have been what was there, huh? I made what was there. But anyway I went to uh public schools all the time too until about sixth or seventh grade because then it was time to get to communion and um confirmation. So then uh by then I had siblings too Jim was after me born in 33 and Leo who was Judd was born in 34 Gerald born Jerry was born in 36 and Lois 40 and then Carrie in 49 and uh but we all went to St. Bernard's then and uh I was 15 when dad got out of the service and he was a friend of the family because he had been engaged to my aunt Frances Pyro who he had met it to textile and a lot of my relation lived there too I mean worked there too. That's where he met Francis and they were engaged to be married when he went in service and um she got pregnant and I'm you know I'm not even gonna say with whom or what she got pregnant while Bob was in service. And the guys that come home first is not all room he must have gone in before you and he got out before him. But anyway she got pregnant and she married this other guy. And uh so when Bob come home he was a friend of our family's because we had all kept writing to him over in India and we had kind of a tentative beat when he would come home he was going to ask my mom and dad if he could take me to the show or something. And uh of course like I said I always admired him and loved him you know and it uh envied Francis that boyfriend she had that she was the same age as Bob which is nine years older than I am so at the time I really didn't think there was much of a chance of any kind of a future because he was so much older than I was but we started going together and knew we loved each other and uh so we went and seen the priest I was just gonna turn sixteen and we knew we wanted to get married and uh him and I went to the priest together and he said oh no no no I could never marry you at sixteen because uh you'd be throwing milk bottles at me in a couple years is what he said thinking I was gonna have kids and be sorry so I told him well if you don't marry us then we're gonna go get married by just a piece and we'll come back later on and have our marriage blessed and well he didn't want to hear that either and then he told me he said you know you have more brains from this conversation than a lot of older girls have come in here he said so I'm gonna go ahead and take a chance and and marry you so we set our date for September 13th 1947 Bob had gotten out in April of 46 so uh you know it was a whole year. Well he had to wait that long until I turned 16 in August anyway. So uh and my mom had married I think mom was 17 when she got pregnant. My grandma was 18 when she got married and them too my mom was 10 years younger than my dad my grandma was 10 years younger than my grandpa what was your grandma's name? Anna Byron and my grandpa's name was uh I said the other day it was Joseph but it was Ant and Joseph Byrd Anta and Anna and uh oh and I loved my grandfather I loved it so much. My grandpa died when Gary was three weeks old but you know then I was 17 so I was young but then 17 years I had them I loved him to pee. And my grandma lived until she was 80 and I never remarried and I just loved her to pizza too. I was her first and oldest grandchild and I think that was special to the first and at least she always made me feel very very special. Okay so we get back to the wedding we had a a big wedding for 1947 we got married at 830 in the morning at St. Bernard's church and all of our relatives were there and uh my dad was going to give me away and Judd messed things up that morning at home and uh so they were late. He didn't want to get out of bed he didn't want to get ready and uh just he was just a brat so uh my dad took me to church and dropped me off and then he went back to get the rest of the family. And when the organ started my dad wasn't there so I had to walk down the aisle alone and I forgot to put lipstick on. I was so nervous and you know no one there to help me uh do these things I don't know I had um Eileen my aunt Vyrel Eileen Vyral was my maid of honor and Rose was uh pride maid Bob's sister Rose and he had his brother Mars or best man and uh my uncle Eugene who Eileen and Eugene were twins and they're the same age as I am we're just a couple months apart why one of them girls didn't tell me I didn't have lipstick on I don't know but anyway after church we went to a studio you didn't they didn't have photographer the folio round we went to the Lou who was a very well known expensive photographer one of the best we went to the Lou and had our pictures taken and um you'll see that on all our wedding pictures it's down on the bottom um then we came back to mom's and we had a like a brunch a breakfast lunch thing and then we had a chicken dinner a sit-down dinner at this Oddfellows hall it's it was right across from where St. Joseph's hospital is today down there on Exchange Street in St. Paul we had it catered which was unheard of in them days it was a friend of mine's mother's and uh of course we had gotten all our chickens from his Bob's aunt on the farm and this caterer didn't know that they were old hens and she tried to fry them and they it was so tough you couldn't hear I don't know if anybody ate a piece of chicken that day. It was so tough but we had the mashed potatoes and the vegetable and wedding cake and uh just the whole thing and then uh our neighbor Mr Norman Cavir played um violin and he had an accordion player that played with them and that was our music it was really a big big wedding for them times one of the biggest in our family up to that point. So uh and then Gary was born October 48th we got married in September 47 I'm gonna point this out because you know we were married a year and a month which is 13 months that Gary was born because everybody said oh and talk about relatives she must be pregnant so we would never let her get pregnant and married at 16 and what never would I have gotten pregnant before it proved that they were right you know I made Dagon sure that so Gary was born October 48 and then uh we lived on 402nd Avenue South Bob worked at Armor's and it was just a little two rooms and we shared a bath with another couple you know at at Kent and Iron uh right after uh the war was over there was no apartment there was no way to get an apartment uh and due to this I worked with this guy and he and they told me today I got two rooms that's gonna be empty you want to rent it so we ran that two rooms otherwise there was no no apartment to be getting no and I think the rent was like twenty twenty eight dollars a month or something like that and it was a real nice clean private home and then the upstairs they just had split into two apartments and he had two little houses out in the back of his property that he rented to he really made a lot of money on the side smart but it it was nice and uh we had our private entrance and then we had Debbie there you she was born while we lived there she was born on January 21st 1950 and then we had to find something else because there was no place I had her in the bath and Matt and Gary in a crib in our bedroom. So we found the house on 129 and it was a duplex and it was doggone we are condemned but we got it for 4700 got our loan at the Armored Credit Union no we didn't know what we got that United Federal or what did we have there then well I I'm not sure about that but anyway we paid$4700 for that one and we rented out the upstairs$440 so we were paying$7 a month and then we had two big bedrooms and uh that was did I say$129 okay and uh I didn't drive at this time so you know and Bob always took the car to work but it was about that time when I started to learn how to drive and uh then if he walked to work I would have the car during the day and uh got pregnant with Val shortly after that she was born in December of 52 and then Roxy was born in August of the uh 57 no it is repeat myself Roxy was born in August of 57 and then I got pregnant again watching night snow I got pregnant again and uh we knew we were outgrowing that house over there with our two bedrooms but we always had two bump beds in the kids' room with a great big toy box and we had a crib in our room all the time. So that took care of the vibe but uh we saw this house across the alley for sale and it was beautiful compared to our duplex over there. So we looked into it and fell in love with it and it was for sale and it was$13,000 and that was in 1957 we bought it and then Glenn was I was pregnant with Glenn when we moved in here in May and he was born in October and then Laura was born in 1961 so and they were all born in St. Paul at Bethesda Hospital except Laura was born at St. John's did you go with that? Yeah yeah I think I said okay yeah I think I said them all no but anyway they all went to St. Augustine school we didn't have a kindergarten at St. Augustine so some of the older ones I don't know maybe all of them had to go to public kindergarten which was just a couple blocks from here and then at that time too we had eight grades at St. Augustine so they didn't go to high school until they went into the high school so uh they all made the first communion and confirmation and uh here Belle was married there the first time to Mario in St. Augustine's Debbie was married at St. Augustine's and Laura was married at St. Augustine's Gary was married out at St. Rose of Lima because Bonnie had turned Catholic with Father Witt it out there he was her instructor and that's where they chose to have their wedding and uh Roxy got married at St. Pat's in in the Throwpite so Roxy and Martin Okay so now what um why don't you talk about uh that's right okay why don't you talk about um like your crib from learning from his mom and how you guys celebrated Christmas your traditions that you kept up and your relationship with your kids that did follow through with your you and your parents um our Christmases were not wholly like Bob's were we never had a cryp. I never seen anything like that until we got married the first year the first year Bob and I went and bought statues, raw statues in downtown St. Paul someplace we had to go upstairs where this guy made them he had the forms and molds and we bought a set and that winter him and I painted them all before Christmas came. We bought the paints and they're still just like that just how we painted them and grandpa made a log cabin church and he made a little bridge and he put um blue silky material and then uh it was like serin wrap but there wasn't such a thing as sarin wrap in 1947. It was um cellophane a piece of cellophane over to make it look like a river and but then all the rest was cotton like snow and it was just beautiful and we do have black and white pictures of that. And from then on every year we had a nativity scene and he got bigger and better every year but we still have the same statues that we painted in in 1947 and uh I think on the last tape we talked about God when we knew God was in our life you know uh I knew and well of course I knew all the time but when I got married when I made my wedding vows I know God was there and I know I was promising him directly that I would stay married until I died and uh all them bows it was very very important to me because my folks didn't go to church and I envied kids whose picking parents did go because I remember making my first communion and my mom got me all ready. Of course they borrowed a dress I think it was Henrietta's or somebody who had made their communion before me but it was important because I looked so beautiful in my white dress and veil and she didn't even go to church with me but she like I say she got me ready and she made it special that way but I knew when I got married that things were going to be different when I had a family that I was going to be with my kids at church and it was going to be an important part of their life and um and we never at home never ever huggy and kissy. I do remember my dad taking us me alone to first grade and he'd stop on the corner where the patrols were the schoolboys you know with the cops and he'd kiss me to buy in the car and the boys always saw that and I remember how proud I was that's the only time until the day I got married my dad did kiss me on my wedding day. But uh other than that we were not a kissy huggy family either. And we did it you know Bob and I did that a lot with our kids when they were young and I did with every grandchild I still do. If I'm around one of my little grandchildren now I just you know I'll tell them I love them five six times in a couple hours but um and hug them and kiss them and snuggle and but after they get a certain age it's just like oh no you know I don't know what that is so um I think I got way off the track here I forgot what I was forgot what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:04

Well you were talking about God and your guys' life and how you continued that through yeah it's a lot of okay now do either of you have any regrets from the any of the decisions that you made so far?

A Wedding, A Life, And First Apartment

Houses, Babies, And Making Do

Traditions: Nativity, Faith, And Vows

Parenting, Church, And Affection

SPEAKER_03 1:25:20

Yeah no perhaps not one I don't think I would change a thing no I don't say the only thing is maybe my my job at Armors you know uh now that I had a different job like uh building maintenance a boiler engineer it uh I think I would have liked to got into it when I was younger uh because it was a whole lot uh easier job you know nice and warm in the winter cool in the summer you know and and it's just a a cleaner job and stuff like that than what I'd had. But I don't know how that would have planned out. Maybe maybe I wouldn't have made the money I did at Armor's you know I had so uh I I'll just be good enough alone and just wrong I I'd say it's good. How much were you making at Armor's when you retired? An hour about I got no idea what uh I'd say about ten I think. Yeah about ten and then how about when you retired from the hospital? Well I was making thirteen but No it was sixty. Was it sixty? I think it was sixteen ninety seven something like that. Well of course it's different in in time well time yeah time and years yeah yeah but from 17 cents to an hour to almost 17 dollars an hour and then okay what do you think your biggest accomplishments were raised six kids uh you know raising six kids uh buying two homes and paying for them this one was paid for for a long long time already and uh like they say every year since 1963 when we bought a car it was a brand new car and we took lots and lots of trips with our kids and without our kids every year we went out for a week by ourselves Bob's mom would keep the kids no matter how many five six whatever and a lot of times after Deb and Gary got older too they would stay home with the kids and we'd go even after Debbie was married she did that. So uh and we're very very proud of all of our kids every single one of them I don't know um Like uh Gary and uh he had the farm, which oh was such an important part of all of our lives. We'll never ever forget it. I just yesterday read Laura this little piece, a newspaper, if we did it here outside the refrigerator. I read it to her to see what what her first uh impression was. Little tiny thing I had the newspaper open. And uh it is, do you know how it is in the wintertime at night in the country under a full moon? When I read that sentence, the first thing that came to my mind was out at my grandma's, all those kids after supper would get our clothes on in the winter and we'd go tobogganing and sledding. And you could see for two miles the sun was so bright and it was cold and crisp and white. And when I called Henrietta, because she was one of us kids, Dino I'd grammon, and I read that to her, I said, now tell me right away what do you think? And she said, skating on Lake Badness. Well, these two places were about a block apart, maybe two blocks, and that too, we would take a shovel and shovel a piece off on the lake, and then we'd all ice skate together under the moonlight. And I think like my little grand great grandchildren and even my youngest grandchildren, they'll never know that. Because the kids are never allowed out alone at all now and then, especially at night, where you go a mile or two away from your house and be safe. Mm-hmm, you know. No. Uh when we were kids, uh in the wintertime, you know, you're talking about this here uh at night, uh my folks used to go visit, you know, like my grandmother or something like that. They used to uh pick up the horses on the sled because she couldn't get out with the car colony roads or maybe blocked up or something like that. And we used to scroll and in in the uh this box uh on the sled, and we'd all get in there and then we covered up with uh uh with a blanket and we'd go to our grandparents, you know. And sometimes we get home pretty late at night, you know, and was like you said, it's what the reading. Moonlight moonlight and everything. And you'd hear that uh horses, you know, with their crunch underneath their feet and we'd uh uh uh be nice and warm in the straw and stuff like that. The only thing is once you got home, you know, uh my dad would have to unitch the horse and put them in the barn, you know. It it was a lot of work, you know, but I I I I can still uh uh picture that, you know, what we did. And anyway, then yesterday I said that to Laura. I was just reading this to her and she said, Oh, and my first impression was uh the farm. So many nights we were out at nights sledding, and then too, I could remember we could be in the backyard by the back porch at the farm and look way up and see that apple tree way up on top of the hill. It was so bright. And you know, like Isabelle and and these kids, I don't know if they're ever gonna see anything or know that wonderful feeling. But anyway, Gary, uh no matter if it ended in divorce or what, he brought years and years of happiness, our kids and their forces, you know, right through the grandchildren, Monique and all of them, they all got to ride horses. None of that would have been possible without Gary and Bonnie. And uh and even now his gorgeous little house and how clean he keeps it. I am just so, so proud of him. And uh them two, you know, going to beauty school and being a beautician and uh going to West and starting out in that cafeteria and where she is today as a photographer. Um like I say, if I if I were pride is a sin, I am going to go to hell. I am still guilty of pride for my children. Val, how she raised them three kids alone, four kids alone, especially after Heidi was uh yeah, it just uh she did just such a wonderful job on the kids. Uh and now today what she has accomplished in her beautiful home and beautiful husband and uh yeah, well they all have Dev's got a beautiful husband too, we can't let that out. And her kids. Oh god, all these kids. Well, I'll get to them after I'm done with my own kids. Um Roxy and how uh brave she was to chase his uh or deal with his cancer, which just about devastated all of us. Uh I just thank God that we were available to be with her as much as we were. We took care of Emily while uh Roxy was in the hospital almost a whole year. They were in and out of the hospital constantly. And it's not only that, it's everything. Her achievements in her job today and her home and her family, yeah. Um her husband and uh Glenn, that biggest stinker of them all, never married, and of course, that's always a concern for me. I'm just scared to death he's gonna be lonesome someday, but I hope and pray with all the nieces and nephews, and you know, he just like the Pied Piper, the kids all love him to pieces. And he knows that, he knows how much he's loved, even if he never had a wife to tell him that. Uh it was just a big waste, I think. He should have been married for 20 years already and sharing his personality and his love and his job. He's got a wonderful job, even though he hates it. I thank God every day for his job. I'm proud that he works for St. Paul Post Office. And Laura, too. She's uh Ryan asked at one point how naughty his mama was. And I hate to disappoint you, Ryan, but she wasn't one bit naughty. Of course, none of our kids were really naughty. Not one of them. I could take them anywhere. And I think they learned that early on, even going to church. I know we went to St. Bert's once, and it was that bell. She was so naughty in church. And uh dad never said too much, but he took her outside of that church, and when they came back in, she was gone and never misbehaved again. She, when her dad had to do it, it really meant a whole lot. So no, Ryan, your mama was not naughty. She was the most meek and mild little kid. Uh when she started school, she got depressed because she had to leave home. And when Debbie got married, she got depressed again because Debbie was leaving our house. She never wanted anybody to leave, she wanted it always to stay the same. So uh, and she too has accomplished so much. I'm so proud of her in her job and her marriage, and um's illness. It's been hard on every one of them, but they're dealing with it so well. And uh them too with that premi marriage and uh Tom turning Catholic for her. Um that meant so much to me too, and it always will. I'm so proud of their the way they brought up the boys. They're both mass servers now at St. Augustine's. And whenever I see them up there on that altar, I just have to cry. And uh they belong to the Fatima group, and Robbie carries up the statue. He just did that last week while Ryan and another little boy carried the candles. And uh I could almost burst. I am so proud of them. Proud of Monique and Paul being our first ones to go to college, and they did it, they stuck it out there five years, and of course, uh Monique met this wonderful guy there, and um we love him to pieces too, and got married at such a beautiful wedding. Paul never got married, but he stuck his college out, and uh he's doing just fine too. Love them to pieces. Uh yeah, Chan uh staying home with her kids now, and such a successful marriage and beautiful new home, and uh Mark uh completing four years in the Marines. Oh, is the only one that of all of us well, I guess there was grandpa and Bob Shoemaker. Um I don't know if anybody else. Yeah uh Mario, the kid's dad, was in Vietnam. I don't know what war Bob was in, probably Korean. But um Vietnam. Okay, so uh we're running to the end here. I feel like I'm getting a rush. We can go into another tape. I think we're gonna have to go into another tape. Um Manny and Marty, two marrying so well, such beautiful women and such beautiful, beautiful children, and they all have their kids uh baptized. That means so much to us. Like I said often, you've got to have God in their lives, kids. I really mean it. If you don't, you're going to have trouble. You gotta teach them to love God and obey Him and know that God loves them, kids. They've got to hear that. Heidi, we love her to pieces. I wish she had finished high school, and that's no secret. Everybody knows that I wish that with all my heart, and but I'm not one to talk because I didn't finish either. And uh she keeps up the way she is, I'm sure it's not gonna make any difference either way, because she can be a huge success anyway, and right now she is, she's proving that. Uh Marty's cancer, that was Marty and Chase's cancer, was such devastating times in our lives. And I got that all on there. That uh she is gonna be successful, I have no doubt. And then we have our little Emily that I have not mentioned. She's just such a well-adjusted little kid. Everybody worried about her when Chase had cancer and that he got all the attention for a year, and did that affect her and her behavior? Not at all. I don't think she even knew anything was wrong. Because when she wasn't with her mom and daddy, she was with grandma and grandpa, and she was getting loved and cared for no matter where she was. And uh she's doing really well in school. She's a wonderful skater, and uh she was a long-awaited little girl, you know. Girls were few and far between in our family. We had with grandchildren, Monique and Shan, and then none until Heidi. And then there was none until Emily, and then I don't know how many boys we got in there, and then there's Isabelle, and now little Anna. But uh, what is there? Out of the 12 and nine that grandchildren and greatchildren and grandchildren, I think there are only the five or six girls, and all the rest were boys, and they're all beautiful. Um another thing I wanted to mention was Monique being sent to India uh for her work, and it was just so ironic that of all places in the world that she would be sent, it would be to the same place grandpa was stationed while he was in the Second World War. And I don't think it was in the same um territory as uh grandpa was. I think he was up north further, but uh she was there on September 11th, and when they quit all air travel, and so help me God, grandpa and grandma darn near died, and we were so worried about her. But then she'd call us and tell us that she was okay and we had nothing to worry about except we knew that there were no airplanes flying, and we knew she couldn't walk or drive. So until that got straightened out, she was gone. And um then when she did get home, grandpa had already had a stroke, but uh she came to the hospital right away to see him and assure us that she was still the same old meat. And one morning she even stopped in there on her way to work and had breakfast with him while he was in the hospital. That was really neat. And also at that time when they stopped all air travel, Marty was in North Dakota or South Dakota, and until I found out that they had drove and he wasn't gonna get stuck there because of no air travel. But yeah, there's been so many things. I could talk here for a week and not hit on all the high points, and I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings by leaving something really important out. But you know, I don't intend to die anytime soon, and either just grandpa, so we can always add to this. Um another thing is the cabin and Billy, Laura and Tom's and Glenn's cabin. We absolutely love it. We've uh had a year or what is it already, two years of just lots and lots of enjoyment. I never worked very hard. You know, grandpa worked when he got there lots of times, but it wasn't anything he minded, nothing he had to do. He enjoyed doing what he was doing. In all the years of camping with our kids, we've seen so many things, so many nice things, and our kids made so many good friends, and and I think some of the very special times was when Deb and I would be down at Hidden Valley with all the older grandchildren, Monique and Paul and uh Matt and Mark and Marty and Manny and Shan. Yeah, all the older ones. And uh them were the fun time and we'd sit around the fire and Deb would spell tell spooky stories. Yeah, we took a walk every day. Well, not only in the woods, we'd go down to the dam. I remember the days all went sliding off the dam. Well, I almost died that day too on shore, watching all my kids sliding down this dangerous dam. But they have the we had the times of our lives. And then we'd come back and make uh cocoa dinners over the campfire, and the girls would all have to I don't know if the boys did too. I think Debbie and I cleaned vegetables and then you had to arrange them in the tin coils, didn't you? Yeah, Tony always had her stupid allergies. She wasn't much of a camper as far as that one, but she loved all the the activities and the swimming and or didn't she like swimming in the camping? So uh that and another thing was the story. Uh Debbie told at the cabin this one night. We're all sitting around the living room and she's telling the story and everybody was falling off the foot and everything else. And what happened? Did you fall? Or you went to help Robbie or something? Oh, you've had a heart attack. You know, a story. Grandpa. And Ryan was sorry. Because grandpa had a heart attack. So it you know, and we're all connected so tight. We were all crying by the time it was over because Ryan was so upset about grandpa getting a heart attack at the heavy story. And another horrible time in our life was math death. I don't ever remember anything so horrible. It was the worst thing ever. I my mom and dad died, and my two brothers died, and my grandparents had died, and lots and lots of people died, but nothing was ever as horrible as the morning. I was told not with that. And you know, when Josh was born out of wedlock, um I guess we didn't see too much good in it, and now I know that that had to be because he left part of himself here for us to love. And he is so much like his daddy, it's just like a carbon copy. Um I just love the kid to death. And uh one time when we were coming back from camping up north, I said to Josh Gary, and Josh and I were in a cab with Gary's truck, and I said, Oh, I'm so glad you came along, honey. And he said, Why? It's because I remind you of my dad. Well, I'm gonna continue this. It's like a month later. Now it's April 21st. I'll get back to Josh. Uh he's in fourth grade now, uh, 2002, doing really, really well, good reader, unlike his daddy. And we're so thankful for that. And Lisa got married to Troy, and we're so happy about that. Troy's a real good stepdad. And now he has a little half-brother, Jared. And we don't know too much about Jared yet or haven't seen him too much, but the one time I did see him, he was just absolutely gorgeous. Now I'm just gonna go over. I re-listened to it, and one time I said sun when I meant the moon. I don't know if it was on that little saying about what do you think of at night when it's cold out. I don't know where where I said it, but one time I said sun when I meant the moon. Um I got down here told of all pregnancies and we're born. I don't know what that's about anymore either. I guess I'll have to look at it or listen to it again. Uh and I never mentioned Glenn having the beautiful home and uh in partnership with the cabin up at Ely. We're very, very proud of him. And what was it the other day? Was he said it was his how many years with the post office? Twenty? No, I think it was his 20th year with the post office. Grandpa thinks it might be a little bit more than that. But Glenn, like Paul, I'm afraid they'll be lonesome someday without getting married and having a big family, but then who am I to say? It's up to them, I guess. And Laura, I said premi marriage, and I meant the birth. She's been through a lot having Robbie as a premi. That first month was so you know hectic and heartbreaking, you know, just having to leave him there. And all of the beautiful weddings, every single one of them was unique and beautiful. Every one of our kids and our grandchildren. I was very, very proud of them all. And Mark and Misty were. In Hawaii on September 11th, also. That was real scary. But they decided to come home that day, and maybe I should be thankful. Can't be thankful it happened because it was so tragic, but uh at least Mark and Misty decided to come home for good. And that makes me very, very happy. I love it when he walks in here and I can give him lunch and just sit and visit. I love it, love it, love it. So uh now I said it's April 20th, 2000, and Monique is back in India and won't be home until May 8th. Just have to pray really, really hard that everything stays settled over there and she gets home safe and sound. And I don't know much else. I talked to Isabel last night and she is such a big girl already. She said she told me she has five responsibilities. One is to help Daddy and and uh one was to be good, and she couldn't think of the other one. So cute. I talked to Blake too, but uh he was just getting over falling. Okay, I think that's about all that we're gonna put on here for now. I think it's ready to be copied for everybody. So I'm gonna sign off and just say we love you all and uh always make us proud. And uh, you know, just be good.