A Day on The Farm With Eddie Yunker

This is the most in depth video recorded conversation with Eddie Yunker, the last owner of the historic McGovney-Yunker Farm, that is know of. Before Mr. Yunker passed away, he sold his farm to the ‪Mokena Park District, ensuring this property will be controlled and appreciated by the public. 

Brian Yunker, the grandson of Eddie Yunker, gave this video to Matt and asked that we share it with the community.  If you never knew Mr. Yunker, you will feel like you know him after watching this video. If you knew him, you will probably remember how much you miss having him around. 

You can find our episodes about the farm on our website and YouTube page!

Matt and Israel want to extend a huge thank you to Brian Yunker, for sharing this video with us and allowing us to share it with the public.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:46

We're out here, matt, at the Yunker Farm today. Yep, absolutely. We have a very special video that we want to share with you in this episode. Matt, you brought this to me and I was really excited about it. Give an idea what the video is and where we got it from.

Speaker 2 1:01

So what you'll see in this video which is a really, really cool one is you get kind of half of it is Eddie Yunker himself just kind of telling stories, talking about his parents who bought this farm back in the 1920s about 100 years ago, almost 100 years ago talking about their days on the farm, talking about growing up on the farm and other assorted funny stories and stuff like that. And then the second half is really really cool. I like the whole video, but I especially am thrilled about this. You can call it the second half, because Eddie Yunker Mr Yunker is kind of going on a walking tour of this part of the farm here, showing the viewer around what the different outbuildings are and what their purposes were and what their history is, and it's like there's no better thing than this getting the lay of the land from Eddie Yunker himself.

Speaker 1 2:02

And you see it as a working farm. This is when it was still working at. He's working it as a farm, yep Right, does he still have cattle at that time? Do you know? That's a good question.

Speaker 2 2:12

I'm trying to remember in the timeline when the cattle went away. I want to say he did not, because they're not in the video, because they're in the dairy barn here where all of the cattle usually were down in the lower level, and they're not in the video. So he might not have had him at that time and I think he was. Um, I don't know exactly what year this video was made, but it's kind of later 1990s and in mr yunker's um sunset years, and I think he may have been retired at that point, cause I remember his last harvest was 96 or 97. I want to say, and the gentleman who gave me the video could tell us for sure if he's watching. So share that who, how did you get this video? So it's an interesting story.

Speaker 2 3:00

This video was given to me by a gentleman by the name of Brian Yunker. Interesting story this video was given to me by a gentleman by the name of brian yunker who is eddie and laverne yunker's grandson. Uh, they had their, their sons, uh, lee and ron, and brian's dad was ron yunker. And brian yunker is a buddy of mine and every so often we powwow about mokina or talking about his grandparents or stuff like that. He's's a very generous guy. He has shared a lot of great stories and a lot of great things with me photos, et cetera, et cetera and he had made this video of his grandpa and just had it around and, out of the kindness of his heart, he shared it with me because he knew I'd be interested in it and he specifically requested that we get it up on YouTube for people to see.

Speaker 1 3:49

Well, that is awesome.

Speaker 2 3:50

Thank you, brian. Yeah, absolutely, and to all the. Yunker family. They're very invested in their grandparents' and great-grandparents' legacy, which I think is really, really cool, because a lot of families with roots in Mokena don't have that it's a lot of families with roots in Mokena don't have that.

Speaker 1 4:09

It's a lot of you know questions that maybe you and I wouldn't think to ask. You know about harvesting crops and you know different things related to the farm that he answered. That I thought were really, really interesting. Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 4:17

Yeah, yeah, brian asked him a lot of really good questions and as I was sitting there watching the video for the first time, I was just like over the moon because I was like that's exactly what I would have asked him. But, like you said, there were a lot of things I wouldn't have thought to ask him. Yeah, so this is really just a priceless historic artifact, if you want to call it that of Mr Yunker. I don't know of any other videos of him like this one.

Speaker 1 4:45

Well, this is really a treasure and I've said it a number of times as we've done the podcast and got to meet different people and different things have come up and come to our attention like this, and it is so cool to be able to share them to the community, to be able to actually walk around the farm with Eddie Yunker yeah, you know, it's the closest as a lot of us will ever get to to meeting them and hearing his story. So, right, right.

Speaker 3 5:11

Thank you to.

Speaker 1 5:12

Brian Yunker. Thanks, brian, absolutely really appreciate you allowing us to post this and Hope you enjoy this, this video.

Speaker 3 5:29

My dad and mother. Yeah Well, they bought the farm in 1924.

Speaker 4 5:39

They grew up originally in Orland Park.

Speaker 3 5:41

Well, yeah, they originated from Orland Park. That's where the Yonkers first came to America.

Speaker 4 5:48

Oh really.

Speaker 3 5:49

Yeah, well, they're just north of 159th, between 159th and 143rd, on the west side of Wolf Road up there. So they have a farm up there then, well, they had a farm, but now it's all subdivided, Right. My dad was born on Long County, oh really.

Speaker 6 6:12

Oh yeah, I didn't know that. Where was that by the?

Speaker 3 6:16

silo ridge by the silo ridge. Yeah, that was the.

Speaker 6 6:18

Yunker Farm.

Speaker 4 6:20

Oh, I didn't know that so how many brothers and sisters did he?

Speaker 3 6:25

have. There was fifteen in the family. Fifteen, yeah, but Grandpa Yunker was married twice. When my dad was born, his mother died three days after he was born, so he was raised on goat's milk, and then afterward Grandpa Yunker married a sister that wasn't married. So that was it. Then there were five children from the second wife.

Speaker 4 6:53

So, he got to be. He was a pretty big guy, wasn't he?

Speaker 3 6:56

Yeah well, he had a brother, 6'9", weighed 240 pounds. He never knew he was a big man until he stood around the rest of them that was six foot tall. Their head was up to his shoulders. His head was above all the rest In the house. He always had a duck because the door frames were only 6'8" and he'd bump his head all the way. So when he got married he went out to Nebraska and he married a lady. I think she was about five ten. Anyhow, she was small, according to him.

Speaker 3 7:34

Small, according to him, and then he was sitting in the church there the first time and the preacher says, mister, would you please get off the seat? And everybody looked around and nobody moved. And he says he preached a little while. He said, mister, would you please get off the seat? And he knew who he was talking about, but he didn't move. And finally he walked down here on a pile and grabbed him by the shirt or suit and said would you please get off? My uncle says where should I sit? Oh my God, you're the biggest man I ever seen. He says no, you've made enough issue out of us.

Speaker 4 8:20

So your dad's brothers and sisters are all over See your dad's brothers and sisters are all over.

Speaker 3 8:25

Well, most of them were in the Mokena-Tenley Park Orland area. Oh really, well, one or two lived in Chicago. Afterwards they got married and lived in Chicago.

Speaker 5 8:39

What about Wisconsin? Because we ran into that guy.

Speaker 4 8:42

There's a lot of Yonkers up in Wisconsin too, I know. Oh, really.

Speaker 3 8:46

Yeah, well some of the Yonkers are some by Piedmont and I don't know if there's any relation, but they're Y-O-U-N-K-E-R and all I know is what my parents said, that Yonkers, new York they were at that, and it spelled Y-O-U-N-K-E-R and he didn't know if there was any relation or not?

Speaker 4 9:08

So then your mother? Now, where was she from?

Speaker 3 9:11

Well, her folks came from Germany and I think she was born in this country. She was a Koppel, and Koppel was one of the first settlers in Frankfurt, oh really yeah. And they settled there. And then the Indians, the winter, drove them back to Indiana. They killed a lot of whites there, and then the next year they moved back into Frankfort again and the Indians retreated.

Speaker 3 9:47

And then, well, my mother's folks went to Missouri and then her mother died down there. Then the father came back to Mokena again and then her dad died when she was about 11 years old. So then the uncles and aunts there was two brothers and three sisters. Each one of the aunts and uncles took one of the children and raised them. So my mother was in Mokena all her life after that. Now, what about Grandma's parents? My mother was in Bokino all her life after that. Wow, now what about Grandma's parents? Well, they came from Germany too, but I don't know if it was Grandpa.

Speaker 3 10:37

Well, grandma, she was a shop and her dad was a minister in our church, united Church. He's the one that planted a lot of the evergreens in the Mokena area, and over at the Willowcrest School there's a cemetery. He owned 40 acres there and he was a minister. I don't know if he retired or anyhow. He died afterwards. And Crop well, they were homestead of two. I don't know if they came to Mokena first, but they owned a lot of land and he was a cattle buyer. Oh really, yeah. Well, right over here on Route 6, and Wolf Road went together with that subdivision there, he owned that farm that was 160-some acres for years and then Uncle Roy got it, inherited it, and then they sold it to the man who subdivided it. And his—Farland's great-grandpa ran a meat market in Mokino and he sold steak for three cents a pound, because we went into his old ledger book there and I don't know what hamburger was. But I mean, do you still have it.

Speaker 3 12:04

Well, I don't know what happened to Laverne. They had it running across when they tore the house down. I don't think we got it anymore. I don't know if Melvin's got it or not. It doesn't make a cow worth very much, does it? No? Well, buy one for five, six dollars, I guess, so Wow.

Speaker 6 12:22

When you bought your first herd. How much did those cows cost? That farm was on the corner of what? 45 and 143rd I think you pointed that out to me once, where you got your first herd of cows. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 12:41

Well, I bought them from Henry Yunker. He was a cattle dealer up there and that was well. My dad was an uncle to him and I paid $85 for some up to $100.

Speaker 6 12:54

For each one.

Family History and Childhood Memories

Speaker 3 12:55

Yeah, cows that was ready to make milk and then when I quit farming, my day-old calf was worth $125. That was just a difference. Then the cattle, when I sold off, a lot of them brought $700, $900, $1100 on the sale.

Speaker 4 13:15

So you were born in 1918, right, yep? And you didn't have any brothers or sisters. I know, no, I never had any brothers or sisters.

Speaker 3 13:24

I was just lucky to be here, I guess.

Speaker 6 13:27

Well, your parents thought they weren't going to have any children, didn't they? I said, your parents thought they weren't going to have any children.

Speaker 3 13:35

Well, my dad got married when he was forty-four years old. I came along in forty-nine. Five years later I was born. My dad was 49 when I was born and my mother was nine years younger than my dad always.

Speaker 6 13:57

So she was 40.

Speaker 3 13:59

Then we was over there for Thanksgiving and Ron and Lee were laying on the floor I don't know if they were five and seven or so and they got in a fight so I was going to separate. My dad said don't let them fight. He said I never thought I'd see my grandchildren. He said they aged when I got married. He says you'll see your grandchildren by the time you're 44. That was it, because you're just lucky you're here, that's all.

Speaker 3 14:28

Well, that was a change of life. Baby, that's what my mother told her. You were born right after World War I and right before the Depression in between. Yeah, I was born in 1918. Wow.

Speaker 4 14:44

So now, where did you guys live originally? Was it the farm down the road?

Speaker 3 14:48

Well, I was born where Manske was Right. I lived there. My dad bought the farm in 1924 and we moved down there. Well, we moved in the winter of 1924. He bought it in the spring. They remodeled the house and built the barn in about October when we moved down there, and then, of course, when I got married in 1940, then I went up there and rented a farm for eight years.

Speaker 4 15:20

So did your dad put you to work right away on the farm? I mean, you were obviously helping out all the time. That's right, you were helping out on his farm because he was a farmer, yeah, and did he have a dairy?

Speaker 3 15:35

farm he had a dairy farm. Oh yeah, my dad was a horse dealer. He bought and sold horses and had three stallions. He traveled a stallion. He had three men working for him. He traveled a stallion. He had three men working for him traveled a stallion in the spring, breed a neighbor's horses for him.

Speaker 2 15:49

What kind of horses did he?

Speaker 3 15:50

have. He had an Acne, a Belgian and a Perchon, but he preferred the Perchon. The Acne was a driving horse. They were a little lighter, similar to a quarter horse, only a little more ranky, ranky, longer legs, and traveled pretty fast.

Speaker 3 16:09

They were good saddle horse too, but the quarter horse was a better roping horse because he had shorter legs and down closer he could brace himself better than a taller horse. Well, Coltman was born and he stood three days and he got a twenty dollar colt and he'd go around and breed the horses in the spring for three months and then afterwards they didn't.

Speaker 3 16:39

They always wanted a colt born in the spring, kind of but sometimes they'd bred them later in the summer and they were bought and sold horses. I had to hire a man to work for them and he says I'd like to work for you, dad. And he says sometimes I never hire the same horse twice. In the springtime farmers start field work. They needed horses. They'd come up there and they'd buy horses and they'd sell them and then at the end of the day they only had maybe one horse left. Yet my dad says don't worry, I'll go out and buy some. So he'd go out and buy some colts out there.

Speaker 3 17:21

Frankfort or almost down to Kankakee Peartville, come home with a bunch of colts and they had to break them. They always got the crap in anyhow, but I mean it was a business.

Speaker 4 17:37

So then you went to school the whole time, Mokena.

Speaker 3 17:39

Yeah, I went to—I didn't have no kindergarten then, but eighth grade and then we two-year high school. That's about as far as I went.

Speaker 5 17:48

Did kids go when they were five or six or when they were older?

Speaker 3 17:54

Well, you had to be five before September the first, or six maybe, because my birthday was in March so I was all right. If he was born after September the first, then he'd be seven before he started.

Speaker 4 18:12

Wow. So what was school like then? I mean, you didn't go in the summer, obviously In the winter.

Speaker 3 18:19

Well, we walked to school and went through the snow banks. We rode down the bobsleds. There were people that hauled milk to town. We'd get a ride They'd give us a ride in the neighborhood and the drinking fountain used to be froze up in the school and about the first of November to the end of March we had a pump outside. You'd pump it and catch it with a tin cup if you wanted a drink, and they had outside toilets so you didn't have no inside plumbing and potbelly stoves in each room.

Speaker 5 18:55

Wow, how many kids in a classroom? Huh, how many kids in a classroom.

Speaker 3 19:01

Well up to 35, but there was maybe three grades in one room first, second and third, third and fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth, and then high school was first and second.

Speaker 6 19:19

Where was the school?

Speaker 3 19:20

Right at the corner of Molkina Street and Schoolhouse Road where that yellow house was. That was when I was in third grade yeah, I think, third grade and we went over to Carpenter Street School.

Speaker 5 19:33

That was a new school, mokena was the first one that had a gym, which is a village home now.

Speaker 4 19:40

So were all the girls chasing after you.

Speaker 3 19:42

No, throw snowballs at them. Ha ha ha.

Speaker 2 19:52

I got screwed up at work, so you guys have a happy Easter yeah me too Nice of you, gary.

Speaker 6 19:57

Okay, all right, we'll talk to you. Thanks for stopping, gary Sure.

Speaker 4 20:04

Yeah, you never caused any trouble, though, did you?

Speaker 3 20:07

No, I never got in much trouble.

Speaker 6 20:08

Well, what about you and Dick Semple? I think you told me a few stories about you and Dick Kind of got into some little tricks.

Speaker 3 20:16

No, we were in quite a few things. I can't remember them all.

Speaker 6 20:25

What did you do? Did you used to go out and get wood for the teacher, for the stove in the school.

Speaker 3 20:32

Oh well, the janitor would carry in five or six coal buckets, you know. And then I was one of the biggest boys there. So the teacher would say well, the furnace needs some coal. You're supposed to open the damper in the back before you open the door in the front, because that kept some of the heat from going out. Sometimes you're forgetting. You opened the door and threw half a bucket of coal in there and a big cloud of smoke would come up out of there. She'd say Edwin, you forgot to open the drafts.

Speaker 6 21:09

Did she send you out back for some wood? Did they ever have a wood burning?

Speaker 5 21:11

place down there.

Speaker 3 21:12

No, when I went it was all coal mine. Oh, I see they had a coal house out there that held I don't know five—and a janitor. Every morning filled four or five coal buckets for each room and that kept it going. And then at night, well, he'd put some coal in. I don't know if it went out until the next morning.

Speaker 6 21:35

Oh, I see Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 21:37

But the girls all sat up close to the furnace and the boys were back by there. We always had heavier clothes on, and one day he went to school in long underwear.

Speaker 6 21:48

Oh, I suppose.

Speaker 5 21:52

Did Grandma go to the same school as you did?

Speaker 3 21:54

Huh.

Speaker 5 21:55

Did Grandma go to the same school as you did?

Speaker 3 21:56

Yeah, she went right across the street. Her uncle lived right across the street a schoolhouse and all the girls and boys thought boy, boy, she was lucky, she only had about 200 feet to walk. But she said I wasn't so lucky, I wish I would have lived about two miles away, because at noon she had to go home there and wash dishes for because there was four brothers in that family.

Speaker 3 22:20

Well, her cousin and she was the only girl and she had to do a lot of housework for the rest of day eight. At school they had an hour between morning school and the start at one o'clock again, but she said I was glad it was a home so she didn't mind it.

Speaker 4 22:39

Because, Grandma had kind of a rough childhood, didn't she? Huh, grandma had kind of a rough childhood, didn't she?

Speaker 3 22:44

Huh, grandma had kind of a rough childhood, didn't she? Oh yeah, she was alone in the world after 11 years old, except for two brothers and two sisters.

Speaker 6 22:55

So she was. Oh, that was your mother.

Speaker 3 22:56

Yeah.

Speaker 6 22:57

Yeah, oh so.

Speaker 3 23:01

Well, you mean Grandma's. Yeah, Well, you mean grandmas. Yeah well, they always had plenty to eat, but they had to work. And then her sister died and then Rich Hensel married. Her older sister died when Dolly was born. So then she kept house for Richard Hensel for about a year and a half or two and he got married again when he got my mother a job at the Ferris store in Chicago in the cosmetic department. She worked there for quite a few years and then she finally gave that up and worked for SIPA.

Speaker 6 23:45

Why did she get a job in the cosmetic department? I wouldn't think that she used a lot of makeup.

Speaker 3 23:52

No, she didn't use hardly any makeup. She had a good complexion, she believed in ivory soap, washed her face three times a day and she probably used a little lipstick and maybe a little rouge. But everybody always said that she was in the cosmetic department and oh, you've got a lovely skin. My mom says yeah, and then she didn't—if they asked her too much she'd tell them, you know. But otherwise she's supposed to sell cosmetics, right?

Speaker 5 24:22

Everyone's supposed to want to look like her.

Speaker 6 24:24

I can remember— Because she got up at five o'clock in the morning and worked outside.

Speaker 3 24:27

I can remember my mother working in the garden or so at ten o'clock and she'd come back in and get dinner ready and first thing she'd wash her face with soap and water and Ivory soap and she always had a nice skin. But she was maybe more fortunate than some people.

Speaker 6 24:45

Well, it might have been that she spent so much time outside too. She was healthy.

Speaker 3 24:49

But then in the summertime, when the sun got real hot, she didn't want to get brown like the girls did in the day. She had a short sleeved dress, but she put on stockings on her arm there and she had a bonnet that had a hood on. So she didn't want to get brown, she wanted to be more light-complected, you know, and today it is the opposite. When you went to Chicago they said boy, you was a farmer's wife. This way, they thought you were growing up in the city.

Speaker 4 25:19

So now, how did you get the farm that you're at now?

Speaker 3 25:23

Well, my dad bought it at a public auction.

Speaker 4 25:27

It was so— Now, there were none of the buildings there, though, right, it was just the land.

Speaker 3 25:30

Well, there were buildings there. My dad tore them down and remodeled them all except the one wing in the house. He tore 13 rooms off the west side and added that wing towards the— and the barn was running east, north and south and he took it all apart and turned it around and made it run east and west because he wanted the driveway towards the road. He didn't want a west side driveway because of the cold weather. Then they tore the court crib down, which was where the pig house was, and he built that over there where it is now and he built the pig house was and they built that over there where it is now and they built the pig house there the next year.

Speaker 3 26:10

And of course there's an ice house there, twice as big as our garage, where the McGovernys used to cut ice out of Hickory Creek in the wintertime and put it up there and they put sawdust and piled a pump full of ice and they sold it to the people in town, the taverns and the houses. They had these wood ice boxes where you put a big chunk of ice down.

Speaker 6 26:33

Where was the ice house?

Speaker 3 26:35

Just right where the two-car garage sat. Oh, it was two stories.

Speaker 4 26:41

It was a big building there. How long did it last the ice?

Speaker 3 26:44

Well, the ice would last better till next winter. That long, yeah, because it was bigger than the straw. Well, it's a bit smaller, but they cut it about. Well depends how they waited till the ice was the way Dick told me. Ice was about a foot thick and they saw it in chunks, four feet by eight feet long, and they pulled it out with a team of horses on a sled and they pulled it over by the ice house and they had it just like a hay rope there like they pulled up baled hay.

Speaker 3 27:19

They pulled the ice chunk up there and then they slid it along, put six inches of straw and the next layer the other way. Then, when they wanted it, they cut it in 50 pound chunks or so and slide it down in the wagon and hold it to town.

Speaker 4 27:35

Wow.

Speaker 3 27:36

Now, what was it like raising a barn?

Speaker 4 27:37

then when you had the barn building parties.

Speaker 3 27:40

Oh, I was not too old but I can remember, remember it, the carpenter's took my dad took it down, him and the two hired men and put all the nails out and that, and then the carpenter's came good and the boards were good.

Speaker 3 28:07

So they'd work about a week or two weeks, three men or so there, and they'd have everything put together on the ground. And then they'd have a barn raising crew come, All the farmers came and the women. They made dinner there. They'd start about 8 o'clock in the morning and they'd have all the pieces marked chiseled out so everything fit. And then they had ropes and poles and the men would push it up and some would hold the ropes and then they'd put it together. The first section or two was kind of wobbly and after they got all up then they put the sides on and by night they had a rafter down and half of the roof boards are better, and then everybody went home.

Speaker 3 28:57

Then the carpenters would say well, you think it's going to rain saturday night. This may have been Wednesday or Tuesday or sometime during the—generally they start on the Monday of the rule, but not always.

Speaker 6 29:10

What time of year did they do it?

Speaker 3 29:11

Huh.

Speaker 6 29:12

What time of year did they do?

Speaker 3 29:13

it. Well, this was in the—well. My dad took it apart in March, so before the concrete walls and that, so it probably went up in June sometime there and then they'd have a barn dance. Sometimes they didn't have the roof completed yet, the moon would shine in, and then they'd have beer.

Speaker 3 29:39

And they'd have some guy play accordion and then they'd dance and women brought stuff to eat and they'd go home and they oh well, not the one that built our barn, but my dad helped, when he's younger, building barns for old adam bernson town and he used to like to drink, so by midnight he was sometimes pretty well under the weather and he'd be sleeping there until about four o'clock in the morning when the rest went home. To wake up and go home, that was a big deal. But everybody who ever raised a barn the neighbors, they'd help you or you would help them, and it didn't cost too much. The neighbors, they'd help you or you would help them, it cost too much.

Speaker 6 30:28

Did you go to any barn racings? Do any other barn racings in the area I only?

Speaker 3 30:32

helped raise one barn in my life, and that was Charlie Guiders up there, which is tore down now.

Speaker 6 30:37

Oh, the one on Route 45?.

Speaker 3 30:39

No, yeah, just north of 45, or east of 45, about where.

Speaker 6 30:49

St Francis Road is.

Speaker 3 30:51

No, right across from that big, that white building where they have dance and wedding wedding reception, right across the street.

Speaker 6 31:08

Oh, just stop by the—. Oh, I know Okay.

Speaker 3 31:10

Okay, I helped raise that barn and I was married then about two years and child together. That's the only one I ever helped raise.

Speaker 4 31:19

So how'd you meet Grandma? You said, you were—how'd you meet Grandma?

Speaker 3 31:24

Well, we went to school together. She was a year behind me, but then she used to roller skate down Wolf Road.

Speaker 4 31:29

Yeah, Throw snowballs at her. Was that it?

Speaker 3 31:34

Well, I was a little bit tough on my eye. In them days you'd ride the girl on a bicycle, not on the handlebars, but our bikes were a little different and finally got acquainted with me Now, how old were you?

Speaker 4 31:46

Not on the handlebars, but our bikes were a little different. Finally got acquainted.

Speaker 3 31:49

Now, how old were you when you met her? I don't know. Probably eighth grade, Okay, I mean, I rode her on the bike in eighth grade. I never went to a roller skater. She was a good roller skater. I was a good ice skater and, of course, sometimes we'd have a sleet storm on Wolf Road then and there'd be a quarter of an inch ice. We'd skate right down the highway.

Speaker 4 32:11

Wow.

Speaker 3 32:12

And they didn't put salt on them days if the sun had to take it off.

Speaker 4 32:15

Yeah, so how old were you when you got married?

Speaker 3 32:20

I was 22,. She was 21. We dated for four or five years or better. Not regularly, but the last year was pretty regular, the first year once in a while I'd take her to a show or someplace. And then of course we had Young People's League and church and that's where everybody got in there, young people. They played in music chairs and different games.

Speaker 4 32:50

So you never caught the eye of any other women.

Speaker 3 32:53

Well, I dated some other ones too, but I mean which other ones were those? But I liked her the best and I guess she finally liked me the best.

Speaker 4 33:05

Oh, it took her a while.

Speaker 5 33:10

Oh I shouldn't tell you this.

Speaker 3 33:13

But we dated a year or two off and on and finally she said, well, I want to go out with some other people. I said, well, I want to go out with some other people. I said, well, go ahead, it doesn't make any difference. And I dated a couple of girls, but I guess she thought maybe she was going to lose out. And then we got together and we kind of stayed together.

Speaker 6 33:38

Which other ones did you date? I said which other ones did you date?

Speaker 3 33:42

Oh. I can't name them all. I said which other ones did you date? Oh, I can't name them all.

Speaker 6 33:50

Any ones that come to your mind in particular.

Speaker 3 33:55

Well, I only dated this nurse twice when I was in the hospital. I had a 1935 car, a new car, and the gal would kind of like that too, but I was in there for a double hunting operation and me and Clifford Platt.

Growing Up With Family Memories

Speaker 3 34:16

And well, I was 12 days in the hospital. In the afternoon you always got dessert. You either had a milkshake or a dish of ice cream or some kind of pudding. And we were right next to the nurses office or headquarters and they'd go down the line and then later on they'd say we always ate what they gave us. And then they'd come back. Some people didn't touch it, you know, and they'd say do you want another dish of ice cream or a milkshake or something? We'd always get an extra handout. Then the kid next to me said I don't know if we should eat that stuff. He says some sick people down the line are sicker than we are. And then the nurse says they never, touch it.

Speaker 3 35:00

Do you want it, okay? Otherwise we have to dump it out. So we only got another extra. If you want it, okay, otherwise we have to dump it out. So we only got an electric. And it seemed like just we were the two youngest guys in there and they sat on the bed and talked to us before they sometimes. And one day I says to Clifford Platt I says this girl's from Ottawa. I said you know, the next time she comes and sits on the bed, I'm going to put my arm around her and kiss her. He said I bet you won't. So I did. And she says hey, you're not supposed to do that. Well, I said I just kind of like you, and he laughed over there. How many milkshakes did you get that day? Well, I said I just kind of like you, and he laughed over there.

Speaker 5 35:49

How many?

Speaker 3 35:49

milkshakes. Did you get that day?

Speaker 1 35:52

I don't think any more.

Speaker 3 36:09

They got off at three o'clock in the afternoon. Just before they got off, they only checked our blood pressure, or so you know, and then they filled out the paper and said well, we'll see you tomorrow morning. So we got along pretty good. And one day she reached over and she had a brow on it and I could see her, her. I stuck my hand in between her eyes and she said listen you're going to get in trouble.

Speaker 3 36:37

I just thought it fell out of the hanger. He said boy, you got more crush Next day. She shoved a needle at you. Anyhow, when we got home she said you know, you got to take out a little. Clifford Platt had another nurse. He got pretty friendly with her but he went home about three days before I did and she said you two guys are going to take us to the dance one of these times so okay.

Speaker 6 37:15

And did you know Grandma then, huh, you knew Grandma then, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 37:21

So, anyhow, she called up one day to my mother and says is Edwin there? Well, they lived in Ottoway both of them, so they had a big dance down there. And I talked to him and she said are you going to take us out for a dance, a big dance down there? I said, well, okay. Well, she said you pick us up about 7 o'clock, because then my folks are going to have to come and get us, you know. So I said, well, I've got to get a hold of Clifford Platt. Well, she said I don't know, her name was Irene. She couldn't get a hold of him, so I got a hold of him. So we picked him up and went to the dance and then their parents went out there dancing too, and then we had to go back to our house and our name was Arbiter her last name, and then they had coffee cake and we left about one o'clock and went home.

Speaker 3 38:16

And then one other time she called up and I said well, I'm going pretty steady with a girl. I said you're too far away. Anyhow, that's quite a drive. So it was about two years later. Our hired man was in the hospital for appendicitis operation and she was still a nurse there and Laverne was along. I was married then and she happened to look down the hall and she said Eddie, how are you? I said okay, I said he was a pretty good patient.

Speaker 5 39:07

That's all she says.

Speaker 3 39:09

I never told my wife.

Speaker 5 39:12

You started sweating.

Speaker 4 39:14

You weren't sweating, any were you. No, you weren't sweating, any were you.

Speaker 5 39:21

No.

Speaker 4 39:23

So now, when did Uncle Lee come around? When?

Speaker 3 39:25

was Uncle Lee born? He was born in 1941. We got married in 1940. He was born in 1941 and almost 1942, in December. No, he was born in October. We were married a year and a half or so.

Speaker 6 39:41

Well, how did you figure out when Lee's birthday was going to be? Remember, you told us how—.

Speaker 3 39:48

I know, New Year's Eve we thought we'd want to have a child, so we did. I put it down on the calendar October the 15th, and that's the day—.

Speaker 4 39:59

That's the cow calendar right though.

Speaker 3 40:01

Yeah, well, nine months, the calves take nine months too. So she went over the hedges about two months before he examined her and he says well. I said well, she'll be born October the 15th. He says I don't think so. He says you know? The first one comes any time he says you know, like that, oh yeah, like oh, he was October the 15th.

Speaker 5 40:29

Well, you were there, the doctor wasn't.

Speaker 3 40:33

You know, my head just says the first one comes any time. Sometimes the girls are pregnant before they're married, you know there you go. But he says the second one always takes nine months. Oh geez. So what was Uncle Lee like when he was young. He was a good boy. I mean, I can't say anything wrong with him, oh.

Speaker 3 41:01

I know that when we brought him home, melvin was there and I guess he was hungry. My mother was there and my dad and it was quite an event bringing a child home, you know and he was crying and crying and finally Uncle Melvin said to Laverne, is that all that kid can do with balls? He said well, then afterward we found out he was hungry. I don't know what happened do with balls", he said, and then afterward we found out he was hungry.

Speaker 4 41:26

I don't know what happened then. So now, Uncle Lee was what? Four when my dad was born, right, what Uncle Lee was four or so when my dad was born when your dad was born in 1944, I think that was three years different.

Speaker 6 41:42

I think two years, forty-one, two and a half or three, maybe. Yeah, I think I was three years different. I don't know, two years—forty-one, two and a half or three, maybe. Yeah, I think I was a little closer than four years, probably four years in school.

Speaker 4 41:56

So what were they like growing up? They were active kids.

Speaker 3 42:06

Well, when we decided we wanted one more child, laverne said I hope it's a girl. The first one we wanted was a boy, lee, and Doc McMahon delivered Ron. Because Doc McMahon was Laverne's family doctor, doc Hedges was my, our family doctor, so that was just a difference. So, anyhow, Ron was born. Laverne says it's a girl and Dr Klan says it's a boy. He's healthy, so that was it.

Speaker 6 42:56

She always says she cried when she found out that Ron was a boy, because she thought she was going to have a girl.

Speaker 3 43:01

Yeah, she was happy, long and healthy. But when Lee was born she said what is it? Doc said it's a boy. You sure Doc said God damn it, if I know what a boy looks like. It mind, he swore a little bit.

Speaker 3 43:29

He was a good doctor but he had short patience. He didn't talk. It was strictly business. I mean if you asked him questions he'd answer it, but otherwise he didn't have. He was too busy all the time. He was on the go all the time. My mother didn't like him too well but she liked him. But you couldn't get nothing out of him unless you asked the questions.

Speaker 3 43:50

You know he was in, there and out and by the time you thought of something he was gone. You know I was sick there and he come. I had an infected gland when I was in high school and I was out, stuck out farther than my neck Came. Every day after the hospital in the morning About 9 o'clock he'd give me a shot in the vein and about two minutes later I got tasted in my mouth. And about the fifth day he said to my mother he says you know, I had a boy like that. I lost him. But he says this one I'm going to save. And you know, I had a boy like that. I lost him, but he says this one I'm going to save. And you know, from that day on I got better all the time. I guess he scared me to death.

Speaker 6 44:28

Well, what medicine did they give you? Do you know they didn't have penicillin? Then did they? I don't know no penicillin came in.

Speaker 3 44:35

World War II, the first six, but it was something they put in the vein and by God you could taste it in your mouth. And every day for five days they gave me that shot right in the vein. Of course I could be up and around, I wasn't laying in bed, I'd lay down a while.

Speaker 6 44:55

Is that where you lost your hearing?

Speaker 3 44:57

No, but this infected gland stuck out and then afterwards it finally went down and I had to go over and get violet ray put on and it was something like well, it didn't make a difference, your skin was real suntan. But it took the swelling out and finally got down to where I could go back to school. I was sick for about two weeks or so.

Speaker 4 45:21

So now, ron and Lee played a lot of sports when they were young, didn't they? Huh? Ron and Lee played a lot of sports when they were young, didn't they? Huh, ron and Lee played a lot of sports when they were young, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 45:28

They grew up in baseball and Ron was a better baseball player than Lee was. Lee was a longer ball hitter but Ron was a good pitcher and a good baseball player and they played. Ron played football, lee played one year of football and he didn't care too much for it in high school and Ryan played four years of football, basketball and baseball. He won a letter every year, freshman up to varsity he had the highest scoring record for one game in Lincoln Way High School until about ten years ago. Somebody beat him. Was that for basketball? Yeah, for basketball, and he was quite a pitcher. He had a lot of speed. He had been better off if he didn't play football.

Speaker 3 46:17

Last year. That kind of hurt his baseball career. He had his shoulder dislocated and then when he got into college he pitched four or five innings and his arm was sore. He couldn't stand it. So finally he quit baseball there.

Speaker 3 46:33

But in the summertime he played with the Will County Athletics. That was the best ballplayers in the Joliet area all the way from Ottawa. They went out to Kansas City and pitched in the park there where Kansas City Royals are. He pitched three innings there and then, well, he was a relief pitcher there. That's all he pitched, but then his arm would get so sore. The last year of football was when he got dislocated shoulder and when he was pitching for the Will County Athletics and I don't know where they were playing someplace in Illinois and he chewed the ball so hard that the catcher missed it and hit the umpire in the mast and it split the bars. Oh my God, wow. He had a lot of speed and he was a good fielder too, but he wasn't well. He had a couple home runs. He wasn't a long ball hitter and of course pitchers are the rude old players. He played third base at Lincoln Way when he wasn't pitching sometimes, but in Little.

Speaker 3 47:48

League he'd strike more out than he hit Played Tiddly Park, orland and Frankford. When Ron pitched they always won the game.

Speaker 4 48:04

Uncle Lee was a little different. He would sit around and build models. He was a little more patient.

Speaker 3 48:10

maybe he could sit down and work on an airplane a whole week and glue them together. He had these little gas airplanes that flew on strings. Ron would sit a while, but he had to get a baseball glove out, otherwise he'd ride his pony up to Manske's. They lived up there where—well, manske's lived there where I was born and that's where they were born and he always was on the go. He couldn't sit too long.

Speaker 6 48:44

That never changed.

Speaker 3 48:47

He was always happy when he was doing something. Yeah well, he was ambitious too, but I mean he could sit and work on things like that. Of course he always kept his wheels spinning. He was always thinking I mean, we used to have a big freezer in the basement. We had ice cream down there.

Speaker 3 49:13

And I'd always say who wants to get the ice cream. Well, ron would run down and get it right away. Then the other one would have to put it. Lee would have to take it down if we didn't use it, all you know. So one day I I've heard him ask him and says how come you, you don't want to go down and get it? Well, he says, sometimes the carton's empty, so I don't have to take it down. That's the way it was If I was working on it. That's the way it was If I was working on some implement and I wanted a wrench. If I addressed Ron, you get it, or Lee get it, they'd run off and get it. But I'd say well, I need a pipe wrench or I need a crescent wrench, and Ron would be off like a shot and Lee wouldn't. So I knew right away that if I addressed who to get it, there was no trouble. Lee always figured well, I'll run. Once I run, I'll run. So now, when did Ado come.

Speaker 3 50:13

Well, he came in the last year that Lee was in the. Well, he was in high school, I think. Yeah, he was in high school the last year that Ado came and Ado was in between Ron and Lee. So he came in the middle of August. So he was here the whole school term until spring. Then he went back to Italy again.

Speaker 5 50:45

How did you decide to have an exchange student? Or how did you decide to have Ado come stay with you?

Speaker 3 50:54

Well, years ago, since Lincoln Way started, they had always foreign exchange students. One from Lincoln Way would go over to Europe and one from Europe would come over here. So they picked—they had a girl before that, hannah from Holland, and the next time they'd have a boy. Well then we had two boys in high school and they asked Laverne if she would be happy to have a foreign exchange suit, and she said well, our house ain't real modern or anything. Oh, but you've got two sons in Lincoln Way and that's good companionship for them. So there was a group of ladies and men that voted on who they'd give it to. There was four or five families that accepted and they picked Laverne, our family, because we were a farm family and most of them came to people that were in town.

Speaker 3 51:51

So then he came over and he was there about two months, and one morning, saturday morning, he was kind of—Laverne could see that something was bothering him and she says to him what's wrong? You know? He says she said I think you're homesick. He says, yeah, I am. So she said well, we'll try and get the telephone call over to you on saturday and this was during the week, or maybe it was saturday, I don't know. So he happened to know their telephone number over there. So then they had a—they got through and they talked to his parents. After that he felt better. He went home and said you're just like another son of mine, but that bill was $28.

Speaker 4 52:42

Oh yeah that's not cheap. I'm sure he talked about an hour.

Speaker 3 52:48

His mother would say Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, yeah, and Dad would come in with another question. You know, but it was well worth it. We wasn't supposed to give him any spending money and then he got a job at the school on Saturdays. Well, it was a mean thing to give him, but we only gave him five or ten dollars besides for spending money. Of course we were responsible for him. He wasn't asked to drive a car or a tractor while he was here. Well, he drove a tractor. He sat on my lap, but I mean just to have a feel of it. And of course we were always strict with our kids. Twelve o'clock at night they had to be home when they were on a date or so, and Ado wasn't used to that. His parents didn't care. And one day we were dating a Sherwood girl. It was 12 o'clock and Ado wasn't home. Laverne gets on the phone and calls up Sherwood and got Ron out.

Speaker 3 53:54

He says you're supposed to be home at 12 o'clock. He says Ron's coming up to get you in five minutes so you be ready After that we always told him they couldn't make it at home At that time.

Speaker 3 54:08

He should call up and not drive 100 miles an hour and get in a wreck. And Lee one night stayed at Marie's. It was kind of late, it was about 12 o'clock Nobody. Warren gets on the phone and gets a hold of Marie and says Lee there. She says yeah, well, he's supposed to be home at 12 o'clock. Well, he'd be ready to go. Lee always says I could always see Ma peeking out of the kitchen window Anytime. She'd see I was home, she'd go back to bed and I could see that curtain.

Speaker 3 54:41

I went to bed, I didn't worry about it, and I could see that curtain. I went to bed. I didn't worry about it. It wasn't like they had a prom or something. I didn't. It's 11.30 or so. 12 o'clock was supposed to be home and they were always. Well. Lee ran out of gas one night.

Speaker 5 55:00

It was about.

Speaker 3 55:02

I had two convertibles Ron had one and Lee had one and every time I'd get Lee to go someplace sometimes La Verna that year was working at the school then and I got in it was always something on E I'd always have to go to a can of gas. I had a gas barrel and an 8 gallon milk can. I could get in Ron's car and go to Piton or Bokena. It was always half full or so. So that night at the supper table I was kind of keyed off a little. I said to Lee. I said by God, I buy the gas. It's free. You're too damn lazy to put it in. Every time I want to use it it's empty. And I said if you ever run out of gas, don't call me. I don't think it was ten days. One night he calls up about 11 o'clock. He got Laverne and he says tell Dad to bring me some gas. I'm at the Cemetery Hill on Wolf Road there and I'm out of gas. And Laverne wakes me up and says your son's out of gas. He's down there by the cemetery hill. She said now don't blow him out. I said thank God he can walk home.

Speaker 3 56:11

I put some gas in and I didn't say a word. I said Lee, raise the hood up, pour it in the carburetor, add two gallon gas tank, pour it in again. And I said see if it starts. It started. So I jumped in the pickup truck and my brother in the shed in La Verna was up and she says is he coming? I said yeah, I didn't say a word. I went to bed and Lee come in and she says did Dad call you out? He never said a word. He didn't say yes or no. That was probably worse. And she said Dad bawled you out.

Speaker 5 56:44

He never said a word. He didn't say yes or no. That was probably worse.

Speaker 3 56:51

He never ran out of gas after that. Oh, he was married quite a few years. He got talking. He said yeah, dad, I can remember when I ran out of gas yeah, there's something I can do. He said you know, I was all set to get bawled out and you never said a word that hurt more than balling me off.

Speaker 4 57:08

Yeah, Now the three of them got in a little trouble, didn't they? They were always a little wrestling around and stuff, Lee and Ado and Ron.

Speaker 3 57:18

Yeah, they'd wrestle. Ado was supposed to be a wrestler, but Ron and Ado Lee was stronger. Ado couldn't handle him, but anyhow they'd be on the floor. They'd be wrestling in the dining room, you know, or be in bed. I was supposed to be referee. So one night I says Ado, who's the winner? The guy laying down? No, the guy on top. I don't have him. Who's the winner? The guy laying down or no?

Speaker 5 57:47

the guy on top.

Speaker 3 57:49

John Crock was there during football practice before school started and they were down there in the dining room that's before remodeling they were throwing the football back and forth, they knocked the floor lamp over and broke the bowl. It was quite a commotion. Boys Verne was upstairs sleeping and she came down and she really raised her head.

Speaker 6 58:13

I heard about that. They were passing the football. That was part of throwing it over.

Speaker 4 58:20

They used to have pancake eating contests, didn't they? Huh? They used to have pancake eating contests, didn't they? Huh? They used to have pancake eating contests too, was that?

Speaker 3 58:27

Well mochino.

Speaker 6 58:31

No, French toast French toast?

Speaker 3 58:33

Oh, French toast. Yeah, I don't know, Ado and Ryan would eat. I don't know who or not, but they'd eat eight, ten, twelve pieces of toast.

Speaker 4 58:45

So now? Ado never enticed any women, did he, while he was here?

Speaker 3 58:50

Well, he did it to girls in high school.

Speaker 4 58:52

I heard he was pretty popular.

Speaker 3 58:56

Well, he had certain ones he liked and he didn't. The Sherwood girl was one of his main ones. And then there was somebody else, her dad run the grocery store in New Lenox. There was two daughters, I can't remember what the name was, no more. Well, they took Ada to some stuff. The big doings in Chicago, sometimes on Saturday night musicals.

Speaker 6 59:27

Oh, I see.

Speaker 3 59:30

Some theater things I mean, I don't know what you call them special events and then other people talk them out too. Jim Coben was good, he was a teacher, and Miko he was one of the sponsors and he was Italian. And of course we took Ado to the International Speedway. He went with me and Ron that time and of course I think Lee was in first year of college? Maybe not, but they went two years in a row. One year they had Gubb, and then the other fellow was a good friend of Lee's.

Speaker 6 1:00:17

They went to Indianapolis yeah.

Speaker 4 1:00:20

Bettenhausen's, was that it who?

Speaker 3 1:00:22

Bettenhausen's yeah well, bettenousins was racing. They went there. They'd set their squad in a racing car, you know, oh really, yeah Well, tony. He was a good friend of mine and they grew up and of course then he got killed. A couple years later Tried racing for a friend of his that was in the race. He couldn't get enough speed out of it so they put Tony in there so he could qualify and the bolt fell out of the steering wheel and he hit the wall and killed himself. 10-thousand bolt, they claimed. Man God, tony raced in the midgets for years, I mean at the amphitheater in Chicano. Then he went in the big races afterwards.

Speaker 3 1:01:11

He was in there for eight, ten years before he got killed. The best he ever got was second place. Most of the time his car would clunk out before he finished the 500 miles. He was coming home from Indiana to make a television on television one night or one after well, it was that night. But he was coming home from Indianapolis. He was down there trial racing and he was a Chrysler dealer. His brother was in the Chrysler business and he was a little late so he was coming down.

Speaker 3 1:01:46

I don't know what road it was in Indiana, but he was hitting 80, 85 miles an hour and they put up a road block and up there and they stopped him the state police and want to see your driver's license. You know you were hitting 80, 85 miles an hour. And he says, yeah, I was a little late for a TV show I was supposed to be on. Let's see your driver's license. You know you're hitting 80, 85 miles an hour. He said, yeah, I was a little late for a TV show I was supposed to be on. Let's see your driver's license. Oh, you're Tony Benton, the auto racer. He says, yeah, but I'm late for my show. He said, well, we won't give you a ticket, but don't drive that fast, he said. I guess you can handle that speech because you're used to driving 200 miles an hour. So it was only a year after that or so he got killed.

Speaker 4 1:02:32

So now both Ron and Lee went to school at Elmhurst.

Speaker 3 1:02:36

Yeah, well, lee, he had a mindset a year or two before to go to Elmhurst College. And, of course, reverend Raymond. He graduated from Elmhurst College years ago and the Dunham kid was a good friend of Dickie Dunham and he went to Elmhurst. So, but, ryan, he had a baseball scholarship to go to New Mexico, cupertary, new Mexico, or yeah, I would skip one Albuquerque, albuquerque. And he didn't know what he was going to do. And Lee said why don't you sign up for Elmhurst? And he says well, he says you can always.

College Pranks and Sports Memories

Speaker 3 1:03:22

So it was about three weeks before he had to know which way he was going. And the guy that interviewed him from Albuquerque, new Mexico, says are you coming? Well, ron says give me a day to think. I said well, ron, if you go down there we won't probably see you until the end of the year. I can't afford to give you a plane ticket for Thanksgiving and Christmas to come home, but maybe Christmas. But I says otherwise, if you go up here we can get back and forth every couple weeks or so. So the next day he called a man up and he says I'm going to Elmhurst College and that was it. So well, he probably wouldn't have did any good because his arm was sore. He probably picked one ear down there, so we'd go up and get the wash every week or every other week. Sometimes they brought the wash down over the weekend and that was it. I guess he was happy that he went to Elmhurst in the end.

Speaker 4 1:04:32

Yeah, what was the story about Uncle Lee hanging somebody out of the window by his ankles?

Speaker 3 1:04:41

Well, I don't know Up there they had a—him and Jim Lehman.

Speaker 3 1:04:48

They were that floor manager and he'd be the other student, they were kind of strict, but anyhow, jim Lehman, he was a poor housekeeper. They roomed together and Lee would sweep his after room and Lee would hang up his clothes right away. But Jim Lehman, he was a minister's son or coal miner's son, I don't know which one. He wound up being a minister, but he'd have two or three suits on top of his bed there and every once in a while about every other week or so then he finally cleaned up, but Lee'd sweep this after room. And Lee always says boy, dad and mom, I'm glad you were stricken. When I take my suit off, it's right on the hanger, hangs up right away. And if you don't use it, he says, uh, it's hung up. And if you do it, and so one day they played a few tricks up there. One day we're bringing lee's clothes home. Up there I was carrying one of the suitcase and every kid's in the dorm was like hi, lee, hi, hi, mr y. I thought, yeah, they're awful friendly, so they get in his room.

Speaker 3 1:06:05

He had no dresser. Everything was moved out and the boy's, john, you know Lee says you going to help me? I said no, let them guys that hauled it out help you. They all came and left. They moved it back in. I guess Lee had an idea who did it. So one day the kid was gone. So they went to work and took their dresser and tipped it upside down and took the drawers out and tipped it upside down. They put the drawers upside down in. So when the kid went in to pull out the drawers, well, the clothes fell out of the drawers. So one got up of the drawer, so one got out the other.

Speaker 3 1:06:47

So then one day, jim Lehman—no, I don't think it was Jim Lehman, it was another kid that came out with Lee.

Speaker 5 1:06:57

He went in the.

Speaker 3 1:06:58

Navy after he graduated Cardell.

Speaker 6 1:07:01

Oh yeah, cardell, it was the Air Force.

Speaker 3 1:07:06

So they had a garbage can half full of water. They had a simple one on the door outside and they wrapped it on the door and the kid opened the door and the can of water run in the room. But the best one was this Bill Sir, he was a scared of girls, you know. So, Bill Criddle. He was a storekeeper down there at Elmhurst. So they got one of these dummies girls dummy, you know and got it when he was out in the room.

Speaker 3 1:07:42

They put it in his bed, you know and he came in with another guy in the room, you know, because the fellow that was in the room knew all about it. So, yeah, there he took his coat off and he looked, gee, he says get that girl out of there, out of my bed, you know.

Speaker 3 1:07:59

And he says I ain't gonna touch her, she might hit me. And he looked and out of here with a dummy. See, he let it carry it around and set it up in the hall there. And the next day the kids Bill Cattell took it back to the store. So they had a few tricks among themselves.

Speaker 4 1:08:22

My dad played college basketball too, didn't he? Huh, he played college basketball. Yeah, Lee did.

Speaker 3 1:08:27

Or Ron. Yeah, ron did. He played two years, he got a holiday in a tournament, he was the highest scorer and he was the most valuable player in that tournament that night. I don't know what did he make? 40 points or something? Yeah, he couldn't miss Every.

Speaker 6 1:08:43

did he make 40 points or?

Speaker 3 1:08:44

so yeah, it was— yeah, he couldn't miss Every time he shot. We went in. And then, of course, the next year. Well, he lost too much time traveling basketball and his grades wasn't getting too good. And so he came to his junior year and he says to Laverne and I he says I'm not going out for sports this year, I'm not playing baseball, and my arm hurts. And he never played football up there, he wasn't big enough up there. Well, he could have, he was fast enough, but he didn't care that much. So anyhow, the coach, he was a scouting, scouting. He kind of peeved and he wouldn't talk for around for about six weeks. He kind of peeved and he wouldn't talk to Ron for about six weeks. He'd meet him and all and he says God, with your ability, ron says I'll never make the big teams. And he says I've got to get an education to make my living afterwards. But then after a couple months they talked, but he never was the same man that he was.

Speaker 4 1:09:47

Because he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees to play.

Speaker 3 1:09:50

Well, the Detroit Tigers. They were going to watch him in college and they wanted to have him try out in his arm room. So much he never—.

Speaker 6 1:10:01

Yeah, we have the guy's card the business card yeah.

Building and Sports Memories

Speaker 3 1:10:05

And he played basketball. He wasn't a good scorer but he was a good center and they were playing Kenosha, wisconsin. There was a big colored boy there and he'd drive in and he'd play center and he'd plow in there and the coach says to him you gotta guard him. And we says I'll guard him. He says what you do? You drop down a little bit, put your shoulder there when he's driving in. We were at that game that night. Boy, he come driving in and he put that shoulder on and he hit the floor, knocked the wind out of him and he lay down there a little bit. I guess the kids thought he hit a concrete wall. After that he didn't—he dribbled around them, he didn't plow through them. Lee was captain of the Elmer's basketball team. Oh, wow, yeah, the last two years.

Speaker 6 1:11:03

Yeah, one night they were co-captain Ron and Lee. I remember that night.

Speaker 3 1:11:08

Well, when Ron got up there, you know this kid that's in Michigan, ann Arbor, michigan.

Speaker 6 1:11:19

John Jeffrey.

Speaker 3 1:11:21

Jeffrey.

Speaker 6 1:11:22

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:11:23

And they came out—when Lincoln Lee was playing high school. Ron Lee was in college. They were playing sectional against Homewood and Floresboro. Of course they lost that night, but they knew Ron was a good player and when he got up to college they were practicing and was a guy from Madison too, I forget. Anyhow, he was a freshman. The first game or so he didn't play, but after that he was on the varsity team, freshman and sophomore year until he quit and the coach thought he was a good player, which he was. He was quick, he had a quick pair of hands, he'd take the ball away from people and he wasn't the best dribbler in the world, but he was a good shot and he always made 20, 22 points for them Wow. But Lincoln, he had to feed the ball to Skip because Skip's dad was the coach, you know, and he was hoping he'd have a pass to him.

Speaker 3 1:12:33

That would hurt the Woffo boy, Al Woffo. He too had a tater, but he was a pretty good shot. Skip was always getting the most points in a row, but Ron was right up there. Pretty good, but the last year, when they were—they never graduated everybody. Well then Ron was born. They had Edwards as coach and of course they knew that he was a good basketball player. He was one of the best scorers in Lincoln. But that one night playing Wilmington, and that was a sectional playoff and he and I had a plan.

Speaker 3 1:13:17

He made under 40 points. He couldn't miss that. He could have made more, but they were so far ahead. He had three minutes to play yet and the coach took him out and put somebody off. Otherwise they had another five or six points. Two guys from Wilmington came up and talked to Vern. She said I was talking to somebody else. He said is that your son? She said yeah. He says my God, we were pretty good basketball players. And he says there's a kid that's going to go someplace. So the warden says I don't know where he's going to college. Yet he says I imagine he'll play today. Always Juliette News in the morning would always say what college won. And so, and every once in a while they'd say Ron made so many points for Lincoln Way, former student made so many points for Elmer's College. And afterwards Richard Cole grew up with me and he just would honor Ron. He'd go to Lincoln Way. He had no children, but he'd go to Lincoln Way when he played at home to watch them play.

Speaker 4 1:14:24

Wow, now how'd they decide to go into teaching?

Speaker 3 1:14:29

Well, when he went, to college. I think the first year he didn't really know what he wanted, but then I think after that he knew he wanted to be a teacher.

Speaker 6 1:14:41

Well, the Vietnam War was an influence too, too, because if you graduated from college, you were immediately drafted. There was no question about it. If you were physically able Not legally you were going to Vietnam, and that's what happened to Bill Cordell. He's okay. He went right into officer's training. That was the other way to avoid being a foot soldier there. Then teachers were badly needed and you got an exemption if you were a teacher. That was a big influence, Also because of their involvement in sports. They just naturally liked to be with kids and play with kids.

Speaker 3 1:15:31

Lee wanted to be a teacher. When he went to—a math teacher. He went to college when he was a kid, growing up in grade school he couldn't get fractions to save his soul, earned cut apples in quarters. And she went to Mrs Coppell and said I don't know what's the matter with that boy. And they would sit at the kitchen table and finally leave and cry or so, and I'd go to bed. And my God, when he got in Lincoln Way High School, mrs Husky she was like Mrs Coppell says don't worry, he's rolling so fast All at once. He'll get the drift of it, it'll be easy. Thank God it was. When he got in Lincoln Way, he had Mrs Husky and she was a real top math teacher. Yeah, I don't think he was in Lincoln Way half a year and, boy, he was out on the honor roll and math was easy for him.

Speaker 3 1:16:22

When he got into college, him and another fellow, the professor they gave him a problem. I don't know what year it was anymore, but he said we'll give you a week to get the answer. So them two guys went back to their classroom and they worked on it. Well, you didn't, you must have copied. Well, then they looked at it. They had it figured the wrong way, but they had the right answer. The guy says, well, he sat down and figured. He says, my God, it comes out. He says, well, the answer's right. So he couldn't believe it. After that it was easy. Whatever works, I guess we always thought a bolt of lightning must have hit them, but no.

Speaker 3 1:17:10

It was just the difference. Well, here we are. This house was built in 1924. And here ever since we put this lean on in 1961. Otherwise it was a original house.

Speaker 4 1:17:32

Wow, three years old when they built the house, so you were four when they built it, wow.

Speaker 3 1:17:41

Seventy seven years old in 1976. Wow, 77 years old or 76. Wow and the one wing in the house that's over 140 years old.

Speaker 4 1:17:50

Over 140 years old, the one that goes, that way yeah, which wing, now the west wing.

Speaker 3 1:17:56

that goes that way. This year, when my dad bought the fire, we put this end on it and we remodeled it in 1944. Okay, same year we built the barn.

Speaker 4 1:18:11

So the same year you built the barn, you built the addition to the house. Yeah, oh wow, let's get a look at the barn here.

Speaker 3 1:18:22

And then the next year they built the pig house and the corn crib.

Speaker 4 1:18:26

Now there's the pig house.

Speaker 3 1:18:31

Down there. This one down here was 1970 and the one across the road was 1976.

Speaker 4 1:18:43

Wow, so there's the corn crib.

Speaker 3 1:18:46

Wood house was built the same year. The house and the barn was built.

Speaker 4 1:18:52

Here's the wood house. Okay, now we're here looking kind of at the barn. Now, this was when was this built? 1924. 1924, and how many now? Your dad built it, right.

Speaker 3 1:19:06

Yeah, he tore the old barn down and rebuilt this one.

Speaker 4 1:19:09

Wow, so how many people did he have to help raise the barn?

Speaker 3 1:19:13

Oh, I suppose there was about 15 or 18 plus about 10 women that made the dinner.

Speaker 4 1:19:22

Wow. So now, how did they dig the foundation?

Speaker 3 1:19:25

Well, that was done a couple weeks before they put the barn up. Oh really.

Speaker 4 1:19:34

Yeah, the concrete was all poured. Did they do it with horses?

Speaker 3 1:19:37

Well, yeah, they dug it with a slip scraper, the base one, and then it was mixed with a concrete mixture.

Speaker 5 1:19:46

They had to wheel it. They didn't have portable concrete mixtures.

Speaker 4 1:19:49

Oh, wow. So now, where did you get the stone for the foundation?

Speaker 3 1:19:55

Well, they got two car loads a car load of gravel and a car load of sand brought in, and then there was a truck that he brought the cement.

Speaker 4 1:20:05

But what about the stone, the blocks? Where are those from that?

Speaker 3 1:20:08

was from the old barn. Oh really, yeah, that came out of Jolie at the stone quarry. They hauled that all up with horses years ago when they built the first barn.

Speaker 4 1:20:18

Now the old barn was down the street right?

Speaker 3 1:20:20

No, the old barn run 40 by 80 this way. My dad turned it around and made it 66 by 36.

Speaker 4 1:20:28

Now was the old barn here, or was it up the road?

Speaker 3 1:20:31

No, no, it was up here. The only thing you'd open the barn. The driveway was on the west side of the barn. This here is old stone. That's part of the old barn. But from the milk house on and around to that corner that poured concrete, the old foundation they left there. He bought the driveway. He wanted the driveway in the south instead of the west.

Speaker 4 1:20:51

Well, so this part here, this part is the old barn foundation, and up there is the new.

Speaker 3 1:20:57

Yeah, from the milk house around to the other corner here that's all poured concrete that's put up in 1924. This here was probably built in 1890 or something like that.

Speaker 4 1:21:12

Wow, really no kidding.

Speaker 3 1:21:15

It was all horses, people would go to. Joliet and then they'd come home and they'd bring a couple of stone that the wagon would carry for the neighbors. And that's the way they built the foundation years ago.

Speaker 4 1:21:27

Wow. So now, how many head of cattle does this hold?

Speaker 3 1:21:31

Well, it holds 30 milk cows and with the pepper cows you can get 50 in Really, yeah, but 30 in the milking stream.

Speaker 4 1:21:41

Wow, Now I remember you painting the barn a number of times. That must have been a big job.

Speaker 3 1:21:47

Yeah, I didn't mind the height. I painted the kiln for them and everything. You can't do it today, no more.

Speaker 4 1:21:55

Now here's the old barn foundation. This is the old barn. Down here we have the new. You can see the poor concrete foundation. Here we are with grandpa and sailor walking down by the cow yard, and up here was the old pump house or the old well house. I guess you can see a little of the old well there. Anyhow, we'll stagger on down here outside. Hey, come on, sailor. Okay, so this is the old cow yard. Now, when did you build the cattle shed? 1926.

Speaker 3 1:22:59

That's built 1926 huh, wow, two years later, the barn is gone.

Speaker 4 1:23:05

Wow, let's take a little peek here. Time to get through. Okay, here we are Now. Did you just have the cows in here? Do you have horses too?

Speaker 3 1:23:20

Yeah well, years ago there was horses in the barn too. Then, when I remodeled and put the barn cleaner in, I had the horses in there four heads.

Speaker 4 1:23:31

Now, where'd you have the horses?

Speaker 3 1:23:33

Cattle shed.

Speaker 4 1:23:34

Oh, back here, okay.

Speaker 3 1:23:35

Yeah well, when my dad came down here, he had three stallions. He used three bends for the stallions one in each one.

Speaker 4 1:23:43

Oh really, Now I remember you telling me that when he got hit in the head by the bull, what happened with that?

Speaker 3 1:23:53

I had the bull out breeding the cow and then the herd was out there and I was trying to get through and the bull was after me, so I had to jump over the fence.

Speaker 4 1:24:07

Oh, the bull was after the bull that was after the cow was really after you, yeah after me after me. Now what happened with the time when he hit you up against the side of the manure spreader?

Speaker 3 1:24:18

At the time he was in there, I was cleaning the pen out and I would watch him. And I turned around to throw a fork full of manure in and the next thing, boy, he would knock me. I rolled down under the spreader and that's what saved me. He put the spreader a couple times, moved it a little bit and by that time the dog came, and then he got back in the pen and I shut the door. Now that was Bimmy.

Speaker 4 1:24:40

Yeah, and Bimmy bit him. The little terrier bit him in the tail, didn't he? Yeah, he saved my life, the little dog. Oh yeah, that's a. A full grown bull weighs how much.

Speaker 3 1:24:55

Oh, that one weighed. I sold him about a week later and it weighed 2650.

Speaker 4 1:24:58

2650 pounds. Yeah, that's a lot of hamburger.

Speaker 3 1:25:05

Yeah well, strazzi loaded it and I said that bull will weigh over a ton. He says about 2,200. I said he weighs more than that. I said you want to haul it Free if he weighs no? No, he says he weighed 26,. I think 26, 25, was the weight I got paid for. Wow.

Speaker 4 1:25:27

I remember seeing the barn swallows yeah, you know, nesting inside the barn and flying out catching all the they come about in the middle of April, I'll say Do they yeah? Middle of April.

Speaker 3 1:25:41

They got to come when there's bugs in the air, because they live on mosquitoes.

Speaker 4 1:25:45

Yeah, yeah. So is there anything else with this? That—i mean, how many bales of hay did you have to feed when you had a full herd?

Speaker 3 1:25:55

Well, I used to bale about 6,000 bales and the barn holds about 6,000 bales. They had that plus straw.

Speaker 4 1:26:07

Wow, nearly about the average Really 5,200 or 6,000 bales.

Speaker 3 1:26:12

Depends on the moisture in the year.

Speaker 4 1:26:15

Jeez.

Speaker 3 1:26:18

And then the silo that was built in 1928. Can't quite see it from here, Plus the garage. Well, we built that in 1947.

Speaker 4 1:26:26

Now, over here is the pig shed. Now, how many pigs did you have?

Speaker 3 1:26:32

Well, I always had about four sows furrowed twice a year. And I'd market about 40 pigs, sometimes a little more market about 40 pigs.

Speaker 4 1:26:47

Now, when did you stop raising pigs?

Speaker 3 1:26:56

15, 18 years ago.

Speaker 4 1:26:58

Oh really.

Speaker 3 1:26:59

Two boys got married and then I quit the hog business. I could make more money and less work to feed the milking cows.

Speaker 4 1:27:08

Yeah, now, over here is where you brought the cows across the road. That's right. Four times a day, four times a day, you brought the cows right over here Back and forth in the morning, back and forth in the evening for six months. Through here, then we brought them down the road and into the. Now, how many head of cattle did you milk?

Speaker 3 1:27:33

I generally have a milking string of about 30, sometimes 28, 30, sometimes 32. But I didn't go over that much.

Speaker 4 1:27:41

Wow, that's a lot of work.

Speaker 3 1:27:42

Well, I'd have to drive it out of the barn.

Speaker 4 1:27:45

I didn't want to do that yeah, yeah, okay, now we're gonna.

Speaker 3 1:27:53

I bought a pony for the two boys when they were small and it was Ron and Lee, and then sometimes Sharon and Papa would come and Gail Harley and they'd ride it. And that pony, he was smarter than the girls were and he'd go like this and he'd see if I had the range tight. If they didn't know how to run, they'd get across the road or down in the field and he'd turn around and run up and park by that water tank here. He always stopped here. If they fell off, the pony would stand here and they would walk back. If you knew how to ride a horse, the pony knew. If you knew how, because he'd wiggle his head back and forth and if the reins were loose, he knew you didn't know much about driving a pony.

Speaker 3 1:28:45

All at once. He'd swing around and hold me and go.

Speaker 4 1:28:49

So what was the pony's name?

Speaker 3 1:28:50

Twinkle, twinkle Now wasn't there one that was— and then there was—he had two colts. One was Little Star and the other one was Wonder. I sold them out to her. Well, the one broke its leg and we had to shoot it.

Speaker 2 1:29:07

Little star.

Speaker 4 1:29:08

The other two I sold, wow so were those Ron and Lee's ponies, or did you all ride them oh?

Speaker 3 1:29:16

yeah, I rode them. Adults could ride them, but they were bigger than a Shetland pony, they were hackney they were better to ride than a Shetland pony. They were hackneyed and they were better to ride than a Shetland.

Speaker 5 1:29:25

They had a hair neck bone.

Speaker 3 1:29:27

So when they put their head down they didn't slide off so quick and the Shetland he was down, it was just downhill. You didn't know how to lock your feet, you'd be off. You know, when a pony put his head down he was going to buck. If you put his head way up, he was going to rear up. So after you've had a pony a while, you get used to it. You knew his sign before he did it. Horses are not dumb, they're smart and they're good friends. If you treat them right, they treat you right.

Speaker 4 1:30:02

Yeah, okay, we're going to go take a look inside the barn and the hayloft first. There's a big open. There's one of the doors open, there's the other, and here has already played a lot of basketball and it wasn't full with a hay rack. There's the basketball hoop. It's way up inside there's the old forks we used to use.

Speaker 4 1:30:32

Those would attach to this runner on the ceiling and then it would come down to here at the floor of the barn where we parked the wagon in here, where there's an old scoreboard now, and then the forks would be attached to a pulley which ran kind of down here, and then somebody would drive a truck out the driveway and then in turn would pull up the forks attached and there'd be hay on the forks. Then it would slide down to one end of the barn or the other and then drop the hay down so we could stack it or mow it. Here we put the bales down for the cows to eat. So we're upstairs and now Grandpa would toss the bales down to the cows that were all down there. So how many bales of hay when you had all your cows, how many bales a day would you need?

Speaker 3 1:31:53

About 16 bales a day 16 bales a day.

Speaker 4 1:31:56

Yeah, so when you had this, when you had this full, you can see it's big. I mean, how long could you feed the cows for? For what? How long could you feed the cows for in a full barn?

Speaker 3 1:32:12

Oh well, from one year to the next. But I mean in the summertime they were out in pasture, so they fed them about seven months in the barn and of course, the dry stuff. Like the heifers, they weren't out in the pasture, so they got fed year-round until they grew up to be in the milking herd.

Speaker 4 1:32:33

Oh, really. So yeah, I remember spending a lot of time in here mowing a lot of bales. Yeah, got a little sweat too. Wow, yeah, and here's the other side. This is a little smaller, but this thing would be plumb full from these posts.

Speaker 3 1:32:48

It'd be way up to the top, so you could just crawl on your belly along the haystack. And a lot of times this was the windows were completely full and then sometimes we had a stack of bales outside.

Speaker 4 1:33:02

Oh yeah, you had a huge mound outside.

Speaker 3 1:33:07

One year we had a lot of oats straw. We had a big stack of oats over there, yeah.

Speaker 4 1:33:16

Now, what's the best kind of hay for cows?

Speaker 3 1:33:18

Well, alfalfa, they like the best alfalfa. You get the most off an acre over the year and you get if the weather cooperates you can get more cuttings, but as a rule you always get three good cuttings. Of course the fourth cutting was more like rabbit hay. That was short with a lot of leaves on. That was the richest hay in the alfalfa for the year.

Speaker 4 1:33:40

The fourth cutting yeah.

Speaker 3 1:33:46

Really, that was like chocolate on the cake. But the cows, they don't like it three times a day, they like it once a day or every other day because it was too rich, at last it was too rich.

Speaker 2 1:34:01

It was just like if you had to eat all the chocolate off the cake at last.

Speaker 3 1:34:04

You couldn't eat it.

Speaker 4 1:34:05

Yeah, so in here is the. Now. You used to grind feed in here, right, yep.

Speaker 3 1:34:12

Three ton of feed and then I went downstairs in the other bin and took it out to feed the dogs.

Speaker 4 1:34:17

I don't see much Wow.

Speaker 3 1:34:21

There's some of your dad's play toys.

Speaker 4 1:34:26

Down there Back home, there's the silo outside, just out this window.

Speaker 3 1:34:32

You want a view from out this window.

Speaker 4 1:34:40

Yeah, you want a view from out the window. There again is the famous basketball hoop. Okay, now here's the silo.

Speaker 3 1:34:54

Yeah, I can't really see the top that's in the shop.

Speaker 4 1:34:56

There's the corner, crib out there and the tool shed.

Speaker 3 1:35:00

Cattle shed.

Speaker 4 1:35:02

Now we're looking out back towards the cattle shed. This is where we came from. Now, here's where the manure came out, where we cleaned the barn or to clean the barn.

Speaker 3 1:35:25

I didn't know for a while that somebody would sing a song up there the accordion player.

Speaker 4 1:35:30

So this is, after you built the barn, what happened?

Speaker 3 1:35:35

Well, after you built the barn, what happened? Well, after you built the barn, then they'd figure out Saturday night if it was a nice night. Of course, sometimes they didn't have the roof on, and then they'd say you think it's going to rain or not? They'd have a barn dance. The moon's light would shine in, but otherwise this one had the roof on when we had the barn dance, and then the ladies come, brought food and then they had a good time. A barrel of beer. It probably broke up about midnight.

Speaker 4 1:36:07

Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 1:36:08

Wow. So that was part of barn raising. They didn't get paid to help. You know Each one. When another person built a barn, you'd help them out. So but the carpenters they were paid because they were the ones that worked on the pile of lumber for maybe a week or two. They had everything, holes drilled and the board sawed, so all they had to do was put it together and put the wooden pegs on so you used wooden pegs? For yeah, I saw wooden pegs on, so you used wooden pegs for it.

Speaker 4 1:36:39

Yeah, it's all wooden pegs. Wow, why didn't they use nails?

Speaker 3 1:36:42

Well, they used nails on the board and that, but the big sills they were wooden pegs. You could see where the holes were drilled in. See, that post was taken down and used over, but the post was stuck in the other way. You can see where the four holes were, where the wooden pegs went in. Everything fit like it's love. They measured it all out on the ground, they laid it there, put one section up. First they put the floor on, that's what the carpenter did and then it was barn raising. And then they push it up with poles and then hold it with a rope so it didn't go too far, and then he'd hold, and then he'd hold the sill up and shove it in, throw the pegs in. First it was kind of wiggly, but when they had the four sides up and the braces in, then it was like a box. You could roll it in over and it would come apart.

Speaker 4 1:37:33

No kidding, yeah, wow.

Speaker 3 1:37:36

Them old carpenters. They were real precision. Every piece was marked, so they know. Like that was number one in there. Everything was marked with a chisel and it was all laid there, so they put it together. When the men all came there and they didn't have nothing to raise it, it was like they have now. They had to push it up a pole with spikes in it and rope so it didn't fall over the other way. Yeah, wow, those beams are heavy. Yeah, they are. The floor here up to the peak is 36 feet, so from the floor up top is 36 feet.

Speaker 4 1:38:18

Huh yeah, that's up to the point.

Speaker 3 1:38:20

But most barns ain't that big. They have cattle on the bottom. 10 feet takes it all. But this is the basement barn, so the cattle are down below the barn.

Speaker 4 1:38:29

Wow, so you remember any of those square dancing songs? Huh, so you remember any of those square dancing songs?

Speaker 3 1:38:36

Do you remember any of those square dancing songs? Well, not that many. They had maybe the same thing. Swing your partner and dozy doze little chicken in a red pen kicking out the dough Away, we go next one hand I don't know too many of them we had a caller and sometimes an accordion player did the calling. Oh yeah, some people ladies or so they were pretty good at music. They'd sing a song sometimes.

Speaker 1 1:39:09

Wow.

Speaker 3 1:39:10

Okay, now what about the? This was the first yoke house attached to the barn Years ago. They had to be 10 feet or six feet away from the barn. So my dad built a boom and very okayed it, because they didn't like to walk outside and then in the milk houses it would be raining or snowing. This way you were inside. It was more comfortable. And the reason they thought first the smell from the barn would get in the milk. After they found out it didn't, they okayed all the farmers that shipped milk. Afterwards they put the milk house to the barn.

Speaker 4 1:39:43

Wow, really so otherwise they were all separate. Huh yeah.

Speaker 3 1:39:48

Years ago they had a cart like warnings. Over there there was a milk house and a pie from the barn over to that milk pump house and they had a three wheel cart. They put six milk cans full of milk and wheel it over there here. We just carried it up and of course we had a vessel to go. So that's got off the smell of milk Wow. Turned out okay.

Speaker 4 1:40:12

Okay, here are the stairs that grandpa had to come up and down with carrying cans of milk. And here we are inside the milk house and there's the whole wash sink, and right here on the floor used to be a big bulk tank where you'd hold the milk. Here's the door down, so we're going downstairs. All right, now we're going downstairs. Alright, now we're down in the barn. So how many gallons of milk? How many gallons of milk would you get in a day?

Speaker 5 1:40:47

64.

Speaker 3 1:40:56

About 80 gallons a little more Eight milk cans full ten by ten.

Speaker 4 1:41:06

Wow.

Speaker 3 1:41:09

Well, 80 gallons at least a day. So how much a milk can holds 64 pounds of milk 64 pounds of milk per can.

Speaker 4 1:41:20

Yeah how many gallons. There's 68.

Speaker 3 1:41:23

Well, let's see eight times about 64 pounds, a gallon of milk weighs a little bit more than eight pounds. Eight and a third, or something like that.

Speaker 4 1:41:35

Wow. So how many cows would you have down here? Thirty and a milking string. Thirty cows yeah, I'll sit down here.

Speaker 3 1:41:47

It looks like an area where I know it's pretty dirty, oh well.

Speaker 4 1:41:52

So why did you whitewash the walls? Why are the walls all white?

Barn Maintenance and Farming Practices

Speaker 3 1:41:56

Well, you had to whitewash your barn once a year. They claimed it killed them Bacteria or whatever it was for health. Some painted it. Most of the farmers had a man. He came around, he sprayed the barns and just as soon as the cattle went out in the pasture about the last of May or first of June they'd come around by the hour and a half he'd have the barn sprayed and then he'd leave.

Speaker 3 1:42:23

First he'd come in with air pressure, blow the cobwebs down and then he'd put whitewash on and it was hot and the air slacked the slime and that kills bacteria and everything. Oh really.

Speaker 4 1:42:48

Now this is a stairway here up to the hay loft and down here it goes out to the cow yard, and right down here is where the hay bales would fall from upstairs.

Speaker 5 1:43:08

There's a wagon.

Speaker 4 1:43:17

I'll follow Grandpa down here. Looks like he's ridden a few horses in his day. Thanks for all the bull crap. These things were for the water. The cows would bump it with their nose and the water would come out. So while they were in here, they would make them get water when they wanted. Now we're in the cow yard. Okay, now we're inside the cattle shed and here's where they would keep the bulls, the bull pen. I can't see too much in there, but we have room for what looks like four.

Speaker 3 1:44:45

There we are outside, just grandpa again and here's a good idea of a silo. So now, how much corn would you put in a silo? Well, a good year, about eight acres, with several silos. All the hunts can come.

Speaker 4 1:45:06

And that was just chopped corn, right, yeah, the ears and all the green. And so what time of the year would you do it?

Speaker 3 1:45:14

We'd only fill filmed around Labor Day. Lee and Ron didn't have school on Labor Day, and then again they filmed Saturday and sometimes Sunday and we filmed Monday. Sometimes it would rain. Well, they didn't help me. I got two other men. Oh really, most of the time it was Labor Day.

Speaker 4 1:45:40

Wow, Now why'd you feed corn instead of alfalfa? Because I see some guys chopping alfalfa to fill silo.

Speaker 3 1:45:47

Well, they can store maybe a little more Chopping alfalfa. They can do it almost alone with another man unloading. But I always had to have some dry food too, for both chopped alfalfa got moisture in and corn silage, and if you feed too much corn silage without any dry matter sometimes you get a twisted stomach and then you'd have to have the vet and corn silage and if you feed too much corn silage without any dry matter, sometimes you'd get a twisted stomach and then you'd have to have the vet operate or sometimes the cow would die on you.

Speaker 3 1:46:27

So you had to have some dry. A cow was made to eat a lot of roughage, a lot of milk, you know, and you could get a little more milk out of it and they could feed more silage and alfalfa. That was well moisture. You couldn't bale it when you put alfalfa in the barn at that moisture. The barn would burn down if it was spoiled.

Speaker 1 1:46:49

Wow.

Speaker 3 1:46:51

And the silo well once in a while the silo catches on fire in Wisconsin and it's due to a little bit too much moisture. But that's oh okay and you read about it. When the side is on fire it's hard to get it out. It burns for two or three weeks.

Speaker 4 1:47:09

Wow, Now wasn't it kind of dangerous after you filled with the gas up top or whatever.

Speaker 3 1:47:15

Oh, yeah, well, you had to have ventilation because while it was fermenting it would turn off the gas, so you couldn't see it, but it killed.

Speaker 3 1:47:28

We always left the roof open for a week or two and then the air from the chute goes up and that takes the gas out. It's a yellow vapor they claim I've never seen it. You can smell it when you go up, sometimes, especially in the silo chute. But after you got up on top where the roof was open and some farmers, they left the blower on there and after they got done filling and then before they go up in the morning so they'd run the tractor, the blower, for about five minutes that blew all the gas out. They'd take another day before they'd generate enough gas to come with anybody.

Speaker 5 1:48:06

Wow.

Speaker 3 1:48:09

Well, that's like these hog containment where they got the pit in, you know when they clean that out. You want ventilation boy. One farmer went down. His son was down there, was wondering what was wrong. He went down and he found the sun floating Before he got out, he died.

Speaker 4 1:48:30

Geez, and here's a burn swallow nest.

Speaker 3 1:48:35

They come back every year. I don't know if it's an offspring or what.

Speaker 4 1:48:41

You can see it right up on the boards.

Speaker 3 1:48:43

We had barn swallows in here ever since the barn was built.

Speaker 4 1:48:47

Yeah, this is kind of interesting too. You've got license plates cut for the numbers above the cows, yeah, that's a cheap number plate. There you go, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 1:49:03

If I were a writer, I'd have a nice picture of that.

Speaker 4 1:49:06

Well, you know it's been— no cattle ever. So what's the Park District going to do with this? Do you know?

Speaker 3 1:49:13

They want to make a mini fire mount on it.

Speaker 2 1:49:15

I don't know if they want to have a cow and a calf.

Speaker 3 1:49:17

I don't know All the cows. They want to pick them.

Speaker 4 1:49:20

The little ones, the kids can tell them what animals are. Yeah, you can see, it's the Rom Lee Dairy Farm from Okinawa, so we're back inside. So you use this for silage, right?

Speaker 3 1:49:34

No ground feed, ground feed. I ain't fed them with a scoop, but when your dad and me they'd use a little scoop and then they'd have them dopping there. How many scoops are each cow according to production? Three dippers, four, four and a half twice a day.

Speaker 4 1:49:51

Wow, now you had calves in these little side pens, right.

Speaker 3 1:49:58

Yeah, before that pen, before the other one, I got a little history.

Speaker 4 1:50:04

I do yeah. So how many calves a year would you want?

Speaker 3 1:50:14

I don't know. Maybe 30, 40 calves a year. Oh really, most of the time one cow had one, but once in a while we'd have twins and we'd raise the calves from the best producers, always, and the rest we sold for veal. Once in a while we'd raise one or so to butcher Huh.

Speaker 4 1:50:37

So here we are going down by the corn crib, oh, really hey, what was that building over there, that that's where they chicken out at the Bruderhausen.

Speaker 3 1:50:59

Oh really, that's where they raise the little baby chicks and when they get big enough, they put them in the other one they're laying on. Yeah, it holds about 1600 bushels a year and about 3000 bushels beans.

Speaker 4 1:51:26

Wow, now when was this built?

Speaker 3 1:51:29

1926. No, kidding that little hole down there. It looks like a pigeon hole, but that's what they catch when they come in. The doors are shut and they catch mice, oh yeah.

Speaker 4 1:51:48

Yeah, I remember shoving a lot of grain out of here, oh yeah, and filling it.

Speaker 3 1:51:54

Yeah.

Speaker 4 1:51:55

So how? I mean who designed these buildings? Who designed them? I mean who said you know, my dad did, he drew the print for this building, did he really? Yeah? So how did he know how to Years ago, they?

Speaker 3 1:52:10

had corn on one side, oats on the other, and then the elevators just came out and this is one of the first elevators that was in Frankfurt Township and then they put the oats upstairs, they made the thing smaller and now this is much gray and the elevator only cost $60. Wow, what they saved in the building went towards it, and then they didn't have to shovel the grain. It's always harder to shovel a load of shear corn than is the husk of a load when it's green.

Speaker 3 1:52:43

Oh yeah, we had to take the horses off the wagon and raise it up. The corn went in and we had it unloaded in five minutes. Wow Saved a lot of labor.

Speaker 4 1:52:55

Oh yeah, because you know you can open up both sides of this and then you drive the wagons from this end up through this way. There's the house. No, it's a little open. Oh yeah, so why'd you have the slots in there? Why not just have it completely closed? Why? Why have all the openings between the boards?

Speaker 3 1:53:19

Well, that's for the natural air to take the moisture out of the aircon. When you picked it up it was closed up and molded. Oh really, and if you get it too wide you'd have to pick too early. It has to be more matured out in the field before you can pick. Some of them were eight feet wide. This was six feet, so we could start earlier and we'd have it full. Or some of us would just first start picking. Wow, being in the dairy business, you didn't like to do too much field work in the wintertime. You wanted to be done so you could take care of the cattle, but sometimes the weather was bad and you didn't get it all picked until February. Anyhow, there's too much snow on the ground.

Speaker 4 1:54:02

Jeez.

Speaker 3 1:54:03

But most of the time we try to get down before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 1:54:07

Harvesting. Yeah, we're upstairs and this is where they would, these big bins to store the grain. See, here's one with some soybeans probably all soybeans in here, but they would drain them out through these little chutes on the floor. Then over here on the side of the corn cribs, this was the elevator here that came up from downstairs. The elevator here that came up from downstairs, it would go up to the ceiling and then it had a big chute you could direct. You know wherever you wanted either the corn or the beans to go. I know in here we can. There's another big bin with some holes in the floor. So this held soybeans and oats. And here we are coming up to the tool shed. Now, right in here, I guess there used to be an old blacksmith shop, rick the Old Building. Let's give him a ride, but anyhow, we'll go check in over at the tool shed. Okay, here we're looking into the sun, but this is the backside of the granary.

Speaker 1 1:55:30

Coming around.

Speaker 4 1:55:33

There's the breeder house, oh yeah, and the cattle shed, pig shed, barn and silo. Here we are in the tool shed and here is a classic tractor.

Speaker 3 1:55:50

You know I've done two tractors quite a few times.

Speaker 4 1:55:53

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:55:53

So In 1951. Still runs good, and now it's 98.

Speaker 4 1:55:56

So when did you buy it it?

Speaker 3 1:56:01

was built in 1951 and I got it about in 1952 or 1953. Wow. I've used it all these years and it still runs good.

Speaker 4 1:56:22

Wow. So how many horsepower? Huh, how many horsepower? Oh, I suppose about 32.

Speaker 3 1:56:28

Probably as much as the A, the G, but this is high compression. The G wasn't high compression, but the G weighed a thousand pounds heavier than this one, so it was just a heavier tractor, this one I used to cultivate corn, cutting hay, raking hay, pulling wagon, following the number every day. It was a good tractor. Wow, it was a good tractor, wow.

Speaker 4 1:56:58

Hey, can you start it? Can you start it?

Speaker 3 1:57:02

I'll have to sell it.

Speaker 4 1:57:03

No, can you start it?

Speaker 3 1:57:06

You want me to start it. Yeah, oh, it just starts running on.

Speaker 4 1:57:10

I mean we. This is great because we just got well, not just, but you know for Christmas a calendar of John Deere tractors and a lot of these were in there for old antique tractors and here's the working model. Hopefully he gets up there, okay. See, he's not a little stiff. See the old gear shifts, and oh God, I'll never forget that. Wow, it's kind of hard to see, but it's a two-runner.

Speaker 3 1:58:41

It's what it's a two-runner.

Speaker 4 1:58:43

What's that Two-cylinder? Oh, two-cylinder. The farmers call it a two-runner. Wow, that's classic.

Speaker 3 1:58:55

God yeah.

Speaker 4 1:58:59

Here's a picture over from over. Here is the old flywheel my gosh. Now which one did you roll? Over this one. You rolled this one over. Yeah, that's why that thing is bent I got a new air stack.

Speaker 3 1:59:17

It rolled right, completely upside down, sitting just 90 degrees. How'd you do that? Well, I was running the tractor on the corn picker and Gary pulled up. Larry pulled the wagon up and I thought he had the tractor on the corn picker and Gary pulled up Larry pulled the wagon up and I thought he had the tractor away and he had it hooked up.

Speaker 3 1:59:40

I started up and the tractor had a big wagon wheel and got underneath the tractor and just tipped his head over. And Jesus, I heard the tractor governor open up and I looked back and I thought Larry was underneath it and he was behind me. I said I'm all right. And boy, what a relief. So we had to go get the G, tipped it upside down back on his wheel and started up. The oil run out so we dragged it home and it kind of got moved. The exhaust pipe on that one we straightened out, and the wheel steering wheel we bent. We straightened that out. We put some acid that had run out of the factory and we put a little bit of acid back in on that and some oil and it started right off again.

Speaker 4 2:00:32

Wow, now here's your little cub tractor, huh.

Speaker 3 2:00:35

Yeah, that's the one I cut along with.

Speaker 4 2:00:38

Now, when did you get that one?

Speaker 3 2:00:40

Well, that was really Richard Cole's. He had it here for years, started to cut the firewood down there. Then, when he died, I had it and I said to Bert, that's your tractor. He said you keep it, I don't need it. So he gave it to me.

Speaker 4 2:00:55

And.

Speaker 3 2:00:56

I had it over two years ago.

Speaker 4 2:01:01

And here's your 2520. This is a good tractor, it sure is. Now, how old is this one? This?

Speaker 3 2:01:07

is a 1970.

Speaker 4 2:01:08

1970. Yep See, it looks a little bit similar like the A, but it's a good tractor, that one's got 70 horsepower 70?. Yeah, wow, wow, now that one's nice.

Speaker 3 2:01:27

It's got power steering that drives like your car. It's as easy as your car.

Speaker 4 2:01:32

Oh yeah.