From Army Service to Line Worker: Art Hill's American Journey

Art Hill's remarkable journey from rural Michigan to World War II service and beyond captivates with its blend of humor, resilience, and unexpected adventures. Born in 1926 in Ionia, Michigan, Art grew up in Vicksburg during the Great Depression in a household with nine siblings. His childhood memories paint a vivid picture of rural American life – from trapping muskrats for extra money to the Sunday ritual of his mother preparing freshly killed chickens for dinner.

When Art turned 18, he applied for immediate induction into military service during World War II. His crossing to Europe aboard a Liberty ship yielded one of his most practical wartime lessons: eating dill pickles in mustard prevented seasickness while fellow soldiers suffered miserably around him. Art's recollections of his time in Germany, Belgium, and France aren't focused on combat, but rather on the colorful, sometimes humorous experiences of a young American soldier abroad – building (and falling out of) a treehouse in the woods, unexpected encounters with European women, and witnessing the aftermath of war alongside allied forces.

After returning home on the Queen Elizabeth (which made the journey in just 5 days compared to the 17-day voyage to Europe), Art briefly taught swimming at Fort Benning before being discharged and returning to Michigan. Despite lacking a high school diploma, Art's exceptional work ethic caught the attention of Consumers Power Company inspectors. This led to a long career working on high voltage power lines, where he advanced from lineman to supervisor despite the formal education requirements typically needed for such positions.

Throughout his life story, Art's practical wisdom, adaptability, and unfiltered perspective offer a genuine glimpse into the experiences of the Greatest Generation. His narrative reminds us how individual Americans navigated through world-changing events and built meaningful lives and careers in their aftermath.

Transcript

Early Life in Michigan

Speaker 1 0:33

Today is Wednesday, March 5th 2025. We're speaking with Art Hill, who served in the United States Army and the Michigan Air National Guard. Good morning, Art. Good morning, it's good to see you this morning. So we're going to start out with some easy questions. When and where were you born?

Speaker 2 0:56

When 1926 in Ionia's Ionia, michigan.

Speaker 1 1:02

Yeah, all right. Did you live there for a long time? Yeah, a couple weeks, okay. So where did you grow up? Art Vicksburg, okay, and where's Vicksburg? Okay, and where's Vicksburg at South of Kalamazoo.

Speaker 2 1:19

Oh, how many miles, 14 miles.

Speaker 1 1:25

Okay, all right. What was it like for you growing up? What are some of the memories you have of being a kid?

Speaker 2 1:34

Well, trapped my scratch just so they could walk, I believe, and I used to sell them there. Well, one of the kids that I went to school with his dad bought them and he sat in the living room smoking, and never any without.

Speaker 1 2:02

Really, what did they do with them when you sold them? What did they do with the muskrats that you sold?

Speaker 2 2:09

Well, they sold some of them to a restaurant. People eat them Really, yeah.

Speaker 1 2:19

They taste anything. Have you ever eaten one?

Speaker 2 2:21

Yeah, I've had a bite of one. He's kind of a rat.

Speaker 1 2:29

So did you have any brothers and sisters growing up?

Speaker 2 2:32

Oh, yeah, six brothers and three sisters.

Speaker 1 2:38

That's a lot of kids in one house, yep. And what about your parents? What did your dad do?

Speaker 2 2:45

Well, they lived in the Iowans and he started up an insurance agency in. Richburg and he started up an insurance agency in Richburg and it didn't work because of the depression and he just moved and opened up a thing but he couldn't sell no insurance. So he went to work for Kalamazoo County Road Commission and he worked there until he retired and then he took a job as a cemetery section over in.

Speaker 2 3:34

Vford, so we worked in that cemetery for a long time. I don't know how old he was when he died, but old, and my mother was too.

Speaker 1 3:52

What do you remember about your mother?

Speaker 2 3:56

Well, I remember cooking. Sunday dinner Started out in the backyard with a chicken wrote our heads off, and that's what we had for Sunday dinner always is chicken.

Speaker 1 4:18

Doesn't get any fresher than that, no but I can remember her.

Speaker 2 4:26

She had a whole pen on her.

Speaker 1 4:30

That'll do it. Yep. So where were you at in the line of your brothers and sisters? Were you the oldest or the youngest? Were you in the middle somewhere?

Speaker 2 4:43

Oh, I had two younger brothers, uh-huh, two younger then it was up.

Speaker 1 4:52

All right.

Speaker 2 4:53

You worked at the cemetery, well, while I was still in school. Okay, okay, yeah. Every once in a while I'd dig a grave with a shovel, that's what they did back then and I propped that one. I was done, I was tired, propped her up in the corner of the grave, went to sleep. A couple of women come by and looked down in there, screamed and woke me up.

Speaker 1 5:32

They thought somebody forgot to put the dirt on top.

School Years and Cemetery Work

Speaker 2 5:34

Yeah, yeah, I hadn't got out yet. I sat down to rest. Oh no, now. I dig them with my feet.

Speaker 1 5:47

Right, right, no sleeping in those holes right.

Speaker 2 5:50

Nope.

Speaker 1 5:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:51

I dug them with my hands.

Speaker 1 5:55

So did you go to school in Vicksburg? Yeah, all right. And what was school like for you? What did you? Go to school in Vicksburg. Yeah, all right. What was school like for you? What did you do in school?

Speaker 2 6:03

Oh, I played basketball, played football, and I didn't play baseball because we had to walk a long ways to get in the baseball field, so I didn't do that, were you pretty good at football. Well, I was little. I was little and after I got in the first game I played regular. Well, for the first game the coach says warm up Maltese.

Speaker 1 6:55

Were you Maltese?

Speaker 2 6:57

Well, that's the way I got in, and after I got in, played the first game, played every game.

Speaker 1 7:03

So they discovered that you were pretty good at this.

Speaker 2 7:12

Yeah, pretty small, but I was quarterback and I played both directions, really, really.

Speaker 1 7:14

What did you play on defense then?

Speaker 2 7:18

Well, just quarterback position. Okay Back.

Speaker 1 7:25

Yep, All right. And did you graduate from school?

Speaker 2 7:30

No Well when I turned 18, I applied for a meeting in the Ducks and the way I went yeah, I went to.

Speaker 1 7:43

Fort Hood.

Speaker 2 7:47

That's where I took my basic.

Speaker 1 7:49

What was that like for you?

Speaker 2 7:54

Oh, wasn't much work.

Speaker 1 7:59

Were you pretty used to hard work by then.

Speaker 2 8:02

Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I worked in the cemetery while I was still going to school. Yep, they teach you to get ready to go overseas, uh-huh, and that's what I took care of. My basic Okay, because, like I say, I applied for media induction and then I did that 18, I was out there and they put me on a passenger train to Fort Hood and that's where I took my basic?

Speaker 1 8:48

Alright, then what'd you do after basic training?

Speaker 2 8:53

Well, after I got trained, they shipped me to.

Speaker 1 8:58

Boston to get on a Liberty ship, and where did you go to?

Speaker 2 9:06

He was a major on the ship there, but I'd never seen him again. But he come over and says you get down in the must all there and see a big pan of mustard with dill pickle sliced in them. He says you eat them, you won't get sick. And boy, I look at them and my partner made you sick but I ate them and I did not get sick. And the guys that didn't eat them heaved all over the boat yeah, so that's a good tip yeah, I did. I got puked on, but I never puked yeah.

Speaker 1 9:58

And how long was the trip overseas? 17 days. Yeah, I got puked on, but I never puked yeah.

Speaker 2 10:01

And how long was the trip overseas? 17 days.

Speaker 1 10:07

That's a long time, yeah. And then, where did you get off the ship at Do?

Speaker 2 10:16

you remember what town you were at? Yeah, I got off in England. Then you got on another boat and went across the pond there. I can't tell you what that was, but after we got across the pond, we got on a train. It wasn't a passenger train, it was a freight train and we went across the pond over there and went away and there was a river was a river.

Speaker 2 11:03

The train stopped there and a bunch of us jumped off the train and dived in the river Nonsense woman and some of the guys didn't make it back on the train when we got ready to take off, oh no, and all I had on was undershorts. Their clothes was in the train.

Speaker 1 11:25

Did you ever see them again? Huh, did you ever see them again? Did they ever show back up?

Speaker 2 11:31

Well, I seen some of them, yep.

Speaker 1 11:39

And so where did the train take you?

Speaker 2 11:42

Where did the train? Yeah, you've seen the Statue of Liberty, haven't you? Yes, I have. That's where the train took us, right there in Paris, and we got off there.

Speaker 1 11:59

So you got off the train. You say in Paris Yep and got in the truck.

Speaker 2 12:04

Okay, and Joe died in the water, but in Germany it was.

Speaker 1 12:16

All right, so you started out in Germany. Then yeah, okay, and what was that like? What did you do there?

Speaker 2 12:27

Tried to hide from the girls, but it didn't work Tried to hide from the girls in Germany.

Speaker 1 12:34

Yeah, tell me about this. I got to hear about this in Germany. Tell me about this. I've got to hear about this.

Speaker 2 12:40

Well, there's a little schoolhouse over here out in the woods and I checked it out and got machine guns in there, german ones. I took one out in the middle of the field right there so I could see things coming around. And I looked way over and there was some gal there with a skirt that was dragged on the ground and she come towards me and I figured that with that skirt, as long as it was, she could hide a couple guys in there and that she got all the way to me, didn't even introduce herself.

Speaker 2 13:39

No, nope Took off. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, she kept coming and coming. What the devil.

Speaker 1 13:50

Girls, what else did you do in Germany?

Speaker 2 13:54

Well, drank a lot of booze? Yeah, because we had two guys and a six-by and they'd take off and come back with a load of beer schnapps, cognac and what have you? Then bring her out in the woods where we was dump her off away. They'd go In a few days, they'd be back, but they did that regular.

Speaker 1 14:31

Now, were you there towards the end of the war? Then yeah, okay, alright, yep, so what was your overall mission there? What were you supposed to be doing in Germany?

Speaker 2 14:45

I don't know Really had to make it. Okay, it was goofy yeah.

Speaker 1 14:54

So how long were you in Germany?

Speaker 2 14:59

I couldn't really tell you Okay, because I don't know how long.

Speaker 1 15:04

Anything else interesting happen while you were there?

Speaker 2 15:34

Oh yeah, my brother. He's a master sergeant and he came looking for me and he didn't find me. He was looking for me and he didn't find me, but some guys, he told me about it. He said there was a Master Sergeant coming here looking for me.

Speaker 1 16:01

And that was my brother Harvey. And what rank were you? The Army? Yeah, what rank Were you? Like a Sergeant or a? Oh, over there.

Speaker 2 16:21

Hmm, I can't remember whether I got a rank.

Speaker 1 16:28

Okay, did Harvey ever find you?

Speaker 2 16:32

No, not until.

Speaker 1 16:35

I got back home. Oh, okay, all right. So where did you go after you were in Germany? Where did you go from there?

Speaker 2 16:44

Oh, belgium, I was there for a while.

Speaker 1 16:50

Any excitement in Belgium? Anything happen there while you were in Belgium?

Speaker 2 16:55

Yep they had a little taxi that drove around there probably held maybe a half a dozen people.

Adventures in Belgium and France

Speaker 2 17:07

And right after the war, me and a couple guys got on there, and there was a couple women on there too, and they stopped in the place when they got off and one of these gals said if you come around tomorrow, I will take you up to my room and fix you a steak. So I got back there, here she come, took me upstairs. She had a beautiful apartment and she had a big table there with stuff lined up on it and she sat me down there and said I'll bring you your steak. Well, she brought me a big steak. Yeah, I got my steak.

Speaker 1 18:11

Kate Art, did you wear some sort of special cologne? I?

Speaker 2 18:17

don't know.

Speaker 1 18:18

What was your secret? I don't know. But yeah, did you ever see her again after that?

Speaker 2 18:25

No, didn't, but she was a young lady and good looking, but I couldn't believe that.

Speaker 1 18:38

Wow, anything else happen while you were there in Belgium? I?

Speaker 2 18:43

told you about these guys coming with beer, wine, cognac and all that stuff. They did that right regular. When I was there we lived in a wood, okay, and I built a place up my tree.

Speaker 1 19:07

So you built a tree house, did you?

Speaker 2 19:09

Yep.

Speaker 1 19:11

Tell me about that.

Speaker 2 19:12

Well, I put the fell out of it. Oh no.

Speaker 1 19:16

Is that because of all the drinking? Yeah, you almost fell Okay.

Speaker 2 19:19

Yeah, that's why we got unloaded, and I think the first time they came, I think they had run into every tree in the woods.

Speaker 1 19:32

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 19:33

Yeah, that hurt hitting them trees.

Speaker 1 19:36

I'll bet, I'll bet, I'll bet, I'll bet it did so where did you go from Belgium then?

Speaker 2 19:43

Oh, we went back to France for a while, uh-huh, and then back to England. England and home on Queen Elizabeth, england and home on the Queen Elizabeth.

Speaker 1 20:01

Okay, now, before we, get to the Queen Elizabeth. Is there anything you want to tell me about the rest of your time there in Europe? Anything else happen while you're there that you want to share?

Speaker 2 20:11

We drive by them and they was getting released from the prison and working. Yeah, they were in a tent like down there and they was walking home and there was a truck running right alongside the road and these guys that were driving the truck. They'd get up there by them hit the foot backfire.

Speaker 1 20:43

Jesus and boom, they'd die right over in the creek. But that wasn't you that did that right? No, that was somebody else.

Speaker 2 20:53

That was somebody else, okay. But I would if I'd been in that position, because that's what they did. Hit the switch there, yeah.

Speaker 1 21:04

Yeah, that'll do it.

Speaker 2 21:06

It did it.

Speaker 1 21:07

For sure, I got to hear about the Queen Elizabeth. So you got on the Queen Elizabeth and you head back.

Speaker 2 21:12

We had a state room, uh-huh, for 12 hours. Then you head back. We had a stateroom for 12 hours. Then you had nothing anyplace on deck. We had a double load. Yeah, and that's what you did. Laid down and then you was up. Laid down and you was up and it only took five days going back home, 17 days going over.

Speaker 1 21:43

Uh-huh, Tell me about Jimmy Stewart on the boat.

Speaker 2 21:47

Well he was on there, but he had a stateroom all the time. Well, he's Jimmy Stewart, right, oh?

Speaker 1 21:53

yeah, he didn't have to get on every eight hours. Did you get to meet him or talk to him at all?

Return Home and Postwar Life

Speaker 2 22:05

No, okay, didn't see him. Or yeah, nope, because that's a big ship.

Speaker 1 22:14

Yes, it is so you. Where did you when you got back to the States? Where did the ship dock? It took me some thinking.

Speaker 2 22:25

I didn't quit for it. I can't picture me getting off the ship. I can picture me getting on the ship and going to cry. Oh yeah, except picture me getting on the ship and going to cry.

Speaker 1 22:41

Oh yeah, so when did you end up back in Michigan then?

Speaker 2 22:52

Did you do something before you came back here?

Speaker 1 22:56

Yeah, fort Bendning All right, and what did you do at Fort Benning? I?

Speaker 2 23:09

brought there to teach swimming. Okay, yeah, I did Taught swimming there at Fort Bennett when the war was over.

Speaker 1 23:25

What was that like teaching swimming? Did you have a lot of students?

Speaker 2 23:29

Well, I figured it would be just a field. But then I looked down the road and Jesus looked like a whole company that couldn't swim. I couldn't believe that Because from Vicksburg there I could swim where I could barely walk.

Speaker 1 23:50

Right, so after you got done at Benning, what did you do after that?

Speaker 2 23:58

I think I got discharged in Benning.

Speaker 1 24:02

Okay.

Speaker 2 24:05

And come back to Vicksburg.

Speaker 1 24:10

Did you go back to your family's home in Vicksburg? Yeah, okay, do you remember what it was like coming home?

Speaker 2 24:20

Coming home on Queen Elizabeth, just no bouncing, just going over there and throwing you all over. All of them was sick and I didn't see any sick ones on the Elizabeth.

Speaker 1 24:41

You didn't have to eat any pickles then to settle your stomach there on the Queen Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 24:46

No, we didn't. Queen Elizabeth didn't bounce around just like a rowboat Boy going over Everybody underneath them pickles was heating up on each other Bunk beds and that going over.

Speaker 1 25:10

Yeah, yeah, Stacked up like cordwood right.

Speaker 2 25:12

Yeah, and there'd puke on top and puke on everybody down and that probably made those other people throw cordwood right, yeah, and then puke on top and puke on everybody down and that probably made those other people throw up too.

Speaker 1 25:20

Right, dive overboard, right, right. So tell me about when you got back to Vicksburg, tell me about being back home after you got back from the war. Did you go to work? Did you go to school? Tell me about being back home after you got back from the war. Hmm, did you go to work? Did you go to school?

Speaker 2 25:46

Yeah, I got me a job, but I can't think of what it was.

Speaker 1 25:53

Okay, I didn't quit for a second so you were in the Air National Guard in Battle Creek? Yeah, I was. Yeah, what did you do there? What was your job in the National Guard? We didn't hardly do nothing. Did you do that for a while? Were you in the National Guard for a long time?

Speaker 2 26:24

Oh yeah, I re-upped in that time, or so.

Career at Consumers Energy

Speaker 1 26:34

But I can't guarantee nothing there. Yeah, yeah, yeah Now. Did you get a different job when you got out of the National Guard? Did you work someplace else?

Speaker 2 26:46

Yeah, I got a different job.

Speaker 1 26:52

I worked for a consul Okay. All right Now. Were you married at this time?

Speaker 2 27:01

Yeah. When I hired the consumer. I was married Because we moved to Battle Creek.

Speaker 1 27:16

And what did you? What was your job when you first started at Consumers Energy? Oh, it's Consumers Power at the time, though, right.

Speaker 2 27:25

Yeah, but I went with LA Miners when I started there. Uh-huh and power company. You had to have a high school diploma and I didn't have one, so I worked in the Valley. Myers and Bob Stuck I don't know if you ever heard him or not he was an inspector of the contractor and he liked the way I'd done things so he got me hired there. When he'd come, he was always sitting in his car watching whatever I was doing.

Speaker 2 28:09

Yeah he liked the way I'd done things, so they recruited me, so you worked in the electric lines department.

Speaker 1 28:21

Is that what you did? High lines, high lines. Okay, all right. Yep, what kind of stuff did you do there?

Speaker 2 28:28

Hot sticking cheese insulator. Well, that would be hot, if they can do it. Yeah, we'd done all kinds of work on the. High Line and we had just one crew there in Battlecruise, one in Lansing.

Speaker 1 28:54

They have a lot more now, don't they? Oh yeah, yeah, how long did you work, highline?

Speaker 2 29:05

I worked there quite a while. I got some pictures here, but I don't know what book.

Speaker 1 29:17

Well, we'll have to take a look at those when we get done, because I'd like to see those.

Speaker 2 29:20

That's my youngest book and he is going to go to Africa.

Speaker 1 29:32

Really yeah. So let's talk about your family while we're looking at pictures of Colorado. Okay, how many children do you have? Thirteen, isn't it? Twelve, twelve, see, I can't remember. Twelve, is that all with the same wife?

Speaker 2 29:52

No. My youngest daughter, here them are her boys. So you got five boys, four boys, one, two three, four, five boys, and they was wanting a girl, uh-huh, but it never happened, so they quit.

Speaker 1 30:15

You know, I have a cousin that had six girls trying to have a boy.

Speaker 2 30:18

And that never happened. Yeah, gotcha.

Speaker 1 30:24

So how many grandchildren do you have? I can't tell you that A whole bunch huh.

Speaker 2 30:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1 30:31

Well, can we go back to talking a little bit about Consumers Energy and what you did there? Can we go back to talking a little bit about Consumers Energy and what you did there? So when you got done working Highline, what did you do after that? What kind of work did you do?

Speaker 2 30:49

I got shipped up to Hastings supervisor, Okay.

Speaker 1 30:58

And were you in Hastings supervisor?

Speaker 2 30:59

Okay, and were you in Hastings for a while. Yeah, quite a while.

Speaker 1 31:05

So you supervised the high line in Hastings, or was that the line workers? What did you do there? Yeah, line. Okay.

Speaker 2 31:15

Yeah, I supervised everything. You do that would you? Yeah, I lied, okay what? Yeah, I supervise everything, but we had gas rats there too.

Speaker 1 31:24

I didn't supervise them they had the gas rats had their own supervisor, right, yeah, okay, all right. And where'd you go from? Hastings, you remember where you went after that?

Speaker 2 31:38

Home, maybe I retired.

Speaker 1 31:39

Retired. You retired out of Hastings, that's right, and so when you retired, did you do anything else? Did you work after that?

Speaker 2 31:52

I don't believe it Can't remember.

Speaker 1 31:56

Okay, all right. Anything that you want to share about the time you worked at Consumers. Anything happen there, any stories there you want to talk about?

Speaker 2 32:07

Yeah, I'd like to show you the crew there, that's me and a baseball team or a softball team. Uh-huh. Yeah, that was the only highline people we had in Battle Creek. That's a great crew and around the area there was someone, lancey, but they Ot Sailor was the boss and he didn't know nothing and our old boss there, he didn't know hardly anything either.

Speaker 1 32:49

I hear that you had a pretty good reputation as being a great line worker, though.

Speaker 2 32:53

Yeah, Well, when I worked with the contractor that's how I got hired, the contractor, Bob Stuck. He liked the way I'd done things, so he got me recruited because I didn't have a high school diploma and back then you had to have one. I don't know about now.

Speaker 1 33:17

It sounds like he was able to get around that for you, though.

Speaker 2 33:20

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I remember once when consumers went on strike Uh-huh, and one of the guys that worked there, eddie Britton, he lived in.

Speaker 1 33:43

Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 33:46

I called up the contractor that I worked for LA Meyer and says they got any jobs around and they told a bunch of them and there was one in Pennsylvania and this one guy on the crew. He was from Pennsylvania, so I told him why don't you call up and see if we can get a job there? So I called up a contractor and they gave us a job there. I went up there to work on it and just as soon as I got there they said well, do you want to run the job?

Family Life and Retirement Reflections

Speaker 2 34:45

So I was the boss man up there. So then I had a snot-nosed kid come up there with another guy from where I was going to school and I was up in Pocono big towers, big bears a lot of hazards there, yeah in Jesus. To go from one structure to the next, you might drive five miles you had to get down and out of there. You couldn't go like that. That was kind of tough, but that was the only highline crew back then.

Speaker 2 35:43

Right there. And Bob Wurtz, I don't know if you ever heard of him?

Speaker 1 35:46

No, I have not.

Speaker 2 35:48

I made him a supervisor somewhere and me I made the supervisor, but that's been a long time ago.

Speaker 1 36:05

Yeah, how many years did you work there? Total? Do you remember A lot, a bunch, a bunch of years.

Speaker 2 36:17

No, I don't remember.

Speaker 1 36:18

Yeah, see how tall, that guy is.

Speaker 2 36:20

Uh-huh. The guy next to him is six foot and he holds his hand out like that that's a tall guy and he's a monster.

Speaker 1 36:27

Yeah, and that was a contracting crew that I worked in.

Speaker 2 36:41

They come to work that morning and there was old Slum Brown. I went what the hell? Because he got over at the tavern that we was at. I'd never seen it before he come up there to the tavern and said he could whip any two guys from Vicksburg. Really, yeah, just before he got a broken jaw I got him.

Speaker 1 37:17

He didn't whip anybody, did he? No, he didn't.

Speaker 2 37:24

But, jesus, I come to work.

Speaker 1 37:29

This is what I'm working as a contractor for the power company.

Speaker 2 37:34

But, Jesus, they come to work that morning. He's standing there like that and I thought, holy mackerel, I've got to mess with him.

Speaker 1 37:43

But he didn't want to mess with me, yeah.

Speaker 2 37:47

Because I had broke his jaw.

Speaker 1 37:49

Jesus, you set the tone. Is what you did Right? I don't know. You set the tone, is what you did right? Well, Art, before we look too much further into the pictures, can I ask you one more question? What? So? We're recording right now and I'm just wondering if you'd like to leave a message for people who listen to this years from now. Is there a message you'd like to give to people?

Speaker 2 38:18

Well, you might want to tell them I worked there and a snot-nosed kid worked there and he's got a snot-nosed kid who worked there. Only they're electrical engineers.

Speaker 1 38:34

Well, that's pretty worth nothing. Oh, I didn't see you there, that's what.