A JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

BY CARL R. LUCAS

A JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE BY CARL R. LUCAS This book is dedicated to my three daughters, Carolyn Blotz, Wanda Wienkers and Marjean Kraemer. If it were not for them, this would not have been written. They insisted that I make a story of my travels through life. To each of us there is a beginning and for me, that beginning started on September 28, 1915. I joined two brothers and two sisters. One brother had died in infancy. We were later joined by another brother. My earliest recollection of things happening around me was when I was about four years old. It was a very stormy, snowy night and I was waiting and looking out the window for my brothers and sisters to come walking home from school, which was about a three mile walk. Our toys were not too much. I remember only one hand-me-down rag doll that was about worn out by the time it got to me. I loved to iron clothes and towels. Mother would heat the flat irons on the stove and then give them to me to iron making sure that they weren't hot enough to burn me. Another thing I loved to do was to bake onions in mother's stove and then eat them. Our stove was an old stove that had four claw feet and four burner lids on it. They could be removed for us to toast bread over an open fire. It also had a warming oven above the stove to keep things warm after cooking. One other nice thing about the stove was the reservoir, a storage place to hold about four gallons of hot water for cooking and washing dishes. In 1921, I started to school. Each morning I and my older brother and two sisters would walk three miles to a country school called Willow Springs. There were about twenty-five children in eight grades taught by one teacher. The older boys brought in the wood for the fire. The water was also brought in from a pump in the schoolyard. Our playground entertainment was drowning gophers out of their holes and playing Andy Over, Red Rover and Fox and Geese. I would get very tired walking home from school but there was a huge rock about half way home and I would rest on it. There were about five children in the first grade and we all attended school until the weather got too cold then we didn't go anymore. In the spring when school was out, the teacher promoted each of us into second grade the next Fall. We went to Cobb Grade School. The other children went to Montfort and Highland schools. Each one of my classmates stayed in second grade for about three weeks. By then the teachers decided that none of us were ready for second grade so back to first grade we went! I liked going to school in Cobb. There were lots of kids and something was going on all the time. The high school boys used to tease the small kids. They would get us kids to fight. About this time I had my first of many fights. The older boys got I and another kid about twice my size to fight. It happened that when we fell to the ground that I was on top! I thought to myself what will I do next? I knew that when he got up, he would surely beat me up. Looking at the ground beside me I saw a square old time nail so I picked it up and commenced to pounding on his head. He stared crying and yelling and the boys were laughing their heads off! So one of the boys pulled

me off and the kid run as fast as he could and never bothered me again. As a matter of fact, we became very good friends. At noon we would all sit in the shade with the high school boys and eat our dinner. This one time, the senior boys all came dressed in their best suits because they were going to have their graduation picture taken. A boy, whose name was Freeman Fox and was 66 tall and always full of fun, was teasing me so my brother said; "Throw your egg at him." I had this soft-boiled egg in my hand so I threw it and hit him in the belly and it broke and ran down his pants. I then made a quick exit as he was a mess and plenty mad. However, I wasn't a troublemaker because I always had many friends and got along just great with everyone. About this time, my Dad decided he would need a new barn. For more that two years, he would cut logs (all on his farm) in preparation for sawing lumber. He also quarried all the rocks and sand for the rock walls. He hired Alf Vickerman to haul all the sand for it which was quarried on our farm. There were piles of rock, sand and logs wherever you looked. When that was done, he had a big sawmill come in from Boscobel to saw the lumber. They brought their own crew of men. Everett McReynolds owned the sawmill and he had Neal Wilkinson, George Combs, George Peacock, Manual Streeter and Jud Wilkinson. I dont seem to remem ber the others. They would saw lumber all week and then go home for the weekend. There were about seven men and they would board at our place during the week. I don't remember how long it took them but imagine most of the summer. They sawed out 93,000 feet of lumber. Several thousand feet of it was for the neighbors. When that was finished, Dad hired a carpenter from Fennimore with seven men to build a new barn. Bill Kephart was the carpenter and he hired most of the sawmill men to help him. It was 126 feet long, 36 feet wide and about 45 feet high. It was the largest barn in the country at that time. We had two sides of stanchions with 20 cows on each side and had a lever that we pulled and it would close all 20 stanchions at a time. Our farm that Dad owned was 248 acres and he rented another 80 acres. We never ran out of work. My father was a good man and a very hard worker. He expected everyone to work and do their fair share. When the masons were building the rock wall for the basement of the barn, they mislaid their mason hammer. They told me if I would find it they would give me a quarter. I looked for several days but couldn't find it. Then one day my Dad said, Have you looked for the hammer? I said, yes, but I can't find it. So he said, Come with me and I will help you look. We went around one corner of the wall and there it was lying so I got my quarter. I still think Dad had found it and put it there so I could find it and get the quarter. When the sawmill workers and carpenters were staying at our place, Dad and Mother ordered 25 pound boxes of cookies and dried fruits to feed them. There were boxes of dried apricots, prunes, boysenberries and other kinds I can't remember. Also many different kind of cookies, which I can't remember. One of our upstairs rooms was full of boxes. These were all bought from Sears and Roebuck. I was about seven years old and it was time to put hay in the new barn. My job was to drive a team of horses on the hay wagon pulling the hay loader. A man would be on the wagon and

would build the load of hay. When we had a load, we would take it to the barn. Another group of men would unload it into the barn. We would take another hayrack and go and get another load. This we would do all summer so as to have enough feed to feed the dairy cattle all winter. We would milk 40 head of Holstein cattle and haul to the cheese factory more than 2,000 pounds of milk every day. We usually had six or seven people milking by hand. We did have milking machines but during the Depression, we did the milking by hand. Milk prices got as low as 67 cents a hundred pounds. In the early days, Dad had Durham and Shorthorn cattle. They were a dual-purpose breed; good for the both milk and beef. In the summertime, the farmers would get the cows home from the pasture in the morning and night and milk in the barnyard rather then in the barn. This was done because the barn was too warm with the cattle in it. The cattle were trained to stand in a certain spot while they were milked. Some of the cows would have such large udders and so much milk that they would be uncomfortable. They would follow us around and wanted to be milked first. Each spring, about the middle of April, it would be time to go to the field to prepare the fields to sow oats. First we would plow the ground, then disk it and then harrow it, sometimes twice. Then we would plant the oats, barley or wheat. In about a week, the ground would start to green up. About the 10th day of May, we would start to plant corn. Dad always checked the corn in. This was done by rolling a wire across the field. This wire had a knot or button every 40 inches. The wire was then put into a slot in the corn planter. As the team of houses went across the field, the wire button would trip the slot on the corn planter and three or four kernels of corn would be dropped into the ground. This was done so the corn could be cultivated both length way and crossway so as to get rid of the weeds. Then we would have to cultivate the corn about five times. Or until it was knee high which was about the 4th of July. Each year I would spend many days cultivating the corn with a team of horses and a riding cultivator. Now our farm had a long ridge over a mile long with a strong running spring on each side of it. Evidently in earlier years, the Indians would gather at the springs to live, hunt and fish. When I would cultivate the corn, I would find the Indian arrows lying on the ground. After a rainstorm, I would sometimes find as many as 13 in one day and maybe the next day, I wouldn't find any. At one time, I had over 1,000 of them. I later gave the arrows to my six grandsons. I made six Indians teepee frames to mount them in. I wanted some of my past experience to live on with my grandchildren. After the corn was planted and cultivated, it was time to cut and shock the oats, barley and rye. To do this job, Dad had a grain binder. It was quite a machine and had a seat for a man to sit on and was pulled by our Perchan horses. This machine would cut six foot of grain each time the horses pulled it around the field. As the grain was cut, a reel with six paddles would lay the grain on a platform. Now this platform had a canvas apron on it. The traveling apron would take the grain to two more aprons. The grain and straw would go between those tow canvas aprons up an incline to some packer fingers and twine knotter. When so much grain and straw was in the bundle, the binder would tie it and the machine would kick the bundle onto a bundle carrier. When about four bundles were in the carrier, the man on the binder would push a pedal with his foot and the bundle carrier would trip the bundles on to the ground. After about four rounds around the field were made, we would start shocking the grain. This was done by taking the bundles by the grain heads, one bundle in each arm and standing them on their butts. Then two

bundles on either side of the first ones and one bundle in the middle on either side. Then we would put one bundle on top to act as a cap. In all, there would be nine bundles in a shock. After about three weeks, the neighbors would all help each farm thresh the grain. There were usually eleven or twelve farmers in each threshing crew. There would be six to eight bundle wagons to haul the bundles into the threshing machine. One bundle wagon on either side of the machine. The men on the wagons would each pitch the bundles into the machine. There were usually two spike pitchers to help load the wagons. There were two grain wagons to haul the grain to the granary for storage. Each wagon had to unload its own grain. There was usually one man to run the blower, which would blow the straw onto the ground. In those days, each farmer built his own stack of straw and sometimes would have five or six stacks. When they were finished, they were beautiful to look at, as each farmer was a master at building them. I also built many stacks for the neighbors. Usually a young boy, about twelve or thirteen, would run the blower. He would have to turn the blower forth and back across the stack so the men in the stack could spread the straw and build the straw stack. Needless to say, this lad thought he was doing a great job! Sometimes the threshing machine would break down, as was the case one-year while they were threshing at Dad's place. So Dad and the owner of the threshing machine had to go and get repair parts for it. The men would just hang around and rest or try to make trouble. A couple of young boys about sixteen years old tried to catch some of us younger boys. They said they were going to do bad things to us. We boys, about ten years old, were good runners and we ran away from them. They told what all they were going to do when they caught us. Needless to say, they scared the hell out of us. I didn't know how I was going to protect myself because in the fall, I would have to travel past one of the boy's home on my way to school. I went to the hardware store and bought a used 32 Colt revolver. In those days there were no questions ask as you paid for it. I hid it in the machine shed in some lumber. When school started, I would take it in the buggy to school and would hide it in the oat bin that we kept there to feed our pony. All the time, I was thinking about my predicament. I didn't want to hurt anyone and I didn't want anyone to hurt me. I thought this is not the way to solve this as I would cause my parents and everyone else involved a great deal of sorrow. I thought there was a better way to protect myself...I will learn to be a boxer and then I will be able to protect myself. I got a pair of brass knuckles (kid size) and later on I got an adult pair of brass knuckles each weighing about a pound. I would put them on inside the boxing gloves to train and get accustom to this extra weight and it certainly helped with my durability. There was a man in Cobb that lived alone and he was a very good boxer. He had a regular size boxing ring in his barn and he trained several other boys so I asked him if he would train me. He said no problem and I could start anytime. I was so happy at the thought of being able to protect myself and no one would get hurt too badly. I would go to his place before school started in the morning and again at noon hour. We boys enjoyed it and he enjoyed watching us punching each other. I was left -handed and there were very few left- handed boxers then so I did have an advantage. My love for boxing grew through the years and I continued to train wholeheartedly. When I was a junior in high school, we had a principal that was a heavyweight champion boxer for the University of Platteville and he was my trainer for the next three and one half years. During this time, I also trained at the YMCA at Dubuque, Iowa and sometimes at the YMCA in Madison. I

was left-handed and had a punishing left hook and uppercut. By this time, I felt that I was ready for anyone who chose to cross my path but I definitely was not looking for trouble. After the threshing was done, there was a second crop of hay to make and soon it would be silofilling time. The neighbors would again help each other until all the silos were filled and refilled which would take about two days at each place. There would be about eight bundle wagons to haul the corn bundles in to the silo fillers and a man with a corn binder to cut the corn. There were not so many men involved because some farmers didn't have silos. Later on in the fall, each farmer would cut and shock the corn. Then about November 1st, they would again help each other shred the corn. A man with a shredder would go to each farm and about eight bundle wagons would haul the corn shocks in and shred them. There would be two corn wagons to haul the ears of corn into the corncribs and unload them. The corn fodder was usually blown into the barn by the shredder to be used for feed and bedding. In the spring, about March 1st, the farmers would exchange help to saw wood. Three or four neighbors would come over the help carry wood usually cut in ten or twelve foot lengths. One man would saw the wood into about fifteen inch pieces and another man would throw the pieces onto a pile to be burned later in the kitchen stove or the furnace to keep us warm in the winter. This job was always done in the spring so that the wood would dry out over the summer. My two older brothers would go threshing in the summer and Dad would send me to the timber with an axe and one-man saw and a pail of wedges. He told me to go through the timber and cut down all the dead trees, saw them into twelve foot lengths split the larger ones so they could be piled in a neat pile and burn or pile the brush. On a 248-acre farm, this was a big job. If I had a good tree that I could get a ten or twelve foot log then I would save it to make lumber. Now in the summer this was a very hot job. In the fall, when we had time we would haul it up by the buildings so we could saw it in the spring. Cutting wood was a dangerous job for one man to be doing because a tree could fall and kill him and no one would find him for hours. I was very lucky. Years later, my Dad was killed by a falling tree. Our day would start at four in the morning. We would go to the barn and start milking. Our herd of forty milking Holsteins plus all the young stock would be waiting to be fed. Each one of us had his own individual work besides helping with the milking. My job was to feed the little calves. One of my brothers would feed, curry and harness the horses. A currycomb was used to comb and brush the horses hair. It would help to get the sweat off of the horses and make them feel fresher. Another would feed the hogs. When this was done, it would be about six o'clock and time for breakfast. Sometimes it was bacon, eggs, toast and cereal. Dad was a diversified farmer as most farmers were. In March our sows would farrow. We usually had about six to eight sows and would hope to have seven to eight pigs in each litter. In six to eight months, these pigs would weigh 200 to 220 pounds and would be ready for market. In those days, we just fed them ear corn and whey from the cheese factory. We had no concentrate to feed them so it took longer to finish them. Now days the concentrate and other feed makes it possible to get them to weigh 200 to 220 pounds in four to five months.

In the fall, Dad always had some sows to farrow. Our hog pasture had many oak trees in it. The sows would farrow in September just when the acorns were dropping. The sows would make their nest in the oak leaves and we wouldn't see them for about a month. When they had eaten all the acorns, they would come to the building bringing with them the little pigs. They were very fat and wild. We also raised some sheep. This was Dad's job to see that lambs would suckle and the mothers claim it. In about June, it was time to shear the wool off. This was done with a scissors-like shear. A fleece of wool usually weighed about eleven pounds. When the ewes were freshly shorn, the lambs wouldn't recognize their mothers and would bleat for a day or more. The wife of the farmer always took care of the chickens. They were her property and she usually got some of her money from selling them and the eggs. The eggs were always traded for groceries at the store of her choice. The extra money was hers. Mother had two incubators for hatching the eggs. An incubator was a tin square box well insulated, standing on four legs about 30 inches high. They would hold about 100 to 200 eggs each. They were heated with kerosene lamps. The heat had to be kept at a certain degree. It was always a worry for her that the light would go off and chill the eggs or be to hot and cook them. The eggs had to be turned by hand every day. In three weeks, the incubator would be filled with little yellow chicks peeping to get out. They were then taken out and put under a brooder. This was metal box-like with four legs standing about four inches off the floor. It also was heated and had a light inside. The little chicks knew where the heat was and would go in there to get warm and then go out of it to eat their specially prepared feed. In about July, they would weigh about three and one-half pounds and mother would start to fry them. No one could fry chicken like my Mother could. In the summertime, the chickens would run around outside. The chicken hawks were always a threat to them. Mother would always raise a few Guinea and when the chicken hawks would fly over our barnyard, the Guineas would make such a noise and the chickens would run for the buildings and hide. The Guinea was a dark feathered finely spotted bird and they had a loud shrill cackle, which alerted the chickens that there was danger aloft. The chicken is not too smart a bird and when a rainstorm would suddenly start, the smaller chicks would stand out in it with their heads pointed toward the sky. The rain coming down would sometimes drown them. We would have to go out and get them and hold them by their feet so that some of the water would exit through their beaks. Then we would place them under the brooder and warm them. In so doing, we would save many of them. In the fall when they were about six months old, we would catch them in the evenings. We would them put them in the chicken house. They would stay in the chicken house all winter along with plenty of feed and water. The end results would be lots of eggs. A very pretty sight to see was when a hen would steal her nest away in the weed or barns and later would appear with ten or fifteen little chicks. Mother also raised some ducks and geese but we never had any running water in our farmyard so we were hampered in that respect. She also had raised a few turkeys. Dad and Mother also had about 25 beehives. When I was about thirteen years old, my job was to put the new swarms of bees in a hive when they would swarm. This always would take place

during June and July. We would listen with our ear to the back of the hive to hear the Queen bees fighting. Each hive would have one Queen bee and she was the leader of the rest of the bees. Then there were the workers and some of them would gather the nectar from flowering plants. Others would gather the pollen from the flowers. This they would bring back to the hive where other workers would make it into honey and the pollen would be made into wax for the honeycombs. There were also drone bees and they would care for the new bees. A beehive would each send out a new swarm three times each year. The first swarm was always the largest, sometimes larger than a five gallon pail. The second swarm would come in about nine days and the third would come three days later. This one would be much smaller and when they swarmed, the sky would be thick with flying bees. I would settle the bees by making noise with a tin pan or spraying the area with water. They would think it was raining and would all gather on a branch of a tree. They would hear the queen calling and she would settle on the branch first and the rest would settle with her. I would then place a new hive close to the swarm and cut the limb off and carry it to the hive and sprinkle it with water. Then I would shake the bees off in front of the new hive and they would go straight into the hive. Sometimes they wouldn't want to stay in the hive; they would come out and try to leave. I then would have to settle them again and do it all over again. I didn't like this so I would get a scissors and when I got them settled, I would watch for the queen. She was much larger and a little longer than the others. I would catch her and cut off about half of one wing then she couldn't fly. The rest of the bees would try to fly away but she could only go to the edge of the hive. She would then go back into the hive and the rest would come back. When Dad found out what I was doing, he was not too happy but after he seen that nothing was hurt, he said it was ok. If I had a small swarm, I would kill the queen and the rest of the bees would go back to the hive they had left. The queen and the drone bee did not have stingers but the rest of them did. As a rule they weren't too mean unless it was rainy and cloudy and they couldn't swarm when they wanted to. They were very mean if their hive was full of honey and they had no place to put it. In that case, we would add another super on top of the hive. The hive was a square box type of structure 20 inches long, 16 inches wide and 10 inches high. This section was where the bees stored the honey for their own use in the wintertime and it was usually enough but sometimes in the late winter, we would have to add sugar water to carry them through to spring. The supers that we added on top were usually the one-pound box type. There would be four boxes in a row and seven rows, which would be 28 boxes in a super. We would buy them from Sears Roebuck. We would put a little starter wax in each box so the bees would start building the cone the right way. I and my brother and cousin would set in the shade and play Michigan Rummy while waiting for the bees to swarm. We used watermelon seeds for money. I have completely forgotten how to play the game. Sometimes a neighbor would find a bee tree in the timber or a swarm would make their home in the inside of a house, church or schoolhouse. We would do this just to help them because they were afraid of them. We didn't want the honey because we had more than enough at home. I usually wore a bee mask to keep the bees off my face. This mask was like a hat with screen

around the brim and an elastic band around the bottom to fit tight around the neck. Sometimes I would use a bee smoker to keep them away. I would put a few coals in the smoker along with some rags or sulfa and that would solve the problem. We had a large blacksmith shop and we would do all our repair work. We boys never looked forward to a rainy day because Dad would put us to work in the shop. Dad could make a sled or a wagon and was excellent with wood. We had a forge in our shop and we would start a fire in it with hard blacksmith coal. When we had a broken piece of iron, we would heat it in the forge getting it red hot and then put flux (sand) on the two pieces and weld them together by pounding the two pieces together. This took a lot of practice but we boys could do a pretty good job. We could also shoe our own horses but most of the time Dad would do it. We would also walk over the farm cutting or pulling weeds. This was a hard, wet job as it was always done after a rain so the weeds would pull easier. The Canadian thistles and bull thistles we always cut with a large knife or shovel. It was an all summer job. We always had a large orchard and in the fall we would pick apples and store them for the winter and they would last till spring. Mother also dried apples and also canned them. We always raised our own potatoes and cabbage for sauerkraut. She would store it in five-gallon crocks. She would put caraway seed with it to flavor it. I never cared for it hot, but just loved it when she would take it out frozen. I can still taste it. The carrots were usually stored in dried sand and kept in a cool dry room. In the fall Dad would always butcher a mutton (sheep) and sometimes a veal (calf) about 300 pounds. After Christmas, we butchered a beef when the weather would turn bitter cold and in January we would butcher eight hogs. Bear in mind that there were eight in our family to feed. On butchering day, Dad would start a fire in our butchering shed and by the time we had the morning chores done and breakfast finished, the water would be scalding hot. After the hog was killed, we would raise and lower them with a pulley and rope into the scalding water to which we had some wood ashes. The lye in the ashes makes the hair scrape off much easier. When this was completed, they were hung up, cut in half and left to cool and freeze. When the chores were done in the evening, they were now frozen stiff and we would carry them to our summer kitchen. Mother and Dad would spend a week or more cutting them up. They would cut the hams and shoulders into about one inch thick pieces and fry them down. They would then put them in five-gallon crocks and fill the crocks with hot grease. When this could cool it sealed the meat and we would have meat all summer. They would also make sausage, which was very good. We also had a smokehouse and they would smoke the bacon and ham with a smudge fire using apple wood and I can still taste it. Our beef was usually cut up and put in one and two quart jars then the jars were put in a large cooker filled with water. It was then put on the stove and brought to a boil. This I believe would take about two or three hours. After they were cooled in about another two hours, they were stored in the cellar for winter use. We would get tired of that food but now I would love to have some, as the taste was delicious. Mother would usually save about one quarter of the beef to use fresh, as it would stay frozen. She would also make dried beef. It was smoked and then sliced off

real thin just like we buy in the store now. This procedure was done each year. We always had plenty to eat. It was just plain food with plenty of milk and fresh bread. I remember when I tasted Jell-O for the first time. It was at our school picnic. Our teachers would take us to a park area. We would each bring some food, cake, cookies, Jell-O, sandwiches or what we wanted. The teachers would furnish the pop. I thought the Jell-O was the greatest. One day Dad sent my younger brother and I to cut thistles in our pasture. Now this pasture had a nice trout stream running through it. It so happened that a boy about five years older than us was fishing there. His name was Wilson Kramer and his Dad was the banker in Cobb and he thought he was big stuff. He started taunting us. We tried to ignore him. But you just don't push a Lucas around and get by with it. Harry said to me "let's throw the S.O.B. in the creek." I said, "That's a great idea." Harry went after him and the kid was swinging his fishing pole at Harry and he yanked it out of the kid's hand. I grabbed the kid by the arm and planted a left hook right on his nose. Harry and I then threw him in the creek. He called us some choice names and also how much he loved us. We wouldn't let him get out for awhile; then we broke his fish pole in half and dumped his pail of fish back into the creek. He was one sad looking sack as he walked home. He never bothered us again. Dad played baseball when he was a young man, so he bought Harry and I each a glove and a mitt. He would hit balls out to us to catch. We couldn't throw the ball in to him so I would play way back and Harry would play half way in. I would catch the long fly ball and throw them to my brother and he would relay the ball to Dad. This was always done in the evening and we boys looked forward to it. I would spend hours throwing it onto the roof of our big barn. When it came rolling down, I would catch it and repeat the procedure. In Cobb Grade School we had a baseball team. We would play some of the other schools. Usually the seventh and eighth grade boys played. When I was in sixth grade, they ask me to play with them. I played sixth, seventh and eighth grade baseball for Cobb Grade School. Then I played four years in high school. I was a left-handed pitcher and had a good fastball and curve ball. In due time, I pitched for many city teams, East Dubuque, Platteville and Richland Center. I finished high school in l934 and this was when the Depression was at its worst. The East Dubuque team would give me seven dollars to pitch a baseball game. This was always done on Sunday and I done this off and on for about two years. Dad and Mother did not approve of this and let me know about it but one has to do what he as to do. By doing this I always had some money in my pocket. I learned very early in life that one had to save money and I was a master at it. I could squeeze a Lincoln penny until his tongue would stick out! In October of 1929, the stock market fell and the great depression started and lasted until 1937. In 1930 following the crash of the stock market many people rushed to the bank to draw their money out and keep it at home. As a result the banks did not have the cash flow they needed and had to close down. The Cobb bank closed for about a week and when it opened they only paid ten cents on the dollar and many people were hurt. At this time, everyone was suffering from dry weather as well as low prices. For the next three or four years the weather was very dry. The oat and hay and corn were all very short and not very much of it. The corn had to be cut by hand. The framers would help each other cut for a half a day and then haul it in loose in the afternoon to fill the silo. Dad would by molasses by the barrel and add water to it and spray it on the straw

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so the cattle would eat it. Somehow we managed to survive. For bedding we would pick up leaves in the timber by the wagonload. They were not too good but were better than nothing. I must also mention that in the early 1920's many of the farmers would sell their cream to a creamery. My Dad had a De Lavel cream separator. They would pour in the milk into a bowl on top and one person would turn the crank. This machine would separate the cream from the milk. Then the skim milk was fed to the hogs and calves and the cream was sold or made into butter. Every family had a butter churn. My family had two and I still have one of them. It is a barrel type and will hold about five gallons of cream. The barrel is on a stand and is turned with a crank. The other, which Mother used and sometimes I would help with, was about 20 inches high and about 12 inches in diameter. It was an earthen crock with a lid on top with a hole in it. A round wooden stick with an X shaped piece on the bottom of it was placed in the hole. It was pulled up and down in the cream, which would turn into butter. Dad never liked selling cream so started hauling his milk to a cheese factory. Soon all the neighbors had done it, too. At one time there were six cheese factories around Cobb. The factories were Cobb, Ipen, Holmes, Sunnyside, Willow Springs and High Point. Now there is only one. The farmers each hauled their own milk. Later on the cheese factory would pick up the milk and that was a big help. When we boys were growing up our Dad always told us "boys, if you want something but don't have the money, then don't buy it." He said that's like paying for a dead horse. Each year when I was farming, I would decide on the piece of machinery I needed most then I would plan to sell enough springing heifers to pay for it. I would tell the salesman that I couldn't pay for it until I sold them and I never went back on my word and they always trusted me. One year I bought a baler with a bale thrower on it. I said to myself now I can really make hay! I can make 400 bales a day. So I cut about that much hay and when it was dry, I baled it then unloaded it onto the elevator and would get another load and unload it. I worked all day to get the 400 bales in the barn. Then I done the milking and went in the barn and piled all the bales. I never tried that again as I was all tired out. I had a good friend who was in the feed business. He wanted to sell me feed. I said I'll buy your feed but I will only pay you at the end of every month and he said I wish everyone would do business like that. Once I had some hogs to fatten. So I told Bud Faull you get a contract for me to sign and I'll buy the feed from you. He said that he would get it ready for me. Each week I would ask him if he had it ready for me. After about a month, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Carl, I don't need a contract with you...your just pay me when you sell." In later years, I helped his son get started in the milling business. Down through the years, I helped many young men get started. I would always tell them no matter what you do, always save something for yourself, even if it is small. Squirrel it away and it will surprise you. When I started farming, I would sometimes buy bonds. When World War II started in l939, I would buy a Series E War Bond. I would pay $18.75 for a $25 Bond to mature in about ten years. When I could, I would buy a $50 one. I could buy them for different amounts, $100, $500 and $1,000. Later on I would buy the $500 Bonds and the last three years I farmed, I would buy a $1,000 one each month and it surprised me how it would accumulate. In about 1960 the government stopped paying interest on the older ones so I had to cash them in. I would then roll the money over and so to speak, I was getting compound interest.

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I had built up a real good herd of dairy cattle through artificial insemination and some of my cattle were sold to Mexico, Canada, Texas, New Jersey and various other states. It was a sad day September 9, 1978 when I sold my 30 head of dairy cattle. After selling the cows, I didn't have much to do and I couldn't cope with that so I converted the dairy barn into a hog farrowing operation. I had twenty farrowing crates and would farrow twice a year. I would aim to sell 300 head of fat hogs a year an average over one hundred dollars a head. There is nothing as cute as a little pig. I raised hogs until 1994. Then I rented the land to Neal Thomas on a cash per acre basis and he is still renting it today. I still miss farming and working the land. Nothing smells so good as fresh plowed ground in the spring. I bought my first tractor in 1946. It was new and had a cultivator. The total cost was $1,103. It was an Allis Chalmers and they said it would last as long as any man and they were right. It had no power steering and with the cultivator on it, it was a bear to steer. I had to buy it through O.P.A. (get a permit to purchase it). In my lifetime I have had about nine tractors. The one I have now is a 4040 one hundred horsepower John Deere. I bought it for $19,500. I have had about twelve cars and trucks during this time. In about l928 Dad purchased a carbide home lighting system. It was an underground steel tank. In it we would put gravel type carbide pellets along with water, about 200 pounds. This would last about three months. Underground pipes led from the tank to the house and barn. The lamp fixtures were lit by turning a flint-like fixture similar to a cigarette lighter. The spark would ignite the gas and we kids had great light for doing our homework. However, this device did not go over so great as it was quite expensive and with the depression at its worst, Dad could not afford it so back to the kerosene lamps we went. Herbert Hoover was our President and he was blamed for the depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to run for President on the Democratic ticket. He ran on a platform of "3 and 2 tenths and propriety". The people were behind him 100 percent and he won by a landslide. He started many new programs to put people back to work. One of his first programs was the C.C.C. camp for young men. It was called the Civilian Conservation Core. They would get $30 wages each month most of which was sent home to their wives or parents. They lived in barracks and were from all over the United States. There was one camp in Highland, Wisconsin so we got to know many of the boys and some of them married local girls. This also helped in l940 when war broke out because the government had everyone registered and knew just where we were. With the sale of beer and many taverns starting to add to the economy, the country slowly started to recover. Roosevelt started many new organizations. The National Recovery Act, N.R.A., was designed to get everyone back to work. Groups of middle-aged men were given jobs building swimming pools, theaters, street repair, just to name a few. We also had W.P.A., Wisconsin Public Works Administration, which gave men employment. We all called it "We Poke Along". R.E.A. was Rural Electric Association. The local Wisconsin Power and Light Company installed electric lines in the rural area so the farmers all had electric power. That itself was the biggest help for all the farmers. We were the first to get hooked up in our area. When the war broke out in 1941, we also had O.P.E.C. We had to have stamps to buy gas, sugar, flour, meat, film and many other things. These stamps were issued according to one's needs. Here the framer got a break because they couldn't control how much meat we had to eat. We

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would trade meat for film and other things we needed. Gas during the Depression was about nine cents a gallon. Dad sold milk for 67 cents a hundred and hogs were eight cents a pound. Cattle price was as low as one cent a pound. I had a nice Holstein heifer that weighed 1,200 pounds. Dad had given it to me when it was a calf. Dad sold it for twelve dollars. My brother had just got married and Dad gave it to him as he had just started farming. I never did get another heifer. Dad always told us boys that if we stayed home and worked on the farm until we were 21, he would buy us each a new car. In 1925, he bought my oldest brother a Model T Ford. My next brother got his car in l928. It was a Model A Ford. So far, so good but the boys didn't do as he expected so he said no more of this if the other two boys want a car, they will have to buy their own. Harry and I thought we had gotten a raw deal. Neither of us stayed home after graduation. Dad and Mother were very religious. They were Presbyterian and in the fall our diet was five days of school, Saturday was religious training and Sunday was church. We would be in church on Sunday until noon then drive five miles home, have our hurry-up dinner and then want to go hunting but Dad would say "have the cows home and in the yard by four o'clock boys." Now how in the hell were we going to do much hunting in a couple of hours? I guess we just got soured on the whole thing. To this day, I still think there is more to religion than that. I do not think that religion means sitting on your duff on Sunday morning. My theory is to be good to your fellow man, give him a helping hand and don't expect pay for every little thing you do. Going to church is not going to save you; it's the things you do as you journey through life that count. We had a minister that would get up on the pulpit and rave and rant that if we played cards or danced, we would be damned to burn in hell, but he could play checkers and smoke his cigar and pipe and that was all right. I did not buy it. I believe you live religion seven days a week not just on Sunday morning. "Closed chapter." When I was in eighth grade, my neighbor boy, Pep Joseph Wolenec, was in the eighth grade also but went to a country school. He had a ruptured appendix and he died about a week after he graduated and never did get his grades. Getting back to school days....I always had a lot of friends all through school. When I was in grade school, we would eat our sack lunch and then go downtown. Sometimes we would lose track of time and forget to go back to school until it was too late to go. Sometimes we would go to the saloon and play pool all afternoon...that was before taverns. They never paid any attention to us. On a very rare occasion, I would get a nickel for an ice cream cone. I would spend the afternoon thinking about this ice cream cone and when school was out, I would go to get my pony to go home, but I would have to go past a water fountain, how this looked and tasted so good that I would drink my fill. I would then keep my nickel and go home. When I was in the upper grades, we would play a lot of baseball. It was our main past time. Our school studies were getting harder and took more time. Agriculture and math were easy for me but English was not to my liking! Our eighth grade teacher was a bear but he liked me because I could play baseball. He was the kind of a man who could bite the head off of a tack.

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When I got to high school, my brother and sisters really scared me by warning me that if I didn't play attention to geometry and algebra at the beginning of the course, I would never learn it. So when classes started, I was all ears. I found it was easy and learned the theorems ahead of time. They said wait till you get to Prothagros theorem. I went ahead in the book and worked it out. It was to prove that the square constructed on the hypotenuse of a right triangle was equal to the sum of the squares constructed on the other two sides. High school was a little harder than grade school because more was expected of us. One of the things I liked was going to school in the spring. We could hardly wait to see the first birds along the road. They were usually Robins and Blackbirds and Meadow Larks. Sometimes we boys would get a little out of line. We would borrow a watermelon from the back of the grocery store and eat it. Sometimes we even forgot to go back to school that afternoon. Sometimes if our report card was not too good, we would get Jessie Kramer, a storekeeper, to sign it. This would save a lot of explaining at home. The one thing I detested was D.T. (detention). It was a 45-minute stay after school and it sure took the fun out of misbehaving! One day we boys wouldn't let the teacher ring the bell. We had a bell in a steeple on the top of the school so my brother, Harry and Tyke Kramer climbed up there and when the teacher pulled on the rope to ring the bell, the two boys pulled her up to the downstairs ceiling and then let her drop. She went and got the Principal and they pulled them both up and held them until they both fell off. Of course, some of us other kids had helped pull it off. That afternoon we were all called into the office but no one seemed to know who did it. End results...more D.T. In my sophomore year, one of my classmates, who was also my cousin, Daniel Novak, came down with pneumonia. He was sick for about two weeks and then died. This was hard on the class because everyone liked him. I was a pallbearer. When I was a junior, I went out for basketball and after the games, I would have to walk home from Cobb four miles. Sometimes after an away game, we wouldn't get back to Cobb until after 10 o'clock and then I would walk home. I would be so tired that I would want to sit on a culvert and rest but I was afraid I would fall asleep and freeze to death. I would see the shimmering Northern lights sometimes. Sometimes the sky would be filled with meteors, fallings stars I called them. Some of them would seem to fall and others would streak across the sky. The stars were breathtaking and beautiful. This would usually happen on a bitter cold night. Our road by this time was usually plowed. But before 1930, we had no snowplows so when the blizzards came, the road would be filled with snow. We would then go to school with a sled. We would cut the wires in the fences and drive through. It was common to have snowdrifts five and six feet deep. I was a junior before I realized that I was having a good time and it was not going to last so I made the best of it my last year and a half. Each year I would letter in Track, Basketball and Baseball. I liked Basketball because I could run up and down the floor all night and not be tired. I thought I was a better athlete than the other boys because they smoked and I didn't. That was just what I thought. We had some good players and I definitely was not the best. We had a principal who was a good man. man. He was strict and fair. One day he walked down between the rows of seats. My seat was just across from my long time friend Bill Keyes. Now Bill's thumb and finger were brown. He said to Bill, "you been shelling walnuts, Bill?" and Bill said,

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"Yup!" That's all that was said but everyone knew why they were brown. This was about the time that Prohibition was coming to an end. There was a man in town that made moonshine and we would go to his place and buy a pint for a quarter. We knew it was illegal that is why we done it. We called it "rot gut." Sometimes we would mix it with orange pop and it would hit the belly with a bang! There were several moonshine places around the area. The law officers would fine them and close them down but in a matter of a week, they would be back in business. Anyone could make wine but only about five gallon or so to be legal. Mother used to make Concord grape wine but she would give us a shot glass of it when we were working in the timber and it was bitter cold or if we had a bad cold. It wasn't enough to wet your whistle. When Harry and I were in high school, her wine started to disappear; where it went no one ever knew but she did stop making it until we left home! My senior year went by real fast. We never had a class play or a Junior Prom because the senior girls didn't want it. There were about eleven of us graduates. I think our class motto was "Climb through the rocks; be rugged" and my class ring cost a little over eleven dollars and the girls cost seven dollars. That was a lot of money during the Depression. I still have the ring; it had a tigereye set in it and it came in handy if I got in an argument. During the Depression the local businessmen would sponsor free movies for entertainment. The farmers would spend the evening at the movies and then buy their groceries for the week. One could see a movie each night of the week at a different town. After graduation, I wanted to go to Platteville Normal College but we didn't have the money and there was no such thing as grants or loans. I worked for Dad or the neighbors and played a little baseball. You had to be a good worker to get twenty-five dollars a month. The next year, a man near Mifflin needed help. He offered me 30 dollars a month, I said 35 dollars or I'll be gone. I got in the car to leave and he came running out and said his wife wanted me to come to work. It was a fun place to work. There was 270 acres in the farm. We milked about 15 cows and raised steers. He would go away every day and sometimes for a week at a time. One day when I was cultivating corn, a severe storm came up with lots of lightning, thunder and wind. I happened to look toward the house and Ray was waving his arms and carrying on. So I went to see what was the matter. Well, I soon found out. He gave me hell for staying out in the storm. When he got done, I told him I was taught to stay out and do my work until it started to rain. He said it was too dangerous and I shouldn't do that anymore. That was the only run in I had with him. It was just a matter of knowing what he expected. That summer I made many friends around Mifflin and Rewey. I played softball with the Mifflin 4-H Club. They had a real good team with a fireball pitcher. They won the league and had to play Garrison Grove 4-H Club for the Iowa County Championship. This team had always won it. We played the game under the lights at Dodgeville Centennial Park and beat them by a score of 6 to 7. I bought a 1936 Ford for four hundred dollars. It was a very nice car for a young guy to have. I only lived one half a mile from Mifflin so I would very often walk down there in the evening. The town had a grocery store, post office, dance hall and a tavern. There were a lot of young boys and we would play ball and decide where we would go and do. They would say, "Let's get in Lefty's car. It's the best one." So someone would drive me home to get the car and we would

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go to Bennie Franks in East Dubuque and play cards or just bum around. One time a bunch of us from Mifflin, Gordie, Possum, Hefferon, Wally Scott, Frank Burns, Ted Crapp and several other guys, went to Rockville to a dance. When the dance was about over, we decided to go home. One of the guys said, "Let's pretend we're having a fight." So when the cars started coming, we got out and started a fight. It wasn't long before we had about two- dozen cars parked to watch. A car came up and stopped. It was a cop. He gave us a hell of a lecture and booked us for fighting. We told him wheat we were doing but he didn't buy it. We were taken to the Lancaster Courthouse and paid a 12-dollar fine each. One of life's costly lessons! I had a bunch of friends in Highland, Cobb, Linden, Mifflin, Rewey and Richland Center so there was never a dull moment. We would go to the Blue Goose in Linden, Lilac Gardens in Arena, Butterfly in Boscobel, and Castle Rock in Montfort Fennimore area. We had many, many entertaining evenings there. It was in Mifflin where I met my future wife. She was working at a boarding house for three dollars a week. We would sometimes go to Mineral Point as they had a big dance hall and would have big band names like Wayne King, Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk. Sometimes they would come and sometimes they would send an assistant but the music was always excellent. That winter I worked for a man cutting wood and lived in Cobb. The next summer June 5th, Marjorie and I were married in Highland. One night my friends came and shivaree us. They brought along some dynamite to help make noise and some of the guys were drunk. Margie's Dad wouldn't let them shoot the dynamite by the house so they went in the cornfield and set it off. Marjorie's future brother-in-law would wait until it went off then he throw a bunch of gravel onto the tin roof of the house. The people were really scared. They thought they were surely going to be killed. Her Dad had a nice cottonwood tree growing by his cornfield and they tied dynamite to it and blew it away and some large holes were made in the cornfield. That summer I worked for my Dad but after November, work was scarce so we would work in the timber. I always lad to go with Dad when he went to the timber because I was left-handed and he was right-handed. So I would take the left hand side of the saw, leaving Dad on the right side. He always said the other boys would drag their feet when he sawed with them. One time it was very icy out and Dad had this big tree with its top broke off. He wanted it down but there was no place to drop it because there were trees all around it. He and I begin to saw it. We notched it on one side and then started to saw. After sawing into it about a foot, I placed a wedge in the saw cut so as to tip it over. It was stuck in the other trees so we sawed some more. When sawing a tree down, you never saw it completely off at the stump. You always leave a little holding so it falls where you want it to go. We continued to saw a little and then wedge it some more. As I was pounding the wedge, the tree broke off the stump; we had sawed too much off. It slid off the stump backwards and started sliding down the hill. Dad yelled that it was falling and to get out of the way. It was very icy and when I ran, I slipped and fell and the tree landed right beside me. Dad was so scared; he picked up the tools and said, "Let's go home." The next year I hired out to run a farm, 270 acres at Mt. Horeb. We had a big dairy herd and lots of hogs. I soon learned how some farmers operate. He promised me a hired man but I never got one. All he intended to do was work me to death. After three months of that, we parted not the best of friends.

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A man called me from Livingston. He needed a man and wanted me to come and see him. I went down and he showed me around the farm, which was 560 acres. They had Scotch Shorthorn show cattle, about 200 steers, 200 hogs and about 1200 sheep, which he bought each year from Montana. After we talked for sometime, he said, There is one thing that concerns me, you are kind of small. I didn't bat an eye, I said, "You show me the job that your big man can do that I can't." He laughed and said, "You're hired." We moved into a small but nice house on the farm that would be our home for the next three and one half years. Now this farm was a big operation and we never did get done with the work. We just quit in the night and started back the next morning where we left off the night before. We always had three hired men and many seasonal helpers. If a man would ask me about the work I would tell them "you will never be lonesome because new help will be coming all the time." I meant this in an honest way because we always did have new help. We always had steers to feed. Sometimes we would grind the corncob and all and sometimes we would cut or break the ear in four or five pieces; about forty bushel. In real cold weather this was a bone-chilling job. The hogs would follow the steers and eat the manure. Fresh manure was real good for the hogs and they gained fast on it. I always said one pile of steer manure was worth one ear of corn. Ted Griswold was the man I worked for and he bought a lot of steers, Angus, Herefords, and some Gallaways. They had long hair and a lot of hair on their tail and they were a little on the wild side. We also had about fifteen dairy cows, which Marge and I had to milk. When spring work started, I was the tractor man. I never drove a tractor before but I learned in a hurry. I also had to cultivate all the corn, about 200 acres. Some of the cornfields were a mile long. I would get so tired watching the corn go through the cultivator shields...I called it tired, tired drunk! I would let the tractor idle and take a wrench and climb underneath the tractor and have a little snooze. In case I got caught, I could say I was adjusting the cultivator. However, I never did get caught. One day Ted sent me out to rotary hoe the corn. It was about six or eight inches high. I got on the tractor and went across the field several times and the corn was all bent over and twisted. It looked awful. I went back home and told him what a mess it was. He came out to see what it looked like and said to me, "You get on that tractor and don't look back." So I did and in a couple of days the corn was standing straight and the weeds were all gone. We had many good friends there and still see them often. When it was time to thresh, I had to run the threshing machine. It was a Red River Special and when we had a breakdown, I would have to fix it while the rest of the help just sat around and waited. We had two silos on the farm and three barns on the farm. They were called barn one, which was for the dairy cows. Barn two was for the show cattle. It had a big silo there. It was 20 feet in diameter and 30 feet high. We would fill it and the third day when we would fill it we could hardly gain any fill, as it would settle about as fast as we filled it. In the winter when we would feed out of it, it took a good man to throw silage out from the back of the silo. Barn three was where we kept our young shorthorn show cattle. On October 14, 1941, our first daughter Carolyn was born. She was the center of attention for Marge and I and also the Griswolds. The following spring, March 21, a beautiful day, I was putting corn threw a roller mill. I had a tractor running the machine. I would shovel the corn into

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a hopper and a conveyor belt with cups on it would take the corn to the top of the machine where it was dropped into a high roller crusher where it was crushed and run into a bagger. I then tied the sacks. Ted came into to see how I was getting along. He said, "I'll grease the machine for you." It had two sets of double bulldog gears on it. The shields covering the gears had been taken off and not put back. He was putting grease on the gears and they caught his sleeve at the wrist and took his arm off above the elbow. As the machine caught him, it knocked him out and he hit me in the legs. I looked to see what had happened and quick went to shut the tractor off and run back in to get Ted out. His arm or what was left of it was hanging by just a little flesh. The one gear had some cogs broken out so I couldn't get him out alone. A salesman was just outside the shed so I hollered out for him to help me. Ted's wife was there also and wanted to know what the matter was. I was excited so I said you better go to the house. She climbed into the shed and a saw a gruesome scene. We got Ted out by rolling the gears backward using a crowbar. They took him to the Platteville Hospital where they amputated his arm. I said to the other hired man, "Albert, you didn't see this happen. Will you clean up the mess.? He went into the building and soon came out white as a sheet and said, "If you want that mess cleaned up, clean it up yourself." So I did and had about a gallon of flesh, bone and clothing. All in a day's work on the farm! That same year, July 5th, Ted had just come back from selling steers in Chicago. We were making hay at Barn two. He said, "How are things going," and I said, "Not worth a damn. I can't make the car stay in the car stay in the track catch until the hay gets up to it." He said, "Take the load of hay over to Barn one." As I was going to Barn one, I looked and saw Ted falling out of a door at Barn two. He was going to close the door and reached out for it thinking he had the other hand to hold him. He fell about fifteen feet and landed on his head on a cement abutment. They took him to a Madison Hospital and tapped his spine several times but he died several days later. I was also one of his pallbearers. I felt as though I had had it and just wanted out, but his wife and father and mother talked me out of it. They said I was needed. I stayed on for about two years and helped run and manage the place. The son was going to the University of Wisconsin and would come home on weekends. One time I would do a job and he would say that it was fine, that's just as he would do it and the next time I'd be doing it the same way and I'd be all wrong. I did not like working there anymore. Griswold's always had purebred Scotch Shorthorn cattle and each year all the towns would have a fair. Lancaster, Platteville, Boscobel and Mineral Point would participate. We would have to truck the cattle from one fair to the other. It would take up most of the night and I usually did the trucking. In the year of l942, they had a real nice steer they called Blitzkrieg, after Hitler's war machine. This steer won at all the fairs so they entered it in the Little International in Chicago and won easily. It was a beautiful steer. Ted was on the air in Chicago and told how his kids had done all the work feeding, grooming and breaking it to lead. This was a damn lie because the hired men and I spent countless hours doing it. The kids were only home over the weekend. I might also add that in the three plus years that I worked here, I would judge that I worked with between 200 and 300 men. There were very few corn pickers and they were not very reliable. Ted would hire five or six neighbors with a team and wagon and two men to pick the corn. Two good men could pick about 100 bushel a day. I don't recall picking any corn, as there were other things to do. After the corn was picked, we would have about 1,000 to 1,200 sheep shipped in to graze the cornfields. They

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would come by train to Boscobel. The rail company would give so much time to get them out of the stockyard. I and two other men each with a ton and half trucks would sometimes have to truck sheep all night and then work the next day. We would feed them for about 90 days before selling them. Montana's climate was dryer than ours and as a result, we would lose some due to damp and wet ground. The boy would come home for the weekend and have us load and spread manure. There was no such thing as a manure loader so he would help us load the first load just to set the pace and then we would see no more of him. We used to laugh about it, but done our work at our usual pace. I said to Margie, "This is getting to be too much. The Army can't be any worse. I am going to join the Army." When Dad found this out he said, "You can't do that. You have a wife and daughter to take care of." But I wouldn't change my mind. I was tired of being someone else's dog. He then said, "There is a farm for rent about a mile from home. I will help you get started farming and when you get drafted Margie and Carolyn will have a place to live. I and brother Earl will run the farm along with ours." I wanted no part of this because my next-door neighbor would be one of the men that had scared the hell out of me earlier in my life. I finally changed my mind and decided to let the chips fall where they may. This was an 80 acres farm and the rent was $340. I had 10 milk cows, four sows, about 50 chickens, some sheep and a team of horses, a walking plow, harrow and seeder. I had real good crops and would pay the rent in July. Then the rest of the year I would have very little expense. The light bill was about five dollars and telephone bill was about the same. The Grant County draft board (one of the hardest in the state) came to inspect my operation and never drafted me. They knew they had to eat too. I secretly regretted the fact that I never served in the War. About two weeks after we moved in, our nearest neighbor and his wife came up to see us. I had my guard up but he had grown up too. We became the best of friends and worked together for the next seven years that we farmed together. He was and still is more than a brother to me. He lives in Northern Wisconsin now but we manage to talk to each other once a month. I'm a firm believer in fate. I still think that this was a part of life's plan. In the winter we would walk across the field about 500 feet to their place and play Euchre, Pinochle or Five Hundred. Sometimes we wouldn't finish the game so they would come to our place the next night to finish. Margie and Twylah would talk on the phone every day. It was a party line with about eight families on the line and everyone knew each other business. They would call each other up and say go outside I got something to tell you. So they would visit across the fence. The neighbors didn't like it but at least the girls had their own secrets. While we were on this farm, Wanda came to live with us on May 25, l944. We fell in love with her so she stayed with us!! We had many good times while living on the farm. We made many friends. Now the neighborhood is about gone. Big Chicago landowners have mostly bought up the land. Our girls went to Cobb Grade School. One week I would take our two girls and the neighbors girl and boy to school and the next week they would take them. We never had a bad word between us and we treasured their friendship.

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When Carolyn was in first, second and third grade she was the miniature majorette for the high school band so we did a lot of traveling to school functions. When she was in fourth grade, she had polio and was in the Madison hospital. It still bothers her to this day. In l949, I rented a good farm about two miles south of Cobb. This farm I rented on half shares. I milked about thirty cows and had hogs and chickens. The farm was not big enough to be profitable for me and the next two years I slowly started going backwards. Now when we moved to this place my next-door neighbor was the other man who had frightened me. He and his wife came to visit us and we became instant friends. We would do anything for each other. He again was more than a brother to me and we spent many happy times together. Again, I think this was fate playing out its hand in life. They had two daughters and we took turns in taking the girls to school. I also was a pallbearer for him at his funeral. I hated this job but would never say no because it was the last thing I could do for him. My first time as a pallbearer was when I was sixteen and I have been doing it since. On September 29, 1950, Marjean came to stay with us. Wanda and Carolyn were six and nine years old. Marjean was such a beautiful little girl and she wanted to stay with us so we agreed to keep her, if she would be good! Everything went real good until she was about five or six years old. She and her mother had a falling out, so she packed her little suitcase and told Margie she was leaving. Marjorie said, Okay, you just go. So she went down to the road and sat under the Willow tree. About 6 oclock, I came in for supper and she was still sitting there. I went down to get her and she was crying. I ask her, What are you doing? She said that she was running away. I said, Its going to soon be dark outside you better come to the house with me and tomorrow you can go. She took me by the hand and came to the house with me and never mentioned leaving again. In fact, she liked it here and stayed for 20 years! In l952 I bought an 80-acre farm about three miles south of Cobb and we are still living on it today. It is all tami soil, which is the best soil for farming. It is known to be one of the best parcels of land in Iowa County. I would farm the farm I had rented in the daytime and at night; I would work the farm I had bought. Some nights I would get only about three hours of sleep. I would get so tired that I would follow the fence to find the gate to go home. I called it tired drunk! In the spring of l953, we moved to our new farm. I had one half of the feed from my rented farm and all the crops from our farm. We were off to a good start and I could start paying off the debts I had made in the last couple of years. Margie and I had to pay three hundred dollars an acre for the farm but the neighbors said that I was a damn fool and that I could never pay for it but we fooled them and paid for it in ten years. I bought the farm on a land contract. I would give the previous owner 35% of everything I sold and I would keep 65%. The 35% was to pay on the interest, principle and the taxes and farm insurance. He never said how much I could pay off in a year. So I would raise extra hogs and pay the taxes and farm insurance out of my own pocket. They complained about this. They said Carl is a good farmer but he is paying it off to fast. When we bought the farm we left the owner live in the house until we could move in. He was an unusual man and had some funny ideas. He once told me that he might never leave the farm alive. I would come down to work the land and before leaving home I would tell Margie, "I just hate to go down there, I'm afraid that I'll find him

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hanging in the barn." He would always scold me for not locking my gas barrels and putting them in a locked garage so to keep him happy, I locked them up. One morning I went to the farm early, about six o'clock. I wanted to finish cultivating and start mowing hay. The garage was locked and they were not up yet. So I went to finish cultivating as I had enough gas for about three hours of work. At about eight o'clock, I was coming to gas up and I met his daughter. She said, "I can't find Dad. Will you help?" So I went to the barn but he wasn't there, so I ask her for the keys to the garage. When I opened it he was laying behind the car. He had gassed himself. I quickly felt for a pulse but there was none but he did have a revolver in his pocket. I spent the rest of the day answering questions. So again, I was a pallbearer. For the next five years, I farmed two farms along with mine. Prices stayed stable then time started to improve. I was among the first farmers to join Grade A milk. We had more milk regulations but the milk brought more money. One summer I wanted to see how other people lived so I went to work at the Cobb Canning Company on the night shift. Bob Jensen and I would take the 6 oclock shift and work until 1 oclock or whenever we ran out of corn. Sometimes Bob would get drunk and I would have to work real hard to cover for him. He was my baseball friend. I also worked with Steve Keys and he was a very good worker. The first job I had as shooting cans...putting cans on a track to be filled with corn. Then I was put on the blending line and I had to see that each can was filled with equal amounts of whole kernel corn and cream corn. I did this for two years. I will assure everyone that sleep was not plentiful. Marjorie also worked as a cook at the Canning Factory for nine years. She also worked 29 1/2 years as a cook for Cobb High School and Iowa-Grant High School. By this time I was about done playing ball as I had torn the muscle in my left arm and could not throw the ball overhand anymore. The girls stayed with me while Marge worked and they all could drive a tractor as good as any man. They were active in school functions so we were kept quite busy. As a boy I always wanted to play a guitar or concertina but we had to work. There was no time for that. So when my girls were big enough we bought them a piano, guitar, accordion and Hawaiian guitar but they never had very good teachers so never got very good at playing. Although they all played in the high school band. Carolyn was the last class to graduate from Cobb High School. Iowa-Grant High School was formed by consolidating Cobb, Linden, Rewey, Livingston and Montfort into one school. Wanda was the second class to graduate from it. Marjean finished in 1968. That year Iowa Grant had an A.F.S., American Field Service, student and we were the host family. Doris Alamarz Castro from Bolivia was the first student. It was a trying but rewarding year. I was the President of the Chapter for four years. During that time, Marge and I had to take two other girls into our home because of host family troubles, Elaine Wright from England and Carmen Ramani from Switzerland. When they would have problems at the host home, they would want to live with us. After three students, we left the Chapter. We thought we had done our share. But we did go to England and Switzerland to visit them in 1973. England had beautiful flowers and Switzerland's Alps were a beauty to behold. We had a cottage in the Alps, which was our home during our stay. During the war, a Nazi Officer had lived there. In the morning the church bells would ring on one mountaintop and would be answered by another from another mountain. One cannot describe the beauty of the Alps. One weekend we went to a resort on the Mediterranean Sea in Italy. The food was served in about four courses.

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We could not understand each other so they would put some food on our plate and then look at us if we wanted more. We would nod our head and they would give us more. We were always served a large bottle of wine. The Italians always served good wine, sometimes two or three bottles. They loved to party but the country was dirty. The pigeons were so thick in the streets you could almost step on them. Going back to my childhood days, I do not know when my Dad had his first car but it must have been before 1921. The first car I remember was an Overland and all cars were black in color. This car had a canvas top and side curtains we would put on each side to keep the rain or cold out. They had no heaters or windshield wipers so we would wrap in blankets to keep warm. There was no gravel on the roads, so when it rained, the roads were almost impassable. We would have to put chains on the tires. In the wintertime, we put the car in the shed and placed jacks or blocks under it so the weight of the car was not on the tires. It was not uncommon to have a flat tire or two while going to town, as the tires were not too good. We would do our traveling with a team or sled or a wagon. Dad also had a Buick and Chryslers. The last car he owned was an l934 Chrysler and it was a beautiful robin egg blue. When we kids would go to school, we could name all the cars we met. Some are no longer made. Reo, Cord, Auston, Starr, Willys, Paige and Studebaker just to name a few. In the 1920's before the Depression, Dad also owned two Titan tractors. They were huge and used kerosene instead of gas. We loved to ride around the field with him. He later owned a Massy Ferguson tractor with a cultivator on it. I had to take a day off from my work and show them how to run it. As I look back on my journey through life, I can't help to think that my generation has gone through more changes than any other generation. We have gone from the horse and buggy days to the automobile, to electric lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioners. Airplanes travel the airways. We have gone to the moon; enjoy radio and television and computers. We can talk to people all over the world. What more could we ask for? I do think we are living too fast. One sad thing is that trains have disappeared from the countryside. Years ago the trains whistle were part of our life. We would hear the train whistle and would know just what time it was. We lived about one mile from the tracks and would see them go by at all hours of the day. As a boy in the early thirties, I clearly remember when the gas man would fill up Dad's gas barrels. I loved the smell of gas. I would put my mouth over the spigot and inhale the fumes. One time I inhaled too much of it and I got high on it. I was lightheaded. It scared me and I never did that again. Although I still love gas fumes. On Halloween we would tip over town toilets. One year one lady said they won't tip mine over because I'll be watching. So some of the boys got a rope and tied it to the back of a Model T Ford. They then drove by her toilet and one of them threw the rope over it and drove off. Now the old girl was sitting in the toilet and when it went over she screamed her head off. She didn't get hurt just a few bumps. She sure scared the hell out of the boys and they never tried that again. One night we tipped one over and one of the boys fell in and no one would give him a ride home.

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When I was a boy in grade school, the high school boys would tip the school toilets over. They were large toilets with ten holes in each one. I guess that's where we learned how to do it. I was always interested in woodworking and in the early forties, I started making things. My Dad was a good craftsman and my Uncle was a cabinetmaker so I came by it right. I don't make anything large because people would say if that was made in walnut I would buy it. After all they didn't want it at all they were just saying that. I have a wood lathe and I turn out fern stands on it. I also make drop leaf tables, end tables, picture frames and small things. I do a lot of repair work. I find it hard to charge people for my work. I have a room full of things I have made. If someone comes and want an item, I will sell it to them but there is no way I will set at a booth all day and sell. I just enjoy giving people things. I love to see a happy face. As I travel down the road of life, I often think of what my Dad would say... "Boys, never hold a public office. If you do and do the right thing, you'll be criticized and if you don't do the right thing, you'll also be damned." Dad held many offices in the Town of Eden. That advice has stayed with me. Although I did serve on the Town of Linden Road Committee for thirteen years and it wasn't too bad. I also served on the Iowa County Jury three times. The first time was in the wintertime and my sows were farrowing so I called the judge and told him why I couldn't come and he said, " Court convenes at nine o'clock, I will see you there." Needless to say, I lost about half of my hog crop. This trial was to determine who had the right to sell and truck hay in a certain area. The second was for a hired man who fell off a barn he was working on for his boss. He was crippled for life and the jury awarded him forty thousand dollars. The third, and worst one, was a rape and murder trial involving three states, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Three tough young men who were always in trouble with the law were on trial. They had met this girl at a tavern, "Kelly's Cove," in Dubuque, Iowa. They played pool with her and then they went across the river to Stump Island into the state of Wisconsin. One of the boys had lived in a second story apartment there. They started smoking pot and in the end the three boys raped her. She told them she was going to report them. One of them grabbed her by the throat and choked her to death. Then they put her in a refrigerator and threw it off the second story stairs. When it hit the ground the door handle broke and the body fell out. They put the body back in, closed the door and tied a rope around it. The Mississippi River was within a few feet of where the refrigerator landed. They then got a boat and loaded it and took it out in the river and dumped it. That spring the rope had rotted and the body had swelled up due to warm weather causing the body to force the door open. The body floated down the river and got lodged in some brush in Jo Davis County, Illinois bringing the third state into the case. Jury selection was November 2nd and it took all day. I was the third one selected. I think there were eighty in our group. After we were selected each of the lawyers could scratch one juror off the list. This went on until there were only twelve people left and two alternatives. We were then sent home with strict orders to talk to no one, get some clothes and be back in an hour. We were sequestered in the Rock Motel for two weeks. We were told not to discuss the case with one another. Each day the Courthouse was crowded with people to watch the trial unfold. The three men were escorted in with leg shackles on and hands cuffed. They would stare at the jurors as if to dare us to sentence them. There were over 200 items of evidence and many witnesses. When the trial was over, we were sent back to the jury room with instructions from the judge to pick a jury foreman and decide on the sentence to impose guilty or not guilty on all counts. As we sat down at the meeting, one man said, "I nominate Carl Lucas to be our jury foreman," and the rest

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all seconded the motion. I, for once, was speechless, as I wasn't prepared for it. I felt that there were more capable people than me to do that job. That placed a big responsibility on my shoulders. I secretly intended to throw the book at those guys. The jury deliberation went quite well until we got to the conviction. Then two women started to get cold feet and wouldn't vote to convict them. They had a family member sent to prison and they said it was awful. I told them that they were ask by the Judge if they had had a family member in prison and they had said no and that they had lied to be Judge and that was against the law and that they had better shape up or I would file a report against them. We would review court report and vote again. Finally after eight hours of deliberation, we had a unanimous vote of guilty on all counts. I then had to sign my name to twelve guilty charges, four for each defendant, one for each rape case, one for each murder charge, one for each hiding a body and one for each on aiding and abetting charge, then present it to the Judge in the presence of the three defendants. The Judge then sentenced each of them to life in prison plus thirty years, but they could be illegible for parole in about eleven years. To the best of my knowledge, they are still in prison. We were then dismissed and free to go home. But before we left, an officer came running into the jury room and ordered all doors locked. We were kept there until about 2:00 in the morning. No one would tell us what was taking place. Finally the Sheriff came and told us that a bunch of people from Dubuque were going to get rid of the jury and the Judge. They were all caught and escorted back to Iowa. They told us we could stay in our motel for the rest of the night and it would be police patrolled all night. We all stayed because we had had enough excitement for one day. I learned early on in life that there were more letters in the alphabet than the letter "I" and that I still had a lot to learn so when I started to write this journey through life, I would not write it in chronological order. I would write it as it came to me because in life things are always changing. The letter "W" means work and it never hurt anyone. If you want to get ahead in this world, you have to work. Very few people succeed in life without a little help from someone else. Maybe it's your wife or husband or a friend that helps. It might be just a little encouragement or a helping hand in time of need. Money isn't everything but if you work hard and use some judgment, the money will come. As I travel through life I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful wife for sixty-two years and three wonderful daughters, which come first in my life. I always think of these four people first and then myself later. I also have three of the best son-in-laws that any man could have and for that I am truly thankful. Every father wants to see his daughters with someone who really cares for them. I wanted my girls to have the things in life that I always wanted but couldn't have because of the Depression. I think I have accomplished this mission. If I had not I would be deeply disappointed. My family tree has been sending out branches for some time now. I have six grandsons and two granddaughters who have all gone to college and have good jobs now. I also have seven little twigs on my tree, seven great granddaughters and one great grandson.

August 2002

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