greymouser7
Vagrant Vagabond “Veni Vidi Vici”
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- Apr 17, 2010
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I am going to visit my grandfather's last two surviving siblings. I believe uncle Ivan is in his upper 80's and aunt Pearl is in her 90's . Thirty years ago I interviewed their mother/my great grandmother about life on the farm, farming through the great depression when most 40 acre or less farmers, defaulted on their property loans, picked up their families , and moved west.
I am going to ask aunt Pearl & uncle Ivan if they would honor me with Q& A retelling of their lives, and history as they saw/lived it.
Any ideas of things to ask would be most greatly appreciated! ! Let me tell you my impression :
Great grandma raised 7 kids, six of whom were boys , while my great grandfather worked.
Initially he was a telegraph operator for the railroad. He taught my grandfather this trade as well. He worked both shifts where two people manned a railway station . My great grandmother "worked" the other shift on paper. Besides teletyping Morse code, they climbed these tiny/narrow metal latter's where they hung a mail bag for the train to snag as it rolled through at speed. Tracks were shifted, cars, cabooses, etc.
Eventually someone found out about his double shifts on the teletype and jealously told on them. They went from solid, double employment to jobless during the begining of the great depression.
I don't remember why they went into farming when the dust bowl, draught, and extremely difficult conditions existed, but they did it-big.
I am under the impression that farmers in the old days exercised a form of 'slave' labor not acceptable in today's hugger society: dozens of children working the farm. I am not sure who my grandfather told me amoung our ancestors had the record, but the number was 17 kids-all working the farm.
All of the hard working labor workers here on FABO can really appreciate getting up up at 04:00, milking cows, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, wrestling with pigs, fixing fence, herding cattle, cleaning the **** out of pens, disking, plowing, fields, operating 'less-safe' combines and tractors -working well past dusk when the moon shone bright.
My grandfather told me about stepping into cow paddies to keep his feet warm-am not sure about that, but he was serious, and there wasn't any government assistance -people had a tremendous sense of pride that stood before handouts, as they saw it. Our history has something that Hollywood completely drops the ball on-an entire different culture of what was acceptable, what was valuable, to include a man's word. When everyone defaulted on their loans, he worked decades later to pay off everything he borrowed. Can you imagine having a personal relationship with the man that loans you money-based on your local reputation, handshake, and how you looked him in the eye?
My great grandfather didn't farm less in poor farming Conditions, he leased over 1600 acres and put his sons hard to work.
They leased more tractors, they bought abandoned farm homes and disassembled them-selling the building materials.
There wasn't enough tractors for for all the boys, my grandfather said that shortcoming was a tremendous blessing as he got to work with a team of horses instead. The tractors had crap for muffled exhaust, combustiob went off every second-with volume of a shot gun blast-his words. He said that reigning(?) a team of horses will become a lost art as horses have different personalities. Some would pull hard, all day without slacking while others would let them or do other things create difficulties.
Any thoughts or ideas of things to ask would be greatly appreciated -I have been working shift work since I pulled back in from deployment and have not had the time I thought I would to prepare.
If anyone is interested, they published my interview with my greatgrandmother-I guess it was pretty good (I was 11).
I am going to ask aunt Pearl & uncle Ivan if they would honor me with Q& A retelling of their lives, and history as they saw/lived it.
Any ideas of things to ask would be most greatly appreciated! ! Let me tell you my impression :
Great grandma raised 7 kids, six of whom were boys , while my great grandfather worked.
Initially he was a telegraph operator for the railroad. He taught my grandfather this trade as well. He worked both shifts where two people manned a railway station . My great grandmother "worked" the other shift on paper. Besides teletyping Morse code, they climbed these tiny/narrow metal latter's where they hung a mail bag for the train to snag as it rolled through at speed. Tracks were shifted, cars, cabooses, etc.
Eventually someone found out about his double shifts on the teletype and jealously told on them. They went from solid, double employment to jobless during the begining of the great depression.
I don't remember why they went into farming when the dust bowl, draught, and extremely difficult conditions existed, but they did it-big.
I am under the impression that farmers in the old days exercised a form of 'slave' labor not acceptable in today's hugger society: dozens of children working the farm. I am not sure who my grandfather told me amoung our ancestors had the record, but the number was 17 kids-all working the farm.
All of the hard working labor workers here on FABO can really appreciate getting up up at 04:00, milking cows, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, wrestling with pigs, fixing fence, herding cattle, cleaning the **** out of pens, disking, plowing, fields, operating 'less-safe' combines and tractors -working well past dusk when the moon shone bright.
My grandfather told me about stepping into cow paddies to keep his feet warm-am not sure about that, but he was serious, and there wasn't any government assistance -people had a tremendous sense of pride that stood before handouts, as they saw it. Our history has something that Hollywood completely drops the ball on-an entire different culture of what was acceptable, what was valuable, to include a man's word. When everyone defaulted on their loans, he worked decades later to pay off everything he borrowed. Can you imagine having a personal relationship with the man that loans you money-based on your local reputation, handshake, and how you looked him in the eye?
My great grandfather didn't farm less in poor farming Conditions, he leased over 1600 acres and put his sons hard to work.
They leased more tractors, they bought abandoned farm homes and disassembled them-selling the building materials.
There wasn't enough tractors for for all the boys, my grandfather said that shortcoming was a tremendous blessing as he got to work with a team of horses instead. The tractors had crap for muffled exhaust, combustiob went off every second-with volume of a shot gun blast-his words. He said that reigning(?) a team of horses will become a lost art as horses have different personalities. Some would pull hard, all day without slacking while others would let them or do other things create difficulties.
Any thoughts or ideas of things to ask would be greatly appreciated -I have been working shift work since I pulled back in from deployment and have not had the time I thought I would to prepare.
If anyone is interested, they published my interview with my greatgrandmother-I guess it was pretty good (I was 11).
