Punch here to go back to the family tree page
Punch here to go back to Aaron's Stuff
We made a cassette tape at Thanksgiving 1989. I transcribed it here, but couldn’t discern every word. Where I couldn’t, I just put the brackets, < >.
Earl & Ernest
Aaron: Mainly about the old family members, and I've even got to look in the book to see who they are. So, as far as your great- grand, I mean your grandparents the only one you could possibly could remember is, is, is Grandma Lemmer, huh?
Ernest: Grandma Lemmer.
Aaron: Really? Can you tell me what she was like or anything or when you'd (uh) how much, often you saw her and where she lived and everything?
Ernest: She was a very nice old lady. I can remember right before she died (uh), I went up to her bed where she was laying and she shook hands with me and she says, "Ernest, take good care of your mother."
Aaron: Really? Really? How old were you then?
Ernest: Mm, seventeen.
Aaron: Seventeen?
Ernest: Ask, ask... Let's see...we graduated in '35,...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and she died in '35 or 6. I don't know whether she died a year before our father did...
Aaron: '37 she may have. Does that make sense?
Ernest: Well, she died just before Papa did, the same year then I think...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...Yeah, so I'd have been twenty then. I was born in '17,...
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: ...born in '17...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...I guess.
Aaron: Were you there then, or were you...?
Earl: I don't remember the details like that.
Aaron: Do you remember her at all when you were young?
Earl: No, I don't.
Aaron: No? So she didn't come over here very much then?
Ernest: She did.
Aaron: She did?
Ernest: She did quite a bit. Aunt May brought her and she'd come and there was a time when they was building a bridge down in there. There was an old man there that was, that overseen the building of that. What would they call them, the big shot? Anyway, he, he, he took a liking to her 'cause he heard that she drawed a Civil War pension, and he was wanting to marry her, but she put thumbs down on that, ...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...wouldn't accept it.
Aaron: Huh. Where was she living at, whenever she was...?
Ernest: She was living out in the, out by a place where Earl Lemmer lives now.
Aaron: Did she have a little house of her own or something?
Ernest: Not... No, it was a house, he tore it down after they bought it he built the house where he lives now. They, there was an older house there...
Aaron: And she was...?
Ernest: ...and Aunt May lived with her and Mary Lou and Johnny.
Aaron: They all lived in the same house?
Ernest: Yeah, there, there, Mary Lou and Johnny's father died in the first world war with this pneumonia...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...and so she lived with him and they all lived close to Uncle George, lived just south of them, Uncle Bill lived east of them. I think that's all of them that lived in that area then. Well, Aunt (uh) Ollie lived close, her husband separated. She lived close and Lex and them. Yeah, pretty close, and of course they had Uncle Bill, had (uh)...
Earl: Uncle George.
Ernest: ...his, his kids. Yeah, Uncle George had his kids and Uncle Bill had (uh) Herschel and Willard and (uh)...
Earl: Pearlyn.
Ernest: ...Pearlyn,...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ... <> yeah. They all lived in a small area there.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: It was quite a highlight of our life when we got to go there. It would, the Model T, we'd crank it up and start it out of here of a morning, and usually we got there before night.
Aaron: Huh. Are you serious?
Steve: How many miles was that, is it?
Ernest: Mm, probably fifty-some or sixty miles.
Earl: Sixty or seventy, sixty miles or so.
Ernest: But Model Ts didn't go very fast.
Earl: Roads weren't very good either.
Aaron: Were there bridges?
Earl: Oh yes, there were bridges....
Ernest: Yeah, but <> ...
Earl: ...They weren't very good ones...
Ernest: ... <>
Earl: ...I think this bridge down north here was, it was built then. It was in here at that time. That was the type of bridges that were common.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: And I can remember our dad when they'd go through Freeman, his sister, Aunt Emma, lived there, and he'd have a carload of us kids in the model T loaded up, and he'd stop there and go to the door about 11:30, we'd get started that morning about 11:30, drive up there and he'd say, "Here we are. You got dinner ready?" and...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...(uh) she'd turn red in the face and blush, but she'd always cook up a good dinner, and we all ate good, but (uh) I know this was kind of... Some people would get real mad about that.
Earl: But, but, phones were very uncommon then so...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...we couldn't phone ahead <>
Ernest: If you did it might cost fifty cents, too.
Earl: Well then, they wouldn't always get through either.
Ernest: Yeah, that's right.
Aaron: Really?
Ernest: Yeah. Long distance, well, I don't suppose they even had that then.
Earl: No. Of course, fifty cents was a lot of money then too.
Ernest: That's right <>
Aaron: How many hours wages would that be about (uh) that'd be about an hour, or more?
Ernest: Well, at that time if... I don't know. We couldn't <> me and Earl got pretty good money down on that bridge. We got what, two dollars an hour?
Earl: Oh, no I don't...
Ernest: Just carrying water.
Earl: Well, I, I think, maybe two dollars a day apiece maybe but ...
Ernest: Yeah, I believe it was, about two dollars.
Earl: ...or something like that.
Aaron: On the railroad bridge here?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Well, at that time in the...
Ernest: We were waterboys in '39, '29,...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...'29.
Earl: ...in the summer of '35, twenty-five cents an hour was really common, or no, wait a minute, it wouldn't have been that much, a dollar a day and room and board.
Ernest: Yeah, that's what Earl worked for.
Earl: Yeah, that's what we worked for that summer.
Aaron: Where was that?
Earl: Oh, on a farm about ten miles southeast of here. It was, in the summer before I started to college I worked for Ellery Collins' father and-uh that's what I worked for then,...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...except during the harvest, I ran a bundle wagon and got, I don't know if it was a dollar and a half or two dollars a day then.
Ernest: I think you did.
Earl: Yeah.
Aaron: During harvest?
Earl: Mm-hm.
Aaron: How was harvest done?
Earl: <> Oh <> he had a small thrashing machine, so it ran (uh). I got extra wages for running a bundle wagon in. That was with a team of horses and a wagon and (uh) loaded on the, the (uh). They'd throw the bundles up from the ground up onto the, the wagon and you'd have to stack them and then throw them into the machine.
Ernest: One event that I can really remember and I, I think Earl will when I get talking about it. The year we graduated in '35 Grandma Lemmer gave us each five dollars apiece...
Earl: Oh, she did?
Ernest: ...Yeah. ...
Earl: I don't remember that.
Ernest: ...and I think maybe somebody else, we went by and they had six dollars apiece saved up from other people too but if, so we went to a circus over in Osawatomie and this guy got the, he had (uh) some kind of a wheel you spin there, and if you spin that wheel you win a ham. I believe it was Earl and me and Charles Dedrick was together and Earl spun that wheel and he said, "You won a ham, but you've got to plank down a little bit of money to hold it someway. Then you've got a chance of winning something, and the first thing we know, he had all that money we had with us, the guy did. We didn't get no ham, and (uh) we were very... We thought that was a high priced lesson. You remember that?
Earl: I don't remember that. I'm sure it was, you're right. You remember it better than I did.
Aaron: How old were you then?
Ernest: We would have, it was in '35 so we'd have been...
Earl: Eighteen. Seventeen or eighteen.
Aaron: What was the circus like other than that? Were there rides and stuff?
Ernest: Well, let's see. It was a carnival...
Aaron: Carnival?
Ernest: ...I take it back it was a carnival.
Earl: Yeah. <>
Ernest: Yeah. Yeah, they had merry-go-rounds and... But most of the things were pitching coins to make something, they've got these... We thought we could, well, we just counted it off as a high-priced lesson. And that's...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...the whole thing gone down a nutshell, down, down the tubes. (uh)
Aaron: Where'd (uh) What did Grandma Lemmer die from? Do you remember? What happened? Was she pretty old, or...? Let's see.
Ernest: Does it show her age there in that?
Aaron: Yeah, she was born in...
Earl: She...
Aaron: ...1854. She died in 1937...
Earl: and then 80 (uh)...
Aaron: ...That'd be 46 and 37, 83.
Earl: ...83, 83 years old.
Ernest: I don't think we knew what people died from then, did we?
Earl: No, I don't think so.
Ernest: They really just died of old age...
Earl: Yes.
Ernest: ...we thought.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Aaron: Did she ever talk about her, your grandpa any? Grandpa Lemmer, and...?
Earl: I don't know.
Ernest: I don't remember. I can remember my mother talking about when she was a kid she used to ride the corn planter and they didn't have check, they had checked rows then, but she had to ride on there, and at a certain place she would move that checker to make a check,...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and whether that moved, I think that moved both sides.
Earl: I think so. Mm-hm.
Aaron: Every time you planted corn someone had to do that?
Ernest: When you checked your corn you did.
Aaron: When you checked the corn.
Ernest: Yeah, I don't know whether they planted it without checking then or not. I doubt it cause we didn't have herbicides then and things were pretty weedy and (uh) so they had (uh) to be checking these as you go down the row this way and then you cultivate it this way too.
Aaron: Oh. Oh.
Ernest: That's what the...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Later on when we moved here why they had a, a checked row wire they put on that went through some ports and it would check it for you...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...they was always crooked, they were, but we would cultivate it both ways, but...
Earl: And...
Aaron: With horses?
Ernest: Huh?
Aaron: With horses, right?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Oh, yes.
Ernest: Oh, yeah. We didn't have, ...
Aaron: So what, ...
Ernest: ...we never did have a tractor.
Aaron: ...so, what did the cultivator look like, just one plow between the rows or two...?
Ernest: I think most of them was (uh) were at that time probably was old (um) Jinny Lynn cultivators that they (uh) would walk behind them and had trip (uh)...
Earl: Mm, hm.
Ernest: ...trip springs on them that would trip when they hit the stump 'cause a lot of the ground was, was cleared ground at that time. There wasn't much (uh) in this area anyway (uh) prairie ground. It was mostly...
Earl: Most...
Ernest: ...all just...
Earl: Most of the cultivators...
Ernest: ...stump.
Earl: ...were single row. There were occasionally there'd be a two-row but not very...
Aaron: So, one horse would do the cultivating, was it?...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...It took one horse to pull it?
Ernest: Yeah, but, and, no, there were...
Earl: Well, two horses, we'd use two.
Ernest: ...two horses, yeah, one on each side, and (uh) you would, you would put the lines up over your back and, and you'd pull down on this and hold the hand with the other one and then pull down on this (um, uh) line that guided them.
Aaron: How many horses did you, did you...
Ernest: Two.
Aaron: ...guys have on the farm?
Aaron: Two total, or...
Ernest: Oh, (um)...
Aaron: ...how many total?
Ernest: ...when we moved from Western Kansas he had, I don't know, eight or ten mares. ...
Earl: <> I don't know.
Ernest: ...He was trying to raise mules to pay the debt off, and (uh) it didn't work out.
Aaron: Huh. How come?
Ernest: But... Well, mules wasn't worth very much and (uh) it cost, we had a lot of family to feed. It took most all of the, all of the groceries and stuff to feed the family, and the crops wasn't worth very much in '32. I think it was corn was fifteen cents a bushel. ...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...Some people burnt their corn instead of wood in their stoves. It was so cheap.
Aaron: You remember, you remember that?
Ernest: Yeah. You could go to a show for a dime then,...
Earl: Uh-huh.
Ernest: ...but we didn't go because we didn't have the dime ..
Earl: We didn't have, well, it was so far to town too, but we didn't have a dime either.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: So, where'd you get groceries? Did you...?
Ernest: Mostly at Beagle then. They had a grocery store, and they had a bank, and they had a barber shop, and a, and a lumber yard. They had quite a bit of business going on at Beagle. They had a restaurant or two. I think they had two grocery stores at one time.
Aaron: Did you ever walk there, or ride horses, or how'd...?
Ernest: Mm, oh.
Earl: Probably took horses, but shortly after we came here though we did have a car, a Model T,...
Ernest: Yeah, we got a car, <>, mm-hm.
Earl: ...and so we used that some.
Aaron: You remember driving the car out here from Shields...?
Ernest: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Aaron: ...Was that it, Shields?
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Yeah. We had a dog that started with us, and there wasn't room for the dog, so it followed about fifty miles and, believe it was Rover. We never seen the dog any more, but there was a couple of boys that would cry and look back and cry for that dog.
Aaron: Do you remember that, Uncle Earl, the dog?
Earl: No, I don't remember as well as he did. It was, but I know that this happened all right. I'm sure, but I don't specifically remember the dog. Ernest: When we did move out we stopped at Lane at Momma's cousin, (uh)...
Earl: Henderson.
Ernest: ...Aunt Henderson, Dave Henderson's wife lived there, so we stopped there overnight. Well, they just had one child, but they was a whole bunch of kids unloaded there, and some way in the shuffle, we weren't too experienced at, butter or something, they put a coloring in it, and me and Earl together someway spilled that coloring on something. ...
Earl: Yeah, that was...
Ernest: ...It was quite embarassing to the whole family, but (uh).
Earl: It was for butter wasn't it, or oleo?
Ernest: Yeah, it was to, it was for the oleo and it colored it with the coloring but (uh), we, we (uh) just, it was one of them accidents, but...
Steve: You got in big trouble, huh?
Ernest: No, we was...
Earl: I think...
Ernest: Now...
Earl: ...he was the one who did it though.
Ernest: ...my mother always thought this was funny: We stopped somewhere along the road and asked for directions, and (uh) so the guy says (uh), "You go down the road so-and-so, and you take a jog, and then you go (something about, I don't know) some other way," and so, I was a little kid and, and I probably knew better, but I don't know, I didn't catch onto him, so I says, "Well, we go down the road so-and-so and then do a job and then go on." We thought that was pretty funny, so that was told for quite awhile. Thought it was pretty funny.
Aaron: Where'd you stay at night when you..., it took you more than a day to get from Shields, right? I'd imagine.
Earl: I have no idea where we stayed the first night.
Ernest: I don't know what, I don't either. I don't remember what we done the first night. Alma and Bob drove <> Our dad had came out with a carload of horses, a, a train load, (uh) a carload in a train, and he come in, and then... Max Dedrick lived across the road, and he said he helped drive the horses and out from town you know...
Aaron: From Beagle?
Ernest: ...and haul the... No, that was Osawatomie that they came into, I guess.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: I'm pretty sure it was...
Earl: Yes.
Ernest: ... And then they drove them out and the furniture and everything...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...that we got was on the train and I think in the same car as the horses were in, everything else on the end. Aaron: I'm going to ask you some questions about your uncles and aunts cause we never got a chance to see them at all, and I don't even know where they lived or anything. I'll just go down the list from the oldest to the youngest on there. Okay. Bill Cook, Uncle Bill, William E. Cook?
Ernest: That's, that's Uncle Ed, William E. Cook.
Aaron: Uncle Ed?...
Aaron: ...Oh, William Ed.
Ernest: William Ed.
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Ernest: Yeah, he was the oldest. He was supposed have married (uh) into a wealthy family, the name of Reynolds?...
Aaron: Fannie Reynolds.
Ernest: ...Yeah, and he had (um), he was kind of pretty conservative, but the stories they'd tell on him, he was, he lived in Freeman with Aunt Em at the time he lived with his mother till she passed away <> but (uh) they'd tell different stories about him. They would, he was awful poor and he'd let his hair get real long, and of course they took up a collection around town one time to give him so he could get his hair cut, and, and (uh) he just stuck the money in his pocket and he let his hair grow. But, 'course he got just as much joke out of it as anybody. Did do you remember anything about him?
Earl: Well,...
Ernest: He used...
Earl: he used to bring (uh), there was an Alley boy who was a grandson of his who used to drive him over here quite frequently. I remember him. I just remember the Alley, but what was his first name? Do you remember?
Ernest: Ford.
Earl: Ford Alley.
Ernest: They called him Ford Alley...
Earl: They did.
Ernest: ...cause he'd, when he was a little kid, he, he tore a, a Model T all the way, all the way to pieces, and he put it back together...
Earl: Hm.
Ernest: ...and they called him Ford then.
Aaron: Ford?
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: Ford Eddy?
Ernest: Alley.
Earl: Alley.
Aaron: Ford Alley?
Ernest: A-L-L-E-Y.
Earl: Yeah, that was (uh)...
Ernest: That was his grandson.
Earl: ...yeah, but (uh) I never did know his wife. Did you?
Ernest: No, she was passed away before we knew him.
Earl: Passed away before we knew him. Okay.
Ernest: But his daughter had married a (um) an Alley, and they run a, a filling station at Warrensburg. They called it Gasoline Alley.
Aaron: Huh. You mean that was the name they had on the sign, and...?
Ernest: Yeah...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ... That's what they say, Gasoline Alley.
Earl: We used to hope that somehow to get ahold of some of his money but we never did.
Ernest: No.
Aaro: You never did yet.
Earl: No, but he was... I don't know whether he was wealthy or whether he just had a reputation of being wealthy. I don't know.
Ernest: I think at that time he might have been. He had (uh), well, I think there's a farm still in his name down, up by around Eldorado, but he had a lumber yard, and he run it, and they said that I think that in four years he made $16,000 which was quite a bit of money at that time and (uh) I guess he saved everything he had, but (uh)...
Earl: He, he liked to fish. I remember that. He'd...
Ernest: Yeah. It'd embarras me. He'd come back here fishing and he'd go, he'd go shoot pigeons to cut up to make bait out of, and and...
--------------------------------------
<<moved to a different room>>
Earl: No, no, the Ed Cook...
Ernest: They only had one daughter.
Earl: ...the Ed Cook that was referred to here was a (uh) brother of our dad.
Steve: Oh, okay.
Earl: That's right, isn't it?
Steve: Yeah. Right.
Ernest: Yeah, William E., that's William Ed <>
Steve: ... Which would have been your... So that'd have been your uncle?
Ernest: Yeah, ...
Steve: And out of Litchfield, ...
Ernest: ...but he just had the one...
Steve: ...Illinois.
Ernest: (um) That's where their granddads come from...
Steve: Uh-huh.
Ernest: ...some of them <> yeah.
Steve: Huh.
Ernest: But one time years ago Uncle Frank, Uncle Ed and my dad and Uncle Jesse, might have been one or two more, they all loaded up in Uncle Ed's Model A and went back in there to visit, and they run across a guy the name of Dennis Cook that was their cousin, but you never...
Aaron: I've read about him in the news..., old newspapers...
Ernest: You have?
Aaron: ...like he was the first one to have a Comet in his neighborhood, or something...
Ernest: Oh, he was (uh)...
Aaron: ...I don't know if it was the same one but...
Ernest: Yeah, possible. But he was their cousin <> ...
Aaron: Really?
Ernest: <>
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: Uh, but...
Earl: What do use a pencil that size for?
Ernest: Bob gave that to us.
Earl: Oh, Bob.
Ernest: Is that going now?
Aaron: Yeah...
Earl: Oh, it is?
Aaron: ...I turned it...
Earl: Oh.
Aaron: ...I turned it on when we were talking.
Ernest: ...but (uh) anyway,...
Aaron: Oh, that's fine. I don't care.
Ernest: ...(uh) Let's see. Uncle Ed would always come, he, he knew when strawberries was ripe, and he'd always come at strawberry time, and he'd maybe set down in the patch or put his knee down on there, and Mom Cook didn't like that very good because he'd smash her strawberries. I can remember that. But, he knew when they was ripe he could, he, he had that by memory or something.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: And one time he was back here and he was going home and they had these old-fashioned pumps that they pump gas in and (uh) he was going through Beagle, and Emmet Reely run the filling station then, and (uh) he'd got his gas and he started off and that, that hose come around had caught in his bumper, and it, it drained that, they'd put ten gallon in that and it drained all that gas in the, out on the ground, and Emmet jumped on the side of Uncle Ed's car, and Uncle Ed had to pay for that gas.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: I don't suppose you ever heard that one.
Earl: I've heard it,...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...but I don't remember the details.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: What about (uh) Aunt Em, Emma Blevins?
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: Do you remember...?
Ernest: She was kind of large.
Aaron: Oh, yeah?
Ernest: And the best thing I can remember about her. She was one of the nicest women you ever saw, but (uh) <> she was large, but nobody ever knew her weight or anything. So they had a family gathering back there one time, and most of the people that fed cattle had scales on their farms, so some relative of hers had her in the buggy and drove up to these scales and somebody slipped around and weighed that and then they went and took her up to the house and when she got out then they went back weighed and they knowed how much she weighed, and that was quite a joke then.
Aaron: Did she ever find out?
Ernest: I imagine they told her.
Earl: I don't... I never heard.
Ernest: I really don't know. I never heard that part of it, but...
Earl: She was a very good-natured gal, she was.
Ernest: Yeah, she was pretty good...
Earl: She had two, two sons. Didn't she?
Ernest: She had three.
Earl: Three, okay.
Ernest: Carroll, Harold and, and (uh) Leslie...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...at least three. Now there might have been another one.
Earl: I don't know.
Aaron: Let's see. Leslie, Earl, Carroll, and Harold. That makes...
Ernest: Yeah, that's four, isn't it?
Aaron: Four. Yeah.
Earl: Okay.
Ernest: Mm-hm.
Earl: I didn't remember all of them.
Ernest: And they moved to Canada, and...
Earl: Oh, that's right.
Ernest: ...and then they came back, and they were all nice people, they were.
Aaron: They all came back from Canada though eventually, huh?
Ernest: I think they did...
Aaron: Back to Missouri?
Ernest: ...I don't think there's any there at, well they did'nt come to Missouri.
Aaron: Oh.
Ernest: Some of them stayed in (um) Montana,...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...and then I think there's some in Denver now,...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...some of the generations. I looked when we was out to Bob's, but they's too many Blevinses in there. If I could find out some of the names I'd call them.
Aaron: Uh-huh.
Ernest: Carroll's girls lives at Carrolton, Missouri, that's Carroll's daughter. That's where Carroll went to from..., he used to work for (uh) Panhandle Eastern, the pipeline out of Freeman, and then when they moved to Carrolton he went there, and so that's where he raised his family then.
Steve: Huh.
Aaron: What about (uh) Uncle Pink? Is that what you called him, Uncle Pink (uh)?
Ernest: Yeah. Don't know too much about him. They said he was a kind of a, a veterinarian and (uh)... What's that one other? ...inventor.
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: Is he the one that supposed to have invented the hydraulic for train or...?
Ernest: That's what they claim, the brakes.
Aaron: Oh.
Ernest: That's what they claimed, that he invented that, but somebody stole the patent, and of course, he never got it, but...
Aaron: Stole it or beat him to it?
Ernest: Well,...
Earl: But...
Ernest: ... I don't know how it was, do you?
Earl: I don't know. He and Uncle Jesse lived close <> in town. Didn't they?
Ernest: They lived in Eldorado Springs, and they owned a (uh) grocery...
Earl: Grocery.
Ernest: ...store together,...
Earl: Together.
Ernest: ...I think...
Earl: I think.
Ernest: Yeah. Mm-hm.
Aaron: Did you go there ever?
Ernest: We went to visit them with... We used to have some pictures of us. Earl and me was in that picture when we went through one time, I think it was.
Earl: I just remember the name. I don't...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...remember anything about them.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: Uncle, Uncle Jesse was quite religious.
Aaron: Oh, yeah?
Ernest: (uh) I think maybe Uncle Pink's wife was, and (uh) they'd get together all the time, and they'd get to talking religious and Bible stuff.
Aaron: Huh. And (uh), Francis Henry Cook?
Ernest: That's Uncle Frank. He was a real nice guy. He was (um) Ted and Aubrey's dad and...
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Ernest: ...(uh) Juanita was the girl, and he was, he was the youngest one of the family. He was ten years younger than our Dad. Uncle Ed was ten years older,...
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: ...and they all passed away in a matter of three months' time.
Aaron: All three of those, or...?
Ernest: Yeah, and (uh) Uncle, Uncle, Uncle Frank and Papa was kind of a similar, I think they suffered a lot in their belly from the <>
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: I don't know, remember what they called it. Do you?
Earl: No, I don't.
Ernest: I thought they said hardening of the arteries, but I don't know <> I don't know <>
Aaron: What were their symptoms, they in pain, just a lot of pain or...?
Ernest: Oh, yeah.
Aaron: All the time, or?
Ernest: Well, they did at last. Oh, they suffered real bad, and our... and <> dad died in September. It was really hot then, and people would have to fan him. They didn't have fans or electricity. When it started, the memories I have of it, I was the only one here at home, I think, at that time, and we had some sows, and we had, we had them out in the pastures, and they'd go down there, and, to the Arkansas piece, and get out, and he started with me down there. We was going to go get them in or do something, and he was over the hill and he started a vomiting, and he was really sick. He come back to the house, and I don't think, I don't know what time of the month, of year that was, but it wasn't too long. He was sick quite a bit, and along at the last he really suffered, yeah, bad.
Earl: Did he go to the hospital a day or two?
Ernest: Yeah. Mm-hm.
Earl: He did. Didn't he? Yeah.
Ernest: Yeah. They cut him open <>
Earl: I came home then. Of course, there wasn't much hope, so he just <>
Ernest: Yeah. <>
Earl: <> died.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: What hospital?
Ernest: Saint Joe, yeah.
Earl: Kansas City.
Ernest: It was Vincent T. Williams's uncle, I don't remember what his name was now, but Vincent T. Williams was the one that operated on me a time or two, but he, it was his uncle that done it. ...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...I think they charged twenty-five or thirty dollars to operate on a guy then. Francis went up to stay with him at the hospital and Lloyd used to always laugh at this, or it's just a joke, nothing, but (uh) but Francis, he, they gave him a dollar to go on, so he went and bought a dollar's worth of bananas, and (uh) Lloyd said you could tell where Francis went by going down the street and following the banana peelings, so...
Aaron: Do you remember anything about the color of, like (uh) hereditary thing, hereditary things like the color of their eyes, your uncles and aunts, like Uncle Ed, Aunt Em, and Uncle Pink, and...
Earl: I, I don't remember any details of that type at all so <>
Aaron: Don't recall any of that kind of thing?
Ernest: As far as I'm concerned they was all gray eyed, but I don't know, they might of had different colored <>
Earl: I don't know.
Aaron: Were they tall, or skinny, or...?
Ernest: Uncle Ed was tall and skinny. Uncle Frank was kind of heavy. Our dad was, he was kind of light at the last, but he used to be fairly, not really heavy but (uh)...
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: ...well-built...
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: ...and (uh) Uncle Jesse was just a well-built man when...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...Uncle Pink was a little skinnier, but (uh)...
Earl: Yes, skinnier.
Ernest: Yeah. Uncle Pink had (uh), like we say, a veterinary. Why he would, would go up... People would call him out, and he'd go out and he'd cure their cattle and their...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...and (uh) their horses of some diseases and...
Aaron: So, did he have to have a college degree to be a vet?
Ernest: Not then. Not at that time...
Earl: I don't think so...
Ernest: ...they didn't. No <>
Earl: ...I don't think so...
Ernest: I think they just read a book, or something.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: He, he wasn't a licensed veterinarian, he was just a...
Aaron: A local...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...vet, kind of like?
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: We'll want to go over the Lemmers now, all the uncles and aunts on that side. Do you remember any of them (uh), sure you do, I mean, I remember them,...
Ernest: Mm-hm.
Aaron: ...barely. Uncle Bill, William H. Lemmer?
Earl: He had (uh) three children. Didn't he? Two...
Aaron: Let me see.
Earl: ...two boys and a girl, I believe. Isn't that right?
Ernest: Mm-hm.
Earl: I just...
Ernest: He had Herschel.
Earl: I'm sorry.
Ernest: Herschel.
Aaron: Herschel, Willard, and...
Ernest: Pearlyn.
Aaron: ...Pearlyn.
Earl: I just, I don't remember any details at all about it. Do you?
Ernest: Well, I've heard them talk about it. His wife had committed suicide. I think she drowned in a well or something, I don't know what...
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Ernest: ...her problems were or anything.
Aaron: We have a newspaper article on that, yeah.
Earl: I didn't know.
Ernest: Mm-hm. Yeah. <>
Aaron: Was that in Missouri or in Kansas or...?
Ernest: That <> it was in the area, I think where they lived. One of Earl Lemmer's boys lives on the place now where... of course, they've built a new house there, but...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...where they used to live. I don't know what she was despondent about or any of the details but... It was...
Aaron: Hm.
Earl: Well where'd... Did Pearlyn teach?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: She did. Didn't she?
Ernest: <>
Earl: And then, she... Wasn't married for awhile, not too long...
Ernest: She was married for a little while.
Earl: Mm-hm. Yeah. And Willard, where did Willard work?
Ernest: He, he worked in Cleveland, but he, he drove (uh, uh) street cars. Let's see. And then he did work for International Harvester up at Pleasant Hill, at a place like that, but along at the last he was a street car conductor.
Ernest: ...was Earl. And (uh) being mayor he got to do all the, the (uh) work for people around that was in problems, and this one lady had some problems under the house, and he was under there with a, a electrical cord that wasn't very well wrapped or something, and he had grounded it then, and that killed him.
Aaron: Hm. Willard?
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: And he's, cause it was wet underneath there and, let's see, a wire shorted across him. They said he kicked quite a hole in the ground when he was trying to get loose, but he couldn't get out.
Aaron: Hm, wow. Didn't we used to visit Pearlyn in Kansas City...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...when I was a kid? I think.
Ernest: Yeah. It might have, I don't think you've seen Willard though <>
Aaron: I don't remember him at all.
Ernest: Herschel, maybe, no, Herschel was...
Aaron: Let's see.
Ernest: ...a, I think he was a railway conductor. I don't know whether he retired from that or not.
Earl: I don't know. I know <>
Ernest: Whether he has family or Willard has family, we don't never hear of any of them, or see them or anything.
Aaron: Let's see. I have here that Herschel had a Lila Lemmer that married Virgil Schott, then a William Herschel that married Nancy Burk.
Ernest: Hm.
Aaron: So Herschel had...
Ernest: I don't <> yeah <>
Aaron: ...well, I don't know. He would have... Well, Aunt Ollie, you've got a lot of memories about her, right?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Yes.
Ernest: Mm-hm.
Earl: Yes. She had a, a daughter who used to live just outside of Washington D.C. I used to see her and her husband (uh) Riley. (uh) She was married to (uh)... What was his first, H.E. Riley.
Aaron: Howard, it says here.
Earl: Yeah, H.E. <> but I've forgotten what nickname he used, but they were real nice to me. They treated me very good. I <> when I was in the Marine Corps on the East Coast, ...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...and (uh) they had two sons. I think one of their sons married. One never married. One of them married a girl, and I think he teaches at (uh) either Yale or Harvard I believe, a professor.
Aaron: Oh, really? You mean Howard <> Aunt Ollie's son <> [1-21, Uncle Earl corrects that this was Lex. Riley, who lived in the Washington area was Hersey Riley.]
Earl: Yeah, one of the two boys, and I've forgotten those sons' names, but now she'd (uh), let's see. She died several years ago. Didn't she?
Ernest: Aunt Ollie?
Earl: No, not, well Aunt Ollie did, but the daughter (uh)...
Aaron: Let's see. Mary Ann...
Ernest: Yeah, Mary Ann died when?
Aaron: ...Riley, not too long ago.
Ernest: It was just a year or two <>
Earl: No, just a year or two ago, ...
Aaron: Just a couple or three years.
Earl: ...and whether he's still, whether her husband's still living, I don't know...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ...but I heard that his, he'd had a lot of trouble with a lung and so forth and was in very bad shape. They've moved to Florida...
Aaron: Yeah.
Earl: ...and (uh)...
Ernest: Aunt Ollie worked for M. Lyon Fur Company.
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: And I think she worked in the, well, they made coats in Kansas City.
Aaron: Kansas City?
Earl: Yes, I went, I went and saw her once in 19..., it'd been late in 1941, well, that'd probably have been July, excuse me, July of '41, when I was going through, and I saw her, went out to lunch with her there. She worked at the fur company, and we went out then...
Aaron: Kansas City?
Earl: ...that's the last time I remember seeing her, and then they had a son. Let's see. They had one son, didn't they? Rex?
Ernest: Lex.
Earl: Lex, I mean,...
Ernest: Yeah. Mm-hm.
Earl: ...who worked at (uh)... Where did he work?
Ernest: Well, he, he ended up working for the postal department, yeah, down in, I don't know where he worked down around the stockyards there. It wasn't the main office, but it was a, it was a postal..., yeah. But he used to be a glass cutter, and, for years, Lex was, ...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...cutting glass. He'd <> plate glass windows <>
Earl: Well, when did Aunt Ollie's husband die? Did he die in the, in the bad flu epidemic in...
Ernest: No.
Earl: ...the '17? Well, what...
Ernest: It shows there <>
<>
Aaron: I'll look that up.
<>
Aaron: <> yeah <>
Ernest: <> too many years ago <>
Earl: I never knew him.
Ernest: Yeah. I didn't either, but she went and stayed with him when he was a dying they said.
Aaron: 1916...
Aaron: ...so it'd...
Ernest: He did?
Aaron: ...be before you were born <>
Ernest: It was...
Earl: A year before we were born. Okay.
Ernest: ...I didn't realize that, but they said that he, but I didn't realize that, I thought it was a lot later. Anyway (uh), (uh) she lived down in the area by him there too when she was a- raising the kids.
Aaron: Freeman, or?
Ernest: Or, no, down by Harrisonville there...
Aaron: Oh.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...right close to Aunt May and Grandma, down in there.
Aaron: And where, where were you stationed near D.C. when you were visiting them?
Earl: I was stationed at Quantico, Virginia at the Marine Corps. It's about thirty miles south of Washington D.C., so I used to go see them quite frequently (uh) the weekends...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...and then I saw them after the end of World War II when I was back there, ...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...in fact they came down and saw me one weekend at Quantico, Virginia at the Marine base when I was there, and (uh) I knew them...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...and their sons. They were, they were very friendly and very helpful. I really, I really liked them, enjoyed them.
Aaron: It's nice to have family when you're so far from home...
Earl: That's right.
Aaron: ...close by.
Earl: And then also at the time, I'll just mention, I did know (uh) Lemmer, (uh) George Lemmer, George Francis Lemmer and his wife who were there within that area at the end of war, after World War II...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...there too.
Aaron: What were they doing there?
Ernest: That, that's Earl Cook.
Earl: He...
Ernest: He worked...
Earl: ...I think for a college or a university, I believe, or maybe it was for the federal government. I'm not sure. He worked in history. He was, ...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ...he was (uh), majored in history...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...maybe it was federal, I'm not sure who he did work for there <>
Ernest: <>
Aaron: It seems like the Lemmers were kind of sharp, huh, ...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...kinda...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Aaron: ...up in education and stuff <>
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: <> but he and his wife both (uh), they had one daughter and she was, still lives in the Washington D.C. area...
Ernest: That's <>
Earl: ...I, I just...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ... <> so I have seen her, but...
Aaron: Huh. So, what about Uncle George, George Wilkerson Lemmer?
Ernest: That's Uncle Bill, Uncle George.
Aaron: Uncle George.
Ernest: That's the boy that he was talking about when he... Now Earl was the other boy that was there yesterday...
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Ernest: ...that married Earline. They was the only two. They had another child that had some problems, and Georgia and me, we stayed with them awhile and helped (uh) take care of it...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...there. My sister, Georgia, did.
Aaron: Hm. Which one was it that, who, that had the voice problem, which uncle?
Ernest: Uncle John did.
Aaron: Uncle John?
Ernest: Mm-hm.
Earl: Oh, that's right. ...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ... It was cancer, wasn't it?
Ernest: I think so...
Earl: I think so. Yeah, it must have...
Ernest: ...along at the last.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Aaron: And Uncle Robert Lemmer?
Ernest: He was the oldest. He was (uh), he lived out in (uh) Oregon, I believe it was, along at the last, ...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...most at the last, and we didn't get to see him very often. Mom would go see him sometime.
Aaron: In Oregon, by herself, or?
Ernest: Well, she would go, I think with Aunt Ollie one time, and she might have went by herself one time.
Aaron: Train, or?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Well now, do you have... Did he live in Colorado for awhile or not?
Ernest: Yes, he did...
Earl: Okay.
Ernest: ...at Grand Junction.
Earl: Grand Junction, okay.
Ernest: No, it wasn't Grand Junction. It was...
Earl: It was near there. It was in that part of the state <>
Ernest: It was in that area.
Earl: <> fruit-growing area.
Ernest: Yeah <>
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: But (uh)...
Ernest: but it probably wasn't. It could have been, but it was <> in ...
Earl: I don't remember the name of it.
Ernest: ...the Junction area <> part, yeah, I'd forgot about that.
Earl: Oh, that's right. He did live at, because I saw, I just barely recall, I think I saw him and his wife, or Phyllis was with me. It was... And we traveled in (uh) the western world. We'd see Francis when he was at Heppner, Oregon, and then we went southwest from there, and I believe we stopped and saw my uncle, it was Uncle Robert...
Ernest: Robert, yeah.
Earl: ...there at (uh) I've forgotten what town he was in...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ...it was south of Portland about a hundred miles as I recall.
Aaron: Portland. Huh. There's somebody (uh) someone that was born in Bend, Oregon. Does that ring a bell?
Earl: No.
Aaron: Okay, and then (uh) there were also two kids that were born in Montrose, Colorado.
Ernest: There's where he was at.
Earl: Yeah, Montrose is the place.
Ernest: That's the place where he was at.
Aaron: One in Idaho, Twin Fall, Idaho.
Earl: I didn't remember that one.
Ernest: But, now, isn't there one lives in Texas somewhere now, used to be.
Aaron: One of the sons of Robert, or?
Ernest: No, one of the daughters.
Aaron: Daughters? There'd be a Roberta Lemmer that married a Paige, or a Harriet Lemmer, or a Bernice Lemmer.
Ernest: Harriet's an, an old maid. Wasn't she?
Aaron: I don't know, don't have complete records.
Ernest: I think that that first one you named is the one that lives at...
Aaron: Roberta married a Paige.
Ernest: ...where does it give her address?
Aaron: It doesn't ...
Ernest: Francis and Tilly...
Earl: Now...
Ernest: ...used to keep in contact with them. I think she's the one that...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...lives in Texas, ...
Earl: Let's see.
Ernest: ...wasn't she?
Earl: I don't remember. Phyllis might remember our uncle we visited in (uh) Oregon, that one that was in western Oregon...
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: ...Uncle Robert, I don't, I just, I know we stopped, I'm sure we were there at...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: What did he do out there? Let's see.
Earl: ...an hour or two. I just am not sure what he did. It seems maybe he had something to do with fruit. Didn't he? I'm not sure about that...
Ernest: It seemed to me like he turned into a carpenter <>
Earl: Could be. Could be. I don't know.
Ernest: I could be wrong. But I think he done some, a bunch of carpentry work <>
Earl: Would you want to call Phyllis and see if she knows?
Aaron: Yeah, let me stop this.
Earl: All right.
----------------------------------------------------------- <Temporarily stopped tape. Uncle Earl found Aunt Phyllis.> ----------------------------------------------------------- Earl: ...in western Oregon in '48 or '49.
Phyllis: I think in '48.
Earl: '48. All right. Do you remember where he lived?
Phyllis: Oh. No. Let's see. We were married in '47. Sure, it was in '48. Where you met?
Earl: Yes.
Phyllis: You mean the address?
Earl: Yeah. No. What city?
Phyllis: Eugene.
Earl: Eugene, Oregon.
Aaron: Oh.
Phyllis: Eugene, Oregon.
Earl: Do you remember what he was doing then?
Phyllis: Oh, I don't know. I don't remember...
Earl: We stopped there...
Phyllis: (uh) Yeah, we stopped and visited, and we met his wife and I think Roberta, and she's in Oklahoma now. Isn't she? I just heard that yesterday...
Ernest: Oh, that's the one.
Phyllis: ... Roberta's the oldest one, ...
Ernest: Yeah, okay.
Phyllis: ...but there were some children, but I don't remember...
Ernest: Yeah, Roberta. That's the one.
Phyllis: ...(uh) all those names.
Ernest: Yeah.
Phyllis: Didn't he have six, five children or...
Ernest: I think they did.
Earl: Oh.
Phyllis: Oh, I don't remember for sure. Now, that doesn't...
Ernest: I think Charles is dead. Isn't he?
Phyllis: That was one of their sons?
Ernest: Yeah. Didn't he pass away?...
Phyllis: Oh, I don't know about... I don't know.
Ernest: <> did you have it there whether he did or not?
Aaron: I have (uh)...
Ernest: You don't have it. Well.
Phyllis: Oh, do you, do you have the names of the sons there?
Aaron: Let's see (uh)...
Ernest: They just had one son. Didn't they?
Aaron: ...George, Chester Earl and...
Ernest: Oh, my goodness.
Aaron: ...Charles Leslie, are these, we're talking about Uncle George still, or...?
Ernest: No, (uh) Uncle Robert.
Aaron: Oh, I got this...
Ernest: Robert.
Aaron: ...I'm sorry. Okay, Charles Lemmer, then Roberta Paige, Harriet Lemmer, and Bernice Jo Lemmer.
Ernest: Yeah, just the one boy, Charles.
Earl: Well.
Phyllis: Oh, okay.
Ernest: Well, it seems to me like, Francis Cook would probably know. They used to, them and Tilly kept in contact <>
Phyllis: Oh.
Earl: Would know much better, but Phyllis I thought would remember that one. I didn't remember where it was and so on. ...
Phyllis: Yeah. We went right along there <> it was in Eugene.
Earl: ... I knew we were together. Yeah.
Phyllis: Uh-huh. Right. ...
Earl: Okay.
Phyllis: ...But, but would they, would there be anybody there now? Did you, do you want to get in touch with them now, with anybody?
Earl: No. No, he was just (uh)...
Aaron: No, we were trying to get (uh)...
Phyllis: Just talking about it?
Earl: ...trying to get facts together.
Earl: Was there any other question you had? I think she was doing some work out there that she wanted to get out, back on if she can.
Phyllis: I was out talking with Fred and Shirley. Have you seen their pictures?
Aaron: No, not yet.
Phyllis: Oh, there's a really good picture of, of all that group...
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Phyllis: ...of Cooks. I don't take very good pictures, and sometimes Earl does.
-----------------------------------------------
<Temporarily stopped tape. Aunt Phyllis left.>
Aaron: Okay, so the only two, two left... And Uncle John?
Ernest: Had one child, Billy.
Aaron: He went to Michigan?
Ernest: Yeah, he was, he was one of big shots in, (uh) in General Motors. He was, he was very high up in that.
Aaron: Oh, really?
Ernest: Yeah, one of the biggest almost, top man. And they'd take him to different parts of the United States, but he was...
Earl: Huh. Where did this information come from? I'd never heard he was high up, but maybe he is. I...
Ernest: You didn't?
Earl: ...No, but I suppose you're right. I, I don't think...
Ernest: <>
Earl: Excuse me for questioning your...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...statement.
Ernest: <> It's... (uh) I'm pretty sure that's (uh)... I don't lie very often.
Earl: He was a real nice fellow. He was...
Ernest: Yeah, but <> that <> I think <> ...
Earl: They had, ...
Ernest: ...come through (uh) <>
Earl: they had one son as I recall who was in the Marines. He died in, shortly after the end of World War II. I met him. Isn't that right? They had one, one son, is all they had?
Ernest: Billy?
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: And you've met him. Huh?
Earl: Yes, in fact I met him while he was in the, he was in the Marine Corps...
Ernest: <> yeah, I never <>
Earl: ... I met him, but then I can't recall, I...
Aaron: William M.?
Earl: <>
Aaron: Let's see, he was married in Daytona Beach, Florida...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...I think we've got a sheet for him here.
Ernest: He separated <>
Earl: Oh, he separated. Did he?
Ernest: His wife died or something. His wife died with cancer...
Earl: I think that's right.
Ernest: ...yeah.
Earl: I met them once.
Ernest: Yeah, she was a nice lady, real nice, but he, he was, he was pretty high up there, in the General Motors.
Earl: Okay, I'm not questioning your statement. It's, I'm sure it's right <>
Aaron: This says, ...
Earl: <>
Aaron: <>
Earl: What he says is right. Isn't it?
Aaron: ...this says he was the auto assembly regional plant manager. This is John, Uncle John's son, William,...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Okay.
Aaron: ...That was that. So, Uncle John was also at General Motors? Huh?
Ernest: No, Uncle John was...
Aaron: Oh, no.
Ernest: ... worked for Neal Bearing Coal Company...
Aaron: Oh.
Ernest: ...up there at Belton...
Aaron: Oh.
Ernest: Does it have that?
Aaron: No, we don't have... I'll write it in.
Ernest: Yeah, that's <>
Earl: Oh, it was his son, that's the one you said worked for <>
Ernest: Yeah, <>
Aaron: I have coal, occupation, coal retail.
Ernest: Yeah, okay.
Earl: All right.
Aaron: I even have him as being in World War I.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: U.S. Army, World War I?
Ernest: Well, then he probably was. I didn't realize it.
Aaron: Is that what happened to his... No, it was cancer.
Ernest: No, I think it was smoking too much, and he smoked quite a bit.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: Burned a hole through his throat.
Earl: Now, his son, it's his son was the one that you show with General Motors?
Aaron: Yeah.
Earl: All right.
Aaron: Yeah.
Earl: But I, I did say something earlier that he was, I thought he was <> Marine <> but I'm not sure that's true or not.
Aaron: Yeah, we have him <> U.S. Marines, World War II.
Earl: Okay <> so that I was thinking.
Ernest: I hadn't <> I was, so you seen him after I did? <>
Earl: Yes.
Ernest: Uncle John brought him out here one time, and we was little kids, and we played out there in the yard. I can remember that. We just played and played and played, and had so much fun, but he was awful nice to us, the boy was.
Aaron: Hm.
Earl: And his wife (uh), his mother worked for... Oh, who'd she work for in Kansas City? She was a secretary for somebody...
Ernest: Some lawyer. Wasn't it?
Earl: ... I, I don't know what it is.
Aaron: Pearl?
Ernest: Yeah, Pearl, and she belonged to (uh) ...Dedrick did, same thing that William Dedrick had...
Aaron: Unity, or?
Ernest: ...Yeah, she belonged to... She was a Unity <> I think so, yeah, yeah <>
Earl: <> Unitarian <>
<>
Earl: Okay.
Aaron: Unitarian or Unity?
Earl: I believe that's right. Isn't it?
Ernest: Yeah. I don't know. Unity Church <>
Earl: <> I think there's one in Lees Summit.
Aaron: <> huh <>
<>
Aaron: And of course Aunt May. I mean, everybody remembers her, right, a lot?
Ernest: Nice gal.
Earl: Real, real fine girl.
Ernest: Yeah, best going. She...
Aaron: You saw her a lot, right?
Earl: <>
Ernest: Yeah, we seen her quite a bit.
Earl: She had two, two, she had two children, the one who was here yesterday, well, Mary Lou. John, who (uh), who died... Well, you've probably got what year he died. He was real <> ...
Ernest: He was only thirty-nine. Wasn't he? <> ...
Earl: Something like that <>
Ernest: ... <>
Earl: Something like that. He was (uh), he was a real good friend of ours. ...
Ernest: <>
Earl: We grew up about the same time...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ... We used to play together quite a bit <>
Aaron: <> John.. ?
Ernest: Yeah, he was our tops, kind of like you with your cousins, he was just a <>
Dee: What did he die from?
Earl: I <> there were two things <> I don't <>
Ernest: He had his teeth taken out, and (uh) he was going <> and a blood clot went through there and it just...
Earl: That was the end of him. Huh?
Ernest: ...Yeah, that ended it, him.
Dee: Hm.
Earl: I don't remember where I lived at that time. I couldn't very handily come to the funeral. I didn't come. I think Aunt May was rather disappointed I didn't come. I don't know whether all the other cousins came or not. (uh)...
Ernest: Bob came out, and I know we went cause we had a flat going up there, out there. ...
Earl: Huh.
Ernest: ... Bob had worked at the filling station, and we changed that flat in about two minutes. I remember that, and we put the spare on, but we <> it was Harrisonville, <> was the funeral at Harrisonville. He's buried in Freeman Cemetery.
Dee: What year did he... ?
Earl: <> I know that <>
Ernest: <>
Dee: What year did he die?
Earl: <> I think, I think I heard that...
Ernest: Um.
Earl: ...that some, somewhere I remembered, I heard, or sometime (uh) he'd told some people, and I think, I don't know whether he told his mother, but we found out about it, that when he was dead he didn't want people looking in at him. He didn't want his, the casket opened up and he...
Ernest: Well.
Earl: ...people looking at him and so on. He didn't think... He thought that was <> ...
Dee: Can you see what year that was that he died?
Earl: ... didn't do that.
Aaron: It doesn't have it.
Ernest: It don't have it?
Aaron: <> with the wisdom tooth problem. It has that he had the wisdom tooth pulled and that's...
Ernest: Oh, I thought he had his, whole bunch pulled. Didn't he?
Aaron: Wisdom tooth or teeth, but...
Ernest: <>
Aaron: ...(uh) it doesn't really say <>
Dee: <> we don't know what year that was? <>
Aaron: No.
Ernest: It don't show it here.
Aaron: We could find out <>...
Earl: <>
Aaron: ...it doesn't have the year <> we don't have <>
Dee: Because the reason <> ask <> I'm trying to think <> I can remember <> we were little we spent so much... Jane and Aaron, or no, you maybe have been <> little, but it'd have been like Jane and Bob and I would be in the back seat and we'd go to a... It seems like we went over to so many funerals in around Harrisonville and Drexel, and I have no idea who these funerals were. I'm just wondering if he would be somebody that would have been in the right age group or was he...
Earl: Could have been. ...
Dee: ... older, maybe <> younger <> ...
Earl: ... I don't know.
Dee: ... <> remember <>
Earl: I don't even remember.
Ernest: We'll have to get that off of the monument sometime.
Aaron: Yeah. Yeah.
Earl: Now, this wouldn't be any, this wouldn't be any problem <> you can get the facts on it, I'm sure <>
Ernest: <> yeah <> we'll do that <>
Aaron: Yeah, yeah, from the newspapers <>
Ernest: <> we'll do that sometime <>
Dee: Hm.
Ernest: It was (uh), it was after my mother died, because I knew he come to her funeral. It wasn't many years after that though, and she died in '58. Didn't she?
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: That's probably in the early '60s.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: <> yeah <>
Dee: That might have been one of the funerals I was remembering.
Ernest: Yeah <> very possible <>
Dee: Interesting. So he was younger than you were then?
Ernest: One year.
Dee: <> Hm.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: <> December the 2nd. Ours is December 15th, but it was, he was one year younger than us.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: <>
Earl: Okay.
Aaron: Okay, so we've gone over all of them. the same like with the thing like with the Cooks, do you remember anything about how..., the color of their eyes, or how tall they were, or heavy, or?
Ernest: I just remember Uncle Ed was slender and tall, kind of, and skinny, I mean like he never did eat nothing, or something, but the rest of them was fairly well built, but our dad was (uh)...
Aaron: The Lemmers, I mean.
Ernest: ... Oh, the Lemmers?...
Aaron: Yeah. Like you told me about the Cooks.
Ernest: ...Uncle, Uncle Bill was heavy set. That was the trend of the Wilkersons <> my Uncle Bill was heavy set, and Uncle John at one time he wasn't really heavy set, but he was just well built. He was sort of short, but Uncle George was never heavy, he just, well built, a hard working old man, Uncle George.
Earl: Yeah, good-natured.
Ernest: Yeah, good-natured.
Aaron: Good preacher?
Ernest: No, natured ..
Aaron: <> Natured. Oh, I was going to say.
Earl: <> good-natured <>
Ernest: And (uh) but his wife was bedfast for several years, ...
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: ...and he took care of her, I think seven or eight years just like Elsie was to Lloyd...
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: ...and (uh), but I don't know what <> call it Alzeihmer's Disease nowadays <> back then, but he had to take care of her <>
Aaron: Are there any of us cousins that you think look like any of your uncles and aunts?
Earl: I have no idea.
Aaron: Can't really connect?
Earl: I can't connect <>
Ernest: Bob resembles the Lemmers I think. Bob Cook does quite a bit.
Aaron: Your brother, Bob?
Ernest: Yeah, I think he's got a resemblance some way there <> but some way (uh) and (uh), I can't see... I think Francis sort of resembles the Lemmers. He might look more like our mother now than, than any of them, I don't know. He's <>
Aaron: Seems to me.
Ernest: <> he's losing a lot of weight...
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: ...and then (um) Florence looked more like her dad, I thought, always did, think there was a marked resemblance of her dad, and (uh)...
Aaron: Aunt Georgia?
Ernest: Uh, I don't,...
Earl: I'm not sure.
Ernest: ...I don't know who you'd say she resembles.
Dee: Was she always really heavy?
Ernest: No...
Earl: But, well, not when she was younger but...
Ernest: ...she <>
Earl: ...was in her older age, but (uh)...
Ernest: ... yeah.
Earl: ...how long she was that way I don't know...
Ernest: She got real heavy there at the last.
Earl: ...she was, ...
Dee: Hm.
Earl: ...she was short and so weight would really show up there then too.
Ernest: Yeah, but she got exceedingly heavy there at the last.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: She always wasn't that...
Aaron: Can you...
Ernest: ...yeah, she used to be pretty <>
Aaron: So none of us got to see Grandpa Cook.
Ernest: No, no, Bob would have, I think. Lloyd did, I know, but Bob would've, whether he would have remembered it or not.
Aaron: Your grandpa?
Ernest: Yeah. You can look at the dates...
Aaron: Let me look that up.
Ernest: ...when Bob was born and when Granddad died, and he died in '16.
Aaron: 1893.
Ernest: '93?
Aaron: Uncle Lloyd, I remember, he said he barely remembers him.
Ernest: Yeah, so Bob would have, so, cause Bob was born after 1900 wasn't he?
Aaron: I think so.
Ernest: Why, he would have been. Yeah.
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: Yeah, 1907 or something, probably. Yeah, so he could have seen him.
Aaron: 190...
Ernest: Well, now...
Aaron: ...8.
Ernest: ...Grandma Catherine died later. Didn't she?
Aaron: Yeah, she was the only one I guess you could really remember, but she, oh, no, 1915.
Ernest: She died in '15?
Aaron: Yeah.
Ernest: Well, Bob would have been seven years old. Wouldn't he?
Aaron: Yeah, yeah.
Ernest: Seven or eight. He might remember her, yeah. Wasn't Papa born in '65?
Earl: I think that's, I'm sure that was right <>
Ernest: <>
Aaron: In 1865, 23rd of April?
Ernest: <>
Earl: <> April what?
Aaron: 23rd.
Earl: 23rd, okay.
Ernest: That... When was the Civil War, '64?
Earl: No, it ended in '65.
Ernest: It ended in '65 <>
Earl: Yeah. <> I've forgotten the exact date of the end of the Civil War between the...
Ernest: I can't think of anymore. ...
Earl: ...states.
Ernest: ... I can think of a hundred things tomorrow probably.
Aaron: Well, that's okay. We've got a lot of stuff.
Earl: Well, when was...
Dee: Were they, some of them were Republicans and some were Democrats. Is that right? One of the families...
Ernest: Well...
Earl: Well, I guess that's probably right.
Ernest: ...I think most...
Dee: One of the, one of the...
Ernest: ...of the Cooks were Republicans.
Earl: I think so.
Dee: The Lemmers were Democrats. Right? <>
<>
Earl: <> were democrats.
Ernest: <> were mostly Democrats, and (um) they were (uh), I used to, I like Aunt May best in the world, but she (uh) was anti-John Brown. I, I liked John Brown. I thought he was an all right guy. I didn't know anybody hated him till I talked to her one time, and she had some relatives that lived up by Lawrence was in the Quantrill Raid in them... They hated his guts.
Earl: He was, people in history are quite frequently (uh) portrayed as heroes or the opposite, and (uh) he is one that would be very easily pictured as <> and, and I, I don't have nearly the respect for a person like him that I had at the time when I was raised in this area close to Osawatomie and so forth, close to the John Brown Park.
Aaron: Huh.
Earl: <>
Aaron: Huh. Was talking about your mom and dad, and what life was like when you were kids, and then your brothers and sisters later on. Then everybody can hear if you don't mind or if anybody wants to on the next tape. This tape's about over. So, you remember anything more about your uncles and aunts, any stories or anything?
Ernest: I don't...
Earl: No. <> I don't <>
Ernest: ...remember anything right off hand. I think, I always thought my mother was the most honest woman that ever went and lived.
Earl: Yeah, she was real fine.
Ernest: And (uh) our dad was too. He was honest. I mean he'd, he'd never <> and <>
Earl: Say, I never did hear. There'd be one thing that would be interesting. Did you ever, how did they ever happen to get to going together? Do you know anything about their romantic days...
Ernest: Well...
Earl: ...and so forth <> they had <> ?
Ernest: ...unless I'm wrong, I think he was on the schoolboard over there...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: ...when she taught, and he got to taking his buggy over there getting her, and she made some remark to one woman one time after he was going over there, "You never make eyes at a, a widower man," or something, but he was a widower man <> and you never want to make eyes at them and let them get their way <> cause it got her into... what she got into, I guess.
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: I don't think she begrudged it.
Aaron: No.
Ernest: (uh) That's what, their (uh)
Earl: No, I have no idea. I never have heard anything about their (uh)...
Ernest: Yeah, he'd go <> polish up his...
Earl: ...dating, dating, and so forth.
Ernest: ...buggy and go pick her up at the schoolhouse, and... Lloyd could probably tell you those things <>
Earl: He isn't around now.
Ernest: No. Bob might remember some <> talking about it, I mean.
Earl: Probably doesn't make too much difference. I was just curious.
Ernest: Yeah. That's how I think they met <> I think he was on the schoolboard or something at that time, so he went to...
Dee: She was a little older. I thought she was 26, in my calculations, if I'm calculating right, she was 26.
Earl: Oh, she was 26, when she was married?
Dee: Am I right? Hm?
Aaron: Let's see <>
Dee: '78 to '04, is that what that means?
Aaron: Let me look it up here.
Earl: One thing that's very odd, (uh) our dad was 50...
<>: Food is ready.
Aaron: Okay.
Earl: ...50 or 51 when we were born.
Dee: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Is that right?
Aaron: He was born in 1865, so...
Earl: We were in, in '17 so we were either, no, it was...
Aaron: It'd be <>
Earl: ...either 51 or, between 51 and 52.
Dee: No.
Aaron: 52.
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Yeah, 52 when we were born.
Aaron: I didn't even realize that before.
Earl: Okay.
Aaron: So, he was...?
Earl: I knew, I knew he was up past 50. I figured, I just hadn't figured out exactly how old.
Ernest: Thinking back I, I always (uh) kind of considered more Bob as a father than our dad, cause he was...
Dee: Hm.
Ernest: ...old enough to be, and (uh)...
Earl: Mm-hm. But he'd kind of keep... He kept our family together, ...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...pretty much, ...
Dee: Mm-hm.
Earl: ...in the hard time in the '30s...
Dee: Mm-hm.
Ernest: But he was <>
Earl: ... He was a real fine brother <>
Ernest: <> more like a dad than our dad did but, but I do have respect for old people nowadays, I think because our father was old...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and I...
Dee: Then not only Bob, but a lot of you put really money into this. I mean in, in support...
Ernest: Yeah.
Dee: ...into keeping the farm, I mean...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: And Georgia, yeah ..
Dee: ...Mom paid, help paid taxes a few years, all the teaching...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: That's right <>
Ernest: And Georgia.
Dee: ...and some of the rest of you did too, I think, didn't you, ...
Ernest: <> yeah, yeah <>
Earl: Well.
Dee: ...so it really took a lot to keep this place in the family?
Ernest: Yeah, it took a lot.
Earl: Yeah, that's right.
Earl: And then (uh) that's the way it was. Let's see, I think the ladies are getting kind of anxious...
Aaron: Okay. Okay.
Earl: ...to get feeding faces <>
Aaron: This tape has just a little bit left...
Earl: Oh, okay.
Aaron: ...so we'll just skip the other one if you don't mind later, unless you want to wait till some other time...
Ernest: Is there somebody else <>
Earl: Some other time, probably...
Aaron: ...or whatever do you want to do?
Earl: Well, I'll see what time they want to leave.
Aaron: Okay. Okay.
Earl: No, we could finish it, if you want to, if there's just a little bit to go <>
Ernest: <>
Aaron: Maybe we can (uh), I'd really like to get what life was like here when you were kids...
Earl: All right.
Aaron: ...so maybe just fifteen minutes or so later on, or something like that?
Earl: Okay.
Aaron: Okay.
Ernest: <> yeah <>
Earl: All right.
Aaron: ...fifteen minutes...
Earl: All right. Okay.
Aaron: And that's what we planned, so, <> I already told Dad we'd kind of like to know, like what life was like when you were kids, like what dinnertime was like, like, and what church was like, and what you kids played at, what you did working, and (uh) things like that, or what you did on the, how many, long you worked on the farm, but I was also wanting to ask, one quick story before we start all that was, I remember a story about Grandpa Cook's eye falling out. What was it, Aunt Ruth...?
Ernest: It was, they said it was a laying on a cheek...
Aaron: On his cheek? Yeah.
Ernest: ...He was taking Ruth to, to school, a-driving her. (uh) She went to school at Dighton. I don't know how come, maybe he went to get her at school, and she was driving, and he was riding in the back seat, and (uh) it got real quiet, and he thought the car had stopped, and he stepped out, and of course it was moving and, and (uh) it kind of tore it out, and his, and I guess, they said his eyeball was kind of laying on a cheek there, but I guess they got it back in.
Aaron: Somebody pushed it back in for him?
Ernest: I guess, and (uh) then another time he was a-driving this team over this ditty. I don't know whether he had a load of hay on or if it was empty, I think maybe there was some hay on it, and he drove the front end of the wagon down in this dip, and (uh) the bolt, the... what is it, the, that two by four that comes up, what do they call that...
Earl: Top...
Ernest: ...topping pole broke, or something, and he was on top of this, there's a ladder that comes up on that-a-way, and he, that come up through his jaw there, and it knocked a hole through his jaw, so he always commented that when he ate he had to be careful that food didn't fall out through that hole. [1-21, Uncle Earl corrects topping pole to coupling pole]
Aaron: Do you remember that, Uncle Earl, or...? <>
Earl: I don't remember that at all. Nope, don't know a thing about it.
Ernest: And (uh) that's, that's about all, and, but going to church, we'd go to Christmas programs, and we'd get a harmonica for Christmas. We was just little kids, and of course we'd eat candy, and we'd always blow them harmonicas full of candy, and they wouldn't go, they'd stick the reeds on them, and then we'd go home, and it'd be cold in them cars riding, but we'd been to the program, and that was the big event of our lives when we'd go to the Christmas programs, going..., had all that candy...
Earl: But...
Ernest: ...to eat that was just about <>
Jane: Where was that, Beagle?
Earl: <>
Ernest: No, that was at Shields.
Earl: Oh, Shields...
Jane: Oh, that's in Shields. That's before you ever went here.
Earl: ...but then when we went to church, here we went to Parker first <> ...
Ernest: Yeah, that's Parker, <>
Earl: ...Parker Methodist.
Aaron: Why, why Parker and not Beagle?
Ernest: We went to Beagle for awhile, but I don't know what happened there,...
Earl: I don't know either.
Ernest: ...and then we went to Parker, and then we went, something would happen at Parker and we'd go back to Beagle, but I don't know what the...
Earl: I don't know, I have no idea.
Ernest: ...something, but (uh)...
Aaron: Did you dress up to go, or...?
Ernest: As good as we could. We, we got our ears cleaned out. I think our mother, I always contended that that's the only time she could get even with us, cause she took that rough old rag and would clean our ears out every Sunday, and, boy, that hurt cause there was a lot of dirt in there, and I think she dug exceptionally hard that day. It seemed like it and...
Earl: I don't know.
Ernest: ...I, I always contended that that was her way of (uh) kinda getting, well, it didn't feel thataway to her, but she was a-cleaning us up and she got most of the dirt off once a week.
Aaron: So you didn't take a bath every Saturday like we did when we were kids?
Ernest: Yeah, we'd take a bath every Saturday, but it was in the same water.
Earl: But nothing, no oftener than that though.
Ernest: Yeah. That was, that was, yeah...
Earl: And it was cold.
Ernest: ...it was in the same water, I mean the same tub and,...
Aaron: You make your own soap or...?
Ernest: Well...
Earl: I'm sure she made (uh) but whether we used that soap for other than laundry, I don't know.
Ernest: I just don't remember.
Earl: I can't seem to recall.
Ernest: She made her own laundry soap, but I don't know about that part, but we made it out of cracklings and <> and lye.
Jane: So did the girls make their clothes and you all bought your clothes?
Ernest: They made most of them.
Earl: Oh, they made, I think...
Ernest: They hardly bought any boughten <>
Earl: ...she made all the clothes, I think.
Jane: Even your shirts and everything?
Earl: Oh, I think so.
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: I'm sure.
Ernest: We would go to town and get feed then in them days, and they had certain patterns on them, and when you'd go to get this feed, why she'd give us a little slip of cloth to go, to go match that with the feed sacks so we'd get the right pattern. (Uh) that was very common, chicken feed, hog feed...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...either one, they was in cloth bags, and, and they even made our underclothes and stuff out of them too, and...
Aaron: Hm. And, of course, you used the outhouse that was just outside here?
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Mm-hm. Yeah.
Aaron: It, was it was a two-holer?
Ernest: It was a three-holer.
Earl: <>
Aaron: Three-holer?
Earl: Three-holer? Oh.
Ernest: Yeah, it had the two holes, and then it had a little baby hole at the right.
Earl: Oh yeah. Okay.
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: Oh, yeah. You used (uh) catalogs?
Ernest: Yeah...
Earl: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Ernest: Monkey Ward catalog.
Aaron: What about when you ran out of catalogs?
Ernest: Oh, they, we always had plenty of catalogs because we got Sears and Monkey both, and (uh), and, they didn't have the hard sheets in them then. Most of them had soft sheets and (uh) and, of course, if you was out in the field why you'd just use corn cobs.
Earl: This is (uh) a different day now.
Jane: Sure is.
Earl: Let's see now. When did we first get electricity, or, yeah, electricity <>
Ernest: I think it was about '39, wasn't it or '38, '38, '38 or 9, '38 <>
Earl: Well, I'm sure it was at least that late. I doubt if we had it here until after that, but I don't know.
Ernest: I, I think, well it might have been a little later. [1-20, Uncle Ernie corrects that farm got electricity in 1949.]
Earl: Bob would probably remember.
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: And you graduated in high school in '35?
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: So that was after...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Yeah. We still used <>
Earl: That's right.
Jane: And you were out of high school?
Ernest: Yeah. Mm-hm.
Aaron: So the high school didn't have electricity, huh?
Earl: Oh, the high school...
Ernest: Yeah, they...
Earl: ...they had it there...
Ernest: ...had a generator <>
Earl: ...but not out here in the country.
Ernest: Yeah, they had it in the towns.
Earl: The R.E.A. was starting into being, well, they started earlier than that, but not in this part, not in this part of the country, but I'm not sure what year R.E.A. <>
Ernest: I think it was around 1938. That's when Wilke got his big name, wasn't it...
Earl: Oh. Could have been.
Ernest: ...but it was in that time frame there.
Aaron: What, what about that wind generator that's lying out in the field? Was that...?
Ernest: Earl bought that and, and we used that over at the old house with a six volt battery, and we run a radio on it...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...and maybe one light bulb.
Earl: Okay <> part of the time.
Aaron: Where did you get that?
Ernest: Yeah <>
Earl: Oh, I don't remember where he bought it.
Ernest: He bought it somewhere...
Earl: It's... I don't know.
Ernest: ...and I let it lay out there, and the propellers got broken out <>...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...but he'd put, but he'd put it up on top of the house there, and it'd charge up this six volt battery down there and had a...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...six volt bulb, you could use one bulb off of it and then the radio.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: And that was getting kind of modern then.
Jane: Mm-hm. ...
Earl: Mm-hm. ...
Jane: ... Mm-hm.
Earl: ... That's right.
Aaron: What was breakfast like, what did you eat?
Ernest: She had a great big pile of biscuits there and <>...
Jane: Every day?
Earl: Oh, yes, every day.
Ernest: ...for breakfast <> ...
Jane: Wow.
Ernest: ... we could eat them, and then if we'd have hogs, it was bacon and sausage,...
Jane: Oh, my.
Ernest: ...and eggs and there wasn't just, we'd have plates full of them, but we'd eat till we was full...
Earl: Gravy, gravy...
Ernest: ...and gravy.
Earl: ... with biscuits.
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: Wow, everyday.
Earl: <>
Ernest: And jelly, there was jelly, and, and butter, and butter, and milk, cream.
Earl: We...
Ernest: We'd use cream on our stuff. We didn't use milk...
Jane: Mm-hm. It tasted a lot better than what we use now.
Earl: Everything...
Ernest: ...and <> ...
Earl: ...was home-produced.
Ernest: ...yeah <> yeah.
Earl: We didn't buy any of those kinds of things.
Jane: Wow.
Ernest: No.
Jane: Yes.
Aaron: Hm, so you...
Earl: Mother took the eggs to town every week and use the egg money to buy...
Ernest: Groceries.
Earl: ...most of our groceries there.
Jane: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
Ernest: And sometimes she'd have a little left over <> and we'd take cream too in five gallon cans, and then when we got chickens finally, and sometimes they'd be a little money left over, and she'd save it up and maybe buy linoleum once in awhile...
Jane: My.
Ernest: ...or buy wallpaper for the house...
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: ...or something like that.
Jane: Very resourceful, in other words.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Oh, my.
Jane: Now, did you have all the fruit trees that are on the farm? You had all these apple trees and the pear tree?
Ernest: We had quite a...
Earl: Oh.
Ernest: ...few at one time.
Earl: But somebody, there was some salesman that was around and...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...(uh) sold those, about the first year, well, the first year of two we were here and sold our dad the bill of goods on those.
Jane: Really?
Earl: I don't remember how many of those lived.
Jane: They paid off through the years I think...
Earl: I, I don't know.
Ernest: When we came here there was several peach trees on the north slope...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...and, and, and there was apricot tree, and some cherry trees, and peaches, and I think there was a few apples and they bore, we had a lot of fruit there for awhile, do you remember that? And in then, them times, why, this guy come along and sold them to our dad, and I think, I don't know whether, Hilton was his name. He was a salesman, and our mother was very mad about that cause he spent all that money, $65 worth of trees, and <>, but two of them were these yellow transparent out here that bore and...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...bore...
Jane: Yes.
Ernest: ...and one was that tree that just <> out there...
Jane: Yes.
Ernest: ...and I don't know how many, they were several trees. We got...
Jane: The crabapple tree? Was that one?
Ernest: I think the crabapple <>
Jane: And that apricot tree?
Ernest: Yeah, there was an apricot tree...
Jane: The pear?
Ernest: ..and there was a lot of good fruit on it. They bore a lot...
Jane: Well, is, is...
Ernest: ...of fruit, didn't they?
Earl: Mm-hm.
Jane: I'm sure it paid off probably after all, yes, mm-hm.
Ernest: And we didn't have to spray at that time...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...they bore good without spraying. Yeah, it did <> with this big family. She canned a lot of fruit up <> and...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and the peaches, they was all kind of, they was getting kind of old. They died out pretty quick, but there was a big cherry tree or two out there <> ...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ... <>
Aaron: Was the cellar here already and you kept canned goods in there?
Ernest: Yeah, it...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...was, it was in pretty good shape then, it... We kept the canned goods in it then.
Jane: And you had tornadoes back in those days, any excitement from that?
Earl: Oh...
Ernest: Yeah, we'd go in the basement, we'd go in the cellar once in awhile, but it wasn't too good. It had the smoke house on top but you'd, we'd just feel a little better, but if it got real bad looking, why, we'd go to Dedricks' and go in. They had a cave...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...<> and it was more safe than, but we never did (uh) <>
Jane: Mm-hm.
Aaron: And you used to store apples underground for the winter?
Ernest: Um, we never did. We'd store them just in there, but a few later years, Mom and me buried some of these, this tree out here one year and, and they were really good. We buried...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...a bunch of them and...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...put straw on top...
Jane: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and dirt, and they were green when we put them in, and when they come out they was ripe and juicy...
Jane: Is that right?
Ernest: ...and really good.
Earl: Yeah.
Jane: What a neat thing.
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: Did you want to talk about school any before you...?
Aaron: School, and what you did for games when you had time?
Ernest: We played baseball quite a bit, and we played black man and (uh), what other games did we play at the, the Mound Creek?
Earl: Well, some kind of a tag game, but I don't remember the details about it.
Ernest: And we'd play ante-over some till they'd, ...
Earl: Oh, yeah. That's right.
Ernest: ...they'd think we was tearing the shingles off the schoolhouse, and I think the schoolboard or some of them stopped that eventually because...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...it's hard on shingles, you know, throwing that ball into it.
Jane: Mm-hm.
Earl: And then sometimes didn't we go skating in the winter when the ice was on the <> ...
Ernest: Yeah, <> ...
Earl: ... We'd go skating <>
Jane: Oh, yeah, uh-huh?
Ernest: <> go skating once in awhile and (uh), but out of school, why the kids would come over about every Sunday, and we'd play either baseball out here, football, tag football, or we'd go down to the crook, and creek and play hockey, and then when it was hot in summertime we went slimming, swimming almost every day of the summer. Wouldn't we?
Earl: Yeah, and I think, probably, at that time then most of the swimming was without any swimming suits on...
Ernest: Yeah. Mm-hm. Yeah.
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: It was (uh)...
Aaron: Not in mixed company though, right?
Ernest: ...skinny dipping, ...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...and we'd, we'd (uh) have a lot of fun, ...
Earl: What I was...
Ernest: ...and sometimes the whole neighborhood would come over, it seemed, to us, but it was either that or we'd go over...
Earl: But,...
Ernest: ...to Cavinees and play ball.
Earl: ...but the old creek looked pretty good then, but (uh) I, I...
Jane: You wouldn't want to do it now <>?
Earl: <> now, no.
Ernest: In that one we called the swimming hole across there, that thing was close to where that is, it was up to your neck there...
Earl: Yeah, but it's...
Ernest: ...yeah, it's filled up with silt. Yeah, ...
Earl: ...silted in now.
Ernest: ...and (uh) we'd play, we'd, we'd play hockey. We'd take an old stick and a tin can and then go down on Sunday afternoon and play and, we had a lot of fun.
Aaron: Let me divert a little bit before we... and then get back because I just now remembered when you sang on radio. Everybody is really interested about that.
Earl: Oh, we went up one time. I don't remember what, who had the program. Was it...
Ernest: Tex Olson.
Earl: ...Olson...
Ernest: Tex Owen.
Jane: Tex Owens.
Earl: Tex Owens.
Ernest: Marion Bonzell was the announcer then.
Earl: Yeah, but we went up and sang, and (uh) sang, sang...
Ernest: Silver...
Earl: ...one song, wasn't it?
Ernest: Silver, ...
Earl: I'm surprised that we got on...
Ernest: ...Silver Haired Daddy.
Earl: ...but I, it wasn't...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...so great looking back on it. I'm sure it wasn't <>
Jane: What was it again, Silver...?
Ernest: Silver Haired Daddy of Mine.
Jane: Silver Haired Daddy.
Ernest: But we had three minutes' time, so we timed it, and you had to sing it pretty fast to get through in three minutes, so we couldn't poke along at it. We had to get through it pretty fast.
Earl: Of course, our, our folks heard it, ...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ... I'm sure...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...they were, we were sure they did.
Ernest: Yeah, They said that Dad sat there and cryed while we sung it. I don't know why he cried.
Aaron: What year was that?
Earl: I...
Ernest: I think it was around (uh) '35, wasn't it?
Earl: ...I don't, ...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ...well, it'd have been before, I would guess it was...
Ernest: <> thirty <>
Earl: ...well, I don't know, '34 or so...
Ernest: Yeah, it...
Earl: ...well, I really don't know.
Ernest: It was back in the <> ...
Jane: How did they select you?
Ernest: ... <>
Jane: Did you offer to do it, or did they choose people?
Ernest: No, we wrote in, and we went up, and they, they interviewed us...
Jane: Uh-huh.
Ernest: ...and they picked three of them then that won...
Jane: Uh-huh.
Ernest: ...and (uh) Lynn Mallory was the third one of us. He played the mandolin, and I played the guitar. [1-21, Uncle Earl corrects Lynn Mallory to Glenn Tooley.]
Jane: Nice.
Ernest: Yeah, it...
Jane: Ooh. That sounds great.
Ernest: ...was all three of us and, and (uh)...
Jane: Well, that's great.
Ernest: ...but we didn't get any offers from Hollywood.
Earl: No, we sure didn't.
Aaron: Well, it's still not too late (uh).
Earl: Oh, golly.
Ernest: But, you've heard of the song Silver Haired Daddy, haven't you?
Jane: Well, you've probably sung it for me...
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: ...when we were...
Ernest: Yeah.
Jane: ...young...
Earl: Oh...
Jane: ...I think so.
Earl: ...We, we started to school after we moved here from western Kansas. I don't believe we went at all out in western, or did we for a little while or not?
Ernest: I was thinking we did, but we didn't, we hadn't, we didn't very much because I don't see how we could've, but, cause we wouldn't have been but five years old.
Earl: Yeah, I'm sure it was just here we started, and then since we were rather late in starting. They didn't have kindergarten in those days, and then we skipped the second grade. We never went to the second grade at all.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: But the first grade we could sing, we could read with the book closed or upside down or anything really cause we knew it all by heart. They had such stories as the Little Red Hen, you remember that?
Jane: Mm-hm, yes, yes.
Ernest: And it means more than a lot of the stories do nowadays according to me, but (uh) we read that, but we knew it by heart and then... <>
Aaron: Why?
Ernest: Huh?
Aaron: Why?
Ernest: Cause we, we'd read it at home so much <>
Aaron: Oh.
Earl: And then we...
Jane: Who read it to you? Did one of the older kids read it or your mother or father?
Earl: Probably brothers and sisters, I would guess, but I don't know for sure <>
Jane: Did you have story times all together that you can remember of?
Earl: No, I don't remember that we had any...
Ernest: Not really (um)...
Earl: ... but we might have had. I don't know <>
Ernest: (um) I guess Florence and Ruth preferred Earl because everybody thought I was cuter or something, and Georgia she, she kinda (uh) protected me on things, but...
Earl: I'd forgot.
Ernest: ...Yeah, Ruth, Ruth (uh) she always (uh, uh) <> Earl <> that's <>
Earl: Our sisters had gone to high school in Paola so they could take normal training to be teachers...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Earl: ...and us boys, all of our boys, all of us boys, who went to high school, Bob didn't go to high school...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Earl: <> the rest of us went to Parker, and (uh) Francis was a senior and drove a Model T, wasn't it, that first, well the first year that we went then...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Earl: ...and after that, then I drove a...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Earl: ... cart once in awhile...
Ernest: <> we <> car <>
Earl: ...we walked some...
Ernest: <> and then we <> walked <> yeah.
Earl: ...and we, (uh) and we drove a car the last two years, didn't we?
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: We drove, we had an old Model T...
Jane: Huh.
Ernest: ...till it fell apart about <> it was in real bad shape.
Jane: Why didn't Uncle Bob go to high school?
Ernest: They couldn't afford it, they didn't think some way.
Jane: Why did they have to pay? You don't have to pay to go to school.
Ernest: Well, <> ...
Earl: No, but is still cost to buy books and...
Ernest: ... <> clothes and stuff, so, yeah.
Jane: And they couldn't do that? Oh, boy.
Earl: But... <>
Ernest: <> stayed home and worked (uh)
Jane: Hm.
Earl: Maybe he didn't want to. I don't know, but Bob was smart. He could, he could have been...
Ernest: He was real smart <>
Earl: ...a good student <>
Jane: Yes, he would.
Ernest: (Um) Georgia started to school the first two years at Parker, and then she finished up...
Earl: Oh, in Paola. I'd forgot.
Ernest: ...in Paola. She rode Old Queen, a horse. We had an old horse that come up from out, from west, named Queen...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: ...and she could ride her, and then if she wanted to stay to some night event, why you could turn the old horse loose and she'd come home...
Jane: Hm.
Ernest: ...and so when she taught over the first, she taught for manual training, and she taught over here where Ralstons live. There was a Highland School there then, and she would ride that horse over there and, and (uh) it, it was, she could turn him loose and he'd come back...
Aaron: Huh.
Ernest: Uh.
Aaron: How far away was that?
Ernest: I think it's about three mile or so. It's through hill, and then you go west, you can go through <> then. I...
Earl: Oh.
Ernest: ...was all mixed up. I used to tell a story that I went over and told Georgia one time, and they told me how to get there. I was home. I don't know, I don't know what the occasion was for me being home. I was to go tell her that Ruths had a child, and I thought it was George Alma, but we figured it out one time, and it was (uh), and it had to be Patsy that I told her about, cause George, the way the age <> come out ...
Jane: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
Ernest: ... why, I went over to tell Georgia then of course, I can remember me and Georgia talking about, wondering how George would take that, but (uh) it was Patsy that <> . Yeah.
Aaron: Hm.
Ernest: I'm sorry I'm taking up so much time.
Aaron: No. I can't think of anything.
Earl: I can't think of anything else that <>
Aaron: I mean, we could...
Earl: We graduated in '30, in '35. All the boys in those days, or that I can recall wore overalls, bib overalls <>
Ernest: <>
Aaron: Homemade or storebought?
Ernest: No, they were storeboughten.
Earl: I don't think we wore those to graduation probably, but except for graduation <> ...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ... <> we <>
Ernest: A dollar ninety...
Jane: <>
Ernest: ...A dollar ninety-eight cents a pair, or was it 98 cents a pair?
Earl: I don't know what. I have no idea.
Ernest: Shoes were a dollar ninety-eight.
Aaron: <>
Jane: Did you have like dress slacks for the Sunday things or...
Ernest: Uh...
Earl: Uh...
Jane: ...jeans, blue jeans?
Earl: Yeah, we did.
Ernest: ...no, we didn't wear overalls...
Ernest: ...to church, but <>
Earl: It'd have been shirts and jeans of some kind, but exactly what, I don't know.
Ernest: It wasn't <>
Earl: We didn't wear overalls to church...
Jane: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Right.
Earl: ...that was not, that was not proper attire for church...
Jane: Uh-huh.
Earl: ...as, as I recall.
Ernest: Yeah. <>
Jane: I would think not.
Earl: Yeah. Okay.
Aaron: Everybody's also, everyone's always real interested in you walking to school,...
Earl: Mm-hm.
Aaron: ...and...
Ernest: Yeah.
Aaron: ...we talked about that a little bit yesterday, but it was about four or five miles down the railroad tracks?
Ernest: Five mile and a quarter <>...
Earl: Wait...
Ernest: ...but <> cutoff <>
Earl: ...well, it was five and a quarter by the road,...
Ernest: Yeah.
Earl: ...and around the railroad, I don't know...
Ernest: Cutting across <> about <>
Earl: ...a little, about the same <>
Ernest: I imagine it cut off about...
Earl: <>
Ernest: ...a quarter of a mile <>
Earl: <> about five miles...
Aaron: And you all walked together everyday?
Ernest: Just me and Earl.
Aaron: <>
Earl: Just the two of us.
Ernest: We didn't have to do chores thataway. It was kind of a <> because you had to start before...
Earl: During,...
Ernest: ...daylight.
Earl: ...during the football season we drove (uh) a horse to a cart. Both of us rode in that. Then we left, we (uh) boarded it at a place down there near the school, near the high school.
Ernest: Yeah. We had a place to put the horse.
Earl: Mm-hm.
Ernest: Yeah, and when we got that cart to use, we had an old horse, he was kind of a fat old horse named Jesse, and, and that cart had a little tin in the floor of it so we'd take, we put the harness on him and hitch him to the cart and got on this big hill here and put Earl on the cart, and he says "Giddy-up," and that tin went rattley-bang, and in about two seconds Earl was across the bridge down there.
Earl: I don't remember.
Ernest: So, we never drove old Jesse till... We drove old Sparky Plug. He was a...
Jane: Sparky Plug.
Ernest: ...moon eyed, he was a...
Earl: <>
Ernest: ...horse that was out of Old Queen, had the one horse, and he was moon eyed. He'd go blind certain times of the moon, but we'd drive him and we had pretty good luck till one time we was coming home from school and Harry Byers rode a horse, too, and he come up behind us one time, we was west of Billy Milton's, he come up behind us on that horse and scared old Sparky, and we had a runaway, and none of us got hurt, but they was (uh) buggy shafts and pieces of harness strung all over the road. It took us two or three days to get that wired back together so we, so we could drive again.
Earl: I don't...
Ernest: I can remember that.
Earl: He remembers most of those details better than I do, so if you have some facts you want to get about those things, he, he remembers most of those details better than I do. Occasionally I'll remember something.
Aaron: Do you remember playing football in high school?
Earl: Oh, a little bit, but we didn't have a particularly good team...
Ernest: Oh, yeah.
Earl: ...I just remember we played, but we didn't, we didn't have a real good... We had a, a coach, Brewer, for awhile. He was a, his left, was it left hand...
Ernest: His right arm...
Earl: ...or his right arm?
Ernest: ...he had entire paralysis in his left <> shrunk <>
Earl: ...He does, so he couldn't, ...
Ernest: <>
Earl: ...and so, he was not a very good coach, and we didn't win too many... But that Ellery Collins that last year, he, he was a pretty good coach. He was a good teacher. In fact, he was the one who convinced me, talked me into going ahead and go to college, to go to <> after that, and Ellery was a very good teacher, and then later he went from (uh) teaching school to imp-, being an implement dealer, and, he had a small airplane. He and his wife were killed in an accident in that someway...
Jane: Hm.
Earl: He was, ...
Jane: Hm.
Earl: ...Iola, I believe is where he was at that time. He was a real good guy.
Ernest: Earl played center. He is, he was on the main team most of the time, and the last year, why Earl was, was the (uh) quarterback that named the plays, and he passed quite a bit. We never won any games. I don't blame it on Earl, but I don't think we won but over one or two games, did we? <>
Earl: I, I don't remember, but we didn't do very well. I'm sure of that <>
Ernest: Yeah, if we won...
Earl: <> that's right.
Ernest: ...a game it was something very unusual...
Earl: Uh-huh.
Ernest: ...but we just took it in the stride. I mean...
Earl: Yeah.
Ernest: ...we just expected to lose when we went.
Aaron: Sounds familiar (uh).
Earl: Yeah. Well.
Aaron: It wasn't much better when we were there back then.
<>
Aaron: Okay, thanks a lot.
Earl: Oh, you're welcome.
Ernest: No, don't leave it on there.
Aaron: Oh.
Punch here to go back to the family tree page
Punch here to go back to Aaron's Stuff