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Uncle
Bill Boy
I need to do a lot of research to get this to set up the way I want it. Grampa
was an average size man with a balding head and a handlebar
mustache.
I
understood
he worked
at the Vally Furniture Co. until the
depression
came along.
It was
a factory
within 5 or 6 blocks from his house. He then went to work at the
Lyons Machine Shop, where most of the boys worked except
Abe.
I liked
to go
and visit him on Sat. and Sun. Would take his lunch to him. The
factories then
were a
lot different
than now.
They had
a long
shaft near the roof driven by a large motor. The shaft had a lot of
wheels on it
with belts
going down to the various machines that could be turned off or on
at will. They could
also be
adjusted
for different speeds. Went on his rounds with him while he had to
punch certain clocks. Grampa
liked to hunt and fish as did all
of his
sons. They
all had
shotguns
and rifles
and Grampa had a muzzle loader, which Uncle Bob got. I
think
they lived
in North
Muskegon at
one time as I vaguely remember them saying they came to town in
the winter
time by
crossing
the ice
on Muskegon
Lake.
They must
have had
money at one time as I remember seeing pictures of them in
their
motor
launch
on Muskegon
Lake. Grampa had his own ideas about weddings. When Aunt Mae got
married they had an outdoors wedding and
Grampa insisted he have a whole bunch of bananas hanging from a
tree in the yard. I don't remember any of the stories he
told me
as a
child
but I'm sure he must have. I don't know if they were married in
Germany or in the USA. I
would say when they
were married
Grampa
was quite
hirsute. Later
in life I seem to recall Grandma telling they went to town to do some
shopping
and Grampa
went
to
the barber
shop.
It was
getting late and Grampa hadn't met her yet when a strange man came and
took her by the arm and
said lets
go home
woman.
Grampa
had his
beard shaved off and Grandma didn't recognize him. Grandma
was not
a large
person.
Perhaps
short and stocky. I always remember her wearing a duster cap
around the house. It fit tight over the hair. There was a coal heater in
the living room and a coal range in the
kitchen.
There
was also
small
room next to the kitchen that had a two or three burner gas plate
but no oven. The range in the kitchen had an oven
and
warming
places above the stove top. It also had a reservoir for hot water
later on they had a hot water
heater put in the bathroom. When
I was older and stayed with
Grandma
one night
a week
while
Uncle
Emil had to work, for breakfast she would make me toast buttered
on both sides. They
also
had a
pump just outside the back door and many times during the summer
I would have to go over and get a pail of clear cold
water
to take
home.
There
was also an apricot tree in the back yard but as I remember most
of the fruit was wormy. At
our house we had an ice
box in
our enclosed
back porch. If we wanted ice we put a sign in the front window
and when the ice man came by he would bring in the ice. The
sign had
four
different
weights
on it. One on each side
and he would bring in the one on the top. He brought the
ice in
a horse
drawn
wagon and would cut the ice to the size needed. He had a piece of
canvas he put over his
shoulder
and with
ice tongs heave the block of ice on his shoulder and carry it to the
back of the house and put it in the ice box. This
was quite
an event
as all
the kids in the neighborhood would climb on the back of the wagon
and grab little pieces of ice. The
ice man
would
make great to do when he came out about chasing us away from the
wagon. There were very few
electric refrigerators and only the very rich had them. I
was born in the house Dad built on Ambrosia St.
later the
name was
changed to Catawba Ave.
I remember at first we had an oil stove in the kitchen and at
times I would have
to go to the Grocery store. two blocks away, and get oil
for the stove. They would put a potato on the spout to keep
it from
spilling. I think the stove had three burners and there was a portable
oven that could be put
over one
of the
burners. Later
on we got a gas stove with an oven. Boy did I think we were
something. By pressing a button flame would shoot out to each
of the
four burners
and they could be turned on. The oven had an automatic temperature
control. Getting
back to
the Zeckzers I must be wrong about all the boys working at Lyons Machine
Shop as Uncle Bill had gone to Indiana and received a degree in
engineering and where he met Aunt Ruth and married her. He came back to
Muskegon
and became
chief
engineer
at Hackley
Hospital. While working there he splashed some lye in
his eye
and it
had to
be removed.
I think I can only remember one time that I saw him remove his
glass eye. It was also interesting to
go to
the hospital
and go
through
the boiler
room and see all the different machines. I
said this would be a mixed up account as I
would
put down
things
as I thought of them. Grocery stores were a lot different than
they are now. Most of them were small Mom
and Pop stores and served local neighborhood areas. There were no
supermarkets. When you went to the store you would wait
your turn
and then
the
clerk would ask what you wanted. As you told him he would go to
the shelf and bring the item
to the
counter. You didn’t get the items yourself. He would cut your meat,
slice the cheese, weigh the
sugar
and anything
else that was needed. There weren’t many pre packaged items. As
he brought them back to the counter he would take an empty
sack and write down the item and price. When he was all through
he would add them all up and put them in sacks and ring
up the
total on the cash register and you would pay the bill. As you can
imagine there were lots of mistakes and one had to
check the addition carefully. Other
things I remember especially during the depression was you could buy
butter or oleo. The problem was a state law that you couldn't buy
colored oleo. Included
with the
oleo was
a packet
of colored powder or liquid that you could mix in the oleo. Otherwise
the oleo looked like
white
lard.
It was
some job
mixing it in smoothly. You might run across a white spot or a
very red spot
that hadn't
been blended
in evenly. The
milk man brought us milk in
the early
morning
in glass
bottles.
The milk
was not homogenized and the cream would rise to the top. Some
bottles were designed that with a special
spoon inserted you could pour off the cream and whip it. The
milk man had a
wagon
drawn
by a
horse
that was
smarter
than the
milk man. He knew the houses that received milk and he would stop there
and wait for the milk man to get the milk and then he would move on to
the next location. Even with a different delivery man he would stop at
all the right
locations. The
bottles
had just a cardboard cap on the top and in the winter time if you
didn’t bring in the
milk soon
enough the
milk would
freeze
and push the cap off so you could have a couple of inches of
frozen milk protruding
from the bottle. As
Grandma became older she was very demanding of Mother and
Aunt Mae.
They
had to
call her every day or go over there. Speaking of Mother and Aunt
Mae, when they were
girls part
of their job was to sew rags together to make rag rugs. Their
bedroom was upstairs and had plank flooring. One plank had a knot
hole in it and they would push
as many
rags
as they
thought
they could get away with down the knot hole so they would not
have to sew them.
Grandma
had two
programs that
she like
to hear
on
the radio. Little Orphan Annie sponsored by Ovaltine which
she
drank
and
Hieny
and the
Hungry Five a
group that played German music from Milwaukee. Speaking
of radios I think Uncle Ray had the
first
one in the family with Dad a close second. Uncle Ray’s had a
horn speaker that sat on top of the radio.
Dad had
one
with a
built in speaker. Both radios were battery powered. One large like a car
battery and two smaller one
called
B
Batteries. They also required an outside antenna. There were
three dials needed to tune the radio. You kept adjusting
them until
the station
came in
clear. There was a story going around that the Old Editor was
scared out of his wits one evening. He was listening
to a
mystery play on the radio when Mother had to pick up Dad at the barber
shop. It was dark out. After Mother left the power went off in the
neighborhood leaving the radio playing on battery power on the scary
play. Needless
to say
the Old
editor went out on the front porch until Mother and Dad came
home. One
other
thing
that has changed is wash day. Even the day it is done has changed.
Monday was always known
as wash
day and it was just that. All day Monday to do the washing. I
can remember that we had a washing machine. It
was
a large
unwieldy
machine.
Its
tub was about 3 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. It held
a
horizontal
zinc
drum that
had
a opening that could be clamped shut. The drum was perforated
with holes to allow the water to flow in
and
out easily, but not the clothes. The tub would be filled with hot
water to the water mark. Soap was added
to
the
water.
The drum would
rotate for as long as left on. On top of the tub there
was
a
wringer
that
could
swivel
around.
it
had adjustable
pressure
to wring out as much water as possible. You needed a short pole
to reach down into the tub to
remove the
clothes.
The
water
was
too hot to reach in with your hands. The
washer was positioned to wring the clothes from
the hot
water washer to a wash tub of warm water. there they had to be
rinsed around
by
hand
to
remove
as
much
soap
as possible.
From
the
warm
wash
tub
they were wrung out to another wash tub of cold water and rinsed
by hand
again
to remove more soap. When satisfied they were rinsed enough they
were wrung out to a basket and were ready to hang up. One had to
be
very
careful
when
wringing clothes not to get your hands caught in the wringers as
it could pull your arm in
up to
the
shoulder
and was very painful. On the wringer there was a
lever
to
hit
and
it
would
release
the
pressure immediately.
I
remember
Mother
being caught in it once or twice. After
that one wore out we did get a new washer that was more
modern.
It had a round tub with an agitator in it like they have now
days. It still had a wringer at the top. Naturally
after the clothes were washed they had
to
be hung
up to dry. Our basement was lined with row after row of clothes
line to be used in winter and bad weather. In
summer we
had
clothes lines going from tree to tree outside and as the trees
were far apart we had to have clothes poles to prop up
the
sagging
middle
of
the line. If it started to rain everyone made a mad scramble to
get the clothes off
as
soon as
possible.
Of
course
the
Luhmanns
had
more than one washday a week as Mother washed all the
barber
shop
towels and
we
spent
a
lot of time smoothing them out and folding them up. As I remember
Dad was the only one
immune
to
this work As
I said when
I
started
this
would
be
disjointed. Saturday was usually a day to go the movies in the
afternoon. Get there before 1:00 it was 10 cents after 1:00
it
was
15 cents.
3 or 4 kids in the neighborhood would go together. It would be a
double feature. serial. news and
comedy.
It
was always a western. There was no air conditioning then but they
ran a water pipe to the peak of the roof and
let
the
water run down over the roof. It did help. It was during those
days when I was at the shop when Dad was ready to come home that I swept
the floors
and
dusted
for
him.
The
furniture
for waiting customers was wicker chairs rocker and davenport with
removable cushions. I would pickup
the
cushions
and
find change
there.
Usually
enough
to support my movie trips on Saturday. Thinking back on it now I
wouldn't be surprised
if Dad hadn’t planted the change for me to find. One
of
the
first
pets
I
remember was a large black angora tom cat by the name of Snoots.
Snoots was a house
cat very
well
mannered.
He liked to be held and petted and was quick with a loud purr.
Don't get me wrong he was all cat and spent a lot of time outside. He
would disappear for days at a time but come back
with
a
few more
bites
on
his
ears. Whenever
he
wanted to
come inside he would jump on a front porch window sill and wait until he
was let in. During
the time we had Snoots
Aunt
Mae
had
a
female German
Shepherd
named
Peg. Peg was beautiful dog that had a bad problem. They had to
keep her in the basement because
if they
left her alone upstairs she would chew the furniture to bits.
They bred her and kept the male for themselves
and of
course
they
had to give Brother, what I was called when small, one of the
females. The male
they
named
Lupo
which meant
wolf.
My
female they named Schautzy, spelling
which meant sweetheart. Dad had Schautzy spayed and built a pen
for her
attached
to
the
garage with an opening for her to get inside the garage. The pen
was built with chicken wire
about 5
ft.
tall. Dad topped this off with a 6 in. board to cover the sharp
edges of the chicken wire. This was where
we
kept Schautzy unless I was playing with her. It
worked out very well until she discovered
she
could dig
out under the fence. She would also jump over the fence. We put
up with that until one day my cousin
Paul
came
over with
his pet rabbit and we were playing with it on the grass in the
extra lot. Now that was
a
mistake
because
Schautzy would
chase
anything. Schautzy didn't wait to dig a hole or jump over the
fence. but ran right through the chicken
wire. We
finally
got
the rabbit and the dog got nothing. I think that is what decided
Mom and Dad to let Schautzy sleep in the basement
and
be
allowed to come up in the kitchen and back porch. You could not
call Schautzy to come
into
the
dining room, living room or bedrooms unless there was a
thunderstorm when she would go in and want to climb up on your lap. We
finally let her sleep under the gas stove.
I
really can't
remember
where
Snoots slept. Maybe at the foot of my bed or outside. While they
were in the house they
maintained a sort of armed peace. Outside it was a different
story. Many a time the dog would chase the cat up a tree. We fed the
cat and
dog
on
different
sides
of
the
kitchen
and the dog finished first and went to see what the cat had.
Wrong thing
to do.
Cat
on dogs back scratching at his head and the dog made a bee line
for the back door.
It
was
summer
and
the screen
door was held shut by just a spring. The dog went out the door
with the cat still on his back, out to the neighbors front
porch
which had a space under it just high enough for the dog to clear.
She did but the cat didn't and went
rolling off the
dogs
back. The dog went out the other side of the porch and turned and
went after the cat. The cat went up a tree and you never saw a dog try
that hard to climb a tree.
I told you this was a mixed up mess. This part seems
to be more personal than general. Uncle
Max who lived next to us
separated
by
an
empty lot.
Uncle Max had an
empty lot on the other side of him and we had an empty lot on the
other side of us. This made up
3 empty
lots
and
2 with houses on them. Now Uncle Max had an old hound hunting dog
named Baldy.
Baldy and Schautzy were an inseparable pair. If one of them would bark
the other would be right there. They kept our yards free from stray
dogs
or cats or strangers. Schautzy would like to lie on the door mat
on the front porch while Baldy stayed in
a
fish
shanty
in Max's back yard. One summer day a salesman was going to knock
on our front door. He got to the top of the steps when he saw our
dog who started to bark. He finally decided not to go to the door
but by then it was too late,
Old
Baldy heard
the barking
and had come running and was standing at the foot of the steps
and growling.
The poor man I felt sorry for him. He couldn't go up because of a
big police dog and he couldn’t go down because of a large
growling hound. I don't know how long he
stayed there as Mother finally heard the dogs and went to see
what the commotion was about and
called
the
dogs
off.
She never did find out what the salesman wanted. One
summer evening I went to ride my bike in
the
woods across
the
street
from our house. As usual Schautzy tagged along. She would run
ahead of me behind me off to
the
sides of
me.
She was having a wonderful time. She was ahead of me and I saw
her stumble and fail.
She
wouldn't
come
when
I called.
I
went
over
to her and could tell she was dead. I picked her up and carried
her all the
home
in
my
arms.
I thought
I
would bawl my eyes out. We buried her out on some property Dad
had on the Grand Haven Rd. He talked to the Vet and he said Schautzy had
a heart attack Dad
thought he would like a pond in the backyard so
he built one. About 6 by 3 feet and around 3 feet deep. He lined
it with rocks about 6 inches in diameter
and
cemented
them in.
He
put
in
a pipe from the bottom of the pool
into the basement in order to drain the pool. We
brought water
lilies
from
the
cottage
near
Big Rapids
and
planted
them in the pool. Don't know where they came from but it wasn’t
long before we had frogs in the pond. Had
dime
store
gold
fish in the house and put them in the pool. In no time at all
they grew to 4 or 5 inches long. Checking
the pool
one
day
we
noticed
hundreds
and hundreds
of
baby
goldfish.
Needless
to
say
we kept the neighborhood well supplied with goldfish. I don't
know if you can
train
fish
or
not
but after fishing we had some still alive we put them in the
pool. Some
did survive. If you would take
a
worm
in
your
fingers
and
hold it just above the surface of the pool the fish would come up
and take it out of your fingers. After
Dad had died
our
friends
at
the
cottage
gave mother a male Spit
puppy she called Chum. Chum was white and more of a lap dog.
Somebody told us to put some bluing in the water for his bath and it
would make him pure white.
It
did but the Old Editor even at that early age thought if a little
would work what would a lot do.
Chum was in the wash tub
up to
his
belly
when
I put a lot of bluing in. You never saw such a beautiful dog.
From his belly down he was a deep blue.
From his belly up he was pure white. |
