Rotary Phone

Rotary Dial Phone

This was the NEW phone! Unlike the first Model A Fords that “came in any color you wanted, as long as it was black,” this phone came in one color – black. Our number was VI3-5516. It was a party line with five or six houses on the same line. Each house had its own number, but if someone on the line was talking you could pick up and listen in. The parties talking would hear a click when another phone on the line picked up so it was difficult to listen too long before they said something. We never did that though. [Grins]

The phone preceding that was used thru an Operator. You would pick up the handset, click the buttons a time or two, an operator would come on and say, “Operator.” You would then give her the number you wanted to call and she would make the connection.

 

 

My Aunt Ethel Delk was a telephone operator.

She and Uncle Ferd lived in Valley Falls, which was up the road a piece (about 30 minutes), or “up yonder.” Aunt Ethel had a huge salt and pepper shaker collection. Uncle Ferd removed a double door between the living room and dining room, framed it in, and added shelves so you could see her salt and pepper shakers from both sides. It was awesome.

Uncle Ferd, was a horse trader. He later became a used car dealer. Movin’ on up. I have the Smith & Wesson CTG .35 (.35 is read as 35 caliber) semi-automatic pistol he carried when he was trading horses. Interestingly, it cost $16.50 in 1913 and is currently worth about $450, which is about what it’s 1913 cost would be if corrected for inflation. Anyway, one day Dad and I were admiring it and decided we had to shoot it so we took it apart to clean and inspect for safety. We had it completely disassembled on the table when Mom walked by and made a snide remark about not being able to put it all back together without extra pieces. We did. No extra pieces. Then we went out to shoot it. Being a .35, finding ammo was impossible so we had to use the original shells that were with it. We set up a can about fifty feet out in the field, took careful aim and squeeeezed the trigger. There was a pitiful pop and the bullet literally fell out of the barrel and went about five feet. Guess the bullets were shot. [Grins]

Trading and Marbles

I was a master at trading stuff. I would take an old pocket knife to school and come home with marbles, rocks (cool rocks of course), comics, two pocket knives, or other junk. Mom and Dad easily found my collections of loot and told me to return it. When I explained that most of the stuff was the result of three or more trades between half a dozen kids they relented. They did make me stop though, or so they thought. Guess a career in sales was in my blood.

If I didn’t win marbles by trading I certainly did shooting them!  I had two steelies, one large and one small, which were just ball bearings, but I was a killer with them. Of course I wasn’t the only farm boy with access to ball bearings, but I was definitely the champ when it came to shootin’ marbles.

Before the farm sale, after Dad died, we found a bunch of marbles in the attic which were probably Uncle Herb’s. They were likely the most valuable thing being sold that day. The antique store owners came to the early walk-thru to evaluate the stuff they wanted and when the auction started three or four of them actually got into shoving matches and spilled several of the jars of marbles all over the floor. I ended up with a bunch of marbles that Tracey put on eBay, but I don’t think they were from the sale. One was a “Lutz.” Within a few minutes of listing it she got an offer to buy it immediately for $50. She refused. It ended up selling, after heated bidding, for $1,200!

Pole Vaulting

Being skinny and lanky I was not an athlete, although I did catch a line drive when pitching softball one time. Really pissed Stanley Hubbard off! Best day ever, but I digress. I did have a knack for pole vaulting. We had a pole vault pit at school that was filled with sawdust. The pole was aluminum; I think. After pleading my case to Dad; for a pit at home to practice at, he relented, but I had to dig the pit. I have forgotten where we got all of the sawdust. We built a box for setting the vault pole in out of 2×4’s. The stands were 2×2’s with 2×4 bases. We nailed 6 penny finish nails (two inches long) every inch for the cross-bar to rest on. The cross-bar and the pole were bamboo and the pole was wrapped with black tape between the bamboo ‘knuckles’ for grip. Obviously it did not bend. None of the poles from that era bent like they do today. I think my ‘record’ was 7’6”. Not bad for someone knee-high to a grasshopper.

First TV

The first TV we had was a Motorola with a round screen with the top and bottom flat. I think we got it in 1952.  It got all three stations, in black and white of course. We got a color TV a couple of years later. It probably had a whopping 18” screen. It had a remote that turned it on/off, changed channels/volume, etc…me.

Some of the shows we watched were; Gunsmoke – The Lone Ranger – The Mickey Mouse Club – Bonanza – Howdy Doody – Red Skelton – Have Gun Will Travel (the source of the quote on my business cards) – Loony Toons – American Bandstand – Ed Sullivan – The Cisco Kid (Oh Pancho, Oh Seeesco) – Disneyland – and, of course, Lassie, which was the fourth longest-running U.S. primetime television series after The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, and Law & Order. It was broadcast in black and white until 1965. (I always wanted a Lassie dog. I mean who wouldn’t? She would bark two or three times and Gramps would say something like, “Timmy’s fallen in the old well by the stand of Oak trees down by the south forty” – smart dog!). Then there was The Phantom. That show scared the BEEJESUS out of me! It was a mystery show and at the end of the show the screen would be black and this white phantom face would float around. I would hide behind the couch and peek over with just my eyes above the back of the couch. I have totally repressed what it said. Beejesus!

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus

Mom took MA and me out of school so we could watch the elephants set up the Big Top tent. I must have been 6 because Jennie wasn’t around yet which would make it 1952 or maybe 1951 because I don’t remember Mom being pregnant. I do, however, remember that we had a 1949 Plymouth at the time. Priorities you know. The circus was going to be in Lawrence where the fairgrounds are now. It was mind-blowing for me, but I don’t remember ever wanting to run away and join the circus. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey quit using elephants to set up the Big Top in 1956.

Chocolate Bars!

 Mom always had these HUGE chocolate bars in the cupboard. They were probably 4” x 10” at least.

Climbing the Windmill

The windmill was at Grandpa’s place. It was not a huge windmill as windmills go, but when one is five, huge is relative. It was huge. In reality it was probably thirty feet to the platform. Huge. The first horizontal rail was six feet off the ground. That’s where the ladder started. I had to climb up the cross braces (wires) to reach the first horizontal rail then work my way over to the ladder (remember, I was five). Then up! Man, you could see forever from the top! Of course I had been told not to climb the windmill and to stay away from the well when no one was around. Of course. It was sooo cool I had to tell Grandma, and she ratted on me! I didn’t get a lickin’ but did get a good scolding.

The well was eighty feet deep by four feet in diameter. It was lined with rocks so the actual inside diameter was about three feet. It was hand dug – eighty feet by hand. The water was clear, cold, and gooood.

 

 

 

 

This is the actual hand pump. (The story about the cattle chute in the background will come later.) The pump had to be primed so we kept a quart jar of water sitting by the pump. You poured the water in the top of the pump then pumped like crazy till the water came.

 

 

 

One of my chores, I was probably six, was to carry a bucket of water to the house that had no plumbing for drinking water. I had to straddle the bucket and hold the handle with both hands then do this straddle-legged-waddle to the house. It probably took three rest stops. It was a long way to the house! The water bucket sat on the counter by the door with a ladle in it to dip/drink from.

 

There was an underground cistern outside the screen porch that collected rain water for the toilet, tub, and sinks in the house. There was a hand pump inside that drew from the cistern for the kitchen sink.

Heater Vent Grates

There were grates in the floor of each room for the heat to rise up from below because there were no heat ducts in the walls. The furnace was in the basement and was originally coal then was switched to oil. The grates were basically just holes in the floor with dampers to control the air flow. There was a grate just inside Grandpa’s bedroom door that was right over the dining room table. I’d get sent off to bed, sneak into Grandpa’s room and spy on Grandma and Grandpa playing canasta at the table. I’m sure they knew, but I was quiet and not getting into trouble.

This was Grandma and Grandpa’s house. As far as I know, no-one ever used the front door. There was a chimney around the corner to the left. There was about a three inch gap between the top of the house and the chimney. I always suspected it was the house that was out of kilter and the chimney was straight.

I frequently got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s. There was this cool banister that I would slide down. There were five bedrooms upstairs. The master bedroom had this big four poster bed that Grandpa slept in. Grandma slept in a small twin bed in an adjoining room. It was just big enough for her bed and a closet full of paper-back books, mostly Zane Grey westerns, Agatha Christie mysteries, and National Geographic magazines. The story was that Grandma slept in her own room because Grandpa snored like crazy, and I can attest to that. The snoring that is. There was a fancy book case in Grandpa’s room that was full of hard back books. The bottom shelf had several Edgar Rice Burroughs books, including Tarzan of the Apes, The Land That Time Forgot, and some of his Mars books. There were also Jules Verne books, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, among others. Bear in mind that these were ALL first edition hard backs.

The other three bedrooms were for Dad, Aunt Virginia, and Aunt Betty. I usually slept in Aunt Betty’s room because it looked out at the barn and the big field. The ‘big field’ was forty acres and across the crick (not Mud crick – not sure if this crick had a name). More on the big field and the crick later.

Next time I’ll tell about the buffalo wallows and high-centering the Power Wagon.