Out of Gas

 OUT OF GAS

PHOTO: That's Red on the left. I don't know who the other fellow is.

 I don’t remember how old I was when this picture was taken but it reminded me of the time that my cousin Ralph Till and I were coming home one night in the winter time and we ran out of gas about one mile from his house.  I said to Ralph, I guess we are going to walk from here, and Ralph said no, we are going to ride. As he was removing the gasoline cap, I said how do you figure that? Ralph said get up here and pee in this gasoline tank.  Ralph had a 1929 model A Ford. The gasoline tank was above the engine and the gasoline was gravity feed.   Did you know that gasoline is lighter than water? Well it is. Anyway, in the bottom of the gas tank (all gas tanks back then) is a tube that sticks up about 1/4 inch or more, so we knew that we still had some gasoline in the tank. 

So... when we peed in the gasoline tank, the gas floated up to the top and the car started and we drove home.  The next day we removed the gasoline line from the bottom of the tank and drained out the water and gasoline and put in new gasoline.  

I remember having a lot of fun in this Model A, going to South Haven and parking on Main Street in front of the drug store, or as close as we could, and watching the girls go by.  Going down to the beach to go swimming after the movies.  One time when we were swimming off the south pier with Lester Schrantz and Louie Koslink, Louie got caught in the undertow and was sucked into a hole in the side of the pier. Ralph and Lester had to go down and get him. It’s a wonder they found him, let alone get him out.  He had swallowed some water but was all right. We were all scared so we went home, and as far as I know none of us ever told anyone about it.

PHOTOL-R: Louie Caslink, Ralph Till, Lester Schram, Richard Thomas

Summer at the Saddle Camp

 SUMMER AT THE SADDLE CAMP

When I was about 12 or 13 years old I worked one summer at Mr. Henry Meachum’s stable at Paw Paw lake across from the Pleasant View  bar and grill.  I lived in a one room building with only a small bed and a wash basin, and an outside toilet. I ate my meals at nearby restaurants and took my bath in Paw Paw lake. 

One day a lady and her daughter came for her daughter to ride. She was around 5 or 6 years old. I put her on one of our ponies named Queenie and took her across the road to a field that had a circle that the horses would walk around. I started Queenie going around and went back to the stable to do other things. Then I heard the mother screaming so I ran out to see what was wrong. The mother was pointing across the road, and I saw that Queenie had laid down and the little girl was just sitting there waiting for something to happen. I went over and made Queenie get up and started her going around again.  Again I went back to the stable and started doing other things, and soon I heard the mother yelling for me. Sure enough, Queenie had laid down again. This time she got up before I got to her. I started her going around again but this time I stayed until time was up for the ride. All this time the little girl thought this was just great, and only the mother was upset. 

There were a lot of summer camps for both girls and boys near Paw Paw lake that came over to ride, so I got to meet a lot of nice girls. 

The first day after we unloaded all the horses two other boys and I decided to go for a ride. I picked this Texas pony because he was wild and needed to be ridden to settle him down so we could use him with other people.  We went down the road a mile or so and stopped to adjust the saddles, but when I went to get back on the pony started turning around and around. Finally he got away from me and he went back to the stable without me.  When I got back to the stable I sure was embarrassed. I had lost my horse the first day on the job. I got back on him and just he and I went for a long hard ride. When we got back to the stable he sure was tired and was not acting wild any more. 

I got to go home one night a week to get clean clothes and other things.  Needless to say, this sure was a fun summer. 

PHOTO: I don't know who the people are in this photo. It was among a group of pictures that came from Aunt Renue, mostly of people I can't identify.

Pony at Hartford Fair

 PONY AT HARTFORD FAIR

These are the only pictures I have of Dad riding a horse as a child

One year I had a pony from Mr. Bill Shepherd. Sometimes he would let someone like us keep a pony for the fall and winter to ride. This saved them feeding that pony through the winter. Her name was Queenie.

I always had a pony at the Hartford Fair.  Some times I would have one from Don Chidester or from Bill Shepherd.  One year I had one from each.  I would sleep in the horse barn all during the fair. All the Hartford School kids were given the week off. The school authorities started that because of the 4H and because most kids stayed out of school anyway. My mother worked at the Methodist church tent so she would check on me each day before she went home.  

PHOTO: This is just a picture I lifted from the Van Buren County Youth Fair FB page.

One time one of the ponies was from Texas and was kind of wild. I was riding him around in the race track infield when the bridle broke and the bit fell out, so the pony took off for the barn on a dead run.  My cousin Junior Till had his pulling team there and saw what was happening and ran his team out in front of the pony. The pony stopped, but I did not. Fortunately, I was not hurt.  

My cousin Ralph Till was at the fair the next day and said that he could ride that pony. When he got on the pony it began to buck and rear up, and one time the pony fell over backwards and almost fell on Ralph.  

Dad still loved to ride horses, even after he was a grown man.

Paper Route

 PAPER ROUTE

While we lived in the Carette house I got a job delivering show bills. This was a piece of paper about the size of 3” x 4” that advertised the upcoming movies for the month. We would go from door to door delivering them in Hartford, Watervliet, Bangor and Lawrence.  I got a free pass to the movie every time it changed, so I went to the show any time I wanted.

I remember when we wanted to roller skate we would all meet at the bank in Hartford because they had put in all new concrete and it was very smooth, but the people coming in and out of the bank were sometimes unhappy with us.

In the spring of 1948 I purchased a paper route of about 30 customers. At that time there were four paper routes in Hartford.  Vernon Austin had one of the other routes so he suggested we buy out the other routes and split the town in half, so we did.  That fall I sold the paper route so I could go out for cheer leading for the JV football team. 

Sixth Grade Class

 SIXTH GRADE CLASS

This is my sixth grade class May 10, 1946.

Back Row left to right: Laquida Fillmore, Peggy Parker, Dolores Frontczak, Badrara Fritchie, Luan Keech, Dolores Brown, Bob Myrich,  Bill Rinehart, Donald Boniface. Next Row down: Ruth Hough, Joan Cleary, Donna Arnold, Harriet Hoyt, ___ ___? Wally Haight, Charles Darkowski, Andrew Parasicandolo Jr, Mrs. Lois Righter Next Row down: Sheila Rowley, Barbara Burger, Joyce McConnel, ? Moorsaw, Helsen Dyer, Evelyn Brown, ? Yeats. Front Row: Richard (Red) Thomas, Billy Hough, Harry Tibbitts, Richard Yeats, Jack Minshall, ____ ____?    

[Author’s note: Twenty years later, Mrs. Lois Righter was also my sixth grade teacher.]

 

Carette House

 CARETTE HOUSE

We lived in the Carette house on the east side of Hartford when I was 12,13, and 14 years old. This was the first house I remember having an inside bath room with a tub. It sure was nice.  When you went upstairs there was a hallway that led to a bedroom but in one wall was a built in twin size bed. This was my bed until my brother Bernarde got married and I got the bedroom. 

PHOTO: Bernarde and Eileen Thomas

This place had a two car garage. It also had an out building where we stored our bats and balls, because we had a big corner lot that all the kids from that end of town played ball on.  It was also used by one of our neighbors to train the dogs that they used at the circus. This was a Hartford Circus act that called themselves “The Happy Harrison Merry Makers” and were literally a dog and pony show.  

PHOTO: Richard Thomas

Stuck on the Barn Roof

 STUCK ON THE BARN ROOF 

This story is about the time I got stuck on the barn roof.  I was about 12 or so and we lived on the Straight place.  We had a silo next to the barn so I climbed up the silo and put a board across to the barn and went across.  That was OK. However, when I went to go back across, the board would always slip to the point it would fall off. Soooo... 

I sat on the barn roof for a long time trying to figure out how I was going to get back across.  I was home all alone.  I knew that when Mother got home she would be mad and hysterical. And she couldn't climb up the silo to help, so I figured she would call the fire department.  

Well, I decided that I would go across this time even if I fall.  Smart, huh? As you know, I did not fall and all was well. I never told Mother of this adventure until after I had been married several years. Even then, she got pretty huffy about it.

World War II Ended

 WORLD WAR II ENDED

PHOTO: Bernarde's 17th birthday, August 1944. (L-R) Richard Thomas, Bernarde Thomas, Robert Goodrich, Christie Thomas, John Robertson, Bill Thomas, Russel Kime, Bud Davis,  Bill Galbreath

One of the memories of my childhood was during World War II, when the Hartford fair grounds was a prisoner of war camp. I remember going down to the fair grounds and watching the prisoners and the American guards in the guard towers on the corners. I was amazed and somewhat scared because the prisoners had their German uniforms on.

During the war everything was rationed - gas, tires, sugar, meat and most other things. Everyone with an automobile was given an “A” sticker and a book of ration stamps. An “A” stamp was good for three gallons of gas a week.  If you needed your automobile for work, you could apply for a “C” ration and if you were a student who needed to drive to school you could apply for a “B” ration.

World War II ended while we lived here and I remember the night we heard the news on the radio, my dad got out his old shot gun and fired it two times in the air.  We could hear people going to town honking their horns so we got in the car and also went to town where we found people driving up and down main street honking their horns and yelling at each other.  Every one was so happy that the war was over.  My brother Bernarde had just gone into the army and was soon shipped overseas to Japan as part of the occupation force. 

Hunting Dog

 HUNTING DOG

PHOTO: Richard and Boots (this is not the hunting dog in the story)

We had a good hunting dog but he was kind of unusual because when he was hunting alone and was on the other side of the railroad tracks and a train was coming he would head for home. One time he didn’t make it and was killed by the train. 

I remember the time that mother and I went to town to get some feed for our cow at Makilies Coal and Feed Store, we took our little dog Boots with us. Later that evening we noticed that Boots was nowhere to be found so we decided we would go down to the feed store and look for her. As we stopped the car, dad called for her and here she came running. I sure was glad to see her. We went from there to Bangor because Uncle George was dying. 

PHOTO: Boots

PHOTO L-R: Uncle George, Christie, Bill behind Richard, Aunt Kate in front (Uncle George's wife), Harry Wieland, "Mabel and Bill" (I don't know who they are, possibly Harry's sister and her husband). Aunt Kate was a sister of Bill's mother, Nancy Ford.

We had an old Willys car. I remember that in the center of the steering wheel was a button about 2” around, and if you pushed it the horn would blow, if you turned it the head lights would come on, and if you pulled out on it the car started. 

PHOTO: I don't know if this is a Willys car or not. That's Richard on the left. I don't know who the other guys are.

Back to Red's memoirs

[This is a photo of "Straight House" -- I assume it's the house that now sits where Red's memoirs say they lived on "the Straight farm".]

Red:

When we lived here I had to walk down our long drive way about ¼ of a mile to a paved road where I got the school bus to school in Hartford. This picture is how the school looked at that time. 

This is also the place we lived when my cousin Ralph Till shot at me with the 410 shot gun. We were having an argument about something and he said he was going to shoot me, so I took off for the barn.  He waited until I had reached the barn before he shot and hit the barn door just after I went through it.  I remember lots of things about this place.

PHOTO: Ralph Till

My cousin Ralph lived with us a lot in the summer time and one year when the fair was on we walked down the rail road tracks to the fair grounds and jumped the back fence to get in the fair. We spent the day there and walked home that evening the same way.  

One summer Ralph and I  took the Train to St. Joseph where the Silver Beach Amusement Park was and went on all the rides. We each had $2.50 to eat on and ride the rides and it was enough. 

 When I was 10 or 12 years old I would hitchhike from Hartford to Ralph's over by South Haven. Most of the people that came along knew me so I would get picked up but some times the rides were short.  I always had to walk from the Jericho store to where Ralph lived, about 2 miles. 

My cousin Ralph recently reminded me of the time he and I went flour sacking.  This is when you would fill an old flour sack with straw, and tie a string to it and lay it on the shoulder of the road.  Of course this was when we lived in the country. Back then a lot of the older cars had fenders and there was a space between the fender and the hood, and people would lay their sack of flour on the fender. Well we would lay the flour sack along side of the road, lay the string from the flour sack to the ditch or a bush, something to hide us. We would then cover the string with dirt and wait for someone to stop to pick up the flour sack. Just as they were about to pick it up we would pull the string and the flour sack would jump away and that would scare the people. Most of the time the people would laugh but some times the people would get real mad and cuss us out. My brother Bernarde and some of his friends also did this years before we did. 

PHOTO: Louie Caslink, Ralph Till, Lester Schram, Richard Thomas

PHOTO L-R: Ray Treat, Christie and Bill Thomas, Ralph Till, Massie Treat, John Treat, Mabel Treat (back), Bernarde and Richard Thomas

[Massie was the mother of Ray, Christie, and John. Mabel was John's wife. Ralph was the son of Massie's other daughter Madge Till (not pictured).]

Red had two cousins who were as close as brothers -- Ralph Till and Jack Treat (son of John and Mabel).

PHOTOS: Ralph Till and Jack Treat

(pictures from their obituaries)