"One thing, he was a good father
and he was so proud of all his kids. One time he took me to the Teff's farm
on some business when I was 7 or 8. I had high-top button shoes, and he told
them I could 'jig.' So I stood there and I tried to jig -- with no music or
anything -- my dad clapping his hands. (Laughs hard) I was so embarrassed!
"At Easter, he would hide the
eggs in the yeard, and we had a big yard -- corner lot. Only Joe, Dee Dee
and I were of the age to hunt for the eggs. It made a big impression on me --
in those days men didn't do those kind of things!
View from the cabin on Lake Julia.
"He liked to go fishing. Once,
when I was about 14, the (boat) motor was on the fritz so he talked me into
rowing for him at Lake Julia. 'We won't stay out there very long' -- those
were his words. We went after breakfast. I rowed and I rowed and I rowed.
The fish were biting, so we stayed out until about 4 PM, and I told my mom,
'I'm never going fishing with that man again!' -- and I didn't!
" Joe learned to swim by Dad
throwing him out of the boat. The kids all swam.
"Joe used to dress like he
just stepped out of a band box; his slacks fit so well. When Joe was in
high school and Dad would get rid of his old pants, Joe would wear them when
he got home from church. They were all worn out, held up by a scrap of
rope or something, and he looked just like a refugee! My sisters, especially
Leona and Marie, would say, 'Mom! Make him take off those pants!'
"Dad never spanked us -- that
was left up to Mom. But one look from him and you knew you'd better quit what
you were doing. One look was enough!
"Once, out at Lake Julia, Dad
got me in the car and said, 'Now you're going to drive to the store.' Not only
was the store a couple of miles away, but the worst of it was that from the
cottage to the main road was all hills and sand! I did quite good until we got
to the first hill -- which looked like a mountain to me -- and the motor
stopped. Dad restarted the car and told me to give it more gas. I begged, 'Oh,
Dad, you do it! You drive us there!' He said, 'No. You're going to
do it.' So I made it up that hill and I didn't kill the motor again!
"Dad, Rube,
and Al made a tin cupboard car for Joe. It had a front and a back seat, but
no roof or anything -- all open, except for doors. There was a brother and
sister, Pat and Maggie, who lived on a farm out of town -- our family just loved
them. So for some reason, when Mom would see Joe and I going anywhere in that
car, she's say, 'There goes Pat and Maggie!'
"There a lot of good stories of
growing up that are fun, pleasant memories. My dad lost everything when the
banks closed in 1930 -- he lost everything but the house. I never knew that
we were poor, because most everybody was. At this time it affected my dad's
health, I'm sure, and working with the fumes from the blacksmith and the garage
didn't help him any. It took everything out of him -- he lost more weight --
and he was skinny to start. Supposedly he had T.B., but my sister Marie, a nurse,
thought he had cancer. He was up to a sanitarium for T.B. patients in Walker, MN,
for treatment. It was bitter cold when he left. Everyone cried; Mom cried.
He was up there maybe a year, I'm not sure. He was so lonesome and didn't
like the place so he told Mom to come get him -- he couldn't stand it. I
remember going once to visit him. The sanitarium was all screened in, the food
was horrible and it was cold. So Mom and Uncle Paul (Dad's brother) went to get
him. He'd cough and he'd bring up this horrible stuff. They brought him back
in the winter and he lived until his birthday in April. Dad was in the one
room and Mom would sleep with him. She was a great believer in Lysol and fumigating
with sulfer. There was a stigma with T.B. We weren't shunned, but people
were afraid they'd get it. Dad was practially housebound, but when he'd go
out to the yard the neighbors would come over and talk to him.
"Mom was the one who loved to
play tricks. But here's a good one Dad got on the family. We were at Lake
Julia; Dad was already sick and weakened. It was night. There were kids camping
out there and Dad caught word that Joe was going with them to steal potatoes from
a nearby patch. Dad took a short cut to the patch, beat them there and hid
himself. He caught them in the act and in a loud, booming voice he roared,
'What's going on here?!' The kids took off running scared. This one kid --
six-foot-something -- cleared the barbed wire in one leap. But Nubbs (Norbert),
not as tall, didn't quite clear it and tore his best jeans. How Dad got home
first, I'll never know. Joe had figured out that it had been his dad and not
the potato farmer. Poor Nubbs kept begging, 'Mrs. Stimler, you've got
to fix these jeans -- they're the newest ones Auntie May bought me!'
"Dad got Joe a Shetland pony
named Topsy and Topsy had a foal, Oakie.
"My dad wan't a very big man; in fact,
he was skinny and 5'8" or 5'9" -- not much more than that. He was a very
good man, very honest. I don't know if he went to school -- maybe to the third
grade. I don't remember.
"My dad met my mom when he came
to Duelm to blacksmith. Dad stayed on the Brennan's farm, a mile or so from
my mom at her parent's farm. Dad always called Mom 'The Mrs.' They spoke German
to each other a lot, probably because they didn't want the kids to know what they
were saying! Their first home in Duelm was moved on sleds to Foley. Dad
worked as a blacksmith until he got the Ford Agency. When Joe was about 11
Dad would take him and a couple other guys, drive them down to Minneapolis,
and each would drive one of the new cars back to Foley. Joe had to look
through the steering wheel -- he was too short to see over it!
"I don't remember any of my
grandparents, but Grandma Kampa
came to live with us when Grandpa died and I was little. My dad was a very
giving person; he helped out a lot of family members."
