franksstory

In The Beginning....

My story starts on June 3, 1929. I was born just when we were getting into the Great Depression. My early days were affected by the shortage of money that was needed by a new family just starting out to build a home. My father was working for the Oliver Mining Company at the Spruce under ground mine in Eveleth. He worked as a contract miner with a partner. Their income was based on a set rate per ton less the cost of supplies they used. A hard working team could earn up to $10 per day which was a good wage at that time. The only benefits the employees had was medical. For $1.00 any member of the family could go to the clinic which covered the doctor and any drugs he prescribed.

For the first three years we lived in the upstairs apartment of the John Repar family. My uncle Tony lived in the basement of the same house. On February 7, 1931, my brother Anton (Bobby) was born. With the addition of another child the apartment was getting very small. My Grandfather (Jerry Znidarsic) had purchased a farm on Peary Road in Fayal Township and was moving the family to the farm. In early 1932 our family moved to 143 Spruce Hill, into the house vacated by my grandfather's family. The house had a kitchen, dining room, a small parlor, closed in front porch and one bedroom on the first floor. The upstairs had three bedrooms. The kitchen had running water but there was no bathroom. The toilet was an outhouse which was located by the barn in the backyard. We had no sewer system so the kitchen sink drained into the garden.

I remember that the garden used every part of the lot that was around the house. We had no lawn so lawn care was not a problem. The small space between the wooden sidewalk and the house was used for flowers. The garden was planted with lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, rutabagas, mangels, beets, beans, peas, and cucumbers. Potatoes and corn were planted on a plat of ground that employees of the Oliver Mining Company could use to plant crops that needed more space. The garden provided us with all the vegetables we needed. During August and September my mother canned many bottles of vegetables to provide food for the winter months. Mangels and undersize potatoes were cooked to feed the pigs which supplied us with meat, sausage and lard which was used for cooking and baking. The excess of an occasional venison was canned in glass jars.

The barn in the back yard was used to house several chickens and pigs. Wood for the stove was also stored in the barn. The chickens supplied the eggs we needed and also an occasional chicken dinner and soup. It seemed there was always a pot of soup cooking on the stove. Milk was purchased from neighbors that had cows. I remember taking the aluminum pail and twenty-five cents to pick up two quarts of milk each day. It was necessary to get fresh milk every day because we had no refrigeration to keep the milk from going sour. Boiling the milk would keep it from getting sour. Grocery shopping was done by telephone My mother would make a list that I brought to the neighbor who would call in the order which would be delivered by the store. Flour and sugar would be purchased in large quantities because mother would bake bread about three times a week. On those days we always had fried bread for supper. The grocer would always throw in a soup bone with a meat purchase. Hamburger was the most common meat purchase because it sold for two pounds for a quarter and could be used for so many different dishes with no waste.

Washing clothes was an all day task that was usually done on Monday. The washing machine consisted of a double platform with a wringer tower separating the two platforms which each held a washtub. One tub was filled with cold rinse water while the other tub held the hot soapy water and the scrub board. After rubbing the dirty article of clothing on the washboard the water was squeezed out with the hand cranked wringer and into the rinse water. After agitating the clothing in the rinse water it was run though the wringer several times to remove most of the water. The clothing was then hung on an outside clothes line. In winter the clothing would freeze but dried in spite of being frozen. All sheets and pillow cases were boiled to disinfect them before being run through the wringer. I believe using a bleach is now replacing this practice. I remember that my father purchased an electric washing machine for Christmas of 1933. The washing machine replaced the washboard and the hand wringer.

Sundays were a day for recreation. I remember we always went to church on Sunday and we didn?t do any work. My father always wore a suit and didn?t change to work clothes. We always went to the 8:30 mass because father sang in the choir. Winter provided cold weather for the outdoor skating rink. We could enjoy skating when the older boys weren't playing hockey. The older boys took care of the flooding and snow removal. Fishing was a family affair. The whole family would go to Whiteface Dam and fish from the shore. We brought lunch and had a picnic while fishing. During the summer many Sunday afternoons were spent swimming at Cedar Point on Ely Lake. It was an ideal place for children to swim because the water was shallow. Friends and family would get together a for an afternoon of singing and eating. Someone always had a button box to accompany the singing which included many old Slovenian melodies which we memorized. We also enjoyed going for a Sunday drive with the top down on my dad?s 1924 Buick touring car. I can still remember crossing Longyear Lake near Chisholm.

During 1932 my parents bought 40 acres of land located next to my grandpa's farm. The land was purchased from the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad with a contract for deed for ten years for annual payments of $40 and the stipulation that a home would be built within five years. My parents goal was to eventually move a house on the property and move to the farm. It would allow us more room and the plan was to have a place were we could have a cow. My father was raised on a farm in Slovenia and always had intentions to have a small farm where we could raise enough food for the family. During 1933 my father was able to purchase a house in the Village of Elcor for $50. The house had three rooms and measured 14 feet by 36 feet. Moving equipment was rented from the Ira Pocket House Movers and my father and several of his friends raised the house on the timbers and installed the rollers and necessary equipment for moving the house to our farm. My father was able to rent a caterpillar tractor and operator from the Town of Fayal. The total moving cost came to $500.

During the early nineteen thirties the mining companies cut back on iron ore production which resulted in the underground miner working five days per month. Fortunately my father had purchased a tractor, breaking plow and disk. In order to feed their families many people had to develop new land which required equipment to plow this land before it could be used for food production. My father's equipment provided him with custom work for small farms in the area which gave some financial help for the family. The reduced work for my father, uncle and his friends allowed them to spend time on the farm to prepare the house for occupancy. A well had to be dug and a cellar was needed under the house to store vegetables. A supply of wood was also needed for heat. My father was able to purchase a surplus building from the Oliver Mining Company which he and his friends dismantled and moved to the farm. This building provided a place where they could spend the night and do the necessary cooking of meals while they worked to prepare the farm for occupancy. Wild game was plentiful in the area to provide meat for their meals. Many stories were told of how each would take a turn at cooking and what they had prepared.

September 1934 I started kindergarten at the Franklin School in Eveleth. My neighbor Rudy Bezlay and I were playmates and because we were the same age we started school together. I remember that Rudy's older sister Anna took us to our school room on the first day. Some of the children in the class only attended for a half day. All the children who came to school by bus had to spend a full day in school. After lunch all the bus kids were taken to a darkened room equipped with cots to spend time resting. After resting we rejoined the "afternoon kids" "or the rest of day. Children in kindergarten thru the third grade finished class at 3:30 P. M. Those of us who rode the bus had to wait in the play room until 4:00 P. M. when the students in fourth, fifth, sixth, and high school kids finished at 4:00 P. M. The lower grade students who lived in town were bussed home at 3:30. I remember the Librarian supervised the students in the playroom until we got on the bus. We played games and sang songs to pass the time each day.

Moving to the farm

On September first of 1934 my grandfather informed my parents that the house we were renting had been sold and we would have to move by the end of the year because the new owners wanted to move in. My parents decided that soon after my brother was born we would make the move. My brother Ronald was born on October 2, 1934. It was decided that if we could move by the first of November the saving of two month's rent would pay for a new heating stove for the living room. During October my father would take a trailer load of our belongings to the farm each time he would go out to get the house ready. Because we didn't have a barn yet, my father and Uncle Tony butchered the pig and chickens before we moved. I remember that the last thing that had to be moved was the kitchen stove. It was a very heavy stove but it would be needed immediately when we moved. We were completely moved by the first of November.

After moving to the farm one of the first changes we found was that we would have to learn to live without electricity. Our source of light was a kerosene lamp that hung from the kitchen ceiling an a kerosene lamp that could be carried from room to room. We had a kerosene hurricane lamp that we used if we needed light outside. Another convenience we lost was running water. All the water we needed had to be pumped with a hand pump outside the house. A 12 quart pail with a dipper in it was our source of drinking water and was set on a stand in the kitchen. A teapot full of hot water was on the stove at all times to provide hot water for washing hands, dishes, cooking or any other need for hot water. Mother would have a fire in the kitchen stove from the time she woke up in the morning until she went to bed at night. It was the children's job to keep the wood box filled. In winter the kitchen stove provided most of the heat for the house. The stove in the living room was used for colder weather and for overnight heat because it had a larger fire box and held larger blocks of wood that burn for several hours before it had to be filled. Many times the fire would burn all the wood and go out during the night. The house would get quite cold and many times there would be ice on the water bucket in the morning. Mother or father would get up early in the morning to start a fire to warm up the house before the children got out of their warm bed. A pot of farina, oatmeal or corn meal was usually put on the stove so a breakfast of hot cereal would help to warm us on cold days.

When we moved to the farm my mother lost the use of the washing machine because it had an electric motor. Rather than wait to wash clothes on a designated wash day a few things would be washed every day. This made it necessary to have a copper boiler of water on the stove at all times. Keeping this boiler filled was a constant job because the water had to be pumped and brought into the house. The boiler was also the source of bathwater. We had a weekly bath in a washtub on the kitchen floor. The house had no plumbing so all of the waste water was taken out and dumped in the garden. After a year of washing clothes without a washing machine, my father purchased a gasoline engine that was made for washing machines. It was a Maytag engine designed for a Maytag washing machine. Because we had a Montgomery Ward washing machine the engine rotation was wrong and couldn't be changed. To remedy the problem my father mounted the engine on a wooden platform so the correct rotation could be achieved and made the wash machine usable again. In winter a long metal hose directed the engine exhaust outside. In summer the wash machine was kept outside.

Because we had no electricity the electric iron was useless. To iron clothes we had three irons that had a removable top that fit on all three bases. The three bases were kept on the wood stove to keep them heated. These irons were called "sad Irons" and were sure named appropriately. Later we purchased a gasoline iron that used white gas. It operated on the same principle as a blowtorch. I remember that it sure was an improvement over the "sad irons". I remember when an Aladdin Lamp was purchased. It had a fabric mantle that would give a white light which helped light up the entire room which made it a lot easier to read, play cards, and any activity we did. The light seemed to light up a room almost like daylight. Late in1939 my father purchased a wind generator and radio. The radio was powered by a six volt battery that was charged by the wind generator. The house had to be wired for six volt lights which gave us a 25 watt light in each room and the basement. We still had to depend on kerosene lamps because the battery power could not be sustained in windless periods.

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