[00:00:00] Speaker A: My daddy bought me a go kart to drive to school, and I remember like it was yesterday, the first day I drove it.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Welcome to Golden Tidbits, the podcast where we explore the rich lives of everyday people, but with a unique twist. Each of our guests brings at least 70 years of life experience, with most having over 75. Together, we'll journey through their childhoods, friendships, education, and family dynamics. We'll travel down memory lane, twist through nostalgia, and arrive at a bygone era. Not all of these stories will be seen through rose colored glasses, but they're always real, honest, and deeply human. Something we could all use a little bit more of in our modern times. I'm your host, Molly B. Let's dive into today's episode.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: So you are your. Ed. Eddie. Edward.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Ed.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: What did your mother call you?
[00:01:14] Speaker A: She used to call me Eddie.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Eddie. Okay. Did your friends call you that as well, or Ed. Ed. Everybody called you Ed but mother. What about father?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: He called me Ed.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Okay, wow. So just mom called you Eddie. That's nice. I like that. And where would you say you grew up?
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Fruitdale.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Fruitdale, South Dakota.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Grew up on a farm in Fruitdale.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Okay. And so how many you are? You are pretty young. How many years of life experience do you have?
[00:01:48] Speaker A: 70. 73.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: 73. Young spring chicken.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Too bad we don't have video. We really should. Okay, so 73 years old. So that means you were born in what year?
[00:02:04] Speaker A: 50? 119.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: 51. Okay. So really, really very young.
How many children were in your family?
[00:02:13] Speaker A: May. And two sisters. I was the youngest.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Okay. And you had two older sisters?
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: That must have been challenging, just having sisters.
No, really, they were nice sisters.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:28] Speaker C: All right, all right.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: I knew how to handle them.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Okay.
That's awesome. So I always, you know, I grew up in Newell, and I always just loved coming home. Like, you know, you always wanted to go to town. That was exciting, you know, going to town, but coming home after a long day and that feeling you got when you got close to the driveway, I just cannot. Some people, I just don't think understand it. So I want you to tell me about, you know, coming into your driveway and, like, what did your house look like? Where did you live? What. What was the. What was that all about?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Well, our house was very small.
It had two bedrooms. Mom and dad slept in one upstairs, very little, and two sisters and me slept in the other one upstairs.
And it was very small. We couldn't rearrange our beds. They'd only fit one way until we got a little older. And then dad built on two more bedrooms, and then we kind of all split up a little bit.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: Okay. And so how old were your sisters in comparison to you? Like, what were the ages there?
[00:03:40] Speaker A: One sister was one year older, and the other sister was three years older.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: And then by the time you came along, they had gotten it perfect, and they didn't need any more kids.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: Okay. So did you have. Did you have plumbing and electricity and all of those kinds of things?
[00:04:04] Speaker A: We had electricity, but we didn't have running water until I was eight years old.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: Okay. So, gosh, that was pretty close to almost this 1960 then.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Okay. That you. That you finally had. So did you have an outhouse then?
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Oh, I have great questions about outhouses.
And what about a telephone?
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Yeah, we did have a phone when I was young, that I can remember.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: Okay. So probably had. Do you think you had a telephone before you had running water? Uh, not sure.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: I'm not sure. Don't remember.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: How did you guys heat your house.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: With, uh, one kerosene stove in the living room. And the bedrooms were extremely cold in the winter time, there would be ice a half inch thick all on the inside of the window. Cause it would be so cold up there.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: Wow. And so you just had that one heater, and if the heat didn't come through the floor, it was that cold?
[00:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: How come you didn't sleep in the living room then?
[00:05:14] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Did you? So what about washing and drying clothes?
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Well, mom washed them by hand, and we had to carry the water in the house from the well out in the corral where the well.
And when we took baths, mom had a big tub, and the older sister took a bath first, and the younger sister, the next younger, took her bath, and then I was always last to take a bathe.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: You know, that's so fascinating because someone else, they. It was the youngest got to go first. But I'm thinking that they picked on you because you were a boy, probably.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Because I was a boy, and boys thought I was the dirtiest.
[00:06:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I suppose. Well, you were probably doing all the.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Work and all the towels.
[00:06:15] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
So you did. Was that just like, what, one of those big tubs, like those silver tubs?
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And that's it. Was that in the kitchen that you set that up? I think for people in my generation, this is just fascinating because, you know, there's always been a bathtub. There's always been running water. And so, you know, even the little details, it's like, wait a minute. How did that work. So you took a tub, you set it in on the floor, you brought water in. I mean, these are all interesting.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: In the summertime, though, dad built. He had a 55 gallon drum, and they built a stand for it probably 8ft tall.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: Mm hmm.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Beside the car garage. And then he put canvas around it, and we took showers out there in the summertime because the sun would heat the water.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: Oh, perfect. So then the gal. The 55 gallon drum got water. Or, I mean, excuse me. Sun on it. And then it would be a warm shower.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:13] Speaker C: Did your mother do that, too, or just the.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we all.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Everybody use that.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I remember he climbing up the ladder with a five gallon pail and filling that barrel.
[00:07:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: And then it had a pipe with a spigot on it, and then we just pulled a lever and it showered. Just like a regular shower.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Right. Wow, that's so. Oh, that's so cool. I love that. Upstairs in your house, you had the two bedrooms. And then downstairs, presumably, you just had a kitchen and a living room.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: That was the house. There was a porch. And a porch. Okay. And then later on, your dad added more, but that was. That was years down. What was your mother's role in your household?
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Well, she was basically, she didn't work until.
I don't know, I guess I was a sophomore in high school, and then she started working at the bank.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: But until then, she would just cook, getting gardening, you know, just doing the farm chores.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: And so you lived in Fruitdale, which technically is a town, but you guys kind of had like a farm there.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: We were 1 mile out of town.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: 1 mile out. Okay. And so you had some acres. How much land do you think you had? Do you know?
[00:08:32] Speaker A: We had 180 acres on our farm. And then we farmed the Clarkson place.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: And then another place near Fruitdale, the Stearns. So we farmed several places.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: And, okay, so you had your own place, and then you kind of did some sort of an agreement with the other ones. What was your father's role then? Presumably farming.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: That was it.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: What kind of farming did, was it mostly plants or did you have livestock or some abortion?
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Well, we had livestock. We had 400 head of yearlings, 100 head of cows that we calved every year, and 15 milk cows we had to milk before I walked to grade school in Fruitdale.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: Wow, 15, that's a lot. And, I mean, I'm assuming you were doing it by hand like we did.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Until I was 7th grader. And then dad bought milking machines and then we started cutting down on.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: So you made it easier and you cut back.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah. As we were getting older, we didn't want to spend our time milking cow.
[00:09:41] Speaker C: Right, right. With that 15 milk cows, did you guys use all of that, or were you selling some?
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Oh, we sell it.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: We separate it. Sell cream.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Okay. And so I guess your mother would have helped with some of that.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: So grocery money.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. So you guys were. I mean, you were doing all sorts of different things and moving parts. I'll have more questions about that farm stuff then. Can you tell me about when you got new stuff? So when you got clothes, when you got shoes, when you got school supplies, what did that look like?
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Oh, it was. It was fun because we would go to rapid city once a year and shop before school started. And that was fun.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Mm hmm. Yeah.
Especially if it was once a year.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: So you got new shoes, you'd go to the store, and you'd get bought in clothes.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, I think. I think probably in that time, it probably handmade clothes were falling a little bit, you know?
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, they were. Grandma used to make some, but she was getting old enough, and we were buying enough that she kind of quit that.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think the price of clothes probably came down a bit, and the access, you know, you're probably. It was probably easier to get to rapid than it was.
Did your parents ever go on a date or leave you with a babysitter?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Yes. A lot.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: Really?
[00:11:07] Speaker A: It seemed like almost every weekend they would go play cards. The neighbors would all get together and take turns at their houses.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: And we had a baby sitter. A lot of times it would be Sandy Larson. I don't know. Her dad was some kind of government official or something. But I remember one time, it was New Year's Eve, and she was babysitting us, and it come to be midnight, and she had a big to do a saying, and she went over to the wall where the calendar was on the wall, and she took the old calendar off the wall and said some kind of to do, and threw it out in the yard and hung the new one up. And it was so funny, we laughed.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: That was the babysitter?
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: And you don't know what she said. She just, like, kind of had some sort of thing. Oh, that's awesome. So she was your primary babysitter. That's exciting. You're. You know, there's not a lot. I haven't heard a lot of date parents and dating stories. I like that.
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[00:12:34] Speaker C: That's right.
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[00:12:58] Speaker C: Okay, well, so do you remember the neighbors, or could you tell me about maybe some of your friends and people who were around that you would have talked to or acquainted with?
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Well, yeah, we knew all of the neighbors, you know, all the way to Belle Fouche. I mean, you know, they named all of the roads after them. There were no names of roads back in those days. But then right after I left, they started naming them, you know, Cobland, Herber Lane.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: Right, right. They did the same thing. You know, I remember as well. I guess it was a rural route when I was a kid, you know, they called them rural route.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. We had mailbox and Fruitdale post office, box 23, and that was our address.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: Mm hmm. Yeah. Right, right. And they. Do they still have a post office there, I wonder?
[00:13:46] Speaker A: No.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: So how big was Fruitdale, do you think, when you were a kid?
[00:13:51] Speaker A: 64. And it's. To this day, it's 64 according to their time, people.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: So there's not much has changed, huh?
So what kind of games did you play with your friends or what kind of toys did you play? Play with?
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Well, I remember being real little in the house.
We had geese on the farm, and when they had little babies for Christmas, I got a corral and a truck, like a baby cattle truck, and I would bring them in the house and play with them.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: The little baby geese.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah, in the corral. And then I'd run them up to loading chute and haul them around in the truck, and they became pets, and I named them. And mom that year could not butcher the geese. You know, she always butchered them, and we ate them through the year, but she couldn't. She had to give those away because they were our pets.
[00:14:50] Speaker C: Oh, I love that. I have, you know, I have nephews that we've given corrals to, and we've given toys like that to, and never have I heard a story of them, you know, bringing in the livestock to go with it.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: It was fun.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: Do you remember their names, the geese?
[00:15:06] Speaker A: No, I don't. All I remember is them coming. When I'd unload them, they would come down, they'd slide down the chute and the bar, across the chute. They would hit their neck on it, and then flip them over backwards.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
That is so funny. Oh, my gosh.
Okay, so we talked a little bit about the chores you were responsible for, but I wanted to dive into that a little bit more. So you said you milked cows, and I'm assuming you did all sorts of things, and I just kind of wanted to.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I learned to drive a tractor when I was eight years old, and I was out farming with the tractor because the Clarkson place was 5 miles away from our farm, and to drive the tractor all the way down the roads, and we raised sugar beets, okay. Until the sugar factory closed down in 1964.
And then we started raising navy white beans.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Instead of that.
And we had to truck them to Turrington, Wyoming.
And I was 14 years old then. And I would follow my uncle, or else my dad, they would take a truck, and I'd be a truck behind them, and we'd go all the way to Turnton. 14 years old. I had a farm permit.
[00:16:35] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: And that was legal.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: Right. See, and now I think you can only. I think a farm permit, now, isn't it, like 100 miles or 50 miles? So. So maybe they changed that.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Cause they had 14 year olds running around permits.
You know, they had to be home, like, 07:00 and they couldn't go more than 50 miles.
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: So in high school, you know, come the time they had to quit driving, I drove around and picked up all my friends because I could drive all that long.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: Right, right. That is. You were probably naughty.
Did you have irrigation? Was it irrigated over there?
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. We had the Belfouche river, the Redwater, and, you know, the Clarkson place, we pumped out of the Belle Fouche river. And, yeah, we were setting water all the time.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: Right, right, yeah. You knew about real work and constant. You know, you have to constantly babysit that water.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Yep. And we had siphon tubes on the Clarkson place because it was real sandy and a head of water, we had to set, like, 125 inch tubes when we were raising sugar beets, corn. We had raised, used two inch tubes.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: And then I guess to keep that many cattle or that many yearlings, you put up a lot of hay, or did you?
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, a lot of hay. Cornfields.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Rain.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Wow. That was quite an operation because that's a lot of, I mean, you know, 100 cows alone. Calving is a lot. And then adding on these yearlings, so that was.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Your dad liked to work and, yeah, when the cows were ready to calves, you know, dad would go out and pick out the ones that he was pretty sure they're going to calve that night, and we had to put him in a special pen, and then he would go out at 230 in the morning, and if they were having issues, then he would get me to help pull calves because we did a lot of that, too.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: Right, right. Yeah. My dad would always try to pick cattle that he felt were like breeds that were going to be better at, you know, having their own calves. And it was. He hated this black Angus stuff. Oh, he would get mad. He'd say, how do they know that it wasn't red fur on the outside of it when they eat that burger?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we raised a few Angus. We didn't have Anguse. We were Herefords. And, yeah, when we butcher, it was always Hereford. Hereford was always better meat than Angus.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Yeah, but I mean, you can't. You can't explain that to the marketing people.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: No.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: Now it's.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Oh, but it's the adrenaline that makes a difference. And Angus is a little more wild. You know, they get nervous and their adrenaline when you haul them to the butcher shop where a Hereford doesn't do that. And that's what I was told by people.
[00:19:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure that that's accurate because there's. I mean, now they've got a lot of science around it, and that's why they have those butcher places so friendly anymore, you know, because they found it ruins the meat.
Huh. Wow. I am kind of wondering about harvesting and what this harvesting meal means.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Well, when we harvest, like sugar beets and stuff, my uncles, cousins, there would be many of us that would do our place, and then we'd go do their place.
And mom stayed home and cooked because all of these people were there. And every day was like Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, it was awesome. She was a good cook.
[00:20:21] Speaker C: And all harvest, you basically go from farm to farm, and you'd also get this giant meal at the end of every day.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yep, every day.
[00:20:28] Speaker C: And so how many thanksgivings in a row did you think you had?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Oh, many, many.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Tell me about the meals that you, or the food that you had. What were the actual dishes?
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Oh, it was always potatoes and meat that we raised and desserts, you know, pies, cakes.
I mean, it was the full meal deal.
[00:20:51] Speaker C: Wow. Every day?
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: And how long did that go on?
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Oh, probably, I don't know. August through October.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: Seriously?
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Oh, wow. She was making that many pies. I was thinking, like a week.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, we would do our place for a couple weeks and then go to uncle's place. You know, they lived in our pan and.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Yeah, really close then.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Different places, different farms.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: Unless you're walking, then it seems like it's forever.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:23] Speaker C: That's so funny. Oh, my gosh.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: If you find value in this show, you can support by leaving a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Even better, you can tell a friend.
[00:21:39] Speaker C: Okay, so, as a family, what did you do for entertainment? Or as an individual, what did you do for entertainment?
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Oh, just drove around in my car with my high school classmates.
[00:21:52] Speaker C: Did you. How'd you buy gas?
[00:21:55] Speaker A: I didn't have to buy gas. My wages on the farm were $5 a week. And then plus all of the gas I. Cause we had a bulk tank for the equipment.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: And I was allowed to just use gas out of there.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: No wonder you were driving all around, because you had that permit and you had unlimited gas. You were the kid everybody was wanting to jump in with.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. I can imagine with unlimited gas how much trouble you'd have been getting into, huh?
[00:22:28] Speaker A: And we go to dances, you know, like in high school, Spearfish had a Friday night at the pavilion. Every night or Friday night, like at the Trethaway pavilion. Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: And, you know, really good bands.
[00:22:41] Speaker C: And so then. And so that was for youth. Youth could go to that.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. My dad used to dance a lot, you know, back in the day. And he did miss that a lot, you know? Cause he said that nobody dances anymore.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: I didn't know how to dance, but I pretended.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Sure. And everybody liked you. Cause you had the fuel.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: It was so busy and crowded that nobody knew anything different.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: That's fabulous.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh. So did you. So then, as a family, did you travel? Did you ever take any vacations as a family?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: No.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: Probably had to stay close to that farm.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Oldest. Yep. When my oldest sister went to college in Kansas City, that was the first time, basically, I left home, and we went down there and. And visited her. And then my uncle, that was taking care of all the livestock and stuff, he called my dad and said, you better get ed home. So that's the first time I got on an airplane and flew home to help him. Because my uncle, his farm was next to ours.
[00:23:50] Speaker C: Mm hmm. Did you. What about school? Is there. Was there a country school there or was there a regular school?
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Country school, first through 8th grade.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: And I had to walk a mile to begin with. And then, I don't know, I think when I was in fourth grade, my daddy bought me a go kart to drive to school.
And I remember, like it was yesterday, the first day, I drove it up there and parked it where all the bicycles were from the other kids. And the teacher come out and she says, now, Eddie, you can drive that go kart to and from school, but you can't drive it during recess.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: She knew you. She had met you.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: She knew me.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Could do well.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: And then we would walk to my grandma's house. Cause my grandma was only two blocks away, you know.
[00:24:42] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: And we would eat. She would feed us lunch every day. And many times it was chicken noodle soup. She made the best chicken noodle soup. And it would be blistering hot. We only had a half hour lunch break, right. And we would put an ice cube in it to cool it down. And if she caught us doing that, she says, now, you guys quit that. You're gonna ruin that chicken noodle soup.
[00:25:08] Speaker C: You were. You were gonna water it down.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:11] Speaker C: She had seasoned it to perfection.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: She did. It was awesome.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: That's so great. Anybody else ever make it as good as that? No.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: That's a bummer because it had butter balls, too.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: Oh.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: You know, she was german.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. So it was really. It was something you probably don't ever see.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Well, Linda makes it, and she's gotten pretty good at it.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: I think there's some nostalgia that makes things taste good, too, you know? I think there's just that peace and you just can't reconcile it.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: What about. So tell me more about school. So you went to the country school then in Fruitdale or the small school, I guess it would be 8th grade.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: And the funny part about it was my first through fourth grade teacher. Her name was Nanny Ward. I volunteered at the heritage museum. And one lady was retired from grade teacher. And she asked me, I bet you don't know your first grade teacher's name. And I says, nanny Ward. She says, how do you remember that? She about fell on the floor. And I says, well, she taught my mom in the same school, so she was well experienced. My mom went there and nanny Ward was.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: But how could you forget her name? She was your teacher for four years, right?
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah, but that was many years ago.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: Well, I know, but I remember my kindergarten, first grade teachers just like that.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: I mean, but I guess I've got a. You've got a couple years on me. Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Then I went to high school in Belle Foosh.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: Okay. And did they. So did they bus you into town?
[00:26:46] Speaker A: No, we drove.
[00:26:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: My own car.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: Okay. Wow. And so that. So you act. Did you graduate from high school in Belle Fouche then?
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: A bronc then.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: It was bronc back then, I'd assume.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I played football and I went out for basketball.
And the two coaches, the third practice that I was at, they took me over in a corner and they said, ed, don't you have some corn and fruit, Dale, that you need water? And I says, I can take a hint.
I walked up because I couldn't shoot. I couldn't shoot. I couldn't dribble.
But I was a good football player.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: But you were good football player?
[00:27:34] Speaker A: I was strong.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: What did you. So what did you play? What?
[00:27:39] Speaker A: I was a tackle.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: A tackle. Okay.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: And when we played Rapid City, we tied them. And John Dutton that played for the Dallas Cowboys forever, you know, he was a very popular guy.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: Uh huh.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: He was on the team. I played against him.
[00:27:54] Speaker C: Really? He was on Rapids team.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Wow. I see. And Belle, I don't think plays rapid anymore at all. I think they're in different divisions, aren't they? I'd have to look into it.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I have no idea. I lost track.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I can't keep up on that stuff either. Wow, that's so interesting. Did you ever have a time in school where you maybe did something mischievous and you got in trouble and can you maybe remember anything like that?
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Not that I remember.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: What kind of a student were you? Were you a good student or a get by student?
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Oh, I was average. Just average read wise.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Did. So how did Bell's lunch work back then? Because, you know, in fruitdale, you said you went to your grandma's house. Did you have to take a lunch or.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: No, they had a lunch there.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: Okay. So then it was you were into the more of the modern, where lunch is part of school.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: And mom and dad give us money, lunch money.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: Mm hmm. Did you ever. So if you didn't get in trouble at school, did you ever get in trouble at home?
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Oh, no. They were pretty lenient.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: Really?
[00:28:59] Speaker A: Dad was pretty lenient. You know, as long as I got my work done, he left me alone, you know, I didn't have a curfew, and he always said, as long as you're home before we have to milk cows in the morning and you get your chores done, I'm not gonna give you time.
[00:29:16] Speaker C: And did you feel that. That because of all the responsibility you had that you were given that respect and that. That. How do you think that shaped you? Or what do you. What do you think about that?
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Made me respect everything and. Yeah, it made me feel real good, and I'm glad I grew up that way.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Right, right. I kind of think that we don't give enough freedom anymore. And, you know, I mean, your. Your parents obviously relied on you heavily to help make sure that that farm was operating, and then they also gave you the freedom and the respect that you'd give to someone that you relied on. And I think it sounds like you took it seriously.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I did. You know, I had to. I knew I'd get in trouble if I wasn't respectful.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: But you were respectful back and.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: You know, yeah, that's really. I think that's awesome, because I think some of the growth of our nation gets stunted by overprotective parents. Yeah. Something bad can happen, but something bad can happen anyways, you know?
[00:30:13] Speaker B: So, yeah, if you find value in the show, you can give your support by leaving a one time donation to help cover the cost of hosting and equipment. Find the link on our website at goldentidbits dot castos.com. that's goldentidbits, castos, castos.com, or in the show notes.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: Okay, so how did you keep in touch with people? How did you get information?
How did. How did that stuff flow?
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know.
We had a party line at home, and I always listened to my neighbor when he talked to his girlfriend.
Learn about girls.
[00:31:03] Speaker C: Now, did your neighbor know you were listening?
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Well, once in a while he. Yeah, when you pick it up, it would click. And there's a couple times he drove over. It was. He was only half a mile, and he come beating on the door and he. Don't you ever do that again, Ed.
[00:31:21] Speaker C: And he knew it was you and he knew it was you?
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he did.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: Oh, that's funny. So how long did they have the party line until ever tell you could remember?
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I was probably almost a junior in high school.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: Okay. You know, because my grandma had a party line when I was a little kid, and so that would have been in the nineties.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: And I remember the phone ringing, and I was at my grandma's house, and I'm like, grandma, aren't you gonna answer the phone? And she's like, no, it's not our call or not our ring or something. And I'm like, I'm looking at it, right. It's clearly ringing.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: Ours was five longs, you know?
[00:32:04] Speaker C: Right, George?
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Jeffrey was four longs and a short, you know, and then that was when he would yell at me for listening. Well, I thought it was my line.
[00:32:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. And I just. It was always so baffling to me because I'm like, grandma, I can hear the phone. And since she not here, offer your number, please. Yeah, yeah. And she neglected to tell me, this is a party line, and explain it to me. I don't know how I ever figured that out. But anyways, what kind of a role did religion play in your life, if at all?
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we went to St. James Lutheran church in Belle Fouche. I was baptized there, confirmed and married in that church.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Really?
[00:32:47] Speaker C: Now, is that the one kind of down from the post office?
[00:32:50] Speaker A: No, no, it's up on the hill.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: It's the other one. Okay. Okay. Yep, yep.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: I got baptized in there. It was right on the hill. I don't know the streets, but it was a real small church.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: Mm hmm.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: And then they built a new one.
[00:33:05] Speaker C: Okay, okay.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: And I street.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: Yes, yes.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: And, yeah, I got confirmed and married in that church.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: Okay. So. Yeah, but it's so beautiful inside. Very, very.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they haven't changed it much, because I looked at all my wedding pictures and. Same. Same. Wow.
[00:33:25] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it was very beautiful in there.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: My dad helped build it.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Do you. Did you go to church, like, every Sunday, or. That was. That was definite. That was.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Sunday school and church every Sunday.
[00:33:37] Speaker C: And what do you remember about Sunday school?
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know. Basically, all my high school classmates were in the same grade back then. Grade school. And, you know, my wife, Linda, she went to the same.
Same church, same grade in school, and we know each other ever since we were pretty young.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Hmm. Okay.
Okay. So did you tell me about holidays and how you celebrated holidays?
What kind of traditions you had?
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Well, we always went. We had big family reunions, and we always went to somebody's house, you know, a different one every holiday through the years. And they all took turns and they all brought food, and the houses were full because they were little back then, and we had a lot of relation.
[00:34:40] Speaker C: How many did you have? A lot of cousins. Your age?
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I had 50 altogether.
My mom had 13 siblings, my dad had six, and they all kind of intermarried around the area. The area? Newell, Belgrade, this one.
[00:34:59] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: So we have big reunions.
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Yeah. That's a lot of cousins. I don't. I don't know if I could keep track of that many. I'm from a big family. There's seven in my family, but I don't have near the amount of cousins that you did. Just not. Not as many at all. What did you first do? Well, you already kind of told me what you first did to get paid and to make money and earn any money was working on your parents farm.
Did you ever work outside of your, for your parents?
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple summers.
I went and worked for Jim denier out in Thisland.
That's when the government made.
Gave farmers cement ditches for irrigating. And I helped him.
I can't remember if that is the name, but anyway, I helped do that for a couple summers.
[00:36:00] Speaker C: So you were setting the forms to do the concrete or.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Well, we had a. It was like a ditcher, you know, he'd run a road grader and get everything just to the right elevation, and then he would run a ditch there, and then we would run a cement thing behind it.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: Got it, got it. And so you did that for a couple summers? Is that what you said?
[00:36:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And then when I graduated from high school, I went and worked at the Bentonite plant, loading train cars with bentonite bags.
Me being a farm boy, I was kind of strong to begin with. And then loading hundred pound sacks, you know, above my head, I got real strong. And then I went to basic training with Fort Ord for I joined the national Guard, okay, because my neighbor Ed Herber was on the draft board, and he said, ed, your number's coming up. So I went and joined the national Guard.
And at Fort Ord, the third day, I was out there, and I told my drill sergeant, I said, this is like the vacation.
[00:37:10] Speaker C: I was going to ask you about that.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: And he said, what do you mean? And I said, well, I grew up on a farm. I worked kind of hard, and then I loaded train cars with 100 pound sacks. So, you know, I feel like I'm in shape.
And then the next day at lunch break, he was sitting at this table, and he said, shimp, get over here. You know? And he had his elbow. He wanted to strong arm me.
Oh, okay. I'll do that. So I went over there, and he grabbed my hand, and he said, on 3123? And I slammed his arm down so hard, I almost broke his knuckles.
[00:37:52] Speaker C: Oh, no.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: And he says, boy, he says, I believe you now. He says, from now on, you are my assistant.
[00:38:00] Speaker C: Right.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: So, yeah, boot camp was real easy.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Right. I got to thinking that that was where this was headed because, you know, 100 pound sacks and above your head and, you know, that takes a lot to do at once.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: Yeah. 1200 sacks in one train car, you know, one guy.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: Right. So over and over and over again, that repetition.
Tell me about the flag at the school.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Oh, wow. When I was a 7th grader, when JFK got shot. Oh, the school teacher, she asked me and Gary McIntyre, he was 8th grader.
I don't know, we were probably her two favorites. She asked us to go lower the flag half mast.
I guess I felt pretty proud for her to pick me.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Did you.
How did you hear about the, you know, him getting shot? Where were you?
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Well, the teacher, you know, I mean, fruitdale grade school, you know, we were. I think we were out playing, you know, recess or something. And then, I don't know how she found out, but she came out and told us all. We all stood around the flag and she had some kind of ceremony. I don't remember what she said, but.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: Right, right. Did you ever have to do, you know, you see children in that era having to get under their desks, you know, to.
Did you have to do that kind of stuff? What was that like?
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we had a special place in the school.
I don't know. It was. The school had a big basement, and that's where they burned coal to heat it. You know, we had outdoor toilets there, too.
[00:39:47] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Okay.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: And, yeah, we had to run down there, you know, when the bell rang and hide in a certain spot.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: Sure. Did you. Did that scare you? Or did you think, like, this is I'm being prepared, or did you.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: Yeah, just. Yeah, just learning another learning thing. Never looked scared, but.
[00:40:07] Speaker C: Right, right, but. But that was just kind of what you did. Yeah. Huh. So you painting? Painting the barn?
[00:40:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, the farm, you know, we painted it red, you know, and daddy get tired of the red. You know, we had the barn, the house, the labor shack, you know, we had people from Mexico come up.
[00:40:29] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: To hoe the sugar beet.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Yes. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, the bell had a big history of that, right?
[00:40:36] Speaker A: So they. They had their own house and then the chicken coop, goose shed. We had a lot of buildings. And dad, you know, he'd get tired of red. Let's paint them all white this year, you know, probably every four years, it seemed like I got to run the farmhand, you know, and raise my sisters up. We had sprayer.
It was easy.
[00:41:03] Speaker C: Yeah, that would be a lot better, especially because I would guess that was the lumber on. That rough? Pretty rough, yeah. So, I mean, it would have been kind of hard either way on.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And we didn't have to be real pretty and neat and tidy, you know.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So tell me more about your sisters.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Well, they both live in Phoenix.
They were, yeah, we all got along real good, you know. I don't know, I guess I was blessed that we all helped each other got along and. Yeah.
[00:41:37] Speaker C: Did they behave as well?
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, everybody behaved. I don't think they helped outside on the farm work, you know, they were mooring, clean the house, and they started help cooking when they were old enough, and so I ended up doing a lot, most of the milking and the outside chores.
[00:41:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: And they were older, so they started running off and I was home alone there and having to do it.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you, how did you celebrate 4 July?
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Oh, well, you know, the fireworks in Belle Fouche started in Fruitdale.
Homer Kinzer, he had a grocery store and he bought a pack of fireworks and they set it off in the park and we heard about it. So the next year, people chipped in and they, he bought many packs of fireworks and dad would help light, you know, his generation. All the people in the area would light them all off. And then it got so big, they moved it to Ormond Dam and, and then dad would stay still, help light. My mom took the donations at the gate and then I helped park cars.
And that went on for years and years.
[00:43:04] Speaker C: Yeah, it definitely did, because the first fireworks shows I remember going to as a kid were at Ormondam, and it.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: Lasted out there until my dad's generation was too old to light them.
So then that's when the parks and took it over and moved it to Belle Foosh.
[00:43:22] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, yeah. Because I remember going to fireworks and just being like, whoa, they were awesome. Yeah. And. Uh huh.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: Nothing like they were today. You know how they just shoot them off, you know, because I do one at a time.
[00:43:37] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Right, right. But I remember it being a big deal and, you know, I must have been pretty little, though, because I don't remember it real well, but I do remember just cars everywhere and, you know, and just, it was very busy.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: I remember it was, you know, we had to be real careful on parking cars so they would all fit in there. I don't know how many we ever had. I never heard numbers, but there were a lot of people.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: And it was fun.
[00:44:04] Speaker C: It's such a small little world. Now I'm meeting somebody who was involved in that process, and I had no idea.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: So thanks for listening to today's episode of Golden Tidbits. If you're enjoying today's story, I've got great news. There's 20 more minutes of content available in the extended episode exclusively for our premium subscribers. To hear the full conversation, just head over to our premium subscriber feed. Don't miss out on these additional insights and memories. Subscribe at goldentidbits dot castos.com or on Apple Podcasts.
Love the show. You can get an extended episodes when you subscribe to our premium episodes. When you subscribe to Golden Tidbits, you are helping support the costs that go into producing the show, things like traveling to my guests so that they do not have to try to navigate the complexities of using the computer to do an interview. I also am able to pay for my equipment, the podcast hosting, and all of the other little expenses that go into the digital artwork for the show. I appreciate you so much and if you'd like to subscribe, check out the link in the show notes. Otherwise, you can go to our website, Goldentidbits dot castos.com, to learn more. Or you can subscribe right in Apple Podcast thank you for joining me on this journey through time with today's guest. I hope this story touched you as much as it did me. I'd love to hear how this episode resonated with you. If a particular story or memory struck a chord, or if it reminded you of your own experiences, please send in your thoughts or stories. Find us on the web Goldentidbits dot castos.com or you can send us a message on our fan
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