Tape 3: Life at the cabin and the bus trip

0:00 The woodpecker couple who patched things up

Alone, this one big, he must have been a male, it was a great big one. And, oh, just, I would say, about three rods away from me. He tackled an electric pole. And he was diddy, diddy dot in there to beat the vent.

And I was drinking my coffee, and I said, well, somebody is up beside me, you know. And he kept on doing that. And first thing, you know, I've heard a little answer. with about four, five d -d -d -d -d -d -d -d, you know, dats against a tree.

And like the flesh, it come to my mind. It must be his female, you know, because then all of a sudden he went da -da -da -da -da -da in a hurry, you know, five, six, seven dadas. And then he stopped and listened.

And I listened, and sure enough, two or three dadaats comes from a swamp, practically across the whole 40 I said, boy, she don't want to mind him or something is wrong and as I watched he went real fast da -da -da -da -da -da -da you know and then nothing answered I said well she's getting fed up with him bossing her around like that and here she comes about to maybe 10, 50, feet from the ground, low, very low, she was flying towards him.

And she landed about six, seven inches below him on the post, see. And he went around the post twice with his holding onto the post with his feet. He just whir it around, you know. And he come and lowered himself down the pole, up to her, and he gave her a peck on my head.

Then he went a little bit higher, about maybe four or five inches higher, and he start pecking into a hole and pulls out a white warm, maybe an inch long or something, and he offered it to her. He made this two, three inches down with his feet, with a warm in his beak, and he offered it to her and she opened her beak and swallowed it then they both went around and around that they're looking for holes there are some more worms listening if there's other worms making noises in the thing and they were on the best of harmony so I says well everything is

fine and dandy and it didn't take them long and they flew back where she come from from where Johnny my son's got a trout tank or trout pool for trouts, you know. And I said to myself, well, there is no more trouble between the husband and wife.

And next day, by golly, if they didn't come back and then practically the same thing. And they were doing it for several days. Then finally they moved to a different post and a little further out, you know what.

I didn't pay no more attention. I had other things to do, plant my garden and stuff. But I thought that was kind of cute. It must have been what I was thinking, husband and wife, and he was scolding her that she didn't want to get up.

And finally she got up and went to him, and that's what happened. So stuff like that, I just love to watch and think of, you know, and kind of figure out things and that. And I get a certain amount of pleasure from that.

3:50 The day Agnes tried to sing, and an owl chased her home

Then I might as well tell you about the experience I had with a, big white owl. I was walking towards my cabin one time, and I heard the owl there, who, who, you know, I didn't pay enough attention.

I went and got to the cabin, and I enjoyed myself there for a little while, and I, it was such a beautiful evening. I opened the windows there. I got four windows on each side of the cabin, so the fresh air stuff could come in, and the smell of the Christmas trees and all that and so I was in that window there watching the creek down below and see if I could see a deer coming or something no deer didn't show up and so I thought to myself I thought of my mother and how we used to sing songs and hymns you know in bohemian

language and so I said to myself, well, Agnes, now is the time you fed your husband for supper and that, and you can relax a little. So I put my elbows in the window, stuck my head in there, and there's screen on the other side so mosquitoes couldn't get at me.

And I thought of her, and I was singing and stuff. Then I said to myself, well, now you can sing your heart's content because there's no one going to laugh at you. There's no one around and indulge yourself.

So I went and I got this songbook that I wrote by hand, certain songs that I remembered, you know, years go by. So for that purpose, I won't forget them, the ones that my mother loved the best and everything.

So I looked at one and I said, I think I'm going to try and sing this one. Now, mind you, I didn't sing those those songs for maybe 20, 20, 25 years, or maybe more, I don't know. And I still, I start humming the tunes, you know, so know exactly which tomb belongs to which.

Then I read two of the stanzas, and I think, well, I can remember them yet, you know. And so I started to sing, and I was the most disappointed woman on earth because my voice, was cranky and rough and my chest didn't expand enough so I could get my tunes the way I want and my voice you know and the words come all right but the whole thing was such a disappointment that I couldn't help but I start crying I said where are the days and the wishes and all good to 30 years before I saw sang on the road, and I loved it, and

I met a neighbor boy. I think I had that already in the book, and that day I made up my mind. I'm going to have a little shelter in the woods, not too far from the road, but where I will be all by myself, and I could sing what I want to sing, or do whatever I want to do.

And here, after all those years, I thought of singing, and then the disappointment. It was quite bad. So I shut the windows and locked the doors and went home, see. And I was, like I say, quite downhearted about the whole thing.

I says how life can disappoint a person after all and all that. And I was halfway home. Well, I think it's about a quarter of a mile to my house where I live from my cabin, see. Just a little ways down the road.

I used to make it, say, seven, eight years ago, I used to make it in five or eight minutes to the cabin from the house. But at this time already, I was told to take it much slower, go slow.

So it was supposed to take me half an hour. What used to took me ten minutes, it was supposed to take me half an hour to get home. So I was wandering around slowly and looking over the trees and everything in the sun already set, it was setting pretty close to the horizon and so I tried to kind of forget about the disappointment of singing and all that and all of a sudden I heard an owl right by where Johnny's got this pond built for the trout sea and it made four hoo -hooos who -hoo -hoo -hoo -hoo -hoo you know and I says well

that's that must be a big owl the way the voice was loud. Of course, it was so deep, you know, when it gets cooler and quieter towards evening, you can hear better, same way as you do in the morning.

So I don't know what got into me. I said, ooh, it made it just like she did, or whatever it was, it was an owl. And made four whooos, you know, and stood there a little ways by the creek.

All of a sudden I heard four or five hoo -hooos, but much, much closer to me, see? And so I, like, foolish, I went and I hoo -hooed some more, see? And all of a sudden, a great big owl must have been three -foot -across wing spread.

A big one was coming straight at me. I could tell that she must have wanted to, you know, see who was who -hul or something. I must have imitated pretty dog gone good because I could tell that she was flopping her wings right between the different trees, you know, but she was going right at me towards me, see.

Oh, she must have been about 15, 20 steps away from me, my, you know, steps. And so I didn't wait for no more who -hoos. I started running, and I ran all the way the home. And John says, who was chasing you?

He says, you're out of breath. He says, you know he's supposed to be running. I says, the owl was chasing me. And he says, go on with you. So I explained to him how, and he thought maybe it was a male angry at the young owls or at the other owl or something.

And he must have thought I was an owl, but it gave me a plenty scare. I've heard before that they do land on a person and try to pick their eyes out. And when I was wooed, I must have been doing pretty good imitation.

why should she be straight for me going straight for me flopping her wings and stuff so I never tried that trick no more I left them a hoo -hooos and I go back my business so

10:58 The pregnant bird: painting birds on the yellow cupboard

well after finish the bird story I'll tell you what happened to me after the cabin was built about seven years ago or so a friend of ours at George McKisca's they sold me cabinet, steel cabinet, very cheaply. In fact, they practically gave it away to me.

And so I had a can of junkie yellow paint, kind of enamel, so I painted inside and outside being new and nice looking in the cabin. And it was to put different things like some dishes and cups and glasses and a little wine that was a gift to me by different folks.

And I treat my company when they come If they are old enough to have a little wine, I give them. If they take a taste of it, it's all homemade different kinds, you know, and that. So, I, uh, on Sunday morning, well, we went in the afternoon, 5 .30 mass in summertime.

And so I thought, well, now is my time. So 8 o 'clock on Sunday morning, I swept up and fixed the beds and stuff, and put the chicken in the oven and all that. And I was ready to go to my cabin, and I stayed there.

a few hours, you know, chicken was being done in the oven. So I looked at that yellow cupboard, you know, and I thought, well, I got it cheered up a little bit. So I made kind of a green, green wreath all around each door, you know, and there's two doors, you know.

And then I says, well, it's still, little cherries I put in little blue flowers and stuff in this wreath, you know, around. And I still didn't like it. I thought, oh, I got to go put something else on.

And so I got a bright idea of painting some birds. So I looked in one booklet that somebody gave me from Chicago, and they didn't look natural, but then I figured, so what, I'll imitate. So I put two birds on top on a little branch, and they still didn't look good to me.

So I put two, three more branches on each panel of the cupboard, and I start painting all, I thought, got this. be a robin red vest. And so I start putting in that chest, you know, on the back and the tail and everything.

While the cupboard was standing up, you know, and my hand slipped a little getting old and the hand was kind of heavy. So it made the bird a little too fat, you know. So then I stopped painting and I took two chairs and I carried the empty cupboard and put it flat, like lay the cupboard down, you know, with the doors to the top.

And I refixed the best I couldn't, give it to wings and stuff, and beak and eyes. I said, well, you don't look so bad. So then I started different colored birds, red ones, and the two bluebirds and whatever.

And just what I wanted, what I liked, and I figured, well. So then I quit, and I painted another picture of something and went home to eat my chicken dinner. Well, a few days later, about a week later maybe, three or four of my grandchildren come to visit me to the cabin on Sunday.

And a six -year -old, five or six -year -old, she said, looked at the birds in the cupboard, and she says, this is just beautiful. But tell me, why is this one so fat? She says, she's way too fat, this here bird.

and her other sister's about two years older. She nudged her with her elbow in her tummy, and she says, oh, be quiet. She says, don't you see a pregnant bird when you see one? So I thought that story to many people when they come.

I says, don't you see a pregnant bird when you see one?

14:49 Singing with the birds, and a grandson who sings along

So that's the end of my birds, unless one time, about a year ago, I felt like singing one day. And it was beautiful, sunshine in noon. And I was outside of the cabin, and I sang, and I got a little settee there.

I just enjoyed it. And I was singing just a little silly song, you know, American song. And all of a sudden, two birds start twittering over here and another one somewhere else. And first thing, you know, I distinctly recognize five different birds singing while I was singing.

Oh, I says, oh, my gosh, they must like my singing. even if it is cracked a little bit. So I sang a little more, another verse. It was a church song. And I said, oh, my gosh, this must be nice.

They must like it. Otherwise, they wouldn't sing with me. So I closed the cabin, and I beat it home. I made it in five minutes, I believe, and the doctor says, half an hour for you to walk that late.

But I was in a big hurry. I got home and grabbed a hold of the phone, and I called my grandson. And I heard him sing in church where he was kneeling close by and stuff. And I said, I have to tell him about this.

So when he got on the phone, I told him, he says, wait one moment, Grandma, I'll be right there. And he hasn't got too far to go in five minutes or so. He was at my house. He says, how you feel?

Do you feel you can go up there with me? We can try it. I said, sure. So we walked a little slower, but we went to get there so the birds don't take it over. And then we start singing, you know, and one of the hymns, I got lots of hymn, little hymn books from church that he brings me.

He's an altar boy, and so when the month is over, he brings me once in a while, he brings me them books. So we pick out one we know well, and we opened the windows, and each one stood in one window, and we nod at one another when we start singing.

And we sang and sang and sang, and the birds all twittered, but not as nice as for me. He said, they must have thought it over. He said, we'll try it next year or some other time. But it was nice, and he enjoyed it.

He says, right, this is good. He says, next time we come, first thing we come in the cabin, we'll start singing one or two songs and see if they're going to do the same thing they've done for you.

So I thought that was kind of cute. So then one day we was walking through on the path, him and I, and he says, let's sing a little bit. He was okay, it was going kind of like into the woods like, but there's a path where the deer go.

It's a regular path you can tell where they always go. It's, see, I've got a spring that, well, it's got quick sand on the bottom, and no deer or nobody. And then, folks, they don't go and cut the trees down in that swamp or nothing.

And it's all maybe 20 steps away from the cabin, see? So there is a kind of a spot of nice earthland of a walk on between these springholes. There's about 10 acres of them springholes. Like I say, they don't dare to go there to cut the trees.

are nothing because they'd fall in and maybe just disappear in the quicksand. And the deer know it too by themselves. Nobody tells them nothing, but they never go through that swamp, winter or summer. But they go between the cabin and that springs, you know, they got a regular path going out into the woods.

So we went and we was singing, and nobody answered nothing much, just here and there at Twitter. So he says they just must have changed their mind and sing like we do So we have fun He's a wonderful boy He does things You know he sometimes he goes And gives me a little praise Where it is not even expected to You know But he thinks he's pleasing me So I know through his Ideas and stuff But I like him for Because he's very Considerate of others You know Yeah

19:16 New Year's at the cabin: a path through the snow and a sip of wine

One time he wanted me to go for New Year's celebration down there into the cabin. Well, in wintertime, New Year's, you know, it's quite a bit of snow, and we have a snowplow man that comes and snow plows the roads.

Well, a couple of days before New Year's, he snowplowed the road very nicely. It was just like in a front room flog, you know. But I know that it was a big heap going from the snowplow. out into the woods like and so from the main road to the cabin there was this heap about oh I would say six feet you know that the snowplow pushed so I says well we won't go there and he comes over one day he had a vacation Christmas vacation he says grandma he says would you want to go and celebrate with you and me the cabin I says well

we don't go to the cabin until 15th of March because of the snow well he says we should go anyhow. He says, kind of get ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow's New Year's Day and we'll go. But he didn't tell me that he went there with a shovel, and he shoveled about 12 -inch path for me through this year's six -foot pile.

And then on the other side of the pile, it wasn't so deep, maybe 12 inches or so. And I had big high boots and stuff. I didn't care. Well, anyhow, he come New Year's afternoon, and he says, you're ready to go?

I said, I don't know if we should. I said, we'll never make it over the snow drift. Oh, come, anyhow, we can go for a walk. We gets down there, and he says, see, the path is all made for you.

We can go. And he went ahead of me to trap down the snow, so I don't get any over the big high boots and everything in. So when we got down there, we unlocked the door and we walked it.

And the surprise thing was that it wasn't cold inside at all. How it kept warm inside, I don't know. And so I had a little white bell out of China material, beautifully painted and everything. A gift to me from one of my nieces, Mrs.

Jim Thatcher, Rosie Chap, Thatcher from Toledo. And so I takes this little bell and I said, well, rang the New Year's and stuff, and he took it. Then we went and we took a little shot that we have a beautiful cut glass, little wine things or sake glasses to drink out of, you know.

And I kept that as a memento of my son being out there in Korea and bringing me these little things. So he went and he took two of them out of the box. I got 12, six of them up there.

He took two out and he rinsed them and then he poured little wine. into it, and it was a sweet wine nice, just, you know, homemade, somebody gave me. And he poured, I says, can we half full? I says, no, half full is plenty.

That's one good swallow, and that's all you're allowed, because your mother would never let you come to my cat, and if she knew that I gave you wine. Oh, he says, don't worry about that. But we still had only half a little shot, one little swallow each one of us.

And he says, now you hold it in your hand, And when I dance around the cabin once inside and sing and chant, and then I'll come to you, then we'll click our glasses and all that. So I says, okay, anything you want, so he's done it.

And he rang the bell and danced all around the inside of the cabin. And then he come to me, and he says, and now, Grandma, we are going to drink to the happiness and that we're going to go next year and be here again next year together, you and I to celebrate.

I said, okay. So then we clicked and we drank it. And I said, well, are you ready to go home? Well, I figured maybe you should sit down and rest a little while. It was quite a walk in the snow and all.

He says, rest a little while and then we'll go. See, the consideration he had for me. Other children wouldn't think of it. So anyhow, we sat down, we talked a little while, and we got up and locked the cabin and went home.

But it's something that it's pretty hard to forget. because the others never considered driven to think of anything like that, but he did, you know. And I think by me growing old, I kind of appreciate it more, I believe, or something, the tension I get from him.

So he is really a nice guy. I like him, yeah.

23:58 Half true, half imagined: the blizzard and the guardian angels

Now I'll see a little story. Well, I hope the readers that will consider this about half -truth and half -fiction up to now. I said everything truthfully as it happened, or whatever, what you call them. Now, I'll say half of it, like I say, is the truth.

And the other half imagination. But I just hope that forewarned, you know, what you've got to expect. I thought it was kind of cute. It happened to me a few years back, maybe about 20, 22 years ago. My husband was still trucking milk for the farmers.

And I had my supper ready, and he wasn't coming, it wasn't coming. Well, he knew the chores would be done, so he stayed and played and played cards with some friends in the tavern, and comes around 7 o 'clock in the evening.

Somebody walked in to the tavern. My husband told me about it. And he said, well, by golly, you know, we're going to have a blizzard. In a little while, he says, it's coming thick, big flakes, and the wind is starting.

I believe you were going to have blizzard and short order. Well, nobody paid much attention, and this man that walked in, he says, well, I'll just have a drink, and I'm going to go home. I'll go home. He's good.

He walked. He was a town man. Well, John says, I think I'll have to be gone, too, just to I finish this year game. They were playing smear, I guess. So they finished the game, and then he thought, well, I'll see him.

He stick his head out, and he says, bye, I'll eat. blowed like heck, and so thick you couldn't see ahead of you or nothing. So he says I paid my winnings or losings or whatever with the smear, and I went home.

Well, I backed out of the, with the truck out of the main highway. Already, they must have been four or five inches of snow. So, and the wind started howling, crisscrossed the street, you know, where it could. So he started for home Well, he got about two miles from home And there was a big, big snowdrift And he Just, well, he didn't see But he kind of sensed it After all, he went there every other day Every day past that corner So he figured it would be about 10 foot high snowdrift But just in time he He handled the steering wheel And he never touched

the snowdrift He made all right By that time, it was about two feet of snow on the highway, and wherever there was a chance, the wind made drifts, even on there, would see. Well, so this must have been about 7 .30 or so, or a little later.

And meantime, at home, I seen the blizzard, and I went outside several times to see, and I said to myself, boy, he's going to have a heck of a time getting home in this here. Thank you. You can't see ahead of you, maybe two feet.

He couldn't even, I don't believe he could see the radiator cap on the truck. That's how thick the snow was coming and slicing the wind. So I got a bright idea. I said, well, to myself, I said, he can't, he's got a garden angel with him.

But maybe he could use another one to help him steer if he happens to get in a snowdrift or something. So I made up my mind. get along without my guardian angels. So I set mine up there to give him the hand to help him out.

And so he comes around Dodie's corner there, the Whittaker's. When he come down to W .C.'s corner, where Louis lives now, their son, he felt like somebody wrenched at his steering wheel, and he missed another big snowdrift right there.

the corner where the wind could have a chance to make a drift. Well, he says I was surprised, but he says, I made it all right, and then I proceed slowly by that time. There was more and more snow on the main highway, but he made it up to Yanski's corner.

And that's about a mile or so further towards home. And he says, they're the same thing. He said, I couldn't hardly steer with all that snow and everything to make the corner. And again, I felt, he said, like somebody was helping me.

He says, somewhere or other, I made it, again, the corner. Then towards home, it wasn't so bad. There's woods at both sides of the things, so the wind didn't have a chance to make a drift. And he made it okay home.

So when he got home, he says, boy, I am glad I'm home. He said, that was some road. But he says, I'm surprised. He says, how I ever made it. He says, I missed the goddamn corner small drifts.

by inches and stuff. And then he told me how he felt that somebody was helping him with the steering -hole because I don't see how I made it. Well, I said, thank God must have been the help of my garden angels, see.

And so afterwards, a couple to three days later, I told him about it. He left. He says, I think it must have a little, he said, because I did have some help someplace from somebody, you know. And I thought it was kind of cute, the way it happened, you know.

And, well, he was glad he got home. But if he would have stayed, the next day he couldn't go with milk or nothing. Everything was blown shut and that, and they had a heck of a time getting to town.

He had three, four guys with shovels helping him and stuff. Because the snowplow usually come from Ladysmith until second or third day, you know. Farmers had to have their milk calls, so they shoveled and they made it out all right to the town and backs.

So he had quite a few experiences on the road, you know, with the snow or in the mud or something, but he made it for me. He was a milk hauler for about 27 years, I guess. But he was pretty good.

He admitted somebody was helping really, really help.

30:31 Off to see her sister: the bus ride to Chicago begins

Now one day I went, got a letter from my sister and she asked me to come that she don't feel too good and so forth. So my husband says, well, go ahead for a few days. And so I went.

And I went on a bus this time because train is quite noisy and we had a nice bus. He took me to the bus to Rice Lake and from there I went on to O 'Clair and Madison and on to Chicago.

Well, we got to Chicago about, I would say, about midnight or 11 .30 something. And the bus man had a little trouble with the bus. It would stop partially, and he doctored it, and it jerked and so forth.

And so when we got down to the big bus, that was some experience, too. I didn't know, but they got an underground bus depot in Chicago. I don't know exactly what part of Chicago. Anyhow, it was raining something fierce when we got there.

And I know we went down the ramp with the bus, and there was all kinds of other buses and people running around there and were thinking, he went to some offices and stuff, and he must complain about his bus, because we were all, most of us were in the bus yet waiting, what if we're going to change?

He says, we might have to change a bus. and we had to change the bus driver from Chicago to Toledo he had the next day he told me next day he slept and the third day he'd go in the morning from Toledo to Chicago and there he stayed you know a few hours to rest stuff and then he went back to Toledo well this is an older guy with red hair and you know maybe about 55 50 55 all years old and he was coming into the cab, and he said to the bus, and he says, the management assigned us to an upper deck bus,

brand new one, and so you all have to move. They are already moving the luggage that was underneath the bus, you know. So one by one we crawled out, and he showed us which bus we crawled in there and that there must have got 40, 40 of us or maybe more.

And of course, it didn't rain in the bus, people, so we didn't know how the weather was outside. And children were sleepy, the parents were caring of them and all that. And here we sees a young fellow with wife and three children.

And the young fellow, we didn't know that he was the father of the three kids, he looked like a 17, 18 -year -old boy himself. He never even shaved. He had a few curly -kew hairs on his chin and two, three, under his nose.

And he looked ridiculous. He had something over on his boots yet from Iowa, where he comes from Manna, Iowa. And his wife had one of those little white bonnets to hold her hair in. And the little baby was maybe a year old, and the little girl, maybe.

maybe three, and the boy may be five. And the girl and the boy held their hands together so they wouldn't. And the smallest one of the two, the girl was holding onto his mother's skirt. And the father went ahead and to this other bus.

And lo and behold, another one. And not such a bright expression he didn't have on his face, but he was quite a look quite a bit like the first one. And he had homemade burlap something and, you know, denim jackets and wooden buttons and he and rough shoes and stuff.

And they had black hats with the straight out rins, the little boys. Oh, and the second fellow that went, his wife followed him with the baby. Same thing. And there was another, a girl about five and a boy, maybe about.

to two and a half, so barely could walk. And they were holding hands, and they were holding out to the mother's curtain, and they followed the father into this new bus.

35:07 The bus driver's story about the bride and the box

Well, it was so surprising. There was somebody there with the camera, and they won't have it just taken. They stood for a minute, and then they went. Well, we thought that was kind of cute, and then they all got in, and these Minanites, or whatever they were called, and they were in the back part of them, the bus, and some went up on the upper deck.

So I stayed right close to the front. I think I had the first seat, and across the aisle was the driver, bus driver. Because the whole front, these new buses, they had all glass, you know, and I could see everything, and that's what I love to do is watch the scenery and watch what's going on, see.

And right back of me, there was about four or five college girls and that many college boys. The girls were on one side right back of me, and the boys were back of the driver. They were as close to me as the next seat, you know.

And they were talking and giggling, you know, together and everything. And we started from the depot as soon as we were all settled, and they all abroad, and we went. Well, we got out, it was a drizzly nest.

night and must have been close to 1 o 'clock you know and he went seems like the main street or something anyhow there wasn't too much traffic on the road or on the street and we've seen buildings and shops and you know and different manufacturing advertisement of garages and all this and that and everybody was kind of quietish you know and all of a sudden the bus driver says he says I I've got to wake you's all up, he said.

He meant us around him, you know, because he said, I'm afraid that you'll have to try and keep me wake up, wake two with your little chatter. Otherwise, I might fall asleep and let it over. Because everybody giggled.

Then he says, I'll tell you a good one. He said, you know what happened to me last week? He says, now when we get out of Chicago, about a few miles, there is a, a, a, of place where I stopped for gas and donut and coffee.

And I had a box to deliver there to a attendant that always takes it once a week. And he was an artificial insemination manager, and he is the one that goes to these different high -class Holstein farms and inoculates the cows, so they have calves and everything has so.

He was telling this to us, mind you. And I guess to this year thing, he said last week, and there was a cute pink -looking little bride that was going to take the box, see. And he says, I didn't know what got into me.

He says, I start laughing. And he says, I got to give this to the man. He's the one that manages this. Oh, I'll take it in the house for my husband. We were just married. We just come from our honeymoon two weeks ago, and he's going to manage this business, whatever it is.

She didn't know yet. Well, then she looked at the box, and it says there's something carnation, such and such an arms being, carnation this, incarnation, forth, and all that. It was the tree of their ancestors of this herb bowl that furnished the salmon in the box, see?

And she wanted him, oh, he sat down and he was having his coffee and donuts. She said right next to him, she was kind of lonely, and she wanted an explanation. She says, I never know what kind of a business he is in, but she says, I would like to know what is all this about, see?

well he says I tried my best to explain to her without her knowing what it is really all about she says I just have to know so then he told her and she still couldn't understand well he told her such a roundabout way that she and so he says I still think you better go and ask your husband see oh no she says I want to know it from you because he never wants to talk about this.

So he finally, he told her, says, well, it's all the little baby calves in that box. And he sees to it that each Holstein cow gets the baby. And then nine months later, they're born. And all these carnation arms be so forth and so forth, that's the, that that different papas and grandpas and so forth and so forth of the bull that have the little babies in the box she says I just don't believe you she says I think you're just a little fibber says there can be too many baby calves in that little box it was about 12 by 12 inches I guess well

he says I still think you better go and ask your husband about this so he finished his clothing and got in the bus well the good girls, back of me, the four or five of them, they whispered and giggled, and they didn't understand either, you know?

And, of course, the boys know all about it, so the boys told the girls to come and exchange seats, they'll tell it to them. So there was some whispering going on, and the giggles and everything, you know. And he leaned across the alley, you know, across the path there, and he says, I thought that'll wake him up.

They'll be awake for a while, thinking this all this thing over, see. Well, we was going on this street. We had started drizzling again, and he said, now I'll have to think of another story, otherwise I'll fall asleep in this kind of a weather.

41:28 The wobbling wheel: a stranger saves the bus

And here comes a car right alongside of the driver, like, you know, in the same direction. And he was making motions that were even like if he wanted us to stop, see? And the bus drive. I was looking straight ahead, and he didn't see him at all.

And he tried, and he tried his best. I knew he wasn't just waving at us for fun. This was about 2 o 'clock in the morning already, see? And he made motions, and he hollered something. Of course, the bus was shut down, you know, the windows, and he didn't hear.

So finally, I told the driver, I said, this man was going on for at least a block or two and trying to stop you. I think you better look and see what he wants, see. So he stopped and lowered the window down, and he told him, he says, for God's sake, if I wasn't worried about all the other pile of people in that bus, he says, I would have left you go and get yourself killed.

He said, just look at the hind wheel. It's just holding on a bare thread. And the wheel must have been five foot high, as high as the man standing by. They're that big. You know, the bus was monstrous.

And he said, how do you know? Well, he says, I went following you, and I see the wheel wobbling off and off and off, and ready to fall off. So he said, I better tell you, but you wouldn't watch.

You wouldn't look. Well, he says, I got orders to watch the front of the bus to see where we're going, and who's going to be in front of me, or who's going to cross me or something. And he says, I thank you very much.

So he went to the, oh, just across kind of a torts of alley, across one of the side. streets, you know. And there was an all -night standard station, gas station. So he walks up there. He phones the headquarters of the bus thing.

Well, we traveled at least an hour, hour and a half on this, through the city of Chicago, see? So it took about a half an hour for the big guy to come with a big cigar, chauffeur, and another guy with him.

And they looked the thing over, and they says, yes, you have to stay right here. He says, I've got little phoning. So the big guy with a cigar went and flown from the standard station to the headquarters again.

And they should be here in 20 minutes with the new wheel and the repair and everything. Mechanics. It was three mechanics common. All they lifted the axe. and it was holding up with half of one lug. The rest of the legs were all gone, lost.

I suppose somebody didn't tighten up the whole thing, and as we were traveling, they went on twine. So while all this was going on, we had to sit, you know, stayed there. Some stood up and stretched. It stopped drizzling, and the streets were lit up.

Some went outside and walked around the bus, and watch the guys fix it, you know, and stuff. And here comes the first guy from this Amanah, Iowa, half asleep, you know, he'd come out right between the door where you go out of the bus, see, you know, and he was facing the bus driver, and he asked him how far we are in this night.

And then a little kid come, the little boy, And he says, Debbie, would you get me some pop? I am thirsty. So he says, yes, you just stay right here, and I'll be right back. And so he went to the standard station and got himself a selling up and brought back.

So the boy took it, went in the back of the bus to his mother and stuff. The husband stayed out. So the college kids start asking the boys, they said, hey, he says, are you really married? Well, he says, sure.

Well, what time? How old was you when you got married? Oh, I was 17.

45:46 The end of the tape

So how come that early? Well, he says, the, what the heck? He called it, something about senior, the manager, the head guy of this Mennonites, he told him, he told him, well, when you were so young, how could you have a house?

Oh, he says, about a week before, before