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Title: The Brave Journey to America
Name: George Joens
Vaclav (William) and Marie Kuncl arrived in the United States of
America in 1905 from their beloved home in Mirotice, Czechoslovakia.
They brought along their four children, 100 dollars in cash and a few bags
of possession. It was a very scary predicament. They had heard that this
was the land of opportunity and all people are free regardless of race,
color or religion and the harder you work the farther ahead you can get.
They settle on the southwest side of the Red Cedar River in Cedar Rapids
and work they did! Vaclav and Marie had three more children to round
out at 7 total.
Marie was a fulltime homemaker. She cooked for the nine of them,
made all of the clothes, raised chickens and chopped wood for heat and
cooking. She did all of this with no indoor plumbing! She also mad sure
they all went to school to learn this new language and customs. Everyone
applied for citizenship and became full fledged Americans. No one
wanted to let their new country down.
Vaclav was a blacksmith in Mirotice, Czechoslovakia, and opened
up Smitty’s Shop on B Street Southwest in Czech Village. He also worked
at the packing house and other part time jobs while at the same time built
his own new home on L Street Southwest.
By 1910 the house was mostly done and paid for but Vaclav had an
accident at the packing house on the east side of the 16th Avenue bridge.
Vaclav walked home to L Street and Marie contacted a doctor. By the
time the doctor arrived by horse and buggy, he said nothing could be
done for him. Vaclav bled to death internally at age at age 42. A simple
surgery today would have saved his life.
Marie was then the matriarch of the family only five years after
coming to America. The seven children were Joseph, Lillian, Mary,
William, Sophia, Charlie and Martha. The years past by and the children
grew older. Marie started to move on and remarried. The seven children
now totaled 29.
At the last family reunion in 2000 the total count of Kuncl
descendents was about 400. Many living descendants live near the
Czech Village area. Marie’s Tea Room was started in Kuncl Mall in Czech
Village in memory of Vaclav and Marie. 105 years of freedom have been
very good to the descendants of this brave Mother, Father and children,
who decided to come to America, work hard, obey the laws, and
practice their religion. Marie’s recipes and Vaclav’s will to work hard has
been passed down through generations and has been instilled into the
blood line.
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This is the story of just one family that emigrated from
Czechoslovakia and settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There must be
thousands of such stories from the 1850’s until today. On behalf of the 400
descendants of Vaclav and Marie Kuncl, we thank you for making us
American citizens!
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Title: Cedar Rapids Back When
Name: Anneliese Kathleen Klinger
My father, an engineer was with the railroad in St. Paul, Minnesota,
was transferred to Cedar Rapids when I was only three years old. Since
then I have lived in Cedar Rapids. I am now 92 years old.
When I was about 4 years old, my mother had to have surgery. It
was suppose to be a simple surgery, but during the surgery my mother
went into shock and died. There was no known treatment for shock then.
I was raised by my father and my three older sisters age 13, 16 and 18.
In the “loop” of Cedar Rapids, on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 2nd
Street, there was a three-story department store called Newman’s. When I
was about 9 years old we heard that Newman’s department store was on
fire. My sister and her boyfriend took me along to see the fire and I never
forgot that spectacular sight. It seems as if the whole town had
congregated to watch the flames. The department store was completely
destroyed. After the fire, we went to the Butterfly, a sweet shop and
restaurant on 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street and had some ice cream.
For some time we lived on 9th Avenue Southwest. Public
transportation in those days was the streetcar. We had our own little blue
streetcar. It ran only in our Southwest neighborhood behind where
Roosevelt School is located now. There was a valley with a baseball
diamond. It was such a busy place. The night baseball games always
drew a big crowd.
I attended Grant Wood Senior High School on the Southwest side on
nd
2 Avenue and 5th Street. Because the number of students had outgrown
the school, some of our classes were held at an empty kindergarten
facility down the street on 3rd Street. We had about seven minutes in all
kinds of weather to get to and from our classes there and we had to be on
time.
While I was in high school, an important place for us was the roller
skating rink located in the basement of the Coliseum. It was a busy place.
This was the place to meet your friends and go skating. The skating rink
was open evenings and on Saturday but not on Sunday.
I also remember the Woolworth five and dime store. It was located
in the middle of the block of 2nd Street and was L-shaped. You could enter
on 2nd Street and come out on 2nd Avenue. It had a big lunch counter and
many of the downtown working people would eat their lunch there.
Two blocks down from where the Theatre of Cedar Rapids is located
now, there was a ballroom called Danceland. It was up a long flight of
stairs on the second floor. It was there for many years, during the 30’s, 40’s
and 50’s. The big traveling bands came there to play and we would go
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there to dance. After we were married, my husband and I went there to
dance.
In the downtown area, on 2nd Street and 3rd Avenue there was the
first “supermarket-type” drug store called Mays. In the back of the
drugstore there was a restaurant and it was the thing to go there and have
lunch. That is where my husband and I were having lunch with another
couple when the paper boy came in shouting, “Extra, extra, read all
about it. Bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese!” And we were at
war…
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Title: Free to be a kid
Name: Harry Klumph
I was born in 1928 and lived with my mother in an apartment at 514
Avenue SE. I have many fond memories of all the free time spent
around downtown Cedar Rapids as a boy.
6th
It’s funny the things we remember and in such detail. WMT radio
station was on the second floor at the back of what became The
Paramount, but was The Capitol at the time. They would broadcast
outside on the front steps about once a week or so. My class took a field
trip to WMT when I was elementary school. Some of us kids had little lines
we were allowed to say on the radio. My line was, “Hitch your wagon to a
star, but not your sled to a motor car.” I don’t believe I’ll ever forget it.
Another memory that makes me smile is the time I won an old hen
at the Country Food Give Away. My mother didn’t know what to think
when I brought it home.
Like many people, I spent a lot of time fishing off the bridges and
dams on the Cedar River. One of my favorite spots was off the sea wall
between 1st Street and A Avenue. I would stop by Peter Pan or Colonial for
the 3cent day old bread. The Carp loved it. Boy, I really felt like
something walking down the street with a big Carp on my stringer.
Everyone would look and point. Another of my favorite spots was by the
big rock in the river between 1st Avenue and the dam. I would wade out
near it from the power plant wall spill way. One time, when the water was
very low, my buddy helped me up on it. I just sat there for a few minutes
and jumped off, but it’s a good memory.
All the 4th street railroad crossings had crossing guards each with
their own shack. When the train would come through, they would come
out of their shacks holding a stop sign to stop traffic. The guys in the
shacks would pay us kids to run and get them stuff while they manned
their shacks.
When I got a little older, I got a bicycle. We were used to walking
everywhere and didn’t mind, but getting a bicycle was something special.
Back then, every bicycle had to have a license plate like cars and trucks
do now. You would go down to the Police Station and get one for 25
cents.
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I remember so many of the business downtown that are now long
gone. One of my absolute favorite places to visit was Hutchinson Ice
Cream on the corner of 3rd Street and 5th Avenue. To this day, it is the best
ice cream I have ever had. The stuff we get now is no comparison. They
made their own ice cream and would mix in fresh strawberries,
raspberries, peaches –they had to do all this while the fruit was in season.
They even had maple nut. I think they may have even sold their ice
cream to Borden’s and Russell. I could get a double dip cone for 5 cents
or a single dip cone for 3 cents.
My 25 cent per week allowance was plenty to have lots of fun and
eat lots of treats in my childhood days downtown. Had I saved it up each
week, I would likely have gotten the cap gun I wanted more than
anything else in the world. Instead, I used it to enjoy the theaters, and
bowling alleys, roller rinks and dime stores. The many fond memories I still
have today make me think it was an allowance well spent.
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Title: A Tour of Cedar Rapids
Name: Dorothy Krivanek
Memories? Lots of memories! I’ll soon be 82 years old. We lived on
a farm. My mother passed away when I was 14. So, I did have a driver’s
permit but was allowed only to go where I needed to go.
There use to be a house between Konecny’s and the Drug Store,
across from what is now Jones Brothers. The Semerad family lived there.
Their daughters, Mary Ann and Marguerite, went to St. Ludmila’s school.
Now let’s go across the street to what is now Jones Brothers. Witwer
built the building for a MeToo grocery store. One of the very first big
grocery stores in town. There was a break-through in the south wall into
Pepal’s Meat Markets, which stood next door.
Let’s move down the Avenue more. Between Kosek’s and the bank
building was a feed store. I stopped there many times to pick up chicken
feed and cow feed as we had a dairy. There was a Vet, Dr. Brimmer, that
held his office there too. A handy place to pick up penicillin and other
medication for livestock.
Now over the river to the CSPS Hall. In the summer, everyone went
to the dances in Swisher. Once it turned cold, it was moved over to the
CSPS Hall every Saturday night. Each Saturday, a different, mostly local,
band played. During intermission, the non-drinkers all moved down to the
drugstore that was below the Hall. It was jammed with people at the soda
fountain.
There was one special night. The night before Lent started, the
Czechoslovakian Federation held a masked ball. It was mostly the
members that came masked.
One year, my sister Gladys and her friend Bernice Zak went as King
and Queen of Hearts. Gladys was in a flowing white gown and Bernice
was in a white shirt and trousers. Both had red hearts all over them. No
one knew who they were when they were wearing their masks. Bernice,
who was posing as a man, had to hang out with the guys. Just before
intermission, there was a procession of masked contestants and then the
dance. Do you know who won the prize? To everyone’s surprise the King
and Queen of Hearts had gotten it. Usually a member of the Federations
got the prize, but not this year.
There use to be the Strand Theatre. Every Tuesday night, they
showed Czechoslovakian movies. Our neighbors, the Novak’s, Mary and
her mother Babi Shetlik were from the old country. They always went to
the movies every week. Sometimes my sister and I were invited along. It
seems to me that was the night they had the “Bank Night.” If they drew
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your number on your ticket stub you won a prize. Usually it was a piece of
colored glass or a fancy plate.
My cousin, who lives in Indiana now, had a grandfather named
Vaclav Kopecky. Often he talked about how the farmers would chase
cattle down 16th Avenue across the bridge to the slaughterhouse. In those
days it probably was SInclair.
I remember old Uncle Wes. He lived on a farm across the road of
the Horseman’s Club in Western. My dad used to farm the place and all
the extra acres in Western. That’s been a long time ago.
An excerpt from Pete Drahozal:
The masked ball was called “Sibrinky”. Ordinarily it is a Halloween
dance. But here in Cedar Rapids we had it the night before Lent started.
Konecny’s was Dytert’s Tavern. Vern Dostal’s mother, Adeline,
worked for Dytert when the bar did their catering. Eventually Adeline and
her husband Joe had bought the catering business from Dytert. It became
Dostal’s catering and it has been the family for 3 generations.
Whenever we had a wedding in the family Vern did the catering.
Once he remarked to his brothers and son, “Treat her nice. She’s family.
A shirt tail relations.” Which I was. I was 3rd generation of the Barta family
while Vern was the 5th generation of the Barta family.
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Title: Rural Free Delivery
Name: Thea Condon Leslie
My father was a rural mail carrier in the Center Point community for
36 years from 1927 to 1963. In the early days he kept a horse and had a
buggy that he could equip with runners for use when the roads were
impassable due to mud or snow. He had no prior experience with horses
and recalled twice when the horses ran away. He also hired a man to
make deliveries on horseback when the buggy couldn’t make it. His first
automobile was a Model T Ford and later he progressed to a Model A. I
remember that the Model T had rolled up fabric windows so it must have
been extremely cold during the winter. He became a competent
mechanic by keeping the “mail car” running. I can remember going with
him to the local auto junk yard searching for a particular part that he
needed. His first route was 27 miles long and the second one was 31
miles. The final route was 57 miles where he served 230 boxes. Delivery
was made Monday through Saturday with very few holidays.
While delivering the mail was his occupation, he also carried
personal messages from one box to another when the telephone lines
were down for periods of time. There were also times when he did “extra”
services. I can remember him bringing boxes of baby chickens home
with him to keep them warm overnight when he was not able to deliver
them to the farmer. Those boxes of cheeping chicks provided
entertainment for me and I was sad when the owner came to claim them.
There were heavy mail days such as those dreaded mornings when
the Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs arrived. Virtually
every farm would receive both of these “dream books” and delivering
them was a very physical effort. They each weighed seven or eight
pounds, and by the time he delivered 230 of them, he no doubt had very
sore muscles. To make things more complicated, he always drove lefthanded drive automobiles, which meant you had to lean across the
passenger seat and reach the mailbox from that window. He built a
wooden window with a sliding door; so in the cold weather he could slide
that open to put the mail in the box. It was much more efficient than
rolling the window up and down at each box.
Delivering packages that would not fit into the mailbox involved
going to the house and personally giving the package to the resident. Of
course, much of what the farmers bought was ordered from the catalog so
there were many such deliveries each day. The arrival of something that
had been ordered weeks ago would certainly be a very happy day. The
mailman was very popular when he came bearing a package. As most
farmers in those days had some sort of watchdog for security purposes,
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getting by that guardian was sometimes a bit hazardous. He would honk
his horn to let the people know he was coming to the door in the hopes
that they would tie up the dog to prevent an encounter with a barking,
snarling animal.
I remember that he put a snap clothespin in every box for the
patron to clip on to the letters to be mailed. This made them much easier
to pick up from the box. Then of course there were the pennies in the box
to pay for the necessary stamps—two cents per 1 ounce during the early
days. Most boxes had a jar lid for the pennies to keep them from
scattering all over the box; but if not it would sometimes involve reaching
deep into the box to find them.
Back in those days the mailman got to know everyone on the route,
including children who would watch for the car and then run out to get the
mail. Farm rentals all began on March first and each year he had a
period of becoming acquainted with new patrons and saying goodbye to
old friends. There was paperwork to do for each of these changes. When
so many moves took place at the same time it meant long hours of work
in the office. This work included getting the mail sorting case and the
change-of-address book updated as well as filling out all of the forms the
government required.
The farmers were appreciative of the mailman’s service and were
always ready to pull him out of the mud when the frost went out of the
ground in the spring or to shovel him out of a snow drift in the winter. At
Christmas they expressed their appreciation by giving him a chicken,
goose or perhaps a beef or pork roast. I remember one time that my
father brought home a “pie” pumpkin that someone had given him. My
mother, being a more modern cook, had never made a pie with pumpkin
that did not come from a can, but he insisted on preparing this pie “from
scratch” and volunteered to cook the pumpkin. This involved removing
the seeds and then baking the whole pumpkin in the oven for several
hours. The hot pulp had to be scooped out and mashed before it was
added to the other pie ingredients. He had no doubt seen his mother
prepare the pumpkin like this and liked the idea of pie made the oldfashioned way. I don’t remember how it tasted only the complicated way
it was prepared.
In the present era of email, Twitter and cell phones, the importance
of rural free delivery mail is hard to comprehend. But there was a time
when it was the most important form of communication, and in addition it
provided a social contact with the mailman for the sometimes very
isolated families.
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Title: Growing Up in Cedar Rapids
Name: Dave McGinty
I was born at home in 1937. Our Cedar Rapids neighborhood was
along 12th Avenue and 5th Street S.E. At that time passenger trains went
right behind our house. There was a guard shack nearby where the
crossing guards stayed until they needed to stop the traffic. My friends
and I attended Tyler School. We would often stop to talk with guards and
they would ask us kids to go over to the Brown Derby for them. As runners
we usually received a candy bar for our work. You can imagine that they
certainly didn’t have to twist our arms to do their errands.
Speaking of sweets, there was a drug store next to our house. All
our favorite individually wrapped candy was in big jars for the grand sum
of a penny a piece! If I could count the minutes spent in deliberation…
While we were deciding what kind of candy to select my mom was
using a ration book to purchase sugar and flour. I remember that the
ration stamps had a picture of a cannon on them.
My dad worked at the packing house and raised rabbits in the
backyard. He bought rabbit feed at Wilder Grain Elevator, which was
across the street from us. When Dad got the rabbit feed Mom always went
along. The pellets were in a colored cotton sack. The material from the
sack was used to make dresses for mom and my sisters. Mom didn’t trust
Dad to select the right color and heaven forbid if he got a pattern that
they already had used!
No one in our neighborhood had a fabulous income or a number of
material things but then again no one was starving. I especially
remember a man with a goat cart would go by and holler, “Any bones,
any rags, any bottles today. The big, black, rag picker’s coming your
way.”
Maybe you got by raising rabbits or making dresses out of feed
sacks. Everyone had their way, including the rag picker.
In 1945 we moved to Grinnell. Just before we moved I remember
planes flying over and dropping leaflets saying, “VOJ” meaning victory
over Japan.
Although I did not spend my adolescent days in Linn County, the
draw of my younger days must have always been with me. In 1965, after
getting out of the Air Force, I returned and worked at North Western Bell
Telephone. Those were the days; two and four party lines and black dial
ups.
I have remained in Linn County throughout my adult life. My wife
(now deceased) and I raised our four children in the Whittier area.
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Title: Old Cedar Rapids
Name: Susan Oujire Monk
I was born in Cedar Rapids in 1943 in the middle of World War II.
When my father came home I remember going to the train depot with my
mother to pick him up. I remember that depot and wish they had
preserved at least part of it. I remember sitting and waiting for the trains to
pass for up to 15-20 minutes. I loved the sound of a train whistle and enjoy
the sound when a train passes by Blairs Ferry Road in Hiawatha where I
live.
I remember going to the Paramount Theatre as a youngster and
watching the kid’s shows on Saturday afternoon. I remember the beautiful
Christmas window displays in Armstrong’s and Killian’s. As a family, we
would walk all around downtown looking in the windows especially at
night. It was beautiful. We loved all the animation of the characters in the
windows.
I remember going down to Sykora’s Bakery for yummy treats and to
Polenah’s Meat Market for those Czech Blood sausages we liked. I
remember listening to the older people talk Czech.
We went to Ellis Park to feed the ducks and to Bever Park to see all
the animals in cages, especially the bears. I remember one time going to
the old smaller cages where the foxes were. They had become tame and
one came to the side bars and I reached in and petted it.
I also remember when Times Theatre on 1st Avenue became an Xrated only movie theatre showing only pictures and movies. I only heard
about it from some people. I never went there. It was a sinful place back
then. Now, many of those movies would probably only be rated PG-13.
A group of us walked in rain, snow, or shine to St Matthews and
Franklin Schools from 35th St NE and passed the Dairy Queen. In the
Spring, on opening day, we would get a free cone from the grandfatherly
man who owned it.
There use to be a skating rink where the newer Arthur School is now
on B Avenue and 27th Street. It had a warming house and an attendant
watching over it all. I also remember the first hamburger place on 1st
avenue and 27th Street Northeast. It was called Henry’s Hamburger.
My father worked at Collins Radio Company when it was one of two
places in Cedar Rapids. I remember waking up one night and the place
was in flames. We lived three houses from it on 35th Street.
I remember when Lindale was just two strip malls and the only thing
nearby was the Twixt Towne Drive-in Theatre. I remember one night sitting
and watching movies all night long. The movies back then would be
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considered lame by today’s standards but we loved them. They were
very wholesome.
I remember the interurban going down the middle of 1st avenue on
the track. Also 1st Avenue was brick with only one lane on each side. I
remember going to a little drug store where the Czech cottage is now and
sitting on stools eating a huge 5 cent ice cream cone.
We got chickens from the farm and I remember helping my mother
kill, scald and pluck them down in our basement. In the 40s basements
were dark cellars that held big boilers for heat. This is where mom put all
the canned goods.
My great grandma and papa lived in a house where St. Vincent de
Paul is now. They had a barn in the back and had cats and chickens.
They also had a little store in front with the barrels that held everything
from pickles to candy in them. I remember grandma Nejde’s big iron
stove you put coal in. There was a pump next to the sink and you
pumped water from outside somewhere into the sink to wash dishes. I
remember the coal men and the ice man shoving them somewhere in the
cellar. I was not allowed down there.
I remember the old St. Ludmilla’s School where the bathrooms did
not have doors just curtains. We lived right across the street. I remember
when St Matthews Church on 1st Avenue was not there. We had a tiny little
church and school. We would run up and down the hill where the church
is now.
I remember my freshman year of high school. It was the last year of
Mt. Mercy’s Women’s Academy. We would race through the tunnel up to
the college to go to gym class hoping no one would see us as we
sometimes were late. Some of our class waded in the pond that was
there. The tunnel then was just new and not as nice as it is today.
Then in 1958, Regis started. Back then girls sports were not as
prevalent as they are now. I was one of Regis’s first cheerleaders and
graduated in 1961. That was 50 years ago, WOW!
I remember my whole family working at the packing plant and
Quaker Oats. My grandpa, John Oujiri, walked to the packing plant to
work. We were in the Czech Village area at the time. I remember how
bad the smell was from Penick and Ford.
I am sad that a lot of the beautiful houses are gone from 1st Avenue.
I hope they keep the ones that are left. I was sad when a lot of the homes
were damaged by the flood. They were all different from one another in
style, not carbon copies. Also, we lived on D Avenue Northeast in the 50s
and 60s. We could hear Leo the Lion roaring all the way from Brucemore.
And all the school buildings were such beautiful pieces of architecture. So
ornate and different, especially the one across from Mercy Hospital on
10th Street. I hope we can fix and preserve some of them.
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I realize that modernization is important but when I go through
Cedar Rapids, I realize a lot of history has been lost. I wish we could go
back and keep a lot of the things we threw away. We’d treasure them
now instead of saying they were “old” and of no use anymore. Let’s try to
preserve whatever we can. I could go on and on about Cedar Rapids, I
still like those train whistles.
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Title: Journey to Cedar Rapids
Name: Tony Nemer
My father, Sam Nemer, picked grapes as a child in Lebanon and
saved his money. He was 15 when he was told that the ship in the harbor
was leaving for the “Promised Land” in 7 days. That is what they called
America. Sam had saved his money, French francs, because Lebanon
was under French rule. My father had the 50 francs that it took for the
passage and a little more for the trip. He was excited and ran home to ask
his parents if he could sail with the ship to the “Promised Land.” They gave
him their blessing. On the ship there were 49 grown men and 15 year old
Sam Nemer. My father was the only child on board. The ship was a sailing
vessel and whenever there was no wind, the passengers had to grab the
oars and row. In Marseilles, France, they stopped for a week to take on
provisions for the long journey to Ellis Island. The whole journey took 90
days.
On his jacket my father had a tag with the name “E. T. Ellis” and
“Sioux City, Iowa.” He couldn’t speak a word of English, but he found out
that a railroad ticket to Sioux City cost 6 dollars. He was able to buy the
ticket and got on the train for the long journey to Sioux City.
After he arrived, he kept showing people the slip of paper with the
name “Ellis” and finally someone took him to meet E. T. Ellis. E. T. Ellis, who
had a dress factory, found him room and board and told him, “I’ll give you
a nickel for each dress you sell for me.” So my father was hired to sell
women’s dresses house to house for 50 cents each.
After he had been selling dresses house to house for three years he
had saved enough money to buy a horse and wagon for 6 dollars. My
father could now spread out and sell the dresses in the surrounding area.
He also worked hard to learn English.
Wanting to expand even more, he later sold the horse and wagon
and bought two mules and a buggy. He converted the buggy to a regular
store on wheels and ordered goods from the Oshkosh Company. Along
with the dresses he now offered denim shirts and trousers for men and
yard goods and other small items for women.
Finally my dad bought a store and brought his nephews, Tom, Jim
and Mike Nemer, from Lebanon to the States. My father sent them to
school and they ran the store while my father was on the road.
My dad was 40 years old when he went back to Lebanon and got
married. His bride was about 20 years old. Their son, my oldest brother,
was born in Lebanon. My father left my mother and brother in Lebanon
and returned to the United States. My mother sewed deerskin slippers to
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support herself and my brother, they eventually came to the U.S. to be
with my father.
My mother bought two three-room houses and paid a dollar for
each to be moved with horses into the town of Basset, Nebraska. This was
a trip of ten miles. In Basset they were set up side-by-side over a
basement they had hired people to dig. Now they had a six room house
for the family. Mother made steps out of cement and pressed coffee cans
on each step into the wet cement. That is where she planted flowers. It
was in this house that I, Tony Nemer, was born in the year 1925. I went to
school in Basset until I was almost seven.
At that time, mother decided that dad had been on the road too
long, so they took over a store in Crookston, Nebraska, that the nephews
had been running. The nephews now had to find their own calling. Tom
went to Omaha where he started a potato chip factory, Jim bought a
hotel in Nebraska’s capitol, Lincoln, and Mike bought a store in Decatur,
near Omaha.
In our store we had a cream testing station in the back where the
farmers brought in their cream. My older brother, Eli, learned to test
cream. When my older brother left, I was the only one who could read
and write, so I learned how to test cream for butterfat content. After I took
my test, I was told that I was the youngest cream tester in the area and in
Nebraska, maybe in the whole country. I was 10 years old. Our store also
bought eggs from farmers in the area, which we candled by hand to
make sure the eggs were good. I now attended school in Crookston and
played trombone in the school’s band.
In 1945 mother wanted to move to Cedar Rapids but dad didn’t want to
move. So one day she packed up us kids and moved to Cedar Rapids
where her brother and his family lived. Dad stayed alone in Crookston for
10 more years before he too, came to Cedar Rapids. I was 18 when I
started construction work for Kucera’s. I bought 2 apartments for 5,000
dollars, on contract, and also started a grocery business. I was not able to
get a liqueur license because I was too young and the store was located
across from a church. So I sold the store and bought a store in the “time
check” area. I called it 5th Street Grocery. I had learned to cut meat from
my older brother. I was at that store for 40 years. My mother had a stroke
and I took care of her, so I never married or had any children of my own.
I retired in 1985 and my retirement years still find me living in the Cedar
Rapids area.
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