BIRTHDAYS-GADGETS

 TIME MARCHES ON

BY R. AUBREY LA FOY

The older I get the more behind I get.  The fact is that when I arise each morning I don’t have much to do but when I go to bed at night I am only half done.  I had a birthday last week and I need to take out my driver’s license to see how old I am. Birthdays have a way of bringing one back to reality about what has happened in your lifetime.

Several days ago I watched a program on the History Channel. The program was on the most important gadgets ever invented that have affected our lives and the world. A group of experts (?) had the gadgets listed as the most important and finally got to the top ten. What was so interesting was that four of the top ten were in place when I was born in 1925.  The top six arrived after that date.

Here is a little quiz for you. How old is Grandma? (E-mail) “One evening a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events. The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the space programs, the computer age, music and just things in general...The Grandmother replied, “Well let me think a minute, I was born before: television, penicillin, polio shots, frozen food, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams, ball point pens, pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man hadn’t walked on the moon.

Your grandfather and I got married first and then lived together, every family had a father and mother, we called everyman over 25, “Sir” and there were no gay-right, politically correct stuff, daycare center, disposable diapers and group therapy. We abided by the Ten Commandments, just judgment and common sense. Serving our country was a privilege and living in this country was a bigger privilege. We thought fast food was a quick lunch. Time-sharing meant the family spent together in the evenings and weekends-not purchasing condominiums. We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, DC’s, yogurt or guys wearing earrings or tattoos. We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny and the President’s speeches on our radios. I don’t remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Harry James or Tommy Dorsey and everything wasn’t made in China.

Wal-Mart, Costco and Sam's were not around nor were Pizza Hut, McDonald’s but we had a 5 & 10 cent store and you could buy something for 5 cents. We still bent over to pick up a penny from the ground and ice-cream cones, Eskimo Pies, phone calls, riding a streetcar and buying a Coca-Cola cost a nickel or dime. A new Ford Coupe could be bought for $600 and a house for $10,000 but who could afford them.  “Grass” was mowed, “coke” was a cold drink, “pot” was something your mother cooked in and “rock music” was your grandmother’s lullaby, “chip” meant a piece of wood and “hardware” was found in a hardware store and “software” wasn’t even a word.

Grandma asked her grandson, “How old do you think I am?” You are probably thinking it must be someone near Aubrey’s age (86) but be prepared to be shocked. Are you ready??

The woman would be only 59 years old”.

I recall some of the “new” inventions and gadgets previously stated personally that, at the time, they appeared were really thrilling. The following are a few listed about gadgets that changed us. How about the TV remote control gadget? Many of us can recall getting most of our exercise getting up and down to change the channels and how about the TV station picture that stayed the same but we looked at it anyway. The camera I used in World War II was 116 Brownie Box Camera and it was a pain to get film and get it developed. The digital camera we have today is great and we still have many slides we took with our Argus C-3 back in the 1950s. When our three sons graduated from high school we gave them electric typewriters but today we give our grandchildren computers. It’s really funny though that the keyboard on the new and modern computers and laptops use the same keyboard from the very first typewriter keyboards.

One of the gadgets around when I was born that was in the top ten was the alarm clock. Prior to people working in factories and offices time didn’t mean much especially on farms. You got up with the chickens and went to bed after the cows were milked but with the advent of factories one had to be on time, hence the alarm clock. In my own case our family didn’t have an alarm clock and really only one clock in our kitchen.  I started delivering a morning newspapers while in the fifth grade and relied upon my Grandfather, Ed LaFoy, to call me on the telephone at 6:30 a. m. each morning because he had an alarm clock. Oh! How I hated to hear the telephone ring on those cold and blistering winter days. The phone would ring until I answered it. I don’t recall what I said to my Grandfather but I am sure it wasn’t a very pleasant response. Out secondary clock was on the St. Joseph Church tower. We could see it out of your bathroom window and viewed it quite often. I didn’t have a wrist watch until I got one for my graduation in 1943.

In August 1943 I passed through Phoenix, Arizona on a Union Pacific Railroad. The temperature was over 100 degrees and we had no air conditioning on the train. My one thought was as we passed through was, “Why would anybody want to live here?” Little did I know at that time that I would be spending my winters there when I retired but we now have air conditioning which makes the region tolerable in the summer months? Air conditioner was number six on the gadgets to change the world.

Number five was the personal computer and Connie and I can testify to that. We spend many hours using the computer and sometimes I wonder what we did before it showed up. Our first one was an Apple in 1988 and since that time, like cars, we have had many. Ten years ago I spent many hours in libraries doing research for my articles but today I use Google.

Number four was a surprise, but according to the experts they listed the hypodermic needle. The thing that always grabs me is that after somebody giving us a shot or extracting blood they throw the needle away. I worked as a lab technician for a time in World War II and we used needles and then placed them in a cooker to sterilize them. Naturally after much use they got kind of dull and any GI can testify to “dull” needles.

Number three gadget is TV. Any one my age can tell you that TV is both gratifying and also disappointing. Why is it that you have 100 stations and still can’t find anything that interests you? It has really changed our lived and many of us can recall that Vietnam was the first TV War. It brought the war into our living room and shook many people up to the realities. But there are many, many programs that are great but I still bemoan the loss of shows like Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and Jackie Gleason who were really comedians. What happened?

Number two was the radio. My father was into radio early and we had a wonderful Atwater-Kent upright radio. Our radio stations were few but what wonderful programs we listened to and as one as you listened you had to put the picture in your head. My personal opinion is that like reading a book you have to use your brain where as TV supplies it all. One of the few things that TV doesn’t do is smell which is probably great because pictures of some the areas of the world are better for leaving out the odors.

Now are you ready for Number One? According to the expert the gadget that has changed the world is the “smart or cell phone”. We can testify to that as it has really changed our communication with each other, friend and family. It still blows my mind to press a number, it rings two or three times and my son answers in Montana or wherever.  I recall several years ago calling to our son from Ireland and he called last year from Greece on their cell phone. Instant communication and it is funny because we can’t think of leaving the house without our cell phone. If you add the photo taking, it makes it difficult for anyone to hide occurrences regardless where they are. The only drawback to that is you must have a tower to relay your message or photo. That is the key to control of the cell phone, your ability to transmit a signal. We hiked in the mountains in Arizona several years ago and there were many places where we couldn’t get a signal. The same is true traveling between Iowa and Arizona-dead spots.

Wow! What a ride we have had in our lifetime but I recall that when Connie’s Mother was asked about what invention or gadget she thought was the most important she didn’t even hesitate, “Indoor plumbing.” She died at the age of 102 so she was an expert in new gadgets. Which one do you think has made the most impression on your life? Birthdays have a way of helping mark time and think about changes over a period of time.

BARNS

109 YEAR OLD BARN

BY R. AUBREY LA FOY

The history of our past should be preserved. Towns and farms of today are quite different from 50 or 60 years ago. Many small communities have almost ceased to exist and many struggle. The post office is probably one of the last establishments to disappear and we observed the many closings this past week. Farms have now become primarily grain producers. 100 years ago a barn was a must to store hay and house the milk cows. It is indeed sad to see a once fine barn slowly deteriorate, lean and collapse. Kids today don’t know the thrill of playing in the haymow or seeing the excitement of bringing in the hay and elevating it into the barn. Remember the horses pulling the long rope to put the hay up and in. Any kid that grew up on farm can relate to pitching hay down for the horses and cows. Do kids today even know what a pitchfork is?? We need to try to save and preserve at least a few of our past for future generations-Save the barn.

The big white barn directly back (south) of the Dickinson County Nature Center building was built in 1902 by Sam A. Holcomb. A news article in the July 18, 1902 Spirit Lakes Beacon reads, “S.A. Holcomb is building a barn on his farm 40 X 80, 16 foot posts. It will hold 75 tons of hay and furnish Sam’s stock excellent quarters.” It is a well constructed building with huge timbers. Some of the lumber was secured from the oak trees located on the property and the land across the road to the north. Another article in the Spirit Lake Beacon, February 18, 1901, “S.A. Holcomb will move to his Center Grove farm about the first of March. He will have one of the nicest farm homes in the county and have it stocked and equipped without a burden of debt. Sam’s many friends contemplate his property with real satisfaction.”

Samuel Anselum Holcomb is my grandfather. Sam was born at Castilia, Iowa, November 9, 1861, and my grandmother, Georgia Sperbeck Holcomb was born April 4, 1861 at La Crosse, Wisconsin. Both families came by covered wagon to the Iowa Great Lakes. The Lewis Holcomb family (Sam’s father, mother three brothers and one sister) settled on a homestead several miles east of Big Spirit Lake and the Sperbecks (Eight children and wife) homestead was on the east shores of Big Spirit Lake. The Sperbeck family came to Dickinson County in 1867 and the Lewis Holcomb family came in 1870.

The Holcomb family came by covered wagon drawn by oxen. Sam and his brother John walked the distance herding the family cows. The family lived in a sod dugout when they first came to the area. The Lewis Holcomb family lived in the area until 1885. Lewis was sheriff of Dickinson County in 1882. He was also engaged in a stagecoach line traveling from Jackson, Minnesota to Spencer, Iowa. He left with his family, all but Sam, first to Kansas, then to Oklahoma for the Land Rush. The families of Sam’s brothers still reside in Oklahoma.

Sam Holcomb, my grandfather, left home at the age of 13 to work at a farm in Diamond Lake Township where he also attended school in a one room schoolhouse. Later he worked in the Minnewaukon Hotel at Spirit Lake and two years in the Schley Hotel at Jackson, Minnesota.

Sam and Georgia were married on December 10, 1884 at the home of her parents James Sperbeck in Minnie (Orleans), Iowa. After three years they moved to a Diamond Lake Township farm and stayed there for five years. Leaving the farm they moved to Spirit Lake and Sam was involved in a livery concern with a Mr. J. Mott. Spirit Lake Beacon article, January 12, 1900, stated that, “Mott & Holcomb are now entirely out of the livery business. The firm will not dissolve, as they have extensive farming interests which will engage their attention. The relations of these parties with the community have been such as to make their movements of interest. The junior partner (Sam) came here as a small boy and has made a record for honesty and general good conduct. S. Mott came here in 1869 and is a good man.” January article reads, “Big Sale-Mott & Holcomb on Lake Street, 40 horses and vehicles.”

In 1901 they purchased the farm now known as Kenue Park. (North one-half of the Northeast one-fourth of Section Eighteen, Center Grove Township of Dickinson County) They also owned some land across the road to the north. The family lived on the farm from 1901 to 1905. While there as stated before he built the farm and other outbuilding for the use in the farm operation.

The Sam Holcomb family consisted of Sam, Georgia his wife, Freda, Ollie, Ferol, Charlotte and Jean. Freda, the oldest, graduated from Spirit lake High School in 1902. She rode a pony from that farm into Spirit Lake each school day and the rest of the children attended a one-room school that was on the corner where the Barns are today. My Mother Jean remembers sliding down the big hill (kane) directly to the west and south of the barn. She was born in 1898.

Sam earlier had a meat market in Milford so he knew the butcher trade. While living on the farm in Center Grove he continued that trade an during the summer months would get up early, butcher a beef, cut it into cuts, throw them into a horse drawn wagon and peddle the meat up  and down the east shores of West Okoboji. Ice was harvested from the lake in the winter and kept in an ice cellar. The ice was covered with sawdust and taken out as needed.

On March 31, 1905 the Dickinson County Supervisors met in a Special Session. “Members present were: J.T Webb, C.C. Gregory and W.C. Edmunds and County Auditor-C.C. Hamilton. Supervisor Gregory introduced a resolution authorizing the purchase from S.A. Holcomb farm for a poor farm for use and benefit of Dickinson County for the consideration to be $7,080.00. That we also purchase from S. A. Holcomb nine head of Aberdeen Angus Cattle, consideration $700.00”

The Board of Supervisors, April, 1905 session, “appointed Geo. Machesney as Superintendent of the poor farm for the period of eight months beginning April1’ 1905 at $40.00 per month. Also a garden was allowed by the board as well as cows and chickens. There would be milk, butter, eggs for table use. Each person placed on the farm to be boarded and cared for by him and his wife as conditions may require, the county shall pay him $2.00 per month per resident, bills payable for each month. Mr. Machesney was to have the management of the farm. J. T. Webb was appointed to purchase horses, machinery, feed and seed necessary to operate the poor farm.” The above information secured from the 1905 Minutes of the Dickinson County board of Supervisors.

Sam Holcomb family moved to Spirit Lake and later to Milford. Sam owned and operated several meat markets over the years. Sam kept the farm area north of Kenue Park and harvested many of the oak trees there. The Holcomb’s burned oak in their furnace in Milford and I recall going with my Dad to cut and saw up the trees. The area was also covered with gooseberry bushes and many times we would accompany grandmother Holcomb to pick gooseberries. Grandma Holcomb was noted for her gooseberry pies. Sam died in 1940 and Georgia in 1958.

Dickinson County worked the “farm” for many years producing garden produces: milk, butter chickens and eggs for consumption at the “poor” farm.

The barn my grandfather, Sam Holcomb, had constructed in 1902 is still in fair condition. Several years ago a metal roof was installed which helps preserve it. The 40 X60 white barn in Kenue Park is over 100 years old. The location in Kenue Park makes it an ideal place to preserve some of Dickinson County’s history. Save the barn.