Memoirs of Norbert E. Gnadinger, Sr. Volume 1

1928

I must continue with this further information concerning Uncle George’s camp and the condition of the Ohio River. During the year, 1927, the Army Engineers Corps completed the work necessary to raise the Falls of the Ohio Dam and the water level by six feet. This ensured that there would be a navigable depth of water from Cairo, Ill. all the way to Pittsburgh, Pa. and that river traffic would increase. It also had a profound affect on the lives of everyone who lived along this stretch of river. At Uncle George’s camp, in 1928, it meant the loss of a sandy beach and the need to cut down a lot of trees which were swamped with water and would soon die anyway. For years afterward, these tree stumps would remain until their roots rotted out and the flood waters finally washed them away. The camp building itself was still about ten feet above the normal pool stage of the river. Also, at this time, a very nice pier was built out into the water from which we would swim and sun-bathe.

A most amazing thing which also took place was the construction of an unsinkable row-boat completely made of sheet metal. As you now know, Uncle George was the boss at the J.F. Wagner & Sons Co., a sheetmetal processor. He designed and built this one-of-a-kind boat and I have not seen one like it since. It handled very nicely on the water with oars. Cousin Tom Cooper also was an amateur boat-builder. Living in the west end, Tom, and his next door neighbor, Bo Ritter, would fish and swim below the locks of the canal in Portland. The two of them put together a flimsy, but serviceable, wood boat using home-made oars and which was definitely not unsinkable. They did live to tell about it.

I have been promoted to the second grade after a lot of hard work and really applying myself to my studies(Ha!Ha!)(?). I must have done something right for at this period in time, in the Catholic Schools, if you failed to maintain your grades for the entire year, you simply flunked. You had to repeat that grade over again, and, your parents would back up the teachers decision. I had a few friends who flunked-out over the eight years of Grade-School but I don’t remember any of them repeating that ignoble thing. They had learned a lesson as we used to say. Beginning in the 1940s and 1950s(?), in the public schools, the whole philosophy of teaching seemed to change. I know a lot of children dropped out of school but no one flunked-out. Some children even went through the 12th grade and were issued a high school diploma and could barely read and write(?). The feeling seemed to be to just pass the children on for there was another group coming in behind them. Am I prejudiced? Perhaps, but the Catholic schools are still rated at the top with educators today(?).

Sr. Mary Jean was so sweet and understanding. She was so nice to all of us kids in the first grade that we were not prepared for Sr. Matthew. She was a total disciplinarian. Her main weapon was a thick, wide ruler wrapped with the old cloth, tar impregnated(?) electrician tape and with holes drilled through the taped end. When we, mostly boys, misbehaved in class, she would have us stand before her and hold out our hands, palm up. She would give each hand about five whacks with the torture instrument. It stung a lot but did no permanent damage. I believe now that Sr. Matthew believed that Sr. Mary Jean had spoiled us and it was up to her to straighten us out. If this is true, she surely succeeded for I, at least, became a fairly good boy. I have to confess at this point that I deserved every whack with the stick. Really! Try to believe me. Please understand that I have no dislike in my heart for Sr. Matthew. I only described these scenes because you only remember what makes a real impression on you and the hand whacking did do this. She was an excellent teacher for I did pass on to the third grade. If she could get us to understand and remember our lessons then she had to be good.

During my sojourn through the first and second grade I performed very badly at the black-board. Maybe you had this fault also. Whenever I was called to the black-board to perform my arithmetic or other subjects, I was embarrassed to death and my mind would go blank. The idea of thirty to forty kids staring at me made me tongue-tied as well. I don’t remember this quirk following me to the higher grades so I guess I did overcome it. I always did well in the spelling contests but the girls would always win. We were called up to the front of the room as a group. The Sister would give us a word to spell beginning at one end and moving through the whole group. If you spelled your word correctly, you stayed in place. If you misspelled, then you returned to your seat. After going through the whole group, Sister would start at the beginning again and repeat the process. I would generally beat out all the boys but when I had to move back to my seat, there were generally about ten girls left standing. I don’t remember ever winning a spelling “bee” which followed the same format all through grade school.

Clothing didn’t mean a whole lot to any of us kids at this time in our life. Most of what we wore were hand-me-downs from older brothers and sisters(stockings, you know). Hardly anything was thrown away and everything was well patched and tears in the cloth were “darned”. I repeat once again that no one looked-down on you for the way you dressed for we all mostly looked alike in our clothing. No one owned a $150.00 pair of well publicized shoes nor did we advertise the manufacturer on our coats. Indirectly, we did tout a manufacturer through the wearing of “flour-sack” clothing. Flour, for baking, which all housewives did, was purchased in quality sacks which were printed in various patterns and colors. After the sack was emptied of flour, the women saved them for later use. Mom, after she had accumulated enough of them, would match them up and, using her trusty Singer Sewing Machine and a pattern from Ben Snyders, would make dresses, shirts, dish towels and pillow cases out of the material. Everyone knew you were wearing “floor-sack items of clothing but, since we all were, nobody really cared. We weren’t proud. My “normal” attire at seven years of age was a pair of knickers(short pants) which buttoned below the knee, black woolen stockings, high-top black shoes with the new shoe lace style, any color shirt with no pocket and usually suspenders to hold up my pants. It was several years before I was allowed my first “long” pants. I don’t remember the first time I used the term, trousers. We all wore pants. I must admit that I had a longing for one item of wear.

At about this time in my life, shoe manufacturers came out with a lace up, high top boot. Attached to the right side of the right boot was a leather pouch with a snap closure which contained a two blade pocket knife. I worried Mom to death until I finally convinced her that these boots were the most wonderful boots in the world and I just had to have a pair. She finally agreed but I had to wait until the beginning of school because our one pair of footwear was always purchased just before school started(we went barefoot all through the summer months). This was fine with me for I wanted to show them off at school anyway. There were not many boys at school who had these new boots and no girls at all. Mom was very concerned about the knife factor for that same summer I had accidentally cut the hand of the Tharp boy with a knife while we were digging a hole in the dirt. I had to make a lot of promises to Mom which I knew I had to keep or lose the new knife. While speaking of lace-up boots, if you broke a lace in your shoe or boot, you didn’t go to your Mom for a nickle to buy new ones, you just tied the broken ends together and “it was as good as new”. We boys who owned these special boots wore them to school every day with the knife in the pouch and the Nuns allowed that. In this modern, unsafe, time of life, you might be expelled from school if you did this same thing.

Mentioning the Tharp boy(I don’t remember his first name)opens up a couple pleasant thoughts. The Tharps lived directly behind us on Reutlinger St. Mr. Tharp worked for the American Tobacco Co. at 18th and Broadway Sts. Quite often he would bring home from work some pieces of raw licorice which the tobacco company added to some of their products. It did not taste as good as the commercial licorice you bought in the store but we little kids were always hungry and we would eat anything. It was good. Mrs. Tharp was also famous in the neighborhood because she purchased peanut butter in large cans(about five pounds) and if you treated her nice, she would give you a piece of bread smothered with peanut butter. This was the old fashioned peanut butter which would stick to the roof of your mouth and really tasted like peanuts(no preservatives added). I truly missed the Tharps when they moved from the area at the beginning of the depression.(11-25-2000)(Robert’s son, Robert F. Gnadinger, Jr. was born, Oct. 20, 1928)

My brother Stanley Louis graduated from St. Vincent de Paul in June of this year. He would be fifteen years old the day after Christmas. We all felt sorry for Stanley for he could not celebrate his birthday in a normal way like the rest of us. My grandson, Tony Gnadinger, son of Frank and Laverne, also has to put up with this problem. He was born on Dec. 28. I’m sure that Stanley, like the rest of us, worked at odd jobs at this age. You received no free spending money. You either worked to earn money or you lived without it. Frank and I earned our keep by carrying papers. Frank carried the Louisville Times and I carried the Courier Journal. I started to say that Stanley was encouraged to continue his education which he did, but, as far as I know, none of us were really encouraged to improve ourselves in this way. If you went on to high school it was because you wanted to or you had peer pressure from your friends. Stanley chose to improve himself. He enrolled in and graduated from the Theodore Ahrens Trade School. I believe his shop major was Commercial Art. Your trade school diploma covered only two and a half semesters. Ahrens at this period in time was not a high school. This came about in my last year at Ahrens in 1939. By the time Stanley graduated, the Great Depression was in full swing and Stanley had a rough time finding a job. During the Depression, the Federal Government set up many “make work” programs to help a person maintain his self-respect by working at “something” for there were few jobs out there even for married men with children. Stanley signed up with the CCC. This was the Civilian Conservation Corp and it did tremendous good works building character in the young people. Most of the public parks in the United States were built or improved by the CCC. At the same time, these young people were learning a trade. The CCC was the equivalent of a Civilian Army Corp. The boys lived in barracks at the job site, received food and shelter and a small wage. I don’t know how long he had to “sign-on” but when he left the CCC, he entered that period when he began working for the Drug Stores, Taylors and Walgreen’s, as a “Window Dresser”. Being a window dresser in those years was a big thing for almost every store front was a “window on the world” where your product was most efficiently advertised. This became an art form. Most stores put items on trays and tables and mannequins showing the price for each item. Other stores, especially at Christmas, used animation or mobiles to further impress you with the value of their products. A walk down fourth Street was an interesting excursion. There was so much to see and Stanley was right in the middle of it all. Stanley always worked at the stores along fourth St.

The big thing for hungry teenagers at that time was the White Castle Hamburgers as it is today. White Castle would run “specials” in the paper with a coupon. I was in school at Ahrens at the time. A friend and I pitched up together. Ten hamburgers for fifty cents. We took the bag of ‘burgers to where Stanley worked, ordered a soft-drink a-piece and sat at their lunch-room booth and consumed our ‘burgers. Of course, we shared with Stanley and the waitress. I wouldn’t have the “guts” to try doing that today nor would any business let me do it.

Stanley was one of my handsome brothers. As a young man, I thought he really resembled Tyrone Power, a popular movie idol of the 30s and 40s. He was a lot of fun and took nothing seriously. He sang in the St. Vincent de Paul Church choir and later he sang with brother Robert and nephew Joe(Albert Joseph) in the Holy Name Chorus. During his Ahrens Trade School period, Stanley became a “hobo”. That’s what we called him. He would “ride the rails” in the summer(where did he get the courage to do this?). He had two destinations that I was aware of. One was to hitch-hike to Stanley, Ky. to visit with Aunt Rose Gnadinger and the other was to Chicago(Oak Park), Ill. to visit with Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Pete Klein. The Chicago trip was done by box-car and hitch-hiking. He was also a scavenger. If you noticed anything strange about the house you could bet that Stanley had been visiting the Ellison Ave. Dump or checking out local businesses for throw-aways. He once brought home a revolver which I assume worked. We had no bullets to test it. He did not turn the gun over to the police because no one did that. It was probably an innocent piece of junk. Cousin, Tom Cooper also informed me that Stanley once found a valuable diamond ring at the “dump”. During his early working years, he was always trying to figure out a get-rich-quick scheme. He had many good ideas but he never had the capital or the push to follow through with them. Stanley came into his own when he finally secured a job in the printing trade. He became very good with all phases of off-set and other specialty printing and he encouraged several of Carl’s children to become involved in printing especially Tom. Stanley married a beautiful young girl, Mary Jane Bogdon, in 1937. She lived around 20th and Market St.

I’m back to the important street corners again. This time it is Ellison Ave. and Kreiger St. Mr. F.W. Sommers opened a drug store on that corner about this time. This was very convenient for us for we had to walk all the way to Shelby and Oak Sts. to Vottelers for service before this. I mention service instead of medicine because, even in the 1920s, the local drug store would sell you candy, ice cream, shampoo, magazines, etc., etc., and especially fire works over the fourth of July. But, no groceries or hardware as they do today. A neighbor, Vincent Schneider, of 1003 Ellison was the clerk in the store. We called him “Vinney”. Get on the good side of Vinney and he might pull up extra ice cream hanging over the scoop when you bought your nickel cone. I might mention at this point that I was the “go-fer” for my sister, Mary Catherine. After she got a steady job in the middle to late 1930s at the Porcelain Metals Co., she stopped walking to the grocery or the drug store for she had me to send there. I didn’t mind for her payment to me was generous. Most large(quarter-pound)candy bars were ten cents, two for fifteen. All the girls liked to read the pulp magazines such as “True Confessions” and Mary Catherine was no exception. Every week when the new magazines came out, I was sent to Summer’s Drug Store to buy it and two candy bars. My pay was one of the candy bars for my sweet tooth. We were both happy about this arrangement.(11-26-2000)

I was driving through Cherokee Park in the snow yesterday when I flashed by an old friend which I particularly remember, one of the many beautiful bridges which span Beargrass Creek in the park. I stopped, backed up and checked out the date of construction. I insert this now for the bridge was built in 1928. What I remember about this particular bridge was when it was made of wood. We traveled over the wood bridge many times as we rode with Uncle John Steinmetz in his Ford, Model T, grocery truck to family picnics at “Big-Rock”. I suppose all the Cherokee Park bridges were made of wood at first, and as the money became available the present beautiful concrete, stone and marble bridges were erected. Every one is a masterpiece.

I must pause here to make an explanation, actually to present a Disclaimer. During the last two years, since I became the owner of a computer, I have been writing more to everyone. Most of what I write is simple greetings and correspondence. Sometimes I would get a little wordy. I have found out the hard way that my written word can be mis-read and mis-understood. From past experience, I also found that to get the true meaning of a correspondence, I usually had to read it more than one time so that I didn’t overlook anything. This approach should apply to everyone. So, in order to cover my coat tails, so to speak, I Disclaim any desire on my part in writing these Memoirs to hurt anyone’s feelings. I will avoid releasing any scandal that is not generally known by all my readers. Everything I release is based on my memory of the events, not yours. There are some known unpleasantries I will not discuss. I will not present negative opinions which might tend to ruin the good-will I am trying to show all through this missive. I will present the true facts with no bragging rights.(12-21-2000)