Memoirs of Norbert E. Gnadinger, Sr. Volume 1

1939

This is to be a very interesting and auspicious year for Helen and I. So many good things occur and it will take many pages to cover them all.

As I got to know Unkie better it became obvious to me that I should never admit to him that just a few years before this he had chased me off very angrily after catching me shooting at his rural mail box with my BB gun. I thought, if he caught me, he would possible hurt me, but, it never entered my mind to shoot at him with the BB gun. We were trained never to shoot at a human or someone’s favorite dog. Helen and Aunt Terese and I laughed about this in later years. I still hadn’t met Helen’s mother and father. That would come about very soon. Since we had the feeling we were going steady, we did spend a lot of our time getting to know each others close relatives. I knew all of her cousins and she knew most of mine before we were married. I know now, after doing a tremendous amount of family research, that Helen’s family and mine had to be familiar with each other in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. There was a small square of land between Preston Street on the west, Underhill(Barrett) on the east, Butchertown on the north and Mechanic(St. Catherine) on the south side. This square was just loaded with Buchters, Gnadingers, Steinmetzs, Droppelmans, Schraders, Kiel’s and Wiedemans. Some of them owned businesses such as chair factories, groceries, saloons, tin and stove works, cigar stores and etc., etc. and lived behind or over the businesses. Helen and I had to wait until 1938 to bring these families together.

During this spring and before my graduation from high school, I attended my last Kentucky State Convention of the YMCA Hi-Y Clubs. This one was held in Nicholasville,

Ky. I borrowed Bernie’s ‘37 Chevrolet for this and I transported J.L. Smith, our counselor, Bill Heib, who represented the Y, and, I think, Gerald “Mousy” Weaver, a member and fellow student at Ahrens. Once again, we stayed in a private home and attended meetings with other members throughout the state. The only thing that made a definite impression on me was the towns excellent Roller Skating Rink. I visited there every night after the banquets.(Robert’s son, Paul Anthony Gnadinger was born, Oct. 21, 1939)

Each spring, the Ahrens Trade High School’s band and glee club would cooperate on a joint concert which was held in the auditorium of Halleck Hall which was then part of the Louisville Girls High School and is presently on the campus of Manuel High School. An admission fee was charged and the students were expected to sell tickets to their friends and family. We did always have a full house. I bought a ticket for Helen and she attended. After the successful concert, we walked home rather than ride the street car. I had a lot on my mind. I was debating how to tell Helen that I was not twenty years old as she thought but actually just seventeen.I had shown her my drivers license many times to back up my bragging rights. Now it was time to clear up this lie for I had other important things I wanted to discuss with her. When we finally arrived at her house and she reported in, we sat on her front steps, away from the house, to talk. I supposed that she would be angry with me when she learned that she was actually a month and twenty-one days older than me and that she was not dating an older man. After the confession by me was over, I found that Helen took it very well for she had always suspected my age claim for we were only one year apart in the school year. She suspected my untruth but never questioned me and accepted me for what I was. This was a very nice girl.

I now had to get into a more serious subject than my confession. Helen and I had been going steady for about a year and I thought it was time to think of our future together. You are correct. I asked Helen to marry me. It wasn’t that easy. I stuttered and hemmed and hawed but I finally got it out in the open. I hadn’t had any previous experience at this. I presented my case to her. We were both working and our combined income was enough in those days to live on if there were no emergencies. Helen agreed that we could become engaged but she thought of marriage as a not too clear date in the future and I guess I did too. So, we became engaged. Mom, when she found out about it, gave me an old, double emerald, ring to give to Helen to use as an engagement ring. The emerald was also Helen’s birthstone. It fit and it was beautiful. I’m not sure if Helen ever told Aunt Terese or Unkie or her parents about us. The next day, life continued as before. We were both fast approaching our eighteenth birthdays.

In this modern world, today, love and sex have been denigrated to the point that they have no real meaning left. If you love, it might mean only that you love your shoes or your pasta. People will engage in sex until they find the one person who is compatible with their idea of the good life, if they ever do so. I am not preaching that two people living together without marrying is completely without merit. Some of these unions develop into a lasting relationship and the couple eventually do marry, but not many do. I guess what I am trying to say is that I live in a new and changing world which I don’t especially like but is not all bad. It is not all bad because there are children out there who have been raised by responsible parents and who are living the good life as I appreciate it today. Now that I have said all of this, I must admit to my indiscretion. We, Helen and I, were properly engaged, as some in the family realized, and we began doing what most red-blooded young people frequently do. Helen and I began exploring and experimenting with sex. This speeded up our setting the wedding date because it was only a short while before we panicked when it was confirmed that Helen was pregnant. Unkie put all of Helen’s belongings out on the front porch and she had to move back in with her parents. Aunt Terese always backed us a hundred percent but Unkie was the boss. My people took a more tolerant approach even though they were disappointed with me and several said we were too young to marry and that it would never work out. This talk only made Helen and I more determined to succeed. I finally got to know Grandma and Grampa Buchter. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why I wasn’t allowed to meet them before this. They were very friendly and understanding after we sat down and talked things through. Helen and I loved each other and this new development was only an extension and speeding up of our, so far, hazy plans. The planning became very clear over the next few months.

All of this became more clear in the middle of the summer. I don’t remember why we set such a late wedding date but we finally settled on October 28, 1939. There was so much discussion about this date at the time. From here on out it became just a question of our having a normal wedding like other couples. We approached Fr. Ruff at St. Vincent de Paul church and asked to be married there because we wanted my church choir to sing the mass. He refused because at that time a wedding was supposed to be performed in the brides church. So, we arranged for the “bans of marriage” to be posted at St. Vincent and Helen and I went over to see Fr. Dudine At St. Elizabeth’s church. Fr. Dudine agreed and we filled out all the necessary papers to make this legal. We later went to the Jefferson County court house to pick up our Marriage License. There was some, I guess, humor involved in these arrangements at the two churches for our wedding. It was tragic, in a way. Even though Fr. Ruff had turned down our wedding plans, he must have forgotten and recorded the ceremony in his book, for on Oct. 28th, he and the choir were waiting in the church for us to show up and Helen and I and all our family were at St. Elizabeth’s’. We had never talked to Fr. Ruff after our first interview. We always felt so bad about this.

Cousin George Stober now offered his help in finding an apartment for us to live in after our marriage. He lived on Shelby St. at the time and he must have known everyone within a mile of his apartment. He showed us several places but they were all too large and by extension, too expensive for our budget. He finally showed us an upstairs, two room apartment at 711 East Kentucky St. which we snatched up right away. The rent was $7.50 a month which included water and gas for cooking(please don’t gasp). There was an outside stairway up to our rooms and a narrow stairway down to a toilet and wash bowl which we shared with the owners of the house. We had to take baths in a regular size galvanized wash tub after heating water on the stove. No hot water was furnished. There was no central heat so my family pitched in to buy us a small coal burning stove as a wedding present and with which we heated our two rooms. It was very satisfactory. If you are not used to a lot of luxuries you are easily satisfied. During the entire winter we burned up only one ton of coal which I purchased through Uncle John Steinmetz. The apartment was very conveniently located for we could easily walk to each of our families homes and church was only two blocks away. On the corner of Swan and Kentucky Sts. was a grocery. On the corner of Shelby and Kentucky Sts. was a street car stop of the Portland-Shelby line so Helen could get to her job and back home easily. Cousin George had solved one problem for us and we were grateful.(6-01-2001)

All we needed now, before our marriage, was a good deal of money based on prices in this year of 1939. Helen had a small insurance policy which had a cash-in value and her mother gave her permission to surrender the policy and collect the money. I had been saving my money and had close to a hundred dollars available. Just a little bit less than Helen’s share. Mom had previously furnished us an engagement ring and now I was determined to buy Helen a nice wedding ring. It took almost all my cash but it was worth it. Our friend, Louis Bentz had a relative in the retail jewelry business located in a shop on the second floor of a building on Market Street close to Fourth St. We went there with Louie and found exactly what made Helen happy. It was a beautiful gold ring set with about eleven diamonds which you could actually see with the naked eye. I had enough money left over to pay our first months rent on our apartment. Now the rest of the wedding expenses were to be paid by Helen.

We needed furniture, flowers for the wedding and pictures of the wedding group. A furniture store on East Market Street called Liberty Outfitting Co. had been advertising heavily concerning the bargains to be had there. Helen and I visited the store, found the advertising to be accurate and bought all the items we needed there. I’ll list everything and let you decide if we got a bargain. One large kitchen cabinet at $14.50. One breakfast room suit consisting of a table and four chairs costing $12.50. One bedroom suit consisting of a bed frame and two dressers costing $39.50. One combination dish cabinet and work table at $3.00. One set of springs and one mattress costing $10.00. All of these items totaled $79.50 and the store salesman gave us a $4.50 discount so the actual total came to $75.00. At the time, this was a whole lot of money but a good price because everything was first class. I believe the bedroom suit stayed in the family for about forty years.

Now, for the flowers. My cousin, Charles Martin had worked for a florist on Rammers Ave.(no longer in business) and I had delivered their newspaper so we knew them well. It was called, J.F. Link-Florist. We went there and Helen ordered a brides’ bouquet, a bridesmaids’ bouquet and a French bouquet for the flower girl. This all came to the head-spinning price of $7.50. The flowers were beautiful as you can tell from our wedding pictures. For some reason I did not save the bill from the photographer but we visited their studio, again on the second floor of a building at Thirty-fourth and Broadway Sts. The owners of the Mayberry Studios were friends of my brother Robert and I’m sure we received a discount from them. I believe that Aunt Terese bought Helen’s wedding gown. Don’t ask me to describe it, but it was very pretty because Helen wore it well. I owned no suit but I had a nice pair of trousers, pretty good shoes and a clean white shirt. I borrowed a coat and tie from Bill Wantland and no one knew the difference. The coat didn’t match the trousers but they passed muster. Helen and I were satisfied with everything.

The actual wedding party was small and simple as were most weddings in those days. We were not trying to impress anyone, we were just getting married. Helen and I had the main rolls in this production. My sister, Mary Catherine was the Brides’ Maid. Bill Wantland and brother Carl were Co-Best Men and a little neighbor-girl, Doris Hayden was the Flower Girl. Father Dudine of St. Elizabeth’s Church officiated.

Before we begin the wedding ceremony, I have to tell this story. I already told you that Helen and I had frequent disagreements(?). Well, we had another one the night before the wedding. I wasn’t quite used to these things yet so I wasn’t sure if the wedding was going to take place or not. Don’t ask me what it was all about for I never try to remember the bad things of life. It is obvious that we settled everything again for the wedding did proceed.

Possibly every relative that Helen and I acknowledged in life was at the Mass. If you expect me to describe the ceremony, you are out of luck for I remember nothing. I must have been in a state of shock. I do know that it had been raining. The first thing I do remember is getting out of the car at the photographers and posing for the camera. The wedding photographs were beautiful. Bill Wantland looks young and handsome. Even though Mary Catherine was a very pretty girl, Helen was obviously the prettiest on the photo. It’s amazing how much Carl and his son David look alike. The afternoon was spent in resting up and helping prepare for the party that night at Helens’ Mothers house. Aunt Terese furnished most of the delicious food and the only drink was from a keg of cold beer. Jiggs(Allen), Whitey(Louis, Jr.) and Monk(Harold) served as bartenders. Their small house was just packed with relatives. Wedding gifts were sparse considering the times. Everything we received were things that we would need to set up a new apartment. We needed everything such as pillows and pillow cases, blankets, sheets, cookware, dishes, flatware, towels and washcloths and that is what we received. We had to buy very few things. To Helen and I, all of these presents were fine and beautiful. They made us feel important and made us feel grateful that we had such loving relatives. After the party was over and all the guests had gone and we had cleaned up the house, we left on our Honeymoon. Bernie drove us down to 711 East Kentucky St. where we spent our Honeymoon and our first night as husband and wife.

Now that we were home-makers, I became the designated cook. Growing up in a large family, you either learned to cook at an early age or you learned the fear of hunger. I was always well fed. I had the time from my job so I went back to Ahrens to learn typing and shorthand. I had to get rid of my nervous energy somehow. Helen and I left the house at the same time in the mornings. She rode the street-car(being pregnant) and I ran to school, usually. Since my afternoons were free except on Thursdays, I would spend the time shopping for groceries and having a nice meal on the table for Helen after her hard day at work. We didn’t own an ice-box so I bought only enough perishable food for one meal. Very unhandy, but it worked.

On Thursdays, I arrived at the Courier-Journal building at the shift change and collected from my Towel Concession customers. In the lobby of the building was a variety sales stand run by a blind person. It was common practice to have these sources of work for the blind set up at most large corporation offices. They sold mostly the things that you would tend to run out of like smokes and snack foods. I would always stop here to buy Helen a big red apple, for a nickel, and then ride the street-car home. I have to mention now that I became quite famous, with Helen, for my tasty baked fish dinner. Occasionally I would talk Mom into visiting for one of my meals but not often for the back stairs were hard for her to negotiate.(6-03-2001)

Naturally, I was still reading a good deal. Helen likes to tell the story about me and our cat which had adopted us after we moved in. In the evenings we would both stretch out on the bed for we had no easy chairs. As I was reading, the cat would jump up on the bed and stretch out on my belly. His purring would almost put me to sleep. Helen would laugh at the two of us.

We were living in our own neighborhood so we did know a lot of people around us. Across the street on Kentucky St. lived the girl who helped Helen get her job. Next door was a younger girl that I knew from St. Vincent’s. Helen wouldn’t let me talk to her very much. Several of the fellows I went to school with were close by. Down on the corner of Swan and Kentucky Sts. was St. X. athletic field(now converted to apartments)where I could go to watch track meets and whatever St. X was involved in. We didn’t socialize with neighbors very much but preferred being with our families.

Helen insisted that I spend some time with the ‘boys’ so I set up a one night a week poker party. Helen would go to a movie a short walk up Shelby Street to the “Shelby Theater.” The poker group I put together included Stan Lattis, Gerald “Mousy”Weaver and J.L. Smith, our Hi-Y counselor and teacher at Ahrens. We would meet at Ed. Lands Tavern, which was located at Preston and Kentucky and was city famous for their roast-beef sandwiches, for a “slick” beer and a sandwich for supper. We would then walk to our apartment just in time for Helen to leave for the movie. We had pitched up money ahead of time and I had ready the equivalent of two bottles of beer and some pretzels for each of us. We played penny draw poker until Helen returned and then the party broke up and everyone headed for their respective homes. The whole evening probably cost each of us about fifty cents. It was a lot of fun and we all looked forward to it each week.

We weren’t exactly rolling in money at this time but as long as Helen could keep on working, we got by. Almost every married man with children tried to have an extra part-time job. I had to go this route several times. This particular winter the Post Office advertised for part time mail carriers. I applied for a job and was hired. I worked out of the sub-station at Highland and Baxter Avenues. The full time carriers would sort the mail by hand, load it into mail sacks and the superintendent would issue them to the part time people explaining the flow of the route. We were also issued street-car checks in order to ride to our delivery area and return. My routes were pretty evenly split between the upper Highlands along Bardstown Road and Audubon Park. I enjoyed being outdoors and I knew all the streets and had no trouble. This extra money I earned made it possible for us to have a nice Christmas that year.

There was tragic incident that happened this winter which I can never forget. I was on the way to school one morning in a real hurry when I passed a young boy laying on the sidewalk, crying. I stopped to talk to him and he said he had fallen off the wrot-iron fence he was climbing and had broken his leg. He was in real pain and wasn’t too coherent and I couldn’t find out where he lived but he said that no one was at home. We were near the corner of Jackson and Kentucky Sts. and the only solution I could think of was to carry him down to St. Paul’s School and ask the Nuns for their help. I thought they would know the boy. I picked him up while he screamed and carried him to the school. I really didn’t realize what a burden I was placing on the good sisters but I was anxious to get on to school. One of the Nuns rightfully asked why I had brought him to them. I had no good answer but I guess I thought the Nuns could cure any hurt. I wondered for a long time after this if I could have found a better solution to this problem.(6-06-2001)

Christmas was fast approaching and I only had a couple dollars to buy Helen a Christmas present. Everyone else was out of luck except for Mom. You always have to give your mother a Christmas present. As it turned out, Frank had a connection, through the Courier-Journal, whereby he could buy jewelry through a wholesaler. Since he was in need of a present for a girl-friend, he invited me to go with him to pick out something. It so happened that we both picked out the same style locket on a gold chain so we bought two of them. Helen still has hers and it contains pictures of she and I taken at Butler State Park in 1939.

All in the family are still working hard and have maintained their same jobs. I do have to add a male name to our family list of gainfully employed, Bill Wantland, Mary Catherine’s fiancée. At this time he was working at the Printing House for the Blind on Frankfort Ave.