Memoirs of Norbert E. Gnadinger, Sr. Volume 1

1958

This new year started out well enough. As I had stated, the Gnadinger family generally planned a New Years Eve dance and this past year was no different. Usually, there was a Church dance we could attend. The Men’s Club of St. Vincent de Paul held their dance in the school basement and we attended several. This past year, Stanley did the planning and we went to a Night Club out Seventh Street Road near Berry Blvd. That was a rough neighborhood at the time but we had no trouble on that last night of 1957. I believe that besides Stanley and his girl friend, Bernie, Frank and Emma Lee, Mary Catherine and Bill, George and Mickey Cooper and Helen and I partied together. We always had a good time at our dances. There were no really professional-type dancers among us-Bernie being the only one who had taken dancing lessons-but we all shuffled around and enjoyed each other’s company. In those years, there was no need for a designated, sober, driver, so, getting home safely from the dances was quite an undertaking. This particular dance, I remember the driver clipping several mail boxes along the road and also slightly side-swiping another car on the way home. I’m not being critical, I’m just describing life as it was when we were young. We were no angels and we were lucky that no one was injured and we lived through the experience.

Upon returning to work, I found some changes had been made in the management of our Industrial Engineering Dept. I had learned to understand my boss, Cletus Bonds, after a short while and was working very well with him. I now found that he had been promoted within the organization. Before leaving Clete, if I haven’t already mentioned this trait of his, I will now. Clete was from Alabama and he was still fighting the Civil War. He would talk about this uprising at the “drop of a hat” and was quite serious(?) in believing that the “South would rise again”. On his desk, under the plate glass desk cover, he had a large Confederate flag. The South did not rise again within his understanding, but, commercially, it is doing well today. I pretty soon found that we had lost a good supervisor.

Our new boss, Howard Morris, was a friend of the Tube Turns Vice-President in charge of production and they were from the same town in upper Indiana. Howard was a nice, friendly fellow and, at first, we thought we had come up with a fine replacement for Clete Bonds. As the months passed, we found that we had acquired a big, lazy, sweet talker who had no desire to take on responsibility in his job or back up his employees in most controversies. If you took a problem to him for help, he would listen very attentively and turn it back to us to solve and worry about. He would then take up about a half hour of our valuable time talking about the great work he had done on his previous job, which company manufactured automobile replacement parts. We got to the point where we hated to get in any conversation with him. Howard brought into the department with him, one Jesse Boyd who was his “fair-haired boy”. Jesse was also very outgoing, and, lazy. You could now feel the tension growing. Another man was hired at this same time and he turned out to be a gem. Jim Davis came to us out of Charleston, West Virginia. He was a very shrewd fellow who “down-played” his intelligence as he probed your knowledge on every subject involved in our work. He and I became good friends while we analyzed our jobs together. He actually made a definite change in the way I approached this and future jobs I had with the company. Jim Davis and Jesse Boyd were hired to replace Tom Potter, who left Tube Turns for another job, and my friend, Ed. Osbourne, who had died recently.

While I am describing life in our IE office, I must tell you about this change in the life of my friend, Dabney Taylor. Dab. had married a catholic girl, Ann, and their two boys and Ann attended St Leonard Church on Zorn Ave. which Helen and I later attended when we lived on the river. Leonard Scully and I, being Catholic and both being members of St. Raphael Parish, brought Dab. into our conversations many times when we would discuss various events going on at church. Dab admitted that in talking to us about our show of interest and sharing this with him helped him make up his mind to finally join the church. Ann had wanted this for a long time. He and his family had finally sold their house in Crescent Hill and moved out to PeeWee Valley close to where his family, the Taylors, had first put down roots many years before. They became members of St. Aloysius Church and Dab began taking instructions with the intent of being Baptized and becoming a Catholic. He finally asked Leonard and I if we would be a witness to his Baptism. This occurred at night in the old Church Sanctuary. This was quite an experience for Leonard and I. Neither of us had ever participated in an adult Baptism before. All six foot seven inches of Dabney Taylor showed the pleasure he was experiencing during the ceremony (10-28-2002).

After the poor showing of Nibby at Fern Creek High School and after dropping out of school, his experience in the Air Force Reserves Basic Training stint at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas seemed to have a positive effect on him. Immediately after his return from San Antonio, Texas, he enrolled in Ahrens Night School and did exceedingly well with his studies. He was so proud of his new approach to his studies that he invited me to visit with him at Ahrens Trade High School during their open house. I still knew some of the teachers from when I attended Ahrens and they were very high on his accomplishments. Nibby received his High School Diploma in June of that year. At that time, Nibby was dating a very nice girl, Rae Pinaro and I believe was working for an Insurance Company. Frankie was doing very well at St. Raphael’s School and I soon learned that he was becoming an accomplished dancer while getting ready to visit all of the “teen” clubs. Nancy and Rosie continued to excel in their studies as well at Assumption High School with Rosie now happy that she had transferred from Fern Creek High School.

I had become a member of the Louisville Chapter of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers(AIIE) almost from the first day I had joined the Industrial Engineering Dept. at Tube Turns. At that time I was a junior member. Bob McCormick saw to it that I attended all of the monthly meetings so I became well known to all of the senior members. The time for election of new officers of the local chapter was approaching and Mac put my name in for nomination as Secretary of the Chapter. I was happy to learn after the ballots were counted that I had been elected, mainly through the efforts and campaigning of Mac. My duties were fairly simple at that time as I simply recorded the minutes of each meeting. At first, I was almost overawed by the type of persons on the Board that I had to work with. Everyone from a Plant Superintendent from Reynolds Metal Company to a person who owned his own Engineering Company. I found that they were all human beings like me. As the years passed and I continued as Secretary, I had to take on more and more responsibility. Bob McCormick was an extrovert, first class. He was also a hardworker at any thing he attempted. I soon found that Mac had helped make me an official of the local AIIE so that I would feel obligated to help him with his many projects within the chapter. I didn’t altogether mind because all of this was new and interesting and most of the work we would do was on company time. Between Cleo McGuire, our office secretary and Mac and I, we were able to keep the chapter operating efficiently with all of the chapter printing and mailings being handled from our office.

I would now like to take the space needed to describe conditions as they were along Upper River Road from Indian Trail to Blankenbaker Road in this year. Beginning at Indian Trail, there were several old house foundations from which the original homes had probably been washed away during a severe flood. The first livable building had most likely been a recreation building(screened in) attached to a nice home owned by Arnold Werner. Behind this was a large shed where Arnold Werner repaired outboard motors and sold small boats. This business became “Arnold’s Boats and Motors” and his son, also Arnold, continues to run this business farther West on River Road at Edith Road. Next to Arnold’s, in a well kept home, lived a woman whose name I have forgotten. Next to her home was a large, concrete block, one floor, building which housed the “Kingfish Restaurant”. Many times Helen and I would pick up a fish-box there, drive down to Cox’s Park and enjoy the meal along with bottles of beer we had brought from home and while watching the passing boat traffic on the river. This “Kingfish” eventually moved to it’s present location just upriver from the old Louisville Water Company Pumping Station on land which had been dredged from the river bottom and which put this building above flood levels on the river. During river flooding, this building and many more like it, were inaccessible as River Road was covered with flood water.

When Interstate 71 was built, it followed along the path of the old Interurban Railroad tracks just under the bluff upon which many expensive homes had been built. One such house had its’ entrance and drive on River Road, up river and next to the “Kingfish Restaurant”. It was a beautiful arched entrance made of decorated lime-stone and marble blocks. Extending from this entranceway in each direction was a stone fence about three feet high. An asphalt driveway passed from the entrance through the trees to make a dead-end at the Interstate. Next, in line, were two houses. The first one was vacant but would later become the home of the “Shamrock Athletic Club”. The second house was owned by the Vincent Paglina family who became great friends of brother Bernie who now lived across the road from them in a camp on the river bank. The Paglina’s, at that time, owned a Bar and Grill on the corner of Logan and Broadway Streets.

Upriver from the Paglinas was the Fairview Beach Restaurant. This was misnamed because it was actually a “high-class” Salon. A friend of Helen’s Aunt Terese and Unkie Buchter, Lucien Adams, was a bartender there. I remember him as a very intelligent gentleman who was always seen in a white shirt and fancy tie which he wore at work and at home. The restaurant was actually part of a property which extended all the way back to the Interstate and contained a row of small camp houses on both sides of the road. All of these building were eliminated when the Louisville Boat Club bought the property and built their clubhouse and tennis facilities which are still there today.

Next to the Fairview Beach property was a small building which was a temporary home of the Louisville Boat Club and which was later torn down. Previous to this, the Louisville Boat Club was located on a floating clubhouse near the foot of Fourth Street on the river. The Shamrock Club occupied another old house upriver from the Louisville Boat Club. The Boat Club bought this property also and the Shamrock Club then moved next door to the Paglina family, down river. The very last house before coming to Blankenbaker Lane was owned by Neil Whitehead.

The river bank, at that time, contained very few efficient boat docks. Again, starting at Indian Trail and moving upriver, Arnold Werner had a few docks which he maintained for temporary use of persons to whom he sold a boat. Next were several which were maintained by one of the Mastersons who have a fine restaurant on south Fourth St. Armon Stone and Bruce Borntraeger had not yet bought their river frontage. Bernie and the Louisville Boat Club were the only docks which had electricity and a water source to their docks and Bernie’s was very primitive. The Paglinas had two “slips” which their son used and soon after this they sold this frontage to the Louisville Boat Club. Neil Whitehead had one slip which he used for his cruiser which looked like it was hand made of metal. Upriver from the Whitehead property was a large stretch which was owned and controlled by the Fairview Subdivision. On it was the remains of a nice clubhouse which had burned down some years before. I remember going to this clubhouse when I was a child to a party thrown my Mom’s cousin, Leo Droppelman who lived in the subdivision on Blankenbaker Lane. There were no boat docks located there at this time.

I was still very much involved in my first love in sports-bowling. I was captain of my team in the Tube Turns League, I had some pretty good bowlers and we were having a good year so we all agreed to enter the two tournaments which were held in the spring of each year in Louisville. That year both tournaments were to take place at Parkmoor Lanes which was then located just across the Railroad Tracks just South of the University of Louisville on Third St. As a team, we bowled in the Derby Tournament on May 4th and we won 6th place. On June 26th we bowled in the City Tournament and finished in 4th place. To show what hand fate had in these two finishes, the first four of our bowlers all bowled way over their averages but our anchor man did not. If our anchor man had just rolled his average, we would have won both tournaments. We had a hard time convincing him that this result was just one of those things you couldn’t control. He was quite a competitor and very upset with himself.

The 1957-1958 bowling season was coming to a close. At the end of each season, the league sponsored a party where trophies and prize money were given out to the various winners of position and high series and games over the season. Also, league officers are elected for the following bowling season. I now knew from past experience that most of the officers were elected because they were willing to serve and none of the other people wanted to be bothered with the responsibility. I was approached to run for the job of league secretary. This was another learning experience and I agreed because it was another task that I could handle while at work and on company time. Tube Turns was very generous about that type of situation. I ran unopposed and, naturally, won. I continued to hold that office until I went on the second shift as a production Foreman and had to resign it(11-06-2002).

Our last entry in the Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic Grade School System was about to make his departure. Frankie was graduating from St. Raphael. He, like Nancy, had had to transfer from St. James School to this new school and sometimes that can be difficult while you are learning the new system and you try to be accepted as the new kid transferring in. Nancy and Frankie accomplished this transition very well and did well in their studies. Frankie didn’t ask for a graduation party because he was invited to so many parties by his graduating friends that he didn’t need one of his own. He now began working part time at some local fast-food restaurants and became very independent with the use of his new-found wealth.

Frankie decided that he wanted to continue his education at St. Xavier High School since so many of his friends from St. Raphael were going there. This was fine with Helen and I but we had to learn to absorb the higher tuition we would have to pay. St. X. at that time, was still located on Broadway St. just off 2nd St. in an old converted mansion and had been there for many years. I spent my freshman year there before transferring to Ahrens Trade School. Frankie was always proud of his years at St. X.

That Summer, as a family, we went on several local camping trips but, as far as the kids went, their interest in camping was at a standstill. Their main interest was centered around girl- and boy-friends. Teen clubs and dancing were all the rage then. Later, as they became married, we took their children camping with us and some of our kids returned to the camping fold.

Having teenage children, Helen and I had to become personally involved in their club at St. Raphael. We chaperoned many of the Friday night dances in the school basement. Really, all we did was stand around and look like parents. Sometimes we would make a visit outside just to keep the kids aware that we were looking out for them(ha!). There was only one time that the dance routine varied. A swimming party was organized by the teens and it was held at the swimming pool located in the basement of the YWCA located then on the corner of Third and Chestnut Sts. Helen and I chaperoned along with other parents but only the fathers wore swim suits. We all enjoyed this party but there was never another one. Our kids evidently didn’t appreciate having their parents controlling their every move so they all joined other teen clubs and either had me take them and pick them up or had older friends who had a drivers license and borrowed the family car take them. This is when I started getting grey hair as I waited up for them each night they were out on dates. The story the kids like to tell on me that I stood at the door and flashed the porch light when their dates pulled up in front of the house, late, as usual, is true. I didn’t want them necking out on the street(even though they could have done it anywhere else just as easily).

During this year, Tube Turns inaugurated a new employee education plan which was going to make it possible for me to start back at the University of Louisville to get the remaining credits I needed to obtain my degree. I had to buy my own books and related items but I could get most of them secondhand from students or from the University Book Store. Payment for tuition by Tube Turns was based on the grade I obtained in each subject. At the end of the semester, an “A” would pay 100% of my tuition. A “B” would pay me 50% and a “C” would pay me 25% of my tuition costs. This plan helped my budget very much but “A’s” were hard to come by and the plan would not pay for a course of study which the company did not think related to my job as an Industrial Engineer. At that time, the University did not offer a degree in Industrial Engineering. It is part of their degree offering today. I enrolled for the Fall Semester and continued until I did receive my degree. One thing I did not do was attend any Summer School classes. (11-20-2002)

Some things have changed and some have remained the same. My Mom is now happy and doing well back in her own home on Ellison Ave. Stanley and the girls are still with her. Helen’s friend and neighbor from Poplar Level Road, Joseph Hildenbrand, in his 90s, died on June 3rd. Upon the death of Joseph Hildenbrand, his daughter, Helen, returned to Louisville from Los Angeles, Calif. to attend his funeral. Helen and I also visited with him. Getting together with Helen Hildenbrand again after about eighteen years, renewed a friendship between she and Helen and I which really changed our life. We talked over old times and separated with our promise that we would visit with her and her good friend, Sister Rose Eileen Jordan at their “religious” home in Los Angeles. Over the next thirty years or so, we visited with them at least ten times and they stayed with us in Louisville several times. I’ll have more details concerning this friendship, later.

Aunt Terese’s sister Katie’s husband, Matt Marshall also died. This eventually meant that Helen and I, along with Aunt Terese, would spend a lot more time visiting Winchester, Ky. helping them run the house and farm. Matt was a farmer at heart and also grew tobacco and raised Black Angus cattle. He was born and grew up on a farm just outside of Cold Springs, Ky. which is Southeast of Newport and across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I don’t know how he ended up in Winchester, but he met Katie Horine there while they both worked for the Winchester Bakery. The odd coincidence here is that the Winchester Bakery, at that time, was owned by my Grandfather Edward Gnadinger’s brother who had traveled to Paris, Ky. together from Germany in the 1850s. It seems that the three Gnadinger brothers who immigrated together were all bakers. Matt had a brother, Bert, who lived in Ft. Thomas, Ky. and who owned a Tile and Mantle Co. We visited with he and his wife quite often.

Every year, Tube Turns Management sponsored two special events. The first was a deluxe dinner held at various Motels and Clubs scattered about the city and held to honor employees who had accumulated twenty five years of seniority with the company. I wasn’t yet eligible to attend those dinners. Now that I was part of the supervisory people, I was invited to our Vice-President, John Henby’s annual, before Christmas, party. The first dinner I attended, I was overwhelmed by the foods which I was not accustomed to eating. Except for the salad with blue-cheese dressing, everything else was a new experience. I was treated to my first shrimp cocktail, my first taste of filet mignon and my first baked potato with sour cream. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Before dinner, mixed drinks were served, freely. This was almost too much for a simple neighborhood boy like me. I soon learned to be more sophisticated in my tastes and I looked forward to these dinners each year

Uncle Frank Lang had finally retired and was living on South 4th Street. Grandma and Grampa Buchter and Whitey(Louis, Jr.) were cozy on Ardmore Drive and enjoying their retirement. Whitey continued as my ward. Grandma never knew she was retired. Helen’s brother, Monk(Harold) and I did all of the maintenance work on their property. Nephew, Billy, now worked at the Standard Gravure and his wife, Amelia(Peaches) was a clerk at the Telephone Company. Nephew, Paul, was a student and still living at home. Helen was still bowling with the “Doves” bowling team at Poplar Level Lanes. Nibby was selling Life Insurance and Rosie and Nancy had “Baby Sitting” jobs in the neighborhood. Frankie was still mostly dependent on his fifty cents a week allowance. I was still donating my time to the Girdler-Tube Turns Credit Union as chairman of the Credit Committee. I really enjoyed this work because I could actually see that we were helping out employees with their money problems and giving them counseling at the same time.(Harold’s daughter, Virginia Ann Buchter, born, Oct. 28, 1958)(11-21-2002)