Robert D. Hill grew up in Albert Lea, Minnesota during the Great Depression. His handwritten "Reminiscences" offer a unique look at the hardships faced by a boy in a small town in southern Minnesota, and ways he and his friends found to make their own fun.
Creator: Robert D. Hill
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
Dates: 1930–1945
Identifer: location P2455
Transcript
My home life was, I suspect, somewhat normal for the times and considering the low economic status of the family. Dad was never close to us children. He never talked to us as a father or played with us. He was always distant & considered us somewhat as competition for food at the table and attention from friends and relatives. I don’t ever recall receiving from dad any advise about life or grades in school or anything of significance. He never talked with us about anything. Mother never did either for that matter. We grew up learning from our friends and in school. I was never advised to do good in school by my parents. Regardless of the grades I would bring home on my report cards mother would never even notice, it seemed, the low grades but signed the cards & gave the report card back. I recall that she had to come to school one time when I was having trouble with arithmetic in second grade. The teacher wanted to show her about my problem, but nothing ever resulted from her visit.
I also recall in second grade that I would sing quite loudly during music period. The teacher would tell the toehrs to sing as loudly as I did. I did'nt realize that I had been singing so loudly. It was also in second grade that my interest in geneology had its beginning. The class had been given an over nite assignment to determine their ancestory. I recall that the folks knew very little about their ancestory. I was a little embarrased at the lack of ancestral names on my paper that I brought to class. I made up my mind then to someday find out my ancestory. History has always been my favorite subject in school & reading autobiograph & biographical storys of famous men always was found highly interesting. Especially those who had come from a disadvantageous youth (Rags to riches). I have never been able to read a fiction story or one I knew did not in actuality (in real life) happen.
I suspect that Dad's attitude toward us children stems from his own up bringing. Mother told me once that dad didnot even know the given name of his mother once when asked to put it on a form during his employment at Wilson's Packing Co. Dad had to write his mother asking for her given name. He, nore his brothres & sisters, never was aware of his mothers maiden name of Ness or of any relatives of their mother's. Grandmother Hill did not socialize with neighbors & friends hardly at all. Grandfather would do nearly all the food shopping. The family would wait until he brought the food home before they could eat. Buyt back to m home life, there was never any outward display of love in our home. We just seemed to tolerate each other and stayed out of each others way. I recall going swimming in the early morning, perhaps 8-9 AM, and not returning until 7 or 8 PM. Mother never asked if I had eaten or what I had done. Vance and I communicated whenever he was around. Being 5 years older, I don't recall that much about him while growing up. We would box on occasions. I do recall once of washing a pipe of his out with soap & water thinking I was doing him a favor. Vance never got upset about it as was his temperament about most things. He was even tempered. He quit school in the 11th grade because of trouble with the teachers. Soon after quiting school he joined the Civil Conservation Corp (CCC) and went to Watertown, Minn to work. From there he went into the Navy. While in the CCC he was a member of the boxing team.
Dad enjoyed fishing but never indulged himself at it too much. When he would come home from work he would lay down on the couch & go to sleep until it was time to eat. He would read teh evening newspaper after eating & then go to bed or listen to the radio. I or the other children never spoke much with him. We never had much to say with mother either for that matter or to each other. Conversation at meal times consisted mostly of "pass the salt" or whatever we wanted passed.
The most joyful time of my youth was during summer vacation from school when we would travel to Lamberton, Minn. to be on the farm with Uncle Orland (Shorty) or Grampa Skelton. On the trip to Lamberton I recall we would name the model & year of cars we saw on the road as we traveled there. We hardly missed naming them all. We also would see who could detect the first sign that we were approaching Grampa's farm. The family would spend two weeks visiting Lamberton. We all wanted to stay at Unvle Shortly's farm with our cousin's Arvonne, Marilyn, Bonnie, Kenny & later Grant. I recall swimming in the creek just below Uncle Shortys farm and threshing grain, going after the cows & collecting eggs. Uncle Shorty usually had a shetland pony for the children to ride. I remember one that was called Kate. She was always reluctant to go to twon or away from the barn, but when returning it was hard to hold her back. I recall that I enjoyed riding with Uncle Shorty when he delievered milk in Lamberton in a horse driven milk wagon. It was from one of the first farms he owned. It was on this farm that I remember bragging to everyone that a firecracker we had tried to explode was a dud. To prove it I started jumping back & forth over it. it exploded on my second jump nearly taking my shoes off. Uncle Shorty always seemed to be humming a song and in a good mood. He had a habit of blinking a lot with both eyes. We had to go down town several times to ask him to come home. Seemed he liked to drink with his friends & forgot the time.
During my youth in Albert Lea I remember the winter sports of ice skating, skiing & sledding. The ice skates were clamped on the soles of the shoes with leather straps around the toes & ankles to hold them on. sometimes a skate would come off when skating at a fast pace sending you flat on the ice. Or sometimes we would skate over a muscrat run & crash through the ice getting a leg or two soaked with icey water. My toes were frozen many times but never let it slowed me down. One time when sledding between muscrat and Dane lake I crashed through the iceunder the RR trestle. Luckly, the water was only about 6-7 feet deep under the trestle. The water flow evidently prevented the water from freeze very thick. It looked alright when approaching the area but I went through & to the bottom coming up without my sled. I got out of the water but could'nt go home without my sled so I dived back down to retrieve the sled. It as cold going the 2 miles or so to the Dunham Street home. I recall another time of going through the ice. It was near, I believe Sunset Dr., where a water sewer drainage pipe entered the lake. I had on new overshoes that day & fell through the ice losing one of the overshoes. I went home without it. Dad came back with me & retrieved it later. Every winter the skaters would build a tar paper warming shed ont eh banks of Dane lake. The size was perhaps 6' by 8' with a small pot stove for a fireplace. The material was of old wood and card board with perhaps one window of plastic. We would shovel the snow from a fairly large area on the ice to play hockey or general free skate. In the summer Time we would play football, softball & baseball. The field we used on the corner lot on Dunham & _________. The field had about a 20º slope so the side going up-hill had a tougher time. I played mostly with Kenneth "Sonny" Gulbrandsen who lived next door. His parents could afford to buy him sports equipment so we always had equipment to play with.*
*I nickname Kenny "Silky" because he always had good sports uniforms.
By sporting equipment I mean only footballs, softballs & one or two bats. We played pretty rough football with no helmets or padding. Scrapped noses, knees & elbows were common. We would swim, normally, below Abbott School off Vine Street. The city would set out a wooden raft about 25-30 yards from shore each year. When quite young our goal would be to swim good enough someday to swim out to the raft. I never learned to jump into the water without holding my nose as other children could do. Water would always shot up my nose and craete a bad feeling. i would swim all day until my skin would trun blue & wrinkly from the water. Occasionaly we would go down T the main beach at the north side where the diving boards were higher. The highest was about 12 feet which we thoght quite a challenge.
I recall when about 15 years old I ran all the way around Fountain Lake with Lyle Quale. We wanted to get in shape for boxing.
roller skating> When about 16 I started to dance. i was quite shy & to get courage to ask a girl to dance I would drink a few beers. I learned to "Jitterbug" rather well. We danced at the Casino which was a wooden structure that was out over the water at the end of __________ street near the fountain lake open air concert building. Friday & Saturday nites were big nites there.
When about 13 and until about 16 or 17 I did quite a bit of roller skating. Carol Peterson would put up a large tent with a wooden floor near Highway 65 where Streeters Mfg Co. now is located each summer. I started out being a skateboy clamping on the skates to the soles of the shoes. Shoe skates were only used by those who could afford to purchased their own. In exchange for putting on skates one could skate for free plus tips. I would make $1.00 or $2.00 per Nite in Tips. I have continued to skate during my life Time as I find it very enjoyable, plus good exercise.
My mother was the manager of the family finances and the one that you asked if you wanted anything. She worked outside the home nearly all my growing up years. she worked first as a housecleaner for Mrs. John Hayek* *Mr. Hayek was mayor of Albert Lea for a number of years. I recall she would bring home old ties & socks. The socks she shortened by cutting off the toe. straight across. One time in school, possibly the fourth grade, we had to be weighed and the teacher told us to take off our shoes. Knowing my socks were cut off square I removed them & went up to the front of the room to be weighed bare foot. I received quite a laugh & comments from teh class about my bare feet. Anotehr time in that same class I recall coming to class one cold winter morning wearing only a thin colored undershirt under my outer coat. I was quite surprised when I removed my coat & found I had not put on a shirt before leaving home. I remembered I had put on my coat after getting out of bed because it was cold in teh house & never took it off again before leaving for school.
Later mother worked for Johnson Laundry Company in the fur department. She sewed linings and did other sewing. She also made curtains.
When living on 2d Ave and going to high School mother never made me breakfast. She had already left for work when I woke up. I would lay in bed until 6-7 minutes before school was due to start then get up, dress quickly, and run the 4-5 blocks to school. I never was late I recall. During lunch break I would come hoem and scavenger around the kitchen for something to eat. On rare occasions Mother would make something in the crock pot for me to eat (mostly beans). Nearly always I returned to school without eating anything. I don't recall having much to eat during the evening meal either so consequently my growing body did not received the necessary amount to nutirition to grow adequately. I was always the smallest one in my classes and underweight.
I think because I was always small I used to fight quite a bit. Seemed I was always getting into fights in my gorwing up years. A contributing fact was perhaps my temper. It did not take much provoking to get one made & in a fighting mood. They never were too big for me to take on. The early fighting was carried over into boxing in golden glove tournaments. I boxed first 8in the 1944 district tournament in Albert Lea. I won my only event and went to the Northwest Golden Glove Tournament in Minneapolis. I lost my first fight to an Indian fellow from Wapeton, N.D Indian School.* I was so full of malted milk shakes, doughnuts & pop corn from the afternoon sight-seeing tour of downtown Minneapolis that I was in no shape to box.
I later boxed & won my weight class at Farragut Naval training Center Farragut, Idaho. After the service i boxed in the 1946 & 1947 Golden Blove Tournament in Park Rapids, Minn & went both years to the Upper Northwest Golden Glove Tournaments in Mpls, I boxed for the FT. Lee, Virginia team in 1949-1950. During this time I boxed in Richmond, VA. for that city's team. I could have done a lot better with proper handling,
*The trainers made no effort to supervise us after we arrived in Minneapolis to see taht we would be ready for our fights. I recall going down town on the afternoon of my first fight with several other boxers. We couldn't resist stuffing our selves w/malterd milks, ham berger & hot dogs. By fight time I consequently lost the fight.
but I was always on my own once the fight started. Never was there a person in my corner who was a competent coach & could advise me on what I could do to better my chances of winning. nor was there anyone to help coach me in preparation for a fight. I learned that one needs outsdie help & advise on getting mentally prepared for anything one desired to do. It is good to talk with another person who is concerned about ou to see what you are thinking & what you want to accomplish. Like they say - Two heads are better than one - It is difficult to function in a vacuum. Seek the best expert in that particular field and communicate your desires. Be ready to adapt your thinking. One can never know everything about everything.
