Memories of Daniel H. Smith
These are memories that Daniel H. Smith that are not specific to a particular story. Daniel had a habit of inserting some very interesting digressions. In order to improve the flow of the stories, in some cases we have edited the stories to remove the memories from the stories and moved them to here.
Lazy or not, my teenage work days were fourteen hours a day on a tractor, plowing or cultivating. As if that were not enough, Pa sent me to plow for the neighbors, such the Hoeks or De Boers when they had family tragedies. During harvest time, I had a team and a hay wagon and loaded and pitched bundles, as many as fourteen loads on each threshing day. Threshing went on for three or four weeks from neighbor to neighbor until the harvest was done. I continued to work on the farm for Pa and Ma until they moved to Milaca. After that, I plowed and cultivated for brother Jake until I started college in the fall of that year.
Al and Elsie were of great help to me when I started college at South Dakota State. They supplied me with potatoes and eggs whenever I hitchhiked back from Brookings, South Dakota on weekends. I cooked for my American Indian roommate and myself on a one-burner hot plate. Neither of us had much money. Sometimes we would eat out for the 35-cent liver and onion special. Our one bedroom with cooking privileges in the closet cost each of us $4 a week.
Throughout the drought and depression, Al stayed in school and graduated from the eighth grade. There was no work away from home and there was nothing to harvest. Al and Elmer Vander Burg went bumming on the railroads. They lived from day to day on handouts, garden thefts, or small odd jobs. They went as far as California and many other states. Elmer got so thin he could fold his hands behind his back. He did have long arms! He later died in the “Death March” from the Philippines by the Japanese captors. After Al’s railroad experiences, he left home at about age twenty to work in California. After Al came back he bought a truck which he used to haul things for farmers. He spent some time working on Jimmy Heinz’ farm. He rented a farm from Dave Hiester and married Elsie soon after that. Ted worked for Al not long after he came back from Alaska.
Jake was Henry (Pa) and Katie’s fourth child. Brother Jake was sent to Hull, Iowa Christian Academy for fifth grade when he was age fourteen. He worked on Piet Van Driel’s farm for his room and board. He did satisfactory work at the school but he did not want to go away from home again the next fall. When the time came, he stayed at home to work on the farm. The school board found out about it and ordered him back to the public school because he was not yet age sixteen. Jake came back into the sixth grade because he had not yet taken the state exams for passing. It was evident that Jake knew much more than the other sixth graders. Sometimes to the embarrassment of the young, female, normal-school trained teacher, he knew answers when she did not. For a joke, Jake would take the screws out of his desk so it would fall backward whenever he wanted it to. Finally the teacher said, “Jake if you fall backward again you are expelled.” Immediately, Jake fell backward and ended his academic career.
Brother John was the third child of Henry (Pa) and his first wife, Katie. He was known for being a tough guy. I remember John sassing the teacher, Jerry Robinson. He was told he would get a whipping with a tire pump hose after school. During recess he was the center of attention, acting the tough guy and putting rocks into his back pockets for protection. We all stood outside the library window and listened to his whipping. We could hear his screams but he refused to cry. He came out of the school bragging about how tough he was, and he was tough! He was in the sixth grade at the time and very rarely went to school after that.