Chapter 1

Pre-life

The year was 1934 and Dad's father Henry had passed away on 20 Jan 1934. Dad was still very busy taking care of his father’s farm, helping his Mom raise his brother and sisters and trying to keep the family financially sound. Uncle Hank was 13, Eva was 16 and Marie was 19 years old. Dad was all of 21 years old when he took on this responsibility. Shortly after in, 1935, Mom and Dad were married. The newlywed couple moved into the family home on the farm. Soon after the bill collectors came calling. The farm and machinery were liquidated and a house on 1057 North main was exchanged for the farm equity. There are still hard feelings among Dad's brother and sisters about the liquidation of the farm. Soon after dad took a job at the US Post Office in Russell.

Marie and Eva were living and working in Russell, originally to pay expenses for high school. (Elsie Louise Weeks) Mom and (Phillip Adolph Berschauer) Dad met before 1935, introduced by Dad’s sister Eva. Mom and Aunt Eva were friends in high school. Mom and Dad were married in Dodge City, Kansas on June 15, 1935.

We are born!

My brother Bert was born March 24, 1939 and I was born July 19, 1940. My godfather (Bob Stewart) was a Sergeant in the Army Air Force. He was stationed at Walker AFB near Victoria, Kansas. On December 7, 1941 the bombing that took place in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii forever changed all of our lives. Our sister Phyllis was born on December 21, 1942 and Karen was born on May 17, 1945. I was born before WWII, Phyllis and Karen was born after WWII. World War II indelibly shaped the times around my birth. Soldiers who were stationed at Walker AFB were all around town. My parents were just getting over my grandfather’s death and Dad and his sisters were dealing with the sale of grandpa’s farm and where grandma would live.

Of course I do not remember anything about the time I was born, except the stories my mom told me. When I was crawling around the house Bert would push me like a toy car and I would fall on my nose. Also I was told that when he spoke for me, for example, I would grunt and point at something and Bert would say he wants water. There was no need for me to talk so Mom says that I did not talk until I was near two. I always wonder about her stories, but they are my memories of these early days. Mom said that I was always Bert’s shadow. I followed him everywhere. One time I had followed Bert and he got in a struggle over a hammer with Jerry Gallyardt. Bert won and unfortunately I was standing behind him and the claw hammer hit me on the head. Another time Bert and I were trying to pound nails into Dads 37 Ford’s tires when he was home for lunch break. Mom told Dad and he blew it off saying, "Have you ever tried to pound a nail into a tire!" He went back to work late that day.

Yet another story, Dad was in a habit of leaving his car parked in front of the closed garage door. Bert and I supposedly thought that we should go for a drive. We got into the car and Bert figured out how to turn on the ignition. The 1937 Ford had a toggle switch on the steering column and Dad always left the key in the lock because the steering wheel lock would stick at times and he did not want to deal with it. Theft was not a problem. "It was Russell, Kansas you know." Well with the ignition on I found the starter button. Soon the engine was running and the car was in first gear. We crashed through the garage door and into the piles of stuff in the garage. At an idle, the engine soon quit running. We were in hot water and the repairs of stuff just got underway.

The last story I remember about living in the house on North Main was about two boys all dressed up to attend Joyce Becker's birthday party. Apparently Mom had dressed us in our finest and sent us to walk to the birthday party. Joyce only lived a few doors away. Bert and I arrived and Mrs. Becker said the party had been called off. We only lived a few blocks from the railroad where Uncle Dome worked. So we walked to the railroad yard. "A place where all sorts of goods were stored, loaded and shipped by rail. We were very interested because they had an old wench truck in the yard and it was always ready to run. I mean ignition was a non-keyed switch and the electric winch was fun to operate, even without starting, running or moving the truck. Bert and I headed right for the truck. We managed to lower the wench hook right into a stacked pile of waiting bagged lime. The top bag of lime tore open and fell to the ground beside the loading dock. We knew we would be in trouble so we tried to pick the bag up and carry it back up and onto the dock. I do not know how much it weighed but we were able to move it back on the dock. Unfortunately the spillage was severe. We made a nice white line all of the way from the ground where it fell up the loading ramp and beside the pile of bags of lime. Sooner or later Mom caught up with us and we were in real trouble for wondering off, for ruining our clothes and and….

We were given the name "Kats and Jammer Kids", as newspaper cartoon characters were named. There were others to like "Little Hanyaks" I do not know where that came from but our town was made up of a significant German heritage. I looked it up in German/English dictionaries. No luck! It must be slang!

After the war ended in 1946, Things were looking up. Mom and Dad bought a house on the South side of town in the Theron Addition. Our house was number 735 on Oakdale Street. There were several delightful neighbors up and down the street. I was starting to notice the little girls and Jill Karst lived about a half a block up the street, a little farther were Charlotte Oaks, and a little farther yet lived Margaret Caldwell. Down the other way was Virginia Liggett. Just one street over lived Melinda Kirkman and her sister Rachel. Jill, Charlotte, Margaret and Melinda were all in my class but at five going on six years old I was just a shy little boy and an admirer.

About this time I was in the habit of sleep walking. Mom and Dad were entertaining one evening and apparently I came out of my bedroom and walked over to the hamper. The hamper was in the hallway for all to see. I lifted the lid and peed right into the hamper, closed the lid and went back bed. Another stories about Bert and I helping out our sister Phyllis. She had a doll with eyes that closed when you laid here down. Bert and I told her that we had to operate on her dolly because she never woke up when she was lying down. We took her down stairs to our operating room and opened her head to see what made her eyes open and shut. Would you believe a little lead weight? A bad scar in her hair caused Mom to require Bert and I buy Phyllis a new doll of her choice. Just another of many lessons we learned.

There have been more stories surfacing over the years about our life on Oakdale. It seems there was an older boy living next door. His name was Bill Madden. As Bert and I walked to school we always were haunted by Madden. He would jump out from behind trees and scare us, chase us down the street and other nice surprises. We thought he was mean. One day Bert and I came up with a plan to get him. We enticed him to get into Dad’s two-wheel trailer and then began to rock the trailer as violently as two six-year-olds can, and he was unable to get back out. We kept him trapped there for a while and then he escaped. His mother came to our house requesting that mother administer some discipline. Mom heard her out and asked how two six year olds could hurt a 12 year old. The issue was dropped and we never had trouble with Bill Madden again.

That is the end of the stories that I remember which were repeated about our childhood.