More Great Grandpa stories

Some of the stories Great Grandpa Helms shared with Grandma Jacky, his daughter, follow:

During middle school and high school he sold eggs door to door for 8 doz. for a dollar or one cent @. He saved $5000 by the time he got married and it paid for their first home.

He attended a Catholic grade school through 8th grade and the nuns would take a ruler and hit the inside of your hands if you were bad.

When he was about 12, he had a new Fluger Rod and Reel which he wanted to try but his dad was busy with his friends so he took Glenny, his younger brother, fishing in the row boat. Glenny could not row the boat so dad would let out line and row the boat away from the spot, sort of trolling. He caught a huge fish and had a very hard time getting it into the boat. Finally he put his hand into the mouth (he got his hand bloody) and pulled it into the boat. The big fish kept flopping around so dad put the anchor on it to keep it from overturning the boat or jumping back into the water. He proudly took his catch back to his dad who didn't believe he had caught it because it was so big.

Dickerhoof had an apple orchard behind our old property and dad would pick the apples and have them pressed at the cider mill. He got barrels of cider which he put in a cooler by the road and sold for a dollar a gallon.

There were also celery patches near us. After they were harvested dad would go get what was left behind and mom would have all the celery they could use.

He was fortunate to own a Road master Bicycle. He got $5 a week which were good wages back then. Milk was ten cents a gallon; bread five cents a loaf; gasoline was eight gallons for a dollar. He would get a quarter's worth. Dad got a 32 Chevy for $50 dollars when he was 17 or 18 years old. When he was drafted into the army he sold it for a fifty dollar war bond to an uncle who used it for another four years. New cars sold for $600. His first new car cost $1000.

First day of school during recess, he thought it was over so he went home. Teacher didn't know where he was or what happened to him. He had a phone in their home which was a rarity back then and he got in trouble in school passing out his phone number to other students. Phones were black and very heavy back then and you dialed by turning a wheel on top.

He was in a club which took lots of field trips hunting and fishing. It was the Jr. Isaac Walton League.

He walked in the Nimisilla Lake area just as the dam was being built.

He thinks he still has the five horsepower Everue fishing motor from Grandpa Helms in Michigan somewhere in his garage. He used to go on vacation to Michigan and the place had an outside shower and outhouse. One time the family had just arrived and taken in their cloths when Grandma called and said Jacky (a small baby at the time) was very sick in the hospital. They loaded the car and came right back home.

Katy Kansas was where ½ sister lived. Grandma remarried and had one girl then died. Grandma got sick from drinking well water. The Helmses lived out of Noblesville Indiana on a vacant farm. They all got typhoid fever and died except for Glenn and his mom. Her father died when she was six years old (Dad Berkwart.)

Anna Berger's, (Glenn Helms Wife and James Helms mom) grandpa came over from Germany. They had a farm in Rittman Ohio at the top of a steep grade and the model T had trouble getting to the top of the hill.