DAD’S STORY (Episode Two)

When I started school in 1928, I went by school bus to Park Place School. The school house has long since been torn down. I believe the site is now a ball park. I was held back and repeated first grade at Monroe Central School. That year, 1929, Dad started to work at the Monroe Reformatory. As a guard, he soon took over the additional job of looking after the Blood Hound Dogs. Their job was to follow and catch the escaped convicts.

Over the years, many of the dogs were raised and trained by Dad at home, on our farm. I recall my brother Ed and I “Making Trail” for them, as Dad called it. We would run from the house a short distance, and then Dad would turn the pup loose. This game grew and so did the dogs. No matter how far we went or how well we hid, they always found us. We had many laughs about the fact that the so called, “Blood Hounds” were feared by the escaped prisoners. When caught, Dad had no need of a gun to control the convict; he just threatened to turn the dogs loose. The dogs were so gentle; they would probably have licked them to death.
After running for miles, baying and slobbering foam from their mouths; they were excited and wanted to jump all over them. The prisoners took this to mean that they were vicious and the convicts wanted nothing to do with them.

My Uncle Charlie Hansen had an early model Buick auto that was his pride and joy. I don’t know the year but the head lamps had to be lit with a match. They were not out front like they are today but they were attached to the car about where the outside rear view mirrors are on today’s cars. The horn was one that had a handle that you pushed down and it made the sound of AH-OO-GA. Everything on that car was trimmed in brass. He continued to buy Buicks until he died in 1941.

My grandfather, James William Ray, had many cars but one in particular stands out in my memory. It was a new 1929 Model T Ford sedan. He put oil all over it to make it shiny. The roads were all gravel in those days and very dusty. He wouldn’t take it out of the garage except on rainy days because the dust would stick and cake to the oil. There was no thought of car wax back then but Grandpa’s car never got rusty.

My Dad bought a 1926 Dodge touring car in 1929. It was so tough that we used the fenders as an anvil to straighten nails, crack nuts on and so forth. The wheels had wood spokes and during the dry summer the spokes dried out and became very loose and made a heck of a noise. We had to drive it out into a stream or lake to soak up the water to keep them tight.
If the battery went dead, we just jacked up the rear wheel, left it in gear, with the switch on and spun the wheel till it started. He didn’t drive it at night because the headlights didn’t work. There were no fuses in those days; at least not in that car. When the lights burned out, due to a short in the wires, he didn’t bother to replace them. In 1932 he bought a new 1931 demonstrator Model A Ford from Bickford in Snohomish. It was their first year in business. He paid $300.00 plus for it. What would a new Ford cost today?

In 1938 I bought a 1928 Model A Ford Roadster for $35.00, with the money I had made selling a sow and nine young pigs. I have had many cars since then but none have been as much fun as that 29 Model A.

Experiences I had during my many years of growing up on the farm and going to school, could fill up a book all by themselves. Monroe was the greatest and I have so many wonderful memories that there is no way I could ever put them all down on paper. So I just won’t try and we’ll settle for highlights that I’ve already mentioned.

I went into the military in October of 1942. (more to follow)