Sunday, January 11, 2004
UNCLE ALFRED
As I think of uncle Alfred I remember how quiet he was. He was a listener and thinker. He was born March 12, 1892 at the Nacora homestead and shared the hardships that were endured by Grandpa, Grandma and uncle Louie. It was back -breaking work but he never talked much about it. Whatever hardships he survived were private. When the family moved to the Nickerson farm life was decidedly better. There was a house and “out”buildings, a well and a cave to store food. The work never changed in any way except for the location.
Winters are harsh in Nebraska. Temperatures drop off the chart and wind rages unmercifully. The early settlers had to tie ropes between the barn and house so they wouldn’t wander off course and become lost in the fury of a snow storm. Lanterns were the only light available to use in the barn-work as they helped their stock give birth or to do the milking. The smell of kerosene would fill the barn and occasionally the snort of cows or horses would break the silence. Little talking was done as grandpa and the uncles put corn in the feed boxes or pitched hay down from above. All care was given to the animals because they needed the calves to increase the herd and the horses to do the work. Great pride was taken by every farmer in how well his team could pull heavy loads or work the fields. Snow would drift above the barn doors at times and have to be shoveled before they could do the chores. Winter starts early and is late in leaving Nebraska.
Alfred, like his brother Louie, left home to work at other farms. There were younger brothers now to take up the work he would leave. As soon as he made enough for a start somewhere he left the farm-life behind and began a small repair business. That meant living far from the life he had known before. Year’s went by and he never married, content to live alone and work with the machinery he liked to fix. Soon his world was to change beyond his own imagination.
His younger brother, Emil, was married and living in Blair, NE. Emil’s wife, Helen, was dying of breast cancer and they had a 9-month old baby that would need care. Helen’s mother, Nettie Boston, had been widowed some years before and offered to take the baby (Harold Gene). Uncle Emil kept the two older children, Doris and Billy, with him. Alfred and Nettie somehow came together at this time. She was fourteen years older than Alfred and kind of a strange woman in a way….but that didn’t seem to matter to uncle Alfred…he wasn’t much of a conversationalist and he liked someone talking to him. They were married and made a home for Harold Gene and kept him until he was grown and joined the Army. Nettie died in November of 1959 at 81 years of age. And so it was that Alfred became a father-in-law to his own brother by marrying Helen’s mother.
In later years Alfred retired and moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas. He lived for some time with his younger brother, Ted and his wife Beulah, and after that in a mobile home park. He drove along on several family trips that my mother and dad made along with my own family. The kids enjoyed him and his strange ways were a novelty for them. They lovingly parroted his usual remark to any subject you might be talking about. There would be a long silence and then after thinking it over he would slowly say, “y-uuuuuuuuu-p”!! His bright blue eyes would sparkle and he would have a grin on his face. I remember he had a beautiful complexion…so smooth and soft with pinkish cheeks. It was the perfect compliment to his white hair.
My mother and dad made the 100-mile drive to see him once a month. They would take him to dinner, help him do some shopping and have a nice scenic ride in the area. Dad never forgot how Alfred rescued him at the train station long ago in Nebraska to send him home. When my dad died I kept the monthly ritual until uncle Alfred’s death on Christmas Day in 1980. He was 88 years old. He died holding the thoughts and whatever dreams he might have had within.
Essentially Esther
Winters are harsh in Nebraska. Temperatures drop off the chart and wind rages unmercifully. The early settlers had to tie ropes between the barn and house so they wouldn’t wander off course and become lost in the fury of a snow storm. Lanterns were the only light available to use in the barn-work as they helped their stock give birth or to do the milking. The smell of kerosene would fill the barn and occasionally the snort of cows or horses would break the silence. Little talking was done as grandpa and the uncles put corn in the feed boxes or pitched hay down from above. All care was given to the animals because they needed the calves to increase the herd and the horses to do the work. Great pride was taken by every farmer in how well his team could pull heavy loads or work the fields. Snow would drift above the barn doors at times and have to be shoveled before they could do the chores. Winter starts early and is late in leaving Nebraska.
Alfred, like his brother Louie, left home to work at other farms. There were younger brothers now to take up the work he would leave. As soon as he made enough for a start somewhere he left the farm-life behind and began a small repair business. That meant living far from the life he had known before. Year’s went by and he never married, content to live alone and work with the machinery he liked to fix. Soon his world was to change beyond his own imagination.
His younger brother, Emil, was married and living in Blair, NE. Emil’s wife, Helen, was dying of breast cancer and they had a 9-month old baby that would need care. Helen’s mother, Nettie Boston, had been widowed some years before and offered to take the baby (Harold Gene). Uncle Emil kept the two older children, Doris and Billy, with him. Alfred and Nettie somehow came together at this time. She was fourteen years older than Alfred and kind of a strange woman in a way….but that didn’t seem to matter to uncle Alfred…he wasn’t much of a conversationalist and he liked someone talking to him. They were married and made a home for Harold Gene and kept him until he was grown and joined the Army. Nettie died in November of 1959 at 81 years of age. And so it was that Alfred became a father-in-law to his own brother by marrying Helen’s mother.
In later years Alfred retired and moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas. He lived for some time with his younger brother, Ted and his wife Beulah, and after that in a mobile home park. He drove along on several family trips that my mother and dad made along with my own family. The kids enjoyed him and his strange ways were a novelty for them. They lovingly parroted his usual remark to any subject you might be talking about. There would be a long silence and then after thinking it over he would slowly say, “y-uuuuuuuuu-p”!! His bright blue eyes would sparkle and he would have a grin on his face. I remember he had a beautiful complexion…so smooth and soft with pinkish cheeks. It was the perfect compliment to his white hair.
My mother and dad made the 100-mile drive to see him once a month. They would take him to dinner, help him do some shopping and have a nice scenic ride in the area. Dad never forgot how Alfred rescued him at the train station long ago in Nebraska to send him home. When my dad died I kept the monthly ritual until uncle Alfred’s death on Christmas Day in 1980. He was 88 years old. He died holding the thoughts and whatever dreams he might have had within.
Essentially Esther
