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Florian Continued |
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June 2010 |
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Why didn’t they lose the farm? “We paid our taxes!” he exclaimed. “A lot of them couldn’t make the taxes during the Depression. It was tough. The dust storms were terrible. It was just like big clouds coming in from the Dakotas. They blew the Russian thistles here from the Dakotas and we got that darn stuff all over our fields and they seeded everywhere. That’s where those thistles came from. The cow pastures were covered with dust and gravel. Cows would go down into the swamp to get something to eat.” Did Florian know his grandparents? “Oh, yes, very well,” he said. “My grandparents were Joseph and Susan Diethelm. They lived where my dad was born. The old house is still standing here by the ball park, just down the street.” Florian points in another direction this time, toward the church cemetery. He added, “There wasn’t an 82nd Street in those days.” He smiles at the big number of a little Victoria street. “They owned a lot of land here in Victoria,” continued the grandson. “They had a telephone. We didn’t. My brothers and I were there every day. There was nothing to do in those dry years. Then when we were tired, we’d go lay on Grandpa’s porch.” “They had a horse barn where the old Victoria grandstand was later built,” said the man of good memory. “And they had a big hitching post for all the horses.” All the horses? “From all the people who went to church,” he said. “It was my great grandpa Carl Diethelm who donated all that land to the church, to St. Victoria, the land where the school and church were built, and the ball field land across from the church that was sold to the City of Victoria. That’s where we played ball when we were kids, too, but it didn’t look like it does today. It was just empty space then. Maybe it was Carl’s dad Alois Diethelm who donated that land.” Did the Diethelm family go into town very often? After all, it would be like walking today from the Fire Station to the Post Office. “Not too often,” said Florian. “When we hauled milk we took eggs to the store and got groceries for the eggs. Didn’t have money to buy anything otherwise. Kids today don’t believe we didn’t have any money. We had to work. That’s all we did, work on farms. We worked a lot of the time for other farmers for 50 cents a day. That was instead of going to high school.” Then, as Florian said, beer came into town and everybody seemed to have a little more money. “There were CC camps where people could work and get free room and board and clothes plus a dollar a day from the government,” he reported. “But we didn’t get nothing. And the WPA made work for people. They made the ballpark at St. Boni and other things all around everywhere. We Poke Along, that’s what we called it. They didn’t work very fast.” Florian’s laughter is contagious as the truth is being stated outloud. There’s a lot of freedom in being 92 years old. *** |
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The five children of Frank and Anna Diethelm, each born one year apart. Left to right: Charles, Art, Harold, Richard, and Florian. |