By William Gieske
This is a picture of my Brother Neal Donald Gieske and my Mother and my sister Patricia Rose Gieske. The animals are Imogene the goat, Ginny the German shepherd and Snoopy the terrier.
Mirths Farm:
We only lived on Seventh Avenue seven months, easy to remember. Pop (William Henry Gieseke, Sr.) had a desire to live in the country. When he was small he lived in an area known as Bethlehem Heights. This area later was known as The Heights and became a slum after the Bethlehem Steel Company moved east during the First World War. His father (Harry H. Gieseke) was the barber there and the surrounding area was farmland.
My father told me of camping out with other boys and shooting chickens with umbrella staves with a string on them so they could retrieve them. They also fished in the Saucon Creek near the area where the sewage plant is now. At that time it was farmland with only a few houses. Because he started work when he was twelve years old, there could not have been too much of this activity. This area is where the B.O.F. is located now.
The First World War had the Bethlehem Steel expanding beyond this area. The Heights, as it was known, became a slum and was later torn down after W.W.2.
I remember houses along the stream before the road was improved and changes were made to the area. Pop located a farm for rent in Seidersville that was owned by a family from First Avenue. When he looked at it, there was supposed to be a stove left in the kitchen but when we moved, someone had taken the stove. He had to go to Lipkens store on Main Street and buy a kitchen stove on credit. I believe it cost about forty dollars; that was a large amount then. We had that stove and a parlor heater in the living room that was not used all the time.
The kitchen stove got lots of use. We had no bathroom so all baths were taken in the kitchen. Water was heated on the stove and a large tin tub was the bathtub. Wood and coal were kept outside. The Corn Crib was the coal bin. Water was pumped from a well outside near the back porch and hauled in bucket by bucket. This was usually my job as my father worked swing shift and was gone most evenings. He worked down on The Heights and took the bus, a five-cent trip. He smoked Bull Durham tobacco and rolled his own cigarettes. I know one time he walked home to save the five cents for a sack of tobacco.
Our house was a stone farmhouse covered with stucco. We had about fifteen acres of land that had not been tilled regularly. There was a barn, Corn Crib, chicken house and the little building with the half moon in the door. I remember having a rabbit in a separate pen and we raised lots of broilers. I can remember one aunt and uncle that came regularly when the broilers were ready, but were never around any other time.
Dad's younger brother Paul came sometimes and through him I learned about Billy Rissmiller. Pop wanted a dog for me and for protection, so when Paul, who had a car, came around we went to Billy Rissmiller’s farm on Wydnor Road. He lived up a long lane and was not home when we got there. He raised chickens and sold eggs until he was forced out of business. He was the prototype of the dirty old man, a real conniver and as crooked and evil as they came. Although he was not home, the dogs were. One shepherd was loose, a large male, and no one in their right mind would have gotten out of the car. I have seen a lot of dogs and that one was the worst of the junk-yard dogs that ever were. He carried on around the car and had the window all slobbered up trying to get into us as we sat there enjoying the show from the safety of the car.
At some later time we got a dog from Billy, a male shepherd that could have been that dogs offspring. We called him Secundo and he was a great dog to have around, but unfortunately was killed by a car before he was a year old. At night he slept on the porch, and one night he was awakened suddenly by my father coming home off the bus and leaped for my fathers face but recognized him in time to abort the attack. He would have been someone to avoid if you were up to no good. We later on got another dog from some other neighbor, a part Lab, I believe. When he started to pull the young chickens through the fence by their necks, resulting in about a dozen dead chicks, he had to go.
On the lower level of the barn we kept a cow, a rental cow no less. I bet you never knew that you could rent a cow. We had this young cow for free just as if she was our own but the calf went to the owner. Normally, these are young cows and they are a little crazy and act up frequently. It was my job to stake her out when pop worked or bring her in to the barn; a lot of fun with an 800 pound cow on thirty feet of chain with a different idea of fun than you had.
Outside the lower level was the garden, good rich soil and easy to fertilize from the cow stall. The soil was rich and stayed moist so we grew great things there. Large gardens also have lots of weeds and I can remember doing a lot of weed pulling.
Hampty Bechdolt, one of our neighbors, plowed a large field for us and Uncle Ervy shared part of it. They came over fairly often as it was a short trip or they would walk over the hill. Sometime after we were there, someone gave my father his old car back. He could not drive any more so they gave it to Ervy. It was a 1924 Chevrolet touring car. I remember it standing in the barn and Ervy and the family coming over with it. I can also remember Mom’s sister Mame coming over with their new Plymouth that they won in a lottery of some kind.
We planted all kind of things in that field and I can remember pulling weeds in the string beans with my mother, brother and sister. We learned to work on that farm as it had to be done and sharing the labor made it easier. Crying and complaining out loud or in silence by your actions never got the job done (and never will) but will only make it go that much harder.
We had a small orchard next to the house, and I can remember soaking corn cobs in kerosene and sticking them on pitchforks so we could burn out the tent caterpillars that were on the apple trees. The schoolhouse was a four-room building at the end of our property and we all went there. One time Neal missed school because of snow. There were no snow days as now. Mom wrote his excuse that his legs were only three feet and the snow was four feet deep. We did get deep snows the two winters we were there.
Traffic was very light and in the evening, after every one was home from work, the hill was a great place to sleigh ride. There was so little traffic, no one ever got hurt by an auto. In the spring, the snow melted and raised the water level in the little stream on the farm. During the summer this little stream gave us lots of pleasures such as catching salamanders, swimming in the dam we built and just exploring along its banks. Later on we learned how to collect a worm for trout fishing from the debris in the stream.
The Bechdolts lived on a larger farm that joined ours and they raised pigs, cows, workhorses and usually several mules. We played with the boys when they were allowed to, which was seldom as they had big orchards and there was always some work to be done. The Clauser’s lived up in Seidersville and we became close friends. Also, Chic Clauser and I hunted together for years. Across the street and down a ways were two ice ponds, one almost silted in, and the other more open. For years these were a source of fun, fishing, catching bullfrogs and, of course, ice-skating.
On Sundays, it was my chore to get the paper at Mohn’s store. Mr. Mohn’s one daughter Lucille, was married to Rus Dougherty, who was a State Cop. He had been in the old state constabulary and rode a motorcycle then. We remained friends until they both passed away. Later on, the other daughter, Mickey, lived in the high rise near mom and used to visit her. These were other friends we had.
The second year we were there, we opened up a small field along the stream, good rich soil we thought. Whatever we planted was choked out by the turnips that came up by the thousands. We gave up trying to pull them out like weeds and let them take over. We had so many that Robert and I collected them and I stayed over at his house and we huckstered (sold) them from a little wagon.
Tessie Williamson came to stay with us. She was living in Camden with her husband who was a bum and was suspected of running around on her while she was pregnant. Tess was a lot of fun, kind of crazy and a good sport. One time when she was combing my sisters hair (mom was working somewhere and dad was in bed) the cow got loose and came up to the house and got up on the porch before Tess heard the noise; when she looked out, she went bananas. She hollered up the back stairwell for my father. He must have thought it was some kind of disaster. This was often laughed about later on. Tesss husband sent her a little money now and then, but she never had much.
One Fourth of July, I wanted firecrackers and she paid me to pick wild strawberries for her. It takes a lot of strawberries to make a pint. They are sweet but very small. We also had a regular route for asparagus, wild that is. We could follow the route and pick a goodly amount for a meal in about one half hour. Dill for pickles was never store bought as there was plenty growing wild. We also had two kinds of wild tea to choose from.
All we had to heat and cook on was the big range in the kitchen and a parlor heater, as they were called, in the front room. Mom did her cooking on that range and water was heated for bathing also. We raised lots of vegetables, so at least we ate well. When the broilers were ready, there was lots of fried chicken and we also had eggs from the layers.
The cow we kept was a Guernsey or a Jersey, both of which give very rich milk. We made our own butter and also had cottage cheese and buttermilk. The only time we were short of milk was in the spring when the grass was new. The new grass and the wild garlic make the milk taste strong. Only someone who loves garlic can stand to use the milk during these times.
Mom was a great canner. All the canning took place on the range in the kitchen. All kinds of vegetables were canned. One year she put up five hundred cans of goodies for the cold winter months. At Christmas she made cookies starting right after Thanksgiving. The cookies were put in large lard cans to keep them safe. All the cookies were cut out with the tin cookie cutters in use then. Besides cookies, there were always at least five fruitcakes. All these goodies were kept on the front stairs which were not used. Since we could have all we wanted, they were reasonably safe there. Mom also made mince meat for pies of which there were also plenty.
One Christmas I got my first gun, a bee bee gun. I learned to shoot with that gun and later on was glad for the early training. We did not have the hysteria over guns like today. Guns were a tool to be used carefully like any other tool. I do admit that we were not as good as we should have been. On evenings when we were alone, we set penny matchboxes on the top of the upholstered chairs and shot them full of holes. Once in a while we missed and dinged the chair. We got scolded for it when it was discovered. I also became an expert at hitting my brother or sister on the top of their shoes. It did not penetrate but did sting. I was not allowed to hunt yet as I was too young but later on I did a lot of hunting.
Chic Clauser and I were good friends during most of this time. Some evenings while the parents visited, Chic and I would amuse ourselves in the kitchen. American cheese came in nice little wooden boxes and were prized if you could get one as lots of things could be made from the wood. Cigar boxes were all wood and were neat to cut out things with a coping saw. Single cell dry cells cost twenty-five cents (a large sum for us); but if you could get one and find an old radio for the magnet wire, there were lots of things to experiment with. Certain magazines always had things for young boys to make, provided you could get the material, a major obstacle in the depression days.
The field next to ours was owned by the people who lived down the lane from the church. Horses were in use then as there were very few tractors around and those were big clumsy machines. Home made tractors were the thing then. You took an old car and tore off the body, the frame was shortened and two transmissions were installed. If you could get a Model T Ruxtall rear-end, that was the best. Some of them were two-speed. They had worm gears and could take lots of abuse. They also helped slow the car down. There were no implements for them. You hooked on a horse plow and someone ran behind holding on the shafts; it was primitive but got the job done.
I don’t remember getting in the hay at this place but do remember pop and his scythe. He used what is called a German Scythe. It is sharpened by hammering it on special little anvil and touched it up in the field with a stone. Pop cut hay when he was younger (living with a relative on a farm) and he was an expert. He could cut grass as close as one of our lawn mowers today. I know the mow was pretty full of hay - feed for the cow.
Where the hay was stored was called the haymow. A barn was a building containing many parts. The cows were kept in the cowstall. The horses were in the horsestall; there could be a threshing floor which would be used to store the wagon but reserved to thresh grain. There could be a feed room where feed was stored. Just like a house, a barn is many rooms for many purposes.
One weekend when Ervy and the boys were over, we kids were playing king of the mountain or hayloft. There was a brace run over the top of the hay, so we would balance ourselves on that and when we fell it was into the hay. Lots of fun or so it was until someone landed on my leg. It doubled up and I could not get it straight. I snuck into the house and went to bed. After while the adults noticed the boys were all too quiet so they did some checking up. No doctor was available that night so the next day I had to go. I had to go to get an X-ray, some place on Broad near Second Avenue. Then it was back to the doctor. They decided no bones were broke, only hurt muscles. I could not get the leg straight, but the doctor did. I remember that as one of the most painful times of my life.
The schoolhouse was four rooms and two grades per room. The 7-8-grade teacher was a brute; kept a bottle in the closet and when he had a little too much to drink, he enjoyed using his strap on the unruly students. I had a good teacher. He later was suspected of jumping into the mine hole but, I think, he ran off with another woman. He could get mad - as I remember him using the dust brush on some unruly kid. In our day, the teachers were boss and you did not go home and complain or you got more.
We played in the cellar where two large rooms were concrete. The in thing was roller skates, not inline or shoe skates but plain old clamp ones. The rich kids had fancy ones that fit and some poor kids, like us, had none.
Aunt Mame:
Mom had lots of brothers but only one sister. She was married to Oscar Forker, an avid outdoorsman. They had two boys Harry and Charlie, as unlike as any brothers ever were. Neal and I liked to go to Aunt Mames to stay over night. One of the reasons (when we were younger) was she liked ice cream and would send out for it frequently. Sometimes we were sent up to Main Street for it. I also remember going to Jimmy the Greeks Butcher Shop on the corner of Main and Union Blvd.
Oss had cataract operations and wore glasses with real thick lenses which hampered his vision. He was a roller at the steel mill. His job was to control the machine that rolled the steel ingots into different shapes. He was paid according to production and made a good salary.
Harry, the oldest cousin, was studious and graduated from a business college. After he graduated, he could not get a good job as the depression was still on, so he huckstered cantaloupes. I helped him one summer when I was about sixteen. We drove to Philadelphia on the docks and bought them by the crate. We had the back seat out of the car and could haul a good amount home. During the day we went door to door with a half melon showing how good they were. The best part was, in order to show a nice melon, it had to be fresh so we ate the old one so we would have a fresh one to show. I didn’t mind the work as it was kind of fun.
Harry later got a job at the Unity Lodge above Bushkill, this later was sold to the ILGWU. The good part of the job was it came with fishing privileges as the lodge was for wealthy Jews who didn’t fish. Harry went into the Army Air Corps during the war and was stationed in England and Scotland. I know he did a lot of fishing while he was over there.
Charlie, the other cousin, never finished high school. He was happy go lucky and from him I learned the words to all the latest songs. He was very athletic and played roller hockey long before it became popular. We played pitch and catch in the alley and he had a way of making you think you were a great pitcher. Later on, when I was older, we hunted and fished together many times. Both of them had a great influence on my life.
It was at Aunt Mame's that I first played with a typewriter. That was a big event being able to type like that. I also became hooked on reading after being exposed to a book she had for the boys, Tarzan of the Apes. I first read that book while staying with the Forkers.
Both boys and Oss Forker tied flies, the fishing type that is. They often showed me how to do it but I never became real interested in doing it. When you stayed there you ate lots of trout during the summer, as they fished every night and were experts at it. Writing this brings back a lot of good memories of hunting with them.
There was an old country store in Seidersville called Clauser’s Store. It still looked like stores looked in the eighteen hundreds. There were huge cabinets full of all sorts of goodies. I can remember seeing loose shot from the days of the muzzle loading shotguns. If you looked close enough you could find button hooks from the days when all dresses had lots of them. There were even some old button up shoes from when they were fashionable for women. Just as there were things that disappeared from generations before us, there are things we used no longer available.
Have you ever seen a carpet beater? Carpets were taken out on the line and beaten to remove the dirt. Wall to wall carpet was a luxury reserved for the very wealthy. Most of you have never seen a wringer washer or used a hand pump called a pitcher pump. We all take indoor plumbing pretty much for granted but not too long ago it was a luxury.
Corn and wheat are no longer shocked around here so people come from all over to see the quaint way the Amish farm, a way we used to work. Many of the things I used as a younger man are now shown off in little villages that have been preserved by some organization.
North Street:
All good things must end, I guess, and so one day we moved back to town. Dad’s youngest brother Paul was getting married and they were to live with us.
We rented a large house on Garrison Street next to Tank Park. It was called that because there was a large water tank at the upper end. At the lower end there was a building used for a farmers market on weekends and used by park people during the summer for crafts and such. It was used frequently by kids climbing on the roof to play or peep into bedrooms that they could see into.
The house we had was large and much nicer than the farmhouse, but we missed the country. We soon had a fall out with Pauls new wife and he moved out. We moved over to North Street. This house was not as nice, but I guess was more affordable. It was owned by Mr. Mast who was a garbage man and had four girls and one boy. My parents got along very well with the family and I remember going to a farm they owned. He had a large touring car with jump seats in it and we thought it was great.
One summer we went to Mountain Lake in New Jersey for a week. My parents were the chaperones for the girl’s and their boy friends. What a difference from the way it is today. I can remember that week very well. I made friends with the girl in the next cabin and we had a great time together when the other boys left her alone as she was a good looking girl. We were only friends though and that made the week a pleasant one to remember. The popular song was The Miller’s Daughter Mary Ann and I still have the first line of the melody in my head. Our cabin was called Daddy Long Legs because it was on the side of a hill with many steps to get in.
I can remember going to Liberty High School when we lived there, it was a junior high then also. It was here that I discovered the library. I hauled books home by the gross that summer as I immersed myself in mountain men, old western stories and the perils of darkest Africa. I could not get enough of reading and I guess my eyes paid the price for it.
One year the local stores ran a contest with so many winning kids going to camp. By all the relatives counts, I should have been one of the winners but I was only close, no recount. We belonged to Salem Lutheran Church and I joined the scout troop. We held paper drives and raised some of the funds and the church paid the rest so we all went to Camp Minsi. This Boy Scout camp was then at Tobbyanna. The picnic area was our campground. We had sailboats and swimming. I passed the swim test so I could go out in the boat alone. At the end of the week, there were contests to show off your new skills; I was chosen to chop wood and had cut a lot of wood on the farm working with my father. The leaders had me sharpen the hatchet until it was like a razor. When my turn came I went through the log so fast (I was way ahead) I think I surprised everyone. Most boys only twelve years old have never chopped wood like I had.
Our next-door neighbors went out on Saturday night a lot. They usually came home by taxi, and slightly intoxicated. In the morning, we would hurry out to pick up the change from the gutter, as he usually dropped some. Someone told my parents about a bike that could be had; they got the bike, an old narrow tire with a frame for a seven-foot giant. I could ride it by sliding back and forth to reach the pedals but needed the curb to dismount or mount. When they saw I could ride they surprised me with the best bike Sears Roebuck sold. It was more bicycle than I ever wanted as I wanted a less expensive one. That bike was my prize possession for many a year and I learned to repair bikes from that one. Later on we would travel miles together.
My mother located a store that sold candy wholesale, 144 pieces for .$95. She would buy two boxes and I ran a candy route, mostly to relatives and friends. I had to do this on Saturday morning so we had the money for the movies in the afternoon. There was enough profit from two boxes to get the three of us to the movies and some times a little to spare.
Central Park:
This park was owned by the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. This was the outfit that ran the trolley and bus service. The park was located at the dividing line for Allentown and Bethlehem. During the summer, church groups would have picnics there and get special rates on tickets. We went with the church group both summers and had a great time. We went to this park until it was destroyed some time after we were married. When we had the picnics, there would be entertainment and special treats for the kids. In Pennsylvania Dutch tradition there was lots of food. The park had all sorts of great rides, not the fast ones of today but all the old classics. The merry-go-round was a very elite one, large and very pretty. The park was large with trees all through it. At the top was the Cyclone; the highest and fastest ride there. It was wood so it shook a lot when it went around. There was also a great fun house before it burned down. This tragic event seemed to signal the end of the park and the end of an era we grew up in.
My father was working steadier at the steel mill so things were much better for us. He wanted a car and had his eye on a La Salle that was like a junior Cadillac back then. He was not able to get one and they went out of production soon after.
He did purchase a 1934 Oldsmobile, a make of automobile he stayed with the rest of his life. He took his vacation in August and it seemed like it rained every year at that time.
The house on North Street only had a cellar in the front; we did not use it much. One year in preparation for vacation, we started to accumulate nightwalkers, large worms for fishing. We were going to go fishing that week but it rained all week so the fishing was off and the worms were forgotten until we went down into the cellar. I can still remember the stench of those worms.
Pop left home when he was about twelve years old and made his way ever since. His father died early and pop and his mother did not get along. It was for this reason I had never met my Grandmother until we lived on North Street. Mom, in an effort to patch things up, took us to see her - it was kind of a strained visit but it did set the stage for events to come. One of the reasons pop never got along was that he was expected to provide; all and some of the other brothers were more favored. We did get to know all the other uncles and aunts later on and we all were fairly friendly. Pop and his one brother, the minister, became close after this.
Copyright © William H. Gieske 2005
Published in the June 2005 issues of U.S.Legacies magazine.
To Be Continued . . .
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