Mom & Ernie

Edna on the left & Morna Collins.

 Mom had many stories about growing up and she wrote them all down in her collection, My Life. But one I've always remembered was about Ernie falling out of the car and no one noticing. Even back in the fifties and sixties when the only thing holding you in the car was a door, it was hard to visualize. As time has passed and children are now carefully ensconced in car seats, it's unfathomable.

I'm not challenging the veracity of the story, I'm just illustrating it with these pictures. The following is Mom's description: 

As I was growing up my parents were good friends of the minister and his family.  Their name was Collins. . . My mother liked his wife very much and they did things together a lot.  They had four children like my parents. 

The Collins-Burkhardt families--Mary on the right and Ernie the left.

The youngest one was named Ernie and we were not in school so we would be with the two women.  One day my mother was driving down the river road that ran beside the Kaw River on a dirt road going to my Uncle Percy’s cabin.  The door flew open and Ernie fell out.  They didn’t notice and it took awhile before I get their attention that Ernie was no longer in the car.  I did not push him.  I liked Ernie.  

Collins' Summer home on Crystal Lake, MI- 1928

The Kaw River from Percy's Camp in 1927.

The Collins & Burkhardt children. Mary & Ernie are the little ones in front.

Burkhardts and Collins' on the shores of Crystal Lake-1928.

 Her description continues:
We spent one summer vacation with them on Crystal Lake in Michigan.  At that time Women sometimes wore knickers while on vacation.  Evidently my mother didn’t like the way the pictures came out as she cut the bottom off all the pictures that she was in. The Collins owned a cabin on the lake.  Everything was very sandy.

One other detail she has in her memoir is that Edna allowed Dr. Collins to keep his beer in their refrigerator, because he couldn't in his at home. One has to remember that the twenties were a time of Prohibition so it would have been highly improper for a man of the cloth to have illegal substances in his home.

I've heard these stories multiple times, but it's nice to see the people involved.

The Shop

                    The Shop - That's what everyone called it, but I see from this 1924 picture that it did have a formal name, Burkhardt Battery Co. It clearly was a serious business matter for EA, but for his grandchildren it was freedom.Gussie, Edna, would gather us older grandchildren, probably on a Saturday night when she was babysitting us and say she needed to go to the Shop and finish some work in the office. We five older ones, Chris, Steve, Sally, Kerry and I were then turned loose in the other half of the Shop. By the time we were old enough to do this, EA had died and Allan was running the business. Looking back I'm sure Allan didn't know we ran rampant through the Shop, through the aisles of auto parts, bolts, nuts, etc.
                                      
                                                                              

Burkhardt Battery in 1924.

 I usually got asthma, but never has asthma been more fun. Steve and Chris usually had to start by checking out the girlie calendars the guys had up behind the counter and then things took off from there. The specifics are lost, but it was great. (I still feel a sense of security when I smell auto parts.) Eventually Gussie would come out and give us a nickel each so we could have a pop from the machine.

                               

Pictured from left are EA, holding Mary Grace, Ethel, Allan and Helen.

Once again while scanning in the pictures Mom had collected, I found these two. I came across the one at left and if you look closely the rear tire is painted with the words, Burkhardt Battery and Willard Battery. The Willard lettering was exciting because EA was a salesman for them when he and Edna were married in 1913. The story I remember hearing is that he made less money than she did as a teacher, but she wasn't allowed to teach after she was married. Another story I remember is that when he started the shop he was helped by his various brothers-in-law, An article from the Topeka paper describes a Christmas dinner, the 5th annual in 1924, they gave for their 20 employees.

The Shop was a focal point for Burkhardts for decades, but I guess I should get to my point. As we five Morgans and our spouses and our children are getting ready to sell the family homestead in Shawnee, I wanted to comment on memories and their relationships to specific places. As you can tell if you fall this link the Shop has seen better days. But as I realized when I looked at this Google link my memories are not related to its condition or the fact that I probably haven't been there in nearly 50 years. We Morgans should be fine regardless if we visit Flint anymore. Our memories are all with us and thanks to Mom's scrapbooks, we can refresh our memories regularly.
4th & Jackson

Bedroom 1913

In scanning photographs to share with recently rediscovered Walker cousins, I came across this one.

Its only identification is the date 1913 written on it. Below is the bedroom that was identified as being in the Walker home on Polk in Topeka and I don't think they are the same.

The photo at right was on a page with pictures of Edna and EA and Ada and Bill (grandparents of the recently rediscovered Walker cousins) from a walk to Topeka's Burnett Mound. With my detective skills I've deducted that it's EA's room, Bill's room or their room together. Continuing in this vein of detection due to the fact that there are two dressers I believe it's a shared room and let's say it's Bill's and EA's.

These snapshots of rooms fascinate -- in this one are pictures of President William Howard Taft and President Woodrow Wilson.Unlike their political positions Taft is on the left and Wilson the right. To refresh -- the 1912 election was a race between 3 candidates, Taft the Republican, Wilson the Democrat and former president Teddy Roosevelt. Wilson won with slightly less than 42% of the popular vote.Taft finished third.  The pictures of the walk are dated February 16, 1913 which I'm assuming would make this one of the same general vintage. And this is about three weeks before Woodrow Wilson took the oath of office marking the end of Taft's one term. Just a pure guess, but I'll say EA's the Wilson fan and Bill the Taft aficionado.  One fact is that Bill Smith ran for state's attorney general as a Republican in 1926, just 13 years later. I'm guessing it would be hard to go from a Wilson fan to a Republican in 13 years.

Another thing I was surprised to see was a typewriter. It's on the table, framed by the white bedstead. In my brief search of the Internet I couldn't find out how unusual that would be - to own a typewriter in 1913.

At the right are EA and Bill on that day, February 16, 1913 on their walk to Burnett Mound.

Goodbye to the Wildflowers

The riverbank this week since the city did its magic.

 We've lived in our current house for nearly 34 years. When we bought it the riverbank of the Arkansas River was a shambles, but the bike path was going in. Soon things were evened out and there was a wide expanse at the top before it sloped down to the river and the bike path. Because the kids were small we put in a fence, more to keep them corralled than to keep them out of the river. (My advice, "If you fall in, remember to stand up.") The area between our fence and slant of the riverbank appeared to be ours to maintain.

Through the years this plot of land became part of my mowing routine. To mow our entire yard usually took me nearly two hours with a walk behind mower. During this time I had much time to think I'm really not that fond of mowing the yard and especially not the bank, the city's part. Until three weeks ago I've never seen the city mowers even look at this part, and certainly not mow it.

Mexican Hat

In 1996, Debbie had an internship with Senator Kassebaum so Lee and I and the other kids decided we'd drive to DC and bring Debbie home. As we made our way to and from DC, including many stops, I noticed that there were daylilies along I-70. I thought if they can grow along the interstate, surely they can grow along the river. I knew I wasn't going to water them, but I'm thinking I don't think they get watered along the highway either. Soon I'd ordered daylilies and daffodils from White Flower Farms. It wasn't easy, but eventually I had them planted. The daffodils prospered, but the daylilies didn't like the competition from the Bermuda grass. Wildflowers seemed like they'd be more inclined to survive.

Indian Blanket

I worked again to prepare the ground and ordered a meadow from Wildseed Farms in Texas. The results were good and I no longer had so much ground to mow. Not everything survived, but Mexican Hat pictured above prospered. Well, at least until last week.

This year the flowers on the bank weren't as tall as that pictured above - it looked more like the photo at right. Three weeks ago, the city mower came up on that spot and mowed and carefully went around my plot in the center. But last week a different mower came up and mowed everything as you can tell in the first photo. I went out and asked why after all these years they were mowing down my wildflowers. He stopped to talk to me, but he said the city didn't like it because it attracted trash. I was astounded and I said in the 30 years I've lived here, no one outside of me has ever mowed that part of the bank and that I'd put in the wildflowers so I wouldn't have to mow so much.

Thanks for listening.

Mary Grace's Life

As you all know Mary Grace passed away on February 20 - I'm guessing much to her surprise and much certainly to mine. The following is from a card I received from a friend from college, Chris. I know many people have written nice words about her life, but I thought you all might be interested in another.

Susan – What a legacy your mom left you, your family and all who knew her. I always said that wonderful deadpan humor you have came from her. 

Even though I only encountered her a few times she made a vivid impression on me. I loved her no-nonsense approach to life and her ability to keep the most important things up front. Scott’s eulogy (which Karen sent to me along with some of her writings) brought back my first visit to your old house (including the bathroom door you couldn’t quite shut): there seemed to be a large trail of some sort of packing material covering the middle of the living room carpet, as if something very interesting had just happened. In fact the entire house oozed life and activity. My mother terrified into good behavior by her in laws, could never let any person in unless the entire place was immaculate (given that the possibility of panic attack was in abeyance) I loved the way your household ran with such easy going efficiency. 

And the books. We, too, had thousands of books, but the wide range of other cultures and wisdom made me envious. From Scott’s account your mom was a great reader.

I think only an original mind could have tackled life the way your mom did, dealing with everything she met in her own way, happy in her own being.

My best to you all.

Thanks to Chris for these kind words and now maybe that I've gotten through my first post since that event, I'll be able to go back to sharing odd facts and memorabilia from the family, Walkers, Sharpes, Burkharts, McClennys, Morgans, etc.

Shawnee 1951

Steve and Chris play near the new fence circa 1952.

 In June 1951my parents, Steve, Sally and I moved to a new subdivision of Kansas City, known unofficially, at least to the post office, as Shawnee Village. Prior to the 1950s the land we were living on had been used for agriculture so I feel we were pioneers. Dad's trip to downtown Kansas City where he worked for the Kansas City Times took more than 30 minutes. These are pictures from those early years. The letter is one Mom wrote to Dad's parents the week we moved.

Steve's 5th birthday - both sets of grandparents and Helen, Chris and Kerry.

 

Dear Folks

We feel sort of settled now that we have a draw curtain up in the living room.  We felt a little on display before.  I felt rather lucky for when I went to Sears to buy them I found that it takes two weeks to get them, but some lady had ordered some gray ones and then not taken them so they were on special.  They look nice with our room and pretty good outside too—which is what worried me.  We haven’t any hot water until today.  They turned on the gas yesterday and lighted the stove for me but they wouldn’t light the heater because it was new and the man said “the gas company aint got no heaters to replace them when they blow up,”  That made me feel real happy to have something liable to blow up in the basement.  I read the instruction but couldn’t figure them out. 

When the water meter man came I cornered him and asked him if he would watch me while I held the match and tell me what to do.  He and I got down on our knees—the floor was wet too and decided it wouldn’t light because there was air in the pipes.  He went away cheerfully telling me that sometimes it takes an half and hour to clear the pipes.  If the light man hadn’t come early I might have cornered him to finish lighting the heater because I got as far as the pilot light but couldn’t go further.  Mr. Welch came out and lighted it for me today.

Ray is feeling real good today but he felt a little draggy Sunday and Monday.  I’m sending you a couple of stories from the Times he wrote.  He seems to like it real well and as he has 5 until 7:30 for supper he comes home for supper.

I’m writing Gussie and dad the almost the same thing as I write you.  I thought I would warn both of you for the kids and I don’t do enough different things to make two letters different.  Love Mary

Dad joins the fun.

Celebrating Steve's birthday in the basement.