(742,'[[Category:Earl Chapman Humphrey]] This is part 2 of 11 of the [[Earl Chapman Humphrey#Oral_History|Earl Chapman Humphrey oral history]]. ==The Tractor== {{jbh}} So tell me about this fantastic new tractor you got. {{ech}} Ya, we never got it new. Never got anything new. {{jbh}} Oh, it was used? {{ech}} Oh, it was well used. -laughter- {{jbh}} How much did you pay for it, do you remember? {{ech}} Oh, I don\'t know. Not very much. It was a lot of money in them days, but probably less than $100. {{jbh}} What kind of tractor was it? {{ech}} Fordson. Ford motor company made it. It was their tractor. A monstrous thing. Cast iron and they had two pitcocks on top of the engine, went directly into the cylindar. You\'d squirt ether in there to start it. Get a little too much ether in there and turn the crank and she\'d go \'\'\'keeboom!\'\'\' -laughter- Sound like a terrible explosion, ya know. Then she\'d go a couple revolutions and die again. {{jbh}} Did it have cast iron wheels? {{ech}} Everything was cast iron. Had gear noise. One of the noisiest tractors you ever heard. You could hear it for miles. The gears didn\'t fit very good in it, I don\'t think. {{jbh}} Why did your dad get a tractor? {{ech}} It\'s hard on old horses when it\'s hot. The get overheated. The old lather, come to ya pantin\' and wheezin\'. You have to rest \'em. The old tractor, just run her! Don\'t make any difference if it\'s hot or not. {{jbh}} Did you ever get to operate the tractor? {{ech}} Oh, ya. {{jbh}} What doin\'? {{ech}} Plowing usually. Plowing or disc\'n. You didn\'t cultivate with a tractor. Didn\'t have the right equipment. Didn\'t have cultivators. You cultivated with horses. Only the later tractors you got cultivators with. We\'d plow, disc and harrow usually. {{jbh}} How much of the 80 acres that you had was actually under tillage? {{ech}} Oh, about 60 acres. {{jbh}} So that 60 acres supplied the needs for your family of 8 people that were at home the time you were growing up. {{ech}} Ya. ==Church== {{jbh}} What did you do on Sunday afternoon? How often would you go to church on Sunday morning? {{ech}} We didn\'t go to church very often. {{jbh}} Once a year? Twice a year? {{ech}} Ya, maybe. {{jbh}} Those would be like special occassions? {{ech}} Yeh. {{jbh}} Christmas? Easter? That sort of thing? {{ech}} Yeh. Or if they was puttin\' on a revival, you know. {{jbh}} Do you remember any of the old time revivals... what they were like? What typically did they do at a Baptist revival at Round Prairie Baptist Church? What was the service like? {{ech}} Lots of yellin\'. Lots a hollerin\'. {{jbh}} By the preacher? {{ech}} Yeh. {{jbh}} What did the people do? {{ech}} They said, \"Amen\". -laughter- But the Baptists wasn\'t as wild as some of the others. The other churches... they really got wild. The congregation would get worked up you know. {{jbh}} Do lots of singin\'? {{ech}} Yeh, lots of singin\'. {{jbh}} What did they have? Organ or piano or what? {{ech}} Yeh, usually had an old organ. One of those pump type organs, you know. Pump the pedals for the air. {{jbh}} How long would the preacher man preach? {{ech}} Oh, if he got really wound up, he\'d preach for an hour and a half or two hours. He would be bringin\' them sinners in. -laughter- {{jbh}} What did he preach about that you remember? {{ech}} Bout HELL! That\'s the thing that impressed me the most. If you didn\'t do what they said, you was goin\' to hell. {{jbh}} Did it scare you as a kid? {{ech}} Yes it did. And it turned me against them really... kind of turned me away. I thought, \"Boy, this God, he\'s a tough guy. He\'s gonna cook us. -laughter- I didn\'t see him. They didn\'t show us. They told about how much he loved us but then turn right around and talk about how he was goin\' to send us to hell. {{jbh}} Did they talk about Jesus? {{ech}} Oh yeh. {{jbh}} But the idea was if you didn\'t believe in Jesus, you were gon\'a fry, huh? {{ech}} Yeh. {{jbh}} Did they have any alter calls? {{ech}} Oh, yeh. {{jbh}} Did you ever go forward for an alter call? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} Any of your family? {{ech}} Yeh. I think they\' was some. {{jbh}} So your whole family grew up in the Baptist denomination. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Was that true of the Humphries generations back? {{ech}} You kinda went to the neighborhood church, ya know. Regardless of what it was. Whether it was Methodist, Baptist, or something else. You never thought about going someplace else to church. {{jbh}} Usually it was the ones in the neighborhood, more or less? {{ech}} Ya, that\'s right. ==Family Tree== {{jbh}} What do you know about the families, the Humphrey\'s roots. You said that on the old homestead your great grandfather was born on the site? What was his name? {{ech}} Ezra. {{jbh}} Ezra was your great grandfather. And your grandfather\'s name was? {{ech}} James. {{jbh}} And your fathers name was? {{ech}} Burt. Burton. {{seh}} (during transcription) Burton Litton Humphrey. {{jbh}} Where did that whole family lineage come from? {{ech}} Come out of Indiana. At the time when they were settling this country, opening it up for homestead. My great grandfather come from Indiana. Ezra come over with another family name of Coreens (sp??). They settled in there. Beyond him I know nothing about my family. {{jbh}} So Ezra Humphrey came from Indiana, but you don\'t know where they came from before that. {{ech}} Well apparently, come from England. But I don\'t know. Now the Chapman\'s got a little better handle on them. Not much better. The Chapman\'s come from Bedford England. {{jbh}} How did the Chapman\'s come into the family? {{ech}} Through marriage. {{jbh}} And which one of the relatives married into the Chapman family? {{ech}} That was my grandfather married a Chapman. My great grandfather married a Tilford. {{jbh}} Ezra, your great grandfather marriage a Tilford. And what was the name of your grandfather. {{ech}} James. {{jbh}} And James Humphrey, your grandfather married a Chapman. And where are the Chapman\'s from? {{ech}} Bedford, England. {{jbh}} Where were the Tilford\'s from? {{ech}} Don\'t know. -laughter- Not much history on them. {{jbh}} Any family records of the Humprey\'s or the Chapman\'s or the Tilford\'s? Any pictures or anything. {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} No one in your family has done any genealogical research or anything? {{ech}} Not beyond my great grandfather. Don\'t know. Never know. So, it kinda ends there. ==Money== {{jbh}} Ok, so you were born there on the farm. How old were you when you left the farm? {{ech}} I was 19. Well, I wasn\'t that old. I was 18 when I left the first time. Couldn\'t get a job, ya know. Couldn\'t make any money. {{jbh}} What year was that? What was going on then? {{ech}} 1937. Wasn\'t anything going on. That\'s the reason. I wanted to get to somewhere where there was something going on. That\'s when they had the WPA and all the square deals goin\' under Roosevelt. {{jbh}} The depression happened in 1930? {{ech}} 1929. That was the market crash. {{jbh}} But that carried over to 1937? Things were still depressed. {{ech}} Ya. Badly depressed. {{jbh}} Let\'s talk about money for a bit. During the time before the stock market crash, what would be a good day\'s wage? Say you worked on the farm... {{ech}} I heard my dad talk about five dollars a day. That was in the prosperous time before the crash. {{jbh}} Does that include room and board? {{ech}} No, that\'d just include dinner. (lunch --ed) {{jbh}} That would be a laborer. What would a skilled craftsman have been making? {{ech}} I didn\'t know any. Didn\'t know there was such a thing. {{jbh}} -laughter- And the stock market crashed in 1929. Then what happened as far as money goes? {{ech}} All the banks went broke. My grandfather had money in the bank at Lockridge. He lost that. Everybody lost everything. {{jbh}} How much did he lose? {{ech}} I don\'t know. I never did know how much he lost. But the only thing that they really had that was good was government bonds. See, during World War I they sold government bonds, like they did in World War II. {{jbh}} Your money just disappeared? {{ech}} Down the drain. {{jbh}} Did you have any money at that time? {{ech}} -laugh- No. {{jbh}} So you didn\'t lose anything, cause you didn\'t have nothin\'? {{ech}} No. I was just a kid. {{jbh}} Now when you left home, what did you leave home with? {{ech}} -laugh- Just the clothes I was standing in. {{jbh}} At age 19? {{ech}} Well, when I went into the CCC\'s I was 18. {{jbh}} CCC? What does that stand for? {{ech}} Civilian Conservation Corps. They did conservation work on the land, ya know. We\'d plant trees, fix buildings, dig ditches, make sod waterways and everything. We were trying to get the land back to where it was effective. {{jbh}} What had happened to the land? Had there been a lot of erosion in this part of the country? {{ech}} Oh ya, they had farmed some of that land that hadn\'t aughta been farmed, and it washed away. And we planted a lot of trees. {{jbh}} This is when you were 18? {{ech}} Uh-huh. {{jbh}} So where did you live at that time? {{ech}} I lived in a camp. In Fairfield. {{jbh}} Like in a tent, you mean? {{ech}} No, in barracks. Wooden barracks. {{jbh}} And just a whole bunch of other guys like you. {{ech}} Ya, see the Army run it. There was a captain and they was formed into companies. You didn\'t do any military training at all, but it was run, administratively, on Army lines. You had barracks and you have revelry and you got up and work call. Wore a uniform. {{jbh}} Go to mess and eat? {{ech}} Yup. ==Into the Navy== {{jbh}} And you just went out in the countryside around Fairfield and did these work projects? How long did you do that? {{ech}} Six months. Then I went into the Navy. {{jbh}} Were you drafted? {{ech}} No, there wasn\'t such a thing as the draft. {{jbh}} So you enlisted in the Navy. In what year? {{ech}} 1938. {{jbh}} What was going on in the world in 1938? {{ech}} Well, in Europe things were tightening up. Hitler was coming into power. And they was arming like crazy. Of course, a lot of speculation about what was going to happen. And people here was sayin\' stay out of Europe, don\'t have anything to do with it. Be isolationist. {{jbh}} Was that the prevailing sentiment of people in this community? Don\'t get involved in Europe \'cause it will get us into the war? {{ech}} Ya. And they accused old Roosevelt. He could see it coming. He knew it was coming. Everybody knew if they would think for a minute, they could see it was comin\'. But they didn\'t want to believe it. {{jbh}} Because they had been through the first world war. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} During the first world war had their been a lot of local boys from the farms here killed? {{ech}} My uncle died. {{jbh}} Would families typically have lost at least one person? {{ech}} There were several around. Ray Garmoe died. And my uncle. Oh, don\'t remember the names. But there was several. {{jbh}} Several, but not like every family was effected necessarily? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} But they still didn\'t want to get into it. {{ech}} No. They didn\'t want to. {{jbh}} Why did you decide to get into the Navy? {{ech}} I was going in there for the money. Twenty dollars a month looked pretty good to me. {{jbh}} Plus they gave us room and board and health care and retirement, and that kind of stuff. -- 16:08 break in the action -- {{jbh}} OK, so you were 19 years old. And decided that you would try the U.S. Navy. {{ech}} I was 19 in January and I went in in March. {{jbh}} Where did you go first? For boot camp, is that where you reported? {{ech}} Yup. Great Lakes, Illinois. North of Chicago. Waukegan, IL. {{jbh}} What was that like? {{ech}} -laughter- It was rough. Boot camp is always rough. They humiliate you and they give you indoctrination that convinces you that they are the boss and the only boss. I was convinced. If they had said jump in the lake, I\'d have jumped in immediately. {{jbh}} How long was boot camp? {{ech}} Boot camp was three months of intensive drill. And then I was there one month in what they call the outgoing unit. Or the split you up into individual parties to go to different stations or ships. {{jbh}} What was boot camp like? {{ech}} Boot camp was terrible. Your life was not your own. And it was early in the morning until late at night. {{jbh}} How early in the morning? How late at night? {{ech}} I think we got up about five o\'clock every morning. And the lights was out about nine o\'clock in the evening. But you had to scrub everything that you wore that day. You had to scrub it. And dry it. And iron it. For the next day. And you was dog tired. And we slept in them hammocks. And them hammocks was eight foot off the deck. And then in the night they\'d hammocks would throw you. You\'d hear them bodies hitting the floor -- fawump! It\'s a wonder somebody didn\'t get hurt bad. {{jbh}} What was the point of having you sleep in hammocks rather than bunk beds? {{ech}} Well it used to be aboard ship that\'s the only thing you slept in. {{jbh}} So they thought they\'d get you broke into hammocks. {{ech}} As the ship rolled and rocked ya know, the hammock would stay stationary. It wouldn\'t rock. So they break ya in on the hammocks. I never slept in a hammock after we went aboard ship. {{jbh}} Is that right? They didn\'t have hammocks on the ship? {{ech}} No. They had bunks. {{jbh}} -laughter- What sorts of indoctrination did they give you in regards to why you were in the military and what you were going to be doing? Why the war broke out and... {{ech}} Oh, they didn\'t care about that. They didn\'t care what you thought about that. The only thing they cared is do what I say and do it now! {{jbh}} So they didn\'t try to teach you anything about the history and the conflict and the political situation... {{ech}} No, no, no. {{jbh}} The language, or any of that stuff. {{ech}} No. -laughter- Obedience is the only thing they taught. {{jbh}} And physical fitness I suppose. Did they run you lots? {{ech}} Yes. Oh, lots. All day long. {{jbh}} What would be the longest march, for instance, that you can remember? {{ech}} Oh, well it wouldn\'t be distance, it would be time wise. We was marching all day long. {{jbh}} With back packs? {{ech}} Sometimes. And they had the awkward squad. If you made mistakes in your drill performance, they threw you on the awkward squad and you\'d get intensive drill. They\'d intensify it. And we was drilling there one day and I was very conscientious. I seen this battalion officer come down through the ranks behind me. I was very careful to be perfect in what I was doing. I was in step, and had my rifle held just right, had my hat squared. I thought he won\'t bother me cause I was doing everything just right. And he grabbed me by the collar and jerked me out of rank. Get over there! I went over there and I was on the awkward squad. And they really ground me then, on the awkward squad. {{jbh}} Did he ever explain to you why? {{ech}} No, as a matter of fact I got up courage enough to go ask him. I said I\'d just like to know, so I don\'t make the same mistake, what\'d I do wrong? Well, he dressed me down something terrible, and never did tell me. Well I didn\'t know -- I hadn\'t done anything wrong, that\'s just part of the game. {{jbh}} What\'d they do to you in the awkward squad then? {{ech}} Well, like I said, it\'s just intensified drilling. Lots of running, lots of pushups ya know, with the rifle. All that stuff. Anything just to frazzle ya. {{jbh}} Were you in pretty tip-top condition by the time that was all over? {{ech}} The best. I was when I went in there. I was in good shape when I went in there. Wasn\'t no fat on me. {{jbh}} Farm work and stuff. What did you weigh when you went in there? {{ech}} Oh, I wasn\'t too heavy at that time. Oh, I suppose 165 pounds. {{jbh}} And how tall are you? {{ech}} 5\' 11\". {{jbh}} So you were a fine specimen at that time. {{ech}} Oh, absolutely. Tip top shape. {{jbh}} So you could march long distances, and run, pushups... {{ech}} Ya. I could run for miles. Literally. {{jbh}} How many pushups did they have you doing? {{ech}} Maybe a hundred. If you didn\'t look like you was falling apart they\'d give you a hundred and fifty. {{jbh}} Situps? How many of those could you do? {{ech}} Oh, I don\'t know. I could do \'em for a long time. Cause I was in good shape. Boy I was glad when boot camp was over, though. {{jbh}} Three months of that... ==Tonsils== {{ech}} Ya, and then before you went to sea after boot camp was finished, they\'d give you another physical. And of course they didn\'t tell you nothin -- they never told you anything. None of your business, what they was doing. So I went to go and do this, and they was checking our tonsils. Well, I had never had any trouble with my tonsils whatsoever. In my whole life. I thought I\'ll make this, no sweat. And by golly, they jerked me out and sent me to the hospital. Me and thirty other guys. To take our tonsils out. Scared to death. Cause they don\'t tell you nothin, ya know. You don\'t dare even speak to \'em unless they tell you to. One full ward, there was a ward of us guys to get our tonsils chopped out. I though oh boy, I\'m lucky. I got a bed right next to the door. I\'ll be the first one out, and I\'ll have it over with. I wasn\'t. I was next to the last. And here they come wheelin\' them guys back in. Blood all over, ya know. Groggy. -laughter- I was the next to last in that outfit. I was a basket case when they all made in the room. -laughter- They just gave me a local, ya know. {{jbh}} Really? No ether or? {{ech}} No, no. They just set you down in what looks like a dentists chair, and chopped \'em out. With a local shot. And boy, I was about a basket case when they rolled me into that room where the chair was. Blood all over everything. Blood on the floor, blood all over the chair, blood all over them doctors. Ya know, where guys been coughin blood on \'em. -laughter- Oh, Boy. -laughter- I tell ya, I was about a basket case. -laughter- {{jbh}} -laughter- Had you ever been in a hospital? {{ech}} No, I\'d never been in a hospital. Ya know, visiting, ya. {{jbh}} But you yourself had never been hospitalized? {{ech}} No. And they got me into that chair and give me a shot and let me sit there. And in the mean time they was operating on some other guys and they was gaggin\' and coughin\' and carrying on, ya know. Coughin\' blood, and. Aww... {{jbh}} Did you throw up? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} Were you tempted? {{ech}} No. Didn\'t have any inclination of throwing up. And when they\'d given me what they thought was the time enough for it to be done, man they started into it. They put them clamps, and a mouthful of them instruments, ya know. Clamps and everything sticking out of my mouth. Had that thing with a loop of wire that they put in there and slipped over the tonsil, and snipped it off. ... So I got through that all right. Went back, put me in bed. Gettin\' along about evening that time. And then that night I started bleeding. They had a little old, one of them kidney bowls. I didn\'t say anything. I was afraid to say anything, afraid to say anything to anybody. -laughter- \'Cause my experience was ... never got any answers anyhow. So I bled. And bled. And bled. Got a whole bowl full of blood. {{jbh}} How big a bowl was this? Like a cereal bowl? {{ech}} A kidney, one of them kidney bowls, ya know. That they always have there in the hospital. For you to slobber in and hold on your chin? And I got it plum full. Head nurse up at the desk. Didn\'t wanna bleed on the bed, or bleed on the floor. I\'d knew I\'d get in trouble if I did that. Or I thought I would. So I got out of bed. I went up there half dizzy, bout ready to pass out. I couldn\'t talk. My throat was cut. I made a motion to the head nurse to come back to where I was. She seen that bowl of blood. And she said \"oh my god,\" and took off. Left me standing there. Didn\'t tell me what to do or nothin\'. -laughter- {{jbh}} She went to get the doctor I suppose. -laughter- {{ech}} Ya, ya. So, she come back with a doctor and wheelchair. Doctor said, bring him down to the room. They wheeled me off down there. Opened my mouth up and cauterized them stumps, ya know. Them bloody stumps. No deadener or anything. Just went in there with that stuff, boy ... right on them old bloody stumps. -whoah- Oh, that hurt so bad. {{jbh}} Were they hot? Cauterized it with something hot? {{ech}} No, I think it was some kind of acid. But they quit bleeding. Which I\'m thankful for. {{jbh}} But no anesthetic or anything? {{ech}} No. Just went in there and swabbed them stumps with acid of some kind. -whoah- {{jbh}} Did you pass out, or throw up, or? {{ech}} No, no. {{jbh}} How long did they keep you in the hospital then? {{ech}} 10 days. They kept us all in 10 days. Boy, next day my throat was so sore, and I was so hungry. Boy, I was so hungry I couldn\'t hardly stand it. They gave me a glass of milk, ya know. And I tried to drink that milk, but when you put it in your mouth, it\'d just get real stringy ya know. Like chewing gum. You couldn\'t swallow it. It\'d just turn to gum. I tried to spit it out. Pullin\' this... -laughter- Man, it was 3 or 4 days before I could get anything down you know. Plum near starved to death. -laughter- {{jbh}} Did they put you on intravenous or anything? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} Just let you go? ... So then you had about a month when you were out of basic training, but weren\'t assigned to anywhere just yet. {{ech}} Ya. It was an outgoing unit. And you were just waiting on your draft to sea. And they come out with a list of stations or ships that was wanting men. And you could take your pick of them. And if they weren\'t full you could have \'em. They gave you that choice. So me and old McFadden from up there in Washington (Washington, IA --ed), we went into the Navy together. {{jbh}} What was his name? His first name? {{ech}} Elmer Luis McFadden. He died a couple years ago. We was the only two left out of Burlington to go into the Navy together. And old Mac (McFadden nick name --ed), he said to me, \"what\'s a cruiser?\" and I said I don\'t have the faintest idea what a cruiser is. He says, \"sounds kind of good, don\'t it?\" -laughter- I said, \"ya, sounds pretty classy.\" He says, \"let\'s try for that.\" I says \"OK\". Cause I didn\'t know a cruiser from a battleship you know, but a cruiser sounded pretty classy, so we put in for it. My and Mac. And by golly, we got it. Both of us. So they put us on a train, give us our orders, and went out to Bremerton Washington. Near Seattle. And we went aboard ship there at Bremerton Navy Yard. {{jbh}} What was the name of the ship? {{ech}} Houston. USS Houston. Boy, she was a classy lookin\' old ship, all right. We was pretty happy. {{jbh}} Cruiser looked pretty good when you got there, did it? {{ech}} Ya. Only thing is she was all tore down. She was in the Navy yard getting overhaul. But the longer we was there, well the more she was fixed up, ya know. All fixed up and painted. {{jbh}} How long did they spend working on it while you was there? {{ech}} Oh, I guess it was about two months. Something like that. I don\'t remember. {{jbh}} What did you guys do at that time while they were rebuilding the ship? {{ech}} Well, of course you was always doing the dirty jobs. Usually you\'d be assigned to a Navy yard workmen. You were a fire extinguisher. He was a welder and you\'d stay with him all day long with your fire extinguisher. And if he got a fire started you\'d put it out. -laughter- That was it. {{jbh}} Did that happen very often? {{ech}} Well, ya. Paint always catching fire you know, or rope or something. {{jbh}} What was your rank at this time? {{ech}} Screaming seaman. -laughter- {{jbh}} That was as low as you could go? {{ech}} That\'s as low as you can get. Second class seaman. There was a lot of different things. You\'d have working parties. -mark 33:33- To be continued... --[[User:Jhannah|Jhannah]] 22:27, 29 November 2008 (UTC)','utf-8'),