John, Grandpa Tschetter, Jerry
("Little Green Jeep" in background)
Grandfather drove a used, very used 1940 Ford, which he converted into a pickup by removing the trunk lid and building a box that probably measured 3' X 3'. (On one of our personal cross country moves, I needed a pickup. With the use of a torch and a welder and imagination, our 1970 Ford Station Wagon became a pickup.) Grandfather ended his working years as a custodian at Huron College. (Like my grandfather, I am presently employed as a custodian in our local high school.) After his regular work day, he would drive his old ford "pickup" across town to the street department and load as many slabs of cement as his little Ford could handle. It was a good thing that gasoline sold for 20 (or thereabout) cents a gallon; I can't imagine how many trips he had to make in order to complete this huge undertaking. They must have used a machine to load them, but when Grandpa got them home, all was accomplished with his will and an 8' pry bar and a steely body that did not know its own limitations. I would, on occasion help him with this task and I know the work and effort that had to be expended in order to place those slabs where they needed to be. As I remember, he finally ended up with three tiers of terraces, which should be given serious consideration and possibly placed on the same level as the other Seven Wonders of the World. (My criteria: It's a WONDER that he was able to accomplish this task.)
GRANDPA JACOB TSCHETTER
(recollections by Grandson Jerry Vegter)
Jacob A. Tschetter was a small man who did big things. He was all of 5'5", maybe 5'7" with very little body fat. I've never met anyone whom I thought might have been a more energetic worker than Grandpa Tschetter. In his youthful days, he worked at farming and ranching on the South Dakota prairie.
I recently visited his one block of city property in Huron, South Dakota. Grandfather built three of the four houses that once stood at the topside of this long sloping hill. The fourth and last was built by one of his many local relatives. At its best, Grandpa had transformed this country hillside into a multi terraced, picture-perfect, landscape that (in my mind) could have easily been featured in Better Homes and Gardens. Below the terraces, he had good bottom land that produced an assortment of fruit trees and a large, productive garden. He had built some storage buildings which always had the scent of sprays used for controlling plant & tree disease.
Two of the four houses remain. Where the two former houses, it is, once again, a long, sloping hill with no trace of the hundreds of hours of sweat and labor by the little man and his eight foot pry bar, the main tool that he used to move those huge slabs of broken cement which he used for terracing.
Click here for the rest of Jerry's recollections.
Jerry at 16 (before senior year) in front of their South Dakota home (north side of Grandpa's new home). The Ford Falcon was the car Dad let Jerry use to drive out to his summer job on the Alvin Hofer farm, near James Valley Christian High School.
