Vegter-Tschetter Heritage

John and Fannie, 60th Anniversary

John and Fannie, Family, 60th

(Fannie's recollection, continued) I saw those buildings dirty looking, close together, and wash hanging between the buildings. "Oh," I thought, "must I live here!" But the West side where John had rented an apartment was in a Dutch neighborhood. We lived on 14th Street, and they were all Negroes. We had a basement flat: 2 bedrooms, kitchen, and living room on the street side. So we bought 2 beds, table, chairs, a stove, and once more settled in a home. There were 6 flats, 3 in front and 3 in back. John worked at night, leaving before midnight, and I would be scared once in a while. I would hear somebody go through the gangway to the back. I was afraid they might want to come in where we lived, as the back door was in the kids' bedroom. So Bill and Pete played outside on the sidewalk in front. They were used to running all over on the farm, so they thought they could run there. Ashland Avenue was only a few steps away, and that was a street car track, so I had to run and get them away. Two neighbor ladies were talking once between buildings, one from ours and the other in the next building. They said what a terrible mother I was letting my kids out on the street. But there was no other place to place, except a small back yard. Bill was 4 or 5 at the time, so he would get a loaf of bread for me. I would give him the money and slip of paper with what I wanted. But the boys had friends already, and they got Bill to spend the money for candy. The baker would charge the bread. So one day the baker came over and asked if I wanted to pay him. I asked, "For what?" He said, "For the bread." I told him I gave Bill money to pay for bread all the time. The baker said the boys spent the money on candy, as there was a grocery across the street. I paid the baker, and you can imagine what Bill got. John usually came home around 10 o'clock. I would fix him breakfast and coffee, and he would lay down to sleep. One day an upstairs neighbor came to the door, and told John, who was barefoot, that one of our boys had pinched her little girl. So John said, "Show me where," but she couldn’t find the spot. So John kind of made fun of it. She said, "Oh you old stinking man with your dirty feet." So John just let her talk and closed the door. One day, Pa came home and said, "Make yourself ready, and the kids. We'll go to see the fountain in a park close to the lake and the beach." We went by street car, and enjoyed it. As we were walking out the park, an old lady and her daughter came behind us. She said, "Are those your 5 children?" I said, "Yes, they are all ours." She said, "God bless you. You must be a Dutchman." I told her we were. When the woman claimed our son pinched her daughter, I had left John's breakfast dishes on the table. The woman must have looked through the kitchen window. Later, they were jabbering away between buildings. Pa was listening through the open window, and they were busy raking us over the coals. So Pa said, "This is it. I'm going to the baker to see if he still has that flat for rent."

That was 14th Place, too. But it was on the other side of Ashland. A few Dutch people lived there, and some Polish people, too. So we moved there and had the flat on the 1st floor. Some Belgian people lived there, but they were very nice, and we never had any trouble with them. The youngest girl used to carry Harry around. Next door lived an old maid who couldn't stand kids very well. The kids would be playing out on the sidewalk, and every home had an iron fence in front as there was a basement underneath. But if the boys would touch her fence, she would holler at them. A newspaper was lying down below in the small yard. A policeman came by the door and said the lady next door had phoned that the boys were throwing stuff in her little yard. I told him, "I don't know if the kids did that. They told me they did not." The kids came up and stood around while he talked with me. He said, "Never mind. I have kids, too, but we have to go if people phone in a complaint." I told him I would talk with the boys. They never threw anything in her yard again. So winter came along, and a lot of snow. Pa came home one day and started to shovel the sidewalk and saw Elsie, the old maid, puffing away. Pa had ours done and said, "Elsie, that isn't any job for you. If there is snow, I will clean your sidewalk." So he did. Next day, Elsie brought us a cake and thanked Pa for shoveling the snow. We never had any more trouble. She was a nice lady after that. The man sold the garbage business, and Pa was out of a job. So he thought that he would buy an old truck and start hauling iron and other junk. That didn't pan out at all. So he had to get rid of the truck again. Jobs were hard to get, but he worked a few days in a factory. All they had on was their underpants. Bare feet. But John didn't like that so he quit. All at once, John says, "Let's go to Iowa."

John and Fannie, Family, 60th