3. Lyle Herbert[3] Day (Herbert Edwin, 7) (A4). Born, 20 Dec 1915, in Park
Rapids, Hubbard Co., MN[2]. Died 2004. Resided, 1991, in Park Rapids, Hubbard Co., MN.
Occupation: Teacher, hardware.
left: Duane Hackett, Lyle Day, Virgil Hackett, 1926; right, 1932.
Hackett Bible or Courtesy of Lois Marie
Writing by Lyle Day...December 1994: "Early Childhood:
"My very first remembrance- on the ferry across lake Michigan. A carpet on the floor, drinking, filling a paper cup from a cooler this was a special thing- I probably had many drinks.
"I can't recall any specific things that happened when we visited Day relatives. While we were on our way to Akron Ohio, while in Ohio we had a pony which pulled a cart and I rode in the cart with my sisters.
"We stayed in Ohio about one year before returning to a farm near Park Rapids. This was located 2 miles south and 2 1/2 west from Park Rapids. I was between two and three years old. We took part in gathering maple syrup in Ohio. I remember having many gallons of syrup stored near the cellar entrance in our house.
"We added a living room and upstairs bedroom to the Heath house. I remember the smooth white plaster. One of the things I did was write my name on the wall at the turn of the upstairs.
An Interview with Lyle Day...December 1992: Why don't you tell me about the plow up there?
"That was like one of the plows we had at home for plowing the garden and small patches and things like that. It was one or two horses and we guided the horse with the guide reins around your neck and you held onto the handlebars to guide the plow. It was a full time job.
Most of the plowing was done with the three horse sulky plow. It was a riding plow for just one furrow. The way I learned to plow was to get on the plow and have the horses just keep going till it was time to stop. My father used to get me started and then he'd come and took care of the horses when it was time to stop. I used plow until morning until noon; noon until evening;just keep going. That was plowing on our place for a good many years. We didn't have a tractor; we didn't use four horses or two plows, we just used three horses and a furrow on what was called a "sulky plow." That just about wraps up plowing.
[In our garden] we had lettuce, peas, beans, and carrots and radishes and onions. I got started milking a cow when I was nine years old. I got to doing two cows. Usually I would milk two cows and then carry the milk to the separator. It separated the cream out of the milk.
"We had about ten [cows]. After it was separated, the cream was bottled and exchanged in town or sold. The skimmed milk was for the pigs. Mrs. Frazier bought a lot of our skimmed milk and used it for making cottage cheese. She had the best cottage cheese in the territory. People just loved her cheese. It tasted like cottage cheese too, and not what we buy today.
"We usually had one or two litters [of pigs]. A litter was about six to ten depending on how fortunate the mother pig was. Sometimes she did well and sometimes she didn't do as well. Sometimes we'd have a little runty pig that couldn't shift for itself and then we'd have to bring it in and keep it warm and feed it from a bottle til it got going. I had a baby lamb when I was...before going to school, like maybe four years old or five. The mother lamb had two lambs and would only care for one. Mr. Campbell, our neighbor, gave me the extra one to take care of, so I fed it from a bottle. It got to be a nice big lamb. In the fall, the question was, what should we do with that lamb? We didn't keep sheep. So we ended up selling the lamb. The money from the lamb went into my bank account. It stayed there until I was able to spend it for a coaster wagon.
"We had chickens and we had calves and horses of course. When I was about ten years old we were fortunate enough to get a pony. I had a chance to take care of the pony and ride it. We have a picture of the pony on the buggy. My cousins from Akely, Virgil, I don't know if that was in the photograph album or not. That was the pony. When it was time for me to start to go to high school, I bought a bicycle. A bicycle didn't have to have much care. You could use oils. It didn't have to have its barn cleaned.
[was the high school in Park Rapids?] Yes it was. You see, we lived right across from where Mildred lives right now. On the Northwest corner of the section. Outside the district. Out of Park Rapids, it was a rural district, so in order to go to high school, you had to provide your own transportation. To do that meant getting a ride in the morning when my father took the cream to town, then walking home after school.
Two miles south and a mile west of Park Rapids. You can go by that place if you want to. Mr. Ness lives there now. A Chrysler products, an automotive dealer.
"[How did your parents get around?]. We always drove the car. We had a Model T Ford for a long time. So...that gave me a chance to sit on my father's lap and steer. Steer down the road.
We raised oats, rye, and corn, and some edible beans. That's it. Sometimes some wheat or other various grains. What are those they use for beer? Barley. Raised a little barley once in a while.
When it rained, sometimes we'd go fishing. We went to Pines Lake and we went to Moran Lake. Those were the two lakes...there was another little lake where we walked up the road down to the lake, and we caught sunfish or bullheads; sit on the dock.
"[What chores did your sisters do?] Oh they [carried wood]. Oh they did a lot of things. Ruby was...the boy. I wasn't born til number four in the family. She had a chance to...the horse...and other things that she just hated. Mildred and Vera were housemaids. They had great sewing sessions with the family making dresses.
"Almost every year we made a trip to the park. Back in the early days when the park was very undeveloped compared to what it is now. They used to have a large boathouse with many canoes. Always a place for a picnic. We took the Ford. From home to the park was twenty four or five miles, so that was a good hours drive.
"[We heated our house] just like now with a wood heater. We had for most of the time for my stay at home, we had a quarter section of woodland in addition to our farmland. The woodland was over in Green Valley. That's west of the county line and south oh...miles. So we would get our wood. Cut the trees down and bring them home on a slab. There would be a big pile, and we would have someone come with a saw rig and saw them into stove lengths....
"We had a wood burning kitchen range and in the summertime we had an oil stove, because the kitchen was so hot...
"Well, there were, when I was born there were Ruby, Mildred, and Vera and I was the next one. I can't remember exactly how large some of the houses were, but they were three bedroom houses with living room, dining room and kitchen and often a basement. The house where we lived when I was like first grade had a large kitchen and our sitting room and a bedroom downstairs. There were three bedrooms upstairs. Basement where we did the wash and then there was a cellar type basement; had a dirt floor and stone walls where we kept the potatoes.
"Oftentimes we played Rook or we'd go to the neighbors. Sometimes we'd play Flinch; that was great-grandmother's favorite game.
"We had a dog when I was your age [11] or a little younger, 8 or 9 years old. We always had cats.
The only electricity we had would be like a flashlight. Our lights were kerosene lights or gas lanterns. The bright light that wasn't the gasoline lantern was the kerosene mantle light.
Well first of all of course, we had what was called teacher training or normal school...in our high school in Park Rapids. You completed normal training and you could teach in the ungraded elementary schools. Ruby and Mildred and Vera and I all went through normal training. Ruby taught school south of Park Rapids and the about 1929 or 30 she went to school to school in St. Cloud called normal school or teacher training school. Can you get that picture? Here's a picture of Ruby when she was at St. Cloud. If you were a graduate of normal training school, then that gave you 40 hours of credit toward graduation from St. Cloud and when you completed the two year course then you could teach the graded elementary schools in Minnesota and that's what Ruby did. She taught at Grasston, an elementary school in southern Minnesota and then she taught just west of us, west of Olivia, can't say the name of the town, but she taught at Sauk Rapids and she taught; once she started teaching at New Ulm, then she stayed there until she retired. Mildred taught in the country schools until she got married. Vera taught in the country schools and went to St. Cloud and she specialized in music education so she was hired in the public schools of Minnesota til she got married to Harley. I taught three years in Hubbard County until I went to St. Cloud and I taught in Sauk Rapids and Fergus Falls; I taught at the teachers college in St. Cloud, and at the University part of the time while I went to graduate school. Before we went to Olivia and had the hardware store.
Lyle Day, Exerpts of a Letter, Oct 1994: "Emma, I am glad you are playing tennis-it was a favorite game for me in highg school and college. It gives one a chance to develop individual skill and playing practice is fun. I hope you do well in choir. I took part in boys choir at St. Cloud State College when I was there, but I didn't have a good enough ear or viouce to sing in the top choir. It is fun to sing though and you will improve with practice.
"It will soon be time for witches and Jock O'lanterns. We used to dress up in a sheet and visit the neighbors. We usually carried a pumpkin with a candle burning inside. Sometimes there were many pranks or things done- things like putting a cow on someone's roof. At that time mpst people had Out-of-doors toilets. A favorite trick was to tip the toilet. Rudely, it was done with someone inside!
"I will be interested in what you have found about the Baileys in Europe. We had a chance to know Morris Bailey. He was our 2nd cousin. He & Paul came from Michigan to Minnesota in 1927. They travelled in a Model T ford. After spending time with our family, they were the age of Ruby, Mildred & Vera, they decided to go to North Dakota for the harvest system. That was a way to earn money. After the harvest they stayed a while longer with us before returning to Hartford, Michigan. they visited us one more summer but did not stay as long. Morris died on 1993, I think."
Roger Day, From 50th Anniversary: "Father edited the yearbook at St. Cloud State; I never knew that.
Lyle Day, Interview, Christmas, 1994: JG: So Lyle, how did you come to join the navy?
LD: Well, I spent one month at Ft. Snelling, I think it was in 1935, and that was military training in the artillery, I think it was. Anyhow, we had horses and French [?] 75 cannons and after a month of army training in 1935, why when world was, Two was coming along, I thought it would be better to go in the Navy and not the Army, so I chose to enlist in the Navy rather than letting myself be drafted into the Army.
So...it was during the year 1941-42 that I began investigating the Navy and found out if I were to be able to enlist in the Navy, I could probably become a third class yeoman in the Navy Reserve and do time then and I did that. I actually went into the Navy in the Spring of 1942 and we were sworn in and arranged to be transported to a training station. I thought I'd be going to the Great Lakes training station but it turned out we went to San Diego instead. So I took my boot, my Navy Boot training in San Diego from April of 1942, til...that was about a 12 week period, so, from San Diego we went to San Francisco. The Navy had a station at the old world fair ground, barracks, and the Navy facility was there, so I was there for a time. I thought I'd probably be transferred out of there to go aboard a ship or some other kind of duty, but it went on and on for quite a while. I began to wonder...
Ian: You know what? I told Misty to sit and then I told him to lay. She's by the couch.
LD: I think they had gotten my file on the bottom of the pile or something, but eventually, why, I was transferred to Seattle to go aboard the USS Vega and the USS Vega was a transportation ship. One that had been built during World War I as a victory shop or one of the ships they built in a hurry at that time, and then after the war was over, they let them sit maybe somewhere in New York harbor. Anyway, they reactivated them during World War II and our ship had just been through an overhaul and reequipment getting it ready to sail from Seattle up the coast to Alaska and go along the islands going out...the Aleutian Islands. So we made some trips along the Aleutian Islands and what we did then was to carry general cargo, supplies, munitions, store supplies. They were scheduled to go to the stations that were distributed along the Aleutians. We went far enough from the Aleutians that I guess we could see the Russian shores and we made I guess maybe two or three trips like that. Sometimes there would be a single Japanese float plane that came over and dropped a single bomb then flew away, but that was about all of the enemy activity that we saw on those trips. That would have been I guess in the spring of 1943 or around that time that the Navy was providing men that had a college degree that were considered to be eligible for officers appointment so I filled out the application for that and eventually I was accepted into the Navy Reserve as a Ensign. So I started taking g the training for the Navy Reserve as an ensign. And my first assignment was to the University of Arizona at Tucson and that was indoctrination training. The Navy used the gymnasium as a...all the bunks were laid out in the gymnasium, so we took our training there going to the different classroom and marching and various activities involved in the indoctrination training. I think that lasted until maybe May, May of 1943 and then I was transferred from there to a Navy ---- in New York and that was training for small craft ships in the Navy. That was another period of a couple of months or so. And after that I was transferred to Florida, down to, somewhere near Miami I think it was, to another Navy School, to another small craft school and there we actually went aboard some of the small craft ships and took small voyages out into the ocean and then at the end of that school I was retained for awhile to teach the work of supply. That didn't last very long. But from there, I went to the University of Ohio to recognition training where we learned the ships and plains of all the different fleets and forces in the world, so that we could identify planes and ships by their names and the countries that they represented. From then I was assigned to a ship just being built at Port Newark, New Jersey and that was the USS Conklin and that was a destroyer escort designed to escort convoys of ships at sea. And it had steam propulsion and two five inch guns along with 20 mm and other machine guns and hedgehogs and depth charges and it was equipped with sonar for finding and tracking submarines. So that took a while, while it was being finished and then when it was ready to sail we went down to Bermuda for a shakedown cruise and back to the Port of New York for loading on the various supplies that we would need and the we headed for the Panama Canal. So we went through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean to Pearl Harbor. We spent a few days in Pearl Harbor and then we continued to sail west and eventually we got to the...across the equator and we went to the...we ended up serving as the communications ship at one of the bodies of water where [atoll?]...the Navy officer that was in charge of that area was aboard our ship, so we provided communication and whatever was needed for that for a while. Then eventually we sailed out to join a group of ships that were patrolling with supply ships and ammunition ships that served the Navy fleet in the Western Pacific...one of the fleets. So our duties there were, we just continued to cruise around these ships, look for submarines and...We found one submarine and that was our real only enemy encounter during that period of time. We were able to sink that submarine. A lot of debris came...a lot of the parts of the submarine came to the surface and various personal items out of the ship. And then, this would get to be into 1945. It was during about May, May of 1945, we were in an area where there was a typhoon and we were supposed to be able to avoid it and we followed the directions of our division commander who told us what course to take. So we maneuvered to avoid the storm and thought we were avoiding it but, as it turned out we got right into the heart of it. So that was the worst of our periods aboard ship. The typhoon was very very severe, very...Just sheets of rain and the water in the ocean was just like bumps coming up and our ship actually...I thought it was going to sink. Anyway, things that were on one side of the stateroom, the bookcases, the books, fell across to the other side. I remember I was laying on my back on the deck. I couldn't get up. I kept laying there and eventually the ship instead of sinking came back up. So we didn't sink after all. We suffered quite a bit of damage to gun placements and parts of the ship and one of our men was washed overboard and was able to get on a life raft and was eventually picked up by another ship. One of our officers was washed overboard and we never heard from him again. The after the storm was over, it turned out that one of the Navy cruisers had lost its bow in the storm, so we along with the cruiser and I think another ship started to go back to the United States, to Mare Island, which is ---- from San Francisco. So we cruised along that way for many days going at a very slow pace. The cruiser was going backwards, so eventually we got back to the United States...And so we all got back into Mare Island and we went into dry dock for repair and then after we got adjusted to that why we were given some leave, I think about 30 days leave and so then I went back home to St. Cloud. During that period, Georgia Ann was born, she was about, oh she was born in September and I got back in June and so she was about 9 months old when I saw her for the first time. And while we were there we took...we went up to Park Rapids and had a cabin on Blue Lake where we stayed for a while and did a little bit of fishing and resting and it was during that time that the atomic bomb was exploded over Japan and in a few days the war officially ended so when my leave was over and I got back aboard ship we were ready to head back to San Diego. And on our way out through the channel we were approaching the bridge across the gulf there and as were doing that a merchant vessel coming in not knowing where it was going very well approached us and we were unable to avoid it and it rammed us, did some damage to the ship again, so we had to go back to Mare Island for further repairs. And eventually we got back to San Diego.
Well, shortly after getting back to San Diego, why they provided an opportunity for people with a certain amount of service time and age and other qualifications could asked to be released from the Navy Reserve and go back home, so it was in October of 1945 when I got back to St. Cloud and being a civilian. But that was pretty much the way I spent my 3 1/2 years in the Navy.
J.G.: What were your duties as an ensign?
LD: Well, my first assignment aboard a ship as an ensign was commissary and stores officer. So the group that I worked with were men who were cooks and provided for supplies and foods supplies and cooking the food., that sort of thing. Then my next assignment was to be first lt. of the ship and that involved the decks and the anchors and the steering mechanism, the operation of the ship away from the engineering part, the deck force. And that was my assignment then until I completed my service.
JG: What were your quarters like?
LD: Well, I, the engineering officer and I lived in one room. We had, I suppose it was maybe 10 by 6 feet and we had our bunks there and...that's where we lived aboard ship.
Richard Day: "When we lived in St. Cloud, there was a lake called Lake George, a small pond actually, within walking distance of our house. My father helped me make some boats. It was a solid piece of wood, he chiseled it out, like a canoe, only more of a fishing boat shape.
"We had a cabin out by the river in St. Cloud. We had to take a bath in a big galvanized tub. We had to haul water out there to drink in a tin milk pail and I think it was in that period of time I sharpened one of his knives. I had a blue rubber knife,; my father had a seaman's knife- we had a grinding wheel so I sharpened his knife to the point there was almost nothing left. I think that was when I first knew what the word 'washout' meant; they said 'keep away from the washouts or you'll fall into the river.'
"Supposedly he used to go fishing with some guy named Rudy who used to have a Standard Oil station in St. Cloud. Ruby would go to his garage when she went to St. Cloud to get her annual diabetes checkup.
"We went somewhere where they sharpened ice skates, in the basement of this skate shop, there was a huge model railroad layout- St. Cloud was a big railroad town. They also had a large Weimeraner dog. The man who owned the place kept wanting me to put my head in the dog's mouth...
"In Minneapolis, we had a basement, we made an aluminum rack for the 3 speed bicycle he'd drive to school. When he was drilling holes, he got a little shaving of it in his eye."
RD: "I remember when the motorcycle gang showed up in Bird Island and someone came by the store wanting to buy a bunch of axe handles.
Lyle Day: "I decided to apply for masonic membership in October of 1951. This involves an application, an investigation by the lodge, approval by the lodge membership, competitions of the apprentice (first degree). This involves a lot of memory work in the form of a long lecture- a question & answers procedure. When this is accomplished the candidate becomes eligible for the 2nd degree (Fellow craft) this also involves a long lecture and memory work. After fellow craft comes 3rd degree (master mason). this is the major part of the work. The candidate goes thru a rather long verbal and physical activity and at the end is raised to the degree of a Master Mason. Almost all of the work of the lodge involves the master masons. this is commonly referred to as the "blue" lodge.
"According to my record- after petitioning the lodge for membership I completed the work for the degrees and was acknowledged to be a member of North Star Lodge #23 of Minnesota on November 10, 1951 as a Master Mason. At that time I paid $12.50 for the membership. That was the year that I became 36 years old. I don't think I could memorize that much now. A few years ago I paid what it cost to be a life member of the lodge here which is identified as Shell Lodge.
"there isn't anyone near who belongs to the lodge so I haven't attended meetings for quite a while.
"The Masons have a long history having existed a long time. Much of the work deals with King Solomon. It is active around the world. I attended lodge with Anna's husband when we were in New Zealand.
"The Masonic bodies are social and political as well as economic. In St. Cloud in the early 1950's, the Catholic church was headed by a bishop who had a goal of having the whole community catholic. Since the changes that have happened in the last 30 years, it isn't like that any more.
"Our local lodge is inactive, members do not come to meetings like they should.
"In 1951, 50 years looked like a long way off. I may be able to live 7 more years and get the 50th anniversary pin- I don't know. I guess it is still of some value to be a mason. Because of what masonry stands for, those who know something about it usually respect masons."
"We operated the Hardware Store from Labor Day, 1957 until June 1, 1970. thirteen years. The store was located in the Heins Block, Olivia, Minnesota. the original store was located in the original building of the block with a North entrance. As addition was built to the south about the size of the original floor space. Together the store for retail sales was about 10,000 ft. In addition, there was a basement under the original store space, there was a space for a garage at the south end able to take care of two vehicles. And a shop in The South east corner of the original store about 12 X 30 ft. This was planned to be used for sheet metal work, and repair. There was a glass front on the North end entrance. At the South, there was glass to the east end entrance. So the floor plan looked like this:
"Because of the floor layout, the store was difficult for one person to manage. It usually required one person in the office area and another in the North section.
"We usually had one male employee, one female employee. Annabelle & I were also at the store. Besides helping customers buy, I did repair of storm windows, screens, replacing glass in broken windows, answering the telephone. Planning a newspaper advertisement, planning a radio commercial- usually one minute once a day.
"We usually had a special for the month which was given by the 'Our Own Hdware' company and was the same for all 'Our Own' dealers.
"The business included the hardware, appliances, plumbing, heating, refrigerators, washers, dryers, space heaters, and servicing them.
"We hauled our merchandise from the 'Our Own Hdw' ware house in Minneapolis. This was a once a week trip, usually on Friday. We used a pickup truck for this. So we had to send in our order- usually on Sunday- mailed on the afternoon trains. Later the Railway Express was discontinued so we had to get our order in the Mail on Saturday.
"If you combine the activities they include:
1. Waiting on customers
2. Repairing windows, glass & screens, cutting glass to size.
3. Cutting & threading pipes.
4. Repairing miscellaneous things.
5. Delivering appliances and installing; picking up the trade ins.
6. helping those who needed new appliances etc. make up their minds to buy from us.
7. Helping people buy bicycles, lawn mowers, tools.
8. Helping with toy displays.
"We opened at 8:00 A.M. and closed at 5:30 six days a week it adds up to about 60 hours a week. We were closed on official holidays.
"After 13 years, Frank Balcer and his wife became interested in buying the store. So we reached an agreement and they took over the operation in June, 1970.
"We started out with a considerable debt. Our rent and payments were relatively low. We made our last payments in 1969. It took just as long for the Balcers to complete their sales contract.
"So to summarize: Operating the store was very time consuming hard work. I still wake up sometimes dreaming about it. I liked the customer involvement. helping people buy was enjoyable. Over the years the thing that was most unpleasant was the long hours and continuous work weeks-- there was just no breaks. Overall, it was not extremely unpleasant. In fact, we had reached a point (with debt paid) where we could enjoy it more, but we were happy to sell it when we did.
He married Miss Langguth, 1 Jun 1941, in St. Peter, Nicollet, MN[2].