Tape about Tyne's Life

Around 1970 Mom and I went to Tyne's. We were having a few drinks, and I asked Tyne about her life story. The following is what I taped there. I transcribed it on August 22, 1970.

TYNE

I was 16 the first time I left Clifford. I went to Duluth and stayed with Nick. I got a job there at a doctor's home as a maid. Nick got me from Clifford.

Before I left, I had worked at the veneer mill in Clifford. I used to wear pants, overalls, and a boy's cap. And I walked 3 miles to work every morning and home every night.

Every time I got my check, I would give it to Dad, and he would get groceries, and he was so proud that he could pay for them. It was so hard, because he didn't have much money.

All the money he had was from fixing shoes. Nothing came out of the farm. We had 3 cows for milk and butter, but what we got from the land was... then he made the hay for the cows for the winter... and probably a few vegetables, like rutabaga.

And there was a basement that wasn't finished, with just a dirt floor, so he mixed up the dirt on top of the potatoes and rutabaga and kept them there for the winter.

Then what we had to buy... or did we kill animals for meat? Oh, yes. I remember we had to stir the blood so that it wouldn't curdle. And then we made some blood pancakes out of it. They were good!

After that, Dad felt pretty bad about it when I quit, but I just wanted to go and leave town for some reason, like all the others that had left Clifford.

MOM

To improve yourself and to get better clothes.

TYNE

That wasn't really in my mind. It was just to get away.

I think that one time I had left, but I didn't get the train or something, and they thought that I had left. I had come through the window and was on the upstairs steps by the bedroom, listening. They said, "By now, she should be in Ironwood."

I guess I was going to Ironwood that time. I was just giggling and listening. They were so surprised when I came out there then, from behind the door.

Later I moved out and went to Duluth. I got a job with this doctor. And the first day, I went into the living room to crochet, and the lady told me that maids are not supposed to be sitting in the living room. That is what my room is for.

I was so hurt by that, that I cried for three days straight, such that my eyes were all big and red when I worked.

That is when I started to get lonesome, so I wrote home, and Dad wrote back that I should come home.

Soon I quit the job. Nick and Fanny had said that they were real nice people, but I lied and said that I quit because they were real mean.

I didn't go home yet, though. I got another job for some Jewish people. This Jewish man, he was a flirt. I was washing the walls, and was coming there and trying to make out and love me up. And me - I was so bashful in those days. Then I left that job, too. I told Fanny, Nick's wife, what he did to me. So she goes to his wife and tells her, but he said, no, that he never did anything like that, trying to make out. But he did. I guess the husband and wife got into quite and argument. But Fanny had to go there and tell them.

After that, I did go home and stayed for a while. And then, when I was 18, I went to Ironwood.

I was going around with a guy there, but then I met Tom, and we got married. I was only going with him for three months. Tom was really persistent about things, when he wanted something.

Tom didn't have nothing when we got married. Really. He wasn't working. And then he wanted to buy that ring for me. It was a ring that only cost $5, one of those gold ones.

But I said, "I don't want that. I want that silver one with the rose blossoms."

I've still got that ring. That cost $9, so he had to go to Jesseville and borrow $4 from John so he could get the ring for me.

When we got married, John gave him his car. he had a Buick, you know. We went to Ashland for a honeymoon. We went to a movie in Ashland.

When we got married, the first thing when we got out of the church, there was a flat on the car. So we fixed that. Then it started snowing and drizzle, you know. We drove to Ashland and went to a show there. That was our honeymoon.

When we went out, Tom was closing my boots, because we were young, just like kids. The other people were looking and said, "Isn't that a cute couple?" I always remember that.

So then we came back. I was working in Ironwood, and Tom was staying with John in the grocery store.

I was working in a family place in a different location in Ironwood. Tom used to come there to play around. Ha ha. I fought like a cat, even if I was his wife. Ha ha. He was married to me. he wasn't going to be without it.

Once in a while, we snuck upstairs, when no one was home. The people were out, in the place where I was working. I worked there 3 months.

Then we went to work at the camps. We decide we were going to save $500. Each one would get $500 for working at the camps. I was the second cook.

There again, Tom had to stay with the men. The men had to stay in one part, and i had to stay in the cook house with her. The man who ran the camp's wife was the cook. They didn't allow no women... See, he wasn't with his wife either. Those days we would have to go in the sticks.

I wanted to stay at the camp. We would have $1000 at the end of the season, and that was a lot of money, especially in those days.b But Tom wanted to go, and he wouldn't leave me there. So I left with him, and we lost the $1000, except what we made so far.

Then Tom got spinal meningitis. I went to work at... Times were tough in those days. We didn't hardly have any food or anything. Tom was walking the streets. It was 1927. We weren't even married long. You see these things happened in a short time - being in the camp and all that.

We lived in one room in town with an 80year old lady. We didn't have hardly anything to eat, and the old lady was heating hamburgers on the stove, and i got so hungry that I had to sneak one from there.

Then I got a job doing housework and Tom went to live with John in Jesseville. So then we were separated again.

Then John came after me that Tom was at his home. he was coming down the stairs , and he passed out. He was paralyzed from his waist down to his toes, and he had no feeling there at all.

That was winter time and there was a lot of snow. I didn't know how to get there. Oh, they called me, and I took a cab from downtown. And the cab couldn't make it and got stuck half way to Jesseville. So I walked the rest of the way to the grocery store, where Tom was, and I stayed there.

They had a maid helping in the grocery store and stuff. And Tom had his room where he was staying and stuff. In the evening, I went to sleep with the maid. Now, isn't that something? Why wouldn't I go to sleep with Tom? He was the one that was sick, and I could have sat there with him.

Well, anyway, John came there after a while, because Tom had asked for me. He comes there and he got so mad. He said, "What do you think I got you here for? You should be with your husband." I didn't say anything. I just got up and went.

Then when the ambulance came - they had to have the snowplows to open the roads - they took Tom to the hospital, and I went with him.

And then when I got in that room I stayed there, and they never let me out for three weeks. I was stuck in that room with Tom.

They got me a cot. There was a washbowl and a toilet. I don't know how I passed the time. I only had one outfit on. That's what I had on the whole time. Well, I probably washed myself or something. I had only one outfit. I had no pajamas or nothing. When I slept, i just took off the top. Isn't that crazy?

Then the nurse came there... Oh, I was getting a little bored, and Tom wanted something - he was in such terrible pain. So I would walk out there and go to the nurse at the desk. And they would say, "Oh, you're not supposed to go there, because it's so contagions. Because there were babies. The babies will get spinal meningitis." So then they said, "You'd better go back to your room."

I went back, but after a while I couldn't stand it, so I went back out and leaned against the wall. They said, "Don't lean against the wall," you know, because anything I bring from in there will bring the germs.

When they brought bed clothes, I had to change them, and all the clothes were left in the closet there.

Food that they brought - they had their own dishes, and they poured it in our dishes. If any of the cups touched, they left the cup in there too.

Then I remember when the doctor came and started to take the liquid from Tom's body. There were three - what do you call them - attendants to hold him. He was on his stomach. They can't give nothing when it is in the spine. They can't kill the nerve. So they started digging with a little spoon, like that. And Tom just about went crazy. He threw the guy right over the radiator.

They got that stuff, and every day they kept putting something in there to take something out. And in time, the doctor - Dr. Peirpont, I remember that - he just cams there to take Tom's leg and try to see if there was any feeling. Slowly, but surely, the feeling came back.

He said that one out of thousand pull out of it. Now, lot of times they say there there is no hope for somebody with spinal meningitis.

MOM

Well, he has that weaving a little when he walks.

TYNE

Yeah, it left him that headache. I have a feeling that it left a weakness in him. And that is the reason that he is so weak about his drinking.

MOM

Oh, poo! It's Hendricksons. The whole family is like that. The father was like that.

TYNE

Well, we're the same kind.

MOM

No. We like to drink. But not that much.

TYNE

Tom was working at Downing Box, and Carl had that leg that was broken. Something happened to his leg. So I put a hot towel on his neck, like that, and Tom thought that there was some hanky-panky going on. But there was never nothing. Carl never made an attempt.

We had dressed up real nice. I had bought a new outfit, with a low cut dress, like that and everything. With the silver high heels. We were going out. Oweni and Eleanor were in the back seat and Tom and I started arguing about something. I was saying something he didn't like, so he said, "Will you shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you." And I wouldn't, I just kept on. So he slapped me across the mouth like that, and it made me so mad - he was driving the car - that I let him have it with my fist, right in the eye. He had to stop. that was right in the nigger district there on Vliet Street.

That was long ago. I don't even know if Jimmy was even born yet. Yes, but he was probably 2 or 3 years old at the time.

So he stopped the car, and I was sort of scared: "What was he going to do to me?" So i got out of the car and started running down the street. So Oweni started running after me. I had gone a block already, when Oweni said, "Come back. Everything is going to be all right." So I didn't know if I should, so I stopped anyway, because he was with me, you know. So I went back, and Tom didn't say a word. I went in the car and we went out and had a wonderful time and went home and everything was perfect. And I had a... ha ha.

Oweni and Tom were good friends, and they went chasing around together. That's where a lot of stuff started, you know. He went around with him, and slowly but surely... and Oweni was kind of a chaser too. Well, I was pretty trusting in those days too. I believed all the lies he told me. All of them I don't know yet, but they must have been lies. ha ha.

Then he came home this one time, and Carl was home at the house there, and Dr Lane, and Marie. So then I was so mad because Tom had been out drinking and took his check and everything. Jimmy was only about 3 years old then. So I started packing, and I looked and thought, "What can I put in my suitcase?" ha ha. I had no clothes ha ha. I took my suitcase and started walking. I didn't know where to go. I had no money, so I started walking towards - you know we lived on Concordia Avenue. when we first came to Milwaukee - so I thought that I'll walk there. And I'd ask the lady if I could stay there. Well, I walked part of the way, and I got tired. And so did Jimmy, because he had to walk.

So there on the street corner I was sitting on the suitcase, and Dr. Lane found us. He came with the car and said, "You'd better come home." So I went back with him. They had gotten ahold of Tom, and Tom came and we sat on the steps and Tom put his arm around me and talked sweet talk. And I said OK; everything was all right. Then he went out again. ha ha. The same night! Can you imagine that? He could sweet talk me out of anything. Even then, just the idea that I was ready to walk out.

MOM

But then you were the type - you wanted a home really... and you would have been satisfied...

TYNE

Well, I didn't drink. I didn't drink those days.

MOM

Yes, that's another thing. If you would have been crazy for drinks, you would have gone right along with him.

TYNE

Yes, I would have gone there. Even if he wasn't there, I would have gone by myself looking for him.

MOM

A good chance to get another drink.

TYNE

We used to have those parties. Like Roy Greth. Boy how we used to do this loving. he was a lover. But one of the things that I was true, there was no monkey-business. I'll put my hand on the Bible.

Roy, he ah... Tom and Irene were in the other room, loving up, I guess - and Roy and I - ohh could he love, you know. He was a real lover. Boy, I'm telling you. Tom didn't know how to love, but this guy did - like kissing and that. Ohh, he was getting - you know - really hot and bothered. We were in the kitchen, in the pantry. And he wanted to, but I said, "Nothing doing." And then he got sick and he went to the bathroom and threw up. He went down the steps and into the car, and after that Irene went too. They went home."

MOM

Yeah, but what happened when you were with Roy upstairs and Tom was with someone downstairs and he started to get so jealous that he came upstairs to see you. Do you remember that time?

TYNE

I don't remember that. In those days, there was never an upstairs and downstairs.

MOM

In the attic. On Locust.

TYNE

Unless I was there with another guy over there, and he thinks yet it was Frank C. And there was nothing there either. Although...

MOM

Tom was supposed to be with another woman...

TYNE

That he didn't like, ha ha. then he was jealous of me, but if he liked them, then it was ok.

MOM

But that was pretty crazy, that time we went to Held's. Well, Pa. Elmer, he was pretty loaded, and he just kept talking with Tyne, and he doesn't notice\ what goes on. And I think he was...

TYNE

Boy, I was getting so - I was... Let me tell this. ha ha. This guy - he went for Lillian, just like a ton of bricks, right away. He didn't pay no attention to me, though. He was a nice looking fellow too. And he had another friend there too. And they started buying drinks for us.

MOM

A hamburger and everything.

TYNE

Yes, and Elmer was so far gone already with drinking, you know. And Elmer, when he's in the tavern, you know, he likes to talk with me. Just talk, talk, talk. So I saw that Lillian is right behind Elmer, and I'm here and Elmer is looking at me. And Lillian is here and that guy of over there. And they're - he's coming and kissing her there and everything else.

RON

Really?

TYNE

Yeah. And after that, when Elmer was starting to get up, I could tell he would notice. He was just going for Lillian and I goes in between the guy and says, "Let's dance." And I starts dancing with that guy, because I know how Elmer would be if he found out.

MOM

He never knew, really...

TYNE

He never knew nothing about it. But he's so trusting about you too. Oh, that's...

Mom

That was so crazy then. Right by Elmer. Ha ha.

Tyne

Ha ha. I thought, "Oh boy is he going to notice?"

Mom

And the funniest thing - I felt like I wasn't married that night.

Tyne

Well you had quite a few drinks, and it was kind of a flattery.

Mom

At that age. Then the next day I started thinking, wouldn't I be foolish. Just for... Anybody who throws money like that...I bet that he hasn't got a thing.

Tyne

And he said that he's going to get you yet. Ha ha.

Ron

Well, did he?

Tyne

We never saw them again.

Maybe you don't like to talk about this - you know about when we were at Kato's? Oweni and Eleanor, I and you and... what's his name?

Mom

Ceil? No? Bill?

Tyne

Yeah. And we were all drinking at...

Mom

Kato's?

Tyne

No.

Ron

You went around with them then?

Tyne

Yeah. Oh yeah, when we first met Bill at West Allis, I thought he was some sort of, what do you call, secret serviceman. Ha ha.

Mom

Yeah, I told Ronny... Ha ha.

Tyne

Ha ha. He fooled you. Ha ha. He was so good looking, too.

Mom

Yes, like Ronny was saying, "He must have been like that Matson, Manson."

Ron

Oh, I didn't say, like Manson.

Mom

He had a lot of girls. With that lying, lying and everything.

Tyne

Oh lies! All those lies he had at that time. Like I told you - I said, "Oh boy, that's a real..."

Mom

You said, "What's the difference if he's a little shorter than you?"

Tyne

Yeah. Oh, he was nice looking. He had little curly hair. Black curly hair.

Mom

Listen. He had a coat, you know...

Tyne

That flattered.

Mom

Then after I met him, the smaller he was getting. He was so darn puny afterwards. Boy, we got fooled by that darn coat.

Tyne

He DID look like a secret-service man. How they can lie, when they start telling about that...

Ron

Was he quite dark? Dark complexion, or what?

Mom

Oh yeah, real black eyes.

Tyne

Black hair.

Ron

It's funny that I didn't end up that way.

Mom

You look more like our family.

Tyne

You must. Yeah, that is really something.

Mom

Yeah, Ronny really looks more like our family.

Tyne

Yeah... Well that time - I used to be really crazy about port wine. And there I was sick that day - they had 10-cent glasses like that (show how big). And I drank that port and I drank.

Mom

You mean that night?

Tyne

Yeah, that night. Remember we were at that Bill Delainie's, and we sat there and sat there. And you guys were having drink, too. But then when we got outside, he said, "Let's go to Kato's."

Ron

Did Katos live in Milwaukee then?

Tyne

At that time he was building those homes in West Allis. His own homes. He had built his own home, and then he built a couple of other houses that he sold, you see. Well, we said, "Let's go there."

Well, when I got out of the - walked out of the tavern - the air hit me. And, oh boy! Just sitting there drinking wine, what that does. So we all went to Kato's. As soon as I got to Kato's I went into the bedroom and laid down. Then somebody came and shook me, "Get up! Get up!"

It was 4 o'clock in the morning! Everybody had been having fun. You guys were having fun.

Mom

It couldn't have been that time.

Wayne

I was there.

Tyne

Oh, you were there, too?

Wayne

Yeah, I got to the tavern at 7 o'clock in the morning, down on Center Street.

Tyne

Ha ha. Then he goes at 7...

Wayne

All muddy and everything. I don't know how I got home.

Mom

Oh, Tom was crawling like a... like a cow. And Ceil was right on top of him.

Tyne

Was Ceil along?

Mom

I don't know if it was this time, but anyway we were at Kato's, and Ceil went there and Tom went "Ah," and jumped and feet flying in the air, and I fell on his back.

Tyne

I remember you guys doing that... but that was a different time.

Ron

What happened at that party at Kato's? You didn't pass out there, did you?

Tyne

No. She... No, you didn't pass out. You weren't drinking wine, were you?

Mom

Oh, yes.

Tyne

You were drinking wine, too?

Mom

Well, one night I was drinking quite a bit wine, and you said, "Boy, you look terrible. Stop that drinking that wine."

Ron

Was Wayne there, too?

Tyne

Wayne was with us quite a bit, those days. He was drinking, too.

Oh, I was saying that he already got his...

Ron

You didn't have any girlfriends then, did you?

Wayne

No, not then.

Ron

Yeah, with all that drinking, you probably didn't care for them.

Wayne

Yeah, that's right. With that drinking.

Ron

Maybe with that drinking, you didn't remember what you did with the girls. Ha ha.

Wayne

Ha ha. Well in the war-time, on Farwell Avenue there at the Green Parrot, boy did those girls buy me drinks.

Ron

The Green Parrot? That was down on...

Wayne

Farwell and...

Ron

I remember the time... I remember the time that you came to visit and we went...

Wayne

Oh, I took you down there. Ha ha.

Ron

Sure. At Farwell and...

Wayne

Franklin. Franklin.

Ron

And we went to the "drug store". You took me to the drug store, and we went into the Green Parrot, and they had a green parrot there and a big St.Bernard.

Wayne

Oh, yeah.

Ron

We went to two places. Didn't we go to Johnnie's Eye Opener, across the street?

Wayne

Oh yeah.

(NOTE: Is something missing here?)

Ron

Just keep the drinks away from Tom.

Tyne

That's just where the trouble comes in. I don't mind having Tom here when he is drinking. Only, that Tom is such a slob when he is drinking.

Mom

He can't help himself. That's his weakness.

Tyne

I'd love to have Tom. I'd like his company, otherwise.

Ron

Mom acts kind of funny, when she's been drinking, too.

(NOTE: we 3 were just finishing off a quart of brandy and Mom was getting pretty rubbery-mouthed.)

Mom

Yeah, that's a... Sure.

Tyne

She acts funny?

Ron

Look at how she's acting now.

Mom

Yeah.

Tyne

She acts funny. Ha ha.

Mom

Well, Tyne was - was it Easter or what? And Pa says - it was Saturday, "I'm not going to drink much. I want to look nice when I come to Tyne's." And he didn't drink much.

Tyne

And he was dressed up real nice,

Mom

Oh, he looked real nice.

Tyne

But I'll tell you what. It was because of Jimmy. You know that Jimmy had - Jimmy didn't like to have - ah - you see I was going to have June's mother and father here, but he didn't want to have Emily and all her kids here too, so I said that if I can't invite Emily and her kids, I can't invite June's mother and father either. But it was bothering me, and I think somewhere in the back of my mind, because I had blackberry brandy here and...

Ron

Oh, you have blackberry brandy?

Tyne

Not now. I was going to bay some and have some here in the house, but after awhile then I'll just get this...

And ah, well anyway, Jimmy had gone out the night before, when he knew weeks before that I was going to have the Easter dinner. And he went out and got himself all out of shape, so he couldn't come to that dinner. June came, and I wasn't going to...

Mom

Well, anyway, Tom came over... Tom was so loaded, and Elmer was feeling his drinks. When Jimmy came over, Tom was leaning on Jimmy and everything...

Tyne

He never finished what he wanted to say, because Jimmy wouldn't listen. He came back many times. Then, what bothered me the most is the way I got. Do you know that I had - this is something that happens only in a lifetime - something like a split personality. I had - I don't know - I didn't have that many drinks. I had only 2 blackberry brandies and then 2 beers. And I had been drinking beers.

Ron

Mixing them?

Tyne

But I had done that hundreds of times. Joe and I - we drank a lot of blackberry brandies, and then we started on beer, and It never effected me that way. But this time - I started - they said, but I don't remember - they said that I started picking on Jimmy. Jimmy got mad, and then he walked out. And then when I walked in the kitchen, it seemed to me they said that I had been here on this chair the whole time, because I was sitting here and drinking. And I had walked in the other room - I didn't know I had walked in there - and saying all sorts of things, you know. And June had told Wayne, "What's the matter with her? She's never acted like that before."

So Jimmy says he's going to go home. Then, when I was here in the kitchen, June said that Jimmy's gone home. Like you see in the movies, you know, it flashes like that? Just like that, it snapped in my mind that I went to Jimmy and said, "Take care of yourself and drive careful."

Then it seemed like I was normal. Like, just then it snapped in my mind. In the mean time - what had happened before, I couldn't remember a thing.

Ron

What were you picking on him for?

Tyne

They said that I had picked on him because... I don't know what I...

Mom

No, but this wash shomething shpecial. Tyne doeshn't keep dinner parties very often. Ha ha. And it wash Easter Ha ha. (Mom could barely talk now from the drinks)

Tyne

Ha ha

Ron

Ha ha. Yes? Yes? Ha ha.