First a few things as I remember them:
When Ezra was 11 or 12 years old his father gave him a new pocket watch as a gift. A short time later Ezra and his brothers Herman and Silas were climbing around a bridge over the Pomme de Terre River, a half mile west of their home between Morris and Hancock Minnesota.
Sure enough, the watch fell out of his pocket and went down, down toward the water. Ezra thought it was lost for good, but it landed on top of one of the concrete pilings that supported the bridge. CRASH! The glass over the face was broken and he climbed down to pick it up. He held it up to his ear and listened – nothing. The watch was not running, he shook it and is sounded like a rattle.
That night Tim said I guess you are not old enough to take care of a good watch yet and took it away from Ezra.
Almost a year later the boys were ice skating and Ezra fell through the ice. His brothers and the friends with him got him out and took him to a warm place and dried his clothes. They all said that they would not tell father Tim.
That evening at the table Tim said “Ezra, I want to see you in my room when the evening meal is over.” Ezra felt weak in his stomach and though “how did Dad find out?” They went to Tim’s room and he said to Ezra “You have worked hard this year and have been a good help to your mother and me, so here is your pocket watch.” It was ticking away.
A great load lifted from Ezra’s shoulders.
Early one summer a very heavy rain came to Minnesota. Tim’s boys saw that water from their field was flowing into the ditch, through a culvert into the field on the other side of the road. The boys liked to swim and decided to dive into the ditch, flow with the water through the culver and come out the other side of the road. It was great fun.
When they were dying off to start home they noticed the top of fence posts a few feet away from where they shot out of the culvert. They looked and below the water were about three strands of tangled barbed wire fence. The boys the realized they could have been caught in those wires and drowned. Again, don’t let the folks find out about this!
Some years after our 1937 move from Kansas to Peoria, Ezra (about 40 then) told his father Tim about this and said “I didn’t tell you about this until now because I was afraid you would spank me.” Tim looked at Ezra for a few long seconds and then said “Ezra, I have a good notion to spank you yet.”
In the 1930’s Ezra had to give up farming because of the Great Depression and moved to Sabetha, Kansas. Ezra and Marie bought a small house at 724 S 12th St., in Sabetha. (Bob Hohulin thinks it cost $650.00)
This house had our first electricity but it did not have running water. Ezra and Marie had the desire to provide a better living for themselves and their children; So Ezra decided we would do the work ourselves and bring city water into the house.
A hole was needed though the solid concrete wall in the basement for the supply pipe. Their son Bob was in the second grade and even he got to help. Bob held the star drill and Ezra hit it with a sledge hammer. The drill had to be rotated, right 45 after one blow and the left 45 after the next, then to the right again.
The whole family was thrilled to have one (1) water faucet in the house. We did not have a water heater or a toilet but we did not have to carry our water in any more.
The term “parent, child bonding” came into use 50 years later but that is what happened between Ezra and Bob.
The house in Sabetha gave us our first experience with electricity. This was also when Bob learned to be a “light bulb snatcher” and from his father yet.
One evening Ezra was reading the paper when the bulb in the lamp by his chair burned out. He told Bob to get a chair and bring a bulb from the chandelier in the front room.
Bob stood on the chair and unscrewed the light bulb, then he looked into the empty socket. Never having seen one before he reached into his pocket, pulling out a nail (Note: many boys that age carry nails and other things in their pockets) - and pushed it into the open socket. FLASH, and Bob was down on the floor flat on his back.
Ezra went into business with Tommy Bramer. The store was on Main Street in Sabetha, KS and the business was named “Hohulin and Bramer”
They sold feed (chicken, hog, cattle, etc.) to the farmers and bought cream and eggs from them. The cream was tested for it’s butterfat content. All the eggs had to be “candled” to make sure they were fresh and didn’t have a baby chick growing inside. Note: To get any money they could in the Great Depression, if a farmer found a hidden chicken nest of eggs in the barn or haystack he would bring them to sell even if he didn’t know how old the eggs were.
A house wife took a very dim view of cracking an egg open to cook or bake with and finding it rotten or with a baby chick growing inside! Any eggs found to be rotten or with a baby chick inside when candled were deducted from what the farmer was paid.
To candle the eggs Ezra took a Quaker Oats box and cut a hole in the side of it just the size that an egg would not fall through. A light bulb was placed inside and the electronic wire went up through a small hole in the cover. This unit was placed in a small, dark room. The only light in the room came from the hole Ezra had cut in the box.
Then, Ezra, and on Saturdays Bob, would place each egg to the hole and the light would shine through the egg. If the light came through clear the egg was good, however if dark spots were seen it was rotten. Some times the bones of an unhatched chick could be seen. The clear eggs were paid for and sent to the grocery stories. This process is called candling eggs.
At that time Ezra smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. One Saturday evening Ezra was sweeping the floor getting ready to close the store. Bob had finished candling eggs. Ezra called Bob over to him and said that he would quit smoking if Bob would promise never to take up that habit.
Both agreed, and that is how Ezra quit smoking. It must be told that Marie was a very happy wife and mother about that deal.
Ezra had a habit of flipping things he held in his hand. Holding a hammer by the handle he would gently flip it into the air. The hammer would take 3 or 4 end over end flips and Ezra would catch it by the handle on the way down. He could do this with a hammer, wrench and many other objects. If he was visiting with some one he did these flips out of habit and was not even aware that he was doing it.
A few doors down the street from Hohulin and Bramer was a butcher shop. One evening after closing the store Ezra went to get a package of fresh cut beef liver. The butcher and Ezra were talking and Dad was flipping the package of liver when a well dressed woman came up to the meat counter. The liver package went up into the ceiling fan - SPLAT – SPLAT the package came off the ceiling fan blade and hit the side of the face. Dad said that he could not help laughing and the woman got angry. He apologized and left in a hurry.
The next day the butcher told Ezra that he was on the spot when that happened as the women was one of his best customers and didn’t dare laugh. Then he told Dad that it was one of the funniest things he had seen in a long time. (Note: Many family members remember Grandpa listing this story as one of the three most embarrassing moments of his life. Also Grandpa said because he laughed so hard the lady accused him of being drunk. Added by Mark Hohulin)
By Robert Hohulin