My dad found this book and sent it to me a while back. It was a project that we did when I was in junior high where we had to record interviews with our grandparents or other older people in the community on cassette then transcribe them into stories for the book.

The Traces of Yesterday forward reads:

Welcome to the seventh volume of TRACES OF YESTERDAY, a collection of oral history compiled by the students of Washington Junior High in New London. The 1988/89 edition involved the entire eighth grade class with many students having their work included in the book.

First the young historians of Lyle Brumm and James Fauske took their tape recorders into the community attempting to capture history. Next they transcribed, edited, revised, and proofread the material. In this phase the students used the social studies classroom and the “Rough Copy”, the Washington Junior High writing lab. After the staff had selected the material to be included in the book, it was neatly rewritten, and typed into the computer by junior and senior high students interested in word processing. After a copy was printed, volunteer proofreaders read the manuscript, corrections were made, and then the final printout was completed.

It was the desire of the advisors to again make the endeavor as much as student project as possible. They were involved in the gathering of information, the recording and writing of it, and the typing, printing, and marketing of their book.

May you, the reader, get as much pleasure from reading as the students and those interviewed did in capturing the past.

Sincerely,
The Advisors to TRACES OF YESTERDAY

I interviewed my mom’s dad, my Grandpa Norder. I had one story entitled “There Was No Money” included in the book.

There Was No Money

Elvin Norder

Interviewed by Rachelle Bowden

I went to school during the Depression. there was no money. If you got a penny on Sunday, you were lucky. Then you could get a half of a handful of candy for a penny or a package of gum. You could get a pack of cigarettes for a dime.

My dad ran a tavern for a job in the Depression. Back then beer and pop came in bottles. There were no cans of beer. Mother would take $0.50 a day out fo the cash register to feed a family of eight. Guys would bring in bags of potatoes and dad would give them a beer. Some would bring in rutabaga or pork head or anything.

My mom made most of our clothes. We couldn’t afford new clothes. Sometimes we’d get hand-me-downs from people who could. I don’t think I ever had a new pair of shoes. I remember when I had a new sled. Any other time we didn’t have one. Didn’t have any money to buy one.

On October 13, 1940, I joined the army for one year of training. I was in World War II for 5 years. I was a truck driver and Corporal Technician. I drove truck and picked up bodies, food, ammo, everything. The truck didn’t have brakes. You had to coast to a stop. I was stationed in the South Pacific, New Guinea. I ended up on the Philippine Islands. On July 25, 1945, I got out.

Some thoughts –

- This spiral-bound book printed with a dot-matrix printer has somehow lasted for 22 years with very little damage.

- Washington Junior High doesn’t even exist any more.

- My grandpa grew up to run a bar of his own. I took some photos of Norder’s Bar here.

- My grandpa grew up in The Depression and lived the whole rest of his life as though we were still in The Depression. He bought the cheapest food imaginable and I don’t remember him having new clothes even once. He was far from rich, but I think he had enough to live a little differently. I don’t remember him ever signing a check without mumbling under his breath about how he was “signing his life away.” I wonder why I have money issues today!

- I still have the cassette tape recording of the interview I did with my grandpa. I should see if there’s some way to convert it to a digital file. It would be nice to have, especially since my grandpa passed a few years ago. We’ll never hear these stories again. I believe my brother and my cousin probably both have these cassettes somewhere too. We all had to do the same project the year we were in eighth grade. I wonder if grandpa told the same stories of The Great Depression and World War II.

- I remember at the time thinking about how I’d never heard any of these stories from my grandpa before. My grandpa and I weren’t really close and I don’t think I ever heard many more of his stories after that. Regrets.

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