Stories in Life. On the Radio with Mark and Joe.
Wisdom from the Hearts and Minds of Three Siblings: Bill (99) Dee Dee (98) and Fritz Kruschel (96) - Sharing Optimism, Values and Friendship
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In this episode you will be transported to 1932, right in the middle of the Great Depression, as we sit down with the incredible Kruschel siblings: Bill, Dee Dee, and Fritz, ages 99, 98, and 96. We promise you’ll learn not only about their struggles but also the heartwarming moments that defined their childhood. From family trips to Big Marine Lake and singing during long car rides, you’ll get a vivid glimpse into their resilient and resourceful upbringing.
Our conversation dives deep into the wisdom imparted by their single mother who championed honesty, financial responsibility, and hard work. Even after their father’s death in 1933 threw their lives into turmoil, the family found strength and new beginnings on a farm with their Uncle Carl. You’ll hear about their mother’s arduous journey from Germany to America, her pursuit of a better life for herself and her family, and the sacrifices she made, painting a poignant backdrop to their story of perseverance.
As we turn the page to their move from farm life to St. Paul Park in 1937, you’ll feel the excitement and trepidation of transitioning to city life. The siblings reminisce about their mother’s legendary cooking, their adventures in music and Boy Scouts, and the simple pleasures of a small-town childhood. These stories celebrate the enduring bond between them, the values instilled by their parents, and the timeless lessons of optimism, gratitude, and responsibility. Join us in honoring their rich tapestry of life experiences and the wisdom they offer.
We love to hear from our listeners! Send us a text message and share your feedback
In this episode you will be transported to 1932, right in the middle of the Great Depression, as we sit down with the incredible Kruschel siblings: Bill, Dee Dee, and Fritz, ages 99, 98, and 96. We promise you’ll learn not only about their struggles but also the heartwarming moments that defined their childhood. From family trips to Big Marine Lake and singing during long car rides, you’ll get a vivid glimpse into their resilient and resourceful upbringing.
Our conversation dives deep into the wisdom imparted by their single mother who championed honesty, financial responsibility, and hard work. Even after their father’s death in 1933 threw their lives into turmoil, the family found strength and new beginnings on a farm with their Uncle Carl. You’ll hear about their mother’s arduous journey from Germany to America, her pursuit of a better life for herself and her family, and the sacrifices she made, painting a poignant backdrop to their story of perseverance.
As we turn the page to their move from farm life to St. Paul Park in 1937, you’ll feel the excitement and trepidation of transitioning to city life. The siblings reminisce about their mother’s legendary cooking, their adventures in music and Boy Scouts, and the simple pleasures of a small-town childhood. These stories celebrate the enduring bond between them, the values instilled by their parents, and the timeless lessons of optimism, gratitude, and responsibility. Join us in honoring their rich tapestry of life experiences and the wisdom they offer.
Welcome to Stories in Life. You're on the radio with Mark and Joe. We share stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill, courage, determination, commitment and vision of everyday people.
Mark Wolak:Our goal is that through another person's story you may find connection. No matter your place in life. The stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh, cry, think or change your mind about something important in your life.
Joe Boyle:Join us for this episode of Stories in Life ¶¶.
Joe Boyle:So, so this is a follow-up to our recent episode with 99 year old Bill Kruschel and, as we mentioned in the first episode, he has two siblings, one age 98 and one age 96, and uh, we met with them and we're going to go over some things with the three siblings and it's going to pick up around 1932. So what was going on in 1932? Well, Roosevelt became president, beating Herbert Hoover. That year, the depression was in full swing. Stocks continued to fall, unemployment continued to rise. Globally, there was a depression, banks failed, life savings were lost, leaving many Americans destitute. Homes were lost. Polaroid photography was invented were lost. Polaroid photography was invented. Legos were created. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic.
Joe Boyle:The 32 Summer Olympics were held in LA. The 32 Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid. Charles Lindbergh Jr was kidnapped. The best picture was Grand Hotel and the most popular song was In a Shanty in Old Shantytown by Ted Lewis. You could get a half pound of bacon for 19 cents, a loaf of bread for a nickel, a pound of coffee for 32 cents, a dozen eggs for 1515, a pound of burger for $0.15, and a quart of milk for a quarter.
Mark Wolak:It was really an amazing time for those children. So we're going to listen to Fritz, who's 96, Dee Dee who's 98, and then Bill Kruschel, who's 99, on his way to 100. But in that time period, since they lived in Minnesota and they were children in Minnesota 1932, there was 29% unemployment. Can you imagine that? 29%? That's more than one in four and on the iron range, where we have some listeners 70% unemployment.
Joe Boyle:Dang, I was born up there 30 years after that, yeah.
Mark Wolak:So I remember my parents talking about the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, and also the CCC camps.
Mark Wolak:Bridges, dams, public buildings, roads, schools. Yep, work today. Yeah, bridges, dams, public buildings, roads, schools. But I remember that one of the requirements if you were in the CCC camp is that you only were able to keep $5. You had to send the rest of that money home, so the government was really trying to get money to the people. Good, rule.
Joe Boyle:It was a good rule.
Mark Wolak:So it's such an interesting thing to think about these three people still alive, still talking about their history. Combined, they almost have 300 years of experience Wow, 293 to be exact, yeah, so you're going to hear some remarkable stories of that time period and we're just I'm just really honored that they gave us the opportunity to sit down with them Absolutely.
Joe Boyle:This puts it all in perspective. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat for you today. We have three siblings, Bill Kruschel Sr., age 99. His younger sister, Dorothy or Dee Dee, Waska, 98. And the little one, fritz, Kruschel, 96. I'd like to start with some of your earliest memories. I know Bill was born in 1925. You must have been born in 1926. And you were at 1928? Okay, so what are some of your earliest memories?
Bill Kruschel:I'll start it out. My earliest memory was when I was maybe three or years old, when we got a cottage on Big Marine Lake so that every Friday night we lived on the east side of St Paul dad would drive us out through White Bear, through Bugle, took a right turn for five miles and ended up on Big Marine. And it was an experience for a young kid in that the lake back then was down so far, and you too might not remember this, but there was about a one foot difference between the land and the lake and the great big trees that were growing along the lake shore. The water washed all of the dirt away from underneath the roots.
Bill Kruschel:So that as kids we could crawl all through the roots of the tree. That was the beginning of my memories. I think Big Marine yeah, Big Marine Lake is about the best memories. I have too, as I can remember A lot of fun, or we had a lot of fun.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, I remember that it was a long ride out there and the roads weren't that good and the car certainly didn't have the wasn't as comfortable as they are today. But I remember we always sang. My dad loved to sing and we always sang. My dad loved to sing and we always sang. And on one trip we had a wicker suitcase and on the way back home there was a turtle in the room. So my mother had to take whatever was in the suitcase out and they took the turtle and put it in the suitcase and took it home. I don't know what happened to it, but that was so exciting my gosh, a turtle and then take it to the city. That was a long trip, but we always enjoyed singing together.
Bill Kruschel:Oh boy.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, then there was.
Bill Kruschel:Kuno's store, which is roughly a mile through the woods, and I remember I had a nickel and walk all the way up there and I still can't believe how much candy I could get for a nickel.
Dee Dee Kruschel:A little mercantile market had everything. Yep, yeah, it was fun, but we were busy, we had fun, we enjoyed doing things, and ritz and I were playing more. Bill had a help when he was asked, but I think he enjoyed just being with daddy too.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh, yeah and I remember we, daddy, had a boat. We had a nice fishing boat and we got to take our friends out. And one of my friends, Rosemary Maxstead, got to come out for a couple days and the boat was. We didn't have gauges like they do today. We took a stick to see how much gas was in the car and my dad said we've got to get a stick and Rosemary jumped off the dock right into the quicksand or a stick so my dad had to get her out of that. She never forgot that. She talked about that. So it was fun and we had friends we took out there and we had friends that came out class.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Uh, first of my risk drove out quite often don't forget the Klostermans well, the Klostermans were there on the other side of the lake, but we went in the fishing boat. We all liked to fish, yep, and Mother, of course, was the one who did all the work. I mean, they cleaned them and she stood there and they ate and fried them. That was fun, but yeah, that was really.
Joe Boyle:And what year was that?
Dee Dee Kruschel:Well, that would have been, oh, about 1930, 32.
Bill Kruschel:Early 30s.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, because he was only. My dad was only sick for six weeks.
Bill Kruschel:But the very best thing at Big Marine Lake was when my dad bought my mother a car. Oh, yes, the car A 1932 Club Coupe.
Dee Dee Kruschel:It was a Roadster.
Bill Kruschel:It had a rumble seat in it, remember, yeah, and God never intended Ma to drive. What kind of car was it? I'm trying to think of it Austin, no, no, anyhow, it was a big car. The steering wheel was this big around and my mother was only five foot tall, you know, because she had two Montgomery Board catalogs under her and a couple of blankets. Yeah, she wasn't very big, it was just something else. Memories just never quit, no. You guys both know where Johnson Parkway is the day it was opened.
Bill Kruschel:Chad took all of us out to go down Johnson Parkway and we came in from the south end of it over by the Indian Mount. And I don't know if you two remember this but all three of us kids were standing up in the backseat singing all the way to East 7th. Street.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, and we went by the corner where Uncle Carl worked at one time when he first came to America at the nursery.
Bill Kruschel:Yeah, yeah. We went Parkway.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh, we had to go up and down to make sure that it was right, I guess.
Bill Kruschel:Well, the car I'm referring to was an Auburn. Auburn, there you go. It was a convertible Auburn, a huge car, and when my mother backed up after there were small trees in the way, they just went down it was unbelievable Good question.
Dee Dee Kruschel:It was a lot of fun. And that car that had the rumble seat, there was a door you opened up to put your foot in.
Bill Kruschel:Well, you could put your no, it was built right behind the red door so you could slide your golf bag in.
Dee Dee Kruschel:So it would be at your feet if you were sitting in the rumble seat. Well, we had a little dog at the time, yeah, and we put the little dog in there.
Bill Kruschel:That's how we got the dog getting out of the car. Visualize we're going up bailey hill when it was all gravel and poor ma never know how to shift down, and these two are in the rubble seat and up in front with her and all of a sudden we and at seven years old I had enough brains to pull the emergency brake yeah and we look up and here comes a guy down the hill with a team of horses and I jumped out and I said would you please drive this car?
Bill Kruschel:He said hold my horses, I'll drive you up there. And these two were screaming.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Well, mother didn't like to drive, no, but she did it when she had to. But when we, after my dad died and we were out in the country and she had to drive, and we drove into Cottage Grove.
Bill Kruschel:Old Cottage Grove.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Old Cottage Grove there was a mercantile building. They had everything and you know the car had three. I remember it had three pedals on the bottom. Yeah, model T.
Bill Kruschel:A Model T coupe now.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And there was a long railing where they hitched horses up when they came to the store.
Joe Boyle:Sure.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And you pulled the car in there and my mother pulled the car in and she evidently pushed the wrong pedal because she went straight ahead and I got a bloody nose and I didn't realize it because I had a little sleeve on my breast and I kept going like this and I thought it was just a bloody nose and then when we got home we found out I had a cut. I still have a scar.
Joe Boyle:Mother didn't like to drive wait, what year did your father pass? 1933 and and what was his? What was the diagnosis? What was?
Bill Kruschel:really didn't know what ever happened to him until they did the autopsy and they found out immediately he was born with a hole in his heart.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Back then there was no way to determine that but they did the autopsy and they found a hole in his heart as big as a half a dollar. But he was six, six weeks and we were on the lake and he kept, couldn't, couldn't lay down, he kept. My mother kept giving him another pillow and another pillow and he just couldn't breathe anymore. So that's when they decided it was time to take him to the hospital and he only lasted a couple and that was, you know, in 1933, a long time, you know. And today's medical field is just wonderful.
Joe Boyle:How many years were they married?
Dee Dee Kruschel:They were married nine years. My mother came to America in 1923. She went to a place called the German House with a couple of friends to learn the English language and my dad was teaching it and it was also a big building where they had bowling area and they had dances and stuff. So my mother worked as a maid out in Highland Park and there were other gals that had come from the old country and she made friends and they went down to take lessons to learn the language and then they found out there was a dance and my mother loved to dance so they went to the dance and that's where she met my dad.
Fritz Kruschel:The rest is history.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And she met and married my dad in 1924, and Bill was born in 25 and I was born in 26 and Fritz was born in 28 and in 33. My mother was a widow with three children and luckily she learned the language quick and the ways of Americans and she had some good friends and good neighbors and she told us we're going to stay in America. She had a sister-in-law in Germany that wanted her to bring us over there. My mother would not go back to Germany, she was going to bring us up like my dad wanted us brought up and I think she had him on a pedestal for years always telling us well, daddy would do this and daddy would do that. So we did what she said.
Joe Boyle:Well, it's a darn good thing she didn't bring you back to Germany during those years.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And we were very fortunate I think we didn't bring you back to Germany during those years and we were, we're very fortunate. I think we didn't realize it at the time, how fortunate we were to have such a good mother, who we weren't any different than any other kids, no better, no worse. And when she said, do this or that, I'm sure we didn't want to. And I know, when she asked me to dust, how to dust the doors, and no, I didn't want to do that, well, he didn't dust it and she'd go check it. But, um, we were fortunate in that we never, ever said we're bored, never, ever. We learned from her how to keep clean and how to never borrow or lend or be always tell the truth because,
Dee Dee Kruschel:it's so much harder to remember a lie, yeah and uh.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You know, don't? You can't have a checking account. Because I wanted to go and open up a checking account and she said have you got the money? Not a checking account of credit. I wanted a dress from shunaman and it was 18. And she said how can you, how can you open up a credit? You haven't got any money. Well, I'll have it by the time the bill comes. She said, no, you make sure you have the 18 in your hand and then you go down and open the account so when the bill comes you can pay it, because otherwise the bill will come and you won't be able to pay it and you're right away down the drain.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh, she didn't believe. She, you know. And boy, boy. And when we got older and she was teaching us, when we got married, she said when you buy a house, you never want to pay more than one third of your monthly income for house payment because you need, you'll need some and you got to put some away, but don't ever get too far in debt. And we learned she had so many good things. You know that she taught us and we did, because we were so close, we were so lucky because when we got old enough to be married, she loved every one of the in-laws and we all liked each other. I liked the girls, the boys married and they liked the guy. I married. So we got even closer and I think you know she was here alone, so it was just the four of us.
Joe Boyle:She never remarried.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh no.
Dee Dee Kruschel:She said she didn't. We're kind of getting ahead of the story, though, oh okay, when we were smaller and she would get after us for not doing our job and cleaning this house. One of her favorite expressions was even a rat has a clear nest. Remember that. Or she would say to us soap and butter is cheap. Get to work, god. It was Well she For having one parent.
Dee Dee Kruschel:We were very fortunate, I'll tell you that we didn't realize it at the time, of course, but, then one of the great things I remember, when we'd have a plate and we didn't quite finish.
Bill Kruschel:She would remind us that there are children on the other side of the earth, in China, that don't have anything to eat.
Joe Boyle:I think that most parents still use that one.
Dee Dee Kruschel:I'm sure, but then, when Daddy died, we moved to the farm.
Bill Kruschel:Yeah.
Dee Dee Kruschel:That was our next adventure.
Joe Boyle:And where was the farm again?
Bill Kruschel:Well, now let's put it in the street. Mother had one brother in the United States, a bachelor that came out of the German Army in 1905.
Joe Boyle:Ten years older than she was. In what year?
Bill Kruschel:In 1905, that came out of the German army in 1905.
Joe Boyle:Ten years older than she was? In what year?
Bill Kruschel:1905. He got out of the German army and then he ended up going to Canada and then coming to America and he ended up at a greenhouse around Willock Parkway it's the other side of Rice Street and then somehow, after dad died, he convinced Ma because he didn't have a no, I don't think he convinced him.
Dee Dee Kruschel:That isn't right.
Bill Kruschel:Well, but he didn't have a nickel.
Dee Dee Kruschel:He didn't like Daddy in the first place.
Bill Kruschel:Well, that's another story, he wanted Mother to help him.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But Mother came and got a job and then she met Dad and they got married and then they died. But Uncle Carl was a hired man out in Woodbury and Mother was a widow. Everything was insured that we had. We had a cabin at the lake, we had a house in town, mother had a car, daddy had a car, everything was insured. So when Daddy died he worked for sunset memorial cemetery in minneapolis and they gave her the four grave flats. It was huge funeral. But anyway, when she had the money and my uncle was working just as a hired man and my mother and uncle got together and decided this was 1933. You know, it was a hard time. Mother had the money. So she said to uncle carl you go find us a farm and we'll live together and you can help with the children and we'll have a home. And that's when Carl bought the house.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Just a minute now Stop a minute. The reason our mother got to America was because our Uncle Carl came to Canada. You couldn't come to America, yeah, Uncle Carl. And then he worked his way into America. Now the First World War was going and our mother was in Hamburg.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, she worked there.
Bill Kruschel:And you've got to remember, in 1923, inflation in Germany was unbelievable. There was no government, there was nothing there. So this Carl, our uncle, he had brothers there too. Anybody wants to come to america? I'll pay the passage. Well, my mother saw that germany was.
Bill Kruschel:There was nothing for her a young woman 20 years old, 21 years old. However old she was, was crazy. So she says. She always used to tell us I didn't come to america because I was poor, I came to America for a better way of life and that's how she got here, and I imagine our Uncle Carl always felt some way that maybe my mother owed him something or something, because you know it was a what was home for your mother in Germany.
Mark Wolak:What town, oh?
Bill Kruschel:if you know where Hamburg is, yes, 90 miles north of there there's a place called Schleswig-Holstein.
Mark Wolak:Schleswig-Holstein.
Bill Kruschel:Okay, that's a place in Holstein, like I said, close to Denmark, there was a town called Tunning. That's where she came from. She had six brothers. I can tell you that.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, that'd be great. She had six brothers right?
Bill Kruschel:Well, she went only to the eighth grade of school. So I'm telling her one day how was this school? Well, up there, the Reformation took place up in northern Germany, so they went six and a half days to school. But religion was part of their education. She knew more about the Lutheran religion than half the people. So I said, how'd you get along in school? Well, she says I was. I think there were four brothers before her and two behind her.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah.
Bill Kruschel:And I said well, did the school teacher know you? The school teacher was there for 40 years in this little town, so he knew all her brothers and he knew her. So she kind of was spoiled with six brothers, If you listen to her as a girl in Germany prior to the First World War when she left she had a great childhood and she was a happy kid because she had brothers looking out for her. And she had a happy kid because she had brothers looking out for her and they were helping and she had a good life.
Bill Kruschel:And then there was no work, of course, for a girl, and she had some cousins down in Hamburg.
Bill Kruschel:And they got her a job and she worked for these people that owned a big factory. And she first got there. Her job was to watch these two little girls, and every afternoon they would go to watch these two little girls and every afternoon they would go to the park and they would give her her money so the three of them could have an ice cream cone and my mother thought that was really something from coming down from tuning.
Dee Dee Kruschel:She wasn't afraid to work and she wasn't afraid to go anywhere. She was interested. She loved geography. She loved geography. She loved it when she said, when the teacher pulled down maps and pointed different things out, she loved that and I know here, when she couldn't see anymore, she'd call my husband and say, well, the president is at such and such a place. He's visiting. Joe, is that in the heel of the boot in Italy, when you look that up? And Joe would look it up and he said, yeah, that's where they're having the conference. That's what I thought she said. So she was always interested, always interested, and her main thing, of course, was keeping us three kids together and clean and full and busy, busy.
Mark Wolak:And she did a really good job of that.
Bill Kruschel:Always made sure we went to church.
Dee Dee Kruschel:We were busy.
Joe Boyle:And now it's time for Stories in Life. Art from the Heart, Deep thoughts from the shallow end. Each episode, we bring you a poem, a song or a reading, just for you © transcriptF-WATCH.
Speaker 7:TV 2021 that I'd give the whole world To be back, way, way back when I used to be. You know, it's a heavenly nest. That's where, that's where I rest the best, and it means more than the world to me. Oh say, it's only a little shanty. © BF-WATCH TV 2021. Tumbledown shack by an old railroad track, like a millionaire's mansion. It's calling me back. Oh say, I'd give up a palace, a palace, if I were a king. Why, to me, it's more than a palace, folks, it's my life, it's my everything.
Speaker 7:And there's a queen waiting there, a queen, I tell you, with a silvery crown in a little shanty, in a shanty town, and I've played with the big stars down east and out west and I've lived and yes, lived like the big stars and I've mixed, mixed with the best. But you can turn out those lights, turn them out, I tell you and take my name down and you'll be welcome in my little champagne, in old champagne. The three of you Take my name down and you'll be welcome in my little shanty.
Mark Wolak:The three of you share some common values. I think it'd be really good for you to share what you know, so you have seen decades on this earth. What do you want people to take away from from your conversation today? What do you want them to really value as you go forward?
Dee Dee Kruschel:Learn everything you can from your parents while you're young, because it's the best teacher you're ever going to have. We sure learned. We learned that there is no such thing as a lot of spare time and nothing to do. There's always something to do.
Bill Kruschel:Well, she wasn't really a religious person, but she was a very religious person and as kids, even on that farm, we were always in church. She very highly believed in God and everything. And I think she loved us. I think that's one thing.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Well, she is so instilled with religion all through her life until she got married. But she never forgot it and we always belonged to a church. But I'll tell you, a funny thing was when her and my dad went to a lutheran church in saint paul and they got up to go and have communion and one of the ushers said where are you going? And they said we're going to communion and they said not, you're not signed up, not in this church. So my dad looked at my mother and said this is not the way Martin Luther wanted it, we're done. And they walked out of the Lutheran church and then they got into the evangelical church. And my dad, she got mad and one day she said he put a five dollar bill in the collection and she says bill, we can't afford that. And he said never talk about what you give to the lord. But she, she wasn't over religious, but she made sure there was a church, there was Sunday school, there was.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You and I were confirmed, went to confirmation and we went to church, we sang in the choir that she didn't push the religion, but it was there and you knew what she expected, and that's what you did.
Joe Boyle:You lived like that you lived up to those expectations you never questioned it.
Mark Wolak:I never did I also hear that she saw spirituality in nature. You mentioned that she wasn't religious, but she was spiritual. Oh, yes, and how? As kids? How did you know? You must have played outside a lot as kids, right, you didn't have digital devices, that you're staying in your room. What are some of the things that you did as kids outside, when you were playing outside?
Bill Kruschel:Well, I think one of the great things was being able to ski in the wintertime. And the first year we moved on the farm we had a big rain just before and it froze and I could still skate on the ice between the road and the corn. Or you remember when you two went with me and we went way down in the pasture and I took my skis and made a little ski jump.
Bill Kruschel:I made a ski jump about as high as this table and come on down. You know, as a young kid you're young and dumb, or like with her when I was about five years old, six years old, I had a three-wheel trike and I got her standing on the back and I'm going down the Plum Street Hill and they're going so fast I have to take my feet off the pedals and I never thought anything about it. You know, it was a way of life right across the street. They had a big hill that came down and we had a ski jump on that and there was always somebody standing in the street. If a car came, they told them to stop so that you could go by, but one of the you know. I think we're coming to a point here. The life we lived at the farm was a life unto itself, and one of the most tragic days of my mother's life was when she said I'm taking my kids and getting out of here, but she never, ever complained.
Dee Dee Kruschel:No, never complained. Never, ever complained.
Bill Kruschel:And one day we loaded up the truck and we went to St Paul Park.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, but we were on the farm, we learned a lot.
Bill Kruschel:Well, when you're on the farm now, here we were. And there was no electricity, there was no running water, there was no telephone. You're just like you're, a pioneer.
Bill Kruschel:I can't believe you were, so we had as many cows as my uncle could milk by hand and there's a lot of work on a dairy farm and when you think about playing, there wasn't much time to play. Remember we had to pump water every night for them cattle, somebody said when did you learn how to work, when you're a kid, on a farm, on a dairy farm, with nothing, you work automatically. You couldn't wait until you could do something. Even if you carried a lantern. I don't care what you did. Playing was not the thing on that farm. Every kid had something to do and we did it, even you.
Dee Dee Kruschel:He was just five, my mother would make me take him down and we had an old body of a car there when she wanted to get rid of him and me she'd say, go take care of fritzy and fritzy, and I would go in the car and, oh my gosh, he would be driving and or I would be driving, and all the places we went, every sound we ever knew, big marine lake, eastings, uh como park why we went miles on that car and it kept us busy and out of trouble.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, right Makes sense.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And that's when she could get her work. You know, going from a city where she had everything to a place where she started the wash machine, like Bill used to start his own motorcycle by pushing it on and they had to carry all the water and my job was to take the exhaust hose we had a great big flexible exhaust and make sure it stuck out the window so that we didn't get gassed, you know so what year did you move to saint paul park?
Joe Boyle:1937 okay, did you realize that a the depression was going on as kids? No, because everybody.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Well, nobody was rich. We were all in the same boat.
Bill Kruschel:But the people that were on farms back during the depression were the ones that didn't have to worry, because we raised everything ourself, right, you know, and it was nothing but work, work, work. As an example, when I was nine years old was the first time I was a team of horses and a haymower and there was a liver on there. You could fall when you went around the corner and I wasn't strong enough. So when I got done cutting the whole field, my uncle come out and he just raised all kinds of cane with me because I didn't cut the corners. And then, when I got it all done, he gave me what's called a buck rake and what you did is rake everything in nice straight rows so you could pick it up. And then he gave me a heck because I didn't make the rows straight enough.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And you know, at the time we didn't realize how bad my mother must have felt and how many prayers she said. But she, unknowing to my uncle, she rented. She had been in St Paul Park a week before and visiting a friend and found an apartment and she hired our milkman to come and move and everything that was in that farmhouse belonged to my mother. My uncle didn't have one piece of furniture or anything, so my mother hadn't told him and the milkman came and started falling out. He had somebody with him to move the furniture and my mother took what she needed for this apartment and she never told him. And she told me one time later that when my uncle came into the house while they were putting the furniture in the milk truck and she was so afraid of what he was going to do because she knew he had a gun upstairs and she said then he came down and he went out to the barn and he never came back.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But when she moved he got a full set of living room furniture. She left him enough dishes and pans and a table and chair. She can only take so much. She took the piano but we dropped it off at a friend's house because she knew he'd never use it, but we didn't know we were going to move. I didn't know until that day. And then we moved to St Paul park and that was that was it. And my poor mother had to. You know what she went through. You don't realize it was a childhood, just skipping along. You're moving to a new life and you know it's not until you get older and you think back. My god, was she a strong woman.
Mark Wolak:She had a strong faith courageous to raise three blocks so how old were you, dd, when you moved?
Dee Dee Kruschel:better, no worse than anybody else's kids, but you know, it's just uh. I mean to to live like that and to go from what you had to earthy was 11 when we moved 11 now.
Mark Wolak:if I remember right bill, you said that that was the first time you guys had indoor plumbing and running water Ever since then, I've been taking a shower every morning, because that was the first time. What year was that?
Bill Kruschel:1937. 1937.
Mark Wolak:We moved into.
Bill Kruschel:St Paul Park. They had built a new school 1 to 12 grades and it was the best building in St Paul Park. I mean it was, we saw it. I mean inside plumbing, saw it. I mean inside plumbing showers, gym. What's this for?
Dee Dee Kruschel:you know, when we were on the farm, we we learned things on that farm. The years we were there we learned how to do things and I think it made us all better people for it sure and we appreciated it. When we moved off the farm, we were much more appreciative.
Bill Kruschel:Now let's get into St Paul Park. When people ask me what did your mother do? Somehow she found out that there was a great need in the inside of homes that had coal furnaces, because they deposited coal dust on the inside of the walls, so they washed the walls. That's how it all started out Ma walking down the street with a bucket and a ladder.
Joe Boyle:She worked hard.
Bill Kruschel:And in the middle of all that, one day she fell on the ladder and broke her arm and they took her to the Stillwater Hospital. Remember that.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And she was in the hospital in Stillwater.
Bill Kruschel:Yeah, and then what was the name of the couple that took us out there?
Dee Dee Kruschel:And, oh my gosh, you know I had a cook my brother Don't go there and I thought, oh, I love cream peas on toast, so that's what I made them and I stirred them so much it was like wallpaper, green wallpaper. I don't think they've eaten cream peas since.
Bill Kruschel:But to give you a little insight into mom, when I was 16 years old, I was really involved in music because the school furnished all the instruments free and I picked up a trombone and I was also a Boy Scout and you could get into Boy Scouts when you're 12 years old and we had a Drum and Bugle Corps there as well. Well, you had to be 18 years old to be able to play in the Griggs Cooper Gaucho Drum and Bugle Corps, which was a great big firm, cooper, came to sponsor the Boy Scout.
Bill Kruschel:On University Avenue. If it came in a box, a bottle or a can, they made it. You know Anyhow Fred Goth, our scoutmaster and the guy that ran the Drum and Bugle Corps and his brother, harold Goth, came to our house when I was 16 years old and convinced my mother that they would be sure to take care of me if I could just play my trombone in that drum and bugle corps. And I can remember this like yesterday. She looked right at him and said you be sure to take care of my Billy.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah.
Bill Kruschel:And I didn't realize the impact. We know, you know, today it makes me cry, yeah.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But they said they would take care of you. Now here's one for you. I don't remember my. They would take care of you.
Bill Kruschel:Now here's one for you. I don't remember my mother ever saying I love you, do you? No? And she really didn't like a hug. When you hugged her it was like hugging this table. And when she was about 60 years old, all of a sudden she'd relax. Up until then it was like you were hugging a corn stalk, you know, and she kind of liked that baby and Fritz lived with her alone. For how many years, bill.
Bill Kruschel:Yeah, right on the east side of St Paul. You know, fritz had a heck of a life living with his mother there, I know that. But in the meantime I got married in 1948.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh yeah, but that was a long time after St Paul Park, oh yeah.
Bill Kruschel:But you know to go on with our lives. It's just beyond imagination.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And in St Paul Park you were in the drum corps.
Bill Kruschel:Oh yeah, About everything else, about our mother. She was a fantastic cook. Cook. Oh my God, I don't care, we didn't have a lot.
Joe Boyle:And baker.
Bill Kruschel:It was. I still think of some of the things that she made. She could wish I just had some of that.
Mark Wolak:What was your favorite Like what? What's your favorite dish?
Bill Kruschel:Oh, apple cooking, apple cooking, yeah, apple cooking Great, and the rye bread.
Joe Boyle:Yes, that comes from there.
Bill Kruschel:But one time she was working in a home and these people were gone, so she invited us my family, over. She's going to make dinner for us at this fancy home, and I never ate such good food. I just couldn't believe it. She could do steak, she could do anything.
Joe Boyle:Just.
Bill Kruschel:I had the ability to know what seasoning, how to do it. Oh God, Boy, did we eat.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But when Mother was in Germany as a young girl, she worked. She was 16. She went to Hamburg to work and she worked in a home that had a few maids and cooks and she helped to cook once in a while and she always liked to learn things and she sometimes had to help serve the meal. So that's where she said she really got her education and what to do with what and how to make something thick or thin or how to make it go a little a little further, and what was good and which spice to use mostly salt and pepper yeah, now, you guys, you guys, um, you have to let our listeners know that your mother lived beyond 100 years old she lived to be 101 and eight months okay, so almost 102 years old.
Mark Wolak:You guys aren't there yet, but you're getting close, so she actually gave you a lot of longevity.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh, my God.
Mark Wolak:Right.
Joe Boyle:You come by that naturally.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, you're in a group called Super Agers.
Bill Kruschel:Getting back to Ma's cooking, my mother-in-law. You wouldn't believe this, guys. I do want to. I want to hear about her cooking. She could make leftovers taste better than the original.
Dee Dee Kruschel:She did Remember that, when we remember when we got that little pot today it's called a crock pot yeah, it was a little pot and it was one of the first things that came out, for it was electric and she'd put a little roast in there and put potatoes and carrots and we'd go off to church and when we came back it smelled so good. Oh yeah, oh. And she loved that little crock pot because it, you know, it helped all of us. We all ate good and she didn't have the work to fry.
Mark Wolak:Well, on the farm, she cooked with a wood stove. Oh yeah, Because you didn't have electric.
Dee Dee Kruschel:On the farm. She cooked everything. And one time I came home from school and my uncle had butchered a pig and the big copper boiler was on the summer kitchen stove. And that was unusual because that's what she heated water in for washing cold. So I picked up the cover of the big boiler and there was a pig's head. She made head cheese head cheese remember when she had to cook that head of that pig.
Mark Wolak:Oh my god, she could do yeah that was definitely that era when people used every part of every animal. My grandma Frances did that too, that that was a very important thing on the farm you didn't waste anything if liver worse, remember the summer kitchen was in the wintertime, of course, and that was kind of a storage shed and some of that liver, worse, we'd it.
Bill Kruschel:That was kind of a storage shed and some of that liverwurst we'd lose there. It'd be kind of blueish, yeah, because that could don't worry, for us it was unbelievable, it was true, but we had a butcher hog, yeah, butcher, and, if you know, a milkman came every day to pick up the milk and we always, in the spring, we'd get chickens you know, know little chickens and raise them up.
Mark Wolak:And brother, yes, the milk truck hit a chicken. We're having chicken tonight. So you guys uh, dd, you mentioned that you took care of fritz and you, you know, you probably took care of both your siblings, but when you moved into the city, into saint paul park, which would have that was moving into town, right, who took care of you when your mom was working? Did you take care of each other?
Dee Dee Kruschel:we were being, we were old enough yeah, we were old enough, we took, we knew how to take care of ourselves, okay, and when we went to school she might have gone to work before we left, but she knew we had breakfast, we had to do the dishes and bed was made before we went to school and sometime we walked home for lunch because we had 45 minutes.
Bill Kruschel:No, we went to school from 9 to 12, from 1 to 4. There were no cafeterias or anything in the school in them. Days to four. There were no cafeterias or anything in the school in them days. So if our mother was working and us three had to come home, we would have a can of soup right First. One home took the cover off, poured it in can of water, heated it up. That was us three. And you know it was kind of fun too.
Dee Dee Kruschel:The best thing was we had to walk a half a mile, but we walked back and forth at lunchtime and by the time we got out of school at 3 o'clock or 3.30, my mother got out of work and the school was this way and she worked down here.
Dee Dee Kruschel:so we'd meet here and help her pick up something to take home for dinner because we just had a nice meal, you know and so we'd help her and have her for dinner, because we just had a nice spot, and so we'd help her and talk to her.
Bill Kruschel:There was a lot of people there, a nice little store in Oristus it was a community I remember finding out, just because I didn't have a father, that most kids' fathers back then either worked for the packing houses or the railroad.
Mark Wolak:Everybody. You know that was the way of life.
Bill Kruschel:I can remember this porch that we had on that second story. It was about 8 by 12 with a beautiful screen in it and it had a daybed in it. And so the first night I thought oh my God, I'm in heaven. I'm going to sleep on that daybed Until about 10 o'clock when a big steam engine came down and blew the whistle. It was going to blow me right out of bed.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You know, coming from the farm, oh god but that's the three of you and then when our mother went to work, when she first she was doing washing walls, cleaning houses for people, and sometimes she'd go, she'd have to take her own bucket and her own rags sometimes and she'd get maybe 25 cents an hour. And then she started doing housework in St Paul and she'd take the bus Because she moved to St Paul right at the beginning of the war.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But she started when we were on the bus. She'd take the bus up to St Paul and then get a streetcar and go to work and come back All the way. She was a long day and she did that a few times and then we moved to St Paul.
Mark Wolak:So how far were you from the streetcar when you lived there? How far away were you from the?
Bill Kruschel:streetcar St Paul Park. We had to go across the river and go all the way up to Invergrove.
Dee Dee Kruschel:We didn't have to go across the river.
Bill Kruschel:How did you get in the streetcar if you didn't?
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh no, she got the the only way we could know. She took the bus up to Brown's Park.
Mark Wolak:She took the bus to St Paul Okay.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And then the Mariah Stryker streetcar. She got on and went all the way out to West 7th Mariah Ford Snelly Stryker's on the Mariah. Ford Snelly, that's right. And she went all the way out west of them, yep, to those big homes, yeah. And then we moved back to St Paul because she just, you know, her days were awfully long and she still had kids to take you know, make sure they were doing the right thing, but while my mother was in St Paul Park, this is a funny joke.
Dee Dee Kruschel:My mother was a great seamstress and my dad had bought her a sewing machine a white sewing machine in 1926. And they paid so much. Every week somebody came by to collect 50 cents and that sewing machine really earned its way because she sewed. I remember one time I came home from school and there was a girl standing on the dining room table and my mother was cutting some lace off the bottom. It was a prom dress and my mother was fixing it so it fit her.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But then when our paper boy Kenny Hall, came with the paper and he had a jacket with a zipper, so everybody wanted zippers in their jacket and she said she never broke so many sewing machine needles because, you know, it was just a sort of straight stitch and that's all you wanted. Well, today you got all kinds of fun stitches and I had them with mine. But I had that sewing machine until I was married and I usually even asked. She had the sewing machine with her wherever she went and when we were all gone from home she took her sewing machine and got a job as a housekeeper and she was off on Thursdays and Sundays and she always had her sewing machine. But that sewing machine really brought in a few pennies too, and I'm going to change the subject just a little bit.
Joe Boyle:The three of you seem to possess a an exceptional degree of optimism and gratefulness. Where does that come from, optimism and gratefulness?
Bill Kruschel:you seem very grateful about the way you were raised and when you came through, and that sort of thing as I got older, especially after I got through World War II, I realized what a great opportunity life had for me if I just went for it. And the positive angle of life is something that our mother really instilled in all three of us. Think positive. You know, never be lazy.
Bill Kruschel:No, and you know, be sure you pay your bills, be sure that your family is well fed and dressed All of those things that make life what it is. And one of the best things as I get older, when I look back on my life, was the incredible friendships I made, you know.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You were eager to learn. She made us that way that we knew there was something out there and she knew that she just had us, so that we were eager enough to want to learn, want to learn, want to learn. You never get to, and always your friends pick people who know better than you, because you can get dragged down awful fast.
Bill Kruschel:Because you'd never dream what music did to my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the other half of my life was music, and it started really started singing in the choir at the Congregational Church.
Bill Kruschel:In the choir, mrs Fort, me and the director with her three kids and then going on from there. You can't even imagine how many weddings and funerals I've sung in my life and you know that whole era of music made a whole different, positive part of my life, it enriched your life yeah.
Dee Dee Kruschel:The whole era of learning. We made friends in St Paul Park and that's where we grew up and it was a small town. You knew your friend's name. You probably knew their cat and dog's name.
Bill Kruschel:Well, one of the reasons that we're so optimistic is we remember what our mother told us, the reason she came here. There was nothing for her in Germany and we had the whole world in front of us, and she let us know that there's no reason that you can't do this. There's no reason, yeah, but she kept encouraging us. You know, very seldom did she ever say a bad word about anybody, and you know she never really had anything. When you think about it.
Mark Wolak:Yeah.
Bill Kruschel:When she first moved into your housing over there, I went to see her and I said how are you getting along? She said oh, it's just like a hotel. She says I go down, I have my dinner, I don't even have to do the dishes. Just like a hotel. I go down, I have my dinner, I don't even have to do the dishes. Now she's 90 years old and she's telling me how good she's still got it. Why shouldn't?
Mark Wolak:we be optimistic, but you can't help but get the feeling of what optimism does.
Bill Kruschel:There's three people that know what it is. And as we get older we get a better appreciation for it, and I hope I never lose it until the day I die. The guy standing behind you is a good example. One day he heard me play ukulele at our place and found out that I was a pin setter in Hastings when his dad was a pin setter once.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You know, that's how crazy life is when we were in St Paul Park. Every Sunday we walked to church and it was quite a walk and Bill and Fritz were in front and Mother and I behind, and Bill would sometimes slouch and my mother would take her hand. My brothers were in the Kaiser's Army. You're going to walk straight. My brothers were in the Kaiser's army. You're going to walk straight. How many times did you hear that?
Bill Kruschel:Oh boy, oh my gosh. Before I forget it, I thought about it earlier we still have relatives in Germany on mother's side. We have three first cousins that are still alive over there, and I've heard that my one cousin and his wife are going to be here for my 100th birthday next March. That's fantastic, and Dorothy and I spent three weeks together in Germany several years ago.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh, we had a wonderful time.
Bill Kruschel:Bert and I spent time in Germany several weeks and years ago, you know it's hard to even imagine three guys like two guys and a sister.
Joe Boyle:My mother.
Bill Kruschel:Never live a life that good.
Joe Boyle:What was your mother's full name?
Bill Kruschel:Borman.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Borman B-O-R-M-A-N-N. Borman Borman, borman Borman.
Bill Kruschel:Borman, borman, borman, borman, borman, borman.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Borman, borman.
Bill Kruschel:Warman, warman, b-o-r-r-m-a-n-n. Two R's, two N's, but our cousin that's coming from Germany is about 10 years younger and he calls us on our birthday all the time.
Bill Kruschel:He did quite well in Germany and he called us on our birthday. So he calls me on my last birthday and he says he was here for some celebration and I'm living alone so I have this house. So he stayed Him and his wife stayed with us. So he said to me Fritz, I want to rent that room from Billy's 100th birthday. I'll be there, okay, I'll keep it vacant for you. And his brother died and his brother was 88 years old.
Bill Kruschel:He called me up and he told me about his brother. I said well, you know, if a guy lived to be 88 years old, the average life here in America is about 80. You really can't see. The guy didn't have a good life and he goes. Yeah, but Fritz, all you crooks lived to be 90.
Dee Dee Kruschel:In 1953, my mother had saved enough money to have a trip back to Germany, the only one she did. Good for her. And we bought her luggage. Remember when she said she wanted to go and the three of us brought her luggage. We were all married, we were so happy and she went. I'll tell you how?
Dee Dee Kruschel:she saved the money. She'd go through downtown St Paul to change three cars. She'd have a quarter, 50 cents, whatever she thought. She'd run into Twin City Federal and put it in the bank. I saw her bank book, you know. She transferred and by saving quarters and dimes and nickels, and she had enough to go back and she flew and she said I went across the ocean and never saw the water and she really had a wonderful time. She only had one brother left but she had other relatives but she had a wonderful time and we were all so happy that she went.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But I'll tell you what kind of mother she was. You don't think of this. She loved my two sister-in-laws and she loved Joe. So when she worked for this, one fellow and her two daughters were airline stewardess and they flew back and forth to Japan. So one of them came back and she had a real neat fishing rod and you know how they do things in Japan and he put it together and, oh, he showed it to my mom and my mom said oh, I'd like to get some for the boys.
Dee Dee Kruschel:So the next trip she brought three back. My mother never did anything for one that she didn't do for all three. And then she was embroidering beautiful. My mother did beautiful handwork and she embroidered three beautiful tablecloths and they were all different. And I said, well, I want that. And my other sister -in-law said, well, I like that one. She said no, I'm putting all three in the same kind of box for christmas and you just get whatever is in the box.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You don't get to pick all the same and that's the way my mother went very fair, and I think that taught us a lot because, um, she was just, you know, um, yeah yeah I remember when you said one time he was little and he said something about the way she talked, and she said well, she said how many languages can you speak, fritz?
Bill Kruschel:And that shut him up. Listen. I was pleased with her because she had this bro talk real German. And she looked at me one time and she says you think it's funny, I got this bro guy. She says when you see or hear somebody talking and they talk with an accent, they're twice as smart as you, fritz, because they can speak two languages. And I never forgot that.
Dee Dee Kruschel:She was trying to learn the English language when we were in the park and I was devilish and she was chasing me around the dining room table with a fly sweater and she said you little shit, shit, shit. And I stopped and I said, mother, if you're going to say the word, say it. Right, it's shit. And we both started laughing. Yeah, it was just. You know, she had a good sense of humor too, believe it. Oh yeah, she had to have three kids, like us.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, that's great. So when you were getting ready to come here today and you were going to be on the radio with Mark and Joe, is there something you wanted to tell a story about or anything you wanted to share that we haven't talked about yet?
Bill Kruschel:Not really. You know. The three of us could go on and on and on because life has been that good. The important part is that we're examples of what a lot of hard work and common sense and thankfulness can do. That's what it's all about. You know, I'm coming up on my 100th birthday and there's not enough. Thanks in my soul for everything that made my life what it is Not many guys can talk about. For instance, two days ago I started my second 37 years of retirement at 3M.
Joe Boyle:Now, that's something.
Bill Kruschel:You know, and I had a career that most people can't even visualize, because all I had was a high school education and I traveled half the world for 3M you know the heyday of 3M.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Another nice thing about my mother that she loved so much all the grandchildren love Grandma Martha and when we had her birthdays, like her 80th birthday, and they'd all get together and oh, we had to have a picture with all the grandchildren. Her heart got bigger with each child. She never was attached to anyone. Of course the firstborn grand, the firstborn was attached to anyone. Of course the firstborn grand, the firstborn. That's always special, but she gathered them all up and she was just. She really taught us how to love one another and be a person and enjoy life, you know, and not be stubborn or stuck up.
Joe Boyle:Quite an example to follow.
Bill Kruschel:Yeah, yeah, and were we privileged that we had the mother we had. And there's a reason we didn't ever do anything, we didn't go on a great diet, we didn't do anything, we just lived. We, the genes we inherited, and I don't think we've ever forgotten why, you know this isn't our doing this is god, is God's doing. We're here not because of what we do.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Because of what our mother did. That's right.
Mark Wolak:Yeah.
Dee Dee Kruschel:We were very fortunate kids because, I'm sure you know, we all had bumps in the road and the four of us stuck up together. What happened to Bill, we knew. What happened to you, we knew. What happened to me, we knew and we solved problems together. The four of us, we had our own little family.
Bill Kruschel:I've got to tell you one story. Now our mother's going to retire, right? So Dorothy decides to herself and tells Bill and I, I'm going to build onto my house a nice big room. I have a bath. The mom's going to live with us, I can share the kitchen. You two birds are going to help pay for the spending on our house we said boy, if that's what you want to do, dorothy, we're all for it.
Bill Kruschel:And then Dorothy goes to say to Mom well, the boys have decided we're going to build another house. Do this, do that, do this. And my mom looked at Dorothy and said what makes you think I want to live with you?
Dee Dee Kruschel:No house is big enough for two women, she said.
Joe Boyle:So she didn't.
Dee Dee Kruschel:She didn't no no, no. I took her around different places before, but when she moved, when she retired and she moved into a place on University Avenue right near the capital in St Paul, and, of course, when she moved out, when Fritz and Donna got married and gave them the place she was renting and she was a housekeeper After, years here she was with her sewing machine and that's all she had besides her clothes. So she got a little apartment, a one bedroom apartment, senior high rise, if you're no more, she got a little apartment.
Joe Boyle:It was a one-bedroom apartment.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Senior high-rise, yeah, if you know where the hospital is that wasn't there.
Bill Kruschel:There was a big building right along the side, she was always telling us.
Dee Dee Kruschel:I'm building a new hospital. At that time it wasn't called a rehab, yeah, but this was before she got in there. She moved and she had to go and buy a bed and she had to get a table and chair, and so then I had, um, I had a surprise shower for her and we uh, my daughter christine and I we figured it all out and we got her. We had a kitchen shower, we got her dishes and, uh, everything for the kitchen. She was so surprised, surprised. She was so happy, she was by herself, she was independent, she could look out the window and she would breathe fresh air and she made new friends. She made friends easily and I think that's it's on all three of us, honey.
Dee Dee Kruschel:And then she started volunteering across the street when the hospital was built. Well, she found out she could volunteer over there and they wrapped bandages and her and a couple of women from the building went over every Friday morning. They'd go over at 10 o'clock and work till 12, and then they'd get a free lunch and that was just a great way to make friends and to do something worthwhile. She always wanted to help people. One time when we were in saint paul park it was so funny this family had brought home a new baby and they had four children and he was a vet. And bill had come home and said you know, mr sally doesn't have any money to buy. There's no heat in the house. And my mother said what he's a veteran. She sent Bill over with a gallon of five gallon of fuel she didn't have nothing herself, but this is the way she was.
Dee Dee Kruschel:You know, it's just, it's something when you see, maybe you don't realize it at the time, but it's in you. We were so lucky. Yeah really strong values. That's lovely yeah.
Mark Wolak:You know, that's a big takeaway Hard work, intellectual curiosity, keep learning, be kind right, be generous.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Oh yeah, love each other, take care of each other be grateful be grateful uh look by the 10 commandments on the golden yeah, you guys are are really um.
Mark Wolak:You're hitting all those values that are so important in people's lives.
Bill Kruschel:She was up at camp courage for a week and some german people came up there and they wanted to kind of get the idea of how this works so they could take it back to. Germany, but they didn't have anybody in their party that could speak English, and so they asked is?
Joe Boyle:there anybody?
Bill Kruschel:here that you know of can speak German. They said yeah, you got a little lady down here. She goes up there and these people were flabbergasted because my mother spoke nothing but. I German and she never forgot a word, and they were just. You know, she never. She went to the eighth grade. She came to this country. She learned to read and write English. I think that's a feat in itself, and she was so proud when she got to be a citizen.
Bill Kruschel:If she had been born 100 years later, I just don't know what she would have been Way beyond us Do you remember what year she became a citizen?
Dee Dee Kruschel:We were in St Paul Park.
Joe Boyle:So 30s 38.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Yeah, because she had her citizenship book and she had an American flag. And, oh my gosh, did she think that was? And boy did she tell us. Now don't you ever skip voting? You're so lucky to be born in this country. How many times do we hear that Gotta vote. If your person doesn't get in this year, well, the next time, go and vote and use your privileges. You got in a free country. Oh, she impressed that so much.
Bill Kruschel:Well, you people know if immigrants come here and they go to school, learn about America. They know more than most of the people that are born in.
Joe Boyle:America.
Bill Kruschel:Right, oh, yeah, she knew, just fun.
Dee Dee Kruschel:But two things she could not say. She never got straight is where were so-and-so married mother in the cathedral? And she'd say Catrido? And we'd say where do they make the better cars? And she'd say Detroit, not Detroit, detroit, and she could never get it right. And then she'd say Detroit, not Detroit, detroit, and she could never get it right. And then she'd say, oh you kids. We'd say mom, where do they make cars? Never mind, she finally got on to them.
Bill Kruschel:She couldn't say Shakopee, she called it Shakopee yeah.
Joe Boyle:We always ask our guests what kind of music they like to listen to. If we could just go around, what do you like to listen to? What's your favorite kind of music? Deedee.
Dee Dee Kruschel:I like modern music.
Joe Boyle:Like what.
Dee Dee Kruschel:Well, I like Western music too, but I don't like the new Western, I like the old Western. Me too. Cowboys like Roy Rogers. That's the kind of western music I like. I don't like anything that's too jazzy or loud.
Joe Boyle:How about you?
Bill Kruschel:I'm a Lawrence Welk fan, that's my music and that's just it.
Joe Boyle:That was your wheelhouse, lawrence Welk, lawrence Welkhouse, huh, lawrence Right, lawrence Welk.
Bill Kruschel:Lawrence Welk. Well, I told you half my life is music and I'm doing it today. As you guys probably remember, I still sing with the Barbershop Quartet Singers of America and I'll be rehearsing tonight over in Stillwater, as we always do. We're going to be putting on another big show at the Como Park on the lake.
Joe Boyle:When's that one?
Bill Kruschel:I don't know exactly. You know it never quits with me. I play my ukulele whenever I can. I usually get a hand, but I never learned to read music and so it all comes natural. You know Probably, better off, then people have said. You've got a kind voice, bill, the kind we'd like to hang on the wall and throw something at you.
Fritz Kruschel:Again. You can't even imagine the friendships. Out here on the plains, I love to lie Under the open, starry sky. A fire is burning near my bed, a saddlebag, my tired head. Cayo Cayo Cayo. To the land of dreams we will go. Cayo Cayo Cayo. A lonely ranger am I?
Fritz Kruschel:I ride all alone with my faithful pal, my horse Trigger. I love so well when I see jobs. That must be done. I, you big high. I A lonely ranger am I? So oft I longed for. The cabin of pine Was the only home I could say was mine. What a great episode, joe.
Mark Wolak:I marvel at just how much fun it was to listen to this entire conversation.
Joe Boyle:Three people late 90s, same family and sharp as a tack?
Mark Wolak:Yeah, so tell me again. How did you meet Bill? Yeah, so tell me again how did you meet Bill?
Joe Boyle:I met Bill driving for the Disabled Veterans of Washington County. I drive veterans to their appointments at the VA hospital and he got in one day and we hit it off right away and he told me so many different stories on the way there and back that I said you know what we do, a podcast Would you care to be on? And he was like sure.
Mark Wolak:And you know. That's such a part of who they are, isn't it? I mean, I was taking notes on the things that their mother taught them Think positive, pay your bills, never be lazy, be eager to learn, pick people around you who know better than you, because you're going to learn something. I thought that was great, and there's no reason you can't do what you want to do in this country. So work hard and do it.
Joe Boyle:And she, with an eighth-grade education in Germany, comes over here, learns the language and offers that kind of advice to her children. What a great example, what a good mother.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, she lived to be 101 and eight months. Yeah, well, that's where they get their longevity, wow. Well, I really, really enjoyed meeting them and listening to them, and I guess we're going to be going to some birthday parties.
Joe Boyle:Yeah, hopefully we're invited to that. I think they kind of give us an invitation, right. Yeah, I remember something like that. We said we'd be there.
Mark Wolak:This is great, joe.
Joe Boyle:Thanks for bringing bill and his siblings into, uh, the podcast story you bet the music from today's podcast was in a shanty, an old shanty town, by ted lewis and his band from 1932. We also had lawrence welk's 12th street rag from his the Champagne Music of Lawrence Welk album from 1961. Also A Lonely Ranger Am I, the Countryside of Roy Rogers from 1970. And we wrapped it up with we're Shoving Right Off Again from the 139th Street Quartet by Harry Warren from 1937.
Fritz Kruschel:And goodbye Sally. Sue, don't feel blue, we'll just be gone for years and years and then we're shoving right off for home, shoving right off for home again, it may be Shanghai. So farewell and goodbye, sue. Don't feel blue, we'll just be gone for years and years and then we'll shove it right off for home shove it right off for home. Shove it right off for home. Shove it right off for home Shove it right off for home To know.
Joe Boyle:We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please join us again next time on Stories in Life on the radio with Mark and Joe, and visit our website at storiesinlifebuzzsproutcom or email us at storiesinlifepodcast at gmailcom.