When one of my nephews was nine years old, he was assigned a school project that involved finding out more about the life of a family member. He asked his grandfather, my father, to write about his life.
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Dear
Harrison,
I was born in Jamestown on September 10th, 1921. I lived at 815 Cherry
St. until I was eight years old. Cherry St. is a hill from 6th
St. to 9th St. We were allowed to slide from 8th to 9th. Sliding
above 8th was dangerous because traffic was heavy on 8th and we could get run
over. In the summer I would go up to my Grandpa’s farm five miles from
Sherman. Every day the milk from the cows had to go to the Sherman milk
plant, of course, this had to be done by horse and wagon early in the
morning. I always wanted to go along. We would go to the milk
plant, unload the milk and head back the road toward home. We had to go left to
go home or right to downtown Sherman. It was an anxious moment for
me because if he went toward Sherman downtown I knew I was going to get an ice
cream cone. My grandpa drove an extra 2 miles just to buy me a cone. By the way, they cost
5 cents then. Returning to the farm, I
would gather eggs, help feed the grain to the cows and milk to the calves.
When I was eight it was August 1930. My brother and Grandpa were hauling gravel from a pit down the road ½ mile away. My cousin and I were close by when there was a lot of activity at the pit. We arrived to find the bank of gravel had caved in on my Grandpa. This was a very sad day for me and my family. He was only 62 years old.
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My great-grandparents, John Alexander Palm (1868-1930) and Dora
Modeen (1872-1954).
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Sander and Dora’s farm on Morris Road, Sherman, New York. I believe Sander and Dora are on the front porch waving, and their daughter, my grandaunt Emma, is on the side porch. Notice the well pump in front of the right porch column. |
At that time all country schools started merging into larger schools. Our one room District #16 went to Chautauqua. I was put in eighth grade. I thought I should have been in ninth. As it turned out it was fine because I got to play sports one more year.
When I went into ninth grade they asked us to choose between a business course or a college course. College courses required foreign language where business did not. I loved math so I took all the math I could. I had some homework which wasn’t easy. We didn’t have electric for a couple years. All our water supply was carried from a well. Kerosene lamps for light. I carried my lunch most of the time, but we could buy it at the school. A bottle of milk and a sandwich was ten cents.
When summer came around it was all work for 6 days and sometimes seven. Planting crops, putting hay in the barn, cutting wood for stoves in the winter. I was doing the heavy work now because I was real strong, besides my dad became sick when I was fifteen. He was 48 at the time.
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| Left: My grandparents, Tula Palm (1872-1947) and Howard Bradish (1889-1945) Right: My uncle, "Brad" (1913-1969) |
Getting
back to high school, I did get a chance to play basketball and baseball.
The schedule was so I could play and for a long time I had to walk home (5
miles). I got home in time to help finish the chores.
In the fall after graduation I went to work at Welch’s Grape Juice in Westfield.
I rode with my brother-in-law. I worked
the night shift from 7 PM to 7 AM seven days a week. My check for the week was
$21.00. It was hard work handling 5
gallon jugs full of grape juice.
After the grape season I could see the farm wasn’t the
place to be so I moved down to Jamestown and boarded with my grandma. My
parents followed me because they couldn’t take care of the farm. I got a
job delivering appliances for Clark Hardware for $14.00 a week. I bought
a radio for five dollars a week, paid my grandma five dollars a week and had
four dollars spending money. On the farm our pay for milk was $9.65 every
two weeks so I was lucky to get 25¢ to go roller skating on Saturday night.
In 1941 we got in to World War II. I joined
the Navy in October 1942. Went to boot camp at Green
Bay, Wis. From there to aviation school in Detroit, Mi., then to
Norfolk Naval Base, Va. From there to Pensacola, Fla. From there to
New Orleans, La., then San Francisco, Ca., back to New Orleans, La.
Placed on a ship and headed into the Gulf of Mexico
where we rode out a hurricane. Went to Key West,
from there to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which was a US
Naval Base.
After 2 days at Ford Island in Oahu I was transferred to Kaneohe Naval Air Base in Oahu. This was CASU38 (Carrier Aircraft Service Unit). We serviced aircraft that came off carriers which had been in battle, such as the Yorktown, Franklin and others. I lost 68 buddies that came overseas with me. I became an AMM 1/C (Aviation Machinist Mate First Class) in early 1945. After 20 months I returned to WA. I was attached to Grissom Naval Air Force Base in Indiana.
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| My parents, Woody Bradish, 25, and Shirley June Scott, 24, in January 1947. |
I married your Grandma June 2, 1945. I was discharged from the Navy at Sampson, New York in October of 1945. From that time on your Grandma and I worked hard raising four children.
I
am proud to have you as a grandson.
Your
Grandpa
Elwood E. Bradish
"Woody"
~ Dad’s Notice of Separation from the Navy shows he went to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago. There is an area in Chicago called Green Bay. The memoir of another sailor stationed at Great Lakes stated he went to boot camp in Green Bay, Illinois, so it could be the naval base was somehow linked to the Green Bay area in Chicago during WWII.
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