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"You asked me to jot down about my life on the farm and the red roadster We sold hickory nuts for 4.00, bushel, the ones cracked in qt jar for 4.00 also. In Oct 1919 Mom, Dad, Alfred & me left for Cal. Dad made me plant potatoe which I sold before we left, so I wold have some spending money We stopped at River Falls to see Dr. Rolla Cairns & also at Big Timber, Montana to see my uncle Carl & aunt Lena Schumann then on to Portland Oregon. We went on the St Paul railroad, it was electrified for going over the Mts. From Portland we took the Union Pacific to Alhambra Cal. Stayed until next summer & returned to Wis. We arrived there (CA) in Nov, 1919. Bought a Ford Touring car, pd 275.00 for it used I think it was a 1916 model When we left Cal sold it for more then we had for it. I drove it must of the time. Dad didn't care to drive in the city The reason we went Cal. was acct of mothers health. She had T.B. Drs thought the warm weather mite help her. They didn't know how to take of it then, as they do now. Dad got me a permit to drive as I was only 17 While there I got a job at a lumber yard, & drove truck. Excuse my writting and spelling, but I 86 yrs young
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One weekend we drove up Mt Wilson about 1 mile high. the brakes on the model T wore out, road was very winding and if you went off the road a drop of a half mile, the model T had brakes different than they do now day. There were 3 bands that went around a transmission, which ran in oil. One band for low speed, one for reverse and one for brake. I used the reverse as a brake to get down the mt. It worked real good. While in Cal I met a girl friend, we went to shows, & picnics on week end her mane was Peggy Thompson & her mother was spanish & her father a Norskie. We corresponed when we came back. She had quit a crush on me. I thought a lot of her too. You will see her picture in the big album. The fall of 1920 I stared my senior year in High School. I had go only 2 months the year before, wanted to gruiduate with on old class, talked the Principal in to taking extra courses and going to Whitewater normal, the next summer so I could gruiduate my old class. make High school in 3 years with extra study. In our class play I had the leading part, "All on acct of Polly", I gave the book, I think. Class of 1921. In 1922 I met Mildred and courted her with the little Red Roadster. Mother died in 1923. More next time.
Grandpa Cairns
Hope this is what you wanted"
There wasn't "more next time" quite likely because I neglected to prompt him for more. I have seen the booklet (playbill?) of "All on Account of Polly" he speaks of, but not recently. I am not sure I have it. He had several photos of Peggy Thompson as well as letters from her. Grandma-the-Great didn't seem to mind having these momentos of "Jack's old girlfriend."
When transcribing there is always the urge to correct mistakes in grammar, spelling and punctuation but then it wouldn't be "in their own words", would it?. I have put this down exactly as he wrote it although I think age, as he pointed out, was a factor in many of the errors. A younger J V would have had better spelling and punctuation, I think.
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| John Vernon Cairns Graduation Photo Mazomanie High School June 3, 1921 |
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| "Canonball" "The Little Red Roadster" JVC taken April 6, 1924 MEC unk date (possibly the same day) |
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| Courting Jack Cairns and Mildred Rasmussen Cairns Home in Mazomanie, WI Saturday, Jan. 26, 1924 |
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