A ‘favorite daughter’ shares ‘Memoirs of Carl Bates’ - Part II

A ‘favorite daughter’ shares ‘Memoirs of Carl Bates’ - Part III

A ‘favorite daughter’ shares ‘Memoirs of Carl Bates’ - Part IV

A ‘favorite daughter’ shares ‘Memoirs of Carl Bates’ - Part V

[Note: This is the fifth and final installment of a multi-part series on the life and times of a well-known Clinton County native, Carl Bates. He lived in the Elsie area for many years of his life, and is perhaps best remembered for the 20 years he served as Superintendent of the Clinton County Intermediate School District, retiring in 1969.

These ‘Memoirs’ are presented in his own words, written in his latter years – and, as he says at the conclusion, retyped and appreciated by his "favorite and oldest daughter," Dorothy (Bates Bakita)." The copy and photographs are provided courtesy of Dorothy Bakita – who herself served for many years as a teacher at St. Johns Public Schools.]

Now a little about some of my early expeditions. The first time I was ever out of the state, Pervy Munson and I took my Hupmobile touring car and some very modest camping gear and went to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Not a straight mile of road in the state.

In 1922, I rode up to the Upper Peninsula with Lawrence Lee and son, Ralph. Two-fold reason: adventure and to find summer work. They drove a Reo 6 touring car. We stayed all night at Mackinaw City in a hotel and the next morning got our car aboard a railroad ferryboat that was not completely filled with railroad cars and went to his farm near Dafter.

Next two days Ralph took me to the Soo Locks where I met all boats that were locking through and asked first man off the ship if they were short handed. Found one that needed an oiler, so I dashed to the other end of the ship. But by the time I got there they had taken on another oiler and so shortly thereafter I took the train to Cadillac where I got on the Ann Arbor and headed for home.

Senior year in high school, Floyd George and myself took off for Tawas one Saturday morning to go duck hunting. We stayed until Wednesday morning and got home in time for football practice. (Floyd was quarterback and I was a halfback.) When we arrived, the coach would not let us practice as he had already announced that we would not be playing that week.

A crisis was averted because the team we were to play that week canceled the game (only one that I ever knew to be canceled on account of sickness). We were reinstated for the next week’s game.

I used to skip school every year on the first day of good tracking snow to go rabbit hunting.

About the same year, I drove a couple of old guys up to Houghton Lake to go fishing in an Oakland Six touring car. We went via Gladwin and came home via Harrison. The road from Houghton Lake to Harrison was strictly a woods trail. If you met a car (which was seldom), one car or the other found a spot where they could pull off in the woods and let the other pass. The Harrison Hill in those days was a sandy road and a test of all automobiles was to get to the top of it. Some old model T Fords would burn out their low speed band and have to back up the hill.

While in Mt. Pleasant College some of us used to ride the freights home Friday p.m., and ride the passenger train back Sunday night for $1.50. We became a little adept at that, so one Friday night we boarded one going north shortly after dark and there was no empty car on the train. We had to ride on top and every time the train stopped, the train crew chased us. When it left, we left with it, arriving in Frankfort the next morning - a sight for sore eyes, covered with black coal from the locomotive.

We explored the area that day, and saw them preparing a train for the south. I am sure that the train crew was alerted to our presence (maybe it was the same one we had ridden up there with). They made every effort to see that we did not get aboard, but we did, and in due time arrived back in Mt. Pleasant.

In the summer of 1927, I was coaching in Elsie and Glen Levey was the principal. That summer we took my old Studebaker Six and took some camping gear and headed west. We went the southern route and did look up Bert Wooley in Los Angeles, a former Elsie hardware merchant. From there, we headed for Yellowstone Park and home by the northern route. Did not stay at any one place for long, as I knew I had painting jobs waiting around Elsie that would produce more income than anything we might pick up as travelers. Those are the younger travels that come to mind at this time.

Now for a little account of my summers around Elsie. I worked for Lyman Cobb on his farm east of Elsie for two summers, $2.50 per day and dinner. I worked on the section gang for two years, $.37 1/2 per hour. I shoveled gravel, loading horse drawn wagons, with gravel for the highway for three years at .30 cents per hour.

I painted with Woody Mole and Pud Steinbower for about three years. We charged .60 cents per hour, but we preferred to bid on a job, and sometimes we would make up to a dollar per hour on these jobs - my first big money. I spray painted for about three years alone, depression years. I painted a number of new 36 x 60 barns, two coats and trimmed them for $25., paid $10 rent for the paint machine, and could do the job in two days, so made $7.50 per day. I was never out of work - until I retired.

Now a little hit ‘n miss about events in those early days. When I was in high school, I tipped a Model T Ford over, right in the center of the road, 100 yards north of the main four corners of Elsie, busted the windshield, fenders, and did some damage to the body. So, I removed all the body and fenders and for some year or so, I drove the chassis. My seat was the gasoline tank, and I locked my left foot under a brace so as not to fall off. No license, no taillight - did not need one; people did not get close enough to see if I had one or not.

During the school year, I remember taking the job of unloading a few carloads of coal, working nights, at the Eckenberg Milk Plant. Car was run up side of plant and a door released on the bottom of car. Coal ran out underneath the car where I put it in a wheelbarrow and wheeled it into the boiler room; $15 per car.

In those days, there was a sugar beet weigh station one half mile north of Elsie and another one a half of a mile east of town. In the fall, when farmers brought their beets in, if there were no railroad cars available the farmers dumped the beets on the ground. After the rush was over, cars would be available and the beet company would pay anyone with horses and wagon to load the beets onto their wagons, weigh them, and then shovel them into the coal cars; .50 cents per ton. We lived up town at the time, and I would get some kid that wanted to work, and take Dad’s team and wagon, and load beets over the weekends. As I remember, around 25 tons per day and we were pooped. There were some he-men working there that could average 30 tons per day.

I bought a real good 1917 Model T while in high school for $120; a new one cost $300. This car was in excellent shape, new tires, etc. I think I was the only kid in school with his own car at the time. While in school, Dad hired Bill Commings to make me a rowboat. I acquired a 30-foot seine. Used it plenty, up and down the river, as well as going on a lot of .22 plinking sessions up and down the river.

As a college candidate in my class, I think I would have rated number 25 in a class of 25. Never had any idea of going to college until I changed my mind after I had graduated from high school.

Used to go hunting a lot and remember that I shot the first cock pheasant that I ever saw. I was hunting rabbits with Floyd George, down by Chapin. Mother saved the feathers and showed them proudly to visitors. This was about in 1921. Just a few years later they became very plentiful and rest assured that I got my share when they were at their peak.

When I was coaching in Elsie, I became very good friends with a local young single, Dr. Simonson. We spent endless hours at nights discussing everything to be discussed. I am sure the one that I like at the top of the list was his account of getting through medical school. It was at this point that I would have liked to enter medical school, not because I wanted to be a doctor, but to accept the challenge of getting through. I knew that when they looked at my academic record they would not bother to answer.

Well, the Doctor and I had a lot of other activities besides talking. We have been in Northern Michigan on many hunting trips (mostly ducks). Do remember one deer hunting trip. We went on fishing trips and we did at the time go to a lot of area match rifle shooting contests. Remember that someone got a bear cub up north and in due time as this bear cub grew up, there was a bear shoot and whoever won the thing would have another bear shoot soon. Well, I ended up with that bear when it was too late to hold another shoot that fall or winter, so I wintered it on the farm.

During the winter, sometimes the State wanted a male bear for breeding purposes and heard of this one. If I would let them have it they would replace it with a cub. Well, they never did, and I never inquired why.

Doctor and I attended the National Rifle Shoot at Camp Perry one year. Remember Dr. took my tonsils out one Saturday, and we went to a rifle shoot the next day.

Some of my college sources of income might be of interest. I slept in an undertaker’s place of business downtown Mt. Pleasant one winter. From there, I trapped muskrats out four miles north of town. Used a friend’s car for transportation and gave him half, about $100 apiece for that venture.

This fellow was Lynn Garrett from Elsie, and he and I would go out on Saturdays and drive to the local slaughterhouse, three or four head of cattle, from whatever farmer he had bought from. Then on Sunday morning we would go out and butcher them; $1 per head for driving them in, and the same price for butchering them.

I never had any financial help from home for any of my college except the last spring term of my second year in Mt. Pleasant. My folks were ready to help, but I felt a moral obligation to not drain them of their hard earned finances. At Western, Don Mort and I painted a large house two coats for $60. I lived in a tent while attending Michigan State, should have said, my wife and I.

At an early age of 10 or 12, I had a popcorn stand uptown and used to net about $5 per Saturday night, when men were working in the hay fields for $1 a day.

At a time in high school, Dad bought an old building where the present Sid Keys Garage is located. That had a large well closed-in room and we put our pool table in there that we had inherited from Granddad Bates. We sealed in the windows tight with shades and had a wood stove. There were two electric wires attached to the buildings and some of us boys pooled our electrical knowledge and got electric lights inside. No meter, no contacting the village.

Every winter, Brother and I accumulated a few dollars by hunting sparrows around our place and all of the neighbors’ buildings and straw stacks; .2 cents per head.

Remember one summer on the farm that I slept outdoors in the farmyard all summer in a homemade tent from an old grain binger canvas. Still remember how stuffy the house felt when I moved inside to sleep.

I used to have farm projects on the farm: 1/2 acre of sugar beets one year, popcorn, pickles, etc.

Mother made the rule that any game or fish I brought home, I was to dress and prepare, ready to be cooked.

For a few summers, I carried a slingshot in my hip pocket most of the time, as a result of reading Mark Tidd stories in the "American Boy".

I have walked, cut cross lots, rode a bicycle, a horse, and driven a horse and buggy, or cutter 2-1/2 miles to school.

The old mill dam was a favorite place to go and look, fish and whatever. In this generation, it used to be a favorite place for young lovers to walk that 3/4 of a mile down there, watch and listen to the water going over the dam. I never make that trip only two or three times, as I recollect.

I remember one Decoration Day morning that I went down there and was casting artificial bait from the lower side of the dam and got my bait caught. So, I took my clothes off, retrieved the bait and then decided that as long as I was wet, I would swim across the only deep hole (probably 10 feet deep at the time). I thought I was across the deep hole and let myself down. Went in way over my head, and could not get back up to swim. I finally managed to get out, went down two or three times, and as I finally made it, the old Dutchman that worked in the mill was out there with a rope. Guess he was going to try and lasso me. Think I was 15 years old before I ever saw anyone wearing a bathing suit.

As a small kid, one of the things was to go down to the Depot and watch the noon train come in. We put various things on the track to let the train run over and flatten them out. There were two cider mills near the Depot and in cider time we would tank up on sweet cider; operators apparently did not care, never got chased out.

There were three passenger trains each way per day then. People used to take one train to Owosso to go shopping and later another one back. Ed Hawes used to have a horse-drawn bus that he would meet all trains with and bring mail uptown to the post office. Also, any out of town travelers (I think mostly salesmen) and deposit them at the hotel. After they had done Elsie, they would rent a horse and buggy from Ed and do the surroundings towns: Bannister, Eureka, Carland, Chapin, Fenmore, etc.

Fourth of July meant more celebrations, all sorts of stands, racing, horse and man, etc. than we have today. Likewise, Corunna, St. Johns, Ithaca, had fall fairs with all sorts of displays, sideshows, races etc. Remember once in World War I, the Law came down to St. Johns fair and checked all the men they could. Checked their draft cards and loaded the ones without one on a truck to take them up to the local jail, my Dad included. After, checking them out, they were released.

Have often wondered as to what kind of a father I would have been to a boy if I had one. Also, have wondered if my wife could come back and check, how she would rate me as a father to our daughter that she had to leave behind.

I think I have covered my past sufficiently to at least give my daughter some idea as to her Dad’s early days, and if you find it a little degrading, remember that you asked for it.

In retrospect, there are two areas that I would do different.

First, be more appreciative and vocal to my parents for what they tried to do for me. It would not have cost a dime to tell them once in a while how they were appreciated for the many things they did for me, and the freedom to do pretty much as I pleased. As a rating of 1 to 10, I would give myself about a 3 or 4 in that department.

Secondly, I would sure take my high school academic work more seriously in order to build a more solid foundation for the life that was to come. On that same rating scale, I would give myself a 1. I have made a little effort to see that my descendents did not fall into the same trap.

With that I will bring this thing to a close.