Georgie’s Memories – Part 12: Some interesting characters

Traveling salesmen and gypsies

North of the house, down in a draw, an old man, Marian Reif, had built a one room cabin.  Some of the walls were sides of the draw.  He had come to my Grandpa’s.  I can’t remember if he was selling something or just a vagrant.  He lived there a year or two anyway – had some chickens.  I suppose Grandpa gave him milk and meat.  I think he had a garden.  I know my mother gave him food sometimes.  He got sick finally and couldn’t stay alone anymore and the went to the county home where we went to see him once.  When he died he was buried in the Summitville Church Cemetery.

At the time there were lots of homeless people.  They rode freight trains or walked from town to town, begged a meal or offered to chop wood or do chores for a handout.  There were still peddlers on the road selling small household items that farmers might need.  If they came at meal time, they were asked to stay and eat with the family and sometimes stayed overnight.  Some came through once a year and got to be family friends.  It was like an occasion as they brought firsthand accounts of the outside world.  There were Watkins salesmen and KKK salesmen who came from Keokuk where KKK had their headquarters.  My mother used to tell about the Huckster wagons who came through regularly when she was a girl.  They carried staples, spices, etc.  Some of the peddlers were Jews.  I remember fish salesmen coming on Friday regularly.  By that time, they drove cars.  Some walked and some had a horse and some a buggy and horse.

In the 20’s gypsies still traveled in a caravan with wagons.  People were very suspicious of them.  Everybody was alerted as there were always reports of them engaging a housewife in conversation at the front door while some of them raided the garden and hen house.  They were reported to sell poor horses and kidnap children.  I don’t know of any of these things actually happening.  I remember them stopping at my Grandfather’s and asking to camp. I think he gave them some milk and eggs.  I imagine there were thieves among them – also I imagine some local thievery was laid at their door.

Prohibition

When we lived on the Harmeyer place on the west edge of West Point someone stole a barrel of wine from our cellar while we were at the West Point Fair.  Nobody locked their doors in those days.  There were cases of chicken stealing – some people went to prison for that, hard to believe in this permissive age.  Bootlegging was the big crime.  Prohibition was in effect but a lot of people drank anyway.  All you needed was a still, some corn, plenty of water and an out of the way place to cook it off.  The Bruegenhempke place was ideal and there were plenty of customers.

Wine making never stopped during Prohibition as people had big grape arbors.  Everybody bought malt, owned a bottle capper, big crocks, lengths of hose and made home brew on a regular basis. Our neighbors across the street in West Point cooled their home brew in a bucket in the well.  Several times they dropped a bottle accidentally.  I wonder if the bottles are still down in the well.