fisher-html.html

KENTWOOD HISTORIC

PRESERVATION COMMISSION

[KHPC]

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

039-2003

CYRUS FISHER

INTERVIEWER: JOYCE THOMPSON

June 5, 2003

Transcribed by Demeris Brunner
Edited Version, March 2005

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission (KHPC) Oral History
Subject: Cyrus

Fisher

Interviewer:

Joyce

Thompson

Date of Interview:

June 5, 2003

Place:

In the living room of Cyrus Fisher’s home on Amber Lake
Condos, 812 Byron S.W., Byron Center, Michigan.

Transcribed by Demeris Brunner March, 2005

Cyrus

Fisher

(CF)

Joyce

Thompson

(JT)

Marie Fisher (wife)

(MF)

JT:

Today is June 5, 2003.and this is a taped oral history of Cyrus Fisher. We

are at his home, Amber Lake Condos, 812 Byron S.W., Byron Center, Michigan
in his front room. My name is Joyce Thompson. I am recording this oral history
for the Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission. This tape will be
transcribed. A copy given to Cyrus Fisher so he can revise or make any
corrections or deletions that he wishes. When Cyrus is satisfied and the oral
history is complete, he will be asked to sign a release so it can become part of
Kentwood’s archives. Is this arrangement satisfactory to you Cyrus?

CF:

Yeah. So far, yeah.

JT:

What is your name, age and date of birth?

CF: Cyrus

Fisher.

JT: Age?

CF: 92.

JT:

And date of birth?

CF:

May 1, 1911.

JT:

Do you remember where you were born?

CF: Paris

Township.

JT:

The home? The address of the home?

CF: The

address?

JT:

Uh huh [affirmative].

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

5812, at that time, Rural Route. Rural Routes were in Michigan. I think

they were Rural Routes at that time.

JT:

Do you remember who delivered you?

CF:

No. I have no idea. No.

JT:

And you parents name?

CF: Louis

Fisher.

JT: Mother’s

name?

CF:

Suzie. They named her.

JT:

Uh huh [affirmative].

CF: Hendricksma.

JT:

Okay. And I have the names of your siblings now.

CF:

Hmm. Ruth Spoelman.

JT:

Ahmm. Is that a sister?

CF:

Louis Fisher. Cheryl Ondersma.

JT:

And.

CF:

And then Duane Fisher.

JT:

Those were your children, though, aren’t they?

CF:

Yeah. They are.

JT:

Okay. I asked for your siblings. Your brothers and sisters.

CF:

Oh. One sister. That’s all.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Alyda. And later married.

JT: Ah.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Hwogboom. Alyda Hwogboom. That’s her married name.

JT:

Was she younger than you?

CF:

About six years younger.

JT:

So you’re the oldest of the family?

CF: Right.

JT:

When you think back to you and your sister, Alyda, what memories come

to mind?

CF:

When we were in that old farmhouse . . ..

JT:

Is this the farm? What did you do on the farm?

CF:

The first few years on the farm . . ..

JT:

You and your sister, I’m talking about.

CF:

Yeah. Well.. We wanted to play some together first. Outdoors. I started

school in Cutlerville Christian. She started school at Kelloggsville Christian.

JT:

You went to different schools. So you had different experiences.

CF:

Well, my folks sent me there later on. Yeah.

JT: Oh,

see.

CF:

Yeah. She went there right from the start. I went there later on.

JT:

Let’s talk about your farm.

CF:

Oh, we had 50 acres at that time.

JT: Fifty

acres.

CF:

A half a dozen cows. A bunch of chickens. Maybe a hog or two.

JT:

This was on Division?

CF: Yep.

JT:

Okay. How many cows did you say you had?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Oh, half a dozen at the most. 8, 6 or 8.

JT:

So the income wasn’t really all from the cows. It was from your farming.

CF:

Well, we sold milk at that time.

JT:

What kind of crops did you raise?

CF:

Corn. Oats. Mostly corn and oats, feed for the cattle and pigs. Later on

we had some vegetables. There was a wholesale market in Grand Rapids.

JT:

Okay. Where did you go to sell the vegetables?

CF:

Wholesale market in Grand Rapids.

JT:

Okay. Where was that located?

CF:

Market Street at that time.

JT:

Oh, the name [laugh] Were there a lot of farmers to visit with you?

CF:

At that time, yes. Start at 5:00 in the morning to sell.

JT:

What day of the week?

CF:

Every day but Sunday.

JT:

Did you do this every day at 5:00?

CF:

Well, no. Not every day. The vegetables was like sweet corn, tomatoes

and melons and cabbage. More in the Fall. Not so much in the Spring. Mostly
in the Fall.

JT:

You’d be in the field in the Spring?

CF:

Oh, yeah. Trying to plant it. Taking care of it.

JT:

Who were your buyers?

CF:

Oh, groceries mostly in Grand Rapids. Mostly groceries and hucksters.

JT:

What’s a huckster?

CF:

Well, he went around with a horse and a peddle wagon and he had certain

routes. That’s all. In Grand Rapids. Certain streets. That was his area.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Did he just go down the street?

CF:

Certain streets. Yeah.

JT:

By calling out?

CF:

Horse and peddle wagon and holler.

JT:

What? Potatoes, corn, [raising voice],just like that?

CF: Yeah.

JT:

So instead of an ice cream wagon, you had. [laugh]

CF:

I don’t think we had ice cream wagons in those days.

JT:

Okay. I understand what you’re saying. So you sold to people like that.

Do you remember how much a bushel of corn went for?

CF:

Weighed or sold?

JT: Sold.

CF:

I sold as much a penny an ear.

JT:

A penny an ear.

CF:

Five dozen in a basket.

JT: That’s

amazing..

CF:

Carried across the market from here to the house or near the road to the

huckster’s wagon in the street , the same place where they parked. We had to
carry it over there and they put it on the wagon and sorted it and put it away. It
was cabbage, tomatoes, beans. Anything we raised. The hucksters bought it.

JT: Um.

CF:

They came around by 5 to 8:00 in the morning. If we’d quite selling them,

they’d give you so much. Take it or leave it. Depression years.

JT:

Oh, the Depression years.

CF:

We had what we call pole beans. I picked 10 or 12 bushel the first year

we married in ’36. First they’d come around 5:00 in the morning. and if I hadn’t

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

sold them yet 8:00 They’d give you a dollar a bushel. What was I goanna do
with them? Take them home or leave them?

JT:

You sold them.

CF:

Dollar a bushel. Hall Street that was a Dutch area in Grand Rapids. It

was known as the Dutch area. Them beans they’d buy, about that long, chop
them up. There used to be a cannery on Hall Street where the viaduct is now,
and it was a cannery for tomatoes and sauerkraut.

JT:

They took your vegetables there, canning them.

CF:

Yeah. Well, that was a cannery for sauerkraut and canned tomatoes. Or

tomato juice,I should say. My dad took us there with a horse and wagon.

JT:

You went with your dad?

CF:

Yeah.

JT:

Do you remember how old you were when you went?

CF:

Um. About 13 or 14 then. You don’t see many canneries for sauerkraut

now or even something like a silo. You cut the cabbage up and dump it in there.
Two men with white boots on pack it down until it’s salted. Tomatoes. Were
hauled on the peddle . It’s a small wagon with springs on it. By the time you got
way downtown on Market Street. This was on Hall Street. The tomatoes were
so ripe. They wanted them ripe to make juice.

JT: Right.

CF: Umhum.

JT:

So what time of the year would you be selling these?

CF:

It was in August and September.

JT:

August and September. Okay. That was the harvest, I’ll bet.

CF:

Yeah. Right.

JT:

When did you start planting.

CF:

Oh, as early as possible. In May and June.

JT:

Not February and March or April?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

No. That was wintertime yet. April, maybe. April, May and June.

JT:

When the frost left. What did you do in the winter at the farm?

CF:

Well, take care of the cows. Go visit the neighbors. Go here and go there

once in a while. Auction sales in the wintertime. Big farm auction sales.

JT:

Did you repair machinery?

CF:

Not wholesale, just for my own use. That’s all.

JT:

All right. Let’s talk about the farm where you grew up. Describe that farm

to me.

CF:

Well, it was light soil with a creek running through it. Fifty acres.

JT:

What did the house look like?

CF: House?

JT:

Umhum. [affirmative] Your house. Your family home.

CF:

The old-style home and no basement. Kitchen range. Outdoor toilet.

Kitchen pump in the kitchen, an old pitcher pump. Sleep upstairs, of course. No
heat. In the wintertime, no heat up there. Folks slept downstairs in the one
bedroom.

JT:

What heated the house?

CF:

The kitchen range and the kitchen hearth.

JT:

Was it a wood-burning stove?

CF:

It could burn wood and coal, both.

JT:

Did you have both? You had both?

CF:

We had scrap wood and the coal.

JT:

You had a coal bin?

CF:

Yeah. It was in the basement, of course. It carried upstairs.

JT:

Where did you get your coal from?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

A dealer at 54

th and Clyde Park. Or the railroad track, I should say. 54th

railroad crossing and we got coal. [Note: Fisher Station] There was a train stop
there and you could buy from the train for coal. We’d buy from there.

JT:

You haul it yourself?

CF:

Oh, I guess they deliver. We had a pickup truck. What you call a pickup

truck. It was a small box. We’d haul it ourselves.

JT:

Remember how much it cost?

CF:

[laugh] I don’t know how I’d ever guess. $10 or $12 a ton, maybe. It went

by the ton.

JT:

I remember that too. Where’d you get your wood?

CF:

Oh, cut a tree down or so.

JT:

There were a lot of trees.

CF:

Not so much wood as we did coal. There wasn’t too much wood in our

area. Scrap lumber, sometimes.

JT:

Okay. Your parents. Your dad was a farmer. Your mother? What was

her occupation?

CF: Strictly

housewife.

JT:

When you think of your mom, how would you describe her?

CF:

Um, middle aged woman. 100 and say 50 or 60 pounds, I guess,

Grandma Fisher weighed. About 5 and a half feet tall.

JT:

Color of hair?

CF:

Light brown. It turned gray later on.

JT:

And your dad? How would you describe him?

CF:

About 6 feet tall. Maybe 190 pounds.

JT:

And who do you resemble the most? Your mom or your dad?

CF:

I think my dad. I think mostly.

JT:

In looks?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

I think so. Yes. As I told the others how my dad died when I was only 18

so I don’t have a lot of remembrances. I would say so, yeah.

JT:

In temperament? In character?

CF:

Yeah. I’d say so. Yeah. We used to go hunting together quite a bit. In

those days. We worked together on the farm.

JT:

What did you hunt?

CF:

Well, it might be. . .

JT:

On the farm you were hunting?

CF:

Some and we hunted in the area south us and north of Cutlerville .

JT:

And what did you hunt?

CF:

Mostly rabbits and squirrels. Rabbits was the main one.

JT:

You were a successful hunter?

CF:

Well, we had hound dogs in those days.

JT:

And they got them.

CF:

Yeah. My dad bought me a gun when I was only 14. I remember that. I

was proud of that. We’d hunt together.

JT:

You were a good shot?

CF:

Oh. On average. Yeah. I guess so. We’d go duck hunting occasionally.

Go duck hunting on Gun Lake.

JT:

So your mom prepared the food when you caught it?

CF:

Right! You Bet![].

JT:

What was the best?

CF:

Oh, I think rabbit was about the best.

JT: Rabbit

stew?

CF:

Yeah. We used to eat a lot of squirrel too. Squirrel was good eating.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Put in some vegetables with the meat and gravy? Hum?

CF:

Yeah. Any meat in those days was a big item. They butchered a cow in

the fall in Montana. A lot of canned vegetables. They canned in those days.

JT:

Did your own butchering?

CF:

Yeah. Yep. Canned meat. Butcher a cow and can the meat.

JT:

Now, if this was during the Depression, like you said, how did you keep it

cold? Keep the meat cold?

CF:

Well, when it was canned, you could keep it for years.

JT:

Oh. How did you do that?

CF:

Cut if all up in pieces and stuff it in cans. Then add water to a certain

extent. We done it even after we was married. And pork too. Pork and beef
both.

JT:

And you had pigs too, correct?

CF:

Yeah. One time we raised pigs. Just a couple of them for our own use.

JT:

Okay. Right. You butchered.

CF:

We butchered them ourselves.

JT:

Your mother canned the vegetables and she canned the meat. So what

was your favorite menu that she made?

CF:

In those days, meat and potatoes and a vegetable. Any kind of vegetable

in those days, carrots and beans.

JT:

You don’t have a favorite food that you remember of your mothers?

CF: Food?

JT:

Favorite food. Like a dinner she prepared.

CF:

I’d say mashed potatoes and meat and gravy. That was what wehad at

the main meal.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Your parents. What did you and your parents do for fun? I know it was

really hard living on the farm, but did they go anywhere or do anything with you
kids?

CF:

Oh. My mother had a lot of relatives living around Moline and Wayland.

They’d visit in the wintertime. My dad didn’t have many relations, so there wasn’t
so much of that done on my dad’s side. We’d visit a lot in the wintertime.
Sunday nights we had visitors quite often or we’d go to people who live around
there. We used to visit the neighbors quite a bit. Up and down Division Avenue.

JT:

Did you play games? Card games? Board games?

CF:

Oh. I didn’t play much. Well, dominos in those days and Carom. Mostly

dominos, I guess. Those were common. We played some Flinch. We placyed
some Rook, too.

JT:

The parents did this. What did the kids do?

CF:

[laugh] Play together on the floor somewhere. The neighbor kids had

better toys than ours. It was kind of interesting.

JT:

What toys were you seeing then?

CF:

Oh. Yeah. Toy trains. Toy horse and the wagons. Little toy horses with

the little wagon.

JT:

But not many toys when you were growing up.

CF:

No. We made our own toys sometimes. Out of blocks of wood. We cut

our own toys. And build something out of that.

JT:

Whittled? You whittled it?

CF:

No. We cut it with a handsaw.

JT: Oh.

CF:

Of miter boxes. []

JT:

Not much store bought.

CF:

Not in those days. No.

JT:

Did Mom make your clothes?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Some. Used a sewing machine. The old peddle type. She made some

but not all of it. Yeah.

JT:

Where’s she get her material?

CF:

Burton Heights. It was at that time VanderVere’s. guess it was.

JT:

Bulk material then?

CF:

Yeah. You had to go to Burton Heights. That was our main shopping

point in those days. Burton Heights. What you call Burton Heights.

JT:

How long did it take to get there?

CF:

Well, those were the Model-T days in a car.

JT:

It was down Division, correct? What kind of a road was that then?

CF:

Oh. My guess it was a gravel road. Most of 28

th Street was paved. That

was Grand Rapids. South of that was Paris Township. At that time.

JT:

What kind of chores did you do as a child on the farm?

CF:

Well, milking the cows was the big item. Morning and night.

JT:

Twice a day.

CF:

Twice a day. Take care of the horses. Feed them morning and night.

Clean them out. Clean the stables. You get to haul the manure out every day
and dump it in a pile. Yeah. It was different in those days.

JT:

That kept you busy.

CF:

Yeah. Clean the chicken coop once in a while.

JT:

You had a chicken coop?

CF:

Well, we had a few hundred chickens or so.

JT:

That’s a lot of chickens.

CF:

Well, of course, you had eggs for yourself and maybe they sold a few

eggs too at times. And got groceries in return.

JT:

That’s a lot of chickens.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

My dad had an incubator in the basement. It’d take about 3 weeks for a

chick to hatch; for an egg to hatch [].

JT:

Was there a certain time of the year that you would use the incubators?

CF:

Spring of the year. I’d say in April. So you’d have your chicken and you

raise your pullets. They call them pullets. ‘Cause roosters, they butchered them
or sold them for poultry, right. By fall the pullets would start laying eggs.

JT:

The best place for you to be on the farm was where?

CF:

Right where. As long as we lived there. 83 years.

JT:

The best place for you to be on the farm. Where did you like to go?

CF:

The best place?

JT: Umhum.

[affirmative]

CF:

Well. Best place?. I don’t quite know what you mean by that.

JT:

Your favorite place to be?

CF:

I guess right to home there. You could keep busy that way if you had

something to play with. Something like that.

JT:

Okay. I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say. But that’s okay.

All right. Your nearest neighbor?

CF:

Oh. A quarter of a mile.

JT:

Who was it?

CF:

We had the Hendricksma to the north. Henry Hendricksma. Sals and

John Verberger. V-E-R-B-E-R-G-E-R. And we had Ray Griffin down 60

th Street.

JT:

So these were big, big farms. Along with your big farm.

CF:

Oh, they just had small places. 20 acres. 10 or 20 acres.

JT:

Oh, yours was much bigger. And no houses in between.

CF:

No, not at that time. No.

JT: Okay.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Across the street was Ed Huizinga’s.

JT:

Are they raising the same type of crops as you, or something different?

CF:

Yeah. More or less. Yeah. At that time. Yeah. They all were about the

same. Had a few cows. Yeah.

JT:

Were you social with these neighbors or just helped out in times of need.?

CF:

Well, they’d exchange work all the time. Haying time [].

JT:

Okay. So you helped each other with.

CF:

Helped each other. Yeah.

JT:

You pitched in with the haying.

CF:

Mostly haying time and threshing time we’d help each other. Threshing.

JT:

Those are big jobs.

CF:

The thresher would come from Cutlerville or from Dutton. He’d go around

the neighbors and thresh.

JT:

You paid a fee for this?

CF: Huh?

JT:

You paid an amount of money? A fee for this?

CF:

We’d a done it by the bushel.

JT: Oh.

CF:

That weight. Outside weighing on the machine. Separator.

JT:

This was done in the fall too?

CF:

Yeah.

JT:

Right before winter, I’m assuming?

CF:

Oh. Yeah. In the fall. Yeah.

JT:

Right. Exactly.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Yeah. It’s all in the fall. You go around and fill silos at harvest time.

There was corn. Wheat or corn.

JT: Okay.

CF:

I took these three teams and half a dozen men or more to fill a silo.

JT:

Did your mom cook for all those people when they came?

CF:

In those days, yeah. One meal a day. Just a noon meal. She done that

when they built the old Interuban road. We called it back then. The tracks are
still there.

JT:

Did she do this by herself? Did she have help when she was feeding all

these people?

CF:

Oh. The neighbor lady would help if it was too busy. Yeah. She used to

cook meals. So much she’d do meals through a. The crew that worked on that
urban area, they’d pay her so much a meal. 10 or 12 men. They were all horse,
horse and wagon, horse and teams in those days.

JT:

Exactly. When did you get your first tractor?

CF: 1940.

JT:

1940. That was pretty special back then, wasn’t it?

CF:

Yeah. It was. Of course it was different then.

JT:

Well, it made it easier, I’m assuming. Didn’t it?

CF:

Well, it sure did for me because I was alone. We started raising more

vegetables instead of grain and wheat and corn. We were raising vegetables. It
was a lot better with a tractor for cultivating and so on. That’s what you’re
feeding horses all year round. Horses. You’ve got to feed them all year round.
We used hay to feed in the wintertime, especially in the wintertime.

JT:

It was cheaper with the tractor?

CF:

Yeah. It was for me. Yeah. Much cheaper.

JT:

Even though the cost of gas and everything?

CF:

Oh. Gas was cheap in those days. Not like now. 5 gallons for a dollar.

JT:

5 gallons for a dollar.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF: Yeah.

JT:

Where did you buy your gas?

CF:

There was a party living half a mile south. Henry Kome, he had a gas

truck. He belonged to the farmers thing. I’d buy 200 gallons. I had an overhead
tank. I got a couple hundred gallons at a time.

JT:

Oh, so you had your tank and you’d fill it.

CF:

Put it in the tractor. Yeah. He’d come out and fill it for me.

JT:

Right. Exactly. So when did you first get electricity on the farm?

CF: 1925.

JT:

That was pretty big then too, wasn’t it?

CF:

I should say. Yeah. Used kerosene lamps. Everything else. Outdoor

farmers who pumped the water by hand. Then we got electric. Then the septic
tank we’d get water. You’d pump the water with electric pumps.

JT:

It made it much easier. It took away your job. [laugh] 1925. So your

electricity went in the house and the barn too?

CF:

Yeah. They run some wires to the barn and chicken coop, I guess about

that time. Yeah. The chickens would lay more eggs. Put a timer on it. The
lights would go in the morning about 5:00. But we didn’t have air conditioning in
those days.

JT: A

fan?

CF:

Yeah. Bought a fan. Yeah. That helped a little bit when it got hot. No air-

conditioning.

JT:

Um. Kerosene lamps, ah, did you save any of that?

CF: Huh?

JT:

Did you save any of your old kerosene lamps or anything like that?

CF:

Yeah. We’ve got in the basement here, I guess. We’ve got two kerosene

lamps. Yeah. No lanterns that we used to use in the barn to milk. Don’t have
them anymore.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

So you milked by hand?

CF:

Yeah. Well, I had a milker later on for a few years. When I sold the cow,

well, that was the end of that. I always milked by hand. Yeah.

JT:

Okay. Who built the barn?

CF:

Frankly, I don’t know. They just wrecked it here about two years ago.

Didn’t know about it either. We’ve been here, of course. All of the sudden
somebody told me, “Your barn’s gone.” So I can’t tell you. Some wrecker
company.

JT:

No. Who built it?

CF:

Oh. As far as I know, my granddad. My mother’s side. He was a

carpenter.

JT:

Do you know when?

CF:

Early 1900’s, I guess.

JT:

Early 1900’s. Well, that stood a long time, didn’t it? It was almost 100

years. So how big was that barn?

CF:

40 x 60.

JT:

That was pretty typical?

CF: Yeah..

JT:

And the color?

CF: Painted

red.

JT:

Do you know why barns were painted red? I’ve always wondered that.

CF:

Oh, I think it was a trend in those days. Some different parts of the

country you see some painted gray or occasionally white. Yeah. Barn paint was
cheap, of course. A lot cheaper than house paint.

JT:

Because it was the cheapest color? That red was the cheapest color?

CF:

Oh, I think it had something to do with it. Yeah.

JT:

Okay. Yours was red?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Yeah. White trimmed. Wood shingles.

JT:

Wood shingles on the roof?

CF:

In those days a hip roof barn.

JT:

Where did you go to grade school as a child, Cyrus?

CF:

Well, like I mentioned, Cutlerville Christian for three years and

Kelloggsville Christian for five years.

JT:

What was school like in Cutlerville Christian?

CF:

Sat two in a seat. Stove in the corner. two

JT:

Was this a potbelly stove?

CF:

Yeah. Outdoor toilets.

JT:

What did you learn on? Did you have books?

CF:

Oh, yeah. We had books. Yeah. Mostly penmanship and timestables.

You had to learn your timestables. That was a big item then.

JT: Your

ABC’s.

CF:

Your ABC’s. Penmanship. Don’t know why you had to learn to write good

like now. Some of them can’t even read what they write. You took pride in your
writing in those days. [laugh]

JT:

Well, it had to do with the teacher, don’t you think? She might have

wanted you to write a little bit better.

CF:

Oh. Yeah. You want blackboard penmanship. You go on the blackboard

and do it right and get marks for it. So. . .

JT:

Did you get report cards then?

CF:

Yeah. Every month ABC’s, however good your grade was. A was good,

of course, and B, C and down was.

JT:

You had letter grades.

CF:

Yeah. We had to read geography in some of those. History and

geography you’d probably get an E or an F.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Were you a good student?

CF:

Oh, yeah. I’d say average. I didn’t get many A’s and all that. B’s and C’s.

JT: No

F’s?

CF:

No. I don’t think so. No F’s.

JT: All

right.

CF:

Sat two to a seat and my buddy pushed me off. I’d get dumped in the

floor. The teacher would say, “You go stand in the corner.” So I had to stand in
the corner.

JT:

Was that your buddy who pushed you off?

CF:

I guess she thought we was monk eying around, I suppose. If you done

something wrong, you sit in the front seat and stick your hand out. He’d hit your
hand with a ruler.

JT:

So, you said you had the outdoor facilities. What about the water?

CF: Outdoor

pump.

JT: Outdoor

pump.

CF:

All drink out of the same dipper.

JT:

Isn’t that something? Did you carry your lunch to school?

CF: Yeah.

JT:

How did you do that? Did you have a lunch box?

CF:

There were certain pails that we used to have. Certain pails. Didn’t have

a lunch box.

JT: The

pail.

CF:

My folks got syrup in there and things like that.

JT:

What kind of a lunch did you have?

CF:

Well, it was a cold lunch. Never had hot drinks of any kind. No pop of any

kind. No. Sandwiches. Cold sandwiches.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT: Fruit?

CF:

No. Not fruit. We didn’t have no, nothing to carry it with. Mostly

sandwiches. Cold sandwiches.

JT:

What did you school children do for recreation?

CF:

Well, the girls played jump rope while the boys played. Well, they had an

old horse barn there. We used to play in there. We wasn’t supposed to. Go
across the rafters. Hang onto the rafters and go across. Play ball the best we
could.

JT:

What kind of ball?

CF:

Softball. It was called softball.

JT:

How many students in this school?

CF: Huh?

JT:

How many students at Cutlerville Christian?

CF:

We had all eight grades, by the way in 1 room.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Maybe three dozen, 40 at the most.

JT:

So you’re playing softball in 1

st and 2nd grade here?

CF: Yeah.

JT:

Or was it softball when.

CF:

In wintertime you play.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Sliding around on the sleds or throw snowballs and stuff like that in the

wintertime.

JT:

Did you take your sled to school?

CF:

I don’t know if I did or not. I don’t think I did. No.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

But that was something that you would do at home when you came back

from school.

CF:

Yeah.

JT:

Where would a hill be on the farm to sled? Go sledding?

CF:

Oh, our farm was pretty level, but there were places you could slide on

your sled.

JT:

Because you’d have to have a hill.

CF:

Yeah. In fact we used to walk right over here where the big trees are.

About a mile and a half. They called it Fenema’s Hill.

JT: Fenema’s

Hill?

CF:

Yeah. We used to walk up there and walk back home again. A mile and a

half this way.

JT:

That’s not that far.

CF:

By that time you’re tired. Eat a good supper. Go to bed on time if you’re

tired.

JT:

Do you remember your bedtime?

CF:

9:00 I would say.

JT:

Okay. You said you had electricity in 1925. So when did you finally get

the plumbing? Indoors plumbing.

CF:

Well, we had what we called a pantry at one time. And my folks made. All

they had in there was just a stool and a toilet and they had to put in a septic tank,
of course. That could have been a few years later. We didn’t get all the ‘I wants’.
‘Cause wiring in those days was quite a job to wire an old house. It wasn’t
equipped for wiring. You had to drill holes all over behind the plaster.. We didn’t
have outlets. I’ll tell you that. Just what was necessary.

JT:

I can feel that.

CF:

1, 2, we’ve got 4 in this lower room right here.

JT:

Not like in the old days. Let’s go back to middle school. You went to

Kelloggville Christian, correct? What were your favorite subjects back then?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Oh, yeah. Arithmetic and history and penmanship and geography. I think

those were the main ones of thosedays.

JT:

But your favorite.

CF:

That Bible, by the Christian School Bible.

JT:

Sure you have your Bible.

CF:

The main ones?

JT:

No, your favorite.

CF:

Yeah. I wasn’t too crazy about arithmetic. I guess geography and history

and stuff like that. Yeah! And penmanship. I took a little pride in penmanship.

JT:

And how did you get to school?

CF:

Just about walk all the time. Except in the wintertime of course, my dad

would take me out in the horse and cutter occasionally. Otherwise we walked.

JT:

And do you remember what you wore to school?

CF:

What did you call them, knickers?

JT:

Heavy socks? What kind of shoes?

CF:

Didn’t have oxfords in those days. We had to bring our shoes in.

JT: Like

boots?

CF:

In the wintertime we had boots, yeah. Then you had what they call the

things up here? Leggings? To keep your legs warm.

CF:

The scarf around your neck.

JT:

So how old were you when you remembered your first pair of long pants?

CF:

[laugh] Oh, by graduation I think I still had short pants yet. Oh, I could

be10-12 years old probably before I started with long pants. I think.

JT:

Did you like your knickers?

CF:

Well. At that time, yeah.

JT:

What are they made of?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Well, my folks bought them, so probably of regular material. If you wore

long socks in those drafts, they were cotton too. Wintertime, maybe a little
heavier material.

JT:

You mentioned you had electricity in 1925. When did you get your first

radio.

CF:

We didn’t have a radio ‘til we got married.

(TAPE TURNED OVER)

JT:

This radio that you had, tell me about it.

CF:

Battery operated. I think I had one of them. We could only get those at

that time. We couldn’t get all of the stations on all of them. You try and listen.
Sit close by and try and listen to what they was talking about. And later on we
got what you call a Philco.

JT: A

Philco.

CF:

A cabinet style about that high. (Hand measurement of about three feet.)

JT:

Where did you put this radio?

CF:

Oh, in the corner of the living room. That was cabinet style. Never will

forget it. Walk in the house after finish the milking. Turn it on. Pearl Harbor had
been attacked. I won’t forget it.

JT:

You heard it on the radio?

CF: Yeah.

JT:

It was shocking, wasn’t it?

CF: Sure

was.

CF:

When was Pearl Harbor attacked? 19?

JT: 41.

CF: 41?

JT: Yeah.

CF:

Okay. That’d be it then.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT: Okay.

CF:

President Roosevelt announced Pearl Harbor had been attacked by the

Japanese.

JT:

You didn’t go to war because you had a farm.

CF:

No. I was exempt from that. I had to register, but they exempted me

because I was the only support for my mother and my sister. I didn’t have no
brothers, you know. I was still milking cows, yet and everything.

JT:

You were how old, then? In 1941?

CF:

Yeah. Well, when you registered a little bit later, of course. My registry

came out at 17 or 18.

JT:

I want to go back to the radio. What were you favorite programs on the

radio?

CF:

[laugh] Fibber Magee and Molly, and, them other two guys. Remember

them? Didn’t have much in sports in those days. Some of those comical
programs. I don’t know.

JT:

No Arthur Godfrey fans here?

CF:

No, I don’t think either one of those two guys.

JT: No?

CF:

What was them two guys that used to be on the radio We listened to

them.

JT:

Okay. Amos and Andy.

CF:

Yep. There you are.

JT:

Amos and Andy. Okay.

CF:

Amos and Andy. Yeah.

JT:

So you listened to a lot of the President’s messages during the war,

correct?

CF:

Yeah. Especially Roosevelt’s. Yeah.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Right. Exactly. Roosevelt.

CF:

Yeah. Cause that was coming out of the Hoover Depression, you know.

Hoover was president before that and had what you call Hoover’s shanties.

JT: Explain

that.

CF:

Well, nobody had a. There was no. Nobody had a job and they called

them Hoover’s shanties. Live in anything.

JT: Hoover

shanties.

CF:

Nobody could. There was no work. When Roosevelt got in, he started the

WPA and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camps for the young men, for
the young guys. Planting these trees. And the WPA, why anything the men
could do--dig ditches or. In fact they cleaned the creek out by our place on
Division there. In the wintertime, cold as ever, but they had something to do.
They got a little pay.

JT:

I was going to ask you about the Depression and the farm. How did it

affect the farm, the Depression?

CF:

Fine. We sold stuff so cheap. Sold milk for a dollar a hundred pounds,

12-1/2 pounds. You get a dollar.

JT:

As you said, that was cheap. [laugh]

CF:

12 ½ gallons is a hundred pounds and you get a dollar. It costs you 25

cents to get it off the yard so you had 75 cents left.

JT:

Wow. And you guys did without a lot, didn’t you? You didn’t have a lot.

CF:

You could buy bread , three for a quarter. Three loaves for a quarter.

JT:

You didn’t make your own bread?

CF:

Yeah. They did some. Mother baked bread. Yeah. They backed in

those days on the kitchen range, especially in the wintertime. The range was on
the only way to keep the kitchen warm. Had a lot of baking. [loud noise] I had a
Model-T truck in those days and a coal dealer calling me up in the wintertime.

JT:

In the Depression?

CF:

Yeah. You get a dollar for loading or shoveling a ton of coal. They give

you a dollar a ton and deliver it somewhere, and you put it in the people’s

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

basement and you get a dollar for a dollar. My first job was $18 per week. Later
on it was 35 cents an hour.

JT:

And that first job was where?

CF:

Klise Manufacturing. Cut samples for furniture.

JT:

You cut samples?

CF:

The trim they put around furniture in those days. You don’t get much now

no more. Extra trim. See, Grand Rapids was known as a furniture city back
then.

JT: Right..

CF:

We used a lot of that trim.

JT:

Well, you said you built stuff when you were little, so this was a natural job

for you, correct?

CF: Yeah.

JT:

Cause you liked to work with your hands.

CF:

I delivered some of them samples. They’d make up samples about three

inches. They give me three cents a mile for driving my car. I delivered some in
town at the furniture factories.

JT:

And you were 18.

CF:

But you gotta remember you can guy gallons of gas, five for a dollar. That

can go a long ways for a dollar. That’s the difference.

JT:

So this was in addition to all your farm chores.

CF:

In the wintertime mostly, yeah.

JT:

Right. In the wintertime. Okay. Right.

CF:

I worked at Kelvinator two winters and Kelvinator was in Grand Rapids at

that time. I bailed paper one winter and the other one I worked on the production
line.

JT:

You had the radio as a child, ah, well, a teenager. Did you have books,

comic books, newspaper?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Yeah. I read the newspaper, but no comic books. No. I think I read the

Grand Rapids Press and the Herald. It wasn’t the main paper at that time, but my
foks never read that, just the Press.

JT:

Did you get it daily? Or Sundays?

CF:

Daily, yeah, but not Sunday.

JT:

You got it daily.

CF:

Yeah. Didn’t have Press boys up there. The mail delivered. Put it in the

mailbox.

JT:

Oh, the mailman. You got mail every day?

CF:

Umhum. [affirmative] Except Sunday. Yeah.

JT:

You’ve lived through many wars, Cyrus. World War I?

CF:

No, I’m in II. World War II.

JT: World

War

II.

CF:

Yeah. I was eligible for World War II.

JT:

Right. World War II. Okay. World War II. Ah, and you mentioned that

you heard it on the radio that we entered the war. Okay. How did the war affect
life in Paris Township and your farm?

CF:

Well, everything seemed to pick up in certain ways cause they needed

some materials. The war takes a lot of materials, you know. I think. ‘Cause
yeah, a lot of young men went into the service and all that. And a lot of them got
killed. It was in the paper here a short time ago: World War II. We lost 140 some
thousand men all totaled. My dad worked on what you call the picric acid plant
down here where they built, ah. They were goanna make poisoned gas. That
was World War I. Of course, there was a team there who moved dirt and
straightened dirt.

JT:

Any shortages for your farm?

CF: Shortages?

JT:

Shortages. In World War II for your farm?

CF:

No. I don’t think so. No.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT: Rationing?

CF:

Rationing? Gasoline was rationed, you bet. Farmers were exempt.

They’d get an E stamp. Farmers could get mostly gas. Other than that, why gas
was rationed. Yeah.

JT:

Did you get enough sugar?

CF:

Yeah. We got enough to get along. Yeah. We didn’t have tractors in

those days. The car and the pick-up truck. Yeah. We got enough gas.

JT:

You said you were treasurer for Paris Township. How did you get

involved with that?

CF:

Well. You see I was treasurer at Townline School. What they call the

Townline years. I was on that for a couple of years. And on the Board of
Review. I got on the Board of Review in 1948 for Paris Township. I took over
the tax role and appraised houses. I had done some proctor work for my brother-
in-law and I knew what houses would sell for. They called it the windshield
appraisal. You go down the street and a house is worth so much. The land was
worth so much. And the supervisor, he done the farms. I done the houses. That
was way back when it was nothing like it is now.

JT:

How did you know how to appraise the house?

CF:

Well, we kind of knew what a house would cost. 25 hundred. 35 hundred.

, five-room bungalow, no basement, no attic.. Can’t believe it.

JT:

The windshield appraisal. I love that.

CF:

Yeah. A guy would sit in the back seat with a tax roll and I was driving.

The tax roll books were great big books. It was pretty thick. It had all the
residential properties in it. We’d go down the street. He’d keep track of the
street numbers and going on the right place. Oh, you got a two-stall garage.
You got a sidewalk. This and that. Oh, maybe about 35 hundred dollars.

JT:

Okay. Were you pretty accurate?

CF:

Well, you gotta to back to windshield appraisals. We didn’t have the

factors in it like now. We went way to 28

th street.

JT:

Who did this with you? Do you remember?

CF:

One of the board members.

He sat on the board.

JT:

Was that your only duty?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Yeah. Just a board member, you know.

JT:

Did you have meetings that you had to go to monthly? Weekly?

CF:

Monthly at that time.

JT:

You just did this for two years?

CF:

For 21 years. I was elected treasurer.

JT:

Oh, 21 years. Okay.

CF:

On the Board of Review from 1948-1975.

JT:

The Board of Review.

CF:

From 48 till 75.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Plus the Board of Review only meets in Spring. Spring of the year.

JT:

did you have to get appointed every year?

CF:

Every 2 years. Every 2 years.

JT:

Who appointed you?

CF: Well, it was run by, ah. You had an election.

JT: Oh,

elected.

CF:

Sure.

JT:

That means the people, your neighbors had to elect you.

CF:

Just like they do now for President. Similar to that.

JT:

So you had to run an election. Put up flyers?

CF:

Yeah. Advertise a little bit.

JT:

And you got on it for 21 years.

CF: Yeah.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT: Good

job!

CF:

Yeah. If I look back, yeah. Yeah.

JT:

So what was your campaign?

CF:

Well, we’d get together. The supervisor and the clerk and the treasurer

and some board members. Their term was four years, I think. The board
members. And there was four board members but only two running every time.
So we’d get together and get a brochure out. Send that out and pass it out and
things like that.

JT:

So not a whole lot of opposition here.

CF:

[laugh] For the part of the supervisor there was, yeah. You get in hot

water when the gypsum mine come in the Paris Township. The gypsum came
into Paris. That’s where he got into hot water.

JT:

Really, how did that happen?

CF:

Well, the mines were still there in East Paris Avenue they tell me. They

had a lot of ground option. Way to Bretton Road. And people got madder than a
hornet. They could under mine. They could mind under there, see? I think
they’re still mining it, they tell me. So they had a meeting at the town hall on
Kalamazoo Ave. and 32

nd Street at the old town hall it was then.

JT:

Uhuh. [affirmative]

CF:

It was packed so full that they were standing up from the outside.

JT:

This was a hot issue.

CF:

Oh, yeah. One man, he got so mad. I think his fist, his hand was about

two feet from the supervisor. So, the township had to get the whole township
rezoned. No more of that kind of stuff. So they spent 35,000 dollars on this outfit
from Ohio. Hatch the name was. Everything where you are today was
residential. All that around that way, the land, I should say, way up to Patterson
was zoned R-1 Residential. R-1. That means only houses. Good houses. Nice
houses.

JT:

Oh, so that’s when it happened?

CF:

Then what happened? The airport moved. They forgot all about that

zoning. You don’t even know what it is now. And that’s the answer. 35,000
dollars down the drain.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

Those taxes. You had to raise taxes to pay for that. Right?

CF:

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

JT:

Yeah. Okay. Um. I heard you had a story about Charles Lindberg. What

can you tell me about that?

CF:

Well, you gotta go back to the old airport on Madison and 32

nd. My dad

took me there as far as I can remember when he came to Grand Rapids (the
airport)..

JT: Umhum.

[affirmative]

CF:

To this day I wish I had a camera. But I didn’t have a camera in those

days.

JT:

Do you remember what year it was?

CF:

Well, could be 1925. My dad died in ’29 so you gotta back up a few years.

Yeah, I was from here to the road from him, closer than that, up against that
tree..

CF:

The airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, Lindgerg went across the ocean in. I

never will forget it.

JT:

Were there a lot of people there besides you?

CF:

Yeah. Quite a few people. Yeah.

JT:

How did you. . .?.

CF:

Nothing like now. You gotta go back all those years, you know. Yeah.

Charles Lindberg. How it came about that he came to Grand Rapids, I don’t
know.

JT:

Who was with you at the time?

CF:

Just my dad.

JT:

You and your dad?

CF: Yep.

JT:

That must have been exciting for him too.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

I think so, yeah. He lived in Paris Township all his life too as I can best

remember. Always in Paris Township.

JT:

So how did he. You just went to see the plane. You just. Saw him from

afar. You weren’t able to shake his hand or anything like that?

CF:

No. I couldn’t get that close.

JT:

Couldn’t get close.

CF:

They wouldn’t let you get that close. No.

JT:

It was probably written up in the newspaper too.

CF:

I would think so.

JT:

You didn’t save a section of the paper for yourself, did you?

CF:

[laugh] You didn’t think of doing those things in those days. You didn’t

think about antique stuff like now. [laugh]

JT:

No, we didn’t make scrapbooks back then, did we? [laugh]

CF:

I guess not. My, my!.

JT:

What would have, could have been, right? [laugh]

CF:

Paris Township was from Division, six miles square. I found an old map in

the town hall when we moved. The original Paris Township map. I give it to Pete
Lamberts, my supervisor then who passed on.. Your supervisor wanted it
passed on. I sure wish I had kept it.

JT:

You could have photocopied it, I guess. [laugh]

CF:

When we went to Hall Street that was a boundary. Grand Rapids and

Wyoming started gobbling up some land. It belonged to Kentwood, but you
know. Do you know what it is today?

JT:

A little piece of this and that, right? This and that, right.

CF: Oh,

terrible.

JT:

Okay. When did you retire, Cyrus.

CF:

Well, from the township in 1975. (Note: Paris Township became the City

of Kentwood in 1967.) Well then we stayed gardening occupation, and hopefully

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

gardening. We had cows first. Then we had a stand, roadside stand in front of
the house at that time. The great grand kids that were big enough to help clean
up this lot at that time.

MF:

We bought chickens.

CF:

Hum? That’s right.

MF:

We bought chickens.

CF:

Yeah, that’s right. One year we had a bunch of chickens. I changed the

cow barn into a chicken coop and to raise chickens in there. We’d clean the
eggs and sell them. They come to the house and buy eggs.

MF:

I think we had two coops in the barn and one separated.

JT:

We’re talking about retiring here and you were doing this on your

retirement?

CF:

Till I was 83 years old more or less. Yeah. I was 75 when I left there.

JT:

You left where?

CF:

The township.

JT:

Okay. Exactly.

CF:

The Township. Of course I had the equipment. Farming equipment and

tractor and so on.

JT:

And you left the farm at what time?

CF: 1995.

JT:

To come here (812 Byron Drive SW, Byron Center, MI).

CF:

That’s when I came here.

JT:

So how’s retirement here?

CF:

Oh, we enjoy it. We go to the coffee shop morning. You heard about that

now, of course.

JT:

Who was at the coffee shop?

CF:

Oh, This morning, nine or ten of us.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT: Who’s

us?

CF:

All the men around the neighborhood. Two or three of them across the

street here. One retired policeman from Grand Rapids. Oh, I could name two
more. Different people.

JT:

And you have fund just talking, seeing each other. Socializing.

CF:

Yep. Yeah.

JT: Cool.

CF:

Quite a few of them come from up north. A way back when right after the

Depression. A lot of them, farmers who were from around Cadillac and McBain
or Lucas. You name it. They all moved to Grand Rapids to get a job at Keeler
Brass and places like that. Well, they’d come to the coffee shop, of course, they
were set three or four from living around here and four or five from up north.
Then they started gossiping about up north, who lives here and who lived there.
Stoney Corners? Did you ever hear of Stony Corners?

JT:

No.

CF:

A lot of farms had stones, I guess. They made a pile. They bought stones

from one place to another and called it “Stoney Corners.”.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Now the stones are all gone because they used them for landscaping.

They’re worth money now. But in those days they were pests. I look at those
guys. I come there when they were young, Every year and they had to go
around the farm and pick up stones.

JT:

Well, yeah. They’d get in the plow. Right?

CF:

The horse and wagon would pick up stones and dump them in a corner of

the street somewhere.

JT:

Bend your plow. Rearrange it, wouldn’t it? [laugh]

CF:

Yeah.

JT:

You didn’t want the stones there. So, do you miss the farm, Cyrus?

CF:

No. You see I was 83 years old and we were starting to slow up a little bit.

I still had seven acres. I had eight acres with all those buildings. Yeah, you gotta

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

keep it built up or it goes down. You know, they don’t get better. They get
worse. And the competition in those days. We sold at roadside stands. Now
you know what it is now. Like Meijers and Speyers over there on Eastern.
They’ve got refrigeration and all that kind of stuff. Big man eating little. Big man
eating little man.

JT:

It’s time to stop.

CF:

Just like now. They got Meijer’s squeezing out all the little dealers.

Meijer’s is doing the same thing right now.

JT: Exactly.

CF:

And the gas stations closing. Changing world.

JT:

So how would you describe Cyrus Fisher?

CF:

[laugh] Oh, I was always interested in, I can’t quite say politics, but

interested in history more or less to a certain extent you would call it that. I
always kept track of the Republican Party and I always voted Republican. I was
on the board at South Christian for two years. An elder and deacon of
Kelloggsivlle Church. And on the board at Townline School. That’s when I got
appointed to the Paris Township Board so I had to resign from the Townline
School. I was always interested in news like that. You know.

JT: Family

man?

CF:

Yeah. I would say so. Yeah. I never gambled. I never smoked. I never

drank. Typical family man. You bet. Had five children. Have four right now.
Call your family, you bet. And we worked together. 72 years now, isn’t it?

JT:

When were you married?

MF: ’36.

JT: 1936?

MF: Yes..

CF:

It’ll be 76 this fall. Yeah.

MF: August

th.

CF:

Yeah. You’re right.

JT: August

th. Okay. Family is important.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

You bet. I should say, how we miss the one that got killed in 1994. I

guess. 43 years old wasn’t she? But that happens every day.

JT:

So what would your advice be to your family, Cyrus?

CF: Oh,

advice?

JT: Umhum.

[affirmative]

CF:

Live within your means. That reminds me of one of the fellows at the

coffee shop. From up north of course. We had farmers that go to town with eggs
and potatoes in Cadillac and swap for groceries. Now, remember he says, “Don’t
come back with more money than what you’ve spent downtown in Cadillac.” You
wanted to come back with more money than what you spent.

JT:

How’d you do that?

CF:

Well, don’t overspend.

JT:

Oh, okay. [laugh]

CF:

They had a farmer there that would loan money out to some of these

farmers. They had more money in the banks when we do now. So some of the
farmers had a few extra dollars. And I said, “How in the world can a farmer
afford to loan money out to another farmer.” Cause farmers wasn’t making any
money. He mentioned that that particular farmer who went to Cadillac to swap
eggs and potatoes for groceries and clothes. Just don’t spent more than what
you’re taking back home. He was worried that you take some money back
home. [laugh]

JT:

There you go. You’d get rich.

CF:

Didn’t have credit cards in those days, you know. Yep. And that’s about

the way it was too. I’ll tell you.

JT:

So what will be your legacy, Cyrus?

CF: Legacy?

JT: Umhum

[affirmative]

CF:

Oh, I don’t quite know what you mean by that. Advice?

JT:

Nope. What are you going to leave your kids? What is it going to be?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

CF:

Well, live honest. That’s one thing what I’d say. Live within your means.

JT: Okay.

CF:

And I think a lot is associating with people to a certain extent.

JT: Okay.

CF:

Can’t live by yourself and everything. Don’t destroy anymore than you

have to. I get a little irritated at Grand Rapids. They tear down some of them
buildings. That’s modern progress. Used to go. I used to go down to the old
courthouse in the wintertime when I didn’t have enough to do. I used to enjoy
that listening to them court cases. They tore down the old courthouse and built a
new one. Now they’re talking about tearing that one down. Gonna build a big
stadium or something like that. Yeah. But Welsh Auditorium. Now that one will
come down. If George Welsh was here to know that. Yeah. We went to a lot of
meetings, public meetings there.

JT:

At the Welsh Auditorium?

CF:

Yeah. It was quite a building in those days. You bet. So always

interested in public affairs. I guess I’d put it that way. And your neighborhood,
clean it up as best you can.

JT:

Well, that’s good advice. Is there anything else you would like to. I’m

almost done here. Is there anything else you would like to talk about?

CF:

No. I can’t think so much about now. We covered everything pretty well.

You know, we went through the Depression and I told you all about that. People,
some people can’t realize what that is. I’ll tell you. You work for 18 dollars a
week and 35 cents an hour. You stand in line from here to Clyde Park, you
know, trying to get a job at Kelvinator. Well, maybe they’d hire two and say,
“Well, you can go home now, boys. Come back tomorrow.” Tomorrow would be
the same thing. You didn’t ask how much, what the benefits were. Cause you
didn’t know what they was. Insurance or pension.

JT:

I don’t think they knew about those things.

CF:

Too tickled to have a job. You didn’t ask what the pay was.

MF:

Tell them about when we’re first married.

CF:

Yeah. I worked at Kelvinator for 18 dollars a week cutting that molding..

That was a skilled job at 40 dollars a week. That was skilled labor. No benefits
of any kind.

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

JT:

So you were saving up for your wedding?

MF:

Yeah, we had a wedding.

JT:

But you had to save up for it. It took six years?

MF:

And then we got married. I worked yet and I saved my money from

working all day on the farm 9:00 at night. That helped.

CF:

We wanted to build a house.

MF:

Yes, we wanted to build a house. [].

CF:

We got married in the days when you kissed the preacher and give your

wife ten bucks.

UP: [laugh]

JT:

[laugh] Okay.

CF: [laugh]

JT:

Kiss the preacher, give the wife. What is it?

CF:

We had a guy that worked with me at Paris Township. He was a board

member. He liked to crack those kind of jokes. He got married too in the
Depression. He said to kiss the preacher and give my wife ten dollars.

MF:

Tell some more about him.

CF:

Yeah. He read water meters around Plaster Creek in the Kalamazoo

area. Are you familiar with that area?

JT: Umhum.

[affirmative]

CF:

Plaster Creek would overflow and some nice houses in there get water in

the family room. You can get reading water meters. Paris Township ought to do
something about that. A horse knows enough not to lay on dry ground.

JT:

That was unusual then too. Good point. Do you have a picture of your

marriage?

UP:

Yeah. They’re all down in the basement now. We got married in church.

JT:

A suit and the dress?

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

UP: Huh?

JT:

Nice suit and dress?

mF:

A nice wedding dress.

CF:

Borrowed that, didn’t you?

MF: What?

CF: Your

dress?

JT:

Did you borrow your wedding dress?

CF:

Did you borrow the dress?

UP:

No. I bought my dress. I borrowed the veil.

CF:

Oh, the veil. Some girl that worked in the laundry where she worked

borrowed her veil.

JT:

Well, we have to have something borrowed.

UP:

Oh, yeah. That’s right. Something borrowed. It worked out nicely.

JT: Okay.

MF:

And we got married in Kelloggsville Church.

JT:

That’s your church. Well, Cyrus, we are done. Okay.

CF:

It’s kind of interesting.

JT:

Yeah. We are done.

CF:

Trying to remember some of those things. It’s been a while.

JT:

Okay. I’m stopping it.

[END OF TAPE]

Airport, 32
Annexation, 34
Barn, 18
Burton Heights, 13
Canning, 11

Chores, 13
Civilian Conservation Corps, 26
Clothing, 13, 23
Coal, 9
Cutlerville Christian School, 4, 19, 21

Kentwood Historical Preservation Commission

Cyrus Fisher: Interviewed June 5, 2003

Depression, 6, 11, 26, 39
Division Avenue, 4
Draft, 25
East Paris Avenue, 31
Electricity, 17
Family values, 37
Farming, 4, 16
Fenema's Hill, 22
Fisher farm, 8, 18, 34
Fisher Station, 9
Gasoline prices, 17
Grand Rapids Herald, 28
Grand Rapids Press, 28
Gypsum mine, 31
Hall Street cannery, 7
Hucksters, 5, 6
Indoor plumbing, 22
Interurban, 16
Kelloggsville Christian Reformed

Church, 36, 41

Kelloggsville Christian School, 4, 19,

Kelvinator, 28, 39
Klise Manufacturing, 27
Market Street, 7
Paris Township, 34
Paris Township elections, 31
Paris Township government, 29, 37

Pearl Harbor, 24
People

Griffin, Ray, 14
Hendricksma, Henry, 14
Huizinga, Ed, 15
Kome, Henry, 17
Lamberts, Pete, 34
Lindberg, Charles, 32
Verberger, Sals and John, 14

Picric acid plant, 29
Plaster Creek, 40
Radio, 25
Rationing, 29
Recreation, 12

School, 21
Winter, 22

Republican Party, 36
Spirit of St. Louis, 33
Tax appraisal, 29
Threshing, 15
Town Hall, 32
Townline School, 29, 37
Wages, 27, 39
Winter activities, 8
World War II, 24, 26, 28
WPA, 26
Zoning, 32