Dad finished his Chrysler stories with the story of his friend's tragic end.
"Russ C.
"I worked at Chrysler Engineering at Highland Park, Michigan, from 1964 to 1992.
"Chrysler had a plant in Huntsville, Alabama, and another at Sterling Heights, Michigan where engineering and building of major portions of the Redstone, Jupiter, and Saturn rockets were done for the U.S. Space Agency. When the contract with the government ended, many of their engineers and managers moved to Highland Park. This must have been hard for them, leaving modern plants with the latest technology and going to work where the buildings and equipment were ancient. Pat McI., Vic A., Al P., and Russ C. were a few of the good people that joined our lab. At that time we were the Air Conditioning and Heater Lab.
"Russ had been a foreman at the Van Dyke facility in Sterling Heights, MI and when he came to Highland Park he was made a technician. Even though he did not have a degree I thought he was the best engineer I had ever seen.
"Russ and I became good friends, and since he lived near by and his house was on the way to work I would pick him up. He was always ready and waiting when I came. Russ had a wife named Joyce, like my wife, and she was a very fine person.
"One day Russ told me he was going to sell one of his cars. it was a 1967 Plymouth Satellite convertible. I knew Russ had always taken excellent care of his vehicles and I bought it from him for $800. Joyce and I enjoyed riding around the town with the top down in the evening during the summer. Eventually, I gave the car to my son Tom when he left high school.
"Russ and Joyce had a cabin in the northern lower peninsula on Lake Bellville near Traverse City. One winter right after Christmas, Russ, Ron H., Dick D., Terry H., Bob P., and I drove there to do some ice fishing. The cabin was a beautiful log structure and it had a clear view of the lake.
"When we arrived the snow was fairly deep, but the lake had not yet frozen. Dick and I had brought our shotguns along, so the next day we decided to go rabbit hunting. As we loaded the car, a neighbor lady called over and told us we had better not shot the bunnies that lived in the swamp in front of her cabin. We assured her we were not hunting near by and left.
We drove a few miles and found an area that looked promising and parked. After tromping through the snow in the woods for a while, and not seeing any bunnies, we left and went back to the cabin.
"While we waited for the ice to freeze we played cards and drank apricot brandy. Then the ice froze enough for us to set out tip-ups and begin to fish. It was very cold and one day after we had set up our tip-ups we went back to the cabin and sat by the window so we could watch them.
"We had not sat there long when we heard a knock on the door. When we opened it, standing there was the game warden. We asked him in and then he asked to see our fishing licenses. Lucky for us we all had bought them and set up only two tip-ups each, so we were legal. But he told us that he could have given us a ticket because the lines were unattended. But he overlooked it because we could watch from the window. We did not catch a lot of fish, but we had a great time.
"At work, when Russ brought me a work order it was always well thought out and he always provided me with everything I would need to complete the job. Russ was liked by everyone. He was one of the finest people I knew. But things were not well at home. Joyce left him, and only then did I find that Russ was an alcoholic. I never had a clue that Russ had a drinking problem. I did not know that he had joined Alcoholics Anonymous until one evening when he called my wife and I to tell us and relieve his conscience.
"Russ missed a few days of work, and one evening I went to his house and knocked on the back door. Russ only opened the door because he had ordered a pizza and thought I was the delivery man. I was shocked to see the condition he was in. He had not shaved, his hair was uncombed, and he looked like he had not changed his clothes in days. When I entered the kitchen I noticed all the clutter on the table and counter. This was not like the Russ I knew.
"We talked for a while and I listened as he told me that his wife had left and that they should have had kids, should have moved to a different house, and other excuses, avoiding the real problem--his drinking. I tried to build up his ego by telling him that everyone I knew thought very highly of him, then eventually left.
"After Joyce left Russ she would occasionally call my wife to tell her what was going on. She said she had joined Alanon. They told her an alcoholic will not stop drinking until they hit bottom, and that is why she left Russ.
"One day Russ's wife Joyce called me at work and asked me to meet her at their house at noon so she could talk to him. So, at 11:30 am I left work and when I got there I saw police cars and fire trucks surrounding the house. I parked and asked someone what had happened, and they said Russ had committed suicide. This was a shock to me, and when I looked toward the garage I saw the door was open and the interior was all black from a coating of carbon.
"As usual, Russ had done a meticulous job. He had bought some flexible metal tubing which he taped to the tailpipe of the car, some duct tape with which he sealed the doors and windows of the garage, then he started the car engine and sat in the front seat.
"Russ had called his wife Joyce and asked her to meet him at the house. When I talked to another close friend of Russ's I was told he thought Russ had planned for Joyce to arrive before he was asphyxiated because when the garage door was opened, they saw that Russ had left the car, as if he had changed his mind, but it was too late.
"And so I lost my good friend Russ. Not too long after, Joyce sold the house and moved to be near her sister. We still write Christmas cards to each other every year."
Showing posts with label Eugene Gochenour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eugene Gochenour. Show all posts
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: Jokesters Join the Lab
Dad wrote about "New Blood" as the Air Conditioning Lab expanded in the 1980s, including two jokesters who loosened up the lab. These stories became legend in our family.
"As the demand for air conditioners in automobiles increased, it became necessary to increase the size of our lab. The lab had always been serene, orderly, and fairly quiet (boring), but that was soon to change. One day two new mechanics transferred from another lab to ours.
Their names were Jim C. and Jay F. They were noisy and boisterous and not too respectful of us older mechanics. At first I resented their presence because they were so disruptive. Also, they were always thinking of ways to annoy me.
At lunch time I often took a nap since we had a 45 minute lunch break. Once when I awoke after the nap and tried to walk I tripped because they had tied my shoelaces together! If I removed my shoes while I slept they would hide them and when I awoke I had to walk around in my socks trying to find them.
Once when I was standing on my bench putting in a new light bub in a ceiling fixture and could not drop my hands, they loosened my belt and pulled my pants down. So, there I was, standing on my bench in my under drawers until I could finish what I was doing and pull my pants back up.
On the top of my bench was a small cabinet with drawers. It had many nuts, bolts, washers, and other small parts. Sometimes when they were both by my bench and I was talking to one of them the other would be dumping the drawers full of parts onto my bench. of course when I saw what they did, I chased the one who dumped the parts, but they both just laughed.
In the 1980s we got another new addition to our lab. Diana C. was an Electrical Engineer. She had graduated from the University of Michigan and was very sharp. Well, one of the mechanics had a small wooden statue of a naked man wearing a barrel that was hung from his shoulders by suspenders. it stood about six inches high and with his bare feet looked like some poor hillbilly. Some people would be inquisitive and lift the barrel, and when they did a huge penis wold pop out. We all got many laughs when that happened. But we decided to improve him. We drilled a hole in the penis and hooked up a hose and a water supply to it.
When Diana came into the lab one day we showed her the little wooden man and when she lifted the barrel we turned on the water and she got squirted. She was surprised and we all howled with laughter. Diana could have really raised hell for us, but she was a good sport, and never complained to our bosses. She learned fast what she was in for when she worked out in our lab.
One day a huge horsefly flew into our lab Jim C. chased it around until he caught it. He sprayed it with something from an aerosol can which knocked it out, then he came over to me and pulled a hair from my head. He put Crazy Glue on the hair and attached it to the back of the fly. He must have thought about this before because he had a small, quarter inch by three inch piece of toilet paper with the words "Eat at ARA" printed on it. The sign was attached to the other end of the hair on the fly. The ARA was of course the company that ran the Chrysler cafeteria.
Well, there happened to be a meeting going on at a conference room next to our lab with about ten people including our lab supervisor and some engineers and designers. When the fly revived, Jim opened the conference room door and set the fly loose.
So here's this fly cruising through the room advertising ARA with everyone watching and after a few trips around it land on the nose of Fred McC. who was looking up toward the ceiling. When Jim released the fly into the room it became quiet but soon after there was a roar of laughter. No one was ever reprimanded for this, but I think they knew who was responsible.
Setting on a cabinet by my bench was a small toy slot machine. Occasionally someone would come by and pull on the lever. The toy was at about face level and when the lever was pulled a little round funny head would pop up and squirt the person who had pulled the lever. There was always someone new to pull the lever so we got many laughs from it.
Even though we had a good time at work, everyone was a good worker and our lab accomplished much.
Jim C. was a hunter and he and I planned to take a weekend and go to my brother-in-law Don Ramer's cottage near Grayling, MI. I had spent a week helping Don and his wife Marie build the floor, walls, and roof panels of the cottage a few years before. Don had ten acres and his twin brother Dave had ten acres net to his. It was all heavily wooded.
After work on Friday, Jim and I loaded up the car with our guns and hunting equipment and headed north. When we were north of Bay City it was very dark. Parked at the side of the road was a van and as we approached we saw a man waving to us. So we stopped to see what he wanted.
The man told us they had hit a deer and heir van was disabled. He said the deer had a broken back and was lying by the road behind their van. He asked if we had a gun so we could stop the deer from suffering, and we said we did. Jim had brought along a pistol and he went and shot the deer. Then the man asked if we could run him into the next town for a tow truck. We, of course, said we would. There was another man and a woman in the van and they took down our names and our license plate number before we left. On the way to town the man said they had a load of apples in the van.
The first garage that we stopped at in the next town did not have a tow truck but they would take the deer. He said they lived on deer Up North. The next garage did have a tow truck, so we left the man there and continued on our way.
I don't know if it is legal to shoot an injured animal but we could not see it suffer.
On another trip, my son Tom, Jim C, and I stayed at Don's cabin to hunt.
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| Eugene Gochenour at work in the 1980s |
Their names were Jim C. and Jay F. They were noisy and boisterous and not too respectful of us older mechanics. At first I resented their presence because they were so disruptive. Also, they were always thinking of ways to annoy me.
At lunch time I often took a nap since we had a 45 minute lunch break. Once when I awoke after the nap and tried to walk I tripped because they had tied my shoelaces together! If I removed my shoes while I slept they would hide them and when I awoke I had to walk around in my socks trying to find them.
Once when I was standing on my bench putting in a new light bub in a ceiling fixture and could not drop my hands, they loosened my belt and pulled my pants down. So, there I was, standing on my bench in my under drawers until I could finish what I was doing and pull my pants back up.
On the top of my bench was a small cabinet with drawers. It had many nuts, bolts, washers, and other small parts. Sometimes when they were both by my bench and I was talking to one of them the other would be dumping the drawers full of parts onto my bench. of course when I saw what they did, I chased the one who dumped the parts, but they both just laughed.
In the 1980s we got another new addition to our lab. Diana C. was an Electrical Engineer. She had graduated from the University of Michigan and was very sharp. Well, one of the mechanics had a small wooden statue of a naked man wearing a barrel that was hung from his shoulders by suspenders. it stood about six inches high and with his bare feet looked like some poor hillbilly. Some people would be inquisitive and lift the barrel, and when they did a huge penis wold pop out. We all got many laughs when that happened. But we decided to improve him. We drilled a hole in the penis and hooked up a hose and a water supply to it.
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| Jim C. and Dad in the lab |
One day a huge horsefly flew into our lab Jim C. chased it around until he caught it. He sprayed it with something from an aerosol can which knocked it out, then he came over to me and pulled a hair from my head. He put Crazy Glue on the hair and attached it to the back of the fly. He must have thought about this before because he had a small, quarter inch by three inch piece of toilet paper with the words "Eat at ARA" printed on it. The sign was attached to the other end of the hair on the fly. The ARA was of course the company that ran the Chrysler cafeteria.
Well, there happened to be a meeting going on at a conference room next to our lab with about ten people including our lab supervisor and some engineers and designers. When the fly revived, Jim opened the conference room door and set the fly loose.
So here's this fly cruising through the room advertising ARA with everyone watching and after a few trips around it land on the nose of Fred McC. who was looking up toward the ceiling. When Jim released the fly into the room it became quiet but soon after there was a roar of laughter. No one was ever reprimanded for this, but I think they knew who was responsible.
Setting on a cabinet by my bench was a small toy slot machine. Occasionally someone would come by and pull on the lever. The toy was at about face level and when the lever was pulled a little round funny head would pop up and squirt the person who had pulled the lever. There was always someone new to pull the lever so we got many laughs from it.
Even though we had a good time at work, everyone was a good worker and our lab accomplished much.
Jim C. was a hunter and he and I planned to take a weekend and go to my brother-in-law Don Ramer's cottage near Grayling, MI. I had spent a week helping Don and his wife Marie build the floor, walls, and roof panels of the cottage a few years before. Don had ten acres and his twin brother Dave had ten acres net to his. It was all heavily wooded.
After work on Friday, Jim and I loaded up the car with our guns and hunting equipment and headed north. When we were north of Bay City it was very dark. Parked at the side of the road was a van and as we approached we saw a man waving to us. So we stopped to see what he wanted.
The man told us they had hit a deer and heir van was disabled. He said the deer had a broken back and was lying by the road behind their van. He asked if we had a gun so we could stop the deer from suffering, and we said we did. Jim had brought along a pistol and he went and shot the deer. Then the man asked if we could run him into the next town for a tow truck. We, of course, said we would. There was another man and a woman in the van and they took down our names and our license plate number before we left. On the way to town the man said they had a load of apples in the van.
The first garage that we stopped at in the next town did not have a tow truck but they would take the deer. He said they lived on deer Up North. The next garage did have a tow truck, so we left the man there and continued on our way.
I don't know if it is legal to shoot an injured animal but we could not see it suffer.
On another trip, my son Tom, Jim C, and I stayed at Don's cabin to hunt.
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| Tom Gochenour and Jim C. at Uncle Don's cabin |
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: Chrysler Stories Continued
Dad took a new position at Chrysler and made lifelong friends. He also shared some stories that are legendary in our family.
The Windshield Wiper Lab
"I started work as a mechanic at the Windshield Wiper Lab, which was part of the Air Conditioning Lab. There were two other mechanics, and it was small room. The room had benches and cabinets and dynamometers on each wall with very little space between for us. It was very cramped. One whole wall of the room was windows that separated us from a room with about thirty mechanics in it.
Dave M. and Terry H. were the names of the two mechanics I worked with. Dave had worked with Chrysler since 1941. Chrysler had never manufactured an electric motor before and it was our lab's job to design and develop one. My work there consisted of building experimental motors, and dynamometer testing them and others supplied from vendors.
The engineers I worked with were Emile N. and Paul V. Emile designed an armature winder and a magnet charger and I assembled it. It was quite a challenge because nothing like it existed on a small scale.
Terry and I became good friends and he helped me to learn the job. He was a heavy smoker and one day as he was running a test on the dynamometer I took the cigarette he had set in an ash tray and set it where he could not see it. The ash tray was behind him as he worked and he turned around and lit another, and set that one in the ash tray and then went back to his test. I sat that cigarette by the other I had hid, and when he turned around he lit another one and set it down! After the fourth cigarette I sat them all in the ash tray and when he turned and saw them all sitting there he looked surprised then laughed when he realized what had happened.
The Boat
Terry had a son named John and he was Tom's age. Sometimes the four of us would go camping and fishing at the Old Orchard campground by the Ausable River. Terry eventually bought an old house trailer and parked it at the same park and then we all stayed there.
The Montgomery Ward store at Hazel Park had an ad for a 12-ft aluminum boat for $152 dollars and Terry and I both decided to buy one. We bought them on the same day and I hauled his to his house then returned and brought mine home. Tom and I used it for fishing and when we went camping. The bought was bought in 1964 and I still have it in 2003. The boat is thirty-nine years old and is still in very good condition.
During the 1970s Tom and I would put the boat on top of our Duster, load his mini-bike, the outboard motor, our tent, and all of our camping supplies and take off for Canada or Upper Michigan.
Woodward Stories
I thought Woodward Avenue at Detroit was a spectacular street when I first went there during the 50s. The median was probably thirty feet wide with four, and in some places, six lanes on each side. The street with crowned with American Elms that arched over the road. During the 50s it was called "the strip" of course.
It seemed every time I drove Woodward in those days I would see an accident, or a smashed car sitting by the road. But the time we moved to Detroit in the early 60s it had calmed down a little Eventually, I-75 was build and I could use the expressway to get to work at Highland Park, but I continued to use Woodward. The traffic on I-75 could often come to the standstill if an underpass flooded or there was an accident. Woodward, while slower, was never closed.
Woodward by McNichols [Six Mile Road] in Detroit was a hangout for prostitutes and they would try to flag you down as you drove by. Sometimes they would stand in the middle of the road and try to stop you. one day as I was passing by one she lifted her blouse and flashed me. Of course she had no bra on.
One Saturday I stopped at a Howard Johnson restaurant on Woodward in Highland Park to get a coffee. As I was leaving a nice looking black girl asked me if that was my car out at the curb. I said no, I owned that black pickup truck. Then she made me an offer for ten dollars. I was so flustered, I said, "I have to go or I'll be late for work." She did not look like that kind.
There was a black porter at work and he rode the bus to work every day. The bus dropped him off at Woodward and McNichols and he would have to walk to work from there. So sometimes I would wait where the bus let him off and drive him to work with me. Well, one day I got there early and as I waited a gal started walking up to my truck. I knew what she wanted, and when she got near the truck I opened the window and blurted out, "I'm waiting for a guy!" Then I decided to leave and as I was going I saw a policeman coming around the corner. I think they were trying to catch a "john." My buddy had to walk to work that day!
After I got to work I remembered the look on the gal's face and realized what she thought I'd meant. She did not know I was waiting for someone on a bus!
The Windshield Wiper Lab
"I started work as a mechanic at the Windshield Wiper Lab, which was part of the Air Conditioning Lab. There were two other mechanics, and it was small room. The room had benches and cabinets and dynamometers on each wall with very little space between for us. It was very cramped. One whole wall of the room was windows that separated us from a room with about thirty mechanics in it.
Dave M. and Terry H. were the names of the two mechanics I worked with. Dave had worked with Chrysler since 1941. Chrysler had never manufactured an electric motor before and it was our lab's job to design and develop one. My work there consisted of building experimental motors, and dynamometer testing them and others supplied from vendors.
The engineers I worked with were Emile N. and Paul V. Emile designed an armature winder and a magnet charger and I assembled it. It was quite a challenge because nothing like it existed on a small scale.
Terry and I became good friends and he helped me to learn the job. He was a heavy smoker and one day as he was running a test on the dynamometer I took the cigarette he had set in an ash tray and set it where he could not see it. The ash tray was behind him as he worked and he turned around and lit another, and set that one in the ash tray and then went back to his test. I sat that cigarette by the other I had hid, and when he turned around he lit another one and set it down! After the fourth cigarette I sat them all in the ash tray and when he turned and saw them all sitting there he looked surprised then laughed when he realized what had happened.
The Boat
Terry had a son named John and he was Tom's age. Sometimes the four of us would go camping and fishing at the Old Orchard campground by the Ausable River. Terry eventually bought an old house trailer and parked it at the same park and then we all stayed there.
The Montgomery Ward store at Hazel Park had an ad for a 12-ft aluminum boat for $152 dollars and Terry and I both decided to buy one. We bought them on the same day and I hauled his to his house then returned and brought mine home. Tom and I used it for fishing and when we went camping. The bought was bought in 1964 and I still have it in 2003. The boat is thirty-nine years old and is still in very good condition.
During the 1970s Tom and I would put the boat on top of our Duster, load his mini-bike, the outboard motor, our tent, and all of our camping supplies and take off for Canada or Upper Michigan.
Woodward Stories
I thought Woodward Avenue at Detroit was a spectacular street when I first went there during the 50s. The median was probably thirty feet wide with four, and in some places, six lanes on each side. The street with crowned with American Elms that arched over the road. During the 50s it was called "the strip" of course.
It seemed every time I drove Woodward in those days I would see an accident, or a smashed car sitting by the road. But the time we moved to Detroit in the early 60s it had calmed down a little Eventually, I-75 was build and I could use the expressway to get to work at Highland Park, but I continued to use Woodward. The traffic on I-75 could often come to the standstill if an underpass flooded or there was an accident. Woodward, while slower, was never closed.
Woodward by McNichols [Six Mile Road] in Detroit was a hangout for prostitutes and they would try to flag you down as you drove by. Sometimes they would stand in the middle of the road and try to stop you. one day as I was passing by one she lifted her blouse and flashed me. Of course she had no bra on.
One Saturday I stopped at a Howard Johnson restaurant on Woodward in Highland Park to get a coffee. As I was leaving a nice looking black girl asked me if that was my car out at the curb. I said no, I owned that black pickup truck. Then she made me an offer for ten dollars. I was so flustered, I said, "I have to go or I'll be late for work." She did not look like that kind.
There was a black porter at work and he rode the bus to work every day. The bus dropped him off at Woodward and McNichols and he would have to walk to work from there. So sometimes I would wait where the bus let him off and drive him to work with me. Well, one day I got there early and as I waited a gal started walking up to my truck. I knew what she wanted, and when she got near the truck I opened the window and blurted out, "I'm waiting for a guy!" Then I decided to leave and as I was going I saw a policeman coming around the corner. I think they were trying to catch a "john." My buddy had to walk to work that day!
After I got to work I remembered the look on the gal's face and realized what she thought I'd meant. She did not know I was waiting for someone on a bus!
*****
Before we moved to Michigan my family would drive to see my grandparents. We would cross Ontario, Canada and take the Tunnel into Detroit. After the long hours and flat landscape of farms it was amazing to come out of the eerie, claustrophobic tunnel into a city of skyscrapers. I had been to Buffalo, but Detroit was bigger! It would be night by the time we arrived, and the streetlights and building lights and signs would fill the sky. I remember the tree lined avenue as we drove up Woodward to Royal Oak.
I also remember the engineer Dad worked with, Emile Najm. He and his wife had my folks over for dinner and served their traditional Lebanese foods. Later in life Emile lost his vision but Chrysler arranged for him to continue working. Dad often helped Emile, sometimes driving him to Lansing, MI.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: Working at Chrysler's Road Test Lab & Installing a HEMI for Petty
Dad's first job at Chrysler was in Road Testing. His initial pay was low and he took a temp job--working on race cars! No wonder he loved 'muscle cars' and was proud of the HEMI engine in his RAM-1500.
"On many days two mechanics would work together. One of the mechanics was named Herman Jacobs. Herman was old. he had worked for the Oakland Car Company when he was young. As old as he was, he was a very hard worker. He would work all day without taking lunch or other breaks, then leave about an hour before everyone else. Herman was the Police Chief for the town of Frazer, and when he left he went to work there. I don't know when he slept! Whenever we finished a job and took [the car] for a road test he always insisted on paying for the coffee because he said he had an expense account. Herman retired soon after. He had worked for the company for fifty-two years!
Another mechanic I worked with was John DiV***. Whenever we were on a job, John would work for a few minutes then say he would be back in a few minutes and leave. I would continue working. In a while he would come back and work a few minutes and leave again. This went on all day long and he spent more time gone than working. I later found out he was selling numbers, gambling tickets. I soon decided working with John was like working alone. Even though this always went on, I never heard a foreman complain.
Working at the Road Test Garage was an African American floor sweeper. His name was Sam. His job was to keep the floor clean of oil, grease, and water and other spills. Sam and I often talked and he was a fairly well educated man. He told me he had always sold the numbers because he knew he would never earn much money on the job because of his color. He said the money he made on the side had put his son through college and that he was a doctor.
No one ever approached me at work to sell me a number for gambling, and I never did buy one.
Ed Kasky was a very large Polish mechanic who worked in the Engine Buildup Room. He was pretty old when I started working at Road Test but was an expert at anything to do with engines. One day I was given a work-sheet and Ed and I were given the job of installing a Chrysler six cylinder engine into an American Motors car. This meant making special engine mounts, exhaust system, and other adaptations. It took a while but when it was completed it made a good submission. I don't know if Chrysler sold them the engine, but everyone liked it.
One day the foreman asked if any of us would be interested in assembling some race cars at a private conversion company as an after work job. The job paid ten dollars an hour, and about four of us said we would.
So every day for a week, after our day job, we would work at a shop in Birmingham until ten o'clock at night. When Saturday came we felt like zombies. We were all worn out. These cars had a big Hemi engine and plastic body parts. They were on a tight schedule, and Saturday they had to ship the cars to California, even though they were not completed. Richard Petty thanked us for the work we had done. After we left that Saturday we went to a bar and had a drink to celebrate the end of the job. I had to pay because the others had no money on them! The place where we had worked on the race cars normally converted large cars like Cadillac into hearses and ambulances.
At Road Test every day was a new experience. Sometimes we would spend all day auditing new cars as they came from the factory. If we found anything wrong we were to fix it. At other times we would go to a competitor's dealer and pick up one of their new cars, bring it back to the garage, and completely strip every part from it. The parts were measured, weighted, and cost evaluated, then displayed for anyone to check out. We were always picking up competitive vehicles for comparison and to find any new ideas or features they had.
Many of our own [Chrysler] cars were stripped of their parts and stored to be put back on later. Experimental parts were installed and tested, then later the original parts were reinstalled and the car was taken to a lot where it was sold as a used vehicle.
If we installed a new engine in a vehicle we had to drive it at least a hundred miles to break it in, so we would usually drive to Port Huron.
One day another mechanic and I were asked to go to where a retired executive's car had broken down, take him home, and wait for a dealer to come and pick up the car. When we got there the other mechanic took about fifty pounds of meat and groceries from his trunk and took the man home leaving me with the car until the tow truck came. When it came I went to the dealer and I waited until my buddy came, and then we went back to work. This guy had some pull even after he retired!
When I went to work for Chrysler I started at the lowest pay for a mechanic, and after a few months of work I thought I had proved my worth and went to my foreman and asked him to see if I could get a raise. His name was Pete and he and another foreman named Al Ferrari went to the department manager and tried to get me a raise, but he would not give a raise to anyone. but a few days later they told me of an opening at the Air Conditioning Lab.
I went there and talked with them and got transferred there. This put my pay to $113 a week. On top of that they were working overtime, so I was finally drawing a decent pay."
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| Gene Gochenour |
Another mechanic I worked with was John DiV***. Whenever we were on a job, John would work for a few minutes then say he would be back in a few minutes and leave. I would continue working. In a while he would come back and work a few minutes and leave again. This went on all day long and he spent more time gone than working. I later found out he was selling numbers, gambling tickets. I soon decided working with John was like working alone. Even though this always went on, I never heard a foreman complain.
Working at the Road Test Garage was an African American floor sweeper. His name was Sam. His job was to keep the floor clean of oil, grease, and water and other spills. Sam and I often talked and he was a fairly well educated man. He told me he had always sold the numbers because he knew he would never earn much money on the job because of his color. He said the money he made on the side had put his son through college and that he was a doctor.
No one ever approached me at work to sell me a number for gambling, and I never did buy one.
Ed Kasky was a very large Polish mechanic who worked in the Engine Buildup Room. He was pretty old when I started working at Road Test but was an expert at anything to do with engines. One day I was given a work-sheet and Ed and I were given the job of installing a Chrysler six cylinder engine into an American Motors car. This meant making special engine mounts, exhaust system, and other adaptations. It took a while but when it was completed it made a good submission. I don't know if Chrysler sold them the engine, but everyone liked it.
One day the foreman asked if any of us would be interested in assembling some race cars at a private conversion company as an after work job. The job paid ten dollars an hour, and about four of us said we would.
So every day for a week, after our day job, we would work at a shop in Birmingham until ten o'clock at night. When Saturday came we felt like zombies. We were all worn out. These cars had a big Hemi engine and plastic body parts. They were on a tight schedule, and Saturday they had to ship the cars to California, even though they were not completed. Richard Petty thanked us for the work we had done. After we left that Saturday we went to a bar and had a drink to celebrate the end of the job. I had to pay because the others had no money on them! The place where we had worked on the race cars normally converted large cars like Cadillac into hearses and ambulances.
At Road Test every day was a new experience. Sometimes we would spend all day auditing new cars as they came from the factory. If we found anything wrong we were to fix it. At other times we would go to a competitor's dealer and pick up one of their new cars, bring it back to the garage, and completely strip every part from it. The parts were measured, weighted, and cost evaluated, then displayed for anyone to check out. We were always picking up competitive vehicles for comparison and to find any new ideas or features they had.
Many of our own [Chrysler] cars were stripped of their parts and stored to be put back on later. Experimental parts were installed and tested, then later the original parts were reinstalled and the car was taken to a lot where it was sold as a used vehicle.
If we installed a new engine in a vehicle we had to drive it at least a hundred miles to break it in, so we would usually drive to Port Huron.
One day another mechanic and I were asked to go to where a retired executive's car had broken down, take him home, and wait for a dealer to come and pick up the car. When we got there the other mechanic took about fifty pounds of meat and groceries from his trunk and took the man home leaving me with the car until the tow truck came. When it came I went to the dealer and I waited until my buddy came, and then we went back to work. This guy had some pull even after he retired!
When I went to work for Chrysler I started at the lowest pay for a mechanic, and after a few months of work I thought I had proved my worth and went to my foreman and asked him to see if I could get a raise. His name was Pete and he and another foreman named Al Ferrari went to the department manager and tried to get me a raise, but he would not give a raise to anyone. but a few days later they told me of an opening at the Air Conditioning Lab.
I went there and talked with them and got transferred there. This put my pay to $113 a week. On top of that they were working overtime, so I was finally drawing a decent pay."
*****
Herman Jacobs was indeed a Frazer, MI chief of police. In the 1950s he was asked to patrol the village after his days working at Chrysler. Later he was promoted to Constable and then Chief of Police overseeing six officers and two patrol vehicles.
*****
Richard Petty's Plymouth with a Hemi engine won the 1964 Daytona 500. Sadly, the Hemi engine was boycotted by NASCAR and in 1965 his Barracuda with a HEMI crashed and killed a child, leading to a lawsuit against Petty and Chrysler. Read about the HEMI and Petty at
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: 1963: Test Driving Chrysler Cars
Dad's memoir recalls his early days working at Chrysler in Highland Park. Here he talks about test driving new and modified cars, including the protoype Barracuda with a V-8 engine.
My sister Alice and her husband Ken came to visit us during the summer and while they were there we got to talking about an interview I just had at Chrysler. I had previously been hired, but that job fell through because one of their existing workers was transferred to that lab. This time I was quite discouraged, though, because while they said they would hire me the starting salary was only $98 a week. But Joyce and Alice and Ken talked me into going back and accepting the job
So once again I told Harvel that I was quitting and went to work for Chrysler at their Road Test Garage. They pay was so small I would not even look at it. To make more money I got a part time job at a nearby Shell station as a mechanic where I worked evenings and Saturdays.
Road Test Garage* was in a very old building that was originally used by the Oakland Car Company at the beginning of the [20th] century. I enjoyed working there because all the cars were new, and before we worked on the, they had to be washed, and then road tested after we worked on them. No more rusty cars! When we took them for a road test would usually stop for a coffee break and on paydays we were allowed to take a care to cash our checks at the bank.
There were about seventy-five mechanics that worked at the garage, and there were two shifts. i worked the day shift. Some of the mechanics worked on boats at a marina on the Saint Clair River at Algonac, some worked at the proving ground at Chelsea, and many worked at Highland Park where I worked. Probably the total number of mechanics at that time was about 500.
The work was interesting because I never knew what I would be working on from one day to another. One day I had a job on a Chrysler turbine car and when I finished I got to road test it. Chrysler had made 250 of them as test vehicles. Before I took it out on the road I was told to turn it off if the temperature exceeded 1500 degrees. It was a strange car to drive and it got a lot of attention.
To me, the traffic at Detroit was quite intimidating. I had not worked there very long when they gave me a brand new car that had just came from the factory, and a map of the city of Detroit, and told me to drive the 22 mile course marked on it. The object of the drive was to put 50,000 miles on the vehicle as fast as they could. I drove the car all day in the city, then another driver would drive to Chelsea, drive it on the high speed track, then back to the garage so I could drive it the next day.
The first day I took the vehicle I had white knuckles from watching the cabs, buses, and other vehicles, and watching for the streets marked on the map. But after a few days it got to be old stuff, and I became at ease driving [in Detroit].
There were five other drivers with different model cars driving the same course, and most of them knew the city very well. Sometimes we would play follow the leader, and the leader would drive through back alleys and trucking lots, trying to lose us. Sometimes he would and we would find each other going in different directions, or coming from cross streets from which we could not follow. When we became too dispersed we would give up and go back on course.
Second Street was a rough area and prostitutes walked the streets and some of them would even call from the windows of their houses as you passed by. Some of the drivers would stop to talk with them and as the gal was to get into the car, drive off. They thought that was fun.
Every day we would go to Palmer Park where we would eat our lunch at a picnic table, feed the ducks, and take a walk.
One payday I decided to cash my check at a bank on Grand River Street. All our cars had a device in the trunk that wrote on a paper disc to show that the car was in motion, so I hoped to just pop into the bank, cash my check, and get back on the route.
Well the line I was in had a lady in front of me, and in front of her was a man talking to the cashier. The man left, then the cashier left, and a man came from the rear of the ban and asked us to move to another line. In a few minutes a policeman came in and then I found out that the bank had been robbed by the man in the line ahead of us. The detective asked if I had seen anything, and I never saw a thing. I wanted to get back to the car because I was worried that the disc record would show I was not driving, and I was hoping the car had not been stolen. I turned the record in at the end of the day and nothing was said the following day, so I had gotten away with it.
It was summer and one of the cars I was given was a convertible and I put the top down and it was great! Each day we were given instructions to run the air conditioner, or the wipers, in an attempt to simulate real life use. If anything went wrong with the vechicle we were to report and repair it. This went on for a month, then we went back to work at Road Test. After a month of driving city traffic I was no longer intimidated.
One day I was given a work order and it said to install a special instrumented and modified automatic transmission into a new car that I was provided with. I was to remove the right front bucket seat, the floor mat, and cut a large hole in the floor board so that the transmission could be looked at. The transmission had a window of Plexiglas at the torque tube so its inside could be viewed. When I was done with the job two engineers and I took the car for a test drive. While I was driving each engineer would get on his knees and look at the window in the transmission. They were trying to find out when and how much oil was going to the real seal. After each of them looked we changed places and I looked. That job went pretty well.
Another job I was provided with a new Barracuda and asked to install a V-8 engine in it. It was the first V-8 engine ever put in that model car. When I was done with the job a different pair of engineers and I took the car on the road to test drive it.
We drove it down Second Avenue in Detroit. It was running along just fine until the driver kicked it into passing gear. When he did this, the car jumped, kicked, and shuddered. We stopped the car, opened the hood, and looked inside. The wiring harness was all burned up. What they had not thought of was that when the accelerator was depressed all the way, the rod in the engine compartment contacted the starter relay, which burned out the wiring harness.
Luckily we could still drive the car back to the garage where I repaired it.
* According to Marc Rozman the Road Test garage "was the first concrete poured-wall building in Michigan a high tech building" with forms in concrete walls.
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| Dad and Mom around 1969. Yes, I had an Avocado green piano! |
So once again I told Harvel that I was quitting and went to work for Chrysler at their Road Test Garage. They pay was so small I would not even look at it. To make more money I got a part time job at a nearby Shell station as a mechanic where I worked evenings and Saturdays.Road Test Garage* was in a very old building that was originally used by the Oakland Car Company at the beginning of the [20th] century. I enjoyed working there because all the cars were new, and before we worked on the, they had to be washed, and then road tested after we worked on them. No more rusty cars! When we took them for a road test would usually stop for a coffee break and on paydays we were allowed to take a care to cash our checks at the bank.
There were about seventy-five mechanics that worked at the garage, and there were two shifts. i worked the day shift. Some of the mechanics worked on boats at a marina on the Saint Clair River at Algonac, some worked at the proving ground at Chelsea, and many worked at Highland Park where I worked. Probably the total number of mechanics at that time was about 500.
The work was interesting because I never knew what I would be working on from one day to another. One day I had a job on a Chrysler turbine car and when I finished I got to road test it. Chrysler had made 250 of them as test vehicles. Before I took it out on the road I was told to turn it off if the temperature exceeded 1500 degrees. It was a strange car to drive and it got a lot of attention.
To me, the traffic at Detroit was quite intimidating. I had not worked there very long when they gave me a brand new car that had just came from the factory, and a map of the city of Detroit, and told me to drive the 22 mile course marked on it. The object of the drive was to put 50,000 miles on the vehicle as fast as they could. I drove the car all day in the city, then another driver would drive to Chelsea, drive it on the high speed track, then back to the garage so I could drive it the next day.
The first day I took the vehicle I had white knuckles from watching the cabs, buses, and other vehicles, and watching for the streets marked on the map. But after a few days it got to be old stuff, and I became at ease driving [in Detroit].
There were five other drivers with different model cars driving the same course, and most of them knew the city very well. Sometimes we would play follow the leader, and the leader would drive through back alleys and trucking lots, trying to lose us. Sometimes he would and we would find each other going in different directions, or coming from cross streets from which we could not follow. When we became too dispersed we would give up and go back on course.
Second Street was a rough area and prostitutes walked the streets and some of them would even call from the windows of their houses as you passed by. Some of the drivers would stop to talk with them and as the gal was to get into the car, drive off. They thought that was fun.
Every day we would go to Palmer Park where we would eat our lunch at a picnic table, feed the ducks, and take a walk.
 |
| Vintage postcard of Palmer Park in Detroit, MI |
Well the line I was in had a lady in front of me, and in front of her was a man talking to the cashier. The man left, then the cashier left, and a man came from the rear of the ban and asked us to move to another line. In a few minutes a policeman came in and then I found out that the bank had been robbed by the man in the line ahead of us. The detective asked if I had seen anything, and I never saw a thing. I wanted to get back to the car because I was worried that the disc record would show I was not driving, and I was hoping the car had not been stolen. I turned the record in at the end of the day and nothing was said the following day, so I had gotten away with it.
It was summer and one of the cars I was given was a convertible and I put the top down and it was great! Each day we were given instructions to run the air conditioner, or the wipers, in an attempt to simulate real life use. If anything went wrong with the vechicle we were to report and repair it. This went on for a month, then we went back to work at Road Test. After a month of driving city traffic I was no longer intimidated.
One day I was given a work order and it said to install a special instrumented and modified automatic transmission into a new car that I was provided with. I was to remove the right front bucket seat, the floor mat, and cut a large hole in the floor board so that the transmission could be looked at. The transmission had a window of Plexiglas at the torque tube so its inside could be viewed. When I was done with the job two engineers and I took the car for a test drive. While I was driving each engineer would get on his knees and look at the window in the transmission. They were trying to find out when and how much oil was going to the real seal. After each of them looked we changed places and I looked. That job went pretty well.
Another job I was provided with a new Barracuda and asked to install a V-8 engine in it. It was the first V-8 engine ever put in that model car. When I was done with the job a different pair of engineers and I took the car on the road to test drive it.We drove it down Second Avenue in Detroit. It was running along just fine until the driver kicked it into passing gear. When he did this, the car jumped, kicked, and shuddered. We stopped the car, opened the hood, and looked inside. The wiring harness was all burned up. What they had not thought of was that when the accelerator was depressed all the way, the rod in the engine compartment contacted the starter relay, which burned out the wiring harness.
Luckily we could still drive the car back to the garage where I repaired it.
* According to Marc Rozman the Road Test garage "was the first concrete poured-wall building in Michigan a high tech building" with forms in concrete walls.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: Life Goes On: Moving to Royal Oak
Dad continued his memoirs to include his new life in Royal Oak, MI. It is a story of the American Dream of the 1960s, a time when we believed that hard work and short-term sacrifice would lead to financial security.
My Ramer grandparents and Mom's brother and sister were already living in Metro Detroit. Mom wanted to be near her family; Dad dreamt of a job in the auto industry. Dad was 34 years old and without retirement, life insurance, or health care. Working for the auto industry meant benefits, especially health insurance for Mom's psoriatic arthritis that was destroying her joints.
Here is Dad's story.
Life goes on.
During the early 50s Joyce's family moved to Detroit where her father went to work for General Motors. Her sister Nancy was married and her husband Joe moved there also. Joyce's brothers Don and Dave were still living at home so they went, too. Her only relative living in the area was her grandmother, Delia Greenwood, who lived on Englewood Avenue in Kenmore.
We made a few short trips to Detroit, but I really did not like big cities. Occasionally, Joyce and Nancy would take a train to Detroit to visit Joyce's parents. Joyce had a serious skin disease called psoriasis and while she was there she would go to the Henry Ford Hospital in hope of finding a cure.
In 1959 our son Tom was born, so now there was Joyce, Nancy, Tom, my mother and I living together. Running the garage was a hard life, and I thought I had better make a change before I grew too old. I knew the mental and physical stress was wearing me down. Even with all the hard work and time spent at the station all we ever did was barely make a living. So, Joyce, Mother, and I started talking about selling the hose and business. We talked about buying a motel in the Adirondacks, or my going to work at a factory, or working as a mechanic at a car dealership, but I really didn't like any of those options. I knew I did not want to go into another business.
Joyce wanted to be near her family and since my mother was living with us we decided we would move to Detroit where I would get a job with one of the major car companies. I hoped to get work at General Motors where my father-in-law and brother-in-law Don worked.
We put the property on the market but real estate sales were slow and we did not get any offers. When it was found out we were selling the business we lost some customers because they decided to find another place to service their cars. it took many months before we got the first offer and it was much lower than the price we were asking, but we decided to take it. The man who bought the house and business was named Harper and he used the station to run his gutter business.
Mother continued living in the same part of the house after my father died. Joyce and Nancy and I lived in the same upstairs apartment but we all agreed it would be better for Mom to have company and we moved to her apartment. At the time we sold the business Mom had lived with us for six years, and Joyce and Nancy and Tom loved her dearly, so we planned to all move to Detroit together. After the offer on the station was accepted I had to sell and give away many things to get ready for the move.
it was decided with Joyce's family in Detroit that we would move our things in and live with them until we got our own home.
I made several trips to Detroit, hauling my boat and other things, but our furniture and appliances were hauled there by a moving company we hired. I remember the day they loaded the van. All our furniture and possessions only filled about a quarter of it. It cost four hundred and fifty dollars for the mover.
When we finally moved in with Joyce's parents, their basement, attic, and garage was packed full. They were probably surprised by how much we had brought. It was a pretty big house, but we sure did fill it up!
My mother did not come with us when we moved in with Joyce's family. We planned to bring her when we bought our own home. In the meantime she lived with my sister Alice and her family in Tonawanda.
One day I went to General Motors employment office and had an interview for a job, then went back to Joyce's family's house, expecting to get a call saying I was hired, but it didn't happen. After about a week or so I decided I should look elsewhere for a job.Then my brother-in-law Don Ramer told me of a shop that needed a mechanic. Louis Scott worked with Don at the General Motors Tech Center and his father Paul owned Scott's Garage which was located on Hudson Street in Royal Oak. So I went there, talked with Paul, and was hired.
The building looked like a garage from the thirties. It was deep and dimly lit. I remember that we had a radio there and I was listening to it on the day John Kennedy was assassinated. I was the only mechanic, and Paul did not have many customers. I knew only Joyce's family in Michigan and since it was not very busy, I had lots of time to think. One day I was sort of depressed and thought to myself, "What am I doing here, away from all my relatives and friends?" Back home I had dozens of relatives, many friends, and hundreds of customers. Here I knew almost no one.
But the feeling soon passed and when I would meet new people I would think, "that person reminds me of someone I knew back home." It was like a game, and many of the people I met did remind me of customers or friends form the past.
Paul did not always have a full weeks work for me, so I decided that I had better look for another job. One day Joyce saw an ad in the newspaper for a job as a mechanic at a Shell station that was located at Lincoln and Main Streets in Royal Oak. I went there and was interviewed by the manager whose nae was Bob Cupp. Bob was a fine and likable person and he told the owner about me, and I was hired.
I had worked for Paul for about a month when I told him that I had to have a full weeks work to live on and would have to quit. There were no bad feelings, because Paul understood.
I started at the Shell station at a weekly pay of 60% of the labor on the jobs I did with a guarantee of $126 a week. Harvel Akins was the name of the owner, and he was a fine person, and a good and honest boss. Harvel had served in the US Navy and the station was always spic and span.
He and all the station attendants were from Kentucky or Tennessee. They all had a Southern accent and the station attendants told many redneck and hillbilly jokes. This is one of the jokes they told:
She sure solved that problem!
I was the only mechanic and repaired any problem on any vehicle that came into the station. I overhauled engines, did wheel alignments, brake work, exhaust systems, tune ups, etc., on all makes and models. Even though I had power tools it was hard physical labor.
I had told Harvel when I started that I felt I had to go to work for a major car company because at 34 years old I needed to find a job with a good retirement plan.
All during this time Joyce and I were talking to real estate agents trying to find a house we liked and could afford.
Since I had never heard from General Motors about a job I decided to try Chrysler. One morning I went to Highland Park to their employment office and was interviewed for a mechanic job. They gave me many tests and when they finished they told me the would hire me for $113 a week. I accepted the offer that Monday and they told me to start on the following Monday. So, I went back and told Harvel that I had the job and had to quit. I told him I was sorry for the short notice.
But then on Wednesday, Chrysler called me and told me they could not hire me because one of their union members wanted the job. So, I told Harvel that the job had fallen through and he was happy and gave me a raise. But I told that sooner or later I would have to leave.
After checking out many houses we finally found one we thought liked and could afford. It was on Houstonia Street in Royal Oak. So we moved all out things from Joyce's parents' house after we cleaned and painted the inside of our new home.
Since my mother was to live with us we wanted a house that could accommodate us all. The house we chose had two bedrooms downstairs and two upstairs. It had a two-and-a-half car garage and a large backyard. We paid $12,000 for it and put $3,000 down.
Then we called Mother to tell her about the house and I drove to Tonawanda to bring her and her belongings back to our new home to live with us. Joyce and the kids were very happy to see her. Moving out of Joyce's family's house must have been a happy day for them! While Mother lived with us she was very homesick.
This photo shows Nancy, Tom and Mother. It was taken at the dining room of our house on Houstonia Street in Royal Oak, Michigan. Not long after, Mother went back to Tonawanda, New York, to live with my sister Alice. This broke Joyce's heart, because Mom had lived with us for six years and she and Joyce were very close. She was closer to my mother than to her own.
Houstonia was a very nice street to live on, and we soon got to know most of the neighbors. At the house west of us lived John and Jerry Voight. At the home east of ours lived Mr and Mrs. Reynolds, an older retired couple. Next to them lived Laura and Irv Beaupied and their six children. Then came Jean and Gordon McNab with their two boys. On the corner of Houstonia and Main Streets lived Ruth and Bud Brehm and their two children. Across the street from them on Houstonia lived Edna and Art Lentner and their two children. So, because of the children, we all got to know each other.
After we moved in we put in new cupboards, kitchen counter tops, a new oven, and remodeled the kitchen. I painted the outside, put shutters on the windows, and a wrought iron railing on the front steps. We also put in an above ground pool in the backyard.
I worked five and a half days at the Shell station, on the house during the evening, and repaired cars in my garage on the weekends. That did not leave much time for play.
Here are photographs of our first Christmas in our new home. Mom painted the walls light turquoise, still a trendy color in 1963.
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| Dad a few years after we moved |
Here is Dad's story.
Life goes on.
During the early 50s Joyce's family moved to Detroit where her father went to work for General Motors. Her sister Nancy was married and her husband Joe moved there also. Joyce's brothers Don and Dave were still living at home so they went, too. Her only relative living in the area was her grandmother, Delia Greenwood, who lived on Englewood Avenue in Kenmore.
We made a few short trips to Detroit, but I really did not like big cities. Occasionally, Joyce and Nancy would take a train to Detroit to visit Joyce's parents. Joyce had a serious skin disease called psoriasis and while she was there she would go to the Henry Ford Hospital in hope of finding a cure.
In 1959 our son Tom was born, so now there was Joyce, Nancy, Tom, my mother and I living together. Running the garage was a hard life, and I thought I had better make a change before I grew too old. I knew the mental and physical stress was wearing me down. Even with all the hard work and time spent at the station all we ever did was barely make a living. So, Joyce, Mother, and I started talking about selling the hose and business. We talked about buying a motel in the Adirondacks, or my going to work at a factory, or working as a mechanic at a car dealership, but I really didn't like any of those options. I knew I did not want to go into another business.
Joyce wanted to be near her family and since my mother was living with us we decided we would move to Detroit where I would get a job with one of the major car companies. I hoped to get work at General Motors where my father-in-law and brother-in-law Don worked.
We put the property on the market but real estate sales were slow and we did not get any offers. When it was found out we were selling the business we lost some customers because they decided to find another place to service their cars. it took many months before we got the first offer and it was much lower than the price we were asking, but we decided to take it. The man who bought the house and business was named Harper and he used the station to run his gutter business.
Mother continued living in the same part of the house after my father died. Joyce and Nancy and I lived in the same upstairs apartment but we all agreed it would be better for Mom to have company and we moved to her apartment. At the time we sold the business Mom had lived with us for six years, and Joyce and Nancy and Tom loved her dearly, so we planned to all move to Detroit together. After the offer on the station was accepted I had to sell and give away many things to get ready for the move.
it was decided with Joyce's family in Detroit that we would move our things in and live with them until we got our own home.
 |
| My Grandparent Ramer's home on Gardenia in Royal Oak |
When we finally moved in with Joyce's parents, their basement, attic, and garage was packed full. They were probably surprised by how much we had brought. It was a pretty big house, but we sure did fill it up!
 |
| Grandpa and Grandma Ramer with a relative in back of their home on Gardenia, RO. While we lived with them I slept in the second story screened porch off the master bedroom. |
One day I went to General Motors employment office and had an interview for a job, then went back to Joyce's family's house, expecting to get a call saying I was hired, but it didn't happen. After about a week or so I decided I should look elsewhere for a job.Then my brother-in-law Don Ramer told me of a shop that needed a mechanic. Louis Scott worked with Don at the General Motors Tech Center and his father Paul owned Scott's Garage which was located on Hudson Street in Royal Oak. So I went there, talked with Paul, and was hired.
The building looked like a garage from the thirties. It was deep and dimly lit. I remember that we had a radio there and I was listening to it on the day John Kennedy was assassinated. I was the only mechanic, and Paul did not have many customers. I knew only Joyce's family in Michigan and since it was not very busy, I had lots of time to think. One day I was sort of depressed and thought to myself, "What am I doing here, away from all my relatives and friends?" Back home I had dozens of relatives, many friends, and hundreds of customers. Here I knew almost no one.
But the feeling soon passed and when I would meet new people I would think, "that person reminds me of someone I knew back home." It was like a game, and many of the people I met did remind me of customers or friends form the past.
Paul did not always have a full weeks work for me, so I decided that I had better look for another job. One day Joyce saw an ad in the newspaper for a job as a mechanic at a Shell station that was located at Lincoln and Main Streets in Royal Oak. I went there and was interviewed by the manager whose nae was Bob Cupp. Bob was a fine and likable person and he told the owner about me, and I was hired.
I had worked for Paul for about a month when I told him that I had to have a full weeks work to live on and would have to quit. There were no bad feelings, because Paul understood.
I started at the Shell station at a weekly pay of 60% of the labor on the jobs I did with a guarantee of $126 a week. Harvel Akins was the name of the owner, and he was a fine person, and a good and honest boss. Harvel had served in the US Navy and the station was always spic and span.
He and all the station attendants were from Kentucky or Tennessee. They all had a Southern accent and the station attendants told many redneck and hillbilly jokes. This is one of the jokes they told:
Mother had a cat and every day when she walked into the bedroom she would see the cat sleeping on the bed next to a pile of cat poop. She told a friend about her problem and the friend said she knew how to cure the cat. She said the next time that happened to grab the cat by the neck, push its head into the poop, and throw it out the window. Well, the next day when she went into the bedroom the cat was again sleeping next to a fresh pile, so she grabbed it by the neck, stuck its head into the pile, and threw it out the window. Then on the following day when she went into the bedroom, the cat saw her, stuck its head into the poop, and jumped out the window.
She sure solved that problem!
I was the only mechanic and repaired any problem on any vehicle that came into the station. I overhauled engines, did wheel alignments, brake work, exhaust systems, tune ups, etc., on all makes and models. Even though I had power tools it was hard physical labor.
I had told Harvel when I started that I felt I had to go to work for a major car company because at 34 years old I needed to find a job with a good retirement plan.
All during this time Joyce and I were talking to real estate agents trying to find a house we liked and could afford.
Since I had never heard from General Motors about a job I decided to try Chrysler. One morning I went to Highland Park to their employment office and was interviewed for a mechanic job. They gave me many tests and when they finished they told me the would hire me for $113 a week. I accepted the offer that Monday and they told me to start on the following Monday. So, I went back and told Harvel that I had the job and had to quit. I told him I was sorry for the short notice.
But then on Wednesday, Chrysler called me and told me they could not hire me because one of their union members wanted the job. So, I told Harvel that the job had fallen through and he was happy and gave me a raise. But I told that sooner or later I would have to leave.
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| Photo of 211 W Houstonia from realtor |
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| Houstonia house, 1963 |
Then we called Mother to tell her about the house and I drove to Tonawanda to bring her and her belongings back to our new home to live with us. Joyce and the kids were very happy to see her. Moving out of Joyce's family's house must have been a happy day for them! While Mother lived with us she was very homesick.
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| Me, Tom, and Grandma Gochenour. Christmas 1963, Houstonia, You can just see part of the remodeled kitchen on the right side. |
Houstonia was a very nice street to live on, and we soon got to know most of the neighbors. At the house west of us lived John and Jerry Voight. At the home east of ours lived Mr and Mrs. Reynolds, an older retired couple. Next to them lived Laura and Irv Beaupied and their six children. Then came Jean and Gordon McNab with their two boys. On the corner of Houstonia and Main Streets lived Ruth and Bud Brehm and their two children. Across the street from them on Houstonia lived Edna and Art Lentner and their two children. So, because of the children, we all got to know each other.
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| Dad painting the Houstonia house |
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| Grandma Gochenour in the kitchen during remodeling |
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| Here I am in the kitchen Dad was remodeling. It had light orange painted walls and the Formica countertops included an orange boomerang motif. |
Here are photographs of our first Christmas in our new home. Mom painted the walls light turquoise, still a trendy color in 1963.
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| Dad trying on a new robe while Tom checks out what Santa left him |
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| Dad, me on the couch |
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Eugene Gochenour's Memoirs: Alger Gochenour
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| Alger Jordan Gochenour |
The Gochenour family were Swiss Brethren who came to America for religious freedom. They first arrived in Philadelphia and went west to Lancaster. So many Germans were coming to Pennsylvania there was less land available and it was becoming expensive. Some like my ancestor followed the Susquehanna River south into Virginia.
Our ancestor Jacob Gochenour was in the second wave of Swiss Brethren in the Shenandoah Valley, and married Elizabeth Rhodes, daughter of one of the first settler families. I wrote about the massacre of the Rev. John Rhodes family here.
The first Gochenours were German speaking Anabapists, separatists and pacifists who did not fight in the Revolution. They did give horses to the cause, and started the first church and school in the area.
Many of the Brethern were converted by a popular Baptist preacher. My ancestor married a Baptist and joined that church.
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| Samuel Gochenour, 1926-1901 |
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| Susannah Hammon Gochenour |
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| Henry David Gochenour, Mary Ellen Stultz Gochenour and family |
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| Henry David and Mary Ellen Stultz Gochenour, Clarence and Alice Gochenonur |
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| The Shenandoah River near Woodstock |
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| The Gochenour family homestead in Woodstock, VA where Al Gochenour was born |
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| Al Gochenour, Sherdian Park Volunteer Fireman Chief |
"Father Alger Jordan Gochenour was born on March 25th, 1904, on a farm at the community of Fairview, Virginia, located in the Shenandoah Valley.
"The first Gochenours came to America in 1735, years before we were a nation. Jacob Gochenour and his family were Mennonites, and came to America to avoid religious persecution. He acquired 400 acres in 1735 in the valley.
"I never met my grandparents, as they had died before I was born. Henry David Gochenour, Dad’s father was born on December 5th, 1861 and died on May 28th, 1924. Dad’s mother’s maiden name was Mary Stultz. She was born on June 4th, 1864, and died on April 23rd, 1927. Her nickname was Mollie.
"Dad’s father had operated a tanyard, which had been operated by his father. Most of my father’s decedents of his lineage are buried at the Mount Zion Lutheran Church cemetery, located near the farm.
"Father never told me why he ran away from his home as a youth, but I was told that he only had an eighth grade education. He and a friend ran away together and their travels took them to New York City. They earned money by cleaning and polishing office furniture far business people.
"Dad was a good salesman, and he and his friend had unique skills. Dad, dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase, would go into an office building and ask the receptionist if he could talk to the person responsible for cleaning the office furniture. Since no one had ever done this service for them before, he would often be taken to talk to the owner or manager of the office. Dad knew that their office was the showplace where business people met with their clients, and that their office furniture and desks were very expensive. Many of their chairs were upholstered with leather, and the desks were made from cherry wood.
"After he introduced himself, he gave them a demonstration on one of the office chairs. To show that the cleaner would not harm the finish, he drank some of it. This impressed the customer, but it was harmless, since it was only water with baking soda. I don’t know where Dad learned about the cleaner, but it did a great job. After he cleaned the chair, he took a clean white cloth and wiped it dry, and showed all the dirt he had removed. Then he applied the polish, and when he buffed it, it looked like new. He explained that he was aware how important the clothes business people wore were, and that the polish he used would not soil them. Dad told them he would work in the evening after they had left for the day, and would not expect to be paid until the job was finished.
"Dad and his friend had many jobs at New York City, but eventually he went to Tonawanda, leaving them behind. I don’t know why father left New York City, or how he came to live at Tonawanda, but once there he became an insurance salesman. In those days insurance salesman went from door to door to collect the money for the policies, and that is how I suspect he met Mother. "
In my genealogy research, I learned that my grandfather Al Gochenour was 15 years old and living at home in 1920; his father died in 1924; in 1926 he appears in a Buffalo city directory working as a salesman for F. Becker Roofing. I do not have an F. Becker in my family tree so I do not know if he is a relation to my grandmother.
In 1927 at age 23 when Al married Emma Gochenour he was an insurance collector. He was on top of the world with a family, new house, new car, and I was told even had a maid.
Dad said that when his father's customers could not pay their insurance premiums he would cover the cost for them. As the Depression wore on his clients were unable to keep up with the premiums. Al could not pay the taxes on his house, and was arrears for several years when he lost it to the bank and moved to an apartment in the Military Road house.
I have shared about Al's building a garage, volunteer fireman experience, and leader as a boy scout in previous posts.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Eugene Gochenour Memoirs: The Becker Family of Tonawanda
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| Martha Keen [Kelm] Becker and John August Becker |
Waves of migrations of Germans to Russia occurred over hundreds of years. Germans were first invited to Russia by Catherine the Great who wanted their farming skills to develop new agricultural centers. With the freeing of the serfs, a labor market opened up and more Germans arrived in Russia. With the war between France and Germany decimating areas of Germany, some refugees went to England and America, but others went East into Prussia or Poland. When conflicts arose there, they escaped into Vohlynia.
The Germans who settled in Russia remained German nationalists. They did not have to serve in the Russian army. The early settlers were lured by advertising of free land. They arrived in Russia with basic instruments and had to start from scratch to build a house and prepare the land for farming. Over time they created prosperous farms. Tides of Germans from Poland, Prussia, and Germany came to Russia, including to Volhynia where the Beckers settled.
Martha Keen Becker, my great-grandmother, was from the Kelm family in Volhynia. The Kelms were part of a movement of German Baptists who left Poland to establish some of the earliest Baptist churches in Russia. Her ancestor was one of the first settlers in Paris, Bessarabia. Read about the German Baptist movement at http://www.volhynia.org/articles/germanbaptistmovement.pdf
As tensions between Germany and Russia increased, leading up to WWI, the Germans living in Russia were persecuted with confiscation of lands, arrests, and deportation. They could no longer buy land and were made to serve in the Czar's army. Many Germans were deported to Siberia. Others left Russia before it was too late, including my Grandmother Emma Becker Gochenour and my husband's grandfather Gustaff Bekofske.
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| John Becker |
"Documents, written in Russian, show John was born in 1876, was taken into the Russian army during 1898, and married during 1903. [Ed. Note: I found a birth record showing John August Bacher born to August Bacher and Margaretha Bodner on October 29, 1876 in Andrejew, Volhynia, Russia. His parent were married in 1899. I also found a birth record for his sisters Pauline Baecker born November 3, 1870 in Zhitomir, Russia and Rosalie born December 12, 1873 in Andrejew, Volhynia, Russia.]
"May 21, 1910 he arrived in New York City on the George Washington out of Bremen. [The passenger list shows a Johann Becker, saddler, a German from Torchin, Russia with $22 to his name, who last lived with his wife Marta; his destination was Tonawanda, NY, where he had a friend, Julianna Tolz, residing at 121 Clinton St.]
"When John Becker was established at Tonawanda he purchased steamship tickets and sent them to Grandmother so the rest of the family could join him. The tickets were bought May 15, 1911 #46969, from the North German Lloyd Steamship Co for the SS George Washington from Bremen to New York, for the cost of $178.50 plus $4.50 per boarder, a total of $183.
"Grandfather had deserted the Czar’s army and lived the rest of his life in fear that he would someday be forced to return to Russia." [I recall hearing that when letters came to John from Russia he was afraid to open them, but family members were concerned they contained family news.]
Dad later had his grandfather's passport translated:
Perpetual Passport issued by Chernyakovski Local Elder Council of Zhitomir District of Voyhn County, March 15, 1910 to peasant Iogang August Becker, D.O.B. January 29, 1876, Lutheran, residence Kolkhoz Sofievka, Goroshkoc Area, Zhitomir Dist.
Military Service: Private of Ulyanov reserve of Warsaw Regiment.
Height: above average; hair: light brown
Wife: Marta August, 26 yo
Children: Arthur 7 yo, Reuben 4 yo, Alina 6 years [must be Emma]
Military Service Discharge Card Iogang August Becker
184 private of Warsaw regiment discharged per order of demobilization #43m. of Okhotsk Regiment, transferred to the reserve in 1905 until January 1, 1916. Admitted into service by Zhitomir military summons and recorded in the military list #84 on October 27, 1897, starting date of service January 1, 1889. No participation in military campaigns, no awards. Trained in Formal Drill. Age January 27, 1826, single, Lutheran, dismissed honorable, Volynsk region, Zhitomire Dist, Chernyavki area, village Kolkhoz, Pekarshina.
"Grandfather was a carpenter. He built the house his family lived in, and many more. When my parents were first married they bought a house he had built, across the street from him.
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| John Becker's Certificate of Naturalization |
"Grandfather died December 17th, 1951. He was 75 years old.
"Grandmother Becker's maiden name was Martha Keen. She was born at Torchin, Volinski Russia, on March 30th, 1871. During 1903 she married my grandfather John Becker. By 1910 they had four children, and that year Grandfather came to America by himself to prepare a home for his family.
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| Martha Keen Becker |
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| Keen relatives |
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| Unknown Ancestor--A Becker or 'Keen' in Russia |
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| Russian Funeral of unknown ancestor, a Becker or Keen |
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| Unknown Keen family member |
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| Back row: Mrs. Rinkey, Martha Becker, John Becker, Mr. Rinkey. Front Row: Alfred Becker, Elsie Rinkey, Walter Kinkey Adeline Becker, Albert |
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| Martha Becker |
"Grandmother started her journey to the ship with her five children. She had to pay bribes at some of the borders they crossed as they traveled through Europe. [My grandmother said they traveled by night, sleeping during the day, while traveling to the border. A system had been set up to help German Russians once they reached the Germany border.]
"When they arrived at the German border they were held up for five days because Reuben had an eye problem that had to be treated. [Trachoma, or pink eye, meant no admittance into the States. My husband's great-grandfather and family had to return to Germany because their daughter Wanda had Trachoma upon arriving at Ellis Island; the family was lost during WWII.] This caused them to miss the ship when it left port. On July 29, 1911 they boarded to Neckar and arrived in New York on August 9, 1911.
"Finally on July 29th, 1911 she bordered the ship “Neckar” and sailed from Bremen. The ship arrived at New York on August 9th, 1911. Martha was 31 years old, born in Torchine, Volinski; Arthur was 8 yo and born October 5, 1903 in Tochine; Emma was 6 yo, born Feb 8, 1905 in Torchine, Volinski; Reuben was 4 yo, born May 5, 1906 in Torchine, Volinski; Benjamin was 2 yo; and Edmund was 8 months old, born Nov. 3, 1910. Martha's father's name is given as August Kiln, and her home was in Tortschine, Volh., Russia. She was joining her husband John Becker at 121 Clinton, Tonawanda, NY. Martha had red hair, the children were blond.
"I am thoroughly amazed at the courage and tenacity it took for Grandmother to venture across Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, through Immigration, and on to Tonawanda with five children, one an eight-month-old baby.
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| Martha Becker at right |
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| The Becker kids, Art, Rube, Emma, Abby and Adeline |
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| Becker kids in front of their house build by John Becker |
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| Adeline and Abby Becker |
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| Adeline holding baby brother Levant Becker, Eugene Gochenour's uncle and good friend |
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| Adeline, Abby, and Reuben Becker |
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| Art Becker |
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| Adeline and Emma Becker |
"Martha died February 23, 1943. I am not sure when my grandmother died but I remember she was laid out in the dining room of their home.
"After a few years, my Grandfather married Lane M. Pedt, a widower. Grandfather also outlived her, and spent the rest of his life a widower. Lane passed June 2, 1949 and John on December 17, 1951.
"My mother Emma Becker Gochenour was born at Torchin Volinski, Russia, on February 8th, 1904. She came to America with her mother and her brothers in 1911 when she was seven years old.
"After a few years, my Grandfather married Lane M. Pedt, a widower. Grandfather also outlived her, and spent the rest of his life a widower. Lane passed June 2, 1949 and John on December 17, 1951.
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| 520 Morgan Street, Becker family home |
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| 520 Morgan St with Becker boys |
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| Emma Becker at her home located at Wheeler and Morgan Streets, with the Murray School in the background. Later the fire station was built on the site. |
"The earliest photograph of Mother one was taken in 1921 when she was sixteen years old. The school in the background was the Murray Grade School, located on Morgan and Wheeler streets where mother lived, in the City of Tonawanda. The school was soon to be torn down and a fire station built on the site.
"When mother was old enough she got a job at the Remington Rand factory that was located at Military Road and Wheeler Street. It was only about a mile from her home. She worked there for a few years, until she met father and they married.
"On December 24, 1927 my parents were married. At that time Father lived at the Lincoln Hotel in North Tonawanda, and mother lived on 520 Morgan Street in the City of Tonawanda. Mother's maid of honor was her life long friend Mildred A. Behner of 12 Park Ave. Mother was working in a factory and Father was a salesman. Mother's parents names were given as John Becker and Martha Kean.
"On December 27, 1965 mother applied to the U. S. Naturalization Service requesting information about her date of birth so she could apply for Social Security. The information that was sent back stated that her name was on the New York Census of 1915, and listed her age as 10 years old. Her Certificate of Naturalization was acquired on February 3, 1944, and it lists her as 39 years old, female, white, fair, with brown eyes, and brown hair. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 116 pounds."
After the death of Al, Emma lived with my family until 1964 when she moved in with her daughter Alice. She died in Tonawanda in 1997.
Art Becker married Florence Neale Groffenberg. They lived on Grand Island, NY. Art served in the military. He died at age 87 in 1990.
Reuben Becker married Dorothy Holmes in 1931. They had five children. He died at age 62 in north Tonawanda in 1969.
Edmund Becker married Bessie Spencer in 1938. They had one child. He died in 1970. He lived on Wheeler St in North Tonawanda.
Adeline married Harold Chester Killian in 1935. They lived on Grand Island and had two children. She died in 1991.
Alfred married Olga Shenk and they had three children. He served in the army during WWII. He lived in Rome, Ohio and died in 1988.
Levant Becker married Mary Kolb and they had three children. They lived on Grand Island. He served in WWII and was a volunteer fireman. Lee passed in 2009.
Benjamin died in 1910, drowning in the Erie Canal.
"When mother was old enough she got a job at the Remington Rand factory that was located at Military Road and Wheeler Street. It was only about a mile from her home. She worked there for a few years, until she met father and they married.
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| Emma Becker graduation from high school |
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| Wedding of Emma Becker and Alger Gochenour |
"Times were good and since Dad made good money as an insurance salesman they bought a new car and a new house. It was a house built by my Grandfather Becker, located on Morgan Street across from Grandfather. Morgan Street is about three blocks from the Niagara River and between our house and the river. Mother quit working and sister Mary was born in 1929.
"The Depression started in 1929 when the stock market fell, and in 1930 I was born. Sister Alice was born in 1936.
"The insurance business deteriorated and Dad lost his income. [In the 1926 through 1928 city directories Alger is a salesman for F. Becker Asphaltum Roofing; on the 1930 Census he is an insurance collector living in a Morgan Street home valued at $2,500. In 1945 Al was working at the Chevy River Rd plant until he opened his gas station.]
In 1935 my parents lost their new car and the house. I was five years old when we moved to 1851 Military Road.
"On February 3, 1944 Mother received her certificate of naturalization. She was described as 39 years old, married white female, Russian descent, with fair complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, 5'4" in height, weight 116 pounds. Actually Mother had red hair as did her brother Alfred.
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| Al with the new car |
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| Al and Mary Gochenour at Morgan Street |
"The insurance business deteriorated and Dad lost his income. [In the 1926 through 1928 city directories Alger is a salesman for F. Becker Asphaltum Roofing; on the 1930 Census he is an insurance collector living in a Morgan Street home valued at $2,500. In 1945 Al was working at the Chevy River Rd plant until he opened his gas station.]
In 1935 my parents lost their new car and the house. I was five years old when we moved to 1851 Military Road.
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| Emma in the center; her father John Becker at her right and daughter Mary and grandchild Linda at left. |
"On December 27, 1965 mother applied to the U. S. Naturalization Service requesting information about her date of birth so she could apply for Social Security. The information that was sent back stated that her name was on the New York Census of 1915, and listed her age as 10 years old. Her Certificate of Naturalization was acquired on February 3, 1944, and it lists her as 39 years old, female, white, fair, with brown eyes, and brown hair. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 116 pounds."
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| Emma Becker Gochenour Sheridan Park Volunteer Fireman supporter |
Art Becker married Florence Neale Groffenberg. They lived on Grand Island, NY. Art served in the military. He died at age 87 in 1990.
Reuben Becker married Dorothy Holmes in 1931. They had five children. He died at age 62 in north Tonawanda in 1969.
Edmund Becker married Bessie Spencer in 1938. They had one child. He died in 1970. He lived on Wheeler St in North Tonawanda.
Adeline married Harold Chester Killian in 1935. They lived on Grand Island and had two children. She died in 1991.
Alfred married Olga Shenk and they had three children. He served in the army during WWII. He lived in Rome, Ohio and died in 1988.
Levant Becker married Mary Kolb and they had three children. They lived on Grand Island. He served in WWII and was a volunteer fireman. Lee passed in 2009.
Benjamin died in 1910, drowning in the Erie Canal.
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