Life was very different in the early first half of this century for everyone. In 1914 when my grandfather was born in Elk Point, South Dakota; Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States. There were only 48 states in the United States. Texas was the largest state since Alaska and Hawaii had not yet become states. South Dakota had only been a State for 25 years when my grandfather was born.
In those days the children played as children do today, but they played different games. They had very little time to play because they had to do many chores. There were no recreation departments; therefore, there were no organized sports during this time. The children had to entertain themselves because there were few toys, no televisions, -. video games, no VCR's, no computers nor nintendos. Children had to find other ways to pass the time.
A Talk With My Grandfather
Some favorite games of my grandfather and his friends were antic over, mumblety peg, hide and seek, marbles and basketball. Reading and listening to the radio were very popular in the evening. Some favorite radio programs were AMOS AND ANDY, THE LONE RANGER and JACK BENNY. Summers were spent at the family's cottage on the Sioux River swimming and fishing. In the winters, snow helped to entertain children in this area. They would snow ski and ride on homemade snow sleds. In the fall he liked to hunt; mainly he hunted ducks and pheasants.
My grandfather went to a school called Elk Point Elementary. Children walked to and from school in those days regardless of the weather for there were no school buses. Grandfather was fortunate that he lived only four blocks from his school. After graduating from Elk Point High School, my grandfather attended South Dakota State University. Here he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Arts and played college football. One of the things my Grandfather is most proud of is being named to the All-American football team in 1936.
In those days shoppin~g was limited to mostly food and clothing. There were no major shopping centers or malls, just General Stores. He shopped in his grandfathers store - Ringsrud Mercantile. These stores had everything you could imagine since they were usually the only store in town. Occasionally he would get a toy or something special.
His house was a nice, ordinary house. It had electricity, running water, and an inside bathroom. However, his family did not have modern conveniences such as central heat, a clothes washer or dryer, a dishwasher or any other major appliances. There was no hot water unless you put it on the stove to heat. His house had a icebox instead of a refrigerator, a wood stove and a coal stove. Therefore, the children were required to help with many of these chores. My grandfather had to bring in coal for the furnace and wood for the stove every day.
When my grandfather was little drugs were not a problem. It was not known that smoking was bad for your health. There were no recycling programs because they didn't have a problem with pollution like we do today. This is probably because there were not as many people, cars and not as much industry. During this time, it was also much safer to keep money wherever you wanted, because there were not as many thieves back then. People would rarely lock the doors to their houses.
They had some of the same brands of cars but the cars were not as good as they are today. There were many cars made in those days that are no longer made. Some of these are Studebaker and Overland.The Ringarud family was very well known. My grandfather's dad was the Mayor of Elk Point and also a Ford dealer. My grandfather's grandfather was the Secretary of State of the state of South Dakota.
When my grandfather was little there were only seventeen Major League Baseball teams. So you know that there were not as many baseball games. Elk Point did have a baseball team but not a Major League Baseball team. Some of my grandfather's favorite baseball players were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, they were the stars of that time. His favorite football players were Bronco Nagurski, Red Grange and Knute Rockne. I had never heard of some of these players until my Grandfather told me about them. My Grandfather says that the one thing he wishes he had when he was young that we have now is an organized recreation program for children so they could play all the sports.
Talking with my grandfather about his past was really fun. I learned a lot about what things were like back then. They were very different. We have many things now that were unknown when my Grandfather was young. I consider myself lucky to have the modern conveniences even though we have many new problems to deal with today.