I, George Karl Ernst Thein, considered it a blessing to be born in the
cosmopolitan city of Hamburg, Germany, in 1906. This city is the melting pot of
all customs and languages because it is a great center of ship building and ship
repair. The River Elbe on which Hamburg is located flows to the North Sea and
every ship that travels up or down the river is greeted by their own flag
raising and a serenade of their national anthem on the outskirts near a small
suburb with the name of Blanknasse. Answering by raising their flag and blowing
their whistle. It is quite a treat to sit on a sunny afternoon in a cafe
(skube?) near the river and watch and hear the music of a number of ships
traveling up and down the Elbe.
My father, George Karl Thein, came to Hamburg
from Bavaria about 1901 after learning the butcher and sausage makers trade.
After working at his trade for a number of years, he married my mother in 1905.
My mother, Martha Mainz, was born in Thuringer, near the Harz Mountains in the
middle of Germany.
My father established his own butcher business around 1908
being an excellent sausage maker and a good business man. He prospered for a
number of years, my mother being a great help to him. His personality and acumen
for buying and selling brought him in contact with many business people of all
sorts. As I grew up, I found out that not all people are honest and wheeling and
dealing was the game.
My schooling through grade school was to me very
exciting and I loved every bit of it even though one had to bring ones own reed
to school to be whipped by your teacher or principal. I remember coming home for
lunch crying having been beaten by one of my schoolmate and telling my father.
So, he asked me if the boy was taller and heavier than I was. I told him yes.
Then he said go back to school, find the boy and kick him in his groin. And, if
he doesn't fall down and cry, run as fast as you can but, don't come home and
start crying. Fight your own battles.
My mother and father both loved horses
so of course we had always two or three of them. Driven a team of horses and
wagon seemed to be second nature. The horses we used were mostly small Russian
ponies. My mother did wear them out in short time. I remember her coming down
our cobblestone street putting on the breaks so one could see the sparks flying.
Some days in summer we would hitch up our gig, a two wheel wagon my brother,
Willy, and I were dressed up in Bavarian clothes, leather pants, Tyrolean hat
feather and all, going to picnics or to a horse show or visiting friends.
About 1912, my father's butcher and sausage making failed and he was forced into
bankruptcy but it did not turn out that way. The receiver came to our place of
business and confiscated all the meat products, and the equipment by tagging
every item in the place. Leaving my father and mother alone in the store with
his merchandise was a small mistake he made. While he was gone they took most of
the smoked bacon, smoked hams, salamis, and most of the fresh meat out of the
store through their bedroom window over a roof and lowered it down to our
neighbors tavern for safe keeping. Our receiver had been gone a few hours to
find a horse and wagon to pick up his merchandise. Arriving at the store he took
one look and asked my father what happened to his merchandise. My father replied
that he did not know what happened. He was not watching out for the goods with a
shrug. He told my father that he would cancel the proceedings and help him with
money and merchandise to get going again. My father in return promised that he
would pay all the outstanding bills as soon as possible as he could. Keeping his
promise he paid back his debt in one year plus interest and these two men became
very good friends in later years.
World War I began in 1914. My father by
that time had accumulated a good chunk of money and property. The world changed
all that again in 1916. My father went to war and the store and everything
stopped. In order to survive we exchanged the leather belt from our machines for
shoe leather not for money but sugar, potatoes, flour, and food stuff. Our place
of business was at that time in Altona close to the fish market where herring
and all kinds of fish was available.
Also nearby we had some processing
plant. This place would get all kinds of products by rail. Coal, garbage in open
flat cars which invited most of the kids in the neighborhood to do a little
pilfering. One boy would climb on the slow moving flat car while the rest of us
would pick up everything that was thrown down. Our little baby buggy was filled
in a very short time. Again, we had something to trade with.
Once some of the
larger boys broke in a box car full of noodles and my brother brought home a
sack full. Of course, from then on we had noodles - soup, fried, boiled for a
long time. So after that I despised noodles and even today I don't eat them.
Another time, we boys found out that there was a boxcar full of syrup. So, one
of the boys got the bright idea to drill a hole through the floor into the
barrels. We must have worked on that scheme for a day and a half. But success
came at last and quite a few buckets were filled. Again, it was something to
trade.
My mother knew most of the workers of the warehouses and factories. So
after quitting time they would come to our house to trade for something they had
smuggled or in a simpler phrase, stolen. Many people were hungry and it got
worse as the war went on.
Our neighbor had a small boat and my mother and I
went with him down the Elbe River to some farmer and traded again. Also by this
time I started raising rabbits so every other day we went across the river to
cut grass, dandelions, for my rabbits which were making hay, so to speak, and I
had about eighty of them to feed. Here again the barter system came in effect.
So all in all the war years gave all of us a lesson that one doesn't forget.
During the war years we also raised about four pigs. The piglets were as trained
as a dog and as they grew larger they would come into our kitchen for a handout.
They were well trained to come up about fifteen to twenty steps. They went up
and down with no problems. When my father came home from the war on a furlough,
they were big enough to be slaughtered. Everyone in the family started to cry.
But, when it was all over we enjoyed the meat, some fresh and some pickled and
the nice sausage.
In 1919 the war is over, my father is coming home,
everything was gone, so all one can do is start all over again.
My sister,
Theresa, was born in the year 1916 so that made me the one to take care of her
and while our gang was playing at the fish market my sister was my
responsibility. The worker at the market cleaned the fish boxes every day and
set them out to dry in the sun. So of course, I wanted to play with my friends.
As soon as my sister went to sleep I put her in one of the fish boxes, not
thinking I would ever forget the place where I had put her. After playing for
one hour or so, I remembered that I better get her, but that was easier said
then done. The man had more boxes piled on top of the others and finding her was
quite an experience. All the boys helped and we finally found her still sound
asleep. I really did not get to know my sister well. Finishing grade school at
13, I started to work for my father more and more.
Maybe twice during the
week I had to deliver hotdogs and bratwurst to many taverns and cabarets and to
the brothels. So I saw many ladies of the evening and some of them told me I
would be a customer pretty soon and said that they would be very happy to teach
me all they knew about how to make love. In those days the mode of delivery was
with dog which was harnessed to a small wagon and it worked very well.
Someone gave me a small row boat about 14 foot in length. Not satisfied with
rowing all the time, my buddies and I found an old mattress and we took the
cover off it, dyed it, and made a sail for the boat. The sail made the boat more
mobile and gave us a wider range of travel on our river, the Elbe. Sailing in
the river was somewhat hazardous with the river traffic; large steamers, barges,
ferry boats, and all kinds of small powered craft. These, of course, had the
right of way.
I remember at one time a gust of wind caught us of f guard and
we tipped over. The harbor patrol caine and fished us out of the water and took
us to their station where they gave us ham and cheese sandwiches, milk, and ice
cream. Of course, we thought that was great, so we deliberately turn the boat
over and again we got fished out but this time they told us that this was their
last time and no goodies. On one of our trips we found a dead man floating, we
put a rope around and took it to the river patrol which of course put us again
in their good graces.
We fashioned a dragnet with a steel rim to harvest coal
that was spilled over the side while unloading the pier. Dragging the net along
the bottom of the river, we must have gotten many tons of coal which was split
among the crew, to help us during the war to cook on heat.
I remember at one
time when we went to get grass for my rabbits by buddy asked me to untie the
boat, leaning over the side I fell in the water, as it was in autumn and being
on the cold side climbing back in the boat by buddy asked me what was the matter
why was I taking a bath when it was not even Saturday. Saturday was the day in
the cold weather when my father, mother, and us kids would go to the public bath
house to take our weekly baths in the summer we had a big wooden tub in our
backyard where we would take our baths besides swimming in the river. At on time
being about 12 years old, I went swimming I had taken off my clothes and went
nude in the water, not being allowed by city ordinance I heard the whistle of
the constable not wanting any trouble with the law I picked up my clothes and
running nude down the street one of police man seeing me called me to come over
to him and as I did he put his cape around me and told me to dress and said the
next time he would tell my father you know what that will mean. Being
enterprising, I got a grappling hook and went grappling in the harbor. We got
many pieces of rope (?) some metals all kinds of junk which we took home put in
the attic to dry later to be sold to the junkman.
During the war the people
from the Island of Helgaland which is in the North Sea came to our town. Being
the best swimmers and divers and all around seamen, we kids loved to be with
them, so one day sitting on the pier at the river one of the boys said he could
stay under water for fifteen minutes. Not believing him we mad a bet. There were
quite a few fish trawlers at the pier. It never occurred to us that he could
dive underneath them. He dove in the water and after about fifteen minutes he
resurfaced and we paid our bet. It was quite a feat to dive and swim under those
ships which of course, he did and we gladly paid these people the seaman a breed
by themselves. Sailing in the North sea is sometimes quite hazardous. The fish
trawlers and shrimp boats all would bring their catch to the fish market where
they auction it off and sold to the highest bidder, but catching fish and
bringing them to market is another story.
As a youngster many times we heard
stories about the trawler going out in the North Sea and by dragging a net
behind the ship they would at times catch a mine in their net. The net being
full of fish made impossible to see the mine so when they brought the net close
to the ship being careful and really looked for the mines and many times they
did not see the mines and when they heaved the net aboard the mine went of
ripping off the stern that meant hit the life boat and rafts. Our neighbor was a
fisherman. To him this happened twice and he said he would not go out again but
he was the first one to sign on the next trip.
When the weather was bad and
the storm sign was up all the ships would stay at Cuxhaven. This town is where
the Elba meets the North Sea and of the first sign of good weather out they go,
get their fish and try to be the first one at the market. Some time after three,
four, or five days the fresh fish were all sold out and their catch would bring
a higher price. The little shrimp boats fished mainly along the west side of
northern Germany in low lying tidal flat. The shrimp are of a tiny variety which
offer being caught would be cooked and peeled, deveined, put in small boxes in
ice. I counted about thirty to forty little shrimp boats in Cuxhaven at one time
waiting for a storm to subside. At this particular time every one was itchy to
go out. As the storm lessened somewhat about fifteen shrimp boats went out to
fish. The crew consisted of owner, Captain, one mate, and a young boy, who would
do the cooking and helping all around. The boat was equipped with a one cycle
diesel engine and a small sail, in order to start the engine one had to light a
blowtorch and get the head of the engine red hot and pull the flywheel. The
storm increased again in intensity and all storm warnings where up again, out of
the fifteen boats only nine came back. The other six boats were lost crew and
boat never to be seen again.
The owner of our neighborhood saloon had a quite
large yacht which had eight berths and the best appointments, a very good galley
and head which meant a toilet. I often went sailing as cabin boy sometimes we
would go to the Isle of Helgoland and up the coast to Denmark. Our neighbor had
a quite unique arrangement with his spouse. He had a mistress and she had a
gigolo. This being the case many times we had good variety of ladies of the
evening aboard. I remember the time our captain owner pulled the line out of the
flag pulley high in the mast and asked me to replace it with a new one. I had to
climb up the rigging and up the mast. I could not figure why he did this. The
yacht was laying in the harbor in a slip. Climbing up I noticed that everybody
went below deck to have a little matinee, this included the ladies. It must have
taken me about two hours to finish my job. After coming down I told the owner
the next time he wanted to have some fun he should have sent me on an errand.
Being up so high in the rigging, even though the yacht was in the harbor there
is quite a sway up there and one has to hang on for dear life.
The Elbe River
has a small tide about six to seven feet many times we would beach the yacht and
paint and clean and scrap the bottom. Every yachtsman that races in competition
is aware of this fact to have the hull as smooth as possible to make the yacht
maybe just go a little faster. Although we went out on many races, I don't think
we ever won a race.
The trip my father and I took was quite an experience for
me. We went to visit my grandmother, Martha Thein, my grandfather, George Ernst
Thein, and my aunts, Margaret and Mary. We traveled by train to Weirzberg which
is in Bavaria. This being the first time I stayed in a hotel. I was very
impressed by the opulence and the service we enjoyed. My father told me before
retiring to leave my shoe outside of our room and they would be shined at night
and would fine my shoes ready for wearing in the morning. My shoes were new and
I did not really think I would see my shoes again. But low and behold, they were
there in the morning. The next day we went to Kitzingen, a health resort town.
From there we went through a forest to the small village of Aura on the Salle.
Going through the forest, my father told me a story of what happened to him
while a youngster driving a horse and wagon at night through the forest
following the light sky visible above the tree line he had no trouble staying on
the road. Halfway through the forest he was stopped by three poachers. Their
black faces, blackened by soot, scarred the hell out of him. They told him not
to say anything to anyone. They had a deer which they had either snared or
trapped which they threw on the wagon. As they entered the village they
disappeared as fast as they appeared.
We enjoyed the visit enormously. The
barn, house, bakehouse, and of course, the outhouse. My grandfather was
bedridden. He fell from the loft of the barn cutting his back on a scythe. My
grandmother and aunts worked the farm. They grew wheat, barley, and grapes for
wine, baking large round loaves of rye bread which keep for a long time and it
seemed that as fresh as the day it was baked being kept in a cellar.
My
grandparents were of the Catholic faith. In the summer they would go to their
church every morning about four o'clock. My mother was of Lutheran faith and she
insisted that the children must join her church. My father was stubborn about
this arrangement. But, my mother did not give in. So, when they finally got
married in December, it was really time for them. I was born in April. We kids
were raised in the Lutheran faith and I tried all kinds of tricks not too hurt
my grandparents by refusing to go with them to church in the mornings. The
church is on a small hill and many station of religious on the way up to the
church, so I told them that I did not feel too well to make the journey up the
hill to the church. My father kept himself busy sampling the wine and the
homemade Brandy that they kept in the cellar with all sorts of food that was
stored there even homemade sausage, ham, bacon, fruit, and vegetables. Geese,
chicken, duck, a few cattle, a milk cow, come calves, and pigs were also on the
farm. From my point of view, they were very prosperous. Of course, being the
first grandson, I was wined and dined and given all the privilege and more.
Going home everybody wanted to come along at least to Kitzingen. My two aunts
came along and as we crossed the bridge over the river they pointed out their
geese going down the river and assured me that by nightfall they would be home
again. The scenery in that part of the country is unbelievably beautiful. All
the farmers live in the village and all their land is on the outskirts so every
day one will see them going from their houses to tend the land. Men, women, and
children some with horse and wagon and many farm families just walking. This was
one holiday I will never forget.
At thirteen and a half years old, I had
finished Grammar school and now it was time to go to work. That meant to choose
a profession. Many times I had helped my neighbor. He was in the furniture
manufacturing business. I like the feel of wood and hammer, saw, and plane. I
told my father that I wanted to learn the furniture making business. He said
absolutely not. He said his father was a butcher and so me being the first born,
I had to follow in his footstep. Also, I begged him to let me go to school,
meaning high school, but no go. So, I started my apprenticeship with my father
in his butcher shop. Of course, I had been helping him since I was ten years
old, but this was different. Now I was obligated to work from morning until late
at night. My father was not a good master and teacher. Of course, I learned many
things from him. He used to tell me that anyone can make good sausage out of
good meat, but to be a good sausage maker one must make sausage out of the
poorest quality. My father did this to perfection. People used to stand in line
waiting to buy his products.
I remember once when I still was with my father
he sent my brother and me to the slaughter house to butcher one young bull. I
was about thirteen and a half years old. My brother was twelve. We went to the
slaughter house and there was the bull weighing about a thousand pounds in order
to kill and dress the animal we had to stun him first. Me being the older, I
picked up the hammer while my brother held the bull's head in a certain way so I
could hit the bull on the forehead. After several attempts to stun him, not
having the strength to deliver a good blow, the blood would rush to the forehead
and any more blows would not knock him down. The older butchers came over from
their and told us to put chains on his legs and winch the legs from under him.
They would cut his throat and bleed him so we could dress him. I can not for the
world think that any youngster in this day and age would attempt to do such a
task. Of course, times have changed quite a bit.
My father being very
emotional, after about one year of training I asked him that I would like to
change my apprenticeship. Being kind of foolish, I thought the grass is greener
on the other side of the fence. My father got a place for me to serve my final
years of apprenticeship in the small town of Pinneberg. Pinneberg is located
about one half hour by train from Hamburg. Altona was quite a nice town. One
could say a suburb of Altona. Nice people and many farms about it.
I really
went from the frying pan into the fire. Living at home I never realized how good
I had it. Rise and shine was at 4:30 in the morning. My room I had a small cot,
white washed walls where I had to back in and out one small dresser. In the
morning before breakfast I had to feed the horse, clean the wagons, check the
smoke house, bring the fresh meat from the ice house to the store. The ice house
was our refrigerator in the winter we put many tons of blocks of ice in the ice
house and covered it with sawdust so it would not melt very fast. Most of the
time it would last all summer.
It happened that one of the farms that raised
hogs which were always inside in pens they contacted a kind of sickness and as
butchers
were called to slaughter the pigs most that were afflicted with the
disease where small pigs weighing about forty to fifty pounds. We slaughtered
these pigs right there. There must have been five hundred to seven hundred pigs
in separate pens. So, the milkmaids were delegated to bring them to us in a wash
house where they ordinarily washed clothes in a big kettle. As the girls would
bring the pigs, we would stun them and bleed them, put them in scalding water to
remove the hair and bristles. We removed the intestines, heart, liver, and
lungs. A government inspector examined the meat and he either okayed it or
condemned it for public consumption. We must have slaughtered maybe eighty to
one hundred twenty of the pigs before the inspector gave the okay that the rest
were not contaminated. One could imagine what that little wash house looked like
when we got through. There was blood everywhere. But, it was all in a day's
work.
Sunday was my day of rest but my master found more work for me than one
could think of. First, again feed, curry the horses, then clean out the stall,
wash the wagons, then the smoke house, see to it was in order and the hickory
sawdust was not too hot so not to start a fire. There were many hams, shoulders,
bacon, and salamis. If the fire was too hot the products would start leaking fat
especially the sides of bacon and that would set the whole place on fire.
In
the summertime my master also found a way for me to take my bicycle to go to his
meadow to cut grass and make hay. I enjoyed delivering meat and sausages to out
customers that I did mostly by riding a bike this way I met very many people
especially the domestic girls and cooks maybe to arrange some date for some
evening.
During my apprenticeship, I had to go three times a week to a trade
school. There we were taught bookkeeping and how to become successful
businessman. At one time in school we were given a problem. I don't recall
exactly but it had to do with if there were so many cattle in the field, so many
pigs, so many sheep, how many chickens were there? I didn't remember how I
figured that out but I had the right answer. When I turned in my paper, my
teacher asked me if I had studied algebra once. I told him I hadn't. He accused
me of cheating which I denied. We got into a fairly good argument and I called
him some choice names. He expelled me on the spot. And of course, my master had
to go to school and straighten out the whole affair.
After serving two and a
half years for my master, it is now time to make the final examination to become
a journeyman. The exam is a written thesis on how to conduct a business given
percent of different meat cuts in beef, pork, lamb, and calf that are available
and price of same at cost and selling. The final exam is to slaughter a calf,
skin and dress after the job is done the skin of the calf is spread on the floor
of the slaughter house for all the master butchers to exam it for cuts. Cuts in
the skin if there are any this is important for the skin is made into leather
and any cuts will an inferior product. Of course, I passed and the next day I
told my master I was leaving, but he did not want to lose me so he offered me a
very good salary but I declined saying I would not work for him under any
circumstances, so packing my few belongings of I went home.
Arriving home I
told my father that I would work for him but I wanted to take a week's vacation
first. Of course, he said nobody loafs in his house. My mother said let him have
a week off but he said no. So, I picked up my suitcase and walked out of the
house. I rented a room for a week and got reacquainted with my friends again.
After a week I went back to my father and asked him if he wanted me to work for
him and he said yes.
After working for him about a half year, I decided to do
something else and I applied for a job in a very exclusive part of town. There I
worked with another butcher and a salesgirl. We handled the finest meat
available and had the best sausages, hams, and bacon. But, my salary was less
than my father had paid me. Also, I had to pay room and board.
I always did
drive a horse and wagon but this horse we had was something else. When I went in
the stable to put on the harness, he would squeeze me against the stable wall
and then turn around and bite me. I figured that some one must have mistreated
the horse so I started to give him a few lumps of sugar and a carrot now and
then. Finally, he did behave himself. This horse did not fear anything, not even
a whip. But one thing that scared him I found out in a hurry. We picked up a
load of ice blocks and on my way I tried to make him go a little faster but all
my coaxing was to no avail. Going down the street we were in the middle of the
street on which they ran a street car as the street car caught up with the wagon
and started to ring the bells, the horse picked up his ears and off he went in
full gallop. Finally after hitting a high curb, dumping the ice blocks on the
street, I finally cooled him down and went back to pick up the ice with the help
of some passersby. From then on if I wanted to get somewhere all I had to do was
get in front of a streetcar.
Our salesgirl seemed to be a very classy lady
and a real good dresser. While working with her in the sale of meats and
sausage, I noticed that some of the sales did not confirm with the amount that
she rang up on the cash register. I kept my mouth shut and after several days
she must have felt guilty and she asked me if I would go out with her and have a
good time. Of course, I did agree, so one Saturday evening we went out (?) and
what a time we had. She footing the whole bill. She seemed to know everybody in
every place we went. Some weeks later when I went home and told my father about
her playing the cash register and I said that is the only way to make some money
he told me that I just had quit my job, asking why he said he did not want me to
become a thief.
When I started to go out with girls my mother explained sex
and life to me and told me that if I go out with a girl be sure that if you get
her pregnant you have character enough to marry her. Also, use all precaution so
to avoid venereal disease. All this was explained to us boys even pictures and
illustration.
Again I worked for my father for a while. We had started to
clean and process sheep casings which are used to make hot dogs and bratwurst.
The intestines are cleaned by removing the food in them by flushing and scraping
them. They are assorted for size, rolled up on a bottle, so many turns on the
bottle, then slipped off and they look like a ring. They are placed in salt and
then sold by length and thickness.
One of our neighbors left one night with
his wife and small child leaving behind their thirteen year old son. The boy
came to us crying and my father and mother kind of adopted him. He always stayed
with us. He always worked for my father until he got married. As he grew up my
mother informed him the same way. She schooled us in sex education and when he
contacted gonorrhea, the first person he came to was my mother. She sent him to
our doctor and in a short time he was cured.
Sex was not a big issue in
Germany. It seemed that it was a natural way of life. Thinking back the girl
would always accommodate a boy of course she had to have a kind of feeling for
him. They boys would date a girl once or twice and if she would not have affair
with him she was dropped like a hot potato.
In our neighborhood there was a
young woman that was married to a seafaring man. She seemed to like all the
young boys in the neighborhood. Even I was included to have the honor of being
invited to her apartment, being schooled in the art of making love, to be taught
that to be a good lover one must also see to it that the lady in question must
enjoy it as much as the man.
My mother told me that I should try and get next
to the baker's daughter. She said it sure would make a nice combination, butcher
and bakery shop by side. The girl was a real nice girl. I liked her but, going
steady was not mine cup of tea. So saying hello, good morning, and goodbye, I
never really thought of her. One evening coming home quite late walking home I
met her standing in the doorway of her home saying hello. She asked if I would
like a cold drink. It was hot summer night and I gladly accepted. She had a room
above the bake shop. We went up, had a drink or two. Being invited to stay, we
spent most of the night together. Leaving before the sun came up, I was watching
out so that not too many eyes saw me. My mother of course knew the next day and
she asked me how did I liked the baker's daughter. I said she was all right and
that was the end of it.
Typed from an audio cassette tape made by George
Karl Ernst Thein:
... butcher business. This business had been in the hands
of most of the horse meat butcher shops. Horse meat was sold in Germany for many
years. My father did not have a license to sell this meat. So, one day the
magistrate came and closed our shop. My father locked the front door and gave my
mother the key. He said, "Don't let anybody in. I will be right back. I'm going
to go to the city hall." So, when he went to the city hall, of course, he got
rather angry and vociferous. They put him in the pokey for a few hours. When
they finally let him out, they gave him a license and when he came back. The
magistrate had gotten a wagon and was just about ready to load the meat on. and
a locksmith, who was about to open the door. When he saw my father, he quit to
load the meat. My father showed him the license and my father was in business
again.
Of course, in those years we didn't have any electric or gas driven
machinery. So, we had to go to work and grind the meat by hand, and make sausage
by hand. My dad used to be quite good at these things. So, he developed quite a
nice business in the horse meat trade. That's when I started to be a apprentice
in the
butcher business. After about a year, maybe not that long, a few
months, lamb, beef, and pork meat started coming on the market again. We, again,
started to sell regular meat over the counter. Business was always good. My
father, of course, had started this business and everything seemed to go along
real good.
In our neighborhood, we had a lady who lived next door to us. Her
husband was a seaman. Sometimes he would be on the high seas, say six or ten
months out of the year going to Australia and maybe China and so on. And this
young woman, I'd say in her middle twenties, seemed to be the house mother of
all the little young boys in the neighborhood. Evidently, she liked those little
virgin boys. And, I think she taught every one in the neighborhood how to make
love.
Also, in Germany, the girls were more permissive then they let
on.
And, sometimes, like myself, I went out in the evening. I came home my father
had said to me, "Why don't you get together with the Baker's daughter. They have
a nice bake shop there. You go ahead and get acquainted with her. Maybe we'll
have a match there. And, later on, you can marry her." So, one evening I was
coming home. This girl was standing in front of the Bakery. It was quite late,
about eleven or twelve o'clock at night. She asked me where I was going. I told
her I was going home. She said, "Why don't you come upstairs into my apartment.
I have a room above the bakery. We can have a drink together." I said "OK" Of
course, I spent the whole night in there until daybreak. But, things didn't work
out. We saw each other quite often but nothing became of it. That was those
incidents that happened out there in the old country. You go out with a girl
once or twice and if she doesn't invite you or let you make love to her you
don't go out with her anymore. That's the way it was out there at that time when
I was a youngster.
Typed from autobiographical note sheets:
When my
father came back from the war in 1919, we went in business selling horsemeat.
There was no beef, pork, or lamb available at that time. He had no license to
sell horsemeat, which, of course, did not stop him. The rest of the horsemeat
shops had been in business many years in Germany. They called the magistrate to
put my father out of business. The magistrate came to our shop and ordered it
closed. My father told my mother to lock the store and keep the key and let
nobody in. My father went to the city hall to obtain a license. He was quite
emotional about their procedure. He got quite violent so they put him in the
pokey for a few hours. After he cooled down, they finally gave him his license.
Coming back from the city hall he found the magistrate had called a locksmith to
open the door . The magistrate was going to haul our meat and sausage away. So,
waving his license, my father made a hasty repossession.
"When he jumped
the boat while working as a merchant marine, all he took was a little clothing.
When the immigration asked him what he had he said it was just a little laundry
that he was going to do while on leave. And the immigration man said, "Lots of
luck in this country, George." He knew what George was planning to do. He went
from the ship to people he knew in Detroit, Kalmas was their last name. Then he
got a job in Toledo and lived with a Polish family where he learned English from
the children when they would get home from school he would study English as they
would study to read and write. One of his friends from Toledo came to Chicago
and was working at the Glen Oak Country Club. He wrote to George and said if he
wanted to come to Chicago, he could get George a job at Glen Oak Country Club as
a locker room man. From there he got a job at Medina Country Club. He would get
one day off a week and come in to Chicago. He stayed with his friend, Bill
Whurt. Bill lived right around the corner from the Harris restaurant where I
worked. So, he would come in on a Sunday night, be off Monday, and go back to
work on Tuesday. The first time he every came into the restaurant, I remembered
waiting on him because it was so unusual for a young, single man to sit at the
table, they usually sat at the counter. And then when he left me a quarter tip,
we were happy with a ten cent tip, I really opened my eyes. So, the next time he
would come in, I would point to one of my tables because I was after that tip.
He used to come in every Sunday night and was always ordering expensive steaks
or what ever. Well, I figured this guy has got to be a bootlegger because he
would come in with his little grip (hand bag, small suitcase) and they were the
only ones that had money in those days. And, quite often he would come in and
was a little tipsy. One morning he came in for breakfast with one of his friends
and he was being cocky. I had my hands covered with BonAini, we used it to cover
all the coffee urns and then polish them up. So he was laughing and said, "Where
I come from they use hands like yours for frying pans." Well, I was insulted and
said, "At least they are honest, hard working girl hands, not bootlegger hands."
So the next week I got a phone call at the restaurant. "Hi, this is your
bootlegger. I want to apologize for the crack I made about your hands. Would you
like to go out the next time I come in?" said, "I think not." In the meantime, I
talked to Anna about him. I thought he was real fast. I was afraid of him. She
told me not to be afraid, just watch and make sure he doesn't lead you off
somewhere. When he came in and asked if we were going to go out, I said no, and
he wanted to know why. I said, " I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't want
to be a wet blanket." He said, "Well, you can go to the show, can't you?" So
that night he picked me up in a taxi, which at that time no one took a taxi. He
took me downtown to the Chicago Theatre for a nice vaudeville. It was around the
corner from the Biograph where Dillinger was shot. Afterwards he asked if I
would like to go have something to eat. When I would go out with anyone to eat,
I watched what they would order so I could gage what I ordered so as not to go
over their budget. Well, George ordered a filet mignon so I said, "I'll have the
same thing. We got into the cab but I didn't dare go to the door because my old
man might get in at the same time, so I walked home by myself from about a block
away. He said, "Aren't you even going to kiss me good night?" I said, "Sure,
I'll kiss you good night." Then, I thought, "Gee, he didn't try to get fresh or
anything. I hope he asks me out again." Sure enough he asked me out every week.
"Just before we got married, George told me he was in the US illegally. Well,
right away I took offense and said, "So that's why you wanted to marry me,
because I'm an American citizen." Well, we got a Greek lawyer, a friend of my
father's. He had to send to Germany to find out if there were any police
records, criminal report, or any thing against George. I had to show that I was
an American citizen but I didn't have a birth certificate, they didn't bother
registering somehow. So, they asked if I had a baptismal. Yes. So we went to the
Greek church on LaSalle Street and we got a baptismal certificate. But they just
put down anything they pleased and instead of November 4th, 1912 they put
January 14, 1913 as a birth date. I was baptised in June. Anyway, my father had
to produce a birth certificate from an older sister or brother, a birth
certificate from a younger sister or brother, and swear on an affidavit that he
never left the country in between. We had to get all the papers together and
send them to Canada. George had to leave the country and return. I think he went
to Detroit and across the border to Canada. He didn't have to stay more than an
hour or two. Then he was able to come back into the US legally, then he was able
to apply for American citizenship, which he did, and then we got married." Helen
Prevenas Thein, 21 Nov 1992.
The house on Hadden Avenue: Ma, James, Fani, and
Katharine lived downstairs; George, Helen, and Sonny lived downstairs.
Owned
a five flat building, 3 front and 2 back on Drake.
Started Fore Supply
Company out of a suitcase.
George Thein died while on vacation at his winter
Key Biscayne home in a hospital in Miami, Florida. Buried beside his mother in
Elmwood Park Cemetery, IL.
August 30, 1992 transcript of Marty Langner
recalling stories for the Family History Project:
Remember at Uncle George's
funeral when I almost broke out laughing? I was thinking about one time when he
was in our pool. We had these big inner tubes. He was just going to sit in the
inner tube in the pool for a while and relax. He had his magazine. He just lit
his pipe. He turned the magazine to the page he wanted. Then, he just went to
boost himself up in the tube a little bit. Well, the tube went right over, he
went back, upside down into the water. He was soaking wet. He came up laughing.
His glasses, pipe, magazine, everything was wet. That was the funniest memory of
Uncle George.
Uncle George would come over and watch golf with Dadsie every
Sunday. I think nothing is more boring then watching golf on TV, but they really
loved that. I think if felt that if he was going to sell to the golf courses he
should be up on all that was new. And, he really seemed to love it.
Uncle
George said when he was learning to speak English, they told him to go to court
and listen to people speaking it there. So he did that.
He enjoyed watching
baseball too. When the Cubs were having that winning streak and won twenty six
straight games, he was betting on the Cubs everyday. He was a locker room man at
a country club at the time and was betting with one of the members. He made a
lot of money on that. Then on the twenty seventh day the guy said "that's
enough, I 'm done" and the Cubs lost.
He didn't watch football until one of
Sonny's friends from college, maybe Brian Jacobsen, sat with him and explained
what was going on. He didn't understand it at all until then. Then, he would sit
and watch football with Dadsie on Sunday afternoons too.
Uncle George and I
were partners against Dadsie and play eight ball in the basement on my pool
table. We would play until very late. I would have to get to bed but they would
stay up sometimes until three in the morning. We had a TV down there to watch
while we played pool.
When I was driving for Uncle George, I came back real
early from my regular route once. He said, "What happened? Why are you back so
early?" I said, "I forgot my map so I couldn't try any short cuts." And he
started laughing and said, "That happens to me too! You get on this road and you
say to yourself this road had to have a bridge over the canal and it doesn't."
One of Uncle George's superstitions was that he had to always move west. He
never moved east. He always had good luck and didn't want to tempt fate.
This
was Dadsie's idea. Uncle George had a new station wagon and was coming to see my
new place in Sparland. Dadsie brought him in from the back way, from the east.
The dirt road was rutted from the farmers tractors. Aunt Helen kept yelling, u
Slow down! Slow down!" And Uncle George would holler back, "I'm not even going
three miles an hour! How the hell does he find these places? Marty is just like
Tommy." Marty gave them the tour. After about three or four hours we were just
sitting in Marty's yard. Pretty soon Uncle George started noticing the cars
going down Yankee Lane. He watched them. And suddenly he wanted to know "What
the hell are those cars doing there?" He didn't know there was a nice paved road
along the west side of the property. He was so flabbergasted.
One of the big
reasons Uncle George went into the business because he didn't like to get up
early in the morning. Nobody sees a salesman before 11:00. And, he was always
off on Monday.
He always had his shoes polished every morning. He said anyone
who is selling shoe polish better have his shoes shined. Uncle George made shoe
shining machines (and Butch still makes them just the same way). He had worked
in the locker rooms and knew what was needed. He made it so two people could
work at one time. He made it very durable so it would last a long time. He made
it with a shelf underneath to put the supplies. He had one hood with a wire
wheel brush on it for cleaning the mud off the spikes on the bottom of the golf
shoes. Then he had two polishing wheels, one black and one brown. He had a
buffing wheel on it also. It has a vacuum attachment so all the dirt would go
down into it instead of all over the locker room. There was just nobody else
making anything like it. Uncle George and Butch made them to last forever. Uncle
George went from two by twelves that could sometimes crack to one inch plywood.
They were very well built, big, and heavy. It took two men to delivery one.
Uncle George was a locker room consultant when the Butler International Country
Club in Oak Brook IL was being designed and built.
He always hated those
individual soaps. "Never buy those." Some of the clubs insisted on them because
their customers wanted them. You would always have little pieces of soap and the
papers to pick up all over. They would get underfoot.
Remember the "Fore"
Razor Blades? Dad used one once and threw it away. They advertised, "Your tenth
shave is as good as your first!" Dad said, "I have no doubt about that. Those
are bad."
"In the beginning Uncle George and Dad hated each other. They
just couldn't stand each other. Nobody knows why. If we would go visit Helen,
Ray would take his comic books or something and go and read in the living room.
George would take his newspaper or book into the bedroom. Helen and I would
visit. When we were finished visiting they would come out and we would go. That
went on for a lot of years. Then we went to California. When we came back,
George swore that Ray changed and Ray swore that George changed, and they were
buddies. After that they were best friends. Dadsie always said that he thought
it was because Uncle George's mother came from Germany and the family all
treated her nicely. She was here about a year or so before she died from the
effects of malnutrition. All she could eat was rice." Katharine Prevenas
Langner, August 1992.
Notes made by George:
Trips - Germany:
-
Altona to Lubik by bicycle.
- Altona to Aura, Bavaria to my grandfather's by
train.
- On ship Monte? Sacramento to South America from Hamburg to
Cherborg, France to South Hampton, England, Canary Islands,
Las Palmas,
Tenerife?, Portugal La Coma, Vigo, Lisbon,
Brazil (Recife? Pernanbucs?
Salvador?, Bahio?), Rio De
Janero (Sao Paula, Santos, Porto Alegra), Uruguay,
Montevideo, Argentina, Buenos Aires, Tierra Del Fuego.
- Second trip same as
before on return Holland Rotterdam.
- Third trip. Hamburg, Copenhagen,
Denmark, Norway, Stavanger, Bergen, Turndheme, Hammerfest.
- From Hamburg.
Ship New York via train over Buffalo, Winsor to Detroit. Satrup? near Hamburg,
Denmark.
Satrup?:
- Wooden shoes
- Fight in tavern
- Milkmaid
-
Straw Bed, mice
- Trip to Flensberg? brothel
- Highlighter? of day train
coming in carrying out houses, gates, fences
- Tapeworm
Detroit:
- Walk
fourteen blocks to friend's house
- MI comments? farm? river
- Tasma Park.
Beer and whiskey.
- Kosher Factory. accident.
- Move to Bohemians. Learn
from children.
- Wash car. Calmus?
- Rent room with open gas jet.
-
Meeting of adventury, gold hunters.
- Police take me home
- Take girl to
Bell ?
- Make home brew
- Buy 1926 Chevy. First accident.
- Mt.
Clements.
- Swim in the river with my pipe and hat.
- Max Runge Bakery
(tightening?) nuts and bolts.
- Bankrupt?
Toledo:
- Foreman small
factory
- Prohibition - trip to farm
- Met Priest. (Moonshine?)
-
Willy's Knight
- Cherry wine (farm?)
- Hungarian wedding
- Moon Car -
bedded down for winter
- Bad deal for landlord
- Fix car - Ruin it
Chicago:
- Met my friend Bill Wehrt again in the French rooming house.
-
Met Louie Dafflemeyer, Hugo Coutanhim?, Fred Brown
- Got job in Glen Oak
Country Club as assistant locker man
- Try to learn this occupation
-
Bring cow into locker room
- Locker manager sell liquor and beer
- Crashed
poker game. Blind pig.
- Railroad crossing.
- Put and take.
- Learn how
to play golf.
Country Club Life:
- Met Helen
Pets?:
- boy cat
-
Labradors, Great Dane
- White and Black Shepherds
Launch of Ship
(Imperator?)
Recall Different. Spanish Cook. Kitchen Duty. Experiment on
trips. Purser Customs Fight. Canary Island. Monte. Sacramento. Neptune comes
aboard. stepping out with wine, new suit. Steward. Tyfus. Parot. Trip to
Denmark. Norway. Build ship. Butcher ? Silk. Work on Wat (sup?) Morosets. Use
your eyes. Talking to Dad about leaving Germany. Making arrangements to jump
ship in New York. Met Bill in New York. Buffalo. Hoboken. To Detroit. Meeting of
con man. Living with Bohemian people. Police take me home. Join sea farers
union. Work in kitchen on ship. Work as Butcher on ship.
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