BILL AND EFFIE ENGER—FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION TO THE WAR YEARS

The Good Life in Kindred, ND

Billy, Hope and Gale

In the previous blog, Bill and Effie Enger—aka My Parents—were happily settled in Kindred, North Dakota with their three children, William John (Billy), born in Bottineau, ND in 1921, Gale Edward, born March 3, 1925 and Hope Carol, born July 18, 1926, both in Kindred.

Bill was employed by the Adams Lumber Yard and joined the Sons of Norway Lodge.  Effie was involved in church and in taking care of the family.  That’s the way it was done back then for the most part—the men went to work and the women raised the kids.

The Enger family made many good friends in Kindred—Joe and Helga Owen, the Thompsons, Hansons, and Olsons, to name a few—and life was good.  Relatives lived close by also, including Bill’s great uncle Palmer Enger and his large family in Davenport.  Forever after my parents talked often and with fondness about the Kindred years. 

But the good times were not to last.  In 1929 the bottom fell out of the United States economy, the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression was thrust upon the entire country.  Banks failed, people were forced to stand in soup lines, and stock brokers were jumping to their deaths.  Of course the lumber business was greatly impacted by this chain of events, as people without jobs and struggling to feed their families were not building houses, so as the Depression wore on Bill eventually found himself among the unemployed. 

 Bill on the Mahnomen Farm-circa 1935

Never one to give in to defeat, he and younger brother Art Enger decided to try their luck at farming and they both moved their families to neighboring acreages near Mahnomen, Minnesota, circa 1935.

I am not clear on how the acquisition of these farms came about or whether they were tenants (more questions I should have asked) but, contrary to the good stories I heard about life in Kindred, the stories about life in Mahnomen were far from good, especially as told by Effie—no electricity, no running water, bedbugs, the seven year itch (better known as scabies) and the bitterly cold winters were just a few of the hardships to be endured.  Hope and Gale walked to a country school a mile away, but Billy, who was entering high school, had to be boarded in town during the week in order to attend classes.

The bedbug story I heard many times:  When the Enger family moved into the old farmhouse they soon discovered that it had previously been invaded by little creatures that would appear after dark and inflict misery on the humans that were sharing their domain.  If a light was shined on the critters they would scurry away back to their hiding places, and in the daytime they stayed safely hidden.  The saying, “Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite” took on a whole new meaning!  Bill waged war by dragging all the iron bedsprings outside, pouring kerosene over them and lighting them on fire.  The bedbugs came out in droves; “there must have been a million of them,” according to the horror stories being told many years later.

Scabies, or the “Seven Year Itch” was another affliction imposed on the entire family, spread by a tiny mite that causes a skin rash and unbearable itching.  The remedy in those days was to rub a pungent-smelling salve over affected areas and then donning long underwear for an entire week without bathing. Whew!

It is no wonder that “life on the Mahnomen farm” didn’t last.  In 1937 Bill and Effie packed up their family and belongings and moved to Worthington, Minnesota where his mother Hannah, now a widow, and all of his siblings were then residing.  Sister Hazel was married to Herman Doeden, a farmer at Indian Lake near Worthington, brother Art had married a Worthington girl, Vera Nyberg, and brother Earl had been married to Evelyn Hawkinson of Shell Lake, Wisconsin whom he met while working with her brother on the railroad.

By 1937 the Enger siblings had added 13 children to the mix—Bill and Effie: Billy, Gale and Hope; Art and Vera: Vernon and Beverly; Earle and Evelyn: Deane, Shirley, Carol and Earle, Jr. (Bud); and Hazel and Herman Doeden: Gaylord, Donald, Lowell and Merle.  Vivian was just 21 and still at home with Hannah.

The Enger home on Smith Avenue, Worthington, MN

Bill returned to his former occupation when he was hired by Albinson Lumber Co. in Worthington and the following year Bill and Effie built a home in a nice little growing neighborhood called Smith Avenue.  .  Once again, with the unpleasant years of the Great Depression and the Mahnomen farming fiasco behind them, the family settled in to a new life on Smith Avenue

, Worthington, Minnesota.
.  Effie took to Worthington like a duck to water. She loved her home, she became involved in the Immanuel Evangelical Church where the rest of the relatives attended, and she enjoyed the family get-togethers with Grandma Hannah, Hazel and the rest.

Dianne Sonia Enger, six months, 1940

Little did they know, but Bill and Effie’s active life was about to be interrupted by an unplanned event!  In the spring of 1939, with three nearly grown children and the “empty nest” just a few years away, Effie sprang the news to Bill that a new addition to the family would be making an appearance around the first of January, 1940.  By that time big brother Billy would be turning 19, Gale 15, and Hope 13.

Effie and Bill didn’t tell anyone their big secret at first—it took a while to get over the surprise themselves.  But one day when Hope was looking for something she opened the drawers of a small dresser in the upstairs hall and it was full of baby clothes.  She couldn’t wait to tell Gale.

“I think Mom’s going to have a baby!” she told him. His response, “You’re crazy! “No, come and look,” as Hope showed him the tiny baby clothes in the dresser drawers.  “Well, if she is you’d better start helping her more!” Gale retorted, leaving himself out of the responsibilities that lay ahead.

But secretly Gale was excited about being a big brother again. Reportedly, he rode his bike up and down Smith Avenue telling everyone,  “My Mom’s having a baby! My Mom’s having a baby!”  I’m sure he would never admit that if you asked him today, but I have it on good authority from sister Hope!

I’m sure Effie must have been anxious about having another baby at her age—she would be turning 40 in August and Bill in November.  That was considered “old” to have a baby in that time.  Bill hired a woman to help with the housework, but according to my father’s account Effie cleaned the house thoroughly before the hired girl arrived so she wouldn’t be thought a bad housekeeper! 

One day late in November things started to happen and on November 27, 1939, Dianne Sonia Enger came into this world.  I heard the story many times:  Bill rushed Effie to the Worthington Hospital and she was having a hard time in labor.  At one point the doctor came out and told Bill, “The way things are going I may be able to save only one of them.  If it comes to that should I save the mother or the baby?”  Bill replied, “By God, you’d better save them both!”  And so he did.  Effie came through it OK, and after a short stint in the incubator the baby was OK too, weighing in at 5 pounds. Dad always said that when he first saw me I looked like a red, dried up prune covered with black hair.  Not an attractive picture, but I guess they loved me anyway.

I teased my Mom in later years that she did me a great disservice by having me early.  I was scheduled to be born in January 1940 and instead I came in November 1939.  Forever after I would have to say I was born in the “1930’s” instead of the “1940’s” making me seem a lot older!  My Mom would counter by saying, “Well, you paid me back by ruining my Thanksgiving dinner!”

.When I was just two years old another life-changing event happened, which affected not only the Enger family, but the entire nation.  On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and World War II was upon us.  Adolf Hitler from Germany and Benito Mussolini from Italy had been raising havoc in Europe for some time but America had managed to stay out of it.  Now, with the bombing of American territory and the killing of American citizens our country was instantly at war.

Billy had graduated from Worthington High School in 1939 and left the nest to work for an auto parts company in Redwood Falls, Minnesota.  By 1941 he was just the right age to be called up for the draft.  His “Notice of Selection” was dated June 11, 1942, and stated:

“To William John Enger, Order No. 10,373.  You have been selected for training and service under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.  You will receive an Order to Report for Induction—such induction to take place on or about July 1, 1942, when adequate facilities are expected to be available. If you are employed you should advise your employer of this notice and of the possibility that you may not be accepted at the induction station. Your employer can then be prepared to replace you if you are accepted, or to continue your employment if you are rejected.  The Order to Report for Induction will specify a definite time and place for you to report.”

Billy on leave and Gale saying goodbye at the train station

Billy dutifully reported for induction, he was not rejected, and on July 1, 1942 he was in the United States Army where he remained on active duty until September of 1945, most of that time overseas.  Gale, who graduated from Worthington High School in May 1943, was inducted for the draft only one month later at age 18, and was also sent for overseas duty.

So Bill and Effie found themselves with their two sons fighting in a World War on foreign soil.  Letters came from faraway places: France, England, Sicily, Czechoslovakia, North Africa; and packages went out from the Enger household to these faraway places. Some reached their destination and some didn’t, but it was therapeutic just to send them;--to at least feel that they were doing something to help their beloved sons.  

Commodities such as sugar and flour were rationed, and each person in the family was issued “tokens” to use in trade for these commodities.  I still have one of the coupon books issued to me.

Effie saved every letter the boys sent home and years later Billy’s grandson, Ross Enger, transcribed his letters and the combat history of his 1^st Infantry Division.  This came about when Ross and his dad Tom Enger were watching the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” Tom mentioned to Ross, “Your Grandpa was in that war.”  Ross wanted to know what his grandfather did in the war, and Tom had to admit, he didn’t really know because his Dad had never talked about it.  Sadly, Billy had passed away from cancer in 1982 at age 61, long before Ross was born.

Ross was not satisfied with “I don’t know,” and set out to do his own research on his Grandpa Bill’s war record.  He did a fantastic job and I was so impressed by Ross’s efforts that I followed his lead by transcribing Gale’s letters home.  The soldiers were not allowed to say exactly where they were located so the letter headings read “Somewhere in Germany” or “Somewhere in France.”  All homeward bound letters were censored by the War Department and any information considered “sensitive” would be cut out with a razor blade, so some of the letters have holes in them.  Since the boys were forbidden to write about specific events or activities the letters were mostly about mundane happenings, but the underlying feelings of fear and homesickness are easily detected.  Each company or battalion had an “APO” address for families to send packages and letters to their service men but it often took weeks for the mail to reach the recipients who were constantly on the move.

During the war years, 1941-1946, nearly every person in America had a father, brother, husband, uncle, son or fiancé overseas and thousands of them never came home.  Gale was inducted at the same time as his two best friends, Dick Stowe and Bob Schaefer; and of the three Gale was the only one to return. The other two are still listed as “Missing in Action.”   Aunt Vivian was married to Clarence Erbes in 1942 and she went to Washington DC with him to work until he went overseas.  Clarence’s brother Leland Erbes had been killed in the initial Pearl Harbor attack.  Hope, responding to the nation-wide plea to "write to our servicemen overseas," started corresponding with Clarence's cousin Durward Reyman from Valley Center, Kansas.  The romance blossomed and eventually "Swede" Reyman became her husband of 64 years.  Aunt Hazel’s son Gaylord Doeden, Uncle Art’s son Vernon Enger, Uncle Earle Enger and his son Deane were all involved in the war and by some miracle they all came back alive.

Two Enger boys in World War II

I have the small flag with two blue stars that my parents kept hanging in the window of our house to show that two sons from that household were in the war.  Fortunately they never had to paste a gold star over the blue to depict a son killed in action—the origin of the term “Gold Star Mother.”

I have very little memory of the war years due to my young age but I do remember the day the war was over.  When the announcement of surrender by the enemy and victory for America and its allies came over the radio, everyone on  Smith Avenue ran out to their cars and started honking the horns and shouting over and over with tears running down their cheeks, “The war is over, the war is over, our boys are coming home!!”

That’s all for now.  The post-war boom years are coming soon!