FALLING OUT

We know that Ed and Helen Jondle had had a falling out with Ed’s father Michael Jondle.  Hard feelings and holding grudges may have been a family trait.  Tensions developed between Steve and his in-laws, Helen and Ed. There were a few skirmishes that went on to a full-fledged family feud. As a result Betty rarely saw or spoke to her parents for a period of over twenty years beginning in the early 1950s and lasting until Ed died in 1973.  And even after that Betty’s relationship with her mother remained severely strained. Betty had not practiced speaking Czech during those twenty some years and as a result had a difficult time speaking with her mother.  She told me that she could understand what her mother was saying to her, but that she (Betty) could only say a few simple things in response.

My brother Jim told me about one of the skirmishes.  He recalled that when they were living on the farm north of Clare, Steve was milking cows when Grandpa Jondle arrived and began yelling at Steve. Grandpa’s tractor would not run correctly because there was water in the engine.   He accused Steve of having put water into the tractor to ruin it. It was Jim’s theory that rain may have come in through the exhaust pipe.

Jim said that Grandpa was calling Steve names. Steve in turn got mad and went to the house to get the shotgun. Betty tried to stop him and they were fighting over the gun.  Steve said he was not going to shoot Grandpa but wanted to show him that he meant business.   In the meantime Grandpa ran to his car and drove off.  They were not on speaking terms after that. Anyone who knew Steve knows that he was not aggressive or quick to anger.  Grandpa must have said some pretty mean things to solicit such a reaction.  

I asked Betty why she was not on good terms with her parents.  She told me that her mother wanted Steve and Betty to teach their children Czech and that Ed and Helen thought that the Miklos had too many children. You may recall that when Helen Jondle consented to Betty marrying Steve, Helen had thought if her daughter married someone who spoke Czech or Slovak her grandchildren would learn to speak Czech (see post on May 20).  

Pauline recalled when Rose Mary was born, Grandma Jondle had told Betty that she was a nice baby but that she was born too soon after Johnny had died.  She also remembered that Grandma Jondle would come to the farmhouse north of Clare - while Grandpa stayed in the car in the driveway -  she would bring birthday presents for the Miklo children, but they were not able to speak to her because she did not speak English and they did not speak Czech.

Helen Jondle had very strong feelings about this and wrote a letter to Betty and Steve. I found the letter, which is written in Czech, and had it translated. Although there is no date on the letter I estimate that it was written in about 1951 or 52 after Steve and Betty’s sixth child, Barb, was born. In the letter Helen writes that Steve should go back to Czechoslovakia where, “Mr. Gottwald will be happy to take you!!” Gottwald was the Communist President of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1953. So the reference to him in the letter indicates that it was written in the early years of the 1950s.

This timeframe is consistent with Rose Mary’s memory of Betty visiting Helen Jondle when Rose Mary was about 5 years old.  After that visit the Miklo kids did not see their grandparents on the Jondle side. Rose Mary wrote, “The last time I remember going to Grandma’s, Mom went in and had me play in the yard.  I don’t remember her being in the house very long and when she came out she was crying.  I do remember some talk about Mom having too many kids and that Barb should have been a boy.”

Perhaps Betty went to see her mother to confront her about the contents of the letter.  In the letter Helen Jondle wrote that if Betty’s children did not speak Czech she should not ever come to visit. She wrote that Betty only knew how to raise children and wipe babies' butts.  She goes on to call Steve some nasty names, like ugly Bolshevik, and writes that he did not marry Betty for love but for her parent’s money. She wrote that Steve was not a hard worker and just wanted to take from others. Again, anyone who knew Steve would not recognize him as the person written about in the letter.

The letter is so negative that I decided not to post the translation of it here. But it is an important part of our family story and sheds some light on the family psyche.   Here are images of the first two pages of the letter. It goes on for eight pages.

FIREWORKS

During the 1960s Clare hosted a grand celebration for the 4th of July. The festivities started in the morning with a church breakfast and bake sale. There might have even been a contest for the best pie.

At some point in the day there would be the kiddie parade down Front Street (we always called it Main Street).  Kids of all ages would decorate their bikes with red, white and blue crepe paper strung through the spokes, and ride down the street.  Then there would be the big parade with the fire truck and the 4H queen riding on the back of a convertible. There would be several tractors pulling decorated hay wagons representing various businesses and organizations.  The people riding on the floats would throw candy (like Tootsie Rolls) to the kids lining the parade route.

I recall one year there was a greased pig contest. A small pig was slathered in grease and let loose.  The young boys chased it and the one who was able to catch and hold on long enough to turn it in would win a $5 bill.  There was also a greased pole (a short telephone pole) with a $10 bill tacked to the top.  I can’t remember if anyone was ever successful in getting to the top to claim the prize.

In the afternoon there would be a demolition derby where old junk cars would crash into each other until there was only one car running. There was an ambulance on standby to haul the contestants into Mercy Hospital if necessary. I remember one year my older brother Jim had entered the competition and there was some worry that he might crash and burn.  

Some years there was a tractor-pull contest to see which farmer had the most macho farm machine.  And some years there was a street dance in front of Donahue’s Store.

Finally, there was a fireworks display that was so large it attracted car-loads of people out from Fort Dodge to witness the spectacle.  Betty would make grocery bags full of popcorn and fill up a cooler with root beer, orange and strawberry-flavored pop. She and Steve and all of the kids would load into the Oldsmobile. We would drive the short distance to the edge of town where cars would line up in a freshly harvested hay field. There we would lie on the hood of the car and on blankets on the ground and ooh and aah at the fireworks display.  

Here is a picture of Don Miklo, Steve and Betty’s 8th child on the bicycle that he must have ridden in one of those kiddie parades.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

For some reason Steve and Betty’s adopted hometown, the little town of Clare, had the biggest 4th of July celebration in all of Webster County. This tradition must have gone way back. A few years ago I was at an antique show in Iowa City where there was a postcard vendor who had old cards from all over Iowa.  The cards were sorted alphabetically by town. There were lots of cards from Fort Dodge. That is where I bought the illustration of Betty’s birthplace on Central Avenue shown below and also in the May 11 post.

The postcard vendor had just a couple cards from Clare. They were not actual scenes from the town, but generic pictures of flowers with “Greetings from Clare,” written across the front.  But there was something even better than a post card. There was a ribbon from the Grand Celebration at Clare, IA. dated July 3, 1897. At the time I debated about spending the $10 or $20 that the vendor was asking for the ribbon. But today I am glad I did.  Here is a photo of the ribbon along with a ribbon commemorating the Clare Band Reunion August 1 and 2, 1895 (Notice all the Irish names).  More on Clare’s 4th of July celebration in the next post.

FAMILY SECRET

In the video that I recently found where Betty discussed her and her brother's school days (see the July 1 post), she also tells us more about her mother, Helen Jondle.  Betty tells the story about Tobin’s that I posted from memory on May 16.  Betty also goes on to talk about her mother's old boyfriend back in Czechoslovakia and her parent’s relationship.

Bob:  When your parents visited their friends did they speak English there?

Betty: The parents talked Bohemian.  I remember her [Helen Jondle] telling Louie [Kriblehoby] “You can get farther if you knew two languages.”  Well, she knew only one but she said that.  And Louie just laughed at her and said, “Well, I know two languages and I get as far as Tobin Packing and back.” He was an electrician down there. [Tobin’s was a pork packing plant that later become Hormel’s.]

Bob: So why did she never learn to speak English?

Betty: She did not need it. She was stubborn. Yet, when she heard somebody else talking a language that she did not know she laughed at them.  Kriblehobys lived up on the hill as you come into town, up on the hill.  The house is white now but it used to be a bright red brick. The Kriblehobys lived on the first floor, the landlady lived upstairs.  But she was there just occasionally.  She was German and she was talking to somebody on the phone.  She did not have a phone.  She came downstairs to use the tenants’ phone.  She was German and she was talking to somebody on the phone in German.  My mother just sat there and laughed.  She thought it was funny.  She was a diehard Czech and there was nobody that was as good as the Czechs.

Bob: Did she ever talk about her parents?

Betty:  Her father was a drunk. She never said anything about her mother.  She was the only one.  She said there were other kids but they died. That is all I know.  She did not come exactly from Prague. She came from a village next to it. And she would talk about the Russian prisoners [prisoners of war during World War I].  She would see the Russian prisoners coming over the hill going to work.  Going to work in the fields.  She said they were always singing. She said they were beautiful singers.

But she said her father was a drunk.  So these people who had brought her over here, they were a Lutheran family.  She went to work as a maid for Dad’s cousin.  And that is how Dad got a hold of her. He used to go see his cousins all of the time and that was in Nebraska.  It was either Nebraska or Minnesota.  Because they lived in one of those states and then they moved to the other. It was between Minnesota and Nebraska. [Ellis Island records indicate that when she came to America in 1920 Helen was headed to Truman, Minnesota.]

And I remember every year after the oats were harvested--that was in the hot summertime--he (Ed Jondle) would make a trip to visit them.  I remember driving, him driving.  Once a year he would go visit old Charlie Jondle in Nebraska [Betty’s brother Charlie must have been named after Ed's cousin, Charles Jondle, the son of James Jondle, who was Michael Jondle’s brother].  He would make that trip to visit. I don’t remember the visit. I remember riding in the car, but I don’t remember the people.

Bob: Was that the Studebaker or the Model T?

Betty: The Model T. I don’t think the Studebaker would have made it.  Because he got the Model T when I was between 4 and 5 or something like that.

Bob: Did your mom have a formal education in the old country?

Betty:  I don’t know. I don’t know. In fact, I don’t think she did. If she wanted to figure something . . . . if she wanted to know how much was 10 + 5 she would put down 10 numbers and then she would but down 5 numbers and then she would count them.  So I don’t think she did [have a formal education].

Bob: But she could write? [This made Betty rethink her conclusion that her mother did not have a formal education.]  

Betty: Yea, in fact I think she used to write to an old boyfriend [back in Czechoslovakia]. I don’t know, but putting things together.  She called him Frankyshek.  There was a letter from Frankyshek and she used to sit there and read it.  And I know that she wrote to him. So that’s all I know.  Figure it out. I don’t know. And then she got a letter from him that he was getting married.  She wasn’t very happy. Well, that was her business, not mine.

Bob: So what did your dad feel about that?

Betty: I don’t think he knew anything. He could not read that stuff [Czech].

Bob: So he could speak Czech, but he could not read it.

Betty:  No.

Bob: Did they seem to get along with each other or did they ever fight?

Betty: Yeah, because she thought he was stupid. I don’t remember what it was about but I know they used to yell at each other. Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a little German back in our family [At this point Betty must have remembered that like a lot of couples her parents fought about money]. She was tight.  She used to bawl him out if he bought anything.  And he would not buy anything unless he had that money in his hand. He would never buy anything and have them wait for the money.  He paid for everything he ever got. Nothing ever on payments or anything like that.  He paid for everything.

She tried to tell him how to farm too. That was after they moved up here by Clare. I think she stayed with me when one of the kids was born.  He brought her home and the farmers they were either plowing or they were picking corn. Well, he had not started picking corn yet.  He was plowing.  So She chewed him out,  “That comes first. You should get that corn in first.”

Yeah, they got along  - about as good as a lot of them get along. (End of quote.)

Above is a picture of Helen Jondle from about the time she first came to America.

CORRECTION

On June 12 I posted that I had thought that Betty had said that her brother Charlie had trouble in school because he did not know enough English. That was incorrect. I have since found a video recording of Betty when she talked about her school days at the Moorland Consolidated School. She had said that it was a neighbor boy, Lawrence Bundy, who had trouble in school.  Both Betty and Charlie had English-speaking playmates, so they both knew enough to get by in school. Here is how Betty put it:

Betty: John Flarrity, he was a leading athlete.  I read in his obituary that he was a coach at St. Edmonds for a while. Thinking back, he was the only Irishman on the school bus out in that territory.  There were the Plainers, Staneks, Fiallas, Kaplans [all Czech names]. I remember John. He was always the life of the party.

Bob: So on the bus did the kids talk English or Czech?

Betty: English. They [the other parents] were not as strict as my folks… Oh, Lawrence Bundy.  Not too many years ago at the Bohemian Hall a bunch of us were talking and Lawrence said he was in my grade, but he started a year before I did. He said, “Well, I started to school a year earlier but I did not know a word of English so they sent me home and told me not to come back until I learned English.”

Bob: Did you say your brother Charlie had trouble in school because he did not speak English?

Betty:  We both knew enough to get by because my folks every Saturday they visited Kriblehobys in Fort Dodge and they talked both [Czech and English]. Their kids knew how to talk English because they did not want their kids to struggle in school so they knew how…There was Blanche, she was a year younger than me and there was Betty after that and there was another little one. I think it was Chris.

Charlie, well he and I used to go across the road to Kaplan’s to play.  And there was Clark.  He was a little older than Charlie.  So he knew plenty, he understood.   We both had enough where we got through it.  But we did not learn it at home.  And my brother and I did not talk Bohemian with each other.  After he started to school we both talked English with each other.  So I think my mother caught onto a lot of it but she would not admit it. (End of quote.)

Here is a picture of Uncle Charlie after a successful pheasant hunt on the Miklo farm north of Clare.  I think that this was taken shorty after Steve and Betty moved to the farm in 1948.

COUSIN JÁN

Ján Miklo, Jr., 1946

Here is another photo sent by Steve’s cousin Ján in 1946.  In exchange Steve wrote back with news about his new life in America and sent photos of his family.  But eventually Steve lost contact with his relatives in Slovakia. I would attribute this to several reasons.  During World War II, Slovakia was taken over by Nazi Germany and there was no mail exchanged with America.  Then just three years after the war, the Communists took power in Czechoslovakia (1948) and discouraged correspondence with Americans. The photos from Ján posted here had come in 1946 and 1947, between the war and the Communist regime.

In addition to international politics discouraging correspondence, Steve had little free time to write given all of the work to do on the farm and taking care of several children.  I recall that Steve said at one time a cousin had asked him to send a wristwatch and then money to buy a tractor.  Steve and Betty had no money to spare and were not able to send anything to his cousin.  Sometime in the 1950s the letters stopped in both directions.

I have a long story about how photos that Steve had sent back to his home country resurfaced about 50 years later.  In 1996 as Steve’s health was deteriorating, I decided to travel to Slovakia to see if I could find his home village and establish contact with any Miklo family that might still be there.  By then Steve did not know if his cousins were still living.  He did not even have a postal address for them.

I wrote a letter to the mayor of Drahovce, Steve's home village. The letter explained my mission and asked the mayor to send the letter on to any Miklos living in the village.  I included the phone number of the hotel where we would be staying in Prague. I had the letter translated into Czech and sent it about a month before Matt and I flew to Prague for a two-week-long trip.  

We arrived in Prague on a Wednesday in late March 1996 and enjoyed exploring the beautiful city.   That Saturday morning the phone woke us in the hotel room.  On the other end of the line was a man who spoke English with a heavy accent. His name was Paulo Juris. He said his family had received the letter from the mayor and that his mother was a Miklo and was Steve’s cousin.  He agreed to meet us at the train station in Bratislava and he would take us from there to Drahovce, about a 45-mile drive from the capital city.

As the train approached Bratislava I felt nervous butterflies in my gut. Was this guy we were going to meet really a cousin? Could we trust him?  I had read stories about the Russian mafia operating in Eastern Europe and tourists being robbed of their passports and money in various sorts of con games.

We arrived in Bratislava and met Paulo in the plaza in front of the train station.  Paulo appeared to be in his late 30’s.  He was dressed casually, not wearing anything remarkable, but he did have two obvious gold earrings in his left year in the style of George Michael (at the time George Michael was an international pop music star). Paulo took us to the restaurant in the historic center part of the city where he worked as a waiter. He offered us a snack and a shot of slivovice (a traditional Czechoslovak plum brandy).  We drank the shot. It was strong stuff.  He offered us another.

I still did not know if we could trust this guy, who spoke with a heavy Eastern European accent. Matt was along for the ride and did not seem to be concerned,  but I was worried about drinking the shots of strong alcohol. Then Paulo pulled out an envelope that contained a few photos. Among them was the picture of Betty shown below
that was taken in 1937 before she had married Steve. Steve had sent a picture of his bride-to-be to his uncle and his family back home. There were also pictures of Pauline and Helen when they were young girls and a picture of Grandpa Miklo.  Paulo explained that he would see these photos around his mother’s house, and when he asked her who they were she would say, “Those are your cousins in America.”  At this point I felt at ease because it was clear that Paulo really was family.

Betty (Jondle) Miklo 1937

Here is a link to the details about slivovice, which we drank a lot of during visits to the many Miklo houses in Slovakia. Each family wanted us to drink their homemade variety:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz\

NEWS FROM HOME

Steve corresponded occasionally with his cousin Ján Miklo in his home village, Drahovce, Slovakia.  Ján, Jr., was the oldest son of Ján and Maria Miklo, the aunt and uncle who Steve had lived with after his mother had died and before he joined his father in Iowa.

In 1947 Steve received this photo taken at Ján’s wedding.  This note was written in Slovak on the back of the picture, "Štefanko, An American Slovak took this photo when he was in Piešt’any for a visit and at the wedding.  He gave us 1,000 Koruna for a wedding present  [Koruna were Czechoslovak dollars – today 1,000 Koruna would be worth about $50].  I should meet twenty such people. He took many photos and they made us happy. These are her parents and mother.”

The older woman on the right that Ján referred to as "mother" was Maria, the aunt who helped to raise Steve.

TYPEWRITER

To supplement income from the farm Steve sold seed corn.  As a reward for selling so many bags the company offered him some prizes.  One of these prizes was a portable typewriter.  It came with an instruction booklet that Betty used to teach herself how to type.  Here are some of the recipe cards that she typed on it.

FIRST COMMUNION

I posted on June 11 that Steve and Betty had no photos of Johnny before he had died.   They made an effort to have photos made of their surviving children. There were formal portraits taken at their First Communions and at various points of their youth.

Here is Pauline and Helen on their First Communion.  I remember Betty telling a story about the day.  It was in May or early in June and the previous evening Iowa had one of the latest recorded snowfalls in history.  The corn crop was ruined and Steve had to replant.

Jim on his First Communion

I could not find a First Communion photo of Rose Mary. 

Here is a studio portrait.

Here is a studio portrait of Barb. Betty made the dress. I could not find a formal photo of Barb's First Communion, but below to the right is a snapshot that Betty took with her Kodak Brownie camera.

Beth's First Communion Portrait

Barb's First Communion

Here is a photo of Don's First Communion taken on the steps of St. Matthew's Church in Clare. Don is the tallest boy, the second from the left (click for enlargement).

Bob's First Communion 

Kathy's First Communion

As Steve and Betty had more children, the formal photo portraits apparently became less important.  There was only one childhood photo each of Don, Bob and Kathy taken at a photographer's studio.  But by then, school photos were taken on an annual basis and served as an economical substitute. Betty also had acquired a Brownie camera that she used to photograph birthdays, holidays and other special occasions. 

DOLLHOUSE

Here is a photo of Helen taken when she was in grade school. There is a photo of Pauline from about the same time posted on April 26.

Helen was named after her Grandmother, Helen Jondle.  Perhaps because of that, Helen Jondle showed more attention toward her namesake. Like Pauline and Jim, my sister Helen told me stories about visiting Grandpa and Grandma at their farm northeast east of Clare.

Helen repeated what Jim and Pauline had said, that they were not allowed in the living room. But one time Grandma took young Helen into the living room to show her a wooden dollhouse that the elder Helen had put together.

I asked my sister Helen if this was a dollhouse that Betty might have played with when she was a girl.  She said no, she thought that Grandma Jondle had made it after Betty had married and moved out of the Jondle house.  She said that it had wallpaper on the walls and tiny furniture. Something Helen thought was funny: while Grandpa and Grandma’s real house did not have an indoor bathroom (like a lot of farmhouses it had an outhouse) the doll house had a toilet and to make it look realistic Grandma put a raisin in it.

ANNIE

Here is a picture of Steve’s sister Annie and her husband Phil Ormond. Steve and Betty visited them on a few occasions in Omaha.  Betty described Annie’s method of lighting her cigarettes: “Annie was the youngest girl.  They lived in Omaha.  She was the one with the long hair.  She was a chain smoker and to light her cigarettes she had that gas stove with the flames going up and she pulled her hair back and lit her cigarette and I thought, ‘My God, someday she’s going to catch on fire.’”

Annie, her husband Phil, and their sons Edward and Phillip have all passed away. 
You can see a picture of Steve’s brothers Joe and  Pete in the June 3rd post.  The only picture I have of his sister Mary is the family portrait posted on April 20th.

SLOVAK NUT ROLLS

There are three Czechoslovak ethnic recipes that Betty would prepare on a regular basis.  Sauerkraut and dumplings, kolače and nut rolls.  

The dumplings and kolače recipes she learned from her mother, Helen Jondle.  The dumplings were often served for the Sunday meal. Kolače and nut rolls were reserved for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

The nut roll recipe came from Emera Miklo.  Betty varied the recipe by rolling the dough out so that it was very thin and the ratio of nuts, butter and sugar to the dough was higher.  This resulted in a sweeter baklava like pastry compared to Emera’s recipe.

When I was visiting Drahovce, Slovakia, Steve’s cousin Maria made the nut roll in the same fashion as Emera, which makes sense since they came from the same village.  There is a Slovak bakery located in northern Minnesota that will be supplying authentic nut rolls for the reunion.  And hopefully some home bakers will provide some from Betty’s recipe. There will be a prize for the best homemade nut rolls.

Here is Betty’s recipe:

Dough:
Dissolve 1 package of yeast in ¼ cup of warm water

Mix 1 can of carnation evaporated milk with1/8 teaspoon salt, 1 egg, 1/3 cup of sugar,
½ teaspoon Mace (or orange peel)

Add yeast to above mixture

Add 3 cups of flour one cup at a time while mixing, may need more flour if too sticky

Kneed dough until smooth and not sticky

Let rise until double the amount

Filling:
In a blender or food processor grind and mix 1 pound walnuts, 3 cups sugar, ½ cup flour (or couple rounded table spoons of corn starch) – if using a blender you may have to do the grinding in 3 or 4 smaller batches

Roll out dough in very small batches for smaller rolls and uniformity – roll until paper-thin and about the size of a small cookie sheet.  It helps to butter the rolling pin and the surface that you are rolling the dough on.

Spread melted butter over the dough, then apply a ¼ inch layer of filling to the surface of the dough.

Roll up the dough like a jellyroll and cut into 1½- to 2-inch-long pieces.

Bake on a buttered cookie sheet at 350 for 15 minutes until the tops are golden and the sugar has melted but before it has completely caramelized. Watch the timing on the oven. Timing can vary depending on the oven and the size of the rolls.

Here is a recipe for kolače: http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/bohemianczechdesserts/r/Czech-Sweet-Rolls-Recipe-Kolace.htm

Here is a photo of Steve Miklo, Sr. and Emera Miklo.  Emera passed away in 1952 a few years after this photo was taken.