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.
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