The Frontier Kid

Let the memories live on…

Don't forget the era, when I was 10-12 years old, my dream of someday becoming a pilot. I used to hear the planes coming, and I would run out and watch them until they were out of sight. It seemed to me then that that was one of the biggest dreams that I would probably ever have. I vowed that someday I would fly like a bird and fulfill my dream. (I did get my license to pilot an airplane in 1965.) This was a big accomplishment for me. In 1936-7, jobs were really hard to come by, but I did work on our neighbors' farms at the time. But, the wages were not enough for me to navigate the way I planned. Namely about 10c/hour, and the hours were from 7:00 til 6:00 at night. The following changed my mode of work, so to speak, and was much more profitable ( I believe the following is a duplicate anyway so be it ). I had to go down to Sam Crow's Hardware in Frontier one night, and I overheard a guy telling another fellow how many frogs he had collected that particular day. He also implied how much money he made at it. I knew the person who was talking, and later I got in touch with him. I thought maybe I would get some information on how to do this myself. However, he told me that he had so much business that he needed someone to work with him, and he would be happy to have me do it. So, arrangements were made that he would pick me up early in the morning, and we would go frog hunting that day. Of course, he had the locations and the experience, I might add. He knew where to go and what to expect, day by day. Well, this kept going on for about a year and a half. We really did well. For at that time, people were not making very much money. The person I was working with, Mike Flannery, was twice as old as I was, had given up farming to do this frog collecting business. We would go out on days and hunt the marshes and creeks and lakes for green grass frogs. We would get upwards of 500 frogs a day, and we would take them back to his place and skin out the legs and put them in a big tub with ice in it. The next day or so, he would take them to Detroit and sell them to various restaurants and hotels and so forth. And then, he would come back and we'd start all over again. We made approximately twenty dollars a day for upwards of a year and a half, maybe two years. Of course, that was pretty good money for a kid at that time in our lives. This allowed me to go out about every night with my swash-buckling friends. We would get into a lot of you-know –what. Probably, this is where I got my Hillsdale county rogue reputation. But, believe me, it was a lot of fun, and I could care less at the time! So, it went on for a couple years… Frog hunting in the spring summer and fall, and trapping rats and mink and coon and skunk and possum in the winter time. Sort-of a modern day Daniel Boone, so to speak. Only, I never killed a bear on that tree, so the story goes. In looking though my supply of relics of the past, I ran into a notebook that I made during these years. This happened to be when I was trapping. The following will indicate how I kept a record of what was happening. As my notebook reads, "This was Friday, Dec. 2, 1938. The first day of the trapping season came in Dec. 1st. However, the 2nd, I sold 18 rats on a Friday, and they came to 10 dollars. On Dec 6, Tuesday, 1938, I sold 5 dollars for 7 rats. These were muskrats, mind you. And on Dec. 9th 1938, I sold 31 rats at $25. On Dec. 16th, Friday, I sold 14 rats, which came to $12.10. On Dec. 26th, I sold 3 rats for $2.30. On Dec. 31st, which was the last day of trapping season, I sold 6 rats for $4.75. The grand total for the month of Dec was 65.20, which totaled up to 16.30 for every week, which wasn't all that bad for wintertime. And I could continue my nightly escapades without fear of going broke. As I mentioned before, I worked for farmers in the immediate area before I started collecting frogs. I'll read you some of the days work and wages that I made at that time, which was in 1937. For instance, on a Friday, I worked for Alvin Bell, who was a neighbor to our north. I worked 9 hours for $1.80. On the Saturday, I worked 10 hours for two dollars, and on the Monday 10 hours for 2 dollars, and Wednesday I did 8 hours for $1.60. Then I went the other direction, over by Ransom, to Clarence Curse. I worked there Tuesday for 10 hours for two dollars. I might mention here, during the December trapping season, some of my expenses for the car. Of course I had some driving to do. On Dec. 2, Friday, I put in four gallons of gas and one quart of oil, which cost me 88c. On Dec 5, Monday, I put in four gallons of gas and two quarts of oil for a dollar and four cents. On Dec 9th, Friday, four gallons of gas and one quart of oil for 88c, Dec 12, Monday, six gallons of gas and two quarts of oil for a dollar and ten cents. Dec 16, Friday, four gallons of gas and one quart of oil for 88c, Dec. 19, Mon, four gallons of gas and two quarts of oil for a dollar and four cents. Dec. 22nd, Thursday, four gallons of gas and one quart of oil for 88c. Then I go into January, but I'll give you a couple dates on that, then forget it, because the rest of it was about the same. So, Jan. 3rd, Tues, two gallons of gas and a quart of oil for 53c, Jan 6th, Friday, four gallons of gas and one quart of oil for 88c. Jan. 9th, Monday, four gallons of gas and two quarts of oil for a dollar and five cents. As you can see, the old bus took almost as much oil as it did gas! Anyway, we kept her running and it was a good car. Believe me, until Ardis and I wrecked it. And that, of course, is another story.