Gus Falk's Friendship and a Fresh Start in Moline

Gus Falk was a good friend of Daddy’s and visited our home often. The two of them went deer hunting together. Gus was instrumental in getting Daddy to move to Moline. Gus went to Minnesota on his vacations to hunt and fish each year. On his way he had occasion to stop at Grandpa Dan Guild’s radiator repair shop in Brainerd, where he became acquainted with Daddy, Uncle Clarence, and the other sons. He always told the boys if they ever wanted a job to come to Moline: he worked at John Deere and could get them jobs there. Daddy and Clarence became dissatisfied living at home after Grandpa Dan Guild decided to cut down and sell their black walnut trees for lumber. Daddy was so upset by this he decided to set out for Moline. He was sixteen years old at the time. Gus got him that job he promised him at John Deere Plow Works and Daddy worked there for thirty-nine years. Though, I recall that during some of the first years of the Great Depression, Daddy drove a truck on a WPA road building company. He later claimed a particularly bumpy section of road on the way to Chicago was built by his crew, who he said didn’t know what they were doing, but we never believed him. Gus Falk would occasionally ride to Brainerd with us. I remember his family had a lake on this property and Dad and I would go fishing there. Bernie and Bob too, later on. We always seemed to catch a lot of fish there. It was wonderful to eat fried fish instead of Mutton stew. For sure!