Raymond Knoblich

This is something Ray wrote for his 50th wedding anniversary. That would be in 2005 and he would turn 75 in about 6 months. To me it’s a little like something from Tom Sawyer – hunting, fishing, trapping – not like my childhood. But it’s an interesting slice of life.

I would like to add a few comments:

I really love the line he wrote – during a 30-day leave from the Air Force, he went home. “It was then that I met the kind of woman I’d only dreamt about, she later became my wife, and fifty years later, in 2005, still is.”

I remember one Air Force story he told me – He was in Texas. He was leaving the shower, turned a corner and met a tarantula entering the shower. He’s not sure which of them jumped higher.

On his list of things he’s done (at the end), I would add that he did bowl a second 300 game after the age of 80.

He really enjoyed track in high school and mentioned often how he might have done if they’d had a coach who actually trained them rather than just telling them to run around the track. In a way, this led him to some great friendships. When he retired in the early 1990s he began walking and running in a park. There was a retired doctor who was walking his dog there every morning. He (the doctor) told me a few times that he wondered who this crazy old guy was running around the track. They met and he became a great friend to our family. They went to coffee every morning and he introduced Ray to many more people who we consider good friends.

I hope you enjoy reading this as we remember our good friend Ray Knoblich.

David

I was born on the 24th of Dec. the 6th of 10 children, since then, these are a few of the things I have done.

I delivered groceries, sales fliers and newspapers.

When I was in grade school I delivered sales notices for Spitzer’s Red Owl grocery and dry goods store. I don’t remember how little it paid but I’m sure I would have given it to mom to help with the groceries. One of the highlights of doing this was when I found a $20.00 bill that the wind had blown against a fence along with some other debris.

At age 53 I delivered newspapers on a 75 mile rural route in the Yakima, Washington area. Papers were picked up between 2 and 3 a.m. and were to be delivered by 6:30. There were about 340 dailies and 360 Sundays. Money collection was rarely a problem. I had occasion to call the Sheriffs dept to report horses on the road on a foggy morning and woke a family to tell them their garage was on fire.

I enjoyed this early morning drive. There was always an abundance of wildlife to observe. And there were frequent lightening storms that were amazing to behold. One such storm lit the sky as bright as the noonday sun and as I recall, it had started 100 plus dry lightning fires in the surrounding mountains.

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I worked on a farm, cut and stacked hay, shocked wheat, hauled grain and picked rocks.

As a youngster I went to Grandpa Knoblich’s farm to pick rocks from the cultivated fields. A team of horses pulled a flat-boat, which was nothing more than a wooden platform on which we would place the rocks and haul them to a larger rock pile. Throughout this part of the Dakotas the piles of rocks are still visible in great numbers and, of course, are being added too every year about plowing time. For the hunters, they make great natural blinds while hunting grain feeding ducks and geese.

To supplement our family income, I worked on a farm about 6 miles from town. It was while working here that I learned to drive a vehicle and tractor. It was here that I stacked my first hay and developed a very bad rash like allergy. I was given a ride home on Friday evenings and returned to the farm on Monday mornings. The buildings were located on the shore of Dry Lake. At that time the lake was about a mile and a half long and about a half mile wide. It was named Dry Lake because, for much of the depression and drought years it was dry. In later years, when hunting in this area with my brothers, they would tell of cutting hay in the dry lake bed and point out where the foundations of former buildings used to be.

In the mid 1980’s the dry lakebed was a haven for great numbers of deer. When camped out I heard many tales of exciting deer hunts including the killing of two deer with one shot, unbeknownst to the hunter, there was a deer standing behind the one he shot.

There is no evidence of the farmstead, it’s under water, the only evidence of the farmer that tilled those many acres for most of his life is the marker at the local cemetery.

However, the lake provides excellent pike fishing, winter and summer. It’s Great for duck and goose hunting, with good pheasant and grouse hunting in the surrounding brush.

Today, 2005, the lake is probably 3 or 4 miles long and a mile wide and is connected, via creeks, to several other lakes so that it would be possible to travel by outboard for 15 or 20 miles.

Shocking grain was the last of my youthful farming experiences. The family was always in need of money and so in my high school years, I would shock bundles of wheat or other grains. I was paid by the acre. I don’t remember what the wages were or how many acres I could shock after school or on a Saturday, but every little bit helped.

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Raised: rabbits, goats, pigeons, pigs, dogs, wild ducks and a fox.

I, and when I say I, I’m really including all brothers and sisters, raised dogs as pets.

The fox was an animal I captured but don’t recall how. I kept it chained near the porch so it could seek shelter beneath it. Then, one morning it was gone, the chain had broken. Sadly, many days later, while hiking in the country some 2 miles from home, I found its remains, the chain had become entangled on a barb wire fence and the animal must have died a horrible death.

The “Red-head” wild duck was wounded and couldn’t fly when I caught it. After several weeks, it was gone.

I raised rabbits, goats and pigeons, but as poor as we were, I don’t remember ever using any of them for food. The pigs were purchased when very young and raised on ‘slop’ and buttermilk from the local creamery. One of the chores was to soak the grain in a bucket of water or buttermilk and then feed it the hogs. The buttermilk was a waste product from churning butter. If the farmers or locals, didn’t haul the buttermilk away it would go down the drain along with all the acids used in grading the cream. It would go thru an open ditch into a pond about a half mile away. This pond would skim over with slime and grease. It smelled an looked like puke.

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I ran a trap line in the coldest of winters, trapped muskrat in the dead of night, and was confused on occasion, but never lost, and was snow blind.

As a youngster I trapped gophers as an activity and as a means of earning spending money. The bounty was one (1) to (3) cents. The price had nothing to do with the quality or size of the tail but, was dictated by the vast numbers of the varmints and the damage done to crops. Of course this didn’t generate much income but it would eventually buy a bottle of Nehi grape soda.

During the winter trapping season I would trap muskrats. These furs were worth $1.50 to $3.50 each. There was a great deal of competition for trapping rights but in those days “No Trespassing” signs were rare. Often times it was just a matter of being first to start trapping on a frozen lake and your rights were respected. I tried to check the traps in the early morning and late evening. Always caught something.

Only once did I have a near accident. It was about 9 pm on a very dark winters night. I had just checked all my traps and was about to leave the frozen pond when the ice started to crack. I became fearful of dropping into the icy water and struggling to get onto solid ice. But I was able to make it to dry land. I had become disoriented, because of the overcast, I couldnt I see the city airport beacon, but knew that the highway was ¼ mile east and the railroad track was a ½ mile west of the pond. Either way I figured I could find my way home. I ended up on the tracks and rationalized that I would have to go to my left, south, to reach home, which is what I did. All turned out well.

During my youth and teen years I spent many hours of every day outdoors, summer and winter. I had never had a problem or even thought about the consequences should I get caught in a blizzard or break a leg. It wasn’t until I was discharged from the Air Force that I had an episode of being snowblind. Lori and I had driven out to Dry Lake to play on the ice and to watch the fishermen. That evening, when taking her home, my eyes started to itch; to blink was like rubbing sandpaper over the eyeball. The only comfort was to keep the eyes closed and to apply cold compresses. Although I wanted to drive home, Lori and her folks insisted that I spend the night. They had a comfortable spare bedroom upstairs. By morning I felt much better.

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Went boating, rafting, swimming and almost drowned.

Boats were apparently quite rare in the small community in which I grew, at least, I don’t remember seeing any, although I would think some of the duck hunters must have had some. I don’t think many, if any, boats were used for fishing since most of that was done from the lake shore or from streams.

We, my friends and I, built several rafts during the course of the years. It seemed we were always able to scrounge old wood or railroad ties that would be lashed or nailed together to make a raft. It was just the thrill of doing it since the ponds were small and we were able to throw stones across the width of most of these. It was not a Huckleberry Finn type of adventure.

Most of the swimming was done in the runoff ponds from the stockyards or cow pastures, yet I don’t know of anyone that became sick from this polluted water. Most everyone went swimming in Hoskins Lake and it was here I almost drowned. Most of the kids walked the six mile round trip. In the winter we did much of our ice-skating here.

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Weathered gale winds and storm tossed waters on the Guadalupe in Texas.

Actually, I did most of my boating while in the service and stationed at Victoria Air Force Base, Victoria, Texas where I had access to facilities at a military rest camp. I used a 12 foot aluminum boat with an outboard and would horse around in the gulf waters. I also used the boats to go up river, the Guadalupe, to go goose hunting. On one such hunt, while going up river, we were hit by a tremendous gale that tossed white caps into the boat. The strong wind eventually pushed us down stream where, drenched, cold and with great relief, we got on shore about a half mile below our starting point and pulled the boat back to the boat house.

Did a lot of ice-skating and roller skating.

During the winter there were many frozen lakes suitable for ice skating. Most of us had clamp on skates with a leather strap at the heel and adjustable clamps in the toe area which were adjusted with a key which was kept on a string around our neck. During some winters the city would flood a vacant lot located near downtown, after being frozen by the low temperatures it was well used by many of the youngsters.

I often wore ice skates when checking my trap lines for muskrats.

Roller-skating was always a great summer activity. Groups of us would skate wherever there was a sidewalk, we would do this for hours on end. I don’t recall anyone wearing shoe skates for ice or roller-skating.

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Performed on stage, played basketball, baseball, softball and participated in the State Track Meet.

As a youngster, one of the things I disliked, indeed, hated, was having to participate in church or school plays, but the church Christmas program was an annual event and I had to participate, like it or not. Besides, they always gave out a small sack of goodies to the kids and for me and my family, that was a real treat.

In my junior and senior years I went out for track. The junior year was not very eventful or challenging. The coach would sit in the shade of the pump house, tell us to run and then doze off. That was our training program.

In my senior year, with coach Don Carlton, we were taught more of the fundamentals and received more intensive vigorous training. We also were able to participate in a greater number of track meets. At the Ellendale, ND track meet one of the contestants was “Palmer” Retzloff who later played for the Philadelphia Eagles, setting several pro records.

I qualified for state track, I think I placed 6th in the mile with a time of 4:31. Later, when in the Air Force, I made the Keesler Base, Biloxi, Mississippi track team winning several minor medals but never did reach the times set in high school. Here, I met several people whom I knew and had competed against while on the Ashley track team, namely, Lawrence Hoffman and Pias Wolf. For one of our main events we flew to Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. I do remember taking a military bus to somewhere for the track meet, I believe it was outside of St. Louis. We flew side-saddle in a C47 and I became very sick, so sick I couldn’t run in the meet. I had been scheduled to run the half-mile, the mile and the relay.

Served in the Air Force.

Day of enlistment was January 7, 1951. Prior to this date, several of us had gone to Fargo, ND for our enlistment physicals. It became questionable whether or not I would pass. They suspected a history of a heart murmur but after resting for some time I passed. Took a train to San Antonio, Texas. I really enjoyed it. Traveled thru wide open spaces that was like everything I had seen in the westerns. I don’t remember how I got to Lackland Air Force Base but it was probably via bus. There were a great number of recruits so our training was very limited. We learned to march while going to the mess hall; we were given a demonstration of a salute then immediately

walked into a tent threw a salute to an officer seated at a table, he said ‘good’ and that was that. We took some tests for placement (assignments) I scored highest in mechanics and heavy equipment so it was just natural that I should be assigned to the medics. We got 50 rounds on the rifle range and after 21 days at Lackland I shipped out to Biloxi, Mississippi via Air.

This was still January, I don’t know how cold Mississippi usually gets, but, that first night it froze, the water pipes broke and in the morning my shoes were froze to the floor. Here I had further medical exams and eventually had my 16 upper teeth extracted, apparently by some dentist in training. I was eventually assigned as an orderly to a surgery recovery ward. I found this to be very a very interesting assignment and enjoyed assisting the patients. As I recall I got along real well the officers.

During my brief stay at Keesler I didn’t go off base very often and quite often we were subject to restrictions. On one such occasion an airman broke restriction, went off base with his motorcycle and that night he hit a cow on the road. He was knocked unconscious, the motorcycle fell on one of his legs and severely burned it so that it had to be amputated. He suffered many more injuries and after several weeks he died. I was a special corpsman for him during my shift.

From there I was assigned to attend a school in Chicago, Ill. Century College of Radiology.

My next assignment was Chicago, Ill. Century College of Radiology. I was to be and x-ray tech. The school would be for 4 months. It consisted of some pretty intensive classroom study, bookwork, the mechanics, etc. and we toured an x-ray manufacturing plant. Our free time was our own.

Spent a lot of time walking along the shore of Lake Michigan, toured the industrial museum and other points of interest. Went to Moody Church. For many years they did much broadcasting over the radio. Went to movies. At one movie, during intermission, a young starlet sang several songs, she was Jane Powell, she later appeared in many musicals and movies.

After graduating I took a 30 day leave and returned home to Ashley, ND. It was then that I met the kind of woman I’d only dreamt about, she later became my wife, and fifty years later, in 2005, still is.

I then went to Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, Texas. I don’t recall anything significant about this tour of duty. I spent a lot of time at the hobby shop developing film and making prints. We played a lot of pinochle.

Flew in Commercial and Military Planes, and briefly piloted a Cessna 170

I picked up cream from the farmers and churned butter.

Drove horse and wagon, trucks, tractors and tried a motorcycle.

Built an earthen dam with a caterpillar.

Did some auto mechanics and cut some up with a torch.

Was an X-ray Tech, a Medic and administered EKG’s and CPR, the victim was pronounced dead.

Set some dislocated bones, had surgery and cancer.

Drove an ambulance and hunted for body parts.

Was an Asst. Scout Master, Toastmaster, Deacon, Youth Leader and Sunday School Teacher.

Fished in the High Country and the Desert of Washington.

Fished in the Pacific and the Gulf.

Fished the rivers and lakes of Washington State, North Dakota and Texas.

Fished for bullheads, crappie, perch, whitefish, trout, salmon and alligator gar.

Hunted from the simplest of blinds and fancy gun clubs.

Hunted in North and South Dakota, Washington, California and Texas.

Hunted ducks, geese, pheasant, quail, chucker, partridge, dove, pigeons and crows.

Hunted varmints, foxes, rabbits, predators, and not by choice, rattlers, watermoccasins and saw a few copperheads.

Fired slingshots, slings, bow and arrow, bb guns, rubber guns, pistols, shotguns, rifles, carbines and spit-balls.

Hiked the plains of the Dakotas and Texas and the High Cascades of Washington.

Searched for artifacts, found arrow-heads, Indian hammerheads, petrified wood and fossils.

Searched for Uranium, precious metals and semi-precious gems.

I’ve built fences, house additions and cabinets.

Did some plumbing, wiring, trenching and installed sinks, stools and showers.

I’ve painted houses, cars and canvas.

Tore off shingles and re-roofed.

I’ve poured driveways and patios. Layed brick, tile, lino, carpet and paver stones.

Do landscaping and gardening.

Have been in sales and manufacturing.

Am an investor, a husband, a father and provider.

Been to Canada and most of the states east of the Mississippi.

Bowled in 7 states and bowled a sanctioned perfect game.

Married the girl of my dreams, have 2 wonderful children, and I’m a Christian.

What more could I want? (for my 50th anniversary.)