SEGMENT: FARM ORGANIZATIONS, ENVIRONMENT, & NON-FARM WORK
Bert Aikman>UIS Collection A's>UIS Collection, Segment 10
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- FARM ORGANIZATIONS
- Meetings at high school. Had box dinner at meetings. Agronomist from Universities gave talks. Describes a meeting where Englishman was a speaker at Farm Bureau meeting. "Hardest thing to buy is brains!"
- ENVIRONMENT
- This Englishman bought land near Champaign because he knew about glaciations & where valuable land was located. Discusses how differences in productivity of farm land is related to which glaciation overran land. Champaign was in 3rd glaciation & has better land than land in Montgomery County which only had 2 glaciations.
- HEALTH
- Bert had terrible hay-fever & had to resign from Farm Bureau & left the state during hay-fever season.
- FARM ORGANIZATIONS
- Bert describes duties as Co-Op board member. Mentions taxation of Co-Op if there were more than 3 salaried members. All board members but Bert are dead. Names former board members. Frank Derby (former President). Mr. Ed Weitikamp (former President) who lost his mind. "He studied himself crazy!" Son Leo then took over as President. Weitikamps were strong Catholics, but it did not effect the way they voted. They would vote against fellow Catholics. Herb Street (first President of elevator association Co-Op).
- RECOLLECTIONS
- Story of man who had rheumatism so bad he worked on his knees. Mentions Tom Taylor's wife running off & leaving him. "Just scandalous!"
- NON-FARM WORK
- Being school director was most thankless job. Bert describes spats between teachers & parents that he had to solve as school director. Story about need for overshoes to be warmed under the stove during the day. "Listen, you just do as I tell you!" A "ner-do-well" (poor) family had a child that was a trouble-maker that they had to deal with.