During our elementary and high school days, we boys had many chores which kept us busy tending the large gardens we had to keep hoed and weeded. We had two large gardens north and south of the house. In the back field we had about an acre in potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, and sweet corn. We had no tractor early in our lives, for a time we had an old horse so our gardens were cultivated by hand. We also had to cut wood each summer and cut the wood to stove size. Our free time was usually Sunday afternoons. After church the Piell boys usually came for lunch and then we would hike through the woods or swim at High Falls. Sometimes we went target hunting with our 22 caliber rifles. One day after practice we arrived in the yard between the house and the barn. When I looked up and saw our aerial for our radio which was strung between the house and barn peaks. I said, “Watch me hit the aerial wire with the 22 bullet” The other fellows laughed so I took aim and squeezed the trigger. The shot sounded and the aerial was cut in half. I spent the next couple of hours repairing the wire[1].
In 1936 I graduated from high school. We went to Washington DC for our class trip. We were in the depression at that time and I remember buying a suit from Montgomery Ward for the occasion for a total of 9 dollars.
I remember Mom canning all the food for our large family[2]. She canned five or six hundred quarts of all kinds of food – tomatoes, corn, beans, ketchup, peaches, pickles, sauerkraut, jellies and preserves of strawberry, raspberry, pear, blueberry, blackberry, dewberry, crabapple and peach. We would have fifty to seventy-five bushels of potatoes, maybe a hundred head of cabbage besides the kraut, uncooked carrots, beets, rutabagas, turnips, apples and pears. The raw vegetables and fruits were kept in mounds of straw and dry leaves and then covered with water proof covering and then covered with dirt. Before Mom could can the above, the things had to be picked which in itself took a lot of time, since many of these things where not cultivated but grew wild.
Beside the many things we had to do at home, we still were able to work for others. We picked strawberries for Mr. Freeland at one and a half cents a quart; raspberries where picked at five cents a quart. We also cut grass with a hand push mower for one dollar and a half a day and twenty-five cents an hour for other work. As I grew older I would go to work as a mason’s helper for my father. We usually worked with stone. We built head-walls, fireplaces, chimneys and dry walls. I painted houses for Carl Ritz, an artist who lived on Milltown Road, and Kurt Wiese who lived in two locations, at Tumble Falls and later at the Mill property in Idell. I laid stone for them, painted the houses inside and out, cut grass and anything else they needed done. Kurt was an artist and illustrator and wrote children’s books, so at times I would be called to pose for him. He always wore a white shirt in the years I worked for him. I also did these things for Carl, only I had to pose for his murals.
Kurt and Carl were prisoners of war of the English and were interned in Australia, so they had many scenes painted in Australia. They were in Australia for several years. Both were Germans. Kurt’s father had an import business so he lived in China and Carl too was in China when they were captured.
One of the first jobs I had with my father was as his helper building head walls on roads. This particular road was the road between Lambertville to Ringoes from Mt Airy Presbyterian Church and continues toward South Hunterdon High School. We were laying stone most of the day when a large tractor trailer load of stone came for the road base. The foreman and contractor asked Pop to help unload the stone. He was to go on the truck trailer to be sure that the proper amount of stone was spilling through the slit in the lower part of the gate. It happened that the driver raised the load too high and the chain broke which held the loaded trailer. As the chain broke, it sent the loaded trailer straight up and the stone out of the trailer. It made the trailer snap and Pop was thrown through the air, above the height of the telephone pole before he dropped to the ground. I saw it all happen and I thought that my father would be killed. The contractor saw it happen also, and he immediately put Pop into his car and took him to a Trenton hospital. He would not let Pop work for several days and came to our home each day to see how he was faring. He also paid him for the time Pop was home.
When we were teenagers, we hunted for small game and also for deer. I killed my first deer when I was in my teens. It was a six point buck and weighted 165 lbs dressed. At that time hunting for deer was a one day season and later went to a three day season. If you killed a deer you were required to call the game warden and report it directly to him. During winter we trapped for skunks, opossum, and raccoon, which help us earn a few extra dollars[3]. Skunks brought five dollars a piece.
We also hunted skunks at night during the fall. We had an empty chicken house where we would keep live skunks and kill them when it got colder. Usually three of us would go hunting. One would carry a couple of burlap bags, and all would have a flashlight. The skunks would be in the fields at night feeding on worms and insects. We would slowly walk in a line when we would come upon a skunk we would shine a light in its eyes. Another brother would hold the bag open and the third brother would circle around behind the skunk and quickly lift it off the ground by the tail. As long as the feet are off the ground, a skunk can not loose its scent. The person holding the skunk would quickly drip it into the bag. The skunk would usually let its scent go in the bag, but no great harm could be done to us. Some nights we would catch three or four skunks in this manner. We would feed them the dead chickens which we had several of each week, since we raised several thousand. After a short time we could go into the room where we kept the skunks but we had to move slowly so we would not startle them. One time we had forty or forty five skunks and had just fed them. Brother David was about three years old at the time and opened the door of the section where we kept the skunks in order to look at the “kitty cats”, but never closed the door upon leaving. Needless to say, every skunk escaped and our work was in vain.
[1] Editor’s Note: Stephen had about 20/800 eye-sight, so this story is amazing. A similar incident occurred when he was in Alaska. In this case, he and the mission boys were in an open skiff when on a whim Stephen shot yet another 22 at a high-flying eagle. It was always of source if sadness that he hit this bird as well. It just goes to show that when surrounded by a group of boy’s and with an opportunity to show-off, he was a pretty good shot.
[2] Editor’s Note: During prohibition, Pop Zdepski was also self-sufficient in the distillation of Rye whiskey. Steve told three stories concerning this industry. Steve was an experienced “still watcher” as earlier as 4 or 5 years old. He sampled the new whiskey and got so drunk he fell asleep at the still. Another incident involved a Revenue agent who was working his way through Kingwood Township looking for illegal stills. A neighbor child spread the warning to the Zdepski farm. Mom Zdepski kept him busy in the kitchen while the children carried and hid the still underneath the bridge near the house. Finally, when Pop Zdepski became a Christian, he smashed all his barrels of Rye. This was to the chagrin of his neighbors. It seems Pop’s Rye was among the best, due to the way he charred his barrels and his patience in waiting for the whiskey to mellow. The neighbors didn’t see the wisdom in spilling the Rye when so many willing souls could have done the same after first passing it through their kidneys.
[3] Editor’s Note: For at least a short time, Steve added catching copper-heads to his money making ventures. These snakes where sold to a herpetologist from Trenton State College. Snakes were also the subject of another story. John, Steve and Mike where rather young boys, with John the oldest in the 6-7 year old range. As they were walking along the road about a mile from home, they happened upon a very large copper-head. They caught the snake and proceeded to carry it home. One boy held the snake behind the head, another the mid-section, and the third the tail. Being so young, their little hands could not apply pressure behind the snakes head for very long. Several times on the way they had to change places on the snake, whenever the boy in front became too fatigued. They dispatched the snake on a brush fire Pop Zdepski was tending behind the house.
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