749 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b36ea683ffe0ff18ddc3b9c0e524353a.mp4 a1c68455e4fc1077111465e6b6515f91 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a0f6e4ec15a110df74f6d1fa1c7aee0e.pdf 40867b0572cb0c49b139f74bda5798b4 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project George Oosterbaan World War II 50 minutes 45 seconds (00:00:15) Early Life -Born in Ellsworth, Michigan on May 17, 1926 -Father had a 200 acre farm -Kept the farm during the Great Depression -Had twelve to fifteen dairy cows, grew potatoes, corn, and red beets -Always had food to eat and clothes on their back during the Great Depression -Only 350 people lived in Ellsworth -Town was dependent on the farms for food -Helped the farms during the Depression -He had an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother -Went to a one room country school house -Didn't go to high school -Dropped out after completing the eighth grade -Worked on the farm until he was sixteen years old and moved (00:03:18) Start of the War -Didn't pay attention to the war before Pearl Harbor -Learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor in school -Didn't realize the gravity of the attack until later -In 1942 or 1943 he moved from Ellsworth to Grand Rapids, Michigan -Had never been any farther than Traverse City or Petoskey -Got a room at the YMCA -Got a job at American Seating -Didn't notice many of the effects of the war (00:04:55) Enlisting in the Navy -Tried to enlist in the Marines in spring 1944 -Thought they had a good uniform -Had a physical and got turned away because he had bad teeth -Enlisted in the Navy in May 1944 (00:05:47) Basic Training & Amphibious Training -Sent to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois for basic training -Given nine days of leave at the end of basic training -Sent to Camp Bradford, Virginia for Amphibious Training -Basic training was a little different -After living independently in the city and on the farm the structure came as a shock -Trained with men from all over the United States -Emphasis on discipline -Went on marches -Had to pass swimming and diving tests �-Instructors helped you if you couldn't swim -Did kitchen patrol (KP) duty -Worked in a pie locker and handed out pies -Basic training was a good experience -Received some firearms training during basic training -Small arms (rifles and pistols) -Basic training lasted five weeks -Amphibious training was a little more difficult -Learned how to fight fires and fire the guns on the amphibious vehicles -Amphibious training only lasted two weeks -Needed replacements in the South Pacific (00:08:55) Joining the Crew of the LST 720 -Sent to Navy Pier in Chicago -Stayed there for eight days -Sent to Jeffersonville, Indiana to pick up LST (Landing Ship Tank) 720 in August 1944 -Sailed the LST 720 down the Ohio River to Louisville, Kentucky -Sailed down the Mississippi River and went on the Gulf of Mexico -Went on a two week shakedown cruise -Ran into the banks of the Mississippi River a few times -Sailed near the coast -Practiced beaching the ship (00:11:03) Deployment to Pacific Theatre -Went to Gulfport, Mississippi -Loaded with food and a Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) -The LST 720 was 380 feet long and 50 feet wide -Had a crew of 140-150 men in combat and 80-90 men while out of combat -Sailed to the Panama Canal -Got liberty there -It was all new to them -Ordered to sail for Brisbane, Australia -Their orders were changed for the New Hebrides islands -Crossed the Equator -Went through the King Neptune Ceremony -Before crossing the Equator he was a "Pollywog" -After crossing the Equator he was a "Shellback" -Ceremony took a full day -Had their head shaved down the middle -No silverware for the day -Arrived in the New Hebrides in late 1944 -Launched the LCVP and brought food to New Guinea -Took 33 days to get there (00:15:45) Sailing to the Philippines -Collected Army personnel in the New Hebrides and sailed for the Philippines -Part of a convoy -On February 3, 1945 one of the LSTs got hit with three torpedoes -Note: Possibly January 3, 1945 based on other dates �-The rear third of the ship sank in a matter of minutes -166 soldiers and sailors were killed -Convoy had to keep going, but the escorts rescued the survivors -Japanese submarines were still a threat -One night, at 2 AM, a destroyer picked up a Japanese submarine on radar -Submarine was right next to LST 720 -Destroyer used depth charges and the explosions almost knocked him out of bed -Had to deal with kamikazes the closer they got to the Philippines (00:18:46) Philippines Campaign -LST had huge doors on the front -Pulled up to shore, opened the doors, and dropped the ramp -Allowed vehicles and troops to go right onto the beach -Lingayen Gulf was their D-Day -Landings happened during January 4 through January 18, 1945 -Sailed around the Philippines transporting troops and supplies -Went to Leyte Gulf -Stopped in Manila, but couldn't explore the city -City was still being fought over -Got into Manila in April 1945 -Got to see the city then -City was in ruins -Received well by the Filipinos -Sailed to Subic Bay in Luzon -Sailed back and forth between Leyte and Luzon through the summer of 1945 -Made stops in Finschhafen, New Guinea; Panay, Philippines; and Hollandia, New Guinea (00:21:45) End of the War -In Leyte on August 12, 1945 -Had been following the news of the Battle of Okinawa -In Leyte when they heard news about the atomic bombs being dropped -All of the ships shot in the air in celebration -Some men got wounded by the falling shells -Knew that this signalled the end of the war -Knew they were going to invade Japan if the bombs hadn't been dropped -Knew the invasion would have been far worse than Okinawa (00:23:56) Post-War Duty Pt. 1 -Men were released on the point system -Needed 85 points to get discharged -Points were given based on length of service, rank, combat, and dependents -Three quarters of the crew were young, single, and had no children -Meant it would take the men longer to get discharged and get home -Stayed in the western Pacific for six months -Brought Chinese slave laborers from Japan back to China -Brought Japanese soldiers and their families from China back to Japan �-Took supplies to Korea -Got along well with the Japanese soldiers and Chinese laborers -Soldiers were happy that the war was over -Stopped in Okinawa -Had to watch out for the mines laid around Japan -Destroyed four or five of them -Able to destroy them with a rifle -Stopped in Sasebo, Japan on December 7, 1945 -Pulled into port next to a warehouse filled with Japanese rifles -Each sailor got to take home a brand new rifle -Went ashore in China a lot -Very depressing environment -Received well by the Chinese civilians -Stopped in Shanghai in February 1946 -Got to explore the city -Good to get your feet on dry land (00:29:42) End of Service & Coming Home Pt. 1 -On March 3, 1946 they stopped in Hong Kong -Received orders to return to the U.S. -Crew got to go ashore in the city -Sailed to Tsingtao, China to pick up some Japanese soldiers and bring them back to Japan -Sailed from Japan to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in April 1946 (00:31:15) Post-War Duty Pt. 2 -Stopped in Qinhuangdao, China another time before the time at the end of their service -Brought supplies and American soldiers up the Shihe River -Went back and got American marines and brought them up the river to join the soldiers -Marines were disappointed that soldiers got there before them -Stopped in Inchon, Korea on another occasion -Sailed into a river that had a 28 foot tide every 12 hours -Constantly had to adjust the ship's position so they didn't run aground -Bringing supplies into Korea -Preparing for a possible future conflict on the Korean Peninsula (00:34:37) End of Service & Coming Home Pt. 2 -Got to Pearl Harbor on April 29, 1946 and left on May 5, 1946 -Saw a Hula Show in Pearl Harbor -Could still see the sunken ships and damage from the bombing in 1941 -Sailed up to Bremerton, Washington -Stayed there from May 16 through June 7, 1946 -Getting ready to decommission the ship -Held on the ship for a few weeks because a few men on the ship stole some pistols -Never found out who took the guns -LST 720 was eventually taken to a scrap yard after it was decommissioned and cut up -Took the ship to Pier 42 in Seattle then to Burrows Bay, Washington �-Ship was decommissioned on June 24, 1946 -Took a train back to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois to get discharged in late June 1946 -Crew of LST 720 was brought into a room -Told to take two steps forward if they wanted to reenlist for two years -The entire crew took a step back as a sign that they didn't want to reenlist (00:37:44) Duties Aboard the LST 720 -Learned how to be a helmsman during the shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico -In combat he was assigned to a 20mm gun -Received his training on the job (00:38:25) Life after the War -Discharged in late June 1946 -Given a free ride back to Grand Rapids -Given an extra $500 by the Navy -Went into Grand Rapids and bought a 1936 Ford -Went to the Ionia Free Fair -Returned to Ellsworth and worked on his brother's dairy farm for two years -Returned to Grand Rapids -Drove a semi-truck for a year -Transporting furniture all over the country -Met his wife through an old friend -Married for 59 years as of 2015 -Had four children -Had a very good life with her -Got a job running machines for Blackmer on Century Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan -Made pumps -Worked a machine there for nine years -Got promoted to supervisor and worked as a machine shop supervisor for 22 years -Benefited from the insurance provided by the Veterans' Administration (00:42:48) 2015 Talons Out Honor Flight -Participated in the May 2015 Talons Out Honor Flight -Enjoyed the trip -Night before the flight got treated to a dinner at Thousand Oaks Golf Club -Got up at 4 AM and reported to Gerald Ford International Airport at 5:30 AM -Got served breakfast before the flight -Boarded the plane at 7 AM and got to Washington D.C. at 8:30 AM -Got to ride in a chartered bus and had a police escort -Saw the Air Force Memorial -Saw Arlington Cemetery -Most powerful experience for him during the trip was seeing the rows of graves -Saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -Saw the Vietnam War Memorial -Saw the Korean War Memorial -Saw the World War II Memorial �-Had a wall of 4,048 gold stars, each star representing 100 Americans killed in action (00:49:37) Reflections on Service -Went into the service as a wild teenager and came out mature -Got discipline -Glad that he was in the Navy and in the war � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_OosterbaanG1867V Title A name given to the resource Oosterbaan, George (Interview outline and video), 2015 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource George Oosterbaan was born on May 17, 1926 in Ellsworth, Michigan. In 1942 (or 1943) he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and in May 1944 he enlisted in the Navy. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois then went to Camp Bradford, Virginia for Amphibious Training. He went to Jeffersonville, Indiana and joined the crew of LST 720 and sailed to the Gulf of Mexico for the ship's shakedown cruise. In late 1944 they sailed to the Pacific Theatre and operated around the New Hebrides until sailing to the Philippines in 1945. He took part in the Battle of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945 and supply operations around the Philippines until the surrender of Japan in August 1945. After the war he stayed with crew of LST 720 and sailed around China, Korea, and Japan helping transport liberated Chinese slave laborers and Japanese soldiers back to their home countries. In spring 1946 they sailed for the U.S. and arrived in Bremerton, Washington in May 1946. The ship was decommissioned in June 1946 and he was sent back to Great Lakes Naval Station in late June and got discharged there. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oosterbaan, George Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jones, Adam (Interviewer Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6319b3b7cf764c79030db677055c6ce6.mp4 d4c1957ec3c69803688930e1256939d7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a5fb2d2991ac53905fad4aa0aaaaaa74.pdf c44173c261a07fc038aec5f13e7040e2 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Raymond Paul Opeka (01:23:54) (00:20) Background Information • Raymond was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1856 • His mother was an accountant and his father worked in a factory • When Ray was only 17 years old he got his mother’s permission to leave high school early and join the Army • He felt obligated to join the Army while many others around him were being drafted • There were many minorities and poor people being drafted, while middle and upper class whites seemed to avoid the draft • Raymond also felt very lucky to have been born in the US and wanted to fight for all his freedoms (07:25) Basic Infantry Training 6 Weeks • Raymond flew to Louisiana and then took a bus to Fort Polk • He stayed in a very old barracks that was “mosquito infested” and “very unpleasant” • No one washed out during training because there were not enough men in the Army • Some men got caught trying to kill or harm others, or selling drugs, but they still remained in training • Raymond did very badly at some of the training courses and should have failed them, but the sergeant would change his scores around so that he would pass • 75% of the soldiers were doing “soft drugs” and about 10% were doing “hard drugs” (17:55) Advanced Infantry Training • Here Raymond began working more with weapons, tactical situations, and patrolling • He still did poorly in his training, but the Army was still short on men • Raymond flunked many physical tests, but did well with grenade launchers and land navigation • The drill sergeants were not as mean to the men during training as others might have been during the Korean War or WWII because they had realized that the majority of the men did not want to be there • The Army needed to learn to conform to the people that it was training • He was in advanced training for 6 weeks and then waited around for a week to be stationed overseas (23:55) Germany • Raymond spent a few days living in a castle while stationed near an air base in Frankfurt • He was assigned to the 8th Infantry Division and lived in an old barracks that SS Troops had stayed in during WWII �In Germany they continued infantry combat training at squad, platoon and company level • The German civilians were very nice and gave the Americans bread and wine • They were always short on supplies, equipment, weapons, and food (37:40) Cold War • The Russians that were stationed in East Germany had better equipment then the Americans in Germany and there were many more Russians • Raymond never felt that the Russians would attack in Germany because the majority of the country had been working with the Americans • Germany had many well disciplined troops • The US troops were very unmotivated and had negative morale (43:40) Negative Morale • Raymond felt great pressure to do drugs and even greater pressure to avoid them; he had been taught well in school that they were bad for you • He did not want to do drugs and become like all the other men around him • There were many soldiers on LSD while they were on duty with loaded weapons guarding missiles • There were many race riots within the Army and as well as within the civilians around them • They had segregated bars for Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Southern Whites, Urban Blacks…. • Sometimes racist people would go into a bar where they were not welcome just to start a fight • The fights would get so out of hand that they could not be stopped by the MPs or the German Police; they would have to call in the Post Guard Company • Raymond never turned anyone in himself for being racist or on drugs because he also felt that those same men were watching his back (01:02:30) Homosexuality in the Military • Raymond knew of 2 or 3 men that he was working with that were gay • He knew a special forces sergeant that had been working in his position for 12 years • The sergeant told him he would expect sexual favors for special training and promotion, but Raymond told him he was not interested • He could tell that others were gay, but they did not bother him if they did not cause a scene • The German Army allowed homosexuals to enlist • Raymond now feels that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a reasonable policy (01:10:15) Air Defense in Northern Germany • Raymond was working in a base with about only 25 Americans and 400 Germans • There were still a few Germans in the North that were into Hitler • He was able to go to Catholic Mass on Sunday • They spent some weekends and holidays with German civilians and had to be on the lookout for spies • The Greek military had tried to invade Cyprus in 1974 and his unit was brought to the Ramstein Air Base to remain on alert in case of being sent to Cyprus (01:21:20) Discharged • �• • • Raymond had been looking forward to being done with his service and going to college He was not asked to re-enlist because he was in such poor physical condition Raymond went to school for business administration and received his bachelor’s degree from Kent State University in Ohio � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OpekaR Title A name given to the resource Opeka, Raymond (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Opeka, Raymond Description An account of the resource Raymond Paul Opeka was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1956. He convinced his mother to give him written permission to join the Army before he graduated from high school. He was sent to Fort Polk for basic training where he did very poorly on many of the physical tests and activities, and in the advanced training. Opeka was able to remain in the Army at that time because of the shortage of enlisted men. Raymond was sent to Germany, where he continued training. Many of the men he was stationed with were doing lots of drugs and there were also many racial fights. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission (Kentwood, Mich.) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-09-04 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1e9deee3f2cc4b49095d8cf78c4b9711.mp4 5cdbf181680e9d6f5e05fcf2b59f59c6 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cac3d83eea493cdbee1b92b1b7541a48.pdf ff5774227fc072b6e558ef35953f2d95 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Roger Oppenhuizen Vietnam War Interview Length: (01:06:25:00) Pre-enlistment / Training (00:00:32:00)  Oppenhuizen was born in inner-city Grand Rapids, Michigan and lived there until he finished college and married, at which point he moved away (00:00:32:00) o Oppenhuizen attended Christian schools all the way through high school then attended Grand Rapids Junior College before going to Western Michigan University to earn his bachelors degree (00:00:47:00) o While Oppenhuizen was growing up, his father worked at a number of different jobs, including in a meat market and selling cars (00:01:09:00) o There were five children total in Oppenhuizen’s family, with Oppenhuizen having an older brother and three younger sisters (00:01:28:00) o Oppenhuizen’s father had served in Germany during World War II (00:01:38:00)  Oppenhuizen graduated from high school in 1964 (00:01:52:00) o After graduating from high school, Oppenhuizen’s first goal was to go to college but at the same time, he kept looking over his shoulder because he knew the draft was going on (00:02:07:00)  During the time Oppenhuizen was in college, the draft boards carefully monitored all the eligible men who were in college (00:02:40:00)  While Oppenhuizen was in junior college, he dropped one course, placing his credits hours one hour under the limit for a full-time student, thus classifying him as a part-time student (00:02:45:00) o Within a month, Oppenhuizen had a notice for his draft physical because he was a part-time student (00:03:02:00) o When Oppenhuizen went to Detroit for his physical, there were other men trying everything they could to get a classification other than 1A, which meant they were physically able to be drafted (00:03:24:00)  However, most of the time, the doctors giving the physicals passed the men anyway (00:03:36:00)  As soon as Oppenhuizen returned from Detroit, he appealed the decision and when he explained that he was planning to take an extra class the following semester so he could still graduate within the four-year limit, the draft board relented (00:03:46:00) o Oppenhuizen finally graduated from Western Michigan University in June 1968, which meant he made it under the four-year threshold imposed by the draft board, although when Oppenhuizen had appealed their decision early, the draft board had given him until August to graduate (00:04:12:00)  After graduating, Oppenhuizen knew he was going to receive his draft notice because he had already been called in twice for physicals (00:04:34:00) �  o After looking at the situation, Oppenhuizen decided he wanted to use his accounting major to find a finance position in military instead of joining the infantry (00:04:44:00)  Therefore, Oppenhuizen enlisted in OCS (Officer Candidate School) intending to become an officer and getting into finance (00:04:59:00) o Three days after he had chosen to enlist in OCS, Oppenhuizen received his draft notice (00:05:10:00) Most of the people who were drafted from Michigan went to Fort Knox, Kentucky for their basic training but because Oppenhuizen enlisted directly into OCS, the Army sent him to Fort Dix, New Jersey (00:05:28:00) o Oppenhuizen reported to Fort Dix the day after Thanksgiving and started basic training (00:05:40:00) o Oppenhuizen was lucky that he went to Fort Dix when he did because although most men went through their basic training in one whole shot, Fort Dix closed for a week around Christmas, so Oppenhuizen was able to go home for the week before finishing his basic training (00:05:48:00) o Although the basic training program at Fort Dix was not geared towards men enlisting into OCS, they were the type of men who went through it (00:06:13:00)  The program consisted of learning the basics of military exercises and formations and learning to follow orders (00:06:23:00)  The drill instructors were “tough as nails” but Oppenhuizen learned that he just had to roll with the punches; Oppenhuizen had already made up his mind that it was going to be rough and he knew that the drill instructors were only doing their jobs (00:06:40:00)  Oppenhuizen believes that the drill instructors were fair, treating everyone the same (00:07:04:00) o Every so often, someone would screw up, but the drill instructors did not punish the whole group, only the individual (00:07:11:00)  Oppenhuizen believes that most of the other men he was training with were just barely out of high school while he was just out of college, which meant he was several years older than all of them (00:07:27:00)  Most of the men came from the area around Fort Dix, the lower part of the Northeast (00:07:38:00)  Although there was ethnic diversity amongst the soldiers, Oppenhuizen would say that the majority of the men were either Caucasian-American or African-American (00:07:48:00) o Oppenhuizen encountered a larger number of men who were Puerto Rican-Americans when he attended his advanced training (00:08:08:00) Once Oppenhuizen completed his basic training, the Army sent him to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (00:08:14:00) o By the time he reached Fort Leonard Wood, Oppenhuizen had realized that everything in the Army operated around a quota system and a lot of the time, regardless of what a soldier’s background was, he was a number and could be used to fill up an empty slot (00:08:19:00) �     o Fort Leonard Wood was home to the Combat Engineers Advanced Training course and Oppenhuizen spent eight weeks in the course, being taught how to be a combat engineer (00:08:46:00)  The training included: learning how to build airstrips out of eight-foot metal strips hooked together, learning how to build temporary bridges for soldiers and equipment to cross over, learning how both place and disarm land mines and booby traps, etc. (00:08:58:00)  All of the training was geared towards situations that the soldiers might encounter in Vietnam (00:09:26:00)  In regards to the booby traps, the training was much more generic and did not focus on all the individual traps that the soldiers might encounter in Vietnam (00:09:39:00)  In eight weeks, the instructors did not have much time to focus on specifics, spending only a couple of days on each topic before moving to another (00:09:45:00) o Oppenhuizen thought life at Fort Leonard Wood was a little bit easier because by then, he was used to life in the military and had gotten into a regiment for what he needed to do every day (00:10:01:00) o Oppenhuizen was allowed to go off-base and at one point, when former President Eisenhower passed away, all the soldiers were given the weekend off, so Oppenhuizen took a flight home from St. Louis to Grand Rapids (00:10:20:00) Oppenhuizen married his fiancée after he finished his advanced training but before he deployed to Vietnam (00:10:58:00) The advanced training course lasted for another eight weeks and once he finished the training, Oppenhuizen received orders to go to OCS; although he had hoped to go to the finance OCS, Oppenhuizen instead received orders to report to Fort Benning, Georgia for Infantry OCS (00:11:08:00) o Oppenhuizen looked at the orders as a further nine months of additional training to become an officer then an immediate deployment to Vietnam and questioned if he wanted to go through that all (00:11:34:00) o At the time, Oppenhuizen had the option of refusing the orders to OCS and instead going wherever the Army sent him, which was the option he chose (00:11:45:00) After refusing to go to OCS, Oppenhuizen was immediately sent to Vietnam as a combat engineer, which was not much better then going as an infantry officer (00:11:56:00) Before deploying to Vietnam, Oppenhuizen was allowed to go home for a couple of days before reporting to Oakland, California (00:12:29:00) o Most of the time, whenever he traveled, Oppenhuizen wore his uniform because in those days, airlines gave half-price fares in standby to any military personnel who were in uniform (00:12:52:00) Prior to actually deploying to Vietnam, Oppenhuizen did not know too much about the war in Vietnam or the anti-war movement in the United States (00:13:30:00) o When Oppenhuizen was in college, he was busy both studying and working, which meant he did not pay too much attention to what was happening with the war effort (00:13:33:00) � o Once he went to basic training and advanced training, Oppenhuizen did not hear anything because he and the other soldiers were kept completely out of the news loop (00:13:42:00)  Oppenhuizen would occasionally catch bits and pieces of news, enough to know about both the war and the anti-war movement (00:13:48:00) o At the time, Oppenhuizen felt that the war was appropriate; the President had said that the United States needed to fight and it was Oppenhuizen and the other soldiers’ duty to do the fighting (00:14:10:00) Once in Oakland, Oppenhuizen boarded an airplane to fly to Vietnam, although he found it interesting that once the flight initially left Oakland, it flew to Fairbanks, Alaska before going to Vietnam (00:14:33:00) o After a fifteen hour journey, the flight landed in Vietnam; although Oppenhuizen does not remember where exactly in Vietnam the flight landed, he remembers that it was close to Saigon (00:15:02:00) o The flight to Vietnam was on a commercial Pan-Am jet airplane filled with 310 soldiers deploying to Vietnam (00:15:20:00)  The mood on the flight was fairly quiet, with all the men wondering what was going to happen and where exactly they would be going once they were in Vietnam (00:15:29:00) Vietnam (00:15:45:00)  Oppenhuizen arrived in Vietnam in May 1969 (00:15:45:00)  Once Oppenhuizen arrived in Vietnam, he went through in-processing, although he had no idea what was going to happen or where he was going to be going (00:15:56:00) o Again, the numbers game popped up and at one point, the request was made for a certain number of personnel to join an engineer group stationed in the Mekong Delta (00:16:04:00) o Oppenhuizen happened to be in the group that was selected to go to the Mekong Delta and once the groups’ in-processing was finished, they were all flown to Can Tho, which was the headquarters of the 35th Engineer Battalion (00:16:23:00) o Oppenhuizen spent another day processing through the 35th Engineers, after which he and three other soldiers were in the back of a deuce-and-a-half truck with supplies headed to “D” Company in Soc Trang, which was fifty miles away from Can Tho (00:16:50:00)  The only impression Oppenhuizen really remembers of when he first arrived in Vietnam was of how the tarmac around the airplane was full of storage containers and looked like a major supply area (00:17:41:00)  The countryside Oppenhuizen and the other soldiers saw as they went out to their company was neither jungle or city; instead, it was a mixture of trees, fields, and small collections of tiny huts (00:18:18:00) o Oppenhuizen noticed that the road the truck was driving on was similar to a gravel road in the United States (00:18:34:00) o Oppenhuizen only saw a handful of rice paddies during the trip from Can Tho to Soc Trang (00:18:47:00) o Most of the time, the road between Can Tho and Soc Trang ran alongside a river, when the road did veer away from the river, it quickly returned (00:18:50:00) �   “D” Company was located on the south end of Soc Trang and although with their sister company, “A” Company, helped form part of the perimeter of an airbase (00:19:17:00) o The engineers slept in eight-man tents while the personnel on the airbase itself typically had nicer living quarters (00:19:44:00) o Although there were bunkers designated for the company to use, there were also two rows of sandbags stacked four feet high, effectively creating a trench around the entire perimeter of the airbase (00:20:08:00)  At preset intervals in the sandbag trench, guard stations were built out of sandbags as well and they too acted as bunkers (00:20:28:00) o A couple of feet outside the sandbags were a couple of layers of rolled concertina wire that would take a lot of work for the enemy to get through (00:20:36:00)  Claymore mines where then periodically placed on the outside of the concertina wire (00:20:53:00) o The engineers were the only military forces guarding the perimeter of the airbase (00:21:02:00)  Nevertheless, the engineers felt fairly safe because the airbase was an assault helicopter airbase, which meant there was a large contingent of helicopters always on the base (00:21:06:00)  During the day, there was never much trouble but a couple of times at night, the enemy would attack the perimeter (00:21:17:00)  Apart from the engineers who were always manning the sandbag bunkers on the perimeter, the airbase itself had a couple of larger towers that guards would be placed in (00:21:24:00)  The minute the guards spotted anything, they called it in and the two helicopters were always on standby would be in the sky within minutes (00:21:38:00)  Once the two helicopters were circling the perimeter, if they saw anything suspicious, they opened fire (00:21:51:00)  The enemy attacks mostly came from snipers (00:22:14:00) Oppenhuizen did not receive much in the way of a reception when he joined the company; when he arrived, Oppenhuizen walked into the orderly room, signed in, and was assigned to the 1st Platoon (00:22:23:00) o When the platoon came off the road that day, Oppenhuizen met the rest of the soldiers and the next day, he too was ready to go to work (00:22:37:00) Both “A” Company and “D” Company were working on building a highway because they had been attached to a construction group (00:22:51:00) o The highway had the designation of QL-4 and although Oppenhuizen originally thought the highway only ran from Can Tho to Soc Trang, later on, he found out that the highway from all the way from Saigon through Soc Trang and on to the tip of the Mekong Delta (00:23:10:00) o The goal of the project was to build a two-lane, paved highway out of a preexisting gravel road (00:23:33:00)  The purpose of the project was two-fold: Oppenhuizen initially assumed construction of the road was meant to help the local population move about but later research showed the second purpose of the highway was �o o o o moving military supplies and equipment back and forth between Saigon and the Mekong Delta (00:23:42:00) Building the highway was not an easy task because most of the area was at least eight inches below sea level, which meant there were stabilization issues (00:24:15:00)  To solve the problem, the engineers crushed rocks into certain, predetermined sizes and began stacking them, beginning with the largest rocks as a base and ending with the smallest rocks (00:24:28:00)  In the areas where the stabilization was really tough, the engineers used powdered cement and lime, which they stuffed between the cracks in the layers of rocks; once the mixture was wet, it would harden and help hold the rocks together (00:24:53:00) Once the roadbed was stabilized, the engineers would bring in asphalt machines to set a layer of asphalt over the top of the rocks (00:25:09:00) During the first three months Oppenhuizen was there, he was stuck in the platoon that had the job of off-loading the rocks (00:25:16:00)  The engineers used several quarries, with the largest to the north, closer to Saigon, and they would load barges full of rocks, float them down the Saigon River, into the ocean, then up the Mekong river to where the engineers were working on the highway, a little village call Phun Tao, which was halfway between Can Tho and Soc Trang (00:25:29:00)  Every day, Oppenhuizen’s platoon had to drive to Vung Tau, where there was an off-loading site for the barges and unload the barges, stockpiling the rock that they took off (00:25:57:00)  Eventually, the Army decided the engineers could not waste any of the materials and the crane Oppenhuizen’s platoon used to unload the barges often left rocks behind, so Oppenhuizen’s platoon had to follow behind the crane using shovels to pick up the excess (00:26:28:00)  The temperatures were often over 100°, so the engineers would have to work and rest in intervals (00:26:53:00)  The engineers often became dehydrated but they could not drink the local water, so the Army supplied them with trucks loads of pop, either 7-Up or Coca-Cola (00:27:09:00) o However, because there was no ice, the pop was always warm; nevertheless, although the pop was warm, it was wet and the engineers drank it by the gallons (00:27:21:00)  Although they wore hats to keep the sun from beating down of them, the engineers still sweated profusely (00:27:36:00)  The engineers often prayed for the monsoons to come so that there would be rain (00:27:44:00) o Every so often, it would rain and the men would just stand in it because it felt good (00:27:48:00) The area where the engineers were building the highway was pretty quiet in regards to enemy activity because the South Vietnamese ARVNs had a large contingent of soldiers stationed in Vung Tau (00:28:02:00) �   The Army had set up a deal with the ARVNs that their forces would heavily patrol the town while the engineers built the road (00:28:15:00)  At the end of the day, most of the engineers returned to their compound, leaving three engineers behind to guard all the heavy equipment that the engineers used (00:28:28:00)  Oppenhuizen had the guard duty a couple of times during his first couple of months in Vietnam and those times were very nervewracking and risky because the closest American forces were thirty miles away in either direction and the engineers were relying on the South Vietnamese forces (00:28:38:00)  For the most part, the ARVN patrols focused on the river out of fear that mines would be floated down the river by the enemy to explode underneath the bridge (00:29:58:00) The South Vietnamese, both civilian and military, tended to ignore Oppenhuizen and the other engineers working in the village (00:30:52:00) o Because of the location where they had to unload the barges, the engineers had to drive down and under the bridge, which largely shielded them from the South Vietnamese; as well, the entire area was fenced off (00:30:55:00)  Oppenhuizen and most of the other engineers did not actually have too much contact with the South Vietnamese; for the most part, if any contact did happen, it was between the leaders, such as the first sergeant or the platoon leaders (00:31:34:00) o On the other hand, on the base at Soc Trang, there were South Vietnamese girls who would come in the morning and clean the engineers’ tents, do the engineers’ laundry, etc. and would leaving in the late afternoon (00:31:54:00)  All the girls had proper identification and they needed to check in and out at the gate every time they went on or off the base (00:32:21:00)  In addition to the girls, the Army also hired several young men to work on the base burning the human waste from the latrines (00:32:34:00) o Oppenhuizen and the other engineers were allowed to freely go into Soc Trang, which was a fairly good-sized town (00:33:07:00)  However, the Army warned the engineers not to drink any of the local beer or water because it had not been sterilized (00:33:16:00) The Army also warned the engineers against taking drugs, which was a major problem in the military in general, with marijuana being the most prevalent in the area where Oppenhuizen was stationed (00:33:53:00) o On some occasions, engineers took the military scrip that was only supposed to be used by military personnel and used the scrip to pay off the South Vietnamese workers to bring the marijuana to the base the following day (00:34:05:00) o Some of the engineers used drugs quite frequently while others did so only occasionally (00:34:27:00)  During one time, it was very early in the morning and all the men in Oppenhuizen’s tent were asleep when one of the other men in the tent came running in, turned on the lights, and told everyone to get going or else he was going to shoot them all (00:34:34:00) �   It took a couple of guys to wrestle the man to the ground, after which the man was hauled away (00:34:57:00) o Overall, Oppenhuizen does not believe the drug use made too much of a different in the performance of his unit was a whole because there were only a few drug users and they were often the poorer performers to begin with (00:35:17:00) Overall, the morale of Oppenhuizen’s unit was fairly good (00:35:42:00) o When Oppenhuizen first arrived in the unit, a couple of the other men were already serving their second or third tour in Vietnam (00:35:46:00)  Oppenhuizen could tell that these were the more downtrodden men in the unit and that they were just going through the motions (00:35:53:00) Eventually, working at unloading the barges became old hat for Oppenhuizen and one day, the First Sergeant called Oppenhuizen into his office to ask if Oppenhuizen would come into the office to take over for the operations sergeant, who was going on a sevenday leave (00:36:29:00) o The First Sergeant said the reason he picked Oppenhuizen to fill the position was because Oppenhuizen was the only person in his unit who was a college graduate; there were a couple of other men in the unit who were high school graduates but the bulk were high school drop-outs (00:37:00:00) o Oppenhuizen said he would gladly take the position, so he came off of working on the road and spent a week learning the operations sergeant’s job, coordinating the unit’s operations (00:37:23:00) o When the normal operations sergeant came back from his leave, he took his job back and Oppenhuizen had the options of either going back to work on the road or looking for another opening (00:37:37:00) o The First Sergeant said in a month, the company clerk was going on R&R in a month and when the First Sergeant asked if Oppenhuizen could type, Oppenhuizen said could (00:37:44:00)  The First Sergeant told Oppenhuizen to just stay in the office and work with the clerk for a month to learn his job and when the clerk went on R&R, Oppenhuizen could fill the position (00:38:09:00)  Then, once the clerk came back, Oppenhuizen would just stay in the office because a month after his R&R, the current clerk was rotating back to the United States (00:38:18:00) o When he worked as the operations sergeant, Oppenhuizen had to track every operation that the company did or was a part of (00:38:42:00)  Apart from Oppenhuizen’s old platoon, which unloaded the barges, the other platoons in the company worked on the actual highway, building the road (00:38:51:00)  The operations sergeant stayed in radio contact with the men on the road in case they needed supplies as well as had the men make a daily report as to how much they had accomplished that day (00:39:03:00) o The company clerk’s job was multi-faceted, with the largest job being in the morning, when he had to create a daily morning report (00:39:27:00)  The morning report had to be typed and could not have more than two mistakes, from a smudge to a typeover to an erasure mark (00:39:38:00) �   If there were more than two mistakes, the clerk had to rip up the report and start again, doing the report as many times as necessary until he got it right (00:39:50:00)  The morning report tracked the company and was how the military kept track of all their personnel (00:40:05:00)  In every report, the clerk had to list all the personnel in the company and where individuals were if they were not with the company, such as being on R&R or on leave, being at battalion headquarters, etc. (00:40:14:00) o When someone new joined the company or someone left the company, the clerk to document the change in the report; if someone was on leave, then the clerk had to put down that person’s orders that said where they were going and their time, both in and out (00:40:36:00)  Once the clerk completed the report, it was sent to the battalion headquarters, where it was complied with all the other units into the battalion in another report, which was sent by noon to a higherranking unit (00:40:55:00)  Apart from doing the morning report, the clerk also typed various letters and helped track activities (00:40:14:00)  In mid-afternoon, the clerk had to go to the airbase to pick up the mail, which he then sorted and waited for the others to return to the compound at supper time before delivering it (00:40:25:00) o Oppenhuizen would take a duffel bag to pick up the mail with and would normally return with around half the bag full (00:41:49:00)  In the time that Oppenhuizen was there, the company never numbered more than a little over one hundred men total (00:42:09:00) Oppenhuizen tried to write home whenever he had a chance to; conversely, Oppenhuizen received letters from home every so often as well as a couple of care packages, which were really nice (00:42:18:00)  However, on several occasions, there were leftover care packages that other soldiers either did not claim or did not want and Oppenhuizen was able to take those as well (00:42:44:00) The company had a mess hall that was pretty good and the mess sergeant in the company had a knack for trading supplies (00:43:10:00) o Being where they were in Soc Trang, the company was almost at the end of the line in terms of supplies, which meant the company did not receive too much in the way of supplies and food (00:43:20:00) o Periodically, the mess sergeant took trips to Saigon and other places to trade and would return with several boxes of steak, so that on several Sunday afternoons, the men in the company would sit outside and grill steaks (00:43:39:00) o Apart from the mess hall, the men had built a small hooch that they put a bar in and they were able to get a little bit of beer and alcohol (00:44:03:00)  However, the men could only visit the “bar” at night, after they were finished working for the day (00:44:29:00) �     The personnel working on the airbase were totally separate from the engineers and the engineers never socially went onto the airbase and vice versa (00:44:47:00) o At times, some of the engineers went onto the airbase, such as Oppenhuizen when he went to pick up the mail and when the engineers would go to get water from a purifying machine that the Air Force personnel had (00:45:25:00) Very few people visited the airbase because the airbase was at the “end of the line”, although once or twice, the battalion commander did visit (00:46:46:00) o Conversely, most the men never went anywhere else in Vietnam; the supply men often had to travel to Can Tho to pick up the supplies for the unit (00:47:31:00) The best the majority of the men could do in-country was get a three-hour pass to go into Soc Trang; outside of that, they only had their R&Rs and seven-day leaves; each man received one week-long R&R and one seven-day leave (00:47:46:00) o Oppenhuizen took his R&R in January and went to Hawaii, where he met up with his wife and spent a week with her (00:48:30:00) o Later, in May, Oppenhuizen took a seven-day leave to Japan and visited the 1970 World's Fair (00:48:48:00)  When he flew to Japan, Oppenhuizen and some other men were dropped off at an airbase just outside Tokyo and were told that the first thing they had to do was get rid of their military uniforms (00:49:09:00)  The men were told to travel in civilian clothes because there were anti-war movements in Japan that were similar to the movements happening in the United States (00:49:20:00)  From the airbase, Oppenhuizen boarded a bus that took him to downtown Tokyo and dropped him off at the USO club there (00:49:36:00)  Inside the USO club, Oppenhuizen picked up a stack of flashcards with English on one side and Japanese on the other; once outside, Oppenhuizen could hold up the card to hail a taxi (00:49:45:00)  Oppenhuizen took a taxi to the train station, boarded a bullet train and three hours later, was in Osaka, where the World’s Fair was (00:49:57:00)  Oppenhuizen spent a couple of nights in Osaka and went through the entire World’s Fair before returning to Tokyo (00:50:09:00) When Oppenhuizen returned to Vietnam from his leave to Japan, it was getting close to his tour ending (00:50:21:00) o As the end neared, Oppenhuizen had a decision to make because at that time, if someone returned from Vietnam with less than five months remaining on their enlistment, the Army would grant the person an early discharge (00:50:26:00)  Conversely, if someone had more than five months, they had to serve all the remaining time stateside (00:50:42:00) o If Oppenhuizen returned in the mid-May, there were seven months remaining on his enlistment, so he voluntarily extended his tour in Vietnam for an additional two months; thus, when he returned home, he would have exactly five months remaining on his enlistment and he could get out of the military (00:50:48:00)  Oppenhuizen had a fairly safe job and he was working in a pretty decent routine doing work that he felt comfortable with (00:51:13:00) Oppenhuizen and the other men were not too aware of what was happening in other parts of Vietnam or back in the United States (00:51:40:00) �    o The men occasionally received newspapers and they would read the stories in there but that was the extent of it (00:51:44:00) o Oppenhuizen and the other men did not really have a sense of how the overall war effort was going or what was happening because the main part of the war effort was in the north and the men were in no way connected with it (00:51:56:00) o Although the men did occasionally have problems with enemy insurgents, it was isolated incidents (00:52:26:00)  Most of the time, the men paved several miles of road and the following day, would be driving over the new section and would find a massive hole in the middle of road with landmines in the bottom (00:52:34:00)  The men would have to disarm the mines before filling to hole in and repaving the road (00:53:08:00) o The area around the airbase had been hit earlier in the war, specifically during the 1966/1967 enemy operations (00:53:31:00) o Oppenhuizen believes the fact that the airbase was an attack helicopter airbase helped in some way deter whatever enemy forces might have been in the area from attacking the base (00:54:36:00)  There was always a constant stream of helicopters taking and landing at the base that started in the morning and continued throughout the rest of the day (00:54:55:00) Oppenhuizen does not believe there were any racial tensions amongst the soldiers, most of which was kept under control (00:55:26:00) o There were not a lot of African-Americans in the unit to begin with but those that were mingled with the other men, regardless of skin color (00:55:46:00) Oppenhuizen thought quite highly of both the officers and the NCOs leading the company; they did a pretty good job, tried very hard to keep peace and order amongst the rest of the men, kept the men busy but did not place too great of demands on them, and tried to give the men as much leeway as they possibly could (00:56:04:00) o Because they were still in a combat zone, the officers and NCOs could not be too strict, but they had to be strict enough when times and situations warranted it (00:56:31:00) Oppenhuizen believes that overall, his unit did a really good job, not only working on the road but keeping all the equipment maintained and running properly (00:56:54:00) A couple of times, Oppenhuizen did have to pull guard duty on the perimeter, although it was during the early months of his tour (00:57:48:00) o When he became company clerk, Oppenhuizen was exempted from having to do guard duty as well as morning formation (00:57:57:00) o A couple of the other men did not like the exceptions that were made for Oppenhuizen and although he was threatened a couple of times, Oppenhuizen managed to work through it (00:58:26:00)  Oppenhuizen had been living with the 1st Platoon while he was part of the rock detail and when he moved to be the company clerk, he kept living with the 1st Platoon (00:58:41:00)  The other men in the platoon would curse at Oppenhuizen and make idle little treats against him (00:59:00:00) �  To finally resolve the situation, Oppenhuizen moved out of the tent and moved into the headquarters tent with the remainder of the headquarters personnel (00:59:10:00) Oppenhuizen recalls that a couple of the night “attacks” by the enemy were somewhat nerve-wracking while the soldiers waited for the helicopters that were on standby to arrive and then watching those helicopters launch tracer rounds into the fields outside the perimeter of the base (00:59:56:00) o Those were some of the most nervous times, along with whenever Oppenhuizen had to guard the equipment in the village, when he and two other men were placing all their trust in the South Vietnamese army (01:00:21:00) End of Tour / Post-Military Life / Reflections (01:00:49:00)  Once his tour finally came to an end, Oppenhuizen took a helicopter from Soc Trang to Can Tho, were he went through processing (01:00:49:00) o After spending one night in Can Tho, Oppenhuizen flew to another airbase in the north and boarded another commercial airplane for the flight home to the United States (01:00:55:00) o The flight landed in Oakland and Oppenhuizen went through additional processing, spent a night in Oakland, went through his out-processing from the Army and took an airplane home (01:01:22:00)  Oppenhuizen did not really notice any anti-war protestors at the airport in Oakland; however, he was not traveling in his uniform (01:01:37:00)  The second day Oppenhuizen was home, he remembers going to the car lot where his father worked and using his back pay, bought a brand-new Dodge Charger (01:01:52:00)  Prior to enlisting, Oppenhuizen had been working at a Meijer supermarket and when he returned, the store was obligated to give him a job (01:02:34:00) o Oppenhuizen waited for about two weeks after he returned home before he went back the other store and got his job back (01:02:50:00) o Oppenhuizen worked at the store for a little while before he began the process of looking for a CPA job that used his accounting degree, which he finally found in February of the following year (01:02:56:00)  The one big thing that Oppenhuizen focuses on when looking back at his time in Army was that he actually did something constructive whereas most of the time, people have the assumption that all the Army does is destructive (01:03:37:00) o Oppenhuizen and the other men in his unit built a two-lane, fifty-mile stretch of highway that helped the local population; once the highway was built, people living in Soc Trang could travel to Can Tho and back to Soc Trang in a day, whereas using the old road, they could not (01:04:01:00) o Oppenhuizen felt good about his work because he was doing something constructive and helping people, rather than tearing it down (01:04:41:00)  Once he returned home, Oppenhuizen saw more of the public’s reaction to the war, especially in the newspaper (01:05:21:00) o However, he tended to look past the negativity and saw the war for what it was, paying more attention as the war was winding down (01:05:38:00) o Oppenhuizen realized it was not the mainstream of Americans who were opposed to the war but a smaller group (01:05:55:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OppenhuizenR1286V Title A name given to the resource Oppenhuizen, Roger (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oppenhuizen, Roger Description An account of the resource Roger Oppenhuizen was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1946. After completing college in 1968, he enlisted in the Army to stay ahead of the draft, and signed up for Officer Candidate School. He did his basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and then trained as a combat engineer at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The Army assigned him to Infantry OCS instead of Finance, so he decided not to enter the program, so he was sent directly to Vietnam as a combat engineer in May, 1969. In Vietnam, he served with D Company, 35th Engineer Battalion, which was based at Soc Trang in the Mekong Delta and working on constructing a two-lane highway connecting the Delta to Saigon. For the first three months, Oppenhuizen worked on constructing the highway. However, because he knew how to type, Oppenhuizen eventually moved up to the company headquarters first to replace the operations sergeant while he was on leave, and then to replace the departing company clerk. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-10-25 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/df71455fad8494625cbb3333bd8087fa.m4v 6ed7addd4c27871dd9283d2b82daf30c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1114bb4ca23d0dba4e24bb8ae8017eb1.pdf de552576c5218bc1132c0a7e11227044 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project John Oracz World War II 2 hours 57 seconds (00:00:12) Early Life -He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1925 at the family home at 1012 Pulaski Street -His parents were Polish peasant immigrants -They had been living in America for six years at the time of his birth -His father was a furniture factory worker -The chief place of employment was Johnson Furniture in Grand Rapids -He wasn’t able to work too often during the Great Depression -It cost $5/month to live in their house -During the Depression sometimes they didn’t have enough to pay that -His mother cleaned offices in downtown Grand Rapids at night -She was part of a cleaning crew -She would bring home magazines and newspapers from the offices for the family -At home he spoke mostly Polish -He attended a Polish school and a Polish Catholic Church -For nine years of school he received Polish language courses -For high school he went to Davis Technical and Vocational School -Located where Grand Rapids Community College is now -He had to leave school early because of a work injury -He fractured his foot around Christmas 1940 while on his paper route -The journey to school was too difficult with an injured foot -He was forced to repeat the eleventh grade as a result of this -He wound up going to work with his father at the Johnson Furniture factory (00:05:00) Awareness of the War and Start of the War -He was aware of Hitler’s advances in Europe -His father was a WWI veteran, so he understood the nature of European conflicts -He had fought in France and Ukraine as part of an International Expeditionary Force -He was coming home from a movie Sunday night December 7, 1941 -Heard news on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese -When the U.S. was drawn into the war he was still too young to enlist or be drafted (00:07:39) Getting Drafted -On his eighteenth birthday he signed up for the draft -His eighteenth birthday happened to fall on Memorial Day of 1943 -As a result he waited until the next day to sign up for the draft -He didn’t know that the office was open year round -Because of this he was threatened with legal action -The draft board officials thought that he was trying to avoid the draft -Fifteen days after signing up for the draft he received his draft notice -He was sent to Detroit for his physical and induction into the service -At Detroit he was given a choice of which branch to serve in �-He decided to go into the Navy -He wanted to sleep in a dry bed instead of in a foxhole (00:09:30) Basic Training -For basic training he was sent to Farragut Naval Station, Idaho -He was part of Training Company 679 -They were taken by train to Idaho -They went from Detroit, to Grand Rapids, to Chicago -In Chicago they changed train engines -The whole trip took about four or five days -He remembers being covered in coal soot for the majority of the trip -They were not allowed to look out the windows -Fed meager sandwiches on the trip -Had to sleep in the train seats -Before departing from Detroit they were put in a hotel for the night -He and a few other recruits snuck out and went drinking -He awoke to their room’s phone ringing and someone pounding on the door -They were late to reporting to the train station -Greeted by a none too happy officer at the station -When they arrived at Farragut they were greeted by a Boatswain's Mate -He gave them encouragement, but also expectations -The first part of training was the physical training -They mostly ran and did push ups -They also had to do grounds keeping and other menial labor to be kept busy -At times he would be put on barracks watch for eight hour shifts -At night this meant feeding the coal stove to keep the barracks warm -During basic training there was a high emphasis on discipline and following orders -He made sure to follow every order that he was given -Adjusting to Navy life wasn’t too hard for him -In fact he was fed better in the Navy than he had been at home -While they were stopped in Chicago and changing engines there was a confrontation -He sat down in the back of a car and put his feet up on the seat in front of him -Another recruit came over and tried to push his feet off -John proceeded to resist this -Eventually the seat wound up getting seriously wrecked in the process -The same officer from Detroit was present for this incident as well -The second incident was during basic training in Idaho -For the obstacle course training companies would compete against each other -In John’s company they had a twenty seven year old recruit -He wasn’t as physically capable as the younger men were -In an attempt to help him over one of the walls they pushed him over -This led to the man breaking an arm and losing a few teeth (00:17:25) Radio Training -After the conclusion of the five (or six) week basic training he was given an aptitude test -He thought that he would wind up becoming a machinist -Instead he was selected for radio training at the University of Chicago -One of the first things he was introduced to was the Morse code room �-Going into that segment he knew nothing about code -At first he had trouble with understanding Morse code -Over time he was able to get up to eighteen handwritten words/minute -He was transferred to the typing segment of Morse code interpretation -Had to learn how to type first which meant going to night classes at a high school -Just like handwriting he was eventually able to get it -The radio school lasted about four or five weeks -During the typing segment he was awarded a certificate for five hundred character accuracy -This meant that he typed five hundred characters without any errors -He was so good other recruits would pay him $5 so he could get certificates for them -At the end of training he finished near the top of his class -He was given the rank of Seaman First Class -Another part of radio training was a radio theory class -Course was learning about the electronic aspect of radios -The professor was so boring that he routinely fell asleep in class -He was still able to pass the class though (00:23:37) Downtime during Radio Training and Other Details -There were a few times where he was able to visit downtown Chicago -He sent most of his money home though, so he didn’t have much money to spend -He was close enough to Grand Rapids that he could hitchhike home and visit his family -He was extremely close to where the initial building of the atomic bomb was happening -During radio training he fell ill with “Cat Fever” -His fever was so high that when he reported to sick bay he was immediately put to bed -He fell asleep and two days later he woke up (00:25:37) Deployment to California -He finished his training in Chicago in late November (or early December) 1943 -He was given a short leave home before going to California -After leave he was sent to Shoemaker Navy Base, California -It was a base for outgoing sailors -He was sent to California by way of train -The train got stuck in a snow storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range -They were there for three days without any supplies -They eventually arrived at Shoemaker which was near San Francisco -When they pulled in there was a race riot going on -They were kept in Shoemaker to wait for their assignments -During his time there he saw a roster that said they were going overseas and he announced it -This led to a severe reprimand from his superior officers for sharing classified info -Later in the base’s general store he heard civilians talking about the deployment -He was astounded that they were allowed to know, but he wasn’t -There was a military prison on the base that was guarded by Marines -He would see prisoners being marched to the mess hall -One of his friends mouthed off to a Marine guard once -The Marines proceeded to beat up his friend and put him in line -John had to help get his friend out of the group of prisoners -He remembers once there was an escapee and the guards were shooting at him -At the time he didn’t realize the prisoners were dangerous/violent criminals �(00:32:00) Deployment Overseas -Eventually he was assigned to go on a troop ship to be sent to the Pacific Theatre -On board the ship they were fed cold food -Told that if they wanted better food they would have to work for it -He wanted better food, so he volunteered to be part of a work detail -He was assigned to work in the anchor room and to do painting -On the voyage over he didn’t get seasick -The original destination was New Caledonia in the South Pacific -Their course was altered and they landed at Espiritu Santo part of the New Hebrides -He found the island to be beautiful and quintessentially Pacific -Clear blue water, perfect white beaches and lush jungles (00:33:50) Stationed at Espiritu Santo -He stayed at Espiritu Santo for about a month waiting for his next assignment -While on the island he was attached to a work detail -Their main task was unloading supplies from ships and handling those supplies -One of the first things he learned was to sleep on his clothes -If you didn’t your clothes would get wet in the night and proceed to rot -On Espiritu Santo he slept in a tent that was constantly covered by lizards -One night a lizard got inside and landed on his chest -He mistook it for a Japanese soldier attacking and he panicked causing an uproar -They mostly handled ammunition and general supplies -They would take it from the ship, place it on trucks and take it to supply huts -He remembers one soldier who knocked over a bunch of ammo and made a terrible mess -He would occasionally work in the beer hut -If a beer case was broken he and the other sailors got to keep it -Once a storm rolled in so they smuggled some beer out and had a party -He worked about twelve hours a day -Another task that he had to do was scrape barnacles off the bottom of oil tankers -Eventually he and the other sailors mutinied and demanded a break -They didn’t get in trouble (they were threatened with it); they eventually got a day off (00:39:30) Assignment to the USS Hoel and the Solomon Islands -In early 1944 he finally received his individual assignment to the USS Hoel -The catch was that the Hoel was going to dock at Guadalcanal -And the other part of that is he would have to wait for it until it arrived -He boarded an oil tanker bound for Guadalcanal -Arrived at Guadalcanal in the late afternoon -He remembers that the arrival was completely uneventful -Recalls that the environment on Guadalcanal was about the same as Espiritu Santo -He stayed at Guadalcanal for a week -After Guadalcanal he caught a mail ship bound for the island of Tulagi -When he arrived at Tulagi there were still Japanese forces at large on the island -The majority of fighting had ended in 1943, but there were still remnant forces -The next day after arriving in Tulagi he was in the mess hall when an alarm went out -Someone thought there were Japanese troops infiltrating the base -Wound up being a false alarm -At Tulagi he was on a work detail handling supplies for a week until the USS Hoel arrived �(00:44:47) Boarding the USS Hoel -Once the USS Hoel finally arrived he was given a haircut before joining -On the Hoel he was assigned to work in the radio room as a radio operator -His job was to write down messages and give them to the decoders -He started working on the Hoel immediately -One of their first tasks that he remembers was going to Hollandia, New Guinea -Their job was to escort a transport that was near there -Being on board the USS Hoel felt like being onboard a tin can -The ship felt expendable -His first night on the ship was a haunting one -He had been assigned to a bunk near the mess hall -The hull was so thin he could hear the water moving just outside of it -It was at that point that he “made his peace with the Lord” -The Hoel eventually ran into a storm in the Coral Sea -This was the first time that he got seasick -He was so ill that he thought he wouldn’t be able to go to his post -Eventually got out of bed and manned his post, vomit bucket in hand -It took about three or four days to get over being sick -The seas were so rough that the ship was getting picked up out of the water (00:50:25) R&R at Manus Bay -He remembers that at some point they stopped at Manus Bay in the Admiralty Islands -It was a chance to let the sailors go ashore and relax for a little bit and resupply -He was on the first boat bound for the shore (they travelled with the beer and baseball gear) -After arriving a storm blew in and they were cut off from the Hoel until 9 or 10 PM that night -When he returned to the ship he was so drunk that he had to be relieved from his watch -He didn’t drink until he was in the Navy (00:52:31) Invasion of Peleliu -The USS Hoel was present for the Invasion of Peleliu -Their task was to serve as a screening ship -This meant protecting U.S. ships and aircraft from Japanese ships and aircraft -During the invasion they picked up a Japanese submarine with their monitoring equipment -Proceeded to depth charge it, but with unknown results -While at Peleliu they were able to pick up “Tokyo Rose” broadcasts -She was a Japanese woman who would send out demoralizing messages to U.S. troops -Her information was generally inaccurate, but at times it was oddly accurate -At Peleliu they saw more Japanese aircraft -They were never really a threat though because they were too far away -Besides the screening task they also bombarded the island for the U.S. invasion force -Generally did it at night for strategic reasons (00:55:38) Preparations for the Invasion of the Philippines and Other Details -After Peleliu they returned to Manus Bay to join the invasion fleet bound for the Philippines -While at Manus they ran into another typhoon -He remembers waves rolling over the ship when he went to get another sailor for watch -Had to use safety lines so he didn’t get washed overboard -Also had to time his movements to avoid getting hit by a wave -The radio room that he was in was enclosed �-It had no portholes, so there was no chance to see outside -There were usually three personnel in the radio room during a watch -Two enlisted men on the radios and a petty officer acting as an overseer -While sailing up to the invasion fleet they had little contact with other fleet ships -On top of being caught in the typhoon at Manus they also had to sail through smaller storms -During the trip up to Manus and during the typhoon there was little access to food (00:59:52) Battle off Samar (part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf) -The USS Hoel was part of Taffy 3 (an escort carrier group) for the Invasion of the Philippines -Their job was again to act as a screening ship against Japanese aircraft and submarines -He remembers during the Battle off Samar being called to general quarters -They had been under the impression the only Japanese naval threat was submarines -During the battle a Japanese battle fleet was able to sneak up behind the U.S. ships -They were able to get in among the U.S. ships to make the attack as effective as possible -Aware that there were Japanese ships in the area, but didn’t know it was a fleet -This is when they were called to general quarters and he had to stay at his station -Taffy 3 was the northernmost carrier group and the first to witness the Japanese attack -Taffy 3 was comprised of the following ships: - 6 CVE’s (escort carriers) each with about forty or fifty planes -3 Destroyers -30 destroyer escorts (five per escort carrier) -They knew that they couldn’t engage Japanese battleships and win -The strategy then was to run and protect the escort carriers -Used storms in the area as a way to stay hidden -Once the escort carriers were clear the destroyers turned and charged the Japanese ships -Used their engine smoke to cover their charge -While the battle was going on John was acting as a messenger on board the Hoel -He wasn’t exposed to the fire that they were taking from Japanese ships -Occasionally stepped outside and saw American ships burning on the ocean (01:09:27) The Sinking of the USS Hoel -The Hoel wasn’t hit immediately by enemy fire -Their first course of action during the battle was to fire torpedoes against the Japanese ships -Unlike the Japanese, they couldn’t reload their torpedo tubes -Unfortunately their torpedoes and 5 inch cannons were ineffective against battleships -After the first torpedo run they had to make a turn and that’s when they were hit first -After that they started taking more consistent hits from the Japanese -The first place to get hit was one of the Hoel’s fire rooms which slowed down the Hoel -The fire room was part of the ship’s engine system -Eventually radio communication on the Hoel broke down -This made John’s messenger duties exceedingly necessary -Over the course of the battle the Hoel took forty (or fifty) large caliber hits -He was in the radio room when the commander gave the order to abandon ship -Sailors had already been jumping off the Hoel before the order came down -John’s duty was to “deep six” (throw overboard) the decoding machines -He felt like he couldn’t leave without doing that -He wasn’t able to get into the decoder room because he was never given a key -At this point the Hoel took another hit and he was knocked unconscious �(01:15:38) Abandoning Ship -After he came to he knew that Hoel was starting to capsize -After making his way outside he couldn’t see any other survivors in the water -He proceeded to jump off the starboard side and rapidly swam away from the ship -While in the water the Japanese were still shooting at sailors in the water -Immediately after abandoning ship he couldn’t find anyone else and had no sense of direction -While he was in the water a group of Japanese destroyers came by looking for survivors -At this point his life jacket was full of holes and effectively worthless -Eventually a Japanese ship started to charge at him -No matter what he did he couldn’t shake it and it eventually bore down on him -He was rolled under the bow and thought he was going to be sucked into the propellers -He made it out from under the ship and was so close that he could see Japanese Marines -After surfacing U.S. planes started to strafe this ship and drove it away -He eventually made his way to a floater net (survival device) with a couple other survivors -After abandoning ship he had been swimming consistently for an hour (01:22:55) Stranded at Sea -Soon after reaching the net a life raft came by with the other survivors and wounded -He remembers holding up one of the wounded men who had a hole in his back -The wound was so serious John could see the man’s heart and lungs -Eventually the man died and John had to put him overboard -After a few nights at sea he began to experience hallucinations -He had had very little food and no fresh water -He had also ingested a high amount of sea water which worsened the dehydration -He eventually returned to his senses which made him incredibly aware of the situation at hand (01:26:00) Rescue and Rehabilitation -On the third day at sea at noon they were rescued by an LCI (landing craft, infantry) -Once he was aboard the LCI he was so weak that he couldn’t even stand -He remembers being given warm tea -They were taken up to Leyte Gulf, Philippines -En route they were attacked by Japanese planes -Final destination was a hospital ship in the Gulf -He was placed on an LST (landing ship, tank) that was serving as a hospital ship -He was taken to Hollandia, Papua New Guinea -He remembers that the voyage over was hectic and noisy -He spent a couple weeks in the hospital at Hollandia before being moved again (01:30:02) Leave Back to the United States -After recovering he found out that there was a U.S. transport in the harbor at Hollandia -Its job was to pick up survivors from the Hoel and bring them back to the U.S. -John was going to be denied leave because the officer didn’t think he was a survivor -So he snuck down to the ship and joined the other survivors -The transport stopped in Brisbane, Australia on the way back to the States -Picking up more soldiers who were returning home -He remembers passing under the Golden Gate Bridge when they pulled into San Francisco -Once he disembarked he was processed at Treasure Island and given a thirty day leave -The leave home for him was a hectic one and began in early December 1944 -He surprised his parents by just showing up at the house �-Walked from the train station in Grand Rapids to his home -His parents had received a letter saying that he was missing in action -Over the course of his leave another family from Grand Rapids approached him -Their son had been on the Hoel as well and they wanted to know his fate -Unfortunately John didn’t know what had happened to their son -It was something that stayed with him -Upon returning home for leave he learned that the Battle off Samar hadn’t been publicized (01:37:10) Reflections on the Battle off Samar -He feels that the U.S. Navy as a whole had made serious mistakes in the Battle off Samar -Namely that the Japanese fleet shouldn’t have been able to sneak up like they had -This is why he was reluctant to talk about the battle after the war -He didn’t even know that the U.S. had won the Battle off Samar and the Battle of Leyte Gulf -He also wasn’t aware that Taffy 3 had been responsible for winning the Battle off Samar (01:40:07) Returning for Naval Service -After his thirty days of leave were up he returned to California to report for further service -After completing small craft training he was assigned to the USS Delegate (a minesweeper) -The training had been about how to serve aboard a ship like a minesweeper -When he was in his barracks waiting to board the Delegate an officer came in to collect him -Told to gather his things and follow him -This happened in such a rush that John forgot some of his clothes that were drying -He was reassigned to a minesweeper with the number 433 -He didn’t know anything about what was going on -Upon boarding the 433 he was immediately taken to the bridge to meet the lieutenant -By now it was early 1945 (January or February) -After meeting the lieutenant he was taken to the radio room of the 433 -Found that it was more advanced, unfamiliar equipment -He essentially had to train himself with how to handle the radios -He was eventually able to learn how to use the radios so as to contact port authority -The main task during that voyage was a “shakedown” near San Diego and Mexico -A “shakedown” is a testing phase to check for any possible faults or failings -Sometime during this he was assigned to handle Morse and semaphore code -Lucky for him he had taught himself semaphore on the Hoel -He was also briefly assigned to sonar duty -Taken off quickly after it was clear that he didn’t know about sonar -While pulling into San Diego he had flown a semaphore flag in a distress signal -Led to a PBY Seaplane asking if they needed help -He was reprimanded for flying that flag the wrong way (01:50:50) Transfer to Los Angeles -After returning to the port he thought he would be headed across the Pacific again -Instead he received orders to go to San Pedro, Los Angeles -He arrived at San Pedro at night and had to sleep on the floor of a gym -Within a few days someone lost his records -He wasn’t supposed to be in Los Angeles he was supposed to be in San Francisco -He was going to be used as a Polish translator during the initial U.N. meetings �(01:54:40) End of the War, Post-War Service, and Discharge -After Los Angeles he received orders to go aboard another minesweeper -He went aboard the USS Miami and went to Pearl Harbor to join the new minesweeper -He was to act as a radio operator aboard what would be the radio ship -In the group of minesweepers it would take in incoming radio messages -After Pearl Harbor they went to Kwajalein Atoll -They were joining other ships for the planned invasion of Japan -Before they could go the atomic bombs were dropped, and the war ended -At the time of the atomic bombings John had spent thirty four months in the service -Twenty three months at sea, eleven months stateside -With the war over he was transferred to the USS Manayunk at Saipan-Tinian -The other radio operator had been relieved due to a family emergency -While at Saipan-Tinian he was able to visit the B-29 bomber base that was there -Over time he got to know and befriend some of the pilots -He was astounded by how well fortified the island was -While there he was invited to go on a B-29 to Guam -He asked the captain if that was acceptable and his request was denied -Paranoid that John would leave his post and go home -Eventually John was assigned to the USS Castle Rock -It was on the Castle Rock that he would return to the United States permanently -The USS Castle Rock pulled into San Francisco March 27, 1946 -Upon returning to the States he was given his honorable discharge from the Navy � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_OraczJ1663V Title A name given to the resource Oracz, John (Interview outline and video), 2014 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-08-12 Description An account of the resource John Oracz was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1925. He was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and went to basic training at Farragut Naval Station, Idaho and then went to the University of Chicago for radio training. In late 1943 he was sent to Shoemaker Navy Base, California to wait for his next orders, and in early 1944 he finally received orders to join the Pacific Theatre. After doing a few weeks of supply work on various liberated Pacific islands he finally boarded the USS Hoel, a destroyer, in early 1944 in the Solomon Islands. Aboard the Hoel he saw action during the Invasion of Peleliu and at Leyte Gulf, where his ship was sunk. He was rescued after three days in the water, and served on several other ships without seeing further action until he returned home in 1946. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oracz, John Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9886d9011bbbf6ecd941ce51808bbeec.pdf b5576aa7003c1d1b556a0aea925fe6d2 PDF Text Text       Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project Johnson Center for Philanthropy Grand Valley State University Oral History Interview with Joel J. Orosz, August 18, 2010 The Council of Michigan Foundations, Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), and GVSU Libraries’ Special Collections & University Archives present: An oral history interview with Joel Orosz, August 18, 2010. Conducted by Dr. James Smither of the History Department at GVSU. Recorded at WGVU in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This interview is part of a series in the Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project documenting the history of philanthropy in Michigan.   Preferred citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should use the following credit line: Oral history interview with Joel Orosz, August 18, 2010. "Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project", Johnson Center Philanthropy Archives of the Special Collection & University Archives, Grand Valley State University Libraries. James Smither (JS): We’re talking today with Joel Orosz of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has worked with the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University, as well as the Kellogg Foundation. We’ll fill in the rest of the career as we go here. The interviewer is James Smither of Grand Valley State University. Joel, can you start just by giving us some background on yourself? Start with where and when you were born. Joel Orosz (JO): Absolutely. I was born here in Kalamazoo on March 15th, 1957, at Borgess Hospital, and grew up here, going to the Portage Public Schools, and eventually went to and graduated from Kalamazoo College. 00:01:02 (JS) What did your family do for a living when you were growing up? 1    �(JO) My dad did a job that no longer exists. He worked at International Paper Company, which is no longer here. His job was to stack the paper milk bottles as they came off the printing press. A stacker, it was aptly called. My mom was a waitress at a couple of restaurants here in town. (JS) You’re not coming from any particularly privileged background or from families that would have a lot of resources to put into philanthropy per se. (JO) Absolutely. (JS) So this is something that you come into more as an adult later on. (JO) I was a stranger in a strange land when I started with philanthropy. (JS) Let’s go back. You went to Kalamazoo College. What did you major in at that point? 00:01:54 (JO) I was a History major. Of course, at that time, which was the late 1970s, as I was approaching graduation, History as a career was pretty much a sure ticket to unemployment. I recall one of my professors saying that in 1979 there were two openings for history professors in the country, of course all sorts of historians being graduated. So I thought, better to go into a different career. Casting about a bit, I hit upon the museum field as a place where someone with a background in history could find a job, and I decided I was going to be a museum curator. And then I went to Case Western Reserve University for graduate school. They had a History and Museum Studies joint masters program. I got a master’s degree in Museum Studies, ready for a career as a museum curator, which I eventually pursued for three and one half years [laughs], so much for training. (JS) So where did you go to do that? (JO) I was first working in Cleveland, where Case Western’s located. And at the same time as I was working, I decided to go on and get a doctorate in American History. I worked, interestingly enough, in a medical history museum, which in many ways is like a museum of torture instruments. These horrible things: the lancets that they used to bleed people, these electro-shock therapies. In fact, we used to have school kids in and have them form a big circle holding hands, then we’d rev up the electro-shock machine and send a shock through all of them. It was great fun until a cardiologist on our board pointed out that if any of the kids had heart problems, we might in fact send them into cardiac arrest. So, we stopped doing that. 00:04:21 (JS) Did you pursue the doctorate at Case Western, or did you go somewhere else? (JO) Yes indeed, got the doctorate at Case Western, graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1979, a masters from Case Western, joint masters in History and Museum Studies in 1981, and didn’t 2    �finish up the doctorate until 1986. The doctoral thesis was on the history of museums in the United States before the Civil War. So I was well prepared to be a museum curator. Thought that’s what I was going to be all my life. Curator, maybe someday become a director. Was fortunate enough to get a job right back here in Kalamazoo, at what was then known as the Kalamazoo Public Museum. Now it’s the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, started there as the curator of interpretation, doing the education program. (JS) How long did you do that work? (JO) I was there for about three years. I’d been working in Cleveland, first part time, and then full time, then, about three years in Kalamazoo, and really enjoyed the work, working mainly with children, in fact, a lot with preschool kids. That was a feedback-rich environment. Preschoolers will always let you know exactly how you’re doing. You know, “This stinks”, “I’m bored.” So you could basically calibrate what you were doing, and say, “Alright, this isn’t working, let’s try something else.” It was a great deal of fun, enjoyed the museum world. But then there was this life-changing moment in which the Kellogg Foundation was offering fellowships for museum educators around the country, the notion being that these informal education programs outside of schools played an important part in the lives of kids. So let’s make these educators as good as possible. There were three different programs: the Smithsonian ran one of them, the Field Museum ran another, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco ran the third one, all with Kellogg Foundation money. So I was in the region of the country in which the Field Museum served, so I ended up going off to the Field Museum for training, enjoyed that very thoroughly, thought I would go back to the museum field, and just be well-trained, ready to go. 00:07:31 (JS) What did the training give you or consist of that went beyond what you were doing already? (JO) Well, it was the ability to bring together these educators from around the country, to share ideas and techniques, kind of do workshops if you will that would allow us to present programs and critique each other, and sort of bring it to the next level. It was terrific to be working with peers of mine from around the nation. They were serving different communities than I was. Talking about how you could bring museum programs to underprivileged kids, to audiences of color that museums typically hadn’t reached. It was a terrific, terrific program. But what came out of that for me was a totally life-changing experience, was one day the program director from Kellogg, who was responsible for that program and whom I had met at a reception, gave me a call and said, “We’re looking for an executive assistant for our CEO and chairman of the board, Russ Mawby, and I think you should apply for the job.” Well, being a realist, I was very flattered, but being a realist I knew that I didn’t have a chance, that there would be all sorts of people applying for that job, some of them with experience in philanthropy that I didn’t have. I thought well, you know, why not apply. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get a courtesy interview with 3    �Russ Mawby. Gosh, it can’t hurt to meet Russ Mawby and say, “Geez, I’m just down the street in Kalamazoo, and we’re doing some interesting things.” So I figured there would be the opportunity to get some grants out if it, down the road. 00:09:43 So, I go into my interview, convinced it’s a courtesy interview, and thinking this is a twenty minute thing right here, and then he’ll shake hands with me and send me on my way. So I am as loose as I can be. I’ve got nothing to lose, everything to gain. Sitting there in his office and I’m just chatting away with him. Twenty minutes passes and he’s still asking questions, then thirty minutes passes and I’m thinking gosh, he’s very courteous, very courteous indeed. Forty minutes passes and he’s still asking questions. And it dawns on me that he’s serious. This is really an interview, and I have a chance to get the job. I think my articulate nature went downhill in a hurry after that [laughs]. I guess I did well enough during the first forty minutes or so that he did indeed offer me the job. The fascinating thing about that job is that, as executive assistant, it depends on who sees you on what day, the sense they would get of it. Because one day I might be sitting with Russ at a meeting with say, 15 university presidents from around the state. Someone seeing me at that meeting, making contributions and so forth would say, “That’s Russ Mawby’s right-hand man, that’s a really important job.” The next day, my job might be driving Russ to Detroit so that he could make a speech at the athletic club there, then driving him back and then making sure that everything’s in order because he’s going to be taking a trip the next day. People seeing that would say, “This guy’s just a chauffeur. There’s no real substance to this job.” It was a sort of an up and down kind of thing, except that I was smart enough to understand that even when I was chauffeuring, I was driving a guy whom all sorts of people would just pay anything to get an hour with. And I’ve got three hours with him when we’re driving to Chicago or Detroit. So I just treated that as the opportunity to seminar with one of the great leaders in philanthropy. It was an education that was just unbelievable in the whole history, and war, and workings of philanthropy. 00:12:46 (JS) How long did you do that particular job? (JO) I was, three years as executive assistant, from ’86 to ’89. Russ had a very clear-eyed view of that job. As he told me right at the beginning, he said, “You’re a young man.” I was 29 at that point, “You’re a young man. You don’t want to retire as somebody’s executive assistant. You want to move on and do other things. But it’s a good way to start.” That it certainly was. Russ had the notion that he should give me exposure to the programming side of the foundation, allow me to take a few grants and work my way into programming, and eventually pushed me out of the nest and totally over to the program side, which he did in 1989. Just as a side note, Russ had a real record of hiring young men, and it was always young men. He felt very, being a gentleman 4    �of the old school, he just couldn’t imagine hiring a young woman and sending her in the dark into a parking ramp to get the car. That just was not something he could imagine. My predecessor in that role was Jim Richmond, who later went on to become the CEO of the Battle Creek Community Foundation, and the Frey Foundation in Grand Rapids. My successor in that role was Dave Egner, who became head of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and now is the CEO of the Hudson Webber Foundation in Detroit. And then another successor, Jim McHale, became executive vice president of the Kellogg Foundation. So Russ was a pretty remarkable mentor in that way. 00:14:56 (JS) What specific position then did you move into after those three years? (JO) I moved into what was then called an associate program director at the Kellogg Foundation. I don’t believe that position exists anymore. But very much analogous to the assistant and associate professors at a university, signifying that you were not a full program director yet, but you had an opportunity to get there if you worked hard. So it really was a sort of a new person’s position or a young person’s position that allowed you to aim to become a program director. I learned very quickly that – you recall I said earlier that I was in a feedback-rich position at the museum with the little kids telling me exactly what they thought – I learned very quickly that I was now in a feedback-poor position as a program officer. Because whatever you did or said, no one was stupid enough to say, “Man, you really blundered here, my friend.” Program officers, program directors, have no power to approve anything. That is the province of the officers and the board, but they have absolute power to turn down anything. It didn’t matter if you were the president of the University of Michigan. If you came to me and I didn’t think the program would work, I could say, “Well, sorry Dr. Duderstadt, we’re not going to do that.” People learned very quickly that if there’s someone with the absolute power to turn down your request, better not get her or him angry, or let them hold a grudge. So I could show up to a meeting and drool all over my tie, and everyone would say, “Oh, magnificent contributions.” [laughs] (JS) What did the job actually consist of? What were you doing day to day? 00:17:21 (JO) That is a really good question. And it sort of depended on the program director exactly how the job was put together. But the basic job of the program director was to find and recommend programs that were worthy of funding by the foundation. And then, once the project was funded, to manage that program and try to get the most out of it. So, we had a number of things that we could do to find programs. And that could range from really devising them yourself, some program directors liked to do that. They thought they knew quite a bit about education, for example, and could devise education programs, and find people to run them and get them funded. Other people would sort of go out and beat the bushes. Go out and work with networks of people they knew in the field, and say, “Who’s doing the best work in this?” Amazing when 5    �you ask that question, who’s doing the best work in say early childhood education, the person you asked it to frequently said, “Well, modestly speaking, I am.” You could go out and work your networks to try to get it. Or, because the W.K. Kellogg Foundation was one of the very largest foundations in the country when I worked there, really, you could just sit in your office and the phone would ring, and people would have ideas that they would pitch to you. So, how active you were, how proactive you were, was really sort of a personal preference. So that was the first part of it; finding the projects, because Kellogg was not an operating foundation. We did not manage our own programs. We were a grantmaking foundation; we gave money to other entities that ran the programs. So that was the first part, finding it. The second part of it, of course, was convincing the officers and the board of trustees that this was a project that was worthy of funding, which required a fair amount of salesmanship, a fair amount of gathering of data and presentation. In fact, if it was a big enough project, you literally had to present it to the board of trustees at their meeting, stand up, make the presentation, take the questions that they had afterwards, which was just horribly stressful kind of thing, because it was sort of like a doctoral defense. Anything was fair game. It was considered very bad form if you did not have an answer to a legitimate question. And since just about any question was legitimate, it really was a stressful thing because you could have worked on these projects for a year. There’s a million dollars riding on it, there’s people’s jobs riding on it, and the wellbeing of a lot of kids or other beneficiaries riding on it. You really didn’t want to be the person who said something stupid or didn’t have a good answer. And then the board would say, “Well, let’s not do that. 00:21:23 (JS) So you were pretty actively involved in moving projects or programs from the initial idea or planning stage which would usually come from the outside, to actually promoting it. When I think of conventional sort of academic type grants, the expectation is basically all on the proposers. You could put together a package and send it forward and people just review it and then thumbs up, and thumbs down, but not an expectation that the program officers necessarily do that much unless if you’re doing it right, give you advice on how to make yours look better before it goes forward. (JO) Right, that’s a key distinction. A lot of government funders, for example, set out criteria, and then they have a list of objective things that they’re looking for. They read the proposals that come in, they grade them and you know, you get the money or you don’t, based on that. Kellogg was very much more involved in the process. The program director had an opportunity to really help shape what went in. And the dynamic was, because you knew it was going to go to the Board of Trustees, assuming it was of any size, and you knew what the board wanted and didn’t want, what they liked and didn’t like, you very quickly began to say, “Ok, I think I can sell this component, but I don’t think I can sell this one. So, I’m just saying, that you could leave it in there if you want to, but I think that could be a deal breaker for our board.” And the tradeoff 6    �there, the government way of doing things has the virtue of being consistent and fair to everybody. Because everybody knows what the criteria are, they send it in, every proposal gets graded in the same way, and the ones who get funded are the ones presumably who are best. The Kellogg way of doing things is much more subjective and much more of a sort of a horse-trading kind of thing. The value of the Kellogg way though, was that if you were really creative, we had general criteria, but if you were creative and came up with something that we hadn’t thought of but we said, gee, that really is a good idea. You had much more ability to shape your program in that way. So, it’s looking for good ideas, developing those good ideas and selling them to the board. And then once it’s been passed by the board, trying to manage those projects. And Jim, I use “manage” in the loosest possible sense of that term, because a program director, really, you’re really not the boss, no one’s actually reporting to you. You can make suggestions, but the Foundation has made the grant and the money is already gone, so it’s not like you can say, “Well, I’m going to completely cut off your money supply,” unless it’s a multi-year grant. But even then, it’s sort of like being the President of the United States, and having only one thing, and that’s a nuclear bomb. Everyone knows that the only way you would use it is if it was just absolutely the last thing to use, that you’d exhausted everything else. Because after all, no program director wants to say, “Alright, I’m not going to pay you your second year because you’ve completely screwed up,” because then people start saying, “Well, what happened here? Why didn’t you see this coming? Haven’t you been managing this program?” So the management side of it is mainly monitoring and making suggestions. Sometimes begging or bluffing people who are going down the wrong path. But it’s not management in the traditional sense of the word. (JS) You don’t have an accountability system set up the way they would, say within an institution, where we give you this money, you have to fill out these reports and give these things back to you. What did you expect to get back from some of these places that you gave the grants to? 00:26:26 (JO) There was an annual reporting system that came out, but of course it became... it’s like the old joke in the Soviet Union, which was, we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. The annual report from the grantee, of course, it was always in their best interest to say everything’s going well. In a sense, it was in my best interest to believe them, because if everything was going well, then I’d done a good job, and my due diligence and my work and management and everything was going well. If they admitted something was going wrong it was usually because they couldn’t possibly hide it. It was just out there. And then I had to make a decision about, do I get involved and try to help them? Do I start threatening to take away money? How do I respond to this? If you step back from this picture, you’ve always got a bias toward working on new stuff. Because there is the 5% payout rule in private foundations that says that you pay out 5% of your 7    �net asset value every year in grants, or if you fall short, the government just simply confiscates the shortfall, 100% tax on the shortfall. So, you had to get money out the door. And if the foundation is growing, that target keeps going up. You don’t have to manage programs. So, the tug is always toward doing due diligence, getting new projects in, getting those approved. And the management side of it, of the projects you’ve already funded, that’s just sort of stuff you do when you get a minute. There was an awful lot of, geez I hope that’s working well. 00:28:45 (JS) Do you have any sense of what proportion of these programs actually did work well? Were real problems just an occasional thing or how does that go? (JO) Fortunately, we did hire a lot of evaluators to look into projects. For the most part, because we were so careful on the front end in selection and so forth, for the most part, I would say about 75% of the projects either hit the goals that they had laid out or came very close to it. Of the other 25, there were probably 20% were just, they sort of bumped along, they didn’t embarrass themselves, but they didn’t do exactly what they hoped they would do either. Probably only about 5% had real problems. Rarely was there dishonesty involved. Mainly it was just complete inability to do what they said they were going to do. There were some situations where people said, “That’s what Kellogg wants us to do, that’s how we get money, so we’ll go ahead and say we’re going to do that, even though we really don’t have that much experience or expertise in that area. They just ended up failing. They were successful in getting the money and not successful in doing much with it. (JS) Now would organizations get reputations after awhile? Like be careful about giving money to these people over here or these guys are a good investment over there. 00:30:31 (JO) No question. The really good ones rose to the top pretty quickly. You had this sort of informal network of program officers both within the foundation and with other foundations, who would say, the High Scope Foundation in Ypsilanti is terrific. They’re always on time with their reports, they know their business. They deliver on what they say they’re going to do. And then you would also get the scuttlebutt on the organizations that promise big and deliver small. (JS) Do program officers get assigned particular territories or types of project, or are you just all over the place? (JO) That depends very much on the foundation. Some do it geographically, so that a program director will have a territory just as a salesman would have a territory; other places are set up sort of by subject area and people work cooperatively on that. And Kellogg was set up mainly that way. As a program director, I had projects around the country. Ironically, the only place I didn’t have projects was Battle Creek, because we had a separate Battle Creek programming unit. I was 8    �able to work around the country. And in some cases, some foundations allow people literally work around the world. (JS) Did you have a particular subject area or content area that was yours? 00:32:14 (JO) I started off in the youth and higher education programming area; worked there for a couple of years. Then, we had just a tragedy. The fellow, who was just starting the philanthropy and volunteerism program, a really interesting and colorful guy named Pete Ellis, just literally dropped dead one night. And I inherited, literally inherited, his portfolio which was the beginning of – and this I probably need to backtrack a little bit to explain. Foundations have been around in the United States since 1867. The first one started just a couple years after the Civil War and big foundations like Kellogg since 1911. Foundations were nothing new. But, because foundations typically were focused on either managing their own programs, or more typically making grants to other entities, foundations had never really begun to think of themselves as an industry, if you will. As a result, they were just pretty hopelessly disorganized. Some foundations worked together, others didn’t. Some foundations shared what they were learning with each other, most did not. The insight that Russ Mawby had was that, gee, wouldn’t it be useful if foundations began to talk to each another, and perhaps to organize together, useful in any number of ways. Find out what your sister foundations have been learning about their programming for poverty reduction, or for youth development, or for sustainable food, or whatever they were supporting. Find out which have been the good grantees and which have been the bad grantees. Learn about new thinking coming into the field. Some foundations did reach out to universities to look at the latest scholarship, most didn’t. And then too, of course, there was the question of protecting yourself. You know, Congress was going to be passing laws that bear on foundation work. Maybe we should be organized to try to affect that the way that other entities are. So Russ, in 1972, established the Council of Michigan Foundations to bring people together. But there we were, 17, 18 years later, late ’80s, and we simply did not have much organization in the field, other than the Council of Michigan Foundations. So one of the first things Russ put me to work on, in my inherited portfolio, was to see if we could pull together the nonprofit organizations in Michigan into an association that would, like the Council of Michigan Foundations, promote professional development, research, education within the field, and also a government relations side, so that we could represent the interests and the concerns of nonprofits to state government and to national government. So, that was one of the first things I did, was to work with the big nonprofit associations, because that’s what makes it so hard to think of nonprofits as an entity. Even, if you go to business, whether you’re Microsoft or a mom and pop grocery store, you’re all united by the profit motive. You’re trying to earn a profit here. Whether you’re the city council of Byron Center or the Congress of the United States, you’re governing, 9    �you’re elected, you have to pass ordinances or laws. Everyone understands that government and business is part of a sector. But when you get to the nonprofits, it’s almost impossible to think of all these strange and wonderful things that do so many different things, as an entity. You’ve got education, you’ve got health care, you’ve got human services of any broad number of types, you’ve got arts and culture organizations, religion, environmental organizations, all part of the nonprofit sector. And you’ve got entities that just, literally these entities that I incorporate and I’m the only person who’s employed by the nonprofit and the office is my basement. I mean that’s a nonprofit organization, and Spectrum Health is a nonprofit organization, revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars, and thousands of employees, and buildings all over the place. It had been very difficult for all these organizations to think of themselves as what they had in common as nonprofits. It took a few years but we did finally get what was first called the Michigan Nonprofit Forum into operation that eventually morphed into today’s Michigan Nonprofit Association, where all the nonprofits come together and work for their common good. 00:38:46 So that was the beginning. Then we worked on a number of other things that we thought were important. Michigan Campus Compact, trying to get the students at Michigan’s colleges and universities thinking about community service, and doing community service, which was terrific. We organized the Michigan Community Service Commission. I was a charter commissioner on that for three, three year terms; nine years. Michigan Community Service Commission basically exists to seek the government support for volunteerism and community service that comes through AmeriCorps, that comes through the Peace Corps, or VISTA, and channel those funds into places of need in Michigan. Then of course, one of the things we’re very proud of, was we started the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. I was the program director who made the grant that got that started (JS) What were you wanting to see the Johnson Center do? Why was it important to go and create that at that time? (JO) Well, that really was Russ Mawby’s vision again, and Dottie Johnson of course was part of that thinking as well, although the Center wasn’t named for her until several years later. The vision was that universities and colleges typically did a pretty darn good job of teaching students about the importance of the free enterprise system, the importance of government in a democracy. Those two pieces of the puzzle were being handled pretty well. After all, we’d had departments of business for a hundred years; we’d had departments of public administration for 60, 70 years. But, there really wasn’t much going on about the nonprofit sector in philanthropy, where so much of our lives are lived, and so much of the quality of life is created. So the notion was, that wouldn’t it be terrific if universities were to teach students about, and there’s so many ways you can do it. For example, in my field of History, you can look at the Civil Rights movement as a political movement, or the Women’s Rights movement as a political movement, and that’s certainly true as far as it goes. But 99% of the people involved in those movements are 10    �volunteers. They’re not getting their paycheck by working for a Civil Rights organization. They’re actually contributing their time, and their talent, and their treasure to make it work. So we thought, gee, wouldn’t that be neat if that perspective began to be taught, and if service learning, the notion that you give service as you learn, is an integral part of learning, if that got into the curriculum. So, this is another funny thing about philanthropy. I organized a meeting in Lansing, in late 1989, no pardon me, late 1990, one year later, in which we invited every president of every university and college, every four-year university and college in the state. And Russ basically laid it out; he said we think Michigan needs a center for the study of philanthropy in the nonprofit sector. And we are willing to put a considerable amount of money on the table to make that happen. Of course, the presidents were, “Yes, we need a center for the study of philanthropy, yes by golly we need that Kellogg money to get it going. Yes, yes, yes.” Many of them were quite eloquent about how this was just terribly important. And then Russ dropped the bomb on them, and said, “And we’ll be expecting a considerable match from your institution. We certainly want to get this started, but we don’t intend to support it forever. We think that it would be really a show of good faith if you were to start matching the money right away.” 00:43:52 Well, the air immediately went out of the room. Suddenly…many of the great institutions in this country, and I’m talking about Harvard and Yale among them, have had centers for the study of philanthropy, but they are there only so long as that center could raise the money to keep them going. The university puts nothing into it. Yale had the first one in ’76; it no longer exists because they couldn’t keep raising money for it. Harvard had one for a while; it’s gone because again, they couldn’t raise the operating funds. So we went from having 50-some college and university presidents cheering, and saying, oh this is great, we need it; to actually, we got out of that three proposals, in which the college or university said we will put a substantial chunk of money on the table in order to get this grant. Far and away, the best offer came from Don Lubbers at Grand Valley State. We then had an interesting issue with some board members, because the board was totally with us that Michigan needed a center for the study of philanthropy. They were totally with us that there needed to be a match in evidence of real support. They got very skittish about it being Grand Valley, because some of the board members bless their hearts, had a real elitist point of view. What they really wanted, they really wanted the University of Michigan to have it; if the University of Michigan didn’t take it, then, well okay, perhaps Michigan State, or maybe even Michigan Tech, because those are places that have pretty tough standards, well known nationally, etc. etc. When they were looking at what they referred to as second-tier institutions, Oakland University was another one that had made an application. They just weren’t thinking that would be accurate. So it was a tough, tough sell job to get that through. Don Lubbers was a fascinating guy, and he certainly was helpful. When you saw Don in a room full of university presidents, you probably would not 11    �be, he would probably not be in your top five, because so many of them got up and were so eloquent and so forceful, and you could almost hear the violins playing behind them as they said what they were saying. But when it came to delivering the goods, a lot of those very eloquent people just disappeared into the woodwork, and Don delivered the goods. 00:47:26 So, 1992, we made a grant, $990,000 to establish what was called the Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership. Don matched that. Thom Jeavons was hired, quite a respected scholar of religion, especially in its philanthropic context. He launched the Center. And the Center for the first seven years of its existence was very much focused on GVSU, on getting the service learning and nonprofit sector and philanthropy into the classroom. There was a great deal of little grants that were made to professors to help them get that in there. As a result, GVSU I think is probably the best in Michigan, and maybe one of the best in the nation at helping its undergraduates to learn that the nonprofit sector in philanthropy is an important part of American life just as business and government is. Wasn’t until ’99 that the Center began to grow significantly. Dottie retired that year, the Center was named after her in that year. She retired as the CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations. Center was named in her honor in that year. The library of the Council of Michigan Foundations came over to GVSU, and an endowment for its upkeep. So we have now one of the best libraries in the country on philanthropy, volunteerism, nonprofit management, that stem from that initial gift. So that was – and then of course Donna VanIwaarden became director in 2000 and the pace really began to pick up with the founding of the Community Research Institute and then major Kellogg support that started in 2001. So the Center went from being two or three people for the first seven years of its existence to becoming a thirty person operation within a few years. 00:50:04 (JS) Let’s backtrack a little bit to you as working in the Kellogg Foundation. You’d started out in kind of an assistant or associate type position. Now, did you move up from that into regular program director and did you stay at the level or did you go farther up the organization? (JO) Within a year, ’89 I was named associate program director. Within a year I was promoted to program director. Then, we had a relatively short lived management level that was called coordinator. The coordinator was in between a program director and a vice president, basically, making sure that an area, the philanthropy and volunteerism area that I was in charge of, worked coherently, that all the program directors were working towards the same goal, and that the programs had a coherence to them that wasn’t just a bunch of people picking out their favorite stuff. I did that that from late in 1990 until ’95 when those positions were abolished, and I think rightly so. Alternately, there was nothing a coordinator was doing that a vice president couldn’t be doing just as well. During that time I coordinated first philanthropy and volunteerism, then I 12    �also coordinated the leadership programming, from ’93 to ’95. It was a middle management position with all the joy of a middle management position; not much power, and a lot of responsibility. 00:52:00 (JS) And you weren’t working as directly with the people who were actually proposing the grants and so, less interesting, in that sense. (JO) Exactly, it became much more of a paperwork kind of thing, and much less of what you really wanted to do, which was to work with, and in fact, in foundation work that is the problem with management across the board. The managers go up the ranks to become vice president. They get up in the morning and they say, “Well, I’ve got a choice. I could work on those performance reviews and have a couple of tough conversations with people. I could sign a lot of paperwork and keep things moving. Or, I could meet with Nelson Mandela.” [laughs] The bias always is toward, oh, let me sit in on this programming meeting because it’s interesting and exciting, and you want to do that, as opposed to the drudgery of paperwork that you really don’t want to do. So things tend to pile up on foundation administrator’s desks. 00:53:15 The other thing that I was able to do; two things, and this intersects very much with the life of Kathy Agard. In 1990, Dottie Johnson came in, well pardon me, it was ’89 when I first got involved. Dottie Johnson came in and said, the community foundation system in Michigan is not a system, really. It’s just a bunch of individual community foundations, that some towns have them, some towns don’t. There are a lot of rural areas in particular that have no access to community foundation services. And Dottie’s idea which was just simple and elegant and brilliant in many ways was to say, “Look. Let’s get a big carrot and dangle it in front of every community in the state.” And that big carrot was that we would give, the Kellogg Foundation, would make a challenge grant of up to a million dollars. It would have to be matched two for one by the local community. But then they could get it and create their own community foundation. Dottie was very wise in saying, let’s not do a million dollars or nothing, let’s let them raise as little as $10,000, or pardon me, as little as $20,000 to get a $10,000 Kellogg Challenge. Then, having achieved that, let’s let them come back and do a little more and so forth. That became the basis – well, and then there was one other thing. When Dottie pitched that to Russ Mawby, Russ said, well that sounds really good, but the Kellogg Foundation is really interested in youth. Could you get young people involved in philanthropy in a substantive way? So what we ended up putting together, Russ and Dottie and Kathy Agard, who was hired to run the program, and me, was what was called MCFYP, the Michigan Community Foundations Youth Project. Not the niftiest of acronyms, but there you are. What we did was to dangle that carrot. We said we will give you up to a million dollars, if you can raise two million locally. Our million has to be endowed in a youth field of interest fund 13    �in your community foundation. And then the income from that fund will have to be granted by young people, what we called Youth Advisory Councils, or YACs. They have to be made up of kids 12 to 18 and they make the decisions. You could have an adult advisor, but the kids make the decisions about the grants. This program worked absolutely brilliantly. We established 23 new community foundations around the state and got all portions of the state served. Even if you live in the middle of the Upper Peninsula and there are far more deer in your county than there are people, you still have access to a community foundation so that you can leave money to your community, or get a grant from the community foundation, which is very exciting. What we think is most exciting, is that we’ve got 86 Youth Advisory Councils now. There are more YACs than there are community foundations because some community foundations serve several counties. And each county has its own YAC. But, the thing that’s so exciting about this, and I have witnessed several of these things, we had a lot of skepticism initially, people said, well you know these are kids. They don’t know anything about philanthropy. They’ll just give money to their friends, and it won’t be very thoughtful or useful. They won’t take it seriously. They had a million objections. But we said, look, if you want the money, if you want the challenge grant, you’ve got to form a YAC. That’s just our bottom line. 00:58:13 Well, what happened of course, is these kids not only took it seriously, they in fact took it so seriously that often they just beat up the poor people who came in looking for grants. I was in one of these meetings once as an observer. The head of the local YMCA was sitting there with me. And he looks in, and he smiles, and says, “This is a bunch of kids in there.” He says, “Watch this, watch how I take care of this.” He walks in there like he owns the place. And the first thing that happens is, one of the young people of color, after he makes his presentation, says, [points] “You don’t serve any of the kids in my neighborhood. Why?” The guy was like [speechless]. He had no answer for it. These kids are asking these really tough questions. I mean questions that adults might be afraid to ask, or maybe too polite to ask. One young woman says, “What if a girl comes to you pregnant and scared and alone? What do you do?” The Y director, he’s unbuttoned his shirt and he’s loosened his tie, and he’s perspiring freely. These kids took it extremely seriously, and made incredible grants. PART TWO (JS) We were talking about the Kellogg Foundation’s encouragement of having youth councils and so forth. Where did you get the kids to serve on these things? (JO) That is a very interesting question and a very interesting answer. Because what we did was to work through the local high schools and say that we wanted to get a wide diversity of kids. And of course everyone nodded and they went to the National Honor Society and got the kids to serve on these YACs. And we said, no, we want wide diversity and they said, “There’s a couple of black kids in the National Honor Society.” No, no. What we’re looking for is the whole 14    �gamut, because it was our firm belief that leadership ability is scattered about equally throughout the population. So yes, you have people in the National Honor Society who are real leaders. You also have people who are running gangs who are real leaders. You’ve got women who are leaders, men who are leaders; you’ve got younger kids who are leaders, older kids who are leaders; kids who are about ready to drop out who are leaders. It was a real paradigm shift for these advisors to think that way. It took a lot of work to make sure that these YACs represented different schools, represented kids on the honor roll, kids who were about ready to drop out, single moms, kids of all colors. It was an interesting battle. 00:02:02 But once we got them into it, then you would think these advisors had invented it, because they suddenly realized, my gosh, this kid who was about ready to drop out, the problem was she’s bored to death by what the offerings are. She really does have leadership ability and it’s the first time in the YAC that she’s been offered a chance to exercise it. So, some of these kids turned out to be great. We in fact had one high school counselor who took us up on it more then we realized. This was up in the Grand Traverse region, ended up with nine out of eleven kids on the YAC adjudicated. The chair had been arrested for breaking and entering, but these were kids I mean who were not buying any wooden nickels from anybody. They really pushed hard on those grants and made excellent grants. So, it was an eye-opener for them. The other thing, a big mistake we made initially was to say that the Youth Advisory Councils could have some adults on them. We found out very quickly that was a problem. One great story that illustrates that, in Jackson, one day the Youth Advisory Council kids came in, in a group. It was made up of about two-thirds kids and one-third adults on the Youth Advisory Council. And they told the director, “We quit.” He said, “Well, why?” They said the adults on the council are shooting down every idea that we put forward, every one. “We tried that back in ’57 and it didn’t work.” And it may be the case that they had tried it back in ’57 and it didn’t work but now we were up to 1997 and the world was different. So the director of the community foundation was a very quick thinker and he said, “Well, you can’t quit.” And they said, “Well, why can’t we?” and he said, “Because I just fired all the adults. [laughs] Now you go back there and you make those things work.” Which they did and you know and they had great success. And then too, these kids were willing to tackle things the adults weren’t willing to deal with. A number of them said we’ve got a race problem in this country and it’s here in our community and we got to deal with it. The adults were like, “Oh god, that’s radioactive. We don’t want to touch that.” But a number of programs that led to racial dialogues and cross-racial dialogues, and programs of education, and workshops came out of those YAC programs that the adults wouldn’t go near. 00:05:16 So it was just a huge success, and these YAC-ers, now there have been nearly ten thousand of them now since the late ’80s, many of them have come back to be leaders in the community in 15    �any number of ways. You know, running the youth soccer program, or trustee of the community foundation, or advisors to YAC programs. They really learned grantmaking. And in a number of them, they also learned fundraising. There’s another great story about one young woman who was about 15, going along on a call to the richest lady in town, and they’re trying to raise money for the YAC. They make the pitch, and the grand dame says, “No, I’m not going to do it. No!” Just cuts them off, says no. And the adults, of course, are getting up and sort of bowing as they leave, “Oh, thank you for considering this,” and so forth because they’re going to come back in a few weeks and ask for money for the hospital or for the local college or whatever. And the 15 year old girl is still sitting there. And she says, “Why did you say no? You’ve got the money; you can give it to us.” And of course all the adults [gasps], no one says that to this very wealthy and very powerful lady. And the donor is just stunned because no one has ever said this to her. And finally, she says, “Well, I don’t know exactly why I said no. Tell me a little more about what you want to do. Maybe I was too hasty.” Half an hour later, they walk out with the grant they asked for. The adults have had some heart incidents, but [laughs]. So the kids are willing to ask the tough questions and because they’re kids, often then can get away with it. It’s just been a huge success and these YACs are endowed, they continue every year. They bring in a new group of kids. A number of them have worked for us at the Johnson Center. They’ve been just terrific kids who have a lifetime of contributions ahead of them. 00:07:52 (JS) Now, in total, how long did you spend with the Kellogg Foundation? (JO) The total was about 15 years, from 1986 to 2001. By 2001 I had reached the point where I was feeling like I was beginning to repeat myself. We’d gotten a lot of great things started, they were doing well. I was seeing a lot of proposals that looked very much like the proposals that I’d been working on for the past several years. And, there was one other thing. I’d gotten a professional study leave in 1999; six months to write a book on grantmaking. And Jim, I tell you, it is the best book that’s ever been written on grantmaking. And I say that without fear of contradiction because it was and remains the only book ever written on how to be a grantmaker. And it basically, while there’s no generally accepted standard of excellence in grantmaking, basically I wrote down what I’ve learned over the years. And it was a way for people coming into the field to say, alright, here’s one way to do it. And nothing like that had existed before. And I became convinced that what the philanthropic field needed was some education in grantmaking. Because far too often, it basically consisted of getting hired, and getting an orientation of the building, and then said, that’s your desk, go make good grants. And there are techniques, there are good practices that you need to know, and not knowing them means ultimately that the people who apply for money are suffering, and the people who depend on them to get that money are suffering, so, better to do it right in the first place. And I was eager to give that a try, so came over to the Johnson Center with some money from the Kellogg Foundation to start the first school for grantmakers, aptly named, The Grantmaking 16    �School. And that was in 2001. And I’ll always remember my second day at the Johnson Center because that second day was September 11, 2001. It helps to fix things in your mind. 00:10:54 JS: Alright, so basically you came into the Johnson Center. Do you come in initially just to work on the grant or were you coming in there with the idea of ok, I’m going to be here and stay and build the School? JO: Definitely to be here and stay and work on the School and other things as well. The Johnson Center, of course, was one of the things that I’d helped get started, had a long relationship, very close working relationship with Dottie, and the idea of helping to build it was very enticing. So definitely came to stay. Also it was terrific at that point, I was traveling about half of my time at Kellogg, and at that point we had a lot of kids who were just entering adolescence. We have four children and spending more time at home and trying to keep control of that chaos was appealing. So definitely came to stay. 00:11:59 JS: Tell me a little bit about The Grantmaking School and how did you set it up? How does it work? JO: It really is a delicate thing. Because you can’t pitch it to grantmakers by saying, you really have never been trained. So you really don’t know what you’re doing, and you really should learn - which is the way I’d like to pitch it [laughs]. But, you know, you can’t get grantmakers that angry, a) because they’re by now, they’re a bit thin skinned. They’ve lost the, so many of them come from feedback-rich environments and now after working a few years in a feedbackpoor environment, their skin has gotten quite thin. And if you tell them the inconvenient truth, they don’t like it and have a tendency to just tune you out. So what we have had to do at The Grantmaking School is to say in essence that we are all about advanced grantmaking, about excellence in grantmaking. Come to us from the base where you are and we will help you to become a Jedi grantmaker. That is sort of the pitch. And what we get, unfortunately, are not the people who really, really, really need to be there. Because they are not only ignorant, they’re ignorant of their own ignorance. And all the feedback they get is that they’re doing great. So, why bother? What we get is the people really who are pretty good already, who are serious about this, and want to do a good job and have taken what opportunities they can find, maybe there’s a seminar that their regional association of grantmakers puts on or they’ve heard there’s a book that mentions a little bit of grantmaking. You know many of them have read my book before they come in. And they come hoping to get better. And I think that’s what we do. We can really take good grantmakers and make them into excellent grantmakers. That’s the value that The Grantmaking School adds. 00:14:34 17    �JS: Do you do anything to target people who are just getting into the field, the very new ones? JO: Yes, we try very hard both with the kinds of marketing that we send out and also working with individual CEOs of foundations to say, gosh, you know, this is a great time to get someone in there and give them a good basic grounding before they begin their career. Because there are things that are fairly subtle about grantmaking, for example, just the language that you use, it has to be extraordinarily conditional. Because, grantseekers, if it isn’t conditional, grantseekers think, oh, the grant’s in the bag. I learned that the hard way early on. When I talked about, they said what’s the process like, and I say well you know you send in a proposal, and I work on it, I send you some questions, and then I take it to the board, and the board passes it. Well you know I was thinking I was speaking as a hypothetical, and what they were hearing was, this is first step, second step, third step, we get the money. As it happened their proposal really didn’t match up. I had to give them a call and say, I’m sorry, we can’t fund this. And first there’s a shocked silence on the end of the line. Then they said well, we’ve already hired people. And I said why did you do that? And they said because you said the first step was this, the second step was that, and then the third step and we thought we had the money. So just something like that, to be extraordinarily careful, to say that there are no guarantees, that the first step is we consider it, I might turn it down right then. I know I sounded like I was obsessive compulsive. But it’s terribly important to not give people an implication that they’re going to be funded. So The Grantmaking School talks about that. It talks about the kinds of things that you can do. For example, most program officers have absolutely no idea about budgets: how they work, what they mean, you know, the balance sheet of the organization. Is this organization, when you get their financials, is this organization healthy? Does it have enough operating reserve to last for several months if no more money comes in the door, or are they just on the verge of shutting down. Because one of my colleagues at the Kellogg Foundation once made a grant of over a million dollars to an organization that was on the verge of bankruptcy. They used the money, not for the educational program that was funded but rather to try to keep the organization running at which they failed. And not only did the organization go bankrupt, but all of that million dollars plus had been spent on paying creditors and the electric company, and so forth, none of it had gone to the project that had been funded. So there are just basic elements of good practice every grantmaker should know. And that’s what we teach. JS: Now do you do this mostly in short seminars and workshops and that sort of stuff? 00:18:33 JO: For the most part. There of course are some publications that we give them. We have a web presence that’s helpful and they can ask questions. But for the most part, it’s face to face programs where people can be with their peers and bounce ideas off of each other, and our faculty is far more the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage, because different sizes of foundations operate differently, different regions of the country, you know, what’s considered 18    �to be just good philanthropy in New York might be considered to be really intrusive and over the top in California. So we need to have people come together and talk about the different ways they do things. JS: Alright, now beyond The Grantmaking School work, what other kinds of things did you do while at Grand Valley? JO: Well, one of the big things we did initially was an experiment that has not been as successful, but it was something we needed to try at the time which was the Nonprofit Good Practice Guide. Essentially aggregating everything that we could find about good nonprofit management and getting it onto a website, so that the people who get promoted through the ranks especially, you know, they become executive director and the first day they wake up they say, “Wow, now I’ve got to manage a board and I’ve never managed a board. Now, I’m totally responsible for the finances of this organization and I’m really not very comfortable with finance. Now I’ve got to hire and fire people and I’ve really never done that before.” So that they would get good solid basic information and referrals to organizations that would help them with those issues. It was a good idea. I think we built it pretty well. But it turned out that a lot of other people had that idea as well. A number of them were better financed than we were and better able to market what they had. So the Nonprofit Good Practice Guide still exists but it’s not the 800 pound gorilla in the field, it’s one of many. So that was a noble experiment that didn’t work quite as well. I was able to be helpful in the development of the Community Research Institute [CRI], never ran it or anything, but helpful in getting them some of the things that they needed both through grants and from the university. I was interim director a couple of times while at the Johnson Center and one of my great achievements was the $36,000 closet. In the DeVos Center there was a little storeroom basically that was right by our area and the first thing was fighting three other departments for it and finally getting it. But then what we needed it for was the servers, the computer servers. CRI needed a place where they could be locked down and absolutely safe because there was so much confidential information on those servers we had to limit access to them. As we were working with James Moyer, running facilities, we said well, there’s going to be a lot of heat generated by those computers and we got to get that heat out of there. How do we do that? Well, it turns out the easiest thing to do would have been to run a vent up to the roof of the building, but James couldn’t do that because there were rules about what’s visible from the street and having this big cooling tower going up there would be visible. So we ended up having to run a vent through the building in this convoluted way, out through the U Club roof and out the wall there, which involved $36,000 worth of equipment and workmanship. But it had to be done. It was the right thing to do at the time. It just hurt to send $36,000 into cooling equipment. And let’s see, there were a couple of other things too we worked on as well, helping to get The Foundation Review going with Teri Behrens, who is editing that. It makes the Johnson Center and Grand Valley the home of the only refereed journal in philanthropy, which we hope will be 19    �supported adequately by the field. Cause it’s a funny thing. There are a lot of PhDs in philanthropy, but they don’t see themselves as being in philanthropy as a field. They see themselves as a nurse or a historian or a doctor or a public health specialist or a planner. They see themselves in the field they started in and philanthropy is not their professional field. But we’re trying to raise the professionalism of the field through that journal. And just the simple thing of, if a foundation pays for evaluation results, wouldn’t it be great if other foundations had access to those results, rather than having them buried in the morgue somewhere in the initial foundation? So, working on that as well. 00:25:12 JS: Alright, if you kind of look back over the career that you’ve had in different aspects of philanthropy and the study of it, are there other particular things that kind of stand out in your experience that you haven’t brought in here yet? JO: One of them is the Learning to Give program. After Kathy Agard left MCFYP she started Learning to Give program. And that was a specific effort to teach the giving of time, talent, and treasure, to kids in the K through 12 system. And that has always been a problem because if you go to K through 12 teachers and say here’s a curriculum on philanthropy, they’ll say, well thank you very much, but I’ve already got far more than I can teach that’s mandated through the Michigan standards. And you can get in line with the 86 other professions that want us to teach a curriculum on economics or a curriculum on, you know anything that will be of importance later in life. It seems like everybody has a curriculum they want to foist on the schools. Well, what Kathy did, and the genius of this was, that she went through the Michigan standards one by one, K through 12, and said alright, this lesson has to be taught on money, for example. Alright, we can write a lesson on philanthropy that fits in with that standard. And this lesson can satisfy that lesson on finances. And so that’s what Kathy and her associates did, one by one, wrote lessons that fits the standards. So they can go to teachers and say, we would love you to teach this lesson on volunteerism or on philanthropy or whatever and look, here’s the standard it fits that you’ve got to teach anyway. So it’s a readymade lesson written by teachers, so it fits in the classroom and it solves a problem the teacher has, it doesn’t add another layer on to it. And that has been just a tremendous success in reaching kindergarten through 12th grade kids, teaching them about the importance of sharing their time, their expertise as they go into professional associations, and their treasure. So we’re very proud of that one. 00:28:07 JS: How do you go about actually getting them to use it? It’s one thing even if you’re creating something that the curriculum that they’ve already got the whole thing worked out already or the principal wants them to do it this way or whatever. Are there ways or strategies of getting it into the classroom or what seems to work in terms of selling it? 20    �JO: Well, one of the things they experimented with, with pretty good success, was working with an organization called The LEAGUE. And The LEAGUE has a basic concept that what if we made community service into something that would be as competitive among schools as sports. So, you literally have a league, you have standings, and the kids can say, yes, we moved ahead of Central High now, in doing service. And teaching the Learning to Give programs is part of that. In other schools they’ve gone in to failing schools as defined by No Child Left Behind, and said, ok, these curricula that you’ve been given have not been working and the teachers say, you can say that again. And say, well, how about these lessons? Give them a try. Because the one thing about philanthropy is that we often think of it as something that the Bill Gates of the world do and not us. But the fact of the matter is that 89% of Americans give something, whether it’s their money, in relatively modest amounts, or their time as volunteers, or just sort of helping relatives and family members. So when you get down to it, those kinds of lessons are things that very much are relevant to our everyday lives. And kids understand what it means to share some of your lunch with your friend whose family doesn’t have much. Of course it’s usually sharing something you don’t like all that much anyway, but it’s sharing, none the less. So that has been a helpful way of getting that into school programs. 00:30:46 JS: If you were to go back to say when you were in college or starting graduate school and somebody were to tell you, this is where you’d wind up, what would your reaction be? JO: Oh, I would have laughed. I would have thought, oh my gosh, because growing up in a lower middle class home, if anything, I would think that we would be the objects of philanthropy, not working as part of the giving side of it. So that has been just a huge surprise and I think it underscores the critical importance of what Grand Valley does on a day by day basis, which is to offer a liberal education to its students, because we’re in a world where we not only change jobs frequently, but we change careers frequently. And in fact, the whole concept of a career is probably now a relic of an earlier time. My dad worked for 41 years for International Paper Company and when he retired he was not first on the seniority list, or even second, locally. There was one guy who had been there 45 years and a woman who had been there 43. People used to have careers working for a place, now we get jobs. And the flexibility that a liberal education gives you to move outside of what you might specifically have been trained for and to do work in some other way, in some other field, something you never dreamed of, I think is just critically important. I never, never would have imagined that I would be handling money. My math skills are fairly rudimentary, but to be directing large sums of money. I never would have imagined that I would be dealing with budgets. I never liked budgets of any kind. Never imagined that I might be sitting down with a university president or similar muckety muck and doing negotiations for things. So I just think I was very fortunate to have a liberal education at Kalamazoo College. The students at Grand Valley are extraordinarily fortunate to have that opportunity for a liberal education that we’re 21    �turning out. Because there is just no way to guess what the future’s going to throw at you, and what opportunities are there. And in fact, along those lines, I still get, from time to time, people call me up who’ve been in fairly specialized professions in the law or in medicine and they say, can you help me get a career in philanthropy because I’ve done my field, frankly I’m getting kind of tired of it and I’d like to broaden my horizons and do things that I haven’t done before. It is kind of limiting to have three years of law school which prepares you for a legal job one way or another and the field that you’re constrained within that or trapped within that. Far better to have lots of things you can do. 00:34:48 JS: It’s sort of an interesting perspective on that because if you look around at popular culture now, are ads for online universities or things like that that show up on television. A lot of it is we’re going to train you for career X and you’re going to make X amount of money and go out of there. But that’s most all they’re going to do. And much of what they don’t have that Grand Valley offers is that rest of it, which looks from that perspective just sort of like excess baggage, but in the broader prospective, not necessarily. JO: Right, I have done a little talking with some of the various folks from online universities and they are very focused. In fact they say, if we’ve got a program in say, dental hygiene, and the market for that dries up, we drop that program. We just cut it, because we’re not going to train our kids for jobs that don’t exist. At one level, I think that’s admirable and a good thing, but on the other level, I just have known far, far too many people who have started out as dental hygienists and have said after four or five years, you know, I’ve exhausted the possibilities of this job. I don’t want to do this the rest of my life. And if your only training, and I guess what you can say then is well, alright, fine, you go back to that online university, and they’ll train you for another specific job. I suppose that’s possible but it just seems to me that it’s far better to learn how to think and learn how to reason and be flexible and then when an opportunity comes along you don’t have to go to the University of Phoenix for two years to get it, you can just grab it right now. So, maybe I’m the last of the old crusty generalists, but I think that’s what we need. JS: It makes actually for a pretty good story and you’ve done a very good job telling it. I’d just like to close out here by thanking you for taking the time to do it. JO: Well, thank you. It’s been a privilege to be part of it. 00:37:21 22    � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a5e17921dfeddb1864b6940d136f30e1.mp4 193f4c8e48489a92e49e2165c8e95d7d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project Interviews Subject The topic of the resource Philanthropy and society--Personal narratives Family foundations--Michigan Charities--Michigan Description An account of the resource The Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project (MPOHP) was initiated in 2006 as an innovative partnership between the Council of Michigan Foundations, StoryCorps, Michigan Radio and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University to create an oral history of Michigan philanthropy. Additional video interviews were created by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy to add to the depth and breadth of the collection. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/516">Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project (MPOHP) (JCPA-08). Johnson Center for Philanthropy Archives</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-05-02 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Sound Text Moving Image Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf video/mp4 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-08 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2006-2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Johnson Center for Philantrhopy Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource StoryCorps (Project) Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/516">Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project (JCPA-08)</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Orosz, Joel J. video interview and transcript Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Orosz, Joel J. Description An account of the resource Joel Orosz discusses his education and work at the Kalamazoo Public Museum, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. He authored a book on how to be a grantmaker. He shares stories about the development of the Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan community foundations with Youth Advisory Committees, Michigan Youth Philanthropy Initiative Project, Learning to Give, and the Johnson Center. He discusses Johnson Center programs: The Grantmaking School, Community Research Institute, The Foundation Review, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide. He reflects on the importance of the nonprofit sector in philanthropy and the value of a liberal education. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, Michigan Philanthropy Oral History Project Subject The topic of the resource Philanthropy and society Personal narratives Charities Michigan Associations, institutions, etc. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-08_OroszJ Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Relation A related resource Johnson Center for Philanthropy Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-08-18 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/33de211d072b2a549acedda429700931.mp4 23a87f65be6f6703b667b30ee7490c8b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f86e47e55768dd9310360531bf394f62.pdf 7ed07c39983a2822424d2288a6a37d8e PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of Interviewee: Al Orr Name of War: Vietnam War Length of Interview: (00:40:16) (00:20) Background Information • Al was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 5, 1935 • Al graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1960 • He was in Vietnam from March 1966 through April 1967 (2:10) Marines • Al enlisted in November 1952 when he was 17 years old • He is now not sure why he enlisted, but has never regretted it • He had chosen to enlist in the Marines because his father and friend had encouraged him to do so • Boot camp was terribly impossible • Al went through 12 weeks of training and felt very isolated from the real world (5:50) Vietnam • Al was a captain when he arrived in Da Nang • He had first gone to Okinawa where he was assigned to a unit and then sent to Vietnam • All was an assistant operations officer in his battalion • He was often involved in combat, but the casualty rate was “normal” for the first 10 months • About 40 men were injured a month and there were a few deaths • Al worked on patrolling the area of operations in Da Nang (10:15) Southern Vietnam • Al was sent south of Da Nang to take over security from the Vietnamese �• The area had been occupied by indigenous Viet Cong • The operation lasted 63 days and there were about 1100 casualties • They were able to eliminate all the Viet Cong in the area with combined air and artillery • The men were later replaced by Vietnamese troops (15:00) After Vietnam • Al went back to school and got his masters degree in computer technology • He later found that the Marines Corps seems to be harder on families than it is on the actual men in the service (17:30) Vietnam • Al received a bronze star and a purple heart • His base camp had been a supply area for fuel at a strategic location • They had 63,000 gallons of fuel on the base • In February 1967 the Viet Cong attacked their base with rocket mortars and small arms • All of their ammunition and fuel was set on fire; the sight was spectacular • It was very hard to repel the attack and try to put the fire out • Many people companies donated products to the troops in Vietnam • Every unit received a brand new refrigerator from an appliance company, but they had no electricity • A toy company donated a bunch of rubber ducks to give to Vietnamese children, but the Viet Cong cut them up and made grenades out of them (25:30) Average Days • After the base was attacked and blown up, the men still had plenty of supplies • The c-rations meals they ate had about 2,000 calories each per meal • They had no fresh vegetables or milk • The men drank warm beer, which they stored in their refrigerators with no electricity • The men constantly listened to the radio did not get to see any USO shows �• Al received 5 days leave to rest and he went to Hong Kong (30:30) End of Service • Al was flown out of southern Vietnam and into Da Nang • The men then went back to Okinawa and were all then in their civilian clothes • He took a ship and landed back on San Francisco • Al kept in contact with a few of the men from his battalion � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OrrA Title A name given to the resource Orr, Al (Interview outline and video), 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Orr, Al Description An account of the resource Al Orr was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 5, 1935. He enlisted in the Marines Corps in November 1952 when he was only 17 years old. Al was sent to the Pacific in March 1966 and first arrived in Okinawa where he was assigned to a unit. He was then sent into Da Nang where he worked as an assistant operations officer of his battalion. Al was in Vietnam for a little over a year and was engaged in a campaign against the Viet Cong in his sector. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Echtinaw, Josh (Interviewer) Jonkhoff, Katie (Interviewer) Shelton, Jessica (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-12-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3a453659d44fc2672a5ae26a5c88c85f.pdf 65fe89684562417053cb92899bdcafcb PDF Text Text Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department German Ortega interview Interviewer: Penny Bruyu Interviewee: German Ortega Penny Bruyu: Testing 1,2,3. Testing 1,2,3. [people speaking in the background] This is Saturday the 18th of June. We’re in Hart, Michigan at the Hart Library. This is Penny Bruyu (?) and I’m speaking with… German: -German Ortega. Penny: German agreed to be interviewed today, um, [switches to Spanish] German, would you like to speak in English or Spanish? German: No, Spanish. Penny: Okay. Good, tell us something about yourself. German: Like...what? For example, what about [me would you like to hear]? Penny: When you were born, where, uh... German: Well, I...my name is German Ortega, em...I was born in a village inside the state of Nayarit, Puerta de mangos on the fourteenth of May in 1971. Eh, [it’s] ‘bout twenty-eight kilometers from the, from, from the edge of the sea, the Pacific. It’s...really beautiful. And, I came here in ‘82. To... Penny: To Michigan, or? German: To, no, well, I came to California, Idaho in ‘78. That’s where I was. In ‘79 I returned, I had [previously] worked six months, and I [had] returned to my village another time. The following year, in ‘79 I only came to Idaho. There I picked apples, onions, corn, and I returned to Mexico the ninth of October. From there I didn’t return for three years and then I came to Michigan in ‘82. [Walter speaking in the background] I came [to Mexico] for six months to study, but I’m still here after thirty years and counting that I don’t… [people speaking in the background] Penny: What were you going to study? German: I wanted to study ___ engineering. (1:50) I studied an hour and a half. Penny: Where? German: In a village named Rosamorada in Nayarit. Back then it was a z. Z number seventy-two. Now it’s called, I believe it’s called Zebeiti. I think it’s Zebeiti...but I came for six months and here I am still, I don’t know how [German laughs] [people speaking in the background] But yeah, I studied a year and a half, three semesters. 1 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department Penny: And…when you uh, arrived here...how did you enter, where [did you] live, with who did [you] work, what... German: Well, I was in Idaho. Um... Penny: - Where in Idaho? German: Um...it’s called... [knocks on the table] Marsing. Marsing, Idaho. And I had an uncle here, an uncle of ours. His name is Nicolás [pause] Carrillo Duran. [He lived] here in Grand Rapids. He was working in Kalamazoo. So we spoke, and when we were talking he told us that there was work here. So we came to Grand Rapids for four months. [People speaking in the background] [German laughs] I worked getting rid of earthworms [begins laughing] for this golf course. Penny: Oh. German: I only worked at night. Yes, it was around three, four months, something like that. Then, one of my uncles who was here worked as a [inaudible, 3:13] and he told us to come because there was work picking peaches, so we came. They gave us a place to stay, they gave us everything, and...they treated us well. We liked the work here, we liked the way the people in charge treated us, and… Penny: Who were those in charge at Benona Hill Farms? German: The boss was Bill Burmeister and the la...I don’t remember what his wife’s name was. [long pause] [people speaking in the background] Penny: Vi Burmeister. (¿? No estoy segura de lo que dijo) German: Uh huh, y the one in charge was just Gerry. Gerry Burmeister. Gerry was the one who was in charge of everything. And it finished, the apple season, we picked...I started picking peaches my first year. Afterwards [we picked] apples, the following year asparagus. Cherry. We picked cherries by hand before. [inaudible, 4:06] And uh... Penny: What year was this? German: In ’82. From 1982 onwards [hits the table for emphasis] until I was working with Gerry in ‘95. I was only working in the field, and afterwards I entered into a company. Ah, Whitehall Leather, and I left the work in the fields. [people speaking in the background] Penny: And, what else uh, in your life [noise picks up as people in the background begin speaking] What occurred in your life during these years? German: Well, sad things! Because in, i think it was in eighty...no wait, I don’t remember the year. It was in ‘86, no, ‘84 or ‘85. Um, I got sick, from appendicitis. My appendix burst and I spent...many 2 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department weeks without work. Like six...six weeks. And, and those who where there [hits desk] well, they fed me, they gave me ten dollars eachPenny: - But, where were you? German: Here, in the camps! I worked there, I was there in the camps working. I, I, I got sick and I don’t know...they performed emergency surgery and I was without work for six weeks. It was little by little that I recuperated. See…[Walter speaking in the background] and, right in the middle of, for example, when the cherry harvest ends, peaches, no with the asparagus we could sometimes take three weeks, or occasionally a month. Afterwards we would go to Ohio, [we’d go] there, or we would go to Traverse City to pick strawberries. Uh, or to Ohio to pick tomatoes. That’s what we did. [Speaking in the background] HowPenny: -You say that’s what we did, who were you with? German: We were, there was Mario [inaudible] a young man named [inaudible] ¿Caliento nonato? Nicolás Carillo, Víctor Cordero, and I. That’s all, it’s just that we were always together ever sincePenny: [noisy] - Were they all from your village? German: We all were from the same village, yes. Penny: From, from Puerta de Mangos? German: From Puerto de Mangos. [inaudible] We followed him because he spoke English, well, he spoke the most English. Um, and he had a car, therefore he would give us rides. We looked for jobs and everything, but, we were always together, all of us. Penny: And when you finished with the jobs available [to you] in Michigan, what did you do? German: When worked finished up, we would wait to work in tinos? Right there with the boss, but he gave us a [plazo] to leave the camp. For example, the tenth of November, we would sometimes work [inaudible] and we would go to Florida to work in the strawberry [harvest]. We had somewhere to stay there too. Penny: What part of Florida? German: Glen City, Florida. There, if an uncle of mine got there first he would arrange for us to stay in a house and everything. It all finished out well here, and we’d go down there to work. We barely ever struggled with the work because one of us always went ahead. Eh, because of the cold or what have you. But someone went ahead, and so, the job would finish there, we’d work picking strawberries, oranges we would also harvest. The oranges we didn’t have a boss for because [people speaking in the background] we only had to look and find where there were people harvesting 3 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department oranges and ask for work. And so, the strawberries would finish in March, March or April, and we’d call our boss and ask if everything was ready. If the camp was open. To, to prepare. Penny: The same boss, Burmeister? German: Yes, the same one. Uh huh. He’d call us and let us know that we could come whatever day, the camp was already open and we could enter. Everything was ready for the asparagus, and like that we’d return. Apple season would end and then [we’d stay] for strawberry [season] and we’d return to here [Michigan]. Yes, it was for, like ten years that we went going back and forth and then after I stopped for a year. It was for two, butPenny: And you, um, you got married right? [people speaking loudly in the background] German: I got married in...oh God. [pauses] Eighty... Penny: How many kids do you have? German: I have five kidsPenny: And when was your first child born? German: [stutters] twenty...ninth of May. The May 29th 1985. Benny, Benny Brian Ortega. Penny: And so, when did you get married? [pause] Or when did you get together with-? German: I got together, I got together with the mom of my children. Penny: What’s the name of your children’s mother? German: Her name is Mariza Lozano. Um...I had five children with her and…[Walter keeps speaking in the background] at the time I got married, I don’t remember how many years afterwards, two, three, I don’t know. But we had...after Benny followed Cristina. She was born the third of...March 6th of 1987. After Cristina, Herman was born [on] the 14th of November, November 14th of ‘91. Laura was born next, August 17th of ‘94, and Luis [was born] July 8th of ‘99. We had five kids and, and we lived comfortably but...things happen. But we did continue, we both worked in the camp. Um, we would arrive to pick peaches, apples or asparagus, everything. I’d help her with the kids, to-or make food, with the food. She’d do something else, but um...we lasted a while working in the camp. [Conversation continues in the background] For some seasons we worked for Peterson. No, only when another harvest would begin, be it the peaches or apples. Penny: And when you say Peterson, um [conversation continues in the background] [do you mean] Peterson Farms? German: Peterson Farms in, in the grocery store. Penny: O-okay. What did they produce [she uses the wrong form of the word in Spanish, the intent was to say produce in past tense]? 4 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department German: There we worked [picking] cherries [he uses the English word for cherry as opposed to the Spanish]. Until today they still pick cherries. In a group we would collect only-well, I worked outside cleaning the tanks, taking out the trash with a, with a strainer, taking care of the leaves, all of that. Marisa worked in the line taking out the pits, rocks, getting rid of all that. And...finally when work began here, they’d call us to tell us that it was beginning and we’d leave the grocery store here, even though there was work. And, uh, when we stayed here, when I got married, we started to stay. After ten, twelve years. I finally decided to work the winter with Peterson in the grocery store, sometimes working with peaches, sometimes apples. [Conversation continues in the background] And the work in the camps would begin, and again I’d go. With the time, I, I got accustomed to a company and uh, and finally the year was very round (?) I left the camps, we left the camp um, she looked for work in a (??) and I in another and um, and we left the camps. We didn’t, we didn’t work. Even now I don’t work in the camps. Penny: When you left Peterson’s camps, where did you start working? German: When I left, I, it was a [inaudible] I worked there for five years. Penny: And what did you do there? German: There in [company is inaudible]we would ___ cowhide, for shoes. Apparently [there were] many government contracts, for the army [army was said in English] it was the most, the most, almost everything was for the army. And I worked there for five years. I would beat the cowhide so that they could go into the oven and be tanned. [Alongside me] there was Mario, Mario Engurre, Victor Cordero, we were, we were the ones who always would get together and almost always were together working in different areas. And...after five years the company shut down, [conversation in the background becomes more loud] and-everyone went their own way. So, now no, we don’t get together anymore. Um, we had to work with the hide, the same as [company name is inaudible] we worked there with the hide of pigs, also for the same type of shoes. Penny: Where, what Wolverine? German: Ah, I can’t pronounce Rockford, um, in the state of Michigan. Rok-Rockford. Penny: Oh, Rockford, Michigan? German: Uh huh, Rockford, Michigan. There we worked uh, for four years. But during these four years I had a car accident. And...then I left for that reason too. Also because I could no longer work in this place, because, well, I couldn’t. The doctor told me that I could no longer do so, I couldn’t work there anymore, I wasn’t able to and so I left. And…[conversation continues in the background for a few seconds] 5 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department Penny: What happened after the accident? German: After the accidentPenny: -When was the accident? German: [both begin to speak] the accident was...September 28th of ‘94-of 2004. Penny: 2004? German: 2004, um, after that, the accident, I didn’t work for four years. I left for Mexico, I didn’t come here. I didn’t work. Penny: What, what injuries did you have, what, what happened to you during the accident? German: We flipped and uh, I, well they say that it was pretty ugly. I was dead, lost and a part of me, um, well I don’t-I don’t remember what happened at all. Nothing of the accident, I don’t know. Um, the only thing that I know is that I woke up in the hospital and I stayed there, I stayed there a while. [Someone begins laughing in the background as part of the other conversation] It took some time for me to recuperate. With the, um, with the time I, the accident broke my knee. I broke part of my collar- the [both say collarbone in English] Umm. Penny: Oh, okay, collarbone. German: Collarbone, the ribs, eh, I had many operations on my stomach which was turned inside out. The operated on me [conversation in the background grows loader] and thanks to God that all turned out well. Well, it resulted well physically but not, not well with everything in order to...and uh, I was like that for four years without working at least, going to doctor appointments, overall. Afterwards I applied to a company that...it’s called Oceana Food. There um...there we worked in [picking] cherries, blueberries, granada, cranberries…[all fruits said in English] Penny: And what happened with those? German: There [both attempt to speak] they process them, hydrate them. There they hydrate them, through ovens. Everyone works with the ovens and it turns out in a style whichPenny: Dry, dry [second dry is said in English], like? German: Yes, dry. Penny: Like raisinsGerman: Yes, like raisinsPenny: Like raisins (said in English). German: Uh huh, and this is what I do. I work relieving because, I can’t, I can’t do anything requiring force. But this [cell phone begins ringing] In, in um [conversation in the background continues alongside a phone vibrating] 2008 [phone vibrates]. During the year 2008, in July of 2008 6 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department [conversation and vibrating continues] and until now we are- [vibration interrupts him] we are working there thanks to God. We are well [vibrations continue rapidly] I like the job, I like[vibrations continue in rapid sequence]. Penny: -Um, [vibrations stop]. Did you enter as a migrant [recording is full of static] with papers or without? German: When I first entered the United States it was without papers. I entered through the city of Tijuana with [inaudible] San Diego. And, and in that time it was easy to enter. They’d say “wait for me for two hours in such and such place” and I would arrive in Tijuana through the other side. And each year that I came I entered without papers. Here in the United States, and [conversation can be heard loudly in the background] over time [German coughs] over time it became harder too and thanks to [God] we were able to fix everything. Penny: And how was that, the process ofGerman: The process of fixing [our study] was through amnesty. In ‘85, in ‘86 something like that, and uh, thanks to God we qualified for, for this program and we fixed our status. Penny: And you’re still a permanent resident? German: No, thanks to God and a woman named Penny Bruyu? Who helped me a lot in the process of becoming a citizen. Penny: And when did you become a citizen? [bang on table] German: In ’96. In...yeah in ’96 I became a citizen after nearly twenty years [conversation continues in the background]. Penny: And have you studied English or gone to a university (she uses the term for high school here but means higher education), the dreams you had how-? German: I let go of my dreams. I never, I couldn’t study anymore, not even here. I only went to school one day here and couldn’t continue [inaudible] [conversation in the background is louder than German]. I went one day, only one day and-it’s just that I don’t have time with my job and family. Or, it’s more that I don’t want one [university education] because if I wanted one I’d be able to. All those who really want it can, and maybe I didn’t [want it enough]. Penny: And...what is your impression of Oceana county? What-what... German: Well, for me Oceana County is my life, my village, it’s my-my city is here. Everything [is here]. It’s my México over there, because here...I grew up here um, here I-I made-uh I had everything unfold well. Uh, my job, family, my people, everything is better than over there. Much better than over there, here it is as calm as it gets. 7 �Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department Penny: Do you have family here apart from your kids? German: I have brothers, I have two more brothers. I have [murmurs] four cousins on my dad’s side and from my mom’s side too- [conversation in the background continues loudly]. Penny: And when you became a citizen were you able to help your family? German: Yes, thanks to God we were able to help. I helped my parents legalize their status and thanks to God they became citizens thanks to the help of the woman I mentioned earlier. Penny: And what are the names of your parents? German: My dad’s name is Pablo Ortega Manzo and my mom’s name is Felina de Chiga Herrero. Penny: And they, um, are citizens or residents or how-? German: They are citizens, thanks to God. They’re, they’re now Americans. Penny: So, so by...by coming here illegally and fixing your migrant status you made [yourself a] resident permanent, American naturalized citizen. You fixed and naturalized yourGerman: My parents. Penny: Your parents, like permanent residents and now they became American citizens. German: Yes, uh huh. Thanks to God, they could and they did. Penny: Uh huh, yeah. Is there something of your personal history that you would like to share? German: [long pause, conversation continues in the background] Well only...to give thanks to the county. The county have-has treated me well, I haven’t gotten into any problems and I’ve remained tranquil with everything. Penny: Your-your life has beenGerman: -As calm as it is possible to be here. I-much better than Mexico. I don’t discriminate [against] Mexico but, it’s as, it’s pretty. Penny: Thank you very much, we are going to end the interview. This is the end of the interview with German Ortega, uh, the 18th of June 2016 in Hart, Michigan. 8 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ff9c7bc5d8c99bdadce342ce0e2aa48e.pdf 7f4623ea624b836850c0c3e2c646dd0d PDF Text Text Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department Entrevistador: ¿Penny Bruyu? Entrevistado: German Ortega Penny Bruyu: Testing 1,2,3. Testing 1,2,3. [personas hablando en el fondo] This is Saturday the 18th of June. We’re in Hart, Michigan at the Hart Library. This is Penny Bruyu (?) and I’m speaking with… German: -German Ortega. Penny: German agreed to be interviewed today, um, ¿German puedes hablar en inglés o español? German: No, español. Penny: Okey. Bueno, dinos algo de usted. German: Como… ¿de qué? Por ejemplo, de, ¿de qué? Penny: Cuando naciste, donde nacisteis, uh… German: Bueno, yo…me llamo German Ortega, este…nací el catorce de mayo del ’71 en un pueblo del estado de Nayarit. Puerta de mangos. Eh, ‘ta veinte y ocho kilómetros de la, del, del orilla del mar, del pacífico. Este…muy bonito. Y, me vine en el ’82 para acá. Para… Penny: ¿Para Michigan o? German: Para, no, bueno en el ’78 me vine a, a…para la California para Idaho. Allí tuve. En el ’79 me, me regre-trabajé seis meses, me regrese a, a mi pueblo otra vez. El siguiente año en el ’79 vine para Idaho, nada más. Pisque manzana, cebolla, elote, y me regrese de nuevo en octubre para, para México. De ya no vine por tres años, y me vine en el ’82 ya para Michigan. [Walter hablando en el fondo] Vine por seis meses para estudiar, pero aquí estoy todavía, treinta y tal años que no… [personas hablando en el fondo] Penny: ¿Qué ibas estudiar? German: Quería estudiar para ingeniar orónimo (¿? 1:50) Estudie año y medio. Penny: ¿En dónde? German: En un pueblo que se llama Rosamorada en Nayarit. En ese tiempo era zeta. Zeta número setenta y dos. Y ahora se llama, creo que Zebeiti (¿?) Pienso que Zebeiti...pero vine por seis meses y aquí estoy todavía no sé cómo. [German se ríe] [personas hablando en el fondo] Pero si estudie año y medio. Tres semestres. Penny: Y…cuando llegasteis aquí ah…como enterasteis, donde viví, como con quien trabajar, que… German: Bueno, yo estaba en Idaho. Este… Penny: - ¿qué parte de Idaho? German: En…se llama… [toca la mesa] Marsing. Marsing, Idaho. Y aquí estaba un tío, de nosotros, un tío. Que se llama Nicolás [pausa] Carrillo Durán. Aquí en Grand Rapids. Trabajaba en un compañía en Kalamazoo él. Y…hablamos, hablamos y nos dijo que aquí, aquí había trabajo. Y nos venimos a Grand Rapids, duramos como cuatro meses en Grand Rapids. [personas hablando en el fondo] [German se ríe] Trabajaba sacando lombrices. [está riéndose] para el campo de golf para la pesca. 1 �Penny: O. German: Puro de noche no más. Si, como tres, cuatro meses algo así. Y ya, un tío mío aquí trabajaba como un [inaudible, 3:13] Y nos dijo que nos vinieramos que ya había pizca durazno que nos vinieramos. Y…nos vinimos y allí nos dieron casa, nos dieron todo y…y nos trataron bien. Allí, nos gustó el trabajo, nos gustó el trato de los, de los patrones. Y… Penny: ¿Quién eran los patrones de Benona Hill Farms? German: El patrón era Bill Burmeister y la seño…no me recordó cómo se llama la esposa. [pausa larga] [personas hablando en el fondo] Penny: Vi Burmeister. (¿? No estoy segura de lo que dijo) German: Aja, y el encargado nada más fue Gerry. Gerry Burmeister. Gerry era el que se encargaba de todo. Y ya se terminaba la, la pizca de manzana, pizcábamos…empecé pizcando durazno mi primer año. Después, manzana, siguiente año espárrago. Cherry [cereza], se picaba a mano la cherry [cereza] antes. [inaudible, 4:06] Y este… Penny: ¿En qué año fue eso? German: En el ’82. Ya de la ’82 para acá [pega la mesa con su mano para énfasis] ya hasta el ’95 cuando estuve allí con Gerry. Trabajando en el campo, nada más. Y ya después me mete en una compañía. Ah, Whitehall Leather, y ya me salí del campo. [personas hablando en el fondo] Penny: Y, que más uh, en su vida [hablando en el fondo se hace más ruidoso] ¿qué pasó en su vida entre estéis años? German: ¡Pos, cosas tristes! Porque en él, como en el ochien…no me recuerdo que año, fue en el ‘86 no, ’84, ’85. Este, me enferme. Del apéndice. Me a reventó el apéndice, dure…muchas semanas sin trabajar. Como seis, seis semanas. Y, y los que estábamos allí [pega la mesa] pos allí me daban de comer, me daban diez dólares por semana cada quienPenny: - pero ¿dónde estabas? German: Allí en el campo. Allí trabajaba, allí en el campo trabajando. Me, me, me enferme y no este…me operaron de emergencia y seis semanas dure sin trabajar. Y ya poco a poco me recuperaron. Este… [Walter hablando en el fondo] y, ya en miedo del, por ejemplo, cuando se acababa la cherry el durazno que, no el espárrago que durábamos dos, tres semanas o un mes a veces, nos íbamos para Ohio. A la, o a Traverse City para pizca de la fresa. Uh, o a Ohio al tomate. Así andamos. [Hablando en el fondo] ComoPenny: -Y dice así andamos, ¿con quién andabas? German: Andábamos, era Mario [inaudible] un muchacho que se llama [inaudible] ¿Caliento nonato? Nicolás Carrillo, Víctor Cordero, y yo. Nada más, es que andábamos siempre juntos desdePenny: [ruidosa] - ¿y todos eran de tu pueblo? German: Todos éramos del mismo pueblo, todos éramos. Penny: ¿De, de Puerta de Mangos? 2 �German: De Puerto de Mangos. [inaudible] Lo seguíamos a él porque él hablaba inglés, pues más, más inglés. Este…y tenía carro, entonces él nos traílla y nos llevaba. Buscaba trabajo y todo eso, pero, siempre anduvimos juntos, todos allí. Penny: ¿Y cuando terminaba el trabajo aquí en Michigan, que hacían? German: Cuando se terminaba el trabajo, este, ¿nos iba-nos esperábamos a trabajar en los tinos? Allí mismo con el patrón, pero nos daba un plazo para salir del campo. Por ejemplo, el diez de noviembre, entonces a veces trabajábamos [inaudible] y nos íbamos pa’ la Florida a trabajar en la fresa. Ya teníamos a donde llegar allí también. Penny: ¿Que parte de Florida? German: Glen City, Florida. Allí hasta, se iba primero un tío mío, y nos conseguí la casa y todo. Y ya se terminaba aquí todo bien. Y nos íbamos para halla, y ya llegábamos para trabajar. Nosotros casi no batallábamos nada para el trabajo porque siempre iba alguien pa’ delante. Eh, por el frío, o por lo que sea. Pero se iba adelante, entonces este, se acaba el trabajo allá, pizcábamos fresa, naranja también pizcábamos. La naranja no teníamos patrón porque [personas hablando en el fondo, muy ruidoso] nada más a ver adonde pizcar naranja y pedíamos trabajo. Y este, y ya se acababa la fresa en marzo, marzo/abril, nos hablaba el patrón que ya estaba listo. El campo abierto. Para, pa’ preparar. Penny: ¿El mismo patrón Burmeister? German: Si, el mismo. Aja. Nos hablaba que ya nos podíamos ir cualquier día. Ya estaba el campo abierto, ya podíamos entrar. Y estar listo para el espárrago. Y así volvíamos, se acababa la temporada de la manzana la fresa, y de la fresa acababa y nos venimos aquí. Si, por, yo como diez años dure yendo y viniendo y ya después pare un año. Pare dos, peroPenny: Y este, eh, ¿te casaste no? [personas hablando en el fondo, ruidoso] German: Me case en el…hay dios. [pausa] ochenta… Penny: ¿Cuántos hijos tienes? German: Tengo cinco hijosPenny: ¿Y cuando nació tu primer hijo? German: [tartamudo] veinte y…nueve de mayo, veinte y nueve de mayo del ’85. Benny. Benny Brian Ortega. Penny: ¿Y cuándo te casaste entonces? [pausa] ¿O juntaste con-? German: Me junte, me junte con la mamá de mis hijos. Penny: ¿Cómo se llama la mamá de sus hijos? German: Se llama, se llama Marisa Lozano. Este…con ella tuve cinco hijos y este… [Walter sigue hablando en el fondo] al tiempo me case no me recuerdo cuantos años después, dos, tres. No sé. Pero tuvimos después de Benny siguió Cristina, nació el tres de…marzo seis ’87. En seguida nació Herman, noviembre catorce, noviembre catorce del ’91. Después sigue Laura, agosto diecisiete ’94. Y Luis, julio ocho del ’99. Tuvimos cinco hijos y este, y vivimos ajustó, pero…las cosas pasan. Pero si seguimos, trabajamos los dos en el campo. 3 �Este, llegamos de pizcar durazno lo que pueda manzana o esparrago, de todo. Yo le ayudaba a los niños a-o hacer la comida, con la comida. Hacia otra cosa, pero, este…duramos un rato en el campo, trabajando. [conversación en el fondo continúe] Por temporadas trabajamos con-con Peterson. No, nada más mientras empezaba otra cosecha, ya se el durazno o la manzana. Penny: Y cuando dice Peterson, eh, [conversación sigue en el fondo] ¿Peterson Farms? German: Peterson Farms en, en la bodega Penny: O-okey, ¿que producaban [quiere decir producían]? German: Allí se trabaja la cherry [cereza]. Se trabaja la cherry [cereza], hasta ahorita todavía. En una banda sacábamos nada más-pues yo trabajaba afuera limpiando los tanques sacando la basura con una, con un colador, sacando las hojas, todo eso. Marisa trabajaba en la línea sacando los huevos, sacando las piedras, sacando todo eso. Y…ya cuando empezaba acá el trabajo, nos llamaba que ya empezaba y nos dejábamos de la bodega acá, aunque hubiera trabajo. Y, este, cuando nos quedábamos aquí, cuando me case, nos empezamos a quedar. Después de diez, doce años. Ya me mete a trabajar el invierno con Peterson en la bodega igual a, a veces durazno, a veces manzana [conservación en el fondo]. Y ya empezaba el campo [y] empezaba otra vez y me salí. Ya con el tiempo, me, me acomode una compañía y este…y ya el año fue muy redondo (¿?) me salí del campo, nos salimos del campo eh, ella busco un trabajo en un (¿?) yo en otro y eh, y nos salimos del campo ya no, ya no trabajamos. Hasta ahorita ya no trabaja en el campo. Penny: ¿Cuándo saliste del campo de Peterson, donde empezaste a trabajar? German: Cuando salí, me, fue a [inaudible] allí trabajé por cinco años. Penny: ¿Y qué hacéis allí? German: Allí en [compañía inaudible] nosotros acabamos el cuero de vaca, para el zapato. Según muchos contrates para el gobierno, para el army era lo mas, lo mas, casi todo era para el army. Y trabajé por cinco años allí. Yo pegaba los cueros, para entrarán el horno para se curtieron. Y era Mario, Mario Aguirre, Víctor Cordero, éramos los, los que siempre nos juntábamos y casi siempre estábamos juntos trabajando en lugares. Y…Después de cinco años cero la compañía, [conversación del fondo se hace más ruidoso] y-cada quien se fue por su lado. Entonces, ya no, ya no nos juntábamos para nada. Eh, tuvimos que trabajar en los cueros, lo igual a [nombre de compañía es inaudible] allí trabajamos el cuero del puerco. Para el zapato igual. Penny: ¿en donde, que Wolverine? German: No puedo decir Rockford, eh, en el estado de Michigan, Rok-Rockford. Penny: Oh. ¿Rockford, Michigan? German: Aja, Rockford, Michigan. Allí trabajé este, por cuatro años. Pero en ese tiempo de los cuatro años tuve un accidente de carro. Y…y ya me salí por ese motivo también. También, porque ya no podía trabajar en ese lugar porque pues, no podía. El doctor me dijo que ya no pude, que ya no trabajaré allí, no podía y me salí. Y… [conversación sigue en el fondo por un par de segundos] Penny: ¿Qué pasó después del accidente…? 4 �German: Después del accidentePenny: ¿Cuándo fue el accidente? German: [los dos tratando de hablar] el accidente fue…septiembre 28 del ’94-del 2004. Penny: ¿2004? German: Del 2004, este después de allí, del accidente, dure cuatro años sin trabajar. Me fui para México, no fui aquí, no fui a trabajar. Penny: Que, que ardidas tenias, que, ¿que te paso en el accidente? German: Nos volteamos, y este, me-pues dicen que estuvo muy feo. Estuvo muerto, perdido y a parte de mi, y este, pues yo no ¿?? No recuerdo lo que paso, nada. Nada del accidente, nada no se. Este, lo único que se es que ya desperté en el hospital y allí dure, dure tiempo. [Alguien se ríe en el fondo como parte de otra conversación] Dure tiempo en recuperarme. Con el, eh, con el tiempo me, el accidente m-me quebró la rodilla. Me quebré parte de mi espoleta del collar- el [los dos dicen collarbone] [la clavícula] ehh. Penny: Oh, okey, collarbone. German: Collarbone, las costillas eh, tuve muchas operaciones en el estómago me reventó por dentro. Me operaron [conversación en el fondo es ruidoso] y gracias a dios que quede bien, bueno, quede bien físicamente pero no, no bien de todo para poder. Y este y así duré cuatro años sin trabajar por lo menos, por yendo a citas del doctor, por todo. Después aplique en una compañía de…se llama Oceana Food allí este…allí trabaja en la pura cherry, blueberry, granada, cranberry… Penny: ¿Y qué pasa con esos? German: Allí [los dos tratando de hablar] de la procesan, la hidratan. Allí le hidratan. Puro horno. Todo trabaja entre fresca el horno y ya sale el estiloPenny: ¿Seco, dry, como-? German: Si, dry. Penny: Como pasasGerman: Si, como pasasPenny: -Como raisinsGerman: Uh huh. Y este es lo que hago, trabajo aliviando porque no, no hago nada de fuerza, pero este [celular empieza a soñar] En el-en el [conversación sigue en el fondo, el celular para de soñar] 2008 [celular vibra]. Entre en el año del 2008, en el julio del 2008 [conversación y vibraciones continúan] y hasta ahorita estamos- [vibración del celular lo interrumpe] estamos trabajando allí gracias a dios. Estamos bien [vibraciones siguen rápidamente] me gusta el trabajo. Me gusta y- [vibraciones siguen en secuencia rápida]. Penny: -Um, [vibraciones para] ¿Usted entró como un migrante [grabación tiene estatutico] con papeles o sin papeles? German: Cuando entre yo aquí en los Estados Unidos yo entre sin papeles. Entre por la ciudad Tijuana con [inaudible] San Diego. Y, y en ese tiempo las pasadas eran fáciles. Eran desde, ‘esperame por dos horas en tal 5 �parte’ y ya allí llegó en Tijuana por el otro lado. Y cada año que yo venía entraba sin papeles. Aquí a los Estados Unidos, y [conversación se puede oír claramente en el fondo] con el tiempo [German tose] con el tiempo se puso a ser más duro también y gracias a [dios] ya arreglamos todo. Penny: Y cómo fue eso, el proceso deGerman: El proceso de la reglada fue por un amnistía. En el ’85, el ’86 algo así. Y eh, gracias a dios nos cualificamos por, por ese programa y arreglamos. Penny: ¿Y todavía eres residente permanente? German: No, gracias a dios a una señora que se llama Penny Burillo (¿?) ella me ayudó mucho a hacerme ciudadano. Penny: ¿Y cuando te hiciste ciudadano? [ruido en la mesa] German: En el ’96. En el…si en el ’96 me hice ciudadano después de casi veinte años [conversación en el fondo]. Penny: ¿Y has estudiado inglés or fuiste a colegio, los sueños que tenias como-? German: De mis sueños se me cayeron. Ya no nunca, ya no pude estudiar, ni aquí. Aquí nada más fui al escuela un día no más y no podía seguir [inaudible] [conversación sigue] Un día fui, fui nada más y-es que no se no caso el tiempo y el trabajo y la familia. No quiero uno mas bien, porque si quisiera uno si pudiera uno, todo los que quieren pueden. Yo a lo mejor no quiso. Penny: Y… ¿que es su impresión de el condado de Oceana? Que-que… German: Pues para mi el condado de Oceana es mi vida, es mi pueblo es mi-aquí es, es mi ciudad. Todo. Es mi México allá. Porque aquí…crecí aquí este, aquí me, me hice-uh me desarrollo bien de todo. Este, trabajo, familia, mi gente, todo ya esta mejor que allá. Mucho más mejor que allá, más, aquí es lo más tranquilo que hay. Penny: ¿Tienes familia aquí aparte de sus hijos? German: Tengo hermanos, tengo dos hermanos más. Tengo [murmullo] cuatro primos por parte de mi papá y de mi mamá también- [conversación en el fondo sigue con mucho ruido] Penny: ¿Y cuando usted se hizo ciudadano pudo ayudar a su familia? German: Si, gracias a Dios si pudimos ayudar. Les arregle a mis papas. Y…gracias a dios también se hicieron ciudadanos y gracias a la señora que le mencione al rato. Penny: ¿y como se llama sus papás? German: Se llama Pablo Ortega Manzo y mi mamá se llama Felina de Chiga Herrero. Penny: Y ellos, eh… ¿son ciudadanos o son residentes o como...? German: Ellos son-ya son ciudadanos gracias a Dios. Ya, ya son americanos. Penny: Entonces, entonces por…por venir aquí ilegal y arreglar su estatus migratorio hiciste residente permanente, ciudadano americano naturalizado. Arreglaste y naturalizaste susGerman: Mis papás. 6 �Penny: Sus papás, como residentes permanentes y ahora se hicieron ciudadanos americanos. German: Si, ajá. Gracias a Dios, pudieron y quisieron. Penny: Ajá, si. ¿Hay algo más de su historia que quisiera compartir que…recuerden? German: [pausa larga, conversación sigue en el fondo] Pues nada más este…darle gracias a aquí a el condado más bien. Al condado porque me han dad-me han tratado bien, no me mete en problemas no he estado tranquilo, con todo. Penny: Su-su vida ha sidoGerman: -Tranquila de lo más posible que hay aquí. Me-mucho mejor que allá, México. Yo no discrimino México, pero, es una, es bonito. Penny: Muchas gracias, vamos a cerrar. This is the end of the interview with German Ortega, uh, the 18th of June 2016 in Hart, Michigan. [Este es el fin de la entrevista con German Ortega, la, la fecha es el 18 de junio del 2016 en Hart, Michigan.] 7 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/51fd3083e454959ff4813440e1c26560.mp3 e20b3e5a0cbb91ca601c5112173d37f7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oceana County Migrant Labor History Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shell-Weiss, Melanie Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Growing Community: A Century of Migration in Oceana County." This project was a collaboration between El Centro Hispano de Oceana, the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society, and Grand Valley State University funded by a Common Heritage grant from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities. The materials in this collection document the history of communities in Hart, Shelby, and Walkerville and explore themes of migration, labor, religion, family, belonging, national and cultural identities, regional, national, and international connections, and citizenship. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Oceana County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource El Centro Hispano de Oceana; Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society Relation A related resource Growing Community (NEH Common Heritage project) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-06 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf image/jpeg audio/mp3 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Image Sound recording Language A language of the resource eng spa Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Subject The topic of the resource Oceana County (Mich.) Hart (Mich.) Shelby (Mich.) Farms Farmers Migrant agricultural laborers Hispanic Americans Account books Diaries Oral history Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Título Spanish language Title entry Ortega, German (entrevista de audio, transcripción en Español y Traducción en Inglés) Descripción Spanish language Description entry Entrevista de historia oral con German Ortega. Entrevistado por Penny Burillo. Hart, Michigan. Idioma en Español. Junio 18, 2016. Sujetos Spanish language Subject terms Migrante Agricultura Puerta de Mangos Grand Rapids (Mich.) Cerezas Espárragos Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-06_Ortega_German Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ortega, German Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-06-18 Title A name given to the resource Ortega, German (audio interview, Spanish transcript, and English translation) Description An account of the resource Oral history interview with German Ortega. Interviewed by Penny Burillo. Hart, Michigan. Spanish language. June 18, 2016. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Burillo, Penny (interviewer) Shell-Weiss, Melanie (director) Subject The topic of the resource Migrant Agriculture Hispanic Puerta de Mangos Grand Rapids (Mich.) Peaches Cherries Asparagus Naturalization Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Growing Community (NEH Common Heritage) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng spa Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b0f86b76b0db72f736ba9792104ffdfe.mp4 d43a5ba768ab9a59f905242786366f68 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dfb4c50ddbc9021644ece2f414a57197.pdf 63861cdd91672ea30241618e6dc85934 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Fay Orvis (1:19:08) (00:16) Osceola County, Michigan-Highland Township • Fay was born a twin on December 10, 1919 • He was not expected to survive at under 3lbs • At 3 years old he moved to Greenville Michigan • His father mixed mortar for a sidewalk company • (2:17) His father was out of work due to the Depression • At 13 years old Fay was skiing and dislocated his shoulder. Without money, the doctors did nothing for 7 hours until receiving word that the county would pay for it • (4:40) Fay went to school thru the 8th grade • At 18 years old he worked on a farm driving a pair of horses who were 26 and 27 respectfully • He wasn’t paying much attention to the war in Europe at this time • He obtained a job with Gibson making crates • (7:05) Fay obtained a job at the foundry since they seemed to always have work to do even when others didn’t • They heard about Pearl Harbor over the radio. Fay was advised by his father to wait to be drafted. Once drafted, he was advised to go into the Navy (8:40) Drafted into the Navy-Spring 1942 • Fay went to the Great Lakes Training Station in Chicago • Fay chose to go to Submarine Sound School • While returning to his barracks from KP duty, he fell into the trash hole and hurt his back. He was sent to the doctors but called off to duty before it could be treated. • (10:30) Fay took a train to California. While at Great Lakes he had received basic training of marching and taking orders before separated out to different training schools. • (12:50) This was the first time that Fay was on a train. He remembered that the train had to go around sand dunes from the United States into Mexico and back to the United States and on to California to Submarine School (13:40) Submarine Sound School-California • Fay failed out of the sound school. They were taken on a WWI Submarine Tank where they were attempting to learn the sound �equipment. He failed to hear the difference between the repeater and the sound bouncing off of the bottom of the ocean. (14:40) Submarine Base-West Coast • Fay remembers the base was separated from a Marine base by a fence • Fay remembers watching the Marines and knowing he never wanted to join them • He said that the Navy fed well and you could go for 3rds if you wanted them • (17:00) Fay and his team of men were training to be minesweepers but they could have moved around to other positions if ordered by top officials. • Fay figures he was here around 5 weeks (17:50) Long Beach California • This was a waiting port till they were shipped up to Seattle Washington (18:30) Seattle Washington • Picked up a Mine Sweeper ship here. It had a wooden hull, 135 ft long, 16 ft wide, 85 tons fully loaded ready for invasion • There were 28 men and 4 officers • Living quarters were crowded • They spent a bit of time training on the ship • (20:05) Story about their ship and how they were kept back behind the other ships because the captain’s wife was aboard and pregnant. • The coast guard was sent out to train the guys how to sweep mines but had no idea how to do it himself • (21:50) The sky turned black and the ship was told to head to the southern part of the island, to the southernmost tip and stay there. Fay remembers that he could not open his eyes while looking into the wind. He was put on the hull of the ship to keep watch for the island. He was left there for 3 hours and remembered his father’s instructions on holding a ship in the wind. • (24:00) His father had sailed for years before getting married on a wooden hull steamer picking up lumber and taking it to Chicago • (25:39) This storm was just outside of Santa Barbara Harbor • (26:20) Fay’s team got a job on an oil dock. They filled ships up with oil. There was a rock on the opposite side of their dock that was named after the dock where they encountered a whale. They had to steer clear of the whale because it would capsize their wooden dock if they hit it. • (28:00) In the spring it was very foggy, this year they had to continuously blow their horn for a week straight because of the fog (29:00) Hawaii �Fay based here while the military was putting out special radar that could detect Japanese radar • Their ship held a specialist in radar at this time to use and teach how to use the equipment. This specialist stayed very close to the bow of the ship at all times. • Once in the trade winds there were huge swells that would throw you off course. • Once in Hawaii they were able to look around the state • (31:40) Fay was able to go aboard a battleship at Pearl Harbor with (4) 16 foot propellers, (4) turbines • Fay’s crew traveled from one island to the next, usually after they had been under attack • The first island they came to was about 3 to 4 feet above the ocean. Men were on the shore washing their clothes with plungers and ocean water. • The second island was a British island where they stopped for fuel. Fay was able to see sand burst for the first time on the island. There was another island visible while on this island. The men and women are kept on separate islands • (35:00) The next island they reached was secured by the time they arrived and the captain had won a movie on a bet. The men all went to one end of the boat to watch the movie and passerby boats tied up to their boat to watch it as well. • (37:00) The next island they reached had a crater with a black buoy on the right hand side. They were able to get water thru a 2-inch pipe coming from an inland lake. Here is where Fay had seen a Japanese shipwreck. • On the north side of New Guinea, there were great battles fought. The coastline had great cliffs on the edge. Fay’s company passed by here on the way to Saipan. (39:50) Sampan • Their executive officer whose cousin was executor of the island after it was taken brought their jeeps together to bring the men out on the island and show them where things were. • On the island where they were at, the Atom Bomb was kept here with guards, two wide, close enough to touch hands in order to protect the bomb. This all occurred before Fay and his crew arrived. • From here they went to Okinawa (41:15) Okinawa • Because of previous shots taken on minesweepers in the Philippines’, the crew brought a Destroyer with them for protection on Okinawa. • �• While approaching the island, the destroyer started shooting upward into the air. There was a kamikaze fighter pilot over them. The destroyer was able to distract it enough that the bomb dropped missed them and landed into the water. • (42:40) For minesweeping, the back of the ship is basically square with a wench up high holding large cables. The pulling takes the cable down about 20 feet below the water. The pulley has three wires attached as to adjust them accordingly which runs out to another pulley called a paravane. The paravane drags the wire with a cutter at the end and sometimes between also. It pulls the wire at 23 degrees. If you go beyond 23 degrees it will skip above the water or go straight down into the water. The paravane was 4 foot square with 3 curved blades welded end to end. They were contact mines, so the blades would cut any cable attached to it and the mine would pop up. • (46:00) As with contact mines, magnetic mines you had to go over before you could sweep them. They had copper cables 100 to 150 feet long using straight 8 diesel GM engine both right hand and left hand with another one for the generator both with 500 horsepower but this one with faster RPM's. It was made to run at 1370 RPM. The power would be off for 5 seconds, jump thru the water and come back into the engines then the power would go back off for 5 seconds and jump thru the water opposite of the first to create an alternating current. When the power came on at 1270 RPM, they had a 7-ton flywheel during 1372. Before it could open up it would pull that down to 700. This created a magnetic field that would set off the mine. • (48:23) The minesweeper’s hole was made of wood because the strong magnetic force was drawn toward steel. • Fay said they would report on any submarines they would locate. He remembers that dolphins could swim so fast they looked like torpedoes coming right at you. • (49:50) On one of the British islands, their monitors was reading 13 fathoms deep, but there was a coral head they didn’t see which they backed into. It completely destroyed the right hand propeller. It damaged the left hand propeller but they bent it back into place. They were able to hook up to a floating dock, which managed to locate a propeller to fix their ship with. �• (51:30) On November 10 1943 the ship hit a mine. Fay wasn’t sure what had happened at first then he was knocked out. When he came to everything was black and he thought he was below deck when actually he was on deck. When the smoke cleared he heard a man moaning under a boat and the guy had his knees cut in two. He took off his belt and made a tourniquet out of it to hold onto one of the guy’s knees. Nobody else would take off their belt to help the other leg. They brought the sick and dead from under the deck and put them on one side of the ship. Fay returned to his own ship where they waited a month to have their cylinders replaced. • (55:28) On the west side of Okinawa, Fay was on watch while the ship was sweeping. While on watch, Japanese training planes came overhead. Fay saw a big cloud of smoke and assumed they must have sunk a tanker. He said that he still remembers learning about Japanese planes while in the service. • (57:10) Fay says that he stayed pretty busy since his equipment was all five feet above the water. It was often wet so there was not much free time in his schedule although other men would play cards. • Men tended to get along well aboard ship. Calling the captains by their first name was not allowed and could be demoted because of such conduct. • (01:01:00) Fay’s first captain was a friend of the Admiral. He was also a Jew who was put on special assignment and sent over seas apart from his crew. • Fay’s captain going over to the Pacific was from Portland Oregon. • (01:05:12) Fay said he [the captain] never made it to Japan because his parents had money unlike many of the other guys (106:30) Back home in the States • Fay was back home when he heard about the end of the war • He had been working on a floating dock. During a rainstorm in Saipan the Japanese prisoners would drive the trucks back and forth to the port. The gravel would wash right out and they drivers would get stuck. A plane finally flew over there and landed. Fay took a boat out to the plane and climbed a ladder 70 feet up to the plane to be shipped home �(1:10:33) Back in Michigan • Fay came home with $800 to a lot he had bought back in 1940. He started building the same house he lives in today. He didn’t work and couldn’t get unemployment because he told them he was building a house. • (01:16:30) Fay often wonders why it wasn’t him that died during the war when many nice guys did � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OrvisF Title A name given to the resource Orvis, Fay (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Orvis, Fay Description An account of the resource Fay Orvis was a soldier during World War II in the United States Navy. He worked as a minesweeper during his time in the service and spent time in Okinawa and Saipan. His account describes different duties performed on the minesweeper and onshore in California and on various islands, as well as incidents involving kamikaze attacks and mine explosions. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Women Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-04-03 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f5ceb5544737274ad0354aed8dbe3e81.mp3 938739238408867d8ab6517f3b439088 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b5da0b5d332168fcb4707391a86c00ca.pdf 3acf8258def39fae93587d76f6897712 PDF Text Text Jane Osman- Interview by Margaret Mason July 21, 2018 0:02 JO: Push it. Oh. Now it’s, it should be working now 0:03 MM: All right. 0:04 JO: Because it the solid thing 0:05 MM: Ok. So 0:07 JO: So then we should probably start with that right over there 0:08 MM: Yeah. All right. Thank you for coming, Jane 0:10 JO: You are welcome. Very welcome 0:13 MM: You just finished doing an interview yourself, so I appreciate that. Um, so. I should, your name is Jane 0:18 JO: Jane Osman 0:20 MM: Jane Osman. Thank you. O-S- 0:26 JO: M-A-N 0:27 MM: M-A-N Thank you. All right. And I’m Margaret Mason. 0:30 JO: Mmhm. Margaret 0:31 MM: Thank you. Um, and today is July 21, 2018. And we’re collecting these stories as part of the Stories of Summer Project, which is supported by a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Program. Thank you for coming. I appreciate it very much. So, do, let me, tell me where you grew up? 0:52 JO: Well, actually I was born in, uh Grayling. I spent my very early years in Kalkaska, MI, because my father was superintendent there. Then we moved to Utica. That’s where I began my schooling. Which was over near Detroit. And we were there until second grade. And then in second grade we move to Fennville, and my father was the superintendent there. And I graduated with Fennville High School, and that’s where I came into contact with Saugatuck. And I was always a cheerleader there. Um, Fennville was much larger than Saugatuck. I would say 5 times or larger as far as the school, the graduating class. Everything like this. We had football, we had basketball. We had baseball. Um. We had a tennis court, well, we didn’t have a tennis team or anything, but we had no girls’ sports. No girls’ PE or anything, and it wasn’t until I went to college that “Gee. I have to take PE?” I didn’t even know what PE was �1:56 MM: Right. Wow. 1:57 JO: Physical Education. When we were at Fennville, we were the Fennville Blackhawks, and we were always the rivals of Saugatuck and the Saugatuck Indians. And I can remember when, and Cynthia just told me a short time ago that it was in the late 50’s I guess, um, er, er no. I guess it was the early 50’s that the high school in Saugatuck burned. And I remember my dad getting a phone call because, oh what was his first name? Mr. Waugh. Dr. Waugh. Um, W-A-UG-H. Was the superintendent here, and he called my dad, and the high school was burning. And I know that they had to go to different churches and then different buildings to have classes until they kind of remodeled it in the gym and put classrooms in there. But that was when it burned. But we were always the biggest rivals. So Fennville played Saugatuck, and Saugatuck only had a basketball team. 2:52 MM: Oh my gosh. 2:55 JO: They didn’t have football. They didn’t have any of the others. And Cynthia told me that her graduating class, I think she said they were 10. 3:00 MM: Oh my goodness. 3:01 JO: And 3:01 MM: How big was your graduating class 3:03 JO: Ah. In our graduating class I think we probably had maybe 55 3:07 MM: yeah 3:08 JO: but that’s still pretty small 3:08 MM: Considerably bigger. Yeah but, but much bigger than Saugatuck for sure. 3:10 JO: But much bigger than Saugatuck. But, uh, it was always fun to come over and the Fennville girls would always, whether it was good or bad, we liked to date the Saugatuck boys because it was exciting because this was kind of like, um, the bad place over here [laugh] 3:27 MM: Oh that’s funny. Be, be with the bad boys 3:32 JO: Yes. That’s right. We called the basketball team the Nicotine 5 3:35 MM: oh! [laugh] 3:36 JO: Isn’t that terrible? 3:37 MM: No. It’s probably true �3:28 JO: And Cynthia’s cousin Frank Lamb, Frank Lovejoy, Will Hedgeland, um, Bob Frankenridge, Ralph Burcoss, um, I think Rex Francis for a while and, well, he was, I think he had an altercation or something over here and then he went to school in Fennville. But anyway, we always were rivals. It was always very, very exciting to come to a game. I was always a cheerleader for Fennville, and, um, I can remember some of the cheerleaders from Saugatuck too. Um. Kerry Wicks, I think was one, um, oh my word. The names escape me right now. But anyway, what I did over here was I put myself through Hope College working for Joe and Cathy Hetacheck. 4:25 MM: What did Joe and Cathy Hetacheck do? 4:27 JO: Well, Joe and Cathy had, when I was first working there, the Frost Mug. And the Frost Mug was where the old Tara (?) was, and then there, I guess it was Center Street? Is that the one that goes right through? The Old School House 4:37 MM: Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. Center Street. Yeah. And then Terra was right over here 4:41 JO: Over here. Behind it. And that was there. Then you cross Center Street, and there was this bar, whatever. I never went in it 4:50 MM: Because you were a young innocent young girl 4:51 JO: Oh, yes, and I would never be around to go in that. But I was not the kind who “Oh gee, if it’s bad I’m going to do it” 4:55 MM: Yeah. Right. 4:59 JO: It was called the Woodshed. And then, um, there was the Frost, there, there was the, I think they called it the Dairy Queen, or the Tasty Freeze. It was the Tasty Freeze. And then Joe and Cathy had a square building that was probably maybe, maybe 30X30 or maybe 20X20 5:15 MM: Oh. Small. 5:17 JO: And it, very small, and it had shelves around the outside. And it was called the Frost Mug. And they called it the Frost Mug because we had the Root Beer Mugs, and we kept them in, we put them in chest freezers 5:30 MM: Sure 5:31 JO: And they were all frosty 5:31 MM: They were frosty, yeah. 5:35 JO: And, my first year that I worked there, I had just graduated from High School, and so I worked at the fruit canners in the morning from 7 o clock until 5 o clock I guess. Or maybe it was 7 to 3. And picked rotten cherries off the belt �5:50 MM: Oh gosh 5:51 JO: And that was in Fennville. And I don’t know how much I got paid per hour, but that was just for cherry season. And cherry season lasted only for maybe, oh, middle of June to end of July. But before that summer was over, so it probably had to have been about the first part of, or the end of June, I got a job with Joe and Cathy, and 6:10 MM: How did you get that job? How did you find that job? 6:13 JO: Probably somebody told me 6:14 MM: Uh huh. 6:15 JO: That they were hiring. They wanted waitresses. And this was not the kind of waitress where you put out silverware or anything like this. It was, I was a car hop. And I can remember that we all wore dresses. You didn’t wear pants. And I would wear, uh, I made, what would you call them, like pantaloons? 6:34 MM: Yeah sure. 6:35 JO: So that when you bend over, because you had to bend over to get in the freezer, nobody could see your underwear, you would wear these. But 10 cents, oh we were paid 50 cents an hour if you worked outside, but it was a dollar an hour that you made if you worked inside 6:52 MM: Oo 6:53 JO: So that was a lot of money 6:54 MM: Yeah. Yeah. Actually that, that really was 6:55 JO: Well it was back, probably about 1959 when I started. I worked there for four years, until 1963. And the first year I worked there it was this small building called the Frost Mug. And it was the busiest, I could only work from 5 until 3 in the morning because I had this other job uh picking rotten cherries off 7:16 MM: the cherries 7:17 JO: So I would come, and I would serve at 5 o clock. And then we would have the supper hour. Then it would get really, really slow until about 9 or 10. And then we would get a little bit of a rush before 11. And then we would stand around, and we would tell jokes, and Joe would tell and they were probably very dirty jokes. Um, the only one I can remember right now is “Get off the table, Myrtle. This here quarter is, is for beer.” 7:42 MM: [laugh] �7:43 JO: isn’t that terrible? And we would all stand around and we’d laugh. So it was dumb, because we had this dull time from about 11 until 1, and then the bars close at 2. And then we would just have a rush of people coming after the bars closed because they were going to sober up before they went home. We were open until 3 o clock in the morning. So we just put out lots and lots of pots of coffee. And we would sell all kinds of coffee. And coffee was 10 cents 8:13 MM: wow. Not root beer though, at that time of day, typically 8:15 JO: And, oh well, they didn’t need the root beer to sober up 8:20 MM: Yeah. Right. I’m sure. I guess not. 8:22 JO: But I just remember that we would, uh, put the tray on the, the car window. They’d have to roll it up, so that there was this ledge that you could put it on. And coffee was 10 cents, so they would often throw out their whole pocket full of change, and that’s when you made your money and your tips 8:38 MM: Right. Sure. 8:40 JO: And I’m sure sometimes I would make as many as, oh $20 a night. And that was really, really big bucks 8:45 MM: Yeah sure 8:46 JO: I cannot believe that I was able to put myself through Hope College for four years doing that 8:51 MM: That is really incredible. And you paid your tuition and 8:56 JO: Yup. Yup. And board 8:59 MM: Wow 9:00 JO: and 9:01 MM: Do, working, so you work there 12 months of the year, or just in the summer? 9:02 JO: Nope, because it was only open 9:04 MM: Ok. Yeah 9:04 JO: It was only open in summer. And so he probably opened a little bit before Memorial Day, and then he would close, you know, I can’t really remember, but I can remember working after Labor Day, and then coming home and working the weekends, uh, afterwards. Um, but he would close during the winter time. And Joe and Cathy lived on Pleasant Street. So you’d go up the hill, and the house is still there. And Joe and winter clothes and summer clothes. Because in �the summer time he’d work so hard that he would lose all this weight in, and then in winter time, when I would see him, when I would come back in May, I’d say “Oh my word! It’s like Santa Clause is here” 9:44 MM: That’s funny. And then he would lose it all again. 9:48 JO: All again in the summer. Yeah 9:49 MM: Summer. Well that’s an impressive story, that you could put yourself through college. Room and board and books and everything. 9:56 JO: But that was 50 years ago, you’ve got to remember 9:58 MM: I know, but I’m still, that’s still very, very impressive. That’s incredible 10:00 JO: And of course you would get uh loans. And because I was a teacher, then we got, what were they called? Some kind of a loan. And you only had to pay half of it back 10:08 MM: Yes. Because you were going to teach yeah 10:12 JO: You were going to teach. Yeah. I can’t remember what it was called right now. I don’t remember. But Joe and Cathy had no children, but they were just really, really a nice, nice couple 10:20 MM: Did they seem like kind of aunt and uncle like to you or parents or? 10:23 JO: Oh they were, they were parents to us, because uh, when we would have the Venetian nights. Or not Venetian night. It was called, um, oh, uh, Jazz Festivals. And the Jazz Festivals I think that’s what was last year at the Pump House event there this year, and I think it’s kind of a continuation of that. They were out at, they were supposedly out at the race track out here. South of town. But this is where you would have all these kids coming, college kids, I can remember it was always in July during they called it Jazz Festival Week. It was kind of like Venetian Festival Week. And it would be so crowded that we, that, uh, they closed off the whole town. And I can remember that Joe would have us stay with him at their house. And he had permission for us. And we’d all just pile in two cars, and then drive to his house and sleep at his house because we had to be at work here at 11 o clock the next morning. 11:22 MM: Right 11:23 JO: and so we would sleep there. Cathy was the organist at St. Peter’s 11:25 MM: Oh gosh. Yeah. 11:29 JO: Very talented. Just a really, really neat couple �11:34 MM: What a wonderful memory to have, to have the comradery of the people you worked with. Is there anybody in particular who you worked with that you can think of 11:42 JO: I remember I worked with Franny Benkin. And there was a large Benkin family in Saugatuck. I worked with Kay Schretigas (?). And she was older than I, and she was teaching already when I was in school, so therefore, after school started, Joe would let me go early because I was still in school 12:02 MM: Yeah 12:03 JO: And Kay was out of school, so she was smart. She didn’t have to do any homework or think. And that was probably very unfair. And I worked with Kerry Wicks. And I think her father was Frank Wicks of the Wickwood Inn 12:11 MM: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. 12:12 JO: And Jerry Muehlenbeck. Her older sister Joy is still in, in uh Saugatuck. Jerry, um, lives around here someplace. I think she lives around the Fennville area. And Joy still sells popcorn and such. She’s a popcorn lady. 12:28 MM: Yes. Right Sure. 12:29 JO: And I, so those are four that I do remember working with. And I can remember on the menu it was, uh a hamburger was 35 cents. And a cheeseburger was 40 cents. You paid you paid five more cents for that piece of cheese 12:42 MM: [laugh] for the cheese 12:44 JO: Canadian Bacon was 55 cents. A hot dog was a quarter. I remember for Mother’s Day; it was always kind of embarrassing because we would always get lots. So we had to open early in May then for Mother’s Day 12:55 MM: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. 12:57 JO: For Mother’s Day we would order three times as many hot dogs because that’s what everybody, when they, the father would bring the mother and all the kids in for Mother’s Day 13:05 MM: Oh. And all the kids for a hot, yeah 13:05 JO: So she didn’t have to cook. Hot dog 13:08 MM: She, the kids would get a hotdog. 13:12 JO: Root beer was a dime. Coffee was a dime. Doughnuts were a dime. Um, we had two dinners. We had a shrimp dinner and a chicken dinner. And they were a dollar and a quarter. And �it was a shrimp dinner, uh, I think there were 9 pieces of shrimp, salad, and then French fries. How much were French fries? Maybe, were French fries were, 20 cents? I don’t really remember 13:30 MM: But if you got the dinner the French fries came 13:33 JO: Fries go with it. Yeah. But we also sold fries separately. And you could get whatever you wanted on your hamburger. And I know sometimes we would grill and then we, then we would have somebody else standing on the counter, but this after, the first year I worked there it was called the Frost Mug. And then the next year, he had, I think it was the next year he had built what he called the Red Wood. It had red sides, redwood sides on it. Much larger. And then he had this big cement out in front with parking on both sides. And it was that way. And parking in the back too. It also had tables inside. I think there were about maybe 6 tables inside. It was much, it was probably four times bigger than it was before. But the prices were still the same. Joe and Cathy worked there all day long. Every single day we were open, 7 days a week. It was amazing 14:28 MM: And so and you, when you were able to work inside you got more money. 14:30 JO: Right. 14:35 MM: And, but there were only 6 tables inside? Or something like that? 14:37 JO: When, when you worked inside that meant you, you were the garbarger, and you put all the stuff on the hamburgers or 14:38 MM: oh. Right. Yeah. Right 14:42 JO: Whatever. Or you washed dishes and you ended up with 14:45 MM: chapped 14:46 JO: Uh, hands that looked like all wrinkles. Or you worked down in the basement, and, oh now I remember two others who worked with us. Two, Anne Hutchinson and Sharon Fleming. And Sharon Fleming would work downstairs because she had contacts. Because when you peel the onions, otherwise we would all be crying 15:00 MM: Everyone’s weeping. Yeah. 15:03 JO: Just because she had contacts she didn’t cry and 15:07 MM: Contacts were new in those days 15:09 JO: Oh they were new. That’s right. And we also had to peel potatoes. So we had great big, this is probably a terrible thing to say, but this great big pile of potato peelings down in the basement. And every night we’d have to scoop them and put them in garbage bags. Because if you didn’t do it, you got maggots. �15:24 MM: Oh yeah. 15:24 JO: It was terrible. And we would peel all the potatoes you had to be careful because you didn’t want to take your thumbnail off. And then when you put these slippery potatoes in water and carry them up in buckets. And we had this potato thing. And you put it in, and you pulled the thing down and made them all. Then so we made our own potatoes. 15:40 MM: Oh you, the lever pulled them to turn them into French fries’ size 15:42 JO: You pulled on this lever and they went into this container. And then you had all your French fries. And if you worked inside you could also work the fryers. I never liked to do that because you always burned your toes because when you pulled the, the baskets out of the hot grease, then it would drip before you got it over onto the counter to put it into the little containers. And so the tops of your tennis shoes were always all stained 16:10 MM: Covered. Oh really? 16:12 JO: Burn. Burned up too. It was, it was interesting. Um, the best kind of a, we never sold this, but we would drink it ourselves because we could have one thing to eat and one thing to drink and it was free. So because we worked there the seven 16:20 MM: Yeah. Should be. Yes right 16:27 JO: You would take, we sold chocolate milk too. So I don’t know if that was a dime. So you take a frost mug and you would fill it half full with chocolate milk and put root beer in the top 16:37 MM: Oo 16:38 JO: And was that ever good. It was great 16:40 MM: oh. Like a root beer float 16:41 JO: float. Yes. Except there was no ice cream 16:42 MM: Except it was milk and wow 16:44 JO: And in the front of it, facing 31, I guess the blue star high way, we had 1, 2, we had 4 big chest freezers full of layers of frost mugs of the, um, of the glasses 16:58 MM: Right to serve the root beer 17:02 JO: To serve it �17:03 MM: Mm hm, so he, so they changed the name of the place and expanded it in between one season and another as far as you remember 17:08 JO: They must have just, they must have done it very, very quickly. I don’t I remember working first when it was the frost mug 17:17 MM: Right 17:18 JO: And then it was called the Red Wood 17:19 MM: Right, but it was bigger and had more inside seating 17:23 JO: That’s right were, um I think it’s called the Tasty Freeze I think is now called Way Point. Because it’s still, it’s still the same building 17:30 MM: Yeah, sure. I know that. Yeah 17:34 JO: And there’s a building behind it, and that, that was, uh, Red Wood 17:37 MM: I see 17:37 JO: And I think it’s kind of reddish wood, or is it red brick? 17:40 MM: My, yeah. So Way Point is sort of back and it’s the M&M’s on the left 17:48 JO: On the left hand side 17:51 MM: M&M’s or what is now called the Blue Star Cafe is the one right facing, uh, 31. And then Way Point is kind of behind it, I think 18:01 JO: Ok. Way Point. Ok. See, I, and they have really good ice cream sodas in there now. But that’s where the Tasty Freeze was because it was in the front, so if you had 31 here, then the Tasty Freeze was here, Terra was over there, uh, what did I say it was called? The Wood Shed was over here, uh, 18:14 MM: Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. The Red Barn. The Red Wood 18:22 JO: Joe’s Red Wood was right over here, or the Frost Mug was right over here and the, um, kind of like um, uh, what would you call it. A [pause] you can rent rooms. Like 18:37 MM: Oh, like a little Bed and Breakfast or motel ish thing. Yeah 18:39 JO: It’s a little motel thing. It’s over farther south on that same side 18:42 MM: And now Douglas elementary school is sort of back there, back �18:47 JO: But it’s much farther back behind, but it’s much further back on 18:49 MM: Correct 18:51 JO: Center Street. So that was not there then. At all. We just had a parking lot behind. Hm. That’s interesting. I can’t remember. It must have been just, I think it was only one year that I worked there that it was the Frost Mug. It was that small square building 19:10 MM: And, and then it grew and the number of people you worked with increased? 19:13 JO: Oh yes. It grew, yeah. But I usually worked the 5-3 shift 19:20 MM: That is a long day! My goodness. If you’re getting up in the morning to do the cherries 19:23 JO: Oh I, so I only did that one year. Much more profitable to be at the Red Wood working with Joe and Cathy but go ahead 19:26 MM: Oh, yeah. Sure. Right. So when you graduated from Hope College did you continue to work there in the summer? 19:38 JO: I think I worked there just one summer before I started teaching. And then after that, of course, I had to go to school in summer sometimes to keep up my certification. 19:45 MM: Right. 19:47 JO: So I, I think I only worked there from 59 to about 63. I think that’s it 19:52 MM: Yeah 19:53 JO: But it, but those were good experiences. But another thing you had to do was clean, well, you had to take, well, clean off all the trays and then, but you also had to clean the latrines, and there was a guys’ and a girls’. And this was in the new building. It was awful and we hated to do that. But that was one of our jobs 20:10 MM: ooh. Yeah. Right. 20:13 JO: Clean the latrine [groan] 20:15 MM: And washing the dishes. No dishwasher? 20:17 JO: [laugh] No. no really. No 20:20 MM: Hmm. Dishwasher hands 20:22 JO: Well see the only thing we had to wash though �20:23 MM: The mugs 20:23 JO: Were the glasses. Everything else was paper 20:24 MM: Because it, paper. Ok. Gotcha 20:25 JO: And, uh, I imagine there were plastic forks or something to eat your chicken 20:30 MM: The, go back to the chicken dinner and the shrimp dinner. What, what was included? 20:34 JO: Oh. It was, a, probably like a, uh, school tray like what you would use to go through the cafeteria. 20:40 MM: Right. 20:41 JO: And, uh, they were both a dollar and a quarter. And it was probably a, uh, three pieces of chicken I guess. Like a small thigh, a leg, and uh, I don’t know. But anyway three pieces of chicken. They were 20:53 MM: Fried? 20:55 JO: yes. Fried. It was all deep fried. 20:58 MM: And who had to fry, you had to? 20:59 JO: No, Kathy was in charge of the fryers, and she did that usually. But sometimes, uh when she would have to do something else, or she would go play the organ for a funeral or something then we would have to do that. And we didn’t like to do it. But the, the fryers were all on the opposite side. So they were on the south side. On the north side was the grille. And actually Joe and two or three grilles there, and then a big long table. And that’s where we did all the garbaging took it all. And then we had another big table at this end. At that’s where you picked up your orders because you had to right everyting down. 21:28 MM: Right. 21:29 JO: And then you had to abbreviate it. And you could have whatever you wanted on your, on your hamburger or your cheeseburger or Canadian Bacon. But you had to write down if they wanted no onions or everything, or everything but, and there were all, 1, 2, 3, about 6 fryers there. With the, with the baskets just like you see if you look in the window at McDonald’s. 21:52 MM: Right. Sure. �21:53 JO: where they fry the stuff? And but we had a tossed salad. So she must have, I can remember chopping tomatoes. And she must have purchased lettuce and the chopped that all up. I know that Cathy often had bandages on her hands 22:07 MM: Oh dear. Chopping. Yeah. 22:08 JO: From her fingers. But she would also wear the plastic gloves 22:12 MM: Yeah. 22:13 JO: That are, but I’m sure we didn’t know at the time when we were. But that was back then too. 22:18 MM: Yeah. Right. Well. That was back then. You didn’t yeah. And people 22:20 JO: Did you wash your hands? Yeah. So we would 22:22 MM: were probably smoking in the restaurant and everything. 22:24 JO: I’m sure. Yes 22:26 MM: So, I’m sorry, you had, she, the fried chicken that Cathy made 22:30 JO: Mm hm. She did everything over on that side 22:30 MM: Ok. All by, from, from scratch 22:34 JO: Yep 22:34 MM: It wasn’t by, and then French Fries, and a salad. And then the shrimp was fried 22:40 JO: There was, I think there were 9 pieces of shrimp. And they were small shrimp. They had little tails on them. And they were in, so it was this, I don’t know, about 8 by 11, or something like. Kind of about the size of a piece of paper. And then divided into three sections. So you had your fries and salad. And then the larger section held your chicken or your shrimp 23:00 MM: yeah. And you would serve that to people, but you didn’t have to actually prepare it 23:05 JO: No 23:06 MM: But you did have to get the potatoes ready to be fried 23:08 JO: Right 23:10 MM: And take them out of the oil �23:11 JO: But, see, that was all done, you only did that if you were inside. The inside people did the potatoes, did the onions, did everything else. And those of us who were outside we just simply took orders. And would write it down on our little pad. You had to wear an apron. And we had to handle the money because handling the money was. You know, where did we put the money? 23:32 MM: Did you have little pockets in 23:34 JO: we must have had a till. Oh we had, I had several aprons with pockets in them, but we must have had a till where put the, I don’t remember that. We didn’t have a cash register. We must have had a till that we put the money in someplace. There was 23:47 MM: At the end of the day, or 23:48 JO: Oh. We had to turn it in all the time because we had to taking. I don’t know how 23:52 MM: More money and yeah. 23:55 JO: We did that. I bet somebody else, maybe Jerry would remember. I don’t remember how we did it. With the money 24:00 MM: And obviously they just trusted you so much to be honest with the money. You never felt they were questioning you 24:08 JO: No 24:09 MM: And would never have thought of helping yourself to the money. 24:10 JO: No. We just didn’t, you didn’t do those sort of things back then 24:16 MM: No. Because there was a whole system of trust. And I love, love the idea of back to, well, you stay at our house at this time when we’re going to have a lot of business. And we’ll look after you and what a wonderful memory. That is great 24:30 JO: It was, and Cathy died, oh I think maybe 3 years ago now. Maybe it was 2 years ago. And it was really, really sad. Uh, her funeral. Joe had died earlier. And I went to her funeral. It was at St. Peter’s. And I don’t know which funeral home did it. But they had somebody else’s picture 24:54 MM: [gasp] 24:54 JO: It was, I said “This is not Cathy!” They said, “No. We know. We mixed this up.” 25:00 MM: Oh my gosh 25:01 JO: It. That was really, really sad, and �25:04 MM: disturbing 25:04 JO: There were very few people there. There was nobody else that I knew from working there. But that was from 50 years ago too. But I would have thought that some people who still were around would have come. 25:15 MM: Because the people you mentioned, who you did work with, many of them are still here. 25:19 JO: I assume so. I haven’t seen Franny probably in 50 years. I don’t know if Kay Schretigas (?) is still living or not. Kerry I assume is still around. I don’t know. Jerry Muehlenbeck I do know is around. I see her every once in a while. I see her older sister Joy more often. But it was really sad because I couldn’t believe. I said “This is not Cathy.” And they said “no no.” And afterwards, um, I guess nieces, nephews, because they had no children, um, had everybody go down to the Mermaid. And they, you could order hamburgers, French Fries, or whatever you wanted reminisce of the days, and I thought that 25:58 MM: Oh. That’s sweet. Yes 25:58 JO: That was really, really special 26:01 MM: I think that is too. Do you know how long the, this place was in operation? 26:05 JO: Well, when I first started working there, they had been there at least 4 or 5 years I’m guessing. I’m sure if we would look in the records it would say. And I know it was there, oh probably into to the 70’s even. I’m guessing 26:20 MM: Yeah. Yeah. Good long 26:22 JO: I don’t, I really don’t know. When we, you move away, and then we were in the Detroit area, you don’t, don’t pay any attention 26:28 MM: Right. Right so. You then left, uh, Saugatuck. You left this area? What, you, when you graduated and you were teaching, did you not stay around in the area 26:39 JO: No, I was in the Detroit area then. I spent one year in Grand Haven, and then I was in the Detroit area until the late 60’s. Til 70’s. So 26:48 MM: Mmhm. And then did you come back here? 26:50 JO: And now we live in Holland. We have lived in Holland since 1960, actually. No. I told a lie. We came back in 68. Just before our son was born. So. And he was born in August, so we came in July of 68. �27:02 MM: Right. But really, Holland, in terms of being part of the Saugatuck Douglas community, you’re not that far away in terms of, of having your memories, of this wonderful community of this 27:14 JO: Mmhm. That’s why I like it so much. And that’s why I belong to the Saugatuck, um Historical Center now it’s called. Rather than Holland’s I belong to that. But this is so much more organized. Starts on time, um, has, is so much more vibrant, um, I hate to put down my own city, but this one has much more life. And that’s why I participate here. 27:32 MM: Well, that’s wonderful. We’re very lucky that you do. 27:38 JO: Well, I think I’m lucky because it’s available 27:40 MM: And I, we’re brand new in town. We’ve only lived here 27:42 JO: Oh, I didn’t know that 27:44 MM: Yeah, we just have lived here for a year. So, um, I love hearing these stories and these memories and trying to picture where things are, and your descriptions were so picture perfect. You know, I can picture you in your pantaloons and the lower apron with the change 27:58 JO: Ooh you wore a dress over it though 28:00 MM: Oh yeah. Of course. Of course. Yes 28:02 JO: And they looked like then they had ruffles on the bottom. Oh my word. And we would all wore tennis shoes. I remember somebody asking me “Did you wear, were you roller skating?” Oh Heavens no. That was cement. But I remember it was Thelma Naughton who had the, um, the Tasty Freeze. And she had a daughter, Corky. And I think they had a boat, boats or fishing or something. Maybe you’ve heard of that. I don’t know. 28:27 MM: No, No, I haven’t 28:29 JO: Naughton N-A-U-G-H-T-O-N. Thelma and Corky Naughton. And they had that Tasty Freeze. It was there for a long time 28:39 MM: Right. So all I can picture now is what locals call M&M’s and really is now called the Blue Star Cafe, but they still have that window where you can soft or hard ice cream or something 28:52 JO: Ok. Ok. That must be it. 28:54 MM: Like that. But there was a picture of a cone. You know if you look at the Blue Star Cafe it looks like it’s just a drive in for ice cream. But it’s really the little restaurant beside it that has, uh, Greek food �29:00 JO: Oh, Greek food, even 29:04 MM: Yeah. Hm. I mean, it’s kind of 29:07 JO: I’ll have to go there 29:08 MM: Oh it’s fun. It’s a nice little, again, local, family run place. Um, and then behind that is the Way Point. Where they have big breakfasts, uh, uh 29:20 JO: That must be the, I, I guess I should drive over there and just look because I’ll bet that’s the old Red Wood 29:26 MM: I bet. It seems from your description 29:26 JO: A big building. It’s, it’s 29:29 MM: Long. Yeah. 29:30 JO: Longer the way of the road. 29:32 MM: Yes. Exactly. 29:34 JO: And, cause we would, we had swinging doors you’d always boop your way because you had two trays. So strong we could, I could carry, it sounds like bragging, but I could carry a tray with 6 root beers in on hand 29:46 MM: oh, a, a mug 29:48 JO: Yes. 6 mugs in one hand, and then burgers and whatever else in the other. So you went out, and so there were no handles on it. You just booped your way out. And then you had an out and an in. And you never went out the in or you’d have a 30:01 MM: Right, and Jane, just because the recording won’t show this, you are not a large woman, so 30:05 JO: [laugh] 30:07 MM: So being able to do that must have been so 30:08 JO: Oh we were strong 30:10 MM: Yeah. Obviously 30:12 JO: But, but your thumb, you just hooked on the, and I remember now too. One thing I did not like, when the cars came out with automatic and they pushed the button. And so then �they’d accidentally hit it with their elbow. And everything would fall off. And all these things would smash. But Joe and Cathy never made us pay for 30:26 MM: Oh no. 30:27 JO: The smashed 30:30 MM: It wasn’t your fault 30:30 JO: Well no, but I mean otherwise it could have been “Oh sorry. You didn’t tell them” We never liked that because back then it was all the hand cranks 30:40 MM: yeah sure. 30:41 JO: And we’d say “now, don’t touch that.” But every once in a while somebody would accidentally hit it with an elbow. And then the thing would go down and dinner’s all smashed 30:48 MM: Oh now. Right. And then you’d have to start all over again and clean up the glass and. I wonder how many mugs they had in there. Your description is chest freezer 30:58 JO: Well. You know how big a chest freezer is? 31:00 MM: Yeah. Sure. 31:03 JO: And we had several layers in there. Oh we must have had, a thousand, or more. I mean 31:09 MM: I remember those mugs. Those glass, and then the handle on it, and then 31:12 JO: Glass handle. Big glass handle. It was all froze, and then it had the, a bottom on it that was kind of up on the inside. It was a false 31:20 MM: Yeah. Sure. Indented. Yeah. 31:22 JO: Bottom, but they were, that was a bigger mug then you get. And ten cents, but that’s what it was 31:28 MM: And what kind of root beer was it? What was the brand? Do you know? 31:32 JO: I have no idea because it came in, he would get a, that’s what you would do. You as the waitress or the car hop got your own drinks. Everything else would come out and then you got your drinks. Unless they were really busy, and then they got someone else doing drinks. Cause drinks were on the side. I don’t know what it was, but I know it came in big things. And we didn’t have to fill it because Joe, Joe would always do that. 31:54 MM: Right. Right �31:55 JO: He was strong enough, and he could get it up there. And I know you have to put the stuff in something else 31:57 MM: You have to put the syrup and the whatever 32:00 JO: And I couldn’t tell you what kind of chocolate milk we had either. I think we had, we must have had white milk too. Why would he just have had chocolate milk? 32:08 MM: Well because chocolate milk is a big treat and root beer is a big treat and 32:10 JO: Yeah I guess that’s it. But we didn’t have Coke. We didn’t have 7-up or any of that 32:15 MM: Right. No. No. No. No. It’s clearly, and you think of those mugs as root beer 32:20 JO: as a root beer mug 32:21 MM: when you think of them. Yeah 32:22 JO: Just like the root beer barrel that’s over there 32:24 MM: Sure. Yeah, and it, it wasn’t there at the time. It was there at the time? 32:28 JO: It was there. It was still 32:30 MM: It was still open and selling root beer also? 32:32 JO: It must have been 32:33 MM: Seems like 32:37 JO: I remember going there in high school. But see, that was over in Douglas 32:38 MM: yeah 32:39 JO: and that was a much smaller operation. I think they just did hotdogs and root beer. But I could be wrong too. I don’t know. 32:38 MM: so small you can’t imagine that it would 32:50 JO: and ours was much larger. I can remember that. Oh my word. Sometimes we were just really, really, really busy there. And all the trays would be piled up and you just couldn’t keep up. 32:58 MM: Right �32:59 JO: But that was good and time went fast, so 33:00 MM: yeah. Yeah. You’re right. You weren’t bored. And no time for jokes when it was really busy 33:03 JO: Well not always. It was usually the dead time from about mid night till quarter after one and then that was time for. Oh! That’s when Joe’d call “OK. Gather round. It’s time for the dirty 30.” 33:14 MM: [laugh] 33:15 JO: and I mean it was really stupid, but you 33:18 MM: but you loved it 33:21 JO: to have something to keep you entertained 33:23 MM: Were you tired? Do you remember thinking “Oh my gosh. I’d like to go home” or 33:27 JO: Oh probably. And at that time, um, I was staying north of Holland where my parents had had, well, it’s still in our family. It was my great-great-great grandfather’s cottage. And we lived out there. And so it was a good 35 40-minute drive for me to get there 33:45 MM: Yeah. 33:45 JO: And, so I’d get home probably 4:30 in the morning 33:50 MM: Oh my goodness 33:50 JO: See I didn’t start again until 5 o clock in the afternoon. So I would sleep probably until noon. Then go to the beach 33:55 MM: Yeah. Right. [laugh] 33:58 JO: And just go down our steps to the beach and then I was at work by 10 to 5 or so. 34:00 MM: Right. That’s a love, sounds like an idyllic life. 34:04 JO: It was, it was fun 34:05 MM: being a, being a teenager and early 20’s, um, that you had, and, uh, and I don’t mean to exaggerate when I call it meaningful, but it is meaningful when you’re serving people and you know, it’s not like you’re reading to the blind or something. But you are providing a service and people �34:22 JO: And we got to know people too. Some of them would come in all the time. We had a couple that would come in from Saugatuck. And we called them Salt and Norma. And sometimes Salt and Pepper. They would come in about 10 o clock at night, and we could never do this now. I mean it’d be illegal. They wanted their hamburgers, and these were big quarter pound hamburgers. Joe would make them himself. And they wanted them just on the grille, so they were raw really. Just, and with just onions. And that was it. And so it would be just an order for Salt, we’d say “S & P order” and they knew what it was 34:54 MM: when they, yeah. 34:57 JO: and they put them on and just 35:00 MM: barely warmed up 35:01 JO: barely warmed them up 35:03 MM: they’re eating raw meat basically yeah 35:03 JO: yeah 35:04 MM: Steak tartare only 35:05 JO: oh that would be! 35:07 MM: you wouldn’t. No. And, well nothing you’re talking about would be allowed now. You would have all had to be wearing gloves, you couldn’t handle the money and handle the food 35:10 JO: gloves. That’s right. food 35:16 MM: And they would never let kids do the stuff with the potatoes and the basement, and work the fryer and all that. Is interesting. And yet you thrived, and people had good food and they weren’t dropping dead of food poisoning. 35:30 JO: [laugh] not that we knew of anyway 35:33 MM: That you knew of, yeah. 35:35 JO: And Joe and Cathy were just such nice people. And hard workers. Oh 35:40 MM: and that sounds like it, it was their, uh, imprimatur (?), their, their symbol of, you know getting you all in and getting this place for regulars and. Did you have some regulars from the bar at when people came in at? 35:54 JO: Oh sure, and you just knew you’re just like, oh 3 coffee and, oh gee, I hope you get home on time �35:54 MM: At when people came in after drinking and you just knew like, oh. Yeah. Right 36:04 JO: And, in fact, I can still remember, and that’s why I’m a tee totaller to this this day. Because I would have friends come in and upchuck. It was just awful. I thought I don’t need that in my life 36:10 MM: Right. Why would anybody want to do that? 36:17 JO: And it was, it was an eye opener. But I’m sure we were extremely naive to everything else that was going on. And, do bars still close at 2 o clock now 36:27 MM: No idea. 36:28 JO: I don’t know either 36:29 MM: I don’t go to bars 36:30 JO: Maybe. I know in England everything is at 10 o clock or 11 the pubs close 36:32 MM: They call hours yeah. That’s right 36:34 JO: But I don’t know now. But that’s when we would get this influx 36:38 MM: Right. It might be earlier than that, but of course, you know. When you think about it the restaurants here in Douglas and Saugatuck mostly close, you know 11 at the most 36:48 JO: at the most 36:50 MM: they’re closed. So they’re not, and I don’t really know of an actual just place that’s just a bar. The places I know in the limited time we’ve lived here are all restaurants. And they have, they typically close at 10 or maybe 11 on weekend, weekend. But they’re certainly not just drinking establishments. But it was a wilder time too. You talked about the jazz festivals 37:14 JO: that’s right. Sure. And that’s when all those kids were there and all the riots 37:18 MM: yeah. Do you remember the violence, the motorcycles? 37:22 JO: I, I just heard about it. That’s all. Um, because we weren’t involved. We were outside of town. And I know that, I shouldn’t say I know, I heard that the problems were not out there with the jazz festival because they were just doing their thing there. But the problems were in town. And there are a lot of other people who can tell lots more about that. But I’ve heard stories about how they were come in, and they had their paddy wagons, and they’d take them off to Allegan or whatever because there’s not a jail here. 37:48 MM: right. Right, right. �37:50 JO: And I don’t know. I 37:53 MM: But they didn’t find their way up to where, they didn’t come to, to where you were working and get anything to eat. Because it was off the beaten path where you were 38:02 JO: It was. I assume so, because they were doing their 38:02 MM: from their perspective because 38:07 JO: And by 2 o clock in the morning they were all [laugh] 38:08 MM: Lying down in the dirt somewhere. Yeah. Wow. What wonderful memory. That is great 38:10 JO: It was fun. It was fun 38:15 MM: Well 38:16 JO: So we enjoyed it. And I did, I’ve given you what I can remember, most as far as my, my time working there. And I think just right here at is where we should do our 38:28 MM: Any, any advice for any young person listening to this tape? 38:33 JO: Oh. Do your thing 38:35 MM: [laugh] 38:36 JO: Do your thing. It’s, get as much of an experience as you possibly can. Um. Life is wonderful, and you meet so many people doing things that you never would think you could do 38:47 MM: Right 38:48 JO: And so what if, I learned that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being a waitress 38:54 MM: Right. Or to become an alcoholic. At least with that 38:57 JO: Uh, that’s for sure, for sure 39:00 MM: And with that, that the warmth that was offered to you and your fellow workers by this couple who were childless, but you were their children, and 39:08 JO: we were their children. That’s right. Joe and Cathy �39:10 MM: And you felt that you were Joe and Cathy’s children. I mean you felt obviously you loved your parents and your family, but this was uh, 39:18 JO: Actually spent much more time with them then you did with your own family 39:20 MM: Of course 39:20 JO: And I can remember Cathy’s birthday in the summer time. And so we pulled our money and there was a beautiful dress that she liked that was next door because, oh there was kind of a little shop in amongst these hotel rooms. And she’d seen this dress, so we bought this dress for her. And I don’t know where or when she could have ever worn it because she was always working. She always had this apron all full of grease, and she, uh, poor Cathy. But we bought the dress for here, and she was just absolutely thrilled. 39:50 MM: What a sweet thing that you did that. Because you loved her 39:52 JO: We loved her 39:54 MM: you totally loved her. And Joe 39:55 JO: yes 39:56 MM: And it’s nice, I think, as a, as a psychologist, which I am 39:59 JO: Oh, I didn’t know that. 40:02 MM: I am a retired, um, anyway, to have another set of parents. Because we love our own parents, but part of the job of growing up, as you know, teaching 40:10 JO: It’s a little tough 40:13 MM: is to, well, you need to have another perspective and you need to have other people who love you. Who love you for you are, not because you’re their child, but because they love who you are 40:25 JO: you are 40:26 MM: And that’s just a blessing. You are very, very lucky. It’s a very sweet story. Anything else I didn’t think to ask you or 40:35 JO: No. I think not. So 40:36 MM: I was, one teeny other thing. The ketchup and stuff. Did you put it on? Did you have little packets and, I mean were you able to just �40:42 JO: No, nothing was, we didn’t have packets at all. We had the big containers of ketchup and mustard and relish 40:45 MM: So if they asked for ketchup you’d put it all on 40:50 JO: Yeah. It was already on the hamburger on the, or on the, um, no. That’s right. We did have little packets. And we would put a thing of ketchup with the French Fries. That’s right. A little just like they do that, so they could dip 41:03 MM: oh so they could dip it in 41:04 JO: That’s right, I had forgotten, but that was over on the, with the French Fries 41:07 MM: So when you got the French Fry order you had to fill the little 41:10 JO: They already filled them. It was filled up to the top, and so we put it on their tray. That’s, oh I’m glad you asked that question because I’d forgotten that 41:18 MM: I’m just picturing the whole process. It just sound 41:20 JO: That’s right 41:22 MM: Those little, uh, cardboard boats that French Fries and those things would be in those 41:30 JO: Yeah. Same thing that they are served in today. And hamburgers wrapped up just as it is wrapped up today. 41:35 MM: Yup. Well that is a wonderful memory. And thank you so much 41:37 JO: Oh, thank you very much, Margaret. And I’m glad to meet you 41:37 MM: I’m really. I’m glad to meet you too. And we’ll see you here at the History Center 41:42 JO: Oh yes. Definitely. Come to Tuesday Talks, oops. I guess we 41:44 MM: I do recording ends 41:46 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-OsmanJ-20180721 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Osman, Jane Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-07-21 Title A name given to the resource Jane Osman (Audio interview and transcript), 2018 Description An account of the resource Jane discusses working as a waitress in the Saugatuck Douglas area at the Frosted Mug and, later, the Red Wood. She discusses her relationship with the restaurants' owners and the atmosphere of working as a server at that time Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mason, Margaret (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Outdoor recreation Waitresses Oral history Audio recordings Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Documenting the Histories of Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas, Kutsche Office of Local History Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/848138b744ec3ee00f0cb33b6a7fa7a1.m4v f50cb3e9fd0cd40ebb04e11796ff5eb0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a8e912f14ef4659fc1e08eef8cb2c17d.pdf f199cc46520fb736535d37187940b6d0 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project Allan Ostar World War II 2 hours 2 minutes 39 seconds (00:00:12) Early Life -Born on September 4, 1924 in East Orange, New Jersey -Moved around New Jersey during the Great Depression -Father had had a career in the Army -Family settled in Philadelphia and he graduated from high school there -Family had owned a candy store then went onto managing a children clothing store in Philadelphia (00:01:56) Rise of Fascism & the Spanish Civil War -Became interested in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s -Rose money for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade which fought the fascists -Note: Abraham Lincoln Brigade had 2,800 American volunteer soldiers -Became interested in enlisting to fight against fascism -Aware of Germany and Italy violating international treaties to support the fascists -Had to be careful about showing your support for the Republicans/Loyalists -The Soviet Union supported the Spanish Republic -If you supported the Republic then you were suspected of being communist -Felt that there should have been more public attention -Didn't know as much about Germany and the rise of Nazism -Knew about the German American Bund and Father Coughlin -German American Bund was an American party that supported the Nazis -Father Coughlin had a radio show espousing pro-German views -There were concerns that Germany was using Spain as a testing ground for its military (00:05:36) World War II – September 1, 1939 to December 6, 1941 -Noticed more public attention given to World War II as the United States prepared for war -Lived near the SKF Ball Bearing Plant in Philadelphia -Noticed more activity at the factory as America prepared for war -On September 16, 1940, Congress enacted a draft for men aged 21 years or older -Father was still in the National Guard -Family was patriotic and ready to serve the country if necessary (00:07:23) America's Entry into World War II -Remembers being in school on December 8, 1941 -Students talked about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th -Unaware of anyone enlisting while still in high school -Vaguely aware of U-Boats prowling the Eastern Seaboard and sinking merchant ships (00:09:35) College & the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) -Went to Pennsylvania State University and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps -In the ROTC he learned about marching and map reading -Required to do two years of ROTC, but the second two years were optional -Entered college in the fall of 1942 -Expected to join the military either by enlisting or by getting drafted -Started off by studying pre-med then went on to studying psychology -Also took a radio course -Professor felt that he should learned a practical skill for the military �-Learned about radio technology and operating radios -Finished his first year of college (00�:12:22) Enlisting in the Army -Joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps while in college -Male students were encouraged to join -Able to stay in college until you were needed for military service -More freedom to choose the service branch -Volunteered for active duty and joined the Army -Inducted at Fort Meade, Maryland -Took tests and qualified to be a radio operator -Led to being assigned to the Signal Corps (00:14:35) Training at Camp Crowder -Sent to Camp Crowder, Missouri, for Basic Training and Signal Corps Training -Received Radio Training -Learned how to string wire and operate a switchboard in Signal Corps Training -Sent to Camp Crowder by train -Long train ride from Fort Meade -Had basic, uncomfortable barracks -During field exercises he got covered in ticks and chiggers -During Basic Training he rose early and ate breakfast -If he didn't have kitchen duty then he drilled and marched -Learned how to fire and maintain a rifle -Everyone had to do some cleaning and some kitchen duty -Adjusted well to life in the Army -Felt that the Boy Scouts had prepared him for it -Enjoyed camping and being outside -Time in the ROTC also prepared him -There was a lot of physical training -Running and going on the obstacle course -Drill sergeants worked to instill a sense of discipline in the recruits -Take orders and get tough (both physically and psychologically) -Imposed arbitrary penalties if you broke a rule -Extra kitchen duty, extra guard duty, picking up cigarette butts, etc. -He stayed out of trouble -Allowed passes to go off base -Not much to do -There were a few bars and a USO Hall hosted dances -Qualified as a radio operator -Learned about British and American radio procedure -How to communicate with the British on the radio -Didn't realize it at the time, but this was in preparation for the invasion of Normandy -Helped teach incoming recruits about British radio protocols (00:24:53) Engineer Training -Had an Army General Classification Test score of 130 (or 135) -Meant he would be sent to a college for specialized training -Very high score -For example, only needed 110 to go to Officer Candidate School -Placed in the Army Specialized Training Program to learn how to be an engineer -Sent to Colorado State University for testing �-From Colorado State he went to the University of Denver for engineer training -University of Denver partnered with Regis College to train soldiers in the ASTP -Jesuit priests were excellent professors -Great experience, but he didn't enjoy the calculus class -Received college credit -Stayed for one term -Had classes from morning until night -Allowed to go into Denver -Welcoming community -Fell in love with Colorado and the Rocky Mountains -Went on dates with local girls (00:29:40) Joining the 42nd Infantry Division -ASTP was shut down because the Army needed more infantrymen than specialists -Some men, including Allan, went to create new divisions as opposed to being replacements -He went to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, to join the reactivated 42nd Infantry Division -Unit had served in World War I with Douglas MacArthur -Originally comprised of National Guard units from all over the country -Led to it being known as the “Rainbow Division” -Some officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) had served in Alaska -Experienced a culture clash between the NCOs and the new enlisted men -Most of the NCOs had only graduated high school, or had not graduated high school -Most of the new enlisted men were college educated -The NCOs had disdain for the “college boys” -Initially assigned to K Company, 242nd Infantry Regiment -Trained on the Browning Automatic Rifle -Ironic, because it was one of the heaviest weapons, and he was one of the smallest men -Transferred to Headquarters (HQ) Company, 242nd Infantry Regiment -Operated the radio for the regimental commander -Got to ride in the commander's jeep -Transferred to the Cannon Company of the 242nd Infantry Regiment -Each infantry regiment had a cannon company made up of 105mm artillery pieces -Similar to the howitzer, but smaller, more maneuverable, used for close support -The Cannon Company had a fire control center and forward observers -He strung wire between the observations posts or worked at the fire control center -Received more infantry training while at Camp Gruber -He was part of the USO Regimental Band and played the saxophone -Able to get out of dirtier, or undesirable work because he had rehearsals to go to -Visited Tulsa on passes and began dating a girl there (00:42:17) Deployment to Europe -In November 1944, some of the infantry regiments were selected to deploy to the European Theater -The 242nd Infantry Regiment was one of them -Went to New York City and boarded a troopship -Converted freighter that was capable of holding 1,000 men -Everyone got seasick on the voyage -Had submarine drills -Sailed as part of a convoy -Passed through the Straits of Gibraltar -High level of U-Boat activity -If a ship fell behind the convoy had to keep moving �-One ship fell behind and got torpedoed -Bad weather on the crossing -Spent as much time on deck as possible to help with the seasickness -Got two meals a day (00:46:11) Arrival in France -Landed at Marseille, France, in late November/early December 1944 -Sent to a camp north of Marseille -Cold, and set up on rocky ground -He'd been taught how to drive in Oklahoma, and was ordered to drive a jeep to the camp -The road leading to the camp was icy and steep -Driving a brand new jeep, he went into a skid and hit a wall -He was unharmed, but the jeep was severely damaged -Gathered equipment (00:50:04) Battle of the Bulge -Initially assigned to the 3rd Army to help with the fighting in Belgium -Got to drive a jeep north instead of riding in a truck or a boxcar -The 42nd Infantry Division was reassigned to the 7th Army -In late December 1944 the Germans threatened the Alsace-Lorraine and the city of Strasbourg -This was part of Germany's final offensive, “Operation North Wind” (Nordwind) -The division went into the area around Strasbourg in late December 1944 to help defend the city -French forces were in the city and needed assistance -Cannon Company set up on the Rhine River and fired across the river at German positions -French pulled south into the Colmar Pocket to drive out the Germans -Note: This Allied maneuver happened in the middle of January 1945 -Cannon Company sent out patrols and captured some German soldiers -He had learned some German in college and was able to serve as an interpreter -One POW showed him a leaflet that said Germany was using old men and boys -The POW then pointed at Allan because he thought Allan was a teenage boy -POWs told him that they had been told the 42nd Infantry Division troops were convicts (00:56:05) Operation North Wind (Nordwind) -Germans launched Operation Nordwind on December 31, 1944 -German forces led by Heinrich Himmler -Strike into Alsace-Lorraine to distract the Allies from the fighting in Belgium -Last major German offensive of the war nd -42 Infantry Division was part of Task Force Linden -Defended a 30 mile stretch of territory -Unprepared -Lacked artillery and tanks -Had some tank destroyers (lightly armored anti-tank vehicles) -Regiment moved north and the Germans attacked their position in early January 1945 -Faced superior German tanks -He was on the top floor of a train station directing artillery fire at tanks and armored infantry -Trying to use the 105mm cannons as direct fire as opposed to artillery -American tanks were forced to retreat -He stayed behind as long as he could to direct artillery fire so U.S. tanks could retreat -Risked being overrun and killed or captured -Received the Bronze Star for that action -Finally retreated and just before he reached the jeep a mortar destroyed the jeep -Company commander was killed during that German push �-Damaging to morale because he was one of the most liked officers -Regiment was situated on the old Maginot Line -As the Cannon Company retreated, an African American tank destroyer unit covered their retreat -Went head to head with the German tanks without breaking rank -First black soldiers he saw in Europe -Has tremendous respect for them -Finest soldiers he fought with -Cannon Company successfully pulled back -Stopped the German force attacking them -Led to the unit receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation -One man in the division, Vito R. Bertoldo, received a Medal of Honor -American forces blunted the German offensive, costing the Germans resources and soldiers (01:08:11) Advancing Toward Germany -Got refitted and replacements -Moved to Hagenau, France, near the German border -Had a close call in Hagenau -Trying to maintain communications with the forward observers and division artillery -Wires set up near a factory needed repair -He volunteered to go into the open and repair the wires -Did so under German shelling and received another Bronze Star -Americans were terrified of two German weapons: the 88mm artillery and the PPSh-41 “Burp Gun” -88mm artillery could be used against planes, tanks, and people, and as regular artillery (01:11:50) Crossing the Rhine River -In March 1945 the 42nd Infantry Division crossed the Rhine River at Worms into Germany -The 42nd spearheaded the liberation of Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, and Nurnberg in April 1945 -At Nurnberg they painted a rainbow on a wall (symbol of the 42nd) that is still there -Painted a rainbow in at least one place in each town they passed through -At Schweinfurt they were tasked with capturing an underground ball bearing factory -Allies tried to bomb the factory, but it proved ineffective -Ground forces had to take the factory, but it was surrounded by 88mm artillery -After intense fighting they took the city and the factory -Encountered Volksturm and Volksgrenadier units comprised of old men and young boys -Witnessed the mass surrender of hundreds of German troops (01:15:32) Liberation of Dachau & the Holocaust -The 42nd liberated Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945 -They were en route to Munich when they encountered the camp -Dachau was the first concentration camp, originally used for political prisoners -Commandant of the camp surrendered to the 42nd Infantry Division -Still doesn't have the words to fully explain in detail what he saw at Dachau -On the approach to Dachau he saw dozens of boxcars filled with corpses stacked like cord wood -Learned that they were prisoners being transferred from Buchenwald -Only a few survivors -Germans had executed most of the prisoners before they reached Dachau -Ordered not to feed the prisoners because it could kill them -Eventually went into the camp -Learned that some of the division soldiers had executed some of the guards -Healthier prisoners armed themselves with shovels and beat the guards to death -Learned the prisoners were priests, ministers, Poles, political prisoners, gypsies, gays, and Jews -Saw the crematoriums �-The Holocaust Center has asked him to go around and talk to high school students about Dachau -Tell them what he saw -Speaks with another veteran that liberated a camp and survivors of the camps -Later retraced his steps in Europe with his son -At Dachau he saw two busloads of young German soldiers -Recruits being shown the camps -Prove it happened, never allow it again, and refuse an order if necessary -The sights and smells overwhelmed him -Didn't stay in the camp because they still needed to pursue retreating German forces -There were rumors that German soldiers moved into the mountains and civilians would take up arms -Ordered to go house-house to collect weapons and capture stragglers -Approached a house in the town of Dachau and the man said that he wasn't a Nazi -Allan searched the house anyway and found a Nazi armband -Angered by how the Germans plead ignorance about the concentration camps -Parents were non-observant Jews, but the Nazis would have seen him as “racially” Jewish -Considers himself an atheist, but it wouldn't have mattered if they knew -Knew of American Jewish soldiers captured and either executed or mistreated (01:30:12) End of the War -Advanced into Salzburg, Austria, at the end of the war -Divided Germany and Austria into occupation zones -Went into Kitzbuhel, Austria, but left after it became part of the French Occupation Zone -Moved to the village of Lofer, near Salzburg -Saw the reopening of Mozart's house and theater -Watched the first performance of Mozart's music since the Nazi occupation -One man in his unit acted as the manager for the performance -Allowed Allan and his friends to watch the performance from box seats (01:33:24) Occupation Duty Pt. 1 -At the end of the war he had a lot of “points” -Needed 85 points to return to the United States -Awarded based on combat, dependents, length of service, and commendations -Had two Bronze Stars, combat time, Combat Infantry Badge, and years in the Army -Spent the winter of 1945 in Austria -One of the first to leave from his unit -Able to communicate with Germans and Austrians because he could speak German -Useful for bartering -Spoke French which allowed him to trade with the French -Traded K Rations for fresh bread and wine -Used cigarettes to barter with the Germans (01:35:18) Capture of Luftwaffe Base & Other Prizes of War Pt. 1 -Went into a Luftwaffe base near Munich and faced no resistance -Entered the commandant's office and the commandant surrendered to him, a corporal -Gave Allan his pistol, sword, and his ceremonial dagger -Had a Walther P-38 pistol and binoculars from a German officer -Hid his prizes in his jeep (01:37:18) Exploring Germany -Friend had relatives living in Ohm, Germany -He and his friend traveled to Ohm and met his friend's aunt -Stayed in the aunt's house and got to sleep in an actual bed -Visited while the war was still being fought �(01:38:40) Occupation Duty Pt. 2 -SS troops were rumored to be hiding in the mountains, attempting to regroup and resist -Sent to look for telephone wires and see if they led to SS encampments -Helped the Germans reestablish telephone lines -Never encountered any groups of SS soldiers, but was prepared to fight if necessary (01:40:05) R&R -Got a three day pass to Paris -Stayed in a fancy hotel -Got a three day pass to Switzerland (01:42:10) Occupying Austria -Stayed in Lofer, Austria, during the winter of 1945 -The people skied everywhere, and even skied to church -He and friends tried skiing -Remembers Austrian children laughing at how ridiculous they looked -In Salzburg he was billeted in a man's house -During December 1945 he came down with a terrible cold -The man gave him sugar cubes soaked in schnapps which cured his cold (01:44:15) Other Prizes of War Pt. 2 -He and a few of his friends found a stock of calvados (French apple brandy) -Supposed to turn over alcohol to the regiment for safe keeping -He and his friends took a few sips from each bottle before loading it onto trucks -Led to them getting drunk and getting yelled at by their superior (01:46:15) Contact with Home -Had few opportunities to write home -Wrote only while on R&R or during a lull in the action -Father worried when he didn't hear from Allan for a while (01:47:12) Coming Home & End of Service Pt. 1 -Boarded a truck and went to a “Cigarette Camp” near Le Havre, France -Boarded a troopship in Le Havre and sailed back to the United States (01:47:47) Life after the War Pt. 1 -Returned to Pennsylvania State University -Had college credit from Army Specialized Training Program -Graduated in two years (01:48:15) Coming Home & End of Service Pt. 2 -Voyage home was better than the voyage to Europe -Discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey -Encouraged to join the Reserves -Offered promotion and benefits if he joined -He declined and was lightly punished for it -Menial duty and watching educational videos -Some of his friends joined the Reserves and had to fight in the Korean War (01:49:56) Living Conditions in Europe -The winter of 1944-1945 was one of the worst winters on record -Lacked appropriate clothing, and a high number of men suffered from trench foot -He would go to the rear to collect more telephone wire -Noticed rear personnel had better clothing and shoes for the winter than front line soldiers -Deeply incensing to know they had better gear than combat troops -Sergeant that served in Alaska taught him to change his socks as often as possible -Put your socks under your armpits to dry out one pair of socks while wearing the other pair �(01:52:00) Life after the War Pt. 2 -Returned to Pennsylvania State University and majored in psychology -Worked for the student newspaper and became the editor-in-chief -Met his future wife who was a journalism major working as the news editor -Spent a lot of time together -He took some journalism courses, but never decided to major in journalism -Interested in mass communication and the psychology of communication -Joined the National Student Association and became an officer in Madison, Wisconsin -Part of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality; Civil Rights activist group) while in college -Led a campaign to integrate barber shops at Pennsylvania State Univeristy -Sent to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, for the National Student Association -Got into national public relations for the National Student Association -Started a national student newspaper -Worked closely with the University of Wisconsin -Continued his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin -Great experience -Worked with national media (Time, CBS, and NBC) -Wrote op-ed pieces for New York Times -Became the Director of Communication Services at the University of Wisconsin -Did that for ten years -Produced a video with a “kinescope” (video recording device) -Video for college course on American Government for American servicemen -Part of “correspondence courses” (precursor to online courses) -After Sputnik he was prompted to go to Washington DC for the University of Wisconsin -Went to New York City for the University of Wisconsin Interview ends abruptly @ 02:02:37 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_OstarA1935V Title A name given to the resource Ostar, Allan W (Interview outline and video), 2016 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-05-31 Description An account of the resource Allan Ostar was born on September 4, 1924, in East Orange, New Jersey. He went to Pennsylvania State University in fall 1942 and joined the Reserve Officer's Training Corps, then joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps. He volunteered for active duty and was inducted at Fort Meade, Maryland. He received Basic Training, Radio Training, and Signal Corps Training at Camp Crowder, Missouri, then was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program. He received Engineering Training at the University of Denver and Regis College until the ASTP was disbanded. Allan then received orders to go to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, to join the 42nd Infantry Division. He was initially assigned to K Company of the 242nd Infantry Regiment, then transferred to Headquarters Company, before winding up in the Cannon Company. In November 1944 the 42nd went to New York City for deployment to Europe. They arrived at Marseille, France, in late November/early December 1944 then traveled north to help the French defend Strasbourg and the Alsace-Lorraine. During "Operation Nordwind" he received a Bronze Star for staying behind to direct artillery fire and another Bronze Star in Hagenau. In March 1945 he crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and took part in the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945. At the end of the war he entered Austria, and served in Austria as part of the occupying force. He left Europe in late 1945 (or early 1946) and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ostar, Allan W. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/94082fb06861a04c247073380c74b03c.jpg 8bd638f9fd376ade557df44659f8c841 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Title A name given to the resource Map Postcard Description An account of the resource A a hand-drawn map divided into numbered segments. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Maps Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/620d1200a5c06bbabdf092713d87bfbd.jpg b254ad465d5c9d3960a6db94fc24cbad Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-03 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 8 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 8, the back of a postcard. It is a scan of a standard back of a postcard, copyright 1957. It is labled The Kalamazoo River, Saugatuck, Mich. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Kalamazoo River (Mich.) Postcards Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/76de3042e02a5e3c1faae78c60d9c8eb.jpg eec0ac7849e4d19c4bac9c4ad25b9cb0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f2bb532ea1764682b07326a15fc7aff9.jpg b0127b2cb6f6b4d1c9b2b5950bcc2713 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-08 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967-06-29 Title A name given to the resource Plantiff Exhibit 21 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 21. A photo of a road with cars on both sides. There are several houses within the shot, as well as telephone wire. The back of the photograph, which is labeled with both the date the photograph was taken and the Holland Photography label and stamp. The back of the photograph, which is labeled with both the date the photograph was taken and the Holland Photography label and stamp. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Cars (Automobiles) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/483dca983e0676fc28c9ea5e40525c25.jpg 7fc25bb0d8022409601429b8c4d3b243 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c4cae3eb5ba2a96ceb0494fbe1029c11.jpg 1d873fdcc10cc1b9f5c7f4ec3249de18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967-06-29 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 22 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 22. A black and whote photograph of a street. There are cars along the sidewalks and there is a light pole in the left side. There is a puddle in the center of the shot. The back of the photograph, labled Plaintiff's Exhibit 22. The contact information for Holland Photography is in the bottom right corner. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Cars (Automobiles) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c32b71efe697d1e24579bbee4f7525d.jpg 783861a16ae8411804519aa7160d8988 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f3222823c9a3e9aa1ae098c887e6ec28.jpg 4720c5d00c17ce55653dc7c4d5f494c0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-12 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967-06-29 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 23 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 23. A black and white photo of a street that leads to a stop sign. There is a sidewalk along the road, and there are several buildings in the distance. The back of the photograph, labled Plaintiffs Exhibit 23. The contact information for Holland Photography is in the bottom right corner. Fingers can be seen on the sides of the photo. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20215797d161604013a528a9b2ed7a61.jpg 967d5829267cc79dce6edd7110903249 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/61f813c86303ec803ed2c7e48350b356.jpg 489b789c71ecdfbcac238eb49085ac31 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-14 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 7 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 7. A black and white photo of the Mt. Baldhead Hotel taken from across the water. There is a boat in the water on the left side, and someone's fingers can be seen in the corners of the image. The back of the photograph, labled Plaintiff's Exhibit 7. The contact information for Holland Photography is in the bottom right corner. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/17531a096cad16c0369a3ff41e9f27d9.jpg 8f2e77263c9af5a6894ec67389f4ef5f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e00dd23ed7dce320c90d26b74d77786d.jpg d1d0e432615d44eee9bf7aaccfb88810 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-16 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 6 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 6. A black and white picture of the Mount Baldhead Hotel sign from the street view. A smaller sign below reads "Gentiles," and there is a small Michigan map sign next to the bigger sign. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Mt. Baldhead (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/22f32c0e820dd204ffa602bd05979caf.jpg 8621f20c841031579e9d71c08af28f9c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/508ecda2f3c25c1c58fa9b5e19baddaf.jpg acbfa4fbd68fbb92ff7565be6c27fed0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-18 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 12 Description An account of the resource Plantiff's Exhibit 12. An aerial shot of Saugatuck, Michigan. Several large ferries or boats are on the water, and the dance hall can be seen. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e71708bf6197d618d395b80b3cbeb43c.jpg 9dfa3d55e0149628c2f9882aa3b6cf63 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa077cca6eb81df4328b2295d337b000.jpg d8c3df2c1f0e481ca564a21b3d4c11b4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 13 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 13. A wide shot of a large ferry on the water. Smoke exits its smoke stack. The image is labeled Saugatuck, Mich. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aec352fd927e224970667457ee4373aa.jpg 2e50977a6125c619aa5d940f4828ade7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae7199b823bc6aeeeb49a1eb3fde4947.jpg c63cfa32da071c02a209fe8ead894861 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-22 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 30 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 30. A black and white photo of the Saugatuck Boat Livery. Three men stand in front of the building. They are surrounded by many kayaks and canoes. On the back, "#8" is handwritten in the top right corner. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f8c28cb54853547bba34938a85fe10ea.jpg c5827c9cd080e6563cadbb2680214497 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16921a004bbc05d68c5ad87ddb7262e3.jpg b773d64dc240d929b45e76d8893f7045 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-24 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 4 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 4. A black and white photo of several wooden buildings that sit on the water. There is a dock depicted in the picture, and a small motor boat is docked next to it. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/78ed1a345ce72d1b81e004c7ab69cac8.jpg cfba304830941030f56317141338aca7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a9c147e77e759e16c9b27c0c76bcb680.jpg 256f1531a7883f0b8f48d623b9b01606 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-26 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 10 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 10. A black and white aerial shot of several large ferries on the water. Thick smoke exits the smokestack of the boat on the right side of the image. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7fc8d8ebade111674cdeb58ca0e9056.jpg 56327c79eb68592a6f12c89651c60a26 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bb7ef4dd62aed939b7bb2a1834d37c90.jpg 52b6195927be5a2a870c3d4945d42cd1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-28 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 5 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 5. A black and white aerial shot. There are several buildings, as well as a thickly forested area. Towards the right and the bottom portions of the image, the water is visible. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5b13bc55327ac23ec0f1384bc282ca5d.jpg 8da23966e8d9b40530ac9327f441de7a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/27f032b6cbd4517b0b754b8ac8402abb.jpg 30843b24825bacd2a8ff3d586899bcc2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Otsego-30 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Otsego Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Plaintiff Exhibit 11 Description An account of the resource Plaintiff's Exhibit 11. A black and white aerial shot of the area of Saugatuck along the water, including the dance hall and the Hotel Butler. Several boats are on the water. In the bottom of the image, there are trees. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Allegan County (Mich.) Saugatuck (Mich.) Citizen suits (Civil procedure) Evidence Boats Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives