The Spiral Notebook
I said from the beginning of this adventure that I'd let the ancestors lead the way. My mom's side of the family, the Hartzler/Radtke side, has been coming through for several days - loud and clear!
Today, I reached into a box and pulled out a small container. Inside was a spiral notebook filled with Grandma Hartzler's journaling. She was amazing at keeping books of daily happenings and milestones. This notebook described her history from 1932 through 1951 as well as her dad's life story.
I feel like I've just spent the last few hours with Grandma, and it's been awesome.
Recently, I've been working on a post about my grandpa Hartzler, telling the story of the Hartzler name and what I know of his life, but oh my goodness, did Grandma pipe in about him! Stay tuned for his story...it's a good one, and today it got even better!
For now though, I'm going to share about Helen Belle Hartzler (Radtke), or as my dad affectionately called her, Hells Bells.
Following are excerpts from The Spiral Notebook:
Grandma was born in Nelson, Nebraska on December 13, 1913.
The following starts in Oshkosh, Nebraska:
"After I graduated from high school in 1932, I spent a lot of my free time at Hal and Sally Mathews. She was mom's best friend and she always had someone staying there. We always had a card game going. Hal made home brew and someone had to help him drink it. A fun place to be in a small town.
On July 2, 1933, "Shorty" Hartzler and Ed Mahon rode the rails out from Ohio. Well, a new man in the town the size of Oshkosh was a big thing and living just across the street was an advantage.
Ed got my attention first, tall, big, southern, etc. But he turned out to be a terrible dancer, so I zoomed in on Shorty and that was it.
Those were the Depression times. No one had any money. We would all go out to grange dances. It cost the men 50 cents to dance. We danced til 2 a.m., run outside and drink bootleg whiskey, 190 proof alcohol mixed with cherry syrup, and home brew. Lisco, 17 miles west, had a big old dance hall upstairs and we went up there a lot. The floor was packed and you could feel it sway. Never did collapse tho. It lasted 40 more years."
Grandma goes on to share about no money, hard times, and cold winters, but also about many amazing friendships not to mention "drinking, bowling, dancing, playing cards. Got a poker club up - 6 or 7 couples. We got to playing every Saturday night, sometimes til dawn."
There were plenty of challenges, but it's the relationships that stand out to me. Everyone relied on and were there for each other - it was the epitome of community.
That's just a snippet of The Spiral Notebook. There is much more to come.
But there was another find today - a little card tucked beneath Grandma's notebook contained an excerpt from "Death Is Nothing at All," by Henry Scott-Holland. It's one of those little "winks from the Universe" that makes all this so remarkable.
Here is what it said:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened.Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together, is unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.It makes me happy to be doing this work.
Until the next discovery,
Kells Bells 😉
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