Bob Draznik and A Trailer Park Romance....

One of the unexpected pleasures that came about after writing this blog was meeting Kenny Draznik's dad Bob.  We communicated via email a bit and then I was delighted to meet him in person at the last Vertebrats Reunion.  I think he, Kenny and I are ALL suckers for reminiscing and we all have fond memories of Champaign-Urbana, albeit different time periods....  He was kind enough to share something he had written about living in Champaign while in school in the 50's.  Ernie and I loved reading it so I asked him if he would mind if I shared it with all of you.  Bob is nothing if  not gracious so he agreed.....  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did----and feel free to share your own memories of your early days in C-U or the like......

A TRAILER PARK ROMANCE
 By Robert A. Draznik

Dedicated to Lois who lives in our memory and that of our children forever…… The title was lifted from that of a song written by our son, Kenny.

               

We lived in a  twenty-eight foot long house trailer while I was completing college at the University of Illinois from September 1950 to February 1953. The trailer was our passport to my continued education as a married student. Without it it’s questionable if I would have ever been able to complete my college education or if we would have been  able to become married at that time. What would our lives have been like had that trailer not become available when it did? Would we have ever married?  We will never know, of course, just as we will never know if we made the right decision to purchase the trailer, get married and move to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in that Fall of 1950 at the outset of the Korean War. 

The trailer had been sitting across the street and two lotsnorth of my parents' home at 21 Kildare Ave. Joliet, Illinois, which I occupiedwith them and my sister Barb. I hadn’t even noticed it and don't know where ithad been before Leo  moved it tothe lot next to his house. Lois Jean Kowalczyk and I had been starting to givesome thought to getting married and returning to school so I could complete mycollege education. We had no idea how we could afford it, however.  I had made a hitchhiking weekend tripto Champaign with a Jr. College and Navy Reserve buddy, Bob Prescott, to assessthe housing situation there. During that short trip we happened to come upon the house at 1001 W.Illinois St., Urbana and saw the house trailers in the back yard. Perhaps alight lit in my brain and, so, I knocked on the front door and talked to thelandlady, Mrs. Winklepleck, and inquired about the trailer arrangements.  

I arrived back home completely dejected since I had no ideahow we could afford conventional student housing as a married couple while Icompleted college.  In the processof discussing this with my parents my mother mentioned that Leo was trying tosell his trailer and that light went on in my brain again.  I immediately went over to seeLeo and discussed my situation and ended up agreeing to purchase it for$1,000  on contract with someamount of down payment and probably about $25 or less a month.  Lois and I made an appointment for ameeting with the Joliet Junior College Loan Committee and ultimately were ableto convince them that some of the loan amount that I was attempting to securewas needed for the down payment on the trailer.           

 My Dad repainted the outside an ULTRAMARINE GREEN color, weadded rain gutters over the windows and doors and I revarnished the completeinside, which was all “genuine plywood”. (And those were the days beforesynthetic finishes, so you got all the good fumes.) The product I used was soldby my employer at the time, Standard Oil Company, and was called Gym Finish. OnSeptember 2,1950 our loan for $700, which was co-signed by my Father, wasapproved by the Joliet Junior College Loan Fund Board.  Although a 28-foot long aluminum canwas not Lois’ father Mike's idea of proper housing for his daughter the nextday Lois and I were married at St. Thaddeus catholic church in Joliet.  Time off for a brief honeymoon inHolland, Michigan and we were ready to make the big haul to Champaign-Urbana.   

On a typical Midwest September Saturday in 1950 we headedfor that space like a band of gypsies.   Leo had offered to pull the trailer with his 1941Chevy Club Coupe so he headed up the wagon train with my Father riding shotgun.  Neither Dad nor I had ever moved atrailer before but figured that our vast experience moving our chicken cooprepeatedly at Mom's insistence would pull us through.  Lois and I followed in the 1940 Chevy Business Coupe that Ihad recently sold to Dad to get part of the trailer down payment!  Leo was an automobile mechanic, shortand roly-poly, whose hands always revealed his occupation.  There is more to moving a trailer thannovices realize. About six miles out of Joliet south on Route 6 Leo's Chevystarted giving off clouds of steam  due to a clogged radiator that was incapable of cooling the engine withthe extra load on it.  Afterrefilling the radiator Leo headed back for a week's delay to get the radiator"rodded-out".  We simplyparked the trailer on the property of a concrete step manufacturer on Route 6 acouple of miles south of Joliet, locked the doors, and followed Leo back home.

 A week later with a much happier radiator we all made thetrip with no surprises and arrived at 1001 W. Illinois St.  in the middle of the afternoon.  Now, getting a 28-foot trailer up anarrow inclined driveway and sardined among 3 already parked ones is not a taskfor wimps. (This experience along with two subsequent moves led to our genuineappreciation of Lucy and Desi starring in the movie “ The Long Long Trailer” afew years later.)  Of course, thetrailer had to be backed-in since going “car first” would have allowed no roomfor maneuvering and no way out for Leo's car despite its small size. Leoexpertly backed the trailer off of Illinois street and up the sloping drivewayto the amazement of everyone. By now a small crowd had accumulated expecting theworst, the neighbor of the house on the driveway side included.  As Leo clutched, braked and declutchedup the incline my Dad and I chocked the wheels so that the whole rig didn'troll back into the street. Finally up the driveway Leo unhitched the trailerand the last bit of jockeying was done by hand by the most energetic of thecheering crowd. I don't remember much about what happened during the fadinghours and light of that lovely September afternoon but the thought brings backwarm memories. Dad and Leo departed unceremoniously for an uneventful trip backto Joliet while Lois and I got acquainted with our landlady and our trailerneighbors.

Later we spent our first night in our new house and the followingday our closest neighbor, Glenn Coxhead, showed me how to “set up” the trailer.We moved the trailer twice more during our two and one half years at the U of Ibut had it done by locals who specialized in the craft. Neither move was aseventful as the first nor evoked as many memories in later years.

The end of World War II in 1945 was accompanied by the GIBill of Rights or "GI Bill", for short. Among other rightsex-servicemen received was the opportunity for a Government paid Collegeeducation. I was not eligible, not having actively served my country since Ihad been too young, but thousands of Gig’s moved to college campuses creatingan even more severe housing problem than the one in non-college towns.  College town landlords seized theopportunity and began renting trailer space in their back yards in addition tothe dorm-like rooms in their houses. Married couples both with and withoutchildren occupied most of the trailer space and the vast majority were G.I.s.

 

Until the G.I.Bill the only married living on campus were teachers and employees. A G.I.barracks-style development was built on South campus adjacent to the Stadiumbut it soon was filled and couldn't meet the demand. There was at least onelarge commercial trailer park out near the Southwest corner of Champaign thataccommodated the overflow of students who owned cars. Resident landlords oncampus had rented out extra rooms in their homes for years; most were widowsand the homes varied from Classic Georgian brick to unbelievable habitations.Some enterprising widow recognized the gold mine that lay in her backyard andbefore long every available back yard sprouted house trailers most being withinwalking distance of campus. Despite the crowding, a trailer still provided moreprivacy than the paper-thin walls of the G.I. barracks at Stadium Terrace. Thetrailers in those days were gypsy wagons compared to today's marvels oftechnology. At the top of the quality chain was NEW MOON with its highlyrecognizable First Quarter-moon emblem. NEW MOONERS were an elite minorityhowever since those trailers were quite expensive. An occasional SPARTAN couldbe spotted along with a glistening raw aluminum AIRSTREAM. House trailers atthat time were really engineered as traveling wagons with only nightly layoversor circled fortresses against Indian attack intended. Since no one in his rightmind was expected to spend more than one night above the Mason Dixon line in atrailer, heating was by gravity fed fuel oil stoves.  Your own portable electric fan provided forced aircirculation. Today it's difficult to accept that life in general in the early1950's was bereft of many of today's luxury trappings. No Interstate Highwaysystem existed, TV was not common, and Holiday Inns had just been conceived inMemphis.  Not a single TV setexisted in any of the trailers of my acquaintance at that time; anyway, G.I.swere serious about their education and had no time for television. 
 Life at 1001 W. Illinois started a couple of weeks beforethe first school term with both of us looking for jobs. Whatever the balancewas on our loan from Joliet Junior College, it wasn't intended for day-to-dayliving expenses. I soon got a part time job moving furniture into the newVeterinary Medicine building on the extreme South side of campus. Carryingdesks, chairs, file cabinets, etc. upstairs weren’t hard work for a strappingyoung man. My main memory of that job was the pervasive smell of formaldehydethroughout the building which, coupled with the smell of new construction hadto be unique. I can still smell it just by thinking about it. I walked to andback from home at lunch and at days' end, since foot power was the only mode oftransportation I had. It was a fairly long walk. Lois landed a job as anassistant librarian at the Civil Engineering Library the second week andmaintained it right up until Michael's birth in November of 1952. I do recallthat before Lois’ first paycheck arrived we were down to 25 cents and I wentout and got a Saturday afternoon house-painting job to earn enough for fooduntil Monday.   The headlibrarian at that time was the model for all librarians, if you get my drift,but Lois hit it off well with her. Over the two and one half years other coworker assistant librarians cameand went and Lois became a good friend of all of them. I remember a spinstergal but not her name and I also remember Madge Bost whose husband, Jim, was astudent. We becamespecial friends of a newly married couple Bob and Barb.  Bob was from Oak Park, Illinois, owneda relatively new Mercury auto, and Barb was a local Urbana girl.  They talked us into my becoming apledge at Delta Chi fraternity. We attended the Pledge Dance but my interestceased when I found out they wanted all pledges to clean up the frat house onSaturdays.

 
Washing, showering and “toileting” was commonly done inbasement facilities provided by "the house" since few trailers hadinside plumbing accommodations. The toilet stalls seldom extended to the floor and, due to traffic, itwas not unusual for various neighbors of both sexes to be washing clothes,attending to the toilet and shaving at the laundry tubs concurrently. Later inthe ‘60s communal living became popular but it got its start in these traileryards. 

 Our trailer was near the bottom of the quality featureshierarchy of trailerdom.  We never hadrunning water. We did have a sink and I think it drained into a tile that wasconnected to the city sewer. We had an icebox that looked like a refrigeratorand ice could be purchased as-delivered using a notice card in one of yourwindows. But occasionally I would have to ride my bike to get it and carry ithome in the wire basket attached to the handlebars.  I recall one occasion when we had company coming during thesummer and by the time I got home with the ice it was half as big as when Ipicked it up. Reminds me of an old W.C.Fields movie in which his daughter is inlove with an Iceman.  Fuel oil forheating was stored outside in an elevated 55 gallon barrel and usuallytransferred to the stove reservoir inside the trailer in a small can with aspout.  Longer term experiencedresidents gravity fed the oil to their stoves via a length of copper tubing,but there was the possibility of freeze-up problems in the deepest part ofwinter when you needed heat the most. Re-filling the reservoir with the stoveoperating was an exciting operation since the chimney was a simple uninsulatedexposed blue steel pipe that was atop the stove and exited through the trailerroof. Great care had to be exercised so you didn’t spill fuel on anything thatwas hot.   Sometimes the firewould go “out” for any one of a number of reasons. If you forgot to check thereservoir, for example, and the fuel ran out.... the fire would go out.Re-lighting the stove after it went “out” was a ritual usually attended by highanxiety. When winter finally set in you usually kept the stove goingtwenty-four hours a day. However, during the fall you only used it when youwere in danger of frostbite so as to save money. To light the stove a valve wasopened to allow a small amount of oil into the "pan" in the firechamber. Due to poor visibility and other variables you were never positivewhen you had let in  "justenough” oil.  A lighted match wouldthen be tossed in and, if you were lucky, enough   vapors had collected to cause ignition and you werehome free and clear. The other possibilities, however, were NO IGNITION... orFIREBALL!!   A real fireballquickly shot up the chimney with a whoosh and probably illuminated the wholeyard. You watched with your heart in your throat as the color of the chimneychanged gradually from blue to red. Sometimes neighbors rushed outside---if thetrailer belonged to a new arrival but otherwise they ignored it.

Once thefireball subsided the next trick was to know when to re-open the closed valveso you didn't lose ignition. Hopefully you had cleaned the stove properlybefore the heating season. We never had a fire in any of the three yards weparked in, however, trailer fires were not uncommon in the 1950's inChampaign-Urbana and elsewhere in the country, sometimes resulting in entirefamilies being lost. One never got completely at ease during heating season. Ican remember setting up a mirror in front of the stove angled properly so thatI could check it periodically during the night without getting out of bed.Midwest winters are frequently severe and trailers didn’t have adequateinsulation so one was seldom really comfortably warm.

During our tenure at the U. of I. we became early friends ofthe Comers, Richard and Lois, who were also from Joliet. We rode back and forthwith them to Joliet on holidays and week ends regularly; Dick had a big Buick.Route 47 was the main route home, two lanes and crowded; passing was an awesomeexperience. One Christmas while we were visiting our parents in Joliet theweather really turned cold and everything liquid in the trailer froze, even theink in the inkbottles used for Engineering Drawing. Richard passed away in1998.

 
We were not living in the lap of luxury during our studentlife at the U of I. Campbell's tomato soup was a regular part of most dinnermeals and tuna casserole or grilled cheese (Velveeta) sandwiches were regularmain courses. Occasionally we would treat ourselves, and sometimes the Comerstoo, to a round steak dinner. There was a store not too far away from where wewere living at 201 S. Wright that had specials on round steak occasionally andwe would watch for them. I recall that on one occasion we even had a bottle ofMogen David wine with our dinner. Surprisingly, we were able to save a littlemoney during our “trailer days” and even bought a portable Singer sewingmachine on “time” payments.  Iguess we had the advantage of youth because, although we realized there weremany things we couldn’t afford, we didn’t seem to miss them. Lois nevercomplained but I have to admit that I don’t really know how she felt about itall. 

One of our neighbors at 201was Bill Stang who was in the pipe covering trade. He and his wife became goodfriends and Bill soon offered me a part time job working with him as a pipecoverer. I worked all the summer of 1951 with him. First in a housingdevelopment on the West side of Champaign and then installing fiberglassinsulation at the new Sears Roebuck building in downtown Champaign. I alsoworked for him on some weekends and during some of the holidays.  I continued to work for Bill even afterwe moved to 601 S. Fifth and, interestingly, the storage area where he kept hissupplies was just on the other side of the Boneyard from where we parked.

By 1950 when we first moved to Champaign-Urbana the G.I.Bill college movement was actually nearing its end. The Chanute Air Force Baseat Rantoul, Illinois had added students to the University’s rolls but most ofthose students commuted. As the need for housing started to wind down the cityfathers gradually rezoned sections of town to disallow trailer parking inresidential yards.   1001 W.Illinois St.  was an early targetand I think we had to move the summer after our arrival, which would probablyhave been around July of 1951. That first move was to a location at 201 S. Wright St. in the sistercity of Champaign and more or less across the street from what was then knownas the “Men’s Old Gym” at far north campus. This address was relatively closeto Mercy Hospital where our first son, Michael, was born a few months beforegraduation.  By the time we hadmoved to that address we were old-timers at trailer living.  The second and last move, which wasprobably around May or June of 1952, was to 602 South Fifth St. in the firstblock North of Green-overlooking Boneyard Creek.  

 
During the early stages of Lois’ pregnancy( i.e. Feb toApril of 1952) we were still living at 201 S. Wright and we would walk all theway to Urbana to do our grocery shopping. We carried bags of groceries all theway home and that was well over a mile walk each way. I recall that we wouldcoordinate Lois’ periodic visits to the doctor with grocery shoppingtrips.  As I recall, we would walka couple of blocks south from our trailer on Wright then turn east on MainStreet (or Springfield Ave?) to the Piggly Wiggly store in Urbana. Lois’ doctorwas located a block or so south of the store. Each of us would carry a full bagof groceries all the way back home stopping occasionally to rest our arms.  I have no recollection of thelandlord’s name at this location and probably only saw him once.

 
We must have moved to 602 S. Fifth St. around June of 1952.I recall that summer was a very hot one. I painted the roof with aluminumasphalt paint to help reflect the heat and we eventually bought a “Vornado”brand electric floor fan. I recall one Sunday being so hot that we spread asheet on the floor and lay on it with the fan blowing on us to keep cool.

 
One of our neighbors here was Jim and Clare Keller from NewLenox, Illinois. Clare was one of the Reiter girls from New Lenox and Jim wasstudying Civil Engineering.  Another neighbor was a couple from Georgia whose name I don’t recall,but he was studying Veterinary Medicine. They bought Claire and Jim’s trailer and moved in a few months after wearrived.  The couple directly eastof us “dog sat” the wife’s mother’s Sheepdog one day. At nightfall they tied itto the door hasp on the side of their trailer and went to bed. Must have beenabout 3am we were awakened by an extremely loud “WOOF”, the sound of rippingaluminum, a cat scream and lots of unidentifiable noise. Seems a cat camearound the Sheepdog and it ripped half the side of the trailer off chasing thecat down 5th Street.

 
As delivery time got closer it was apparent that we needed acar and luck was with me since one of the trailer residents back at 201 S.Wright was selling his 1939 Hudson so he could buy a newer used Packard.  That car has enough memories for atotally separate story, which I promise. It was the car that Michael made hisfirst auto trip in at the very early age of three weeks. And it was all the wayto Joliet and in winter weather.

 
Surprisingly, I don’t recall the events leading up to Loishaving labor pains and our trip to the hospital. But, we must have traveledthere in the ’39 Hudson. I don’t recall much about checking into the hospitalbut I do recall seeing a nurse bring Michael out of the delivery room. At thattime Mercy Hospital was far advanced as regards father’s rights and theyallowed me to stand outside of the delivery room…. but I couldn’t see anythingand at the time probably didn’t want to…unlike, if we can believe it, some oftoday’s young husbands. I do recall early days in the trailer after bringingMichael home very vaguely. My most vivid memory is that Lois had major problemsattempting to nurse Michael and it was very stressful for her. I had never seenor even imagined a thing such as a breast pump before.  But Michael regained lost weightquickly after being bottle-fed. It’s interesting but when I try to recall thescenes in the trailer after bringing Michael home I think we are at 201 S.Wright St. but know we were at the 5th Street address.  We did take Michael home after 3 weeksto be baptized and it was concurrent with Thanksgiving Vacation.  It’s possible that Lois and Michaelstayed in Joliet when I returned to Champaign, but I couldn’t vouch for it. Itwould have made sense since only a month later it was Christmas Vacation time.Maybe Lois and Michael even stayed in Joliet from then on in until Igraduated.  I just don’trecall. 

I do know that Lois waswith me when we sold the trailer to the young man who was going to go to theUniversity of Illinois as a married student just as I had. And I know she waswith me when we drove to the town where the kid’s parents lived to pick up thecheck for the trailer and make arrangements for its transfer.  On the way back from there with thecheck, as I recall, we coasted into the automobile dealership in Champaign andpicked up our new used 1950 Hudson which served us like a faithful draft horsefor the next few years. 

I recallgraduation vaguely but I have a photo with my two friends to prove that ithappened. Don Townsend, one friend, went to work for Delco Remy in Anderson,Indiana and I saw him many years later during a customer visit I madethere.  Richard Gaydos, the otherfriend went to work for Republic Steel in Gary and stayed there his wholecareer.  I won’t get into theaborted attempt by two other friends of ours to make a fraternity guy out ofme…Delta Chi, by the way.  The guywas from Oak Park…Bob something and he married an Urbana local girl. He owneda, I think, 1950 black Mercury and had a crooked little finger injured in football.  The girl worked at the CivilEngineering Library with Lois. Nice couple but I’ve completely lost track ofthem. Just today, Thursday September 9, 1999 I located and talked to GlennCoxhead who was our first neighbor at 1001 W. Illinois. Small world, as theysay.  I do recall that thelandlady’s name at 5th St. was Mrs. Diener and she was a kindly older woman. Ithink she was a widow just like Mrs. Wimplepleck at 1001. 

I’ve been back to Champaign-Urbana a number of times overthe years since we left and I always try to visit the places where we lived.It’s getting more difficult each time. I accompanied son Kenny to Champaign fortwo Vertebrats Reunion “gigs” and a couple of recording sessions and they werea joy.  That was while Lois wasstill living.  Now that she’spassed away I don’t know if visiting Champaign-Urbana and the scenes of ourearly married life would have the same meaning to me. Everything’s changed. Ioften think about what Native American Indians from Illinois would think ifthey could somehow be transported back here to see what has happened to theirland.

This is only a snapshot description of our trailer life inChampaign-Urbana. Maybe I’ll complete the whole album eventually.

[1] In the TribuneSunday Sept. 21 paper was an article “Older Trailers Come Around Again”.  The main photo shows a long line oftrailers, which were similar to ours, but smaller. The article is preserved inthe scrapbook with the boys’ picture on the front.

[1]Leo and Virginia Oldham were neighbors and friends.Years later they both passed away in Arkansas where they had moved to retirejust down the road from where my parents had also moved.

[1] Thanks to GlennCoxhead our trailer neighbor who I recently found living in Indianapolis forthis tidbit!

[1] I say $1,000 butI don’t recall the exact price, but it was around that figure.

[1] During theinterview that went along with the application for a loan the committee told methat the loan amount would be paid to me in installments at the beginning ofeach semester. When I requested an “up front” installment to make thedownpayment on the trailer they were astounded and told me that the loan wasonly for education expenses!  Iargued that housing was necessary to even go to college and they finallyacquiesced.

[1] The paint wasDupont Ducolux which was actually an automotive lacquer and my Dad did it allwith a brush, an extraordinary accomplishment since this paint was intended forspray application. I can see the trailer painted in that color in my memoryvividly and it was outstanding.

[1]Michael Kowalczyk, Lois’ father and the namesake ofour first-born child. A bread route1 salesman by vocation, not an expansiveconversationalist except when he was on his bread route, and a man who lived togo fishing in his spare time. Mike passed away January 18.1992.

[1] Thanks to GlennCoxhead in correspondence during year 1999 I relearned the name of our landlordat 1001 W.Illinois, Urbana…Mrs. Wimplepleck.

[1] During September2003 I started riding my bike on the I&M Canal trail south of Joliet. OnSunday Sept. 21 I paused at the Brandon Road terminus of the trail and glancedover at the area where the concrete step manufacturing operation had been wherewe had parked our trailer. I then glanced north to where the Navy Reservetraining facility had been.  Ipaused long enough to savor some of these memories.

[1] If you ever viewthe English TV series “The Singing Detective” you will see a teacher who, in mymemory, looks exactly like the head Librarian when Lois started to work at theCivil Engineering Library.

[1] Only a fewmonths before Lois passed away in July of 1999 she mentioned to son, Billy thatshe had been pleasantly surprised when she began getting pension checks fromthe U. of I. based on her two and one half years service at the library.

[1]  Clare’s brother George Reiter died inearly December 2009 and according to his obituary Jim Keller died some timepast but Clare survives.