Clarence C. Currier : Business Man

Clarence C. Currier was born in 1910, in a small town in Minnesota. Clarence enjoyed all of his childhood. His favorite memories are of his school, playing cards, skiing, his baseball team, and his horses. He lived through WWI, the Depression, and WWII. He never went a day without work. Through the Depression, he worked for Watkins. He started his job selling door to door and ended as the vice- president of sales. After retiring from Watkins, Clarence worked at Winona State. Clarence’s work was very important to him. However, his first priority was always his family. Two of the most important people in his life were his wife and his son. His life was full of many great memories. Many of which my great-grandfather, Clarence, shared with me.

[I was born] April 7^th, 1910 [in] Mantorville, Minnesota. [There were] four [children] in our family--oldest was William H. Currier, and I had a sister Iva Elizabeth Currier, a brother Harold, and I’m the fourth one. [My favorite memory is] I think my parents. They were wonderful parents; they did everything for me. My folks bought me about everything. Back in those days they had Heart-Shaffner & Marks suits for kids. My Dad bought me Heart-Shaffner & Marks every year. In the fall it would get cold up there. Dad would take me to town, and buy me two suites of long underwear, a brand new mackinaw (coat), a new stocking cap, new mittens, a new pair of Buster Brown shoes, and a brand new pair of four buckle over shoes. Total cost there about a hundred dollars. [My mother], she done some work. Yes, helping people, paper hanging, cleaning, things along that line. She was a hard worker. She took good care of me. She never criticized me in my life.

I remember my mother used to make bread about once a week, home-made cinnamon rolls. My mother was a great cook. I was right there every time a pan of those cinnamon rolls came out of the oven. One of my hobbies was eating the cinnamon rolls as fast as they came out of the oven. She’d always say, “Just help yourself, I’ll bake more.” Yep! She was a great mom.

She was a card player. Yeah, we used to go every Sunday to the neighbor’s house and play cards, and they’d come to our house. [However], my dad was probably the best card player of anyone. He played a lot in the pool room at Mantorville. He’d get chips for winning games. There was a good grocery, a good grocery stock in that pool. He would come home everyday with free groceries. The chips bought the groceries, and uh he … he could read the cards. Yep, my dad had lots of ability. [He taught me to play.] Yeah, I could play cards as good as I can play right now when I was seven years old. I played lots of cards. I was a good card player. [Card playing was one of my favorite memories.]

[However, I remember] lots of things, lots of things [from my childhood]. In my baseball playing days, I used beef steak in my mitt. Before every game I’d go down to the meat man and say, “Gus, give me the toughest piece of meat that you have.” I’d put it on the grocery bill, and that meat was pretty much fried at the end of the game. I played on a nice baseball team. I played four years of high school baseball. We had some great, great teams the last three years in high school. We played in the championship of our league. Our pitcher made the Houston, Texas team. He was looked over by the Yankees. He didn’t make it, but he wound up as a scout for the Yankees. This guy pitched two no hit, no run games in high school. That’s quite an achievement. That’s two perfect games. He’d strike out twelve to fourteen players a lot of games. This pitcher was fast. They had no way of gauging a pitcher in those days, but I’m sure he threw the ball about ninety miles an hour.

I made the [baseball] team as a freshman in high school. A famous major league catcher in those days went by the name of Muddy Ruel. So, they [gave] me the [nick] name of Muddy, that’s how I got that [nickname]. [I had another nickname], the name Con. I don’t know how I got that, but it still stays with me. Everybody calls me Con in Minnesota. Yep, Yep.

[In addition to being good at baseball], I was [also] a very, very good skier. I had a nice set of seven foot skis. We built little jumps, maybe about three or four feet high. We did lots of skiing back in those days. We went skiing and sledding down hills-- a group of us kids about every night of the week. It was recreation. We had some nice hills in that country.

[When I was a child], we had uh… a stream that went through our farm, a three hundred acre farm, and uh… sometimes I’d go fishing. I remember the first big fish that I caught. It was in Minnesota. My brother and his wife took me fishing. I went out one day in a boat, did a little rowing around, and caught a five pound speckle. That was quite a fish back in those days.

[Also, as a child], I had chores to do everyday--mowing the yard, hoeing the gardens, um… oh, cutting the grass. [I didn’t get an allowance.] No, but I had an expense account. When I needed money, my mother made arrangements for me to go to the grocery store, meat market, and uh… I could get an advance of fifty cents and that went right on the grocery bill. My dad never knew about it; he didn’t know the difference. Fifty to seventy-five cents was a little spending money. Going to ball games I had to have a nickel or two in my pocket. There wasn’t much money then.

I had a lot of problems the first year of school. I don’t quite recall the first day; but the first year, I didn’t like it. The teacher wasn’t really outstanding. Probably, if I’d have been more outstanding, she would have been; but the teacher I received the following year was outstanding. And, uh … so she picked me up. In fact, as I progressed in the grade school with that teacher, she [even] had me assisting her. If a student couldn’t spell or had trouble in math or something, she would have me take that kid back to the pot belly stove and drill them. So, that took up my time. [There were only] twenty-five [kids at school], twenty-five [kids] in eight grades.

In the country school, I was just about a perfect student. We was graded by numbers in those days. I got about ninety-five in most subjects. High school I could have did a lot better. [My favorite subject was] math, [and my least favorite] physics. That’s the hardest subject I ever took. In business college, I did very well. I’ll never forget the first report they sent my mother. “Clarence is an A- #1 student”. She was pretty proud to get that. My courses there were banking, accounting, public speaking, shorthand, [and] typing. I went about two years, [then] started working when I was about nineteen years old.

My brother did me quite a favor [after the school week was over]. Every Saturday night he’d give me a quarter. He went to see his girl in my home town. He’d drive his horse to town, his (the horse’s) name was King. I could [use the quarter my brother brought me to] get into the show for ten cents; after the show, I’d go across the street and get hamburger and a bottle of pop for fifteen cents. It was quite a celebration for me every Saturday night.

[However], I can remember one of the biggest thrills I had growing up was when we bought our first car, a Studebaker seven passenger car. That car cost a thousand dollars. I’d go and sit in that car everyday. I knew how to drive that car when I was eight years old. I didn’t drive it, but I knew how. It had a gear shift, and I knew every gear. I knew where the clutch was. I knew where the ignition was. I knew everything in that automobile. Sometimes, if I were tired, I’d take a nap in the car in the afternoon. [I first drove when I was] thirteen years old. My dad went and bought a brand new car, paid five hundred and fifteen dollars for it. And he drove the car home from the store he bought it [at, and] never drove it after that. I was thirteen and I did all the driving in that car. That was great pleasure for me driving that car. You know, driving a brand new vehicle for a kid thirteen years old--you can’t have it much better than that. I had a good life in my younger days.

[Another of my favorite memories was my] Shetland pony. The Shetland pony I received that one year for a Christmas present. It had a nice saddle, a nice bridle. [It was the best gift I ever received], when I was given my Shetland pony. Christmas was a big day in our place. And uh.. I enjoyed that pony. That was the best Christmas I ever had growing up. I rode that horse all over. I used to race that pony at the fairs. Dodge County fair at Kasson [Minnesota]. He could move, you know. They had Shetland pony races. Oh... I was probably about ten [when I raced it.].

I [also] had a beautiful driving horse. My dad was offered two hundred fifty dollars for that driving horse during the First World War. That’s money for a horse! [My brother used to drive the horse] to see his girlfriend. It (going to see her) was about a twenty mile trip. Now, that’s quite a trip. When I would go out to hitch that horse up in the morning, it was still warm, still perspired. He (my brother) didn’t get home until about three or four o’clock. I felt so sorry for that horse. The horse run in the pasture every summer. He had a vacation all summer long. [I had that horse for] fifteen years. I drove him myself for ten years. Yep, we got the horse in 1914. He was my brother’s horse. Later on, he became my horse. I had a fancy outfit to drive to high school--brand knew spring cutter, red mohair upholstery, and a beautiful buffalo robe, a brand new harness for my horse. He’d zip me right along going to high school. Often times I’d come home at night, I’d get a little tired, so I’d cuddle down on the buffalo robe and take a nap. As soon as I’d let loose on the lines, he’d (the horse) know I was asleep. He’d slow right down to a walk. When we got back to my farm, he’d walk me right back to my door. He was trained. Harold [my brother] was harvesting grain one day and he needed a horse. My horse wasn’t a work horse--it wasn’t in shape for working. He took the horse, and put it in the binder, and…the horse had a heart attack, and died. [It was] a pretty sad day for me.

I can remember [another sad day, was] the day my brother went to war(WWI). [I was] eight years old. My mother was heart broken. She hated to see him go. The reason he enlisted [was], he and Don Harris, Ivy’s (his sister’s) husband, didn’t get along; and uh… he talked it over with Myra (his brother’s wife) and decided to go into the service. There was twenty-five--twenty-five men that left that particular day from Dodge Center. [He was gone to France for] a year. I had several relatives in the war. One was an officer. I also had two brothers in the war. [They all came back alive], that’s right. In our town of Mantorville, we lost just one person. Yeah, it was a tough war, very, very difficult; probably, the most difficult.

[The Second World War was also difficult.] I was about thirty-three [when I first heard about the Second World War]. [The war] helped my business, [and I contributed to the war by selling] the merchandise, government merchandise. I bought saving bonds. You had to buy gasoline with the ration stamps. Well, gasoline was a big purchase. And uh… in the job I had, I needed my car; but we were supplying our merchandise to the war effort, so uh… I was able to get gas. I just about got [in the war], but Watkins Company kept me out of it. I didn’t have to go. I had a pre-induction examination [and I had Hay Fever so I didn’t have to go.]

[Before working for Watkins, I had several other jobs.] My first job was the J.C Hummel Company at Austin, Minnesota. I did secretarial work and was a part-time book keeper. It was a temporary job. And uh... my next job was with Montgomery Ward & Company. I worked for Montgomery Ward & Company for two years. We got a nice future from them, I was a trainee for a store manager. And uh.. it was a very, very, very good place to work. I was considered a good prospect for store management.

One day William B. Watkins came into our store. I sold him two dozen pairs of socks, and uh…I knew who he was, but he didn’t know me. After completing my sale, I said to him, “Mr. Watkins, I’m looking around for a new job.”

He said, “If you can sell Watkins like you sold these socks, I can use you.”

I said, “I can sell.” So he invited me to come into his office. I went down the following morning. That’s how I got started with the J. L Watkins Company. I got [started] through the President of the organization. I got lined up with Watkins, and they sent me down to Toledo, Ohio. And I was there for six months selling house to house, running out to sell their products. In six months time, I saved one hundred fifty dollars to help my living. And uh... I said, to the boss one day, “You know, I’m in love with a girl back in Minnesota,” and I said, “I’ve just got to go back. I’ve been gone for six months.”

He said, “Are you sure that you’ll come back?”

I said, “Yeah, I’ll come back.” So, I went back. I had no idée of getting married. The day I arrived in Minnesota we got married--May 17^th, 1931. I had no idée I was getting married that day. [laugh] We knew, knew we were going to get married. We were deeply in love. The first night I met Ivalene, I think I caught her eye the first night. And uh… it was a happy marriage. [She gave] a lot of support to me.

That was my, well, that was a good start to being successful in life. And on the job, the first fifteen years I was on the job, there was no traveling. The last twenty years I covered the entire United States and Canada. I was on the road three to four months of the year. It was a tough job. We had fifteen thousand dealers, twenty-seven sales division, and uh... we had two airplanes, [and] three pilots. So, I got in plenty of traveling. I traveled every state in the Union, every province in the Canadian area. We had two planes, a D.C. 3, and a Beach Craft, and three Pilots. The D.C. 3 would handle eighteen people. We used to hold sales meetings in the air, which is quite a unique thing back in those days. There weren’t many companies doing that, and uh… it was heavy responsibility.

During the Depression, I was selling house to house. The bread line was a block long in every single direction. And uh… it was tough going. The business I was in, you could sell the merchandise, but they didn’t always have the money. The Depression effected everybody.

[Roosevelt was President during the Depression], he delivered a Fireside chat once a week. He is probably as good as speaking President as anyone in that office, and he took over the country during the Depression. He closed every bank in the entire United States in one day. But they opened up about two weeks later. One thing people believed him. He was President of the United States thirteen different years. He was quite a guy. Everybody liked him.

I came close [to losing money in the bank], but I didn’t lose any. I sent my paycheck home to Mantorville, Minnesota. The banker up there was my wife’s uncle, and he knew that that check was in there, my paycheck, he never opened the envelope. He sent the envelope back to me. I didn’t have any money to lose back in those days. Back in those days if a man had a hundred dollars, he was rich. About a week later [they closed the bank]. I was earning a salary of thirty-five dollars a week. And thirty-five dollars a week back in those days was pretty good money. In fact, the average man didn’t have a job. That was pretty good income for then, but everybody was effected by that Depression.

[I didn’t think the Depression would last as long as it did], it lasted for about eight years. Just think! The bread line was about a block long in just about every direction. And uh… people just didn’t have any money. [There was] a lot of unemployment. However, I was never out [of work] a day in my life, from the time I got my first job. I had a salary coming in right throughout. I was well employed until I retired.

Well, [for entertainment during the Depression] in my particular case, we had friends come into our house. We’d play cards. Ivalene would always serve a terrific lunch. Maybe once or twice a week we’d take a long drive, and that was about it.

[Throughout the Depression], I had a very, very close friend by the name of Evert Porter and Evert’s wife Helen was very close to Ivalene. We got, we got paid at different times. Quite often I’d run a little low towards pay day. Evert was being paid at that time so I’d go over and say, “Evert can you loan me maybe fifteen dollars or so?” He did the same thing with me. He’d run out and he’d come over and see me, and I’d loan him whatever he wanted. We met the Porters in an apartment in Toledo, a brand new apartment, called the Henry Apartment. They probably was as close of friends as we’ve ever had.

[My son, Craig Currier] was born in 1935, and we were living in Toledo, Ohio. [We did] everything [together]. He was my pride and joy. I took him to twenty state tournaments. We went fishing seventeen different summers up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I don’t think I missed one single basketball game that he played. I think we were about as close as any father and son could be.

This interview was conducted and written in 2003 by Hannah Thomas.

* [ ] indicates words not said by Clarence C. Currier.