Henry Richard Hettinger
Interview from 2006 by Jana (Hettinger) Jones with Leota and Hank Hettinger
Favorites
- Sport – Football
- Author – Louis L’Amour
- Leisure Activity – Dancing, reading, woodworking
- Dessert – Apple pie ala mode
- Hymn or song – "Amazing Grace"
- Vacation spot – Meadow Lake in the Colorado Mountains
- Type of food – Home cooking
- Sports team – Broncos
Childhood
What did you enjoy most as a child? I enjoyed going swimming at a mud-bottom pool for the price of 10 cents. I also had fun hiking along the Platte River and finding arrowheads and spear heads. I had quite a collection but my mother threw them away. In the summer I always went barefooted.
Who gave you your name and why? In German, my name is Heinrich which is Henry in American. My parents called my “Heinie” which is short for Heinrich. Later on all my friends called me Hank. My mother always spoke to me as Henry.
What was your favorite sport or outdoor activity? I liked football. I played guard. I was small and the most fun was running into the “big players” and hitting them in the stomach with my head. My coach finally made me stop doing that as he said it could really hurt my neck. I went out for football in my freshman year and then again I my senior year. I had to miss two years as I had to work beets to help make money for my family. Even though I was out for two years I made first team. My position was guard on both offense and defense. I was lucky as I never got hurt.
Ball games: I played baseball in Junior High School. We couldn’t afford to eat at the park – we had to eat at home.
Who was your best friend? Alvin Ruster, the son of our preacher.
Did you ever get into fights? When I was a kid, I was always in fights. When I kept having the buttons pulled off my shirt, my mother made me sew them back on. In grade school, our favorite pastime was to rip the buttons off the boy’s “fly”. The teacher always kept a supply of safety pins so the boys could fasten their pants. (This was before zippers.)
Pranks: We had wooden guns with rubber bands (made out of inner tubes) stitched over them. The trigger on the gun was a clothes pin. We would play “cops and robbers”. There was a filling station across the street and we would climb up on the roof and shoot the rubber bands at the people when they came to get their cars filled up with gasoline. They were not amused but we never got into trouble. They just figured we were a bunch of ornery kids.
Chores/ Jobs/ Money
What chores did you do? Did you get an allowance? I fed the chickens and kept the chicken house clean. We never had an allowance. In fact, when we worked, the money was always given to my parents. My first job that I had that I got to keep my money was at F.W. Woolworth. I made about $10 a week. I was in high school and worked after school.
What was your first job?
When I was young, I would work for farmers thinning beets. I never got paid but they gave the money to my parents. When I was about 15 or 16, I drove a tractor.
Finances
We were poor as I grew up in the Great Depression. No money, no allowance, but we were happy as we did not know any thing else. We ate good as we raised a garden and had chickens. It was good training as it taught you to appreciate the things you had. We had homemade clothes, homemade underwear. (made out of flour sacks with a trap door in the back.) We went barefooted but had good shoes to wear to church. When I was a cub scout, they had a race in which you were to take off your shirt and pants and then put them on again. I would not participate as I did not want the other boys to see my homemade underwear.
Television
TV was unheard of. I remember when we got our first radio. We did not have any outlets so we strung an extension cord from the ceiling light to the radio. Not fancy but it worked. Some programs were “Amos and Andy”, “One Man’s Family”, “The Lone Ranger”, and lots of other good programs.
Pastime or Hobbies
Favorite as a child: I enjoyed working with wood. I would repair all the screens on my family’s house on Main Street. I liked to paint and painted the inside of the house for my folks. In high school, I took shop and made tables and book cases for the teachers. They would pay for the material and I would build what ever they wanted. I received an “A” in shop.
In my freshman year, I took a class I agriculture. My project was chickens from little chicks to layers and fryers. I had to keep the pens clean and feed them.
Home
Describe your childhood home. My home had a large kitchen and three bedrooms, a dining room, a front room, a bathroom, a back porch and a front porch. There were 6 of us in the family plus my grandma Hettinger. My favorite room was a hay loft in a shed in the back yard. We had beds set up in it so we could sleep outdoors until it became too cold. We also had a boxing ring set up so we could spar with each other. My brother Bob was a good boxer and nobody wanted to fight with him,
Where was your childhood home located? I lived in Sterling, Colorado, on 228 Main Street. I enjoyed living there as it was a small town and I could go anyplace I wanted. No one worried about you as it was a safe place to grow up in. My favorite thing was to go down to the Platte River and look for arrowheads. I went barefooted all summer long.
Special Place. We had a club house until all the stray dogs in the neighborhood took it over.
Pets
We had dogs growing up. One was a bull dog mixture named Mike. Another one was a brindle bulldog with only three useable legs. He was a stray and evidently broke his front leg and the people just taped it up – therefore he never could use it. He loved to fight and his leg didn’t stop him. When it was cold. He would lie behind the cooking stove and snore.
Church
Where were you baptized? In the Lutheran Church in Sterling, Colorado.
What prayers do you remember as a child? We always prayed in German. The prayer was “Helfe Gott, alle Zeit, Amen. It translates in English as “God help me all the time. Amen”
What were your earliest memories about church? My mother made us go to church every time the doors were open. The preacher’s podium was up on the wall and you could not go to sleep as he could see everyone. At first all the services were in German and later changed to one service in German and one in English. The old men and women sat up in front with the men on the right side and the women on the left side. The young children sat up in a small balcony where they were ornery. They served wine at communion and the old men would take big gulps. The women sang in off-key falsetto voices. When church was over, the men went out first and the women followed behind.
Did your pastors ever visit your house? One of our ministers would come over quite often and have dinner with us. Mom was a good cook and always had extra food.
First Bible. I received my first Bible when I was confirmed in the Lutheran church. I was probably 12 years old. At the time, we were to be confirmed in German but I refused and was confirmed in English – a first for that church.
Parents
Father (Henry Hettinger)
What did your father do for a living? He was a “steam engine hostler” for Union Pacific Railroad from about 1915 to 1959. His job was to bring the engines into the round house to check them out and service them. He worked the graveyard shift, 7 days a week.
I remember one time one of his crew thought he could run an engine but he didn’t know how to work the brake. Dad was inside taking a shower and heard a big “bang”. He ran out half-dressed to find the engine out the far side of the round house wall, off the tracks with the wheels digging a hole in the ground. He had to jump in to stop it.
What is your most striking memory of your father? He was always working nights and slept during the days. He rolled his own cigarettes. I remember in the summer he would go out to the front porch and sit on the swing barefooted. When he could, he would like to go fishing and would take us boys with him.
Mother (Alice Hettinger)
Did your mother have a job or work in the home? Mom was 18 when she got married. She always wanted to be a nurse. She made “mustard plasters” for family and friends when they were ill. That was a mustard paste put between layers of cloth. It was put on your chest when you had a cold and it really made you sweat! It worked pretty well. There was a lot of whooping cough then.
She raised 4 children. She also had a baby, Minnie, who died from whooping cough at a young age.
Mom and Dad took on boarders for a while. Most of them were railroad workers. They probably slept in beds in the living room. One would get up to work his shift and another would take his place.
Your mother’s cooking. My mother was a good cook. My favorite food was “Kraut Brötchen”. Or cabbage buns. Cabbage, onions and ground beef cooked together and placed in the middle of dough and baked. I also liked Schnitz Soup (dried fruit soup), Blinza (German pancakes), Green Bean soup, and Dinna Kuchen, (coffee cake). My favorite meal was Sunday dinner which consisted of roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, and chocolate cake. Before going to church, my mother put the meat and vegetables in the oven so when we got home, dinner was ready.
What is the nicest thing you ever did for your mother? The nicest thing I did for my mother was going to church – which she made me do. When I was six or seven years old, I asked my mother for some money so I could buy her a gift. She gave me 5 cents and I went to Woolworth’s and purchased a mouse trap. I wrapped it up and gave it to her and she really got a kick out of it. I have that same mouse trap in our “collection box” with other memorabilia.
What is your favorite memory of your mother? My favorite memory of my mother was that she was a good cook. She always kept our clothes clean. She was always good to us. She was a gentle, religious, caring woman. She was always ready to help any family that needed help. She would love to have been a nurse but her family took up her time and she never had the chance to become one.
Grandparents
Describe your Grandparents. My father’s mother (Grandma Hettinger) lived with us. She never spoke English, always German. She always made molasses cookies on Saturday. I learned my first cuss words from her – in German. One time I killed a bull snake, skinned it, and put it over a broom handle to cure. I forgot about it until Grandma started cussing and hitting me with her broom. She was not a happy person. Grandpa Hettinger died shortly after they came over from Russia.
Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman came over to America from Russia and farmed in Ft. Collins. Grandma Hoffman had 7 children and was never in good health. She died at an early age. Grandpa died about 1947. My father and Grandpa Hoffman always argued. As my mother said, “You have two Germans, you get three opinions.” Grandpa was a master woodworker and could weave beautiful baskets from willows. One time he went to Chicago and bought a box clock which I still have.
Siblings/ Family
Bob: My brother Bob rebelled by refusing to work the beet fields. He refused and left home. He got as far as Ft. Morgan and his car broke down so our dad had to go and bring him home. Bob was a great mechanic. He would buy old cars, fix them up and sell them.
Esther: Esther was a good student. She received a scholarship to CU. She played the piano and played the pump organ at church.
Harold: Harold was a prankster and was always playing jokes on other people. He liked to sing. He sang bass. He also played the piano by ear. He learned to become a blacksmith but became a welder instead and opened his own shop.
What did your family like to do on weekends? On weekends, we went to church. Some Sundays we would go to visit Uncle Alex and Aunt Millie Hettinger as they lived out in the country on a farm. They would make homemade ice cream which contained eggs and rich cream. (Really good!)
Girlfriends/Relationships
Valentines. I never received a Valentine until I met Leota.
Where did you learn about sex? From the men at the local filling station that sat around and played checkers. Also, from my high school football coach.
How old were you when you met Mom? I was 24 years old and on “R&R” in World War II. I had been in England for about 1½ years and got to come home to Sterling before another tour of duty. I met Leota on a blind date arranged by my friend Kenny Hastings. I was attracted to her because of her personality and her father’s homemade cherry wine.
Where did you go on your Honeymoon? We went to Greeley, Colorado, as I had started a new job and could only take 3 days off. We stayed at the Canfield Hotel which since has been torn down. On the way home it snowed and we had a fender bender. I tried to pull the fender to straighten it out, but in doing so, I lost my wedding ring. As we had little money, we returned a set of dishes that we didn’t like and got another ring.
Do you remember the first meals Mom cooked? One time Leota decided to have a romantic dinner with candles, etc. So what did I do? I went and got a flashlight. She was mad about that and never forgave me or served a candle lit dinner again.
She also made a casserole dish. I was used to having meat, potatoes and gravy – so I complained about everything being mixed together. She didn’t listen to me and kept on fixing casseroles. Now I prefer them to meat, potatoes and gravy.
Where did you live? We had a small apartment at 1224 Lafayette Street in Denver. It was a small living room, tiny, tiny kitchen, and a bedroom. We had a wonderful view – it was of another apartment house about six feet away. As housing was at a premium after the war, we felt lucky to even get that much and the price was $45 a month. During the war, they had a price freeze on housing so it was affordable with all the service people in Denver. There were not enough places for all the people.
School
How far did you have to go to school? I only had to go a few blocks to school and always walked. In grade school I would come home for lunch. My first day of school I thought school was over with at recess and went home, my mother took my back to school, much to my regret.
Your favorite teacher. My favorite teacher was “Old Lady Teller” and she taught history. She ruled the room with a hard stare and a ruler. I really respected her. I also liked my gym teacher Finus Ketchum. He coached us on how to behave and take orders and how to excel in athletics. He taught us how to grow up.
Reading. When I was growing up, I read most of the books in the Children’s section of the library. I finally borrowed my mother’s card and started reading adult books. I later read all of the Zane Grey books. I liked Westerns. In fact, have every book that Louis L'Amour has written and have read them over and over.
What would you have done differently during your junior high and high school years? I wish I had been a better student. I liked shop and things I could do with my hands. I always felt you only read instructions on how to fix something when all else failed.
What is the strangest thing you have ever seen? We were fishing at Meadow Lake in the mountains. Leota and I were the only two out on the lake as it was dark. Out of nowhere where a large light appeared I the sky – a revolving light – no noise and it stayed there for a few minutes, then it eventually faded away. Up there you can hear all noises and this “whatever” was quiet. Was it a “UFO”? We don’t know.