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♪ Music ♪
Narrator: I began to work on this book when I learned that my
cousins did not know the exploits of the Eymann
boys during World War II.
I started by interviewing my uncles,
aunts and cousins to gather the story and I came to realize it
was really a story about the Dust Bowl.
Mic Eymann: You kind of even hate to talk about it,
it's been so long ago, it don't bother me now
but it was terrible.
Bonnie Eymann: I remember the hot southwest
winds just wilting everything.
Every year.
Doris Eymann: The wind and the sand actually would cut that
corn off or else it would bury the corn with the sand.
My father was so discouraged, I never saw him cry until after
one of those storms.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: I learned so much about what it
was like on this farm in Oakdale, Nebraska,
but more importantly than that it was a journey to
discover who my grandfather was.
Because us children we never mentioned his name.
♪ Music ♪
Mic Eymann: He farmed the place there where we lived,
but he worked for George Hunter across the fence there.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: He was a man who had a dream.
He wanted a farm.
He wanted to support this family of 12 in the best way he could.
My grandmother was a very loving person and where Chris was the
strict disciplinarian, she provided that little extra
ounce of love and nurturing and caring.
Mic Eymann: We were all very close.
I remember there was 10 of us in that house and I don't know
where we all slept but we did, you know.
It was upstairs somewhere.
Doris Eymann: Chris was a hard worker.
I can remember him going out to milk the cows and
things when I was there.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: And then, the Dust Bowl hit.
The grasshoppers were the devastation to the crops.
Mic Eymann: They ate everything, you know?
They just ate - cleaned everything.
Chub Eymann: They were big boogers.
When they flew and lit on ya, they could bite you,
they'd pinch you, you could feel it.
Mic Eymann: We'd poison them but, you know,
they just kept comin'.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: They tried to grow crops
every year but it was so dry.
When things were at their worst is when Hattie
seemed to be at her best.
Her dream changed from, how am I going to educate these children
and get them to the best life I can possibly give them,
to how am I going to feed and clothe and
keep these kids alive?
Doris Eymann: You wonder how she was able to,
but she baked bread and she canned a lot of vegetables and
that type of thing.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: They had always raised chickens and hens.
She raised more.
Mic Eymann: We milked cows so we had cream and we'd take that to
the store on Saturday night and traded
the cream and eggs for groceries.
♪ Music ♪
Mic Eymann: My dad worked for the government building roads
and just for a few bucks so we could buy
something to eat, you know?
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: All those dreams he had of owning
his farm someday, so dreams were devastated.
There was no way that was ever going to happen.
♪ Music ♪
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: They knew that he was in a decline.
Doris Eymann: He kinda held back.
He wasn't too interested maybe in getting out.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: Hattie was always watching for him when
he was in a black mood she would tell the boys, watch your dad.
♪ Music ♪
Doris Eymann: The Eymann family was the only family in Antelope
County that had four boys in the service at the same time.
Mic Eymann: Four brothers was in the war and
I'll tell ya it just.
It got to him, yeah.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: There were times he would go in the
cellar and he just wanted to be alone.
Doris Eymann: He was just having kind of a
nervous breakdown over it all.
♪ Music ♪
Narrator: Hattie began to speak in a worried voice.
Turk Dad did not come in for dinner today and I'm worried.
I have a bad feeling this time.
They lifted the lifeless body of their father.
He was light as a feather as the boys carried him from the barn
up to the house.
Turk said, he's gone and he's never to be mentioned again.
And, with that, the door was closed on a secret that would
not be revealed for nearly 65 years.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: The difficult things are hard to talk about,
but through the book we were able to talk about those
difficult times and I think it really helped us
all work through them.
Mic Eymann: But other than that I'm proud of my folks.
Yeah.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: I think that my grandfather and my
grandmother would be so proud of their 10 children.
Mic Eymann: The whole family done well and I know that the
folks would appreciate that very much.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: And I think he would see
himself in those children.
Barbara Eymann Mohrman: I find the Oakdale
Cemetery hauntingly beautiful.
When I think about the people and the sacrifice and I can walk
up there and look over the graves and I know
this is my family.
This is where I came from.
I value their history.
I value their legacy and I have a lot of peace coming here.
A lot of peace.