Herman: 1940s Lonely Hearts Search

By Wendell Affield

Great for research! This biographical book features resource material for anyone seeking to understand the plight of women in the 1940s.

 

The author highlights the life of his stepfather, Herman, a shy WWII veteran who responds to the personal ad of a New York pianist with four children. In 1949, Barbara

• Language: English
• Publisher: Whispering Petals Press, LLC
• Release date: Nov 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781945902017

Wendell Affield

It’s one thing to write a book; it’s another to live it. Wendell Affield never knew who his father was. His childhood was punctuated by a volatile mother and stepfather. At sixteen he left home, rode the rails out west, and lived in hobo camps. At seventeen he enlisted in the navy. At twenty, he was wounded in an ambush while driving a river patrol boat in Vietnam and medevac'd home. He spent thirty years working in the food industry.Affield retired in 2001 and knew he had stories to tell. He spent several years attending Bemidji State University (BSU), learning how to tell a story. His Vietnam “memory stories” evolved into a memoir, "Muddy Jungle Rivers." The memoir has opened surprising new paths. Today he speaks to groups about PTSD. Autumn 2016 he taught a writing workshop to veterans. Spring 2017 he’ll speak to students who are using his memoir in a history class, at Indiana University, South Bend.Affield’s mother, Barbara, lived an unusual life. He began a series of interviews with her, hoping to tell her story, never suspecting that the key to it lay decomposing in an old building seventy feet from where they sat visiting in the old farmhouse. After she died in 2010, Affield and his sister discovered and salvaged their family history, dating back to 1822. Over the past six years, he has spent countless hours studying, scanning, and transcribing the documents he discovered locked in the Chickenhouse on his childhood homestead.Affield lives with his wife, Patti, in a log cabin overlooking a small lake in northern Minnesota, where they enjoy feeding birds. They have three children and several grandchildren. Sadly, their son, Jeff, died in 2015. Affield continues to write, study writing, and psychology. His greatest fear: that he dies before all the stories are told.

Book preview

Herman

1940s Lonely Hearts Search

Chickenhouse Chronicles

Book I

After the Ice Storm (circa March 1941)

Only surviving early Affield homestead picture.

Chickenhouse is the dark building just to the left of large spruce tree.

After Wendell Affield’s mother died in 2010, he discovered a time capsule locked in the chickenhouse on his family’s farm homestead in northern Minnesota. He spent six years studying, transcribing, and archiving hundreds of documents, thousands of letters and diary pages, dating back to 1822, and many long-lost photos. This is the first in a series of biography.

HERMAN

1940s Lonely Hearts Search

Wendell Affield

Books by Wendell Affield

Muddy Jungle Rivers

A River Assault Boat Cox’n’s

Memory Journey of His War in Vietnam and Return Home

Herman

1940s Lonely Hearts Search

Chickenhouse Chronicles

Book I

Wendell Affield

Whispering Petals Press, LLC

Bemidji, Minnesota

Copyright © 2017 by Wendell Affield

All rights reserved. No material in this book may be copied or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information-storage-and-retrieval systems, without the express written consent of the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. Contact: [e-mail]

Published in the United States by Whispering Petals Press, LLC.

Library of Congress Control Number:  2016913645

Herman, 1940s Lonely Hearts Search, Chickenhouse Chronicles: Book I, Wendell Affield.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or inconsistency thereof. Any slights of people, places, or organizations are unintentional. Dialogue is reconstructed.

ISBN 978-1-945902-00-0 (paperback)

ISBN  978-1-945902-01-7 (e-book)

ISBN 978-1-945902-02-4 (PDF includes all Mail Order Bride Catalogues; only on wendellaffield.com)

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Photographs are property of the author unless otherwise noted

BIO026000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs: BIO033000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / People with Disabilities: SOC028000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1    First Edition

In memory of my stepfather, Herman

The Fates played a cruel joke on him

Acknowledgements

Usually, the spouse is the last to receive recognition. My wife, Patti, for the past six years, has quietly supported me as I explored my family’s history. She listened patiently to long conversations I had with my sister, Laurel, and my brother, Chris, as we excavated childhood events. Chris has been instrumental in his recollections of life in New York City, and later, the early years on the farm. (Those memories are woven into forthcoming Chickenhouse Chronicles, Book II.

In exploring Herman’s past, a few people from his family offered their stories. His younger sister, Elfrieda LaDoux and her son, Roy and his wife, Sally, shared memories and old family pictures. Lorraine Hightshoe Knighton and Evelyn Hightshoe Walters, Herman’s nieces; Faye Monson, Herman’s childhood friend and neighbor—all offered valuable insights into his early years. Karel Knutson, a World War Two veteran, shared first person stories about Herman with me. The older generation is gone now, I’m thankful for the time I spent with Elfrieda and Karl.

My visit with Steve Affield and the information from his book, Greetings from Afar; Memories of the Reinhold Affield Family, provided turn-of-the century background about the first Affields to arrive in this country. Beltrami County Historical Society was instrumental in supplying information about the early days in Nebish.

Thank you Scotty Allison, Beltrami County Veterans Service Officer, for helping me weave through the bureaucratic paper maze to obtain Herman’s military records from National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Herman’s army history proved integral to understanding my stepfather’s past.

My writing group, Sue Bruns, Doug Lewandowski, Polly Scotland, Marilyn Heltzer, and Mary Lou Brandvik—thank you for your countess hours of critiquing. Sue’s critiques transported me back sixty years to grammar and comp class. Angela Foster, a wonderful editor who I first met and worked with on my Vietnam memoir, Muddy Jungle Rivers provided big picture developmental edits that proved very insightful. Thank you, Angela.

My daughter, Trish, and the company she founded, TJ Studio, Bemidji, MN, has been instrumental in graphic design and formatting for my first book and this one. TJ Studio, now owned by Paul Bunyan Communications, continues to support the technical aspects of my work, website, etc. Thank you.

And finally, the late Susan Carol Hauser. Susan was an early believer in this book. She recognized the historical significance—the forerunner of today’s dotcom dating sites. I shared the old lonely hearts club catalogues with her and her first response was that they were lost history—a glimpse into the risks women of our mothers’ generation took.