Cernik Kids Car Accident
Those were the days. Kids need to get to school after they’ve done their chores on the farm. But dad and mom are still doing work, as they will do all day.
No problem, let your 14 year-old son drive himself and his 10 year-old brother and his 8 year-old sister in the family truck.
Ray’s WWII medals.
Ray’s WWII Story
“The Greatest Generation,” that’s what they are called. And it’s well deserved. The sacrifices, both on the front lines and back in the homeland. The losses and the wins. The sorrow and the joy. The day-to-day stress is almost unmanageable for those of us who did not live through it.
This story is the story of Ray Cernik. Father and uncle. The story starts from the day he enlisted to the day he returned to civilian life and got married.
Marie by the chicken coop in ~1935
Marie’s Chicken Tornado
No, this is NOT an early version of Sharknado.
The story plays out sort of like a movie. Only daughter. Farm. Pet chicken. Tornado…..
Roller Skating Passion
Frank seemed destined to create businesses from scratch. And Roller Skating was a childhood pastime that he could relate to and felt there were others too.
This is his story of how he saw the door to being a farmer closed while the door to being a entrepreneur opened.
65 Years of Marriage
65 years. That takes a LOT of love, a LOT of work and a LOT of friendship.
Ray Cernik in his WWII, 6th Armored Division hat.
Advice to Live by AND a Recipe To Boot
One of Ray’s granddaughters was having a small set back with a job hunt and such. Grandpa Ray reached out with some advice from a man who’s “been around the block”.
Original barn being moved off the property. Printed in local newspaper.
“Oh The Memories” in That Barn
The pitchfork; sticking through Jimmy’s foot. Dave; climbing the stack of bales of alfalfa to come face to face with a “Bobcat.” The alfalfa dust; so thick it was hard to see when we filled the barn with bales. The pigeon cooped attached to its side. And on and on.
But…. she was saved and lives on approaching 100 years old.
The house Frank and Bessie built where Ray, Frank and Marie were born and raised.
The Frank and Bessie Cernik (ZIMOLA) Farm
The farm played a huge role in our lives. The things we were able to do that other “city” kids did not get to. But also all the family holiday gatherings, our grandmother’s incredible cooking skills and just being kids in a “wide open space”. The farm was/is 200 acres.
These are our farm stories.
The Tractor
“YO! My dad had one of those, and when I was 11 years old, I plowed wheat stubble with it. It was hard to start, and Dad would crank and get it started, and away I would go. “Just keep the wheels in the furrow,” he would say. It had a tendency to get hot and use a lot of water, so every hour or so, I had to stop, unscrew the radiator cap, and pour in some water (without shutting off the motor). Usually had a 10-gallon can of water sitting at the edge of the field. He would stand there for a little to see if I was steering it OK and then take off to do something else. I guess that’s when I learned to drive. What a monster that was. Usually hot as heck and noisy. The transmission on those things howled, and you could hear it for a long way on a quiet day.”
Ray Cernik 2011
Here is a small story for you… On our combined farms east of Wahoo (ours, Frank’s, Grandpa Frank’s, Marie’s and Greatgrandma Marie’s), we primarily grew corn, wheat, milo, alfalfa and occasionally oats. I’m not sure about the delineation of whose acreage was actually whose, but it was all farmed as one. Of course, we rotated the fields every couple years. What was once corn became wheat and so on. Some acreage always remained as pasture for our cattle though, and not rotated. At that time I had never even heard of soy beans. We had no irrigation then either. I learned to drive when I was about 11 in the old Ford grain truck going alongside either Dad or Grandpa in the combine as they emptied it’s bin into the truck during wheat harvest.
I was 13 when we moved off of our farm into Fremont (1962). Ray, Frank and two partners, Ed Lilly and Merlin Flanders started Victory Motors at the west end of Fremont on Military Ave. Originally it was just Merlin’s Victory Marine store that sold and serviced boats, motors, ski ropes, etc. Expanded, with four partners they then also sold Ramblers, Jeeps and Yamaha motorcycles as well as a Standard Oil gas station and used car lot. Profits must have been slim, though, as we moved to Merritt Island, Florida when I was 16 (1965). Dad (Ray) went to work for General Electric on the Apollo program, but that’s another story.
Steve Cernik
Great story Steve. Brings back alot of great memories.