As I Recall

Grandma Kate and her two sisters, Mary and Rose, both spinsters, raised me in Minneapolis, at 316-14th Avenue North. Kate McGurk was my father's mother. My father was Sidney Myers, and my mother was Helen Maxine Weghorn. My father had once owned a bar in Anaconda with Sap Ilackovich. The name of the bar was Sit and Sip (with Sap and Sid). My mother had left Montana and was an elevator operator in Minneapolis and lived alone in an apartment downtown. I left Montana to live with my grandmother when my parents split up. I was a year and a half at the time.

Grandma Kate was well connected in the upper crust community...one of her friends was the wife of the newspaper publisher in Minneapolis and would come to her house in a limousine. She'd pat me on the head and give me a dollar, which I'd thriftily save. Grandma had been married to a gold miner. They owned a home in Anaconda and the home in Minneapolis. They were friends with the folks who owned the "Going to the Sun Resort", which is now located in Glacier National Park, and would often be their guests. I never met my grandfather...I recently went on a trip to Montana with my son, David, to seek my roots. There were no references we could find in any of the libraries in Montana. Our searches came up empty. As near as we could determine he is probably buried in a potter's field near Anaconda. I was disappointed because I had always imagined him to be a very rich and famous man. I remember reading an obituary for my grandfather in the Minneapolis paper when I was very young. It said something to the effect, "Ira Myers succumbs after (x amount of years) as a pioneer in Montana."

The Great Depression was a very difficult time for most people. Even for my Grandma Kate. I would walk up to 6th Street and Plymouth Avenue to Baron's Grocery Store with her. She would often pay for our groceries with luxury items from her safe deposit box at the bank. Earrings of silver and gold, bracelets...slowly depleting her valuables in order to keep us fed. The gifts of a by gone era from my Grandfather Ira. There were often runs on the banks back in those days. The banks would close for days at a time and when they reopened people would attempt to get any of their savings out that was possible. I'd go with my great aunt Mary to the bank on these occasions. She was a long time schoolteacher. I remember the bank had a raised letter fresco which had been chiseled off, although the name "German-American Bank" was still legible. I had a 100 mark note from the Weimar Republic which had been overstamped with a 1000 marks. Times were tough all over.