Growing Up at 1402 South 13th Street

Being first cousins and the same age, Florence and Ben played together and were good friends. Too young to say Bernard, Florence called him Bama, a nickname some people call him to this day. When they were about 5 years old they like to go over to the fire station and watch the horses. Their parents bawled them out for this because they were afraid they might get hurt. Ben’s mother Angeline would bring them bread with butter and white sugar on it which Ben liked. The children played on the beautiful open stairway.

Living so close to church, the Mader boys would get a kick out of crawling underneath the wagon hearse and teasing the horses.

During World War I, there was a lot of hatred towards the Germans. Posters against the Kaiser were all over town. Their mother’s maiden name was Kaiser and the children couldn’t understand it. John felt he didn’t do anything! Everybody’s activities were for the war. The children played war and the Mader kids always had to be the bad side and the neighbor kids who weren’t German were the good side.

Angie and Edith, Dominick Mader Jr.’s wife were very close friends and they visited back and forth. Their son Bill remembers when they would play ball on the double lot on 13th St. with Father Plecity. One time the kids broke a window and Father Plecity took the blame for it.