A Memoir by Allen Kussmaul

My name is Allen Kussmaul. I have a tale I would like to share with you before my ninety-five years catch up to me. Yeah, I don't believe it either, 95, but I'm the one that's got to live with that fact. So, before this tale disappears into the clouds of my mind won’t you sit a spell and let an old man share with you a memorable part of my life.

Introduction: Life on the Bum in the Early 1930s

Monday. June 1, 1931

Packed my hiking outfit today. Getting ready to leave tomorrow. Lucile
Stender started to work here. Rud started with George Engles at the County
Farm to build a horse barn. My packsack was chock-full and cumbersome. It must have weighed at least 50 pounds and contained a lightweight canvas; six feet by eight feet, a wool army blanket, canteen, two quart tin syrup pail, small frying pan, tin cup, plate, fork, fishing line wrapped around a cork and some hooks, a good pocket knife, camera, towel, an extra set of clothes, and other odds and ends. On the back of my packsack I attached a large triangle shaped banner with Wisconsin written on it. It helped me get rides more than once during the summer. Dad gave me fifty dollars in folding money. Most of it went into a money belt under my shirt, the rest into a leather pocket book with a clasp on top that I kept in my shirt pocket. That was a lot of money for those times. I felt like a walking millionaire.

Excerpt from Life on the Bum in the Early 1930s

Available for purchase at the Kussmaul Seeds office for $29.99.
Call 608-988-4568 or email for a copy

Kussmaul Seeds, Inc. | Mt Hope, WI | 608-988-4568 | 866-KUSSMAUL
© Copyright 2011, Kussmaul Seeds, Inc. All rights reserved.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.