The Material Legacy

Desk

The desk was made by me as a manual training class project in West High School, Green Bay, Wisconsin, during the school year 1928-29, the first year in the new building. Mr. Leaonard F. Stacker was the teacher.

The desk has a flat top on tapered legs. There is one wide drawer. Lumber species is butternut, stained walnut color. Dimensions: 29 inches high, 30 inches wide, and 18 inches deep.

Desk Lamp

Flexible (goose neck) study lamp was purchased for my use when I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in September 1931. The dark green color was chosen to harmonize with the green stained dormitory furniture. For two school years I lived in Room 202, Tarrant House, Adams Hall on the university campus.

The lamp was used by me during four student years and subsequently in all the various roominghouses until I entered the army in March of 1941. After the war it continued as part of our household, but was not used so much. During the past few years it has served as an auxillary shop light in the basement.

The electrical cord was replaced once.

Child Chairs

The four chairs have interesting histories.

The green straight chair was bought by her parents for my wife, Beatrice Ferslev, when she was four years old (in 1919). It was used specifically for her to sit on in the one-seated family automobile while her older sister sat between the parents and the younger sister sat on mother's lap.

The other three chairs were given to me after my *cousin's children outgrew them (about 1915). The training chair was a brown color – stain and varnish –; we never had the tray. The "kitchen" chair was red enamel. I remember the rocker as yellow – probably a stained or natural finish. When Uncle Abe Frei brought the training chair from Spokane, Washington, out to the ranch on Indian Prairie, he was embarassed; so he put it in a burlap bag. I named the chairs for ranch horses – Major (training chair), Queen (kitchen), and Flo (rocker) and drove them with string lines. The chair backs and rear legs still show the wear from being dragged across the floor. I still refer to them by name.

Field Tools

These tools belonged to my father, Gilbert Cardinal, prior to 1920. Most of them were probably in 1917 when we moved onto a farm at Oneida, Wisconsin.

• Double-bitted axe (handle replaced about 1965)
• Scythe
• Wooden hand hay rake (I turned replacement teeth in 1985)
• Garden spade
• Two three-tined pitch forks
• Corn knife
• Post hole digger
• Buck saw
• Lantern
• Short-handled square shovel (this was discarded by C&NW Ry in 1920's)