My One Memory of Grandpa Vern Ducklow
[Published November 25, 2010]

Left: Vern and Mina Ducklow, circa 1946.


I have but one single memory of my Grandpa Vern.  In spring of 1961, Grandpa came for a visit at our home in Hudson.  This was a time when Dad (Vic Ducklow) was working as a mail sorter for the Post Office in St. Paul and decided that Hudson was reasonable commute to work, so he and Mom bought a home there in 1960.   We lived at 604 Sixth Street.  Our white two-story house was modest and fit right in with the other homes of the neighborhood.  There were lots of other young families that made the city block feel like a community.

A half block down from our house was a small corner grocery located on Sixth and Vine.  Besides carrying an assortment of milk, eggs, bread and other staples, the store had a vast (at least in my very young eyes) selection of penny candy.  On the day of his visit, Grandpa Vern loaded me into my red Radio Flyer wagon with a long black handle, and pulled me a half-block along the uneven cement sidewalk down to the corner store.  Upon arriving, I jumped out of the wagon and we walked in the cramped building.  Grandpa then gave me a nickel to buy five pieces of candy!  Tootsie rolls were my favorite (and still are) and so I picked out five and handed the nickel over to the clerk.  Grandpa bought some candy for himself too.  I stuffed four of the five pieces of candy into my pockets, and keep one out to eat on the wagon ride back home. I was happy to have been given a long ride to the store and eating sweets too!

As I visualize Grandpa on that day, I recall him being very tall and thin. I can’t recall his voice, but his demeanor struck me as being soft-spoken and kind, and perhaps a bit frail.  I don’t recall Grandma Mina being there that day, but she could have simply been in our house and my memory was all about Grandpa pulling me in my wagon and buying me sweets.  I wish I could recall more about him, but I was just too young (I think I was only about 27 months old). 

Grandpa Vern died in July of 1961, from complications of a broken hip.  He was 81.  Five weeks prior he had fell during a middle-of-the-night trip to urinate outside.  He slipped on the dew laden grass and lay helpless through the night until Grandma Mina awoke in the morning finding him.  Gradually, Grandpa’s body began to shut down, unable to recover from the trauma of the fall.  With today’s medicine, death from a broken-hip is uncommon, but fifty years ago an elderly person falling resulting in a broken hip was often a death sentence. Such was the case for Grandpa Vern.

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Footnote: Vern never learned to drive a car.  When he needed to travel around Spring Valley, he took a horse or walked.  The range of horse was all the distance he needed to go in most cases.  Mr. Rex Pearce, a friend of Vern’s had the need to conduct business in the Twin Cities.  He would on occasion take Grandpa Vern along, drop him off at our home in Hudson in the morning, and upon his return, pick him up and drive back to Spring Valley in the evening.

Footnote: I’m not sure how long this store remained a grocery. Not too many years after we moved from Hudson, it had been converted into a boutique flower shop.  

Footnote:  It’s hard to imagine today, but Grandpa and Grandma's home did not have running water and no inside toilet.  Water came from a manual pump located a few feet from the front porch.  Their toilet was an outhouse situated a few dozen yards away from their home, dug into the side hill.  There a worn path from between the house and the privy.  Not having inside facilities was an inconvenience in the spring, summer and fall, but must have been a real trial each winter! 


Footnote: The story of Vern's fall and Vern's rides to Hudson learned from a discussion with Pearl Ducklow on November 25, 2010.


Footnote: Pedigree back to Thomas & Elizabeth Ducklow:  Vern > George > Thomas Ducklow

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