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10aepuMitar, Tuwdoy. law. 10.1+MCity work gives way to fishing, fruit treesBy (Jrrc PhllhvNow Ihni ‘V.di, 64, 18-yearveteran of lh' (hi.nNiIdt city street ar.d winitntion drpartmonts. has retired, he plant to -nd morn lime fishing, growing liui! trees and gardening.Heidt retired on Tuesday, Dee. 27, after working since 1977 on the Humboldt Street Department and on the sanitation crew for 12 years prior to that. And Heidt was associated with Humboldt long before then.I remember when there were only 1.500 people in this town, ho said. I was bom west of town by the Bob Henderson farm. I was raised in Humboldt County.Heidt quit school following the seventh grade to work at odd jobs such as detasseling end farm work in 1937, doing whatever was available.He said the annual wage averaged *2,000, but that was when you could buy a pair of gloves for a nickel, shirts for 35 cents, pants for 75 cents and shoes for $1.98.Also during the 1930s, Heidt said he did dairy farm work for *10 a month, where he milked cows by hand and did other chores.Heidt spent three years in the service, stationed in India.After he returned, he worked for five years for Harvey Blanchard, hauling freight.He then worked for four years in the Farmer's Co-op feed mill.Heidt worked for four years for Hugh Westfall and John Miller on the street department then, but didn't get the years credited towards his retirement since he didn’t keep the money in the system.' ‘I took the money out of retirement at that time. 1 never bought it back sincemoney-wise it was too expensive. I would have had 22 years if I did, he said.Following that, Heidt worked for Albert Vinsand in his private garbage pick-up business.Albert Vinsand had the garbage route and I worked for him. When the city built the new sewer plant. Albert took the sewer and I took the garbage. That's how that started. It was contract work with Albert, not dty.” be aaid.He began his work with the dty in the garbage department in 1966, working as the '.ruck operator and doing light maintenance. The dty’s one truck was a 1967 Ford rear-end loader.When Heidt started work for the dty, only he and Terry Decker, currently the Humboldt Sanitation Superintendent, were on the crew. Five others worked for the garbage department that he remembered, during his 12 yeoys.Firjt it was Terry Decker and myself. Then Neal Deppe was working there with us. Then he left and Mike Hanson came on. Then Lowell Overgaxtrd. When he transferred off, Bill Olds came on and he's still an. Then LeRoy Clapper came on for about a year and I transferred off and went over to the street department. he said. Clapper was the replacement for Heidt.Although Heidt said that Humboldt was smaller then, he said the garbage routes have always taken eight hours. ( However, now the crew has expanded to five and has the use of two additional scooters. There are also four routaa now, as compared to three when Heidi worked.For a time, the early garbage men fashioned themselves after a garbage man in Chicago.We used to call ourselves the G-men, he said. It started when this guy in Chicago told everyone that he worked as a G-man, he said, and the man later revealed that he was a garbage man.While Heidt worked, he went through two trucks with a third truck being bought after he left. The second scooter wasn't purchased unijl after Heidt had left for the street department, but he was there for awhile with the firstMerle Hridtone. and he expressed somewhat ambilvalent feelings, about it.We had one scooter while 1 was still in the garbage route, he said, ft saved a lot of wear and tear on the tracks. But after we got scooters, no one rode with me. I had to drive the pick-up. II really didn't make much difference to me. I had to do it.While working for the garbage crew, according to Heidt, the garbage was dumped first near the Jim Kunert farm, then at Edge's landfill near Gotch Park and then out by Weaver’s in the rock quarry west of town.Heidt moved to the street department in 1968. His work then involved street cleaning, snow removal, road repair and sign replacement, among other jobs. The change, to him, was relativelyWork is all the same to me, ho said, but I ju* decided that someone else could do the heavy lifting. Street work didn't have as much heavy lifting.Heidt can recall few changes during his 18 years with the city, other than the growth of the town and the addition of new machinery. Some of his employers felt that Heidt didn’t change much himself, saying be was always a dependable worker.Dick Hacker, Humboldt street superintendent and boes of Heidt for the past six years, said “be was a good worker. He was always there when we needed him. I’d call him at 2 in the morning and he'd be right there.Now, Heidt plans to stay at home with his wife Vivian. They have been married since Nov. 6, 1949, and have four children, all in Humboldt; eons Paul and David, and daughters Vickie and Mrs. Steve (Virginia) Ehrhardt. The Ehr-hardta also have the Heidis' first grandchild, one month old Christopher.Heidt also has three brothers and one «*«r in the area, including Louis (Bud), Gilmore City, Virgil (Froety) and Francis Wayne, both of Humboldt, and sister Mary Grims, Dakota City.Even though Heidt won't be working any more 6 a.m. shifts, he'll still be keeping busy. Hacker thought that Heidt’* true love is his garden, and now Heidt will have lime to cany out his plans of tending to the many fruit trees in his yard, including apples, pears, peach, cherry, apricot and English Walnut trees.He also plan* to do more fiahing. Heidt prefers Smith Lake near Algona, but said that he likes to fish anyplace there's water. Just to get the line wet and be in the boat.Thor Hobby Club
Newspaper Details
Humboldt County Republican
Humboldt, Iowa, US
Tue, Jan 10, 1984
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Ginger W.
NA, 09 Oct 2017
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