Virginia Fairbrother and Laurel Kaae

Virginia Fairbrother and Laurel Kaae

Interview transcript

This old car drove up in front of the house and a man got out and called Dad by name and he said “My family is hungry. Someone in town told me that you might feed my family”. He was a young fellow who had just graduated from the University of Minnesota and if he could get to Fort Peck by the next day he would have a job. Dad told him to go down to the store. He said, “I’ll be down in a few minutes”. Dad walked down there, gave this fellow some food that wasn’t perishable and five dollars and he had a friend of his fill the car with gas and they put a new spare tire in the car. And this young man had insisted on giving dad a watch that he had gotten from his father for graduation. Twenty-five years later my brother, who was a pharmacist also, was in the drug store and he called and said somebody had just come in there and asked to talk to Mr. Hill. So he had sent him up to our house. I opened the door and he had two tall young men with him and he said to dad, “You don’t know me do you, Mr. Hill? I’m the fellow that had to get to Fort Peck”. And dad looked at my mother and he said “Florence, the watch”. And my mother went and got it and he gave it back to this fellow and he said “You were supposed to use this” and Dad said, “I did. Every Sunday I wound it”. This young man never expected to see it again but he wanted his kids to see this man and that was my Dad.