"Ma, how are you holding up, lately?" Frances asked, a hand on her mother's shoulder as they were beginning to look through all of the late George Sr.'s things. "I worry about you."
"What do I say to that?" Franziska thought out loud as tears welled up in her eyes. "The funeral was just three days ago! How do you think I'm doing?" She said, with anger, and yet with a mix of sorrow in her voice.
"I'm sorry, Ma." Frances said solemnly. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked." She and Franziska, along with Helen, went back to their task. Until Franziska couldn't stand it and started crying again.
"I couldn't even sleep in our bed these past few days! I've shared the same bed with that man for years! Now….I can't. I don't want to feel alone!"
"Oh Ma…." Frances started to say, wrapping her mother in an embrace.
"I feel alone….I'm all by myself!" She cried and put a hand to her face. "George Jr.'s married and left home. So has Joe….And you too…..And John's gone in training for the army….I'm all by myself in this house now! I am alone." Franziska cried.
"Ma, you're not alone. We're still here for you!...You know I live just down the road! You can come by any day, or I'll come here." Frances said softly, hoping that she was helping, instead of hurting.
"I don't know what I'm saying lately!...Just…just give me time! I'll be okay." She said, trying to turn her attention back to what they were doing.
"Of course, Ma." Frances said, hugging her mother again, closer this time. "I can imagine how you're feeling right now."
"Grandma…..I found something." Helen spoke up, coming in from the other room. "Some money."
Helen gave the coins to her grandmother and they all looked at them together.
"$20 gold coins. Two of them." Franziska muttered.
"Why only two?" Frances asked.
"I don't know…..Perhaps he had put it away for something…and forgot about it…..or didn't have time to add to it." She wiped away a tear and sighed after a long while.
"Put it away for things you need Ma, you can live off of it for a while."
"It's not like he left me with nothing….George did have some savings I knew about. I'll be fine on that…..I know what I want to do with this money."
"What's that, Ma?" Frances asked.
Franziska turned to her granddaughter and smiled a little. "Are you thinking about going to college next year, baby girl?"
"Yes Grandma!" Helen's brown eyes suddenly lit up and an almost electrifying little grin spread across her face. "I've been thinking about a certain college…..A business college."
"A business college…Oh, that's good." Franziska said softly and smiled. "What's the name of it?"
"Bayless Business College…it's here in Dubuque!" Helen grinned.
"Oh yes….I know where that is. In the Lincoln Building on Eighth and Locust…..Do you have a pamphlet with you now?"
"No, but it's at home, somewhere in my room!...Can I go get it, Mama?" She asked, turning to Frances.
"Sure…." Frances smiled and watched her daughter run out the door. She turned to her own mother and smirked a little. "Am I thinking what I think you're thinking about doing?"
"What?" Franziska smiled a little. "She wants to go to college. Why can't I give her the money to send her?"
"$40 dollars won't cover it….I'm sure they want much more. College is expensive."
"Might get her started though." Franziska smiled a little at her daughter.
"She'd be the first person in our family to go to college." Frances said.
Franziska nodded. "I know she'll make the family proud. She's so smart!….I know she'll be able to make it there….And it does my heart good to do this. I think George would've wanted me to."
)
Helen ran all the way down the hill, holding her skirt up almost to her knees as she went. She turned right and practically ran down their little sidewalk and to the house, bursting through the back door. She passed through the kitchen, and sprinted into her mother's little sewing room, she walked past her mother's treadle sewing machine that was against the wall and opened the door to her room and went inside, hurriedly looking through her dresser drawers for the little pamphlet from Bayless Business College she had saved away. Wasn't very long till Freddy came into her room through the walk-in closet that joined their rooms, and in Helen's room was another door, that behind it was the stairway leading up to the attic space with their parent's little room in the back.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" Freddy asked. "What are you looking for?"
"My pamphlet from Bayless Business College! Have you seen it?"
"Why would I…." Freddy began.
"Never mind! I found it!" Helen almost shouted and turned around. She saw her older brother and just stared at him. "And why are you dressed up so nice?" She asked. He was wearing his second best outfit. A wine colored, tab collared, four button pullover-type shirt with tan and white vertical stripes and black canvas trousers. His dark reddish brown hair was combed nicely and neatly parted on the right side.
"I am going to take Irene out to lunch today."
"Irene…Irene Duggan…..You're taking her out on a date?" Helen couldn't believe it. Growing up, Freddy always claimed he didn't like her, and always had crushes on all the other girls….but never Irene! Things had changed.
"Yeah….Isn't she great?" Freddy grinned, leaning himself against the wall by the bedroom door.
"Sure….if you think so."
"Yeah, she's great." Freddy grinned. "Isn't she pretty?"
"Yeah, sure…..um….Freddy, I gotta go and get back with Mama and Grandma…See ya!" Helen said quickly, trying to scurry on out the door.
"Wait!...Where should I take her?" He asked.
"Shouldn't you have planned that in advance?" Helen asked her 19 year old older brother.
"Uh…..I was thinking about Al & Ray's Lunch….or that one restaurant, what's it called? "The Broken Spur!" That's the one!...I just wanted your opinion. You're a girl….You're better at this type of thing. "
"Al & Ray's Lunch. You want to take a girl…there?" She asked, almost in utter shock! "That amateur place?"
"What? It's a good place to eat!"
"Yeah, for boring old men!" Helen said.
"But that's their motto!"
"What? She asked, raising her eyebrows at him. "A place for boring old men?...That's their motto?"
"No! Their motto is "A Good Place To Eat!"…..Well, what about The Broken Spur? How about I take Irene there?"
"No! It sounds like a cowboy restaurant!...I bet all they make is Chuckwagon stew….and pork & beans….Cornbread fritters!"
"Helen, they have great food there….There's a salad bar too. Don't girls like that sort of thing?"
Helen rolled her eyes at her brother, and let out a frustrated breath. She really wanted to be going, and he was keeping her.
"A salad bar….A great salad bar! It's wonderful…Don't that sound like a good place?...Plus, they have live music every Sunday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.…."
"Freddy…."
"What? Girls like music!"
"But it's Monday!"
"Well….if this date goes well…..maybe I can take her there again on a Sunday afternoon!"
"How about you take her to the Busy Bee Café. That's a great place!" Helen said.
"Great idea! Thanks!...I need to pick her up now, don't wanna be late!" He said glancing at his little gold pocket watch and he hurried out the door.
"Brothers!" She huffed and grabbed her little pamphlet and walked out the back door and ran up the hill to her grandmother's little brick house in the midst of the woods.
"Grandma! I found it!" She said, bursting into the house, nearly out of breath. "I found it." Helen smiled as she gave it to her grandmother.
"Tuition is $20 for four weeks of classes…" Franziska said, reading the information from the college brochure.
"Their courses are Shorthand and Typing, Bookkeeping, Arithmetic and lastly, Penmanship!" Helen beamed.
"Have it all memorized, do you?" Her grandmother smiled.
"I'm…I'm just…." Helen let out a breath and smiled. "…excited!...Very excited!"
"You really want to go to this school, don't you?" Frances smiled at her daughter.
"Yes Mama!...Oh, yes….more than anything!"
"Well, here's $40 to get you started…That'll give you eight weeks of classes." Franziska said, giving her the money and wrapping her up in a hug.
"Oh Grandma! I don't expect you to do this!"
"Now hush!" Franziska told her granddaughter. "I want to do this….."
"Well, I don't expect you to pay my whole tuition!" Helen said determinedly.
"I'll talk to your Papa….We'll work something out, Helen." Frances smiled, wrapping her daughter into a hug and rubbed her arm lovingly, as only a sweet mother can.
A/N: While looking through her late husband's things, Franziska Gruber did in fact find two $20 gold coins. Big George probably hid small amounts of money and other important things everywhere in his belongings, as my grandpa, his great grandson, does today.
The Busy Bee Café was established in 1915. It was listed in the 1916-1917 White's Dubuque County Directory. The 1923 Dubuque City Directory through the 1937 Dubuque Consurvey Directory listed the address as 1958 Central Avenue. Owned for years by George Arvanitis. the Busy Bee Cafe at 1958 Central finally closed in 1998. Interest in preserving the sign for Dubuque led Terry and Darryl Mozena, Fran and Ellen Henkels and a dozen regular diners at the cafe to join together to purchase the sign for the Dubuque County Historical Society.
My Aunt Carol worked at the Busy Bee Café in the early 80's. :)
Al & Ray's Lunch: The 1934 Dubuque City Directory listed the address as 401 Central Avenue. Their slogan was, "A Good Place to Eat." Their phone number was 2378!
The Broken Spur: The address was 345 Main Street, open seven days a week, noon lunches were served daily with a choice of many salads. A Sunday Special was their great salad bar and there was live music every Sunday afternoon, from 3 to 7 p.m. One of which was the "Jim Kohl Duo."
Bayless Business College was the first commercial college established in Iowa and believed the oldest school of its kind north of St. Louis and west of Chicago. The college, founded on September 1, 1858, by Aaron Baylies, originally used rooms above the old Log Tavern. The first students, enrolled on October 1, 1858, paid tuition of five dollars per course. Students were to supply their own spittoon. In its first year of operation, the school made a profit of just thirty dollars.
On June 16, 1862, Cornelius Bayless arrived in Dubuque. Although he and his cousin were nearly strangers, Cornelius was given a job as a teacher. By 1863, the two cousins were partners in the college. On August 2, 1863, Cornelius became sole owner of the college because of Aaron's death. Determined that the college would succeed, Cornelius entered upon an aggressive campaign using handbills and advertisements placed in the Daily Times and Herald. By 1873 enrollment had increased, and additional room was needed. Better accommodations were found in the Ogilby Building. In 1874 the college was moved again to a building on Seventh and Main Streets. The reputation of the college graduates helped ensure prompt employment of those successfully passing the curriculum. Shorthand and typing were added to the previous curriculum of bookkeeping, arithmetic, and penmanship.
Growing enrollment led to the school being moved during April 1892, to the Lincoln Building at Eighth and Locust Streets. In 1908 many of Dubuque's most prominent citizens toasted the college's fiftieth anniversary. Bayless served as president of the college until 1909 when it was sold to Edwin B. Lyons.
