Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield

you know. It wasn't too prosperous. And thought the smart person was the one that
always pulled out. Now everybody wants to come back here.
Q: Well, you were way ahead of the time then.
A: I guess so.
Q: Why did you want to stay here? Any particular reason?
A: Well, I just liked to trade. Here's what I found out earlier, that I could get everybdy
- meet the same, all of the type of people right here without me having to go out and meeting
them. They'd come here, and I could associate with them. And I didn't have to spend
a lot of money or time to do it. They came here and I could entertain them a lot cheaper
here than me taking them someplace else and entertain. That was the trouble with a lot
of my friends who made a lot of money. They were a high-salaried bracket, but when they
summed it up at the end, they didn't have nothing left because it cost them all of that to
live my lifestyle. They wanted to do what I did, but - I could do it so much cheaper, I
could entertain fifteen, twenty people here - furnish them drinks and dinners - probably
wouldn't cost me over fifty dollars. And they'd take them out and be out two or three hundred
dollars and everything else on top of it.
I can remember one friend of mine had a Christmas party. Well, gosh, he give a Christmas
party, I think it cost him two thousand dollars. And, gmh, I had the party here and 1 know
it didn't cost me no five hundred dollars and I entertained twice as many people as he did. I
don't waste all the time running around to people. I can visit with them here or while I'm
working. Where if I had another job, I couldn't see them at all. I usually be tied up with
that position. And then you'd have to see them after you're away from the job or you
wouldn't have contact with them.
Q: Did you get involved with the operation gf the sbre here, and the . . .
A: Oh yes, I took it over. My dad died - and we were broke. Everybody thought we was
going to go brake. I had done the only probate and they said it was going to be done
again. See, we owed everybody and everybody owed us. I had a little money from that
trucking deal I was telling you about. I had saved that on the side. And my credit was
goad, and I. , . , In fact, the fellow who had the mortgage on the place, hotel here, thought
he was going to own it. I went to every creditor that we had. And this Jewish friend of
mine helped me out there too because he told me if I needed some money he'd give me some
money to help out. And we went to every creditor and we told them that ii they wanted
their money, they could get it right now, if they'd want to discount the account. If they
wanted to file it, they could get their money eventudly. It would probably be solvent but
it - might have to wait a long time till they got it. And every one of them except Endimtt
Johnson Shoe and Gill, Ward and Hester - we owed them about a thousand or eleven hundred
dollam and they wouldn't discount at all. But everyone else - a lot of the fruit companies
in St. Louis, Long Bell Fruit - I remember them. They were some Italians, pretty
strong with the Mafia, I guess they were. And they wrote me a nice letter and said anything
T wanted, just get. And that was real nice of them to do that. And all it cost me was a
hundred dollars to probate the estate.
Q: I'll be darned.
A: After I paid everybody else off nobody could do a damned thing. I paid the guys who
had the mortgage off, I paid everybody else off, and nobody else could do a damned thing. So
they said that could never be done again. But I said it could be - anybody else could do
the same doggoned thing if they'd want to do it. But it takes a lot of work.
Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield