My Grandma Austill - Her Hearing Aid & Spinach!

Caroline "Carrie" Rettig-Price-Austill

Carrie Rettig-Price-Austill was my mother's (Marie Ruth Price-Cline) mother.  She was a quiet lady who wore a hearing aid most of the time.  When she had her hearing aid in her ear, she was soft spoken.  One Sunday after church, I went home with her for a few hours.  I played near her with childhood toys she kept in her closet for me.  All of a sudden, she said something to me so loudly it frightens me.  My parents said I got up and ran the three blocks home.  She did not have a telephone at the time, so she walked to my house behind me to learn what caused me to run off.  I told her she had never yelled at me before, and it scared me.  My mother laughed because she knew how Grandma talked without the hearing aid.   I think Grandma was embarrassed.  From that point on she never took her hearing aid out around me and I always looked to see if it was in her ear.  Back in the 1940 and 1950s, hearing aids were about the size of a nickel, flesh colored, and worn outside the ear.  They were visible, unlike they are today.  

Grandma’s parents were both German.  Their parents immigrated to the USA in the mid-1850s.  Louis (Ludwig) Rettig immigrated from Evangelisch, Kandel, Pfalz, Bavaria through the Port of New York on 11 May 1852.  He first settled in Louisville, Kentucky where he met Elizabeth Bell Milch, who he married later that year.  Elizabeth immigrated to America from Speyer, Pfalz, Germany in 1850.  After they had married, they moved to Evansville, Indiana where they raised fourteen children.  Carrie’s father, Fred Joseph Rettig, was one of those children.

She grew up hearing German spoken and could understand German, but she did not speak it as well as she understood it.  In 1939, when Germany declared war on Britain and the rest of Europe, American-Germans were embarrassed to speak German.  That was the time older German’s learned to speak English.  Few future generations of German-Americans spoke English after World War II.  Her German-American upbringing shaped her personality.  She believed in cleanliness and was very frugal.

Another thing I remember about her was how she taught me to like spinach.  When I was about five or six years old, I was spending another Sunday afternoon with her.  Grandma started cooking supper for us.  The vegetable was spinach.  After she had cooked it, she ate some of it and went on about how good it tasted.  She said there might not be enough for me.   She then put a big helping on her plate and a small serving on my plate.  That was not her normal way of feeding us.  I watched her eat it and heard her make noises of delight.  She had me wait until after I ate everything else on my plate before eating my spinach.  When I finally tasted it, I thought it was the best vegetable in the world.  I still like it.   She taught me many things in her unique style.  It is odd what we remember about the ones we loved after they are gone.  I loved her very much.

Next week we will take a look at Grandma Austill's unique apartment and learn more of her philosophy of life.