Friends and Neighbors: Joe Hernandez

Joe Hernandez, the father of two daughters, a grandfather to six and a great grandfather to two is happy to have spent most of his life in Kimball, the place he has always called home.

It is where he said he has met some great people and is content to be living.

Joe's parents, Cesario and Petra (Patricia) and their oldest son, Lance, first arrived from San Julian, Jaleco, Old Mexico, in the United States in the early 1920s according to the Kimball man.

Joe, the fourth child born to the Hernandez family, began his life in Potter, but the family moved to Kimball when Joe was just three years old. Hernandez added that his parents, Cesario and Petra, always loved this great, small town.

"I started Kindergarten here in Kimball, and continued my education up until halfway through my Freshman year in high school," he said. "At that time, our family moved to Logan County, Colorado and farmed."

Hernandez explained that the farming operation included irrigated crops such as corn, beans, beets and alfalfa. They also raised cattle on the Colorado property that was more than twelve miles from the school the Hernandez children attended in Crook, Colorado.

Joe said that the work on the farm was hard work.

It was during his senior year in high school that the infamous "Blizzard of '49" hit. Hernandez recalled that the storm came in on a Sunday evening

The family was unable to get the fuel they needed to heat the house for the time that they were caught in the storm, according to Joe and he and his father had walked a mile each way on a couple of occasions to get fuel that they needed.

"The storm caused my sister, Alice, and I to miss about a month of school," he said. "It was just impossible to get around anywhere. Once we returned to school, I continued my studies, caught up with everything I missed, and graduated on time with the rest of my class."

The Korean War began in June 1950 as did conscription in the United States, also known as the draft. From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means, and men between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register so that a draft can be readily resumed if needed.

Hernandez, along with his younger brother, Manual, were drafted in the United States Army. Manual served as a medic at Ft. Benning, Georgia, according to Hernandez while he spent eleven months serving our country in Korea.

Following his time in Korea, he came home on a thirty-day leave and then was processed out from Camp Carson, Colorado.

"I was in the Army for twenty-one months and through all of this my two elder sisters married, and my younger sister moved back to Kimball with my parents, as my eldest brother, Lance, was already living here," he said.

After the service, Hernandez decided that he wanted to settle down in Kimball.

"That's when I ran into a friend, John Sakalaris. He talked me into going into the plumbing and heating business with him," Hernandez said. "We were called Kimball Plumbing and Heating. One of the major projects we had was the swimming pool located on Nadine Street."

Shortly after the pool project, the two men found another business partner to help with the business.

It was at that time that Hernandez decided to further his education on the GI Bill. The term GI Bill refers to any Department of Veterans Affairs education benefit earned by members of Active Duty, Selected Reserve and National Guard Armed Forces and their families. The benefit is designed to help service members and eligible veterans cover the costs associated with getting an education or training.

Joe attended a trade school in Omaha, for plumbing, heating and air conditioning. It was during this time that he met the love of his life, Nellie Mae Tuttle (Nel).

"When we met, she was working as the assistant manager at Ben Franklin in Scottsbluff," he said. "While I was going to school in Omaha, I would come home at least every other weekend, to see Nel and check on the partnership with the business."

Soon Kimball Plumbing and Heating purchased the lot next to what is now Carol's Nut List and erected a building to house their business – a building that still stands today.

"After a time, I could see that things were not going well with the partnership so I stepped out of the business," he said.

He and Nel, were married while she was attending Hollywood Beauty College in Scottsbluff and Hernandez began to work for the Union Pacific Railroad.

"I was laid off from the railroad after six months," explained Hernandez, "I then heard about an opening at the Observer. I ended up getting hired by one of the owners, Jess Long, through the GI Bill."

He explained the process that took place that many years ago on a weekly basis for the public to receive their news.

"Then, the way the Observer was printed was solely by the Letterpress Method," he said. "It took us printers from the previous Friday, plus Monday through Thursday to get the weekly paper out because of this method."

Letterpress is the oldest method of printing with equipment and images printed by the relief type printing plates where the image or printing areas are raised above the non-printing areas. The amount of setup required to prepare the equipment to print a job is significant.

"Back then, a page was about 22x36, if I remember correctly, and about a one inch thickness of lead, which weighed between fifty and sixty pounds. We had to carry that and put it on the press," he said. "In fact, the Co-op page was double that, and it took two guys to get it to the press. The Letterpress Method is what ended up breaking a lot of the larger printing places nationwide. A lot of printers, especially typesetters, lost their jobs in the mid '60s and '70s. Examples of places where the job losses occurred were the North Platte Telegraph and the Scottsbluff Star Herald."

After working for the Observer for two decades, Hernandez said he was contacted by Jim Numon, who owned the Business Farmer publication, and wanted to hire Hernandez and have him move to Scottsbluff. Although Hernandez was not keen on the idea of moving out of Kimball, he did drive back and forth to Scottsbluff to work for Numon.

"After I had been at the Business Farmer for about a year," he said, "I decided that I may as well go into business for myself. I had the knowledge and the drive to do it, and I figured it was about time for me to use my experience I had gained over the years to better benefit me in being my own boss."

"This was apparently in God's plan," continued Hernandez, "as it was only a short time after my decision, that a newspaper salesman from Omaha said he knew of a retired printer from Gordon, who might be willing to sell off his printing equipment."

Hernandez met the man from Gordon, purchased the equipment, brought it back to Kimball with the help of his brother-in-law in hopes of starting his own printing business when he accepted an offer for better benefits and mileage to stay on at the Business Farmer.

"The time finally came for me to open my print shop," he said. "The name of it was Joe's Press, and my main employee was my granddaughter, Kerry. She (Kerry) was my head pressman and the Bindery Queen. After she would get out of school and had finished her homework and chores, she would head out to the shop and get things started up, by getting the lead melted down for the Linotypes and inking up the presses. So after I got home and grabbed some supper we would head out to the shop and start in on a evening of doing my own printing."

The print shop was located at the Hernandez homestead just north of town. Hernandez added that he and his granddaughter even worked on items for the Business Farmer, that could not be done there, such as die cutting.

"It was kind of neat that a small-time individual could complete jobs that a larger company wasn't able to," he said.

They worked on election ballots, butter wrappers for the local creamery, funeral folders for the mortuary and basically any job that involved needing a print provider.

Hernandez added that he really didn't mind the seventeen years of driving back and forth to Scottsbluff to work for the Business Farmer and that other than a few times that he was unable to return from Scottsbluff due to the weather, all the other work days went like clockwork.

In fact his only complaint about the career in Scottsbluff is the handful of persons that would expect him to play the 'carrier' and deliver to, or bring back items during his daily commute.

But Nelie would not have it, and told her husband that he just simply needed to learn to say no to these requests as they were becoming common-place.

"All in all," concluded Hernandez, "I have to say I am very content with how my life has turned out. I shared my life with my wife for 53 years. I now keep my days full with my family, which is my granddaughter, Kerry, her husband, Kraig, and their son, Keaton, who once again live in Kimball. I have to say Keaton has been a particularly special blessing. He helps me to keep going and I would not have it any other way."