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Grandfather Ralph
Interviewer Ronald Feichtmeir
I walked down a quiet suburban street back to my grandfather’s home. The day was
clear and I could see the Santa Cruz mountains in sharp focus looming over the valley. For
me, it is always a good thing to visit my grand parents. I arrived at their house and my
grandfather greeted me warmly. I set up my recording equipment in his living room. He sat
in a comfortable chair and I began the interview.
My grandfather’s name is Ralph Feichtmeir. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin in
the early Twenties. He lived there until half way through his freshman year of high
school. His mother raised him Catholic.  His father, my grandfather Casimir Feichtmeir, immigrated from Germany to
New York's Ellis Island in 1884. He and some of his brothers moved to Indiana and then to
Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago he married my great grandmother and they moved north to
Wausau where he became a barber. He is pictured standing to the right of another barber at
the shop in Wausau.
My grandfather, Ralph, had two older brothers and a sister who died of Diphtheria when
he was only one-year old. A portrait of her smiling among the flowers still hangs on his
bedroom wall. My grandfather's mother wanted him to have the portrait. His brother Armand
was 13 years older than him, and his bother Ervin, seven years older. My grandfather
always had the highest respect for his brother Armand who stood up for him--in great
contrast to Ervin who bullied him constantly. "They were like night and day," he
said, comparing his two brothers. Armand spoke German. Ervin could only understand it.
Ralph didn't understand it at all. "When I came along there was no more German spoke
in the house," my grandfather told me. When his brothers grew up, grandfather was
left alone and felt as if he were an only child.
In Wausau my grandfather had many friends who played together in the snow and cold.
During the winter the temperature would get as cold as thirty below zero and there was a
lot of snow. "They get about six good months out of the year, the other six
weren’t so good. But when you were a kid it was good because we got to play in the
snow. I had a sled, skis, a toboggan and skates. I used them all. As I got older, I moved indoors and played basketball." Here he is,
pictured in the lower left-hand corner of the picture, when he was on the freshman
basketball team in Wausau.
When my grandfather lived in Wausau he always visited his relatives who lived close
by. "Most of our family were in Wausau," he said, "uncles, aunts, all
living in the same town. They stayed put in those days. All my dad’s uncles and aunts
lived in Chicago, and I visited them many times." He says that people don't stay
close now, and which is very unfortunate. "That is one of the things that is wrong
with our society today," he said mournfully.
Casimir, his father, owned a beauty shop in Wausau. He cut and styled women’s
hair. When the depression hit, no one could pay their bills, so the business failed. My
grandfather’s brother, Armand, saved the family and brought them to California.
Armand had a job in San Francisco working on the World Exposition--it is now the Palace of
Fine Arts and houses the Exploritorium. He had majored in engineering at Stanford
University in the early thirties.
Grandfather moved to southern California to stay with his uncle on a farm in
Chowchilla for six weeks. Grandfather said that when he left to get back to his family,
"my uncle's family gave me a bunch of apricots to take with me on the bus to San
Francisco." He smiled as he reminisced, "Here was a little guy from Wausau
walking around in a big city, not knowing where he was, carrying all this stuff," he
laughed. "I’ll never forget that day!"
My grandfather Started his freshman year in high school in Wausau. Later, when the
family moved to San Francisco, my grandfather attended Galileo High School. Grandfather
said that he hated the place because there was nothing for him to do there. It felt like a
prison in contrast to the much smaller city of Wausau.
 He and a friend planned to
run away to Wisconsin. "I wanted to run away, I was all mixed up." Before he
acted on his plan, the family moved again, this time to a more quiet Palo Alto,
California. He soon dropped the idea of running away.
He is in his mid-seventies now and still lives in the Palo Alto area. He lives in
neighboring Mountain View on a quiet suburban street that evokes such fond memories for me
every time I go to visit.
Recently, my grandfather got the idea to put together a family reunion with help from
others including Armand. He brought the Feichtmeir family to Palo Alto from all over the
United States. Feichtmeirs and related families shared pleasant memories at a picnic
behind the Palo Alto Elks Club. My grandfather and his brothers shared memories as they
watched the children play together--not a sled or toboggan in sight.
I was touched by the collective history in these three men as I watched them pose for
a picture. Here they are: Armand on the right, Ervin on the left, and Ralph in the middle.
My grandfather says, "This is what life is all about, having a good family
get-together."
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