Billy's Dad Otto von Crippe

Billy's dad is the reason he is in an iron lung. Billy's dad ......well anyway the husband of Billy's mom is Otto von Crippe...Billy still feels strongly that his dad is one of those Norway baseball players...but thats another story.

Otto came to the Amana area from Milwaukee where he worked in a the Schlitz Brewery. But after 6 years at the cushy job which included all the beer he could steal, he got fired because they caught him urinating in a beer vat. He came to Amana because he thought he could get on at the Millsteam Brewery...but they would not hire him. So he got a job at the Amana Meat shop stuffing sausages. He liked working there and the conditions were amicable for his excessive habit of chain smoking cigarette. (See Photo) He couldn't actually smoke wile stuffing the sausages, but they were very liberal about letting him take smoke breaks. That is where he met my Uncle Rudy who also smoked a lot. Otto smoked Lucky Strikes and my Uncle Rudy smoked Raleigh's He bummed a Raleigh from Uncle Rudy and immediately fell in love with the robust flavor and decided to switch. He would rather switch than fight anyway. You see Otto was obsessive compulsive about collecting things. He would trade at places that offered S&H Green stamps just for the stamps. He once saved enough stamps to buy a cat clock. For those of you who don't know...a genuine cat clock has the tail wagging at 6PM position.

Well with these Raleigh's came a certain trading coupon which could be redeemed for gifts out of a catalog. He smoked them stinky Raleigh's just for the coupons. He even got Priscilla to smoke them and her sister Regina too. I believe he would have had Billy smoking if he were just a little older. Billy would have been about 9 at the time.

The whole family would sit around the kitchen table after dinner and play Yatzee...chain smoking all the time. Just for those damn coupons because they had their heart set on a new television...this one would be color with matching TV trays that had the Zenith Logo on them. Keep in mind that the fags were only 25 cents a pack and there scheme was working quite well until Billy developed a nasty cough. This went on for several weeks until the nurse at school insisted that Billy go to the doctor.

His diagnosis was severe and complete lung failure and all the coupons needed to be traded for an iron lung. No color TV for the vonCrippe family....but Billy lives!