February 2007                                                                      The Megaphone                                                                                  Page 4

The Caddy Shack

by Dick Cleaver

For the last five years I have been writing a series of stories about my life to give to my friends and family. Many of these stories I have written were about the early years of growing up in Elwood. Several years ago I sent in a few of these stories that were published in the Megaphone. I don’t think this was one of them.

The Caddy Shack

At the Elwood Country Club in the mid-1940’s, there were no electric or pull-type golf carts, but there were kids between the ages of about thirteen and eighteen that would hang around the clubhouse hoping for a caddy job. The Pro would appoint one of the older kids as caddy master. His job was to place the names of the caddies on a list based on the time you showed up for work. Some golfers would have their favorite caddy which would supersede the list. We were paid 35 cents for carrying the bag nine holes and 75 cents for eighteen, plus tips. My best day as a caddy was during a State PGA Tournament. There was a caddy shortage one time and I carried two bags for Professional golfers for 54 holes from 6:30 am to past 7:30 pm and made $13. 

During slow periods, the caddies had nothing better to do than haze new caddies. If you were new, the older caddies would take you down to the ravine on the sixth hole and begin to torture you in a ceremony called “Initiation.” This would continue off and on throughout the first year of caddying. The theory was that if you made it through the hazing period, they would let you caddy without bothering you further. Initiation was comprised of such activities as soaking the new kid down with water and running him through a double line of older caddies while they hit you with their belts or switches. Big welts were common. Other hazing practices were hitting a kid on the bottom of their wet shoes with a board, or pushing a goofball up a hill with his nose. Loser gets hit. One of the more scary things they made us do was to climb the ninety-foot water tower and dive through the moss covered surface of the water. 

I remember one day, on a dare, my brother’s friend Rollin Patton walked on a five inch rim around the top of the water tower with nothing to help him keep his balance. We used to hang upside down with our legs about seventy feet from the ground. The pro shop had a QUARTER GOLF BALL SLOT MACHINE. If you won, the golf balls would come careening out of the machine. One day I was walking around the barn in front of #1 tee . . . a man teed off and the ball hit me in the forehead. I was knocked out cold. I remember waking up with a large crowd of people fussin’ over me. I carried a golf ball size knot on my head for days. 

The caddie’s favorite place to hang out was the ravine on the #6 hole. Someone had tied a rope to the upper branches of a tree so we could swing through the trees over the ravine. This progressed to having someone hold the rope while you got a running start to allow you to swing even higher, about six or seven feet. One day I held the rope for my friend, Bobby Reed. When Bobby got to the top of his swing, I yelled, "DROP," which he did, I think, by audio suggestion. He came down on his hands and knees and broke both arms. His arms had healed well enough to take the casts off just before school started in the fall. I was his constant companion through it all and he never mentioned a word of blame to me. What a guy!

The positive side of caddying was that we would slip into the forbidden Sellers Estate that is now Forest Hills, located beyond the south fence line of the golf course.

In 1905, Alfred Sellers started the kitchen cabinet business in Elwood. The kitchen cabinets were sold worldwide in the 1920's and 1930’s through 5800 exclusive dealerships. Today these cabinets are collector’s items sought by many who hope to restore them to their original beauty and quality. My son John’s wife, Roxanne, was lucky enough to find one that was in perfect shape many years ago, and it makes a nice addition to their dining room.  These were the most modern cabinets at that time. My stepfather, Clarence, and Uncle Bill worked for several years at the Furniture plant. Mr. Sellers bought 53 acres of land covered with beautiful Indian forests. He had built a large colonial residence and caretaker quarters, Sunken Gardens with a Japanese Teahouse surrounded by water and flowing cascades and other buildings, plus garden pools and a swimming pool. The estate had an artificial lake alive with game fish. This was all built in a garden setting with walkways that stretched throughout the forest for bird watching. Then in the late 1920’s a terrible fire destroyed some of the gardens, the Japanese Teahouse and other buildings that were never rebuilt. The Elwood Country Club was organized by Mr. Sellers and other leading business men of the community when they executed the Articles of Incorporation of the Elwood Realty Company. Shares of stock were sold for membership to purchase a farm south of town, and the Elwood Country Club came into being. (Queen’s dad, John Kiefer, bought shares at that time that we now own.) No expense was spared and the country club was very successful. Top-notch professional golfers competed for the job of head Pro at the club. The nine-hole course held many major state PGA golf events. The bar area was lined with the latest slot machines that guaranteed big income for the club. An excellent kitchen management and staff made the restaurant business thrive. Top orchestras were hired for dancing entertainment. People would flock into Elwood from all over the state. In short, these were the glory days for the Elwood Country Club.

In time, the Sellers family hired a Mr. Ackerman and his family to live on the estate and be caretaker. He had the job of keeping riff-raff out, like the caddies from the Country Club. Mr. Ackerman owned a huge German police dog to help him with this task. The caddies rarely went into the estate alone. The estate grounds were separated from the Club by a six foot tall heavy ornamental iron fence with spiked tops. Over time, the caddies cut bars out of the fence for escape routes. We needed a lookout to give warning if the dog was coming across an open space of several hundred yards. The principle reason that we liked going into the estate grounds was that we could make money by selling the golf balls we found there. The swimming pool held rainwater that we could swim in, and the wooded area was a great place to explore and hang out. One of the favorite things to do was to get a new caddy to climb into a small tree. Several other caddies would bend the tree down and release it to see if the kid could be thrown from the tree. Sounds like an African sport. I loved my days at the country club. This is where I learned to play a sport that has brought me joy all my life. For a brief time in my 30’s, I sold golf carts and greens-keeping equipment to the club pros in Indiana and loved playing in a Pro/Am tournament each Monday. After the tournament, the players would go to a restaurant and have a steak while telling yarns about the great people and events of golf. I played many of the great golf courses throughout the U.S. I am now seventy-eight and I still play golf each week with a group of good friends that has played together for more than twelve years. Many of my buddies were caddies and we all lie about how good we played when we were young. 

Dick Cleaver, '47

Colorado

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