Dustin Burgett: When & where were you born?
Marvin Daberkow: I was born on November 2, 1935, in Bancroft, Nebraska.
Dustin: Where did you grow up?
Marvin: I grew up on a farm outside of Bancroft.
What was it like growing up there?
He talked about how there were not as many conveniences as there is today. His parents only went to town on Wednesday and Sunday nights. Bancroft seemed so huge to him. He has been a member of the St. Paul Lutheran Church all of his life. The eight years he went to a country school, he was the only one in his class. Then continued his education at the high school in Bancroft. When he was in high school he played football, his sophomore, junior and senior year. His parents made him quit his sophomore year because practices were too long and he wasn’t getting his chores done. When his junior year started he really missed playing so he begged his parents to let him play again. They told him he could play if he could leave practice early. So he talked to the coach and he agreed to let him leave at 5 o’clock every day.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
He loved hanging out with his Grandpa Mohl all day. He would sit on his lap and they would listen to the radio together. Every once in a while, he would give him a nickel if he was being good. What did do for fun when you were young? He and his siblings would play in the dirt with toy tractors and pretend they had their own farms. They had a bike with 28″ wheels with no tires and they would coast down a hill by their house. They would sled down the same hill in the winter. It didn’t matter what the weather was like, they did something outside every single day. They would go shopping in West Point about once a month. He remembers the first time he got a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. They wore overalls every day but he hated overalls. So when he got that first pair of jeans he was so happy. “I remember that when I put on my shoes I felt so fast. I probably wasn’t fast but I thought I was.”
What did you do after high school?
He married his high school sweetheart, Janice Drummond, and started farming. When did you meet your wife? He remembers exactly the first day he saw her. He was a junior in high school and she was a freshman but they wouldn’t start dating for another two years. How long did you farm? He farmed until 1984. He sold the farm and started working at a lumber yard. Then he did weatherization for about 10 years and retired in 2008.
Do you have any life advice?
Marvin: It doesn’t matter who you are. Someone will always look up to you. You might not know it but you are someone’s hero.
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