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Family Stories
A potpourri of stories about various family members or events, written by others and edited by me.
Only a "Con"
[This is an item that my grandfather Jesse Hibbard wrote (and typed) in 1971 (age 77). My (Al) role was to first transcribe it, next to add corrections or clarifications [within brackets], and then to add links to people connected to me (that gives more information), links to give more information about places, and for those mentioned but not connected, I sometimes added links to FamilySearch.org.]
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p. 46
Transcription
Only a "Con"
The Last Meeting with No. 25
Friday, Jan. 5, 1912 - I had a little adventure tonight which impressed me rather deeply - psychological paths were formed in my brain which will never disappear. Jan. 3 I accepted a position on the street car as conductor. I have been getting into training and to work mornings and afternoons. Today as I was "conning" [doing the tasks of the conductor] some people got on at the Grand Central corner as we were going south One seemed familiar - I knew who it was without looking. Later in the car she smiled faintly. When I collected the fares she gave me a dime and I was so confused that I don't know yet whether she intended to pay for the girl who sat side of her. Anyhow I understood that she did, she said something but in a low tone and smiled. Later she told me she wanted to get off at sixth St. I opened the sliding door in the rear and she walked out of the car - and out of my life, I suppose. Who was she? A school friend, the only girl in the St. C.H.S. [St. Cloud High School] with whom I have ever been intimate. She sat by my side in German II and we were very good friends. So good that the professor warned me privately not to get too intimate with her - that it wouldn't pay. He didn't want me to have a broken heart, I guess. Finally he changed our seats but not before I had held her hand a few times and said some foolish things. Yesterday she flirted a little going up stairs and at the top in answer to her "Hello Jesse-" I said, "Hello, Engel". If she had ever known I belonged to the class of car "cons", things would not have happened as they did. How I felt! - And a member of the aristocracy, of course.
Comments: Jesse was a conductor for a street car that ran within St. Cloud and I think also out to Waite Park and back. His message seems to convey that he was embarrassed to be seen by a former friend doing what he may have considered a menial job, working on the streetcar.
Published 2025-09-13.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
Howard H. Hibbard's 1875 Account Booklisting of family stories by Jesse Hibbard The Girl with the White Rose