Gordon Labat was born in January 1947 in Marshall, the third of 12 children born to Emerence “Rose” (DeVos) and Henry Labat. Gordon and his siblings grew up on the family farm on land bounded on the west by Highway 23 and on the south by Highway 19, just east of Marshall. The land they farmed lies today just east across the highway from Southwest Minnesota State University.

Gordon explained that his father’s side of the family emigrated from Belgium and his mother’s family came from Germany. He recalled their families’ immigration histories were not much discussed.

“They didn’t say much about the people coming over, but when they did come, they came through Ellis Island.”

Gordon and his older siblings experienced a family tragedy early in life.

“My Dad’s father died young. He died at 53. They were sitting at the kitchen table having supper and he said, ‘Pass the potatoes.’ Before the potatoes got there, he was dead. His head fell on the plate. I was pretty small at the time. Donnie was seven years older than I and Judy was four years older.”

Gordon described his parents’ farm operation in general.

“We had a half section, 320 acres on the west side of the section. We raised corn, oats, soybeans, cattle and hogs. We had chickens for a while, but they went out and the hogs went in the chicken house. We were feeding silage so we had a silo and a big barn. We had a hog barn, a chicken coop, and a long corn crib. We had another shed there for the cobs. When we shelled corn we kept the cobs and put them in the shed. We ground a lot of corn and we ground up a lot of ear corn for the cattle.”

As one of the older kids in the family, farm chores came early and often for Gordon.

“As soon as I could carry wood in, I was carrying wood. The kitchen and the whole house was heated with wood and cobs. We went to anything in the groves that fell down and we’d cut it up to dry. We also looked for dry wood along river beds.”

As he grew older, so did his farm responsibilities, with his dad as teacher.

“I was doing field work when I was six, plowing with a Ford tractor and a two-bottom plow. Dad would always show me what I had to do and I just went ahead and did it. He told me, ‘When you plant corn, you look ahead where you can see that marker far ahead of you and you are going to have a straight row.’ I always told him (Gordon laughed), ‘But, Dad, you get more crops in a crooked row.'”

When the Labat kids got out of line, they might face either mom or dad for family justice.

“You toed the line pretty well. You didn’t want to get them mad. Mom could get pretty rough. Dad could get rough, too. Mom would always say, ‘Wait ’til Dad gets home!'”

The division of labor in the farm family was pretty typical of the time.

“Mom did all the housework and Dad was always outside. But she’d recruit. When the kids got big enough to do stuff (around the house), they had to do things.”

Gordon’s family were members of Marshall’s Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish and attended services in shifts.

“We said grace before meals and we went to church every Sunday. We did it in two stages when all the kids were around. Mom, Donnie, and I would go to 7:15 Mass at the chapel at Holy Redeemer School. Then Donnie and I would go home and we’d do the chores — feed the cattle. Dad and the rest of them would go later on at the church.”

The Labats enjoyed getting out to local lakes on summer family fishing expeditions.

“The whole family would go fishing. We went to School Grove Lake and then we went out to a couple of lakes out by Russell. Rock Lake — we went there.”

Gordon recalled how his love of fishing guided his earliest purchases with money from extra farm work.

“Sometimes when I got older Dad would let me go and help the neighbors a little bit, when we had our work done. I remember when I was about 13 I helped a neighbor pick rocks. Dad said, ‘Pick ’em good because someday we might be farming that farm.’ They paid me a dollar an hour and, boy, that was good money back then. (Gordon laughed) The first thing I bought was a fishing rod and reel.”

Gordon’s folks sent him to Holy Redeemer School when he reached school age.

“Every week one of the neighbors, would pick us up. We’d take turns taking the kids in until Donnie got his license and then Donnie drove.”

Gordon had few distinct memories from his elementary school years.

“Our principal was a nun. My aunt is a nun and she was principal at Holy Redeemer, but that was a long time after I left. I had a 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Heath. I was having trouble with math. I’ll tell you, she sat me down and she straightened math out for me.”

Junior and senior high school for Gordon and his classmates was a simple trip upstairs in their school to Central Catholic High School.

©2024William D. Palmer

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