Marvin Viker recalls 102 years of memories

One-hundred-and-two-year-old Marvin Viker grew up on a farm in the Rock Dell area with four brothers and a sister. His sister, age 93, and his brother, age 90, are still living. He was the oldest of his siblings and the only one to learn Norwegian as his folks would speak Norwegian when they didn’t want the kids to know what they were talking about, according to Marvin.
When he was two or three years old, scarlet fever damaged his hearing but it gradually came back. He went to country school for a time but then he attended the Deaf and Dumb School located on one end of the High School in Rochester. He did learn to use sign language to help communicate when he was a student at that school.
Marvin said the principal, Mrs. Miller, used a big ruler on his hands to make him learn! He said he never hated the lady but he certainly disliked her! He would get a ride with a neighbor to and from school each day.
Finally, Marvin said he was not going back to school anymore and hid behind the grain shocks in the field so they could not find him and that was the end of his school days.
His father bought a 160-acre farm for $16,000 but four years later lost it during the depression. His dad never got over that and they moved across the road to a different farm where they lived for a long time but never bought it, Marvin said.
His dad farmed with horses, but he did buy an F20 tractor; however only his wife and the kids drove it. Marvin said his father did visit the tavern at times and at that time period members had to talk to the pastor before they were able to take communion at the upcoming church service. Marvin and his parents rode in the horse and buggy to the church but his dad would not go inside to see the pastor as he had stopped in town at the tavern earlier. His mother scolded her husband telling him: “you should have behaved yourself,” Marvin recalled.
Marvin worked for a local farmer shredding corn and milking cows for $12.50 per month plus room and board. Later he worked for the Rochester Chick Hatchery for $30 per month and then it increased to $35 per month so it was a big jump in wages for him. Marvin then joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the Lanesboro area where they built terraces along the river. The CCC was started during the Depression for men 18 – 25 years old who worked on projects in many State Parks building trails and buildings, many of which we still enjoy today. They lived in barracks, were issued uniforms, and were encouraged to send the majority of their pay received to their family back home. Marvin would hitchhike to visit his family at times and he got sick with the mumps during these years.
 
Army service in World War II
 
On November 3, 1941, Marvin volunteered for the army reporting at Ft. Snelling and was sent to Camp Roberts, Calif. He was 23 years old and weighed 110 pounds. Marvin said if he had weighed one pound less they would not have taken him.
Marvin never finished basic training but was put in the heavy artillery unit being trained with the 155 mm M1 field gun. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, the men were all scared as they didn’t know if more bombs would soon be coming to where they were at, he said. He was then sent to an army base in the Seattle, Wash. area and spent time on guard duty in the wooded areas guarding planes.
When Marvin came home on leave in 1942 he went back to the school wearing his uniform to see Mrs. Miller. She knew who he was but said she couldn’t believe it was really him; however, she took him to see the other teachers. She treated him very nicely that day so Marvin thought she really wasn’t that bad after all.
He was then sent to Drew Army Air Field in the Tampa, Fla. area and trained to operate early warning radar detection which had a range up to 182 miles. They used a Morse code system but Marvin said he never did learn to use that. Even though he had no high school education he was enrolled as the army needed people.
His unit was sent to Newport, Va. to be shipped overseas to Africa. Marvin said he was seasick the whole time on the ship; (he said he even felt seasick at first when they got off the ship and were on the land) and they had a bad storm so they could not dock in Africa for three days as the ship might be damaged.
Marvin said “I met God on the high seas” when he met a fellow GI, who was a member of the Church of Christ. They both had their Gideon pocket Bibles and the guy asked Marvin if he was saved. Marvin said “well I am a Lutheran, I give money to the church and I have been baptized and confirmed”. He said, “I didn’t ask you that.” and then they read John 3:16 together. Later Marvin told him I finally know what you mean.
The ship's captain told them not to panic however they might go down, but the sound of the waves hitting the ship was louder than ever. Marvin prayed that it would be God’s will that he would go home again to see his family. Marvin and his buddy were in the same unit for many months and locations until later in the war.
Marvin later served in Naples, Italy, northern France, including Marseilles, southern France and the Rhineland ending up in Stuttgart, Germany.
Marvin said the only time he was really in danger was when they were attacked by German planes. Marvin told everyone to hit the foxholes and the bullets landed over their camouflaged equipment. He said many of the German people treated them quite well and some of them gave them food or helped protect them from other hostile Germans. He really got tired of the army C-rations and would give them to the German children since they had little to eat. One officer told him that he would look the other way so he didn’t see him give the children his rations as Marvin hated to see the food wasted.
Once he got eggs from a family and brought them to his tent and boiled the water in his steel pot helmet to eat hard-boiled eggs. Marvin said he never did serve in the unit of General George Patton but he did hear him speak a couple of times. He said he never liked the statement: “you buy a horse but you draft men for the army.”
Marvin returned back to the USA and was discharged at Fort McCoy, Wis. on October 11, 1945, with the rank of Tech Sergeant (E-6).
 
Back to the United States
 
He came back to the farm and months later drove to California and attended Western Lutheran Bible Institute for a couple of years. Billy Graham (who was the same age as Marvin) preached every Saturday night at the nearby Church of the Open Door.
He had known his future wife, Myrtle, before he went into the army as she lived nearby to their farm, and he called her after he returned from California. They became engaged but her parents objected to Marvin as they said it would never work so they decided to break it off.
Later Myrtle asked Marvin if he would go along with her and talk to Pastor Borge. The pastor asked the couple what did you want to talk to me about today? He asked Myrtle how old she was and she said 26. The pastor then told her he would go and speak with her parents. Marvin always wondered what the pastor told them, especially her mother, because after that day her parents said they would no longer interfere with the couple and they could be married.
Myrtle made all the arrangements for the wedding and her father walked her down the aisle when they were married on June 16, 1949, at East St. Olaf Lutheran Church with a big crowd at the wedding. When the couple picked up the gifts after the wedding, Marvin said he didn’t know for sure where three $100 bills in an envelope came from but they used them for their honeymoon.
Marvin and Myrtle and their first son, born in 1950, lived in Rochester in an apartment. One day Marvin came home from work and told his wife he had bought a house that day for $10,000 as he had not talked to her about it first.
She didn’t make much comment and went along with the purchase. The Vikers raised their two sons and a daughter in that house. During the 1978 Rochester flood, Marvin said he and his wife sat on the garage roof and the water came up to the picket fence line. They remembered watching a pair of shoes float from the living room to the kitchen. He opened up the basement door as was afraid the basement walls would collapse from the flood water pressure.
 
Operating a business in Rochester
 
Marvin operated the Viker and Sorenson Sewer and Water Company in Rochester for 26 years with his cousin. When they first started in business it took much more hand labor, but they bought backhoe equipment as they would hook the houses to the street main sewer lines. When the company was sold he agreed to work for the new owner for two more years and they then moved to their farm home in 1978.
Marvin did buy cows for the Webster Livestock Auction in Zumbrota for a period of time. He said that he looked at buying more parcels of land, but his wife told him why do we need any more land so he gave up on that idea.
Myrtle loved to play the organ and Marvin would sit in the room and enjoyed listening when she played. She wouldn’t play the organ when they had company as she felt she wasn’t that good. Myrtle suffered from diabetes and heart failure and died in 2008 after being in a care center for some time.
Just a few days before she died, Myrtle said, “Dad, nobody cares anymore” but Marvin said he told her, “Jesus loves you, Mom.” The Vickers were married 59 years and he often tells people he married the “Greatest Woman on Earth.” Marvin said if he could have changed some things, they would have gone on more trips, and he would have spent more time with his kids and his wife.
In October 2011, 93-year-old Marvin went on the Honor Flight from Rochester to Washington DC to see the WWII and other memorials. He recalls how well they were treated on the plane and while they were there, and he wished his wife had been alive to go too.
 
Still attending South Zumbro Lutheran
 
South Zumbro Lutheran Church member Lynn Knutson, said church members will pick Marvin up and bring him to church each Sunday since he doesn’t drive anymore. He sits in the front pew and the people all know who he is and the young children will come up and give him hugs and really want to be around him.
When Marvin got his new hearing aid recently he told them he didn’t need to use the church hearing assists as he could hear Pastor Pete and Pastor Jeff just fine.
When COVID kept the church closed for a period of time last year, the members organized a 46-car caravan for a drive-by at Marvin's home for his birthday. It really brought tears to his eyes with the outpouring of appreciation shown by the church members, neighbors, and family.
Marvin has three ponds on his farm that he dug out using his backhoe equipment. He mentioned the ponds are almost covered at times with waterfowl and he will see other wildlife come so he calls this area his “Happy Place.” One time, he said, there was a pelican that stayed for a period of time but it died on the anniversary of Myrtle’s death.
Marvin will celebrate his 103rd birthday this month. He has lived a long life and said he is ready whenever the Lord calls him home and he can join Myrtle in heaven.