Dugout - Transcript

This is a story about my relatives, who at one time, were literally dirt poor.

This is my great, great grandfather Frank Lashtovitsa, and he lit out of Moravia, that's in Czechoslovakia, back in the 1870's. He left because he wanted something to call his own, he wanted his own dirt.

So, he came halfway across the earth and landed in New York. People started pronouncing his name Lastovica and he met his love, Frances.

Then he followed her to Nebraska and they got dropped off where the railroad ended near Crete. Then Frank heard there was free land in Oklahoma.

He tried to be an Oklahoma Sooner, but realized he was a Nebraska Cornhusker -- literally.

And eventually, they got married, and ended up here on this pile of dirt just south of Blue Hill. And then, they turned this hill into a dugout -- hmm. Dugout? I don't think that's it. I think they actually lived in this stuff.

This is my Great-Uncle Milty. He's our family historian. I'll let him explain.

[Great-Uncle Milty Lastovica Family Historian] "You get a hill, then you cut into the hill and you cut straight back at a right angle. Then you take sod and you fill in, you come in on the side, fill in with sod and you come across the front with sod. And you've got a window here and you put a window there and you put a door in the middle and, up on the top, you run a piece of lumber across the top. Then lay twigs or whatever they could get up across on top of that and then put sod on top of that for the roof. And when it rained it sometimes rained in."

The dugout was about 20 by 30 feet.

Look! Here's my roots.

[Lastovica] "You've got a living room, dining room, and at least six beds in there. If you've got five kids, and yourself, and a couple in there, where does everybody sleep?"

[Katie Juhl] "So how did they keep making babies?"

[Lastovica] "Carefully. (Chuckle)

"But it's good to know where you came from so that you get an idea of why you do what you're doing and where you're going."

This must be my home.

And I think that's something people search for all of their lives is to find some place to call.

This is where I'm from. And seeing this dirt has said to me, "This is where you're from. This is your roots. And no matter where you go in life, this is yours."