Going back again..

I know that I don't seem to keep on track, but I keep thinking and thinking these days! I was thinking, after I read some of my former "blogs", Boy did I goof up! In the one that was about living in the Everett Wa. area, for instance, I said that Mother had Me, my sister Genevieve, brother Bob, Teresa and that Gerry was born there! I completely left out Laurence, who was older than Teresa!!!! Sorry! So that started me thinking of other fun and stupid things we did while living there! I was in the second grade and after I had my knuckles cracked, or so I thought by my teacher, who was completely in the wrong!, Mother put us into the Catholic Academy in Everett and my Dad would take us with him when he went to work in the morning and drop us off at the Convent where Aunt Josie worked! Now that I've got that straight, there was a girl who lived down the road from us and I couldn't stand her!! She was in my class, 2nd grade, at this dumb school in Beverly Park. We lived on what I thought was about an acre of land but looking back I know that it was about a 1/4 acre. There was a chicken coop there and of course Mother had chickens and wherever Mother went, it seemed like she made a big vegetable garden and a flower garden! She really had a "green" thumb! But to get back to the story, we would, Bob, Gen, Laurence,(he had to be boosted up) and myself would get on the roof of the chicken coop and yell at this girl who was sitting on her chicken coop,(her first name was Anna and I can't remember the last name but we would yell "yea, yea, Anna Banana" And she would yell back at us yelling something that rhymed with Batty! Probably "fatty" for Batty! There was a small gulch between our houses so our voices really carried! Of course when Mother heard us we would have to get off the chicken coop and behave ourselves! Another thing I remember about there was that about every two or three days a bakery wagon came by and sold cakes, cookies, etc. And since we were not on the farm with cows, a dairyman came by about every other day! I hated milk and do to this day but Mother would buy cookies and milk which was ice cold and she would put a few drops of vanilla in it and Yummy! Was that ever good on a hot day with the fresh cookies! Another thing I remember was it always seemed so damp and cool there! We could, as I think I said before, on a clear day see the Puget Sound from our yard! So I remember, except for the short summer days, sitting out on a swing Dad had built us and swinging back and forth and watching the birds and the clouds float by!I was rather sickly for a long time in my early life! I think I had asthma but even thought Mother took me to Dr. after Dr. no one seemed to be able to come up with an answer!To this day I speak like I'm completely out of breath! I did't realize until I heard a play back of my voice!!! But I did grow up and so till tomorrow!.....

Continuing the story...

We stayed in that two room apt.in Oakland a few weeks and then the landlady asked us if we would like to move into her apt. because she had bought another apt. house and was going to move there! She would give us a big rake-off on our rentif we would rent Apts. to anyone who needed one. Lafay had quit his job at the shipyards and went home so it was just Cappy and I alone again. It sounded like a pretty good offer and so we moved down one story but directly over that bar, remember??? Anyway, it was a nicely furnished room with a hideaway bed, table and chairs, a stove to cook on, etc. so we put up with the "music?" till I got sick and the Dr. told me I might have to have an operation! Mother and Bob came down and Mother stayed with me in my apt. for a couple of days and Bob went down the hall again to a vacant room with Cappy! The 2nd night she, Mother, was there, in the middle of the night there was a rap on the door and we had a chain lock so that one could open the door a "crack" and see who was there. There stood three of the biggest, drunk, black men I had ever seen in my life! And they wanted to know if we had any "girls" there!!! I said no and slammed the door and locked it as fast as I could!! Well that did it for Mother! The next day she got on the phone and called some lady she knew, a "relative" of a friend. so to speak, but this lady happened to be a realtor! She found us a really nice apt. in a much better part of town and even if we had to leave the other lady, it was worth moving!! This was almost in Berkeley which was North of Oakland. We had a nice kitchen, (in fact it was big enough that my stepson Les could have a cot in there and stay with his father and I!) In the living room was a Murphy bed covered with a curtain and a nice couch, comfortable chair, coffee table and end tables, lamps, etc. It was very nice and clean. There was a shower and toilet but no bathtub, but who cared!!!I could feel safe walking up or downtown and there was a movie house about a block away, restaurants, bars, etc. But it was in a neighborhood with tree-lined streets, etc. There were only two apts. in the building and one was occupied by a single woman. The laundry room was at the back of her apt. and then there was a small backyard! We could see the Campanile (spelled right?) from the University of Ca. in Berkeley if we went over one block to Telegraph Avenue! While Cappy worked for the shipyards which was a year or so, he got a call from a friend of his folks,who asked him if he would be interested coming to work for him. He had a big dairy and orchards! He would furnish us a house and the job was to help with the Mexicans which the U.S. Govt. had started with Mexico to bring in farm workers, etc. to take the place of the men who were called into the War! Since Cappy was born and raised of Mormon parents, he could speak perfect Mexican and so the Govt. gave him new rating for the Draft into the Army that was taking every man the age of 18 and older. He was rated from 1A to 3A which meant that he was necessary to the war effort on the home front! From the Sandercock Farms where we were, the National Farm Security took over these Braceros and a whole new chapter began in our lives! Some funny and some pretty trajic, etc. Oh not THAT bad! But did any of you ever pick cotton????

The War .......

We didn't stay long in White Pines after our marriage. Remember the snow I told you about? Well, the mill shut down the Monday after our wedding for two months because of the snow!!! So here we were! No money and no job! Cappy's Dad was tearing down an old sawmill in Valley Springs which was not too far from White Pines and so, we bundled up our wedding gifts, dug our car out of the snow where it sat for two weeks and went down to Valley Springs! We rented a housekeeping apt. not too far from Mom and Dad Farnsworth and Cappy helped his Dad for about two weeks at $5.00 a week (Hey, we could pay our rent and eat!) After the mill was down, Cappy's brother Lafay had found work in the Bay area at a shipbuilding plant and so told Cappy, that he could definitly get work in Oakland! (Or Richmond, North of Oakland) So Cappy went with him and they had a one bedroom hotel room and that left me alone in the Motel! I put up a cot, with the help of my in-laws and brought Cappy's son, Lester Bert to stay with me nights. And that's about all he did! After all he was a kid and wanted to play with the friends he had, while living with his Grandma and Grandpa! After a couple of weeks, if that long, Cappy decided that I would go down to Oakland with him! Housing was at a premium! There were just no decent apts, rooms or houses anywhere! Where he and Lafay were staying we made an arrangement. First of all, let me tell you about the room! It was upstairs over a bar, that played "Boogie -Woogie" constantly and was in a very disreputable part of Oakland! It had a small table that held a two burner hot plate and had two chairs to sit in while eating, there was a double bed, and a small, very small closet with a curtain over the door where we kept our clothes. We had to use a common bathroon to wash up in or take a bath, and then down at the end of the hall was a washing machine. Then your clothes were hung on a pulley that swung out over the alleyway! Before I came down, Lafay was changed to the "graveyard" shift at work, which meant he had to be at work at 11:00 p.m. and he got off at 7:00A.M. Cappy worked from 7:00A.M till 4:00P.M.! So here was our routine. We got up at 5:30 and Cappy had to be at work at 7:00! He left at 6:30 for work, and Lafay came in at 7:30. That gave me time to make up the bed and cook whatever he ate, usually bacon and eggs and toast, and we made coffee in our new coffee pot. I cleaned up the table and then when Lafay came in to eat, I went and had my bath in the bathroom down the hall and then I was ready to go out for the day!!! I usually went to Church, and then I would go to a Walgreen's for breakfast, (they had a lunch-counter in those days!) I window shopped and gadded around in some of the better shops, I had to go quite a few blocks to get there, and then I would stop someplace for a sandwich for lunch and then go home about 4:00 P.M. Lafay would be up and dressed and then when Cappy came in we usually went to some small cafe for dinner and then we hung around with Lafay for awhile afterwards, either to go to a show or to a Bar for a drink or two, then we would leave Lafay downtown and he would go to work for his 11:00 P.M. shift! We did this for about 3 weeks and then a lady from the 3rd floor came to my door and asked me if we would like to change apts. with her and her husband. There was only the 2 of them and 3 of us! Her apt was two rooms. A nice big livingroom-bedroom and a kitchen with a door between the two rooms! It was like a palace to us!!! We still had a common bathroom on that floor but I had to go down to the second floor to do my washings. We were there about a week when Lafay decided to go back to Valley Springs! Hallelujah! Some of the fun things there were the "alarms" that would go off any time of day or night just in case someone was trying to attack our country!!! All the lights would go off and all these wierd alarms would be going off! Traffic came to a standstill, and people, or anyone that was that stupid, I guess, would head for the "bomb shelters" in town! I said stupid, because we were told that only if there was a different kind of alarm sounding were we in danger!!! Then after in a normal alrm, there would be an alarm and all the lights would go back on and life would return to "normal" if there was such a thing then!!! More another day!!! My eyes and my hands are getting tired!

Back to 1941...

First of all, my "ghost illustrator" came up with that great picture of the Blagen Lumber Co. when we first saw it in White Pines, Ca. Believe me it looked a lot better when the folks left, or the mill left for West Point. If you are looking up things on a map, the actual name of the place where the mill relocated was Wilseyville, about 5 miles from West Point.
I was telling you about my proposal from Cappy to marry him so I'll write about that today! Believe me, Mother wasn't too happy about the time we had to prepare but believe me! It all worked out that we were married a week after Cappy proposed and yes, he did take the time to ask Dad for my hand. Dad's reply was, "yes, you can marry her, There isn't any way that I could stop her if that's what she wants!" So the fun began! We had to see a priest in Angels Camp and that turned out O.K. Father said that it didn't give him much time to get a dispensation from Sacramento, (Cappy wasn't a Catholic and so the Church had to give me a dispensation to get married. However he told us to go ahead with our plans, that he was sure it would be worked out! I sat there that evening watching Cappy turn on his charm!!! I thought Father would never get through asking him questions about his life in Mexico!!! So Tuesday morning we went to the Calaveras County Courthouse and applied for out license! Then we went to a Doctor's office to get our blood tests, and then went to Valley Springs, where Cappy's folks lived and told them!!They were delighted! I had to borrow a dress from my sister Genevieve, I didn't have money enough to buy one that soon! We talked Cappy's brother, Lafay, (Alonzo Lafayette, Don't ask me where the Farnsworth family came up with their names!) anyway Lafay agreed to be best man, and my Genevieve was my Maid of Honor! Now, remember everyone, this was the week before Christmas, and so Father McGuire told us that we could be married in the Rectory because all the Christmas Confessions were taking place that night in the Church!!!The afternoon of the wedding, Cappy's Mother called and asked if he could go down to pick up his brother Bert! Bert was a somewhat undesirable fellow as I was to find out through the years! Don't ask me why I didn't stay home but Cappy wanted me to go with him to pick up Bert! So time was "awastin" and we couldn't find him after chasing around for what seemed like an hour. He was supposed to be in one place and they, the people told us he had gone to another place, and so it went! We never did find him and we had to get back, pick up Cappy's folks and his two children and then he rushed me home and I got ready and we all went from White Pines, back down to Angels Camp where the Church was! Now it had started to snow and was miserable, to say the least, on the highway, but we made it and so in a very simple "Ceremony" I became Mrs. Afton (Yes, that was his real name, remember?)Farnsworth. We had to go back to White Pines where Mother and Mom Farnsworth had during the week planned a small, buffet supper and Mother had made a cake and all was pretty nice! Or so I thought! We, Cappy and I, had at the first of the week rented a small cabin across from where he met me at the Arnold Inn. He and his brother looked out the door of the folks house and the snow was really piling up!!!! So the Farnsworth clan left and we could, in no way, by the time we got ready to go to our "Honeymoon" Cottage get out of White Pines to go the mile up to our place! Besides, there was no heat there, and the lights had gone out in Arnolds because the snow had piled up so fast on the wires! So, as you have already guessed! A lot of quick changes were made, getting Genevieve a place to sleep and we spent the night at Mom and Dad's!!! Oh Joy!!! Remember it is almost Christmas! More later!

Continuing from yesterday.....

Thanks, first of all to my "Ghost" illustrator! He does a great job!! What began as a beautifel Fall season in Californis turned into a nightmare!
First of all my sister Genevieve got a job with the Blagen family as a "nanny" to their three children. The grandfather Blagen and most of the people at the mill were "old-timers" who had worked for the lumber co. up near Susanville. and so there a few families who were new to the Mill run by Mr. Blagen and his son Howard. Another brother who was younger was involved with the mill also. So the Blagens and these workers who had been with them for years all were settled into "homes" that theyhad built with the aid of the lumber from the mill and their neighbors. It was only us, the "newcomers" who had the tents! But there quite a few of us too! And like I said Genevieveworked for Howard and his wife for a couple of years. She sometime, or I guess most of the time lived with them. Of course we were just a "stone's throw" as they used to say, away from our tents. The tents were put up and ours, anyway, because we had two tents, were connected ! The season was fall and the pine needles were falling everywhere! When the rains started, and it did rain a lot, the tents started to leak. Where the tents were put together, it actually looked like a waterfall between the two tents! Everything that we couldn't cover was soaked. When it stopped after a dayof rain, we had to hang everything out on clotheslines to get dry, and the company sent men around with a second canvas roof which was placed about a foot above the existing one! It worked fine but a few places that leaked yet was in the seam between the two tents. I guess the wind would blow rain in and it would settle there! We had a little "creek" running through the house! Mother did all the cooking, on this small range, and we did have a new "store up on the highway, A "Red and White store. People by the name of Copello owned it, or at least had the franchise for it! Their son Dave, soon became the heart throb of every eligible girl in the camp. We did have a phone there and so most of the ladies would call in their grocery orders and Dave delivered them. We were the envy of the camp because Mother baked all these "goodies" and would ask Dave to have a cup of coffee and a piece of pie or cake, or a cookie or two!!! So he would come in antalk to her about everything in the world while we stood around with our eyes "glued on him! Yes, I was a little shy in those days! When we had to take a bath in those tents, of course, we had to heat up the water on the stove in kettles, etc. I used to take my bath before the rest of the kids came in from play, And we didn't bathe every day, too much trouble!! We had to use an "outhouse" for a toilet and everybody used it! We probably had two or three for the entire camp! Anyway, I was on my way there one evening with one of the kids for company and lo and behold! I could see the shadows through the tents of anyone who was taking a bath! That was the last time I took a bath in the evening after dark!!! It did snow later in the winter and we had Christmas in the tent house! I remember because a lot of the younger kids got together and asked me to play Christmas Carols for them on the piano! The parents stood around as many as could get in and if they didn't get in the tent they stood around outside singing with the kids!! Spring finally came and the company gave everyone lumber to build "rough" lumber houses. Dad and some of the men built a three bedroon one for us! We had a kitchen- dining room, and a nice large living room. We had our own "outhouse" too. Baths were still taken in a tub in the kitchen, usually after dinner was over and as I said before, not too many, when one had to carry water and fill up the tub and bail the water out to where it was light enough to empty. We were still living in this house when I met Cappy. It was not elegant but was livable and warm. We lived among the neighbors who had live near us in the tents, (they had built their houses too!) So it was rather pleasant, knowing all your neighbors and up to just a few years ago, we had kept in touch with a lot of them, but age and illness has seen many of them go to their Heavenly reward!! It wasn''t very long after I got married, (and Genevieve followed my marriage by getting married herself the next March!) the mill shut down and the Blagen Lumber Co.bought a mill in West Point, Ca. Most of the people went along with it and Dad was a millwright there. The war was on and my brother Bob went off to war and then Laurence! When they came home that mill shut down and Laurence and Bob moved, (with their wives and kids by this time!) to Torrance, Ca. Ah, the good old days!!!

Our first winter in California!

I told in a blog about my Father that he came to California to work in a sawmill. This sawmill, the Blagen Lumber Co., had a mill closer to Susanville,before this, which is pretty far North of White Pines where they, (the Blagens) opened up a new mill. We, the family did not come down with Dad because we had to wait and see what kind of living quarters there were, etc. Well Dad finally sent for us and one of my Uncles, my father's youngest brother, Roy, and his wife and one of his children, my cousin, Lois, said they would drive us to California in a big truck! Has anybody seen the Movie, "The Grapes of Wrath" where the people of Oklahoma came out to Ca. after the big "dust" storms that came to their state and covered their fields, and sometimes their houses with dirt! It was a very devastating time. Well, that was us coming to Ca.! We weren't driven out by dust but this way, by truck was the only way we could all afford to come to Ca. with a lot of our furniture, etc.What we did bring was our springs, mattresses, my Mother and Father's bed, the baby crib (even though David, my youngest brother was about two!) of course all our clothing, bedding, a couch, a rocking chair, and our piano there was probably a dresser or two in there too! My uncle and Aunt and Mother rode most of the time in the cab of the truck and all the rest of us, the way we had the furniture piled up. sat on, of course the couch,some of the boxes of clothing and household goods. The piano was covered with a large quilt. We usually were singing or laughing at my cousin Lois, who was quite the comedian for her age! I remember we passed a little, really old cemetary and she says, "When I grow up I want to live here!" We asked her why and she says" because it looks like nobody dies here!" We got as far as Bend, Orgon the first night and pulled up beside a field with a big Oak tree in it, pulled out the matresses and a few quilts, made our beds, and my Uncle built a bonfire and we proceeded to cook a dinner! Can any of you imagine doing that now? Our dinner was not much, I assure you, but it did taste good after the meager meal of a sandwich and a glass of water, warm at that, because we had no way to keep it cool! After a pretty sleepless night, we got up and ate a breakfast, I can't remember what we had packed for that! Probably corn flakes and milk and Uncle Roy had made another fire and made some coffee for himself, my aunt and Mother! We had no place to wash up and as for the usual bathroom facilities we took turns going behind a bunch of bushes. When we got to a town, then our line was long at the service stations!!By that night we had pulled into Weed, Ca. Mother talked to my Uncle and told him to rent a cabin or two at a housekeeping "Motel" where we could have a decent meal and a decent night's sleep!! Poor Mother!! And to think she lived as long as she did! We got up on the 2nd day of our trip and had breakfast at the Motel, cooked it in our rooms! These housekeeping rooms came with a small cookstove, with an oven, AND we had a bathroom to wash up and go to the toilet in!!! Seemed like heaven! I was almost 19 and what girl today, or boy, for that matter would even think of that kind of a trip! We passed through Lodi and the reason I remember that is that we stopped and got hamburgers! We had to head into the foothills of the Sierra Mountains from here! Needless to say, everybody was getting very, very tired! But we had no money and had to make it up to where my Dad was that night! It was so hot here in Lodi that early evening but the folks here were talking about probability of a thunder shower up in the foothills! Oh goody! That was all we needed. We got to a town named Murphy's and the storm hit! Thunder and lightning and we grabbed a big canvas tarp that we had with us and covered all of us in the back of the truck! The Murphys Hotel had a big sign hung right across the highway that announced the coming attractions at the Hotel We pulled the sign down with our truck and my cousin Lois stood up to see what was going on and I was sitting where I got, what seemed like a bucket of water, right down the back of my neck!!! Oh joy! We had to stop and my Uncle got out and explained to the owner of the Hotel what happened and I guess the owner didn't want to come out in the rain because he said that was alright just go on to where we were going!!!My Father was waiting for the family in front of what was to be our "home" for the winter or until something else could be done! It was a big double tent! My Father had built two double sized bunk bed frames out of lumber from the mill and had that ready in one of the tents! In the other was a small stove and a big picnic size table with benches on either side of it, all made from lumber from the mill! The men, my Father and Uncle started moving things out of the truck! Oh yes, my Father had also built a cupboard for the dishes and food out of lumber! My older brothers, all four of them, had one of the bunks in the one tent and my sister and I had the double bunk on the other side of the same tent!!!Dad and Mother had their bed and the crib, etc. at the end of this big table! Then when most of the things were unloaded, my Uncle and Aunt took Dad's car and went up to the Highway and found a motel for the night! The next day came the joy of moving the rest of the things from the truck, etc. My Uncle, Aunt and cousin left for home around noon! I'll have to tell you about our "life?" for winter in a double tent!!That starts a whole new chapter! Glad so many of you are enjoying these "blogs"!

Still more "back when"....

I keep just thinking and thinking about one thing and then another but that's what, I hope, will make this interesting to my readers. After talking about the fruit canning, etc. last night I got to thinking about the Fall weather when we were on the farm! Every year all the men and women who lived in Wawawai, (which was mainly my father's brothers and sisters and families) would get together and go one weekend or so many days anyway, and go from one farm to the next. The men would saw the wood for the winter for those good old pot-bellied stoves and the women would come, (and of course all the kids, and put together new quilts for the family. Usually all year long in the evenings or whatever, the women of a household would make Quilt tops and on this given day in the fall would put together quilts for that family! Then the next week or two, (a lot of times depending on the weather) they would all go to the next farm and do the same thing for that family! They were quilting bees but while the women were tieing or quilting the quilts, the men were getting that fellow's wood all ready for winter! One or two of the women would cook big pots of stew or beans or something for the crowd. And of course, every one made their own bread in those days and sweet cream butter! That was usually topped off by a delicious pie or cake. The kids in the meantime had a ball! You'd think they hadn't seen each other for years and probably had seen each other at least once a week during the summer! Then later in the fall Dad put big pork butts and slabs of fresh pork sides and "smoked" them in a "smokehouse" and so we had ham and bacon! Our big house that we lived in the longest had ten rooms and was laid out as such. As you came in the front door you came into a large living room, and the staircase, going up to the second floor. Off this living room, pardon me, "the parlor", were two bedroom and then under the staircase was a big closet. beyond this closet was the dining room and then into the kitchen. One could go out of the house to the back yard through the dining room or out of the kitchen door! When you went upstairs, right at the head of the stairs was a hallway . Going one way were three bedroom and then the room over the dining room and the kitchen was a big storage room where the folks kept big 100lb. sacks of flour, sugar, beans, and whatever did not need the coolness of the root cellar. It was a good place to hide too, when playing "Hide and Seek" in the house.The house was always nice and warm and inviting when the weather was cool and yes, it did snow down there in Wawawai! The summers were something else! It not only got into the triple digit figures most of the time but with the Snake River there was enough moisture to make it very humid! But we were kids and all summer long we were barefoot and had nice little short-sleeved cotton dresses for the girls and the boys had cotton shirts and overalls. Did we care how hot it got!! The worst thing I remember about the farm was the constant buzzing of bees, and the flies were unbelievable! With several kids running in and out of the house constantly, I can still hear Mother, "shut that screen door!" Good night all. I've had a busy day today, changed my sheets on my bed, cleaned up the house and my Sister Barbara called and said Father Brandon had called and was on his way to visit us! Here I was still in my usual, casual attire, (a housecoat and still in my nightgown) I told her, don't let him out of your house till I take a bath and change my clothes!!! He has only been here a year, and this is his first Parish! He visits the sick, etc.! What a really nice young man! Makes me think of my family when "they" were young! Yes, face it you "middle-agers!"

More about Mother...

Yes, as one of my daughter-in-laws said, my Mother was an amazing woman!!!! Every summer when we went back to the farm from Western Washington Mother canned everything we grew and then some! We didn't have refrigerators or even ice boxes at that time. But our cellars were called root cellars and were literally dug out of a hill side! They stayed very cool all the time! We had pretty heavy doors on them so no outside air got in there! They had shelves, etc. but usually dirt floors and no lights where we were because as I've stated before we had no electricity! If it was necessary to go to the cellar after dark, one took a lantern. I remember my Grandfather taking a tin can (large) and putting a big hole in the side of it and then a candle was placed inside the can in the hole!! He put a wire handle on it and it worked great! We used it to go into the cellar or if it was getting dark, (not too dark) we used it to get to the funny little house with the crescent moon on the door! You couldn't read in there and still hold the candle but what the heck! When Mother canned she used 1/2 gallon jars because the family was large even then. Mmmm! How I wish I had some of those canned peaches right now! I can still see the shelves filled with all kinds of color! Red cherries, yellow peaches and of couse corn, red beets, green peas and beans, and on and on! We made our own sauerkraut using what I think they would call a mandolin today. We put this gadget which had a huge blade on it, on top of the barrel and pushed the heads of cabbage back and forth across the blade! The cabbage would fall into the barrel in strings and then every so often Mother would come in to where we were doing the "slicing" and throw a handful or so of salt into the barrel Then we would keep on slicing the cabbage until the barrel was full then a big old piece of muslin was put on top and a big rock! After a few weeks, we had sauerkraut!! We kept meat in our root cellar too and of course all the smoked things bacon, ham, etc. It was a way of life. We kept big hundred pound sacks of potatoes there and onions, squash, (Hubbard squash was the best kept!)Mother canned salmon when she could get it and of course, she make her own pickles in big crocks.
Relishes were canned as were jams and jellies. Of course we didn't have the privelege of having ice cream unless we made it in a hand-cranked freezer using ice, when we could get it and crank and crank and crank! Those were some very fond memeories of the "old days"!!!

My Mother...

Thought I'd give Mother a break and write about her tonight! She was some lady!Moved out "west" to Couer d'Alene, Idaho when she was 9 years old. She was the youngest in a family of 13! Grandpa Rabideau, Mother's father worked in a sawmill not very far from the house! I don't know too much from her childhood except that she and my Uncle John Rabideau were great "pals". They had a cousin Miles who was a little younger but I guess that really made them a "trio" I do remember one thing that Mother told me about when she was a little girl, Seems all the "older" relatives visited each other quite often and that meant Aunts, Uncles, etc, There was this one Uncle that she told me about! He had a beard and he chewed "snuff" and Mother said every time he or any of the other relatives came, she , my uncle and (I guess it ws my cousin too,) Miles would run like crazy and hide under the bed till they could hear them leave. They said this particular Uncle with the tobacco running down his beard would, if he got the chance swoop the kids up and hug and kiss them! Mother said it sounded like a cow pulling it's foot out of the mud! Poor thing! In my lifetime too I have had Aunts and Uncles who would hug you and kiss you so hard it would make the tears run out of your eyes!Any way when Mother was old enough, (and I don't know how old that was) she decided that she wanted to be a nun! She went into a convent and before she could make her final "vows" became ill and I guess the Mother Superior thought that that was not the life for her so they sent her home to recover from whatever it was that she had! Probably home-sickness for her family! Anyway since she was thinking about being a teaching nun she went to a "Normal School" or a school where they prepared men and women to become teachers! Mother did become a teacher and taught in Wa.and Or. She really loved Oregon! but you applied for jobs wherever they were, which is why she wound up in Wawawai, Wa. where she met and married Dad! In her summer months at "home" in Idaho, she usually wound up helping one or the other of her sisters, who had large families. She, all through her married life, was helping someone besides taking care of her 10 children!! Everyone loved her. She was loved by all her Grandkids and her Great-Grandkids and all or anybody she met. She had a very demanding life on the farm, especially, where she packed fruit in the summers, but still managed her family! This is getting too long so I'll have to sign off for now!

My "little" sister...

Just got back from my sister Barbara's. She's not very well and fell flat again last night!!!! She keeps doing that!! Said she felt very sore but O.K. otherwise. Got me to thinking about the great times we've had! When I first moved up here to Lodi, Barbara and Babe had lived here for years! I really didn't like Lodi but things got to the point where I had to go to work and I wanted to get out of the L.A area with my boys after Cappy died! Barbara asked me to come up to Lodi but I had in mind that I would like to go to a little place called Sutter Creek. Dick, my second son was born there ! We didn't live there but that was the closest place to go to have a baby! There was a mid-wife there who had a hospital in her home. I really liked the town after the few times that we had seen it to make the arrangements for Dick's birth. Well, the boys and I went to Sutter Creek, Jackson, Mokelumne Hill and another few places in the Mother Lode country of the Sierras. I wound up finding a place in Jackson, where we, (the boys, Steve and Tom, my two youngest) moved and Steve was enrolled in College in Stockton and Tom had a couple of years of High School. My landlady decided that she wanted to sell the house so Steve got himself an apartment in Stockton so he could work and go to school and I wound up in Lodi! It's another story about Tom. Barbara drove me around where I got a job and finally was able to buy a car and learn to drive! (At 51 yrs of age!) But after Tom was married and I got other jobs, and then Babe, Barbara's husband died, that left her and I to really start to gad around! We did a lot of things together from then on so it's really sad to see her in such a bad condition! I'll tell you about some of our trips later! Keep you chin up, Barb!!!!

My brother Laurence....

I am skippping around, I know but I got to remembering about my brother Laurence who always seemed to be doing something "different"? When he was small, and I was in the second grade, if I remember, and we lived in Beverly Park, Wa. we were always, it seemed getting into trouble! Or was it just me? My folks had this big house out in a country-like area, about 1/2 acre. My grandparents lived with us and they had a friend that used to come and visit them. They, the friends had a little girl and she was so, well, "prissy"! Always dressed to the hilt and had long curls, etc. where we usually ran around in pretty much rags at home, It seemed she would just stand around and look pretty afraid that she would get a spot on her nice dress or something! Well, we, all of us older ones in the family, decided we would fix her!! So we turned on the hose and literally soaked her! Of course, I don't know why, but she started screaming and ran into the house! My father came out and even tho we didn't get spanked at that moment, were told in no uncertain terms not to turn on that faucet again!!! The little girl got dressed up and dried off and that wasn't enough for us! We tried and tried to turn on that faucet but my father was pretty strong and had really shut it off tight. Did that stop me??? Well, no, I went into the garage and got an old piece of pipe that was in there and decided I would pound on that faucet till I got it turned on!!! Just as I made my first swing, who should lean over to get a closer look than Laurence. I didn't hit the faucet! I hit him right in the forhead!!! He had blood running down his face, and the rest of the kids went to tell Mother and Dad what had happened! Mother grabbed Laurence, and ran into the kitchen, grabbed down into the flour bin, (a big gadget built into the cupboards almost like a dishwasher would be today!) She grabbed a handful of flour and threw it into Laurence's wound to stop the bleeding and then off she and Dad went with a cousin of mine, who just happened to be visiting too, (seems like everybody visited everybody in those days) and they all took Laurence into Seattle to the Hospital where he had to have stiches! Don't ask me how many, I was just a kid but I can tell you I was really scared! I thought I had killed him!!!! He managed to heal up and somehow I didn't think about it too long! There was too many other things to worry about! Did I feel sorry? Oh yes, and sore too, on my behind! Do you think that stopped Laurence from getting into trouble? NO,NO,No!!More later.

Finishing my story...

Not too long after I went out with Cappy I was offered a job by a Bob Hathaway who had a service station, mini-mart, etc. on the main highway going to the Big Trees State Park. He had plenty of business but his wife became bedridden and he had two kids that had to be taken care of. The wages were better than what I was making and so I went there to work. He and his wife had a house off the highway about a block and a half. My job was to stay there at the house, I had my own room and became sort of a "Nanny" to the kids who were about 9 and 6! I would get up in the morning and Bob was already at work and so I would get the kids up, feed them and get them ready for school. Then the rest of the day I cleaned up the dishes, made the beds, and did whatever was to be done. Bob usually came in at noon or thereabouts and fixed lunch for the three of us, (his wife, himself and me) and then it was back to work for him. If I didn't visit with his wife in the afternoon, (if she wanted to nap, etc.) I read and listened to the radio, etc. Then when the kids got home from school, I saw to it that they changed their clothes and did their homework and then we would take a walk out in the woods behind their house or play a few games in the backyard or something. I got dinner, and Bob would come in and eat, then back to the store till about 8:00 or 9:00. I would have the dishes done and the kids had to take their baths, etc. and went to bed. Any way like I said yesterday, Pearl Harbor was attacked and here we were in the middle of a war!!! The Gov't set up "watching posts" all over to make sure no unwanted airplanes would come into the U.S.A. mainland. (My mother took her turn once or twice a week!). Bob asked me one evening if I would like to sit at the store and watch for airplanes with wome others. He would take me up there and he was sure someone would bring me home after my 2 or 3 hour "watch". I said well, O.K. So I said, "who will be watching with me?" He told me he didn't know the name but they had said they were friends of mine. When I got to the store there sat Cappy and a friend of his who was staying, (boarding) at his mother's house. Bob had in this store, gas station, etc. a nice couch, a couple of comfy chairs, a fireplace with lots of wood and he told us that anything we wanted to eat or drink to go ahead. That meant we could drink all the cokes we wanted and eat all the cookies, or cupcakes, etc. What a setup!! Jessie had a girl friend in Oroville, a town up by Sacramento, and so he would call her, and visit, and if there was a plane going over, we would not have heard it because we danced to the radio, sang to the music, etc. Bob would probably have fired all of us!!!We finally tired out and Cappy was sitting on the couch and I laid down with my head in his lap, and Jessie was sitting in one of the chairs, and all of us were about half-asleep, or so I thought! Cappy then told me that his birthday was about ten days away and would I like to marry him on his birthday! I sat straight up and said, "what?" and Jessie calmly said from his chair, "he wants to know if you'll marry him on his birthday!" And of course that started another round of conversation about how I had to talk to the priest and if Mother and Dad would say it was O.K. Cappy told me that he wanted to come over as soon as he could and ask my father for "my hand". But then he and Jessie took me to Bob's and then went home! " I'll have to finish this "episode" tomorrow or later on!

Oh that man!!!

Sorry I didn't get on line yesterday. I said I wasn't feeling good and the feeling lasted into today!I did get up earlier tho, yesterday I woke up at 10:30! Pretty
unusual. I didn't get my breakfast eaten till almost noon! Save money that way!
The summer I was 23 I went up to Wawawai to work for my Aunt Gladys. She had written that she needed someone to help her in the kitchen to cook for the peach picking crew. I went up and my job consisted of getting the vegetables ready for cooking, setting the tables and of course doing the dishes because my Aunt was packing peaches as well as cooking the noon and evening meal! I got paid for the job and I really had a good time too. When summer was over she and my Uncle Lance drove me home to White Pines so they could have time off too with my Mother and Father! Since I had left a boy friend to go up there and another up there to come home again I wasn't really looking for anyone but, well, you never know! I got a job at the Arnold Inn waiting on tables and we had a cook who was drunk half the time and the owner of the place would come in and ask me to help her cook in the kitchen. The job was O.K. We had no dishwasher except me and on this one particular night a friend of mine, Johnny, (he was married during the summer to my best girl friend1)came in to eat and brought a guy with him. Business was slow that time of the evening, we were about ready to close, as a matter of fact. So Faye, my boss, asked me to take over for her. Johnny introduced me to this guy but told me, "He doesn't speak any English but I'll order for him to you" With that I would ask Johnny, ask him if he wants this or that pertaining to the order. And Johnny, obliging as he was, would garble off something and the guy would smile at me, etc. I cooked and served both of them dinner and then started to do the dishes. Finally I went back into the dining room and asked Johnny to ask him, this other guy, if he wanted dessert. The guy answered in perfect English, "No, thank you!"Needless to say I wanted to kill them both on the spot!!They had made up this stupid thing! I was so embarrased! Then he told me he was Cappy Farnsworth and was working at a small lumber mill near the restaurant! And would I go out on a date with him. I told him my folks were coming after me soon so he asked me if I would like to go to a show the next night after work! I told him sure and that was that! The next night, I waited and waited and no Cappy. I had told my folks not to pick me up and so here I was. My boss told me she would drive me home. The next day he, Cappy came in and since he did have a valid excuse, I said I would go to the show with him the next night. Again, I was stood up! So the following night I told my parents, "No matter what he says, I'm not going to go out with him!" So my folks got there early and sat in the bar in the back, to wait for me. I was cleaning up the kitchen and in came Mr. Farnsworth! I told him I was not going anyplace with him so he might just as well go home! He went into the bar and when I got off work here he was sitting with my folks and they were having a good old time! I said to Mother, "Okay, I'm through, lets go!" She asked me to go to the ladies room with her and when we got in there she said, don't be too harsh on this guy, he's pretty nice! I said, "Oh, yeah!" The usual comeback to parents when you thought they didn't know what they were talking about! When Mother and I got back in the bar, Cappy says, "won't you change your mind? Tomorrow is your day off and we will have time to make the second show" So, I gave in and we went to Stockton to a show! That wasn't the last of it! He made a date with me for Sunday evening and stood me up again!!!I must have been pretty stupid, but the next day he came in and told me that he had been stood up with someone who had taken him to Sacramento! One of his brothers! And he had with him a letter from his Mother telling me all about him, that he had two children, a boy of twelve and a girl of seven. His wife had died in childbirth of the little girl and she and Cappy's father had taken them into their home since Cappy was working all over, trying to get over the loss of his wife! She went on to tell me that she thought Cappy had fallen in love with me, etc. and that she hoped it was so because he was so kind and gentle, etc. (All of which proved to be true!) I'll write more and tell you about my waiting six weeks to marry him!!! And it wasn't because the kids needed a Mother!!! And nothing else except a War started! WW2!

More memories...

I'm not feeling too good today. Started feeling bad yesterday and woke up kind of nauseated, etc. Thought I'd share that with you!
When we were still on the farm my brother Laurence was quite small and one of the things he loved to do was watch what "few" cars went by on the road. But this day, some of the "sheep" people from across the Snake River were moving their sheep, can't remember which way but every spring and fall they moved the sheep and at this time the "new" lambs were there. Guess I had better explain this moving thing better! They moved them from one side of the river from one pasture to the other side of the river to another! Guess they pretty much had finished cleaning out one pasture! Anyway Mom hears this yeslling and crying coming from Laurence. She thought he was saying "my leg! my leg!" and ran outside to see Laurence with a lamb that was trying to get away. And he was saying, "My lamb, my lamb!" The sheepmen had given him a lamb and he, of course, was delighted but the lamb wanted to be back with its "mamma". Well, we kept the lamb into the next summer. It used to get to be 109 and 110 temperature-wise and since we had no electricity to run any fans and there was very little breeze, we moved our beds out to the cool, green lawn. Of course we had to bolster them up so they would be "even". Well, this dumb lamb would get up under the bed in the night and "baa, baa" all night! I was so aggravated at it and would get up and chase it away and just get settled in again and it would start all over again! Here I was running around in my nightgown all around the yard and yelling at the lamb! Dad came running out of the house to find out what was the matter and I told him. Of course, he and Mother thought that was the funniest thing they ever heard!! Dad told me to go back to bed and he caught the lamb and tied him up farther away from the house! But I could hardly wait till fall when we had "yummy" lamb chops. Laurnce had decided too that the lamb was a lot of work to take care of and Mother and Dad had enough kids to take care of without taking care of a pet lamb!

Holy Day of Obligation today....

Today I went to the 8:00 Mass with my neighbor and so had made arrangements to come home by Dial-a-Ride but the earliest I could get a reservation for them to pick me up was about 9:20! I made the reservation thinking that Mass might be a little longer today but wouldn't you know it! Our Spanish priest said the Mass and he does it pretty fast! We were through with Mass at 8:40! I wasn't feeling too good during Mass, and so I thought, I see a lot of people in here that I know so I'll just ask someone to drive me home on their way. Well, I saw my friend Thelma Ahn and she was talking to another member of our Bible class, Fred. She scooted off, (the cleaning ladies had to clean the Church today and she is one of the ladies. Rose, my neighbor does that too, which is why she couldnt bring me home! But, I said to Fred are you going home? He says, "Well, as soon as I help here at the Church, why?" I said, "Well, I guess I'll just go and sit and pray awhile until my Dial-a-Ride comes!" He, said, "Hey did you need a ride home?" When I told him it was O.K. as long as I knew he had to work. But he told me he would just go in there and tell them he would be taking me home and would be right back!! He has told all of us at Bible class that if we need to go anywhere, just give him a call! He is retired and so is available for "taxi" service. He told me on the way home that if Barbara and/or I need a driver for any reason just give him a call!!! That's what I call a real Christian! So I rode home with him then canceled my reservation on Dial-a-Ride! I should have remembered him saying that before about driving any of us anyplace. I may give him a call the next time I have a Dr. Appt.! We, (or they, the Bible Class ) are holding our meetings at his home now. Our "leader" had a stroke and just can't do it any more!
My Father was a convert to the Catholic religion. He had not been brought up in any religion and it must have been after I was born or even a few years later than that that he joined the Church. When we lived in the Western Wa. area we went to Church every Sunday but after moving back to the farm, we did make it to Church around Easter. Pullman was the closest town and was 20 miles away but might just as well have been 120 miles! The road to Wawawai was like a cow trail! One car was all that could make it at a time. If another car came from a different direction than you were traveling, one or the other had to back up to a wide enough space to let the other pass by! In the Spring, Summer, and Fall with farming there was no time! In the winter, the roads were all closed in with snow, etc. and so that made it an impossibility!! But when I was out of Grammer school and ready for High School, my Confirmation sponsors paid my way to go to a Catholic High School in Spokane. It was a fairly new school and the nuns took another girl and myself and "boarded " us. We had a room on the third floor of an old "mansion" and helped with the dishes, and the cleaning on Sats. and other off and ends of jobs. We had our own dining room just off the kitchen which was where we did our homework. (It was pretty nice because if you got stuck on some Math problem or couldn't figure something out in some subject or another, we had our private "tutors") But by the time that year was over we had lost the second place (farm) to the Depression and moved to Couer d'Alene. where there was a Catholic grammer school and a Catholic High school. And I graduated from the Academy and so did my sister Genevieve. And after that we all moved to Calif. where, like I said a few days ago, my Father got a job in a sawmill at White Pines in the Sierras. And where I got a job in a restaurant and met my husband Afton Farnsworth! More about that later. Our "meeting" is a story all by itself!

Another day, etc.

Ah you know the rest! Not that I made any money but my trip to the Dr. turned out O.K. even if I had to go on Dial-a-Ride! Everything O.K. he said! Thank you Lord! Let's see, I think I'll go on about setting the whole hillside on fire! My folks owned 160 acres of land and a lot of it was quite hilly and a lot of creeks running through it, (we had to get water from someplace to grow the wonderful things that we grew!) To make a long, long story short, for the 4th of July we pretty much spent it at home on the farm. We had a huge yard in the front of the house with green grass all the way to the road. Lots of trees, bushes, and Mom's flower garden. (she had a flower garden like a nursery no matter where we lived!) Dad and Mom bought us firecrackers and we shot them off in the front yard on the 4th, and we always had a picnic in the yard. Dad told us about a certain type wood that he called "punk wood" that would just smolder enough for us to light our firecrackers. This wood, when it started to die down Dad would "smoke" it and it would come to life again. Not any flames just that smolder. Well a few days went by and we, Genevieve, Bob, Laurence, Teresa and myself were playing house in the front yard, and we decided that we would be sophisticated people and "smoke" our cigarettes, etc. using the punk wood as cigarettes! Where Mom was, I don't know (probably doing one of a hundred or more chores around the house!) but I'm sure she would not have let us use matches to light this punk wood! (if she had known that we had matches we probably would have been tanned and not by the sun!) We sent Bob, my oldest brother down to the creek where this wood grew beside it. Bob decided to "light up" before he came back and the next thing we knew fire was raging all over the hills behind our ranch. Of course we yelled and Mother came out and then ran back to the telephone and rang everybody's # and reported what was happening! She also called the wheat farmers at the top of the hills because if it got that far it could really cause more havoc that it did. Oh, I forgot, Dad had taken a load of fruit to town to sell and so he saw all the fire engines heading down from Pullman. He asked someone and they told him about a big fire up along the hill and so he finally got the answer to what was going on! In the meantime, my cousin Cecil who was five years older than me and who lived with us was cleaning up the pig sty up the road from our house and saw the fire. He soaked a bunch of gunny sacks and ran towards the house to see if he could beat out the fire. He joined Mother and by this time neighbors and relatives from all over were on the "fire lines", so to speak. Mother had told us not to leave the house and stay on the lawn till she got back. Dad got there too, and we just were scared to death! We got the bright idea of taking the beds and everything we could out of the house and putting them on the front lawn in a pile!!! Mother came home and Dad was still working to stop the fire!!! I would have, I think, just sat down and cried!!! Well the fire went as long as it could towards the river, but there were big orchards there and that stopped it and the firemen stopped it on the top of the hills so it didn't do any damage there. Mother calmly, or maybe not so calmly got us, with her help, to get the house back in order and cooked our dinner, etc. I don't remember getting punished for it, (I was the oldest and would have been the logical first one to get the punishment for something like that!) But I guess they thought that the scare we got was punishment enough!!!! Maybe that is why I never smoked!!! More later!

Another Day, ugh!

Well here it is another day and hotter than a firecracker! Got me to thinking about a nice cool creek, or a nice cool anything! Over 100 today! When I was a kid and on the farm, pre-highschool days, we always ran down to the creek not too far from the house and with the willow trees and other types of shade, we had a great old time spashing in the creek! It was only, probably in some places, six or eight inches deep but we really got cooled off there. The river, (Snake River) was too far away to walk in the heat and besides I don't think Mom and Dad would have let us go in there!!! Oh, we did once in awhile when we went up to my Uncle Lances farm! It didn't seem so dangerous there! When we moved into Couer d'Alene, we had the wonderful Couer d' Alene Lake to go to and believe me, I went as often as I possibly could! I didn't know how to swim but sitting on the piers and letting your feet hang in the cool, cool water was heavenly. I had a cousin, Norman, who lived in Spokane come over one day, (he was older and married but a regular fun person to be around.) He said to me, "hey Angela, can you swim?" I told him no so he pushed me off the dock and said, "well, now you do!" I hit bottom, I think, but my eyes were wide open and I found myself kick and paddling and there I was up to the dock again! Then there was no stopping me! I'm not, and never have been an Olympic swimmer but I was never afraid of the water after that!!! Just the sight of a nice cool pool, pond, lake, creek or any sort of water, even the ocean made me want to just jump in! I bought a bathing suit a few years ago thinking I would take swimming classes down at the big pool downtown but then my sister Barbara had to stop going and now I really don't have any desire to go down and show off this"bod" Even though looking at some of these old geezers in our Senior Club and knowing they swim there, I think, "I can't be any worse looking than that!" But forget it! I'm not about to try it!!! I'm quite weak anyway since my bout with Virtigo! I know, excuses, excuses! Son Bob tells me that their pool is cool but Marilyn says, (plain cold!) More tomorrow. I'll get back to Dad again some day and then there is Mom! Who could ever leave her out? almost 99 at her death, but still wanting to walk, etc. She couldn't, of course because she had broken a hip and that really put her in a wheelchair!

A note from Steve

Sorry about the double post, but Mom got interrupted and is still getting used to blogging and forgot to hit publish, so it was saved twice. Oh, well live and learn.

More thoughts...

I know I promised to go on with the story of my father but I washed today and got to thinking.. Bad idea! How many of you have ever had to wash on an old fashioned washboard? When I was growing up Mother used one and I never thought much about it. It was just something Moms did! She did, at one time have a gasoline run washing machine but still had to rinse all the clother by hand! I was married after Pearl Harbor which started WW2 and all metal products went into making tanks, bullets,etc. You could not buy a washing machine, refrigerator or aanything, no matter how much money you had! If you already had one you were O.K. but with Cappy and I, who had no furniture, let alone a washer and I have never. in all my married life and beyond had a dryer that I owned! So we were living out on a ranch where Cappy, my husband, worked with the Mexican Nationals that the Govt. hired to do the work for the men who were called into the Military. We had a nice "little" house furnished to us but there was no washing machine and so I had to buy a washboard and then the hard work began! We had a couple of "deep sinks and the washboard would go into one with the warm water and a bar of soap that was mainly lye, and so nice for the hands! I would take the jeans and heavier clothing, lay it on the board and take a heavy duty scrub brush, (incase someone doesn't kow what that is, women used to get down on their hands and knees and scrub their wooden floors to get them, as in my Grandmother's case, snow-white! Anyway, I would scrub and scrub those jease and clothing till all the grass stains, mud, etc. came out of them, then they would go into thee other tub where there was clean water and then they were "rinsed". Most of the time, they were rinsed once and then that water was drained out and clean water put in the sink and rinsed again. One had to wring the water out of the clothes by hand and then they were taken outside and hung on a clothesline to dry! Finally the war was over and one put their name on a list and you waited until your name came up before you could buy a new washing machine! The first washing machine I had was so old-fashioned that these big paddles would go around in the machine and literally bounce up and down on the clothes till they were, (or so the machine thought) clean! You still had to wring them and go through the rinsing process! Oh, the "ggod old days"!
Now back to my Father. He wqs working for the W.P.A. for #60.00 a Mo., remember? Well as the economy started to pick up he got a job in Kellogg, Idaho for a big mining Co. We had moved from Grandpa's house before this because Joe, my brother was born and there just wasn't enough room!!! We found a big house, two story about two blocks from the Immaculate Heart Academy, which was really nice. No more about 2 miles to school! I was a Senior there by this time and Mom had another baby, my brother David! My Grandfather died while we were living on "Wallace " Ave. infact he died about a month after I graduated! and so Aunt Josie had us move back in with hermove back up to the house with her. From there Dad got word about a new sawmill that was going in at White Pines, Ca. and so we moved to Ca. Dad came down first and the family came to Ca. before school started. But that starts another whole story so I'll stop for now. Love you all!

More about Dad, but first,

I know I said I woul continue with Dad but..... I did my washing today and got to thinking how very lucky people are today!!! So, I have to carry my laundry out to a shared laundry room, washing only when someone else hasn't tied the laundry up!!! But that is a minor thing! How many of you out there ever washed your clothes on a good old washboard? Believe me it wasn't fun!! When I was a child and saw my mother doing that I did,t think much about it! It was one of those many things that Moms did in those days, especially if you lived where we did in Wawawai, Wa. and had no electricity!!!!! Then after I was married which was right after Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese attacked our military bases in the Hawaiian Islands. Everything machinery-wise in the United States was sent into the war effort! All the metal, etc. and so they stopped making the "little" convenient things like washing machines. Now you could not buy a washer, if your life depended upon it!!! And dryers! I don't think they were making too many of those any way!!! I never in all my married life owned a dryer!!! So out came the good old wash boards!!! I used to put the heavy clothes like the jeans, etc. into a sink, (one of those deep kind, remember? or is there any of those anymore!) Then put the washboard into the sind and lay the jeans on it an reach for a scrub brush, (a heavy-duty kind that was once used to clean your wooden floors!!) I would grab a bar of laundry soap, most of it was made from lye, and rub it onto the jeans and scrub the heck out of the jeans until they came clean. Then you wrung (or squeased the water and soaout of them, threw them into a second deep sink with clean water in it. You sloshed (my word!) them around and sqeezed them again and then refilled the sink and rinsed them over again!!! Oh! Those good old days! Then you hung them on lines strung up in the yard and let the wind, or if it was hot enough, they would dry. Wrinkled, but happily clean and you didn't do this job every day!!! Once a week, if you were lucky!!! Any other clothes could be scrubbed on the washboard! Cotton shirts, underwear, and whatever! It was fun if you like hard, hard work!!! And everything had to be ironed! Some people were crazy enough to iron their jeans, sheets pillow cases, or whatever but one has to draw the line somewhere!!!!!



Back to Dad. After things started getting better with the New Deal programs from President Roosevelt, Dad got a job up in Wallace and Kellogg, Idaho working for the big mining companies that were going full blast! He and a neighbor share the ride up there, Dad one week and this guy the next!!! In the meantime, we had to move from Grandpa's house because #9 was on the way! This suited us because we were only two blocks from the Acadamy!!! I was now in my Senior year in High School, Genevieve and Bob in High school there too and the others down to Teresa, I think, were in Grammer school there.

My Father.....

I was thinking about things last night and then for some reason the thought of my father, Clarence L.(just an initial) Batty. He was a tall man, or so it seemed to me, when growing up. Humble, not a great education, ( eighth grade) but a kind man but a diciplinarian too! He had to be with 10 kids!!! He was born on a farm in Colton, Washington (closer to Pullman than Wawawai, where I was born). Colton was known as wheat country. There was a lot of wheat grown in that area of Wa. and was called by some writers and also by those who lived there as "the Palouse country" Where that name came from I don't know, possibly Indian as there were a lot of Indians in the Wawawai area when my Grandparents moved there and Dad had a lot of Indian friends!!! How they got along, I don't know as I don't think that Dad spoke any Indian! I do remember him though, doing some of the Indian dances for us when we were small! That just came to me!!!! My grandfather's house was about a mile from the Snake River. and it was a big two storied house set in a grove of Locust trees. There was a creek that ran behind it and when we were small we used to play there. My father of course was first and foremost a farmer ! The way he met my Mother was this! Mother was a school teacher and when she got a job teaching school in Wawawai, my Dad was tricked into picking up the new "schoolmarm" He had told his sister-in-law, where the teachers lived, when they were there, that not to "rope" him into meeting thre train! (the train ran along the Snake river.) but everyone else somehow "managed" to have something to do that day!!!!! Fate? or just smart planning! Anyway since Dad was living in his own place about two miles away from Aunt Kates he started asking her to go with him to the "dances" that were held upstairs over the one "store" in the area (You talk about a "general Store"! They sold everything from soup to nuts even when we, in later years lived there. Dad had taught himself to play the "fiddle" and played for the dances in the hall over the store!! Anyway they got married in March of 1918 and the next February 21, 1919, I came into the world. Dad and one of his brothers had bought a farm together with 10 room! There ws no electricity even up to the whole time that we lived there as kids! Outside toilets and a "pot" with a lid under the bed for those nighttime runs!!!! My Uncle was married too and had two kids, Cecil was five years older than I and he had a little sister, Eva, whogot into a bottle of aspirin as a child and she died. So, after Uncle Scess died, ( I hope that's spelled right!) my Aunt Della somehow took over the house and the property!!! So, off we went to Western Wa. to Everett, Wa. where we lived till I was in school. Dad did Longshoring down on the docks, and worked long hours and it was very heavy work! In the meantime, the good old Depression was starting and Aunt Della decided to sell the farm back to Dad! We not only lost that farm but moved into my Aunt Kate's place, just up the road from us, and then, things got so bad that Aunt Kate had to sell, and besides there was no money in fruit, and the chickens I mentioned yesterday, and so my maternal Grandfather had the house where my Mother had grown up in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. So my grandfather was living with my oldest Aunt, (Aunt Josie) and they said to come up there!! That was really a time. Depression had hit but good but also Franklin Roosevelt had come up with his "New Deal" programs, one of which was the W.P.A.! So here we were, a family of, by this timeeight, and my Grandpa and Aunt Josie, living in a two bedroom, outdoor toilet, house but we did have ELECTRCITY!!!! Dad, because he had sone some building over the years got a better job than a whole lot of others who were getting, as the saying was at the time, $44.00 a day, once a month!!! Dad got $60.00 a month!!! And of course we had "Relief"! (Welfare in today's language!!) Somehow we made it, with a lot of prayer and help from neighbors, friends, etc. More about my Dad later!!!! Quite a man!!

My turn (Mom)

This idea came to me after talking to my son Steve and reading his blog. This goes back quite a ways, guys, so be prepared. I am almost 90 years old, after all.

Last night, Father Hayes celebrated mass. He did not look well at all, and appeared to be very frail, not using a cane or a crutch (especially after his operation about a year ago, because of an infection brought on by his diabetes). He has only been celebrating mass for about a month since his return. It makes me wonder how much longer he will be able to continue.

I feel lucky and blessed to have a good mind and relatively good health compared to others my age. As a result, I have plenty of time to think about "things", especially the old days. So we'll start early on in my life.

I was born on a big ranch in Wawawai Washington, which no longer exist. It was about 20 miles from Pullman, Washington and is now the site of the Lower Granite dam on the Snake river. My grandfather's homestead is now almost lakeshore! There is now a beautiful park on his property which delights the college crowd from the nearby University of Washington at Pullman (yeah, dude!)

I spent my babyhood years there and then my parents moved to Everitt Washington where I attended my first couple of years at a catholic elementary academy. Then we moved to the country (near Beverly Park). This was "country living" although we only had about a 1/2 acre of land. My father worked on the docks in Everitt as a longshoreman, loading and unloading ships. Mother spent her time raising by that time myself, Genevieve, Bob, Theresa, and Jerry was born there. My grandmother and grandfather lived with us. It seems I was always cold there because the wind would blow in from Puget Sound. After one year in school at Beverly Park my mother sent us to a catholic school in Everitt where my aunt Josie was the cook and housekeeper for the nuns at the convent. We would go with my father in the morning to Everitt, where he would drop us off for school, then he would pick us up again after work at night.

We had such fun there because while waiting for Dad to come and pick us up, we would go around the corner from the convent to the bakery and look through the window and be fascinated by the bread being wrapped on a machine that was pretty new for the time.

When the depression hit, my aunt Della was in danger of losing her home, so she invited Dad to take over the house. It was very badly maintained and was a chore to get fixed up. Dad and his friend Jack Knight decided to raise chickens to survive. So they built a state of the art (for the time) chicken coop with cement floors etc. The chickens were not allowed to feed outside of the coop. There was also a new apricot orchard put in on the land that produced just at the time when apricots were selling for 35 cents a lug! My father would sell what he could to the stores, and then share the rest with the neighbors for nothing.

The chickens were not selling either, so we ate quite a bit of chicken those days.

Mother decided to make grape jelly one summer. After squeezing all of the juice out of the grapes, the skins were fed to the chickens by my grandfather. The had evidently lain out in the sun too long, because fermentation had begun. One day my grandfather saw that the chickens were all lying lifeless on the ground. So my mother said "Quick, bring them up to the house and we will pluck them and prepare them for canning!" As they were plucking the chickens, they started to come out of their drunken stupor, and walk around! All through the summer and into the fall, we had chickens with no feathers walking around. (Steve's note: I guess they were being pre-cooked!). We had many years of laughter over this incident. Next blog, I'll tell you about how we set an entire hillside on fire, playing with "punk wood".

Let's get started!

Memories are treasures that must be shared to be valuable. When I was in high school, I had dreams of writing for a career. Marriage and motherhood always seemed to put that on the back burner (and I wouldn't trade any of it for all the money in the world!) This is not to say I am beginning a career here, but it will be fun to pass on some of my fonder memories to my children, their children and their children. Steve has set up this blog for me and has volunteered to help me with some of the technical stuff, but the memories will be mine. I would really like to have this become an interactive blog and I will welcome your comments and questions. If your recollection of events differs from mine, please let me know and I'll set you straight! lol.

I will be sharing memories as I am reminded of them, so they may not be in any particular chronological order. And your comments and questions may take us in new directions, so let's begin by saying, "Hold on to your seats, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"