Why Los Banos???

When we lived in East Oakland and Bob, Dick and Bill were small, Dick came down with asthma! I can't remember how many trips that the Dr. made to the house. He told me that Dick had asthma and the best thing we could do for him outside of the medication he was giving him was to move to a warmer climate!!! It was usually damp and foggy in East Oakland. So, what to do? My sister Teresa, and her husband Hank wrote me a letter when they heard about it and invited the boys and me to come down to Torrance, Ca. where they lived to stay until Cappy could find work someplace around the Fresno area. He got word about this guy in Los Banos who was putting in a pipeline for water from a spring to take care of the cattle he had! So Cappy got the job! We were with Teresa and Hank a month! It was rough but Teresa was pregnant with her 4th child and I was told later that it really helped to have me there! But after Easter we moved to Los Banos into a housekeeping motel and since it was so small, Bob's Godparents were working for a big farmer in the area and he had housing on his place and he let us stay there until summer! Then we moved out to the ranch! There was a two bedroom house there and again-no electricity, and we didn't have much furniture. There were beds and a table and chairs in the kitchen of the place and an icebox and a wood stove. The boss gave us a milk cow, that I tried to milk, (had more flies than milk!!!) And he gave us a few chickens and there was a horse on the place. And even though we didn't own it there was a big Lassie-type dog! To say nothing of the lizards and snakes, besides the flies and a few other "animals"! Cappy's mother and father came to visit us for a few days and it was great to have Grandpa do the milking. We had a cream seperator in a small cellar. The kids had a ball playing outdoors and riding the horse and feeding the cow, etc. We even got a calf and were fattening it! One night when the in-laws were there we heard such a fuss in the chicken coop, and Cappy said, "there must be a skunk out there!" He grabbed his shotgun and the only one brave enough to open the door of the henhouse was Dick. Cappy gave me a flashlight and told me to hold it right on the door of the henhouse and he stood beside me and everytime he would get ready to tell Dick to pull open the door, I would flash the light on Dick or someplace else! The in-laws were outside too, taking care of the other two kids! All of a suddenn, Cappy yelled at Dick and I was able to shine the light into the henhouse! Cappy shot the skunk but not before it had perfumed all the chickens! Dick, as soon as he opened the door, got out of the way so it didn't get him!!! But Grandma Farnsworth said, (sound familiar?) "Quick we'll get all the feathers off those chickens and we'll cook them up tomorrow!" Gagging, but never the less that is what we did! The next morning, Grandma had put the chickens in a pot!! I don't think we ever got the smell out of the house! Naturally, we couldn't eat them, so Cappy dug a hole and buried the whole bunch of them the next day!!! We never did get any more chickens! We didn't stay very long on the ranch either because Cappy got sick and had to go to the hospital for a couple of days, so we decided after that long, long, summer to go someplace else and look for work and ended up in Fresno! There were several other "incidents" there at the ranch. I remember the wild cottontail bunnies that were such good eating and the wonderful cantaloupes from the nearest farmer, etc. I've had so many "fun" times it's hard to remember them all until I start writing and then another happening pops into my head! I need to be able to sit here all day long and write to get it all said! Bye now!!!

Boys will be boys!

I don't know why some boys (and girls) are more prone to accidents. When I acquired my son Lester Bert, (we called him Jimmy) he was already twelve years old. Had been with his father off and on quite a few years. Then came Bob, who wasn't terribly prone to accidents till he got in High school and felt he had to go out for sports! Broke his nose once I remember, playing football, but for all around clumsiness, or whatever, no one could beat Bill until Tom came along! I remember when he was pretty small the neighbor boy across the street told him he would give him a ride in a wagon. Pulled on the wagon and out went Bill, right on his head!!! Cried for awhile and I comforted him and it was some time later that we found out he had fallen on a board and had what seemed like a boil on his rearend! Said he couldn't sit down without it hurting! When I looked, he did have quite a sore! I pulled the skin from away from it and out came what I later described as a two-by-four sliver, popped out! We put some medicine on the sore and it healed up fine. Another time, when we lived on a place on a ranch about twelve miles out of Los Banos, Cappy decided to go and see if he could get a deer! His boss there was the victim of the deer eating all the grain that he wanted for his cattle. (this guy was a game warden, so Cappy had permission!) He, Paul, had bought a Jeep for us to use, I didn't really know all the ins and outs of driving and had no license but anyway, Cappy took us up to this meadow under some trees, where there was a spring for the kids to get a drink of water and then he walked up to the top of a ridge. He told me to keep an eye on the ridge and when I saw him wave his arms come up the road to the top of the ridge and pick him up! It seemed like he was gone quite awhile and the kids got restless, (I only had Bob, Dick and Bill at the time. Les had left hom and was working someplace or another!)I saw Cappy wave his arms and told the kids to get into the Jeep. Bill was sitting on the top of the seat, I guess in the back and I started the engine and without telling them to sit down, etc. started off! Bill fell off the back of the Jeep, again on his head!!! And I guess the third time is a charm! He fell out of a wagon again when he was about 6 or 7 and it happened the same way!!! He just wasn't paying attention to what was happening. He just sat in a wagon and let come what may!!! Okay, I'm off your back now Bill! Now Tom! Thats another story for another day!!

My sister Teresa..

I was telling you yesterday about my "fear" and dislike of animals. My sister, Teresa, on the other hand could handle anything. We, Dad that is, had just got rid of a bunch of cats when we were on the farm. (They were overunning the place!) Teresa comes in that afternoon with an apronful of kittens that someone had dumped up the road! And of course Dad let her keep them! She was very small at the time! We had along with Nellie, a very big work horse and even Dad was a little shy of him! But Teresa, NO! She would walk out into the pasture go right up to him, pet him, and climb up his leg and sit on his back and gently, without benefit of a rein, walk him to the barn. When she got there, he would stand and she would grab hold of the molding aover the door and he would walk in and she would jump into the hay!!! Absolutely fearless!!! Dad was so amazed when he saw her do that! He tried to caution her about the horse but she was not afraid of him and he, the horse, in his animal sense knew she couldn't or wouldn't hurt him!!!! Teresa was like a little fairy when she was small. Blond, blue eyed and so talented, etc. We, my sister Genevieve and I had a teacher in Wawawai who gave any of the students who desired, piano lessons. Genevieve and I took the lessons and Mother and Dad bought a second hand piano for us to practice on! Teresa wasn't even in school yet but when we would practice before school in the mornings she would stand and listen to us, It wasn't long before Mother heard her playing the very music that we had been playing! Mother watched her and she would go over to the piano stool and give it a twist or two so that she could reach the keys and then sit down and play the music! Mrs. Earl, our teacher then gave her and our cousin Betty (same age!) lessons! The first year that we had a recital, neither girl was in school yet! But Mrs. Earl wanted them in the recital! My aunt made her a cute little fluffy dress etc. and when it came time for her to play, she walked over to the bench, (there wasn't a stool for this piano.) Then she sat down facing the audience and gave herself a spin around and started playing! She didn't make one mistake!!! Real talent!!! In later years when she was going to school in White Pines, the County Music Director asked Mother if he could give her lessons (free) because HE said, he had never heard anyone her age play as well as she did!!! She is gone now almost two years! We still love you Teresa!

Animals and me!

For all of you who are animal lovers, SORRY!!! When I was about two Mother missed me and went looking for me. We had a large yard with a gate in the front of the house and she found me there with a great big, (her words, not mine) black dog standing over me licking me to death, (literally!) Mother said I had cried so much I was out of breath!! Since that time I have had a fear of any kind of animals!!! Oh, if a pup is quiet and somewhat friendly, I don't mind petting it and I once had a kitten who used to sit on my lap, very quietly and purr, while I rocked in my rocking chair But if it got up and started to walk around, down it went!!!My different kids at some time or other had a pet cat or dog but who wound up feeding it? You are so right! And every time I swore that was the last time! I was afraid to get on a horse when I was younger! But my brothers talked me into getting on Old Nellie, (yes that was the old mare's name!) They brought her up to the fence and I climbed up and sat on her. No saddle but a rein and guiding straps! I thought, "Wow! This is nice. I've got to go and show Mother." Now Mother was up the road aways helping a neighbor to can some peaches that were going to spoil if someone hadn't canned them, and the neighbor was sick!I went up there and got off the horse and went running into Mrs. Henniger's house and told Mother, "come quick, let me show you what I can do!" I was excited and running and probably yelling at the top of my voice. Old Nellie got freightened and jerked at the reins and tore off the gate I had her tied to and ran down the road as fast as she could for the barn! Mother and I after her! Mother calmed her down and got the gate away from her and took off the reins and the gate! But I was able to ride her after that but I never got excited and yelled again! When we had dogs I made sure they were outdoor kind! Never wanted an animal to get on me (except for that one kitten!) Dogs, well, I don't know! Tom had a dog that was given him. She had never been speid (is that spelled right?) but Peggy, my sister-in-law who gave her to Tom said she had had the dog for ten years and she had never had a litter!So what happens? You guessed it! Tom called me up in Tacoma, where I was helping Dick and Jane after John was born and says, "I think(I think the dog's name was Cha-Cha,) Cha-Cha is having pups someplace. She disapperared for a couple of days and now she keeps going up by the fence out back by some bushes". So in the meantime, I came home in a couple of days and I look out the back door and here is Cha-Cha carrying one pup after another till she had all SIX up on the porch! After all, the weather was getting hot and she wanted them where it was a bit cooler! Tom tried getting rid of them by selling them or giving them away but we still had three! One, the only male, was rather cute and I think must have taken after the father because he didn't look like any of the rest of them! So I told Tom he could keep the male which he promptly named Leon. Well, a very, very, short time later Cha-Cha pulled the same stunt again but this time she really outdid herself and the pups were on the porch (poop and all) and were soon eating milk out of a saucer and making a regular nuisance of themselves and who had to clean up all that mess? Nobody but "Mommy Dearest!" And I don't like animals! I told Steve one day, get a big cardboard box and take all the pups and Cha-Cha with you to Stockton when you go to work tonight and take them to the Animal shelter or pound or anything!!! So I kept Leon! Tom was up North I think, anyway, he wasn't home, but Leon would go across the street from the house where there was a Cemetary and he would bring flowers off the graves and lay them on the front porch; then he began to bring some clothes(ladies) from a house up the street, and put them on the front porch! She came tearing down there one day and I didn't know where he had found them! But I told her to keep them off her open porch and he wouldn't find them! Then he started bringing me old bones that he had found buried where Cha-Cha had buried them or pieces of food; one time them was an "almost" green fried egg out there. Another time there was a guy cleaning up the cemetary and I didn't know he was there but there was a really nice looking T-shirt on the porch! I brought it in the house because I didn't want him chewing it up. A man comes to the door and asked me if I had a small puppy, etc. and he thought it might have run off with his shirt! I brought it to the door and said, "Could this be the one?" He started laughing and said yes, that he had been playing with Leon during his lunch break, but when he went back to work and later looked for his shirt, it was gone and he didn't know which house he, the dog had come from!! I really hated to leave Leon up in Jackson when I had to move to Lodi but I couldn't have any animals in an apartment house with no outdoors to speak of for him to be in! So my landlady where I as renting asked me, "What are you going to do with Leon?" I told her I didn't know and she said she would love to have him! That was the last animal I had! There were a few before that! Not mine but the kids. Like the three kittens named Marilyn, Janie and Mary Ann! They were the kittens of a Manx cat that was at a place we rented and these kittens were born under the house!!And the Mother cat was getting rid of them as fast as she could so Tom ran her off and captured the 3 kittens! But this is enough for today!!

A little before me but funny!

I called my "old" cousin June Crithfield ( she's two months older than me!) yesterday and I was telling her about my blog. She said she doesn't have a computer but is doing the same thing with her typewriter, writing about some of the things in her life. I told her maybe she could remember some of the things I don't remember and I may have some stories she has forgotten about! She told me the following, as a "for instance"! She said after my father and mother were married, they lived in a little house on the Wawawai Creek. That year after they were married in March, up the canyon beyond them, after a heavy rain which became a cloudburst, the creek was really rumbling. My mother was frightened and took a kerosene lamp, yes, the ones with the glass chimney, and ran out of the house down by the creek. Then she put the lamp on a boulder so she could try and see what was happening, there was not much in the way of radio, T.V.,etc. in those days and apparently no telephone! Anyway when she heard the roaring and rumbling of the creek she ran back to the house leaving the lamp! After the creek calmed down, some of the people came to see if Mother and Dad were O.K. and the lamp was still sitting on the boulder where she had left it!!!! The water had just swirled around it! June said everybody sure got a laugh out of that for a long time!!! So thought I'd pass it on!

There was a time!

I'm taking a "break" from watching Aunt Barbara today. Brother Joe and wife Jean are over there and so decided to come home for awhile! Was thinking about the time that I actually picked cotton! After Cappy started to work for this Farm Security Administration and had been with the Braceros picking hops up in Healdsburg and in Ukiah, Ca. the job ran out and one of the "bosses the Mexicans were working for told Cappy to come down to Bakersfield and that he could get a certain amt of money( the figure escapes me now!)weighing cotton that the Mexicans and black people were picking down in Bakersfield. So we headed out and took Lester Bert, Cappy's son, with us.On the way there we saw what looked like a lot of quanset huts, like an Army Camp but it said on a sign that it was a Farm Labor Camp. So Cappy decided to check it out and the foreman there told us that a guy over in Porterville was looking for someone with Cappy's skills! (Speaking Mexican and English and the fact that we were or just had been working for the Farm Sec. Ad.) So we back-tracked to Porterville and talked to the guy, after the one in Tulare had called him and told him about Cappy! This fellow said "Boy, can I use you!" But he said that it might be about a week before he could hire him but that he was having trouble in some of these labor camps and that he wanted us to call him as soon as we got located with a place to stay in Bakersfild. We moved into housekeeping Motel room and so Cappy got in touch with the guy who was weighing cotton and asked for a job. (We weren't sure if we would hear from the guy in Tulare!) The morning after we got there Cappy was out weighing cotton! So the next day Lester Bert and I asked him if we could go with him and maybe we could pick cotton to help ourselves out financially! So Cappy agreed and here we were in the boiling heat of Bakersfield in August and we were given a sack to put the cotton into. We had to put this thing on our shoulders and drag it behind us and put these little fluffy but treacherous balls of cotton in the bag. This bag was, it seemed at least a block or two long! The ground was damp which made it unbearably hot! And we, L.B. and I would go about three feet and I would send him back for a little jar of water, then we would pick for another three ft. and back to the water!!! We couldn't have worked for any longer than an hour but decided we had picked enough cotton for that day!!! Cappy weighed it up and we had made about 50 cents! I will never look down on those poor people who had to do that for a living with huge families, etc. Anyway we hung out at the weighing station until it was time to go home and I told Cappy, we'd better get something better than that to do! Cappy worked for a day or so and then the guy who told him to come down, took off with all the money, and the scales, etc. and never said anything to Cappy! Needless to say we were frantic! But lo and behold, that night the guy from Porterville called and wanted Cappy to come right up to a town called Fowler,(just a few miles South of Fresno). I asked Cappy, what are we going to do for gas money! So he told me that the cotton weigher had left about 10 cotton sacks in our car and Cappy says" As soon as we get to a roadside stand that buys thing like this we'll sell them and it should be enough to get us to Fowler." We hadn't gone very far when we saw a sign, cotton sacks bought and sold! The guy gave us $10 for the bunch but that got us to Fowler and then the foreman that Cappy was supposed to meet there gave us enough to get a Motel room and food for a week until they decided what to do about Cappy! But they did say that Cappy was in charge of that camp as of that night!!!In a few days, they brought a Quanset hut for us to move into and that is another story sometime!!!!

Thanks, Steve, and a new memory....

Thank to all and/or any of you who have said Steve's prayer for my sister, Barbara. The latest is that she will be placed, yes all of the arrangements have been made, for her to go to a really nice, Christian, (or for you that are Catholic) there are a lot of Catholic men and women there), anyway, it is an assisted living home! She will be there until she cannot do anything for herself! It is called Ashley Place and she will 24 hour nursing care to make sure she doesn't fall and can't get up, etc, and also make sure that she takes the medicine she is supposed to take!! It is really such a relief for everyone including her!!! She is pretty happy about the whole thing! Said she feels that it the answer to all the prayers that she and everyone have been saying for her! She will be moving in out there on Thursday the
11th! She has her apt. here for a couple of months paid for so will allow her girls and the rest of the family to get rid of all her things, etc. Thank you all!
Now Steve, when your Grandmother was expecting me right after World War I, the whole U.S. had a terrible flu thing that was killing people off like flies!! It was especially bad for any pregnant woman! My Mother was living at the time in Klamath Falls Or. with my father when some of out family my Grandma, Grandpa and two or three of my Aunts lived in Couer d' Alene, Idaho and so she came up there to see if she could help out. Well, she caught the flu! She told me she had such a high fever, and was so sick and in those days she could lay on the bed that they had put up for her in the Parlor and watch wagons go by in the "road" in front of the house piled high with caskets on their way to the Cemetaries! It was truly, if anyone has read about it, a real plague!!! In her illness she went into unconsciousness and her Dr. told the folks that she wouldn't last till morning! Someone called the Priest and he brought a "relic" of St. Gerard and my Aunts put it on my grandmother. In the morning, her eyes were open and she was on the mend!!! The Dr. told the family, I don't know what happened but she is going to be alright! After that your Grandmother, Steve, had great Devotion to St. Gerard, who was called even at that time, the Saint of Mothers to be!!! And since you have read up on him you know the rest of the story about him! So before you were born I had had a couple of miscarriages and so Mother told me to start praying to St. Gerard and told me what had happened to her!!! You were the healthiest, and strongest of all my boys and of course then after you I had a little girl, who was a 9 mos. miscarriage! In fact she died during childbirth! I just got to thinking about this after a visit by Steve to see his Aunt Barbara!! Thanks so much Steve for the prayer put on my blog and yours for Barbara. I printed it out and will give it to Barbara when I go over after awhile. Bye for now!!!

A prayer for Barbara

Holy Mary, we ask that you wrap Barbara in your loving embrace and help her through this trial. Keep her free from worry and pain.
Dear Jesus, Divine Physician and Healer, we turn to You on behalf of Your servant Barbara. O dearest comforter of the troubled, alleviate our worry and sorrow with Your gentle love, and grant us the grace and strength to accept this burden.

Dear God, we place our worries for Barbara in Your hands. We place Barbara and all our sick and troubled under Your care and humbly ask that You restore Your servant Barbara to health again. Above all, grant us the grace to acknowledge Your will and know that whatever You do, You do for the love of us. Amen.

Sorry.....

I am sorry that I haven't been able to put on my unusual "blogs", I have been trying to help Aunt Barbara out because she can't stay alone nights and now yesterday they (the Drs. ) said that she can't be left alone at all. After having fallen three times in the past two weeks,she may not be able to use her alert button and not be able to get in touch with anyone if she should fall or pass out! Family, this does not look good!!! Her daughters are over at her house this evening to see if they can possibly get her into an "assisted living" place! She was awake all night last night and so therefore, so was I! She looks terrible, and says she really feels that it's time to go someplace where she can have constant care!!! Please, all of you say a sincere prayer for her! Thanks!

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.