I first met this beautiful lady..many years ago. I loved her at first sight. She smiled and took me in her arms, as the
nurse handed me to her. I was her fourth
born. The year was 1926.
Nine years before me..my sister Eudora Lucille was born. Then 2 years later, mama gave birth to another little girl, and named her Anna Laverne. Four years goes by then mama and daddy were blessed with a boy. He was named Wiley C.. Just that. His middle name was C.
I don’t know why, but daddy and mama decided to go to California…..mama’s sister, Lizzie, her real name was of course, Elizabeth. And her husband, Hobart was going with them….All going to seek their fortune. What mama got was me. Mama seemed happy about it. Well, things didn’t work our like they planned. A lot of other Okie’s had the same idea. So, finding no pot of gold….They headed back to Oklahoma. They stopped at different places…to work. Mama picked cotton….in Texas. I didn’t know they had cotton in Texas. Daddy got odd jobs. To pay for gas and food. At that time in America, people didn’t worry about motels…I don’t think they had any and if they did, not many people could afford them. So, the story is, they camped along the road and….anyone read “The Grapes Of Wrath?” Get the picture. Here I was just a little baby, so whatever I say is hear say. Well, we stopped off in Phoenix, Arizona. My aunt Annie and her husband, Sol Weeks lived there. He had some kind of construction job, so he got daddy one. Aunt Annie had 2 daughters, Ruthie named after mama and Edith. And a boy named, Thurston. Thurston was deaf. He became quite an artist. Many years later, I remember him sending mama his paintings…They were beautiful, mostly desert scenes.
Nine years before me..my sister Eudora Lucille was born. Then 2 years later, mama gave birth to another little girl, and named her Anna Laverne. Four years goes by then mama and daddy were blessed with a boy. He was named Wiley C.. Just that. His middle name was C.
I don’t know why, but daddy and mama decided to go to California…..mama’s sister, Lizzie, her real name was of course, Elizabeth. And her husband, Hobart was going with them….All going to seek their fortune. What mama got was me. Mama seemed happy about it. Well, things didn’t work our like they planned. A lot of other Okie’s had the same idea. So, finding no pot of gold….They headed back to Oklahoma. They stopped at different places…to work. Mama picked cotton….in Texas. I didn’t know they had cotton in Texas. Daddy got odd jobs. To pay for gas and food. At that time in America, people didn’t worry about motels…I don’t think they had any and if they did, not many people could afford them. So, the story is, they camped along the road and….anyone read “The Grapes Of Wrath?” Get the picture. Here I was just a little baby, so whatever I say is hear say. Well, we stopped off in Phoenix, Arizona. My aunt Annie and her husband, Sol Weeks lived there. He had some kind of construction job, so he got daddy one. Aunt Annie had 2 daughters, Ruthie named after mama and Edith. And a boy named, Thurston. Thurston was deaf. He became quite an artist. Many years later, I remember him sending mama his paintings…They were beautiful, mostly desert scenes.
Why we didn’t stay in Phoenix, I don’t know. Daddy was working…Eudora and LaVerne were happy to be with their cousins. Mama had her sister Annie…But daddy wanted to go to Kansas. That is where his mother lived. She had been a widow after my grandfather was thrown from a horse and hit his head on a stump of a tree. She had married a man named Mel Stoffer. He had some kind of business. I really liked our Grandpa Stoffer…He was a great big man.
Here we were back in Kansas. By the time fall rolled around, I was 6 and in the first grade. I have to say I loved school. I was a good student. One problem….we had rented a house, right across the street from daddy’s brother. They had a girl same age same grade as I was. She was big, pure white hair and I mean pure white hair…blue eyes and hair so white with pale skin. Have you ever heard of an albino? I think she was one. She was big for six years old. I was little for six years old. As far as school went we didn’t get along…she would beat me up on the way home. So mama had to tell the teacher to keep me a little while so we wouldn’t be going home at the same time. But on the weekends we played together. And as we got older and lived farther apart we became friends.
The next summer we moved out to the country, to a nice big farm house. We had a big barn, a horse water tank where we swam in the summer. We had a windmill right in our back yard. The water ran cool in the summer…there was a big crock like container at the bottom where the cool water came out. Mama kept our milk and butter in this cool water and daddy kept his home made beer.
This was a wonderful place for our family. Mama raised chickens, we had a cow. Raised a garden. Life was good. LaVerne, Wiley and I went to a little one room schoolhouse. Most of our classmates were Amish. Great neighbors, great schoolmates. Our teacher’s name was “Miss Lewis”. We had to walk to school, of course. I think there were 32 in this one room school. We had a great big furnace in the back. Our drinking fountain was a galvanized bucket in the cloak room. Right by the back door.. We had one dipper…yes, that’s right a dipper. I don’t think I drank much water. . Eudora rode to town to High School. She was very popular and she was very pretty. She could really play tennis.
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