Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – X, Y & Z

X is for Xylophone

    X is another one of those hard to use letters. But xylophone does fit. I can remember that we had a little toy xylophone. I don't know if it was originally mine or my brother's, but we both would try playing it from time to time. It came with some instructions with music for simple songs. Since I was taking piano lessons I could read simple music. One time at a school assembly someone came who played the marimba, which is similar to a xylophone. I really enjoyed the music they played and wished I could play like that. However I had to be content with learning to play the piano.

Y is for Yellow Jacket

    Yellow jackets are not a favorite memory. Yellow jackets can sting and that hurts. I remember seeing honey bees and wasps and maybe even a few hornets. But the insects that caused me the most problem were yellow jackets. They liked to come to picnics, especially for hamburgers or fruit pie. If you went into the orchard area in the fall, when some of the fruit had fallen, you would see yellow jackets. Now I guess that I really didn't get stung too many times, since I was so wary of them. But I can remember a few times when my arm or leg or wherever would swell up, get red and hurt for a few days.

Z is for Zipper

    When I think of zippers in my childhood it was related to the sewing I was doing for my 4H project. When I made a dress for myself, it had a zipper on the side, since the waistline was fairly fitted. Because of the waistline the zipper was not exactly a straight line. Even with a straight line, I found zippers to be hard to sew, since they have bumps. My Mom had a "zipper foot" for her sewing machine, so that made it a little easier. Because my Mom wanted my sewing to be right, if my seams were crooked, I had to take them out and redo them. My memory may be clouded, but it seems like I was never able to get a zipper right the first time. So to me, zipper equals frustration.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – V & W

 V is for Vegetables

Photo by Iñigo De la Maza on Unsplash

    Vegetables were always a part of our day's meals since I can remember. We did have a garden so usually there were peas, green beans, corn, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes. Depending on the size of the crop, some of these might be canned or frozen to eat later. However my memories of vegetables often go back to the ones that my parents bought at the store for us to eat. They would buy fresh carrots and celery and cabbage as they did not grow well in our garden. One year they bought a case of canned green beans. I think it was the Santiam brand, and I liked them. The canned food cupboard also usually included corn and tomatoes, occasionally peas and beets. My brother used to complain about beets, because they would make the potatoes on his plate turn red . The vegetables that I had a problem with were of the frozen variety. My Mom seemed to always buy a supply of frozen spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. Now I really liked spinach. However, I did not like the other three. But as an obedient child I ate them anyway. When we were old enough, my brother and I would divide our broccoli so he ate the heads and I ate the stalks, since those were the parts we liked better. It is interesting that today, of those vegetables I didn't like, only brussel sprouts is still in that category.

W is for War

    There were two major wars involving the United States during my childhood, World War II and the Korean War. I was young enough during World War II (age 2-6) that I didn't realize all that was going on. Some of the Sunday funnies in the newspaper did have stories involving the war. None of my immediate family were in the military. There were some neighbors who served. I can remember hearing about buying war bonds to help our country. I do have a memory of the end of the War, although I am not sure if it was VJ or VE day, when everyone was so happy on hearing the news on the radio. I was in grade school during the Korean War, so there were items in the newspaper that I could read as well as hear on the news on the radio. We didn't have a television yet. I don't remember that I knew anyone who was in the service at the time and fought in Korea. Maybe it was because of that, war did not seem very real to me.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – U

U is for Uncles

    A few days ago I wrote about my memories of my aunts, now it is the uncles turn. My Dad did not have any brothers, so the uncles on that side of the family were married to my Aunts. Each of them had two husbands, but I really only remember their second husbands. Aunt Vida's husband was Uncle Fred. He was a plumber and also enjoyed taking pictures. He had good camera equipment and even won a prize for one of his photos. Aunt Buena's husband was Uncle Walt. I enjoyed being around both of these uncles at Christmas time.

    My Mom had one brother that I knew. Uncle Jerry, his legal name was Gerald, was the baby in the family. He was 15 years younger than my mother and lived the longest of the siblings. My Mom had an older brother, Howard, who died as a baby, so he is usually forgotten. I did know some of the husbands of Mom's sisters. Aunt Lois was divorced before I can remember, so didn't know Uncle Ben other than his name. I'm afraid I didn't like him very much since he had taken my cousin away. Aunt Erma's husband was Uncle Adolph. He also was not a favorite of mine because one time at a family gathering, he yelled at my Dad. Aunt Violet had two husbands that I knew. They were both fun to be around: Uncle Art and Uncle Mel.

    Grandma Albertson had two brothers that lived in Oregon: Uncle Marvin and Uncle Spike (real name Lauren) Uncle Marvin had two sons that were just a few years older than me. Uncle Spike liked to tease and he had a daughter the same age as my brother. We did go to visit them a few times and they would often be at family gatherings. One of Grandma's brothers-in-law lived in Brownsville, Uncle Joe. He was funny and I thought it was really special that he could blow smoke rings. Another brother-in-law lived in Kansas, Uncle Roy. They did come to visit us in Oregon and he also was fun to be around. He had two daughters that were a little older than me.

    Grandpa Albertson had two brothers who lived in Oregon: Uncle Arthur and Uncle Ernest. Uncle Arthur lived out on a farm, within a couple of miles from where we lived. His wife had died before I was born. His grandson was in my class at school. Uncle Ernest had served in World War I and had problems from that service so he was mostly an invalid when I could remember. His wife died within a few days of my grandfather's death.

    I probably saw my Grandma Falk's brothers, Uncle Roy and Uncle Perry, at one of the Bond family reunions, but I don't remember them. However as I mentioned about Aunt Grace that Christmas package from Uncle Roy and Aunt Grace was a special treat.

    Grandpa Falk was the youngest of his family and all of his brothers had died before I could really remember them, although I might have seen one or two at the annual Falk Reunion.

                                                     U is for United States

    I can remember reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America each day at school. The words we used were:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I read about the pledge on Wikipedia and discovered that it had officially been recognized by Congress in 1942, which was just 3 years before I started school. I knew that later the words "under God" had been added, so found on Wikipedia that this phrase was added between one Nation and indivisible in 1954. This was a year after I had graduated from the 8th grade, so all during my grade school years I would have used the above pledge. When I started school in 1945 the flag had only 48 stars. It was not until after I graduated from high school that Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959 and the flag had 50 stars.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – T

T is for Teachers

    For my grade school years, I remember best my teachers at Halsey Grade School which I attended for grades 3 through 8. My first two years were spent at Shedd Grade School. We never moved but lived halfway between Halsey and Shedd. During these six years at Halsey, I had four different teachers.

    My 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Minnie Cross. Her sister-in-law was Mrs. Donna Cross, who was my piano teacher. I called each of them Mrs. Cross, so sometimes my folks didn't know which one I was talking about. My Dad would sometimes substitute the name, Mrs. X. I thought my school teacher Mrs. Cross was really an old woman when I started the 3rd grade in Halsey. Doing genealogical research I discovered that she was 55 years old and now that really doesn't seem that old. She taught for a number years at Halsey, so often had children of parents she had taught. She was a much loved teacher. However, I was rather shy. When I had been in the second grade at Shedd we printed our work. At Halsey they had learned cursive writing in the second grade, so it seemed everyone else knew how to do cursive writing in the third grade. I didn't want to admit that I didn't know how to do it, so taught myself cursive writing by looking at the letters on the wall above the chalk board. I guess I did all right because I received all 1s in penmanship on my report card. We studied about the Oregon Trail in her class and had a wagon train in the Achievement Day program near the end of the year.

  

     In the 4th grade, my teacher was my Dad's first cousin's wife, Mrs. Esther Albertson. Her son, Eldon, my 2nd cousin, was also in our class. It seemed a little funny to have a teacher with the same last name that I did. She also attended our church so I already knew her before I was in her class. One thing I can remember is that she read to us everyday from some storybook. One I really liked was Little House on the Prairie.

    For the 5th and 6th grades, Mrs. DeArcy Evans was my teacher. Her sister was married to one of my Mom's cousins so was almost related. Mrs. Evans was thought by many of the students to be very strict. She was called "Old Lady Evans" by some behind her back. But since I tended to be obedient and cooperative I got along with her OK. Some of the things we did in her class were creative and interesting. Everyone learned to crochet a square, so that we made an afghan for someone in the Veteran's Hospital. We made some murals as a group, one year we did pictures representing countries in South America. I can remember my country was Ecuador. Then another mural was about transportation. I chose to draw a bus, like a Greyhouse. I thought that was easier since it had many straight lines. We also did puppet shows with homemade marionettes. One of the plays was about animals and I made a goose out of grey flannel. We put cardboard in the wings so the strings could make him look like he was flying. Another play was a melodrama and my character was the villain. My grades in her classes were mostly 1s, except for 2s in penmanship and drawing. For Achievement Day in the 6th grade, 4th, 5th & 6th were together in the program and did a Mexican style dance. One of the boys in our class was of Mexican descent.

 

    Mr. Clifford Gunderson was my teacher in the 7th and 8th grades. It was the first time I had a man for a teacher. In the 7th grade we had two grades in the same room, so there were over 30 students. I liked it better when we just had one grade in the room in the 8th grade. I thought Mr. Gunderson was a good teacher and I learned a lot. We would do some experiments for math and science classes. In the 8th grade a highlight was a trip to Salem to visit the State Capitol and also a visit to some other businesses (the Oregon Statesman newspaper, Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Cherry City Baking Co who baked Master bread). In the Achievement Day program when I was in the 8th grade, we had a Hawaiian theme. We made "grass skirts" out of burlap bags dyed green and all attempted to dance the hula.  

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – S

 S is for Sewing

    I began sewing in the 4th grade, when I became a member of the 4H Sewing Club. It was enjoyable to be with the other girls. Our local leader was Mrs. Adah Taylor. The projects for the first year were a felt needlecase, a pincushion, a scarf made from a flour sack and a bag made from monk's cloth. Basically most of this was done by hand and I wrote in my project record book that I had learned to use a thimble. Also I wrote that I was the president of the club. The 4H club had an exhibit at the Halsey Achievement Day and my items won a blue ribbon. I exhibited at the Linn County 4H Fair and won another blue ribbon. This gave me the opportunity to take my things to the Oregon State Fair in 1949 and I won a red ribbon there. These ribbons became part of my keepsakes. The next year our leader was Mrs. Ruth Chamberlain. I probably would not have remembered these things nearly as well if I hadn't saved my project books and ribbons from each year I was in 4H. This second year I was again president of the club (who knows why they chose to elect me.) We made a coin purse from felt, a dresser scarf, a laundry bag and a crocheted pot holder. For the laundry bag I used my Mother's electric Singer sewing machine. She coached me on its use and if I didn't sew a straight seam, I would have to take it out and do it again. Again I won blue ribbons at Achievement Day and the Linn County 4H Fair. This time I got a white ribbon at the State Fair. For the 4H Fair, another girl and I did a demonstration about sewing and received a red ribbon for that. By the 6th grade Mrs. Cecil Harris became our leader. That year I was the secretary for the club. We made a hand hemmed, tea towel, a print dress, pot holder and apron. Achievement Day brought me a blue ribbon and the Linn County 4H Fair brought me a red ribbon for my sewing project and a red ribbon for being in the Style Revue, wearing my new dress. The 7th grade was my last year for 4H club. Mrs. Phebe Falk was our leader. I made two dresses that year: a school dress and a sun dress. For ribbons I received a red one at Achievement Day, a purple one at the Linn County 4H Fair and a green exhibitor one at the Oregon State fair for my project. Then at the Linn County 4H Fair I won a red one for the stitching contest and a blue one for the Style Revue. I think I liked being in 4H just so I could win ribbons. Another special event was I got to attend 4H Summer School held at Oregon State College campus June 17-27, 1952. Learning how to sew was valuable later when I was able to save some money by making some of my own clothes.

S is for Skating

    I can't remember exactly when I received my pair of the old time clamp-on roller skates. I do know that we did not have a really good place to skate at our home. We had a home made cement sidewalk which was about 10 to 12 feet long. That does not give you much room for skating, so we also used our playroom inside the house. After I learned how to skate well enough I took them to school with me and our school house in town had a number of sidewalks around it so it was fun to skate there. It was also fun when we had skating parties at some of the skating rinks that were within 20 miles of us.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – R

R is for Radio

    When I was a child, our family did not have a television. But we did have a radio and we did listen to it. Sometimes the reception was not too good. Many of the shows now listed as "Old Time Radio" bring back memories. Some of the shows that I can remember listening to include: Jack Benny, Fibber McGee & Molly, Amos & Andy, the Aldrich Family, Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid, Gunsmoke and the Shadow. These included comedies, westerns and mysteries. Also we listened to quite a few sports: baseball, football and basketball. Baseball included the Portland Beavers and the Eugene Emeralds. Football and basketball were mostly for Oregon State College Beavers.

R is for Rodeo

                                   Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash

    I can remember attending at least three different rodeos. We went to the Crawfordsville Rodeo. Crawfordsville was about 15 miles from where we lived. I don't have a good memory of the rodeo itself except that my Dad took movies of it and I can remember looking at them and now have the DVD so I can watch a part of the rodeo. In my grade school scrapbook I found programs for 2 rodeos that we had attended in 1952. On the 4th of July we attended the Molalla Buckeroo. Molalla was about 70 miles from home. With the programs were our tickets which showed that our seats were in section A, Row 13, seats 5-8. I enjoyed reading the program which gave information about each one of the different events. For some of the timed events I kept track of the different times and wrote them in the program. We also attended the "World Championship Rodeo" held at the State Fair in Salem in 1952. Again I kept track of the times for some of the timed events and wrote them in the program.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – P & Q

P is for Paisley

    When I was fairly young my Mother bought a paisley skirt or dress for me to wear to school. I did not like it. I can't remember the style or the color, but only that it was paisley. Even if I didn't like it, I still had to wear it. We just weren't able to purchase that many clothes, so you wore what you had. What was interesting was, that after a while I changed my mind and I really did like that paisley outfit. So I guess it goes to show that we can't always trust our first impressions.

P is for Piano

    I began piano lessons when I was in the 3rd grade. Our school did not have any instrumental music lessons, so we were allowed to take time from school to attend a piano lesson. The piano teacher in town lived close enough to the school that we could walk there. If my parents would have had to drive to town each week for my piano lesson I am not sure I would have been able to take them. When I began lessons, my parents bought a new piano. It was spinet style and the brand name was Lester. I always thought that was neat since my father's first name was Lester. My father told me that he would be willing to pay for my piano lessons, but that he expected me to use this skill by playing at church. I have fulfilled his wishes. I took lessons for six years. It was fun to play for piano recitals, especially when we could do duets, trios and quartets. My skills were best at reading music, rather than memorizing. When I started high school I did not take lessons, but I did play for the choir so did continue improving my skills. Playing the piano is something that I still enjoy today.

Q is for Quiet

    Q is a difficult letter to use to find a memory. So I used the dictionary and looked at a number of Q words. Then I came up with quiet. Although it may be hard for people today to imagine it, I was rather quiet as a child. Maybe it was because there were not other children around for me to play with. I felt shy. I spent a lot of time reading. My Mother told me a story about my experience in the first grade. The teacher thought that I had been cheating and copying from someone else's work for my written work. So she moved me and I still did good written work, so I hadn't been copying, I just hardly ever would speak up in class. I have wondered since studying my family history that my grandfather's background as a Quaker may have influenced me to be more quiet.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – N & O

N is for Newport

   One of my favorite times during the summer was our trip to the coast, to Newport. We often were able to stay for almost a week. The timing depended on harvest times. It was between the harvesting of the grass seed and the grains. I remember that one year we were at the coast on my birthday. There is a picture in the old home movies of me with my cake. For a number of years we stayed at the Waves motel, which as I remember it was near the bluff that overlooked Nye Beach. We could walk down the street and then turn down the street that went to Nye Beach. Along the way were some stores, including one which sold candy that looked like rocks. We could play on the beach, digging in the sand, finding pretty rocks and shells, and if we were very brave we could wade in the ocean. It was so cold and we had to be very careful that the waves would not knock us down. We generally drove over to Yaquina Bay State Park and looked out at the ocean, along the jetty and watched if any boats were coming into the harbor. My Dad had a pair of field glasses and sometimes he would let us use them so we could see the boats more closely. Occasionally large vessels would be coming in and we thought that was exciting. Other things we did while in Newport included: going bowling at their bowling alley, skating at the skating rink, and an evening at the drive-in movies at the theater on the other side of the bridge. I really liked looking at the bridge at Newport. I thought it was so lovely. Now I know that are a number of these beautiful bridges on the Oregon coast, but since we mostly went to Newport, it was my favorite.

O is for Overalls

    I remember my Dad wearing blue denim bib overalls whenever he was working. He also wore them when he went duck hunting, fishing, deer hunting and elk hunting.

    One time that I wore bib overalls was in 1953 at the beginning of my freshman year in high school. It was Freshman initiation and I can't remember just how it was worded, but I ended up dressing as a "milk maid." I had on a bandanna, my Dad's bib overalls worn backwards, an old shirt and rubber boots. I carried a milk pail and a milking stool. Seeing this picture of me brings back this memory.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – M

M is for Mop

    I'm afraid that I didn't use a mop for its intended purpose very often. But I did take an old mop and used it like a doll. Since it was a string mop, if you turned it upside down it had hair. So then I had a friend I could talk to. Since we lived out in the country, in the summer there were no friends of my age around. Sometimes my brother who was three years younger just wasn't enough. I seemed to have a number of imaginary friends and a mop just made it more real.

M is for Mountains

    I grew up living in the Willamette Valley. Since a valley is by definition between a range of hills or mountains, mountains were always there on both sides, although some miles away. To the East were the Cascade Mountains. Although this range of mountains includes at least five peaks with an elevation of over 10,000 feet, I was able to see only one of these from our area, Mount Jefferson. The weather had to be good and I had to be in just the right position to see the tip top of this mountain.

   When I looked to the West I saw the Coast Range and its highest point, Marys Peak, at almost 4,100 feet. When we would turn off Highway 99E and head down the last two miles to our house, Marys Peak would be there almost like it was guiding the way. During the winter there would usually be some snow, like a cap on the top. And of course, many times fog or clouds would hide the top from our sight. I can remember that we took some trips up to the top of Marys Peak and if you used the field glasses you could almost see our house, or at least the area where it was.

    Two mountains that I remember that I only saw a few times were Mt. Bailey and Mt. Thielsen which are on the opposite sides of Diamond Lake. When we went fishing there and were sitting in the boat, it was so fun to look up to those mountains. They seemed so different: one was pillow like shaped and the other with a jagged top.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – K & L

K is for Kittens

Photo by The Lucky Neko on Unsplash

It was so much fun to have kittens around. Our animals lived outside and usually we had at least one dog and a couple of cats. As outside living cats, every so often there would be a batch of new kittens. Usually they were many different colors. Often they did not survive to be adults cats. There are some neat home movies that my Dad took that show kittens.

L is for Lady Bug

According to the dictionary a lady bug is a lady bird, which is a small brightly colored beetle. However we always called them lady bugs. When we would see one we would begin reciting the old saying, "Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home." I always thought they were so pretty. Here is a clip art version of one.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – I & J

I is for Icicle

    Because the weather generally was not extremely cold, we did not have lots of icicles. But when it was really cold, we could have icicles. Icicles could be beautiful. Sometimes they could get very long. Although I didn't like to be cold, I still could enjoy looking at icicles.

J is for Jelly

    I don't remember eating much jelly at our house. One year my Mom made prune conserve since we had two prune trees. She made a lot of prune conserve, so we ate it for many years. When I was about 12, I attended 4H Summer School. One of the classes I attended was how to get juice from berries in order to make jelly. It included a kit with cellulose papers (like unscented Kleenex) and a bag and a metal frame. So when I came home, I wanted to try it out and our farm had many blackberry bushes out in the woods. So I went blackberry picking and used my new kit to squeeze out enough clear juice to make a batch of blackberry jelly. It turned out fairly well, but since we didn't eat a lot of jelly, I didn't make lots of it.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – H

H is for Hair

    As I was growing up, my Mother did not cut my hair. Mostly I had two braids. So I did not fix my own hair. I'm afraid that I was envious of girls who had curly hair. Because even when my braids were undone, my hair was only wavy straight. Also I thought it would be so neat to have red hair, but mine was and still is rather a plain light brown. [This was originally written about 10 years ago.]   It was when I was 9 years old, in the 4th grade, my Mom took me to a beauty parlor and my braids were cut off and I had a permanent. Mostly after that, my Mom gave me Toni home permanents and later I gave her home permanents.

H is for Hunting    

    My Dad did a lot of hunting. I can remember knowing that he went out early on winter mornings and hunted ducks and geese. We ate both of these when he was successful. I especially liked duck when my Mother would boil the duck(s) and take the meat off the bones and then roast it with bread dressing. In the fall, he usually went deer and elk hunting in Eastern Oregon. One of our friends and neighbors had served in World War II and had met a man from Eastern Oregon who invited him to come over and hunt after the war was over. This neighbor invited my Dad to go along. This became a tradition of about 25 years. They hunted in a group and usually there was venison and elk meat to eat each year. I liked both of these types of meat. One year my Dad decided to try bow hunting and he and some friends when to southeast Oregon and hunted antelope. Antelope meat was OK, but I like the others a little better. He also tried deer hunting with a bow and arrow.

   One of the special events for my Dad was the year he was invited by a different neighbor to join a group going to British Columbia to hunt. The original person was not able to go, so my Dad was a substitute to fill out the group. This was a guided hunt and most was by horseback. He hadn't ridden a horse for many years, but survived OK. He did shoot a moose, but was able to only bring back the horns. Other people who had shot moose shared their meat. They had the meat made into frankfurters. Even a part of a moose makes a large amount of frankfurters. We called them moose wienies and before they were used up I was really becoming tired of eating them.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – G

G is for God

    My family believed in God and started taking me to church when I was about six weeks old and basically took me every Sunday after that. Church was always a part of my life. We attended the Halsey Christian Church. After I had left home, the church was changed to Grace Bible Fellowship. Both of my parents had responsibilities in the church, Daddy was Sunday School Superintendent and eventually was one of the elders and Momma taught Sunday School. By the time I was in high school I also taught a Sunday School class and sang in the choir. The people at the church were like a second family. During the summer, when there was no school, church became a time to see other children. My mother read Bible stories for many of my bedtime stories. At age 11, I made my personal commitment to God and Christ and was baptized. So began my life as a Christian which I am still trying to live each day. God is so all-powerful and awe-inspiring.

G is for Grandma

    While I was growing up I had three grandmas: Grandma Albertson, Grandma Falk and Great-grandma Smalley.

               Grandma Lucie Rachel (Smalley) Albertson.

    When I was born, my family lived on the farm which was rented by my Grandpa Albertson. Grandpa and Grandma Albertson lived in the bigger house and my folks and I lived in the smaller house. I have some every early memories of going to Grandma's house (just across the yard) and sitting on her lap. When I was about 7, my grandparents moved to Eugene and my family, including my younger brother, moved into the bigger house. Grandpa and Grandma lived on Columbia Street on the eastern side of Eugene. My aunt and uncle lived next door to them. Since Eugene was about 30 miles away we did not visit too often. There were two things I remember about visiting Grandma. She had a large salt and pepper shaker collection. I did enjoy looking at all of them. Eventually I would inherit them after her death and discovered that there were about 150 pair. The second one was that there always seemed to be orange slices in her candy dish and she would let us each have one.

                     Grandma Florence Edna (Bond) Falk

    Grandma Falk lived closer to us, but we still did not visit too often. One of the things that I found fascinating about her house was that when I was young she had a rain barrel next to her back porch. Also she had a pump organ that was kept in a part of the house that generally was closed. Since I started taking piano lessons in the third grade I thought it was really fun to get to try to play the organ. But a special thing at her house was a room which I remember as being next to the living room where there was a box of toys. It was there for us to play with when we were visiting Grandma and was kept put away until one of the grandchildren came to visit again.

             Great-grandma Rosa Ella (Shipman) Smalley

    My Great-grandma Smalley lived in Kansas. When I was about 10 months old my family took a trip to Kansas. I can remember seeing the picture of me with my Great-grandma along with my parents and Albertson grandparents. Also there was a picture with her and two of my second cousins who were about the same age. In 1995 we had a Smalley family reunion in Kansas and I got a picture of me with the same cousins. Great-grandma would write letters to our family and according to one of my first cousins she and great-grandpa came to visit us in Oregon when I was about 5 or 6, but sadly I don't remember that. I do remember that when I was in high school my Dad had to make to trip to Kansas and my great-grandma was still alive. He took a picture of her with his movie camera and I really enjoyed seeing that of her at age ninety. She died a few months later.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – F

F is for Farm

    I grew up living on a farm. We lived on a rented place of about 100 acres. It was 2 miles north and 2 miles west of Halsey, on Potter Road, which later was named Oak Plain Drive. The land was owned by Mr. Gene Stockwell, who was a grandson of Ira Hawley. The story told was that Ira bought farms for Gene and his sister Lena, both farms in the Halsey area. Ira Hawley was one of the original settlers in the Cottage Grove area, where I now live. Mr. Stockwell and his wife generally came to visit the farm every year. He was an attorney and lived in the Los Angeles area. It was a big deal when they came to visit, the house was cleaned and the table was set with "company dishes." Often they came in the summertime and if it was harvest time, Mr. Stockwell would take a ride on the combine. I remember that they always sent beautiful expensive looking Christmas cards. I received a nice gift from them when I graduated from the 8th grade and also from high school. My grandparents had first started renting this farm in 1914, when my Dad was about 7 years old. In 1964, the Stockwells had a special dinner held at the Eugene Hotel to celebrate 50 years for the Albertson family living on the farm. My father retired from farming in 1972 and it was rented by nearby neighbors, the Coon family. They eventually purchased it. My father continued to live on the farm until he died in 2004.

    My father also farmed about 100 acres directly north of where we lived. He and his father had purchased this land and later my grandparents deeded it to my parents. This was not sold until after my father died. There was also about 100 acres which my father farmed about ? miles south of where we lived. My grandparents owned this, but when they retired and moved to Eugene, my father did the farming. It was willed to him after my grandmother died in 1960. We called it the Hetzell place, because that was the owner at one time. This land was eventually sold to the American Can Company who built a pulp and paper mill there.

    I can remember my father growing grass seed, wheat, barley and oats. Grass seed, mostly ryegrass, was planted in the fall (unless you had some perennial planted) and harvested in mid summer. The grain crops were planted in the spring and harvested in later summer. So that would spread out planting time and harvesting time. Some of the implements that I can remember are the tractor (2-large and small), plow, disk, harrow, drill, fertilizer spreader, mower, windrower, and combine. Later my father had a self-propelled combine. I did help some on the old combine. It took a different type of header for the seed crops and the grain crops, so they had to be changed. I can remember helping hand tools to my father while he was doing this.

F is for Fishing

    I mostly associate fishing with my Dad. He really liked to fish. During the winter when he did not have farm work to be done in the fields he went about twice a week to the Alsea River, about 40 miles away, to fish for steelhead. Usually he went with someone else, so they could visit and tell stories while waiting for the fish to bite. They had a certain place they usually went where the man who lived there let them use his boat to cross the river and fish from the other side. When their fishing was done, they would bring it back across. I think that usually Daddy would take his own outboard motor to use so they didn't have to row. I liked it when he caught a steelhead, because they were very good to eat. Over the years I ate quite a lot of fish. During one Christmas vacation my whole family went. The fish were really biting and I caught a fish. I was old enough that I was supposed to have a license. Since we were catching so many fish, my Dad took me in the boat back across the river so we could go to the little store and buy me a fishing license, so there would be enough licenses for all the fish we had caught.

    In the summer during our annual trip to the coast at Newport my Dad would drive up to Depoe Bay and take one of the charter deep-sea fishing trips in the ocean for salmon. It was very exciting when he would catch one.

    During the spring my Dad would go with one or more of his friends and "run the river." They would usually take my Dad's boat with his outboard motor and fish on the Willamette River. Often they would start at Harrisburg and finish at Peoria. One of the wives would drive them to Harrisburg where they could launch the boat and then later in the day meet them at Peoria where they could take the boat back out of the water and load it on the trailer and take it home. They were fishing for trout in the river and usually caught at least one.

    Another place for fishing was the Cascade mountain lakes, Odell and Diamond. I can remember one special trip to Diamond Lake. Our whole family went, along with my Aunt Lois (my mother's sister.) I can't remember if I caught any fish, but I do remember sitting in the boat on the lake and enjoying the scenery. My Aunt Lois went to sleep in the boat and she got sunburned.

    My other special memories of fishing are of the times we went cat-fishing on Muddy Creek which ran through our place. We would drive about a mile down our private road to a spot opposite of the catfish hole, then would walk the rest of the way. There was a small dock built there and a little rise above the creek where we could have our picnic. We went in the evening and would build a little campfire so the most fun was roasting hot dogs and eating the picnic there in the dusk and eventually dark. We fished by securing the poles and putting some type of noise maker on them so if a fish bit, we would know it. I don't remember if I ever caught very many, but I do remember that someone must have because often the next morning we would have catfish for breakfast. How yummy!

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – D & E

D is for Doll 

    One of the dolls I received as a child was fairly large, about 18 inches tall. I named her Shirley. Was that for Shirley Temple? I have no idea. Another gift I received was a bed for her to sleep in. I think that my Uncle Gerry made the bed. One time Shirley was lying in the bed and I stepped into the bed and I broke her leg. So from then on Shirley was handicapped, couldn't walk, so I carried her. Rather than confess to being the one who had damaged her, I claimed that she had been crippled during the war. I was a small child during World War II, so knew that the war had crippled many people.

    Another doll that I received was when I was older. It was a Toni doll, with blond hair that I could style. I was old enough that I made a few items of clothing for her. My Toni doll survived until after I was married and then sold her to a toy collector.

Photo by Court on Unsplash

E is for Eggs

    When I was a child, our family was living on a farm and we had chickens. One of my jobs sometimes was to gather the eggs. We had a chicken-house where there were platforms for the chickens to sleep and some boxes with nests where they could lay eggs. So this was one place where I would check for eggs. If there was a hen sitting on a nest, I had to reach under her and get the egg. Sometimes I would do this very carefully since occasionally a hen would try to peck me. There were also other places on our farm where chickens would lay their eggs. There were places in the barn up in the haymow where you might find eggs, there was a cow shed out in the pasture where there was a box that hens could lay their eggs, and there was a box in the granary building also. So the task of gathering eggs included a route around the farm to see if the chickens had used any of their many choices for a place to lay eggs.

    One year, my parents let me gather the eggs and prepare the ones we did not need for our own use to sell to the local grocery store. Any money paid for them would be mine. The amount I received was small, but it seemed profitable to me.

    Another memory of eggs was breakfast time. Often my father would cook bacon in a large stainless steel frying pan, then pour off the fat, break the eggs into this hot pan, put on the lid, turn off the heat under the pan, and the eggs would cook. It was my preference to have the yoke broken, so the egg was flat, so my Dad would cook mine that way. We usually had dry cereal with milk, toast, bacon and eggs each morning.

    But one of my favorite ways to have eggs was deviled eggs. My Mom would not make them too often, but sometimes she made them to take to the church potlucks, so I would really try to get one when I filled my plate.