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.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – C

C is for Christmas

As I remember Christmas time, it consisted of at least five events:

1. Christmas program at school

2. Christmas program at church

3. Christmas Eve celebration with the Julius Falk family usually Harrisburg area

4. Christmas morning opening presents at home near Halsey

5. Christmas Day celebration with the O.J. Albertson family usually Eugene, but sometimes Florence

    I can remember one school program when I was to have the narrator part telling about the first Christmas. But that year there was a big flood and our school program was cancelled, so I missed out on my big acting opportunity.

    It seems like at both school and church programs each child present would received a paper sack with an orange, chocolate drops and hard Christmas candy.

    Christmas time was also the time when my Dad would bring home a sack of chocolate drops. They had assorted flavors and he seemed to really like the chocolate centers. So my brother and I would take a tiny bite from the bottom edge of the chocolates and if it was a chocolate center, we would put that back to save for my Dad.

                                   My brother and me

GIFT GIVING

    We exchanged gifts with the Paul Quimby family at Halsey and Roy & Grace Bond from Glide. As I remember it, very often Uncle Roy & Aunt Grace would send us a box of chocolate covered cherries. I did like to see their package come in the mail.

    For the Falk family at least in the later years, we drew names, adults with adults and children with children. As I was the oldest grandchild, there came a time where I needed to decide if I would draw with the adults or with the children. For the Albertson family, we tended to give gifts by families. However we grandchildren usually received a gift for ourselves also. My Dad took some home movies of the Christmas celebrations in the late 1940's, so it is fun to look at them.

    One year my Dad bought my Mom a stainless steel garbage can, with a removable pail inside and a step-on opener. Then he let her try to guess what it was. He would give a number of hints, but she was never able to guess before she opened it. She laughed when she saw what it was.

    Some of the gifts I received over the years that I remember were: a Toni doll, an electric alarm clock, subscriptions to magazines. (such as Movie Story Magazine, Photoplay, Gene Autry comic book, American Girl) These are good memories.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – B

B is for Baseball

    When my brother was old enough (he was three years younger than me) we would play catch with a baseball or a softball. Then sometimes we would take turns pitching and trying to hit the ball with a bat. Occasionally our father would join the game.

    We didn't have television until I was in high school, but we did have a radio. I can remember many summer nights listening to the baseball games played by the Portland Beavers. Somehow I learned the rules of the games so could understand what was going on. One day one summer our family took a one-time excursion and traveled to Portland and attended a Portland Beavers game. We got to see the actual players that we had been hearing about for so long. It was so exciting. Since the game was at night we stayed overnight in Portland at a hotel. The first time I ever stayed in a hotel. I really can't remember what the room was like, but know that it was something special for me.

    I also have memories of listening to the baseball games played by the Eugene Emeralds. Since it was quite a lot closer we did attend a few more of their games.

B is for Bicycle

    My first bicycle was a used one that my father obtained from a neighbor. It was a standard size boy's bicycle. I learned to ride in our large front drive, slightly graveled, not paved. I don't remember how old I was, maybe I could look at the old home movies and figure it out. It wasn't too long before I got a new bike, girls style, and my brother got the old one. We would play cowboys using our bikes, pretending they were horses. Sometimes I would just ride by myself using the time for thinking or making up stories. We never rode very far from home but mostly rode around on the farm. We had a few very small hills to ride up and down.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – A

    The theme for the month of July is Identity. A part of my identity has been shaped by my childhood, so I plan to share some of my own childhood memories as I remembered and wrote them down in 2013. I used the alphabet to spark my memory, so travel with me through this alphabet of childhood memories from the 1940s and 1950s. Some letters reminded me of more than one thing, so you'll see two entries for some of the letters.

A is for Apple     

    Our family orchard had two apple trees, a Baldwin and Red Delicious. The Baldwin was an earlier apple and was good for cooking. My Mom would make apple pie from both kinds of apples, but the Delicious was not as soft when cooked. My Mom would make applesauce, usually from the Baldwins. She would core them, then without peeling them would use the Foley food mill.

    But my  favorite apple dish that my mother would make I called baked apples. When she wrote down the recipe for me she called it: Baked Apple Pudding. I especially liked it because she seemed to always make enough so there was some left for school lunch the next day.  Here is her recipe:

Baked Apple Pudding

1/3 c. flour, 2/3 c. sugar, 1/3 c. butter, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

Mix these ingredients to a crumb. Bake apple halves or quarters with crumb sprinkled on top in 375° oven till tender 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup water or orange juice depending on size of pan. 

                          

 A is for Aunts

    If you asked me to name my favorite aunt, I would say that I couldn't pick a favorite. I liked my Dad's sisters, Aunt Vida and Aunt Buena. Aunt Vida was the mother to my older cousins. She lived close to us until I was about 6 or 7 years old. Then they moved to Eugene and lived next door to my grandparents. She and her first husband got a divorce so I grew up remembering her second husband Fred. I have a good memory of going to her house for Christmas. Later she and Uncle Fred got a new split-level house and my grandmother, now widowed, moved in with them. Again we did have some Christmas times a her house. I best remember Aunt Buena when she lived in Florence with her second husband, Uncle Walt. At least one year we did go there for Christmas. 

    I also enjoyed my Mom's sisters, Aunt Lois, Aunt Erma, Aunt Violet and my uncle's wife, Aunt Ruth. Aunt Lois could be so funny. My Dad said that you had to be careful and not tell her a joke on Saturday night because she might laugh in church the next day. But I felt sorry for Aunt Lois because she was divorced and one year her ex-husband took my cousin Kay for the summer and didn't bring her back. I was some years before Lois was reunited with her daughter. Aunt Erma moved to Minnesota and sent letters including tracts about her religious beliefs. Aunt Violet was fun to be around. She and her first husband Art moved to Idaho to homestead for awhile I can remember after she had married Uncle Mel going to their home for Christmas. Aunt Ruth was a nurse and she and Uncle Jerry had four children.

    I was fortunate to know some of my paternal grandmother's sisters, Aunt Julia and Aunt Lake, and some of her sisters-in-law, Aunt Ruby and Aunt Evelyn. Aunt Julia lived in Kansas, but did come to visit us in Oregon. Aunt Lake lived in Brownsville and we went to her house fairly often for family gatherings. Aunt Ruby was a cheerful person and Aunt Evelyn always looked dressed up.

    I didn't really know my other grandmother's sister-in-law, Aunt Grace, but she did send out family chocolate covered cherries for Christmas almost every year.

    A great-grand aunt that I met was Aunt Nellie, who was really my cousin, but she was married to my great-grandfather's brother. Aunt Nellie lived in Nebraska and came to visit in Oregon a few times. I can remember when she came while cherries were ripe and she so enjoyed my Dad picking cherries up high in the tree with a fishing pole.

    So I have some good memories of my aunts.