Chapter 27: 1946 • Sonora ~ My father believed that life was hard work. He believed you had to earn everything you got, and that to get anything done right you had to do it yourself. He believed that you always finished what you started,... Continue
Rude Awakenings
Chapter 26: 1946 • Sonora ~ Squatting on the front stoop in the low afternoon sun, Betty, all of six, and Claudia just four, sat wondering what kind of trouble they could get into, when their plans were cut short. An eerie howling, like a trapped... Continue
Chapter 25: 1946 • Sonora ~ Sundays were family days that were spent reading the newspaper comics, going to church, and calling on relatives. The adults played canasta and bridge; the kids, Monopoly and Chinese checkers. They went for drives and had picnics in the country with... Continue
Chapter 24: mid 1940s • Sonora ~ No Sunday or Holy Day passed without Dad taking the children to Mass. Some Sundays they attended St. Anne's in Columbia, other Sundays they went to Mass in Jamestown. Sometimes they drove to Tuolumne, during summer camping trips they heard... Continue
Chapter 23: 1946 • Sonora ~ On a sunny Saturday, Mom brought home six-dozen chicks from the feed store and enclosed them in the safety of the chicken coop. The next day, Carleen, Betty, and Claudia gently carried them from the pen to the front yard, cradling... Continue
1942 • Vallejo, California ~ The only dog the family ever had was when they lived in Vallejo, but they didn’t have him for long. It was a little black and white eight-year-old mongrel, and eight-year-old Larry loved him. On a cloudy Sunday, our parents took a... Continue
Chapter 21: Letter from my mother (age 26) to my father’s sister living in Minnesota: Watsonville, Cal. Nov. 22, 1941 Dear Amelia and all: I started working in an apple dryer here the first of September and got through the day before Thanksgiving. I don’t mind... Continue
Chapter 20: 1939 • Watsonville, California ~ Our house was right on her way home from the grammar school and Marceline (Uncle George’s and Aunt Verda’s daughter) loved to stop off and visit mom. Marceline held Babe in high esteem, elevating her to a kindred spirit... Continue
Chapter 19: • Minnesota -- My paternal grandparents were tall, sturdy, farming stock. Grandma had a reputation as a relentless taskmaster and was always thinking of something for her husband to do. He could never sit down, even in the middle of the winter. It... Continue
Chapter 18: • Minnesota, The Clemens Farm ~ My grandparents were known for attending funerals. Relatives, close friends, acquaintances, people they barely knew—it didn’t matter—Barbara and Mathew went to all of them. It was their social center. If anyone wanted to visit them and a nearby funeral... Continue