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 howl, like from a trapped animal with its foot caught in a snare, floated through the … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2017
1.09 Brandi’s and Bingo
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 Aunt Verda’s family. Our cousins, … [Read more...]
1.08 Might as Well be Hung for a Sheep
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 Mass sitting on the hard benches at the outdoor theatre in … [Read more...]
1.07 Itty-Bitty Balls of Fluff
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 the soft chicks inside their tops, smelling their … [Read more...]
1.017 The War Years
September 1940 • Watsonville and Vallejo ~ The family moved back and forth between the towns of Vallejo and Watsonville. In 1940, Dad was working for Union Ice, and he occasionally took Larry with him on deliveries. My brother was impressed with the tons of ice in the huge vending machines, … [Read more...]
1.016 Letter from My Mother
From my mother (age 26) to my father's sister, Amelia Conway (age 39), living in Byron, Minnesota: Watsonville, Cal. Nov. 22, 1941. Dear Amelia and all: The last letter I had from you was dated July 11, whether I have written since then I don’t know but I probably haven’t. Not much to write … [Read more...]
1.015 Where Babies Come From
1939 • Watsonville, California ~ Our house was right on her way home from the grammar school and Marceline (Uncle George and Aunt Verda’s daughter) loved to stop off and visit mom. Marceline held Babe in high esteem, elevating her to a kindred spirit and favorite aunt. She thought our mother a much … [Read more...]
1.014 Sketches of Clemens Family
My Father’s Family (Carl John Clemens) The Clemens’ place was a 210-acre dairy farm that in the first flurry of winter was a Norman Rockwell picture of snow-covered paradise. It was the first farm lying just west of the outskirts of the city of Rochester in the Township of Cascade, Olmsted County, … [Read more...]
1.013 The Clemens Farm (part 3)
The Clemens and Nigon families did well, all successful farmers of German heritage. Not one family lost their farm in the Great Depression, like so many farmers who had strapped their land with bank loans. They worked, paid cash for what they needed, then drank beer and danced... but not until work … [Read more...]
1.012 The Clemens Farm (part 2)
The Clemens children went to the county school just down the hill, and then to St. John’s Grade School in the former St. Mary’s Hall, a big, two-story brick building a mile away. The three oldest girls were so close in age that Grandma held Mary back a year so she and Elizabeth could start school … [Read more...]