1947 • Larry’s diary (age 13) Jun 4 Graduated from 8th grade elementary school. I got a wristwatch and binder as gifts. Went to graduation party and danced with Barbara Miles Jun 5 At 2 PM left for 3 week vacation to stay at George and Verda Day‘s home in Redwood City as Mom and Dad … [Read more...]
1.18 We Love Milkshakes!
June 1947 • Charlie and Velma ~ The three weeks Mom and Dad were in Minnesota for the funeral, Betty and Claudia stayed with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Velma, Mom’s oldest brother and his wife. It didn’t go well. Charlie and Velma had no children of their own (which never inhibited them from telling Mom … [Read more...]
1.17 A California Thistle
Jun 1947 • Minnesota ~ Dad’s first trip back to the family farm was in 1937 for his mother’s funeral ten years earlier. He and Mom took the long train trip to the Midwest, bringing Larry who was almost four, and Carleen who was two years younger. Farm kids were seldom catered to, and this woman … [Read more...]
1.16 Missive to Marceline
When our cousin Marceline turned seventeen (the same age Mom was when she married Dad), she became engaged to a young man named Roy. She wrote my mother of her wedding plans; Mom penned back a four-page letter in her cursive handwriting: May 2, 1947 Dear Marceline: Received your letter when I got … [Read more...]
1.15 Larry’s Diary, Apr-May 1947
1947 • Larry’s diary (age 13) Apr 1 Received pay of five dollars and paid father on radio Apr 2 Bought hatchet and knife. Chopped down a small bush for my paper route. Bought some stamps and took book from library about stamps Apr 3 There was no Boy Scouts meeting tonight. Got … [Read more...]
1.14 Heathens and Hellions
1947 • Sonora, California ~They tore through the house like heathens and hellions. The kids not only had the run of the house, they had the run of the town. Most summer days the three older ones were off exploring and swimming, roller skating the cracked sidewalks, and riding their bikes up and down … [Read more...]
1.13 Larry’s Diary, Feb-Mar 1947
1947 • Larry’s Diary (age 13) Feb 1 Today I took both routes again for Mr. Mouron. I also went and looked at some bikes as I am hoping to buy one. Bought some more stamps for collection. Feb 2 Today I went for a short walk. I also took a bath the day before yesterday and one today. Pat … [Read more...]
1.12 Larry’s New Diary, Jan 1947
My mother, brother, and sisters loved to read. They regularly checked out books from the local library, and in every room at home someone would be sprawled somewhere with their nose buried in one. Larry’s favorites were historical adventures, dog stories, and biographies. He'd buy books when he … [Read more...]
1.11 Nothing But the Best
1946 • Sonora ~ Mom decided life would be easier if Claudia, the youngest at the time and the only one still at home, went to school. Dressed in her netted hat to set off her pinned-up hair, a pastel polka-dotted shoulder-padded two-piece outfit, pearls, silk stockings, and white open-toed wedge … [Read more...]
1.10 Wolf at the Door
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...]
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...]
1.011 The Clemens Farm (part 1)
My grandparents, Matt and Barbara Clemens, were known for attending funerals. Relatives, close friends, acquaintances, people they barely knew: it didn’t matter. They went to all of them. It was their social center. If anyone wanted to visit them and a nearby funeral was happening, they knew Grandpa … [Read more...]
1.010 Minnesota Catholics and Cows
1920 • Minnesota ~ When the wheels needed to be changed or the axles greased, my father—not yet a man—lifted the more than 200-pound hay wagon with his back, raised it higher with his arms, and held it steady while his older brother Aloysius, or Louie as the family called him, slipped the new wheel … [Read more...]
1.009 Everything is a Gamble
Feb 4, 1933 • Colusa Sun-Herald, Colusa ~ At an early hour this morning Miss Noreen Chatfield became the bride of Carl Clemens of Rochester, Minn., at a ceremony performed in Our Lady of Lourdes Church immediately following 8 o’clock mass services. The members of the immediate families of the couple … [Read more...]
1.008 Golden Eagle Cafe
1932 • Colusa, California ~Three years into the Great Depression, when there were no jobs and little money and Herbert Hoover was unable to keep his campaign promises of prosperity, my grandmother, 59-year-old Nellie Chatfield, moved to the bustling rice town of Colusa, the county capital built on a … [Read more...]
1.007 Sign of the Cross
More backstory • Chico ~ As she got older and her burning feet made it too far to walk, Roy drove his mother the mile and a half to 7:30 morning Mass. Cruising up in his black four-door Hudson Terraplane sedan, hopping from the car, offering her his arm and walking her up the thirteen red brick … [Read more...]
1.006 Sketches of Chatfield Clan
My grandmother ruled the roost and her word was law. There was no question about it. As a result of her righteous positions, she was on the outs with most of her children throughout her life—and the higher she stood on her moral ground—the lower her family descended. Family Lineage Charles Henry … [Read more...]
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