Baldwin Sisters Transcripts (retry)

 A Conversation with the Baldwin Sisters 

 Mary Baldwin Owens, Florence Baldwin Sherfey, and Elva Baldwin Bennett Recorded on May 15, 1984 with Celesta Bennett Dailey, at Jack Bennett’s home in Farmington, WAWhat a fun day this was… It was Grandma Elva’s birthday, and for some reason, I thought to take my tape recorder with me. You will see by the comments who was at the gathering. Again, my granddaughter Robin Dailey Perry worked and struggled many days transcribing the tapes. The first challenge was to understand the words, and the second, whose voices were we hearing? Robin, I can’t thank you enough. I think you will feel the same way I do that it is a wonderful blessing to hear the stories and the voices of our dear loved ones again. Please enjoy the interviews, pictures and memories that will come to your mind. -Celesta To listen to the accompanying audio files, visit:

 https://celestadailey.blogspot.com/2020/08/baldwin-sisters-interview-audio.html OR: 4 Generations of the Jonathan Eden Baldwin Family Jonathan Eden Baldwin (1861-1945) Martha Ellen Steward (1864-1922) Septer Eden Baldwin (1885-1954) -Gudrun “Runa” Segurbjurg Eirikson (1892-1954) Rhea Mae Baldwin (1917-1995) -James Harrison Cunningham (1916-1991) James Patrick Cunningham Scott E. Cunningham Kerry J. Cunningham Seward Leslie Baldwin (1888-1910) Elva Celesta Baldwin (1891-1987) -Carl S. Bennett (1889-1972) John “Jack” Clarence Bennett (1915-1997) -Artha D Fisher (1917-2015) Celesta Ann Bennett Mary Carleen Bennett John Arthur Bennett Janice Louise Bennett Emma Jean Bennett Esther Ann Baldwin (1895-1954) -Samuel Allison Hale (1890-1946) Jane Allison Hale (1922-2017) -Gordon Schuster (1923-2004) Iantha Schuster Greg Schuster Martha Lee Hale (1925-) -Clyde Leon Redmond (1924-1981) LeAnn Redmond Byron Hale Redmond -Laurence Rankin Hamblen (1874-1956) Mary Ellen Baldwin (1897-1989) -Jerry Owens (1892-1979) Russell Owens 1920-1980 -Alberta “Bettie” Fay Foster (1921-2015) Faye Marguerite Owens Kathleen Marie Owens Jay Foster Owens Terry David Owens Roger J. Owens (1923-1993) -Irma Mark (1929-2016) Rodney Owens Richard Owens Lloyd Owens Florence Ada Baldwin (1899-1992) -Frank Campbell Sherfey (1887-1970) Wayne E Sherfey (1921-2012) -Florence C. Hamernik (1925-2014) Carol Jean Sherfey Mary Ellen Sherfey (1923-2018) -Winfred (Don) L. Tee (1921-2005) Ronald Tee Mary Beth Tee Sally - Tee

SIDE I 

Florence: Well, Russell and Roger, and Wayne and Mary Ellen were little kids, we went huckleberrying. And that, at that time we had to put our cars down at the foot of the hill, and walk way up on the hill to get the huckleberries. And we got part way up there and I had fell down and Mary said, “Get up and come on! You’re no sport.” Well, we got way up in the mountains, came time to eat lunch and Mary had forgot and left her lunch in the car! And I hid mine, put mine behind a stump and I thought we’d never find that stump! Down to get the, our lunch. Then the kids were bawling and a-carrying on. But we got back down to the car and started home and we slashed the huckleberries out. And then when I got home I worked those things over until two o’clock in the morning and I kept tasting them and I got sick on them, and no more huckleberries for me! That’s the end. Celesta: Okay, Grandma, now you tell your cow story. Your hamburger story. Elva: I don’t think I’ll tell that one! I remember the first, uh, telephones we had. Celesta: Well, tell us about that then. Elva: Well, on one side, the south side of town had uh, those big old monstrosities, you know? Those big ‘ole telephones? Celesta: Oh the big wood ones? Elva: You had to ring like this. And uh, on the north side of town all the neighbors, everybody had one. And Aunt Etta, we called her central. And she had two of them, side by side, and if we called anybody on the other side of town, she’d hold these two receivers together until they got through talking! And you know we, we had to ring, like this? Our ring was a long, two longs and two shorts. And Mama said, “Well there’s not gonna be any rubbering!” And uhCelesta: Did ya? Elva: We had- not very much! We had a neighbor though, that um, his name was, um, Eve Reese. And he had his telephone right above the davenport, and he’d lie there on the back, listen, rubber all the time! And if he couldn’t hear what they say he’d say, “Huh?” And then, then uh-Mary: Oh well, uh, the, we, Momma wouldn’t let us rubber. The so, ring, the telephone rang and rang and rang and oh, we knew something was wrong. So we went to the phone and um, uh, Guy Boyer was talking. He wanted somebody to uh, go over to Oakesdale and pick up a nurse. And uh, so when he got over there, Carl went, and when she, he got over there she asked what was wrong. And he said, “I think Laryngitis.” Well, Hannah had great big breasts, and she wore a dress that just, you now, one of those loose ones? And, and uh, so when she got, when she got over there, well Hannah, the babies were born. But they were premature a little bit, so they had to take them to the hospital for three weeks, I think. Elva: And uh, we didn’t have a heater in the car. So uh, they got Charlie Blick, he, to take her to Spokane. Mary: And the babies. Elva: And the babies. And uh, so right away Carl went and got a heater in the car! Celesta: That’s a far cry from Laryngitis! Gee! Artha: That was about 1936 or ‘7 wasn’t it? Elva: I imagine about then. Celesta: Oh was it? Mary: Those were the days! Florence: And the car, and the phone was ringing all the time, you know? We could hear everybody’s ring! Celesta: I’d probably pick it up and listen a little bit. Mary: Twenty-six on the line too! Celesta: Oh, no! People, people can’t get ahold of us with just us on the line! We’d have to not talk so much I think! Oh, gee! Florence: Well, there’s two on my line. Mary Ellen has a private, private line. Celesta: When did you, what, when did you first get a telephone?Mary: Well, I think, I know I was going to school, and I, I must have been, Esther and Elva and I were in a buggy going to school, coming home. We saw big smoke coming. Well, when we got over the hill we sees our house. It was our house all on fire. And so, I was about uhFlorence: Well I hadn’t started school yet. Mary: No. Florence would have been about four, I guess. And I was, I would have been about six. Florence: Seward yanked, he yanked the phone off the wall, took it outside. Mary: Mmhmm. And, and, Mama told Florence, said, get something, the most important things, and uh- So she took Elva’s big doll, and that’s the same doll that Elva has now. Celesta: Oh is that right? Yeah? Florence: Doll and the cradle and all. Mary: In the cradle, carried way up in the orchard. That’s how that doll was saved. Celesta: And everything else burned then, huh? Mary: Well, Mama got some things out, but not too much. Celesta: Well, did you build another house then? Mary: Yeah we did, but uh, that fall, Papa had already planned on building a barn. And so he built a bunkhouse for us to live in, just a few months, and he built the barn and then he built the big house. Celesta: Oh. Elva: Well, you know we just had a stove pipe for a chimney, and uh, our mother had, oh, she cleaned the house and mended all the clothes and, and uh, I guess she had too hot a fire. Florence: I thought the deal was she put things up in the attic and they got against the, the floo up there in the attic. That’s what they always thought. Elva: They had to have a ladder to go up the attic, to the upstairs, you know? The boys slept up there, and uh, had a, a door, trapdoor to let down all the way. Mary: Then I remember one time, uh, Artha you’d remember this. Uh, you and Jack, and Celesta was a baby. And they went up to Fernwood to visit us. And we used to make jerky.Artha: Oh yeah. Mary: And uh, the way we make it we cut strips then put a string through it, then hang it up to dry, smoke. And Artha, we, they liked it so much she’d wound the string around here and, if it was hanging down, she’d eat it. And I remember one time Artha and Jack went for a walk, and I kept you while they were gone. Celesta: Was I well behaved? Mary: Yeah, I think you must have been. Celesta: Oh, good. Artha: We used to spend a lot of time up at Aunt Mary’s. Celesta: Oh, I know it! Mary: Oh we had the river and the mountains and the horses and it, it was just ideal for kids. And some kids would come up there and stay for a while and they’d go down to the river, and they’d stay in the river swimming, and they’d get, of course get tired and hungry. Finally come to the house, and I knew what they liked so I used to have, one of those great, one of those iron pans full of the hash. And, later years one of the kids said uh, when he, well it wasn’t too much later but a few years later, he came to see Jerry when he was in hospital and he looked up to me and he says, “I liked your cooking!” Celesta: Oh, gee! Artha: Yeah, it was always good. Celesta: I loved it up there. I think someday I’ll move to the mountains. Mary: Move up there with us. Well, the people that bought our place though, they intend to retire there. Celesta: Oh, is that right?Mary: Mmhmm. They are cattle raisers from down close to, to uh, Lewiston. They’re really just wonderful people. Celesta: They probably really enjoy it there then. , Artha: Jason? you must have a good story to tell. Jason?: I’m afraid not. Artha: You can tell about the early days when you used to __?__ out there on the ranch, maybe? Celesta: Don’t know any? Well I, we need to back up because um, I have some little bits and pieces like of your dad, but I don’t have very much. I know he was a pony express rider, or whatever you called it, carried the mail to Spokane. So I know about that, but, like when did he come to Farmington? Florence: Well it was eight- in 1877 that he carried the mail from Colfax to Spokane on horseback. Mary: Well, Elva wasFlorence: And that was about the time that they came, he, it was shortly after they got here, He started carrying the mail. Mary: Yeah, but uh- yeah that’s true, but what she said, what time they come to Farmington. Well, Elva, and Seward, and Septer, Elva was little. And ‘bout 3 years old Elva when you moved to Farmington? Elva: What’s that? Mary: Were you about 3 years old when you moved to Farmington? Elva: Three years, I brought my folks up here. Moved ‘em up here. Celesta: Oh, you moved them? Mary: So, Esther, Florence, and I were born at Farmington out on the farm.Florence: We didn’t get very far away from home, did we? Celesta: No! So then they just got that little farm out there. And then, when did he move to Fernwood then? Mary: It was a quarter section of land out there. Well, well that was in about 1930. We moved ‘30 or ‘31 when we moved to Fairfield. Fernwood. Wasn’t it? Artha: Mmm, it was a little bit later than that. Um, it was about ‘40, uh ‘41. Yeah, Celesta was a baby, I can remember it that way. Mary: Yeah that’s true. Yeah. Celesta: 43 years, yes! ?: What’s she doing? Celesta: She’s making fun of me and how old I am. Florence: Well i know, Wayne’s, Jack started school the day that Wayne was born.Celesta: Oh, is that right? Elva: I have his picture. He was all dressed up because the first day, and uh, the cat was rubbing up against him and uh, he had his book in one hand andMary: Short pants in the other. ‘Cause he was wearing short pants. Celesta: I think I’ve seen that picture. Elva: He must have been almost 7 because his birthday is in April. May, June, July… School usually starts in when? Celesta: September. Florence: Februar- uh- September. Bout the 12th of September. Elva: September? Uh huh, he must have been about seven then. Then after that he wore overalls, after the first day, and uh, I used to patch them with square holes so I can do it on the sewing machine. And he said, “Mother, I wish- all the other boys have round patches.” So after that I had to put round patches on the overalls. Celesta: So he could match the other boys, huh? Florence: Did I ever tell you about when Mary Ellen was, oh she’s just a little bitty kid but we lived in Tekoa and we had a butcher shop then. And I sent her up to the butcher shop to get some, some uh, wait a minute. Mary: Hamburger? Florence: No, no, no. Mary: Liverwurst.Florence: Liverwurst. Yeah, that was, yeah, liverwurst. I sent her up there to get some liverwurst. And she got up there and she said, “Mama wants some of your worst liver.” They laughed at her and laughed at her and made her so mad she came home just a-bawling, she said, “Ma, you did want some of their worst liver!” Elva: There’s another time when uh, she, she and that kid were, had a little wagon and uhFlorence: Oh that one? Elva: Go ahead and tell that. Florence: Oh well, when we lived in, uh, that was when we lived in uh, Steptoe. Anyways she’s going down the street, pulling this little kid in the wagon, and, and I was out on the porch lying there on the couch out there on the porch. And I heard her talking and, and she said, “You know the other day,” she said, “My, my um, uncle was a-walking along and walking along and somebody came and cut his head off!” And that, that little kid said, “But Mary Ellen did it hurt?” And she said, “Oh no, it just made his neck a little bit stiff!” Celesta: Oh gee! Florence: She said the craziest things. Mary: Seward used to be that way too. Anyway, no matter what they’d say, he’d have something to say and to tease. And he said to Esther one day, he says, “Esther? Do you know an old squaw only walks, only walks on one foot half the time?” She says, “Yes, and you know the other day I was downtown, and I saw an old squaw just a hopping along on one foot and then finally she’d pick up the other, put that down pick up the other.” Celesta: One step ahead of him! Florence: She always had a answer though! Mary: Oh yeah.Florence: Oh yeah, I, I still miss her. You know, we were so close together, cause I lived with her so many years, you see? We went to Canada, I was twelve years old when we moved to Canada, and seventeen when we came back. I was seventeen. So then I went down and stayed at Esther’s all that time after that. So that, I really didn’t know the Farmington people, you know, just like Mary and Elva knows. Mary: The reason we moved to CanadaFlorence: Oh, I’ll tell, let me tell them about the Ditmore guy. You know, Ditmore? Artha: I knowFlorence: He lives here doesn’t he? Artha: No. Florence: Where does he live? Mary: Plummer someplace Artha: Oh! Marion Ditmore?Florence: Is his name Marion? I don’t know. Artha: Well he’s, well, he’s, yeah he’s the one that’s around this part of the country but he lives up Plummer, Tekoa or someplace. Mary: Yeah, it’s Marion. Florence: Well, well anyways, we was in a big crowd the other day and he came up to me and he says, “Hello there!” Well, I didn’t know who he was. Then he, he saw Mary, and he said, “Oh, I’m Ditmore.” ‘Course he knew her. Artha: He went to school here. Florence: Oh did he? Now I’m through talking, you can talk. Celesta: K. Now what’d you start to say? Mary: I’ve forgotten! Artha: Oh, you said the reason you moved to Canada. Mary: Oh! Oh yes, well you see, Seward died. And Mama was so broken up and so, grieving so hard, that, well, Papa had already gone up to Canada. Alberta, and bought a quar-, half section of land. Well see, one was for Septer and one was for Seward. Well anyway, when Seward died, why, uh, Mama was grieving so hard so we moved up there and we were up there for five years. And that, then we came down. That’s the reason we went to, moved to Canada. Artha: While you were up there, Elva and Grandpa were married. Celesta: Yeah, that’s right. Grandpa came after Grandma and brought her home. Mary: Yeah. I then, El-, and I was staying with Elva and Carl, going to school, the year or two after that. And Elva went down, went up to visit the folks, and I stayed with Aunt Etta while she was gone. And it was in that big old house, and they put me on a cot. And oh, I slept so cold, Iw a s j u s t f r o z e n t h e w h ole tim e s h e w a s g o n e! I s u r e w a s gla d w h e n s h e g o t b a c k! It’s a w f ul t o sle e p c old!Celesta: That doesn’t sound too good. Artha: Was that out in the country out here? Uh, South of town? Mary: Yeah, uh huh, yeah. Celesta: Well, what did, what did they do with the farm here while they were in Canada then? Mary: Well, we rented it to Louis Walters. Celesta: So then you had it when you came back then? Mary: Uh huh, and, Mrs. Walters was so mad when we came back cause we, she had to give up the place. Verge, I guess she was Verge Walters. No, she wasn’t either. She was, uh, something else. Verge was uh, Westley’s wife. Well now, you, we haven’t told, it’s all about our families. Tell about your families! Elva: What’s that? Florence: Artha, I said, we’ve told all about our families. Now, for Celesta and Artha, tell about hers. Celesta: I- I’ve got mine all written down. Artha: We should put that on a separate tape. Jack: Celesta, she hasn’t got uh, like when the house burnt down here and they moved to an apartment? Got that? Celesta: WellArtha: See there were two houses that burned down. Celesta: Oh, another house burned down? Oh, well tell us about that. Well, now, what happened? Did everybody get married, and then, and move away and then you and Uncle Jerry farmed out there? Jack: Ask her how Uncle Jerry got there. Celesta: Yeah, how’d Uncle Jerry get out there? Where’d he come from?Mary: Well, he lived in Canada. And uh, he’s on his way with his brother-in-law to trade horses. He was a horse trader. Celesta: And he was clear up there? Mary: Yeah, they, they moved up there too. Celesta: Oh! Mary: And, so um, well that’s, Jerry went up with them. That’s how, that’s how I met him. Anyway, they, they were on their way to trade horses, and they had one horse, oh it was an awful, lame old thing. And, but when they, when it got warmed up it, it wouldn’t, wasn’t quite so bad. But they, they went up to this other place to trade with this old, he was a horse trader too. And he always wanted to beat everybody, he always tried to. Of course, horse traders do that. Anyway, they got up there and they were careful to put the horse on the opposite side so he couldn’t see her as they led it in the barn. Well they let it in the barn and they went in and talked awhile, and finally they traded and Lon, that’s Jerry’s brother in law, got uh, some turkeys, and chicken, and a pig, I don’t know what all for this horse. And, and so Old Ben Baker thought he’d beaten ‘em so bad. So his, his son said, well they, they, they, they took the- well, they got a horse too out of it. And uh, they left and, and just as soon as they got out of sight Old Ben went out to see what he’d got. And Buford, the son, oh he was so tickled! Ben was so beaten, beaten, that old horse- by that time it’d cooled off and it was, couldn’t walk, couldn’t walk! We always laughed about that! Celesta: Got him real good. Jack: That doesn’t tell how she got it. Celesta: Okay, and then. Then what happened? Mary: And then, and then uh, that was the first time I saw Jerry. He came to the door to, to see about something, and I went to the door and oh my! I thought he was handsome! Oh! Handsomest man I ever saw!Celesta: Well, he was! Mary: And that’s how I met him. Artha: It was love at first sight. Mary: Uh, it musta been. Celesta: Well, did you marry him up there then? Mary: No. Down in Farmington. Celesta: Then you got back to-, how’d that happen then? I mean, if you’re both living in Canada butMary: Well, uh the, uh, his folks moved, they all went-, no! They didn’t either. Uh, Jerry went down, Papa, Papa had taken horses and machinery stuff on a trench powerload (?), you know. And soArtha: No. Mary: Jerry didn’t go back with him. Uh, John Kine went back with him. Wasn’t it? Or maybe it was. On the, in the train, and we went down, back on the train. Uh, we were up there just five years weren’t we? To the day. And that was in, then that was 1917 when the first World War broke out.Florence: It was six years to the day. Mary: Oh, six years. Florence: In April, we moved up in April and came back in April. Mary: Yeah, and that was when the First World War started. Celesta: And then Uncle Jerry moved to Farmington too then, huh? Mary: Uh-huh. And then, uh, Jerry was drafted. And he went up, he went to Fort- something in the East. And uh, he got pneumonia. And his company all went across the ocean but he was sick in bed with the pneumonia and uh, he didn’t go, so he never did cross. Celesta: Uh-huh. And then did he, then did he start to work out there on the farm then too? Mary: Mm-hmm. And then, and, he said, see they weren’t prepared at all for sick people, they didn’t have hospitals. Just old barracks with, uh, screens, and they’d let down canvas to keep it warm in there. And the boys were dying, he said they were ?? box. He said one died above him and two or three all, all around him. But he didn’t, he didn’t smoke so that made-, he was better. Our parents came and they, their son was dying and oh, Jerry said it was so sad! And that was a war we never should have been in! Celesta: Well, and then, then your house burned here and you moved toMary: Yeah, it did. Celesta: That’s a spot you don’t want to build a house on! Mary: No, that wasFlorence: I always thought though, I’d like to go up to just the top of the hill, and just look over that way some time!Celesta: Pull up a chair! Artha: Bring in a chair. ?: Welcome. Norma: Thank you! Oh, I just went out and took the dog out for a little bit. Artha: Those are coasters. Mary: Yeah. What’s that? Celesta: Oh, those are cute! Florence: To set your cup on. Mary: Oh! Oh, yeah, oh, who made them? Artha: Um, a friend of Norma’s. Mary: Oh. Celesta: They are cute Mary: Oh, yeah they are. Who made that? Artha: Oh, I think Anna Hall made that one. Those out on the table Jessie made. This Jessie. Florence: Well, I’ll have to write and tell her all about this trip down here today. I send her the bulletin from the church nearly every week, she likes to see that. Mary: Well, Rodney one time, he was a little kid, and um, Netty, Netty, what’s her name Johnson? Netty? Your Netty. Anyway, she uh, they were having a Ladies’ Aid meeting at her house and Rodney was just a little kid. And um, so Irma had him to the party and, she was, and Mildred, Mildred Jensen was there. And Rodneywas talking to Mildred Jensen he says that, he says, “My daddy doesn’t like Rodney.” That was herCelesta: Oh, yeah? Mary: Yeah, and uh, so, oh it, Irma was embarrassed because she thought Netty might have heard. Anyway when they got home, she was scolding him and telling Roger, she said, Roger said, well, “Rodney, er, why did you say that?” He said, “Well, darnit! Had to be talking about something!” ‘Cause you couldn’t shut him up then! He justCelesta: Getting in conversation? Mary: Well, what did Jack do, what did Jack do that was ornery and mean when he was little? Celesta: Well he told us a lot of good ornery stories! Florence: He was a good little boy. Jack: I’ve already had my interview. Artha: Let’s hear Aunt Florence, Aunt Florence can tell how ornery Aunt Mary and the rest of the family were. Florence: Oh, wowie! You never saw anything like it! Whew! Oh, she was ornery! Mary: Me! Oh, I wasn’t either. Florence: Well, still, still is! Yes she is! Oh, she’s stubborn. And you know, she didn’t like-Celesta: That’s a good trait! You’ve got to have, you’ve got to look out for yourself! Florence: She just hated housework. And when we would have to carry the clothes out in the basket to hang them up, you know, on the line, she’d bump my legs just as hard as she could! Mary: I didn’t like to hang! Florence: She said, look, she said, “I just don’t like to do this!” And she’d bump me! Celesta: Make you suffer for it! Florence: Oh, she was ornery! And then she even made me carry her books to school when we lived in Innisfail, up the hill. Mary; I don’t, well I had rheumatism in my legs! Florence: Well, yeah, but that was no excuse! Mary: Was too! I don’t remember that. Florence: Oh boy, I do! Jack: Okay, Aunt Florence! Tell about what you did to Raymond Morrison. Uh-oh! Florence: Well, he was always a-bawling. Biggest bawl baby you ever saw! When we lived up in Canada, went to this little country school. Just crying, the kids would kinda tease him, threw his hat up in the hayloft in the barn. Mary: He was nervous! Florence: So I, I’m not gonna tell, it’s awful. So I, I dug a little grave, and I put up here on a little headstone,Here lies Raymond/ Cute and sweet/ With his mouth propped open/ To the sw-, the street. Mary: His feet. Florence: To- yeah. Uh, let’s see here, Raymond’s feetMary: WIth his, with his mouth propped open toFlorence: Open toMary: The air.Florence: You’ll see Raymond’s sweet face/ No longer there. Or something. He just bawled! Mary: And then, we uh, we were going to this little country school and uh, the Vandale kids were driving an oxen to school on a stoneboat. [stoneboat: a flat sled] Florence: Yeah. Mary: And uh, and then at recess they thought the ox needed water. Well, it didn’t, but then anyway, Florence and I, and it was Raymond got on the oxen, and uh, he saw the gate was open, and he ducked his head down, his tail up and he just went for the gate. And uh, Florence and I just rolled off, didn’t hurt us any, snow was on the ground. And Raymond stayed on, he just bellored and bellored, he finally fell off! And Raymond’s still living and that’s all we’ll tell about him. Celesta: Oh, I won’t play the tape for a few years! Be careful who hears it. Florence: Ohhhh, wowie. Celesta: Well, tell about going to school are y’all, were you all good students? Florence: Oh yeah. Norma: They got awful quiet all the sudden. Celesta: I know! Nobody wants to talk about their school and school grades. Florence: Well, remember up in, up in Canada though, everybody had to write a story about your life, you know? Well, I wrote a story and then I wouldn’t read my own so I gave Joe Vandale mine to read. And then he got to laughing until he couldn’t read it! Artha: So crazy, huh? Mary: Well, in this little country school it was so cold, we went to school when it was forty below zero. Drove a-, ‘scuse me, horse to a sled or car, or wherever, or I mean cart. And, when we get there, well we, we’d have to build a fire. And it had one of those old stoves, you know, flat top this way. And we had, uh, our lunch would befrozen by time we get there, we’d put that under the stove, and then by noontime it’d be thawed out. And then we’d make tea on top, and had, we had hot tea and lunch. Celesta: Oh, gee! Sounds cold! Mary: We boarded the teacher! Nobody else wanted to board the teacher! Florence: Or the preacher either! Mary: No. Florence: We always had to keep the preacher too! Mary: Yeah, and they had those little old student preachers from England. And they were so English-y and green, and so we were the only ones that, that, the rest of the men in the neighborhood didn’t want them to board the, or keep the preacher, we didn’t get any money for it. Florence: Well he had to ride twenty miles horseback to come out there from Innisfail to preach. Mary: And then uh, so, we did, they, Septer and some of the boys uh, played a trick on him, they thought they were. They fixed it, but we had to walk a log to get over to the barn from the house and this was a, quite a stream in here. And they fixed the log so that uh, they thought that when he got in the middle of it, why, he’d get out in the water! But he fooled them. He uh, he took some grain and, and coaxed him across and the horse came across. Celesta: Must’ve known they were up to something, huh? Mary: And, you know up there, it was so level, and the air was so clear in the winter time, we could hear our neighbors half a-, a mile away it was! And we could hear her calling the turkeys, saying, “Come, turk! Turk! Turk! Turk! Turk! Turk! Come, turk!Elva: Oh, I thought you were going to come tell about the mirages. Mary: Well, we did have them. We, we could see um, our neighbor, it was just left flat, but all the brush and all, we couldn’t see it from our house. Elva: And the river, see the river wasn’t in sight, and barns and things just, it was caused I guess by the slanting rays of the sun. And uh, we could see things during that time that you couldn’t see any other time. Mary: We could see this neighbor, walking around. Celesta: You’d feel like a spectacle! You wouldn’t know what your neighbors could see! Florence: Talk about keeping the preacher though. You know our preachers in Latah, they’re all fond of me. The other day in the post office I was sitting around, kind of around the corner when Reverend Butrick came in, who lives right across the street, we just love him. Anyway, I went boo at him, and he jumped and he said, “Anybody looking at that face would be scared.” But they are the sweetest kids, both of them. I tell everybody they’re my kids. Celesta: Well, Grandma, you haven’t told a story for a while. Florence: Now I never heard Mary talk, they, those kids they’ll sit for maybe five hours in the evening, never say a word. Mary: They don’t either. Florence: She’s been talking all the time, I haven’t had a chance even! Norma, RogerCelesta: They’re down there. Florence: They say, they always say they’re listening so I always say I’ll listen too. Celesta: I think that must be what John and I do, we listen a lot! ?: What, to each other, you mean?Celesta: Yeah, nobody’s talking! Well, Grandma, tell us about your first house! Elva: My first house?! Celesta: Yeah, when you got married. Elva: Well, it was right out here someplace, I don’t know just right where. And it was uh, oh, had a front porch and a back porch andMary: And Bessie andElva: And upstairs andCelesta: Did you have elec-, well you didn’t have electricity! Elva: No, not at that time. Celesta: what, what did you have, use? Elva: Later, we did. But we had uh, gas lights. Had to have a torch and light them that way. And then pump, a pump would put that gas in, and have to pump that up there somehow. Artha: Did you have those right away, or? Elva: What’s that? Artha: Did you have those right away when you were married? Were they in there-? END SIDE ISIDE II Elva: Trim the wicks, and put oil in them andMary: Celesta, you don’t remember Bessie do you? Elva: We’d get oil in five gallon cans. Celesta: No. that was before I was born. Mary: No, uh-uh, no, yeah uh-huh. Florence: I should tellElva: When they’d smoke, if they’d smoke we’d have to clean them andCelesta: Could you get enough light to work around and see good or was it just dingy light? Elva: Not too much light. Mary: We didn’t know any different. We had some pretty good coal oil lamps, ‘we, cause some of them’d have wider wicks, you know, and it, it, pretty good- you remember all that don’t ya? Jessie: Sure. Elva: Oh, oh! I have the thing that-, when I first, when we first moved up here it was out in the country here about this way about three miles and I remember exactly how that old house looked. The stove, there was a stove in there and uh, it didn’t have a reservoir or anything like that but I remember the oven door had a, a bunch of grapes on it, you know? And uh, and there was an old uh, blue uh, insulator on the floor and Oh! I thought, “That’s the prettiest thing I ever saw!” [author’s note: Elva is now referring to her childhood home] . Celesta: I guess it would be! Mary: And then they got stuck before they got there and they had to walk in and Ward was sitting on a bench behind the table. Elva: Oh, oh! When we moved up here we came in the sleigh, it was in the springtime, or I mean a wagon. And it was muddy- didn’t have paved roads then. And uh, we had to walk in and-, they uh, Uncle Wallace, and they lived in the house that later was, the Put Farringtons moved in there. But, at that time, and uh, the floors were just boards, you know. And uh, Ward,my cousin, he was about my age, little bit younger, I guess. And uh, he was barefoot, and uh, sitting on a bench back of the table. Mary: He called Elva “Livvy” and she called him “Ard”. Celesta: Well, what did you, what did you use like to scrub a board floor? Did you scrub it with a broom and water? Elva: Well, they had mops and, uh, and you’d uh, they used lye to sprinkle on the floor. And uh, we had lye in, get in little cans. Celesta: What’d it do? Bleach the boards out to clean them or just-? Mary: Oh yeah. Now, Jessie you tell us something about you! Jessie: I’m not in this family! Mary: We don’t care, we like you anyway! Celesta: You’re in here whether you like it or not! Well, I wanna know something-, nobody ever talks about like the, the personality of your dad. You know, did he laugh a lot or was he serious or-? Elva: Well uhFlorence: He was quite serious. Elva: Yeah, he, he, he’d laugh and joke and, he, he, he, he joked but, at that time if you had your pictures taken you wasn’t supposed to show your teeth.Mary: You weren’t supposed to smile. But anyway, Papa wasn’t as serious as he looked. He looked, he had this, wrinkles across here, and uh, he, he looked lots more serious, he never did give us kids lickins. He, he gave me a swat one time and made me mad becauseFlorence: I remember that! Mary: BecauseFlorence: She needed it! Mary: I did not! Don’t deny it! It was you who was just as much to blame as I was. Anyway, it was Florence and I were supposed to keep the h-, the sheep herded up, so that he was- when you’re shearing them, why they’d be there they’d be there so he could- it was a hot day, too! And we let the sheep, we for, forgot, were playing or something and we let the sheep get away. And he came down and he gave me a swat, didn’t hurt a bit, but anyway, hurt my feelings. And didn’t hit, hurt her a bit, and, and I she was just as much to blame as I was. Elva: You was older, you should’ve known better! She’s only a year and eleven months older than I am though, so-. He used to sing a lot though! Dad could sing. And he’s sing away, and sing away and, and he liked to read. And he, he’d read along to himself and then he’d start reading out loud. Mary: At the table, we had to be pretty quiet at the table. Florence: Oh, boy! We wouldn’t dare, yeah, we wouldn’t dare sit like that. We had to be ladylike!Celesta: Oh, is that right? You can’t prop your knees up? Florence: Oh yes! Mary: And if any of us would make any noise he’d take his knife and hit the table like that. Florence: We had to sit ladylike, we couldn’t cross our legs like that. Elva: And I remember I was, had a, I was up like this. And, he said, “Be a lady!” And if we’d a-lied down on the floor like the kids do now I don’t know what he woulda thought. Florence: We always had to have a, always had a tablecloth on. So that we would eat nice, you know, wouldn’t be reckless. Celesta: Huh. Mary: Red and white checked tablecloth. Florence: And to this day, I can’t even eat on a tray unless I have a mat under it or something, I just don’t like it, there andCelesta: So youArtha: It’s noisy. You know, you get used to that quiet. Celesta: Huh. Well, well what, what did you do, like for entertainment? Did you have picnics or-? Mary: Well, the only picnic we ever went to, Mama sometimes would fix a lunch and we’d go down in the pasture and eat it. And so- ?Elva: Well, they used to have a, oh what would they call it? Florence: That was the Elberton picnic! Elva: The, oh yeah! And then we used to have a-Mary: Lectures. Elva: Oh! They’d go around different places and, speak big pieces and then have programs. Mary: Sat-, Saturday nightsElva: I forget what we called it. Artha: Literary? Mary: Literary! Literaries. Well, I’ll speak you a piece that I spoke at that! Celesta: Oh, yeah, do! Good, I love those! Mary: I'm a proken-hearted Deutschman,/Vot's villed mit crief und shame./I tell you vot the trouple is:/I doesn't know my name./You tink that’s very funny, eh?/Ven you the schtory hear,/You vill not vonder then so much,/It vas so strange und queer./Mine mooter had two little twins;/Dey vas me und mine brudder:/One of the boys was Yawcob,/Und Hans the others’ name./But den it made no tifferent;/Ve both got called der same./Vell! von of us got dead, —/Yaw! Dot ish so!/But vedder Hans or Yawcob,/Mine moder she don't know!/Und so I am in drouples:/I gan't kit droo my hed/Vedder I'm Hans vot's lifing,/Or Yawcob vot is dead! Celesta: That is entertaining! Artha: It’s a pretty good poem. Celesta: Oh, you better tell us another one! Mary: Oh, I’m talking too much! Celesta: No! You’re doing a great job! Go ahead! Mary: Well, anyway, uh, this is a “One Legged Goose.” Well, the wust scrape what I eber got into wid old Marsa John was ober Henny. Henny and the young gal dat lives on de next plantation. I tell you, she en a harricane! She come into de kitchen one time where I was helping git de dinner ready an’ de cook had gone to de spring-house. (*breathing) “What’s dat cookin’, dat smells so good?” said she. “Oohm dat’s a goose, cooking for Massa John’s dinner for company! We’s got quality folks in there!” says I, pointing to dinin’ room door. Wit dat, she grabs at da caarvin’ knife, opens the oven do’, cuts off a leg of that goose, and disappears around the corner wd de leg in her mouf. “Fo’ I knowed whar I was at. Marsa John come in da door and says, “Gittin’ late, Chad; bring in de dinner.” Well I was scared to def, but I tuk dat goose and, an’ laid him wid de cut side down in de pan, and put some dressin’ an’ stuffin’ ober him, an’ shet de oven door. Den I taked up the baked ham, an’ put that on the table, and some hominy an some sweet spuds, and put them on the table. Marsa John looked at, said, “Chad? T’ought we had a roast goose?” “I ain’t heard nothin’ ‘bout no goose! I’ll ask the cook next minute.” Pretty soon I heard old Marsa John just a-yellin’, “Mammy Jane! Mammy Jane! Ain’t we got a goose?” “Chad, you wu’thless nigger, ain’t you tuk dat goose out yit?” Well, I see’d whar my hair was short, so I took that goose, laid him down cut side down in the pan, and put him down in front of Marsa John. Marsa John said, “Chad, see, see what the ladies’ll have for dinna’.” “What’ll you have for dinner, miss? Nice a slice baked ham or slice of the goose?” “No,” said she, “I tink I’ll take a leg o’ the goose.” Well, Marsa John took a leg of the goose, and put some stuffing over it, and he says, “Chad, see what da gemman’ll have fo’ dinna.” “What’ll you have for dinna, sah, nice, uh, slice of ham, or slice of breast o’ goose?” “No,” said he. “I tink I’ll take a leg of goose.” Well, I didn’t say nuffin’, but I knowed berry well he wa’n’t gwine to git it. But you oughter seen ole Marsa alookin’ for der udder leg o’dat goose! He rolled him ober on the pan dis way and dat way, an’ den he jabbed dat ole bone-handled caarvin’ fork in him an’ held him up and looked under him, and says, “Chad, whar’s de udder leg o’dat goose?” “It never had none, suh. You see, i’s dis way: we got two kinds down in de goose pond, an Mammy Jane cooked dis one cuz I was, we was in a hurry dis morning, so she cooked dis one ‘cause i catched it firs.” He says, “I’ll settle you after dinna.” Well, after dinner, I, he called all the friends and said, I’m going to da goose pond and show dis here nigger dat all de gooses on my plantation is got mo’ den one leg. Well I followed along, trapesin’ after de whole kit an’ bowin’ nothin’. But when we got down to the goose pond, there was the gooses sittin in the middle of the pond, with one leg stuck down so, and the other leg tucked up under the wing. “Dar Massa! Don’t ye see? Look at dat ole gray goose! Dat’s de berry match ob de one we had today!” Marsa John’s face a’gettin’ red, he pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket, and said, “Shoo!” and I hoped to have my brains kicked out by a lame grasshopper if ebery one ob dem goosies didn’t put down the udder leg. “There!” Marsa John says, raising his cane ober my head- “Tain’t fair, Marsa John, tain’t fair!” “Why ain’t it fair you black scoundrel?” “Cause you didn’t say ‘shoo!’ to de goose what was on de table.” I have another, but it’s too long. Celesta: Well, we’ve got about fifteen minutes on that side. Mary: Well, somebody else can talk! Celesta: We can’t tell stories, we don’t know any. Mary: Let’s see, how does it go? Don't you think skating’s powerful good exercise? Well, I do, and I’ve been a trying of it lately! So I’ve got just about as good an idea as how to operate as everybody else. Joshua says I’m too old for such childish business. But I don’t see no earthly reason why an old married woman can’t enjoy herself as she can! Goodess knows if you got a husband and children, and hens and pigs and things, and if we can get any enjoyment out of life, I say we oughnt to. I calculate to myself, take more than Joshua Smart to hinder me! H e never did grow big enough. All the women folks have been out on the ice this fall. The way they done, they cooked up enough vittles- Well I got a little ahead of myself. Times have changed since I was a gal. used to be if a gal dared to look at a pair of skates she’s called a tomboy and you might just as well served a term in the state prison as to be called that! It were an awful name! All the gals have been on the ice this fall. The, the way they done, they cooked up enough vittles to last all through the week, and their husbands have stayed at home and ??, and ate cold vittles. Well, soon as it frizz up- No, it isn’t either. Uh, oh, uh, even though, even though- Joshua Brown, he’s got to be quite a powerful skater, though he’s been blind as a bat ever since Wiggins’ barn was burned. But you gotta get out of his way when you see him a-comin’, cause the other day he skated against a tall stump in the millpond. And if he is a deacon in the church, I’m willing to give my Bible’s oath, he came at it, and hit it several licks with his fist afore he found out it ain’t no one. Well, as soon as it frizz up I made up my mind i see what I can do at skatin’. Had an idea it wouldn’t take me no time t’all to larn. All the gals was an awful spell a-larning; but all the in the world that made ‘em so long was ‘cause they had fellers a-showing of ‘em how, and they kinder liked the fun. If there hadn’t been a feller in the whole neighborhood, most any of ‘em woulda larnt the trade in three days. Sam Jellison sed he’d larn me how to skate; but I said, “No.” Guess I could take care of myself. Always managed to take care of myself through the jonders, the collery morbus, always made my own soap, and done my own cleanin’, I guessed I could learn to skate without nobody’s assistance. Sam he just whistled and sed nothin’. Ain’t it provoking the way some folks have that whistlin’ theirn? Sam’s trying to shine my daughter Betsy! I warn’t born yesterday. I can see through him! Well, as soon as it frizz up, I made up my mind I see what I could do a-skatin’. Had an idea it wouldn’t take me- I just said that, didn’t I? Well I took five pounds a butter over to the bridge and sold it and bought me a pair of skates. Land sakes! Ain’t it astonishing the way butter’s gone up lately?! We don’t pretend to eat a mite of butter at our house, though we got three fair cows and a good milk’s heifer. Joshua grumbles like everything; but i tell him it won’t make no difference a hundred years from now whether man has lived on hog’s fat or butter. Not a mite! Well, one Tuesday morning, bright and airly- Let’s see, no, uh, I took five pounds of butter over to the bridge and bought me a pair of skates. Ain’t it- Oh, I said that! One Tuesday morning, bright and airly I got my work outta the way, and dressing myself in my skating costume, I took a long pair of, uhMiss Pike our Milner said I ought to have a skating costume. So I took a pair of Joshua’s red flannel drawers, and sewed five rows of white lace on the bottom of ‘em. I took a ‘ole yaller petticoat of mine, and sewed seven rows of purple braid on the bottom of it. I made my waist out of a old red and brown plaid shawl, and for my hat I took one of Joshua’s cast-off stove-pipe hats, cut it down a story, pulled out an old crower’s tail and stuck that into the front. Joshua laffed at me, the master. Well, I uh- Tuesday morning, bright and airly, I got my work out of the way, and dressing myself in my skating costume, I sat sail for mill-pond. I shouldn’t have dared to begin any such undertaking any day but Tuesdays. I sat three hens Wednesdays, one’s eggs all addled, til they got all broke up afore she’d sot a week and t’other hatched out three chicks blind as bats, never had no tail feathers! Well, I, dressing myself in my skating costume, I took a long pole to steady myself by, and a, and my skates in the other hand. I was in hopes there’d be no skaters to see my fust attempt; but lawful heart! The pond was lined with ‘em! But i was too plucky to back out. I sat down, strapped on my skates, and taking my long pole firmly in both hands, I got onto the ice. But the minnit I got on, my heads, head was, my heels was up, and my head was down, and all the stars in the firmary was having a shooting-match. Well Sam arriv’d that minute, and wanted to help me, but I wouldn’t let him. But when I did get started the difficulty was in stoppin’ myself. I went, had the wind at my back, and it filled my yaller petticoat so full that it floated out afore me like the star spangled banner on the Fourth of July. I was a-coming to where skaters was at pretty thick. And I forgot to draw in my pole, and the fust thing I knowed I was a mowin’ ‘em down as a two-hoss mowing-machine takes down grass in the medder. The ice was lined with ruins. Hoods, muffs, false teeth, men, women, and little boys- all mixed up together, you couldn’t tell t’other from which! Old Jim Pratt went down with the rest, and as he went the toe of his skate caughtched on that beautiful braid on my yaller petticoat and in less’n a minnit, in less’n a minute, tore it clear off and wound it all around the understandings of them scramblin’ people. I was madder’n a hatter. Just as I was rising to get up again, along come a feller with no eyes in his head I reckon, for he undertook to skate rite over me. Well I grabbed ahold of his coat-tail to steady myself by, but lawful heart! The cloth parted like a cobweb, leaving him with a short jacket on and letting me onto the ice harder than afore! Well, Sam arrived jest that minnit, and I didn’t say nothing to him of helping me up. And when I’d got breath, Sam went home with me, and I heard him kiss Betsy behind the pantry door. Well, well, young folks will be young folks, and it tain’t no use to try to hinder ‘em. When I got better, though, Sam help me larn, and i can skate the master now. It’s the best exercise! And so healthy! Why, I’ve friz both my ears, and my nose is mostly peeled, and I’ve got the rheumatism tremblessly, but I’ve larned to skate, and what do I care? I sure made a lot of bobbles in it didn’t I? Celesta: No! That’s great! Mary: Haven’t said it for a long time! Florence: Oh, I tell you when we lived up in Canada we skated a lot! Celesta: That’s good! Florence: See all those muskegs and so many places to skate. Jessie: Now you wonder what they done for entertainment, they learnt things like this! Celesta: That’s great! I don’t know how anybody can learn that much! That’s good! Mary: I knew another one about the Civil War, but it’s kinda sad. Florence: Oh, no don’t! For pity’s sake! Mary: I’m not, I’m not saying it! Celesta: It’s sad? Mary: It’s kinda sad. Florence: Ooh, wowie. Celesta: Well, you can tell if you like! Mary: No. Celesta: We’ve got more time on there if you want. Mary: No, no, no, it’s too long. Elva doesn’t like that one. ----break in recording--- Artha: Yeah. Jessie: Bake your own bread so there wasn’tArtha: So you didn’t have any of those. Yeah. Saved every one of them that was available. Jessie: And we waste enough now for us to have lived on then, don’t we? Mary: Ohhh, we do, isn’t it awful? The way we waste? And Kleenex’s and paper towels. Oof. Jessie: I don’t know though. Kleenex, I’m very glad for them because oh, I used to hate to wash snotty handkerchiefs! Artha: The worst things! Mary: Oh, that was terrible! Jessie: And that was always the kids job! Artha: No wonder theyCelesta: I like hankies better though! I use them a lot. Mine have about all disappeared though! Artha: I use them when I get sick. Florence: Norma and Roger mighta gone home and left me! Celesta: You might be here til graduation too! Florence:You can go home with us and then come back after graduation. Elva: No, I’m gonna stay right here! Artha: You’re supposed to say ‘no thank you.’ Florence: Well that’s what I’ve been trying to teach ‘em but they won’t- ---break in recording--- Florence: Well, say, the other day, I was coming down the road with a wagon load of corn for Annaliesa Klein. And when I got to the railroad track there I seed a great big sign raised high on a pole. I thought I’d stop and read the thing and find out what it said. So, I stopped the horses on the railroad track and read. I ain’t no scholar, recollect, and so I had to spell. I started out kinda caurtious like, with R-A-I, and L. That spelled rail, then I tried the next word, R-O-A-D. I lumptum railroad was the word, and that ‘ere much I knowed. Then I tried the the next one, it commenced with C-R-O-S-S. I got this fur when suddenly there can an awful whack! The fiery thunderbolts just scooped me off the track. The horses went to Davy Jones, the wagon went to smash, And I was hoisted seven yards above the tallest ash! I didn’t come to lie, for about a day or two, but though I’m crippled up a heap, I’ll start or struggle through. It ain’t the pain, it ain’t the loss of that ‘ere team o’ mine, but Stranger, how I’d like to know the rest of that ‘ere sign! Celesta: Well, before we quit, tell your, tell your golf story with the hat. Florence: Oh, well. Celesta: This is a good one! Florence: Okay. You know, a golfer won’t quit for anything. Nothing. So this fella, was just ready to tee off and a funeral procession went by. And so he took his hat off and put his hand over his heart, and, and a man standing there said, “My! You must be loyal to the dead!” And he said, “Well, afterall, it’s my wife’s funeral!” Wouldn’t quit golfing for even his wife’s funeral! ---break in recording--- Elva: And he said, it was a man and his wife, always sat in the backseat in the car telling him how to do, how to drive. And uh, he, he drove right up on the railroad track and stopped. He said, “Now I got my end across, you get yours.” Mary: And then another one he always used to tell. He said, uh, he’d always laughed, he’d say, why babies are always born at night is because they can catch their mothers at home. We have several things more we could told. Celesta: Well, well, keep- it’s still going! Mary: Well, let’s see, I, I can’t remember now which it were. What was it? Oh, uh, when Hayfields had that store years and years ago, there was uh, Walt and Fred Hayfield. And they were kinda crooked. And anyways, one Fall, we’re, we’d always run our grocery bill from one year to the next. In the Fall, Papa would go and pay the whole thing. Well anyway, this time, um, they, this, McNeil, Jonny McNeil went to pay his bill, and so Fred was reading it off, reading off the, the bill and what they came to, and finally they came to some butter. And John McNeil says, “I never, I never bought a pound of butter in my life!” He said, “We make all our own butter!” And Walt, or Fred Hayfield says, “Well, being as it we had to lose, we, a total lose for us-” because they were gone. And he said that, “we felt that you should pay half of it.” Celesta: Oh! Gee! That can make you mad. Artha: Here’s the rest of your birthday present. Elva: Oh, my goodness! Celesta: Oh! Elva: Oh, dear. Mary: Is it candy? Celesta: If it is you’ll have to pass it around! Elva: I didn’t need anything else! Mary: Can she eat it? Elva: I didn’t deserve anything else. Celesta: It’s the things you don’t need that are the most fun! Jessie: Oh, it looks pretty! Florence: Oh my goodness! Celesta: What is it? Mary: What is it? Florence: Is it a robe? Oh, oh my! Oh! Celesta: Oh a suit! Florence: Oh, a suit! Oh, my! Celesta: This is the blouse to it. Isn’t that gorgeous? Mary: Oh, my goodness, I say! Florence: Isn’t that beautiful? Mary: You should see the other one, the other one. Florence: Oh, my that’s pretty! Celesta: And there’s a skirt to go with it! Elva: I’ll dress up, every day I’ll dress up! Jessie: Is there pants to it? Florence: Oh, there is! Celesta: Oh there’s pants too, Grandma. Pants too! Elva: Yeah! Celesta: yeah, and a skirt. Jessie: Isn’t that gorgeous? That’s such a pretty color. Mary: She got, the other one is just as pretty. Jessie: What is it rose? Florence: Oh, wowie! Elva: I’ll dress up every day! Florence: Now you’ll have to throw away some of your old clothes. If you wasn’t so short, I could wear ‘em.Artha: Yeah, that’s what I told her to throw away those old things and wear the good ones. Florence: That’s what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna go through my closet and put everything in the Goodwill. Celesta: I have to do that once in a while too, weed ‘em out. This is my birthday present, Casey bought me my sweatshirt. Mary: What’s it say on it? Celesta: ??? Multiple conversations Jessie: Those unpressed pleats isn’t that beautiful? Celesta: You’ll have to think of someplace to go, Grandma! Elva: Yeah! Celesta: Oh, graduation! The graduation parties! Elva: Well, I only got three of them graduating, that wouldn’t be, I’ll have too many! Celesta: Yeah, you’ll have to buy some more clothes! Well now, is this the best birthday you ever had? Elva: Yeah. Florence: When Betty comes then Elva’s gonna stay with me.Celesta: That’ll be fun! Florence: Yeah. Celesta: Do you remember anyFlorence: Got two beds downstairs. Celesta: Do you remember any of your other birthdays that you wanna tell about? Elva: Oh, I dunno. Celesta: Was it exciting to have a birthday when you were a kid? Mary: We didn’t do much about birthdays then. Elva: No, not very much. Mary: We knew we had a birthday but, uh, we didn’t do much. Elva: We didn’t have many, much money to buy presents back then. But we never went hungry. We lived on a ran- farm, and we had chickens and pigs and cows and sheep andMary: We dressed as much as the rest of the kids. Florence: We had a garden and a orchard and we always had enough to eat. Celesta: Uh, huh. Well that’s the first important thing. Florence: Well say, we went to a baby shower not long ago and, and of course they give all these diapers you know in the boxes, all that kind. And so Mary Ellen hollered, and she says, “When I was a baby my mama put flour sacks on me!” And of course we did, too! Celesta: Glad to have ‘em! Florence: Well, yeah! Course everybody laughed.Artha: I think we had a big party for Grandma, what was it, the 80 or 85th, I can’t remember. Musta been, bout 80, 80th wasn’t it? A potluck? Celesta: Yeah, big dinner here? Artha: Had a bouquet and everything. ‘ Celesta: Didn’t you get a-, wasn’t you have your name in the paper for being honored at club the other day? Elva: Yes, I guess it was! Um, um, Ilene Bruce said it was in The Gazette, and uh, somebody else said it was in the Tekoa paper. Florence: Well, it was in The Standard, yeah. I cut it out. Celesta: What did they do, give you a flower or-? Elva: Yeah, a corsage. And uh, they had a program, Mother’s Day program and had all kinds a salads andCelesta: Well that sounds fun. Mary: Well we had a big congregationalist church last Sunday and I was the oldest woman there, oldest person! Celesta: Is that right? Mary: Doesn’t that seem awful? When I joined the club down here years ago I was the youngest. I was the youngest then for quite a while, now I’m the oldest wherever I go. Florence: You see Fairfield comes to Latah now, too. So that church is just about full nearly all the time. Mary: Some from, a few from Rosalia and some from Rockford.Florence: Pastor Brown said, “Everybody else in Latah calls you Grandma Sherfey, can’t I, too?” I said sure. Celesta: Might as well, huh? What, what did you do about church when you were kids did you go to church? Mary: No, it was too far to go and we, Mama kinda taught us at home, it was too far to go. Mama’d be too tired, all the work, the week, week, working and we didn’t go. Celesta: Now is she the one that’s Seventh Day Adventist? Elva: Mmhmm. Celesta: Was her whole family Adventist? Elva: No. Florence: She turned Adventist later, in later years. Celesta: Oh. Elva: Yeah, she was, after our brother died. Celesta: Uh huh. Mary: Oh, I like that skirt! Celesta: Oh, I know! I want somebody to tell that beard story, about half of it turning white. Mary: Oh. Celesta: I forgot who it was. Mary: That was Mama’s father. Florence: That was about when the bear scared him? Mary: Mmhmm. You can tell it, Elva. Celesta: Remember that, Grandma?Elva: What’s that? Celesta: ‘Bout your grandfather’s beard turning half white? Elva: Well, I never saw him. They lived in Gaston, Oregon. Mary: We had his picture though. Elva: Yeah, I’ve seen his picture. Just one side of it. He was frightened a bear, I think he was walking across a little ravine on a, on a log and he, he fell, fell down and uhMary: No, it broke. Elva: Oh, it broke and he went right down on top, close to that bear. And it frightened him. Celesta: Oh. Elva: But uh, he never, he died in, I don’t know why. All the kids were born down there, Grandma Davis’s, or Grandma Steward it was then- I don’t know why she came up to Washington, Colfax. With all her family and how she came, must’ve driven horses or, well they came across in a covered wagon, drove oxen. And uh, they call it the Oregon Trail. And the first grandchild, or, her first child was Uncle Joe, was born on the way over. And uh, they didn’t know what state it was and-, but he never, I don’t know why he never came up to Colfax to see her. Mary: Well, that was a long way, at that time. Elva: Yeah, but I wonder how she got up here! All those kids. Mary: I don’t know. Celesta: Did she live on a farm once she got here? Elva: No. Mary: Yeah, didn’t they? At Gaston? Didn’t they land at Gaston. Elva: Yeah. Florence: Yeah, Mama was born at Gaston. Celesta: It’s cold out there.Elva: You wanna go? Florence: Oh, no, that’s alright. You ready to go Norma? If you are, why I justNorma: No, you just play on there. Florence: Well, I gotta go with you or I won’t get home, I’m not gonna walk! Norma: You can hitchhike. It won’t hurt you. No, we just went and took care of the dogs. Florence: Bet I could climb fences. Celesta: Yeah. Florence: Well, I’ll go whenever you get ready. Artha: We can take you, we’re taking Grandma home. --end recording-- “When our hearts turn to our ancestors, something changes inside us. We feel part of something greater than ourselves.” --Russell M. Nelson-