MORE memories July 21

From Kathy:

Hey Brad..I sent a reply with memories one of these things. It was pretty good, too. Wonder where it went. In response to Marilyn and my "irrigation ditches" at Easter, you couldnt dig that deep on those hills. I bet we ate more dirt and gypson on those cracked colored Easter eggs than Grandmas canaries ate gravel to digest their food. Did that make sense? Old well, what do you expect from an old person.

Another of my very favorite memories is of riding Rosie with Grandma up to the mountain. You kids that lived down there while growing up maybe don't know how lucky you were. We only got to go on Booby hole once as kids and once as grownups. Spend maybe two to three visits a year in Richfield. It's still in my blood just as if I was raised there. I should have born a generation earlier.

By the way, please change the spelling on my name.. It's KKKKKKKK
Kathy

Hey KKKK, Maybe I'm spelling it right and you have been wrong all these years. Please send a copy of your birth certificate and we will forward to the legal dept.

Yes, I suppose some of us were lucky. However those weren't my thoughts when I was 8 and grandma made me take a forced bath in a galvanized tub, in the middle of the kitchen at the cabin, while she poured hot water and scrubbed my scalp with some kind of wire brush. And we had just gotten there! Lost all my dignity and my hair which is hard on any kid that age.

Corleen:

I did get the bear picture! The thought of getting past that bear just to sleep in that inferno of a bedroom stays with me. We are fine, all have jobs. Life is good. You and yours?

• It's getting better (I hope.)

Steve writes:

It (the bear's demise) was sometime in September 1955. The date was cut off of the article but on the back was the Elsinore news which included a nice recap of Ward Cuff's funeral the Saturday before. I looked Ward up and he died on September 6, 1955. Marilyn and Kathy probably remember it since they were teenagers then.

• That seems like pretty solid research Steve! Close enough for me.

Did Grandpa or Grandma ever park in the driveway or was that reserved for guests? I remember playing in the Chrysler out by the garage when no one was looking and pushing the transmission buttons but I don't think I ever saw that car move. I do remember riding in Grandpa's International between him and my dad. It took about an hour to get to the farm since he drove about 10 miles an hour. I don't remember it bothering me much since they were both so laid back I just liked listening to them swear and talk. If Uncle Courtney was around it was even better.

• Steven, those were "colorful" words not swear words.

From Becky:

We should really all discuss another reunion in the next few years..any thoughts on this idea?

• Wonderful idea, Becky. Volunteers?

From Sunnie:

Thanks for the pictures. I have been on the computer since about 3:00 this afternoon looking at a lot of the pictures you have posted. I love them! I wish there were captions on some of the old ones. I don't know who a lot of them are. Do you know them all? I was really excited to see some of the old ones of our Great-Grandma. I'll have to see if I have any different ones than you do, and then I'll get them online. Thanks again for all the work you have gone to. I know it becomes addictive when you get going in it. I would love to read some of the histories if you have time to post links or download them.

Sunnie

I'll be putting some pictures that Patrick and I have scanned on a Picassa site so everybody can see them. And each of you can add pictures that you might have. Community sharing etc.

Here is the link: Anderson Cousins

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From Marilyn:

I just re-read the original memories from Brad and remembered the chicken coop. Seems to me that Uncle Tim had a live bobcat in that chicken coop at one time, minus the chickens of course! Don't know if the coop was chickenless (is that a word?) before the bobcat came but I'm sure it was when he left. Anyone else remember this or am I making it up?

I have no memory of such a cat... but what you describe fits with the family traditions.

This is a picture of great grandpa Parley with one of his pets. Note the early version of a muzzle. Keeping a few family critters around is just a time honored tradition in this family.

This from Sunnie:

WOW, I'm really glad I finally got this. It has made my day, and also brought a few tears to my eyes. Thanks so much for doing this. I'll think for a while and then add my 'two cents worth'. As for Kasey and Kenny's emails, I don't know Kenny's and Kasey lives in Antimony-the World Wide Web hasn't reached them yet--j/k. I'll look into finding both of theirs. I hope you'll continue to forward this to all of us as people add to it, because I'm sure the memories of others will spark memories in each of us. Thanks again for the memories. I'll get mine added to it.Love, Sunnie

Right after reading your email, I found the blog. Thanks so much for the research and writing you have done and shared. I had heard these stories from my mom and I'm so glad to see them written down so I can pass them on to my kids. Thanks again, they're all great.
Love, Sunnie

Thanks for joining in Sunnie. We look forward to some of your thoughts. I believe the likely reason for lack of internet bandwidth in Antimony is the party lines that everyone still has for telephone service. Everybody reads everybody else's email, and also knows where they have been browsing. And the whole town shares one big PayPal account. I can see why Kasey won't sign up!

Glenna writes:

I always love the temperature in the basement, cool in the summer, the fruit room smelled good but there were seriously weird things floating the bottles. There was a gramophone in Tim's old bedroom. HEY WHY ISN'T TIM IN ON THIS? I often slept in the upstairs bedroom. Once I couldn't take the heat so I went to the patio area and slept in a lawn chair. I'm sure there was divine intervention in the heat that night because I puked all over the patio. Nice to have a hose nearby to clean up the mess and go back to sleep. I remember Grandma asking me to sweep the kitchen floor when I was 10. I thought I did a perfect job since there wasn't a crumb left as long as you only looked straight down the middle. How was I to know you were supposed to sweep under things? Grandma blamed my mom for not teaching me how to clean. I loved to braid the fringe things on the couch. Remember when Grandma got the sprayer for the seltzer bottle? It was a little boy peeing. I was horrified. She thought the thing was hilarious. (Corleen has the same smile as Grandma when she is being mischievous). WHERE THE HECK IS RONNIE HAWLEY? WHY ISN'T HE IN ON THIS? I didn't like the walls with their coating of coal. Didn't know you couldn't just wipe a spot off without having to wipe the whole wall. Tommy and I were fascinated by the spring ditch. Grandma said nothing couldn't get in it (Tommy did anyway) because of the glass in the bottom. If so, why do I remember Uncle Courtney's car in it? It was hard coming from California, we always got sick, and mom said it was the water in Nevada. Wonder if anyone found my underpants buried in the vegetable garden? Too much information?

Whooo Glenna! Ooga ooga! Slow down and take a deep breath. I'll try and respond to a couple of things. The first is Tim vs. the internet. This is how it works. Charlie gets an email at home in Venice. He prints it out in large font. He then gets in his Ford pickup and drives on the canal road to Sigurd; pulls into Tim's driveway, being very careful not to run over the three legged dog (probably named Shep) and the chickens. He then knocks and opens the carport side door and hollers "Yo! you got mail!" The reply procedure is somewhat uncertain since it has never needed to happen.

Question 2. "Where the heck is Ronnie Hawley?" He's thinking and we might have something from him sometime. (Deena, please give him another poke).

• And finally as to the "too much information??" uhh... ummm... well...I'll have to get back to you on that.....

Greetings from Patrick:

Hi All,

I've attached some photos that may spark more memories. Peggy, I vaguely remember the Seven Dwarf dolls so I don't think you are dreaming. Brad, the Chihuahua's name was Taco not Chico or Tico or Paco (who was your proof reader anyway?) and not all other dogs were called Shep. I believe the one in the attached picture was called "Queenie".

I vividly remember the cactus plant on the north side of the yard. I remember it because I sat in it. Could it be that I had help from one of my siblings or even cousins???

I remember the garden, the vacant lot next to it and lighting off firecrackers in the red ant beds. I remember the haunted house just south of Grandma's.

I remember going to the dump with Grandma with Chad driving the car. What a cool Grandma to let a kid drive the car. I remember going on the mountain with Grandpa driving the old white jeep -- one hand on the suicide knob the other with a drink and cigarette. He was always the first to spot a deer. I remember his cowboy hats and rifleman rifle in the front closet.

I remember the attic that held an old coffee grinder, Newel's uniform, and other neat and sometimes scary stuff. Was there a windup phonograph in the upstairs bedroom?

I remember dogie lambs in the back yard, asparagus growing by the spring ditch, the intimidating coal furnace and mysterious fruit room.

I remember the altogether too frequent pull from the bottle in the brown paper bag followed by a chaser of water from a white Clorox bottle. Only sometimes, the Clorox bottle really did have Clorox, right Sunnie? And once, so I've heard, it had gasoline and Uncle Jack Hepner had to go a day without smoking after chasing his drink with a pull from the ubiquitous white bottle.

• Thx Pat. Is ubiquitous the name of a chaser or the drink???

From Brad to all:

I was just thinking of a backyard with a dark red stained horizontal slat fence. The fence boards were sort of woven in and out of the posts.

I remember a garage with dead flies piled high in each dirty window sill and the smell of oil and leather and bug killer in a pump spray can.

I remember helping Tim butcher chickens in the very back yard and watching in amazement as they ran around frantically without heads, blood spurting everywhere before they collapsed. Forty years of therapy and I’m still not over it!

And yes, I remember all of those red ant beds and stirring them up. And also digging holes and tunnels in the garden area with John until he hit me on the head with a hatchet and we had to go inside.

There was an awning on the front of the house with poles to swing around.

And yes, Uncle Courtney’s car was in the ditch as part of my self taught driving lesson at age 10 or so. The first step was taking it out of gear. I never go to the second step!

There was always so much to do at grandma’s house!

Brad

Anderson Cousins- in search of good memories.

Summer always meant some sort of vacation, usually to grandma and grandpas house in Richfield. Attached is a picture for you of one of those fine memories. It’s the history of the bearskin rug… It comes to us from Aunt Bobbie’s refrigerator door where Steven found it posted. Thanks for being vigilant Steve and bringing back all those repressed memories of childhood terror!

So… just to celebrate the wonderful world of thoughts and experiences long buried and mostly forgotten, I share with you my top ten list of great memories from grandma and grandpa’s house:

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10. The spring ditch with all of those long strands of moss. What a great place to play!

9. The flour bin in the kitchen. It looked like any other cabinet door, but had hinges on the side and a bin of flour attached behind. There was also usually a bottle of Jim Beam tucked away in the flour (it kept the weevil out).

8. The steep stairs that went upstairs, with a turn at the bottom, a turn at the top, and a long straight section in the middle. And a little hole in the wall halfway up next to a stair. I’m sure it was a mouse-hole.

7. Probably the biggest, oldest, apricot tree in the world. When they were in season, it was heaven.

6. A chicken coop way in the back (the earlier years). And those chickens didn’t part with their eggs very easily.

5. Grandma’s “go to town” car. A Chrysler sedan with a push button automatic transmission… the wave of the future!

4. Grandpa’s green International Harvester pickup; with a bale of straw and a 55 gallon fuel drum in the back. The turn signal always blinked left, a 30-30 rested behind the seat, and to ride shotgun you had to compete with Shep the sheepdog. (And all sheepdogs were named Shep).

3. The dried lizard nailed to the wall. Was this an example of early, southwest, high-desert décor… or a graphic warning to any other reptile that dared enter?

2. A clothes chute that was a great for sending clothes to the basement washroom, but better for those of us kids who hardly ever got to ride any real carnival rides!

1. And the number one fine memory… A cranky Chihuahua dog that lurked beneath the blanket on the couch and did not tolerate young children. “Chico” was a fine little example of pure meanness and an unmistakable exception to the saying that “all dogs go to heaven”.

May everyone have a great summer and keep the memories safe.

The next installment will feature exclusives of the reunion in Antimony, the summer romance of Vicky & Marcus, and how the younger cousins learned the art of auto-asphyxiation.

Kindest regards and great memories,

Brad