just some thoughts

Tonite's entry is mostly about some of the things from my childhood--consider yourself warned! The first picture is Anna May watching and laughing as I was throwing a tantrum--my guess is that I was about 8 months old at the time. We (Mother, Daddy, Joe & I) lived with Grandma & Pop in Ellensburg at the time. Anna May & Jim were neither married and also still lived at home. As I understand from things my mother told me is that everyone in the family, except her, thought it was funny when I got angry, sat on floor or sidewalk and pounded my head on said surface. As I mentioned, Mother didn't find it amusing so the first tantrum I threw when no other adults were around, caused me to have a glass of cold water thrown in my face and that was the last tantrum I threw.

The first memory I have is of my Uncle Jim, but not when this picture was taken. I was, though, only about 2 1/2 when the event of my first memory occurred. Shortly after this picture was taken we all moved to western Washington so Daddy, Pop and Anna May could get jobs at the shipyard. Daddy had 3 kids so was ineligible for the draft, but available to work in a defense factory. Anyway Jim was on leave and we were visiting with him in Grandma & Pop's apartment in Tacoma. I don't know who found the rubber band or who started things, but Jim & Mother took turns sending me to the other one to snap him/her with the rubber band. Everyone was, of course, laughing and it took me a long time (like years) to realize they were laughing because I was snapping myself instead of either of them. The way I know when this happened is because Jim was killed in Italy in July of 1941 (the invasion of Sicily) and I turned 3 that October.

(I have no clue why the font changed or how to change it back, so we'll have to deal with it.)

This next picture was taken when we lived in downtown Puyallup (where Dr. Harris veterinary hospital is on E. Main). Joe went to first grade at Spinning school while we lived there, so in this pic he would have been about 6, I would have been 4 and Audrey about 2 1/2. The dog on the table was Audrey's dog Terry and we lived in a 2-story house. One late afternoon Mother & Daddy were out in the back working in the garden when Terry ran around there yipping. Of course, they came and asked if we knew why. Well, yeah we did: he got hurt on the guy wire that ran from the roof to the ground. Fortunately for Terry it broke his fall & he kinda slid down the wire after we threw him out the window. We just wanted to see what would happen--I was chicken because Joe wanted me to jump first and make a pillow for Terry. Yes, we all got our butts whipped--and deservedly so. We really weren't being mean; we just wanted to know what would happen. Terry got even with me, though, one morning when I took him out on his leash. He pulled me off the back steps & I had a horrible nosebleed.

  Anna May lived upstairs from us for at least part of the time we were in that house. I'm sure you know she never was able to have children, but one day I decided it was time, so I cut "patterns" out of newspapers to be used for making clothes for the baby she was expecting. I only got to tell a few people that story.

Those are all of the stories about me for this time, but I'm warning you--I have more.

In my last post I mentioned that Grandma Stobie died several years before Granddad and her mother must have died several years before her father. I went back & did a bit of reading in some of information I've received from Robin and from Doris Kelly (a several time-removed cousin on the Anderson branch). I found that according to the 1901 Canadian census, Meary (or Mary) Anderson died before she was 60 and George Anderson lived to be 90. Grandma Stobie was 66 when she died and I think that Granddad was 80 (should have written it down when I checked--too many numbers for me to keep in my head for more than 2 minutes). Also I found that in one of the documents Grandma's name was spelled "Lusinda" so it makes sense that her nickname began with an "S."

I only heard my grandma French cuss once in my whole life--I was shocked when she said the neighbor boy took a leak in the ditch. Pop also didn't cuss much, but I remember once when he did. Vic was 2 or 3 at the time and we were visiting them. Pop drove a big old green Nash that locked in gear frequently. After he had tried to get it in gear for awhile, Vic came running in and told us he knew what kind of car Pop drove--a big, green bastard. 

Don't know where my mother and Anna May learned to cuss so well, but it sure wasn't from their parents. 

that's it for tonite...