When I was about ten or eleven years old, during World War II,our one family car broke down. We had a 1932 Buick, but because the car had a broken axel we were forced to use a wagon to transport 100 lb sacks of flour, sugar, and smaller bags of oatmeal and cornmeal for five miles. No one was allowed to drive the family car but father, so because of this, mother did not even have a license.
If the cows we raised were not big enough to butcher, they were simply used for milk or to breed and all others went to the feed line. All milking was done by hand and there were never any machines. Once there were enough cows to butcher this time was called “thrashing.” Twenty to thirty-five people would come together to help butcher.
The family income came from selling milk, five hundred chicks in the early spring and on Friday afternoons meat would be put on ice to take into town and sell. Roasting ears (corn on the cob) or what ever else was in season was also taken into town. I remembers making baskets to sell going house to house by car.
I went to the Oak Grove, Missouri Schoolhouse up until the fifth grade. Then I spent two years in Honey Creek, Missouri, and then one more year in Oak Grove, Missouri. I graduated salutatorian of my class. There were only two of us.
Please Marylyn, tie Mahlon in a chair and make him talk. I love to hear about when and why we did what we did on the farm. Is this the reason why we took the wagon to a party on the Osage river, where they cooked fish and we swam. It was a long day. All the neighbors were there. The Goetzes, Ordmunds, Hammonds, Robinetts,Probst,Krause, Viesmans, Otts,. I am sure I missed someone. Please Mahlon, you still have a memory. Ask Mahlon to tell uu about what he remembers about the neighbor boy who died in world war 2,. His last name was Hale.
I love Mahlon’s stories too, and look forward to them. Regarding Cleo’s comment, there is a memory I have that I wonder if anyone else has. I remember Grace Hale passing out at the gravesite. Some strong men carried her to their house. Does anyone else have this memory and where was the gravesite…was it on their property on Route H?
If I remember right the funeral was in the Baptist church ,in Hickory Hill. He was buried in the churches cemetery. I think the boys mother fainted inside the church up by the coffin and again at the cemetery. It was a very, very sad day.
I can remember all the aunts and uncles coming together to help butcher hogs, but never cows. The only time I can remember having beef to eat was when Mahlon went out side and butchered a calf! Which wasn’t very often. Please Mahlon tell us more stories.
I heard on the radio tonight that. Ancestry.com is offering free access to all the wills in the United States free starting Wednesday.
I heard it again this morning and they said that it was wills and probate and other records from 200 hundred years ago for all the states . It is free for awhile. Not sure how long.
I can’t believe Uncle Mahlon only didn’t finish first in his class. He’s learned.
Ignore the typo. Autocorrect on my phone. With that said, this website is phone friendly.
Marjorie was 8 years older than Mahlon. She left home to live with her sister Elizabeth when she was 17 or 18, and wasn’t around for some of these stories. She tells me the last house she lived in with the family, was the one now part of her brother Lloyd’s property. ( The one my generation refers to as Grandpa and Grandma’s house.) She said she was only there for about 6 months, before moving to town to live with Elizabeth.
So, before that, Margie lived at Selma’s Place and that is where I was born. I guess either Selma’s Place or the Seventh Place (Grandm/pa’s farm) was where Margie saved my life when I stopped breathing. Margie told me Mother was screaming that I wasn’t breathing and Margie ran downstairs, picked me up and beat around on me to get me breathing. That was in the days when nursing was done in bed, and I guess that was the scenario. Of course I don’t remember any of this. Maybe Margie can tell the right story. I think (Kathy will you ask Margie?) that when she went to town to live with Elizabeth, that is when she got the job at News Tribune. I know to this day she gets the News Tribune in Joliet and enjoys it so much.
I always wondered why I didn’t remember living with Margie. So this is what I have learned. When Bea and I and Margie slept together upstairs in the girls room on the east side.( the boys room was on the west side) Margie had to get up very early in the morning to help with the milking. I am guessing this was her and Vernon’s job at that time and maybe Mahlon who was about 8 or 9 I was 6 when we moved there. Bea would have helped mother in the morning before school. After Margie helped with the milking she got cleaned up and had to walk a couple miles to meet the bus because the bus didn’t come down the road to our road on what is now road H . She had to walk up to E (I think it is e that goes over to past the lions club) that is a long walk. The only thing I remember about Margie at that time was when she was gueen of her class, I guess Elizabeth saws to it that she had a beautiful formal ( I thought it was beautiful). I am not sure but Margie May have a job in Jefferson City on the weekends. She would have stayed with Elizabeth and Justin.
After Marjorie graduated from high school at 17, she went to live with Elizabeth and Justin in an apartment in town. At first she clerked at Woolworths, then her cousin Hilda told her that her sister Alice, who worked as a house keeper for one of the bosses at the News and Tribune (Mr. Goshorn) , was looking for another typist. Marjorie could type (and must have passed some kind of typing test to be considered). That’s what got Marjorie started in her newspaper work. After Elizabeth and Justin and family ( they also had their son John by the time they moved) went to Washington DC area, Marjorie lived in another apartment by herself before getting married at age 20. That second apartment was on West McCarty. When she got married, she and my father Ed Beck, moved to an apartment house up on a corner on St Mary’s Blvd (it was on a corner and she can’t remember the name of the cross street). It was a house that had three apartments in it. Beatrice and their cousin Pearl also lived in the same apartment house at different times.
Kathy the street was Waverly and ST. Mary’s Blvd. The house is still there and looks the same. Whoever owns it takes good care of it.
Sorry I wanted to tell about Naomi and her early near death experiences. I was there when both of them happened at Selma’s place at honey creek. When Naomi was a baby, maybe Newley born, she was sleeping between mother and father and mother started screaming that Naomi had been smothered because father rolled over on her. Mother was screaming and they worked with Naomi and she survived. Thank god…… Then the next time she almost died was when she was a baby at Selma’s place and was given a carrot, a small piece of carrot.
Getting some details from Marjorie after I read Aunt Cleo’s note. Felix bought her the dress when she was Homecoming queen. It was from Saffee’s and it cost $15. It was turquoise taffeta. I think I’ve seen a picture of her in it. I’ll have to make a copy and send it to Lloyd to post.
Another story: When Elizabeth and Justin got married, Marjorie had the mumps, so they couldn’t have the reception at the house where the family was living at the time in Schubert’s. Does anyone remember that?
I called Bea and she said Elizabeth and Justin’s wedding was at night at the the Schubert Lutheran church . Margie had the mumps and was sick in bed. Bea and I were not allowed to go. Lillian was in the wedding and her friends bought her to the wedding and she had to go back to St. Louis after the wedding, but she bought us some candy a large bag of candy and it sounds like we were very happy about that. I am not sure if Mahlon stayed home with us or if he got to go to the wedding.
Thanks for all this great family history, Cleo and Kathy!!! Now I know why I cough all the time….I still have a piece of that carrot in my throat! Ha Ha!
No you don’t . I saw it fly out when they pounded the carrot out of you.
Naomi, you poor little thing, you had a hard time surviving when you were little. God had a plan for your life and nothing was going to spoil that plan. Not even me sharing my carrot with you. Margie always said that she stuck her finger down your throat,hooked the carrot with her fingernail and bought up the carrot. We were sure blessed to have such a good and smart sister. Love these stories.