My Family
My family was a working family. My father was a jack-of-all-trade.
He was well thought of in Tulsa Oklahoma and was constantly employed in maintenance, brick laying, and, his love, carpentry.
I was the only girl with 8 brothers.
My mother stayed home to take care of the "little monkeys". My 5 younger brothers were constantly jumping off of things... anything. The pigeon coup was a zillion feet high and they would laugh while they jumped. So I did it once... and my body went B-O-N-G. Every bone and every muscle shook I never did it again. I learned not to try to do everything they did because I got hurt
We moved from Tulas OK to Willowbrook CA when I was 13. It was right after the movie Grapes of Wrath was made and we had to live through the stigma of being called an Okie.
We loved our new home because of the weather. If we could have taken the weather back to Oklahoma we would have because people back home were nicer, teachers smarter, and the towns were cleaner.
Dad went out to California with the three older boys, leaving Mother and us 6 kids to come out later. During the war they had a "Traveling Bureau" which help move families. A strange man, with a car and trailer, picked us up one morning and off we went. 5 little monkeys, my mom, me and him driving... heading west... 5 little monkeys... By evening, we had been in a cathrophic wreck.
The man tried to take a turn to fast and the next thing I remember was being on my face inside the car skidding towards a tree. The car was upside down, the trailer had broken loose and dumped our few possessions into the road. My brothers, were unhurt (all that practice jumping) as were my Mother and the driver. He disappeared into the night.
They had to send for an ambulance because I wasn't all right. I suffered a massive tear in my mouth, which wouldn't stop bleeding, and required stitches.
I stayed at the hospital for several days and then Mother put us all on the train!!!!!!
I had never been on a train before and it was really nice.... too bad she hadn't done that in the first place
Visit with Grandparents written 14 Oct 2004
Happy Halloween written 20 Oct 2004
