Born in Oakland California June 15, 1907 second of 2 daughters of Jack and Hilda Huston. They moved to Morgan Hill just after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, raising wine grapes on a 10-acre homestead. In 1908 Jack Huston moved his family to a house on 5th and San Salvador Sts in downtown San Jose. With the birth of his 1st son Harold, Jack moved to a quiet town lot on South ** St the center of family life for 70 years. The house was remodeled to make room for a 4th child, Sidney, born in 1914. With apricot and peach trees, rabbits, chickens and vegetables supplementing income from Jack Huston's barbershop at 10th and William Sts the family prospered. Hilda Huston's brother Charlie returned from the trenches in France to become a prosperous restauranteur, running for city office before depression post-Progressive business clubs dominated city politics. James C Huston saw settlement of the West in his lifetime. In contrast Bernice Huston grew up in California of the Roaring Twenties with bootleg whiskey made and sold in secluded foothills around San Jose.
San Jose, population 44,000, showed no hint of its present size, this center of migrant farmworkers and seasonal cannery workers providing the Santa Clara Valley's main industry. 1923 - 1928 Bernice Huston worked at the San Jose Creamery on South 1st St, social center for San Jose State Teachers' College students and nearby Santa Clara University. On weekends she rode the trolley to work down East Santa Clara St, often walking through the open-air Central Produce Market between 1st and 2nd Sts. In 1925 Bernice entered San Jose State Teachers' College, graduating in 1928 with Elementary School Teaching Credentials. Recession San Jose had only 6 elementary schools. A neighbor recommended Hahn's Teaching Agency in Oakland and a job in Bishop, California. After a long train ride to Mojave with her older sister Inez, and a bus ride over rough, dusty roads to Bishop, Bernice rooming in Mrs Sherwin's Boarding House met another new teacher, Kathleen, who became a lifetime friend. Bishop had been a thriving farm community on the edge of the desert. With the building of the Los Angeles aqueduct water became scarce. Bernice periodically heard rumors of angry farmers dynamiting the aqueduct.
The tribe from the nearby Paiute Reservation lined up at the post office for monthly Government checks, their sole support. Paiute children's school was a separate building from other children. Main St was 2 blocks long. Snow fell in January. Teachers taught an entire grade, one grade to a room. Bernice taught 2nd grade. The 1st winter she taught in the original schoolhouse, heated by an old potbelly stove. The 2nd year she moved her classroom to a main building addition. Bernice and Kathleen, used to active social life of larger communities, found Depression farm frontier bleak. During their 2nd year in Bishop kindergarten teacher Dorothy Sherwin recommended they apply in Burlingame, California, which building a new elementary school needed experienced teachers. On the last class day of the 1929-1930 term Bernice and Kathleen packed their bags for home, teaching 2nd and 3rd grades respectively in Burlingame the next term. Bernice taught at Hoover School until her 1942 marriage to Ralph Fitzgerald. In 1931 teachers' salaries were reduced from $155 to $131 a month. Room and board was $45 a month with $5 garnished to contribute to Burlingame's soup line. In 1978 Bernice was elected Chairman of the Golden Grads division of San Jose State University, a pioneer in California teacher education.
Uncle Charlie, frequently visiting grandmother Huston, told tall stories. At first glance he reminded you of the Wizard of Oz scarecrow. He preferred a drink to a lot of company. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Charlie were siblings of Grandmother Huston - great aunts and uncles - though younger looking than my grandmother. Spinster Jenny lived alone, working as a nurse as had another sister in Oakland during World War I and the Depression. In a time of wet nurses and midwives I doubt if she was an RN. My brother and I were first in Mom's family born in a hospital. I can't recall meeting Homer Goodall, regarded as a misfit. Jack Huston left cousins in Kansas City when he came to California around 1900. My mother kept in touch with them. Jack died after World War II. I only remember him in a convalescent hospital.
Grandfather Fitzgerald died in the early 1950s. Grandmother Frieda Fitzgerald was a sharp Lutheran disciplinarian. We only met a few times, she living in Burlingame. "Leave them with me 3 weeks and I'll straighten them out," she said, striking fear in my brother and me. We favored our other grandmother as a result.
Only older relative I knew. Hard of hearing from childhood her children shouted at her to be understood. Later when they got upset they yelled at you like you didn't agree with them because you couldn't hear them, yelling louder until you consented. Hilda had a TV when nobody else did, provided like the stove and refrigerator by Sid's steady income. As children we visited Hilda Huston on balmy afternoons. While she and my mother talked Michael and I rollerskated on sidewalks in front of her house, a mark of civilization absent at home.