My memories of Carleton and Grandma and Granddad Bailey are more like flashes of scenes and events. (Grandma and Granddad Bailey for me were Floyd and Lou.) I remember only parts of the older stories from my dad's childhood. Don asked me to write some more stories for the Bailey Website, and I have procrastinated because I'm not sure I can flesh out a whole story. However, I will share some of my flashes of memory with the extended Bailey clan wherever you are---
My first actual memory of Grandma and Granddad was when my sister Bonnie was a baby. Mom, Dad, my Grandparent's Hiatt and I were leaving for a trip to Seattle by way of Yellowstone Park. This was sometime during the summer of 1950 because we are taking Cleve's brand new Chevy, always his car of choice.) I was probably two. I can still see Grandma and Granddad standing in front of their house in Carleton. Grandma is holding the baby in her hands, and I am worrying about leaving the baby.
"Aren't we taking the baby?"
"No, Bev," Mom answered. "She is staying here with Grandma and Granddad."
I was not entirely satisified with the response, but did allow Grandma and Granddad to keep the baby.
The picture, in my minds-eye, reminds me in slightly of "American Gothic". Grandma, with Bonnie in her arms, and Granddad are isolated within the frame of the car window as we drive away. The memory is part of the misty past now, but somehow it gives me comfort to have it there after so many years.
Grandma's house was an old frame house, painted white, with a wrap-around porch. The porch and dormers had Victorian gingerbread on them if memory serves me correctly. It was not nearly as big or as neat a house as the Bailey homestead where Aunt Jenny and Uncle Loren lived when I was a kid. (Now that was a cool house. It was an adventure to explore!) The front door of Grandma's house opened into the living room with a heating stove was along the west wall. Also, a door opened to the porch on the westside of the living room. Upon entering, I remember facing a walking closet, which was under the enclosed staircase, leading upstairs.
If I remember right, a door on the east side of the porch opened to the parlor, but that door was rarely or never used. In fact, the parlor was rarely used except for when Grandma had lots of company. I wondered as a kid why they needed a parlor. We only had a living room in our house. Grandma's upright piano was the most important furniture in the parlor as far as I was concerned, probably because of the arguments I had with Grandma about practicing on it. (She told me I would regret not practicing the piano when I got older, and she was right.)
Off the parlor to the south, entering through a wide doorway, was the big bedroom. I think maybe it had a heating stove, too. To provide privacy, curtains separated the bedroom from the parlor. Other than the bed, I remember Grandma's peddle sewing machine in this room. One time Grandma ran a needle through her finger. To me that was a memorable occasion. Grandma also kept Dad's and Uncle George's high school graduation pictures in that room I always thought Uncle George's was better than Dad's because of Dad's curly hair.
Off the big bedroom was the back bedroom and bathroom on the southside of the house. The back bedroom seemed to be always freezing. Grandma kept the door shut to it most of the time to preserve heat. (The house did not have central heat.) Grandma slept in the back bedroom after Granddad died. I remember her telling my mother that one moring she woke up to the sound of Granddad's voice, calling to her. She said she heard him through the window. I have always wondered about that.
The kitchen was right off the living room, and you could also go from the big bedroom through the bathroom to the kitchen. I think a door also opened to the back bedroom from the bathroom, but again, my memory is foggy on this. The kitchen was long and narrow with the kitchen table on the east end, just off the bathroom door. It seems to me that Granddad always had gravy for breakfast and put it on his bread. (In fact, gravy may have been part of every meal.) I thought this was a curious habit and asked Grandma why he did this. She said that he put it on his bread because he didn't have any potatoes. This made sense to me and ended the discussion.
On the eastside of the kitchen, a door lead to that pantry or enclosed back porch area. I consider it more of a pantry because it wasn't overly big--just sort of a little square area. The door to outside was on the southside of the pantry. Going down some wood steps a child entered the fabulous world of the backyard, which included every grandchild's favorite place on play, to top of Grandma's cave (fruit cellar). We played endless games of "King-on-the-Mountain" out there, whenever Grandma wasn't watching. When she was, we were told in no uncertain terms to get off that cave, or it would cave in!!!
The door to the upstairs in Grandma's house was on the eastside of the living room, just off the kitchen door. The stairway was enclosed with no heat upstairs. In the winter it was freezing and in the summer it was sweltering. Upstairs had three bedrooms with a small hallway/landing area between. Memories of upstairs include watching Dad, Uncle George, and some others shingling the roof. (I was afraid of heights so I couldn't or wouldn't go out on the roof. Don did go out, however, which annoyed me no end!.)
Other memories: Mom always had to bring the chamber pot upstairs when we stayed there because the bathroom was downstairs. (I thought the whole chamber pot things was disgusting so I refused to use it.) Grandma used the northeast room for making soap. To me that was a really fascinating thing. I don't remember anything much about the other bedroom.
A final memory of the upstairs is of one night, probably during Milo Days. My cousin Sharon was visiting as well as my family, however; Aunt Lavern and Uncle Sonny were not there. My Mom and Dad came home from downtown, where there was a dance. Some young man had shown an interest in Sharon, and she asked Dad (Uncle Don) if she could stay at the dance. Dad allowed her to stay, but when he returned home, he was worrying aloud to my mother about whether he should have left her their unchaparoned . He thought he should go back downtown and bring Sharon home, especially since her parents weren't there. My mother agreed, I think. I don't remember if he did go get her, but I do remember Bonnie and I thinking it was really cool that Sharon had a boy friend! We thought we might tease her about it the next day, as younger cousins would, but my dad told us to go back to sleep and to leave Sharon alone!
Growing up, it was always Grandma's house to us, not Granddad's. Granddad had the farm. These are a few, just a very few, of my memories of Grandma's house. There are more, of course, in the haze of the past, but they can wait. Until another time--much love to all,
Bev