1935

During the time we lived with my folks, I got pregnant with my first baby. He was born October 30th, 1935. We named him Jimmie Eugene, after Jimmies Dad and after my brother Eugene. It was an extremely hard birth, because he weighed 8-1/4 lbs, and was as fat as a butterball. He was born at home. Jimmie didn’t work in the field for 3 days. He stayed home with me and sat right by my bed and took care of me and J.E. Then he began to get tired just sitting there, so Mama took over. I got over it real fast, but my back was stiff for a while when I would get up and down.

When J.E. was 6 months old, Jimmy got that job for $15.00 per month. At about the same time, we all took the sore eyes. Jimmy was worse. He really suffered. The boss took him to a doctor in town and he got over it. I bathed his eyes in Boric Acid Powder Solution. When that happened I told Jimmie that I couldn’t stand living in that cabin any longer. Not only the absence of plumbing, but the Wasps and dirt dabbers would rest in the rafters of the log house and fly in and out all day. I couldn’t do anything for fear J.E. or I would get stung. They built their nests in the rafters. We didn’t have a screen door nor no windows at all. So I moved back to Texas and moved in with my parents again. When the month was up, Jimmy followed me. That same spring, my nephew, Helen’s son, Ray was born. Helen had gotten remarried to H.C. Lawson, who already had 3 children; Dorothy, LaVeda and Herman. They lived out in Western Oklahoma. She got married in 1935 before my first baby, J.E. was born. Then when it was time for Helen to have her first one, Ray; she sent for Mama to come be with her to help her out after he was born. So Mama and Dorothy went. While they were gone, I took a setback from that Pellagra and I nearly died. My Dad sent Mama a telegram for her to come home as soon as she could get there. By the time Mama and Dorothy got home, I was already in the hospital. When she got within seeing distance of the house, she really got scared. There were no lights on and it was already dark. She thought that I was already dead.

When Dad and Gene carried me to the car to take me to the hospital; all my bones in my body hurt real bad. I was so close to being dead is why my bones ached. When we got to the hospital, they carried me up a flight of stairs and I was really in pain from being so weak. My digestive system and my colon had quit functioning. I would drink something down and in less than 5 minutes it would go completely thru my system. I had no control over my BM’s nor my urination. The nurses immediately started me on IV’s for about 3 days. Then they started giving me blood transfusions. I took 2 or 3 pints of blood. Within 2 weeks I was feeling strong enough to sit up in bed. I felt OK, but I was still very weak. I started looking out the window nearly everyday, all day long. I was getting extremely homesick, I just wanted to go home. The doctor said, “Well, if you can stand on your feet and walk a few steps, you can go home.” So I sat on the side of the bed, and with Jimmies help on one side and the doctor on the other side, I stood up. My legs were too weak to take even one step, so I sat back down. I begged so hard to go home, the doctor finally said “yes”. But, I should have stayed another week and taken one more blood transfusion. Because I only weighed 104 lbs. for 3 or 4 months. J.E. was a fat baby about 8 months old and I couldn’t think of picking him up, nor doing much of anything, I was too weak.

In the same spring, Jimmy met a young man that was working in a Carnival in Valley View, Texas. This was 3 miles from where we lived. He had a car and he brought Jimmie home one day. He was telling Jimmie all about California, because the Carnival had traveled from California on out to Texas. He told him how plentiful the fruit and vegetables were out there. He said you could go anywhere out on a ranch and pick all the fruit you wanted when they were in season; enough to provide for your family. Or, you could buy them by the bushel for 50¢ per bushel basket. He also said the wages were $2.50 per day, compared to $1.00 per day there in Texas. He got Jimmie in the notion of coming to California with him. So the boy quit the Carnival and he and Jimmie came out to California. They traveled the southern route and came to Calexico; a town on the border of California and Mexico. Their car broke down there. Jimmie only had $13.00 when he left Texas. He bummed day-old bread and donuts on the way, when he got hungry. After the car broke down in Calexaco, he started hitch hiking north into California. He caught a ride to Los Angeles. Then on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles County, he caught another ride with an old man in an old Model-T pickup. They started to talking, and the old man asked Jimmy where was he going. Jimmie said, “Where there’s plenty of cotton to pick.” And the old man said, “Well, Sonny, stick with me and I’ll drop you off in the middle of the cotton belt.” So, he dropped Jimmy off in Delano, California.

Meanwhile, back home, I was still creeping around, not gaining any weight. Helen & H.C. and their kids drove up one day from Sarah, Oklahoma in an old Model-T Ford Pickup. It had a homemade back bed built onto it. Ray was only one month old. Helen had made him some overalls out of blue denim. They just fit him with a little bib and straps over his shoulder, just like grown-up overalls. As they were turning in the yard, she held Ray up high so we could see him before they even stopped the pickup. He was sure cute. Just like a little boy doll. I think she gave him the wind-cholic when she held him up and the pickup was still rolling; because he was sick for about 3-4 days. She was so proud of him she couldn’t wait to show him off. Herman, Dorothy and LaVeda all rode in the back. They were all real glad to get there and were real tired.

Helen and her family stayed for about a month. H.C. began telling me if I would go home with them, he would fatten me up. By the time they were ready to go, I had decided to go with them. Mama begged me not to go. She knew she would miss J.E. so much, because we had lived with them from the time J.E. was born, except a few months when J.E. was 3 or 4 months old. She was afraid we would get sick. I went home with them anyway. We stayed with Jimmie’s folks for about one month before that and they didn’t have enough variety of food; no milk, no eggs, no meat, no fresh fruits, nor vegetables. I knew I would get sick again if we kept staying there. So, I wrote to Momma . . . and had them come get J.E. and me. And again, we went back to my parents house. His folks lived in Ardmore Oklahoma in a shack. Mr. Lane, Jimmie’s step-father, wasn’t able to work. He had diabetes and brites disease. He only worked part-time once in awhile. There wasn’t any work to be had, as it was the depression days. Jimmy found a job overhauling a Model-T motor. It took him 5 days to complete the job. He only made $5.00. I helped him. I ground the valves by hand. He gave his step-dad $3.50 of the $5.00. That’s the only money Jimmy made that whole month while we were there. I had canned up 100 jars of fruit and vegetables the summer before that; before J.E. was born and we had that to eat. It was a hard struggle in those days. There wasn’t such a thing as Welfare in those days.

So we went back over to my parent’s house, and I went home with Helen and family, out in western Oklahoma . . . Sarah, Oklahoma. Jimmy was out in California by then. He wrote to me and would send $2 or $3 now and then, which was all he could spare. He told me to save all I could for a ticket to come out to California. So, I did just that. I still weighed only 104 lbs. H.C., Helen’s husband, started saying he was gonna fatten me up. So he would cook a good meal nearly every day. A roast and all the trimmings. And then he would weigh me on the cotton scales real often. I gained up to 115 lbs. which was real good in 3 months time.

Helen had to work real hard out there, just taking care of the family. She had to rub all the clothes out on a rub-board, and carry the water about 100 feet to fill up the tubs. We had to hang our clothes on the barbed wire fence to dry. We would hang the fence full of clothes all around the house and by the time we would wash another tub full those on the fence would be dry, because the wind blew continually out there in western Oklahoma. La Veda was about 2-1/2 years old and sick continually with diarrhea. Helen had a time breaking her, which made more clothes to wash. I felt sorry for La Veda. They didn’t take her to the doctor with it. They probably didn’t have any money to pay him. The other two kids were healthy . . . Dorothy and Herman.

And when I had saved up enough money to come on the train to California, I wrote to Jimmy and told him what day, and what hour and what minute I would be arriving. It took J.E. and me 3 nights and 2-1/2 days to come by train. It was a through train that traveled from Sarah, Oklahoma to Los Angeles. We didn’t have to change trains all that distance. We arrived at Delano, California at 2:45 P.M. and Jimmy met us there. It took me so long getting off the train, that Jimmy had about given up on us and started walking away from the depot. He was thinking that I wasn’t on it ; and had gotten about 200 yards away when he looked back one more time. By that time, I was just getting off the train. I had a suitcase, a diaper bag, a purse and J.E. to carry. That’s why I was so slow. It really scared me for a minute when I saw Jimmy walking away from the depot. But when he looked back, I was sure relieved. He came back to meet us and he started to take J.E. J.E. wouldn’t go to him at first. He had forgotten his dad in that short amount of time. J.E. was 11 months old by then, and a really fat baby. Then we drove out to the ranch where Jimmy had been living. He had borrowed an 8’ x 10’ tent and had it stretched up on the owner’s front yard for us to live in. We had only a bed in it. When I got off the train, the first thing he asked me was if I had any money left. And I had $5.00 left. He said he was broke. We needed to buy some groceries and a little wood burning heater. So, we went to the market and bought the real small heater [including the pipes] plus enough groceries to do us for a while and still had $1.50 left. That was in November 1936. Everything was real cheap. We had to cook on the heater, as well as, keep warm by it. It took very little fire going to keep warm in that little tent. We only had a bed and a heater and 2 apple boxes for shelves for dishes, etc. No running water, no potty, no way to take a bath, nor wash clothes, nor any conveniences whatsoever. But we made out just fine.

The most inconvenient thing was keeping the laundry done, as J.E. wasn’t potty trained. But I made out somehow. We were very happy to be together and everything else was secondary. We hadn’t had a chance to live alone [Jimmy, J.E. & I] very long at a time, so we really enjoyed being out here and away from my Mom and Dad. It was like Heaven. I loved my parents, naturally, but it was fun to have our lives alone for a change.

Jimmy was working part-time for the owner of the ranch and we skimped by on a meager amount of money until the following spring. When work started in the grape vineyards, wages were $2.50 per day. But when Spring came the ranchers paid $.50 per hour; and that was lots of money per day in those days.

I started writing to my parents and describing how beautiful it was out here. I could step out of my tent and look toward the East, at the snow-capped mountains, but we were just east of Delano [one mile] it wasn’t even cold . . . just pleasant. So I wrote and told them all about it and how much the wages were. In Texas at that time the wages were only $1.00 per day, compared to $2.50 per day out here [in the winter]. And in the Spring and Summer, it was $ .50 per hour. So, by the following February, my family came out here. They had already accepted a government loan to run the farm the coming year and was to pay it back within 10 years. When they decided to come out here, they used the loan money [$300] to come out here on.

They risked paying it back by working for wages out here rather than staying back there and putting in another crop. And when they got to California, all the men [Gene, Dad and Jimmy] went to work for $4.00 per day pruning Grape vines.

Dorothy was 11 years old at that time. She thoroughly enjoyed being out here. She also enjoyed the trip. They came out in a 2 seated, 4 door 1927 Model-T. They made it fine, except when they got as far as El Paso, Texas. There was a freeze that night while they were sleeping in a Motel. The radiator froze up and cracked the block on the motor of the Model-T. They were held up for 5 days in the Motel while a mechanic came out and fixed it. But other than the break-down, they made the trip fine. When they hit the mountains (Ridge Route) the car wouldn’t quite make it up to the top of the hills, so they would all jump out and push, except Gene. He stayed in to guide it. Then, when they would get to the top of the hill, they would all jump back in and coast down hill as fast as the car would go. . . . then be ready to push again when it slowed down again. They stopped at the water hole and rested a long time. My family really enjoyed the whole trip out here, in spite of the hardships. To them, it wasn’t hardships.

My mother said they would stop to eat and all Dorothy would want was red soda pop (strawberry soda). So mama bought her all she wanted. She said that Dorothy kept filled up on Strawberry Soda and ate very little all the way out here. She wasn’t use to having any kind of soft drinks back in Texas on the farm, as money was too scarce. Just like when Dorothy made pets out of a pig and a chicken in Oklahoma, cause she didn’t have any toys whatsoever to play with.

When my family got to Delano, two weeks later [as it took them that long to make the trip], they didn’t know how to find us. All the address they had was Delano, California, General Delivery. So Dad went to the post office for 3 days and stood in there all day waiting for Jimmy to come to town to get our mail. And the 3rd day, on Saturday, Jimmy came in and when Dad saw him, he rushed out and grabbed him and hugged him for a few seconds. It scared Jimmy at first, but he was happy to see Dad, and Dad was so happy to see Jimmy. My folks brought Jimmy back out to the ranch. Dad nearly had a fit to see us living in an 8 x 10 ft. tent. He immediately began gathering up things and carrying them to the car without even asking me if I wanted to move. I turned around and asked Momma, “Are we moving?” Then all of a sudden I started laughing and she began laughing too. My Dad thought that it was terrible that we were living in a tent, with no conveniences whatsoever. But I was completely happy to just be with Jimmy. I was making out and I didn’t mind the inconveniences, not one bit. But we moved in with them, and left that ranch.

They lived in a court one mile south of Delano. We had been living one mile east of Delano. It wasn’t long before we moved into the cabin next door to them. Jimmy went to work in the grape vineyards pruning grapevines, as well as Gene and Dad. The salary was $ .50 per hour and that was the most pay Jimmy had ever earned in his whole life, as well as Gene. I also got a job out in Wasco in the potato shed for $.50 per hour. I graded onions, the onions were first before potatoes. I had to stand on my feet all day in front of a moving belt that rolled the onions by. I had to pick out the bad ones as they came by me. I didn’t last very long because I started having female troubles and couldn’t stand on my feet all day. So I had to give it up. With my first weeks pay I bought our first car we ever owned. Jimmy found a Model-T Pick-Up in town for $25.00. That was our first vehicle to own.

When potatoes were ready to pick, all the rest of the family, Mama, Dad, Gene & Dorothy, found a job in Wasco picking up potatoes behind the digger. The digger would make a circle and they assigned 2 people to each 30 ft. section. When the digger passed each section, those 2 people had to hurry and pick up their section before the digger got back around and went by them again. So Dad and Moma were working together, and Gene & Dorothy were working together. Dorothy was real fast. She was faster then any of them, so she and Gene would get their section picked up before the digger would get back around and have time to rest in between times. But Mama and Dad would barely get theirs picked up. Dorothy was only 11 years old, but she was really healthy. She wouldn’t even be tired in the evening. However, Mama would be wore out at the end of the day.

My Mother and I worked together in the grape vineyards that same year spreading grapes on the ground to dry out for raisins. It was a hot and dirty job. I guess Dorothy was in school. The rest of the family was working at other things, I can’t remember exactly, but everyone stayed busy when there was field work to do.

Helen had Ray. He was just an infant, so she was at home. Helen, H.C. and their kids slept in a tent for a few months when they first came out to California. It wasn’t long until my mother’s oldest sister, Aunt Alma and family came out here also. She had, Little Helen, Mary Lillian, Lois, Gus and Floyd; all still at home at that time. So, as time went by, one by one, a family relative would come out here just like wagon train. They were all seeking a better life and more pay for their labor. And they found it out here in California. We were all much happier out here. The weather was nice, compared to Oklahoma and Texas. Plus the wages were over twice as much.

1941

While we were living here in the San Joaquin Valley we were blessed with two more sweet babies . . . our daughter, Annette; and Bobby, our son. They were both born in the Kern General Hospital; now it’s called Kern Medical Center. Annette was born on May 1st, 1939 at 10:45 P.M. She weighted 6 lbs 7 oz. And one year later on April 29th, 1940 I had Bobby . . 7-1/4 lbs. I named Annette . . . “Ada Annette”. And I named Bobby . . . “Bobby Edward”. Annette was 2 years old and Bobby was 1, and J.E. was 5 years old when we move to Los Angeles County to live.

Jimmy learned welding and he did welding all through W.W.II at the California shipyards, located on Terminal Island. J.E. started to school in the 1st grade in Lawndale, California. Annette also started to school at the same school when she was 5 years old. So we lived in Lawndale from the summer of 1941, until the winter of 1945; with the exceptions of 2 years in Gardena, California. We moved over to Gardena the winter of 1942 and lived there for 2 years. Then we bought a house in Lawndale and moved back. In the winter (December) of 1945, Jimmy and I separated, sorry to say. He was working for a travel bureau and was gone most of the time. He started working for them right after the war was over.

We separated friends and I let him have the boys and I took Annette. I told them that boys are supposed to stay with their Dad’s and girls with their Moms. I didn’t want to hurt Jimmy any more than I could help, is why I let him keep the boys. Annette wasn’t happy away from Jimmy and the boys. I know now that she was a very sad little girl. So Jimmy came over where I was working about a month or so later and he asked me if he could have Annette. When Annette and I went out to his car, Annette crawled in beside him and hugged him so tight around the neck, she told me right then just how unhappy she was living with me and not getting to be with him and the boys. So I just couldn’t turn him down. So I let her go with him. I was working different places as a housekeeper, living in with Annette. So I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep her in the same school for very long at a time. Plus I didn’t have a car. I had to ride the bus all the time. Even though it broke my heart to give her up, I saw that she would be much happier with him and her brothers. Besides, Jimmy and the boys were living with my parents, so she got to join all of them. But I cried when I let her go. I had given up my whole family. I was sure sad for a long time about it. I cried nearly every night. To think I had given up my whole family . . . for what? I started asking myself . . . why? But I was considering Annette’s happiness above mine when I gave her up. When I gave up the boys, I did it to please Jimmy, not myself. I wasn’t out to hurt Jimmy, but just the opposite. As it turned out, Jimmy passed away in November 1953. And even though I was lonely without them, at least he got to enjoy them while he was alive. Since then I’ve thanked the Lord many times that I had made that decision. He had a massive heart attack. I was still in love with him, even though he remarried in 1948. He was married to Marie for 5 years before he passed away.

1951

I remarried in 1951 to Marion Coulter. In 1952 Jimmy came to us and asked us if we would keep the 3 kids for the following nine months period. I was thrilled to get to keep them. Jimmy and Marie went on a job over on the coast and he said he wouldn’t be able to send them to school over there. They would be traveling around quite a bit. So I gladly said “Yes, I’d be glad to have the kids.”.

So, Marion and I kept them for the nine months. J.E. was 15 years old, Annette, 11 yrs; and Jacky was 10. Marion had 3 kids also, about the same age as my 3. So, we had a house full. We bought 2 sets of bunk beds, one set for the youngest boys and one set for the youngest girls. We made out just fine. I was sure happy with them. The kids and I had a very pleasant time together. Marion was strict on them, but I was right the opposite. Flora, his youngest daughter let me know she really loved me when Marion and I separated in 1953. I never got to see her until 1956, when she looked me up. She just wanted to tell me how much she loved me and how she appreciated how good I was to her when I was with her Dad. She called me Mom and said she would always love me. That really made me feel good. That she appreciated me while I was her stepmother. She said that she vowed when she became 18 years old that she would get a boyfriend that had a car, and that she would have him take her to try and find me; and she did just that. We had moved quite a few times by then. But, she managed to find me anyway. If I knew where she is now, I’d sure go see her. I just may try to find her someday, before I die.

Anne and Jack and I lived in a little 27 ft. house trailer, in Hawthorne, California, in 1955 and 1956, on Corduroy Avenue. Then, we moved about 1/2 mile from there onto Cornbloom Avenue. That’s where we lived when Ann and Lee got married. Lee was working at the General Telephone Company at the time. His wages weren’t very much, but he was very economical with his money and so was Anne. They got by very well. They saved up the down payment on a house and moved to Santa Ana when Jimmy Dee was real young. Then she had 2 girls after moving there. She had 2 boys and 2 girls, a really nice family. Anne & Lee’s dolls were named Timmy Lee, Jimmy Dee, Sherry Ann and Gerry Lynn.

I use to go out to visit them. It took me about 40 minutes to get there, which was a nice drive. I was doing child care for years at that time. Then later, I started doing vacant house cleaning. This paid more, but was much harder work. I didn’t mind, because I wanted the exercise, so I got plenty of that. I hurt my back, though, in 1963.

Bobby married a sweet girl named Linda. They had two daughters; Joyce Leanne and Christina. They lived in Torrance for quite a while, but now he’s living in New Hampshire. When he was young, Bobby was probably the sweetest child you could ever want. I sure wish he lived near me, I really miss him.

1967

J.E., my oldest son, had a heart attack while driving a Western Trucking truck down the freeway. He was headed to Ventura. He hurried and pulled off the first off-ramp and he got out of the truck and started calling for help. A Japanese gardener heard him and he came over and called 911. He was then taken to an emergency ward up there. The hospital kept him 2 or 3 days. The doctor said he had a 50-50 chance of surviving the attack; and he pulled through it. He wasn’t strong enough to have surgery for 2 years. Eventually he had surgery. At the time, the doctor gave him 5 years maximum to live. He ended up living 8 more years.

J.E. and his family went to the Colorado River for 3 days. He took his speed boat out and they camped out in his trailer, having a wonderful time. After returning home on Monday, he went in to clean-up. His wife, Delores was fixing lunch . . . when he had his final heart attack . . . in the bathroom. The family got him out and onto the livingroom carpet, but the Paramedics couldn’t revive him. He passed away so suddenly. It really tore me up. I screamed & cried when my other son, Bobby, called and told me about it. He dearly loved me. And, I loved him so very much. I was hurt so bad by his loss, that it took me several years of grieving to get over loosing him. He passed away on March 6th, 1977. I sure wish he were here now, living here in Oildale . . . so I could see him everyday.

1974 - Present

My love life seemed to be on a roller coaster for a period in my life. Marion and I were married 2-1/2 years, separating in November 1953. I remarried in 1954; it only lasted 1 year and 3 months. He was a real mama’s baby. I was alone until 1962; then I remarried again. We went to Mexico to get married. He turned out to be a Wino and an alcoholic. That marriage only lasted 3 months; ending in 1963. I then remarried a man who turned out to be a thief. He got to where he would bring stolen things to our place, so I quit him. That marriage lasted 1-1/2 years. Then I tried marriage again. I married a mind-reader in 1967. He would sit and read my mind. It bothered me so bad, I quit him after about 3 months.

After I quit the mind reader, it was 1968, I started going to church. I went every time the doors were open. I use to sing solos and play my guitar there every Sunday morning. That was where I met Henry, after his wife died. I had been alone for 6 years when I met Henry on Sept. 8th, 1974. We got married on November 10th 1974 in the church I was attending. We lived a happy life until he passed away on August 17th, 1995. He was a Christian, and so was I by then. I was saved and Baptized in 1970.

When I think back, probably my one real passion was dancing. I use to go dancing at night clubs, before I met Henry. I had always loved to dance. I won first place whenever I would enter a contest; just like Dorothy & Gene did. They were on Radio here in town every Saturday night when Dorothy was only 13 years old. I also sang in Western bands from about 1958 or 1959 in night clubs. I also sang on radio different places in various night clubs, Eagles Lodge’s, Moose Lodges, as well as taverns. I was asked to sign up with an agent in about 1973. I turned it down. He wanted to book me to sing different places, as well as Radio and eventually TV. But I was too stupid to sign up. I was afraid to venture into that kind of crowd. Afraid they might spike my 7-up and get me on dope. I was very cautious of who I sat with; and I only drank plain 7-up all those years, about 30 years or over. I learned to dance all the steps in those days. I danced with professional dancers and just loved it. I would work during the day cleaning vacant houses and I’d go dancing 2 & 3 nights per week; so I got plenty of exercise for years.

I’ve never drank a drop of alcohol, nor smoked a cigarette in my entire life; and I never intend to. I still occassionally sing in bands at the V.F.W. hall on Saturday nights. And after Henry’s passing, I find myself alone again . . . . and at 87 . . . I plan to stay that way.