7 wei///a a1/-sri a collection of senior memorabilia published by the BENTON COUNTY RETIRED SENIOR VOLUNTEER PROGRAM September 1977 2700 NW Harrison Blvd Corvallis, Oregon 97330 Sponsored by the Corvallis Area Chamber of Commerce ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A special thanks is due . the Corvallis Senior Center Painting Class for their inspired illustrations: Verl Beach, Gilbert Cheever, Margaret Heifner, Mar- garet Incledon, Pauline Keith, Al Pearson, Veda Prather, Emma Stevenson. And especially Jeannette Thompson for the enormous amount of hours she has spent on these pages. our tireless editors: Louisa DuBosch, Roberta Ebert, Belle Kiersky, Margery Mullins, Eric Swenson, and especially for the enormous contribution made by Debi Osman and Margery Stauffer. the Advanced Composition Class at Oregon State University for the interviewing and writing of personal remembrances of some of our seniors. Debbie Osman and Belle Kiersky for proofreading all the material. Louisa DuBosch, who typed many of the stories for the first draft, and especially Mathilda (Tillie) Fast, who singlehandedly typed the final draft of the entire book. Harriet Moore whose historical files of this area contributed several fascinating Oregon historical anecdotes contained herein. our contributors, many of whom are not RSVP members. We thank all of you who have writtenor told your stories for us. These stories are now a part of the literature of thisarea. Our apologies to anyone who has contributed to this book and who has been inadvertently left out in these acknowledgements Cover illustration by Harley Shaw Cover lettering by Ace Maryott TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Author Page A Brief Escapade Bernice I. Penn 117 A Kansas Kid Ruth Moore Windscheffel 104 A Midnight Adventure Mrs. Verl Beach 43 A Monkey on my Back Jess Stauffer 107 A Promise is a Promise Grace S. Strahan 31 A Real Oxen Driver Glenn Howard 129 A Special Thursday Myrtle Stansfield 22 A Swiss in Arizona Lilly E. Predmore 1 34 Adventure in Traveling Blanche M. Huffaker 126 Angels in the Coal Bin Mathilda Fast 136 Babe, Pet, and Kids Albert Osenbrug 112 Benton County's First Black Pioneers Harriet Moore's File 145 Black Sunday in Kansas Birdie Scheurman 54 Blood Sucker Francis H. Sumner 68 Born in a Sod House Luella Herman 70 Box Socials and Taffy Pulls Golda Belknap 140 Bucking Timber Hubert Edwards 100 By Wagon Train to Oregon Clara E. Holman 48 Camping at the State Fair Merthel McConnel 1 Childhood in Charleston Harbor Wyman Swenson 156 Christmas Trimmings Vivian Audean Aasum 16 Dear Old "Golden Rule" Days Margery Stauffer 1 38 Down on First Street in Corvallis Norma Bower McMahan 84 Early Babysitting Days Jeannette Thompson 36 Early Recreation Ella B. & Nettie Spencer 75 Pioneer Stories Ever Wrestle with a Deer? George Ramsey 115 Farm Life in Eastern Washington Elda T. Stephenson 130 First Love, Remembered Muriel Haphey 99 Flaming Youth in the Roaring Twenties Muriel Haphey 26 Fossils in Construction Bedrock Eileen Waring Dew 61 From Corvallis to Newport in the Alice I. Wallace 124 Twenties From Idaho to Oregon a "Happenstance!" Ethel Woods 163 Good Old Shep Jennie C. Putnam 60 Growing up on Winberry Creek Veda Renfro Prather 19 High Rent Hubert & Chanline Edwards 13 Homestead Memoirs Merton Lippert 39 Homesteading on Dean's Creek Cecelia Gustafson 119 Hoodlums of Yesterday Josephine Zadina 87 How Dear to my Heart Rosemond Knifton 79 How Firm a Foundation Betty McCauley 153 Huckleberry Canyon Millia Crenshaw 91 I Lived Dangerously Mrs. Mae Spring 93 In the Days of House Calls Lena Belle Tartar 30 Into the Lake?Well, Almost Robert A. Judd 56 Jack of all Trades Dan Elmer 5 Life in the Suburbs of Portland Grace Martin 10 (1904-16) Lighting the Headlamps on an E.M.F. Ace Maryott 50 Studebaker Llano, the 1912 "Big Con" Sarah Elliott 158 Logging in the North Woods Truman Overacker 95 Lost in the Blue Mountains Lu D. Thompson 110 Lotta's Bridge Mrs. I. Ray Chapman 14 (Lotta) Making Ends Meet Etna Barchard 67 Pioneer Stories Many Hands Make Light Broth Ruth Mitchell 3 Maple Sugaring at Brookside Farm Gladys D. Chambers 73 Margaret the Riveter Margaret Babb 109 Me, Egghead Belle Kiersky 72 Meet Me at the Fair Myrtle Stryker 9 Memories of My Childhood Ethel Johnson 40 My Father, Alfred Talbot Richardson El i zabeth Richardson 33 Childs My Father's Bakery Albert Osenbrug 123 No More Pencils, No More Books Hazel Becker 148 Now Pa Approves Jessie Wolton Willhoit 47 Oregon Agricultural College - 1910 1. J. Starker 17 Our 1917 "Tin Lizzie" Edith L. Harrison 141 Over the Oregon Trail Minnie Scott 114 Prairie Fires Maude Hayes Smith 53 Primping Charline L. Edwards 57 Roots, Landmarks and Legends Ruth Mantell 133 Rose City Streetcarring Morris Birch 24 Seasons of Remembering Maurine Thurmond Kellar 59 Sedgwick's Market Mrs. Mabel Sedgwick 88 Sioux City Girlhood Maude Martin 102 Sleepy Time Gal Charline L. Edwards 101 So Old That It's New Elizabeth Fast 161 Student Girl Ruth Collins Hope 45 Tenmile Creek 1905 Corvallis Gazette 58 The Bakery Truck Dorothy Irvin 65 The Blizzard of '88 Ace Maryott 51 The Bull Fight Dorothy Garriott 136 The Butcher's Son Author Unknown 62 The Columbus Day Storm, 1962 Stella Beinhoff 96 The Cookhouse Merthel McConnel 105 The "Electric Lunch" Cafe Hazel Becker 42 The Games we Played Roseinond Knifton 27 The "Good Old Days," or "Shank's Mares" Grace A. Vose 12 and "Arbuckles" The Great Crossing of the McKenzie Abe Van Prooyen 82 River The Great Flood Melvin A. Hawkins 155 The Huckster Charline L. Edwards 58 The Maple Groves Merthel McConnel 144 The North and South of Oregon Harriet Moore's Files 132 "The Orn'riest Kid in Town" Al Ebert 76 The Reeves Burial Ground, 1848-1886 Jess Stauffer 151 The Reeves Cherry Tree Grace Cooper 1 60 Pioneer Stories The Sea Monster in Winkle Lake 1897 Oregon Union 104 Newspaper The Standard Furniture Company Lois Jenkins 69 The Sunkist Beauties Billie Green 41 The "Yeomanette" of World War I Ruth Mantell 90 Things I remember Most Ida Bowersox 8 Thunder 'n Lightnin' and Blacksnakes Belle Kiersky 7 What a Full Life! Elizabeth Keeney 20 When Grandmother was Young Author Unknown 52 Wild Mustard Peg Hatfield 77 Winter on Decker Road Elizabeth Decker 32 Wyoming, 1910 Mrs. Grace Putnam 149 Y'all Come Now! Josephine Zadina 37 PREFACE Information from a history book isn't as vital as remembrance. A history book tells only of things that are gone.A memory, however,; is a living thing containing laughter, love, and often heartache and tears----it still has color, odor or sound sometimes and, always, real substancej It is a healthy thing to return in memory to experiences which have made up the reality of of our lives. The following stories are from memories. their importance has already been established. CAMPING AT THE STATE FAIR Just west of the State Fair Grounds at Salem is an oak grove of times long past. For many years--I don't know how long--at fair time it was filled with tents of fair goers. Since my mother was one of five children and my grandfather had six brothers and sisters, our family looked forward to a week-long family reunion. Grandpa and Grandma, and as many of the cousins, aunts and uncles, great- aunts and uncles as could, arranged to come each year. When the heavy canvas tent had been put up and firmly staked against the wind, rag carpeting hand-woven on a loom was laid to cover the grass to make it cleaner and easier to sweep. Each family took a two-or three-burner kerosene stove, preferably with its port- able oven, so adequate meals could be prepared. Kerosene lamps, folding chairs, cupboards, etc., were needed. Some of the more affluent members of the older generation had permission to build cottages at the edge of the area, for tents and often our bedsprings, mattresses and tables were stored there. Com- munity restrooms were strategically located and sidewalks were laid out with numbered tent spaces so you could tell your friends to meet you at space 8 in row E. I believe we could reserve a space a year ahead. When everything was in order the younger men would return home to work until the next weekend when they would come back to enjoy the fair and take their families home. We all had season tickets which allowed us to go back and forth 1 at will if the day proved too boring in the pavilions. It didn't take too long to see all the kitchen gadgets demonstrated orlearn the "spiel" of the patent medicine man. But certain days we would sit on the benches and watch for neighbors and friends whohad moved from our vicinity but had written that they would come. We had looked forward to wearing our new fall wardrobes and endured them even if the day turned out scorching hot. We suffered from kid curlers and having our hair done up in rags, as Motherwanted us to appear at our best. She entered me in the baby contest the fall before my first birthday and was truly proud of the silver cup presented to the heaviest baby girl. The "Midway" seemed much more exciting then, and those uncles without children delighted in buying us tickets on the ferriswheel or other contrivances. Every year there was some new treat like "snow sherbet" or spun sugar candy. But the sweet that has endured through the years is Fischer's scones. I'd hate to see, in one pile, all the jam-filled scones I've eaten in all those years atthe fair.