By the time Isaac moved to Longview in 1942, Lovell and Walt both had children, and Vernon was engaged to be married. Ivan, fresh out of Sidney High School, stayed with Lovell and Reatha while he attended business college in Longview. Bob, Vernon, and Ivan all served in the armed forces during World War II.
I was born six years later. I believe Isaac had worked in the mills for a few years, but by the time of my earliest memories, he had retired, and was living on a few acres of land just one mile from my parents’ home. As soon as I was old enough, my folks encouraged me to walk or bicycle to Grandpa’s to spend time with him, which I did very frequently through the mid to late 1950’s. He lived in a tiny attic apartment while renting out the rest of the old farm house. There was a single milk cow, a vegetable garden, and about a dozen fruit trees, mostly cherries, from which he sold the produce to supplement the rent and his Social Security income.
Grandpa and I played many games of checkers and cribbage, and walked to a nearby slough to fish for crappie and perch. I regret that it never occurred to me to ask questions about his earlier years. However, other grandchildren who did ask got very little information for their efforts. I was told that cousin Kenny once asked grandpa what his wife had been like. His response was, “Why do you want to know?”
All five of Isaac’s sons eventually had families, some of them quite large. By 1957 there were 16 grandchildren (all pictured below); the final count reached 22.
Also pictured here are the first two great-grandchildren, Rocky and Sandy.
By the late 1960’s, Grandpa had grown quite feeble. He lived with my parents for several years, then moved to a nursing home, where he died at age 85.
He is buried at Sunnyside Cemetery near Skaar, ND, not far from the old homestead. Also buried there are his wife Anna, and my father, Lovell, who died just a few months later.
Bonnie
Mar 1, 2009
Great memories of Grandpa. Although I didn’t bicycle or walk there, we stopped by frequently and I distinctly remember the steps up to his place (I never thought of it as an apartment), and the woodgrain toilet seat, the only one I knew of. I remember one time he and Dad walked a couple head of livestock from his place to ours….can that be? And of course I remember when he lived with us. I’m wondering where that 85th birthday picture was taken—-Walt & Irene’s, perhaps?
Bonnie
Mar 1, 2009
I also remember being present at a chicken slaughtering at Grandpa’s, which I don’t think I was adequately prepared for…. But I loved his pedal-powered sharpening stone.
George
Mar 1, 2009
Thanks, Sis, for those remembrances. I hear you on he slaughtering. I too remember the pedal-powered sharpening stone quite clearly. And the wooden toilet seat. I do not remember driving cattle from his place to ours, but it may well have happened, after I was out of the home. I think the 85th birthday photo was taken at The Manor nursing home. It is from Uncle Ivan.
Carey
Mar 3, 2009
Wow, powerful flashback! I, too, remember Grandpa’s upstairs apartment, probably from that 1957 visit pictured above. I still have vivid recollection of it smelling of fresh milk.
I also remember Uncle Lovell taking us fishing the slough — I think somebody caught a catfish. And garter snakes!
George, this is a terrific project. Thanks so much for sharing it.
George
Mar 3, 2009
Thanks for the comment, Carey. Wow, now you mention it, I remember the milk smell too!
Eric
Mar 7, 2009
I have vague recollections of Grandpa’s place as well – wasn’t there an enclosure/corral behind the house?
I have fond memories of fishing for catfish in the slough below the house on Pacific Way and catching garter snakes in the ditch. When I was 10 or twelve, your Dad gave me a single-shot shotgun. I still have it and consider it the “seed” that started my love for firearms and hunting.
Lois Larson Hall
Mar 7, 2009
Gosh, memories memories…the “milk smell” comment takes me back about 60 years, just like that. Fairly often Dad & Mom would go out to visit Grandpa and us 4 kids would go along of course, usually in Dad’s pickup truck so Kenny and I sat in the bed of the truck. That’d be cause for arresting the driver nowadays, certainly not the safest way to haul kids around but back then everyone did it. We’d bring home a couple gallon jugs of fresh-from-the-cow milk every time we went out to visit him.
The 85th birthday picture was taken at our house on Beacon Hill when my mom had all the family together to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday (February 9). I’m pretty sure that was one of the last good pictures taken before his death in September of that same year.
When we’d go out to Grandpa’s place on 48th St. he would usually have a cake baked to serve with milk for the kids and freshly brewed coffee for adults. He used cake mixes and would almost always say it was a “Betty Croaker” cake. We’d think that was hilarious, calling Betty Crocker Betty Croaker.
George
Mar 8, 2009
Correction from cousin Lois: the 85th birthday photo was taken at Uncle Walt’s home on Beacon Hill in Longview (or West Kelso?)
Lois Larson Hall
Apr 4, 2009
You had to go through West Kelso to get to our house but it was considered Longview. Beacon Hill was kind of no-man’s land, a Longview address but assigned to Kelso School District (Highlanders vs. Lumberjacks!)