Grandma G

While in California I had the opportunity to drive around with Grandma G and see some of the places she grew up.  It was fun listening to her stories!

 This is the earliest home Grandma G could remember.  Or at least where it used to be.  She used to live in a duplex where those cars are parked.  She and her sisters got into all kinds of mischief while living in that house!  They tight roped on clotheslines!  There was an abandoned fire house next door that they would climb on, Great Aunt Barbara even got stuck on a second story window.  Down the street one of the houses was vacant, the girls would go inside and clean it, it was their life sized play house.  A church down the street had a nice little courtyard they liked to play in so there were many times they would be playing there all dusty and dirty from their adventures when people would come dressed all fancy for formal events!

One year after Christmas she and her sisters decided to collect Christmas trees.  They went door to door asking if people wanted their trees.  If they didn't they carried them back to their side yard which quickly filled with old, dried out Christmas trees.  Great Aunt Mary was actually given a flocked tree about the same size as she was.  She stepped inside the branches so she could grab the trunk with both hands and marched it across the main street.  To any bystanders it looked like a Christmas tree was walking on two tiny little feet of its own accord.  Fortunately for Great Grandma Clara the boy scouts later hauled them away.

During the hot summer months the fire department would come through and flush the system by opening up the fire hydrants.  She and her sisters chased the water, playing with it as it flowed down the gutters down several blocks to a "major" intersection.  Keep in mind these are not like the ditches of Washington.  The gutters are all of a couple of inches deep but in a dry, desert like area it was probably Heaven!

 This is St. Joseph's church.  It was a block from their home.  This is the church Grandma G attended until she went away to college.  She was raised Catholic so this is where her first communion and her confirmation took place.

The priest live in this adjacent building. 

 Grandma G and her sisters had endless entertainment from this library.  The granite by the stairs made a handy slide and the ledge around the base was a fun climbing exercise.  Just across the street is where their gutter escapade took place.  Down the road there is an over pass.  Before it was open to traffic she and her sisters would ride their bikes there and sail down the hill!  Keep in mind Bakersfield is pretty much flat....everywhere.

 She grew up attending was St Joseph's kindergarten and elementary schools until it was replaced by  St Lawrence Elementary school when Grandma G was in 3rd grade.  One year they went to Voorhies school.  It was the local public school.  They attended for one year before Great Grandma Clara moved them back to St. Lawrence until they attended the public high school.

This is Jefferson pool.  This is where they learned to swim and had their swim meets for the city swim team later on.  

 This was the next house she lived in when she was about in third grade, she started going to St. Lawrence and lived here until high school.  She walked home from school past an orchard.  One year someone put a deer head into one of the orchard garbage barrels.  It stunk horribly for weeks so they would have to give it a wide berth every time they walked to or from school.  St. Lawrence still exists but unfortunately there was no way to get a picture of it easily.  All the schools in Bakersfield are completely surrounded by chain link fences with gates that they lock.  You couldn't even get into it's parking lot.

 In this auditorium Grandma G had her 8th grade presentation of "My Fair Lady".

 This was the last house Grandma G lived in with Great Grandma Clara.  Great Grandma built that fence in order to have privacy for their pool.  This is the house Grandma G lived in while she dated Papa G.  They built their volkswagon (his first car) in the driveway.  Papa G actually lived here with Grandma's sisters and Mom while she was away at UC San Francisco Medical Center for college.  She studied there to become a dental hygienist.  She was very competitive and out smarted and out worked another student to graduate top of her class.  The other girl often came to study groups, she would refuse to help answer homework problems but would sit there waiting for other students to share answers for the problems she didn't know. The girl was convinced she would be top of the class. Grandma didn't like her attitude so she put her in her place.  There were only 24 total girls in the class so Grandma didn't see why the other girl couldn't just help participate fairly.

 This is the high school that Grandma G attended.  Her older sister Barbara was in the first class to go to this school all four years.  While attending high school Grandma G swam on the swim team.  During the time she lived in Bakersfield it was very segregated.  There were the white, black and red neck parts of town.  The heated out door pool that the swim team practiced at was in the black part of town and the team had to be escorted for practice by the sheriff.

 It was at this school, in the cafeteria, at the Girls' choice dance that Grandma G and Papa G met officially for the first time.  Grandma was friends with his date, he was friends with her date.  Her date drove and picked everyone up.

They continued to run into each other at the LDS dances.  Until one day Papa G left early with some friends and, while dancing with the guy she went to the Girls' choice dance with, she realized she really wanted to be with Papa G.  Thus their relationship began!

 This is the home that they were married at.  It was a short distance from Papa G's house (which is now a store), the people that lived there were like grandparents to Papa G.  The actually refinished the piano Papa grew up with and then gave it back to him.  It's the piano my siblings and I learned to play on to varying degrees of success.  Grandma and Papa G often walked down to visit the owners while they were dating.

 This is Kern General Hospital, at least it used to be.  Great Grandma Clara worked here, eventually becoming the nursing supervisor, Great Aunt Barbara worked here in the ICU and ER after becoming a nurse, and Grandma G worked here during the summers as a ward clerk.  She got the necessary information to register patients, drew up lab requests, filed lab reports, etc.  She worked with paperwork rather than patients.  Working here during the summer is how she paid for college to become a dental hygienist.  While Papa was in school they lived in Albany in the UC Berkeley married student housing, at the end of his bachelor's degree she was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day saints (1976).  After Berkeley they moved to Van Nuys, then Canyon Country, after which they lived in Great Grandma Clara's motorhome while they built their Agua Dulce home before moving to Moorpark.  She worked as a dental hygienist while Papa G finished school. She worked until just before she had her third child. A year and a half later Papa G transferred to Boeing and they moved to Washington.,

This is the home they chose, over an acre, fully fenced so it would be safe and park-like for their children.  Their three children are Kirsten, Megan (me), and Justin.  In 2012 Papa G retired and they were able to start travelling with their trailer all over the country.  They've spent much of their free time down in Bakersfield to be with Great Grandma Clara.  They lived there from 1990 to 2012.  2012 I think their trailer started to be more of a home, though technically they still own the house!  They have now purchased a home in South Dakota and plan to gradually move their things while finally finishing their house projects on their old home.  The moment they purchased their South Dakota home and arrived for the first time it became more of a home than their old home had been for years.  They are looking forward to that part of their lives (and already planning to steal grandbabies away as soon as possible).

Great Aunt Barbara, Grandma G and Great Grandma Clara

Grandma G

Great Aunt Barbara, Grandma G and Great Grandma Clara

Great Grandma Clara, Great Aunt Mary, Grandma G and Great Aunt Barbara

Great Aunts Barbara, Theresa, Denise, Mary and Grandma G (Karen)

Grandma G's first communion

Grandma G is on the right, her sister Denise is in the swimsuit.  Grandma G actually worked as a lifeguard, swim teacher and crafts assistant for the BARC: Bakersfield Association for Retarded Citizens.  Essentially a special needs center.  

Great Aunts Barbara, Theresa, Denise, and Mary.  Grandma G is in the back.

Grandma G's confirmation

Married June 14, 1974

Great Aunts Barbara, Mary, Theresa, Denise, Great Grandma Clara, Grandma G, and Great Grandpa Floyd's son Eddie and Eddie's wife Laurel.

Great Grandma Clara

While in Bakersfield I had the opportunity to look through some of Great Grandma Clara's albums.  There is a lot I don't know about Great Grandma but she is pretty much the only Grandma I remember while growing up.  Her second husband Grandpa Floyd was the only Grandpa I knew.  These are all cellphone pictures of pictures so sorry for the poor quality!

Wettelosheim is where Great Great Grandma Josephine (Clara's mother) lived.  The children learned German, French and English in school.  English was a standard subject but they taught both German and English because the town switched regularly between being part of Germany and France so the language shifted with each change of "ownership". 

 Great Great Grandma Josephine grew up in Wettelosheim sharing a back fence with Great Great Grandpa Alphonse. 

 Great Great Josephine's family.

 Great Great Grandpa Alphonse chose to serve America in World War One as opposed to much of his family who ended up fighting with the Germans.  When the war was over and done he went back to Wettelosheim to get Josephine and bring her to America as a "war bride".

 Great Great Grandma Josephine and Alphonse settled in the Mojave desert in California outside of Barstow. This is the house Great Grandma Clara grew up in.  Great Great Grandpa Alphonse planted alf-alfa around the house because it helped cooled the house.  When the breeze ran through the green alf-alfa it cooled as opposed to blowing in over the hot desert sand.  They made their own rootbeer and kept it in the cellar.  On occasion the bottle of rootbeer would explode!  While growing up here Great Grandma Clara and her brother Bob would collect tortoises from the surrounding desert.  They had a pen for them.  Sometimes during the night the tortoises would dig out from the pen but once the day got hot they always came back!  They sold the tortoises to travelers on the nearby highway (before it became illegal).

Great Great Uncle Bob and Great Grandma Clara

Great Grandma Clara and her siblings, Mary, Barbara and Bob

 Mary, Great Grandma Clara, Barbara and Bob swimming in the reservoir

 Mary, Great Grandma Clara, Barbara and Bob

 1930:  Great Grandma Clara is the first on the left in the center row

The school was all grades in one school.  A lot of the students were kids of the farmers so Great Grandma Clara and her siblings were some of the few white kids in the school.  Apparently as Great Grandma Clara grew she was given her brother's hand me downs (she grew up during the depression).  The only problem was that by the time she outgrew them they were worn out so her younger sister Mary got to have brand new GIRL clothes which were then passed down to her youngest sister Barbara.  

 1932: Great Grandma Clara is third from the right in the center row

 1933:  Great Grandma Clara is second from the left in the center row. 

 1935:  Great Grandma Clara is fourth from the right in the center row

 1936:  Great Grandma Clara is third from the right in the center row

 This is where she lived while attending school for nursing.  She attended UC San Francisco and live in Parnassus Hall.

 This is her graduation from the nursing program.  Great Grandma Clara is the front right.  This group of ladies continued to get together for reunions for decades after graduating.

 Great Grandma Clara is fourth from the left on the top step. 

 Second row, right side, aisle seat. 

 The is the ship Great Grandma Clara and two other nurses worked on to Japan, in Japan and back.  She went there twice.  Her last trip was supposed to be to Hawaii but she fell ill and was unable to go!

 Great Great Grandma and Grandpa are in the center row on the left.  Great Grandma Clara is standing tall in the back.

 Her first wedding to Great Grandpa Angus.  They got married during the second world war.  They were married in Seattle where they worked at Fort Lewis.  He was a ambulance driver and she was an RN who outranked him.  Madigan Hospital at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington is still standing today.  

This pictures is so beautiful!

 She served on the army for 23 months much of which was at Fort Lewis in Washington.

 Great Grandpa Angus and Great Grandma Clara had five children:  Barbara, Grandma G (Karen), Mary, Theresa and Denise.  They stayed married until after Grandma G was married to Papa G.  They divorced and both ended up happily remarried.

In 1985 she married Great Grandpa Floyd.  Together they moved from Bakersfield, CA to Salmon, ID.  

 Their home was located along the salmon river, they had cows for some time and then hay was grown in the fields.  I remember spending one summer walking along behind the hay baler.  There was a cliff on the other side of the river where we hiked with Papa G and even chiseled out some rocks to take home.  We went there every Christmas.  It got quite cold with a lethal array of icicles hanging from the eves!  The river would even freeze!  I remember one year along the edge of the river, where the ice was smooth, Papa G threw us along the ice alongside the river.  (Parallel to, not into!)  It was wonderful fun and I remember wishing I was smaller in years to come so we could repeat it.  We would go for rides on their quads down the road and see some of the creepy little shacks along the back roads.  It was rattlesnake country and I remember being constantly terrified of them.  I would skitter down the stairs to the river as fast as my legs would carry me for fear there were snakes hiding beneath the treads!  We played many games of croquet, played with their dog fancy and played mountain climber on the loose rocks behind the barn.  There was even an old typewrite we used to play with in the barn.  For a while Great Grandpa Floyd collected old farm equipment which of course we would climb on and play.  I remember being fascinated watching the HUGE sprinklers get moved on their giant wagon wheel type wheels.  We played atari there and snuggled around their wood stove in the middle of their family room.  Santa was quite the sneak seeing as we would occasionally sleep sprawled out around that fireplace on Christmas Eve.  There was one summer a bird flew into their window.  We tried so hard to rescue that little bird but I think its neck was broken and we ended up burying it instead.  We swam in the river, we played with their dog Fancy (who eventually decided she wanted to be a working dog and ran off to live with a rancher down the road) and made many wonderful memories.  Great Grandma Clara and Grandma G would climb into the river in the summer to unplug the water pump and end up toppling down into the water.  To this day Great Grandma Clara gets jerky from there to send everyone for Christmas!  Daddy is in love with it and it may be his most anticipated gift at Christmas time.

 When I got a guitar for Christmas (which I never did learn how to play) Great Grandpa Floyd tried to teach me a little before he went home.  He was quite the guitar playing cowboy.  Grandpa Floyd died when I was about 10.  Grandma Clara chose to move back to Bakersfield at that time.  She still came up to visit us every year but we definitely missed their Salmon home.

 Great Grandma Clara has spent the years since then living in this lovely home.  She grows her Christmas cacti, made her beautiful knit and crochetted creations and volunteered way more than full time hours at the local gleaners and senior bingo.  She is weak right now due to congestive heart failure and is still recovering from her bout with pneumonia.  She is getting stronger thank goodness!

 Great Grandma Clara has once again taken to keeping tortoises.  They are currently hibernating tucked into a bed of newspaper.

She sold Great Grandpa Floyd's truck to a neighbor so we got to see it on our way to Great Aunt Mary's for dinner.

Great Great Uncle Bob and Great Great Aunt Barbara

Great Grandma Clara was incredibly patient and talented with any form of sewing.  I am blessed to have a collection of beautiful things that she made just for me. 

Each of the dresses on this quilt is made from fabric that was used to make dresses for Grandma G and her sisters.

 Great Grandma Clara loved my old fashioned fancy bedroom set so much that she thought this overlay would be perfect.  It is patiently awaiting the day that it can safely go back on the bed it was made for.

 Kayda's baby blanket

 Carson's baby blanket

Dillon's baby blanket