Underwood Typewriter - or is it a University of Texas Typewriter?

 

Underwood portable typewriter -
Four banks from 1935. G793037  I looked at the typewriter database, to get an estimate of the year that it was created.  It looks most like this one in the database.  https://typewriterdatabase.com/1935-underwood-portable-4-bank.5072.typewriter

This is my mother's Underwood Portable Typewriter from the 1930s.  She purchased it from the freight cashier from the Santa Fe Railroad, back when she worked the third trick at Cushing Oklahoma.  This was Roy Rowe's first wife's typewriter.  She would type up stories for the magazines, True Story Romance and True Confessions Magazine.  She passed away, and Roy asked my mother if she required a typewriter.

Mother bought this typewriter before she was married, around 1947.  She paid $45.00.  Which was a lot of money back then.  

Mom used it for typing up personal letters to friends and family back in Iowa and Minnesota.  She used it on a regular basis until the 1970's.  She also wrote letters on it to my brother Hugh Pickens, when he was in the Peace Corps in Peru, South America.

She would bring it out of the bedroom at our house on 437 Fairview, and bring it into the kitchen to type up the letters.  She'd also use it to address the envelopes.  

I found the typewriter on a recent visit to Ponca City, as I was helping her go through some stuff at her house.  It was tucked away around a corner in its case.  I thought it was a Singer Featherweight 221 Sewing Machine on first glance, but the size of the case was in the incorrect dimensions.  Got it out, grabbed some paper, and it did a nice type!

She gave it to me to take home and gave me the Singer Typewriter from 1965.  The Underwood, or as we call it the University of Texas Typewriter (because it has the "letters" U and T on the ribbon case) has the Upper case Letter type below the Lower case letter.  So I need to figure out how to adjust that.  

It is really a beautiful machine.  I've been having fun typing on it! 

In the meantime, I've got the collecting bug and found a Royal Portable typewriter at a local antique store.  I had to un-stick about 12 typing bars and reset the magic margin on the Royal machine.  

What is your favorite portable vintage typewriter?

 

Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter: 1949 - A-1962548.  Purchased for $95.00.  Some sticky keys, rust underneath, replaced the typewriter ribbons.  Purchased at BAW Resale in Beaumont, Texas.

My Mothers parents came to the United States in about 1865 from Denmark. 

They settled in Marion Iowa shortly after that.  

My grandfather had served in a  war against Russia with the German army and after the war was over he was trained as a barrel maker.  His first job was with a meat company in Cedar Rapids Iowa.  There were 6 children in the family George, Carl, Ernest, Tillie and my Mother who was born on Mar 8, 1889.

Mother started school in Marion Iowa and she could not speak any English. But she soon learned. I do not know much about her school days but she graduated from Marion High School in 1907.  She took teachers training in High School and taught in rural schools for 5 years.  

She met my Father as she was staying at his Uncle Jim Hagerman's house and my Dad was working for his Uncle Jim.  The school system wasn't good and had run several teachers off.  On the first day of school a 17-year-old boy sassed my Mom and she grabbed him by the shoulders and sat him down in his seat.  She didn't have any more trouble with the children.  My cousin Everett was a first-grade student at that time.

 My Mother and Father were married in 1912 and had a very nice wedding.  They had been married about a month and my Mom made biscuits one day and they were so hard my  Dad couldn't eat them.  So my Dad went down to Toddville and got his Mother and she came out and taught my Mom some good recipes and she made the best biscuits and was a very good cook.

My sister Dorothy was born in 1913 and my sister Daisy in 1918.  My folks decided to move to Minnesota and bought a farm near Albert Lea Minn. To move in those days you rented a railroad car and put your cattle and machinery in the car and you stayed in the car with them. They lived on the farm close to Albert Lea for just a few years and then bought a farm 3 miles west of Geneva about 1919. At that time women were wearing long dresses and my Mother said they were so happy to wear a short dress as the long dresses got so dirty. My brother Lawrence was born in 21, Donald in 23, Deloris in 27, and Richard in 35.

Life on the farm was not easy. You milked the cows by hand and horses were used for the farm work.  You cooked on a cast iron stove, washed clothes with a wooden machine, and pulled the agitator by hand.  You ironed with irons heated on the stove and always had lots of starched clothe to iron.  

When my folks lived close to Albert Lea some Norwegian farmers were smarting off to my Dad at the creamery.  So he took Mom with him one day and she shut them up.  he could understand and speak in both Norwegian and Swedish and also German. Life was full of hard work and in 1929 my Mother developed tuberculosis and had to leave the family and go to the sanitorium at Walker for two years.  My sister Dorothy quit High School at 16 and took on the job of looking after the younger ones and doing the cooking and housekeeping. My Mom returned when I was 4 and of course, I didn't know her.

We lost the farm in 1936 and I remember moving day/  It was a bad winter and the neighbors came and moved us with their horses and sleds.  My Mom carried the mantle to the Alladin lamp in the car and we got moved into the rented place.  It had 5 bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. My brother was just a baby and I watched him a lot,  There were 7 of us living at home and Mother made bread about twice a week.  We bought flour in 50-pound sacks.  A good breakfast was salt pork and fried eggs and biscuits and gravy and sometimes corn bread.  My brother Don liked oatmeal cookies and he would come home from high school and mix up cookies and Mom would bake them.  He wanted about ten cookies and an orange for school.

We lived on that farm for about 4 years and moved to a 360-acre farm about 5 miles south of Owatonna Minn.  My Mom got a washing machine that was run by a Briggs and Stratton Motor.  She was so happy.  She made most of the clothes for the girls in the family.  Her brother Ernest would send her good wool clothing and she would make me a jumper and snowsuits out of the clothing.  She taught me how to sew and how to embroider and how to tat.  I taught myself how to weave and then taught us how to mend our stockings by weaving. 

In later years they sold their farm equipment and moved to Willow River Minn and later to Sandstone.  They celebrated their 50th anniversary with a big party at Dorothy's and my Dad's cousins came from Iowa.  They later celebrated their 60th anniversary.  My Mother passed at age 84 and my Father at age 89.

Hunting adventures from Dee's Life on the Farm, Sewing and Railroad Adventures

 Hunting Adventures

My husband Dale liked to hunt and fish and I will tell you about some of his adventures.  We married on Sept 5 1948 and soon after that duck season started.  Dale and his friend would go duck hunting and then bring the ducks home to me.  They would skin the ducks and I would cook them.  Bear in mind I was a new bride and had never cooked a duck before.  We had cooked domestic ducks on the farm so I fixed them.  I stuffed them with apple dressing and baked them and they turned out fine.

Then he would go out squirrel hunting but I refused to cook and eat them.  The first time we went down to see his folks they had fried squirrel for the evening meal and there was no way I would eat them.

Then Dale liked to fish and we would go trout line fishing on the Salt Fork River.  We had friends that would go with us and the men would put out the trout lines and then we would all enjoy a picnic meal on the banks of the river.  Hugh was small and he and his friend Mike would get out in the river and splash around.  Had great fun doing that.  The men would run the trout lines and usually caught some catfish which are good eating.  You have to nail them up on a board and skin them and then filet them.  One time they ran the trout lines at night and Dale came in at two in the morning.  He didn’t wake me up and the next morning I got up to go to work and take a shower.  Well, there were 2 big catfish in the bathtub.  No shower that morning.  Gail would go trout lining with her Dad when she was between 8 and 12 years old during the summer months.

Gail and I used to go out to our cabin and catch little perch to be used on the trout lines.  We also went down to Red Rock creek to dig those great big worms to be used as bait.  I never was good at fishing except for the perch.  I had a fly rod and tackle box and I remember using a no 12 hook and I would take out lunch meat and let it dry and use it for bait.  The little perch really liked that.  

Dale also liked to go quail hunting and we always had good bird dogs.  He and his buddies rented some ground out in western Oklahoma and they would go hunting almost every Saturday in season.   He would bring the birds home and skin them and remove as many pellets as he could find.  One time he and his friend had a drink or two and they went to his friends' house and were fixing the birds.   They had a new food disposer and they put the feathers in it and they just flew up to the ceiling.  He would go hunting around here on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  At that time he worked nights on the railroad and so could do that.  He hunted in the Osage County with a friend and there was a ranch over there that had cowboys with guns patrolling the ranch so no one tried to hunt there,

One time Dale was up at my folks when they lived on a farm near Willow River Minn.  He went out and brought home about 4 partridges.  My Mother fixed them and they were really good eating.

We always had bird dogs and one time during wheat harvest the two male dogs got into a fight.  The younger dog wanted to be top dog and Dale was sleeping and Gail came into the house and said the dogs were fighting.  Dale separated them with a water hose but they would not stop fighting so we gave one of them away.  We had a dog one time that learned how to climb out of the pen.  We had to put an electric wire on the top of the fence to keep him in.  But when we turned it off he would get out again.  The dog's name was Boomer and we gave him to a friend.  Boomer got out one day and he caught a neighbors little kitten and killed it.  The child came to our friends' house and said boomer got my kitty cat.  Our friend denied it as he had already put the kitty in the trash.  Boomer was death on cats if they found one out hunting.

We had 2 bird dogs one time and Gail had a cat.  The dogs thought they were going to have fun with the cat.  She was at the back door and the dogs came rushing up and she reached up and put her claws in his nose.  They backed off and never messed with her again.

This is about all the stories I can remember about hunting.

No Electricity and No Running Water - back in the thirties.

 

No Electricity and no running water

     Back in the thirties when I was a child we lived on various farms and they did not have electricity or running water.  The farm that my folks lost in the middle of the depression did have electricity but they could not pay the bill and it got cut off.  It did have running cold water in the kitchen.  The windmill pumped the water into a storage tank and then the water ran from the storage tank into the house.  It also ran into the barn where the cattle had cups to drink out of.  The cups were cast iron and had a thing they pressed down and the water would come out.

     Since the electricity had been cut off, we had to use kerosene lamps for light and then we used the cast irons that you heated on the stove to do the ironing.  To wash clothing, they heated a boiler on the stove and in the summer time we had a washing machine.  It was wooden and the agitator was powered by hand.  You pulled this stick and that ran the agitator and the kids did that kind of work.  We also had a summer kitchen on that farm and in the hot summer you did the cooking out there.

     The bathroom was a pot and had to be emptied.  You used that at night and in the day time you had an outside two-holer.  You used Montgomery Ward catalogs to wipe with.  All modern conveniences right.

     The next farm we lived on we did not have running water in the house.  We had a small pump about 20 feet from the house and we pumped the water and brought it into the house.  We did have a sink and the water was piped out kind of like they do now if you don’t have a sewer line.  So, we didn’t have to empty a bucket with our waste water. 

 

I think we had a cistern on that farm and a pump in the utility room.  We used the cistern water for washing our hair and clothing.  We took baths in one of the laundry tubs and that was on Saturday night.  In winter we changed our long underwear on Saturday night.  I had 2 pairs of long underwear.  I probably had 2 changes of clothing to wear to school.

     The next farm we lived on had no running water either.  The water was at the bottom of a hill and we had to carry it to the house.  In winter we had to let the stock outside and we had a cast iron stove in the stock tank to keep the water from freezing. 

 

Things were a little better at this farm.  My Mother was able to get a washing machine powered by a Briggs and Stratton engine.  It moved the agitator and the wringer.  We were also able to get a gas-powered iron and did not have to heat the irons on the stove any more.  We did not have telephones on any of these places. 

 

The last rent farm was about 1940 and things were getting better then.  My Mother sewed all of my clothing on a treadle sewing machine and that is what I learned to sew on

 

We had a nice yard at this house and I was 12 years old and mowed the yard by hand pushing the mower.  We had a croquet set and my little brother and I played croquet every day in the summer so I kept the yard up.

     I started milking cows when I was about 10 years old and when I was 12, I was milking 4 cows every morning and evening.  I also washed the separator and helped my Mother around the house with dishes and canning and getting the eggs ready for market.  This is just a little bit about what life was about on a dairy farm in Minnesota in the late thirties and early forties.

Bird Pattern from over 25 years ago.

I paid 75.00 for the blocks and made a quilt out of them I traced the pattern off and then appliqués these blocks. I got the pattern for these blocks from quilt blocks that we had bought in Allentown Penn about 25 years ago.

It is felt appliqués on wool. 

A different technique and they were fun to make.

A little history about these projects:

I bought the blocks for the quilt in Allentown Penn about 1994 and there were seven blocks. All the bird blocks and then the two other blocks. 

I looked at them and didn't know what to do with them. 

In 2003 the Quilters Newsletter magazine had a picture of the quilt that a woman had made. So now I knew what had to be done. 

I copied off the pattern of the two blocks and put it on graph paper so that it was accurate. Now I had to find muslin that matched the muslin in the old blocks. 

Then I found some green that matched. I went into my stash of depression-era material and found some that almost matched. I cut out my appliqued pieces and started work on the blocks. 

I did primitive appliqué which in no turned under edges and a tight buttonhole stitch around each piece. For the vines, I used three rows of chain stitches. 

It took me forty hours for each block. 

I had it machine quilted and it sat for about ten years.

I finally got it out and did the binding. I just brought the back lining over and finished it.

 

Primitive Applique and using buttonhole embroidery stitch to achieve it!

 Primitive Applique and using buttonhole embroidery stitch to achieve it!

Keeping busy during the pandemic.  Working through some of my UFO's around the house.

About 25 years ago my husband and I were in Allentown, Pa at a flea market and I saw 7 quilt blocks completed for $75.00.  They had the birds on them and I think 3 extra more simple blocks.  I brought them home but didn't know what to do with them.  In 2003 lo and behold  a lady in Stillwater, Oklahoma had made this quilt and it was pictured in Quilters newsletter.

     Now I knew what to do, so I made the pattern off the two simple blocks and then I had to search for material to match the other blocks  I have a stash of depression era fabrics and the muslin for the background was easy to finish.

The applique is called primitive applique.  I did not turn down any edges on the applique but did a buttonhole embroidery stitch around each piece of the applique.  It took me about 40 hours to finish each block of the applique.

     When I finished it I took it to Newkirk and had it machine quilted.  Then I put it away and did not mess with binding it.  About a month ago, in 2020,  I decided that I would bind the quilt.  I just took the back lining and brought it over to the front.  It took me about 8 hours to do the binding.  Am very pleased with the result and it will fit a twin bed or can be used as a throw.

Anniversary of the On April 19, 1995, the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building...

On April 19, 1995, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Remembrance services are held every year on April 19, at the time of the explosion.

I need to give you a little background material first.  I had shingles in my right eye in 1978 and I went to Dr Carter for medical attention and later to Dr Rousey at the Dean Mcgee eye institute in Okla City.

     In 1990 I developed a cataract in the eye and Dr Carter removed the cataract.

    On April 17, 1995 I noticed that I had a black spot on the side of my eye and I had read enough to know that I was having a retina detachment.  I called Dr Carter that morning and they immediately got me in to the office.  I had to round up Dale and we had an appointment in Okla City as an emergency that afternoon at about 2 pm..

     We drove to Okla City for the appointment and low and behold Dales sister Lelda came into the office the same time as I did.  They looked at my eye and scheduled an operation for the next morning and that was on April 18th.  Lelda asked us to come over and spend the night with her and we did.  The next morning we went to the hospital and they did the surgery.  I was in the Presbyterian hospital right next to the Dean Mcgee eye clinic.

     Everything went fine and the next morning the doctor came in and checked me about 8 am.  I was dressed and waiting for a prescription to be filled.

     Dale and I were watching TV at 9:02 in the morning and the bomb went off.  We were on the 7th floor and thought something had blown up in the basement and wondered how we were going to get out.

 
The nurses rushed into our room as we had the TV on and in a few mins the stations were showing pictures of the bombing. 

We were waiting for a prescription to be filled and stayed until we got it.  They asked if I was able to walk out to the car as the wheel chairs were not available.

     They asked if we would be available to help and we left at about 9:45 am.  As we left the hospital the Doctors and nurses were lined up on the street in their white uniforms.  The ambulances were starting to come in and we decided to come home.

     I can still hear that bomb going off and still can see the doctors and nurses lined up waiting for  the ambulances . . 

Radio School in Minnesota in 1947 - A telegraph Operator's journey....

Radio School in Minnesota in 1944 - Telegraph Operator.

 I went to Minneapolis in 1944 to go to radio school and learn some things so I could get a better job. My Mother went with me and my friend Myrtle Olson came along and she was going to find a job and I also needed a job so that I could support myself and go to school.

   We went up on the train and then I think my Mother rented a hotel room and the next day we went down to the radio school and paid them the rest of the money and then we went out for a job search.  There were jobs all over town and my friend got a job at a defense plant running a machine and I go a job at at cafe  located at 6th and Hennepin right down town.  We then found a place to room at on the third floor of an apartment house.

     The room had a bed and a closet and a hot plate.  The bathroom was down on the second floor and the washing machine and iron was down in the basement.   Myrtle's job was at night and we did not see each other very often.  I went to radio school from 9 until 3 and then I came home and changed clothing and went to work at the cafe from 5 to 10 in the evening. I caught the street car home and the apartment was just a block from the street car line.

     The cafe work was quite interesting as it was located in the entertainment dist of Minneapolis.  There were movie theatres close and the men who ran the projectors would come in to get a bite to eat.  Upstairs was a bowling alley and the guys would come down a get a cup of coffee and sometimes pie a la mode.  I also had a couple of women who worked for the CNW railroad that would come in on their break and get a bite.  There were also people that worked on the newspapers that would come in.

     I had a bartender that came in every night and ordered a chicken sandwich.  We always saved a piece of chicken for his sandwich.  The cafe was also a tobacco store and outside the cafe was a newstand.   I can still hear the man who owned the newstand saying  Extra Extra Read All About It.  He was of the Jewish faith and he ordered a milk shake with a raw egg in it.

     The cafe was close to the street car line that went to St Paul and so would get some people waiting for the street car and they would come in for coffee or cherry cokes and we also had ice cream and I made sundaes and milk shakes.  I also washed the dishes as they came off the counter.

     I went to a movie one time with friends and Duke Ellington had a show there.  Think it cost about 50 cents.  Minimum wage at that time was 40 cents an hour.  I could live on what I made at that part time job and was able to save about 40 collars in 9 weeks. We would some times get on the street car and go over to St Paul as it cost about 15 cents.  We would get a transfer ticket and ride all over on Sunday afternoon and see the sights.

     I left Minneapolis the first part of October as had secured a job on The Santa Fe Railroad. I had learned to type much better at the school and also learned how to use a teletype machine which came in hand on the railroad.

They also taught us radio theory and I got my amature radio licence.  We had to go to St Paul to get that at a court house.  Never did use it but that was one of the requirements and we had to pass that test.

     Was an interesting time in my life and helped prepare me for the business world.

My thoughts and memories of the flu of 1918

My parents were alive when the 1918 flu hit near the small village of  Ellendale Minnesota.  I do not believe that they had the flu but a lot of the neighboring  farmers did have it..  I was born in 1927 and people were still talking about it when I was young.

     Dr  Erytl was the Doctor living in Ellendale at that time and he was a young man.  Bear in mind that in 1928 people were not using cars and it was the dead of winter.

 Dr  Erytl would start out in the morning with his horse and sled and he would stop at every farm that had a case of the flu.  There was very little medicine at that time and some of the farmers developed pneumonia.  The Doctor would stop by every day and cup the farmers on their backs to loosen the congestion.  When he had finished his rounds he would tie the reins up and go to sleep and the horse would carry him home.  Then he was up the next morning doing the same thing.  He did not lose one patient. 

     The same thing happened in 1936 to my sister Daisy.  She developed pneumonia at the age of 17.  I was 8 years old and my little brother Richard was about 6 months old.  My folks sent me over to my sister Dorothy who was married and richard and I stayed with Dorothy until Daisy was well.  She ran a 105 fever for a long time and she said Dr Erytle cupped her on the back to loosen the congestion.

     When I went to work for the railroad in 1944 the telegraph operator who were working in 1918 said that they sometimes had to work around the clock as so many people were sick.  The ones that were well stayed in the depot and the dispatcher would tell them to take off and go to sleep and he would call them when he needed them. 

We are facing a worse case now and we need to isolate ourselves as best we can. 

Hope Minnesota when I was growing up - 1930s & 1940s

In 1936 we moved from 3 miles west of Geneva Minnesota to two miles south of Hope Minnesota.  Hope was a small village of about 80 people.  Hope was on the Rock Island railroad and had a depot agent names, Rhodes.  There were two grocery stores in Hope.  One was run by the Wesley bros and the other by Joe Slezak who also sold farm machinery.  Joe's store also had a beer counter in it. There was a creamery located in Hope and it is still in operation to this day and Hope butter has its own label and they also sell to Land O Lakes.  

There was also a large elevator and in the south edge of town was a business that bought cattle and hogs and sold to  Hormel in Austin.  The post office was located in the Slezak grocery store.
At that time people would bring their eggs and ducks and chickens into the grocery stores and would trade them out for groceries.  Wesley's store also had some thread and some sewing material and the best was the ice cream.  Here's an article reminiscing about mom and pop grocery stores, Slezak being included..

Don and I started school which was located a mile and a half from our farmhouse.  I started in 3rd grad and Don was in 8th grade.  We walked to school every day and on the 5th of May we could go barefoot to school and we looked forward to that. Our teacher was Elaine Eggers and Don gave her fits.  A new school and he tried out the teacher quite well. It was not much fun changing schools but both of us got along all right.

Dale Wilker first attended the Hope School 60 years ago in protest after his family moved to the small community south of Owatonna. Today, Wilker is still in protest over the school, though this time it is hopes of keeping it open to the public. (Annie Granlund/People’s Press)

In the summertime, the biggest thing was going to the free movies.  The industrial arts teacher in Ellendale High School had a movie projector and movies and cartoons and he made a round of all the little towns every week in the summertime to show the movies.  He hit Clarks Grove and Geneva and Ellendale and Hope and I think another place close to Highway south of Owatonna.  Tuesday night he was at Hope.  Our seat was outdoors and they were telephone poles set on top of either other poles or wood.  Anyhow they would roll a little bit.  All the farmers came into Hope on Tuesday night.  Oh yes, there were two taverns in Hope and there were slot machines in them.

Slezak grocery store had a popcorn machine and it cost a nickel for a bag of popcorn.  Times were a little better and I always got a nickel and usually spent it on ice cream which was sold at Wesley's store.  When the kids got a little older they would go behind one of the stores and smoke.  The young people would sit next to each other and do some smooching I really looked forward to the movie and that is when I learned there were 168 hours in a week and I would count the hours until the next Tuesday in Hope.

Most of the farmers were dairy farmers and they raised hogs for market and had chickens so they could sell eggs.  We also sold ducks but most of the farm produce was for feeding the cattle.

I do not remember my dad selling oats and think he used it for feed for the hogs and cattle and chickens.
The farm we rented was sandy and one year we raised a lot of watermelons.  

There was a small creek running through our farm and it connected up with the Straight River.  One day I was down at the creek and I saw 2 big fish.  I ran to the house and told my Dad and he went down and speared them.  Mother cleaned them and we had them for dinner.

Back in the 30's we had fish in the winter as they would come from up north and would be frozen.  When we lived close to Geneva we could get ice in the summer.  They had a machine that cut the ice in blocks and they took it to the ice house and packed it in sawdust and when my Dad went to the creamery he would sometimes bring home ice. 

Geneva also had a small mill and we would take the corn in to be ground and used that in making cornbread.  Usually, we ate cornbread for breakfast.  You will not believe it but we put gravy and butter and syrup on our cornbread,

Hope also had a car repair shop called Kleckers.  30 years ago he was still alive and had two or three Model A fords that he was renovating.  Do not think he ever got them finished.

The school at Hope was north of town just a little bit south of the Noske farm and my brother Richard went to that school for a while.  Later the school was moved into Hope and is still there.  My nephew Dale has a  store in the old Wesley building and thinks it is called Hopeful Treasurers.  He has lots of books and good stuff to buy. 

Hope is still there and is still a nice clean village and probably about 90 people live in Hope now.No grocery store an elevator and a creamery and stockyard and two taverns the last time I was there.  Also, a bank and my sister Daisy worked there and was bank manager for many years.

Our trip to England - 1985 - Conoco Offices in London England

Off to England

In 1985 Gail was asked by Conoco Oil Company/Exploration Research Division to teach a class in creating digital computer contour oil in place maps in the London UK Conoco Office.  

Gail was to teach the geologist and the geophysicist how to use the CPS-1 Radian Corporation and the Zycor Mapping System Software in creating oil in place maps.  CPS-1 was the common program that Conoco's other partners used in creating oil in place maps from seismic data.

She was expecting Amber at that time and Steve could not go with her.  She asked if I would go with her and I did. I paid for my coach class ticket and then I was able to stay with Gail in London.

We left Tulsa late at night and I think we flew direct to London with a stop in New York City.  The trip over was uneventful and it was daylight when we flew over Ireland.  Everything in Ireland was green.  We arrived at Heathrow airport in the morning and I have never seen so many people in one place at the same time.  Everyone was checking through customs and I remember seeing young women dress in plaid suits and suppose they were Scottish or Irish.  

We got a taxi to our hotel which was called Churchill.  Found out later it was one of the most expensive hotels in London.  At that time the rooms were $135.00 per night.  We had a nice room with two beds and a refrigerator and a bunch of snacks in the refrigerator.  The bathroom had heated towels and a very nice bathrobe for each of us.  At night the maid came in and turned down the sheets and put a piece of candy on the pillow.

Gail went off to work every day and came on back to the hotel at about five in the evening.  I had a friend Shirley staying in the same hotel and she had been in London for a week or so.  I got up every morning and went down to eat breakfast with Gail.  They had strawberries with cream on the menu and that is what I had every morning.  Shirley and I would meet every morning at about nine and we went all over London.  We had paid ten dollars for a pass on all the busses and the tube and that took us everywhere we wanted to go.

Shirley and I went to Westminster and we went to Harrods and we went to see the Wallace collection of art and traveled around to see other sights.  The Churchill Hotel was close to the Marble Arch and Selfridges store and also near to Oxford St.  

When Shirley had to do something else I walked up and down Oxford St and looked at all the beautiful tailored clothing and the jewels and whatever else was interesting.  I went to the wax museum by myself as it was close to the hotel.

A film making crew from the states were in the hotel and we saw Meryl Steep come in one day.  I sat in the lobby once in a while and watched the people.  The hotel was filled with rich people from India and from the mid-east.  The men from the mid-east would sit and watch every good looking woman come in.
I stayed in the room sometimes and watched TV and the small children would be running up and down the halls and screaming.  Their parents did not pay much attention to them.

Shirley and I went to the west side one day and that was where there were open-air cafes.  The women from the middle east were dressed in their colorful clothing and were having the best time drinking tea and laughing with their friends.

We were in London from July 5 through the 19th.  The second-weekend Gail and I decided to take a train up to York.  We went down to the train station and stood in line with other people until it was time to board the train.  I had made reservations at the hotel for a room at York that night.  The countryside was green and we could see the power stations dotting the land.  We got off the train at York and went to our room and then downstairs to eat a typical English meal.  Not like food in the states and very bland.  The next morning we got up and walked uptown and saw some interesting old buildings.

Gail was not feeling well and so we took an earlier train back to London.  There were several interesting people in our car and we managed to get a conversation going with them.  There was a young woman from Denmark and so a group of us talked on the way back to London.  The British people are very quiet and of course, they knew we were Americans.  They remarked to us that Americans were open people, but we all had a good time.

Gail and I went shopping at Harrod’s and she bought a pair of riding boots and I think I bought two pieces of fabric.  It was Liberty of London fabric and I still have it.

We did go to a play with the man and his wife who had asked Gail to come over and teach the class. 
The class was over and we caught a taxi to the Gatlin airport and on to New York.  There was one woman on the plane from Ponca City and she had been to Italy.  We arrived at John F Kennedy airport in New York and changed planes and on to Tulsa.  Picked up the car and Gail was tired out so I  drove on home to Ponca City..  Quite a trip

Radio School 1944 - Life in the Big City -- Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Radio School 1944 - Life in the big City, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

My first job out of high school in 1944 was at a Hide Fur Wool and Tallow company in Owatonna.  My friend Annette Denker was the secretary there and she needed some help when the wool season started.  There were various buyers in the counties surrounding Steele county and they would buy the wool and get it to Owatonna and my job was to check and see if their paperwork was right and OK it and send them checks for the wool.  They also bought hides from various places and then took them by truck into St Paul where they sold the hides.  The place smelled to high heaven but you got used to it after a few mins and it didn’t bother you anymore.

I stayed with Annette’s folks and it cost me $2.50 for my room and breakfast.  I bought a meal ticket at Oaks café for $5.00 and that was for 15 meals.  I was able to save about $10.00 a week and so at the end of a couple of months, I had $50.00 dollars saved.

I got a letter from someone in Minneapolis and they had a radio school there and they said if you took their training you would be able to get a high paying job.  So I wrote off and the man came down and I paid him $50.00 and then borrowed another $150.00 from my folks so that I could go to radio school.

My job was finished with the Wool company so I talked my friend Myrtle into going to Minneapolis with me.  She was not going to radio school but jobs were plentiful and so off we went.  My Mother went to Minneapolis with us and we went to the radio school and then found a room to rent and Myrtle went to a company during war work and I got a job as a waitress downtown at 6th and Hennepin in the middle of the entertainment district.  

I would get up in the morning and go to school at 9 am and finish at 3 pm.  Then I would go back to the room and then head downtown on the streetcar to get to work at 5pm and work until 10pm.  The job paid minimum wage which was 40 cents an hour.  That was enough to pay for my room and eat and buy a few things.  

I learned how to type faster and learned the international Morse Code and how to teletype.  I had a half year typing in high school and by the time I left I was typing about 50 words a minute.  We also learned radio theory and had to pass a test to get our license which I never used.  

We used to get on the streetcar on Sunday and ride all over Minneapolis and then we would go to St Paul.  Think it cost us about ten cents.  

I learned how to make sundaes and malts and we sold a lot of pie with ice cream.  The café only had stools and it was combined with a tobacco shop at the intersection of 6th and Hennepin and there was a bowling alley over it.  It had a steady bunch of customers and they worked for the CNW railroad as billing clerks and then the guys that ran the movie projectors came in for coffee and pie.  Had a bartender come in every night and we saved chicken for him as he wanted a chicken sandwich every night.  He always tipped me a dime.

A newsstand was right outside the café and he was selling newspapers.  He was always saying "Extra extra read all about it". That was the way we got news back then.

A bunch of us girls went to see Duke Ellington as he was playing at one of the theatres close by.  I still remember that and they told some funny jokes along with the music.

I rented a typewriter and when I got home from work I would practice my typing.  Myrtle was working nights so we did not see much of each other.  Just went home one time before I was hired along with 17 other girls to go to work for the Santa Fe Railroad.  They hired us sight unseen and we all got our tickets paid to go to Chicago and we went to the main office of the Santa Fe Railroad and they asked us what state we wanted to go to.  I picked Oklahoma as I had an Aunt living at Elk City.  I did not know if I would stay or not and I wanted to see some of the country.  

That is a little bit about my time at the radio school and big city life.

In the Winter of 1936

The Winter of 36

I was 8 years old in 1936 and I want to tell you some things about that winter.  My oldest  sister Dorothy was married on Dec 28 1935 and that memory stays in my mind after all these years.

We had lost our farm located 3 miles west of Geneva Minnesota  in 1935 and so we were forced to move and rent a farm about 10 miles from where I was born.

That winter we had an unusual amount of snow in Minnesota and my brother Don and I had a ½ mile hike to school.  Don had to break the snow drifts ahead of us as he was 12 and I was 8 years old.  We also skied to schools some days.  We had skies that fastened over our overshoes and we just kind of walked them to school over the snow.

That winter my sister Daisy contacted pneumonia and ran a fever of 105 degrees for quite some time.  The Doctor came out from Ellendale and cupped her on the back every day and he came with a horse and sleigh as they could not get the roads plowed out until we had another storm.

My little brother Dick who was 6 months old and I went over to my sister Dorothys and spent 6 weeks while my Mother was taking care of Daisy.  I missed that much school but did not seem to hurt me any.

Dick was a good baby and I remember teasing him a little and he would get so mad.  He knew I was fooling with him and he was so small.

My brother Lawrence and a neighbor boy and girl went to High School in Geneva and they had to go in a sled driven by one horse.  They parked the sled and hose in a livery stable in Geneva and then had to come on back home.  It was about 3 miles to Geneva and they had one teacher that taught all the subjects.  The students had to go to High School the last year in Ellendale to graduate by state law.

We moved to 2 miles south of Hope Minn in March and the neighbors came with their sleds and horses and moved us.  They had to dig out the last quarter mile so that the Model A Ford could get through.  I remember my Mother holding the mantle to the Alladin lamp in her hand all the way to Hope.

Don and I then started school in our local district and when the spring thaw came about it was another mess.  My Dad met us down by the creek one day and the water was running over the road.  He told Don and I to walk back to the railroad tracks and come through the field.  We had to walk the barb wire fence for about 10 feet as there was quite a bit of water in that field.

We started in the new school and did all right.  I think Lawrence walked across another field and caught the bus into Ellendale.  He was in 10th grade at that time.  The next year my dad bought a Model A Ford and the boys drove to Ellendale and took about 5 other young people going to High School.

That was a very different time and people cooperated more and helped out more with their neighbors than they do now..

I volunteered. Marlands Home, American Legion, Ponca City High School, White Eagle Reservation, First Methodist Church of Ponca City, Ok

I volunteered
Most of us have been doing volunteer work after we have grown up and some when we were in
High School.  I sold candy and tickets for various high school projects and also worked in the school library checking out books and putting them back on the shelves.

I taught Sunday School for 15 years and did a lot of various church projects and also worked in
various organizations selling fruit cakes and making cookies for band and orchestra organizations.

I will be telling you about several different projects that I have worked on in the past 20 years.

In 1993 Penney Brownfield called me from High School and asked if I would help her with a project with her EMH girls.  She said she had 6 girls and no boys in her last hour class and she wanted to teach them how to knit and how to embroider. I have been doing embroidery, sewing and tatting since I was 10 years old and taught myself to knit when I was working as a telegraph operator on the railroad in 1945.  I relieved agents in small towns like Nash, Hillsdale and Burlington and in the fall there was about 2 hours of work a day in the small agencies.  So to keep my sanity I would sit around and do handwork.

I started in Penneys class in January of 1993 and went to class 3 or 4 times a week for an hour.  I had lots of knitting needles and yarn and so I took all my supplies with me and gave them to the girls. I had not worked with young people classified as EMH and handicapped.  2 or 3 of the girls were
from the Legion home and there were 2 native American girls.  I am quite impatient with an adult that does not catch on fast.  I did not know how I would handle repeating instructions.

I had to repeat and repeat maybe 25 or 30 times and it did not bother me.  Lo and behold all the girls learned how to do the garter stitch and one Native American girl learned how to purl.  They loved it and Penney said on the days I was not there that they finished their homework and were so eager to knit.

Penney bought pillow cases and had them stamped with a butterfly design, she had them color the design on paper so we would know where to fill in the colors.  I again brought floss and embroidery needles from home.  I taught the girls outline, chain stitch, French knots and satin stitch. They learned that and I had to show them several different times.

Other young people in regular school knew what was going on and they would come by and ask if I could not come to study hall and teach them.  On day after having been gone for a few days I walked in between 5th and 6th hour and one of the regular students saw me and said where I could hear ‘Oh look grandma is back.’

Penney said to me several months ago that she saw one of the girls and she mentioned about how much she enjoyed the time I spent in the classroom teaching the girls.  That was a fun experience and am glad that I made to effort to do it.

The next experience along the same lines was at the Legion school.  Earlene Matthiessen was the teachers aid and the regular teacher was out of town for a couple of weeks and Earlene wanted to know if I would help her with art work.

The students were boys and girls that could not attend regular school because of behavior
problems.  So here I go again.  I started out the first day with knitting needles and yarn.  That did not appeal to only about 3 of the 12 students, so I had to come up with something else.  So I had lots of 4 inch squares of denim and corduroy cut out so the next day I took them out to work on.   Five or 6 of the students liked that and they begin hand sewing the squares together.  Then 2 or 3 of the boys wanted to learn how to sew a button on and how to mend their clothes.  So I took some needles and thread and taught the boys how to do that.

I had black, white and native American children in the class and the 3rd day the black and native American young people were calling me Grandma.  Maybe the only stable person they loved were their grandmothers.

Two or 3 of the native American girls were bored with the 3 projects that I had going so I got out my stash of beads and took them out.  That was a big hit.  Several put their 9 patches together and I brought them home put backing on and stuffing in and they had a pillow.

One of the boys worked hard  sewing every day and he sewed 49 denim squares together.  He asked me if I would put a backing on and stuffing.  He had a nice large pillow and he sold it to one of the house Mothers for $15.00  that was the frosting on the cake and I have laughed about that for twenty years.

The next different sewing experience happened about 10 years ago.  Velma Jones a Native American adult of 93 years of age called and started talking and asked if I would come out to White Eagle as she was going to teach as class on ribbon work. This is the decoration that the Native American people use on their dance  dresses.  She wanted me to help keep the sewing machines adjusted and in the process I would learn ribbon work.  We met about 3 hours every week for about 6 weeks.  We learned to make original designs and how to machine  stitch the designs to the material . They use satin material for their garments and the  cloth designs are satin.  If you wish to see examples of their  clothing go down to Sharps Pawn Shop on South 2nd St in Ponca City Okla.

Most of the women attending were retired nurses that had come back to Ponca City from other parts of the country.  I run into some of the women and they always tell me how much they liked the class.

Velma Jones died about 6 years ago.  She had worked at the 101 ranch and is the Mother of  Danny Jones who at that time was the Ponca tribal leader.  Donna Jones Flood is her daughter and a well know local artist.  One of Donnas pictures is in the post office on the east wall.

My last bit of volunteer work was at Marlands Children home.  I was asked by one of the Elk Lodge members if I would be interest in teaching about 10 girls out at the Marlands Children home knitting.  The Lodge gave me money for supplies and I went out there in the summer for a couple of hours every week and several of the girls learned to knit.  Then we started doing some other hand work.  We made nine patch pillows and we make book marks and we did a few embroidery stitches and then later on we did a lot of work with beads. 

Some of the girls learned very fast and some had never done any kind of craft work.  They were from broken homes and had all kind of problems.  The girls were thoughtful of me and again I was grandma.  I also had a mix of white, black and native American girls and they seemed to get along quite well.  I always had an aid in the class.  I stopped teaching about 6 months ago as the population of the school went down from 45 to about 16 and I only had about one girl that was interested in doing hand work.

This is the story of some interesting volunteer work at least for me.

My Father's sister, Mina Cress

My Father's sister,  Mina Cress.

Mina Cress was born Sept 1 1874 the second child of Sarah Hagerman and Jacob Cress.  She had an older sister Angelina then Mina then Daisy and May, two brothers John  and Lafayette.  They were born near Toddville Iowa and in the same vicinity were  her parents Angelina Gray Hagerman and Amariah Hagerman,her brothers Jim Hagerman, Robert Hagerman ,George Hagerman and her sister Ellen and husband Billy Beggs.  I think that all the families homesteaded in that area.  The parents of Angelina Hagerman came to Iowa in about 1840.

Angelina's mother Sarah Howe died in 1834 and is buried in the family burial ground near Mainesburg Penn.  Her grandparents came into Pennsylvania in 1798 and settled in Gray Valley Sullivan Twp Tioga County.  Her grandfather was a veteran of the war of 1776 and he bought 1000 acres in Gray Valley and was one of the first settlers there.

Mina's father Jacob Cress was born in 1849 and his parents Lydia Neighbor and John Cress came into Iowa about the same time that is the early 1840s.  Lydia's mother came west out of Newcomers town Ohio with 8 of her children.  The Neighbors were early Germans of New Jersey and they came to America in about 1733 and settled west of New York City near and around Dover New Jersey. 

The Cress family came out of around the Richmond Virginia area and they came into Iowa in the 1840s.  They had several children Jacob ,Mansfield,  Phillip ,Mary and Marilda.  I have a lot of info about them and also about the Hagermans and the Grays.  That is just a little background.

Mina married Elmer Flickinger on Mar 18 1896..to this union 4 children were born. Carl Flickinger Oct 23 1898 died 11-26-05, Mary Etta Flickinger Feb 26 1897 died Mar 29 1897, John Flickinger Sept 11 1901 Died Jan 16 1908. And Sylvia Flickinger born Apr 11 1908.

I have a picture of Mina and Elmer with Carl and Johnnie and it was a lovely young family.  The boys died with either whooping cough or I think diphtheria.  So many young people died back in the early 1900s with those diseases.  Sylvia was born shortly after Johnnie died and I hate to think what Mina went through in those days.  She had lost her sister Angelina and her sister Daisy in about 1905 with child birth fever.  

I do not have the date that Elmer Flickinger died but my father said that he was a strong man and that he suddenly started loosing weight and died with some kind of cancer.  That left Mina a widow and she took in washing in Center Point to support herself and Sylvia.  Then Charles Kimball lost his wife and Mina went to work as his housekeeper and they later married.  I do not have that date either.  Charles and Mina came to Elk City probably about 1918 or 19 and settled there.  Charles had a couple of girls that Mina helped raise and I understand that they were very fond of Mina and they used to come to Elk City and take her down to Dallas to stay for a while.  I understand that they married well and had some extra money.

I will tell you a story about when the kids were growing up in Iowa.  I was out visiting with Mina and she said that when the kids were young the boys were out swimming in the Cedar river naked.  The girls went down to the banks and took the boys clothes so they could not get to them easy.  John stayed in the eater but my dad Lafe came out naked and got his clothes.  We laughed and laughed about that.  Mina was probably 80 years old at that time.

My cousin Ann said that the only sibling Mina ever talked about was my father.  I remember as a child that they always exchanged Christmas cards and caught up with each other at that time.  I know one time Mina came back to Iowa and my father had not seen her for 35 years.  

I went out to see Mina when I was 18 years old and visited for 4 or 5 days.  Laverna had just got married and she was the same age as I.  Lylus was about 13 and was a real live wire.  Charles was maybe 14   and Ann was about 8 and she hated to go to school.  I was probably the only contact that they had with Mina's family.  I think the Scott cousins stopped when they were on the way some where else.  I still have one of the letters Mina wrote to me and I treasure it dearly.

About 30 years ago I was talking to a retired druggist here in Ponca City and he said he was from Elk City.  I asked him if he knew Charles Kimball and her said.  Oh yes..when I was a kid I used to polish his shoes in Elk City.  He said I had not thought of him in many years.  It is a small world indeed.

I am including a couple of recipes that I think came from my grandmother Cress.  Peggy said there were my aunt Mina's and she thought they might be my grandmothers. So one way or the other they are family recipes.

Pound cake

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar Beat until fluffy

Add 6 eggs one at at time

Then 2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon extract.  

Put in angel food cake pan which has been sprayed with oil and then line with parchment paper

Bake 300 degree oven 30 minutes then

Bake in 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.

The other receipt is for baking powder biscuits I know they are my grandmothers as my Mother could not make biscuits and my dad went down to Toddville when they were first married and brought his Mother out to their house to help my Mother learn how to cook.  They laughed about that all their married life.

For each cup of flour add 2 tsp baking powder.  The add pure cream for shortening and liquid.  Mix and roll out and that is all.  Bake in hot oven.  They used wood burning stoves and they got them hot.  Suppose in modern stove would be 425 for about 15 mins more or less.  They had plenty of milk and cream and they sure used it for cooking.

That is about all I can think of for now.  Enjoy the read..Cousin Deloris