O Boy! Chapter 18 - O Boy Continued (1951-1957)

6/24/51 Re Bob's birthday...I gave him an oilcloth for the kitchen table, Billy gave him an incinerator shovel (his idea) and Charley gave him black shoe polish (also his idea). I suggested an adjustable date stamp to Timmy and he and his father were both intrigued with it. Charley went to his first wedding, said he liked the refreshments and throwing the rice best.

9/7/51 [RMD] Maybe Carol and I can get better organized this fall with two boys in school in the morning. Charley has been under the spell of a rather spoiled only‑child neighbor boy who is in the same class. His mother drove him to school all last year, and Carol was hard‑pressed for a suitable reply when the mother asked her if the boy could walk to school with Charley this year. We get fit to be tied at the way Charley lets the boy, Forrest, treat him (like the Communists at Kaesong) playing off favorites and blowing hot and cold. Timmy is more independent and wouldn't put up with such guff, but loyal Charley goes all to pieces if he can't dress or behave like Forrest, or if Forrest teases him by pairing off against him.

9/12/51 [CBD] David has been a holy terror of late. His worst coup was turning the water on full blast in the bathroom while stopping up the drain until water came through the living room ceiling like a rain storm, making puddles on furniture and rug (in the same five minutes he upset the ink in his father's study). Fortunately the living room ceiling is paneled and no permanent damage was done. I wish I liked canning better. We've been given quite a bit of fruit and I feel I can't afford NOT to put it up. Makes me edgy with the children. One morning when I had the stove covered with hot canning utensils Billy came in and kept cavorting around until an accident happened. I was so mad I just shouted at him. Billy looked at me with an indescribable look of indignation and tearfulness and said very intensely, "you're not being a mama..."

David just adores both his dolly and his train‑‑the dolly is generally his night‑time companion and the train his daytime pleasure. He counts up to 7 or 8 and his favorite expressions are "Come on (Charley, Timmy, Daddy or whover)" and "Gimme(jam, candy, cone, pie or whatever)" hunching his shoulders and nodding approval as soon as his wants are satisfied. Sometimes he says thank you too.

11/25/51 Overheard Timmy explaining to somebody "My grandma used to teach school, but she doesn't any more. She's just a college girl now." The boys came in very excitedly, "Did you know there's a new squirrel and his name is Elmer?" (There are two squirrels whose antics they follow named Piney and Sammy, named by our neighbor Ruth Van Dyke) So I said, "Oh what a lovely name‑‑did Ruth think of it..?" Timmy looked at me rather scornfully and said firmly, "Oh no, THEY thinked of it‑‑you know Sammy and Piney..." David is in the stage of repeating sentences thoughtfully after you finish speaking and making funny sentences all his own. He liked the sound of Happy Thanksgiving and went around the house muttering "Happy fanksgiving" for a while. Yesterday he sidled up to some guest and repeated "I can fistle" several times making a creditable stab at whistling. He still talks about Bobby, only now he usually says "Bobba on twain go far away downtown." (Bobby had been to visit that summer). I've taken him to Sunday School the last three weeks and he has made out fine. He is so stubborn and funny; when he wants me to do something like playing the piano, he just about pulls my dress off while he yanks and jabbers at me to comply with his desires. He has graduated to a stool at the table next to me though he is still VERY messy‑‑and knowing how sticky his neck, hands, ears, and hair are is too much. Charley sits on the other side of him and is becoming a regular old‑maid on the subject.

12/10/51 Timmy is lapping up kindergarten while Charley enjoys reading in lst Grade and is getting more and more from his music lessons thanks to Bobby's good start last summer. Billy continues to be his nice independent self and is still the best "finder" in the family whether it's his father's screw‑driver, one of Tim's lost mittens or my lost cookbook.

12/17/51 Christmas pieces to be learned for Sunday School‑‑ Billy has to say "Too young to preach, too young to teach; But I can make a little speech‑‑Merry Christmas..." Just hope the boys won't justify Mr. Lord's remark after last year's Christmas pageant. (Timmy & Charley did a duet only Charley stuck his finger in his mouth copying a current friend; Timmy yanked it out, sang lustily and dug Charley in the ribs as he said "come on, sing", etc.and between them they brought down the house. Afterwards when all the parents were milling around telling people how wonderful their children were, Mr. Lord came up to Bob and said in his President‑of‑the‑Board‑of‑Trustees manner as he shook his head, "Your boys were...TERRIBLE.") Very true and very funny. Charley is very good at stringing popcorn. David, Billy and Timmy rate A on eating, spilling and stepping on it..

1/20/52 [Bob was away for a week of "Evangelism"]

We had a real scare this morning (Sunday). At 9:15 Billy came into the house saying Charley was stuck in the snow. I hoisted on my boots and started out the back door to find him. Billy was about 20 steps ahead of me when‑‑just as I got to the back door a fearful thunderous crash shook the house as all the snow over the kitchen roof plummeted to the ground. I knew it had taken the power lines with it, but my immediate impulse was to find Billy and Charley and just know they hadn't been hurt. I yelled at them to stay just where they were until I saw where the lines were‑‑snipped as neatly as though by a pair of shears on top of the mound of snow. Told Charley not to move while I phoned Mr. Gray to get someone from Copco before the Sunday School children would arrive with a hot wire lying exposed. It all got fixed in about an hour‑‑a board ripped off the house and another board near the peak of the roof‑‑The snow on the north roof has frozen‑slid to where it looks like a precarious glacier...

3/2/52 I often ask the boys what kind of hot cereal they want. Charley and Timmy announced early Sunday morning they wanted Cream of Wheat. Then they sailed off downstairs. A few moments later they were back breathless and the dialog was as follows:

Timmy: Billy's ARGUING about the cereal.

Carol: Yes? What kind of cereal does he want?

Charley: Cream of Wheat.

Carol: Well, isn't that what you wanted?

Timmy: Well he's ARGUING. I said "What kind of cereal do you want?" and he said Cream of Wheat, and I said don't you want Wheatena, and he said Yes Wheatena so now we're arguing.

Charley is doing pretty well in music. Timmy plays almost everything that Charley plays but plays it by ear instead of from the notes...he watches Charley...but then goes off in fields of his own. Like he'll decide to play Jesus Loves Me, Raccoon Got a Ring‑round Tail, or Holy Holy Holy, and he can pick the melody right out.

3/8/52 Had a bad experience Thursday morning‑‑I was shovelling snow just as Billy came along trying to drag his wagon through the stuff. He stepped forward as I swung, and I gave him a nasty cut on the forehead with the snow‑shovel. It seemed like an incredibly stupid thing for me to do even if it was partly his fault. I carried him into the house and hollered for Bob and mopped up the blood. Bob got the car out and we took him to the doctor who fixed it expertly‑‑no stitches‑‑just one of these tricky things that holds the wound closed so it can heal smoothly. It had stopped bleeding before we took him so I was mainly worried about his appearance‑‑didn't want him to bear the marks on his forehead for life. I could always explain the scar on MY forehead as the result of childhood games; but I couldn't bear to have my dear Billy tell people in his teens "Oh that's just where my mother hit me." Bob told the Doctor the only thing that bothered him was what I'd do to HIM if I got mad. The doctor said just to put some penicillin ointment on the shovel edge next time‑‑it wasn't very funny at the time though. Billy's such a careful little rabbit that he won't let water get near the wound and the lower half of his face is beginning to look a slightly different shade from the upper half. When he was lying on the cot looking very bloody and hurt, he turned to me in such a serious way and said "I got a worser cut than any of Charley, Timmy or David ever did, didn't I?" There was that sense of desperate yearning for "specialness: that I felt as a child, and which has come to be associated in my mind with "3rd‑child‑itis".

3/31/52 Our breakfast grace took a dismal turn the other day. David had been getting a bit wiggly during grace so I suggested we all hold hands. (David now sits on the stool at my left). Well everybody was quick to cooperate except Davey. He held onto MY hand but when Charley tried to hold his other hand he yanked as vehemently as possible. However we seemed to have restored a semblance of peace as we got to the final words..."...impart Thy love and peace to every heart. Amen." Well, just as we hit the Amen, Charley let go and David hurtled through space knocking over my full glass of orange juice and part of my coffee into my lap as well as crashing his small self on the floor. Well, I must say the prayer was not answered for a while. David was roaring of course, and I, having just emerged from the bathtub, was particularly mad at have sticky orange juice dripping down my legs.

...Charley is so uneven about learning things. I just begin to think he has no interest...when all of a sudden he blossoms forth...His first grade teacher has been quite impatient with him at times, and yet she said over the phone to me today (she called me because she's used a couple of the Neidlinger songs with the kids and when Charley told her I had the book, she wanted to borrow it) that she "was enjoying Charley so much." She (Nellie Masson) indicated that he learns remarkably fast and well and is doing some writing that she couldn't let the rest of the class do.

4/14/52...Billy asking if we were going to have the shower for Pat Zwanziger in the bathtub. I'm sure a thousand children have said the same thing, but Timmy and Charley were so delighted to get the joke that they told the whole neighborhood and had a fine time.

5/8/52 ...Latest Billy story. Motherdee sent him a crisp dollar bill for his birthday. Billy was agog. Trundled it around in a dilapitated old purse of mine for a while and then got it changed into silver which made it seem like even greater wealth. Then, the next day he sallied off to the nearby store with Timmy and purchased the following‑‑two popsicles for Billy and Timmy and one large $.25 loaf of potato bread. The first I knew of this purchase was when I discovered him at the kitchen table busily making sandwiches for him and Timmy to go off on a picnic. When he finished he was all for putting his private loaf in his own drawer. I asked politely if Bob and I could have a piece for our lunch and he said we could "if you'll be sure not to eat it all up..." Later I found it neatly wrapped up in a paper bag and tucked in the corner of the swing. Fishing season opened with a bang last weekend. They have stocked Alder Creek, the brook that runs so swiftly back of the Cravens, and the boys have had a great time trying to catch something. Finally Timmy caught a trout..but Becky proceeded to wash it and lost it. Took David to the doctor because of a swelling above the groin. He has a hernia which will have to be operated on probably. 6/22/52 ...Charley's dollar‑‑he had saved his dollar ever since his birthday with exasperating lapses when he would strew it around. Bob gets disgusted at such carelessness and so do I. Bob thinks he just shouldn't have money if he doesn't take care of it and I tend to think "well if he loses it that's his tough luck." Anyway we were at Aunt Coe's in Oakland getting ready to go shopping. While the kids were waiting for us in the car, Billy tossed Charley's dollar out of the car window and it was LOST. There was a gusty wind which could have driven it downhill and we all hunted and hunted looking under and in all the low bushes, etc. Time was a'wastin and dispositions getting fragile. Bob looked that head‑of‑a‑family‑how‑can‑a‑feller‑ever‑ break‑even‑at‑this‑rate sort of way. I felt Billy should be punished which would ruin our shopping trip and Charley would ruin it anyway with his disappointment, and while he deserved to lose it in one sense, in another he didn't.

I suddenly got a notion and slipped a dollar out of my purse under a logical bush. I can't describe the criminal satisfaction of watching Bob poke along that row for the umpteenth time, getting nearer and nearer until he found it. The moral issues involved still puzzle me‑‑Everyone cheered up immediately. I couldn't have GIVEN Charley a dollar, nor could I have pretended to find it, nor could Bob. Everyone was honest except me, and everyone was happy including me. In the car I spelled out to Bob what I'd done in a very veiled form because Charley is such a whiz at unravelling our spelling. First Bob felt deceived but later thought it was funny. It was a wonderful shopping trip buying the sleeping bags for the boys and we spent twice as much money as if everyone had been cross and stayed home.

6/52 Davidisms: Dessert=buzzurt; mustache=muspastash; macaroni=racamoni; faucet=fraucet; "Man with the polka dot tie" (from Scuffy & the Tugboat)= Man with the cocoanut tie.

6/22/52 Camping‑‑two nights at the Clarke Ranch near Laytonville along a pretty creek with towering trees and wildflower strewn hillsides. The next day we drove to Eureka but Timmy got quite sick and we ended up taking him to the emergency room in the Eureka Hospital. First they said he had "central pneumonia" and then the blood tests showed he had mononucleosis. I hated to see such a dear feverish and bewildered little rabbit cooped up in the hospital while the rest of us stayed in a motel and took an unforgettable trip to Patrick's Point.

7/18/52 Well here I sit at the Mt. Shasta Hospital next to David's crib. He had his hernia operation this morning‑‑the doctor said everything was fine (except that it did VERY much need to be done). He is such a Daddy's boy and keeps asking for his Daddy and suggests at frequent intervals "Let's go home in the car."

9/24/52 David is still the clown of the family. Came in from his nap the other afternoon still staggering from sleepiness and with his father's most dilapitated hat slung on his head at a rakish angle and a cap pistol brandished with one fist, snarling out of the corner of his mouth "I gonna shoot you guys..."

10/5/52 Another heavenly afternoon at Panther Meadows‑‑more pretty waterfalls and a pair of handsome red‑shafted flickers that winged past us. Beautiful Communion Service this morning...the only thing that marred the service for me was that Timmy was not in church. He had come bursting in after Sunday School to the Adult Class I was teaching, so I sent him to his room. Charley protested going to church and by the time I'd bamboozled him and settled David and Bill in the nursery I FORGOT all about Timmy. Kept wondering where he had gone to and when it finally dawned on me in mid‑service it was too late. I felt less pity later when I found that old resourceful Tim had waited a while and then hollered to know if he could get up. When he realized I had gone to Church he just excused himself from further punishment and went out to play...

11/16/52 First report cards. Timmy's had a note saying "Tim is a 'runaway' reader. He can't wait for us, but forges ahead. It's certainly a pleasure to teach him; his mind is so keen, and his interest so easily awakened." Charley got a number of "outstandings", a few "averages" and one "needs improvement" on "Makes good use of his time."

12/3/52 After church we all piled into the Deweys'pick‑up truck to get our own Christmas tree. The children looked like Christmas gnomes with their bright wool caps and their fat bundled‑up bodies hopping and cavorting through the snow. It snowed steadily and every stump and hummock looked beautiful‑‑ brought home a handsome silver‑tipped fir.

David's stubborn streak‑‑the other morning he climbed into bed with me and in a feeble effort to keep from waking up completely I tried to tell him mother's story about the little brown box. I started off by saying the family was so poor they had nothing to eat. "Oh yes they did," says David. "No, they didn't," says I, "they were so poor they didn't have a single thing to eat." "Oh yes they did, their daddy could buy them something." Me: No he had no money. David: Well they had graham crackers. Me (firmly): No they were VERY hungry, etc. Well after several more arguments the story continued. Next day David told the story back to me (he seemed perfectly willing to have them starve to death in his version); the only real variation was that everywhere I had mentioned "the little elf", he said "the little elephant" which gave a funny twist.

12/27/52 Christmas seemed specially perfect‑‑a big $8.75 erector set for Charley; new shoes for Charley and Timmy and socks all around and a nice wood train for Billy and David. Timmy got some wood‑carving tools. One sweet thing the children invented was tinsel birds‑nests on the tree branches...

David has been singing "Twas the Night Before Christmas: and Dink discovered he sings it "And more rabbits than eagles his coursers they came..."

1/4/53 Charley and Tim enjoyed getting back to school today. Charley had said for several days that he didn't want to go back to school and when quizzed revealed that he had left STUFF in his desk when he got the mumps and his teacher Mrs. Beaughan gets very mad if you don't clean your desk out. He was persuaded to go and face the music and came home quite gleefully to report she hadn't even noticed‑‑his Sunday School teachers says he is delightful and responsive and she enjoys him more than anyone in the class...David announced firmly, "We're going to see Bobby next summer..."

I hedged a little for fear of disappointment and said, "David, we HOPE we can go see Bobby...we can't be SURE." David, in typical never‑mind‑what‑you‑think style repeated firmly, "Yes we are going to Bobby's and when I see Bobby I'll say Hi, Bobby." Twice today when David has asked for more of something that was all gone and I have told him so, he has demanded to see the inside of the pot to prove it. The first time I showed it to him amusedly. The second time I said, "David don't you believe me?" "No, I want to see it." Further discussion until Charley went and looked in the empty skillet and said it was empty and said, "Do you believe me, David?" "Yes, I believe you" says he. FINE THING!

4/20/53 ..Fearful bout with measles. Timmy, Charley and Billy are all lying upstairs looking like blotches more than like children. Timmy gave us a real scare with a violent nosebleed that started the night of my birthday and ended the next night when the doctor came and acted much too worried. He said "he has lost much much too much blood" and unless the measures he was taking were completely effective he would have to go to the hospital. He had been vomiting blood and we were and still are worried. He has been taking vitamin K and the doctor packed his nose. What fooled us was that when we first phoned the doctor at l2:20 a.m. Friday night he assured us it was typical. I was awake most of Friday night watching him, but thought the bleeding had stopped and all day Saturday it was the same. He'd start to bleed whenever he coughed, but not from his mouth‑‑and it just looked as though the cough had broken the scab. Apparently he had been bleeding internally all that time and it wasn't until he started to vomit that we were really alarmed. He has been a very sick little boy and the doctor says as soon as he is able he must have liver, iron, etc. to build back the loss. The doctor has been back every day and given him penicillin shots (they do no good for measles but he would be particularly susceptible to complications in his weakened condition). Meanwhile Charley's temperature was well over 105 last night and Billy's l04.6 this noon. This morning when David climbed into bed with me I said "Did you know Billy has the measles too?" and he said, "Yeah, 3 sick guys and 3 well guys..." The three well guys have been holding the fort pretty well...My birthday seems like weeks ago‑‑ the boys were so dear‑‑as I tucked Billy into bed I said "Thank you for giving me such a lovely birthday..." Billy said cheerfully, "Daddy helped us..."

5/16/53 Latest David story: He climbed into our bed the other morning and Billy hollered "Were you wet?" "Yes" says David (I hadn't taken him the night before) so I looked hastily to discover him curled up stark naked beside me. He looked very puckish and announced, "I'm all naked, I'm just being African."

9/11/53 [We drove East that summer with the trailer, stayed with Molly in Closter, N.J. That was when David looked at Yellowstone Falls and refused to believe that God had made it, finally saying in awe "How'd he ever do it? And looking at the Borglum sculptures in the Black Hills, he said he liked George Washington the best‑‑"He's the most President." The boys invented the chant, "We hate the Pennsylvania Turnpike", but were remarkably patient. Molly tells of David's despair when she lay down on her bed before noon, "Now we'll NEVER have lunch." and his arguing with Billy in the bathtub, "When I had my Hernia operation I was yelling and screaming..." and his trotting to the mailbox muttering, "I hope it's beanbags. I guess I was too exhausted to write much.] Now Charley and Tim have been launched for school and David and Billy are busy setting up a tunnel for their train. We get part of our heat from the incinerator for which we buy enormous loads of "blocks" ‑‑ white fir or pine, finished lumber ends that are stored in the basement for both fuel and games. Bill starts kindergarten. I'm disappointed he won't go in the morning.

9/18/53 The boys and their birthday money. ($4 for David's 4th birthday) David was a riot. Swaggered around downtown announcing to all and sundry, "I'm rich, I'm richer than daddy." You know, with one side of his mouth curled down and speaking in a deep bass with repetition for emphasis. Rhae Herron turned to me, knowing I had just purchased six new pairs of shoes for the boys and said, "I bet he is, too." He bought a marvellous wrecking car with things you unscrew, change a tire, etc. and I forget what else. At present he has about 47 cents left. Timmy went around on HIS birthday telling everybody, "I MIGHT get 7 dollars. My grandma MIGHT send me 7 dollars; I don't know, because she might not have it...etc. Anyway his letter arrived the next day, which was really good, because he had plenty of excitement for that day. I was tickled to see how much of it he spent on the other boys. I didn't encourage it‑‑in fact he dashed off and bought a $2.85 sheath knife before Dink and I had a chance to be of any influence. Then he was determined to buy Charley one and we set our foot down. He set aside a dollar for the bank and spent another dollar on Bill & Charley and bought a repeating rifle and it's mostly all gone. The birthday party was simple‑‑I invited the 8 children Tim suggested, 7 of whom came, plus our 4 made lll. (It was really eleven just seemed like lll) Anyway we played an assortment of wild games and I was amused that their favorite seemed to be an old‑fashioned potato race. Among the gifts was an "atomic ray gun"...the atomic age has come to Dunsmuir with a vengeance.

11/3/53 Just finished giving the boys haircuts. [I used to give them "change" after they pretended to pay me]. David arrived after I had given Billy change in the form of a stick of gum. David announced "What do I get for change..." Says I, what do you want? David, firmly, "Well, I would like somep'n that's two of them."

12/8/53 The children are full of secrets. Took them to see Santa Claus at the 7 p.m. Saturday opening of the stores. We arrived just as Santa did and the crowd quickly caught up with us, packed solid, and I soon realized David was missing. I wasn't worried (advantages of a small town) but I didn't want him to be frightened and felt sort of helpless trying to steer three others and find David too. Meanwhile David had been found by a policeman who phoned Dink. Dink came right down and found me eventually. David was naturally dissolved in convulsive tears but quickly began to dwell on the brighter and really IMPORTANT angle of having ridden in a REAL police car. Dink asked him how the policeman knew his name and David assured him that he had told him his name, "only I didn't tell him the Knox part." After all that I waited with David to see Santa (a very good one). A weary wait but David was full of conversation with all in sight and when he got to Santa he didn't betray any bashfulness at all, but said firmly, "My brother Charley wrote you a letter to tell what we want for Christmas." This was the letter:

Dear Santa Clase

I would like a Bace Ball‑

mite for Christmas.

Timmy Bike for Christmas.

Billy would like a play Bow

and arow.

David would like a dumptruck.

Note(stapled on at the end): "Please donot give Timmy a Bike give him a dart gun."

David loves to beg me to buy some applesauce; trots to the store and brings home as many cans as the money will buy, opens and serves it for whatever meal it happens to be after licking out the top of the can with a wicked gleam in his eye. I have been getting some apples from the country to make my own applesauce lately and he feels more than a little frustrated and does not hesitate to tell me so. Yesterday he begged ardently to buy some and when I said no, I was going to MAKE some, he said fiercely, "I HATE the applesuce that YOU make." He always seems hard to quote because it is partly his expression and the way he turns one corner of his mouth down. Dink has a family expression for a sulker "could hang a bucket on your lip"‑‑Timmy could when he sulks, but David's would always slide off one side. 1/22/54 David slowly recovering from arm burn...Timmy has been having a light case of chicken pox.

2/8/54 All the children recovering from chicken pox.

3/1/54 From Mercy Hospital, Redding. They just rolled David away for the skin graft. I am sitting beside the empty crib. We brought him in Saturday and it is now Monday a.m. The operation is supposed to take about an hour. They'll take the skin from his leg. He seems very angelic to me...cooperative and good on the whole. Saturday he carried his suitcase bravely, announcing they'd probably think he was 5 instead of 4 because of the suitcase and his new BELT pants. When we left him he looked like a small squatting seraph in his hospital gown. He clung to me and whispered very fervently, "You'll come back before they DO it to me, won't you?"

3/19/54 David is fine again. I took off the last of his bandages yesterday and had the fun of giving him a complete bath. I had started to take off the bandages the day before, but he hollered loudly, and as I did not want to get him into an unhappy state just before we went out I decided to wait a day. Yesterday he got into a roaring, hollering state over having his will crossed on a different issue, and I decided that it was a splendid time to take the bandages off. I knew it wouldn't really hurt, but the elastic bandages pull a little at the skin like adhesive does. So I yanked them all off and could scarcely hear any difference in the decibels. Later I recounted this at supper making him see how funny it was, and he chuckled at himself and admitted he was a big fake. Dr. Reynolds said that skin grafts never take any better...except for two discolored patches of skin he is as good as new. The patch on his leg is perfectly square and somewhat larger than the patch on his arm. Dr. R. said, "Don't ask me what Dr. Nash did with the extra skin..." I am convinced he makes lampshades...

3/27/83 Just finished reading LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY to the boys; they have also enjoyed THE SECRET GARDEN and THE LOST PRINCE lately‑‑fascinating to me how they eat up these tales that seem "quaint" to most modern adults...

5/5/54 My birthday really began on April 14th when David came rushing in from his nap all full of excitement and shining eyes saying, "Guess what? Daddy bought you a new step stool for your birthday, but don't tell him because it's a great big surprise and he'll be awful mad at me."

Another recent Davidism: Last Friday night the kids were getting their fishing gear spread out all over the living room in anticipation of the opening of fishing season the next day. Charley had used the birthday money Maja sent to buy a rod and reel, etc. for both himself and Timmy. I hustled the kids off to take a bath. Ten minutes later I found David cavorting around the room, absolutely naked with drips of water still clinging behind his ears, waving a fishing rod in the air and shouting at the top of his lungs a song he learned in Sunday school the words of which are "I will make you fishers of men, fishers of me, fishers of men, etc.

6/24/54 (RMD) Great excitement yesterday when "Good Night", Bobby's latest books arrived...the children will want to hear it a "million quoxtillion times", which is an enormous number invented by our boys.

7/16/54 (CBD) Camping at Union Creek on the Rogue River, en‑ route to Crater Lake. Our impedimenta included sleeping bags, aluminum ice chest, folding cots , air mattresses and a new tent...

8/15/54 David kept saying fiercely "I hate you, momma, I just hate you" I sort of hugged him and laughingly said, "Oh David, I just love you." Nothing daunted David said even more fiercely, "Well I hate you just as much as you love me."

12/7/54 David in kindergarten. David has gone up to take a nap and I am expecting Tim and Bill home from school any minute. David was particularly obstreperous at breakfast the other morning and finally I said to him (in a voice borrowed from a loved adult of my childhood), "David you are either sick or you're being naughty." At which David replied rather smugly "I'm being naughty." Lulu Thornton (David's teacher) phoned from school to tell me she thought David was a regular Einstein. That was her exact word. She had put the number of girls on the board and the number of boys and David remarked, "Oh, nine and fourteen, that's 23." Then scarcely believing her ears she asked him a similar combination on the afternoon class and he got that right too. The principal later called Dink and mentioned that he thought David was doing 3rd grade arithmetic‑‑the only way I have been aware of it is that David would come to me and say "I know how much 30 and 30 is. And I would say how much and he would say 60. Then I'd say how did you know and he'd say well 20 and 20 is 40 and ten more and ten more makes 60. Or he'd do the same thing with 60 and 60. What has impressed me has been his ability, without any prompting, to figure things out. Billy is enjoying the first grade and learning to read. He HATES to go to birthday parties, mainly because he doesn't like ice‑cream and cake as a rule. Sunday I clean forgot a birthday party he was supposed to attend, until he was an hour late. I called up and after many tears got him off. I wouldn't have attempted it if it were not Alice Anderson's child. Alice is the kind of person who believes in "our" kind of parties, lots of games, etc., not just eats and a movie. Well, he had a wonderful time.

Timmy is a cheerful, gregarious character with plenty of poise and inimitable airs of his own. He is the kind of cub scout who stands up VERY straight in his uniform. Gets along well in school and seems to breeze through both his school work and other activities without too much trouble.

1/14/55 [I had been doing substitute teaching for a year and a half and now had an opportunity to teach fulltime.] ...I have a wonderful woman lined up to do housework and mother's helper functions which will relieve pressure at home‑‑Marian or "Aunt Marian" seems like a dream so far. She has only come three times but she takes hold very nicely, uses initiative and so nice with the kids. I am to have her 4 afternoons a week from one to five and Dink will keep his eye out on Monday afternoons.

2/20/55 ...Marian is a real gem and already has the children wrapped around her little finger. She lets them help her make cookies or stops to sew up David's teddy bear and yet manages to get the wash and ironing done too. Bought roller skates for Bill and Charley yesterday‑‑Tim had received a 2nd hand pair for Christmas. None of the boys has had them before and this is the first time the ground has been free enough from snow for Tim to give them a try. As a result the boys are all a bit stiff around the ankles from spending most of the last day and a half on their skates. They are really enjoying the electric train too.

4/16/55 The other night I was saying prayers with the boys. They had all just climbed out of the bathtub and were curled up in Charley and Timmy's room. I was trying to be as soothing as possible to create a prayerful and sleepy atmosphere. When I came to what we were thankful for, I said, "And we thank thee, Lord, that we don't have to be dirty or hungry." At which David remarked in his large clear voice, "Well, I'M hungry." At which we ALL became extremely unsomnolent and unprayerful. Speaking of David, when I was shopping in Klamath Falls, I got two 39 cent pistols and before I'd even decided to buy them he said "That would be 78 cents." Also, he started counting 2 and 2 makes 4; 4and 4 makes 8; 8 and 8 makes 16 and got up to 256. I don't ask him arithmetic questions, well hardly ever, because he's just ornery enough to start mixing things up or showing off, but he certainly can get the answers when he wants to.

6/8/55 David and Charley were having a hassle in church. Finally David leaned over to me and whispered "How do you spell screwball?: I didn't catch on at first so I asked him to repeat it. Finally I realized that he wanted to write "Charley is a screwball" on the church bulletin. He already had the first part printed so I wrote down "NICE BOY". He whispered, "Is that screwball?" I said nothing but he seemed satisfied and handed it over to Charley glaring triumphantly. Charley, who is really very gullible, was transfixed with tenderness and put his arm around David's shoulder. David was so surprised that they had a regular love feast on the spot.

6/27/55 Charley, Tim and Bill have taken their bikes to go swimming. Here comes David looking like piglet just having rolled in the mud. David still seems like a close relative of Winnie the Pooh. Yesterday he brought a cross which he had made out of 2 sticks of wood. He said it was 2 things, the South Pole and a cross. Then he took it on an expotition to find Pooh which we were almost finished reading...

8/22/55 Charley and Timmy passed their Intermediate Red Cross Swimming Test. Tim looks like a little water rat, diving, paddling and swishing about while Charley concentrates more on form and spends lots of time with his diver's mask and snorkel. Bill can swim about halfway across the pool and David a few strokes under water.

10/13/55 Charley has gone ahead by leaps and bounds on his clarinet, and Timmy has shown remarkable progress in the few weeks he has been playing the flute.

10/30/55 David came home from school one day after having seedless grapes in his lunch and said firmly, "Mom, ALWAYS give me grapes in my lunch." When I asked why, he said, "Gee, there's a boy next to my desk and he eats them every day‑‑I can get rid of grapes easy, so ALWAYS give me grapes..."

12/5/55 Just came in from school walking part way with Charley and Tim who went reluctantly to Junior Choir...David remarked the other evening, "I sure hope I don't flunk." Just to bait him I said, "Why, did your teacher say you might?" "Oh no," says David, quite shocked, "I'm a PERFECTLY good student." Then after a thoughtful pause, "Oh sometimes I make a little mistake, but I just cross it out and start over, but I'm a PERFECTLY good student." Later on I dropped into the living room to catch a TV ad he was watching on depilatories. NEET was the product being extolled as a remedy for unsightly hair on face, legs or hands. A very chawming lady was holding forth on the subject and when she had finished David said very earnestly, "I wish I could take the hair off of my arms..."

Last night Billy decided to write a letter to Grandma without any prompting. He put in the sentence, "I am having fun in two grade" (meaning 2nd grade), then turned to David and asked with utmost seriousness, "David, are you having fun in first grade?" When David replied in the affirmative, he went on with the letter including the proper information.

12/22/55 Just before the beginning of our lovely evening Christmas musical program, as I was sitting flanked by two boys on each side, David leaned over and whispered loudly "Where does it tell on the program how LONG it is?" We have a cunning new puppy, part springer spaniel and part McNab shepherd and the kids adore it. Timmy came in the other morning and said, "You know mother where it says in the Bible, Do unto others as you would that they should do to you?"...I said "Yes?" expectantly. "Well, I licked the dog..."

The other night when I was making the rounds for prayers, I got through with David and just as I finished he looked up cheerfully and said, "That was 54 words, mother." A very spiritual child! Another day I overheard David talking to himself as he fondled the puppy (named Skipper). David: Skipper likes Billy and me (small pause) He loves everybody in the family, but ESPECIALLY me."

1/31/56 Sunday we went over to Snowman's Hill where all the ski‑maniacs hang out. It was too deep to enjoy sledding but there was one runway that had been packed down enough so the boys had some fun, and I went down with Billy once and landed in a snowbank.

5/13/56 Sunday. Dink preached a fine sermon, and after the coffee hour we changed quickly into picnic clothes. The sparkling river and the dogwood all in bloom...after we got home we took a nap while the kids went for a hike‑‑they take long hikes up in the woods back of our house and I get worried until they get home, but once they are home again I forget all the bears and rattlesnakes and waterfalls and holes and cliffs and accidents, and feel delightfully grateful that they can live in this kind of country. Charley received his Webelos in Cubs...wants to go to scout camp this summer.

10/5/56 The boys are each growing in their own way. Charley likes his teacher this year which is a big relief from last year when he had Mrs. Kern (Timmy's present teacher and my colleague in the 5th grade last year). Mrs. K. is humorless, tough and dogmatic; and there were many days when Charley felt more than somewhat picked on. Timmy was imitating her at breakfast one morning and both Dink and I had to keep firm control not to laugh uproariously at the caricature. Tim is an eager beaver on the flute...Bill is a natural for cubs, he is popular and a handy friend: this morning for example, he dressed himself, made his bed, cleaned up his room, and then by the time I got dressed he had breakfast made including coffee, hot maltomeal and orange juice and the table all set. David is just learning to ride his new bike (a hand‑me‑down from a neighbor). Fred (Marion's husband) said he almost died laughing watching him spill and try again. Today he came in all sweet and sweaty‑‑I gave him a hug and said very seriously how happy I was and added, "David, are you SURE you are being really careful about the cars?" "Oh yes," replies David airily, "I've already dodged two of them..."

Another recent David episode was concerned with his birthday money. He saved $5 for over a month shopping in the catalog and downtown with great fervor but equal Scotch thrift. He had begged me to lend him enough additional cash to buy an $8.75 desk set (a fountain pen in a stand with a calendar). I told him that I couldn't even afford something like that for Daddy. Well, finally he returned from town triumphant with a $4.25 desk set. Dink was horrified when I told him what it cost, but we agreed that if he had spent it on a gun‑and‑holster set it would have been considered "normal".

Well, the worst part was that the proprietor of the shop threw in a bottle of blue ink (permanent) free. When I say "threw" I speak advisedly. We had ink on the pillow‑case, ink on the bureau scarf, ink going down the stairs like a nosebleed, only blue; Marion greeted me the next afternoon with the grimmest set I've ever seen to her jaw and said, "I told David if he spills ink ONCE more, I'm going to take the ink home." Dink removed half of the bottle while David howled. I found him busily using up Dink's 3x5 cards (which he writes his sermons on) and I told him that he couldn't use them because they were too expensive. I said he could buy some from Daddy if he wanted to, for l0 cents (his allowance due the next day). "Oh no," says David, "I couldn't do that, I'm saving my allowance to buy more ink..."

11/10/56 Charley remarked, "Did you read in the paper last night where this man killed his wife and children‑‑he just HAD TO kill them..." "Well," says I "nobody HAS to kill anybody...the papers just print these few sordid stories and they just involve psychopathic people." Then I went on in true lecture style to say that a few people were born deficient or had brain damage, and a very few people are mentally sick... At which point Timmy broke in helpfully and sincerely, saying, "Yes, and then there are SOME people who just HAVE to kill somebody..." And so off to school.

Report cards: David, with an otherwise exemplary report card rated an"Average" on oral usage. Average is taken to be "C". At breakfast one of the boys turned to him and said, "Gee, David you got C in Oral usage." I explained to David what that meant...then another of the boys said, "Did you REALLY get a C?" "Yeah‑uh," says David at which we all had a convulsed laugh. David is one of the best at laughing at himself and often succeeds in breaking the rest of us into laughter....He continues to be a mathematician. My 4th graders can't get over how much more he knows of his times tables than they do. You say "David how much is 7x8 and he says 56, and you say how did you figure that, and he says, "simple, 8x8 is 64 and 8 less is 56. Or in answer to 8x9, he answered 72 and when I asked him how he knew, he said, "Simple, 8 and 8 is l6 and 16 and 16 is 32 and 32 and 32 is 64 and 8 more is 72.". Of course this makes my 4th graders dizzy (David often comes over to my room before school and that is how they get to quizzing him).

12/56 We have the offer of a cocker spaniel puppy for Christmas. The father is the Wrights' dog, and it will be a Christmas surprise.

1/12/57 ..The children are part of two 3‑man football teams consisting of Tim, David & Becky Cravens vs. Chas, Bill & Kirk Cravens. One team is called the Dunsmuir Lions and the other is called the Dunsmuir Mice. The four boys have formed a club called the BEAVER CLUB. It is hysterical to listen to their palaver. They have "ranks" which I think David won't have worked up to by the time he reaches high school. And they are so serious about it that Dink and I have to work hard to keep our faces straight. They are the only dues‑paying members but they have several other members (non‑paying) from the neighborhood who are threatened with dire punishment if they miss meetings, etc. They feel very superior to two other clubs which have as their activities "going to the Saturday show" and "telling dirty jokes". The Beaver Club on the other hand is a very high‑minded organization specializing in hikes, ranks, meeting and dues‑ spending. They had a fine time purchasing a 2nd‑hand canteen for 49 cents from army surplus for their hikes, and they finagled 10 army caps (reduced to 9 cents and later to a nickel) from the same source.

4/3/57 Charley gives clarinet lessons to a beginner across the street for 50 cents...Tim and Charles each take clarinet and flute lessons respectively from 2 high school girls for the same fee.

5/19/57 I was primping before leaving for Public Schools' night. David was washing his hands in the bowl while I leaned over him to look in the mirror and dab at my hair having just applied some cologne. David looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye and said matter‑of‑factly, "You know one thing about you, mother, you smell better than you look..."

I was helping give a baby shower for Alice Jane Eachus;

Charley: What shower?

Me: For Alice Jane...

Chas, Tim & David: Why?

Me: Didn't you know she's going to have a baby? (the boys were all surprised and delighted.)

David: Gee, is it going to be a female or a male?

Me: Well, David, that's one of the exciting things, you never know until the baby is born...

David (matter‑of‑factly practicing his new knowledge, but with an airy authoritativeness): Yes, it's quite a while when the baby is real little that you just don't know whether it's a boy or a girl.

.Our biggest news: we've just invested in a 15 foot trailer.

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[And then, in June, 1957, we moved to Hanford‑‑not so many letters to quote as suddenly the "little boys" became "big kids". And then, in November 1960, the birth of PAUL ORTON DeWOLF! But that will need another chapter.]

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