Reflections

I have lived a great number of years, it was a quarter of a century last November 24, 2008. When I was born it was the great depression, following the crash of 1929.

Men all over the country was having a hard time supporting their family's. There was a great deal of stealing to stay alive. My mom told me a story of Dad and Grandpa, they went out to steal some chickens one night, it was a dark night so they thought they could get away with a couple chickens. The chickens had a say about it, so they went into the hen house and nabbed two but they had scared the hens when they entered. They grabbed the hens by the legs and what a squawking and clucking started, that set the farmers dog to barking. My Grandpa ran into the woods but my Dad went into the outhouse, thinking he would not be caught, this probably would of worked but the hens would not be quiet. My Dad was caught and spent some time in jail, he never did that again. My mom told this story many times over, it was funny and a good laugh was had by all. My Dad went to work in the coal mines in West Virginia and the last part of 1930's he got a job in the steel mills in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. I think the moral to the chicken story would of been to tuck them under their arms instead of picking them up by the legs.

We survived the Depression and life seemed to be going well until October of 1942. When my mom answered the door she knew something was wrong, my dad had been hurt at work. My dad lived three days , he had been hit on the top of the head by an object that fell off of a overhead crane. In those days they did not wear helmets if they did I would of enjoyed my dad longer, I was nine years old. My dad had a rough life growing up, his first dad divorced his mom and she remarried. There was Cherokee in my dads family, he was one half and you could see it in him. He was taking a course in radio, trying to better himself, in school he only finished fourth grade because he had to help support the family, which was the case in many families. He loved cars and workrd on ours a lot my cousin Eddie was always at our house helping dad. Many years later Eddie told us that dad was going to present to Ford Motors Co. and try to get a patient for an improvement in the car engine, but he was killed before he had a chance. Eddie did not know what it was because my dad was keeping it a secret until he presented it.

My mom gave up trying to raise us, my older sister June was already out in Michigan, we lived in East Liverpool, Ohio. Mom contacted my Aunt Margaret and ask if we could come and stay awhile, she said yes. We came to live here, for awhile my aunt treated us nice and then she started to get real mean toward us. She made us do the housework, which we did not mind but she would go behind us and find what we missed. It was called to our attention and we not only did what we missed but she made us do the whole thing over, the ironing was a disaster, we never knew how to clean and she would not show us just tell us to do it. When we were to go on picnics she would find fault with one of us and we did not go. I could take the yelling but the slapping in the face was too much, she said we looked at her the wrong way. This went on for nine years, and my mom did not come for us and signed papers for my aunt and uncle to be our legal guardians. She was worse than the stepmother in Cinderrella, at least she was saved by a handsome prince.

We did graduate from high school, I in 1953 and found a job right away at a nice office. I finally was happy and I moved out of her house to my apartment. Life was going along pretty good, I worked for a nice company and could not get use to people being nice to me. Can you believe it I made a great big sum a week of $37.50, but gas was only .17 cents a gallon, bread .20 cents and believe it pop .15 cents, hamburg ,49 cents a pound, well the wages were small at the time. I worked for this company for eight years and had to fight for every raise, in the end when I quit I was only making $62.50 a week.

I met my husband in 1958, he was divorced and his wife went home to Okalahoma to live with her folks, they had two children. We married on July 30th, 1959, we had been going together for almost a year. My husband was layed off in 1960, right after the birth of our son, Douglas. He could not find work for a few months, then he was hired by Railway Express in Muskegon, Michigan in 1963, right after the birth of our son Ronald.

Life has its ups and downs in many marriages, but my husband was a good father and good to me. My husband worked for Railway Express until it went out of business in 1968. So he went back to college and learned to be an illustrator, after graduating in 1971 he went to work for Gardner Denver in Grand Haven, Michigan. We moved here to be close to his job but this company moved out of town to New Jersey, but not to dispear he was lucky to get a job at Haworth in Holland, Michigan, no we did not move to Holland, I love Grand Haven and will live here until I pass on and meet my animals at Rainbow Bridge. My husband worked over 20 years for this company and he retired in 1996. We have seen many hard times but none like I had living with my aunt. I have been as good of mother that I could be, we all make mistakes with our children, but I tell you this when I ask my boy's to do something for me I never check to see if it is done right (I might tidy behind their back), they are really good boy's, men now. Doug is 48 years old and Ron is 45 years old.

I hope I have not bored you with this post, many do not like to bare their soul for all to see, not me I have lived many years doing good and I have a few regrets. I miss my home state in my memories but I love Michigan and after living here since 1946 I guess I could call her home, I love Lake Michigan, I love to walk her beaches and hear the sound of sea gulls and feed them popcorn or bread and also I like to metal detect her beaches. I like it when people come up and ask me what I am doing or just to talk, there are a lot of tourist on our beaches in summer. I really get a kick out of the kids, they follow me and yell with delight when the detector makes a beeping sound and want to dig, I let them and if it is money I let them keep it, only after they ask their parents.

My son Doug gave me this computer and showed me how to use it, I will never know what he knows about computers. When I discovered blogging I was hooked, I have over a hundred blog sites on my bookmarks and a few on my side bar. I consider you all my friends and love to come and see what you are up to and love the reciepts you put on your posts. The stories are awesome and I like the animal stories and all the pictures of family and nature, you all have a exceptional quality of posting the right way, thank you my friends for coming to visit me, I wish you all the best, you have been a comfort in my loss of my furry friends and supportive in Dusty and Logan, God Bless you all, Margaret.