The Cutest Little Girl He Ever Saw

My father and mother met at a wedding when she was twelve and he was eighteen. I've told you the story about him walking up to her and telling her she was the cutest little girl he ever saw. Then he declared that he was going to wait until she grew up and he was going to marry her! She didn't like him very much for saying that.

I am sure he was just being a wise-guy. But the amazing thing is that eight years later there was another wedding: theirs! This picture was taken in the spring of 1942 shortly before they were married. At that time, he was making $1.00 a day working on a farm. And she made $15.00 a week as secretary to the clerk of courts for Aroostook County, Maine.

It is interesting to note that my parents were married on June 4, 1942 and that Grampie Wayne's parents were married on June 4, 1941. We always thought it would be neat to be married on June 4th, but when we became engaged in April of 1963 we couldn't afford a wedding by June 4th -- and we didn't want to wait until 1964! So we settled for August 27, 1963.

My mother and father were very happy together until November 8, 1956 when he died in a trucking accident. Early in their marriage, he was in the US Navy but they discharged him when I was about two. The discharge arrived at his base in Gulfport, Mississipi the same day that his orders arrived to ship out. Because his discharge arrived first, he was sent home to be a farmer and care for his wife and child.

They worked the farm, growing potatoes to market and raising vegetables, fruits and animals to feed us. Mom's skills at sewing, knitting, cooking, and making butter and cottage cheese contributed much to our welfare. One winter they took me to a relative's lumber camp, where my mother cooked for the crew and my Dad took care of the horses and other incidentals. It was a great winter for me. I loved sledding on the "tote road" on Sunday. And I loved riding my tricycle around the cook house the rest of the time.

I was 5 1/2 when my first sibling -- Aunt Carla -- arrived on January 13, 1949. On June 7, 1950 my first brother (Brian) joined us. And on May 1, 1952 my baby brother Clifford was born. They were great kids, but before long my toys took a great deal of punishment from babies and toddlers. I thought the toys were perfect before that, but they probably weren't.

Life on the farm, even a little one, is GREAT for children. I wasn't very fond of the chickens and turkeys (and I hated the geese). But I loved the ducks, the pigs, and the cows. Most of the cows were purchased from Grampie Ellery. I learned to help feed and water them and to milk them by hand and separate the milk. I didn't care so much about working in the house as in the barn and garden, but churning our cream into butter on Saturdays was a responsibility I really liked. When farming on the small scale (50 acres) became unprofitable, my father drove for a trucking company and was killed on the job.

All through my high school years, Mom was a single mother and did a wonderful job of caring for her family -- physically, materially, and spiritually.  She saw to it that we were always in Church on Sunday, had refreshing times at our little camp on the Lake and weeks at St John Valley Bible Camp every summer. But the five cattle and their calves had to be sold. I wanted so much for her to keep one or two, but Mom thought they were too much responsibility for me. I missed them terribly and I missed just being in the barn -- my favorite place to work!