family history archives

"well, when I was young..."

Dear Ones, I've been thinking lately of getting some of the things I remember about growing up written down. I thought I'd wait until I had a word processor and then I had this urge to get started so I'm sending this to those of you who have facilities to print it. Hopefully, I'll get around to re-doing and polishing, but I know myself well enough to take advantage of the urge when it hits.

World War II was an enormous influence on my young life, probably the greatest single one, though I do have sort of vague memories of first coming to HP and a clear one of my first dog, Cappy, the night she came. I was asleep, and was brought downstairs and there was this red, curly, wiggly puppy alternately licking my face and running under the furniture. She was already named, and a woman named Vi Mathews supposedly gave her to me, but my parents maybe bought her. The litter was registered but no one ever bothered to register her individually. She had a flat crown and not very long ears and probably other faults but she had a personality that never quit! I think I was five.

I remember Pearl Harbor, I think Toddy ran home from the neighbors (probably Helsells) to tell us. I remember Dad sat down on the steps outside the front door which he had just finished making, put his head in his hands, and cried. Neither of my parents were emotionally open, and it shocked me. Then, the big radio console was turned on, and Dad got on the wall phone at the foot of the stairs, and I know he must have called his partner, Horace McCurdy, and the yard foreman who could have been Jack DeLaye.

Seattle, the whole Pacific Coast, expected to be bombed that night. Dad left in his black Chevy coupe, and Mother, Ned, Tee, and I were there with the almost-new Packard Dad had just bought. It was like noon or early afternoon. Before the daylight went, Ned was recruited to crew for Charley McKillop on (I think) the ChoChoSan (later boat was the Cheechako) for a Coast Guard Auxiliary of private boats that went out in the Sound all night looking for submarines. This boat was about a 35' motor-sailer and I think the CG got every boat over 30' that could be manned out there. I don't know if this was spontaneous or if the plans had been laid in advance.

Years later I learned that a UW friend of my Dad had worked for the Japanese government in Seattle and was found with his throat cut in the alley behind the WAC. Dad told me this in the 50s to validate his hatred of the Japanese. He was sure this man "knew too much." Dad refused to be a charter member of the Harbor Club on the basis that they were letting Japanese in.

On the home front, it was soon known that the Haynes men were gone and we were invited to the Ruggles house farther down the point and across the road to spend the night. It was a fancy house and I was impressed. Ms R was a very warm and loving person as was her husband and she was famous because she made her own bread. He was the Quaker Oat Man and of course her specialty was oatmeal bread and I remember it as total heaven. Mother adored it, too, heaven knows why she never made her own! They had an old Scottie named Minnie who didn't like kids much.

The next day somebody came and helped Ned who was 16 to make covers for the windows black out. They were made out of  wood frames with tar paper and that second night we had them only on the downstairs bedroom and bath, and Mother, Tee, and I slept in there. I don't know how many nights Ned spent out on the water looking for periscopes. I don't know how many nights we spent blacked-out but it must have been a pain in Dec when it got dark so early in that sprawling house with big windows. I know there were eventually covers for the living and dining room windows, but I don't remember any upstairs.

I know rumors ran rife and I remember people talking about the Japanese truck gardeners at the ends of the bays out there signaling or radioing or whatever. People were scared stiff! I was scared because Mother and Big Sis were scared. Somewhere in this time frame, I do believe that a sub shelled the Oregon coast and a big storm at sea supposedly turned the Japanese fleet back from coming any farther West. I'm not sure when the Aleutians were attacked but Dutch Harbor was talked about a lot and the probability of Alaska being taken. Miles was living in Seward at the time, and there was a big fire in which their apartment building burned down and he said being burned out rather over-shadowed Pearl Harbor. They did expect invasion daily and all civilians were evacuated from near the harbor. His Dad was I think head of Railway Mail for Alaska, which consisted of the only train between Seward and Fairbanks. There may have been one between Seward and Anchorage-Fairbanks. Anyway, they were on 24 hour alert for weeks. More on Mom on the Home Front later.....

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