MY MOTHER

My Mother came to the United States when she was about 2 years old. Her Father came before she and her mother did. He had to work and make enough money to bring the family from LaHarve France . Mother's mother, Adeline passed away soon after they made it to the United States. Mother's sisters, both older than she, married and were on their own but were also living in Kansas. That was where the family settled because there were many coal mines, and these head of household males were all uneducated and spoke little or not English, and they could get menial jobs.

My mother, Rose went to school through the 3rd grade, then she was pulled from school to stay home and keep house and learn to cook for her dad. Life was not easy for this little girl because her dad would hit the bar when he got off work, and rarely arrived home in a sober state. He had an old horse and buggy, and the horse knew the way home. He'd just tell the horse to "giddeup" and the horse would take him home.

Rosie would have coffee and bread to eat, and rarely had much more than that. One day she decided she could make some bread, and got busy doing what she thought was right. When the bread was finished it did not rise, and it was extremely heavy. When her Dad got home he laughed at her efforts and took a nail and hammer and put it on the wall for all to see. Of course it broke her heart to see that failure displayed so prominently.

When Rosie was allowed to go to a movie on a weekend, it only cost 5cents, and she went whenever she could. She would sit with her feet tucked under the seat so that 0thers could not see that she had no shoes on her feet.

Despite all the drawbacks she grew up to be a very pretty young woman, and when she was 22 she married a fine gentleman and was extremely happy. They left Kansas and went to Oregon where he worked in the logging industry. When my mother was 25 she gave birth to me, Margaret, and was a proud, happy lady, until when I was 15 months old my father was killed in a logging accident. Not only was Rosie devistated to find herself alone, she had no education and did not know how she was going to take care of me. In those days there was no such thing as welfare to help in such a situation. She found herself doing what she knew best, cleaning and cooking for others. She took in washings for the loggers, and did ironings for anyone who needed her help. This is where she met another fine gentleman who married her. His name was Ivan and he cared for me as if I were his blood child. When I was 4-1/2 they provided me with a baby brother, and I loved him so much.

As a family we made many moves during my growing up years. I rarely went to any one school more than a year, and sometimes not even that long. It was depression times and Dad cooked for the logging camps and had to move as the camp work was relocated.

In 1942 Dad was working on the island of Dutch Harbor, Alaska teaching sailors to bake. It was good money, and he liked doing that work. My mom got her first real job working for Birds Eye frozen foods in Hillsboro, Oregon. She worked nights, and I was responsible for watching my brother in the evenings. When I was 16 I was allowed to date, but I could not go out to a movie or any other place unless I took my little brother with me. My first real boyfriend had an old car with a trunk seat, and he got to ride out there while we were inside the one seater car.

This was when my mother started studying for her citizenship. I used to help her memorize the things she had to know when she went for her test. She worked very hard on learning the facts about our government and when she took the test...she passed ! She was so excited to have made it and to be a U. S. Citizen after so many years.

She later took some adult classes to learn basic math problems, and was always able to get a job to support herself. Dad passed away in 1964, but she was able to take care of herself and was proud that she could .

I look back now and think of the days when I was a high school student who thought she knew all about everything, and I used to correct her english from time to time. I recall that she would say that I had the opportunity to go to school and learn those things and she did not. Because I was a "smarty" high school kid, I didn't realize that I probably hurt her feelings many times being that know-it-all girl.

My mother lived to be nearly 90 before she passed away. She lived a good life, even though she worked very hard at times, and we always wondered how someone who was raised on bread and coffee could live to be such a healthy older lady. She defied all the health rules about eating a proper diet.