My parents were Clara Jane Endicott and Edward Robert Duppenthaler. September 14, 1910 was a busy day for my parents getting ready for their wedding day. They were married in the office of the First Christian Church of Tacoma, Washington by Rev. W. A. Moore. Their attendants were Eunice Endicott, sister of the bride, and W. Breneman. Since my father was born in Minnesota and my mother in Wisconsin, they did not have any family around here, except Mom’s sister Eunice.
The following day, they went to Schoenfelds and bought their furniture and household supplies, which were sent on to their new home in Tenino, WA. About 3 months later, they moved to Lake Ballenger, just north of Seattle where my oldest brother, Clareon Robert, was born on June 28, 1911.
Since my Dad worked as a planerman in the sawmill, they moved quite frequently for several years. He was the one that made and set the knives for the plane. Not too many people knew how to do that.
Their next move was to Victoria, BC where on November 24, 1912, my second brother Roswell Endicott was born.
In the meantime, they bought five acres of land at Lake Ballenger where they built a small home. Before settling down in their new home, they went to Wisconsin where they rented the Endicott farm. They thought that my Dad might have to go in the army and my Mother would be close to her family there. My third brother, Dallas Edward was born on November 10, 1918 and the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918 so Daddy didn’t have to go in the service.
From Wisconsin they moved to Lake Cle Elum, Washington where they lived for several years. This is where I was born on December 2, 1920. I was their only daughter. My full name is Edwardine Jane Duppenthaler-Unruh.
They moved back to Lake Ballinger and on March 20, 1924, my fourth brother was born and was named Franklin Keith. He has always gone by Keith. I started school at Esperance School and went there through the third grade. My two older brothers graduated from Edmonds High School, before we moved to Tacoma, Washington.
We didn’t have electricity or running water at Lake Ballenger, so we thought it was nice to have these luxuries when we moved to Tacoma. At Lake Ballenger, our lights were lamps and we got our water from a well, which sometimes ran dry in the late summer, and then we would have to carry water from the neighbors. We heated the water on our kitchen wood stove and we had an outhouse for a toilet. My mother used the scrub board to do the clothes and quite a bit of the time, I was the official one to turn the wringer.
We always had a lot of fun on those 5 acres, which we called “The Ranch”. One thing I remember the most was climbing a big maple tree and playing tree tag. Keith was still pretty small at the time, and he said that he was “Tarzan and the Apes”.
I was usually the boys’ housekeeper. They had to move and so put all the boxes in the wagon and then set me up on top of the boxes. I fell off and cut my knee and eyebrow and still have the scars.
After we moved to “Old Town”, Keith and I used to change clothes and try to pass for each other, but Keith said they knew it wasn’t him because his strap didn’t show.
We moved to Tacoma, Washington in June of 1929 right after Roswell graduated from Edmonds High School. Clareon had graduated the year before, in June of 1928. He went on to Business College in Seattle. The folks traded their acreage for a home in Tacoma. We first lived in a rented duplex at 2914-1/2 North 28th Street in “Old Town” before buying a house at 1014 North “J” Street. We went to Lowell Grade School, Jason Lee Jr. High and then to Stadium High School.
When we first moved to Tacoma, I went to Lowell School. My teacher there felt like I should be held back for half a year, so that is how I got in the mid-year class. My friend, Martha Jones, was held back at the same time. We still are great friends and are usually sitting together in Church each Sunday, after all of these years. This would be about 68 to 69 years of friendship.
The grade school buildings were all built around the same time and all had the same architecture. They were traditionally brick 3 to 4 stories tall with tall narrow windows sporting pull shades. There was a lot of running up and down the stairs, which was good exercise. Nowadays, they build them single story and so there is further to walk from one classroom to another.
During the early 1930’s, we had the great depression. Daddy worked on the WPA and obtained vouchers for us to get food. In 1932, he was also delivering Watkin’s Products. It was real hard for him to do this, because he was quite shy and it was hard for him to go out and try to convince people to buy Watkins Products.
All of the mills were closed down and he had to do something. During this time, when the mills were down, Daddy went to Barber School and learned how to cut hair. He never did do it as a profession, but all of us kids got our hair cut from him and never had to go to a barbershop. When my boys were growing up Daddy used to cut their hair until it came a time when he was getting too shaky and they were afraid that he may cut them. For many years the seat that we used to sit in to get our hair cut was a tall box that Daddy had made for Mom to keep her flour in. She always baked all of our bread when we were small and still loved to bake in her later years. The summer before she was married, she was the head cook at Paradise at Mt. Rainier in Washington State. They had to cook in tents and I’m not sure how much baking was done.
In November 1932, Herbert Hoover lost the Presidential election and Franklin Roosevelt was elected into the office of President of the United States. It was also in the 1930’s that we would go out into the Puyallup Valley and pick raspberries during summer vacations. We would earn a little and then helped to buy some of our school clothes. It wasn’t much, but every little bit helped.
It seems as if our winters in the 1930’s were much more severe than they have been in recent years. Sledding lasted for at least three weeks straight and gave us plenty of time to try the many hills close to our home. One area that stands out in my mind was North “G” St from about 6th St. to about North 11th Street. They had that hill closed off just for sledding. Carr Street Hill was also good and my brothers, Clareon and Roswell went down that hill once and thought they were going to end up in Commencement Bay, but were stopped at the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill.
The Tacoma Hotel burnt down on Oct 17, 1935. Later they built a Fire Station on these same grounds and that is where my brother Clareon was stationed for many years as a Fireman. Now there is a small park there between 8th and 9th on “A” St.
Church was always important to our family. The first Church I attended was a branch of the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, which was the Esperance branch. When we moved to Tacoma in 1929, Mrs. Miller from the First Presbyterian Church called on us. Mrs. Miller and her sister Mrs. Perkins were the church callers. Dr. Weyer was the pastor. A couple of years later Dr. Brumbaught took over as the pastor. Daddy and my Mother decided to go with the majority of the congregation to set up another church across the alley from First Presbyterian. It was the Scottish Rite Temple, as the masons called it. This was Aug 22, 1935. The group of worshipers that left First Presbyterian Church started to meet in this building. The new church was called the Independent Bible Church.
Junior High School years were grades 7 through 9th. Today Jr High is called Middle School. I attended all three years of Jr. High at Jason Lee Jr. High. My home room teacher was Miss Hallin. She was also our cooking teacher. I still have some of the recipes that she gave us during class time.
OUR CLASS SONG
If she’s a girl from 115
She has pep, and plenty of spare
And she’s a goal getter you bet,
and singing a song as she goes along,
and when it comes to school spirit,
she beats all others by a mile.
If she’s a girl from 115,
you can tell by her wonderful smile”
Our Motto: - “The More the Merrier”
We had the same homeroom teacher all the way through Jason Lee. I was in the band and played the cornet. I wouldn’t know anything about it now. I did take piano lessons while going to Jason Lee. Mrs. Taylor was my piano teacher. Evelyn (Taylor) Reid, her daughter, is a good friend now and lived in the same apartment building for many years that I do now, on 21st and North Prospect. She recently moved to the Lutheran Home Apartment (1998). At our 9A graduation program, which was on January 23, 1936, I played a piano solo.
In our gym classes we played basketball (my favorite), volleyball, tumbling, did exercises, tap-danced and did ballet. After we got to Stadium High School, we also did swimming.
My oldest brother was married to Myrtle Wick in 1934. The following year, my first nephew, Robert John, was born. I used to baby-sit a lot and really loved to be with the baby. In those days, when you had a contagious disease such as scarlet fever, you went to the pest house. It used to be where the Coca Cola plant is now on South Union Street. The Briggs’ lived next door to us on Jay Street. Their daughter Betty got scarlet fever and had to go to the pest house for a period of time.
Dallas belonged to the Sea Scouts and played the fife in the Drum Bugle and Fife Band. We used to go out to Point Defiance to listen to them play.
Mom, Keith and Aunt Eunice went back to Wisconsin to help with Grandma Endicott before she died. They left the first of June 1935 and got back home the first of August. Dallas, Daddy and I did things together that summer. I had to take care of the house and did some cooking. What I remember most was Daddy, Dallas and I going out to Fife to watch the walkathon. Daddy gave me a wrist watch that summer for helping out while Mom was in Wisconsin. This was also the year that Daddy and Mom celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
We went to the mountains quite often. It was hard to accept the name change for our Mt. Tacoma, sometimes called Mt. Tahoma, which was named by the Indians. It is now called Mt. Rainier, officially since 1925. The ocean beach was also a fun place to go. We would take our tent and camp at Copalis Camp Grounds.
While still living in “Old Town”, there was a fellow who came around each week selling fruits and vegetables. We called him “Pete the peddler”. Mom would buy all of her canning fruits and vegetables from him since she did a lot of canning. We also had the ice man. We would put a sign up in the window when we needed ice and then he would deliver it. We would always like to see him come by, as he would always give us kids some chips of ice. The milkman also delivered milk in glass bottles to our door. In those days, the milk was raw and the cream would come to the top and we would skim that off and it was so good. We also collected the bottle tops and would play games and see how many we could turn over, as in the game tiddlywinks.
While we were still living in “Old Town”, we would go down to the dock and fish. We would catch a lot of pogies and throw them back, but it was fun. On Sunday afternoon, Mom would give us three little kids (Dallas, Keith and me) a nickel each and we would go down to the store on 30th St, in “Old Town”, and get a candy bar. In those days the cost of a movie was 10 cents, candy bars were 5 cents and pieces of candy, like candy sticks, were a penny.
We had street cars in those days also and through our high school days. Sometimes we would put a penny on the track, when we knew the street car was coming, and get it flattened out.
We could always walk at night (even into the 1950’s) without feeling any fear. We had the freedom then that we don’t have now.
Another memory was when there was an important happening, the paper boy would run up and down the street yelling “extra, extra, read all about it” and then also yell the news event. We would all get excited and run to the street to get a newspaper and then run to turn on the radio at home. Two events that were most memorable, a famous German Dirigible (called the cigar) known as the Hindenberg burst into flames on May 6, 1937, while approaching Lakehurst, NJ at the end of a voyage from Frankfurt, Germany and the Lindberg baby was kidnapped in 1932 and later found dead. We also had 2 kidnappings in Tacoma. In 1935, the Weyerhaeuser boy was found alive after being kidnapped and in 1938 the Matson boy was found dead. Muriel Matson, his sister, had a locker at Stadium High School, next to mine and it was a very sad time. All of these events were great tragedies.
January 24, 1936 was my last day at Jason Lee Jr. High. Of course, we were all anxious to start High School. My first day at Stadium was January 27th. Betty Flynn was my big sister and she helped me find my way around school those first few days. She was also one of my friends from church.
It was nice to say you were in high school. Stadium High School was one of only three high schools at that time. The other 2 were Lincoln High and Bellermine, which was a Catholic school. Stadium was by far the most beautiful. It is to this day, situated on top of a high cliff overlooking Commencement Bay. The building was to be used as a tourist hotel. The Northern Pacific Railroad went bankrupt while building it in 1898 and then it was damaged by fire. The City of Tacoma bought it and completed the construction. It opened as Stadium High School in 1906. Dallas graduated in 1936 and I graduated in 1939.
Stadium has always been known as “The Castle” as it looks just like a medieval castle standing in all of it’s glory, as a beacon to the ships coming down the channel from north of Puget Sound into Commencement Bay and their berths in the industrial area. It was supposedly an exact replica of a French Castle.
Another outstanding feature of the Stadium is the “Stadium Bowl”. It is a very unique sports area situated in a so-called deep canyon setting, which faces north, overlooking Commencement Bay. The “Bowl” was very famous as several noted opera stars performed in concert there. Some United States Presidents even gave speeches in “The Bowl”. We didn’t have television in those days, so much of our entertainment was spent at these various events, which of course, were many. One of the special events each year was the 4th of July celebration with specialty acts, and of course, a huge fireworks display. If we didn’t go to the Stadium Bowl to watch these events, we went across Commencement Bay towards Browns Point to watch the fireworks.
We always looked forward to Thanksgiving Day, the day of the big varsity football game played by Stadium High School and Lincoln High School. Usually a bunch of us kids from Church would all sit together. Stadium most always won these game.
Some of the clothing fads in those high school days were beanies (which was a small hat similar to what Jewish men wore), saddle shoes, crepe sole shoes with flaps over the laces, the loudest striped bobby socks we could find, mid-calf straight skirts, (both pleated and dirndl), and sloppy sweaters. We always dressed up for dates. We never wore “jeans” as the girls do now and never wore pants to school or church. We always looked like “girls”. The boys usually dressed in nice clothes, although there were a lot of corduroy pants and they would get pretty dirty at times.
Dallas’s last day at Stadium was June 5, 1936 and graduation was held on the 11th. Graduation was held at the Tacoma Armory in those days.
We went down to Oregon for the 4th of July. They had a
parade down the river that runs through Bend. We also went up to my Uncle
Bill’s quick silver mine. We would also go out to Millie’s, at Steilacoom City,
and pick hazelnuts (the little wild kind) and then would dry them and use them
for our nuts in our baking all year. We would also pick wild huckleberries and
wild blackberries. Mom would can the berries and make some pies and also some
jams. We would also go out to Millie’s and would cut our Christmas tree.
On January 21, 1936, King George V of England died. King Edward V111 was the new King. He had been known as Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales. He later gave up his throne to Elizabeth because he married Wally Simpson, who had been divorced.
On Feb 15th, Slim Lambert with 11 other men fell with the scaffolding when working on the Golden Gate Bridge. He was the only one that survived. Slim used to room at our house on Jay Street.
We used to go out to Gunnette’s cabin at Lake St. Clair. There was a resort there called Jewels Dell. They had a dance hall, ballpark, a large building with rooms to rent, a little store, quite a few cabins and swimming docks. The folks bought one of the cabins that they were selling off on June 5, 1937. We always had a lot of fun at the Lake. Most of the time different friends would be out there with us. We didn’t miss too many week-ends out there. We would go out either Friday night or Saturday and then come back Sunday. We usually always got back in time for C.E. and Church.
In August, I had a house party out there. Kay Nakane was our chaperon. There were eight of us. Of course, we were all from the church. That is where our best friends were. They were Martha Jones, Violet Palmer, Maida McEachron, Betty and Margaret Eernissee, Beth Haines, Helen Gough and me. Martha had poison oak and had to sleep by herself because no one wanted to get next to her.
In 1939, the Church had it’s conference out at the lake on Aug 5-7. We used the buildings at Jewell’s Hall and it worked out real good. Quite a few ladies were out there to do the cooking. Mom was one of them. I learned to drive going back and forth to the lake.
Grandpa Endicott died on December 31st in Wisconsin this year also. Grandpa Duppenthaler died in 1930. We did go to Bellingham where they lived quite often and after they died we made the trip up there to see my Aunt Emma and Uncle Henry and Uncle Albert and Aunt Mary quite often. Mom and Daddy were ones to visit their relations whenever possible. We went to these in Bellingham and then we would see my Uncle Alfred over at Lake Ballinger and my Uncle John and Aunt Lucy in Everett. Uncle Paul lived near Steilacoom, WA with his daughter Millie and her husband Cliff. Millie and Cliff had acreage out there and we would be out there quite often.
Around this time, you could get Coca-cola for .05; ice cream cones .05; stamps 0.3; shoe repair .36; candy bars 0.5; carfare 0.3; birthday cards 0.5; skating .35; movies .20 and toothbrushes for .10. These were just a few examples of prices.
The University of Washington crew won the final race for the World Title. They came from behind to win the Olympic Event. Hitler even saluted the crew. In March of 1938, Dallas was on the first boat for the U of W freshman crew. In November he made the first boat on the varsity team. He rowed on the Varsity Crew in 1937 thru 1940. He was on the crew when they were to go to Europe and then they didn’t because of the war. They were put in the Hall of Fame on Oct 17, 1996. Betty and Dallas came from Florida for the banquet. I got a new dress and Betty got a new dress in Orlando. When we got them together, they were exactly alike except for color. Betty’s was blue and mine was red.
Roswell, known as Duke, and Marge Tennent were married April 20, 1938. They used our house for people to send their gifts to and so we were kept pretty busy. Her Dad had been Mayor of Tacoma for a short time before, so it was a big wedding.
I got my first formal, which was aquamarine, and it had accordion pleats. Duke got me a pink sweet pea corsage and my job was to cut the wedding cake. Margie’s brother Larry sang “At Dawning”. He had a beautiful voice.
Keith started playing the violin when he was quite young. To start with, he had a small one and then later he got a bigger one. In 1935 he was in a recital at the Winthrop Hotel. He was concertmaster of the orchestra to the World’s Fair in San Francisco, CA
In November of 1938, I went to Tacoma General Hospital to see about registering for their Nursing School. I turned in my registration in December. I finished High School at Stadium on Jan 27, 1939 and Keith finished Jason Lee Jr. High on the same day. I started on the 30th of June with my Post Graduate classes. I needed more Latin to get into the nursing profession.
I graduated in June 8, 1939. Graduation was in the Tacoma Armory. I wore my aquamarine formal and Daddy gave me a corsage of pink sweet pea and rosebuds. There were 653 in our graduating class from Stadium. We walked up the aisle two by two. I walked up the aisle with Don McDonald. He was one of the boys from our church group.
Every September we looked forward to the Puyallup fair. We would get a day off from school and a free admission ticket. Usually, we would take our lunch with us so that we would have more money to spend on other things than food, such as rides. There were always horse races to watch also.
Going over to Gig Harbor, toward Bremerton, we used to have to take the ferry from Titlow to Point Fosdick. The tides are very treacherous in the waters between Tacoma and the Peninsula because of it being such a narrow channel. Starting in 1938 and until July 1, 1940, they built the first Narrows Bridge. This had only two lanes for traffic. The strong winds played havoc and the bridge came to be known as “Galloping Gertie” as the spans would twist and turn until the cables couldn’t take the strain. When you drove over the bridge much of the time you couldn’t see the car in front of you because of the waving up and down in the bridge.
The following November 7, 1940 saw the bridge picked up by winds and turned into a mass of cement dust, twisted steel and rubble. Only the piers valued at $4,000,000 were left. The people were determined that a new, stronger and safer bridge would rise on the same location. The War was raging in Europe. The steel, which was a critical material for the new bridge, was hard to get. In 1947, the committee was told that the steel was available. It took 29 months to erect the new bridge - the third largest suspension span in the world at 5,979 feet. It cost $14,000,000.00 to build. It connected us to the Olympic Peninsula. To the nations defense it meant linking the powerful Puget Sound Navel Yard facilities of Bremerton, WA with Fort Lewis and McCord Air Force Base. It was opened on October 5, 1950.
My cousin Marie Sander married Charles Day in Seattle on May 20, 1939. Marie was the only daughter of Aunt Emma and Uncle Henry in Bellingham. She had 3 brothers named LeRoy, Melvin and Darwin. Marie was always special to me because when I was very small and still living at Lake Ballinger, Momma would put me on the interurban where we lived, and Marie would meet me on the other end and I would spend a week or so with her in Seattle. She had a beauty parlor. I would wash combs for her and I thought that was nice. I would also sweep the floor. She lived in one house where she had one room and she ate at another. It was a special time for me.
I started summer school shortly after graduation to finish up the classes that I need for Nursing School. In July I got my shots and my physical exam getting ready for nursing. During the summer, Mom got the material for my uniforms and made them. The dresses were blue and white striped and the aprons white and then a white bib. When you started in school, you were probationers and just wore the dress and apron. When you were a freshman, you wore the bib and nursing cap. When you were a junior, you had a white cross on one of your sleeves.
I registered on September 5, 1939 at Tacoma General Hospital School of Nursing. There were 4 girls in our room and it was in the east wing of the hospital. My first roommate was Virginia Nelson. Mary Kerbaugh and Alice Ferrell from Olympia were in our room too. The next year we moved into the nurses’ wing in the basement and Betty Gerstman was my roommate.
We were overloaded with books to study. Some of our classes were ethics, materia medica, nursing arts, anatomy, nutrition, history of nursing and chemistry. We had all of our classes at the hospital except chemistry. We walked up to the College of Puget Sound (now the University of Puget Sound) for that class. The end of September I started working on the floor at the hospital. It happened that I was assigned to 3rd floor north. There was a 10-bed ward for men, two 6-bed wards, two 4-bed wards and a 6-bed ward for women and then a pediatric ward. It was a lot of fun to work on the floors.
The first of October, I gave my first enema to a pre-op patient. Now they take their enemas before they even go to the hospital for an operation. We also got our pins with our names on them. My first post mortem or autopsy was the middle of October. It happened to be just before we had lunch. That day, we had chicken for lunch and it was a long time before I could eat chicken and enjoy it again. It was such a terrible smell.
In the summer of 1940, when I took my summer vacation, I quit nursing. I signed up with the nurses’ registry and got jobs through that. I was kept pretty busy. I ended up taking care of new babies and their mothers. One would tell another about me until I got tired of doing the same thing.
The telephone company was needing long distance operators and so I went there and worked until I got married. I had met LeRoy Stotts at the skating rink about 4 weeks before my birthday. He called me on my birthday, Dec 2, 1940. I had some girls up at our house to celebrate. Some of the girls in my nursing class were there. Namely, Marion Freer, Lois Modeland, Amy Lee Davis, and Phyllis Duppenthaler. LeRoy wondered if he could bring a couple of other fellows to the house, and I said sure. The other guys to come were Leslie Unruh, Thomas Kruger and Myron Vaughan. They had all been drinking some and so were very talkative. I think we played monopoly. Before they left that evening, Mom told them they were always welcome to come over, but never to come when they had been drinking. They all appreciated her for telling them that and they came in quite often from then on. In fact, Phyllis later married Tom Kruger and I married Leslie Unruh. On Valentine day 1941, the follows gave Mom, Daddy and I a large Valentines box of chocolate to show their appreciation.
Michael Dale Duppenthaler, my second nephew was born at 11:00 am and weighed 7# 13 1/2 oz. He was born Dec 16, 1940. He was only a few months old when he had to have a hernia operation. I sat with him after his operation and then overnight.
Roswell started the Tacoma Police Force on March 17, 1941. The very next day, March 18, Rosalinde was born. She weighed 10# 5 oz and was 23 inches long.
It was on May 14, 1941 that I went out with Leslie as his girlfriend. On May 24, 1941 he asked me the one important question but I wasn’t quite ready to answer him. He gave me some pearls on the 31st and then on June 2, 1941 I told Leslie that I would marry him. This was a pretty busy, but a very important time in my life.
Leslie’s folks (his mother, sister Mildred and brother-in-law John) came out from Great Bend, Kansas so that they could meet me. I went down to Portland, Oregon with them and met some of their family. During this summer, we spent a lot of time out at the lake.
I got my diamond ring July 31, 1941. They were going to go to Alaska. I got him a Bible for his birthday. While he was in Alaska, we read the same chapter in the Bible each night and at the same time. We got quite a ways through the New Testament.
August 29, 1941 Leslie left for Alaska on the San Mahil from the Army Docks in Seattle. Phyllis and I went over to see Tom and Leslie off and that was the last we saw each other for several months. As Phyllis and I walked away from the dock, I heard a Jute Box playing “Mexicali Rose” and all I heard was “dry those big brown eyes and smile dear.”
Leslie was going to put in for a furlough after he got to Alaska, but when they got up there all of the furlough’s were cancelled. He was stationed at Fort Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska. Soon after he got to Alaska, he started building a house for us. When it was all finished, except for the sanding of the floors, it caught fire through some of the carelessness of the fellows. This happened November 12, 1941.
I had my announcement party November 8th. Our marriage was announced as “Alaska Bound January 1942.”
I always would have tonsillitis every year and so the Dr. took my tonsils out on the 22 of November. They just used local anesthetic and so I didn’t get sick. Leslie and I wrote a lot of letters and sometimes I would get as many as 6 letters at a time. Sometimes parts of the letters were cut out while he was in Alaska. That was how the Army censored them.
War broke out on Sunday December 7, 1941. I was in Amy Lee’s kitchen at the time. All of a sudden, an announcer interrupted the program on the radio and in a very excited voice said - “The Japanese Warplanes have made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.” Some 360 Japanese warplanes reached the Hawaiian Islands (Oahu) and pulverized the American Military base at Pearl Harbor where thousands died or were wounded. As President Roosevelt said the day after that of the deadly and explosive assault - “America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.” War was immediately declared on Japan. President Roosevelt also said, “December 7, 1941 is a date which will live in infamy.” Also, on December 11, American leaders voted to declare war on Japan’s axis partners, Italy and Germany to “insure a world victory of the forces of justice and righteousness over the forces of savagery and barbarism.” So World War II , as far as the United States was concerned began. It had already been raging with Hitler and his Nazis in Europe for sometime. Hawaii, at this time, was a possession of the United States and became the 49th state in the union in 1959.
At this time, in 1942, our thoughts were also on the very dangerous situation in Europe posed by Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany. The aim of Hitler was to dominate the high seas of an attack on the Eastern Hemisphere and to rule the world and also to eliminate all the Jew’s in Europe
In a step just short of declaring war, to be “imminent”, President Roosevelt told our nation that “an unlimited national emergency exists.” Under his new proclamation, the president and congress can commandeer many powers over labor and industries for the purpose of assuring the nation’s defense as well as supplying needed arms to Great Britain. He said the United States would not “hesitate to use our armed forces to repel attacks from Germany and protect territorial waters.” The Germans were also sinking merchant ships twice as fast as British and American Shipyards could replace them.
By November of 1942, America was at war with Germany and Italy and the War with Japan was escalating. (Extensive history has been written giving details of these two war fronts and it would be of importance for my children and grandchildren to read the historical facts to better understand our innermost thoughts which possessed us at this time).
After the war broke out on December 7, 1941, we changed our plans and I was to go to Alaska in February, but those plans changed too and the fellows had to send their wives home. Leslie took exams for “Aviation Cadet” and made it. He was sent back to the States to take Cadet training. He arrived May 28, 1942 in Seattle and so came to Tacoma to see me. We were together from 8 o’clock that night until noon the next day. He left from Seattle for Santa Ana, California, where he took his pre-flight training.
From Santa Ana, California, he went to take primary training at the Mesa Del Rey Airport in King City, California. This was run by civilians and so there weren’t very many military in town, just the ones in primary training. They were treated very well. This is where I went and met Leslie and where we were married.
Daddy, Mom and I went to King City by car. We arrived Aug 18, 1942, which was Leslie’s 26th birthday. We went right to Salinas, which was the County Seat and got our marriage license. We were married the following Saturday, August 22, 1942 at 1 o’clock PM. Daddy, Mom and I stayed at the King City Auto Court and that is where Leslie and I stayed after we were married until moving to Bakersfield on the 25th of August.
We were married in the library of the U.S.O. by Rev. Bronson. The library was decorated for the wedding with large baskets of pink amaryllis blossoms and silver-white foliage set against a background of ferns and green potted plants. Preceding the ceremony, Aaron Rimple, Leslie’s athletic director, sang “At Dawning”. I walked up the aisle with Daddy, who gave me in marriage. Dallas came up from Camp Haan in the Mojave Desert at Barstow and was best man. Margaret Warner, daughter of the U.S.O. hostess was my bridesmaid.
We had a small reception where our wedding cake and punch were served. The cake was in the shape of an open book with Leslie written on one side and Edwardine on the other. We used the side with Edwardine and shipped the side with Leslie written on it to his Mother, Lucinda. I wore a dark blue suit and wore a corsage of pink tuberous begonias and white bouvardia. A dance in honor of us was held in the U.S.O. auditorium. It was attended by classmates of the two bridegrooms, instructors and local friends. We had to led off with the first dance. The music was “He wears a pair of Silver Wings.”
Dallas left his car with us after the wedding and then about midnight that evening, Daddy, Mother and Dallas left us, going on further south. The folks left Dallas at his camp in the Mojave Desert and went on to San Diego and National City for a visit with Uncle Will, Aunt Amy and their families before returning home to Tacoma, WA.
Leslie was eliminated from the Cadets and was sent to Minter field at Bakersfield, California. We left King City on the 25th and went to Bakersfield. We arrived late at night and found a small cabin at the Walnut Grove Auto Court, which was located about half way between Minter field and town.
The following day, just as we were getting ready to go to town, Daddy and Mom dropped in. They knew where we were being transferred and so watched for Dallas’s car on their way. They stayed all night and so were our first guests. We took the mattress off and put it on the floor and they slept on the box springs and us on the mattress. They left early the next morning and Leslie reported to the field.
On the 3rd of September, Leslie got a thirty-day furlough (fifteen days and a fifteen day extension). We took Dallas’s car back to him and then we went from Riverside, California on home to Washington by bus. We arrived in Tacoma the day before Labor Day. The day after, Leslie started working down at the Henry Mill (that is where Daddy worked) and worked there for three weeks.
We enjoyed our vacation but had to get back to Bakersfield. He reported back on the 4th of October. From Minter Field, Leslie was transferred to the Douglas Air Base at Douglas, Arizona. We arrived in Douglas on the 17th of October and we found a small apartment to live in at 650-12th Street.
The first Sunday in Douglas, we went to the First Presbyterian Church. There was a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. McEllicutt that took us home for dinner and kind of watched out for us. In fact, they are the ones that found us a bigger place to stay and right across the street from them. That wasn’t until April 1st though. I worked at J.C. Penney’s store from October 23rd until the last part of December 1942. Leslie made Staff Sergeant on the first of December and then on the fifteenth of March in 1943 was made acting 1st Sergeant.
Gas rationing became a part of our lives in late 1942. Each car owner could buy about four gallons a week. In March of 1943 canned goods were put on the list we could buy. We could buy three pairs of shoes a year as there was a shortage of leather for the soles. In April of 1943 meats, fats, coffee, sugar, canned fish and cheese were rationed. President Roosevelt froze prices, wages and salaries to control inflation. In order to buy items that were rationed, we were issued ration books. Lots of people started “Victory Gardens” and bought War bonds. Places where people worked would take money out of your wages for you to buy war bonds. The country was in a “black out” status, meaning we had to cover our windows at dusk every night. The “air raid” siren tests were heard periodically. A certain number of wails would indicate an impending air raid. We never had an air raid, but we were prepared. We were Americans and were all in this War together, and everyone did all they could to help the cause.
During these times, Mom used to work at a canning plant down on the waterfront (or across Eleventh Street Bridge). She would take the streetcar down to work. They always had soldiers and their wives rooming with them because we were all away from home and the bedrooms were empty.
Clareon was married and in the Fire Department. Duke was married and on the Police force, but was also in the Navy and during the War he was a Commander of an L.S.T. (Landing Ship for Tanks) in the South Pacific. Dallas was called in with the National Guard. He went to Officers Training School and later was in Europe. Keith was in the Air Force and was a pilot on a B-17.
American troops rescued North Africa from the Axis (Germany and Italy) - our Country was now at war on two fronts - Europe and the Pacific. President Roosevelt asked the American people in November of 1942 to help win the war by sacrificing, warning, we will pay in hard work, sorrow and blood. He also stated, “Peace can come to the world only by the total elimination of German and Japanese war power”. That means “the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy and Japan”. It means “destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and subjugation of other people.” These were powerful words from the President.
In January of 1943 Leslie got a 10-day furlough and we went home to Kansas. I got to meet all of Leslie’s relatives. It seemed everyday we were at a different house for a huge dinner, and by the time we were heading back to Arizona, I wasn’t feeling too good. I learned I was pregnant with Doug. We had to change trains in El Paso, Texas. In order to get home in time for Leslie to get out to the field, we had to go on the car they fastened to the back of the other train. They had to string lights up and it had no heat. There was a potbelly stove at one end of it, but there wasn’t any wood to burn. It was full of black soldiers that were being sent to a Fort in Arizona and I was the only woman. We did get home just as the fellows stopped by on their way out to the Field to pick Leslie up.
We moved to our bigger home on the first of April and then on the fifteenth Leslie made 1st Sergeant. The first part of April Leslie went out to Redondo Beach, California where Dallas was stationed and bought his car from him. It was a 1935 Buick sedan. Later in the month, we took a trip up to Tucson, Arizona and saw Duke. Duke was going to school there. He was in the Navy. We also looked up my great Uncle Henry Harsha at Tombstone, Arizona. We had a hard time finding him by his real name because he was known as “Sharkey”.
We spent a quiet summer in Douglas, AZ. I sat in front of a cooler that Leslie made to put in the window. It gets pretty warm in Arizona in the summer. The streets in Douglas are numbered starting at the Mexican border and we were living on 9th Street.
On Sunday the twenty second of August 1943 at one o’clock in the afternoon, our first son was born. This was exactly one year to the hour that we were married the year before. Mom thought Douglas would be a good name for a boy. She said that we wouldn’t live there in Douglas, AZ for long, so we named him Douglas Roy. Roy was Leslie’s middle name. He weighed 8 pounds 5-1/2 ounces and was born at the Douglas Hospital. There were a lot of Mexican women who would come across the border of Mexico to have their babies born in the United States. Lots of them worked in a smelter at Douglas and then lived in Mexico. The American dollar was worth about 5 times that of the Mexican at that time.
The day after Douglas was born, Leslie got his orders to be transferred to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He left that Saturday morning the 28th. Mom Duppenthaler got to Douglas the day after the baby was born and stayed with me until the Dr. said that I could travel to Idaho. Leslie made Warrant Officer on the first of September. While Mom was with me in Arizona, we went to Tombstone and visited her Uncle Henry. We had a four-generation picture taken while we were there.
Leslie had made arrangements with Corporal Leatherwood to drive up to Idaho. He was from Tacoma. The day after Douglas was a month old, Corp. Leatherwood, Mom, Douglas and I left Douglas, Arizona. This was September 23, 1943. We had a good trip and reached Idaho on the 25th.
Leslie got a three-day leave and so we went on to Tacoma, WA and took Corp. Leatherwood and Mom home. In Coeur d’Alene, we lived in an apartment at 8th and Mullen Streets. Leslie got his orders again and was transferred to Kingman, Arizona. He had torn the guest pass or sticker off of the car that we had for Arizona and figured we would never go back there, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want it. We left Coeur d’Alene on the 5th of November and went to Tacoma. Leslie got to stay in Tacoma for a little while.
Douglas was dedicated at the Church on Sunday November 7th. We enjoyed a week together in Tacoma and then the following Saturday, Leslie took the car and drove to Kingman, Arizona. Douglas and I stayed in Tacoma until the last of November so that Leslie could find us a place to live. He couldn’t find us a house and so finally found a trailer and bought it for us to live in. Douglas and I arrived by train in Kingman on Dec 3, 1943.
We had no way to wash clothes except on a washboard and we did have lot of washing with baby diapers and our clothes. The winter there in Kingman was pretty cold and we had a little snow. We would hang the clothes on the line and they would freeze. It wasn’t long before they were dry.
We spent most of the summer in Arizona. We did take one trip down to Elsie’s, Leslie’s sister, in Pasadena, California. In those days the gas was rationed and we couldn’t buy much. I was pregnant at the time and was planning on going back home to Tacoma, WA so Mom could take over the care of Douglas, when the baby was born. The Doctor told us it would be better if Leslie took me and so he got an emergency leave and went to the ration board and they gave us stamps for gas, so we drove home. We left Arizona on the first of August and he had to be back on the 10th. This was about the time that Douglas was starting to walk and hard to keep up with.
Allyn Edward Unruh was born at Tacoma General Hospital on September 22, 1944. He weighted 6 pounds and 4 oz. Edward was his grandpa’s name and also mine. Leslie made bunk beds for the boys and sent the measurements to us in Tacoma. We made two mattresses to fit them and sent them to Arizona. The top bunk was for Douglas and the bottom was Allyn’s.
General McArthur landed on Leyte in October of 1944, fulfilling his famous promise, “I shall return.” He returned to the Philippines, this time in the company of the greatest armada ever to sail the Pacific. He announced that “The Japanese Navy has suffered its most crushing defeat of the War.” The Japanese had captured many islands early in the war. One by one our forces recaptured these islands of which the Philippine Islands were the largest and most important.
It wasn’t long before we moved out of the trailer and into a house. This wouldn’t be thought of much of a house now, but during the war times we were happy to get anything. It was in the trailer park. It consisted of 2 rooms. The living room had a little potbelly to heat with. We divided it with a couple of blankets and made a bedroom for us. We had a 3 burner kerosene stove to cook on and running water, but it was cold water only. There was a building close by with toilets and showers. Outside of this building, there was a kind of trough where there was both hot and cold water and that is where we could wash clothes. I was real lucky and we found a little one sheet capacity washer. It had a tub and the motor set on top of it. It really worked great for diapers.
Keith graduated from High School in June 1942. He went down to Lindfield College in Oregon. After the war broke out, he went into the Air Force. That is where he was a pilot and flew a B-17. In 1944, he was sent over to England with his squadron. He was flying the lead plane when one of his engines was shot out and they had to make an emergency landing in France. The Field where they landed had just been taken over by the Allies. He had landed safe, but when one of the crew got out of the plane, he tripped a land mine and Keith got shot in the leg. These are two of the “V” mail that he sent to Mom. To quote, “Hi there, how have you been? We had a little excitement the other day and I got a leg put out of commission for awhile. There’s nothing to worry about though and I’ll be as good as new in a month or so. At present I am in a hospital in France, but expect to be sent back to England very soon. I was hit in both legs. The left one only has a scratch, but the right one has a compound fracture in it. Really nothing to worry about though. I’ve had wonderful care and everything possible is being done to help. Boy, they’ve really shot me full of stuff. The last couple of days I think I’ve taken more shots and pills then I have before in my entire life. Again, don’t worry about me for I’m doing fine.” The second letter said, “Gee, it seemed almost like coming home when I go back here to England. We made quite a tour of France and ended up on one of the channel ports, from which we took a hospital ship across and then another ride by hospital train to this hospital. I always wanted to see France. I guess I’m pretty well settled here for the next couple of months, at least they have my leg all stung up in one of those “plumbers delights”, everything is swell though. The only trouble is that I feel awfully useless laying here and a darn good crew is broken up. Most of my men had injuries and are now in the hospital too. Nobody was hit too bad though, thank God. I was flying squadron lead that day - my first real mission as lead ship. The biggest news I suppose is that I’ll be coming back to the States as soon as I get out of this contraption and get moving around a little, I suppose a couple of months.” Still to this day he has some shrapnel in his leg. He went on to become a Dentist and is now retired.
It was in May 1945 that we took the boys and went down to Elsie’s in Pasadena. Dallas and Keith met us there. Dallas was stationed not far from there and Keith was at the Santa Ana Hospital. It was nice to be able to meet at Elsie’s and of course, she had a wonderful dinner for all of us.
On May 7, 1945, Adolph Hitler and the Nazi War regime surrendered, unconditionally to the Allied Forces in a ceremony at 2:41 AM; the document of surrender was signed inside a little red schoolhouse at Reims. The unassuming building had been serving as headquarters for the Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The War in Europe lasted 5 years, 8 months and 6 days. Germany lost 2.85 million soldiers and a half million civilians. The Allies suffered equally. This war was known as World War II. American troops freed the Beuchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany where 50,000 innocent people met their deaths at the hands of the Nazi party and their leader Hitler. There were at least 25 of these camps throughout Germany which meant that millions were slaughtered, most of them Jews.
President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, on the eve of victory, at the age of 63. Senator Robert A. Taft, an Ohio Republican termed him “The greatest figure of our time”, one who died “a hero of the war, for he literally worked himself to death in the service of the American People”. President Roosevelt served all his years, two full terms and part of a third, battling Polio. As we didn’t have TV, the general public was unaware of his condition and it was years later that some of us realized the truth.
Harry Truman, the Vice President became President of the United States, just hours after the death of President Roosevelt. Adolph Hitler, the force behind the European war committed suicide in his command bunker on April 30, 1945. He was seen as a demented yet determined tyrant, “once so mighty, he is now reduced to ashes.”
Leslie was transferred to Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1945 and so he built a trailer and we loaded everything in it, and went to his mother’s in Kansas. From there, he went to Roswell Air Force Base. He thought he would get his discharge papers, but when he got there, he found out that he would have to go to Fort Lewis, WA to be discharged. He came and got the boys and me and then we drove to Tacoma. Leslie got out of the service the end of July. He had 42 days of leave time coming and then got his final discharge on September 12, 1945. He got a job right away with the Internal Revenue. Of course, that was working for the Treasury Department and so he couldn’t start until he had used up his leave time. He was going to be a deputy collector. There was some law that said he couldn’t draw two government paychecks at the same time.
In the meantime, while he was on leave and waiting to go for his job, he went to work for the Tacoma Fire Department and worked there until his leave was over. We had quite a bit of car and trailer trouble coming out from Kansas, and so we were glad to get to Tacoma and it wasn’t long before we got a different car.
We stayed with Mom and Daddy until we found a place to live. That was in the Salashan housing project.
Our country still had the war in the Pacific, to bring to an end. The Atomic bomb, a new destructive power ended the war in Japan. Two bombs were dropped three days apart, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese put the toll at 60,000 dead in Hiroshima and 10,000 in Nagasaki with 120,000 wounded. The reaction to use the bomb was jubilation and horror, but it brought an end to the devastating war and saved countless lives on both sides.
On September 2, 1945, the war in the Pacific officially ended. In a brief ceremony on the deck of the American battleship Missouri, Japan surrendered unconditionally. The ceremony lasted 20 minutes. Clouds covered Tokyo Bay as Japan and the Allies signed the documents. The sun burst through the clouds as the ceremony ended. General Douglas McArthur, who accepted the Japanese surrender, spoke optimistically of the future. “It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.” The end of the Pacific War with Japan is known as V-J Day or Victory over Japan.
The information regarding World War II was taken from a book called “Chronicles of the 20th Century - the Ultimate Record of our Times.” Including some of the history of the war in Europe and in the Pacific in my book is important, as it was such an integral part of our lives from 1939 through 1945. May our next generation never have to face or live through such tragedies.
September 2, 1945, the Japanese surrender date is a date long to be remembered. Everyone went downtown. We took the 2 boys and decided to head for town ourselves, but could only go as far as about 15th and Fawcett and had to walk the rest of the way. There was a lot of celebrating. Finally these years of uncertainty were over for many families in our country.
Leslie was born in Dundee, Kansas August 18, 1916. He had five sisters whose names were Mildred, Evelyn, Elsie, Alberta and Alma. He graduated from Pawnee Rock High School. When he was still in school, at the age of fifteen, his father died of blood poisoning and I think that caused other complications before he died. At one time, he joined the CCC and came out as far as Idaho. He liked the country out this way, as it was so different than Kansas.
When they were starting to get men to join the Army at the beginning of the war, Leslie decided to join so that he could pick the branch of the service that he wanted and that he could pick where he would be sent. He picked Fort Lewis because that was about as far as he wanted to go. Of course, this was the best place he could have picked.
Washington State was named in honor of the First President of the United States, George Washington and it is the only state that is named for a President. Washington’s capital was built as a replica to our Nation’s Capital in Washington, DC. It’s nickname is the “Evergreen State” from its vast, towering forests of fir, pine, hemlock and other cone-bearing trees. The Cascade Mountain Range extends from British Columbia thru Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Washington’s mass of mountains consist of majestic Mt. Rainier, over 14,000 feet above sea level. There are 4 other volcanic peaks with glaciers and permanent snowfields. These are Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, Mt St. Helens and Glacier Peak. The entire range is covered with magnificent forests. Between these mountains and the Olympic Range along the edge of the Pacific, is where we live. Washington was admitted to the Union as the forty-second state in 1889. Soon after this, the State was connected to the East by railroad.
The Capital of our State is Olympia. Olympia is the gateway to Southwestern Washington and the Olympic Peninsula. It is situated at the southern point of Puget Sound. Tacoma used to be called the “Lumber Capital” of the world. It is located on Commencement Bay, which has one of the deepest ports around and so has a lot of vessels from all over the world coming to this port.
We bought a house at 1119 East 30th in Tacoma, WA in November of 1945. There was quite a bit of painting and cleaning that had to be done. We got moved in by Christmas and made our first payment on it in January 1946. Leslie took out a G.I. loan. There were six lots. It stood upon a hill and overlooked the valley. There was a year round spring on it that we used in a fish pond and it was also piped over to where we could water the lawn and a garden. We always had a nice garden when we lived there. When we bought it, it was listed as a city farm. The boys always had animals and we had chickens for a long time.
Ryan Keith Unruh, our third son, was born at Tacoma General Hospital on March 23, 1946. He weighed 7lbs 10oz. The name Keith was after his Uncle Keith, my brother.
Elsie, Leslie’s sister, and her husband Bob Palmer came from Pasadena to visit us for the summer of 1946 and stayed with us until they found a place to stay. Douglas started kindergarten in 1948. He really didn’t want to go and we had an awful time with him. It ended up that Leslie had to come home from work at noon and then finally a little neighborhood girl came home for lunch and he would go back with her. The rest of the boys weren’t as bad as the first one was.
Leslie’s mother was out to visit in August of 1946. She enjoyed putting on Leslie’s coveralls and going out and picking blackberries out by the alley. She was also here in April of 1948. We tried to get her to stay, but she wouldn’t. She was afraid of what her ex-husband would do. She had married William R. Griffin on November 3, 1947 and divorced him not too long after. He shot her on December 9, 1948 and she died shortly afterwards from the gunshot wound. He killed himself the next morning after being trapped by police in his rooming house. This was a very sad time for the family. You can never imagine that this would happen within your family. Leslie and Elsie went back to Kansas right away. I stayed back home with the boys. We stayed up at Mom and Daddy’s. The boys all had the mumps while we were there.
In 1948 we were still going out at the Lake and were really enjoying it. Leslie made a boat for us to take out there. He needed some more hardwood for some of the ribs and the only thing we could think of was the leaves from our dining room table and so we used 2 or 3 of them. We did have fun with the boat. We had a small motor for it too. We used the Lake quite a bit and so when the folks sold it, we were disappointed but we were unable to buy it ourselves.
On April 13, 1949, we had a powerful earthquake in Tacoma. The two older boys ran outside and tried to hug the big maple trees. I got outside and realized Ryan was in the highchair and so turned back and got him. The wires were really swaying on the telephone poles. It was pretty scary. The impact of the earthquake caused one of the brick towers at Lowell school, where I had gone to grade school, to crumble. One of the boys on the school patrol was killed by a shower of bricks. This school was torn down and there is now a new Lowell School. This was a 7.1 earthquake.
When I was growing up and even now, I just can’t imagine how anyone would want to live anywhere else in the United States or even in the whole world. Having now traveled some, it seems more beautiful and better than ever. One of my early recollections is when my older three boys were small in Tacoma. We had a terrific blizzard in 1950. It started snowing on January 13 and lasted for days. Of course, all the schools closed. We lived on East “L” Street and it was always a bad hill. Valley View Terrace Street that came down from Strawberry hill and right to where we lived was even worse.
The neighborhood where I lived in “Old Town” (when we first moved to Tacoma) was close to the old “St. Peters Church”. This was the first church in Tacoma. We used to go there for summer Bible School while we lived in “Old Town”. It is still standing there and does date back to 1873.
Tacoma has a setting which is not easily improved upon with its sheltered salt water to the North and West, fresh water lakes to the south, and snow caped mountains to the east. We got used to the rain, and kept remembering that is why Washington is called the Evergreen State. The massive domed Union Station was built around 1910 and still stands. It was damaged by earthquakes and abandoned by Amtrak. It has been restored and now holds the Federal Court Facilities.
Fort Lewis dates back to 1917. Among some of the celebrated military leaders who have passed through were Dwight Eisenhower. He was assigned to Fort Lewis in 1939 while a Lt. Col. He saw his son graduate from Stadium High School in 1941. He was promoted to Colonel and transferred to Texas from here.
McChord Air Force Base, originally Pierce County Airport and later Tacoma Municipal Airport, was turned over to the Federal Government in 1938 and named for Col. McChord who was a flyer, who was killed in a crash the year before. It is currently 4, 500 acres.
Tacoma residents have accepted the fact that we are “number two” around the sound. We like it less congested. Some of this history was taken from the “Tacoma Books”.
It was August 24, 1951 that our fourth son Randall Robert Unruh was born. We had a little trouble when he was born and they had to take him by C-Section. Everything turned out fine and he was born a little after midnight. His middle name was for his Grandfather Duppenthaler. He was also born in Tacoma at Tacoma General Hospital.
The boys were planning on maybe a baby sister, but when we brought him home and they were able to hold him they said, “he is nicer than a girl anyway”. We got him home just before school started the first part of September. That was a very important time for Ryan because he started Kindergarten that year.
Shortly before we were going to have Randy, we put in to adopt a little girl, maybe 2 or 3 years old. Ryan was about five years old and so we thought we weren’t going to have anymore. Well, we were fooled because by the time they came to check on us, I was pregnant with Randy and then two years later, in 1953, Lindsey Lee Unruh was born at Tacoma General Hospital. It was sometime after 10:00 AM. Bob Porter stayed at our store in Edgewood while Leslie was at the hospital with me. It was on a Wednesday. Lindsay was also born by C-Section because of the previous one with Randy. Everything went fine and we had our fifth son. Leslie was always proud of his sons and always wished that his father could have seen them.
It was about this time, 1955 or 1956, when Allyn and Ryan went to school each day for 2 or 3 days and never showed up in their classrooms. They were always out playing with their classmates at recess and lunch time though. We finally found out they had a camp they went to in between instead of going to classes. I guess boys will be boys. Allyn especially enjoyed having a good time, rather than study.
In the summers of 1957 and 1958 we went camping quite a bit. We went quite often with the Robinson’s and the Hagenson’s. We spent a lot of time out at the church campgrounds - known as Camp McCullough. Those were a lot of fun times for all of us. We also went up to the Greenwater River up toward the White River and Chinook Pass. We always had a wonderful time.
It was on June 7, 1958 that the whole family got in the car and started for Kansas. We had a Plymouth station wagon. We left the back seat down so that the kids could play better. We had all of our camping gear piled on top with our luggage, but we never did use the camping gear. When we left the driveway, Leslie told the boys if there was any fighting amongst themselves, we would just turn around and come home.
We had a wonderful trip. When we stopped everyone would shower etc, while I got dinner ready and then in the morning we would have breakfast and fix a picnic lunch to take with us and it worked out fine all along the way.
When we got to Leo and Evelyn’s in Rozel, Kansas, it was about 90 degrees. We had lots of fun with all the families there and in Great Bend. That was about the last time we were all together on a trip because the next year Douglas graduated and then he was working.
Randy started at Rogers kindergarten in 1957 and then Lindsey started in 1959. Douglas graduated from Lincoln High School in 1961. The next year he went to Bellingham, WA to College at Western and then he went to a community college near Seattle. He then started working at Bookkeepers Business where Leslie worked.
Allyn missed graduating with his class and had to go an extra half year. He finished high school at Lincoln and graduated in January 1963 and went right into the Marines. He enlisted on January 24, 1963 and went to California for his training. When he finished boot camp, he chose to go to Glenco, GA and learned to be an Air Traffic Controller. After he was out of the Marines he did this until they went on strike and were fired by President Ronald Regan in 1981.
It was Nov 22, 1963 that President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. John F. Kennedy became president Jan 20, 1961. He was forty three years old; he was the American President to be born in the twentieth century and became the 35th President. He was known for his rocking chair. He had back problems and this helped his back.
After the assassination of President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson was sworn in as President at Dallas Field while aboard Air Force One which took off immediately for Washington, DC with the new President and the Kennedys.
Douglas and Monica Trent were married March 6, 1964 in the Chapel at First Presbyterian Church. The reception was at the Trents’ home following the wedding.
It was on Feb 20, 1962 that John Glenn orbited the earth 3 times and was picked up in the sea near the Bahamas. It took 4 hours and 50 minutes. It was in 1998 that John Glenn again went up for the second time into space. This trip lasted several days as they were trying to study what affect space held for older people.
On Oct 13, 1962 we had the “Columbus Day Storm”. It was all up and down the coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Three people died. The gale clocked at 85 miles an hour at McChord Air Force Base, and did an estimated million dollars in damage.
Leslie and I drove to Keith and Pat’s just a couple of days after the storm and all the way there were lots and lots of downed trees.
The Music Box Theater was destroyed by fire. It was originally known as the Tacoma Theater. It has been rebuilt.
John F. Kennedy spoke at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, just 2 months before he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Sept 27, 1963.
Gregory Douglas Unruh was born on my birthday, December 2, 1964. Of course that was pretty special. He was our first Grandchild and then being born on my birthday made it all the more special.
On April 29, 1965 there was another violent earthquake that shook the Tacoma area. It lasted 45 seconds. It topped a few walls and many chimneys, broke windows and merchandise and ruptured at least one gas main and a water main. The Narrows Bridge was closed to traffic for a short time. A fifteen foot cross fell off the Holy Rosary Church.
It was May 7, 1966 when Leslie was in a car accident on the Puyallup River Road. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. When we got out to see him his head was all bandaged up and then they took him up to his room and he was put into traction because his right leg was crushed between the knee and the hip - about 6 inches was crushed. He was in traction for about a month and then when that didn’t work, they put him in a body cast. He came home after the cast had dried. We set up a hospital bed out in the play porch. The boys cut some limbs off the trees so when we tied him up on his side, he could see down to the tide flats. He was in the cast for about 4 months.
They brought work home from the office that he worked on and we each painted a picture. They were the paint by number kind and I still have them hanging in my dining room.
Leslie had to go to Tacoma General Hospital and have an x-ray after 2 months. Duke got us a stretcher from the police department and we used Elsie’s station wagon and took him down. He thought he would get the cast off but they told him that if they took that off he would get another one just like it and so he said to forget it, and so we brought him back in the station wagon and he had to wait 2 more months. That was a long summer for Leslie. Elsie was there most every day while he was in the cast and was a big help and support for us. It was in October that he finally got out of the cast. He thought he would be able to walk home from the Doctors, but was very fooled. He had to have a lot of physical therapy following this.
Mom died on Christmas Day in 1966. She had fallen on December 9th and went into a coma and never woke up. Dr. Lindsey, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church officiated and Margaret Myles sang “The Ninety First Psalm” and “The Old Rugged Cross”. The services were in the Chapel of the church and then we had a police escort out to the Mountain View Memorial Park. Roswell was Assistant Police Chief in Tacoma at this time and so there were quite a few police at the services.
Ryan joined the Air Force in February 1967. He went to Lacklund Air Force Base in Texas. On August 18, 1967 he married Penelope Paula Barger at the First Presbyterian Church by Rev. Robert Harvey. They had their reception in the courtyard and it was very beautiful. Leslie walked up the aisle with her and gave her to Ryan. We always knew her as Penny. They were going to go on a honeymoon and it was going to be our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Penny wasn’t feeling too good and her eyes were blurry, but they told us to go on our trip and so we went to Vancouver, B.C. for a few days. In the meantime, Penny got worse and she was put in the hospital out at Madigan.
When we got home she was in the hospital. They took 2 kidney biopsy’s and found out both of her kidneys were bad. Ryan had to go back to California and so Penny stayed with us. They put her on a real strict diet and then we took her down to Ryan, after about a month. She got the flu and was put on dialysis and they said she needed a kidney transplant. This was done in San Francisco. I went down for the transplant. Dolly and I stayed at Ryan and Penny’s apartment by Fairchild Air Force Base until Dolly had to be at the hospital. The transplant was a success. That was February 13, 1968. Toward the end of the year and early the next year, she got a cold and this sent her back to the hospital.
It was the Memorial Day weekend that Leslie and I decided to go down for maybe just the weekend and give them a little boost. We called Dolly and she came with us. We got down there late at night, to their apartment. Leslie and I got up early and took some laundry to the laundromat while Ryan and Dolly were sleeping. It wasn’t long before they came and got us and said that Penny had taken a turn for the worse and we headed for the hospital in San Francisco. We never did get to see her as she was in a coma. Ryan went in to see her but I’m not sure whether or not she knew he was there. We sat in the waiting room all night with Ryan and she died the next morning.
They did an autopsy and it showed that she had Collegian Disease and it is something in the tissues that attacks different vital organs of the body. We called Mountain View Memorial Park in Tacoma, and they made all the arrangements for Penny to be moved to Tacoma. She is buried at Mt. View Cemetery close to Mom, Daddy and now Leslie.
Dana was born March 9, 1967. She was our first granddaughter and was born in Tacoma, WA.
Allyn married Michele Van Ry on May 27th, 1967. The reception was at the Van Ry’s home in West Seattle. They stuffed Allyn’s car so full of papers that he couldn’t get in and then they kidnapped Michele. She ended up out at the Sea-Tac Airport. I’m not sure how they got back together.
I started working at Medical Supplies for the Missions in 1969 and worked there for about 10 years. There were about 3 different summers while Don Peterson was working there that Kathy came and worked. When Don took his time off in the summer Kathy helped me down there. One of the summers that she was there she turned a quarter of a century year old. She thought she was very old.
Daddy wanted to go to Florida when Dallas’s son Ed got married in 1969 and he didn’t want to go by himself and so he took me with him. This was my second time to go to Florida. After the wedding was over some of us took a trip down to Key West. We stayed in a motel in one of the Keys the first night and then the second night we stayed in Miami. The Miss America pageant was on but it was sold out and so we had to go to another place and ate and had a show. On the way home, we went through the ship “Queen Elizabeth” and drove through the “Lion Safari”. While we were there we went to Cape Kennedy. This was not my first trip, but it was the first time that Daddy took me. We went to Cypress Gardens, the Bak Tower, the Monument of States at Kissimmee, FL and probably Disney World. I now have been there several times.
It was also in 1969 that Neil Armstrong took the first step onto the moon. The date was July 16, 1969. It was also in 1969 that Randy and Kathy graduated from Lincoln High School. Graduation was held in the University of Puget Sound gym.
May the next year, Leslie and I went to Kansas for a family reunion. It was over Memorial Day weekend 1970. On June 27, 1970 Ryan and Vickie Lea Anderson were married in Woodland, California. It was in the Anderson’s backyard and the reception followed. It was a beautiful wedding. We had the rehearsal dinner in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn. They treated us like royalty because at this time there was an Unruh that was running for Governor. Elsie and Chris were there and also Pat and Keith.
I think it was the summer of 1969 or 1970 that Lindsey took drivers ed. I went over to pick him up and he was covered with chicken pox and so he had exposed quite a few others.
Randy got a grant and attended the University of Washington for a year and then finished his second year at Tacoma Community College. He had put his name into the Washington State Patrol and the day he finished at TCC, they called him to come and get his uniforms. He was really surprised. This was December 20, 1971.
On August 14, 1971 Daddy died. Dallas and Keith came home. Daddy was buried at Mt. View Cemetery in the Eagles Memorial Section along side of Mom, on August 18th, which was Leslie’s birthday. In October Leslie and I went down to Allyn and Michele’s in Huntington Beach, CA. We went on down in Mexico. I remember Michele wanted us to eat before we got into Mexico or wait till we got back. I’m not sure which we did, but we didn’t eat in Mexico.
February 17, 1972 was a busy day because several of us took sewing machines over to Frances Robinson’s and finished up the dresses for Kathy’s wedding. We might have been there two days, I’m not sure. Their wedding was on the 18th and it was at her Mother’s home in Shelton, WA. Rev. Ted Smith married them and it was a very nice wedding in front of the fireplace. This was also the year that Lindsey and Karen graduated from Lincoln High School. Their Senior Ball was in May and they graduated in June.
I’m not sure whether I have mentioned this before, but Allyn Edward Unruh II was born in Seattle Swedish Hospital on March 7, 1968. This is the same day that Jean had her daughter Kimberly Paige Brown at the same hospital. Michele and Jean were right next to each other in the Recovery Room. Jean was wondering how Allyn found out about her baby so soon, not knowing that Michele was Allyn’s wife and that he was there to see her.
Allyn and Michele’s second boy Eric Michael Unruh was born at Swedish Hospital, Seattle on March 26, 1970 and then Michele Christina Unruh was born on February 13, 1974 in Newport Beach, CA. Eric goes by the name of Michael and Michele Christina goes by Missy.
After Lindsey graduated in 1972 he went to Tacoma Community College (TCC) for 2 years and then he joined the Navy on Mar 7, 1974 and went into the Nuclear Submarine Division that he had signed up for years earlier. After 4 years of service, he reenlisted for another 4 years. Lindsey married Karen Marie Yotsko on July 19, 1975 at the St. Leo’s Church in Tacoma. Reception followed at the Wild West Post VFW hall at 19th and Union. Andersons were here from California (Vickie’s parents) and Mildred and John Dodd from Kansas and Evelyn and Leo Base from Kansas.
The year before this Ryan graduated from the University of California at Davis. We went down for graduation.
We had a family reunion in 1972 at Dash Point. Duke and Anne lived out there and so were able to get the hall. Dallas and Betty were here from Florida and so were Keith and Pat from California.
Dallas and Betty were out here again in 1974. We spent quite a bit of time up at Agate Beach and spent time digging in the rocks. We asked the kids if they wanted to go to Agate Beach or to Seattle and so we just packed up a picnic lunch and went back up to Agate Beach. This was the beginning of Dallas getting interested in the rocks, and now we go all over looking for rocks. Of course now, he has the saws and machines to facet and polish and so he makes a lot of beautiful things. It eventually led him to the Emerald Mine in North Carolina.
We went down to Huntington Beach, CA for Allyn’s 30th birthday and to see Missy for the first time. We took Dana down with us. I think this was when Margot and Dewey Trent took Greg with them to Germany and so we took Dana with us so that she would have some place to go too.
It was on August 9th of 1974 that Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency and Vice President Gerald Ford took over as the 30th President of the United States. Nixon resigned because of the Watergate scandal.
Shortly after Karen and Lindsey were married, we put our house for sale. We had already bought some property on South Hill in Puyallup. We had also bought a trailer so we could move it out on our property to live in while we built a home and we got a tractor. Bob Porter had a large tractor and he got the property leveled off and cleaned up.
It didn’t take long for our place in town at 1119 East 30th to sell and we had to get out pretty fast. In September they built a cement block building that was supposed to be a garage and a workshop. Doug and his family and Ryan and Randy were all big help when we built the shop and then when we built the house. We moved out there and stored our furniture in the new building while we built the house.
We lived in the trailer while building. It just kept getting smaller and smaller it seemed, but we managed. We had our first meal in our new house on Christmas Day 1975. It still had quite a few things that had to be done, but we were glad to finally get into it.
Our fireplace was made from bricks that we brought from our other home on East “L”. There used to be a wall and a little summer house and a grape arbor down by the alley and they started falling down, so we took it down and made our fireplace in our new home with these bricks.
Ryan and Vickie lived in California when Meghan Chandra was born on Aug 19, 1967 in Sacramento. We went down when she was seven weeks old.
On January 4, 1977, Randy graduated from Cadets and became State Patrolman #609. Elsie went with us and it was at the Greenwater Inn in Olympia. Gov. Evans swore them in or presented them with their commission. This was the 54th Trooper Cadet Class and the last one that Gov. Evan presented their commissions to.
Jan 13, 1977 Dr. Dixie Lee Ray became Governor of the State of Washington. She grew up in Tacoma and graduated from Stadium High School. She passed away at her Fox Island home. She was the first woman Governor for our State and there hasn’t been another.
Sarah Jennessa Unruh was born to Ryan and Vickie on January 17, 1978 in Portland, Oregon. Kara Lesley McKenzie Unruh was born in Tacoma, on April 2, 1978 to Randy and Kathy.
Doug and Monica were divorced, and on November 17, 1978 Doug and Julie Hauser were married in Reno, NV at “Heart of Reno Chapel” and a banquet followed at Trader Dicks. I went down for the wedding. I went down the morning of the wedding and came back that evening. It was a fun trip.
It was July 21, 1979 that we had a fire at Leslie’s office at 128th and Meridian in Puyallup. Dallas and Betty had just arrived the night before and were asleep in their motor home when we got a call from the fire department about the fire. We got ready and went down and they didn’t even wake up. By the time we got there everything was up in flames. The next few days we were drying papers and things all over the yard. Betty and I found a new place to move to. It was out across the road from the Puyallup Airport.
It was on the 29th of July that we had a family re-union at our place in Puyallup.
Emily Alexis Unruh was born at the Portland Advent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon on November 20, 1979. This was Ryan and Vickie’s third girl.
Mt. St. Helens was a very beautiful Mountain. It began to rumble deep inside. People were warned to stay away and Harry Truman was also warned to move from his home on Spirit Lake. He was the caretaker of the Spirit Lake Lodge, but he refused to leave his home. He perished when the mountain erupted on May 18, 1980 at 8:32 AM. It was transformed from a 9,677-foot mountain to one that is now 1,300 feet lower. The heat and blast blew thousands of acres of trees into a child’s game of pick up sticks. It killed dozens of visitors in the area. It sent a wall of muddy water crashing down the Toutle and Cowlitz River Valleys and a plume of ash tens of thousands of feet into the air. This dry ash began to fall on Eastern Washington and turned day into night.
Leslie and I went back to Kansas for a Pawnee Rock Reunion on May 24th. There were about 12 members of the class there. While in Kansas, we went to the Eisenhower Center and Old Abilene and saw the “Dwight D. Eisenhower Library” and the Abilene Museum.
We also had an Unruh Family Reunion on June 1, 1980. There were lots of Unruhs and relatives there. They had it in the basement of their church - the new Jerusalem Church of Pawnee Rock.
We also went to Florida from there. This was the first time for Leslie to go to Florida. We went to the Cypress Gardens, Sea World, Cape Kennedy, and Disneyworld and saw lots of orange groves. They saved some of the picking till we got there so that we could see how it was done. After they were done with the picking, they took the hedger and hedged them.
Allyn’s 3 children came up for most of the summer and stayed with us while Michele went to Europe with her mother. They were here in July when the Mt. St Helens had another small eruption. We could see it from our yard. Kathy’s niece came and stayed at our place during the week, because I was working at Medical supplies for Missions. It worked real good and she wanted to do this rather than pick berries. She didn’t get very much but seemed to be satisfied.
Several things happened in 1981. On March 30, President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. It was an unsuccessful assignation attempt and he was caught.
In June, we started the addition onto our house for Leslie’s office. It was very handy and made a nice office. It was especially good when he got sick. He could work when he felt like it and lay down when he needed to. We had to move our swimming pool down farther in the yard and a little farther from the house.
July 29, 1981 Prince Charles of England married Diana.
Randy had his back operated on in July and while he was laid up we took Kara a few places with us so Kathy could go to Seattle and see him.
September 13, 1981 Kara and Michael were baptized in Randy and Kathy’s back yard.
October 24th, Kathy, Kara and I went to Florida for Dale and Bruce McKee’s Wedding. Everyday we would go over to the Diamond R and get the roses out of their garden and then take them to the florist. They made some beautiful arrangements with them. Phil Cross, Ann’s husband, and his band played at the reception. Phil played the base fiddle and the group also sang. This last year, he sent me a CD of their music group. Before we got back, Kara had a pretty good “southern accent”.
It was early in 1982 that I got hepatitis. First it seemed kind of like I had the flu and so I kept putting off going to the doctor. When I did, they put me into the hospital and did all kinds of tests and finally after ruling out everything, they decided it was autoimmune hepatitis. All summer I would get up and have breakfast and then go back to bed and then get up for dinner. When the weather was nice, I would lay out on the deck or go out in the pool and float around on a floating chair.
By the time of our 40th anniversary, on Aug 22, I was much better, but it was at this time that they found a spot on Leslie’s lung. They took additional tests and x-rays and on Sept 20th they did a lung operation at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. They couldn’t do anything and just decided for Chemotherapy treatment. He took the first treatment on Oct 25th. By the end of November, the tumor was much smaller and he had lost his hair. By December 23, it was mostly gone.
The Tacoma Dome opened in 1983. Before it was built, they had the beams where people could sign their names. Randy, Kathy and Kara have their names up on one of those beams.
The dome is a 25, 000 seat all wood arena (a first) near the I-5 interstate. Since it has been built, one of the first events that was in it was a Billy Graham Crusade. There have also been Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Michael Jackson, as well as sports like National Figure Skating Championships and the NCAA Women’s College Basketball Finals in the dome. It has also been the home of the Tacoma Stars Hockey team.
The August of 1983 was the last time we ever saw Allyn’s three children. I hope someday I will see them again.
The newly renovated Pantages Theater was opened in 1983 also.
On March 7, 1983, The Doctors said no more chemotherapy for Leslie. The x-rays showed improvement. He did have to start radiation to his head and chest. They said that the brain blocks out the chemotherapy and that was why they needed to give him the radiation to both the chest and head. He had 10 treatments to his head and 25 to his chest. He lost all of his hair again. He lost a lot of weight by now and just kept getting weaker.
There was a lot of pain in his chest and they got him a TENS unit, but I am not sure how much help this was. It was an electrical nerve stimulator and was suppose to eliminate pain. More chemotherapy was started in June. By September he had a lens implant in his left eye because he couldn’t tolerate the lens that he had to put in each day.
We took time off and went to Kansas for Christmas. We left here on December 19th and got back on the 26th. He had always wanted to go home to Kansas for Christmas and so he finally made it.
He had the other lens implant on January 30, 1984. A CAT scan showed a mass in his chest and so Leslie needed more chemotherapy. This was a new kind of Chemo.
The 24th of February showed that the malignancy had grown and they gave him 2-4 months to live. The boys all came home in March, between the 9th and the 15th to talk things over. They built a new fence for us.
The tumors had spread to his hip and pelvic area by March and Leslie was having a lot of trouble walking and experiencing a lot of pain. He got so he wouldn’t eat anything and his weight was 155 pounds on April 17th. He died the 1st of May, 1984.
Keith and Jimmy came up from California. There were a lot of different ones that brought things over before the funeral. Doris Robinson and Jean were two of them. All the boys and their families were here and when Allyn got a hug from Jean it was the turning point in their lives. Jean had been divorced for 12 years and Allyn had been separated since 1981. Allyn went back to California after this and got a divorce and then came back to Tacoma several months later. They were married on April 20, 1985.
The funeral was in the Chapel of Mountain View Funeral Home in Tacoma, WA. Rev. Ted Smith officiated and Margaret Myles sang. She sang “Ava Maria” which was Leslie’s favorite piece to play on the organ and then “God will take care of you”. This was a song they sang for Leslie at church before he left for Alaska, while he was in the service.
After the service, everyone came back to our home in Puyallup. There was quite a house full of people. It was nice to have so many around and know you had so many friends. At the funeral there were so many that some had to stand at the back of the chapel.
Our neighbors Karen and Skip Whalen were awfully good to me the following year and took me places with them a lot and it was a big help getting through that first year.
Dallas and Betty came in June, which also helped. Kelly and Alan were out with them. We went to the mountains and to Mt. St. Helens, up to Hoods Canal and also down to Oregon and did some rock hounding while they were here.
In August, Randy, Kathy, Kara and I went over to Kennewick. Karen was suppose to have the baby and so we did a lot of walking around the neighborhood with her. The kids also went swimming in a large pool there. Kasey Leigh was born on the 20th. I was hoping she would be born on the 18th because that would have been Leslie’s birthday. Before we left to come home, Lindsey got a permanent. It looked pretty good. I guess he always wanted curly or wavy hair. Kasey was baptized on February 17, 1985. She looked like a little doll.
In September 1984 I went up to Peggy’s in Sidney, BC and spent a few days. I didn’t like to stay home anymore than I had to. Even now in 1999 I get lonesome.
I went with Allyn and Jean in March of 1985 to get their marriage license. They were married at the home of her mother in Fircrest on April 20th. The Chaplin from Lakewood General Hospital, Warren Rich, performed the ceremony. They went to Coeur d’Alene, ID and were married again on June 14, 1985 because they found out Allyn’s divorce wasn’t final when they married the first time.
In June I went to Florida. We went to Epcot Center and then we went up to the Emerald Mine at Spruce Pine, North Carolina. That is when I did some sluicing and found an emerald. They facetted it for me and I had it put into a necklace when I got home. They did some blasting at the mine and we went and watched them. I came home from Florida the end of June.
Randy, Kathy and Kara used to go to Lillawaups, to the hanger once in a while and stay. I was out there with them on August 29, 1986 for a couple of days. Before this though, in January 1986, I sold my house in Puyallup and moved into my apartment at 1922 North Prospect. After I sold my house, the kids came out and helped me pack. The girls came and packed things in the house and the boys went out to the shop and packed and cleaned Leslie’s things. All I had to do with the dishes was wash out the cupboards.
When we got to the new apartment everything was put in its place. The girls even unpacked the dishes and ran them through the dishwasher. The next day Julie came and put up my pictures. I was so surprised how smoothly it went and I thought I was going to have to worry.
I got a motor home and joined the Thousand Trails. I used to go down to Chehalis in my trailer and camp along side Bob and Elsie quite a few times.
I parked my trailer in Margaret Dightman’s yard for quite a while. Once Margaret and I went up to Mt. Vernon Thousand Trails and another time we went to LaConner Thousand Trails. In April we went to the Hoods Canal TT. We would go down on the beach and get our oysters and then we would freeze them.
In April 1986 I took my motor home and went with Jean and Allyn in their 5th wheel and we camped along the White River. I think we did that a couple of different times. Once they took a couple of rafts and went river rafting on the White River.
Margaret and I went to the World’s Fair in Vancouver, BC at the end of May, with Totem Tours.
On June 30th, Margaret and I went to the Tillicum Village on a tour from the Senior Center at Wrights Park. We went by bus to Seattle and took a boat out to the Village, which is on an island. They had clam nectar as you got off the boat and then a Salmon dinner with singing and dancing.
Nicole Renea was born May 9, 1986 at Lakewood General Hospital where Jean was working in the Obstetrics department. Nicole was our first great granddaughter. Dana was in labor when Margaret and I went out to the Hoods Canal Thousand Trails. We called when we got there and found out that she had been born and that all was well.
Dal and Betty were here for a family reunion down at Lindi and Ted Barnes in Olympia on June 28, 1986. We have now made it a Duppenthaler-Endicott reunion and it works out fine. Keith and Pat were there and Keith brought his violin and all those that stayed all night got a real nice concert. The next day we went up to Duke and Ann’s on Hoods Canal and he played for us up there too. It was real nice.
While Dal and Betty were here, we went to Oregon, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, The University Crew House and Book Store. These are usual places that we go when Dal and Betty visit from Florida.