Daughter of Charles W. and Flossie Cloe (Hunter) Garrison. She married Charles Apacki on Jan. 21, 1939. He preceded her in death on Jan. 24, 1999.
June is survived by her children, Nancy (Dean) Watts, Kenneth (Carol) Apacki, and Barbara (James) Conard; nine grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Mildred Ebling and Mary Ellen Fisher; and her brothers, Charles and Donald Garrison.
________________
THE MEMOIRS
OF
EVELYN JUNE
GARRISON - APACKI
- August 2005 -
THE MEMOIRS OF EVELYN JUNE GARRISON-APACKI:
August 2005
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST - ABOUT BEING A KID?
For some reason, my first memory is about being stepped on by a draft horse at the Peoria County Fair, when I was six years old! I remember seeing my mom and Grandma Hull, who was visiting from Fairfax, Iowa. I don't remember how I got under the horse, but I was sitting underneath the horses and one had his hoof on my right thigh. It took awhile for my rescuers to decide how to lift the horse's leg and pull me out. They were afraid the horse would stomp his toot and maybe step on my stomach. The next thing I remember, is Bill Schillinger (our neighbor who took us to the Fair), holding me in his arms and asking me where I hurt, I don't think I was bleeding anywhere but I remember showing him that it hurt at the top of my high laced-up shoe, on my right foot.
I was taken to a little hospital on the Fairgrounds, Mom and Grandma were crying, and I asked the nurse who was treating me, "am I going to die?" and she assured me, that she would fix me up.
For months, after that, my Dad would put me on a pillow and carry me downstairs in the morning, and I slept in a big baby bed, as couldn't sleep with anyone.
After I could walk again, (not sure how long this was), a big bruise came out in boils, at the top of my leg and backside.
Mrs. Krieter (neighbor) who had a grocery store up on Wisconsin Ave, stopped in to see me with Freddy, her 6 yr. old son, and he handed me a bunch of flowers. So, I got up and went over and kissed him! (I never lived that action down!) :-)
WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
THINGS TO DO AS A CHILD?
We would play "grocery store" by pulling the work table over to the pantry door - I did this mainly with my younger sister Mary Ellen (2 yrs. younger than me).
We had lots of neighbor kids in our 2 blocks on Kansas Ave, so would jump rope, play hop-scotch, rock school (on 5 or 6 steps), kick the wicket, (stand on corner sewer lid and kick stick off of the bricks, and play like baseball, and run to the three bases). Sometimes, we would take a tin can and lay it on its side and jam our foot into it, and pretend we had high heels on, and would walk like "big" people. Once in awhile we would inherit a pair of ladies pumps, from a neighbor, (as my mother never wore high heels), and we really enjoyed that. We would also play Mother May I?, hide and seek and we would hide in 2 or 3 neighbor's yards and have fun.
I don't remember fighting with any of the kids, we just had FUN!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES
OF YOUR FATHER?
My Dad's name was Charles Walter Garrison, and he had 3 sisters, Wilma, Amy and Grace. Grace had 4 children, and she and her husband Hank, both got the old Flu and they died. Uncle Hank's old-maid sister, was a jolly soul and good-hearted,and raised all four children on her own!
My Dad was a hard-working brick-layer, and in the summer, after supper, he would walk the one and a half blocks down our street to the Firehouse and visit the firemen. If it was hot, he would come home with a quart of hand-packed ice cream, and Mom would dish it up for 7 or 8 people.
When I was about 10 yrs old, I thought I was a big girl, and if I went with Dad to the Firehouse, I would ask Dad for 5 cents, and would go to the Drug Store, and get a Coke, and sit on the high stools at the counter. He generally gave me the 5 cents, because that was my treat, and that meant that there would be more ice-cream for him that night!
Sometimes on a summer Saturday, when he had to work a half a day, he would take a couple of us kids to work with him, especially when he was building houses on Grandview Drive, and we would pretend that the house he was building was our house, and that we were rich!
Dad was a "top" bowler in Peoria and he would go to a Bowling Congress in New York, and come home and tell us about seeing the Rockettes at Rockefeller Center.
When it was hot, Dad would take us all for a ride in the car, just to cool us down. They liked to go out in the country and then would stop and get fresh eggs and vegetables. Around Labor Day weekend, is when we would get about 5 bushels of tomatoes, which we always canned. Dad would scald the tomatoes and when we got bigger, we would peel them and slice them, so Mom could cook them, and put them in Mason jars and store them for the winter. We always used all of them up by the next summertime.
We used to complain on Labor Day weekend, when we had to help with the tomatoes, as all of the neighbor kids seemed to be going on picnics and having fun and we had to WORK!
During the Depression, brick work was hard to find, as no new brick houses were being built, so Dad only got some small jobs, like pointing up foundations or chimneys so money was scarce.
The first winter that he was able to work full-time, after the Depression, he worked on the Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights, where they put up scaffolding, and put heavy canvas around the building, and they had barrels with fires in them, to keep the mortar and the men from freezing.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
MEMORIES OF YOUR MOTHER?
My mother was hard of hearing, and for years we would holler in her good ear. Since she couldn't hear us, we would "sass her", and if Dad heard about it, he would use his big hand and whip us and cuff us behind the head, and send us upstairs, he would cuff us so hard, we would miss the first 2 or 3 steps. He'd generally reprimand all three of us girls, so he would know for sure that he got the right one!
I remember many times, asking my Mom for things out of the Sears Roebuck Catalog, she would never say she wouldn't buy it. When I was about 8 years old, I would ask for something and if I could have it and she would say "when my ship comes in, we will buy it!" I remember one evening asking her, when her ship would come in, and she and Dad smiled at each other and said that they were afraid that their ship had SUNK!
WHAT WERE YOUR SISTERS LIKE WHEN
YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I had two sisters, Mildred, 2 years older and Mary Ellen, 2 years younger. Mildred was always yelling at us and she always seemed to get the best of me, as she could twist your arm until you hollered loud enough, that Mom made her stop. I never remember fighting with Mary Ellen, but Mildred was bossy! Even when we were older, if Mildred got mad at me, she would open up the door and holler out "June's a negro - June's a negro!" Then I would ask Mom, "am I a negro?" Mom would only say, if you are a negro, then Mildred is a negro too! However, that really hurt my ego a lot, as it was so demeaning, and for years I always had an inferiority complex and never felt "good enough"!
The last time Mary Ellen and I went out to California to see Mildred in the nursing home, when we were all in our eighties, Mildred asked me to forgive her, for treating me so mean! I should have told her that it really hurt me a lot. But I did forgive her but she did it even when I was in High School. (In the summers I would always get brown as a berry, while Mildred just freckled and burned.)
WHAT WERE YOUR BROTHER'S LIKE
WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
When I was about 12, my Mom had my brother Charles Jr., which must have been hard for her, as she was 40 years old.
Then 18 months later, she had my second brother Donny, who was my Dad's shadow. (When Dad and Donny would walk to the Firehouse, everyone said, Donny even walked like my Dad like an old man.)
When Chuck was 8, and Donny was 6, they both got the mumps, Chuck got along o.k. but Donny was sick. Mom saw the Dr. across the street one day, and asked if Donny wanted the Dr. to come and see him, but he said "no". However, 3 days later, when Donny was much sicker, the Dr. came into the house, and told us that Donny had Diphtheria, the Dr. could tell by the smell. We were called home from school and the Dr. gave us a Diphtheria shot and Epsom Salts and none of the rest of the family got Diphtheria. But, Donny died a few days later. There was a private funeral, as all of us kids were with the neighbors and we couldn't go into the house. Mom and Dad went to the cemetery and stayed in the car. A real sad time, that's for sure. My mom had a nervous break-down after that and was sick for a month or so.
At the time Donny died; the Dionne Quintuplets were born and made history!
DID YOU EVER GET UPSET WITH YOUR
PARENTS? WHY?
I did get upset with my parents, when I was about 16 and dating a little bit. At this same time, Mary Ellen (14) was dating Johnny Fisher, who was a student at Bradley University. However, anytime a boy would walk me home and come in the house my parents would always yell downstairs and check up on just ME and this was very embarrassing and upsetting to me. They never yelled down to Mary Ellen and Johnny, just ME!
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES?
My childhood friends were all neighbors. The Holtzman Family - John, Mary, Helen, Frances & Jeannie. The Stewart Family, Bill, Leonard, Virginia, Rosalie & Francis. The Lush Family, I would visit with the old lady, her son was married and lived with her. She would make lye soap for washing clothes. The Trent's, who were our landlords, Mom and Dad rented from them until after 1939 and then bought our home, when the Trent's wanted to sell it.
The Schillinger's, Aunty Schill and Uncle Bill lived next door, good neighbors, always helping people. Bill would get baby alligators and grow them in a pool in his basement, and then would eventually have to get rid of them, so he put them in the Illinois River, and caused quite a stir, when someone found them thought they had swum up from the Gulf Coast!
Dear Aunty Watson, lived behind us and helped take care of me when I was 9 months old and I had whooping cough and pneumonia. We would read the paper to her, as she was nearly blind, a really nice neighbor, she lived alone and was very independent. Her daughter would come and visit her everyday. Finally the daughter took her to live with her at her house, and she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. We all went up to the hospital to visit her (my sister Mary Ellen had only known people to go into the hospital to have a baby) - the first thing that Mary Ellen (age 3) asked Aunty Watson was "where's the baby?"
WHAT KIND OF STUDENT WERE YOU AS A KID? WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS?
Grade School was o.k., I got along well with my friends and liked to play at recess.
When I was in 7th Grade, the teacher thought that I should repeat a half a year, due to problems with percentages. So I was mid-term then and didn't graduate from Grade School with my class. However, after three and a half years in High School I had enough credits to graduate with all of my old friends and we are still friends.
My grades were usually B's & C's.
I never took part in any clubs in High School, as I would baby-sit and do housework, three times a week, after school, in the Depression. I was paid $3 per week.
When I was 74, 1 met a Grade School chum in the grocery store and she asked me to join some other girls that met every three months for lunch. We all graduated from Peoria High School in 1935, and now that I am 88 years old, I still go out with my school friends every other month and we still have 15 to 18 girls in the group!
I really didn't enjoy school too much; I liked spelling, writing and RECESS! :-)
WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
I really think I wanted to get married and have children!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF BEING A TEENAGER?
I mainly remember the kids from the Youth Group at Glen Oak Christian Church. Like I said before, my ego was terrible, I was always very shy, was always a wall-flower, as I never felt pretty or "good enough". I never could join anything, due to my baby-sitting job after school.
SO WHAT WERE YOUR TEENAGE DATING EXPERIENCES? DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DATE?
After Christian Endeavor at Glen Oak Christian Church, fellas would walk me home from church at night, but no serious dates until I met Chuck Apacki.
I dated Bill Waugho, Eddie Augsburger, Eddie Black, Glen Ball, and a couple of friends of Johnny Fisher. I also dated Paul Moon, who lived down the street, his grandfather was the Principal of my Grade School.
So, nothing serious until I met
Chuck when I was 19 years old. We married in January 1939, when I was 21 and Chuck was 22.
DID YOU HAVE ANY ROLE MODELS WHEN YOU WERE A TEEN? WHO WERE THEY & WHY DID YOU LOOK UP TO THEM?
I always wanted to be like one of our new neighbors Mrs. Stubbey. She was always neat and tidy and her hair looked nice and she dressed nice and she was never messy!
I also always looked up to one of my Sunday school teachers, Rhea Miller, she was always caring and made me feel good.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DID YOU LIKE AS A TEEN? ANY FAVORITE ARTISTS OR GROUPS?
I liked popular music, Ring Crosby and many others. I always listened to the radio, to see which star was at the top of the list.
DID YOU HAVE A DREAM OR BURNING DESIRE TO HAVE ANY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE OR ADVENTURE AS A YOUNG ADULT?
I used to dream about learning to fly an airplane, but decided to buy a fur coat instead, which cost me $100.
Chuck did take me for an airplane ride when we were dating.
At this time in my life I was working at Hiram Walker's Distillery, where I made $12 for a 40 hour work week. I spent $1 per week for a streetcar pass or car-pool, paid my folks $4 for room and board and spent the rest on clothes and Christmas presents.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRST TIME YOU MET DAD (Charles Apacki).
Your Dad came to church with his friend, Butch Roberts, who was dating June Ball at our church. I met him the first time at a Sunday School Class Party, when we played "two penny toss-up", under a card table, while setting up the refreshment table. He asked if he could take me home. He had an old 1929 Ford and love was in bloom soon after.
Chuck came to Peoria to his older sister's home (Irma Pavelka) to stay, on his way to California in January 1936. Since it was so cold, he couldn't hitch-hike, as would have frozen to death, so he got a job at LeTourneau's. They made scrapers for Caterpillar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU AND DAD WENT OUT? TELL ME ABOUT IT?
I am not sure, he probably took me to a movie and then we always went somewhere for a light snack and a Coke.
He would usually come over two or three times a week.
Shortly after we met, he left to go out to California on his Indian motorcycle, he was gone for three weeks and sent me a postcard everyday. I wasn't exactly sure when he would get home and one day as I was walking up the street to the streetcar, he was at the top of the hill in his 1929 Ford waiting for me. It was so good to see him again and hear all about his travels, and I had really missed him! (I had never been further than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was about 200 miles from home.)
We went together for about a year and a half and decided we wanted to get married in January 1939. Mom and Dad said we should wait until June to get married, but we said "no way!"
He bought a beautiful diamond engagement ring and drove out Knoxville Ave, to "The Knolls" (a fancy neighborhood), and stopped under a street light and gave nee my ring. The next evening he asked my Dad for my hand in marriage and Dad said that it was up to ME, and of course I said YES! (I would always tell people that Dad asked for my hand, and my father said that he had to take my mouth also, and feed me.) just kidding! :-)
WAS MARRIAGE ALWAYS PART OF YOUR PLAN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Yes, marriage was always in my mind! When Dad asked me to marry him, he was making $39 a week as a welder at LeTourneau's. As part of his proposal of marriage he asked me if I could keep a dog and live on $39 a week? I only made $12 a week, so I said "of course anybody could" and he said "let's get married". Afterwards, he would kid me and say that he lead a dog's life ever since.:-)
After our wedding day, we went up to Highland, Indiana to visit Dad's parents and friends. They had a big dinner and dancing all evening. About 10:30p.m. we left to go to a hotel in Gary, Indiana for our honeymoon. The next morning we went back to his folks for breakfast and then got in the car and I thought we were on our way back to Peoria. We were driving south on Route #41 which was a direct route to Florida, and every time a big car would pass us, Dad would say that he would bet that they were going to Florida. After a half a dozen times of him saying that, I finally asked him why he said that? He told me that he would bet I didn't know where I was going and I said "home I guess". He said, "no, you are going to Florida!" So, by marrying your father I had a very adventuresome life!
The night before we got married, he told me that since it was January, that I had better pack enough clothes for a week for our honeymoon, as we might get stuck somewhere! I didn't even own a suitcase, so I borrowed Grandma Hull's. We ended up getting to Pensacola, Florida and stayed two days there and then drove home again.
We bought a house at 725 Alexander Street, in Peoria for $2,000, not far from LeTourneau's. It had been a rental property for years, so needed a lot of work.
WHICH HAVE BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING TIMES DURING YOUR LIFE WITH DAD?
ALL 60 years, as never a dull moment!! We were 28 & 29 on our first trip and move to Sydney, Australia in 1946. We built two homes there and came home in 1956. We had a trip around the world on our first "home leave", as from the time we got there; we started saving our money for the trip home. The Company paid for our airfare and we were halfway around the world, so we just kept going! Whenever we stopped, we had to pay the Hotel and living expenses, but it was before Nancy was 12 years old, so only had to pay one and a half fares for the kids and two fare for us.
We stopped in Singapore, India for a couple of nights, Cairo, Egypt, stayed in a Palace Hotel., Rome, Italy, Paris, France, London, England and then to New York and Chicago. We came into Peoria on the Rocket train and were met by all of our family, holding signs welcoming us HOME!
(My father had passed away suddenly at 66 years of age in 1950, on my 33rd birthday. This happened to be on the same day that we bought our first new car a HOLDEN car and your Dad had me drive it home. Then when I got home, I received a cable telling me that my father had passed away, which was a terrible shock!)
Therefore, when we got off the train in Peoria and were met by the family, I finally realized that my father was really gone!
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE PREGNANT WITH ME (Nancy)?
Nancy, you were a welcome baby girl who was just beautiful in every way. You arrived eleven months after we were married.
While I was pregnant, I remember asking a nice neighbor lady to go walking with me, as I felt so good for the whole nine months. Sometimes I would also go walking with a couple of neighbor kiddies and we would walk to Kingman School and pickup their big brother.
After you had a baby, in 1939, the doctors kept you in bed for 9 days and then on the 10th day, you were allowed to get up, but you were so weak you had to walk close to the wall, as were so wobbly and then they would send you home that day with the baby! That was really crazy, now days they don't let you rest after the birth and send you home right away!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE DAY I WAS BORN?
My water broke at home about 3 a.m. and Dad called the doctor, and he told us to go to Methodist Hospital. When I got there, they gave me "twilight sleep" and I cannot remember pain of any kind, but Dad said they had to put the up the sides on the bed.
I woke up about 3:30 p.m. in a three-bed ward with two other ladies (I thought they were having babies also, but they weren't). After awhile I asked one of them, if I had had my baby? They told me I did, so I raised up the blankets and found out that I could see my feet wow, so I knew that I must have had you. I called for the nurse and she brought you in to see me! They didn't want Dad to hang around the hospital, so he went back to work and came back later, as he knew I was o.k.. I checked you real good and you had 10 fingers and 10 toes and were a sweet little girl.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF ME AS A CHILD?
I remember that you were always a little "mother" to your brother and sister.
I remember you and Claire Green playing "house" in Australia, you had a cubbie under our house, (the house was up on beams).
One day I was talking to a neighbor in Peoria, as you always played with her girls, and I mentioned "canning pickles" and she said that when I played "house" with her girls and I set the table, I always had to put the pickles on the table.
I will never forget, when we first got to the Star Hotel in Parramatta, where we lived for about 3 months, we had an old trunk that we put on the balcony, so you could stand on it, and look over the wide brick railing. You would get paper and pencil and teach Ken to write down the number on the city buses that stopped in front of the Hotel.
When you were about seven and a half, I was talking and you asked me, "mother what is confidence?" (there was one commercial on the radio, that said to take a certain brand of aspirin, with confidence). You asked if "confidence" was water? (because you knew that one always takes pills with water).
One day, as I stepped down out of the laundry room, my shoes were wet and I slipped and went down, with one leg folded under me, so of course I was limping the next day. When you came home from school, you asked me if I had gone to the Dr. and I said "no". Then you told me that "at my age" that could cause me trouble and that I really should go to the Dr. (I was probably 30 years old at the time!) :-)
You were the first grandchild in my family, so every Sunday afternoon; the whole family would come to our house and hold you all the time, passing you from one person to another. Then on Monday, when I had to do the washing, you were very fussy and wanted to be held. I would just step inside your room and you would stop fussing, as you thought I was going to pick you up.
By the time you were 2 years old, you were talking and walking and learning fast. You knew the Pledge of Allegiance by heart. When Dr. Mauer would come to see your brother Kenny, he was so taken with your Pledge of Allegiance that he would call up his receptionist and have you say the Pledge over the telephone to her. You always were very serious when you said it and saluted.
Before we ate a meal, we would pray, so when you were about 3 years old, whenever I would give you a cookie in your high chair, you would put your hands over your eyes and say AMEN every time we gave you something to eat.
WHAT INTERESTS & CHARACTERISTICS HAVE YOU SEEN IN ME THAT YOU ALSO HAD ONCE UPON A TIME?
You like to keep a tidy house and you like to cook, just as I used to. You also like to make good food and entertain people in your home.
We both like to sing, but you sing good, while I only sound good if you harmonize with me.
We both love our families and neither one of us is lazy. We like people!
We are different also, you are good looking. I play the organ by ear, and that is hard to do (play with your ear). You are quiet and I talk too much, and even write too much.
You turned out super with a level-head on your shoulders.
You had a different life, with living overseas and going to work in the Bank at 15 yrs. old in Sydney. Then saving up your money to go back to Australia to see your friends by yourself on a ship alone, proved that you were very brave and capable. I am glad others see your good traits and put you in great jobs in your volunteer work and in church. I am glad that you are a Christian.
I think you have been an asset to this old world in many ways and you are now a sweet Grandma.
I am also glad that you picked a sweet guy to marry, as Dean is great, so kind and loving and tries to help others outside of just our family.
WHAT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Seeing my family all well and happy. I am so happy they have given me 16, going-on 17 great grandchildren.
I am just sorry that I don't seem to accomplish much now, except tell jokes and visit my friends in the nursing homes. I visit at least 3 or 4 friends in Proctor Home Health Care and another 8 or 9 at Lutheran Home Health Care and some friends are still at Rosewood Nursing Nome.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE PLANS THAT. YOU WOULD CARE TO SHARE?
I trust I will hang in there to the end and hope that I never turn into a "grouchy old woman".
I am, looking forward to Heaven and seeing Dad and many loved ones again.
TELL ME ABOUT THE WORK YOU'VE DONE THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE?
My first job was baby-sitting and cleaning house, in the afternoons while I was in High School. Sometimes I would stay overnight with the family and work the next day also. I would get $1 a day.
Then I Worked at Hiram Walker's Distillery in the bottling department and made $12 a week.
From 1956 to 1968 I was a Volunteer Red Cross Gray Lady at Proctor Hospital in Peoria, and the Veterans Hospital in Indianapolis. I am still an Associate Member of the Proctor Auxiliary, where I have accumulated over 3,000 hours of service.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BEST QUALITY?
I never meet a stranger, and I am friendly and out-going.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR WORST QUALITY?
That I talk too much!
AS YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE SO FAR, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I am most proud of my whole family!
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS THAT YOU'D CARE TO SHARE WITH ME?
That I am too fat!
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TRAVELS? ANY INTERESTING STORIES?
So many travels, and stories, that it is hard to remember them all.
Lived in Sydney, Australia for 10 years.
Lived in Bangalore, India for 6 years, and had 7 servants to take care of EVERYTHING! I had the "life of Riley!"
While there, we went on many overseas trips, one time Dad wanted us to go to Zambia, Africa to see the Jerry Mason's. We thought that we had reservations at a Hotel, arrived at 11:30 p.m., but no record of our reservation. We ended up on a rollaway bed in a Butler's Pantry, that bell-hops used, with a bathroom across the hall. They woke us up at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. as requested, so it was a very short night!
Dad worked in Shanghai, China for 3 or 4 months and I joined him for about 6 weeks, very interesting.
The last "round the world trip" we took was in 1994, after Dad had by-pass surgery. Each of us had a small suitcase and we went through Europe, and got back to Australia and New Zealand. Went on an "open" ticket, so could go at our own pace, which was great……we were gone 3 months.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? ANYTHING AT ALL? ANYTHING?
Don't forget that I have a crypt at the American Mausoleum ....next to Dad!
IF YOU FELT THE NEED TO OFFER SOME ADVICE TO ME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Live everyday to the fullest, because one day you will come to a screeching halt! :-)
OTHER STUFF:
My children: I had three children and always tried to be fair to all of them and treat them the same. I had two girls and a boy:
Nancy June in 1939
Kenneth Charles in 1942
Barbara Lynn in 1946
They all turned out pretty good, and are all responsible and good Christian kids! Really!!
They spent 10 years in Sydney, Australia. Dad was asked to be Plant Engineer for the Le-Tourneau plant there. Al Losch was the Plant Manager and When he asked Dad if he would like to go to Australia, Dad told him he would have to go home and ask me. At the time, Barb was only three and a half months old, so we asked the Dr. if we should go, and he told us that Barb would probably be the best traveler of all of us, as she would be on her formula and boiled water, and she was!
Ken was 4 and Nancy was 6 and in the First grade, By the time we got on the train to go to California, Barb and Ken had whooping cough, even though the Dr. in Peoria, had given them whooping cough shots. When we arrived in San Francisco, Al & Alma Losch, got us into a baby doctor and except for coughing several times a day, they really weren’t that sick.
We had three weeks in one room in a hotel in San Francisco - were delayed because of a wharf strike. Then we finally got on the ship and had three weeks on the water before getting to Sydney.
It is really ironic, that as a kid, I couldn't even ride the streetcar without getting motion sickness, I would have to get off and walk, but on this trip I was on trains and a ship and did o.k.
OTHER STUFF - 1942 - 1947
Dad and I thought that we would try for another baby, as our first one turned out good. I had an easy pregnancy with Ken, felt good, and ate well and did a lot of walking. The only thing that was different this time, was that I craved oranges, never ate just one, but usually two.
Our friends Charlotte and Kenny Williams were starting their family also, but she was bed-fast most of the time, as couldn't seem to eat. She even had to enter the hospital and have intravenous feedings. I felt strong enough to do all of my housework and then would go and see Charlotte and do her housework. I had Kenneth Charles on June 14, 1942, a few days before she had her Ken, our son weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces, and Charlotte had her first baby who weighed in at 10 pounds! (she was so weak during labor that she prayed to die).
In the hospital they isolated our baby Ken, and Aunt Esther went to the nurses to find out why? She was told that they thought that he had "thrush mouth". We took him home in 10 days, but he cried day and night. We finally told our family doctor to call in a Baby Specialist, as Ken was not getting any better. (However, the ONLY Dr. I DIDN'T want to be on the case was a Dr. Mauer, as he was the Dr. that told my parents that my brother Donny was going to die, and I thought he was terrible). So Dr. Mauer was called in and he came to our home and examined Ken, he opened Ken's mouth and shone a small flashlight in it and it was completely covered with sores! No wonder he cried so much! The Dr. said that he was lacking Vitamin B Complex and we would have to start him on watered down milk with B complex in it, and after we did that he began to improve rapidly. The Dr. said that when he can eat, he will want cereal, and he did he was the only one of my children who ate cereal like it was going out of style!
However, after about a month we found a house to buy that had been started, poured cement walls were up and the house was built up on piers.
One day, Dad happened to think about a house that was the first house nearest the factory, and he asked the girls at the office, if anyone lived there, as it appeared to be empty. They said the house was occupied, the man who lived there, had married a girl from South Africa, when he was a pilot in the war, however, she had left him, as she was used to servants and was a career girl. He had never married again and lived there alone. That day, we drove out to his house and Dad went in and told him our problem, that we were living in a hotel room and had a house under construction, but needed a temporary place to live for a few months. The man's name was Murray Nankivell and he told Dad that he would think about it and to come back on Monday, and he would let us know his decision.
Don't think that we didn't do a lot of praying about his decision, as Kenny and Nancy wanted a yard to play in too. We went back on Monday and it was pouring rain, but he popped into the car and said the answer was YES! We had been reading about renting problems and that some people were charging $500 for a house key, as they had government rent controls. So we wondered what his price would be?? Murray said that if we would cook him dinner every night and wash his clothes, he would call it "even"! We told him that that wasn't fair to him as there were five of us to his one and that we wanted to pay rent too but he wouldn't hear of it. After we moved into the house, we wanted to buy wood for the fireplace in his big kitchen, and I would run out to pay for it he would tell the delivery man not to take my money, or he would refuse the delivery.
Uncle Murray Nankivell was an absolute ANGEL to our family we ended up living with him for nine months before we moved into our new house and unpacked our own household things my favorite item was the new washing machine that we had. Because while we lived with Uncle Murray I had had to use a copper boiler and boil the clothes, and then use a hand wringer to wring them out.
Murray worked for the Goodyear Tire Co., which was across the river from the Le Tourneau plant he had never heard of us, and yet he took all five of us into his home and treated us like family! Our kids loved Uncle Murray Barb would be in her playpen and when he came home from work, he would pick her up and play with her like she was his own child.
OTHER STUFF - 1948 and AFTER:
Ken would play with a little boy Bobby, whose Aunt married a G.I. after the war and lived in the U.S.A.. His mother told me one day that the two boys were arguing and Bobby said, "good, go home, you don't even talk American any more!"
Barb would take her shower with Nancy and Nancy would be singing her alto part from her choir songs and before we knew it, Barb was singing alto also. She learned to harmonize like Nancy and we would sing up a storm when we went riding in the car. Barb was harmonizing before she was 6 years old. (Dad and I could never harmonize).
We lived opposite an Oval (Park), where several swings and slides were and Nancy defended Kenny and Barb when some big boys made them give up their swings. I wasn't home, but Dad said Nancy saw what had happened and marched over there with her hands on her hips and told them off! :-)
The very first little girl that Nancy met in Australia was the hotel manager's grand-daughter and she was born on the same day as Nancy December 12, 1939.
One of the greatest blessings we had from our stay in Australia was being adopted by Grandma Prideaux (she was Uncle Murray's Aunt and lived right behind his home in Rydalmere). She was a very dear lady who was the number one Grandma in our children's lives. As our kids were in their growing up years and she treated them as her own grandchildren, and their "real" grandmas were thousands of miles away. She had had a daughter named June, who had died when she was young, so I was sort of her replacement daughter also.
OTHER STUFF - LATER YEARS
Dad had a heart attack while he was on a business trip in Brantford, Ontario, Canada just before he retired from Wabco, when he was 64 years old. I went up to be with him and Nancy drove up from Lansing, Michigan to be with us also.
Then, after retirement, we bought several acres of woods, out in Dunlap from Doe. Allen. Dad ended up building a double garage first, and then put a two story house on top of that, and most of the house was built from recycled products and items. It was a very comfortable and unique home. Dad planted many trees, flowers and shrubs and a small orchard. There was a pond, with some big fish in it and he also battled the beavers. (the beavers lost the battle, and we even tanned their skins and gave them to the grandsons.)
There was a nice kitchen in the new house, but it was basically for "emergency use only", as we went out to eat almost everyday! We ended up staying there for about 10 years, and moved to Independence Village, when the mowing got to be too much for us, in 1992.
In September, 1992 - Dad had triple by-pass surgery at Proctor Hospital. He bounced back from that rather well and we were able to travel and do lots of things.
However, Dad's heart got weaker and weaker, and for about four years, he was on a 24 hour IV of Dobutamine and he finally passed away in January 1999.
God has been with us wherever we lived, watching over us. We enjoyed building two homes and living in Australia, then coming back to Peoria and building another new home. Then off to Indianapolis where we built another new home. It sounds like we moved a lot because our credit wasn't good not really! :-)
So, I truly believe that God directed all of the good things that happened to our whole family through the years.
June is survived by her children, Nancy (Dean) Watts, Kenneth (Carol) Apacki, and Barbara (James) Conard; nine grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Mildred Ebling and Mary Ellen Fisher; and her brothers, Charles and Donald Garrison.
________________
THE MEMOIRS
OF
EVELYN JUNE
GARRISON - APACKI
- August 2005 -
THE MEMOIRS OF EVELYN JUNE GARRISON-APACKI:
August 2005
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST - ABOUT BEING A KID?
For some reason, my first memory is about being stepped on by a draft horse at the Peoria County Fair, when I was six years old! I remember seeing my mom and Grandma Hull, who was visiting from Fairfax, Iowa. I don't remember how I got under the horse, but I was sitting underneath the horses and one had his hoof on my right thigh. It took awhile for my rescuers to decide how to lift the horse's leg and pull me out. They were afraid the horse would stomp his toot and maybe step on my stomach. The next thing I remember, is Bill Schillinger (our neighbor who took us to the Fair), holding me in his arms and asking me where I hurt, I don't think I was bleeding anywhere but I remember showing him that it hurt at the top of my high laced-up shoe, on my right foot.
I was taken to a little hospital on the Fairgrounds, Mom and Grandma were crying, and I asked the nurse who was treating me, "am I going to die?" and she assured me, that she would fix me up.
For months, after that, my Dad would put me on a pillow and carry me downstairs in the morning, and I slept in a big baby bed, as couldn't sleep with anyone.
After I could walk again, (not sure how long this was), a big bruise came out in boils, at the top of my leg and backside.
Mrs. Krieter (neighbor) who had a grocery store up on Wisconsin Ave, stopped in to see me with Freddy, her 6 yr. old son, and he handed me a bunch of flowers. So, I got up and went over and kissed him! (I never lived that action down!) :-)
WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
THINGS TO DO AS A CHILD?
We would play "grocery store" by pulling the work table over to the pantry door - I did this mainly with my younger sister Mary Ellen (2 yrs. younger than me).
We had lots of neighbor kids in our 2 blocks on Kansas Ave, so would jump rope, play hop-scotch, rock school (on 5 or 6 steps), kick the wicket, (stand on corner sewer lid and kick stick off of the bricks, and play like baseball, and run to the three bases). Sometimes, we would take a tin can and lay it on its side and jam our foot into it, and pretend we had high heels on, and would walk like "big" people. Once in awhile we would inherit a pair of ladies pumps, from a neighbor, (as my mother never wore high heels), and we really enjoyed that. We would also play Mother May I?, hide and seek and we would hide in 2 or 3 neighbor's yards and have fun.
I don't remember fighting with any of the kids, we just had FUN!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES
OF YOUR FATHER?
My Dad's name was Charles Walter Garrison, and he had 3 sisters, Wilma, Amy and Grace. Grace had 4 children, and she and her husband Hank, both got the old Flu and they died. Uncle Hank's old-maid sister, was a jolly soul and good-hearted,and raised all four children on her own!
My Dad was a hard-working brick-layer, and in the summer, after supper, he would walk the one and a half blocks down our street to the Firehouse and visit the firemen. If it was hot, he would come home with a quart of hand-packed ice cream, and Mom would dish it up for 7 or 8 people.
When I was about 10 yrs old, I thought I was a big girl, and if I went with Dad to the Firehouse, I would ask Dad for 5 cents, and would go to the Drug Store, and get a Coke, and sit on the high stools at the counter. He generally gave me the 5 cents, because that was my treat, and that meant that there would be more ice-cream for him that night!
Sometimes on a summer Saturday, when he had to work a half a day, he would take a couple of us kids to work with him, especially when he was building houses on Grandview Drive, and we would pretend that the house he was building was our house, and that we were rich!
Dad was a "top" bowler in Peoria and he would go to a Bowling Congress in New York, and come home and tell us about seeing the Rockettes at Rockefeller Center.
When it was hot, Dad would take us all for a ride in the car, just to cool us down. They liked to go out in the country and then would stop and get fresh eggs and vegetables. Around Labor Day weekend, is when we would get about 5 bushels of tomatoes, which we always canned. Dad would scald the tomatoes and when we got bigger, we would peel them and slice them, so Mom could cook them, and put them in Mason jars and store them for the winter. We always used all of them up by the next summertime.
We used to complain on Labor Day weekend, when we had to help with the tomatoes, as all of the neighbor kids seemed to be going on picnics and having fun and we had to WORK!
During the Depression, brick work was hard to find, as no new brick houses were being built, so Dad only got some small jobs, like pointing up foundations or chimneys so money was scarce.
The first winter that he was able to work full-time, after the Depression, he worked on the Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights, where they put up scaffolding, and put heavy canvas around the building, and they had barrels with fires in them, to keep the mortar and the men from freezing.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
MEMORIES OF YOUR MOTHER?
My mother was hard of hearing, and for years we would holler in her good ear. Since she couldn't hear us, we would "sass her", and if Dad heard about it, he would use his big hand and whip us and cuff us behind the head, and send us upstairs, he would cuff us so hard, we would miss the first 2 or 3 steps. He'd generally reprimand all three of us girls, so he would know for sure that he got the right one!
I remember many times, asking my Mom for things out of the Sears Roebuck Catalog, she would never say she wouldn't buy it. When I was about 8 years old, I would ask for something and if I could have it and she would say "when my ship comes in, we will buy it!" I remember one evening asking her, when her ship would come in, and she and Dad smiled at each other and said that they were afraid that their ship had SUNK!
WHAT WERE YOUR SISTERS LIKE WHEN
YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I had two sisters, Mildred, 2 years older and Mary Ellen, 2 years younger. Mildred was always yelling at us and she always seemed to get the best of me, as she could twist your arm until you hollered loud enough, that Mom made her stop. I never remember fighting with Mary Ellen, but Mildred was bossy! Even when we were older, if Mildred got mad at me, she would open up the door and holler out "June's a negro - June's a negro!" Then I would ask Mom, "am I a negro?" Mom would only say, if you are a negro, then Mildred is a negro too! However, that really hurt my ego a lot, as it was so demeaning, and for years I always had an inferiority complex and never felt "good enough"!
The last time Mary Ellen and I went out to California to see Mildred in the nursing home, when we were all in our eighties, Mildred asked me to forgive her, for treating me so mean! I should have told her that it really hurt me a lot. But I did forgive her but she did it even when I was in High School. (In the summers I would always get brown as a berry, while Mildred just freckled and burned.)
WHAT WERE YOUR BROTHER'S LIKE
WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
When I was about 12, my Mom had my brother Charles Jr., which must have been hard for her, as she was 40 years old.
Then 18 months later, she had my second brother Donny, who was my Dad's shadow. (When Dad and Donny would walk to the Firehouse, everyone said, Donny even walked like my Dad like an old man.)
When Chuck was 8, and Donny was 6, they both got the mumps, Chuck got along o.k. but Donny was sick. Mom saw the Dr. across the street one day, and asked if Donny wanted the Dr. to come and see him, but he said "no". However, 3 days later, when Donny was much sicker, the Dr. came into the house, and told us that Donny had Diphtheria, the Dr. could tell by the smell. We were called home from school and the Dr. gave us a Diphtheria shot and Epsom Salts and none of the rest of the family got Diphtheria. But, Donny died a few days later. There was a private funeral, as all of us kids were with the neighbors and we couldn't go into the house. Mom and Dad went to the cemetery and stayed in the car. A real sad time, that's for sure. My mom had a nervous break-down after that and was sick for a month or so.
At the time Donny died; the Dionne Quintuplets were born and made history!
DID YOU EVER GET UPSET WITH YOUR
PARENTS? WHY?
I did get upset with my parents, when I was about 16 and dating a little bit. At this same time, Mary Ellen (14) was dating Johnny Fisher, who was a student at Bradley University. However, anytime a boy would walk me home and come in the house my parents would always yell downstairs and check up on just ME and this was very embarrassing and upsetting to me. They never yelled down to Mary Ellen and Johnny, just ME!
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES?
My childhood friends were all neighbors. The Holtzman Family - John, Mary, Helen, Frances & Jeannie. The Stewart Family, Bill, Leonard, Virginia, Rosalie & Francis. The Lush Family, I would visit with the old lady, her son was married and lived with her. She would make lye soap for washing clothes. The Trent's, who were our landlords, Mom and Dad rented from them until after 1939 and then bought our home, when the Trent's wanted to sell it.
The Schillinger's, Aunty Schill and Uncle Bill lived next door, good neighbors, always helping people. Bill would get baby alligators and grow them in a pool in his basement, and then would eventually have to get rid of them, so he put them in the Illinois River, and caused quite a stir, when someone found them thought they had swum up from the Gulf Coast!
Dear Aunty Watson, lived behind us and helped take care of me when I was 9 months old and I had whooping cough and pneumonia. We would read the paper to her, as she was nearly blind, a really nice neighbor, she lived alone and was very independent. Her daughter would come and visit her everyday. Finally the daughter took her to live with her at her house, and she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. We all went up to the hospital to visit her (my sister Mary Ellen had only known people to go into the hospital to have a baby) - the first thing that Mary Ellen (age 3) asked Aunty Watson was "where's the baby?"
WHAT KIND OF STUDENT WERE YOU AS A KID? WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS?
Grade School was o.k., I got along well with my friends and liked to play at recess.
When I was in 7th Grade, the teacher thought that I should repeat a half a year, due to problems with percentages. So I was mid-term then and didn't graduate from Grade School with my class. However, after three and a half years in High School I had enough credits to graduate with all of my old friends and we are still friends.
My grades were usually B's & C's.
I never took part in any clubs in High School, as I would baby-sit and do housework, three times a week, after school, in the Depression. I was paid $3 per week.
When I was 74, 1 met a Grade School chum in the grocery store and she asked me to join some other girls that met every three months for lunch. We all graduated from Peoria High School in 1935, and now that I am 88 years old, I still go out with my school friends every other month and we still have 15 to 18 girls in the group!
I really didn't enjoy school too much; I liked spelling, writing and RECESS! :-)
WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
I really think I wanted to get married and have children!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF BEING A TEENAGER?
I mainly remember the kids from the Youth Group at Glen Oak Christian Church. Like I said before, my ego was terrible, I was always very shy, was always a wall-flower, as I never felt pretty or "good enough". I never could join anything, due to my baby-sitting job after school.
SO WHAT WERE YOUR TEENAGE DATING EXPERIENCES? DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DATE?
After Christian Endeavor at Glen Oak Christian Church, fellas would walk me home from church at night, but no serious dates until I met Chuck Apacki.
I dated Bill Waugho, Eddie Augsburger, Eddie Black, Glen Ball, and a couple of friends of Johnny Fisher. I also dated Paul Moon, who lived down the street, his grandfather was the Principal of my Grade School.
So, nothing serious until I met
Chuck when I was 19 years old. We married in January 1939, when I was 21 and Chuck was 22.
DID YOU HAVE ANY ROLE MODELS WHEN YOU WERE A TEEN? WHO WERE THEY & WHY DID YOU LOOK UP TO THEM?
I always wanted to be like one of our new neighbors Mrs. Stubbey. She was always neat and tidy and her hair looked nice and she dressed nice and she was never messy!
I also always looked up to one of my Sunday school teachers, Rhea Miller, she was always caring and made me feel good.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DID YOU LIKE AS A TEEN? ANY FAVORITE ARTISTS OR GROUPS?
I liked popular music, Ring Crosby and many others. I always listened to the radio, to see which star was at the top of the list.
DID YOU HAVE A DREAM OR BURNING DESIRE TO HAVE ANY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE OR ADVENTURE AS A YOUNG ADULT?
I used to dream about learning to fly an airplane, but decided to buy a fur coat instead, which cost me $100.
Chuck did take me for an airplane ride when we were dating.
At this time in my life I was working at Hiram Walker's Distillery, where I made $12 for a 40 hour work week. I spent $1 per week for a streetcar pass or car-pool, paid my folks $4 for room and board and spent the rest on clothes and Christmas presents.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRST TIME YOU MET DAD (Charles Apacki).
Your Dad came to church with his friend, Butch Roberts, who was dating June Ball at our church. I met him the first time at a Sunday School Class Party, when we played "two penny toss-up", under a card table, while setting up the refreshment table. He asked if he could take me home. He had an old 1929 Ford and love was in bloom soon after.
Chuck came to Peoria to his older sister's home (Irma Pavelka) to stay, on his way to California in January 1936. Since it was so cold, he couldn't hitch-hike, as would have frozen to death, so he got a job at LeTourneau's. They made scrapers for Caterpillar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU AND DAD WENT OUT? TELL ME ABOUT IT?
I am not sure, he probably took me to a movie and then we always went somewhere for a light snack and a Coke.
He would usually come over two or three times a week.
Shortly after we met, he left to go out to California on his Indian motorcycle, he was gone for three weeks and sent me a postcard everyday. I wasn't exactly sure when he would get home and one day as I was walking up the street to the streetcar, he was at the top of the hill in his 1929 Ford waiting for me. It was so good to see him again and hear all about his travels, and I had really missed him! (I had never been further than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was about 200 miles from home.)
We went together for about a year and a half and decided we wanted to get married in January 1939. Mom and Dad said we should wait until June to get married, but we said "no way!"
He bought a beautiful diamond engagement ring and drove out Knoxville Ave, to "The Knolls" (a fancy neighborhood), and stopped under a street light and gave nee my ring. The next evening he asked my Dad for my hand in marriage and Dad said that it was up to ME, and of course I said YES! (I would always tell people that Dad asked for my hand, and my father said that he had to take my mouth also, and feed me.) just kidding! :-)
WAS MARRIAGE ALWAYS PART OF YOUR PLAN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Yes, marriage was always in my mind! When Dad asked me to marry him, he was making $39 a week as a welder at LeTourneau's. As part of his proposal of marriage he asked me if I could keep a dog and live on $39 a week? I only made $12 a week, so I said "of course anybody could" and he said "let's get married". Afterwards, he would kid me and say that he lead a dog's life ever since.:-)
After our wedding day, we went up to Highland, Indiana to visit Dad's parents and friends. They had a big dinner and dancing all evening. About 10:30p.m. we left to go to a hotel in Gary, Indiana for our honeymoon. The next morning we went back to his folks for breakfast and then got in the car and I thought we were on our way back to Peoria. We were driving south on Route #41 which was a direct route to Florida, and every time a big car would pass us, Dad would say that he would bet that they were going to Florida. After a half a dozen times of him saying that, I finally asked him why he said that? He told me that he would bet I didn't know where I was going and I said "home I guess". He said, "no, you are going to Florida!" So, by marrying your father I had a very adventuresome life!
The night before we got married, he told me that since it was January, that I had better pack enough clothes for a week for our honeymoon, as we might get stuck somewhere! I didn't even own a suitcase, so I borrowed Grandma Hull's. We ended up getting to Pensacola, Florida and stayed two days there and then drove home again.
We bought a house at 725 Alexander Street, in Peoria for $2,000, not far from LeTourneau's. It had been a rental property for years, so needed a lot of work.
WHICH HAVE BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING TIMES DURING YOUR LIFE WITH DAD?
ALL 60 years, as never a dull moment!! We were 28 & 29 on our first trip and move to Sydney, Australia in 1946. We built two homes there and came home in 1956. We had a trip around the world on our first "home leave", as from the time we got there; we started saving our money for the trip home. The Company paid for our airfare and we were halfway around the world, so we just kept going! Whenever we stopped, we had to pay the Hotel and living expenses, but it was before Nancy was 12 years old, so only had to pay one and a half fares for the kids and two fare for us.
We stopped in Singapore, India for a couple of nights, Cairo, Egypt, stayed in a Palace Hotel., Rome, Italy, Paris, France, London, England and then to New York and Chicago. We came into Peoria on the Rocket train and were met by all of our family, holding signs welcoming us HOME!
(My father had passed away suddenly at 66 years of age in 1950, on my 33rd birthday. This happened to be on the same day that we bought our first new car a HOLDEN car and your Dad had me drive it home. Then when I got home, I received a cable telling me that my father had passed away, which was a terrible shock!)
Therefore, when we got off the train in Peoria and were met by the family, I finally realized that my father was really gone!
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE PREGNANT WITH ME (Nancy)?
Nancy, you were a welcome baby girl who was just beautiful in every way. You arrived eleven months after we were married.
While I was pregnant, I remember asking a nice neighbor lady to go walking with me, as I felt so good for the whole nine months. Sometimes I would also go walking with a couple of neighbor kiddies and we would walk to Kingman School and pickup their big brother.
After you had a baby, in 1939, the doctors kept you in bed for 9 days and then on the 10th day, you were allowed to get up, but you were so weak you had to walk close to the wall, as were so wobbly and then they would send you home that day with the baby! That was really crazy, now days they don't let you rest after the birth and send you home right away!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE DAY I WAS BORN?
My water broke at home about 3 a.m. and Dad called the doctor, and he told us to go to Methodist Hospital. When I got there, they gave me "twilight sleep" and I cannot remember pain of any kind, but Dad said they had to put the up the sides on the bed.
I woke up about 3:30 p.m. in a three-bed ward with two other ladies (I thought they were having babies also, but they weren't). After awhile I asked one of them, if I had had my baby? They told me I did, so I raised up the blankets and found out that I could see my feet wow, so I knew that I must have had you. I called for the nurse and she brought you in to see me! They didn't want Dad to hang around the hospital, so he went back to work and came back later, as he knew I was o.k.. I checked you real good and you had 10 fingers and 10 toes and were a sweet little girl.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF ME AS A CHILD?
I remember that you were always a little "mother" to your brother and sister.
I remember you and Claire Green playing "house" in Australia, you had a cubbie under our house, (the house was up on beams).
One day I was talking to a neighbor in Peoria, as you always played with her girls, and I mentioned "canning pickles" and she said that when I played "house" with her girls and I set the table, I always had to put the pickles on the table.
I will never forget, when we first got to the Star Hotel in Parramatta, where we lived for about 3 months, we had an old trunk that we put on the balcony, so you could stand on it, and look over the wide brick railing. You would get paper and pencil and teach Ken to write down the number on the city buses that stopped in front of the Hotel.
When you were about seven and a half, I was talking and you asked me, "mother what is confidence?" (there was one commercial on the radio, that said to take a certain brand of aspirin, with confidence). You asked if "confidence" was water? (because you knew that one always takes pills with water).
One day, as I stepped down out of the laundry room, my shoes were wet and I slipped and went down, with one leg folded under me, so of course I was limping the next day. When you came home from school, you asked me if I had gone to the Dr. and I said "no". Then you told me that "at my age" that could cause me trouble and that I really should go to the Dr. (I was probably 30 years old at the time!) :-)
You were the first grandchild in my family, so every Sunday afternoon; the whole family would come to our house and hold you all the time, passing you from one person to another. Then on Monday, when I had to do the washing, you were very fussy and wanted to be held. I would just step inside your room and you would stop fussing, as you thought I was going to pick you up.
By the time you were 2 years old, you were talking and walking and learning fast. You knew the Pledge of Allegiance by heart. When Dr. Mauer would come to see your brother Kenny, he was so taken with your Pledge of Allegiance that he would call up his receptionist and have you say the Pledge over the telephone to her. You always were very serious when you said it and saluted.
Before we ate a meal, we would pray, so when you were about 3 years old, whenever I would give you a cookie in your high chair, you would put your hands over your eyes and say AMEN every time we gave you something to eat.
WHAT INTERESTS & CHARACTERISTICS HAVE YOU SEEN IN ME THAT YOU ALSO HAD ONCE UPON A TIME?
You like to keep a tidy house and you like to cook, just as I used to. You also like to make good food and entertain people in your home.
We both like to sing, but you sing good, while I only sound good if you harmonize with me.
We both love our families and neither one of us is lazy. We like people!
We are different also, you are good looking. I play the organ by ear, and that is hard to do (play with your ear). You are quiet and I talk too much, and even write too much.
You turned out super with a level-head on your shoulders.
You had a different life, with living overseas and going to work in the Bank at 15 yrs. old in Sydney. Then saving up your money to go back to Australia to see your friends by yourself on a ship alone, proved that you were very brave and capable. I am glad others see your good traits and put you in great jobs in your volunteer work and in church. I am glad that you are a Christian.
I think you have been an asset to this old world in many ways and you are now a sweet Grandma.
I am also glad that you picked a sweet guy to marry, as Dean is great, so kind and loving and tries to help others outside of just our family.
WHAT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Seeing my family all well and happy. I am so happy they have given me 16, going-on 17 great grandchildren.
I am just sorry that I don't seem to accomplish much now, except tell jokes and visit my friends in the nursing homes. I visit at least 3 or 4 friends in Proctor Home Health Care and another 8 or 9 at Lutheran Home Health Care and some friends are still at Rosewood Nursing Nome.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE PLANS THAT. YOU WOULD CARE TO SHARE?
I trust I will hang in there to the end and hope that I never turn into a "grouchy old woman".
I am, looking forward to Heaven and seeing Dad and many loved ones again.
TELL ME ABOUT THE WORK YOU'VE DONE THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE?
My first job was baby-sitting and cleaning house, in the afternoons while I was in High School. Sometimes I would stay overnight with the family and work the next day also. I would get $1 a day.
Then I Worked at Hiram Walker's Distillery in the bottling department and made $12 a week.
From 1956 to 1968 I was a Volunteer Red Cross Gray Lady at Proctor Hospital in Peoria, and the Veterans Hospital in Indianapolis. I am still an Associate Member of the Proctor Auxiliary, where I have accumulated over 3,000 hours of service.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BEST QUALITY?
I never meet a stranger, and I am friendly and out-going.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR WORST QUALITY?
That I talk too much!
AS YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE SO FAR, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I am most proud of my whole family!
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS THAT YOU'D CARE TO SHARE WITH ME?
That I am too fat!
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TRAVELS? ANY INTERESTING STORIES?
So many travels, and stories, that it is hard to remember them all.
Lived in Sydney, Australia for 10 years.
Lived in Bangalore, India for 6 years, and had 7 servants to take care of EVERYTHING! I had the "life of Riley!"
While there, we went on many overseas trips, one time Dad wanted us to go to Zambia, Africa to see the Jerry Mason's. We thought that we had reservations at a Hotel, arrived at 11:30 p.m., but no record of our reservation. We ended up on a rollaway bed in a Butler's Pantry, that bell-hops used, with a bathroom across the hall. They woke us up at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. as requested, so it was a very short night!
Dad worked in Shanghai, China for 3 or 4 months and I joined him for about 6 weeks, very interesting.
The last "round the world trip" we took was in 1994, after Dad had by-pass surgery. Each of us had a small suitcase and we went through Europe, and got back to Australia and New Zealand. Went on an "open" ticket, so could go at our own pace, which was great……we were gone 3 months.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? ANYTHING AT ALL? ANYTHING?
Don't forget that I have a crypt at the American Mausoleum ....next to Dad!
IF YOU FELT THE NEED TO OFFER SOME ADVICE TO ME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Live everyday to the fullest, because one day you will come to a screeching halt! :-)
OTHER STUFF:
My children: I had three children and always tried to be fair to all of them and treat them the same. I had two girls and a boy:
Nancy June in 1939
Kenneth Charles in 1942
Barbara Lynn in 1946
They all turned out pretty good, and are all responsible and good Christian kids! Really!!
They spent 10 years in Sydney, Australia. Dad was asked to be Plant Engineer for the Le-Tourneau plant there. Al Losch was the Plant Manager and When he asked Dad if he would like to go to Australia, Dad told him he would have to go home and ask me. At the time, Barb was only three and a half months old, so we asked the Dr. if we should go, and he told us that Barb would probably be the best traveler of all of us, as she would be on her formula and boiled water, and she was!
Ken was 4 and Nancy was 6 and in the First grade, By the time we got on the train to go to California, Barb and Ken had whooping cough, even though the Dr. in Peoria, had given them whooping cough shots. When we arrived in San Francisco, Al & Alma Losch, got us into a baby doctor and except for coughing several times a day, they really weren’t that sick.
We had three weeks in one room in a hotel in San Francisco - were delayed because of a wharf strike. Then we finally got on the ship and had three weeks on the water before getting to Sydney.
It is really ironic, that as a kid, I couldn't even ride the streetcar without getting motion sickness, I would have to get off and walk, but on this trip I was on trains and a ship and did o.k.
OTHER STUFF - 1942 - 1947
Dad and I thought that we would try for another baby, as our first one turned out good. I had an easy pregnancy with Ken, felt good, and ate well and did a lot of walking. The only thing that was different this time, was that I craved oranges, never ate just one, but usually two.
Our friends Charlotte and Kenny Williams were starting their family also, but she was bed-fast most of the time, as couldn't seem to eat. She even had to enter the hospital and have intravenous feedings. I felt strong enough to do all of my housework and then would go and see Charlotte and do her housework. I had Kenneth Charles on June 14, 1942, a few days before she had her Ken, our son weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces, and Charlotte had her first baby who weighed in at 10 pounds! (she was so weak during labor that she prayed to die).
In the hospital they isolated our baby Ken, and Aunt Esther went to the nurses to find out why? She was told that they thought that he had "thrush mouth". We took him home in 10 days, but he cried day and night. We finally told our family doctor to call in a Baby Specialist, as Ken was not getting any better. (However, the ONLY Dr. I DIDN'T want to be on the case was a Dr. Mauer, as he was the Dr. that told my parents that my brother Donny was going to die, and I thought he was terrible). So Dr. Mauer was called in and he came to our home and examined Ken, he opened Ken's mouth and shone a small flashlight in it and it was completely covered with sores! No wonder he cried so much! The Dr. said that he was lacking Vitamin B Complex and we would have to start him on watered down milk with B complex in it, and after we did that he began to improve rapidly. The Dr. said that when he can eat, he will want cereal, and he did he was the only one of my children who ate cereal like it was going out of style!
However, after about a month we found a house to buy that had been started, poured cement walls were up and the house was built up on piers.
One day, Dad happened to think about a house that was the first house nearest the factory, and he asked the girls at the office, if anyone lived there, as it appeared to be empty. They said the house was occupied, the man who lived there, had married a girl from South Africa, when he was a pilot in the war, however, she had left him, as she was used to servants and was a career girl. He had never married again and lived there alone. That day, we drove out to his house and Dad went in and told him our problem, that we were living in a hotel room and had a house under construction, but needed a temporary place to live for a few months. The man's name was Murray Nankivell and he told Dad that he would think about it and to come back on Monday, and he would let us know his decision.
Don't think that we didn't do a lot of praying about his decision, as Kenny and Nancy wanted a yard to play in too. We went back on Monday and it was pouring rain, but he popped into the car and said the answer was YES! We had been reading about renting problems and that some people were charging $500 for a house key, as they had government rent controls. So we wondered what his price would be?? Murray said that if we would cook him dinner every night and wash his clothes, he would call it "even"! We told him that that wasn't fair to him as there were five of us to his one and that we wanted to pay rent too but he wouldn't hear of it. After we moved into the house, we wanted to buy wood for the fireplace in his big kitchen, and I would run out to pay for it he would tell the delivery man not to take my money, or he would refuse the delivery.
Uncle Murray Nankivell was an absolute ANGEL to our family we ended up living with him for nine months before we moved into our new house and unpacked our own household things my favorite item was the new washing machine that we had. Because while we lived with Uncle Murray I had had to use a copper boiler and boil the clothes, and then use a hand wringer to wring them out.
Murray worked for the Goodyear Tire Co., which was across the river from the Le Tourneau plant he had never heard of us, and yet he took all five of us into his home and treated us like family! Our kids loved Uncle Murray Barb would be in her playpen and when he came home from work, he would pick her up and play with her like she was his own child.
OTHER STUFF - 1948 and AFTER:
Ken would play with a little boy Bobby, whose Aunt married a G.I. after the war and lived in the U.S.A.. His mother told me one day that the two boys were arguing and Bobby said, "good, go home, you don't even talk American any more!"
Barb would take her shower with Nancy and Nancy would be singing her alto part from her choir songs and before we knew it, Barb was singing alto also. She learned to harmonize like Nancy and we would sing up a storm when we went riding in the car. Barb was harmonizing before she was 6 years old. (Dad and I could never harmonize).
We lived opposite an Oval (Park), where several swings and slides were and Nancy defended Kenny and Barb when some big boys made them give up their swings. I wasn't home, but Dad said Nancy saw what had happened and marched over there with her hands on her hips and told them off! :-)
The very first little girl that Nancy met in Australia was the hotel manager's grand-daughter and she was born on the same day as Nancy December 12, 1939.
One of the greatest blessings we had from our stay in Australia was being adopted by Grandma Prideaux (she was Uncle Murray's Aunt and lived right behind his home in Rydalmere). She was a very dear lady who was the number one Grandma in our children's lives. As our kids were in their growing up years and she treated them as her own grandchildren, and their "real" grandmas were thousands of miles away. She had had a daughter named June, who had died when she was young, so I was sort of her replacement daughter also.
OTHER STUFF - LATER YEARS
Dad had a heart attack while he was on a business trip in Brantford, Ontario, Canada just before he retired from Wabco, when he was 64 years old. I went up to be with him and Nancy drove up from Lansing, Michigan to be with us also.
Then, after retirement, we bought several acres of woods, out in Dunlap from Doe. Allen. Dad ended up building a double garage first, and then put a two story house on top of that, and most of the house was built from recycled products and items. It was a very comfortable and unique home. Dad planted many trees, flowers and shrubs and a small orchard. There was a pond, with some big fish in it and he also battled the beavers. (the beavers lost the battle, and we even tanned their skins and gave them to the grandsons.)
There was a nice kitchen in the new house, but it was basically for "emergency use only", as we went out to eat almost everyday! We ended up staying there for about 10 years, and moved to Independence Village, when the mowing got to be too much for us, in 1992.
In September, 1992 - Dad had triple by-pass surgery at Proctor Hospital. He bounced back from that rather well and we were able to travel and do lots of things.
However, Dad's heart got weaker and weaker, and for about four years, he was on a 24 hour IV of Dobutamine and he finally passed away in January 1999.
God has been with us wherever we lived, watching over us. We enjoyed building two homes and living in Australia, then coming back to Peoria and building another new home. Then off to Indianapolis where we built another new home. It sounds like we moved a lot because our credit wasn't good not really! :-)
So, I truly believe that God directed all of the good things that happened to our whole family through the years.
Daughter of Charles W. and Flossie Cloe (Hunter) Garrison. She married Charles Apacki on Jan. 21, 1939. He preceded her in death on Jan. 24, 1999.
June is survived by her children, Nancy (Dean) Watts, Kenneth (Carol) Apacki, and Barbara (James) Conard; nine grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Mildred Ebling and Mary Ellen Fisher; and her brothers, Charles and Donald Garrison.
________________
THE MEMOIRS
OF
EVELYN JUNE
GARRISON - APACKI
- August 2005 -
THE MEMOIRS OF EVELYN JUNE GARRISON-APACKI:
August 2005
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST - ABOUT BEING A KID?
For some reason, my first memory is about being stepped on by a draft horse at the Peoria County Fair, when I was six years old! I remember seeing my mom and Grandma Hull, who was visiting from Fairfax, Iowa. I don't remember how I got under the horse, but I was sitting underneath the horses and one had his hoof on my right thigh. It took awhile for my rescuers to decide how to lift the horse's leg and pull me out. They were afraid the horse would stomp his toot and maybe step on my stomach. The next thing I remember, is Bill Schillinger (our neighbor who took us to the Fair), holding me in his arms and asking me where I hurt, I don't think I was bleeding anywhere but I remember showing him that it hurt at the top of my high laced-up shoe, on my right foot.
I was taken to a little hospital on the Fairgrounds, Mom and Grandma were crying, and I asked the nurse who was treating me, "am I going to die?" and she assured me, that she would fix me up.
For months, after that, my Dad would put me on a pillow and carry me downstairs in the morning, and I slept in a big baby bed, as couldn't sleep with anyone.
After I could walk again, (not sure how long this was), a big bruise came out in boils, at the top of my leg and backside.
Mrs. Krieter (neighbor) who had a grocery store up on Wisconsin Ave, stopped in to see me with Freddy, her 6 yr. old son, and he handed me a bunch of flowers. So, I got up and went over and kissed him! (I never lived that action down!) :-)
WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
THINGS TO DO AS A CHILD?
We would play "grocery store" by pulling the work table over to the pantry door - I did this mainly with my younger sister Mary Ellen (2 yrs. younger than me).
We had lots of neighbor kids in our 2 blocks on Kansas Ave, so would jump rope, play hop-scotch, rock school (on 5 or 6 steps), kick the wicket, (stand on corner sewer lid and kick stick off of the bricks, and play like baseball, and run to the three bases). Sometimes, we would take a tin can and lay it on its side and jam our foot into it, and pretend we had high heels on, and would walk like "big" people. Once in awhile we would inherit a pair of ladies pumps, from a neighbor, (as my mother never wore high heels), and we really enjoyed that. We would also play Mother May I?, hide and seek and we would hide in 2 or 3 neighbor's yards and have fun.
I don't remember fighting with any of the kids, we just had FUN!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES
OF YOUR FATHER?
My Dad's name was Charles Walter Garrison, and he had 3 sisters, Wilma, Amy and Grace. Grace had 4 children, and she and her husband Hank, both got the old Flu and they died. Uncle Hank's old-maid sister, was a jolly soul and good-hearted,and raised all four children on her own!
My Dad was a hard-working brick-layer, and in the summer, after supper, he would walk the one and a half blocks down our street to the Firehouse and visit the firemen. If it was hot, he would come home with a quart of hand-packed ice cream, and Mom would dish it up for 7 or 8 people.
When I was about 10 yrs old, I thought I was a big girl, and if I went with Dad to the Firehouse, I would ask Dad for 5 cents, and would go to the Drug Store, and get a Coke, and sit on the high stools at the counter. He generally gave me the 5 cents, because that was my treat, and that meant that there would be more ice-cream for him that night!
Sometimes on a summer Saturday, when he had to work a half a day, he would take a couple of us kids to work with him, especially when he was building houses on Grandview Drive, and we would pretend that the house he was building was our house, and that we were rich!
Dad was a "top" bowler in Peoria and he would go to a Bowling Congress in New York, and come home and tell us about seeing the Rockettes at Rockefeller Center.
When it was hot, Dad would take us all for a ride in the car, just to cool us down. They liked to go out in the country and then would stop and get fresh eggs and vegetables. Around Labor Day weekend, is when we would get about 5 bushels of tomatoes, which we always canned. Dad would scald the tomatoes and when we got bigger, we would peel them and slice them, so Mom could cook them, and put them in Mason jars and store them for the winter. We always used all of them up by the next summertime.
We used to complain on Labor Day weekend, when we had to help with the tomatoes, as all of the neighbor kids seemed to be going on picnics and having fun and we had to WORK!
During the Depression, brick work was hard to find, as no new brick houses were being built, so Dad only got some small jobs, like pointing up foundations or chimneys so money was scarce.
The first winter that he was able to work full-time, after the Depression, he worked on the Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights, where they put up scaffolding, and put heavy canvas around the building, and they had barrels with fires in them, to keep the mortar and the men from freezing.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
MEMORIES OF YOUR MOTHER?
My mother was hard of hearing, and for years we would holler in her good ear. Since she couldn't hear us, we would "sass her", and if Dad heard about it, he would use his big hand and whip us and cuff us behind the head, and send us upstairs, he would cuff us so hard, we would miss the first 2 or 3 steps. He'd generally reprimand all three of us girls, so he would know for sure that he got the right one!
I remember many times, asking my Mom for things out of the Sears Roebuck Catalog, she would never say she wouldn't buy it. When I was about 8 years old, I would ask for something and if I could have it and she would say "when my ship comes in, we will buy it!" I remember one evening asking her, when her ship would come in, and she and Dad smiled at each other and said that they were afraid that their ship had SUNK!
WHAT WERE YOUR SISTERS LIKE WHEN
YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I had two sisters, Mildred, 2 years older and Mary Ellen, 2 years younger. Mildred was always yelling at us and she always seemed to get the best of me, as she could twist your arm until you hollered loud enough, that Mom made her stop. I never remember fighting with Mary Ellen, but Mildred was bossy! Even when we were older, if Mildred got mad at me, she would open up the door and holler out "June's a negro - June's a negro!" Then I would ask Mom, "am I a negro?" Mom would only say, if you are a negro, then Mildred is a negro too! However, that really hurt my ego a lot, as it was so demeaning, and for years I always had an inferiority complex and never felt "good enough"!
The last time Mary Ellen and I went out to California to see Mildred in the nursing home, when we were all in our eighties, Mildred asked me to forgive her, for treating me so mean! I should have told her that it really hurt me a lot. But I did forgive her but she did it even when I was in High School. (In the summers I would always get brown as a berry, while Mildred just freckled and burned.)
WHAT WERE YOUR BROTHER'S LIKE
WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
When I was about 12, my Mom had my brother Charles Jr., which must have been hard for her, as she was 40 years old.
Then 18 months later, she had my second brother Donny, who was my Dad's shadow. (When Dad and Donny would walk to the Firehouse, everyone said, Donny even walked like my Dad like an old man.)
When Chuck was 8, and Donny was 6, they both got the mumps, Chuck got along o.k. but Donny was sick. Mom saw the Dr. across the street one day, and asked if Donny wanted the Dr. to come and see him, but he said "no". However, 3 days later, when Donny was much sicker, the Dr. came into the house, and told us that Donny had Diphtheria, the Dr. could tell by the smell. We were called home from school and the Dr. gave us a Diphtheria shot and Epsom Salts and none of the rest of the family got Diphtheria. But, Donny died a few days later. There was a private funeral, as all of us kids were with the neighbors and we couldn't go into the house. Mom and Dad went to the cemetery and stayed in the car. A real sad time, that's for sure. My mom had a nervous break-down after that and was sick for a month or so.
At the time Donny died; the Dionne Quintuplets were born and made history!
DID YOU EVER GET UPSET WITH YOUR
PARENTS? WHY?
I did get upset with my parents, when I was about 16 and dating a little bit. At this same time, Mary Ellen (14) was dating Johnny Fisher, who was a student at Bradley University. However, anytime a boy would walk me home and come in the house my parents would always yell downstairs and check up on just ME and this was very embarrassing and upsetting to me. They never yelled down to Mary Ellen and Johnny, just ME!
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES?
My childhood friends were all neighbors. The Holtzman Family - John, Mary, Helen, Frances & Jeannie. The Stewart Family, Bill, Leonard, Virginia, Rosalie & Francis. The Lush Family, I would visit with the old lady, her son was married and lived with her. She would make lye soap for washing clothes. The Trent's, who were our landlords, Mom and Dad rented from them until after 1939 and then bought our home, when the Trent's wanted to sell it.
The Schillinger's, Aunty Schill and Uncle Bill lived next door, good neighbors, always helping people. Bill would get baby alligators and grow them in a pool in his basement, and then would eventually have to get rid of them, so he put them in the Illinois River, and caused quite a stir, when someone found them thought they had swum up from the Gulf Coast!
Dear Aunty Watson, lived behind us and helped take care of me when I was 9 months old and I had whooping cough and pneumonia. We would read the paper to her, as she was nearly blind, a really nice neighbor, she lived alone and was very independent. Her daughter would come and visit her everyday. Finally the daughter took her to live with her at her house, and she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. We all went up to the hospital to visit her (my sister Mary Ellen had only known people to go into the hospital to have a baby) - the first thing that Mary Ellen (age 3) asked Aunty Watson was "where's the baby?"
WHAT KIND OF STUDENT WERE YOU AS A KID? WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS?
Grade School was o.k., I got along well with my friends and liked to play at recess.
When I was in 7th Grade, the teacher thought that I should repeat a half a year, due to problems with percentages. So I was mid-term then and didn't graduate from Grade School with my class. However, after three and a half years in High School I had enough credits to graduate with all of my old friends and we are still friends.
My grades were usually B's & C's.
I never took part in any clubs in High School, as I would baby-sit and do housework, three times a week, after school, in the Depression. I was paid $3 per week.
When I was 74, 1 met a Grade School chum in the grocery store and she asked me to join some other girls that met every three months for lunch. We all graduated from Peoria High School in 1935, and now that I am 88 years old, I still go out with my school friends every other month and we still have 15 to 18 girls in the group!
I really didn't enjoy school too much; I liked spelling, writing and RECESS! :-)
WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
I really think I wanted to get married and have children!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF BEING A TEENAGER?
I mainly remember the kids from the Youth Group at Glen Oak Christian Church. Like I said before, my ego was terrible, I was always very shy, was always a wall-flower, as I never felt pretty or "good enough". I never could join anything, due to my baby-sitting job after school.
SO WHAT WERE YOUR TEENAGE DATING EXPERIENCES? DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DATE?
After Christian Endeavor at Glen Oak Christian Church, fellas would walk me home from church at night, but no serious dates until I met Chuck Apacki.
I dated Bill Waugho, Eddie Augsburger, Eddie Black, Glen Ball, and a couple of friends of Johnny Fisher. I also dated Paul Moon, who lived down the street, his grandfather was the Principal of my Grade School.
So, nothing serious until I met
Chuck when I was 19 years old. We married in January 1939, when I was 21 and Chuck was 22.
DID YOU HAVE ANY ROLE MODELS WHEN YOU WERE A TEEN? WHO WERE THEY & WHY DID YOU LOOK UP TO THEM?
I always wanted to be like one of our new neighbors Mrs. Stubbey. She was always neat and tidy and her hair looked nice and she dressed nice and she was never messy!
I also always looked up to one of my Sunday school teachers, Rhea Miller, she was always caring and made me feel good.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DID YOU LIKE AS A TEEN? ANY FAVORITE ARTISTS OR GROUPS?
I liked popular music, Ring Crosby and many others. I always listened to the radio, to see which star was at the top of the list.
DID YOU HAVE A DREAM OR BURNING DESIRE TO HAVE ANY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE OR ADVENTURE AS A YOUNG ADULT?
I used to dream about learning to fly an airplane, but decided to buy a fur coat instead, which cost me $100.
Chuck did take me for an airplane ride when we were dating.
At this time in my life I was working at Hiram Walker's Distillery, where I made $12 for a 40 hour work week. I spent $1 per week for a streetcar pass or car-pool, paid my folks $4 for room and board and spent the rest on clothes and Christmas presents.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRST TIME YOU MET DAD (Charles Apacki).
Your Dad came to church with his friend, Butch Roberts, who was dating June Ball at our church. I met him the first time at a Sunday School Class Party, when we played "two penny toss-up", under a card table, while setting up the refreshment table. He asked if he could take me home. He had an old 1929 Ford and love was in bloom soon after.
Chuck came to Peoria to his older sister's home (Irma Pavelka) to stay, on his way to California in January 1936. Since it was so cold, he couldn't hitch-hike, as would have frozen to death, so he got a job at LeTourneau's. They made scrapers for Caterpillar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU AND DAD WENT OUT? TELL ME ABOUT IT?
I am not sure, he probably took me to a movie and then we always went somewhere for a light snack and a Coke.
He would usually come over two or three times a week.
Shortly after we met, he left to go out to California on his Indian motorcycle, he was gone for three weeks and sent me a postcard everyday. I wasn't exactly sure when he would get home and one day as I was walking up the street to the streetcar, he was at the top of the hill in his 1929 Ford waiting for me. It was so good to see him again and hear all about his travels, and I had really missed him! (I had never been further than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was about 200 miles from home.)
We went together for about a year and a half and decided we wanted to get married in January 1939. Mom and Dad said we should wait until June to get married, but we said "no way!"
He bought a beautiful diamond engagement ring and drove out Knoxville Ave, to "The Knolls" (a fancy neighborhood), and stopped under a street light and gave nee my ring. The next evening he asked my Dad for my hand in marriage and Dad said that it was up to ME, and of course I said YES! (I would always tell people that Dad asked for my hand, and my father said that he had to take my mouth also, and feed me.) just kidding! :-)
WAS MARRIAGE ALWAYS PART OF YOUR PLAN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Yes, marriage was always in my mind! When Dad asked me to marry him, he was making $39 a week as a welder at LeTourneau's. As part of his proposal of marriage he asked me if I could keep a dog and live on $39 a week? I only made $12 a week, so I said "of course anybody could" and he said "let's get married". Afterwards, he would kid me and say that he lead a dog's life ever since.:-)
After our wedding day, we went up to Highland, Indiana to visit Dad's parents and friends. They had a big dinner and dancing all evening. About 10:30p.m. we left to go to a hotel in Gary, Indiana for our honeymoon. The next morning we went back to his folks for breakfast and then got in the car and I thought we were on our way back to Peoria. We were driving south on Route #41 which was a direct route to Florida, and every time a big car would pass us, Dad would say that he would bet that they were going to Florida. After a half a dozen times of him saying that, I finally asked him why he said that? He told me that he would bet I didn't know where I was going and I said "home I guess". He said, "no, you are going to Florida!" So, by marrying your father I had a very adventuresome life!
The night before we got married, he told me that since it was January, that I had better pack enough clothes for a week for our honeymoon, as we might get stuck somewhere! I didn't even own a suitcase, so I borrowed Grandma Hull's. We ended up getting to Pensacola, Florida and stayed two days there and then drove home again.
We bought a house at 725 Alexander Street, in Peoria for $2,000, not far from LeTourneau's. It had been a rental property for years, so needed a lot of work.
WHICH HAVE BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING TIMES DURING YOUR LIFE WITH DAD?
ALL 60 years, as never a dull moment!! We were 28 & 29 on our first trip and move to Sydney, Australia in 1946. We built two homes there and came home in 1956. We had a trip around the world on our first "home leave", as from the time we got there; we started saving our money for the trip home. The Company paid for our airfare and we were halfway around the world, so we just kept going! Whenever we stopped, we had to pay the Hotel and living expenses, but it was before Nancy was 12 years old, so only had to pay one and a half fares for the kids and two fare for us.
We stopped in Singapore, India for a couple of nights, Cairo, Egypt, stayed in a Palace Hotel., Rome, Italy, Paris, France, London, England and then to New York and Chicago. We came into Peoria on the Rocket train and were met by all of our family, holding signs welcoming us HOME!
(My father had passed away suddenly at 66 years of age in 1950, on my 33rd birthday. This happened to be on the same day that we bought our first new car a HOLDEN car and your Dad had me drive it home. Then when I got home, I received a cable telling me that my father had passed away, which was a terrible shock!)
Therefore, when we got off the train in Peoria and were met by the family, I finally realized that my father was really gone!
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE PREGNANT WITH ME (Nancy)?
Nancy, you were a welcome baby girl who was just beautiful in every way. You arrived eleven months after we were married.
While I was pregnant, I remember asking a nice neighbor lady to go walking with me, as I felt so good for the whole nine months. Sometimes I would also go walking with a couple of neighbor kiddies and we would walk to Kingman School and pickup their big brother.
After you had a baby, in 1939, the doctors kept you in bed for 9 days and then on the 10th day, you were allowed to get up, but you were so weak you had to walk close to the wall, as were so wobbly and then they would send you home that day with the baby! That was really crazy, now days they don't let you rest after the birth and send you home right away!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE DAY I WAS BORN?
My water broke at home about 3 a.m. and Dad called the doctor, and he told us to go to Methodist Hospital. When I got there, they gave me "twilight sleep" and I cannot remember pain of any kind, but Dad said they had to put the up the sides on the bed.
I woke up about 3:30 p.m. in a three-bed ward with two other ladies (I thought they were having babies also, but they weren't). After awhile I asked one of them, if I had had my baby? They told me I did, so I raised up the blankets and found out that I could see my feet wow, so I knew that I must have had you. I called for the nurse and she brought you in to see me! They didn't want Dad to hang around the hospital, so he went back to work and came back later, as he knew I was o.k.. I checked you real good and you had 10 fingers and 10 toes and were a sweet little girl.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF ME AS A CHILD?
I remember that you were always a little "mother" to your brother and sister.
I remember you and Claire Green playing "house" in Australia, you had a cubbie under our house, (the house was up on beams).
One day I was talking to a neighbor in Peoria, as you always played with her girls, and I mentioned "canning pickles" and she said that when I played "house" with her girls and I set the table, I always had to put the pickles on the table.
I will never forget, when we first got to the Star Hotel in Parramatta, where we lived for about 3 months, we had an old trunk that we put on the balcony, so you could stand on it, and look over the wide brick railing. You would get paper and pencil and teach Ken to write down the number on the city buses that stopped in front of the Hotel.
When you were about seven and a half, I was talking and you asked me, "mother what is confidence?" (there was one commercial on the radio, that said to take a certain brand of aspirin, with confidence). You asked if "confidence" was water? (because you knew that one always takes pills with water).
One day, as I stepped down out of the laundry room, my shoes were wet and I slipped and went down, with one leg folded under me, so of course I was limping the next day. When you came home from school, you asked me if I had gone to the Dr. and I said "no". Then you told me that "at my age" that could cause me trouble and that I really should go to the Dr. (I was probably 30 years old at the time!) :-)
You were the first grandchild in my family, so every Sunday afternoon; the whole family would come to our house and hold you all the time, passing you from one person to another. Then on Monday, when I had to do the washing, you were very fussy and wanted to be held. I would just step inside your room and you would stop fussing, as you thought I was going to pick you up.
By the time you were 2 years old, you were talking and walking and learning fast. You knew the Pledge of Allegiance by heart. When Dr. Mauer would come to see your brother Kenny, he was so taken with your Pledge of Allegiance that he would call up his receptionist and have you say the Pledge over the telephone to her. You always were very serious when you said it and saluted.
Before we ate a meal, we would pray, so when you were about 3 years old, whenever I would give you a cookie in your high chair, you would put your hands over your eyes and say AMEN every time we gave you something to eat.
WHAT INTERESTS & CHARACTERISTICS HAVE YOU SEEN IN ME THAT YOU ALSO HAD ONCE UPON A TIME?
You like to keep a tidy house and you like to cook, just as I used to. You also like to make good food and entertain people in your home.
We both like to sing, but you sing good, while I only sound good if you harmonize with me.
We both love our families and neither one of us is lazy. We like people!
We are different also, you are good looking. I play the organ by ear, and that is hard to do (play with your ear). You are quiet and I talk too much, and even write too much.
You turned out super with a level-head on your shoulders.
You had a different life, with living overseas and going to work in the Bank at 15 yrs. old in Sydney. Then saving up your money to go back to Australia to see your friends by yourself on a ship alone, proved that you were very brave and capable. I am glad others see your good traits and put you in great jobs in your volunteer work and in church. I am glad that you are a Christian.
I think you have been an asset to this old world in many ways and you are now a sweet Grandma.
I am also glad that you picked a sweet guy to marry, as Dean is great, so kind and loving and tries to help others outside of just our family.
WHAT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Seeing my family all well and happy. I am so happy they have given me 16, going-on 17 great grandchildren.
I am just sorry that I don't seem to accomplish much now, except tell jokes and visit my friends in the nursing homes. I visit at least 3 or 4 friends in Proctor Home Health Care and another 8 or 9 at Lutheran Home Health Care and some friends are still at Rosewood Nursing Nome.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE PLANS THAT. YOU WOULD CARE TO SHARE?
I trust I will hang in there to the end and hope that I never turn into a "grouchy old woman".
I am, looking forward to Heaven and seeing Dad and many loved ones again.
TELL ME ABOUT THE WORK YOU'VE DONE THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE?
My first job was baby-sitting and cleaning house, in the afternoons while I was in High School. Sometimes I would stay overnight with the family and work the next day also. I would get $1 a day.
Then I Worked at Hiram Walker's Distillery in the bottling department and made $12 a week.
From 1956 to 1968 I was a Volunteer Red Cross Gray Lady at Proctor Hospital in Peoria, and the Veterans Hospital in Indianapolis. I am still an Associate Member of the Proctor Auxiliary, where I have accumulated over 3,000 hours of service.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BEST QUALITY?
I never meet a stranger, and I am friendly and out-going.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR WORST QUALITY?
That I talk too much!
AS YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE SO FAR, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I am most proud of my whole family!
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS THAT YOU'D CARE TO SHARE WITH ME?
That I am too fat!
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TRAVELS? ANY INTERESTING STORIES?
So many travels, and stories, that it is hard to remember them all.
Lived in Sydney, Australia for 10 years.
Lived in Bangalore, India for 6 years, and had 7 servants to take care of EVERYTHING! I had the "life of Riley!"
While there, we went on many overseas trips, one time Dad wanted us to go to Zambia, Africa to see the Jerry Mason's. We thought that we had reservations at a Hotel, arrived at 11:30 p.m., but no record of our reservation. We ended up on a rollaway bed in a Butler's Pantry, that bell-hops used, with a bathroom across the hall. They woke us up at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. as requested, so it was a very short night!
Dad worked in Shanghai, China for 3 or 4 months and I joined him for about 6 weeks, very interesting.
The last "round the world trip" we took was in 1994, after Dad had by-pass surgery. Each of us had a small suitcase and we went through Europe, and got back to Australia and New Zealand. Went on an "open" ticket, so could go at our own pace, which was great……we were gone 3 months.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? ANYTHING AT ALL? ANYTHING?
Don't forget that I have a crypt at the American Mausoleum ....next to Dad!
IF YOU FELT THE NEED TO OFFER SOME ADVICE TO ME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Live everyday to the fullest, because one day you will come to a screeching halt! :-)
OTHER STUFF:
My children: I had three children and always tried to be fair to all of them and treat them the same. I had two girls and a boy:
Nancy June in 1939
Kenneth Charles in 1942
Barbara Lynn in 1946
They all turned out pretty good, and are all responsible and good Christian kids! Really!!
They spent 10 years in Sydney, Australia. Dad was asked to be Plant Engineer for the Le-Tourneau plant there. Al Losch was the Plant Manager and When he asked Dad if he would like to go to Australia, Dad told him he would have to go home and ask me. At the time, Barb was only three and a half months old, so we asked the Dr. if we should go, and he told us that Barb would probably be the best traveler of all of us, as she would be on her formula and boiled water, and she was!
Ken was 4 and Nancy was 6 and in the First grade, By the time we got on the train to go to California, Barb and Ken had whooping cough, even though the Dr. in Peoria, had given them whooping cough shots. When we arrived in San Francisco, Al & Alma Losch, got us into a baby doctor and except for coughing several times a day, they really weren’t that sick.
We had three weeks in one room in a hotel in San Francisco - were delayed because of a wharf strike. Then we finally got on the ship and had three weeks on the water before getting to Sydney.
It is really ironic, that as a kid, I couldn't even ride the streetcar without getting motion sickness, I would have to get off and walk, but on this trip I was on trains and a ship and did o.k.
OTHER STUFF - 1942 - 1947
Dad and I thought that we would try for another baby, as our first one turned out good. I had an easy pregnancy with Ken, felt good, and ate well and did a lot of walking. The only thing that was different this time, was that I craved oranges, never ate just one, but usually two.
Our friends Charlotte and Kenny Williams were starting their family also, but she was bed-fast most of the time, as couldn't seem to eat. She even had to enter the hospital and have intravenous feedings. I felt strong enough to do all of my housework and then would go and see Charlotte and do her housework. I had Kenneth Charles on June 14, 1942, a few days before she had her Ken, our son weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces, and Charlotte had her first baby who weighed in at 10 pounds! (she was so weak during labor that she prayed to die).
In the hospital they isolated our baby Ken, and Aunt Esther went to the nurses to find out why? She was told that they thought that he had "thrush mouth". We took him home in 10 days, but he cried day and night. We finally told our family doctor to call in a Baby Specialist, as Ken was not getting any better. (However, the ONLY Dr. I DIDN'T want to be on the case was a Dr. Mauer, as he was the Dr. that told my parents that my brother Donny was going to die, and I thought he was terrible). So Dr. Mauer was called in and he came to our home and examined Ken, he opened Ken's mouth and shone a small flashlight in it and it was completely covered with sores! No wonder he cried so much! The Dr. said that he was lacking Vitamin B Complex and we would have to start him on watered down milk with B complex in it, and after we did that he began to improve rapidly. The Dr. said that when he can eat, he will want cereal, and he did he was the only one of my children who ate cereal like it was going out of style!
However, after about a month we found a house to buy that had been started, poured cement walls were up and the house was built up on piers.
One day, Dad happened to think about a house that was the first house nearest the factory, and he asked the girls at the office, if anyone lived there, as it appeared to be empty. They said the house was occupied, the man who lived there, had married a girl from South Africa, when he was a pilot in the war, however, she had left him, as she was used to servants and was a career girl. He had never married again and lived there alone. That day, we drove out to his house and Dad went in and told him our problem, that we were living in a hotel room and had a house under construction, but needed a temporary place to live for a few months. The man's name was Murray Nankivell and he told Dad that he would think about it and to come back on Monday, and he would let us know his decision.
Don't think that we didn't do a lot of praying about his decision, as Kenny and Nancy wanted a yard to play in too. We went back on Monday and it was pouring rain, but he popped into the car and said the answer was YES! We had been reading about renting problems and that some people were charging $500 for a house key, as they had government rent controls. So we wondered what his price would be?? Murray said that if we would cook him dinner every night and wash his clothes, he would call it "even"! We told him that that wasn't fair to him as there were five of us to his one and that we wanted to pay rent too but he wouldn't hear of it. After we moved into the house, we wanted to buy wood for the fireplace in his big kitchen, and I would run out to pay for it he would tell the delivery man not to take my money, or he would refuse the delivery.
Uncle Murray Nankivell was an absolute ANGEL to our family we ended up living with him for nine months before we moved into our new house and unpacked our own household things my favorite item was the new washing machine that we had. Because while we lived with Uncle Murray I had had to use a copper boiler and boil the clothes, and then use a hand wringer to wring them out.
Murray worked for the Goodyear Tire Co., which was across the river from the Le Tourneau plant he had never heard of us, and yet he took all five of us into his home and treated us like family! Our kids loved Uncle Murray Barb would be in her playpen and when he came home from work, he would pick her up and play with her like she was his own child.
OTHER STUFF - 1948 and AFTER:
Ken would play with a little boy Bobby, whose Aunt married a G.I. after the war and lived in the U.S.A.. His mother told me one day that the two boys were arguing and Bobby said, "good, go home, you don't even talk American any more!"
Barb would take her shower with Nancy and Nancy would be singing her alto part from her choir songs and before we knew it, Barb was singing alto also. She learned to harmonize like Nancy and we would sing up a storm when we went riding in the car. Barb was harmonizing before she was 6 years old. (Dad and I could never harmonize).
We lived opposite an Oval (Park), where several swings and slides were and Nancy defended Kenny and Barb when some big boys made them give up their swings. I wasn't home, but Dad said Nancy saw what had happened and marched over there with her hands on her hips and told them off! :-)
The very first little girl that Nancy met in Australia was the hotel manager's grand-daughter and she was born on the same day as Nancy December 12, 1939.
One of the greatest blessings we had from our stay in Australia was being adopted by Grandma Prideaux (she was Uncle Murray's Aunt and lived right behind his home in Rydalmere). She was a very dear lady who was the number one Grandma in our children's lives. As our kids were in their growing up years and she treated them as her own grandchildren, and their "real" grandmas were thousands of miles away. She had had a daughter named June, who had died when she was young, so I was sort of her replacement daughter also.
OTHER STUFF - LATER YEARS
Dad had a heart attack while he was on a business trip in Brantford, Ontario, Canada just before he retired from Wabco, when he was 64 years old. I went up to be with him and Nancy drove up from Lansing, Michigan to be with us also.
Then, after retirement, we bought several acres of woods, out in Dunlap from Doe. Allen. Dad ended up building a double garage first, and then put a two story house on top of that, and most of the house was built from recycled products and items. It was a very comfortable and unique home. Dad planted many trees, flowers and shrubs and a small orchard. There was a pond, with some big fish in it and he also battled the beavers. (the beavers lost the battle, and we even tanned their skins and gave them to the grandsons.)
There was a nice kitchen in the new house, but it was basically for "emergency use only", as we went out to eat almost everyday! We ended up staying there for about 10 years, and moved to Independence Village, when the mowing got to be too much for us, in 1992.
In September, 1992 - Dad had triple by-pass surgery at Proctor Hospital. He bounced back from that rather well and we were able to travel and do lots of things.
However, Dad's heart got weaker and weaker, and for about four years, he was on a 24 hour IV of Dobutamine and he finally passed away in January 1999.
God has been with us wherever we lived, watching over us. We enjoyed building two homes and living in Australia, then coming back to Peoria and building another new home. Then off to Indianapolis where we built another new home. It sounds like we moved a lot because our credit wasn't good not really! :-)
So, I truly believe that God directed all of the good things that happened to our whole family through the years.
June is survived by her children, Nancy (Dean) Watts, Kenneth (Carol) Apacki, and Barbara (James) Conard; nine grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Mildred Ebling and Mary Ellen Fisher; and her brothers, Charles and Donald Garrison.
________________
THE MEMOIRS
OF
EVELYN JUNE
GARRISON - APACKI
- August 2005 -
THE MEMOIRS OF EVELYN JUNE GARRISON-APACKI:
August 2005
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST - ABOUT BEING A KID?
For some reason, my first memory is about being stepped on by a draft horse at the Peoria County Fair, when I was six years old! I remember seeing my mom and Grandma Hull, who was visiting from Fairfax, Iowa. I don't remember how I got under the horse, but I was sitting underneath the horses and one had his hoof on my right thigh. It took awhile for my rescuers to decide how to lift the horse's leg and pull me out. They were afraid the horse would stomp his toot and maybe step on my stomach. The next thing I remember, is Bill Schillinger (our neighbor who took us to the Fair), holding me in his arms and asking me where I hurt, I don't think I was bleeding anywhere but I remember showing him that it hurt at the top of my high laced-up shoe, on my right foot.
I was taken to a little hospital on the Fairgrounds, Mom and Grandma were crying, and I asked the nurse who was treating me, "am I going to die?" and she assured me, that she would fix me up.
For months, after that, my Dad would put me on a pillow and carry me downstairs in the morning, and I slept in a big baby bed, as couldn't sleep with anyone.
After I could walk again, (not sure how long this was), a big bruise came out in boils, at the top of my leg and backside.
Mrs. Krieter (neighbor) who had a grocery store up on Wisconsin Ave, stopped in to see me with Freddy, her 6 yr. old son, and he handed me a bunch of flowers. So, I got up and went over and kissed him! (I never lived that action down!) :-)
WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
THINGS TO DO AS A CHILD?
We would play "grocery store" by pulling the work table over to the pantry door - I did this mainly with my younger sister Mary Ellen (2 yrs. younger than me).
We had lots of neighbor kids in our 2 blocks on Kansas Ave, so would jump rope, play hop-scotch, rock school (on 5 or 6 steps), kick the wicket, (stand on corner sewer lid and kick stick off of the bricks, and play like baseball, and run to the three bases). Sometimes, we would take a tin can and lay it on its side and jam our foot into it, and pretend we had high heels on, and would walk like "big" people. Once in awhile we would inherit a pair of ladies pumps, from a neighbor, (as my mother never wore high heels), and we really enjoyed that. We would also play Mother May I?, hide and seek and we would hide in 2 or 3 neighbor's yards and have fun.
I don't remember fighting with any of the kids, we just had FUN!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES
OF YOUR FATHER?
My Dad's name was Charles Walter Garrison, and he had 3 sisters, Wilma, Amy and Grace. Grace had 4 children, and she and her husband Hank, both got the old Flu and they died. Uncle Hank's old-maid sister, was a jolly soul and good-hearted,and raised all four children on her own!
My Dad was a hard-working brick-layer, and in the summer, after supper, he would walk the one and a half blocks down our street to the Firehouse and visit the firemen. If it was hot, he would come home with a quart of hand-packed ice cream, and Mom would dish it up for 7 or 8 people.
When I was about 10 yrs old, I thought I was a big girl, and if I went with Dad to the Firehouse, I would ask Dad for 5 cents, and would go to the Drug Store, and get a Coke, and sit on the high stools at the counter. He generally gave me the 5 cents, because that was my treat, and that meant that there would be more ice-cream for him that night!
Sometimes on a summer Saturday, when he had to work a half a day, he would take a couple of us kids to work with him, especially when he was building houses on Grandview Drive, and we would pretend that the house he was building was our house, and that we were rich!
Dad was a "top" bowler in Peoria and he would go to a Bowling Congress in New York, and come home and tell us about seeing the Rockettes at Rockefeller Center.
When it was hot, Dad would take us all for a ride in the car, just to cool us down. They liked to go out in the country and then would stop and get fresh eggs and vegetables. Around Labor Day weekend, is when we would get about 5 bushels of tomatoes, which we always canned. Dad would scald the tomatoes and when we got bigger, we would peel them and slice them, so Mom could cook them, and put them in Mason jars and store them for the winter. We always used all of them up by the next summertime.
We used to complain on Labor Day weekend, when we had to help with the tomatoes, as all of the neighbor kids seemed to be going on picnics and having fun and we had to WORK!
During the Depression, brick work was hard to find, as no new brick houses were being built, so Dad only got some small jobs, like pointing up foundations or chimneys so money was scarce.
The first winter that he was able to work full-time, after the Depression, he worked on the Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights, where they put up scaffolding, and put heavy canvas around the building, and they had barrels with fires in them, to keep the mortar and the men from freezing.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE
MEMORIES OF YOUR MOTHER?
My mother was hard of hearing, and for years we would holler in her good ear. Since she couldn't hear us, we would "sass her", and if Dad heard about it, he would use his big hand and whip us and cuff us behind the head, and send us upstairs, he would cuff us so hard, we would miss the first 2 or 3 steps. He'd generally reprimand all three of us girls, so he would know for sure that he got the right one!
I remember many times, asking my Mom for things out of the Sears Roebuck Catalog, she would never say she wouldn't buy it. When I was about 8 years old, I would ask for something and if I could have it and she would say "when my ship comes in, we will buy it!" I remember one evening asking her, when her ship would come in, and she and Dad smiled at each other and said that they were afraid that their ship had SUNK!
WHAT WERE YOUR SISTERS LIKE WHEN
YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I had two sisters, Mildred, 2 years older and Mary Ellen, 2 years younger. Mildred was always yelling at us and she always seemed to get the best of me, as she could twist your arm until you hollered loud enough, that Mom made her stop. I never remember fighting with Mary Ellen, but Mildred was bossy! Even when we were older, if Mildred got mad at me, she would open up the door and holler out "June's a negro - June's a negro!" Then I would ask Mom, "am I a negro?" Mom would only say, if you are a negro, then Mildred is a negro too! However, that really hurt my ego a lot, as it was so demeaning, and for years I always had an inferiority complex and never felt "good enough"!
The last time Mary Ellen and I went out to California to see Mildred in the nursing home, when we were all in our eighties, Mildred asked me to forgive her, for treating me so mean! I should have told her that it really hurt me a lot. But I did forgive her but she did it even when I was in High School. (In the summers I would always get brown as a berry, while Mildred just freckled and burned.)
WHAT WERE YOUR BROTHER'S LIKE
WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
When I was about 12, my Mom had my brother Charles Jr., which must have been hard for her, as she was 40 years old.
Then 18 months later, she had my second brother Donny, who was my Dad's shadow. (When Dad and Donny would walk to the Firehouse, everyone said, Donny even walked like my Dad like an old man.)
When Chuck was 8, and Donny was 6, they both got the mumps, Chuck got along o.k. but Donny was sick. Mom saw the Dr. across the street one day, and asked if Donny wanted the Dr. to come and see him, but he said "no". However, 3 days later, when Donny was much sicker, the Dr. came into the house, and told us that Donny had Diphtheria, the Dr. could tell by the smell. We were called home from school and the Dr. gave us a Diphtheria shot and Epsom Salts and none of the rest of the family got Diphtheria. But, Donny died a few days later. There was a private funeral, as all of us kids were with the neighbors and we couldn't go into the house. Mom and Dad went to the cemetery and stayed in the car. A real sad time, that's for sure. My mom had a nervous break-down after that and was sick for a month or so.
At the time Donny died; the Dionne Quintuplets were born and made history!
DID YOU EVER GET UPSET WITH YOUR
PARENTS? WHY?
I did get upset with my parents, when I was about 16 and dating a little bit. At this same time, Mary Ellen (14) was dating Johnny Fisher, who was a student at Bradley University. However, anytime a boy would walk me home and come in the house my parents would always yell downstairs and check up on just ME and this was very embarrassing and upsetting to me. They never yelled down to Mary Ellen and Johnny, just ME!
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES?
My childhood friends were all neighbors. The Holtzman Family - John, Mary, Helen, Frances & Jeannie. The Stewart Family, Bill, Leonard, Virginia, Rosalie & Francis. The Lush Family, I would visit with the old lady, her son was married and lived with her. She would make lye soap for washing clothes. The Trent's, who were our landlords, Mom and Dad rented from them until after 1939 and then bought our home, when the Trent's wanted to sell it.
The Schillinger's, Aunty Schill and Uncle Bill lived next door, good neighbors, always helping people. Bill would get baby alligators and grow them in a pool in his basement, and then would eventually have to get rid of them, so he put them in the Illinois River, and caused quite a stir, when someone found them thought they had swum up from the Gulf Coast!
Dear Aunty Watson, lived behind us and helped take care of me when I was 9 months old and I had whooping cough and pneumonia. We would read the paper to her, as she was nearly blind, a really nice neighbor, she lived alone and was very independent. Her daughter would come and visit her everyday. Finally the daughter took her to live with her at her house, and she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. We all went up to the hospital to visit her (my sister Mary Ellen had only known people to go into the hospital to have a baby) - the first thing that Mary Ellen (age 3) asked Aunty Watson was "where's the baby?"
WHAT KIND OF STUDENT WERE YOU AS A KID? WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS?
Grade School was o.k., I got along well with my friends and liked to play at recess.
When I was in 7th Grade, the teacher thought that I should repeat a half a year, due to problems with percentages. So I was mid-term then and didn't graduate from Grade School with my class. However, after three and a half years in High School I had enough credits to graduate with all of my old friends and we are still friends.
My grades were usually B's & C's.
I never took part in any clubs in High School, as I would baby-sit and do housework, three times a week, after school, in the Depression. I was paid $3 per week.
When I was 74, 1 met a Grade School chum in the grocery store and she asked me to join some other girls that met every three months for lunch. We all graduated from Peoria High School in 1935, and now that I am 88 years old, I still go out with my school friends every other month and we still have 15 to 18 girls in the group!
I really didn't enjoy school too much; I liked spelling, writing and RECESS! :-)
WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
I really think I wanted to get married and have children!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF BEING A TEENAGER?
I mainly remember the kids from the Youth Group at Glen Oak Christian Church. Like I said before, my ego was terrible, I was always very shy, was always a wall-flower, as I never felt pretty or "good enough". I never could join anything, due to my baby-sitting job after school.
SO WHAT WERE YOUR TEENAGE DATING EXPERIENCES? DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DATE?
After Christian Endeavor at Glen Oak Christian Church, fellas would walk me home from church at night, but no serious dates until I met Chuck Apacki.
I dated Bill Waugho, Eddie Augsburger, Eddie Black, Glen Ball, and a couple of friends of Johnny Fisher. I also dated Paul Moon, who lived down the street, his grandfather was the Principal of my Grade School.
So, nothing serious until I met
Chuck when I was 19 years old. We married in January 1939, when I was 21 and Chuck was 22.
DID YOU HAVE ANY ROLE MODELS WHEN YOU WERE A TEEN? WHO WERE THEY & WHY DID YOU LOOK UP TO THEM?
I always wanted to be like one of our new neighbors Mrs. Stubbey. She was always neat and tidy and her hair looked nice and she dressed nice and she was never messy!
I also always looked up to one of my Sunday school teachers, Rhea Miller, she was always caring and made me feel good.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DID YOU LIKE AS A TEEN? ANY FAVORITE ARTISTS OR GROUPS?
I liked popular music, Ring Crosby and many others. I always listened to the radio, to see which star was at the top of the list.
DID YOU HAVE A DREAM OR BURNING DESIRE TO HAVE ANY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE OR ADVENTURE AS A YOUNG ADULT?
I used to dream about learning to fly an airplane, but decided to buy a fur coat instead, which cost me $100.
Chuck did take me for an airplane ride when we were dating.
At this time in my life I was working at Hiram Walker's Distillery, where I made $12 for a 40 hour work week. I spent $1 per week for a streetcar pass or car-pool, paid my folks $4 for room and board and spent the rest on clothes and Christmas presents.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRST TIME YOU MET DAD (Charles Apacki).
Your Dad came to church with his friend, Butch Roberts, who was dating June Ball at our church. I met him the first time at a Sunday School Class Party, when we played "two penny toss-up", under a card table, while setting up the refreshment table. He asked if he could take me home. He had an old 1929 Ford and love was in bloom soon after.
Chuck came to Peoria to his older sister's home (Irma Pavelka) to stay, on his way to California in January 1936. Since it was so cold, he couldn't hitch-hike, as would have frozen to death, so he got a job at LeTourneau's. They made scrapers for Caterpillar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU AND DAD WENT OUT? TELL ME ABOUT IT?
I am not sure, he probably took me to a movie and then we always went somewhere for a light snack and a Coke.
He would usually come over two or three times a week.
Shortly after we met, he left to go out to California on his Indian motorcycle, he was gone for three weeks and sent me a postcard everyday. I wasn't exactly sure when he would get home and one day as I was walking up the street to the streetcar, he was at the top of the hill in his 1929 Ford waiting for me. It was so good to see him again and hear all about his travels, and I had really missed him! (I had never been further than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was about 200 miles from home.)
We went together for about a year and a half and decided we wanted to get married in January 1939. Mom and Dad said we should wait until June to get married, but we said "no way!"
He bought a beautiful diamond engagement ring and drove out Knoxville Ave, to "The Knolls" (a fancy neighborhood), and stopped under a street light and gave nee my ring. The next evening he asked my Dad for my hand in marriage and Dad said that it was up to ME, and of course I said YES! (I would always tell people that Dad asked for my hand, and my father said that he had to take my mouth also, and feed me.) just kidding! :-)
WAS MARRIAGE ALWAYS PART OF YOUR PLAN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Yes, marriage was always in my mind! When Dad asked me to marry him, he was making $39 a week as a welder at LeTourneau's. As part of his proposal of marriage he asked me if I could keep a dog and live on $39 a week? I only made $12 a week, so I said "of course anybody could" and he said "let's get married". Afterwards, he would kid me and say that he lead a dog's life ever since.:-)
After our wedding day, we went up to Highland, Indiana to visit Dad's parents and friends. They had a big dinner and dancing all evening. About 10:30p.m. we left to go to a hotel in Gary, Indiana for our honeymoon. The next morning we went back to his folks for breakfast and then got in the car and I thought we were on our way back to Peoria. We were driving south on Route #41 which was a direct route to Florida, and every time a big car would pass us, Dad would say that he would bet that they were going to Florida. After a half a dozen times of him saying that, I finally asked him why he said that? He told me that he would bet I didn't know where I was going and I said "home I guess". He said, "no, you are going to Florida!" So, by marrying your father I had a very adventuresome life!
The night before we got married, he told me that since it was January, that I had better pack enough clothes for a week for our honeymoon, as we might get stuck somewhere! I didn't even own a suitcase, so I borrowed Grandma Hull's. We ended up getting to Pensacola, Florida and stayed two days there and then drove home again.
We bought a house at 725 Alexander Street, in Peoria for $2,000, not far from LeTourneau's. It had been a rental property for years, so needed a lot of work.
WHICH HAVE BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING TIMES DURING YOUR LIFE WITH DAD?
ALL 60 years, as never a dull moment!! We were 28 & 29 on our first trip and move to Sydney, Australia in 1946. We built two homes there and came home in 1956. We had a trip around the world on our first "home leave", as from the time we got there; we started saving our money for the trip home. The Company paid for our airfare and we were halfway around the world, so we just kept going! Whenever we stopped, we had to pay the Hotel and living expenses, but it was before Nancy was 12 years old, so only had to pay one and a half fares for the kids and two fare for us.
We stopped in Singapore, India for a couple of nights, Cairo, Egypt, stayed in a Palace Hotel., Rome, Italy, Paris, France, London, England and then to New York and Chicago. We came into Peoria on the Rocket train and were met by all of our family, holding signs welcoming us HOME!
(My father had passed away suddenly at 66 years of age in 1950, on my 33rd birthday. This happened to be on the same day that we bought our first new car a HOLDEN car and your Dad had me drive it home. Then when I got home, I received a cable telling me that my father had passed away, which was a terrible shock!)
Therefore, when we got off the train in Peoria and were met by the family, I finally realized that my father was really gone!
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE PREGNANT WITH ME (Nancy)?
Nancy, you were a welcome baby girl who was just beautiful in every way. You arrived eleven months after we were married.
While I was pregnant, I remember asking a nice neighbor lady to go walking with me, as I felt so good for the whole nine months. Sometimes I would also go walking with a couple of neighbor kiddies and we would walk to Kingman School and pickup their big brother.
After you had a baby, in 1939, the doctors kept you in bed for 9 days and then on the 10th day, you were allowed to get up, but you were so weak you had to walk close to the wall, as were so wobbly and then they would send you home that day with the baby! That was really crazy, now days they don't let you rest after the birth and send you home right away!
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE DAY I WAS BORN?
My water broke at home about 3 a.m. and Dad called the doctor, and he told us to go to Methodist Hospital. When I got there, they gave me "twilight sleep" and I cannot remember pain of any kind, but Dad said they had to put the up the sides on the bed.
I woke up about 3:30 p.m. in a three-bed ward with two other ladies (I thought they were having babies also, but they weren't). After awhile I asked one of them, if I had had my baby? They told me I did, so I raised up the blankets and found out that I could see my feet wow, so I knew that I must have had you. I called for the nurse and she brought you in to see me! They didn't want Dad to hang around the hospital, so he went back to work and came back later, as he knew I was o.k.. I checked you real good and you had 10 fingers and 10 toes and were a sweet little girl.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF ME AS A CHILD?
I remember that you were always a little "mother" to your brother and sister.
I remember you and Claire Green playing "house" in Australia, you had a cubbie under our house, (the house was up on beams).
One day I was talking to a neighbor in Peoria, as you always played with her girls, and I mentioned "canning pickles" and she said that when I played "house" with her girls and I set the table, I always had to put the pickles on the table.
I will never forget, when we first got to the Star Hotel in Parramatta, where we lived for about 3 months, we had an old trunk that we put on the balcony, so you could stand on it, and look over the wide brick railing. You would get paper and pencil and teach Ken to write down the number on the city buses that stopped in front of the Hotel.
When you were about seven and a half, I was talking and you asked me, "mother what is confidence?" (there was one commercial on the radio, that said to take a certain brand of aspirin, with confidence). You asked if "confidence" was water? (because you knew that one always takes pills with water).
One day, as I stepped down out of the laundry room, my shoes were wet and I slipped and went down, with one leg folded under me, so of course I was limping the next day. When you came home from school, you asked me if I had gone to the Dr. and I said "no". Then you told me that "at my age" that could cause me trouble and that I really should go to the Dr. (I was probably 30 years old at the time!) :-)
You were the first grandchild in my family, so every Sunday afternoon; the whole family would come to our house and hold you all the time, passing you from one person to another. Then on Monday, when I had to do the washing, you were very fussy and wanted to be held. I would just step inside your room and you would stop fussing, as you thought I was going to pick you up.
By the time you were 2 years old, you were talking and walking and learning fast. You knew the Pledge of Allegiance by heart. When Dr. Mauer would come to see your brother Kenny, he was so taken with your Pledge of Allegiance that he would call up his receptionist and have you say the Pledge over the telephone to her. You always were very serious when you said it and saluted.
Before we ate a meal, we would pray, so when you were about 3 years old, whenever I would give you a cookie in your high chair, you would put your hands over your eyes and say AMEN every time we gave you something to eat.
WHAT INTERESTS & CHARACTERISTICS HAVE YOU SEEN IN ME THAT YOU ALSO HAD ONCE UPON A TIME?
You like to keep a tidy house and you like to cook, just as I used to. You also like to make good food and entertain people in your home.
We both like to sing, but you sing good, while I only sound good if you harmonize with me.
We both love our families and neither one of us is lazy. We like people!
We are different also, you are good looking. I play the organ by ear, and that is hard to do (play with your ear). You are quiet and I talk too much, and even write too much.
You turned out super with a level-head on your shoulders.
You had a different life, with living overseas and going to work in the Bank at 15 yrs. old in Sydney. Then saving up your money to go back to Australia to see your friends by yourself on a ship alone, proved that you were very brave and capable. I am glad others see your good traits and put you in great jobs in your volunteer work and in church. I am glad that you are a Christian.
I think you have been an asset to this old world in many ways and you are now a sweet Grandma.
I am also glad that you picked a sweet guy to marry, as Dean is great, so kind and loving and tries to help others outside of just our family.
WHAT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Seeing my family all well and happy. I am so happy they have given me 16, going-on 17 great grandchildren.
I am just sorry that I don't seem to accomplish much now, except tell jokes and visit my friends in the nursing homes. I visit at least 3 or 4 friends in Proctor Home Health Care and another 8 or 9 at Lutheran Home Health Care and some friends are still at Rosewood Nursing Nome.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE PLANS THAT. YOU WOULD CARE TO SHARE?
I trust I will hang in there to the end and hope that I never turn into a "grouchy old woman".
I am, looking forward to Heaven and seeing Dad and many loved ones again.
TELL ME ABOUT THE WORK YOU'VE DONE THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE?
My first job was baby-sitting and cleaning house, in the afternoons while I was in High School. Sometimes I would stay overnight with the family and work the next day also. I would get $1 a day.
Then I Worked at Hiram Walker's Distillery in the bottling department and made $12 a week.
From 1956 to 1968 I was a Volunteer Red Cross Gray Lady at Proctor Hospital in Peoria, and the Veterans Hospital in Indianapolis. I am still an Associate Member of the Proctor Auxiliary, where I have accumulated over 3,000 hours of service.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BEST QUALITY?
I never meet a stranger, and I am friendly and out-going.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR WORST QUALITY?
That I talk too much!
AS YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE SO FAR, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I am most proud of my whole family!
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS THAT YOU'D CARE TO SHARE WITH ME?
That I am too fat!
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TRAVELS? ANY INTERESTING STORIES?
So many travels, and stories, that it is hard to remember them all.
Lived in Sydney, Australia for 10 years.
Lived in Bangalore, India for 6 years, and had 7 servants to take care of EVERYTHING! I had the "life of Riley!"
While there, we went on many overseas trips, one time Dad wanted us to go to Zambia, Africa to see the Jerry Mason's. We thought that we had reservations at a Hotel, arrived at 11:30 p.m., but no record of our reservation. We ended up on a rollaway bed in a Butler's Pantry, that bell-hops used, with a bathroom across the hall. They woke us up at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. as requested, so it was a very short night!
Dad worked in Shanghai, China for 3 or 4 months and I joined him for about 6 weeks, very interesting.
The last "round the world trip" we took was in 1994, after Dad had by-pass surgery. Each of us had a small suitcase and we went through Europe, and got back to Australia and New Zealand. Went on an "open" ticket, so could go at our own pace, which was great……we were gone 3 months.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? ANYTHING AT ALL? ANYTHING?
Don't forget that I have a crypt at the American Mausoleum ....next to Dad!
IF YOU FELT THE NEED TO OFFER SOME ADVICE TO ME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Live everyday to the fullest, because one day you will come to a screeching halt! :-)
OTHER STUFF:
My children: I had three children and always tried to be fair to all of them and treat them the same. I had two girls and a boy:
Nancy June in 1939
Kenneth Charles in 1942
Barbara Lynn in 1946
They all turned out pretty good, and are all responsible and good Christian kids! Really!!
They spent 10 years in Sydney, Australia. Dad was asked to be Plant Engineer for the Le-Tourneau plant there. Al Losch was the Plant Manager and When he asked Dad if he would like to go to Australia, Dad told him he would have to go home and ask me. At the time, Barb was only three and a half months old, so we asked the Dr. if we should go, and he told us that Barb would probably be the best traveler of all of us, as she would be on her formula and boiled water, and she was!
Ken was 4 and Nancy was 6 and in the First grade, By the time we got on the train to go to California, Barb and Ken had whooping cough, even though the Dr. in Peoria, had given them whooping cough shots. When we arrived in San Francisco, Al & Alma Losch, got us into a baby doctor and except for coughing several times a day, they really weren’t that sick.
We had three weeks in one room in a hotel in San Francisco - were delayed because of a wharf strike. Then we finally got on the ship and had three weeks on the water before getting to Sydney.
It is really ironic, that as a kid, I couldn't even ride the streetcar without getting motion sickness, I would have to get off and walk, but on this trip I was on trains and a ship and did o.k.
OTHER STUFF - 1942 - 1947
Dad and I thought that we would try for another baby, as our first one turned out good. I had an easy pregnancy with Ken, felt good, and ate well and did a lot of walking. The only thing that was different this time, was that I craved oranges, never ate just one, but usually two.
Our friends Charlotte and Kenny Williams were starting their family also, but she was bed-fast most of the time, as couldn't seem to eat. She even had to enter the hospital and have intravenous feedings. I felt strong enough to do all of my housework and then would go and see Charlotte and do her housework. I had Kenneth Charles on June 14, 1942, a few days before she had her Ken, our son weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces, and Charlotte had her first baby who weighed in at 10 pounds! (she was so weak during labor that she prayed to die).
In the hospital they isolated our baby Ken, and Aunt Esther went to the nurses to find out why? She was told that they thought that he had "thrush mouth". We took him home in 10 days, but he cried day and night. We finally told our family doctor to call in a Baby Specialist, as Ken was not getting any better. (However, the ONLY Dr. I DIDN'T want to be on the case was a Dr. Mauer, as he was the Dr. that told my parents that my brother Donny was going to die, and I thought he was terrible). So Dr. Mauer was called in and he came to our home and examined Ken, he opened Ken's mouth and shone a small flashlight in it and it was completely covered with sores! No wonder he cried so much! The Dr. said that he was lacking Vitamin B Complex and we would have to start him on watered down milk with B complex in it, and after we did that he began to improve rapidly. The Dr. said that when he can eat, he will want cereal, and he did he was the only one of my children who ate cereal like it was going out of style!
However, after about a month we found a house to buy that had been started, poured cement walls were up and the house was built up on piers.
One day, Dad happened to think about a house that was the first house nearest the factory, and he asked the girls at the office, if anyone lived there, as it appeared to be empty. They said the house was occupied, the man who lived there, had married a girl from South Africa, when he was a pilot in the war, however, she had left him, as she was used to servants and was a career girl. He had never married again and lived there alone. That day, we drove out to his house and Dad went in and told him our problem, that we were living in a hotel room and had a house under construction, but needed a temporary place to live for a few months. The man's name was Murray Nankivell and he told Dad that he would think about it and to come back on Monday, and he would let us know his decision.
Don't think that we didn't do a lot of praying about his decision, as Kenny and Nancy wanted a yard to play in too. We went back on Monday and it was pouring rain, but he popped into the car and said the answer was YES! We had been reading about renting problems and that some people were charging $500 for a house key, as they had government rent controls. So we wondered what his price would be?? Murray said that if we would cook him dinner every night and wash his clothes, he would call it "even"! We told him that that wasn't fair to him as there were five of us to his one and that we wanted to pay rent too but he wouldn't hear of it. After we moved into the house, we wanted to buy wood for the fireplace in his big kitchen, and I would run out to pay for it he would tell the delivery man not to take my money, or he would refuse the delivery.
Uncle Murray Nankivell was an absolute ANGEL to our family we ended up living with him for nine months before we moved into our new house and unpacked our own household things my favorite item was the new washing machine that we had. Because while we lived with Uncle Murray I had had to use a copper boiler and boil the clothes, and then use a hand wringer to wring them out.
Murray worked for the Goodyear Tire Co., which was across the river from the Le Tourneau plant he had never heard of us, and yet he took all five of us into his home and treated us like family! Our kids loved Uncle Murray Barb would be in her playpen and when he came home from work, he would pick her up and play with her like she was his own child.
OTHER STUFF - 1948 and AFTER:
Ken would play with a little boy Bobby, whose Aunt married a G.I. after the war and lived in the U.S.A.. His mother told me one day that the two boys were arguing and Bobby said, "good, go home, you don't even talk American any more!"
Barb would take her shower with Nancy and Nancy would be singing her alto part from her choir songs and before we knew it, Barb was singing alto also. She learned to harmonize like Nancy and we would sing up a storm when we went riding in the car. Barb was harmonizing before she was 6 years old. (Dad and I could never harmonize).
We lived opposite an Oval (Park), where several swings and slides were and Nancy defended Kenny and Barb when some big boys made them give up their swings. I wasn't home, but Dad said Nancy saw what had happened and marched over there with her hands on her hips and told them off! :-)
The very first little girl that Nancy met in Australia was the hotel manager's grand-daughter and she was born on the same day as Nancy December 12, 1939.
One of the greatest blessings we had from our stay in Australia was being adopted by Grandma Prideaux (she was Uncle Murray's Aunt and lived right behind his home in Rydalmere). She was a very dear lady who was the number one Grandma in our children's lives. As our kids were in their growing up years and she treated them as her own grandchildren, and their "real" grandmas were thousands of miles away. She had had a daughter named June, who had died when she was young, so I was sort of her replacement daughter also.
OTHER STUFF - LATER YEARS
Dad had a heart attack while he was on a business trip in Brantford, Ontario, Canada just before he retired from Wabco, when he was 64 years old. I went up to be with him and Nancy drove up from Lansing, Michigan to be with us also.
Then, after retirement, we bought several acres of woods, out in Dunlap from Doe. Allen. Dad ended up building a double garage first, and then put a two story house on top of that, and most of the house was built from recycled products and items. It was a very comfortable and unique home. Dad planted many trees, flowers and shrubs and a small orchard. There was a pond, with some big fish in it and he also battled the beavers. (the beavers lost the battle, and we even tanned their skins and gave them to the grandsons.)
There was a nice kitchen in the new house, but it was basically for "emergency use only", as we went out to eat almost everyday! We ended up staying there for about 10 years, and moved to Independence Village, when the mowing got to be too much for us, in 1992.
In September, 1992 - Dad had triple by-pass surgery at Proctor Hospital. He bounced back from that rather well and we were able to travel and do lots of things.
However, Dad's heart got weaker and weaker, and for about four years, he was on a 24 hour IV of Dobutamine and he finally passed away in January 1999.
God has been with us wherever we lived, watching over us. We enjoyed building two homes and living in Australia, then coming back to Peoria and building another new home. Then off to Indianapolis where we built another new home. It sounds like we moved a lot because our credit wasn't good not really! :-)
So, I truly believe that God directed all of the good things that happened to our whole family through the years.
Family Members
Parents
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
