Author: Ronald Guenther
Written: June 3rd, 2014

In 1942 the war was raging and given the way the Japanese were moving in Asia, the outcome was not all that certain. They were tough customers and the people on the west coast were not all that happy that Roosevelt and Churchill saw the main threat in Europe.

Here at home, mom and pop had harvested the rest of the garden put in by the Barnes, the next spring, he used the old plow horse that they had left and plowed his own garden. Fresh fruits and vegetables were hard to come by, especially since everything was rationed. Thus, a garden was a must. This was a big garden and pop hated it, he hated to put it in, he hated to take care of it and he hated the harvest. The next year, the spring of 1943, he had another man with his team of horses come out and plow for him and he did that also in 1944. In the spring of 1945, he got a cheap rototiller and used that. He thought he would need ten gallons of gasoline and that was approved, but the fellow doing the approving wrote, instead of 10.00 gallons, 10000 gallons. Of course, pop said nothing, but he was never able to use the mistake because by that time the war was winding down and the rationing of gasoline went off. Each year, though, the size of the garden diminished and that year of 1945 was the last big garden that the folks put in. You know, in the summer, in fact, in August of 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs and everyone was talking about atom bombs, but I was so out of it that I thought they were talking about Adam bombs. Alas, so it was.

The new addition had been put in, though, and we all moved downstairs to our rooms. I think the folks were happy to have a room for themselves. Bob, Louise and I had the children’s room, I still had my single bed and Bob and Louise had their cribs. We used to make a lot of racket and one time we were making a lot of noise and mom and pop told us to go to bed. I was about five and Bob, three and Louise close to two. But we did not stop. So, mom said she would come in and settle us down if we did not stop, but that did not make an impression, either, so we heard mom coming. I had the bright idea to keep her out of the room and we all got together and held the door shut so she could not get it. She pushed gently and said to let her in but we were stubborn so she pushed a little harder and I could see what the outcome would be so we gave a mighty push, closed the door and I said to Bob and Louise, hold the door, and I jumped into bed. Well, Bob and Louise stoutly held their ground, but Bob could see what was coming, too, and so he looked at Louise and said, hold the door for dear life and he ran and jumped into bed. Well, I can still see little Louise pushing against that door, but then the door slowly started to open and Louise simply could not hold and so she turned and ran for her bed. Mom caught her half way across the room and that was the end of Louise. But mom knew good and well what the situation was and she next settled the score with Brother Bob. I on the other hand was faking sleep like crazy when suddenly the blanket was whisked away and there I was. I knew it was all over and it was. We never did that again.

In 1943, though, Grandma Wilda decided that she wanted to move out to our place and so pop got in and made the wood shed into a beautiful little cottage. There was a living room, a middle room with a kitchen and storage space, and then a bedroom, bathroom set up. He really put his heart and soul into that. It was nice. For washing, grandma would come and use mom’s set up and she even had a reasonable hot water heater. She heated with oil and not wood so things were more efficient that way. About August of that year, she moved in. Bob, Louise and I loved it. We visited her often. She would often be lying in bed and we played this game where we would see an object and say, I see an object and it is colored such and such and has say a nice design on it. So, they we would guess. One time she said, I see something with all the colors in the rainbow and we could not get it and so she had to tell us and it was her pin that she had on the wall. The last time I saw Grandma, sixteen years later on my way to Germany, she asked me if I still remembered that and I said that I did. Just before moving out, the property had come out of probate and she sold it all and lived off the proceeds the rest of her life. He second husband, Fred Meier, contributed to their living expenses so they could live a good life. Uncle Dick was stunned by that and he wrote her a letter saying, how could you do that, now there is nothing for me to come home to. Mom did not want that letter passed on and so she burned it. It was while she was living there that she got word that Uncle Dick was missing in action. That was too much for grandma. After the winter was over, she moved to Portland as she had always wanted to do and never dreamed of moving back. She only visited us about four times after that. That chapter of her life was over. Gradually, that nice little cottage reverted to being a woodshed again.

For us life went on. We liked to go up to where the garage had been and meet pop coming home. He always came home at the same time, about 12:30. Louise said we would go up there, and then ride home with him to “save our walkins”. We were pretty much a one car family then and pop had the car. Some times, about once a month, the Watkins Products man would come out and mom would buy a few things from him. We did most of our shopping for staples at Granny Granstrom’s store in Glasgow and it was there that all bills were paid, electricity, telephone. Taxes were paid in Coquille and that necessitated a drive. It was a nice existence. Mom canned and put the results in the storage area below the front porch, picked berries and made jam and so on.

To be continued.

Afterword:

Technically, we were the first family in Kentuck. Glasgow stopped at the “Lost Canyon” and then came Kentuck. Kentuck stopped shortly after the golf course and then came Cooston with an off shoot to Willanche. Kentuck was named after an early settler called Kentuck Thomas. He married a Coos Indian. Joe Thomas was one of his descendants. Joe’s father was a Coos Indian, a member of the Hanis group but he had a grandmother from the Miluk group and so Joe gets to be part of the group that runs the Mill Casino. There was quite a large Indian settlement on the Kentuck Inlet and in Willanche.

Note: by Edward Guenther

It’s funny how a little kid perceives life. You mention a ‘nice existence’ in the early years in Kentuck (by the way, we only knew it as Glasgow, with Kentuck starting at the golf course). I don’t know technically where Kentuck started. You saw that end of the family, I saw the other end. Life has many good things if we just stop to take a look. Thanks for the story.