Author: Ronald Guenther
Written: October 22nd, 2013

I thought first that I should clear up a couple of points. First, that part where those boys were pulled into the pit. Well, that happened the year before grandpa got there and so he only got this by hearsay. It seems there were a whole bunch of boys in on this and only a couple of the boys were pulled into the pit and they were rescued immediately. But they made that man’s life a living hell the following year. The people all laughed at the poor boys but then thought that the bum got what he deserved.

Secondly, I said that grandpa was against sports. That is not entirely true. He thought it was just fine that pop played tennis. He did not like to see him play football, basketball, or baseball. Track was OK, but tennis was good. He himself had once played in a curling league in Iowa and Wisconsin. Pop as I said got pretty good at tennis and he became close friends with the Why brothers, Bert Why who eventually took over the business started by his father Gow Why, Roy Chan and Moon Chan. In those days every little two bit town had a tennis tournament and he and Moon entered in a number of them and won a number of trophies. Later in Marcus, he also won a number of trophies but the principal of the school would not let him have them, said they were the property of the school. Only another close friend, Bertha, saw the trophies and verified that they really existed.

The people in those days were really different, too. A few years before pop got to Marshfield, Marshfield High School was voted by sportswriters to be the mythical state champions, there were no state championships back then. As I said before, the players all played sixty minutes and our Uncle Cliff was the first string half back on that team. The first stringers all were good friends and they all agreed that they would serve as pall bearers for the funerals of their members and they did that down to the end. But the team had been so good that the coach decided for the first time that the second stringers should also get letters. That made the first stringers so made that they went around and beat up the individual second stringers and took their letters away from them. Nobody was punished. Boys will be boys.

At any rate, the sisters, Berchion and Noma stayed in Coos Bay and pop went back to Marcus, Washington with his father. His father never drove and so pop had to take over the driving from that time one. He would be a senior in Marcus.

But Halloween is coming up and so I thought I would interject a Halloween story, namely, the only time that Bob, Louise and I went trick or treating. I had never heard of trick or treating before but all the kids in school were doing it and so I wanted to do it, too. In those years they had a big Halloween parade. The year was 1943. I was five, almost six, Brother Bob was four and Sister Louise was two. Bob and I were cowboys and Louise was dressed up like a little angel. She was so cute. So, we went to the parade. It seemed long, but that is because it was cold and misty and dark and miserable. It was dark. During the war, we had dark outs and so the light was made up of what the kids were bring and so on. Well, we made it through the parade and then it was time for us to go trick or treating. We were pretty excited. I don’t think Louise quite knew what was going on but if the big brothers were excited so was she. We drove in the direction of Mingus Park and came to a house and that was the one we were going to hit. So, we went up to the house, knocked on the door and an old lady opened the door and we dutifully said trick or treat. She was so nice. She told us how cute we were and how much she liked our costumes. She then invited us in to her dining room. I can still see it. She said she had just baked a nice cake for children like us and she cut each of us a piece of cake and gave it to us in a napkin. Well, this was super. We ran back to the car after thinking the lady and pop said, “Now you have to eat the cake because we do not want to make the car dirty.” So we each too a big bite and it was terrible. It was the worst cake ever. Neither mom nor pop would take it. But pop said, “Now see what you have done. You took what was probably the last food that old lady had and now you won’t even eat it. She tried to be nice by giving you the last of what she had and you do not appreciate it.” Well, we felt lower than snakes. So, then pop asked us of we still wanted to do other old ladies out of their food. We had never know that trick or treating could be so mean. We decided then and there that we would go home and not do this any more, which exactly what pop wanted to hear anyway. He could really lay a guilt trip on you. He was good. He was the best in that regard. We never went trick or treating again. But later, it occurred to us that we had been hornswoggled. All the brothers and sisters took ours trick or treating and the children loved it and we loved it when others came to our house. Halloween has become a beloved children’s feast. It is nice. Acts of random violence no longer happen. But that was our big outing on Halloween.

Next time, I will tell you how things went in Marcus.

To be continued