THE DUST WILL WAIT

Octogenarian club, perhaps? Grand Auntie Fern will be 100 on April 3. I’ve written about her several times. Sitting to the left is her sister-in law Naomi, who is also our Grand Auntie. That is because Roy, the brother of Gram and Fern, took the beautiful Naomi to be his bride in 1921. At 104 years old she still lives in the house in which she and Roy raised their children. She maintains a certain level of independence with the help of her 86 year old daughter. The lovely lady in the center is Roberta. She is Naomi’s younger (almost 97 year old) sister. She is also a sister-in law to Auntie Fern because Ferns husband was her husband's brother. I hope you read this home town newspaper article about her published on Tuesday. I guarantee that you will be impressed. These three ladies preside over the Wednesday lunch gang. I was pleased to join them recently. There are around 12 people who make it part of their weekly routine. You never know for sure what other relative...

In Part 1 , the family arrived in the Touchet Valley during the late 1800s. Jennie, our Gram, was born in 1902 and grew up on a wheat farm. At age 10 she faced the death of her mother and the challenges of being the family cook and caretaker. In the final paragraph of Part 2 , the young farm hand and neighbor asks, "Jennie, will you marry me?" Her response was "Yes!" Here is Part 3 of Gram's Story. Jennie wanted to complete Normal School before she returned to the valley and into the arms of her betrothed. As always, with the best laid plans - things did not go according to hers. The first problem arose immediately following their winter engagement: John, her father, became contrary about the tuition expense. He did not want to pay for her remaining education and asked to be reimbursed for the amount he'd already covered. Jennie was penniless until she received her teaching certificate and a position. Raleigh's job as a farm hand was subject t...

(Part 1 of Grams Story can be read here.) Ten year old Jennie‘s life had changed. Living on a wheat ranch in 1912 was arduous – but much more so with the loss of a parent. Her older sisters married and started families of their own, leaving Jennie in charge of caring for her dad and remaining four siblings. Each day when school released she raced down the road towards home to the washing and ironing. She felt that she could never do anything right for her dad. She had no memories of hugs or kisses. She thought Fern, her younger sister, was the apple of his eye. In spite of this, she still loved Fern with all her heart. The newspaper reported a story about some other racing after school. Placing bets on whose horse was faster, they competed down the main street of town. The perpetrators were fined. Talk in town included the bounty on coyote pelts, the new bridge being planned over the Touchet River , and growing Alfalfa as an experimental seed crop In 19...

It was Kansas in the late 1800’s and there were corn fields to tend, laundry tubs to empty, pigs to butcher, and a baby in the chute. Always babies. John Dodd, a stubborn Welshman, was determined to head west. Oregon ? Washington ? – he wasn’t sure. He just knew that the Northwest was his destiny. As the wagon rolled across the prairie, his beautiful wife Alice, three daughters and two sons waved until their friends and extended family disappeared in the distance. The years rolled, too, -- the twentieth century arrived. In August 1902, another girl was born. She weighed 7 ¼ lbs on an old farm scale in a tent in Milton , Oregon . Her mother chose the name Jennie, after her great grandmother. It was not long after that the family began to homestead on what would become the family wheat ranch in Touchet , WA . The small house their dad built sat on the south side of a hill that sloped down to an old rambling dirt road. It lead to the bustling litt...