My Family, My Life: An Autobiography and a Lifetime of Short Stories

By Faye Wiese Poschwatta

This book is a lifetime of short stories that includes an autobiography and history of a woman, her immediate family, extended family, and pets. It also includes challenges, humor, tragedy, and historical lifetime events that spanned her life over a period of nearly seventy years. Truly, angels were in her life, walking with her along the path from childhood to old age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475940756

Faye Wiese Poschwatta

Faye Wiese Poschwatta grew up in a small town in Oregon. She survived her childhood without her mother, who died just four months after she was born. Her life was touched by hardship. She started working in the berry fields in Oregon when she was just eight years old.

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Copyright © 2012 by Faye Wiese Poschwatta

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-4074-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4076-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4075-6 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 8/20/2012

Contents

Acknowledgements

Part One

A Tragedy

Historic Oregon City

The Long Journey Began

The Family Grows

Irvin’s Family

Alice’s Family

Alice

Responsible Grandparents

Brothers and Sisters

Diff icult Times

Stepbrothers

Grandma and Grandpa Visited

Childhood Memories

The Neighborhood

New School

Summer Vacation

I Learned Patience

Challenges

The Other Side of the Family

Ups and Downs of Life

Surviving Childhood

Junior High School

All in a Days Work

High School

A Plan for the Future

Life is Full of Surprises

Grandma Wiese Died

Things Get Complicated

Grandpa Wiese Died

Part Two

Adult Responsibilities

A Major Storm

Unexpected Visits

Change of Routine

Life Changes

Yellowstone National Park

Quick Trip to the Hospital

Routine

More Family

Family Life

Sports, Dogs, and Vacations

Kudos and Awards

Disneyland

The Tumor

Home Life Continued

History in the Making

Family Events

Cub Scouts

Family Life

Speeding through Life

Another Step Forward

High School Graduation

Poschwattas at Home

Growing Pains

Paradise Bar Lodge

Dan the Young Man

Trouble for Sandi

Another Bump in the Road of Life

Friends, Family, and Pets

Challenges

The Good Life Continues

Hawaiian Holiday Trip

The Puppy and the Contractor

An Anniversary and a Subpoena

Sandi and Del Wed

Changes

More Life Changes

One Disaster after Another

My Washington D.C. Trip

My Second Granddaughter

A New Beginning

My Three-Week Vacation Trip

My New Job

The Accident

A National Disaster

Happy Times and Sad Times

Part Three

Retirement

Family Gatherings

Age Sixty

Sandi Married Again

It’s a Boy

Life Changes

A Major Repair Job

My Trip to Europe

Challenges

Thoughts of Change

Acknowledgements

To my Aunt Goldie, Uncle Milton, Aunt Gladys, Orian, Marcella, Dan, Katja, Sandi, Kylie, Erin Renee, Angela, and Marilee for helping me with research.

Part One

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Chapter 1

A Tragedy

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After their move from Nebraska, my parents hadn’t been living in Oregon very long when my mother, Alice, gave birth to their first male child, Arlan Irvin Wiese, who was born in the Oregon City Hospital (1938). My sister Marcella Alice (1939) was their second child. My brother Orian Lee was their third child (1940). In 1942, Alice became pregnant with me. I was born at home in my parents’ small starter house on Duane Street in Oregon City, Oregon.

As the result of an unexpected tragedy nearly four months after my birth, my childhood was changed forever. My family had been a normal family when I was born. My father worked to support the family. My mother was a housewife.

I was well and healthy when I was born. I had sparse, white blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and resembled my mother.

A few months after I was born, my mother entered a small, local hospital for a scheduled routine surgical procedure and then she unexpectedly died. In a matter of a few minutes, our lives changed forever.

My Dad, Irvin, went to the Hutchison Hospital which was located behind the Dairy Queen on Sixth and Jackson Streets in Oregon City that February day to be with my mother. When Irvin talked with the doctor, the doctor told him that the surgery was a success, but after the surgery was over, Alice unexpectedly died. Dad was stunned to receive the sad news and didn’t take it too well. He was upset to say the least. His brain was fuzzy, his heart was racing, and he felt numb from the stress he felt as he left the hospital and found his way to his old Chevy that was parked in the hospital parking lot. He fumbled with the key, opened the door, started the engine, and began the short trip to his parents’ house.

Irvin was wiping tears with the back of his hand as he drove up the hill. The doctor’s words kept repeating over and over in his mind. I’m sorry, your wife died.

In spite of how he felt, Irvin was determined to quickly return to his parents’ house because his family needed to know the disturbing news.

As he drove up the hill on Molalla Avenue, just past McCready’s Lumber Yard, Irvin caught sight of a familiar car. Irvin drove with one hand and then gestured with the other in an attempt to gain the attention of his family members in the other vehicle that was going in the opposite direction, down the hill on Molalla Avenue. Irvin’s younger brother’s (Milton) car was filled with family members. Irvin’s children and mother were in the car with Milton. Milton saw Irvin as Irvin gestured to get his attention. Milton immediately pulled over to the side of the road.

After both cars were stopped, Irvin said in a voice that relayed shock and unbelieving, Go back! Go back! Don’t go! She’s dead!

In the other vehicle, the others knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong, because Irvin had looked pale. Stress and distress showed blatantly on his face.

Irvin’s hands were still shaking on the steering wheel as he drove the short distance to Pleasant Avenue, a side road off Molalla Avenue that led to his parents’ house. When he arrived at his parents’ house, he parked his old Chevy alongside the road in front of the old, white, two-story farm house and waited patiently in his car for the others to arrive.

After the short conversation with Irvin, Milton reversed direction, he pulled into the driveway situated along the side of the property and then continued along until he was behind the house where he parked his car in the half-circular driveway.

Hattie, my grandmother, held me in her arms as she exited the car’s front seat. Irvin’s other children, Arlan, Orian, and Marcella, climbed out of the car from the back seat. They were puzzled and wondered what had Irvin so upset.

When she saw Irvin, Hattie asked, What’s the matter Irvin?

Irvin repeated himself when he said, She’s dead. She died this morning. Alice is dead.

Irvin’s voice broke as Irvin explained what happened that morning when he drove downtown to visit with Alice in the hospital. He was obviously in shock when he embellished on what he had told them earlier. There was a blood clot from the surgery. The doctor said that she had arterial thrombosis sometime after the surgery.

Hattie also started to cry. Milton was stunned. The kids meandered around the car and didn’t know what to do. I was just a baby held in my grandmother’s arms. The once happy occasion suddenly turned sour. Sadness enveloped all the other family members who were present that day.

The small group had been on their way to the hospital to visit Alice. They were making the short trip to the hospital to let the small children visit with their mother. The intention was a good one. They knew that Alice would want to see her children and that the children wanted to see their mother. The children wanted to know that their mother was okay.

After Irvin told his family the sad news, there was confusion all around. It was a shock to the whole family. They didn’t know how to accept this sudden turn of events. (It would take a very long time for all of the family to accept the unexpected news of that day.) No one in the family was prepared to accept that kind of awful heartbreaking news and the total feeling of loss when a loved one passes. Neither the doctor nor anyone else had indicated that anything could go wrong during or after the surgery, so no one expected anything to go wrong.

The small group was still focused on the hospital visit they intended to make. The sudden reality of a death, instead of a friendly visit, was nearly impossible for the family to grasp right away. They were just going to the hospital to visit. Isn’t that what family members are supposed to do when another family member entered the hospital and had surgery? Of course, it was normal and usual for the family to visit the hospital to cheer up the patient. This is always a good deed.

Even though hospitalization is not always a happy event, in this case, who in the family would have reasonably believed the young, vibrant, and healthy woman would die?

The surgery that the doctor performed had been done successfully many times before on other women. The surgery was known to be a common procedure, nearly routine. There weren’t supposed to be any problems, much less problems so complicated that a young, healthy mother was destined to die.

Because Alice was scheduled to stay in the hospital for a few days, she had previously arranged for her small children to stay at their grandparents’ house.

Grandma and Grandpa Wiese lived on Pleasant Avenue in Oregon City. Pleasant Avenue is just a few blocks from where Alice and Irvin lived at 718 Duane Street.

After he relayed the bad news to his side of the family, it was still necessary for Irvin to tell Alice’s parents and family the sad news. Still in near shock and trying to control his emotions, Irvin went to Alice’s parents’ home on Linn Avenue in Oregon City and relayed the heartbreaking news to them.

Alice’s mother, Martha Plymate, felt the same sadness and sorrow that Irvin felt. It had to have been difficult for her to console Irvin because she had just lost her oldest daughter, which was truly a family tragedy for her and her children.

Irvin had always been easily stressed but had to have felt overwhelmed by the realization that he now had full responsibility of his three small children and baby Faye.

Chapter 2

Historic Oregon City

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Except for the few years I lived in West Linn, Oregon, I have lived in Oregon City nearly my whole life.

Oregon City is the end of the Oregon Trail. It is a small town with a huge history. In 1829, the city grew quickly from a small European-American settlement. The settlement included three log cabins built near the Willamette River. The local Native Americans promptly burned down all three cabins.

The setback didn’t deter fur trader Dr. John McLoughlin, though. He persevered and built the present Oregon City, the first incorporated city west of the Mississippi River. In 1829, he also built a saw mill adjacent to the Willamette River. He plotted Oregon City in 1842, and Oregon City became the first capitol of Oregon in 1844. The capitol was later moved to Salem, Oregon, in the 1850s.

Pioneers built the first protestant church west of the Rockies in 1843, and the first jail in 1844. Next, the colony of settlers built a library, a newspaper, a Masonic lodge, a paper mill, and a woolen mill. Oregon City was the first county seat and court was held there for the first time in Oregon.

The locks that aided the riverboat’s navigation of the Willamette Falls were opened in 1873, and it wasn’t long (1882) before a fish ladder was built adjacent to the locks. Power from the force of the flowing Willamette River created the generation of electricity 14 miles north to illuminate the street lights in Portland.

Today, the house where Dr. John McLoughlin lived is a museum. The white, two story house was hauled by a team of horses up Singer hill from Main Street. Oregon City was the main settlement in the region.

Many pioneers stopped in Oregon City for aid and assistance, and Dr. John McLoughlin gave that assistance to the pioneers who arrived after their long journey across country. Some pioneers arrived on horseback and others in covered wagons. By the time the settlers arrived in Oregon City, some of them had neither food nor money. Dr. John McLoughlin and his wife helped the new settlers when they loaned money to the families who were destitute and provided work for those who needed to earn the money for food and shelter. They were the first humanitarians in the area.

After time passed and the city grew, riverboats paddled up and down the Willamette River from Oregon City to Portland and carried passengers and supplies for the settlers. The first railroad trains stopped at a station just off Main Street.

In 1915, the only outdoor municipal elevator in the United States was built of wood and steel and attached to the granite cliffs separating the upper and lower levels of the city. The elevator was built to accommodate the mill workers. After the elevator was built, it was powered by water and then in 1924, it was powered by electricity. After the first elevator became obsolete, a modern elevator was built and today, approximately 120,000 passengers enjoy the access the elevator provides.

Tourists, residents, and visitors often take in the spectacular scenic view from the fenced overlook along the top of the nearly vertical granite cliff that separates the upper and lower Oregon City. A promenade along the top of the cliff is available to use for a leisurely stroll. Along the top of the granite cliff, there are several places to view the falls, river, and city. Large windows at the top of the covered Oregon City Municipal Elevator offer an unobstructed view during inclement weather.

One of my favorite views of Oregon City is the scenic view from the top of the granite cliff where I can look below me to see the whole lower Oregon City area. I look south to see the Willamette Falls and the large, old paper mill buildings located on both sides of the river. When I look north, I see the two bridges that cross the river, the Arch Bridge and the Abernethy Bridge (I-205) where the Clackamas River meets the Willamette River. I admire the wonder of the powerful Willamette River flowing from south to north as far as my eyes can see in either direction.

The view of Willamette Falls is also a spectacular scene. The falls extend from the Oregon City (east) side of the river to the West Linn (west) side of the river. It is a natural waterfall and the largest in the Pacific Northwest. It is the second largest in the United States. Willamette Falls has the shape of an arch or a horseshoe.

Native American legends relate that the falls were purposely placed just where it is now by the spirits so that their people would have fish to eat all winter. Before the white man migrated along the Oregon Trail and came by ship to the area, many local Native Indian tribes built villages in the area because of the abundance of salmon that could only pass the falls at certain water levels.

The salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean into the Columbia River. From the Columbia River they enter the Willamette River to migrate to tributaries on the upper river to spawn.

Modern fishermen fish the river near the falls in early spring. Sometimes the small fishing boats form a line called a hog line that extends one after another nearly across the entire river.

Chapter 3

The Long Journey Began

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What brought Irvin and Alice to Oregon in the first place? Times were hard in Nebraska. There was no money to be made in the drought stricken area. It was the Wiese’s hope that there was a living to be made in Oregon. Friends who had made the trip previously wrote back to let the Wieses know there were jobs to be had in the Oregon City area.

Hans and Hattie were obliged to sell the farm and farm equipment, and they did just that. Yes, in 1937, the whole Hans Wiese family, including Irvin Wiese and Alice, who were just recently married on November 14, 1935, were about to pack up and set out on a journey by automobile to Oregon.

Hattie was particularly saddened to leave the 640-acre Nebraska homestead. The Wiese family was known in the area and had many friends and relatives there. To Hattie, Oregon was an unknown. It was a state that was located somewhere far away with mountains and trees, a state that bordered the Pacific Ocean. At this time in her life, she knew that it was more important that the family move to a place that offered employment for the men in the family.

Hans and the older boys packed the 1927 Chevrolet to capacity, and loaded up all seven members of the family and their possessions. Alice and Irvin also packed all their belongings in their 1928 Chevrolet to join the others on the journey west to Oregon.

The family made the trip from Nebraska to Oregon with only one memorable incident of trouble. Before the family left the area on their way to Oregon, Hans, Hattie, and the children wanted to visit with friends who lived nearby. They wanted to take a final opportunity to visit them because they didn’t know whether or not they would have another chance to see their friends once the Wiese family left for Oregon. They stopped, visited and had a midday meal.

The accident happened when Hans attempted to turn around on a narrow, country road. He accidentally put the car in a ditch which resulted in a broken axel. The family was in luck though. The travelers had more friends close by who lived just a short distance from the accident. These friends were typical of the Wieses’ other neighbors and friends. After the farmer learned of the trouble, the farmer hitched up his team of horses and offered to help get the car out of the ditch. Once the car was on the road again, the team of horses pulled the vehicle back to the farm. The axel was soon replaced, and the family was offered a meal. The visit was complete, and goodbyes made all around. The Wiese family was on their way to Oregon again. They continued north and then west on their long journey to Oregon.

Hans (age 52), Hattie (age 53), Goldie (age 8), Milton (age 11), Archie (age 13), Glen (age 15), and Amy (age 19) were all in the first vehicle, and Irvin (age 23) and his new wife Alice (age 18) were in the second vehicle.

The very tight confines of the small vehicles held the family members and all their possessions. The travelers in those times faced real hardships.

If a vehicle broke down between towns and there were no service stations where repairs could be made, the traveler used bailing wire or chewing gum as a means to repair the vehicle (as per a story reiterated by Irvin Wiese). Often, travelers in those days had to be very imaginative and innovative so they could repair their own breakdowns. Many travelers were former farmers and when they lived on the farm, in order to save expenses, it was necessary for the farmers to be mechanically inclined. Many of the farmers had the natural ability to repair their automobiles, windmills, tractors, and harvesting machines without the aid of a professional repairperson.

If the travelers were at a loss as to what to do, and they were lucky, sometimes other travelers would happen by and would help out, if they could. Those were the times when a neighbor helped a neighbor and a stranger helped a stranger.

Luck, determination, and Hattie’s prayers helped the family as they traveled the long dry roads over the plains and through the Rocky Mountain passes to Oregon. Angels were with the Wiese family on that journey.

Oregon has a mild climate. Sometimes it snows in the winter, but most of the time it doesn’t. There are occasional ice storms, wind storms, rain storms, and heat waves and drought, depending on any particular year.

Rarely are there tornados and if an occasional tornado should occur, it would, most likely, be a very small one and short-lived. The small tornado may damage a barn roof or destroy a shed. People who live on the East Coast of the United States and who are not familiar with the weather patterns in Oregon are under the mistaken belief that it rains all the time in Oregon. This is just not true. The mild Oregon climate provides nice, sunny days in the spring, summer, and sometimes through the fall season. In Oregon, there is a blend between calendar seasons, but one can definitely tell one season from another. Oregon has mild weather, spring through summer, and many food crops thrive.

After the long automobile journey from Nebraska, the family got settled in a rental house in Oregon City. Hans Wiese found work at the Publishers Paper Mill in Oregon City. When Irvin and Alice first arrived in Oregon, Irvin did what so many men did after moving to Oregon. He found work either in the fields or as a laborer. At that time, he took whatever work was available, including yard work and farm work. Eventually, he worked in the forest as a logger.

It was quite a change for the younger Wiese children to adapt to a multi-classroom school after they had been attending a one-room classroom school in Nebraska. As their Aunts and Uncles had done before them in Nebraska, the young Wiese children lived within walking distance of the closest school.

In remembering her childhood, Goldie came to realize how different the one-room classroom in Nebraska was in comparison to the multi-room classrooms in Oregon. Not only was discipline in the classroom different, but also the teaching style, as well as the friendships among the students.

In the one-room classroom, after holding her hand up for a long time to ask a question, the teacher hadn’t acknowledged Goldie’s raised hand, so her brother, Glen, raised his hand and told the teacher that Goldie had her hand up.

Glen watched out for his little sister, Goldie. He had a kind heart and a good soul and showed concern for his brothers and sisters.

Once they were settled into a rental house, Goldie walked home from school for lunch everyday. It became routine that while Goldie was having lunch, Hattie would listen to her favorite soap opera on the radio. After she ate her lunch, Goldie walked back to school.

When Goldie first attended Eastham Elementary School, the teacher told another student he should help Goldie. Goldie asked him a question, and was puzzled that the teacher reprimanded her for talking in class. She determined that the other student wasn’t much help when he couldn’t talk to her.

Goldie Wiese and Earl Plymate, who were related as a result of the marriage of Irvin and Alice, were in the same class at school. They were in the first, second, and third grades together before their families moved, and they couldn’t attend the same school.

When they first moved to Oregon, the Hans Wiese family lived on the corner of Molalla Avenue and Hilda Streets. They later moved to a different rental house on Dimick Street, which was in dire need of a paint job. They also lived in rental houses on Jefferson Street and Division Street before they eventually bought the house on Pleasant Avenue.

Chapter 4

The Family Grows

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When Alice and Irvin first moved to Oregon, Irvin worked on a dairy farm and did yard work. Later, Irvin began to work as a logger. The pay as a logger in the forest industry was decent. Logging was very dangerous, but it was steady, seasonal work. Irvin was not a tall man, as his brothers were, but he was a young, strong, and a willing worker. Part of the package of working in the forest meant he could bring his family to the logging camp, and the family could live in one of the small cabins made available for the loggers. The logging job was only seasonal, but the salary was worth the risk and danger.

Irvin and Alice took all three children to live with them in the logging camp cabin while Irvin worked in the forest. Irvin was responsible for many mouths to feed, so a well-paying job was a high priority for him. As was the way at the time, Alice, even though she was pregnant with her fourth child, cleaned, cooked, and cared for her husband and the small children. The couple did very well considering the fact that they didn’t have the same luxuries available to them as did the people who lived in the urban areas of the state.

Irvin’s younger brother, Glen, was concerned for Irvin and his family because they were living in a forest camp, far away from civilization. Glen was determined to intervene. He made the long drive to the forest camp cabin with his sister, Goldie. Glen made every attempt to convince Irvin to bring his children and his pregnant wife back to Oregon City where the family could live in a more comfortable environment.

After thinking it over, Irvin followed Glen’s advice and the family moved back to Oregon City before Alice was due to give birth.

Alice told her mother that she would not give birth to 11 children on the chance that several of them may die soon after birth. She wasn’t going to bury children like her mother was forced to do. Alice would have four children and four were enough children to feed and clothe. Two boys, a girl, and a baby on the way made a perfectly fine family. After all, Alice was healthy and had a lifetime ahead of her. No doctor had assisted with the births of Orian or Marcella and those two children were just fine, even if they were born at home.

Alice further reasoned that her husband provided well enough for the family but the money was always short. She decided that after her fourth baby was born, she would go to the hospital to have her tubes tied. There would be no more children, and everything would be just fine. She reasoned that she would just stay for a few days in the hospital. When the surgery was over, Irvin would come to the hospital to get her, and then she would be home with her family. The hospital stay would be nothing but a memory. After all, according to the doctor, this procedure is done all the time. There should be nothing to worry about, a piece of cake. This wasn’t the dark ages. It was the era of the street car, the automobile, and the airplane.

Alice was determined that her mother, Martha Plymate, would there to help her when she gave birth to the new baby at home, just like Martha was there when Orian and Marcella were delivered at home. Alice was even more determined to have her tubes tied after her baby was born because she couldn’t forget the trouble and pain she had with the birth of her first child, Arlan.

In the case of Arlan’s birth, the medical team used extreme measures that prevented Alice from delivering the baby early. The extreme measures were painful and uncomfortable. Alice swore she would never go through that again.

After nine long months of enduring the pregnancy, Alice gave birth to another girl, Faye Marie Wiese (1942). Alice gave birth at home the way she wanted. She went through labor and with the help of her mother, gave birth at home where her husband and family were close by.

Faye, the youngest of the four children, was born in the small house on Duane Street located on Mt. Pleasant in historic Oregon City, Oregon. She met her three siblings, Arlan, Marcella, and Orian who were all happy, healthy children.

On the day of Faye’s birth, the United States military was fighting the Japanese on Guadalcanal. In the Pacific, a battle was raging because World War II was in full force.

Four months after the birth of her fourth child, Alice went to the hospital for the scheduled and ultimate fatal surgery.

The doctor was confident that Alice was in good mental and physical condition for the surgery. The decision to go to the hospital to have the doctor tie Alice’s tubes (a permanent form of birth control) led to a series of events that changed many lives forever.

No one imagined that the unthinkable would happen. The operation was a success, but the patient died.

Now Irvin was left with no wife, a baby, and three very young children. He was stunned that the children no longer had a mother. These events were not in his mindset. He later learned that he would never get over the shock of losing his first wife.

Chapter 5

Irvin’s Family

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The realtor tried to talk Hattie and Hans out of buying the house on Pleasant Avenue because he thought it was too small for such a large family. Hattie was determined to have that house. It had some land where she could raise chickens. Hans could have a milk cow, rabbits, and geese. Over time, Hans butchered so many rabbits that he didn’t want to do it anymore.

Milton and Goldie plucked the chickens after they were butchered. Hattie gutted them and cut them up for the freezer.

Glen gave Goldie her first driving lesson. He let her drive his stick-shift car before she had a driver’s license.

Irvin’s brothers, Archie, Milton, and Glen, were drafted in the Army branch of the United States Military after Pearl Harbor.

Irvin was exempt from serving in the military because he was determined the only guardian of four small children.

Glen was drafted in the Army first because he was older than his brothers, Archie and Milton. Glen served in the motor pool and was stationed in Alaska. Archie was drafted next. He served in the army in England, France, and Germany. He was a crack shot and manned the anti-aircraft guns. Milton was the last to be drafted. He served in the army and his boot camp was in Texas. He was transferred to North Carolina and then to New Jersey. He boarded the ship George Washington and sailed across the Atlantic to Marseille, France, and then went on to Germany where the real action was.

World War II was a tough time for everyone in the family. Hattie Wiese spent hours praying for her sons’ safe return home. She ached for letters from her sons because the newspapers listed too many American young men who were killed in the war.

In the end, the Angels were with Hattie and Hans and protected their sons, because all their sons came back from the war with no serious physical injuries. As with many young men who were in battle, they didn’t talk much to anyone about the war after their return home. They were just glad to come back alive and then continued on with their lives.

Archie (born January 8, 1923) and Glen Wiese (born January 20, 1921), were never married.

Sadly, Glen died at the young age of 50 years and six months. He survived World War II, but later in life, succumbed to an aggressive cancer. Glen was stricken by Hodgkin’s disease and died July 20, 1971. Before he died, he was treated for cancer of the lymph glands.

Many years later, Archie died from Parkinson’s disease and cancer on November 30, 1996.

Except for their childhood in Nebraska and the time spent in the Army, both men lived in the Oregon City area until they died.

When he was alive, Archie loved to travel and visited many of the tourist attractions located in the United States. I remember that he always seemed to have at least one pet dog, sometimes two at the same time. He would get his pets from the dog pound. They were always mutts, though some of the dogs resembled their true linage. He had one that looked exactly like an AKC registered collie and another that looked like a toy Manchester terrier.

All the young Wiese men, except Irvin, loved to ski on the slopes of Mt. Hood. The young Wiese women, Amy (born August 17, 1917, and died May 11, 1991), and Goldie (born 1928), also skied and were pretty, active, fun-loving young women.

Amy Wiese married Albert Babcock (1917) on September 20, 1941. Amy gave birth to two children, Byran Allen (1942) and Barbara Hattie (1945).

The Babcock family lived in a large, two-story, white house with a wide, wrap-around porch that formed a quarter-circle around the front of the house. There was enough room on their property to have a huge vegetable garden, berries, grapes, and fruit and nut trees.

Gladstone, Oregon, is a small city that has rivers on two sides. There is the Clackamas River to the south and the Willamette River to the west. As with most rivers in Oregon, the fishing for sturgeon, salmon, trout, and steelhead is superb.

Like most couples happy with their life, Amy and Albert remained married and reared their children in the only home they knew as a married couple. Both Amy and Albert did volunteer work as scout leaders. The whole family went on camping trips and loved to hunt and fish. Oregon is a great state for outdoor recreational activity.

Amy, who was also active with church activities, died of cancer May 11, 1991, after her children were grown. Albert, the immediate family, and Hospice helped Amy through her life-ending illness. Amy and Albert loved and appreciated each other, their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. The love was mutual and returned by everyone in the family.

Milton Wiese married Florian Walbert on January 22, 1950. Milton and his family bought and lived in a one-story home in a new housing development at 184 Telford Road in Oregon City.

They were blessed with three sons, Lyle (1953), Leonard (1956), and Ted (1962).

Milton and Florian Wiese’s oldest son, Lyle, married Linda French on June 8, 1974, in the St. Johns Catholic Church in Oregon City, Oregon. They lived in southeast Portland, Oregon, and then bought a house on Waldow Road in Oregon City.

Linda bore three children, a daughter, Margaret (1978), and two sons, Carl (1981) and Cory (1983).

Margaret married Bryan Bowyer on July 13, 2002, and gave birth to their son, Colin (2006).

Ted (Milton and Florian Wiese’s younger son) married Atina Davis (1962). They were wed at the Crystal Lake Church in Milwaukie, Oregon. Atina gave birth to two children, a daughter, Sydni (1984), and a son, Isaac (1994).

Lyle and Ted Wiese work at the Cornell Pump Company in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Goldie Wiese married Raymond Greco on April 4, 1952. They lived in an apartment for a short time and then settled in a new house in Cedar Hills in Beaverton, Oregon. In 1968, they moved into another new house in Aloha, Oregon, where they brought up their children.

Goldie and Ray were blessed with two children, a daughter, Susan (1959), and a son, Gary (1962).

Gary married Yasmina Brooks, who was born in Spain. They were married in an outdoor ceremony in Hillsboro on September 23, 2000. They lived in Oregon for a time because Gary owned his own businesses, but when a better job offer was presented, they moved to Keller, Texas. They lived there with their pet dog, a friendly Basenji.

My brother Arlan was married two times. He was married to Gladys and was the father of three children Arlana, John, and Jackie. Arlan and Gladys were divorced and Arlan married again and adopted three children, Kevin, Michelle, and Angela. After he married Sharon Walter he fathered another child, Kristi.

My sister, Marcella, married Robert Durwood Beard (1939) on September 21, 1957. They had three daughters, Theresa Elaine (1958), Cheryl Alice (1960) and Rebecca Diane (1962). Their fourth daughter, Vicki Marie wasn’t born until 1972.

My brother Orian married Marilee Fuller and they had two children, a boy and a girl, Tyson Orian (1972) and Tawyna Diane (1975).

Chapter 6

Alice’s Family

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Alice’s grandparents on her mother’s side of the family, Constantine and Martha Klemke, owned a homestead outside of Hemingford, Nebraska. Constantine donated the land to build the one-room school that served the surrounding area. Martha Klemke came from a large family. Her brothers and sisters were Otto, Helmuth, Walter, Henry, Joe, Ida, Albert, and Elsie.

Martha Klemke was born in a sod house. She grew up, and married in Nebraska. She married James Elza Plymate of English/Irish decent. After she married and bore children, it was at the advice of her daughter and son-in-law that Martha and James decided to also make the long journey to Oregon. They arrived in Oregon City in 1939.

After their arrival in Oregon, Martha and her family lived in rental houses, the first house was on Mt. Hood and Warren Streets. They had also lived in a rental house on Pierce Street before they bought and lived in the family home that had been built on a steep slope just off Linn Avenue in Oregon City.

Martha was stepmother to three stepchildren from her husband James’ first marriage. There were two girls, Nellie (13) and Clara (11), and a boy, Maynard (7).

Martha gave birth to eleven children of her own. Of the 11 children, eight survived childhood. Martha and James Plymates’ biological children were Alice, Ethel, Lloyd, Gladys, Earl, Lois, Kenneth, and Polly. Two of their children died in early childhood. Donald died of bowel strangulation and Richard Arlan died at three months.

After the surviving children were grown and married, the family home on Linn Avenue burned to the ground from an electrical fire. Kenneth Plymate was taking classes in refrigeration and built a freezer for his parents. There was not enough amperage to handle the electrical load and the overloaded circuit caused the fire. After the Plymate house burned down, Kenneth and other members of the family helped Martha set up residence in a small house in Gladstone, Oregon, where she lived until her death.

Martha was independent and self-supporting for many years after her husband died. She worked in and retired from the Oregon Worsted Mill, located in Oregon City. She was over 65 years old when she had a heart attack and thereafter, a series of strokes. Martha was under a nurse’s care for a time while she recovered from her illnesses. She died at the Willamette Falls Hospital after a fatal stroke. Her children all agreed to have the physician pull the plug and let her die a natural death.

The Wiese children were not encouraged to have a close relationship with Alice’s family. Irvin had remarried and because his new wife was not agreeable to the fraternization with Irvin’s first wife’s family. Alice’s children barely knew their relatives from the Plymate side of the family. The children were given no choice in the matter. Irvin found it best and easier to agree with his second wife, Betty. Several times, Grandma Wiese made an effort to allow the children access to their relatives on their biological mother’s side of the family whenever she had the opportunity, but those times were very rare.

The Wiese children were familiar with their Uncle Kenneth Plymate because he occasionally went to the Irvin Wiese home to visit with his nieces and nephews. Uncle Kenneth’s visits made it possible for the children to become acquainted with at least one of their relatives from the Plymate family.

Chapter 7

Alice

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Alice Plymate was Martha Plymate’s first-born daughter. She was just 24 years old when she died. She was born April 10, 1918, in Hemingford, Nebraska, and died February 1, 1943, in the prime of her life. She grew up in Hemingford, Nebraska, which was located in the northwest corner of the state. She was married to Irvin Wiese for six years before her death. Alice was a strong, healthy woman. This kind of tragedy was a first in the large Wiese family, and it was a shocking event that happened very suddenly.

Alice was of German/slightly French heritage. She had white blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She had a large stocky frame and strong muscles. She had dimples when she smiled and had a fun-loving nature that drew others to her and that became her.

Alice loved to cook and sew. Her homemade bread won a first prize at the county fair in Nebraska. Many times, she used her sewing skills to make an outfit without using a pattern.

She was a very intelligent young lady. She had the honor of being valedictorian at her eighth grade graduation. Since most farm children went to school from first to eighth grades at a local one-room school, Alice went to the eighth grade twice because her parents did not have the money to send her to the city to go to high school. They could not afford to board her at someone’s house in town. For farm children, high school was a big deal. Not many children had the opportunity to go to high school. Alice’s husband, Irvin, graduated from eighth grade also. (His sister, Amy, was allowed to attend high school in the city for one year.)

Alice sent away to the Extension Office, which was affiliated with the University of Nebraska, to get information about baking, livestock, sewing, and other things. Her father, James Plymate, came home after he retrieved the mail in town and was very angry because the Extension Office had sent boxes and boxes and boxes of information about those subjects, almost everything anyone would ever want to know. He had to carry them all home by himself because mail was not delivered to the residents in the rural areas. The residents were required to go the distance to town if they wanted to get their mail and packages, which occurred about every couple of weeks or once a month.

Alice was a very responsible young woman. She took her motherhood seriously and loved her husband and family deeply.

On that first day of February 1943, after the death of the young mother, so many decisions had to be made and those decisions would have an affect on her children for many years to come.

Chapter 8

Responsible Grandparents

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After Alice’s death, the four children lived with Hans and Hattie Wiese. Hattie Wiese and Martha Plymate had taken care of the grandchildren previously during times of childbirth and in emergencies, but this time it was different.

Hattie originally planned to take care of the four little ones for a few days during Alice’s stay in the hospital. She did this without a thought for herself. It was a usual and normal thing for a family member to do whatever was necessary to help out, and after all, she truly loved all her grandchildren.

Hattie and Hans Wiese had lived in their old house since they bought it many years before. It had beautiful, stained glass window panels on the front door. It was a two-story farm house with large windows and three bedrooms. Two bedrooms were upstairs and one bedroom was downstairs. There was a huge walnut tree in the front yard with a hydrangea shrub next to the house that was covered in blue flowers in the summer. The Wiese family home was in a quiet neighborhood in the city limits. There was a weeping willow tree in the back yard and open space for the little children to run and play. A small garage faced the street.

In the back acreage of the property, the family raised chickens and geese for their meat and eggs. They had rabbits that were butchered for meat and a milk cow that provided milk for the family. Sometimes, after the cow was bred, the offspring was raised, fattened, and butchered. The family did all their own butchering. The meat was cut and wrapped and then stored in a rented freezer locker that had a padlock for security. Whenever the family needed meat, someone would drive downtown to the storage facility and retrieve what was needed and then bring it home for use at family meals. Eventually, the family bought a chest freezer to store food. The extra-large family had grown. The young men and children needed a lot of food. It kept Hans and Hattie busy just keeping the family fed, especially now that they had four more mouths to feed.

The children loved living at their grandparents’ place because they could explore and play in the big yard. There were wonderful smells and plentiful food in the kitchen. Hattie baked cookies and pastries that were made from scratch, and many of the ingredients, like eggs, butter, cottage cheese, and milk were provided from raw materials the livestock provided. She worked hard as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Most of the time, she accepted her duties in stride. She was a farm wife. With the help of her daughters, she provided for her children and her grandchildren. The women cooked all the meals, did the dishes, washed the clothes, hung the clothes out to dry on the clothesline, cleaned the house, and helped with the butchering, all of which were considered women’s work.

Hans and the young men needed a hearty breakfast before they went off to work in the paper mills. Breakfast was eggs, bacon or sausage, and pancakes.

Hattie watched over the grandchildren when they played outside. She kept the grandchildren close, because that was how it was in those days, and after all, the four grandchildren were very young.

I remember that Grandma Wiese would say to me, Don’t wander off too far and watch out for kidnappers.

Although it was a rare occasion when any strangers would show themselves, occasionally, a door-to-door salesman would come around. If she saw him first, Grandma hid from view so that he couldn’t see her through the large front windows. She held her finger to her lips and made a shushing sound so the little children would be quiet and the salesman wouldn’t know that anyone was home. (Unknowingly, my grandmother transferred some of that same fear of strangers to at least one of the grandchildren.)

The grandchildren were naturally good natured, and because of their good nature, together with the manners taught to them by their parents, the transition from one type of family situation to a completely different type of situation wasn’t too difficult for the children or the grandparents to endure. The children were respectful to their grandparents, at least some of the time.

After she suddenly found herself in this unexpected position, Hattie had to ask herself many questions. How would Irvin take care of four children by himself and still work and earn a living? Where would the children live? Who would take care of them? Alice had nursed Faye for more than four months. Where were they going to get milk for Faye? Would cow’s milk do? She pondered all these questions, but she already knew most of the answers. She knew she would take the children in and care for them as long as it was necessary. It was the right thing to do. And, no one could accuse Hattie Wiese of not doing the right thing. She feared God’s punishment, which instilled in her a strong sense of responsibility.

Chapter 9

Brothers and Sisters

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Throughout my lifetime, my family has reminded me that I resembled my mother. The photographs taken when I was a baby showed that I had almost no hair when I was born. Eventually my hair did grow out, but I was destined to grow up with fine, sparse, white blonde hair. I also had my mother’s bright blue eyes.

Both my brother Arlan and I had our mother’s features, fair skin and dimples. I was told by my Grandma Wiese that I also have my mother’s temperament.

I was the fourth child born of Alice and Irvin Wiese. I was a round, healthy, happy baby. My mother breast fed me for the first four months of my life. After my mother died, I was given goat’s milk to drink, because I didn’t take too well to cow’s milk.

Although I was born in my parents’ house on Duane Street in Oregon City, after my mother died, my Grandma Wiese became my second mother and assumed the care and responsibility of me and her other three grandchildren. By this time, Grandma Wiese’s own children were either grown up young adults or were in their older teens. Grandma Wiese must have been answering a moral call or a promise to God because she assumed full responsibility of taking care of all four of Irvin’s children, even though she had already reared six children of her own.

My two brothers and sister were older than I, but not by much. Arlan, the oldest brother was five years old at the time of our mother’s death. He attended first grade at Eastham Elementary School, in Oregon City. He was a healthy, active boy from a hard-working family. The name, Arlan, was borrowed from a friend of the family, who had also moved from Nebraska to Oregon City.

The family friend came from a life of farming to a much different life in Oregon. Once he arrived, he saw a better life than that in Nebraska. In Oregon, he saw a horizon covered with mountains and hills. There were trees as far as the eye could see. Many times, those hills and mountains he saw were covered with snow in the late fall, winter, and early spring. There were also lumber mills, paper mills, dairy farms, fishing, and most of all, steady work and a steady paycheck.

Marcella, my older sister, was a little more than a year younger than Arlan when our mother died. She was three years old, going on four, spirited, and needed a mother to teach and guide her. Even though she was very young, Marcella was groomed to be a mother and housewife.

Alice taught Marcella to help around the house by washing or drying the dishes. Although she missed her mother’s attention and influence, she adapted to the situation and made the best of it. Grandma Wiese tried to fill in the gaps for her granddaughter, but couldn’t do everything. Marcella was destined to have a tough life on the long road ahead. Her life was definitely influenced by the unexpected event of the death of her mother.

Marcella’s features were more like her father’s. She had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Because our father and mother were short and stocky, we, the children, naturally, genetically resembled them.

Orian, my second brother, also had features that resembled his father. At two years of age, he was walking and a happy, active boy with a pleasant personality and thoughtful manner. He was quiet but enjoyed a good laugh.

After our mother’s sudden death, we had to learn to adapt to life without her. My brother Orian and I were so small that the shock of our mother dying did not immediately have any adverse affect on us. We loved living with Grandma and Grandpa Wiese. We had all we wanted to eat and knew that we were loved by our grandparents. They were kind and caring and did all they could to take care of us the best way they knew how.

Chapter 10

Diff icult Times

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Irvin, who was born November 22, 1913, was just 30 years old when he lost his wife. He found his life without Alice difficult. He suffered from his unexpected loss and experienced feelings of depression that deepened with time. He continued to work as a logger, continued to live on Duane Street, but returned to his parents’ house on weekends to visit his children.

Dad was brought up to be a hard-working man by his father, Hans. Their German heritage and the hard, disciplined life the family experienced when they worked the farm in Nebraska gave them body strength and mental determination to survive troubles and adversity.

Irvin was a cable log choker for one of many lumber companies in Oregon. Irvin’s job required that he attach a cable to the log after it was felled, and then after the horses were harnessed to the log, the horses would drag the log out of the cutting area to a pile where the logs were stacked and stored for retrieval and delivery by logging trucks to the saw mills.

Irvin was retrieving logs time after time, and on one unlucky, particular day, the large, heavy-duty cable snapped. The log was almost to the top of the hill, so when it snapped, the log quickly bounced along down the hill. Irvin saw the log coming and jumped behind a tree stump. He was crouched behind the stump and believed that it would protect him from the rolling log. The log bounced over the stump he was behind and then ricocheted off another stump further down the hill, bounced again and reversed its path to land on top of him. The heavy log broke vertebrates in his spine.

Some of the logging crew witnessed what happened, ran to where Irvin was trapped by the log. They removed the log as quickly as they could, stabilized his back, and transported him from the forest to a nearby hospital.

Irvin was in a full torso body cast in the hospital for six months, until his back healed. Eventually, he got better and went home, but spent the rest of his life with back pain and was never without pain again. Because he was tough, he mostly ignored the pain. What else could he do?

When I was a young teenager, I saw him attempt to dance a polka, but only for a few seconds because he couldn’t stand the jolts to his spine. That was the only time I ever saw him attempt to dance, just once in my lifetime.

Although we rarely heard him complain about the pain, we did see him with his back pressed against the wall and his eyes closed for a few moments on many occasions. Complaining was not manly to men of his generation, and they learned to tolerate pain and inconveniences without whining about it.

The unexpected accident made things even worse for our family. Dad called our family situation a streak of bad luck. Because of his injury, Dad was no longer able to work as a logger even though he had four children to support. He was stressed and depressed about his bad luck. Constantly, he worried about his work situation. He worried about everything.

Irvin’s father, Hans, had a good job working as a laborer for the Hawley’s Paper Mill. After a time, the mill was sold. The new name of the paper mill became Publishers Paper Mill. It was located at the south end of Main Street in Oregon City. Much later, the paper mill was sold again and the mill was given a new name, Blue Heron Paper Mill.

At the time my grandpa and uncles worked in the paper mills, there were two paper mills on the Willamette River, one on each side of the river opposite each other. Publishers Paper Mill was located on the east side of the Willamette River and Crown Zellerbach was located on the west side of the river. Both mills used the river to transport logs used in making paper pulp.

Hans advised Irvin to try to get a job with a paper mill. It wasn’t easy work, but the wages were decent, and he didn’t have to work out in the weather. It was also a fulltime, year-round job with some benefits. Irvin got the job. In fact, all the young Wiese brothers and their father worked in the paper mills, one mill or the other. After completing high school, Goldie worked at Publishers Paper Mill in the Administrative Offices as a secretary.

After about three years had gone by after Alice’s death, Grandma Wiese encouraged Irvin to remarry so that he would have a wife who could take care of his children. Grandma had met a woman named Anne, who worked at the Ben Franklin Five n’ Dime store. Anne made a good impression with Grandma Wiese. Grandma thought Anne was Irvin’s type. Getting married again was a sore subject for Irvin, because it was too soon after Alice’s death and he wasn’t over his feelings for her yet.

At this time, I was walking and talking. I was potty trained and could dress myself. When Grandpa Wiese and Uncle Archie left in Uncle Archie’s car to go to work, instead of standing in the yard and waving goodbye like I usually did, I grabbed the back bumper of Uncle Archie’s car and held on to try to stop Grandpa from going to work. I was dragged for a few feet before Uncle Archie heard my screams and stopped the car. My knees were skinned and bleeding and my fingers were cut from hanging on to the bumper as Grandpa picked me up and carried me in the house. Grandma Wiese washed my knees off and bandaged them up. I stopped crying when she gave me a cookie. I also got a lecture about how dangerous it was to do such a thing. Grandma told me I could get killed. The Angels were with me that day.

Even though all four children were still living with Grandma and Grandpa Wiese, life began improving for Irvin. His back was better, and even though work at the Crown Zellerbach Paper Mill was smelly, tedious, and unfulfilling, but the job paid well. Thoughts of getting married again were manifesting themselves more and more.

Grandma was relieved and happy that Irvin was finally ready to look for a bride. If she only knew what would be in store for the children, she wouldn’t have been so happy.

Irvin found his future bride working in an Oregon City ice cream parlor and sandwich shop named 24 Flavors which was located on Washington Street, just off Seventh Street in Oregon City. The ice cream shop was next door to the food storage lockers.

Irvin first met Betty (Sarah Elizabeth Crawford Brandt) when he was in the hospital with his back injury, but had nearly forgotten her until they met again. He recognized her immediately. She had visited another patient in the same ward at the hospital where Irvin was after the logging accident.

Betty had dark hair, and a tiny petite frame. Irvin thought she was beautiful. Irvin was smitten by her. He wasn’t as short as Betty. He was a little taller, about 5 feet 4 inches, so they had their stature in common. She had been married twice. Soon after the honeymoon, her first husband died in an accident while employed by a contractor to build the Grand