Growing up Jeanie

By Marita Juarez

This book is about a young girl who was born in the city of San Bernardino, California and at 10 years old is moved to a farm life in Cloverdale Oregon. It follows her through some big environment changes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664163409

Book preview

CONTENTS

Marita Jean Gray 1950’s California

Chapter 1 Now on to ME and my story.

Chapter 2 The Farm

Part II Family History

The Family History of Charles and Rita Gray

To my

sister Sharlene Gill and Netha McAlister who gave

me the support I needed to accomplish this book.

Thank you.

To my Dad who wrote most of this book about our family.

I will always love you.

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Jeanie and Sharlene

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Jeanie, Don Calhoun, Netha

MARITA JEAN GRAY

1950’s California

I am from a very large family.

My mother Dorothy Marita DeGan Gray (Rita) was the daughter of George Hurst and Cora Irene Morrow Degan and the youngest of 6 kids Martin, Virginia, Melvin, Bonnie, Dean, and Rita. Until we moved to Oregon, all of us lived in San Bernardino, California.

Before San Bernardino, my mom’s family lived in Mt Pleasant, Texas. Martin was around 15 when mom was born and was going into ccc camp. I ran across a funny insert he wrote while at school. It goes;

Well the summer was ending and it was time for me to start school. I can’t remember who was with me that first day, or which way we went. Anyway, the school was an old two story building. They taught all twelve grades there and had a hitching rail for the kids who rode in to tie on to. Some kids rode; but most walked. Hugh Pope had a daughter about seventeen, a nice girl; she was in her last year of school. Sometimes, she would wait for me and we would walk together since I had to walk by her house on my way. One morning she had a car, an early model A or something. The doors opened at the front. I had my lunch pail in my hand and I was leaning against the door when she went around a curve a little too fast. My door flew open and I went out headfirst! I rolled in a ditch and when I got up, I still had my lunch pail in my hand. I got in, shut the door and we went on our merry way to school. Martin DeGan.

My father Charles Eugene Gray the son of Otis William and Myrtle Tunget Gray was the oldest of 19 kids. Otis and Myrtle had Dad and 2 girls June and Shirley. They divorced and when Myrtle remarried Rollie Carson they had Roberta, Jim, John and Nancy (twins) and Karen.

Otis married Shirley and they had Betty, Loretta, Sharon, Rodney, Susan, Rocky, Barbara, Richard, Judy, Randy, and Diane.

Dad had been in the Air Force when he met my mother, whose family lived in a house built by Grandpa and was only 3 blocks from Norton Air Force Base, in San Bernardino, California. Dad had been talked into going over to the DeGan’s by some friends of his on base. They knew Dad liked to play the guitar and told him that this family loved to play music and sing so he grabbed his guitar and they headed over there. He loved being with them and noticed a young lady (Rita) while he was there. He also met Don Calhoun who was also stationed at Norton and liked one of the girls named Bonnie. I was told by Dad that he and Don would go over to the DeGan’s to see the girls and they decided to ask for a kiss when they were getting ready to leave. Well they were both told no. It irritated Dad and Don and they swore they weren’t going back. Next day both of them had other things to do (they weren’t going over there) but when each showed up at a different time to the DeGan’s they had to laugh.

Dad had been playing the guitar from a young age and was very good at it. Dean played the banjo and mandolin, Virginia played the base fidle and the guitar, Melvin and Fern sang. They always had a good time. This family was also very religious (Assembly of God) and he started going to church with them. Dad was 17 at the time he set eyes on my mother who was only 14 and that was it. Love at first sight. They married June 1st and June 3rd (see Dad’s story later in book), Don and Bonnie married on June 17th, both 1950.

CHAPTER 1

Now on to ME and my story.

Mom’s oldest sister Virginia married a man named Troy Pope who later purchased the church on Tippicanoe which was down the street from Norton Air Force Base and became the preacher of that church. On the property behind the church was a small house that at times Grandma DeGan lived in and it was across the street from the house Grandpa had built on Little Tippicanoe (called that because it was just a lane off of Tippicanoe) (they had 1 boy Lloyd and 1 girl Netha).

Mom had a brother named Melvin who married Fern (their kids were Jerry Wayne, Darla, and Rodney (later adopted a girl named Brenda)

Mom’s sister Bonnie, was married to Don Calhoun and had Donald, Stanley, Russell, Later she married Carl they had a daughter named Kimberly.

Mom’s youngest brother named Dean married Lois and they had 5 sons (Tim, David, Terry, Mark and Steven).

My Grandpa DeGan had been diagnosed with lung cancer and has been sick most of the time. He coughs and coughs and is in a lot of pain. When he feels better he loves to bounce me on his knee when I was 2 years old, but soon he just stays in bed to weak to get up. One day the family was all there and everyone was teary eyed. I just don’t understand why so I went in the bedroom and these men in black had come into Grandpa’s bedroom and was going to take him away. I kept pulling on one man’s jacket trying to get him to stop. Grandma picked me up and said your Grandpa won’t be sick any more he has gone to heaven to be with Jesus and he is happy and well.

Mom had turned 19 on February 21, 1954, Grandpa’s birthday was February 23, he turned 55 years old and he died February 24, 1954. A week later on March 7, 1954 my sister Sherry (Dorothy Sharlene Gray) was born.

In March 1954 (my third birthday was April 10), mom had been gone for a few days and dad said we were going to go get her to bring her home. Well we went to the hospital and not only picked my mom but also this little baby which was suppose to be all my own. Yippee/Ugh. Bonnie came over with her oldest son Donnie to grandma’s house to see us and she teased me that she would take the baby, I told her no. She was pregnant with her second son Stanley at the time but I didn’t know that.

According to Dad he is the one who would get up most of the time in the night and take care of me after my birth, I was not breast fed and was told I cried a lot. Years later mom said when she seen how much others would feed their babies she realized I was probably hungry back then. When Sherry was born Dad told mom that she would have to take care of Sherry at night because he couldn’t work and take care of another baby at the same time. Well mom was 3years older and was ready to take the responsibility and her and Sherry were two peas in a pod. When Sherry started walking, I remember her hanging on to the hem of mom dress a lot and when Dad came home she would squeal and squeal with delight. She was an easy child to love. One thing mom and dad told me was that when we got to church, I never cried and everyone thought I was the best baby. But when we got home I cried and cried. Go figure. Ha

Until Troy bought his church we were going to Branson’s church. One time during church I needed to go to the bathroom and insisted on going by myself as I was almost 4 years old. Mom actually let me go but warned me not to lock the door. The bathrooms were at the back of the church and of course I did lock the door and after I went I couldn’t get it unlocked. So scared I screamed and screamed for my daddy and he eventually got me out. This of course did interrupt the service for a while.

I was four or five, when after Branson’s church service my cousin Darla and the preacher’s daughter Judy were having me run on the altar from one to the other and they would catch and twirl me around then set me back on the altar. The altar was appx 2 ½ feet tall, 15 feet long and 2 feet wide. While I was running back and forth on the altar, this woman came up (not happy I was on the altar) and laid some evangelistic papers down on the altar. When I came running up to the papers, I will never forget thinking should I jump over them or should I just run and step on them. I closed my eyes and ran hitting the papers and they slid out from under me and I hit the floor arms stretched out and the wind knocked out of me. It was my uncle Melvin who got to me first, he picked me up, and they realized I had broken my wrist. I was taken to the hospital and they put a cast on my wrist up to the elbow and while I had the cast on I got the measles which drove me nuts trying to itch under the cast. It was like the red ants that were all over outside that constantly bit me, I prayed