Homemade Noodles and Cars

By Arlene Curns

In Homemade Noodles and Cars, Arlene, who has lived almost a century, tells the story of her family""from World War I and how it affected them, how her parents struggled to provide a home for their five children during the Great Depression, about growing up in Flint, Michigan, her family's role in World War II and meeting her soon-to-be husband when he came home from the war. She and her husband, who was disabled in the war, started married life with a monthly income of $89 and had four babies in the four years that followed, a challenge they conquered together through love for each other. Arlene tells how she met Christ and invited him into her heart as Lord and Savior""how that impacted her life""and shares how you can accept Christ too. Arlene will make you laugh and maybe shed a tear, but if you enjoy true stories from a kinder, gentler time, "Homemade Noodles and Cars" should be in your book collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644589083

Book preview

1

I thought grandpas were supposed to be soft teddy bears, yet there it was—printed in black and white, presented before a judge. The divorce papers for my Grandma and Grandpa Yats clearly stated that he had hit her in the face with his fist. The divorce was granted. That was way back in 1917 when getting a divorce was a bit of a scandal.

My maternal grandfather was born in Wabash, Indiana, in 1865, just as the Civil War was ending. He was the youngest of six boys, and his mother named him George.

The Yats farm was forty acres of rich soil where they grew corn and wheat that they either sold or bartered for other goods. Cows, pigs, and chickens supplemented their needs, and occasionally, they were able to spare some of them to sell. Their wood stove called for lots of logs to be split. It was a good place to raise their large family of active boys. The boys attended a one-room schoolhouse. Between school and all the chores involved with farming, it kept them busy and out of trouble as they grew into young men.

Their farm was on the outskirts of Wabash, but still close enough for the boys to walk into town. There was a train that made a stop at Wabash, and like most boys, the Yats boys were fascinated by the train. Most of the activity in town centered on the train depot; everyone congregated there to hear the latest news. The train helped in the development of the town, but it wasn’t the train that brought Wabash its greatest claim to fame. When George was fifteen years old, Wabash became the first city in the world to become lighted with electricity. What an extraordinary event! It was celebrated all over the world. If I had guessed what the first city was to have electricity, I would have said New York or Chicago or even Paris. But no, it was Wabash, a reasonably small city of 3,800 people.

The city council had agreed to do a two-week trial to see if the lights would be effective. Four 3,000 candlepower lamps had been suspended from the top of the courthouse. Two wires ran from those lamps to the courthouse basement where they were connected to a threshing machine that provided power. On a balmy spring evening in 1880, the switch was turned on, and the courthouse lit up to the wild cheers of the townspeople.

After the two-week test, everyone was thoroughly impressed, and the city council voted unanimously to have it installed citywide, an area of one mile in diameter. The cost for the complete apparatus was $1,800. The engineer’s salary to operate it was $400 per year.

Comparisons showed that it would be the least expensive light system in the world. The cost for the entire city was $800 a year, and by not using the electrical system on nights when there was a full moon, they could save even more. Just imagine any city today turning the lights off on moonlit nights to save a few dollars.

Even though George was the youngest, he had his share of chores to do just like his dad and brothers. He made up his mind very early in life that farming was not his destiny. Getting up at daybreak and working until sunset seven days a week didn’t appeal to him. He wanted to live in a city and have his own business, something like that of Mr. Stacey, who owned the general store in town, or Mr. McDougal who owned the hardware.

When George was seventeen years old, he left the security of home and family to make his own way. His brothers were content with farming as a living, and the older boys had farms of their own now—two of them adjoining the family homestead property. George’s mother was uneasy about her youngest son leaving, but he was determined.

With a small nest egg in his pocket, George set out on his own. He visited a few towns before finally settling down in St. Louis, Michigan. St. Louis was actually a smaller community than Wabash, but George liked the town. He was excited just to be off the farm and actually living in a city even if it was smaller.

St. Louis, located near the center of Michigan, was often called the Middle of the Mitten. By the time George arrived there, mineral springs were discovered, and St. Louis had become a destination for people seeking health benefits, so he felt sure the city would be growing.

George took a room in Barry’s Boarding House and soon got a job working at Koppel’s Restaurant. He was industrious and serious, working hard to get ahead. He saved everything he could, eating all his meals at the boarding house where they were included with the cost of his room. He allowed himself a single luxury—a bicycle—for fun and quick transportation around town.

George had lived in St. Louis two years when he met a young lady who stole his heart away. She was only fourteen years old when they met. Her name was Katherine Ann Sloan, and she lived on a farm in the nearby village of Alma.

George was attracted to Katie the first time he saw her. She had beautiful blue eyes and auburn hair cascading down to her tiny waist. A blue satin ribbon was twined playfully through her hair. She was wearing a blue dress that made her eyes look even bluer, if that was possible. Katie had tiny feet, and she was wearing her favorite white button-up boots.

Katie was smitten with George too. And to Katie, he was just enough older than her to be romantic. And he lived in the city!

They had a long distance romance with George pedaling his bicycle over the bumpy dirt roads to court Katie. They started talking about marriage early in their courtship, but Katie’s parents thought she was too young and tried to discourage them. Just wait a while longer, they pleaded. She begged them and kept saying, Grandma Sloan got married when she was sixteen, and that turned out fine. That was true, and there was little they could say in return except that they loved her and wished she would wait a while. Her parents’ plea that if it was true love, it would still be there later on didn’t make any difference to Katie and George

There was a silly little song that was very popular then,

Ka-Ka-Ka-Katie, Beautiful Katie,

You’re the only ga-ga-ga-girl that I adore.

When the ma-moon shines o’er the ca-ca-cowshed,

I’ll be waiting at the ka-ka-ka-kitchen door.

That’s what he called her—beautiful Katie. They were married the next year. Katie’s parents, impressed with George’s work ethic, gave into the pleading and gave their blessing for Katie and George to marry.

The wedding took place in the side yard of the farm where Katie lived. They stood beneath a rose arbor laden with gorgeous pink roses. Katie wore a white lace gown with a tiered ruffled skirt. A circle of plaited white roses crowned her auburn hair. Her wedding bouquet was composed of white roses too intermingled with dainty baby’s breath. Streamers of white satin ribbon played in the gentle breeze. The toes of her white boots peeked out the bottom of her wedding dress.

George was wearing his only suit, a dark blue, complete with vest. He had purchased a white shirt with French cuffs and wore a light blue tie and gold cuff links with matching tie tack. His black shoes were polished to a high gloss.

They gazed tenderly at each other as they repeated their vows, their love for each other clearly showing on their faces. They had the whole world ahead of them and were ready to conquer it. George was twenty. Katie was fifteen.

2

George and Katie were so in love. He absolutely loved Katie, and she adored him. She looked up to him—a man of the world. They started married life very simply. Katie brought a metal trunk bound with leather straps that held her belongings and moved into his room at Barry’s Boarding House.

George continued working at Koppel’s restaurant, and Katie took a job helping Elizabeth Barry with the cooking and cleaning. They took their meals at the boarding house, and occasionally, George was able to take her to Koppel’s for a night out. He bought Katie a bicycle, and they enjoyed pedaling around the countryside.

They were saving everything they could so George would be able to realize his dream of owning his own business. He believed that being the owner of a business was the way to accumulate wealth—not working for someone else.

On their first wedding anniversary, George took Katie to the Park Hotel for dinner. She put on her prettiest dress, styled her hair in the latest fashion, and wore her new hat! A frivolous purchase, but George had relented when Katie admired it in the shop window. It was a pretty broad-brimmed straw in lavender, banded with a violet ribbon of silk, and accented with a matching cabbage rose. With her auburn hair, it was stunning. Katie, only sixteen years old, was a vision of loveliness. Her eyes were sparkling, and George was so proud of her and thrilled to be able to make her happy.

As soon as they were able, George and Katie moved out of the boarding house. They rented a small home, and George left the restaurant to go to work for a steel company where the wages were higher. Katie helped grow their nest egg by taking in laundry and ironing.

They had been married four years when Katie became pregnant. She was overjoyed. George was happy about the baby but could envision his dream of having his own business evaporate. With a baby on the way and all the things they need, it would cost a lot of money.

They had $200 in their little buy a business fund. George made a decision to see what he could buy with that sum of money. After all, it was a good starter sum. Maybe he could purchase a restaurant, since he had some experience along those lines.

He came home one day so excited! He had heard of a business for sale in Owosso. The owner would accept the sum of $200 as a down payment, and George could pay the remainder in small payments. He was so excited sharing all this with Katie. Now is the time to do it with the baby coming, he exclaimed. Katie was so happy for him that his dream would come true. She was thrilled too to think they would have their own business and so happy about the baby she was carrying. Her joy burst like a bubble when he told her what the business was. A saloon!

George bought the business in spite of Katie’s protest. He was the man of the house, and he would make the decisions. George was fiercely ambitious and determined to do everything in his power to make his business successful.

Katie delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy, who they named Clarence. George was so proud of their baby boy and was eager to share congratulatory cigars with all his friends. Katie spent her days playing with the baby and caring for his many needs while continuing to take in laundry and ironing from her established customers.

George was very successful with his business, and soon, they were able to move from the house they rented and buy their first home. It was a pretty home—a two story with four bedrooms—on a tree-lined street with a wide grass boulevard down the center.

Their home was painted pale yellow with white trim. Rose bushes on white trellises climbed up either side of their broad porch. Stately oak and maple trees shaded the home. It looked so peaceful and tranquil. It seemed to be a home filled with happiness—a handsome young couple, owners of a business, and a darling baby boy.

Katie had two more children. Edna was born three years after Clarence, and two years later, my mother, Hazel, was born.

Their children were beautiful, perfect in every way. Clarence was a handsome little boy with blue eyes and light brown hair worn in a short cut. Edna and Hazel were as different as night and day. Edna had dark brown eyes, brunette hair, and an olive complexion where Hazel had blue eyes, blonde hair, and a porcelain complexion. They all had one thing in common—they adored their mother.

Everything should have been perfect in their home, plenty of money from their business and three adorable children. But George had started drinking, and things slowly began to change.

Katie would have dinner on the table at their regular dinner hour, and George wouldn’t come home. When he arrived home later, under the influence of alcohol, he was surly, belligerent, and angry. Over time, he began shouting and calling Katie horrible names. It was so hurtful to Katie and very upsetting for the children.

The children tried to stay out of the way when their dad was home. They had been cautioned by Katie to be quiet and not to get Dad upset. What was happening to the man she had married and loved so much? Katie was raised in a Christian home, and she had never heard her father use such language. She was ashamed to tell her parents what was happening because they had tried to talk her out of getting married so young. Now, Katie was only twenty-five and had three children. There was nothing she could do except keep praying for George and trusting Jesus to change his heart. She wanted so much to make this marriage work.

The Yats children

My mother, Hazel (center) with Edna and Clarence

3

Owosso was a quiet little town—a wonderful place to raise children. School took up most of Clarence’s, Edna’s and Hazel’s time, and there was an abundance of fun things to fill their play time. All three had bicycles. There was a glider in the backyard where Edna and Hazel liked to sit in the shade to read their books. They had a miniature tea set and had tea parties, sipping from the little cups and munching on make-believe cookies. Their mother taught them how to sew and helped them make doll clothes.

Clarence played ball with neighborhood friends. They used to toss a baseball or football around on the boulevard that ran down the center of their street. The Yats kids didn’t bring their friends to their house when their dad was home, but he was working most of the time.

As they grew older, they loved going to the roller rink. They also looked forward to the annual Shiawassee County Fair that was held at McCurdy Park in Corunna, the county seat. The fair was a lot of fun and lasted for a whole week. Just the trolley ride to get there was a summer adventure.

Concerts in the gazebo at the park were fun too. All the kids would bring their bikes to ride around, and some played games like hide-and-seek or tag. The best concert of the summer was on the fourth of July because it ended with a huge fireworks display.

One of the most exciting things that ever happened in Owosso was the day in 1909 when Carrie Nation came to town. Carrie Nation was a hatchet-wielding temperance leader who traveled the country and was famous for smashing saloons. George exclaimed that she better not set foot in my place. His saloon was in a prime location to be noticed, right on the corner of Main and Washington streets in downtown Owosso.

Carrie Nation’s arrival in Owosso was to be a momentous event for the town, and everybody was talking about it. The members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) had passed out flyers urging everyone to attend. A lot of people brought picnic lunches to the park where she was going to speak, and many were waving American flags. It seemed everyone in town was there except George.

When Carrie arrived on that Saturday in the summer of 1909, she was wearing a black dress with a white lace collar. She was in her early sixties and had toured America for years in a countrywide crusade against tobacco and alcohol. She was one of the most well-known people in the United States. She had been arrested and jailed thirty-three times for breaking up saloons with her hatchet.

In one of her lectures, Mrs. Nation stated that she would smash the tobacco evil first. She was quoted as saying, I have received the most abuse in my experience from the rank-smelling, stinking tobacco users. She admonished the girls in the crowd never to marry a man who is so dirty he will defile his mouth with the weed and so senseless he will spend his money for it.

She also had little use for the politicians who supported saloons. If you men of political parties don’t turn your backs on the saloons and become prohibitionists, you will go to hell as sure as there is a hell.

Carrie Nation was well-received in Owosso that day, with the ladies of the local WCTU showing great appreciation. She didn’t come inside George’s saloon, or she would have met a formidable foe in George Yats. He had a temper equal to hers and was not going to let her through his saloon door with her famous hatchet. He very likely would have run her out of town, but when she finished speaking and had partaken of the picnic lunch provided, she left town.

The next year, on April 4, 1910, Shiawassee County voted overwhelmingly to go dry.

4

My mother, Hazel, in white dress, with Edna

It isn’t known if Carrie Nation’s visit to Owosso was the cause of Shiawassee County voting to go dry, but Shiawassee County included Owosso, so George’s saloon was out of business. He could no longer sell liquor. The lucrative business that he had built up had to be closed.

George was so frustrated and angry. All he had worked for so hard was gone. He was grouchier than ever at home, taking his anger out on Katie and the children. Life in the Yats household wasn’t as pleasant as it would appear to others.

Nothing Katie could do pleased George. She tried her hardest to be a peacemaker, but the hurtful words only escalated, making it more difficult to be around George.

George went back to work for the steel company again—heavy, hard labor. When he came home at night, Katie would say, You must be tired, or How did your day go? which only got her a grunt in reply. It really was understandable that George was angry about losing his business, but it wasn’t Katie’s fault, or the children, but they got the brunt of his frustration.

Katie secured a position at Reliance H&S doing ironing and also took in laundry at their home to supplement their income.

Their eldest child, Clarence, was doing well in the barber trade and was well-respected around town. He had been courting a young lady, Agnes Riley; and in 1910, the same year George lost his business, Clarence and Agnes got married. They bought a house on Main Street in Owosso and immediately set up housekeeping.

Being the only son, Clarence felt a certain amount of guilt leaving home. He had often intervened as his mother’s protector from his father’s outbursts of temper.

Edna too, who was eighteen years old now, had fallen in love with a young man—an actor. Oh! It was so romantic! Al Leybourne had been in town for a week, appearing in a comedy skit at the theater downtown. He met Edna at the soda counter of the drug store next door to the theater. They had two dates while he was in town, and since he had moved on to his next acting engagement, he sent her a penny postcard every day.

Their relationship quickly went from having an ice cream sundae together and long afternoon walks to exchanging letters. By the time Al made a return appearance to the theater downtown, they were writing romantic letters about getting married. When he came back to Owosso, he gave her an engagement ring.

All of Edna’s girlfriends were envious. She was engaged to marry Alexander Leybourne from Camden, New Jersey! A real-life actor who traveled the country appearing onstage! After their marriage, they would travel the country together, and Edna would appear onstage with him as his costar at theaters and opera houses.

Edna and Al had only known each other three months when they set the wedding date. It seemed like a dream come true to Edna. She was happy to escape the small town of Owosso, Michigan, and travel the country with her new husband and being his partner onstage—so glamorous. She was very excited. They set the date for July 10, 1910, just seven months after her brother had gotten married. Older brother, Clarence, and his bride of seven months, Agnes, stood up with them at their wedding.

A newspaper article shared the news of the joyous event,

Leybourne-Yats Wedding

A quiet wedding took place at six o’clock Monday evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George N. Yats, when their daughter, Miss Edna, was united in marriage to Alexander Leybourne of Camden, New Jersey. The couple was attended by Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Yats, the former a brother of the bride. Rev. G. W. Jennings performed the ceremony in the presence of a small number of relatives.

Following the ceremony the guests were served a delicious wedding supper.

Mr. and Mrs. Leybourne left on the evening train for Manistee where they will spend the balance of the summer, after which they will make their home in Camden, New Jersey.

Their many friends extend congratulations and best wishes for future happiness.

Hazel was happy for her brother and sister, but she missed them so much. She had been so close to Edna. Being best of friends and with only two years separating their age, they did everything together, shared everything, and withheld no secrets. They used to stay awake half the night talking. And now, she had moved away. Camden, New Jersey, could have been half a world away as far as Hazel was concerned.

The marriages of Clarence and Edna left Hazel at home with parents who did not get along. Hazel loved her mother with all her heart, and Katie returned that love tenfold. Hazel loved her father too and treated him with respect, but George continued to be combative. Katie had decided long ago that she would stay with him until the children were all grown-up and gone from their home.

So much had taken place in that year—George’s business closing up and Clarence and Edna both getting married. It was mind-boggling to Katie.

Hazel was fifteen years old and still attending school. She missed having Edna to talk to. Clarence and Agnes just lived a few blocks away. She could see them any time. But New Jersey was so far away. Her loneliness was tempered somewhat by the letters she received from Edna. She was enjoying married life, traveling, and being onstage. Al said that she was a natural at acting, and he was proud to have her as his partner. Edna mailed Hazel several photos of her and Al onstage in costume, all sent from various cities around the country. To a fifteen-year-old, they were living a fairy-tale adventure.

George’s belligerent behavior continued to escalate. He was spending his wages on his own pleasures and not contributing to the household needs. Katie’s earnings from her two jobs wasn’t sufficient either. Hazel completed the tenth grade and dropped out of school to get work.

She was hired at the Owosso Casket Company in the sewing department, a skill her mother had taught her. She sewed the beautiful silk, satin, and velvet liners that were put inside the coffins. She could do all the elegant stitches required—shirring, pleating, and intricate gathers.

Hazel wasn’t old enough to be working, so her supervisor told her that if the inspectors dropped by, she should get up from her machine and walk around as though she was a visitor or go to the lunch room to avoid having them find a minor at one of the machines.

Hazel enjoyed the sewing, was happy to make new friends with the other girls working there, and glad to be helping with the expenses at home. With the added income, things calmed down a bit.

Working helped Hazel, giving her self-confidence and self-worth. She enjoyed having lunch with her new friends and sharing all the news. They were always anxious to hear news of Edna and her travels. They all thought she had such a glamorous lifestyle.

Hazel came to work one day with the most exciting news! Edna was going to have a baby! What about being on stage? You can’t do that if you’re with child, they exclaimed. It was a problem that was being discussed at the Yats household too.

Edna and Al decided it would be best if she came home and