Girl of My Dreams

By Jeannine Evelyn Walker

Girl of My Dreams will take you through the days of covered wagons and Indian raids, plus bits of American history up to the end of the twentieth century. It traces the lives of two people from their childhood to when they met and fell in love and continues with their journeys, prompted by the effects of the 1929 Depression. Young readers who are used to electronic gadgets will be amazed at how people lived before we had electricity.

Young Lena, aged twelve years old, was forced to support and care for an ill mother, and a young sister and brother. Her father was killed in an accident while building a dam in New Mexico. Her mother later remarried a strict and controlling man. As Lena grew older, she moved in with her married sister to escape her stepfather. This is when she met Bert.

Bert was orphaned at the age of six. He ran away when he was fourteen and sailed around the world for two years. This was a time that forced him to grow up quickly. When he went to New Mexico to visit his brother, he met Lena. The two met, fell in love and married.

The experiences of their lives make up many of the stories of their ancestry, their adventures with early automobiles, open-cockpit airplanes, steamships, and true tales about flash floods, circus days, plus a scary adventure with a horse and a bobcat.

You will read many cute, whimsical, and heartfelt stories within these pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781662471599

Book preview

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Girl of My Dreams

Jeannine Evelyn Walker

Copyright © 2023 Jeannine Evelyn Walker

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 978-1-6624-7158-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-7159-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Reflections of my Father

Reflections of my Mother

Introduction

Lena's Story

1

The Beginning

2

The Family History

3

Hot Springs

4

A New Life

5

Alamogordo

6

Las Cruces

7

The Escape to Freedom and Fort Bayard

Bert's Story

1

The Orphanage

2

Around the World in Two Years

3

Back From Sea

Their Story

1

Lena Lassos Her Man

2

Girl Of My Dreams

3

And Baby Makes Three

4

Danger on the Highway

5

The Christmas Ghost

6

Bert and the Politician

7

California, Here We Come

8

Little House in Brooklyn

9

Back To New Mexico

10

Silver City

11

The Old Cowboy

12

The Chicken Farmers

13

Back to Brooklyn

14

The Doll

15

Pennsylvania

16

The Hungarian

17

Brookyn Again

18

The Hughes Family

19

The Little House in New Jersey

20

An Operation and a Reconciliation

21

The Greensboro Incident

22

Somerset, New Jersey

Life After Bert

1

How Can Lena Survive?

2

God Has a Plan

3

A Time for Lena

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I want to express my sincere appreciation to the following:

For assistance with proofreading and editing:

My godchild, Terence Joseph Walker, and his sister, Kathleen Walker O'Reilly, and Renee Seymour

For scanning the images to the publisher:

Maria Roman

For help with family history:

Leanna Veazey

For help with Ancestry.com:

Anne Marie Colletti, Sherry Mitchell

For help with creating a family chart:

Ann Marie Colletti

For assistance typing into the computer and sending electronically to the publisher:

Renee Seymour

Reflections of my Father

Some people say our destiny is set before we are even born.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I do know that destiny dealt some sever blows to Bert Walker at a very young age.

He was orphaned at six years old and was sent off to a rigid, harsh environment to live instead of being in a loving home. He ran away at fourteen and sailed around the world for two years. He was only sixteen when he returned from sea. He did not have a chance to complete his education. He was a very intelligent man. He knew a lot about many things you would not expect a person in his circumstances to know. He did have the advantage of the gift of a photographic memory. Once he learned something, he never forgot it. Once he heard or read something that made an impression on him, he never forgot it. All this information was stored up in his brain waiting to be pulled out when he needed it. I remember once in his senior years, he recited a poem word for word, line for line perfectly. He had learned it almost a half of a century ago in school.

With a mind like that, given the right opportunities, the possibilities could have been endless. What if? Let's play the game of what if?

He had a fascination with electricity. If he had the education that goes along with basic electricity concepts, he could have been an engineer or a scientist.

He had a deep love for music. If he had been given the proper training in music, he could have been a great musician or composer.

Physically, he was lithe, agile, and graceful; he could have been a great dancer like Fred Astaire.

But none of these possibilities or opportunities ever presented themselves to young Bert. Instead, he accepted the hand that life had dealt him and played it to the best of his ability.

When he met Lena, his fate was sealed. He became a loving husband and a loving father. His early experiences could have left him a bitter, angry man, but not Bert. He had a soft, almost-romantic side. Having grown up without family, once he had a family of his own, he cherished us, and we became his top priority. He strove not to just give us the bare necessities of life, like a roof over our heads and food on our table. He wanted to give us much more. And he did.

Once he landed the job as signal maintainer on the railroad, it was a perfect fit. Bert could use his knowledge of electricity at his job.

When his work on earth was done, I am sure the Lord said, Well done, my son.

And as Father Hermanns said, He's up there. No doubt about it, he's up there.

Reflections of my Mother

Much like my father Bert, my mother Lena had a difficult childhood. At least she had a loving mother, which Bert was denied because he lost both parents.

Her experiences taught her how to make do with what she had. She also learned how to make a difficult situation better. Such as when she made and sold handkerchiefs to earn money to buy Christmas presents for her younger sister and brother.

Sewing was her special talent, and if she set her mind to it, she could make anything. She made everything from doll clothes to furniture slip covers and window draperies. In fact, she even made "Alter Cloths" and Banners for Saint Mathias Church.

People sensed she was a strong and wise woman. She was the one they went to for advice when they were troubled. She said she never gave anyone advice, she only listened. But by her patient listening and allowing them to talk, they usually came to their own solution.

She was always ready to help people. Many times, we took people in to live with us when they needed a temporary place to stay until they got on their feet. She was always the calm one in emergency situations. She always seemed to know exactly what to do, and she did it.

She touched many lives. Hers was a life well lived.

Introduction

This book is not fiction.

This is a true story.

It is a love story.

It is about two people, each of whom endured difficult childhoods. When they met, they both fell in love at first sight with a love that lasted a lifetime. The trials and difficulties they experienced during their lifetime only served to bring them closer together and made their love stronger.

I have tried to retell the stories told to me by my grandmother and my parents exactly as they were told to me. All other events are just as they happened to the best of my memory.

This book will take you from the pioneer days of covered wagons and Indian raids, through a bit of American history, up to modern times and rockets to the moon!

Young readers, who are used to all the electronic gadgets of today, will be astonished to learn how people lived before they even had electricity!

It's about life well lived!

Part 1

Lena's Story

1

The Beginning

When my mother celebrated her eightieth birthday, I asked her what her first memories were. She said they were when she was three years old and going to the circus and another time when she ran away all by herself to visit her grandma.

My mother, Lena Rivers Waldrip, was born to Julian and Amelia Zoe Johnson Waldrip on July 22, 1906, in the mountain community of High Rolls, nestled in the Sacramento Mountains in the southern part of New Mexico. Lena's mother, Amelia Zoe, preferred to be called just Zoe (simply pronounced Zo, not Zoie).

New Mexico was still just a territory; it would be admitted to statehood a few years later.

The circus was coming to the town of Alamogordo at the foot of the mountains. Zoe and her sister-in-law, Vashtie, thought it would be fun to take the children to the circus.

Zoe had three children—a girl named Winnie Mae was about six years old, a son named Asa was about four and a half, and Lena was three years old. Vashtie had children about the same ages.

It was about a ten-mile drive down the mountain, which had to be made by horse and wagon. In order to make it down in time for the circus, they had to leave at three o'clock in the morning. They got the children up and dressed and made a bed for them in the back of the wagon. Since Zoe was an excellent horsewoman, she had no qualms about driving the team of horses and wagon down the ten-mile narrow mountain road to get to Alamogordo. Anyway, there was a full moon that night, so visibility was good.

They arrived just about daybreak. Zoe pulled the wagon up to the railway station. The circus train was already standing in the station. Zoe told Vashtie to stay in the wagon with the children while she went inside to inquire what time the circus would start and where to get tickets. For some unknown reason, Vashtie got out of the wagon and stood beside it without holding onto the reins. Just about that time they were bringing old Jumbo the elephant off of the circus train, Jumbo let out a loud trumpet, spooking the horses who took off running down the street with the children in the back of the wagon screaming and crying.

Fortunately, one of the circus workers saw what was happening and risking his own life, stepped in front of the runaway team, and grabbed onto the reins. He was able to slow the horses down and bring them to a complete stop. What could have been a tragedy was avoided. Had he not stopped the runaway horses, the wagon could have tipped over, injuring or even killing the children.

After this heroic act, the man simply disappeared into the crowd and was never given the recognition he deserved. I suppose circus workers face similar situations frequently and just take it as matter-of-fact.

Lena was simply delighted with the circus. She also tasted her first Cracker Jacks. Cracker Jacks is a caramel-coated popcorn; it was sold in little boxes under the trade name, Cracker Jacks©. Each little box also contained a prize, which was a little toy or trinket for a child. Afterward, Lena always loved Cracker Jacks©. Cracker Jacks© are still sold in stores today in either the little boxes or now available in bags. Julian and Zoe had two more children after Lena—a girl, Floy, and a boy, Cecil.

Lena also remembered the time she decided to see her grandma. She took off down the road all by herself. It was quite a distance between farms, but she had walked there with her mother many times. When she got near grandma's house, she decided to take a shortcut across the field that she had often taken with her mother. In order to do so, she had to go under a barbed-wire fence.

All the farmers surrounded their land with barbed wire strung from post to post to keep the livestock from wandering off. Lena knew how to flatten herself close to the ground on her belly, so she could crawl under the lowest wire on the fence. Just as she got under on the other side, she spotted the old bull headed in her direction! She panicked and tried to crawl back under the fence, but her bonnet got caught on one of the barbs!

Since she was only three years old, she did not realize that all she had to do to free herself was to untie her bonnet! Instead, she just lay there screaming, crying until Grandma heard her cries and came running to her rescue. Grandma took her into the house to calm her down and gave her a glass of cold buttermilk. After Lena drank her buttermilk and she calmed down, then grandma took her home. Of course, she was scolded by her mother Zoe for running off alone.

Lena loved buttermilk. It was real buttermilk in those days. Buttermilk is the liquid that is left after the butter has been churned. What we get in the supermarkets today is not real buttermilk. Now, there is an enzyme added to milk to cause it to curdle like buttermilk.

In the mountains, in the early days, there was no electricity. The only refrigeration was a natural form of keeping food cold. The farmhouse was next to a little stream that came from a natural spring higher up in the mountains. The water was very cold. A wooden frame box covered with wire screening and shelves inside and a hinged door was placed into the little stream. The legs of the box were sunk into the sand on the bottom of the stream. As the cold water flowed through the lower part of the box, it kept the milk, cream, and butter cold. It was from one such cooler that Grandma got the cold buttermilk that she gave Lena to drink.

John Wasington Johnson and his wife Eliza Evelyn Stone Johnson with her sister Mitilda and 2 grand children (Photo courtesy of their Great Great Grand-daughter(Leanna Veazey).

2

The Family History

Lena's grandma was Eliza Evelyn Stone, wife of John Washington Johnson. John Johnson got his middle name Washington because he was distantly related to Martha Washington!

John and Eliza had lived in Texas, before moving the family to the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico.

The Sacramento Mountains were mostly farm and apple-growing country. Lena's grandfather, John Washington Johnson, was an apple grower. He did not have a formal education and could not read or write. The local farmers took turns taking the apples to market in El Paso, Texas, about one hundred miles south of where they lived. When it was John Johnson's turn, he always sold every apple and brought back the exact amount of money due each farmer. No one knew how he figured it out, but he had his own system.

John Johnson's grandfather, James Johnson, was a freighter, meaning he drove a wagon train between Texas where they lived and a bigger city like Dodge City or Kansas City. They brought livestock and produce to sell and brought back supplies like flour, sugar, and dry goods for the women to make clothing.

When he went on these trips, all of the men went along. They took all of the women and children to one house for protection from the Indians. They left two teenaged boys to look after the livestock and also gave the impression of men around the house. If the Indians saw men around, they were not as likely to raid a homestead as when women were left alone.

On this