. . . so many wonderful memories

A request to the Davis grandchildren for Christmas memories brought several responses.  These are from Alice Bell Higgs.

I have so many wonderful memories of Grandma and Grandpa Davis I hardly know where to start.  

Early style Cracker Jack box

One Christmas I remember we went to Haswell and to the ranch and Grandma Davis had made a bushel basket of Cracker Jacks.  I have tried to make some for my kids and I end up with a whole bunch of very soggy popcorn not even the birds would eat!

 She also had saved a lot of spools and made whistles for all of us.  

I've never been able to make those either.

 One time she was making taffy for us to help pull, and Hubert was just tall enough to reach up and put his fingers into that hot candy.  Grandma grabbed him up and sent one of the boys to the shop for a small can of kerosene.  She sat and rocked that baby with his fingers in that kerosene until he went to sleep.  Grandma always knew what to do.  I guess when you raise 14 kids you have to!  I don't remember if we made the taffy.

Alice Bell and others sent more memories that I will share in future posts.

Thanksgiving on the Davis Ranch

Lou - 7 years old - 1930

One of my earliest memories of a Thanksgiving was at Grandpa and Grandma Davis’ ranch. We arrived on the day before Thanksgiving and everything was very exciting as families began arriving; it was great fun to greet them as they came in.

We could spot the cars as they came down the dirt road several minutes before they would arrive. Everyone looked forward to seeing the cousins, aunts and uncles. Many of them we had not seen since the previous Christmas or Thanksgiving.

After supper Grandpa would get out the cards and the men would play “High Five.” They would laugh and joke and rib one another about things in the past. I loved to watch them play, and once in a while they would need one more player at one of the tables and I would get to play.  

During one game, Uncle Johnny was shuffling the cards and they scattered all over the table and some on the floor. He was laughing about it and said, “Man, I need a basket to corral all of these cards! Louis, run out and get me a basket.”  I didn’t know what he meant – but I knew I wanted to help, so I ran out into the yard and got him a basket! For many years – if anyone dropped the cards, they would yell for me to go get them a basket.

Early Thanksgiving morning the women would be in Grandma’s huge kitchen getting both breakfast and preparing the dinner. The men and boys would be eating and then going outside where they were getting ready to go coyote hunting.

Uncle Johnny, who lived on the ranch, would be getting the two greyhounds ready and most of the men were getting their guns ready. They would be talking about previous years’ hunting experiences and comparing guns and ammunition.

Some of the men, mostly the ones who lived on or close to the Davis Ranch or those who lived on or near the Harriman Ranch in Fowler, had “coyote cars or pickups.” They took great pride in having these tuned up to get a quick start and to be able to go over rough prairie lands. They preferred vehicles in which they could stand in the back and shoot over the cab while the vehicle was going full speed. The coyote cars also had to be able to turn very sharply and double back whenever the coyote felt they were getting too close to him.
 

Can you imagine what it is like in the back of a pickup (with sideboards) when three or four men are all trying to remain standing, aiming their guns at the coyote when he decides to stop and go the other way? The driver jams on the brakes and cranks the steering wheel around to follow the coyote. Men have been known to be thrown out onto the prairie grass and cactus plants and then roll over and over trying to stop! Clark Harriman rolled out once and they spent hours picking the cactus out of him! For some reason the wives are very much against their husbands taking the family car coyote hunting!

By noon the hunters would return and the big Thanksgiving dinner would be ready. The tables would be set up all over the house for the meal. After the meal the dishes were taken to the kitchen and the card games would begin again.

What will your children and grandchildren remember about Thanksgiving holidays?

Eighty-five

Guess who celebrated 85 years today?

Flowers, pies and balloons make a great celebration.

(And a cute great grandson in the background doesn't hurt.)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

and may you have as many more as you want.

Rachel Caroline Davis

Rachel Caroline Davis

14th child of Harker and Della Davis

born:  7 November 1915 - Haswell, Colorado

died:  4 January 1982 - Pueblo, Colorado

Rachel about 3 years old

With nephew Delbert Butler and son, Richard Steele

With children Janet Freeland, Earl Freeland, and Richard Steele - circa 1945

Rachel and Carl Freeland

School of Choice

Because the Davis family lived so far out in the country, getting the children to school was an ongoing challenge.  Obviously Harker and Della were committed to education, and they tried a variety of school settings in their efforts to allow their children to gain an education.

Birdie - School was quite a problem.  The first winter [after moving to Kendrick] it was decided that Mother and all the children would move to Pueblo [about 90 miles away] for the winter and attend school.  

Birdie's simple statement doesn't really do justice to the challenging situation this would have been.  At this time there were 7 children in the family.  The four oldest - Birdie (12), Norman (9), Augusta (8), and Floyd (6) went to school.  The younger ones - Lemuel (4), Mable (3), and Garnons (1 1/2) kept their mother Della busy at home, and Johnny was born in October of that year.  No phones or email would have made communication with Harker who had stayed on the ranch, slow and infrequent, and I suppose he was only able to visit on rare occasions.

Norman - . . . Dad moved us all to Pueblo for school.  It was a 90 mile move.  Dad rented a town house [a house in town, as opposed to the country].  It was a new experience for us country kids, and we had lots of new experiences.  For one thing, I was run home from school every night by a gang of bullies.  Birdie had to take my part [defend me] lots of times.  One night Dad happened to be there, and was cleaning the barn in the alley when he saw those big toughies chasing Floyd and I.  I had picked up a wire with a bolt tied to the end and was swinging it around and around over my head to keep them off.  As we neared the barn, Dad stepped out and invited the boys to come on, one at a time, and he would see a fair fight.  But the boys very quietly slipped away.

Johnny was born in October, so there was another one to take home in the spring when Dad came for us.  The moving was a big task as the children were too small to be a big help, and Mother was far from well.  Birdie worried a great deal about it.  But dad had to hurry to get the moving over as lambing time was close at hand.

Next they tried a neighborhood school:

Birdie - The winter of 1907 we drove to school. Mr. Deming/Denning had two children ready to go, so he and Daddy hired a teacher, and he taught us in a nice two room cottage just east of the Deming residence.  It was five miles for us to drive, but we had a nice two seat spring wagon and a team of little bay mares to drive.

This arrangement didn't work out so well.  The Demings were well to do people, and their children had everything and were spoiled terribly by Grandpa and Grandma who lived with them.  One day Grandpa did the washing as usual and had the lines full of white sheets.  We were out playing baseball at noon, and Ned got mad at Floyd and picked up a ball of mud and threw it at Floyd who ran into the school house; Ned's mud hit a sheet.  He ran in to tell his Grandpa that Floyd threw the mud on his sheet.  The old man was short and pudgy; here he came on the prance, mad and talking as fast as he ran.  He called Floyd a nasty name and said there was always a black sheep in every family, and he was the one in our family.  This made me mad, so we hitched up our team and all went home and told our daddy.  Well, Daddy took me and back we went to see what the rumpus was all about.  After some time Daddy said he never had caught me in a lie, and if I said Floyd didn't do it, he knew he didn't.  The old man apologized, and we went to school the rest of that year, but I never felt just right toward the old man again.

School transportation was also an issue while living on the plains. 

Norman - I well remember when Richard was born, April 1907.  At that time we were going to school at Denning's and driving old Roanie.  Although it was April, we left school that day in a storm.  It was snowing and blowing so we could hardly see where we were going.  About half way home, we could no longer see the road, but Roanie knew where he was going, and he plodded right along.  When we got home we felt nearly frozen. The hired man took charge of the horse, and we went in the house and saw the new baby. 

Private school was the last hope, but obviously the children were not happy with the teacher.  

 Birdie - The next year Daddy built a little one-room cement house and hired a teacher who was proving up on a homestead by the Post Office.  He had no transportation so some of us went for him Sunday evening and took him back Friday evening.  We put a folding bed and a dresser in the school room so he slept out there, but ate with us.  We kept him for two years.  By that time I could hardly tolerate him.  He began to feel like he owned the place and was so attentive to me, wiping dishes, setting the table, just always in the way. 

Mable - [In Kendrick] Daddy built us a school house, and we were taught by Mr. Wiley.  He was single and didn't care for a very curious little girl, so I got spanked every day.  If I could see him today, I'd kick him on the shins! 

Undated, unlabeled picture of some of the Davis girls.

After this, Harker decided his family needed more social life and a better school situation.  He had a chance to sell the ranch and all the sheep, so it let it all go.

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Was that in the job description?

15 March 1985 - We usually get here to the Institute building by 8:00 a.m. and then at 11:30 we go get some lunch and take care of errands and are back by 1:00 p.m.  Then we usually have just a sandwich or a bowl of soup or something light for supper here at the Institute, and then we go home around 10:30 - 11:30 p.m.  In between times, we manage to keep busy being very poor janitors, bookkeepers, and host/hostess.  We have most of the time to ourselves in the morning, and only a few kids now and then in the afternoon on school days.

15 March 1985 - Mary L. got a letter Thursday that if she had her application in by today, Friday at 4:00 p.m. she could have a job with General Motors in Oklahoma City this summer.  So she asked if we would we pick her up at 5 a.m. and take her to the Kansas City Airport so she could get home in time to get this job which pays $10/hour.  Leona said we would.

We closed the institute at 10:30 last night and got up at 4:00 this morning and went over to pick up Mary.  But she had gone back to sleep after being called.  We left just before 5:30 and the plane was to leave at 6:40.  We thought we knew where it was, but we didn't.  Needless to say, we missed the plane!  After several calls to her uncle in Oklahoma City, we found out that she didn't have to go down there anyway; she could just mail the stuff in.  So we got back about 10 a.m., went to the trailer and had a nap and lunch.  Then we went back to the Institute in the afternoon.

Leona working her magic with the Bernina

31 January 1986 - A boy that I had never seen before brought a pair of brown pants in.  He was going to start a new job that evening, and he wanted me to take an inch off each side and hem them.  It was already 3:00, and I had to teach a class at 6:00.  I told him that I didn't have any brown thread, so he told me to use black.  My black thread was gone too, so he said for me to use blue.  I used my blind hemmer, so they did get hemmed, but the stitch was terrible.  The thread could be pulled out like a basting stitch, so I told him not to catch his toe in the hem!  There's another pair of pants here that I've go to take some out of the waist.  I don't know why these kids don't buy things to fit.  They don't seem to understand or care that I don't know how to do these things.  [That attitude] is catching too.  When Lou broke the zipper in his jacket he just gave it to me to put a new zipper in it.  I can remember the day when I would have taken it some place and had it done . . .

8 February 1986 -We have been trying not to get the flu and sore throat that almost everybody in Lawrence has had.  It has really made a lot of the Indian kids sick, but they keep coming in.  It's a wonder the authorities don't get me for dispensing medicine without a license.  The students go to the med center down the street, and then they are afraid to take the medicine they are given.  So they ask me for salt to gargle with, throat spray, aspirin, and cough drops.  They only use the throat spray once, because they don't like the taste, but I had to start buying cheaper cough drops so I could afford to share them.  Amelia has been asking for them for three weeks, and she's still sick.  I must not be much of a doctor!

Helping Madonna learn to sew

14 February 1986 - This day has not gone as I had planned it.  I had it all figured out on paper by 8:00 this morning.  I was going to make Valentine cookies to serve tonight,m take the hood off of Molly's coat and get a hair cut.  By the time we bought pop (8 cases) at the Food Barn, bought candy bars (20 packages) at Wal-Mart, mailed some things at the Post Office, ran some things off at Kinko's, and bought my dancer pads at the shoe cobbler's, I was out of steam.

". . . when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, 

ye are only in the service of your God." 

Mosiah 2: 17

Nursing duty

 15 March 1985 - Tuesday morning we took Ethelyn to the KU Medical Center Hospital in Kansas City and got her admitted for the purpose of patching her right ear drum which had been 1/3 eaten away.  She was really scared.

When we were getting her admitted to the hospital, we had to help her a lot with the many questions they asked her, but when we got her up to her room and the nurse started asking her another series of questions, it got rather difficult.  When she said she didn't know what the nurse meant by "When did you have your last bowel movement?" Leona just sat there, and the nurse and I had a heck of a time explaining that one to her!  When we left her at 12:30 as we had to get back to the Institute, she started to cry - 21 years old and never been in a hospital before.  She had a TV and a private room, Leona bought her some magazines, and she was in no pain, but was just scared of this strange new world she was in.  It sure looked good to us, all that quiet and an opportunity to relax and sleep!

We hurried back over to the institute - about 40 miles away.  About 6:30 she called to say that she just felt like crying and wanted to talk to us, so I talked to her (collect call) for a while and reassured her that all would be well.  Surgery was to be the next morning at 10:00.

Ethelyn in May, 1986 -- she survived the surgery!

At 8:15 a.m. the next day, I got another collect call from the hospital - 1 hour and 30 minutes until operating time and, "I'm scared."  So we talked for about 15 minutes.  The surgery went well.  In the evening, Leona took her sister over to the hospital and visited her.  Ethelyn said that whenever she got scared and wanted to cry, she just said a prayer and everything got better.  She came home about 9:00 on Thursday.

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