CRAZY KITTY
At first this kitten could barely toddle, but soon it was obvious that it was in training for the Kitten Olympics.
ERIC AND MORNING SICKNESS
As soon as I started being sick, he would peak around the door to make sure I was fully occupied, maybe give me a couple of pats, and then run out into the kitchen, open the cabinet doors and get…
MORNING SICKNESS ADVICE
I never had morning sickness again. I include this only for someone who might need help with the same problem.
ERIC IMPROVING JARI
When Eric was two years old, I gave birth to Jari. When Jari was about three months old, Eric decided that she lacked color.
ERIC LISTENING
Eric loved to listen to stories. I could read almost anything to him as long as I changed the words to those he could understand, or stopped and explained what the story meant as I went along.
ERIC AND JARI, 1957
I made most of Eric and Jari's clothing.
DESIGNING WOMAN
After I married Howard, I started designing and making all my own clothes.
HUCKLEBERRY HOUND
I resisted getting a television set for a long time because I hated television. All the television I had watched at the houses of friends seemed inane to me, and the long sessions of advertising seemed a ridiculous waste of…
DICK DAY
Dick Day was one of the best looking men I have ever known, and I have known some pretty good looking men. He was married to Audrey,
ERIC’S WORDS ABOUT DICK
Dick died April 16, 1990 in his home.
STARTER HOUSE, PART II
The addition I designed for our little house in Metzger was never built. My marriage to Howard was not a successful one. I took Eric and Jari and moved to Tumalo near Bend, then to Eugene to get a degree…
TO MY DENTIST
CATEGORY: METZGER My dearest Doctor Tuchler Take off your starched white buckler And listen to what I have to say.You are such a dandy dentist, see,That could I your apprentice be, I’d make these delightful changes in your day. Just…
LEAVING HOWARD
It is always difficult, when a marriage breaks up to know what to say about it, or even what to say to ones self--to know what actually happened.
THE WINNING WAYS OF WATER
Sometimes when I look back at how foolhardy I used to be, I wonder how any of us survived.
ODE TO AN 84 DOLLAR HEADACHE
Here is your fee you old M. D. I think it highway robbery. I wish you measles and the mumps, The kind with upper and lower lumps.
THE TUMALO HOUSE
CAREGORY: CENTRAL OREGONPHOTOS: ORIGINAL AND PLANNED FLOOR PLANS, 1963 After living with Mary and Oliver for about six weeks, Howard told me he would help me buy a house. I found a house and barn on 40 acres seven miles…
MISTER SINGER
One of my first dress making customers was a man. His name was Mr. Singer.
SKUNKS IN THE HOUSE
After I got the kitchen addition enclosed, I woke up one night to hear the sound of clicking claws on the floor.
A SKUNK AT THE DOOR
Our front door had a little window in the top of it turned at a 45* angle. I heard a slight noise and looked up at the door. There, with his face pressed against the glass was Phyllis's latest boyfriend.…
A SKUNK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
One fall afternoon as I was working at my sewing, I glanced out the window and saw a teen age boy coming down my driveway. I continued sewing, expecting him to knock at the door, but he didn’t. When I…
BOTTLE CAPS
BOTTLE CAPS Eric’s favorite toys when we were living in Tumalo were bottle caps. He would get them out of the soft drink machines and bring them home in paper bags. He had hundreds of them.
ZACH: 1963
CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGONPHOTO: 1) ZACH AND ME2) ZACH'S FIRST VALENTINE TO ME 1963 was my year of being insane. It was my year of being totally, completely, madly in love. I had never been in love before. Nor, in that…
ZACH: SWIMMING ONEONTA GORGE
In the summer of 1963, Mike and it took some trips to out of the way places in Oregon. With Eric and Jari we went camping in the Maurray Mountains and to French Glenn. By ourselves we went to the…
ZACH: SEATTLE
CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGON PHOTO: LETTER FROM ZACH'S FRIEND Zach and I were tootling along in his little Volkswagen on our way to Seattle. He was driving, but he wanted to study the map to figure out how best to enter…
ZACH: WHO ARE YOU?
When Mike got engaged to his bride to be, he threw a big party at his studio.
THE BURMA ROAD
Today when we drive along Highway 97 between Redmond and Terrebonne, we look over toward Gray Butt to the east and see what is now called "The Burma Road."
GEORGE WASHINGTON
CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGON Jari sometimes surprised me with her sophisticated sense of humor. An example I am remembering occurred at a small party we gave at our Tumalo house when Jari was ten years old. A year before that, she…
REID THE RIOT ACT
CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGON Eric and Jari went to school at Tumalo Grade school. The principal there was named Mr. Reid. I had heard reports of him that were most unpleasant, not just from my own children but from the other…
PIXIE DRIVERS
CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGON Although it was, of course, illegal, I taught Eric and Jari to drive the car when they were 12 and 10 respectively, just as we had learned to drive the team and wagon and later the tractor…
CLIMBING THE SOUTH SISTER
Someone had given me directions on how to get to the west side of the South Sister on a dirt road that went between it and Brokentop, and said that then it was an easy hike to the top.