This is not history, biography or a yarn. Just memories,accurate, inaccurate or maybe only hearsay or dreams. What does one rememberand why? (I stayed in most of one recess to learn to spell that word. Ihad to r-e-m-b-e-r).
Some early recollections:
1. Visiting school in a tent. Was sent out to drawa picture on a slate of teachers pony. Went to sleep on the job.
2. Some one lost-maybe me- found in the "bush-patch"just above the "turn" in the ravine. (A road which led from Iowa's leveland to our home in the valley).
3. Someone else lost-cousin Harry, I think. Foundin the empty side of the milk cooler tank with the lids down.
4. Kindergarten stuff - left by D. A. Hamm, a mysteryman - kept we tots busy for many hours on "inside days", of which therewere few in our young lives.
5. Father returned from Chicago minus his sideburnsand was hardly recognized.
6. At about that time Ernest showed me why I shouldnever tough father's razor - to prove it was sharp out a corncob - crackedthe blade.
7. A horsepower thresher struck in the creek isalmost as vague as memories of its operation.
Early days were spent in a stone house next to ahill with a long kitchen-dinging room addition on the south side. Houseeaves came nearly to the ground on the north. Roof made good sliding onfrosty mornings, but was hard on trousers and shingles. A very nice sandpit back and above made a fine play spot. As the family grew beds appearedin the attic, rainy nights were wonderful. For some years it was outsideand up the ladder to bed. Frosty on the feet sometimes. Finally a stairon the inside balanced with a weight over a pulley was pushed up to theceiling when not in use. One stone in the north
under certain conditions and was considered a barometer.At about the time Burl and Edgar were playing Corbbet and Fitzesimmonsroles a new house was built. It had a basement replace the "cave" whichhad been used for vegetable storage.
During the stone house days we must have been busypounding nails of all sizes into the kitchen doorstep. An area of probablytwo by three feet was practically solid nail heads. Nail driving in looselumber was strictly forbidden - too many bare feet. Then there was a stone-pileto climb over and the brush pile to crawl through. Stones gathered fromthe fields, saved for future use and willows from two to six inches fromalong the creek to be chopped for winter fuel. Too much energy in the houseor too much vigor at play might find one assigned to wood cutting duty.Or just plain need for fuel must be met. And in season always cobs in thefeeding pens to pick up for present use or storage. During the fall andearly winter feeding time it was often so many tubs per day. If there wastrouble about who did what some one might find an assignment of extra tubs.Sometimes a full day with a crew of boys and a team and wagon would clearthe feeding pens. Cob throwing battles enlivened the job.
Gun-weed supplied chewing gum. Properly stored ina little box it was available for chewing or trading later. Colored stringbraided, marbles or a whole pocket-full of miscellaneous stuff had treadingvalue, especially when school started. Some times the lunch pail carriedsomething of trading value.
Where and when one grows up may have a lot to dowith how and to what. We were a bunch of kids, eight of us from one toeighteen, working or roaming the hills together in comparative isolation.Sometimes with a raft of visiting cousins.
The building site, well up from a small creek somethirty rods away had been started as an overnight camp, then as a temporarysite, by a spring on a hillside well below the level land of Iowa's prairies.Threes were planted as shelter on the level land above, but the buildingsnever located on the selected spot. Joining the farm was an area of ravinesand small hills with brush, grassland, small trees, and wild fruit. Andmost unusual for that part of Iowa some sand pits and scattered rocks -marble size up to one - Big Rock - some six feet in diameter. The LittleHill, South Gate, The Big Rick, Hell's Peak, Brook's Creek and the IndianMounds needed frequent exploration. Floods rushing down ravines and creekscreated new situations. New swimming holes might be possible or an occasionaldeer, elk or buffalo horn might be uncovered.
Nearby trees were oak, hickory, basswood, willow,ironwood, and by the river walnut, elm and others. Wild fruit and nutswere common - grapes, plums of many kinds, choke cherries, wild currants,blackhaw and hazelnuts. An occasional flock of beribboned girls invadedthe area during the hazelnut and plum seasons just before fall school time.
Animal live included prairie wolves, badgers, skunks,rabbits, muskrats, mink, weasels, squirrels and miscellaneous mice, moles,chipmunks, snakes, turtles, crayfish and bugs. Birds - crows, thrush, robins,meadowlark, bluejay, bee martin swallows, canaries, killdeer and many more,I'm sure. Spring and fall brought great flights of ducks, geese, craneand biant.
Eating is always important to outdoor working orroaming boys. There was a big garden with vegetables, berries, rhubarb,melons but for some unknown reason, few apples. They were bought from orchardsto the south, frequently Longackers or Bradfields. Wild fruit and nutsadded to seasonal use and winter stores. Bins of potatoes, carrots, cabbage,squish and a sack or two of navy beans and popcorn were standard. Supplementedby apples and sugar (usually in barrels at earlier dates) two, three andfive gallon stone jars of plum, grape and apple butter - sometimes in combinations- honey in large quantities - a keg of pickles and rows of jam, jelly,preserves, canned fruit and tomatoes with plenty of home dried corn andapples. Meat and poultry and eggs home grown. Crackers in 18 to 22 poundwooden boxes wee always on hand. Cannot remember going hungry.
The farm, Glen Alpine Home, named by Uncle Frank,and purchased from the Railroad at $7.50 per acre, I think was surroundedby pasture lands mostly owned by farmers to the south,- Garberson, Mummert,Watson, Anderson and others. Around this group were communities which maintainedtheir European customs and culture to a large extent, with church and schoolin their home country language. Danish to the northwest, German west, Swedishsouth, Norwegian southeast, and Welsh northeast. Several of these groupswere divided by denominational or geographic differences. Our school andsurrounding schools usually had children talking German or Scandinavianwhen they wished privacy. In some cases this was forbidden by the teacher.
Education - general:
Daily tasks in garden or on farm (a poor job meantgo back and do it again) caring for stock, pets and poultry, picking potatobugs and pulling weeds, cutting wood and posts, hauling, post, straw, hayand manure, doing chores- and for me helping in the kitchen and with houseworkfor several years - were fundamental education. (I do not remember dislikingthe aprons I wore).
Roaming the area watching and exploring everythingin sight - flowers, trees, birds, animals (wild or tame), people, streams,springs, rains and floods, weather and change of seasons, sky, sun, moon,stars and clouds. Climbing trees, skating, sliding, trapping, fishing,hunting - all good training. Something was always being made or built,sleds, barrelstave skis, boats, bow and arrow, darts, kites, slingshots,popguns, traps. Any idea was worth a trail. Handles for hammers, axes andtools were made from home cut and seasoned hickory shaped with a drawknifeand finished with edges of broken glass.
Perhaps the so-called "frills" in today's educationalprograms are efforts to provide for something lost from daily living inyester-year.
Social activities were not completely neglected.Bicycles enlarged the area for a time and brought in visiting, ball gamesand neighborhood parties. Later a long-legged sorrel team and snappy buggywidened the area still further and the sphere of interest (Sometimes thatteam seemed to know what road to travel).
Annual trips to Alta County Fair with occasionaltrips to O'Brien Count Fair were an exciting as Fourth of July celebrationsand more informative. Perhaps Herbert started a chain of events in 1906at the Alta Fair when he elected to wander about the fair grounds witha couple of Alta High School girls and me. I had the good sense to switchto his choice and follow through.
Ernest and I went to Des Moines State Fair at apretty early age - maybe 16 and 14. Hired a tandem bike while there androde into the country to compare with our own.
Camp meetings, Chautauqua's, and teacher's institutesoffered opportunities to explore other fields of life. Sometimes one metinteresting people who might consider evening strolls or sitting by thelakeside in the moonlight. Organ lessons and an early Edison phonographwere interesting and helpful. Special excursion train trips to State Collegeat Ames created interest in wider education.
Elections at the schoolhouse were interesting. Fatheralways seemed to have some official capacity at election time or schoolboard meetings. Older members of the family went to watch the countingof ballots at night. Observation of democracy in action.
Education - formal:
All this learning was supplemented through the yearsby more or less formal education. Older members started to school in atent but by the time a schoolhouse was ready. One room probably 24X30 ft.,three windows on each side, and one behind the teacher's desk in front.Triangle halls, on each side of the teacher's platform, one for boys onefor girls. Three rows of desks each seating two pupils - - two behind thestove and four on each side bellied stove in the middle of the
room. A long recitation seat in front of the stove.
Beginners were supposed to master one half of Appleton'sFirst Reader the first year. First page:
Cat
A cat the cat
A black cat
Second half started with the story of The LittleRed Hen.
One reached Parnes Fifth Reader after probably fiveyears, and some used a Sixth Reader. These had some excellent short storieswhich were read and re-read. Reading, geography, language, arithmetic,spelling, physiology and Spenserian "Copy Books" were main studies. Duringthe year there was always time to listen to the upper grades recite - andto daydream.
Teachers of many varieties, capabilities and capacities.A girl of 16 Lucretia Bradfield, a man-name forgotten and age unguessed- - who put a rawhide riding whip on top the blackboard on opening day"for use if needed".. Goldie Thomas who was not afraid to "speak up" tokids, parents or school board members.
Noon and recess with tag, hide-and-seek, pull-away,last couple out, run sheep run, ball, fox and goose and tree climbing.Dist. 5 grounds were half covered by and surrounded with natural trees,to tree climbing was easy. Being "kept in" to get lessons or for breakingrules was common and disliked. Five minutes out of fifteen was long termconfinement.
In 1904-5 (I think) Ernest and I went to Linn GroveSchool. In town for school, at home weekends. Probably some upper gradeand high school work for me. My high school work must have been prettygarbled. Shortly after this Ernest went to Cedar Falls State Teachers College.I followed shortly. Spent some time in prep school and must have spentsome time in college classes making up entrance deficiencies. At leastwhen enrolling in post graduate classes at Ames in 1936 found my CedarFalls record showed much less college credit than I expected.
A big factor in our education was the many hoursspent with books, magazines and papers. Youths Companion, Boys World, ChristianHerald, Leslies Weekly, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, American,Monseys, Literary Digest, Current Events, Chicago Inter Ocean and The Homesteadcome to mind. Books were plentiful. Do not recall reading any paperbackor dime novel of that day. There were no funnies except Mut and Jeff.
We joined the Methodist Church and YMCA in CedarFalls.
Work started early with kindling, cobs and eggs.Then chicken feeding, care of chicken house and coops, pumping water forthe milk-cooling tank. Mothers finger test of temperature and "Guess itwill do" or "Better change in again" often meant the difference betweenwork and play. Garden and potatoes seemed to take lots of hoeing and weedpulling. Potato picking was a big job - took all day for one or more days.Pretty tired backs at night. Pumping water for stock was a big job someseasons. Milking strippers and easy ones started as a special favor andsoon developed into a share of the
regular milking.
Sometimes missing hills on corn had to be replanted.Corn cultivating, with a "walking plow" for many years, started as soonas one could see the row and lasted, with only minor breaks between first,second and "laying by" till around July Fourth. Haying started just afterthis and meant lots of pitchfork use to get hay from field to wagon tobarn or stack. Stackers were used later.
Grain had to be cut, shocked, stacked and threshed.This was an exciting event, lots of men and a big machine. Corn pickinglasted several weeks. Up and team harnessed, breakfast over and on therow as soon as one could see the ears. Quitting when you got to the endof the row and it did not pay to start another-or when dark. No Sundaywork even in harvest time.
When "big enough" one could "work out". Start at25 or 50 cents a day, get to $1.00 or maybe a little more for a mans work,$25.00 per month was common. Seemed I could find most satisfactory manswork in Alta vicinity. This was not true after the Chamberlain family movedto Missouri.
In 1910 free land in the west called. Or was itmankind's homemaking proclivity? Anyway hope to find satisfactory landand the probability of having use for it started me west. Herbert was inColorado and Ernest in Montana so in June 1910 after attending a YMCA conventionin Green Bay, Wisconsin, I started west by way of (?), Missouri and ColoradoSprings. Worked a month or so in San Louis valley and Manitou Park Collegeranch. Found no satisfactory homestead land. So north, via Denver, Alliance,Nebraska and Billings to Fergus County. Ernest met me in Lewistown andwe started the last 40 miles of the trip by heavily loaded wagon to theSalt Creek area. Walked up hills and pushed when steep. Went to bed undera wagon box a pretty tired pair. Finding and checking boundaries of homesteadtook many weeks. A walking job, find a section corner then "step-off" tolocate by quarter sections or 40 acres. Finally filed on 160 acres. (Eventuallyincreased to about a section and sold to Herbert in mid 1940s). Built astone dugout in fall of 1910. Went east for the winter.
Worked on Lindsay ranch near Kendall May to November1911 and Montgomery near the homestead in 1912.
Trips to Iowa and Missouri finally set the weddingdate - (??). From apple-blossom time and hot days in Missouri to (restof paragraph blank)
To be very brief -1913 to 1919 was a wonderful poverty,prunes and picnic time bringing lots of fun and two bright eyed youngsterswho enjoyed picnics even as we did. Upon doctors advice to change climatefor Gertrude's asthma, we rented the place to Rex and started west againJuly 3, 1919. Bought a 1916 Ford in June in which we traveled on mostlydirt roads to Puyallup. From this on, life was almost a living travelogue.To be short will brief Civil Service job descriptions (with an occasionalcomment).
August 1919 to March 1920. Worked for Western WashingtonExperiment Station and in a Puyallup cannery. (Bought a house)
March 1920 to March 1921. Worked for Blangy MotorFord Agency Tacoma and Seattle. Selling tractors and farm equipment. Didconsiderable work in adapting tractor for industrial uses including bigpneumatic tires. (Gertrude started first grade and Cecil kindergarten inSeattle. Sold house and moved to Redondo Beach then to Seattle)
March 1921 to August 1928. Returned to Fergus Co.ranch. Picked up a little blonde curly hared girl in 1921 and a pair oftwins in 1924. Built a nine-room house. School problem too tough. Highschool 40 miles so sold stock and equipment fall of 28. Lucky time to sell- just before depression hit.
September 1928-June 1931. Considerable overlappingin jobs during this period. Dairy herd testing and records for 25 members.Farm Management Specialist working with 15 members and Extension Service.Records of income and expenditures, labor use, etc.
Lived in Lewistown for school, on ranch in summer1928 to 1933. Moved twice a year, lived in five houses in Lewistown.
June 1931 to August 1933. City Sanitary Inspector.(?) inspection, milk tests, cooperate with City Health Officer, garbagechecks, etc.
Secured Livestock Ranch records in eastern partof Montana for Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
August 1933 to September 1934. County ExtensionAgent for Beaverhead, Madison and Jefferson Counties. Special attentionto AAA program. Family moved to Bozeman for college and I lived in Whitehallexcept most weekends.
September 1934 to October 1942. Land Use Specialistin Montana for National Resources Board, then State Representative forU.S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Cooperated with local people andState and Federal Agencies in developing local and national agriculturalprograms and policies. Headquarters in Bozeman. (Youngsters graduatingfrom high school and college, getting engaged and married a separate story).Unemployed a short time before next job.
October 1942 to April 1943. U.S. Treasury Dept.,to secure cooperation of Agricultural Agencies and rural people in WarSavings Bond sales program. My headquarters in Great Falls. (From thistime till 1950 my location moved with the work but the family lived inBozeman)
May 1943 to July 1946. War Relocation Authority.This Agency responsible for care of Japanese and Japanese-Americans inU.S. during war period. I was Relocation Office in Helena then Spokaneoffices. Then Area Supervisor in Salt Lake office. Duties: Direct activitiesof Intermountain Area including Salt Lake, Boise and Spokane District Offices.Determine policy in the Area within WRA regulations. Assist in analyzingcommunity sentiment and in organizing local committees. Assist in evacueeplacement and adjustment within the community. Maintain contacts with local,state and federal officials. Analyze problems within the area and securecooperation of committees and governmental agencies. Select personnel subjectto approval of Washington Office. (Headquarters - Helena, Spokane, SaltLake)
September 1946 to February 1947. Rent Inspector,Office of Price Administration. Administer program of use, rates, service,leases, evictions and other factors. Investigate complaints, hold hearings,issue rent orders. Worked in Helena, Missoula, Bozeman and Billings.
February 1947 to February 1948. First as assistantthen as Farm Labor Supervisor for Montana. Secure adequate farm labor andproper distribution. Cooperated with farmers and U.S. Dept of Labor insecuring Mexican labor. Sent crew to Kentucky and Tennessee to recruit1,000 men for beet harvest, supervised transportation, housing and wages.Directed migrant labor and custom combine movement. Develop informationprogram.
February 1948 to July 1953. Bureau of Reclamationas Settlement Specialist. Assigned task of developing a program for localparticipation; educational work, conduct negotiations for contract agreement,organize committees for irrigation development, assist water users to organizedistricts, and formulate settler assistance programs. (Got service award
and lifetime pass to U.S. Parks)
In after 1952 election adjustments was notifiedthe position was discontinued but might apply for other Civil Service work.At age of 67 did not seem to be a good idea so we retired and bought ahome in Bozeman. Did apply for two-year service in Ethiopia, not hired.
I seem to be as busy as ever with no major activity.
Signed this day; Dec. 1 - 1958 - At Bozeman Montana.
709- Seventh Ave. So-The present home of Ray andVernice Haight.
(Signature) Ray - Burton - Haight
Gertrude Blythe Haight
Gertrude Blythe Haight. -1-2-3-1b. 2/27/1914--- Oldest child of Vernice and Ray Haight born at the farmhome four miles west and 35 miles N. W. of Suffolk and of Lewistown Montana.Born in the midst of a Chinook and most likely the only child of this generationto be born with all hand made baby things.
Married to-- George MartiniMiller- (b 3/11/1917-- at Albion Wash.) in Bozeman Montana on A Sundayafternoon Sept. 15-1940. We went directly to Wenatchee Washington by plane,NO HONEYMOON* (darn it).
We had one child a daughter.Janet Ray Miller b. 1/6/1943 at Swedish Hospital in Seattle Wash. (Moreabout her later).
Back to my husband GeorgeMiller. George has a twin sister Ella Maud Miller. Georges father was JohnE. Miller an Albion banker until he became a farmer.
Back again to myself (GertrudeHaight Miller). I went to the first grade in Seattle Wash in the BroadwayDistrict. I went through the following seven grades -2 - through-8, at a little old country school provided by the Montana Haight Bro's(Herbert- Ernest and Ray) for their children. Some times we got somehelp form county for school but more often they did not. A few neighborhoodchildren attended this school from time to time. Doris Hinninger beingone of the kids who went there. Four years of the seven one or the otherof my
Aunts taught this one roomschool attended by from 3 to 7 pupils.
High School-- 1928 to1933
The family moved to Lewistownfrom the farm so I and the other four coming up might go to school. The500 enrollment caused me no little concern - me being just a little oldgreen country kid. I had rheumatic fever during my high school years. Madethe Honorary National Scholastic. -Came the depression-- No Job--No Moneyfor college so I took a post graduate course at the high school in Lewistown.
College---1933-1937--B.S. Degree
I enrolled at Montana StateCollege at Bozeman Montana in applied science but being in engineeringMath prompted me to change my major to Secretarial Science, with a minorin education. Upon graduation, the depression still being with us-- nojob. Oh yes I was honorary secretarial Lambada Phi Kappa. Enrolled in BusinessAdministration at Washington State College at Pullman Wash. --1937-1938.I had a teaching fellowship and taught half time typing and short hand.Pi Lambda Theta National Education Honorary.
JOBS
Fergus county highschool July 1938 to July 1939. Taught typing half-time and workedin the office under C. G. Manning. Worked in Agricultural Extension ServiceState Office Pullman Washington July 1939 to Sept. 1940. Before I leftLewistown Montana after working for a year at the job there I was offereda full time job as teacher of bookkeeping - "No Like". Anyway it was timeto get back to Wash. And my future husband George Miller who I had metduring my graduate year. Soon the Sec. (Me) of the Director of ExtensionOffice quit to get married.
SINCE MARRIAGE
We went directly to WenatcheeWashington, a fruit country, from Sept. 1940 until July 1942. George wasR. A. C. C. for the F. S. A. (Regional Agr. Credit Corp. -(F.S.A.) is FarmSecurity Admn.) we lived some way some how the first five weeks with nopay check. Five weeks no-- six weeks. Just some of that government redtape that seems so screwy-- at times.
In Seattle Washington fromfall of 1942 through Sept 1945 George worked at Boeing Aircraft Plant two- in Seattle. George being an engineer did then, top secret work, on ajet plane.
In Sept. 1945 we moved backto his dads farm near Garfield Washington n. This is not far from PullmanWashington and is in the well known Palouse country. At first we farmedin partnership with Georges dad - John E. Miller.
We now farm for ourselvesabout 800 a. in all - wheat, dry peas - barley- oats. We have built ourown home which between the two of us we think is one of the finestand most lived in homes in the state of Washington.
Service Record -- None.
Classified--2A-- Marriedand job deferred for George. I did not go into the service because--Housewife--and mother.
HOBBIES and ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
4-H Salt Creek Montana Butterfliesfor years. Won an achievement trip to International 4-H Club Congress atChicago in 1929. I am now a leader in "Busy Bakers" which is my daughtersJanet's 4-H club. She wins far more honors that her mother ever I did.I am in church work. Have taught 7th and 8th graders for nine hears now.W. S. C. S. - Guild and others. I am president, at present, of Mental HealthAssociation-- A. A. U. W. (American Assoc. of University of Women.)
Last but not least-- Loveto sew- decorate and re-decorate my own house. I love to do - ANYTHINGfor high school youth. Love music-- and to read. --Finis--
Gertrude (Haight) Miller.Garfield Washington- Nov. 1958
Cecil Paul Haight
Born: 15 August 1915, Suffolk, Montana,in the little, square shingle house where my parents (Ray and Vernice)homesteaded.
Early days: Several things stick in mymind: the seeming vastness of the country one could look as far as80 miles before the mountains in the NE obstructed the view; and the longrolling hills on the farm that were a challenge to short legs; summer dayshazy with the heat and the dreams of a little boy in his coaster wagon;the cool shade of the apple trees laden
with fruit, trees which all the neighbors toldDad would never survive the winters or the dry summers; the sharp clearcold of winter when snow crackled under foot and the breath of every livingthing rose in a plume from the nose, winters when we would wake to findlittle drifts of snow that had driven through the key holes and the cracksaround the windows to lie in powdery streaks along the floor; rides inthe bobsled burrowed deep down in the straw and covered with a horse blanketto keep warm.
School for 7 years in a little one-room schooltaught, more often than not, by one of my aunts; the fall when my sisterand I were the only pupils and we had a teacher, Ella Downs, who no doubtwas responsible for giving us the lover of literature that carried bothof us to a Minor in English in college; sled rides down a long rough hill,soup or cocoa in a small can
heated on the old stove that served to heatthe school; flood water in the spring that meant Dad would have to takeus through a foot or two of water on his big, black mare, Star, so we couldget to school. Fabulous old-fashioned Thanksgiving and Christmas dinnersat one of the
three brothers of Dads (Herbert, Ernest, Burl);Christmas trees of pine decorated with popcorn and cranberries strung onstring and many needle-pricked fingers; 4-H club work - because of whichmy cousin, Lyle Haight, and I got to go to the State Fair in Billings wherewe most unexpectedly placed first as a demonstration team (the next springor year the winners got to go to Spokane Wn. - we only got an engravedcup?)
High School; We moved to Lewistown Montanaso Gertrude (Sis) could start high school and I went to the 8th grade. In high school I took a college preparatory course and amongst other things,was Freshman president, on the Student Council, earned a letter in musicand made the National Honor Society as a senior. We moved back tothe farm every summer so we were skilled movers by the time I graduatedand we went to a college town, Bozeman Mont.. Lyle Haight, my cousin,was my constant companion and I approved of Beryl as a girl cousin. (Lyle and Beryl were brother and sister and children of Dads brother, ErnestHaight, who lived a mile away.) Beryl had a girl friend, of whomI was aware, but can't recall in the least, who was her steady friend. (Beryl's girl friend here mentioned later became -Mrs. Cecil Paul Haight.)
College: Montana State College at BozemanMontana was a beautiful school in a nice, conservative town. Collegewas a riotous tumble of events with constant pressure from the facultyto work, work, work (Seldom did we have any activities except on weekends!)
I took the applied Science course with a majorin biology, played four years in the "varsity" band as on the yearbookstaff one year, became a member of the band honorary KKT, and the biologyhonorary ??, was co-activator of the co-op housing. Looking back,my undergrad days in college are perhaps best summed up by Sigmund Romberg's"Golden Days" from the Student Prince. Graduated in 1937, had a notionto specialize so went on to graduate school.
Graduate School: Montana State Collegefor a year, then Iowa State College at Ames Iowa. Had a wonderfultime. Learned what a big, good school is like and went broke at theend of a year. Back to Montana State College where I got ulcers andeventually my M.S. degree in Zoology, major in Wildlife management.
Marriage: Fall of my sophomore year, somemore-or-less friends from Lewistown Mont. brought their attractive daughterto college and stopped to in-quire about off-campus housing. Thegirl was my cousin Beryl Haights best friend before mentioned by me. The family managed to get her settled with three older girls in an apartment,two of these three girls were very good friends of mine. The yearI was a grad and she was a junior, Peggy Hitch, (Now my wife) and I startedgoing steady - we have been together ever since, although some of the timewe had to live some distance from one another.
WARNING *-*- The results of this friendship nowmay be counted as:
Marilyn, 15, born in the Swedish Hospital Seattle,Wn. 1943: Now a sophomore in High School here in Spearfish So. Dak.. Sheis a flute and organ player, reader of poetry, in declam, a student inher spare time.
Larry, 12, born in Mary Greeley Hospital, AmesIowa 1946: now a 7'th grader, trombone player, hoping to be an athlete,but 61 inches tall and 85 pounds don't add up to a full back yet. He holds his own in school.
Nancy, -8-, born in St. Joseph's Hospital, Deadwood,So. Dakota -1950. Any musical inclination would seem to be in singing. Her interests are largely -people- and, ironically, she has the build ofa full back.
All this has resulted in my being 17 years older,a big gray-headed, and considerably out of breath trying to keep up withthe kids. I guess the penalty of the friendship has been light -I'd do it all over again if I had the chance.
The seasons first snow is lying on the ground. I've just walked home through the dusk and the warm light of many unshadedwindows made a beautiful, friendly glow out across the snow and among thefew, fluffy snowflakes hanging in the air. It was almost unreal,yet terrible familiar, like something conjured up out of one's childhood.
When I open the door I'll be met with the odorof supper (yes it's late) and Nancy will throw herself on me for a pre-suppertussle; Larry will be delving into an encyclopedia, a book on science orone on the Old West; Marilyn will be recounting her day at school or herwoes at being a church organist before she is quite ready; and Peggy (Mywife), -- she'll be there, that's enough. Penalty? Ha!
Service Record: - Ulcers. 4-F. - Peggy,as a graduate nurse and an R.N., did not go into the service, but while in Seattle Wn. during the war she worked night shift in a newhospital while I worked at Boeing Aircraft.
Jobs:- To numerous to mention. Well, maybeI better since you insist: (That experience in moving surely came in handy)
1941 - Married - high school science teacherThompson Falls Mont. Sanitary Inspector for State of Mont. following summer.
1942 - Science teacher, Livingston Montana
1943 - Inspector, U.S. Food and Drug Adm. SeattleWashington.
1944 - (late) Time-motion studies at BoeingAircraft, building B-29's, Renton, Wash.
1945 - (fall) Iowa State College, Ames IA, re-searchassistant. BOY--- The money problem with two kids.
1946 - Biologist, Corps of Engr,,U.S. Army wildlifestudies in areas above
dams which were being constructed. - Job abolished.
1948 - Science teacher, Black Hills TeachersCollege, Spearfish So. Dak. Been here ever since, taught algebra, physicalscience, all sorts of biology. Fall here frequently reminds me of the brilliantblue skies and the golden leaves at Mont. State College at Bozeman Mont.,the air electric with the promise of big tasks to do and the certaintyof challenge in new courses.
Hobbies, etc. -- Bird study, charter memberand former director of So. Dak. Ornithologist Union. Scouts - Served mytime as a troop committeeman. Larry is active. Gardening - and Ido know how to fight weeds. (Should) Remodeling - the older house we bought. We're learning a lot and enjoying it-also learning to be unconventionalif it will suit our needs. Stop and see us sometime. Music-We areslowly building a collection of good LP records, partly because of ourolder daughter who LIVES music.
Extra-curricular jobs: Currently Lay Leaderin the church. A director of the local concert association. Former presidentof the So Dak. O-U. Chairman of the Science Division at BHTC, which hastop faculty members each in biology, math and physics, chemistry.
(signatures) Signed this Nov. 1958-
Peggy & Cecil Haight.
It was necessary for me to copy Cecil's originalletter. His was well written, punctuated correctly, spelled likewise etc.Any and all errors are mine in copying. Sorry. Dwight
Ray Burton Haight 6-23-1886in Brook Twp., G.A.H. Buena Vista County, Iowa. Married 5-6-1913 to VerniceChamberlain at Drexel, Missouri she was born 11-18-1888 in Nokomis Twp.,Buena Vista County, Iowa.
Gertrude Blythe Haight2-27-1914 at Suffolk, Montana she married 9-15-1940 at Bozeman, Montanato George Martin Miller he was born 3-11-1917 at Garfield, Washington.
Janet Rae Miller 6-6-1943at Seattle, Washington.
Cecil Paul Haight 8-15-1915Suffolk, Montana married 8-29-1941 at Hobson, Montana to Margaret Hitchshe was born 7-27-1917 at Hobson, Montana.
Marilyn Lee 10-29-1943at Seattle, Washington.
Larry Paul 4-15-1946 Ames,Iowa.
Nancy Louise 10-5-1950Spearfish, South Dakota
Jean Margery Haight 10-20-1921at Suffolk, Montana she married 7-29-1946 at Bozeman, Montana to CecilL. Hess born 1-8-1923 at Stanford, Montana.
Cecil Larry 12-3-1947 Appleton,Wisconsin.
Lorinda Ann 11-16-1949Appleton, Wisconsin.
James Georbert 8-26-1952International Falls, Minnesota.
Lucille Marie Haight (twin)5-19-1924 at Suffolk, Montana married 7-4-1947 to Delbert Miller at WallaWalla, Washington. (Divorced from Delbert Miller)
Susan Ray Briggs 6-5-1948married 9-27-1951 to Curtis Briggs at Billings, Montana he was born 1-27-1926at Elk River, Minnesota.
Susan Ray 6-5-1948
Debora Ann 10-29-1952Sauk Center, Minnesota.
David Aden 7-12-1954 ElkRiver, Minnesota.
Chad Brian 11-27-1955Elk River, Minnesota.
Robert Duane Haight (twin)5-19-1924 Suffolk, Montana married 6-13-1956 to Audrey Jean Linscheid atVida, Montana.