143. Continuing Ruth Allen Miles' autobiography -- trials and lovely moments.
This is a continuation of my mother Ruth Allen Miles's life, as she wrote it. Her life story began in blog # 137, continued 138, 139, 140, 141, and 142. Her birthday was May 10, 1908, and this May she would have reached age 106! As Mother's Day approaches, I want to finish her writings in a few more entries. Often her birthday was on or very near Mother's Day.
Her writing continued:
The summer before the government had paid farmers $12 a head to kill their beef cattle because of the oversupply and depression. They were not allowed to sell the meat but could use it "for their own families." We went out to Panguitch when Earl killed several. He gave us 2 veal (young beef) which we bottled. That was our meat for a few years.
The next winter Pratt was feeling some better. Mother was with us. We had 2 darling little girls and were doing a lot of public singing. We now had 4 rooms and a bath and Mother so enjoyed a room all to herself--however she often brought home company to share her bedroom or our front room, for then people who came to the Temple from out of town usually made a sacrifice to come and depended on staying with relatives or friends. Mother knew anyone and all she'd bring to our home were welcome and she enjoyed being the hostess. Mother would have been quite an aristocratic social butterfly had she been blessed with money. -- (Ruth's "Mother" was Levinah Emmaline Wilson Allen, Pal's grandmother, who had "the accidents" told about in # 140.)
Pal and Vina, about this time.
I must stop here to tell a little of Vina Ruth's birth. Because we were building and had a basement dug but not covered, with the 2 rooms and bath -- and because Pal, (me) then 19 months old and quick as a flash about running here and there -- I was afraid to leave her even with my mother under that situation, so we decided I'd go to Washington where Uncle Ern's mother would take care of me -- and Adelia would take care of Pal. Families depended on and supported each other then more than now, but it brought us closer together. Vina was what we called a "blue baby" meaning they had a hard time to get her to breathing at all.
Both she and Pal were born about 7 a.m. and in each case Clara Graff Sorenson had been to our place the night before and we had, both times, made molasses candy. Quite a coincidence.
Pal weighed just under 7 lbs, and Vina 9. Pal had a hard time adjusting to food and had colic for over a year it seemed. Vina Ruth was without a doubt the best natured baby I've ever seen. I've often wondered if the pressure I was under before Pal's birth and the relaxed happy condition of our home before Vina was born had anything to do with it.
Pratt's Illness:
The winter Vina was a baby, Pratt and I were singing leading roles in a genealogical pageant entitled "Could This Happen to You?" It was a beautiful thing and we enjoyed it so much and the wonderful friends we associated with while traveling all over southern Utah and Nevada to present it. However it added to the strain with Pratt. We came home from Las Vegas -- the last place we presented it -- at 3 in the morning. Pratt was ill before we got home.
Vina Ruth was 9 months old, and Mother stayed with the 2 babies as she had done before on other trips with this pageant. But we were to be gone 3 days this time -- so Vina was officially weaned at this time. Mother said she didn't fuss at all, but I was surely concerned for her and mother. I guess I was the one who felt the strain.
Little did we realize then that Pratt would never spend another day in a barbershop outside the home, but this was the case. About this time the government decided to give all soldiers a bonus. Their pay had been $1 a day and Pratt’s bonus was $800. This helped pay for our addition of 2 rooms. The Doctor removed Pratt's tonsils, thinking that was the source of his trouble but it proved a shock to his system that brought on a complete "nervous breakdown" as it was called then. While in World War I he had what was called shell shock (in later wars the terms used were battle fatigue, and now it is called post traumatic stress syndrom.) He also was poisoned on food 2 or 3 times in the army, which affected his stomach. I've often wondered if his stomach caused his nervous distress or if his nerves caused his stomach upsets. They went together. (It reminds me of the old saying, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
I still remember at this time how "Lovie" ( as we called Vina Ruth) would love to sit on the bed by Pratt and pat his face and chatter away and how she would reach for him and cry for Da--ee when he'd become so tired I'd have to take her out of the room. At this time it became quite apparent to me that perhaps Pratt’s trouble was more or less of a permanent nature. I talked to the Doctor at this time and asked for his advice. It was, “Prepare to take care of your little family. Circumstances will probably demand it.” I signed up for a correspondence course, and started as best I could to “prepare.”
That fall when school started Mr. Fordham, the music teacher in St. George Elementary didn’t show up. They came and asked me to sub until he got home. I had also prepared to teach private kindergarten. (The school furnished the room and materials.) The parents paid $2 a month per child. I taught Kindergarten in the A.M. (37 children) and music in the P.M. For the pay from parents for Kindergarten I was glad to accept fruit, vegetables, milk, potatoes, wood, coal or whatever – you name it. I took it. The Kindergarten ended in March. Also about that time the music teacher, who had never contacted them all winter, finally showed up when his wife became seriously ill. During this winter I had an angel in my home, Sister Delilah Aldridge. She came – took care of my 2 babies, cooked, sewed, mended, quilted and took care of Pratt who was still “sick in bed,” and for what? Ten cents an hour. She is now 96 years old, bright in mind and still able to go to the Temple. If ever the Lord sent an angel to a home – it was to ours in the form of Grandma Aldridge.
As soon as Kindergarten was over with, I started working for the government Nursery school. It was under the W.P.A. system. I’ve even forgotten what the letters stand for, but it was instigated to let people work for the government assistance they needed and also to give proper child care and training to “Relief families.” I worked, and worked hard for the money I received and was paid $56 a month. However they sent us to a 6 week training in Salt Lake City that summer, which gave me some of the best child care training I ever received – and it also allowed me to renew my regular teaching certificate so that I could teach in the school system the next year. Also during that summer Jessie Jane Gibbons came to Salt Lake City with her mother and took care of our 2 girls, while her mother Eleanor Gibbons and I went to school. I remember one day we got a chicken for 25 cents. While we were cooking it Eleanor said – “Just think of the work the farmer has put in for that 25 cents”.
Autumn found us moving to Central where I was to teach all 8 grades in a typical old-fashioned school. I would have realized more to stay at home and work in the W.P.A. Nursery school where I received one good meal a day for the two girls and me and where some clothes for them were issued, but I had more self respect teaching in the school system. We rented a 2 room apartment across the street from the school for $10 a month. It was a stone house. We were cozy and warm. We were happy. We had 2 little rocking chairs and each evening each one of us would rock one little girl while we sang and sang and sang.
I only have to shut my eyes to hear daddy’s clear tenor singing —
Hush-a-by-Hush-a-by, Ba-by,
Come cuddle close to my breast.
Hush-a-by-Hush-a-by, Ba-by,
Close your eyes and rest.
So tired of play - Close of the day, ba-by,
Can’t stay awake if you tried.
The Sand man am coming, so Hush - a - by.
(By Pal -- I still remember that song, and the melody.)
The next entry will be about Mavis being born, and raising us three girls. I love this old photo, taken on the south side of the home at 165 South 400 West. It shows the "D" on the hillside before anything was built up there. I (Pal) was 5, Vina 3 1/2, when Mavis was born.
Her writing continued:
The summer before the government had paid farmers $12 a head to kill their beef cattle because of the oversupply and depression. They were not allowed to sell the meat but could use it "for their own families." We went out to Panguitch when Earl killed several. He gave us 2 veal (young beef) which we bottled. That was our meat for a few years.
The next winter Pratt was feeling some better. Mother was with us. We had 2 darling little girls and were doing a lot of public singing. We now had 4 rooms and a bath and Mother so enjoyed a room all to herself--however she often brought home company to share her bedroom or our front room, for then people who came to the Temple from out of town usually made a sacrifice to come and depended on staying with relatives or friends. Mother knew anyone and all she'd bring to our home were welcome and she enjoyed being the hostess. Mother would have been quite an aristocratic social butterfly had she been blessed with money. -- (Ruth's "Mother" was Levinah Emmaline Wilson Allen, Pal's grandmother, who had "the accidents" told about in # 140.)
I must stop here to tell a little of Vina Ruth's birth. Because we were building and had a basement dug but not covered, with the 2 rooms and bath -- and because Pal, (me) then 19 months old and quick as a flash about running here and there -- I was afraid to leave her even with my mother under that situation, so we decided I'd go to Washington where Uncle Ern's mother would take care of me -- and Adelia would take care of Pal. Families depended on and supported each other then more than now, but it brought us closer together. Vina was what we called a "blue baby" meaning they had a hard time to get her to breathing at all.
Both she and Pal were born about 7 a.m. and in each case Clara Graff Sorenson had been to our place the night before and we had, both times, made molasses candy. Quite a coincidence.
Pal weighed just under 7 lbs, and Vina 9. Pal had a hard time adjusting to food and had colic for over a year it seemed. Vina Ruth was without a doubt the best natured baby I've ever seen. I've often wondered if the pressure I was under before Pal's birth and the relaxed happy condition of our home before Vina was born had anything to do with it.
Pratt's Illness:
The winter Vina was a baby, Pratt and I were singing leading roles in a genealogical pageant entitled "Could This Happen to You?" It was a beautiful thing and we enjoyed it so much and the wonderful friends we associated with while traveling all over southern Utah and Nevada to present it. However it added to the strain with Pratt. We came home from Las Vegas -- the last place we presented it -- at 3 in the morning. Pratt was ill before we got home.
Vina Ruth was 9 months old, and Mother stayed with the 2 babies as she had done before on other trips with this pageant. But we were to be gone 3 days this time -- so Vina was officially weaned at this time. Mother said she didn't fuss at all, but I was surely concerned for her and mother. I guess I was the one who felt the strain.
Little did we realize then that Pratt would never spend another day in a barbershop outside the home, but this was the case. About this time the government decided to give all soldiers a bonus. Their pay had been $1 a day and Pratt’s bonus was $800. This helped pay for our addition of 2 rooms. The Doctor removed Pratt's tonsils, thinking that was the source of his trouble but it proved a shock to his system that brought on a complete "nervous breakdown" as it was called then. While in World War I he had what was called shell shock (in later wars the terms used were battle fatigue, and now it is called post traumatic stress syndrom.) He also was poisoned on food 2 or 3 times in the army, which affected his stomach. I've often wondered if his stomach caused his nervous distress or if his nerves caused his stomach upsets. They went together. (It reminds me of the old saying, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
I still remember at this time how "Lovie" ( as we called Vina Ruth) would love to sit on the bed by Pratt and pat his face and chatter away and how she would reach for him and cry for Da--ee when he'd become so tired I'd have to take her out of the room. At this time it became quite apparent to me that perhaps Pratt’s trouble was more or less of a permanent nature. I talked to the Doctor at this time and asked for his advice. It was, “Prepare to take care of your little family. Circumstances will probably demand it.” I signed up for a correspondence course, and started as best I could to “prepare.”
That fall when school started Mr. Fordham, the music teacher in St. George Elementary didn’t show up. They came and asked me to sub until he got home. I had also prepared to teach private kindergarten. (The school furnished the room and materials.) The parents paid $2 a month per child. I taught Kindergarten in the A.M. (37 children) and music in the P.M. For the pay from parents for Kindergarten I was glad to accept fruit, vegetables, milk, potatoes, wood, coal or whatever – you name it. I took it. The Kindergarten ended in March. Also about that time the music teacher, who had never contacted them all winter, finally showed up when his wife became seriously ill. During this winter I had an angel in my home, Sister Delilah Aldridge. She came – took care of my 2 babies, cooked, sewed, mended, quilted and took care of Pratt who was still “sick in bed,” and for what? Ten cents an hour. She is now 96 years old, bright in mind and still able to go to the Temple. If ever the Lord sent an angel to a home – it was to ours in the form of Grandma Aldridge.
As soon as Kindergarten was over with, I started working for the government Nursery school. It was under the W.P.A. system. I’ve even forgotten what the letters stand for, but it was instigated to let people work for the government assistance they needed and also to give proper child care and training to “Relief families.” I worked, and worked hard for the money I received and was paid $56 a month. However they sent us to a 6 week training in Salt Lake City that summer, which gave me some of the best child care training I ever received – and it also allowed me to renew my regular teaching certificate so that I could teach in the school system the next year. Also during that summer Jessie Jane Gibbons came to Salt Lake City with her mother and took care of our 2 girls, while her mother Eleanor Gibbons and I went to school. I remember one day we got a chicken for 25 cents. While we were cooking it Eleanor said – “Just think of the work the farmer has put in for that 25 cents”.
Autumn found us moving to Central where I was to teach all 8 grades in a typical old-fashioned school. I would have realized more to stay at home and work in the W.P.A. Nursery school where I received one good meal a day for the two girls and me and where some clothes for them were issued, but I had more self respect teaching in the school system. We rented a 2 room apartment across the street from the school for $10 a month. It was a stone house. We were cozy and warm. We were happy. We had 2 little rocking chairs and each evening each one of us would rock one little girl while we sang and sang and sang.
I only have to shut my eyes to hear daddy’s clear tenor singing —
Hush-a-by-Hush-a-by, Ba-by,
Come cuddle close to my breast.
Hush-a-by-Hush-a-by, Ba-by,
Close your eyes and rest.
So tired of play - Close of the day, ba-by,
Can’t stay awake if you tried.
The Sand man am coming, so Hush - a - by.
(By Pal -- I still remember that song, and the melody.)
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