This continues the story of my father, Bob Greenley (1921 - 1970). These posts are a gift to his grandchildren, hoping they will learn about a grandfather they never knew.
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| Susie and Ross - summer of 52 |
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| Bob and Barbara, Susie, Dale, Ross- taken in 1955 at Uncle Bill's college graduation in Walla Walla |
The original house dad built for his family was small, with one bedroom and a large closet. As the family grew, he filled the closet with bunk beds and a crib. Then in 1955, Dad started building a new house on the lot next door. This house seemed huge in comparison -- three bedrooms! His younger brother, Everett was home from the Navy, and pitched in on this one.
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| Our 2nd house on Broccoli - 1954 |
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| June of 1956 - Everett and Mary's wedding (Mason, Ruby, Everett, Mary, Ansel, Mary |
(Another side note -- 3 generations of Greenley men married Marys. Dad's grandmother was a Mary, His mother was a Mary, and his brother married a Mary. My name Marianne is a nod to those Marys).
Marianne Elise (that’s me!) was born Sept. 5, 1957. My older siblings were 10, 9, and 7 years old -- so you can imagine the spoiling that went on. Lance Richard was born 3 1/2 years later March 1, 1961. About that time, Dad decided the "big" house needed more room, so he built two more bedrooms and a bathroom over the garage. Ross and Dale moved into those bedrooms. Susie had her own bedroom, Lance and I shared a room. I remember this house didn't have any central heating. I would gather up my clothes for the day and dress in front of the heater in the living room.
Marianne Elise (that’s me!) was born Sept. 5, 1957. My older siblings were 10, 9, and 7 years old -- so you can imagine the spoiling that went on. Lance Richard was born 3 1/2 years later March 1, 1961. About that time, Dad decided the "big" house needed more room, so he built two more bedrooms and a bathroom over the garage. Ross and Dale moved into those bedrooms. Susie had her own bedroom, Lance and I shared a room. I remember this house didn't have any central heating. I would gather up my clothes for the day and dress in front of the heater in the living room.
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| Ross, Susie, Dale, Marianne, Lance (being held by Susie) |
Our lives will change significantly in the 1960s - Dad quits his truck driving job to devout his energy to building houses. More to come in the next episode of the Life of Bob Greenley.
!!! My posting just deleted itself, have to rewrite the whole thing. Damn!
ReplyDeleteI remember the first photo. It was taken by Dad's friend, a fellow truck driver at Pierce Freight Ways. At one time I could have told you his name as he visited us often. Mom gave him her camera for the photo. The color photo at Walla Walla brings back great memories, not of Uncle Bill's graduation, but of the trip up there. We got stopped for road construction and I got out of the car and found my first obsidian arrowhead, a real treasure. Also, since the dam was not yet completed and it was June, the Indians were Salmon fishing at Celilo Falls and we got to watch them. What a sight. They had these rickity, flimsy tepee pole platforms built out over this raging torrent of white water falls and stood at the end with a huge net on a very long handle, probably 16 or more feet long. They'd stick the net down into the waterfall upstream of the platform and the current would wash it downstream and get salmon. They would then lift the net out of the water and swing it back towards shore where one of the little kids would run out on the platform with a club, dispatch the salmon, untangle it from the net and run back to shore with it. Some of those kids weren't much bigger than the salmon. How those kids survived that was amazing to me. Mom would then take the salmon, clean it, split it down the middle towards the tail then drape it over a long fence filled with salmon air-drying in the sun. I feel very fortunate that we got to see that because that was the last year the Indians fished there, the dam soon after buried Celilo Falls. What a tragedy. Thousands of years of use and culture wiped out with a single damn dam.
The date is wrong on the house photo, that was 1955, not 1954. When Dad started the house he still had his flat-bed 1936 Chevy pickup (the Goat). Sometime during construction he traded it for a red 1954 Chevy pickup and built that camper sitting in the driveway for it. He built a wood frame then covered it with Aluminum. Us kids spend many hours in the back of that pickup huddled under the camper while traveling to hunting and fishing destinations.
At Uncle Everette's wedding there was Ruby McCoy, Mary's mother and her brother Mace McCoy. I thought Mace was pretty neat, he was gold mining in the Bohemia District. A rather exciting occupation in my mind. Had no idea his name was Mason, we just called him "Mace."
Thank you Marianne for the fond memories.
The main heat in the Broccoli house waw 2 or 3 portable 220V heaters. We had 220V outlets in each bedroom. Can't remember if we had one for each bedroom, or did we have to share. We Dale and I moved to the over the garage we had NO heat except for electric blankets. What I really appreciated about The Carroll Ct. house was central heat upstairs.
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