20.What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend?

We were Christians- in the generic white person in America way. (as in "if you're a white person in America, you must be a Christian" era). We went to Sunday school when we lived in town. Mostly the Baptist Church in Kettle Falls.

My Grandma Williams belonged to a "holy roller" church.  When Donna and I were little, she took us to church  and had us up at the altar praying for our sinner  parents. This was the last time Mama let her take us to church in Colville. I do remember visiting her in Kent, WA when I was about ten.  On Sunday morning, she gave me a couple of hankies because it would be a "two-handkerchief" service. After the first hymn, the minister got up and started ranting and raving, jumping up and down- wrestling with the devil. I burst into giggles and stuffed the handkerchief in my mouth to stifle the laughter. Grandma thought I was in the throes of the holy spirit. It definitely was a "two-handkerchief" sermon for me!

More questions & answers!

17.Who were your childhood heroes?  Nancy Drew,  Superman and Wonder Woman.

18.What were your favorite songs and music?  "PineapplePrincess" by Annette Funicello, star of the original Mickey Mouse Show.   "Tan Shoes & Pink Shoelaces" by Dodie Stevens and "Ramblin' Rose" by Nat King Cole.  (maybe 10 or 11 at the time).

19.Did you have any pets?  If so, what kind and what were their names? When I was 10 I had a cat named "Elvis Sundae Fitzgerald Richard David Somersault Jr. The First.  It was during the 1960 presidential race. So it was Elvis for Elvis, Sundae because I liked 'em, Fitzgerald for  JFK, Richard for Nixon, David for my (first) boyfriend, and the rest just because it thought it added a certain flair.

Keri's Question 16- do you remember any fads from your youth? popular hair styles, clothes?

"The Rock 'n Roll". It was a dance published in a teen magazine with footsteps you cut out and put on the floor. Donna and I were sophisticated first and second graders who introduced the dance to our school. It was about the same time Elvis burst on the scene. My Grandmother, Esther May Riley Gilmore & I saw him on "The Ed Sullivan Show" . I remember my mama sighing.  

When I was little, movie stars and older girls wore sun dresses. spaghetti straps, tight tops, big full skirts that stood out with lots of slips under them. It was one of my favorite looks, but by the time I was old enough to wear them - those sundresses were out of style. I did wear 5 slips under my skirt to 5th grade though.

Baby doll pajamas, pettipants, thongs (now known as flip-flops), patterned hosiery, BIG hair. Black eyeliner. white or pale pink lipstick. Donna and I slept on huge pink brush rollers cushioned with folded up t.p.I remember dad having a fit about the bills for TP. I mean - how could anyone could use that much toilet paper in a week?

The bunny hop was still happening. When I was in high school, we'd bunny hop through all the taverns in town on Home Coming night. Long lines of kids hop hop - hop,hop,hopping past barstools crowed with smokers, women wearing too much perfume and creepy old guys. Hopping and singing the "Hop, Hop, Hop-hop-hop" at the top of our lungs.. out the back door and on down the street.

"Dragging main" in Kettle Falls. Kind of like in "Grease" but we just drove from the high school to railroad tracks and then back to the high school. 

More about school

Donna Marie Reese  would walk by our house every morning on her way to first grade. Hair in braids, lunch bucket swinging at her side, nose in the air. She was in school and I wasn't and she wouldn't even look at me anymore. I really hated that.

I ached to go to school.

I remember the first day of first grade. Little kids holding tight to their mama's hands, peeking out at each other through a sea of  full skirts and pedal pushers. The crowd was so tight and the mom's so tall I don't remember seeing heads!  

The next thing I remember is being deposited in a classroom while mama talked to the teacher. No one was there. Just me and a little bitty girl at the front of the room. As mama was wrapping things up with the teacher, my throat closed, my chest got tight. Just as I was about ready to cry the  little girl started  sobbing.  I went right up to her and hugged her and told her not to worry that everything was going to be all right.

Hawk Eye

When Donna May started the first grade , I was in the second. On the first day of school, mama said, "now Jackie Lea you keep an eye on your sister". 

After a week or so, the teacher called mama to report that they were worried there was something wrong with me. I didn't play with the other children and I spent every recess perched on the hill above the play ground, watching my sister like a hawk.

14.What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects?

I loved school. I loved to learn new things. I was good at everything but math. I always got good grades. And could read before other kids.  My two favorite grades were 2nd grade and Senior in High School.  I went to first grade in Colville. 2nd grade in Valley and Rice. Third grade in Rice and Colville and 4th grade in Kettle Falls. After that mama put the halt on moving around so much so we went to Kettle Falls until we graduated from High School. I got engaged Christmas my Jr. year in High School and got married 20 days after I graduated from High Schoool. I took some classes at Spokane Falls Community College, but never attended after that.

Pre-mother's Day photo

Well- I'm off my list of questions- but I thought this was kind of fun. This is me with my Grandma, Esther May Riley Gilmore, in the side yard of her house (next to the bathroom. and yes that is a door

from the outside that goes right inside that bathroom)

This was summer of 1968. I was so excited to be pregnant that I started sewing  maternity outfits

right away.  I must have been about 2 months along with Joel.

Going to Church

This might be Easter- mama looks pretty cute and she's wearing a hat and a fancy dress. Note the updos on me and Donna. Mama is giving  giving Daddy a real nice look.  I'm smiling shyly and Donna May is squinting full faced into the sun at daddy.  I love this picture. 

Later that same year- we were playing "farm" on mama's bed. We we supposed to be playing quietly and resting.  I took the sissors and (quietly) cut off our hair to make hay bales. We stacked them neatly all over mama's bedspread.

Then not too long after that, Donna got into some green paint or dye ( or something). It was up high and she was climbing again. It spilled it all over her. It didn't make her sick - but she turned green. Green hair. Green skin.  Mama said she couldn't go anywhere cause Donna looked like a postage stamp.



Allowance

When I was a little kid, I used to get 25 cents a week.

 It was enough to buy a comic book for 10 cents (Superman was my favorite).

 A bottle of Pepsi for 10 cents

 and a Hershey bar for 5 cents

12.Did you have family chores? What were they?

We did lots of chores growing up- depending on where we lived. We fed the chickens up at Rice and worked in the garden.  I remember helping to plant potatoes in a field in the hot sun. And following the tractor trail off into the woods, just planting potatoes as I went along. That made my mom crazy. I was 7 years old and very literal!

Donna and I did the dishes together and often would have silent fights so that we didn't' get in trouble. Choking each other with the dish towel etc.  Silent but deadly.

When we moved to the river, the grounds around the cabin were overgrown with weeds and there was very little lawn. We helped clean up the place and plant grass.  and then helped take care of it afterwards.

Because we moved so often- we were always cleaning up one place before we left and cleaning up the new place before we moved in.

Mostly we did housework and cleaning and cooking. Mama made sure we knew how to take care of a house and make a full meal before we could date. She was raising us to be good housewives.

Mama had high standards for cleanliness. We might be poor- but we were clean. The floors were mopped everyday- the bathroom cleaned  every day. We wiped down the kitchen counters,  cupboards and appliances as part of doing the dishes every day. Everything was swept, dusted, beds made etc. Every day.

In my later years- I haven't kept up to my mama's high standards, but still appreciate it when she comes for a visit. It motivates me to get the house in order.  Not that she really cares one way or the other these days- but my inner child still cleans up for mama!

Fun in the Kettle River

My sister Donna and I loved to  ride the current from up the Kettle River  down to our beach.

When we were in junior  high, we  lived in a  little log cabin on 17 acres that stretched between HWY 395 and the Kettle River just north of the Barstow store.  

We'd head out back bare-footed.  You went behind the cabin and past mama's little garden, with cantaloupes  and  round little watermelons ripping on the vine.

Then down an old road, sandy and full of weeds, toward the north end of  our property on the Kettle River. 

The road  narrowed into a trail. Same sand, same weeds, same bare feet.

We'd cut though a deer bed . Ducking low and crouching  to get under the pine branches and down into  the bed.

We'd cool off for awhile, taking in a deer's eye view of the world- through the branches out to the river. 

 Then we'd run the rest of the way, bounding from rock to rock, down to the  river bank. It was outlined with big wide rocks and boulders, baking in the sun. We jumped from hot rock to hot rock as fast as we could, to where the river makes a wide curving sweep.

We'd  wade into the  ice cold, shallow water of the river, rushing  against our ankles and at about mid-calf we'd drop down into the river and let the current carry us to the middle of river. 

Donna and I would  float, practice our synchronized swimming. Wave at the tourists from Canada driving down the hiway.

The current  pulled us along,  past high sandy river banks and the curve of the highway and pine trees to a rock wall where the water edded in a deep pool on the other side of the river from our beach.

If you ended up on the wrong side of the river you'd have to swim through a pretty strong fast current to get home.

More than likely, we'd end up just downriver, toward the neighbor's vacation cabin. The beach was a narrow shallow rocky strip of shoreline. We would tiptoe barefooted home. 

Favorite things to do?

My sister and I used to go to Spokane and pretend we were from another country and that our father was rich. We spoke in our  "native tongue"  to store clerks while we admired mink coats and human hair wigs at the Bon Marche.

" Maw wee wee "  one of us would utter. The other would respond in kind. Serious- or laughing or wagging a finger.

 "Just you wait til Papa hears of this" the other would say. (speaking English with a bit of an accent).

We really thought that we were fooling people.

 But perhaps- they could tell we were from Kettle Falls (and barely "double digits") afterall. Humm.

10.What was your favorite toy and why?

I don't' really remember a favorite toy.  However, I do remember longing for a "Tiny Tears" doll. I was in the second grade and we lived in the farm house at Rice. When the Sears Roebuck Christmas Catalog came, I cut out the picture of Tiny Tears . Every night, I'd say my prayers, and right after the litany of "God Bless Mama, God Bless Daddy, God Bless Grandma and the rest , I'd  ask God to bring me Tiny Tears for Christmas.  Then  I'd whisper to the picture and tell Tiny all the wonderful things we were going to do, until I finally  fell asleep.

On Christmas morning, there under the tree was a doll sized box. I just knew that God had answered my prayers.

But Mama got the doll that wet her pants mixed up with the doll that cried real tears and I ended up with "Besty Wetsy" instead.

9. What kind of games did you play growing up?

Our dad taught us to play "cutthroat  Canasta" when we were so little we had to sit on catalogs to boost us up to table height.   We were mean little card players. We also played Scrabble when we got older.

8.Describe the personalities of your family members.

Both of my parents liked to play. That spirit of play is something that I'm happy that we've all handed down to our family. Daddy was lots of fun.  We had spitball fights when Donna and I were real little. Daddy hid  behind the sofa (we called it a davenport) and Donna and I hid behind a big overstuffed chair. We used a rubber bands to send the spit balls flying across the room.  

Mama loved parties and made every holiday special- even if just was  jello. Red jello for Valentine's Day, Green jello for St. Patrick's Day.

And because she never had birthday parties growing up- ours were huge. (course because I was overwhelmed by those birthday parties- I never wanted to have big  parties for my kids).  

The photo at right is a halloween party- Donna is in the back row 3rd from right blowing a horn. I'm in the bottom row, first person on the right- about ready to cry!

Donna was always "brave and tough" I was tender hearted and more sensitive. (I think that was refered to as a "cry baby" in those days.) 

Donna was more serious  and I was always funny. We had a druggist in Kettle Falls who used to say  that  when we were little that Donna was Russian (NO!) and I was German  (Yah!)

What I learned from Grandma Gilmore

Three people besides myself wrote about Esther May Riley Gilmore in an English assignment on  "Eccentrics".

As a grandmother, she gives all of us permission to be our very own unapologetic selves!

When you said "Grandma, you look so nice today". She always said something like "I know I do". Or "Yes, I know".

No false modesty-  No "oh, this old rag". She didn't brag- she was just confident.

She cut her hair really short and wore overalls when it was really shocking.  She always marched to her own drummer. And Grandpa marched along with her.

I think my mom was mortified on more than one occassion- But that's just kids for you.

Grandma Gilmore in 1967



oops just remembered an earlier time

I remember Daddy used to walk around the house with me standing on one of his boots and Donna standing on the other. We'd stand on a boot and hold on to his knee to stay on.

7.What is your earliest childhood memory?

      When we lived at Grandma Williams house in Colville (snow photo below) Donna and I were in bed with mama- supposedly taking a nap. Donna did something I didn't like and I whispered "God damn it" in a threatening tone. We were keeping our fighting quiet cause Mama was sleeping.   All of the sudden I heard Mama  say in a stern voice- "Jackie Lea , what did you say"?   I knew I'd get in trouble for taking the Lord's name in vain- so I blurted out "Mama, I just said , oooh shit".     Wrong answer.

      When we lived in that house, Donna got a Handy Andy Tool Kit for Christmas. It had a real hammer and a real saw in it. Daddy let us tear down the chicken house that spring and summer. It was hard work-and Donna would never let me use the saw. (I don't think I was allowed to touch it). However, I could use the hammer to pull out nails with her permission.  It seems like we put in 8 hours a day on that darn chicken house. When I got tired and begged to go inside- she kept me working with inspiring stories of the castle she would build us out of the the wood we salvaged from the chicken house.  I could see it in my mind. Tall spires, winding stair cases, a ballroom, a balcony.

      When it was time to move again- there were 4 main posts and one board left across the top. I knew if we could have stayed in that house a few more months - Donna would have built that castle and it would have been fabulous.

6.Were there any special items in the house that you remember?

The most interesting thing about Grandma's house was what was under the house. She had a  root cellar under her bedroom.  If you wanted a can of tuna- you moved the rug in her room, opened up the trap door, leaned it against the side of the wall and went down narrow steep stairs to the cellar below. That's where she kept eggs, margarine, home canned goods, potatoes, onions and  squash. The store bought canned goods were in a little cubby under the stairs.

 During the 60's Grandpa  built a bomb shelter under the other side of the house.  You got to it through double cellar doors that were outside of his room. He had a single bed,  and some more storage on that side. Then they dug a corridor through the solid packed clay to the root cellar- so you could get from one side of the house to the other side. We loved playing down there on hot days. Although I did  get in trouble for scratching a big valentine heart  with my initials plus my boyfriends into the  dirt wall.

Donna and Me at Grandma Williams house in Colville

5. What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones?

We lived in an assortment of houses but Grandma Gilmore's house was the one constant when we were growing up. 

It was red and green with white trim and sat on a great big double lot on a corner. There were three cabins across the lawn from the house and a huge old barn that had been remodeled into another rental. There were fruit trees and two big garden plots on either side of the house. 

All the rooms in the house were painted in  combinations of red, blue and green. There was a  big kitchen and living room and five bedrooms.

When we were real little, Grandma had an outhouse that was a three seater with different size holes - a papa bear size, a mama bear size and a wee little baby bear size for me and Donna.

Grandpa built a bathroom on the house that was styled after the one at the tavern- since that was where he had most of his experience with inside bathrooms.  They had renters in the cabins around the house that didn't have bathrooms so- they built the bathroom to accommodate the boarders inside and the renters outside.

There was an outside entrance and also a door from the east side of the living room that went  into the bathroom.  Just inside was a sink and three cubicles made out of rough boards from the lumber mill. A stall for a shower, one with a wide low sink that served as a urinal and then a separate stall for the toilet.

Grandma handpainted signs with bright red nail polish that she posted all over the bathroom.  "No loitering allowed" "Not Responsible for lost items" and (my favorite) on inside of the toilet seat "flush toilet and close seat when finished".

Grandma had a telephone and we always had telephones at home too. I remember calling the operator and talking to her when I got lonesome.

4. Were there other family members in the area? Who?

When we were little, my dad's brother, Kermit Williams and his family lived across the street from us- but they soon moved to Spokane. Grandma Williams' sister, Grace Brittain and her husband Milo, lived in Marcus and would we go visit them on occassion. Dad's sister, JoAnn Kruger and her family lived in Davenport, WA and we spent every Thanksgiving with them for as long as I can remember.

But- Grandma and Grandpa Gilmore lived in Kettle Falls- and that's who we saw most of the time. Our grandma thought Donna and I were perfect and wonderful. We would sing songs and perform for Grandma and the gang (she had a boarding house) during dinner. I remember dancing with Grandma to old 78 records - she liked to "fox trot". Donna and I would always crawl under the table and tickle her feet, steal her shoes and hide them where she could never find them until we came back the next time. Grandma and  I  would snuggle up on the sofa and watch wrestling and "Gunsmoke" and "The Lawrence Welk Show". We drank red koolaid and ate graham cracker and peanut butter while we watched TV- our special treat.

3. How did your family come to live there?

Mama said that we moved 20 times  in the 19 years that she and daddy were married.  So I'm going to answer this questions based on my original take on it- "how did you come to live there" meaning the area- not the house!

My parents ,20 year old Jack Williams and 19 year old Emma Gilmore Williams ,  married January 1948 and I was born that  December. They were both born and raised in Ferry and Steven County.  My mother's father was born in Idaho in 1890, but the rest of the grandparent were born on the other side of the Rockies.  My dad's mother was born in Pike County, Kentucky. His father was born in Missouri. Mama's mother was born in Michigan.

My father's family -  mother (Rebecca Ramey Dobson Williams)  and father  (Arthur Justus Williams) had property on the Columbia River  just north of the falls (The Kettle Falls) (and near present day twin bridges.

 The south end of their  property was  adjacent to the salmon fishing grounds. Dad used to play with the Indian children who camped out with their families next to the river  during salmon season.  

His family lived in other places in the area, including Laurier- on the Canadian border- where his mom was post mistress. And  he also lived in Colville in a big house up on the hill behind town.  His dad was a logger. His grandfather, Fredrick  Williams was a carpenter and traveled out to Washington state from Kansas with his wife and children.  

My mom's mother  (Esther May Riley Gilmore) and father ( Arthur Francis Gilmore ) lived in a house that belonged to Esther May's father, Ed Riley.   My grandfather was 21 years older than grandma and for much of my childhood, he was an old man trapped in deafness and daydreams. He used to stand at the living room window- and peer through hanging begonias and ferns and palms, two parakeet cages and a couple of cages full of canaries and gaze at  a world outside the window where  more was going on than I could ever see.

Regarding where my family lived when I was born

Corrections from my mom- we did live in the house up behind Barney's junction when I was a baby- but that was the 3rd place we lived after I was born.

They brought  me home to one of Grandma Gilmore's cabins. She had a boarding house and cabins for rent in Kettle Falls. We lived in  Cabin One. note: that's what Grandma always called it "Cabin One".  It had been a barn and 1/2 of it was converted into rental space.  Mama said that daddy was logging and the rent was cheap.

Then we moved into a basement apartment that was in an old house. It was southwest of town on the east side of the intersection where the road to Meyers Falls Dam and the road Old Kettle Falls cross. 


The photo of the three of us (below) was taken there. I was about 6 months old in that photo. Mama's dress is white and lavender. I'm in a pink dress. Daddy is wearing a soft blue shirt. It looks so nice in the picture because as mama says "I ironed it".

Daddy, Mama and me

2.When and where were you born?

I was born on December 3, 1948 at Mount Carmel Hospital in Colville, Washington at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  I always said "my first ride was in a logging truck in a snow storm".  I always thought it was an old beat up truck with a broken window.  But my Dad remembers it as a real nice truck. He told me that he traded off the car for as a  down payment on it- that's probably why it was my first ride.  Mama has maintained her version (old beat up truck with broken window) for more years though.

My folks lived in a little house behind Barney's Junction  up on the side of the mountain. It overlooked Lake Roosevelt and the twin bridges that span the water and link Stevens and Ferry County in Northeast Washington.

Why my grandpa nicknamed me "Big Foot'

Easter Sunday when I was 11 after my 7 inch growth spurt



Part 3 of question 1. What were your nicknames?

Are nicknames- names that you like or ones you don't? Humm.

My parents and Grandma Gilmore called me "Jackie Lea".  My sister Donna and I have called each other  "Sissy" for as long as I can remember.

My grandpa called me "Big Foot".  Mama's father, Art Gilmore,  was  about five foot seven.  He weighed 145 pounds.  By the time 4th grade was over- I was 10 years old and 5 feet tall. Over the summer I grew 7 inches and by September, were  looking eye to eye. In the next four years I grew five inches and by the time I was 14,  I was six feet tall and wore size ten shoes.   

Note:   I was a landmark as a young girl and teenager in Kettle Falls.  "Turn right at Jackie Williams".  

In the 7th grade, Tom McNitt and Tom Bryant named me Paul Bunyan and my sister Babe, the Blue Ox one wintery morning as we got on the bus dusted with snow. That followed us around for awhile. We countered with a poetic and sassy "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you."

When I was in my late 20's & early 30's, Donald called me "Aunt Gorgeous".

A girlfriend and client in Sandpoint dubbed me "Ms Jackie"  in the early '80's.  The one's lasted for almost 30 years.

Mr. Keith  calls me "Miss Scarlett", "Lucy" (as in "you got some 'splain' to do) and "Little Flower".

Gramma Jackie rocks the house these days.

In my mama's arms

Keri's Questionaire

Keri has 50 questions that she would like to have answered as part of her quest to fill in the blanks in geneology she's putting together for Sable.
Good idea. Great way to start posting.

First Question:
1.What is your full name? Why did your parents select this name for you?

My mother  named me - Jackie Lea Williams.  Jackie, for my dad (Jack Arthur Williams).  He may have not been exactly thrilled to be a parent at the age of 20.  Maybe that was supposed to help.

Mama gave me "Lea" (pronounced Lee) " as a middle name so that  if I didn't like my first name- I could always go by my middle name. Mama had  aspirations that I would stretch my wings far from Kettle Falls and  if I needed a more sophisticated name in the future- it was taken care of.