29. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather?

Is there a naming tradition in our family? 

Co-incidence or tradition? 

28. What do you know about your family surname?

 Family legend gives that our Williams name came from Wales. My Great Great Grandfather  Nasmith Williams (b. 1794) and his brother Rees  purportedly came from Wales as the story goes that has been handed down in the family. However, according to census records, his children list him as coming from Pennsylvania.

According to Wikipedia, Williams is a patronymic form of the name William that originated in medieval England^[3] and later came to be extremely popular in Wales. The meaning is derived from son or descendant of Williame, the Northern French form that gave the English name William too. Derived from an Old French given name with Germanic elements; will = desire, will; and helm = helmet, protection.^[4] It is the second most common surname in Wales and the third most common surname in the whole of the United Kingdom,^[5] the third most common in the United States of America and Australia and the fifth most common in New Zealand.^[

27.Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them?

My mother's dad, Art Gilmore was born in 1890, my dad's mother, Rebecca Ramey Dobson Williams was born in 1891. So you could say they were about the same age. 

Grandpa Gilmore was old beyond his years. He had "hardening of the arteries" ( Arteriosclerosis). I think that that effected him a lot. He also had been a hard working, hard drinking man for most of his life. He was a street fighter when he was young and in one of his fights, someone hit him in the side of the head with a board. His hearing was damaged and he was almost completely deaf when I was a kid.  

He used to read the "funny papers" as we called the Sunday comics then. But he only went to the 3rd grade and  it wasn't long before I could read better than he could. One time we, reading the comics and I corrected him. That was the last time he read to me.  

He liked to read western paperback novels. Louis Lamour was one of his favorite writers.  

25.How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions?

My mom made every holiday special. She would make green Jell-O on St. Patrick's Day, red Jell-O on Valentine's Day and so on.  Jell-O was a big deal in the '50's.

She always made a homemade chocolate cake that she would take right out of the oven and we'd cut big chunks of it and slather it with (real) butter while it was still hot. That and Jell-O made a fine holiday treat.

 Easter was always our first picnic of the year. We'd go to church in the morning and then take off for the woods or to the lake for a picnic. We'd roast hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire. Many times Daddy's brother, Uncle Kermit and his family would join us.

Every 4th of July, we'd go to Old Kettle and watch the Fireworks. There was always a community gathering at the park near the swimming beach at Old Kettle - with booths and activities. In the evening the Lion's Club would set off fireworks out on the old town site of Kettle Falls.

On Halloween, when we were little and lived in Colville, we'd dress up and take out big bags to fill up with candy and then bring it back to our dad- who was pretty much a big kid himself. He would send us out at least 3 times to fill up those bags. I think he ate most of the candy himself.

Thanksgiving meant a trip to Dad's sister Aunt Joann Kruger in Davenport. We'd drive through blizzards and drifting snow to get there. Never stayed overnight- but had a wonderful time with our extended family.

Mama didn't have birthday parties when she was growing up- so it was important to her that we did. Donna's b'day was during Christmas break and mine was the beginning of December so we'd always celebrate together.  When we got older, mama would take us and our friends out to dinner and then to a movie or bowling in Colville.

Christmas Day was spent at  Grandma Gilmore's.  We'd have a big dinner and then would have to wait til after the dishes were done to open Christmas presents.

Until we got old enough to babysit, we usually stayed with Grandma Gilmore on New Year's Eve. At midnight we'd blow on noisemakers and go outside and yell "Happy New Year" to the world- or at least to the sleepy little town of Kettle Falls.

24.Describe a typical family dinner. Did you all eat together as a family? Who did the cooking? What were your favorite foods?

Daddy was a logger/truck driver/heavy equipment operator.  So often he worked late. Mama would usually make a casserole and keep some warm for him in the oven. Mama , Donna and I ate together at the table. No TV on in those days.

We ate fresh venison year 'round. Mama and my Grandma Gilmore had a big garden at Grandma's place, actually two big gardens and fruit trees. So they would  can fruits and vegetables .   

After Grandma passed away in 1979-

 we found canned fruit in the cellar from the 1940's

Mama did most of the cooking - but taught us how to cook as soon as we were able. I remember doing a fair amount of cooking as a teenager.

She makes the world's best fried chicken and gravy- a special meal for Sunday dinner. She also made the best fried venison. It was so good cold that I'd rather eat that than candy!

Mama baked bread, and I made most of the cookies from about the time I was 10 years old.

On the weekends dad would cook bacon and eggs sometimes. He made the best bacon. He also worked in a restaurant as a kid and he learned how to make  mashed potatoes - so every holiday dinner, he made the mashed potatoes.  And he taught both Donna and I how to fry bacon and how to make mashed potatoes.

Old news New news

I answered the question "have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper". I have thought of some more.
I wrote letters to the editor a couple of times. One letter was about how to cross the street in Sandpoint, Idaho,including my advice on the proper attitude. After spending time politely waiting for the traffic to stop so I could cross, I realized that "waiters never walk".  So my advice was to tride boldly into the crosswalk, look  the driver in the car  in the eye and just dare them  to hit you.  It really worked.

Or maybe it was the kids, fanning out into the crosswalk in front of me with their arms extended, hands flagging traffic to a stop.

Another time  letter I wrote to "The Sandpoint Daily Bee" was about my sister attending a performance of Bye, Bye Birdies. Keith & I and some of the kids were in it. She was still in the stage of her MS diagnois where they were ruling out things. No body knew why she kept falling down, but she sure as hell couldn't walk. She didn't believe it though. The guys carried her into the Panida Theater (from a service entrance near the stage) and she watched the show. I saw a card not long after that, the picture was of two old women (probably my age now) with old cloth coats and pillbox hats askew on their heads,  one of the old women was carrying the other old woman on her back- the caption: She ain't heavy, she's my sister.

23 What world events had the most impact on you when you were growing up?

The cold war was in full force. We lived in fear of a nuclear attack. At school- we'd have "Bomb drills" - where an alarm would go off and we'd dive under our desks- great protection against nuclear holocaust. 

I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev banging on the table with his shoe. I also remember him saying "we will bury you".

It was a scary time and I had a lot of sleepless nights. I also wrote John Kennedy a letter asking "are we going to have a war". I have it around here someplace.

22. Who were your best friends growing up?

When we lived at Rice, Washington, the Johnson girls, Kiki and Nita were our best friends. We played with them and with Loretta Clinton all the time. The Johnsons had a great house with a big garden, a playroom with lots  of books and no TV. We didn't have a TV either-so it was no big deal.

Many times- my sister was my best friend/enemy. We had a love/hate relationship as children. She was the person who told me "Sissy you have the softest cheeks" and the persons who sold peeks of me in the shower to the neighbor kids at 25 cents a pop.  She plays a big part in some of the best times I ever had as a kid- and the worst. I love her dearly and admire her. I'm glad we grew up!

We moved to Kettle Falls when I was in the 4th grade and I graduated from High School there. So my "best friends" were Carol Weatherman grade school to high school; Susan Ayres middle school, high school; LaVaughn Keenan high school.

21.Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper?

When I was 14, my dad bought a Honda 50 Motorbike. I was learning how to ride it, shift gears etc (it shifted like a motorcycle). We lived out in the country- on the Kettle River, near Barstow, WA. There was an old road on the property that just went around in a circle and Dad told me to stay on that road.  I got bored doing that after awhile and took off down a dirt road that was next to the river bank  and headed south toward the neighbors property. When I got to the fence line,  I turned the bike around, not really knowing how tight you could turn, and made a wide turn that had me headed right toward the river bank. I got scared, pulled back on the hand throttle and dove over the side of the 40 foot river bank.   I came-to with my face in the water, I looked up the bank, saw my dad and passed out again. My red and white TV shirt was all red.  I had a skull fracture and a concussion.

 The Statesman Examiner (Colville paper)  came out and took a photo of me with my head wrapped up in a bandage, sitting on my motorbike in my PJ's, with mama standing in the background.

When I was 16, I was a Miss Kettle Falls Princess  and as "royalty"- we had our pictures in the paper.

 At 18 I had a photo in the "weddings section" of the paper.