On my previous blog, I said Richard was on the right. I still haven't got doing this pictures down yet. He is in the bottom photo.

Yes, this is me milking Babe. I was the only one who milked her. Your dad had asked me one day if I knew how to milk a cow. He knew good and well that I did because I always helped my dad with milking. "It was a trick question." A couple of days later a guy in a pickup with a cow comes up with your dad following behind. It turns out he got her real cheap because she had been a runt. She was a little Jersey cow. She gave lots of rich cream. I helped fatten us all up by making ice cream and cream puffs. I would make a big batch of icecream in the freezer. We didn't have an icecream maker. When you are making icecream in a freezer, you have to keep taking it out and stirring it until it is completely frozen. One day I had just taken the pan out of the freezer and the phone rang. Darrell took the bottle of shampoo I had on the shelf and poured most of the bottle into the icecream. I think it might have been Pamper Shampoo. It was a shampoo that was a pale yellow. When I got off the phone and went to stir the icecream it just looked like it was melting on top so I stirred the shampoo in. When we went to eat it, everybody started making faces. I tasted it and realized what it was. Shampoo tastes just like it smells. Then, of course, I saw the empty shampoo bottle. Another time Darrell poured garlic salt in the sugar bowl. It sure would have been nice to have cupboards. Like I said, it was a good time in my life. I was young and had all my children around me.

Here are two pictures from our house in Bonney Lake. I,m sorry about the small size of these old pictures. Debbie was trying to help me make them bigger. She did make one bigger but she didn't know how she did it. Last night she tried some more. Until we can figure out how to make them bigger this will have to do. As you can see, our house was a cement block house. We never did get it finished. One reason was that we got a loan from this crook in Bonney Lake who was developing Ponderosa Estates (a mobile home park where you bought the lots). We did not get all the materials that we had been promised. He just skipped with a lot of everybody's money. The next reason was that your dad got laid off at Bungee's. They cut down to one man. Since Bud had been there longer than your dad, they kept him. We had a lot of trials and tribulations there but I am not going to go into all that because I want to dwell on the good things. The picture at the right is Richard hold a cat. He and Darrell both have always loved cats. One day I remember watching Darrell come home from the Mobile Park carrying a kitten. When he got closer to the house he put it down and then came and told me, the kitten followed him home. We checked to see if anyone was missing a cat, but no one seemed to claim it, so we had another cat. We always had a dog too. We had very little money at that time and your dad worked a lot of different jobs. I did my best to keep a cheerful attitude. We played a lot of games and I read a lot to you kids. In the summer I would pack a picnic lunch and we would drag our cow across the road to the State Property. We would spend most of the day there. We let Babe graze. We called the spot we picked, the Meadow. It was very pretty there. All you kids loved being outside or maybe it was because I sent you outside so I could get things done. We had a big picnic table out back. You ate your lunch there, played games, played with playdough. We did have a phone. We were on an eight party line. You always had somebody listening in. There were a couple of women that really talked on and on. If you really needed to use the phone you would have to ask them if they could hang up and let you use the phone. Still, it was a good time in my life all in all.

This is the outside of our house in Buckley. David and Diane are in front. We lived next door to the Leets. They had four children. Vera Leet is the one who introduced me to the Church. When I didn't send David to get the mail, I would put the littlest ones in the wagon and go up to the Post Office. Even though I was young, it was really getting hard on my arms to pull the wagon. I hadn't learned to drive yet and I really wanted to. Finally your dad said he would teach me. Of course the car was a stick shift (no power steering) and we also did not have turning signals. Those were the days. Opening the window to signal and still deal with the shifting. Anyway,I had trouble learning to shift the car right. Your dad was sure I was never going to learn. Then all of a sudden I caught on. Once I figured it out, it was easy. When I took my driver's test I only made one mistake and when I saw the examiner make a note on his clipboard, I knew what I had done At that time and I don't know how much longer, you were not supposed to enter the car on the street side. You were supposed to get in on the passenger side and slide over. In Buckley, people didn't pay any attention to that. I meant to remember it when I took my test, but I forgot. Of course, now it would be a hastle to do that. I guess the reasoning for that law was that it was unsafe to enter on the street side. Of course, it can be unsafe but as with any driving, you just have to use caution.

This is the house we bought in Buckley. This was a real fixer-upper. I am not sure when it was built but there had been no indoor plumbing when it was built. A room had been added later and it had an old claw-foot tub and toilet. We still had a little money, so we bought a new tub, toilet and basin. The fixtures were a nice shade of green that was so popular then. The walls had torn wallpaper everywhere. Uncle Loyd said he would paper it for us. He spent quite a bit of time doing that for us and did some painting too. The house was two stories. (After we sold it, the new owner made it into one story) When David was here for my 80th birthday, we went up to Enumclaw and Buckley before he went back to Alaska. The house is still there. It looks well kept up. Living in Buckley was one of the best periods in my life. I love small towns. Of course, those old houses really got cold in the winter. David's bedroom was downstairs and the rest of us slept upstairs. Our heat was an oil heater in the front room. All the windows were single pane and there was no insulation. A lot of times, when it got really cold, we would just drag the mattresses down from upstairs and everybody would sleep in the front room. In Buckley when it got cold usually the wind was blowing too and the bedrooms were like refrigerators. Anyway, I did like living there and we were just about 3 blocks from town. Almost all the stores, the doctor's office, the dentist's office, the library and the post office were on the one main street. Just like in Moses Lake, there was no mail delivery. A lot of times I would send David to the Post Office, even before he was in Kindergarden. The soil was very fertile there and we always had a nice little garden out back. There was garbage delivery. The water and garbage bill came together. We had a flat rate. No matter how much water you used, the bill was always the same. The alley was along the back of our property. Richard used to love being out there when the garbage truck came. One time the garbage truck driver backed over my garbage can and flattened it. Richard came rushing into the house to tell me before the driver could get to the door. The driver brought me a new garbage can the next day.

Today I am writing about having my children. First, I want to say that I loved being pregnant. I was always my happiest when I was going to have a baby. As I said, David was six weeks early. When I first got pregnant with David, I tried to pretend I wasn't because I just knew I would miscarry anyway. About half-way through my third month, I got scared so I went to the doctor. Dr. Asmundson in Enumclaw was my doctor. I had never seen him before. When I got into his office I was trying to hold myself together but as soon as I said "I think I'm pregnant", I started crying. I'm sure he must have thought I wasn't married because I was so upset. Anyway, I told him about all my miscarriages. He said there was a new drug on the market that would help prevent miscarriages, so yes, that new drug was Diethylstilbestrol, DES. (I took that drug with David, Diane, Donna and for about three months with Richard and then the doctor decided I didn't need anymore.) Evidence many years later found that many DES babies had problems. DES mothers felt guilty and I was no exception. So I'm sorry my DES children. Also, apparently, the drug did nothing to prevent miscarriages.

David was supposed to be born in March. Dr. Asmundson always went on his annual vacation to Hawaii in February. I even asked him when he told me that "what if I have the baby early?" He said I was doing just fine, not to worry. Dr. Adams, an Army Doctor from World War 2, filled in for Dr. Asmundson. He was an excellent doctor according to everyone but he was blunt and rough speaking and he did not hesitate to lecture you. As it turned out, I think I was fortunate that he was my doctor. David wasn't breathing when he was born and the nurses said he worked on David for 15 minutes before he started breathing. The nurse said the doctors didn't usually work on them that long. Dr. Adams had been up all night as he had delivered a premature girl 3 hrs. before David was born. The Enumclaw Hospital was very new. There was only one Incubator so David spent the first few hours of his life in an incubator with the baby girl. Like I said, Dr. Adams always talked plain. He came into my room and said "the baby is alive but it is touch and go with these premies". So I laid there and started crying some more. The doctor had hollered at me when I came to the hospital in labor because I had a cold. Anyway, by this time, your dad was a basket case. Then the doctor sent your dad to Auburn to get an Incubator from the Auburn Hospital. At that time in the incubators, they were giving the babies high oxygen. A lot of premature babies were going blind in the forties and early fifties and peaked in 1950 and 1951. An English doctor figured out the problem. He could not understand why the babies being born in hospitals were going blind and the ones born in the country put in boxes by warming ovens were not. Doctors finally proved the theory and almost overnight in 1952, the high oxygen was stopped. David did have eye problems but it could have been much worse.

(Sorry, as usual this letter is getting long) After I had David I didn't have any more problems with my pregnancies until Dan was born. He was breech. We were living in Bonney Lake when I was pregnant with Dan. Our house was very unfinished. We had electricity but no water. We had to pack water and keep drinking water in jugs. This was a hard period in my life. I was washing diapers everyday besides other clothes. Your dad and David (who wasn't quite 10 yet) were digging the well. They were trying to get it done before I had the baby. I was helping too. I had to dump the buckets of heavy mud and sand. One day my Visting Teachers came by. (In those days we didn't make appointments) They were shocked when they saw what I was doing. They said it could hurt the baby. After I had the baby, they were positive he was breech because I had been lifting those heavy buckets. Personally, I think that was just another "Old Wives Tale"

I meant to mention about Dr. Asmundson again. He came back from Hawaii and I was sitting in the waiting room with David for a check-up. He just stopped in his tracks. He had just gotten back and didn't know I had the baby yet. Years later when he wasn't my doctor anymore, he saw me in the hospital, I think with Debbie, and he came over and took my hand and said"Is this the little girl who didn't think she would ever have a baby. How many is this now, Mrs. Otte?"

OK now that's my babies story. I need to march on to other things. I started doing this so late in life I will be lucky if I cover everything of importance. As we all do, I have had many ups and downs in my life. I intend to dwell on just the good things and of course, I will pop in different stories that happened along my life's path.

I am so glad we had our day in the sun yesterday. When I woke up this morning, there was snow. It didn't last very long. I decided to post a couple more old pictures. One is of me pushing my sister, Elsie, in the baby buggy. I am four and Elsie is two. The other picture is of Elsie's house not too far from Lake Stevens. Wayne, Elsie's husband built the house and it remained just the same for sixty some years. It was never finished. The house is setting on 10 acres of land. When the real estate market gets better, she should have lots of money. Elsie's son, Jimmy, is taking care of things. They must have some money coming in because it costs close to $3000.00 a month in the Assisted Living Center she is living in .

I will get back to some of my stories next time. I am writing them to my children but they are for all the family to read . They are for the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, family members related by marriage or whatever or just to anyone who is curious about what an old lady writes about. I just love being on the computer and I so appreciate all the blogs from family members. It is so fun to watch the babies growing up.

I am having so much fun with my blog. This is just about my day today. The picture above is my bed with the quilt that Diane and Donna made me when Clayton and I moved into Merrill Gardens. I had been using this picture for the header on my blog but changed it a couple of days ago. Donna and Laif spent the night last night so Donna, Debbie and Erik and I got to spend the day together. There was no school. Donna had shown this picture to her neighbor. I told her I had changed my header and taken it off. She was disappointed so I told her I would put it back on. The Teddy Bear on the pillows was a Birthday Present from Sister Opstad in the Tiffany Park Ward. The animal on the left is my "Wolfie" that I bought in Washington DC when Debbie and I went there last summer. The animal on the right is Erik's cat, Charlie. Charlie laid next to my Wolfie for a long time and Kent took this picture. Debbie also has this picture. She entitled it "Which animal is stuffed" I had such a nice day today. Even though it was cold, it was a wonderful, bright sunny day. Erik took some tests to prepare him for the Running Start program. Donna and I passed a rack of swim suits at Wal-Mart so we bought matching suits for the cruise we will be taking the end of March. Donna looked at cell phones but that is her story. For now she settled for buying a battery for her phone. We all met for lunch and then we all went shoe shopping for Donna. I could tell that Erik was really "thrilled" sitting around watching his Aunt Donna and his mom trying on shoes. Erik is real easy going like his dad and didn't complain. The day went much too quickly. It was so nice to spend the day with my daughters and my grandson.

This is a picture of my first dog, Goldie. While your dad was working on the Pot Holes Dam, one night he brought home a little puppy. She was a Cocker Spaniel and she was a beautiful gold, reddish color. We named her Goldie. I had never had a dog before. We always had lot of cats while I was growing up. We made her a bed with a basket and some blankets. At bedtime we left her in her bed and closed our bedroom door. She cried until 1am or so in the morning. We decided if we wanted any sleep we would have to bring her to our bed and said we would try again the next night. Needless to say, the next night was worse. Goldie ended up sleeping on the foot of our bed all the rest of her life. She died when I was pregnant with Donna. I loved that dog so much. I took her everywhere with me. I wanted to have a baby so bad but I ended up having three miscarriages while we lived in Moses Lake. I was pregnant again when the job at the Dam came to an end. Again we moved in about two days back to Everett. Shortly after we moved, I miscarried again. Your dad had gone to work for a Radio Shop in Everett and we were trying to buy an old fixer-upper house in Lake Stevens. Radio was on it's way out and Television was coming in so the shop cut down to one man. One night while your dad was playing cards at a store in Lake Stevens (the only store ) he heard about a job repairing radios in Enumclaw. He called the next morning and was hired over the phone. So again, we moved in two days. We were losing the house anyway. We spent one night at the Enumclaw Hotel and the next day I found this run down house to rent. The job was for Gunderson's Furniture, the largest furniture store in Enumclaw. Television was really starting to take hold so your dad started learning to fix them. I got pregnant again and just figured I would miscarry again but this time I didn't. David was born six weeks early on February 15, 1951. We decided to try buying a house again. We got another fixer-upper in Buckley. Before long, I was pregnant again with Diane. Gunderson's decided to do away with their TV and Radio repair. Your dad found another job right away in Fife. It was Bungee's Fuel Oil and they had a TV and Radio repair shop too. Your dad and one other man worked the shop. It was a steady job and we lived in Buckley for seven years. Your dad was still working at Bungee's when we moved to Bonney Lake. While we were in Buckley your dad came home one day and said he had bought some property in Bonney Lake and that we were going to build a new house. (That's another story.) My last child, Dan, was born after we moved to Bonney Lake. All seven of my children were born in the Enumclaw Hospital.

I am not doing things in order on my blog. I'm just trying to put in a little history for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This picture is the only one I have of DaveOtte when we were married. I am sure the girls probably have other pictures. My parents were very upset that I wanted to get married. They did everything they could think of to try to change my mind. I was 18 when your dad started courting me. I was 19 when we did get married. I promised my parents we would go together for a year before we got married. I am sure they figured I would change my mind. It wasn't that they had anything against your dad. I was the oldest and they didn't want to lose me, I guess. (When my sister got married, they never fussed about it) Looking back now, I don't know why your dad agreed to courting me that long. I also had to agree to have my sister, Elsie, chaperone us on every date. At that time, your dad was living in Wenatchee with friends. (They were a nice married couple) Your dad could only come to Everett on weekends and he came every weekend on the bus. He had used his GI loan to start a radio repair business in Wenatchee. He let my parents know that he was a business man and was planning to buy a house outside of Wenatchee. (His business was already in the red but I didn't know that until after we were married) anyway, every weekend we would go to a show and dinner with my sister tagging along. Your dad did not have good feelings about Elsie until after we had been married for sometime. One weekend your dad wanted me to come to Wenatchee for the weekend. He went to great lengths to tell my parents that he slept in the basement and that his friends had a nice room for me upstairs. I was planning on taking the train over. My parents told him that would be fine. After your dad left Sunday night, my mother said "now you realize you will have to take Elsie" Elsie was really excited about the trip. Your dad always called me a couple of times during the week and I did not have the heart to tell him I was bringing Elsie. I will never forget when we got off the train. It was the first time I realized what a temper your dad had. He was sitting in a car, waiting for me to get off and he saw Elsie. I saw him just sitting there pounding on the steering wheel. He fumed about it quietly the rest of the day but he was polite. It was a very nice couple he stayed with. They had a very nice house and were very hospitable. When it was getting close to bedtime, I told Elsie I wanted to sit on back swing and talk to Dave for awhile. She said you be back in the bedroom by 10:00 or I am going to tell Mama. I said OK. I noticed there was no clock in the bedroom and Elsie didn't have a watch. Elsie and I were both used to going to bed early all our lives so I knew she would go to sleep pretty quick. It was summer and a nice warm night. We sat in the swing and talked till about midnight. Yes, we just talked. With my parents hovering over me, he was walking on egg shells as it was. It was nice to have a little time just for us. I remember that evening because it was so nice. I set my watch back to 10:00. Elsie woke up when I came back in and said "what time is it?" I showed her my watch and said it was 10:00. I wasn't until years later I told I had set my watch back. She said she had been sure I had been up later but she couldn't prove it. Anyway, we finally did get married on December 28, 1946. Your dad's sister Oranell and her husband, Loyd came and a few of my friends from work. My parents did not come. My mother was so upset she laid in bed all day crying. My dad could hardly keep from crying. He shook your dad's hand and told him to take good care of me. We were married in a Presbyterian Church in Everett. After the wedding, Oranell had a reception for us in their tiny basement apt. on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. That is where this picture was taken. We had a Honeymoon in Portland, Oregon. We stayed at the Multnomah Hotel for a week. We did fly to Portland and back. Your dad must have spent almost every cent he had. We took the bus back to Wenatchee. We stayed the first night in the Wenatchee Hotel. I woke up the first morning and the bottom of the washbasin was crawling. It was cockroaches and I had never seen a cockroach. I started screaming. When your dad came in they had all disappeared in the light. He explained what they were . I would not spend another night there. While he was at work, I found a cabin close to town. It only had an electric oven for heat. We found out the mattress was wet but we slept the best we could. When your dad was getting ready for work he told me to be careful because there was a black widow spider in the bathroom. I quickly dressed and walked about 4 blocks to a gas station to go to the bathroom. I went house hunting and finally found a duplex for rent. The owner was very proud of her laundry room in the basement. It had two sink tubs and a wringer washer, clothes lines inside and outside. I forgot to mention that finally your dad's business went belly up and so he went to work doing radio repair for a furniture store in Moses Lake and rode to work with one of the employees. We lived in the duplex about two months and then your dad got a job at the Pot Holes Dam. We lived in the housing project that had been built for Army Personel and their families during the war. We were right on the lake. I really loved it there. We had a nice coal heater and a kerosene cook stove. We had the same man for milk delivery and ice delivery. We didn't have a refrigerator just an icebox. I had a wringer washer and dried clothes on a rack in the winter and we had clotheslines outside. I had made myself a two piece bathing suit and spent a lot of hours lying down by the lake. We didn't have mail delivery so I had to walk uptown for the mail. We had wooden sidewalks and the town was very small. There was a nice Deli that we bought the best Saurkraut and potato salad. There was an ice plant near town where you could get ice. Especially on hot days your block of ice for the icebox would be out before the iceman got back. He delivered milk three times a week and ice three times a week. He got to be a good friend of ours. He worked hard 6 days a week.

Shirley's Graduation picture-1944

I graduated from Everett High School in June of 1944. I was only 17. It was right during World War 2 so jobs were very easy to get. All the businesses were run by women and old men, as all the other men were in the service. In those days the men were drafted into the service. I went to work for the Everett Daily Herald in July and I didn't turn 18 until October. I was personal secretary to the Business Manager. Also took dictation from the Publisher when his secretary was gone. I worked in the Classified Ad Dept. Ran up and down the stairs to the press room, answered the phone as well as taking ads. My boss was very particular. We could not make errors in typing and also were not supposed to waste paper. I learned from the other girls, if you made a mistake just put the paper in your purse, not the waste basket because, my boss, Mr. Jeklin checked all the baskets near closing time. I took shorthand at 120 minutes and typed 80 words a minute which was good on manual typewriters but that is not why I got the job. I got the job because I had short nails. He said the previous girl had long nails and spent too much time on her nails. When I went in to be interviewed, the front office was filled with girls trying for the job. I just couldn't believe I got the job at my age and with no previous experience. I did have a little experience in High School. Whenever the Superintendent needed to have someone for dictation either Mary Lou Frazer or I got to go. We were the two top students in our class. Also, I learned to run the Switchboard. I filled in for the Switchboard Operator during her lunch and other breaks. I believe we had 8 trunk lines coming in. I disconnected people sometimes when I was learning. It is very hard when you have so many calls coming in. In those days you still had to dial the Operator to call out. Little did I know at the carefree time in my life what was ahead. I did have my heart set on getting married. Most girls wanted the "house with the white picket fence and a boy and a girl". Well, I never did get the white picket fence and I went a little past 2 children. I have had hard times but all in all I have had a great life and I dearly love all my children. Mentioning children. I told Diane Evans, my oldest daughter, about my Blog. She was very impressed and said it was wonderful. She wanted to know if she should apologize about the frogs. Being one of the oldest, she just thought it was great chasing me with frogs. Mothers love their children unconditionally, no matter what.

Debbie saw this pair of deer in the back yard when she came home from work. Here are two pictures I took. They come in the yard occasionally. If you have been following my blog, I will get back to the Frog story. When we lived in Bonney Lake there were lots of frogs. I even had to dip them out of the well. The kids didn't know that I was deathly afraid of frogs. I know it is not a rational fear but I would rather see a snake or a spider instead of a hopping frog. Anyway, all the kids just thought it was a game or something. They did not realize until they were grown how much they scared me. I hid in the bathroom once but the house was unfinished and the bathroom had no ceiling so they started dropping frogs down into the bathroom. With seven children, something was always going on. Today, I am not sure how I would react to a frog. Don't test me.

This a picture of my Sister, Elsie and me at one of her Craft Shows in 2006. Over the years she has made thousands of Finger puppets. Elsie is in an Assisted living center in Lake Stevens,WA now. She still goes to a few shows. Elsie always loved crocheting since she was a very little girl. When we were in High School, she had this pattern for crocheted frogs. She made big ones, medium size ones and little ones. She had a lot of frogs. (Maybe that is where I got my fear of frogs) I asked Elsie awhile back if she still had the pattern. She said it got lost over the years. Ask Aunt Donna about my fear of frogs. What the kids did to me in Bonney Lake, it is a wonder I didn't drop dead of a heart attack. Elsie is two years younger than me. I was born October 26, 1927 and Elsie was born November 11, 1929. We were both born in Helena, Montana.

This is a picture of my dad in his Navy Uniform when he was serving his country in World War One. My mom said he had intended to stay in the Navy but his ship was torpedoed on the way to Europe. He and the other survivors were in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean for 48 hrs. before they were picked up. He had double Pnuemonia which aggravated his Asthma. He suffered very severely with Asthma all his life. He received Medical Disability. Even with his suffering, he and my mom also, worked very hard. Farming was the love of his life.

This is a picture of my mom as she looked when my sister, Elsie, and I were in high school. All my life I have just adored her beautiful slim figure. She weighed between 90 and 100 lbs. almost all of her adult life. (I still admire her figure.) Little did I know, that in later years she would suffer so badly from Osteoporis. She lived to be 85 but especially the last five years of her life she was so bent over. She had to stand over her snack bar in her Apt. to eat because she couldn't swallow when she was sitting down. Even at that, she was able to live by herself in an apt. until her last bad fall. I always went to see her twice a day and took her to the doctor and took her shopping every Friday. I had really wonderful parents. They were just so good to my sister and me.

This is a picture from my surprise 80th Birthday from October 2007. These are my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and my dear husband, Clayton who passed away in May of 2008.

Here I am starting something new in my life. At my age, when I get this all figured out I will try to put some past pictures on as well as things that are now going on in my life. Kent and Debbie and I went to Las Vegas the 10th of January for the weekend. I am going to see if I can get a picture from Kent to put on my blog.