Davenport, Iowa, Lebanon, Missouri
Mom’s parents were Murrell and Lura Thomas of Davenport, Iowa. Grandpa worked at the Oscar Mayer meatpacking plant. He worked in the fertilizer department where large vats of animal parts were cooked down to turn them into fertilizer.
One time a vat came loose and spilled the boiling hot liquid all over Grandpa’s arms and hands. A lot of the skin and flesh came off, and the doctor said he would never work again. But as soon as he could, he went back to work. Grandpa worked there for 50 years.
They lived just down the street from the main plant. Grandpa walked to work every day. Once he let us walk with him so we could see the first wiener-mobile when it was introduced. This was a vehicle that was in the shape of a hot dog on a bun. It had the company logo on the side and went around the country advertising Oscar Mayer hot dogs. It played a song that became popular in the ’50s. (Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Myer Wiener that is what I really want to be. For if I was an Oscar Mayer wiener, everyone would be in love with me.) I sure wish I had kept some of those wiener-mobile whistles that they gave out! They are worth a lot of money now.
Grandpa loved to fish and we spent many weekends down at the levee on the Mississippi River. He would catch huge carp fish that Grandma would cook. She had a long roasting pan that a whole fish would fit in then she would cover it with yellow mustard and catsup and bake it for a long time. Some people don’t eat carp saying it is a scavenger fish but grandpa said we couldn’t be picky. To eat what the Lord provided and thank Him for it. I can still hear him say, “Watch for bones now.”
He also liked to go to the city dump. He would take a carload of us kids in his Nash Rambler and go treasure hunting. He could build almost anything you wanted out of stuff he got from the dump. He had a shed out back of his house that was filled with things he found at the dump. If grandma or one of us kids wanted something that he could make he would go to the shed and pretty soon come back with it.
Grandpa was what they call a little person. He was only 4 feet 9 inches tall, and he wore little kids’ clothes and shoes. He liked engineer boots when they came out for kids because he said they made him look grown-up. (Mom was only 4’10’’ and wore a size 3 shoe. She and Grandpa would buy the salesman samples of clothes so they wouldn’t look like little kids.) He attached blocks of wood to the foot pedals of his Nash automobile so he could reach them. In those days you figured out ways to make things work for you not just buy everything. It was called making do with what you had until you could get better. This is another skill that has helped me along life’s path.
Grandma had a bad case of Type 1 diabetes which kept her from going out much. She had taken insulin since she was young. She always had to watch her diet and any cut or bruise would take a long time to heal. She did a lot of sewing by hand and taught me how to quilt. We made quilts out of clothes that we couldn’t wear anymore. The first one I made by myself was a 9 square for my doll. You cut out 2-inch squares of fabric then sewed 9 squares together to form a square, then sewed the big squares together until you had the size you wanted. When you got the top done it would be joined to a solid bottom piece of fabric with a layer of batting between and tied together so it would be like a blanket. To tie the layers together we would be put on the layers of fabric a quilt rack that held them flat and straight. Then the layers would be sewn together with pieces of yarn. It was my job to set on the floor under the quilt rack and when grandma would push the nettle through the layers I would pull it down and push it back to the top layer. She made doll dresses out of milk filters that looked like ball gowns. They were beautiful and were meant to be set in the middle of a bed.
On some Saturday mornings, grandma and I would get all dressed up and take the bus downtown to window shop, as she called it. And sometimes we went to the Times Cafeteria for lunch. She showed me how a lady dressed and acted in public.
We lived just down the block from her. When I was eight, I would stop in on my way to school and make sure she had the right amount of insulin in her syringe. After her eyes got too bad for her to fill the syringe I filled it, then when she couldn’t give herself the shot I started doing that too. One time I made her skin bruise as soon as I gave her the shot and thought I had killed her. But she told me that happened a lot. It was from all the years of shots. She spent a lot of time in a wheelchair because the least little scrape wouldn’t heal and she had big sores on her legs. She had a little Pekingese dog named Funny Face that rode on her lap all the time.
But her sickness didn’t stop her from going camping with the family. They had a cabin out on the Wapello River, and we spent many summer vacations out there. Dad would put a lawn chair in the boat so she could go out on the water. That was one of her favorite things to do besides watching us cousins play. There were 14 of us, and she would make up games for us. Those were some of the best summers I can remember.
When mom and dad moved to southern Missouri my grandparents moved also so we could help take care of grandma. I think I got my interest in healthcare from those times. I learned early that taking care of the sick was part of life; you accepted your part and did it to the best of your ability.
I regret that my children never got to know my grandparents. They all passed away by the time I had children, it is like something is missing in our family lifeline. I hope that my telling these stories will somehow connect them to the great line of people that they come from. I think everyone should write down stories from their childhood so future generations have something to remember. Do your children know about those who came before them?
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