Richard Thomas Memories

World War II ended while we lived here and I remember the night we heard the news on the radio, my dad got out his old shot gun and fired it two times in the air.  We could hear people going to town honking their horns so we got in the car and also went to town where we found people driving up and down main street honking their horns and yelling at each other.  Every one was so happy that the war was over.  My brother Bernarde had just gone into the army and was soon shipped overseas to Japan as part of the occupation force. 

PHOTO: Bernarde's 17th birthday, August 1944

L-R: Richard, Bernarde, Robert Goodrich, John Robertson, Russell Kime, Roy 'Bud' Davis, Bill Galbreath

Richard Thomas Memories

WAR TIME RATIONING

 During the war everything was rationed - gas, tires, sugar, meat and most other things. Everyone with an automobile was given an “A” sticker and a book of ration stamps. An “A” stamp was good for three gallons of gas a week.  If you needed your automobile for work, you could apply for a “C” ration and if you were a student who needed to drive to school you could apply for a “B” ration.

PHOTO: I don't know who this is, but this photo was among my dad's pictures. The gas station is the Crystal Flash, in Hartford, Michigan.

Richard Thomas Memories

WORLD WAR II

One of the memories of my childhood was during World War II, when the Hartford fair grounds was a prisoner of war camp. I remember going down to the fair grounds and watching the prisoners and the American guards in the guard towers on the corners. I was amazed and somewhat scared because the prisoners had their German uniforms on.

* * *

PHOTO: Hartford, Michigan. The racetrack was the site of the annual Van Buren County Fair. This is where the POW camp was established during WWII.

I wasn't able to find any pictures specifically from the Hartford POW camp, but here are some pictures that I got from the internet of WWII POW camps in Michigan.

And here is a link to an article about the camps --

https://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/birmingham/2021/11/25/michigan-history-state-home-6-000-pows-during-wwii/8746866002/

Alan Kessler

On this day in 1954, Alan Kessler was dragged kicking and screaming into this world.

(He didn't know it, but he was brought here just for me.)

He doesn't even know I have some of these pictures.

Richard Thomas Memories

WILLYS CAR

We had an old Willys car. I remember that in the center of the steering wheel was a button about 2” around, and if you pushed it the horn would blow, if you turned it the head lights would come on, and if you pulled out on it the car started. 

PHOTO: I have no idea if this is the Willys car or not. But it's a cute picture of Richard and his dog.

Richard Thomas Memories

Boots the dog

PHOTO: Boots

I remember the time that mother and I went to town to get some feed for our cow at Makilies Coal and Feed Store, we took our little dog Boots with us. Later that evening we noticed that Boots was nowhere to be found so we decided we would go down to the feed store and look for her. As we stopped the car, dad called for her and here she came running. I sure was glad to see her. We went from there to Bangor because Uncle George was dying.  

PHOTO: George Adams

George Adams was the husband of Kate Ford Adams. 

Kate was a sister of Nancy Ford Thomas (Richard's grandmother).

PHOTO L-R: George Adams, Christie Thomas, Richard Thomas in front of Bill Thomas, Kate Adams (front), Harry Wieland, "Mabel and Bill" -- I don't know who Mabel and Bill are, possibly related to Harry Wieland. Harry was the husband of Bill's sister Effie Thomas (not in the photo -- she probably took the picture).

Richard Thomas Memories

HUNTING DOG

We had a good hunting dog but he was kind of unusual because when he was hunting alone and was on the other side of the railroad tracks and a train was coming he would head for home. One time he didn’t make it and was killed by the train. 

This is a picture of my grandfather, Bill Thomas, with his truck and his dog. I have pictures of several different dogs with my dad, so I don't know for sure which one he's talking about in this anecdote.

I found this picture recently that I didn't remember ever seeing before. It's somewhat the worse for wear, but my efforts to fix the wrinkles just made it worse, so...

Richard Thomas Memories

 FLOUR SACKING

My cousin Ralph recently reminded me of the time he and I went flour sacking.  This is when you would fill an old flour sack with straw, and tie a string to it and lay it on the shoulder of the road.  Of course this was when we lived in the country. Back then a lot of the older cars had fenders and there was a space between the fender and the hood, and people would lay their sack of flour on the fender. Well we would lay the flour sack along side of the road, lay the string from the flour sack to the ditch or a bush, something to hide us. We would then cover the string with dirt and wait for someone to stop to pick up the flour sack. Just as they were about to pick it up we would pull the string and the flour sack would jump away and that would scare the people. Most of the time the people would laugh but some times the people would get real mad and cuss us out. My brother Bernarde and some of his friends also did this years before we did. 

* * *

Here is an article from Bud Davis' column in the Tri-City Record newspaper.

PHOTO: Bud Davis is 2nd from right. This picture was taken on Bernarde's 17th birthday. Bernarde is 2nd from left. (The little guy in front of Bernarde is his little brother Richard -- my dad.) The other guys (L-R) are Robert Goodrich, John Robertson, Russell Kime, and Bill Galbreath. The adults in the background are my grandparents, Christie and Bill Thomas.

* * *

If you can't read the print in the newspaper article, here's the transcript:

Flour Sacking!

 

What a strange title!  I am not referring to the cloth feed sacks that grain used to come in and were used for making ladies’ and girls’ dresses back in the day.  No, I am talking about an adventure called “flour sacking” in which we used to indulge back then.  We were kids… studying for the gallows.  In other words, up to no good!  Our pranks were not really malicious, but we had this “game” we used to play.  We needed a place that was sort of country, with a cornfield that came right up to the road. Best to have a place that was not heavily traveled, because we needed time to get set and have all the arrangements completed.  We also needed a 25-lb. paper flour sack…Gold Medal, Pillsbury, or whatever.  Just so it was empty and looked new.  Our folks always saved those sacks for later use, so that was no problem.  And we needed about 50-100 ft. of binder twine. This was stout cord of a neutral color, which was also necessary for camouflaging.  Fortunately, we had such a place and situation that was ideal!  One of my friends, Bernarde Thomas, lived at the end of Linden Street, about two blocks east of our greenhouses.  On that same street lived Jim Tollar and Bill Galbreath.  Russell Kime lived out north, but often came into town for the day.  They were all part of our “flour sacking” gang.  Now, at the end of Linden, the north-south street ran from Main Street out into the country past Simpson’s woods.  This was where Bernarde lived.  It was at the edge of town; and they had a spacious, shady yard… just the right size to set up for a game of croquet.  It sounds like an innocent game… but can be played with malice.  We used to delight in getting a position so we could knock another player’s croquet ball clear out of the field!  On a summer day one of our gang did that to Bernarde’s Mom… too many times.  She chased him right out of their yard, threatening dire consequences!  And just south of their place was located an ideal spot for flour sacking… a cornfield that came right up to the gravel road.  We could set up our little scam; and when it was completed, melt way back in the corn… farther than any irate motorist would chase us.  Besides, we were all fast runners… and the fear of being caught lent wings to our feet!  We filled the flour sack with hay, straw, or something light.  Then we tied the opening shut with the end of our long length of binder twine.  We placed the pristine, apparently full, flour sack on the edge of the road.  Using all the skill we could muster, we covered the twine carefully with gravel and sand back into the cornfield.  And… gripping firmly the other end of the string, we settled down to await a victim.  Hot summer day, quiet country road… and there was a full flour sack, lying right where it had fallen off some unsuspecting farmer’s truck!  Who could resist such a freebie!  And we waited and waited… giggling, and occasionally looking up and down the road to spot an approaching motorist.  Then here came one… a farmer in a black Ford (was there any other color?).  He came roaring along the dusty road, spotted the innocent-looking flour sack, and shortly thereafter stepped on the brakes.  Meanwhile, we reeled in the sack and retreated farther into the corn, trying to stifle our laughter.  The farmer backed up… way past where we were.  He came along slowly past, then backed up again.  A few times the victim got out, looked up and down the road.  Then scratching his head, he shook it, as if he couldn’t believe what he had seen, and got back in his car to drive off.

 One time when Bernarde was holding the string, he got to laughing so hard the farmer got out of his car, reached down and scooped up the sack before he could reel in the line. Bernarde snatched it right out of his hands and everyone ran off into the cornrows, dragging the flour sack behind.  The guy was so spooked he jumped back in his car and roared out of sight.  I’ll bet when he got home, he walked into the kitchen, sat down, and said to his wife, “You aren’t going to believe what happened to me today!”  Then tragedy struck.  One man came along, saw the innocent-looking sack, and had evidently been taken in before.  He swerved over, hit the sack with his front tire, so that sack and straw exploded all over the road.  Then he went roaring down the road… probably laughing his head off at how he had fixed those durned kids!  That was a million years ago… and it was just yesterday.  I can smell the hot cornfields, the dusty country road, and feel summer sun on my back from those days.  Russell and Bernarde have both slipped into the shadowed part of the Great Circle of Life: They each served our country:  Russell went into WWII about the same time I did.  He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was wounded, and decorated.  After the war, he married a classmate of mine, Joyce Goodrich; and they lived their lives in St. Joe.  Bernarde, a little younger, went into service after we got home.  We saw him off on the train and met him again when he came home two years later.  He became a heavy equipment operator, married Eileen Rice; and they lived their lives over near Decatur.

 

Tri-City Record, April 9, 2009 Watervliet, Michigan

Richard Thomas Memories

Hitchhiking to Ralph's

PHOTO: Bernarde, Richard, Bill 

(and Boots the dog)

When I was 10 or 12 years old I would hitchhike from Hartford to Ralph's over by South Haven. Most of the people that came along knew me so I would get picked up but some times the rides were short.  I always had to walk from the Jericho store to where Ralph lived, about 2 miles. 

Richard Thomas Memories

Silver Beach

One summer Ralph and I  took the train to St. Joseph where the Silver Beach Amusement Park was and went on all the rides. We each had $2.50 to eat on and ride the rides and it was enough. 

PHOTO: Silver Beach postcard

PHOTO: Chesapeake & Ohio passenger train

(This is an older picture, but the trains looked just about the same as this at the time Richard and Ralph rode it to Silver Beach.)

PHOTO: Bangor kindergarten teacher Kathryn Linman taking her class for a train ride. The kindergarten classes did this every year. (This would have been in the 1950s.)

PHOTO: Chessie pin that was given to each one of the children on the train ride.

Richard Thomas Memories

My Cousin Ralph

My cousin Ralph lived with us a lot in the summer time and one year when the fair was on we walked down the rail road tracks to the fair grounds and jumped the back fence to get in the fair. We spent the day there and walked home that evening the same way.  

PHOTO L-R: Ray Treat, Christie and Bill Thomas, Ralph Till, Massie Treat, John Treat, Bernarde Thomas, Mabel Treat, Richard Thomas.

Massie Treat was my great-grandmother. She was the mother of Christie, Ray, and John in this photo. Mabel was John's wife. Bernarde and Richard were sons of Bill and Christie Thomas. Ralph was the son of Madge Till -- sister of Chris and Ray and John. (Madge is not in this picture.)

Richard Thomas Memories

MY COUSIN RALPH

This is also the place we lived when my cousin Ralph Till shot at me with the 410 shot gun. We were having an argument about something and he said he was going to shoot me, so I took off for the barn.  He waited until I had reached the barn before he shot and hit the barn door just after I went through it.  I remember lots of things about this place.

PHOTO: Ralph Till

Richard Thomas Memories

 HARTFORD HIGH SCHOOL

When we lived here I had to walk down our long drive way about ¼ of a mile to a paved road where I got the school bus to school in Hartford. This picture is how the school looked at that time. 

Richard Thomas Memories

Hudson Terraplane

For some reason, Aunt Renue and Uncle Erwin were staying with us. They had just purchased a new Hudson Terraplane car, but it came without the front and rear bumpers.  This was right after the war and the car factories were changing back from making war supplies and this was one of the first cars made after the war.  The dealer told them that as soon as the bumpers came in they would put them on for them.  I believe that Hudson came without a spare tire, but I’m not sure.

Richard Thomas Memories

When I was about nine or ten years old.  I remember going to Olds grocery store for our groceries. Mom had a list and would give it to the clerk, usually one of the Olds brothers, and they would get what ever was on the list, bag it and take it to our car.  

PHOTOS: Olds' grocery store

Hartford, Michigan

Richard Thomas Memories

 I remember lots of things about this place. One was the time I almost fell off the wind mill, I was playing with a handkerchief made like a parachute so I thought I would climb to the top of our wind mill and throw it up from there and it would go a long way. Well when  I was in the process of this I almost fell off the windmill. This scares me to tell this now.  

Richard Thomas Memories

 One time when my dad and I were getting some corn stalks from the field to the barn to feed the cows, a field mouse ran up my dad’s pant leg. My dad always wore bib overalls, and I remember Dad grabbing his overalls in the chest area catching the mouse and squeezing it until it was dead.  

Richard Thomas Memories

 I got my first shot gun here. It was a 44 caliber rifle bored out to a 410 caliber shot gun (single shot).  I got it from my cousin Ralph Till when he got a new one.  The first time I went hunting I got a pheasant.  I was in the corn field and saw the pheasant running down the corn row ahead of me so I ran after it.  When it took off I shot just as it was at the top of the corn stalks.

Richard Thomas Memories

 THE STRAIGHT FARM

When we lived here we only had an outside toilet,  It was OK in the summer time, but in the winter it was not so nice going through the snow, and the wind would sometimes blow through the cracks in the door and make little snow drifts.  I remember when my dad made a small room on the back porch and put in a toilet stool. but no running water so we had to carry water to flush with. This room had no heat but it was better than going out side.  I took my bath in a wash tub in the kitchen because it was the warmest room in the house and that was not the best sometimes.  We had a wood burning stove in the kitchen and a coal burning pot bellied stove in the living room and they would heat the whole house. We would close off any room that was not needed.  When my mother would build a fire she would put some fuel oil on the kindling and sometimes we would have a small explosion, and sometimes she would get that pot bellied stove red hot getting the house warmed up.  

Richard Thomas Memories

 THE GREAT TRAIN ESCAPE

One time when I was about 10 or 12 years old Dale Swinford and I were out at the railroad trestle north of Hartford throwing rocks down at the turtles in the mill pond. For some reason we did not notice that a train was coming and when we did see it we started for the end of the trestle but did not have time to get there. At the very last second we swung over the side and were hanging on the railroad ties. It was so close that the train men thought they had hit us and stopped the train.  With the train stopped we could not get back up on the tracks so we hand over handed to the end of the trestle and hid.  The train people told people in town that they hit some kids playing on the trestle and they came looking for us. Later we came out of hiding and acted like we were looking too.  Dale and I vowed never to tell anyone.  Years later, after I was married, one day I told Mom and Dad, and Mother remembered that day. 

Richard Thomas Memories

THE BRIDGE

While we lived there us kids would go out north of Hartford to the mill pond and go swimming at the bridge.  We would ride our bicycles out to the bridge and ride them off the end of the dock into the water.  After we were through swimming we would dive down to the bottom and get our bicycles.  I could dive off the cross bars of the bridge about 15 feet from the water but some of the older kids (I was about 10 or 11 years old) could dive off the top of the bridge about 30 feet to the water. The current was so strong and I was so small I couldn’t swim up stream so I would swim down stream until got to shore and would walk back up the road to the bridge.

Richard Thomas Memories

REFRIGERATOR

This is where we lived when we got our first refrigerator.  Up until then we always had an icebox and had ice delivered. It had legs of about 12 “high and the box was about 24” X 24” x 36 “ high with a round compressor unit on the top.  

Richard Thomas Memoirs

HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY

This house was on the west side of Hartford, Michigan about across from where Galati’s Pizza is now.  This house only had one bedroom so my father closed in the front porch and that’s where Bernarde and I slept. 

I call this place “the house by the cemetery” because it was across from the cemetery.  One night I was walking home from a scary movie and when I got at the cemetery gate opening someone said something and I looked and saw two ghosts! But it was two of the Yeats girls with white blouses cutting through the cemetery on their way to town.

One night I was coming home from a movie in the rain on my bicycle and hit a light pole on the corner by the cemetery and almost fell in front of a semi truck. It was a close call. 

PHOTO: Richard (front), Bernarde, Bill, Christie

Richard Thomas Memoirs

PHOTO: Richard Thomas

When dad would milk the cows he would take the milk to the basement and run it though our cream separator so my mother would have cream to churn into butter.  We also raised a big garden and mother canned.

I remember one time around Christmas my father came home from work and started to take off his boots on the back porch and fell down in the process.  It seems that they had a few drinks after work celebrating Christmas.  Well, after he fell down he said to himself, “Well then I will take you off sitting down”.  I never remember seeing my father take a drink.

To Clarify

 Okay, it seems like it might be confusing for me to be jumping around from one branch of the family to another. So I guess I'll try to be more consistent and stick with one subject at a time. Since my last post was about my dad's family, I'll stick with it for a while until I come to the end of excerpts from that book (Secret and Resolute). Then I'll switch to one of the other books (When We Were Irish) and go through it consistently before I move on to the other book (The Woods Is Full of 'Em).

Then I'll switch to one of the other books (When We Were Irish) and go through it consistently before I move on to the other book (The Woods Is Full of 'Em).

Mrs. Kime

Richard Thomas' memories...

Another one of my childhood adventures was when we lived down the road from Mr. & Mrs. Kime, I was five or six years old.  We had an old gray horse back then, so I would go out in the barn yard and get this old horse by the soft spots in his nose and lead him into the barn so I could stand on the manger to bridle him. Then I would lead him out to the wagon and I would walk up the tongue of the wagon, leaning on the horse until I was on the wagon, then I would get on the horse and go up the road to Mrs. Kime's place, about half a mile. I could get off OK but when I got ready to go home Mrs. Kime would help me get back on the horse. The old horse would start for home and sometimes I would lay down on his back and he would take me home.

PHOTO: Ethel Kime

This is also the place that the bees got us.  We were cultivating the garden using the old gray horse to pull the cultivator.  I was riding the horse when all of a sudden we were in a nest of bees.  Well.... I jumped off the horse and took off running.  Bernarde took off in the other direction and we forgot the old gray horse.  Well, you know the bees didn't seem to bother that horse.  I don't remember if Bernarde or Dad went back for the old gray horse. 

* * *

I don't think I've had occasion before now to post pictures of Ethel Kime. (By the time I came along, we called her "Grandma Kime"). 

PHOTO: Ethel Kime, Christie Thomas (my grandmother), Edith Davis.

These three women were the mothers of three of the young men in the picture below, which was taken on Bernarde Thomas' 17th birthday. (Bernarde was my dad's brother.)

PHOTO L-R: Richard Thomas, Bernarde Thomas, Bob Goodrich, Christie Thomas, John Robertson, Bill Thomas (my grandfather), Russell Kime, Roy "Bud" Davis, Bill Galbraith.

Russell Kime was the son of Ethel Kime. Bud Davis was the son of Edith Davis.

Here is the last picture I have of Grandma Kime. This would have been about 1974. She lived to be 98 years old -- born in 1889, died 1988.

Nicholas Gibson

Probably the 2nd most famous of our Burford/Gibson/Gard ancestors, Nicholas Gibson was the son of John Gibson (see previous post). There are a plethora of articles on the internet about Nicholas Gibson, and they all differ in many important details, starting with his date of birth. Nicholas Gibson's date of birth is sometimes stated to have been 08 May 1777, but it is recorded elsewhere (including his tombstone) as 1765. I favor this earlier date for several reasons. First, his mother, Anne Gibson, daughter of Chief Shikellamy, was killed at the Yellow Creek Massacre, which took place in April of 1774. 

Secondly, Nicholas Gibson is said to have been captured by Indians when he was eight years old. If he was born in 1765, he would have been 8 years old at the time of the Yellow Creek Massacre, which would be the probable occasion of his abduction. (One source stated that he was sold back to white settlers at age 16, for the price of a barrel of whiskey.) There is some doubt as to whether this story is true or not. Many supposedly legitimate documentations of Nicholas Gibson's life do not include the story of his abduction at all. (And, as previously mentioned, many "reliable" sources insist he was not even born at the time of the Yellow Creek Massacre.)

Lastly, Nicholas served in the Revolutionary War as a private in the Virginia Militia. If he had been born in 1777, he would have been too young to serve in that war.

So... make of that what you will.

* * *

Nicholas married Lydia Sink in 1795 and they had 11 children, one of whom was James W. Gibson, the father of Smith Gibson. Smith Gibson was the father of Asa Gibson. Asa Gibson married Adaline Lucretia Gard and was the father of my great grandmother, Lora Gibson Burford.

PHOTO: Nicholas Gibson and Lydia Sink Gibson

I don't have a picture of James Wilson Gibson.

PHOTO: Smith Gibson and his 2nd wife Emily Stanley (front), Asa Gibson and his wife Lucretia Adaline Gard Gibson (back)

PHOTO: Lora Gibson Burford and Alexander Oscar Burford

My Third Birthday

Memories of Cleffie Hicks Burford --

My Third Birthday

The first thing I remember as a child is the day I turned three years old.  It was the eighth day of August, 1920.    

When I got out of bed that morning I went into the living room but no one was there.  I walked on into the kitchen and there was my mother stirring something in a bowl.  My two sisters, Ruby, age eight, and Irene, age 5, were sitting at the table watching.  Of course, they couldn’t wait to tell me it was my birthday and that I was “three” years old!  They were all excited!     

I asked what was in the bowl my mother was stirring.  When they explained that it was my birthday cake she was making I got excited, too.  When they told me all the plans for the day I got more excited and by the time they had finished I felt as though I was at least a foot taller        

I don’t remember much of anything else that happened that year, but this was my birthday and that made it an important day!  (At least that’s the impression I got from my sisters.)  All the plans for the day were centered around my birthday.  All this just for me!  It must be an important day!        

We lived in the country during this period of my life.  Our closest neighbors lived about three hundred yards down the road.  They had a girl named Mae and a boy named Gilbert. Their last name was  Rudolph.  I remember walking with Ruby and Irene down to their house to invite them over to our house in the afternoon to help celebrate my birthday.  I was walking on air as I skipped along the path by the garden fence, Ruby in front of me and Irene behind.        

I don’t remember if there were other children who lived in the neighborhood or not.  If there were, I’m sure they were invited, too.  But I don’t remember of any other houses that were close to us except a little house across on the other side of the road about a hundred yards down that sat empty a lot of the time.  Sometimes a family would move into it and stay awhile and then move somewhere else.  Also, there was a big house across from the Rudolphs.  The Leggett’s lived there and I believe they had a child or two at that time.        

Even though I can’t remember all the little details, I do remember how I felt.  It was one of the happiest days of my life, and whatever else we had to eat that day, I’m sure one thing was good cold watermelon.  We had a big patch of watermelons and we dearly loved to eat them. My father would cool them in a big tub of cold well water for a few hours.  Well water is lots colder than water from the tap that we have now-a-days.

PHOTO L-R: Ruby, Irene, Cleffie, Elvin, Evalee

This picture was taken somewhere around 1923 (Evalee was born in March 1922). I have several copies of this photo, and on the back of one of them is written "we had been eating watermelon."