Christie's Diary

 

27 Feb 

Mell & Alta & Effie were here for supper 27 February talked with her her once in 2 wks time

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Effie was my grandfather's sister.

PHOTO: Bill Thomas and Effie Thomas Wieland

Aunt Effie lived in Bangor when I was a young child. (We lived in Bangor at that time, also.) Her house was on my way to school, and sometimes she would invite me to stop at her house after school or come to visit her on the weekend. We played Parcheesi and I remember having fresh peaches with cream at least once at her house. She had a box full of wooden blocks that I liked to play with. Aunt Effie and Uncle Harry never had children of their own, but they raised a nephew -- Allan Miller -- whose mother died shortly after his birth. (Allan was already grown and gone by the time I came along.) I don't remember Uncle Harry. I think he died before I was born.

PHOTO: Aunt Effie holding me. 1955

Christie's Diary

1959

Jan 25 Mells got home from California Sunday Jan 25th went to Mells for supper & see pictures of their trip Sat nite Jan 31th our check was delayed because of no money till Sat Jan 31th county. Beautiful Sunday day Sunday Feb 1th

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I can't make heads or tails out of this entry. 

"Mells" refers to my grandfather's brother, Mel, and his wife Alta.

PHOTO: Nancy Thomas, Vickie Hills, Jerry Hills, Mel and Alta Thomas

Jerry is Mel & Alta's daughter, married to Bert Hills. Vickie is Jerry's daughter.

Nancy is Mel & Alta's granddaughter (Roger's daughter). 

Better late than never...

 I just realized that I didn't provide a picture of Christie when I started posting her diary entries. Here are a few pictures of her at different stages of her life...

PHOTO: Christie and her sister Madge in a school class picture. This was somewhere around 1910.

PHOTO: Bill and Christie

PHOTO: Taken around 1944

PHOTO: Bernarde and Richard (my dad), Bill and Christie

This is how I remember her from my childhood.

Taken in the kitchen doorway of their house in Bangor. I'm pretty sure this would have been in the early 1970s. She died in 1978, age 74.

Christie's Diary

 

1959

Jan 21 snowed about 4 inches snow & sleeted it was awful bad weather. we took bedding over to Laure to have washed & dryed & it snowed 2 inches in half hour we could hardly see coming home

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Laure (pronounced 'La-REE') Hafer ran a laundry service -- or at least she had heavy duty washer(s) and dryer(s) in her home. I don't remember exactly. She was the daughter of Ethel Kime and lived next door to her in Hartford. Mrs. Kime was a friend of my dad's family when he was a child. Her son Russell was a friend of dad's brother Bernarde. When I was in 2nd grade we lived next door to the Hafers for half of the school year. The Hafers (Chuck and Laure) had two sons, Chuckie and Larry. Larry was near the same age as me, and Chuckie was a few years older. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Laure Hafer. I have pictures of her mother, Ethel Kime.

PHOTO: Ethel Kime

in front of Grandma & Grandpa Thomas' house

PHOTO: Ethel Kime, Christie Thomas, Edith Davis (maybe -- I'm not sure if this is Mrs. Davis or someone else). This picture was taken in the living room of Grandma (Christie) Thomas' house in Bangor, Michigan.

PHOTO: Marion and Bud Davis, Bernarde Thomas, Wilma Davis, John Robertson, Russell Kime 1944

(Bud was Edith Davis' son, Marion was his wife. Wilma Davis was Bud's sister, John Robertson and Russell Kime were friends of Bud and Bernarde -- Russell was Ethel Kime's son.)

This photo appeared in Bud Davis' newspaper column. He wrote a touching tribute to Uncle Bernarde shortly after Bernarde's death in 1999.

Christie's Diary

Jan 1959 (page 196)

first paragraph too faded to read

Jan 17 Bill had to work because of snow storm the 18th & snowed about 8 inches Sunday nite again. Plowed snow again the 19th on Monday.

Jan 18 Richard had to go to Guards on Sunday. Wathada & children came out stayed with me. Dianne stayed all nite.

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Grandpa (Bill) worked for the Van Buren County Road Commission. I don't know what his job was in the summer time, but he drove a snow plow in the winter. I remember staying at their house and Grandma would get up about 3:00 in the morning and cook him a big breakfast -- eggs and bacon, toast, oatmeal, orange juice, and coffee (enough to drink and then fill his thermos). She would see him off to work, and then she would go back to bed for a couple hours.

My dad (Richard) was in the National Guard. He had to go to training once a week (I think) and to camp two weeks every summer. At the time Grandma wrote this entry I was 4 years old and Rick was two.

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I don't know why Grandma started this diary on page 196 of the ledger book. Most of the entries are closer to the front of the book. It was very sporadic.

* * *

PHOTO: Bill Thomas receiving some kind of recognition from Van Buren County Road Commission.

I don't know how many years he worked for them. I'm guessing this picture was taken some time in the 1950s -- this is exactly how Grandpa looked as I remember him from my early childhood. He was 55 years old when I was born.

Christie's Diary

One of the keepsakes that came to me along with all the family photos and other memorabilia was a ledger book that was only occasionally used for that purpose. It was also occasionally used for a diary by my grandmother, Christie Thomas. It was too big to fit on the scanner, so I took pictures of the pages as best I could. Sometimes I couldn't figure out the date or the year in which each entry was written, but I think I have them in some semblance of order. I believe this was the first entry she wrote, in 1959. (At the top of the page it looks like she wrote 1954, but their 35th anniversary, as well as LaVern's crane sinking in the lake, happened in 1959.) 

The children gave Bill & I for our 35th anniversary a pull down light fixture & they gave us a nice turkey dinner at Bernarde's house at Decatur. Then after dinner to see LaVern's crane that had sunk in Rush Lake. The Mell & Alta came out in the evening & brought us a card & a box of candy.

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"The children" would be my dad, Richard, and his older brother Bernarde.

PHOTO: Our family in 1959

PHOTO: Bernarde & Eileen's family in 1959

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This is a newspaper article about LaVern's crane sinking in Rush Lake. LaVern was Aunt Eileen's brother. Bernarde worked with him doing excavation before he started his own excavation company. 

"SLOW CRANE TO CHINA: China is just where this 49,000 pound mechanical monster seemed to be heading after it slipped off a timber "pad" Saturday noon and oozed 10 to 12 feet into a bog on Rush lake north of Hartford. Crane operator, Russ Hinckley, of Hartford, jumped clear as the $35,000 crane slipped into the muck. Only cables are keeping it from sinking out of sight. Two winch trucks, another dragline crane and several pieces of earth-moving equipment were unable to budge the behemoth. By this morning owner LaVern Rice (soaked nearly to the waist in the frigid water) still hadn't pulled his crane free. The crane was dredging a boat channel on the George Williams property when the accident happened. (News-Palladium photo)"

Taken Sunday the 19th of April - 59

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Mel and Alta were Grandpa's brother and his wife.

PHOTO L-R: Alta, Grandpa, Mel

I'm not sure who the other people are.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Microsoft Word seems to have lost its tiny mind, so I'm having trouble preparing anything to post today. I hope this is a temporary glitch that started with the last "update" to the program. As usual, when they thought they were fixing some things, they were actually breaking some other things that had been working just fine. 

So... stay tuned, I guess.

Richard Thomas Memories

I guess I should have posted this a couple days ago...

50 YEARS OF MARRIAGE

On September 12th 1953 I married Wathada Burford in Hartford, Michigan and set up housekeeping in a one bedroom apartment in Bangor, Michigan. Fourteen months later we started our family. First was Dianne; two years later was Rick, and eight years later was John. 

I started to work in the die casting industry also in 1953 at Du-Wel Metal Products in Bangor and worked for them for twenty one years. During that time we lived in several places in Hartford, Watervliet and Bangor. In 1976 we moved to North Carolina, and I worked for Southern Die Cast. Wathada worked for Alderman Studios. 

We only stayed in North Carolina for two years and then moved back to Michigan for six months; then we moved to southern California where I worked for Die Cast Products until my retirement in 1996. While in California Wathada worked for the State of California at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California, until her retirement in 1997.

On September 12th 2003 we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in Watervliet, Michigan, where we retired to. All our children were home for a week to help us celebrate. We were presented with a picture in a gold frame that said “50 years of marriage & all we have to show for it is” (over a picture of the three children) Dianne, Rick & John.

-- Richard Melvin Thomas

Photos: Red & Wathada, Rick, Dianne, John.

Watervliet, Michigan, September 2003 (taken by Alan Kessler)

Richard Thomas Memories

 ANTELOPE HUNT

We arrived at our hunting area two days before the opening day of the antelope season and with the county and topographic maps of the area I had sent for, we found the spot we wanted to camp at. We found the rancher and got written permission for access to camp and hunt the ranch. The next day we scouted the ranch for antelope, water holes, ridges, valleys, etc. That night we decided on our plan. 

The next morning before sun-up Wathada drove me to a ditch near a water hole for the cattle and antelope and then Wathada drove up to the top of the ridge and parked. From 6: 30 am until 11: 00 am I saw 10 to 20 antelope but all small. The largest horns were 8" to 10". In the meantime Wathada was watching 3 or 4 large herds (10 to 20 in each herd), in the valley the other side of ridge from me. 

When I got to the truck she told me all this and said that there was a big buck in the herd just up the valley near the ridge. We looked at them with our binoculars and saw the big buck with a good set of horns. I started my stalk down the back side of the ridge until I was within shooting range. As I looked over the ridge, the big buck had moved out in to the valley some. I missed him with my first shot and he only ran a few yards. I hit him in the rear hip with second shot and he began to turn around and around like a dog chasing his tail. When he stopped my third shot put him down. Wathada and I drove the pickup down to the antelope. After field dressing we loaded the antelope on to the hood of the truck and started for town to the butcher. On the way we were stopped by the Game Warden for inspection. The game warden told us the age of the antelope. The next day we picked up our meat and skin and went to the Taxidermy. He took our fresh meat and give us processed meat. He also told me that if the prongs were longer this antelope would have made Boone and Crockett.

PHOTO: The room in Red & Wathada's house in Downey, California, that we called the "head room" where all of his trophies were displayed. It was also Wathada's library.

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Here is a link to an article that explains Boone & Crockett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boone_and_Crockett_Club

Richard Thomas Memories

BLACK BEAR HUNT

I had contracted a guide from Colorado with his hunting dogs. They had some people from Michigan that had been hunting mountain lions in Colorado and came to California to hunt black bear, When I got there the hunters from Michigan were on their last day and no bear. They were hunting on the east side of the Sequoia National Forest. When my turn came we decided to try the west side and went to the town of Porterville, California and my guide hired a local guide (Stormy). I later used him for a bobcat and mountain quail hunt. 

We were road hunting with four wheel drive 4x4 trucks working our way up the mountainside with the two best dogs on top sniffing the air for the scent of bear. This was our third day out but my first day alone with the guides. We soon reached the snow line and the big pine trees. We saw some old tracks but no fresh tracks. Soon we saw this large track and stopped to look. After some discussion between the guides (I had three) they agreed to put the best three dogs out. They thought the track was 12 to 24 hours old. But the bear in this area don’t range far. 

PHOTO: Bear tracks

We sat and listened to the dogs. In about 15 or 20 minutes we could tell that they were coming back down the mountain. We jumped in the truck and drove up the road approximately a quarter of a mile and as we rounded a bend in the road we saw the dogs cross the road about 50 yards ahead. We drove to where they crossed and got out to look at the tracks in the snow. That bear track looked the size of a grizzly bear track to me (haha). In 10 to 15 minutes we heard the dogs barking like they do when they have treed a bear (these same dogs also hunt mountain lion). The two young guides took off running down the mountain toward the sound of the dogs. The older guide and I started to work our way down this very steep mountain. About a quarter of a mile down, we found the dogs, bear, and young guides saying, “Look up there.” About 60 feet up this big pine tree sat this bear looking down from time to time at us, feeling very safe. 

We took some pictures and got all the dogs tied up or someone holding them. Then they said, “He’s all yours, take him.” I loaded six rounds in the 44 mag, took good aim at his left front shoulder area and fired. To my surprise, I hit him in the left rear shoulder. This one hit. He made three quick jumps up the tree before I could fire my second shot. This one hit him in the upper middle of his back, breaking his spine and going on through to his heart. 

Down he comes, hitting the ground with a thud, and rolled into some logs in a sitting position. I ran up to within 20 feet, ready to finish him off if he attempted to get up. He acted like he was going to get up, so I shot him in the chest area. Later when we skinned him out is when we knew that last shot had not been necessary. However, they say to keep shooting until you know they are going to stay down. More pictures and the skinning begins. We quartered him out and seven of us took the hide and approximately 100 lbs. of meat back up the mountain. 

More pictures, and we loaded the dogs and found that one was missing. Of course, it was the best one. She was still wearing her tracking collar, so we started to drive in the direction of the strongest signal. About four miles later we came to the end of the road in a lot of snow and large Sequoia trees. The two young guides took the tracking instrument and hand held CBs and headed off through the snow and trees. After one hour we would blow the truck horn every 10 to 15 minutes. After one more hour we could pick them up on the CB. We kept blowing the truck horn now every five minutes. About 20 minutes later they were back to the truck with the dog. By now it was almost dark. They said that when they found the dog she was cold tracking a mountain lion. So back to town for a shower and a good dinner.