I have had a wonderful life. The sixty-seven years have just flown by and still are.
I think it's good to have to struggle and work for what you get. My family didn't have a lot of money, but they were all good, loving, hardworking, rural people with roots deep down in Kansas soil. I grew up in a very rural farm and ranching community, Maple Hill, Kansas. As I look back on it, we were probably about twenty years behind the times, maybe even more, but that's not always a bad thing.
I have seen a lot of change in my lifetime, and I suspect that my children and grandchildren will see even more. When I was a young boy, my father worked for ranchers and so we had both horses and cars. My children wouldn't be able to conceive of such a thing. Now my grandchildren have battery-powered play cars they can drive.
Change is good, but change is better if we have the opportunity to plan for it and ease into it. That isn't always the case. When my great great grandparents saw the sky turn black from the Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874, they didn't have a chance to plan. But neighbors banded together to help neighbors, and they somehow survived. When the skies turned black as the dust storms of the 1930s approached, my grandparents tacked wet sheets over the windows of their homes and tried to avoid the brown lung dust pneumonia. But there was no time for planning, you had to rely on basic survival instincts and also the cooperation of your family, friends and neighbors.
I was so fortunate to inherit those genes and they have benefited me throughout my life. I'm sure it sounds trite, but "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." I don't know what it feels like to be unemployed, because I was never without a job. During my lifetime, the workforce was ever increasing and upwardly mobile. In my profession, museum development, I was good at what I did so I was either able to apply for another job and move up, or I was recruited for a job because of my success.
This generation, and probably the next, exists in an entirely different environment. The economy has been in decline and is more than stagnant. The workforce as we knew it, is not only downwardly mobile but is no longer present. Millions of people have been trained in universities and technical schools for jobs that no longer exist. Middle class workers, both blue collar and white collar, have found themselves unemployed and unable to move to new jobs. People are struggling, but the ones that are able to survive, are the ones that have grown up watching their parents and grandparents and great grandparents never giving up and willing to put their shoulder to the plow. What wonderful examples of how to cope with life.
I was born on a cold, snowy day, November 16, 1944 at Christ's Hospital, which is today Stormont Vail Hospital, in Topeka, Kansas. I believe that I was the first baby in my family to have been born in a hospital. It was much more common to be born at home prior to the 1940s.
In 1992, my mother wrote these memories of my birth on the back of my birthday card:
"Happy Birthday my first born. I can't believe you are 48 years old, my dear, but time waits for no man---eh!! It was a snowy day when I went to Christ's Hospital in Topeka to deliver all 9 pounds and 11 ounces of you. Dad and I had spent the night in north Topeka, with Grandma Strong (Lucy May (Lemon) McCauley-Banta-Strong) and about 5pm I began to have labor pains. We drove Mom and Dad's (Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin-Clark) old Chevy to the Hospital, where you were delivered by Dr. Robert Pfuetze, who would later deliver Gary Wayne and your own children Nicholas and Amy. The nurses brought you to me and I said, "Is that my baby? He's so big!" You were dark complected and looked like a little papoose which is exactly what some of the nurses said. When they would bring you to nurse, they would say, "Here's Two Ton Tony and he's hungry!" I was in a room with a lady who had a little 5 pound boy and they called him "Cricket." We had fun and in those days we stayed in the hospital a lot longer. For 9 days, they wouldn't let me out of bed. After about 4 days they let me sit up and dangle my feet over the edge of the bed. I went home on the 12th day and Dad and I went to stay with Mom and Dad (Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin in the Adam's old stone house east of town. Everyone came to see you and brought you nice gifts. Bonnie and Charlie, Grandma and Grandpa Clark ( James Peter and Mable Rachel (Jones) Clark. That Thanksgiving, I was still in the hospital and both sets of your grandparents and Dad came and brought dinner to share with me."
I really don't know why or how Mom came under the care of Topeka's first Obstetrician, Dr. Robert Pfuetze, but she did. The entire field of obstetrics was new and he was also new to Topeka. He passed away in the 1980s, and I remember reading in his obituary that he delivered 30,000 babies over his career, and at least four of them were Clark's.
I weighed 9 pounds and 11 ounces---just a delicate little thing. Both my Mom and my future wife said if they had known about the size of babies in the Clark family they might have thought twice about marrying. My paternal aunt, Thelma Maree Clark, daughter of James Peter and Mable (Jones) Clark, weighed in at over 13 pounds and my father, John L. "Tim" Clark weighed 11 pounds and 6 ounces. I always wondered how my Grandmother Clark was able to have them naturally.
Mom said most of the time expectant mothers could count on being in delivery rooms 12 to 36 hours before babies were born, but I was more determined! A mere two hours after they arrived the nurses were telling Mom the baby would soon be here. Dr. Pfuetze arrived and I was born only a few minutes later. My parents brought me to the home of my maternal grandparents, Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin on the Franklin Adams Farm east of Maple Hill. The large stone house sat on top a high hill about three miles east of Maple Hill. My father, John L. "Tim" Clark was helping my Grandfather, Robert Corbin, pick about 600 acres of corn on the river bottom farm.
The stone house was already 60 years old, and Grandmother Corbin used to tell about how hard it was too keep the wood stoves "glowing" in order to keep the rooms above freezing in winter. Grandfather Corbin cut all of the firewood from the timber along the Kansas River. The house sat on a high hill and winter winds swept across the Kansas River Valley making it frigid in winter.
Grandmother Corbin and my mother said that I had a cold soon after they brought me home and they worried about my congestion and getting pneumonia or whopping cough. One day, my maternal Great Grandmother, Lucy Mae (Lemon) McCauley-Banta-Strong and her husband Jerrod T. Strong drove out from Topeka to see me. Grandma Strong told them they had me bundled up way too much and what I needed was fresh air. She removed some of the blankets and took me outside, where it was sunny but about 25 degrees, and walked around for a while and then she brought me inside and mashed some canned peaches and feed me enough to provide a "tonic" effect. Sure enough, I got better right away. Those old pioneer mothers knew how to "make do" without a lot of help from modern medicine.
I also remember a visit to Grandma Lucy Strong's when I was about five or six years old. I was a skinny, sickly kid for the first five years of my life because I had terrible tonsils and was always having sore throats and colds. Grandma Strong said what I needed was kerosene. She went out on her back porch, got a tablespoon of kerosene from the jug, mixed it with sugar and poured it down my throat. Well---I'm not sure it cured my cough but it didn't kill me either!
This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark with son Gary Wayne on the left and Nickey Lee Clark on the right. It was taken at the farm of Robert and Mildred Corbin 1.5 miles south of Maple Hill in 1949.
I had a sort of idyllic childhood in that I had so many older family members around to help raise me and spoil me. My maternal and paternal grandparents both lived within a few miles. My maternal great grandmother lived 25 miles away in Topeka and my paternal step-greatgrandmother, Susanna Jeanetta (Rinehardt) Jones in Maple Hill. We exchanged visits often. I had one paternal aunt, Thelma Maree (Clark) Hedges who was ten years older than my father. My mother had four siblings who were either married or working away from home. I had Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie Mitchell and many other extended family members and I was close enough to spent lots of time in all of their homes. I was the first grandchild on my mother's side of the family, all of whom spoiled me rotten.
One of my earliest and most pleasant memories were the extended family gatherings that occurred almost every Sunday. I believe similar get togethers were held in many rural homes at that time. My maternal grandparents, Robert and Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin were actively involved in the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church. My mother and her brother and sisters all attended Sunday School and Church there as did Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie Mitchell and other extended family members. It was the only church in the community at that time. My maternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark, was the chief operator at the Maple Hill Central Office and her work schedule sometimes prevented her from attending. Her husband, James P. Clark died on Christmas Eve in 1948, so she was widowed when I was four-years-old. I don't have any memories of Grandfather Clark.
This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark and Nicholas "Nickey Lee" Clark taken in 1945 in front of the coal shed at the Corbin Farm south of Maple Hill, Kansas. On the back of the photo is written, "Just taking his first steps."The Corbins had Sunday dinner for the extended family every week. Usually, my Grandmother Corbin would make chicken and dumplings, or chicken and dressing, or some main dish along with mashed potatoes and other garden vegetables (fresh in summer and canned in winter). My mother and the other women would usually bring a dish or dessert to pass and this was a real repast. Sometimes the minister and his family would join us and other friends might also be invited. There would often be from 15 to 25 people for Sunday Dinner every week. I really don't know how my Grandmother Corbin did it on a four-burner kerosene stove. I do know that she baked bread and pies or cake on Saturday and also cleaned chickens if necessary. She would get up early on Sunday morning and begin preparation so we could leave for church at 10:30am.
After the dishes were cleared, we would all go to the living room and sing. Grandmother Corbin, her daughter Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier, my aunt Sarah Emma (Corbin) Justice, aunt Vivian (Corbin) Wild---all could play the piano and we sang for an hour or two every Sunday. Sometimes Uncle George Corbin, his wife Freda (Kitt) Corbin and their children would come and join us at mid-afternoon. Since I was the first grandchild, it took a while but as I was joined by other children, we would have great times playing outside.
About 4pm, Grandfather Corbin would bring a 50# chunk of ice out of the "cave," which was really a concrete storm cellar where he had an old ice box for storing ice. We would put the ice in a gunny sack and break it up with a sledge hammer. Grandma Corbin would be making the raw ice cream in the kitchen, or on the back porch, and putting it in the freezer can. Here is her recipe:
Grandmother Mildred Corbin's Ice Cream Recipe
1 quart of whipping cream
12 eggs beaten
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 cups of sugar
Fill the ice cream canister to within one inch of the top with milk.
Add fresh fruit or chocolate chips or crushed peppermint candy as you wish.
She did not cook the ice cream as you would today. No one was worried about getting sick from cracked or spoiled eggs in those days. At first the cream came from their own milk cow but when they decided to quit keeping a cow, they traded eggs for cream with Steele and Ellen (Stenstrom) Romick who were their neighbors on the south side of Mill Creek.
Then she'd bring out the canister and we'd put it in the big hand-cranked ice cream freezer and make home made ice cream. Along with the ice cream we'd have the desserts that everyone had brought and we'd eat left overs from lunch. Could there be a better way to spend a Sunday?
We also went to my Grandmother Clark's for Sunday dinner. In a town of 400, the telephone office was generally not so busy that Grandma couldn't operate the central office and also prepare dinner. Both of my grandmothers were excellent cooks. Grandmother and Grandfather Clark had a small dairy and so there was always lots of fresh butter and cream to use in cooking. Since Grandmother Clark had a steady job and income throughout her life, we might have had a little more elaborate menu than at my Corbin grandparents, but it was all good.
I have a little folder of recipies that are all in Grandmother Clark's handwritting. There is a little 3"x5" card taped to the front of the folder that says: "A reciept isn't a reciept unless it has 12 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, a quart of cream and a pound of butter." That is exactly the way Grandmother cooked. She would have been a big fan of present-day TV food chef Paula Deen!
No one excelled at making desserts more than my paternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark. My favorite pies were always her burnt sugar (sort of a rich butterscotch) pie and her pineapple cream pie. Her crusts were made with Crisco lard and were the tenderest and richest I've ever experienced. Her three-layer chocolate cakes and icings were to die for. When there was going to be a cake walk or a cake auction, Grandmother's cakes always brought the most.
Grandmother also made ham and beans with fluffy baking soda dumplings. They were everyone's favorite. She would mix the egg dumplings, drop them into the boiling beans from an old table spoon and then put the lid on. I can still hear her saying, "Now don't take the lid off for 10 minutes or they'll be ruined!" I don't know if that was true or not but no one dared test her rule.
This photograph brings back lots of wonderful memories. It was taken in the 1950s in the Maple Hill Central Office with my paternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark at the switchboard. The central office was a room attached to the front of a three-room house with a screened-in back porch. At the extreme left is the Warm Morning coal stove which heated the office. Just a corner of the big oak partner desk is showing behind the stove. On the floor, the big Emerson electric fan with brass blades is cooling the room. Grandmother is holding one of the sets of plugs and beginning to complete a call. Behind the switchboard is the switching equipment. When there was an electrical storm in progress, no one went near the switchboard because if lightning hit a pole or line that was ungrounded, blue fire shot out everywhere. If you look above the switchboard, you'll see a little black box on the wall with a level on the side. That was the box that turned on the big siren that sat opposite the Central Office on a telephone pole. If there was a fire, the siren would be sounded. Monday through Saturday, Grandmother manually sounded the siren for one minute at noon. There were times when I walked the two blocks from Maple Hill Grade School to have lunch with Grandmother. I always hurried so she could lift me up to blow the siren. She was a selfless, wonderful lady who served the community and her family and friends for 43 years.
I was always fascinated by the switchboard and learned how to operate it at a fairly young age. Grandmother even got to the point she would trust me running the switchboard for a few minutes while she ran an errand, was cooking or doing something else. There were a couple of cranky telephone customers who didn't like to have me answer their calls but most people didn't mind. Every line had its own drop on the switchboard so if one of them made a call, I would just get Grandmother and have her answer and complete their calls.
I really enjoyed taking the plug, pushing it into the drop, opening the cam and then saying, "Number Please." The customer might tell you the person's name they wanted to call rather than their number, in which case you had to know their number. I remember memorizing the name and number of customers from a chart Grandmother had. There were two plugs for each call. One plug went into the originating caller's drop and the other went into the drop being called. When you had both plugs in place, then you'd press a button on the switchboard to make the necessary number of rings. For instance, your number might be 1312, which mean that your ring was three longs and two short ring. Many times, Grandmother Clark would be operating the switchboard in the central office and my brother Gary Wayne Clark and I would be sitting at the big partner desk behind the switchboard drawing pictures or playing dominoes. Grandmother Clark loved to play dominoes. She was also a good artist and could draw birds, and dogs and cats much to our enjoyment. I have many of her hand-drawn patterns for birds and flowers as well as alphabet letters which she would trace on towels and pillowcases which she would embroider and then give as wedding or birthday gifts.
A photo of Nicholas and Gary Clark taken in the living room of the Robert and Mildred Corbin farmhome in about 1951.
My brother Gary Wayne Clark was born on January 26, 1947 and since there were just two of us, we were both spoiled rotten by our parents, our grandparents and our aunts and uncles. I want to share a story here that is probably inappropriate but true.We had a cousin, Helen Butefish Shipp, who was distantly related to us through both the Butefish and Shipp families. She was a lovely person, very kind, and effusive in her praise of people. My maternal uncle, George S. Corbin, fought in World War II. He was badly injured in the Burma Campaign, was sent home to recuperate at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I don't know exactly how long he was there but many months. He had been riding in a jeep when it was attacked.
Anyway, he came to his parents farm after his release and Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin cared for him until he was able to be on his own. Soon after Gary was born, my mother brought him and me to visit Uncle George at Grandmother Corbin's. While we were there, cousin Helen came to visit Uncle George not knowing we were there. Helen came in and greeted grandmother and Uncle George and then she started making over Baby Gary. "Oooooohhhh Hoooooney, you are just the sweetest, handsomest little man----and on and on." I was in the kitchen coloring at the table and when I heard Helen come in and start making over Gary, I headed for the living room and just sort of peaked around the corner of the door.
I believe this photo was taken the same day as the one above, since we have the same clothing on. In the background is the enclosed back porch of the Robert and Mildred Corbin farm home. In the center background is the old gate that provided access to the fenced-in yard. There was a chain fastened to the left gate post which went to the right upper corner of the gate. On the chain was a big iron gear of somekind, which provided weight so that when you opened the gate, the weight of the gear pulled the gate shut. The yard was fenced so the chickens couldn't get in and make it messy. Hiding behind us or helping hold us up is my Aunt Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier.Helen saw me but just kept praising Gary. Finally she looked over and said, "Well there's Nickey Lee. Come say hello to Cousin Helen." What she didn't know was that my Uncle George Corbin and his brother-in-law, Uncle Rick Andrews, had been teaching me to say swear words and thought it was cute to hear me repeat them. After Helen's greeting, I straightened up and said, "Kiss my ass." Of course Mother and Grandmother were horrified and Uncle George was bent over in uncontrollable laughter. After I was in high school and thereafter when Cousin Helen saw me, she would remind me of the occasion and we would both have a good laugh.
This is a photo of Maple Hill Grade School which was built in 1904 and replaced by a modern, one-story brick elementary school in 1953. I went to first, second and third grade in this building and finished fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight grade in the new brick school.As I remember this building, there was a large center hallway and stairs connecting the two floors. On either side of the hallway downstairs were two rooms. Each room had two grades. When it was originally built, the upstairs was used as a high school. That arrangement continued until Maple Hill grew enough in the 1920s to build a new, modern brick two-story building just north of this one, to house a high school.
I started to school in this building in 1950. There was no kindergarten at that time, and if you were going to be six before December 31, you could start first grade when you were five. There were two in my class that were five, Claudia Arnold and myself. As I look back on it, I don't think it was a wise rule because I wasn't really mature enough to begin school, was also very young when I started to high school and was only 17 when I started college.
I don't recall what the occasion for this photo was, but it was taken in 1950 on the west side of the old, two-story Maple Hill Grade School. I believe I can identify most of the children but would appreciate you making corrections or providing the names of the unidentified in the comment section at the bottom on this blog. Janice McClelland is standing in back and is holding Donald Kent Raine. Second Row, L-R: Bonnie Sloan, Mary Sue Kitt, Ann Adams, Kathryn Adams, Lana Schulte and Pam Weisgarver. Front Row, L-R: Trudi Mee, two little blonde girls are unknown to me, next is Lana Schulte, and the little girl holding the black doll is unknown to me.
I don't remember much about the first grade, but I do remember something that happened over the summer between first and second grade---well two things. Our first and second grade teacher was Miss Breakey. I'm not sure I'm spelling that correctly but phonically it is accurate. Miss Breakey was a very large woman. I suspect she may have weighed 250 pounds or more. Over the summer, she had a new and very risky operation to remove the fat from her stomach area and band her stomack. When I started second grade, I couldn't believe that I had the same teacher. Today, we'd consider her stocky but she was not at all heavy set. I thought that was some kind of miracle and of course, it kept the Maple Hill gossip mills rolling for a long time.
This phtograph was taken during the Christmas Program at the old Maple Hill Grade School in 1950. I believe it ahs members of both the first and second grade classes, but I don't think all class members are included. This was most likely a chorus or song number and didn't include all members of both classes.
In the back row, L-R are Pam Weisgarver, Roberta Oliver, Patty Holmes, Mary Sue Kit, Marlene Lawson, the tall girl in the back is either one of the Bland or Pamami girls, Idon't know the next girl, then another of the Bland or Pamami girls, I don't know the blond girl, and then Ann Adams. In the front row, L-R is Nick Clark, Rosemary Knott, Larry A. Schulte, Trudi Mee and Bonnie Sloan.
Education:
Elemetary and High School
I attended Maple Hill Grade School and Maple Hill High School, Maple Hill, Kansas
High Education:
I graduated from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas in December, 1971 with a degree in American History and Elementary Education
I graduated from the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho in May, 1979, with a Master's Degree in American History and a minor in Museum Studies.
Marriage:
I was married to Verona Shannon Little, daughter of Lawrence E. Little and Wilma A. Huelsmann-Little-Hargis at First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, Kansas on August 1, 1970 by Rev. Orlo Coughill. My marriage ended in divorce on February 14, 2005.
Children:
Two children were born to this union: Nicholas Leander Clark, II on May 1, 1973 and Amelia Mary Verona Clark on March 30, 1977.
Career:
I worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone for two years between 1963 and 1965. I was first a public office assistant and then a coin telephone collector.
While attending Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas I worked several part-time jobs. I was a tenor soloist for Penwell-Gable Funeral Home and Parker-Price Funeral Home, both in Topeka, Kansas. I was also a counter sales clerk for Whelan Lumber Company and Whelan Home Center, Topeka, Kansas.
I taught American History, Spanish and Psychology at St. Marys High School, St. Marys, Kansas from 1973-1977.
After graduating from graudate school at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, I was director of Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay, Wisconsin from 1979-1983.
I was first Director of Development and then Executive Director of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, Medford/Jacksonville, Oregon from 1983-1987.
I was Director of the Minnetrista Cultural Center and Oakhurst Gardens, Muncie, Indiana from 1987-1995.
I was Director of the Museums At Prophetstown, Battle Ground, Indiana from 1995-2000.
I was a museum cosultant from 2000 through 2003, and headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.
I was a Commission Lay Pastor at Burrow Presbyterian Church, Burrows, Indiana from June 2004 through December 2009.
I have since been retired, and currently live in Palm Springs, California.
I have been interested in my family genealogy for the past 30 years and now enjoy writing this family history blog.
I believe I'll end there and continue in another blog. Happy Trails!
No comments:
Post a Comment