Aunt Mildred.  Lizzie.  Lavina from Lansing.  Lizzie was a deaf mute and most of the family knew sign language.  My Grandfather Jeckells and his second wife.  His first wife, Mother’s Mama, died when Aunt Doris was an infant and Aunt May and Mother were young.  Aunt Doris, Duane, Floyd, Aunt May, Uncle Judd and Ed.  There were a lot of us.  We kids went ice skating and had a lot of fun.

That is about all I recall of that Thanksgiving.

I recall going to Aunt Mildred one summer and coming down with red measles.  She had at least 4 children, so I’m sure it was inconvenient.  They had a big farm to care for.

Ken was my escort and I do remember a corsage.

My family gift was a gold wrist watch which I wore many years.

My first dance with Ken was at the Williams Lake Country Club, which led to his asking me to on the boat ride in Detroit at age 13.  We reunited when I was 17 and married April 16, 1938.

Aunt Lizzie, a deaf mute.  Aunt Mildred.  Mothers Mother, Angebelle.  Sisters.  My Mothers Father and his wife Dora.  Lots of young people.

It was sunny and very cold.  We lived just across from Park Lake and ice skated.

No warm clothes like we have today.  Long stockings and bloomer pants on girls.  Same attire for sledding. 

However, the food, people and skating were great!

On the way home Mama said, ‘You are going to get a spanking’.  My sisters were there and in unison they said. ‘Oh Mama!  Please don’t spank her’.  I don’t know if she did or didn’t but her favorite answer was, ‘She deserves it!’.

My Father took Mama, Louise, Marion and myself to Canada.  It was the Fourth of July.  Mother said, ‘Frank, why isn’t the Flag (of America) up?’.  He said Canada belongs to the English.  We are not the owners of Canada.  I had never heard my Mother use swear words.  She said, ‘ Well, I’ll be damned!’.

Mother was at times incapacitated because of her health.

I came home from school for lunch, which was a quick trip.  I came home one day expecting I’d have to grab something and run back.  My Mama had baked and apples and a hot dish of green beans.  Two of my favorites.  Not only that;  she sat with me while I ate it.  Down deep I can remember having her all to my myself!.

I was only late 16 when she was gone forever.

I was probably pretty young and when we got home she said, ‘Frank, June needs a spanking’.  He took me to the kitchen, put me over his knee and said, ‘Now cry real load!!!’.  So I did and came out with no bruises because he didn’t spank me.

I asked him to be my escort at my Junior and Senior Proms after which we dated.  When he asked me to marry him at 17 and I had graduated.  We waited until I was 18 to get married on April 16, 1938.

Most of our dating was to go dancing and visit Max and Bernice Vaught.  They remained friends for many years after our wedding.

I decided to ask him for dinner one Sunday.  On Saturday night Louise and Ray went out.  I had a ready mix pie shell and a box of lemon filling and decided to make it for the next day’s dessert.  The filling barely covered the crust so I cleaned up the mess and hid the pie.

Jim came for dinner the next day.  After we ate the main meal, Ray said, ‘You all just wait here and I’ll bring in the dessert’.  He brought in the pie and said, ‘June made this with her own little hands’.

The faithfulness of ones family

One summer day Ken knocked on my door in Clarkston.  Mother answered it and called ‘June, there is a young man here to see you.  He wore his orange sweater with a black strip around one arm representing an award for swimming.  He requested a date to take me on a boat cruising Lake St. Clair and to dance one Friday or Saturday evening. 

I requested my mother, ‘May I?’.  She said ‘No!’, but with tears and teasing she agreed.  So one weekend we left Clarkston in his Dad’s Packard for a lake near Detroit and barely missed the boat.  We took the midnight boat which had no dancing and didn’t get home until 4:00 am.  My Dad had been angry that Mom allowed it. 

Dad was asleep so Ken took me to the side door where there was an enclosed porch and was kissing me when Mother said, ‘She can never to with you again.  She is too young.  Only 13′.

Actually I was 13 and a half.

 Mr Johnston, who owned the buggy, pulled me off the roof and spanked me with a board which had a little nail that drew blood.

I ran home and he followed me.  Dad was playing ball on the front yard.  He saw the blood and grabbed the man by the throat.  My mom wa upstairs and called down, ‘Now Frank, she probably deserved it’.

Dad released him and said ‘ If you ever do this again, I’ll kill you’.

Although I wasn’t involved with the buggy, I feel I should tell you what some boys did to his buggy one Halloween.  The pulled it up to the end of Main Street where there were some taller buildings, dismantled it and put it together up on the top of the building.  They also put corn stalks, pumpkins and other items down the whole street that resembled a field.

I beleive I was in bed when all that happened.

Mr. Johnston delivered things by horse and buggy.

I didn’t deserve the board but I evidently gave my mom a hard time!