The Big City: Twin Falls

“The school was called Bickle, and we lived up Fifth Avenue East- a big yellow house on the corner.  We lived there for two years and then we moved to a new, brand new house.  My dad had two houses in town and then the two farms, and there for a while he was pretty affluent.  And then of course the tumble came and we lost everything.  He took care of these houses; he would go out to the farm and the other farm and see if anybody needed any help on the other house that we rented out to people.  He had to take care of that.

We moved into this lovely neighborhood- it was a brand new neighborhood area- and they picked out the kind of house they wanted built; it was kind of a Hollywood bungalow. I think they were looking through a book and the one my mother picked out it was the kind of style of the house.  We moved to town in 1918, the year my mother’s dad came from Minnesota to visit- grandma had already died.  She died a week after my mother and dad were married.  My dad was born in 1875 and my mother in 1878.  They were married in 1908.  My grandpa came to visit.  He had a very German accent and I can remember him saying ‘Nice little girl, but she doesn’t mind!’  He died in that flu epidemic, 1918, and he died in our house.”

“You started first grade when you when you were six- you had to be six before you started school.  It was a two story.  At first they had a chute that they used in case of a fire but they took that off and built stairs on the outside, and it was a pretty building- it looks good now.  Of course in those days, at six years old, I didn’t remember, but it was a nice building.  Twin Falls in those days was about the same size as South Pasadena, about 30,000.  Of course it is bigger now.

This year I started school was the year I started taking piano lessons, when I was six years old.  They had recitals and I am not sure, I must have been about seven and Wilma was about eight and everybody came.  They had chairs lined up, and they had each of us play solo and then they had a duet.  So, when it came for the time of the duet, Wilma was sitting on a stool that twirls around and I was sitting on something else, some kind of a stool that did not twirl.  Anyway, we were playing away and the door opened- somebody late came in- and Wilma stopped and twirled around and she started right where we left off!  I was going on and on and Wilma didn’t miss a beat.”

“I didn’t get along with Wilma that well.  She had a different childhood than I did.  She claimed that she didn’t have a good childhood.  I had a great childhood!  I thought my parents were the most wonderful people!  We didn’t have that much money by that time.  We didn’t loose everything till closer till the depression time, but the farmers lost first since most of our money came from the farm and the rentals, when they started not taking much.  Potatoes were 25 cents a bushel.  But I got along with Nita my younger sister, my older sister- maybe she didn’t like me-

I was a smart-aleck! I had a wonderful childhood.”