The Best Christmas written by Joyce Dudder

Christmas means a lot of things to lots of people. To some it means being in debt till next Christmas... spend, spend, spend. To some it means good times with family. To some it's an opportunity to be creative and make gifts, and still to others, the opportunity to make money.

People remember Jesus, the Christ child; Santa and his reindeer, and kids pray for snow.

I learned early that Christmas is about giving... not about getting.

When I was 13 my Dad died... leaving my Mom with five kids (ages 15 years to 18 months) to raise. Three months later, Christmas was upon us. Financial affairs were not settled and we had little money.  My Dad had changed jobs shortly before he died and no longer had life insurance. Then Social Security was slow in coming.

My Mom gave my brother and me each $10 to buy presents for the others kids and each other... not for her.

A neighbor took us shopping at a big store in Portland. They had everything and it was all so expensive, especially from a 13-year-old perspective.

Our neighbor suggested we pool our money to get better gifts. It was a great idea and we went for it!

When it came time to split up and buy for each other, we couldn't do it. Instead, we decided to pool the rest of the money and buy something for our Mom. It wasn't anything we planned ahead, but we "knew" it  was the right thing to do. It was our Christmas present to ourselves.

Again, with help from our neighbor, we searched for sales. We found a toaster for only $10. Boy, were we excited!! We had enough to buy it!!!

Thirty years later, I can still remember that Christmas... and how I felt. My Mom cried when she opened that toaster but we were so happy.

I learned a valuable lesson that year... one I've never forgotten. It is better to give than to receive. Since that time, I've bought and received many gifts worth much more than $10 or even $20, but that Christmas was special.

For me it was the best Christmas.

The Best Christmas was written in 1994 by Joyce Dudder who can be reached via email at fishnut1949@aol.com.

Joyce Dudder's Memories of Ridgefield 1963 to 1966

In 1963, Ridgefield was like a foreign country to me. We had moved a lot due to conflicts my parents had, but I had only gone to 2 schools, even w/ the moves. Now, my parents were divorced. One day we were living in Battleground. That night we moved and the next day I woke up in a new house, a new city and had to start a new school. I was in 7th grade.

I had regressed. I went from a junior high with each class in a different room to grade school and recess. At the time, the 7th grade was with 1-6 and the 8th grade was in (mostly) the basement of the High School. After pointing out where I lived, I learned from others to say, “We live in the Barn on the hill”. It was a landmark. I was told that it was really a barn that had been converted into a house. It was large and with my mom and us five kids, better than the two-bedroom house we’d been in. My bedroom took up half of the upstairs. I couldn’t even fill half of the space.

The best part of the house was the wonderful view. We could look on all of the town, and all the way to the river and beyond to the west. The kitchen had a wall of windows. I loved to stand at the counter and look out. It was the nicest house we had ever lived in.

“The Hill” was the ritzy part of town. The Sonneys lived next door. They had a beautiful home with a swimming pool. Beyond them were the Wrays. Lorene Wray was the secretary at the high school. She always was gracious and friendly. Her daughter, Vicky, was a cheerleader. I was in awe of her. I got to go into her room one time when I went to their house. It was all feminine and lovely. Across the street on the “upside” of us, lived the Walter Baty’s (of Baty’s insurance). Furstenbergs (of First Independent Bank) lived at the end of the road and across the street that went down to Main street.

There was another house on the hill. Later in the year, the Eaves family moved into it. The kids were about the same ages as my brothers and sisters and me. David Eaves became my best friend. Being both fairly new to the area, we bonded. Though he may not remember, they moved in just before 1964. The reason I know is because in September 1963, my dad, age 37 died of a massive heart attack. In the attached story, “My Best Christmas” Avis Eaves was the neighbor who took my brother and me shopping. The Eaves were wonderful neighbors to us.

When President Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, I was already numb from the death of my father. I was in science class when we got the news of the President. Was it Mr. Maguire or Mr Stevens? I know it was the classroom downstairs on the far northwest corner.

I loved walking to school. As an eighth grader, we were relegated to the basement of the school mostly. I liked learning and classes were fun. In those days if we had money, my girlfriends and I would occasionally go down to the local café for burger and fries. You had to be quick. If you weren’t one of the first in line, you wouldn’t get your food in time to get back to school before lunch was over. I remember the short, fat, cripsy fries that they served. Verna Rawson, Christy Schlamm and I would usually share. Sometimes it was on the run back to school. Sometimes we would stop at the variety store on the way and buy gum or candy.

The first thing that greeted you as you walked into the High School building was the apple machine. Five cents bought a nice cold, Red delicious apple. The office was on the left. Mrs. Wray was always there with a smile. Mr. (Wayne) Ball was the principal. I remember his moustache. I heard that there was conflict with older boys who challenged him about the “no facial hair” policy for students and other policies. I never had to face him in that way.

During those days our activities were going to school games (football or baseball) or going to the skating rink. The rink was on the road to La Center. Lots of kids from Ridgefield skated there. I never was a good skater and spent more time on my backside on the floor.

In 1965, we were unable to buy the Barn and had to move out near Duluth. Each year since I was ten, I picked strawberries, raspberries and beans to earn money for school clothes. That year I outdid myself and picked 12 flats of strawberries in one day. I could hardly move when I got home and my back was so sore. My friend, Gayle Cousins and I decided that we should go to work in the cannery instead. I stayed w/ Gayle in Ridgefield that summer and we worked at the cannery in town during berry season. It was 12-hour shifts. We made something like $1.16 per hour. That was a lot of money to us. My family worked the bean fields that year (mom was a field boss). We earned enough money to help my mom pay some bills, pay off the car, buy a stereo and a radio. We still had enough left for school clothes.

The next year, we had to move again. This time it was north of town near Verna Rawson and Jeannie Currie. Chris Mongrain lived a little further away, but in the same area. My mom went to work at the nursing home in Ridgefield. Social Security was just not enough to live on.

In 1966, I quit school and got married. That ended my time in Ridgefield. My mother, Bernice (Dudder) Jehnsen, got remarried to Roy Jehnsen in 1967 and moved to his home near Yacolt. He passed away in 2001. He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. But, that is another story…. My mom still lives at 23000 Jehnsen Road where she has been for 43 years.

Until some time in the 1990s I never even set foot in Ridgefield. I had moved to back to Snohomish county where I lived as a young child. While visiting family, I drove to Ridgefield. The Barn and the Eaves house were both gone. New houses had been build that were newer and nicer. But, the patina on my memories is still rich. I look back on those times but not with great pain. It was a part of life.

I got courageous and attended the 40th reunion of the class of 1968. Most of my classmates hadn’t even remembered that I didn’t graduate w/ them! Since then, I have learned what a great group of people I went to school with. The small town, Ridgefield, experience is one that I savor.

Joyce Dudder can be reached via email at fishnut1949@aol.com.

Do-it-yourself Living History Interview

There are some great ideas out there, and one of them is being promoted by a company called Story Corps. It is a national organization and offers self-help and family starter kits for rent to teach people how to record family histories orally. It is somewhat expensive - you might want to buy your own equipment - but the point is, it gets you started. Here is a quote from their Do-It-Yourself page:

"Record interviews to honor the lives of the people you love, to create your own archive, and to celebrate holidays and family events, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or graduation. The stories you collect will become treasured keepsakes that grow more valuable with each passing generation."

I couldn't agree more, candidly, as I started this project with this exact sentiment in mind. Your story may interest me and future generations, but the most likely fans of your living history will be those from future generations in your own family.

So often I hear older people say to their friends, children or grandchildren, "I wish you had known my mother (or father, or brother). You would have loved her (him, etc.).  And she would have loved you too!"

Or a relative says, "You remind me so much of your grandmother! She had the same beautiful smile."

I never met my maternal grandmother as she died when my mother was only 18. My grandfather remarried my step-grandmother and they were together for almost forty years, but he would always hug me when he saw me and say, "You know why I love you? Because you remind me so much of my wife!" Of course, it was a bit mortifying that my other grandmother had to bear witness to this I thought at the time, but at one point that grandmother lived with my husband and me. She told me that she was just a girl when she met my grandfather. He was her brother's good friend in the police department. 

This man I knew as Uncle Gene Tobin, who was probably the most wonderful man I have ever met. He was kind and understanding, had a great sense of humor, was beloved when he was the Chief of Police in Everett, Massachusetts and after retirement - because he was so social - became involved with the security department at the Museum of Natural History in Boston. All I remember is taking my kids there when little baby chicks were hatching from an incubator and were on display. Luckily I was tall enough to see over the heads of all the small children who were mobbing the display and could lift mine up to see too.

I am sure my children don't remember, they were small then, but I do. I was happy to see him if it was only for ten minutes.  Everybody was. And my step-grandmother, Joanne, was never jealous of my grandmother either. She was a professional woman - which in those days meant a secretary for John Hancock Insurance in Boston - and she had opted not to have children when Mr. Right hadn't come along early in her life. By the time she met my grandfather she was in her late thirties and my grandfather was a rather tragic figure with thousands of dollars in medical bills from my bio-grandmother's 11 year battle with cancer.

My mother had been jealous of losing her father's attention when he remarried - she was in her second year of college, I might add - and disliked her grandmother intensely because of it. When I adored her, my mother told me she was a 'flapper and wore bright red lipstick'. My mother wore bright red lipstick, too, but somehow she didn't get the connection.  Flappers?  I thought they looked so cool with their beads, short hair, hats and flouncy dresses. That made my grandmother so exciting, as I knew her as an old woman, of course.

Grandma Joanne ended up living with my husband and me for a while when we lived overseas. learned from my grandmother that she wasn't jealous of my bio-grandmother. She'd been 12 years younger than my grandfather and that was a different lifetime that had nothing to do with her. They were happily married a long time and had a good life together. He deserved it and so did she.


It was sad to see this woman who had been so full of life and expectations lose her mental faculties, as it was the first experience I had as an adult with death.  My father died three months later, which was a terribly distressing time for all of us. I still think back and wish I had spent more time with him. How I wish I had asked him about his life, his dreams, his political beliefs, but I was too self-centered at the time, like many young (and old) people. I
I hope you write your stories or record them or preserve them on video. You won't regret it.

Invitation to Our 1st Organizational Meeting: Tuesday, May 25th @ 7:00 pm

A big hello to all of you and just a reminder that our first organizational and information meeting is scheduled for next week.  Here are the details:

RIDGEFIELD LIVING HISTORY PROJECT

WHEN:      Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 @ 7:00 pm

WHERE:    Pickled Heron Gallery, 418 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield, WA 98642

DURATION:  7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

PURPOSE: 

• Introduce the concept of  an on-going living history project and what ours will entail intially as well as collaborate on forming a vision for the future of the project. 
• Create an email list of interested people
• Sign up participants, volunteers, etc.
• Form a collaboration with the other historical preservation groups in town
• Start a genealogy workshop group, gauge interest in free genealogy & research classes for participants
• Give groups like the Heritage Committee and the Cemetery Preservation committees the opportunity to solicit new volunteers and members
• Gauge interest in forming a 501(c)(3) to eventually fund and create a historical museum in Ridgefield either independently or as a branch of the Clark County Historical Museum
• To meet each other, share fellowship and see if this idea has any "legs".

INFORMATION: 

Please call Elizabeth Madrigal at 360-887-4530 or email:  ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject@gmail.com

IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND BUT ARE INTERESTED IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE:

Please let Elizabeth know via email or telephone or follow us on Facebook for a summary of the meeting. 

WHAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR THIS EFFORT?

Except for anything that could get us in trouble or hurt someone - such as slander, libel, gossip and those kinds of no-nos - the project is pretty open. Any family stories, histories, photos of people or the area are welcome regardless of whether you lived here your entire life or moved here yesterday. We'd love pictures of old farms and e Stories can be about anything that is related to your life or the lives of the people in your life.  Please do not send original photos without first contacting Elizabeth, as these may be ruined or lost in the mail.  We will not be archiving anything at this point, but simply scanning and returning anything you provide.  Hand-delivery is even better (I or a volunteer can always pick them up), or just emailing them from home or a scanner/copier at our local copier shop.

IS ANYTHING POSTED YET?   Yes, we have our first posting.  Some of you may remember Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves who lived here with her family in the mid-1960's. Avis passed away last year and her son and daughter have supplied pictures of Avis in her Ridgefield garden, her memorial posting and their contact information for cards or letters.  This is the first of what I hope will be many stories of the lives of people who have graced Ridgefield with their presence and been 'graced back' in return.

PLEASE JOIN US!

         OR GO TO OUR BLOG:  http://ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject.blogspot.com/

   OR GO TO OUR FACEBOOK PAGE:  http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=104465476259928

MY HOME, RIDGEFIELD, a Poem by Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves 1964

I received this email today from David Eaves. I am posting it in its entirety and am excited that we have our first oral history contribution.  Thank you, David, for sharing your treasure with us.

Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves
Born March 20, 1923 - Died January 8, 2009

"My name is David Eaves. My family lived in Ridgefield in 1964. We lived high on a hill overlooking all the Ridgefield valley. This view inspired my Mom to write this poem about Ridgefield.  My mom passed away last year and I would like to donate this poem to your town historical group in her memory." 

My Home, Ridgefield

                     By Avis A. (Reid) Eaves

I’m in love with Ridgefield town.

So peaceful and so small.

Its building memories renown,

And I treasure each and all.

For I live high on top of a hill,

In the land of rivers and trees.

And rise up early at my will,

To see the sights like these.

Majestic mountains in the east,

Snow-capped and standing high.

Glittering light shine in the west,

And a river boat goes by.

This is my town, my very own,

My heart and soul, they call it home.

***

Memorial Services for Avis:

We are gathered here in the sight of God, and amongst loved ones and friends to remember the life of our mother, a grandmother, and a great grand mother.

To remember the life of Avis, I would like to take you back to before Avis was even born. For to know the character of who Avis was, you must also understand the roots of the parents who brought her into this world and the surroundings that formed her into the loving, caring, nurturing person we call mom.

Avis was the youngest sibling of Charles Reid, Sr. Charles was a pioneer settler in Oklahoma during the time of the American migration into the mid-west. Charles Reid was a young man in Kansas when the Cherokee Outlet was opened for settlement in Oklahoma on September 16, 1893. He and his neighbor friends decided to make the run on horseback. They started at the state line of Kansas south of Hunnewell and arrived at a site north of Tonkawa Oklahoma. As Avis had told the story to us, Charles staked his claim in a valley where it was a foggy misty morning and when the air had cleared mid-day, he noticed that someone else had also staked the same section of land. Charles simply picked up his stake and relinquished the claim to the other man. Avis said that her dad noticed that the other man had a bigger gun and he didn’t think it wise to argue with him. The following spring, Charles did purchase a relinquished stake near what is now known as Deer Creek, Oklahoma. Charles was a bachelor on his homestead farm for a number of years, and as Avis tells it, he was quite the eligible bachelor. His friends were always trying to match him up with some young single woman by hosting parties and inviting all the eligible young women in the area. In the summer of 1906, Florence O. Robinson came to visit her sister and attended one of these parties. A romance started soon after and on November 27, 1907 they were married. As the years went by Charles and Florence had six children. Avis being the youngest of them all.

Now Avis lived in a time of our history where she experienced a worldwide depression, a dust bowl, a world war. This generation of time has been characterized as the “Greatest Generation”. There is a popular book written that describes this generation as “the generation who grew up in the Great Depression of 1929, who came of age in World War II, and following the war shaped the world thru the greatest times of national growth and innovation. This is a time in Avis’s life where personal sacrifice was common place. These times shaped her life and built character of one who was to influence each us here today. It was this generation that had grown accustomed to personal sacrifice, honesty, integrity and caring for their neighbor. This attitude of personal sacrifice for the benefit of those around you was developed within them from their own experiences as they lived life in the era known as the greatest generation. I recall Mom discussing these times as I wondered how they were able to endure such great hardships as the depression, the dust bowl era, and the war, and their willingness to sacrifice of themselves as they pursued their own way thru life. They did it because they knew it was the right thing to do. As Avis once stated, ” we did not think of ourselves as sacrificing but simply we were living life the best way we knew how”. This attitude of sacrifice and doing the right thing was an integral part of their daily living and became a strong trait that was instilled in each of us thru Avis nurturing ways.

In 1942, Avis being a young woman of 19 was attending a local community college. She met a young man, Leland Edward Eaves of Fairfax, Oklahoma, who was also attending the same community college. They dated for some time even though Avis was in love with her high school sweetheart and had fully expected to marry him. Lee, however, was persistent in perusing Avis’s heart despite her many refusals when Lee would propose to her. Lee finally won her over thru numerous proposals which concluded with the possibility that Lee might join the Marines. This news was too much for Avis to bear and her heart revealed that this was the man whom she would spend her life with. In February 1942, Avis and Lee left northern Oklahoma to get married in Oklahoma City and start a life together. It wasn’t long before they discovered that Avis was pregnant with their 1st child. By June of 1942, the news of bringing a child into the world was received with the concerns that there was no way they could make it on Lee’s current salary of $90 per month. Being that this was a wartime era, the news of good jobs in the shipyards of the Pacific Northwest led Lee and Avis to set out for Portland, Oregon. Upon arriving in Portland, they only had $10 in their pockets. They rented an apartment for $7 a month, leaving them only $3 to survive until Lee could get a job and get paid.

Lee quickly got a welding job at the shipyard and they were able to rent a small house in the countryside near Woodburn, Oregon. Shortly after, their 1st son was born. Leland Edward Eaves Jr. was born on September 17, 1942. The baby was born pre-mature and Avis was sacred to be raising a new born baby. Shortly after Lee Jr. was born, notice to appear for induction into the Army was received. Being that Lee was from Fairfax, Oklahoma, he was required to return there to be drafted into the U.S. Army. Avis, Leland, and Lee Jr. boarded a train and returned to Oklahoma.

Avis Eaves remembrance set in Puerto Rico (Obituary)

Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves, formerly of Deer Creek, Okla. Died in Thornton Colorado on Thursday, Jan. 8th 2009.


Avis is the last surviving daughter of Charles and Florence (Robinson) Reid of Deer Creek, known as being a pioneer settler of Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma in 1893. Avis was 85 when she died. In her life, she was a devoted loving wife, mother and grandmother. She was married to Leland Edward Eaves of Fairfax, Oklahoma for 48 years. Avis is survived by 7 children, Leland Edward Eaves Jr., Charles Lamar Eaves , Deanna Janell (DeLong) Eaves, David Reid Eaves, Jay Clifton Eaves, Laura Ellen (Ballard) Eaves and Earnest Lee Eaves. Avis and Lee were proud loving grandparents of 15 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. Avis will be put rest next to her loving husband, Leland Edward Eaves Sr., in Ponce, Puerto Rico at a private family memorial service on March 21, 2009. The family may be contacted by writing David R. Eaves, 26802 Via Zaragosa, Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691

Picking Dinner | The Columbian

This Sunday, May 9th, a wonderful speaker is going to share his knowledge and recipes for local 'Wild Foods'. Want to become an educated forager in your own backyard? Meet him  - he's a PhD with a book coming out on June 1st - at the Plankhouse.

The event is free, but parking is $3.  Details are in the link below from the Columbian!

Picking Dinner The Columbian

INVITATION TO JOIN OUR RIDGEFIELD LIVING HISTORY PROJECT!!!

Most historical records are about land acquisitions, wills, births, deaths and marriages. The RLHP is about these things and more. We are interested in the people who lived here before and who live here now. Participate as little or much as you like.

• Record/video/write to preserve oral histories in the greater Ridgefield Area - anyone who has history here: tribal, early settlers, residency or business, schools, clubs, past and current residents, young and old! (Minors will need written parental permission for this activity outside their own families.)

• Photo Grid Preservation of Ridgefield 2010-2011: One sq.mile sections on a map will be assigned randomly and be photographed over a year. The Clark County Historical Museum has agreed to post photos and photographers' names.

• Engage our businesses: Preserve the current and past histories of businesses.

• Create personal family trees and provide free beginners’ genealogy classes.

• Preserve the experiences of Ridgefielders who met famous visitors (for example, Charles Lindbergh)

• Preserve the stories of ‘what life used to be like’ when a person was a child.

• Collaborate with the tribes who are and were here, and wish to share histories

• Engage newcomers and oldtimers and in-betweens as a community building exercise in which everyone interested in Ridgefield can participate.

• Compile Political History of Ridgefield: Who were our mayors, councilpersons?

• Provide resources contacts and links: Libraries, Clark County, Olympia, and groups like the Mayflower Society (10% of all Americans are descended from them) and some of the Royals sites (150 million Americans, or about half, are descended from royals born before the 17th century), the Clark County Genealogical Society, the Clark County Historical Museum, etc.

• Ridgefield Schools History: Hopefully the school can provide scans of class pictures, locals can provide photos others can help identify, etc.

• History of the Arts in the Ridgefield Area: those here and those who lived here.

• Collaborations/support of the Cemetery Committee, the Heritage Committee, the Clark County Historical Museum/Society and local clubs/organizations in the Ridgefield Area.

• Eventual goals: Ridgefield's own historical museum and society (perhaps as a branch of our Clark County Historical Society/Museum).

Got a better idea? Come to our first meeting:

When: Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 7:00 pm

Where: Pickled Heron Gallery, 418 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield, WA 98642

INFO: Elizabeth Madrigal @ 360-887-4530

Email: ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject@gmail.com

Mailing address: RLHP, c/o Elizabeth Madrigal, 31607 NW 44th Avenue, Ridgefield, WA 98642

Facebook Fan Page:  Ridgefield Living History Project