Womack Gastin Family, Part 2
Just a few episodes of interest of the things my sisters and I did besides those I have written. My grandson Gary has asked me to write of them.
My sister Gladys was always with me and one time a girl at school, Hazel Winings, called her a tag tail. No one was going to call my sister that, so I put up a good fight and hit her. It was recess at school I got in trouble with my teacher. One time Gladys got in trouble at school. She and some others played hooky and a lady who was a good friend to all of us wrote excuses but they got caught. She got a good scolding from Mother.
When we lived on Uncle Jim’s farm, there was a wheat bin full of grain. One day Gladys and I decided to play in it but papa found us before anything happened. One time when we were at Uncle Jim’s playing on the barn loft, where there was a hay barn with high rafters and we had been to a circus in town. Gladys and Laura decided to do a trapeze act on the rafters with a rope, but Roy and I being scared called Mother and Aunt Kate. Both girls got a good licking. One time when we lived on this farm we had to walk to school. This time it was winter and on our way home we got caught in a bad snowstorm. We could hardly see, but Papa had told us to always stay by a fence so we did. Luckily Papa came and found us.
When Gladys was a little girl some gypsies came to Lostine where we lived and they started to walk away with her. They were down the street, but mother ran and got her. The gypsies came and camped there at times.
Almost every summer, a merry go round came and stayed for several days. It was the highlight of the summer and then there was the 4th of July celebration. There wasn’t much going on in the summer. In the winter there was sledding on the hills and skating on the pond.
Christmas we had a tree at church. It always was a big one with homemade decorations. We had a program to, and then candy was given to all the children as our names were called. There was a community tree for all of us. In those days we didn’t put up trees in our homes, but we put up stockings. Christmas was a happy time, not commercial. People went to church and family homes.
Easter was nice too. I remember we girls always had a new dress. I remember one time I had a little Parasol and I was happy to have it. I think it was pink.
A few other things I remember about us girls, Mina Being younger wasn’t in on the things we did, but one time when I was about 17 I had a boy friend who lived in Enterprise. He wrote me a letter every day and ended by saying I like you yes I do. I wouldn’t let Gladys see them and I hid them in the wood shed in a sack of feathers but, Gladys got Mina to get them and showed them to some of her friends who called me yes I do. I got even with her, I wore a new dress of hers before she did, was she ever mad.
One time I had a boyfriend, who lived in Wallowa, so one Saturday I baked a cake and I thought I had it safe as I was going to serve it to him and other friends. But when I went to get it she had found it and had taken it to her friends. I always got mad at her but not for long, we always stuck together and were known as the Womack girls.
Our Mother was a good Mother, we could always talk to her, she always gave us good advice. Papa was such a good father; he always looked after us and knew where we were and whom we were with. I wondered often how he knew so much. He never yelled at us, just talked. I don’t think us girls ever kept any thing from them. This is the end of these little stories, but the memory lingers on. I was lucky to have such loving parents and two sisters who were and still are very dear to me.
Additional Information from Clara
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Letter from Clara, Part Two