I am Olivetta Lucille Conklin, born November 2, 1946, to Doris E. Thomas and Joseph Geno Conklin in Vallejo, California. First of all, it is my wish to keep alive on paper many of the stories my mother told my sister, Rosella, and me as youngsters. In my mind they are beautiful. Though my niece, Jade Kaarlyn, will not know her grandmother who died, she may read and be told of her and grow to love her as we did.
(It's quite remarkable that Jade chose to put this wonderful Web site together, don't you think?)
My mother, Doris, was second to the youngest of four daughters of Olive Rosalind Pitcher and Watt (Washington he disliked) Thomas. Joyce, being the eldest, followed by Gladys (my favorite aunt), then Mom, and the baby, Ruby. I have known all of my aunts well with the exception of Ruby who died of yellow jaundice when I was a little girl. But I still remember her well.
So this family lived in the state of Washington and Grandad was a lumberjack. They lived on a farm and had two big plow horses, named Jake and Bill. Mom could ride those horses alright but they were so big she had a heck of a time getting on them. So she'd practice jumping from the rear almost killing herself every time. I don't think she ever made it! Mom loved those horses. She told us about them many times.
Ruby was definitely the baby of the family and Grandmother, who I never knew, seemed to favor her. So this one time something was snitched and Mother was blamed. She was paddled but good and only after the punishment did the true guilty one confess. Well, Grandmother gave Mom a stick of gum to show how sorry she felt and Mother divided that stick into five pieces; four for the girls, and one for her mother. Mom said that Grandmother was overcome with emotion and went into her room and cried and cried.
Back to Grandad for a while. What a hard worker. And what he said in his home was law. Well, this one time "Timber!" was yelled out but he just didn't hear. The giant tree came crashing down smashing him into the soft earth. His teeth were pushed right back in his mouth but he was alive. After that it was false teeth for Grandad.
I wish I could remember who it was that lost their false teeth in the manure and retrieved them again. I think it was Grandad but how could my smart grandfather have let a thing like that slip out?
I can't remember much more about her childhood so I'll write now times I remember about her when I was a child.
My mother reared Rose and me entirely by herself. At the time I took it for granted but when I look back on it I wonder how she managed.
Mom was a talented woman. She sang, whistled, danced, played the saxophone, wrote music and lyrics, and wrote novels under the pen name of Jade Greene. She was so active. Anything Rosie and I did she was right there with us. She played softball with us, hiked, swam, you name it. And she was also a beloved clown in the parades in Vallejo. She made Rose and me clown costumes, by hand, which we wore. Somehow we didn't quite make the parade like she did though.
Mother managed to buy a small, two-story house for $5,000 when we were babies. It was perched on the top of a hill, Renida Street. Our number was 135 and the mail boxes were all in a row on an elevated plank at the bottom of the hill, Warren Avenue. When we went after the mail that hill seemed more like Mt. Everest.
Talented as she was she could never quite channel her abilities. She did get a song published once, "Humpty Dumpty." So she made her living selling which was mainly greeting cards, Christmas cards, and gifts. She would get an order and drive over with all her boxesful. If Rose and I sold any we'd get a quarter on every dollar. That was good money. It was always a desire of Mom's to have a bus so that customers could come in and she wouldn't have to lift box after box in and out of each house.
Many times when she would have to work on a Saturday she'd drop us off at Vallejo City Park and we were told we could cross the street to the little store to spend our penny but that was it. We loved those days in the park. One time some girl asked me what nationality I was because of my dark coloring and I replied proudly, "American."
Mom had a close friend named Alma. When I think back I don't know why she didn't scold us because she had an awful temper. But Rose and I continually went back and forth in the house from where we were waiting in the car, to ask for a penny. And she gave it to us every time!
Getting back to the park we were always summoned by two honks of the horn. And that usually meant Scotty's potato donuts. That was a great treat.
Speaking of her temper. My brother, Phil, made Rose and me a pink step chair for the bathroom so we could reach to brush our teeth. Well, the way I remember it, when Mom wanted something and we couldn't find it she'd either throw something or kick something. Well, it so happened that this step chair was in the living room under a stack of opened newspapers and she kicked the newspapers. Just then the post man knocked to deliver the packages of the gifts she sold, and what a scene. That soon-to-be ingrown toe nail gave her grief the rest of her days, but she never lost that temper!
I was about to be spanked one time with a strap when the phone rang. Seizing the opportunity I took the strap out the back porch and threw it in the tall anise weeds behind that big, green wooden thing. When she got off the phone I had the pleasure of choosing my own switch which unfortunately grew in the front yard. Being smart I thought the thinnest one would be to my best advantage. Not so.
We had a number of fruit trees and an almond tree on our acre. There was apple, nectarine, fig, artichoke, and sweet peas. Those are flowers though! At one time there was a little chicken coop in the back but I never remember it being inhabited. We usually had a little dog around, Blackie and Brownie were names of different ones. We had a Siamese cat named Sulton, too.
And then Mom decided she could make some money by raising Pekinese pups. There was Bootsie, Smokie, Tommie and Teenie. How we enjoyed those dogs. Bootsie must be the one was a pregnant lassie but she lost it. Tommie was so darned homely but Bootsie and Teenie were precious.
When we were little girls Mom made some of our clothes by hand. This tiny orange--checked dress I had even outdid that girl in the frilly white dress with the big bow at the Solano County Fairgrounds annual Easter egg hunt. Mine was still prettier than hers!
At a very young age when we had rented the bottom part of the house to another family, I found Mother crying upstairs on the bed. How awful that made me feel.
In the summer or nice weather we'd lay out in front on that white shag rug. Mom would pluck the hairs in her chin and I would ask why I didn't have any. She'd say not to worry, I'd have them someday, and she was right!
One of her big dreams was to build her own home, all round. Every corner would be rounded off, right down to a round bed. Who ever heard of such a thing! At that time a round bed was unheard of and now her Dreamhouse is a reality, but not her own.
We were given swimming lessons at an early age and participated in many meets at the Vallejo Plunge. Mom would buy a summer pass there and we'd swim every single day.
She also made sure we had tap dance, ballet, and baton twirling lessons. We got our love of dancing straight from Mom herself though. Right down to the charleston. And our love to travel must come from all those trips we took up to Washington when Grandad was sick. Snow or shine we'd be on our way. We'd start honking the horn at that little general store on the corner in Yelm down to Joyce and Gilbert's and drive in on their huge driveway which circled in front of their house. Mom loved to surprise people so she'd never say she was coming.
Mom bought us a small, portable organ for Christmas one year. And we were given toy instruments so that if we learned to play she'd buy us a real one. I got a toy sax and Rosie wanted an accordion.
My big, relentless dream as a child growing up was a nice house. I was always ashamed of it and in reality I shouldn't have been. But Eileen Bell, or Donna Shirey, or Barbara Ancheta always seemed to live in a nicer one than ours.
Birthday parties--wow! What an occasion. Being mine is two days after Hallowe'en everybody dressed up but I recall they were all surprise parties.
Phil took Rosie and me for a walk to his house but half way there we had to turn around and come back because he had forgotten something. We were so mad. But when we got back there was a big surprise birthday party for me. Mom made her banana ice cream and one of her cakes. We played drop the clothes pin in the bottle, pin the tail on the donkey, who can blow the biggest bubble, ring around the Rosie, all those good games.
And of course Christmas. That was the beginning, to come home after school to find a ceiling-high tree in the front room window all decorated. Mom had usually traded some Christmas cards for a nice tree.
Rosie and I would curl up on either side of Mama on the couch and we'd sit for hours and look at the tree. It was always so magnificent.
Getting back again to Mother's childhood experiences.
One day she was with her sister Ruby and they had seen how bees were cared for. Donning their mother's apparel of hat with lace, long gloves, etc., they set out for the bees. Stung from head to toe they were and eyes were swollen shut.
And then the garder snakes in the strawberry patch. She looked like a tom boy but that didn't keep the boys from chasing her with snakes. So Grandad told her she must pick one up by its tail and chase after them. It took some nerve but she got it and they never chased her again.
Known as Babe Ruth in the neighborhood and also called Dorass Thomass by the daring few, Mother was an excellent swimmer.
She told us many times of swimming Five-Mile Lake. When she got across there was no place to rest so she began the long, tired-out swim back. Upon reaching the bank she saw someone drowning and the people stood around gaping at what they saw. Only after Mother dove under a whirlpool to save the swimmer did the people go into action and then it was discovered Ruby was the drowning stranger.
In those days before Women's Liberation was even thought of and when the man really was the head of the house the Thomas family had gathered for dinner at the table. Grandma got to giggling and Grandad excused her from the table and would not allow her back until she had control of herself.
And then there was the time Mom was goofing off at the table and sent to her room for the night. Grandma sneeked food into her room.
Mom had her own band at the age of 16 and she whistled on the radio. It's a wonder she lived to that age with a father that was a logging man.
She was riding the logs and Grandad drove Jake and Bill. She fell between the logs but her cries for help could not be heard above the grinding roar of the logs and horses. When she was discovered at last her jeans had to be cut from her bleeding legs.
Mother had rheumatic fever at a young age. She told us how her mother lined chairs up backwards to form a walkway where Mother could try to walk. With faith and prayers she did walk.
Growing up for Rose and me was continual travel and we loved it. We drove to Washington often if Grandad was ill. One time in the mountains the ice and snow was quite bad and she skidded and landed in the bank going the opposite direction. We are reportedly to have asked excitedly if she wouldn't do it again!
Mom knew Fred, the man who was in charge of maintaining the grounds at the Auto Movies. He gave us free passes all the time. On one evening of particular hysterics while we were sucking on Sugar Daddys Mom took hers out to laugh and both her uppers and lowers were steadfastly attached.
One of my fondest memories of childhood is that of waking up in the backseat of our light green '55 Chevy as Mom drove along on one of our trips. Rose and I would lay with our feet at each other's head.
One time we turned into a gas station and suddenly cars seemed to pour into it too. Mom said simply, "I bring good luck." She really believed she did too.
She told us about the time she was passing an accident, stopped, found a man pinned under the car. She lifted that car by herself and was able to get him clear of the car. We can do anything when we have to.
(It's quite remarkable that Jade chose to put this wonderful Web site together, don't you think?)
My mother, Doris, was second to the youngest of four daughters of Olive Rosalind Pitcher and Watt (Washington he disliked) Thomas. Joyce, being the eldest, followed by Gladys (my favorite aunt), then Mom, and the baby, Ruby. I have known all of my aunts well with the exception of Ruby who died of yellow jaundice when I was a little girl. But I still remember her well.
So this family lived in the state of Washington and Grandad was a lumberjack. They lived on a farm and had two big plow horses, named Jake and Bill. Mom could ride those horses alright but they were so big she had a heck of a time getting on them. So she'd practice jumping from the rear almost killing herself every time. I don't think she ever made it! Mom loved those horses. She told us about them many times.
Ruby was definitely the baby of the family and Grandmother, who I never knew, seemed to favor her. So this one time something was snitched and Mother was blamed. She was paddled but good and only after the punishment did the true guilty one confess. Well, Grandmother gave Mom a stick of gum to show how sorry she felt and Mother divided that stick into five pieces; four for the girls, and one for her mother. Mom said that Grandmother was overcome with emotion and went into her room and cried and cried.
Back to Grandad for a while. What a hard worker. And what he said in his home was law. Well, this one time "Timber!" was yelled out but he just didn't hear. The giant tree came crashing down smashing him into the soft earth. His teeth were pushed right back in his mouth but he was alive. After that it was false teeth for Grandad.
I wish I could remember who it was that lost their false teeth in the manure and retrieved them again. I think it was Grandad but how could my smart grandfather have let a thing like that slip out?
I can't remember much more about her childhood so I'll write now times I remember about her when I was a child.
My mother reared Rose and me entirely by herself. At the time I took it for granted but when I look back on it I wonder how she managed.
Mom was a talented woman. She sang, whistled, danced, played the saxophone, wrote music and lyrics, and wrote novels under the pen name of Jade Greene. She was so active. Anything Rosie and I did she was right there with us. She played softball with us, hiked, swam, you name it. And she was also a beloved clown in the parades in Vallejo. She made Rose and me clown costumes, by hand, which we wore. Somehow we didn't quite make the parade like she did though.
Mother managed to buy a small, two-story house for $5,000 when we were babies. It was perched on the top of a hill, Renida Street. Our number was 135 and the mail boxes were all in a row on an elevated plank at the bottom of the hill, Warren Avenue. When we went after the mail that hill seemed more like Mt. Everest.
Talented as she was she could never quite channel her abilities. She did get a song published once, "Humpty Dumpty." So she made her living selling which was mainly greeting cards, Christmas cards, and gifts. She would get an order and drive over with all her boxesful. If Rose and I sold any we'd get a quarter on every dollar. That was good money. It was always a desire of Mom's to have a bus so that customers could come in and she wouldn't have to lift box after box in and out of each house.
Many times when she would have to work on a Saturday she'd drop us off at Vallejo City Park and we were told we could cross the street to the little store to spend our penny but that was it. We loved those days in the park. One time some girl asked me what nationality I was because of my dark coloring and I replied proudly, "American."
Mom had a close friend named Alma. When I think back I don't know why she didn't scold us because she had an awful temper. But Rose and I continually went back and forth in the house from where we were waiting in the car, to ask for a penny. And she gave it to us every time!
Getting back to the park we were always summoned by two honks of the horn. And that usually meant Scotty's potato donuts. That was a great treat.
Speaking of her temper. My brother, Phil, made Rose and me a pink step chair for the bathroom so we could reach to brush our teeth. Well, the way I remember it, when Mom wanted something and we couldn't find it she'd either throw something or kick something. Well, it so happened that this step chair was in the living room under a stack of opened newspapers and she kicked the newspapers. Just then the post man knocked to deliver the packages of the gifts she sold, and what a scene. That soon-to-be ingrown toe nail gave her grief the rest of her days, but she never lost that temper!
I was about to be spanked one time with a strap when the phone rang. Seizing the opportunity I took the strap out the back porch and threw it in the tall anise weeds behind that big, green wooden thing. When she got off the phone I had the pleasure of choosing my own switch which unfortunately grew in the front yard. Being smart I thought the thinnest one would be to my best advantage. Not so.
We had a number of fruit trees and an almond tree on our acre. There was apple, nectarine, fig, artichoke, and sweet peas. Those are flowers though! At one time there was a little chicken coop in the back but I never remember it being inhabited. We usually had a little dog around, Blackie and Brownie were names of different ones. We had a Siamese cat named Sulton, too.
And then Mom decided she could make some money by raising Pekinese pups. There was Bootsie, Smokie, Tommie and Teenie. How we enjoyed those dogs. Bootsie must be the one was a pregnant lassie but she lost it. Tommie was so darned homely but Bootsie and Teenie were precious.
When we were little girls Mom made some of our clothes by hand. This tiny orange--checked dress I had even outdid that girl in the frilly white dress with the big bow at the Solano County Fairgrounds annual Easter egg hunt. Mine was still prettier than hers!
At a very young age when we had rented the bottom part of the house to another family, I found Mother crying upstairs on the bed. How awful that made me feel.
In the summer or nice weather we'd lay out in front on that white shag rug. Mom would pluck the hairs in her chin and I would ask why I didn't have any. She'd say not to worry, I'd have them someday, and she was right!
One of her big dreams was to build her own home, all round. Every corner would be rounded off, right down to a round bed. Who ever heard of such a thing! At that time a round bed was unheard of and now her Dreamhouse is a reality, but not her own.
We were given swimming lessons at an early age and participated in many meets at the Vallejo Plunge. Mom would buy a summer pass there and we'd swim every single day.
She also made sure we had tap dance, ballet, and baton twirling lessons. We got our love of dancing straight from Mom herself though. Right down to the charleston. And our love to travel must come from all those trips we took up to Washington when Grandad was sick. Snow or shine we'd be on our way. We'd start honking the horn at that little general store on the corner in Yelm down to Joyce and Gilbert's and drive in on their huge driveway which circled in front of their house. Mom loved to surprise people so she'd never say she was coming.
Mom bought us a small, portable organ for Christmas one year. And we were given toy instruments so that if we learned to play she'd buy us a real one. I got a toy sax and Rosie wanted an accordion.
My big, relentless dream as a child growing up was a nice house. I was always ashamed of it and in reality I shouldn't have been. But Eileen Bell, or Donna Shirey, or Barbara Ancheta always seemed to live in a nicer one than ours.
Birthday parties--wow! What an occasion. Being mine is two days after Hallowe'en everybody dressed up but I recall they were all surprise parties.
Phil took Rosie and me for a walk to his house but half way there we had to turn around and come back because he had forgotten something. We were so mad. But when we got back there was a big surprise birthday party for me. Mom made her banana ice cream and one of her cakes. We played drop the clothes pin in the bottle, pin the tail on the donkey, who can blow the biggest bubble, ring around the Rosie, all those good games.
And of course Christmas. That was the beginning, to come home after school to find a ceiling-high tree in the front room window all decorated. Mom had usually traded some Christmas cards for a nice tree.
Rosie and I would curl up on either side of Mama on the couch and we'd sit for hours and look at the tree. It was always so magnificent.
Getting back again to Mother's childhood experiences.
One day she was with her sister Ruby and they had seen how bees were cared for. Donning their mother's apparel of hat with lace, long gloves, etc., they set out for the bees. Stung from head to toe they were and eyes were swollen shut.
And then the garder snakes in the strawberry patch. She looked like a tom boy but that didn't keep the boys from chasing her with snakes. So Grandad told her she must pick one up by its tail and chase after them. It took some nerve but she got it and they never chased her again.
Known as Babe Ruth in the neighborhood and also called Dorass Thomass by the daring few, Mother was an excellent swimmer.
She told us many times of swimming Five-Mile Lake. When she got across there was no place to rest so she began the long, tired-out swim back. Upon reaching the bank she saw someone drowning and the people stood around gaping at what they saw. Only after Mother dove under a whirlpool to save the swimmer did the people go into action and then it was discovered Ruby was the drowning stranger.
In those days before Women's Liberation was even thought of and when the man really was the head of the house the Thomas family had gathered for dinner at the table. Grandma got to giggling and Grandad excused her from the table and would not allow her back until she had control of herself.
And then there was the time Mom was goofing off at the table and sent to her room for the night. Grandma sneeked food into her room.
Mom had her own band at the age of 16 and she whistled on the radio. It's a wonder she lived to that age with a father that was a logging man.
She was riding the logs and Grandad drove Jake and Bill. She fell between the logs but her cries for help could not be heard above the grinding roar of the logs and horses. When she was discovered at last her jeans had to be cut from her bleeding legs.
Mother had rheumatic fever at a young age. She told us how her mother lined chairs up backwards to form a walkway where Mother could try to walk. With faith and prayers she did walk.
Growing up for Rose and me was continual travel and we loved it. We drove to Washington often if Grandad was ill. One time in the mountains the ice and snow was quite bad and she skidded and landed in the bank going the opposite direction. We are reportedly to have asked excitedly if she wouldn't do it again!
Mom knew Fred, the man who was in charge of maintaining the grounds at the Auto Movies. He gave us free passes all the time. On one evening of particular hysterics while we were sucking on Sugar Daddys Mom took hers out to laugh and both her uppers and lowers were steadfastly attached.
One of my fondest memories of childhood is that of waking up in the backseat of our light green '55 Chevy as Mom drove along on one of our trips. Rose and I would lay with our feet at each other's head.
One time we turned into a gas station and suddenly cars seemed to pour into it too. Mom said simply, "I bring good luck." She really believed she did too.
She told us about the time she was passing an accident, stopped, found a man pinned under the car. She lifted that car by herself and was able to get him clear of the car. We can do anything when we have to.
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