AN EARLY SPRING -- 1934

Farmhouse, 1935

Spring is late this year, and people here are tired of the long winter. “Just as well have stayed in Minnesota,” grumbled the grocery clerk, but I have to think I’d just as soon be here as Minnesota.

Grandma Ina was not fond of the long Idaho winters that turned into “mud season” as spring approached, so after Christmas she frequently traveled, visiting son Vance in Raymond, WA; daughter Myrtle in Portland; and sisters Ida and Mabel in Drain, OR, among others. Train travel in those days was affordable and efficient. She would have taken the train from Orofino to Lewiston and made connections to Seattle or Portland. Cash was scarce on the farm, so she undoubtedly saved all year for the price of her ticket.

On Feb. 8, 1934, Ina wrote a brief note to Vance:

“Am figuring on coming. Round trip to Chehalis via Portland is $17.12 but only 10 days. One way $9.51. To Seattle one way $9.02. Can’t get longer than a 10-day round trip so will just get a one-way ticket. Seems to me Portland is nearer, and I could see Myrtle, too, going and coming. It’s almost mail time and I’m very busy today canning meat and otherwise caring for it. Weather like spring – fields and hills are greening.”

It would seem that spring came early in 1934 if the fields were turning green in February. An early spring is possible, of course, but then there are other scenarios, such as late frosts in an early spring, and that will devastate the fruit crop.

No snow (Jack and Ina? Or June and Bertha?)

Then I went to my collection of Aunt Bertha’s letters to see what she might tell me about the spring of 1934. (Remember, Bertha is Ina’s sister and lived on the adjoining farm.) She says, “We walked [to Ina's at Christmas] thru the only snow we could have used a sleigh on; just a flurry or two since. The man who predicted the San Francisco earthquake said this coast would have a Florida climate and I guess it has arrived – here’s hoping.” No, we have not developed weather akin to Florida here, but it’s rather interesting that someone would predict that in 1934.

Shirley hanging clothes, 1935

Bertha’s next letter, dated April 1, 1934, indicates that Ina is still visiting the sisters in Drain. And in her letter dated June 1, Bertha reported that “Shirley [Ina’s youngest daughter] is able to run a house, just did fine with Ina gone – planted garden and set hens, etc.” So, I conclude that Ina was away from home about three months, during which time Shirley took care of the house, meals, chickens, and even planted the garden.

Myrtle feeding chickens, 1935

As for the weather, Bertha says that “everything is a month earlier than usual except getting the farm work done. June finished planting beans the 28^th, but Julian not yet done – says he would have finished today [except it rained]. Wild roses all bloomed and gone.” KW