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The Memories of Irene Whitfield Chisholm |
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In 1979, I gave my mother a hardcover blank book and asked her to please write down all the stories of her childhood that she'd been telling me. She claimed she couldn't think of which stories I could possibly want written down. So, I sat down and made a list. I gave her the list and then she gave up and started writing. She didn't write everything on the list, and she wrote a few things that weren't. But she wrote down things in more detail. At first, they were merely interesting. But now, more than fifteen years after her death, they are a treasure trove of history and family knowledge.
Circa 1900
When Uncle Millard was a wee tot people liked to ask him what he was going to do when
he grew up. He answer shocked and amused his relations as he invariably said, 'Drinka
whicky moka gar.' When he grew up, he did that, but in general smoked cigarettes.
He died of emphysema years later.
NOTES:
For those who don't translate written 'childish' very well, what Uncle Millard said was: 'Drink whiskey, smoke a cigar'. He was born 1895.
1908 or 1909
Aunt Mary Whitfield-Cardwell imported a lovely and very expensive piano from back
East. When she had Infantile Paralysis, age about 22, she could not play the piano
anymore. Eventually she gave it to mother on condition that she give it to her daughter.
Mother's daughter was me. Aunt Mary had no heirs and she took a close interest in me.
Maybe because Mother played the organ and she figured we could use a piano. I was
not born yet when she gave me her piano. I guess she just knew that I would be a girl.
1930s -- Fall City, Washington
When Rod and Bonnie Rose were pre-schoolers, maybe two and five or younger, the house
was just being built and was very rough and unfinished. Jack gave each of them a small
hammer and bucket of nails. They enjoyed themselves for weeks pounding nails all over
the house, inside, mostly. Sometimes Rod would find some short pieces of lumber and
nail them together. He always liked to make things. He was about two or three when,
after working hard on one of his fantastic creations he would bring it to me saying,
'Look, Mother, look! What did I make?' and I would try to guess what. Usually he
didn't know, either.
Some years later he was inventing a horn. It consisted mainly of a pipe or
hose reaching from the attic to the basement. It did make a noise but I doubt
if any sane person would call it music.
1950 Circa -- Fall City & Mount Si High School
Bonnie Rose had very few pretty things to wear to school. When she was a freshman
in High School we made her a new pleated skirt & bought her a new blouse for her
birthday and because she had been sick and needed cheering up, I bought a lipstick
to brighten her life a little. I think it did. She was quite excited. She fixed her
hair up especially pretty and put on her new clothes and lipstick and went to school.
Imagine her disappointment when her friends ignored her. Didn't even say 'Hi!' Not
until some of the other girls came buzzing around did she catch on. They said, 'We
thought you were a new girl.' And that was why. Her friends did not recognize her
either.
Children are thoughtless about other people's rights to privacy. They learn that from grownups who have been spying on them since their world began and interrupting just when things were getting interesting, ruining everything.
Diary: Irene Margery Whitfield Chisholm
Photographer: Jack Chisholm
Author/artist/designer/programmer of page: Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This website and all contents copyright 2009 Penelope Chisholm aka Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This page first posted 8 May 2007
Latest revision: 23 January 2011
