Stories about Mom and Dad

This story is from Anna:  The last time I saw Oma was the summer of 2011, and the last thing she did for me was to give my husband and I a memory to last. Her home butted against a property with a massive, gorgeous, flourishing lemon tree. My husband, Tyler, loves fresh squeezed lemonade had been thinking about this lemon tree during our entire trip. Finally, on the last evening we were there, he inquired about what happened to the lemons. Oma, in a most clear and direct manner, explained that the neighbor had no interest in sharing the lemons and at the end of the season most would fall off the tree and rot. It was obvious that this royally pist her off - I assume because she never wasted food.  We, however, were welcome to take as many lemons as we wanted, she said. I have rarely seen Oma with this emotion, but there was venom in her words and revenge on her mind. I politely declined, not wanting to stir up any trouble, but my husband jumped at the opportunity. I th...

After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, I remember telling Dad that I'd donated to the Red Cross. Dad got furious and told me NEVER to donate to the Red Cross; they were horrible people and the organization shouldn't exist.  Here's that story, and the story of what happened to Uncle David. Let's see if I can get all the facts in here... Slim Hampton (Edwin Earl Hampton Sr) separated from Ange Atkinson Isham Hampton (Atkinson was a middle name, not a previous married name) when Dad was still a teenager...  He was living with another woman in Coalinga working for Keck (yep, that Keck). I know nothing about the other woman. Ange at that time was running a boarding house, and both boys were living with her; I don't know if Slim paid her any child support, or if they had a boarding house before Slim moved out. Dad had interesting ideas about food. You ate what was put in front of you; you didn't talk much while you were eating; and you didn't change the food...

You never think much about what happens to servicemen who are deployed at the end of a war, especially not as large of a war as WWII was... Dad was in or near Manilla when WWII ended and the task of bringing everyone home started. He was told that he might be there for months before there was room on a transport to get him home. He ended up spending a few days before he was able to secure a spot on a very very crowded ship on its way back to California. I don't know if Dad had much to come home to; I know he married Marilyn shortly after the war, and was with her for close to 10 years, but I don't know if he knew her before he left. His father, Edwin Earl Hampton Sr (Slim), had died of a heart attack in 1940. Slim and Ange (nee Ange Atkinson Isham) had separated a couple years before his death. Ange ran their house in Wasco as a boarding house, and had the two boys with her, while Slim had moved to Coalinga or near there, and had taken up with another woman, who I know nothin...

Mom always made Christmas cookies, and we kids always helped. Mom would make Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Nut cookies mostly for us kids, then make some special cookies that only happened at Christmas; Vanilla Kipfel, cinnamon stars, some anise type cookies, sugar cookies cut into shapes with colored sugar on them, and some twisted cookies with yeast in them. We kids hated the anise cookies, but Mom made them for herself. The cookies would go into tins and cannisters, and come out for special occasions during the Christmas season; for visitors, for game nights, as a second dessert. One year, the wife of one of Dad's colleagues had emergency surgery right before Christmas; they had 5 children, if I recall correctly, and the thought of those poor kids not having Christmas cookies did not sit well with Mom. She and I started baking, and making mostly traditional American cookies, we filled up a HUGE platter of cookies and delivered it to the family a few days before Christmas. I'l...

Dad was surprisingly handy with some tasks, and not with others. For example, he and Mom built the forms and poured a concrete edging strip around the lawn in the backyard; he put up a tether ball pole for us in the backyard (that doubled as a pole for the clothesline). I think they put the sprinkler system in front and back, and Dad planted a wonderful hybrid bermuda lawn, like the kind used for golf greens; the lawn was like a carpet, and wonderful to play on... This beautiful hybrid bermuda grass required a special lawnmower that would mow extra low. Dad would periodically bring home things from the oilfield; in this case a particularly clear and lovely crude oil that was such high grade that it would need little refining... I remember it looked like dark honey and smelled lovely. So Dad ran out of oil for the lawn mower and used that instead. It worked fo a couple of months before the engine gummed up sufficiently to require a full rebuild. I believe he added a hose bib in the ...

Mom had a problem with wasting food; I think it's because she knew hunger. Her mother, in fact, died of liver issues that were related to malnutrition during WWII. So when Halloween came around, she could not waste the pumpkin. So before we carved the pumpkin, she'd scoop out the seeds, then, using her biggest metal cooking spoon, she'd carefully shave out as much of the pumpkin meat as she could. This is hard work! I've tried it. The upside to this was that the pumpkin was ludicrously easy to carve, as it was only 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick... She'd then take the pumpkin, boil it, and make pumpkin pies. Dad would put them carefully on a board in the backseat of his car and deliver them to friends. Of course everyone would insist he come in for a drink, Dad, despite promising he wouldn't, would come home throughly polluted...

I just returned from Pasadena, we were there overnight for a little R&R and to look at some art.  Travelling through, I was reminded of a story Mom had told me. She was going to take Jacqueline to Disneyland, but was afraid to drive on LA freeways; LA freeways had to have been a lot easier back then... I think it was Grover Collins that told gave her this strategy: immediately pull all the way to the left into the fast lane, then stay there until you're close to your destination. That was there's only cars passing you on one side. I think this behavior is a felony on the Autobahns of Germany, but it's legal in LA, and that's the way Mom navigated LA freeways for many years. I'm imagining how exasperating that must have been for the other drivers... This fear of LA Freeways might account for the reason she and Jacqueline never went to visit Clark Gable. They were on the same plane to LA when Mom emigrated; Mr. Gable was apparently quite taken with the baby Ja...