North to Alaska, Once Again

Spending time with our extended family always seemed to go by so fast, because visits were few and far between. However, as the day grew closer to leave on our trip to Alaska, we said our goodbyes and finished all our needed tasks. We had bought a new car, a tan station wagon, and decided to drive up to Alaska, up the AlCan Highway. That is a 4,370+ mile trip from Pinehurst, NC to Anchorage. Going at that time of the year was actually better on your car because the AlCan was all gravel, and tended to beat cars up pretty bad. But with the snow cover, it was a lot easier. This journey took two weeks.

We went through a great many states and while doing so, we all got sick. This was the time that the Hong Kong flu was going around. We finally stopped in Great Falls, Montana, at the Air Force Base located there. They had just had a major car crash and some very serious injuries and didn’t have time to look at us so gave us some medication and sent us on our way. Unfortunately, the medicine had codeine in it and therefore, mom and dad couldn’t take it and drive.

Shortly after getting on the highway we slid into a ditch. Now this could be quite scary because you never knew how long it would be before another car would come along. We were very blessed though because within a very short time, a snow plow came around the corner and was able to help get us out. We continued to move toward Anchorage, although not as fast as any of us would have liked.

We had a guidebook called The Milepost that we used along the AlCan, that pointed out all kinds of neat features along this 1200-mile road. Most importantly, where the bathroom stops were. It also had major landmarks, points of interest, historic sites, restaurants, etc. If you ever make this journey, do not leave home without it. They are constantly updating it.

Texas is a big state and Alaska is even bigger. When you reach the border, you still have a very long distance to get to Anchorage.  You can see from the picture below just how large it is. A lot of it is beautiful wilderness and is still uninhabited. I hope it can always maintain those qualities. It is a gorgeous state and if you haven't been there, put it on your bucket list. The cruises along the Inland Passage are nice but you really need to go to Anchorage, Fairbanks and Denali to get a real feel for what Alaska is like.  It is a must see!

Alaska compared to the US as a whole.

By the time we got to Elmendorf AFB, the rest of the family had recovered but I was still sick. I was running a very high temperature and felt horrible. We had been on the road for two weeks, were trying to get checked into temporary quarters, I was sick, and if that was not enough to deal with, as soon as we checked in, my dad got a visit from someone telling him that my mom’s dad had passed away while we were traveling north. We didn’t have cell phones then, and we never knew where we were going to stop, so no one knew how to get ahold of us. Grandpa Garrison was buried by the time we got to Alaska. A sad time for all but a very difficult time for my mom. 

My parents made several phone calls to the doctor, about my fever. They suggested that they put me in a cold shower to bring it down. Cold showers are no fun!  I was feeling so bad and had to do them several times and they didn't do any good. I would get in and the fever would come down for a short time and then go back up again. So they finally took me to the hospital. I ended up having spinal meningitis and was in isolation for a week. Only my parents could come in and see me and then they would have to be covered from head to toe. It was very contagious. It was a scary experience. I had to have a spinal tap, which was terrible. The doctors told me that I had to lay perfectly still. Not one movement or I could have bad headaches for a long time. Little did I know that my first real sight of Alaska would be from a hospital bed.

I remember when I finally got to go home, I was still pretty sickly and my mom would have to get up several times during the night to give me medicine as well as throughout the day. It took a long time to recover fully. I remember sitting in the apartment, in Muldoon, and watching all the kids playing, sledding, etc. on the hill outside and wishing I could join them. One of the first things I did, when I was able to go out was slide down that hill.  I thought it was so huge but on a trip back there, many years later, I found that it wasn't near as big as I thought.  

Our apartment was on the second of three floors.  

I had my first close up encounter with a moose while we were still living in this apartment. I guess it was foraging for food because he came right up to the apartment building. He was huge and I remember that mom and dad said to stay away from him, even if he looked docile, because they could turn mean quick. Especially the momma's with their babies.

Our next-door neighbors in the apartment were the Gaffords. Tracy and I became good friends. We were in the same 5th grade class at Muldoon Elementary. She had two sisters, one of which was in the same school, so my brother and I walked with them to school each day, about a mile away, even in the snow.  I was fascinated with the fact that she played the drums. I had never seen a girl play the drums before. We are still friends with the Gaffords today.

We moved onto Elmendorf AFB in the summer of that year, 1969. We lived in another quad on Apricot Street, at the opposite end from where we lived the first time. I think the address was 21-632 Apricot, Apt. B. However, someone said it is no longer called Apricot Street. Lots of things have changed since we left. Yet much is still the same.

Today's Terri's Tidbit: Help out future generations who may be doing your family's genealogy. When cutting personal events out of the newspaper, (or other periodicals) make sure to have the source data, for the article, picture, memento, with it. Either write it all down and attach with the article or make sure to cut the name, date, page etc. from the top of the paper you are saving. It will make it so much easier to find out more information later, if you are careful to gather that information now.

Honeymoon High Jinks

Clara Jean Garrison became Mrs. James V. Hatch on September 14, 1956, in the Minister’s Parsonage of Culdee Presbyterian Church. She wore a beautiful dress, hat and white gloves and Dad was decked out in a very sharp looking suit. Both sets of parents were in attendance along with numerous other family members. After the wedding, they set out for their honeymoon to the mountains in western North Carolina, ready to start their life together.

Wedding Day, September 1956 

After they had left, Clara Jean’s brother Fred realized he had their luggage in his car. He realized it too late, however, to catch the happy couple, as they were already way down the road. He was in a state of panic that the newlyweds would not have the stuff they needed for their trip. He tried everything to get the bags to my parents, even contacting the local law enforcement, but to no avail. No worries though. Dad said it was not a problem because they had all they really needed for their honeymoon.

They toured the mountains, a Cherokee Indian Reservation and went to visit one of Clara Jean’s sisters, during their time away. Knowing that dad would have to leave when they got home, probably made the trip seem shorter than ever.

Several days into the honeymoon they were driving along and there was this horrible odor emanating throughout the car. They had noticed it a little along the way but now it had gotten much more pungent. Dad is looking at mom and mom is looking at dad, wondering what or who was making the smell. Awkward! They finally figured it out that it wasn’t either of them, so they pulled off the road and went through the car and discovered an open can of sardines under the rug, beneath one of the seats. One of their relatives or friends had placed it there as a joke. It took a while to get the odor out but the thought of it made them laugh whenever it came up, even years later.

After they returned home, dad headed to South Dakota and mom stayed in North Carolina to finish school. At Christmas of that year, she headed up to join him in the frigid Rapid City weather. They began their life together a long way from North Carolina, a long way from home, a long way from family. 

A little over a year later, the first of their three children arrived in this world. Me! My mom had a very hard pregnancy. She was sick for many months and lost a lot of weight, which she couldn't afford to lose. I was born on January 6, 1958 at St. John’s Hospital, there in Rapid City. Years later, the hospital was converted into apartments. Our family went through Rapid City when I was 16 to see the town, Mount Rushmore and the hospital I was born in.

I asked my dad about the day I was born and he said, “We did not live far from the hospital. We had made several dry runs to time it, see how long it took, etc. The night your mom's water broke, we got up, got dressed, got her bag, got in the car and drove right past the hospital…we laughed about that for years. In those days you could not go in the room for delivery… I got word of your birth then took off to see you.”

Me standing in front of the hospital I was born in.

Our little family lived in an apartment, which used to be part of a local motel. It sat on the outskirts of town, on the road to the airport. It is still there today. I have pictures from back then with my mom and I, and outside of the change in color, it looks very much the same.

I don’t remember anything about our stay in South Dakota because I was still very little and we weren’t there long after I was born. As was typical of Air Force families at that time, we were off to a new base long before we had the chance to put down too many roots. However, I do know that while there, Rev. Rew Walz baptized me at First Presbyterian Church. Right after I was born he typed me a note and placed it inside a tiny white bible that he gave me. I still have both to this day.

It wasn’t long and we moved to Goldsboro, North Carolina. My dad was transferred to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and on April 15, 1959, my brother Kevin came into this world. We are 15 months apart in age. He was my best friend and what one didn’t think of, the other did. We had many exciting adventures as kids, much to my parent’s chagrin. I’ll share more on our escapades later. 

This was a great place to go after being all the way out in South Dakota. Mom and dad were close to home again. Our house was on Luftberry Drive and when I went looking for that address on Google Earth, it looks like the houses of that time have been torn down and new ones constructed. The house was a Capehart home, which was typical military housing on several of the bases we lived on. If any of them are still standing, they are very old.

Kevin, too, knew little of his birthplace, as we were off to Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska, long before he was able to remember Goldsboro. Moving to Alaska would once again take us a long way from Pinehurst/Southern Pines, North Carolina and to another very cold climate! Would we like it?

Terri's Tidbit for Today:  I really like my Amazon Prime!  With the Prime membership, you can get free two day shipping (I used an option where you could take a longer delivery time, still free, and got a $1.00 credit towards a book), you get great music you can listen to, you can watch lots of instant videos and I learned today that if you buy something from Amazon and they drop the price within a week, you can contact them and depending on what you bought, they may credit you the difference.  Because I have family all over the US, I really benefit from the free shipping but I love all the other features too.  

Ola Mae, "The Hello Girl"

James Vernon Hatch, my father, was best friends with Jimmy Barber, my mom’s boyfriend, who died on her sixteenth birthday. Dad knew mom before this happened, not only through Jimmy but also through a mutual friend. Dad had dated one of mom’s good friends, Martha, for three years. So it was only natural that he would stop by to give his condolences to my mom, after Jimmy passed away.

Dad was grieving. When the accident happened, Jimmy was away at school and dad was in basic training for the Air Force, in San Antonio. No one wanted to tell him about the accident because they knew how upset he would be. When he got home, he went to see my mom. She knew the pain he was experiencing.

After that, my dad was off to Wyoming for Tech School and they talked on the phone several times. He told me that she wrote him everyday and signed the letters, “Your little sister”. He returned to North Carolina later in 1955 with orders to go to Saudi Arabia and they started dating. They dated almost every night before he left. He got to Saudi and decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with mom. So he bought a ring, sent it to his parent’s house with a note asking her to marry him. His mom and dad, Ola Mae and Plinny Hatch, had mom over for dinner and during the evening, gave her the note and the ring. They got married in September 1956.

Until two weeks ago, I had no idea that this is how my dad proposed. I never thought to ask. I am very blessed to still have dad around and am now taking time to ask him questions about his growing up years. Something I should have done with my mom. He was more than willing to help me out in my quest to find out more about our family. Here are some of the things I learned.

Little Jimmy Hatch was a personable kid. He was an only child and grew up in several different places. He was born in Charlotte, NC on November 13, 1935. The family didn’t live there long before they moved to the town of Wilson, Wilson County, NC, and lived there for about 4 years. They may have lived in Whiteville for a period of time but they eventually moved to Southern Pines and remained there. 

My Dad and his mom, Ola Mae

His mother, Ola Mae Marley was born in Lee County, North Carolina on May 10, 1907 to James Rupert and Bessie Frieda Thomas Marley. She graduated from Goldston High School in 1925. Two years prior to that, her and her sister went to work for a small independent telephone office. Her sister, the only other operator, worked the day shift from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Ola Mae worked the 4 to 9:00 p.m. In an interview for the Sandhill Citizen Newspaper on May 13, 1971, she said, “Our equipment consisted of a one-position switchboard. When you received a call (which wasn’t often) there was a little buzz, and a little lid affair opened and when you answered, this would close. To ring a number, you had to turn a crank.” [1] When I was in college, I worked the switchboard at the dorm I lived in.  When I first started working there, they still had the old PBX system where you plugged in to the different switches and manually rang the phones.  I loved that job and could see why my grandma enjoyed it for so many years.  Thank goodness, though, we have come a long way with our telephones.

In 1927 her parents moved to Sanford so she boarded with a local Goldston family, continuing to work. Later that year, Central Carolina Company bought their office. Ola said, “I was bought along with it and moved to Siler City.” [2]

Her sister moved to Southern Pines, NC and liked it, so she convinced Ola to move there too, in 1930. They were putting the phone systems into Pinehurst and it kept her busy, which she liked. She stayed there until her marriage to Plinny Vernon Hatch on April 23, 1933. They moved several places with Plinny’s job but were in Charlotte in November of 1935, when my dad was born.

They moved back to Southern Pines in 1939 and one of the employees at the telephone company went to Plinny’s job to sound him out as to whether he thought Ola might return to work. She thought about it and decided she could do the job and still not be away from her son too much. In 1945, just six years after starting in that office, she became a supervisor.

She loved her job. She continued to be a Supervisor up until the day she retired in 1971. United Telephone Company of the Carolinas had bought the company, at that point.

The company gave her a great retirement party. She received a beautiful watch, set with diamonds, and lots of gifts from those she worked with. One of the gifts required some of her coworkers to sneak into her home and take measurements over her mantel to make sure they got the right size, gold-framed mirror, with matching candle holders. Many of her family were able to come in for the festivities, which was an added treat.

Grandpa and Grandma Hatch at her retirement party.

She had many plans for her retirement. Her and my grandpa had bought a house three years before and she was looking forward to working in the garden and spending time with friends.

Her memories of working for the telephone company inspired her to write a little poem. Here is what she wrote:

The telephone girls in the days of old

Had the number to crank and the mouthpiece to hold.

They’d wade through ice or sleet or snow –

Their job was important, as we all should know.

She worked through tears, she worked through smiles,

She connected voices for many miles.

My Grandma, Ola Mae, was known for her smile. And if you really wanted to see her light up, just be around when her son would walk into the room. The Air Force had kept my family a long way from North Carolina, so every moment that she was able to spend with him was precious to her. She loved her son and said numerous times (even in the newspapers) how proud she was of his service in the military. She always looked forward to having him home.

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  If you shop at Walmart, you need to download their Savings Catcher app.  It has the ability to scan your shopping receipt, check local prices to see if something was cheaper elsewhere and if so, they credit you the amount.  Instead of running from store to store to get the best price, it does the work for you and you get money back, if their competitor has a better price.  

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[1][2] Nicholson, V. (1971, May 13).  Mrs. Ola Hatch Retires From Telephone Work After Many Years. The Sandhill Citizen, p. 3

Clara Jean's Box of Special Treasures

Being an Air Force wife is not an easy job. You pick up your family and everything in your home and move it, lots! From the time my mom married my dad on September 14, 1956, until she passed away, she moved at least twelve times. Some of those moves may have been in the same town where we moved from an apartment to a house. Her final move was to San Antonio in 1981. Considering that some people never leave their original homes, twelve times in 25 years is a lot of moves. Clara Jean Garrison Hatch knew how to pack. She had the moves down to a fine science. Since we were limited on weight by the movers, it was also a time to purge unwanted/unneeded items.

The first move in my mom’s life was from the hospital in Pinehurst, North Carolina to her parent’s home in West End, just a few miles down the road. Mom was born on February 10, 1939. She was one of the first of her family to be born in a hospital. Very early in her life, she was nicknamed “Tukie” and was referred to that even later in life. When she would return home, her family called her Clara Jean or Tukie but the military friends she made with each move, always called her Jean. I wish I had thought to ask why she dropped the Clara.

Being the youngest of 12 and only one of four girls, I suspect her older brothers watched her over, carefully. Many of them were quite a bit older. The first born, Ira Paul, was 25 years older. That is a whole generation difference in age. The next oldest brother, Albert Hamilton Jr., 22 years older, was married and already had a son, Charles, who was born two years before mom. A niece and nephew were actually in the same grade with her, for all their years of school. That would be odd to be in elementary school and have someone call you Aunt Clara Jean. 

Mom's Baby Doll 

Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about mom’s early years, except what I can glean from a box of her “special treasures” that she left behind. Buried inside were so many surprises; many fun things I had never seen before. One was this little doll. She is very old and I have no idea what the story is behind her but she was important enough for mom to keep her for her entire life. I think her little bonnet is original but the dress is handmade. It was probably not the one she had on when mom got her. 

I found a certificate from grade school that declared her as the “School Champion Speller”. She was the winner of the spelling competition in 1951. Also, I know from a picture I found, that as a child she was in a play. I wish I knew what the play was and who else is in this picture with her. I think her niece Arlene is second from the left.

My mom, Clara Jean Garrison, is sixth from the left.

The box also had lots of memorabilia from high school and her early years of marriage. She had numerous newspaper clippings of her friends, classmates, sports events and boyfriends. Mom was very active in high school. She belonged to the Future Homemakers and Beta Clubs. She attended many of the school's athletic events.  I found one of her punch cards for the home football games in 1955.  All the games were punched.

  

She was on the Pinehurst High School basketball team and from what everyone says, she was a very good player. She loved the sport.  In fact, she received her letter for playing on the team.  (see picture below)  She was always an athlete. Later in life she tried her hand at golf and was hooked right away.  

One of mom’s boyfriends in high school was James A. Barber, Jr. who went to the rival high school in Southern Pines. Jimmy was a very talented athlete, playing both baseball and basketball. After graduating from high school, he went on to State College in Raleigh. On my mom’s sixteenth birthday, Jimmy had just finished one of his sport's practices, fell while taking a shower and was found by classmates a few minutes later. They called for the doctor but he did not survive. As a child, he had a heart condition. That had to be an awful time for his loved ones and friends. Mom rarely talked about this event but she kept many of the obituaries from his death in her treasure box. 

Thank goodness he had a best friend by the name of James “Jimmy” Hatch.

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  Some time ago I discovered the website www.retailmenot.com  In fact, I think my brother Kevin told me about it.  Any time I am going to a store or ordering something online, I go to this site to see if they have any coupons or coupon codes I can use.  Many stores are now using retailmenot.com to list their current specials.  I was at the local shopping center the other day and they had banners all around reminding you to check them out before you bought anything in a store.  You can get some great savings.  Click here to see their website.