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Archiver > CAMODOC > 2001-09 > 0999467698


From: "Billie C. Reynolds" <>
Subject: Pickard Family
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 14:56:30 -0700


Clyde

After a time Edythe and Roy and their family moved again to a house in
the tiny community of Clyde. Clyde had been a “company town” owned by
one of the oil refineries located nearby but then the refinery closed
down the town had been abandoned. A local entrepreneur, Mr. Van Winkle
of Port Chicago, purchased the entire town from the oil company for
$2.00 per building. He rented the houses to families but, except for a
canteen and the Cylde Hotel, the town never revived. The canteen was
not much more than a local gathering place. The Clyde Hotel, a grand
building of its time, complete with palm trees and swimming pool, went
through several owners and had somewhat shady history. It closed for
the last time in the 40’s and finally burned to the ground in the
mid-60’s.
Roy and Edythe rented a two-story house at first, but Edythe hated that
house and could not spent one peaceful evening there. They moved again
to a single story house where Edythe felt more comfortable.
Clare had graduated from grammar school and now attended Mt. Diablo
High School in Concord. It was at this time she became involved in a
battle of wills with her father.
Being the oldest of the girls it fell to her to bring Roy into modern
times. Roy, as has been mentioned before, had some very old fashioned
ideas. No daughter of his was going to wear trousers! Or smoke
cigarettes, or paint herself up “like a hussy”! And, shorts and halters
where absolutely unthinkable! He would not have his daughter running
around “half naked!”
At the same time, in the mid to late 1930’s, women’s fashions were
undergoing radical changes. Young girls often took their style cues
from the movie stars. More and more the movie stars were wearing slacks
and shorts. Movies were coming out in color and the effects of make-up
were easily seen. Any girl could look like a move star if she only had
the right make-up. Girls curled their hair and practiced walking with
books balanced on their heads. Speech and mannerisms were studied and
copied. Clare was determined to be as up-to-date as every other girl in
school and her favorite passion was for those beautiful, long, enameled
fingernails. Roy was determined he was going to raise “proper young
ladies”.
The first time Roy caught Clare with bright red polish on her
fingernails he was furious. He rubbed her nails with soap, cleanser,
alcohol, kerosene, and gasoline, but he polish remained as bright and
shiny as when she first applied it. Roy finally gave up. He couldn’t
help making remarks each time he saw her manicured nails, though. “You
look like a G______d chippy!” (A poplar term at that time for a “loose
woman”.) Or, he would tell her she looked like a “painted hussy”.
Roy cussed and yelled and lectured and carried on, but he lost every
battle and Clare became a thoroughly modern young woman. She was adept
at using make-up, though it was little needed, to enhance her natural
beauty. Her clothes, many of them home made, were as fashionable as
anyone’s.
Clare was popular in school with both boys and girls and got average to
above average grades.
Across the street from the family lived a young couple by the name of
Quinting. Charles, Jr., and his wife had a daughter, Joanie, who was
about three years old, the same age as Earlene. “Red”, nicknamed
because of his red hair, was the oldest son of a very influential and
prosperous family in Concord. Charles, Sr., was the owner of the
largest Real Estate company in Contra Costa County and his business
included a very profitable insurance brokerage. Charles, Sr., was
full-blooded German and, although he was raised in the United States,
retained many of the Old World values and ways. His wife, Myrtle
(Comstock) who was full-blooded Norwegian, also born in the U.S., shared
some of the beliefs of her husband but tended to be a little more
liberal. The family often visited Red and his little family and it was
during these visits that Clara was noticed by the second oldest of
Charles, Sr.’s sons, Donald.
Don was fairly tall, blond headed and blue eyed, and exceptional good
looking. He was so good looking, in fact, that he was known at school
ad the “Beay Brummel of Mt. Diablo High”, a reference to a popular movie
of the time about an extraordinarily handsome man.
Howard, the next in line of the Quinting boys developed a crush on
Charlotte and, by all reports, the feeling was mutual. Charlotte and
Howard became close friends.
The Quintings had three more children, Clifford, Norman, and the newest
member of the family and only daughter, Patty, born in 1938.
Don and Clare began dating. Roy and Edythe were very impressed by
Don. He treated them and Clare with the utmost respect. He came to the
door to pick Clare up for their dates instead of sitting in his car and
honking the horn for her. He brought her flowers and little gifts. He
was charming. And, Clare was charmed.
On a summer day in 1938 a field full of wild oats that had been cut and
shocked caught fire and burned. When the fire was out the blackened
area spread as for as the eye could see across the low rolling hill.
Charlotte and some of the other children crossed the still smoldering
field and climbed a hill to see how far the fire had spread. When they
headed back down the hill at a run Charlotte fell and her hands slid
into one of the smoking oat shocks. She got up as soon as she could and
ran to the nearest house. There was nobody at home but she found a pot
of water and potato skins in the water to stop the pain while another
child ran to get Edythe
Charlotte’s halter and shorts had offered little protection. Her
stomach, arms and legs were burned. But her hands suffered the worst
burns.
Edythe ran to her daughter, grabbed her up and carried her to the
canteen down the road. Someone there took her and Charlotte to the
doctor’s office where the girl’s burns were treated. The doctor peeled
the burned skin away from her hands, medicated them and wrapped them
with gauze.
While Charlotte recovered, Roy, who raised rabbits for meat, would
bring baby bunnies in and turn them loose on Charlotte’s bed. Charlotte
was delighted but Edythe was not the least happy.
She was afraid the bunnies would make messes on the blankets and she
had enough to do with Charlotte being completely helpless beside wash
and dry sheets and blankets all day. But, Roy insisted that it had to
be done. It was typical of Roy. Whenever, Clare, Charlotte or Martha
Jean got sick or hurt they would insist, “I want my Daddy!” Only
Earlene preferred her mother.
For the next few weeks Edythe dressed, fed and cared for Charlotte as
though she were another of the babies. Finally, the doctor removed the
bandages and said, “See if you bend your fingers.”
It wasn’t until that moment that Edythe realized Charlotte might have
burnt the tendons in her fingers and might never again have the use of
her hands. Fortunately, Charlotte’s fingers moved and she made a
complete recovery with hardly a scar to show that the accident ever
happened.
Clare and Don dated throughout the school year 1938-1939. Don was a
senior and Clare as a junior, a year behind him. Don continued to be
the perfect boyfriend. He was courteous and thoughtful and attentive.
Of course, Clare was Don’s date for his senior prom.
Graduation Day was June 15, 1939. Clare attended Don’s graduation and,
after the ceremony, Don asked her to marry him. So it was that on the
night of June 15, 1939 Don and Clare eloped to Reno, Nevada and were
married.
Roy and Edythe assumed that Clare was at a graduation party that was
lasting through the night. They were busy getting ready to go to Oregon
the next day to visit Tom and Frances who were not living near Portland.

When Clare arrived home the next morning she said nothing to her
parents about what she and Don had done. She accompanied the family to
Oregon and didn’t tell them about being married until the family
returned home.
Don wanted Clare to move into a house across the street from his
parents in Concord. Clare absolutely refused. Although she was very
fond of her new in-laws, she did not want to live right under their
noses. After a long, loud argument, Don finally relented and they found
a place to live away from his parents and hers.
It seemed to Clare that immediately after their marriage ceremony Don
changed radically. And he did change from boyfriend to husband. The
problem was that he was true to his European up-bringing where the
husband is the head of the house and the decision maker and the wife is
the obedient and subservient mate. This was a role Clare found alien to
her own up-bringing. The Pickard women were not domineering by any
means but were rooted in the idea that husband and wives are equal
partners. The women expected their husband to pull together as a team.
Yet, they would allow the men to be the boss as long as they led the
family in the direction the women wanted to go, and didn’t “lord it
over” them. When major decisions were made, however, the men had little
chance of standing up to these strong-willed women.
Clare and Don were bound by their genetic make-up to have a very stormy
marriage.
In September, Clare wanted to return to school and graduate. The
school district had a strict policy that prohibited married students
from attending. Edythe went to the school counselor and the school
superintendent on Clare’s behalf. After long negotiation and much
pleading, the school made and exception and allowed Clare back into
school. About a week later Clare learned she was pregnant. That was
too much for the school. She had to leave.
Clare and Don were having serious troubles with their marriage. Don
have her an allowance, a tiny allowance, for food and household
expenses. Clare balked at the amount. Don told her how house should be
cleaned. Clare had her own way of doing things. Don expected her, as
his dutiful wife, to pick up after him and to anticipate his wants and
needs and to fulfill them. After all, he worked hard to provide for his
family. Clare felt he could jolly well pick up after himself and should
care as much for her wants and needs as she for his. After all, she was
stuck at home all day cleaning and cooking while he was out in the world
seeing and doing exciting things. There seem to be no middle ground for
the young couple
Don once to some of his friends, “If any man marries into the Mertes
family and thinks he’s going to wear the pants, he’s sadly mistaken!”
About the only thing Don and Clare had in common was their love for
their daughter, Donna Earlene, born May 26, 1940.

*

Clyde was a nice place to live – a quiet, rural community where
everybody knew everybody else and nobody locked their doors. But there
was one drawback to living in Clyde. That drawback was the Rex Club.
And it was Roy’s weakness.
Roy was not a drinker or a woman-chaser but he did like to gamble. He
especially like to pay poker. Edythe never saw Roy’s paychecks. He
cashed his check, paid the bills and took care of the money. Although
Edythe and the girls never went hungry, sometimes the meals were rather
skimpy and money always was tight. Edythe didn’t even know how much
money Roy earned. On payday Roy would head straight for the Rex Club as
soon as the got off work and pay cards. He wasn’t very good at cards
and never came home a winner.
After a few months of this Edythe decided the situation had to change.
One morning, while Roy was sleeping, having worked a grave-yard shift,
Edythe left the house intent on walking all the way to Pittsburg if she
had to, a distance of about 15 miles. She walked about half way before
an acquaintance stopped and offered to driver her the rest of the way to
town. She bought a newspaper and found an ad for Mrs. Volente, their
previous landlady, had a placed regarding one of her apartments for
rent. Edythe talked to Mrs. Volente who agreed to rent an upstairs
apartment in a large wooden apartment house she owned.
Edythe called a neighbor in Clyde and asked if she would go to Roy and
tell him to come to Pittsburg to pick her up. When Roy arrived she
said, “We’re moving to Pittsburg, I’ve rented an apartment.”
To which Roy replied, “What’d you go and to a damn fool thing like that
for?”
“Because I’ve made up my mind I’m going to see that pay check. Part of
it, anyway.”
That was the end of that. The family moved to Pittsburg. Roy’s
gambling was reduced to a manageable hobby and they even managed to save
a little.
One afternoon, though, while Clare was visiting her mother and Edith
was doing the laundry on the porch of the upstairs apartment, the water
in the deep sink that held rinse water for the clothes ran over. Water
ran over the side of the porch and down the steps. Mrs. Volente, who
lived downstairs, saw the water and started up the stairs with a mop in
her hand yelling, “Pigs live here! Pigs live here!”
Edythe was embarrassed and angry. She was a good housekeeper and
deeply resented Mrs. Volente’s remarks. As Mrs. Volente made her way up
the stairs Edythe aimed the mop she was using at her landlady and said,
“You take one more step up those stairs and you’ll go down faster than
you came up!”
The look in Edythe’s eyes failed to communicate to Mrs. Volente that
Edythe was serious but Clare knew her mother well. She grabbed Edythe
from behind and held her in a tight bear hug and suggested to Mrs.
Volente in the strongest possible terms that she should leave
immediately. Edythe wiggled and squirmed trying to get away from Clare
but Clare held her tight. Finally, Mrs. Volente retreated, still
muttering to herself, “Pigs live here.”
Clare helped her mother clean up the water off of the porch floor and
sat with her while Edythe calmed down. When Roy came home from work,
Edythe informed him they were going to move – AGAIN!


--
Billie C. Reynolds
Anita "Jean" Waters-Reynolds
http://www.rh2o.com (Family Genealogy)
http://www.rh2o.com/modoc/ (Modoc County Genealogy)


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