Raising a Family

In 1936, I had taken a civil service examination for a position as a railway mail clerk. After I was in the service in early 1942, my name came up for appointment. Since I was in the service, I was informed that I would get my appointment after the war, upon receiving an honorable discharge. That’s what eventually happened. After working for Suffrons for about six weeks, I had a chance to go to work in the railway mail service as a temporary clerk in the terminal post office in Kansas City, Missouri. I was away from my family again part of the time and became dissatisfied. I quit. I was unsettled and wasn’t fit to make a decision on my own. We ended up selling our place on Willow Street and going out to the state of Washington. I worked in the fruit harvest again, and made good money. We lived in a house owned by Van Wechel. He wouldn’t even take rent. I did paint all or part of the house while there. You couldn’t ask for a better friend. In the meantime, I received my permanent appointment into the railway mail service. After a lot of thought, we decided we couldn’t afford to turn it down. Another factor helped to make the decision. Leona got a letter from her mother. It was obvious she was lonely for family. She said life wasn’t worth while if you couldn’t be around people you love. We went back to Kansas. I went to work again in the terminal post office in Kansas City, Missouri as a permanent clerk. This was November 1945. Leona and the kids stayed with her folks until we got possession of a house we purchased in Kansas City, Kansas. We bought furniture and moved in just before Christmas. So we spent Christmas together in our new home. Such a contrast to the Christmas the year before. It was a happy time. I worked in the Terminal Post Office over two years. Allen was born during this time on July 20, 1946, about one year and a half before we moved to the farm. I asked for and received a road assignment in December 1947, on the Kansas City and Pueblo Railway Post Office. I had a paper assignment which included taking care of both local, where the train stopped, and nonstop. At the nonstop dispatches, I would also catch a pouch with the catcher arm or hook. The pouch was attached to a crane, which was beside the track. Sometimes in bad weather with visibility zero, we couldn’t dispatch "on the fly."

I would make two trips in five days or nights then would be off that many days. Since it was set up that way, we were able to live out of town. We purchased a 251-acre farm next to where Leona’s folks lived. We paid $28.00 per acre for it. It was a badly run down place. In time with a lot of work, I made a decent place of it. We sold it down to where we had a 40-acre track on each side of the road. I had it terraced and also had two fair sized ponds built one on each side of the road. I completely worked over the house, and built all new fences. At the time we moved there it was all dirt roads. Had to go to the corner south to get our mail. There was no electricity in the house, nor any telephone line running by the place. I had electricity put in before we moved in. In due time we had a rock road, a telephone line, and mail route by our place, and soon had inside plumbing.

In the summer on 1956, us and the kids took an extended trip to California. We stopped at Aunt Sadie’s and Bonnie’s on the way out. From Rocky Ford, we went over the Rocky Mountains by way of Wolf Creek pass, where we saw lots of snow. From there we went west and southwest across the desert, and by the Grand Canyon. The canyon is truly a spectacular sight. Crossed the Mojave Desert to Redlands, where Mary, Perry, and Donna lived. Had a very nice visit with them. While there, Mary, Leona, and I went to see Uncle Mel, and Aunt Martha one evening at Upland.

Uncle Mel was a good talker. He told of our family background. He said he always understood our family derived from one of five brothers who came over here from Scotland about the time of the American Revolution, or before. He also said one of these five brothers turned out to be a horse thief. Horse thieves were hung, but was he hung before or after he had a son?

After we left Mary’s we went to San Francisco, then home by way of Denver.

For the most part, all three of our kids received their grammar school education at Oakland, a one-room school in our community. Albert went one year in Kansas City, Kansas. When Oakland school closed, Allen went to Pomona his last year. All three of them received their high school education at Pomona. Anna Parker Bunyon was their teacher more than any other teacher in grammar as well as high school. Albert and Mary Ellen received their degrees at Emporia State. Allen received his at Kansas State at Manhattan. After college Albert and Mary Ellen embarked on teaching careers, and Allen went to work for PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, most of the time in an executive capacity.

Pictures

1. Allen (left) and Albert Crawford in front of their home after an ice storm.
2. Mary Ellen, Allen, and Albert Crawford in front of their parents house.  Would have been taken in about 1954.
3. Left to right:  Allen, Albert, Leona (mother) and Mary Ellen.  On a Colorado mountain stream on one of many trips to Colorado.
4. Left to right:  Allen, Woodrow (father) and Mary Ellen Crawford.