Shirley's Odds and Ends, 1940-1944

Shirley's Odds and Ends, 1940-1944

In 1943 the Vanier family bought a new home in Hayward, California at 22218 Baywood Ave (later changed to 21630 Baywood Avenue). It was small, perhaps 1200 square feet. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a single car garage, and a big back yard. Lila had always wanted a real home for the family and she loved to garden so this home satisfied her desires. After Rose-Lynn was born, Lila quit working and became a stay-at-home mom which benefitted me as we became closer to each other. This was my permanent home until I married Bill.

Before Dolly was married in 1946, I shared a bedroom and a very small closet with her. The family shared the only bathroom. In addition, the house consisted of a small kitchen with no built in appliances. There was a sink and counter, a stove, a refrigerator and some cupboards. At the end of the kitchen was a very small eating area with a table. There was also a living room, at the end of which was a small dining room. There was a floor furnace with outlets in the living room and hallway outside the bathroom. Of course there was no air conditioning.

We moved into that home just before my half sister, Rose-Lynn Kae Vanier Davila, was born in 1943. My other half sister, Linda Gayle Vanier Schaefer, was born in 1947. Until Rose-Lynn was born, both my mother and Richard worked. I guess you would have called Dolly and me latch key children during that time. When Rose-Lynn was born, she slept in the master bedroom with my parents. Dolly and I continued to share a bedroom until she was married in 1946. Then Rose-Lynn and I shared the bedroom. When Linda was born, she and Rose-Lynn shared the bedroom and I was moved to a loft built by Richard at the end of the one-car garage. It had electricity, but was unfinished and had no heat. I had to share the one bathroom with the rest of the family.

When I was 13 I joined the Sewing Circle of the local 4H Club and participated in the Clothing and Home Furnishing project. As part of that project, I made a pair of shorts and a halter, plus two skirts. In addition I purchased 25 pairs of stockings at a cost of $6, one pair of shorts ($1.98), a yard of material for one halter ($0.30), two blouses ($8.98), skirt ($1.07), sweater ($8) and five underclothing ($15). I served on the club’s refreshment committee and took part in the penny march to raise money for club activities. The sewing circle was a fun group for me.

Now back to my school days. I was way ahead of my age with my reading ability. Classmates told me I used words that were “too big.” I had done so due to my extensive reading and had not noticed it until it was brought to my attention. I became self conscious about it during class, but probably continued to use “big words” out of habit. I worked hard to do my very best in school. As a consequence, I won many awards and was considered a teacher’s pet. My report cards showed I was a good student and I was complimented by teachers.

I attended Bret Harte Junior High School in Hayward for my 7th and 8th grades, from September 1942 to June 1944. There were no classes called advanced placement at the time I went to junior high school. However, at Bret Harte students were separated into classes that were divided into four categories, the top classes were called category 1. That was the category I was in.

While attending Bret Harte Junior High School, I wrote a long essay entitled "The unsolved problem." The subtitle of the essay was "How can we achieve racial tolerance?" My instructor wrote "Well done, Shirley. The content indicates discerning research and the English is almost without error." The essay is too long to include in my history; however, I would like to quote the closing paragraph in its entirety: “If we ever hope to have a world free from prejudice, it will be a world which consists of people who have formed a solution to this problem-a solution which comes spontaneously, from the hearts of each and every human being who has finally opened his eyes to life and the racial problems as it should be seen- not as just another "unsolved problem." I have tried to be free of prejudice throughout all my life, particularly racial and ethnic prejudice, but the United States still has a high percentage of prejudiced citizens.

At Bret Harte Junior High School, I received several awards. They included the American Legion Certificate of School Award which was inscribed “...she is found to possess among others those high qualities of Courage, Character, Service, Companionship and Scholarship which are necessary to the preservation and protection of the fundamental institutions of our government and the advancement of society.”

In February 1944 I also received a citation from the United States Treasury Department, Northern California War Finance Committee, Schools at War program “for patriotic service in the Fourth War Loan Campaign through the sale of War Bonds.”

I was awarded an Athletic Certificate for being a member of a championship baseball team for the high 8th grade. This was one of the few times I participated in an organized sport and probably the only time I played on a champion team.

Most importantly, I received The Most Outstanding Girl Student award at graduation from Bret Harte Junior High School. This really surprised me as I thought one of my girl friends would get this coveted award. I felt sorry for her as she really anticipated getting the award and was quite disappointed when I got it.

Remembrances of my youth include painting a pretty Santa Claus on the window of a store that I passed everyday on my way to and from Laurel school. I thought it was a beautiful piece of art and appropriate to the season and could not understand why the owner of the store was mad at me for messing up his window.

I remember becoming a member of the Aunt Elsie Club. I contributed stories and drawings weekly for having my name on the honor role in the next edition of the Oakland Tribune. I submitted enough drawings and stories to receive my membership pin in the Aunt Elsie Club in 1942. I had lots of fun writing stories and making drawings to submit to the club. I was very encouraged by this interaction.

In addition to earning money by babysitting, I picked pears and currents at a nearby farm in Castro Valley in 1943, earning $0.10/bucket. Fortunately I was able to work at Hunt's cannery in Hayward during a few weeks in the summers of 1948 and 1949 putting fruit in fruit cocktail cans. The pay was good but the work was monotonous.

A longer range job that I held was working in a dress shop in downtown Oakland. I got that job because Dolly responded to a help wanted ad in the Oakland Tribune which said that Arden’s Dress Shop had an opening for a part-time Saturday sales girl. Our mother took her for an interview and I came along for the ride. Throughout the interview Lila answered all the questions the store manager asked. When Lila was through talking, the manager turned to me and told me I was hired. This was totally unexpected by the three of us. I had grown taller than Dolly by age 14, so apparently the manager assumed I was the 17 year old girl who was applying for the job. However, Lila was up to the challenge. She told the manager she would let me be hired if the manager would also hire Dolly. The end result was that both we sisters were hired and had our Saturdays profitably scheduled for a few years. I have kept an old W2 form which shows that in 1947 I grossed $129.41 for a year's work at Arden's. Of course, taxes and other withholdings reduced that amount. Plus, there was the cost of clothing we had to wear; nylon stockings and black skirts and white blouses or black dresses, so my net pay for the year was actually less than the $129.41.

During the time before I was married, there weren't any shopping malls as we know them today. Stores were simply clustered together and strung along one of the main streets of a town. In larger cities, there was a more elaborate group of stores situated along streets in the "downtown" area. Typically, the downtown area had one or more department stores with smaller specialty stores situated nearby. For most of our needs, we shopped at small stores in cities near our home, but we did our bigger shopping in Oakland where the stores were larger, where there were more of them and where the selection of merchandise was greater. In Oakland, we had to park in a parking lot down the street and walk quite a distance to our car while carrying packages. Or we rode the bus into Oakland and carried our purchases home on the bus. Fortunately stores contracted with United Parcel Service to deliver larger packages to our door. In any event, shopping wasn't nearly as convenient as shopping in today's malls with their large parking lots near the mall stores. We did have some of the same chains as we have today like Penney's and Sears, but there were no Walmarts, Targets or Home Depots. The latter stores, what we call "big box stores today," were a post WWII phenomenon.

I remember watching Richard playing softball on his company team and Dolly’s husband, Wayne, playing softball for the Kraft Tile team. It was fun to attend those games and cheer them on. Dolly and I would make chocolate chip cookies and munch on them during the game. Probably a couple dozen of them in a paper bag---eaten like popcorn!!

I remember Richard taking Dolly and me to the movies on Saturday afternoon and wondering why there was not a real movie, just newsreels. Dolly remembers Richard taking us to the movies and leaving us there after asking the usher to watch over us. I remember walking to Saturday movie matinees with Dolly. In case we were accosted by a mugger, we had a plan for me to kneel down behind the legs of the mugger while Dolly pushed him over me. Fortunately, it never happened!

A childhood dream of mine was to learn to play the piano. I always yearned to do so, but for various reasons I was not able to learn to play this instrument. When I was young, my family couldn't afford it. Finally, in 1981 Bill gave me a piano for my birthday and I quickly started taking lessons and I continued for many years. I loved every minute of it. It was a sad day when a piano mover came to our house and moved it to the home of our granddaughter because I did not have the strength to play it anymore. However, I was happy that someone in my family could make good use of it.

I enjoyed listening to mystery programs on the radio when I was a little girl. One of the programs offered to send listeners a free decoder ring that, when rotated according to the announcement at the end of each program, would decode clues to questions or puzzles that would be heard on upcoming programs. Naturally these clues were meaningless, but to a child they were really something and caused me to be an avid listener of the program.

My greatest hobby was reading. I loved to read every type of book, but I particularly liked to read adventure stories. The Nancy Drew series was a favorite of mine during my childhood. My imagination grew and grew as I read ageless classics, exciting adventure stories and lots of comic books about super hero types. I like good literature of all ages. Deep philosophical novels, sincere sentimental poetry, and occasionally an exciting mystery story. By the time I entered college I had already read most of the classics. My reading had always been way ahead of my age.

I would read all night when I wanted to finish a book. I bought a little clip-on 5 watt light to fasten onto each page of my book when I was reading late because Richard said it cost too much money to use the room light for reading at night. I remember being surprised to observe many a dawn coming up that indicated that I had read the night away. I didn’t really stop this habit until I was married and didn’t want to disturb Bill.

I must confess that I was also a “comic strip” enthusiast, but not only for the sake of enjoyment. I had considered that I might someday, as a sideline, combine my artistic and literary talents and create something on the order of a "comic strip." Along with the idea of combining literary and artistic talents, I had hoped to someday write and illustrate at least one book. However, there never seemed to be enough time to pursue these endeavors and they never came to pass.

I also liked art and I loved to draw. I was always sketching what I saw around me. Sketching was one of my hobbies, even at a young age. It seemed like a great way to further interact with my environment. I really admired professional artists. I sometimes got scolded by teachers for drawing while they were talking to the class. However, most of them eventually realized that I was not making fun of them and that my drawing was something I did while concentrating on what they were saying. Later, when looking at such drawings, I found it was easy to remember what the teacher had been saying about some academic subject. This turned out to be a mnemonic device I used throughout college as I drew on my notebooks while taking notes. Once a high school teacher came over to see what I was drawing, prepared to chastise me, and found I had drawn a very complimentary picture of her. Her tune changed noticeably after that.

I still like to sing and I always enjoy a good play or movie.

As far as likes and dislikes with food are concerned, I couldn't stand tomatoes, especially cooked ones, fish, or meats with blood showing. However, there were lots of foods that I did like including pancakes made into "shapes", bacon and eggs (we didn't worry about cholesterol), ready-to-eat cereals like Wheaties, Post Toasties and Shredded Wheat (none were sugar coated when I was young), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hot dogs, spaghetti, beef stew, a variety of soups, homemade breads, corned beef and cabbage, cookies, brownies, apple pie, birthday cake, and ice cream.

During my childhood, we had four dogs, Speedy, Buster, Buddy, and Laddie. Speedy was run over by when he ran down the apartment stairs into the street and under the wheels of a passing car. The car proceeded up the street a short distance and then stopped. The well-dressed lady had the driver back the car up so she could see if it was a child that they had run over. When she saw it was not a child she said, “Oh, I thought it was a child,” and had the driver proceed. I never forgot that scene! Buster was a little, fluffy, white dog. Buddy was a little, brown, short haired dog. I loved the dogs we had and sometimes confided my innermost thoughts to them. I remember when our German Shepherd dog & I licked the frosting off of cupcakes. We both looked very guilty when my mother came home, but it felt good to have a co-conspirator in that adventure.

Laddie, a dog of unknown breed, was one of my favorite pets. He was white with black markings. When my family bought their home in Hayward, Richard built him a nice doghouse. I liked to come home from school and go in the back yard and spend time with him, petting him and playing with him and sometimes telling him about my day. It was a sad time when the neighbor children teased and tormented him so much that he had to be given away or put to sleep. I was never sure what happened to him.

Two exciting heroes impressed me when I learned about them at age nine. Each was an historical figure, one in LDS Church history, and one in American history. These two men seemed to possess very similar exceptional qualities of courage, honesty, integrity and honor. They both began in humble rural environments in America. The two men were Joseph Smith, Jr., who restored the Church of Jesus Christ on earth, and Abraham Lincoln, who did so much for the cause of freedom for everyone in this country, especially the Black slaves. Both men were killed by assassins. I would love to be able to meet both of them in the next life, however I expect I will have to “take a number” and stand in line for the privilege. It will be worth it!