Feb. 4, 2019

Fact: I am just writing this as I go, so sometimes it will not all be in order, but I just want something so if down the road someone in the family wants to know something, maybe they can find it here.  My mom and dad never had a car (well one time dad had one for a week or so.  He won it in a card game and lost it the same way) Mom and dad did travel places though and seemed to be on the go a lot.  Mom always loved to go and I think dad did too.  Dad put many a miles on his feet.  One time he walked from Detroit Michigan to Waynesburg, Pa. Said he ate green apples and drank wiskey and wore out two pairs of shoes.  Probably would have taken longer back then to as I am sure the roads were a lot different than today.  
Memories:  Sometimes the fact and memories could be one and the same.  Talking about mom loving to go places.  I remember when she was in her mid 80's I went in to visit her and when I got there I asked how she was feeling and she said "Not too good."  I told her that I was going over to Waynesburg and thought she might like to go along. She said "Well, I do not feel that bad."  and up out of the chair she got and went to change her clothes.  She loved getting ice cream in Waynesburg.  I think that trait did not fall to far from the tree as I still love to go to and will most every chance I get.  
Reflections: Harry and I have never been sorry for the money we spent to travel.  It was not always far we went but we tried to take a vacation with the boys every year and then when we got older we still went just the two of us or sometimes with friends.  We have lots of memories I would not trade for what we spent on these vacations.  We did stay within our means, so sometimes it was not that far.  Mostly when the boys were young it usually meant going some place where there was water, either a pool, a beach or something.  For Harry and I sometimes it was just seeing our country.  We did love to cruise also, so we got to see lots of other things that way.  

Here is a couple drawings I did about growing up.

This was me riding Toby and next was having the monkey

This was the ground hog we had at grandpaps

   the next are some of the things I spent most my time doing as a youngest and a teen.

and swimming was another of our things growing up, but I have not done one of that. 
 

Jan.23, 2019

Fact: More old letters from over 100 years ago.  These were written to Grandpap Spragg when he was out of town working on pipeline.

Here are two written from Uncle Lawrence and One from Dad.  I would have to say dad was about 10 when he wrote his and if that is his hand writing he had really good hand writing. .  It appears by the letters that dad was a good student and he only went to 8th grade but he was a wiz in Math.  You could give him columns of numbers and he could add them in his head. 

 

Jan. 22, 2019

Fact: Getting to far ahead with the facts so going to post pictures today. 
Pictures: More letters that are over 100 years old.  Some you have to read from right, go to next on and read from left to right and then back to page one on left to read.  Some are in order.  These three letters were written to Grandmaw Spragg in the late 1800's. First one is two pages, 2nd one is two pages but have to read as above, 3rd one is two pages.  I believe these were all written before she married grandpap.I believe the person writing the 2nd letter must have run a boarding house. 

  These letters was written by Lydia to Grandpap when he was out of town and state working on pipelines.

Here is another letter from Lydia to grandpap.

Jan.19,2019

Fact: After we moved from Berthel Ave. we moved to the first house that mom and dad bought. It was back on Wayne St.  I was about 12 years old when we moved there.  I went to Wolfdale school and then on to High School at Trinity already mentioning that I did not move but mom and dad moved to Bridgeville when I was a Jr. and Bill and Louise moved into this house.  Guess I was like the monkey earlier.  I went with the house.  When mom and dad came back to Washington, we still moved to a place off Baird Ave. and then to Baird Ave.  I was along on there moves as I could still go to Trinity.  We then moved back into the house at Wayne St. and I lived there until I was married.  
Memories: I do not remember too much about the days of Goat Hill but Wolfdale I do.  I was getting old enough to start running around with friends.  I do remember a couple earlier things, but do not remember where we lived at the time.  I was 10 and Bill and Louise lived in York, Pa. at the time.  They had come home and I went back to York with them.  I remember a couple things that stood out in my mind about this trip.  I was over at Louise's mom's and dad's and Bill and some of Louise"s brothers were messing around and got into a water fight.  Louise's dad came home and he had been drinking and he got angry about what the boys had done and it was the first time I ever heard the F word and it scared me to death. Another thing I remember about this trip was I came home alone.  I got a bus and had to change buses in Gettysburg and then change to streetcar in Pittsburgh to get to Washington.  My first job was babysitting and I started doing that when I was about 10 and I remember going to Canonsburg and staying with some relatives children for a few days by myself.  Had to cook and wash while I was there.  My first public job was working at Len's restaurant on Jefferson Ave.  I was 14 and made 35cents a hour.  
Reflections: Changed world isn't it?  I can not imagine letting someone who was 10 watching my kids even when they were little, or taking a trip like I did.  I do think it would not hurt kids to have more responsibility and working at a young age was not a bad thing.  It let me be able to buy some things I wanted and we knew our parents did not have money for.  I have never regretted these things.  I think these things get young people ready for life.  It is not always easy, it is not always fun, but if you work you can reach for things and enjoy life.  
  
Pictures and articles.  

Here are two of the aunts that Dad and Uncle Lawrence stayed with.  I am not sure which is Lydia and which is Priscilla.

  Here is one of the letters Lydia wrote to Grandpap Spragg.  They must have meant alot to him as he kept them for a lot of years.  

 

Jan. 18, 2019

Fact: We next moved back into Washington on Berthel Ave.  I went to Hayes Ave. School and  Goat Hill from here.  Aunt Daisy and Uncle Ward lived up over the hill from where we lived at this time and it was in this house Bayardie stayed while we lived at Grandpap's. 
Memories: We walked to school at Hayes Ave.and Goat Hill.  I remember stopping at Aunt Daisy's house almost every day on our way home from school.  If you never had Aunt Daisy's bread you missed a real treat.  When we stopped she would ask if you wanted a slice of bread and you soon learned that you did not say " I do not care." as she would say "I don't either" and keep on doing what ever she was doing.  Grandmaw Ward had a stroke by this time and was bed fast and Aunt Daisy took care of her.  It was not like it is now a days when they work with those who have stokes, back then you just lived your life out that way.  Grandmaw could not talk but seemed to understand and she would get frustrated when she could not make them understand and she would say "OH, shit". That you could understand.  
Reflections: Yes these were my good old days and I am so thankful for the memories I have from this time, but there are also lots of things I am so thankful for that are better now, so if you are younger and most of you are, remember this is your good old days and I pray when you get older you can look back on them and be able to have good memories and even be able to be thankful for the things that are better.  I am most thankful for days like today that I do not have to go out to a outhouse.  
Pictures: This is a picture of Uncle Lawrence and dad when they were just little boys.  Uncle Lawrence was the oldest.  I can still see dad in there. 

 

Jan. 18,2019

Fact: When we moved from grandpap Spragg's we moved out in the country south of Washington and we lived in a 2 story farm house and when the wind blew hard the furniture upstairs would move away from the walls as the house swayed that much.  A couple of times we went to the spring house down back of the house as it was built into the hill when the wind was really bad.  Johnny and I attended a 1 room school house there that had all 8 grades in it.  There was a big coal stove in the middle that they heated it with.
Memories: I remember going into the school one day and a couple of the bigger boys who took care of the stove had the door open on it and was swinging Johnny back and forth like they were going to throw him into the stove.  Guess they would be called bullies today.  I also remember Johnny throwing a orange at me in the house as I ran up the steps and it stuck on the wall. He also threw one at me on the school bus at Grandpap Spraggs and it stuck on the front window. 
Reflections: Wonder if Johnny got over throwing things at people.  LOL.  I am sure I did not do a thing to have this happen.  
Pictures and articles:

Here is a couple articles that were in the papers.  The 50th anniversay of Grandmaw and Grandpap Ward is dated Nov. 1941 and the death notice of Grandad had to be the next year as he died in 1942.The other is Grandmaw Spraggs death notice.

    

Jan 14,2019

Fact: When we lived in Strabane I remember there were things you could not buy at the store without having stamps to buy them because of the war.  When we lived there Bill came home from the service after being in Germany one day  and Fred left the next day for the service.  He spent his overseas time in Panama and worked in a hospital.  Bill was married and he and Louise lived a few places up from us.  Margaret also lived there but she lived down over the hill from us.  It was called a project where several of the houses were joined together.  
Memories: One memory I have while living in Strabane is someone predicted the world was going to end and it seemed several bought into that. Seemed like some were in a panic.  I also remember a neighbor across the way from us had tried to commit suicide and had his wrist cut and inside the house you could see the blood smeared on the walls as he came out of the house to get help after he had tried.  On the lighter side back at Grandpap Spragg's farm I remember all the fun times I had playing in the creek.  Mom would bend a straight pen and tie it on a string and the string on a stick and I would fish.  The fish I caught were about 2 to 3 inches long.  
Reflections: I have not thought about what happened in Strabane in many of years.  I like to think I remember the good times and do not dwell on the bad.  I am so thankful that I do not have a lot of bad things to remember.
Pictures:  Here is a picture of my grandpap Spragg.  He is the one sitting in the middle.  I was told this was taken when he was working out of state when he worked on the pipelines.  

 Here it is cropped:

       a picture of Grandmaw and grandpap Ward,