Andrea Allen
4/28/15
Memory Assignment (Draft)

My great grandfather Percy Vere Broughton was born in June of 1890 and he was one of the many sons of his father John Broughton who was born in England. Percy was very young when he and his father traveled by ship to America. Percy grew up in Kansas and after he married his wife Emilie Watts Broughton (Heaton) and they had a few children, Percy left the farming fields of Kansas and followed a friend across the plains northwest to Washington State, where he and his family settled into the country side near Kelso. Percy began working alongside his friend at the local saw mill for quite some time before he was offered a new and dangerous position within the company, a position in which another worker had recently been killed. Having five children and a wife depending on him, he turned down the job and quit the mill. Even though my grandmother was not born yet, she remembers him very distinctly saying “No I don’t believe a man with 5 children has any business doing that type of job.”
My Grandmother Vivian Louise Broughton was born on June 19, 1928, a year before the Great Depression. She was born in a large, one room shack, on a small farm outside of town. when she was a young girl the one room shack became the family chicken coup and a new, larger home was built nearby. “The new house seemed quite large to me at that time, even though large back then was nothing compared to the houses now a days.” She told me with a small chuckle, as she sat across from me, her hands gently folded in her lap, her greenish-gray eyes sparkling beneath her lightly rimmed glasses. She paused and glanced upwards, obviously trying to remember the old shack but not being able recall any details. Shrugging, she continued on. “the new house had four bedrooms two upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs, a wood “heating” stove that was located in the dining room and a wood cooking stove that was located in the kitchen.” Her voice raised slightly as she continued her story. “The new house did not have running water and I had to gather it from a well, which was located outside the house quite a ways by using a bucket.” She laughs while make a flicking motion with her wrist when she explains to me how tricky it was and how it took a certain flick of the wrist to acquire a full bucket of water. The house also did not have electricity until later.
Her father was a farmer in Kansas on a very large farm, before moving to Washington. After arriving he acquired 15 acres and settled down. Her father did not have a job due to the Depression, so they grew lots of strawberries and my grandmother remembers planting and selling these to the Washington Co-Op Cannery when she was a young girl. “Strawberries and filbert trees,” she said with enthusiasm in her voice. “There were 2 types, one type which was shaped more like an almond but it was a filbert and you need both for cross pollination you see.” She explained to me. “I also had a Jersey Cow and a yellow kitten named Patsy she was given to me by my sister, she was such a little sweetheart and I remember when I was a little girl around the age of 6 and how one Christmas my sister’s bought me a doll buggy and a Shirley Temple doll and Instead of playing with my doll, I remember taking my kitten Patsy, putting her in the doll buggy, and riding her into the pasture down and all around.” Making a swirling pattern in the air with her fragile, age spotted hands that also had a slight bluish and peach tint to them, she continued speaking about other adventure with Patsy.
When my grandmother was in 1st grade she became friends with Gloria, Wauneta, Shirley, Bobby, and Preston, then in the 3rd grade she met Wanda, and they all became close friends and stayed that way till 8th grade. When asked about her experience in grade school she laughed and said with an abrasive yet excited tone “honey it was a two room country school with 4 grades in each room! One mile from the house, I walked every day to and from it.” Before 8th grade she worked for Bushman’s Farm picking strawberry, young-berry and raspberries. She saved every cent in order to purchase the bike of her dreams. When she had finally saved enough, her mother and father took her all over town to find the perfect one. “I Looked at Montgomery Ward, then went to the Sears in Portland, then returned back to Montgomery Ward and ended up getting the one there.” She said before she paused and pondered for a minute. “I was 2 dollars short when I went to pay the $29.00 for my bike, so my father covered the remaining balance.” Smiling then elevating her tone a little her eyes widened, “The bike was a top of the line bicycle, it had a basket, it had a place over the back wheel to tie luggage for your school books and so forth and as soon as I got it home I started riding it to school every day. “When it was time to go to high school, she no longer rode her prize possession, but instead she caught a Gray Hound bus by flagging it down on the side of the highway.
The clothing back then was nothing like it is today, she was happy to have clothes to wear, she wore dresses, skirts, sweaters, anklets (socks) and every once in a while she would wear a neck-less. She remembers riding a Gray Hound bus which she took to high school each day and seeing a lady named Yvonne Percy who was a little older than her wearing a nice pair of earrings. “she was a very pretty lady and the earrings looked very nice on her, but I never wanted my ears pierced so I never got them but I do remember Shirley’s mom, who lived just down the way from us, I remember her ears drooping downwards because she wore such heavy earrings.” letting out a high school girl giggle her face lit up and she scooted to the front of her chair. “Oh and those saddle-backs! See we didn’t have these Nike shoes back then, they were BEAUTIFUL! You could get a pair of nice brown or black ones.” Then as soon as her excitement faded a solemn look crossed her face and she stared down at her hands. “Well you know, during the war things were rationed, and shoes were rationed and you could only use ration stamps to buy them. The saddle-backs which were made mostly of leather became rationed because leather was used in the military and they needed to reserve it. You were only able to buy 1 or 2 pairs of shoes a year because of the rationing so instead of buying the saddle-back shoes my family started buying me wooden shoes.”
On December 7, 1941 my grandmother was sitting on her back porch with her sister Ruby looking out across the pasture, when a man who came from Portland to purchase chicken eggs told them that Pearl Harbor had been hit. “See no one in my family went over sees during the war, but my sister Ruby’s husband Clive, his brother’s Cal, Bob and his cousin Tom all went down and enlisted together on the stipulation they would all be kept together, they were Army Engineers and they were all stationed overseas on a Mediterranean island when his brother Cal came down with Typhoid fever. However, around the same time the ship with five brothers went down and the Army made new regulations denying family to be stationed together so just like that, the brother’s and cousin were split up.”
Grandma met my grandfather Earnest James Officer when she a junior at Vancouver high school. “We had locker monitors, I would sit in the hall and different ones that would want to come to the lockers during that time, would have to bring a signed slip. Your grandfather was home on leave and he was visiting the school and his old comraderies ya know, being a typical male he said “do you know what time it is?” I said NO why you don’t look at your watch! and your Grandpa Officer just grinned.” she laughs and continues ” All the time he was home on leave he would come back and visit with me while I was being a hall monitor and he wanted to take me out, but I would tell him no I live way out in the country and there is gas rations on. They she made a pause and said “so any ways we didn’t go out.” I couldn’t help but laugh, obviously they had gone out again or my mother or I wouldn’t be here. “Well hold on so he went back in spring back to the base. I was working that summer at Montgomery ward then about 2 weeks after school starts I am going out the door, when he was coming up the stairs and we just about ran into one another and knocked each other down! She pauses and laughs, excitement dancing in her eyes and in her tone. “We went together for a week and got engaged!”
Grandpa went to Idaho to see his brother Chuck who was also in the Army Air Core, they both came back and grandpa introduced him to Grandma. Grandpa went back to base after his leave was up after “Victory over Japan” in August. He was given orders to be stationed in Japan after arriving. “I’m in school, it was October, I’m in speech class and he comes walking in the door to my class.” Her eyes raised and her voice elevated. “I thought he was headed to Japan! He had been discharged and no longer was in the Army Air-Core. So we went together the rest of my senior year.” Changing her tone “Graduated Friday night and started the telephone company on Monday. Then we were married August 23 1946 I had just turned 18.”