1959 Rambler Station Wagon

The Nielsen Family
"1959 Rambler Station Wagon"

Memories rush into my head when I look at old pictures such as this one. By the time this picture was taken, that funkie looking Rambler Station Wagon was 4 or 5 years old & we had moved into our new house out on the farm after living in Quincy on K Street for 6 or 7 years. The old Rambler just had the basics... stick shift, hand crank windows and a heater. The unexpected feature, according to Reed, was "OVER DRIVE" which was a gas saver. It was good enough for a dog, as I heard Dad say many times about lots of things. The times our family of 8 went on trips to Utah, Ruth, Gayla & DeAnn rode in the back behind the back seat where luggage usually goes. Our luggage usually consisted of black plastic bags full of stuff tied to the roof-top racks. The kids could bed down in the back & sleep all the way & not cause any trouble, however, DeAnn was always hollering that she couldn't breath, it was too stuffy back there.

For 10 or more years, that trusty old Rambler took us many places, including the 1960 Seattle World's Fair, but later on when Ruth was a teenager, things went wrong. She broke the rear axle twice goofing around with her friends. Dad never got mad at Ruth, he patiently fixed & fixed until he decided to trade it in for a small used car. When Mom & Dad came home from Wenatchee driving a little gray Ford Falcon, Gayla cried! She thought it was ugly & she was embarrassed that her friends might see her in that ugly little gray car!

Our "1959 Rambler Station Wagon Years" took place during the last century, in the last millinum, but now-a-days (2008), I know that at least one of those old 1959 Rambler Station Wagons still exists. If you were look down in a horse pasture from the country road leading to Deer Park, you could see it just sitting there slowly going to rust in the deep winter snow.

Lipstick Attraction

Lipstick Attraction

This past Thanksgiving 2008, I listened as Allen Nelson was telling about the recent incident when couple of his little granddaughters played with their Aunt Suzanne's purse where she kept all her make up & lotions. They smeared lipstick everywhere, squeezed the tube of lotion empty, and they totally ruined Suzanne's purse and made her cry! Everyone in the house freaked out over the big mess and Suzanne was promised a new purse and everything that was in it!

I remember that I had experienced a similar incident a long time ago. For sure, little girls haven't changed over the years, they are attracted to lipstick! My little sisters, Gayla and DeAnn, had a great time with my lipstick while I wasn't home. I was 16 or 17 while they were bothersome little rascals. They had nothing better to do for entertainment in the afternoon before I came home from school than dress up like clowns. On several ocassions I was greeted at the front door by those two little snoops who had gobbed up their faces with my lipstick... they had painted red circles on their cheeks & noses with my lipstick! I don't remember freaking out and nobody promised to buy me new lipstick. I had nothing that they hadn't gone snooping through. Ruth , Gayla, DeAnn and I all shared a bedroom and all I had was one little drawer in the dresser where I could keep my stuff. Nothing was safe in that bedroom! One morning DeAnn woke up and looked in the mirror and saw that her face was all smeared with my red lipstick and my brown eye brow pencil. For years, she thought one of us had painted her face while she slept but time has revealed that she did it to herself during one of her sleep walking sessions.

(Our family photo was taken at the Bradford's home (Hyrum, Utah) in 1959 while we were visiting in Utah for Thanksgiving. Our mother was 40 that year. She had lots of girl friends and sang in a Barber Shop Quartet. See Gayla (7 ) wearing her "Blue Rascal" outfit and DeAnn (5 ) wearing her "Red Rascal" outfit standing on each side of Grandpa Nielsen. I am standing in front wearing my new coat with a "Raccoon" fur collar. Mom is holding baby Alan (almost 1) who is wearing the pink snowsuit DeAnn wore as a baby. Ruth (10) was busy in her own world with her friends and always the smartest kid in her school class. Reed (15) kept the messiest bedroom in town but Dad depended on him to help out on the farm every day until he got home from work. Dad was a welder and worked on several dams that were being built on the Columbia River.)

Sentimental Journey

Last week we four sisters had a little reunion when Ruth flew into town to visit for a few days! Three of us now live in the same town since our husbands have retired so we were excited to be together.

One sunny October day we took our sentimental journey and visited the town and farm where we grew up. Our parents bought an 80 acre farm in the land of opportunity a long time ago when we were very young; consequently, farm duties (hard work) was part of life for our family. Ruth says her shoulder is suffering the effects of picking rocks as a kid. DeAnn and Gayla were milk maids. I sewed clothes for all of us but I picked rocks and weeded beans too. The farm is on it's third owner now... the house still has the same paint job...the trees are over-grown...the yard doesn't look as good as it did years ago and a variety of cats and dogs came to check us out when we turned around in the driveway that day.

At some point, as we drove along on our sentimental journey, comparing HANDS became the discussion...we all have hands like our father... large hands meant for working! Ruth, Gayla and DeAnn have particularly large hands! We aren't complaining, just noticing what we inherited. Our mother had long, graceful fingers... she played the piano but she worked too. Our father worked with his hands...he fixed machinery, welded metal and carved wood with a knife! Hands are interesting. We inherited our teeth from our mother. She had nice big front teeth that were straight and well-formed! We all have teeth that look good in toothy grins. We have no need to be embarrassed by our front teeth and we never needed braces from the dentist. Our parents are gone now but are reminded of them sometimes.