Marlys Hiatt’s (71) reply to Florence Hiatt Dahl (50): 

Hi Everyone,

I remember those popcorn balls at my grandma Margies too.  They were the
cooked sugar kind that she colored red.  I did have the chicken poxs and
maybe that’s where I got them, from her popcorn balls.  If you have had
the chicken pox can you get shingles?  If so I am running to get the shot.
My mother, Irene Hiatt, got shingles at least a couple of times.  The
first time it was around her eye and the second time it went around her
abdomen.  The second time it lasted for at least a year and she really
suffered with tremendous pain.

Marlys Hiatt
Class of 71

Marlys & Florence, I remember those Popcorn balls, really well, of your Grandma & Aunt Margie’s.  At one of her Christmas party’s, when I was a kid, I remember eating so many of those popcorn balls and other goodies she had baked that I actually got sick. They were so good.  She was sure famous for all of the good stuff she baked with that original wood cook stove. She was very famous for her flavored popcorn balls. She always canned a lot of good canned goods too.  With each of my annual visits back to visit, I always visited Margie. Right up to the time of her death, she always had lots of baked and canned goods that she served for lunch. She did not believe in using paper towels either. She could not see wasting her money using paper towels when rags were available. Margie usually had a pretty good handle on the neighborhood gossip too.  She wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade either. I always enjoyed my visits with her. She knew my Dad from early childhood and of coarse my two brothers and me as well, our entire lives.  There will never be another Margie Hiatt like the Margie we knew.  She was one of a kind.  She thought the world of you Slyter boys.  You guys were tops in her book. Believe me, with her critical standards, it wasn’t easy reaching the top of her book. She was an aunt, great aunt, great great aunt, grandmother and great grandmother to many of you folks out there. Margie was a good family friend. Gary

From Janice Leonard Workman (56): 

Hey Gary, I haven’t heard from you since Saturday, today is Tuesday.  I pray that you are alright and maybe it’s only copper that has been taken.

I attended a funeral today and ran into Bernard Hiatt and Mary (Tootsie Peterson).  We had a good visit.  Bernard looks really good and Mary looks like she did in high school, not even a gray hair.  Bernard lives in Enumclaw, not far from Auburn and Mary lives in Algona, not far from Auburn either.  I did play whist with a group that Mary was in, so saw her every month until December 2007 when the group stopped playing.

Anyway, again I hope all is well, Gary.

Janice Leonard Workman, Class of 56

Folks, With these messages coming from overseas, they are screen more critically, by some of your email providers, for spam.  If they get rejected by your email provider they will not get delivered.  Most of the time I do not get a message telling me they did not get delivered. Please let me know if you don’t get some of these messages so I can resend them to you using one of my other email accounts. That often times works.  Gary

From Crystal Fassett Andersen (70): 

From Sybil Johnson: 

Thank you Dick, for that story about “pa’s” brother Hans. Do you remember,
when Axel and Bernice lived on the Island? According to how Augie told it,
Pa would take a swim every morning. Then I remember Bernice telling me about
her brother Raymond. How their father told him to go and get potatoes and he
came back 10 yrs later, with a sack of potatoes on his shoulder.
Thanks again everyone. I love reading these old stories.
Sybil Johnson

(Part 4) CARROLL CARLSON’S TRAVELING  YEARS, BY VICKIE METCALFE (70):

CARROLL AND THE SHILLING BROTHERS  IN SUNNY CALIFORNIA  AND  A  DAY  THAT  CARROLL NEVER WILL  FORGET, ………….or, TJIUANA, MEXICO

Carroll and his friends, the Shilling brothers, fellow ranch workers, left Chinook in the fall of 1941 driving in the Shilling brothers automobile.  They were off to better pay/big money at factory positions in defense work and see sunny California.  Jack and John Shilling and Carroll arrived  in  the San Diego area in November of 1941,  where   the  defense jobs were only paying  the sum of   $.50 an hour.    The three  worked and continued to travel around and see sights.  One morning  in December they decided to head south of the border  to Tjiuana, Mexico.  After arriving  Mexico,  ready to see the sights, they heard the news.  “The Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor”!

The date, December 7, 1941.

The three  got back in the car and headed  over the border.  Carroll, Jack and John went back to work on the defense job.  But, it was becoming  clear,  able bodied  men would be  needed.   The US was at war on two fronts. If the draft was to take him  Carroll  wanted to have a choice of where he would be drafted from.  So he headed back to his adopted home town.  Chinook, Montana.  (“Carroll is an independent  person that likes the freedom to choose. ” vm.)

Carroll’s Traveling Years will Continue with part 5 tomorrow:

Message/Picture from Dick Johnson(68):

Gary and Friends,

Gary Metcalfe mentioned that Otto Strietzel was a spittin’ image of
Jesse James. There is a connection. Otto Was one of 11 children (
including my grandmother Cynthia Strietzel Johnson, his sister) of Paul
Strietzel and Della James. Della was the daughter of Joshua King James
from Lincoln County, Missouri. Joshua’s father was Jacob James. Jacob
James was a brother to Jesse and Frank James’s father. I guess we all
share some grandparents! I did a research paper in college on the life
of Jesse and Frank, for a history class. There were several stories that
I had heard about them that were totally false, others were closer to
the fact. Now a short history lesson. The Civil War divided Missouri
into two factions, Northern sympathizers and Southern Sympathizers. The
James family were southern Baptist and stayed loyal to the South. The
North raided and killed and burned the farms of the Confederate
sympathizers, this caused hatred of the North among the James families,
especially Frank and Jesse. They decided to join Quantrill and his
raiders to exact some revenge on the North. After a few raids, Jesse and
Frank became wanted outlaws in the eyes of the North. Northern Railroads
were a target of the James boys and so the railroad hired the Pinkerton
Detective Agency from New York, to take them down. One night when Jesse
and Frank were gone, they threw a smoke bomb through the window of the
James farmhouse. Mrs. James kicked it into the fireplace and it
exploded,. killing Jesse and Frank’s little brother and blowing off
their mother’s arm! When they got back and found out what had happened,
they cast off any pity or reservation they had up until then, and really
went out to settle the score! Any Northern bank or railroad was now fair
game. While I’m not attempting to excuse or justify their actions, I can
understand somewhat, the hatred they carried on their raids. They gave
most of their plunder back to their friends and neighbors, so the home
folks thought of them as war heroes and helped to keep them from being
caught. They continued to raid for several years until that fateful day
in Northfield, Minnesota. The town found out the bank was being robbed
and was ready for them when they came out. The Younger brothers, cousins
of the James boys were shot to pieces in the street.  Cole, Bob, and Jim
Younger were caught by the posse later that night after they split up
near Mankato, Minnesota. Jesse and Frank went through Dakota Territory
and eluded capture. Both were carrying bullets in their legs but made it
back to Missouri and healed their wounds. They then hid out in different
places around the country and in time had families and gave up robbing
for good. Jesse was shot by his cousin, Bob Ford, for a $10,000 reward.
He moved to Denver and bragged about what he had done, to the wrong man!
The man was a friend of Jesse’s and sent young Ford to an early grave.
Frank was eventually pardoned and lived to an old age in Lincoln County,
Missouri. It was said, that old Mrs. James went around and bought up all
the used pistols she could find and then sold them, one at a time, to
visitors for a big price–telling them,” This was Jesse’s own gun”! Not
so dumb! Attached is a picture of my great-great grandfather, Joshua
King James and his second wife, Helena. More later! Thanks Gary!

Dick