Ida Pauline Oliphant

1907-1995

(Generation 210)

Born 7 Jun 1907 Cainsville, Harrison Co., MO.
Married to Paul Edgar Seeley
Died 4 Jan 1995 Cave Junction, Josephine Co., OR.
( Liver Cancer )


I remember - Memorabilia of my childhood

Handwritten By Ida Pauline Oliphant-Seeley (Polly Seeley)

My first recollection of the things and events stored in my memory occured when I was between 2 and 3 years old. It was a mild sunny day and my parents and I were on our way home (to the farm) from a trip to town for supplies. We were riding in a horse drawn buggy with the top down. The dirt road was dry and the wheels of the buggy made no sound. The sound of the horse's hoofs was the only sound I remember on that quiet day, except for the distant bray of a donkey or mule, and I asked my Daddy what the noise was, and he told me and imitated the sound.

I remember the buggy was shiney black and the seat had black leather upholstering and the spokes on the wheels were bright red. The horse was reddish brown and his name was "Old Fox". We lived on the farm until I was 6 and old enough to go to school, so my folks moved to into town to put me in school. My Daddy ran the "pool hall". Some of the townspeople thought it was a "den of iniquity" - but it wasn't. I could go in any time of the day or night (and I often did) to see Daddy and ask him for a nickle, and there was never anything "went on" that a little girl couldn't see that would "corrupt" her.

Our house was "the Green house", a modest but pretty and convenient house with a large garden spot and a large yard to play in. There were two large maple trees in the front lawn and a peach tree in the back yard near the fence into the garden and not too far from what we called "the smoke house" which was just outside the back door. This was used for storage and there was a "coal bin". Out in the garden, through a gate and up a "cinder path" was a chicken house (which was never used) with a large catalpa tree beside it, and the "2 holer out house". Inside the house was a kitchen, dining room, living room and 2 bedrooms.

The kitchen was small with a "pantry". My Mother had an oil stove, and an ice box. A work table, and a cabinet, and this was her domain. The dining room had a round pedestal table and 6 chairs, a sewing machine and the "heating stove". There was a "plate rail" all around the room with many beautiful hand painted plates. My favorite was a royal blue plate with one large yellow pansey and it was glazed and very shiney.

Between the dining room and the living room was a rectangular archway and my Mother had dark green plush "portiers" hanging there. There was a green plush sofa, a spring rocker (leather) and a "library" table. The living room had flowered axminister rugs with throw rugs in the archway, in front of the sofa and in front of the stove. The front bedroom was the guest room and had a large oak dresser and bed, which were a rich gold-blonde color, and a clothes closet. The back bedroom was where we all slept. Mother and Daddy in a large white cast iron bed and my brother and I in a large "folding bed". A "piece" that my folks were very proud of and was one of the popular "in" things then. I have many memories of our life in the "Green house" but it would take too long to describe them all, and I'm only trying to describe the "things" that were around me at that time.

When my Grandmother (my Mother's Mother) [Ida Belle Chambers-McKiddy] died we sold the "Green house" and went to live with Grandaddy [William McKiddy] in the big house so Mother [Sylvia May McKiddy] could take care of him. This was the house I "grew up" in and I remember nearly everything about it.

There were 2 bedrooms down stairs and two upstairs beside the 2 "attic rooms" which were used for storage. There was a big porch across the front and the West side and a nice porch on the East side was the dining room and kitchen. In the front yard were 2 maple trees and a peony bush and both porches were covered with "Virginia creeper" vines. There were 2 maple trees on the West side and the back yard had 2 crabapple trees, a small apple tree and a large grape arbor and 2 cherry trees. The front and back yards were all one and always beautifully mowed (by Grandaddy I think).

Back of the kitchen was a "smoke house" (this one had 2 coal bins, one for soft coal and one for hard coal). Behind the smoke house was the "outhouse" 2 holer and on back of that and fenced in was the chicken house which was occupied by many chickens (buff orphingtons) and behind that and also fenced in was the barn with 3 stalls, a feed bin and above, a big hay loft, and "Old Lady" our milk cow. She was a Jersey and Guernsey and Grandaddy's pride and joy. Behind the barn was a large strawberry patch. Our garden was East of the house and extended back the whole length of Grandaddy's land.

Coming in the back door, on your left and on the wall was the telephone (you took down the receiver and turned the handle 3 or 4 times which buzzed the town operator and when she answered you told her who you wanted to talk to and she rang them up for you from the switchboard). In front of you was the stove, "the kitchen range" and truly a beautiful thing. Big and black and chrome trimmed. 6 burners (or lids) and a big reservoir for hot water, and a hugh oven. There was a metal back board up which the stove pipe extended and there-on was a warming oven. On the door of the warming oven was the name "Monarch" Beside the stove was the "wash bench", a beautiful oak table with a solid piece of marble on top where we kept the wash basin, the water bucket and the soap dish (an old hand painted saucer with Kirk's Hardwater Castile soap) above this bench and a little to the left was the "roller Towel" (a towel on a solid oak frame and roller) beneath this and by the side of the bench was the waste bucket, where you poured the dirty water after you were through washing. Then there was a door beside the bench leading to what was going to be the bathroom but it never got finished. Beside this door was a Seth Thomas clock on a sturdy oak shelf. The clock had a glass door which you opened to wind it and thru the glass you could see the face of the clock and the brass pendulem. It "struck" the hour and half hour. The case was oak like the shelf and it was about 24 inches tall - a beautiful thing!

Across from the stove and on the same wall as the telephone was the breakfast table which was always covered with pretty oil cloth. Here we ate most of our meals, except when we had company and on Sundays when we ate in the dining room. On the right side of the stove was the kitchen cabinet where most of the meals were prepared. There were shelves up above the "work area" where we kept the dishes. On one side was the flour bin, complete with built in sifter. Under the work area was the drawers (3) and a door which opened up to more shelves where the pots and pans were kept. Beside the cabinet was a window looking out to the "cistern" and the smoke house and beside the window was a small pantry space where we kept the oil stove which was used in the summer to keep from having to cook on the "hot" coal stove (the Monarch).

The dining room was large with a bay window on the end and the front of the house. (Grandmother raised chrysanthemums in this bay window in the winter. Big yellow pom-poms the size of grapfruit). The dining table was solid oak and round and stood in the middle of the room. There were enough extension leaves to make the table almost as long as the room! The side board was solid oak and matched the table. Varnished a light golden blonde. This is where the good dishes were kept and the good silverware and the tableclothes and napkins. There were 8 carved back, solid seat, chairs to match the table and side board, and on the floor a pretty flowered rug. The rectangular archway leading into the living room had carved wooden decorations above and down the sides.

As you went through the archway the staircase was to your right up the living room wall. The living room had 2 large leather rocking chairs, a big library table, a big "base burner" heating stove and a player piano. The player piano was our entertainment as well as my opportunity to take 8 years of piano lessons. The base burner was a luxury item few people had. It burned hard coal and made a bright glow through it's "Izing glass" windows on three sides. In the back and where the stove pipe went up to the flue, there was a small plate of metal and where the heat kept a small teakettle, full of water, hot at all times. This provided humidty for the cold, dry winters and when all was quite it whistled a soft, gentle whistle which gave you a warm, comfortable sense of well being. On either side of the base burner were doors leading into the downstairs bedrooms. The libary table was dark (mahogany perhaps) and long. The legs were oval shaped and there was a shelf underneath between the legs for magazines or books. There was a long drawer which was a "catch all". The piano was a rich red mahogany with a bench to match. A flower Axminister rug covered the living room floor and there was a large axminister rug in front of the stairway and the front door.

The West bedroom was Granddaddy's room. A severe room with solid oak chest of drawers, chair and bedstead. Clothes were hung on hooks in one corner. The other downstairs bedroom was mine. A small room with pink curtains at the window, A brass bed and a dark wood vanity dresser with 3 mirrors and my clothes hung on hooks at one end of the room. The stair case ran up one wall about 8 steps where there was a "landing" and then turned to the left up to ceiling level where there was another landing between the 2 upstairs bedrooms. Under the first landing there was a closet.

The front upstairs bedroom had a large brass bed with a feather bed on it and a table and chair. The back upstairs bedroom was larger and had a large wrought iron bed, vanity dresser and a "secretary" with book case above and drawers below. In one of the glass doors was a oil painting my Grandmother had done of a mill pond and mill wheel. Another of her paintings hung in that room. It was long and tall with light colored frame and it was of cattails and reeds in a blue pond. On each side of this room was an attic room (unfinished with rough floors and rafters showing) these were used for storage and I sometimes used the East one for a playhouse on rainy days. In the West one was an old wicker rocking chair, an old guitar (used to belong to my uncle) and a zither belonging to my Daddy and which he got out and played sometimes. There were books and magazines and other things I've forgotten.

Along the West fence of the garden my Mother planted sweet peas every year and they were beautiful. Back of the big garden was another strawberry patch. Different than the ones behind the barn. Every year during strawberry season my brother and I picked strawberries to sell and we were paid 5 cents a quart to pick. During the summer I remember fried chicken (from our own chickens) green beans and peas and new potatoes (from our own garden) and lots of strawberry shortcake.

While I was growing up at this house I used to visit my other Grandmother (Daddy's Mother) [Amanda Pauline Grey-Oliphant] and spend the night with her. Her house was another kind of old fashioned house, with an iron fence around the front yard. There was maple trees, elm trees and evergreen trees, and lots of roses in the summer. Lots of ferns and potted geraniums in the winter. The most important room in her house was the big kitchen and dining room combination. Coming in the front door, on the wall to your left was the phone, and on over further was a cupboard with glass doors and drawers below. There were water glasses behind the glass door that were almost too beautiful to describe. One set was a deep royal blue glass with white daisies painted on the sides. Another set was a pale blue milk glass hob nail set with a pitcher to match, and there were others in beautiful glass. On that same side of the kitchen (West) was the big table - it was dark but I don't remember seeing it without a pretty tablecloth on it. Next to that was her kitchen cabinet with her dishes, flour bin. etc. On the North side was the door to the screened in back porch and a big pantry or "buttery" she called it, with lots of shelves on each side. On the East wall was another "buttery" and the big cook stove like the one at the other house, then a door leading into the living room.

There was a base burner, leather chairs, a leather sofa and lots of plants in the windows, and a soft flowered axminister rug on the floor. In the ceiling was an opening about 18 inches square called the "register" which was covered with an iron grate that could be opened to let the heat go into the bedrooms upstairs. There was a door on the North going into a hall and across "the parlor" which was only used when we had company. Also the stairway ran up from this hallway too. The parlor had a rich brown and yellow flowered axminister rug on the floor, several wicker chairs and a library table. One picture on the wall was a picture of each of her children and a lock of each of their hair tied with a small yellow bow. I called it the "hair" picture and I remember it well.

Upstairs were 3 small rooms on the North where she kept her blankets, quilts and feather beds and across from these were her bedroom (where the register was) and where I always slept with my Grandmother and another bedroom which was a guest room, with a dresser, bed, chair and wash stand with a white pitcher and a wash bowl on it, and a small clothes closet.

Her house had a distinct odor of beautiful things. A combination of good cooking odors, moth balls and lavendar. On the screened-in porch was an old work table which was used for the wash bench, a storage cupboard and the well. It was called a "living well" because it contained "hard water" from down in the ground instead of "soft" water like our cistern at home which contained rain water from the roof and gutters of the house and filtered through charcoal before it ran into the well.

Outside the door off the back porch was the cellar where apples and potatoes and canned fruits and vegatables were stored for the winter. On down from this (about 20 feet) was a 2 holer behind a smoke house where the wood and coal was stored and behind this and fenced in was a big barn yard with a barn in the middle which she rented out to people to keep their pigs and cows in. Her garden was behind the back porch. There she grew vegetables but I remember most of all the flowers which were along the fence. Bright lavendar-pink cosmos, fence hig and waving in the wind. Her front porch was all along the front of the house and was covered with virginia creeper. Her roses were along the West side of her front lawn. There was a lots of them and they were all pink. These are all the old fashioned things I remember.

Note: Notes or comments in square brackets [], are by Terry.