Nona Lee Henriksen Mahugh
Bacon, Pills & $5 Bills The Story of Frank & Helen Henriksen 224 pages, soft cover, b/w photos, 6" x 9" $14.95 |
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Synopsis
This is the story of Frank and Helen Henriksen of Pomeroy, Washington. On one hand, it’s a delightful story of a very unique family who emerged from the depression years saving tinfoil, straightening nails and always sure to have $5 bills on hand for an emergency. On the other hand, there’s a little bit of Frank and Helen in all of us, which makes the reader want to cheer them on for their lovable character, their idiosyncrasies, their adventures, and their willingness to work hard and meet life on its own terms.
Nona Lee Henriksen Mahugh
In Bacon, Pills & $5 Bills, Nona Lee Henriksen Mahugh has written a loving tribute to her parents that will have you laughing as she reflects on their experiences, agreeing as she writes of their guiding principles of life that they passed on to their children and grandchildren, saddened as she recounts the tragedies they experienced, and heartened by the courage they showed in eight decades of life. If we learn anything by reading the stories in this book, it is the lesson to "be yourself" at all costs.
Pomeroy was small enough that Nona could hear her father "at work" trimming trees in the neighborhood from her classroom in school. Twenty-six students in her graduating class went from first to twelfth grade together. Even though she left Pomeroy at age eighteen, and settled in Alaska with her husband and family, there is a piece of her that will always be anchored in Pomeroy and the farm at Heaton Gulch.
Nona wrote this book to record these stories for her children, her family, and for future generations of others who want to remember small-town America. She also wants to inspire others to write their family stories, for everyone has a little bit of Frank and Helen in their family tree.
Table of Contents
| PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FRANK AND HELEN CHAPTER ONE – GOING WEST Going West First Home Pomeroy Roots HOME PLACE CHAPTER TWO – FRANK Mayor Down in the Valley 500 Friends Grilled Bird Kitchen Vanity Alfalfa Greens Waste Not The Mail is Here Trees Are For Trimming Scarified Somebody has to do it Treasure Hunt The Horse Race A Damn Rat Dad’s Trophy Deer The Reel Hole In the Floor THE CRUSADER CHAPTER THREE – MOM The Barn ‘razing’ East ‘48 Chevy Chicken Dinner Cards Wave The Winner $5 Bills What Determines A Person’s Wealth? Mixed Baggage Lumps of Life Nacedeman Emergency Shirley’s Memories CHAPTER FOUR – CHILDHOOD DAYS Baby Makes Five Barnyard Trampoline Custom Bike On-Job-Training Invincible Locust Tree Short & Curly Show & Tell Mother’s Way Driving Lessons Wheat Fire Barn Fire Bugged Table Manners CHAPTER FIVE – INTERIOR DECORATING Rules North Porch Stash Night Moves Calendars Phone list Dipper Living Room Stove Kitchen Stove The Wood Furnace The Smoke Up Heaton Gulch CHAPTER SIX – HOME REMEDIES Medicine Cabinet Pulley Paraphernalia Dinner By Candle Favorite Remedies Turpentine Horse Liniment Mustard Plaster Hot Toddy Copper Bracelet Aluminum Woes Medicine Mix-up Say Again? Bacon Keep on Moving Letters CHAPTER SEVEN – TRAVEL Wrong Wedding Ogallala Ropes, Whiskey Rock Formation California CHAPTER EIGHT – LAST DAYS Obits Plots Framed Favorite Going Home Together Again Sharon, Sunny, Jo A Tribute to Mom and Dad POTPOURRI THE END OF AN ERA! Tax Records Abstract Our Family Tree Creation of an Author Names in This Book Order Form |
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Excerpts from:
Bacon, Pills & $5 Bills
NORTH PORCH
"It’s on the North Porch."
"See if it’s on the North Porch."
"Go put this on the North Porch."
The North Porch was located just off the back porch. It housed the freezer, shelves of fruit, bottles of pills that had failed to deliver the promised cure, boxes of stuff that accumulated on the kitchen counter and was a burial ground for anything that had a cord. Occasionally, on a birthday and at Christmas, we would attempt to give the folks a modern appliance. However, things such as the cast iron skillet fared better than an electric skillet on the wood stove and besides, there was "no sense wasting electricity." Sometimes one of the gift givers would express a need for some gadget and they could locate just what they needed on the North Porch. One Christmas an electric knife was given as a gift. Some months later I was home and noticed the blades for the electric knife in the silverware drawer.
"Wow, they are using the electric knife," I thought to myself.
Then my eye caught something unusual. There was a big ball of duct tape on the end which would have been inserted into the knife handle.
Dad saw me eyeing this conglomeration and explained, "Say, that there is the best knife in the house. It didn’t have a handle so I whittled one out of some wood and put this here tape on it."
He paused and looked around and picked up the remaining blade, "And here’s another one just like it. Why, we’ll be fixed up for knives for a long time!"
FAVORITE REMEDIES
Turpentine
The chain saw slipped off the green wood and chewed its way into Dad’s knee. A jagged hole in the coveralls probably provoked Dad more than the gaping wound. Luckily, the wound was not so deep as to cripple him, but it was a serious wound. Opening the glove box in the pickup to retrieve the first aid kit (a bottle of turpentine), Dad dumped a healthy shot of the spirits directly into the injury site. Next, he pulled his handkerchief from his rear pocket, applied pressure to the site and headed the old Studebaker pickup for town.
He was mighty irritated with his carelessness, but his luck soon changed. Halfway to Pomeroy he spotted a buck deer on the horizon. One shot found its mark; after dressing out the deer and delivering it to the local locker, he went to the doctor. His attitude about scars on his body was similar to how he felt about dings on his rigs.
STASH
Mom and Dad believed if the house burned down, the contents of the refrigerator would be spared. So that is where money and valuable documents were stored until they could be taken to the bank and safety deposit box.
In the mid ‘50s a little GE refrigerator hummed away next to the chimney in the kitchen. Shirley cleaned the refrigerator one Saturday. She shook a closed peanut can, determined it was empty, stepped out on the west porch and threw it into the hog yard to contribute to one of the earth dams that Dad was building. Later that evening Dad went to count his money and couldn’t find the stash.
A call was made to the Maple Hall where Shirley was at the weekly dance. Her name was paged over the loudspeaker. A red faced teenager confirmed Dad’s worst fears; the cold cash in the "Heaton Gulch Bank" had been deposited to the "wrong account."
An impromptu family outing was launched. The entire family got flashlights and started walking the length of the dry creek bed below the hog yard. When the can was found, the lid was missing. It had popped off from the impact and gentle summer breezes had scattered the money. Fortunately, all of the money was found.
This incident did not change the folks’ tradition of using the refrigerator for valuables, but it did change our method of cleaning it.
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