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Varney and his wife Gorgus were arguing at the kitchen table. Varney said, “I told you last week I couldn’t drive your mother to Spokane then turn around and take your sister to school. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.” Gorgus: “A jigsaw puzzle!” Varney: “Yes, a jigsaw puzzle. I’m running all over the place. You’ve got more relatives than —” Gorgus: “Oh, for goodness sakes, Varney. Here, have some coffee. Settle down.” Varney: “Settle down? How can I settle down? That old dictionary of yours tells it right. This family is compl...
Grandpa Joe and grandma Alice were enjoying a few days with their grandchildren, Carie and Max, while the youngsters’ parents finished Christmas shopping. On this particular day grandpa Joe was in the barn cleaning the stalls. He heard Max calling, “Grandpa Joe, grandpa Joe,” and answered, “I’m in the barn, Max.” He mumbled to himself, “I betcha Max and Carie want a sleigh ride.” The kids were at the barn door before he could say, “You want a ride in the snow? Jump aboard.” Both Max and Carie said at the same time, “Yes, gr...
It was a plain house where Jack Anderson and his mother, Rachel, lived. The walls needed paint and the front steps were rough. Their elderly friend, Harry, who lived across the street, sometimes tripped on those steps. While every morning when Jack woke up, he always noticed the flapping shingles on Harry’s roof. Jack wished he could fix them, but he couldn’t do it alone. He wished that the young boys who lived so close by would pitch in and help him fix the roof for Harry. Jack would soon graduate from high school and fin...
When I was 4 years old I knew exactly what I wanted for Christmas and it was not a doll. I wanted my daddy to buy me a train. It would have a red engine and my little dolls would ride in the boxcars where they would see all the sights. My mother tried to discourage the idea about a train. She said, “Stop that silly nonsense.” We were in the living room at home and since I had become good at arguing, mother and I were having a time of it. My sister, Jeannie, at the age of 5, suddenly poked her head in the door, skipped ove...
My grandmother on my mother’s side of the family, Lucy Kratzer, loved to spend hours working on crossword puzzles. Her brother, called Kerr by the family, preferred to smile while he recited all the remarkable accomplishments of our 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, including details about his birthday. These two teachers by profession, grandmother Lucy and great uncle Kerr, easily remembered dates, places, relatives, someone’s new buggy, etc. Does anyone care what Abraham Lincoln had for his bir...
Tell this story to your children: Mother Deer, a white-tailed beauty, was a careful supervisor for her daughter, Angela, as she guided her through the farmer’s field. Mother Deer also kept a watch over those around her. Little Angela now has grown and learned well since her birth amongst the pine trees on the hill. Mother Deer was dreaming how they would wander through the bushes today when a sudden blast from a shotgun echoed over their heads. The other terrified deer began to run in all directions. Mother Deer stomped h...
Shay was born as Shalene Robertson in San Jose, south of San Francisco. She grew up in the "Silicon Valley." At the age of 15, Shay knew she would have to live on her own. "That's what made me what I am," she said. "I had to struggle, which made me strong. I am grateful for that. At age 16, I started a cleaning company. My first. I advertised and found houses to clean. When I was 18, I had seven employees. I did very well. I lived in Morgan Hill, California. At 19, I bought...
St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, S.D. thrums and hums with happy talk and laughter as Thanksgiving and Christmas draw closer. Even though these children are far from Cheney, you can sense their enthusiasm as they dream of receiving and giving gifts. In a letter I recently received in the mail, Father J. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ chaplain of the school, gives us a brief picture of Emily, one of the students. “Emily is 8 years old and came to us a year ago,” Kluckman writes. “You could see the hopelessness in her dark br...
When I was a little girl I helped my daddy in the barn. I didn't help much but I pretended to. It kept me from having to help my mother in the garden. We were definitely a farm family with ugly brown shoes tucked inside our overshoes and chores to do every day. I liked feeding the calves best but didn't much care for helping with the chickens. We had a banty rooster that sometimes chased me all the way to the house. My sister was sick a lot of the time so she didn't have to...
Bridget Calvert is an energetic sophomore at Cheney High School. She is in a leadership class. That is what Bridget does; she leads. Soon the class will host an assembly service to honor our veterans on Nov. 1. The class will lead a canned food drive. Bridget said, "All people are welcome to bring canned food to the high school. On the first and second weeks of November, food will be distributed to the needy. We will let kids know they can bring any food back that they got...
While you are reading this, Peter and Carlene Hardt's daughter Joy will already be working in Liberia, West Africa. She is in charge of five nurses in a newly built 100-bed Ebola treatment center staffed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a world-class disaster relief organization. Her nurses are Liberian nationals who will be providing patient care and rehydration, monitoring patients, making notes for the physicians, providing food and bathing and helping the...
There’s an old saying that a person sometimes hums, “mm-mm, good,” when they walk into a room where something is cooking. If you’re thinking of food, you’re right on target. The folks at Tyler Grange are preparing for their annual Harvest Dinner on Oct. 25, at 6 p.m. Be sure to mark the date on your calendar. I wonder how many years the Tyler Grange members have opened their doors to friends, relatives and neighbors in the community, giving their hospitality on this traditional, friendly evening? Tyler Grange provides...
It's about time you cleaned out that closet. Look what we found: a calendar with pages of Cheney pictures in the early days. This display, from 1889 to 1989, celebrated Washington State Centennial with the Cheney Tilicum Museum in charge of the photography. The first picture was of the Showalter family at harvest time. Photo was by A.A. Ames, circa 1910. I counted 19 people, including two boys holding their dogs, a little girl holding tight to her mother and another woman in...
As we go about our days we often do not think of those who work beside us keeping the city of Cheney running smoothly, repairing, renewing and carefully fulfilling administrative duties. Meet Susan Beeman. She grew up in Soap Lake. "My dad was a carpenter, my mother a second-grade teacher. I have a younger brother," she said. "We all moved to Cheney in 1984. I started working for the city of Cheney in 1985 as a secretary for the finance director. Then I became secretary of...
A young mother with a couple of children can curb her impatience (almost) they write on the walls with red crayons or poke their fingers into a freshly baked cake. But life is different when you are a bit older and the “children” are of the feline family, who see lots of fun awaiting them as they sneak under the shelf that holds up the computer. Like children of any kind, mine are curious about all those cords, blinking lights and clicking noises. Maybe I should be proud they are so interested in computers. However, the...
Did you know the class of Cheney High School seniors in 1942 had a reunion Aug. 21 at Darcy's Restaurant in Spokane Valley? This was their 72nd reunion. Their classroom in 1942 was in the old Wren Pierson building, accommodating 46 graduates. World War II was just beginning. Many of the classmates were almost immediately called into the service. Earlier, the seniors had decided to have a reunion every five years. After about 25 years they moved the time to every two years and finally to every year. By the current year the...
(Editor's Note: McKindsay Dow is Luella Dow's granddaughter) McKindsay Dow, Wayne Dow's daughter, spent around 50 hours this summer as a volunteer with three other students from Gonzaga Prep Higth School. They worked with people studying English as a second language. "There were three levels of English classes," McKindsay said. "The level two class was reserved for those students who had just arrived in the United States, or those who spoke very little English. This class was...
Ron Mill has many memories of his growing up in Amber, Wash. When he was only 5 years old, the district encouraged all parents to have their children vaccinated. Ron doesn't remember what it was for exactly. When you read what happened to him, you will understand why he chose to forget. Several kids in the school and others who should have known better, teased Ron by telling him the needle for the vaccination was five feet long. Ron decided that he didn't need such a horrible...
My name is Lillie. My friend is Sue. She is visiting me from her home in Nebraska. We sat at the kitchen table, my friend and I, watching the afternoon slide by as its hours and minutes faded into nothing. Like many others in the area, our electricity had been tangled by an angry wind crashing into cars, uprooting trees, smashing windows and roofs of wounded houses. Crews were working frantically to restore the power. We’d have to be patient. Sue shrugged her shoulders. “I expected to do my laundry today. Maybe I should go...
The following stories are true. Verification is available. 1800s Once upon a time there was a young lady who turned her car easily into its place at her home, gathered the things she had bought and took two steps toward her house. She stopped. Right there before her, leaning casually on her garage door, was a young girl about 10 years of age. She had blonde hair, wore a white dress that looked like it was made of cotton, with sleeves covering her arms and a flounce swaying softly around her ankles. She had no shoes on. Our...
The year 1881 was the birthdate of the first railroad depot in Cheney. It was a plain, but usable building, where flour shipments from the Martin family's mill were sent to the Spokane bakeries. Clarence Martin, Cheney's most famous citizen, was born right here in town in 1886. He attended the Normal school up on the hill and graduated in 1903. He watched the farmers bring their grain to the mill and he watched those who came to the mill to buy the flour. Martin also watched...
Roger Hagenbuch grew up on a dairy farm in New Jersey. He said, "I was the fourth of nine children." A family in the dairy business needs a lot of helpers to carry the milking equipment, feed the calves, and pitch the hay and many other chores. After graduating high school, Roger joined the Air Force. Thanks to Uncle Sam, instead of hosing out the barn, he now worked in electronics. For how long? Roger said, "Thirty years, 29 days." Sorry if you're keeping track, but he did...
My stingy dictionary tells me Benjamin Franklin was an American statesman and an inventor. And then it stopped. Surely there was much more to tell about him, much more than a few words. Joe Wurzelbacker is known as Joe for America.com and Joe the Plumber. He has put together 10 of Benjamin Franklin’s little-known accomplishments. I am proud to pass them on to you. Benjamin Franklin was born Jan. 17, 1700. He learned to swim at the age of 19. He jumped into a river and swam about 3.5 miles. This effort won him the honor of int...
Once upon a time, about 35 years ago, Mitchell’s Harvest Foods in Cheney was a little grocery store owned by the Ribas brothers. About that time, two brothers, Mitchell and Ron Moczulski, were on their way here from their home in Ohio, looking around for a grocery store to buy. The two Moczulski brothers found the Ribas brothers’ store, bought it and promptly called it Country Counter. Robin Rickert, the daughter in Mitchell’s family, commented on her father’s ability to work...
I was the "new kid on the block" in a group of rural women who called themselves Merry Makers when I first met June Labish. Some of the women stared at me. Others ignored me. June smiled and made me feel welcome. June and her husband Joe had tackled the 24-hour chore of milking 20 cows on the Boone Mill place. Residents of the Amber area could tell you exactly where that was. The Labish's milk was shipped to Darigold for processing. Tired of the dairy business, June and Joe...
