Seattle was one of the most beautiful cities in the US. It isn’t anymore. I will be showing you & telling you what the “Emerald” city was like when I was growing up. What has happened to it is an utter disgrace but I will always remember it as a very nice place to live. We moved there from our home between Rosedale & Arletta, during the summer of 1954. Our mother took a job teaching at a private school at King’s Garden (a former Sanitarium).
My recollection of our moving to Seattle isn’t real clear, but I remember things we did after we got there. Our mother took a teaching position at King’s Garden where we lived for a little over 2 years. We lived in a small apartment in the main building, which contained offices, kitchen & dining area. A part of mother’s pay was our living there for free, but we had to do certain tasks as residents of King’s Garden. I worked in the facility’s Laundry, Print Shop & helped in the Kitchen from time to time. It wasn’t hard work but taught us some good lessons & enabled us to learn some basic skills that helped when we grew into adulthood. We had to work about 9 hours a week as our part of “Paying the Rent”. Here are some pictures taken recently but show what King’s Garden looked like.
Aerial view of King’s Garden complex
One of the features of the Sanitarium was that all the major buildings were connected by way of underground tunnels. When you went to the basement, you would be able to enter a tunnel & go to a nearby building & then to another & so on. This was a favorite place for kids to play & explore during bad weather days. They also allowed workers to go from building to building without going out in nasty weather.
I think I was in the 7th & 8th grades here. I made a lot of friends here, including a girl in my class who went on to become a writer & author of many books. I had a crush on her, but we didn’t stay long so I had to say goodbye. One major thing that happened shortly after we arrived here, was the death of my father, who had been in a mental institution for the past few years. We never talked much about this but had to face reality when the news of an accident he had while in there & his subsequent passing 19 September, 1954.
The following are 2 newspaper articles we found recently that appeared in local newspapers. Since we were living in Seattle at the time we didn’t see these then. I think my mom was the only one who went to his funeral. He was cremated & for an unknown period of time, we kept his ashes in our home. Then they were buried in City View Cemetery in Salem, Oregon.
At some time after my father passed, my mother sold our house & property on Ray Nash dr. near Gig Harbor. I don’t remember how much she got for it but with the proceeds, she bought a new car. The next summer we went on a trip to the East Coast, to visit our relatives there. On the way we visited her brother Ralph & family, who lived in Kankakee, Illinois. Then we went on to Greenfield, Massachusetts, where my mother’s step sister, Geneva & her children, lived. Here are some pictures of our side trips we took while there. It was a summer to remember.
While in New England for the summer we did a lot of “Turisty” things, like visiting Boston & Plymouth, Massachussets. We went to see the state capitol in Hartford, Connecticut & Boston, Massachusetts. We went to New York City, went to the top of the Empire State Building, toured lower Manhattan, including Central Park.
Somewhere on the trip we stopped at a churchyard in Pennsylvania & to save money decided to camp out there. We all had sleeping bags. That didn’t last long though, because when we got settled down the mosquitos came around & ate us alive. We packed our bags back in the car & continued on down the road. That’s a night none of us will ever forget.
After spending the summer of 55 travelling around the East, it was back to school at King’s Garden in Seattle. I don’t remember much about the next year. Somewhere along the way our mom met a group of people who wanted to go to Brazil as what they call “Lay Missionaries”. They formed a group called “Living Waters”. The group consisted of the Charles, Leona, Max & Deanna Ballinger, Evelyn & Karen Marner, Maxine, Daniel & Juan Stoleson, our mom Ruth Weaver, myself, David & Esther. Mother decided she wanted to go with the group so we got passports & then she had to work on getting a Visa (basically permission to live in Brazil). That was a problem because you either had to have a certain amount of money or a promise of a job there. She had neither. At this point she was going on faith that God would provide a way. In the mean time everyone in the group made preparations for a trip east where we would then make arrangements for transportation to Brazil. The following is a photo of the Living Waters group. The only person missing was David. Maybe he was taking the picture.
Living Waters Group Getting Ready to Head to Brazil.
From left to right in the photo is Daniel Stoleson, Esther Weaver, Evelyn Marner, Juan Stoleson, Maxine Stoleson, Ruth Weaver, Karen Marner, Charles Ballinger, Max Ballinger, Deanna Ballinger, Leona Ballinger & Paul Weaver. I don’t remember how many cars were used for the trip east, but we had our 1955 station wagon that mother had purchased for our previous trip & the Ballingers had a vehicle & a trailer with 55 gallon drums with clothes & other things. While going through Idaho at night, Charles Ballinger decided to pass us for some reason, & in the process the trailer came loose, went off the road. Some of the drums opened up, resulting in their contents going all over along the side of the road. The cars were OK & noone got hurt but we were all a little shook up. It took us awhile to gather all the things that came out of the drums & repack them. What a mess. We got the trailer back on & continued on our way. I don’t remember much about the rest of the trip. It must have been uneventful. Next stop, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Copyright – OceanWP Theme by OceanWP