Memories and Remembrances 

Of My Maternal Grandparents 

The following are personal memories and remembrances about my maternal grandparents, Neva Britten and Burton Bebe Lowry.  The primary period covers generally five years, from about 1943 to about 1948.  During this period, my Mother and I, and later my brother, John-Dean, lived with them whenever our father was overseas, and when it was not possible for us to be with him during and after World War II.  The setting is their homestead, which was located directly across the Pacific Highway (U.S. 99) from the Bear Creek Orchards’ packing plant and pear orchards, south of the city of Medford, Jackson County, Oregon (Rural Route 4, Box 387).  It is my intent in writing these reflections to provide those who never knew them a glimpse about them and something about their character.

Grandmother Lowry

Grandmother Lowry was a petite woman with long gray hair.  (At night she would braid it.)  She was a caring mother and grandmother, a very cultured and refined lady, a person who was active in many facets of her life, as well as one who enjoyed the natural world around her.  As a young woman living in Missouri, she taught Latin.  Quite naturally, later she cared about the education of all her children, and all attended college.

Grandmother enjoyed nice things, such as fine hand soap.  Her choice was Maja by Myrurgia of Barcelona, Spain.  She also had a red Fox stole.  It had glass eyes on its head, four little feet with claws on legs that dangled from the body.

She was very patriotic.  A large American flag would be hung outside on the side porch facing the highway for holidays, including Flag Day and Veterans Day.  (We gave them a flag that had been given to us at Faneuil Hall in Boston when we were living at Cambridge in 1943.)

In regard to her patriotism, she took time to become an active member of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).  (She applied for membership through her Patriot ancestor, John Britton, April 16, 1926, and was admitted into the Society June 9, 1926, from the Crater Lake Chapter, NSDAR # 223804.)  In 1944, she was elected to the position of Oregon State Regent, a position she held through 1946.  During her term, she traveled across the state, meeting with other chapters and their members, promoting American patriotism, education, and historic preservation.  In May 1946, she attended the annual Congress of the Society held at Atlantic City, New Jersey.  (Mother attended that Congress also, serving as a Floor Page.)

Grandmother loved her flowers and her garden.  She had a small formal garden just beyond the house back toward the barn.  The garden had been laid out with an oval center bed, with a birdbath, surrounded by four other beds, between which were pea gravel paths.  In the beds were planted her prized hybrid tea roses. 

Many were given to her on special occasions.  Along the path edges were planted English Boxwood and yellow and orange Strawflowers.  Nearby she had planted Delphinium and Larkspur.  Hollyhocks were planted along the back fence as well as other parts of the garden.  (I recall that there was a tall Castor Bean next to the fence.)

Across the unpaved driveway was a small goldfish pond adjacent to which was a rock garden.  Somewhere near the rock garden a quince grew.  (Grandmother made quince jelly from the fruit.)  Behind and overhanging the pond was a Staghorn Sumac bush.  Water lilies were planted in the pond.  Among the rocks was English Lavender.  Back along the high white picket fence of the barn enclosure were planted Pampas Grass, Red-hot Pokers, and Iris.

There were purple French Lilac bushes planted in the front yard, and in the side yard were American Boxwood and Oregon Grape.  Of course fruit and nut trees were planted around the house too.  At least one was an apple, as well as a plum, and a Royal Ann Cherry.  The nut tree was an almond.  Honeysuckle grew on a portion of the north side of the house.  Too, there was a Catalpa and a large Weeping Willow growing back toward Grandfather’s workshop and Grandmother’s garden.

Indoors, the enclosed front porch, which faced south and was partially in glass, functioned as a greenhouse.  There Grandmother had her potted plants, including numerous Geraniums.

As most all mothers appear to do, Grandmother seemed to worry, but not about inconsequential things.  Because her youngest son, Philip Benjamin, was in the Pacific Theater (New Guinea and the Philippines) during World War II, she naturally was very concerned about him.  (Fortunately he returned safely, but not without having experienced the trauma of jungle warfare.)  There was a Blue Star Service Banner, having a single blue star on a white field surrounded by a wide red border, hanging in one of the windows.  On another occasion, she worried about a family member flying in less than ideal weather.

If on occasion a Western Union telegram or a long-distance telephone call were received, it seemingly was thought first that it could be only bad news.

Grandfather Lowry

Grandfather Lowry was a gentle man; a man who I feel was respected highly by virtually everyone, a man who cared about his family and his work.  I never heard him raise his voice nor utter an unkind word.  As a young man, he attended a business school for at least two years, possibly at Carthage, Missouri.  It is said that he went to Texas at some point.  (Where and when are unknown.)  Also, it is believed that he worked at the Agriculture Extension Service at Moscow, Idaho, prior to going to Oregon. 

He had a full head of hair which was closely cropped, resembling so-called ‘burr’ haircuts of later years.  Toward the end of his life, his hair turned snow white.  He shaved with a straight razor that he stropped before each use.  He usually wore a necktie.  When working out-of-doors in the orchards, he wore a gray fedora. 

(The hat seemingly was a personal trademark.)  He usually carried a few 3x5 index cards and a pencil in his shirt pocket for note taking.

He was inventive.  He held U. S. Patent No. 1,963,504, with David H. Rosenberg, awarded June 19, 1934.  The patent was for a “Fruit Handling Machine” that enabled the handling and washing of delicate fruit, such as pears, without bruising.  This invention saw wide-spread use throughout most of the industry.  Whether any royalties resulted from this patent is not known.

As the Superintendent of the Bear Creek Orchards (later Harry and Davids), he spent a great amount of time overseeing the orchard operations.  In the spring when there would be a threat of frost, Grandfather would rise before sunrise to light the smudge pots in order to keep the fruit from freezing.  He always carried a sharp pocket knife and rubber bands for the purpose of grafting one variety to another stock variety.  Sometimes he would take me with him to irrigate in Grandmother’s Bing Cherry orchard down beyond the barn and pasture near Bear Creek.

Grandfather too had a special talent and appreciation for the cultivation of flowers, and of course, fruit trees (his life-long career).  His ’dinnerplate’ Dahlias truly were magnificent.  These were planted in a row along the driveway from the highway to the house.  Years later, after Grandmother had passed on, and Grandfather had remarried and moved to the house on the hill east of Talent, he continued to grow prized Dahlias.  Whether the tubers were stored for the winter months is not known.  (I don’t know whether he ever showed the blossoms either, but he should have if he didn’t.)

During World War II, like many families they had a large Victory Garden.  The home-grown vegetables always were bountiful.  (I remember helping to shuck the green peas.)

In their political persuasion, I believe that they were Republicans.  Neither of them appeared to be active politically.  I do recall that we would listen to President Roosevelt during his Fireside Chats to the Nation.

They were members of the Presbyterian Church in Medford, although I do not remember their attending church services while Mother and I lived with them.

Grandmother and Grandfather Lowry never drank alcohol, nor did they smoke.

Hobbies

Besides gardening, Grandmother collected teapots.  Not just any teapots, but unusual ones, some perhaps even of museum quality.  Many she had purchased when traveling, while others were given to her as gifts.  When going into the house, they were kept in the dining room.  She obviously cherished and took pride in her collection.  She enjoyed having a cup of tea, and believed that it would help to settle an upset stomach.  When bubbles would collect on the tea surface in a cup, she would say that it was money.

Grandmother also enjoyed birding.  She knew a great variety of the local species, and imparted a lot of her knowledge about them to the rest of us.  Once, a Robin nested in the tall Cedar next to the kitchen.  Grandmother made sure that I saw the nest and the sky-blue eggs.  Of the many birds, I recall the songs of the Killdeer, Western Meadowlarks, Phoebes, Chinese Ring-neck Pheasants, and Song Sparrows.  Naturally there were House Finches as well, and in the barn Pigeons nested.  On one occasion I saw a large owl (Barn Owl ?) perched in the rafters of the barn.

Grandfather’s hobbies principally were woodworking, lapidary, and in his later years, photography.  He had a woodworking shop behind the house where he stored wood, and where he had a lathe.  Seemingly, there always were wood shavings on the floor.  Some of his finished pieces were wooden bowls for cracking nuts (English Walnuts and Filberts, or are they Hazel nuts?).  He made at least one piece of furniture, a small pedestal table that he gave to Mother on one of her birthdays.  The wood for this table came from a White Oak that once stood in the front yard near the driveway, and in later years, was but an ivy-covered stump.

While turning wood on his lathe appeared to have been an enjoyable pastime, he later pursued the hobby of cutting and polishing of rocks, especially agates.  (Agates and jasper are relatively prevalent along Bear Creek and environs, so it was not uncommon to find ‘pretty’ rocks.)  Grandfather had a few piles of agates that had been found near the house.  On at least one occasion, someone came to the house to show Grandfather some rocks in hopes that he would buy some or all of them.  Later on, at the house on the hill, he would have a diamond saw and polishing wheel.  Many of the rocks were Brazilian agates.  He also had a ‘black light’ (ultraviolet lamp) for florescent mineral specimens.  His rock and mineral collection was displayed in one of the rooms on the first floor.

As he was born at Carl Junction, Jasper County, Missouri, lead mining in the Old Lead Mining Belt of the Tri-State District was a major industry.  One of the minerals in his collection was a crystal of galena (lead sulfide) that had come from one of the mines.  Years later, Grandfather owned a stibnite (antimony sulfide) mine near Jacksonville, Oregon.  The mine was known as the “Lowry Mine.”  (How long he owned it, whether or not he had any partners, and how much ore it produced is not known.)

The Culinary Side

Memories of prepared food are long lasting.  While there are not many now, the ones that have remained have stayed as though it was very recently.  What I do know is that we always had ample to eat.

I’ve never had coleslaw as memorable as that Grandmother made.  It was sweet, had no onions, and made with thick cream.  Sometimes, we would have ham steak, probably fried.  (The dogs got the round ham bones to chew on.)  Grandmother would fix chicken and dumplings once in awhile.  The dumplings always seemed to be light and fluffy.  (Was it the Bisquick?)  I think Grandmother had the knack as she made really good biscuits.

Thanksgivings always were bountiful.  The turkey was stuffed with what I think of as a traditional stuffing with sage.  Bread crumbs and cooked giblets were ground together in a hand grinder.  Of course there were vegetables, including peas and mashed potatoes.  I don’t remember any desserts, but there must have some.

We seemingly had great quantities of fruit and vegetables available to us.  Grandmother would ‘put these up’ in Mason jars for later use.  There would be jars of berry preserves, cherries, and string beans, to list but a few.

Because of rationing during the War, many of the groceries were sold in unlabeled brown paper bags in the markets.  Once Mother bought what she thought was 5 pounds of sugar with her OPA coupons to make us gingerbread.  Instead of sugar, it was salt!  (This was the saltiest gingerbread I ever tasted.)

In later years, I remember that Grandfather enjoyed having a combination of applesauce and cooked rhubarb.  I do know that he enjoyed drinking milk.

The House

The house in which they lived was a two-story, frame house with a gambrel roof.  I think it resembled a Dutch Colonial in style.  It had a fireplace in the living room.  To the left of the fireplace was a built-in bookcase.  (Among the books was a copy of Charles M. Russell’s Good Medicine.) 

There were framed reproductions of fine art throughout much of the house.  In particular there was one of a young girl, which always reminded me of Mother, and her dog.  Another was Montague Dawson’s painting of the sailing ship Cutty Sark (Racing Home-The Cutty Sark).

Adjacent to the living room was a smaller drawing room, where there was a baby grand piano; a small hallway; and the dining room.  The dining room had French doors that opened onto a large brick patio that was bordered by American Boxwood.  From the patio, steps led down to the lawn.  Immediately next to the dining room was the kitchen.  A door from the kitchen led to steps outside.  There was a small study immediately off the dining room too.  (This is where the National Geographic magazines were kept.)

The house had two staircases to the second floor.  The principal stairs were in the hallway.  At that point too, there was a door to the outside that opened onto a pillared porch that faced west.  (This once was the front porch and entrance of the house.)  Inside, from the hallway there were stairs also that led down to a cellar.  (It was there that Grandmother kept her canned and preserved fruit and vegetables.)  The second staircase was in the dining room, adjacent to the study, and went to a large bedroom directly above. 

There were three bedrooms upstairs.  One was just at the head of the principal stairs.  The second, noted above, was at the opposite end of a hall.  The third bedroom obviously was between the other two.  The bathroom was immediately across from that middle bedroom.  At the end of the hall hung a Boa Constrictor skin that my Uncle David brought back from earlier travels.  (Why it hung there is not known.)

Because the property was outside of the Medford city limits, and hence, the city fire department would not respond if summoned, there was a standpipe in the front next to the driveway that served as a fire hose connection.  (On one occasion, a flue fire started from a raging fire in the fireplace.  All the family went outside, while the fire was brought under control.  As far as I can recall, there was only some interior water damage.  Suffice it to say, it could have been much worse, but having the water connection and fire hose made the difference in saving the house.)

Home Appliances

Unlike homes today that have a multitude of modern conveniences, their home seemed amply fitted with the necessary appliances.  The kitchen stove was wood-burning.  It had an oven, and four cooking plates.  There also was a wood-burning stove in the dining room.  There was no furnace that I can recall.  Much of the heat for the lower part of the house apparently came from the fireplace in the living room.  Probably to conserve heat downstairs, the sliding door to the drawing room almost always was kept closed.  An electric heater in the bathroom was used to take the chill from the air on cold winter mornings.

The refrigerator was electric.  Grandmother washed clothes in the kitchen in an Easy wringer washer.  (She told about how she once got her arm caught in the wringer.)  The vacuum cleaner was an Electrolux tank model that had sled-like runners.

The telephone was one that hung on the wall in a wooden box.  It did not crank.  I think it was a single line, rather than part of a party line.  Because the water from the tap had high mineral content, a water softening unit was installed in the cellar.

The Pets

At first, there were two dogs.  One was “Wimpy,” a Fox Terrier that my Father had given to my Mother.  The other was “Spiffy,” a black Cocker Spaniel.  This dog had been my Uncle Burton and Aunt Barbara’s pet.  Later, while Mother and I were living at Medford, I had a black and tan Cocker Spaniel given to me that we named “Dusty.”  When we moved once again, Dusty remained behind with Grandmother and Grandfather.  (I never knew what happened to him.)  At night, Spiffy could be heard barking, usually out around the barn.  On one Fourth of July, she ran away because of the noise from the fireworks.  Two or three days later, she turned up at near-by neighbor.

Several cats lived in the barn.  None seemed to be wild, although they didn’t come to the house, probably because of the dogs presence, and perhaps because their food supply was better.

The Farm Animals

They kept one milk cow that was a Jersey.  Mr. Ivan White, who lived with his wife in a small white house on the other side of the pasture, would do the milking every day.  (Mr. White worked at Bear Creek Orchards.)  He would bring a stainless steel bucket filled with warm milk up to the house.  The milk then would be strained through cheese cloth and put in bottles.  Besides milk and cream, they would make butter.

They also kept a small flock of chickens (Rhode Island Reds) for eggs and poultry.  (As I mentioned previously, once in awhile Grandmother would make chicken and dumplings.)  Two Plymouth chicks were added to the flock to add a little diversity.

When the pear orchards were being sprayed, a team of gray work horses would be kept in the barn.  (Undoubtedly these horses belonged to Bear Creek Orchards.)  They would pull a tank of spray insecticide.  (Just who did the spraying I don’t know.)

At one point, Grandfather bought two horses, one for Mother and one for me so that we could ride together.  (These were stabled in the barn too.)  On one occasion I wanted to show my Aunt Dottie my horse.  In so doing, I asked to her to help me with my saddle as it was too heavy for me to carry.  Good naturedly, she agreed to carry it, only to discover how heavy it was.  (I don’t recall whether she and I ever got the saddle to the horse.)  Probably not, but I do know that she never let me forget the incident, as she continues to remind me about it to this day.

On another occasion, Mother and I had gone riding in the orchards, somewhere behind Bear Creek’s packing house.  As we proceeded down the gravel road together, the horses went into a full gallop.  Both Mother and I could do nothing but let them run.  (Later she told me that she was afraid that I would fall off.)  For my part, I just hung onto the saddle horn.  Coming toward us was a car.  I’m sure that the driver didn’t know what to do initially when he saw us racing pell-mell toward him.  Ultimately he stopped, allowing us to pass on each side of the car.  The horses finally stopped!  We then dismounted, turned around, and walked them back.

Going To School

I began first grade at Medford’s Washington Grade School.  Mrs. Canode was my teacher.  Apparently she and Grandmother had known each other for a number of years.  (My Uncle Wally said that he and his brother, Phil, had had Mrs. Canode as their teacher too.)  In the morning Grandmother would take me to school in the car.  As we drove along with the sun rising over the horizon, she would sing a song, using the words of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, Winter-Time.  The first stanza began, "Late lies the wintry sun a-bed, A frosty, firey sleepy-head; Blinks but an hour or two; and then, A blood-red orange, sets again."  Sometimes she might have recited a poem by James Whitcomb Riley such as The Raggedy Man.

Family Outings

On some Sundays we all (except the dogs) would go for a ride in the car (Chevrolet).  When the salmon were running, we would go over to the Savage (Rapids?) Dam on the Applegate River to see them go up the fish ladder.  On other times, we would go over to a park along the Rogue River, near Grants Pass, where there were swings and a slide.  Along the way, we would drive by fields of Gladiola in bloom.  Someone had a wooden Uncle Sam mailbox that we always would look for too.  Other times we would drive to Ashland to go to Lithia Park.  (This park was been designed by John McLaren, long-time Superintendent and designer of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.)  We always would look for the guinea pigs and deer there, and have a drink of lithia water from the public fountain.  They were fun outings.

For the Fourth of July, we drove to the cabin at Diamond Lake which is about 80 miles north of Medford.  At the cabin we went swimming, boating, and fishing for Rainbow Trout.  Once, after catching some fish, we brought them up to the cabin and inside through the front door.  Some of the fish scent must have lingered on the path leading up to the cabin and on the porch, as that night a large Black Bear came onto the porch searching for the fish.  The dogs raised such a ruckus that the intruder must have had second thoughts, as it ambled off into the night.

Grandfather always had his rowboats painted green.  (I think he had at least one built when the old one no longer was serviceable.)  He had an Evinrude outboard motor.  For the fireworks, we went down to the lake where we would shoot Roman candles out over the water from the pier.  At that time, the cabin was not electrified.  Lighting was furnished by candles and lanterns fueled with white gas.  We all slept upstairs in the loft.  (I remember there were wooden kegs of nails and spikes kept upstairs.)  Some days we would take walks along the shore to the Noble Fir Park.  Lying about on the ground were various sized blocks of pumice (rhyolite glass) from the eruption of Mt. Mazama (Crater Lake).  We carved little boats from the blocky chunks that we would float on the lake from the shore. 

Water was gotten from a well by the use of a hand pump outside.  (There also may have been another pump in the kitchen, although I can’t be certain about that.)

Traveling With Grandmother

In June 1947 Grandmother and I traveled together from Florida to Medford via New Orleans and Compton, California, where we visited her brothers Jim and Ben, and Ben’s wife May.  Our visit at Compton was brief as apparently Jim was in failing health.  (I don’t remember having met any of them.)  From Los Angeles we took the Southern Pacific ‘Sunset Limited’ north to San Francisco.  Our stop-over at San Francisco was most memorable however.  Apparently Grandmother had wired ahead for reservations at the St. Francis Hotel.  When we arrived we were told that our room reservation either had not been received or that they were full and could not honor our request.  However, given our situation, they said that we could stay there if we didn’t mind staying in one of their rooms that was used for salesmen to show merchandise.  We accepted.  As I recall, the room was long and narrow as well as stark, not having any furnishings.  Because there were no beds, the hotel provided two ‘roll-aways.’  Our dinner in the hotel was brought to our room, and we had watermelon.  For another meal, we ate at the Golden Pheasant restaurant which faced Union Square from the north side.

We went to Chinatown where she bought a pair of ebony chopsticks for me and a doll for my collection.  (I bought Mother a box of tea.)  Chinatown seemingly was a different world.  I still can visualize the plucked fowl (probably ducks) hanging inside a store-front window, and the smell of incense inside some of the stores was equally unusual.  We must have ridden on the cable cars, and I’m fairly certain that we went to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the fishing boats.

We took the ferry across San Francisco Bay to Oakland in order to get our train connection to Medford.

Grandmother’s Teachings and Stories

Grandmother taught me how to find Monarch Butterfly caterpillars on milkweed.  We would collect them and place them with a few milkweed leaves into Mason jars with lids.  Subsequently, the caterpillars would transform into the chrysalis stage before turning into beautiful Monarchs.  Once we mounted one with its wings open on cotton batting, and framed it for an elderly woman friend of Grandmother’s.

When her roses were blooming, she taught me how to take a single large rose petal, fold it back to a point, and then holding it with the thumb and forefinger, pop it on the back of her hand.  The resulting sound was a sharp crack.

One area that Grandmother viewed with displeasure was the apparent adulteration of the English language.  She felt very strongly about the misuse of words.  In particular, when someone referred to a child as ‘kid,’ she always would say, “Kids are baby billy goats.”  To this day, whenever I hear reference to ‘kids,’ I think of her admonition.

She related to me about how Native American Indians walked on the balls of their feet, rather than on their heels as we do mostly I believe.  By so doing, they apparently could walk quietly in the forests.  (I’m really not sure if this is so, but I believed her when she told me.)

As a young child, I dearly loved and revered both my Grandmother and Grandfather.  Those of us who knew them, surely will cherish our memories of them.  Certainly they will remain an integral part of our being for a very long time.

                                                                                                      William L. Miller

                                                                                                      Revised July 2004