Dub's 'hobbies' and holidays made for interesting times

(Today, Bernice shares, in her own words, some of her memories about the early days of her marriage and how family differences call for a time of adjustment.)

“His name was William Devern Lewis. His parents were going to call him W.D. to distinguish him from his father who was W.E. His sister, Olive, only a little older than he, could say just the “Dub” part of the W. and it stuck. In the 57 years we were married, Dub, at different times (thank heavens) raised pigs, milk cows, rabbits, love birds, dogs, horses, tropical fish, homing pigeons and lastly, cattle. These hobbies (?) caused complications at times. While my philosophy was, and is, that almost anything is all right in moderation, his I soon learned, was if something is good, more is better, which maybe can be explained by our very different backgrounds, that is, the families we came from.

“Dub had eight sisters and one brother; I had no siblings. My mother worked a lot of her life as a telegrapher and a telephone operator. His, understandably, did not work outside the home. My mother was 17 when I was born. His was 39, and he was next to the youngest with sister, Jewell, being born three years later. His folks were strict, especially with the first seven children, telling them that strong drink was wicked and that it was wrong to drink anything out of a bottle! Mine, on the other hand, were permissive. They loved dances, parties, theatre and good times but I must say they did these things in moderation.

“What do I know about Dub’s early life? He was born Aug. 15, 1911 (as he often said, the day the Panama canal opened) at home in Colfax, Wash. His birth was not recorded. Sixty years later, when we needed passports, we had to document his birth with church records.

“When he was about three, the Lewis family moved from Colfax where his Dad had been a clerk in a shoe store, to a farm bordering a big eddy in the St. Joe River, downstream from St. Maries. In the 1920, there were always a number of stray logs floating down the Joe. All day long, the logs would gather in the eddy and swirl slowly round and round until the sun went down. Then the logs would all at once leave the circle and continue their journey down the river.

“In those days, boats were used more than cars for transportation. Dub and his brother and sisters were carried to town on a boat that went up and down the river to gather pupils for the grade and high schools in St. Maries. When the Lewis family moved into town, Dub’s Dad became a real estate agent and managed distribution of the Spokesman Review. At an early age, Dub had a paper route. His particular school pals were Johnny Mottern and Dick Lindstrom.

““Barnstorming” (stunt flying) was popular in the 20’s and it was fascinating to Dub and his pals. They hung around the meadow that served as a landing field. They offered to sleep under and guard the planes at night so that the flyers could go into town to eat and sleep. Two of the flyers for whom they did this were Clyde Pangborn and Nick Mamer.

Another school friend was Gregory Hollenbeck who, when he wanted to enter World War II as a flier, discovered that his true name was Gregory Boyington. In the service, he became very well known as Pappy Boyington. His mother had left Dr. Boyington when Gregory was very young. She and Gregory moved only a few miles away and used the name of Hollenbeck. After the war, “Pappy” was reunited with his father who was still practicing in St. Maries.

“Dub and other lads worked during the summers for Chase Raney, a scientific farmer. They earned a dollar a day, board, and room. It was possible to have a blast on Saturday night and still save some money. The boys worked hard all day, ate prodigiously of Mabel Raney’s good cooking and cooled off at night by dunking in a pool in the river.

“Getting presents on Christmas Eve seemed to me to be more satisfying than the practice of opening presents on Christmas morning, as Dub’s family did. In his large family, everyone had to eat breakfast and get other things out of the way before the gifts could be exchanged. In addition, they had a tradition that if you said “Christmas gift” to someone, before he said it to you; you would get all of his gifts as well as your own. This, of course, was a theory that never became a fact.

“We spent our first married Christmas Eve with my parents and Christmas morning with his. His parents, his sisters, Jewell and Olive, his brother Bud and wife, Esther, plus Dub and I wound up in a sea of wrapping paper. After almost everyone had wandered off with their loot, I proceeded to gather up all the debris and shoved it into the wood stove, nearly causing a chimney fire and scaring everyone spitless.”