October 3, 2010

The earliest memory Cliff Hubbart has of his house is the one he had in Lodi, California.  It was a big house.  It had a screened-in porch and was surrounded by grape vineyards.

His earliest memory of his town was when he lived in Gardena, California.  In front of his house, there was an electric train.  The Ice House was down on the corner.  The biggest part of town was the other direction.  Cliff remembers having to walk four blocks to school and going to the matinée movies on Saturdays.  The grocery store they always shopped at was owned by Japanese.  The store owner’s family was put in a concentration camp when the World War started.

Cliff’s first memory of world affairs is the Second World War in the 1940′s.  He remembers  having to ration food and gas; and he remembers having rubber, paper, and scrap metal drives at school.  One of his most vivid memories of the war is the air raids during the day and night.  They had to have every light out at night.  Cliff saw search lights at night looking for aircraft and he saw coastal blimps.

One of his first memories of his family was in Lodi, California.  His dad and uncle were digging a hole for a flagpole, but when he asked them what it was for, they said it was to bury him in.  Another memory is of his dad working at the theater.  He remembers going there at night and helping burn old movies.

Cliff’s family moved to Idaho in 1948, and then his step-dad died.  In 1952, he started working at Potlatch.  The rest of his family moved away and left him here.

One of Cliff’s most vivid memories of childhood is when two of his sisters were teeter-tottering and singing “You Are My Sunshine.”  At the same time an airplane was flying overhead and ringing a bell.  Another memory he had was of one of his older sisters and him going to his uncle’s house.  His uncle and another person were riding down the road on a four-wheeled cart picking strawberries, and his sister was shelling peas.  He would eat the raw peas, but when they were cooked, he wouldn’t eat them.

The relationship between Cliff and his sisters was pretty good.  The thing that stands out about them was being the only boy and having nine sisters.

The holidays that were most special for his family were Easter and Christmas.  On Easter, they would all get new outfits, and on Christmas they had big gatherings and all the kids would get toys and clothes.

On weekends, the little kids would play, but at about age nine, they started working.  They also worked on Sundays, but there wasn’t much work and it wasn’t hard.  In the summer, they picked berries, various fruits, and vegetables.  They used the money they got to buy school clothes for the next year.

The most unusual event Cliff recalls from his childhood is when he moved here from California when he was nine.  They all rode the bus from Los Angeles to Nampa.  From Nampa they took a truck.  His parents were in the truck, a couple of  people were on the top of the truck, and he and the rest of his sisters were in the trailer.

Cliff doesn’t remember his family taking any special trips.  His parents wouldn’t let him participate in any special activities because they didn’t have any transportation and they wouldn’t ask anyone else to take him.

There weren’t any historical events that had a significant effect on his life because he was taught to take one day at a time.  World War II had an effect on his family because everything was rationed and they had to cut back on a lot of things.

Cliff remembers hearing stories about his Grandpa Walker.  Grandpa Walker had been run out of more than one town by the law.  He had a horse that would wake him up at night if someone got to close.  He had ridden with Buffalo Bill once.  When he was riding a train one time, a guy was looking at him.  After they started talking, he found out that the guy was one of the cops that had run him out of town.  If the cop hadn’t been retired, he would have taken Cliff’s Grandpa Walker in.

Cliff attended Kindergarten, first, and second grades in California.  The schools were so crowded that one year he went in the morning and the next year he went in the afternoon.  When Cliff moved to Idaho, he was supposed to be in third grade.  He couldn’t work because he had had no spelling and little reading and arithmetic, so he was put back in first grade.  He hated school because he had to go back to first grade.

Cliff said that Idaho schools haven’t changed much.  The main things that are different are: they used to teach all eight grades in one room and they didn’t have new text books, but just like us they had their three R’s.

When Cliff was fifteen, his step-dad died.  He went to school the first semester, whenever he felt like it the third quarter, and the fourth quarter he spent farming in Troy, Oregon.  About all there was for him to do for entertainment was listen to the radio and play cards.  Clothing styles were about the same, people wore Levi’s.  You weren’t supposed to wear Levi’s to school, but he did a couple times.  About the only differences in clothing styles then is that they didn’t wear pants with holes in them and they didn’t wear their caps backwards.

Cliff is especially proud of his ability to work and not be afraid of it, and he is proud that he was in the Marines.  There really isn’t anything about his family’s past that he is really proud of, they were just average people.

Cliff is concerned about the large amount of disrespect for others and their property, and the amount of greed that people have.  ”It makes it an unsafe place,” says Cliff, “and you don’t know who to trust.”

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I must have written this in junior high for an English assignment.  It wasn’t structured well…obviously written to answer specific questions, but interesting to look back at nonetheless.