Picture: Daniel Henry Tolman (Far Left) and Mabel Evelyn Banks (Far Right) and Their Nine Children
By Lester Tolman
Written in November 1973
The older children will remember a lot more of the things that went on at Oakley where we were all born than I do, but there are a few things which I can still remember well.
I don’t know who all went to the hills with Daddy this time, but I was one of them. When Daddy got the wood all loaded and ready to go, he had to come up on the mountain side and pack me down as I thought I would fall off the mountain. I just sat up there and bawled and bawled until he came up and put me up on his shoulders and took me down to the wagon.
I remember when we were at Wendell, Idaho, where Daddy was foreman on a row crop farm. He put in long hours and Mother used to work hard to help make a living. She used to cook for hired men there and she picked turkeys in the turkey plant just across the railroad tracks from us. I remember Mother always fed the railroad bums that came and asked for a handout.
It seems to me that every Friday night they took us to a show at Wendell as we could get in on a family ticket. I can see now since I have children of my own that Mother and Daddy were always fair with us even though at the time maybe I didn’t think so.
When we moved to Vale, Oregon, Daddy and Mother bought a place and they worked very hard to make payments and to raise and put us through school.
I remember when we would have company on Sunday, Mother would ask us kids to get dinner while they played pinochle. At the time I suppose we didn’t like the idea , but we always got praise from the company for being able to put on a good dinner without Mother’s help. It has come in very handy in my later years as I know lots of people who don’t even know how to boil water or they won’t.
I don’t think anybody could raise nine boys and one girl and do a better job of it than Mother and Dad has. My one regret is that Daddy didn’t live long enough to come up to Canada and see what a beautiful country we live in as he always loved the mountains and trees.
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