Della's Life

Autobiography of Della Ann Mikesell Binder [daughter of Jefferson "Jeff" Osborn Mikesell & Florence Vivien (Allen) Mikesell]   21 July 1931 Pocatello, Idaho - 17 April 2008 Spokane, Washington   Written November 1988       Baby Della Ann Mikesell, 1931 and Mikesell kids, Jimmy, Della Ann, Ernie & Betty Lou, 1932   [Written by Della Ann Binder as a letter to her youngest sister Leslie Mikesell Wood] Dear Leslie, I am putting this in the form of a letter to you, because as you have been so interested in the lives of our ancestors, I realized something in listening to you tell me.  I realized with some amazement, that because you were so much younger than the rest of us, you lived a different life when you were young, than we older ones did.  Maybe I can fill in a few blank spaces I remember. Ours was mostly a life of extreme poverty, I guess!  But I really didn't realize or know the extent of it.  We had such a strong feeling of always being secure, because we had strong parents and were surrounded with a complete knowledge of being loved.  Our Mother had the fierce feelings of a Mother Lion in the protection and love of her family and we were taught from the time we were small to "Count Our Blessings everyday".  Anyway I never knew I was poor. I have a few memories of Pocatello, Idaho.  I must have been 3 or so, when Aunt Edna and Uncle Henry Mikesell gave me a red coat.  They lived at a mine and at one time Uncle Henry got burned some way.  Aunt Edna was a teacher and I remember brushing her long grey hair a lot.  I remember sitting on Daddy's shoulders, and he was over 6 feet tall, and dragging my hands in the snow while he carried me down a path, cleared of snow.  That must have been at the mine.  I remember their son Del really well.  He was very handsome and was married and had a little girl named Lorena, I think.  He was at our house, when I tried to get something off the back of the wood stove shelf, and slipped and put my hands flat down on the hot stove.  (As you will notice, I was usually doing something I shouldn't.)  I don't remember when Del died.  I remember Daddy was all upset and said the Sheriff did not investigate the shooting properly and that it was robbery and murder and in no way possible, suicide. I remember Connie, (our cousin) living with us.  We were the same age and looked quite a bit alike.  For a while Aunt Nettie, her mother, was with us too.  That was when, one night, we woke up to a terrible yowling and screeching and all jumped out of bed and ran outside.  An old Tom Cat had come and killed all the baby kittens and the mother cat was fighting with him.  It was also during this time sometime, that I went to play on the boards piled up in back.  I had been told not to, of course, and when I fell and started to yell, Daddy spanked me all the way back to the house. I had overalls on and he didn't know I had torn my knee open.  Well anyway, the Dr. came to the house and laid me on the kitchen table and sewed it up.  (So if you meet a lady who has full length scars across both knees, you'll know it's me.  I'll tell you about the other one later.) I think I remember a ditch by the house and someone fell in it and got stung really bad by bees in a nest there. We visited a lot with Uncle Narvel and Aunt Margie [Allen] and kids. Also Aunt Grace [Welles] and Allen and Egbert Beall. They were always very good to us and with many cousins, it was always fun. Uncle Clide [Allen] and Uncle Narvel owned farms across the street from each other in Bliss, Idaho.  Uncle Ross and Aunt Nettie lived somewhere around some rattlesnakes.  I know I stayed some with them.  One time Connie was asleep on a cot and a rattlesnake was on the sewing machine treadle next to her but the cat killed the snake before it hurt her. Della Ann, Betty and Jimmy, 1934 I don't remember Dad getting hurt but he did. We had to move. Mama was pregnant and sick and Dad lost his job on the Railroad and Jim had Rheumatic Fever- I think they called it leakage of the heart then. Ernie and Jimmie used to collect rags and sell them. All of the family’s best friends were in the Rice family and we hated to leave Pocatello.  I do remember before we left, I got my brothers and sisters in a lot of trouble.  We all went to the movie down town and they were supposed to take care of me.  I didn't like the scary show (I still don't) and they wouldn't turn around and go home, so I just crawled under the seat, up the aisle and walked home by myself.  They never even knew I left.  I don't remember everything, but these thoughts are deep inside me and if they aren't correct, I must have filed them in my memory wrong, years ago. I know Daddy get a one way pass to Washington (Spokane) from the R.R. and I always knew we were going to be all right and was excited about the train ride [1938]. They had little cups and a water faucet at the end of the car, and I'm sure we wore our footprints down the aisle.  I know it must have been very traumatic to my folks and the elder kids. Thelma was my special charge as always. Mama said she never had to do much for Thelma, because I raised her from the time she was small.  I even potty trained her.  I also poisoned her with some dandelion medicine I made to cure all her ills.  I think in later years, she figured out that I really didn't know all I thought I did.  I really did have good intentions though. 1936, Grandpa Mike (Andrew Jackson Mikesell), Thelma and Della Ann in Pocatello, Idaho.     Continued on page 2