Some Memories, by Wayne Winters

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Some Memories of the Al Winters Family

By Wayne Norman Winters, son of Al and Hazel (Page) Winters

Written in 1987

I was born June 13, 1927  in Vale Oregon in a little unpainted house about two blocks from the railroad. At the time my dad was working for the Vale Grain and Feed Company.

My first recollections were later, when we lived in a big white house next to a coal shed by the railroad. It. was a BIG house. I believe it was a seven bedroom house when dad bought it. I remember we had a root cellar not very far from the back porch where the pump was. So we did have indoor plumbing even if it was just a shallow well with a hand pump, on the back porch.

In the 1930's, dad started the Vale transfer, a trucking business. The logo said "THE WORLD MOVES AND SO DOES THE WINTERS TRANSFER." Dad did alright for awhile. We had three trucks at one time and of course, we had a telephone. I remember mom answering the phone, thinking it was dad calling, said "There is nobody home but Hazel and she is a nut." Was her face red when she found out it was not dad on the other end of the line.

Dad would haul anything or move anything, from pianos to turkeys. He used to haul a load of sugar out and a load of turkeys back. The sugar was supposed to be for honey bees but I believe most of it went for bootleg whiskey.

I don't remember what year it was, but dad decided to remodel the house. We ended up with three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and a large dining room, living room combined. We used to hold dances in the dining room and living, room. To me they seemed huge! I remember dancing square dances when I was five or six years old.

Mom was very nice to me. Every time I was going to run away from home, she used to pack my lunch in a red bandanna. I would put it over my shoulder on a stick and walk down the railroad for about a fourth of a mile, eat my lunch and come home. I did that a lot. I guess mom liked it because it got the littlest one out from under foot for an hour or so. I was about four or five.

Dad had a big truck. He called it the big Graham. I believe the manufacturer was Dodge Graham Paige. Anyway it was probably a ton and a half or two ton truck. We used to go out to the Owhyee River in it and have the bed of the truck made up into beds. That's where we would sleep after the dances and potluck dinners.

I recall one time we were at mom's brother's place (Ralph Page) and they had a lot of sheep and goats. Lyle Page (moms other brother) had a tent that he slept in and us boys, Ray Winters, Winfield Page, Archie Page and myself, used to tease this big Billy goat, then run and jump in the tent. He would stand and stomp his feet, lower his head and butt at the flap of the tent. One time we were a little slow and old Billy came right in after us. We sure put up a howl, bawling and throwing Lyle's shoes at that Billy goat. We never teased him anymore.

Digging the cellar under the house was something else. We had a two horse scraper or as we called it, a slip. Mom did not know how to drive a truck but she could not run the slip so she would get in the truck, back it up and dad would set the slip. Then he'd yell for mom to go ahead. She would and sometimes with such a jerk it would flip the slip and come out from under the house with out anything in it except blue smoke. Dad sure didn't like those fast starts!

When Eva Hazel Winters was born, Max was sent for the doctor, but dad delivered Eva before the doctor could get there. Then he came and got me out of bed, as it was about six or seven o'clock in the morning. So I was the first one of the kids to see her. She sure was a pretty baby.

In the winter of 1935 dad leased a bunch of cattle and a ranch on the Owyhee River. We only lived there five years, but those five years were very impressive on me. It was there that I learned to ride and rope. I was thirteen years old when we left the Owyhee. By then I had learned every way there was to get off of a horse, fall, scraped off, over the head, over the tail, over the left side and the right side. I also learned to stitch pretty well.

In 1940 we moved to Little Valley, seven miles from Harper Oregon. We lived in a one room shack, eight feet wide and twenty feet long. By this time Leora was married and Max was in the Army Air Corps so there were only seven of us staying in that place. Hershel was off working most of the time, and Mike was a baby.

In the early spring of 1941 dad bought the old Ben Schloupe place on Cottonwood Creek, located five miles south of Harper. That is where I lived until I married Thelma Mikesell.

In November 1944 Buster Sevey, Winfield Page and I went to Portland Oregon where my Aunt Clara Garver got me a job in the shipyard, Willamette Iron and Steel Corporation. It was a navy yard and I went to work as a helper for sheet metal mechanics. In December mom and dad came to Portland and mom went to work as a sweeper and dad went to work as a shipwright.

Mom and I earned $1.04 an hour and dad made $1.32 an hour. We couldn't believe all that money. In February 1945 I bought bus tickets and we all went to Atwater California to visit Max and Margie. The Greyhound buses were sure crowded. We went back to Portland and worked till April. Then we sent mom by train to Ontario and dad and I drove a 1936 Chevy pickup back to the ranch.

It was not long after that I was drafted into the Army. Max, Hershel, Ray and myself were all in the service, Max, Air Force; Hershel, Signal corps; Ray, Infantry; and I in the Infantry. Hershel spent his time or most of it in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. Max and Ray spent their service time in the states. Later Mike put in two years in the Army Infantry in the states.

I was sent to the South Pacific in February 16, 1946 on board the U.S.S. Marine Devil *. I was one of 2700 men aboard a ship that was supposed to carry 2000. So we were really close together. We ran into a bad storm the third day out. By then there were a lot of sick men so the Captain of the ship ordered the holds cleaned and everybody to go out on deck. Fourteen of us climbed up into the forward gun tub and were watching the water break over the bow of the ship. The next thing I knew, we were under water. There were just seven of us left in the tub. Two washed overboard and we lost them. I was over the side of the ship but I held on to the elevator handle that brings up the ammo. It was a good thing that handle was there or I would not have been able to write this.

Other items of interest:
Al and Hazel Winters spent one winter in Canada at Peace River Landing on the Peace River. Hazel said she would run around in the snow with her slippers on and not get her feet wet as it was -60 degrees and the snow was dry. They lived in a floored tent.

About 1917 in Kellogg Idaho, Hazel would tend bar and Al worked in the mine and George Winters, his dad, worked in the smelter. Hazel said that Leora would go behind the bar and drink the dregs out of the beer bottles.

When Al Winters was six years old an older boy dared Al to look through a crack in the barn. Then the boy threw his knife and hit Al in the right eye causing heavy scar tissue, which blinded that eye. Hazel was always afraid that one of us boys would lose our right eye because of George and Al losing their right eyes.

http://capefearww2.uncwil.edu/voices/ronningen002.html  - USS Marine Devil info *: "It was a banana boat owned by United Fruit Company, converted to haul troops. If you haven't been on one of those, our bunks were pipe frames with canvas slung between them. Roughly seven feet by two feet. They were about 7 or 8 high but there was only about 18" maximum between the layers. On your bunk, you had not only you, but your barracks bag, your rifle, your helmet, your overcoat and everything you owned. Ventilation could have been better. The guy on the top was right under a ventilator and he almost froze and the guys on the bottom could chew the air." 

Wayne recalled that he was only in the hold, bunking with the other men, for 3 days. Then, because of falling over the side of the ship, he and another man were put into the hospital part of the ship, where he spent the last 21 days of the journey. When the men left the ship at Hawaii, Wayne was overlooked and went on to Korea with the ship. Because they thought he was AWOL he did not get any mail or pay for three months.

Hazel and Al Winters with grandchildren Anita, Jan and Debbie Winters

Excerpts from a 1964 newspaper article when Al and Hazel (Page) Winters celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary:

"The Winters were on the Owyhee river at Watson, Oregon prior to the time the Owyhee dam was built and flooded over the farming area there.

Mrs. and Mrs. Winters were married at Caldwell, Ida., September 11, 1914 in the old Owyhee hotel. They lived in the Watson area until 1924 when they moved to Vale and operated a trucking business for some time.

In 1934, the family moved to a cattle ranch on Spring Creek where supplies had to be taken in on horses. They lived there five years.

In 1942 the family moved to Harper to the Cottonwood ranch where they resided until they retired in 1959.

The Winters have seven children [Leora; Max; Hershel; Ray; Wayne; Eva; Mike], 35 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren."

Roswell Cemetery, Roswell, Canyon County, Idaho 

Winters photo album

"My Life", by Thelma Mikesell Winters

findagrave.com Memorial pages for Wayne's parents