I think often about the little town we lived in for two years in the early 1960′s when my husband was in graduate school at Washington State University (the Cougars). I got a teaching job in the little high school about 25 miles north of the university town which was not at all that big either. Eastern Washnington to the south of Spokane (our big city) was made up of “Mayberry” type small towns that followed the Palouse River Valley….Rosalia, St.John, Tekoa, Palouse, Garfield, Colfax, Colton…right down the entire river valley….small town “edens” abounded.
Every fall when the students came back to the WSU campus, many of us came down with what we called “the Palouse Lightning”…an intestinal ailment that featured violent vomiting and severe diahrrea(spelling of that word eludes me). I had it at least twice during the 5 years we sojourned in eastern Washington. It hit you like a lightning bolt..thus the name. One of the other grad students was hit by the Palouse Lightning when he was teaching a freshman class. He knew he was in big trouble (gastrically and intestinally) and said to his class after about 10 minutes of class time: “Well… I see no purpose in pursuing this any further so class is dismissed for today.” Then he rushed from the room to the nearest bathroom!
The students sat there stunned because this guy NEVER let them out early.
The truth about Palouse Lightning was far too embarassing however.
Living in the little town of Garfield was the option when I got a teaching job there in 1961. We moved into an upstairs apartment in a big house owned by an elderly lady named Hazel and we lived there for almost three years. Our first son was born when we lived in Garfield and there was a 25 mile trip to the hospital in the university town south of us. The Methodist minister’s wife was an old fashioned minister’s wife…she called on people and in one of her visits to me she told me all about how her daughter had her first baby in a car in downtown Seattle and that scared me out of my wits! At the first sign of labor pains I wanted to get to the hospital!
My students were wonderful teenagers. At that time there were NO discipline problems and teaching them was easy. The school was quite new and the district was rich—the best farmland in the state surrounded Garfield and the other little towns so the schools had no financial problems. I made so many good friends that first year among my teaching colleagues and among the townspeople..it was perhaps the friendliest place I have ever lived. We were made so welcome in Garfield.
When I think of that little town and its school I get instant images: the downtown area which still had businesses where I shopped…two grocery stores, a nice drugstore, a good hardware store, a meat market that had the most delicious meats and home cured hams, a manufacturing business that turned out a farm implement that was invented by the hometown man who started the factory. It was unique for such a tiny town. There were about 4 churches there also and we went to the Methodist one for the years we lived there. We joined the choir and made even more friends. I remember going to the yard of a house in the spring– where nobody lived— because the entire yard was filled with daffodils. I picked many bouquets and brought them back to our apartment. I also think about the Grange “potlucks” at the Grange hall in town where everyone came and brought a dish…I have never been to another potluck like it. There was so much good food that one could not possibly taste everything even if you took only a spoonful of each thing offered. I think about Mahlon Kriebel who had a business across the street from where we lived. One summer when we discovered there were RATS running loose in our neighborhood, Mahlon helped my husband set out rat poison among the aging garages and other outbuildings that were harboring the rats. Our neighbor’s cat nearly went bald (but did not die, thankfully) from sampling the rat poison….the rats disappeared and we were satisifed. I think of our neighbors Dorothy and Bill…two of the kindest gentlest people we have ever known..and their two daughters, Karen and Kathy. Dorothy eased me through the first days of motherhood when I was very edgy about taking care of my newborn. She helped me greatly when I stayed home alone with the new baby when my husband went back to ND for his brother’s wedding. I think about the funniest true story I heard— about Ralph and his proper wife who were all dressed up and on their way to a wedding. Ralph was an earthy car mechanic who kept the area’s vehicles running. He always wore greasy work clothes but his wife was one of the town’s active and “proper” ladies. She had made Ralph buy a new suit for the wedding and cleaned him up really well for the big occasion. She also made Ralph wash and polish their own car. But she forgot to make Ralph temporarily give up one of his habits…chewing snoose. When they were driving to the wedding in all their new clothing, Ralph spit a wad out the car window…but the shiny clean window was closed and the wet juicy wad hit the glass and spattered back on the perfectly dressed and cleaned- up Ralph! Zada told me that story and we laughed til our sides ached.
When I think about my best and most nostalgic memories of that little town, they are all of people we knew….good friendly, rural, hard working people that were tireless in making newcomers feel like they were a part of the town.
We went back on a sentimental journey to eastern Washington in the summer of 1985 and visited with people in Garfield. Zada, the lovely woman who was like my own Mom and cared for our baby boy when I went back to teaching…the Love family who had the factory….Dorothy and Bill….the Gwynnes our other next door neighbors, the Trimbles..parents of Edith my brilliant senior girl student….the Kreibels, and the school….nobody teaching there then had been there when I was there but Billie Byrne was still the bookeeper and all around office person. She knew me instantly and called me by name! She filled me in on Bill and Bob..the superintendent and principal I had known.
She told me about her son Mike who had been a junior in my classes. He was one of the nicest high school boys ever…kind, respectful, friendly. But all the kids were like that in the early 1960s in little Garfield. The people there live on in my memories…even Mark and Richard two sophomores whom I saw disappearing into the school library room which was connected to my classroom….early one morning just as I unlocked my door. I knew they had been in there and done some mischief but I did not know what it was. I could see their faces peering around the library door. When I opened my center top desk drawer I found out what it was…..a nest of tiny pink field mice were squirming for me there and I screamed loudly and appropriately for the two boys who rushed in laughing and helpfully took the mice back to where they had found them. One day I came into my classroom for 11th grade English and nobody was there. I sat at my desk for a minute or two and then heard some giggling in an adjoing small storage room. The entire junior class…all 16 of them..were crammed into the little room giggling over their stunt. They all came back and were ready to start class…no hijinks or leftover naughtiness…all business and all attentiveness. That was the way it was every day in the Garfield school. Such wonderful kids! Such good parents. It made life in High School easy for the overburdened teachers..each of us had at least 6 preps per day for 6 different classes. But we were all young and full of energy and we did it..every day of the school year. Our comradeship in that small school was like nothing I ever experienced before or after I was part of it.
It is a small wonder that I think about Garfield and its people so often. Even though there was a lot of stress and preparation that first year of teaching…I remember it with pleasure and warmth…two qualities that made the entire town such a lovely place to spend 2 years of my young life.
I reently got a letter from Karen our girl next door….she told me that Dorothy is still there with Karen’s family..busy and happy and in her 90′s. It was such a delight to hear from them after all these years. They were a big part of our life in Garfield.
