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Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

4/26/2020

My Brother Bob

Blessed with good looks, blonde, blue eyed, six feet, four inches tall, Bob quite likely resembled the Skaggs side of the family.

Some of the early characteristics of his personality were demonstrated when he carried baby ducklings in a basket to show Grandma Frances Fyffe Skaggs. He told her they were his blossoms.

Of course, Mom Virginia said that when he was little, he would lie on the floor, stick his feet in the air and scream. Given his laid-back personality, that is hard to envision.

From his photos, it is easy to tell that he was better looking than the rest of us. Because Bob was her only son, my mother doted on him. Of course, he returned the favor to her and he doted on us as well. Everyone who knew Bob, loved Bob and frankly, he was worthy.

He was kind and had a sense of humor with a muffled sort of laugh. He was quiet and almost shy. We thought he was perfect but like the rest of us, he wasn’t. Probably one of the worst things he ever did was to start smoking at the age of 15.

Bob was always doing. And when he was doing, I was always there watching him. When he was younger, he worked on his bike. It was probably not new. Later he worked on his motor bike which was popular at the time. He took industrial arts in school but his tools at home were rough at best. He was always hammering and sawing. When he was, he let me hammer and saw too. When you are young and a girl, it is pretty hard to hammer and saw but I did anyway. He and my mother were in a mother-son alliance when it came to making patterns. Not only did he make the outdoor furniture for Betty and me but he also made the yard decorations. Some of their patterns still exist as well as a “match box” and a “what not” wall shelf. He made drapery “tie backs” for our house which were in use until it was torn down in 2014. He painted much of his work in what was then called mahogany, which was not really mahogany. It was more of a mauve color similar to the background for the photos in my blogs.

More to come on Bob.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck

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Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

4/19/2020

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Kathleen Continued, The First Grandchild

The next year, my parent’s first grandchild was born. Since I was almost ten and Betty almost eight, they didn’t know how we would feel about Kat having a baby. Betty and I had been Kathleen’s babies and now she was having one of her own. Before they could tell us, Lon’s sister Alice told me at school. I went home and said, “that’s not true is it?”

Anyway, Kathleen would have her babies like my mother did….at home. The doctor would go to their house in the country to assist her. My mother would also go, as would Betty and I. We would help with the housework or whatever needed done. I went into the hen house to gather eggs. I didn’t know that chickens could have lice and shot out of the door as soon as I realized that I was covered with them. The good news is that they didn’t stay on me. It was interesting too because my sister’s husband Lon trapped animals and skinned them to sell. One was stretched inside out on a board. I stared at it because the back side of its eyes were like nothing I had ever seen before. I don’t know what kind of animal it was but it was fairly large. I know that Lon later trapped mink.

I think we stayed there for two or three days, maybe even a week. Betty and I slept on their dining room floor on a quilt. I was tall and thin so sleeping on the hard floor on a quilt caused my whole body to get sore and hurt.

And I was bored. I can’t speak for Betty but lying there on the floor, I happened to spy a bookcase that belonged to Lon and his brothers. It was full of western novels, many by Zane Grey. Out of boredom and desperation, I decided to try reading one. It was different than anything I had ever read before and I was hooked. I had found a way to entertain myself while Kathleen walked the floor in an adjacent bedroom waiting for the baby to be born.

Louise Rigsby was born on August 28, 1948 and she was beautiful! She had big brown eyes and a head full of black hair. We would see a lot of her over the coming weeks.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck

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Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

4/11/2020

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The Winds of Change Continued

Louise Rigsby Rapp, Kathleen’s oldest daughter said that her Dad, Lon Rigsby, proposed to Kathleen two weeks after they started dating. Kathleen told him “they didn’t know each other well enough, so they waited until the following year”. However, I think it was a forgone conclusion and they married on September 19, 1947.

Though Williamsport was a small town, my sister Kathleen was essentially a “city or uptown girl” and she was forward thinking. When she married Lon and moved to the country, she took a step back into my Mother’s generation. She was more than happy to do that but I think the adjustment must have been hard. Kathleen embraced her new lifestyle. My sister Betty and I missed her.

The Mintie Rigsby family lived in a big farmhouse on Dry Run. They moved into Williamsport and left the house for Kathleen and Lon to live in. It had a big iron cookstove that was fired with wood and no refrigeration. I don’t remember if they had electricity or not.

Lon and Kathleen came into Williamsport to do their weekly grocery shopping on Friday evenings. Because they had no refrigeration, Kat had to go home after shopping and fry the meat they had purchased to preserve it for the coming week.

We visited on Sundays as did Lon’s family. My Dad enjoyed all of the male companionship with Lon and his brothers. They played cards, hunted, fished and did trap shooting….all on the country property.