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The Fifth Grade Katherine Heigl played Marty in the movie from the book, “Love Comes Softly” by Janette Oke. She said to the little girl that she was trying to teach to read, “Once you can read, you can have every adventure you ever dreamed of….there are no limits where you can go.” When I was in Mrs. Grable’s World Geography class in fifth grade, I decided that the most appealing place in the world for me was Brazil. Of course, my reasons for wanting to go there at that time were strictly selfish. I loved bananas and chocolate and Brazil had both. I had no idea at the time that I would ever go there, nor did I ever expect to go there. Many of you know that my family served in Brazil as missionaries with The Oriental Missionary Society from 1964 through most of 1972. On our mission campus, where we lived in Londrina, Parana’, Brazil, we had a banana grove under a rain spout that grew the biggest bananas that I ever saw. And cacao and coffee beans are grown everywhere with prolific Nestle chocolate companies and coffee bushes with companies to process them. We had a coffee processing factory just outside of Londrina. The scent of coffee hung in the air. The city of Londrina was actually built because of the need to transport coffee….black gold as the Brazilians call it. So you see, the things that teachers and books instill in their students are often life changing and lifelong. The photos in this blog were taken by the daughter of one of our Brazilian friends on July 14, 2020 on their farm just outside of Londrina. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography by Gisele/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck
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 The Times They Are A Changin’ As far as I know, my sister Jean got the first TV in our family. She always got new electronics before any of the rest of us. She lived in a small building next to Glenda and Tom Cook’s house at one time. That building is said to have been a bakery in times past. It is now torn down. I can’t reconcile the date unless she lived there with Harry around 1950. Betty and I went to watch TV there for the first time. The screen was five inches wide. The first show we saw was Howdy Doody. Jean’s favorite program was Soupy Sales. It is hard for me to imagine such a small TV screen even three feet away from it. Then I looked down at my smart phone and realized that is what we do today. I have always thought that we got our first TV in 1948 but have come to believe it may have been around 1950-51 instead. After my brother Bob went to the Army, my parents decided that we needed a TV to see the Korean war news. My brother was sent to MP School in Chicago in 1950 and remarked in one of his letters that TVs were everywhere. Besides, my Dad said, everyone else had a TV so we should have one too. We got about a twelve-inch screen Philco TV, probably from Dunlap’s store. My family never bought anything outright but had to pay for it a little at a time. Betty and I always had to turn the dials and know what was on and when. When the dials got stripped from use, we had to fiddle with that too. Oh, and by the way, Betty and I loved to watch wrestling on TV on Saturdays. We sat in the floor in front of the TV and cheered our favorite wrestlers on. We knew all of the holds and wrestlers. My Dad just sat in his chair and laughed because he had two daughters that loved wrestling. And in recent years, I have been known to watch wrestling with my grandson Ray. My favorite wrestler was John “Bradshaw” Layfield. Ray’s was “The Undertaker”. I guess the times change but some things don’t. : ) ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck  Jean’s Marriage Ends in Tragedy Kathleen had married and Bob had gone into the Army. Jean probably felt alone with them gone. She met Harry Samuel Davidson at a carnival in uptown Williamsport. He was a tall, good looking man and older than she was. She was attracted to him and married young despite my parent’s misgivings. Harry was from Circleville, the son of Myrtle and Oscar Davidson. Jean and Harry moved to a house outside of Circleville in a field surrounded by wheat or corn, I don’t remember which. As with my sister Kathleen, we visited them on Sunday afternoons. I was around eleven and all of my older siblings were gone from home. I remember sitting on Jean’s porch looking out over the field and wondering what life was all about. Who was I? I didn’t know but I did know that I was bored. Looking back, I think it was the beginning of my spiritual hunger and thirst for God. I didn’t find the answers to these questions until several years later. My sister Jean was married three years before Jeffrey Allen Davidson was born. I wish this story could say they lived happily ever after but it ends in tragedy. On November 10, 1953, Harry was picking corn when some fodder got caught in the corn picker he was operating. He probably thought he could pull it out without turning the corn picker off. He tried to pull it out and his hand got caught. Then he stuck his foot in for leverage to get his hand out. I could go on but you know the end of this story without my telling you. Someone ran up to me and told me when I left school that day. It was the first person that was close to me to die. My first reaction was like so many others….maybe he’s not dead….but he was. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck  German Measles In 1948, German Measles were going around and Betty and I both got them. It was in the spring around the time that Bob enlisted in the Army. I remember sitting in our dining room looking out the back window over the cistern and emerging flowers. It looks like I got the measles first but I don’t remember anything about Betty having them. Aside from the itchy sores, I had a high fever and am sure that I hallucinated. I remember Mama and Daddy standing at the end of my bed. They must have asked how I was feeling because I told them that one of my feet was heavier than the other. I also lost some of my hearing and my mother got upset because she was in the dining room talking to me while I was lying on the couch in the living room. I didn’t hear her. She came in all upset. Then my nose started to bleed. The blood ran down the back of my throat and coagulated and I couldn’t breathe. She dipped her fingers in cold water and put them on my lips and the shock caused me to cough thereby solving the problem. I don’t know who else was in the house but my mother sent someone to Alonzo and Becky Stonerocks’ house across the street. Alonzo was sick so they had to have a phone. I don’t remember Dr. Gamble coming but he must have, and I survived. I was in Winona Ramsey’s fourth grade and missed a lot of school that year. My sister and I often heard mourning doves in our yard. I knew Alonzo was really ill and I thought the mourning doves were Alonzo moaning. I always told Betty, “it’s just Alonzo”. Even today, when I hear mourning doves, I think of him. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck |
Marilyn Francis FergusonGrowing up in Williamsport, Ohio is a blog by Marilyn Francis Ferguson which describes small town life in the 1940s and 1950s. Blog Categories
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