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This is a place where family members can post stories or provide information about past events, so that they can be passed down to future generations.
If you are a family member and would like to post a story, just send Mike an email with the story just as you would like it to appear.
Family members can also add comments about a story that has been posted, adding their recollection or viewpoint of the incident.
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#8 Posted By: Vicki Gatewood (Grandaughter of Sarah Mabel Stewart)
I asked Nelda to tell me again the story they told while here recently, about Aunt Alice (refering to Clara Alice Mayhall (Stewart), Sue's Grandmother). Here is what she said:
"We didn't visit Aunt Alice very often, it was all the way to Oakwood, after all. And she would always come running to the car to greet us,
along with all the kids, and all the dogs. The first thing she would say was"Oh Surrey (Sarah), I just knew you was acomin. I dreamed it last night".
The dogs would be barking their heads off, as well, don't know if it was because we were strangers or if they were just over enthusiastic with all the excitement.
Anyway, Aunt Alice yelled loud enough to wake the dead and told them to get out of there, and they obediently slunk away in shame.
Dad remarked, "they sure pay attention when you tell them to do something", and Christa spoke up and said "well you would too if you saw one of your kind shot down in front of your eyes".
Daddy sure cracked up over that and we've laughed about it for years, still laughing! Christa was Darrell's age. So it seems Alice had shot one of the dogs when it didn't do what she ordered!"
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#7 Posted By: Vicki Gatewood (Grandaughter of Sarah Mabel Stewart)
I was reading through the volumes of the Dewey County, OK books called Spanning the River. While reading about the Indians of that time, I came across a story about Alice Stewart
(refering to Clara Alice Mayhall (Stewart), Sue's Grandmother) shooting through a door at one of the Indians. The book would not copy on my home copy machine, so I will transcribe what it says.
The first few pages tell stories about the Indians of Dewey County. Several pages are devoted to an early settler named Joseph Avery Marrs. He was married to Josephine Myrtle Stewart (no relation to our Stewarts that I can see). In the story, he is referred to as "Ave." Here it is:
"One day Howling Wolf told Ave that a white woman had tried to kill him. Ave went to check and found that Alice Mayhall had been hoeing in the garden when she looked up and saw Howling Wolf.
He had only one eye and lacked some of being considered handsome. She took off for the dugout and he took after her (which was always great fun to an Indian who thought you were afraid of him).
She barred the door and he banged on it to scare her some more. She picked up the double barreled shotgun and shot through the door where she figured his head should be, but he was standing to one side.
Ave checked and found a hole in the door the size of a teacup."
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#6 Posted By: Judy Knight (McCallister)
When we were kids burning leaves in the gutter was legal and practiced by most homeowners and most homes had burning areas/barrels in their back yards.
I think this is pretty interesting as now burning firewood in your fireplace is restricted and there is legislation restricting wood-burning stoves and fireplaces in new urban homes in California.
Getting off track, smoking was allowed in restaurants and even grocery stores (we didn’t have supermarkets yet) when we were growing up…I mean people used to put out their cigarettes on the grocery store floors…gross!!!
Anyway, one afternoon the four of us kids, Rose, Mike, Judy, and Jeff, were ‘playing’ with fire in the burning barrel, unsupervised by adults…we probably ranged in age from six to twelve.
Well, Mike lit a stick on fire and got scared so he threw the stick catching Rose’s hair on fire. Don’t fret, the fire was quickly put out and Rose was fine…it did scare the heck out of us though.
I just think it is funny the things we were allowed to do as kids that was acceptable or maybe our parents just didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have a whole lot of supervision when we were kids,
I think the main rule was we had to be home on time for dinner…the rest of the time we were allowed to run the neighborhood.
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#5 Posted By: Judy Knight (McCallister)
When Garret was 4 years old we watched the movie 101 Dalmatians. After seeing the movie Garret was adamant that he wanted a Dalmatian ‘spotted dog’.
We had Lucy (Woocy as Garret called her) but if you remember, Lucy was a solid brownish red…having no spots at all. We told Garret that we couldn’t get another dog as we
already had Lucy…I did get him a stuffed toy Dalmatian though. That same week I found Garret under the game table in the family room holding Lucy down and when I convinced
him to come out from under the table I found that he had ‘made’ his own Dalmatian by using scissors to cut spots on Lucy…she wasn’t any too happy and welcomed the rescue.
Have no doubts, Garret loved ‘Woocy’ and he would not have traded her for a Dalmatian…he just made her everything that he ever wanted in a dog by giving her ‘his own’ spots.
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#4 Posted By: Mike McCallister
I remember when the whole family went to Folsom Lake to spend the day at the beach. We were all pretty young, but Jeff was the youngest at around age 3. We were all having a good time playing on the beach and swimming in the water.
Then all of a sudden, Jeff was gone. We looked all around, including the bathrooms, but he was nowhere to be found. Everyone was in a panic, thinking he may have been kidnapped. We walked up and down the beach, asking everyone if they had seen a little
boy named Jeff. No one had seen him. Then we saw him. He was in the arms of a woman walking down the beach towards us. He had a hot dog in one hand and an ice cream in the other, happy as can be. The woman was trying to find his parents, and she said
that he told her that his name was Jack. But that wouldn't be the last time Jeff would wander off. One time the police brought him home, saying they found him fast asleep on the median strip in the middle of El Camino Avenue about ½ a mile away.
Apparently Jeff got tired and decided to take a nap right in the middle of the street. I don't remember exactly how old he was, but he was pretty young.
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Comment By: Judy Knight
I so remember the Folsom Lake family picnics….ham salad sandwiches on rye bread, hard boiled eggs, lemonade in
the brown thermos, wicker picnic basket with red plates, cups, and utensils…swimming out as far as we could go in the
lake…..those are very fond childhood memories!!!!
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#3 Posted By: Judy Knight (McCallister)
When we were kids money didn’t come to us easily, for instance, we got 10 cents a week for an allowance. Being creative, we found ways to supplement our small ‘guaranteed’ income such as looking for money,
usually change, that people had dropped when purchasing snacks from a vendor during a football game at El Camino High School’s stadium. One Saturday hunt seemed particularly promising as Friday night’s game had been Homecoming
and both sides of the bleachers were full of spectators. We even convinced our neighbor, Cammy, to come with us as we were so hopeful that the pickings would be good. We, Mike age 12, Judy age 10, Jeff age 8 (soon to be 9),
decided to go really, really early to beat the other scavengers, Mr. Erickson in particular, so we went to get Cammy, age 9, while it was still dark out that Saturday morning. When we got to the football field it was very dark and foggy
so the stadium was a bit eerie. Being young, our imaginations started running wild and before long we had conjured up a child slayer in the stadium looking for his next victims…us. First one of us started running then the next and then
the next to get away from this horrible monster…we were running down the track which went around the football field. Before any of us knew what was happening we saw Cammy flying through the air backwards landing on her back, then Mike
went down, next Judy, and finally Jeff, he was the youngest and slowest (poor Jeff, he thought we had all been shot). We were all laying on the track crying, dazed, confused, and not knowing what had happened but knowing that we had each
taken a blow almost knocking each and every one of us out. When we were able to get up and get our bearings we found that there was a rope drawn across the track at approximately neck height for most of us which we all hit extremely hard
as we were running as fast as we could to get away from the ‘child killer’. We cried all the way home leaving the spoils to Mr. Erickson, so much for the early bird catching the worm. This was the first and last time Cammy went looking
for money with us…it didn’t deter Mike, Jeff, or me however, we did wait until the first light of the morning before going.
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#2 Posted By: Mike McCallister
I remember when Matt was a little boy, probably around 2 years old. It was Sue's birthday so Matt and I went out and got her a birthday present.
We bought her a large split leaf philodendron plant and a blue pot to put it in. We went home and put the plant in the pot and put a nice bow on it. Later that day, Matt and I went and picked Sue up.
Matt was riding in the back seat of the car, and he was being real quiet. Little did I know that our little surprise was just torturing him. All of a sudden Matt yelled out "OK, OK, it's a plant. We got you a plant".
He just couldn't hold it in any longer.
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#1 Posted By: Mike McCallister
I remember when I was in the Army in Germany sometime in 1978, we were out on field maneuvers out in the country. I was the commander of a M578 recovery tank, and Mark Rhodes was my driver.
It was night time and it was pitch black outside. We were in the area where our company was going to spend the night, and we were looking for a place to park our tank.
We had to drive our vehicles without any lights on so that the "enemy" couldn't see us, so I had to walk fairly close in front of the tank with a red flashlight so that Mark could see it to follow me.
The ground was all torn up from all the tanks, and it was hard for me to walk through it in the dark. Well, I triped and fell right in front of the tank, and the tank kept coming. Just before it ran over me, it stopped.
Mark said that all of a sudden he couldn't see the red light, so he stopped. Scared the hell out of me. That night, Mark and I were sleeping in the turret of the tank. We were both sleeping in seats that had hatches above.
Well I had a nightmare about the tank running over me. Mark said that all of a sudden I was climbing all over him trying to get out of his hatch. I didn't get much sleep that night.
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