6. Sulphur Springs Picnics

Bob Zybach: Huh! What reason do you suppose that was?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, she just said that I wasn't hired to take care of his personal things. I was hired to do secretarial work.

Bob Zybach: How long did you work for him?

Velma Carter Rawie: I think a couple of years. Then I went to work for Bede]in, old Medo-Land Creamery. I was a bookkeeper and that is where I was working up until the day that my oldest son was born. Then I never did go back to work permanently. I worked.. . I've worked in an awful lot of jobs. The only thing I have really never done is wait tables. [Laughter]

Bob Zybach: On purpose?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, I just. . . yeah, on purpose I guess. I just could never carry, I wasn't coordinated enough to pack two cups of coffee or line up a bunch of plates. I never tried it. Let's face it, I knew my limitations. I have clerked in different 2kinds of stores; dress shops, drug stores. I think I'm quite a capable person. I can do most anything if I make up my mind. . except wait tables.

Bob Zybach: [Laughter] Uh huh.

Velma Carter Rawie: I guess I really never wanted to wait tables or I probably would have.

6. Sulphur Springs Picnics

Bob Zybach: So it was a blessing. [Laughter] We were talking about going to the Luckiamute sometimes for swimming and one thing that I wanted to do i to look at these pictures of the people at Soap Creelç and I was wondering how often would you go to Soap Creek or Sulphur Springs?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh, I would say a couple of times a summer we would have a picnic like this up there.

Bob Zybach: A couple of times a year.

Velma Carter Rawie: But, maybe just on a.. . Have you ever tasted the water up there?

Bob Zybach: Oh, repeatedly. Eve,ybody that takes me up there makes me drink it. [Laughter]

Velma Carter Rawie: Not me.

Bob Zybach: You've never even tasted it?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh yes, I've tasted it. A lot of times we'd go up there on Sunday afternoons just

Bob Zybach: to get a drink of water. Just for something to do, the family would go up there. Can you remember any structures up there, picnic tables or a house?

Velma Carter Rawie: We must have had some tables. . . No, there was never anything much up there. This is me.

Bob Zybach: Okay, you're the...

Velma Carter Rawie: I'm the tall one of these. And this is the little, the little Torgeson girl that lived.

Bob Zybach: Oh, that was a year younger than you?

Velma Carter Rawie: A year younger than me.

Bob Zybach: I don't think that we got that on the tape, but they were your neighboring family and then Esten Carter was her aunt and uncle and yours also.

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, that's right. This is. . . well now do you remember the Barzee family?

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Velma Carter Rawie: lived on the way up to Sulphur Springs.

Bob Zybach: Now there are two Barzee families; one by Ed Blakes and one by Tampico.

Velma Carter Rawie: Airight, this would be one in the same, I would say. This is Arnold and this is Leah and this is Fern Barzee. He was the mail carrier here in Corvallis until he retired several years ago.

Bob Zybach: So that would be the two little girls?

Velma Carter Rawie: Uh huh. And that is the boy. I don't know who this is and I haven't found anybody.. . Arnold doesn't know and neither do either one of the girls, who this kid was.

Bob Zybach: Uh huh. It looks almost like he is wearing kind of a Swiss costume.

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: U/i huh. Now can you remember...?

Velma Carter Rawie: Now this is my Grandfather Carter.

Bob Zybach: Now he is the one in the vest on the left...

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, who has the store.

Bob Zybach: facing the camera?

Velma Carter Rawie: This is [inaudible] . . . uncle, Jesse, who lived at Rickre all. This is Grandma, my grandma's brother right here.

Bob Zybach: So that is a Williamson?

Velma Carter Rawie: So that is a Williamson.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and who is the man between the two of them?

Velma Carter Rawie: And that is a Dodele. That is Gus Dodele and Gus Dodele married a Williamson girl. Gus Dodele's wife was a cousin of my dads.

Bob Zybach: Uh huh.

Velma Carter Rawie: And this. . . yeah, that's Gus. . . This is Paul, I think this is Paul Dodele here. Yeah, Paul Dodele is the one the paid the two-and-a-half dollar gold piece for the box lunch.

Bob Zybach: So the Dodeles are off to the left there?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, this one, this was a Williamson. This is Aunt Ella Williamson and Aunt Ella would be Gus' mother. This is Clyde Tomlinson and that was my Aunt Mattie . . . married this man, Clyde Tomlinson. This is Roy Torgeson he's the father of this little girl here and this is her mother right here.

Bob Zybach: And what was her name?

Velma Carter Rawie: Nina. Nina Torgeson. This is Uncle Rob Williamson. He's Aunt Ella Williamson's husband. This is my mother and...

Bob Zybach: It is kind of hard to look at this shorter, smaller version here.

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, uh huh. And the other girl took the bigger one. And now this was a Holman and the Holmans are related to the Willianisons and the Carters.

Bob Zybach: Where would the spring be in relation to this...?

Velma Carter Rawie: It was right about down in here someplace.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so this is a big opening right in front of the spring?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, and the [Soap] creek ran through here. There was a little creek that ran through here. I'll never forget. . . maybe I've told you this story before. . . one time when we were up there for a picnic, the Woodcocks, who were one of the Corvallis people who had the Woodcock Garage here in Corvallis. One of the Woodcock boys.. . Accidentally, while he was wearing a suit and his good shoes, I remember and he drove his car in the [Soap] creek. I don't know how he got the car, but he got the car stuck in the creek. Not to let on like it was his fault, he got out and started washing it.

Bob Zybach: Oh, so just like...

Velma Carter Rawie: Just like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

Bob Zybach: like it was perfectly normal to be stuck in the creek there? Uh huh. How did he get out?

Velma Carter Rawie: I can't remember that part of the story but I remember hearing my dad say...

Bob Zybach: Now the Woodcocks, they sold cars didn't they?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What would you do there at the picnics?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh, the fellas pitched horseshoes and the ladies stood around and visited. They didn't always pitch horseshoes but they always had some horseshoe pitching. The main thing was to eat. They had the most wonderful food that you ever saw in your life, a potluck type of thing but not everybody took just one thing. They just took food. [Laughter]

Bob Zybach: Then shared between... ?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh yeah. It was put out on the picnic table and everybody passed through and took what they wanted and would sit down on the grass or on blankets and whatnot.

Bob Zybach: Would they have wrestling matches or foot races?

Velma Carter Rawie: No. Oh sometimes the kids would have a sack race or three-legged race or something like that. I remember horseshoe pitching more than anything else for the men to. . . [inaudible]. And then a lot of them there again, were happy just to have a day off where they could just sort of sit down, visit, and relax.

Bob Zybach: Did anybody swim in the creek or catch fish?

Velma Carter Rawie: There wasn't enough water in the creek to swim in. We went wading. Everybody went wading. To swim, no. Now.. . oh, that man is a Douglas there, Harry Douglas. He lived in that house at the north end of Coffin Butte [inaudible] This was one of his daughters, that was a Phelps.

Bob Zybach: Now the whole community would go out there. Would that be because you were all relatives or was that normal for communities to go picnicking?

Velma Carter Rawie: It just seemed to be a normal thing.

Bob Zybach: Uh huh.

Velma Carter Rawie: Maybe it was kind of a family reunion picnic. Basically as you sit and look at this, somebody in this picture is related to everybody in the picture.

Bob Zybach: Some of them are up from the Luckiamute?

Velma Carter Rawie: Uh huh. And the Holmans were from Albany basically.

Bob Zybach: So it was like a local gathering place for families?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, uh huh.

Bob Zybach: Would there be other people...?

Velma Carter Rawie: That is my dad right there, he's cut off, but that is my dad right there.

Bob Zybach: Would other families be out there? Would you encounter other people or was it pretty much secluded?

Velma Carter Rawie: Everybody that was there was our group whether or not there was other people around. . . as I suppose somebody like that Woodcock that I remember. He came out. I think probably other people came to drink the water or something. We would basically go and spend the whole day, I mean this was a big deal.

Bob Zybach: Would this be for the Fourth of July or just everybody would just say, 'Nat Saturday we're gonna go up to Sulphur Springs?"

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, I guess that is the way it was. It wasn't just on the Fourth of July. I never remember any fireworks as a kid.

Bob Zybach: Would you go out there for wedding receptions?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, no.

Bob Zybach: Just for picnics?

Velma Carter Rawie: We just went for a picnic. This was a big deal.

Bob Zybach: Did you know any of the families out in the Sulphur Springs area?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, the Goviers and you mentioned the Ed Blakes and the Barzees and...

Bob Zybach: Now the Barzees weren't related to you were they?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, but they were part of the community. As I say, it wasn't all a. . . It wasn't a family reunion, it was a community picnic.

Bob Zybach: Did you know the Glenders?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh yeah.

Bob Zybach: Would you ever visit with any of those families; Glenders or Goviers?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, I saw one of the Glender girls just the other day because one of the

Velma Carter Rawie: Glenders married my sister-in-law's brother. That would be on my husband's side. The Glenders had two girls. There were two families of Glenders, brothers married sisters and they lived in the same house and only one of them had children but you never would have known who was the parents to those two girls. I often wondered if the girls knew who, well you know, because they were brought up...

Bob Zybach: The mother and the aunt were both kind of the moms?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, that's right.

Bob Zybach: Did the community think that was odd that brothe,c and sisters were living in the same house and ma,ried like that?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, it was two brothers married two sisters. They always farmed together and they just always lived in the same house. They did that until after the camp came in.. . They went over to Albany, you know where the Swept Wing Motel is in Albany out by the airport, like if you went from Albany heading toward Lebanon on Highway 20 and you cross over the freeway [1-5] there's a restaurant there called the Swept Wing Restaurant on the east side of the freeway. There is a farm out that sits right there and that is where the Glenders moved to when Camp Adair came in.

Bob Zybach: I talked to Eugene Glender and he said that they moved to Albany but he didn't say where.

Velma Carter Rawie: and Art and Leon were still living there after Leon's.. . Elvera is Gene's mom. [Elvera is actually Gene's sister. See Monograph # 9]

Bob Zybach: Would sometimes the Goviers or Glenders go with you to Sulphur Springs?

Velma Carter Rawie: I can't remember them being out to Sulphur Springs but they probably did. The ladies had a quilting club, they met once a month and. . . quilting quilts .. . a sewing club I guess or something like that. I have a quilt that was made... everybody made a block and they embroidered their name on it. My mother had this quilt and I still have it.. . of all the ladies in the community who went to this quilting club.

Bob Zybach: Would there be... ?

Velma Carter Rawie: And the Glenders, as I said .....they would be there sometimes.