9. The Rawies and the OSC School of Forestry

Velma Carter Rawie: wasn't the primary, well groomed place that yards are in town. It had a walnut tree and a cherry tree and the big locust tree.

Bob Zybach: Would you grow flowers?

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh yeah, we always had lots of flowers.

Bob Zybach: Your dad didn't figure that that was...?

Velma Carter Rawie: That wasn't a farm project. That was mother's project.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see.

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh, he worked the garden. I'm not trying to leave the impression that my dad was anti.. . in a joking way he used to say that like, hop picking was too heavy a work for such a light man or too light a work for such a heavy man, whichever way. It was just the opposite of what it was but he always had. . . When we were picking hops, this is going back to the hop picking, he always had dinner ready for us when we got home at night. We had baked potatoes and sliced tomatoes and roasting ears. Now if you can think of a better meal than that. . . and to this day that is my favorite meal.

Bob Zybach: Is that right? It reminds you of your dad or just...

Velma Carter Rawie: Corn on the cob and baked potatoes and sliced tomatoes. . . and we always had some meat. In those days, when we butchered . . . we had our own smoke house. When we butchered we cured our own ham and bacon and mother canned a lot of meat in those days and the same way with beef. If we killed an animal for beef, we canned a lot of it and she put down the steaks in a brine which were like marinated steaks then. . . . delicious beef when she took it out.

Bob Zybach: Would any of the men ever go on hunting or fishing trips?

Velma Carter Rawie: Dad never did. A lot of people did go hunting but Dad never did. He was just.

(End of tape 2, side 1)

9. The Rawies and the OSC School of Forestry

Velma Carter Rawie: moved to town when Camp Adair came in. I soon discovered that I wasn't cut out to raise two boys on a city lot in town because I was a farm girl and my husband had basically been a farm boy too.

Bob Zybach: Where did your husband grow up at?

Velma Carter Rawie: He was born up in the Palouse country of Washington; Garfield.

Bob Zybach: How did you meet?

Velma Carter Rawie: His folks moved down here when his older brother came down here to Oregon State. He graduated from forestry at Oregon State.

Bob Zybach: Oh, he was a [College of] forestry graduate. Oh, well this is a forestry project.

Velma Carter Rawie: Is it? Yeah, Carl [Rawie] lives out at Alsea now, Ralph's older brother. When he retired they moved out here. They had been in Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, I guess they were in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Well, for a long time he was with the Indian service in Window Rock, Arizona.

Bob Zybach: BL4 [USD1 Bureau of Indian Affairs]?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Now, what is his first name?

Velma Carter Rawie: Carl.

Bob Zybach: Carl Rawie?

Velma Carter Rawie: Carl Rawie.

Bob Zybach: You don't happen to know which year he graduated, do you? What year were you and your husband married?

Velma Carter Rawie: We were married in '37. Carl and Vera [Rawie] were married, I mean Carl graduated in probably. . . The folks came down here in '23 so Carl probably graduated in '28 or '29.

Bob Zybach: Why did they move here? Just to be with there son?

Velma Carter Rawie: Carl wanted to go here to Oregon State and they had a big family. There was seven in Ralph's family and they moved down here and Dad Rawie was a minister in the Church of God and they moved down here and he built a little church out south of town and he started in. Mother Rawie took in washing to send Carl to.

Bob Zybach: Now of the seven kids, was he the only one that went to college?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, Ralph started but Ralph got sick. Ralph is the second. The oldest girl, Grace, was married quite young. Carl went to Oregon State. Ralph started and he got sick and then he dropped out of school and he just never went back. Then a younger brother, Orval, lives out at Jefferson now, he went to Oregon State and he graduated. What in? I can't tell you. He went with the immigration service. He was stationed down in El Paso for a long time. I guess that he took ROTC [US Army Reserve Officer Training Classes] maybe, anyway he was in the war [World War H].. . stationed in a lot of places all over during the war. All of the kids came back to this area to retire except the youngest brother, he still lives up in Everett, Washington.

Bob Zybach: But the main reason that they moved here was because Carl wanted to go to Oregon State?

Velma Carter Rawie: Carl wanted to come to Oregon State because of the forestry part of it.

Bob Zybach: That is interesting. Now, you said that you didn't remember the Dickey family?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, I don't remember...

Bob Zybach: on Beriy Creek They moved there to get thefr kid going to Oregon State.

Velma Carter Rawie: Is that right?

Bob Zybach: Have you heard of other fanilies that have done that?

Velma Carter Rawie: No.

Bob Zybach: It is an interesting way for a family to move.

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, and I think Dad Rawie's family was a very strict family and in that area they lived close to Mother Rawie's family. He didn't like that idea because they thought Dad Rawie was awful strict with the kids. I think it was an excuse to move. There wasn't really dissention between the families but you know, you can live too close.

Bob Zybach: A little bit of tension there?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, I think so.

Bob Zybach: Now, when you say strict with the kids, would that mean spankings or chores?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, he was a very religious person. As Ralph said, the worst thing about getting a whipping was that he always had to cut his own switch. He wasn't abused. It was with a switch. Ralph always had to go cut the switch and that was the worst part of it.

Bob Zybach: Was your husband religious then too?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, just the opposite because it was church twice on Sundays and once on Wednesdays. I mean there was no dancing, no card playing, no social life. All of the kids left home as soon as they were old enough. Now, I'm not being disrespectful to Ralph's folks, they were lovely people, but that was just the way it was. I loved them dearly and they lived to be very old. I was just real close to them. They were very special people. That was just the way they were.

Bob Zybach: So when your husband got away from that, he started playing cards and dancing?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, yeah. It sounds like he was wild and woolly doesn't it? Not really, but I think that that often happens when it is forced on you as a kid. You aren't so interested in it. It was not that big a deal. I mean, was always saw that our kids went to Sunday school and they had the opportunity to make up their own mind as far as religion was concerned. I think that we all have our own beliefs. We have no church affiliation but, I certainly have my own thoughts and religion. As

Velma Carter Rawie: I say, as a kid that was how I was brought up too. It was a very special part of my life, going to Sunday school.

Bob Zybach: Nobody has described a revival meeting to me. A lot of the families went to them but what happened?

Velma Carter Rawie: There was a lot of singing. I can remember the singing more than anything else. It wasn't really. . . I guess I have heard about revival meetings or maybe I have seen it on television or something, or should I call it "holy roller". . . I mean they are screaming and hollering you know. That wasn't the type of thing. We called them revival meetings. When this train would come in and this paster would speak and whatnot. Most of the people in the neighborhood came. Maybe we'd have prayer meeting every night for a week or something and then the train would move on.

Bob Zybach: Would it just kind a be a "revive your religious interests?"

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, uh huh. As I say, it wasn't any particular religion. I have no idea what religion they were.

Bob Zybach: Would there be baptisms?

Velma Carter Rawie: Yeah, I can remember going to one baptism where we went to the river.

Bob Zybach: Would that be the Luckiamute?

Velma Carter Rawie: Luckiamute river.

Bob Zybach: Would you ever go over to the Willainette?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, I don't ever remember going to the Willamette river for a baptism. I can remember going down to the swimming hole basically.

Bob Zybach: What was the swimming hole?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, it was on the Luckiamute but it was down toward. . . It was on the old road towards Buena Vista, down in that area. Not on [Highway] 99, it was farther east on the Luckiamute.

Bob Zybach: On the old Independence Road?

Velma Carter Rawie: Uh huh.

Bob Zybach: Was the swimming hole pretty much on the highway there?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, we had to walk through a field to get to it.

Bob Zybach: And that is where the baptism was?