Erma L. Schaefer VanPool

Erma L. Schaefer Van Pool
I was born in Bache, Oklahoma on July 3, 1909 to Pearl and Clarence Shull. My mother always said I spoiled a 4th of July picnic since she had worked all day on the 3rd to prepare food for it. The doctor who delivered me must have started celebrating early because he listed me as a boy on the birth certificate. We didn't discover this until after Orval and I were married. We had decided to take a trip and needed birth certificates. You can imagine my surprise when mine arrived and it took a good deal of correspondence to finally get it changed. It was fortunate that my grandfather was still alive – he was able to authenticate it!
When I was approximately 2 years of age my parents divorced. My maternal grandparents had moved to Roslyn, Washington and my mother and I joined them there when I was about 3 years old. Arriving at the station there was the first time I had ever seen an automobile – it was a red Buick and the driver was Steve Sylvester (I never forgot his name because I was so impressed). He wore a cap and goggles and gloves with big cuffs, which I think was standard practice for motoring in those days. My grandfather was there to meet us and we went to Roslyn to his home. It was actually in South Roslyn and was a small two bedroom home and he had a wife, two daughters and two sons so you can imagine it was a little crowded after we arrived. My memory is fuzzy about how we slept, but it seems to me the two girls slept in the same bed with us – at the foot of the bed. They were Aunt Sadie and Aunt Beatrice. Beatrice was only 7 years older than I and played with me a lot. I adored her. Sadie was a teenager and was completely annoyed with me. My two uncles were Murl and Edwin. Murl was 6 months older than I and Edwin was about 6 years older.
Grandma was the second wife since my mother's mother died when mom was only 8 years old. Her name was Edna and she had been widowed in a mining accident and Sadie was her daughter by her first husband, so Sadie was difficult for all of us.
They had a nice garden, one cow and one horse which grandpa rode to work every morning. The cow provided milk for the family and for some reason grandma thought warm milk just taken from the cow was good for us so we each had to have a glass every morning. I think that is the reason I don't like milk unless it's ice cold. We had our own vegetables and fruit and grandma made the best biscuits I ever ate. We had very little meat, it was too expensive, but there was always salt side pork to fry and make gravy for the biscuits.
Of course, my mother had to go to work to support me. She went to Yakima during peach and then apple picking season and sewed and worked wherever she could until I was about 5 years old. She applied for a job housekeeping at the Bohemian Club which was a large house occupied by about 5 bachelors. There was the manager of the Company store, two more workers from there, a bank clerk and a young pharmacist. Mom cooked 3 meals a day for these men. She tidied up their rooms and made beds, but did not do the laundry. We rented a room from the Justhams and each morning she got up at five and went to work, setting the alarm for me to get up at seven or so. I then dressed and went over to the "Club". I can remember it being very cold in the winter but there was always a nice hot cup of cocoa waiting for me.
This was a very special time for me. There was an extra bedroom on the main floor of this house and the men decided it was to be my playroom. They gave me all the toys that were available at that time, including a picture machine into which I could put postcard pictures and show them on a sheet – big stuff! I had dolls and furniture for them so that all my little friends liked to come and play with me and enjoy the toys. I was fond of all these men and they were all very good to me. I especially liked the young pharmacist because he had pretty clothes.
This all stopped when my mother met Josiah Bowden at a dance. He lived right next door to the place where we had rented room so he was able to woo her and me as well. He was so good to me and I loved him dearly. They were married in 1917 when I was eight years old. We rented a house on 5th street where we lived for several years.
I attended school in Roslyn from the first grade through high school and graduated from high school before my 16th birthday. Actually it was a good place to grow up. Distances were short and the beautiful hills around the town were wonderful to explore, both winter and summer, and there was no thought of danger more than getting one's foot stuck in the snow. There were a few concrete sidewalks so we learned to roller skate with old fashioned skates and sledding in the winter was marvelous. One of my friend's fathers had a team of horses and a sleigh and he took us all over the country.
I had always planned or dreamed of attending the University of Washington which in those days was fairly inexpensive. However, the depression came along and my dad lost his job so there was just no money for school. I decided that I had to go to work very soon so I came to Seattle and enrolled at Metropolitan Business College. I worked for my room and board and this was an experience which I should like to forget.
After 9 months of school I graduated and looked for a job. I was lucky and got the first job I applied for at General Tire Company on Westlake Avenue. Meantime, my mother and dad had moved to Seattle and we lived on Capitol Hill. I walked to and from work with the idea of saving car fare, but found my shoes wore out quickly and they cost more than the money I saved.
Shortly thereafter, I met A.W. Leonard, president of Puget Sound Power and Light Company and was offered the position of secretary. This was quite a step up for me to have my own little office next to the "boss" and the only thing worrying me was that I might not have the ability to do the job properly. So, I went to Broadway High School night classes to improve my shorthand skills. There I had a wonderful teacher who really helped me greatly. I was eighteen and felt on top of the world. During my employment there I was voted Seattle's most popular secretary – surely this was because Mr. Leonard was Seattle's most popular boss!
At that time there were two or three fine ballrooms in Seattle and my friend, Lillian Lundahl, and I danced and danced. I had three or four boyfriends whom I liked, but none really counted until I met Orval Schaefer at a beach party. He was with another girl (a beautiful one) so I thought I didn't have a chance. A couple nights later my mother asked me to go up to Broadway to the drugstore to get her some aspirin and I bumped into him, literally, it was raining and I had an umbrella in front of my face. He asked me to go to a movie with him and four years later we were married. We were married June 4, 1932 at University Christian Church in Seattle. We had a small wedding with only my parents and close friends attending. Dorothy (Justham) Wilson was my maid of honor and Ray Simpson, Orval's best man. It rained! Orval had a new job with Greyling Realty and I was still working so we felt like we were on easy street. We had furnished our apartment with some of Orval's mother's things and additions which we bought so we had a pleasant little home and no debts. We went to Vancouver Island on our honeymoon and while in Vancouver bought the Wedgwood china which I always loved. We spent our little nest egg, arriving back in Seattle with about $3.00 to live on until the next payday.
After a couple years we moved to 3406 Belvedere (West Seattle) into a little house that Orval's company had repossessed. It was in terrible shape and we spent months painting and fixing until it was finally a darling little home. It was here that I fell down the basement stairs and broke my ankle. I quit work before moving because in those days no man wanted his wife to work so I stayed home hoping for a baby. About 5 years later we were expecting our first child. Unfortunately he was born about 5 weeks too soon and lived only 3 days. What a blow! But the Lord works in mysterious ways and while I was crying and feeling sorry for myself there was a Christian nurse who really set me straight. Then Patsy Black came to visit me (she was a wonderful Bible teacher) and invited me to come to her Bible class. So, in 1939 I asked Christ to come into my life and heart – what a blessing!
Orval and I then had two children, Orval Charles Schaefer, Jr. and Doralee Schaefer. Orval died in 1968 and I resumed my secretarial duties with a position at Pacific National Bank of Washington.
In 1973, I married Harold Van Pool and moved to Lewiston, Idaho. I gained a son, Ron, and his wife Jackie and a new grandchild in this union. Later a son, Kendall was born and this raised the number of my grandchildren to seven. My son, Charles and his wife had Camille Joy and Randall. My daughter, Doralee and her husband, Bill Booth, gave me 3 grandsons, Jeffrey, Gregory and Andrew. I now boast 5 great grandchildren!
My marriage to Harold was a great success. We traveled all over the world and had some wonderful experiences. He was an avid baseball fan and we had season tickets to the Mariners for 19 year (and they never won a pennant). Harold died in 1993 after which I moved to Seattle and my home at Cristwood.