I was born in 1951, the third of four children born to Joe
and Mildred. Pam was first, next was Mike, then me, and last of all was Kate.
My dad was a coal miner in Southern
Illinois. Times were
tough and jobs scarce in that area in 1954, so shortly before Kate was born my
dad drove out west in search of work, adventure, and most likely, to have a
break from the growing family. I wasn’t quite four at that time so most of what
I “remember” are the family memories that were not documented, other than with
some pictures from our camera. My dad drove to Colorado and to Washington State looking for jobs as a miner.
For a few months my mother
lived on her own with me and my siblings. She gave birth to their fourth child
while Dad was out west working as a miner. A few months after Kate was born Dad
drove back to Illinois to gather his wife and kids and make the return
trip out west. Mike was six years old at the time and asked Dad “when are we
going down west?” From that moment on we all referred to the trip out west as
“down west”. I remember some of the presents he brought us when he came back
from “down west”: Pam got a Terri Lee babydoll, Mike got a beaded Indian belt,
and he brought me a parakeet named Pretty Boy.
It wasn’t long before we had packed
all our belongings in the old Kaiser car and left Tuscola for “down west”.
After a brief stop to leave Pretty Boy with relatives in Oak Lawn, a Chicago suburb, we headed west.
On our trip west Dad told
us fascinating stories about the adventures he had. One of my favorites,
possibly because I played a role in it, was of the time when he first arrived
out west. Exhausted from the long drive he pulled the car over to the side of a
remote mountain road, in the middle of the day, to take a quick nap. After
falling asleep in the back seat he was startled awake. He said he didn’t
actually see anyone or anything that day as he climbed over the seat into the
driver’s seat and hastily drove away. But he was convinced his safety had been
at risk. His nerves had been rattled before he ever left Illinois, when, as he was saying goodbye to his wife and
children, he overheard his four-year-old daughter, namely me, ask my mom “is
Daddy gonna die?” He had taken it as a premonition. Apparently, when he was
startled awake that day in the car, he worried my premonition was about to come
true.
When we arrived in the
state of Washington, my dad found work at a new uranium mine, the
Midnite Mine near Wellpinit, Washington. It was located along Burma Road a couple of miles west of Turtle Lake in the Blue Creek vicinity. We lived in a 15 foot trailer in a small
camping area across the road from the mine. We shared the camp with a couple of
other families near a little creek, our water source. Pam and Mike were of
school age and rode the school bus to the grade school in Wellpinit. I stayed
at the campsite with my mom and Kate, the baby. There was no television in
those days, at least it was not available to us, but our lives were rich with
fun and the excitement of playing in the woods.
When we arrived in the
state of Washington, my dad found work at a new uranium mine, the
Midnite Mine near Wellpinit, Washington. It was located along Burma Road a couple of miles west of Turtle Lake in the Blue Creek vicinity. We lived in a 15 foot trailer in a small
camping area across the road from the mine. We shared the camp with a couple of
other families near a little creek, our water source. Pam and Mike were of
school age and rode the school bus to the grade school in Wellpinit. I stayed
at the campsite with my mom and Kate, the baby. There was no television in
those days, at least it was not available to us, but our lives were rich with
fun and the excitement of playing in the woods. 
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