WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:05.700 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a passage from the new book. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:15.930 align:middle line:84% And I wonder-- you know, this book has been called gritty 00:00:15.930 --> 00:00:20.070 align:middle line:84% by several reviewers, and that's a term that has never 00:00:20.070 --> 00:00:22.860 align:middle line:84% been applied to my work before, and I didn't quite 00:00:22.860 --> 00:00:24.780 align:middle line:90% know how to take it. 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.800 align:middle line:84% And I thought the book before this, "Crossing The Yard," 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.660 align:middle line:84% the characters are mass murderers, 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:38.380 align:middle line:84% and murderers, and felons, and crooked cops, and nobody 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:39.255 align:middle line:90% said that was gritty. 00:00:39.255 --> 00:00:42.150 align:middle line:90% 00:00:42.150 --> 00:00:47.010 align:middle line:84% But this sort of innocuous family memoir is gritty. 00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:49.800 align:middle line:84% So I guess it's all in what you mean by that. 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:52.920 align:middle line:90% 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:58.860 align:middle line:84% I will read a passage which has to do with the person 00:00:58.860 --> 00:01:01.620 align:middle line:84% that I consider the hero, the heroine, 00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:07.200 align:middle line:84% of this book, which is my grandmother, Charlotte. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.980 align:middle line:84% Without her I may not have survived. 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:15.240 align:middle line:84% Probably not, actually, because I had typhoid fever and nearly 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:21.390 align:middle line:84% died, and was just left to die, but she rescued me. 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:23.520 align:middle line:90% And she was like a mother to me. 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:26.460 align:middle line:84% And her husband, her third husband, Sherman, 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:29.160 align:middle line:84% was like a grandfather to me, the only grandfather 00:01:29.160 --> 00:01:31.320 align:middle line:90% I've ever known. 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:35.153 align:middle line:84% So she figures in this book very prominently. 00:01:35.153 --> 00:01:36.570 align:middle line:84% She keeps coming in and going out. 00:01:36.570 --> 00:01:41.610 align:middle line:84% And she was a remarkable, remarkable woman. 00:01:41.610 --> 00:01:45.945 align:middle line:84% This passage covers a lot of time. 00:01:45.945 --> 00:01:48.680 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:53.540 align:middle line:84% But the characters are grandma Charlotte, my mother, 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:58.190 align:middle line:84% her daughter, Hazel, my father, Leonard Shelton, 00:01:58.190 --> 00:02:01.670 align:middle line:84% who grandma Charlotte always called Leonard, 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:02.570 align:middle line:90% but nobody else did. 00:02:02.570 --> 00:02:04.610 align:middle line:90% They all called him Red. 00:02:04.610 --> 00:02:07.820 align:middle line:84% I think my brother and sister are mentioned, Jack and Betty, 00:02:07.820 --> 00:02:09.800 align:middle line:84% but they don't figure prominently into this. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:12.330 align:middle line:90% 00:02:12.330 --> 00:02:15.830 align:middle line:90% So here we go. 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:18.800 align:middle line:84% Grandma had raised her four children by herself 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.950 align:middle line:84% after their father, George Washington Ashlock, 00:02:21.950 --> 00:02:23.540 align:middle line:90% took a powder. 00:02:23.540 --> 00:02:26.120 align:middle line:84% My mother said, with some degree of bitterness, 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:28.010 align:middle line:90% "she ran him off." 00:02:28.010 --> 00:02:30.290 align:middle line:84% But then, my mother had been extremely fond 00:02:30.290 --> 00:02:32.690 align:middle line:84% of George Washington Ashlock and also 00:02:32.690 --> 00:02:36.200 align:middle line:84% had some unresolved grudges against her mother. 00:02:36.200 --> 00:02:39.110 align:middle line:84% She could not deny that George Washington Ashlock 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:40.880 align:middle line:90% had been a hard drinker. 00:02:40.880 --> 00:02:42.920 align:middle line:84% One of the few stories Charlotte ever 00:02:42.920 --> 00:02:44.930 align:middle line:84% told about this period of her life 00:02:44.930 --> 00:02:49.380 align:middle line:84% was enough to assure me that, even if she did run him off, 00:02:49.380 --> 00:02:51.350 align:middle line:90% she had a good reason. 00:02:51.350 --> 00:02:53.210 align:middle line:84% She said they started homesteading 00:02:53.210 --> 00:02:57.890 align:middle line:84% across the Snake River in 1903, about 15 miles from Ontario, 00:02:57.890 --> 00:02:59.720 align:middle line:90% Oregon. 00:02:59.720 --> 00:03:02.060 align:middle line:84% After a few years, they had a Model A 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:06.150 align:middle line:84% that wasn't paid for and four small children. 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:07.970 align:middle line:84% My mother was the next to the oldest 00:03:07.970 --> 00:03:10.520 align:middle line:90% of these and the only girl. 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:13.370 align:middle line:84% George Washington would take the Model A into town 00:03:13.370 --> 00:03:15.530 align:middle line:84% and get drunk in one of the saloons. 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:17.360 align:middle line:84% When he didn't come home, Charlotte 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:19.400 align:middle line:84% would have to get her four children out 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:22.040 align:middle line:84% of bed, bundle them up if it was winter, 00:03:22.040 --> 00:03:26.840 align:middle line:84% harness a team of horses, and hitch them to the wagon, 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:30.320 align:middle line:84% and go into town, sometimes when it was snowing, 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:32.030 align:middle line:90% to bring him home. 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:35.120 align:middle line:84% "Well," she said to me thoughtfully many years later, 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:37.670 align:middle line:84% when all those children had grandchildren, 00:03:37.670 --> 00:03:39.530 align:middle line:84% "I couldn't leave the children alone, 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:43.400 align:middle line:84% and I couldn't let him try to drive home drunk. 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:45.470 align:middle line:90% I did what I had to do." 00:03:45.470 --> 00:03:48.410 align:middle line:90% And she did it again and again. 00:03:48.410 --> 00:03:51.080 align:middle line:84% Finally, she did something else she had to do. 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:54.680 align:middle line:84% Although it was severely frowned upon by the community, 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:56.570 align:middle line:90% she got a divorce. 00:03:56.570 --> 00:03:58.940 align:middle line:84% George Washington Ashlock, after drifting 00:03:58.940 --> 00:04:00.620 align:middle line:84% through the West for seven years, 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:04.400 align:middle line:84% became a sheepherder in northern Idaho. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:06.740 align:middle line:84% Most of the grudge that my mother held in regard 00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:09.080 align:middle line:84% to Charlotte, her mother, had to do 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:12.530 align:middle line:84% with the men in Charlotte's life, the men other than George 00:04:12.530 --> 00:04:14.420 align:middle line:90% Washington Ashlock. 00:04:14.420 --> 00:04:16.820 align:middle line:84% After becoming a divorcee, Charlotte 00:04:16.820 --> 00:04:20.120 align:middle line:84% worked hard to make a living for her four children. 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:21.980 align:middle line:84% At first she worked as a laundress 00:04:21.980 --> 00:04:24.440 align:middle line:84% in a brickyard in Pendleton, Oregon. 00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:28.190 align:middle line:84% Later, she hired out as a cook on large ranches. 00:04:28.190 --> 00:04:30.890 align:middle line:84% But she was young, lively, and attractive. 00:04:30.890 --> 00:04:34.040 align:middle line:84% She played the fiddle, and she loved to dance. 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.070 align:middle line:84% I think my mother's account of Charlotte's affairs 00:04:37.070 --> 00:04:39.830 align:middle line:84% and live-in boyfriends was exaggerated, 00:04:39.830 --> 00:04:43.070 align:middle line:84% but it was not, in fact, without a foundation. 00:04:43.070 --> 00:04:45.800 align:middle line:84% Although most of these liaisons probably 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.170 align:middle line:84% occurred after Charlotte's second marriage 00:04:48.170 --> 00:04:52.880 align:middle line:84% had failed, when my mother was in her early or mid-teens, 00:04:52.880 --> 00:04:56.930 align:middle line:84% a difficult time for a proper young lady whose mother seems 00:04:56.930 --> 00:05:00.780 align:middle line:84% bent on flaunting the conventions of society. 00:05:00.780 --> 00:05:02.840 align:middle line:84% The second marriage was, by everybody's account, 00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:05.570 align:middle line:84% a short-lived disaster, although I never heard 00:05:05.570 --> 00:05:07.490 align:middle line:90% Charlotte mention it at all. 00:05:07.490 --> 00:05:09.050 align:middle line:90% His name was Blanton. 00:05:09.050 --> 00:05:12.440 align:middle line:84% All I know about him is hearsay from my mother and one 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:14.870 align:middle line:84% of her brothers, although I have photographs 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:16.790 align:middle line:90% that verify part of it. 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:20.000 align:middle line:84% Blanton, it seemed, was a dandy and a gambler, 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.090 align:middle line:84% accustomed to fine clothes and fancy women. 00:05:23.090 --> 00:05:29.840 align:middle line:84% He evidently saw the money making potential 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:31.820 align:middle line:84% in Charlotte's children, who ranged 00:05:31.820 --> 00:05:35.420 align:middle line:84% in age from about eight to about 17, and three of them 00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:36.440 align:middle line:90% were boys. 00:05:36.440 --> 00:05:39.620 align:middle line:84% He leased a large track of lumber land, timber land, 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:42.140 align:middle line:84% somewhere in North Central Idaho and set 00:05:42.140 --> 00:05:45.380 align:middle line:84% about harvesting lumber using Charlotte's children 00:05:45.380 --> 00:05:47.000 align:middle line:90% as the crew. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.140 align:middle line:84% I have a wonderful photograph of my mother at about 16, 00:05:51.140 --> 00:05:53.690 align:middle line:84% plump and pretty, in a pair of overalls 00:05:53.690 --> 00:05:57.050 align:middle line:84% and a man's cap at a rakish angle on one 00:05:57.050 --> 00:06:00.110 align:middle line:90% end of a large crosscut saw. 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:03.500 align:middle line:84% But the party came to an end when the youngest child, Bob, 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.350 align:middle line:84% was seriously hurt by a falling tree. 00:06:06.350 --> 00:06:10.670 align:middle line:84% Charlotte divorced Mr Blanton, her second divorce in an era 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:13.730 align:middle line:84% when divorced women were judged harshly 00:06:13.730 --> 00:06:17.270 align:middle line:84% by the conservative moral code of the rural West. 00:06:17.270 --> 00:06:19.970 align:middle line:84% How she felt about it, she never told. 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:22.950 align:middle line:84% Nor as far as I know did she ever tell anybody else. 00:06:22.950 --> 00:06:25.490 align:middle line:90% She did what she had to do. 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.220 align:middle line:84% She'd had it with Mr Blanton and with marriage, 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:31.550 align:middle line:84% but she still liked men, and they still liked her. 00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:37.520 align:middle line:84% Her daughter, Hazel, found life with her unconventional mother 00:06:37.520 --> 00:06:39.500 align:middle line:90% increasingly trying. 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:41.660 align:middle line:84% Even when she was an old woman, my mother 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:43.610 align:middle line:84% seemed embarrassed to talk about it 00:06:43.610 --> 00:06:46.250 align:middle line:84% and would do so only when I pressed her. 00:06:46.250 --> 00:06:49.280 align:middle line:84% I don't think she mentioned her mother's domestic arrangements 00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:51.770 align:middle line:84% to anybody but me, although she might 00:06:51.770 --> 00:06:55.040 align:middle line:90% have told Betty, my sister. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.260 align:middle line:84% "She had different men living with her right 00:06:57.260 --> 00:06:59.150 align:middle line:84% there in the house," mother said. 00:06:59.150 --> 00:07:00.300 align:middle line:90% "I couldn't stand it. 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:00.800 align:middle line:90% I got out. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.600 align:middle line:90% I was so ashamed." 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.460 align:middle line:84% Mother wanted genteel respectability above all else, 00:07:07.460 --> 00:07:09.470 align:middle line:84% but her mother had worked too hard 00:07:09.470 --> 00:07:14.720 align:middle line:84% and seen too much of life to be overly hampered by such ideas. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.870 align:middle line:84% Although I'm sure she tried to be as discreet as she could 00:07:17.870 --> 00:07:21.050 align:middle line:84% without severely restricting her behavior. 00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:23.180 align:middle line:84% There was no hiding the fact that they 00:07:23.180 --> 00:07:25.260 align:middle line:90% lived in extreme poverty. 00:07:25.260 --> 00:07:27.200 align:middle line:84% It would have seemed foolish to Charlotte 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:30.110 align:middle line:84% to adopt the hypocritical gentility 00:07:30.110 --> 00:07:32.450 align:middle line:90% of the upper middle class. 00:07:32.450 --> 00:07:36.260 align:middle line:84% During World War I, Charlotte's oldest son, Jim, 00:07:36.260 --> 00:07:40.640 align:middle line:84% was sent home from the hospital in France as a basket case. 00:07:40.640 --> 00:07:43.220 align:middle line:84% He was placed in the veteran's hospital in Boise 00:07:43.220 --> 00:07:47.300 align:middle line:84% for a long, painful recuperation from the effects of mustard 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:48.320 align:middle line:90% gas. 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.270 align:middle line:84% Charlotte, with her two younger sons, 00:07:50.270 --> 00:07:52.280 align:middle line:90% moved to Boise to be near him. 00:07:52.280 --> 00:07:55.790 align:middle line:90% 00:07:55.790 --> 00:07:59.090 align:middle line:84% Charlotte remained in Boise, and so did all her children, 00:07:59.090 --> 00:08:02.180 align:middle line:84% who one by one married and began their families. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.550 align:middle line:90% She eventually was living alone. 00:08:04.550 --> 00:08:08.730 align:middle line:84% At some point between her move to Boise in 1928, 00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:12.290 align:middle line:84% she worked as a chambermaid in the famous Basque boarding 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.150 align:middle line:90% house, the Delamar. 00:08:14.150 --> 00:08:17.840 align:middle line:84% The Delamar was named after the mining capitalist, Joseph R De 00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:22.130 align:middle line:84% Lamar, as was the mining community in the Owyhee 00:08:22.130 --> 00:08:25.100 align:middle line:90% Mountains that boomed in 1890. 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.920 align:middle line:84% It was the classiest of several Basque boarding 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:30.800 align:middle line:84% houses in Boise, and Boise was and still 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:35.450 align:middle line:84% is a cultural center for the Basques in the Northwest. 00:08:35.450 --> 00:08:39.220 align:middle line:90% 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.340 align:middle line:90% My parents married in 1921. 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:45.760 align:middle line:84% All I know about Charlotte between then and just 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:48.400 align:middle line:84% before she married Sherman is scandal. 00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:50.920 align:middle line:84% Scandal of such proportions it could 00:08:50.920 --> 00:08:53.200 align:middle line:84% have blown the entire family to pieces 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.900 align:middle line:84% had it been generally known and admitted. 00:08:55.900 --> 00:08:59.540 align:middle line:84% To what degree it was known I have not been able to find out. 00:08:59.540 --> 00:09:03.820 align:middle line:84% I suspect it was known by several members 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:06.850 align:middle line:84% of the family who chose simply to look the other way 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:08.440 align:middle line:90% and avoid problems. 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:11.860 align:middle line:84% At some point after her daughter married Leonard Shelton, 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.800 align:middle line:84% and for several years as far as I can tell, 00:09:14.800 --> 00:09:17.080 align:middle line:84% Leonard's mother-in-law, Charlotte, 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.770 align:middle line:84% was the mistress of one of Leonard's older brothers 00:09:20.770 --> 00:09:23.950 align:middle line:84% who was married and had several children. 00:09:23.950 --> 00:09:27.040 align:middle line:84% My father had five older brothers, all of whom 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:29.050 align:middle line:84% were married and had several children. 00:09:29.050 --> 00:09:33.100 align:middle line:84% I'm not telling which one it was. 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:35.500 align:middle line:84% To say that my mother was upset by her mother's 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:37.450 align:middle line:84% affair with her husband's brother 00:09:37.450 --> 00:09:39.520 align:middle line:90% is a vast understatement. 00:09:39.520 --> 00:09:42.520 align:middle line:84% She was seething with anger and shame, 00:09:42.520 --> 00:09:45.220 align:middle line:84% telling me about it, even 50 years later, 00:09:45.220 --> 00:09:46.390 align:middle line:90% when she was an old woman. 00:09:46.390 --> 00:09:48.530 align:middle line:90% It was painful for her. 00:09:48.530 --> 00:09:52.120 align:middle line:84% My mother's need to project an aura of respectability, 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:54.940 align:middle line:90% even gentility, was very strong. 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:57.670 align:middle line:84% When it came to discussing anything sexual, 00:09:57.670 --> 00:09:59.140 align:middle line:90% she was a prude. 00:09:59.140 --> 00:10:01.660 align:middle line:84% Once, when I was about eight, while I 00:10:01.660 --> 00:10:03.980 align:middle line:84% was reading the newspaper over her shoulder, 00:10:03.980 --> 00:10:07.750 align:middle line:84% I came upon the word rape and asked her what it meant. 00:10:07.750 --> 00:10:10.510 align:middle line:90% She refused to tell me. 00:10:10.510 --> 00:10:12.850 align:middle line:84% In regard to her mother's illicit affair 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:16.660 align:middle line:84% with her husband's brother, Hazel was in a terrible bind. 00:10:16.660 --> 00:10:19.510 align:middle line:84% She could barely stand to look at her handsome mother 00:10:19.510 --> 00:10:22.030 align:middle line:84% during this period, but she could not 00:10:22.030 --> 00:10:24.790 align:middle line:84% break off relations with her because to do so 00:10:24.790 --> 00:10:27.940 align:middle line:84% would be to admit that she knew what was going on. 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:31.270 align:middle line:84% Poor Hazel, she could only suffer inwardly and hope 00:10:31.270 --> 00:10:34.480 align:middle line:84% her mother would, quote, "come to her senses." 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:37.810 align:middle line:84% Some scars are so deep that even the family amnesia curtain 00:10:37.810 --> 00:10:40.510 align:middle line:90% can't cover them completely. 00:10:40.510 --> 00:10:42.250 align:middle line:90% Finally, the affair ended. 00:10:42.250 --> 00:10:45.160 align:middle line:84% I have no idea why, not any more than I 00:10:45.160 --> 00:10:46.900 align:middle line:84% know the circumstances that brought it 00:10:46.900 --> 00:10:48.400 align:middle line:90% about in the first place. 00:10:48.400 --> 00:10:51.370 align:middle line:84% Perhaps Charlotte did, quote, "come to her senses," 00:10:51.370 --> 00:10:52.720 align:middle line:90% as my mother had hoped. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:55.840 align:middle line:84% Or more probably, she grew tired of her lover 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:59.860 align:middle line:84% and the awkwardness of the situation. 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:02.140 align:middle line:90% My uncle's wife never left him. 00:11:02.140 --> 00:11:05.710 align:middle line:84% And years later, when I was a child growing up in Boise, 00:11:05.710 --> 00:11:08.500 align:middle line:84% Charlotte and my uncle seemed to be on good terms 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:11.210 align:middle line:84% whenever circumstances brought them together, 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:12.640 align:middle line:90% which was seldom. 00:11:12.640 --> 00:11:15.670 align:middle line:84% My mother felt that my uncle's wife probably knew about 00:11:15.670 --> 00:11:18.760 align:middle line:84% the affair but pretended she didn't. 00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:21.400 align:middle line:84% Whatever my mother thought, she did not openly 00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:24.590 align:middle line:84% let her mother know how displeased and humiliated 00:11:24.590 --> 00:11:25.630 align:middle line:90% she was. 00:11:25.630 --> 00:11:27.790 align:middle line:84% Charlotte continued to visit with her daughter 00:11:27.790 --> 00:11:29.110 align:middle line:90% and her daughter's family. 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:32.080 align:middle line:84% And when Hazel was pregnant with her second child, my brother 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:35.440 align:middle line:84% Jack, Charlotte often came to help her with the housework 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:37.210 align:middle line:90% or to babysit Betty. 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:40.660 align:middle line:84% She stayed with the children when Jack was born. 00:11:40.660 --> 00:11:44.920 align:middle line:84% And stayed with family when Jack was born in 1928, 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:48.490 align:middle line:84% taking care of Betty and Leonard while Hazel was in the hospital 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:50.080 align:middle line:90% and recuperating. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:53.410 align:middle line:84% Charlotte spending much of her time at my parents' house 00:11:53.410 --> 00:11:56.920 align:middle line:84% brought on the next episode in her ongoing love life, 00:11:56.920 --> 00:12:00.580 align:middle line:84% and it was almost more than my poor mother could bear. 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:04.330 align:middle line:84% "Your grandma, Charlotte," my mother said many years later, 00:12:04.330 --> 00:12:06.826 align:middle line:90% "took up with the ice man." 00:12:06.826 --> 00:12:10.102 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:10.102 --> 00:12:11.980 align:middle line:90% 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:13.900 align:middle line:90% The ice man. 00:12:13.900 --> 00:12:17.020 align:middle line:84% You could have knocked me over with a feather. 00:12:17.020 --> 00:12:19.270 align:middle line:90% It was the last straw. 00:12:19.270 --> 00:12:21.910 align:middle line:84% An ice man used a large pair of tongs 00:12:21.910 --> 00:12:24.820 align:middle line:84% to hoist the big block of ice onto his back, 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:27.100 align:middle line:84% bringing it into the house through the back door, 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:29.140 align:middle line:90% and put it in the icebox. 00:12:29.140 --> 00:12:33.670 align:middle line:84% Charlotte and the ice man chatted amiably each time he 00:12:33.670 --> 00:12:35.770 align:middle line:84% delivered ice to my parents' house, 00:12:35.770 --> 00:12:37.990 align:middle line:84% and she would serve him a cold drink. 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:40.180 align:middle line:90% He was handsome but shy. 00:12:40.180 --> 00:12:42.730 align:middle line:84% Finally, he asked her to go dancing with him, 00:12:42.730 --> 00:12:44.590 align:middle line:90% and she accepted readily. 00:12:44.590 --> 00:12:47.830 align:middle line:84% The romance flared quickly while Hazel bit her tongue 00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:49.630 align:middle line:90% and pursed her lips. 00:12:49.630 --> 00:12:52.720 align:middle line:84% "If she is still so all fired to attractive men," 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:55.090 align:middle line:84% my mother said to herself, "she could at least 00:12:55.090 --> 00:12:57.580 align:middle line:84% find one with a little money so she could 00:12:57.580 --> 00:12:59.890 align:middle line:90% be secure in her old age." 00:12:59.890 --> 00:13:05.260 align:middle line:84% The ice man, the very idea, at least this one is a bachelor, 00:13:05.260 --> 00:13:10.450 align:middle line:84% or says he is, that's an improvement, but not much. 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:13.030 align:middle line:84% How could Hazel face her relatives and acquaintances 00:13:13.030 --> 00:13:15.730 align:middle line:84% who probably knew that her mother had broken 00:13:15.730 --> 00:13:18.610 align:middle line:84% off an affair with Red's married brother only 00:13:18.610 --> 00:13:21.910 align:middle line:90% to take up with the ice man? 00:13:21.910 --> 00:13:24.490 align:middle line:84% The ice man's name was Sherman Beech. 00:13:24.490 --> 00:13:29.170 align:middle line:84% He was, indeed, a bachelor who lived with and took care 00:13:29.170 --> 00:13:31.240 align:middle line:90% of his aged mother, a widow. 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:33.430 align:middle line:84% They lived simply, but he and his mother 00:13:33.430 --> 00:13:35.440 align:middle line:84% owned a considerable amount of property 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:37.270 align:middle line:90% that his father had amassed. 00:13:37.270 --> 00:13:40.510 align:middle line:84% It included most of what was then 00:13:40.510 --> 00:13:43.480 align:middle line:84% the tiny community of Parker, Arizona, 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:47.900 align:middle line:84% several homes in Boise, and land in Oklahoma. 00:13:47.900 --> 00:13:49.900 align:middle line:84% I've heard various members of my family 00:13:49.900 --> 00:13:52.960 align:middle line:84% say that Sherman owned oil land in Oklahoma, 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.150 align:middle line:90% but I doubt that this was true. 00:13:55.150 --> 00:13:57.950 align:middle line:84% Judging by the estate he left when he died, 00:13:57.950 --> 00:14:00.430 align:middle line:84% which was a considerable estate, I 00:14:00.430 --> 00:14:03.430 align:middle line:84% imagine his Oklahoma land was rangeland. 00:14:03.430 --> 00:14:06.100 align:middle line:84% Sherman was very well off, but perhaps not 00:14:06.100 --> 00:14:08.740 align:middle line:84% as rich as oil land would suggest. 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:11.170 align:middle line:84% At any rate, by my parents' standards, 00:14:11.170 --> 00:14:14.380 align:middle line:84% he was wildly rich, although they would not find out 00:14:14.380 --> 00:14:17.620 align:middle line:84% about it until after Charlotte had agreed to marry him 00:14:17.620 --> 00:14:19.690 align:middle line:90% in a quiet, private ceremony. 00:14:19.690 --> 00:14:23.620 align:middle line:84% At that point, there was considerable backpedaling. 00:14:23.620 --> 00:14:28.090 align:middle line:90% 00:14:28.090 --> 00:14:29.320 align:middle line:90% "Well, how was I to know?" 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:31.180 align:middle line:90% Hazel would say years later. 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:33.610 align:middle line:84% "He was just as down to Earth as an old shoe, 00:14:33.610 --> 00:14:36.190 align:middle line:84% and he was working as an ice man. 00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:38.140 align:middle line:90% Rich people are too eccentric. 00:14:38.140 --> 00:14:40.540 align:middle line:90% Sometimes you can't tell." 00:14:40.540 --> 00:14:42.970 align:middle line:84% I have never found any plausible explanation 00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:45.250 align:middle line:84% for why Sherman was working as an ice man. 00:14:45.250 --> 00:14:49.090 align:middle line:84% There are hints here and there that he 00:14:49.090 --> 00:14:51.760 align:middle line:84% might have owned at least a part of the ice company, 00:14:51.760 --> 00:14:53.110 align:middle line:90% and probably all of it. 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:55.450 align:middle line:84% This theory is strengthened by the fact 00:14:55.450 --> 00:14:58.630 align:middle line:84% that two of Charlotte's sons later worked for the same ice 00:14:58.630 --> 00:15:01.000 align:middle line:90% company. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:02.980 align:middle line:84% It is entirely possible, however, 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:05.290 align:middle line:84% that Sherman was working as an ice man 00:15:05.290 --> 00:15:07.540 align:middle line:90% simply because he enjoyed it. 00:15:07.540 --> 00:15:10.540 align:middle line:84% On hot summer afternoons, the children in the neighborhood 00:15:10.540 --> 00:15:13.450 align:middle line:84% forgot about their marble games and ball games 00:15:13.450 --> 00:15:16.120 align:middle line:84% when they saw the ice truck coming down the alley, 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:19.690 align:middle line:84% often listening to one side with little dribbles of water 00:15:19.690 --> 00:15:21.340 align:middle line:90% leaking out of the back. 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:23.530 align:middle line:84% The truck contained big blocks of ice 00:15:23.530 --> 00:15:26.260 align:middle line:84% that the ice man chopped into smaller blocks. 00:15:26.260 --> 00:15:28.480 align:middle line:84% There was always a residue of ice chips, 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:31.540 align:middle line:84% and the ice man doled these out by the handfuls 00:15:31.540 --> 00:15:33.820 align:middle line:84% to the eager children who promptly popped them 00:15:33.820 --> 00:15:36.550 align:middle line:84% into their mouths or down one another's necks, 00:15:36.550 --> 00:15:38.710 align:middle line:90% screaming with delight. 00:15:38.710 --> 00:15:42.520 align:middle line:84% The ice had the faint taste of the sawdust it was packed in. 00:15:42.520 --> 00:15:45.520 align:middle line:84% Often the children rode on the tailgate of the ice truck, 00:15:45.520 --> 00:15:48.850 align:middle line:84% swinging their legs and enjoying the cold air flooding 00:15:48.850 --> 00:15:52.120 align:middle line:84% from inside the truck, until the ice man 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:54.010 align:middle line:84% would stop in the middle of the next block 00:15:54.010 --> 00:15:56.470 align:middle line:90% and tell them the ride was over. 00:15:56.470 --> 00:16:01.330 align:middle line:84% Yes, I can see how Sherman might have enjoyed being an ice man. 00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:03.040 align:middle line:84% The first thing Sherman did after he 00:16:03.040 --> 00:16:07.300 align:middle line:84% married Charlotte in 1928 was buy a Rickenbacker. 00:16:07.300 --> 00:16:09.850 align:middle line:84% In this, the couple set off on their honeymoon. 00:16:09.850 --> 00:16:13.510 align:middle line:84% The Rickenbacker, I have a whole section on the Rickenbacker 00:16:13.510 --> 00:16:15.100 align:middle line:90% elsewhere in the book. 00:16:15.100 --> 00:16:18.820 align:middle line:84% It was a huge automobile with solid wheels. 00:16:18.820 --> 00:16:21.820 align:middle line:84% It had bud vases and window blinds. 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:24.280 align:middle line:84% It had a gearshift that was taller than I was, 00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:31.240 align:middle line:84% and with a marble handle, and a separate box 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:36.430 align:middle line:84% for tools, a toolbox that was covered with rich silk. 00:16:36.430 --> 00:16:38.770 align:middle line:84% It was a terrific, terrific machine. 00:16:38.770 --> 00:16:41.920 align:middle line:84% It probably weighed as much as a tank. 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:44.660 align:middle line:84% And that was what he bought, and that's 00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:45.910 align:middle line:90% where they took their trip in. 00:16:45.910 --> 00:16:48.040 align:middle line:90% And it became my toy later. 00:16:48.040 --> 00:16:52.540 align:middle line:84% It lived in the center barn, and I spent hours playing in it. 00:16:52.540 --> 00:16:58.930 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I could be driving a ship, sometimes an airplane. 00:16:58.930 --> 00:17:00.010 align:middle line:90% It was a wonderful toy. 00:17:00.010 --> 00:17:05.680 align:middle line:90% 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:07.660 align:middle line:84% On a six month trip that took them 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:10.960 align:middle line:84% through the West, and Midwest, and deep into Mexico, 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:14.319 align:middle line:84% I have a photograph of Charlotte taken about this time. 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:16.599 align:middle line:84% She is standing beside the Rickenbacker, 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:20.050 align:middle line:84% slender and assured, wearing a dark patterned silk 00:17:20.050 --> 00:17:24.609 align:middle line:84% dress edged with fur around the bottom of the skirt 00:17:24.609 --> 00:17:27.940 align:middle line:84% and the sleeves, and one simple, long strand of pearls 00:17:27.940 --> 00:17:29.890 align:middle line:90% that reaches to her waist. 00:17:29.890 --> 00:17:32.560 align:middle line:84% From her broad brimmed hat trimmed with feathers 00:17:32.560 --> 00:17:35.770 align:middle line:84% to her shoes, she is utterly elegant. 00:17:35.770 --> 00:17:38.440 align:middle line:84% No one could possibly believe this woman had 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:42.310 align:middle line:84% been a laundress in a brickyard, or a chambermaid in the Delamar 00:17:42.310 --> 00:17:43.300 align:middle line:90% boarding house. 00:17:43.300 --> 00:17:46.060 align:middle line:84% Although it was probably a matter of complete indifference 00:17:46.060 --> 00:17:49.240 align:middle line:84% to Charlotte whether anybody knew these things or not. 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:53.380 align:middle line:84% She was who she was, and her pearls and beautiful clothes 00:17:53.380 --> 00:17:54.970 align:middle line:90% had not changed her. 00:17:54.970 --> 00:17:57.820 align:middle line:84% The real change was that she had finally 00:17:57.820 --> 00:17:59.620 align:middle line:90% found the love of her life. 00:17:59.620 --> 00:18:02.620 align:middle line:90% 00:18:02.620 --> 00:18:06.570 align:middle line:90% [CLAPPING] 00:18:06.570 --> 00:18:10.379 align:middle line:90%