The Deicison That Started it All - Betty is One Step Closer

Betty's father, Dr. Calkins, rests his head in the palms of his hands.  His finger tips threading through his hair, his pinkie knuckles digging into his closed eyes, and obscuring his view.  That sleepy, tingling sensation radiate from his bent elbows resting on his wooden desk.  Elbows that have kept the heaviness of his head a float in his palms, swarmed amongst strewn papers.  Papers that tell a story, one that none wants to hear or reveal.

Possibly what Dr. Calkins'
 desk looked like

Dr. Calkins sitting alone in his dental office located in the heart of Chicago's upscale shops in the Marshall Fields building slowly picks his heavy laden head off of his palms.  Blurred vision comes into focus as he lifts his head out of his palms, relieving the blurring pressure from his eyes.  Spread before him are ledgers, each line telling a story that one can not deny.  To his right, lay the next days mail ready for pick up.  Tucked carefully inside each envelope are the most recent slew of past due notices.  Each sealed with the dampness of an anxiety ridden lick, addressed with hand written desperation, waiting for their recipients' possible positive reactions.  

A sample dental ledger from
the 1930's

William, slowly with determined mental heaviness flips through the pages over and over.  Reviewing every entry, tallying each cent, ensuring they are being accounted for.  Exhaustion and defeat throbbing through his veins, fighting each thread of hope since opening his  dental practice.   Decisions needing to be made, changes need to happen , and sooner rather then later.

We go back a few years prior to the event above, the year 1929, right at the burst of the stock market bubble.  Individuals and businesses who placed their trust and financial future in the mighty stock market, like William, were left with a future of unknown trajectory.  Dr. Calkins found that dental needs, just like many needs during this time, took a back seat as survival became Americans' focus.  The required root canal for a tooth ache was quickly replaced by pliers in the tool drawer, a huge savings on the patients pocket book.

An example of a popular 1930
dental chair

Between 1929 and 1933, Dr. William's dental chair saw fewer and fewer patients each week. The chairs sat empty for hours, and days at a time.  Patients that could pay at first, eventually started receiving past due notices.  Along with the crash of the stock market, his patients means of being able to pay their dental bills, were whisked away as well.  Oftentimes dental bills ran on and on for years, until Dr. Calkins made the decision that it was costing more money trying to get paid then to quit collecting for their debt.

Several sobering years combined with lack of monetary resources, push Dr. Calkins to this night - the night of anguish over decisions needing to be made.  Changes that needed to happen in order for Dr. Calkins and his family's well being, a decision made for the better of his family.  Dr. Calkins, with his ledgers of accounting in front of him, makes the first of many hard business and family decisions. He decides to move his struggling dental practice to his house, where the overhead costs were minimal compared to those of Marshall Fieldings.

This decision will be the first of many decisions that will bring Betty closer and closer to Frank.  The beginning of the end of an era, and the start of a new.

A New Trajectory - A New Life

James (also known as Buster) excited, relived, concerned, but most importantly excited, takes his hand, grasps the tassel and moves it to the left side of his hat.  He smiles at the thought that his Flathead County High School days are over, done, caput.   As he takes his seat back with his class mates, the thoughts hidden behind his stoic expression are ones that he can't put aside.  This impending summer won't be like the others:

It's 1928, the year that the economic bubble begins to release its pressure valves. The bubble starts showing microscopic tears, tears small enough to only affect the working class, like Frank Morrison Houser and his ranch.

Frank Morrison, Frank's dad, angrily grabs the handful of bonds he keeps hidden away, bonds 'secured' by the U.S.Government.  He shakes them in the air and bellows desperately, "These, these bonds aren't even worth the wall paper in the hallway.  Not even the  paper they were printed on!" He stomps out of the house determined to find a way to sell the ranch and get out while the gettin's 'good'.

Frank Morrison and Grace saw the beginning of what will be known as the Great Depression heading towards America.  Together they decide to sell the beloved Houser ranch, get what they could out of it before they won't be able to get anything.  Hopes were high, the confidence in the housing market high as well.  There has to be someone who too wants a piece of the wild west, just as they did years ago.

Grace and Frank Morrison look to the future; what's best for their family, children, and finances.  They put their ambitions and dreams, again, on the 'west'.  The west is the future, west to California. Aah California, life was booming, agriculture was steady, unemployment was low, college registration was steady (at least this is what they thought). This was where they wanted to finish raising their boys, and where hopefully James would be able to attend college.  They decide that Grace and the boys will head to California to find a place to live.   While Frank Morrison stays to care for the cattle, sheep, land and house until the sell is final.  

That summer changed everything for the Houser family.  This is one of those life altering events (one of several that we will have the chance to read and write about).  Never again will the Houser family be the same, be able to enjoy the company of one another like they had.  This will mark an end to an era, but also a new beginning...