There's 'Chemistry' In The Lab

Pomona Junior College Yearbook 1942 pg 29
Frank should be somewhere in this picture.
Take a look and see if you can find him,
if you do let me know.
Compliments of classmates.com

During the summer of 1941, Frank prepared himself to attend Pomona Junior College, which was an extension of Pomona High School.   They offered a 2 year college program that would prepare you for one of the local 4 year colleges.

That fall, Frank started college with a full course of classes. [The exact classes he took are unknown, but if you remember what your first session of college was like, you'd probably have a pretty good feel for what he was feeling; busy, overwhelmed, exhausted, tense, excited, and hopeful]

There was one class, that stood out from all the others - Chemistry Lab.

While in Chemistry Lab, Frank would quite often find himself in one mess after another.  [Who knows if how explosive the messes were, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few.]

One day, one mess, one such extra big mess - the type of mess that even the messiest of people look down on - was created by Frank:

Frank, finishing his lab assignment, looks around the table, and sees the largest mess the chem lab has ever seen!  Papers, bottles, liquid, and lab equipment, were sprawled all over the place.  It was such a huge mess that it took up the entire table even flowing down the sides to the floor.

Frank, being just over six foot, clumsily starts cleaning the mess.  As he'd put one item away, he'd knock over another, spilling and dropping more items then before.  Cleaning this way was getting nothing accomplished.

A gently, petite, kind, caring, beautiful young lady walked around the table, bent down along with Frank and started to help him clean.

Frank lifted his head to catch the individual kneeling next to him, and came in contact with the most delicate, gentle, eyes, he's ever gazed into.  Just then the cause, reason, and why of the mess quickly ran from his mind, only to be replaced by the vision of kneeling next to him.

They both stood to place a few items back on the table, Frank's height looming above her petite five foot frame.  She came only to his chest, but looked directly into his eyes, catching a glimpse into the soul of the real man, Frank.

Frank introduced himself and thanked her for over and over for the extra help.

She introduced herself as, 'Betty, Betty Calkins', and commented with a little giggle that he could use a little help right about now.

Together, this cute little lady, barely 5 feet tall - and this messy, 6 foot tall man cleaned up the chemistry mess.  This moment would forever catapult Frank's life into a new trajectory, one filled with future hope.

Pomona Junior College Yearbook 1942 pg 28
Betty Calkins, I believe is on the front row very far left.
Classmates.com

One would love to know the reason for the extra help.  Was it Betty's generous compassion for the extra large man, attempting to clean an extra large mess, while making more messes as he cleaned?  Or was it the opening she was hoping to come across so she'd get to know this good looking gentleman in lab class?  Unfortunately this will always remain a mystery to us, at least one that we will never know in this lifetime.

Whatever the reason, I thank Betty's generous heart for her willingness to help Frank.  For it was this moment that made it possible for me, and most of you reading this, to be here today.  Thank you Betty, also knows as Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandma.

Pomona Junior College Yearbook 1942 pg 54
Betty Calkins asterisk next to name and pic
classmates.com

Exist & Survive - You Do What You Have To Do

Grace, James, and Frank Lambert head west, west to dreams of new beginnings, happier times.

Grace desperately needing to find somewhere to live, takes some advice and heads to Northern California.  She was told that the agriculture needs were high and she could get a job easily there.

The boys, compared to most ranchers, were pretty well off, however life was still hard on the ranch filled with lots of physical and mental challenges. These challenges served only to be a preparation for what was to come with life in California.  The boys, in a strange land, with no money, food, or house have found their lives turned upside down.  Survival and existence is the name of the game.

California was being inundated
with unemployed workers looking
for a  job in the dream land.

Grace, faces the grim reality - life in California is a vicious cycle that one is unable to leave.  The number of people pouring into California, based on a hope and dream, were more then the state could handle.  Grace saw Mexican immigrants willingly head back to Mexico, where life was better off.

The family learn that the sell of the ranch has fallen through.  Dad, Frank Morrison, will not be able to join the family in California as early as they thought.  He stays behind to care for the ranch in hopes of selling it soon.

As Grace gets a bit more accustom to California, she learns that small family farms don't last here.  The competition with large-scale agriculture businesses causes family farms to fail.  Another 'dream' crushed in the wake of the Great Depression.  She had to succumb to the conclusion that their only hope for their imminent survival was to work as crop picker, following the harvests from the north to the southern part of California.

This is a sample of what some
families had to live in during
the Great Depression

In order to be as mobile as possible the Houser family lived in a tent, most likely with other poor white migrant families in the same situation.  These tent 'cities' became known as ditch cities.  To help ensure their survival, all three had to help harvest the crops.  Yes, that included young Frank.

Frank, being between the ages of 9-11, works side by side with his mother, Grace, and brother, James.  He's surrounded by other women, men, and children picking hops in the north and working their way down the state and ending with the picking of cotton.  Frank was use to hard work, however even on the ranch he could still sneak away and play, here he was expected to work from sun up to sun down.  He was too young, way too young to live the life of child labor.

Migrant Mother: Dorothea Lange's
famous photograph from the Great
Depression features Florence
Owens Thompson, 32, a
mother-of-three who had just
sold the family's tent to buy food

Around 1937, life began to change for the 3 Houser's in California.  James Buster found a 'real' job working as a janitor at Smith Jones Smiths and College in Southern California (I couldn't understand the college name).  It was during this time that they were able to find a real place to live, settle down, and have James attend college for free (as long as he worked as a janitor there). His college dream took several years to come true, but it's finally time.

Life was finally turning around, getting a bit easier, more stable, secure, and calm.

Ever See a Chicken Swim?

Turkeys, chickens, and swimming chickens?!

Before heading into the house in the evening, Grace would quickly examine the trees for her sleeping turkeys, making sure to they were tucked quietly and safely up and away from the many predators that abound around the ranch.

Day after day, young Frank was confused by the turkeys confusing tame 'pet-me' - wild 'runaway' actions they displayed towards him.  Although not the family pet, they did serve a great purpose in keeping the grasshopper population down - one would think that with the boundless plethora of grasshoppers to eat these turkeys would be nice, fat, plump, and juicy by fall - quite the contrary - they were quite skinny!

Front LtoR: Grace Houser, William G. Calkins,
Elizabeth Apgood (Nanny), Hope Henry,
Betty Houser - Back LtoR: Frank Houser Sr.,
Richard Tweed, Harry Kroh, Robert Funk,
Frank Henry, Frank Houser (my grandpa)

During the early summer Grace would hear the far off sounds of wild desperate clucking noises; wings flapping up and down, breaking the calm spring afternoon air; feet scratching and kicking up fresh spring growth along with moist warm soil next to the pond -  mamma hen 'lost' another baby to the lure of the pond's crystal clear sparkling water:

In the spring time, James (Frank's brother) would walk the quarter mile or so to the Flat Head River in search of one of the families favorite fowl.  He would locate one of the nests along the river bank, wait until it was safe, and then quickly and quietly raid the nest of it's valuable eggs.  He would continue doing this to several of the nests along the river bank until he had quite a clutch.

When James got home with the snatch of raided eggs, he would carefully sneak them into several of the hen's nests.  The mamma hen would incubate the stolen egg as one of her own, raising, caring, and loving it.  After about two weeks, the baby 'chicks' would finally give into the lure of the pond - and take to it like a duck to water.  According to Frank, "I'm sure the mother chicken had quite a startle when her baby chicks were swimming on the pond"

To keep the ducks from flying away, Grace would catch them when they were still being raised as confused baby chicks and trim their little duckling flight feathers to keep them ranch bound.

When I asked Frank why this was done, he answered in his matter-of-fact-I-can't-believe-you-are-asking-me-tone, "Well my brother and mother did this so we could have ducks - for dinner in the fall!"