1:41 p.m. - 2007-07-10
After the divorce....
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
During the time period of the filing of the divorce and the legal completion of the divorce on March 5, 1929; Josephine and Bill Drain moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the hopes of starting their new life together. Bill continued to work as a house painter and jack-of-all-trades. His interest in making gadgets that would make work easier and more efficient began to emerge.
Josephine was happy to have Patty Jean to care for but she missed her little boys very much. It wasn�t long before she became a mother again. This time it was a girl who was born on May 18, 1928. She was named Elizabeth Lucille Drain. She was called "Bettie" all her life.
And on September 25, 1930, a little boy came into the family. He was named Billy Joe Drain. Finally a boy to name after her beloved "Bill".
The Drain family had originated in Ireland as "Adrain" from the County Rosscommon. The original family moved North to Uster to seek their fortune. Bill�s father was Amos Arthur Drain born in 1870. He moved to Oil City, Ohio when he came to the United States. He married Ada Dibble. Their only child was Herbert Delos Drain who became Josephine�s "Bill".
Bill was born on August 24, 1904 in Ohio City, Ohio. Bill considered himself a real Irish lad. He loved the stories of the days back in Ireland. He was said to have "kissed the blarney stone" as he could entertain people with his wonderful personality. He also like to "tip a few" at the local tavern and sometimes he "tipped quite a few", truth be told. He had a great love of his family and was a wonderful father in spite of his weakness for alcohol.
The Depression period in the United States had begun in late 1929 and the worst of the period would be in 1933. This effected Josephine and Bill�s family greatly. Times were very tough for the little family. Bill worked very hard at any job he could find to bring money in. Josephine continued to cook and sew and make do with what they had.
She was kept so busy with the children and the daily struggles that she didn�t write in a diary. She would write poems from time to time. She did continue her letter writing, especially to her sister, Lucille. They corresponded for their entire lives, sharing family information, joys and sorrows, despair, worries and plenty of love.
As the depression continued, times got very rough so Josephine and Bill Drain took their family of five back to Illinois. They settled in Chicago where Bill hoped to find more work in the big city. It wasn�t long before another baby arrived. It was May 13, 1932 and his name was Donald Michael. Just over a year later, on June 24, 1933, Thomas Delos arrived and he was followed by another daughter on May 6, 1936. She was named Mary Kathleen. The boys went by the names of Billie, Mike and Tom. The girls were Patty Jean, Bettie and Kathy. A huge family of 6 children. They were all heathy and happy and thrived in Chicago, Il. Life was getting better.
The following is an article that Patty Jean wrote in her adult life for a writing class....
" I remember the ice carts that came down our street every afternoon during the Depression years. The housewives had a rectangular card with different sizes marked on each side, which they placed in a window so the ice man could see it plainly and chip out a block of ice of the requested size. We lived in Chicago in an apartment on the second floor, so the ice man would have to trudge up and down two flights of stairs for a 25 cent sale.
While he was doing this, hordes of children would congregate around the ice wagon which was pulled by a plodding old horse. The bigger boys would climb into the wagon and hand out chips and small pieces of ice to the smaller kids. If there were not enough scraps to go around, the more courageous leaders would chip away at the huge block of ice.
The wagon was wood and there was straw on the floor where the ice was piled, so sometimes you had straw or a sliver of wood to crunch along with your piece of ice. This was our Dairy Queen and McDonald�s!
Many times the ice man would return before we all had a bit of ice and he would shoo us away, much as his old horse would shoo away the flies that buzzed around its head and tail. As hot and crowded as the city was, most families bought ice at least every other day, so our scattering would only be for a few minutes as the ice man would stop in front of the next house.
Being the oldest of six children, three boys and three girls, I would wait until the bigger boys left and then I would sit on the back of the wagon and scoop up bits of ice for my brothers and sisters. Since this was during the Depression (around 1936) everyone in our neighborhood had ice boxes and garbage burner cooking stoves.
The stoves were very adaptable, as you could cook, heat your kitchen, and burn your trash all on one appliance. Most of them used coal, wood, paper, garbage or other fuel.
Ours had four burners and an opening to put in the fuel and an ash box that had to be dumped periodically. We had a little tool - a metal handle with a hook on the end like a can opener - which hooked onto an indentation in the burner or fuel opening so you could put your fuel under just one or two burners if you wished.
Very little trash collected in our house in a week�s time except for the bottles and cans. Food was not wrapped and rewrapped in boxes as it is today. Even our crackers and cookies were bought loose, at so much per pound and meats and fruits were not prepackaged. Meat was cut as you bought it and even lunch meat was wrapped in brown butcher paer with a tiny piece of glazed paper inside to keep it from sticking.
The grocer and butcher were nice about giving samples of their wares and many a slice of salami or chunk of cheese I enjoyed while doing the family shopping. My mother was usually busy with a baby at home so I was sent to the store to buy the food. After buying the groceries, I would have to carry them home.
More than once, I would have two bags to carry and have to walk three or four blocks each way. I usually didn�t mind as it might take me one or two hours to do the shopping and I was on my own and not accountable to anyone. I enjoyed looking in the windows of all the stores in our neighborhood or learning about the new ones when we moved to a different neighborhood.
Shopping, emptying the ash box and the ice box water pan and baby-tending were my chores. I never learned to cook or clean until after I was married, as my mother would say "Patty Jean, take the little ones to the park for the day."
The six of us would be gone from 10:00 A.M. until 4: 00 P.M. That gave my mother some peace and quiet, kept me from learning any household skills and stifled any desires I might have had to grow up and get married and have lots of children."
Patricia J. Gregg - 1990 - Published in the South Bend Tribune -
(Patricia Jean Gregg was a proofreader for the South Bend Tribune, a docent for the South Bend Regional Museum of Art, a poet, ballroom dancer and a mother of four daughters, all of who learned to cook and clean and raise children.)
******
Josephine was an avid reader and that joy passed down throughout the generations since. Josephine and Bill did continue to enjoy the movies when they had the money to attend and Josephine would often describe the movies when she wrote letters to her friends and family.
"Dear Frank (friend of Lucille�s) he was in the armed forces somewhere....
.......I like those pictures depicting the life of some famous person. I got a lot of laughs out of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in "Road to Morroco" too. I read "Random Harvest", all about a man or rather a soldier that was the victim of amensia - but am afraid you would be bored with it.
I read in some letters from home that Delphine�s brother�s son was missing. I suppose you knew old Mrs. C. was very low. She is very old, too bad Richard isn�t home to help.
I received a letter from Lucille this afternoon. She said she was planning on coming back this summer but said it depended on you, of course. She sent me some pictures and one of the new baby, with you and her. Norma (Lucille�s daughter) is getting so big.
Did you hear about the shoe rationing? - won�t hurt me any, but am a little worried about the kids. But one consulation is in the summer the boys can go barefoot.
Love Jo
******
Dear Lucille:
Here is a poem I found that you might want to use in a letter to Frank.
"Here, take my heart, �twill be safe in thy keeping
While I go wandering o�er land and sea.
Smiling or sorrowing, waking or sleeping
What need I care so my heart is with thee?
It matters not where I may now be a rover
I care not how many bright eyes I see.
Should Venus herself come and ask me to love her
I�d tell her I couldn�t - my heart is with thee."
This was written centuries ago by the great Irish poet Moore but could well apply to these times now.
Or perhaps you would like this.....
"I love you - not only for what you are
But for what I am when I am with you.
I love you - not only
For what you have made of yourself
but for what you are making of me."
Enough of this, answer soon and tell Frank to take good care of himself. All my love to you.
Jo
*************
Chicago, Il. - 1942
Patty Jean waited impatiently for the birth certificate to arrive from Oklahoma. She needed the document to get a job in the defense company. She wanted to start earning some money. She was tired of being responsible for her brothers and sisters. She never wanted to have children. They were too hard to handle. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to get married.
Even though she loved Papa with all her heart. she remembered how many times Mama cried herself to sleep at night because he was at the tavern. Patty Jean wanted to enjoy the good things in life, the things she saw in the movie magazines that her friends bought. Pretty clothes and shoes and hats, having dates with handsome men, a better future and something to look forward to in her life. She wanted an exciting life like her Aunt Lucille had.
Her Mama had been sick for a while now, she had to rest during the day more and more. Fortunately Bettie was taking over more of the housework and the cooking. Bettie had usually stayed home helping Mama over the years with Kathy while Patty Jean took the boys to the park all day.
Finally the envelope she had been watching for came in the mail. She eagerly opened it up and read the contents.
"Yes, there was Mama's name, Josephine Louise Dawson and there was Papa's......
But, but it didn't say Herbert Delos Drain..... It said Arthur Tecumseh Hill.!"
" What?...., there was a mistake! This must not be her birth certificate after all. But the birthday was correct....January 11, 1924. And it does say female... But what does 2 of 2 mean? She spent several days looking at the document. Finally she decided she had to ask Mama. Mama had never talked about her family or her life before Papa so Patty Jean had to wait for just the right moment.
She prepared a nice cup of tea and knocked on her Mama's closed bedroom door. Patty Jean told Mama that the birth certificate had arrived but there was something wrong with it. It didn't have Papa's name on it.
Mama took a deep breath and said, "Patty Jean, this is something I never wanted to tell you, but now I must. Papa is not your real father."
Patty Jean gasped "but Mama, I love him and he loves me, I know he does!"
Mama smiled and said, " Of course, he loves you. He has loved you since the first time he saw you and he feels you are as much his child as the rest of our children."
"But, Mama, does that mean that Bettie, Kathy, and the boys are not my real sisters and brothers? How can that be?, What happened, Mama?"
"They are just like your real brothers and sisters. I am their Mama and your Mama. But Papa is their father and he is not your real Papa." Mama replied softly.
Mama started to cry. "This is too hard to talk about. Your father is Arthur Hill. I was married to him before I met Papa."
"Mama, then what does this part mean, female, 2 of 2?" Patty Jean asked, starting to cry herself.
Mama said, "Patty Jean, I just can't talk about it, I'm sorry." "Please leave me alone now and let me rest." "I�m sorry, I just can�t discuss it."
Patty Jean quietly left the room and shut the door. "What was so terrible Mama can't even tell me?" Peggy Jo thought. She looked at the birth certificate constantly. She finally decided that there must have been another baby that died at birth...a twin! Patty Jean wondered if it was a girl or boy. Patty Jean decided she would never ask Mama again because it upset her so much. Peggy Jo did not want to see her Mama cry anymore.
If she ever got to California, she would ask Aunt Lucille. Aunt Lucille would tell her the truth, she was sure of it.
