March 20, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 20, 1963

Wednesday.  Light snow in am. Heavy snow in pm. I washed. Billie called in am. Mrs. Mayo called about girls singing Sunday.

Comment:  Billie, (Margaret Laraway),  was my Mother's aunt, my Grandmother Bessie's sister. Here is what Susan has to say about the relationships in my mother's family: 


"Mom’s parents divorced when she was 16 – a scandal it was – her father Clarence marrying her mother Bessie’s younger sister Mildred Laraway, (Billie) and her mother Bessie Claressa Laraway marrying Norman Van Tassel, another farmer and friend of the family, who had once been married to Bessie’s cousin. All four persons accompanied each other to Las Vegas for the divorce and remarriage of the new couples. 

In later years, after Mom had a child or two of her own, along came a half-sister, Judith Barber, whom Mom also loved, but with whom never established a close relationship, as she had her own family to tend to. 

The Laraway sisters kept a close bind with each other despite the scandal, and with the rest of their brothers and sisters, and their friendships and relationships continued the rest of their lives. Their lives had changed, but they still were accepted by each other. 

But, for Mom, although she visited with her family back and forth as though all was well, she was wounded from the shame and embarrassment it had caused her at the tender age of 16, and I don’t believe she ever really recovered from that fully."

Here is a link the full version of Susan's Memories Of Her Mother and also to the news paper coverage of Mom's sixteenth birthday:

http://gerryhubbard.blogspot.com/2005/06/susans-memories-of-her-mother_25.html

http://gerryhubbard.blogspot.com/2005/07/moms-sixteenth-birthday-party.html

Below is a picture of Grandma Bessie, her sister "Billie" and Billie's daughter Judith at the 1978 family reunion...

March 18, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 18, 1963

Monday, Cloudy,  windy, cold 25 hi. David and Sue both came home with flu. Clifton still didn’t feel good. I wrote to Marilyn and Doug. Had a letter from Doug.

Comment: Monday, Monday, can't trust that day.......from the Internet

Monday has often been called a blue day. There is considerable speculation as to why this might be so. One theory runs that Monday (before the advent of the washing machine) was the usual day for washing and a blue dye was frequently used to keep clothes from yellowing. Blue is also frequently associated with depression. Since Monday is typically the first workday of the week and workers must look over a long depressing stretch of time until their next day-long break it has often been refered to as a blue day.

Many cultures see Monday also as an unlucky day, even as a day when people become insane. This may have something to do with the day's association with the moon. The moon has been called inconstant, due to its tendency to wax and wane. The Latin word for moon comes even into our own language to designate lunacy.

Sunday March 17, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday March 17, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday. Beautiful in pm. Cloudy in am clearing in pm 50 no wind snow melting fast but ground nearly covered yet. Carol and I went to church, but didn't stay for Sunday school. Clifton didn’t feel a bit good. David and Sue some better. Bob and Bill here at night a few minutes.

Comment:  Not sure who Bob and Bill are...weather seems to be clearing, here is a previous post about the seasons on the Hill.....


And the seasons would come and the seasons would go
And our whole world would change with the flow,
As the sharp verdant springtime resolved in soft focus
And the hills drowned in summer's warm glow.

In Autumn, the mountains were like purple haze that muted fall colors soaked through,
Then winter's keen breath brought the snow and  white frost...
And another new year to us, too.

March 15, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 15, 1963

Friday, Sunny, windy 20’s. Sue and Clifton sick with flu. I washed in am.  Kennedy’s came to look at Geralds car but didn’t want it. Mother called to see how we were she had a cold too. Had a letter from Marilyn. I sent for Seward paper. Boys went to school dance.

Comment:  The car I bought for $10 and fixed up never did sell.  Another entrepreneurial dream gone bad..David and Wayne go to Friday school dance.....not sure why she sent for the Seward paper....here is picture of five generations on my mother's side:  Grandma Bessie in front, then left to right, Kristen Ford, Marna Ford, Marilyn, Frances.....from the 1978 Hubbard Family Reunion

March 11, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 11, 1963

Mon. 0 to 35. Clear in the am becoming cloudy in pm rain and sleet at night. Carol was home yet with cold. I had a sore throat and cold. I washed in the am. Clifton cut wood. David drove our car to work,  he had to be there at 6:30am to go to Albany.  Had a long letter from Doug and picture cards of the base. David worked in Albany moving charcoal from rail car to warehouse.

Comment: Doug's writing a lot of letters from Navy boot camp, persistent sickness.  If you ever want a sinking feeling in your stomach, open up the doors of a freight car packed with bags of charcoal and know that you have to move every damned one of them into a semi-trailer, drive to the warehouse and unload them all, then drive back to the freight car and do it again, maybe for the next 2 days.  At days end, your clothes and skin are completely black with the dust.

It's Wayne's birthday, March 11, 1946 on this date in 1963 he is 17 years old with about 42 years left to live.....he was born 80 years ago today and I remember clearly when Mom brought him home from the hospital...

In Memoriam: Wayne Maurice Hubbard

Wayne Maurice Hubbard
Born March 11, 1946, Died December 3. 2005 


November 22, 2005
Warrington, VA

Dear Wayne:

I want you to know that it has been an honor and privilege to grow up with and know you for all these years.

You should know that the kindness, warmth and wit that is Wayne Maurice Hubbard will long live in the memories of those fortunate enough to know you and also in the lives of your fine children.

We love you bro'.

Gerry Hubbard.


November 22, 2005
Warrington, VA

March 10 , 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 10, 1963

Sunday, Mostly cloudy windy few snow flurries 30’s. Clifton took Susan, Donna and Janette to church. I didn’t feel like going had a cold in my chest and slight headache. Carol still didn’t feel good, had a bad cold in her head. David took his car to Raymonds to have it fixed.

Comment:  Mom getting sick, David still struggling with his car.  Raymond Brown's garage probably was the only place he could take it on a Sunday because of the prevailing Blue Laws in effect at the time.  Most businesses were closed on Sunday which is a far cry from today with most large businesses open 24/7.  Not sure if the repeal of the laws was good or bad but it certainly significanlty changed our life-style.  

A blue law is a type of law, typically found in the United States and Canada, designed to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, and a restriction on Sunday shopping. Most have been repealed, have been declared unconstitutional, or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience.^[1]

Laws of this type are also found in religious cultures such as Israel, where the day concerned is Saturday rather than Sunday, and most countries with Muslim majority, where the month of Ramadan is involved.^[2]

March 9, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 9, 1963

Sat. 30’s. Started to snow 4 pm. I baked in the am and took a pie and other things down to Merles. Ella went to hospital, no one was there when we went there. Cleaned up the house in the pm. Clifton,Wayne and Susan went to city to look at cars in pm. Carol was home sick, worse than Friday. Wayne went to Linda's at night and had to come home by Gilboa because of snow. Dougie called at 7 pm. Merle and Ella both in hospital at Margaretville. David's car boiled antifreeze out.

Comment:  Lots of folks sick or getting sick, heavy snow. Merle and Ella must have been very sick for them to go to the hospital.   Mom was known for her pies and Aunt Ella was known for her chocolate cake.  Not sure how Mom did it so well on the wood stove that Mom used.  Ella was  little better off, I remember a gas stove in her kitchen but the skill was probably learned with a wood stove.  They also seemed to do it so effortlessly.  Mom would be working outside and the next moment whipping up an apple, current or sour cream pie.  Anytime we went to Aunt Ella's she would offer us a piece of cake with a glass of milk. Ella and Mom were very good friends and talked to each other most every day.  Not sure when this picture was taken of them both:  

March 8, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 8, 1963

Friday. Partly cloudy 30’s. Carol was home from school, she was getting the flu. I washed in the am. We went to Catskill in pm. Merle and Ella both sick with flu. I had a letter from Doug and wrote to him.

Comment:  And the flu spreads.....I get a sense of despondency from the entry...kinda same shit, different day, damp, cloudy and cold...folks getting sick, but the mail provides a small diversion, receiving it and responding to it...I can envision my mother sitting at the table in the kitchen looking out the window toward the barn...South Mountain cloudy in the distance, probably the radio on to The Sword Of The Lord or similar station....

Hubbard - Briggs Wedding January 3, 1927

From the West Conesville correspondent:  Married at the Baptist parsonage at Flat Creek, Monday 10 am, January 3, 1927 by the Rev Smith, Miss Ella, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Briggs of this place, to Merel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hubbard Of Flat Creek.  John H Briggs, brother of the bride, acted in the capacity of best man, and Lorraine Hubbard, sister of the groom, was maid of honor.  The bride was becomingly attired in light blue Canton crepe with hat and coat to match.  The maid of honor wore light green satin, while the groom and best man wore powder blue suits.  The bride has been a favorite among her friends and acquaintances and especially among her schoolmates and the wish of her legion of friends is for a bright and prosperous future.  The groom comes with a good recommendation although his acquaintance with many of us is slight.  The happy couple left almost immediately after the ceremony to spend their honeymoon with relatives at Schenectady, Amsterdam, etc.  On their return the bride's parents will tender a reception at the home of the bride's grandparent, Mr. and Mrs. John D Bartley.

March 6, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 6, 1963

Wed. Rainy and foggy with strong east wind in a.m. 30. Roads icy. Wind shifted at noon and it snowed from west in p.m. School started late, Sue went home with Becky. I finished ironing and my dress. Lights went out quarter to 5 in a dreadful wind and we didn’t’t have power until 9:30. Only Halls and us were without them. We called light company about 8 pm.  Called Ella at night Merel was quite sick with flu.

Comment:   We lost power quite often on the hill and when we did one of the problems was is that we had to milk the cows by hand.  This made a one hour chore into a two hour chore.  
Merel and the rest of his generation luckily lived through one of the greatest natural disasters in history, the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.  Strangely, I never heard any of them talk about it and I often wonder why.  Were they so isolated in a rural area that it did not affect them?  Not sure...here is a Wikipedia synopsis of what they lived through: 


The 1918 flu pandemic (the Spanish Flu) was an unusually severe and deadly influenza pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin.^[1] Most victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or weakened patients. The flu pandemic was implicated in the outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.^[2]
The pandemic lasted from June 1917 to December 1920,^[3] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. Between 50 and 100 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Even using the lower estimate of 50 million people, 3% of the world's population (1.8 billion at the time^[9]), died of the disease. Some 500 million, or 28% (≈1/4) were infected.^[5] 

March 1, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

March 1, 1963

Fri 5-20 cloudy snow starting about 1 pm and continued most of the night about 4 to 5 in. I washed in the am. Clifton took our car to Raymonds and had a clutch put in. Earl and Lillian called in the afternoon. Carol and Wayne went to ball game on bus. David took our car and went.

Comment:  David's car still not running apparently.  Dad's car also with problems.  All the kids at home went to the basketball game..and the wash again.  I remember an old gasoline powered wringer washer that my mother used to use and I think our Grandmother Agnes also had one they used.  The gas powered ones were common before the Rural Electrification Program began to provide electrical power to the remote areas in out country.  Hubbard Hill got electricity in about 1946 when I was eight years old.  The wringer washers, see picture below, could be very dangerous especially for kids who could get their arms caught in the wringer.  I can remember seeing some kid with a massive scar in the crook of his elbow and it was from being caught in a wringer.  The rubber rolls would take the arm as far as the elbow and when the elbow did not go through, the rollers would spin in the elbow crook and rapidly take the skin and flesh down to the bone if it was not stopped.

After the clothes were washed they had to be dried somehow and this usually meant hanging them on a outside clothes line if it was warm enough or on inside lines throughout the house.  I remember many times when the clothes would freeze on the outside line and would be brought into the house to thaw.  It's hard to overestimate the effect that electrical power had on the rural farms in terms of saving drudgery......

February 23, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries.

February 23, 1963

Sat mostly sunny-10 to 12 windy. Clifton and Wayne did a load of wood in the a.m. I cut Carol's hair and set it. David had to work in the a.m. Robert (Segeritz)? and he were here for dinner and they brought Davids car home in the p.m. Sue went for music lesson.

Comment:  Another load of wood in the bitter cold.  David's car still not running right.  The highlight of the day probably was coming in from the cold and standing in front of the wood stove in the living room and maybe watching a little tv that night.  Here is a picture of most of the family doing just that probably in the summertime....

February 22, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February, 22 1963

Fri. Very cold -10 to 2. David started at Timberland.  Wayne and David went to dance at school. Davids car knocked worse and he left it at the corner and Wayne brought him home. I did some ironing and mending.

Comment:  We always were messing with the used cars we bought.  I do not remember my Dad ever buying a new car.  I did not buy a new car until 1967 and then the damn thing came in the wrong color.  I'd ordered a blue 1966 Ford Fairlane 500 XL  Hardtop Convertible and it came in green.  A red one is below.  When we did have a car problem, we usually tried to fix it our selves and if it required more than taking it apart and putting it back together, we usually went to Raymond Brown's in Broom Center and sometimes to Tom O'Hara in Prattsville.  Tom helped me fix a Ford Falcon when I burned the valves out driving from Niagara Falls where Mary Ann and I lived when we first got married  in 1965.  Tom let me use his bay and tools and supervised me while I took the head off the engine and removed the valves.  He then took a look and said they had to be "ground" and arranged for that at a machine shop close by.  I took the valves there and returned to have Tom guide me in grinding the valve seats and then when the valves were done, he supervised the re-assembly.  He only charged me for the valve grinding and nothing for his labor or facilities......

Happy Birthday Betty Hubbard

February 17, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 17, 1963

Sun mostly sunny and warm high 25. Girls and I went to Sunday School and church. Carol was sick in church. Wayne brought Linda home in p.m.

Comment:  There is an old country song with the line "we raise Cain on Saturday's but we go to church on Sunday."  The boys and Dad did not always go to church on Sundays except when we were preteens, but we also never worked on Sundays other than the required chores to milk and feed the cattle, pig and chickens.  Not sure where it came from but the family superstition was that if we worked unnecessarily on Sunday, any thing you accomplished would be countered by something bad happening in the near future.  I recall mowing hay on Thursday or Friday, raking it into windrows to get it ready for baling on Saturday, then not bailing it on Sunday even with the threat of rain on Monday.  And it did rain on that Monday. We then had to wait till the rain stopped and the hay partially dried then, laboriously "ted" the hay and re-rake it for bailing.  A "tedder" is below.  We would haul the tedder down the windrows and the tines on the back would kick the hay up in loose piles to hasten the drying process.  We then had to rake it again for baling.  Of course, if you did not have tedder, the hay fluffing would have to be done by hand with a pitchfork and that made some long days.  I remember once when LaVerne and I were haying Kandora's place, (the Elmer Hubbard farm after it sold), we had a field cut and raked and the rain kept on until the hay molded in the windrows and we wound up burning it to get rid of it......

February 16, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 16, 1963

Sat -10 to 5 above. Bright sunny day Cold and Windy.  Girls cleaned up the house I had headache. The girls went to the (basketball) game at night with David and came home on the bus. Had a letter from Doug.

Comment:  Again a cold day.  Mom had a lot of headaches, probably migraine, that people on the hill called "poor spells".  "Poor spell" could apply to most any sickness that was obviously not a cold or the flu and/or did not have a fever.  I think several of the Hubbard men, my father and grandfather included,  suffered from mild and sometimes acute depression that left them in a funk for days and family said they were having a "poor spell".  Mom would sometimes stay in bed all day when the episodes hit.

Again, a big social event of the week during the winters, were the basketball games held at the Gilboa Central School.  The buses would run to pick up kids who wanted to go, probably because if they didn't, most kids would not go.  I know I would have never played any of the sports unless the school provided transportation.  Families were either working, broke, or running a dairy farm, any of which did not allow for a lot of running kids around to events.  Below is a picture of Carol and Susan on Susan's first day of school.  They are waiting for the bus. 

 In the back ground are the legs of a cow walking up the road...we might have been bringing the cows in to change pasture, milk or maybe the cow was just "out".

February 15, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 15, 1963

Fri high, 8 above.  Blustery day with intervals of sunshine,  cold and very windy. Clifton and David started the bookcase in afternoon they had trouble starting Davids car in the a.m. David went out at night and stayed at LaVernes because of drifting snow. LaVerne was sick with bad cold. Clifton and Wayne finished book case at night.

Comment:  The hills up out of Flat Creek and up around Earl's pond were always a problem in bad weather.  They are quite steep and have several blind, sharp corners.  Many's the time I've had to back down the hill almost to the Five Points intersection to get a running start at the hills.  The toughest one was the one just beyond the Clarence Ellis or Huber's place and just before Earl;s pond.  The fifty-one Ford we used to have had a straight transmission and the problem was you could not get it going fast enough in second gear to make the hills.  And in third gear, you had to go up so fast that is was a major driving challenge to keep it on the road around the curves.  And if you let off the gas for a second to keep it on the road, it did not have enough power in high to continue so, you had to shift to second and the tires would start spinning from the lost momentum.  Then you had to back down the hill and try it again and even backing down in the windy dark was quite a risky proposition.  We usually made it, but the "bail-out" was going down to LaVerne's to stay the night.  All the kids drove like demons and passengers not used to the narrow roads would be terrified at our driving...and most of the us kids had wrecked a car at one time or another.  Here is the fifty-one Ford  I used to drive.  I think it is Doug and Wayne in the background and we were working on the garage.

The Pick Up Truck Song, Live, David Hubbard, 1995

The Pickup Truck Song, CW McCall, recorded live by David Hubbard in 1995.

February 14, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 14, 1963

Thursday,  20 Cloudy,  snow in the afternoon. Clifton and David finished the divider in afternoon. I cleaned up the house and went to Madalyn's (Blakesley) to Missionary Meeting in afternoon.  Finished letters to Doug and wrote Marilyn. Clifton still didn’t feel very good.  Had prayer meeting here at night.  Evelyn’s (Baily) birthday.

Comment:  A tooth ache on the hill could mean lots of pain for days.  Mostly treated with aspirin, we would also us sprigs of cloves to rub on the gum around the tooth.  I also remember Dad dipping his finger in whiskey and rubbing the gums of a teething baby at one time or another.  I do not remember ever going to a dentist as a child and believe my first dental exam was during my Army induction.  I know my first extraction was on Guam when I awakened a military dentist at 300am to end an agonizing tooth ache that had plagued me for about 24 hours flying across the Pacific.


Church and Sunday School on Sunday, Missionary Meetings, Prayer Meetings during the week, Youth Fellowship Meetings, Summer Bible School, Mom's life and that of the girl's was one of a continuous involvement in the church.  The boys were involved when younger but we seemed to "backslide" as we became teenagers.   The Flat Creek Baptist Church was focused on the New Testament  while Dad held greater stock in the old testament, especially Psalms and Proverbs and many a discussion ensued because of this.  Here is most of the family in front of the church with Aunt Ella.  Missing are my son Craig, he might have been in the Peace Corp, and I think Wayne is taking the picture.   I think we were at a family reunion and all attended church out of respect to Mom.....that was the last time I was in a church......If you click on the picture it will enlarge....

The Wonderful Soup Stone

 http://hubbardfamilymusic.tumblr.com/     Take a listen....

The Soup Stone 

There is an ancient folktale about a wanderer who pulls a magical soup stone out of his pack and shows it to the astonished villagers.

Asked to demonstrate it, he has an onlooker fetch a cauldron, into which he places the stone, with appropriate ceremony and gestures.

Now, he requisitions a bunch of carrots and several large onions from the village storehouse.

Eager volunteers contribute beans, scraps of meat, and various spices, all of which goes into the pot.

Two strapping young peasants fill the pot with water from the nearby well and hang it over the communal hearth.

The water begins to bubble, and soon a tantalizing aroma fills the air. The wanderer sniffs at the soup, tastes it, then nods sagely.

He reaches in with a ladle, removes the stone, and returns it to his pack after letting it cool.

The grateful villagers fill a large wooden bowl with the delicious soup for him, and he eats until his belly can hold no more.

His hunger satisfied, he departs, leaving behind him a wondrous tale of a magical stone that conjures up the best soup that anyone can remember.

I've played and sung this song for years but do not have any very good recordings of it. Charlotte Haskin heard me sing this at a family reunion a long time ago and wanted the lyrics.  Somewhere in my head is a blurry memory of an actual soup stone hanging in some dimly lit kitchen and I think it might have been in Grover Haner's place on South Mountain.  I remember when my mother and the Hubbard Aunt's went there to clean his house for him.  He lived alone, almost like a mountain man, and I remember Mom commenting on the greasy sheets from his bed that they had to wash....

Here are the lyrics by Shel Silverstein.

Enjoy Gerry


I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
The noodles and the marrow bone,
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

Hanging from a string in my momma's kitchen
Back in the hard time days,
Was a little old stone 'bout the size of an apple.
It was smooth and worn and grey.
There wasn't much food in my momma's kitchen,
So whenever things got tight,
Momma'd boil up some water, put in the stone
Say, "Let's have some soup tonight."

And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes,
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

It'd been in the family for a whole lot of years,
So we knew it was a nourishing thing.
And I remember momma as she stirred it in the water,
And we could all hear her sing.
"It's a magical stone and as long as we got it
We'll never have a hungry night.
Just add a little love to the wonderful soup stone,
And everything will be alright."

And I swear we could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes,
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

So it carried us all through the darkening days
'Till finally the sunshine came.
And the soup stone started a'gathering dust,
But it hung there just the same.
Ever since then, Lord, the food's been plenty
But every now and then I find
That momma in the kitchen and the wonderful soup stone
Drifts across my mind.

And again I taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.
We were nourished by the wonderful soup stone.
Oh, the wonderful wonderful soup stone.