Mildred Hope Smith: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "{{Header|Mildred Hope Smith 07/24}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Mildred Hope}} {{pm}} <center>⇐ Early Days - Palmdale - Palmdale 2 ⇒<br> {{Palmdale Nexus}} '''Mildred Hope Smith''' was my maternal grandmother. It is 1955, and The Roberts is living in Palmdale, California. Both of my parents (Gerry and Shirlee) are working just up Highway 14 at Air Force Plant 42. My father was the head of the Quality Control team and Shirlee worked in the tool crib ch...") |
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<center>⇐ [[Early Days]] - [[Palmdale]] - [[Palmdale 2]] ⇒<br> | <center>⇐ [[Early Days]] - [[Palmdale]] - [[Palmdale 2]] ⇒<br> | ||
{{Palmdale Nexus}} | {{Palmdale Nexus}}</center> | ||
'''Mildred Hope Smith''' was my maternal grandmother. | '''Mildred Hope Smith''' was my maternal grandmother. I believe she was born before the twentieth century in 1894 in Virginia. I remember how she would talk about being born before the Wright Bros' flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a mere seventy miles from Norfolk, VA. | ||
Mildred was married to seven times to six husbands. Mom used to say, "Well, she did have great legs." | |||
== Palmdale == | |||
It is 1955, and The Roberts live in '''[[Palmdale, California]]'''. My parents (Gerry and Shirlee) worked just up Highway 14 at Air Force Plant 42. My father was the head of the Quality Control team. Shirlee worked in the tool crib, checking out specialized and/or "classified" tools to various personnel for working or jet fighter aircraft being built at the facility. | |||
On weekends, Gerry worked our car and those belonging to our neighbors. I was a high school sophomore and worked alongside my Dad, learning the traits that auto mechanics need to have to keep cars running. Gerry would be under a car, lying on his back on a creeper in the summer heat. He would ask for a 9/16-inch open-end wrench, and I would hand him the correct tool. When he finished, he would hand it back to me, I would clean it and place it back in the toolbox. I learned to work on cars in a clean, white shirt and jeans. <ref group="Note">This "cleanliness" skill became very important after I joined the Navy and my father took up sports car racing. Gerry opened a sports car repair facility named "Automobilia" (so aptly named by my mother) in Cupertino, California.</ref> | |||
They had established work schedules that allowed my dad to go to work early in the morning, and then my mom would report to work after all four of us kids had gone to school. | |||
Mildred's husband at the time (number six) had just died. She was complaining to my parents that she was all alone in Virginia and so distraught and alone in the World. "No mommy, no daddy, no hubby, no food, etc.." (Shades of ''Gone With The Wind.'') | |||
My dad borrowed money from the credit union and wired it to Mildred so she could move to Palmdale and become the summer childcare provider while school was out. | |||
On a Sunday afternoon, my dad and I worked on a car in the driveway. Mildred showed up in a brand new four-door sedan. It seems her husband had left her life insurance, after all. Oh, and by the way, she didn't want to travel alone, so she found three male companions who helped pay for gas and helped with gas and meals while driving across the country. (We later met one of her helpers who told us the three guys did almost all the driving because driving stressed her out.) | |||
Gerry forgave Mildred for her | My father went into a "white knuckle anger" mode. He had taken money from The Roberts' grocery fund to help pay for her relocation. After a few moments, he regained his composure, and Mildred and my mother went into the house to make sleeping arrangements. Mildred bunked in with Sherry and Valerie, Phil and I had our room, and Gerry and Shirlee had their room. One unexpected expense of Mildred's arrival was the new house rule: everyone had to wear bathrobes outside their sleeping room; no more running down the hall in your underwear. | ||
Gerry forgave Mildred for her extravagant VA-CA trip, but I don't think he ever forgave her. | |||
Being born before the advent of flight, moving to Palmdale, and seeing advanced jet aircraft must have been a significant form of culture shock. | |||
== Captain Billie == | |||
In 1923, Mildred was married to William Smith, Shirlee's father and my maternal grandfather. He worked at the Navy's Norfolk Shipyard. All of his coworkers called him "Cap'n Billie." He was part American Indian and was born on the Algonquin Indian reservation near Danville, Virginia. He was an autodidact (self-taught) man of many letters, but he enjoyed his work at the shipyard. It allowed him to do his patriotic duty working on Naval warships. It also allowed him time to study shipbuilding techniques in college. He studied occult, esoteric themes and the Akashic records with Edgar Cayce. Billie would then provide Cayce with information about American Indian thoughts and skills. | |||
If given a problem, he would often take out his pipe, fill it with a cherry wood blend of tobacco, and tamp it. I still remember and enjoy the smell of his tobacco blend. He would retrieve a match, light the pipe, and take a few puffs before giving his often brilliant and insightful answers. | |||
Shirlee told me that Mildred honored her Pilgrim roots. Mildred was a member of the D.A.R. and F.F.V., which established Mildred as a pseudo-royal able to trace her family roots back over 125 years as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and 200 years as First Family of Virginia. | |||
=== You Just Remember, Billie Smith -- === | |||
Shirlee told me that, on one occasion, during a heated discussion between husband and wife, Mildred and Billie got into a shouting match. Mildred had a bad habit of talking incessantly without pause until she needed to catch her breath. Billie, on the other hand, was a methodical thinker. Amid her tirade, Mildred declared, "You just remember Billy Smith, that my family came to the New World and they founded the Virginia colonies, and my ancestors fought during the Revolutionary War to make America a country." | |||
Cap'n Billie stood silently, lighting his pipe and absorbing Mildred's anger. He waited until she paused long enough to take a breath. Zing! As straight as an Indian arrow in flight, he replied, "Yes, Mildred, your family landed in Virginia, and yes, they formed America, but my forefathers allowed them to land!" His response was true, and it cut right to the heart! | |||
=== Edgar Cayce === | |||
During the 1930s and '40s, [[Edgar Cayce]] lived in Virginia Beach, Va. Cayce's home was quite close to Mildred's sister, 'Aunt Dutch.' According to my mother and grandmother, Cayce and my grandfather (William "Cap'n Billy" Smith) were very good friends. Cayce and "Cap'n Billy" spent many evenings sitting on the porch of the Smith house. | |||
Cayce died in 1945, and I am told Cap'n Billy attended Cayce's funeral. | |||
== Marriage to [[Ted Elder]] == | == Marriage to [[Ted Elder]] == | ||
On November 11th, 1955, Ted Elder married my maternal grandmother, [[Mildred Hope Smith]], in [[Palmdale|Palmdale, California]] at my parent's home on Sweetbriar Ave. Mildred decided to get married to Ted because it was a National Holiday | On November 11th, 1955, Ted Elder married my maternal grandmother, [[Mildred Hope Smith]], in [[Palmdale|Palmdale, California]] at my parent's home on Sweetbriar Ave. Mildred decided to get married to Ted because it was a National Holiday for some folks but not the employees of AF Plant 42. This meant my parents had to take the day off without pay. | ||
On Armistices Day (now Veterans Day), at 11 a.m., an Elder from the Mormon Church presided over Ted and Mildred's wedding. | |||
Beforehand, Teds' friends and relatives had to toast the bride and groom individually. Ted was from a large Mormon family, and there were a lot of relatives. Being good Mormons, each toast was made with good drinking whiskey and individually, all in private. There was a lot of toasting. | |||
My father was the "Obligatory Father of the Bride" | My father was the "Obligatory Father of the Bride." Gerry had had quite a few toasts from Ted's relatives. When the officiant asked who gave us this bride in matrimony, my father answered, "I do. Who else?" | ||
Being good friends, the relatives | Being good friends, the relatives adorned the getaway car with time-honored tin cans tied to the rear bumper, streamers, and slogans painted on it. As a prank, they had to remove the distributor from the car so it would not start. Being the "on-call mechanic," my father quickly diagnosed the problem. He then began offering money to return the missing auto part for fear that Ted and Mildred would move in with the Roberts family instead of going on a honeymoon. | ||
The rotor was miraculously found and installed, the car started and the bride and groom were on their way. | The rotor was miraculously found and installed, the car started, and the bride and groom were on their way. | ||
=== After the wedding === | === After the wedding === | ||
That same afternoon, with the bride and groom gone, | That same afternoon, with the bride and groom gone, Mom returned to the house and tried cleaning up all the dishes and "lots of glasses". It was a hot day, and Gerry retired to the bathroom for a shower and a fresh change of clothes. Well, he made it to the shower. He found his way to the living room, lay on the floor, and turned on the television. Now, at this point, the story takes one of two avenues. Some say that he fell asleep due to the heat and all of the stress, while others say he passed out due to the heat. We will never know for sure because he was unconscious. | ||
Shirlee tried to awaken him and offered lunch. Without luck, she simply pulled the living room rug over | Shirlee tried to awaken him and offered lunch. Without luck, she simply pulled the living room rug over him and allowed him to "sleep." | ||
About dusk, my father arose, fresh | About dusk, my father arose, fresh and hungry. My parents fed us kids and went to the local bowling alley where the company sponsored a large bowling league/tournament. Gerry maintained a consistent 275-plus bowling average in league play. | ||
That evening, Gerry rolled three consecutive perfect games and won a brand new car which had gone un-won since the beginning of the tournament. | That evening, Gerry rolled three consecutive perfect games and won a brand-new car, which had gone un-won since the beginning of the tournament. | ||
When he was asked how he had accomplished such a monumental feat he said simply, "I stood at the lane entry point and watched all of the pins on the alley. Because of the wedding earlier today, I wasn't seeing real straight and the pins seemed to waver. So I would wait for all of the pins to spread out all the way to the edges of my vision and then | When he was asked how he had accomplished such a monumental feat, he said simply, "I stood at the lane entry point and watched all of the pins on the alley. Because of the wedding earlier today, I wasn't seeing real straight, and the pins seemed to waver and realign. So, I would wait for all of the pins to spread out all the way to the edges of my vision and then throw the ball between them. The alley, pins, and the bowling ball all seemed to arrive in the middle of the alley simultaneously." That was SO Gerry! | ||
== Mildred and the Tartanula == | == Mildred and the Tartanula == | ||
There | There were not many options for entertainment in Palmdale at that time. Television had, I think, less than a dozen channels, and HBO and cable TV did not yet exist. | ||
It meant going to places like [[Two Shay Ranch]] | It meant going to places like [[Two Shay Ranch]], driving to Los Angeles (about sixty miles away), or going to the local movie house. | ||
The local theater was about twenty blocks | The local theater was about twenty blocks away—an easy bike ride for someone who wanted to see the latest western or sci-fi film. | ||
Mildred indicated she wanted to join me for the afternoon. She would pay for tickets and refreshments | Mildred indicated she wanted to join me for the afternoon. She would pay for tickets and refreshments and drive me and friends to and from the theater. | ||
That | That week's film was ''Tarantula'' with John Agar, [[Mara Corday]], and Leo G. Carroll. Clint Eastwood was also in it, but I wanted to see Mora Corday. She was a beautiful movie star who always played a [[heroine]] or [[damsel in distress]], but then Mildred wouldn't understand: she was not a young teenage boy. | ||
Mildred asked why I found the movie so | Mildred asked why I found the movie so enjoyable. "Well, it had to be that the film was shot in Apple Valley, just an hour or so from Palmdale by car. That's it. It was filmed in our part of the world." | ||
All was fine until this one hundred foot tall spider began | All was fine until this one-hundred-foot-tall spider began entering the town and eating all of its inhabitants. Mildred was afraid, so she sunk her fingernails into my right thigh with her left hand. I almost screamed along with the theater audience, but not from the Tarantula on screen! | ||
== Aunt Dutch == | |||
'''Aunt Dutch''' lived on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, Virginia, near the First Landing Historical Park, the Cape Henry Lighthouse, and Fort Henry. It was also close to an amusement park (now called Atlantic Fun Park), the boardwalk, and the fishing pier. She lived in a large house and she would rent out rooms during the Summer months. The rental fees paid for all of her expenses for the rest of the year. | |||
When I joined the Navy in 1957, I was stationed at Great Lakes, Illinois for boot camp and electronic School. My first Duty station after school was at [[CinCLantFlt]] (Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, VA). I had a lot of free time to explore and visit. | |||
Shirlee (my mother) suggested I look up Aunt Dutch. | |||
When I arrived at her house, I immediately recognized it. I became quite disturbed when I saw a sign in her neighbor's yard, "Dogs and Sailors, Keep off the Grass!" | |||
Dutch welcomed me into her home with open arms and oversized Germanic breasts. "Look at you, so tall and skinny. Sit down, and I will feed you dumplings and sausages!" When she offered the third slice of a large homemade apple pie, I had to stop being polite and said, "No more." | |||
On my third or fourth trip to her home, she said I would be welcome, but could I visit in civilian clothes, as her neighbors were "talking?" | |||
After that, my visits to her home were much more infrequent. | |||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
<references group="Note" /> | <references group="Note" /> | ||
{{cats|Robin's Personal Memories|Robin's History|Palmdale}} | |||
{{ | |||
== External links == | == External links == | ||
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{{pmfooter}} | {{pmfooter}} | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Edgar Cayce]] | ||
{{cats|Navy Days|Palmdale}} | |||
Latest revision as of 18:15, 15 April 2025
and should NOT be used for any reason other than reading enjoyment |
| Palmdale Nexus | ||
|---|---|---|
A Personal Note from Robin
| ||
Mildred Hope Smith was my maternal grandmother. I believe she was born before the twentieth century in 1894 in Virginia. I remember how she would talk about being born before the Wright Bros' flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a mere seventy miles from Norfolk, VA.
Mildred was married to seven times to six husbands. Mom used to say, "Well, she did have great legs."
Palmdale
It is 1955, and The Roberts live in Palmdale, California. My parents (Gerry and Shirlee) worked just up Highway 14 at Air Force Plant 42. My father was the head of the Quality Control team. Shirlee worked in the tool crib, checking out specialized and/or "classified" tools to various personnel for working or jet fighter aircraft being built at the facility.
On weekends, Gerry worked our car and those belonging to our neighbors. I was a high school sophomore and worked alongside my Dad, learning the traits that auto mechanics need to have to keep cars running. Gerry would be under a car, lying on his back on a creeper in the summer heat. He would ask for a 9/16-inch open-end wrench, and I would hand him the correct tool. When he finished, he would hand it back to me, I would clean it and place it back in the toolbox. I learned to work on cars in a clean, white shirt and jeans. [Note 1]
They had established work schedules that allowed my dad to go to work early in the morning, and then my mom would report to work after all four of us kids had gone to school.
Mildred's husband at the time (number six) had just died. She was complaining to my parents that she was all alone in Virginia and so distraught and alone in the World. "No mommy, no daddy, no hubby, no food, etc.." (Shades of Gone With The Wind.)
My dad borrowed money from the credit union and wired it to Mildred so she could move to Palmdale and become the summer childcare provider while school was out.
On a Sunday afternoon, my dad and I worked on a car in the driveway. Mildred showed up in a brand new four-door sedan. It seems her husband had left her life insurance, after all. Oh, and by the way, she didn't want to travel alone, so she found three male companions who helped pay for gas and helped with gas and meals while driving across the country. (We later met one of her helpers who told us the three guys did almost all the driving because driving stressed her out.)
My father went into a "white knuckle anger" mode. He had taken money from The Roberts' grocery fund to help pay for her relocation. After a few moments, he regained his composure, and Mildred and my mother went into the house to make sleeping arrangements. Mildred bunked in with Sherry and Valerie, Phil and I had our room, and Gerry and Shirlee had their room. One unexpected expense of Mildred's arrival was the new house rule: everyone had to wear bathrobes outside their sleeping room; no more running down the hall in your underwear.
Gerry forgave Mildred for her extravagant VA-CA trip, but I don't think he ever forgave her.
Being born before the advent of flight, moving to Palmdale, and seeing advanced jet aircraft must have been a significant form of culture shock.
Captain Billie
In 1923, Mildred was married to William Smith, Shirlee's father and my maternal grandfather. He worked at the Navy's Norfolk Shipyard. All of his coworkers called him "Cap'n Billie." He was part American Indian and was born on the Algonquin Indian reservation near Danville, Virginia. He was an autodidact (self-taught) man of many letters, but he enjoyed his work at the shipyard. It allowed him to do his patriotic duty working on Naval warships. It also allowed him time to study shipbuilding techniques in college. He studied occult, esoteric themes and the Akashic records with Edgar Cayce. Billie would then provide Cayce with information about American Indian thoughts and skills.
If given a problem, he would often take out his pipe, fill it with a cherry wood blend of tobacco, and tamp it. I still remember and enjoy the smell of his tobacco blend. He would retrieve a match, light the pipe, and take a few puffs before giving his often brilliant and insightful answers.
Shirlee told me that Mildred honored her Pilgrim roots. Mildred was a member of the D.A.R. and F.F.V., which established Mildred as a pseudo-royal able to trace her family roots back over 125 years as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and 200 years as First Family of Virginia.
You Just Remember, Billie Smith --
Shirlee told me that, on one occasion, during a heated discussion between husband and wife, Mildred and Billie got into a shouting match. Mildred had a bad habit of talking incessantly without pause until she needed to catch her breath. Billie, on the other hand, was a methodical thinker. Amid her tirade, Mildred declared, "You just remember Billy Smith, that my family came to the New World and they founded the Virginia colonies, and my ancestors fought during the Revolutionary War to make America a country."
Cap'n Billie stood silently, lighting his pipe and absorbing Mildred's anger. He waited until she paused long enough to take a breath. Zing! As straight as an Indian arrow in flight, he replied, "Yes, Mildred, your family landed in Virginia, and yes, they formed America, but my forefathers allowed them to land!" His response was true, and it cut right to the heart!
Edgar Cayce
During the 1930s and '40s, Edgar Cayce lived in Virginia Beach, Va. Cayce's home was quite close to Mildred's sister, 'Aunt Dutch.' According to my mother and grandmother, Cayce and my grandfather (William "Cap'n Billy" Smith) were very good friends. Cayce and "Cap'n Billy" spent many evenings sitting on the porch of the Smith house.
Cayce died in 1945, and I am told Cap'n Billy attended Cayce's funeral.
Marriage to Ted Elder
On November 11th, 1955, Ted Elder married my maternal grandmother, Mildred Hope Smith, in Palmdale, California at my parent's home on Sweetbriar Ave. Mildred decided to get married to Ted because it was a National Holiday for some folks but not the employees of AF Plant 42. This meant my parents had to take the day off without pay.
On Armistices Day (now Veterans Day), at 11 a.m., an Elder from the Mormon Church presided over Ted and Mildred's wedding.
Beforehand, Teds' friends and relatives had to toast the bride and groom individually. Ted was from a large Mormon family, and there were a lot of relatives. Being good Mormons, each toast was made with good drinking whiskey and individually, all in private. There was a lot of toasting.
My father was the "Obligatory Father of the Bride." Gerry had had quite a few toasts from Ted's relatives. When the officiant asked who gave us this bride in matrimony, my father answered, "I do. Who else?"
Being good friends, the relatives adorned the getaway car with time-honored tin cans tied to the rear bumper, streamers, and slogans painted on it. As a prank, they had to remove the distributor from the car so it would not start. Being the "on-call mechanic," my father quickly diagnosed the problem. He then began offering money to return the missing auto part for fear that Ted and Mildred would move in with the Roberts family instead of going on a honeymoon.
The rotor was miraculously found and installed, the car started, and the bride and groom were on their way.
After the wedding
That same afternoon, with the bride and groom gone, Mom returned to the house and tried cleaning up all the dishes and "lots of glasses". It was a hot day, and Gerry retired to the bathroom for a shower and a fresh change of clothes. Well, he made it to the shower. He found his way to the living room, lay on the floor, and turned on the television. Now, at this point, the story takes one of two avenues. Some say that he fell asleep due to the heat and all of the stress, while others say he passed out due to the heat. We will never know for sure because he was unconscious.
Shirlee tried to awaken him and offered lunch. Without luck, she simply pulled the living room rug over him and allowed him to "sleep."
About dusk, my father arose, fresh and hungry. My parents fed us kids and went to the local bowling alley where the company sponsored a large bowling league/tournament. Gerry maintained a consistent 275-plus bowling average in league play.
That evening, Gerry rolled three consecutive perfect games and won a brand-new car, which had gone un-won since the beginning of the tournament.
When he was asked how he had accomplished such a monumental feat, he said simply, "I stood at the lane entry point and watched all of the pins on the alley. Because of the wedding earlier today, I wasn't seeing real straight, and the pins seemed to waver and realign. So, I would wait for all of the pins to spread out all the way to the edges of my vision and then throw the ball between them. The alley, pins, and the bowling ball all seemed to arrive in the middle of the alley simultaneously." That was SO Gerry!
Mildred and the Tartanula
There were not many options for entertainment in Palmdale at that time. Television had, I think, less than a dozen channels, and HBO and cable TV did not yet exist.
It meant going to places like Two Shay Ranch, driving to Los Angeles (about sixty miles away), or going to the local movie house.
The local theater was about twenty blocks away—an easy bike ride for someone who wanted to see the latest western or sci-fi film. Mildred indicated she wanted to join me for the afternoon. She would pay for tickets and refreshments and drive me and friends to and from the theater.
That week's film was Tarantula with John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. Clint Eastwood was also in it, but I wanted to see Mora Corday. She was a beautiful movie star who always played a heroine or damsel in distress, but then Mildred wouldn't understand: she was not a young teenage boy.
Mildred asked why I found the movie so enjoyable. "Well, it had to be that the film was shot in Apple Valley, just an hour or so from Palmdale by car. That's it. It was filmed in our part of the world."
All was fine until this one-hundred-foot-tall spider began entering the town and eating all of its inhabitants. Mildred was afraid, so she sunk her fingernails into my right thigh with her left hand. I almost screamed along with the theater audience, but not from the Tarantula on screen!
Aunt Dutch
Aunt Dutch lived on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, Virginia, near the First Landing Historical Park, the Cape Henry Lighthouse, and Fort Henry. It was also close to an amusement park (now called Atlantic Fun Park), the boardwalk, and the fishing pier. She lived in a large house and she would rent out rooms during the Summer months. The rental fees paid for all of her expenses for the rest of the year.
When I joined the Navy in 1957, I was stationed at Great Lakes, Illinois for boot camp and electronic School. My first Duty station after school was at CinCLantFlt (Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, VA). I had a lot of free time to explore and visit.
Shirlee (my mother) suggested I look up Aunt Dutch.
When I arrived at her house, I immediately recognized it. I became quite disturbed when I saw a sign in her neighbor's yard, "Dogs and Sailors, Keep off the Grass!"
Dutch welcomed me into her home with open arms and oversized Germanic breasts. "Look at you, so tall and skinny. Sit down, and I will feed you dumplings and sausages!" When she offered the third slice of a large homemade apple pie, I had to stop being polite and said, "No more."
On my third or fourth trip to her home, she said I would be welcome, but could I visit in civilian clothes, as her neighbors were "talking?"
After that, my visits to her home were much more infrequent.
Notes
- ↑ This "cleanliness" skill became very important after I joined the Navy and my father took up sports car racing. Gerry opened a sports car repair facility named "Automobilia" (so aptly named by my mother) in Cupertino, California.
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