George J. Noakes (part two)

To tell more of my father's story I need to start a bit further back.

The picture to the left is of my father's father, George Frederick Noakes, and his wife Nona Belle Noakes (Townsley).  (It might be a wedding photograph, taken when my grandfather was in his late twenties and my grandmother all of 18.) 

 I'm not sure what year this is but I do know my grandfather was born in London, England, (East End) in 1876. At age 12 he was being cared for by a older sister named Ann.  She apparently was an actress or a singer in the Music Halls of that time.  Their mother was dead and the father was either dead or "out of the picture" as they say.  My dad regarded his father as an orphan. Some "benevolent society" group decided George Frederick was better off if he was declared a "Home Child" and was sent to Canada on a tramp steamship in 1888 or 9.  I imagine the authorities had enough trouble educating poor kids in Victorian London and were afraid he'd drop out and  grow up to be a criminal, a vagrant, or a politician.    

My dad didn't know what became of the great-Aunt who stayed behind in London. One hopes she had a good long life.                     

At some point my grandfather got out to Canadian prairie provinces, where he was "farmed out" to a farm family from one of the Orphan Trains that went from the bigger cities back east from the USA and Canada out to the Middle West of North America.  Parent-less kids were taken on as cheap labor by farm families who would adopt them mainly to help work the farm in most cases.  My dad said his father didn't talk too much about this experience(s), but he apparently worked hard and did everything from  learning how to be a stone-cutter to breaking horses.   

Around the turn of the century, my grandfather came down from Swaskatawan Canada to Jamestown, North Dakota.  He bought a small farm and worked it for a couple  years.  Apparently the blizzards were so strong in the Dakota winters he had to tie a strong rope from the house to the barn in order to keep from being blown into the storm and be unable to find his way back to shelter. Around 1904 the occupation of rancher/farmer in the Winter blizzards and Summer dust storms of Jamestown had lost their initial luster for George Frederick.  He  packed up and went to Grants Pass, Oregon, and got a job working in a timber mill.  In Grants Pass he  met Nona Townsley in 1905 and they had a a daughter, Winifred, in 1906.  Soon they moved up to the Portland area where jobs were more plentiful.  My grandmother's mom and most of the "Townsley tribe" moved up north with them.  They all wound up living on the same block.   My grandfather and my one of my dad's grandfather's on the Townsley side built five homes altogether in that corner of Milwaukee, Oregon.  My Aunt Betty, now 88 years old and still living on her own, lives in one of those houses today.

One of the occupations my grandfather got during the Depression was as a "powder monkey" for the Oregon Public Highway System.  A powder monkey would be in charge of setting the dynamite to blow up mature and very entrenched douglas fir tree stumps.  The tree stumps  had to be removed to make way for automobile roads to connect Portland with the rest of the state.       

 The 1910 Census records shows that George Frederick and Nona had another girl, Bernice, after Winifred was born.  She died young of illness.  My father's only brother, Melvin, came along in 1919.   My dad was not born until December 13, 1927, when his father was 51 years old and his mom 42. 

 My grandfather's main job during the Depression was in a paper mill.  Hours were long and working conditions less than ideal. From what my dad said of him he had a temper, but also a sense of humor.  A distant relative of mine a good deal older than myself  remembers my grandfather as a "funny little man with an English accent" who was handy with tools and "outsourced" himself as a jack-of-all-trades if there was a temporary job to do, or something to help his relatives/neighbors with.   

This picture below is one of the few I could find of my dad as a kid, I'm guessing it was taken sometime around 1934-5  when he was six or seven.  I don't know the  name of the cat he's holding, but the dog was my dad's favorite childhood pet.  He had the unlikely Wodehousian name of  J. Wellington Tubs. (Or just "Tubs" I suppose for informal occasions).        

These are some of my dad's memories:

''There was quite a bit of difference in ages between my brother,Mel, and myself. When I was five he was fourteen.  Our house was small and my brother had the back bedroom  I shared that room with him for a time until he went into the CCC's (Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work program for young people) in 1936. He came back home to Milwaukee later.  When I turned fifteen he was gone to the war.

"Things were tough in those days before television. Radio programs came on at night.  In Summer or just after school we played  baseball, basketball and football, all in season. I was a better than average athlete because I got to play with older guys.  I used to tag after my brother.  They called me his shadow.

"There were many guys around my brother's age--sixteen or so--and there was not much for them to do.  Most had dropped out of High School and made money wherever they could. When the older boys played ball I was around to fill in wherever needed.  When you play with older guys you get better.  I could throw a pass at seven, run and dodge like an older kid in football and  dribble and shoot baskets. 

"When I was in second or third grade I was probably the best athlete in my class. I could pitch and hit a softball hard because I was playing with the older guys.  I believe this was the only thing that saved me in school socially.   

"In the daytime, besides playing ball games,  we played "hide and seek", "red light", run sheep run", "hop scotch" or any old game at night to stay out longer and have fun. The night games were fun, especially when girls were involved.  In those days there were no drugs and we didn't need liqueur or beer.  I guess that's why our parents didn't worry about us too much. 

    "Radio was the big thing at night; the sound effects were convincingly real.  I liked "The Green Hornet", "Homicide Squad", "The Lone Ranger", "Jack Armstrong (All-American Boy).  The program "Suspense" was often quite scary.  My favorite radio comedian was Jack Benny."

Benny was also my dad's favorite comedian, all-time.  I watched reruns of the Jack Benny television show with him when I was growing up.  I believe his favorite Benny film was "George Washington Slept Here" (1942), where Jack plays a very urban New Yorker whose lovely wife (Ann Sheridan) buys a very, very run-down country house in the wilds of Pennsylvania behind her husband's back.  The new abode rapidly becomes a "money pit".   A very funny film, I think it holds up nicely even today.    

  (to be continued)