WELLSPRING 2001
A Publication by the Eighth Grade class of Onekama Middle
School 2000-2001
Flo Anderson
by Luke Allen and Ashley Johnson
Mrs. Flo
Anderson, an interesting senior citizen of Manistee
County, came to Onekama School to meet with us and share
a little about herself and her life.
Flo Anderson
was born on April 28, 1922, in Filer City. All her life
Flo spent many hard hours dirtying her hands on a farm.
When we asked her what she liked the most about living on
a farm she said, "The blue sky and the fresh
air."
Mrs. Anderson
said that the best thing she and her four children,
Kristen, Craig, Kermit, and Kari, learned on the farm was
responsibility. As her children moved on in their own
lives they realized how valuable the lesson they learned
on the farm was. "When Kristen went to college she
came back and told me, 'Nobody knows anything about
anything.'" The Anderson family has owned their farm
since 1919 and still owns it.
Mrs. Anderson
married her husband, Ray, at the age of 30. The couple
had a happy marriage until the tragic passing of Ray in
1975. After Ray died, her children wanted to go to
college and she couldn't keep the farm running "with
a piece of scotch tape and a hair pin," So Flo
decided to give up farming and move on to better things.
Flo's mother
came from Danzic, Poland; her father from Michigan. When
Flo was 13 her mother was paralyzed on her left side, and
this left Flo with a ton of responsibility. "One of
my favorite jobs was taking care of my house and mother
after the accident," states Flo.
Flo graduated
from Manistee High School. She is still a member of her
class graduation committee. "I like to keep a file
of jokes and witty comments for our reunion. All of Flo's
children graduated from our school. OHS.
When Flo
married Ray, Ray's sister took Flo to Sweden. She has
been to Sweden three times since then. She has 30 picture
albums of her trips, family and friends. She told us a
funny story about a time on her way to Sweden. "W
were on a boat and we met some people. After talking to
them, we found out they were Russian. When we told them
we were Americans, they gasped and said,
"Monica"!
All in all,
Flo says she has had a wonderful life so far. She found
life on a farm interesting because there was always
something to do. Her advice to young people is to get
involved in things and volunteer. She says, if she could
go back in time she would be a stewardess and travel to
all fifty states. Return
to Top of Page 2
Farm Life
written by Josh KosiboskiA
1922 advertisement for Burmiester and Hartung
strawberry farm in Onekama read: "Just as
wheat has been developed from wild grass, man
improves what Nature has put before him. No man
can make the tiniest seed no matter how simple a
thing it looks to be, but by selection,
hybridization and cultivation he can improve
Nature's first work."
Since the beginnings of
Onekama, farming has been and continues to be an
important part of our town. Florence and Ray
Anderson spent the majority of their lives
farming in Onekama. Ray's parents came in 1919
and bought the farm and still own the farm.
On the Anderson farm, they
grew tomatoes, peaches, apples, strawberries,
corn and cucumbers. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson managed
the farm. They usually had 50 to 60 pickers on
the farm and usually one full time employer. They
had a large 80 acre farm. They also had animals
on their farm like chickens, cows and horses. One
year Flo and her husband kept track of the hours
and found out they were losing four dollars an
hour. When she was little she had to take all of
the eggs and hold them under a light and see if
there were any spots on the egg. If there were
they would go in the garbage.
After Flo's husband died she
decided she couldn't take care of the farm all by
herself. Flo said, "One migrant still sends
me Christmas cards every year." They gave up
on farming and now sell Christmas trees. Flo
said, "Farming has become lots easier in the
years. They now use machinery instead of doing it
by hand.
When many people think of
Onekama in the summertime, they think of fresh
fruits and vegetables, orchards and fields, and
berries and asparagus from small roadside stands.
Farming and farmers, like the Andersons, have
made Onekama what it is today.
The
third graders (spring 1999) were delighted with
Mrs. Anderson's visit. She told them that growing
up on a farm had taught her responsibility.
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Audrey Kline
by Ashley ZupinOn the corner of Fifth
Avenue, Audrey Kline would play kick the can and
many other games such as hide and seek as a
child. "The neighborhood would have twelve
to fourteen kids that always played with me.
Audrey
Kline was born August 3, 1928 at her home on
Fifth Avenue, Manistee. She was the youngest of
her family, having one older sister. "I
really enjoyed going to school," said Mrs.
Kline.
"Kindergarten
was a lot different back when I began school. It
was called 'sand box'. We got to do more outside
activities. Even though I would have enjoyed to
read and print, we didn't learn to do that until
the first grade. These days kids are learning to
read and write in kindergarten. Everything is
more advanced nowadays."
As the
years passed, she started to see herself as a
tomboy. She still liked to play with dolls and
"tea party", but she liked to play
baseball and other sports with the boys too.
When
she reached the ninth grade, she missed her first
day of school since fourth grade because of
chicken pox. "I got all the sicknesses when
I was in high school instead of getting them as a
kid." Her graduating class had 86 students.
During
the summertime, she would get together with her
friends or family and go for a campout down by
the beach. "We only brought two quilts and
pillows. We had a big bonfire and roasted hot
dogs." Every Saturday, she and her friends
would hike to Red Apple Road and out to Bar Lake
Road.
During
the wintertime, she and friends would walk half
of a mile and slide down the sand dunes in a
toboggan or a bobsled. "The thing I hated
about it was walking all the way back."
At the
age of eleven, she started her first job, other
than babysitting. I had to pick beans and
cherries. I remember having to climb a sky-hook
to pick the last cherries on the tree." She
also had to help around the house with the dishes
and dusting. One of her biggest responsibilities
was at lunchtime and dinnertime. She would walk
home and her mom would have a nice warm dish for
her to take to her grandpa at his shop. Her treat
for this was a five-cent double-dipped ice-cream
cone.
Mrs. Kline Meets the
Fourth Grade
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Old Timer: Phil
Beauvais
by Eleanor Vaughan
Phil Beauvais
drove a Model-T Ford, fought in World War II, and
experienced hardships of the Great Depression. This story
is of a man who lived through some of the most famous
times in American history and of the battles he fought
both at home and overseas.
Phil Beauvais,
now a resident of Onekama. was born on the eighth of
March in 1922. His early memories were set in Royal Oak,
Michigan where his father had built a luxurious home for
the family to live in. The extravagant house was spacious
with a solid copper roof and a convenient elevator. His
father had earned his fortune buying and selling
property. The Beauvais family didn't have to worry about
money.
But that
changed forever with the arrival of the Great Depression.
Following a series of unfortunate events, the Beauvais
family was forced to sell the luxurious Royal Oak home
and move to an old house across from the Ramsdell Theater
in Manistee, Michigan.
When Phil was
old enough to drive, he found a man with a 10-year-old
Model T Ford with only 15 miles on it. The man explained
it had sat in the garage all that time and it started
like magic. The man sold it to him for $9.50 because that
was how much Phil had to spend. One day, Phil's dad
surprised them all with an announcement. "We're
moving to Manistique," he said.
"Where in
Manistee?" everyone wanted to know.
"No,
Manistique," said their father. "I've gotten a
job there. So Phil sadly said goodbye to their Portage
Lake cottage and his girlfriend. The last thing he had
wanted to do was move.
Manistique was
in the Upper Peninsula. It got even colder there in the
winter than at Portage Point.
When World War
II started Phil was in his 20's He joined the army. He
worked extremely hard to be a good soldier, and did
everything exactly right. After a while, Phil was sent to
Boston where he trained soldiers who were to be sent to
North Africa to fight. One evening in Boston, a well
dressed man invited him over to his house for dinner. The
man liked to invite an enlisted man over to eat every
week. When Phil met the man's beautiful daughter at
dinner, it was love at first sight. He called her
countless times and asked her out on dates, but she
refused saying she didn't date enlisted men. Finally she
spoke to him and said she'd go out with him only if he
took her to the next movie.
When he went
to buy tickets, though, he found out it was a World
Premiere and even the governor was having trouble getting
tickets. He was disappointed, but there was nothing he
could do. Then one day a miracle happened. A few days
before he'd been assigned to pick up the famous Dorothy
L'mour at the airport because she was going to entertain
the troops for a few weeks. Then she got a phone call and
had to leave right away, although she was really sorry
the troops would have to be disappointed. When he had
loaded up all her luggage for the second time, she
reached in her bag.
"Would
you have any use for two tickets to the World
Premiere?" she asked. He told her the whole story
about Helen, and when he finished, she gladly gave him
the tickets. Helen would have been impressed enough that
he'd gotten tickets, but Dorothy L'mour had secretly
engaged a limousine to pick them up and drive them to the
theatre. Phil can't remember what the movie was about.
The whole time, he was watching Helen.
A little after
that, Phil was told he'd be going to the Pacific. But he
ended up in Australia instead. Phil was extremely scared
during the battles, until one day another soldier gave
him a "lucky penny". He was still scared, but
it helped.
After that the
soldiers went to the Pacific and Korea where they
captured a Naval Base. At the Naval Base, Phil had been
the one to go negotiate a surrender. His knees were
knocking together as the barricaded doors swung open in
front of him. The Japanese commander turned out to speak
English quite well because he had gone to a college in
California that Phil was familiar with. They were soon
talking about hat and presently Phil said that it was a
shame that so many people would have to die when they
could have a peaceful surrender. The commander agreed
after talking it over with his men. And he said Phil was
the one who deserved his sword, which by tradition he
gave to the person he surrendered to.
Looking back
on the war, Phil says the Japanese weren't all-bad like
some people have been led to believe. He thinks they were
just people like anybody else, fighting with loyalty for
their country. Although a few commanders were quite
cruel, most of them were not.
When the war
was finally over and Phil could come home, he and Helen
were married. The were married in the biggest cathedral
in Boston, and Phil says his wedding day was the most
important day of his life.
Phil and his
wife had several children, and they raised them in a
house on 9th Avenue in Flint before they moved out to
Portage Point. At the present time, Phil is still living
there. He helps out his neighbors who are gone in the
winter by going around and checking up on their cottages.
During the summer he enjoys an occasional walk down to
the well to get water for his pampered old dog, who
refuses to drink anything but spring water. Although he
is getting along in his years, Phil is still active and
plans to stay around for a while. When he dies, he will
have his ashes put side-by-side with Helen's in the
Onekama Cemetery.
Return to Top of Page 2
Memoir of
Joann Hilliard
by Sam Mitchell
Living
just north of Onekama on Northwood Highway, Joann
Hilliard can usually be found working in her yard
planting flowers and making her yard look nice or
traveling. Mrs Hilliard is married and has a boy
and a girl. She also has four grandchildren--two
boys and two girls.
Born
on a farm where she spent most of her childhood,
Joann had many farm chores. Her chores consisted
of feeding the cows and chickens and bringing in
firewood. She mainly did farm work.
Joann
grew up with two brothers and two sisters. As a
child, she enjoyed walking, ice skating, and
riding bikes. "My friend lived a mile and a
half away, so we would meet each other and go
walking," stated Joann. Joann was like most
children. She liked to play, have fun and be with
her friends.
Joann
says, "When I was growing up, things were
much slower" This was because of World War
II. They had been limited with lots of things.
From 1943 to 1945, they didn't even make any
cars. All went toward jeeps and trucks for the
war. They mainly played games they thought up
themselves. Some of the things they did were
playing on hills, card games, and checkers. Joann
says, "I liked school, but mainly just my
friends. I didn't like the studying part."
Joann's
firs money came from babysitting. She made 25
cents per hour doing that. Her senior yea she got
a job at Glenn Michigan in Manistee. She also
sewed clothes at a garment factory. After she got
married, which was when she got her first car,
she had a few other jobs. She was once a nurse's
aid and a bus driver for Onekama School. And for
over 20 years she was a receptionist secretary at
an insurance office in Bear Lake.
Joann
now participates in some community activities.
She is in a few organizations including the
Brookside Club. And she does some work at Onekama
Township, which helps out our community a lot.
Joann
loves living in Onekama. She stated, "I
really like the small community and I like
knowing most people. And the best thing is when
someone really needs something, we are there to
help them."
Mrs. Hilliard meets
the fourth grade
The Wellspring was
funded by a Learn & Serve Grant awarded
through the Michigan Community Service
Commission.
Return to Top of
Page 2
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The Kenny Store
by Michael Coryell and Soren KennyWalking
down Main Street Onekama a century ago would be
very different from the sights you would see
today. First you would see the Blue Slipper
Saloon with an artesian-fed horse trough out in
front. Now, in the same building is a successful
Italian bistro. Also there is a drug store that
used to be a soda shop. Where the hardware store
stands today there was once a grocery store and a
department store. Unfortunately, however, not
every building could stand the test of time. Next
to the present day Franz Market is an empty lot
where a grocery store once stood.
Kenny's
Supermarket was one of the oldest family-owned
supermarkets in Michigan. J.J.Kenny originally
owned it then handed it over to his son Huey
Kenny. Huey and his wife Lucille were the owners
of the old general store supermarket.
Jeffery
Kenny had once been an employee as a teenager and
remarked that he gladly received 75 cents an
hour. Sometimes if the employees had good merit
their pay was "bumped up" a nickel or a
dime. Duties, which were sometimes endless,
included bagging groceries and carrying them out
to the cars of the customer.
All
the meat was butchered and prepared at the store.
They had two full time butchers on duty at the
store. There was also a canning factory next
door. So whenever the canned foods were shipped
out they didn't have too far to go. Sometimes in
the summer nights, the factory would pump out
cans 24 hours a day.
Mrs. Showalter
answered the questions of fourth graders and
showed various historical items.
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Mary Jane Showalter
by Stephanie Keith and Sarah Acker
Living at the
bottom of the school hill for 52 years is Mary Jane
Showalter. She is a woman with an interesting past filled
to the very top with vivid memories. Her life is an
adventure finally discovered.
Mary Jane was
born in 1923 and is 78 years old, and is happily married
to Harvey Showalter. They have three children,
grandchildren, and great-grand children. Before moving to
Onekama she lived in Brown Township with her Grandpa on a
farm. She attended Brown town school in a one-room
schoolhouse. Mary Jane had two students in her class and
12 students in the whole school. Before the fourth grade
she had been to five different schools.
Mary Jane then
moved to Onekama during her junior year of school and has
been living in Onekama for 54 years. He earliest memories
of living in Onekama include moving to an old house below
the school hill. It was not a house you would call homey.
The house was large, drafty, and had no siding. It had
one wood stove to keep warm seven children. But as years
went on, her house became her loving home.
Mary Jane came
to Onekama as a licensed beauty operator. Since there
were already two or three beauty shops, she began to work
at the post office for Ed Kenny. Eventually, after 20
years, she became the postmaster.
Being a woman
today is a lot different from being a woman years ago
because of the fact women today have so many more choices
than long ago. Women years ago also worked a lot harder
than today. Work was a major part of Mary Jane's life.
For the first five years of living at Onekama, she had to
carry water from across the road to her house many times
a day. It was a hassle and it was hard work. How about
outdoor plumbing as an essential of living back then?
"Indoor plumbing is a blessing, especially in the
winter time." exclaims Mary Jane.
During school,
jobs Mary Jane had included outside work. She picked
raspberries, strawberries, beans, cherries and apples.
Working so hard for such a little pay was very difficult.
But somehow Mary Jane managed to save up $90 to go to
beauty school.
Life had its
little breaks and Mary Jane enjoyed every second she got
to have fun. For ten bread wrappers she would go to the
theater and watch exciting movies. The best movies were
the thrilling cliffhangers. But they would continue that
next week and she never got around to seeing it. Also on
Sunday evenings families would stop off at a small
friendly place to just take it easy and enjoy good food.
There were cherry, lemon, and chocolate cokes to drink.
You could get something to eat and a drink for as little
as $.15. A pork dinner cost $,35. It was a popular spot
to go and have fun. But times changed, things happen,
life goes on.
Mary Jane's
brother got shot in France during World War One
unexpectedly between the arm bone and the second shot
went all the way through the meat in his shoulder, not
touching a bone. After the shooting his arm was frozen in
a bent position, Years later he was working at a canning
factory and something went wrong and pulled his arm
straight. It was painful but from then on it was
perfectly normal. Now in 2001 she is the only one left
out of seven children.
Shopping was
not a very popular hobby years ago. All the shopping was
done in Onekama. Mary Jane had one outfit for the winter.
"I didn't have to worry about clothes cluttering up
my closet and my drawers because we either wore them to a
frazzle or passed them down to the next person that was
smaller than you." Buying food was not too bad
because most everything you had, you raised off your
land.
Mary Jane
thinks that Onekama will go through some major changes
due to the vacation homes and the property value, that is
raising quickly. I am sure her memories will stay with
her forever. Her sweet memories of catching frogs with
her brother, eating apricot cookies, fried frog legs with
butter, soaping windows on Halloween, and swimming in
Chief Lake. Onekama was and still is safe, comfortable
town with exciting memories being made possible every
day. "The best part of living in Onekama are the
people, the lake, the school. I don't know, I just love
Onekama," Mary Jane Showalter reflected. Meeting the fourth graders
Sister Ann
Porter
by Kayla Miller, Jessica Rick and Josh Vertalka
As a child, Ann Porter
wasn't very different from how we are now. Even
though she lived around World War II, she did
many of the same things as kids do now. For
example she went to the movies just as we do all
the time. The most popular type of movie then
were westerns.
In school she played sports
like tennis, basketball, and softball. Ann said,
"It was hard for me to play sports because I
was so short!" And for fun, she clapped
erasers. In school then, the teachers used
chalkboards. But one difference, the schools
didn't have drivers education.
Since there were no phones,
people had to communicate through letters. Family
traditions were important to her. Every year
someone in her family would dress up as Santa.
Her family also had lots of parties for their
families to get together.
World War II was a major
effect on everyone's life. All of her uncles were
involved.
She graduated at age 20. The
graduating class had a total of 15 people. After
school, she became a teacher in Detroit. She got
her drivers license when she was 21, and attended
college. But it was not very important to drive.
The fastest you could go was 33 MPH. In her past
time she enjoyed playing the piano and playing
with tinker toys. To help out around the house,
she washed the dishes and folded clothes.
After being a teacher, she
became a nun. And that is where she got her name
"Sister Ann Porter". Sister Ann was
involved in NetGap. There she learned how to use
the computer and the Internet. She said that it
was hard to get used to the mouse.
We enjoyed meeting with
Sister Ann and learning about her life. (photo of
Sister and the 6th grade below)
The Wellspring was
funded by a Learn & Serve Grant awarded
through the Michigan Community Service
Commission.
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World War
II
by Jessica Rick
From
1939 to 1945 a war took place that killed more
people, damaged more property, and disrupted more
lives than any other in history. This war, known
as World War II, was spread out throughout the
world. During this war, Germany, Italy, Japan and
their Axis partners fought Great Britain, The
Soviet Union, the United States and other allies.
World War II brought up death to millions of
people. Sister Ann Porter of Onekama was a child
during World War II and all of her uncles were in
the service.
The
government sent money to those who had to support
their families while the husbands were out
fighting the war. Families at home collected tin
cans, grease, and milk weeds for the war. In the
time of the war, it was really hard for women to
get pantyhose, so they would get a special type
of paint and paint their legs. You had a limit on
how much gas and shoes you could get. Everything
was limited. You couldn't get butter but instead
got white margarine with a button of yellow in
the middle. To get the rest of the margarine
yellow, you had to squeeze the bottom. For ten
cents, people would buy stamps and put the
collected stamps in a stamp book for bonds. Thy
had different colored tokens and ration stamps
for different items. They got a certain amount of
tokens and ration stamps.
When
everything was rationed the government wrote an
article called "Why Canned Fruits,
Vegetables, and Soups are Rationed." It
said: "Every week we are sending shiploads
of canned goods to feed our fighting men and our
fighting allies in Africa, Britain, and the
Pacific Island. We must see that they all get the
food they need. We at home must share all that is
left. Point Rationing will be used to guarantee
you and everyone has a fair share of America's
supply of canned and processed fruits and
vegetables, soups and juices." Everyone got
a War Ration Book Two, even children. This book
wasn't used on sugar or coffee. There were blue
stamps that were used for canned or bottled
fruits and vegetables. The red stamps were used
later for meat. The stamps in the book were
called point stamps.
During
the war, women didn't even know where their loved
one in the service were or if they were still
alive unless they received a letter. The letter
would be censored before the letter was sent. If
too much information was given out about the war
the people censoring the letter would cut out
those parts and send the letter.
Sister
Ann Porter said when she was a child she didn't
know much about the war, but she thought the
United States was the good guys and everyone else
the bad. "How I looked at it was that we had
the white caps and everyone lese had black
caps."
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