Archive for the ‘HMC Family Memories’ Category

Leeta Hewitt Coats, my Grandma, by Leo Hildebrand (8/7/11)

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Grandma Coats

I enjoyed watching Grandma guard her fruit trees with her little crackshot Stevens 22.   She had bird shot ammunition.  This would be when I would have been 4-6 years old (1941 or so).  I could stay with her and Ed Coats, her husband, my Grandpa, a week at a time at that age.

Jim Bishop, by Randy Shipman (8/7/11)

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Jim Bishop was married to Elizabeth (Ott?) Cooper.  She was a (2nd?) cousin to my mom.

Jim and Elizabeth Lived on South 12th Street and about Vista St. in South Salem in the 1950s era, maybe even into the early 60s.

They had 2 or 3 older girls and then the boys, Richard (Dick), David, Jonathan & Paul.

From 1957 until 1966, I went to TwinRocks Summer Camp.  During those years, Dick Bishop was a lifeguard at the lake adjacent to the camp.  One year a 340 pound tackle from George Fox College was camp counselor. Since he was so big he would pick up the rowdy boys and toss them into the lake.  Some innocent boys were unfairly thrown into the lake. I asked Dick if he would help us to throw the big guy in. So one day we followed, with Dick in tow, to the lake and proceeded to contain the strong man to the floating docks.  My brother David was snatched up and tossed over his shoulder.  Eventually with Dick’s help we had this giant tipped over the edge, ready to fall in as soon as we let go.  The tackle’s name was Bob Hadlock.  Dick asked if he had any final words.  He asked to have his money and wallet taken from his pocket.  After they were removed, big, bad Bob went swimming.

Later the Bishop’s moved to Tigard as Jim was the lead janitor at the Durham Elementary School.  Later it was moved to its current site.

The house the Bishop’s lived in was in an apple orchard.  On one visit we gathered about 3 or 4 bushels of apples.  Jim brought an old hand crank apple press.  While the boys were in the garage taking turns cranking the apple press making apple cider, the girls were in the kitchen with a hand crank ice cream bucket.  After rubbing sore muscles, both boys and girls, were all treated to a fresh baked apple pie, with the hand cranked ice cream and a tall glass of ice cold apple cider.

Jim & Elizabeth were the kindest, friendliest, gentlest people I have ever known.

Eugene Hewitt Carver, My Purple Heart Hero, by Yvonne Carver Heinrichs

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS PRIVATE FIRST CLASS EUGENE HEWITT CARVER

1ST MARINE DIVISION, GUADALCANAL/PACIFIC THEATER WWII

MY PURPLE HEART HERO

 

At 10 years old, as I walked home from church the morning of December 7, 1941, my attention was drawn to a newsboy, frantically hawking newspapers on the corner.  In his voice was the sound of urgency, “Pearl Harbor Attacked”, so I bought a paper and hurried the two miles home.  At home the family was already in a flurry since they had already heard the news.  The family was dealing with the scary determination of my 17 year old brother’s intent to immediately enlist in the Marine Corps.  I really didn’t understand the magnitude of what happened at Pearl Harbor that day but instinctively knew it was serious.  The next day, my brother Eugene enlisted in the Marine Corps, along with many of his friends, and was off to the Marine Corps training camp in California.  The Carver family became involved in the “War Effort” in whatever way we could.  My father, William Carver, became our neighborhood ‘Air Raid Warden’, and my mother worked in the Cannery.  As a ‘Camp Fire Girl’, I collected used lard for the ‘War Effort’ from homes miles around ours.  Listening to the radio for war news, and the daily arrival of the mailman hoping for a letter from Eugene, became the important issue of the day.  We quickly became accustomed to ‘Blackouts’ and the various types of shortages.  We happily became used to wearing wooden shoes to compensate for the shortage of leather.

 

Eugene was in the 1st Marine Division, so when news came of the invasion of Guadalcanal on 6 August 1942, my parents lived in great angst until they were finally notified that their beloved son had been wounded and was in a New Zealand Hospital.  Eventually Eugene was transferred to a southern California military hospital and after a sufficient amount of recovery our hero returned home and we learned more about the invasion.  I learned not to quietly approach Eugene from behind or he would instantly turn around in attack mode.  Eugene had an acute case of ‘Shell Shock’.  Eugene told us he had been among the first of the Marines who had landed on the beach at Guadalcanal where many were injured.  Although he had a severe shrapnel injury to his upper thigh, a fellow Marine had a worse injury, so he helped a medic carry him through the jungle to an aid station.  Although Eugene received a Purple Heart due to his injury he never completely recovered from the ‘Shell Shock’ (now referred to as PTSD) and lived his life as an alcoholic.  Eugene developed diabetes which after a few years required the amputation of his right leg and later his left leg.  Eugene died 25 February 1992 and is buried in the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.

 

My early memories of my brother are highlighted by the fact that he was the well-known Salem softball pitching champion, he played ball for his Jr. High School, High School and Salem’s Golden Pheasant restaurant.  He participated in boxing matches during the Depression years.  Although Eugene was seven years older than I he was a caring brother, sharing rides with me on his toboggan in the snow, taking me for rides on the handlebars of his bicycle, setting off fireworks for us on the Fourth of July.  To me Eugene was a living symbol of Semper Fi!

 

Yvonne Carver Heinrichs