MEMORIES OF GROWING UP WITH THE SHIVE CONNECTION
Written by Henry N. "Pat" Patterson
August 1993

In honor of my mother, Lula May Shive Patterson It was a white two-story house. It had a large backyard with chickens running everywhere. There was a summer apple tree with ripe fruit on it. About a quarter of a mile down the lane was another white building. This held the General Merchandise Store that Grandpa Shive (George Louis Shive) had at Wasseon, Kentucky. My mother had taken me to visit her childhood home when I was five years old. There were things in the store that I remember. There were three or four large glass containers with metal hinged lids and inside was striped stick candy. Oh how I wished I could help myself. There was a showcase that held men's purses. Yes, men used to use coin purses to hold their money. Paper money did not come into general acceptance until the late 1920's. Toward the back of the store was a pot-bellied stove with chairs nearby. Once in awhile someone would come in for a snack. It consisted of a can of sardines and a small box of crackers. If that was not enough they would add a can of peaches. Occasionally an older fellow would come in with some obvious roots and trade them for a twist of Horse-shoe chewing tobacco. I learned later that the root was ginseng which Grandpa would collect and sell. On the outside of the store away from the lane that went to the house was a creek which was big enough that it had a large pool of water. One Sunday while we were there it was used as a baptismal site. The preacher put a sheet around the candidates for baptism and dipped them into the creek. Perhaps that pool was also used by the Shive children to learn to swim. This trip turned out to be the last time my mother would see her mother (Isphena "Isy" Shive) alive. I can remember the Western Union delivery boy bringing a telegram and when my mother opened it she started to cry. She told me her mother had died of a stroke. She died on March 2, 1917 and was buried at Summer Shade, Kentucky. Many years later when Grandpa died he was also buried at Summer Shade.

Thinking about that telegram that my mother received in 1917 makes me wonder about communications at that period of time. I guess they didn't have telephones then. Edmonton, Ky., their nearest town, may have had a Western Union office or someone in the family may have had to go by horse and buggy all the way to Glasgow, Ky. to send that telegram. Also, when mother and I went there to visit did they have to depend on the mail to know we were coming? Someone in the family had to go twenty to twenty five miles in a spring wagon to meet us at the train station in Glasgow, as I think that was the closest railroad station, and take us and our trunk to their home.

When my grandmother died the boys had already left home and had settled in various towns in Illinois. Aunt Corrina and my mother had both married and left home. As I understand, sometime after my grandmother died my grandfather with the three younger girls moved to Pleasant Hill, Illinois.

After the armistice of World War I, I can remember Uncle O G (Otha Griggs Shive) coming to visit us while we still lived on Seventh Street in Grand Junction. I was told he was coming sometime soon and I happened to be at the front window when I saw him walking to our house in his olive drab uniform. Although we lived in town we were too far out to have a telephone at that time so he had not been able to call us to pick him up. I remember him getting so mad at the Prairie Dogs barking at us when we took him for a buggy ride to the country. Also, we took him to the County Fair that was being held at that time. There were some Indians there as part of the color and he was not sure he wanted to trust them.

Somewhere in this time span, part or all of the Tuck family visited us. Aunt Corrina (Corrina Melissa Shive Tuck) and my mother had married while living in Kentucky. The Tucks made their home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I remember Herman drew the ire of my father because of some mischief he got into one rainy day when we had to play in the house.

When I was eleven my mother packed up again and this time we went to Pleasant Hill, Illinois where several of the Shive family now lived. Uncle R A (Robert Ashby Shive) had apparently lived in Pittsfield, Illinois for quite sometime as he was the sheriff of that county at the time we were there. We visited him one day and he put me in a jail cell. The smell of the disinfectant they used to clean the cells is still vivid to me if I get a scent of the same product or something like it. Thank goodness that is my only experience of being in jail.

Uncle Charlie (Charles Breeding Shive), Aunt Betty and Evelyn lived in Pleasant Hill. I spent a lot of time bothering Uncle Charlie. He was delivering ice to those who wanted it in his model T truck. I found out I could usually meet him at the drug store at about ten in the morning where he was delivering ice. Sometimes he would buy me a coke. The Ice House was down by the railroad tracks in the south part of town. They would fill it with ice in the winter and used sawdust to help insulate it. That summer they ran out of ice and he took me with him to Louisana, Missouri for a load. When he had to deliver ice up the hill after about a third of the way up he would have to back up the rest of the way. I don't know if it was the lack of power or the position of the gas tank. I remember that he and Aunt Betty and Evelyn lived in a house in the south east part of town.

Grandpa Shive had started a Produce and Poultry Business there in Pleasant Hill. It was just west of the street that goes up the hill on the north side of the road. They lived in a house about one and a half blocks west on the south side of the road. It was not a very big house but it had a small rock wall on the west side marking the lot line. It was there that I discovered chiggers, as we did not have chiggers in Grand Junction. Small people in trying to find out things to do can sometimes discover interesting things. Someone suggested that I put a piece of white paper on the wall and a little bit later I could see tiny red dots moving across the paper. I wish my eyes were still that good. I don't remember if I got any chigger bites. The household at that time seemed to be Aunt Ora (Ora Vera Shive), Aunt Mable (Mable Clair Shive) and Grandpa. Aunt Mary (Mary Frances Shive) apparently had lost her heart to Uncle Lester Capps and they had moved to California.

Aunt Mable seemed to be in charge of the house as Aunt Ora worked at the produce place. She would candle all the eggs they bought. She had a small hand driven centrifuge that she tested the cream they bought for butter fat. Aunt Mable was a very good cook. One time I watched her sift flour several times as she said it made the flour fluffy enough to make good angel food cakes. She would occasionally dream out loud hoping someone would ask her for a date to the next Excursion Paddle-Wheeler that would be coming up the river. Aunt Corrina and her flock were there part of the time. I remember Herman, being older than me, did not fool around with me much. He had found a friend who had a car and he would be with him. One Sunday there was a baseball game between Pleasant Hill and some other town and he made the mistake of telling someone he was going. He was instructed that he had to take me along. We went but they were not about to pay my way in. They put me in between the seats and covered me with a blanket. They handed the man at the gate enough money for two and drove on in. However, the gate keeper saw me covered up and yelled for them to stop but they didn't. I did not enjoy that game at all. I was always looking over my shoulder expecting that guy to come and make me pay for my ticket and I did not have any money.

It was about 1921 or 1922 when Aunt Mary came to visit us while the folks were building our new home. We were quite crowded as we were living in the garage with an added sleeping porch while the house was being built. She came to spend a couple of weeks and then Uncle Lester would come for a couple of days and take her home. I assume Virginia was with her but I don't remember for sure--Lester Jr. had not been born at that time. Aunt Mary came again in 1929 and we were living in our new house. Both children were with her at that time and I remember playing with them. When Uncle Lester came it had been arranged that I would take him fishing on Grand Mesa. We got all the fishing gear and worms together and with the lunch that the sisters had prepared for us we took off. At that time Uncle Lester had a bad case of ulcers caused by the stress of his job so he could not eat what he called good food. When we drove through Palisade he saw a grocery store and said, "stop I want to get something to eat". He went in and bought all the type of food that he had been forbidden to eat. On we went and we ate all those fancy pastries and whatever he had bought and he had no reaction to the "good" food at all. All the stress that he was under in Los Angles was gone and we really had a good time fishing. I often wondered if he told Aunt Mary what he had done.

The Shive sisters were very close and liked to get together. They made a pact that they would try to get together every five years. I don't know when this first started but it may have been after the grand family reunion that the Tuck family had for the Shive family in the summer of 1933. The sisters were quite a group when they would get together. They would have their laughing sessions that no one else could understand. They would remember something of their past and would get near hysterical at times. Everyone else learned to leave them alone until they settled down. These five-year reunions also had their problems. Motion sickness pills had not been found yet and Aunt Ora and Aunt Mable would get deathly sick when riding on trains. There were times when a reunion was scheduled and it was not known until the last minute whether or not those two sisters would consent to go. When they had to go as far as Colorado or California it was quite a problem. However, I don't think any of the reunions were given up until they were too old to travel.

Getting back to the Shive reunion at Fayetteville in 1933-it was a grand affair. The whole family was there at sometime or other. The only one I cannot be sure of was Uncle Lester. Grandpa Shive was still alive and was there. It is hard to believe that the Tuck home on College Avenue could hold all of us. And the food we must have consumed. Uncle Henry Tuck did a lot of trading for produce at his filling station and he would bring home cantaloupes and watermelons that he had traded for gas and oil. He also had the Packard Auto Agency there. The filling station was where us boys would hang out a lot of the time. He had three men who did nothing but patch tires. There was no pavement to amount to anything in those days so all the roads were gravel. The flint rock in that part of the country was awful hard on tires. Slivers of it would cut their way through the rubber tread and cut a hole in the tube. Each time a tire was patched they would go around the tire with an ice pick and take out potential punctures. Another high light of the station was the pop. Dr Pepper was just being introduced and they had two free bottles in each case. We spent a lot of nickels trying to get a free bottle. When you took the cork out of each cap you could find one that would say free.

It was during this time that Dooney taught me not to gamble with dice. On rainy days we would go to the basement and try to find something to do. He had poker chips and dice and somewhere he had learned how to pick up the dice and throw them. Every time we played it was not long before he had all the chips.

One day Uncle Henry brought home several passes for an airplane ride. He had traded gas for these tickets. A Ford Tri-Motor plane was barnstorming and that was the first airplane ride for most of us. What an experience it was to hear all three motors running and the tin covering vibrating. But it was fun.

Uncle OG had to return to Chicago so Dooney, Jack and I took him to the depot. We told him good-by and got in the car and rushed to Springdale. We knew which car he was in and we told him hello and good-by again and then rushed to Rogers where we repeated the process. He got a good send off.

My next remembrance of a Shive was in 1934. I went to visit Uncle OG and to see the Worlds Fair in Chicago. This was a great experience as it was my first trip away from home by myself and my first trip on a motorcycle. When I got to Chicago I had the wrong address for Uncle OG. I went by his place several times but because of the address I had to go back out of the city to find a motel. The next morning I went to the Poultry Shop where he worked. It was there that I first met Ann. They told me on the QT. that they were seeing each other but not to say anything that might make Mr. Bruckner know about it. They were afraid he would fire them. It was a real education to see how poultry was sold. It seemed like they had to be very rude to the customer to make him or her buy. I remember one person coming in several times a day trying to bargain but Uncle OG knew him and told him to be on his way. However, before the day was over he would be back and buy. Several days I would go out to the Fair and Uncle OG would meet me at a designated spot and we would have an evening meal together and see some of the Fair together. He was afraid of heights but I finally got him to go on the sky-ride with me. I took one day to ride to Milwaukee to visit the Harley-Davidson factory. That experience is probably part of the reason that I am in the business that I have now. It was a great trip for a young boy. I left Chicago in the rain for Pleasant Hill to drop in on the Aunties. Bruce was just a baby and I have a picture of him on the bike I rode.

My next experience with the Shives was in 1936. My parents planned a trip to see all the relatives they could and I was their driver. The first stop was with Patterson relatives in Chillacothe, Missouri and then on to Pleasant Hill. We spent Christmas with them and stayed a few more days. It was very cold there--about 14 or 15 degrees below zero each morning.

We sure burned up a lot of fuel there.

Then on to Kentucky where we visited a lot of people I did not know on each side of the family. Then to the Mamouth Cave and on to Arkansas to see the Tucks. It was there we discovered our travelers checks were missing so we had no money to continue our trip. By elimination we discovered that my father had left his coat in Missouri so we had to write them and have them mail the coat and checks to us. The Tucks had to put up with us for a few more days. On to California where we spent two months. My mother wanted to take some classes in Flower Arranging so she and I got an apartment in Los Angeles and my dad went to Imperial Valley to visit one of his nephews. We visited with the Capps and they showed us the town. Uncle Lester would get quite upset when Lester, Jr. would always want to go by to see the house that was held up with a telephone pole. The house was designed that way.

The Tucks visited us several times in Grand Junction but I am not sure of any dates except when they were there in 1937. Jack was all excited about my motorcycle. After he got home his mother got him a scooter. One picture I have looks like Aunt Corrina is taking Suzie for a ride on my cycle. Grand Mesa was always a place to take visitors and sure enough we took the Tucks. Dooney had become a very good tennis player and I arranged for him to play our Grand Junction's best player. He was no match for Dooney. It was a just a different type of tennis then and our Grand Junction player wasn't used to it. We were always glad to have the Tucks visit us.

After World War II was over Leola's sister and family were stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. We wanted to visit them so we took our two boys and had our first family airplane trip. We flew from Grand Junction to Denver, to Omaha and on to Louisville, Ky. After a nice visit there along with a bad case of flu, we flew to Chicago for a short stay with Uncle OG, Aunt Ann and Little OG, as we called him then. We did not see much of him as he was already an entrepreneur and was out working in his newspaper stand. They invited Bob and Ada Maude Shive, one of Uncle R A's sons by his first marriage, to visit one evening. We were treated royally in their home.

Uncle RA had three families. He and his third wife Mary, had thirteen children. Except for a short visit with this family when we were on our 1936 family trip, we had no further contact until 1981 when Leola and I attended their annual reunion. Then in 1986 Jack and Nell Tuck and Suzie Tuck Brown met us there and we all attended their reunion. We had a great time getting acquainted with our cousins. This family is very close and every year they have this wonderful covered-dish lunch on the last Sunday in July at a park in Winchester, Illinois.

The thirteen always come with their children and grandchildren. There are usually over one hundred in attendance.

Along with numerous visits with the cousins it was especially great to have the Cousins Get-Together, again in Fayetteville, in April of 1991. All the Tuck families were wonderful hosts. It would be great if we could have another Get-Together in the near future.

I have tried to be as factual as possible. Please excuse any errors.