Meeting George / Living in North Irwin (1950's and 1960's)
  1. Getting Work After High School
  2. When I First Met George Sanders
  3. Second Time I Met George Sanders
  4. Our First Home
  5. Having Twin Boys
  6. Mrs. Bevan's Store
  7. Marc's Baptism
  8. The J.C. Penny Christmas Catalog

Recent Stories (1970-present)
1. Easter Sunday at the Sanders
2. How I got Out of a Ditch
3. Marc on the Eagle
4. Kaitlyn's English Tea Party
5. Fire Flies in the Summer Night
6. Tai Chi in Xion
7. Thanksgiving 2003

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I have often wondered why my Dad took my mother from the little house in Larimer, Pa. to my Aunt Teen's ten miles away, but I never found out.  My father was in the process of building our home on Barner Hill, and I know shortly after I was born, we moved into the house on Barner Hill, which is about two miles as the crow flies from Larimer.   Larmer is the little town where our post office was and our church, the United Evangelical and Reform, and also our school - which we walked to come rain, snow or high water.  That was quite a trip for six years and up, but we actually didn't think anything about it. That was just the way things were.

  Jean on Barner Hill, 1953

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He wanted more out of life than he had. And was determined to get it. Even if he managed to make life miserable for his kids. We lived on the bare minimum so he could save all he could. I don’t know how he managed to get the property on Barner Hill. I know his Mother’s Father owned the whole hill at one time that’s why it was named Barner Hill. He must have gotten it from the estate or bought it from the Barner’s.

He built the house with my Mother’s Step Father Tom Woomer, using used brick for the foundation, the lumber from a dog kennel and what ever else He could get. The house was an extended bungalow, with two porches one extending the length of the front and a small one in back off the kitchen.

I can’t remember him hugging and kissing me; he might have when I was very young. Mostly I remember him ready to cup you one if he was in a bad mood, which was very often. I know I never had a conversation with him, his attitude was what the hell does a girl know?

My Dad’s family consisted of five sets of twins and eight children that were born single. He himself was not a twin. I have gathered from conversations with my Aunts his sisters, that things were not very good in the family. A\And what I can remember them telling me they struggled to exist.  I have no recollection of when he lost his Mother, but it must have been when he was young. I know he was older than Uncle Dick and Uncle Neg.

The whole family had lived on Barner Hill in a house that had been right next door to where my Father had build his house. The old house had burned to the ground while they were living in it. I can remember seeing the old foundation right in my Dad’s side yard. Situated just before his water pump. They then moved to East Pittsburgh, Pa. And that must have been where she died. I can’t remember them calling her anything besides Mom. But Mae my sister says her name was Sara, I don’t remember hearing her called that.

He had a big garden in the summer time. My Mother canned everything she could find to can out of the garden. My Dad was a hard worker and a hard man to understand. For the life of me I could never understand why he wanted kids. Actually maybe he didn’t, they just happened. At any rate the impression I got while growing up was he really didn’t care for us or I should say love us. He did take care of us, we never lacked a place to live and food on the table. There just wasn’t a lot of affection shown on his part.

When I was seven or eight, he acquired three cottages in a group of cottage near a town called Betterton, Md., right on the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland. He bought the cottages from Mr. and Mrs. Layman. I can remember Mr. and Mrs. Layman visiting our home on Barner Hill just before my Dad bought the cottages. I was removed from my bed so the Layman’s could have a place to sleep.

After that we spent our summers in one of the cottages and my Mother rented the others two and cleaned them after each family left. This was just the start of World War two. My Dad stayed in Pa. working at the Westinghouse Micarta Plant in Trafford. He worked double shifts almost the whole wartime.

Then something happened. About 1945, A Mr. Gurstung, who owned a Big Bakery in Baltimore, Maryland, bought all the rest of the cottages in this group of cottages. Then told my Dad he had to sell him his cottages as he would not allow us access to the beach or pier. So my Dad sold him the cottages. Then blamed my Mother for going along with him on this. It changed him completely. He had a mental breakdown and my Mother was not smart enough to understand or get him help. He made our life a living hell from the time I was twelve until I was in High school. 

He seemed to have gotten better after he got older and Jim, my oldest brother had gone to the Marines. Ord my second oldest brother, graduated from High school. My sister Mae left to get married in England and I finally got a job.  He wasn’t a perfect Dad but He didn’t scare the daylights out of us anymore.

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He was three years older that me, Born on January 27, 1929. He was my playmate, tormentor and pal until he turned twelve or so. then he started going down to the Village of Larimer to hang out with boys his age.

He was always good looking, tall dark with almost black hair that was kept shot and slightly curly. He looked a lot like my Dad but some like my Uncle Ord, my Mother’s oldest brother who he was named after. 

As he got older he became more aloof and moody. Still liked to torment, tease and devil my sister Mae and I. It seemed that his whole purpose was just to see if he could get us to cry. He was very intelligent and just loved to show if off. Make us look dumb.

He loved to put airplanes together from kits. When he got tired of them he would go up to the attic crawl out a window sit on the roof. Light the tail end of the airplane with a match wind it up Let it sail out into the yard below.

He made me pay for his old ice skates and roller skates with the money I earned scrubbing my Aunt Helen’s kitchen floor. I was too dumb to realize that they were too little for him and if I had waited my Mother would have made he give them to me. But once I had given him the money, she left it go.

In High School, he was voted the best looking boy in the school. (how would you like to follow that into High School?) He had the lead part in the school play "Sunbonnet Sue, and sang the lead part, not only was he good looking but he had a beautiful singing voice.  He graduated from High School the spring of 1947, the same night my Mother’s Mother, Grandma Woomer died. Not a great way to celebrate your graduation.

Ord Forsyth's High School Picture

He tried the Dry cleaning business but it didn't work out. My Dad had bought him a panel van (which we all tried to learn how to drive,), Then he got a job at the Elliott co. where he learned to weld. This is the same year he and his steady girl friend, Sally Jo Mccune eloped. 1951, He stayed in this job for a year until he got drafted in the army.  

Ord, Sally and Baby Ord - probably just before Ord shipped out to Japan.

He went off to the Army and she went to live with her Grandmother in Trafford, that is when she found out that she was pregnant. she gave birth to Ord, Jr. a couple of months before Ord shipped out to Japan. I think he was in Japan for a couple of years I’m not sure., He thought welding to a group of Japanese Men. I think that is when He decided to try college when he got out of the army. He went back to welding at Elliott Co. and to school at night, I lost touch with him in this time frame. I only know from what my Mother told me., I know he got a job teaching in Moon twp. tech High School and went on to a master's degree.  In the mean time they also had another boy they named Lynn. who is three years younger than Ord, Jr.

Jean and Ordie circa 1952

-Christmas time  James and Fannie with Ordie (?) circa 1952
Ord and Lynn in 1958.

Ord and I are friendly but not as close as when we grew up. We got to talk more when He and I took care of my Mother’s Estate, after my Father died.

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When she was little her hair was a little darker than copper. My Mother would put her hair up in cloth rags strips so her hair would come out in long sausage curls, which was all the rag in those days. This was the era 1936 to maybe 1940, She would have been six or seven or even a little older.

  Mae, Jean, Albert(?) and ? 

She was smaller than me of course, and a little lady. (such a sissy) Very petite, cute little thing. Everyone fawned over her. Had a sweet little voice which was exploited, by the music teacher at the PTA meetings, (God did I hate her!)  She played school every night in the doorway between the dining room and living room. Sitting up her dolls in little chairs and talking to them like she was the teacher. (Good God, didn't she get enough of that at school?) I can still see her giving the dolls those lessons.

She and Nancy, our cousin who lived next door all our going up lives, was her best buddy, and they played house under our porch, with all their dolls, table and chairs, dolls beds, my doll baby buggy, (which I allowed her to play with sometimes) she had gotten a baby bed and I had gotten the buggy for some Christmas back a year or so. The buggy was made of wicker, was very sturdy, I can remember trying to get Larry Kovac, who was very small to get in it, I can't remember if he did or not.

  Mae Nancy    Mae

As she got older, she won an award for American citizenship or some things I know she was still in grade school, but I can't remember what grade. She must have been eleven or twelve, When she got to high school she went out for cheerleader and made it. Was very popular in high school AHD some really nice girl friends. There were always boy friends that had cars.  Which was absolutely necessary living up in the boondocks like we did.

      Mae the Cheerleader

We would sit around the dining room table and play card games, like fish and spoon, it was a lot of fun.

In high school she took the academic course, because she wanted to be a nurse and that was the course you had to take if that’s what you wanted to be. Her sophomore year She got a job in Peterman's Drug Store. As a sales person, after school and on weekends. Although the pay was only .35 or .45 cents an house she manage to buy all her own clothes. That year she also Met Richard Beter, Everyone called him Inky because he had black curly hair and was very good looking. She had other boy friends, but after she met Inky she just dated him.

  Swimsuit Mae

Inky joined the Air Force I guess when Mae was a senior. Inky was about three years older than Mae. 

Inky in the Air Force      

After she graduated from high school My Dad informed her he was not going to finance her way through nursing school, so she got a job in the Jeanette Rubber factory. Making rubber boats for the Navy.

   James Russell Forsyth (kinda looks like Jason Robards[actor] similar disposition also)

Getting back and forth to Jeanette was really hard for her, she had no car and the bus service sucked, it was a hassle everyday for her. At that time I was working at the Westinghouse Mica Plant and going to school at night I was no help to her.

Inky got transferred to England in 1952, I guess that was the year she graduated. He started writing letters to my Mother. Pleading with her to let Mae come to England and marry him. I guess the must have been some letters. Because she finally agreed to let Mae go. Mae went to England in 1953. She was nineteen when she married Inky in England.

     Mae in England

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While we were growing up on Barner Hill, Nancy and Mae played baby doll and house under our front porch from the time they got up until it was time for bed all summer long. When it got too cold they played in our middle hallway. The summer months were just one big round of playing house for them and playing catch games and hide and seek. Most of the time I just let them play house by themselves, I played with my cousin Tom Woomer and Larry Kovac.

Once in awhile they would pile their baby dolls in to their baby buggy’s and parade up the road in front of our houses. Keeping an eye out for Nancy’s red rooster, the meanest chicken I have ever run across. If you didn’t have a broom to ward him off he would take a chunk out of your ankle. This chicken was a peep she had gotten for Easter, when your were allowed to have colored peep’s for Easter. It had managed to survive I’m not sure how. I have no idea what it ate except the chunks out of your ankle if we missed with the broom.

We were always a little envious of Nancy, she had four brothers and sisters much older than her, being an after thought by her parents, at least that is what my Aunt Edna, her Mother, called her. Her siblings were Bob the oldest than Dorothy, Richard and Evelyn. Evelyn was the youngest next to Nancy; She had her own car and took us to the movies some times. Nancy’s toys were unending, they were always getting her something. We considered it lucky if we got a present for our birthdays and a couple for Christmas.

I can’t remember her much after I got in high school, when I was a senior she must have been a freshman. But after I got a job in Pittsburgh and rode the bus into town. She got a job in the Photography dept. at Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh and she rode up to Irwin with me and caught the bus to East Pittsburgh, while I caught the bus to downtown
Pittsburgh. She would come over to our house and wait for me to finish gobbling my breakfast, comb my hair and find my coat, I was not very organized while she, was perfectly groomed every hair in place., God I hated her!!

I think this lasted until she met Whitely Collectie, he was in the army. They were married, and left for Cocoa Beach, Fl. Where I guess they lived for a year or so, then he was sent to Korea and she came back to Barner hill to live with her Mother. during that time she met Frank Havey and decided she no longer wanted to be married to Whitely Colletie, when he came back from Korea, she told him and they were divorced. Not long after that She and Frank were married, and moved into a little house in the back yard of her mother’s home.

I’m not sure how many years she lived in the little house, I think that is were she had her three boys, Paul the oldest than David, and then Eric. David was a Down syndrome baby, He was the light of Nancy’s life, and she doted on David and cared for him until his was in his middle thirties. He contacted lukeiuma, and suffered with that until a few years ago he
died, leaving Nancy to mourn for him every day. Nancy herself suffers from Diabetes and a host of other ailments, but still tries to be cheerful and a good sport. I try to call once in a while and I send her a card on her Birthday, and buy a Poinsettia at Christmas from our church in memory of David. Bob, her brother, takes it up to Barner Hill after Christmas. By that time I’m in Barefoot Bay, Fl. Where I hope to remain until May.

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The first house at the top was the old log house, the old homestead of the Barner family. My Father’s Mother’s Family home. After the log house the road was straight until it came to a y, the left road went up a little grade and then straight down to the end where my Father’s house had been. At the y on the right, stood my Grandmother Woomer's house. On the left, Marsh and MaryJane Lentz, my Father’s cousin. On the right in a row, my Aunt Glady’s Lee, Aunt Sara Mulkey and Aunt Ruth Mullencamp, my Mothers sisters and half sister’s. Down a little ways, my Cousin Evelyn & Steve Yenchi, cousin on my Father’s side, she was a Forsyth, my Dad’s brother Bob’s girl, across the road Cousin Dorothy & Bill Barnes, another cousin on my Dad’s side one of Uncle Bob’s daughters. In my Aunt Edna’s yard in the little house, my Cousin Bob & his wife Marge Forsyth, then my Uncle Bob and Aunt Edna; s house right next to my Dad’s. 

Going back to the Y, on the corner stood my Grandmother’s house. To the right on the road the little house that my Aunt Janette and Uncle Jim lived in. Then a big ole barn, road went to the right of the barn to my Uncle Paul and Aunt Florence. After that straight down pass some open fields to my Uncle Dave and Aunt Helen’s sawmill and farm.  There were no streetlights and the only water was either well water or a make shift pump system my Uncles rigged up from a stream from the side of the hill by my Uncle Dave’s farm. All the Woomer family’s were joined by this system, my Dad had a well, I guess everyone else on that side of the Hill had wells I don’t remember that bit.  My Dad had to run his own electric line and dig his own telephone pole hole before the electric company would run a line for him. I heard about this on numerous occasions. 

We walked to school, through the woods, along the railroad tracks, across the sulfur creek bridge through Larimer, up school hill to the Larimer school. It was about a mile and half, all told. I did this with my sister Mae cousin Tom Woomer Cousin Nancy Forsyth, and Larry Kovac, until I was in eighth grade. Then some how my Aunt Edna got the school board to provide a bus that picked us up at the bottom of Barner Hill. That was still a half mile or more walk for us because we couldn’t cut through the woods.  W walked the long road.

I started writing this to write about my three Aunts who lived on my hill the years I was growing up. They were the most influential people in my life besides my Mother, who was the most of all.  The first was my Aunt Helen, married to my Uncle Dave, my Mother half brother, but when I was growing up I had no idea what that really meant, I learned later that my Grandmother had married her brother-in-law after my Mother Father was killed while working on the railroad. They had five children and there was no such thing as agency to help. Here she was a widow with five little children . So Tom Woomer married his sister in law and preceded to have his own family with her, Which included five more kids. , making ten they raised together. This was a common practice in the early 1900’s.

My Uncle Dave worked his little farm with the help of my Aunt Helen. Their only child Tommy, was five or six years younger than me. Although much younger, was still my playmate for a number of years. The sawmill was worked with my Uncle Paul, Uncle Frank and Uncle Dave.

Aunt Helen all ways made us welcome I can’t remember her ever really yelling at us or sending us home, but she must have, just not very often because I don’t remember it if she did. We climbed the apple trees helped her feed the pigs, shelled corn, and churned her butter. She would pay me to scrub her floor.  The memories of my Aunt Helen are very sweet. She was so pleasant and unpretentious. Not tall but not short just medium, brown hair and nice looking, With a ready smile and soft laugh and a kind word. It made a young lonely girl feel welcome and a peace.

My Aunt Florence was married to my Uncle Paul another half brother of my Mother’s. She was a small, thin women, and in her middle twenty’s brown hair most of the time pulled back some how. very pleasant looking with a ready smile and merry sparkly eyes. I think Uncle Paul worked in the sawmill this time in my life but I’m not sure. I know my Aunt Florence just kept house. she always made you seem welcome. I was allowed to look at her many books, I remember reading them but I don’t remember taking any home. She talked to me like I was an adult, not down to me like older
people did. She talked to me like a friend. I spent many an afternoon there, just talking and being very comfortable. It’s hard to remember what we talked about, but I still have this feeling that it was O.k. to be there. Living on Barner Hill would have been most difficult without her being there for a young girl.

My Aunt Janette came into my life when I was ten or there about. She married by Uncle Jim, another half brother of my Mom’s. Aunt Janette and he were married right after he was discharged from the army. They moved into the little house next to my Grandmother’s. It had been vacant since my Aunt Ruth moved to North Irwin. Aunt Janette and Uncle Jim lived in the little until they had my Cousin Colleen, saved enough money and built a house in a housing development called the Kin plan, maybe five miles from Barner Hill.  She was tall and very athletic, she had been a lifeguard when she was younger, which really impressed me. She had a quick wit and a ready laugh, dark brown hair and pretty face, She loved books and became great friends with Aunt Florence she and Aunt Florence would discuss the books they had read together.  She took an interest in all of us. We could come to her house and spend the evening. My Uncle Jim must have worked second shift some where, that part I don’t remember. I know she helped me fix my hair after I got tired wearing braids. I can even remember going to her house in the morning before school and her fixing it for me.

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WOOMER FAMILY (info from Janette Jan 2003)

Samuel – [Jean's Grandfather] married to Nancy Elizabeth Weaver (Mother’s maiden name- Beamer)

Thomas Clay – Married Nancy Elizabeth Weaver Woomer

David – Jerry – William – Henry – Andrew – Annie – Ida (Brothers and Sisters)

CHILDREN OF SAMUEL WOOMER

Ord married Elizabeth - Children: Dorothy, Edith, Lorraine, Shirley, Ord

Fannie [Jean's Mom] married Russell Forsythe - Children: James, Ord, Jean, Mae

Vena married Mr. Fellers - Children: Alice, Inez

Sarah married Joe Mulkey

Frank married Annie Davis

David married Helen Simpson - Child: Thomas

Ruth Moellenkamp married Carl - Child: Samuel

CHILDREN OF THOMAS C. WOOMER

Paul married Florence Kovac

Gladys married Lawrence Lee - Children: Sara Blanche, Sonnet-Linda

Grace married Edward Kovac - Children: Edward, Paula

James married Janette Levay - Children: Colleene-Jerry

The first information I have on the family was given to me by Paul Woomer. Nancy Woomer's grandmother was named Beamer. She had two sons in the civil War. They were prisoners of was in Libby Prison. One day, a spring appeared in the middle of the prison yard and the prisoners were able to wash themselves and have plenty of water to drink. Joshua came home after the war but the other son (no name) died in prison of starvation. Henceforth the children were always told to clean their plates as the amount of food left on their plate could save someone from starving.

Not much is certain as to the birthplace of Samuel Woomer, Thomas Woomer or Elizabeth Beamer Woomer. They all came from the Bald Eagle Valley which is located near Altoona. This was considered the hub of railroading and both men worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Sam, a laborer and Tom, a wood worker and cabinet maker. As far as formal education, it is believed to be minimal.

Samuel married Nancy and had seven children. They originally lived in a small town in Clearfield County. They then moved to Pitcairn. He was killed in an accident on the "west bend hump" in Pitcairn. Tom was living as a boarder somewhere in Pitcairn. At the time of his brother's death Tom did not want to see Sam's children sent to an orphanage and so a marriage was agreed upon.

Sometime prior to that, Thomas "purchased" or claimed some land in Minnesota to "homestead". The family then moved to a small town in Kinnebeck in Milack County, Minnesota. They stayed there for about two years and Paul was born there. Nancy, didn't like Minnesota as she said it was too wild. They moved back to Larimer and rented a house on Skellytown Road. Tom was friends with Mr. John Barner and he told him he had a empty house on his property (Barner Hill) that he usually rented but it was vacant at this time. Tom immediately rented the house and within a year or two, purchased the property. It was quite a large house and well suited for their large family. There was also a barn on the property.

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