Mother and Father

            My father was William Franklyn Chadwick.  He went by the name Frank. He was 6 feet tall and weighed 178 for his peak weight. He was highly respected in the community of Witts Springs and the surrounding area. One man in our community who was a staunch Church of Christ member who said that only people who were members of the Church of Christ would go to heaven when they die was challenged by another man on his stand. The man said are you telling me that Frank Chadwick will not go to heaven. The Church of Christ man allowed as to how that might be some exceptions because he respected my father so much.My dad would play checkers with his dad and with my mom. He loved working more than playing.

            When he sold his farm and moved to California I got him a job at Trojan Battery Co. where I was working at the time.  He worked at various task there and was the shipping clerk for the company at the time of retirement. To beat the Los Angeles traffic he drove to work two hours early and spent the time studying his Bible. Reading was his favorite pastime. He had no hobbies that I know of. He did fish once in a blue moon but had no tackle. He used someone else’s tackle. In retirement he read and gardened. He was a farmer who loved the land. He loved growing things. During his retirement years he lived in the city and turned his back yard into a garden.

           

            My mother name was Clara May Taylor Chadwick. She and dad married when she was 13 years old. He was 9 years older than she. They first lived in a one room cabin with make do cast off. A stove that had bricks for one leg and their first mattress was stuffed with corn shucks. She had three kids by the time she was 18 years old. She gave birth to a total of 4 children, Charlotte Wanda Lucile Chadwick, William Leroy Chadwick, Alvin Kenneth Chadwick and Evelene Chadwick. She had been drug from pillar to post as a child. Her folks divorced when she was a small child. Then she suffered through two other marriages that broke up. Then she and her mother lived with first one of her older siblings then the other. She had a hard time believing that she was loved and needed a lot of attention. She was very smart and could look at a dress in a Sears or Wards catalog and make the dress for one of her girls. She could crochet, quilt and do almost anything with needle and thread.