Iva's's History (1)

When I was young the one thing that stands out the most in my memory is when Mother got her hair cut. Daddy, Uncle Don and Uncle Luther always said they would get a divorce if their wives got their hair. Mother suffered with headaches so much, people told her that they would stop if she’d get her hair cut. One day when we got home from school, Aunt Coy who was visiting us, had cut and curled Mother’s hair. We all cried because we just knew Daddy would get a divorce. When Daddy got home from work we found out that he had told Aunt Coy to have Mother hair cut and curled when he came home from work that day. When Uncle Don and Uncle Luther saw Mother, they went home and cut their wive's hair. From that time on if one of the girls hair got a little long, Daddy would tell, them to get it cut. I remember having to get up early in the morning before school and have to go milk several cows and separate the milk so we could deliver the cream to customers in town on the way to school. I remember the good times we had going to the country dances at people’s homes and the dances we had at our house. Another thing that was fun were the box suppers held at the country schoo1s. The girls would decorate a box, fill it with food and the boys would bid to buy the boxes. Of course you always hoped the boy you liked the best would bid the highest on the box supper you brought so you could eat the supper with him.

After I graduated from high school, I went to Weatherford to college. I got a 2 year teaching certificate. I met John Steed on a blind date and later we were married. Everyone called him Speed. He was in the Army and stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I taught some at Cottonwood School south of Cement and then we moved to Lawton. Our 3 oldest girls were born in the Army Hospital in Fort Sill. After Speed was discharged we moved to Cement and he worked for awhile in a grocery store and then started working in the oilfield. Roberta was born while we lived there. During the war we moved to Portland, Oregon where we both worked in the shipyards. Our only son, Dalton was born there. The rainy weather was very hard on Speed, he had pneumonia 3 times. We bought a house and moved to Sandy, Oregon. One evening we went to visit friends and when we got home our house and all our belongings were burned to the ground. While we lived there Marion and Charlene and boys lived in Portland, Marion was drafted and they had to return to Oklahoma, the night before they left, they came to visit us. When the boys found out their Daddy had to go to war one of them said, to their Mother, “Mama lets cut off his hand so he won’t have to go."

After this we made a trip to visit in Cement. We started back to Oregon by way of Monahans, Texas to visit Ruby. Speed went to town one day and when be came back he had a job in the oilfield and had bought a house. We lived there 3 years and then he was transferred to Eunice and then to Hobbs, New Mexico. Inez. was born in. February of 1950 and on June 4,1950, Speed passed away. We took him back to Cement for burial in the Cement, cemetery.

In 1951 the children and I moved back to Cement. I went to work in Jackson’s Grocery and I was elected to the City Treasurer. Around 1957 I went to Stockton to visit Virginia, while there I found out I could substitute teach and make more in 2 days than I could make a week in the store. I went back and quit both my jobs and the kids and I moved to Stockton. I substituted for a year and then got a permanent teaching job at Lathrop, about 16 miles from Stockton. During the summers I went to the University of Pacific until I got my degree. In 1959 I married my husband, Joe Galinato, and we have made our home in Stockton. After teaching for 22 years I retired and really enjoy not having to go to work everyday. I spend a lot of time working in ceramics. Joe is semi-retired, he works part time as a forman for farm labor. We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in November 1984.

By Iva May Robertson Steed Galinato

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