Dee with her twins Robert Ray and Linda Kay
Stories of Linda Kay Flake Burk
When Linda's mom (Delores) was pregnant with Linda and Bob, she told three-year-old Cheryl that Heavenly Father would send the babies to their family. So one day when a family friend was flying a little airplane overhead, Cheryl ran outside and yelled, "Heavenly Father, drop them here; drop them here. Here we are!" When the friend drove the airplane away, Cheryl was distraught. "He didn't see us," she cried.
In their tiny, cold, ranch-house, Linda and Bobby slept downstairs in the pantry, just off of the kitchen. Bobby was very sick with meningitis as a baby. As a result, he was very small and a grade behind Linda in school.
Linda and her family only took baths one day a week, in a big washtub. Linda and Bob, as babies, always got to take the first bath (the warmest bath!) together.
Linda's family had no t.v., but they had an old radio they could tune in, and an old crank-up phonograph which played big records. On Saturday afternoons when Delores went to town, Linda and her siblings liked to go watch a movie at the theater, such as "Bambi." One time Cheryl was meeting her boyfriend at the theater, so the boyfriend gave Linda and Bob some money if they would agree not to tell on Cheryl. Linda and Bob gladly accepted the money and bought candy with it, but then they told on Cheryl anyway!
When Linda was 3 1/2, she became sick with double pneumonia and perinitis and had to go far away to the hospital, where she stayed all by herself. Her stomach was all swollen. Linda's dad came home from the hospital crying, because the doctor said she wouldn't make it through the night. But her dad and two other men went back and gave her a blessing, in which they said she would live. She did get better, but was very frail and sickly for months. Her older sister, Cheryl, was 7 years old; Cheryl remembers breathing in paper bags and blowing up balloons for Linda.
At Eastertime, Linda's Aunt Veoma would send a package with beautiful church dresses, lacy socks, and new black shoes for Linda and her sisters. They were so poor, that was their only church outfit for the whole year.
Linda loved playing at the beach in Oregon . She and her siblings would put crab pots in the water, then pull them up hours later when they were full of crabs. Their mother would boil them alive to kill them, then the children would crack the legs off.
Linda had a dog named Tuffy who loved to go everywhere with them.
When Linda was a little girl, she and her siblings carried lots of rocks, which they used to build a fireplace.
Source: Cassette-tape interview with Cheryl Flake with Katherine Burk Harrison, 1993, Salt Lake City , UT.
Les and Cheryl
Stories from Cheryl Flake
Lester (age 10) took Lorna (age 12) and Cheryl (age 7) to see baby owls up in a tree. A baby owl fell out of the nest, and Lester told Cheryl she had to climb the tree and put the owlet back in its nest before the mother returned. "Why ME?" asked Cheryl. "Because you`re the shortest; Lorna and I will wave Indian stalks (big long weeds that grew all over the ranch) down here to scare the mother away if she comes back." Cheryl had climbed halfway up the tree, holding the owlet, when the mad mother owl returned. The owl flew toward Cheryl, stuck her talons into Cheryl`s back, and then clawed downward along the whole length of her back, through her clothes. "I`m coming down," yelled Cheryl. "No, Cheryl; you`re almost there! Keep going!" Lester called back. So Cheryl continued climbing up and put the owlet in the nest, while the mother owl flew around the tree making a lot of noise. Cheryl was shaking all over and never climbed down a tree so fast in her life.
While on the ranch, Cheryl would climb up the cows, holding onto the tail. Then she laid on the cows` backs and watched the clouds, when only four years old.
Cheryl loved riding the horse, Diamond. One day, Cheryl`s mom (Delores) made her tie the horse up and come in to take a nap. So Cheryl said she needed to go out to the outhouse, and she went out and rode away on her horse!
When Cheryl was five years old, her dad let her steer the pick-up truck out in the field while he baled potatoes off of the back of it for the cows. "You can go anywhere you want to, just stay away from the rock pile and the cattle truck." Cheryl thought that maybe she could go between the rock pile and the cattle truck, but she crashed right into the cattle truck. She got spanked for that!
In her beautiful Easter dress, Cheryl was trying to warm up by putting her back close to a wood heater. Suddenly she heard a "POOF" and had gotten too close and burned the back of her dress!
Cheryl, Lorna, and Lester would walk along a riverbed to get to the drive-in when the movie was ready to start. They picked a little spot on a hill and watched the movie.
Cheryl would take some rope, go out in the field, tie a harness/muzzle around a horse's neck, then ride bareback around the field. When she moved into town at age 8, she was heartbroken.
Says Cheryl,” Linda loved rabbits and cats when she was little. I always felt protective over her after she was so sick and had to wear thick glasses. Then when we got in high school, we used to get mad at each other. She was so neat and I was a slob. Her half of the room we shared was spotless and mine was a disaster. I was always in
trouble and she never got into any trouble. Now that we are all grown up, I couldn't love her more.”
Sources: Cassette-tape interview with Cheryl Flake with Katherine Burk Harrison, 1993, Salt Lake City , UT.
E-mail message from Cheryl Flake, 2003
Dee and Horace with 4 of their 5 children: Linda, Bob, Lorna (red shirt), and Cheryl
Bob and Les Flake
May 7, 2015
Letter to second-grader Sydney-
I was in second grade in 1955. I had just moved from our farm in the country into the small town of Bend, Oregon. My new school was much like the school you attend. We had desks like you have and large chalkboards. One thing was very different, however. Girls were not allowed to wear pants. We could only wear skirts and dresses! In very cold weather we wore jeans under out dresses. We played many of the games you play: Dodge Ball, Tetherball, hop-scotch, marbles, jumprope, and tag. We loved the swings, slides, and monkey-bars! There were no computers, cell phones, or video games. T.V.'s were big box-like pieces of furniture and the picture was black and white. We had no remote controls for our TV sets. There were cartoons and a few live children's shows to watch.
How would you like to buy gum for 1 cent? Does an ice-cream cone or a rootbeer float for 5 cents sound good? School milk cartons cost 2 cents! A movie cost 25 cents, but we very rarely went to the movies. We also did not have movies we could buy or rent. Yep! No DVD's.
My family wasn't too different from your family, today. Children played outside more. Neighborhood children played games like softball and hide and seek together. We could ride bikes, skate and play on the street safely. We played on the grass and sidewalks - not on the street.
Communication was done by writing letters and talking on the phone. We only had one phone for the whole family. It looked very different than phones do today. There were no computers in our homes so there was no email and no texting. We also did not have microwaves. Our food was cooked in the oven. There also were very few fast-food places. We had an A+W Root Beer restaurant. That was all!
Being a child in the 1950's was actually very fun. We didn't miss computers or video games at all. My advice to you is to enjoy your family, friends, and the outdoors. Love you! Grandma Linna
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