I intended to keep a daily diary during this vacation of mine, but you see, I haven't. I left Topeka three weeks ago this noon. Bernice & Ed took me to Topeka from Burlingame in the morning. John, Jack & Zella went along. It wasn't so bad bidding Neil "goodbye". He was rather unconcerned. Bricky was asleep yet, and when I kissed her, she smiled in her sleep. I had to fight the tears then, for I had never been away from her over night in all her three years. I hated to leave my Baby Jackie for he was a little sick and his little eyes looks so sick. But I guess Zella soon had him all right again. And, of course, I had to fight tears when I told "Daddy" goodbye.
It certainly was a novel feeling after the train started to be all alone and not to have to feel responsible for another soul but myself. Uncle Ed met me, and as Grandfather Wilkes here says, it does rather look like the "jumping off" place out here. Delhi is some town. There is a depot, and the Agent lives in a house (?) made of two box cars. But the section boss has a real nice little house -- rather unfair. Then there is a concrete bunkhouse for the section men, mostly Mexicans.
There are two stores and one contains a "newspaper." One store and newspaper are run by the Raymonds. The Mrs. is a Southern Democrat from way back. Has raised a large family of her own. One son, Ben, helps her here. She also has two grandchildren with her -- Netta & Orville. I feel rather sorry for the former. She's not much for looks & needs her eyes attended to & has to work quite hard, for a thirteen year old girl. Mrs. Raymond has some orphans with her at different times. One is visiting her now -- Thelma, a dark. Aunt Jennie thinks she's part Mexican. She lives in New Mexico with her husband & baby. The latter is about my baby's age & he has a lot of dark hair that is pretty & curly.
The other store, Uncle Ed is the manager of. It is owned by Grandfather Wilkes & daughter, Mrs. Hitchins. She is also Assistant Post Mistress. Her son, Earl, is Post Master, but at present he is in the harvest fields of Kansas. Mrs. H. sure goes around sloppy. She has holes in her hose, and she wears an old khaki shirt that hangs at least a foot longer in the rear. It wouldn't seem so bad, but she pretends to be so nice. She comes from Chicago & has one daughter learning to be a dietician, Helen whom she thinks is some pumpkin! She also has a married daughter, Maud, and a husband. I suppose he can't stand her terribly officious ways. She looks over all the mail that comes in & makes remarks concerning it. Aunt Jennie & I get lots of kicks out of her peculiarities.
The morning of my arrival, Earl & Grandfather Wilkes brought us out in an old car, which is a wonder in junk. I have seen much better looking cars in junk piles -- but it goes. The door hinges are off & they have put springs from screen doors on them. The stuffings are all coming out of the upholstering. The radiator cover is lacking which exposes all of its "innards."
Aunt Jennie & Uncle Ed's place is about two miles from Delhi. It's a wee bit higher, too. We are about 5,300 feet here. This place is almost completely surrounded by hills -- steep ones that it winds you to climb. There are pines & cedars & rocks on these hills. The trees are not all big, in fact, they are mostly scrubs. At first, I could smell them, but I have become accustomed to them. Now, I don't unless I am up in the hills amongst them.
At first I noticed the altitude -- my ears rang with the silence, but I am accustomed to that, too. I notice the dryness of the air -- especially on hot days. Most of the days have been hot since I came, too. Aunt Jennie put in a crop of Kaffis, I think 40 acres, but it has been so dry, very little has come up. The soil is quite alkali anyway. They have a half section & they have just proved up. There is "oil" excitement around here every now & then.
[This is the start of another new journal. Winnie has gone west to stay with her mother's sister, Jennie (Jane Louisa Hayson) and her husband (Augustus Edward Cones) out in southwest Colorado. I believe the famous train line, The Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe, had something to do with Aunt Jennie & Uncle Ed's move there as it was on the train's route, though I don't know that he ever worked for the railroad. They appeared regularly in Winnie's journals from her early teens in Kansas, so their move west must have happened in the late teens or early 1920's.
Aunt Jennie and Uncle Ed never had children, though at least for a time, Cecil Hayson, the son of Jim & Lula Cramer Hayson, lived with them after Lula died in childbirth in 1923.
I don't think I've really read this diary before, or not wholly. My recollection is that Winnie is taking the trip out west for her health as she's been suffering from headaches and sinus troubles. I wonder too now if post-partum depression may have played a role. In summer 1924, Neil was 5 1/2, Bricky was just 3, and Jack turned 1 on July 10th -- kp]
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