Mom, Dad & Me

This is my mom, Alice Birdis Cornwell, and my dad, Elmer Oakland Kofoid. Mom was born in April 1912 and Dad was born in December 1907.  I was about 5 or 6 when this picture was taken (about 1943). My parents were married on February 6, 1932 in North Dakota. My mother taught in a rural school near Bottineau and met my dad when she  boarded with the Kofoids. Since only single women were hired as teachers, they were married secretly. She continued to teach until the end of the school year. During the depression, they moved to Oregon because three of my mom's brothers had moved there. They did some farming, worked in the cannery and picked hops (among other things). Dad got work in the paper mill in Oregon City. I was born in Oregon City in December of 1937. While he was emplyed at the paper mill, he went to night school to learn to be a carpenter. This was his life-long occupation. He built several houses in Lebanon (Oregon), but mostly worked for others doing finish work. After I started school, mom returned to teaching and taught elementary school until she reached retirement age in 1975. In February 1977, at age 64, she suffered a stroke brought on by a blood infection and died on April 15th. My dad lived until December 1991 when he died of  lung cancer.

I have only good memories of my childhood. I don't think that as an "only child" I was spoiled. My parents were not prone to spending money on things we didn't need. I learned to work at an early age. I can remember the trauma of learning to light the gas stove when I was in the second grade so that I could  put potatoes on to cook before my parents got home from work. I started working in the fields before I was in the first grade picking tomatoes. My mom was then the row boss and that is how she kept an eye on me. I continued to work in the fields each summer (until I got out of high school)  picking strawberries, raspberries, beans, cherries, walnuts and filberts. This is how I earned money for school clothes. Working the in fields gave me an education that I would have never received from any other place!

Looking at this picture, I remember that my mom always kept my thick, blond  hair curled. There is a family story that when I was about 4,  my mom "lost" me in the dress department of a store. When she found me, I was standing in front of a three-way mirror saying, "My, you have such beautiful hair". So much for humility!