1942 Tomlinson Family

Tomlinson Family 1942 Verona-Renee-Gary-Vern. 

Vern and Verona - what cool names for a young couple who fell in love living in a small town of Albion, Idaho.

This was our family until 1953 when Ted Perrins was born in the Jerome Hospital. 

Gary was born at home because Mom and Dad were snowed in and couldn't get to the nearest hospital in Wendell. They were living in the town of Jerome and at some point soon after Gary was born moved to Pleasant Plains  (In the country outside of Jerome)where Dad was the Principal of the school until 1941 when they moved back to town and I was born a year later in the St. Valentine's Hospital in Wendell.    Gary is six years older than me.

This is what Mother wrote about living in Pleasant Plains in a house located next to the school.  I have only changed a few words and reconstructed a couple of sentences. 

Note; Love the US flag waving above the school!

"We were married during the depression so it was tough.  We had to buy a car, washing machine, pay by the month.  Vern built a garage for the car so the school gave us two old cook stoves (coal) for building the garage.  We didn't have a bathroom or an outside toilet so we had to go to the school house.  If I needed to go at night I was afraid so Gary would take my hand and say 'I will take you, Mom.'  We even had to take a bath in the wash tub (it was on legs. I won't go into that)  We just had one big coal or wood stove in the living room.  My feet and legs never were warm all five years we lived out there.   We turned the two stoves in on a better cook stove and owed $70.00 more and we had to pay $2.00 a month.  That's all we could afford to pay.  

I couldn't find Gary one day and I asked the neighbors, they told me the way they saw him go with two girls.  Praying all the way, [she got in the car]  it was in the month of March [and] it had been raining and the road was full of ruts and the car turned over.  The mail man saw this and he thought no one could get out of that alive.  I heard him call my name, I answered him and heard him say, 'Thank God.'  We found Gary and the two girls (nine years old) about a mile up the road.  I don't know why or where they were going; to one of the girls relatives or something.  I was so glad to see him I couldn't think.  

I just had bruised all over [my body] and the car was a wreck.  I tried to get the insurance or whatever had to be done and get a new car. This car wasn't a year old but Vern wouldn't.  They put it together and believe it or not the cost was only $350.00. They let us use a car but it was a long time before we got ours back." 

  written by Verona Tomlinson

Renèe