John, by Betty
Bits From Betty
With italicized comments by the typist!
I was born January 8, 1924 in Martinsburg, Pa. to parents Samuel M. and Mary (Smith) Brumbaugh. Even though named Mary Elizabeth, I was, as long as I can remember, called “Betty.” How you get that from Mary E, I don’t know.
I grew up on a big farm south of Martinsburg with four brothers and two sisters. My brothers were Eli, Denver, Dean and Ellis, all older. One older brother, John, died in infancy. My sisters were Ruth (older) and younger sister Evelyn. One older sister, Miriam, who I never knew, died at age of 5 of diphtheria. (Betty’s brother Dean was the fifth and sixth grade teacher at Martin School, just outside of Martinsburg, for Johnny, Betty, Esther, and the Typist, and later worked for Johnny when he returned and became Superintendent of Schools in the Martinsburg-Roaring Spring area.)
It seemed like we were always having company; aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., especially on Sundays.
I walked out a long lane to get on the school bus.
We had butchering days in the fall. My mother would sit, like for hours, and scrape the intestines clean, to put sausage into. She also cooked and canned sausage and tenderloins, they were delicious. We had a smoke-house and my dad cured and smoked the hams. We also had a summer house right behind the big house. It was only a large kitchen that we “moved” into every summer where we prepared and ate all our meals, did all the canning, jelly making, etc., so the big house stayed cooler. On thrashing days we cooked for about fifteen men. (It took several men to efficiently thrash wheat or other grain, so when it was time to thrash, the neighbors all gathered at this farm today, and that farm tomorrow, and helped each other. The wives and older daughters got together and cooked large, and I do mean large, meals for all the workers.)
We also had a good sized apple orchard, and also had a nice cool cave to store the apples, and potatoes in winter.
Our butchering house was also the wash house, where we laundered the clothes. We had an electric washer, but heated the water in large kettles over a fire. We always had electricity, and I remember getting our first refrigerator with that big, round motor on top.
Once in a while we had people, called gypsies. come to the house. My mother couldn’t turn anyone away, so she always gave them something to eat. I was afraid of them.
We also had sheep. I loved the lambs, and watching the man shear those sheep was amazing to see all that wool. Those sheep looked so naked without that wool.
On top of a ridge on our farm was a huge patch of blackberries, seemed like acres. Every summer people would come and pick them by the gallon. They were free for the picking.
After my three older brothers married and left home, my other brother Ellis, and younger sister Evelyn and I had to help milk the cows. Getting up before daylight on cold mornings to milk those cows was not my favorite thing, so I decided then I never wanted to marry a farmer!
But I did like school. My older brother Dean was a teacher, and he was my teacher in 5th and 6th grades. He gave me my first C in arithmetic, my only C. Well, I never did like math. In these grades I also had my first encounter with a kid named Johnny — many years later he became my “one and only.” He also had a sister Esther and a little brother James at the same school. (But that little brother did learn to type and run a computer, didn’t he!)
At Cove High School, a big stone building up on a hill, called Bean Hill, I liked playing basket ball and sang in a girls’ glee club. Also helped write our class song for “Farmer’s week” which was a week each year when each class had a day to entertain parents, friends, etc., with our class song, class play, etc., with each class competing against the others. (Some of you could elaborate more on this event.)
(The typist doesn’t remember much about Farmer’s Week, except that by the time he got to that high school for a year or so, the “Week” had been reduced to a couple of days. Except for playing in the band or orchestra, he tried to hide so there was no chance to be picked for a part in a play or other activity of any kind.
There is one story to tell. Don’t remember which year it was, but they showed a “Dagwood Bumsted” movie, as part of “Farmer’s Week.” Seem to remember Dagwood was selling something to farmers, and somehow hooked a women’s hair curler instead of a milking machine to the cows, with expected results. Papa laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair, then when he was told that was a “Hollywood Movie” he was so embarrassed to think someone would see him laugh at such a terrible thing. )
While in high school I also worked for a neighbor lady, Mrs. Bridenbaugh, doing house work and cooking, and who else should be there working for Mr. Bridenbaugh, but Johnny, who I met when we were in 5th and 6th grade. (The Typist also worked for Bridenbaugh’s. Elsewhere in the Humberd Chronicles it says, “Jim always looked forward to the “middle” Brumbaugh girl being there to help Mrs. Bridenbaugh with the dinner, etc. She was much older and a little cranky, but oh so pretty! And is still very pretty, to this day!” And that’s still true!) Betty’s response, “Thanks Jim. Is she still cranky? Sorry, you wouldn’t know.”
Well of course Johnny and I were in the same class in high school, but I wasn’t too impressed with him then or any other guy for that matter. But he played basket-ball our senior year, and we won the district championship. The night of our High School graduation this “Mary Elizabeth” name came back to me. When they called “Mary E.” to get her diploma. I just sat there. The guy beside me, Rich Wareham, nudged me and said, “Isn’t that you?” Well, I soon got to my feet.
After graduation I went to Juniata College in Huntington, Pa., majoring in Elementary Education. While there Johnny and I saw each other a few times. (The Typist remembers going to Huntington with Johnny one time, purportedly to see a basket-ball game, but even he wasn’t dumb enough to believe that. The Typist still wishes he had read [and copied] some of the letters he found in Johnny’s dresser drawer one day. Today he might be paid a lot to destroy them instead of giving them to the appropriate grandchildren! )
John went to Bryan College for a while, then left and worked for his Uncle Larry in Indiana. Later he and brother James joined the Merchant Marines. After leaving the M. M. he enlisted in the Army and was an instructor at Fort Knox, Ky. ( He was lucky to have the Typist there to help take care of him — more about this time in Johnny’s life is told elsewhere in the Humberd Chronicles.)
I guess we really got to know each other through letters, many letters. Also getting together at Mary and Harold’s house in Martinsburg, his sister and brother-in-law, thanks Mary. While at College, Professor Butts, Supt. of Schools in Martinsburg wanted me to come home and teach for a while, because they needed teachers so badly, but I felt I should finish school first. So glad I did.
An incident happened while in college; A daughter of one of the professors was very ill for a long time and later needed tutoring to catch up. The Prof. asked several of us to teach her certain subjects. Of all things, I taught her arithmetic! When finished he and his wife had us to their house for dinner, and he gave each of us a wallet with $5.00 in it. I then realized Professors were human, dear Dr. Binkley. Somehow Johnny attended my college graduation, but he was still in the Army at that time.
That fall I got a job teaching second grade in Altoona. I didn’t have a car, so stayed with a Mrs. Jenny Morgan, and went home on week-ends, on the bus. By then my folks had sold the farm to my brother Denver, and moved into Martinsburg.
That summer, after first year of teaching, I went to Penn State to get enough credits for my permanent certification.
In October Johnny came home on furlough and we became engaged. In December he was discharged from the Army and we got married on December 27th while I was on Christmas vacation, still teaching in Altoona. (Betty’s handwritten memo doesn’t say, but the Typist would bet this was 1947.) We were married at the Memorial Church of the Brethren in Martinsburg where I was a member.
We started our married life in a one room apartment in Altoona, an attic, 3rd floor, and shared a bath on the 2nd floor with two other girls. It was all I could find before we were married. John decided that since he was able to get the G. I Bill, he would go to school. So he started at Penn State Center in Altoona. To help make some extra money he bought a pair of tree trimmers and went house to house asking people if they needed any trees trimmed. Well he did quite well with that job.
(The Typist remembers the acres of apple trees that needed trimmed at the Bridenbaugh farm. When Johnny finished with a tree, it looked beautiful, but when the Typist got done with a tree, it was at best a bush. Guess who continued to get the job of tree trimmer in Bridenbaugh’s orchard?)
One cold afternoon when he came home to rest the room wasn’t so warm, so he turned the oven on in our gas stove and left the door open for heat. Meanwhile he fell asleep, and later, for some reason, the gas was turned off, but then it was turned back on. No one knew he was home. Well, when I came home from school I smelled the gas, and turned it off and finally got him awake. Today I guess we could sue the landlord, but they were nice people, and didn’t intend to harm the tenants.
We soon found another place with two rooms, but still shared a bath. This other couple had two sons in college. We enjoyed the Hartleys. He was crippled, but was a streetcar conductor. And by the way, when I first started teaching I rode the street car every day to my school. We attended the Altoona Bible Church quite a lot, formally the 28th St. Church of the Brethren. We really liked Pastor Henry Culp. I mention this because a day after John passed away, Pastor Culp was at a restaurant and choked to death on a fish bone.
After teaching three years and getting my permanent certification, we moved to Penn State at State College, Penna., where John continued school. (State College really was the name of the town where Penn State College was/is located, but now perhaps it is called Penn State University.)
While there I did typing for two professors and worked in a office with a dozen or so girls each running a calculator and a lady, who we didn’t really appreciate, hovering over us. There were no teaching positions except a one room school in the country and you had to fire a stove — no thanks.
John worked part time at a drug store soda fountain. We lived in an apartment in Pleasant Gap, a few miles from the college. The State Penitentiary was close to us so when an escapee was on the loose, we kept things locked up. (For reasons he can’t imagine, the Typist remembers visiting at the apartment in Pleasant Gap, and can report without fear of contradiction that this was the one and only night he ever spent in bed with Betty. Of course Johnny was sleeping in the middle of the bed, but close is better than nothing. That was a small apartment, with no space other than the bed, large enough to stretch out and sleep.) Betty’s response, “I wouldn’t have mentioned that even if I had remembered! But OK Jim.” (What an insult, that she wouldn’t have remembered, or admitted, something like that!)
A highlight of John’s graduation was the speaker, President Dwight Eisenhower. His brother Milton was president of Penn State at the time, and this was the first and last time I ever saw a President in the flesh.
After graduation John got a job teaching Industrial Arts in Spring Grove, Pa., at the high school. They were just getting started with Industrial Arts and didn’t have space at the high school, so his shop was in a two room school building a mile or so away. Therefore, he had to bus the kids to the school. But a new high school was finally finished and he had his shop.
Speaking of busing, he and two other teachers drove a bus for several years, morning and afternoon. He enjoyed the little kids. The two other drivers always stopped at our house for coffee before going on the bus route in the morning.
(Again, the typist remembers being in Spring Grove, at the apartment over a hardware store, if he remembers correctly. Could that have been about June 1951, when he was on his way to Fort Monmouth New Jersey, just after being married on June 2, 1951? Can’t imagine that’s the date, but being there as they moved in, is remembered exactly. Somehow it is also remembered that in about mid-September 1951, the Typist, Emmy and Ronnie stopped at Spring Grove, driving a 1936 Chevy [previously owned by Paul, then the folks, then Mary and Harold, then us], with Ronnies Crib tied on the back. We left the crib for David, and etc., and etc. ) Betty’s response, “All three boys used that crib. I kept it for all 9 grand-kids. Now David’s have it for Brandon. A few new mattresses have been bought for it in the years since.”
When we first moved to Spring Grove we lived in a very nice apartment over the hardware store. (See, he remembered that part correctly.) We were expecting our first child. John worked at a cannery that summer. David John was born on October 1, 1951. We later bought our first home, between York and Spring Grove. (The Typist and family visited there in about 1957, while driving a red, 1955 Chevy Station Wagon.)
Three years later our second son, Larry Thomas, was born and three years after that our third son, Charles Allen, was born. By then we needed a bigger house. David was about to start school and we were not living within the Spring Grove school district where we wanted him to attend. We finally found a big house close to the high school and David could walk to the elementary school.
(The Typist also visited at this house. He couldn’t imagine that someone like Johnny could be a good school teacher until, during a business trip one time, he spent a couple of hours in class with him. He isn’t smart enough to tell if John could teach, but he never before or since saw a bunch of students who liked their teacher as much as these students liked John. And that must be at least half the battle of teaching, isn’t it?)
Over the years John went from Industrial Arts teacher to Guidance Counselor, to high School Principal. Meanwhile he was taking courses at Western Maryland college in nearby Maryland, and later certification for Supt. of Schools. He also took a Sabbatical for one year and supervised student teachers from Penn State, which took him to various places, and he was only home on weekends. Another activity which took him away for a week or so at a time, was when he served as Chairperson on several evaluating Committees at various high schools.
Well, I was no longer teaching, except at home. But going back, when David was a baby we became involved in starting a Grace Brethren Church in York. I’m so thankful our boys could grow up in that church, and were involved in about every activity as we were.
In school the boys were in a lot of sports, music, competition etc., and we attended just about every game and activity and event they were in. Our life revolved around theirs. We took trips in the summer, not so much that we could afford it, but somehow managed.
Before David graduated from high school we took our big trip west in a motor home. (Again the Typist or perhaps by now the Pest, was there when John was looking at motor homes to rent, and remembers recommending they visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Johnny said later that he thought that was a dumb idea until he did it, and then was very pleased to have seen the statues carved on the mountain.) We visited Disneyland and Jim and Emmy’s (just trying to get even), and Esther and Gus and family in California. (Esther and Jim are John’s brother and sister.)
(One year, don’t remember which one, Johnny attended a conference of some kind in Long Beach, or thereabouts, and visited our home. Betty, son Larry, wife Joyce, and baby Heidi, came to Rancho Mirage, California for the Brethren Conference in August 1982. It was held at the Rancho Las Palmas Marriott Hotel, just across a fairway or two, from our home. And in 1990 The Typist and friend visited Betty in York. That was important because we found the real “Dried Beef” is still made in that part of the country and a dozen jars at a time is delivered to our home in California, a couple of times a year.)
After graduation David attended LeTournal College for one year. During that year we had an exchange student from Ecuador for several months, Diego Saa B. Very interesting experience. We enjoyed him. I’m sorry we lost contact with him.
By the way, I did get back to teaching when the boys were in school, mostly substituting. I worked a lot for teachers on sick leave or on a sabbatical.
The year Larry was starting college at Taylor University, the school board at Martinsburg, where John and I grew up, called John to be Supt. of Schools. After being in Spring Grove for 20 years we never intended to leave the area. John sent another man to Martinsburg who was interested in the job. He was elected, but weeks later decided he couldn’t take it. So they called John back for the job. John decided he wasn’t getting any younger and would like to try the position. That was in 1972.
(Here’s a story Johnny told the Typist about the meeting with the teachers the day before school started, when he first became Superintendent of Schools at Martinsburg. He was telling them that they should be especially attentive to the needs of the little trouble makers that are in most classes. They need special attention, and should be treated very nicely, “ … because as Mr. Kensinger, Mr. Brumbaugh, and Miss Skyles can tell you, that little trouble maker may come back some day as your Superintendent!” Mr. Brumbaugh was Betty’s brother.)
Charles was in the 10th grade in Spring Grove and had just been elected president of his class. David was working but living at home, and they helped us to decide. It all worked out and Charlie graduated from the same Alma Mater as John and I. I think he was more popular than his Dad. People would say to John, “Oh, you are Charlie’s dad,” or “Oh, Charlie is your son.” John got a kick out of that.
David stayed in York working for York Caskets. He married Shirley Stull the same year. At age twelve he had invited Shirley home with us on a Sunday and it seemed like they never stopped seeing each other.
Larry graduated from Taylor University and went on to Grace Seminary after he married Joyce Knepper. He and Joyce also grew up together in our church. She graduated from Lancaster School of Nursing. Charlie also graduated from Taylor University, and after a year of teaching, married Mary Spencer from Fort Wayne, Ind., whom he met in college.
While in Martinsburg I taught five years full time to students with reading disabilities. I later did mostly full time substituting. John wanted me to go with him to conventions, etc., so I stayed with substituting. I don’t regret that. (Emmy used the same excuse not to have a paying job most years. The Typist remembers that she went with him on many trips, and one time her schedule even permitted her to go along on a business trip to Hawaii. Wonder how she arranged that?)
We enjoyed attending the Vicksburg Church where John’s Dad was pastor many years before. We also got to visit with Dean Walters occasionally when he and Peggy came to visit from Washington, DC. John had Dean speak several times at Commencements, etc., when he was Principal and Supt. Just this past July Dean died of a stroke and heart attack. (The Typist remembers seeing Dean’s picture next to a Chemistry Set in the Sears Roebuck catalog at Christmas one year. Who remembers more trivia, and guess who hopes this is correct?)
Not long after we moved to Martinsburg my brother Denver died of cancer. He had bought the family farm. His son Robert still has the farm. Another brother, Dean, who had retired from teaching, died a few years later of a massive heart attack.
One of the goals John wanted to accomplish most after becoming Supt. was to have a new Elementary School built in Martinsburg. (The old school building was where the Typist and several others in the family attended grade school. And if it is remembered correctly, some attended the high school, right next door.) It was needed disparately even though building a new school is never without some opposition. But it did get done. However, he never lived to see it’s dedication. He was diagnosed with cancer in early spring, May of 1981, and died Dec. 8, 1981.
I was invited to the school dedication about two years later. Charlie’s family and I attended. A plaque hangs in the school with John’s name on it. Thanks to Jim and Emmy he did get to make a last trip to Indiana that summer, that he very much wanted to do. They had come in from California and visited us, and drove us to Indiana. (That was nearly eighteen years ago, and we still have the same car!) John wanted to visit his Mom and brothers and sisters, that were there. The first thing he wanted to do each year when school was out, was to go to Indiana. We had some wonderful times out there with his family, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
The summer he was sick we were back and forth a lot from York to Martinsburg for tests, because he was in the York hospital a lot, and once to Johns Hopkins. (His doctor in Martinsburg was Robert Bridenbaugh, the son of the Bridenbaugh family, where Johnny and Betty, and the Typist worked all those years earlier.) In late August he was feeling better and we were back in Martinsburg. He spoke to the teachers at their pre-school meeting, sort of gave them a pep talk and said he wouldn’t be back. I don’t know how he did it, but got a standing ovation. My heart was breaking.
I appreciate so much his Mom (it must have been so very hard for her), Mary and Jesse coming to the funeral, and Paul and Leila flying up from Florida, and Lenora Ann, a niece, came up from Dover, Delaware.. The schools were closed that afternoon. The next day we also had a memorial service at the high school in Spring Grove, because he wanted it, and Dean Walters spoke.
I stayed in Martinsburg for two years after that, teaching most of the time. My older sister Ruth died and I decided it was time to move back to York where two of our sons, David and Charlie, were living. We had always planned to retire there anyhow.
Several years later my oldest brother Eli died and in 1995, my youngest brother Ellis died. His wife Vergie, is still living and so is Dean’s wife Virginia. My youngest sister Evelyn, married to Richard King, is the only other one left in my family, and lives in East York. So glad we live close to each other. Can’t believe I’ve lived back in York now for fifteen years. David and Shirley’s two girls, Joeanna and Michele are both married. Joeanna, married Wayne Smith, and Michele married David White, and they (Michele and David) have given me a great grandson, Brandon Michael.
Larry and Joyce are living in Bethlehem, Pa., where he is Pastor of The Grace Brethren Church. They have Heidi, who will graduate from high school in June, and Luke, Beckie, and Julie. Charlie and Mary are living in Red Lion, not far from me. He is assistant High School Principal. They have Caleb, Joel, and Sarah. And yes James I am still single. (The Typist says that Betty being single is a terrible waste of Natural Resources.)
Having had the best husband, but only for 34 years, and a wonderful caring family, I am truly blessed. The Lord is good.
A story or two I forgot to include in all of this story. When we had Diego, the exchange student, we took him to Washington, DC. for a day. Charlie went with us. Our representative from here took us around. We attended a Senate or House meeting and they were arguing over something. Diego said if that were in Equator they would probably be shooting at each other. His dad was high “up” in the government, and had been arrested a time or two. Diego didn’t like manual labor. We were cleaning up leaves one day and he said he didn’t do that, at home as the gardener did it. Well, we kindly let him know he wasn’t in Quito now. But he did like that little piece of the chicken wing. I don’t cook it any more, but he ate the whole thing, bones and all, mostly bones.
He also had his birthday the same day as mine, so we celebrated together. While in Washington we ate lunch in the House of Representatives Cafeteria, and Diego spilled a glass of water. John jokingly said, “Now you know that could cause an International Incident.” That was when he told us about his Government.
(Again the Typist has a comment. He remembers offering to take the whole family, including Diego, to dinner. As he remembers, David, Diego and Larry ordered the biggest, and most expensive steak on the menu. Maybe this time, or another time, the Typist was at a series of meetings near Philadelphia, and didn’t have time to visit Spring Grove. Somehow we agreed to meet at the “… first Sunoco station in the town of … … ,” about half way in between. And it worked. There was always a Sunoco station in every town in that part of Pennsylvania.)
Several years ago, you probably read or heard about a group of Chinese immigrants, about 300, who were washed ashore in New York Harbor. Well, those that survived were immediately arrested and put in our prison here. Well Evelyn and Dick, who spent two summers in China teaching English to the Chinese, were very taken with these prisoners. They visited them a lot and sort of adopted one man named Yon Yon. Most of them were here because of the one child family policy, and religious persecution.
Well, how I got involved; Evelyn and Dick planned a trip to Florida and asked me to go along. In the meantime they had agreed to take Yon Yon if he ever got out of prison. Well, about two days before we planned to leave for Florida, and after three years in prison, these prisoners were released, those that still remained. They had to take him, so we all went to Florida. I learned an awful lot, riding all the way down there and back, about him and China. He spoke rather good English and had become a Christian in prison, couldn’t get to know enough about the Bible. He is now on his own, working in New York, I think.
Believe me, their one child policy is no joke. Evelyn said the last time then were there, just before they had to leave, a student came to class very upset. They had College Students, married couples, professionals, all kinds. Anyhow, the girl was pregnant and had just been ordered to have an abortion, because it was their second child. It didn’t matter that they had lost their first one before birth.. We can’t take in all the immigrants, but there has to be a better way.
One more story; When I was in College a group of us girls lived on the same dorm floor. We just became great friends and somehow started calling ourselves the “D. D’s.” We wouldn’t tell what that meant, but it was the “Dizzy Dozen,” and everyone knew us as the “D.D’s.” Anyhow, a few years ago I got a phone call “out of the blue,” from a former D.D. a former roommate, no less, forget how she reached me. She wanted to find all the D.D. and try and get together.
I had only been in touch with one, another roommate, who lived in New Jersey. We did reach everyone, 45 years after graduation. We went to Jo’s house in Oakmont, near Pittsburgh for a week-end, the one who started this. All were there and spouses, except three; one lives in Florida; one was killed in an auto accident, and one other. Another girl and I were the only ones without husbands. The other one was divorced. But two others have lost husbands since our first reunion. We try to get together once a year at various places. Interesting, one lived near us for years and her husband was Supt. of Schools in N. York, just a few miles away. and I didn’t know she was there. Last year we met in Georgetown, Delaware.
I neglected to mention, and this is for the benefit of my family mostly. My dad was 72 when he died on January 21, 1953. All his life he was a democrat, but when Eisenhower was elected President, he voted Republican for the first and only time. My dad was very excited about seeing this inauguration on TV. So he went to my brother Dean’s house because my folks didn’t as yet have a TV. But before the event even happened he had a cerebral hemorrhage and died.
My mother died at the age of 76 on December 23, 1960. She had suffered a broken hip several months earlier and was staying some of the time at our house and some of the time at my sister Evelyn’s, who lives nearby. She finally went home to Martinsburg where my older sister Ruth took care of her. But in December she had a stroke and died two days before Christmas.
(That’s it, that’s all the Bits from Betty. The final corrections were received from her and typed on February 2, 1999.)
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