Aund Bell and Aunt Cabby had a huge fight and decided to call it quits on the boarding house in Wilkinsburg. Aunt Marie left for New York and got a job as a children's governess; and Aunt Bell left with her father and Jim's three kids for Windber to live with Aunt Marne and Uncle Dave.

Dorothy had gone work for the Department of the Navy and worked her way up from Clerk to Administrative Assistant to the Chief of Operations. She was living in an apartment for women in D.C. (when DC was a good place to live) and then moved in with Ad and two other gals to share expenses. She was sending Aunt Bell $35.00 a month to help with the costs of raising the children; which was not much, but then women were not paid very well at all. Besides, she at least visited and brought gifts at Christmas and for various birthdays. Jim on the other hand sent nothing back for the kids, but I have an idea that Aunt Marne knew where he was. She always did seem to know things other people didn't.

Poor Uncle Dave! Now he had all those mouths to feed and so everyone got together and decided we needed a cow for all the milk wanted by the family, and some chickens for their eggs, too. We were going to help put the food on the table. Aunt Marne's green thumb had already started on the vegetable garden, for by the time we got there, it was up and thriving. However, noone knew how to milk a cow or even when to do it. The poor cow was bellowing and thrashing around in the barn and going just a little nuts. It continued all day, and finally a neighbor, Knewt Faust, came down the hill to see what the chaos was all about. That was how he met Aunt Bell. He was a farmer, living with his mother and father after the death of his first wife. His children were all raised and on their own. He also augumented the family coffiers by being a butcher in Somerset. He used to court Aunt Bell by bringing her great cuts of meat and sausage he made himself and as a special treat for us kids, he would bring in candy sometimes. He showed the adults when and how to milk the cow and showed the children how to feed Bossy and the chickens, and how to gather in the eggs.

He continued to court Aunt Bell and she didn't want anything to do with him, him being such an "old man" and all. But, he kept on asking her to marry him and everyone in the family was all on his side, with him being so kind to us all. My brother, Jim, told her to marry up with him because then she would have all the meat she would ever want to eat. So, she finally did concent to become his wife. The family teased her about him parking his car on a pile of manure and not moving the car and letting her out until she said "yes". The whole clan came for the nuptials at his church, the Berkey Church of the Brethern.

The church was just up the road from Aunt Marne's place and we all went to it, even Aunt Bell who was Catholic. The preacher's wife was the teacher of the one-room school house at the top of the hill and Mrs. Dick was my first grade teacher. Such a lovely woman she was. I remember her well, very pretty and very nice to all the students.

Dorothy had some type of nervous breakdown sometime during the early '40s, and went to a rest home somewhere in Virginia. I tend to think it was her whole world crashing in on her that caused it. At any rate, she got better and did not tell me about it until I was in my 30s. Ah, some people do know how to keep secrets, don't they...not just the Hamills.

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Pictures of 4th Generation

Chapter 7