My mother was born with the name Mary Theresa Mufffenbier in Portland, Oregon on July 30, 1926. Her parents were Mary (Summers)Muffenbier and Joseph Muffenbier. My mother had to change her name to Theresa Mary Muffenbier when she was growing up because the neighbor girl's name was Mary and the mothers flipped a coin to see who would use the name Mary because the mothers would call their daughters to come into the house and both girls would come in becauses they didn't know whose mother was calling. So, Mom always used the name Theresa (her middle name). I didn't know this until I was grown.
Mom grew up in Milwaukee, Oregon with her seven brothers and sisters. She went to a Catholic school until 8th grade. She said the public school kids would call the catholic kids cat-lickers and the catholic school kids would call the public school kids pup-lickers. She said the nuns were mean to the kids. Mom had to stay home with her mother to help with the housework when she was out of 8th grade. Grandma Muffenbier didn't see any reason for her to continue her education. When Mom was high school age she and siblings would ride a bus to strawberry fields outside portland to pick berries in order to make money. That is where she first met the Feuerborn family. They were camped out there picking berries.
Mom eventually went to work at Jantsen Beach making clothing in a factory. She later went to work in the shipyards during the war.
Mom told stories of her and her friends walking around Portland and having men chase her and her friends. They would have to run and hide.
Mom grew up in the same house that her parents owned their entire lives. I have memories of sleeping with Grandma Muffenbier. She would lay in bed and play the game with your hands where you make a church, then show the doors, the steeple and then flip your hands and show all the people! I remember their bathroom was out on the back porch. Mom told about how they had to use the Sears and Roebuck catalog pages as toilet paper. I remember her telling of how the bums would bring oranges that were old or starting to rot to them. The bums would collect them from the back of grocery stores and bring them to grandma because she was kind to them.
My earliest memories of Mom was of her making feather pillows for us kids. She was sewing them together just before we moved to our house on 808 Ash Street. We moved when I was five years old, the summer before I started school. Mom was always busy doing the daily chores of maintaining a household of kids. She was pregnant a lot! We were always helping with cleaning out diapers. Mom did all the laundry, cooking, shopping, etc. The kids helped with doing dishes, vacuuming, dusting and on Saturdays I had two big baskets of ironing that I had to iron. We had a big carousel to hang the clothes on. Felt like it took 4 hours to do all that ironing. Nothing was permanant press back them.
I remember going grocery shopping with Mom one Saturday. She bought a 7-UP candy bar at the checkout stand. She told me that was her treat for the week.(She bought me a candy bar that week!) She always ate it before arriving home. We couldn't afford candy bars for the whole family. Her budget was $40/week to feed a family of 9.
Mom's only break away from daily chores was bowling. She joined a bowling league when I was about 10 and she bowled in a league for about 15 years. She was very good and had an average of about 188. Lots of trophies. That was her outlet.
Mom was a good sewer. She made a lot of our clothes, Wool skirts and vests, dresses for prom which were beautiful and summer sun tops. She was talented there. I sewed a few dresses after I took home economics but never got much of a kick out of it.
Mom and Dad went to parties up at the American Legion. That was their party scene I guess. They didn't hang out at any taverns but didn't miss the American Legion parties. I liked going up there the following morning. The smell of whiskey and old cigarettes was exciting. We used to drink some of the old drinks. Gross now that I think of it.
Mom loved playing cards. She was always up for a game of poker. Her family played penny-ante poker with pennies or beans when she was young. The Feuerborn family liked poker so she played with them and usually suggested a game of poker on family get-togethers during the evening. She was a gambler and played a lot of Bingo after retirement and then started going to the local indian casinos when they built a couple about an hour away from her house. She played a lot but never let it turn into a problem. You could see her sitting at her machine with a smile on her face.
Mom died of colon cancer at the age of 79.
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