Growing up with Jenny

GROWING UP WITH JENNY began in Hayward, Calif. My name is Georgia, and I was born Oct 1, 1946, and Jenny July 20, 1946, so we were the same age. Jenny was already living in Hayward on Lavina Dr. when we moved there about 1949. It was Ina’s second marriage. Ina had Jenny and Eve with her first husband Buzz Mendenhall. My parents Ruby and Jim Pease bought the house next door to the newlyweds Ina and Russ Castleberry. That move changed my life forever! My parents were not members of any church, and Ina was L.D.S. It didn’t take long to find out what a Sunbeam was!!!

Jenny loved to tell the story of her first meeting with my mom and me. Standing all alone on our front porch, she knocked on the door. Opening the door, she found herself staring at a pair of kneecaps as my mom was six feet tall. Slowing her eyes climbed up my mom’s torso till she found her face. As her eyes were moving upwards, she was saying: “My name is Jenny, can your little girl come out and play with me?” That was our first meeting! From that day on it was as if we were attached at the hip.

We were constant companions. As the years passed by, Jenny’s household grew and grew and grew. My household remained constant. My parents never had any more children. Ina and Russ went on to have: Russy, Charlie, Timmy, Sue Sue, and Joy! Jenny and all of her siblings were the brothers and sisters I never had. There was never a dull moment in the Castleberry household compared to my home, where it was always quiet. At home, I was a ‘prim and proper little lady,’ but when I went next door I was just another kid with the rest of the ‘Castleberry gang’! We jumped on the beds, tacked sheets to the walls when we needed theater curtains while performing some imaginary show, pulled clean laundry out of the closet for dress-up. Our antics went on and on! Ina was the WORLDS BEST MOM! If I had done any of those things at home, my mom would have had a heart attack! Ina just took it in her stride. We were always up to something! Playing house, Doctor, School, Theatrics (putting on shows for parents and friends), Space Invaders, Superman, Cowboys and Indians, Restaurant, playing in the creek, riding bikes all over the place with cards pinned to the spokes for noise, Spin the Bottle. Yup, we played Spin the Bottle till we were found out by one of the mom’s who promptly made us all go home, and she then told our parents!!! We were scared to death that we were in BIG TROUBLE!! We were about eight at the time!!

We all attended Harder Elementary School. Next to the Castleberry home, there was an open field that was later turned into a park. This is were the creek was. The homes continued next to the empty lot as Lavina Dr. was a large horseshoe neighborhood. Our homes were nestled in the horseshoe bend. There were railroad tracks just behind our homes. Each morning I would stop by, and Jenny and I would walk across the empty field then parallel to the railroad tracks then cross the tracks and Harder Road with the aid of Joe the crossing guard then on to the schoolhouse. It was quite a hike, but it took no time at all with Jenny to walk and talk with. It was a really long hike on the days she was ill or gone!! We were always in the same classes in grade school and always set next to each other.

As for friends, we shared the same neighborhood friends. There was Claudia Levy, Jimmy Fields, Patrick ‘Pat’ across the street and Little Dick – yup that is what we called him in those days. He was named after his dad Richard. They were Big Dick and Little Dick. Things were more innocent back then. If anything was meant by it, we never figured it out. That is always what we called them, and our parents called them!! There were others, but their names escape me now. Then there was the Wooton boy. When he moved into the neighborhood, we were figuring out what BOYS were all about. Jenny, Claudia and I would take turns being his ‘girlfriend’!! He would get little rings out of a bubblegum machine and give us a ring when it was our time to be his ‘girlfriend.’ That guy had a good thing going, and we didn’t even know it!!! It was all so innocent though; there was never any hanky-panky!!

Now for Eve Castleberry. Poor Evie!!! Jenny and I could make her life miserable at times. Back then, it was a big deal to be found playing with someone YOUNGER than yourself. Eve was younger that Jen and Me. Soooooo, the odd man out—-, right??? I can not count the time Jenny would SNEAK out and come to my house to play. Next thing we knew there was poor Evie at the door or the backyard gate calling for Jenny. I would answer the door or the gate, and Jen would hide behind it. “Is Jenny here?” – “No,” was my reply. “Yes, she is cause mom said she is with you!” – “No, she isn’t here; go play with someone else” would be my reply. “I know she is here and if you don’t let me play I’m going to GO TELL MOM!!!!!!!!” That always got her in!!! Of course, she was the youngest, so she never got to play the Mom or the Dad — poor Eve always played the baby!!!! (She must hate me!)

Mike Shane was her greatest love during childhood. She carried a torch for him for years and years. He couldn’t see her for dirt! Mike was L.D.S. and was a close friend of ours, but Jen was absolutely in love with the kid!!! I was slower in that department. Mike, Mike, Mike, that is all she ever talked about at Church, Mutual or when we were alone!! Other than her dad, I think that was it in her love department. She had a crush on one of the Starr boys in Oregon I think. She LOVED his last name. I remember her telling me she was going to use Starr to name one of her children —- and she did!!

As a little child growing up, Jenny had a special problem — ‘kidney’ problems. Now, this gave her the right to ‘wet her pants’ without getting into any trouble!! I just couldn’t figure it out. She wet her pants, and no one cared —- I wet my pants, and I got in trouble! I kept saying — “But Jenny does it!!!!” My mom finally put me in a diaper in the shortest old skirt she could find and sat me on the front porch to try to shame me into not wetting my pants. It worked!!! There I was on the porch in that state of affairs when Jenny and Jimmy came up to me and wanted me to play. I wasn’t about to stand up!! They figured out what was going on and kept at me till I had to stand up! I NEVER WET MY PANTS AGAIN!! Jen did outgrow the ‘problem,’ but I beat her!!!

I remember how we were always walking to the store for something or other for our moms. If Jen had to go to the store, I would go with her and visa Versa. There was a neighborhood store behind Lavina Dr. I remember one particular summer day we were walking to the store and we decided we would always be friends forever. We decided we would still be friends when we were 50! To us, that was old! We counted the number of years till we would be that old. We did keep that promise! 50 or not, we will always be best friends!!

Your mom got nose bleeds a lot as a child. I never understood what that was all about. It was always part of her ‘kidney problem’ as far as I knew. We would be playing, and all of a sudden, she would have blood trickling down from her nose! I remember overhearing on more than one occasion that her mom and dad were worried about her ‘kidney problems’ and whether she would ever be able to have children. As the years passed, we would talk about it. It worried her too. But as you well know, she fooled the Doctors big time on that issue!!!

Just about every time our car pulled out of the driveway, Jenny was in it. Being an only child, my mom didn’t want me to be lonely, so we took Jenny with us on trips a lot of the time. As I said, we shared everything. When Christmas came, our moms would get us the same gifts so we could play together. I remember one Christmas, and we got shoe skates. My mom made each of us skating skirts, so we had special skating outfits to skate in. We were soooooo spoiled! As I outgrew my clothes, Jenny got them. Sometimes the kids at school would notice, but I never admitted to it. I loved her and didn’t want her to be embarrassed. If she was, she never let on.

Once we decided to run away from home!!! Our idea of running away from home was: she moved into my home, and I moved into hers! We thought this was a great plan until our parents put their heads together to figure a way out of the situation and have us think it was our idea. They told us that it was just fine if that was what we wanted to do, BUT— we couldn’t take anything out of the house! I could have only what Jenny had, and Jenny could only have what I had. Now you might think this would have been ok, but it wasn’t with Jenny. I was happy to do it, but Jenny had just had her birthday, and her Grandma Morin had sent her a scarf. “You mean I can’t take my new scarf with me?” She cried and begged, but the answer was no. That was the end of that idea! I might have been your mom if it weren’t for that scarf!!!!!

When Jenny was about 15ish Russ and Ina wanted to get the kids out of Calif. They decided to move to Oregon. They got a little house with some land, and they had chickens for eggs, a cow for milk and butter, a pig to eat scraps and butcher for the freezer and a big garden. Everyone had chores to do before and after school! I would go and visit for weeks at a time in the summer. To raise money for new school clothes they would pick string beans in the summertime. They were a big happy family. It was my association with the Castleberry clan that shaped and molded me into the kind of mother I turned out to be. I know I would have been a very different person if my parents had not moved into that little house on Lavina Dr. in Hayward, CA, next door to the Castleberry family! I learned how to be a mom: a combination of my mom and Ina. I made an early decision never to marry outside of the L.D.S. church after seeing how it affected their family life. I knew I would never, ever have an only child even if I had to adopt a child. I learned what true friendship was all about. I learned how to stay firm in one’s testimony in the face of adversity. BUT one of my fondest memories of Ina and Russ is how he was always grabbing her and swinging her backward across his knee and giving her a big kiss!! He did that lots of times because he knew how we children would giggle and laugh with delight!!!

I hope this fills in some of the gaps so you will feel you know more about your mom. Your dad knows most everything after Jenny left Oregon and moved back to CA. She came to be in my wedding and decided to stay. She lived with my husband and me for a while. She later moved into an apartment next to ours in Sunnyvale, CA. Our bedroom windows were direct across from each other!! She would open her window and call me! Later she met your dad and the rest you know.

Your mom always had a sweet spirit about her. I never heard her say a cross word about anyone — ever! She had a strong testimony where the gospel was concerned, and she never feared to share it with anyone. She had a wonderful sense of humor and loved to laugh. She had her problems, we all do – but she coped with humor and dignity. Without hesitation, she is the best friend I have – or will ever have. I firmly believe we have always been friends, and we will continue to be friends for all eternity! Like you, I miss her every day.

Jenny loves each one of you so much! I know she is close by and watches over each of you daily.

Love to all from your mom’s best friend ever,

Georgia Stewart

P.S. I’m working on your mom’s genealogy. I’m doing quite well too. When done I’ll send it to your dad. Your dad and I decided these are the two things your mom wanted to be done: her genealogy and the above stroll down memory lane.


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