Do You Remember When Your Grandparents Retired?

 Thomas McEntee recently asked "Do you remember when your grandparents retired?" [1]

Thomas Cowan 1890 - 1970

I do remember, because they threw a party! My grandfather, Thomas Cowan, had had a stroke a couple of years before, and once he almost completely recovered, decided that it was best to retire while he could enjoy it. I do not remember the date, although there is an article we found among my father's papers from his union newspaper, describing his history, career and property out in Issaquah. We lived just up the road, in walking distance, so I saw them a lot; basically any time I wanted to.

The party was fun, and I got to show up to some of the older boys who were there, sons of co-workers I suppose, about where the fishing holes were in the creek. Once I caught my little trout, I paraded up the hill and past the party and those boys, with my pole on my shoulder and the little fish still on my hook. I walked home and cleaned it there. Yum, was it delicious! But only about 5 bites of fish. 

My grandmother Elsie Schell Cowan was worried about Grandpa falling somewhere on the property, and urged that they move back into Seattle into a retirement community on 8th and Seneca on lower Capitol Hill. While we still visited often, it simply was not the same. My Dad saw his parents more than we kids did, since he could swing by on his way home from work. 

Harvey McBee and Anna Baysinger

My other grandparents, whom I did not know because they lived in Alberta and Saskatchwan, Canada, were a contrast. My grandfather Harvey McBee had been in prison (long story, another time) and did odd jobs until his death. I believe that the Canadian system gave him some income during those years, and he did live in the same town as his older brother, who I imagine looked after him somewhat. However, I remember my mother told me about a letter she got begging for some money for him, and being very conflicted about responding. My father insisted that they send a check. As newlyweds, they didn't have a lot of money, but helped support her father, at least that one time. 

My grandmother Anna Baysinger McBee had been deserted by Harvey in about 1940 leaving her with the younger children, who were 14, 12, 9, 7, 5 and 2. She moved into Calgary, Alberta and got work in a chicken processing plant. Anna had to take Sidney, the youngest, to an orphanage during the week while she was working. The other children could be in school during the day while she was working. 

The next year, my mother Lola McBee got a job as a hired girl out of Calgary so that she could attend grade 9 and pass the test into high school. While there, my mother's youngest brother Sidney died at age 4. When the family gathered for the funeral, her oldest sister Kathleen McBee Stapp, who had moved to Washington state earlier, and married, offered to find my mother and her sister Nancy Joanne a place to live in Seattle, and a job, so that they could attend high school 'in the states,' meaning the United States where they were born. Her crossing document is dated 4 August 1944. 

                                        Copy downloaded from FamilySearch [2]

So my mother was in Seattle as the World War II was fought, and President Roosevelt died. I have some of her letters and poems with her thoughts during these years. She had a job early in the morning before school, at Van de Kamp's Bakery. Working so hard did not dim her memories of those years living in Mrs. Schuett's house with her sisters. There was little money, but she had school and friends. 

I don't want to get sidetracked with my mother's story! Back to my grandmother Anna Baysinger McBee, now a divorced woman whose children all now lived away from her. She married an immigrant from Czechoslavakia in 1951. When I was born in 1953, she was 58. According to my mother, she took the bus from Calgary, Alberta so that she could hold and meet me. How I wish there were photos of that meeting! How amazing to me that she took a bus almost 700 miles! We never met again, since she died three years later, 15 February 1956 . She is buried in the same cemetery as her youngest child, Sidney McBee. It is possible that she was able to retire once she re-married, but there is no proof of that yet. I hope so!

Valorie Zimmerman  

1. https://mailchi.mp/genealogybargains.com/gb-consolidated-3august2021?e=b1d90e4dc6

2. "Idaho, Eastport, Arrival Manifests, 1924-1956," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KF68-61X : 15 March 2018), Lola Mcbee, 1944; citing Immigration, Eastport, Idaho, United States, NARA microfilm publication A3460 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).