My Memories of Great Grandma Hazel NICHOLS

mixer Hazel and Nick Nichols are my great grandparents. I never met Grandpa Nick but I was blessed to grow up next door to my Great Grandma NICHOLS! Oh so many memories!

Baking Apple & Blueberry pies
Snap green beans from the garden
Watch Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune
Play card games
Mountain Dew
Nichols Family Reunions [group photo, 1980]
Cleaning razor clams from Pacific Beaches
Watch her sew many baby sleepers (we made the last 6 sleepers together for my daughter, Tess)

pie Every day after school, I stoped by her house to play a few hands of cards - rummy and skip-bo were our favorites! I can still see her tired hands shuffling the cards while we talked about all sorts of stories. I looked up to her so much and loved learning how to do new things or hear her stories from when Grandpa Nick was courting her. She said he would ride his horse over to her house after working in the fields and they would talk or attend barn dances together. I wish I would have paid more attention to some of the details of her stories. She truly was my hero, and always will be.

I was lucky enough to have a 5 Generations photo from when my oldest daughter, Tess Marie was 3 months old in 1992 [picture inset] and just a few short months later she went home to her loved ones that have been long gone.

Embroidered Pillow Cases, 1922-1992

The last week she was with us was a hard one, but I went to visit her every day and she told me one last story about a set of very old Pillow Cases. I think it was her way of letting me have one more memory to hold onto after she was gone. The tresured pillow cases are in a shadow box along with the story and a few other mementos.

Her story goes:

Hazel's mother, Lillian, gave her the white muslin fabric when Nick was courting her. She embroidered a beautiful design of pink flowers on them and sewed them into pillow cases; giving them to her mom for an anniversary gift that same year. Her mom then crocheted a lovely pink edge of matching flowers on them and gave them back to Hazel as a wedding gift when she married Nick.

Conversation with Grandma Hazel NICHOLS, 13 March 1988

Nick NICHOLS worked on a big cattle ranch before their marriage. He was a WWI Veteran who served in Germany. Had a 320 acre homestead in Great Divide country, Colorado. He filed a 320 acre homestead up by Black Mountain after their marriage. Sold it all back to the government for hardly anything.

Then rented a big irrigation farm and built a log cabin (2-room), lived there fall of 1922 to spring 1923. First child, Marie, was born there. Then moved to Savory, Wyoming to rent a big ranch there, 1923 to 1930. Moved to colorado, Dry Fork Ranch, rented and farmed animals, wheat & oats. Horse wasn't much.

Moved to WA in 1935, bought the ranch on Jorgenson Road, lived there until 1960. House burned down, remodeled chicken house to live in. Sold it in 1960 and moved to Onalaska (at Marie's place), then to Centralia where Nick died. Grandma NICHOLS moved to Tacoma (Flora's place), then back to Onalaska (at Marie's). [She lived there in a trailer on the same property until her death in 1992.]

Desendants of Hazel STEVENSON and Amasa (Nick) NICHOLS

Hazel Matilda STEVENSON was born on 8 Mar. 1904 in Colorado; died on 16 Aug. 1992 in Onalaska, Washington. She married Amasa Oscar NICHOLS on 20 Apr. 1922 in Colorado. [Family photo, 1945]

Child (in order)	Birthdate	Deathdate	Married & Notes
Marie Edith NICHOLS	1923		1943 to James Westley PARNELL
Clyde Edgar NICHOLS	1925
Pearl Evelyn NICHOLS	1927		1946 to Charles Fred KIRKPATRICK
Lillian Irene NICHOLS	1929		1948 to Clyde CARTER
Oscar Lewis NICHOLS	1931	2010
Flora Jean NICHOLS (twin)	1932		1953 to Harvey Elmer GUENTHER
Laura Dean NICHOLS (twin)	1932		1953 to Albert ERICKSON
George Wallace NICHOLS	1934
Melvin Charles NICHOLS	1936
Pleaides (Nick) Ernest NICHOLS	1939

1935 Motorhome | 8 Kids + Maytag Washing Machine

In a homemade Motorhome my grandma Marie (then 12 years old) bumped along the dusty road in 1935 towards her new home.

Story told by my Grandma Marie NICHOLS PARNELL

This has to be one of the first motor-homes. Eight kids plus mother and father all climbed in this old truck with a tent-like cover on the flat bed for the motor-home part. It was summertime, and we were going to California from Craig, Colorado.

[Picture inset was taken when they left Colorado for Washington - click for larger view.]

The four of us older kids would climb on the top bunk in the back and look through a window hole, above the cab of the truck. The younger four kids were riding up front with mom and dad in the truck. At night, we would all sleep in the two bunk beds in the tent part of the truck.

In the back there was also my mom’s Maytag Washing Machine, cured bacon and ham, lard, dishes and clothes. We broke down in California and had to wait for a week at a park while the truck was fixed. Then we were on our way to Washington. My folks bought a ranch on Jorgenson Road.

In the winter of 1939, the house burned down from a chimney fire and we had to stay next door while mom fixed up the "chicken" house for us to all live in. Mom and dad built an extra room; all the girls slept in one room with bunk beds; all the boys in one room with bunk beds; mom and dad had a bedroom too. While I was working at Boing in Seattle I helped buy a cook stove, davenport couch and wood heatting stove.