Scrapbook Introduction
Contained within the pages of this scrapbook is the story of my family. Most of what you will see took place before my time because it is mainly the story of my parents, Ernest Charles Ely, Sr., and Harriet Jane Salyards Ely.
When mom left our sight and passed on into Glory this past November 7th, I got the idea to scrapbook all the old pictures and memories that were tucked away here and there and everywhere. Afraid of losing these precious memories with time, or forgetting where I had safely tucked them away, the safest solution was to put them all in one place, and in such a way that they could be enjoyed by our family for generations to come.
My parents have a wonderful and unique story to tell. They lived through a very important time in our country’s history. As children and into young adulthood, they lived through the Great Depression that began with the crash of Wall Street in October of 1929 and lasted through the 1930s, and into the early 1940s.
In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidential election by a landslide victory over incumbent Herbert Hoover. To aid in our country’s economic recovery, Roosevelt instituted his “New Deal.” One program that was created as part of the “New Deal” was the “Civilian Conservation Corps,” also referred to as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army.” I am proud to say that my father was a member of the CCC in Washington and Idaho; a fact I knew nothing about until I started my little project! Dad was in Company 554, SCS-2 out of Pullman, Washington. He worked with the Soil Conservation Service planting trees and doing other various jobs to stop soil erosion. I have some old pictures from a photo album of Dad’s that are marked “Oregon 1936”. I only have records to validate that he was a member of the CCC in 1938, in Pullman, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. Craig remembers Dad telling stories of how he worked on the “Oregon Trail” to make it a paved road that could be used by cars. I don’t have any proof of that. It appears that the year was written down incorrectly on all the pictures of Dad’s CCC days, they all say 1936. The postcards I have all say 1938, and coincide with the dates stated in his official papers. My thought is that whoever made the photo album got the year confused. However, I used the original captions for authenticity.
What a fabulous program the CCC was, and what a wonderful job these young men did for our country, as well as for their families that desperately needed the additional income to survive. Of the thirty dollars they earned each month, twenty-five of it was automatically sent home to their parents. These young men built many of our National and State Parks, and countless other attractions that we all enjoy, and most of us take for granted. I hope you will take the time to research and learn more about the CCC, and what my father, Ernest, and many other young men like him accomplished during those years of economic recovery in our great country. Next time you go camping, or hiking, take the time to reflect on the young men that made it possible and send a prayer of thanks their way.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War. The generation of young men who joined the CCC, were ready and well equipped to fight for our country. My father was one of them, also. He joined the Navy on October 5, 1942, just three days after my mother’s 18th birthday, and eight months after their marriage. She, in turn, went to work at Curtis-Wright, where Dad had worked previously to joining the Navy.
It’s funny, all those times I studied WWII in school, I never associated my parents as having a significant part in history. They were just my parents. I never realized until now that my mother was one of the women who took one of the many jobs left empty by men going off to fight for our freedom. I never realized or appreciated the sacrifices either one of them made, so that the family they would later raise, could have a brighter future.
Our interesting family history doesn’t stop here. The 1960s brings us into the spotlight once again. The Sixties was the era of Vietnam, “Free Love,” The Beatles, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and then of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, to mention only a few. Some of these events are my earliest childhood memories. Our parents were the blue collar version of “Ozzie and Harriet.” In addition, my brother, Ernie, was a hippie in San Francisco, and my brother, Craig, dropped out of school and joined the Navy on his seventeenth birthday, and did three tours in Vietnam. Oh yeah, and I was the little sister that looked on and tried to absorb everything going on around her, but that’s another story.
I proudly present to you, my parents: Ernest and Harriet Ely. This is their story....
