summerdreams: January 2009

Barbra Maude Davis Cole, was born to John Thomas and elizbeth Billings Davis, Feb 6, 1900, in west Weber, Utah. She was born with a club foot which was bent up againt her ankle. her Mother and Father spent many hours rubbing it to straighten it out. They did such a good job no one could tell she had any problem.
In the summer of 1907, at the age of 7, Grandma came down with pneunonia. she was very ill, she told her daughter that while she was ill, she was with her Grandfather who had passed awawy a few years before. They rode in abuggy that was pulled by white horese. They went throught a covered bridge that was covered with beautiful climbing roes. when she got better, she told her Grandmother about it and her Grandmother said she knew about it that Grandma talked out loud to her Grandfather while she was so sick.
In 1918 she moved to whitehall, Montana with her folks. She became engaged to Charles Albert Cole. the first world war was going at that time, so they decided to wait till after the war to marry seeing that Grandpa was in the service. They was married 9 April 1919 in Butte, Montant. they had three children, Leslie Albert, Barbara, and Merlin.
Grandma had a happy childhood, she told of how her dad worked at the amalgamated sugar factory in West Weber. It was Grandma and her brother's play ground..... She loved to go into the sugar factory when they were processing the sugar beets. She said that the sugar would melt into a brown syrup on some of the pipes and they would stick their finger into the syrup to get a taste of it. It was hot and would burn thier fingers but they didn't care, the syrup would taste so good. She said at times all the tips of their fingers and thumbs would be burned from tasting the syrup. They would let them heal and do it all over again.
Grandma loved to ice skate and in the winter she would hurry and get her chores done so she could go skate on the pond at the sugar factory and there was a ditch also that froze and she said they would skate for miles on it also. She would skate from morning till night. Sometimes she would skate so long that her kegs would ache at night and her father would have to rub her legs so she would be able to go to sleep.
Holidays at Grandma's place was a happy time even though they didn't have much. she loved the holidays and the family being together at that time. Grandma was a wonderful cook as her Mother was. They would get together and cook for the holidays and we all enjoyed the special meals they prepared at this time. We enjoyed especially the pies, carrot pudding and candies that she has made.
She love getting together with her Mother, Dad and Uncle Floyd (her brother) and play pinocle way into the night. They would have the kids popcorn and wash apples. They would eat lots of popcorn and apples and play pinocle till 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. Grandma really looked forward to the winter evening and the pinocle games.