momstory1

Born Jan. 26, 1921 as Lyta Marie Shaffer in Terre Haute, Ohio
To Loren Orville Shaffer & Bertha Mae Roach Shaffer

1921 - 1936
Terre Haute was a very small community of about 80 to 100 people, all basically from farm related background, some worked in a bigger town (Springfield) in a factory.
My father was a finishing carpenter by trade, but worked at any job to support his family.
He worked a few times as a factory worker. (Fan factory, a foundry, etc.) Once as a helper in an apple orchard, making cider (a large orchard operation).
My mother stayed home and tended house and children as most wives did at the time. She taught her children to do many things around the house, inside and out (This would come in of great use later as she died when her children were young).
Bertha Mae became ill when she was only 35 and continued to be plagued with a nagging case of piaria of the gums (today just a simple dose of antibiotic would have cured her). She was ill for about 14 – 18 months, when finally was taken to hospital and there died. During my mother’s illness, she would guide me through the household chores. On the days when Mom was too sick to leave alone, I cooked and cleaned the house while my Pop was working. The teachers sent homework to me so I could keep up with my studies. I was also taught to crochet and embroidery. My mother tried to cram a lot of knowledge into the time I spent with her.
Towards the end, Mom told me things I should do for the smaller children after she was gone. It rained all day the day of the funeral. After the funeral, I became very ill and wanted nothing but for everyone to go home. A relative found me laying on the floor of the kitchen with a very high fever. I had developed scarlet fever. Later all the family left us to fend for ourselves. My Grandmother wanted the three children to come and live with her, but Pop said no.
There were a few ladies who tried to baby sit for us three children after Mother died, but we chased them off, one by one, until Pop said we would stay by ourselves while he worked (methods used were plain harassment of these ladies, by toads and other varmints).
The house we lived in was built by my Pop. (3-bed room house, one story) I’m not sure why we chose to live in Terre Haute except families tended to stay close together as each member married off and settled close to other family members. Pop had brothers and sisters with families, and his parents living close by also. They all watched after the children, as any small town does, and Pop and Mom knew what mischief we had been into before we (children) got home.
Mother being ill and dying when I was 14 left me caring for a younger brother and sister. I had to tend to meals, housework and my homework before going to school each day. If Mom was really sick, I stayed home to help care for her, missing school. After her death, chasing off the sitters of course only put more chores on me.
1934 I was sent off for the summer to help tend an ailing aunt at her home in Indian Lake. Everyone in the family knew my mother had taught me well to do housework, washing and ironing, so that’s why I was chosen. I enjoyed my time that summer, taking in the sites of a lakeside town with my cousins on my off times.
Indian Lake was a very popular resort, with big bands visiting from all over the U.S.
We were able to see quite a few big bands that summer. Benny Goodman was my favorite that summer.

When I turned 16, I was allowed to quit school to tend house full time and take a part time job caring for some of my relative’s homes when they were in need. School had been a building with about 5 or 6 classrooms heated with potbellied stoves. You carried your lunch to school and of course walked to school. Teachers at that time took a test after graduating 12 years of school and were given a teaching certificate. So no college was required for most teachers.
At 16 I applied for a driver’s license, all that was required was a birth certificate. I suppose they assumed your father would teach you to drive. Which is how things occurred in that time period. I learned on a Model T Ford.
As I was turning 17, my cousin Pearl was dating a young man named Ivan Young from West Virginia. He worked in Springfield in a factory. His cousin, from West Virginia, to look for work, accompanied him. His name was Winfred Hoffman. Pearl needed someone to go on a double date with her, Ivan and Winfred, so I was talked into this double date (Most dating happened this way, young couples were expected to be in groups to protect the young ladies reputations) Winfred was a tall slender young man with rust colored hair, so he was nicknamed “RED”. He played baseball with the summer groups of ball players around Springfield, and was very good at it. I ‘took’ to this young man. He had been sent to a CCC camp in West Virginia and Virginia for 18 months, from the time he was 16 to 18, and after went looking for work in Springfield.
The CCC was a group that was formed to construct bridges and parks and roads and other construction jobs around the U.S. at this time of the 30’s. It took boys and young men who were not old enough for military and the U.S. needed man power for the construction. They were given a wage and most of the money was sent home to help with household bills. Trades were learned and wages were earned so Red needing to help make money for his parent’s home quit school and joined the CCC’s. Such were a lot of situations during the depression.
Red returned home to West Virginia to help with earning a living, as his father James had been ill with TB. James had contracted TB while earning his living working in the coalmines. Shortly after in 1938 James died leaving 5 children for his wife, Maude' to make a living for. Red also played guitar and sang. At one point he attended an audition at a radio station. He didn’t get the job, but a young man who called himself ‘Grandpa Jones’ got the job. Later he was to perform on the Grand Old Opery and the TV show, HeeHaw. After he became famous, Red often joked about how ours lives would have been different had he gotten that job instead of ‘Grandpa Jones’
Red and I had been corresponding and he came to visit a couple of times a year. In October 1939 he sent a letter asking my father’s permission for me to come to West Virginia to marry. My father reluctantly agreed. I rode a train to Point Pleasant, West Virginia and we were married in Gallopolis, Ohio Oct.7, 1939, accompanied by Red’s sister Betty and His Grandfather, Robert Fogeslong.
Life in West Virginia was hard. Depression still there more so than Ohio. Ohio had more jobs for men at the time. Coal mining was about the only work in Point Pleasant. So back to Ohio we went and worked in Springfield factories and farms when factory work was slow.
1941 we had our first child (there had been 2 miscarriages before) Edwin (Eddie) Hoffman and in 1944 Delores Marie (after 1 miscarriage).