Guest Blogger- Left Bank Granny about Vake's great-grandmother, Mildred Goers Sampson

Here's interesting information that I got from Sue, Vake's grandmother about Mildred Goers Sampson. "Milly" is the wife of Reynold Vake Sampson, for whom our little Vake is named. Sue, thanks so much for getting all this information down- I've divided it into sections that seem logical to me. I've got a picture of Milly that was taken recently that I am going to try to add today.


Milly's Birth, the Move to Chicago and the Depression:

She was born on 27,May 1922 on a wheat ranch in Saskatchewan,Canada, to American parent Edith and Emil Goers. when she was about 4, her younger sister Evelyn was born with a cleft palate, so the whole familymoved to Chicago, IL, where doctors at Cook County hospital were performing surgery on infants with cleft palate and the related syndrome, "hare lip." Emil got a job finishing pianos, and Edith worked in a dry-cleaning shop.When the depression hit after 1929, the piano industry ended, and the familywas incredibly poor until Emil got a job in the post office, that he workeduntil he could retire. The family included five children, Edison, Arthur,Mildred, Evelyn and Walter. They were Missouri Synod Lutherans living in anIrish Roman Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, next to thestockyards. That was enough to get the Goers kids into fights: they accusedthe Irish Their neighbor across the street of being "idol worshipers," andgot into a few brick fights. Milly lost her front tooth in a brick fightwhen she was hit with what she called an "alley apple." The Salvation Armyvisited their neighborhood to bring children their Christmas gift. They gotan orange, and a choice of one toy. One year, Milly chose a statuette of ahorse. Another time, she chose paper dolls. Her brother Art tore the headsoff her paper dolls, so she filled his harmonica with salt and corroded itsreeds, ruining it. A neighbor across the street was a Port Commissioner whofixed her brother's driving tickets. A bomb went off on his porch one night.The dirigibile "Hindinberg" flew over one day, but try as she might, witheverybody pointing, Milly never did see it. Another neighbor was RichardDaly, who played music with her brothers, and who later became the notorious"Mayor Daly" of Chicago. Yet another set of neighbors who played guitarwith her brothers became known as "Flatt and Scruggs," bluegrass musicianswho did the theme from the movie "Deliverance."

Milly's Childhood:

But as a kid, Milly was as skinny as a rail, probably from malnutrition. The family ate oatmeal threetimes per day, with cinnamon at dinner time to make it special. Her mother,Vake's great-great grandmother, traded home-made bread for horse manure to a vendor who came through the neighborhood in a horse-drawn wagon, so she could fertilize a "Victory garden." The school district thought Milly was way too skinny, so they issued her a hooded sweatshirt and sent her to class in a "fresh air" room, where the windows were left open to let the wind blow off of Lake Michigan. When her brother Arthur developed aninfection in the mastoid area behind the ear, and this was before antibiotics, he had to have treatment at the Cook County hospital. Bothparents worked, so Milly was sent along to see that Art got to his appointment. They had 5 cents for the street car. Instead, they walked,and spent the money on candy. Art got three cents, because it was his ear.Milly spent her 2 cents on caramels, but had to give one to Art, because itwas his ear. Once a stranger stopped his car next to Milly as she played onthe street, and enticed her got get in. He drove her to a nearby cafe, bought her a bowl of chili, and drove her home again. To this day, she enjoys chili. She and Art went to the theater to see a Bella Lugosi horror flick, and were so scared that they held hands and ran down the center of 43rd street, all the way home. Milly loved to read, including Zane Gray andS herlock Holmes, but her mother would see her lamp reflected off the housenext door, and yelled at her to turn the light off. Then, she read under the covers. In 1933, she attended the Chicago World's Fair, and got in forfree on "freckle day" for anybody who had more than 5 freckles. She had so many that they let her cousin Murial come in with her, although Murial had none, because Milly had enough for them both.


High School:

When the depression began to alleviate, girls who had dropped out of school began to return to class,and created lots of conflict because they wore lipstick and plucked their eyebrows. Milly graduated from Inglewood High School, whose most famous graduate a few years later was Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote "Raisin in theSun." Milly completed a career tract in high school, and went to work as a private secretary who could type and who could take dictation in shorthand. Her first job with Spiegel catalogs was working nights, and she could not sleep days, so she was becoming badly run down, and her parents made her quit the job. She got another with Westinghouse, and dutifully turned overa portion of each check to her parents for rent. She saved enough forhorse-riding lessons.

World War II and "Ray":

When WW II broke out, many sailors were being trained at Navy Pier in Chicago. One day she and her cousin Muriel were bowlingwhen some sailors hooted and whistled and tried to pick them up. Milly was indignant, "We aren't dogs!" but discovered that Muriel was winking at thesailors. The guys caught up with them, and walked them home. A skinny guy from Oregon, Reynold Vake Sampson, to a shine to her. When they talked about flowers, and she was not familiar with daffodils, he took her to a florist but was horrified to learn that they wanted 25 cents per stem. He offered to take her to Oregon, some time, to see fields of daffodils in bloom. She was irritated from time to time when he came calling, because an Irish womanup the street would invite him in for a drink before he got to Milly'shouse, and he would accept. When he shipped out, he said he would write,and he did. When she turned 21, Milly enlisted in the Women's Army Corps.Before reporting to duty, she went west to Seattle to see "Ray," as they called him. They took a bus over the Cascades to Wenatchee to visit Vake's brother Gene, who was training flyers at Pangborn field. On their way back to Seattle, the brakes on their bus caught fire as they were winding downthe hills past the Snoqualmie falls. Eventually, she caught a troop train back to Chicago to report to duty, and "Ray" was sent to Pearl Harbor,Hawaii. Milly reported to duty and completed basic training at Ft. Worth,Texas. She and Muriel had enlisted together--now they had to choose assignments. Muriel chose to serve at the Pentagon,and eventually worked atthe Yalta conference. Milly chose active duty, and shipped out on theformer luxury liner, the Lurlene, to Australia. From there, she worked at New Guinea and the Philippines. While she was on a flight from Australia to New Guinea, her airplane developed an oil leak, and had to set down on thenorth coast of Australia near a village of reputed cannibals. Milly had herphoto taken with a big-bellied chief with his hair in a huge "'fro." When they departed the next day,the WACs thanked the locals for theirhospitality, and asked what they could do to repay the kindness. Theindiginous people asked for shaving mirrors, so the WACs left their compacts. In Manila, every night a Japanese bomber flew over, and the WACs ran from their tents to seek cover in grub-filled trenches. One day, thetroops partied and left a big mess. Commanders ordered all personnel to clean it up. Milly didn't drink and didn't smoke and wasn't about to cleanup after those who did. She sat at her typewriter pounding out work, angry smoke blowing out of her ears. A rumor persisted that a major weapon was going to end the war, and one day, it did.

Milly and Vake:

Milly was asked to go to Japan to serve in General MacArthur's army occupational army, but she got a note from Evelyn Sampson (wife of Reynold Vake's older brother John) that Reynold Vake Sampson had been discharged from the Navy and was seeing an old girlfriend. Milly took her discharge and hurried home. She and Reynold Vake Sampson were married in Chicago in January of 1946.She wore a knee-length dress with a nipped waist, high-heeled shoes, and a hat withartificial birds on it perched on the front of her head.

Milly and Vake have Sue:

They resumed civilian life at Bridge, Oregon, and I, the grandmother of Reynold Vake Blaine Martin, was born at nearby Myrtle Point, Oregon, a year and a half later. They were married for over 50 years until the end of his life in 1997. Sue has lived at Snoqualmie, where the brakes caught fire; and Sue has a house directly across the Columbia River from Pangborn field, where Milly visited Gene.

Milly today:

She will be 87 years old on May 27, and unfortunately, personality and integrity and wit and indendence and fortitude are hidden are lost in a miasma of Altzheimer's. But Sue has no doubt that she would be as pleased as Sue is to know that her first great-grandchild was named after her husband, and Sue's dad, Reynold Vake.