Friday, April 29, 2005

Martha Chisholm: Kindergarten, Throwing cabbages off the train, & Trying on a gas mask


In Daly City, I loved kindergarten
When we used to take walks
we’d walk in fields of poppies
You couldn’t take a step
without stepping on poppies
I used to pick handfuls of poppies
I’d bring my mother bouquets of poppies
She’d meet me outside the house
our house was on the way to school
and I’d give her the poppies. 

I loved school.
We used to sing all these little songs
The supervisor went with us to the poppy fields
then we’d have to draw pictures of what we saw
We were awful little to be doing that
but we still loved it.

#

I had a wonderful childhood
We used to meet the train in Colma
They’d throw cabbages off the train
We’d get our little red wagon and collect them
and then we’d sell them for 5 cents each
in our neighborhood.
We’d drag our little wagon of cabbages home
I’d take them down our street
and sell them to everyone on the block

The train stopped where the gypsies lived
it was near the cemetery
They’d all collect cabbages up too
But we were afraid of them
I was always afraid of the gypsies

I never went near to them to find out
But they did never hurt us.
We used to play with their children
People said they would steal children

Martha Chisholm



I remember trying on a gas mask, I was 3 or 4
I remember when my girlfriend broke 
my glass doll, and how I cried. 
I remember when the war that started in Hawaii
We had to cover the windows at night
People were having their property taken
away from them, it was so terrible
It was just weeks after the bombing
It made me so sad. It was the land of termites. 

Martha Chisholm


My uncle was the first one to have a Ford, it was a Model T. He took me to the Santa Cruz Mountains. In those days all the Fords would overheat going over the mountain and had to pull over, but my uncle had a good Ford filled with cold water. We were too excited to sleep, that was a big thrill to go down to Santa Cruz. We loved going to their farm when we were kids. We played and played with our cousins. Something happened when we were playing. My brother got so mad, he locked my cousin in the room. My uncle was furious. We played and played until it was dark. Then my uncle took us home. It was a huge adventure to go over those hills, it was quite a thrill. 

—Martha Chisholm

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