Melva the Independent

by Donna Swagerty Shreve

1919-2007

Even after writing a fifteen page essay about my mother’s life, I feel I did not capture one of her strongest traits. She learned from an early age to become very independent. Her mother left the family of four when Melva was only six years old. She and her brother were raised by an elderly father who worked long hours and left them alone for long periods of time during the day. Jesse, her father, hired various house keepers who helped with various chores and dragged the children to a variety of churches over the years. No matter the housekeeper, they usually left after a few years.

Mom could see something she wanted and then aim for it until she obtained it. When she was 8 or 9 and living in Seattle in 1926, she decided she should have swim lessons. The lessons were available at the local YMCA for free. So the next skill she needed was how to ride the city busses. She learned how to do both through her own determination.

Also during this time she and her brother spent most of Saturdays at the movies. Their father gave them money for show and snacks and off they went to spend the day. Jesse was back in the diner being the short order cook and owner running the business until he made enough of a profit to sell it and move on to the next adventure. He was determined to save enough money to get his farm back that he had recently lost to the bank.

Getting ideas from the Saturday movies, my mother and Ronnie observed various song and dance routines. These skills they used to compete in the local Wednesday night talent show in Seattle. They became very successful with this endeavor and brought home several bags of groceries as the winning prize. Their father was quite pleased with the extra groceries and would watch a dress rehearsal or two back at their residence but had little to do with this activity.

In high school Melva tried out for the drama productions. She given a lead in one of the productions and remembers being dropped during a scene where she was suppose to be carried across the stage by the male lead. After her fall, she had to improvise to make the scene work with the unexpected change in script.

Also during her school days she organized a rebellion against a teacher who droned on and on about a certain favorite poem of his. Within the poem was a line about “a light, a light,” and Melva thought it would be humorous to have the entire class stand up at that moment and all point in the same direction while repeating the line.

Clever idea if everyone went along with it. However, when the opportunity came for the classmates to stand together and perform, Melva was the only one. She was sent to the principal’s office for the first and only time.

While Melva was in high school she was allowed at age 14 to drive the neighboring students into town and the district paid Jesse for her service. Also during her senior year, she had a blow up with her father that resulted in her packing and leaving and getting a ride to Los Angeles. A cousin had offered her a bed if she ever felt she had had enough living with Jesse. She spent the last part of her senior year sleeping on a sofa at her cousin’s home.

Her senior year was the last time Melva ever lived at home again. After high school she found a job working at a resort in northern California called Hoberg’s. She made good money and was saving it up to pay for college. She attended then College of the Pacific and paid for it by working several jobs during the school year plus working full time during the summer.

After college, she married and had a family of four children. She was content as she tried to create for her children what she wished she could have had as a child. However, children grow up and leave. Mom had a teaching credential and had taught high school English but had to stay home after the second child was born to raise the children. She did some substitute teaching on and off as we grew up but never worked on a full time basis.

Later, after I was married and gone, my mother decided to get her librarian credential. She had already started an elementary library from scratch and now she wanted to be official and have her credential. The nearest librarian program was offered at San Jose State and it offered summer school classes. My sister Jane was training for the Olympics at this time and had lived with my father’s brother and wife the previous year.

Jane was at a point where she had to be make a decision. Should she quit or keep swimming and try to go as far as she could? Jane chose to keep on swimming and that was when my father asked his younger brother to let Jane live with them as she continued swimming with the Santa Clara swim team. After a year at Santa Clara High school Jane now needed a residence for the summer. This was when Mom decided she would enroll in the library credential program and rent an apartment near by.

Another swimmer needed a place during the summer so Mom had Jan Henne share a bedroom with Jane. Mom attended classes, studied and provided meals for the girls who had swim practices twice a day. After Jane’s morning practice on Saturday, Jane and Mom would drive back to Stockton and spend the weekend at home. It still amazes me that Mom was willing to be away from our father during the week and only see him on weekends.

August 26, 1968 the Olympic trials were held and Jane made the team. She was now moving on to an intense six week training at Colorado Springs. Mom returned to Stockton and went onto  become the librarian of the Lincoln Senior Elementary and a full time job. 

Years later I was invited by Mom’s step-brother Ernie to visit parts of Mom’s childhood when she lived with her family in Middletown. I finally convinced her to come with me. She was very tentative about even going on the trip. Ernie and Vickie, his wife, drove us around the area pointing out various landmarks both Ernie and Mom shared in their childhood.

Ernie stopped at Middletown High School and the four of us prepared to get out of the car. Mom stopped all of us and said she wanted to go inside and visit by herself. The three of us sat stunned back in the car and waited. I had checked my watch when she left so I could have an accurate measure of the time she was gone. Finally after 45 minutes I decided I should go check on her. At that moment she emerged from the front office. Once back in the car she related what had happened.

She went into the main office and introduced herself to the principal and two secretaries. She explained that she had attended that same high school back in the 1930s. The principal was so gracious and he gave her a grand tour of the campus. Melva added what the space looked like back in her day. The principal was quite interested and thrilled she had shared all of her knowledge with him. He gave her his information so she could write to him. He asked her to please write up what she knew about the history of the school and send it to him. Unfortunately she never got around to it.

I viewed my mother from the perspective as the oldest child. It was not until after she died that I started to remember various traits that I did not appreciate or understand until later. Because I keep writing up family stories, various themes or incidents continue to pop up for me to write.

1366 words

8/1/2023

• Back to Swagerty/Boone Stories
• Back to Stories