then

Florence Emma and William Hutchinson had three children. My Gammy was their oldest, Lola Katherine Parks. She was born in 1943 in Portland, Oregon. They drove to Portland so they could have Gammy at a hospital in a big city. Gammy spent her early childhood in Longview. She and her siblings, Baba and Bill, would visit the keeper on the grounds who raised piglets. 

 

Around first grade, her father, William, moved the family to Yakima where he bought out the Coca-Cola plant. They lived in a nice house on top of a hill with a park at the bottom. Gammy and her siblings would play at the park and ignore her mother’s whistles to come inside. When they ignored her, her father fashioned a switch out of a willow tree and swatted at their ankles. 

 

During secondary school, Gammy went to Annie Wright, a private boarding school in Tacoma. Gammy was very involved and enjoyed acting and oil painting. Her parents sent her to school because they wanted her to have a good education in the event that her husband died. Her father died the spring before high school graduation. Her mother decided that her brother and sister should move down to Georgia to be closer to family and for Bill to be around male influence. 

 

Gammy’s father wanted her to go to Emory, but she didn’t want to go because she didn’t care that much about school. Her grades were poor, but the Parks family pulled some strings to allow her to attend on academic probation. Gammy didn’t like Emory, so she came back out to Washington and went to the University of Washington. She lived in McMahon where there were 3 people living in a 2 person room. She felt like she was spending her whole life with her nose in a book, which she didn’t enjoy. She was also a Kappa Kappa Gamma, but couldn’t live at the house at UW, only attend the meetings. She would go skiing at Snoqualmie with her friend Fred from junior high. She had a friend Mickey from Yakima who she went to the Space Needle with when it had just opened. 

 

After a quarter at UW, her mother had fallen ill and Gammy dropped out of UW to take care of her back in Newnan. She applied to Auburn and graduated from there. Auburn was close to home in Newnan and she would drive back on the weekends in her Buick Skylark. 

 

After graduation, she did her student teaching in a mill town. She didn’t enjoy teaching and wanted to be a secretary, but her father wanted her to be a teacher. She was engaged for 2-3 months. He was a very controlling man who insisted that Gammy call him as soon as she came off of work. One time, she didn’t call him and he drove to her work and almost ran her off the road. She broke off the engagement, but he wouldn’t let her. She packed the ring in the box before she flew out for a three month trip to Europe and had her mother send the ring back. When she got back from Europe, she called Ms. Jenkins, who was the head of Annie Wright, and asked for a job. Ms. J offered her a position in California as a teacher at a Bishop’s school in La Jolla. 

 

When she was in California, Gammy went to dinners at her family friends’ Peg and Larry. Her future husband, Craig George, my PaG, was also close to the family and heard that she was in town. Gammy and PaG’s mothers knew each other and PaG wanted to meet Gammy. They wouldn’t give him her number until he lost weight, but he got it anyway. PaG called her for a dinner date and they went to get dinner at a beach club. 

 

Gammy and PaG had met when they were kids and his family came to Longview. Gammy only remembers meeting Burt, PaG's older brother, because he was handsome and PaG was just the little brother and “didn’t impress her much.” They had fed horses at the stables. 

 

PaG had never officially proposed, they just decided. One night, Gammy was at Peg and Larry’s, had a lot to drink, and Gammy said they were getting married. She called PaG who was on a ship a day out from San Diego and told him he’d said they were engaged. PaG told her, hang up, I need to call my parents. 

 

Gammy and PaG got married in the Baptist Church in Newnan. She wanted the Episcopal Church, but it was too small, so they brought the cross to the Baptist Church. The minister who officiated the wedding was the son of the next door neighbor. PaG didn’t know anyone, so his groomsmen were cousins. Gammy’s only attendant was Baba.  

 

After the wedding, they got on a ship in Mississippi and sailed around the tip of Florida before the ship was given to the Navy. Couples on board got a room with bunk beds and PaG had to stand watch. The ship docked in Norfolk where Gammy got off and drove to San Diego. She went with another woman and it was the first time she had stayed in motels without reservations. 

 

My uncle Tom was born in San Diego while PaG was deployed. He cost $5.50 to be birthed at the Naval Hospital. They lived in Chula Vista and PaG wanted to make more money so he left the Navy to work as a salesperson for Purina. He was not good at it and he was unhappy, so when there was an opportunity to go back to the Navy he took it. Trini was born in San Diego when PaG was taking a break from the Navy. 

 

They moved to Pennsylvania where PaG was stationed and my mom was born. They moved to Washington D.C., Okinawa, Minneapolis, Belgium, Chicago. PaG retired when they were in Chicago. They ended in Minnesota because that’s where all the kids wanted to be. PaG worked at the Nordstrom in the Mall of America in brass plumbing. Gammy also worked at Nordstrom as the secretary for Erik Nordstrom. Gammy’s still on their Christmas mailing list. 

 

From Minnesota, they moved out to Washington where Tom and my mom had settled with their families. They bought a beautiful, historic home in Dayton, WA.