Family comes to visit

Family Comes to Visit

The vast majority of my Mother’s extended family lived in Medford, Oregon while I was growing up. My maternal grandparents had settled there by the time my Mother was a young girl. Grandpa was a pharmacist and owned Hunter’s For Drugs but by the time I can remember much, he was retired and they had a lovely home not far from Medford High School.

Grandma & Grandpa's House in Medford

My mother’s sister, Auntie Jo and her husband Uncle Jack also lived in Medford. Uncle Jack had started a construction company and they had a passel of kids, seven in all, two girls, Mary Jo and Laura (both older than I) and five boys (John, Jim, Bill, Andy and Russ). It seemed to me that when I was growing up Auntie Jo was perpetually pregnant or had a tiny baby. I thought the whole experience of growing up in a big family and continually having new babies around was quite romantic and just the most perfect way of having a family.

The Batzer Clan

I loved to take our many trips to Medford and spend as much time as possible with the Batzer clan. I fell, age-wise right between John and Jim so I always had a friend to play with and when they boys got to the age where they didn’t want to play with their boring little cousin, I got to stay with Auntie Jo and play with the new baby. Mother’s brother, Uncle Jerry and his wife and family also lived in Medford although we spent much less time with their family (I think it was because Jerry’s kids were quite a bit younger than we were and Mom and Jerry never really got along). The fact that Medford was a good half a day’s drive from Longview may have been an advantage for everyone involved since we were far away from Mother’s family so that we didn’t get used to each other and close enough that we could visit them, or they could visit us every once in awhile. This made both groups have the excitement of the occasional out-of-town visitor come and the joy of seeing them leave once they’d gotten tired of having them around.
Occasionally Grandma and Grandpa would come up our way for a visit and eventually every Medford cousin got a chance to have an individual visit up north (I didn’t realize that the Kavanaugh kids never got individual visits to Medford until I was writing this story!) When Laura and Mary Jo came to visit, the oft’ told story goes that, all four girls came down with the chicken pox all at the same time and Mother nearly tore her hair out trying to get them all taken care of and healthy again so that they could go back to her sister none the worse for the wear. I think that the reason the Batzer kids got to come to visit us in Longview was because Mother and Auntie Jo thought that each kid needed a special time away from the incredibly rambunctious tribe of children; an individual time where each one was focused on and life was kind of quite (I’m sure they thought it was at least boring).

Mary Jo & Laura

Visit Longview

By the time that Bill came for his visit I was in eighth or ninth grade and he was probably in fourth or fifth. Bill Batzer was always onfe of my dad’s favorites. I think Daddy always rooted for the under-dog and Bill always seemed to be the one who stood out in the crowd simply because he seemed a little out of stepped with the rest of them. Bill was born bigger than life and laughed harder, joked more and seemed to be more of the bull in the china closet than most of the other kids. Dad thought he was a hoot. Bill always made him smile. Bill seemed to fit right into the family and Daddy was having a great time during his visit, mostly because he was glad to have another “guy” around rather than his overly female household (all of my brothers had grown

Bill Batzer

About the age when he came to visit

up and moved away from home by this time). Daddy’s usual evening schedule brought him home by 5:30pm. He would walk in the front door, sit down with the paper and rest for a few minutes until supper was ready. Our job was to make darned sure that dinner was on the table by the time he’d finished his daily read of the Longview Daily News. After dinner Dad would get up from the table and head into the living room for a rest on the couch. He would flip the television on turn the sound down a bit and ramble over to get a little nap while the women folk cleaned up the dishes from dinner. Bill caught on to this ritual very quickly and, since he wasn’t really part of the family, he was not instilled with the respect (and almost fear) of my father. As the days went by Bill got the idea that the nap on the couch could be made into a competition between him and Daddy, and that if Bill could get to the couch fast enough then Dad would have to sit in his rocking chair and Bill would get to stretch out on the couch. Daddy caught on to this ritual as soon as it started, and the compitition was on. Each day Dad would find a way to distract for Bill by asking him to take out the garbage or do one little thing for him. Bill always fell for it so Daddy never lost his resting spot. However, on one of the last days that Bill was visiting, Dad hesitated and a bit and Bill took a flying dash across the living room floor, landing fully spread out in Daddy’s nap space. Oh dear, all of us thought, what’s going to happen now? Will there be a battle of the wills or will dad just dump him off and recapture his territory. We all stood behind the kitchen door holding our collective breaths as Dad sauntered into the living room. Bill rolled over feigning sleep, and Dad without a pause Daddy said, "Bill, did you hear that the Barnum and Bailey Circus is in town today?" Bill groggily replied that he hadn’t heard that. Then Dad went out the front door and said that he could see the elephants coming down the street. Well, that did it for Bill he was up and running down the front steps as fast as he could to see those elephants, while Dad quietly slipped back onto his couch for his regular nap after dinner.