Episode 22 - January 1999 - Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

January 1999

This series of posts on each Friday, moving forward during 2016 will continue the stories of “The Homeplace Saga” series of family saga, historical fiction families in the area of Oak Springs following the novel “Christmas at the Homeplace,” which ended as 1997 began.

Earlier, we have seen the community move from January 1997 through December 1998. We are now in January of 1999, in episodic serial format…

Episode 22 - Jennifer with Karen and Christopher, mid-morning on Wednesday

[From Episode 21:

Karen: No, I think that was all. It was striking, however, how strong the memory was for Virginia when she talked about it. She became visibly upset, and I had to excuse myself and end the conversation. Also, I cannot believe they never heard from Ethel, again. Those were certainly different times.]

Jennifer asked to meet Karen and Christopher in his office, at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. She had the following information to share with them.

Jennifer: There are occasional “Snooki” references in William’s journals, but the following ones appear to include wording that may be useful clues, for our purposes.

June 22, 1929:

“Snooki to follow her dream.”

July 14, 1929:

“Took care of Snooki. Sent with her in Mason box, to remember me by.”

Then, nearly ten years later, we have these entries.

April 26, 1939:

“Snookie has great news.”

May 2, 1939:

“Haven’t heard from Snooki.”

This was actually the last entry in his journal. William died four days later on May 6, 1939, of a heart attack. I checked on the death certificate we have on him, to verify this.

Christopher: So, the ‘follow her dream’ entry fits with what Virginia told Karen.

Karen: That does appear to confirm the dates Virginia mentioned.

Christopher: The ‘took care of Snooki” may be the one I was looking for. That gives me a date to work on. This afternoon, Edith Brown, my dad’s secretary, and I are going over to the bank vault, to search the records of my grandfather, C.P. Odgen, who would have been the lawyer in town in 1929. Before Dad died, he reminded me to have Edith show me where those very early records are kept. We went and looked at them once, but were not looking for anything particular, at that time. With this date, we have something to go on, to pinpoint our search. That is, If there is anything there, from William, of course.

Karen: I imagine the ‘great news’ entry is about the birth, if that coincides with Bruce’s birthday. The last entry is very sad. William apparently died without hearing anything more.

Jennifer: That is certainly the way I read it as well. I wonder why he didn’t hear from her, or the family never said anymore about it.

Christopher: I’ll be talking to Bruce, tomorrow, about those dates. Let’s not say anything about this to the others, just let. Let me see what I find, and I’ll talk to Bruce more tomorrow. Then, we’ll go from there. Agreed?

Karen: Agreed.

Jennifer: Agreed. And, best of luck.

Christopher: Thank you.

[To be continued - next Friday]

"May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind."

Dr. Bill  ;-)