“Up until the 1980s, it was thought that babies and young toddlers lived in a perpetual present. … The paradigm of the perpetual present has now itself been forgotten. Even infants are aware of the past, as many remarkable experiments have shown. Babies can’t speak but they can imitate, and if shown a series of … Continue reading “Toddlers remember better than you think”
Willems Family History
Early Marriage
Sixty-one years ago this week I stepped on a Pan American plane at Los Angeles Internation Airport headed for Tokyo, Japan. There I would marry the boy who would become the father of my two daughters. I was seventeen years old. My groom was nineteen. We had not seen each other in over a year, … Continue reading Early Marriage
Old Photos: Golden Anniversary
Lena & Jacob Willems, 50th Anniversary February 1959 The marriage of my grandparents, Jacob and Lena Willems, lasted until Grandma’s death on August 1, 1963. They lived long enough to see their 50th anniversary celebrated by their children, grandchildren and even a few great-grandchildren. It was a big crowd in the Dinuba Mennonite Brethren church … Continue reading Old Photos: Golden Anniversary
Old Photo: The Family 1947
The photo below was probably taken in January 1947 when the family gathered for the wedding of my father’s sister Martha to Lowell Long, my Uncle Ed’s best buddy from high school days. Lowell and Ed were living with my parents when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War II. Two … Continue reading Old Photo: The Family 1947
Old Photo: Willems Family 1930s
During the 1930s Depression, my grandparents, Jacob and Lena Willems, leased three different farms from the California Land Bank. The first was near the town of Reedley; the second was just a half-mile east of Dinuba; the third was near the tiny town of Orosi a few miles east of the farm in Dinuba. The … Continue reading Old Photo: Willems Family 1930s
Chapter 14: Madera County: 1922-1929
Note: To read earlier chapters, click on the desired title in the “Chapters” section of the sidebar on the right or at the bottom of the page. Berenda-Dixieland-Fairmead “You moved to Fairmead after Grandview?” “Well no, see, from Berenda to Dixieland and from Dixieland to Fairmead and from Fairmead back into Dixieland—the Dairyland area. … Continue reading Chapter 14: Madera County: 1922-1929
Chapter 13:California 1919-1922
Note: To read earlier chapters, click on the desired title in the “Chapters” section of the sidebar on the right or at the bottom of the page. “The San Joaquin Valley, 250 miles long and 40 miles wide, comprises the largest continuous block of agricultural land in the state. On the vast plains of the … Continue reading Chapter 13:California 1919-1922
Chapter 12: Reedley
Promised Land Oregon seems to have attracted the first M.B. families moving westward, but California soon became the “promised land” for most Mennonite Brethren. The first church to be organized was the Reedley congregation in 1905. This church, beginning with fourteen charter members, has grown to be not only the largest Mennonite congregation in California, … Continue reading Chapter 12: Reedley
Chapter 11: Lena & Jacob 1909-1919
Note: To read earlier chapters, click on the desired title in the "Chapters" section of the sidebar on the right or at the bottom of the page. “On February 6, 1909, [Jacob C. Willems] was united in holy matrimony to Lena Zimmerman at Rosthern, Saskatchewan by the Rev. Brown. As a young couple they settled … Continue reading Chapter 11: Lena & Jacob 1909-1919
Chapter Ten: Waldheim
Note: To read earlier chapters, click on the desired title in the "Chapters" list in the right sidebar or at the bottom of this chapter. Recreating a sense of the past involves many things: memory, family stories and records as well as much original source material as one can find. This chapter pulls together the … Continue reading Chapter Ten: Waldheim
