Stella in Mount Rainier, Washington
Stella is born in the mid-30s. Her name is Latin for
"star." 
She is the second of two girls. Her sister is 8 years older than she is and she doesn't have many memories of her being around.
Stella is a spoiled and stubborn child and is known about the neighborhood for being a bit of a brat. One day her father threatens to spank her for not coming home for supper. The whole town hears about this and shows up to see Stella finally get spanked. But first her father asks her why she didn't come home for supper. She says, "because I didn't want to."
Her father tells everyone gathered around that he can't spank a child for telling the truth.
He is a mechanic during the depression. He has built and owns his own garage.
Judy Garland Interlude
Luckily he has a contract with the city to fix their trucks. But even the city is broke during the depression and they end up paying him with scrip.
Her parents fight alot about where to live. Her father wants to live in Rainier where the work is. Her mother wants to move back to Tacoma where they can live in a house instead of the back of a dirty garage. For a while her parents separate and live in separate towns.
What a cluck you are!
Stella remembers throwing rocks at bottles sitting on this fence during World War II, pretending the bottles are enemy airplanes.
This is her dog Chumpy who reportedly does not like Model T Fords and barks at them every time they come into the garage. The dog prefers Chevys, as does her father.
This is the picture of a poem hanging in Stella's childhood bedroom.
Levi in San Carlos, Arizona
Levi is born in Arizona where his father works as a forest ranger on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.
When Levi is a baby, his mother has to go to the Methodist Tuberculosis sanitarium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now part of the University of New Mexico campus.
Levi is sent to Roy, New Mexico, where his Aunt Aletha and older cousin Edith take care of him. Edith likes to pretend that Levi is her own baby and hopes when his father comes back to pick him up, Levi won't remember him and will then live with them forever. But Levi runs to his father when he arrives and Edith is very disappointed. She will tell this story for years afterwards.
The Poem
Unlike the Judys and the Mikeys
I am not a victim. In any way
you can see anyway.
I'm a tough one, a clear wind blowing
over the mountains in our way.
The clouds are far behind me
and time goes by slowly like a tide
moving along the curved beaches,
the water eroding the brown mesas,
feeding the valleys.
My mother moves us through
then disappears. I am a horse
across the green blur. Birds fly
above and over the rainbow
and turn into aeroplanes.
Levi is the youngest of two boys. His brother is 7 years older than he is and he doesn't have many memories of him being around. Levi is a spoiled and stubborn child and his brother later remembers him skipping school to play under a bridge.
Dum dum!
His brother is tasked with convincing him to go to school but he says he could never could talk Levi into doing anything he didn't want to do.
Levi's family likes to pose him with guns in front of turkeys and bears as a lark. He never injures himself although later remembers that while he is practicing his quick draw in his bedroom in Stewart, Nevada, he shoots a hole in the floor which is still there to this day.
Levi has a lot of cousins who live in Roy, New Mexico. Levi is the youngest.
Levi loves Tex Ritter records and his mother says he drives them crazy playing this one song over and over again.
Tex Ritter Interlude
Levi visits his grandfather every summer. His grandfather is a cattle rancher who once survived the dust bowl buying up homesteads for back taxes. Levi's grandfather is very attached to Levi because he looks just like the son he lost in World War II.
