More Living Room Talk with Grandpa

Growing up during the Great Depression my grandfather learned: “You had to work and work hard and spend your money wisely.” Extra spending money was scare as was extra clothes, food, and toys. However, Fred worked hard to get what he wanted. When he was eight years old, he worked all summer to save up his money for a wagon that cost $13 from the Spegal Catalogue. When Fred was asked why he wanted the wagon so much he explained: “I thought that the wagon would make my life more enjoyable.” Fred knew the wagon was capable of expanding the boundaries of a little boy’s imagination and helping out with the chores such as carrying in firewood. Fred worked and worked hard. He and his father worked on a cotton farm and picked cotton all summer. When Fred picked cotton, he filled his bag so full that he was not able to carry it himself and had to have his dad carry the bag for him. At the end of the summer he finally had enough money to buy a wagon and asked his father permission to buy the wagon with his extra money. Even though Fred’s father worked two jobs, there still was not enough money to buy desperately needed school clothes. Fred was crestfallen when his father told him his hard earned money was going to be used to buy new clothes. He remembers this moment as being one of the greatest disappointments of his childhood. Since then he has always longed for a wagon, and he finally got one for Christmas a couple years ago.

In 1943, Fred moved to Lancaster, California from his hometown, Ashland, Oklahoma, to stay with his older brother. Fred’s older brother was a foreman on a ranch and because so many men were fighting in the war and laborers were hard to come by, Fred was asked to work even though he was only fourteen. Fred worked hard at any job, “If you work for a man he pays you a wage. You have to earn that wage. Honest days work for honest days pay.” Fred was proud to say that as a fourteen year old he was paid a man’s wage of $58 a week. Fred would operate the farm machinery and do other odd jobs. One of Fred’s most embarrassing moments happened while he was working. He was fourteen years old when he was driving the pickup truck around on the farm. As he was driving he approached an irrigation ditch. He needed to get on the other side and instead of finding an alternative route, he backed the truck up, accelerated, and tried to fly the truck over the ditch. Well, all did not go as planned. The truck nose-dived into the ditch. Luckily Fred was not hurt, but the truck was in pretty bad shape. Fred was able to back the truck out of the ditch, but while he backed the truck out he ran into a plow and snapped the handles off of the plow. In the mean time Fred’s brother and the boss came to see what happened. Fred denied the entire thing, which was embarrassing because it was clearly evident that nobody else could have crashed the truck and he lied to his brother. Fred’s brother was upset at him, but their boss told Fred’s brother to calm down, leave Fred alone, and go get the truck fixed. Despite the embarrassing mishap and long hours of work, in his free time Fred enjoyed taking his girlfriend out on dates. One time during the state fair, Fred spent $20 on one date, which was a lot of money, but that was fine with him because he figured he was the richest 14 year old around.

Living Room Talk with Grandpa

“Striving with all of your abilities to do good is what I tried to do.”

In the small, dusty farm community of Ashland, Oklahoma, Fred Maddox was born on May 15, 1930. He was the last of seven children born to Victor and Roxanne Maddox. Roxanne was English and Dutch, and Victor was Irish. Fred also had a half brother, Guy who was born to Victor and Eva Maddox. Eva was Victor’s first wife who died of tuberculosis when Guy was five. Several years after the death of Victor’s first wife, he married Roxanne. One of Fred’s first memories as a child was when he was four years old. He remembers when his mother sat down and talked to him and his sister Louise, and explained that she was going to the hospital. That was the last memory he had of his mother. Roxanne went to the hospital to have a hysterectomy and because of surgical complications and hemorrhaging she died during the surgery. Victor never remarried, despite the attempts made by Fred’s older brothers to find their father a new companion.

When Fred was 14, he remembered when it was just him and his father living together. One morning Fred woke up and his father was sitting on the side of the bed. Fred got out of bed and went around to sit next to his father. As Fred sat down next to his father and put his arm around him, he noticed that his father was crying. His father was crying and was looking a picture of his first wife. Fred quietly asked him what was wrong. His father replied: “I was just thinking of my first wife. There’s no love like your first love.” Fred’s father told him how kind and strong she was and how much he missed her. Losing his first love, Eva, and then losing his second wife, Roxanne, was a great struggle for Fred‘s father. Growing up without a mother was one of the greatest struggles for Fred as well. When Fred was fourteen, he remembered the effects of not having a mother. “I came to realize the impact on life of not having a mother, which bothered me a lot. I would frequently ask God why I didn’t have a mother.” Fred believed that not having a mother helped strengthen his character and helped him rely on himself to do things on his own. Fred would have the responsibility of cleaning the house and doing the laundry¾chores a mother would typically take care of. Fred did not mind doing the extra work, but has always questioned why his mother was taken away from him at such a young age.