Twila

Twila Mae Worley, was born September 15, 1927 at home. Her father, Gerald, gave the potato harvest crew a day off on September 16. Quite unheard of then.

Twila writes, “I did outdoor chores as well as indoor, but never learned to milk. When I got old enough, I had to wash the separator. Hated it! When I got to go to school then began the ‘diseases’. I caught everything and with complications. I missed a lot of school, but thanks to some very great teachers, kept up with my class. We always had long bus rides since we lived in the northwest corner of the school district.

All the Worleys went to Grandpa and Grandma’s at least once a month if possible. Neighbors gathered in the summer to play softball, visit and eat cake and homemade freezer ice cream. There were so many laughs and such good play and food. In 1935, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Mildred, Madelen and baby Larry moved to another farm east of Sargent School. I was devastated. Madelen was my best friend , my playmate and that was so far away!

December 7, 1941, we’d gone to Sunday school and church. When we got home Grandpa was there to tell us about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He had a good radio which he listened to all the time. We’d planned to go to Kansas for Christmas, and we did. (Last time as a family). Mom stayed when Dad, Carl and I came home. Mom and her siblings were trying to settle their parents’ estate. Mom got sick and had to have surgery. Dad went back to be with her, leaving Carl and me at home to go to school and do chores. I don’t remember how long Dad was gone, but it seemed forever. A neighbor came to stay with us at night and bring supper. We had to wake her up before we got on the bus in the morning. Mom finally came home in March. Carl was a 6^th grader and I was a Freshman. Dad bought me a pair of the most elegant gabardine pants to wear when I went to the livestock sales with him. He also got me some rayon hose. Boy was I elegant. The hose were baggy as heck, but they weren’t cotton!

A big part of our life was 4-H, along with school and church. A red-letter day for me was my 16^th birthday. Dad was waiting for me when I got off the bus and we went to Del Norte to get my driver’s license. He’d called the examiner to make sure he’d still be there when we got there. Now I could take us places and the neighbor kids, too, mainly to Christian Endeavor at the Sargent Church. Then, at age 17 I drove a school bus. My route was 28 miles every morning and evening. That year most of the drivers were girls. No extra going, however, because of rationing of gasoline, tires, meat, coffee, sugar. We had meat because we butchered our own pigs and calves for the whole family.

I went to Colorado A & M, Fort Collins that fall as a very “green, naïve” freshman. I had to take my share of the food ration stamps to give to the personnel at the dormitory when I checked in. Mom and Dad took me and my stuff. They returned to Fort Collins when I graduated in 1949. The public bus was part of the transportation back and forth, or friends who had cars.

There were very few cars owned by college students those years. Colorado A & M was a small college in 1945, but grew by leaps and bounds when the G.I.’s started coming to school.

After college graduation I signed a contract to teach science in Wray, Colorado for $2400 (good salary in 1949). It was a hard year in many ways. In the spring of 1950, four of us first year teachers were informed that we weren’t to be rehired – a low blow! I came home very discouraged but got on a bus for Kansas to help with wheat harvest. On my way back home I stopped over in Holly, Colorado, for an interview (the college placement office had kept in contact with me even in Kansas). I got a contract to teach junior high science. I helped out at home the rest of the summer and went to Holly to teach that fall. I had better housing than in Wray, but had my teaching assignment changed to 4^th and 5^th grade overflow, also elementary P.E. and 4-6 music (cause I could play the piano). Poor kids! I was busy!

In February I met Bob Butler. (Robert William Butler was born November 1, 1924.) He’d come to visit his sister and her family Theda, Harvey and Judy Kellner. Theda and Harvey were teachers also. Bob came back to Holly whenever he could, called lots. He was a salesman for Carlson-Frink Dairy out of Denver, traveling Colorado, Western Kansas, New Mexico, Wyoming and the Dakotas. He gave me a ring the last of April. I did not sign a renewal contract offered me in Holly. We were married August 4, 1951 at my parents’ home.

We got a house in Arvada. I took a job at CU Medical Center as a research lab technician. We did research on Cortisone and ACTH using dogs for our experiments. That project ended and we were starting on an Army contract when I resigned. Bob resigned his job at Carlson-Frink, and we came home to help Dad farm. We lived in the tenant house (three rooms and a path), but we did have electricity and a well. That was a cold winter. One sunny morning Bob made his early trip to the outhouse, came in and said it was really cold. Later he went to pump some water and his hands stuck to the pump handle. That day we found out that it was -50 degrees that morning. Later I found that I was indeed pregnant, then Bob had a ruptured appendix and I nearly miscarried. Things were not going too smoothly. Bob and Dad did well together, but there were problems otherwise. After harvest Bob kept helping Dad but got a part-time job with the Monte Vista Police Department. In January 1953 Bob applied for a job with La Junta Police Department, and was accepted. We moved to La Junta, no house but a job. We stored our stuff and stayed with Bob’s sister and brother-in-law.

Our son, Robert Mark, was born February 11, 1953 in La Junta, Colorado. I was in the hospital ten days and when Bob brought us home it was to a rented house of our own. Bob had cleaned it, moved all our stuff in and brought us home to it. ‘Twas so nice!

Bob started working at Montgomery Ward on his off hours. I applied for a teaching job and started that fall. Bob Mark was six months old. This time I taught Science, Health and Girls’ P.E. at the junior high school. M

Bob, Bob Mark and I moved around, changed jobs and were a real worry to Mom. She could not accept that each change was for the better. We were always welcome at home, however.

When Bob was on the Colorado State Patrol, we were transferred to the Valley. I taught at Sargent School, Bob Mark attended K-5 there. We tried to help Mom and Dad as much as possible. Dad taught Bob Mark to walk potato rows along with a lot of other things. Good years for us. One year Dad’s last horse, Ted, had died, so he had to put a tractor on the potato sorter in the field. School was out for harvest so he asked me to drive for him. The crew was very upset because they had decided one of them would drive. The pelted me with potatoes on and off, but I did not quit. Sure got sun-burned.

Bob had resigned Patrol, went to college, got his B.S. and was moved to Pueblo, then Wetmore. May 1971: Mom and Dad came to see us in Wetmore and to attend Bob Mark’s graduation from Canon City High School. They came over on Saturday, cutting across from Cotopaxi. They were fascinated with the ranches through that area. Graduation was Sunday afternoon at the football stadium. Two hundred twenty-six graduated that day. The weather was nice and all went well. They left for home after the ceremony to get to Annette’s Baccalaureate and her graduation the next day. They went to all of their grandchildren’s high school graduations.

We moved back to the Valley at Thanksgiving time 1971. We tried to help Dad as much as possible. Sometime along the line the pigs had gone, the milk cows and the chickens, but he still had his sheep. Bob Mark graduated from CSU March 1975 and came back to work with us, farming and an irrigation company. He bought Dad’s two quarters that spring. Dad had a farm sale so was out of farming at age 81. He helped Bob so much with his new endeavor. Bob Mark told his grandfather that he was going to put up a sprinkler. Dad was not happy, but said o.k. since this is now yours. Dad would not even watch the sprinkler being erected. That fall Dad did watch the grain trucks go out, knew exactly how many. Then he started bragging to his friends about how much wheat Bob Mark had harvested. The next spring he offered to check sprinklers for Bob Mark and asked to learn how to start and stop them."

Story by Twila Worley Butler, December, 2000

Robert William Butler died December 15, 1978.

Twila Mae Worley Butler died

Child of Twila and Robert Butler:

    Robert Mark Butler was born February 11, 1953, in La Junta, Colorado.