Ruth
Brubaker (Grandma) was the amazing glue that kept the family together. Throughout the family history, she is the one
constant force, apparent in either the background or leading the charge to live
life as a Brubaker. A well-educated
woman, she graduated from the Nebraska State Normal School and began teaching at
age 16. She married Grandpa and raised
her large family during the terrible economic times of the 1920s and
1930s.
An example
of Grandma Brubaker and her inner
strength comes from a collection of memories and oral histories, they all tell
the story about Grandma and her extended family when they moved to Boise, Idaho
in 1937. In an oral history from Charles
Brubaker, Jr, he explained: “We didn’t see dad (Grandpa Brubaker) much because
he was on the railroad. He worked
sixteen hours a day, when he worked.
When we moved to Idaho, he was supposed to trade seniority with a guy in
Idaho but the guy backed out. Dad was
stuck in Cheyenne while we were in Idaho.”
Grandma’s
extended family seems huge, and that caused some problems. In the Boise home the landlord allowed only
three children in the house. “When the
landlady came to collect the rent, us kids would have to hide,” dad said. “My
uncle was living with us; his wife and three kids; my mom and us eight kids and
my brother-in-law. It was wall to wall
people.”
Feeding this
huge group was another challenge to Grandma and the rest of the family. “My uncle and brother-in-law Bill went out to
pick fruit,” Dad remembered. “When they
got done the farmer couldn’t pay them (in cash) so he paid them in plums. We had a whole garage full of plums. We all ate those plums. I hate them to this day.”
Life in the
Boise house lasted only about one year. In
1938 the family moved to Midway, and later that same year moved into the city
of Nampa. Grandma’s resilience and
strength continued to shine through. But
those are more stories to tell at a later time.