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“This is Warren, Vermont. ‘The old home’ South Hollow, in
Warren, Vermont [taken in 1949]. This is where my grandfather [George
Henry] Robinson, after his wife [Julia Miller Robinson] died, lived in
this house.... On furlough we’d spend some time in Long Beach
with my mother’s folks, coming by ship across the Pacific, and
then travelling across the country and spending some time with my
father’s folks. And I was born—although this is Warren,
Vermont, where my father’s father and mother lived; they moved
to Warren. And I was born in Barre, because that’s where the
hospital was.”
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“And here is my other grandmother. When we came back [from
Warren] to go to China, and this is grandmother [Adda Wooley]
Stambaugh, again in Long Beach; 337 Carroll Park West. Does Jim
have roller skates? Oh Harold has roller skates [laughs]! Very
good. And Jim, looking very proud. And me looking a little
weird...befuddled is right: ‘what is all this about?’
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“This is my grandmother [Julia Miller] Robinson. The
only picture I have of her.... This was after I was born
and I must have had a lot of people loving me at that point.
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“This is a picture of Grampa [HWR]. When he would go to Vermont
he loved to go out and harness up the plow horse or something and go
out and pretend to be a farmer, which was supposed to be his...he
was supposed to have been a farmer.... But I think it was a later
furlough. I don’t think it was when I was born.”
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“And, here we are again, still in Long Beach, but Uncle Guy
and Aunt Bess have come down to be with Guy’s parents—this
is grandfather Stambaugh, and when he was in his nineties he had just
as thick an amount of hair as he did when he was a young man. He was
a hippie from early times, he pulled his hair to keep it healthy. And
if you want to keep yours healthy you’d have to keep pulling
it...that’s what he did. And he had his full head of hair when he
died, and practically black too, it didn’t turn very gray.
And he and his wife didn’t have a very easy time. She was a very
good church woman and he was who he was. Harold told me that at
some point grandmother Stambaugh actually threatened to divorce
him and left him for a while. Which must have been something in
those days. I mean these women had got a lot of spunk.
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“Here’s Sidney who became the ballet dancer.
Here’s Betty Jeanne who lives down in, I haven’t
heard from her—I think she’s still alive though. She
moved out of Mexico City to Cuernavaca.... Aunt Bess and Uncle
Guy [were Betty Jeanne’s and Sidney’s parents], and
they...must have come down to be with my family as we went back
to China [in 1925]...They lived in Deer Lodge, Montana.
That’s where Sidney and Betty Jeanne grew up....
“Uncle Guy was a handsome guy and Aunt Bess was a beautiful
woman. She looked very Spanish. And they were both
country—they lived in the country and they had all these
prejudices. Especially, Uncle Guy was totally taciturn, he never
talked. But Aunt Bess talked a lot and she really disliked and
Catholics and foreigners more than anything. And when Sidney was
growing into high school he was very interested in magic, and
Betty Jeanne told me, recently, that our grandfather, grandfather
Stambaugh, had been a kind of an occultist. And I only knew him
as a totally quiet old man that never spoke to me; lay on his
couch and spat in a waste basket when he got old. He was a strange
man, a very strange man.
“But he had an interest in the occult. And he gave Sidney,
when Sidney was maybe 7th or 8th grade, a crystal ball to tell
fortunes with that he had had. And it was in a black velvet bag
and Sidney valued that more than anything. It was
almost—Sidney was recognized by his grandfather as somebody
special. And Sidney’s parent wanted him to take over their
ranch, their sheep ranch. And Sidney was not that kind of kid. He
was interested in magic. He loved the fact that he had these
cousins that went to China—China was the most exotic place
he could think of. He loved to dress up in costume. His family,
to make him a man after he graduated from high school, sent him
off to military school to make him a man. He somehow survived
that. Then he wanted to go and study dancing and they said, No
you can’t study dancing, you have to go to college. So
Sidney was very smart, and he said, Okay, I’ll go to
college. He went to the University of Washington, where Martha
Graham was the teacher and Martha Graham was a great modern
dancer. And Sidney became a ballet dancer and travelled with the
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, all around the world....
“After he’d gotten to be a dancer, with Martha
Graham, he was famous, he went back to New York and he lived in
New York and he danced with the Metropolitan Ballet Company. He
was one of their premiere dancers. And Betty Jeanne wanted to go
to New York and study art and the family would let her go because
that was safe enough. And she was much more fond of the ranch
than her brother was. She’d always loved it. But she was
pretty artistic so she went back to New York and Sidney was
living there so they thought that was safe. Well who should she
meet back there but a foreigner and a Catholic. So she married Bill
who was mexican and moved to Mexico and she became a catholic and
eventually her parents loved Bill, he was a wonderful man. And
they go very, totally appreciative of Sidney’s career
because he was a wonderful dancer.”
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The Robinson Family comes back to the United States for their second
furlough, arriving in San Francisco
on June 28, 1932. This is Elizabeth’s first trip back to the
U.S. after living in China beginning in 1925. During this visit the
family spends time with their cousins, Uncle Guy and Aunt Bess
and their children, Sidney and Betty Jeanne Stambaugh.
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Visiting Yellowstone National Park: James, Elizabeth, Harold, Betty Jeanne,
& Sidney.
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At the Stambaugh's house in Deer Lodge Montana:
James & Elizabeth, Sidney, Harold & Betty Jeanne.
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Family assembled (Uncle Guy taking photo):
Harold, James, Mary, Elizabeth, Aunt Bess, Betty Jeanne, Harold Jr., & Sidney.
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