Poor as could be.... I would hear her say they were after the war, they had to live with dads parents until they got work.  When they moved to Tipton daddy helped my grandpa Brandstatt  build houses.  Mother would help them stain and decorate.   She got involve in church, at a young adult age, she told dad that they needed to take the children to church not just send them, they needed to  see what they are being taught.  Dad agreed and it started a life long committment I don't think they knew themselves the impact it was going to have in their lives and many others.

When mom was a girl of fifteen, my grandmother moved to Oklahoma City with her children that were left at home.  Mother's older sister had gotten married and her husband was on trial for murdering a man.  Granny didn't want the children around the drama that was  unfolding. Latter his brother confessed to it, but I always felt after hearing that story, was God let t hat move happen so my mother would meet my father.
      During the time they lived in OKC, they went to a church, back then a lot of faiths all went to church together.  Granny dressed the children for church and off they went after one Sunday morning service while there my uncle now, saw my mom and told my father about her because he decided he wasn't going to church that day.  He was there that night and they began to date after that.  Which lead into a wonderful life together.  Mom said, when she was dating daddy, and he came to visit she wanted to make a good impression on him with her family.  They were all eating sandwiches that day, her brothers all on one side of the table was asked to passed the bologna, mom said she was so embarrassed they said sure, one of them picked it up put there finger through it in the middle passed it down to dad... she said, "I never had been so got in all my life the way they were treating him."  They all loved him that's why.

      When Dad asked mother to marry him it was under a tree in a park by his house, she told me she went to live with her sister that summer who was wealthy, so she could work for her and make enough money to buy her wedding dress.  Mother bought her a baby blue dress, that was mid length, with a big brimmed hat, and gloves,she wore a gardenia there was only five at the wedding she had sent her mother and Dad telegram to come to Oklahoma City,  but they didn't get it until the day after the wedding. Mother got pregnant with my brother two months after they got married, she said my mom never told me anything about keeping from getting pregnant of course granny had 10 children and lost two sets of twins....  
     Mom loved dad very much you could see it in her eyes in the pictures and the letters I would see of them.  On January 29, five months after they married on her birthday dad was drafted into the US Army, mother said it was one of the worst days ever, and she cried for 30 days none stop and after that couldn't cry anymore.  While he was in the service he didn't get much money and at the time she got none at all.  She would travel around to where he was she said she would be so scared at times, while in the apartment would feel the ground shake and would look outside and army tanks were driving by her apartment. He meals consisted of rice morning, noon, and night....nothing else to eat.
   
      When my brother was born she stayed with her mom and dad, Danny had the colic and cried. During the war they got gas was rationed and they were only allowed so much to use, everyone would give her theirs to drive my brother around so he wouldn't cry.  When Danny was old enough to walk, mother was cooking in the kitchen and he pulled a bowl of the cabinet and fell on top of it and it had broke it severed the nerve I believe it was his left arm.  Dad was able to get leave for the surgery, it was very intense mom said for they were trying to put the nerve back together and if worked would be the first successful nerve operation on a child ever, and It was, it worked but mother had her work cut out for her.   For one year mother made up  her on therapy for Danny till he learned to pick up a dime by himself and he did, the doctors released him that day.  Mother was given a talent that was unusual for most women she could do almost anything if she put her mind to it. 

My mother was born in Oklahoma, to Clidie and Claude Brandstatt.  She was the 9th of 10 children.  She never graduated High School, but was one of the most intelligent women I have ever met.  Mother would tell me the stories of her childhood which I found most interesting.  She was born in a home that her father built in Tipton, Her  mother said, "The child that weighed the most was the one that was loved the most"... her birth weight was 13 pounds,  largest of her siblings.  She loved her father very much, he was a carpenter by trade, couldn't read, but awesome man and one of his word,  she loved to work with him, she was his baby girl, I think he probably spoiled her.

  Mother respected her parents and cherished the hard work they both displayed. Grandpa cut his fingers off working on a house, and dipped his hand in hot tar, trying to support his family, she was very moved by those incidents and later used those incidence to talk to him about the Lord.  She and her sisters loved to joke around, only one younger sister she would follow along what they were doing.  Granny owned a laundry at her home, mother would assist in the washing and hanging out clothes.
      One day the doctor in that town brought his laundry for her to do as always, mom and her sister had a plan.  The both of them boiled starch and dipped all his boxer shorts in it which consisted of 30 pair.  She said, when they hung them out to dry they were so stiff that they had to break them to fold them in the basket, he never said and word to their mother and brought them back again to wash. I loved to hear them laugh about that.  Mom, also told that the preacher in that town also let granny wash his clothes, mom and her sister again thought it would be funny to take his socks and go to the stove and get soot and put in them, the bad thing was he wore those socks to church and took them off because of foot washing that day, and his feet were black.... they knew that they were going to get a whipping then, mom blamed her sister.  Ha ha, I bet.  She said when one got a whipping they all got one at the same time, she said granny didn't have time to whip  the kids all the time so, if she said your getting one they all built up till the all needed it and she lined them up.

      Ted her brother came home from the Marines, he had went to the neighbors house and got drunk, they called my granny and told her he was there on a mattress, mom said they all started shaking they saw granny with a long switch, march down the street got her brother started spanking him all the way home, she didn't know whether to laugh or stayed scared, they all were hoping she would be to tired when she got back to give anymore.  She loved her mothers cooking, she said if granny was going to make a pie, it would be about 13 pies, she would make and bread that was out of this world.  Mother would help her parents when they would have beef or pork, to roll in salt to preserve and hang up till needed,  and leave in the house that freaked me out. Mom loved her nephew Bill, she  was 11 when he was born, she loved to take care of him, dress him up, buy him things, he was the first grandchild in the family, she said, " I never let his feet hit the ground."

       On cold winter nights, she slept up stairs with her sisters, there wasn't any heat they only had a stove to heat the house, she said they would heat bricks and put them in the bed to get it warm jump in and put on their night caps granny made and try to sleep till the warmth ran out and wake up cold and and holding on to one another to get warm.   The children would get one pair of shoes a year, mom said her would get too little before they wore out, her feet would hurt so, but she never would say anything, she knew they couldn't afford anymore.  One Christmas her father bought her a Shirley Temple doll, she said she felt so rich, because they never got a gift like that ever, most gifts were a apple or orange in a stocking above the fire place.  She loved her life though, born poor but happy, blessed, and loved, never complained about it at all.