Love - The Odessa Record "By Your Relative"

Odessa Record subscriber Larry Fisher of Spokane continues his series of articles on the history of the Batum/Lauer area (where his wife, the former Joyce Kiesz, grew up).

Hi, here I am again.

Continued from last week “The Schibels.”

As Don Schibel was growing up, he knew what it was like to be without money - to live poor. No part time working for other farmers for him, he had to worked at the farm. It wasn’t until his two years in Spokane (1941-43) with his parents when he had money in his pocket. He was able to work while going to school – yard work for 25 cents per hour, - 50 cents to shovel snow from a sidewalk-driveway and if a corner lot, then 75 cents. He told me, he was able to go to a picture show Saturday matinee for 11 cents. (Note: A few years later, I was living in Spokane and it cost me 25 cents to go to a Saturday matinee picture show.)

The 1941-43 time in Spokane for Don was because his parents had gone into semi-retirement but when the war came along, and gas became hard to obtain, they moved back to the farm. Later one of Don’s sisters and her husband farmed the land until Don and Lorene started farm it..

While Don farmed the land, the drilling of the first deep water well for irrigation occurred in 1965. Two wells were drilled because the land to be sprinkled was in two parts with 1 1-2 miles between the parts. The cost of each well was about $10,000 where as today, each would probably be over $500,000.

Jeff Schibel was born in Spokane, Washington (1959) grew up on the Schibel farm (Kagele road on the western edge of the L-B-D in Lincoln Co., Washington).

Jeff doesn’t remember any of the county schools - they were all gone by the time he came along. He does remember all 12 grades of school in Odessa and the bus riding. During his first years of school, the bus would pick him up just a short distance down the road, then go to the Specks at Batum, pick up John and Frances Voise Speck Jr.s children before heading to Odessa.

Jeff told me, the Speck house was really rundown at that time, that he couldn’t believe people were living in it. The Speck’s moved to Moses Lake in 1967.

During Jeff’s early years, Patricia Heimbigner (Reuben & Mary Melcher Heimbigner daughter) who lived down the road from the Schibels, was one of Jeff’s babysitter. Patricia later married Patrick Gies. Today Pat & Patricia live and farm in the L-B-D; they live on Davis road, east of Batum road.

Until next time.

Your Relative,

Spokane