Henry Hansen Story
In early 1952 we learned that we would have another baby. We were still slowly working on the house but rapidly out-growing the little one room we lived in. We had the roof on and all that was needed was finished work. Hank did the plumbing and the electrical (with the help of my Dad, Bob Gilmore and various good friends along the way), but he did not want to do the finished work-cabinets, hardwood floors and window and door frames, and those were a big expense-also plaster, which was very common then.
Somewhere after 1950 Hank's apprenticeship was finished and he was a full journeyman bricklayer and felt he could get more work with a contractor who did fireplace work. Monte's work was mostly commercial. He had worked on many of the large buildings in Portland and (the old) St. Vincents hospital for many months. But he wanted to do residential work and decided to go with Ted Vonada. Ted was a nice guy and that was a good experience, except for one time-he had the only serious accident that he ever had on the job though there were some close calls. He had gone to work only to discover it was raining. They were unable to work so they covered the hole in the roof with Visqueen and then Hank misjudged his step and fell through it. He fell to the basement concrete pad ready for brickwork. It knocked the wind out of him and someone went off to call an ambulance but he realized what was happening and while struggling to breathe got up and made Ted take him to a doctor. There was blood in his urine so they made him take a couple days off but he refused to lay down. When Ted came over that night to visit the invalid he was on his hands and knees giving little Barbara a piggy back ride. Ted kept shaking his head and saying to me "we could be getting ready to plant that man-boy was he lucky." Well he didn't escape entirely. He began to have chest pains and walked the floor much of the night. After some frustrating months went by they took some magnified X-rays and discovered a chipped bone in his spine that was pinching a nerve which ran around to his chest. He was fitted for a steel brace and wore that miserable thing for many months. It did heal correctly and solved that problem.
I've skipped over Barbara's birth which was August 10, 1952. In Hank's family there were lots of babies being born and it seemed to me that the Hansens had either boys or girls (at that time that's the way it was). So I expected to have more boys. When I was told it was a little girl (6½ lbs) I scarcely could believe it! A Nun (at St. Vincent's) told me and I had to think that nuns didn't lie but I had to undress her and look for myself to believe it! It was the happiest day of my life. She was so little and so cute. David was all boy but Barbara was feminine and little and darling. It was soon apparent that she wasn't as tickled as we were. She was a colicky baby and gave us a hard few months. She never did like to be held or cuddled. We had to tuck her in with a hot water bottle and many blankets to quiet her (and she was born in August). Even later she would have no excess hugging and certainly no rocking. We thought she was the prettiest little girl in the country and adored her anyway. She was 4 months old when we moved out of the one room house and into our (big) brick one. It sure seemed big for awhile.
We had finished the house with borrowed money. Broke our rule. Our friend, Bernard Warner, knew a man who had a successful business, liked to help young couples get started by making private loans. His name was Koonz, I believe, and he had a meat market on the East side called the S & P Market. He loaned us $3,000 and we were able to hire the professional labor that did the work that 'showed.' Ed Garcia did the plaster, Virgil Drummond the carpenter work and cabinets. Any others I've forgotten. We did not finish the closets or the concrete floor in the basement party room until several years later. We once again became very frugal and concentrated on repaying that debt.
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It didn't take more than a year or two and we were debt free once more and basically stayed that way throughout our lives. The exception was an occasional truck, though some he did pay cash for. I might say here that Hank's idea of a great truck changed from his Ford to a GMC to his meeting with his friend George Michael who was a Dodge representative and got him started on his long association with Dodge trucks and gave him much material for argument all his life and I do mean arguments (he loved to argue more than eat). And Dodge trucks were his favorite subject. And they surely did perform for him. Never had any serious problems and no one is harder on a truck than a mason contractor. We had sunk a lot of money into that Ford, so this was a relief to both of us. George moved on but he left a devoted Dodge buyer.
Shortly after we got into our home Hank was ready to start his own business as he had always planned to do. I think he had $500 to begin with and it was a big step to take. He liked being his own boss and working his own schedule. Over his lifetime he did many, many residential brick jobs and some small commercial ones too. The Tigard area is sprinkled everywhere with masonry monuments to "Henry Hansen, Inc.," along with Beaverton, Sherwood, Tualatin and all over the state really. He did coastal jobs occasionally. The bench at the Seaside turn-around was one of them. It is gone now but for many years we would stop by to sit for a moment on Hank's bench.
It was also about this time that we began to talk about our lack of religion and our need for a "faith" where we could raise our family. We desired a church affiliation. We talked about our options. On my family side we had the Mormons, or as it is really called, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My mother was an inactive member and I had attended a few Sunday schools throughout my life. I knew little of their doctrine and there didn't seem to be one around so we thought we'd find a handy church. The Methodists had a nice new church in Tigard and we considered that. The Bonita Gospel Hall right around the corner here on Bonita Road was a growing successful group and we occasionally went there. We liked that church and so when they had a summer Bible school and invited our little children (Barbara and David) we let them go. Our neighbor, Alice Carlson, took them everyday for a couple of weeks. At the conclusion of the session there was a coloring contest and David won a dollar and Alice suggested that I call the teacher and thank her. I did that and chatted with her a minute and she explained the need for these little children to be baptized and cleansed from their sins! well! I could hardly believe what I was hearing-my little children full of sin! I knew better and I knew that the 'Mormon' church didn't believe that either. I resolved at that moment to be free from that group and never to return and to look up the Mormons who believed in the innocence of small children. And that I did--found them in the phone book and looked them up--a small group of people meeting in an Odd Fellows Hall (I think that is what it was) in Beaverton. The few people there would have fit into my living room and that "Branch" covered the Portland, Beaverton, Forest Grove, Tigard and everything west of the Willamette river, including Lake Oswego. They were glad to see us and had us sign a roll, which we did as visitors. We soon realized why they were glad--they were a struggling new Branch and needed much help and money. We began to get letters; tithing envelopes, donations needed to pay for the church farm on the Columbia, various fund raising efforts. Hank had gone along with everything so far but this became rather distressing to him. I remember him saying "those Mormons are trying to get their hands in my pockets!" I began to destroy the letters before he saw them and we quit going to their meetings. We found plenty of other ways to fill our Sundays anyway by then he had purchased his first boat and we were learning to water-ski. And of course he would work if he needed to--Sunday was like any other day.
It was just a few months when tragedy struck our family. On December 26, 1955, my sister Deloris died very suddenly. She was 26 years old and very much a part of our lives. She was not married and she adored our two children and spent frequent weekends in our home. It was devastating-nothing in our experience prepared us for her loss. She was young and healthy (we thought). She had an aneurism of the aorta and what we came to understand later, Marfans Syndrome. It was a very difficult time for all of us and it sent us back to church. We needed some answers to our spiritual needs. This time we 'visited' the Mormons. They were in the old Grange Hall in Beaverton above a tavern. Still a small group (a Branch) but growing rapidly. And they had the first full time missionaries on the west side of town, at least for many years. They offered to teach us about the church and we began what was a seven week program. A lesson each week. At the end of that time their mission was ended and we agreed to baptism two days before they left town on May 5, 1956.
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