Raisin Bread,

Shortly after moving to Redwood Valley, my oldest sister Juanita and her two daughters (Louise and Darlene) moved in with us. Louise was a little over a year older than me and Darlene was much younger.

Juanita meet Bill Dunbar, who's wife had left him with 3 young children. Bobby was younger than myself and Ronnie was next, followed by Brenda that was Darlene's age.

Bill and Juanita loved to dance and sometimes while riding in the car, they would stop, turn the radio very loud and get out and dance.

At first my dad did not like Bill very much but that changed over time. Juanita and her girls moved in with Bill and his 3 kids. My dad did not approve and hounded Juanita about the fact they were not married.

After Bill's divorce was final, they claimed to have eloped but no marriage license was ever seen and my dad never thought they were married (they were together for the rest of their lives) but at least it appeared they were and my dad let it drop.

They later moved from Potter Valley and ended up living down the road a couple of miles from us. By then my dad had seen my sister happy and was warming up to Bill.

My dad called Juanita "sister", and we visited them at least once a week. Juanita baked their bread once a week on Mondays. She would bake enough loaves for the week and freeze them. Along with the regular bread, she always baked Raisin Bread.

On Monday after supper, dad would say "lets go to sisters". When we arrived dad would talk to Bill while mom and Juanita would be in the kitchen. When the bread started coming out of the oven, Juanita would ask dad if he wanted some and he would say "no".

After awhile she would just bring him some buttered raisin bread and he would end up eating several slices. This went on for a long time and we all laughed about it behind my dad's back.

We might visit them on other days but he made sure we visited on Mondays.