Paula Tomingas,
age 9?
Paula, Art, Anne, Rob, Sadie, Arnold, Chick, Donna, Ancient Ones
The children amused themselves by being inventive, the boys would run barefoot out through the
sage brush hunting for rattlesnakes, when they found one, they would sneak up on it, grab it by
the tail and snap it like a whip which would pop the head off the poisonous rattle snake, usually,
sometimes there was a mad dance and swing at the viper tried to get to them before losing it's
head. There was lots of music making and many mechanical challenges as the mechanization
age was just reaching these outlying farm areas.
While the era was that of "women in their place", at least and probable wide spread amongst the girls was to plan on "getting somewhere". Anne and Sadie still argue to this day about who always got the better cloths and who had to wear seconds. However, there are also tales of daring do upon horseback at full gallop through town and wild midnight rides out through the prairie under the moonlight.
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Paula Tomingas, age 9? |
To get to hear them "discussing" their childhood is a rare treat. Paula, with a mischievous smile, will casually mention some escapade upon which Anne and Sadie sail into a long heated debate as to who actually participated. Anne is always certain that she would never have done such outlandish things and that it had to be Sadie. Sadie returns with an equal sally of "It was so you who did that, I remember I was mad because I was too little to go with you". If Henry is around, he usually finds ways to fan the fire of debate even further, it's all great fun with these wonderful animated and charming girls. Just look at the mischief in this picture of Paula. |
During the depression, time was cheap so many interesting mechanical problems were attempted as well as many feats of strength and skill. Art could do a one arm chin up with a little brother hanging around his waist, my dad Rob could do one finger chin ups. They would walk all the way uptown (about a half mile or more) entirely on their hands just for a bit of fun. My dad told me of a time that Art, when he was in his late teens, picked up a 50 gallon drum of oil. Now a 50 gallon drum of oil must weigh upwards of 400 pound, Art probably weighed 130 to 150 at the time. He lifted one end and got it on his knee, then lifted the other end up onto his other knee. Lifting the last end of the barrel is a feat of strength that is hard to fathom.
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Rob assembled a car out of a Chevy transmission and a Ford engine with hand tools. That means with a file, he made splines fit, bored holes with a hand drill. He also put truck axles in the rear. I asked him how he could take on a job like that with hand tools and no torch, he said "Time was the only thing you had a lot of in those days so you spent that instead of money". |
My Dad told me a funny story abut one of his brothers, it's funny because these brothers are
masters at mechanical things. This brother had to drive a long ways to Air Force base where he
was a test pilot and had a blown head gasket on his car. So he worked all night on it to replace
the gasket, mostly in the dark. The sun was just coming up as he torqued the head down, he was
just going to make it to work in time. Then he started putting the spark plug wires on and there
were on seven, should have been eight. He finally found it, torqued down between the head and
the block.
There's also the story of a group of the brothers on a long
trip breaking an axle out in the middle of nowhere. I
think it was Arnold who walked back with the greasy
axle, he spent all of his money on one that he thought
would work (it did) but was hungry and thirsty so he
walked in a little roadside cafe, greasy, dirty, raged and
with the Tomingas frown. And of course he was carrying
that axle like a club. He said "I don't have any money,
but could I have a cup of coffee?". The service was
amazingly good, he didn't realize why until he was walking back down the road.
As they grew up, they also played a lot of music and went on big drinking parties, perhaps too
many as drinking certainly altered many of their lives, but on the other hand, here they are in
their eighties and fit as a fiddle.
There was a time when they were all dressed in loafers
and light trousers for a dance and somehow wound up
walking home, probably some twenty miles, in the dead
of winter, Wyoming has deadly temperatures of -60
degrees, they all nearly froze to death. Another time they
had some beer in their car but Rob had wired the car up
with a magneto so that it would shock anyone who
touched the it, and it did. Some hooligans were going to
steal the beer and it turned into fight as they were mad at
being shocked by the wired up car, so the brothers and the hooligans got into a big fist fight. One
man had his boot off and was using it as a club, my dad finally got mad at being hit by it and
decked him with a single blow.
At another party in somebodies basement, Art got a
little out of hand and when some girls came
in, Rob
had enough of his bad language and told his older
brother to keep quiet, they got into a reasonably bad
fight, in the process of defending the girls honor, Rob
managed to break his big brothers arm.
The parents never spoke of Estonia or Russia and therefore never instilled a curiosity in their children about the past. However, there is a few small bits that have been passed along, including the legendary buried jeweled dagger left in Estonia under a tree.
The children didn't speak any English until they showed up at their first day of school and
discovered everyone spoke another language. This embarrassment, stayed with them a long,
time, my father would not speak Estonian to me as much as I often pleaded, now however, we
great each other on the phone with "Tera tera". Ann says that Rob seems to remember more
Estonian than any of them, but I have heard Ann and Rob converse for quite awhile in Estonian
only. Robs memory is exceptional in many ways, he can visualize a complete process, whereas I
tend to have an outline and have to solve problems as they arise. He can still remember more
about some project that I worked on than I can! John must have possessed a similar memory as
dad has said that John would build an entire house start to finish with out one drawing or
measurement written down, it was all in his head and his carpentry was exquisite.
My dad, Rob remembers being at a county fair and old man Jon Toro was there with his big
booming voice. Jon's son August had a daughter (Jean Toro Smith, Pinedale, Wyo.) who says
that they never asked about the Estonian days either and now she is interested, but there is so
little information left. I understand that somebody once wanted to write the story of John
Tomingas, but he wouldn't hear of it, partly out of humility and partly in keeping with his
solitary nature.
The name Tomingas has been in Estonia a long time, perhaps since the beginning. Tomingas has
certainly been there long enough for it to be part of the language, it means "Choke Cherry" bush.
There are a lot of Spanish sounding names in Estonia, I suppose it is possible that some band of
gypsies came into Estonia and settled there, bringing with them, a choke cherry bush and bag
pipes. The name Toro means "Pipe" or "Tube", sometimes "Bagpipes". But there is no sign of
Spanish decent, everyone looks very typically Estonian. Estonians are distinctive and tend
towards blond hair, grey eyes, long straight noses, outward slanted upper eye flaps to shield from
bright sunshine, broad shoulders and medium height and build. Some books say that Estonians
came out of the Volga valley, based on the Viking roamings, I would think there may be traces
of that along with many of the Germanic nationalities, but through it all, Eesti is still Estonian.
The children seem to have also inherited Emma's talent as a romantic and musician. Several of
them can play instrument or two. Many other descendants are artists, Sadie and my brother
Henry in particular. It was always interesting to watch my father pick up a new instrument, he
would test it for a minute and then "figure it out" and simply start playing all the songs he could
normally play on any other instrument. Having achieved a world class rating in music myself, I
have some knowledge about the uniqueness of that gift, it was fascinating to watch. As Johann
Sebastian Bach used to say, "It is easy to play an instrument, just push the right key at the right
time".
As the children scattered across the United States, they kept in touch but mostly infrequently,
then as they achieved "Senior Citizen" status, they started getting together more often again.
They are collectively known as the "Ancient Ones" now.
Arizona 1994
Donna, Henry, Arnold, Rob, Sadie, Anne, Paula, Art
