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Sam and Hilda farmed in the Lehigh area, first renting property, then farming "Grandpa's Place" until 1950, when they packed up their kids and belongings into their car and small home-built trailer, heading for a farm plot just outside the tiny town of Warden, WA. This was pioneer farming in the newly-developed irrigation project in the Columbia basin of Washington.

This was a huge adjustment for all four members of the family. The kids were scared to death to be in single-grade classrooms! And the new farming venture for their parents took real determination and faith! See an aerial view of their project here.

Sometime not long into the transition, Hilda suffered a stroke while child-sitting for a neighbor. 14-year-old Lola was called at school to drive her mother to the doctor, as Sam had to make it from his second job at a sugar beet processing plant near Moses Lake, over 25 miles away. After returning from hospital, Hilda labored tirelessly for months pacing the halls of their tiny home for physical therapy - making a remarkable recovery.

During the summer of 1958, following her 9th grade, Lola attended a Mennonite youth summer retreat in the Cascade Mountains that divide Western Washington from Eastern Washington. There she met George Salisbury, a lad attending from the Monroe Mennonite Church (WEST side of the Cascades). Following the close of camp, George contacted Lola by mail, sparking a courtship that spanned 200 miles - (400 miles round trip per occasional visit) and almost four years.

In the fall of 1964, "the grass was looking greener on the other side of the" [mountains] for Sam, so they again uprooted, buying 40 acres of farm next to the Milo Voths at Custer, Washington near the Canadian border and just a few miles from Pacific Ocean water at Birch Bay.

Having barely settled into their new home, Clifford — with his fresh driver's license in hand — drove to meet with a new-found church buddy to enjoy the beach at Birch Bay on August 9th, 1964.

George had been studying at Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne, Indiana, pursuing an electronic engineering career. On that evening of the 9th, a phone call reached George and Lola with the tragic news that as Clifford was driving home from Birch Bay through an unmarked railway crossing, Clifford was instantly killed when his car was struck by a Great Northern Railway passenger train speeding north into British Columbia, Canada.

The Salisburys immediately left by train, arriving at Custer in time for the funeral. George and Lola decided to abandon former plans, to move to Bellingham to be near the new Ratzloff farm and to change career plans to education. George subsequently graduated from Western Washington State University with a couple of degrees and a teaching certificate.

A few years later, Sam and Hilda made their way back to Kansas to live out their retirement in Hillsboro.

On August 16, 2000 Sam was raking yard leaves when he was struck by a fatal heart attack.

Hilda sold their home on Lincoln Street, spent several years at Grand Oaks Apartments, then went to a nursng home, where she passed away due to a stroke on December 20, 2005 (Sam's birthday).

No, Clifford wasn't doing "time out"
- he missed the shoot and was dubbed in!