Leland Post
1923 – 1991
My uncle, Leland Post, was the eldest son of my grandfather Elmer Post - with his first wife. Divorce was pretty scandalous at that time. My grandfather, who had a creamery and made cheese in Blachly Oregon, had full custody. My grandparents married in 1931 when Lee was eight. He saw his mother only infrequently. Ethel and Elmer had three children, my mother Helene, and uncles Lynn and Howard.
When Leland was a young boy, he was angry at his father and planned to run away from home. He didn’t have any money so he loaded up a wagon with cheese wheels and went around selling cheese for cheap. Elmer heard tell of it when one of the neighbors asked if something was wrong with the cheese since Leland was selling it for so little.
In 1941 my grandfather sold the creamery and started a logging business in Powers Oregon. Leland was 18 and moved with the family to help with the new business.
Poaching was commonplace in Coos County. A Powers cop stopped by for a chat with Grandma Ethel, who talked and talked, unaware Uncle Leland was butchering an out-of-season deer in the nearby woodshed. The conversation continued, “On and on and on” said Leland, as he stood paralyzed over a teetering pile of tin cans that threatened to fall and expose him.
In Masset, British Columbia, CanadaHis daughter added the following:
I have two pictures you can add to your blog if you like. This one of my favorite pictures of Dad. He was training in Texas as a pilot just before the war ended.
Dad told me this story: He was practicing touch and go landings on base. The pilots were not supposed to fly if they had a cold and of course Dad had a cold and his ears were plugged up. As fate would have it, his plane was not in good repair (because of the war effort, the good equipment had been sent into battle) and he was having problems with his landing gear. So he set the plane down on its belly in front of a commanding officer. When the officer was questioning Dad about what happened; Dad couldn't hear the commander so Dad was shouting back and his superior officer thought Dad was being insubordinate. Oops!! It worked out fine in the end, but was "touch and go" for a minute.
In the end, the war ended before Dad was out of pilot training and he missed the war altogether.
Comments
Quite a life, that little boy grew to have. Lovely photographs and I imagine there was one huge sigh of relief when the cop eventually left!
The photo of toddler Leland is darling...the "poofed up" little romper...the bunched up socks and little shoes...priceless.