Vasilki PREVENAS was born 09 Sep 1915, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, to parents Peter Demetrios and Mary (ZABSKI) PREVENAS.
"Although I've always been called 'Violet' it has never really been my name. On my birth certificate, under name, is simply 'female.' However, I was christened 'Vasilki' in the Greek church on La Salle Street. When my siblings would tease me, they would say 'vas-see-leaky-nose' because I always had a runny nose due to my lung condition. When I asked my mother how I got the name of 'Violet' she said it started when I began school. She didn't know the literal translation of Vasilki, and when the teacher said she thought Violet was such a lovely name, my mother figured it started with a 'V' and so I was dubbed Violet." [*VPC]
"My
father always called me 'Billy' and I loved him dearly. For some
reason we never expressed or mentioned love in our family. I have always
regretted that I never told him I loved him. I was so proud when he'd carry
me on his shoulders into the bank and everyone would say, 'Good morning, Mr.
Prevenas.' One summer when it was hot and my brothers were getting their
hair shaved off, I cried and insisted he do mine too - after all wasn't I
his 'Billy-boy?' In those days, most children would catch lice from others
in school. I remember how much fun we had one time when our hair was combed
with a fine-toothed comb. We would count them and see who had the most. Even
though my hair was always in my eyes, my mother was very upset by my bald
head; but I loved it. It was so cool." [*VPC]
"We
grew up in a melting pot district of immigrants from Polish, Jewish,
Italian, and German origins. We didn't fit in too well; the Greeks called us
Polacks, who in turn called up Greaseballs. It was a time before political
correctness. The Jewish people were called Kikes, the Italians were Wops,
and the blacks were Niggers. No one was upset; it was just a way of life."
[*VPC]
"Luckily we went to a good school where grammar and music were stressed. Discipline was very strict at home lest we become 'spoiled.' School was a breeze compared to home and our chief dread was if we ever had to take a note home for misbehaving. Jewish kids could be excused from school for their holidays and so could the Catholics. Having a foot in two camps, coming from orthodox and catholic backgrounds, religion was a little lax in our house; although we did go to church on Easter and Christmas, and all at once we weren't allowed to eat meat on certain days. My catholic friends would run pass the synagogue. They told me the Jews stole Christian babies to use their blood for sacrifices. I couldn't believe it and when I asked Sarah Roth about it she denied it fiercely. I remember visiting her house on the Sabbath. Their pilot light had gone out and they couldn't light candles since it was forbidden to strike a match. So I did it for them and they were all happy. One of my catholic friends told me I was going to burn in hell because I had committed some sin - what I can't remember. I couldn't figure how one could burn through all eternity for such a small thing, and I was glad I wasn't a catholic although I was jealous when the girls all had white dresses and veils for their first communion." [*VPC]
"We grew up during the Depression. Things were really tough. There were no jobs and families moved together. Flats were converted into 'apartments.' Sometimes they were just rooms. People slept under the viaducts with newspapers in their coats for warmth. They would dig in garbage cans for food. I'm sure they didn't find much since no food was wasted. I remember my father scolding me for brushing bread crumbs on the floor. He said I was walking on food. Once in the restaurant when a man asked if he could wash dishes or mop floors for a meal, my father said no, if he did that, he'd have to let his dishwasher go and there would be another man out of work. However, he did give the man a bowl of soup and crackers and some hot coffee. When I said he was just encouraging others - it was known that the hungry would put some kind of mark at the place that helped them out - he looked sternly at me and said, 'You've never been hungry, Kid.' I remember blushing and being ashamed." [*VPC]
"When
I graduated from school in what was then called a 4-year commercial
course, there just weren't any jobs for stenos, bookkeepers, or secretaries.
To be a secretary you had to do everything required in an office; typing,
filing, shorthand, bookkeeping, office management, etc. Our teacher told us
to keep up our speed and accuracy in shorthand by listening to the radio
reporters and taking down their news and reports. But no one was hiring
novices when skilled workers were desperate for a job. So I wound up in the
restaurant like the rest of my siblings." [*VPC]
"All at once, we were all grown up. The war came and there was such a rush of patriotism you wouldn't believe it. Men rushed to enlist and there were lines around the block waiting to join up. I don't think America ever had better citizens than those immigrants who came to the country at the turn of the century. There was no welfare; the language and customs were different from theirs, yet they couldn't wait to become citizens. My father worked as a dishwasher and swamper in the restaurant. They let him sleep in the back storage room and he would go to night school to learn English. He loved jewelry. I remember he had a gold watch, a ruby ring, and an ebony cane with a gold knob. When I asked him which of his treasure he liked best, he simply said the one he was leaving all of us - his citizenship papers." [*VPC]
"Sometimes I wonder how or if the Depression would have ended. I know things go better with the war although it was a terrible price to pay. We went on rations, saved cans for recycling, did volunteer work, etc. I went regularly and donated blood at the Red Cross. I remember when Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal took so many lives, the Red Cross called me to donate blood although they usually waited longer between donations. I still have my card and 'gold' pin, which you got after eight pints were donated. (First you got a silver pin, then the gold.) Once after work I bought a copy of every comic book on the newsstand and sent them to Ray Langner's shipmates somewhere near Africa. After due course I got a thank-you letter from all of them that they had signed on toilet sheets in ink that was all blurred and smeary but greatly enjoyed and kept for years." [*VPC]
Violet PREVENAS married Eugene Joseph COGHLAN in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, 13 Mar 1945.
"The army in its 'wisdom' transferred Gene from a weather observer to a cryptographer. After several transfers he was stationed at Ashville, North Carolina. A friend of his - some major - got extended leave and he offered his fancy house to Gene while he was gone. I grabbed Skip, went by train, and we had a wonderful month in that gorgeous house. Then we rented a bedroom in town. The war was winding down. GIs were being released on a seniority basis. Since Gene had almost four years, he was eligible. I went back home and waited while he went to Texas to get discharged." [*VPC]
"When he got out we headed for Alaska. We bought an old Model A from Jimmy and headed for Seattle. There we took the boat to Alaska. The Inside Passage was very rough and the crew was drunk. It was touch-and-go for a while. Later we heard that the same ship - the Yukon - on its return voyage, was wrecked and barely made it to port." [*VPC]
"Upon arriving in Wasilla, I found myself in a new world. City life is no preparation for Alaska - at least in those days. I couldn't believe Wasilla was a town by any standard. It was cold, dark, and buried in snow. I had understood Gene to say there were about 500 people there, but I doubt if there were 50. I saw a person come out of what I had thought was a dog house. It was my first glimpse of a parka and mukluks. All the town consisted of was the railroad station, a bar, the post office, a "hotel," a small school, a couple of one-room log cabins, and two buildings that looked like houses. I was so homesick. I burst into tears when I saw my new home - one small room in the tiny wooden post office. May Carter told me I was lucky. The REA had brought electricity to town. I found it hard to be grateful. There was no plumbing, water, sewer, etc. But I was young and adapted swiftly." [*VPC]
"Wasilla came into existence with the railroad. When gold was found at the Independence mine, old timers from Knik would drive their teams to the station and carry freight back. Cabins were taken apart and hauled to Wasilla and the surrounding area and reassembled." [*VPC]
"I looked down the 'road' towards Knik and all I saw was snow and darkness. I didn't any longer believe that strawberries and vegetables grew in the summer. Then April and May came and I got all excited because I could see a trace of greenery. Things got better fast and we moved about a quarter of a mile out of Wasilla to Carter's 'ranch' - a two-room frame house with a pump INSIDE a lean-to shed. Wow! Never mind no toilet or drain, or other niceties." [*VPC]
"We cooked and heated with wood. During the long winter nights Gene and I would play cribbage. Back home we always played for money even if it was for a few pennies and I didn't like to play for nothing. So we decided each game would be a piece of sawed log. I was pregnant with Kathy and summer seemed far away. Gene knew the game well and was lucky. By the time spring came he had me owing over 50 chunks of wood. One day it was nice so I went outdoors with the 'swede' saw and decided to pay off. I just started when some man came along to get his mail. He took one look at my obvious pregnancy and gruffly said, 'Here, let me do that.' Who am I to argue with a gentleman? When Gene came home with a load of logs, he walked around the pile of wood a couple of times, looked at me, and said, 'All right, who did that?' I let him sweat a while and then told him. He wasn't very pleased and said I made him look like a heel. He never dreamed I would try to saw wood and had only humored me about the betting." [*VPC]
"When Kathy was born we had to travel over sixty miles to Anchorage over a pretty rough gravel road. Ft. Richardson was still under military restrictions, and you had to check at the gate before you could pass through the base to Anchorage. That poor GI took one look at me in labor and flagged us through." [*VPC]
"Although I was happy and adjusting well to a new way of life, I was still homesick. My mother had died and all at once letters weren't enough. Gene went fishing at Naknek and made a stake. We decided to go home but planned on coming back. He and Skip were perfectly happy but he knew how much I wanted to go home. So with two kids, two dogs, and the old Model A we had shipped to Alaska 1-1/2 years ago, we headed down the Highway. In those days, it was called the ALCAN, short for Alaska/Canadian Highway. (We subsequently bought the road from Canada and renamed it 'The Alaska Highway.') Gene's uncle had a contract to build a section of the road and his father worked for him. It was an emergency war measure and was pushed through as fast and cheaply as possible. Believe it was no highway. Before we were allowed to drive through it to the states, we had to have a two-week supply of food, five extra gallons of gas, tools, etc. The trip took us weeks and is a story in itself." [*VPC]
"Things were rough Outside. With the war over, the men came home looking for work but the factories were closing and the economy was tight. Gene found work with a contractor but it didn't last long. People weren't building. I went to work and Gene got a job at Good Humor. He was the favorite of the neighborhood, bringing home leftover ice cream bars and chocolate. We finally saved enough after almost two years. We bought a used Buick from Jimmy and headed North stopping to see Uncle Mike and Gene's family in North Dakota." [*VPC]
"This time we were able to use the Highway and not travel to Seattle and then by boat to Alaska. There had been a polio epidemic in the states and Canada was very careful who went through. Luckily a family let us stay in their attic and we all slept on the floor. The roads were a little better but not much and we were glad to reach Wasilla." [*VPC]
"Wasilla had changed a little since we went Outside. A number of GIs and their families had come to Alaska to homestead. Under the GI Bill of Rights, a veteran could homestead 160 acres. They had to live on the land for six months, build a habitable abode, and file on their claim, the fee being 10 cents an acre. Others could file but they had to clear ten acres and harvest a crop; they also had to live on the claim for three years before filing for a title. The old Homestead Act wasn't really applicable in Alaska since farming was marginal at best, costly, and no marked for their produce. Few houses were built in Wasilla since most people sought free land outside of town." [*VPC]
"Everyone worked hard. If you wanted to eat you hunted for your meat, caught fish, put in a garden, and picked wild berries. The climate wasn't conducive for growing fruit. We canned and stored and smoked fish. Oh happy day when we were able to buy a freezer. In our spare time we gathered at the Community Hall, which was comparable to the old town hall. We raised money for the community hall, the library, the cemetery, PTA, scouts, etc. Everyone pitched in and it's surprising what determined people can accomplish. The old Roadhouse (hotel) burned down and was never replaced. It had been used by the miners when they came to town on weekends." [*VPC]
"The years passed swiftly. When they put in a new road to Big Lake, we found the spot we wanted. It was accessible to town (three miles away) and the school bus. After getting title, we took out a loan and built our house. After many years we had plumbing, a bathroom, and all the amenities." [*VPC]
"With the advent of statehood and the drilling of oil at Prudhoe Bay, things accelerated. It took ten years of politicking before any oil was produced and shipped Outside. To this day Alaska can only ship Outside and not to any foreign country. After the oil gets to the states, it is then shipped out of the country." [*VPC]
"The
busy years slipped by and all at once the kids were grown up and on
their own. Gene and I both worked to get them through college. I as
secretary to the Director of Agriculture and Gene as a Youth Counselor at a
Rehabilitation Camp just outside of Wasilla. Skip paid his own way through
school. He was able to find summer work for an engineering firm in
Fairbanks. There just wasn't any job available for girls. We sold land
across the highway to put them through school. Then - oh happy day - we both
retired and enjoyed life. It was 18 years before we were able to make a
second trip Outside. But then things got better and we made periodic ones.
Skip missed out on TV and phones, but the girls lapped it all up. We had
come of age and were getting more like Outside but not quite liking it."
[*VPC]
"Our way of life was changing with 'progress.' Everything has its price but we didn't like it very much." [*VPC]
"The old-timers were dying off or going to the state-operated Pioneer Homes. Suddenly, we were the old-timers and it didn't seem possible. Now when we went to town, we looked for a familiar face and saw only few." [*VPC]
"In 1992 I lost Gene and my life really changed. We buried him on the homestead next to Skip's baby, Sally Anne. I miss him very much and remember all the little things he did that I took for granted and never noticed. It's comforting to visit the graves - I feel closer to him. The pain isn't as sharp but the poignancy remains. He was such a nice guy, gentle and full of humor. He was good with kids, never talking down to them and treating them with patience and understanding. Much more so than I. He'd read to them, answer all their questions seriously, and, when necessary, discipline them firmly but gently. He never lost his temper with them as I did." [*VPC]
"People have been so good to me and I've tried to return it or pass it on to someone else. Through it all my family has been there and we've had a closeness I've tried to instill in my children. I feel there's nothing more important in the world. Family is the backbone of a country; then dear friends. I believe small town America is what made our nation great." [*VPC]
"Life goes on and we pass the torch so to speak. Old age is supposed to bring wisdom. Ha; the child remains in all of us. One thing I know - take time to smell the roses and hurt no one. Nowhere is it written that you can't enjoy life. It's a big world out there and I hope my children make their dreams come true. If I've accomplished one thing in life, I've raised three wonderful children of whom I'm very proud. I'm sure my immigrant parents are equally proud of all their grandchildren; and wherever they are, I think they look down and mile at them occasionally." [*VPC]
Violet and Katharine were the only ones of the brothers and sisters who played tennis.
Violet went to Lyons Township High School while living in La Grange, but she graduated with honors from Waller High School in Chicago.
Violet worked in her father's restaurant on Clybourn Avenue and Halsted Street in Chicago. She opened up every day at five in the morning.
"Poor Violet worked at the restaurant as a waitress, and I worked as a cook. When there was nobody at the restaurant she would sing 'Ole Solo Mio.' I would give her 50 cents a day to shut up and that was a lot of money." [*PPP]
While
working, she met Gene COGHLAN, a soldier who was in Chicago for training.
Eugene Joseph COGHLAN and Violet
PREVENAS were married 13 Mar 1945 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
In 1945 when Vi got off the train wearing her fancy dress and white gloves, she asked, 'How far is it to town?' Her husband, Gene, replied, 'This is it!' The other women in town were all wearing flannel shirts and warm pants. Gene told her to start gathering wood for their first winter while he was gone (hunting, etc.) Vi did her gathering quite innocently from her neighbors' wood piles! Fortunately, one older woman took Vi under her wing and trained her to be an outstanding frontier woman.
After
Kathy was born, they went back to live in Chicago for a short time before
settling permanently in Wasilla, Alaska.
"From around 1950 to 1958 we lived 2 miles out of town in a house rented from the Sagers on Knik Road. Summer of 1957 work began on the house on the homestead. Daddy had filed on the that land in 1947 or 1949, but we did not move there until the summer of 1958. We did use the land for berry picking and some wood cutting before that. Daddy, the prairie boy from North Dakota, wanted to build on a hill; mother wanted to build on the lake, and she won the debate over the home-site." [*BCB]
"Aunt Violet told me that in the old days a potato farmer would let homesteaders gleen the broken potatoes from the field." [*ML]
"Aunt Violet told me that years ago Uncle Jimmy drove the Alaska Highway to visit them. When he arrived the salmon run was happening and the homesteaders got together to form a canning assembly line. Uncle Jimmy was cleaning fish and helping. After a few hours Aunt Violet went to see how he was doing and asked him where all the fish heads were. He said he threw them back into the river as he was cleaning. She got upset with him because they canned the fish heads for winter dog food." [*ML]
"Aunt
Violet was one of the founders of the local Wasilla public library."
[*ML]
In mid 1980's, Gene suffered a triple bypass heart surgery. The medicine he was taking afterward was affecting his mental health. The doctors wanted to institutionalize him. Violet was strong and brave. She stopped giving Gene the medicine, and he returned to good health.
"Violet can't stand company. She stands at the door and won't let them in. During our visit to Alaska in September 1991 big mouth Helen and I will say, 'Come on in! Sit down!. How about a glass of wine.' And poor Vi is grinding her teeth." [*KPL]
"Auntie Vi still looks so young. She just hustles and bustles. She had a lung collapse and had it filled. She keeps her appearance up. You would never guess she was in her seventies. She doesn't look it or act it. Uncle Gene was the same way. He didn't look or act old." [*HHD]
"We buried Mother's ashes next to Daddy and Sally Anne." [*KCW]
Violet
"was well known for her work in various Matanuska Valley offices.
She worked as secretary to the Matanuska Electric Association board of
directors and at Matanuska Valley Bank. Those in the farming industry,
however, will remember her best as office manager for the state Division of
Agriculture. Serving from 1955 to 1970, Vi provided continuity for the
transition from territorial rule to state government and bridged the terms
of several directors for the agency." Frontiersman obituary, Oct 2007
"She did not go to work for Div of Ag until after statehood. After we moved to the lake, and after the stint as school janitor, she worked at MEA, was secretary to the board at MEA and worked as a teller at the Matanuska Valley Bank in Palmer. I remember the days she was late because everyone had to stay until all the drawers balanced. I think the Ag job probably didn't start until around 1962." [*BCB]
[*BCB Bonnie Coghlan Buchanan, *HHD Helen Harris Dahle, *KCW Katharine Coghlan Webb, *KPL Katharine Prevenas Langner, *PPP Peter Peter Prevenas, *VPC Violet Prevenas Coghlan]
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