Moves

Last photo as a family of four

    My memory tells me we lived in two places during our time in La Carlota. My parents' letters had mentioned the need to move from the rented house attached to Dr. Gauna's office, but I didn't know when the move took place so I did some research looking for clues. 

    The background in these old photos told me we were still living on Gral. Paz 132 when I celebrated my fourth birthday, 1948.

        

    From the following pictures, I knew that we were there through the winter of 1949 and into early 1950 when Lynn turned two. 

    The new address was not published in the denominational magazine until the July 29th issue of The Brethren Missionary Herald. I concluded that I must have been almost six years old when we moved into the doctor's large estate on Jorge Ross 631 sometime in the first half of 1950.

Jorge Ross 631, La Carlota

    In recent years, I acquired an additional source of information--Jim and Margaret Marshall's letters to their families. I am so grateful to "Aunt Margaret" for allowing me to see this treasured collection, a wonderful personal and historical record of their missionary life in Argentina. Their first impressions and early experiences upon arrival in Argentina, add much to the description of life in La Carlota in those days. 

    Margaret wrote on a bright winter afternoon, Sunday July 9, 1950:

It didn't seem very cold this morning when we awoke, but then every room where there is no heat feels pretty cold. Dust storms are common here in this land, and there was one in the air this morning. Most of the roads and streets are dirt and when it is dry, they are just covered with loose dust, and naturally when it is windy, it blows around. The folks say that sometimes in the summer time, the loose dust is so thick on the roads, a car gets stuck in it. Then when it rains, the mud is terrific, they say.

I'm so glad the winter is half over. We are getting more used to the cold and they keep two rooms pretty well heated here at the Hoyts, for which we are very thankful. Our bedroom and bathroom are quite cold.

Dorothy and Hill Maconaghy brought us here to the Hoyt's last Monday. Just before we were ready to leave Corral de Bustos, we received a telegram from the Hoyts saying that the little boy had whooping cough, but that we were welcome to come if we were not afraid. We hardly knew what to think, but I don't believe grown folks very often get the disease, and we were so anxious to get settled and to start studying the language that we came ahead. It seemed awful to impose ourselves on the family at such a time, but we are trying to help and not be any more bother than possible. We had hoped all our things would be here by now, but nothing but our personal effects have come yet; the barrels, cedar chest, bicycle, foot lockers, etc., came through from Buenos Aires the evening we got here, so we were glad we were here to take care of them. We can't unpack yet though for there is no place to put anything. On Tuesday we drove over to Río Cuarto with Sam Hoyt, visited the mission property there, met some more of the missionaries, and went shopping for some of our furniture. . .

The house here is very nice. Kathryn Hoyt has her five rooms fixed up so nicely. The floors are made of a nice wood, and how much warmer they seem than the cold, damp tile ones. Sam is very handy about making things, and he has made so many nice things, such as desks, kitchen cupboards; he is helping Jim with the cupboard for our kitchen. 

The Hoyts have two real cute children, a little girl six years old and a little boy just two and a half. They both have the whooping cough and of course it has been pretty hard on the little boy. It naturally worries Sam and Kathryn a lot. She is expecting another baby in a month, and Sam is very busy trying to be the pastor in four towns and teaching one day a week in the Bible Institute at Río Cuarto, so you can imagine that it is a rather hectic household and that we'll be glad when we can move into our four rooms. We'll have a nice big bathroom, and large bedroom and a combination living room and dining room and a little kitchen . . . This has once been a lovely place, but it's run down now quite a bit. There is a lot of yard, and many big trees. It seems as if we are right out in the country; I surely do like it. It will be so pretty in the summer time.

Well, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Thursday. It wasn't much of a celebration, but Kathryn baked a nice chocolate cake for us and put one candle on it. Then Dorothy and Hill sent us a telegram of congratulations.    

I have played the little organ [harmonium] for the two church services they have had in the little church here in town this week--for the prayer meeting on Thursday night and Sunday School this morning. Kathryn stayed with the children. Jim and I are going to sing a duet in Spanish for church this evening. We sang the same thing last Sunday in Corral de Bustos. It's not very good, but perhaps they enjoy it. Sam and Kathryn are good musicians, so know we won't compare with them. Sam has a very nice voice and plays two instruments besides.

    My brother and I loved "Uncle Jim and Aunt Margaret" (as we called them), and they were so welcoming! Once settled in their half of the fifteen-room house, we enjoyed going next door to visit them. Mother had to remind us often to not wear out our welcome. We tended to get in trouble for going over to their place.

    The Marshalls, on the other hand, seemed to delight in our company and were especially taken with Lynn. He was just barely three years old when Margaret wrote the following: 

February 16, 1951 

Lynn has just come in to say good-morning. I wish you could hear him talk. We surely get a kick out of it. He just talks and talks, so distinctly and with such expression in his voice. Then he's getting so that he can talk Spanish better and better, just as distinctly as he speaks English. He's better entertainment than a picture show. I'm afraid our own child will seem dull in comparison, but I don't suppose so.

Rita and Lynn taking turns riding with Uncle Jim

    Margaret wrote about Lynn again later:

March 7, 1951 

Lynn just ran out to go with Jim. He's been asking Jim all day to take him for a ride in the car; (we have the Ford [Model]A of the Schrocks while they are using the Hoyt's in Buenos Aires for a week or so; they had to make the trip to get passports for the children for going home.)

Lynn continues to amaze us with his abilities--he is such a character. He's been coming over to see us more lately, for Kathryn doesn't scold him so much about coming since she knows we won't be here much longer to enjoy him. He will come to the door and say, "I haven't seen you today" or "I want to come see you." If he sees something he'd like to have, he'll say, "I don't have one of these in my house," or "My mama didn't give me none of this." You just have to hear the expression of his voice to really appreciate what he says--his voice will go way up high and then down, and then up again. I guess you would say he just uses a lot of expression. He learns Bible verses quite easily, and knows a number of songs which we sing at church or which they sang in Bible School. This afternoon when he was over here, I was playing the organ, and he'd sing along with me. He usually has the tune just right too, and I think he has very good pitch for a child of three. This morning he was pumping up an inner tube with Jim's tire pump to play with--he got it pumped up too! Just this minute he opened the door and said, "Aunt Margaret, come. Ya lista?" Which means in Spanish, "Are you ready?" So I'll have to finish this later.

    I chose to include at this time, the anecdotes about Lynn and this early photo to honor the memory of  my first brother, who passed away November 13, 2017.

Earliest professional sibling photo

  

    Jim and Margaret lived in the same house with us for eight or nine months. Many changes were taking place about that time. It seemed that all of the missionaries were about to move: The Marshalls were to take over the work in Corral de Bustos and Maconaghys would replace the Schrocks in Río Cuarto when they left for furlough at the end of the month. Our family was also nearing the end of the first five-year missionary term and were asked to take Dr. Sickel's place in Almafuerte for the remaining months because he was very ill and needed a rest. The Dowdy's were due back from the US March 13 and were to oversee the Bible Institute in La Carlota. Two students, Horacio Bettinalio, and his younger sister Hebe, had come a month early to help out. Although only eighteen, he already helped out with the preaching.

    Moves are stressful at best, but to coordinate the movements of that many households had to be overwhelming. The transportation logistics alone were complicated. Add to that the uncertainties and unknowns involved in a relocation. My parents were still confused about the directive to move to Almafuerte, and troubled about leaving behind the work in progress, especially the construction begun on the temple.

    And there was a new baby in the household! The following announcement was published in the September 9, 1950, issue of The Herald:

In a letter to friends and relatives in this country, Rev. Solon W. Hoyt, missionary to Argentina, announces the birth of a son on August 21 at La Carlota. The youngster weighed 7½ pounds, and Daddy writes: "I believe we'll name our baby Aldo Elwyn . . . We like short names, uncommon names, and names that go well here and in the States."

     I tried to imagine what it was like for God's chosen people, the Israelites, during their forty years of wandering through the desert. When the cloud moved they had to pack up and march with their possessions and entire families, the old, the young, babies, toddlers, pregnant women. Yet God went before them, "These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. (Deut.2:7)" "He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night. (Ps. 105:39)" "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, . . .to him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever (Ps. 136 1,16)."

    So it was with my parents in their forty and more years spent in Argentina. God guided, taught and kept them. It is my desire to illuminate His faithfulness to our family through these writings.