People began to come from miles around to borrow the book, which was read until its binding was frayed and its pages loosened, but Mother treasured it and in her old age wrote inside the cover in a shaky hand, 'This book very soiled because it has been read by many many people, including boys and girls.'"
1 During a summer trip Cleary's mother met her father: "There, sitting on the steps of the store, was a tall, handsome young man wearing a white sweater and eating a pie, a whole pie. This man was Chester Lloyd Bunn. He and my mother were married on December 26, 1907, in Vancouver, Washington.
"The life of a farmer's wife came as a shock to my small, high-strung mother, ill equipped for long hours and heavy work.
"On April 12, 1916, I was born in the nearest hospital, which was in McMinnville. Mother traveled there by train and lived in a hospital for a week while she awaited my birth. It was wartime, and there was a shortage of nurses, so she busied herself running the dust mop and helping around the hospital until I was born.
"Father was the grandson of pioneers on both sides of his family.
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