These are some words from the book
“Those were the Days, My Friendsâ€Â
Written by Elva Lucas
Mother of Howard Lucas
Also known as Momelle to us Granddaughters
Percy the Lamb
One of our neighbors, Percy Weaver, called one day to say that a band of sheep had passed his place and left a baby lamb that was unable to keep up with the others and he thought our boys might like it fr a pet -- they would! The little fellow was pretty bedraggled and sick, but after he had a bath and hundreds of sage ticks had been removed from his hide and he had all the warm milk he could drink, he looked like he might be worth saving after all. In a few day he knew his name was "Percy" and when called he would come running to get his warm milk. He enjoyed a bath, and was a clean and affectionate pet to have around the house. Howard was his particular hero, and he followed the boy wherever he went. It was a comical sight as he galloped down the read trying to keep up with Howard on his bike, and that big long tail flopping! He loved to run full speed into a flock of hens and watch them scatter as they squawked in fright. Guess it gave him a sense of power to cause so much commotion but -- it could have been just a sense of humor! One day when Howard was feeding the chickens, he put a handful of wheat on Percy's back where it settled down in the thick wool. One of the roosters discovered it (probably Howard put the rooster on the sheep's back) and he became positively hysterical in his desire to share all this with the hens. He called and called to them, dancing and scratching the wheat out of the wool, and through all this Percy stood perfectly still, turning his head from side to side, eyes half closed, in every way showing his delight and ecstasy at having his back so well scratched! After this you may be sure Percy was always on hand when it was time to feed the chickens.
The winter of Howard's Senior year was a busy one for he was a star player in the high school basketball team. He was built for that type of sport and whenever we attended a game we were thrilled to hear the chant "We want Howard" or "We want Luke". He seemed able to score often and when the other team would make a point was when the call went up. One day he told me that one the the boys had been ill when they were making a trip to another town and it was learned that he had the mumps. Of course everyone was exposed and it seemed hardly possible that our boy would escape it. Many of the boys began to come down with the disease and -- it was tournament time! At about the right time, Howard began to ail a little but would not admit that he was sick. It was hard to keep him down for he was determined to play in the tournament. Although he was not really ill, did not have any temperature or any of the usual symptoms f the disease, it did seem probable that he had the mumps. We took him to the doctor in town but he was never very positive about anything anyway, and would only say that he "could have the mumps" and advised against playing basketball. But Howard talked him out of it and the doctor would not definitely forbid his playing. Neighbors of ours were going to Tonasket one day, and offered to take him to the doctor there. When he got back there was no guess about it -- that doctor had said basketball was "out of the question!" even though he was not positive that he had mumps. It was a hard time for poor Howard, especially since Oroville lost he tournament! He and many others on the team, and including the coach, felt there team would have won if Howard could have played.
Howard graduated from High School....He went to Wenatchee and stayed with my sister, Stella and her family for awhile, working in the cannery where she and Jack [Tracy] were always the best of friends. He was soon supervisor of a crew who were loading and trucking cans of fruit. After he came home he worked in the orchards and apple warehouses, and in the early winter he and a friend went to Spokaine where they each got work. It was not steady w