Golden Baldock grew up at a time when girls wore pageboy hairstyles and long skirts that were either straight or full. However, Golden preferred jeans and wore them most of the time. She and her mother lived on a farm in Oklahoma during the Depression years.
She recalls WWII when men went off to war, and women and children kept the home fires burning with gas and sugar rations. According to Golden, “The women and children planted and grew the crops in our area of Oklahoma. It was a hard job, but a good learning experience. We had to walk to the store and had to milk the cows and pick the cotton. I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school like I would have liked to, but that was during the Depression, and we were lucky to have a place to live and food on the table.”
Golden’s mother was a remarkable woman who not only provided for her child during one of the most difficult times in this country’s history, but also tended the sick and operated a farm. “My mother was an excellent cook on the old stove. She could make something wonderful out of almost anything. She was famous for her fried pies. She picked the fruit right off the trees and made the best fried pies. She was a good nurse, too. If someone got sick, they called my mom.
We were fortunate enough to bring her to Maricopa to live for a few years when she was about 75, and I think my mother was about the happiest that she ever was here. She would come over to the store (Maricopa Mercantile) and tend bar for us. Everyone loved my mom and called her ‘Grandma.’ If she didn’t get to come over, they would come in and say, “Where’s grandma?”
Golden was an active member and leader of the Maricopa Business and Professional Women’s Club. She recalls how important it was to her mother. “My mother was in the BPW Club with us and our club chose her Woman of the Year one year. That was really something for her because my mom had worked hard all her life, and she got to go to state and be recognized as Woman of the Year for Maricopa. She went back to Oklahoma and passed away when she was 84.”
Golden only saw her father a couple of times when she was growing up. “I don’t remember a lot about my father. I was two years old when mother and dad separated and we went to Oklahoma. My brothers, Ed and James P. Farrell stayed in Texas. I never saw my dad and my brother Edward…but a couple of times when I was growing up…until I moved to Maricopa. That is why we really enjoyed coming to Maricopa. I got to know my brother. We could talk if we had problems with our families…or if we had problems with our business. We could sit down and visit with one another. I am so thankful for the time I did have with him.”
Coming to Maricopa
“We moved to Maricopa in 1952. Well to me, you can imagine coming from a town with 33,000 people in Roswell, New Mexico. I worked in a new Safeway store….so when we first moved to Maricopa, I thought what in the world are we doing?” However, I meet people easily, and it didn’t take long to get acquainted. We got to know many wonderful people in Maricopa. Several couples met and had potluck dinners every week at different places. We had the school carnival every year, and worked with helping to build the Maricopa Community Church and the community swimming pool. We had sunrise Easter Sunday breakfast out on the desert near the mountains where Jay did the cooking. We were a very close family.”
Golden and Jay adjusted very quickly to moving to Arizona, but it was not an easy move for their teenage son, Bobby, “Our son, Bobby, was a junior in high school and on the basketball team when we left New Mexico. He was depressed about leaving basketball and Roswell, but studied and worked hard at school. He had to ride the bus to Casa Grande because there was no high school in Maricopa. He made the main basketball team, had the lead in the school play and was chosen to go to Boys State.” Not bad for a student’s first year in a new school!”
Bobby went on to graduate from Casa Grande and got a scholarship to Roswell Military School. After graduation, he went to the U of A and graduated from law school. Then he worked for a law firm in Roswell and became a state leader in promoting the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Bobby won a nomination as a federal judge and served for several years. Today, he is a part of the appellate court circuit which he loves and has no plans to change.
Their daughter, Paula, was very young when they moved to Maricopa. She went to school in the old schoolhouse before it burned. Golden beams when she talks about her wonderful daughter, “We are very proud of our daughter, Paula, and all of her achievements. She and her husband, James Kellogg, continue to call Maricopa their home today. They have four active daughters who are doing very well and have already achieved very much in their young lives. Pollyanna is working toward her degree at ASU, and Jamie has an upholstery business. Holly still lives and works in Maricopa and Melissa, the youngest was a surgical nurse at a hospital in Kansas City, Mo. However, today she is working as the administrator for a surgical center in Guam. One of her responsibilities is to prepare it for hospital accreditation.”
When asked what they want people to remember about them, Golden does not hesitate, “I think that we were hard working and we loved the community. That is what I want others to remember about us. We always felt that the community was our family. If people needed help, we helped where we could. I just want them to remember that we are thankful for having the opportunity to live in Maricopa and to know the wonderful people who lived there.”
Jay agrees with his wife of more than 70 years. “We were honored in many ways. I was president of the Rotary Club and Chairman of Pinal County Housing Authority. Hayden C. Hayden, at that time he was just a sales person for the family-owned company. He got me a job in the Retail Grocers’ Association. That was a big change for us because we got to go places, do things and meet people. Then low and behold, I was president of that thing. I was honored to be the president! The year I was president, they had a grocery convention and there were about 500 people out in the audience, and they announced Woman Grocer of the Year and who was it? It was grandma, here! We’ve been honored in so many ways.”
Jay definitely appreciates his good luck in having lived in Maricopa and recalls an especially wonderful wow moment in his life, “One time a young lady came into the store and told me that her mother had just had twins. She named them Golden and Jay. The experiences we had there is unbelievable, and like I said… I think the good Lord was with us every step of the way. I would not exchange our lives and the things that we have accomplished, for anyone that I know. We have had heartache, but we have been fortunate that we have not lost a child, a grandchild or great grandchild. You know that’s unheard of for a family to have been together for 70 years. What more could you ask?”
Note: Jay passed away a few years ago, but Golden (in her 90s) continues to live an active life in Ahwatukee, playing bridge and enjoying her grandchildren who frequently visit and entertain her with their lively conversations and many humorous escapades.
Editor’s note: Maricopa factoids are a regular feature on InMaricopa.com. They are provided by the Maricopa Historical Society.
Submitted photo
