Contributions to the tribute of Catherine Lucille Casteel Field

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Wednesday, January 11, 2023

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Carol Miller posted a condolence

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

When I was 3 years old, my family moved to Gladesville. Although the move was just a few miles, it was a new neighborhood, a new world for me. I remember climbing the steps the first time, of which would be many, of Ebenezer Baptist Church...And it was there that I met my friend, Cathy Casteel. When I was growing up, in my house, us kids were taken to church nearly EVERY time the church doors were open. Cathy was from a family like that, too. Cathy & her sister, Margie, were in my Sunday school class. To make things even better, our nice Sunday school teacher was their grandmother, Mary Turner! That was way back in the beginning of the 1970's--BEFORE the digital age we are in currently. We had 3 major TV networks (ABC, CBS, & NBC) plus PBS (Sesame Street first aired in November of 1969!). I'm setting this scene so the younger readers will understand our entertainment at that time. After our Sunday school lesson, while waiting for all the other classes to let out, to keep us kids quietly entertained, I remember being lined up on a pew and playing "Button, Button, Who's Got The Button"! Cathy was really good at not giving away to whom she gave the button to when it was her turn to be "it". The way I remember the game is: the "it" person would hold a button (yep, like the one that's on your shirt) in between their hands with palms & fingers together. The rest of the players would hold their hands out with palms & fingers together. The "it" person would go in front of each person & slide the button-enclosed hand between the hands of each person and SECRETLY drop the button into someone's hands. After going down the entire line, everyone had to guess who had received the button. The recipient of the button was to pretend they didn't know who had the button--use a poker face! I think Mary Turner kept a button in her church purse just for us to play that game. This game may sound ridiculous to some, but to preschoolers, it was a fun game. If Cathy was "it" & would deposit the button into my hand, I was always impressed at how slick my friend was at this--everyone was watching as she sliced her button-holding hand between everyone's & she never blinked or changed her expression! We also played "Ring Around The Rosie", "Drop the Hanky" and graduated onto "Duck, Duck, Goose", playing in the church yard. It was fun even though that was when little girls wore dresses & patent leather shoes to church. I'm sure we all had grass stains on our dresses. That kind of thing never seemed to bother Cathy. She was always happy to have kids to play games with. Then it was time for us to start to school. I don't know why, but on the first day of school in first grade (we didn't have the advantage of kindergarten) I was so very pleased that everyone from Sunday school class, including Cathy, came to school--even the older kids from my older brothers' classes were there! Cathy Casteel was in my class at school! We were in one of the larger classes at Gladesville Grade School--there were 7 of us in the first grade class. School was really fun for us. The school had two rooms for grades one thru six. The "Big Room" was for grades 4,5, &6; the "Little Room" for grades 1,2,&3. By the way, the size of the rooms were about the same. There was one teacher for three grades. For the fun-loving students, such as Cathy, it meant being in the same room with some of the older kids. Cathy was friends with these older kids. I don't know how she knew everyone, maybe she didn't know them on that first day of school, but she certainly had fun with everyone. She was one of the ring-leaders when it came to fun. Once again, I'm reminded of a game she really like to play--"Dog And A Bone". The "it" person would leave the room and someone would hide the chalkboard eraser somewhere in the classroom. I was terrible at that game, but Cathy was a creative thinker. She could think of some really good, and sometimes funny, places to hide the "bone". One time I had to find the "bone". It really put me in the spotlight and I was kind of shy. Everyone was watching while I was trying to guess where they had hidden that gray felt "black board" eraser. Everyone would get excited and say, "you're getting hotter" when I was close to finding the "bone", but I was baffled. Cathy, being a friend & seeing my frustration, would meet my eyes and then glance to the world globe on top of the bookshelf. I looked around it and everyone was cheering, "hotter, hotter!", but I just could not find it. I touched that globe & pushed it to the side and everyone in our classroom was practically screaming, "hotter, hotter!" Cathy's eyes met mine again and she made her eyes look up without moving her head. I looked up, putting my hand in the windowsill, an "Ooooo" in unison rang out from the class. I removed a few books from the top shelf (that was under the spot where the globe was on top of the shelf)-- no "dog bone"! I was on the verge of crying, my eyes full of tears, & Cathy got up, walked to my side, and lifted the world globe to reveal the blackboard eraser that was UNDER the base of that globe! No one was supposed to expose the hiding place, but Cathy came to my rescue because she was a friend, and friends help friends. Everyone burst out laughing when she lifted that globe to expose the eraser. That day, Cathy taught me that it's OK to laugh at yourself. In forth grade, our teacher had each of us to pick a chapter from our Social Studies book, read it, do an oral presentation about it, and then give a quiz on the presented material. I do not remember what people she reported on or what they did "for years' , but she asked how long they did something. About 1/2 of us wrote "4 years" and were incorrect. The teacher, Mrs. (Sarah) Wade, was very amused at the set-up Cathy had provided to "trick" us. I made a mental note-to-self that day to pay extra attention is we ever had to do that again! Our entire school went on a field trip to Pittsburgh Zoo. The school cook, Maxine Summers, made peanut butter sandwiches and cut cheese sticks for us. I'm sure there was more to our lunch that day but that's all I remember. Some adults accompanied us to the zoo. We all rode on ONE school bus! I got to sit with Cathy and her grandmother, one of the chaperones. We must have pretty easy to keep content. Grandma said something like," Look over there at that huge tree. That looks like it would be a nice place to have a picnic." We all (by "all" I mean probably just the kids in the surrounding seats closest to us) searching out our windows for the biggest tree she must have been talking about. It was Cathy who spotted the monkey in that huge picnic tree. That monkey, according to Grandma, must have been one that got away from the zoo! Then all of us kids were searching for more monkeys on the way to the zoo! At least I wasn't the only one looking for monkeys. That bus driver probably thanked God for Cathy Casteel that day. I remember the first time I got to go home with Cathy after school and spend the night. Cathy had one of the shortest school bus rides from school. She also had one of the longest driveways to walk from the bus to the house! She had to show me how to cross a weird open-style bridge that crossed the driveway. It had "slats" that were so far apart, the cows wouldn't walk on it. I didn't want to walk on it, either-- I could see the creek flowing under the bridge. The rushing water under the bridge was intimidating to me. Cathy, always the fearless friend, said to "just step on the slats" (I didn't even know what a "slat" was) When we finally got to her house and climbed the cement steps, Grandma and her sister Margie, were waiting at the front door for us. Cathy showed me to set my things down at the door and we went to the bathroom to "wash school off our hands"--something else I had never heard of. Cathy asked about dinner, it would soon be ready, but in the meantime, would we like some potato chips? Potato chips! Potato chips BEFORE dinner?! No wonder Cathy liked living here. This was great! These weren't regular potato chips, either--they were Ruffles* (they were the newest & fanciest potato chips at the time). I commented that they were salty. Then Margie asked me something. While we were talking, Cathy took the bag of chips into the kitchen and came back with them in one of those green Tupperware* bowls that were made to hold a head of lettuce. Cathy said, "here, have another chip". Of coarse I took another chip. This time the chips were wet! Cathy had rinsed the chips so they wouldn't be so salty for me. We ate most of them, laughing about it. That's the kind of thing a friend does. The wet chip thing didn't seem to get Grandma even a little bit upset at all. I had just learned what to do if potato chips have too much salt. That Cathy was one smart cookie! At Christmas time, Cathy's Grandma would bake cookies. I remember her sugar cookies. In particular, I remember the Christmas tree-shaped ones. They were sprinkled with green sugar. She even sent a bag of cookies home with me for my family. I mentioned the cookie cutter shape, the tree didn't have sharp edges at the end of the branches, they were rounded. Cathy, being the friend that she was, gave me her Grandma's Christmas tree cookie cutter. When my mother saw that, she knew Grandma hadn't given that to me--Cathy had sneaked it out. I had to send it back home with Cathy the next day. After I became an adult, I found that exact shaped cookie cutter at a flea market and bought it as a treasure to remember that time of our lives. It's funny how a cast-off, ten cent cookie cutter could make my eyes overflow with tears over such a blip of a memory...Cathy could make things memorable. I was from a "have not" family and Cathy seemed to be from a "have" family. She never ever rubbed it in my face and was always considerate and generous towards me. She always seemed to have the latest gadgets and toys. She was the first one to show me ColorForms*. They were like a step up from the paper dolls that were in our coloring books and on the back of cereal boxes. They were little vinyl cut-outs of clothing that we could "stick" onto a plastic coated picture of a child wearing only underclothes. We could quietly sit and change the outfits while Grandpap (Les Turner) watched the evening news. It was with Cathy & Margie I first played Twister*. I had seen the commercial on TV for it and it was just like on TV...well, we weren't as fast as the TV kids were at playing is since we had to stop & think which was our right or left foot! At least we knew our colors! Cathy showed Margie & me how to be creative and stretch across the playing mat to touch the colored circles. She made us all laugh as we would fall into a heap. One time when I went home with Cathy & Margie after school, they had roller skates!! No flimsy plastic things, either. These were exactly like the ones they put on us at the Tunnelton Roller Rink when the church would have a skating party there. We "skated" from the kitchen, thru the living room, into the hallway, & back into the kitchen. After about 3 rounds, we were done with that. We could hardly keep from falling down just shuffling and hanging onto furniture and the walls. When I went home that time and told my Mom about the fun I had there, she was absolutely shocked that we had roller skated in the house. I reminded Mom that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to skate in the yard. But Mom said, "on her beautiful hardwood oak floors?" Well, yeah, Mom.That's where the skates went the fastest. Years later I realized what my mother was so upset about. I thought, at least we had a short attention span at that age. Hopefully, we didn't do that much damage. Cathy knew how to show me an exciting time, even if we got tired of it quickly, it was fun! At my house, I was assigned the chore of washing dishes during the summer before I started to school. (I had to stand on a chair) Cathy and Margie never had to help clear the dishes from the table when I was there, and never helped to wash or dry the dishes. After dinner, we would play outside and when we would come back in, the dishes were magically washed and put away. When Cathy & I were maybe 9 years old, and I was at Cathy's, when Grandma stepped out of the kitchen for a minute, I told Cathy we should be helping with the dishes. That was the one & only time I remember washing dishes at Cathy's. She had no idea at that time of how to even begin. I put the dishes into the sink and turned the on the water . When I asked where they kept the dish soap, Cathy pulled it out and poured in at least 1/4 cup of dish soap into the running water. Let me tell you, I have NEVER had so many soap bubbles to contend with as we had that day...I couldn't get rid of them. Cathy seemed thrilled to be allowed to help with the dishes. I kind of apologized to Grandma and told her I wasn't sure all of the soap was even rinsed from the dishes. She could tell that I was kind of frustrated with the soap- suds situation and got us girls distracted by sending us outside to look for something. Once again, Cathy had made something that wouldn't be so fun into an adventure to a level I had never known. One time when I was at Cathy's after school to spend the night, her Grandma Bolyard was there. (That was her Grandma's mother) I don't recall if she was living with them or just there for the evening. What I do remember was how ornery Cathy could be. Cathy, Margie, & I were in their room playing while Grandpap, Grandma, & Grandma Bolyard were watching TV. Cathy said, "hey, Carol, wanna see something funny?" She pulled out a squirt gun, filled it at the bathroom sink, and all three of us crawled from their room, into the hallway and were about 3 feet from the back on the chair Grandma Bolyard was sitting in. Cathy squirts the water over the top of Grandma Bolyard so it would fall down on her! AND she did that THREE TIMES!! We were silently tee-heeing to each other when Grandma Bolyard said, "Is it raining in here?" We could not crawl fast enough or quiet enough to escape getting caught by Grandma Turner. I'd like to think we got off the hook for that one because I was with them. We just got a one-liner scolding. It was funny at the time. I'm still ashamed that I was part of that, though. We only know what we are taught at that tender age. At my house, we brushed our teeth and spit the toothpaste into the bathroom sink. At Cathy's, when it was time to brush our teeth, they used white Colgate* toothpaste. We were brushing our teeth and I spit into the bathroom sink. Cathy told me, "Grandma says to spit in the commode because wash our face in the sink," That had never occurred to me before. So I never spit in their bathroom sink when brushing my teeth and stopped doing that at my house,too. I should have felt embarrassed about that, but Cathy wasn't trying to do that. She was being a friend and showing me a better way to live. We can learn a lot from our own kind, if we try. That was all a long time ago, when we were still in our single digit years. But all along, Cathy was a friend. I will always remember her as smiling and giggling, always seeming happy. The last few times I saw her was in WalMart on Hornbeck Road. She was trying to motor along on her scooter while having grandchildren seemingly coming at her from all directions. She was in the height of her glory. She was smiling and chuckled while we were trying to talk, and one of those grandkids asked if "we" could get some doughnuts while they were putting them in her basket. We were talking about what it must have been like for her grandparents to put up with the antics of Cathy, Margie, & myself. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled and said, "yeah, those were some really good times." Sometimes it takes a lifetime to fully appreciate and understand the love that has been given to us.

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Sara Hess lit a candle

Sunday, January 8, 2023

A Memorial Tree was planted for Catherine Casteel Field

Saturday, January 7, 2023

We are deeply sorry for your loss ~ the staff at Hastings Funeral Home Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree

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The family of Catherine Lucille Casteel Field uploaded a photo

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Catherine Lucille Casteel Field

1963 - 2023

153 Spruce Street, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505 | Phone: (304) 292-8664 | Email: hastingsfuneralhome@gmail.com