Meeting Jess

  

  I I dated a boy during my Junior year of High School.   He was fun and had a good car.  I went with him to a church basketball game at Archer.  There was a tall, dark, good looking boy playing on the Archer team.  I had never seen him before.  I was seated next to Dora Burns and ask her who he was.  She said he was her cousin and would introduce me, after the game.  Jess played spectacular and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.  It was love at first sight.
     He phoned several days later and I accepted a date, for the next night.  When I told my mother who I was going out with, the next night she said “no” he is too old for you.  I didn’t have a number to call him back and I didn’t know what to do.  When Jess came to take me on the date, Mom took one look at him and said it was alright for me to go with him.  We went to a show and just talked.  He was so easy to be with.  He didn’t have much to say but I jabbered steady.
     We didn’t date long because as soon as harvest was over Jess and three other boys went to California looking for work.   They found work in a factory and all lived in a boarding house.   Jess wrote once a week   Jess bought a red convertible car that the engine was ruined.  He and his friends overhauled it and had it running by Christmas so three of them drove back for the holidays   . Can you imagine riding in a convertible in the winter, with no heater?
  

    We only had one date during the holidays.  We went to Riverside Gardens to a dance, in his Dad’s car,  when it was forty below zero.  After the dance, we went to Rigby to eat and the car froze up and wouldn’t run.  Jess phoned his Dad to come and get us.   Jess’s  Dad walked to his brother Charles house and borrowed his car and started down to Rigby to get us.  That car froze up and Jess’s Dad had to walk back home.
     Jess and I sat in the café until it closed and phoned his Dad again.  It was after 2:00 am and his Dad hadn’t come.   He didn’t have any way to come and get us so we sat in the lobby of the hotel the rest of the night.  Jess offered to buy me a hotel room but I didn’t think that was right so we half slept in the lobby and no one bothered us.  As soon as the café opened in the morning we stayed there until his Dad came around noon.
     I had no way to let my folk know where I was.   When I got home my mother didn’t even scold me, she trusted me.  There was magic that night and Jess decided not to go back to California.  He left a good easy job to stay home and sort potatoes.

They did love that convertible!!!  Was Jess handsome or what!!!

The Dating Years

 

 

We started dating young.  In the winter time  we would go is to the
Archer or Lyman dances on Friday night  once  a month.  In the winter we would go by sleigh, wrapped in blankets, when it was really cold.  If we got too cold we would get out of the sleigh and hold on the back and run along side.
When I was a junior in High School  I dated a fellow that had a nice car.  In the winter, our lane down from the main road, was often drifted full and many dates walked me in from the main road.  One fellow assured  me his car would drive the lane and not get stuck.  I told him I wouldn't get my Dad out of bed, to pull him out, if he got stuck.  We got stuck and I just got out of the car and walked home alone.  I never did know how he got his car out but he never ask me for a date again.

In the summer we could go to the movie theater.  Often a group of us girls would each put in 25 cents.  That would buy the movie ticket , a hamburger and some for gas.  Our favorite place was the Dill Pickle Inn in Rigby  I was never able to furnish the car but I always had money.  I took care of my money.  We would also go to watch either  Archer or Lyman wards play M.I.A. basketball.   That is the way I met Jess.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

   When I was young, 11 to 17 there was a huge yellow rose bush right out my east bedroom window.  Because it was in the shade it bloomed for a long time.    When my Grand mother Atkinson died there was a beautiful vase of long stem yellow roses.  The family gave them to me and I brought them home and dried them.  They were in my bedroom for a long time.   Now the Holy Hock is my favorite flower.  Several reasons, it comes up by itself every year and has deep roots, so it requires little water.  It also blooms for a long time.

When I first moved to Newdale, in 1993, the yards were huge and a mess.  The first thing I did was haul rocks from the hill to cover up the hill just out the front door.  I pulled weeds and planted flowers and had a huge garden.  If you remember the spot in the gutter east of the front lawn was beautiful, after I hauled in fresh dirt and planted packets of wildflowers.  I made the mistake of hauling manure from Munn's livestock place and got a lot of weed seeds.  Our house was on city water and so very expensive to irrigate that huge yard..  I was getting left over fruit from Albertsons, at this time and I shared with the Mexican pipe movers, who moved pipe around my house.  They would run the pipe down through my yard any time they had water near and pulled the end plug to let that water soak my yards..  They were very good to me.    It really hurts to go by the house that I left, 6 years ago, and now see most of the lawn and all the huge trees on the west, dying from lack of water.

The yards in Archer needed extra work.  When Hilary lived in this house, she came to my house in Newdale and got flower starts from my yards,  to plant here in Archer.   The biggest improvement I have made in my Archer home was just this spring.  A neighbor who needed moeny and made extra money by,selling junk, came and totally cleaned up old roofing etc..  Jill and Lincoln came the day we emptied out the old shed.    Steve comes twice a year and fertilizes my lawn and until last year, Kent's family, mowed the lawn.  I love my Archer house and yards.. 

These are all from Grandma’s Garden

Hair Trouble

 

This picture is really how I got my first perm. 

My hair is straight, straight and I don't remember who cut it.  It has always been a source of time wasted.   My first permanent was when my Grandpa Atkinson, who sold insurance, sold a policy to a lady who had a beauty shop in her home in Sugar City.  She wanted to give someone a permanent instead of paying the money for the first cost.  I was excited to know I would  get my hair  permanented.  The only problem, how was I going to get to Sugar City.  I skipped school, rode to Rexburg with the milk man.   He didn't come to our house so I had to go to the corner and wait for him.  It seemed like it took all day.  The electric curlers and camps were heavy and my neck ached.  I don't remember how I got back home but my hair was curly.

Before this I usually had my hair cut in a Dutch bob, bangs and straight sides.  If something special Mom would tear strips of rags and roll strand of hair up in each rag and then tie the rag on top.

Later when I was in high school, hair was curled with a chemical solution at a beauty shop and that took money, so we only got one permanent a year and that was right before school started. Each night we would wet our hair and put finger curls in and secure with a bobby pin.   We were short of bobby pins and Marva and I had to share.

Jess's sister was a beauty operator and always did my hair.  The worst permanent I ever got was one that Zella gave me.  She rolled my hair up and put the solution on it and we were to wait so long to neutralize the chemical.  Zella answered the telephone and forgot I needed the chemical off.  When the permanent was finished, my hair broke off and what was left was frizzy

When my brother Larry married Marilyn, she was a beauty operator and she did my hair for years.  When I moved to  Rexburg a good friend did it.  After I moved to Newdale, My husband ,Clair's,  niece had a beauty shop in her home.  Every permanent was a mess and I could hardly wait to get it cut.

After we brought Clair home from the hospital and he only had a short time to live Clair's niece came to the house, to give me a permanent.  Clair's daughter, Kathy, was there helping care for her Dad and she went in the bedroom to check her Dad and returned to tell us that Clair had died.  There I sat with chemical on my hair.

When I moved back to Archer, 6 years ago, my hair problems were solved.  Eric Sutton's wife Andi is a beauty operator and has given me every permanent since.  When I was so weak, after chemo and radiation, I would lay down on her floor, while I waited for the chemical to work.  The side advantage was I could play with my great grand children while I was getting my hair done.  No wasted time.

Spuds and Beets

  When  I came home from Driggs I didn’t start school because  Max and I were partners and started picking spuds.  I didn’t start school that fall until Nov.  After picking spuds, we topped beets.   Dad would plow out the beets and lay them in a row on the ground.  We would cut the green top off, leaving only the root.  It was hard work but even harder was when the truck came into the field.  We would throw the frozen topped beets into the high wagon.  I wasn’t very tall and it was hard for me.  It was easier when a wagon came, pulled  by horses.  That beet bed wasn’t as high.  I didn’t have any warm clothes and I was cold all the time.

Garth told me ( 2012) that they dig 12 rows of spuds at a time.  Crossover four rows on each side to 4 rows in the middle.  I started picking behind a two row digger that put 2 rows on the ground, back of it.  Happy Day when  two rows were dug and put on top of two rows so we didn't have to cover so much ground, to pick up the 4 rows and could pick more sacks each day.     We thought that was, wonderful.

At first a team of horses pulled a wagon and a man on each side would lift the sacks up on the wagon.   That was enough weight for the team.   Then we had trucks and a man on each side would lift the sacks to the truck bed and a man on the bed would drag them to the front of the truck bed and stack them a few layers high..  When the truck hauled the spuds to the spud cellar, they would put a wide board from the truck bed to the pile of spuds and walk the plank and dump them one sack at a time.  Today 12 rows of spuds are conveyed to the truck and at the cellar an electric motor empties the truck.  It took a lot of man power plus kids and women to pick.  When I am really tired at the end of the day I still say, "I feel like 0I have picked spuds all day." 

Since Jess had a bad  heart it was hard for him to lift a sack of spuds up to the truck bed and I wasn't tall enough to do it.   If there were still sacks of spuds left in the field, after we finished picking, I could get on the truck drag the sacks to the front of the truck and that would help Jess.

Wash Day

This is a picture of how I washed  clothes until I was 15 years old.  Count your blessings!!!

Dating in Driggs

      When mom lived in Driggs at the pea packing shed, she lived in a room in a Motel with some other girls. She said, “ I was 16 and soon dating two fellows.One was the son of the motel manager. He was older than I was and I never felt comfortable around him, and I didn't like his ways. Billy Sewell's dad owned the Ford dealership and he drove a new car. I soon was dating only Billy. We had fun. We went to Green Canyon swimming, once to Pocatello and Saturday night to dances at Jackson. Going to Jackson was scary because the old road was switch backs and narrow. One night we had a flat tire on the pass and I was terrified. One Saturday night, Billy said his Dad didn’t feel good about us driving to Jackson to the dance. I told him his Dad was right so we went to the bowling alley and bowled.

Billy had a sharp mind and we enjoyed playing word games. He was two years older but I could hold my own in these games. One night I had a cold and didn’t go to work. The crew was suppose to work until ten that night. Billy came to entertain me. Just the two of us in that little motel room playing three handed dummy pinnacle. We were laughing and having a good time, when all at once the owner of the motel jumped into the room. I could tell by the look on her face she was expecting to see something. She was embarrassed and said she had just come into the room to turn off the light. I was so innocent at the time I didn’t have the faintest idea what she expected to find. As soon as she left, Billy left also.

Each Saturday one of the girl’s parents would come and bring us groceries for the coming week. At the end of the season all the other girls had been fired and only Helen Mae Hillman and I stayed in Driggs. My folks car didn’t run very well but they came to get us, they weren’t leaving us two girls up there alone in that motel. By that time school had already started and we were anxious to get back home.

Gold and Green Ball Queen

 

I remember many outstanding things about High School.  Dances were held once a month, alternating between Archer and Lyman. The Squires orchestra furnished the music. Everyone of all ages would join in and trade dances.   Each ward had a Golden Green ball and a queen was chosen for the ward.  At first the queen, was chosen by the number of ballots purchased for her.  The girl with the richest boyfriend or Dad always won.  By the time I was a senior the bishopric chose the queen.  It was a great honor.  I reigned over the Lyman Green and Gold Ball  and also reigned with the queens, from the other wards, at the stake dance.
We all had our pictures in the newspaper.  I don't remember where the beautiful bright red, three tier taffeta dress I wore came from but I wore it that night.  And every dance I went to for years after.  It always fit because I never changed sizes. One year, after the birth of several sons and before I stored it away, I washed it and ruined it.

Obviously not Mom’s picture, but you get the idea.