November 26th - I am Thankful for F*R*I*E*N*D*S

Note:  I have decided after writing this post that I was a gypsy from an early age!  I think I wandered from friend to friend, house to house, year after year, as teachers changed, schools changed, seasons changed, interests changed, and friends moved away.  So, sorry, if I ever was a total pest or burden, as I all but lived in every corner of the Ashley Valley.  I'm sorry if I ever hurt anyone because I was too busy flitting.  I am so grateful for what I learned from my friends, and have a lot of happy memories.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.  They have always been important to me (well, at least as long as I can remember).  We moved to our house on 2 1/2 South in Vernal before Scott was born in March of 1958; so it had to be when I was four or younger.  But even before that, I can remember hanging around with a slew of neighborhood kids up by the old high school on 12th West.  I don't remember having a "best" friend or a one and only friend at that point, but I did go outside and play---a lot.

Then we moved to 2 1/2 South, and there was only a vacant lot that separated our house from Ellen Ufford's house.  Cindy Blackburn lived across the street.  I played with Cindy quite a bit, but Ellen and I played together what seemed like most every day.  Cindy's house was fun because it was a tri-level.  I lived in a brick rambler.  I loved the fact that she had so many stairs.  Ellen's house was the best though.  Her dad had built the cutest play house in their backyard.  Ellen was the first daughter after four sons, so he was probably more than happy to make "girly" things for her.  Ellen's mom was a wonderful seamstress so the little house had cute little curtains as well.  I loved playing there.  I would load my wagon and make the trek down the sidewalk, past the empty lot to their house.  I wonder now if Ellen's mom was ever wishing I'd just stay home!  I would take my dolls and whatever else I needed, and we'd head for the backyard.  I used to be intrigued, however, with their wringer washing machine in the garage and would watch Roberta for what seemed like hours.  I also loved the knotty pine, built-in bunkbeds (two sets) that slept Ellen's four older brothers, Roberta's sewing machine that was always set up, and Dick Ufford's restored Model T (we played in it sometimes, too).  We often would go to visit Ellen's grandparents, the Cooks.  It was at their house that I first saw and used a remote control for a television.  We loved to make it change the channels.  It was like magic.

When my Grandma Sowards died in December of 1958, I was in kindergarten.  Sometime in the following months, we sold our house and bought Grandma and Grandpa's house on 1st South.  We had a bathroom built next to a bedroom which was up a few stairs and behind the kitchen, and Grandpa stayed and lived with us.  I still played with Ellen, as she was just a few blocks away and in my church ward; but Linda Lowry, who was living with her mom at her Grandma Siddoway's house across the street became one of my new best friends.  We would play at Grandma Tess' house and go visit Linda's great grandmother down on the other corner.  She lived in a big Victorian-type house that was secluded in the trees, and full of dark carpet, floors, drapes and furniture.  It always seemed dimly lit, and there was a door that was tied shut upstairs.  Linda and I were sure the house was haunted.  I lost my desire to visit very often when wearing flip flops one time, I stepped in a pile of freshly dropped dog doo-doo in the house!  Man, did it ooze---all over and in between my toes!  Gross! 

Another memory was sleigh riding with two sleighs being pulled behind a car with Linda, my sister, Livi, and Linda's cousins, Wayne and Terral Merkley, in the big field between the two Siddoway homes.   Livi received a major black eye when the back sleigh kept coming after the front one stopped, and that put an end to that.   I'm not sure how long Linda and  her mom lived there, but when her mom married Craig Caldwell, they moved to the other side of town.  Luckily, our parents still let us play together on occasion, and some of my first sleepovers were at her house.  I loved to play in their downstairs family room because they had a special bar where they kept their horse saddles---yup, we played on those saddles, riding our imaginary horses for miles!  They also had a sun deck on the top of their house.  What fun we had up there.

The first fall at Grandma and Grandpa's old house, I was in first grade.  Susan Thacker's family was building a new house out in the country, and while it was being built, they were living in their grandparents' apartments on the corner of First South and First West.  It was really convenient.  Susan was in Mrs. Morrill's first grade with me, and her house was on the way home from school.  Guess you know where I spent a chunk of time.  Susan was an incredible first grade artist.  I'm not sure if we just colored things after school or what we did, but I know that I loved to watch her draw at school.  Sometimes we would walk down to the next block and visit her grandparents, Les and Maude Thacker.  Nancy Stone was also a good friend at about that time.  For awhile she was living in an apartment on Vernal Avenue above her uncle's Shamrock Bar.  We would walk there from school as well.  Sometimes I wonder if I just moved from one house one night, and then to another the next! 

Some time in my early years of grade school (K-3), I became good friends with Hina Caldwell.  Hina lived on 3 1/2 South for awhile and then about third grade they moved into a rental on 2nd West while they built a new house in Glines Ward (way out west).  Hina's parents, Larson and Lucy were really good friends with my parents as well so sometimes we did family things together, like picnics.  Her little sister, Mohea, was the same age as Livi.  The four of us would hang together alot.  Early on, I remember going to both of Hina's grandparents' homes to visit.  Her Caldwell grandparents lived on a ranch where Steinaker Resevoir sits today.  Her Grandma and Grandpa Carroll were the sweetest people and lived in Maeser.  Yep, I really did get around.

About the time I was in second grade, Dorothy and Aaron Jolley moved to Vernal.  Their daughter Cheryl, became my best friend for most of five years.  There were times, though, that she would end up in one classroom, and I would be in another; so we would hang with classmates as well.  I thought I was going to die when Cheryl moved to Bountiful after our sixth grade year.  Memories at the Jolleys included eating lots of cookies and treats and drinking raw milk!  In fact I used to go to Cooper's dairy with them to pick it up.  The first scones I ever had were at the Jolley's.  We did all the normal girly things, but we got into producing summer musicals in their garage.  I watched in awe as their dog, Queenie, had puppies.  I remember watching the Flintstones with them for the first time (maybe 2nd grade), and the Beatles in their famous Ed Sullivan concert in sixth grade.  I filled out my first pedigree chart at their kitchen table.  I got to know her maternal grandparents, the Salisburys, too, and loved to spend time in the truck camper when they came to visit (another first for me).  We also made trips to visit at Uncle Kay and Aunt Ranae Labrum's house---didn't matter who my friends went to see, I seemed to tag along.

One of the most unique places I tagged along with Cheryl was to the mortuary, the Vernal Mortuary.  This occured in the last year or so that she lived  in Vernal.   Cheryl's uncle, Arben was the mortician in town.  Her dad, Aaron, was also a licensed mortician, but he owned Vernal Furniture.  When Arben's family went on vacation, Aaron took care of things at the mortuary. Somebody had to be there to answer the phone.  So....one night, Cheryl and I had phone duty and had to stay at the mortuary/house of Arben's family.  You see, the mortuary was attached to their house, or their house was attached to the mortunary.  Anyway, before Dorothy left, she took us into the mortuary part and there on a gurney was a corpse, a very nice lady, but she was very dead, had an amputated leg, was dressed nicely, but I think she had curlers in her hair.  I was totaly weirded out by the whole thing.  Then Cheryl and I went a few rooms away in the "house part" to watch some television, and Dorothy left!  We were alone (well, except for the corpse).  It was dark outside.  A little later on, to our horror, a mouse ran across the room.  We were really freeking out at that point.  I know that some phone calls were made---don't remember how many or how long it took for adults to come to the rescue, but it was definitely an adventure!

There was a lot of time in grade school spent at the Winwards as well.  Just like the Caldwells and the Jolleys, they had daughters the same age as Livi and I.  We used to play a lot with Linda and Lydia in their big back yard and have marshmallow roasts in their outdoor fireplace.  A little later in grade school, we would often visit the Prices next door and jump on their in-the-ground trampoline.  When we were a little older, we would enjoy trips with both of our families to the Winward's cabin and fishing trips out on our boat.
And yes, I can say that I visited Linda's grandparents.  As I remember, her Grandmother Winward lived down on 5th South.  I also got to know Otis and Jennie Weeks when they came to visit in Vernal and even went to their house in Salt Lake City when we were older.

Linda Winward, Hina, Cheryl, and Ellen were all in my classes at church; as were, Valynne Spendlove and Jill Wright.  Lydia Epperson moved into our ward in about third grade.  I loved to go to her house because her mom was so sophisticated and had a southern accent!  I spent a fair amount of time at Val's and Jill's, too, for occasional playdates and for birthday parties and the like.  Jill and I were besties in 8th grade (more on that later), but I remember how I loved to go to Val's house because of the "gong" that her Dad had brought from his military service in the Orient, their TV that was built into the wall in the family room, the downstairs rec room with a snack bar, and the fact that her big sister, Leslie, was in high school.  There was always something "grown-up going on at their house!  I think it was there that I watched how pom-poms were fashioned from crepe paper.  I know for a fact that at one of her birthday parties (February 14th), we played the game where we had to eat a cracker and try to whistle---such fun memories.  In fourth grade, Val's birthday party was a slumber party---my first.  We watched Frankenstein.  Another draw for Val's house was the creek that ran between their property and the Batty's property---a great place to play.

In third grade I got to know Michelle Stewart when we were in Florence Williams' classroom. We hit it off from the start.  We both loved to play piano.  I don't remember that I hung at her house so much that year, but I know I did later (details forthcoming).  Another friend, Annette Cundick lived on 2nd South on the way home from school.  Since she was in second ward, I didn't know her as well at first.  Her house was another one for viewing life in high school as she had a big brother, Lynn, and two older sisters, Kathy, and Pauline.

Linda W., Hina Cheryl, Ellen, Valynne, Michelle and I along with Janese Lindsay (who was in the 2nd ward with Michelle and moved across the street from Linda W. in third or fourth grade) started doing 4-H together the summer after 4th grade.  Penny Swain who would come to visit her aunt, Isabel Batty, for the summers would sometimes join us. We first had just a cooking club that Helen Spendlove and my mom taught.  Later on, Kathy Lindsey taught us how to sew; and Alta Winward and Lucy Caldwell taught the cooking part. We kept it up for four or five summers.  LuJean Donald taught us sewing after the Lindsays moved.  We went to camp at the end of every summer, and I have many a fond memory with these girls at Oaks Park.  My cousin, Susan Sowards, took us to camp the first summer.  Alta Winward took us at least once.  LuJean Donald took us the year that our group held most of the camp offices for the whole county 4-H.  It was our last.  We thought we were really hot stuff and stayed in the Ufford family's school bus-turned motor home instead of staying in tents!

In fourth grade I know that I hung out with Cheryl a lot and still spent time with everybody else here and there. Fifth grade, however, was the year for the Fab 4.  Boy, if we didn't think we were neat.  Michelle, Cherie Anderson (whose father had taken the place of Annette Cundick's dad as manager of the JC Penney store), Charlene Oaks (who was from out in the country in Davis Ward), and I somehow got on the good side of our teacher, Glen Larsen.  We got to sit with our desks in a square.  We would get asked to help students who were struggling.  Looking back at what went on that year, it would not sit well with school districts today.  The four of us used to go to Mr. Larsen's house after school and visit!  We even knew his girlfriend.  He took our class on field trips in the middle of the night out in the desert near Red Wash so we could catch Kangaroo Rats (in the backs of open trucks that were privately owned).  We had a class Halloween party in Michelle's basement and bobbed for apples.  We would put his stereo in the window of our corner classroom at lunch recess, and he would teach the class dance steps to Do Ron Ron.  Though some of his methods were unconventional, the Fab 4 got a lot of self-esteem boosts that year and loved to hang out together.  Charlene got to do things with us once in awhile, but she often had to ride the bus home.  Cherie's house, which had been the Cundick's, was often a stop on the way to my house.  Cheryl Jolley's house was just a block further down the road.  She had a different teacher that year and hung out with Jill Wright quite a bit, but we still spent a good deal of time together. 

Michelle's family got me as the frequent visitor, though.  I was always intrigued with Michelle's purple (lavender) bedroom that was all decorated and coordinated.  Livi and I shared a bedroom that still had the same wallpaper that was there when it was Grandma's house.  I especially loved the extra little room that was attached to her second-story bedroom.  We spent may hours in there with Michelle's chemistry set.  We were just sure that we could come up with a replacement for human blood!  I spent a lot of time with Michelle's family.  One year I went deer hunting with them on Blue Mountain.  I spent time in Jensen at the home of her grandparents, Luther and Josie Stewart (are you seeing a trend here---maybe this was due to the fact that one of my grandmothers had died and the other one lived 3,000 miles away).

Cheryl and I were in the same class in 6th grade so our "togetherness" increased.  Good thing, too, because that summer they moved out of Vernal---it was one of the saddest times of growing up.  There was a big hole in my life.  The rest of us still did 4-H that summer, and it was about this time that some of my extra time was taken up by doing bookkeeping for my dad, but I still managed to spend time with a mixture of friends.  I still did things with all the girls in the ward, but our interests were starting to diversify.  Also, that summer was my first with my violin.  Nancy Donald, who was new to the area, Michelle, and Linda W. were also in orchestra with me.

Seventh grade brought a lot of new friends because people from four or five elementary schools came together at Ashley Valley Jr. High.  I don't remember "hanging out" with one person most of the time.  I remember spending time listening to music at Linda Winwards, riding horses out at Hina's in the country.  Ellen and I remained close, but the thing I remember about her that year was all the time we spent together sewing in home ec.  She was a natural, like her mom.  I worked at it, really hard, and thought everything had to be perfect.  She was a great help to me.  The orchestra girls spent time in extra rehersals and preparing for contest and such.  Janese moved away that summer, and I was reminded how much I didn't like change. 

At the end of seventh grade, I ran for a student council office.  I was elected Girl's League Secretary, and Jill Wright was elected as 8th grade secretary.  That put us in student council together the next year.  8th grade became my year with Jill.  Jill's parents were really good friends with my aunt and uncle who lived next door.  Because of that I had known Jill's family for a long time.  Jill was the only girl and the baby of the family.  Her house was always quiet, extremely clean, and beautifully decorated.  Like most teenagers I enjoyed the time away from home, and away from all the chaotic busyness as I was the oldest of seven children at that point and four of them little brothers!  I learned a lot at Jill's  Her mom was extremely organized.  She loved to re-finish furniture.  Her yard and gardens were exquisite.  She was another gifted seamstress.  She even made me a really cute jumper when she was making school clothes for Jill.  I got to go with her family to the state basketball tournament that spring.  We stayed in a motel in Springville as I remember.

Some of my time that year was also spent with Janie Morrell who had just moved into our ward.  I spent time with her listening to music, talking about boys and clothes, and laughing.  The thing I loved about Janie was her sense of humor.  She was so much fun to hang out with.  Once she moved to the country (out in Naples), we didn't get to spend as much time together; but I remember some fun times with her and Hina sleigh riding and tubing on the hill by her house.  We also got some good practice driving in their VW on that not-so-busy country road.

Jill and I spent a lot of time together during the school year, but even more that summer.  We spent time at the pool swimming, we'd lay out in her backyard, we'd take long bike rides out in the country, and we'd work on our requirements for our MIA (Young Women) awards.  The first time I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, Jill was there.  It had a profound affect on both of us.  I remember us talking and writing about our experience in our Beehive books. That summer, Mike Tunnell, had asked my dad if he could take me to the Govenor's Ball at Boy's State; I wasn't quite 14.  My dad sent me to California!  Even though I was flattered at first, emotionally I wasn't mature enough to deal with a relationship with a high schooler (we did date later).  Jill would help me in schemes to avoid contact with him, as I just didn't dare tell Mike I wasn't ready and would try to avoid his calls and visits.  I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wanted him to figure out that I was dumb and immature---I was.  Well, interestingly enough, he and Jill started dating, which was fine by me.  I was happy for both of them. 

School started, and I became really good friends with Vickie Voyles.  Because of our school schedules, Vickie and I were together all day long.  We were in the advanced math class (geometry) together, we were in journalism together, we were in seminary together, we were in choir together, we were in P.E. together, and we were in student council together.  She had been elected Studentbody Vice President, and I was Studentbody Secretary.  She was editor of the yearbook, and I was co-editor.  We spent hours in and out of school together; and yes, I would go visit her grandma over on Main Street!  I had a lot of fun with Vickie.  We spent a lot of late nights making yearbook deadlines.  I remember walking in the cold and dark to go to Ashton's to see if we could get more of the colored napkins we needed to finish the false ceiling for the Sweetheart Ball.  We worked really hard together to make changes and establish traditions at our new school (we were the first ninth grade class in the new junior high, now the middle school on 1st South). 

Tenth grade came.  Vickie was on the yearbook staff at the high school.  Her circle of friends changed.  My focus was speech and debate along with Michelle, and to be honest, I was working more and more for my dad.  I didn't have the free time that I had once had.  Tenth grade was one where I hung with a lot of people, just not as often.  Faith Kremin had moved into our ward, and we really hit it off.  A bunch of the aforementioned friends were in pep club with me.  Michelle and I shared a locker. 

Jill and I hung out a lot in the fall.  One of our activities was driving our parents cars (and no, we didn't have our licenses yet, and no, I don't know how we got away with it---what was I thinking?).  As I remember, she was on the committe for our 10th grade homecoming float which was being built in the large truck garage that was on our property.  We got a lot of help from Mike who had done a lot of winning floats before.  It was at that time, that she was trying to break it off with Mike.  Things had really come full circle---she had helped me before, now she would make me go everywhere with her so she wouldn't be alone with him.  Oddly enough, by the end of that school year, Mike was one of the guys that I was dating; and by the end of that summer, he was definitely my favorite.  Of course, he had his mission call and was getting ready to leave  in September.

Speaking of summer, 1969 was my year at the lodge---Flaming Gorge Lodge!  And...my summer with Linda Winward.  Linda's dad, a CPA, did the accounting for the lodge, and he found out they were in desparate need of temporary help over Memorial day weekend and the first two weeks of June.  By then, the college-age help that they had hired from all over the country would arrive.  He volunteered Linda and I!  We were such good workers, they kept us on all summer.  She also did some of the bookkeeping work for her dad.  We stayed at the dormitory some of the time.  It was there for the hired help.  Some of the time we stayed at her cabin with her mom and her siblings.  I remember lots of fun time on the mountain that summer, including hiking and midnight swims at the Gorge.  I will always be glad for that time with Linda.

Perhaps this is an appropraite place to write about the friends I had at school.  I loved people.  I loved growing up in Vernal.  I loved a lot of Vernal people---they were good, the right stuff.  Sometimes because I hadn't know them all that long, or we lived miles apart, or our lives took us different directions, I didn't necessarily "hang out" with them in their homes or away from school or church.  However, there were lots of people that I sure enjoyed spending time with during class or during our extra curricular activities.  For instance, I will never forget how much fun I had in sophomore home ec with Lynn Eve Merrell, Jacque Seitz, and Cherilyn Calder.  Great times were had in our class for drill team with Lynn Eve, Nena Massey, Ellen, Cherie, Valynne, Annette Burghardt, Jana Wilson, Dee Dee Cooper, Bette Gardiner, Lorna Murray, Debbie Lane, Lynn Enyeart, Marcy Lewis, and others.  Some of those same girls shared time with me in Mr. Jameson's business classes (taught in a 2-3 hour block) along with Joyce Angus, Susan Hacking, Michele Shewell, Karla Higginson, Karen Winn, Rhonda Ross, and Yvonne Merrell.  Lorna Hodgkinson and I survived Mrs. Caldwell's English class together.  Nancy Griswald and I shared the stage in Pegora the Witch. Kathy Freestone and I sat through our jr. year of seminary together.  Vivian Turner and I served on a church committee together.   I came to appreciate the quiet demeanor of Dorene Snow, Roetta Bastain, Melody Hanks, and Arlinda Karren.  I loved to be around Arlene Rasmussen---she had the funnest smile and laugh, and another "happy" person I loved being around was Polly Howard.  I loved the energy of Helen McCarty, Kelly McKeachnie, Emily Searle, Zellene Jorgensen, Cydne Pease, and Carma Colton.  I hung out in the homes of Sandy Horrocks, RaNee Morrison,  and Carol Freestone, but not often enough.  I remember having wonderful, silly, and/or thought-provoking discussions with Ilene Bingham, Jerilee Murray, Shanna Vernon, and Pam Sorensen.  I remember fun times with Wanda Hobart in P.E.  The list goes on and on---good people, people that gave so much to me.

By the time I was a junior, I spent lots of wonderful times with lots of wonderful people doing lots of wonderful things.  I was busy and sometimes my interactions with people were brief and fleeting, but still those brief encounters of friendship played a large part in the development of the person I am, for the better.  By this age, too, I was officially old enough to date and so some of my wonderful friends were boys---Dave, Lonnie, Danny, Duane, Dale, Randy, and Mark will always be thought of with happy memories.  It seemed that if I was working on jr class stuff, then my time was spent with Spencer and Steve; if it was drill team, then it was the girls I was assigned to corregraph a drill with; if it was speech and debate or drama contests, then it was Michelle; if it was a church activity, then it was Faith or Linda or Ellen.  There were club meetings and contests, and ball games and projects, all shared with wonderful groups of people.

My senior year was almost a ditto of my junior year in the activity level, maybe busier.  I had lots of fun experiences with lots of great people---to be written about in my life story some day.  Several of my friends were busy dating, some were engaged, and some of them got married my senior year!  In addition to all that, for the entire year, I dated just one person, Neal Sorensen.  Things didn't work out for Neal and I in the long run, but I have often thought of the times we spent together and consider him to be my best friend that year.  Besides sharing experiences at school and church, we did a lot of fun things together including:  painting furniture, babysitting siblings, dipping chocolates, motorcycle riding (he purposely popped a wheelie and dumped me on my can one time), gardening, curling his hair in his mother's beauty salon, swimming, hiking, practicing his songs for Lil Abner, shucking peas so they could be frozen, and even doing dishes.  I learned a lot from Neal and his family.

I've already written a blog about my good friends, the roommates at BYU, and this blog is too long already.  I'm going to stop here and some time I will have to write about the other wonderful people who have influenced my life for the almost 40 years since high school graduation!  But I will close this blog by saying that the tapestry of my life is fuller and richer, with greater design, multiple textures, and certain pops of color because of the wonderful people whom I consider my friends.  I AM truly thankful for them.