More history

What was your first job?
Helping my Aunt Callie bottle eight bushels of peaches.  After I was dead tired, I had to scrub and wax her floor at midnight.

Tell about any other paying jobs you held as a youth.  Helping my aunts clean house. Babysat cousin a few times.

If you were ever in a parade, tell about it.  I was Molly Pitcher on a parade for Homecoming parade in Logan.  [Molly Pitcher was a nickname given to a woman said to have fought in the American Revolutionary War. Since various Molly Pitcher tales grew in the telling, many historians regard Molly Pitcher as folklore, rather than history, or suggest that Molly Pitcher may be a composite image inspired by the actions of a number of real women.]

Tell another memory about a parade.  Many a parade I’ve watched because some or one of my kids was it in.  One time Craig and a friend followed behind the  horses with a wheel barrow and a scoop.

Share a childhood memory about a death that affected you.  My Grandma Lasson died when I was eight to ten. She wasn’t very close to me and I didn’t know her well.  Her body was put in her living room for viewing.  She looked asleep.

Relate your happiest memory as a youth.  I was always happy for school to start each year.

How did you learn to swim?  I never learned to swim!

Where did you go swimming?  One Sunday our church group went up the canyon to a park and had a testimony meeting and then a picnic afterwards.  Some of us decided to walk across the large stream of water. It was fast because of spring run off.  Everyone got across but me and I was dragged down stream for more than a mile.  I’ve been frightened of water since.

Share a memory about going on a picnic.  Went on a church picnic.  After testimony meeting, some of us kids tried wading the river and I lost my footing and was swept downstream about three blocks.  I couldn’t swim and I wasn’t able to catch onto a tree limb.  Finally, my friend struck out a tree limb and pulled me in.  I’ve never learned to swim since then.


Tell a favorite memory of your father.  Dad had a very tender heart when it came to his kids.  He’d come to school or church to watch us perform and tears would run down his cheeks.  Maybe our talent made  him cry.

Tell about some good advice your father gave you.  At the time, I was dating three fellows and once all three turned up at the ranch the same time.  Dad said I’d have a bad reputations if I continued to date so many.

Did your father ever make a special gift for you?  He probably did, but I can’t recall what it was.

Did you have a special nature place where you went to explore?  There was an old homestead two or three miles from home and we loved to ride horses or hike to drive down and explore.  There was a creek where we’d catch minnows.  Also a spring was there with good water cress and also a gooseberry patch we loved.

Did you ever go skinny dipping?  Never. Never. Never

Did you ever make mud pies?  Yes every spring down by the pollywog pond.  We also operated on pollywogs, salted them, buried the, gave them funerals, and placed flowers at the grave.

Did you go barefoot in the summer?  If so, relate an experience about stepping on something.  I went barefoot all the time, and I lived on a ranch. Enough said as to what I stepped on.

Describe a few of the favorite hair styles of your youth.  I had a hairdo that I just loved, but it took a lot of work to set and comb out.  It was pin curls set all over  your head.  Brushed out and curls pulled back to the extreme back.

Tell about a bike you had.  I never had a bike, but my older brother had one and I learned to ride when I was thirteen.  We rode on a state highway with gravel on the sides.  Many a time I wrecked and ground into the gravel.

As a youth, did you ever learn any sewing, stitching, or needlework?
I did some basic sewing and learned the fundamentals.  The hardest article I made was a apron with bias tape stitched around all the edges.  Many a stitch was missed.

Did you ever have or make a swing? I used to have an old swing that my dad made and hung from a high pole that stuck out of an old tool shop.  It was a big swing but I loved it.  I lived there until I was six.

Tell about seeing something you thought was very beautiful.  When I was younger than six, during the summer we’d go to a cliff (large) that was full of birds’ nests.  We’d go and peek at their new eggs.  I think we even collected some of them and broke them.

What kind of fireworks did people have when you were a youth?  We had firecrackers and sparklers.  We also had guns (pot metal) that shot snaps that made a noise.

Tel about Independence Day traditions of your childhood.  Usually Dad worked in the morning and took the family to town to see a movie and have hamburgers afterwards.

Did you ever go to carnivals or amusement parks?  Where?  Went to carnivals at County and/or state fairs.  I liked them until seventeen years old, when I went on a date to a carnival in Provo.  I got sick to my stomach and vomited all over.  What a sour impression I made!

What kinds of rides and games were there?  How much did they cost?

Merry-go-round 10 cents.
Ferris Wheel 25 cents
Train rides ten cens
bump cars

Tell about any State Fair of County Fair experiences.  One year, my best friend’s mother made us each a dress in red/white/blue stripes with a full circular skirt.  It was form fitting and we thought we were the “cat’s meow”.   [In researching the origins of the phrase "It's the cat's meow", it seems that the Roaring '20's ushered in several new phrases related to cats that are still in use today. The "cat's meow" describes ideas that were truly "too cool for words"! The phrase "the cat's pajamas" means the same thing, only no one seems to know why. Another cat expression is "cool cat", who is someone who keeps up with all the fads and trends. So, I assume that a cool cat can say something that's really the cat's meow!

Tell any favorite summertime memory.  Picnics with friends.  Picnics with family.  Boating on Yellowstone. Boating at Lake Powell.

Did you remember having a favorite candy?  Salt Water Taffy.  Mother made it.

Do you remember having a favorite snack that you made at home?  Raisin-filled cookies.  Cherry Pie.

What kinds of party games or party activities were popular?  Spin the bottle (very popular), Post office.  Charades.  Card Games

What did you to do in the summer?  Strip down to shorts. Wade in  the creek.  Play in the pond and kill pollywogs and then have funerals for them.

What was your favorite holiday of the year?  Christmas.  Family all got together.  Presents.  Good food and sweets.

Share a birthday part memory.  Had a surprise 16th party. I had washed my hair after school and put my hair up in pin-curls all over my head.  All my friends said they couldn’t sleep over, so I decided to wash my hair.  When someone knocked on the door, I thought I would die.  I hurried and took out the bobby pins and celebrated!

Tell about the neatest shoes you ever owned as a youth.  White and brown saddle oxfords.

What memories do you have of lightning or thunder during your childhood?  I was frightened of the lightning and held my ears waiting for the thunder.

Share a special memory about riding in a boat.  I was 19 and Rex took me on Utah Lake in his Dad’s old, old fishing boat.  We went clear to the other side to an island.  As we started to come back, the engine conked out and I was hanging onto the side of the boat.  the two fellows were trying to swim and paddle with one paddle.  I was frightened of water.  When it got dark, Rex’s Dad came looking.

Tell about a family vacation trip.  We went to Southern Utah parks and camped out in tents.

Tell about board games and card games you played as a youth.  Old Maid. Hearts.

Did your mom or dad have a favorite remedy for what ailed you?  Mustard plasters on the chest for a cough.  Honey candy for a sore throat.

What was your best talent?  Dancing.  Speaking. Poetry.

Tell about being stung by a bee or wasp.  I stopped on a bee while walking outside on the lawn.  It stung me and my foot swelled up.

Did you have any favorite family songs that you sang together?  We lived up Spanish Fork canyon and drove a great deal.  We sang while driving. 

One more bottle of beer. 
[99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall.
98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around, 97 bottles of beer on the wall. …]
Bury the brown girl in my arms and the fair one at my feet.

Home on the Range.

Tell about your bedroom.  As I grew up, I never had a bedroom by myself, nor have I since my maturity.  I slept with two sisters in one double bed and a brother on a cot in the same room for several years.

Share your childhood experiences with roller skates. Never learned to skate as a child.

Did you ever experience home sickness?  No!

Did you never make a purchase that you later regretted? We purchased a Ford Pinto and it was a lemon.  You could feel every bump in the road through the floor of the car.

Describe how you used the phone to call a friend.  Never had a phone when I was living at home.

Tell about an incident when  you were very angry with you mom or dad?  One time Electa and I were playing and Electa (who is usually innocent and sweet) was the wrong doer, but my mom gave me the spanking. Unfair!

Share a memory involving an outhouse.  We had an outdoor toilet for all the time I was at home.  It was many years later that the folds got an indoor bathroom.  We used old Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs for toilet paper.  Not very efficient. Learned to drive  a car by coasting down to the toilet and t hen backed the car back.

Tell us about your worst report card.  I always had good report cards.  I guess I had the teacher’s fooled.  I did get a C in the “Bible as Literature”.