Happy First Day of Fall!!

The calendar says it's fall.  The temperature says it's summer!!  The above is a fall photo - but the short sleeves at night tell me it was probably warm then too - it's always warm in September and October - and we're always surprised.

I even ordered a Christmas sweater last week - and a fall sweater too - for the chilly fall days I might enjoy when we visit Phoebe or Eliza or Hannah.

Thank goodness for fall somewhere!!  At least the days are going to be shorter - I did notice nightfall coming earlier!!

Some interesting trivia for your reading pleasure!!

I have been hunting for some specific photos - and of course I have not found them yet.  But I have found other treasures.  

This photo is part of a group panorama photo of temple workers at the Los Angeles Temple in 1969.  In the group of three men in the center, on the front row, the man on the left is President Benjamin L. Bowring.  I don't remember the name of the man in the middle, but the man next to the man in the middle is James B. Keysor.

Pres. Keysor is/was the owner of Century Record Mfg. Company in Saugus, CA.  I worked there for 9 months before I headed off to BYU  (9 months because I graduated from high school in January of 1963.)  He was friends with my parents, and he also lived with them in the Burbank Ward in the forties.  His son James Keysor Jr. was the man who hired me.  He and his wife also hired me as a baby-sitter and mother's helper when they had twin girls.

President Bowring is the man who performed our marriage ceremony in 1967.  Of special interest to us at least is the fact that he also performed the marriage ceremony for President and Sister Monson - before 1967 of course!!  He was in the temple presidency of the Salt Lake Temple at that time.

If you click on this photo and look at the woman almost in the center of the photo - on the third row with no one behind her - you will note a woman who bears a strong resemblance to my mother - as well she should, since she is my Grandma Stevens!  She was a temple worker when we got married - and took great pleasure in escorting me around the day we got married, introducing me to all of her friends!!  I now know what a pleasure it is to do just that!!

So there is the trivia trove for today - here's hoping I find the photos I am looking for!!

What I've been reading -

My sister gave this to me last June - and I started it - then skipped to the end and decided I didn't need to read it.  Then I kept meeting people or hearing people say how entertaining they'd found the book - so I decided to give it a read. Spent most of Labor Day on the lawn swing - reading and napping - and did indeed enjoy reading the whole book.  It's about a woman who faints at the gym and hits her head.  When she comes too, the last 10 years of her life is missing from her memory.  A compelling scenario and a good read.

 

 I long ago read The Giver and Gathering Blue - in fact, I think now I will need to re-read them - and did not even realize that there was a 3rd book in the series - if a series is what you call it - the books are only loosely related although they are similar in theme.  Anyway, I got Messenger and polished it off today - an excellent read - I'd enjoy discussing it with someone - could that be you??

Was visiting a friend today and saw this on her shelf.  I loved Rebecca but had read nothing else by Daphne du Maurier - she said this was her favorite by du Maurier - so I started it while I ate my solitary dinner tonight - Harry was at the temple.  I will let you know how I like it!!

Waiting for Harry to return from his run so we can get in another Pallisers episode!!

40 years ago today!!

When Bonny was born, I was in labor at the hospital for over 7 hours - and it wasn't very comfortable to say the least.  In those days, they kept you flat on your back the whole time!!  And in my case, they sent a rather annoying young intern in every so often to say, "Hey Sunshine, how is it going?"

So with Harry, I decided to stay home until I thought birth was fairly imminent - we were within walking distance of the hospital, so I was confident my plan was a good one.

All day on the 7th of September, 1972, I was feeling crampy.  I was 11 days overdue - just like with Bonny - so I was thinking this might be it.  But when Harry asked if we should go to the United Homes dinner at Chuck-a-Rama that was scheduled that night, I suggested he go and get the free meal, since I was convinced nothing "real" was happening yet.

I think he got his first course before I called the restaurant - this was indeed before cell phones - and had him paged!!  We got someone to come and stay with Bonny and hustled over to Holy Cross Hospital - where Harry Francis made his appearance less than an hour later!!

 

The Sunshine intern was no longer there, but in the ward where I was taken after Harry was born, there was a very young woman who was not married and who had just had a baby. boy too  Her foster parents had told her that if she kept the baby she could not come back to the house.  She sat in her bed crying because she wanted to keep her baby.  I have often wondered about her.  On every birthday of Harry's, I would wonder where that boy was now.  The nurses were close-lipped - as they should be - and I was possibly too wrapped up in my own drama to talk to the girl myself.  So it all remains a mystery that I will never solve.  But I hope both of them have found happiness!!

Harry was a good baby - in  fact, one day Harry the dad asked, "When is he going to start crying?"  And he didn't spit up either - Bonny had been a colicky baby and so we thought every baby was that way.  (Bonny may have been a fussy new baby, but once she got over the colic, she was our ideal - you could set a clock by her!!)

Harry has continued on in his life being his own person - a wonderful son, husband, father and friend!!

Happy Birthday Harry - here's to a great day and wonderful year ahead!!