Seminary - 70's style!

I was having a conversation with Sue Cornwall, a friend in our ward who also happens to have taught 4 of the 6 Terrill children in Seminary.  And she's in her 21st year of teaching Seminary.  I told her that my mom had taught Seminary for 13 years and that I'd recently come across some photos of her class.  Not sure why I have them, but I do! Sue said she hoped they'd turn up somewhere where she could see them.

 

I recall odd bits about my mom's Seminary career.  For one thing, she was always concerned about having an appropriate Seminary teacher's wardrobe.  As you can see from the above, she took this very seriously, and we had lots of discussions about the various merits of dresses versus skirts and the world of jumpers!!

She'd also contact me for ideas for Halloween - she always liked to dress up that day - usually in a witch costume with treats for her students. She didn't need to ask me about treats - as the mother of 12 children, she'd perfected all the necessary treats - mainly cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies!

And in the collection of slides that these photos came from, there are some slides that appear to be some kind of skit or presentation.  She says she doesn't remember what it was about.

If I figure it out, I'll have another post for you!

Seven Decades!!

A little "visual" tour of the journey to 70 - and 1 husband, 6 kids, 5 spouses, one girlfriend, 20 grandkids (I'm writing this early - hope those two new grandbabies have been born by now!!)

Here I am at the end of the first decade of my life - 10 years old!!

And here I am at the 20th surprise birthday party that Alice and my friends at BYU put on for me!!  Another decade down!

And here I am at age 30 - married with 2 kids!!

 Here I am at age 40 - just prior to having 2 more kids!!  (Eliza came when I was 38.)

Here I am at age 50 - with Phoebe, who came along when I was 32.

Here I am on my actual 60th birthday - goodness it was a celebration - thanks to my good buddies at Clifton Middle School!!

And this was last November - almost 70.  For my 70th birthday,  I am in Virginia, helping out with the newest little Selander!!

Wonder what 80 will look like??

Three-hole golf course!

Grandma and Grandpa Stevens lived in Inglewood.  Their house seemed large and elegant to me, but I'm pretty sure it was small and tract-like.  But it had a large front porch - I have always dreamed of a large front porch!!

In the "rumpus room" - now called family rooms or dens - was a built in bar!  Grandpa was not a member of the church and he drank. We loved playing bartender and serving up 7-Up in shot glasses!  And Grandma taught us how to play cards!

Grandpa had a 3 hole golf course in the back yard - and he'd show us how to go around it 3 times to play 9 holes of golf.

Also Grandma always had Quaker Puffed Rice - and I loved it - still do!!

She had vestiges of her Southern prejudices though - she was from Kentucky - and when her black cleaning lady came, she'd have her stand in the kitchen and she'd stand in the dining room to give her instructions.

I spent time with her - and certainly wish I'd asked for more stories from her past!

The Shop

"The Shop" was where my dad went to work every day. And it was always called "The Shop."  It was a machine shop, and it was not until many years later that I realized that "shop" meant a store of some kind to most people.

But not us!!  "The Shop" also included "The Pots" as in in "The boys are going with Dad to "The Shop" to clean "The Pots!!"  (If you haven't figured it out, "The Pots" were the toilets that were dispersed throughout the whole complex of industrial shop spaces where "The Shop" was!)

The boys got paid for this work, and over the years, we girls lobbied for the chance to make this good money the boys seemed to make.  My dad would never even consider letting us do the work.  In the years since, I've seen some other bathrooms in industrial facilities, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't let my daughters - or sons for that matter - work in them - or even use them maybe!!

The Pontiac station wagon also shows in this photo.  We all fit in this car - not legally the way you need to today - seat belts were a twinkle in someone's eye at that point in time - but when we drove out to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stevens or Grandpa Clayton or Grandma Clayton's grave in Inglewood, this was the car we went in - and we mostly all fit in!

When we stopped at stoplights, we often saw people counting the number of kid's faces they would see.  Once my brother Lyn held up a paper that said "12." 

That story has been told over and over again in our family.  I was there - it did happen!!

In case you thought it was apocryphal!

Unphotographed - but not forgotten!

For some reason, there are no baby pictures of Charles or Mary.  This might be the youngest shot of Charlie.  This is taken in the back of the "little house."  That window no longer exists - but it was a major part of my life growing up in the little house. 

One summer I had severe nose bleeds and had to take a nasty tasting medicine and spend most of the day lying on my back in the room that window was part of.  I could hear all the fun going on outside - and probably snuck out of bed and went to the window to see what was going on.  Or maybe I just yelled out now and then.  It felt like it was all summer, but it just might have been a week - or a day!  Mom only has vague memories of it.  I was under 8 years of age I think.  

The dress I'm wearing is green and white striped - I loved it - and wore it a lot.  There is something about a play dress, rather than shorts or pants.  The dress had a cute little jacket too.  I think my mom made it.  The little toy on the table was red - and I truly remember it.  Charlie looks like a little redneck or something - but I'm sure he was just busy playing all day and not worrying about cleaning up!!  He may have something in his hand - and looking closely I wonder if it's an ice cream cone?  We didn't get those often though.

 

This shot is me, Alice, Charles, and Richard - and this may be the youngest shot of Mary.  The side of the little house is in the background.  Mary was often sick as a child.  She had some health issues and was often in bed in the daytime - at least I remember it that way.  But she looks hale and hearty here!!

I bet this photo was taken on a Monday - because my hair is still curly - and it only got curled for Sunday!

Charlie could usually be found with a toy gun and holster on his hip!!

Bikes and Boys

Unlike now, the Clayton "homestead" was always surrounded by a chain-link fence.  Grandma Mary allowed all the kids in the neighborhood to come in our yard and play - but she didn't really like her kids running around the neighborhood.  She didn't want the neighbors saying that Mom had so many kids she couldn't keep an eye on them all!  

And when I was younger and the "big" house was being built, our yard was a wonderful playground - piles of sand, stacks of lumber, cement foundations that sat for long periods of time - perfect for roller skating!  Trees to climb, oranges to eat - we had a swing set too.

But to ride a bike - or rollerskates - you needed to leave the confines of the yard!  This photo shows two important parts of my childhood memories.  One, Bill is riding his bike out on the street - which was pretty quiet - there were not lots of cars then - and actually there aren't all that many now.  I was older by the time this was taken, but I don't have any other bike photos!  Alice and I shared a bike - maybe that's why I'm not the most proficient cyclist!  We'd take turns riding riding - one of us would sit on the curb and the other would ride up and down the street.  Not the most satisfactory way to spend an afternoon, but it was all we had!

Secondly, the house with the car in the driveway had the Vergine's driveway exactly opposite - so we'd roller skate up and back on these two driveways - it was pretty fun!!

And on another note, I don't have lots of memories of the names of our neighbors, but the house Bill is riding in front of was Naomi Kadar's house - she was a friend of Mary's.

 

Knowing how mechanical my dad was, I'm not surprised by this old photo of Bob and his brother, our Uncle Paul, with their bikes.  I'm pretty sure my dad always kept a bike running for himself!  He worked with my brothers on their bikes I know.  My dad could build just about anything - I don't think I appreciated it much as a child - I just thought all dads could do that!

A little summer crowd!!

You know, we weren't Okies, but sometimes I think we looked pretty close!!  Not sure why I had those pin curls on my forehead.  And dresses were playclothes too.

Davy Crockett was VERY BIG - hence Charlie's shirt and hat and gun belt!!  Also, notice the Saltwater Sandals!!  Not sure what Mary was trying to measure with her hands either.

And can you tell how many of us have cowlicks??

This cinderblock wall still stands.  We played in the area it enclosed all the time.  The walls served many purposes, not the least of which was hiding us from passersby!!

Speaking of passersby, I have two distinct memories about the yard.  One is that I can remember having a measles quarantine sign on our door.  Mom remembers that too.  And I remember a hobo coming to the door asking Mom if he could do some work for a meal.  She told him to go sit on the curb and she'd bring him out a sandwich.  And she did.  She says she doesn't remember that, but she remembers her mom feeding hobos.  I recall it because my mother made us stay in the house while the guy was on the curb - we were consumed with curiousity!!

I was pretty young for those memories - and I think I'm twelve or more in the above photo.

For those not in the know, it's Mary, Barbara, Alice, Charles, and Richard in front of Barbara.

The Daily News

We weren't well-off by any means - at least not when I was a kid.  But we always took a newspaper.  In fact, we took a morning and an afternoon paper!

I remember when the actress Suzanne Ball died of cancer.  It was all over the front page of The Daily News.  I asked my mom about it - I still remember her saying, "She was a brave young woman and she faced death bravely too."  (She had had her leg amputated in an attempt to stop the cancer.)

There were some local papers too - they came once or twice a week.  I always combed through them looking for people's names that I knew.  Lyn was in there when he got his Eagle Scout and when he went on a mission.

My brothers had paper routes too.

My dad read the LA Times in the morning, and then when he got home, he read The Daily News. 

Grandma Mary grumbles often about how the paper has no news in - just advertising.  She often says we might as well not take it.  She says, I just do it for Donna.

I think it's a Clayton thing - I still take the Times too!

Wish I'd asked my dad while he was alive why he was so dedicated to the newspaper!

Stories from Horace Street

My niece Traci said that her boys had gotten interested in Family Search, but that they wanted "stories" and not just facts and info.  She she asked us to share stories.  I told her that I often tell family stories on my blog, and that I would start telling more - and maybe repeating some - I am my father's daughter after all!*

This is a shot of Alice, Joan, and I standing on Andasol actually - we lived on the corner of Horace and Andasol - and the house across the street was owned my the man who drove a Verner's ginger ale truck.  We didn't drink a lot of soda - it was definitely a treat - but we did drink root beer when we had root beer floats and we did drink ginger ale, because the neighbor used to give us a case now and then!

A sad note on this family - I think their name was Andreason - but the father in the family was killed in a car accident - at the hands of a drunk driver.  I was young, but I have never forgotten the sorrow and grief that this drunk driver caused our neighbor - and our neighborhood.

Anyway, the occasion was a trip to Pop's Willow Lake - a recreation area - it may have been a man-made lake - and our dad's company picnic was there.  (My dad used to work for Radioplane, before he started his own machine shop.)

Disneyland wasn't around yet, carnivals occasionally came to town, so a trip to a recreation area was a Treat with a capital T!

My bathing suit was electric blue - I can picture it still.  I think I'm maybe 7 or 8 in this photo - that's the early 50's.  Alice and I had gone down to Ruby's Department Store on Chatsworth to get new bathing suits.  New clothes of any sort mostly came at Easter and Christmas, so this was a Big Deal!!  And I think we look pretty happy.  I'm also wearing Salt Water Sandals - which are very much in vogue these days - and were actually the only kind of sandal you could get back in the day!

Outings were fun because they were rare and infrequent.  It's pretty simplistic to say that kids are indulged these days.  But then when I look back and compare my kids to my grandkids, I could say, well, kids are really indulged these days.  The fact is, fun is fun - and Pops Willow Lake was lots of fun!!

*anyone who ever spent any time with my dad knew that he pretty much told the same stories over and over.  But we all know them, so maybe he was doing it on purpose!!

On the 21st day of Christmas

Pretty sure that 47 years ago on the 21st day of Christmas - i.e. Dec. 21st - I was excited about getting married the next day!!

More photos - the same ones you see every year actually - will be forthcoming!

On the 20th day of Christmas

So this is maybe the late 90's?  We started having Clayton Family Christmas parties with whomever was around.  We drew names and exchanged gifts - Dad put his Santa hat on and passed them out.  We often had pizza and some talent numbers too.  Also started the pinata drill - how can you go wrong with a pinata full of candy and a baseball bat??

A nice bunch!!

On the 16th day of Christmas

Bonny and Bruce got married on the 15th,  but their reception was not until the 22nd - so the Christmas season continued to be full of wedding work - but it was spread out, so not as stressful as it might have been.

And it was nice to be continuing the celebration!

Although Noah was keenly disappointed to discover that the "party" we kept saying we were going to have was really not a party to his way of thinking!!

So he was delighted to leave and go to Andrew's for a sleepover - his idea of a party!

On the 10th day of Christmas

It can be tough to get everyone in a big group together for a family photo.  We didn't do it often in our family - in fact, the only other whole group photos includes the ones taken at Lyn's missionary farewell and photos taken at Bill's wedding.

But Christmas 1971 found everyone home - in the months following, others would be heading off on missions, so we had to "seize the moment!"

And actually, Harry and I never again went down for Christmas.  We went in the summer instead, when I could stay longer.

And then we moved back to California.

It's still tough to get together for family photos!

On the 7th day of Christmas

Christmas in the Rock House - long ago - I did a lot of sewing then - as you can tell!

It was a happy time though - not that now isn't happy, but it almost seems idyllic in retrospect.

That's what's great about Christmas memories - they "grow" with time!

An anniversary of sorts -

Here are my dad and mom at Phoebe's wedding reception in August of 1998.  It was the last time he went out socially - after that it was only for doctor visits.  Less than 2 years later - May 12, 2000 - he had died.

 

Mom got rid of "the wall."  If Dad were alive, it would still be up there!!  He loved his progeny - Mom did too, she just got tired of the photos!!

 

My mom graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1988 - when she was 66 years old.  Dad wasn't always totally supportive of her education efforts, so it was a long haul.  But once she did graduate, you would have thought it had been all his idea!!

He was a great dad - drove us wherever we wanted to go and waited to drive us home - I'm pretty sure that was to be sure he knew where we were all the time, but it was still nice to be cared for that way.

He always helped us with school projects - and he could cover a textbook with a paper bag so that it never fell off.  I've never mastered that - and it's a lost art without much need anymore - but it's fun to remember.

If your dad is still around, be sure to tell him you love him - and even ask for another story or two!!

Men and Babies

There is a photo of Harry holding Hannah on her blessing day.  It was well after church, and she doesn't have the blessing dress on, but it has always been one of my favorite photos.  I wanted to do a "duplicate" shot of Harry holding Rhoda on her blessing day, but it didn't quite happen - at least I didn't duplicate the pose.  But while I was scrolling through my photos looking for that shot,  I kept coming across other great photos of men and babies - and it seemed like a nice touch for a blog post - especially after our lovely weekend in DC for Rhoda's blessing.

The above is shot of Harry with Bonny - in the Portia Apartments in SLC in 1970.

 

This is a shot of my dad holding my brother Lyn - in 1943.

 

 This is my Grandpa Clayton with my Uncle Paul - in 1915 or 16.

 

This is Harry with a very newborn Eliza.

 

And this is Harry with Esme - at Clocker's Corners it looks like - a few years ago for sure!!

 

A favorite photo of mine of Grandpa Terrill with Hannah - in 1986 - when she had casts on her legs for the foot problems she had as a baby.

 

And here is my dad and Harry holding Phoebe - in 1979.

 

My Uncle Harry holding his son Mark in 1947 I think.

 

A new grandpa!!  Harry with Ara in 1997!

 

My Grandpa Clayton holding Bonny - a 3 generation shot in 1970.  Not sure why we didn't put my dad in the photo - that would have been nice!

 

Harry with holding Bonny and Harry in 1972.

 

Harry holding Noah in 1987.

 

Harry and Theo posing with their matching faux hawks in 2007.

 

 The favorite photo of mine - it's a favorite of both of them, but it really captures how Harry looked then.  In 1985, on Hannah's blessing day.

And the closest  I could get to a duplicate - and maybe a new fave photo??

Men and babies - they go together so well!!

Happy Day to my sister Mary!!

Today is my sister Mary's birthday.  She's only about 6 years younger than me, but I don't have lots of memories of a childhood with her.  But once she was older, and going to school at Ricks, she would come to visit and help out and that was the true beginning of our relationship.

She and I hung out together the day before I went into labor with Bonny.  She had come down from Ricks - hoping I think that the baby would be born.  I was overdue, so we walked from our apartment near the U in SLC to Temple Square - hoping that it would start some action.  I didn't go into labor for another day, but we had a nice walk.  It was General Conference time, so we actually ran into several people we knew.

After Bonny was born, she'd come down and volunteer to babysit.  We had ballet tickets one night, so she stayed home with Bonny.  I worried all through the performance that Bonny was crying and fussing - since she did a lot of that.  But when we got home, Mary disappointedly reported that she'd slept the whole time!

I have 5 sisters, and Alice and I had a close relationship growing up, but it's been our adult years that have seen the growth of the love and friendship that we all enjoy with one another.  I can't imagine not having sisters - it's a real blessing.

Mary is sweet and always helpful.  She is a talented cook and seamstress.  She has been through some tough times, but she always comes out smiling.

Here's wishing her a happy day and a great year ahead!!

Happy Day to the dad I am so thankful for!

It's the 7th of November - the date in 1916 that Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States.

More to the point, the day my dad was born!!

I will always be glad for my dad!!  (and of course my mom, whom he had the good sense to find and marry!!)

Fall just keeps on coming - but it doesn't get much cooler - except at night!!

Visited Donna as she recuperates!!

 

  Had a family history chat with Mom!

Monthly Cub Scouting resumed!!

 

Frances and Dee joined us in St. George for the marathon.

 

Harry did well - 3:57:27!! Not bad for an old guy!!

 

Remembered to include me in a photo!!

 

Recuperating from the race!!

 

Had a fun visit with Launa.

Now it's back to the grind - hmm - what holidays are coming up??