Busy summer days!!

The summer for me started out slow and easy, but now it is picking up speed - probably because school starts on the 21st!!  Yikes!!

Yesterday was the Clayton Family Reunion - the 6th annual - we have been doing this for 10 years now - pretty good for a big family like ours!!

I took lots of photos - will post them here and on the Terrill blog - maybe in fits and starts rather than thinking I will get a big, inclusive one done soon!!

In the above photo, starting in the lower left, we have Esme, Hazel, Aspen, Clara, Ara, and Ella.  That is Isaac in the background.  It was delightful to see these cousins - from locations as far flung as Argentina and Kansas - having fun together.

I guess that is what family reunions are for!

Generations

A four generation shot from 1998 - Mary Clayton, Barbara Terrill, Bonny and Ara Bolander.

Another four generation shot from 1974 - Mima Stevens, Mary Clayton, Barbara and Bonny Terrill.

I'm still sorting photos - and finding my mind going in all kinds of directions as I see events I'd forgotten about, see pictures I took of people that I don't even recognize anymore, see how we've all changed - mostly by growing older of course!

This spring I had one of my classes read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.  If you haven't read it, by all means do - it's a novel for kids - it's part of the 6th grade core curriculum - and you'll have it read in a couple of hours. 

The story revolves around a family who inadvertently drank water from a spring that turns out to imbue them with eternal properties - they cannot die.  There's enough action to keep kids interested.  And enough philosophy to engage adults.  

I was impressed that most of the students seemed to think that being immortal was very cool - at first.  In fact, the ancillary materials that came with the book had the students answer a series of questions before they read the book - and then answer the same questions when they finished.  As the story progressed, they seemed to grasp how trying it might be to live forever.

It's a thought.  Actually it's several thoughts.

This is what happens when I sort photos and think!

Being a "California Girl"

Have been driving back and forth between GH and Monrovia this week - listening to the Beach Boys, Pete Seeger, and some oldies but goodies just to break up the NPR fare - sometimes you get duplicates.

This is a shot from a Clayton family reunion of yore - not sure which yore though!!

Alice talked about how much she wanted to rent a place by the beach - and have a big gathering.   I always envision that too - hasn't happened often though.

The beach is romanticized in story and song - that's for sure.  And Leslie likes to say that "you can take the girl out of California, but you can't take California out of the girl" and maybe she's right.

I'm a California girl who's still here, and I can't seem to get to the beach very often!!

We will keep trying though - and we'll let you know when the party starts - and how much per night it is!

In memory

I was thinking, on this Memorial Day, about people in my life who have died.  At first I was thinking there weren't that many, but as I scrolled through my photos, there were lots of faces that are no longer in my life.  Like my Uncle Steve.  So many memories from my childhood.

 

Bill and Margaret - my dad's cousins - they owned a clothing factory - and sent us the "seconds" and it felt like Christmas when the box came.

My sweet Aunt Audrey - I'd sleep over at her place to spend the weekends with Harry after we got engaged.

 

 My Uncle Harry - reclusive and a bit prickly - but a good man.

My Grandpa Stevens - a wonderful grandpa - will never forget the Christmas Day he taught me to roller skate.

 

Jim Terrill - we miss him all the time.

 

 My Grandma Stevens - a caring woman, who had the courage to change her life at a point when many would have not bothered.

My dad - at the shop - where else?  A good man who figures prominently in our lives still.

 

 Grandma Connie - what a blessing in all of our lives.  She used to say that she had to keep learning.  If you stop learning she said, you'd get old!

 Grandma Helen, Uncle Ted - not a lot of memories, but they are all the more precious.

 My Grandpa Clayton - a man who was often "larger than life" in our eyes.  And a pretty good magician too!

 Charlie Graham - his spirit is still with us!

Ronnie Horton - a one of a kind kind of guy!!

 

  

Roger Menlove - and we miss having Launa living here in Monrovia!

Grandmother Taylor - a fine woman, gracious to the end.

 

Aunt Dorothy - a favorite aunt!!

 

Uncle Paul - everyone's favorite!

 

Baby Jonah - always in our hearts!  And seeing Karla in the photo reminds me that we miss Adam and David.

 

Bamam - no photo of Budd - but we loved having the chance to know both of them.

Bill - we miss him!

There are certainly others - if I sat down and scrolled through my life, there would be many - people whose lives touched mine - who are no longer here.  

It's probably a good idea to reflect on this more often!

Like sister, like sister!!

This post started out being about how Leslie was often called "Barbara Jr." Then I noticed that I had photos of Joan, Leslie, and Donna - but not Mary. Not wanting to leave Mary out, I'm posting this one. So now Bobby, Richard, and Charlie are included too. I'm going to stop there!!

This shot of me was supposed to show the resemblance.

It's an old photo of Joan with Alice and me - I'm maybe 8 years old?? We had just gotten new bathing suits at Ruby's Department Store on Chatsworth - and were headed for Pop's Willow Lake for the Radioplane employee party!!

Not sure of the date here either, but I think Donna was 3 or 4 - so Leslie was 5 or 6 - and you can see some resemblance between Leslie and me. It was when Donna broke her leg - and not sure why Leslie has the big bandage on her chin!!

A "Sister Shot" from 2000 - at Dad's funeral. As we all get older, the resemblances become more apparent.

And a "Sister Shot" from 2010 - at Mom's 90th birthday party.

Sisters are wonderful - I'm glad I have such a great bunch of them!!

With My Birthday Buddy!!

I think this was the last time Roseann and I were together for our shared birthday. And I know I post this every year, but it's the only shot I have.

This was our very first apartment after we were married - this was the combined kitchen/living room - with no couch. You can see the bedroom in the background.

Here's to another great year for both of us - and we are exactly the same age - same day, same year - but Roseann is a few hours older!

The start of something big!!

Joan will have to correct me - I think there are 57 or 58 Clayton grandkids. And here is a rather bad photo of 12 of them in 1978.

I have boxes of some pretty poor quality pictures - but every so often I drag them out and look at them - and they do bring back memories.

I think this was at Richard and Julie's house - and if I'm not mistaken, they are Jared, Michael, Sean, Chris, Harry, Phoebe, Jennifer, Erika, Betsy behind her, Rick, Bonny, and Jacob.

Ah, Memory Lane!!

Some thoughts on aging I want to remember!

We were having an Instructional Leadership Team meeting after school - as chairman of the Special Ed department, I attend these monthly. Anyway, someone asked if anyone at our site was retiring, and all eyes turned to me. I held up my hands and said, "Not me. Not yet anyway." I get all the notices about retirement all the time - solicitations from AARP, Secure Horizons, Social Security stuff - I am in a certain demographic now - and there's not much to be done about it!! (Just remember, as you make fun of AARP, one day it will be you!)

But I mostly don't feel old - or even older. Not until I look into a mirror or see a photo of myself does it occur to me that the years are marching right along.

So I was amused to find this little ditty,

Don't Worry

At age 20 we worry about what others think of us.
At age 40 we don't care what they think.
At age 60 we realize that they haven't been thinking about us at all.

Actually there is quite a bit of truth to this - at any age. When we are worried about what we are going to wear or how our hair is looking, we are certain that everyone who sees us is being critical. The truth is, they are mostly worried about how they look!

So don't tell me if you think my hair looks funny or I've chosen badly in the wardrobe department!

"Hair today - gone tomorrow??"

I have had long hair a time or two in my life. My tresses look long and curly here. But then my mother's hair looks curly too - and that was not natural - that had to be a bobby-pin 'do! So maybe mine was too. At this point in my life, I have a memory of Lyn dunking my head in the oil pan in the garage that sat under our car - I actually don't remember the dunking, but I do remember having my hair washed several times in a row with Tide - to get the oil out. It really stung - that memory has not vanished.

My mom preferred short hair though - on everyone. Every Easter we'd cut a cut and perm from her friend who was a beautician. Sometimes I didn't mind the perm - sometimes I did. This shot looks like I don't need any kind of perm - if you look closely at current photos of me, you will see that I still have that wave line. It has not disappeared with the arrival of the gray.

As I got older, I was more emphatic about not having a perm. As it turned out, my hair was - and still is - naturally wavy - the bane of my existence.

And during most of my teen years in junior and senior high school, I preferred a short hair do a la Mary Martin and Peter Pan. I think when you are thin and young, you can get away with any hair do. As I got older and less thin, I felt that short hair was less flattering. (I think it really has nothing to do with hair and everything to do with how I perceive myself when I am not thin! Ah, such vanity!)

I soon discovered that long hair and a baby was a lot of work - and trouble - but I kept my hair long - I just always wore it in a ponytail. When Bonny was just a few weeks old, I was feeding her early in the a.m. She spit up - a lot - and this time, when she did, it went straight down my long pony tail! Yikes, what was I to do? What I did was rinse off my ponytail, wrap it in a towel, and went back to bed!

This shot is from 1988 - after about 1993 or so, I started keeping my hair shorter - as the gray came, I didn't want to be one of those women with long gray hair.

Although I have long coveted the long gray locks of Emmy Lou Harris. If my hair would just go all gray.

I'd probably find something to complain about though!

Remembering Seminary

I've told the story before, but when I went to school in LA Unified, students started and ended each semester. I was a winter student, meaning I started school in February and graduated from high school in January. We also had a junior high format, so high school was only 10th, 11th and 12th grades. For that reason, I started going to seminary when I was in the 2nd half of 8th grade, because that was the fall start of the school year - and Salt Lake had no clue about the way they ran our system.

This photo is from our A-9 Pin Day - which would take a lot of explaining - suffice it to say, we all got pins that we proudly wore through the 2nd half of 9th grade, setting us apart as role models I suppose!

But I digress - as is my wont - we had the Seminary Sacrament Meeting program today, and it got me thinking about seminary.

Seminary then was quite different from seminary now, but it was a good experience for me nonetheless. I think I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven if they'd had Scripture Chase - I would have aced that one totally!! But we didn't, so there's no point in bemoaning the fact. We also didn't have donuts, let alone Seminary Breakfasts or Morningsides or Scripture Mastery.

That first year of seminary was in the San Fernando building - a 20 to 30 minute drive - for a 5:45 a.m. class - so you know how early we had to get up. And then my dad had to take us to 3 different schools! He would bring a blanket and sleep in the back seat of the car while we were inside. Don't ask me why - I'm sure he thought it was the best use of his time - and it probably was!

A funny story about that year - I was sure my dad had awakened me - I was dressed and pressed and ready to go - I went in to tell him I was ready - and he said, "It's 4 a.m.!" Some how I'd gotten up at 3 I guess and back then, getting ready meant I'd taken the curlers out of my hair and was wearing an ironed cotton full skirt with a full-petticoat underneath. It 's kinda tough to go back to bed in that regalia, let me tell you. Not sure why I didn't notice that no one else was up!! Maybe I was sleep-walking!

My first seminary teacher was Sister Ina Easton. She had had polio as a child and walked with a very noticeable limp. She would stride back and forth in front of us, limping the whole way. We met in the Cultural Hall - the chairs were in a semi-circle - and she read and talked and exhorted us daily.

She was a powerful teacher - and kept us all spellbound as she spoke about the Book of Mormon. She didn't have visual aids and there were no slide shows or recordings to listen to - I don't even think we had a blackboard. She had a testimony, and she bore it with great emphasis. We had some big Samoan boys in the class who were football players. If they weren't prepared, she could light into them fiercely - and they cowered at her upbraiding - and didn't do it again!! She was my teacher for 2 years, and I count it a great blessing in my life to have been taught by her.

After San Fernando, we were meeting at the Institute Building across from what is now Cal State Northridge. My teacher was Sister Ida Ellis. In retrospect, I'm thinking she was in the beginning stages of pregnancy about mid-way through the year. She would lean on this grand piano that was in the room where we met and have us go around the room reading. It was somewhat mind-numbing. My heart goes out to her now, thinking about getting up early when you are nauseated - and then facing a room full of teens - some of whom were not excited to be there. I don't remember too much about that year, but in later years I would run into Sister Ellis in the temple. She always made it sound like we'd had a fine time - so I went along with her!

My last year of seminary was taught by Brother DeManranville. He was young and handsome - and married of course, but that didn't stop me from having a major crush on him! He was more like what seminary teachers are now - lots of activities in class, slide shows, visual aides, and he always had stories to tell. He also challenged us to read the scriptures every night - and you need to understand that it hasn't always been a given that someone would feel incomplete at the end of the day if they hadn't prayed and read their scriptures.

I immediately took the challenge - and I remember him saying that I wouldn't last a month reading every night. I kept it up all year - and then he moved to New Zealand to teach in the church schools there - so I kept reading, thinking that he'd be back and I wanted to say he was wrong and I was still doing it!!

I've never seen or heard anything about him - but I kept up my every night streak for about 5 years before I faltered - and it's been a challenge ever since!! (I wax and wane with my diligence, I'm afraid, although I've done better the older I get!)

I had a semester of high school left, the fall semester, but I was finished with the 4 years of seminary instruction, so my last semester meant I had to find a ride to school every day!! I don't recall "missing" seminary - mostly I missed the automatic ride to school - most days I could time it so I went with my dad when he went to pick up my siblings and take them to school - by now we were having seminary in a local Granada Hills Ward building and we all went to the same school.

I don't have lots of specific memories about seminary, but I'm pretty sure it was a good influence in my life. They also had Senior Seminary Day - something I looked forward to and was not disappointed when it occurred. Many stakes combined for a day-long event on a Saturday - my year it was in Long Beach - classes, lunch, and a testimony meeting that I still remember to this day. There was probably a keynote speaker too.

All of our kids have gone to seminary and had good experiences. You might say we are a Seminary Family. (Dad didn't go to seminary as a youth, but he has taught seminary more than enough times to make up for that!)

It's good to remember those early mornings.

Hair!

What is it about hair and perms and length and color and cut? (And the fact that no matter what I do, I have a wave in front that will not be tamed!)

Donna and I at Phoebe's Monrovia Days Court Installation dinner - 1994 I think.

We are going to Utah for Virginia's funeral, so I am going to miss my hair appointment. I have a beloved hair stylist who moved east. But she comes back once a month for Friday and Saturday to take care of her clientele. Often the Saturdays she is here conflict with something else, so I have a hard time getting an appointment. I go longer between haircuts than I would like too.

This will be one of those Saturdays - can I survive until April??

Oh, the days of yore and bouffant skirts!!

We were having a "bring your junior high yearbook to school" day in the staff lounge a week or so ago, so I went digging around for my old Patrick Henry Junior High yearbooks - it was a veritable treasure trove of "laugh out loud" pictures, believe me.

Just take a look at this - and X marks the spot too!

It's a good thing I have a sense of humor! Oddly enough, the younger members of the staff - which would be everyone except me - thought the pictures charming. I think you have to be far removed from an era before you can appreciate it. Makes sense now why my mom never appreciated my love of 40's style dresses!

Just an FYI

An FYI to all you reunion fans out there - this is the year for the Clayton Reunion - Saturday, August 6th at Huntington State Beach.

It seems like we just had one - but I think it was my mom's 90th b-day party that makes it seem that way.

But they do seem to come around more rapidly each year.

They are work and worry - but they always seem worthwhile. So spread the word and come if you can!

Sisters!!

Our friend Evan is here from Pittsburg - watch for a blog post on that - but at dinner tonight he said that a study he'd read about reported that those who have sisters live longer!!

I knew it was great to have sisters!!