A Day's Outing

Tucked in Grandpa's Y S N P Journal

Tucked in the back of Grandpa Wasden's Yellowstone National Park Journal I discovered this very faint photo. On the back there is a note that says Mellen Arch Bridge. Strangely the faint writing looks like Mother's.

Dad's Library Card

Another treasure I discovered today.

Another Photo Taken in Penrose

These are two more photos that were taken the same day as a previous posting.

Another Piece of Penrose History

Hopefully this can be read once it is posted.

A Visit to Fort Collins

Mom visits us in Fort Collins in 1959 just before we moved to Cheyenne.  We loved our little yellow house.  What year did Mom go to Laramie to go to summer school and stay at Blacks?

The Wasden farm: Photos from Mother's album

FFA Banquet, probably 1948

FFA Banquet 1949

FFA Banquet 1949 my senior year.  I was FFA pres and Wyo state pres, so I got to preside at the banquet.  Dad and Mom on my right.  State Vo-Ag supervisor and Hecht family on my left.  In the American Legion Hall where the Homesteader Museum now is.  I was definitely headed for an outstanding career in farming, milking cows, raising hogs, hoeing beets.  At least we had nice jackets to wear to school!

Trip to Penrose in 1961

What Do You Think?

We had a phone call last night from Nathan and he had a suggestion for the blog. As I thought about it, I decided the best thing to do was to put it out for comments. He is working on putting the two marquetry pieces he has from Dad into shadow box type frames (that doesn't adequately describe what he is doing so those are my words not his). He wondered if we would be willing to post photos on the blog of the pieces of marquetry we have so the grandchildren would have a record of the work, as well.
I do remember how Elizabeth and Ron took photos of the marquetry that were hanging in the house in Tumwater, but those aren't available to all, plus there are pieces each of us have that were not included in that portfolio.
As Nate and I talked about this possibility, I started to wonder if this might, potentially, offer a way for communication with some people out in the big wide world who also have some of Dad's work, to comment, or indicate what they have. This would perhaps be a monumental task. Does it fit on the blog? Would Dwight need to start another blog (Penrose Mornings Part II) etc.
I just wanted to throw this out there for everyone to consider, comment on, etc.
Happy Monday!

MORE WINTER

Louise's Turn

Now, we move on to December, 1953. I was home for college, and Louise was getting married. She had been teaching school in Cody that fall. Mileage and costs for the trip to Idaho Falls as follows:
Home, mileage 46,713 Full Tank
Bozeman 46,943 @33 1/2 cents $3.98
Left Bozeman 46,950
Belgrade 46,961
Idaho Falls 47,226 10.3 gal @ 33.9 $3.50
Dillon 1 qt. oil & gas @34 cents - 9 gal. 3.20

We stopped in Bozeman at Dwight and Velna's student housing apartment - very basic, if I remember correctly. We were enchanted with Russell - the first grandchild-nephew. Dwight and Velna with Russell joined us going to Idaho Falls. The weather was terrible, and Dwight was a big help to Mother. When we got there, again, my role was to stay in the motel while everyone went to the temple for the ceremony, and I got to babysit Russell. As I recall, he wasn't any problem at all - in fact, he slept a lot. I don't remember much else, but the trip home from Bozeman on was a real challenge, with very icy roads. Mother finally got so tired, that she let me drive, but I had to creep along at a very slow speed. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic. We were glad to get back to Penrose.

WHY FLORIDA LOOKS SO GOOD

For those of you who ask,"Why," this is the answer. 3 1/2 feet since Christmas and the heaviest snow period is yet to come.

Judy and the Newspaper

It pays to organize your life - new gems keep appearing. This one is a quote from The Daily Olympian - "Judith Petersen, our Olympian carrier, retired June 30. She was faithful, conscientious and dependable in delivering our paper, every day, for almost 20 years. We thank her for the excellent service and wish her well in her retirement." Mrs. Vern Th.........., Olympia
How nice to be appreciated for the service that you give others - Judy always elevated everything to more than a job. (I went with her on her route one afternoon in summer - it wasn't very many miles before she had to stop, and let me lie out by the side of the road for a spell. I don't know if it was the smell of burning brakes and rubber, or the zig-zag motion of the car, or.....) I decided that my younger sister is tougher than "whang leather", which I should have already known! What year was it that you finally retired, Judy?

More Fuel for the Fire

I am "sorting" papers - organizing my life. Found a page in Mother's handwriting as follows:
"Of drink and victuals and suchlike stuff,
A bit too little is just enough."

"He that lets the small things bind him,
leaves the great undone behind him."

"Freedom means you're free to do
Just whatever pleases you; -
if, of course, that is to say,
What you please is what you may."

"Our so-called limitations, I believe,
Apply to faculties we don't apply.
We don't discover what we can't achieve
Until we make an effort not to try."

"In view of your manner of spending your days,
I hope you may learn, before ending them,
That the effort you spend on defending your ways,
Could better be spent on amending them."

Mother did not give an attribution to these quotes - sorry, and hope I haven't infringed on a copyright.

And, I found this little gem in my things, again with no attribution as to author, but, at her request (see, I'm getting you into trouble, Judy), I'm including it here.

"Little pill here in my hand
I wonder how you understand
Just what to do and where to go
To stop the aches that hurt me so.

You sink in regions there below
As down my throat you quickly go,
But where I wonder, Little Pill
How do you know where I am ill?

And just how do you really know
Just where you are supposed to go?
I've got a headache, that is true,
And my achin' back needs attention, too.

But how can anything so small
End my aches in no time at all?
Do you work alone or hire a crew
To do the good things that you do?

I'm counting on you mighty strong
To get in there where you belong.
Don't let me down and please don't shirt,
But do your undercover work.

So down my throat be on your way.
And end my aches for one more day.
Don't make a wrong turn, is my lea,
'Cause I can't take another one 'til three!'

Blog Print Possibility

I noted a link on Blogspot this morning for Sharedbook.com with Blog2Print. Haven't checked it out, but some of you may want to. Looks like a possibility. Also intrigued because they also work with Typepad. Cheers. Welcome back Louise, who has been busy all morning commenting! Judy volunteered to weed out and shorten category list which grew like, I was going to say beggar's lice, but maybe more like bog weed. Anyone else who wants to help reduce the thousands of categories that imaginatively got typed in any time someone posted something new is more than welcome.

Family Outing No. 2

Here is the second of the two family photos on our outing. Dad, by deduction, took the photo. I'm not aware of any other photo during the mid- to late-40s of all six of us. Note Steve is being a brt.

Blog Design and Colors

Dear Siblings, I decided I was tired of same ol' on our community property blog so I experimented a bit. I'm not sure I like it, but it's different at least, in part. Please say if you want to go back to the old or suggest better changes. I wish I was a competent blog designer so we could overhaul the entire thing. Maybe one of these days. Feel free to complain, suggest, etc.

Family Outing

This photo is one of the only two photos of which I am aware of our entire family during the second Penrose period except me, the photographer, thus meaning that almost no photos of me for most of my later years at home exist except for a few Liz took my last year there. Before Mom became a Sunday School teacher, our only outing day was on Sunday, which meant that we usually went to North Fork, and those times were very rare. As you can see, Steve is misbehaving. I absolutely remember taking this picture.

More from the Orange Notebook - Christmas 1952

This itemized list represents Mother's shopping list for Christmas shopping for 1952.
Pop - O Shoes $3.50
Outing Flannel, 22 yd. $11.00
S. shirting, 3-1/2 yrd. $2.00
pop's bitt (?) .40

Also on the list: Deseret Book - Bibles
Woolworth's - pins
Music book
Was the outing flannel to make pj's? The pajamas I remember so clearly were the zebra pajamas - they were outstanding, but I don't remember the year. The sewing room was in the bedroom where Louise, Judy, and I slept. Mother would disappear into the room, close the door firmly, and we were barred from entering. When she emerged, there would be no evidence of anything - Mother could be very mysterious at times.

And, this must have been a few notes from a trip to take Louise to Provo in 1951: $14.78, my cash on hand; Louise paid at Lander for gas @9 cents - $3.50.
Another page in Louise's handwriting - Provo '51,
Gas (Lander) $3.50
Gas (Evanston) $3.80
Room $3.00
Breakfast (35 cents ea.) $3.00
milk (Mom pd.) .37
gas (Provo) $2.45
Total $13.82
milk .18
dinner 1.10

There were also several addresses and names - Louise was looking for a place to stay. (One comment was that a place was "not exciting". Her address ended up being at Mrs. Wight's.
I remember when we went to pick up Louise the day after Dwight and Velna's wedding, that the weather in Provo seemed warm, and she seemed so grown up. Guess it was bound to happen?

A Look at the Past

I don't want to mess up Dwight's getting us to round up memories about what early mornings in Penrose were like, but I am cleaning out a major catch-all, and came across a small orange spiral notebook of Mother's, which has some interesting things in it. However, this one won't wait - sorry I didn't find it in December when we were talking about Dwight and Velna's wedding. These are the statistics from the trip from Penrose to Laramie, to Salt Lake, Provo, and back home again, as written down in the little notebook in both my handwriting and Mother's:
Mileage at home was 34,895.2
Thermopolis 35,019.7 - 6 gal. $1.82
Douglas 35,212.0 - 9 gal. $2.70
Wheatland 35,228 - 3 gal. .95
Laramie $1.50
Rawlins $2.00 (D)
Rock Springs $2.20
Evanston $2.10 (D)
Salt Lake City 35,808.3 $16.27

Provo 35,890 - $3.20
Evanston 7.7 g $2.25
Rock Springs 5.9 $1.80
Thermopolis 10.8 $3.29
Lovell 5.7 $1.70
30.1 $12.24

And, for expenses: (Obviously, we had packed food for the trip to Laramie and to Salt Lake.)
.53 - apples & ice cream
4.00 - Motel (S.L.)
1.15 - Temple
4.00 - groc. in SLC
4.50 - 1-1/2 bu apples
4.04 - 2 hats
1.10 - Nonsense

Why did we buy two hats? I can't remember - and I love the last item - So typical of Mother.

Who Remembers The Old Fashioned Revival Hour?

Morning get-out-of-bed-and-get-going time always came early at our house. Dad always had to get up and milk the cows, 30 below zero or not, and Mom always had to get up to prepare food for the tribe. In the winter, Dad got up extra early because the coal fire in the coal stoves that heated our house and cooked our food always went out around 3:00 a.m. or so and we would freeze when we woke up in our unheated bedrooms, pulling something on quickly and moving to the living room to finish dressing by the stove.

One constant through those early mornings of getting ready to go out to the fields to hoe beets or haul hay in the summer or to catch the unheated school bus for an hour ride to school beginning in September was the radio. And I can still hear the echoes of "Good morning, this is KGHL, Billings Montana, bringing you The Old Fashioned Revival Hour." This greeting was followed by a stirring rendition of "Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before; every day with Jesus I love Him more and more; Jesus loves and keeps me and He's the One I'm waiting for." And then we scarfed down cooked cereal, or invalid eggs (baked eggs in cream, pancakes, toast miraculously toasted in the coal-stove oven slathered with strawberry jam from the cellar, milk from the cows in the barnyard, and we were out the door. And, try as I might to do otherwise, my days still echo to the strains of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour from KGHL in Billings Montana.

INVITATION TO MORE MAYHEM

The problem with any spare time is that it gives you time to think. The problem with thinking is that you come up with ideas. The problem with ideas is that you tend to share them with others and of course the problem with others knowing about your ideas is that they expect results. So here it is dear siblings, an invitation to more mayhem.
It occurred to me after reading all of the blog this past month that we all have unique memories of the same occurrence and we all have unique ways to convey those memories. Could we accomplish something above the "family histories" by organizing a list of subjects, all taking about six weeks to write a story and hook them together?
(only suckers need apply)

End of the Saga

See Comment for 1920s apron with tatted edge May 5 2008

Dear tatting experts: TattingChic has sent you a charming comment on the tatted apron, with an invitation to visit her site. So check it out and send her a message. The post was May 5 2008 and it is under category Heirloom sewing. If I knew how to repost the original post with comments at the head of the blog, I would do so. I am the only one who knows which is Ann and which is Judy. And I'm not telling. Just figure it out.

Judy or Ann - The Plot Thickens!

As the face is lightened - this obviously (?) looks like Judy. now holding the infant, perusing Pinocchio, with legs gracefully (another ?) positioned, just as a society socialite would sit.

And this one has to be Ann, (again opent to discussion), now participating in the playacting, but, oh, dear, the pose is less than elegant, and certainly looking a little on the revealing side?

Steve joined the Powell High School band