Sunday, October 18, 2009

My Life in a Jar # 11

Describe a trip downtown as a youngster.
As soon as I read this question I knew immediately what I would write about. I was in high school and it was Christmas time. At this time Logan was much different than it is now. The only shopping was on main street. Each year we would all get together and head to Logan to do our shopping. We'd each head in our own separate ways to buy the treasures for the family. This particular year Mom & Mary Ellen were going to pick Karen and I up at school and we were going to go shopping, just the girls. It seemed kind of funny when they picked us up, and low and behold Dad was sitting in the back seat. As soon as Mom parked the car her and Mary Ellen skipped out, leaving Karen and I with Dad. Little did we know what we were getting into. The guys out at the plant had decided to party a bit and Dad had a bit to much to drink. ( which I'm sure wasn't very much, since he really didn't drink). He had come home from work early and insisted on going shopping with us. As Karen and I found out that we were basically babysitting Dad while Mom and Mary Ellen shopped, we were not very happy. I do have to say it was pretty comical and we didn't stay mad to long. Dad didn't even know what a screwdriver was, the tool not the drink. We didn't get much shopping done and we did end up going again another night so we could actually get our shopping done, but I'll never forget shopping with my Dad being drunk. It's the only time I have ever seen him drunk and he was pretty funny at times. Of course he didn't remember anything Karen and I said about what had gone on. It was a time that I decided I never wanted to loose my ability of being in control of my actions due to alcohol. So something good did come from it.

Visit with Grandpa, Heather & Isaac



We had a fun weekend with visits from Grandpa, Heather and Issac. Grandpa left Friday and drove from Petaluma, CA to Cottage grove, OR, where he spent the night at a motel he and Grandma loved staying at. Then Sat. morning he continued on up to our place. Because it was raining so hard he couldn't see the signs, he headed towards Seattle instead of Bremerton. He eventually stopped and asked for directions and got headed back in the right direction. We enjoyed his visit. He looks good and is doing good but is very lonely. He said several times how he sees things that reminds him of Grandma and he tears up. That's to be expected after so many years together. He said he has 3 shirts hanging in his closet that he won't wear because Grandma ironed them for him. He feels if he wears them he will loose even more of her.
Heather and Isaac came for a long weekend. Her parents wanted her to come so they could get pictures of her, Sara and Rachel (all sisters) since they are all pregnant and due close together. Since it had been raining so hard the quilt shop flooded and they needed Heather's help, so we got to watch Isaac for a few hours. He is such a cute little guy and so content to play and entertain himself with the toys we had for him. He prefers walking over crawling now and gets around really good. He loved playing with the pans in the drawer under the stove. He also loved crawling up the stairs. He has learned to come down them and does good until he decides he wants to be a big boy and walk down them. Luckily he never fell, just scared me a few times. We all went to Olive Garden for dinner then Heather and Isaac went to be with her family and we came home for dessert, (sherbet) then Grandpa headed for his hotel. He didn't sleep to well the night before and was really tired. He left this morning to go visit Curt and Suzanne and will leave in the morning to head back home.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

My Life in a Jar #10

Describe a typical day during your Junior High years
Junior High started in the 7th grade for me. I went to North Cache in Richmond. Besides the normal difference that jr. high brings, I had a few challenges that were new for me. It was the first time in my life that I didn't have Karen in my class. In 7th grade I didn't have one class with her, we didn't even have lunch together. Another first was having to ride a bus to school. Richmond is only about 10 miles north of Smithfield but the bus ride took over a half hr. I was lucky that I could meet the bus just down the street, less than a half of a block. The third and I know you kids are going to laugh, I would have homework, for the first time. We didn't have homework in grammar school except to learn spelling words. I actually looked forward to having homework. That excitement didn't last to long. Especially on night every teacher decided to assign more homework than I thought I would have time to finish. I don't remember much about Jr. high except I love going to different classes and having different teachers. If there was a teacher you didn't like you only had them for 45 min. a day. Some of my favorite classes were US History, Art, Math in 7th grade because I had a great teacher, I always liked PE, especially when we would do gymnastics. English was OK, I didn't like typing because I could never trust myself to type without looking at the keyboard. (some things never change) Science was OK, it depended on what we were studying and what we were doing. I hated to just read and answer work sheets. I also had Home Ec and that when I first started sewing with lots of help from Mom at home. In 9th grade we had released time, otherwise know as Seminary. I was really excited to start seminary.
One thing I also enjoyed in Jr. high was having football and basketball games that we would get to watch, when they were home games. One thing I wish we had back then that is available now for girls are competitive sports. There were no sports that girls could participate in except cheer leading. Which was voted on by the student body who would make the squad. Cheer leading was not for me! We did have intermurals during lunch time but really wasn't much fun. I did play volleyball and softball with the ward.
After school we'd hurry to catch the bus and be excited to tell Mom all about our day. One week she'd be home around noon and she'd be asleep in the chair until we came home. The next week she'd be home in the morning and not get home from work until 9:00pm. On those weeks we'd have to help Mary Ellen clean the kitchen (we always left dishes from the night before) cook dinner before we could start on homework.
It was in Jr. High that I was kicked out of class for the first and only time in my School years. It was the last period of the day and I was in English. My teacher was Mr. Daines who retired at the end of the year. I sat in the back and there was a girl named Karen, (not my sister) who sat right in front of me. Mr. Daines asked a question and called on Karen to answer it. She didn't say anything. He called on her again and again, still she never responded. Finally he said very rudely Miss Spring, I told him I thought he was talking to Karen. He made some comment about not being able to keep us straight (even though we were not in the same class). I then informed him that I thought he meant Karen the girl in front of me. He ended up looking like a fool and told me to pick up my books and go to the office. Lucky for me my class was just across the hall from the library, Mr. Thornley the Liberian, saw me leave and could tell I was not happy. He asked me what happened and told me I could just spend the rest of the class period in the library. He had been my 6th grad teacher and one of my all time favorite teachers. He thought it was foolish of Mr. Daines and didn't feel I needed to be sent to the office for his mistake.
One day at lunch time I was sitting in the cafeteria when we heard an explosion. No one seemed to know what had happened. By the time I got to my next class rumors were that Craig (my brother) and two friend had blown a toilet off the wall in the boys bathroom. I was so embarrassed that he would something like that. But as time went on it became a family joke. It was no laughing matter when Craig got home and had to face Mom and Dad. He was suspended from school for several days and had to pay for the toilet to be replaced.
I remember Jr. High as being a fun time, a time that I meet many new friends. Some of these friends I still keep in contact with today.