Time Travel Tuesdays~Annie Dean Part 5

After I published last week's post I remembered a few things that I had left out.So Here I present

"Annie Dean: The Appendices"

Can you imagine how the desert of Arizona seemed to this lady from north of London? If you visit the village of Flaunden on Google Earth, and go to "street view", you will see those roads and lanes as she saw them. They are lined by tall, green hedges. There is ivy growing everywhere, and shade trees all around the properties. There are cool breezes, cloudy skies, and much more rain than Arizona could ever dream of.  My mother has memories of Annie running outside to play in the rain when it would fall, like a little giggly girl. She would be barefooted and splash in the puddles, tromping around in the mud! She was almost always barefooted anyway! My sister Sharon had a way of cooling off in the humid monsoon days of a Mesa summer. If a breeze came up at all she would hurry outside, face the wind, and throw her arms out wide. She learned this from our Grandmother Ellsworth, Annie.

Grandma had learned to work hard as a young girl and couldn't abide spoiled or lazy children. If a child of hers, or a grandchild ever dared say they were bored, by golly she would find a job for them to do! There was always something that needed to be done! One of my Dad's memories included Annie sending children outside to turn over rocks. If there was "nothing to do", as many a bored child would whine, they would be sent out to turn over every rock in the garden or driveway. She would check their work and could tell the ones they had missed because the undersides of the rocks would have been wet and therefore darker when turned up! That child never complained about being bored again, at least not around Grandma!

Annie was never idle. She always had her hands busy knitting, crocheting, quilting, or embroidering something for someone. She taught my mother how to crochet. Mom said that for her first project she got a bit ambitious and chose to make a crocheted bed spread! Grandma was very patient with her and was an excellent teacher, but Mom soon got busy and never did finish her bedspread. She still has all of those squares. I think they should be make into keepsake heirlooms. I'm going to work on that!
Here are a few heirlooms of my own that were made by Grandma's loving hands just for me!

This is a sweet block quilt that Grandma Ellsworth made for me when I was a baby. I always loved spreading it out and laying on it to play with my dolls of lay in front of the fan and read my story books.
The little sleepy puppy is a stuffed animal that was a gift from her to me as well. His tail used to squeak but not anymore! His name is Peanut and I remember hugging him close and missing my grandparents as I got a bit older.

This is a quilt that Grandma made for my dolls. It is 2 feet square and has four hand-embroidered squares.
As you can see, it was well-played-with! I wish I had taken better care of it now, but it was very special to me even back then and I used it as she had intended anyway. I may try to use some gentle stain removing methods that were not available years ago and see if I can get some of those spots out!

I included these enlarged pictures so you can see the detail. I can embroider, myself, but I am so impressed by the french knots which are the polka dots on the little dress below, and the freckles in the next photo. She was about 75 years old when she made this and not in the very best of health, but her work is excellent. I love her all the more for the time and effort she put into this gift for me!

This is the little bonnet she crocheted for me when I was born. It is so soft and sweet! I treasure it!

When we would play the card game "Crazy Eights", Richard, Dean, Gena, and I would sit and play on the living room floor. When my Dad saw that we would tell each other to "draw a card" he corrected us and told us what his mother (Annie) had taught them as children. When you had to draw a card you would be told to "go to the Bone Yard" or "go to the Boney". I imagine she and her brothers and sisters learned to call a grave yard a 'bone yard' when they were small.

My Mom has said repeatedly to me that she could never have dreamed up or asked for better in-laws. From the moment she and Dad became engaged she was taken into the family and became one of them. She considers Dad's brothers and sisters as her own and mourned with Martha at the passing of Robert, saying,"now she is the only one left! My sweet Ellsworth family and they are nearly all gone." Annie was a particularly loving mother-in-law, so kind and thoughtful of my Mom. She has missed her terribly all of these years!

A few years ago when my Uncle Robert passed away he lived in Clearfield, Utah about an hour or so north of me. Aunt Martha and my cousin Julie Harris Wheeler flew up from Mesa for the funeral. I rode up to the funeral with them as did Julie's sister Deana Harris Church. Deana lives here locally, and do you notice the spelling of her name? Not the typical way someone spells Deena, or Dina. It's a nod to Grandma! I wish with all of my heat that we 'd had a recorder in that car as we drove that day. Martha told us such stories! At one point I had asked her something about growing up with Grandma and Deana turned around and said, "sing us the song Aunt Martha!" Martha laughed and declined and I said, "what song?" Julie said, "you know, the one that Granny used to sing to us and to her own children? It's like a lullaby". They could see by my blank stare that I had no idea what they were talking about. They laughed and said, "well, that's the difference between being raised by her son (my Dad) or being raised by one of her daughters!" Their mother was my Aunt Naomi. I never did get that song out of them, and I would dearly love to!

Grandma named all of their animals. The ones I remember are "Bob Dog" and "Old Bill" the horse. The cows and even her hens were usually given  really funny names. I think Aunt Martha called one of the chickens "Peckedy Hen"!

Annie loved little nick-knacks and had many of them around her home. I loved to go over to visit and see all of her little green ceramic elves, beautiful birds, sculpted flowers, and vases. My Dad gathered a few of these after Grandpa's passing and I am fortunate enough to have a few. The photo below shows me as a little two year old on Easter Sunday. I am in Grandpa & Grandma's home on South Nina Drive. You can see some of her pretty things behind me! See the little poodle under the side table? I love that TV too!

This photo shows my Aunt Lora's younger three children with my siblings and me.

Back L-R Dianne, Doug, & Marian Hunsaker, Marianne (me!), & Sharon Ellsworth.

Front- Dean & Richard Ellsworth.

Annie was a very good cook. She had been a cook for many people throughout her growing-up years. She could make delicious fried chicken. My Aunt Martha told me, "Mama would decide to fry up a chicken for dinner so she'd call Joe in and tell him to go out and pick out an old hen."  Uncle Joe would go out and grab one by the neck and with a whip of his wrist, that neck would break. He would then hang it by it's feet from the clotheslines and clean it out. Sometimes Annie would pluck it clean of feathers and sometimes she would have the children do it. Martha remembers being horrified every time this wold happen, but she was known in the family for being the one who would gather up all of the bones after dinner and pick them clean! Grandma taught my mother how to make several things really well.

Grandma's Divinity was a staple in our home every December. Mom would color it in lovely pastel hues of pink, mint green, and blue. She would press a pecan half into each piece just like the photo below. I have never tried making it, in part because although Mom was an expert at it, she always seemed so stressed about it turning out just right.  Humidity can ruin it, and it can also be too dry. I may just have to try it one of these days, just to be considered part of the female part of our clan!

Annie's Divinity

2 egg whites

                                                                       4 cups sugar                                                                         

1/2 cup water

1 cup dark corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Beat Egg whites until almost stiff. Mix sugar, syrup, and water and bring to a boil. Cook to a soft ball stage or 235-245 degrees. While beating, pour some of the syrup over egg whites. return syrup to stove while beating. Beat for about 1/2 a minute then add the rest of the syrup while beating. Continue until mixture is stiffened. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper quickly so that mixture doesn't harden in the bowl. You can add things while beating like chopped nuts of gum drop bits. You can also press half a pecan into the tops.

~

 We also have a recipe in our family that I like to call " Grandma Annie's Chocolate Cake". It is heavenly! The eggs are separated and the whites are whipped up before being folded in. The cake is the perfect mix of moist and light. Frost it with your favorite chocolate frosting. The thicker, the better! Grandma's touch was to chop up walnuts or pecans and sprinkle to top just after frosting it.

Annie Dean Ellsworth's Chocolate Cake 

(as it is called in our family cookbook)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together:

1 Cup shortening 

 2 Cups white sugar

Separate 4 eggs. 

        Add the yolks to the creamed mixture. 

         Set aside whites for later.

Mix together:

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 Cup of cocoa

Add just enough water to make the consistency of rubber cement,

thick and runny.

Mix together:

Cocoa mixture & creamed mixture,

 blending well.

Sift together:

2 Cups flour                   1/2 tsp. salt        1 Tb. baking powder

Add to creamed mixture alternately with 1 Cup milk.

Beat well after each addition.

Egg Whites:

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in to creamed mixture.

Pour into a greased and floured pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

 Time varies greatly depending on humidity and altitude.

A long time ago I wrote "Memory Mondays". Don't ask me why I changed. I don't remember!

You can read the story of my Dad and the flying tea kettle by clicking here. It's the first time I wrote about my Grandma, so some of the details you may have just read in the previous weeks. You can skim if you want to, I won't be offended!

Finally, I want to pay tribute to my grandmother for her faithful temple work and the family history work she did in her lifetime. She did research and saw that as much temple work could be done for her family as possible. Her parent's family group record shows that she had much of their work done as soon as she could. Some in St. George, and the rest in the Mesa Temple not long after it was dedicated. Remember the story of Annie kicking the teacher who was beating her brother Reuben? Reuben was killed during World War I while defending Festubert and Givenchy, France on Nov. 7, 1914. How heartbreaking! Annie took care of her big brother again in 1927 and 28 by having him baptized and endowed. Near the end of her life Annie felt the need to share her testimony of the gospel in letters to her family. Her sister Mary Ann wrote back to her said that that she felt that what Annie was telling her was right, but that she wanted to talk to her about it in person. Annie passed away a few weeks later on Sept. 6, 1960. Mary Ann passed away on Sept, 26, 1960. The family believed that Annie got to have that talk with her sister much sooner than either of them had thought possible, and saw to it that Mary Ann's work was done in the Mesa Temple in 1962-3. A life of hard work, faith, and service to others, finding joy in small things...that was my grandmother 

Annie Dean Ellsworth.

Memory Mondays ~ In Memoriam

Oh beautiful for heroes
proved in liberating strife,

 who more than self, their country loved,

 and mercy more than life.

Army Sgt. Nathan S. Barnes

Died July 17, 2007 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom 23, of American Fork, Utah; assigned to 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.; died July 17 in Rushdi Mullah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked by insurgents using small-arms fire.
The Associated Press

AMERICAN FORK, Utah — A 23-year-old soldier from Utah County was shot and killed as he prepared to get off a helicopter in Iraq, his father said.
Sgt. Nathan S. Barnes died July 17 in Rushdi Mullah of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by insurgents, the Department of Defense said.

Four hundred American flags lined the streets leading to the Barnes home in American Fork. On the house, a banner read: “Sgt. Nathan Barnes: Returning home with honor.” Barnes was deployed in August 2006 and was expected home around Christmas.

“We were going to give him a big hero’s welcome, but it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” sister Lisa Blake said.

Barnes enlisted in the Army at age 19. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, N.Y.

“We’re sure he volunteered to go on the mission,” said his father, Kevin Barnes said. “He was always volunteering. He told us, ‘I don’t like to sit around.’ ”

For Memory Monday I would like to share with you one of my most cherished memories. I had the honor of witnessing the funeral procession for Sgt. Barnes. My son Richard was most priviliged to be among the Boy Scouts from our Stake who held a flag that day. There were over 400 boys with flags lining 100 East from the Alpine Tabernacle up the hill to the cemetery. It was truly one of the most moving sights I have ever witnessed.The day was blistering hot and the boys were wilting before the procession started; but as soon as the first motorcycle officers drove by to lead the way, these young scouts snapped to attention. My heart filled with pride as I watched them stand so solemnly and and straight. I hope these boys will always treasure this day as one when they were very near a real American hero.

Nathan's family lives in our LDS Stake. I drive by his home every time I go down the hill to go shopping. Recently I was surprised and very moved to see this:


The City of American Fork has renamed the Barne's home street (350 West) in honor of their son.
I think this is a fitting reminder of the sacrifice given by so many for those of us at home. They have given their lives so that we might enjoy freedom each day. They will never come home.
May we never forget!

Memory Monday~Ghosts of Birthdays Past

My birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving day about once every four years or so. This year it happens again. People ask me, "Oh, don't you hate sharing your birthday with a holiday? Don't you ever feel slighted?" My answer is always, "No, not in the least!" On those special days there were usually lots of relatives around to help me party. The whole day was one big party whether all of it was for me or not!

I have a wonderful mother who always made my birthday special no matter what day it fell on. I do remember once when I was in 5th grade my father teased me that Mom was going to put my candles on the turkey and there would be no cake because how could you have cake with pumpkin pie? I fretted about that one for awhile until Mom assured me that Dad was just being silly. (Dad was always being silly...I should have known!)

There is one problem. Usually my sweetie will cook dinner and not let me do the dishes on my birthday. Since I m in charge of dinner this year I'll be cooking and cleaning all day long so I am looking forward to a weekend date with the Master...a little meal...a movie!

All of this remembering stirred up scenes in my brain from long ago. I wish I had the photos that go along with the memories but those are in my mother's hands. (I look forward to those CD's Mom!) Most of my birthday parties were held outside. November in Mesa is generally lovely weather. Here are some of those memories.

The earliest birthday memory I have is of my 4th. Mom spread a quilt on the front lawn where my friends from Primary gathered along with my cousins Doug, Johnny, Marta, Dorne, Matt,and Cory. What fun we had playing "Follow the Leader" around that big yard and under the shade of the Scotch pine and the Mulberry trees. I remember lots of those tiny little party balloons that you have to blow into so hard that your brains feel like they are going to come out of your ears! We also played the old time party game where you stand on a chair and try to drop a clothes pin into a bottle with a small opening. Such fun...NO COST!

I got one of these and thought I was a real doctor. My poor dolls and stuffed animals submitted to many injections but I always took their candy pills for them.

Mine was red!

I also remember my 5th birthday party. This one was special to me because of a much wanted gift. Mom set up a table under the Mulberry tree in the back yard and cousins and friends were invited. I opened one long skinny box and inside was the doll of my dreams!
I was thrilled beyond belief! My very own Barbie doll! Even more cool was the fact that she sported the new bubble cut hair-do! How very 1962 of her! To make it more exciting, my aunt had been let in on the surprise and my cousin had brought another long skinny box to the gift table. Inside was this handsome guy!

Isn't he dreamy?

I loved his plastic crew cut and his beach sandals made of real cork!

My 9th birthday was on a Sunday. Mom let me open one gift before Sunday School in the morning. Inside this gift was the tiniest little doll I had ever seen! (Maybe 2 inches tall.)

Teensy little gold buttons, tiny little comb and brush...sigh!

She was part of a new line that Mattel had introduced called Liddle Kiddles. I fell in love immediately & the thought of leaving her at home while we went to the church building was an awful thought indeed! Mom said I could bring her to church but I had to leave her in the car. (Ha! Like THAT was going to happen!) I figured if I kept her and her tiny car in my hands under my New Testament that no one would notice. Kids' minds are so simple. My class sat in the choir seats for opening exercises. We were in plain view of everyone! I could not resist pulling her out and zooming her little car on the armrest of my chair. Guess where Babe Biddle ended up spending the rest of Sunday School? In the dark interior of Mom's patent leather hand bag, that's where!!

For my 11th birthday I wanted one of these...and got it!

Try to picture a brown roof and yellow paint, otherwise this is exactly how it looked!

My mother didn't think it was something I REALLY wanted. Didn't I want something more feminine? But we had just moved from the dairy "into town"...suburbia! This is what my friend Karen Tucker had and I loved playing with her. The men in the house thought it was a great idea! Richard and Dad mounted it on the roof over our carport using 2x4's (which is what everyone did in those ancient times) I was not an athlete but I had so much fun shooting baskets and playing "HORSE" with Karen!

After that birthday all of the others seem to melt into each other in my mind. All fun, always family around, always a special, thoughtful gift from Mom and Dad.

This Memory Monday has sparked some nostalgia in my mind. I may do another one on more of my ancient, antique toys!!What fun toy memories do you have?

Am I older than dirt?

Just about!

Memory Mondays~Little House in Mesa

There is a little house in Mesa at 41 West 9th Place. It sits on a huge lot (as they were in decades past) and is surrounded by mature pecan trees. It shares a drive way with the house next to it where the owner lived. Her name was Annie Malone, or Grandma Malone as we all called her. She wasn't my Grandma but belonged to my sister-in-law Susan. Grandma Malone lived in her 1930's era stucco home and rented out the little house for extra income, usually to family members of the newly wed variety. Susan and my brother Richard called it home when they married in 1972. They brought their first born child home to the little house a just over a year later and I was able to babysit for them there. I would sink into their big yellow beanbag chair and hold that little baby girl and imagine that someday I would have the same fun and joy...a cute little house and a sweet baby girl of my own! Just over 7 years later that dream became a reality.

In the winter of 1980 we were newly weds living in Flagstaff where Dee went to school at N.A.U. We were expecting our first baby and were so happy. Our goal was to save up enough money to make the move back to Provo, Utah where we had met and finish our degrees at Brigham Young University. When approached by his current boss with a business opportunity and the chance to make a lot of money it was decided that Dee would leave school for a short time and go to work in the Phoenix valley for this company. I was delighted by the idea that I would get to move "home" to my Mesa and give birth to our first child there.

It was small and nearly perfectly square like those green Monopoly houses! It had a tiny front room, an eating area, a cute vintage kitchen, one bedroom, and a 3/4 bath. We would set up the crib in what was an add-on room behind the bedroom. It might have been a lean-to if it had been leaning! It had a homemade closet sitting in it that I curtained with yellow gingham We could check on the baby by looking through the old back window from our bedroom but we could not use the back door because the crib sat in front of it. The house was freshly painted white inside and out and was very clean.

Me with Sarah before she was born, ca. February 1980. Look at my platform sandals!
Ah, winter in Mesa!

Those were sweet days. We set up our little house in the Mesa 1st Ward and settled into "winter" in Arizona (not like the Flagstaff one we left behind though!). I had fun taking Dee around and showing him where I had lived when I was growing up and where I had gone to school. The city cemetery was within view of our front yard and I took him there to show him where five generations of my family were laid to rest. It became most exciting as my March 15th due date approached. Baby showers were thrown and our gifts piled up. Our baby was taking up the majority of space in the little house!

To pass the time we would take walks around the block and visit Richard & Susan. They had television; we did not! We would all lounge around on their big water bed and watch the "better TV" in the house! Dee practiced being an Uncle for the first time and Tara, Brian, Brent, & little Lyndsey would pile on him every time he sat down! Brian and Brent would sometimes ride their bikes around to our little house and pay me a call during the day. One infamous visit consisted of us hearing the boys screams as they pedaled into the old driveway for all they were worth. "Unco Dee, save us!!!" We ran to the front porch and saw our nephews being chased by a large black lab who was just having fun! "Unco Dee! He's gonna eat us!!!" Dee went up to the beastly dog and shooed him away. He asked the boys if they wanted to come inside and they just begged to be taken home. They were too overcome with fear to enjoy themselves and there was no way they were riding home so Dee put their bikes in the back of his Datsun pickup truck and drove the sobbing boys home!

The little house saw our greatest joy together in our young marriage as we welcomed Sarah into the world on March 29, 1980. We learned to live on little sleep and much love for this perfect little soul as she taught us how to be parents daily. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on June 16th at the little table for four with my poor attempt at Cornish game hens and Sarah in her baby swing watching the party. We ate our wedding cake top and I must say, it was delicious even a year later!

Our first trials and sorrows together were also played out under that snug little roof. Just before Sarah was born the company that had been so promising folded and we were jobless. I watched my husband succumb to tears as he realized our situation. I learned just how much love and compassion I could reach in and pull out of my heart for him. He was able to find part time work at Daniel's Jewelers at Thomas Mall in Tempe. We were thankful but hungry. Sarah had come and we were living on faith and prayer. I will be forever grateful to my big brother for his insight and his closeness to the spirit. He called us one day out of the blue and after exchanging hellos he got right to the point. "Is there any meat in your freezer because we are cleaning ours out and wondered if you would like some." About an hour later he showed up at our door with a box full of beef and a $100 bill. Dee was stunned as it was placed in his hand. It was a Saturday and we knew that he had worked a "side job" all morning on his day off and brought us his pay. Yes, we had been living on bottled peaches, peanut butter, and crackers for about a week and our prayers had been answered.

In the front yard we watched Road Runners go up and down the street. We posed with our first baby on her first Sunday at church and her blessing day.

Sarah, 2 weeks old. First Sunday at Church, April 1980.

Sarah, Marianne, and Dee on Sarah's blessing day. That's Grandma Malone's house in the background and there is our carport where our brand new Maytag washer was hooked up with no fear of vandalism or theft!

In return for as very generous and cheap rent ($150 a month) Dee cut the grass for the two houses. In July Grandma M. decided to use some weed killer near the front fence. Little did she know she was also killing the new growth on those giant pecan trees! Dee learned the new definition of patience as he raked a gazillion dead leaves for days and days in the heat of July!

In Grandma Malone's backyard I hung our washing on the clothesline. Before the baby came she and her sister would watch me from the back windows of her house until one day they came scurrying out pulling a wheeled laundry cart with them. "My dear girl, please don't think we are being nosy but we are so worried about you! The way you bend over to get your clothes out of the basket on the ground...why you are going to wrap the cord around that baby's neck! Please use our cart from now on!" I thanked them and used it gratefully but more because of annoying back pain than fear of an old wives tale! They were so sweet! After Sarah was born I hung cloth diapers by the dozens every other day or so and they dried in the Mesa sunshine within 20 minutes!

By the end of July Dee had found full-time employment in Flagstaff so we decided to move north. I was glad that we would not struggle so much and our goal of finishing school would be realized. It was with sadness, however, that I left the little house on W. 9th Place. Tender memories, joy and sorrow, and a huge amount of living had happened there in just five short months.

I drove past the little house on my last visit to Mesa. It looked run down and sad. Grandma had long since passed away and the two homes had been sold. Is it true what they say? "You can't go home again"? I think that just means once you move on, things will never be just as they were. I have memories though, of a sweet time in a sweet place!Dee made me laugh! He had a cold and was freezing! I included this photo so you could see the little living room. Love the olive couch and the green carpet! Look at that awesome "mid-century" lamp! I didn't think it was so cute back then!

My adorable husband was always jumping out to snap surprise photos. I include this one not so you can see how annoyed I am with him but so you can see the darling little kitchen! I loved the glass door cabinets and the cute little shelves on either side of the vintage sink. Notice the harvest gold curtains and paper towels!!

Memory Mondays~Marianne's Many Monsters

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She lived in a little white frame house under the shade of several Mulberry trees. Her eyes were blue and her long brown hair hung to her waist. The Arizona sun had kissed her nose and left a smattering of cute little freckles that her mother loved. She had a dog, and at different times kitties, a bunny, and a chicken of her own. She had a lovely big sister and two nice big brothers...well, they were nice up to a point.

The boys were elated to have a baby sister born after 7 years with no new baby in the family. They did all of the usual big brother things like playing with her, holding her bottles while she drank, helping her learn to crawl and walk, and telling her stories. As the little girl grew older the stories they told were not so nice. She learned that there were monsters in her world! She had seen the Saturday Morning Monster Movies on channel 5.

There were all the usual ghouls to be afraid of such as Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein! Her brothers would tell her as she would go off to bed that she had better be careful, "Dracula is out tonight!" She would snuggle into her bed and pull the covers up around her neck as tightly as she could, knowing that this would keep those vampire fangs away. There were many awful dreams of her house in flames and Frankenstein carrying her up stone steps and into the flames. She soon learned that there were other monsters out there As well. Home grown monsters!

There were some creepy guys that hung out only in Arizona and they especially loved to eat little girls. The king of them all was "Scooby Rah!" As her brothers told her, he was all hairy with fangs and long claws. He only came out at night and the only way a little girl could tell he was going to attack was if she heard a low and angry growl. Then she had better say her prayers because that meant he was very near. One night after Mom had helped her say her prayers and tucked her in bed with a sweet kiss the unthinkable happened! From outside of her open window she heard a low and menacing growl. She was petrified with fear! Suddenly a horrid, ugly face appeared all smashed up against her window screen! It was lit up strangely from under the chin and made horrible growls! He was there! Scooby Rah was going to eat her! Mom heard her screams and came running to her rescue. He vanished from sight and it was then that she learned the protective power of mothers! Scooby Rah often plagued her dreams. She would find herself in familiar, happy places only to hear "the growl". She knew in her dream that if she answered him with a growl of her own he would come out of the shadows and attack. The little girl in the dream always growled back...always! Then her feet would be glued to the floor or the ground would tilt 90 degrees and she couldn't get away!


The little girl was very happy in her desert home. Many happy hours were spent playing among the cacti and on the dairy. At night the cousins would all get together to play "Kick the Can" and "Hide and Seek". One of her brothers told her to look up at Stewart Mountain. There were television and radio towers up there and the lights glowed red at night. She was told that those were Scooby Rah's porch lights and he always left them turned on when he was out on the prowl. He was a busy monster because those lights were on every night. They ruined many a game of "Hide and Seek" for her. She learned that there were other creatures to fear besides old Scooby. There was the Cactus Man. A large Saguaro that would come to life and night and kill whoever he came across. You never knew if you were standing right next to him during the daytime which was always a frightening thought when playing outside of the dairy's boundaries on the desert. There was always the "Oogly", a monster of unknown origins who delighted in frightening little girls witless with his strange cries at night!

One night there was a movie on T.V. It was called "The Incredible Clock Man". It was about a clock, a tall one with a big round face, who would come to life at different times and kill whoever was near. The only warning would be the sound of his "Tick Tick Tick" as he approached. To the little girl everything on black and white television of the 1960's was very real. Especially because not long after the movie aired she began hearing "Tick Tick Tick" whenever she was alone in a room! She was terrorized on every side. Would it ever end?

The little girl grew into a woman and had little girls of her own. She never told them of the monsters out there and so they never believed. Their bedtime stories were of princesses and fairies and their dreams were sweet. But in the other bedroom in the house their Mommy would still feel the old fear when the lights went out. Her sheets would be pulled up around her neck and she could never kneel by her bed if the lights were out. She could imagine the hands of "something" under the bed grabbing her leg or the icy fingers of "whatever" running down her spine. Her brothers laugh at her to this day when she tells them her memories and...horror of horrors...she found that her nieces and nephews knew of those awful monsters of Arizona too!
When will it end?!!!

Memory Mondays~Run For the Fort!!

Springerville, Arizona

This memory comes to me from my mother Helen Hamblin Ellsworth who told me the story many times when I was younger. It is about her own father when he was just a baby.

Don Carlos Hamblin was born February 16, 1882 in Springerville, Arizona but back then it was a settlement called Amity. He was the youngest son of Jacob Hamblin and Sarah Priscilla Leavitt Hamblin. His family had settled in eastern Arizona one year before his brother Dudley was born in 1880. This is a story about the two of them and their adventure in the "old west" one day. My mother estimates her father was a little over a year old at the time our story takes place so I shall use my artist's licence with a few assumptions such as...


It was a fine spring day in Eastern Arizona. The sun was shining and winter's cold had given way to warmth and blowing grasses. At the settlement of Amity there was a structure called Milligan Fort. It was a settler's stockade, not military, and had been built in the 1860's to protect the people from Indian attacks. Within the fort there were shops and trading going on. Outside the walls were the settler's homes and farms. The children were out on this particular day enjoying the sunshine. Among them were two small boys, Dudley Hamblin age 4 and his baby brother Don Carlos age 1. It is easy to imagine them chasing an occasional grasshopper or lizard, as well as picking wild flowers to take back home to their mother Priscilla. Perhaps Dudley felt very grown-up having been given charge of his younger brother but Priscilla kept watch on them out of the corner of her eye to make sure they didn't wander too far. She could have been outside of the cabin doing the family's wash in her big tub or she could have been working to ready the family garden for planting. At one point as she checked on them she noticed that they were sitting down facing each other. They were staring intently at something on the ground in between the two of them. She probably breathed a sigh as she realized they were not wandering any farther away.

It wasn't long after she last checked on her boys that she heard it; that dreaded sound. Someone at Milligan Fort was sounding the alarm. This sent chills through Priscilla as she knew it meant only one thing...an Indian attack! The thought of an attack always seemed ironic to this woman who was married to the only man in the territory whom the natives respected enough to listen to when he spoke of peace. Jacob had spent most of his adult life serving missions to and working for peace among the Lamanite people of southern Utah and northern Arizona. He was known as the "Buckskin Apostle" by members of the church and a "peacemaker" by most of the native chiefs. Four years earlier, just after Dudley had been born, the men of the community came to Jacob one night begging for him to go out among the local tribe who were on the war path. He did so willingly and once again worked his magic among them.

The settlers, upon hearing the alarm, acted instantly. Priscilla was no exception. Her older children could run to the fort on their own as they had been trained but little Dudley and baby Don Carlos would need her help. As she ran toward them she saw the cloud of dust rising on the horizon and moving toward Amity. Adrenaline must have coursed through her veins as she reached her sons, grabbing up her baby and yelling at Dudley to follow quickly! Nothing would stop her in her race to the stockade for within its' walls was her family's only hope of safety. She never noticed the extra weight she was dragging along behind her as she ran. It wasn't until she was inside of Milligan Fort that she turned to make sure Dudley was behind her...and he was indeed!

The family would laugh for years at the picture she would create in their minds as she would tell the story of how Dudley had taken a piece of string and tied his big toe to that of his younger brother's! Priscilla had dragged him all of the way to safety! So intense was her focus that she never heard his cries or felt the extra load. (I might venture to guess that both boys' big toes were stretched a bit longer that day!)

Oh! About that Indian attack! As it turned out it was only some men from town who had been out on the range and were driving their cattle home creating quite a dust cloud as they went!My Grandfather Don Carlos Hamblin 1882~1941

My Great-Grandmother Sarah Priscilla Leavitt Hamblin 1841~1927

P.S. I am still composing my Designer Monster story...hang in there big brothers! You shall be immortalized soon!

~Memory Mondays

This is a night I will never forget. I was only three or four years old but it is vivid in my mind. Ask my mother or my brothers and I am sure they remember too!

The Big "Crack Storm"

The little white frame house on North Recker Road had seen better days. It was elderly with wrinkly, peeling paint. Its' once dark green window shutters were faded from having lived out their years in the Mesa sunshine. Inside the rooms were small and the wood floors creaky, but the family had made it a home. It had been uprooted and moved to the dairy to be a temporary home until a new one could be built. Mom had always kept it clean and filled with the scent of fresh baked bread, chocolate cake, and fried chicken. It was surrounded by mulberry trees and bordered a small citrus grove. Though it was old and small, it was snug and filled with love.

The little house had a secret. The family found out about it one dark, stormy night. Summer time in Arizona brings monsoon rains that pound on rooftops, fill dry creeks and desert washes, and make the city streets run like rivers. Little Marianne was awakened by loud booming sounds and movement in the house. Every few seconds the darkness in her room would be scared away by flashes of bright white light. Her mother came into her room and scooped her up from bed. She spoke softly and told Marianne that everything would be alright. The family was going to have an adventure! As they came into the front room Marianne saw a lighted candle on the table and one of her brothers had the "Big Beam" flashlight. He was shining it on the ceiling and making a shadowy bunny rabbit with long ears hop around. It was then that she saw the water running through spots in the ceiling. That was the little house's secret! It was leaky and couldn't keep the pounding rains from soaking its' family! The rain was filling up many of Mom's big bowls and pots that were scattered about on the floor.

Marianne thought, "it's raining in my house!"

Daddy, Dean, and Richard were loading pillows and blankets into the car, running in and out the back door trying not to get too wet. Mom explained that the family was going into town to sleep at Grandpa Ellsworth's house on South Nina Drive. The electricity was out and there was no way to keep cool in the muggy, hot little house. How strange it felt to take a car ride in her night gown in the middle of the night! Every flash of lightning made the sky as bright as day and Richard exclaimed,"Ooo look!" He was pointing at the sky through the rear window of the car. Marianne stood on the back seat between her brothers and bent backward to look straight up at the sky. With every flash there wasn't just one, two, or even three lightning bolts. No! The whole sky was covered with criss-crossing cracks of white light! No one in the car had ever seen anything like it! Marianne thought that the sky was cracking and that was how all of the rain was getting through!

"A crack storm!" she thought. She hoped pieces of the sky would not fall down on the car!

It was fun to sleep on beds made up on Grandpa's floor. It was one of Marianne's favorite places to be! Grandpa was there with his happy smile helping everyone get settled. It was hard to go back to sleep until Daddy said something about settling down because there were still chores to do early in the morning. Such is the life on a farm, sleepless night or not, the animals would be hungry!

In the morning the earth at the dairy was muddy and smelled of that wonderful damp dirt smell that people in Mesa just love! The ceilings inside the little house were soaked and water sat in puddles around full the pots and bowls on the floor. In the days that followed, Daddy and the boys would be up on the roof and in the attic repairing the leaks so the little house would be ready for the next big storm. The secret was out and all taken care of! More rains came but there was never one again like the Big Crack Storm of '60!

Memory Mondays~ Where Were you?

Oh! That HAIR!

This is how I'll remember him!

What a week it has been with four celebrity deaths. This has stirred up many memories for me. With Michael Jackson music playing on every channel on TV, the music has gotten to me! With every verse of "ABC" I am transported back in time to my yellow bedroom on North Hunt Drive on Saturday mornings when I played my records and the radio loudly as I cleaned my room. "Got To Be There" puts me in a romantic 14 year old's mood as I remember a serious crush on Donny Osmond. Yes, M.J. makes me think of Donny! With every tribute to Farah Fawcett I recall my serious desire to have THAT HAIR! I think I had the cut a few times but not the product or the know-how to pull off the big-ness of it! Each time I hear the "Charlie's Angels" theme play on the news I remember being in labor with Sarah at Desert Samaritan Hospital at 11:30 pm and the only thing on that was any good (?) was a re-run episode of "Charlie's Angels".

I heard a CNN announcer say that the worldwide scope of Michael Jackson's celebrity has made his death one of those Where Were You When...? moments as in:
Where were you when you heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor?

I only know one person who reads my blog who could answer this question!


I do have some other Where Were You When questions that I can answer. Feel free to share where you were if you remember!

Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated?

I was 4 days away from my 6th birthday. I was in my first grade classroom at Jefferson Elementary School in Mesa. We were having singing time with another class. Suddenly the P.A. system interrupted my teacher. It was playing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" as the voice of a news man told us that President Kennedy was dead.
My young first year teacher Miss Miller put her head on her desk and cried. The other teacher quickly took her students back to their room and before I knew it, we were loaded onto our school buses and heading for home two hours early. I remember that Richard was home that day sick and as I walked into the house he was laying on the couch. He and Mom had the TV on and I recall seeing the ambulance in front of the hospital in Dallas. The TV was all Kennedy coverage for the next week. I was enthralled by it all. It affected me deeply.

Where were you when man first walked on the moon?

It was the summer after my 6th grade year. We had all gathered in our living room to watch the event. I remember being so impatient as the lunar module had landed and it felt like forever before Neil Armstrong appeared on the steps of the craft! When he made that famous "one small step for man" it was absolutely silent in our house. We were all in awe! I remember newsman Walter Cronkite being speechless, wiping tears from his eyes. After a little while Gena and I went outside to look up at the moon.It seemed so unreal! My brother Dean was on his mission in Argentina and told us in a letter that the people he was with were running outside, looking up at the moon and yelling, "I see them! I see them!" I admit, I did try very hard to see that American flag up there!

Where were you when the Berlin wall came down?

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We lived in Los Alamos, New Mexico with our first three daughters. It was 1989. We were once again gathered around the TV watching. Dee and I were so emotional and excited. I am not sure our girls understood the magnitude of the event but we tried to help them by explaining that those people had not been allowed to leave their half of the city for decades and how would you feel if your family had been separated all of that time? It was a great moment in time...I miss Ronald Regan!

Where were you when the US invaded Iraq in
Operation Desert Storm in 1991?

We were living in Salt lake City. I was only days away from giving birth to Rachel. I was very uncomfortable! We had also just learned of Susan's brain cancer that week so it was a very stressful time already. It was hard trying to explain to my daughters what was going on both in the war and in our family without scaring them. Sarah and Brittany came home fromschool one day with a new name for Saddam. They called him "So-dumb!" I agreed.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I was here in American Fork getting my kids ready for school. I saw Katie Couric reporting on a fire in the north tower of the World Trade Center. She said there were rumors of a small plane hitting the building. As we watched we saw the second plane hit the south tower live. It was chilling and unbelievable! My sweet first grader Richard turned to me with horror on his face and said in a tearful voice, "Momma! Why did they do that? It was SO MEAN!" That said it all. I took Rachel and Richard to school. On the way we heard of another plane rumored to have gone down in Pennsylvania. I questioned what was going on and whether I really wanted to leave my children at school but I did. On the way home the report came in about the Pentagon being hit. I went straight to the phone and called Dee at school. When I heard his voice I fell to my knees and cried. As usual, he calmed me with his immense faith and courage. I was on the phone with my sister Gena when the towers fell. Horror. We comforted each other long distance. I spoke to my parents awhile later. Dad said this would be our generation's Pearl Harbor. I think he was right.

Wow. Those were mostly pretty serious. I think it is important though, to record feelings you have during and after historical events. Our children need to know how we felt and what it meant to us. Those are just some of my historical memories. What are yours?

Memory Mondays~June 16, 1979

On Tuesday of this week Dee and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. (!) It is inconceivable to me how quickly years go by. When I was a little girl "30" was such a big number! I used to think that when I turned 30 I would be ancient! Now I have been married that long and it just doesn't feel like it! I still feel very young at heart and hope to always be that way. I still feel just as much in love with Dee as ever and even more so. He makes my heart beat faster when I hear his voice on the phone. I still get goose bumps at the touch of his hand. I want, more than any other thing during my days to make him happy. That's how it should be! I know he loves me more than any other human being on this earth. Our love just gets better and better! Now that we are looking at parenthood from the other side, having four of our five children grown, I am looking forward to spending all of the years we have left together, just the two of us at home. I am glad that we have nurtured our love so that at this point in our lives we want to be together instead of the old excuse of "we've just grown apart"! Sad!

So, Happy Anniversary my dear husband! I love you and thank you for the happiest 30 years of my life!

Some 30 year old memories:

The new Mr. & Mrs. Loose.

It was 116 degrees!

The Ellsworth family.

Did we feel the heat? No!
Awww...
I don't think these fountains are there anymore.
People see this photo and ask if we were married in Hawaii!
It was starting to get hot...hence, the mists!
The grass was half dead...the sky was full of monsoon clouds!

The Looses and Holdens.
I loved pink! The guys hated their tuxes, said they felt like ice cream men. Now that I look back at it...yeah!

We even had a pink cake! It was applesauce & spice. Very yummy!


A wedding waltz. The custodian called my parents half-way through the day to tell them the A/C was broken at the church. They brought in lots of fans.
I'm telling you, we never felt the heat! We were too in love!
Tossing the bouquet...Gena caught it!

We honeymooned in beautiful Sedona!
No, we didn't get any photos together!