Time Travel Tuesday ~ Seventy Years Ago

June 5, 1942 ~ Mesa, Arizona

George Dean Ellsworth married Helen Hamblin in the Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In that historic and beautiful place my parents were sealed together not just "as long as you both shall live" but for Time and all Eternity. This knowledge has been very comforting to all of us since we lost Dad in 2003. I know with all of my heart that my dear father lives on in spirit. I know that he watches over us because I have felt that wonderful presence and spiritual confirmation. I know that we will all be resurrected and that this marriage that was sealed on Earth will continue on into the Eternities. Families are indeed forever and I am so glad to be part of this one!

The above photo has always been very dear to me. Look at the two of them! My father was one month shy of 21 years of age and my mother was not yet twenty. They look happy and Dad looked proud. (Posture! He always emphasized that, you know.) There was a war raging in Europe and the Pacific. Pearl Harbor had rocked their world only six months earlier. Through all of the uncertainty of the future they found each other and fell deeply in love. Their faith and the promise of Forever would carry them both through the next few trying years.

Does Mom look a bit wilted here? It was June in Arizona!

 The temple only had evaporative coolers then. Wow! Bless them all!

In this photo are my parents up front, behind them from left to right are middle row- Lora Ellsworth Hunsaker, Annie Dean Ellworth (Dad's mother), Ida Lee Hamblin (Mom's mother), back row- Naomi Ellsworth Harris, Roy Elmo Harris, George Franklin Ellsworth Jr. (Dad's father), & Alta Ellsworth Standage (Dad's aunt).  This must have been a very tender day for my Granny Hamblin. She had lost her sweetheart only 6 1/2 months earlier. How comforting the Gospel of Jesus Christ must have been to her on that day.

Aren't they a darling couple? Here they are a few months into married life. My mother has shared her memories of that day. This grapefruit tree, the sight of many family pictures, is where they stood that evening to greet their guests at the reception. It was in the front yard of the Ellsworth's home on North Hobson Street in Mesa. The property is still there but sadly the lovely bungalow home is not. For many years the old grapefruit tree stood in front of the apartments that stand there now,  just north of Pioneer Park. Is it still there? Mom recalls that Dad's sisters provided the music that night. She will have to remind me whether it was Ruth or Lora who played the piano. Dora played this violin. They also had a fun punch bowl. It was a block of ice with the "bowl" carved out of the center. It survived the heat of the night and kept that punch cold. The veil Mom wore was given to her by Dad's younger sister Naomi. She wore it on her wedding day one year earlier.

 I wanted to include this picture of Aunt Noni and Uncle Roy because it shows the veil and the Ellsworth home in the background as well. I am sure it was quite similar the night of Mom and Dad's reception; chairs borrowed from the church, flowers on the trellis, family gathered at home. It makes me long for simpler times! Do you notice someone on the front porch in a long dress? I have always wondered who that is and what they are carrying.

 

Later on that June night my parents heard a tapping at their downtown Mesa hotel window. One of Mom's sisters was calling, "Helen! Helen! Come outside! There is something I need to tell you!"

Psssh! Did they really think that the newlyweds were going to fall for the old Shivaree attempt? Not these two! It was customary for the bride and groom's friends to attempt a kidnapping and stage such antics as running the bride up and down Main Street in a wheel barrow and trying to keep the couple apart all  night long. I am glad they had the sense to stay inside that night!

I love these old family stories. I love my parents. How I wish my Dad were here today to celebrate 70 years of marriage with my Mom. I know he is with her though, just as surely as the sun rose this morning I know I will see him again and that our family will have an Eternity of love and togetherness!

Time Travel Tuesdays~

Uncle Fern. That's who I loved to visit when I was small. I also loved her husband, Aunt Smitty! It took me a lot of years to get the two straightened out, name-wise. Fern Hamblin Smith was born June 6, 1910, the 3rd oldest of my mother's 12 siblings. She and her husband Wilson Lyle Smith (Smitty) lived in Bloomfield, NM on a bluff overlooking the valley. When I was small I thought her house was on top of the world. Her children were mostly grown so when we visited on our summer trips she would shower me with attention. She had a little cast-iron stove she would let me play with, Dinah Shore paper dolls, and an original Mr. Potato Head set. This required you to provide your own potato and you pushed the face parts into it because they were on long, sharp toothpick-y plastic spears. So unsafe yet SO fun! On one visit she had no potatoes so I made Mrs. Applehead instead. I thought that was marvelous!
She had such a laugh and bright , twinkling eyes. She also had a twang-y New Mexican accent and my Dad loved to tease her about it. He would say, "Fern, how are those farty far harses doing down in the pasture?" She'd laugh and say "Oh Jarge! You quit a-teasin me!"

 This is the front of the Smith's old cabin in the La Plata mountains of southwestern Colorado. So many fun times were had there and Fern was always in the middle of it. She could whip up a meal at the wood burning stove in a flash. She was always up for a hike, or a game of cards by kerosene lamplight! That's Uncle Fern on the right, me in the middle, and my cousin Dodie (Fern's daughter) on the left. Notice the old fishing creel? This was obviously in my "learning to go down the stairs" phase.

I found these photos of Fern while scanning Mom's pictures.

I love them!

 I believe Mom told me this in downtown Farmington, NM. Love the old lettering in the store window.

Don't you love Fern's finger-waved hair? I also noticed her eye-liner and the way her eyebrows are shaped. These photos are circa. late 1920's to early 1930's. It was such a fun era for style.

 These are my mother's brothers and sisters in the late 1970's. There were 10 of them left at that time.

  They are Fern, Faye, Margaret, Klea, Blanche, Orland, Sylvia, Herman.
Front- Shirley & Helen (my Mom).

This is just how I remember Uncle Fern. She is on the far left holding the cup. She was always dressed stylishly and had big, big sunglasses. Doesn't she look a bit rascally? I miss her so much!