Memories from Mom

... as Mom, Chris, Wendy and Jen are emailing back and forth about photos and family history, mom will often write up memories inspired by a particular picture. Hopefully all of them will eventually make it into specific posts on those particular topics, but until them, I thought I'd copy them here for easy reference and review.

09/22/2020 I don't remember most of these pics.  I guess Chris is scanning these from an old shoebox of photos that Dad found and let him take. 

I had forgotten that Sharon and Kent and kids had visited us in Richland (Aug. 26-28, 1965).  Then Dad found two more Aug. dates for Amann's and that they had Lucille with them. So they must have been at our house on the way to and from Seattle to visit all the Westras there--  It looks like we were going to Seattle also, but then Dad mentioned car trouble, so I'm not sure if we ever made it to Seattle or not.

I had forgotten that Nelva and Arnold had visited Richland also, except for a photo of Chris in the highchair blowing out birthday candles on his cake and Karie was in the photo.

And Lucille must have come up with Vic one time after they were married, because we have a picture of Vic there.  John and Melva came to visit us one in Richland and brought a nice roast beef dinner!

And as Dad is working on his life history and going through things, he found our book of you kids by grade is here and he found a photo album of our various homes, including a photo of the rented home on Inceptor in Calif. for those few months.  And cars in the Hermitage driveway.  Scott can name all the makes and models of our cars.  I could name about every car on the road when I was a teenager.

Chris:  IC officers are the "InterChapter Officers" of Lambda Delta Sigma (Church Fraternities/Sororities at the U. of U.)  Dad was one of the IC Officers.  So that one pic is a get-together of those officers after marriage and starting their families.  We must have been in SL for a vacation when it was taken.  Dad just found the date of that get-together.  It was in Logan on June 12, 1965 and we were on our way back home to Richland.

I was attending Henager's Business College and a chapter of Lambda Delta Sigma was started there (Omicron), as part of the U. of U. organization.  As part of joining, we all had to learn the names of the IC Officers and I remember thinking that I liked the name "Westra."  Little did I know.............

I was one of the Omicron officers.  Dad and I met at a Halloween party between his Delta Chapter and our Omicron Chapter.  Different chapters would plan parties together called "congoints.)  It was the first congoint for Omicron, and 4 marriages resulted from the people meeting at that Halloween party.

I had just sent off my missionary, Chuck Dansie, the day before.  I had met Chuck and started dating him while we lived on Boxelder Street in Murray.  I was lined up as a blind date by a girl and boy that lived on Boxelder Street and were dating, and the boy worked with Chuck.  Then it turned out that my parents new home that was being built on Spring Hollow Drive was in Chuck's ward!

Pictures spur memories----you'll have to piece together my history from these, if I don't get around to writing one:-D.

Scott Addition: I believe Lucille and Vic came up around Wendy’s birth and Easter and brought us the devil rabbit.

Our rental house in California was in Westchester. The neighborhood became much rougher and dangerous after we left. It was right next to LAX and where are house was is now a runway.

On 6/7/2020 10:26 AM, Scott Westra wrote:

Totally Wendy in the Family room of the Saint street house. Fireplace was on the west wall facing the sliding glass doors on the East. I watched the moon landing on that TV in that room. Mom was ironing. I think the access to the bedrooms was down the hall you can barely see on the very left. 

From Mom: From the fireplace, to the left, was the staircase going to the basement, open wood railing on the right side of the staircase.  Large Living room to the right of the staircase, with large windows/sliding glass doors opposite the staircase.  Looking out that sliding glass doors, we could see the back of Turley's house.  Double glass, but the sand could still get through during wind storms.  I remember one terrible windstorm (60 miles per hour?), the glass in that room was bowed inward.  I wouldn't let you kids in that room because I really thought the glass was going to shatter into the room.
To the right of the fireplace, a hallway going back to the bathroom on the left of the hallway.  Then one bedroom on the left and two on the right?  I don't know if there was a Master bathroom.  Can't remember.
The kitchen was open to the Family Room, with an island and bar stools.  Behind the kitchen, was a small formal dining room, which we seldom used because it was carpeted----and you little kids were messy eaters!
There was a double carport, with wooden storage at the back of it, maybe 6' deep.  There was a covered breezeway between the carport and the house.  A sandbox behind the build-in storage unit.
Wish we had taken pictures specifically of the inside of the house.
We had a Mimosa tree in the front yard that we planted.  I saw it was still there almost 50 years later, on the photo that D & D took of the house when they went to Richland.  I should have told them to knock on Sharon Kent's door, next door, and introduce themselves.
Kents, then Kosoroks.  Roy Kent died quite a few years ago, and both of the Kosoroks.  I think Kents had 4 boys and Kosoroks, 2 or 3 boys, that you guys played with.  And the Flemings next to Turleys, on Lynwood Loop.  Mom:  Barbara Fleming, kids:  Gary, Lynne, and Darren.  Can't remember the Dad's name.
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06042020

When I (Margie) was a little girl at Arlington Elementary School in Murray, I remember at the first of each year the teacher would have each child come to the front of the class and tell about their family and what their father did for a living. I always used to say that my Dad worked at the Unemployment Office.  They probably thought......Poor child.........I hope her Dad finds a job soon.

06012020

I don't remember seeing any of these 3 photos before.

Memory/story of the blue and white sweater: Dad had a sweater like that. He can't remember if he got it in Europe someplace (he didn't go to Norway during his tour) or through his friend Jim Peterson (who went to Norway on his mission) after Dad got home. Then soon after we got married, Dad got a contact through Jim, and had a Norwegian lady copy Dad's sweater and make a matching one for me.

It hasn't fit me for many many years, so I am not sure what happened to either of them or if they are around here somewhere. Dad's probably fits well since he weighs about 15 lbs. less.

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Dad was released from his mission on March 14, 1960. He doesn't know about any special release. After Dad's mission, he toured Holland (Friesland) for about 3 weeks, visiting different cities where he didn't serve on his mission at all, seeing at least one ancestors home. Friesland is like a county. He visited it and Groningen, another county. His ancestors came from those to counties. His grandfather was born in Friesland and had traveled to Groningen, where he met his wife, who was born there. That is in Dad's grandfather's history. He did genealogy. He can't remember if he was with a missionary friend or alone.

Then Dad and 4 missionary friends from Dad's mission, Elder Whiting, Elder Allen, Elder Dalebout, and Elder Van Katwijk toured Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Belgium. Two of the friends purchased Volkswagons for their tour and brought the cars home on the ship. Dad has a picture of the 5 of them at a dinner table on the ship coming home. The ship Dad came home on was the S. S. United States. He has a picture of it loose (a Postcard) in his Missionary Journal.

April 20 to April 25 1960 Dad was on the ship coming home. It took 5 days to get from England to the U. S. Dad has photos of Europe from his tour, but isn't sure where some of the photos were taken. He knows some pics (Paris), Holland. They were on slides that Chris sent away to get digital photos made from them. It took 8 days on a Dutch ship to get to Holland when Dad went on his mission.

0601220 Email from Merrill

I can shed some light on this photo, as I once discussed it with dad. Antlers from this deer were prized by dad as one of the larges he ever shot. He saved them and passed them on to me. I can’t explain why, but I have saved them and they are in our basement in storage. I believe this picture was taken shortly after I was born and dad had returned from the military – I would guess it was taken between 1945 and 1947. He was hunting with his father and brothers when they still had access to horses to help extract deer from difficult to retrieve from locations. I think this one was taken in the mountains above Mt. Pleasant. Dad was also very complimentary of his father’s strength. He has told me that his father was extremely strong for his height. He described his father placing a heavy deer on his back and carrying it long distances to where they had left their vehicles.

05302020 Email

My dad's side of the family was big into hunting. He looks maybe young married years. I don't remember them ever using horses. I think my Mom's side of the family were hunters also?? But my dad went with the Norman side. Maybe Nelva and Merrill remember more.

I remember being up the mountain sitting in the car with Aunt Norma and her girls, while the men and boys hunted on the mountain. We would eat the giant Hershey bars. And when one of the gals needed to go to the bathroom, the others would hold up a blanket around them because you never dared go off into the trees because hunters might be there and see you or shoot you thinking you were a deer! He also hunted pheasant and ducks and geese. 

I remember they would hang the dead deer upside down from a tree at Herb and Louella's place, where they would skin in. And then have to cut it into pieces and wrap them in white butcher paper and label them to freeze the venison.

Or did they hire that part out?

With the game birds, I remember in back of our Murray house, Dad would pluck the feathers from the bird, then singe it over a fire and it smelled terrible. Since they were killed with shotguns, they would have to pick out all the beebees in the bird. Seems like a great deal of work for both the venison and the game birds!

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When it came to fishing, we went with mom's side of the family. I remember the fun times camping with cousins in the mountains. I preferred the fishing to the hunting.

That was nice that Arnold and Nikki remembered conversations with Rex about this pic being their wedding day, low key, not many there with them. Rex's parents weren't endowed yet. Hannah and Sylvanus were, but if Rex's dad dropped them off at the Manti temple, I don't know if Zada's parents were there or not. Nikki said that long staircase is no longer there, all grass on the steep hill now. Will have to research what year they took the staircase out.

Rex and Zada received their endowments, then were marred, all on April 13, 1938. It was Rex's dad's birthday. I had added Rex & Zada's marriage certificate to FT.

I wasn't sure of the day this was taken, so glad Nikki and Arnold could verify it. Nice we can all collaborate and share our knowledge and memories to made our photo and histories and memories project as accurate as possible. I'm glad Nelva could verify the little dressed up boy (on another photo) as Grandpa Herb Norman, since I wasn't sure it was him.

Rex's dad was baptized on July 15, 1972, age 78, I think, about a month before we moved here from Richland, Wash. LaMar thinks it was Merrill who baptized him. Then Herb and Louella were endowed and sealed to each other, and to all of their children, except Rowland, (who was not active in the church at that time) about a year later on Aug. 10, 1973 in the Salt Lake Temple.

LaMar is researching more on FT right now. He can see that all of Herb's siblings (except the 4 who died before age 8), except Herb and his oldest sibling, were baptized when age 8-10. He wonders if Herb was really baptized as a child also, but maybe no record and Herb couldn't remember.

Herb's parents Mons and Julia, were baptized on Oct. 6, 1886, and traveled to the U.S. from Sweden that same year. Their ship, the British King, left Liverpool on Oct. 13, 1886, 3 days after their baptism. So we don't know if they were actually baptized in Liverpool or on the way from Sweden. We had a difficult time finding their ship a few years ago, as on the ship they are listed as Mogen A. Naumon, age 27, July Naumon, age 28, and their 3 children, ages Anna, 4; Andres, 2, and infant Hanna. For some reason, little Andres is listed on the ship separate from his family. We found that in other cases while serving our mission and looking at ship records.

Regarding Grandpa Herbert LaVar Norman's baptism - from Ken

Taken from a History Bonnie compiled from an audio tape from Grandpa Norman he stated:

"I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints on July 15, 1972 by my son-in-law, Wallace E Allred. Another son-in-law, Blain M Madsen, confirmed me. We held a family reunion that day. On August 9, 1973 Mother and I went to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed. Rex & Zada, Gordon & Norman, Blain & Miriam, and Wally & Bonnie went with us and were sealed to us. Sally & Henry (L."ouella's sister and rother) were also there and were proxies for Mother's arents wile she ws sealed to them. I was ordained a High priest on August 31, 1980 by my son-in-law, Wallace E Allred."

Email from Nelva - 5/25/2020

Yes there was a kind oF barn that we used to play in. They used to refer to “up the creek” when talking about their place. They also had bee hives. Grandma Howell used to give us pieces of honeycomb to chew on. There was a cow and Grandma and they had a separator apparatus to separate the cream. When I was quite young, they had an ice box instead of a refrigerator. It had a compartment which held a large block of ice to cool the food in the lower part. They had an outhouse and bathed in a large round tin tub in the kitchen with water heated on a coal stove. They had an Apple orchard and we would climb the tree and sit there eating apples. 

Cherie Maude, our cousin, was much younger than I so she didn’t have many memories of Grandma. She was very interested in learning more about Grandpa Howell (he died exactly two months after I was born so I never knew him either) and did a lot of research and then wrote a history about him. It is posted on Family Tree. She did a good job and if you haven’t read it, you should.

Email 05/225/2020 to Jaiden and Janelle

My best friend and I were elected Song Leaders/Cheer Leaders in Jr. High. They only had 2. We would lead the school in our school song after each assembly (since I am so musically talented;-)---cough, cough!)

I was Sophomore Class Secretary. I remember we had to go around to the different classrooms and tell them why they should vote for us. These were called "whistle-stops." Back in the early days of our country, I guess the men running for President of the United States would ride on the train to different cities around the country, and crowds would come to hear them speak from the back of the train and these were called "Whistle-stops," because of the train whistles I suppose.

I was one of the girls nominated for Prom Queen, but didn't win that.Then we moved to Olympus High after my sophomore year and I went from being a big fish in a little pond to being a little fish in a big pond. There were 720 in my graduating class! 

The next year Skyline High School opened and half of Olympus kids went there. Merrill was a senior that year. Seniors got to choose whether to go to Skyline or stay at Olympus. He chose to stay in Olympus. So he went all three years there.

My business teacher dictated a letter to me that I had to take down in shorthand and then type up for her to sign. I had asked her for a letter of recommendation for a scholarship to Henager's Business School. In it, she mentioned in the letter that academically, I was number 20 out of the graduating class of 720 students. I don't know if there was more than one with a certain ranking or not. I did get a full-tuition scholarship.

The top so many of the graduating students were invited to write a graduation speech and turn it in. I don't remember if I wrote one and turned it in or not.

When I graduated from Henager's Business College, I was voted "the Secretary most likely to Succeed" by my fellow graduates.

Emails 05/23/2020

You'll notice in some pics of the 2 little boys that Gordon is taller than my Dad, though 18 months younger. Gordon married a tall woman, my Aunt Norma Norman.

They are the parents of Gary Norman, who was about 6'8" and a good basketball player for the U I think (and died in the past year). His older brother Bud is about 5'10 and has MS and is in a wheelchair, but still living. Jen knows Gary Norman's son and grandson, who played on a basketball team with Keaton?

Gordon and Norma had 4 children, Bud, just younger (or older) than Nelva. Linda Lou, who was my age, and died from kidney disease, nephritis, when she was 19, right after I got married.

Then Gary and sister Gloria (I think Gloria has MS also, but not nearly as bad as Bud. Then Gordon died about age 63 or 64 from emphysema from working at Geneva and breathing in bad stuff. Norma died not too long ago, and had gone blind a number of years before she died. Sad. I'm not sure if other family members have added info about Gary, etc. to FT. Obituaries can be added.

Yes, Norma Norman was funny! Like Janika's slight change. And Remember Don and Donna Hunsaker?

And it is good how Chris has learned how to "lighten" up a dark photo. I'm you girls probably know how to do that also.)

I think Rex was brought up with more money----definitely more than Zada's upbringing! Her mom Hannah only had an outhouse until after I was old enough to remember her getting finally getting an indoor bathroom. I remember taking a bath there in the kitchen, in a round mental tub----several of us bathing in the same water. I remember my Grandma's old coal stove and a pendulum clock that clicked loudly in the kitchen. To this day, when I hear that same clock noise anywhere, it immediately takes me back to my Grandma's kitchen. I remember the living room with the "player piano" that was fun for us kids to play on.

You can tell that Rex's family had more money, judging by the boys cute clothes and their matching little cars and horses. Those little cars are cute for being back in the early days.

My Grandma kept bees, and I was always afraid of getting stung. There was an apple orchard and a running creek behind their old house. A little creek in front of the house by the road. We would pick dandelions, keeping the long stems on them. I would take a hairpin and slit the stem from top to bottom a few places. Then dip the dandelion in the cold little ditch and the 3 or 4 skinny slits of dandelion stems would curl up. Try it sometime:-).

More of my memories for you kids to record! Merrill got the framed picture Mother had on her wall of her parents wedding photos and the best picture of the house my mom was born in and grew up in. Plus a great poem that Hannah wrote about that home. We really want that in our history project. I don't see it in FT. I think it was a gift to mom and each of her siblings. I had asked Merrill to take the frame off and scan it in---though maybe to long--legal size. Maybe he's afraid to take the frame off and not be able to put it back, or just hasn't remembered and bothered or doesn't have a scanner. They aren't too computer savvy. 

Mother had it at the care center. When Dad and Merrill went to get all her stuff after she died, Dad put it in a suitcase with her clothes, but not cushioned, and I remember the glass broke on it. I thought that would be a good time for Merrill to do it, if he replaced the glass.

Wendy, maybe you could write or talk to Nikki and have her make it happen! It is definitely a family treasure we all want a photo of. She would be the best person to handle it.

Good work, Wendy! Yes, do put Lucille's under her own name, Lucille Erskine.

I remember FT has problems handling some stuff easily, but have done so little, I can't remember what I had trouble with exactly. Size limits. And one thing I had to put in a wrong section--documents or stories---seems like one took just PDFs and one just took word. You 3 probably know more how to do it than I do. I had only done Zada's wedding certificate (with help) and added a photo once. Dad has lately done a little more, but is not an expert yet.

And when we were doing our mission, on the overland trail website, and trying to print off histories, etc., it seemed like some when I printed them off, would lose all the formating and paragraphs and just run everything together, which makes it very hard to read.

We did a lot with the Trail companies and the ships bringing saints from Europe. I know the engineers were adding little icons in the upper right or somewhere on a person's page in FT that indicated if they were on the trail, 1847-1868, when the railroad reached Utah (Golden Spike). Then people came to Utah on the railroad instead of covered wagons and handcarts. So look for those little icons. Sometimes we didn't find the icons when they should be there, so we would have them added.