Chris's Clark Start

 This will be backdated to 1972

Mom shared some memories of when the family first moved to Utah in 1972 ...

Chris was just turned 6 and in Mrs. Clark's 1st grade. Her husband had Meniere's Disease really bad and couldn't work, so she started teaching school.

I considered having Chris repeat Kindergarten, since he was small and young for his grade.  Also, they hadn't taught reading in kindergarten in Richland.  But still having 3 little ones at home most of the time would be hard, so I went ahead and sent him.  Having lunch at school was scary for him at first, so Mrs. Clark let him eat with her in the classroom.  He started out very behind in reading, but was so smart, he ended up being the best reader in his class and the principal awarded him a big yellow book about cars, trains, airplanes, etc.  Mrs. Clark would reward the kids with a small paperback book every time they read 20 books.  Chris is very competitive and that really motivated him in reading.  That is where I got the idea of the reading charts and reward after 20 kid books or 10 chapter books I have made for some of your kids.

Looking through the saved stuff, there were quite a few reading certificates and awards for Chris for the years to come. Looks like Mrs. Clark's jumpstart had lasting effects! Thanks Mrs. Clark!

Wish we had a written booklist like we do for Shane at age 11. 

Chris did comment that "A Wrinkle in Time" and its sequels were favorites.

Little White Dress

The little white dress ... it was old, passed down through generations. Of course the Westra girls don't remember trying on the dress, but they were familiar with the pictures and some of the story behind it. It was over a hundred years old... 116 years old when Wendy wore it, 118 when Jenny tried it on.

Both of the pictures above were taken at Grandma Lucille's home (Wendy in the back yard, Jenny on the driveway). The dress was originally Lucille's grandmother Laura's when she was a little girl. Born in 1853, Laura likely wore the dress in 1854 when she was a toddler. I checked out family search to see if there were any pictures of Laura,  Olive (Lucille's mother) or Lucille in the dress, but couldn't see any. 

But there is a picture of Dad/Lamar's sister Sharon in it when she was a year old.

... and a picture of Sharon's daughter Alyson when she was a year old.

Fun to see a little piece of history worn by different family members!

Early Poems from Scotty

If you check out the POETRY label here on the blog, there are several sonnets penned by Scotty.  There are several inventive invitations to the annual Father's Day (Father's Dad 2020), a couple Covid-inspired creations (Covid 2020, Covid Free World) and more, including the MOLES one shown below.

Scott shared this September 17, 2019 after Dad/Lamar went in for a skin check.

 (See the email correspondence on the WriteOn blog). 

Going through "the boxes" of saved stuff the parents have collected over the years, some of the earliest known poems written by Scott Edward Westra were discovered. Featured above, there was a complete booklet, mimeographed and stapled together, showcasing an entire classroom's odes to WIND. This was compiled in March,  when the wind blows in (like a lion or a lamb, depending on the year). The year this was written was 1972. At this time, the Westra family was still residing in Washington, although the move to Utah would come later that year (in August). Scotty would have been in the second grade, and his poem is there in the center (retyped below as well).

Wind

Wind whistling by

Bends the trees

Runs across the grass

Flies my kite up high

Sings a song to me

Wind

When Mom/Margie was looking through things, she  found a journal entry about little Scotty from 1970. He would have been in 1st grade at the new Sacajawea II school. His teacher, Mrs. McIntyre had noted how good he was at poetry and art, at just 6 or 7 years old. His teacher typed up his poems, with his drawings, bound them into a book and put it into the school library!

... there was another paper with a poem saved in the box, a rhyming dedication to the folks.

(Mom's notation ~ Scott age 9)

How sweet! No wonder this was saved for over 50 years!

Check out Little Lamar's poem for his mother!

Hello Dolly

Going through Scott's baby book, there was a newspaper article about a "Doll Contest" that apparently Scott and Chris had entered, and received ribbons (and a mention in the newspaper) for. Mom didn't have much of a memory in 2020 to explain or add when asked about it, and then this picture surfaced as Chris was scanning a box of old photos and documents.  Mom's note on the back of the photo ...

 It would be interesting to have a little more details about this doll contest and to get a better look at the dolls in the pictures. Chris's small doll is so small, I can't really even see it! Who knew Scott was so handy at making dolls?

Here's the clipping from the paper ...

It was August 1971, the Richland Recreation Department's Doll Show. Categories were Most Unique, Best Dressed, Best Homemade, Best Foreign, Prettiest, Largest Collection, Oldest, Smallest, and Largest. 

I wonder what happened to these award-winning dolls?

Baby Jenny ~ Art by Scott

This will be backdated to November 1970 

Early artwork of Mr. Scott Edward Westra ... pencil sketch drawn when he was just 6½ years old. The muse? A new baby sister. According to this detailed sketch, Baby Jenny was quite the crier, with tears streaming down her face. Look at those tiny toes. 

This paper masterpiece was found preserved in the baby book for Scott Westra.

Check out photos and a history of Baby Jenny,

... and other instances of ART by the wonderful Westras!

Also of note ... the BACK of the artwork. Dad/Lamar worked at Unisys, a tech company. Always thrifty, he would bring home piles of this used paper for the kids to draw and color upon. Much of the early artwork from the Westra Siblings had this unique canvas ... rows and rows of numbers, with the holes on the sides. Endless pages of paper, perforated end to end, but still together, until torn for individual use.

Jenny Joins the Family

Just an interesting note ... here on Google's Blogspot, posts can be backdated, but the furthest back you can go is ... (drumroll please) 1970! Will I backdate this all the way to 1970? We shall see :) 1970 is when all the important stuff really started! The birth of Jennifer Lynn Westra.

Jenny was about 8 days late, so my parents went ahead and came to Richland, thinking surely she would be born any day. It was almost time for them to go back home before she was finally born. It was the middle of the night when we went to the hospital, so we didn't even wake my parents to tell them we were leaving, and they would be there to tend our 3 kids. Back then, new mothers stayed in the hospital a little longer. 2 or 3 nights? But since my parents had to leave and I wanted them to be able to hold her lots, I came home early, after maybe 1 night. So this was my hardest birth emotionally afterwards, coming home to 3 little kids, plus the baby. My parents left in about one day. And I really didn't get the help I needed being away from family and all. I don't think either Dad nor I really knew what to expect in the way of needing help after having babies. So he would come home from work and go out in the yard to work til dark. Born Tuesday at 2:35 am (the other three had all been born on a Monday). I have already written about Kadlec Methodist Hospital. 3 to a room. Get out and crank up your own bed. A young girl smoker in the middle bed--another reason to go home early. 6 lbs. 10 oz. 20 inches.

Information from the baby book ... 

• Room 413B
• Dr. Robert E. Chase (Dr. Gard also listed)
• Looks like - Mom/Chris
• Eyes - Blue, Hair - Light Brown
• First Smile - 4 weeks
• Slept through the night at five weeks.
• Crawled at six months
• Walked at 11 months

Scotty's Sacajawea School

 This will be backdated to 1970

It's always fun when you make the news! Proud parents clip out the articles and fold them to be set aside and preserved. Such was the case when the Sacajawea School in Richland Washington was featured in the Tri-City Herald on Thursday, September 24, 1970. This was young Scotty's school. You can see that Mom/Margie added some personalized notes to the newspaper clipping, pointing out Scott, his teacher, and the "3 team-teaching cluster" of grades 1-3.  In Dropbox, the picture of the paper is in the Newspaper/Documents folder, and it can be enlarged quite a bit to see the details if desired. 

Here's a close-up if you wanted to read the actual article ...

Interesting to note, that if a child is mentioned in the article, in addition to their name, their home address is listed. This was similar to birth announcements in the newspaper ... in the future, this would be unheard of due to safety and privacy concerns!

Here's a note to little Scotty before school started ...

... a little worse for wear over 50+ years. A few smudges and stains. The "Primary Green" section. School starts at 9:00 and ends at 2:45 - with a full hour for lunch, but encouraged to "eat at home" the first week before lunch is officially served at school?

Here's the end of year report for Scott's 1st grade year ...

Here's some of Mom/Margie's memories ...

I remember Scott went to Spalding Elementary first for kindergarten and was bussed. It was further away. There was also a Sacajawea Elementary school. Then they built a new Sacajawea school quite close to our old house in Richland and also to our new house in Richland. Then Scott went there. And Chris went to Kindergarten there. as I remember, both Sacajawea schools were in operation one year, so they called them Sacajawea 1 and Sacajawea 2.

The budget was so tight at the new school, parents were encouraged to donate computer paper that was used on one side but blank on the other side, so they could reuse it. And we had to furnish pencils, markers, etc. (which is the norm now, but I think it was new then--that the schools used to furnish those things-----if my memory is correct).

Then Scott was entering third grade when we moved back to Utah in Aug. 1972. We lived at my folks for a bit until our furniture arrived and I had to drive the boys to school at Woodstock. I remember the first day of school, I couldn't find a parking place and was nervous, but Scott said, "Just drop us off and I will find Chris's 1st grade class and take him there. They had a list by the door of each class of the students in that class. I will pick him up at his class after school and you can pick us up at the flagpole."

I had debated about having Chris repeat kindergarten at Woodstock. He was so little for his age and just going to turn 6---making the Sept. 10 deadline by 5 days. I thought there wouldn't be any stigma about him repeating because it was in a different state, so few would know. And in Washington, they didn't teach reading in kindergarten, but just "reading readiness." But in Utah, they did teach reading, so he would start behind the other students. But I really didn't want another year of 3 pre-schoolers at home, so went ahead and put him in 1st grade!

That year Chris went from the slowest reader to the best reader in the class by the end of the school year. The principal awarded him a big book (about cars, planes, and automobiles, as I remember). Chris was scared and overwhelmed to go to school lunch. So his teacher Mrs. Clark would help him pick up his lunch tray and take it back to their classroom and eat lunch with her. After while, he was able to handle the lunch room. Mrs. Clark's husband had Meniere's disease really bad and so she had to get her teaching degree and go to work to support their family.

She did the individual reading charts where parents wrote when titles of 20 books as their child read them and then rewarded them with a little storybook for each 20 books read. That's what I copied with the grandkids. Chris was always competitive and I credit these reading charts with him reaching the best reader award! I think maybe Mrs. Clark moved to 2nd grade and had him two years, if I remember correctly.

Scott had Mrs. Silver for 3rd grade. I think all of the other kids had Mrs. Bullock for 4th (old and not that great or fun!).

Jen correction ... Mrs. Bullock taught 3rd grade. If you did something bad, you'd have to write up "I will never _____________" 100 times. I never had to do that though ... I was an angel. My main memories of Mrs. Bullock was her introduction of two of my favorite books, "Baby Island" and "Sonny Elephant" during reading time. My fondness for those two book overshadows all else, so my memories of Mrs. Bullock are good.

... and just for fun, back to the newspaper shared at the start. You've seen one side, featuring the photos and article. What's on the back? Ads ... which are always interesting, as prices and commodities change with the times. Portable radio anyone? A black and white TV? Typewriter stand? Wig care or a diet scale ... your local Pay 'n Save is the place to shop!