Six Siblings at Age Eight

 

Going through paperwork set aside to be scanned and filed, there were many programs from the grandkid's baptisms. In Dropbox, there is a folder specifically for the grandkid baptisms - although not all have programs or pictures. In current (2020s) culture, there is often a plethora of pictures, especially for little girls, in their pretty white dresses (Taylee, Jenna, Aniston and more). 

In the Westra archives ... back in the days of film cameras, there are not so many photos. In fact, scanning Dropbox, the only picture to be located of the actual baptismal attire, was Shane, in 1984. In Derek's "box", there was a prepared plaque saved, and Jen had kept her wonderful wood memento varnished with shellac. None of the baptismal programs were found (yet) ... were programs printed up in the olden days? 

So, grabbing what pictures were available (school photos, snapshots) ...

Here's a side-by-side look at the six siblings at age 8.

In the small history recap for each year, it was noted that Scott's baptism was held on January 1, 1972. New Years Day (having it on the holiday surprised me! What a way to start off the new year). Chris's baptism was on September 28, 1974. While we don't have a picture of Wendy's baptism, her certificate of baptism was scanned and saved. Her baptism was June 5, 1976 with the confirmation the next day on June 6 in Sacrament meeting (as was done in the "olden" days ... at some point it was changed to where the confirmation was done directly after the baptism). Wendy's confirmation and Shane's baby blessing were done in the same meeting. Before her baptism day, Jen recalls thinking "if I'm going to do anything bad, I should do it NOW since it will be a fresh start!" (not that Jen ever did anything wrong, right?) Chris stepped in for Dad (mission prep?) for Shane, and for Derek. 

See a couple other comparison collages for the Westra six ...

New Year's Babies - Six Siblings

Graduations at a Glance - Six Siblings

Christmas Letter ~ 1989

Retyped for easier reading ... photos from the 1989 Dropbox folder

Hello to our family and friends! Here's short synopsis of our 1989 family happenings. 

Lamar is still working at Unisys as a computer systems analyst. He was released a couple of weeks ago after seven years as a counselor in the Bishopric. It's still been too busy to notice much difference time-wise, but I have a loooong list of things for him to do one of these days, so I hope things lighten up after Christmas. We have to get things done in the house during the winter, because the yard is his top priority from March until October! He loves working in it!

Margie is teaching the Social Relations/Compassionate Service lesson in Relief Society and trying to keep things running smoothly at home. 

Scott just turned 26 and has been graduated from BYU for two years now. He has spent these two years working as an accountant for the Arthur Young Company (now Ernst and Young). He took the CPA exam in November, but won't hear until February if he passed all or part of it. He is serving as Elder's Quorum President in the Young Adult Ward of our Stake.

Chris returned home from his mission to Columbus, Ohio, on October 6. He had a wonderful, successful mission and loved it. He is how 23 and started at BYU on the Fall block schedule. He is just starting his senior year in Psychology. He still loves physical fitness and running and mountains and nature. He loves life and people and it very active in his student ward and in dating (making up for the past two years!) He is working as a psychiatric technician at the Utah Valley Medical Center and enjoys that also.

Wendy is 21 and is currently serving a mission in Atlanta, Georgia, teaching the deaf (American Sign Language). She has been serving 5 1/2 months now. Her address is: 3863 Memorial Dr. #305; Decatur, Georgia.

Jeni, 19, is a Freshman at Snow College, where she received academic and Honors Dept. scholarships to cover tuition, books and room and board (which saves her and us a bundle!) She is enjoying singing with the L.D. Singers and will be in the musical The Sound of Music in a couple of months. 

Shane is 13 1/2 and is in the 8th grade. He is doing well also. He has a pet hamster named Bartholomew.

Derek is a cute, toothless 7 year old and is in the 2nd grade. He is fun -- and noisy-- to have around.

We hope you are all healthy and happy and have a wonderful Christmas and a terrific New Year in 1990!

The Westras 

(this will be backdated to December 1989)

"Used To You Already" ... Mission Return

Chris left on his mission in October of 1987. Derek would have five years old. So two years later, comparison pictures of Chris and  Derek. Mom remembers as they picked Chris up from the airport and were traveling home in the car, Derek commented  "You've only been home a few minutes and I'm used to you already!"

Related Posts ...

• If you ever find a picture or event and wonder when it happened (a birth, leaving for a mission, new house, etc), remember there is a great Westra Timeline that lists all these events in order! It's also in the family dropbox. Good information!
• For more funny sayings, check out the Cute Quotes page (Derek's cute quote above as been added there!)
• Check out the labels (Missionary, Chris, Derek) for similar topics!

 

Jen - School Snapshot

 

Ah, school picture day. Sometimes they turned out, sometimes they didn't. Class pictures now feature just the faces of the other kids, their school pictures (you can check out the collages and elementary classes of  Callahan and Keaton) but it includes their names too, which is good for remembering in future years. In the olden days, it was actually a group photo, and sometimes they'd take it more than once to try and catch people who might have been absent. So the group photo wasn't always the same day as "picture day" ... here, the 2nd and 5th and 6th grades the individual photo and class photo happened on the same day, but the other years based on the different clothes/hair, the group shot was a different day. 

Preschool with Pauline Hogsen

Elementary Years at Woodstock

Jen had the same teacher as she entered and exited elementary ... Mrs. Diamond taught Kindergarten in 1976 and for several years after, but was moved to 6th grade in 1983. Jen has fond memories of all her elementary teachers, although she had been nervous about Mrs. Bullock (3rd grade). She would make you write "I have never ________" (whatever you did wrong) 100 times! So Jen just didn't do anything wrong *Ü*  Chris and Wendy had her as well ... I believe it was her class that introduced the family to the book "Sonny Elephant" which was a favorite, and which Mom/Margie picked up at a school sale many years later. 4th grade was a "split" class, and the teacher (Mrs. Bjarnson would end up being in Jen's ward years later after Jen was married). 5th grade was in the "Pod" ... a big open area with two classes in it. We saw the obituary for Principal DeGraw in July 2020, age 87. 

How many class pictures can we round up from the other Westra siblings?

There are a few in the school folder on Dropbox.

See the School Daze post for all the Westra siblings school pictures, glimpses of the schools; Woodstock, Bonneville Jr and Cottonwood High School and Remembering Woodstock ... as the elementary school was torn down and rebuilt in 2011.  Check out Dad/Lamar's elementary memories!

Graduation 1989 - Jen

You'd think in the 50+ years since my grandmother graduated from high school, and the 28 years since Mom/Margie did, that there would be more than ONE PHOTO to showcase for a high school graduation.  There is actually one additional one in Dropbox, but my eyes are closed. Ah, back in the days of film cameras, when pictures were limited and you didn't know what they looked like until you had them developed. 

I can actually envision another set of photos ... me and lots of different friends. I think it was graduation (it was afterward, no cap and gown), or possibly seminary graduation, but I haven't been able to locate the pictures. They are just a blurry memory in my mind.  Maybe they'll turn up at some point and I can update this post.

I don't know that we did the official graduation announcements. I recall not really even wanting to go to graduation. I dislike ceremony. But of course I went. I was in the program, singing with the Acapella and Madrigal choirs.

Because Cottonwood has one of the largest auditoriums in the state, our commencement was held at the high school, on the same stage I'd performed on many times. I didn't keep a copy of the program myself, but it was shared in a Facebook group in future years. 30+ years later, all the names are still familiar, and I remember both songs the choirs sang.

I had my high school diploma in storage ...

It is interesting to compare it to Grandma Zada's high school diploma. 50+ years, and the same font is used. Different schools, but the look is so similar! Here they are side-by-side ...

 

Zada's Graduation ~ 1936

Graduations 2021

... a couple years later, there would be a graduation with an associates degree from Snow College. No program saved, even though I was on it (said the opening prayer at the baccalaureate service). I remember Wendy came down. Couldn't find any pictures (1991 is VERY sparse in Dropbox). After Snow was BYU. I did graduate (off-season, after Summer semester) ... I didn't participate in any ceremony (no cap and gown) and I'm not sure if I ever picked up my actual physical diploma. 

I managed to graduate from college without any debt. 

Thanks scholarships!

Wonders of the World - Reflection Art

In a recent post, the annual PTA Reflections contest was addressed. There was a recap of ALL the themes from the past years, and a showcase of some of the music entries (several from Jen back in the day, and more recently with Jenna and Janika).  See that post HERE. Jen's final entry her junior year was for the theme "Wonders of the World" ... 

Just uncovered, were entries for this same year (1987-88) from Shane and Derek. Both were at Woodstock elementary. Shane was in 6th grade, Derek in Kindergarten. Shane's art entry is shown above ... rainbows, mountains, sunrises, roses, butterflies (check out the Blackham Monarch Memories).  Shane would continue to hone his artistic talent, as well as his academic scholarship, and become Sterling Scholar for Visual Arts during his senior year. 

Derek's entry was also a collage of a variety of "wonders"  ... like Shane, a rainbow made his list, along with rockets, racecars and ... my family. Ahhhh sweet! 

... included here are snapshots of the backs, with the entry form info Interesting to see the handwriting, changes in signatures (for the kids ... the folks signatures stay the same), etc. Mom/Margie was the parent signing for Shane, while Dad/Lamar put his John Hancock down on Derek's. 

Check out Jen's song "Music - The Greatest Wonder in the World"

Postcards and Lessons from LA

(this will be backdated to January 1988)

It's a little hard to read the postmark, but it's there ... January 12, 1988. Chris was on his mission, Wendy was off to college, Jen was a Junior at Cottonwood, Shane and Derek were at Woodstock, in 6th grade and Kindergarten. Apparently, there had just been a snow storm in SLC ... but Scott was in sunny Los Angeles.

Scott had just started working at Arthur Young. This was before the company joined with Ernst & Whinney in 1989, becoming Ernst&Young. It was Scott's first training trip. He stayed at the airport Sheraton. He was gone long enough to write a postcard home (back in the olden days before email or texting, when phone calls were long distance). The holes punched in the postcard obscure the cost of the stamp ... it was 20¢, with first class mail being 22¢.

In his postcard, Scott mentions that he's met a lot of nice people and learned a lot, but not enough ... when this postcard popped up, so did some memories that Scott shared...

One night I went out to dinner with Jeff Ockey, who started at AY the same day I did. We got a recommendation from the concierge – a seafood restaurant on a pier. The bellman called a cab and told him where to take us. When we got out, the cab driver gave us a card for the cab company so we could call for a pickup. We had a great dinner and watched the big ships coming and going. And had a great view of the sun setting over the Pacific. After dinner we decided to walk off some of our calories. We followed a nice paved trail along the beach, watching all of the people enjoying the evening. We went fairly far and noticed in the distance the blue and purple sign for Baskin Robbins. Ice cream sounded good so we found our way there, walking through some piers and docks. After we finished our ice cream, we asked for directions to a pay phone so we could call a cab. The nearest was about a mile away at a 7-11 that turned out to be in a sketchy area. We found our way and I put in a quarter and dialed the number from the card. The dispatch asked where we were and I had no idea. She said: “Call back when you know where you are.” After asking several people, we were able to find the address (hint – it is always in the center of the rotary dial of a pay phone if you ever see one) and got a cab ride back to the hotel.

 

Another night, we decided to see a Lakers game at the Forum in Englewood. The Lakers were in their heyday with Pat Riley as the coach and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson playing. We got a cab ride out to the Forum which sat in a sea of parking and was in a pretty rough neighborhood. We watched a great game (Lakers won). After the game, we took a restroom break before the long ride back. I was amazed at how fast that big building vacated. We walked around until we found a pay phone and called the cab company who said they would send someone right out. We waited and waited and no cab came. After about 30 minutes, the Forum was all but empty. A custodian – young guy, Asian descent, severe limp, had been watching us and finally came over and said “Why you guys still here?” We told him we were waiting for a cab. He said that no cab would come out to the Forum this late and asked where we were from. We told him we were from Utah and he asked if we were Mormons. We said yes. He thought it was hilarious that “Mooormons from Youtah” were waiting for a cab at the Forum. His language was much more colorful than I choose to transcribe. He ordered us to sit on a bench. We sat. After about 10 minutes he told us to follow him. Hew went to a custodial closet and hung up his vest and grabbed another jacket and said: “Where you need to go?” We told him the Airport Sheraton. He said:”[expletives deleted] That is the opposite direction of where I live!” And then: “Follow me”.  We went out of the Forum into what was a pretty cold night. The doors locked behind us. We followed him across the huge parking lot to a very dark corner. There was a hole in the chain link fence which he held open for us. We walked down into an empty cement canal and went about 50 yards and then up the other side. There was a very dilapidated neighborhood that looked like the government housing projects I had seen on my mission. There were fires burning in metal barrels with people milling about. Our guide made a point of telling everyone about the “Moormons from Youtah” waiting for a cab at the Forum. Everyone thought it was very funny. We finally get to what I thought was an abandoned car. He ordered us in. It was filthy and full of garbage and smelled like an ash tray. He cranked the engine which barely responded. I prayed for that car to start. It finally turned over. The windows wouldn’t roll up so it was cold when we finally drove away from the neighborhood. He drove like he was going to a fire – weaving in and out of traffic. It was about an hour to our hotel (2 hours out of his way). He finally pulls up to the big, formal entry of the hotel, to the shock of the bell staff. We thanked him and tried to pay him $50, about what the cab fare had been on the way out. He refused to accept any payment, wished us well and zoomed away into the night.

 

I have often pondered on these experiences and the many lessons they provided.  It is important to now where you are at all times. Don’t judge people by their appearance. Many others.

 Here's Scott business card after the Ernst&Young merger ...