Christmas 1992

In 1992, Amy and Grayson are officially in the Westra clan (with weddings earlier in the year). There was a new baby too ... baby Conner! There is just over seven minutes of video footage (no photos were found), and there is audio. It's all from Christmas Eve, with the extended family over (Grandparents Norman and Merrill's family). Shane is actually the one behind the video camera at the start, then Jen takes a quick turn, then Dad/Lamar.

https://youtu.be/Ep0u4WzXfIM

Most of the Grandkid Generation are very familiar with the "candy bar game" as a classic Christmas activity... and based on this video, we now know the tradition goes back at least to 1992!

While Christmas EVE was always held at the Westra home, it was often followed by a Christmas (or New Years) celebration up in the avenues at Merrill and Lorrie's home. Homemade scones were a memory from these get-togethers. The downstairs kitchen, the big table in the side room with the big tortoise shell hanging on the wall. 

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https://youtu.be/2RQaIQAXhwQ

Merry Christmas Memories!

Christmas 1991 - Video from the Hermitage House

It's Christmas! The folks had an old VHS camcorder and Dad/Lamar would pull it out from time to time ... that included holidays of course. There was a tape labeled "Christmas" and it has video from several Westra Christmases, starting in 1991.

In 1991, we were in the Hermitage House. The furniture set up isn't one I remember much (usually it was the stereo or piano there on the west side). There is a fire in the rock-lava fireplace, the stockings and other traditional Christmas decor. We'll have to check Dad's records as to where the Christmas tree came from (most were cut down from the yard).

Even though this video clip was on the VHS tape, there is no original audio, but a music track overlay (which I didn't do, or don't remember doing). All future video clips have the original audio, unlike the older ones, which never did (Old Fashioned Film and Video - Westra Classic Home Movies). 

https://youtu.be/05PcbBUfNbg

As far as family ... The Norman grandparents are there, as well as Merrill and Lorrie and their kids. Chris was the only Westra sibling married at this time, but both Scott and Jen had their significant others there (Amy and Grayson respectively). Dad/Lamar filming, we get a look around at the Christmas Eve party, and then of Christmas morning (with the traditional youngest to oldest line up down the hallway). 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Letter ~ 1991

 Christmas letter from the Westras ~ the fancy border was added for this blog post, and it was combined into one image from the original two pages. The typography indicates this was printed using the old dot-matrix printer. We were happy to find some of these Christmas letters (in 2020) and to remember the highlights from years gone past.  To enlarge, click on the link for the GoogleDoc and press the +. 

To Mom ... From Shane

 In the "scan and box" pile, there was a little piece of paper money. Quite a piece of workmanship. It is a "Mother's Day Reserve Note" ... this note is legal tender for all mothers, public and private. Drawn on the Shane Westra treasury of money, by Shane, the secretary of the treasury for the United Westra Household ... this bill is good for three work hours. THREE ... being displayed numerous times, in a variety of ways. This was the 1991 series, which would have Shane in his sophomore year. 

I wonder if Mom/Margie ever collected (I'm sure Shane has done more than three hours of work, but I wonder if the bill was ever exchanged for it ...)

2HAN3 I2 C00I ... Shane is Cool

Also included in the "scan and box" pile, was a handwritten note, on (now) aged lined paper. From Shane, to Mom. No date, so we don't know if it was something that went along with the bill above, or was from a different time/season. 

 Transcribed ...

Mom ... I always like it when you're there. If I come home from school or a different place, you'll be there. Even if you're not there right at that time, I can trust that you'll be back. I remember when I got knocked out on Chris' ice patch on the patio. I woke up in your arms. I still remember it and will for a long time. You always put up sayings around the house. I think it helps a lot to be a better person. I always read them. I love it when you make pancakes and eggs and Hillshire sausage and we all sit down and eat till we're stuffed. Love Shane

Jen - LDSingers/Snow

Wendy had gone to Snow College and had such a good experience, especially enjoying the singing group LDSingers. That was a big part in the decision of where I went to school (that, and the full tuition + fees/books + housing scholarship swayed me toward Snow). I made it into the singing group and that helped a lot socially, having that group of friends (as I hadn't really known anyone at the college going in). There were four marriages from this year (just for my own memory, John/JanelleWilmore, Dale/JanelleThompson, Ruel/TresaHaymond, Mike/JenniferFrishknect). I dated a couple of the guys myself  (going from tenor to bass).  

1989 - Christmas (Part1)     1989- Christmas (Part 2)

• at minute 12:00 there's a quartet of Mr. Santa
• just past 22:00 there's a quartet of "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas"

Just a little easier to find me than when it's everyone! LDSingers would put on a Christmas concert, then a Spring concert, and do a spring tour.

Spring 1990 - Part 1

• at 10:30 it's "Telephone Hour" from Bye Bye Birdie

Spring 1990 - Part 2

• 2:00 "Golden Age of Rock&Roll"

My second year at Snow, I was again in the LDSingers group. As some of the guys had been in the group, gone on a mission, and then come back to Snow, there was a bit of an overlap between Wendy and I. Some fellows she knew from her time there from before their missions, I knew after they had returned. The director Brother Wilmore was there all through the years of course!

Having made friends last year, and getting an opportunity to live in a rental house owned by my Psychology professor, I was able to have several of the girls in LDs as roommates. Cindy, Lilly and I had been in LDs together last year, and Jaynee and Chris were new this year. There were three weddings that came out of this year (my roommate Jaynee and the boy next door Kevin were one, Jeff/JoyceGuymon, James/JennyWillmore). 

Christmas - 1991 (Part1)   Christmas - 1991 (Part2)

• 26:00 "Fruitcake"

Brother Willmore had uploaded all the videoed concerts he had ... I don't see my second year Spring concert up there, but I may have a copy. I'm looking to getting an old VHS tape converted. Mom and Dad were always good at coming down to watch the performances. 

The Life Of Lucille Erskine Westra Burgener

The Westra siblings knew her as "Grandma Burgener". Our dad's mother, she had remarried after Dad's father passed away before all but Scott had been born. She continued to live in the house Dad /Lamar had grown up in, on Grandview Circle. I remember there was always an ice cream bucket full of cookies on top of the fridge at her house. Sugar cookies, frosted eggs and chicks for Easter, trees for Christmas, chocolate chip other times during the year.  Grandma Lucille not only wrote a complete history for herself, but also for her husband (Biography of Joseph Westra). Grandma Lucille's typewritten history is scanned in on Family Search, but parts are faded and a little difficult to read. Here's a link to a re-typed document in its entirety and original format. 

The Life Of Lucille Erskine Westra Burgener ~ An Autobiography

I'll try to spotlight portions of Lucille's written words in smaller segments pertaining to upcoming topics/themes here on the blog. I've included a small life summary below which is based on her autobiography ...

Claude Arthur Erskine and Olive Laura Cushing were married June 18, 1907. They bought a home located at 831 Harrison Avenue. This was where they would live out their lives, and where their children would grow up. They had six children, five girls and one boy. Lucille was third. Mildred born Nov 9, 1908 died shortly after birth. Ruth was born January 2, 1910. Lucille arrived October 25, 1911. Maxine was born September 18, 1913, then Harold Claude, born February 28, 1915, and Shirley Laura, born July 11, 1934. 

Lucille wrote about many memories from her childhood ... a fire in the fireplace, Mother playing piano, Father fishing. Taking dinner to Grandma Cushing who lived on the next block. An old coal stove in the kitchen and heated flat irons to warm the beds in winter. One closet for the family to share. No car. No washing machine. Going to Liberty Park ... swimming in the summer, skating and sledding in the winter. 

School days included Emerson Elementary, Roosevelt Jr. High and graduation from East High school in 1929. Lucille then started working at her Uncle Hurd's law firm as a stenographer. She met Joe Westra on the streetcar on the way to work and they started dating in the Spring of 1930. They were engaged the following Christmas Eve (1931). Joe went on his mission to the Southern States from June 1932-June 1934. Lucille waited, and wrote, and continued to work and save for their marriage, which happened September 5th, 1935.

Lucille and Joe had four children, two boys and two girls. Joseph Lamar (5/28/1937), Sharon (9/16/1938), Diane (3/10/1943) and Steven (6/22/1946). Lucille's niece Janice came and lived with them for the 1942-1943 school year. Lucille had a miscarriage in 1945. They moved into the Grandview Circle home in 1949.

In 1953, Lucille and Joe finally got a belated honeymoon. Partially for Joe's work (a convention in Cleveland) they saw Niagra Falls and many of the church historical sites. Lucille started working again in 1958, a secretary for Granite School District. She worked there through 1973. 

Lucille had pleurisy and bronchitis as a child, and struggled with bleeding ulcers later in life. The family was in a rollover accident in 1962 that resulted in some serious injuries. A broken foot in 1969, arthritis starting in 1973, knee replacement in 1982, bronchitis again in 1985 and a broken nose in 1986. Joe had health issues as well; a ruptured appendix in 1945, and a blood clot after the operation. Hypertension in 1957, bleeding ulcers in 1959. He had his first heart attack in 1961. He had another in 1964 and his last one in 1965. He passed away on May 24. Lucille hadn't ever learned how to drive, but she took a class and got her license in 1965 when Joe got so sick. 

Lamar went on his mission to the Netherlands (9/1957 - 3/1960). Married in 1962. Sharon got married on June 27, 1957. Diane married in 1962. Steve was drafted into the army and left December 1965, he served in the finance department in Frankfurt Germany. He married Jan in 1972. Lucille remarried in 1968. She and Victor Burgener had many happy years together. She passed away on August 29, 1990.

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