Happy Halloween! If you see a witch, don’t worry. It is just Myrna.
Poor little Mary hates to go shopping. She is being traumatized by the store displays in Nephi (and elsewhere). There is the ghoul display (the ghoul is carrying an extra head) at “Family Dollar” and the singing skeleton at the grocery store in Ephraim. She keeps asking us if it is OK and talks about it constantly. Also, I knocked on her door late one afternoon and scared the wits out of her because she was certain I was a monster. I hope the rest of my grandkids are looking forward to costumes and candy and are not traumatized.
I always wanted to stay home on Halloween because it was a lot more fun at my house than it was on the street. Grandma Smith always tried to guess who the person behind the mask really was. She also made everyone do a trick for her. They had to sing or dance or tell a joke, or something. She would say, “You said: Trick for treat.’ Here is the treat now where is the trick?” She had so much fun and the kids must have also because we used to get hundreds of kids. There went the budget. Of course, she gave good treats also, like candy bars or her wonderful big butter cookies or something BIG and good. Sometimes she even had apple cider or a drink to go along with what she put in the bag.
Halloween means Christmas is just around the corner. The stores have forgotten about Thanksgiving. I found a couple of turkey decorations and that is all. When you get to be my age, the days just slip by. Everything goes so quickly that it seems that there is just time to put away the Christmas decorations before it is time to get them back out again. I am certain that Christmas was just yesterday. When I was a child, Christmas took FOREVER to get here. Garth, David and I (Richard was born when I was 11.) would start picking out things about July and then we would revise and revise. David and I had birthdays at the end of the year, but Garth got his birthday present back in March. Either way we took time to consider carefully just what we would ask Santa to bring. Now I just buy what I want (ha, ha) when I want it. (Now you all know that was a joke, right?) I still have my secret wish list. For example, there was this. . . never mind. (If I told, you kids would get it for me and then I would feel dumb). I’ll probably ask for new socks or underwear, just the things I hated to get when I was a kid. Now that I am OLD they are OK.
I just wanted to add this bit: “I. . .saw the reference to the lion's cage at the LA Zoo, no doubt. My son did something similar at Sea World in San Diego when he decided to climb to the top of the shark tank so he could look down inside from there..... He was about 10 and his dad & I had gone into a 'dancing waters' show & didn't know about it until he had already climbed up! Boys!!!! Gotta run, more later, Toni” (Betty’s daughter)
We had a great time at Disneyland. AnnMarie and Dad (LHT) rode everything scary. I am getting better. I did quite a lot of things with Dad, Ams, Brandon and the older kids and quite a lot of things with the younger kids because I still like climbing the Tarzan tree and going to the Tom Sawyer island. Alyssa is like me; she isn’t really crazy about wild rides. Rachel had fun just walking around the island and liked everything except the swinging bridge because some OLD nerdy guys made it shake while she was trying to walk and she is not that steady yet. Anyway, the pills I take for my stomach have made it so that the drops of some of the rides do not make me want to throw up anymore.
That’s a plus. . I used to wonder why Dad wanted me to pay someone to make me sick. I don’t mind being high if I am in something but I used to hate having that falling feeling. I still don’t like standing on edges of things and lookingmdown. I wasn’t born to be a high-wire
artist.
We stopped to see the St. George Trauntveins on our way back. (It was too late when we were headed down because we waited for school to be out for UEA so we could leave. They did have an early day but we still drove way late.) The Howards got to see the great place that David and family are living. They were impressed with how nice it is and how big. It is a good place for the kids and the family. Barbara was cooking chicken that smelled wonderful and we were invited to eat but had been eating the food we brought so we were full. Plus we had Burger King for lunch.
The trip into Nephi was horrible. My boss, Allan, said he knew about how horrible it could be so he got off at Mills. We didn’t. We crawled home. The freeway construction just east of Nephi had everyone at almost a stop. There were signs that warned that fines doubled for speeding. AnnMarie said that they should warn that fines doubled for parking. As a result, we got to Nephi about 11 p.m. and the Howards still had to get home. We had Matthew and Megan with us so we just put them in their car and they left. They went the Mona way because getting back on the freeway was a joke.
David was a big help to Jim working on his warehouse, barn or whatever we are currently calling it. Thanks to him, Dad and Jim’s Dad, Phil, who also came to help (at a different time), the warehouse can now be used for extracting though it is still not all the way insulated. There have still been some problems. Even working to get it done so quickly, still put the bees behind schedule and some of the honey has started to crystallize in the hives. It cannot be melted out of the hive without ruining all the honeycomb which is needed for the next year. So
some of the hives will just winter with the honey inside. Nevertheless, all the hard work has made it so that the place will be useful for years to come. Jim and Julie have now put their trailer on the lot and the family can be together more. They will stay there for four days or so at a stretch. The guys worked to put up insulation, build a heat-room (so the honey will come out), and to install two boilers and an extractor. Greg Newton decided to sell Jim his used equipment so that helped.
Dad has almost got his shed finished. (Now there is the little item of the downstairs bathroom that still needs to be finished.) Thanks to all the help from family, Dad’s shed is almost done—it just needs one gable and the doors. Shawn and boys came down and worked one day and Jim came and helped. Dad and I worked some and we roped Julie in for part of the job. Dad tried, once again, to smash me. He dropped a 2X4 on my finger. My pointer finger has been so bruised that I don’t shake hands. But, with the help of a lot of tape and padding, I have been able to type. When the doors are done, we can actually use the place. Dad is going to do like my Dad and put shelves up and hang things around the edges. We are supposed to put the Christmas tree there. We have had the fun of having some of the grandkids come to visit. We always like having them here. After all those years of noise and confusion, the poor old house makes noises if it is not full. (Maybe it is just the two old nuts rattling around inside.) So it is nice to have kids here. We got to see Donovin for a short visit and Shawn’s boys.
Remember to vote! Grandmother Smith, who was something of a Suffragette and stood for women’s rights, valued the right to vote and never missed a presidential (or other) election after she could vote. American women have had the right to vote since 1920. (Wyoming Territory in 1869, Utah Territory in 1870, and the states of Colorado in 1893 and Idaho in 1896 granted women the vote but the Eastern states resisted. Utah had actually allowed women to vote since settlement but did not make it a law until 1870.) Remember that Grandma Smith was born in 1894. My Dad was also proud to vote. After all, he fought to preserve that right and to preserve the free world. Grandma Edna was also proud of the right to vote and served as election judge many years. I too am proud of the right to vote. I encourage you all to be.
