The Seeds of Love are Planted

The summer following my high school graduation was very eventful. My Uncle LeGrande (my dad's younger brother) and his wife, Aunt Myrt, treated me and my sister, Georgia, to a trip to Southern California. They had recently moved there with their two small children and were anxious to show us the sights of their new city. It was my first time to see the Pacific Ocean, or any ocean for that matter, to visit the famous San Juan Capistrano where the swallows return on the same day every year (we only saw pigeons and lots of them), to drive through Hollywood and Bel Air to see the homes of the rich and famous, to see all the stars on Sunset Boulevard, and eat for the first time in a cafeteria where you walk down a line of food and choose what you want to eat. It was a wonderful vacation for me before returning home to work.

Since I would be leaving for school in the fall, my parents decided to sell our house and move to a smaller one with less property to take care of. Only Georgia and J.D. would still be at home. They purchased a small home on Dearborn St. nead Stratford Road. There was only one bedroom, a kitchen, living room, and bathroom upstairs, and two finished bedrooms in the basement. Georgia and I shared one bedroom that summer and J.D. the other. Our new house was within a short walking distance to the church, Stratford Ward, and was closer to my work at the bakery. That was nice.

It was only a few weeks after moving that I was called to teach Junior Sunday School (Primary was held on a weekday). I remembered that special teacher I had had who made books for all of us and decided to do the same for my little class. I spent a lot of time cutting and pasting and writing reminders of each lesson I taught. It was fun for me even though it only lasted the three summer months. I continued to work the whole summer, putting away most of the money to pay for housing at BYU and only buying a few new clothes. My parents waived my paying room and board, as we were expected to do once we turned eighteen and were working, because I was saving for school. I don't think my sister thought that it was fair as she was paying her monthly "dues". But she was making a lot more money than me working in an office.

The best part of the summer was when Jim came home on leave from the Air Force. He had been gone for a year for basic training and to attend electronics school. He was going to be home the whole month of August before being shipped overseas to the Philippines. I heard that he was back, and really wanted to see him. But I knew he wouldn't make the first move to see me since we hadn't dated that last year he was in school, and I hadn't even written to him as a friend the whole year that he had been gone. Soooo....being the wuss that I was, I had my sister call him. She told him that she thought I would go out with him if he would ask. I was standing right next to her the whole time she was on the phone. Well, it only took a few minutes before the phone rang, and you can guess who it was. We went out that night and two or three nights a week the whole month of August. He took me to movies, to dinner, on walks, to the top of "I" street which looked over the whole valley, and invited me to his home for dinner. He introduced me Mexican food which I had never eaten before and which I found a little too hot(spicy) for my taste. There was only one Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake, Cordova's, and we went there several times as Jim assured me that the taste of Mexican food would "grow" on me. It took quite a while before I learned to really like it....only if it wasn't too hot. During that month Jim would often send me flowers. It wasn't until later that I discovered he was also sending them to another girl, Pat, a friend I knew and really liked. It seems that he had another "friend" that worked at a florist and would give him wholesale prices on the flowers if he bought enough. I guess he was covering all his bases just in case I got flakey again.

By the end of the summer we were getting pretty serious, but being the great guy that he was and still is, he told me that since he was going to be gone for two years, and I was going to school, he didn't want me to just sit around and wait. He wanted me to date and have a good time. I reluctantly agreed, believing I would be hard pressed to find anyone with whom I could have fun when I was feeling the way was about him. But I was young and Jim was young so I thought that this might be my chance to compare and be sure of my feelings. It was really hard to say good-bye when Jim left. Two years seemed like such a long, long time. But fortunatly the time for me to leave for school was just days away, and I was excited about starting a new adventure in my life.

Last Memories of Childhood

Thinking back to the many changes and advancements in technology that have occurred in my lifetime, I stand in awe and amazement. I thought of some things that were so different at home and at school as I was growing up. And risking that you may think that I am much older than I really am (73 years young and not born in the Stone Age) I'll share a few of those things that have changed so much.

• Telephones - Growing up we had dial phones and party lines. Most of you probably have at least seen a dial phone, but I'm sure not too many have experienced a party line. A party line meant that four people shared a single phone line. If any of the the four were using the phone, none of the other three could. AND you could listen in on any conversation going on by the other parties. If you could afford the extra cost, you could opt for a 2-party line. If we got bored as kids and if a parent was not around we would pass the time listening to others on the party line. The idea of cells phones was still out there in space somewhere.
  
• Furnaces - The furnace in our first home operated on coal. Each month a truck would deliver coal and the driver would shovel it through a basement window on to a shute that carried it into a a storage bin. The furnace was not just a small metal box that we see today but a large cement fire-burning oven that took up a whole small room in the basement. (I think it was cement. It could have been heavy metal of some sort) Dad would have to shovel the coal into the furnace morning and night where it would burn and heat would rise into vents that took it to rooms in the house. Before we moved from that house Dad had a stoker installed that automatically fed the coal in to the furnace. He then only had to fill the stoker with coal once or twice a week depending on how cold it was. Our next house was heated with oil instead of coal. I can't remember what that furnace even looked like. I only remember the oil truck delivering the oil each month.
  
• Washing machines - We've already talked about that.
• Automobiles - No automatic transmissions, push-button window openers, signal lights, seat belts, sun roofs, power steering or brakes (no power anything...not even the engines seemed very powerful.) The only car we ever had while I was growing up was that little ford club coupe that Dad bought from Uncle Ken.
• School Supplies and Dress - No computers, not even calculators. We were very good at doing math in our heads and very fast at using a pencil and paper to do problems. I can still do math as fast and more accurately on paper than with a calculator. We had no ball point pens, backpacks, tape recorders or players, memory sticks, i-pods, etc. etc. Girls only wore skirts to school. No pants were allowed. Boys wore jeans or slacks and nice shirts...no T- shirts.

I'm sure there were other things if I took the time to think about it. These were just things that popped into my mind this week.

Foods I never had at home (never even heard of some of them)

• Broccoli
• Artichokes
• Jicama
• Tortillas (actually not any kind of Mexican food)
• Fresh herbs
• Nectarines
• Leeks
• Squash of any kind
• Yogurt
• Romaine lettuce (or any other kind of lettuce except Iceberg)

Foods I ate (and hated) that you probably have never tasted:

• Parsnips - my mom loved them.
  
• Clabber milk (milk that is left out to sour until it actually thickens then sprinkled with sugar.
  
• Endive - a leafy vegetable (very bitter)
  
• Asparagus (You've probably have eaten this, but I gagged on it as a child. I still hate it.)
• Kippered herring - raw herring (a fish) in a milky white sauce. My dad loved it.
• Hutzpot - Potatoes, carrots, onions, and bacon pieces all mashed up together. My dad said that the Dutch people survived on this during the World War II. I guess you could say that we survived on it, too, since it was cheap and we had it real often. I have never made it during my married life and don't plan to (unless we're starving and had nothing to eat but potatoes, carrots, and onions.
• Lots of fried rabbit - I did like this. It was our usual Sunday dinner.

So goes some of the memories of my childhood. When I graduated from high school I began a whole new phase of my life as I became and official "adult". But I still had so much to learn.

An End to Childhood

I guess I was kind of excited at beginning my final year of high school. However, there were still twinges of disappointment at being a senior in high school instead of a freshman at the University of Utah. AND, although I hated to admit it, I found myself looking to catch a glimpse of Jim on the bus or walking down the halls at school. I didn't see him at church anymore because the ward had been divided and we were now in different buildings. Then it would dawn on me that he had graduated and was now in basic training somewhere in the U.S....someplace that I didn't even know. The Korean War was waging and rather than being drafted into the army, (a draft was in place at that time) Jim had chosen to enlist in the Air Force. This meant a four-year commitment and the likelihood that he would have to give up a mission for the Church. Many young men would have to do the same because there were only a small number deferments given to men of draft age to go on missions.

I should have been excited about the possibility of getting a driver's license, but I really wasn't. Actually I was old enough a year ago at age sixteen, but I had watched my dad try to teach my older sisters to drive, and it wasn't a pretty picture. I was not too anxious to go there. Dad didn't have a whole lot of patience, and cars back then didn't have automatic transmissions or signal lights. So you had to shift gears, and use hand signals when making turns. To pass the driver's test, you also had to parallel park and park on a hill...not easy things to learn. I decided I could wait a while before learning. And besides, we only had one car which Dad drove to work, and with two other drivers waiting a chance to use it, I would probably never have a chance, anyway.

The good things which I remember that year were:

• The chance to actually be a part of that year's musical production of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". As part of the Physical Education for senior girls was modern dance. Our P.E. instructor picked six girls to dance in the show. I was one. We danced as court slaves which meant we had to darken the skin of our whole bodies with this awful theatrical paint. It was horrible trying to get it off after every performance. But since I have always loved to dance, it was worth it.
• Attending my first and only school dance with my dad. It was a special Father-Daughter dance, and I really have to give it to my dad for going with me. You see he didn't dance. But what made this night so incredible was that we won the waltz contest. The only reason why is that we were the only ones actually doing a waltz step. I taught Dad really quick what a waltz step was when they announced the contest. He was scared to death, but was a quick learner. He was one happy father when we won.
• A date with Hugh Pinnock, president of our student body. Everyone loved Hugh. He was kind, considerate, sensitive and a friend to all. He recognized that I was not one of the "popular" crowd and didn't date much (actually not at all that senior year), and although everyone knew he had a girl friend, he still asked me out to a movie at the Villa Theater. Imagine how I felt being asked out by the president of the whole school. It did wonders for my self esteem. He used to call me, "Whaanita, my leetle flower." It was not at all surprising to me that he became a general authority (a member of the seventy) years later. After seeing him at our 30th class reunion, he sent me a special letter that will always be special to me.
• Being assigned by my art teacher (yes, I was still taking an art class) to design and make the crown for the queen of the Harvest dance, and to design a letter head for the Lion's Club which they had requested. I made the crown out of orange satin to look like a pumpkin (it looked better than it sounds) and I can still picture that letter head in my mind. The Lion's Club actually used it.
• Although not school related, I had become an aunt for the first time the year before. My sister, Claire, had given birth to a little girl, Maurine, who was a doll. When Easter came that April of my senior year, I found out that Maurine didn't have a frilly Easter Dress, so I stayed up all night making her one with a matching bonnet. I can't describe how I felt to see her all dressed up in that yellow organdy dress.
• Graduating from seminary, a formal affair in one of the church buildings near the school. Yes, the girls wore long dresses and the boys wore suits. I wore the lavender dress that I wore for my sister's wedding. Besides receiving a certificate we were given a beautiful pin with tiny rubies and pearls and the letters "LDS". Attached to the pin was a tiny chain and the numbers "52", the year that I graduated. I still have my pin with a few stones and the "52" missing.
• Graduating in a white cap and gown on the football field of my alma matre, Granite High School, one of the oldest high schools in Salt Lake City. No Disneyland afterwards, only a dance that I did not attend.
  
• GETTING A SCHOLARSHIP TO BYU!!!
  

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Life Is Full of Joys and Disappointments

It was in my junior year that a new program was introduced at Granite High School. Known as the Civil Air Patrol (CAP for short), it introduced a class in aviation for the first time. The program was kind of like ROTC but was civilly rather than military program the purpose of which was to train cadets for air search and rescue. I was instantly interested in the program because I always had a fascination with aircraft technology. I wanted to understand how airplanes could fly, and that was part of the aviation class. So I joined along with about five other girls and about three times that number of boys. No, that was not my motivation!

Although the CAP was not a military based program, we had army-type uniforms and earned army-type rank. By the end of my first year, which included a summer field exercise at an Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I had earned the rank of first lieutenant. (Rank was not too hard to come by.) We flew to Cheyenne in an army prop-driven transport plane (C-47) which was nothing like the commercial ones we fly in today. But I was excited anyway because it was my first-ever flight in an airplane. We lived in barracks on the base (separate from the boys), had regular inspections, ate in the mess hall, learned to fire rifles on the fire range (I had a very sore shoulder after that experience), and had flying demonstrations of various kinds of aircraft. It was a fun experience.

That year the school also acquired a Link Trainer which was by the military used to train pilots on in-cabin instruments by simulating of various flying conditions. You were closed in this small unit and had to fly using instruments only. The trainer would respond to whatever you did with the controls. Unfortunately there was really no one qualified to teach how to use it correctly, so mostly we just played around with it. All members of the CAP had access to it during our own time. An Aviation Club was formed this year and we even sponsored a school dance.

In order to make time for my aviation class in my junior year I had to give up orchestra, but I continued on with my art class. I had to make a choice, and art was it. Learning to oil paint that year made that choice exciting. I bought my first oil-painting set, pallet, brushes, and even made my own painter's smock to wear. I had my first painting framed and gave it to my parents for Christmas that year. (It really wasn't that good, but at the time I was proud of it.)
We also learned how to do leather tooling that year which gave me the opportunity to tool a belt for my dad which he wore for as long as I can remember.

Other highlights of this year were the production of Brigadoon (awesome performance even though I wasn't personally involved this year), dating Jim off and on (mostly off by the end of the year), and an opportunity to attend the University of Utah on a full four-year scholarship.
I'll explain this last one. The Ford Foundation wanted to fund an experiment to see if high performing students in their junior year could succeed on a college level if they skipped their senior year and enrolled in a local university. Tests were given to top students selected by the faculty and two were selected on the basis of their performance on that test to receive the scholarships. Jamie Lyon (twin brother of Laurie Lyon whom I had dated) and myself won the honors. I was shocked, excited, and scared by this amazing opportunity. But that was all short-lived when my father wouldn't let me accept the scholarship. I don't want to be critical of my Dad because I honestly felt he made that decision for very valid reasons. His main concern was for the welfare of my mom. I was pretty much the only help she had since Claire was married, Georgia working, and J.D. only ten years old. He knew that with the additional travel time to and from school, needed time in a library to do work, (no computers with internet), plus the time that would be required to do homework, I would have very little time to help with the needed work around home. And besides, he never felt the higher education was that important, especially for girls. Although I know Mom was always interested in higher education and even seemed excited about this opportunity, she would never oppose my dad. She never did. What he said was the final decision. She tried to soften my disappointment by accenting the things I would miss by giving up my senior year in high school such as Senior Prom (I never went), graduating from Seminary, being able to participate in high school graduation ceremonies with my friends whom I had known for twelve years, etc. I didn't want to argue, either, because I knew it would only have made Mom feel more guilty for being the main cause of Dad's objections. She often expressed her sadness and feelings of guilt for not being able to be the kind of mother she wanted to be.

So I went on to complete my senior year.

Spiritual Feast

My, how with age comes increased knowledge and understanding, increased faith in and testimony of the Savior and His restored church, and an increased desire to learn at the feet of God's chosen prophets, seers and revelators. As I listened to the sessions of general conference this weekend, my thoughts drifted back to my early childhood and up to my teen years. I hated those conference weekends. It meant spending hours sitting on the couch, listening to "boring" talks on the radio which I couldn't understand nor appreciate no matter how many times my mom told us kids what a privilege it was to be instructed by living prophets. I could tell that SHE was drinking in every word but not me. I'm sure she hoped that at least we could feel the Spirit as these men spoke if we couldn't understand the words, but I didn't. On occasion, especially when we got a little older, Dad would take us down to the temple grounds for one or more of the conference sessions, and if we got there early enough we were even able to get inside the tabernacle. I admit that I really enjoyed that a whole lot more because you could actually see the speakers and the tabernacle choir as they sang, and I have to admit that I could even feel a special spirit that was there. I remember standing and singing, "We Thank Thee O God for A Prophet, as the prophet entered the building. That's when I really felt something very special. There was even a very spiritual feeling that permeated the beautifully manicured temple grounds during conference sessions. I loved being there.

When I started seminary in high school, my understanding and testimony of the gospel increased and I became more interested in what the leaders had to say, and I listened more carefully to conference talks. I have to admit, however, that I still would often fall asleep. Maybe being able to wear pajamas while I listened had something to do with it. And although television had been invented, only the more wealthy could afford it. That excluded us, so we still had to listen on the radio. Once in a while a group of friends would get together and go to the tabernacle to attend conference. I remember going with Jim several times.

As I listened this week to these special spiritual men and women speak, it struck me as to how fast the time went. I didn 't want the sessions to end. I felt so uplifted, my soul so spiritually fed and enlightened. The Spirit so strongly confirmed the truthfulness of the words they spoke, and I felt such gratitude to my Father and to Jesus Christ for giving me the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. I also felt a debt of gratitude to my progenitors who received this message and remained faithful, giving me the opportunity to be born under the covenant. Although we all at some time have to gain a testimony of our own, I feel they gave me a head start by making it possible for me to grow up in a gospel centered home. I know now how my mother felt when she tried to help us feel the importance of listening to those "boring" talks.

As I tried to remember all of the prophets that I have been privileged to hear over the years, I remember at least nine beginning with Heber J. Grant. That was the first one that I remember. The others were George Albert Smith, David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Ezra Taft Benson, Spencer W. Kimball, Howard W. Hunter, and Gordon B. Hinckley. I don't know if they are in the right order or if I left one out. Ask your Primary kids. They will know.

I want all of you to know how much I love the Lord...how much He has blessed me over the years. I stand in awe at the love and peace he has brought into my life and to lives of my family. I have a renewed desire to serve Him and to remain faithful to the covenants I have made. May this be your goal, too. I love you all.

The Flame Begins to Flicker

The trip to California on a Greyhound bus seemed long and boring. There was really no one to talk to because I was traveling alone and no one interesting occupied the seat next to me. Christmas with my family had been special as usual, but the "high" of preparing for and celebrating on that day was beginning to wear off. But I was excited about taking my first trip to California, Walnut Creek in northern California, even if it was by myself. And I was anxious to see Nick and his family again. They had invited me to come down during Christmas break, and I had saved my money so I could go. Looking back I can't believe my parents would even consider letting me travel alone at age fifteen.

The first thing that struck me when I arrived at the Snel house was the Christmas tree. It was not very large, but what seemed strange to me was the type of tree it was. I had never seen one like it before. It was one of those that had a single ring of branches around the trunk, then a space of bare trunk and then another ring of branches. etc. etc. I don't know the name of that kind of pine tree, but to me it looked so bare and ugly. I thought, "they must really be struggling financially not to be able to buy a nice tree." I've since found out that this style of tree is not necessarily cheap, just different, and I guess some people like them.

I actually don't remember a whole lot about what we did while I was there. I know that Nick was working at a theater as an usher. Back then movie theaters actually had ushers that used flashlights to usher patrons to their seats. No more! I remember that he gave me a set of dishes that he had won in some incentive program at his work and a record (no CDs or tapes back then) of Mario Lanza, my favorite singer who was also an actor. He sang light opera and performed in several movies before he died at a young age. What I remember most was that I just didn't have that good a time...the spark just wasn't there anymore. When I got back home I gave the dishes away, but I did listen to the record a lot. I still like Mario Lanza.

Eventually I quit writing, and so did he. When Jim saw that I was dating other guys, he asked me out more often, usually to group activities. We would go to the drive-in movies with friends (one time we drove our car in backwards and told the man at the ticket booth that we were just going out. He laughed and let us in free), play "tag" in cars (we only did that once because we were almost in an accident. Jim was driving...very dangerous play), to seminary parties at Saratoga Springs (a favorite resort and swimming pool), to parties of mutual friends and church firesides. During one fireside in January it snowed so hard that all the cars were snowed in. No one could get out, so everyone there had to spend the night. That turned out to be a fun night. We had a lot of common friends because we all attended church together. Some of those mutual friends were Leah Rae Green after whom our own Lea was named, and the Maxfield triplets, Merrill, Dick and Geniel. He was best friends with Dick and Merrill while Geniel was one of mine.

I always had fun when I went out with Jim, even though he was a little wild when he was a teenager. He used to see how fast he could drive to Brigham City (sometimes cutting school) to see a girl he knew there. I was never went with him on those trips, however, but he would let me know when he had set a new record. I wasn't impressed. I thought he was pretty stupid to risk getting a ticket or losing his life. I wasn't with him either when he rolled the car one night while driving down a canyon road. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, but the car didn't fare so well. There were times when I thought I should just wait a while to date him until he grew up a bit. Our off and on dates continued into my junior year. You can tell that nothing serious was developing by his entry in my yearbook.
"Jonita (no dear),
Writing in your book brings back a lot of pleasant memories dating about three
years. We had a lot of fun and it was great knowing you and your whole family.
Well, I'll be seeing you around. Best wishes in the future.
As always,
Jim Mortensen"

Jim was then a senior and was planning to join the Air Force, so I knew I wouldn't be seeing him for a while. That made me a little sad, but I was still young, and there was still time.