The Church is the Same Wherever You Go, Only Different

Having grown up in Salt Lake City I was used to our many church buildings being being only a few blocks apart and they were all complete buildings with a chapel, cultural hall with stage, multiple classrooms, junior Sunday School room (Primary was during the week)and offices for several bishops. It had been a little different in Klamath Falls where there were fewer members and only one church building. But that building was a complete complex with the same chapel, cultural hall, etc. that we had in Salt Lake. But when we moved to Novato, we were surprised to discover that our building had only one large room that served both as the chapel and the recreation hall, maybe a half dozen classrooms down a single wing, and a bishop's office ... even though we were a ward and not a branch. Because the large room had multiple uses, it was necessary to have folding chairs which were placed in rows on a cement floor for sacrament meeting. There was no carpeting in the building. As you can imagine, it was a bit noisy. Because there was no custodian for the building, the cleaning was done by assignment to families. Our little family spent quite a few Saturdays cleaning that little building. It was at church that I discovered that one of our close neighbors was a member. I was excited about that. And even more excited when I found out that she had two teen-age daughters that were more than willing to babysit. Loved it!!

As is usual, especially when a ward is small, we were immediately given callings. I was called to the Primary as a teacher of the Firelights, who were the 10-year girls. The nine, ten, and eleven year old girls were then collectively called the "Merry Miss" girls. The nine-year olds were called "Gaynotes", the ten-year bolds, Firelights, and the eleven-year olds, "Merryhands".

Not only did this group of girls learn the Articles of Faith, work to fulfill a number of other requirements each year, but also learned simple embroidery, knitting, and crocheting. I had only been working in this assignment for about a year when I was called to serve as a counselor in Relief Society. That was a real surprise ... but I guess not really ... because my LDS neighbor,

Dunn, and I had become good friends when she was called to be Relief Society president. But I was still in my twenties, and that is pretty young to be working in what I saw as the Church's organization for "old ladies". I felt pretty uncomfortable accepting that calling, but how could I turn down my good friend? Turning down the Lord didn't even enter my mind at that time.

Once I began learning what my duties and responsibilities would be in Relief Society, I kind of figured out why Sister Dunn wanted me in this position. The organization and assignments of the different members of the board differed greatly than today. Part of my job was to organize the nursery and find a suitable leader. This was a paid position and the one holding it did not necessarily have to be a member of the church. Since there was no manual for lessons and activities, part of my job was to write the lessons and discussions, provide pictures and teaching aids, find organize activities and crafts, plan and bring the snacks, etc. I had to do all this in more detail because the teacher we had was not a member. I had to write all the dialogue she should have with the children to reenforce the lesson. It was a big job for me. As I think about it now, I should have saved all those lessons plans. This was the first of my many many callings in Relief Society. Except for a few short stints in Primary, nearly all of my responsibilities in the Church throughout my life have been in this organization.

All was going well in Novato. We were enjoying our new friends, our children had adjusted well to their new school, Jim was enjoying his work at the base and we loved going there to swim at the officer's club anytime we chose. Then came a real shocker!

And Then There Were More ... Frogs, That Is.

The scenario of frogs at our new location continued on when the girls discovered that rocks next to their sandbox was home to a bunch of adult frogs. It didn't take them long to figure out that by spraying the rocks with a stream of water from the hose the frogs would hop out of their safe seclusion right into the hands of happy waiting playmates. The frogs soon had names and elaborate tunnels and "buildings" built in the sandbox for their "enjoyment". The kids spent hours playing with their frog friends in that sandbox. When the play was over for the day the frogs were gently returned to their home in the rocks. While I'm on the subject of frogs, I'll fast forward to the next spring when we realized what a real plague they would become. We woke up one morning to discover thousands ... yes, I truly mean thousands, of tiny little frogs covering the street as far as you could see, and just as many hopping all over the grass in the front yard. This went on for about a week. You couldn't drive down the street without running over hundreds of frogs, and when you tried to mow your grass, you had automatic fresh red fertilizer for your lawn. It was HORRIBLE! After that first year frogs just became a part of living in Novato and was no big deal ... especially since they became the kids' favorite playmates.

The children also enjoyed opening up big cardboard boxes and using them to slide down the hill behind our house. We had easy access to that hill because we had a gate in the backyard fence. The boxes slid easily over the weeds on the hill especially in the fall when they would dry up and become even more slippery. All the kids in the neighborhood would join in the fun.

Another playmate was added to the family when we bought a Collie puppy for the children. I have always loved Collies, I guess a carryover from my childhood when Lassie was a favorite movie star. For those too young to know about Lassie, she was a Collie dog who was the hero that always saved the day. When we saw a sign in the neighbor's yard, "Collie Puppies For Sale", we just had to go take a look. It happened that the dogs were all pedigreed with papers so that made them very expensive. We just couldn't put that much money into a dog, But when the owners saw how disappointed the children were they told us that one of the pups had "droopy" ears instead of the straight "perky" ones that tipped over at the top. They told us that even though this defect could possibly be corrected by taping round rods in the ear to hold them up as the ear grew, it made this puppy less valuable than the others. They said we could have the dog for "$50.00, a bargain we quickly accepted.

In order to register a dog with with the AKC it had to have three names. Since we had the pedigree papers for our puppy we decided to go ahead and register him, even though we knew he would never be used as a show dog or for breeding. He was just to be the family pet. We names him Prince Cooper of Lynwood ... "Prince" because that was the name we planned to call

him, "Cooper" because that was the last name of an astronaut who that year was the first to circle the earth in a spaceship ..., and "Lynwood" because that was the name of the tract that we lived in.

Once through that puppy stage, Prince became a beloved member of our family for about thirteen years. He loved and protected the children, and was their constant companion and playmate. They could sit on him, tease him while he was sleeping, take toys away from him and he never even growled his displeasure. When the twins were old enough to play outside he would walk along side of them and not let them into the street. He was big enough to just push them away from the road. Once he even chased a motorcycle that had frequently been racing down our residential street, scaring the children (he was not a car chaser) and tried to bite the rider. The rider kicked at him and swerved his cycle so that it would hit him. His hip was injured which resulted in his having arthritis there as he aged. He was so lonely when the kids were gone for more than a day that once when we returned home we found that he had opened an unlocked sliding glass door, gone to Jeanie's room, removed a stuffed cat that was made of real rabbit fur, and took it outside with him. When we returned home we found it between his front paws with his head resting on it. He was one special dog, even if he once he opened that same sliding glass door and ate an entire gingerbread house that we had just purchased for Christmas. He didn't even get sick! That's what we get for leaving that door unlocked once we knew he could open it with his paw.

There were more special lessons we learned during that four years we lived in Novato. We made some of the most long-lasting friends there and experienced one of the first of several real miracles in our life. More to come.