Time to Count Your Blessings

During this Thanksgiving week my thoughts have frequently turned to the many blessings I have received throughout my life...not just the big obvious ones that we often dwell upon but the small daily gifts that we way too often overlook. Then today our lesson in Relief Society from Elder Henry B. Eyring's conference address, "O Remember, Remember" reinforced what I have been thinking. Every night before he retired he made it a habit to ask himself this question: "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" Then as he thought about his day and pondered that question he began to see evidence of what God had done for him or one of his family that he had not recognized in the busy moments of his day. And he would write those things down for his children to read sometime in the future. I would encourage you to read that talk if you haven't already done so or read it again if you have. I think if we took the time each day to do what Elder Eyring did, each one of us would realize how the hand of God touches our lives on a daily basis.

As I have reflected on the many many things I have to be grateful for, the ones which came to my mind first were those that were very obvious and for which I express gratitude on a continuing basis. But as I have given time and thought to the more subtle blessings I came to realize that many people had touched my life in small but powerful ways, and I came to understand how God has used His children as instruments in His hand to bless and enrich my life on a daily basis.

So here are some of the things for which I am so grateful today.

• My Heavenly parents and my Father's great plan of salvation
• My life. The blessing I have of coming to this earth to receive a body.
• My parents who gave me life and loved and taught me.
• My eternal companion whom I love so dearly
• My special, special family (that includes all of my extended family)
• The Restoration of the gospel and the prophet, Joseph Smith, who suffered so much to establish Christ's church once again on earth
• A prophet to guide us through these troubled times
  
• The beautiful "paid-for" home that we have at this time in our life. This has been a true miracle to me being that we were so late in life being able to purchase a home.
• The beauty that surrounds us here in Tehachapi

These are the big obvious things. Now the smaller ones that have come to my mind.

• My sister, Georgia, who was my friend and confidant for many years before her death. Although Jim complained about the high telephone bill because of my long talks with her, I would tell him that it was cheaper than having to pay a psychiatrist. He soon quit complaining.
• The first person that said, "Hi! My name is Frances Bennett. Welcome to Tehachapi".
• An orthopedic surgeon who did micro surgery on my back even though he knew my insurance would not pay for the "micro" part of the operation. And he didn't charge me the difference.
• A Sunday School teacher who motivated me to read the New Testatment with a whole new depth of understanding and feeling of gratitude for our Savior and the great leaders of His church following His death who were so dedicated and committed to the gospel to suffer and die to spread His word throughout the known world. How I learned to love and appreciate these great men!
• A home teacher who dropped by to give us a pumpkin pie the day before Thanksgiving and his wife who baked it.
• A mission call to Uganda for a grandson who made the choice to go on a mission rather than to go back to Africa on his own to work for the people he learned to love.
  
• The animals and birds who frequent my back yard. I love watching them out the window
  
• Having grandchildren run up to me and yell, "Grandma, Grandma!" when they see me
• The close friendship and love I feel for and from my Jim. I love having him at home all the time.
• Technology that helps me stay in such close touch with the family (even though I have a love-hate relationship with computers)
• A sister in our ward who has many debilitating health problems but when asked, "How are you today?" always answers, "Blessed". She has become one of my pool buddies.
• The Christmas season and the joy, peace, and happiness it brings
  
• Puppies and kittens

I could go on and on the more I think about it. My goal this season is to write some over due thank-you notes to some of the people who may not realize that they have been instruments in God's hands to bless my life in small but important ways. May you also take time this season to count your blessings and give gratitude to those through whom they come.

Dating Can Be Fun?????

College was more difficult than I expected, especially since I was (am) such a perfectionist. Anything less than an "A" on any paper or especially on an exam was very traumatic for me. It didn't take too much effort in high school to get A's, but now it was a different story. I don't remember my grades that year, but I'm sure it they weren't a 4.0. And trudging to class at 7:30 in the morning in snow up to your knees wasn't a piece of cake either. I remember a few times just putting a long coat over my warm pajamas to head for that class.

I tried to go home as often as I could on the weekends. I needed to see Mom as often as I could because she had sacrificed my help in order for me to get more education, and I appreciated that. I felt better about being gone when my sister, Claire, and her family moved into a house about a block away from Mom and my Grandma Knapp (Mom's mom) moved in with her. They became readily available to help out on Mom's increasingly frequent "bad" days. No matter how bad she was feeling, she would always make the necessary effort to go to church every week, and even taught Relief Society one day a month from her wheel chair. In her weekly letters to me at school she would often bounce ideas off me regarding an upcoming lesson. Once in a while she would ask me to draw an illustration for her to use. I remember once drawing a large picture of Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life and the "iron rod". I didn't have anything to look at so had to draw it strictly from my interpretation of the scripture as a reference. That was a real challenge for me because I was never good at getting a picture from my mind transferred to paper. But Mom was happy with the results, and that was all that really mattered to me.

On one of those weekend visits home I had an experience that still makes me laugh. From the time I was a child I had always been told that I should never take anything out of the refrigerator to eat unless I asked. This was a rule I obeyed (most of the time) even as an adult. But this day I opened the fridge to look for something to drink. There, right in front of me, was an opened bottle of 7-up. "That looks good", I thought. "I'll just take sip and nobody will know the difference." So I did. My reaction to that sip was to spray it all over the interior of that open refrigerator. It wasn't 7-up...it was beer! I was in shock. What was beer doing in a 7-up bottle in OUR refrigerator. Mother had to confess that the doctor had prescribed a little beer each day to stimulate her enlarged heart and to help increase her appetite. She was too embarrassed to keep a beer can where it could be seen, so she transferred the beer to a pop
bottle so no one would know what she was drinking. Serves me right for breaking the rules!

Did I do as Jim asked and accept dates at school that year? Yes, for a while. I wasn't asked out a lot, but one stand-out date was with Dwight Stucki. Yes, I remember his name for several reasons. First, he was the student head honcho (I don't remember his rank) of the Air Force ROTC for which I was a sponsor. It made me feel special to think that this "important" guy, a senior to boot, would ask a lowly freshman out on a date. Actually there was more than one.
The second reason I remember his name is that it didn't take me long to find out that he was a total jerk! He began trying to take me alone to his apartment (I refused) and trying to become too familiar on dates. I dropped him FAST. Another man I dated whose name I also remember was Jerry Moss. I had good reasons for remembering him as well. He was a returned missionary who served in South Africa. I was initially interested in him because of his last name "Moss". It was a James E. Moss that who was the initiator and head of seminary at Granite High School. He was a much loved and respected man, and if Jerry was a relative, he just had to be a great guy, too. Well, he WAS a grandson, but definitely not like his grandfather as I found out after dating him a while. I became a little suspicious of his intent when he tried to convince me that it was OK to participate in more intimate activities on dates because "they weren't forbidden according to the temple ordinances". Even though I had no idea about what information was in a temple endowment, I knew this wasn't right. My own conscience confirmed that. Then his mother made me this gorgeous formal skirt for Christmas. Since when do mothers make fancy gifts for a son's "casual" date? The next thing that gave me more concern was when the large diamond that he had purchased in Africa and had set in ring which he wore suddenly disappeared. He had told me that he bought the diamond for an engagement ring when he met the right one. That did it. I was dating for "fun" and I knew he was getting serious. I planned to tell him that I didn't want to see him anymore on our next date which had already been set. I was in Salt Lake that weekend and we had a date to go somewhere up there. I don't remember where. But on the way home, driving through Parley's Canyon, I gave him the news. I never anticipated the reaction he would have. He began driving like a maniac on that curvy icy canyon road. It was in January. Needless to say I was very scared but kept my composure enough to reach over and pull the keys out of the ignition. I opened the car door, jumped out, threw the keys on the seat and told him I was walking home. He calmed down and promised that if I got back in the car that he would drive me home in a sane way. I wanted to believe him because it was 12:00 o'clock at night, freezing cold, and we were at least five miles away from my home. He kept his word and I got home safely. I watched him from our front window and was concerned to see him standing in the middle of the street instead of driving home. I was concerned about his frame of mind because he was acting so irrationally, so I woke my parents. I had told them about my feelings towards Jerry, and they knew I was breaking it off that night. My dad was wonderful. He got dressed, went outside and talked to him for quite a while. I have no idea what he said, but Jerry got in his car and drove off. I didn't see him at all after that...not even at school. I believed once again that God had protected me from "evil designing men" as my patriarchal blessing had stated. I don't believe that Jerry was evil, but his thoughts and actions were not the best.

All these months I had been writing at least two or three letters a week to Jim. I loved his letters which came just as often. They were always so up and supportive and loving in a friendly way. Those letters helped me keep a positive perspective towards men when I had those negative experiences. It gave me a greater understanding and appreciation of what a special person he really was. I was seriously contemplating what my next step should be.

BYU Here I Come

Tearfully I said good-bye to Jim and began packing to go off to college. Several friends from school and I rented a little old run-down house (all we could afford) about a mile from campus. None of us had a car so we needed a place within walking distance. A few days before school started we took in a "cutie", Carolyn Joyner, from South Carolina who was desperately looking for a place to live. She was really the "life" in that old house, and we learned to love her a lot. We would take her home to Salt Lake with us on the weekends that we went.

There was no pre-registering on phone back in 1952, and no computers. We had to stand in long lines to sign up for each individual class, and, of course, by the time you got to the front of the line the class would be filled and you'd have to start all over trying to get into an alternate class. By the time you finished registering your schedule didn't even resemble the original "perfect" one you had planned. Those early 7:00 AM classes that you definitely did not want were all too prevalent, and the time between classes was ridiculous not to mention the distance from one class to another. Back then classes were still held on "lower campus" which was the old original BYU building on University Avenue which I think has now been preserved and turned into a library. Upper campus was composed of the Maeser Administration Building, the Brimhall Building (library), the Joseph Smith Building, and the brand new Science Building...the one with the Foucault pendulum. There were a few miscellaneous small buildings that housed classrooms and some dorms (I think Helaman Halls). That was it!

School was divided into quarters rather than semesters, so you were able to take more classes during the regular school year. Some of the classes I remember taking that year were Spanish, English, bacteriology, geology, sociology, interior decorating, American history, and Book of Mormon. I think my favorite was geology. I still remember a great deal of what I learned and find I still notice and am able to identify many geological features in the environment. I loved the field trips we took around the Salt Lake valley where so many geological events occurred.
My favorite professor was Marden Clark, my English teacher. Actually he is the only one I remember by name. That should say something. I really don't like the writing part of English, and that is probably all we did the first quarter. And literature isn't my favorite, either, and that was mainly the second quarter's curriculum. I had to write my very first research paper that year in English, and my second for sociology. Talk about being thrown into the fire! I had never had to do a research paper in high school as you do now, so I was oblivious as to how much work it was, especially because of what was expected on a college level. Writing that paper for English was the hardest thing I had to do that year, but it was what gave me the greatest feeling of accomplishment as well. The subject I chose to write on was, "The Effects of Literature on the Civil War". I still have that hand written paper...yes, hand written. There were no computers then, and I didn't own a typewriter nor did I have access to one. Not that it would have done me any good, anyway, because I couldn't type. But can you imagine writing a long paper with footnotes by hand trying to anticipate how much room you were going to need at the bottom of each page for footnotes? It was CRAZY! But I did it, and I even got an "A". The sociology paper wasn't quite as bad because it came later on in the quarter, and now I had had a little experience. The subject I chose for that one was "Man's Pugnacious Nature as a Cause of War". I think I still have that paper as well.

At the beginning of the school year I applied to join the Sponsor Corp, a women's service auxiliary to the Air Force ROTC there on campus. It required filling out an application form, going through several interviews, and then finally meeting with a board of high ranking officers in the ROTC for a final selection. There were only a few spaces available for freshman applicants so the competition was pretty tough. I was lucky enough to make the cut and was issued my formal uniform. As I said, this was a service organization, and as such we ushered at school events, helped with activities sponsored by our male counterparts, help plan service projects on campus, and interacted with other Air Force ROTC units at the University of Utah. We even had social activities with them, one of which they matched up the Sponsors at BYU with the cadets at the University of Utah for a dance...you might say a "blind date" affair. That was interesting! The only thing I remember about my date was that he was barely as tall as I was...maybe even a little shorter. I was a little uncomfortable with that, but I had fun anyway.

It wasn't long into the year that we met several young men who lived in the house next to ours. They let us know that they weren't eating too well, so we arranged to feed them the evening meal for a price, of course. They were willing to pay thinking that they would get a good home made meal each night. What they didn't know was that none of us were the greatest cooks, even if we had the time to actually cook. I remember eating and preparing meals that weren't so great. I think our guests soon realized that, too, and made other arrangements. I think they did meet one of their secondary goals, however....that of getting to know several of my roommates well enough to ask for dates...which they did.

Did I have a career interest when I started college? Yes, I had a goal major that I knew was not available at BYU, which was Occupational Therapy. Through counseling I was informed where I would have to go to complete that major, the closest of which was the University of Colorado. I knew my chances of making it that far were pretty slim, but I decided that I could at least finish my basic requirements at BYU. And I was on my way.

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.