Tell about family traditions—Christmas, birthdays, 4th of July, etc.

Central Ward only had one ward so we could have the church whenever we wanted to so it was tradition to have a large Primary play Christmas Eve. They were really grand and practiced for a couple months before. Then they had Santa come and every child received a sack of candy, nuts, and an orange. After the program, we raced through the school square to unwrap one present which was new flannel p.j.s and get quickly into bed. (hand-drawn map of the school square).

For Christmas, mother always made a fruit dish with grape juice as the base then fruit cocktail and bananas, and waffles for breakfast. We didn’t have a furnace so we would have to wait for Dad to get up and make fires in the heater in the living room and cook stove in the kitchen. One of us usually called about 3 in the morning “is it time to get up yet.”

Mother worked at Christensen's in Richfield and one time Garry was sick and had to stay home from school. He found all the new p.j.s Mother had made and tried his on. He pinned a note on all his stuff, “this fits” “this is too big” etc. Mother found it when she went to get them on Christmas Eve.

We always went on a nice vacation. Dad would give each of us so much money to earn toward the vacation, then he said he had the rest in a baking powder can under the derrick. A derrick was used to take hay off the hay wagon and put it in a stack for use in the winter to feed cattle.

We went to the World’s Fair in San Francisco, to Yellowstone Park, all along the Oregon/Washington highway 101. When we got a hotel in Washington state late one night it was so filthy Mother put newspapers all over the floor before she would let us out of the car. We spent a lot of time in Northern California where Dad had lots of family in Susanville, Oakland, Sacramento, Ukiah—3 brothers and 1 sister: Uncle Guy, Uncle Cutler, Uncle Lamar, Aunt Bernell; and two cousins: Frances Markee and Lee Porter.

We visited all the parks in Utah, but never the Grand Canyon. 

During the 2nd World War when gas was rationed and tires we spent a week on the mountain, Usually with Grandpa Porter.

For our birthdays we could have anything we wanted for dinner. I would have tuna fish salad. Can you believe? But it was expensive then and we didn’t have it very often.

Describe a childhood birthday.

We could have anything we wanted for supper on our birthday. One year so I picked tuna salad. It was lettuce and green onions, miracle whip, and tuna fish. I thought it was grand. Tuna was a real treat when I was growing up.