Snow Forts

We loved getting visits from our aunts and uncles who were going to college out in Utah and Idaho. I remember playing with them in the snow, building snow forts, throwing snow balls, running around, laughing--it was a great time.

Sam and I are on the snow pile. I think that is Tom's foot sticking out of the fort. He's probably in there digging. I have no idea who the kid leaning against the hedge is. I also have no idea in the world why we are out there in t-shirts and no coats. We're crazy! That other kid is probably a neighbor kid, judging by the difference in wardrobe. Ha ha!

There's that kid again, and me on top of the fort, and Sam and Tom inside.

Crazy Uncle Tom! He really was crazy, and so much fun! He was great to snowball fight with, and he did donuts in the parking lot with his car. (Ha ha)

Those Darn Spokes

One day I was going to the Utah State Fair with my dad. I'm guessing he maybe had to go for work, because sometimes he did that, to run the radio station's booth. Or maybe we were just going for our own fun, because sometimes we did that, too. I'm guessing that our car wasn't running at the time, because my dad was giving me a ride on his bike. We would never get away with it these days, because I doubt either of us had helmets, and I was sitting on the horizontal bar of his ten speed, holding my feet up. It was nothing new, we had ridden like this plenty of times. I guess this ride was longer than usual, though, because it got hard to hold my legs up, and before I knew it, my foot had dropped and got stuck in the spokes of the front wheel.


Oh, my poor dad. My poor, poor dad. =( The front wheel stopped, and the bike flipped over. I remember my dad shooting over my head and landing somewhere down the road from where I laid, with my mangled foot still stuck in those darn spokes. I'm sure that wreck wasn't a quiet one, and some of the people in the neighborhood came running out of their houses to help. I remember someone holding my bleeding foot on a wet washcloth in their hands. But even though I had a mangled up foot, and I'm sure I had bleeding scrapes and cuts, my dad by far got the worse end of the deal. He skidded on the road, and his arms and legs were totally eaten up. I'm sure he probably had cuts on his face and head, too. I don't remember super clearly. But I felt so bad! To this day I cringe when I think about it, not because of my foot, but because I hurt my Daddy.

Wild Waters

Sometimes in the summer, we would go up to Ogden High School and go swimming in their pool. They also had a water slide, so it was really cool. I vaguely remember maybe having briefly taken swimming lessons there.


But my most fun water memory from Ogden was going to Wild Waters. We may have only gone once, for all I know, but we went, and it was amazing. I'm pretty sure this was after the Baracuda experience, because when I was at Wild Waters, I loved the waterslides. I'm pretty sure that my dad got free passes for making a commercial for him at his radio stations.


(We also got free donuts once, from Jolly Rogers donuts, because my dad had made a commercial for them. Radio was just a cool job).

Walk-a-Thon

At some point while living in Ogden, I participated in a March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon. I went door to door, because you could do that back then, and got people to pledge so much money per mile, and then when the big day came, I walked. I'm sure the rest of my family was in on it, too. I really don't know how or why it came about that we got involved in that, but we did and it was pretty cool. I got a lot of pledges, and I walked, and walked, and walked! It went all through downtown Ogden. I think I remember that there were rest stations along the way where we could get water and snacks, but don't quote me on that. The walk-a-thon took all day long, and it was exhausting. And then when it was over, I got to go back to those who had pledged, collect the money, and turn it in to the March of Dimes. I'm pretty glad I did that!

Blue Ribbon Cakes

As part of our 4H group, we learned how to decorate cakes, and decided we should enter some cakes in the county fair. There were different skill levels, and we stuck with the bottom level--decorating with candy. I made a house out of an upside down heart shape. Karie also made a cake, and so did our friend Jacqueline. Probably some of the other girls did, too, I just really don't remember. My cake and Karie's cake got blue ribbons! Sam made a triangle cake look like a slice of pizza, and his cake made it to state. I'm not sure what award he got at state, it's just really cool that it went! Fun, fun with cakes.

Easter Basket

One Easter, I noticed that my part of the handle on my plastic Easter basket was melted. It was one of those handles that is made of two strands of plastic twisted together, and there was a part of the handle on mine that looked like it had melted flat. The two strands were fused together and kind of flattened, and then it had cooled. And that was that.

I remember noticing it. I don’t know why I just kind of shrugged it off. Nowadays in our house, we would say “little deal.” Because it really wasn’t that big of a deal. I think I was a little disappointed, I mean, I really have this idealist perfectionist personality trait. But yeah, I just shrugged it off, and forgot about it.

Later my mom was talking to me, and she pointed out that when they bought the baskets, they put them in the back of the car while they finished the rest of the shopping. Apparently part of the handle on one of the baskets was resting on something metal in the trunk, and it got hot and melted the handle. When she saw it she felt so bad, and didn’t know what to do. She decided to give that basket to me, because she thought I would handle it in a mature way and not freak out about it. (I don’t think back then people used the term “freak out” on a regular basis, so I’m not sure what her exact words were, but that’s the gist).

I remember being so relieved that I had not made a big deal out of it! And I felt proud of myself for handling it well. Believe it or not, every once in a while I remember that basket, and it reminds me to not get all bent out of shape when things really are a “little deal.” I’m glad my mom took the time to share how the whole melted handle thing came about, and to let me know she was proud of me.

4-H

Yep, I was a 4-H kid. Nope, it had nothing to do with animals. (Are you kidding? I don't do animals, as you probably already know. I hope I never touch a horse. Or a cow. Or a chicken. I have before, but I'm seriously OCD about ever touching any living animal that is not human. If you see me and want to throw a rotten tomato at me for that, I will totally understand. I don't know why I'm so averse to animals).

Anyway, the point is, I was in 4-H as a kid. Not only was I in 4-H, my parents were the leaders of our group. We had such fun! Me and my brother and sister and my friends. My parents were the coolest, ours was the house where all the neighbor kids came to play because my parents welcomed them and loved kids and didn't worry about how messy it would make the house or how loud and annoying we were. And I'm sure we were. But anyway, I mentioned before about how we went camping a lot, and a lot of those camping trips were 4-H camping trips.

The biggest thing I remember from 4-H is that we did cake decorating. Most of us never got to tips, we just frosted and used candy to decorate. But oh how awesome it was. One year (was it only one? can't remember) we entered our cakes into the county fair. My brother Sam's cake that was decorated like a slice of pizza made it to state, and the rest of us got blue ribbons--at least most of us did, but it's fuzzy so I can't remember if everyone did. Still, it was totally fun.

Years later, when I heard people talking about 4-H as mostly about agriculture and animals, I didn't believe them. Didn't they know that 4-H was for decorating cakes and going camping? Silly people.

Micro-Teaching

When my dad was going to Weber State College for his teaching degree, they needed kids to practice teaching on. There were a few times I got to go to night class with my dad, and he or other students would teach me things. For me, it was fun. It was like playing school. They either video taped the lessons, or they were being observed by a professor, I don’t remember. I just remember I thought it was a lot of fun to go to college with my dad and play school.

Radio Kid

Okay, so I wasn't a radio kid, but during the first 11 or so years of my life, my dad was a full time DJ. When we lived in Utah he worked at KZAN, a country station. That was when country was a bit different than it is these days. I think that's the real reason I was so into country, because that was my dad's station. Every day I'd call him to see if he was going to play my song, and he'd tell me what time it was scheduled to come on. I don't even remember what song it was. But we did a lot of things because of his radio job. When I was really little, I got to help make a bandaid commercial. My line was, "Mommy, I hurt." That was it, but it was enough for such a little kid. When I was a bit older I helped with a bowling commercial--"Hey Dad! Let's go bowling!" A lot of times the companies my dad made commercials for would give us stuff. We got free passes to Wild Waters, a water park, we got free donuts from Jolly Rogers, and all kinds of things. I remember once he and my mom took me to an Alabama concert. I think that was where I saw Lee Greenwood, the opening act. I heard him sing "God Bless the USA" before it was the big hit it is now. (It has been for a long time, too--I'm so old.) And we got to hang out with him at the radio station's booth at the fair sometimes. Those were good days. I had fun being a radio kid! Thanks, Dad.

Mopping

I remember Mom telling us to get on our bathing suits, because it was time to mop the floor. Honestly, I don’t know how many moms out there would handle mopping this way. As a mom, I’m not nearly fun enough to let my kids mop the floor the way we sometimes did. Ha ha!

Mom would throw some water on the floor, and squirt some dish soap down, and then we were let loose! We would slide all over the floor, over and over again. It was great fun for us!

Now that I think about it, I might have to let my kids mop my floor for me once in a while. ;)

Underdog

My dad was the best at pushing us on the swings. Our favorite ever was the “underdog.” This is where dad would grab the seat of the swing, and push us in front of him as he ran forward and up, and went all the way under the swing. He let go just when we were at the highest point. We always got super high with the underdog, and we begged for it every time we went to the park.

Broken Finger

My dad used to do the graveyard shift at his radio station while he was going to school at Weber State College. He was a really hard worker, going to college and also working to support our family. We didn't have a lot of money, and we only ever had one car, and sometimes even that didn't work. So my dad used to ride his bike to work all the time. Maybe to school too, I don't know.


I remember one night there was something going on. I think my mom might have left, I'm not sure. I  knew something was wrong, at any rate. It turns out that my dad was riding his bike home from work in the middle of the night, and while he was looking to see if he could make a turn, he missed seeing a sign and ended up crashing into it. As a result, he had a broken finger. I think that's how it went down. Just remember, I was a little kid who only heard bits and pieces of things sometimes.


My dad really went through a lot taking care of all of us.

Brite Music

Somewhere along the line (the time line, ha ha!) my mom got invited to someone's Brite Music party, and that is what started it all. Janeen Brady had published all this music that was good for kids and families, and my mom started getting it for us.


I grew up on Brite Music--songs about rhythm and clapping, counting, family relationships, weather, manners, marching, holidays, bed time, even LDS themed songs about not telling lies, paying tithing, and going to Sunday School. She also had a line of musical stories on tape (ha! tape!) that came along with picture books, that taught values--some of the topics were honesty, obedience, love, dependability, work, service, gratitude, happiness, dependability--there were 12 in all, and we sang them ALL the time. There were also three volumes of Safety Kids music and stories, helping kids with all kinds of safety precautions. GREAT stuff. I can still remember so many of those songs, every note, every lyric. Such good stuff!

Best Bunk Beds Ever

One day my parents bought us a bunk bed from D.I. I’m pretty sure it was a brand new one, and it was unfinished. Mom said that was so cool, because it meant we could choose whatever color we wanted and she would paint it. I chose yellow, because it was the color of sunshine. I’m not sure why I thought that was so great…I don’t remember yellow ever being my favorite color or anything like that, I just chose yellow.

My favorite thing about the beds was that the headboards and footboards had built in bookshelves, each divided into three different sections. I loved that I could use the shelves for all my little treasures, and books, and even a lamp. Mom got some fun printed contact paper that she put on the backs of the shelves. For my bed she used a lined pattern with primary colors on a white background, and for Celeste’s bed she used teddy bears on a white background.

We had those bunk beds…I think all the way until I moved out and went to college.  They were great.

This is a picture of Mark, years later, laying on what was the bottom bunk. You can see the teddy bear contact paper on the backs of the shelves, and the beautiful yellow, sun-shiney color.