Had a notice on my face book page that one of my friends was having a birthday today, so have taken the opportunity to remember that time 57 years ago..I wish I had photo's of this time but sadly not, so you will have to use your imagination and I will go through the photo albums and at least pull up a photo of Blanche when she was a child.
It was August, the year was 1954, I was 12 years old and would start sixth grade in a few weeks…The summer in Lake Fork, Idaho, busy as always… Our big barn now full of hay for the winter and soon it would be time to combine the wheat, still swaying in the breeze, on the hundred acre dry farm…That summer Steve and Loraine's six children stayed with us, to give Loraine a rest as she was expecting another baby in August…Relatives had come and gone all summer, staying a few days or a week, helping with the endless work on the farm… My cousin Orin Parkin and his wife Wanda, with two boys near my age, Alan and LaMont were the last of the summer visitors and ask if I could go with them as they returned home to Salt Lake City…Then I could return home with Steve and Loraine after the new baby's birth, when they made the 500 mile trip to get their older children….It was a time of great excitement for me, a country girl, who had never gone on a vacation, never spent time in a big city, never been away from home…Also I would be able to get away from the nieces and nephews, who I had tended and bossed around all summer and had to share my Daddy with…
I remember packing a small suitcase, Mom gave me an envelope with a few dollars in it for spending money, which I tucked into a corner of the suitcase… I was told to be a good girl and mind Orin and Wanda…Early on the morning of our departure, I climbed into the back seat of the car with Alan and LaMonte and we were on our way…We stopped for lunch and given a choice of having a burger and a milkshake or a dinner sandwich with a soft drink…Evidently on the trip up one or both of the boys had ordered a dinner sandwich AND a milkshake and then couldn't eat all of it…I happily settled on the burger and milkshake, one of my first restaurant meals…I ate every bite!
My time in Salt Lake City, was spent with Alan and LaMonte getting to know the neighborhood kids, watching television and going to the movies…I don't remember having much supervision while there, evidently the boys knew the rules and I just tagged along…The one movie I remember was "Gone With the Wind"…In my mind the screen was a mile wide and I was in the middle of a world that I knew nothing about…Of course I remember the southern estate "Tara", the beautiful dresses worn by Scarlett O'Hara, the dashing Rhett Butler, the fire, and the death of their little girl, Bonnie.
My niece Blanchie was born a few days after we arrived in Salt Lake City…Wanda told me to dress in my best clothes ( I have no idea what I wore, since we never dressed up on the farm) she proceeded to fix my hair, in a more stylish "do" added lipstick and dusted rouge on my cheeks…We were going to the hospital to see the new baby and you had to be 14 (I was only 12) to go into the hospital and peak through the glass at the new babies and visit with Loraine in her room..So with heart pounding, I followed Wanda through the long halls, knowing that somebody would take one look at me and out the door I would go!..No one paid any attention to us and I breathed a sigh of relief as we left the huge building with its medicinal smell..
Wanda also took just me (no boys) and we went to Lagoon, a huge amusement park, that is still operating to this day…We arrived there as the gates opened and went to the swimming pool where we spent the morning…Then we proceeded to go on all of the rides for the rest of the afternoon…I did fine until the last ride of the day on the "hammer"…I was very dizzy and to the point of throwing up when we got off of that one!..From there Wanda took me to Devil Slide where Steve and Loraine and the new baby were waiting for me and I would stay with them for a week before we made the long journey back to my home in Lake Fork.
The week I spent there was jam packed…First along with the new baby, Loraine introduced me to her "real" father, Dewayne Fields, usually called "Bus"…He had recently contacted Loraine and was there for a visit…I had known forever that Loraine and Barbara had a different father than the rest of us kids, but they had had no contact with him for over twenty years…However they did stay in touch with his mother, their "Gramma Dine"…But my Dad had been the only father they knew and he was "Daddy" to all of us…Bus had had a slight stroke, so walked with a cane, and seemed ancient compared to my Dad… I helped Loraine by doing dishes, housework, and whatever else she needed…holding Blanchie was my main job…Loraine took me shopping for fabric to make a "poodle skirt" for me and her two girls, Stephanie and Vickie…A circular skirt with a poodle dog at one corner, very popular in the "Fifties…She also looked for a new fabric, that was drip dry and didn't need to be ironed…This could be used to make clothing for her three older children, who were school age…She needed some things to make her life easier as she now had seven children under the age of ten…
Time was going fast and we were very busy…I had a tooth that was aching off and on but didn't want to bother Loraine with it so kept quiet…But one night it was really aching and evidently I cried in my sleep and Loraine thought I was homesick and mentioned it the next morning…I finally told her about the tooth and she after looking in my mouth, made an appointment with their dentist…The dentist gave me ether to knock me out because the tooth was badly abscessed and had to be drained, then packed and later would have to be refilled..All of this because the dentist that filled it in the first place hadn't done it properly…We later found out that he was an alcoholic and soon would be barred from practicing…I wasn't his first patient to have problems…Soon it was time to pack so we could make the return trip to Idaho…We left after Steve got off of work and drove all night, Steve, Loraine, new baby Blanchie and me all in the front seat of a pickup with a home-made camper on the back…They spent a few days in Lake Fork, then loaded their six children in the camper, Blanchie, Loraine and Steve in the cab of the pickup and all returned to their home in Devil Slide, Utah.
A summer to remember and on the first day of school, thanks to my sister Loraine, I had a new "Poodle Skirt" and was the envy of all the other girls.
Happy Birthday Blanche, Love Aunt Della~OWAV:)
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