Wednesday Hodgepodge - Memories of my Grandparents and More

 

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent's Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent. 

This is the only picture I could find of my adopted maternal grandmother, Matilda Tovey Hart, who is the grandparent I remember best and loved most. She is about 20 years old or so in this picture, and obviously I didn't know her then, but when I knew and her, she was smart and kind and I loved visiting her.  She had a great Christian faith, and she read the scriptures and knew and loved all of the Bible stories, which she told to her grandchildren, including me.  

This picture is my adopted paternal grandmother, Margaret Thomas Hunt, who died when I was six or seven.  I don't remember much of her because I didn't spend much time with her.  The one thing I do remember is that she had a picture of President John F. Kennedy hanging in the kitchen of her small apartment.  I think this grandmother had a fairly tough life. She raised six children by herself.

This is Clifford Earl House, my biological maternal grandfather.  I knew him when he was older, after being reunited with my biological family.  He was a Christian Pentecostal minister and a really great guy.  I remember he had a sense of humor and he kept everyone laughing.  He was also very kind and caring.  I'm very grateful that I got to know him for a few years before he died.

2. What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

I love this quote by Atticus Finch, a main character in one of my favorite classic books, To Kill a Mockingbird. 

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

3. What's your number one food pet peeve? 

I don't enjoy menu planning and coming up with something new and delicious that my family will love every night. 

4. What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

Except for a few years when I was having babies and my hair darkened a bit, my hair has always been light blonde since I was a child and it remains so to this day. No, I don't color my hair.  Blonde is my natural color. 

5. September is National Preparedness Month...does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that's kept there. 

We have three backpacks in the basement with emergency preparedness items.  I admit that I do not go through and update them on a regular basis and I need to.  We also have a storage room in our basement with extra food that would get us through a short emergency period.  

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Until next time,

🍂Deb🍂

"September is the threshold

between summer and winter."

~Meeta Ahluwalia

Sunday Stealing on Monday

I thought that this was a fun Sunday Stealing - looking back in time - so I decided to play along.  

 What were you doing ...

My daughters and I took a little girls trip to Washington D.C. in 2005.

Here we are in front of the White House.

1. Twenty years ago?

In the spring of 2005, I was still in my 40s and just finishing up my 4th year of teaching. I taught English at Higley High School in Gilbert, Arizona.  Charly was working as an accountant for Arizona State University.  My oldest daughter had graduated from college, was working and had just met the man who she would marry that fall.  My second daughter was married and she and her husband were finishing up her degree at BYU.  My oldest son Alex was 15-years-old and attending high school.  Josh was nine and still in elementary school.  We didn’t have any grandchildren yet.  Life was busy and stressful, but somehow it seems like everything was easier and clearer than it is now.  

Josh with other missionaries in Mexico at a baptism in 2015.

He is the tallest guy on the right end with the gray tie.

2. Ten years ago?

In the spring of 2015, We lived in Gilbert, Arizona. I was teaching at Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona. This was hands-down my favorite school to teach at.  Charly had done a career transition from accounting to teaching.  He loved having so much more time at home with the family. Our two oldest daughters were married and we had four grandchildren.  Alex, our oldest son, had graduated from college, (Arizona State University) and was going to be married in the fall.  Josh was serving a mission for our church in Monterrey, Mexico.  Life was busy, and full with a few bumps in the road and a lot of worries. 

We had a little family vacation in Yellowstone,

along with half of America during Covid.

Everyone needed to get out of the house

and the National Parks were the perfect places to go.

3. Five years ago?

In May 2020, our nation and our family were dealing with the Covid pandemic.  We were living in Utah, having moved from Arizona in 2017. Charly and I were ending the school year teaching from home.  I was teaching at Taylorsville High School, where I still teach.  Charly was teaching at a junior high in the same district, and decided to retire at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, as many teachers did.  Josh was finishing his first year of college at Ensign College online, and he did not enjoy online learning.  He much preferred being in class with other students and a real, live teacher.  Our older children were all married and dealing with Covid too.  All ten of our grandchildren had been born, and the youngest two were one and three-years-old.  

Last spring we took a fun trip to St. George

and got to spend some time with our daughter and her family there.

4. One year ago? 

In spring of 2024, I was finishing up my 23rd year of teaching.  I taught English at Taylorsville High School, as I do now.  Charly was retired.  We were living in our 70-year-old house in Millcreek, Utah, having moved from our condo the previous summer.  Josh was at BYU Idaho in Rexburg finishing his final year for his bachelor's degree.  I attended BYU Women’s Conference with our daughter Tiffany and we enjoyed seeing our grandchildren at least once a month. We attended our oldest grandson’s high school graduation.  Life was not perfect, but it was good, as it is today. 

 

Sundays are church days for our family.

5. Yesterday? 

Yesterday, I attended church with my husband.  Josh, who has moved back in after graduating from college, went to church in his young adult congregation. I went for a walk after church, and enjoyed a restful Sabbath.   

Bonus! What will you do tomorrow?

Tomorrow is another school day - and there will only be 15 more days of school left in the year at the end of the day tomorrow.  I will probably go to the rec. center to walk after school.  Josh will be attending day 2 of orientation for his new job, and then begin work on Wednesday.   

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"At every phase of our life,

we make memories that we cherish all of our lives."

~Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Tuesday 4 - A Blast From the Past

This week's Tuesday 4 questions were kind of fun so I decided to join in and share some memories of high school.  You can join in too here at  Tuesday 4. 

1. Was there a teen hangout in your town or near it where teens seemed to gravitate? What was a favorite place to go?

Dee's Hamburgers was a fast food place in town where teens liked to go. I seem to remember going there with a few time. Sometimes fights broke out there after football games, but I was never involved in one. Dee's Hamburgers does not exist as a fast food chain any more, but there are a few sit-down restaurants with that name around.

2.  Did you attend your high school varsity games? What high school activities did you enjoy the most?

I attended high school football games with friends and I think we just talked and laughed way more than we actually watched the game. (The picture is an actual photo of my high school football team in action, from the year that I graduated. We were the Bountiful Braves, but a few years ago, the name was changed to the Bountiful Redhawks because Bountiful Braves was not considered politically correct).

I was involved with the high school newspaper. I loved being on the newspaper staff. I was involved in the newspaper all four years of high school (9-12 grades) and even made it to editor my senior year.

3. Did you have any teen idols whose music or acting you just really enjoyed?   What  music did you enjoy most? What movies?

I liked Bobby Sherman for a while, until I realized that he absolutely could not carry a tune. He was just kind of a pretty face. I liked The Carpenters and to this day I think that Karen Carpenter had one of the most beautiful female voices ever. The first concert I ever went to was The Carpenters. When I was a little older, in high school, I liked Billy Joel when he first came on the scene. Piano Man is still one of my all time favorites.

As far as movies go, I saw a lot of them, but the only one I really remember was Earthquake, a disaster flick that haunts me to this day because I live on the Wasatch Fault, which is a major fault long overdue for a big earthquake.

4. Did your school have dances or sock hops and did you attend?

Yes, our school had dances, and I attended three - two girls choice dances and one prom. I don't remember any sock hops. If we had any, I didn't go. The dances I did attend were quite formal. They were a big deal at the school and a lot of fun. I have pictures somewhere, but don't know where at the moment.

That's it for these Tuesday 4 questions. Thanks for stopping by and joining with me for this look back at my high school memories.

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Sometimes small memories

cover a large part of our hearts."

~anon.