Grandma Cora

My parents didn't have the pleasure of knowing any of their grandchildren or great grandchildren. She was the kindest person I knew. She never said a bad word about another person. If someone said something unkind about someone, she would say something nice about them. That had a tendency to stop bad rumors. Mom was a gentle person. She would be so proud to be your grandmother.

My Mom and Dad were so in love that being apart was painful for my dad. He was so sad when Mom died that life was too hard for him. I always felt that he died of a broken heart. They spent as much time together as it was possible. That is why she was on the tractor with him when the power take-of on the tractor broke and cut her leg from the knee to the hip to the bone. It was a terrible thing. She never recovered from that injury.

I didn't know that my mom could die. That kind of thing only happened to other people. We were back in school and almost everyday when we got off the bus and opened the door, someone would say "Mama", that was a hard time for all of us. That is the reason why we never talked about our parents. It was a too hard subject. I guess we never got over it.

I have great respect for my mom and hope when I see her again she will be pleased with the kind of person that I am. I also hope she and Dad will be be happy with all of you. I know they already love all of you. Grandma Gatha

Some things about my Dad

My Dad was a person that could do anything he set his mind to do.

As a young man, he was a guide for people who fished the high lakes or for hunters in the mountains. He worked for a dude ranch. He loved horses.

He was a trained meat cutter and worked for several stores as a meat cutter. He had training as a barber, but never set up a shop.

He farmed and raised cattle.

He was a great Dad. It was important for us to respect our mom. We were not allowed to talk back to her or in any way be disrespectful to her. My dad didn't allow it. I have always loved that in him.

I hope that my parents are proud of each of you. I'm sure they would be proud to be you grandfather and grandmother.

The Cockroach

The image above is one that Debra created as a consequence of a story that I related about a night in Argentina. I was sleeping when I felt something with claws on it feet crawl across my face. I was startled awake and jumped out of bed to find whatever it was that had just traversed me. I turned on the light and found on the wall a large cockroach. I reached for a shoe to eradicate the little bugger, but before I could muster the pest took to flight and out the window it went. We were sleeping with the windows open to help cool the room during the night.

Don't you think that Debra did an admirable job painting a cockroach?



How would you like to have a cockroach for a pet. Here is Debra showing her bravery when she went with her mother to visit the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver.



These cockroaches were large, I was told.



And demonstrating her outstanding courage is Jeanette when she was so bold as to hold a young Tarantula.

What kind of pet do you have?

Home in Romeo

I feel that it is a great blessing to grow up in a home where love and acceptance is. That is the way it was in our home. Winter nights we sat around the dinner table and talked, sometimes into the night. The church was our life. Because it was war time and we had an old car, sometimes our dates were family affairs. Our parents went to mutual and dances with us. There are some great memories.

The cousins.

I have fond memories of my cousins. I can say that I miss seeing and knowing them. My uncle Leon Bingham would visit Manassa to come celebrate the 24th of July. I always wanted to see Jim, Brenda, and all the others. We would play together, I don't remember just what, but we would. It was an exciting time to have them come. I remember going to Mesa Arizona once to visit them. It does not seem like a fair trade. I thought that they were the perfect family.



Sometimes we would go on a road trip to New Mexico to visit uncle Keith Bingham and his children. Kelly and Barry were the boys that I remember playing with. I do remember riding down the streets of their town in a wagon. They lived in Los Alamos. I vaguely remember going to the atomic processing plant and touring the facility where the atomic bomb was created. I can't remember anything other than the wall with the glass that had long rubber gloves attached to work on the materials on the opposite side.




The Whites lived in Manassa for the years when I was in early grade school. Barbara White lived in the white house a few blocks away with her children. Bob, Connie, Larry, Danny, and Jeff.

Larry, Danny, and Jeff were my buddies. They are all gone now. I get somewhat melancholy when I dwell on it. I don't have any good pictures of them. Only of few.

Larry Dean and I (Larry Arlo) are kneeling down in the front in the picture below Aunt Barbara. Barbara moved to Albuquerque New Mexico and we did not have much contact after that. I miss the days when we boys would go on our adventures. (I do not miss getting into trouble.)




LaRue Lawson came to live with us in Manassa while her husband Harold was serving in Viet Nam. They had a trailer that was parked on the lot where the garden plot used to be. Eddie and I were about the same age, but Eddie was a little older and quite a bit larger than me. I don't have any pictures of them.

Eddie and I play together, after a fashion. Eddie always wanted things his way (anyway that is the way I remember it) and I did not want to always do what he wanted, so we would sometimes engage in arguments and what our parents thought were fights. Go figure!

One day LaRue and Gatha determined that they were going to have an end of our fighting. They were going to make us fight until we wanted to fight no more. They secures some willow switches to use to threaten us if we did not continue to fight. We fought. But as seeing that Eddie was much larger than me, it was not long before he had the upper hand. I was on the bottom and he was sitting on me while we pushed each others hands and arms around. Nobody was really getting hurt, but I was getting tired.

I laid down on the ground and rested. Eddie exclaimed, "I KILLED HIM! I killed him!" and started to get up. As he did I actually hit him with a right cross to the head. I don't remember how the fight ended, but there we were having fought with probably no clear victor, and as I remember, not much changed in the way we played. Maybe Eddie, Gatha, or LaRue could add some light as to what really happened then and thereafter.

Doris Faye was mostly like a big sister. I don't remember her living with us, but I do remember her living in the house that Barbara used to have. Doris Faye and Bill and their children were close enough that we spent a lot of time interacting. Billy Jean was the one that we played with the most. When Bill died things changed a bit. I hear Aunt Doris Faye is getting ready to get married again.



I have lost touch with all my cousins. I wish then all well.

Memories

Although I never knew Grandma and Grandpa Bingham, they have touched my life.

For many years, I had a two drawer dresser that I put my clothes in. Grandpa Bingham had made it from an old upright Radio cabinet. I think that LaRue has it now.

I still have a picture that hung in the home of Grandma and Grandpa Bingham. I have really enjoyed it over the years. When it fell from the wall one time and the glass broke, I realized that it was actually the cover of a Relief Society magazine.

As I look at photos of Grandma and Grandma Bingham, I can see their grandchildren. I see Leon's boys in Grandpa, and I see Connie White as I look at Grandma Bingham. They left their marks on our contenances and on our hearts.

Gatha's family

There are 60 people in Arlo and My family. I don't have a large family, but we are growing slowly.

How this BLOG works

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So in review, there are three levels of participation.

1. Administrator
2. Author
3. General Public

Anybody can look and comment. Only authors can post articles. The administrator controls who can do what.

If you are a part of the Ted and Cora Bingham family and would like to have permission to be an author, then please notify Kent or me (Larry) that you would like to be invited by an administrator.

My address is larryavance1954 at gmail dot com. Replace the at and dot with the right symbols.

My Aunt Doris Faye

Doris Faye and her family lived in Manassa for the years when I was a teenager. She was very kind to me. She and Uncle Bill would allow me to use their vehicles. I don't remember now much about what I did when I was out with their cars, but I do remember the exchanges.

Doris Faye was good enough to let me try to learn to drive in her Chevrolet sedan. We went out of town behind the "M" where the roads are not level, but have an incline. As we were going down the hill I stepped on the clutch. This allowed us to accelerate along the road. The road curved. I lost control. Doris Faye grabbed the wheel and told me to step on the brakes. I tore the muffler from the exhaust system on the rocks at the side of the road. What an adventure.

I am a member, but ....

I am a grandson of Ted Bingham and Cora Dunn. I have completed family group sheets and pedigree charts that include them, but I have no memories of my own. Knowing dates and places is not really knowing someone. I must rely on Mom, Doris Faye, Leon, Larue, Barbara, Keith and others who knew them to tell us what they know. This is the best source of information we have right now.

Others have heard stories about them from their parents. Those would be wonderful sources of information too.

There are a lot of cousins like me, with children and grandchildren. It would be wonderful to see some posts about that portion of the family as well. Please, Please join us in talking of Ted and Cora's family. We could have fun, gain strength, and draw closer to one another if we would but take the time to share with one another.