80 CONTINUED 5

I moved my little family to Manassa, while Arlo was in Denver in the hospital. I rented a house from Lucille Jackson, which was one block west of Grandma and Grandpa Dunn. Arlo was not happy about that. He thought Manassa was a terrible place. It didn't take him long to love it there.

Grandma Dunn helped me tend Larry so I could go to work in the school hot lunch. My hours there were the same as my children, who were in school.

Arlo had surgery on his spine and was not supposed to go to work for a time, but he was very anxious to make a living for his family. He did a job for uncle Loyd and was paid with a pig, to butcher. He killed the pig and I cured the bacon and ham, we cut it up and put it in the locker (a place to freeze food. They had places like wooden crates built into the walls, where we rented a locker to store our meat. Dale sowards owned the locker. That didn't give us any money. I made a small salary and we got by, but it was scant.

Arlo went to work for Boyd Pagett, who owned the service station that had once belonged to Grandpa Dunn. He worked for Boyd, until Boyd died and then he bought it from Elma. That was our income until Arlo sold it to Mitch and Mike. They didn't pay anything on it so it came back to us. That is another story.

The Christmas following the time Arlo came home from the hospital, Arlo said we would not have a Christmas that year. I said, äs long as I live there will be a Christmas for the children. We bought a pickup load of scrap lumber from a sawmill and Arlo made a elevator garage for the boys and we got some little cars for it. He made a table and chairs and a doll cradle for Bonnie. I think that was one of the best Christmases that we ever had.

We got a skunk under the house and it took a long time to get rid of it or them and the smell that went with them. We did finally get the hole closed up and that was the end of the skunk.

Grandma Dunn thought that Larry was the nicest little boy. He never made a mess when he ate and she could rock him to sleep. He never let me rock him. Grandma had a special touch.

We bought a house in the northwest corner of Manassa, and we lived there for a number of years. We lived across the street from Maggie Weston on the North side of Jake and Stella Parker.

TO BE CONTINUED!

80 CONTINUED 4

After Bonnie was born, Ed Guymon built two rooms on the 2 room house we were living in. That was roomier and made it possible for Doris Faye and the boys to have a room, and for Arlo and me to have a bedroom. All of us had shared one room. It was the living room and our bedroom.

Arlo enjoyed hunting and fishing and that was where he spent his extra time. Sometimes we went with him, but most of the time we didn't.

At some time later Arlo didn't work for Ed Guymon anymore, and we moved into Grandma Vance's house in LaJara, for a short time. From there we moved to a house between Sanford and Bountiful. Arlo worked for a man named Gylling. I don't remember his first name.

At that time Grandma Vance had alziemers disease and she spent part of that year living with us. She had the kind that she became a wanderer. It was hard to keep track of her. We loved her dearly, but it was hard to keep her, since I hardly ever had a car, as Arlo went to work in it.

Kent wrote a post on the blog about Donnie dropping the manure fork from the top of a shed and it cut a hole in Kent's head, We were out in the country and had neither a phone nor a car that we could use. That was quite a year.

From there we moved to a farm house Northwest of Romeo. That is where we lived when Larry was born. LaRue and I were both expecting babies, we decided to have them at our house. Doctor Davis was willing to come to our house to deliver them. I took care of LaRue when Eddie was born and LaRue took care of me when Larry was born. (Harold was in the army, overseas.)

Arlo was working for Thales Smith and the farm house was a part of the pay for his work.

I was so excited to get Larry. He was born on the 20th of October, 1954. Arlo had lived a life of poverty as he was growing up and didn't think it was fair to have a big family. I begged for Larry. He is a great blessing to me. How can you thank the Lord enough for a good family?

The winter after Larry was born, Donnie got rheumatic fever and saint vitus dance. Arlo had a pinched nerve in his back and suffered terribly with it. Donnie had a priesthood blessing and the saint vitus dance was instantly healed. It was a disease of the nerves that went with rheumatic fever. He shook so bad that he could hardly hold a spoon, to eat.

Richard and Roxann and Gerald Lynn came to have Christmas with us. Larry and Gerald Lynn were both blessed in the church while they were there. That year the weather was very mild. In fact it was very warm.

Richard And Roxann took Arlo to Grand Junction to the veterans hospital. He was there for about a month and was transfered to Denver Vetrans hospital. He had back surgery in Dencer.

I had to move, since Arlo was no longer working for Thales, I moved my little family to Manassa, so I'd had some help taking care of the children while I worked at hot lunch, in Manassa.

TO BE CONTINUED!

A letter to a teacher

Mom has told me that when Uncle Keith was in the military, he would write letters home. There was a teacher that Keith was especially fond of and he decided to write her a letter.

The teacher received the letter from the young soldier and decided that his grammer needed correcting. She marked up his letter and returned it to him.

According to Mom, that kept uncle Keith from ever writing letters again. I think that I would have been crushed as well. I can't help wondering if that teacher ever knew how devasting her criticism of his attempt to communicate with her was.

80 -- CONTINUED --3

I hope to touch on all of the things in the 2 lists of 80.

I missed telling about my baptism. I was baptized in Manassa in the old brick Stake building that is on the northeast corner of the church lot, on 1 November 1936. There was a baptismal font, in the basement, at that time. I don't think it is there anymore. I don't remember much about it, but I am thankful for that blessing in my life.

Arlo and I moved several times before he went to work for Ed Guymon, and we moved into their two room house. There was no indoor plumbing, so we had a path. There was a running artisian well. The water was wonderful, sweet and icy cold. We had an oil heating stove and a cook stove that was heated by oil also. We heated water for washing and we carried the water for any use we had.

TO BE CONTINUED !

Doris Faye was living with us when we moved there. We lived there when Don was born. He was a sweet red head. Both Arlo and I thought that he was the best child that was ever born. He slept through the night, from the time we brought him home. Arlo washed out his dirty diapers. Can you believe that. He was so proud of him. Life does a drastic change when babies come. It was a cold winter night when Don was born. We had the model A and there was no anti-freeze, so we drained the car every night. When we were preparing to go to the hospital, Arlo had to fill the radiator with water and He had such a hard time getting it filled. He was so nervous. Don was born in the Alamosa hospital. Everything went well. The doctor that delivered him was Dr Hurley. He was the doctor that had delivered me and all of my brothers and sisters. He talked about my mom as he was waiting for Don to get here. I felt the presence of my mom at the time. I think she was there when each of my children were born.

I often took the children, Doris Faye and Don and the other children as they came, to see Grandma Dunn. She was like a mother to me and I felt her need at times.

Eighteen month later Kent was born. He had dark hair and was a good son. Kent has always been a special person to me. I was so proud of my boys. There are a lot of things that make a family. I loved my little family.

We were in the Richfield Ward when we moved there. I was a counselor in the Primary while we lived in Richfield. The LaJara chapel was built when we lived there and Arlo worked on the building. In the winter, there wasn't much work to be done on the farm, so Ed paid him to work on the chapel.

I taught a primary class there. One day the car wouldn't start. It was a heavy car. Not the model A. Arlo had made a crank for it, because that happened sometimes. I cranked and cranked and couldn't start the car. Finally I went into the house and prayed that the car would start, because I felt a great responsibility to be there to teach my class. I went back out and turned the crank once. The car started. I got there, but I was really tired. I know that prayers are answered. I love the Lord and am thankful for his care.

Three years after Kent was born we had Bonnie Lynn. I had always wanted a girl and was so pleased to get my sweet Bonnie. She was a red head, although it didn't really show red until she was about a year old. I told Grandma Dunn that it was red, but she didn't think so. I liked her beautiful hair. The Lord greatly blessed us as a family. When Bonnie was four years old, her eyes were crossed and she had surgery to correct them, Uncle Bill payed for that surgery. It is wonderful to belong to a good family, who are there for you when you nave a need.

80 CONTINUED--2

When I was just about 16 year old my mom was injured as she was riding on the tractor with my dad as they were harvesting a field of grain. The power take off on the tractor broke and cut Mom's leg from the knee to the hip, almost to the bone. She had complications from that injury and never recovered from it. I was really naive, we were called out of school, to go see her in the hospital and even then it never occured to me that she could die. On the 11th of October in 1944 she died. I believe that was the hardest thing that ever happened to me. There was my dad, who was so broken hearted that he would go the cemetery and lay down on the grave and pound it with his fists. He never really recovered from losing his best friend and dearly beloved wife. The six of us children were devistated, too. Life was never the same again. Se stayed on the farm for about a year and Dad couldn't bear the place without Mom.

Shortly after Mom died, I was chosen to be the queen at the Gold and Green Ball. That was a special thing that was held throughout the church at that time. Leon was my escort, all of the boys my age were in the service. Wilma Christensen was my attendant and her escort was Elwin Christensen. Adah Culler was the other attendant and Jessie Hawkins was her escort. I made my formal dress for that. I wasn't very good at that thing at that age, I was 16 years old.
So he sold the place and we moved into Romeo town.

Dad sold the farm and we moved. When we lived in Romeo, I met Arlo. Nona and I were just getting out of school when Arlo and Moine, Nona's boyfriend and later her husband, were waiting outside of the schoo for us. That was the first time I went with Arlo. He had recently been discharged from the army. We spent the next 3 months getting to know each other. I knew him by sight when they lived in Romeo. I went to school with Betty, Jessie and Richard.

Arlo and I were married on the 30 March 1946 at the home of Grandma and Grandpa Dunn. He lived in LaJara. I had 2 months to finish high school, when we married. After we were married, I drove the model A to school when Arlo wasn't using it or I rode the train that went to Chama, New Mexico in the morning and returned to Alamosa, Colorado each night. I posted a letter on the blog that I wrote to Keith while he was overseas in the Navy. Irma gave me that letter when she was going through her things after Keith died. I had forgotten about riding the train.

Arlo and I had been married 4 months when He and I took Dad to Alamosa to the hospital to have a hernia repaired. We went to Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bill's, and ate dinner with them and went to a movie. Then we left Dad at the hospital. He had complications from that surgery. He had two more surgeries to fix the problems. He got lockage of the bowl and died from that. That left my brothers and sisters without a home. Losing Mom was hard, but losing Dad, left a big hole in our lives. There was never a home to go home to after that. Keith just got home from being discharged from the Navy, when Dad died. He was on his way home but there was no way to let him know that Dad had died. The aunts and uncles met every train and bus that came into Alamosa, until he arrived. He was in time for the funeral. I have said before and I say it again. We were a sad bunch of kids. keith went to Los Alamos, where he lived with Bud Richardson and family, Leon went with Aunt May and Uncle Charlie Schofield, to Farmington, New Mexico, Barbara went with Aunt Ethel and Uncle Don, to California, LaRue stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Dunn, and Doris Faye went home with Arlo and Me.

All of my life I have been so thankful to the Lord for the gospel in our lives. That was our real source of peace and It brought all of us together ever after that. We are a close family. All of us have been married in the temple and have our children sealed to us. In that there is peace, to know that we are an eternal family if we live worthy of that blessing.

TO BE CONTINUED

# 1 of 160 years or 2 80's

I told Kent that I would post some of the things that were in the two 80 lists of accomplishments. I will start at my birth. I was born in Antonito, Colorado, on 24 October 1928. We lived in Antonito for a very short time. My dad was working in a store, in the meat market. He was very apt at many things. He said "he could do all things but master of none" , We moved back to Manassa, we had lived there when Keith was born, I was born, between Keith and Leon. Leon was born in Manassa while we lived there, that time.

After Leon was born, we lived in Saguache, next. We lived there one summer. Keith broke his arm and I cut my head as we fell out of a two wheel trailer. Dad worked for Homer Crow. The man that we later bought our farm from.

We moved back to Manassa, we lived there when Barbara and LaRue were born. We lived across the street from Gloria's grandparents. Helen and I were good friends at a very early age. The house that we lived in was in the south west corner of town.

When I was eight years old, my dad's aunt Mattie died, as a small child Dad's parents died and his sister May and Dad lived with Aunt Mattie part of the years as he was growing up. Our family went to California to settle Aunt Mattie's estate. She owned a home near Los Angles and she had no children. Dad and Aunt may inherited that home. All of us went. Ethel and Don lived there then and Also Hazel and Jimmy. We stayed with them. Mom's sister Doris went with us, too. One day we went to the beach and on the way back to Ethel's home there was a sign which said "Airplane rides $2:00, Keith and Mom and Dad and Hazel and Doris, and I went for a ride in a small plane. The others went back to Ethel's. We were in two cars. That was before I had even seen an airplane.

On the way home from California, we went through Mesa, Arizona and were sealed as a family in the Mesa Temple. That was the first time I had ever seen orange trees and palm trees. All of that was very interesting. Because of the money from the estate we were able to buy the farm.

We moved from there to the farm which was three and a half miles south of Romeo and three and a half miles north of Antonito. That is where we considered home. Doris Faye was born in manassa at Grandma Dunn's home, we lived in Romeo. Our family was complete.

I was in the third grade in Manassa, when we moved to Romeo. The school in Romeo was in a large two story brick building that had been built for a bank and other purposes. All of the classes were in that building, from first grade through high school. There were two class in each of the rooms from the first grade through the eighth. High School was in two rooms. we had the best hot lunch. The cooks were the best. I loved school though I was never as good a pupil as my brothers and sisters. Keith and Barbara were math genius', I was never good in math or science. My favorite subjects were reading and English. Leon was so great at memorizating. He could read a thing once and had total recall of it.

The top floor of the school had regular basketball standards. The hot lunch was also on that floor. There was a kitchen and one class room. There was a stage, too. I was in the last class that graduated from Romeo High School. Three of us graduated that year. Dorothy Sorenson, Joe Casias and Me. The following summer the school burned. the students were divided between LaJara and Manassa schools.

One of the things that I loved was my good friends. Nona Camp, Edith Hicks, Dorothy Sorenson, Cleo Carr, and a number of boys. When I was a senior all of the boys my age, except Joe Casias were in the service.

First epistle. TO BE CONTINUED.

David and Marti

Last night, I got a phone call from David to let me know that he and Marti would be in Colorado Springs today. It's been a number of years since we saw David. When we were both North of Denver, we saw each other frequently, but since Betty and I have moved to Colorado Springs, we haven't seen each other. We were eager to see David and get to meet Marti. They got here at about 8:45 this morning.

David and I would drop in on one another now and then and I have always enjoyed his visits. David loves to laugh. He has a smile that starts on the corner of his dark eyes and spreads to his whole person. I got a kick out of him today when he told me the same jokes that he had told me last night. The sad part is that I couldn't remember the punch lines and the jokes were new to me all over again.

These photos are shuffled so I am not going to try to put them in order. I need to learn a better way of handling the photos.

I sat down on the sofa between Marti and David and we looked at pictures from the blog and talked about our memories of our family and of Manassa.

It's funny how two people who grow up in the same town and in the same family can have such different memories of the past.

I sent invitations to both Marti and David to join this blog. I really hope that they take me up on that invitation. I don't want to lose track of David again.

It has been fun to reconnect with some of our family members through the blog, and to keep track of what is happening in each other's lives. It will be fun to do that with David's family too.

80 more

I told Larry that I could do 80 more.
1. Mesa
2. Atlantic Ocean
3. Pacific Ocean
4. 27 temples
5. Ordinance Worker
6. Singles
7. Rode in an airplane at age 8
8. Los Angles
9. Fallbrook
10. Disneyland
11. Library
12. Taught
13. Sunday School
14. R S
15. Seminary
16. wedding Cakes
17. Hospital Auxiliary
18. Cemetary Board
19. R Committee Woman
20. Cruise Mexico
21. Board of directors-Home by Hospital
22. Married Ward
23. Tuscan Usher
24. Appendectomy
25. Nona
26. Elva
27. Dottie
28. Reunions
29. Tour Mexico
30.Niagara Falls
31. Nauvoo
32. georgia
33. Texas-Anita
34. 1 month-Aunt Ruth
35. Washingtron D C
36. Statue of Liberty
37.New York City
38. Adam on Diamon
39. Calendars
40. Canned food
43. Flute bags
44. Humanitarian
45. Philmont Scout Ranch
46. Girls Camp
47. Cub Scout Day Camp
48. Saguache
49. Repair stage curtains
50. Camping
51. Home Evening
52. Don't drive
53. In a play
54. swim
55. DUP
56. Library board of directors
57. President WCHS
58. Queen-G&G ball
59. F H Consultant
60. Yellowstone
61. Played Anna
62. Have a boarder
63. Holbrook
64. MTC- 3 times
65.Issiquah
66. Peach Springs
67. Renton
68. Rode train to school
69. School bus
70. President- Hospital Auxiliary
71.Stake Primary
72. Stake Relief Society
73. Mutual
74. Read Scriptures daily-26 years
75. School plays
76. Salt Lake to Conference 14 years
77. Drapery shop

78.Buried 2 husbands
79. Have a great family
80. Made it 80 years