The Case of the Missing Yellow Trike

     "I got bad news," Ed reports as he comes in from his early morning trike ride, "I can't find the yellow trike."
     "You can't find the trike you were riding?" His trike still isn't fixed so he's riding mine.
     Where are my shoes? I'm panicking. Did someone steal it?  Jarom's Highway Patrol vehicle is parked in front of the Olsens. They would have to be awfully brazen.  Did it roll someplace?
     "Come and show me where you had it last," I call as I rush out the door. 
     "At the Olsens."
     I relax. Living at the end of our circle, it couldn't go very far. I rather pictured it rolling down Raymond and gaining such speed that it flew over the barriers separating us from Kaysville, picking up more momentum down the steep hill and rolling straight into the Great Salt Lake, if there's still water in it.
     The minute I get out on the street, I can see it. It must have rolled backwards from the Olsen to the Sorensens, jumped the curb in front of a car parked on the street and stopped. "I still can't see it," he yowls, so I walk over with him. He starts to push it home. I tell him he should ride it to see if there's any damage.
     "The Olsens are going on a cruise to Alaska," he tells me. "They are going with the Hawkins and they didn't even invite us. They know I love cruises. They are going to the same ports we went to and will be gone for seven days.  Her sister is a travel agent."
     All the while he is finding out this bit of neighborhood news, his trike is on a trip of its own.
     Defector!

The Case of the Defector Trike

Wonder where the yellow trike went
When the first search for it was spent?
Luckily it had not gone far
And that it had missed every car.
Yes, it rolled away in the town,
Past curb and sidewalk, up and down.
                    --DeLoy Esplin

A Day in Moccasin with the Cousins 2003

February 28, 2003
     I have spent several days as a guest of the Hughs in their condo in St. George. We planned a cousins gathering in Moccasin. Calls were made to Guenivere, Eva, Georgia Lou and VeRene. We spent the evening making salads. Next morning, Jerry met us at the condo. We arrive in Hurricane and pick up Guenivere. Guenivere still clerks at the little store where she has worked forever.  She tells us again that the store is closing and that she won't be working much longer.  I remember that's what she told us a number of years back. 

Shirley, Ed, Guenivere in the green van    

 We pick up Eva at the Dairy-Store in Colorado City, or is it Hilldale? Half of the day's fun is the conversation in the van. We're deeply appreciative of DeRay. He generously gives as much of his talents and means to Jeanette's family as he does his own; and always does so cheerfully.

Bill & Georgia Lou visiting with Osa.

(Guenivere, Osa, and Georgia Lou have all died since 2003)

     Georgia Lou and Bill greet us at the "Big House". Bill never stops working all of the time we are there. It was a rather nice day, but the booming fire in both fireplaces and the cookstove felt good and reminded us of what it would have been like when the Heaton family lived and grew up there. VeRene and Osa soon came. The surprise was when Mack and Peggy walked in. Mack's new wife, Peggy, is a renowned Arizona artist. Her work is professional, beautiful; excellent, spiritual. She has a wonderful sketch of President Kimball surrounded by Navajo children. I thought how appropriate and how pleased Grandma Heaton would be to have Peggy's art shown in her parlor. Grandma Heaton's greatest concern in raising her family on a ranch was their limited cultural advantage. She tried to build up a good home library with church periodicals and the classics for her children to read.
     We walked up the steep stairs to the girls' and the boys' rooms. As we stepped into the girls' room, the window looked out onto the school playground. It seemed we were almost on top of the school grounds. The thought hit me that Grandmother Heaton not only closely supervised her brood when they were at home, but she had a good view of the playground and could monitor their social activities on the playground. She must have stood and watched the children at play many times. I think it was Beth that told us that some classes would be held at Grandma Heaton's.

This is the picture we took a picture of when we were in Moccasin on July 7, 2016.

I posted it on my blog on our Heritage Tour.

Eva Johnson, who with her husband who was at the time serving in the bishopric in the Moccasin Ward, joined the Polygamous in Short Creek; VeRene Tait, Guenivere White, Osa Figgins, Georgia Lou Schmutz. Back: Shirley Hart, Jerry Esplin, Jeanette Hugh, Peggy & Mack Esplin,

     Jeanette and Ed eat their lunch in the north room where she said our mother was born, which also had a fire in the fireplace. As we visited near the warm fire downstairs, the three sisters Guenivere, Eva, and Osa sat on a bench pushed against the east wall in the parlor. This is a complicated story and rather hard to lead into. Osa by nature is much like Aunt May. She doesn't measure her words or think ahead of what she is going to say. She began by telling an experience her Ward had of preparing a meal for a group from Colorado City after a funeral in Fredonia. With Eva right next to her, her explosive comment was, that the "polygs" were nicer than real people. Not sure she had put her point across, she repeated it again. VeRene said, "Osa!" She never retracted, a litle flustered, but reaffirmed that it was a great experience to prepare a meal for the "polygs" and that they were nicer than real people. Our cultural awareness experience for the day. Eva didn't seem to take offense. I told Jeanette that Eva knows Osa. Eva had previously told me how mean she and Joyce (a younger sister) were to Osa when they were kids. They wouldn't play with her because she had spots on her face and arms (freckles). The conversation continued on, memories related and incidents remembered.

Mack and Peggy Esplin, Guenivere White, VeRene Tait, Jerry Esplin, Shirley Hart

Mack and VeRene are our double-first cousins.

Our mothers were sisters and our dads were brothers.

     We left for home extremely grateful for Georgia Lou and Bill's generosity in making us feel so welcome. Georgia Lou said, "We're restoring the home and have dedicated it as a gathering place for all the descendants of Jonathan Heaton: a place of peace, tranquility and love. We have a memory path and the grounds are set up to accommodate large gatherings during the summer months." After our gathering, Eva said to Jeanette, "I sure do appreciate you. This day will always be a precious memory to me. I want a picture of this group. They are so dear to me." All my love, Shirley
Dear Shirley,
     Words cannot say how much I enjoyed the day in Moccasin and traveling with Jeanette, DeRay and Ed, you and Jerry. And Jeanette's boy is such a delightful young man. And thank you so very much for the picture of your mom. Wow, that brought lots of wonderful memories. Guenivere.
(Guenivere has a different mother than Eva and Osa. Her mother died after her brother was born. Grandma tended the three kids: Carol, Guenivere, and LaVar while their dad went on a mission to England, where he served with President McKay. He named his youngest son, McKay. When Aunt May joined the church her parents kicked her out of the house. She left with only the coat on her back. Somehow she got to Canada and passed illegally into the United States. She never got her citizenship; never voted. But she was a faithful member of the church. Last year when they had a huge Jonathan Heaton Family Reunion, cousins from England came over; still not members of the church. They went to see Eva in Short Creek the next day. How they got to see her, we'll never know. Since their troubles and Warren Jeff's imprisonment, no one else has been allowed to see or talk to her.)

My write-up of this eventful day:
     "In the past, feasting was a way to bind the community closer together.  The same is true today.  Whether they are cultural gatherings, times of group worship, or even special dinners with friends, we all need moments where we come together and reaffirm the importance of our group."—Deng Ming-Dao

To those of us who were privileged to go, the day in Moccasin was a time to reaffirm the importance of our group.  With the roaring fires and the restoration, Grandma Heaton’s home truly is a place of peace and pondering; a gathering place to remember our heritage and our birthright.  For those with us (Guenivere, Eva, Osa, Georgia Lou) who were raised in Moccasin and remember Grandma Heaton, feelings were probably even more poignant, although I’m sure we all agree that Mama did a pretty thorough job of indoctrinating us about the magic of Moccasin.  We always felt we were walking on sacred ground and knew it was a privilege to be there.

Guenivere told a little story about when she was a child walking towards Grandma's house.  Inside she saw a woman she thought was Aunt Amy (Mama).  "I got so excited I got goose bumps.  I can still remember how thrilled I was that I was going to be able to see her.”  It turned out to be Winona. 

Shirley and I have talked about how the nieces loved Mama.  When we saw LaVerna in the rest home in Kanab a year or two ago, she was ecstatic to see Shirley.  “I never thought I’d see Aunt Amy again in this life time.  I am so thrilled.”

Remember in a letter Mama wrote to Daddy dated December 30, 1926, she said: “I went home Friday afternoon to spend Christmas with the folks, guess it did seem kinda' good to be there.  All the kiddies were tickled pink cause Aunt Amy had come home and they sure showed me a royal time.  Old Santa brot me the most presents.  I decided right then and there that I'd sure been a good girl, and minded my papa and mamma every time they had ask me to do anything. , ,”

     Jennie’s daughter, Marilyn, brought a copy of Jennie & Ren’s story.  I told her how her mother had identified every single person in the eminent Jonathan Heaton family photo taken at Moccasin on January 1, 1906.  Then all the cousins wanted a copy.  I had everyone’s address except Eva’s.  “If you’ll give me your address, I’ll send you one,” I told her.  She hesitated.  Didn’t seem to want to do it.  So I let it go.  After we made copies of the photos we took that day at Moccasin, Eva looked so good in every one that I definitely decided I wanted to send her copies.  I called her on the phone and she gave me her address.  “How should I write your name?” I asked.  She stuttered a little so I said, “Should I just say ‘Grandmother Eva’?”  “That would be wonderful,” she glowed.

We were waiting at the dairy store for them to bring the molasses we wanted to buy.  They said it would be 15 minutes but it was quite a bit longer.  Shirley, Eva and Guenivere were visiting in the van, the rest of us were hanging out in the store.  A group of school children came in, all with folded arms, in single file.  “Did you notice,” Jerry asked, “how every little girl was served before a single boy stood up on the bench to choose the flavor of his ice cream cone?”  They had beautiful complexions; clean and neat; mannerly. 

They have recently gone into the chicken business and Eva had (almost) showed us the Brooder building (we passed it before she pointed it out).  In the store were pictures of the eggs hatching, the new little chicks in different phases of growth.  The one with the baby chicks was entitled, “The Short Creek Chicks.”  I didn’t dare say Short Creek when I called Eva on Sunday evening to invite her to go with us to Moccasin.  “How far is it from where you live to Moccasin?” I asked, beating around the bush, not daring say Colorado City or Hilldale either for fear I would say the wrong one and offend her.  
“Short Creek Chicks!”   Don’t you love it?

When Eva was identified in a picture hanging in the store, it said “Grandmother Eva”.  That’s where I got the idea to ask her if it would OK to address her letter to Grandmother Eva.  I had used it when I called when they wanted to know which Eva.  Eva told me a few years ago that she had over 100 grandchildren.  It’s always her grandchildren working at the cash register; bringing the molasses in the pickup, everywhere, doing everything.  “Is that your grandchild?”  “Yes.”  Jerry was quite flabbergasted when he went upstairs to let her know we were here and she had a big stack of money in front of her; a woman of wealth and influence.  And mystery.  

Bonus: The Heaton Cousins at Carol Heaton Lamb's funeral. August 14, 2001 Orderville

 VeRene Tait, Georgia Lou Schmutz, Nan & Nard Johnson, Adeline Johnson (Owen's wife), Lucy Sorensen, Jeanette & Ed Hugh, Shirley Hart.

 Adeline Johnson, Georgia Lou Schmutz, Nan Johnson, Lucy Sorensen, LaNard Johnson, Osa Figgins, Eva Johnson, Landell Heaton, Guenivere White, McKay Heaton, Ed Hugh. Front: VeRene Tait, Jeanette Hugh, Shirley Hart

 VeRene Tait, Adeline Johnson talking to Eva w/Lucy behind.

Nan Johnson, Shirley Hart, Ed Hugh, Landell Heaton

 Lucy Sorensen, Nan Johnson, Osa Figgins

 Nard and Guenivere visiting, both raised in Moccasin.

Shirley, Ross, Mavis, Beth Sorensen and daughter Jackie.

Janice Esplin, Ed & his Aunt Lucy

At Carol's funeral, all of Mama's brothers and sisters, except two, had children there. 

Uncle Charl - Lavina

Uncle Fred - Fred E.

Aunt Esther - LaNard and Adeline, a daughter-in-law

Aunt Zidie - none

Uncle Chris - Guenivere, Eva, Osa, Landell, McKay. Derryll was probably there, I didn't see him. Carol's brothers and sisters.

Uncle Ed - Beth and Mavis

Aunt Lucy - Nan, VeRene and daughter-in-law Janice Esplin. 

Johnny furnished a salad for the luncheon.

Aunt Ella - Orval Palmer

Uncle Sterling - I didn't see Gene or Ione

Uncle Gilbert - Georgia Lou Schmutz

Mama - Shirley, Lucy, Jeanette

Of these first cousins, most of them had some of their grown children with them. Eva had three daughters: Connie, Roseann, and Maydean, her youngest.

Except for the in-laws and Orderville Esplin double-first cousins (Nan, VeRene, Shirley, Lucy, Jeanette) all of the first cousins were raised in Moccasin, Arizona.
Fifteen years later,
all of the cousins except Eva, Shirley, VeRene, Landell, McKay, and Jeanette have died. Nard died within seven months.

Orderville Folks at LaNard's Funeral, March 17, 2002:

Jeanette, Gene Russell, Sylvia, Juanita, Lasca Chamberlain, Lynn.

Gene is the husband of my deceased classmate Lorene that I dreamed about and

Lasca is her mother.
Lorene died nearly 30 years ago.

Sylvia Chamberlain, Juanita's 96-year-old mother, Juanita, Lynn, Jeanette

 United Order murals by Elbert Porter

 In foyer of church house in Orderville

Lynn, Jeanette, Jerry, Shirley

Lana & Jerry; double-first cousin Johnny & Virginia Esplin

Jerry & Lana in front of clay hills where we got our clay to make mud horses.

My favorite Orderville Folk pictures were taken when Brooke was blessed: 1972

Duff & LaVee Pugh (Brooke's grandparents), Valda Pope (Brooke great-grandmother),
Burke Sorensen, Della Pugh, DeRay Pugh, Lucy Sorensen, Les Pugh, Jeannine & Mary Lee Ramsay (cousin, friend, classmate), Amy Esplin Crofts (Brooke's grandmother),
front: Effie Sorensen, Brent Pugh, Jeanette holding Brooke, and Annie Esplin (Mama's 1st cousin, Mary Lee's mother) February 1972

DeMoin & Effie Sorensen, Burke Sorensen, DeRay holding Brooke, Duff & LaVee Pugh, Valda Pope, Brent, Della & Leslie Pugh, Mercy & Hans Chamberlain (next door neighbors).

Now I'm getting nostalgic.

A Reunion within a Reunion - 5

The Last Day

The last sour dough hot cakes.

The last of the week long Round Up

Next year the reunion will be two days.

Soup Night and Pot Luck.

Everyone on own for breakfast and lunch.

It got to be too much for the old arthritic ones who do all the work.

We had eaten breakfast before we showed up at camp

around 12:30 on Saturday.
We were not even hungry.

"Fire up the generator,

turn on the grills.

Sour dough hot cakes

Scrambled, fried or special cooked eggs.

Ham."

We reveled in the attention

and now we know how it feels to

come any old time and be served breakfast.

Some even ate after us.

Sometimes DeRay would be on his feet for six hours

serving everyone as they straggled in.

Then he would start the sour dough biscuits for the Pot Luck dinner.

Being a worrier,

getting out of a condo always upsets me.

This morning

Amanda wanted to go swimming.

Children under 14 have to be accompanied by an adult.

Utah law.
Someone had to go with her.
Who me?

while Amy, Brent, and Jan

packed everything out to the cars.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

When we got home at midnight,

Amy and Jan met us at the car

and helped us pack everything in.

They had already unloaded Amy's car and the van,

including all the food

and put it away.

Lovin' life.

Cooks: Bill & DeRay

Clare sets up the Master Kitchen on the Mountain

Newly-wed Alex cooked the hot cakes this year.

At the races.

Suckers.

All the pictures of the kids racing disappeared.

All the good action shots.
(Plus the pictures of Kent & Karen, Eldon's girls: Brenda and Linda, 
Ron & Lynda and others)
The races are a lot more fun when your grandkids are running.

Each time you run, you win a prize.

After your age group,

you can enter every race.

"Fourteen and under."

"Fifteen and under."

Brent had one picture on his phone of the twins lining up to run.
I had action shots of them winning!
Jonathan running too,
even the dogs.

When Ron and Lynda went home,

there was not a single Pugh at the Pugh Reunion.

Seventeen Hughs,

counting us and Kent and Karen,

who started the rebellion.

Around 100 people in all.

   Coming home after a big event must feel a little like a missionary feels when coming home after he has spent his entire life planning, preparing and anticipating a mission and then its over. What do we do with the rest of our lives? We spent months getting ready for and thinking about this reunion within a reunion. Poof. It's over. We're at loose ends. It may take a while to get going again. Laundry first.

  And biking. . .

And Pokémon. . .

Life after reunion:

   *Brooke & Elizabeth are busy getting ready for Isaak's farewell tomorrow. They are planning on 70 for lunch; 50 family (three from Brooke's family--who incidentally didn't go to be lost in the chaos).
   *Brent & Jan have gone to to the Noffsinger Reunion on a ranch near Idaho Falls (all ten siblings and most of their children and grandchildren will be there); then on home to Misery (spelled M-I-S-S-O-U-R-I).

Noffsinger Family Reunion July 16, complete w/family T-Shirts and a flag ceremony.*
*Amy is on the river with a Girl Scout Troop. "The Good Thing about going with the Girl Scouts is that they do all the cooking. The Bad Thing is you have to eat what they cook."

   *Ed is back to riding a trike.  "I said 'good morning' to everyone," he bragged when he returned from his trike ride, "I just wanted to shock them." (He usually complains because they ditch him.) "Don't growl, Naomi," he admonishes, "leave that to me."
   *DeRay spent the first two days at the auto shop - first getting Brent's van fixed, then Ed's car. Ed's trike is still in the shop waiting for a part so he's riding mine.

   So much excitement and stimulation. I'm still going over and over everything in my mind when I'm supposed to be sleeping. It takes about a week to realize how exhausted you are. We didn't even stay up until 4 AM every night playing Pinochle like Clare, Marilyn, Ron, Lynda, and Chad. How do they do it? 

Experiences are memories.

Memories live longer than things.*

Accumulate less;

do more=

Healthy Happiness

*Read Stuffocation by James Wallman

We have more stuff than we could ever need - 

clothes we don't wear, kit we don't use, and toys we don't play with.

Experientialism does not mean giving up all our possessions,

but it does mean getting over our obsession with them

and investing in shared experiences

like holidays and time with family and friends.

Photos by Amy, Brent, Brooke, Jeanette

More to come as Amy shares.

Reunions within Reunions 4

Class Reunion

within reunions within reunions.

Valley High School Class of 1954

80 year olds

Gulp.

  I told Maureen we thought she was a traitor when she moved to Kanab and graduated

from Kanab High School. She redeemed herself with these black and orange table

decorations with the school bus pencil sharpeners, Cedar branches with berries

and furry buffalo. She also brought a salad. 

 Maureen visiting with Odean, Ramona, and Bruce Hoyt.

Maureen and Odean are cousins.

I didn't know it in high school
but Bruce and I share a common great grandfather, Israel Hoyt.

 Nolen and Beth had eight children.

 Georgia and Darol Heaton won the White Buffalo for having the most posterity. 

Darol is 86. He graduated with my oldest sister, Shirley.

 Lenore didn't graduate with us either but she has lived in Orderville since she was 15.

I asked her if she thought she might be in the Guinness World Book of Records for having

three husbands all named John.

She had two kids and her first husband was killed before I was married.

Her second John died of a heart attack relatively young.

This is her third John.

She has great great grandchildren.

(Catch the white buffalo in the background.
YOU BUFFALOES STAMPEDE 'EM!)

 Doc is giving everyone the link to his National Horseshoe Tournament in Alabama at the end of July.

 The local gals arranged for the lunch.

Georgia has spent most of her married life in Fredonia and Maureen in Kanab.

Maureen still drives to Mexico for six months every year.

This year her friends gave her a surprise 80th birthday party.

Seventy people came.

 Georgia and Lenore were my two best friends the last years of high school.

  This is when you're glad you didn't come from a class of 900.

 Back: Jeanette Esplin Hugh, Dale Van Sorensen, Georgia Troy Heaton, Dale Heaton, Nolen Roundy, Lenore Slaugh Tisdale, John Tisdale, Bruce Hoyt.

Odean and Ramona Crofts, Lyn Heaton, Beth Roundy, Maureen Crofts Ramsay, Carol Jean Heaton Eves. Carol Jean and Darol are brother and sister.
Amy thought Carol Jean looked 20 years younger than the rest of us.
Offended.
"Maybe it's the way she's dressed," Amy conceded.
Double offended.
We were nearly through eating when Dale and Lyn Heaton came in.
"We couldn't find the place."
How can you not find a place in a town of less than 400?
Later my sister, Carol, said that LuJean, Dale's sister and Carol's classmate,
called her in Salt Lake from St. George to see if she knew where the 
North Events Center is
or she had my phone number.
Dale had called her.
They didn't know at the store or service station?
We called Dale "Professor" in school
because he was so smart.

 Finally got a smile out of Odean.

 Classmates: Georgia*, Dale Sorensen, Dale Heaton, Nolen*, Bruce*

Odean, Maureen, Carol Jean*, Jeanette*

*Graduated Valley High School Class of 1954;

the others graduated someplace else

or didn't graduate

or graduated later.

 Our talented classmate, Nolen Roundy, craved each one of us this memento;

each different, each exceptional. 

H V S

Class of 1954 Reunion

July 8, 2016

Orderville, Utah

  It's a good thing we're having the reunion this week," Maureen said when I first arrived and was admiring her decorations. "Next week I have to have major eye surgery. I always tell people that I've had six eye operations and I still can't hear."

  We could never get Bruce Hoyt to come to our class reunions even though he lived right in town. With the invitation this year, I wrote a personal note to him: "Bruce, you probably think all we're going to talk about is our children and grandchildren. We're not. Now we're all eighty or approaching 80, we're going to talk about our aches and pains." Nevertheless, Maureen wanted to give the "white buffalo" from the table decorations to the one with the most posterity. She went around the circle asking everyone how many children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren he/she has.

  "You passed by me," Bruce interrupted after we finished. "I have three dogs, eight horses, and 60 head of cattle." Joyful laughter. How could you be lonely or depressed with such bounty? He was also an outstanding school teacher. How many lives did he touch?

  "One of my 4th grade students taught me a valuable lesson," he shared. "I had just scolded the class for being so rowdy and everything was very quiet. One rather timid boy came up to my desk and said: 'Bruce, do you know that happy people are healthier than grumpy people?'"

Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.

  DeRay has planned to go down to Orderville to the reunion all along.  When it came right down to it, he would rather be at Duck Creek with his brother and sisters. No one dare ask me where he was for fear he was dead - "or divorced?" I tease.  Not one person in our class has been, was or is divorced. Death has separated some of us; but not divorce. (That shows how old we are.  Oops, Bobby Gardner called on Saturday to see if we missed him at the reunion. He reminded me that he divorced his first wife. He's been married to his second wife for 54 years. She is bedridden and he takes care of her 24-7. Because she sleeps in, he's able to go play golf every morning at 6 AM. Norm Maxwell also cares for an invalid wife and couldn't come to the reunion. Saints!) Too many have died: Yvonne Watson, Lenore Chamberlain Russell, Jack Crofts, John Hardy (two of Lenore's husbands), Flossy Roundy Willard (born on the same day as me); Jim Maxwell, Wayne Robinson, Annie Gardner Judd. Another interesting tidbit, in my small class two of them are DeRay's first cousin and his first cousin once removed. Additionally, DeRay needed to be with Eddy. The kids were willing to have him stay at the condo with them but they planned to hike around Cedar Breaks and that doesn't work for him. So I dropped DeRay and Eddy off at Duck Creek Campground on my way to Orderville where they spent the day.

They were so worn out from the Forced March yesterday to the Heritage Sites

that they didn't get gone until after noon. 

Now we know why Amy's pictures are par excellence.

Taken from the top of Brian Head

   I got back up on the mountain around 4 and stayed for Soup Night. Brooke, Elizabeth and kids came for Soup Night then drove all the way home Friday night. Amy, Brent, Jan, and Naomi got to Soup Night with our soup after everyone had eaten so we sent it home with Clare. She deserved it. She sets up the kitchen at the Round-Up.
  With Brooke's family gone, DeRay, Eddy and Jonathan moved into their quarters. DeRay and Ed had been sleeping on the horrible hide-a-bed. Amy and I were in the master bedroom. Oh yes. Ed said he was jealous. I reminded them of all the times they had been in the Master Bedroom and I had been on the hide-a-bed or when I got bumped from there, to an air mattress on the floor. Jonathan was happy to have his own cove and privacy.  
  Good night.