More Job Follies

I had a great job for two summers during my college years. I worked in the first visitors center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We did office work, helped people in and out of theaters, helped with noon organ recitals at the tabernacle, and kept things organized in the first floor desks. I even got to give the accoustics demonstration in the tabernacle and walk into the attic of the tabernacle for an inside look at the materials used in the building such as square nails and plaster with horse hair in it to add strength. I was lucky to have the job.

On the 24th of July Pioneer Day, the parade went past the square and while everyone attended the parade, not many people came through the visitor's center. So, we had a little break in the back room for refreshments. We were sitting on a counter eating sweet rolls and a girl was pouring orange juice for everyone. I held my glass out to the person pouring. There was a girl sitting between me and the pourer. I saw that I had enough in my glass and pulled my glass out from under the pitcher and the pourer kept pouring onto the lap of my friend. I have no idea what made me lose my mind and leave her covered in orange juice. Of course she had nothing to change into so we found something to wrap her in while we washed her skirt. Susanne forgave me. He had a good sense of humor about it. That is a vivid memory.

On the country's bi-centenial, July 4, 1976, there was a bomb scare on temple square while I was working. They evacuated the area except for security personel and ME! They needed someone that was expendible to help them look through the visitors center to see if anyone looked out of the ordinary. We went room by room looking at and in garbage cans and shelves and corners for anything out of place or foreign. In the end, it was proven to be a hoax, but it was pretty exciting and what a great story. I figure I have but one life to give for my country....just kidding.

My next job and the last job I had before I began teaching school was my job at the Park City Golf Course. They called me the Greens Queen because I drove the machine that said "Greens King" on the side of it to mow the greens. When I was learning how to use it, my first time on it, I drove it into a little stream. It had no brakes. So when I started rolling backward, I couldn't get it to stop and I rolled backwards into the creek. I can still remember the helpless feeling I had rolling into the drink. No harm was done to the machine or me. So I got back on and learned from the experience.

I later drove the same machine into the lake when I was mowing an apron of the green that was inches away from the edge of the lake. I also drove a seven gang fairways mower that was a BIG machine. I could lower each set of blades one at a time or all at once. I could mow a large swath in one pass. It was pretty fancy. I had a cage-like seat area that protected me from golfers hitting balls at me for good reason. It was target practice many times. I had a tractor that dragged a 5 gang mower behind it and it was tricky to back up. I got a little too close to some little saplings sometimes and nearly took out some larger trees when I misjudged how close I was getting to the rough. I learned to back up in tight places and manipulate the blades after much sweat and nervous moments. But I never lost a tree. I surely got a great tan that summer.

What could be worse than a raccoon attack?

We were camping at Refugio a couple of years ago. Cassie and Hayley were in the tent with Glenn and I. We were about to go to sleep when we heard rustling in the garbage hanging to the side mirror of the car next to the tent. We had forgotten to take it to the dumpster. We had seen some raccoons around and thought we had one sharing our garbage. It walked up next to our tent and we could see a small body pressing on the tent. I gave it a good swift kick with the side of my bare foot and launched it a couple of feet away. It still continued making noise so we found a flashlight and unzipped a window slightly. To our shock and horror, our intruder was a very large skunk. I can't believe we weren't sprayed after I kicked it. Needless to say, we didn't pester it any further.

LIGHTENING THE LOAD AT A REST STOP

The bridge was out on I-80 eastbound in Nebraska. There were no hotels except a scary smokey dive that didn't look clean. So, we drove on, finding an alternate route that the locals suggested. The state detour would have flung us way off course. When daylight hit, I was driving. We were back on I-80 and I spotted a rest stop. I was falling asleep and everyone in the car was asleep in the back of the van. I put the seat back and started to doze but Glenn popped up and said he was rested enough to drive. He decided to go use the restroom before setting off. We were about 1 1/2 hours from Omaha.
Just as Glenn strode off, I decided I'd better go to the restroom myself. Knowing that Glenn was faster than I was, I hurried. I was just steps behind him and I quickly washed my hands as I exited, not even drying them on a paper towel.
I looked up to see the van driving past me accelerating toward the freeway entrance. Not caring how foolish I looked, I took chase using my very loud whistle to try to flag him down. I was running after him in the on-ramp to the freeway waving my arms and being glad I was in a red shirt. Finally, one of the kids recognized my whistle and they stopped the van or maybe Glenn saw me in the rear view mirror. But, I can't help but wonder what all those people back at the rest stop thought when I livened up their Sunday morning and woke all the sleepy travelers taking a short nap. Glenn says he thought I crawled in the back of the van and went to sleep. Likely story......hmmmm.

School Clothes

We lived in Bishop, California for eight years. There was a K-mart there and a very small JC Penney's store that you would have expected to see in Mayberry in the 50s. It was a glorified mail order store. We shopped at both but when it came to Christmas and buying a boatload of school clothes for 5 children, our kids were either all dressed alike for the school year or we had to leave town for a shopping trip.

When we went on vacation to Utah or Sacramento, we planned a shopping spree.We hopped in our big converted van equipped with a television and video player. We pulled a trailer that had a plywood top. Because of that trailer, we had breathing room inside the van. With 7 passengers, it would have been tight with all our trappings.

On the way home from one of those vacations, I had been driving for a couple of hours and in Ely, Nevada, I switched with Glenn and took a turn sleeping in the bed in the back. That area of the desert is open ranch to hundreds if not thousands of cattle so there are lots of cattle guards on the roadways. I was awakened by a pretty big jolt as we went over a cattle guard about an hour or more after leaving Ely. I looked out the back window and the trailer had lost it's roof and more than a third of it's contents.

I hollered for Glenn to pull over. We assessed the situation and Glenn determined that he'd unhook the trailer and go back to see if he could find our stuff. We were on Highway 6 between Ely and Tonapah, Nevada. We might as well have been dumped onto the set of a wild west movie shot in the 50's. It would have been in color but there was nothing but gray and brown with a black road running through it. The sun was up when he left. Yes, I said HE left. He wanted us to stay with the trailer so no one would steal our suitcases and sleeping bags. So all 5 kids and I climbed out and stood by the side of the road next to an unhinged (literally) trailer.

Highway 6 to Bishop is not well traveled. We thought Glenn would go back and find everything on the side of the road, maybe shredded by a car running over it. But, we thought he'd be back rather quickly. We waited and waited and he didn't come back. In about an hour only 4 or 5 cars or fewer had passed us. But, they PASSED us and weren't curious enough to stop and see why a mother and 5 children were out in the desert with a trailer (too large for a handcart) and no vehicle to pull it. We could have been deserted by an abusive husband/father and left for the coyotes to devour. (Yes we could hear coyotes in the distance that were making Hayley nervous.)But more likely we were desert dwellers waiting for the pony express to bring us much needed supplies.

One hour passed and the kids decided to explore the packed items still in the trailer. Tennis rackets and balls were uncovered and we had a game of tennis on the highway. They scampered off like jackrabbits when the rare car blew by. That was a tennis game to remember. Finally after over two hours, Glenn came back with one pair of old tennis shoes and a pair of new socks that had been sitting conspicuously by the side of the road as if someone had just stepped out of them. Someone had picked up our bags and bags of new clothes and taken them home with them. Glenn had gone clear to Ely and reported it to the police but no one had reported finding any items. I suspected that the people in the truck that sped by, rather than slowing down a bit like the other vehicles, were the ones who took our stuff.

We pulled all the remaining items that were in the trailer into the van and attached the trailer to the back of the van. The trailer flew jovially over the remaining cattle guards enjoying it's lightened load while we contemplated our mail-order fate. It was only clothes. Nobody died.

Ants in your pants?

My brother Phil stood on a red ant hill one day at the neighbors. Ants, if you don't know it, climb to the highest point. So, up they went to the top of Phil's head, biting as they went. He went screaming into our neighbors house for help. Ant's abandoned ship into her kitchen. She grabbed Phil and took him outside and hosed him down.



My daughter Hayley, coincidentally, did the same exact trick when she was about 4 years old. She found a bed of ants by the mailbox and stood in them. Lucky for me, I paid attention earlier and knew to grab a hose. I'm not sure Hayley thought I was helping out or torturing her. She screamed about the water as much as the ants. Come to think of it, that was Phil's reaction too.

The Rabbit Died.

With the coming of new grandchildren, I have been reminded of the days when there were so many unknowns in pregnancy. First of all, there was not an internet to ask questions that you didn't want to ask just anyone.

In the 1930's a doctor would inject a woman's urine into a rabbit to see if she was pregnant. Then they'd do an autopsy on the rabbit to see if it's ovaries had burst. If they did, the woman was pregnant. The rabbit died whether she was pregnant or not.

Even in 1978, when I began having babies, there were no "early" pregnancy tests and there was nothing over-the-counter.

I remember calling my doctor one day and asking the nurse if I could come in to have a pregnancy test. She told me I had to wait for about a month more before they would do a blood test. That would be 10 weeks after conception. Believe me, by the time they did a pregnancy test, my nausea told me better than any stinking blood test.

On my first pregnancy, this is what I wrote, about two weeks after conception: " I have been feeling some indications that lead me to believe that I might be pregnant. I haven't been sick. I've been a little nauseated at times but always feel better when I eat something....We are worried that we won't be covered by my insurance.” I was very hungry for about 2 weeks. It would have been nice to have a little at-home test and a better date calculator. As it turned out, I was covered and little Whitney was born safe and sound the day after school got out. I was a third grade teacher.

When I was 30.....

1..... I wish I knew that my kids had Celiac Disease. I could have made them feel better sooner. I could have been fresher by getting more sleep rather than being awakened every night with sad little children with tummy aches.

2. ....I wish I knew that it was pointless to worry about things that might not happen. I needed to make the environment safe and listen to little warning promptings when they came.

3. ......I wish I knew that the time with my kids was going to go so fast.

4. .......I wish I had known that feelings of dread were often felt prior to big wonderful events that were going to be a lot of work but just had to be lived through, not eliminated. I always felt I should not go on a vacation, up until I was about to leave. If I had succumbed to the feeling of dread, I'd have never gone anywhere with the family. Once I was on the way, the feeling left. I had the same feelings right before an event I was in charge of running at church. The way I gauged whether it was just me or a heavenly prompting to cancel, was this: I proceeded to do the event or vacation. If the feeling didn't leave after I began the event or left on the vacation, I pulled the plug. Every time I planned to go to the temple, I felt like I shouldn't go. Once in the car, the feeling always left.

5..... I wish I had known it was okay to say no when someone asked me to watch their children, if I was already overwhelmed. I later learned that it is best to say (to someone who was phoning, except in an emergency), "Can I call you back and let you know if I'm able to help you? I need to check my schedule. I can't check it right now, I've got my hands full." Most of the time I could help, but many times, I needed more help than the person who was calling. And many times I said yes before I realized I already had something planned that I ended up canceling.

6. ....I wish I knew that it is best not to jam too many things into small time periods. It just creates a lot of frustration when it makes you late. It's best to toss out the least important items. Leave a little earlier than you need. I'm still working on this one. I know it now....but old habits are hard to break.

7. ......I wish I knew that kids need to be working next to a parent on household chores rather than just sending the kids off to do a chore while a parent does a different chore. A parent can make work fun with a little bit of creativity. It's a great time for heart to heart talks.

8. ........I wish I knew that troubling times need a quiet room and a logical mind that is not weary or hungry or angry. After I am fed, and rested and calmed down, I feel promptings come to me that help to let me know how to decide matters quickly.

9. ......I'm glad I knew that it was more important to have children that knew I loved them than it was to keep a spotless house. I'm glad my kids felt like there was no place like home. I'd rather be cleaning up a mess than wondering what my kids were playing at someone else's house.

10. ....I'm glad I said what I meant and meant what I said. I was honest with my children and with people I knew and loved. I did go climb in the shower sometimes so my kids could tell someone at the door I was in the shower but I never let them say I wasn't at home if I was really home. I'm glad my kids understand that I did my best and that is all anyone can ask.