September 23, 2012
Small Plates of Grandma
Rosi #21
Hello Again, Family,
We have been thinking about you
all this week. (That hasn’t
changed.) In summary, this is what I
know: Becky and Adam’s home was burglarized
(It’s a good thing you guys made lots of money at your glass show, Adam. This news via Dad. Congratulations!!), Quincey had her Big Birthday
party (12 little girls were invited and Luke said “he made it through
it”.) Nick has been given different (and
more satisfactory) responsibilities at his work. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY: the Sorensen’s are going to add two more
“girlie” feet to our family tree. Hooray
for us!!!!
Dad and I have been having
computer issues. Both his desk top and
my laptop have been down for a few days.
My MVDS tech guy seems to have things straightened out for me. Dad has been working by telephone with a
company with whom he has a contract.
This morning he said it looked like things were fixed. I hope so.
He gets really frustrated.
You recall that we will be celebrating
Dixie’s 76th birthday on the 29th… hum, I believe that is Saturday. I asked her to give us some information about
that time and about her birth into the Lloyd Olsen family. As usual, she takes her assignments very
seriously. So here is a portion of her
writing. I will probably send you more
next week, but thought that this was a good start. It will certainly give you a good feel for
the Paradise in the middle of the 20th
century. Thanks, Dixie.
September 29, 1936
MY SISTER, DIXIE
WRITES:
What was Paradise like -- almost 76 years ago? First
off, I was born in the LDS Hospital in Logan on
September 29, 1936, and was brought home to Paradise
about 10 days later. That was how long Moms spent "in
confinement" in those days. It's hard to imagine 10 days at $4.00 a
day. The total bill was $65.20. With $40.00 for ten day stay,
$25.00 to the doctor for his fee, and 20cents for two phone calls home.
Being a romantic about historical things involving me, I state that I had
"perfect parents". Lloyd Olsen, my Dad, was a gentleman of few
words, and Mary Alyce Dunn Olsen, my Mom, was kind and accommodating-- a
wonderful homemaker; they were both hardworking, God fearing, community
minded and fully invested in their beliefs, their marriage and family.
These values were passed on to Johnny, Rosemary and me. Our parents were
also a handsome couple, and we have passed those genes on to all of you ! !
!
Paradise in 1936 was an agricultural community with
families working as farmers/ ranchers and striving to be self-sufficent as much
as possible. The population numbered 500 people--now it is between
2,000/2,500. The only oiled road was the main street that passed through
town on the way from Hyrum on the north to Avon
on the south. The Mormon pioneers in the 1860's-70's had drawn
the town plat into 10 acre blocks, each block having 8 lots (four facing west
and four facing east, divided by wide roads) and each lot was 1 1/4
acres. The 10 acre square in the middle held the Paradise
school on the east half with playground and baseball diamonds and the old rock
church on the west half with an irrigation ditch and a row of stately poplar
trees dividing them in the middle. The church was remodeled extensively
in the early 1950's with a new chapel added on the south and the original rock
church covered with a heavy coat of stucco. Dad was in charge of the
building fund committee for raising money as each ward had to pay a big portion
of costs, and Uncle Marion was the bishop.
On
residential blocks, each lot had space for the home--often white framed wood,
enclosed by a white picket fence-- the barn and animal sheds, a grainery,
chicken coops, a pig pen, wood and coal sheds with space left over for a
vegetable garden, fruit orchard, corral for animals and pastures for
grazing. Tall and narrow Lombardy
poplars lined many yards. They have a short life span of 80 to 100 years
and have been gone a long time. Long irrigation ditches were dug by hand
to carry water from the "spring run-off" of melting mountain snow
through two hand dug canals running south to north to the thirsty
lawns, pastures, gardens and orchards scattered across town. Crops grown
in irrigated fields bordering the town included alfalfa, wheat, corn and oats;
these were fed in season to dairy cattle (usually Holstein, some Jersey cattle), sheep, poultry, work horses (used to pull
plows, harrows, and harvesting equipment--proceeding tractors and modern
machinery) and saddle horses. Most families had dogs trained to work the
livestock and cats who lived in barns and graineries to keep down the rodent
population (these animals did not live in the house as is common now).
Many families owned "dry farms" (like our 07 Ranch) in the foothills
where there was no means to irrigate and you depended on rain and good weather
to produce crops. Some years they were very good, depending on weather
conditions, and some years not so good. Children's
daily chores often included feeding chickens and gathering eggs, weeding
vegetable gardens, carrying buckets of kindling and firewood into the house,
and milking cows and feeding livestock as kids grew older. Inside the
work was labor intensive with Mondays usually set aside for washing in old
fashioned wringer washers, hanging clothes on outside lines to dry and
then "sprinkling down" the items that would be ironed on
Tuesday. In season, canning, pickling and jelly making took many hands
and many hours. In large families, there was always mending and sewing to
do. A saying was, "Many hands make light work."
Today we
should be grateful to our ancestors who as founding pioneers
helped to develop Paradise. Samuel Oldham (Lancastershire England)and Mary Price Oldham (Prices were from Wales), Gideon E Olsen, Sr. from Norway
and Johanna Danielsen Olsen (Danielsons also
Scandanavian); these individuals were grandparents of Lloyd Olsen
(your grandfather).
Our lives
were centered around the home and community with church and school of
great importance. We attended a red brick school that had five
rooms, four for classes of bilevel education including Grades 1-2 w/Mrs.
Bankhead; Grades 3-4 w/Mrs. Bickmore; Grades 5-6 w/Mr. Duce (from Hyde
Park and the only "foreigner")and Grades 7-8 w/Mr. Bailey who was
also our principal. The fifth room was the library with books and
tables for projects. How we admired and respected our teachers and the
exciting things we learned from them. We DID have INSIDE plumbing at
school in the basement, one bathroom for girls and one for boys. Many of
the children lived in homes without inside plumbing. An outhouse, one
hole-two hole-or three hole- and a tin tub for bathing near the kitchen
stove where the cistern had water heated on the side of the stove had to
suffice. At school, lunch was created each day from scratch by Mrs. Emily
Pearce and no one complained or said "Yuck"! There was no
special ed section, we all learned to read, write and do math. We had
music and sports during recess. There were 18 kids in my grade
level, 10 girls and 8 boys--approximately 120 kids attending Paradise School in eight grades at any one
time. We also learned how to conduct ourselves and be an asset to
society. I used to plan events and put together programs, plays and
musicals. My Dad would haul the rugs off the floor, and bring chairs and
lamps from home for my little productions. He never complained, just
watched the show, smiled alot and hauled all the stuff back home when we
finished. He was such a nurturing, kind, sweet father. How can I
count my blessings??
On Sunday,
we met in the old rock church in an upstairs classroom at the back during the
war. The teachers for Sunday School, Primary and Mutual (held on
weekdays) were always prepared and engaged in our learning process. Our
bishopbric consisted of sincere, caring men.
END OF AUNT DIXIE’S WRITINGS FOR THIS WEEK.
SURE CARE ABOUT AND LOVE ALL OF YOU.
MOM
