Pioneer Days in Mapleton

 July 30, 2023

Dear Family:

I missed last week.  I was in Utah.  Birthdays this week:  Danny & JoJo’s Dawnie’s birthday is the 3^rd of August and Danny’s is the 5^th; Thursday and Saturday.

I had a great week in Utah (except for my flight TO Provo that was delayed about 5 hours).  I left Portland on the 21^st of July and returned on the 28^th. 

We went to the Mapleton parade which started at 9am on the 22^nd.  This was on my bucket list.  I’ve always heard about pioneer day parades.  As a little girl I remember having “pioneer parades” in Primary, which were just nods to the day.  This was complete with floats (by local businesses, senior center and Mapleton wards), bands, horses, big trucks, and a Scottish bagpipe band.  I loved the bagpipe band.  Thank you Brian and Megan for putting our chairs in place the day before.  We had perfect seats.

Later on Saturday Marissa and Megan drove into the driveway (on their way home from Portland) just as the fireworks started at 10pm.  We sat on the driveway and watched a beautiful display – perfect location because they were set off just a couple blocks away.

Sunday we went to church.  Monday we went to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo.  It was great but it was extremely hot.  Like 95 degrees in the shade. We saw bucking horses, calf roping (guys and gals), bull riding (no trick riding) but we got a couple of crazy kids doing trick riding on motorcycles up a ramp and flipping in the air before landing on an inflated huge pad.  Just before the last couple of bull riders it started to rain.  Crazy weather!  So we left before the fireworks show because we didn’t want to sit in the rain.  We had already seen fireworks.

One interesting thing – they showed commercials on the big screen and Rip from Yellowstone was in a commercial for a western wear store.  I forgot my phone – darn!!  He looked gorgeous!

I enjoyed the rest of the week by reading, visiting Kathy and Kent and visiting with Megan.  By the way I am a huge fan of Sodalicious and Fizz.  They are soft drink shops that feature lots of flavors.  I was introduced to them over the years while I’ve been visiting and I can’t visit Utah without a few visits.  Now I thought I’d really miss them, but guess what.  Yesterday when I was grocery shopping at Safeway, I bought Dr. Pepper Zero with Strawberries and crème. FABULOUS!!  I’m not going to miss Fizz or Sodalicious now.  I had already discovered Dr. Pepper Zero with crème soda which I loved. But this new one is now my favorite. 

The best part of visiting family in Utah is being able to nurture my relationships with Hayden, Brian, Megan and this time Marissa.  Missy is staying in Utah for a short time before she and Clarke move to Arizona for Clarke’s schooling.  It’s difficult to remain close just connecting by phone.  Nothing can replace a one on one face to face visit.  Communication is key in any relationship and nurturing that relationship long distance is hard.

I love it when Carter video calls me from Chile. I love to see Kenlee’s posts about her little family.  Gee whiz they had a hard time leaving Texas and getting to Spokane.  I love posts by my other grandchildren keeping us up to date on my great grandchildren.  By the way,  I’m leaving Tuesday for 2 days in Spokane.  I haven’t met Addie or Jude yet.  It’s been a long time since I saw Cole and Emery.  I can imagine the big houseful in Spokane with all the grandkids and parents there!!  Brad and Sheri should be in 7^th heaven with everyone there except Carter.

My opportunity to REALLY communicate with Brian, Megan, Hayden and Marissa over this last week has stood out as the most valuable thing that happened last week.  Sure the parade, fireworks and rodeo were fun, but the memory of those events will fade.  The memory of connecting with my family stands out as much more important.

In the last 25-30 years the communicating and connecting with my sisters Judy and Glennda has been extremely valuable and precious to me.  When children grow up, leave home, start their own lives and make their own memories the connection and communication becomes less frequent. I’m sure that Brad & Sheri, Brian and Megan, and Amy and Mike will attest to that with their own children.  You really have to work hard to keep it.

I will say that when communication isn’t open, honest and frequent – marriage relationships suffer.  I can say that from first-hand experience.  It is hard to maintain trust when communication ceases.

“Communication is an integral part of our everyday lives.  It helps us express ourselves to others and let them know our expectations of them. Brandon Walch, Founder of Dads Agree

“Communication is the number one skill we all need to improve, whether in the workplace or at home.  It doesn’t matter if you have an audience of 1 or 1 million, connection should be the goal of any kind of communication.  Communication for the sake of communicating won’t help build or strengthen relationships, CONNECTING WILL.” David Tyler

I can look back in my life and see what connecting is and what it isn’t.  To me you can communicate in a group setting, joking, remembering, etc.  But connecting takes a little more time, one on one time, looking each other in the eye, and making sure that the other person understands what you are saying and reaching an agreement.  Sometimes there is an issue involved where reaching an agreement is crucial.  Sometimes there isn’t an issue but just a need to be heard and understood.

I wish I had all this wisdom when I was 19.  Unfortunately it takes time, learning, trial & error, educating yourself and just plain experience; looking back – evaluating – and learning what to do next time because this time I did it wrong.

I’m excited to visit with Brad, Sheri and the gang next week.  I will try connecting for sure!

Have a wonderful week everyone.  I love you all very much.

Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne

Happy Birthday to Michael Schnell (17th) and Amy Schnell-Grubbe & Jenna Field Parman (July 22)

 

July 16, 2023

Dear Family:

Join me in wishing Michael Schnell “Happy Birthday” tomorrow and Jenna Field and Amy Schnell-Grubbe “Happy Birthday” on July 22.  Happy birthday to you all!

This coming weekend is the traditional “Pioneer Day” or “Days of 47” celebrated in Utah.  Last week I mentioned our pioneers and their struggles and sacrifices in crossing the plains.

According to my research, I don’t believe we have ancestors who arrived in 1847.  Some of them stopped for various reasons and traveled later.

In 1996 at Weber College, President Russell M Nelson said, “"People who honor the deeds of their ancestors are most likely to accomplish things that are worthy of remembrance by their descendants."

In 2020, “What we’re celebrating is really the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that He inspired early pioneer leaders to find this great valley and settle it for us to live in,” said President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

As I’ve mentioned countless times, I am grateful that my great great+ grandparents decided that they could leave their homes and start all over again. 

I am looking forward to this coming weekend. Friday, I am flying to Provo and staying with Brian, Megan and Hayden for a week.  This will be my first opportunity to participate in the pioneer day’s spirit in Utah. I remember as a little girl that at Primary we decorated our wagons and wore long dresses and paraded around and sang.  It was so long ago, I believe that it was in before we ever moved to Vale when I was 8.  It seems that the pioneer celebrations no longer happen out here "in the mission field."

Last week Taylor and I were talking and he said I needed to write down my memories.  Surprise!  It’s been done for a while.  So I am putting together a little thumb drive with my Personal History and other things on it - that may not be on Family Search - to give him.  Your parents all should have a hard copy somewhere in their possessions.

Well enough for today.  It has been HOT in Portland.  Yesterday was 95 and I didn’t stick my nose outside.  Today it is supposed to cool off to 78 by 8 o’clock so I can go outside and sit on my patio before dark.  I’ll see my Utah family this coming weekend and my Spokane family and all Brad’s grandchildren August 1-3. I am looking forward to meeting Addie and little Jake (Jude) and getting acquainted again with Cole and Emery.

My best to you all

Love, Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne

 

Independance Day and 100 years ago my mother was born on July 6.

 

July 9, 2023

Dear Family:

July 5, 2023 Entry: 4^th of July at Glennda and Scott’s house was great.  They had gone overboard preparing their yard and deck and it was all perfect.  I had a gig that day and I got home from it by 1:30.  I got to their home by about 3.

Andy and Julie and his Austin & Amelia and her Claire; Jenna and Jude and Leo;  Mike and Branigun and their 4 little ones, Damon, Reagan, Riley and Briggs;  Scott, Glennda and me were all there.  We watched the kids slide down the gigantic slip and slide and we talked and visited while the kids had a wonderful time.  Earlier that day they had gone to the famous Corbett 4^th of July parade.

Dinner was around 6:30pm. Glennda made her favorite coleslaw with pineapple & toasted walnuts, pasta salad with cheese tortellini, mozzarella balls, pepperoni & tomatoes, baked beans.  Julie made potato salad and a charcuterie (sp) board with my favorite pickled beets and with asparagus, pickles, etc. Andy made his famous brisket – 15 pounds!!!  All was delicious.   I learned from Andy what it takes to use a Traeger and produce a masterpiece – butcher paper makes the exterior crisp.  Glennda made Raspberry sauce shortcake for dessert.  I learned from Scott how they harvest and ship trees to the east coast.  They are the source for many of the suppliers of trees to places like Lowe’s, etc.  Fascinating.! I wouldn’t have missed the day for anything.

I love my extended family and it was wonderful to see how the children have grown and how my niece and nephews have turned into amazing parents and amazing contributing members of society. I will admit that I tried hard not to miss my family.  Being with Glennda and her family helped a lot.  Today Scott, Glennda and Mike and family are their way to Sun River for a few days.  Jenna, Jude and Leo are off to their cabin/cottage in the mountains to practice fly fishing – their summer vacation pastime. (Their winter pastime is skiing.) Andy and his crew are off to a resort/water park north of Coeur d’Alene.  I knew the name of it yesterday – but I forgot it today. 

Corbin’s birthday is today.  Happy Birthday again Corbin.

July 6 Entry.  Today is my mother’s birthday. 

Martha June Green engaged

She would be 100 years old.  Everyone once in a while when Glennda and I are talking, I say something about mom or dad or our lives as children that Glennda didn’t know.  So today I’m going to talk about mom and dad a little.  I’ve been reading a series of 5 books written by Dean Hughes, a Mormon from Provo.  If he is still alive he would be a year older than me.  The series is “Children of the Promise”. He wrote this series about 20-25  years ago.  It is novel about a Mormon family living in Salt Lake City before and during World War II.  There were 3 boys and 3 girls in the family.  All 3 boys and one daughter served in the armed forces. While reading this novel, I can’t help but wonder what Mom and Dad’s lives were like during this time.  They met in May of 1942 and were married in September of 1942. This was right in the middle of World War II (September 1, 1939- September 2 1945- 6 years! Families had to save paper, string, aluminum foil, had gasoline d some foods rationed and no new cars were produced.  They had to give to the cause any tires that were lying around.)

Dad had returned from his mission to Southern States primarily serving in Texas. 

Glenn Short Missionary

Mom was 19 when she got married.  She had graduated from high school in Cache Valley, UT from South Cache High School in 1941. 

She then went to LDS Business College in Salt Lake City and was working at Utah Idaho School Supply.  Dad was working at JC Penney.  They met at church.  There were very few men.  Dad was deferred from the draft because he had an enlarged heart from rheumatic fever or scarlet fever – I can’t remember.  So he was 4F.  After they married they moved to Burley Idaho back with his parents. 

Farming was high priority then and dad and his father were doing “their part for the war effort” by farming.  Mom had a miscarriage.  I was born in May of 1944.  The war wasn’t over yet and finally they were taking 4F’s.  Dad was drafted and reported for basic training in November or December.  I remember mom talking about shortages and how they learned to make “war-time cakes”.  People depended a lot on what they could raise.  I wish I knew a little more about how they dealt with things.  I do know that Mom moved to Logan Utah when I was six months old, while dad was serving.  I have a letter that he wrote while on the troop ship.  They were sending him to the Pacific.  While on the way they were diverted to Philippines. I remember reading about General McArthur and his idea to train Philipinos to be soldiers in the late 1930’s, and how much of a disaster that was because Japan invaded the Philippines and he left the island to save himself and left thousands of Philippine soldiers and American Soldiers to fight of the Japanese and fend for themselves with no food or supplies. They had to surrender to the Japanese and I’ve read about the Battan Death March and how miserably they were treated and how thousands and thousands died or were murdered.

When dad got there it was either right before the war in the Pacific ended or right after.  I remember him telling me about trying to sleep in the rain when the mud was up to the bottom of his cot.  

Glenn Short Army Private

I remember him telling me about cutting hair.  They turned him into a barber.  There must have been some kind of fighting going on because he said an explosion rocked the tent or building he was cutting hair in and the person in the barber chair was killed when a timber fell on him.  Glass blew all over and years later he was still getting little pieces of glass out of his forehead and scalp.

I wonder how mother handled a little girl and living alone.  Because she lived in Logan, there was trolley called the “Bamburger” that would take her to Wellsville to visit her mother and her step father Andrew Leishman.  Uncle Arnold and Estella Romero were there frequently.  When was older Grandma and Grandpa Andrew told me how much they enjoyed our visits when I was a little toddler.  Mom used to tell me that she played the piano for singers on the radio station in Logan.  I wonder how she worked all that out.  She was a wonderful piano player who could sight-read anything.  Later she worked on becoming a church organist and served in that capacity for most of her adult life.

When I was 2 Dad was send home to farm.  The war was over when I was 1, so Dad served in the Philippines during the Army of Occupation for another year after the war was over.  I’m going to find a book about that time so I can see what he did.

The caption on this clipping in dad's file is "Philippines 1945 Army of Occupation."

Happy Birthday Mom.

July 9 Entry:  Family dinner today got cancelled…too many people out of town or not able to come.  But we need to have a get together before Marissa and Clarke move to Arizona. 

I think a lot about family – my family now and in the past.  I had lunch today with Taylor and Kelsy and the boys at their home in Wilsonville.  I love to watch Cooper and McKay and Enzo.  Cooper and McKay remind me of when Brad and Brian were little boys.  It doesn’t feel like 45-50 years ago.  I’ve decided that Enzo resembles his grandpa Brad.  I Ioved visiting with Taylor and Kelsy and appreciate their kindness to me.  One of the things I think about this time of year is related to “Pioneer Day” or Days of ’47 celebrated in Utah.  We have things so much easier that did the pioneers.  They had no refrigeration, no pantry to supply their daily meals, no bathrooms, no running water, no stores, no cars, no “devices”, they just had each other, their ingenuity, determination, and their desire to be able to worship in peace and to start over again in Utah.  They had endured persecution, travel hardships and not knowing what they would face each new day.  I’m grateful that my ancestors, the Shorts, the Campbells, the Greens, the Glenns, the Bankheads, and many more felt that their new found faith in the church was worth sacrificing so much.

I respect their sacrifices and the sacrifices of my parents.

In sacrament meeting today one of the speakers reminded me that because of inspiration from Heavenly Father, our founding fathers wrote the Constitution.  Without it, Joseph Smith wouldn’t have been able to help restore the Gospel.  I am grateful for our country.

President Hinckley wrote:  “I marvel at the miracle of America, the land which the God of Heaven long ago declared to be a land choice above all other lands.  I love American for her great and brawny strength, I love her for her generous heart.  I love her for her tremendous spiritual strengths.  She is unique among the nations of the earth - - in her discovery, in her birth as a nation, in the amalgamation of the races that have come to her shores, in the strength of her government, in the goodness of her people.  God bless American, for she is His creation.”

We are blessed to live here.

Have a wonderful week.

Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne