MY STORY...LIFE CELEBRATED

Describe your first job

During my high school years, many of my friends had after school jobs. I did not. There was always plenty of work to do on the farm, around the house, in the yard, and looking after my younger siblings. My parents felt like me working outside of this didn't make sense when they needed so much help at home. So, I spent my high school years working for three square meals and room and board......just doing my share because that's what families do.

However, the minute that I graduated from high school it was expected (as it should be) that I start being a responsible adult, so I was finally able to enter the real working world.

My first job was at what we all know now as Smith's in Logan, Utah. At that time it was Fred Meyer, and before that it had been Grand Central. I really had a great experience working here. I started that summer and worked through my first year at Utah State University. It was a great job for a college girl and it was fun to have a little extra spending money. A fun memory that I have was that at the suggestion of my very smart mother, I took my very first pay check and went shopping. I spent the whole darn thing in the Cache Valley Mall. It was great! After all, I needed to look presentable at work...right?

I also made some good friends there. I have no idea where those people are now, but we had a great time. 

Other jobs followed......milking the neighbors cows, working for a physical therapist, typing transcription at a local medical clinic, and working for a urologist. Now, I'm back to where I started.....working around the house, taking care of the yard, and caring for children. Good thing my parents trained me right because this is my favorite job of all!

Where did your Grandparents live? What was their home 

like? Did it have a certain smell or look?

Both of my parents grew up in the same valley that I live in now......Cache Valley. This valley is divided by the Idaho/Utah state line. My mother grew up on the Utah side in a town called Logan, Utah. My father grew up about 30 miles away, on the Idaho side in a very, very, very small town called Weston, Idaho.  

Both sets of grandparents had wonderful and very welcoming homes. We lived away from this area until the summer before my freshman year in high school, but oh how I remember 

the anticipation and excitement that I always had when we were traveling "home" to visit. And, what a blessing it was when our family finally came "home" to stay and live for good. We were lucky to be near to our grandparents and spend a lot of time in their homes.

THE FONNESBECK SET

My mother's parents, Herm and Melvina Fonnesbeck, lived in a modest home in a part of Logan that is called the island. It's not really an island, but it's in an area situated close to Utah State University that drops down into a kind of hollow.  

Their house was an older two story home. Anyone who walked through their front door was greeted with the piano that sat at the bottom of the staircase. Some beautiful music had been played on that instrument. My grandma was an incredible pianist.....even though she had never had a lesson in her life.

In a lot of ways, it was your typical grandparent type home.....filled with nicknacks and reminders of days past. However, not far past the piano was "the picture room". It was always my first destination (even if I had just been there the day before). It was not a very big room, but it was filled with books and pictures. My grandpa had installed shelving on every inch possible of the walls of that room, and these shelves were full of pictures. Just about all of them were family pictures. There were pictures of relatives from days gone by, wedding pictures, the latest school pictures of cousins, baby pictures, candid shots, or even some of the more recent pictures that grandpa had snapped with his Polaroid camera. We'd search for new pictures that may have been added to the collection, we'd look at pictures of old relatives and try to decide which of us most resembled that black and white character, and we even kept a count of how many pictures of ourselves were displayed in that room. It was so full of memories, history, and love. I miss that room!

Grandpa and Grandma each had their own chair. Grandpa's time in his chair was spent watching golf, or baseball, or basketball, or some other television program that interested him. Grandma's chair provided her a comfy spot to crochet or work on her handwork. There were glass cabinets filled with beautiful china, and from all of these rooms you could usually catch a whiff of something good that Grandma was cooking in the kitchen. It was a small kitchen, but it got a lot of use.

The upstairs was filled with bedrooms. There was Grandpa and Grandma's room which was very small. It seems that it barely had room for their bed. There was another small room that was probably the most feminine of all the other rooms. This had a bed and it was also where Grandma did her ironing. Then there was Uncle Dusty's room. It was also small and very cozy. There was a very large bedroom that my parents usually stayed in when we visited. In this larger room was a door that led to another room that we all called the porch. It was usually a cooler temperature than the other bedrooms and it had two single beds. There was a shelf way up at the top of the ceiling in this room that was filled with books and magazines.

There was also a basement in their house. You could enter from outside or from some stairs located inside the "picture" room. The stairs were steep and deadly, but once you managed them, you were in for some fun. The basement was full of old stuff! Old furniture, old rugs, old radios, and the best part..............a pool table! Sometimes Grandma would set quilt up down there too, and we'd help her tie it. In his older years, Grandpa also took up the hobby of tying fishing flies, and this is where he would work.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop with the house and move to the outside.

The yard was large. There was an irrigation ditch running through part of the back yard, and oh the fun we would have playing and splashing. The very back of the yard was bordered by the Logan River. As kids, we had been cautioned to keep our distance because of the dangers involved, and we were reminded many times of the story of one of my uncles nearly drowning in that river. I never got too close, but I always loved the sound that it made. Just in front of the river there was a large dog pen. Grandpa was a hunter and he always had a couple of good dogs caged up back there.

The front yard was small, but big fun went on there. They had a porch with steps coming off,  and these steps were bordered by big cement landings. Oh the fun to be had. In the fall we'd make leaf piles and run along these cement perches and jump! Or, we'd simply see who could jump the farthest. My favorite, being the gymnast that I was, was to do cartwheel after cartwheel, or even an occasional back flip off the ends. Then, when dusk would start to settle in, we'd become a little more still and watch for the Logan Temple lights to come on. They had a perfect view there low on the island, and it was like magic.

Oh the memories of family activities in that yard......picnics, baseball games, fox and geese in the winter snow, foot races, playing with the dogs, petting the horse in the pasture next door, and just visiting.  

THE REEDER SET

My dad's parents lived on "the farm". It was a plot of farm ground that had been settled by my great grandfather. There were two homes that had been built on the farm, but by the time I was old enough to remember much, the one home was vacant and we were all a little frightened of it. Grandma and Grandpa's house was wonderful though!

Grandma and Grandpa Reeder were very tidy and neat people. Grandma didn't like clutter and everything was always in it's place. It was a small home. We always used the back door and upon entering there was a small coat closet filled with Grandpa's chore clothes, a telephone, and a chalkboard to jot down messages. Chalkboards were generally only found in our classrooms, so this was a novelty of sorts and we had fun doodling faces and writing little notes. The kitchen was warm and inviting. Grandma had a college degree in homemaking and she was an excellent cook, although I'm not sure she really enjoyed it. Everything she made was delicious though and I still use many of her recipes. She was known in the small town of Weston as the "cookie lady". 

Through the kitchen was a small sitting room. It consisted simply of two rocking chairs (one of which I have in my home), an end table, and a stereo. If you took a turn to your left you ended up in a room that was a little larger with a fireplace and a television. I loved this room. This is where I usually ended up sleeping when we would visit. I was quite comfy on the old green couch and Grandma would always make me a very elaborate bed there with sheets, warm blankets, and a nice soft pillow. She didn't just throw it all there haphazardly. She would actually take the time to lay it out just so and tuck everything in.  

We also shared a lot of Pepsi and popcorn sitting in this room. She had these fancy tv trays with yellow flower (I have those too) that she would bring in for us to set our goodies on. I remember watching Planet of the Apes, Love American Style, and lots of Lawrence Welk sitting in this room.

Their bedroom was also upstairs. Although, my grandpa died at the age of 61, so I don't have a lot of memories of him sharing that room with her. I think of it as her bedroom. She had a small pink bathroom by her room. There was a plug in heater in the bathroom, and I always loved getting out of the tub when it was cold and plugging that heater in.

There was a basement too. As a small child, I was scared of the basement. It seemed dark, but as I got older, we spent a lot of time down there. There was a piano that hardly ever got played, the washer and dryer, Grandma's sewing machine, and two more bedrooms. 

They had a very small yard that was always manicured to perfection. Grandma loved working in her yard, and it showed. 

I always cherished time spent on the farm. I'm an outside girl. I loved waking up on "my" couch to the singing of the birds. I loved the noises, and the sounds, and the smells that surrounded life at Grandma and Grandpa Reeder's house. Many adventures were had there.....helping on the farm, shooting the basketball out in the quonset, building forts out of old junk, riding the little motorbike around, riding the tractor with Grandpa, trying to catch bunny rabbits, playing on the haystack, sleepovers in the little red camp trailer, and playing night games with uncles and cousins. 

Grandma became our neighbor when we moved back to Weston in 1980. I was 13 years old. At that time, her home became like a second home to us. We were able to spend a lot of time with her, helping her, getting to know her better, and just loving her. 

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Wow! Am I blessed! I miss these people and the homes that they provided for my parents and for all of us. I'm happy I knew the safety, security, and love of being able to visit and stay with my grandparents. They had a very big influence on me.