BIG & little

My grandkids surprise me. I will be talking to a little chipmunk of a person and will have the feeling that I am actually with someone who is an adult, not a child! I have a sense that they are much older than they have years to be.

So, my sister Joanie shared some pictures from her childhood several months ago, and among them was one taken in our driveway: our branch president Bro. Sims, myself, Sue and Joanie. My lands, she is so tiny, about 3. I know she was 3 once, I just can't remember that she was ever that small!

More recently, I came across pictures of Sue & me, ages 5 and 3, and we are the same size chipmunks and Joanie was in that other picture! We were little, compared to the Badley kids who were visiting at the time. The kicker is that I can never remember feeling small. I always felt BIG!

When we were babies, in fact, Mom would say, "Look at that. . . just as big as anybody!" Well, in my case at least, I was a little wild indian, hollering and running around all over the place --- that's what my Auntie Frank said when she came to visit just after we moved from the Bay Area in 1946: "My goodness, they're raising a couple of little wild indians up there!"

So here you have it: Little wild indians, who do not feel or sound little. When we would be in this frame of action, Mom would say, "Go outside and blow the stink off!" probably because our little house could not contain all that noise and energy!!

An aside or two:

1. Notice that Mom braided our hair. That was the only way to keep it neat for any length of time!

2. With a Dad who came from Texas, wild indians were cool, not politically incorrect!

JAN-uary THAW

In Utah, we have an annual tradition: January Thaw. It can last from one afternoon to a week or two, depending on what the weatherman says is coming this way. I KNEW Tuesday was the day. The temperature had to be up in the mid-40's and I celebrated by hanging my wash out on the line without a coat!! The weather was gorgeous: no wind, no clouds, just wonderful, warming sun in a clear, blue sky. I even did a little yard cleanup that hadn't happened in the fall, and I felt like I was cheating Grim Winter of one or two small victories.
My friend says, "If you just watch, there will be enough warm winter days that you can scoot out and get your spring work all done in little installments." It's true!!

The Thaw, right after the hussle of the holidays and facing the bleakness of 2 1/2 months of winter, gives me hope. I CAN accomplish things! Life WILL be better and more pleasant! But I don't have to get going all at once. I can do what I have to by little parts and rest in between! I like that idea. The January Thaw is OK in my book!!

Ward History

Done!! After most of last week finishing it up, I am done! All 88 pages of it are in the hands of the bishop who promptly turned it in to the stake president . . . Wa-Hoo!!! The Ward Hysterian is now a real person for a few months!!! Ain't that fun??????

Froggies

Funny how your mind works . . . Wayne and I were sitting in front of the fireplace reading a wonderfully illustrated Planet Earth book when we came upon the picture of a frog. All of a sudden I was with Sue in the field out behind our house, looking at pollywogs in the water.

Our Greenville frogs were a nice, trim medium-sized frog, not toads like in Utah. I can't remember if they were greenish or brown, but we thought they were cute little fellows.

They had musical voices and we loved to hear them croak in the evening. A little ditch not more than a foot wide ran the length of the field, and in the spring and early summer when there was water in the ditch, that's where we'd find pollywogs.

It was amazing!! I suppose it was Daddy who told us what those wiggly little black things were in the water.

He said after they grew a bit, they would develop back legs, then front legs, finally losing their tail and becoming real little frogs. I remember finding one or two of those teeny cute little guys without their pollywog parts, but not too many.

Sue & I probably made enough noise that they heard us coming and hid before we got there.

When we did find adult frogs, we would look at them and play with them a while, and then put them in The Well on the side of the house, thinking they would be happy there where it was cool and somewhat damp. They could sing us to sleep at night.

Right: This is Daddy, some years later, in the driveway by our house. If you look just behind him on the wall, you will see the door to The Well, where our outside water faucet and hoses were kept. That's where we put the frogs.

Funny how those cute little froggies never liked to live very long in the gravel in The Well where it was dark and there were no bugs to eat, and where it was pretty dry under the house! But we thought we were benefactors to the froggie world by relocating them where we could hear their song. Besides, if they stayed out in the field, something was sure to get them, poor froggies! Never occurred to us that maybe if the froggies could avoid us, they might hide from other animals.

That field with its tall "braiding grass" (sedge) was a great place to play. We made grass huts by flattening down the grass, wove mats out of sedge and braided the "braiding grass" like boondoggle. And we got to watch the pollywogs in the early part of the warm season.

Left: The Field behind our house. We thought it was ours!

Pictures of Ann & Sue -- Top: taken in 1947. One of the first times Mom curled our hair. Usually it was braided . . . or not. I don't know that Mom allowed us to wander too far out of the yard at this age.

Bottom, right: I am guessing we are about 8 and 10 here. The blouse is one Mom bought so I could get my cast through the armhole when I broke my arm. These kids are probably the pollywog/ froggie hunters!