| Allyn | Loretta |  Valerie | Babette | Leesa | Markay |

Barbara Maybee Carter

I was born February 6, 1932 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Family tradition says that Dad carried me through a snowstorm to the hospital and that I was premature, weighing only 4 lbs.; small enough to wear a man’s handkerchief for a diaper.

Belva was born January 5, 1934. We were living in Wisdom, Montana. Dad and Mom rented a furnished flat on Maryland Avenue in Butte next to the Gittens. Mom came to Butte alone. I stayed home with Dad and Grandma. (Grandma and Grandpa Millecam were still living in Wisdom.) Then Grandma came to help with the birth. The cord was wrapped around Belva's neck and there were other complications with her birth. A doctor was in attendance, but he stated that he didn’t feel she would live and left her to die.

After prayerful consideration and a blessing by Elder Petersen, mother and the grandparents spent the remainder of the night placing alternate hot and cold packs on her. By morning she was breathing on her own. Years later, doctors discovered the cause of the problem was an arteriovenous malformation. Mother and baby headed back for Wisdom after 2 weeks. Mom stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for several weeks. Belva was named for Belva Gittens.

We remember living at Ranger Stations for a while. There was a fellow there who was a hermit. Dad kept warning mom to keep kids away from him, because he was afraid of children. He picked baby Belva up and kissed her on top of head. He was so good to Mom. He always carried in wood and water and whatever else was needed. Mom had always done that herself.

We had a dog-named Butch. I as a baby ate out of the dog’s bowl. So everyone teased me and called me "Butch" for years. Mom tried to get me to say everyone’s names. After working with her, Mom pointed to Grandma and Grandpa. I called them “Dam-ma” and “Dam-pa.” She pointed to the baby and asked that that was, I answered, “Dam-Belva.”

We moved to Reins, Utah (it is not on map anymore.) Reins was near Helper, Utah, up Spring Creek canyon. Dad got mining job in Reins through Uncle Lawrence, who owned the mine. Dad’s job was spraying the coal with oil to keep the dust down.

We lived in a long project house. There was a lot of snow. Once a snow slide buried the toilets and we had to dig through to get to them. Dad had to go out an upper window and dig us out.

For a community Christmas program Belva and I sang “Hang Up the Christmas Stockings”, which went,
“Hang up the Christmas Stockings,
Be sure and don’t forget,
Cuz the little angel darling hasn't seen Christmas yet.”

Each girl got a doll for Christmas that year with hair the color of their own hair.
Mom would make a peanut butter sandwich for Dad (knowing he wouldn't eat it) so that we would have something to find in his lunch pail when he got home.

The next ranch we remember was the ranch in Jackson, Montana. It was next to the Neidts’ on an old dude ranch. Buelah was married to Jake Neidt.

We had a dog in Jackson who would grab hold of the clothes on the line and swing back and forth, thereby knocking everything off the line. Then of course mom would get mad at him. Once mom dreamed that she woke up and heard someone crying. She checked the children and everyone was okay. Then she realized the sound was coming from outside. The dog was crying and saying, "You don't love me anymore". Mom borrowed Belva's toy cream skimmer from her set because she didn't have one.

We had a 'stone boat" (Like a box without rudders to travel on the snow). It was on this ranch that Dad taught me (age 5) how to drive a team of horses. He would drive one team of horses and have me drive the other. This was in winter and they were bringing hay back for the horses. I says, “One day, I decided to try and beat dad back to the house so I made the team go faster and faster. He thought the horses had run away and wouldn't stop and was scared spitless. I brought the horses in, wrapped the reins around the post and came in the house. Mother asked where Dad was, and I said, “Oh he's way back there." Belva wanted a horse. Dad said she could have the first one that was pink with yellow spots. Then to their great surprise, a horse was actually born that was a pinkish color and had yellow spots. Belva was very upset (rightfully so) when she didn’t really get the horse.

We lived with a roof that leaked and made interesting designs on the ceiling. It was also here that Dad asked me to bring him a tool he needed to work on the harnesses for the horses. I ran across an icy log, fell in the river and almost drowned.

In 1935 Grandpa and Grandma Millecam moved to Butte. He began doing painting and wallpapering in Butte and they lived in a stone house, which was very damp and cold. Later they bought the houses at 1130 and 1132 California Street.

On August 12, 1937, Bill was born in our Grandparents house at 1132 California Street in Butte. The birth was at home to save money and because Mother had her children so fast.

When Bill was a baby, we lived on the Elliott Ranch. Belva and I decided to walk to a friend’s house. Mom had been ringing the bell for us to come home, instead we went up across the hill and got a ride with a man who was taking his wife to the hospital and who dropped us off at our friends. The family called our Mom and Dad, fed us supper and waited for Dad to show up. It took him a lot longer to come by the road than it had taken us. We were put to bed and promised that we would be punished in the morning. In the morning I woke up first. Belva scrunched her eyes shut and then had the longest prayer in history. By the time her prayer was over, Mom had taken most of her anger out on me and Belva didn't get yelled at as much.

The first home we really remember was the Bell House in Wisdom, Montana. Wisdom is a very small town with just 3 or 4 streets, including the main street, which had wooden sidewalks at the time. Grandpa Millecam had a grocery store on the main street and there was the Mercantile (like a general store), a cafe and tavern and that was about all. The Bell house was a 2-story home made of logs. It had a wide front porch, where Belva and I made mud pies and posed in their Dutch costumes. Bill was a young baby while we were here. Another intriguing feature was a slanted door for one of the upstairs closets, which we loved to slide on. We also loved to open the slanting doors and jump into the big pile of clothing inside. (All of this was, of course, strictly forbidden.) This house was next to the church; a non-denominational one which had ministers from different faiths every week, one week a month we had an LDS leader.

Belva and I would go out behind the fence in back to pick wild flowers, Behind the house where we lived was a field where there was a very mean bull and beautiful wild flowers. When the bull was not in sight we picked wild roses, Indian paint brush, bluebells and buttercups to name a few. If we saw him coming, we headed for home as fast as we could and dived through the fence.

This was in the early days of rural electrification and only a few houses had electricity. The rest of us used kerosene lanterns. The plumbing was also primitive, with outhouses and wells outside to draw water from. Our mother's chief desire was to have an inside pump and a wood stove with a reservoir which heated water. Washday in Wisdom was very hard. First mother had to draw the water (in some of the houses we live in the summer it had to be carried from the creek), and then heat it on the stove to wash the clothes. Clothing was then hung outside even in the winter, when it freezes dried.

The outdoor well was the reason we moved. Mother and Dad both dreamed several times that young Bill fell into the well and drowned. They began looking for another house immediately.

The next house in Wisdom was the 'house in the willows'. This was back behind the main street and across a creek. We would chop holes into clumps of willows for doors and windows to make ‘buildings’ to play house in. One group of willows would be our house, another the grocery store and so on.

Mom would take us down to the creek to wade and look for frogs. Belva caught frogs for me, because she couldn't stand to touch them. Belva and I dressed up in weird costumes and tried to make Bill believe they were the boogeyman or goblins, but he was too smart even at the tender age of 2 or 3 to believe them.

I was in the second grade and Belva in first and we were often late for school because we had no concept of time and would wander up past the cafe, then down several streets to the other end of town for school. Frequently we would hear the school bell ringing, as we were still several blocks away. Our school had the first 4 grades in one room and grades 5 through 8 in another. Our teacher, Miss Lois Crighton, was special. She went out of her way not only to teach us the basics, but also music, manners and good posture and she told us stories of how other people lived.

The dresses we wore were not much different than the ones our granddaughters wore as children, except this was before the days of permanent press, and all little ruffles and puffed sleeves had to be ironed. Belva and I wore horrible long tan stockings, similar to tights, but which had to be held up with a garter belt. Even worse were the tan stockings flecked with orange, which we called our 'throw-up' stockings. We envied the girls who wore white stockings. Any day that the weather was over 10 degrees, we undid the garter belt and rolled the stockings into a lumpy mass at our ankles. Mother spent a lot of time each morning for a while rolling my hair into ringlets. As soon as we were out of sight, I would run her fingers through her hair and turn her hair into a style we called 'fluffy'. Belva's hair was braided and she looked like a little Dutch girl. Later she cut our hair in Dutch bobs, which were much easier to care for.


One of my tasks was to go pick up milk that we bought at a neighbor’s ranch. Once, after Mom or someone had told me about Joseph Smith praying in the sacred grove, I began to stop on the way home to say a prayer in the meadow. Until, one day the kids from the ranch came after me to bring something I had forgotten, found me and made fun of me.

The Brownings were big tall, rich, LDS men who made us whistles out of willows. A doctor from Reins also visited and made us whistle and he was the same doctor that said all children had to eat a certain amount of dirt when mother was concerned that we tasted our mud pies.

The last house we lived in was in the middle of town, next to our good friends the Lawrences. It was a smaller log house. Barbara and Billie Lawrence were two of our good friends. Two of my other friends were Betty Ann Jensen and Chuck Willey. She had honey blond hair and beautiful blue grey eyes. I got to stay overnight at her house sometimes. Another friend was Chuck Willey, whose dad was the postmaster. He was an interesting friend. He had been to the New York World’s Fair and he and his dad worked on things such as short wave radios.

We loved to read. One of the happiest days of my life was when mother took us to the library and I could check out all the Oz books I wanted.

Mom says, the first time that she realized children knew what dreams were was when Belva came downstairs one morning and said, "Mama, last night I heard Grandma in my ears and saw her in my eyes."

In Wisdom, the school was the center of community life. Often almost everyone in town would act in the local plays. Our Dad once had one of the leads in an English play. He also played the part of a cattle rustler in a movie that a motion picture company from Hollywood filmed in the area. (All the western movies were comedies to him; he would lean back and laugh at the clothes the cowboys wore and how the fences were built. After all, he was the real article.) Our movie theater was a community building with
Folding chairs and a projector, and a movie was a big event. A movie for kids was first and an adult’s movie was later. We saw “Gulliver's Travels”. The first movie I remember was “Ferdinand the Bull” about a mild mannered bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight.

Every one of all ages attended the dances. Babies were made a 'nest' of coats of blankets and slept on the benches on the edge of the room.

At Christmas time an organ was put into a horse drawn wagon, the wagon filled with hay and carolers would ride around town singing. There was also a community Christmas tree and gifts were given to everyone.

During summers Dad often worked as a forest ranger and we lived in tents with chipmunks for pets. It was a great life for children and mother enjoyed it too. One summer, we lived at Runaway creek. We lived in a tent with a wooden base for floor and tent top. We had 2 tents fastened together for living room and bedroom. We had a fun summer, brought frogs in every day and had to put them out at night. Our tin bathtub was left in sun until it was warm and Bill at age 2 would take his bath in it. Belva and I splashed and got clean in the creek. Once Dad pulled an ice cream man out of mud and he always gave us ice cream every week.

Once we lived at the Big Hole Battlefield, a national park near Wisdom. We really enjoyed climbing through the bars and playing on the cannons. When people came, we showed them relics that remained from the great battle between Chief Joseph and the 7th infantry. An old artillery piece and an old buggy with a saddle on the yoke were still there. When we were small we would slip between the bars that enclosed them and sit on them or in other ways demonstrate them.

Ice cream was only was around in summer in Wisdom. Heading home with ice cream cones once, Belva’s ice cream fell off cone. She ran home crying. (Belva had gone back to rescue the ice cream because mom said she should, and of course it was all melted. ) We would share a milk shake with 2 straws and each accuse the other of drinking too fast. A produce vendor came around in a wagon and sold fresh fruit and vegetables.

When we went to Butte to visit Grandma and Grandpa Millecam, or for Bill's birth, it was like leaping 25 years forward into the future. Butte had paved streets, indoor plumbing and electricity everywhere.

John was born November 25, 1939. He was another bright, alert, curious typical Maybee child. John was always a daredevil. One time he climbed to the top of a shed and Mom sent me to the top to rescue him. The shed fell in and they landed, but fortunately unhurt. Later that week, Johnny climbed to the top of they hay rack. I got him from top of hay derrick. John was sent to live with grandma for a while to give Mom a rest.

When I was in 4th grade and Belva in 2nd, the family moved to Butte permanently. Belva started to school at age 5 and I skipped 3rd Grade, so when they came to Butte Belva and I had to be retested by the school system in Butte so see if I could go into the 4th grade. They couldn't believe that someone from what they thought was an obviously inferior rural school system could have learned enough to skip a grade. I passed the test and went to 4th grade at Monroe School and Belva went into 2nd. Our teachers at Monroe were usually either very good teachers or very bad ones. (Most of them were quite old, single and underpaid. Married women were not allowed to teach in those days.) There were the two Miss Kellys; Miss Elizabeth, a very good teacher who taught us a lot and Miss Frances who was beginning to lose it; Miss Ida Helland, an excellent teacher who both loved and motivated the youth in the 8th grade and some of Belva's 1st and 2nd grade teachers who were very mean.

In school the books we read about Dick and Jane showed beautiful schools with aquariums and projects, which the children worked on. Our schools were falling apart (literally) with plaster dropping off the walls and ceilings and the playgrounds were nothing but asphalt. We thought the schools in the books were someone's fantasy and not real. After all, the silly people who wrote them said that it rained all winter.”

We lived with grandma and grandpa for a while, and then moved into half of a duplex that Grandpa Millecam had bought for $500 and renovated. As we were getting the house ready to move in we heard the neighbors talking excitedly on the other side of the wall in the other duplex. We soon found out that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. This was December 7, 1941.

Grandpa worked as a guard at the Linde Air Company and Mother would pass out information including recipes because certain foods were limited. Among the recipes was a sandwich filling made of ground up carrots, cheese and raisins moistened with mayonnaise. We dutifully tried all of the recipes and this became a great favorite with us. Some of the rationed items were sugar, meat, gasoline, shoes and tires. Families were given books according to the number in their family and each time you purchased one of those items you surrendered a coupon. No coupons left, meant you went with out until the new books were issued. Most of rationing was no problem to us, because we usually couldn’t afford meat or some of the expensive items anyway.

I remember buying savings stamps at school. After you got a certain amount you could turn them in for a War Bond. I also remember collecting metal scrap to turn in.

Money was always tight. Of one Christmas Mom says
"I had 5 good children who deserved as good as anyone. I thought and prayed a lot. Alvin sent me $5.00, so I took double army blankets and made 2 soldier suits for John and Bill and nurses outfits for Belva and Barbara With the $5.00 I bought braid and trim for the uniforms and doctor’s kits. The doctor's kits had pill bottles full of chocolate candies. Popsicle sticks were carefully washed and made into tongue depressors. The boys got new boots, with knife pockets, which were the envy of the neighborhood. A neighbor, Mrs. Tracer, came over crying late Christmas day and said, "I spent a fortune on Gaylene, and what does she do? She is over here all day."

When John was 5, it was discovered that he had Legg-Perthies, osteoporosis of the right hip. It was a rare disease, yet another boy in the same block had perthies also. I always felt bad that I had been walking with him downtown and I scolded him for limping because I thought he was faking. He was sent to the hospital and tied to a frame to immobilize his body from the waist down. Although the frame kept him immobile, it didn’t keep him out of trouble. One day, although totally bedfast and with a screen between them, he and his room-mate (who was in traction) had a chocolate pudding fight by lobbing spoonfuls of the messy stuff up over the screen at each other.

He spent a year in St. James Hospital in Butte on the frame. Mother went to see him every day. Although he should have started school during that time, a tutor wasn't assigned until later. When she came and began to teach him to read, he began reading immediately and read the entire book by himself. His bone had not healed after a year on the frame, so Mom sent him to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. There he was fitted with a leg brace to give him mobility and after a few months he was sent home to live and heal. Life in the Primary Children's hospital was not as boring, because they had Primary and volunteers who read to them. Once a circus was even brought for the children. The leg brace wasn’t removed until the Christmas he was eight.

We had a playhouse in Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard...a storage building which they let us use. Grandma gave us old empty cereal packages and empty cans for our 'groceries'. (She carefully opened the bottom of the cans to maintain the illusion.) It was here that we met our best friend, Loretta. There was a high window in the back of the building. She climbed up on boxes to peek in and watch us and then came and played with us. She had a vocabulary like a truck driver. Grandma informed her that if she wanted to play with us, she would have to quit swearing, which she did. She was a very pretty girl, with light blue eyes and light brown hair with honey colored highlights.

Judy was born October 13, 1942. She was such a pretty baby that Belva and Loretta and I loved to dress her up and take her for rides in the buggy. When she was very small she would take off all her clothes and swim in the wading pool, because she didn't want her swimsuit to get wet.

We lived one summer on a ranch near Rocker where we had chickens. The house was exciting, it had spaces between the inside and outside walls and we would pretend they were secret passages. We could go there and overhear what the adults were saying. It had horse-drawn wagons and all kinds of exciting things in the blacksmith shop. Loretta sometimes visited and we would pretend to be Scarlet O'Hara.

In the summer we often went to Elkhorn Hot Springs. John and Bill tell more about this in their “Memories of Grandma and Grandpa”. We all had a great time there swimming and camping out.
In our back yard at 1119 California, we also had many fun things to play with. We would put on 'plays' on the front porch. Loretta was always the heroine; Belva the hero and I wrote, directed and played the villain or character parts. We put on mock marriages, with Bill as the groom and Gaylene Tracer as the bride. Many Saturdays, after doing our housework, we would go on hikes. We would start walking out of town in any direction until we were half tired, then headed back home. Sometimes we would go to Columbia Gardens, which was a very large, beautiful park with rolling lawns, flower gardens, swings, slides, merry-go-round, dance pavilion and a boardwalk with refreshments and arcades. We usually took a lunch which mother or grandma packed for us.
Butte was an interesting place to live. The population was varied, Irish, Cornish, Italian, Scandinavian, German, Greek, French and Yugoslovakian.

There were quite a few unusual characters. There was Shoestring Annie wore bizarre clothes and sold shoe laces. Fat Annie, Nickel Annie – Went around saying, “Five cents please, If you don’t have five cents a penny will do”. She wore faded black dress and knocked on doors. Author Paul Lowney says her real name was Margaret English and that she was a well educated woman from a prominent St. Louis Family. He says she was not wealthy although rumored to be so.

Joe No Legs scooted around on a contraption he had made. He sold pencils. When Grandpa found out that we were paying a lot for his pencils because we felt sorry for him, he said, “Remind me to take you some time to see the big house he has.” `

Other interesting people were the food vendors; the man who sold hot chestnuts in the winter and the man who sold tamales at corner of Park and Main at side of Rialto theater – with southern European accent wearing white apron and grey cap, standing by steaming copper container selling hot tamales.

It was a competitor, however, Italian immigrant brothers Salvador and Vincent Truzzolino who made it big time. They prepared their tamales from an old Phillipine recipe aquired by Salvador.

One of Grandpa’s favorites was the pork chop sandwich created by Swedish immigrant John Burkland, sold it from lunch wagon on Mercury near Main.

We also stopped for ice cream cones, sodas and shakes at Berts, where you could get any combination of sodas and ice cream you wanted. Grandpa would often take us to Moxoms (?) for dinner.

When Belva and I took dancing lessons, we stopped next door for ice cream. (At Gamers?)

Some Saturdays we would go to a movie downtown after our work was done. Usually, one Saturday the boys would clean the upstairs and the girls the downstairs and reverse the following week. The most fun chore was waxing the floor, which we did by skating around with soft rags tied to our feet. There were 3 theaters, the Park, which played 2nd run or B movies, and the Rialto and the AmDadan, which ran, first run pictures. It only cost 5 cents to go to the Park Theater. We usually had an extra dime, which we could use for bus fare or we could buy candy and walk home. Later we also had the Broadway theater.

We had an enjoyable childhood. Grandpa Millecam had a stubborn van, which absolutely could not pass an ice cream store without stopping, no matter how he struggled with the wheel. Grandma was 'grandma' to everyone in the area.

Belva, Bill, John and Judy all were in many Primary plays. Iara and Belva acted in the MIA plays when they were teens.

All our friends loved coming to the Firesides at our house, many of which Belva and Iara organized. The most requested menu was always hot rolls and salad or hot rolls and cocoa.
As pleasant as life was for us as children, it was also very hard for Mom, who was a single parent at a time when there were few of them Mom says, "I could have told her that it was having all those children to play with that [it ends in the middle of this sentence, ed.]

BARB FROM 1949:


I graduated from Butte High School in 1949. My first job was for a collection agency owned by J. D. Grover, who was a church member and a good friend of the family. This story is told about when he was a bishop and was getting ready to perform the ceremony for Mom and Don. His young daughter, Justine, asked him where he was going. He said, “I’m going to marry Rita.” She burst into tears and said, “I don’t want you to marry Rita, I want you to stay with my mother.”

The pay was low - $80 a month as compared to other secretarial jobs, which ran $200 a month. But, my typing skills were not that good. My words per minute score was high, but with too many errors. Later, when I began typing on a computer, my speed went up 200%. However, the job was interesting, even though the people you met were not the kind you would want to have as friends – especially boy friends.

Mr. Grover worked for the State’s Attorney General for a time and this was really interesting. He and his team were assigned to watch a man suspected of having mob connections, connected with the gambling places in Meaderville. His office was in a building across the street from ours and Mr. Grover would have me watch with binoculars to see who came to visit him and when he left the building, then he would phone the investigators, who would then follow him.

There were many interesting stories connected with the business. One of our accounts was with the Murray Clinic. One doctor there told me this story. One of the street ladies of the day, what we would call a bag lady now, came in with a really bad rash. She smelled so bad that many of the nurses would not wait on her. The doctor, ever tactful, gave her a tube of ‘medicine’ and told her to spread it all over her body and then be sure to rinse it off with water right away so it wouldn’t sting. She did this and the rash was gone. The tube contained a liquid soap!

Another memorable person was an old man who disputed a bill and wouldn’t pay it. Right before Christmas he sent us a Christmas card with this notation, “Merry Christmas, go to hell.” Later the dispute was settled and the bill taken off his account. He asked us if we would continue to send him bills anyway since he didn’t get any other mail.

I often walked to work with a girl who lived up the street on California Avenue. She was a tall, beautiful redhead with a gorgeous figure. I really liked her, but I didn’t like that when I walked with her, no one even noticed me. She later quit the job to go work in Reno, because employees at the casinos got paid every night, and she had a hard time hanging on to her money.


During 1949 and 1950 all the guys Belva and I had gone out with were either in college or on a mission. So when Dean came to town, we decided to see which of us could land him first. Unfortunately for me, I won.

Dean and I began to get serious, and in February of 1950 we eloped and got married in Billings. We continued on to visit his grandparents in Williston, North Dakota. Dean was hoping to find a job there, but wasn’t able to, so we returned home and lived with Mercedes for a while.

Dean had a great voice. With work, he could have been a professional singer. He was also a good pianist.

I was really lucky with my mothers-in-law. Mercedes was very kind and caring and taught me a lot. She was a very classy lady.

We lived for a while with Mercedes. At one point we lived in an apartment on Maryland Avenue – I believe about 650 Maryland. It was next door to the place where Belva had been born. Dean went off on another of his binges and I was left alone, without money or food. I used the little change I had to go to the store across the street and buy candy bars, which were very cheap and could make you feel full. About that time Grandma asked if I would like to come down and learn how to can peaches. Of course, I would. She sent me home with canned peaches and bread from the Town Talk Bakery. (I was too proud to let anyone know.) I waited urgently every day for the mail. Nothing from Dean. Then I got a letter from the Relief Society offices in Salt Lake. He had come in to get some help.

Our next apartment was on Nevada Avenue, probably in the 1000 block. It was next door to the Kartchners and I believe the Gittens were our landlords. Grandpa Millecam did a lot of painting and etc. for them, so he asked us if we would like the apartment painted. We said, “yes”, because we wanted the walls more colorful, but Grandpa misunderstood and painted just the trim. On one side we had a bedroom and living room. The kitchen was on the other side. We had a converted wood range, similar to the one below. I don’t remember if it was gas or coal, but you could cook on the front burners and let soups simmer on the back of the range. I made a lot of soups because they were cheap. Once we went to a dinner at a local church, and the food was so scarce that we decided to have some of the potato soup I had left simmering on the stove. However, it was sour by that time.

Allyn was born on January 17, 1951 while we were living there. She was the first grandchild and first great grandchild on both sides and so was lavished with gifts. We named her Allyn after a character on the Perry Mason radio show. We thought the name was beautiful. It meant “gift of the elves”. When Allyn was born, we decided it was really fitting. She had an impish grin and dimples. I remember waking up in the hospital the day after she was born and thinking ecstatically, “I’m a MOM!”

Later we moved back to Williston, North. Dakota. Dean’s grandparents lived there. His grandfather was a retired judge. They helped us find an apartment of our own. It had two tiny rooms, the living room/kitchen and bedroom. The bedroom was only big enough for our full size bed. You had to stand on the bed to get into the closet. The other room was also very small with just the basic kitchen things, such as a range, frig and sink. The bathroom was down the hall and was shared with the rest of the tenants. One of them was a local radio D.J. He and his girlfriend became our good friends. She was as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor and talented – she wrote tiny articles for magazines, but she did not have much of a personality.

Our second place in Williston was a basement apartment in a private house. The woman always complained if Allyn cried. I remember coming home from work and listening to Sky King or Sgt. Preston of the Yukon on the radio.

I worked at the Soil Conservation Service in a temporary job. Dean’s other grandma, Agnes Ellis, who was in her 80’s took care of Allyn while I worked. She was a wonderful babysitter. She would take Allyn outside in her buggy and let her sleep there. Allyn loved looking up at the trees.

Williston had true seasons – it was very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. The smell l associate with the place is the smell of lush, green lawns. We lived there a while and then moved back to Butte.

After being in Butte for a short while we moved to Three Forks where Dean worked for the railroad. We lived first in a hotel, then in a very tiny house. One story I remember from the hotel was that the refrigerator had a foot pedal, which opened the door. One day as I was getting the girls ready for church, Allyn found the foot pedal and opened the refrigerator. She took out the eggs and had a great time breaking them all over the floor. As I remember, the little house did not have running water. We had to go out to get water. Later we moved to a larger house with a small yard.

I didn’t drive, so I would pack Allyn in her buggy to go to town and shop for groceries. Buggies were a wonderful invention; you had room for one or two little ones and quite a few groceries. I also used the buggy to take her to church.

When I had gotten married, I thought it was license to do all the things you weren’t supposed to do (within reason.) So I decided to try smoking cigarettes. An incident with Allyn helped me quit for good. She, Dean and I were like the 3 Musketeers – everything we did, she wanted to do, too. One day we went to buy magazines, and Allyn (at age 1-1/2) chose a comic book for herself. On the way home in our little sedan, I glanced back to look at her. She had taken a cigarette out of Dean’s pack, and had a match, which she was trying to strike on her jeans, just like her daddy did.

Loretta was born in Butte, Montana on May 16, 1952. She was named after my best friend, Loretta Babich. Our original plan had been to spell it “Lauretta”. However, Dean’s uncle Don had a little girl right before Loretta was born, and they named her Lauretta. She had fluffy blond hair and the sweetest smile ever. I stayed with Grandma, so she could take care of Allyn. When I came back home with a new baby Allyn was ill and didn’t want to have anything to do with me. We would take her out for rides in the car while Grandma kept Loretta.

From Three Forks we moved to Pasco, Washington. Dean had traveled there to see his Uncle Don, who got him a job driving a Coke truck. (Dean never had any trouble finding jobs, just keeping them.) This left me alone with two young children to pack and get the furniture and everything else ready to ship to Pasco. (I didn’t know Dean had rented a furnished apartment.) It was a huge blow when I found out that the stuff had to be crated! Fortunately a neighbor found out and came over to help me.

We lived in Pasco for a while. Pasco is part of the Tri-Cities Area, which includes Pasco, Richland and Kennewick. For Easter we bought the little girls a bunny rabbit, which they (especially Loretta) loved. I took the children for walks in a stroller around the neighborhood.

When we got our income tax refund we decided to buy a house. However, Dean went out drinking and lost all the money. He also lost his job, so we packed up the car and headed back for Butte. Halfway there we had severe car trouble and had to call Mercedes to come and get us.

In Butte, Dean worked for the mines for a while. We lived in the beautiful apartments owned by the ACM. They had to do something to induce men to work in the dark, dismal and dangerous mines. When he quit, we had to leave the apartments. At the time I worked for American News, a magazine distributor.

From there I believe we moved next to Silver Bow Homes. This was a nice housing project on Utah Street. We were living here when Valerie was born on December 10, 1953 We chose the name Valerie, just because we liked the name, but gave her the middle name “Gladys” after Dean’s aunt. She was another beautiful baby, with dark hair and brown eyes; Grandma Millecam said she looked like the Gerber baby.

One of the things I remember here was that Patsy Ellis made beautiful little dresses for the girls We have pictures of Allyn and Loretta in the dresses – Allyn’s was red, Loretta’s was blue and Valerie’s was yellow.

This was a wonderful place for the little girls, since they were surrounded by loving family. Mercedes called Loretta her ‘little Blondie’. She, Patsy and Gay loved brushing her fluffy blond hair. Loretta shared a birthday party with Patsy’s oldest son, Ellis. Allyn had been the first grandchild and great grandchild on both sides and so she was special to everyone. Grandma Millecam said that Valerie looked like the Gerber baby in baby food ads. The girls had a lot of fun with Mom’s kids. Loretta and Joe played together and called each other “Ma” and “Pa”.

In 1954 I got a divorce from Dean and moved to Seattle, Washington. I stayed with Belva and a roommate in a houseboat on Lake Union while I got a job. (Bill Little had already offered me one.) I worked for Bill Little at I. C. System to May 1955 then at Boeing.  My kids thought Bill Little would be an ideal person for me to marry. After all, he had all the important requirements – he knew how to fold origami birds, and he bought them ice cream cones. He loved to act like he was going to chase us around the desk. Belva and Maggie dared me to flirt back once, and he ran the other way faster than a bunny.

It was a novel experience living on a houseboat. When the tides would get high, or if the wind was strong, the houseboat would sway. Belva and I would wash the clothes, and then wring them out on the outside deck. There was a long built in bed at one end of the houseboat. It was kind of like a long window seat. Once Belva went to a party and warned the roommate and I that she was bringing people back with her. We didn’t really believe she would bring back anyone that late. So there we were, asleep in bed and one of they guys came over and began playing the guitar and serenading us. (He was really cute, and there we were with our messy hair and faces without makeup.)

When I brought the girls to Seattle, it was evident that living on a houseboat was not going to work with young children. Allyn and Loretta would chase the ducks and almost fall in the water, so Belva and I went looking for another place for me. We found a house in bad repair in the Greenwood area. Belva called all her friends in Gleaners and the M-Men and Bill Little and they came and painted every room and cleaned out a lot of junk. Then we found out that when the ad had said, “Heat furn.” It didn’t mean that the cost of heating was covered; it just meant that there was a heat furnace, so the place was a no go. I got into the Holly Park projects.

It was really tough being a single parent. We had been going to church at the First Ward on Queen Anne Hill. My new ward was not someplace you could get to by bus, so I continued at First Ward. I had to take 2 or 3 buses, transferring in downtown Seattle. As you can imagine, it was not easy to watch 3 little girls on the busy streets down town. Eventually I decided to go to Fourth Ward. We had to take a bus part way and then walk down a long dangerous hill, which didn’t have sidewalks. Fortunately, one of the members saw us walking and took us to church from then on. I was R. S. Social science teacher and Enlistment secretary and Gospel Doctrine leader, all in Seattle 4th Ward.


I remember one neighbor, Mrs. Huffman, who had great malapropisms. One of them was, “What religion are you afflicted with?” She gave me one good piece of housekeeping advice. She said, if you keep the floors clean, you don’t notice the rest of the mess as much. They were very generous neighbors and invited us over for ice cream. They were very large people and the servings were also large – a soup bowl or serving bowl full of ice cream.

I had fun decorating my new house. I bought pink and grey linoleum for the living room. (The pink and grey combination was very popular that year. Back in Butte, Bill was the first guy to wear a pink shirt and grey pants. Anything he wore caught on – he was a trendsetter just like Bret Perry many years later.)

Maggie, who worked for Bill Little gave me some interesting furniture, including a little table with an inlaid wood top in a chessboard design and a mattress stuffed with horsehair. Maggie was an interesting person. She had plenty of money, but didn’t dress expensively. She loved to go into I. Magnin, where the clerks would ignore her, until she opened her purse and began flashing a large roll of bills.

In 1956 I remarried Dean Ellis in Seattle, Washington. We moved to Myrtle Street in the projects to a larger apartment. Lynn-was in 1st grade and Loretta in kindergarten (1957 to 1958). The girls loved to open an upstairs window and sing. “How Much is the Doggie in the Window” and “Sugar in The Morning”. Valerie says she was sure she could fly, because she remembers being at the top of the stairs and then she was at the bottom without any memory of walking down them. Mercedes and Glenna continued to send them adorable matching dresses and lots of toys for birthdays and Christmas.

Babette was born in Seattle, Washington on March 29th, 1957. I have a testimony. It is that God lives and loves us. I have had experiences where I felt God was talking to me. The first major event was when I was in the hospital waiting to give birth to Babette. Dean had left and I had been praying that he would come back. When I came into the hospital the doctor told me that I had placenta previa and that the baby might die. I prayed and prayed for her safety. A very loving, but angry Heavenly Father told me I had to choose between Dean and Babette. That wasn’t a hard choice. I chose Babette.

Dean and I had chosen the name “Babette” for her long before she was born, for his aunt Babette Joy Brunner, who was a famous singer. It turned out to be prophetic, because Babette has always had a beautiful voice.

The nurses had been waiting for the doctor. They didn’t want me to deliver without his assistance. He had decided at the last minute that rather than going home after his last delivery which was what he had planned to do, he would stop in the hospital cafeteria for a cup of coffee.

I got a second and final divorce from Dean later in 1957. Dean’s leaving had been very hard on Allyn. She lost her daddy, her dog (which ran away) and her television all in the same week. Dean had gone to a furniture store and put a down payment on some beautiful furniture and a television set. It was all repossessed.

Our schedule was like this – I would get up early in the morning, dress and feed the girls, take Babette next door to Mrs. Hamilton, our baby sitter and walk over to the Day Care Center with the rest of the girls. From there I caught my carpool. The driver was very impatient, so if I would even a minute late he would leave without me. Then I would have to take 2 buses to work at Boeing. The procedure would be reversed in the evening. When we needed groceries, we would walk (about 8 blocks?) to the grocery store, borrow a cart and bring the groceries home or just bring as much as we could carry. Sometimes I could get Mrs. Hamilton to watch all the girls while I walked down. I remember that there was a little store that sold penny candy and the owner would cheat the girls if they came down alone. After some time I was able to switch to Second Shift. This was preferable in some ways, because there was less supervision and the pay was a little better. Then all the girls stayed with Mrs. Hamilton. The down side was that it was harder for me to get up in the morning to get Allyn to school.

A couple in our ward set up a blind date for me with Walt Carter. Several months later he proposed. We were married July 11, 1958 at his sister, Alice Staple’s home on Mercer Island. Walt didn’t like living in the projects so we moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house was have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours. There were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note – there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.

As a new bride, I decided to show off my cooking skills – making home made noodles, cream puffs, home made rolls and so on. Walt wasn’t impressed. His sisters did everything – Marion made professional grade chocolates, Alice was Real Estate editor on the Seattle Times, Virginia was a school teacher, and on and on. The move was hard on Allyn. She came home from school, crying the first week. She said, ‘I don’t want to go to one school, then another school, then another school.”

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful. It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all the girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop that Walt and I and the Perrys demolished. Walt put in a nice garden wall made of broken pieces of cement.

In 1958 in a letter to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Don and Judy, I mentioned that the girls loved the paper dolls they had sent. Betsy takes her “baby” everywhere. She feeds it and takes it to bed. Johnny sent tinker toys and they really made a big hit, especially with Walt. That year Allyn got a bride doll from Alice. Loretta got a ballerina and Valerie a Shirley Temple doll (all from Alice.) I told them we were buying a house for $10,000. It has a lot that is 110ft. x 135 ft. The house has 2 large bedrooms and a full, dry basement with room to expand.

I wrote a letter to Mom in February 1959 and enclosed a floor plan of the house. We had plans for expansion, which never happened. (Mom kept all the letters and cards people sent her. I actually had good handwriting then!)

Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, “Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959. We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us. Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt’s sister. Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo. She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th. They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th. Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning. Walt, Barbara, Belva and Lucille Hurst met us. We slept at Barbara’s place the whole time and visited with all. Picnicked with the Gleaner Girls at the beach – hot dogs, bonfire, marshmallows, chips, root beer made with dry ice. Nice youngsters, all having fun with the breakers, food, and singing. Big trip with Bob and Belva to Tacoma via ferry to island, Bremerton and smaller ferry to Tacoma, back to Seattle via Rainier and beautiful falls.”


Walt had been working for Boeing. Boeing was having one of their semi-regular layoffs and Walt got nervous. He quit before he could be laid off and opened a nursery called Flower Haven with Eldon and Lucille Hurst. Belva and Bob had known Eldon and Lucille before we did and they warned us not to get involved with them in anything involving money. Eldon and Lucille meant well, but Lucille loved promoting new ventures (and she was very good at it), but she did not have any staying power. She would have done much better just being a promoter. The nursery did not last very long, but Walt continued doing landscaping. He is not much of a self-starter and being in business for yourself requires you to be one. Landscaping also is a very seasonal work and does not pay well. He also had a penchant for investing in get rich quick schemes, none of which ever worked out. One of them did have a good side effect, however. It was classes taught by a Mr. Simmons, who talked about setting goals, then breaking them down into what you would accomplish that year, that month, etc. This was before you heard much about setting goals anywhere. It made a change in my way of thinking. What a novel concept! You planned what you wanted to do, rather than just letting things happen.

About the same time, Lucille had been telling the children, hers and ours, that if you prayed hard enough, you would get what you want. This was really hard on Loretta, when her dog was hit by a car and all her praying could not bring him back to life. Both of these ideas should have had a codicil. God does answer prayers, but the answer is not always ‘yes’. Also, setting goals is a good idea, but don’t expect that you are always going to attain them. However, if you work toward something and don’t get it, you are at least farther ahead than if you didn’t plan.

Leesa was born May 25, 1959 in Seattle. Another curly haired, active girl.

Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961. She had brown hair and liquid chocolate brown eyes.

Belva was Work Director (Second Counselor) in her Ward’s Relief Society. Relief Society in those days was self-supporting by way of bazaars held each year. At the bazaars you could find delicate pieces of lace and hand sewn quilts, as well as mouth watering baked goods and candy. I remember when Belva was Homemaking Leader and I babysat for their ward. Each week we would load boxes and bags of materials into her station wagon for the projects. It was really fun doing all the projects. Our friend, Virginia Kammeyer, wrote of those days in her book, “Saints Alive”.

“We went to work day luncheons,
And helped ourselves to meats.
We watched the demonstrations,
And tasted all the sweets.

We learned the tricks of baking,
And how to fricassee;
The art of dipping chocolates
We mastered cleverly,

By mixing, tasting, sampling
We learned to cook with pride.
And now we’re very talented,
And also very wide.”

The classes were Cultural Refinement, Social Relations, Spiritual and of course Work Meeting. I really looked forward to the Cultural Refinement (although we made fun of the name). That class in particular was as good or as bad as the teacher. It included lessons on art; literature and music tied into an ethical or moral lesson. I really learned a lot. I don’t know of a place where you can learn all this now. Social Relations was kind of a cultural anthropology class and we learned about how families lived all over the world.

In 1962 I worked at Frostop Drive In. It was fun working with all the teenagers, but the pay was really low. I also taught Primary. Lynn was in 6th grade, Loretta in 5th grade, Valerie - 4th grade, Babette - was 5, Leesa 3 and Markay 1.

I tried to find activities for the girls that would allow them to excel in their own individual talents. Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy. Loretta began taking dancing lessons. Valerie was a good singer. Later I became a 4-H leader and Babette won several awards. Leesa was artistic from her early years and Markay had musical talent. All the girls, but particularly the oldest four had very good voices.

In 1964, I worked at Seattle City Light for a Mr. Albee, who was such a perfectionist that he would examine papers I typed under a magnifying glass to make sure the letter pressure was exactly even.
It was during this time that I became extremely depressed. I believe the physical cause was that my doctor had prescribed tranquilizers (rather than going into the cause of my stress and working with that) and the use of tranquilizers can lead to depression. There were also physiological causes. I won’t go into that except to say that I believe there should be a special place in Hell for people who reasons of their own, sometimes to cover up their own sins, work to make someone believe that truths are lies and lies are truth. I had become very depressed. I was even contemplating suicide. What turned it around was this. Where I worked at Seattle City Light, I stayed late after everyone else, waiting for a ride. Dora, one of the other employees always left me her newspaper to read while I waited. I had written something concerning my thoughts in a notebook in my desk. On July 2nd, I opened the newspaper to read it and found an article about how devastated a family was because the dad had committed suicide. I immediately called the psychiatrist I was seeing. Much to my surprise he had me admitted to the mental hospital at Sedro Woolley. It wasn’t until years later when I decided to check out the newspaper article that had saved my life that I found out Dora had placed a page from a much older paper in the one for that day.

The hospital was interesting. Since I have always been interested in writing, it was another experience to draw from. I had a private room, very small, but the bed was comfortable. There was a tiny window in it so that the nurses could check up on you. Every day we had activities – crafts and so on. It was a nice vacation. I volunteered to feed patients in one of the more serious wards. One sweet lady was there because she had had a stroke and couldn’t speak. But she did understand! Many of the people who helped with the feeding just mixed everything together and shoved it into the patients’ mouths. I fed her one thing at a time and talked to her. I could see from her eyes that she was grateful and understood. I don’t believe that a mental hospital is the place for someone like her!

We only saw the psychiatrist once a week. I really appreciated Judy. She wrote me all the time I was there – and she was the only one who did. One very poignant moment was at a parade when the local band played “Going Home” and there were many tears.

It is my opinion that most psychoanalysts don’t help much. All they do is ask you how you feel about something and don’t have any advice. The psychiatrists can at least prescribe medicines if needed. The one I saw did have some concrete suggestions. However, the way that I got better was by looking up information in the library from people who had survived mental illness. This must have helped because “I feel much better now.” Some of the things I learned were:
Develop a sense of humor, watch or read something every day that makes you laugh.
Ask yourself, “ How much will this matter in 100 years?”
Trust your own gut feelings rather than depending on others views.
Don’t live your life by what others think of you. Chances are they don’t think about you that much anyway

The steps that I learned in AA later were a big key.

Admit you have a problem over which you have no control
Turn the problem over to your “Higher Power”, in my case, God.
Follow the rest of the steps, which are mostly concerned with making things right with your family and others.

Mental illness is real. Getting better is a do it yourself process.

I also worked for Western Blower Company. I loved this job, because my boss would tell me, “I know this is a hard job, but I know you can do it.” I also worked for Raber and Kief at a bookkeeping machine, which I hated.

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road). Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren’t going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old. It had a big enclosed back porch with a wringer washer, where I washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who the girls named ‘Crystal”. I still didn’t drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn’t come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

This is also the year that we did first family cookbook. Belva, Judy and I put it together and sent it to mom and the rest of the family.

Belva and Bob sold their home on Barton Avenue in Seattle and were ready to move to Everett. This was a really beautiful house. They found it in unusual way. When they were house hunting, Mom was with them. They passed a tiny little house on a beautiful view lot on Barton Avenue. Mom suggested that they at least look at it – they could always build a new house there later. This was what they did. Loretta and Dan were married here.

In 1968 our first grandchild, Daniel Robert Course, was born.

The move was at a really difficult time for Belva. She had suffered a stroke caused by her Arterial Veinous malformation. It was hard for her to walk and talk. Then they moved from a beautiful, expensive home in West Seattle to the small old house in Everett. Many of the members of their ward were cold to them. Also Bob was a High Priest they were not invited to the High Priest parties. It is a great satisfaction to me to note that the members of that clique all suffered from their actions– divorces, disfellowship, etc.

We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish. It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but Lynn got. I loved this house. In this ward I was Relief Society Secretary and a counselor in the Primary.

It was a good life on Fobes Hill. The girls and I would go for walks every day, down to the little grocery store or to Snohomish. Babette was in a choral group with some of the other LDS girls, Valerie and Allyn sang duets. Babette was in drama and in music. Her music leader, Mr. Peterson never gave her leads in the singing programs, but when the drama department put on “The Fantastiks” Babette had the lead. It was while we were living in this house that Allyn married Bruce Ayers in 1970.

We shared a well with 2 neighbors. Because the well was on the property of the lady next door (A Mrs. Rathbone) she would shut the water off whenever she thought we were using too much. We had to bring water in from town, then call the Sheriff’s Department which would send someone out to make her turn it on again. This cost us money and didn’t do much good, because she would just do it again.



1969, March 11
Melanie Anne Ayers was born

1970 Births
December 29 Anita Lynn Ayers was born.
July 14 – Shawn Lumsden was born.

1971
We lived at 1123 Railroad Ave., Snohomish. I worked for Washington State University as Nutrition Aide. Betsy was in 8th grade, Leesa 6 & 7th, Markay 5th I really like this little house. We had the foresight to have the house blessed when we moved in. It was nice inside, but an ugly dark black color outside. I organized another 4-H cooking group and it was a lot of fun.

Belva and I were working on low cost cookbook "Nail Soup" Wrote ambassadors and governors to get low cost recipes. We got a lot of interesting recipes and even more interesting letters. We got recipes from Ronald Reagan, who was then Governor of California and the Governor Lester Maddox. We didn’t agree with his politics, but his letter to us was very cordial and his recipe for Pickrick Chicken was delicious. We had written to ambassadors of many countries and to all the state governors.

It was a lot of fun working on “Nail Soup”. We looked forward with great anticipation to receiving the letters from ambassadors and governors. One Laotian recipe called for cooking the side dishes in the ashes. The results were at times also very unpredictable. When we received a letter from the German ambassador, we opened it with great anticipation. Would it be a great recipe for Sauerbraten or something else equally wonderful? Imagine our surprise when it was another recipe for Green Bean Casserole.

Translation into English presented some problems. We received this answer from “Embajada de Republica Dominicana”. “With thanks we acknowledge receipt of your kind letter of May 3, 1971. However, these copies of one of the most typical dishes in Santo Domingo are not suitable for your book, since they are not inexpensive recipes, we are pleased to enclose them to you.”

Belva and I and our testers tested all the recipes for “Nail Soup”. We had a few failures. One was Beaten Biscuits. The instructions said that the dough needed to be beaten a lot to be light and fluffy. We tested and retested, beating the dough almost to a pulp and doing everything but stomping on it. They still didn’t turn out right. It is included in the book, mostly for interest and a challenge. The other one I remember was “Bobote”, which my family will never forget (or forgive me for). The recipe called for ground lamb and raisins, among other things. I substituted hamburger. It was awful!

1972, January 29
Tina Cherie Ayers was born to Lynn and Bruce Ayers. 01 29. Bruce was attending school in Nebraska

1972 Walt worked at Munroe nursery, Kirkland, so we moved to Kirkland. It is a lovely area and we had a view of the water. The back yard had grape vines and fruit trees. We also planted a garden. One of the kid’s friends, after sampling some of the things we grew said, “Mrs. Carter you live like a king.” Allyn, Bruce and children stayed for a short while before find an apartment of their own in Juanita.

1973 June26
Jason Ayers was born.
Babette was in Gunslingers Drill Team in Kirkland. They performed at many parades around the area, even during the winter.
Leesa (9th grade) won prize in art contest at Kirkland Jr. High. Markay begins 7th grade

I ended job as nutrition aide & began job as secretary for Beneficial Life/financial services. It was while I was working at Beneficial Life that another problem began. For years I had been having periods where I really wanted to drink. One day after Beneficial Life had moved to South Center, I had a really strong urge. There were many other problems at that time. “Well,” I thought, “At least this is one thing I do something about. I will prove I can handle this.” I went out for lunch and had a big Margarita. Well, wrong again. This started a period of drinking and trying to quit. I finally decided to go to AA. I remember my AA birthday – it was 11/11/77. AA is wonderful. The people there saved my life. At times I was going to as many as 3 meetings a day to keep from drinking. I really appreciated Milas during this time. He would come and pick me up from a meeting without question or hesitation. In about 1983 I helped start groups for LDS alcoholics and addicts with Br. Hymas. About 1986 I slipped. I checked myself in to Alcenas Hospital in Kirkland. I learned many interesting things there. I couldn’t understand how I could be an alcoholic when I didn’t drink nearly as much as some social drinkers. It was explained that if you were alcoholic, you could stop drinking for years and just one drink would start it again. When I had first met Dean I went out with him and drank like he did – heavily until Allyn was born. Then I quit until 1973. One interesting story. My room had a connecting bathroom with a man. Locks on both doors, of course. One day, he knocked on the door and I told him it would be a while, I was in the shower. He offered to come in and scrub my back. I just laughed. Later he came over to my room and wanted to know what had happened to the young girl who was in that room. I told him she had left. (Well, she had, about 20 years before.)

1974 moved to 7009 180th Street. Snohomish. Walt met someone at Munro Nursery who was looking for a home and property in the Snohomish area. They said that if we could find them a place they liked they would rent it out to us until they were ready to move in (several years down the road.) We found 2 places – one with a very nice yard and a really nice home that a professional builder had built for himself. The other was not in great shape. They chose the worst one of the two because it was $5,000 cheaper. (However, Babette had a dream at the time we were house hunting that the man who had built the nice home was very angry that anyone else was going to live in his house. He had died unexpectedly while living there. Years later the house burned under mysterious circumstances.)

When I got my inheritance of $1,800 from Uncle Jack’s estate, we used most of the money for new carpets and flooring in the house. We painted all the walls and ceilings, added wallboard to one room in the hallway and painted the bathroom with marine paint. We also added wallpaper to one wall of Markay’s room, which was painted pink. Leesa’s room was first blue, then later yellow.

1975
Dec 31 -Bonnie Jean Course was born.
Babette graduates from Snohomish High School.
Babette sang in the opera “The Devil and Daniel Webster” with the Seattle Opera.

Snohomish was hit by a bad flood. Leesa looked up the information and this is what she found.
“They (the floods) were in 1975 and 1977. I think they said the first one was the worst in 100 years... and then the second one in '77 was even worse. The road across the valley was ripped up, and tossed into the fields. They had to rebuild the road in 1975, and then again in 1977. I know the Lippizaner Stallions that were in the valley died in one of the floods; all but one, and that one climbed up on the banks, had a heart attack and died also.

Here's some info I found about them...

“The Lipizzan is a very familiar breed to the people around Snohomish In 1959, Evelyn Dreitzler of Raflyn Farms in Snohomish, Washington, began negotiations with the Austrian government, and between 1959 and 1973, Raflyn Farms took delivery of the first of what would be 3 shipments of horses from Vienna. By early 1973 all 6 founding Lipizzan stallions lines were represented in her barn. Sadly, Ms. Dreitzler's dream of classical dressage and breeding Lipizzans for the American rider ended
December 2, 1975 when a massive flood drowned all but 3 of her horses. Within a year, those remaining horses would also be lost.

‘Developed exclusively by the Hapsburg monarchy for its use during times of war and peace, the Lipizzan is the true horse of royalty. Four hundred years of selective breeding have made the Lipizzan one of Europe's oldest breeds of horse. The Lipizzan's historical and cultural development enhances its mystique. Physically capable of withstanding the demands of the Airs Above the Ground, this baroque mount was bred to perform haute ecole dressage at the Spanish Riding School and owes its survival to the intervention of American General George S. Patton during World War II. Named after the early Spanish horses imported in the 16th century, the Spanish Riding School of Vienna is the oldest surviving institution of its kind in the world. Its primary purpose has remained the same through its history: to perpetuate the art of classical horsemanship in its purest form and transmit it from generation to generation. To this end, the School has used the Lipizzan exclusively as a horse capable of performing all the steps and movements of dressage, including the Airs Above the Ground -- the Levade, the Courbette, and the Capriole.”

Leesa adds, “Also, there were a whole bunch of cows saved from the floods... they were taken up onto Averill Field. Unfortunately, when milking time came, they headed back into the water and drowned. Talk about creatures of habit! Also, I remember going past a tree, and seeing an armchair up in it. That was a flood!!”

1976, Jan 21
Milas Roy was born January 21st.
We lived in Snohomish, Washington. -Walt worked at Valley Crest Landscaping, Snohomish for 3 mos. He worked at Sahalee country club, Redmond for 4 months. I worked as employment secretary at LDS Employment; Leesa scored top 5 % in national merit scholarship program.

1977
Births:
Jan 12, Michelle Sally Cook was born
July 26 Jennifer Michelle Ayers was born

Allyn and Valerie were attending Everett Community College. Babette was babysitting for Valerie.

I worked for LDS Employment in the first part of the year. John Ackert was working as a cab driver in Seattle. Milas was on Work Release. They were living in the Seahurst area, near Valerie. Our daily schedule went this, according to a note that says “Summer 1977”: I got up at 4:00. At 5:30 I was at Babette’s, picking her up. She took me to bus by 6:30 at 3rd and James and picked up Milas there. She is at 3rd and James to pick up Milas by 6:30. He has to be at work by 7:30. She picks up John and he takes her home. By 2:30 John is back at Babette’s. She drops him off . Babette picks up Milas and takes him back to jail. I meet them at the jail and either Babette or I drive home. On Wednesday night I go from work to meeting in Bellevue. Tuesday and Thursday Leesa goes to Everett Community College and Wednesday Markay goes to M.I.A.

Notes from Sept. 1977. I was doing jobs for Manus Temporary Services. In September I was working for Craftsman Press.

At the Food Fair I was in charge of Art and Preserving. A note says, “ Sandy Countryman helped arrange the art. We had both foyers. What talented people in this stake. There were oil paintings, tole painting (one 105 year old flour bin) and a rocking chair, sculpture, polished driftwood, rock people, photography, etc. Preserving came off very well. Marge Bybee did canning and I did freezing.”

Later in the year, Walt was working for Kelly industrial while Boeing was on strike -I was working at Manus temporary.
Second Snohomish flood. Leesa says, “I guess the worst was December 2nd, 1977. One site I looked up said "14.87 feet above gage" whatever that means”.

1978
Feb 7 Amy Marie Cook was born.
I wrote a letter to all the stakes inviting them to have recovering alcoholics and addicts attend the groups in Bellevue and Renton.

1979
Births:
May 29, Peter Cook
August 2, Charlene Marie Ackert.
Markay and Rich are married April 28, 1979.

1980 –
Births:
Randahl Chisholm Hanks Feb. 19th.
David Ackert, July 24th.
Haven Schreck was born March 30th. Markay and Rich were living in a mobile home in Rock Springs.

I began the first family newsletter, called “Carters’ Chronicles”. Previously our family had a round robin letter, where one person wrote a letter and sent it to the next and so on until it came back to the original person. However, this did not work well, because inevitably someone would not continue the rounds. What was happening in June 1980 was that Dan and Loretta were trying to sell their house in Seattle so they could move to Portland where Dan was working. Valerie moved into Hilton Estates, sharing the house with another woman. Babette was working at Holiday Inn, and they moved into a large 3-bedroom house with a foos ball table and piano. In the next issue we had a cartoon Shawn had drawn. Some of the items from the second issue –

“I went to Wyoming in March to help Markay with her first baby. Haven Ellen Schreck was born on March 30th. March 29th was Richard’s birthday and Markay made him a huge turkey dinner. Later that night she was on the way to the hospital to have Haven. Richard made a little poster and put it on the ceiling of the Labor Room, which said “Think Baby.”

Later in the year Markay, Richard, baby Haven and I were on the way to Centralia. Richard had applied for a transfer there. Markay had been trying to get Haven to say “mama”. She said “Dada” which meant not only daddy, but also food. Haven was teething and was in a bad mood. She bit hard on her teething ring and said, “Damn”.

And another, “Charlene is a little comedienne. She makes a lot of funny faces, but she is also very compassionate. We were taking their cat (Charles du Four, so named because he’s a passionate French kitty) to the vet. He was sitting on my lap and mewing. Charlene looked at him with big worried eyes. Then she decided what he needed and handed him her bottle.”

We were trying to save money on groceries and so joined a food co-op. Everyone had jobs to do. We would take turns going to wholesale warehouses and buying big quantities of different staples. Another group would package them up.

In 1981 Barbi Hanks was born.

Belva had been sending out a family letter and I was doing the Carter Chronicles, so we decided it would be a good idea to expand the newsletter to include all the brothers and sisters and their families, so the Maystar began.

In May, Rita & Don and family went to Benita's wedding, stayed a few days with Joe, then to Green River to see Bill and Zina and back to Provo for Joe & Kay’s wedding. They met me at the airport. I was on my way to Rock Springs to help Markay who was expecting.

Marketta was born prematurely on June 14th. The hospital in Rock Springs did not have neonatal facilities, so she was taken by helicopter to the hospital in Ogden, Utah. Markay had to remain in the hospital in Rock Springs. Rich, Haven and I drove to Ogden. I suppose we could have found a motel in Ogden, but we had always been welcome at Marians. Rich had done some plumbing and carpentry work for her on previous trips and she had really appreciated it. I don’t remember why, perhaps Marian was not feeling well, but we ended up at Virginia and Walt’s house. Every time Walt and I and kids had gone to Morgan, Virginia had always asked why we didn’t come and stay with them instead of always going to Marian’s house. We called and asked her if it was okay. She was beside herself. She was expecting company the next day and had just changed all the bedding on the rooms downstairs and she certainly didn’t need a baby wetting on the bed. I felt terrible, but it was a little too late to go anywhere else. Haven and I slept on the floor, rather than have the sheets get wet. Rich and I quietly decided we were going to get out of there early in the morning, around 6 or 7 a.m. At 4 a.m. Walt Baer began mowing the lawn outside. Then there was the wonderful scent of homemade pancakes. Virginia was in a little better mood, but we ate, thanked them and left.

I have always felt that one reason Rich was so close to Marketta was that he bonded with her early on. He would bring stuffed animals and place them by her incubator. Marketta was in the incubator for about a week and a half.

We (Babette, Milas and kids) took a trip to Montana and Utah in August. We spent several days with Milas’ parents in Rathdrum, Idaho and then I went on to go to Debbie Stark’s wedding to Lance Larson. I took Deb around to find a wedding dress, but she couldn’t find any she liked. One saleslady thought I was Deb’s mother and apologized when she found out I was her sister. I told her that was okay, I was old enough to be her mother, and had a daughter her age.

Fortunately, Delsa arrived from their trip to California in time to make a beautiful robins egg blue dress for Deb. The wedding was held in Lance’s parents home, a massive 3-story log home, which his parents built. The central living area is 2 stories high. Around the sides of the room upstairs are an open den and bedrooms. All the children sat behind the railing upstairs to watch the ceremony. Lance’s parents are well to do cattle ranchers with a huge ranch. The bridesmaids wore old-fashioned dresses in varied colors and the men wore cowboy hats, boots and shirts. (The real thing, not Hollywood variety.)

After the wedding, I went on to Provo with Belva and Bob for BYU Education Week. We stayed at the Hotel Roberts, which is a lovely 100-year-old hotel with an enclosed patio, garden and fountain.

This year I was on the Silver Lake Community Council with Belva and Bob. I was the Secretary. I believe Bob was President.

We started looking for family disease and sent out questionnaires to the family

1982 –was another busy year.
Multi Data Services was formed July 29
Officers; Bob Perry, Bruce Campbell, I Carter, Belva Perry, Max Short, Valerie Lumsden, and advisors: Nico Snell (banking), Dave Turley (legal), Craig Burnett (computing) Note: how it actually ended up was I and Belva doing bookkeeping and clerical services for Jim Rigby and Brian Baseler (Byro Construction.) with Bob assisting. Mom (Rita Stark) also helped. Everyone else dropped out when economy got better. (We also did many resumes)

ADD: I was Director of Family History Center here sometime.
I have a strong testimony of genealogy and temple work. My maternal great-great grandmother, martha ann smuin, had come from england and across the plains to utah with the early pioneers, so we had quite a bit of information on her side.

Not so much on my father’s line. His name is eric maybee. “maybee?” What kind a name is that. Belva and i thought at first that it was either a transposition or totally made up.

But our heavenly father answered our prayers and the prayers of our ancestors.

We had only minor luck looking for the line. Then one day i was the everett library, checking out some books to read. For some reason i was impressed to pick up at look at a book in the reference department. In that book, was the name jan mebie and his wife, – a family who lived in new york state in the 1700s.

That was exciting – next stop was the sandpoint archives. Looking at reels of film we found the names of david and charity maybee and their family. We could feel the family around us, laughing and happy. (if you are looking for out of the world experiences, don’t take drugs – do genealogy!

That beginning lead to belva communication to jack mabie in new york and the foundation of the maybee society with over 200 members and thousands of names which were submitted for temple work
Another time that our prayers were answered in a totally unexpected way; in the late 80s i worked at the family history center and eventually became the director. Connie woodward had been collecting books, etc. For the library. Eventually we began to run out of room. When she asked if there were a chance that we could expand the library (she even had tentative plans drawn up) the answer she got was that money was needed more for chapels in 3rd world countries. Well, we couldn’t argue with that.

Since we couldn’t get more space, we decided to reorganize and make things more efficient.
Our librarians and sometimes husbands would get together, buying and assembling bookcases and painting them every friday.

Some of the librarians that i remember were joyce tinsley, joyce rasmussen and dear sweet blanche nielson. (blanche had the hardest job – she was in charge of staffing the library. Librarians would call at the last minute and say they couldn’t come in because they were getting their nails done or had decided to join a ceramics class, etc.)

Back to the unexpected answer to our prayers. At that time belva and i were working on a low cost cookbook, so we would go to garage sales to look for old spiral bound cookbooks – the kind put out by churches and organizations – the type of recipes that people actually make

before we went one saturday, belva said, ‘let’s pray that we will be guided to the places where we need to go.” (novel concept to me – to pray for something like that.)

We planned our route and then were inspired to go down a different street. We found a fantastic place where the people were closing their home office and we got tons of things that were needed….. For the genealogy library!

FIND PICTURES OF THE JOYCES AND I IN SALT LAKE We found that when you say a prayer you need to be specific. Joyce rasmussen, joyce stearns and i went to a genealogical training session in salt lake city. In our off time, we would, of course, visit the wonderful salt lake genealogy library with all it’s treasures. Patrons would get so involved with what they were doing that they lost track of time. Also, if you left your film reader for more than half an hour, the staff could assign it to someone else, so some of the ladies would bring sandwiches, which they would quickly eat in the bathroom, which was strictly forbidden.

Knowing my strange little problem, the ladies and i prayed that i would be okay in the genealogy library. Well, i was okay until i went outside, where i promptly hit the deck. They laughed and said, i guess next time we need to make it portal to portal.

1981 - Belva, Bob and I go to BYU Education week and stay at Hotel Roberts
…………………………………………………………………………

Lynn and Steve begin building their new house
This is the year I found David Maybee at the Sandpoint Library.
Valerie gets engaged to Brian.
We get tested at University of Washington. Loretta was diagnosed with Lupus. Dr. Bird sent letters to the rest of the family’s doctors and told them we were ‘religious fanatics’ and not to believe us.
Walt and I took a trip to Canada, where retraced the journey William Orlow and Bessie had taken from Ashcroft, B.C. to 70 mile house where he died.
Bianca and Kevin got married. Markay and Richard were able to come for the wedding.

A note from the Maystar says, “ Haven has the vocabulary of a grade-schooler. She decided the Perrys cat lived in the garage because he “liked his privacy” and says she and her sister are “not always compatible.” Charlene spotted Santa Claus in a store and went over and told him he knew her. David has enough energy to supply a power plant. He doesn’t talk much, but can let you know what he means. He pointed to the smoke alarm and covering his earls and grimacing and pointing to a fire truck.”

The Hank kids won first place at their Stake’s Road Show. This was also the year they had the terrific Halloween party. In one of the contests, everyone had to use water pistols to shoot the flames out on a candle. There were also pin the face on the pumpkin contests and apple bobbing. They ended the party by having everyone trick or treat down the hall in the bedrooms, which the kids had decorated to make them scary.

1983
Brandon Baseler born.
Ryan Hanks is born April 26th.
Brian and Valerie are married. I had fun helping her plan. Melanie and Anita were beautiful candle lighters. Stefanie and B.J. were flower girls and scattered rose petals down the aisle. Belva shortened the dress for Valerie, which wasn’t easy, since it had many layers of lace. Bob Perry performed the ceremony. Tina and Jason babysat all the young children. Mom and Dad were able to come also. Mom was here to see a doctor who diagnosed her with Parkinsons. He said, “ I could have told just be seeing her walk across the room, that it was what she had.” After that Mom and Don hurried home to begin her treatment.

We earned our first money for M.D.S. by typing a theme paper for a friend and our second fee, a box of chocolates, was for doing an aptitude test for Benita. Turns out she would be a good buyer for a department store, clothes designer or interior decorator.

Rich and Markay go to Australia and I babysat for the children.
I do Everett Ward newsletter, which gets an award from Stake

Shawn had a bad motorbike accident. He had a concussion and his leg is in a cast. He was in a body cast for months. For a while we didn’t know if he would live, and then after that whether he might have brain damage. We took turns at the hospital trying to keep him awake and keep his mind and hands busy, which is what the doctor advised. Valerie spent most of her day at the hospital. The staff brought in a bassinet for Brandon.

Leesa and John separate.

Belva gets in touch with George Maybee Martin and receives volumes of genealogical information about the Maybee family. Bob went to New York for a week for the Boeing Company. Belva’s grocery list for the week says, “Anything sinful, but not too expensive and no work.”
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1984
Markay and Richard move to New Jersey and then Rock Springs, Wyoming. Richard asked Haven and Kitty what they thought Heaven should have. Haven replied that it should have lots of trees and flowers. Kitty, a little tomboy asked, “Do they have dirt?”
I took trip to Salt Lake, did some genealogy and took pictures of some of the places that the Millecams and McFarlanes had lived.
Doctor Gulick at Everett Group Health finally diagnosed me with Familial Periodic Paralysis.
Walt and I make a trip to England right after Christmas.
Leesa, Walt and I worked as volunteers for the Everett School District. The school had hundreds of very interesting classes for the community. Allyn came all the way over from Port Orchard for one of the classes on interior design.

I helped with a Genealogy Fair in September. Joyce Rasmussen was the director at the time and I was one of her counselors.

1985
M.D.S. did bookkeeping for Brian Baseler (Byro Construction) I was seeing Dr. Gulick.
Dr. Meiers was dentist
In August we (Belva, Bob, Byron, Bret, John, Kathy, Bill and Zina) go to Butte. Mom had fallen and was not doing well. She was in the hospital in Butte. When we arrived, she only weighed 73 pounds. Doctors took her off most of her medicine including insulin and by the time we left she was gaining weight, feeling better and as sharp as a tack. Don was very ill, thin, drawn and depressed from his health problems and having to care for mom without getting enough rest. Delsa and Dick have been taking care of Mom and Dad at their home. Delsa worked at a nursing home during the day and taking care of Mom, Dad and Dick (who had blood clots) the rest of the time.

While we were there, the men repaired the roof. They put in a new porch and cleaned the garage and yard. The women cleaned out the basement, sorted out things, cleaned out the slime where a sink overflowed in the basement (Belva did most of this) and began cleaning the upstairs bedrooms and living areas. I bought a hand held shower for the tub. Delsa held a garage sale. Bill and I made plans to start Meals on Wheels in September. Delsa’s kids would be back in school and Delsa would be selling insurance. She had quit her nursing home job so that she could take care of mom and dad.

1986
Danny Course graduates from Franklin High in Portland.

Leesa began college. The first place that she went was Rainier College. Operation Improvement sent her there. We should have known there was a problem when we went there and the building manager asked the administrator if they were going to renew their lease. She had classes in computer construction. One of her teachers said she should go on to take Engineering, rather than just taking the computer classes.

I go to genealogy training in Salt Lake

Randy lost his first tooth. He was ready to throw it away and Lynn said, “No, put it under your pillow and see what happens.” The next morning he was overjoyed to find money under his pillow and wanted to know where it came from. Lynn said, ‘the tooth ferry comes around and gives you money for your teeth.” He first looked happy, then very worried. When she asked him what was the matter, he said, “Mom, I don’t ever want to go on the foot ferry.”

Valerie and Brian move into house with swimming pool.

1987
Mom and Don were living at Belva's. . We got together and made out a schedule. I would come over and help mom with her bath, fold clothes or clean and make lunch several times a week. Walt helped Don with his baths and took over the garden; Blanche came in on Wednesday mornings to give Belva a half day off and Leesa helped mom with PAF. Mom caught on really fast to the program, especially since she had not had any previous computer experience. Don would do jobs such as cutting the dead blooms off the huge rhododendrons and helping with other household jobs that he could do from his chair. Bob and Belva, especially Belva had the overwhelming job of caring for them –a 24-hour job, as I found out when Belva and Bob left for a weekend.

Leesa began at Everett Community College and continued until 1992.

In February Betsy and Milas went to Alaska. Her children stayed with us and had a good time playing with their cousins. However, Pete began playing with some neighbor kids and they began throwing rocks at each other. The other boy’s rock hit Pete in the head and made a big gash. The boy’s mom took Pete and Leesa to the emergency room for stitches. Then, on the next Monday, the boys were playing in the lot next to us. The man in front was building a fence. He decided to chase the kids off his property and hit Milas in the eye. The jerk didn’t even offer to drive Milas to the hospital. I didn’t have a car again, so had to call Valerie to take him to the hospital. You can imagine how we felt when we met Babette and Milas at the airport with 2 bandaged boys. Babette ended up with a big bill for an ophthalmologist and had to take a day off work.

Carters go to England with Cooks. Babette was about to lose her flight benefits so we decided to go to England. Walt Milas and the boys and I left on Friday, Sept. 3. Babette had to work that day and being on stand by decided it was safer to split the amount of people. We rented a car and Walt had a terrible time driving in the heavy traffic. We found out later it was especially bad that day because our hotel was near Wimbledon and there was a big tennis match going on. We were almost ready to return the car and make other arrangements, but decided to try it again with Milas driving. As we got farther away from London the roads got better. We drove to Abingdon and Radley, where the Honeys, Puseys and Smuins had lived. The kids were enchanted with all the old stone buildings and cobblestone roads.

We stayed at Best Western hotels, which were old mansions turned into bed and breakfasts. The breakfasts were hearty English ones. Even though English people as a whole are not fond of children, they smiled at Milas, Michelle, Amy and Pete, who were well dressed and very well behaved.

The food was much better than we had been led to believe. At the first hotel, they sent up a pot of hot chocolate in a silver pot and sandwiches on a silver platter. Another good place was the fish and chips place where Walt and I had gone on our first trip.

We visited Salisbury Cathedral, Dover, with its white cliffs, went to the Pollocks Toy Museum and of course the Old Curiosity Shop. I was sick on the day they went to the Tower of London. Milas took pictures of the crown jewels. (We found out later that it was strictly forbidden.)

Some of the most interesting things were the unexpected ones. On a street in London, a small East Indian boy walked toward Pete. Neither of them spoke the others’ language, but they managed to communicate very well with gestures and by making faces.

We saw many castles that were open to the public, but once Amy and I were ahead of the group and climbing up the stairs of one of them, Amy was chanting “A Castle (she pronounce it with a hard T) when we looked in the window and saw a man watching T.V. Oops, this one was a private home.

In December, Markay, Rich and children came to stay with us. It was crowded, but we had a good time at Christmas. We went out to see the Christmas lights and drove to Pilchuk Tree Farm to cut our own tree, have hot cider and got to ride on the hay wagon. On Christmas day we invited John Ackert to come and he brought a friend. They serenaded us on the guitar and we all sang.

The lot in front of the house always became a pond in the winter. That year there was a bonus, a flock of ducks arrived to make it their home and frogs lived there also.
The woods in back of the house had been torn down to make new homes. Not without protests from the kids. They went out and removed the tags on the trees that were slated to be cut. Didn’t do any good, though. However, the bulldozer operators did let David ‘drive’ the machines, which made him very happy.

112th Street was under construction and there were machines out in front every day. The kids became good friends with Debbie, who operated one of them.

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1988
Markay and Rich lived with us. I was going Culinary Arts School at Edmond C.C.
Markay and Rich separated in October and Markay and kids went to Ellensburg to live in motor home
Babette and I work for census
David Ackert passes sacrament for our Sunday school.

1990 (No Maystar until September)
Don died in February. Belva and Bob went to the funeral but I was too ill to go. Judy took a bus from California. Joe and Duane thought she was coming by plane (her first plan) and met every flight. She got off the bus in downtown Butte. The bus station promptly closed. Even the cabstands were closed and there were no phone booths, so she had to walk from downtown Butte to the flats (over 5 miles.)

Mom died in June. All the family came except John and Kathy who were on a trip to Russia and so not available. After the fiasco at Don’s funeral, Judy decided just to stay at the Finlen Hotel. Delsa and Ronda and Duane housed many of the family. There were many touching tributes. One of Duane and Ronda’s daughters, Aimee looked so much like mom that a friend said, “It’s a good thing I don’t believe in reincarnation, it’s almost spooky how much she acts and looks like Rita.”

Meanwhile, back in Everett, Leesa was being rushed to the emergency room. She lost over a quart of blood and was in very serious condition for quite a while. The ward rallied around and brought food. John came and got the children for a while, and then Babette took care of them.

NOVEMBER 1990. - 1996 161 Dogwood lane, Brinnon, Washington.

We had been searching for a home to buy after Walt retired. Our place on 112th Street was being encroached on by apartment buildings and we needed to lower our mortgage payments. We began looking in Marysville, Snohomish and other nearby areas, but it was soon evident that we couldn’t afford anything there. So extended our search to the Hood Canal and Sequim area. Babette and Milas and Markay were also searching so for a while we had the idea of one big place with several homes on it. I suppose it is fortunate that we didn’t get places together, since Markay married Dennis and moved to Missoula.

Walt favored the Sequim area, because of the rich, wonderful growing conditions. We found a house we liked and put a bid on it, but lost the bid. We continued to look and found a place I fell in love with in Brinnon, Washington. We weren’t too happy that the yard was small, but figured it would work out

If life were divided into chapters, this one would have been entitled, “But It’s So Beautiful Here.” Betty McDonald was right. She lived on her egg ranch in the 1940s and wrote how forbidding the mountains were, that they looked like they could swallow you up and no one would be the wiser. When I read it I thought she had a terrific imagination, since we came from Montana and had never met a mountain we didn’t like. But as you go through the pass, you begin to feel hairs rise on the back of your neck and push down a little harder on the gas pedal. The locals here feel the same way. They don’t say, “watch out for the snow in the pass.’ as you would if you were approaching Snoqualmie pass. They say, “beware of Mount Walker”. As if the mountain were a living thing. One of the grandchildren (I believe it was Brandon) to whom we had never said anything about Mount Walker, came through with us and said, “Grandma, that mountain is scary.”

. I felt that we needed to be in Brinnon, and found out later why. It was 50 miles to the nearest LDS church in Chimacum. Many of the Brinnon LDS members were older and it was very far for them to drive. A little later, the bishopric asked us to hold a Branch Sunday School in our home. A member of the Bishopric came down every week to preside. This was a wonderful experience. Our lady missionaries spent a lot of time in the area and reactivated many of the inactive members. Even those who didn’t come to church would attend the many socials we held. We used almost every room of the house for Sunday school. We held Sacrament meeting in the living room, Relief Society was in my bedroom and Priesthood in the living room. When we had younger children, we held primary in the den, which was also Marketta’s bedroom.

She lived with us for a year (1995) and went to high school 16 miles away in Quilcene. Many of the other grandkids visited us there also, including David, Haven, Kate, Richie and Randy. They loved sleeping on the huge front porch, where we even had an electric grill where they could roast marshmallows and a porch swing.

I found out that I really could keep the house sparkling clean. You never knew when someone would drop in, from the Bishopric or missionaries to Stake Presidency.

Brinnon was a fun place to live, despite the fact that the closest decent grocery store was 50 miles away. Black Point, where we lived was an area mostly of summer homes. It was just a block to our (shared) beach, where we could swim, get oysters or dig for clams. Our dog, Pebbles, loved it. You could also put crab traps down at the marina. It was a nice place to hold our family reunion.

I worked as a Home Chore Service at Merlin and Cathryn Houtz’ home, because the County couldn’t find anyone to come down that far to work. Their place was so tiny...not even a regular size trailer. It was also very cluttered. Walt jacked up the upper cupboards so they would close and I cleaned them all out and lined the back of the walls with fresh contact paper. The toilet didn't flush (the inside parts were broken), the sinks didn't drain, the water heater didn't work and if you turned on a light in one part of the house everything else flickered. (I called the bishop and he sent an electrician to look at the wiring.) Cathryn had a bad heart and her husband hadn't been able to walk well since he was a small boy and his despicable father ran over him with a horse-drawn wagon and then refused to take him to the doctor.

We had one of our Brinnon bunch potlucks and heard more fascinating stories from the people. Ron Fulton was married to Elizabeth Bishop, the granddaughter of the people known in "The Egg and I" as Ma and Pa Kettle. He says all the stories in the book were true. While courting her, before he knew of the relationship, he took her as a surprise to a local drive-in where one of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies was showing. She did not think it was very funny. They were lucky, though; Betty McDonald used the real last names of most of the people in the book, such as Birdie Hicks.

In April David came over for spring break and we delivered Easter baskets on way to taking him back
In September - Markay went on a trip to the holy land with Michael Ballam's group and I baby-sat for her. They are living in housing in Ellensburg. The walls were snowy white and she had hung copies of great works of art on the walls. She is teaching the children about classical music and art. She bought a beautiful mahogany dinner table. She was attending college in Ellensburg.

Lynn was laid off at the shipyard. (Reduction in force). Lynn and Bill were living in a house in Bel Fair by Hood Canal. This was an interesting house. It was a summer home that was rented out during the winter months. In October I stayed with Lynn's girls while Lynn was working in Hawaii. The house wasn’t anything special, but you could hear the waves crashing against the deck and the sunlight coming through the windows onto their glass collection was great. Bill had a “pet” seagull, which had a broken wing and we got to feed it every day.

Jenny was working at the Stock Market store in Belfair. She was a really hard worker, able to keep up her grades and still work part time. Jenny and Barbi held a Halloween party and invited their friends and cousins. On the way to picking up people, Jenny and Amy were in auto accident.

Loretta Course is the lead person at Wards in Portland

1994
Family did a lot of temple work for Maybees.
I do cookbook for family.
Jan & early Feb. – I stayed with Barbie and Jennie at house by water in Belfair, Washington. During the time I was there, Markay was really ill and so we had her children there also for a few days. They had a great time with their cousins. It was especially fun when they played games, Barbi was a hoot! Katie was so good at Monopoly that we called her “The Banker”.

Reunion for Starks & Maybees in Butte, Montana
Melanie attending University of Hawaii.
Lynn and Bill are both working on Russian ships as marine electricians.

Merlin Houtz died Nov. 30, 1994. We were really good friends with the Houtz’s and when Merlin died, Cathern asked me to fly down with her to his funeral in Utah. I was happy to do so. She had never flown before and was a little anxious. We went down on Southwest Airlines. The attendants were really funny. As we began the flight, the attendant said, ‘the weather in Florida is a nice warm 80 degrees. Unfortunately, that’s not where we are going.” And on and in the same vein. We went through some really bad turbulence, but since Cathern had never flown before she didn’t know it was anything out of the ordinary, and I wasn’t about to tell her. When we landed she said, “Well, that wasn’t so bad.”

Merlin was well loved and the funeral was packed. The ladies in the ward had prepared dinner for a small group and wondered what they were going to do. However, the food stretched, there were seconds and even food left over. It is in no way an exaggeration to say that was truly a miracle of the ‘loaves and fishes’.

Cathern and I stayed with Merlin’s sister in ? She was a sweet little lady- very poor, but very hospitable. There was no central heating and Cathern had to sleep in a very cold bedroom. I was luckier and got to sleep on the couch in the living room. She brought us hot cups of Postum before we retired and actually tucked us in! The next morning, about 5 a.m. she came in and said, “Oh, I really apologize for letting you sleep so long, but I went out for my morning walk and forgot.”

She lived in a beautiful area of really expensive homes and many of them were decorated for Christmas already. It was really beautiful.

The Brinnon community was very close. I joined the Fire Department Auxiliary and the Brinnon Boosters Club. Kitty made pies for their booth at the Shrimp fest. It is a very close-knit community. We held a Christmas party for the residents of Black Point one year and every one came. Haven was staying at the time and she decorated the large ledges of the porch with garlands of live greenery and tiny white lights. She also helped with the food. We had turkey salad in puff pastry, hot cider punch, lemon bread (it has been a best seller when Markay did the farmers markets), eggnog and Buffalo wings. Neighbors brought hors d’oeuvres, vegetable trays, cream cheese and salmon dip, etc. My notes say that we began right after I returned from Merlin’s funeral to get the house ready; we took stuff to the dump, shampooed the carpets, and bought a tree and greenery and poinsettias. I remember one of the most popular items was our Buffalo wings.


1995
Bonnie Jean Course attends O.S.U.
Valerie & Jim moved to new home in North Bend.
Jim & Stefanie's house burned and they build new home in Snohomish. Stef was working in Seattle and Jim in his family’s business.
Haven went to 1 quarter of college in Ellensburg, Washington. Haven went to L.A. to test for "Jeopardy". Schreck children were all taking music lessons.
Leesa was Mariner band booster Vice President and she also did portraits of David Robinson and Sam Perkins. Their family moved to Augusta Glen apartments. Later, Leesa was in Meadowdale band boosters.
Milas Roy was hospitalized for head injuries while rescuing a girl who fell from a tree.
Big snowstorm and power outage in Brinnon. 1 person died. We were out of power for days. Temperature inside was 40 deg. 24 to 32 inches of snow in driveway. We were snowed in.

SEPTEMBER 1995

I went to Hawaii with Tina, Derek and Marissa. Lynn had bought my ticket last year when she thought she would be working there, and I was to watch the girls while she worked. Then, at the last minute, the job was cancelled.

We stayed with Melanie and Ken, who live on the windward side of Oahu. They are renting a 3-bedroom house with a view of the ocean from their living room (and a view of a neighbor's junky yard in the back). Prices there are outrageous, especially for housing. Melanie says the norm is for 3 or 4 generations to live together in a house.

We went to many beautiful beaches, but our favorite was a small, quiet beach, which wind surfers frequent. We also swam one where the water was so clear that you could see the fish swimming around your feet. (Hanama? Bay) The Polynesian Cultural Center, run by BYU was the highlight of the trip. There were singers and dancers from all the Polynesian Islands -- the Marquesas, Tahiti, Hawaii and so on. They demonstrated the old crafts and legends. The kids, even baby Marissa, had a terrific time learning the hula.

The most beautiful sight there, by far, was our grandchildren. Heaven has become very mellow and Beckah says the cutest things. (At one party, there were 2 beautiful little Hawaiian twins. Beckah stared and stared and then concluded, "I know...you're really the same girl, but with different clothes."

They had a great time with cousin, Derek, who was Heaven's protector.

1996

Marriages:
Michelle Cook and Anthony Alfera are married in Port orchard, Washington.
Markay Carter (Schreck) and Dennis Kern are married in Butte, Montana at the Arts Chateau.
Shawn Lumsden and Kaleen Fowler are married in Snohomish, Washington.
Jenny Ayers and Skye Jernburg are married in Bremerton.

Jennifer finishes EMT training & begins 3-year tour at San Antonio, Lackland AFB.
Anita honored at graduate tea at Harrison Memorial Hospital.
Valerie working as Special Ed tech.

We held a family reunion in Utah in the summer of 1996. As I returned from the family reunion, Cheryl, a friend of Leesa’s, met me. She said she wanted to let me know why Leesa was not there. "What happened?" I joked, "Did she have to go to the hospital again?" (Leesa and I kidded that every time I left town, she had an emergency operation.) I assumed that she was out on a date somewhere. Well, it turns out she really had been taken by ambulance to the hospital for emergency surgery. (Intestinal blockage.) The doctors said that in order for her to come home, someone would have to stay with her and take care of her.

I stayed with Leesa for a while, and then went to Ellensburg to stay with the Schreck family while Markay was job hunting. After Markay got a job at Future Shop in Missoula, she began training in Seattle. Her training would last for a month, so I drove the kids over to Montana to get them registered for school in time.

I had called the school district and been told that school started Wednesday, so when I went to enroll them on Monday, it was a surprise to find out that school started on Tuesday! The next problem was that we presumed that Richie would be attending the elementary school nearby. Not so...this elementary had 4th and 5th graders only. Then, the kids were also missing immunization records. I called the school district in Ellensburg and found only the elementary school open. (Calling from out of town with no phone numbers is great fun....on a calling card it takes about 20 digits to get anything, then Sprint or whoever only lets the phone ring 8 times.) The secretary said she would FAX Richie's records to his school, Mt. Jumbo Elementary. Morgan Middle School in Ellensburg did not answer their phone. I tried calling Haven and of course she was on the Internet. We went to enroll Kitty at Hellgate High School, and were told that they weren't enrolling anyone that day (although school started the next day); however, they would give her a reading test. The very nasty woman at the office also told me that Kitty's MOTHER would have to come and sign her in, because a lot of students tried to get into THEIR school, and they were only admitting those who lived with a parent in the district. Kitty and I thought this was a huge joke; the building is about 100 years old and certainly wasn't very impressive. I told her that Markay would be in town on Thursday and finally talked her into letting Kitty register on Tuesday. Tuesday morning I drove Kitty to the high school and got her registered, then zoomed back to Richie's school that is in East Missoula and got him registered. Katie and Alice were very disappointed not to be able to go to school. We spent most of that day calling the school in Ellensburg, getting Katie a Measles-Mumps-Rubella shot and calling the school districts again. Although we hadn't had a reply from Morgan Middle, we hoped that maybe they had received our message and would forward the information. The faxes would come to the central office, so we went there to see if they had been received. Finally called Markay and asked her to fax whatever immunization records she had. She found everyone's but Kate's.

Wednesday, I took Alice to school. Her immunization records from Markay had arrived, but were not complete! Finally, the sweet school secretary called Morgan Middle and said that she would get the information over the phone and not wait for the faxes. This was done. I drove back to the house to get Kate and they finally got to go to school.

Missoula is very pretty. It is quite large and spread out...divided by the big river and several mountains. The school system is one of the best in the country. Dennis said that the school administrator was stating the facts; parents from all over the state (and out of state) arrange to have their children stay with relatives or friends in order to attend Hellgate High School, and that a student from out of the area must go through the court system and become a legal ward of a resident in order to enroll.

The people in Montana are interesting. They have a kind of "can do" attitude. "We WILL do this," not "well, we will do it if we can." They are also straightforward and friendly and tough. No wonder the Maybee family found it a compatible place to live. Missoulians seem to have an interest in cultural things, such as art and the theatre, which is probably the influence of the University.

Dennis lives in a nice area. The kids and I went on many walks and the houses down the street are huge, with large yards featuring volleyball nets and croquet games. They are very pretty, but unusual. One house has crossed snow shoes (real ones) on their shutters.

Their home is not very big. It has a small living room, kitchen, bath and bedroom on the main floor and in the basement there is one small bedroom, a combination living room and kitchen area and a bathroom. Part of the living area was converted into bedrooms for some of the children.

Dennis not only is museum director at the University of Montana, but also does photographic art and a combination of photography and pencil or collages. Most of his friends are artists (modern art) and he has many original paintings.

The kids all love their schools. Alice and Kate went to their first school dance. The last we heard, Alice had a boy friend. Katie almost had to leave her birds behind, but Dennis insisted that she they be brought. The loving, teary-eyed look on her face when she saw him come in the house with the birds made carrying them all that way in a crammed-full van worthwhile

DECEMBER 1996 - Stayed with Markay for a while and Leesa for a while, then moved to first apartment of my own at Cedar Creek Apartments, Everett.
.
I began work for D.I. The LDS Employment Service had an ad for a? And I went to apply. There was a misunderstanding and they just hired me to work on the floor.

I had been staying with Leesa and after a while was able to move into my first apartment of my own at Cedar Creek Apartments in Everett. Lovely – right by a little creek. Valerie and Leesa helped me move, and Valerie even brought me a table, telephone stand, etc. She even went out and got a beautiful jade green tablecloth, dish towels and etc. Shawn stayed with me for a while. He was a big help because he checked out the water heater, which the landlord swore worked fine – but didn’t and got it fixed for me. He loved to make his specialty – cherry cheesecake. Alissa would come and visit him and watch videos with us.

In 1996, I wrote, “I continue to work at Deseret Industries. This job has been good for me. I have not had any "gravity" attacks and only a few sleep attacks. I think it is because I am moving around all the time. The only time I had a problem was when I was standing at the check out stand for the day. (I also lost 10 pounds.)

I began work by doing "gray tubs." What that means is that you get a shopping cart, fill it with gray tubs full of merchandise (dishes, toys, purses, belts, plastic ware, what nots and more) and put everything away. It was VERY boring and depressing. Well, I couldn't stand the inefficient way a lot of things were done, so I changed them. Then they promoted me to Team Leader and on last Monday I became one of 3 sales managers on the floor. The only bad part is that they took all my good people and made them crew leaders in other areas. I am now in charge of these areas: domestics (with 2 people under me), "Small as-is," Merchandising and the Auction. (I am not looking forward to having Darlene, the Auction Lady finding out that she reports to me!)

I like working in sales. You meet interesting people. The employees are varied and unusual also. We have many people who only speak marginal English from Colombia, Russia, Viet Nam, Hmong, the Philippines and so on. My favorite person is Louise. She is very kind and funny and loved by everyone. The days that she works here are the best days. We have a lot of fun when she and I do auction things together. We laugh a lot, and get a lot of comments that we are having entirely too much fun.

One lady, who works sorting jewelry in the back, has 2 university degrees and is extremely well spoken, cultured and sweet, but she lives on the street by choice! We all were very worried about her, because she was ill for a long time. Her bishop and Relief Society president continually try to help her, but she doesn't want help. She makes enough money to get a place, but doesn't like living indoors!

This has been a wonderful place to observe the many kindnesses that people do for others, especially at Christmas time. One group comes and buys blankets and warm men's' coats for Operation Night watch, a group that helps street people. A local church group buys hundreds of clothing items just before the beginning of school and again at Christmas for children who need them. The old man who came in last challenged me to find better clothing for the kids than the women in the group had done. "They think men can't do anything right," he said.

We just had Bishops' Night, where local bishops send the families who need help with Christmas to get things. As Gordon Maybee says, "you see all the extremes from humbleness and humility to avarice and greed." Two families needed vacuum cleaners. Well, there were none on the floor. So Peter and I went back to look in the back. He found one that worked and I got a Kirby, which needed a new belt and a new cord. I was just installing a belt and one of the guys from the bike department helped me fix the cord and a few other things. Basically, we remade the vacuum. We used an air blower to clean it out and finally got it to the people. Then we found out that there were already 5 vacuums on the sales floor. The new department head, Jose, was so neat that he had put them where we couldn't find them! (Well, I learned a new skill.)

Our customers are special too. We have one group of very nice senior citizens we call the "cookie ladies", because they are like those ladies in the commercial who pounce on the cookie deliveryman. When we bring grey tubs out, they hover over us to see what is good. There are about 8 of them, men and women and they come in EVERY day. I tease them that if we served punch and cookies, they would never go home.

For our auction on Friday, we get antique dealers from all over. We have amazing things donated to the store. One marble bust on a stand brought $800 at the auction. Part of my job, when Darlene is not here is to go through all the pallet- tainers and find the good stuff. We look for really good new things, such as Mikasa dinnerware, and collectibles. We have had handcrafted cuckoo clocks, antique toys and many great glass and pottery pieces.

I wouldn’t recommend D.I. as a place to work for anyone unless you are desperate. The motto seems to be that the harder you work, the less pay and etc. you get. I was made a ‘supervisor’ in Small As Is – no more money, no more clout, I was responsible for training the people under me, many of them mentally handicapped. I was supposed to teach them something new every day, in order to fulfill D.I.’s contract to help the handicapped. They work you to death, with no appreciation for what you do.

I went to classes at the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, where I improved my computer skills a little and got information on resumes (which I already knew).

Sometime during this period, I finally got to the top of the waiting list for Lynnwood Rotary Apartments. The rent had been raised at Cedar Creek Apts. And Lynnwood Rotary was closer. When Haven came to Lynnwood, she stayed with me for a while.

Kitty came in June to stay with Haven and they got their own apartment. Kitty first worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken and then began work at D.I. with Haven and I. Haven was put in charge of the Auction after I left D.I. I applied for work at Pathways. (August?)

1998
Leesa moved to Florida in March to get married to Darryl Brown. She gave all of her furniture any many of her possessions away. Her successors at Key Arena had to be updated and the apartment closed.

Markay and Dennis moved to Billings (1424 Cook Avenue.)Markay is writing advertising copy and articles. One of the articles was about Western Women and told the story of Bessie (York) Maybee.

Charlene moved to her first apartment on Grand Avenue. It is a tiny, older apartment with a little walled in vegetable grden. David has been working in Brinnon. He will be staying for a while with Leesa’s friend, Cheryl.

Jennifer and Sky moved into a 3-bedroom traile with a fenced yard for their dog. She is in the Air Force and working as a nurse with high risk babies.

For Easter – Haven, Charlene, David and I had Easter together at my apartment. John Ackert and Jan were also there.

We had a nice Mothers’ Day. Haven took me out (Markay paid.)
Betsy and kids and Valerie came to the Mukilteo garage sales with us.

My van was stolen for the second time. It was recovered a week later when the owner of a house in the Greenwood area noticed it abandoned in front of his place. The police said it was driveable so I took Charlene with me to drive one of the vehicles back. (The other was a rental car.) The van wouldn’t start, so I called AAA for a jump-start. It started – then halfway up the hill it stopped. Very cautiously I let it coast back down the hill. Charlene had gotten out of the rental car and was wig=wagging frantically. She thought I was going to drive the wrong way on a one-way street. I called AAA AGAIN. An hour or so later the truck driver arrived. He hooked up his rig and began pulling the van onto the back of his truck. The cable broke and the van headed down the hill! He and I ran frantically after it. He caught it first and got in and stopped it. Then it was another hour before he came back with another tow truck. He followed Charlene and I from north Seattle to Everett. When he got to Tony’s Auto the only place to leave the van was a very unwieldy spot. As he was lowering the van down, the cab of his truck went up in the air. Poor guy. He was so good natured (and not young) he must have been in his 60s. That was the only time he lost it.

June 1998
Charlene Ackert graduated from Scriber High School in Lynnwood. Leesa flew up to see her graduate.

Bonnie Jean Course got her Associates in Art degree from Puget Sound College in Portland.

1999
I delivered phone books with David and worked at Pathways. The employment program at Pathways, where I worked, helped women who had been out of the workforce for a while. There were classes on resumes, finding a job, etc. They also had a shelter for battered women and their children.

Something happened in early April that changed all our lives. Here is Bret’s account.
“April 7th I took the day off of work to help my wife pack up and get our van ready for the trip to the ocean. My Mom of course was rushing around getting last minute things done before she left. While taking out the garbage, her left foot paused while the rest of her body was still in motion. She didn't quite get her hands in front of her and smacked her forehead against the wall of the back porch. Like my Mom always does, she rubbed her head and kept it pretty much to herself.

Mom, Dad and Byron left just a little earlier than us and headed down while to the ocean. Finally about 4:30 p.m. we arrived at the motel at the ocean and checked in. Vickie and her Mom started dinner and had it ready by about 6:00 p.m.

At dinner is when Morlan, Vickie's Mom learned about my Mom bumping her head that morning, and that she had a headache. That was not going to stop my Mom from having fun with the grandkids in the pool though. Mom had Jacob and Sara playing bubbles in the pool. We were all having a great time, even though the water was a little too cold. Benita soon showed up and I began playing beach ball with her. Benita was getting tired so I went to swim off on my own. When I turned around again, Vickie was holding Benita's head out of the water. I quickly rushed over and lifted my sister out of the pool and laid her on the cold cement. It was very drafty out of the pool, so I grabbed some towels and mine and my Mom's coat and laid them over her. Mom was in the pool at Benita's side comforting her and making sure we were getting everything. Jon ran back to the motel room and got some potassium tablets, which helps with these temporary paralysis attacks. The Motel pool attendant had called the ambulance for liability sake, but after Benita had drank her potassium seltzer, she felt much better. I was very cold though, after running around the pool, so I went in to warm up in the sauna. I hadn't been there long when Jon, Benita's husband came in and said there was something wrong with my Mom. There were other people in the pool and they were beginning to think who was next. I ran over to my Mom's side and got her the warm coats and towels. She was vomiting and kept saying her head hurt, don't touch my head. I still didn't know that she had bumped her head that morning, so I had just thought it was my Mom having an attack. I ran to get my Dad and across the parking lot I went, barefoot and in wet trunks, 40 degrees and raining. I updated my Dad on everything that happened so he sent Byron and I back with the van to bring her back to the motel room.

When we got back the ambulance had arrived. We tried to tell them all the things they couldn't give her, and tried to tell them it was probably bad hamburgers from lunch and a HKPP attack, also we let them know about the headaches, and that she had bumped her head that morning. Byron had gone back to get Dad and we told the paramedics to wait until they got back. The paramedics got her loaded on the stretcher and were beginning to load her in the back. I told them no sirens, because Mom was very sensitive to sound. I was getting worried about my Dad, so I ran to go check on them. As I got close to the motel room I looked back and saw the ambulance pulling away.

It was a very long and quiet drive. It was very dark and rainy. Dad was driving faster than usual. We arrived at the Greys Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen about 9:30 - 10:00 p.m. They only let Dad back there to be with her at first. But soon I was able to go back and see her. It was like she was in a deep sleep. She was having trouble breathing with her snoring. With our minds still on the HKPP, we were still letting the doctors know all of the medicines she couldn't have. After about a half-hour they did a cat scan. We had to wait an hour to get the results though. When they brought in the film you could clearly see the black hole where Mom's abnormal vein malformation was in the back of the brain. The part that changed our lives forever was the white area that got larger in every sequential picture. We soon learned that the white area was fresh blood that had spread to both hemispheres of the brain. Unlike the rest of the body the brain does not absorb the blood back it just does damage.
We now began to focus on Mom hitting her head earlier that day. The doctors figured that that might have opened it wider but it probably was leaking a little before that. It was probably a leak that caused her foot not to move, which made her trip also we remembered her speech had been slurred and she was having trouble focusing. There was not much more that we could do that night, so Byron and I left to go back to the motel.

Early the next morning we headed back to the hospital and set up around the clock schedules so that we all could have time with Mom and Mom would always have one of us with her. Mom had control of some of her limbs and would squeeze our hands and let us know that she loved us. (Bianca had worked that out with Mom that every time she squeezed our hands we would tell her we loved her.) She could move her legs a little to make herself more comfortable. She could even raise her arm and feel her forehead and hair. They thought that she was trying to pull her tubes out, so they kept her hands tied down. When I was with her I would set her hands free, just so I could see her movements. During Byron’s and my shift, she opened her eyes for the first time, only for a minute. We were beginning to think she was going to beat another stroke again. The doctors knew better though. He told us it was just a honeymoon period. He said things would slowly be less active.

Friday Aunt Barbara, Kitty and Haven drove down and visited with Mom. At lunchtime Byron Bianca and I went to Wal-Mart and got some pansies, (little purple pansies touched with yellow gold). When we got back, the ambulance was leaving for Olympia with Mom and Dad. Benita and Aunt Barbara flagged us down and let us know that the doctors had OK’d Mom to be treated at St Peters Hospital in Olympia. The equipment was better there, and we had a place to stay at Bianca’s house. Byron, Bianca, Benita, David, David’s girlfriend Amanda, Valerie, Babette, and I were waiting in the Surgery waiting room while they got Mom settled in. I think the stress was a little too much for Benita. She lay down on the floor and had a mild seizure. We got her some of her potassium seltzer, and she was starting to come out of it. But she sat up too quick and had another seizure. This time Benita mouthed the words Emergency room. So we stopped a nurse and she ran to the phone and called a CODE BLUE in the Lobby. People started coming out of the woodworks after that. Half of them ran by the waiting room to the lobby before they figured out the wrong location. In about ten seconds they had 15 people all around Benita. I was trying to let the nurses know that it was the HKPP that caused this. One stopped long enough to say that she had heard about it before but had never seen it. The guy running the oxygen was a little nervous. He forgot to turn on the oxygen before he placed the mask on her. Benita started fighting, cause she couldn’t breathe. They were asking if she was claustrophobic or not. They didn’t know they were cutting off her oxygen. Down in the Emergency room I answered questions since Benita couldn’t speak quite yet, and they gave her some more potassium. They thought she was feeling better, so they sat her up and then the doctor left the room. She immediately went into another seizure so I ran around to the other side of the bed and put her flat again. We were worried about Benita after that so we sent her home so we could relax a little. We traded off shifts and read to Mom, and sang to her, (mostly Bianca, the rest of us can’t sing), and watched TV with her. We had many days of just watching all the monitors. We had the nurses in the room anytime we felt Mom was stressing. Mom would surprise us every once in a while with a movement. But mostly she was instinctively reacting to stimuli.

Thursday the 15th we gathered in the room and prayed for guidance on what we should do next. We felt it was time to remove the tubes and release her to the Lord. It was the hardest decision any of us had to make but as a family and with the Lord’s comforting spirit, we knew it was the right decision. That night the tubes were removed. I left to go home and work so I could get my mind off things, and get some sleep.


Friday night they moved her out of critical care and up to the 5th floor to her own room. Saturday afternoon we headed back down to Olympia and returned back into the rotation. I would stay awake from 10:00 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. and Byron would go until 5:00 am. (I don’t know how Bianca did it.) Dad would come in at 7:30, catching me about ready to nod off. Mom wasn’t moving much anymore, but she did open her eyes a lot when I was there. I would read to her from Cleon Skousen “The Living Christ”. I don’t know how much she enjoyed it, but I was getting into it. I kept wishing that Heavenly Father would either repair the damage in my Mom’s brain, or take her home so she could start decorating her mansion on high. There was little or no change between Sunday and Wednesday without any more problems.

At 5:00 p.m. on Thursday the 22nd Bianca called to let me know she had passed peacefully away at 4:00 p.m. I was relieved that Heavenly Father finally released her from her mortal existence, but saddened by the loss of a Great Mother, Wife to my Dad, Grandmother, and friend.’

Barb: when we got the call that Belva had a stroke and was in the hospital in Grey’s Harbor, I called everyone and asked Haven and Marketta to come with me because I was too stressed to go down alone. Not knowing that Bianca had gone out to get pansies, we also went out to get some purple pansies. We all sat in the waiting room, trying to comfort each other. I believe Haven and Kitty went back home (they had taken time off work). I stayed at a little hotel at the hospital, which was provided for families of patients. I had a nice, though tiny little room. The staff is wonderful to the people staying there. There was even a little kitchen and frig stocked with food. We had hoped that this was another stroke that Belva would be able to overcome. There was even talk by the doctors of doing laser surgery on her arterio veinal malformation in Seattle. As I talked to Belva, I promised that I would take over the Maybee Society for a while. When Belva died, it was apparent that Bob would need someone to help. Bianca and Benita lived too far away and Bret and Byron couldn’t handle it alone. (I had been planning to stay with Belva while she recovered from her stroke.) I thought and prayed about it a lot and turned in my notice at Pathways for Women and at my apartment. My resignation was made easier by the fact that right before I quit, my supervisor also resigned. She was pregnant and wanted to stay home with her children. She said she had seen too many families who were in trouble because the mothers had to work.

May 1st: When I moved from my apartment to the Perrys, Valerie, Haven, Kitty, David, Jumana and Tom Schreck helped me move. Byron took a big sofa bed to D.I. I gave my desk, chair, table and dining chairs and a lot of household stuff to a little lady on the 4th floor, who had just lost everything.

Valerie and my next-door neighbor (who also happens to be my visiting teacher) cleaned my apartment. Judy (the neighbor) even cleaned my oven. Now that is one special visiting teacher! She also got moving boxes for me by waiting patiently at the grocery store while they unloaded the boxes.

It was nice to get to know Ted Perry and L. Tom and the sisters better. Ted, especially, made us all laugh when he said that at 4 years old, he was the apple of his sisters’ eyes and they spoiled him. Then Bob was born and Ted says, “I was forgotten and ignored. I spent the entire summer reading “The Ugly Duckling” and “Cinderella”

On June 4th, I wrote, “I probably don't need to tell you all that a lot is happening here. Bob now has a few more people helping. I take the day shift, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. We both are here to help from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., except that is when I do any errands I might have. Poor Byron doesn't get much sleep.... he comes home from work, gobbles something to eat and then starts in on remodeling the bathroom. They are putting in a handicapped shower stall and tub with grab bars and a whirlpool tub. Belva and Bob’s old bedroom will be changed into a sunroom for Bob. (Bob was sleeping in the old den.) Then he sleeps in the master bedroom so that he can hear if Bob needs help. Bob inhaled a few too many of the dust and etc. particles yesterday and had to go to the hospital. He now has an oxygen machine to use if needed.

The extra help are the home health nurse who comes twice a week, an aide comes to help with bathing and cleans his bathroom and bedroom 3 times a week and good old Earl Reed who has been taking him to radiation every day. I think I am also going to ask the Relief Society if someone can come over for an hour and a half every day and just sit or do their knitting while I take a nap.”

Bob passed away June 16, 1999. Again, everyone from his family and our family came for the funeral.

Someone asked me what I was going to do now – was I going to try to get my old job and apartment back? I was stunned. I had given up my job, my apartment and most of my furniture. When I had done so, we had thought Belva would recover and that Bob would live at least a few more years. Bob had told me before he died that he didn’t want the house sold for at least 2 years and that I could stay as long as I wanted. I made a few calls to Pathways and my old apartment building with no results. I was really in a bind –I immediately applied for Senior housing, which I could afford with just my Social Security.

It was interesting staying at the Perry house. Byron and I got along very well. I would make dinner for him every night and we shared the cost of food. (Actually I paid for most of it.) We also shared Internet cost, but he paid all the PUD, phone, etc. It was fun getting the bedrooms ready when people came. I would change all the bedding, dust and polish and put interesting magazines and fresh flowers by the beds. Since my room was Bianca’s old room, she usually stayed in Benita’s old room. (Benita usually stayed at the Saatvedts when she came up.) Vickie, Bret and I worked on the vegetable garden in the back and I removed a dead shrub to plant a ‘children’s garden’ on the side. It had flowers the kids could pick, such as pansies, etc. I enjoyed pruning the raspberries and grapes. Bianca and I planted tomato plants in big white buckets, which presented us with really delicious tomatoes well into the fall.

Fall Maystar: This is my favorite season. I love the crisp, red and yellow leaves and the cool, fruity air. Fall brings back many memories of the first day of school, first my own, then my children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s. For the first day, shoes had to be new or nicely polished and you wore your best new back-to-school outfit. Girls had their hair curled or neatly braided and the boys got a haircut. Sometimes it was a great rush, because the family was just coming back home after a Labor Day camping trip. I remember Dean Ellis’ grandmother, Harriet Lovejoy, telling about going to school in the Dakotas in the 1890’s. She said that her mother was determined that they were going to keep up their standards, even in the rugged, dusty, prairie country. She starched and ironed their dresses and petticoats every day, even though they rode many miles on horseback to the little country school.

Last Saturday Kitty, Alice, Haven and I left for the Gorge at George, Washington, so that they could attend Lilith Fair, which had many of their favorite singers, including Sara McLaughlin.

We had a nice, but very hot, trip over, stopping in North Bend for them to buy sun hats and in Ellensburg for slurpees. (The temperature in Eastern Washington ranged from 95 to 100 degrees, and I don’t have air conditioning.) We arrived at the fair grounds, arranged a place to meet and I drove to the motel. I pulled in front to register. When I came out, the car wouldn’t start. It made that same sickening clicking sound that I recognize as either starter or electrical problems. I called AAA. The tow truck driver couldn’t start it either. He advised that we pick up the girls at the Gorge and then he would tow us back to Lynnwood.

The girls had said they would call if they found a better place to be picked up than the one we had arranged, but they hadn’t called by the time the tow truck arrived at 11:30 (a half hour later than I said I would pick them up), so it was very worrisome.

The traffic control people just smiled and Chuck said, “They’re saying, Oh, there goes Chuck again, picking up kids for some mother whose car broke down.” They waved him on through. You should have seen the look on the girls’ faces, especially when they found out that we had to ride IN the van on TOP of the tow truck bed all the way to Lynnwood. As we went out, guys waved and cheered and said, “way to go!”. They are good sports and made an adventure out of it.

Sept.
Early in August Markay, Dennis and family came to visit and to take Alice back home. While they were here we had a family camp-out at Scenic Beach State park. Most of the family was there. Jason and Nikki brought their children, whom we haven't seen for while. They are so cute! Elizabeth has big brown eyes and curly hair that Betsy and Michelle took turns arranging in ringlets. She looked at me with her big wide eyes and said, "Are you my grandma?" "Yes", I said. "How did you found me?" she asked.

Later in the month, Leesa flew in from Orlando. We went to the Ice Caves, massive amounts of garage sales and all over in scenic areas so that she could take pictures. (Her new hobby.)
David and Jumana said they had something to show her. Then they brought out a marriage certificate. "What, you got married and didn't tell me?" she asked. They said no they weren't married yet, but everything was ready except going in front of a judge. I casually said something to the effect that when they DID get married it would be nice if Leesa could be there. Before you know it Jumana had made an appointment with a judge for them to get married the next day! We rushed around and got clothes, flowers, etc. Kitty and Charlene were maids of honor.

DEC 1999

In October, Leesa and I went to the Periodic Paralysis Association Conference in Las Vegas. She and I and Benita are in an on-line group dedicated to people who have HKPP.

Leesa came up for Thanksgiving and stayed until December 6th. Thanksgiving was at David, Jumana and Charlie’s house and Haven and Kitty cooked most of the food. We had great turkey with all the trimmings and many pies. They invited several friends from work; Soi, her husband and baby and Dillon and her husband Bill. Dillon and Bill just joined the church recently. The girls decorated the table and house beautifully. They made very artistic vegetable and fruit platters. (Leesa did the fruit platter.) We had a great time.

While Leesa was here, we also went out to cut our trees. Since we went very early, we almost had the place to ourselves. It was a beautiful sunny day. Haven & Kitty got a large tree and Jumana picked out a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Byron, Bret, Vickie and kids went out and cut down a huge Christmas tree for the living room, and last Sunday we all decorated the tree and the house. They spent Christmas Eve with Benita & Bianca & families and Christmas day with her family. (And did 2 family Christmas pageants, which were adorable. In one, Vickie’s brother plays the donkey, which Mary rode to Bethlehem.)

We had our family Christmas party here (at the Perrys) on December 5th. Again, the children and others made gingerbread houses.

Amy came with her boyfriend, whom Valerie gave her usual third degree, and gave her approval.
This reminds me of the stories that Milas and Dan told about questioning boyfriends of their daughters.

Bonnie was leaving to go to a dance with a young man and wearing a strapless dress with quite a long slit in the skirt. At the last minute, here is Dan with a needle and thread, sewing up the slit and telling the boyfriend that he had better keep his eyes at face level.
Milas says that when Tony first came to take out Michelle, he gave him the third degree and then said, “You know, I didn’t really mean to kill her first boyfriend.” Tony just gulped and said, “Yes, sir. I’ll take good care of her, sir.” He must have passed the test, because they have been married for 3 years now.

2000

January 10th to January 24th I was in Orlando visiting Leesa. Leesa and I went to the Mercado, a shopping area with really nice things from around the world to some of the flea markets. On Saturday we went to some great garage sales. The nicest part about it was seeing some of the houses and the beautiful antique furniture they had for sale.

Florida is not really considered part of the “South”, more like a protectorate of the North, but it still has many of the southern customs and foods. At Winn-Dixie stores, headache powders are advertised as being much faster than tablets. One of the regional foods is Texas style barbecue, where the sauce is served on the side rather than basted onto the meat while it is cooking. (We prefer it cooked in.) Often, instead of a baked potato with a steak, you will be offered a baked yam. Two versions were moist baked yams, topped with sour cream, brown sugar and cinnamon and mashed yams with brown sugar and a crusty pecan topping. One place was worth going to just for the atmosphere. They give you big buckets of peanuts and you are encouraged to throw the shells on the floor. Drinks (we had lemonade) are served in quart mason jars.

Leesa and I also visited the beautiful Leu Gardens, which had an old mansion and a newer one where social events such as cotillions are still held.

While I was gone, the divorce papers came back signed, so February 2nd I filed for divorce. Shortly after that Walt called and said that he had the house up for sale and I needed to come get my stuff either that Saturday or Monday. Charlene’s boyfriend, Kenny, offered to drive the U-Haul truck. David went with him to help carry things and Charlene and Jumana went to help pack. (This was February 5th).

February 6th is my birthday. Haven, Kitty, David and Jumana took me to the Garden Court Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle for brunch. It was really wonderful! The place looks just like it sounds, an indoor old English garden. We sat on floral covered couches and ate delicious food. I had Eggs Benedict, Haven had sea bass, Kitty a club sandwich, David pasta and Jumana had an English breakfast with lemon breakfast bread, eggs and sausages.

When I got home there was a message, saying to call Uncle Bill. Joe had passed away that day. We immediately made plans to go the funeral, which was to be held Thursday. Byron and Bret planned to drive and invited me to come also. Then the funeral date was changed to Friday. Byron and Bret couldn’t go because they had to DJ a dance. With the plans up in the air, I quickly made a reservation to fly.

Bill, Zina and Margi came up. They stayed at the Holiday Inn. Kay’s parents and aunt came and all her out of town children. David flew in from Mesa and Ann Michelle from Missouri.

Judy says, “Kay seemed pleasantly upbeat. Home Hospice was actually in their home. Joe continued to work until Christmas Eve, found the time to set off fireworks on New Years Eve, and from outward appearances was somewhat pain free. Family members concede that he drew much of his strength from his lovely wife, Kay.

(Barb) Delsa and Judy came to the airport to pick me up. I had made a reservation at Super 8, which I thought someone could share with me, but they talked me into staying at Delsa’s house. Ronda had invited me to stay at her place also, but I felt that she would probably have some of Kay’s out of town visitors. Delsa’s daughter, Sherri, and son Thomas were also there and we ‘old maids’ had a good time talking until late at night.

. Duane told some stories about Joe and at the end of his talk he said, “In the early days of the Church, often fathers were called on missions and their wives and families were left alone. They were given support by their extended family and members of their church. Let us think of Joe as being on a mission and give the family all the help that we can.” Bill talked about the gospel plan.

After the funeral, the brothers and sisters got together with Kay to see what we could do in the way of support, financial, physical or spiritual

JULY 2000.
Leesa and I just came back from the big Maybee family reunion in Schenectady, New York. We got a tour of the Jan Mabie house. There are two old Dutch barns on the property. One was moved onto the property by the Historical Society. Scott Haefner, the curator and historian, lives in the house, which is just like it was 300 years ago except for the addition of electricity and semi-modern plumbing. One man from the Historical Society tries to keep up the huge garden.

Jack (John A.) Maybee and his wife, Mary Ellen are a lovely couple. They drove Leesa and I all around the area and took us out to dinner every night. We drove around through Fonda, Schoharie, Amsterdam, Colonie, Fort Johnson and Broadalbin (that was the quaint old town). It was nice to see all the places that figure in our family history.

Markay and Dennis have just closed on a house in Billings. It is a 3-story home, built in 1905.
The address is 112 Wyoming Avenue, zip is 59101.

JULY 2000 Sunday was Church and Relief Society. Couldn’t help comparing what Relief Society is like now and what it was like years ago. My first introduction was as a newly married woman in Butte, Montana. The Relief Society room there was very special. It was beautifully furnished with a mahogany drop leaf table and grand piano. There were first class works of art on the walls. Relief Society in those days was self-supporting by way of bazaars held each year. At the bazaars you could find delicate pieces of lace and hand sewn quilts, as well as mouth watering baked goods and candy. I remember when Belva was Homemaking Leader and I babysat for their ward. Each week we would load boxes and bags of materials into her station wagon for the projects. The classes were Cultural Refinement, Social Science, Spiritual and of course Work Meeting. I really looked forward to the Cultural Refinement (although we made fun of the name). That class in particular was as good or as bad as the teacher. It included lessons on art; literature and music tied into an ethical or moral lesson. I really learned a lot. I don’t know of a place where you can learn all this now. Social Science was kind of a cultural anthropology class and we learned about how families lived all over the world. Now the lessons are all spiritual and most of the projects are making quilts for earthquake victims, etc. I know the change was necessary, but it is too bad that the world is such a scary place that it made the changes necessary

AUG 2000: (LIVING IN MEADOW PARK APTS.)
I really love my new neighborhood. One street is a dead end and the other on an “ell” is a cul de sac. There are some older homes with huge yards and gardens on the dead end street and lots of small new homes in the cul-de-sac with beautiful gardens. The people are almost every ethnicity you can imagine, and very friendly. I just realized when taking Pebbles for a walk, that part of the walk for her is not only doing her business and looking for birds or squirrels, but also socializing, especially with the children. She gets a big grin on her face when she sees kids.

Babette and Milas may have the opportunity to buy the home they have been renting for years. It is a charming older home in Bremerton with a large yard. Tina has moved from Hawaii to Clackamas, Oregon.

Valerie is Sunday School Superintendent for her church. She has been busy putting together a curriculum for all the classes. She is also in charge of bible school and bible camp, which she didn’t realize was part of the job. She held a rally at the church to find Sunday school teachers and was successful.

Markay and Dennis are buying a house in Billings. She says, “ It was built in 1905 and is right in the area we like, near the downtown.

2001
Amy and Paul had a son, whom they named Deus Anthony on January 10, 2001.

MARCH 2001 the coming of spring reminds me of Easter traditions we had in the past. When the girls were younger I always made them new dresses for Easter. We dyed eggs, of course, and made Easter egg nests with sweet roll dough topped with green coconut and jellybeans. When the grandchildren were young, we added the tradition of making chocolate eggs and molded chocolates which some of our more artistic people decorated with colored chocolate, etc. And of course, there was always the Easter egg hunt. Who can forget the year that Danny (a city child) looked in the chicken coop and thought he had really hit the jackpot when he found brown eggs. . Big Dan Course was the one who thought of standing suckers up in the garden like little flowers.


“Leesa and Darryl are separating. She will be moved into a small condo apartment in March. Barb says, “She is excited about moving into what will be her first apartment alone. It is hers, so she can do whatever she wants with it…. paint, paper, redo carpet or whatever. The place needs a LOT of work. The walls need to be spackled and painted. The range and frig looked like total disasters, however after some hardcore cleaning, it is possible that they won’t have to be replaced. One of the units doesn’t work and another, which has plastic all over it, may have to be also. We got great lessons from Home Depot on replacing the units, (as well as how to do many other small projects) which are not the plug in kind. We called Lynn, who is an electrician, to get details about the hot water tank and other electrical problems. After removing layers of goop from the frig and finding the source of high-pitched squealing, it now works. The last tenant, however, tried to paint the front of it with flat paint, so it has to be repainted. The front of the range also needs painting. We repaired one screen and she will make another one. We got the carpets vacuumed, but weren’t able to get them shampooed before I left. *Leesa spackled and wood puttied the walls and trim. She also has to scrape out under the edge of the tile in the kitchen and paste it down. Then it will be time for the paint party. Several of her friends have offered to help, and some of it she may do a little at a time. We spent many hours at garage sales and were inspired to find the good ones. Many times when she almost got something new, she got the feeling to wait, and then we would find the same thing for a great price at a garage sale. We had to do some slam shopping, however, because she is supposed to be out on March 1st.
At one garage sale, where an older couple was combining households, there was a beautiful pale wood and white tile table, a large desk and a ton of kitchen gadgets, etc. for .25 each. She will get a couch, chair, étagère, bed and dresser from the house she lives in now.
*Leesa later had the carpets removed and tile installed.

I wrote, “Ashlee Allin Hanks was born February 26, 2001.

Jen married a young man named Jeromy Le Veck last fall. He has a son by a previous marriage named Alex who is 1 and 1/2. Jen is also joining the ranks of the motherhood bunch this summer (approx July 26) when she gives birth to her baby (affectionately called peanut)

November: Markay writes, “I just found out that I won 14th place in the Feature Article section of the Writer's Digest contest, with that piece about family cookbooks.

On Christmas Day we had dinner here at the apartment building. Lots of good food, but I had to leave early, because I am having a problem staying under fluorescent lights for more than 15 minutes lately.
I baked a ham for the dinner and made, just for fun, some Figgie Pudding (like in the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas".) It is good, kind of like steamed plum pudding, although it is baked. Very rich. What really makes it good though is the vanilla sauce and hard sauce (soap and paste, Grandpa Millecam used to call them.) Reminds me of our old Christmas dinners.

Having fun cooking lately. Some of you already know that Markay, John and I traded fruitcakes, looking for good recipes. Each one got some first prize votes. John also sent me some chili sauce, which Haven, Kitty and Jumana were there to test too. (Really good.) Markay sent her kids chili sauce also and pepper jelly, bread and butter pickles and chokecherry syrup. I tried to talk them into a 'tasting party' but I think they would like to hang on to as much as possible.

Summer 2002 – Haven, Kitty and I go on road trip to Montana.

I begin gleaning.

I had 2 tables at the Family History Open House. I had many displays from the Maybee Society, such as the Circus book, pictures of the Mabee house and other items from our family history, plus handouts for doing a biography, etc.

2003
Thursday March 27th. 2003 Shayna Elizabeth Ryan was born.

Amy called to say that Michelle had her beautiful baby boy today. (May 1st.) He weighed 7-1.2 lbs. and is 19-3/4 inches long. She says he has beautiful blond hair. They named him Rylan Anthony.


I finally was able to move from my old apartment. I had been packing for a month. Kitty and Charlie had come over to help pack when I started and Kitty made a pot roast for us.
Valerie was there all day and had the hard job of cleaning up, including packing the last detritus
I finally was able to move from my old apartment. I had been packing for a month. Kitty and Charlie had come over to help pack when I started and Kitty made a pot roast for us. Valerie was there all day and had the hard job of cleaning up, including packing the last detritus.

This has been a busy summer, with four family weddings. The first wedding was that of Bonnie Course, daughter of Dan and Loretta Course, and Jason Beck, son of Jerry and Karen Beck on Saturday, July 19th at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course in North Plains, Oregon.
Milas Cook, son of Milas Cook, Sr. and Babette Cook and Erin Maxson, daughter of Janet Olson, were married August 16, 2003 at the Trophy Lake Golf Club in Port Orchard, Washington.
Amy and Paul were married September 5, 2003 at the Emel House, Scenic Beach State Park in Bremerton

My brother, Bill Maybee, died July 16, 2003 in an industrial accident at Hanna, Utah. The long lines of people who waited to get in to the viewing and funeral services evidenced the great love his family, friends and neighbors felt for him. Benita, Bianca and I flew down from Portland after Bonnie’s wedding. Bianca had found us a very inexpensive motel to share (Benita, Bianca and I.) Later Bret, Vickie, Jacob and Nicole came to join us. The funeral was very well done. Bill had lots of friends and the church and funeral home were both crowded with people waiting to pay their respects. Zina was holding up very well and seemed to be more concerned with others’ feelings than her own.

From Tina when a hurricane hit their area. “We braved the storm!!!! We lost power for two days, we lost part of our back deck, we lost some siding from our house, and two trees in our yard were up-rooted. We had flooding in the basement from the power outage. Our pump to keep the water out is, of course, electric. We had a new roof put on this summer, so the damage to it was very minimal. The creeks and rivers around us crested and flooded most of the streets around town, so getting around. I am sure we will all be fine soon enough. The kids thought it was cool. I had us huddled in the living room on the floor with blankets and flashlights waiting for the world to come to an end. The worst part of the hurricane/storm came over us at two in the morning. Coby and I took turns sleeping and keeping watch. That was pretty scary. I kept thinking when he woke me for my watch that he was going to say we lost the roof. I don't mean the shingles. I mean it sounded like our roof was coming off. We could hear trees all over the neighborhood creaking an eerie creak and then whoosh, they would fall. At one point I thought I saw lightning. It turns out it was the power lines snapping all over town. They lit the sky with a white/blue flash. So that was our night in Delaware. I miss you. Love Tina”

I had a marvelous birthday! It was wonderful not only for what happened, but what didn't. I got some great gifts, including cash and an Amazon.com gift certificate. Marketta drove me down to pick up Judy at the airport. We drove back up to Seattle to get Alice and then to Pike Place Market. We had brunch at the Crumpet Shop, where Judy had oat groats and a crumpet. We stopped at a beautiful music store with every kind of stringed instruments you would want. Alice really loved a 6-stringed cello. . (Can't remember what they are called.) She plays the cello and wants to try and sell her computer and buy one. The owner had written a poem about music that Judy loved and he will email her a copy. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful displays of fruit, vegetables and crafts without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of people. (It was a little rainy at the beginning of the day.)

Judy treated us to dinner at Cutters (near Pike Place). Their specialty is exceptionally fresh fish dishes. Judy had sole with an Asiago Cheese sauce. I had hazelnut-encrusted salmon, Kitty had a Classic Chef Salad and Alice a hot crab sandwich. We traded bites and agreed that Judy's and Alice's were the best. My salmon was done in the new style where it is not completely cooked. Really don't like it that way. I have seen Ahi Ahi tuna done rare before but not salmon. Judy and my dinners were accompanied by wonderful garlic mashed potatoes. Alice had French fries. For dessert, Judy had persuaded the waitress to bring a birthday dessert, which they don't usually do. It was a huge chocolate tower (kind of like a chocolate mousse cake with whipped cream. With no knife or extra plates, we put it in the middle of the table and dug in. It was delicious and even too big for the 4 of us to finish!

We had a great time talking and discovered we all like many of the same things - bargains, thrift stores, food and music. Judy is such fun.

As we were driving Alice back, Kitty developed a really bad toothache. She had been in the emergency room earlier in the week for severe stomach pain, which the doctor felt was caused by stress, lack of sleep and drinking too much coffee in order to stay awake. (A nurse friend told me that they call it "Intern's syndrome".) So Judy drove back to the airport.

The weather, which had been rainy earlier, then sunny as we left the restaurant, became very stormy as we were near the airport with hail, rain so hard you couldn't see through it and fog! Judy white-knuckled it through and we made it to the airport a little late. She only made it back onto the plane in time by asking someone in the long line to let her break in so that she wouldn't miss her flight. The weather got dramatically better as I drove home and I stopped at the new Top Foods at 175th by D.I. When I got home and turned on the news, I was astounded to see that in the stretch of road where we had been by SeaTac there had been 25 injury accidents in the time period when Judy was driving down! One of them, involving a 17-year-old driver was very serious.

Haven Schreck received an award as one of the top employees of Sonitrol at a convention in late March, which was held in Savannah.

April 2004: Some of the family got together yesterday for a very poignant occasion. Allyn Hamblin's son, Randy Hanks and his wife Anne ("Annie") came up unexpectedly last Saturday. Randy is scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan for a year. Allyn contacted her out of town children and Jenny was able to fly here on Wednesday and leave on Thursday. Tina and kids arrived on Thursday. Barbi knew that everyone would want to see Randy, Anne and Tina, so she arranged for a potluck at Manchester State Park. (This was not as straight forward as it sounds, there were a lot of schedule conflicts and problems.) Anita, Stephen and girls visited on Friday. They returned home to attend the temple. Stephen just became an elder and they had gone to their first temple session together not long ago.

OUR HERITAGE

Mom’s patriarchal blessing says that she was well born, that her faith was a heritage, which she was born of the pure seed of the house of Joseph. “When sickness surrounds you, you will have the gift to be healed and to heal and peace shall always predominate in your home. Blessed shall you be among your sex and be called to occupy responsible positions among them. Many of the wayward ones will rise up and call you blessed, for your timely and motherly counsel shall check many from the downward path. You will be as a comforting angel unto many people; these blessings belong to your inheritance” Remember, this is also your heritage!

I am so proud of our family, beginning with Grandma and Grandpa, then Belva and Bob and all the rest of the family down to the youngest who are so compassionate, so willing to help others.

I also have a great testimony about temple work. So many wonderful things have happened while doing genealogy for our ancestors. The first one was at the Archives at Sandpoint. Belva and I were looking for our Maybee link. When I found David Maybee I could see and feel a large group of happy people singing and dancing with joy. Another very clear image was discovering our tie to the Schuylers. As we were ready to send in their temple ordinances, I saw a beautiful family around a grand piano.

Think carefully about everything you contemplate doing before doing it, and consider its consequences, so that you will act only after due consideration. A sure test of a clear conscience is an unclouded temperament and a cheerful heart.

Families are the most important thing in the world. Cherish yours! Treat each other as you would like to be treated. Share in their triumphs and troubles. Write, visit!

God loves you. He wants you to succeed. Always remember that. Sometimes you may have a problem for which there seems to be no earthly answer. Turn it over to your Heavenly Father.

Share these values and your values with your children. Help them develop a strong self-esteem.

Develop a sense of humor. Don’t let petty things bother you. Ask yourself, “how important will this be in 100 years?”

Top

Allyn:

I was born on January 17, 1951.   I was the first grandchild and first great grandchild on both sides and so was lavished with gifts. My name is Allyn after a character on the Perry Mason radio show.  My parents thought the name was beautiful. It meant "gift of the elves" When I was born, they decided it was really fitting. I had an impish grin and dimples

We lived for a while with Mercedes. At one point we lived in an apartment on Maryland Avenue -- I believe about 650 Maryland

Our apartment on Maryland Avenue, Butte, Montana

Our next apartment was on Nevada Avenue, probably in the 1000 block.  It was next door to the Kartchners and I believe the Gittens were our landlords.  Grandpa Millecam did a lot of painting for us. On one side we had a bedroom and living room.  The kitchen was on the other side. We had a converted wood range, similar to the one below.

Later we moved back to Williston, North Dakota.  Dean's grandparents lived there. His grandfather was a retired judge.  They helped us find an apartment of our own. It had two tiny rooms, the living room/kitchen and bedroom.  The bedroom was only big enough for our full size bed. You had to stand on the bed to get into the closet.  The other room was also very small with just the basic kitchen things, such as a range, frig and sink. The bathroom was down the hall and was shared with the rest of the tenants.

Two of our interesting co-tenants were a disk jockey and a young woman who looked like Elizabeth Taylor.  They would take us for rides around Williston in their convertible.

Williston was very hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter.  The spring and fall seasons were beautiful. It is a pretty little town with lovely green lawns and old trees.

Dean's other grandma, Agnes Ellis, who was in her 80's took care of me while mom worked. She was a wonderful babysitter.  She would take me outside in my buggy and let me sleep there. I loved looking up at the trees.

Gay says, "Remember the pictures of Twinkie in Williston with Grandma Ellis in her 80's (tending her everyday and loving it) while Dean and Barbara worked. It was funny to me to see our old sensible Grandma cooing and cuddling her.  I love the picture where G'ma Hoare, and Grandma Ellis and Glenna are on the front steps adoring her"

The next apartment was in the basement of a family home.  Mom worked for the Soil Conservation Service. She remembers hanging our clothing on the shared clothesline outside and having the neighbor's dog pull it down.

After dad lost his job, we went back to Butte where we stayed with Grandma Mercedes for a while.

Here I am with two friends -- a brother and sister who lived upstairs He was my first boyfriend.

In front of Grandma Millecam's House

1952

After being in Butte for a short while we moved to Three Forks where Dad worked for the railroad.  We lived first in a hotel, then in a very tiny house. One story I remember from the hotel was that the refrigerator had a foot pedal, which opened the door.  One day as mom was getting us ready for church, I found the foot pedal and opened the refrigerator. I took out the eggs and had a great time breaking them all over the floor. As I remember, the little house did not have running water.  We had to go out to get water. Later we moved to a larger house with a small yard.

The hotel as it

Looked in 2006.

Dad, Mom and I were the "Three Musketeers" in Three Forks.  When we went to a store, if they bought a magazine, I picked out a comic book.  Once while riding in our car, I saw Daddy take out a cigarette, light a match on his jeans pocket and smoke.  I thought that was neat, so I tried it. Needless to say, Mom wasn't very happy.

My sister, Loretta, was born May 16, 1952,  while we lived in Three Forks. She was actually born in Butte.  We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Millecam so that Grandma could help take care of me while mom was in the hospital.  (My grandma, Rita, had married Don Stark previously, and they had little children.) When mom came back from the hospital with Loretta, I wouldn't speak to her and clung to Grandma Millecam.

From Three Forks we moved to Pasco, Washington. Dad had traveled there to see his Uncle Don, who got him a job driving a Coke truck. (Dean never had any trouble finding jobs, just keeping them.) This left Mom alone with two young children to pack and get the furniture and everything else ready to ship to Pasco.  (She didn't know Dean had rented a furnished apartment.) It was a huge blow when she found out that the stuff had to be crated! Fortunately a neighbor found out and came over to help.

We lived in Pasco for a while. Pasco is part of the Tri-Cities Area, which includes Pasco, Richland and Kennewick.   For Easter mom and dad bought Loretta and I a bunny rabbit, which we (especially Loretta) loved. Mom took us for walks in a stroller around the neighborhood.

We were friends with our cousins, Frankie and Lauretta, who were about the same age. We had even put a down payment on a cute little home near them.

1953

Dad lost his job and we went back to Butte, where he worked for the mines for a while.  We lived in the beautiful apartments owned by the ACM. They had to do something to induce men to work in the dark, dismal and dangerous mines.  When he quit, we had to leave the apartments

   Allyn, Joseph Stark and Loretta

We had fun playing with our cousins, Duane, Joe and Delsa at Grandma's house and went to a lot of parks, etc. with Nana, Gaye and Patsy. Joe and Loretta called each other "Mom" and "Pop".

This was a wonderful place for us, since loving family surrounded us. Grandma and Grandpa Stark, Great Grandma and Grandpa Millecam and Mercedes and Aunt Gay and Aunt Patsy.

From there I believe we moved next to Silver Bow Homes.  This was a nice housing project on Utah Street.

Me on the monkey bars -- Silver Bow Homes in background

Aunt Gay and Loretta

One of the things I remember here was that Aunt Patsy Ellis made beautiful little dresses for all of us girls. Mine was red, Loretta's was blue and Valerie's was yellow.  Nan took me (She called me Twinkie) to the eye specialist (Dr Petty?) to have my eyes taken care of and I had that patch to wear.

Valerie was born December 10, 1953.

In 1954 Mom got a divorce from Dean and moved to Seattle, Washington. She stayed with Belva and a roommate in a houseboat on Lake Union while she got a job. (Bill Little had already offered her one.) She worked for Bill Little at I. C. System to May 1955 then at Boeing

All of us kids thought Bill Little would be an ideal person for mom to marry.  After all, he had all the important requirements -- he knew how to fold origami birds, and he bought us ice cream cones.  He would let us come to work with mom and watch Wunda Wunda in his little back office.

When she brought us girls to Seattle, it was evident that living on a houseboat was not going to work with young children.  Lynn and I would chase the ducks and almost fall in the water, so Belva and mom went looking for another place for us.

We found a house in bad repair in the Greenwood area.  Belva called all her friends in Gleaners and the M-Men and Bill Little and they came and painted every room and cleaned out a lot of junk.  Then we found out that when the ad had said, "Heat furn." It didn't mean that the cost of heating was covered; it just meant that there was a heat furnace, so the place was a no go. We moved into the Holly Park projects.

Mom had fun decorating our new house.  She bought pink and grey linoleum for the living room. The pink and grey combination was very popular that year

 Maggie, who worked for Bill Little gave us some interesting furniture, including a little table with an inlaid wood top in a chessboard design and a mattress stuffed with horsehair. Maggie was an interesting person.  She had plenty of money, but didn't dress expensively. She loved to go into I. Magnin, where the clerks would ignore her, until she opened her purse and began flashing a large roll of bills.

It was really tough for mom being a single parent.  We had been going to church at the First Ward on Queen Anne Hill.  Our new ward was not someplace you could get to by bus, so we continued at First Ward.  We had to take 2 or 3 buses, transferring in downtown Seattle. As you can imagine, it was not easy to watch 3 little girls on the busy streets down town. Eventually we decided to go to Fourth Ward.  We had to take a bus part way and then walk down a long dangerous hill, which didn't have sidewalks. Fortunately, one of the members saw us walking and took us to church from then on.

In 1956 Mom remarried Dean Ellis in Seattle, Washington. We moved to Myrtle Street in the projects to a larger apartment. I was in 1st grade and Loretta was in kindergarten (1957 to 1958). We girls loved to open an upstairs window and sing. "How much is the Doggie in the Window" and "Sugar in The Morning".   

Valerie says she was sure she could fly, because she remembers being at the top of the stairs and then she was at the bottom without any memory of walking down them. Mercedes and Glenna continued to send us adorable matching dresses and lots of toys for birthdays and Christmas.

Babette was born in Seattle, Washington on March 29th, 1957 Dad and Mom had chosen the name "Babette" for her long before she was born, for his aunt Babette Joy Brunner, who was a famous singer. It turned out to be prophetic, because Babette has always had a beautiful voice.

Mom got a second and final divorce from Dean later in 1957. Dean's leaving had been very hard on me.  I lost my daddy, my dog (which ran away) and my television all in the same week. Dean had gone to a furniture store and put a down payment on some beautiful furniture and a television set.  It was all repossessed.

Our schedule was like this -- Mom would get up early in the morning, dress and feed us, take Babette next door to Mrs. Hamilton, our baby sitter and walk over to the Day Care Center with the rest of us girls.  From there she caught her carpool. The driver was very impatient, so if I would even a minute late he would leave without her. Then she would have to take 2 buses to work at Boeing. The procedure would be reversed in the evening.  When we needed groceries, we would walk (about 8 blocks?) to the grocery store, borrow a cart and bring the groceries home or just bring as much as we could carry. I remember that there was a little store that sold penny candy and the owner would cheat us girls if we came down alone

Mom and Walt Carter married July 11, 1958 at his sister, Alice Staples' home on Mercer Island. Walt didn't like living in the projects so we moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours.  It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us. The move was hard on me.  I came home from school, crying the first week.  I said, 'I don't want to go to one school, then another school, then another school."

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful.  It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all us girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop that Walt and the Perrys demolished.

In 1958 in a letter to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Don and Judy, Mom said, "the girls loved the paper dolls.  Betsy takes her 'baby' everywhere. She feeds it and takes it to bed. Johnny sent tinker toys and they really made a big hit."   That year I got a bride doll from Alice. Loretta got a ballerina and Valerie a Shirley Temple doll (all from Alice.) Mom told them we were buying a house for $10,000.  It has a lot that is 110ft. x 135 ft. The house has 2 large bedrooms and a full, dry basement with room to expand.

Leesa was born May 16, 1959 in Seattle

Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, "Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959.  We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us.  Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt's sister.  Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo.  She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th.  They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th.  Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning." 

Grandma and Grandpa Millecam in front of house --
9805 22ndAve. SW, Seattle

Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961.

In 1965 I attended Cascade Junior. High School.  (The picture below was taken years later and it is now called Cascade Middle School.)

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other.   I was not only a good singer, but I had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and I wrote my own scripts. Loretta began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing her own dances.  Valerie and Babette were good singers

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road).  Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old.  It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where we washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who we named Crystal.  Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

I had come to Everett before the family moved there and lived with Eldon and Lucille Hurst for a while. I went to High School at Evergreen High School.

Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy.

We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish.  It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but I got. I loved this house.  It was here that I married Bruce Ayers and Melanie was born.

Loretta

I was born May 16, 1952 in Butte, Montana. I was named after Mom's best friend, Loretta Babich.  The original plan had been to spell my name "Lauretta". However, Dean's uncle Don had a little girl right before I was born, and they named her Lauretta.  Mom says I had fluffy blond hair and the sweetest smile ever.  We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Millecam so that Grandma could help take care of me while mom was in the hospital.  (My grandma, Rita, had married Don Stark previously, and they had little children.) When mom came back from the hospital with Loretta, I wouldn't speak to her and clung to Grandma Millecam.

We were living in Three Forks, Montana at the time.  After being in Butte for a short while we moved to Three Forks where Dad worked for the railroad.  We lived first in a hotel, then in a very tiny house. One story I remember from the hotel was that the refrigerator had a foot pedal, which opened the door.   The little house did not have running water. We had to go out to get water. Later we moved to a larger house with a small yard. Mom would take my big sister, Lynn and I in a buggy downtown to buy groceries and to church.  The little girl next door would run out when she saw us heading for town, because she knew Mom would buy us all (including her) an ice cream cone.

The hotel as it iooked in 2006.

From Three Forks we moved to Pasco, Washington. Dad had traveled there to see his Uncle Don, who got him a job driving a Coke truck. (Dean never had any trouble finding jobs, just keeping them.) This left Mom alone with two young children to pack and get the furniture and everything else ready to ship to Pasco.  (She didn't know Dean had rented a furnished apartment.) It was a huge blow when she found out that the stuff had to be crated! Fortunately a neighbor found out and came over to help.

We lived in Pasco for a while. Pasco is part of the Tri-Cities Area, which includes Pasco, Richland and Kennewick.   For Easter mom and dad bought Allyn and I a bunny rabbit, which we loved, especially me. Mom took us for walks in a stroller around the neighborhood.

We were friends with our cousins, Frankie and Lauretta, who were about the same age. Mom and Dad had even put a down payment on a cute little home near them when they got their tax refund, but Dad lost the money, so we went back to Butte, to stay with Mercedes.  Dad worked for the mines for a while. We lived in the beautiful apartments owned by the ACM. They had to do something to induce men to work in the dark, dismal and dangerous mines. When he quit, we had to leave the apartments

From there I believe we moved next to Silver Bow Homes.  This was a nice housing project on Utah Street.

Valerie was born December 10, 1953.

My second birthday

Ellis Anderson's first

I am wearing a dress

Patsy made.

This was a wonderful place for us, since loving family surrounded us. Grandma Stark, Great Grandma and Grandpa Millecam and Mercedes and Aunt Gay and Aunt Patsy. Mercedes called me her 'little Blondie'. I shared a birthday party with Patsy's oldest son, Ellis.

We had fun playing with our cousins, Duane, Joe and Delsa at Grandma's house and went to a lot of parks, etc. with Nana, Gaye and Patsy. Joe and I called each other "Mom" and "Pop".

Aunt Gay says, "One of the things I remember here was that Patsy Ellis made beautiful little dresses for the girls.  We have pictures of Allyn and Loretta in the dresses -- Allyn's was red, Loretta's was blue and Valerie's was yellow."

I remember them drawing with crayons all up the stairway and their mom made them wash it off.  I remember when the girls and Mom and I were in a motel on a trip - I don't remember why? or where?  I was combing Loretta's long blonde hair and it was so fluffy and cute and Loretta said, 'That's because I have so much gas!'   I laughed so hard because she was so innocent and sincere and meant electricity in her hair."

At a lake with Aunt Gay.  It was then that Nana noticed that exposure to the sun was bad for me and Gay covered my head with a scarf.

In 1954 Mom got a divorce from Dean and moved to Seattle, Washington. She stayed with Belva and a roommate in a houseboat on Lake Union while she got a job. It was a novel experience living on a houseboat.  When the tides would get high, or it the wind was strong, the houseboat would sway. She, Belva and their roomate would wash the clothes, and then wring them out on the outside deck. There was a long built in bed at one end of the houseboat.  It was kind of like a long window seat. Once Belva went to a party and warned the roommate and Mom that she was bringing people back with her. They didn't really believe she would bring back anyone that late. So there they were, asleep in bed and one of they guys came over and began playing the guitar and serenading them.

She worked for Bill little at I. C. System to May 1955 then at Boeing.   All of us kids thought Bill Little would be an ideal person for mom to marry.  After all, he had all the important requirements -- he knew how to fold origami birds, and he bought us ice cream cones.

We went to visit Grandma Mercedes.  Here Lynn and I are trying to push Valerie around in a doll carriage.  

When she brought us girls to Seattle, it was evident that living on a houseboat was not going to work with young children.  Lynn and I would chase the ducks and almost fall in the water, so Belva and mom went looking for another place for us.

We found a house in bad repair in the Greenwood area.  Belva called all her friends in Gleaners and the M-Men and Bill Little and they came and painted every room and cleaned out a lot of junk.  Then we found out that when the ad had said, "Heat furn." It didn't mean that the cost of heating was covered; it just meant that there was a heat furnace, so the place was a no go. We moved into the Holly Park projects.

Mom had fun decorating our new house.  She bought pink and grey linoleum for the living room. The pink and grey combination was very popular that year

 Maggie, who worked for Bill Little gave us some interesting furniture, including a little table with an inlaid wood top in a chessboard design and a mattress stuffed with horsehair. Maggie was an interesting person.  She had plenty of money, but didn't dress expensively. She loved to go into I. Magnin, where the clerks would ignore her, until she opened her purse and began flashing a large roll of bills.

It was really tough for mom being a single parent.  We had been going to church at the First Ward on Queen Anne Hill.  Our new ward was not someplace you could get to by bus, so we continued at First Ward.  We had to take 2 or 3 buses, transferring in downtown Seattle. As you can imagine, it was not easy to watch 3 little girls on the busy streets down town. Eventually we decided to go to Fourth Ward.  We had to take a bus part way and then walk down a long dangerous hill, which didn't have sidewalks. Fortunately, one of the members saw us walking and took us to church from then on.

In 1956 Mom remarried Dean Ellis in Seattle, Washington. We moved to Myrtle Street in the projects to a larger apartment. Lynn-was in 1st grade and I was in kindergarten (1957 to 1958). We girls loved to open an upstairs window and sing. "How Much is the Doggie in the Window" and "Sugar in The Morning".  Valerie says she was sure she could fly, because she remembers being at the top of the stairs and then she was at the bottom without any memory of walking down them. Mercedes and Glenna continued to send us adorable matching dresses and lots of toys for birthdays and Christmas.

Babette was born in Seattle, Washington on March 29th, 1957 Dad and Mom had chosen the name "Babette" for her long before she was born, for his aunt Babette Joy Brunner, who was a famous singer. It turned out to be prophetic, because Babette has always had a beautiful voice.

Mom got a second and final divorce from Dean later in 1957. Dean's leaving had been very hard on Allyn.  She lost her daddy, her dog (which ran away) and her television all in the same week. Dean had gone to a furniture store and put a down payment on some beautiful furniture and a television set.  It was all repossessed.

Our schedule was like this -- Mom would get up early in the morning, dress and feed us, take Babette next door to Mrs. Hamilton, our baby sitter and walk over to the Day Care Center with the rest of us girls.  From there she caught her carpool. The driver was very impatient, so if I would even a minute late he would leave without her. Then she would have to take 2 buses to work at Boeing. The procedure would be reversed in the evening.  When we needed groceries, we would walk (about 8 blocks?) to the grocery store, borrow a cart and bring the groceries home or just bring as much as we could carry. I remember that there was a little store that sold penny candy and the owner would cheat us girls if we came down alone

Mom remarried July 11, 1958 at Alice Staple's home on Mercer Island. We moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours.  It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.

The move was hard on Allyn.  She came home from school, crying the first week.  She said, 'I don't want to go to one school, then another school, then another school."

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful.  It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all we girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop.

In 1958 in a letter to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Don and Judy, Mom said, " the girls loved the paper dolls.  Betsy takes her "baby" everywhere. She feeds it and takes it to bed. Johnny sent tinker toys and they really made a big hit.   That year Allyn got a bride doll from Alice. Loretta got a ballerina and Valerie a Shirley Temple doll (all from Alice.) I told them we were buying a house for $10,000.  It has a lot that is 110ft. x 135 ft. The house has 2 large bedrooms and a full, dry basement with room to expand. "

Leesa was born May 16, 1959 in Seattle

Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, "Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959.  We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us.  Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt's sister.  Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo.  She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th.  They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th.  Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning.  

Grandma and Grandpa Millecam in front of house --
9805 22nd Ave. SW, Seattle

Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961.

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other.   Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and she wrote her own scripts. I began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing my own dances.  Valerie and Babette were good singers

I learned to sew really well and would alter my clothes to fit better.

Lynn, Valerie and I took  dance classes at Y . I remember one dance we did to the music of the Pink Panther.

In 1962 mom worked at Frostop Drive In.  She had fun working with all the teenagers and we loved getting leftover French fries and stopping by for shakes and hamburgers.

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road).  Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old.  It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where we washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse we named 'Crystal".  Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy.  They found one on Fobes Hill.

Valerie

 




I was born in Butte, Montana on December 10, 1953. We lived in Silver Bow Homes. This was a nice housing project on Utah Street. Mom and Dad chose the name Valerie, just because they liked the name, but gave me the middle name "Gladys" after Dean's aunt. I was another beautiful baby, with dark hair and brown eyes; Grandma Millecam said I looked like the Gerber baby. This was a wonderful place for us, since loving family surrounded us. Grandma Stark, Great Grandma and Grandpa Millecam and Mercedes and Aunt Gay and Aunt Patsy

We had fun playing with our cousins, Duane, Joe and Delsa at Grandma's house and went to a lot of parks, etc. with Nana, Gaye and Patsy.

Aunt Gay says, "One of the things I remember here was that Patsy Ellis made beautiful little dresses for the girls. We have pictures of Allyn and Loretta in the dresses -- Allyn's was red, Loretta's was blue and Valerie's was yellow."

I remember them drawing with crayons all up the stairway and their mom made them wash it off. I remember when the girls and Mom and I were in a motel on a trip - I don't remember.



Once when we were at Grandma Mercedes' house Allyn and Loretta decided they were going to take me around in a little doll carriage. As you can see, I wasn't having any of it.

Aunt Patsy says, "What I remember is that Dean was walking holding Valerie's hand and smoking and Valerie looked up at him and said 'Daddy, I thought you were a Mormon Boy!' In my memory it was after that that Nan gave her the a blessing that her life would be protected and that she would know that the church was where she would find her happiness and that she would help her sisters know, too.

In 1954 Mom got a divorce from Dean and moved to Seattle, Washington. She stayed with Belva and a roommate in a houseboat on Lake Union while she got a job. It was a novel experience living on a houseboat. When the tides would get high, or it the wind was strong, the houseboat would sway. She, Belva and their roomate would wash the clothes, and then wring them out on the outside deck. There was a long built in bed at one end of the houseboat. It was kind of like a long window seat. Once Belva went to a party and warned the roommate and Mom that she was bringing people back with her. They didn't really believe she would bring back anyone that late. So there they were, asleep in bed and one of they guys came over and began playing the guitar and serenading them.

She worked for Bill little at I. C. System to May 1955 then at Boeing. All of us kids thought Bill Little would be an ideal person for mom to marry. After all, he had all the important requirements -- he knew how to fold origami birds, and he bought us ice cream cones.

When she brought us girls to Seattle, it was evident that living on a houseboat was not going to work with young children. Lynn and Loretta would chase the ducks and almost fall in the water, so Belva and mom went looking for another place for us.

We found a house in bad repair in the Greenwood area. Belva called all her friends in Gleaners and the M-Men and Bill Little and they came and painted every room and cleaned out a lot of junk. Then we found out that when the ad had said, "Heat furn." It didn't mean that the cost of heating was covered; it just meant that there was a heat furnace, so the place was a no go. We moved into the Holly Park projects.

Mom had fun decorating our new house. She bought pink and grey linoleum for the living room. The pink and grey combination was very popular that year

Maggie, who worked for Bill Little gave us some interesting furniture, including a little table with an inlaid wood top in a chessboard design and a mattress stuffed with horsehair. Maggie was an interesting person. She had plenty of money, but didn't dress expensively. She loved to go into I. Magnin, where the clerks would ignore her, until she opened her purse and began flashing a large roll of bills.







It was really tough for mom being a single parent. We had been going to church at the First Ward on Queen Anne Hill. Our new ward was not someplace you could get to by bus, so we continued at First Ward. We had to take 2 or 3 buses, transferring in downtown Seattle. As you can imagine, it was not easy to watch 3 little girls on the busy streets down town. Eventually we decided to go to Fourth Ward. We had to take a bus part way and then walk down a long dangerous hill, which didn't have sidewalks. Fortunately, one of the members saw us walking and took us to church from then on.






In 1956 Mom remarried Dean Ellis in Seattle, Washington. We moved to Myrtle Street in the projects to a larger apartment. Lynn-was in 1st grade and I was in kindergarten (1957 to 1958). We girls loved to open an upstairs window and sing. "How Much is the Doggie in the Window" and "Sugar in The Morning". I was sure I could fly, because I remember being at the top of the stairs and then I was at the bottom without any memory of walking down them. Mercedes and Glenna continued to send us adorable matching dresses and lots of toys for birthdays and Christmas.

Babette was born in Seattle, Washington on March 29th, 1957 Dad and Mom had chosen the name "Babette" for her long before she was born, for his aunt Babette Joy Brunner, who was a famous singer. It turned out to be prophetic, because Babette has always had a beautiful voice.








Mon got a second and final divorce from Dean later in 1957. Dean's leaving had been very hard on Allyn. She lost her daddy, her dog (which ran away) and her television all in the same week. Dean had gone to a furniture store and put a down payment on some beautiful furniture and a television set. It was all repossessed.

Our schedule was like this -- Mom would get up early in the morning, dress and feed us, take Babette next door to Mrs. Hamilton, our baby sitter and walk over to the Day Care Center with the rest of us girls. From there she caught her carpool. The driver was very impatient, so if she was even a minute late he would leave without her. Then she would have to take 2 buses to work at Boeing. The procedure would be reversed in the evening. When we needed groceries, we would walk (about 8 blocks?) to the grocery store, borrow a cart and bring the groceries home or just bring as much as we could carry. I remember that there was a little store that sold penny candy and the owner would cheat us girls if we came down alone

Mom and Walt Carter married July 11, 1958 at his sister, Alice Staple's home on Mercer Island. Walt didn't like living in the projects so we moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours. It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.
The move was hard on Allyn. She came home from school, crying the first week.  She said, 'I don't want to go to one school, then another school, then another school."

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful. It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all the girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop that Walt and I and the Perrys demolished.

In 1958 in a letter to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Don and Judy, Mom said, " the girls loved the paper dolls. Betsy takes her "baby" everywhere. She feeds it and takes it to bed. Johnny sent tinker toys and they really made a big hit.. That year Allyn got a bride doll from Alice. Loretta got a ballerina and I received a Shirley Temple doll (all from Alice.) Mom told Grandma and Grandpa we were buying a house for $10,000. It had a lot that is 110ft. x 135 ft. The house has 2 large bedrooms and a full, dry basement with room to expand. "

Leesa was born May 16, 1959 in Seattle

Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, "Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959. We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us. Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt's sister. Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo. She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th. They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th. Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning. "






Grandma and Grandpa Millecam in front of house --

9805 22nd Ave. SW, Seattle


Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961.

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other. Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and she wrote her own scripts. Loretta began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing her own dances. Babette and I were good singers
Lynn, Loretta and I took dance classes at Y. I remember that one of them was to the Pink Panther music.

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road). Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old. It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where Mom washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who we girls named 'Crystal". Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

This is also the year that we did first family cookbook. Belva, Judy and Mom put it together and sent it to the rest of the family.
.
Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy. They found one on Fobes Hill.

We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish. It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but Lynn got.

It was a good life on Fobes Hill. The girls would go for walks every day, down to the little grocery store or to Snohomish. Babette was in a choral group with some of the other LDS girls, Allyn and I sang duets.
One song that Lynn and I sang was 'Edelweiss', from The Sound Of Music, at Young Artists Festival. I. also sang 'My Testimony' with Becky Ashdown.

Edelweiss, edelweiss,
every morning you greet me.
Small and white, clean and bright,
you look happy to meet me.
Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow,
bloom and grow forever.
Edelweiss, edelweiss,
bless my homeland forever.

We shared a well with 2 neighbors. Because the well was on the property of the lady next door (A Mrs. Rathbone) she would shut the water off whenever she thought we were using too much. We had to bring water in from town, then call the Sheriff's Department which would send someone out to make her turn it on again. This cost us money and didn't do much good, because she would just do it again.

Babette

I was born in Seattle, Washington on March 29th, 1957 Dad and Mom had chosen the name "Babette" for me long before I was born, for his aunt Babette Joy Brunner, who was a famous singer. Mom says, " It turned out to be prophetic, because  Babette always had a beautiful voice.

Mom got a second and final divorce from Dean later in 1957. Dean's leaving had been very hard on Allyn.  She lost her daddy, her dog (which ran away) and her television all in the same week. Dean had gone to a furniture store and put a down payment on some beautiful furniture and a television set.  It was all repossessed.

Our schedule was like this -- Mom would get up early in the morning, dress and feed us, take me next door to Mrs. Hamilton, our baby sitter and walk over to the Day Care Center with the rest of the girls.  From there she caught her carpool. The driver was very impatient, so if she was even a minute late he would leave without her. Then she would have to take 2 buses to work at Boeing. The procedure would be reversed in the evening.  When we needed groceries, we would walk (about 8 blocks?) to the grocery store, borrow a cart and bring the groceries home or just bring as much as we could carry. I remember that there was a little store that sold penny candy and the owner would cheat us girls if we came down alone

We had a big back yard with a swing set.  My best friend, Vickie Burns, lived just down the hill.  

For one of  my birthdays, Mom made a doll cake. I went to Head Start when I was 5 years old and the next year I walked my little sister, Leesa to her Head Start classes.

Mom remarried July 11, 1958 at our aunt Alice Staple's home on Mercer Island. We moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours.  It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful.  It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all the girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from an old  barbershop. (It was interesting to find that they had used hair as insulation.)

In 1958 in a letter to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Don and Judy, Mom said, " the girls loved the paper dolls.  Betsy takes her "baby" everywhere. She feeds it and takes it to bed. Johnny sent tinker toys and they really made a big hit..   That year Allyn got a bride doll from Alice. Loretta got a ballerina and Valerie received a Shirley Temple doll (all from Alice.)  Mom told Grandma and Grandpa we were buying a house for $10,000. It had a lot that is 110ft. x 135 ft. The house has 2 large bedrooms and a full, dry basement with room to expand. "

Leesa was born May 16, 1959 in Seattle

Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, "Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959.  We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us.  Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt's sister.  Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo.  She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th.  They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th.  Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning. "

Grandma and Grandpa Millecam in front of house --

9805 22nd Ave. SW, Seattle

Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961.

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other.   Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and she wrote her own scripts. Loretta began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing her own dances.  Valerie and I were good singers

Lynn, Loretta and Valerie took dance classes at Y.  I remember that one of them was to the Pink Panther music.

Mom started a 4-H Food group and we took part in some of the contests. I was in the finals of one 4-H county demonstration finals (making a fun breakfast.)

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road).  Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old.  It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where Mom washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who we girls named 'Crystal".  Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

This is also the year that we did first family cookbook.  Belva, Judy and Mom put it together and sent it to the rest of the family.

.

Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy.  We found one on Fobes Hill. I was the one who led Crystal down Seattle Hill road over to our place at Fobes hill.

1968 - 1971 We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish.  It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but Lynn got.

It was a good life on Fobes Hill.  We girls would go for walks every day, down to the little grocery store or to Snohomish.  While we were living on Fobes Hill, we had swim classes in Everett. Sometimes we walked 8 miles to class in Y  We had started lessons earlier at Silver Lake in Everett, but the classes were not safe, so we quit.

I was a Campfire Girl.

I played :  'Dutch Dance" & "Vive la Compagne" at Linda Yeoman's piano recital  (Leesa says she remembers that we had piano lessons when she was in first or second grade. She got to the stage where she was playing with two hands and I got so mad that I worked really hard and passed her by.)

Our singing group

I was in a choral group with some of my friends from church.  Allyn and I also sang duets at church. . At Snohomish Jr.. High mother daughter tea I sang the  'Lord's Prayer" At Snohomish High School I appeared in 'The Happy Prince'

At Snohomish High School I  was in drama and in music. My music leader, Mr. Peterson never gave me leads in the singing programs, (he had his favorites), but when the drama department put on "The Fantastiks" I had the lead.

1971 Mom organized another 4-H cooking group. (We lived on Railroad Avenue in Snohomish.)  Then in 1972 we moved to Kirkland. It is a lovely area and we had a view of the water.  The back yard had grape vines and fruit trees. We also planted a garden. One of the kid's friends, after sampling some of the things we grew said, "Mrs. Carter you live like a king."  Allyn, Bruce and children stayed for a short while before find an apartment of their own in Juanita.

In 1973 I was in Gunslingers Drill Team in Kirkland. We performed at many parades around the area, even during the winter.  

 1974 moved to 7009 180th Street. Snohomish.  We met a family who was looking for a home and property in the Snohomish area.  They said that if we could find them a place they liked they would rent it out to us until they were ready to move in (several years down the road.)  We found 2 places -- one with a very nice yard and a really nice home that a professional builder had built for himself. The other was not in great shape.  They chose the worst one of the two because it was $5,000 cheaper. (However, I had a dream at the time we were house hunting that the man who had built the nice home was very angry that anyone else was going to live in his house.  He had died unexpectedly while living there.  Years later the house burned under mysterious circumstances.)

When Mom got her inheritance of $1,800 from Uncle Jack's estate, we used most of the money for new carpets and flooring in the house.  We painted all the walls and ceilings, added wallboard to one room in the hallway and painted the bathroom with marine paint. We also added wallpaper to one wall of Markay's room, which was painted pink.  Leesa's room was first blue, then later yellow.

 1975 I sang in the opera "The Devil and Daniel Webster" with the Seattle Opera.

Snohomish was hit by another bad flood.  Leesa looked up the information and this is what she found.

"They (the floods) were in 1975 and 1977.  I think they said the first one was the worst in 100 years... and then the second one in '77 was even worse.  The road across the valley was ripped up, and tossed into the fields. They had to rebuild the road in 1975, and then again in 1977.  

With Mom at Mothers' Tea in 1975

I graduated from Snohomish High School this year.  It was quite an accomplishment,as I was the first of us girls to do so.

Leesa

Mom and Dad married July 11, 1958 at his sister, Alice Staples' home on Mercer Island. We moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours.  It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.

The move was hard on Allyn.  She came home from school, crying the first week.  She said, 'I don't want to go to one school, then another school, then another school."

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful.  It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all the girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop. (Interesting note -- they had used the hair cut from customers for insulation.)

Grandpa and Grandma Millecam came to visit and see the new baby (me.) Grandma Millecam wrote this in 1959, "Our trip to Seattle, August 24th 1959.  We were delayed in taking this trip because we had said we would take Allyn Jo, Retta and Valerie back with us.  Rita and Don and family made them a visit June 21st to 29th and brot Lynn and Retta. Valerie went to Murray with Walt's sister.  Then Mercedes came July 18th and took our two to Provo.  She also got Valerie. There they stayed till August 16th.  They came by themselves to Butte by Pullman where we met them Sunday August 16th.  Then Monday evening we all five boarded the Pacific Northwest Streamliner to Seattle, arriving there Tuesday morning. "

Grandma and Grandpa Millecam in front Of house --

9805 22nd Ave. SW, Seattle

Markay Clara Carter was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961.

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other.   Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and she wrote her own scripts. Loretta began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing her own dances.  Babette and Valerie were good singers

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road).  Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old.  It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where Mom washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who we girls named 'Crystal".  Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

Markay, Betsy and I took ballet classes at Eastmont.  I remember dancing to "Baby Elephant Walk."

Our family went to Disneyland in 1970

This is also the year that we did first family cookbook.  Belva, Judy and Mom put it together and sent it to the rest of the family.

.

Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy.  We found one on Fobes Hill.

1968 - 1971 We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish.  It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but Lynn got.

It was a good life on Fobes Hill.  We girls would go for walks every day, down to the little grocery store or to Snohomish.  While we were living on Fobes Hill, we had swim classes in Everett. Sometimes we walked 8 miles to class in Y  We had started lessons earlier at Silver Lake in Everett, but the classes were not safe, so we quit.  I remember that we had piano lessons when I was in first or second grade. I got to the stage where I was playing with two hands and Betsy got so mad that she worked really hard and passed me by.)

I was more interested in tools and drawing.  (One of my favorite gifts was a saw and hammer. Because I was interested in art and talented in that area,  I took classes from Larry Countryman in Snohomish. I was in Swans' trail 4-H when I was in 5th grade I played an elf in 'Murdock's Rath' (yes, that's the way they spelled it--students produced it.)

Riverview School

Markay and I attended Riverview School which was almost next door.

I had a teacher that I really didn't like in one grade and could hardly wait until I left that grade to get another teacher, when unfortunately he was moved up to the next grade.

Because I had strong arms, once when dad had to go on a trip he taught me how to milk the cow.  But the cow was having none of it. I think we finally had to find a friend who would do it. Occasionally the cow would get out and we had to go bring her back.  

Lynn worked at the Spudnut Shop, which was run by family friends, Eldon and Lucille Hurst.  So Markay and I would pick up spudnuts to take around to various businesses in Snohomish. We had some regular customers.  Another money raising scheme was selling flower and vegetable seeds which didn't work as well as selling spudnuts.

We shared a well with 2 neighbors.  Because the well was on the property of the lady next door (A Mrs. Rathbone) she would shut the water off whenever she thought we were using too much.  We had to bring water in from town, then call the Sheriff's Department which would send someone out to make her turn it on again. This cost us money and didn't do much good, because she would just do it again.

 1971 we moved to a house  on Railroad Avenue in Snohomish. It wasn't much to look at on the outside -- painted charcoal black, but the interior was nice, with gold carpeting.   It was also easy to walk anywhere in Snohomish that you wanted to go from this house. Mom organized another 4-H cooking group and our friends came also.   

Then in 1972 we moved to Kirkland.  It is a lovely area and we had a view of the water.  The back yard had grape vines and fruit trees. We also planted a garden.  One of our friends, after sampling some of the things we grew said, "Mrs. Carter you live like a king."  Allyn, Bruce and children stayed for a short while before find an apartment of their own in Juanita.

I was in 9th grade and won a prize in art contest at Kirkland Jr. High.

1974 moved to 7009 180th Street. Snohomish.  We met a family who was looking for a home and property in the Snohomish area.  They said that if we could find them a place they liked they would rent it out to us until they were ready to move in (several years down the road.)  We found 2 places -- one with a very nice yard and a really nice home that a professional builder had built for himself. The other was not in great shape.  They chose the worst one of the two because it was $5,000 cheaper. (However it might have been fortunate that they chose the one they did. Betsy had a dream at the time we were house hunting that the man who had built the nice home was very angry that anyone else was going to live in his house.  He had died unexpectedly while living there. Years later the house burned under mysterious circumstances.)

When Mom got her inheritance of $1,800 from Uncle Jack's estate, we used most of the money for new carpets and flooring in the house.  We painted all the walls and ceilings, added wallboard to one room in the hallway and painted the bathroom with marine paint. We also added wallpaper to one wall of Markay's room, which was painted pink.  Leesa's room was first blue, then later yellow.

Snohomish High School

"They (the floods) were in 1975 and 1977.  I think they said the first one was the worst in 100 years... and then the second one in '77 was even worse.  The road across the valley was ripped up, and tossed into the fields. They had to rebuild the road in 1975, and then again in 1977.  I know the Lippizaner Stallions that were in the valley died in one of the floods; all but one, and that one climbed up on the banks, had a heart attack and died also.  

1977

Leesa graduated from Snohomish High School in 1977 and Leesa & John married July 16th.

Markay

Mom and Dad married July 11, 1958 at his sister, Alice Staple's home on Mercer Island. We moved to a house on Columbia Street in Seattle. This house would have been a good candidate for restoring if it had been ours.  It had hard wood floors and there were the remnants of a good garden with a birdbath. One interesting side note -- there was a fireworks factory two buildings down from us.

The move was hard on Allyn.  She came home from school, crying the first week.  She said, 'I don't want to go to one school, then another school, then another school."

We bought a house in 1959 and moved to 9805 22nd Ave. S.W., White Center. It had a nice big yard to grow a garden, but the house was awful.  It was not built well and the rooms were laid out in a very bad way. When we first moved in there were only two bedrooms and all the girls had to sleep together in one bed. Later we added a bedroom downstairs made from lumber scrounged from a barbershop. (Interesting note -- they had used the hair cut from customers for insulation.)

I was born in Seattle, Washington, July 25, 1961. Mom says I had beautiful chocolate brown eyes. In 1962 Mom made us all matching dresses for Easter.

Mom tried to find activities for us girls that would allow us to excel in our own individual talents and not have to compete with each other.   Allyn had a ventriloquist act with a dummy and she wrote her own scripts. Loretta began taking dancing lessons and was good at choreographing her own dances.  Babette and Valerie were good singers I was very talented on the piano, from the very beginning..

Third Grade picture

We moved to Everett in 1967. (10020 Jordan Road).  Belva and Bob had bought a house there and weren't going to be ready to move in for a while, so they rented it to us. The house was quite old.  It had a big enclosed back porch with a ringer washer, where Mom washed clothes. There was a large pasture out in back and we bought a horse, who we girls named 'Crystal".  Mom still didn't drive, so we had to walk to the Beverly Park store to catch a bus. Often if the bus didn't come soon enough, we would just continue to walk to downtown Everett.

Markay, Betsy and I took ballet classes at Eastmont.  I remember dancing to "Baby Elephant Walk."

Our family went to Disneyland in 1970

This is also the year that we did first family cookbook.  Belva, Judy and Mom put it together and sent it to the rest of the family.

.

Eventually, Belva and Bob sold their home in Seattle and were ready to move to their house on Jordan Road, so we went looking for a house to buy.  We found one on Fobes Hill.

1968 - 1971 We found a really nice home for sale on Fobes Hill in Snohomish.  It had unique features such as an arched doorway, bathroom with blue fixtures and a front bedroom with a window seat that all the girls wanted, but Lynn got.

It was a good life on Fobes Hill.  We girls would go for walks every day, down to the little grocery store or to Snohomish.  While we were living on Fobes Hill, we had swim classes in Everett. Sometimes we walked 8 miles to class in Y  We had started lessons earlier at Silver Lake in Everett, but the classes were not safe, so we quit.

I remember that we had piano lessons when I was in first or second grade.

Riverview School

Leesa and I attended Riverview School which was almost next door.

Lynn worked at the Spudnut Shop, which was run by family friends, Eldon and Lucille Hurst.  So Leesa and I would pick up spudnuts to take around to various businesses in Snohomish. We had some regular customers.  Another money raising scheme was selling flower and vegetable seeds which didn't work as well as selling spudnuts.

We shared a well with 2 neighbors.  Because the well was on the property of the lady next door (A Mrs. Rathbone) she would shut the water off whenever she thought we were using too much.  We had to bring water in from town, then call the Sheriff's Department which would send someone out to make her turn it on again. This cost us money and didn't do much good, because she would just do it again.

1971 we moved to a house  on Railroad Avenue in Snohomish. It wasn't much to look at on the outside -- painted charcoal black, but the interior was nice, with gold carpeting.   It was also easy to walk anywhere in Snohomish that you wanted to go from this house. Mom organized another 4-H cooking group and our friends came also.   One of my best friends, Nola Wislen, was part of the group.

Then in 1972 we moved to Kirkland.  It is a lovely area and we had a view of the water.  The back yard had grape vines and fruit trees. We also planted a garden.  One of our friends, after sampling some of the things we grew said, "Mrs. Carter you live like a king."  Allyn, Bruce and children stayed for a short while before find an apartment of their own in Juanita.

 1974 moved to 7009 180th Street. Snohomish.  We met a family who was looking for a home and property in the Snohomish area.  They said that if we could find them a place they liked they would rent it out to us until they were ready to move in (several years down the road.)  We found 2 places -- one with a very nice yard and a really nice home that a professional builder had built for himself. The other was not in great shape.  They chose the worst one of the two because it was $5,000 cheaper. (However it might have been fortunate that they chose the one they did. Betsy had a dream at the time we were house hunting that the man who had built the nice home was very angry that anyone else was going to live in his house.  He had died unexpectedly while living there. Years later the house burned under mysterious circumstances.)

When Mom got her inheritance of $1,800 from Uncle Jack's estate, we used most of the money for new carpets and flooring in the house.  We painted all the walls and ceilings, added wallboard to one room in the hallway and painted the bathroom with marine paint. We also added wallpaper to one wall of my room, which was painted pink.  Leesa's room was first blue, then later yellow.

Emerson Elementary

Snohomish High School

"They (the floods) were in 1975 and 1977.  I think they said the first one was the worst in 100 years... and then the second one in '77 was even worse.  The road across the valley was ripped up, and tossed into the fields. They had to rebuild the road in 1975, and then again in 1977.  I know the Lippizaner Stallions that were in the valley died in one of the floods; all but one, and that one climbed up on the banks, had a heart attack and died also.  

On April 28, 1979 I married Richard Schreck.  We had five children, Haven, Marketta, Alice, Katharine, and Richard Kenneth.