MOPRO

 Prom proposal's have to be clever now a days.  The boy that asked Kennedy joked with her about going to Mormon prom while at our bishop's retreat (pictures for a later post) and had a friend send a text asking Kennedy, "If Gentry asked you to mopro, would you go?" Her response was, if he "officially" asks me, then of course I'll go.  She was thrilled when Gentry (and Nathan and Sterling, moral support) showed up at our door with this clever proposal.  Kennedy said she was very awkward but somehow got out "Yes, I'll go with you" and gave him a hug.

We had fun dress shopping and going to lunch one day after her district track meet.  Mormon prom dress standards are pretty restrictive so we spent a few days searching for the right dress.  I am not a seamstress so I didn't want one that had to be altered or heaven forbid, have to wear a shades undershirt.  We tried on dresses with quite a price range and felt really good about our Nordstrom rack find.  This dress was made for her.  Green is her color.

The Oliver twins, Renee and Rachel, produced a girl worthy of a magazine cover.  Kennedy rarely wears make up or stresses about her hair but for this cause she had a look she was going for -  Vintage classy.  

She is beautiful inside and out!  What a mature 16 year old she has become.

Gentry brought her a bouquet of roses and also a wrist corsage.  Good thing her date is easy on the eyes:)  He's in our ward and just his mission call to upstate New York leaving in June.

Eric sent Gentry out the door with a parting gift of frozen marinara sauce.  Eric was the cook at bishop's retreat and Gentry really enjoyed the spaghetti.  Eric took note and very graciously gave him some.  Kennedy was mortified.  I wonder what it was like 10 hours later when he got home and it had been sitting in his truck all night?

Most of these kids are from our ward (except 4).  They wined and dined at the Dixon household for dinner where the younger siblings served them.  The parents prepared the food and also drove them to the prom because it was a good hour away.  A mom also took these professional pictures as well. We feel blessed to have wonderful friends around us that want the best for all these kids.

I asked Kennedy to narrow down the pictures and this is the best she could do.  So many good ones to choose from.  Gone are the days you get your prom pictures weeks later only to find that your hair is sticking up or the pose is all wrong.  Thank goodness.

She had a total blast!  She was so worried things were going to be awkward but all that worry was for naught.  I was determined to stay up until she got home but by 12:30 my eyes refused to stay open.  She woke me up and it was 2 am.  They had gone to Denny's after and it seems they didn't want the night to end.  Brother Frey (their driver) was with the group so I didn't question the time.  Just happy she was happy:)  Isn't that all we really want as parents? Here's to many more wonderful experiences for Kennedy.

Grandma Quinton

This is my mom's mom - otherwise known as Grandma Quinton.  I was so happy for her when I received a text from my mom that she had passed.  She turned 92 on her birthday March 3 and has been longing to be with her husband and those that have passed on for quite some time.  I find peace and comfort in the knowledge that she is happy and made whole again.  I picture her and my grandpa square dancing in heaven:)

(I included this as it's important to have these things written down for generations to come.)

 April 12, 2008 (Additions made in March 2015)  (Life Sketch of Barbara Quinton)

While visiting with Mom at her apartment in Charbonneau, Phyllis and I asked her about her childhood, wanting to know more of the details of her growing up years.  The following is what she recounted.

Cassie Malinda Woolf (2^nd to oldest of 11 children), and Eli Alma Simmons (the oldest of 10 siblings) were married on 28 Oct. 1903.  He was 17 and she was 16.  Leona was their first child, then Vera, Malinda (stillborn), Verl, Deon, Phyllis, Jack and then Barbara (mom).

         

 Mom was born at home in Ucon, Idaho on 3 Mar. 1923.  Because Alma and Cassie were separated, Cassie was living alone with the younger children in the back of the mercantile store known as “Simmons & Woolf.”  On that cold and stormy March morning Grandma (Sarah) Simmons, a midwife, was summoned to help deliver the baby.  When Sarah realized that Cassie was in danger with the delivery, she sent Verl, the oldest boy, to get on his horse and not come back until he had found his dad.  After much struggle, Mom came into the world.  The cord had been wrapped around her neck several times, causing epilepsy.  When Alma did arrive, he simply stated, “She would be much better off dead:  She will never be anything but an idiot.”  He left immediately thereafter and Mom would not see her father again until about 1942—19 years later—when she and Dad were married and had moved to Mud Lake, Idaho.  Alma continued to play in a band, remarried in December of the year he left Cassie, and had several (5) other children.

Cassie did the best she could to raise the children left at home with limited resources and odd jobs of taking in laundry, doing field work and later on was a beauty operator.  She would often take Mom to the doctor and put her under the “lights” trying to reduce the seizures (commonly called “fits” then).  World War II was beginning and there were no “treats” other than making a small amount of candy at Christmas time.  While in Ucon they lived in the bottom of an old hotel.  On occasion, Grandma Woolf would generously bring food over from the store.  When asked what games they used to play, Mom remembered playing “hide and go seek” in the hotel because there were lots of vacant rooms and halls to hide in.  

(This part omitted from life sketch because did not seem appropriate)

At the age of 6 they moved to Idaho Falls.  When she was about 6 or 7 Mom remembers a boy that was a good friend and nice to her.  Later on, however, this same boy fathered a child with her sister, Deon.  Not being married, it was common then to send the pregnant teenager away.  She was sent to California to live with Vera until she had the baby.  Aunt Ida and Uncle Floyd Woolf kept and raised the baby.  Deon was about 9 years older than Mom, and after Deon’s return she seemed to have a difficult time from then on. 

When the time came to start school, it was very hard for Mom.  She spent so much time in the sick room (probably about once every two weeks).  The truant officer, Mrs. Kelsey (who wore long dresses) was very kind to her.  Mom went to primary at the Highland Park Branch (about a block away) and was baptized at about age 10 by a close family friend by the name of Alfred Barnes.

Mom remembers taking a lunch every day and walking about a mile to school with Phyllis (who was about 2 years older) until Mom finally made it through 6^th grade.  Going on to Junior High School meant that she would have to walk clear across town.  They finally advised her mother to take Mom out of school.  Mom begged them to let her try.  It was hard, but she did make it through Junior High (we think 9^th grade).

During her early teen years on Cache Avenue, Mom remembers helping her mother pick raspberries and take in laundry to earn money to live on.  Cassie would do women’s hair in the basement of their apartment.  Mom would also babysit quite often.  A lady by the name of Mrs. Snarr would come and pick up Mom and keep her for several days (about 10 days) to help with the children and household chores.  When she returned home Mom would give the money to her mother to help buy groceries.  Again, this was war time and times were difficult, but by then there were “relief” programs available to them every two weeks, which helped a lot.

When she was about 16 Mom and Phyllis were the only children left living at home.  They never lived extravagantly, but they never went hungry either.  Leona (her oldest sister) had graduated from Ricks College and got married when she was about 18.  Grandpa and Grandma Woolf took Jack with them.  He would be out on the desert working with the sheep up at Willow Creek many months at a time and she seldom saw him.

Mom remembers Grandpa (John Anthony Woolf, a farmer born in Moroni, Utah) late in his life would sit in a rocking chair and chew tobacco.  He could spit into the spittoon some distance away and a “good shot” he was.

When asked what her greatest fear was, she did not hesitate that it was the seizures and not being able to control them, or know when they would occur.  If she got really upset about something, it would always trigger them.

Cassie always liked baseball games, and she and Mom would often to see games together.  In Idaho Falls they lived close to the ball park (Highland Park) and an occasional ball would come over the fence.  If you snagged one of those balls, it could be exchanged for admission to the next game.  Most of these City League games were on weekends.  A lot of people would have picnics there and ride the merry-go-round, slides, etc.

Clothes were purchased from Good Will.  They did not have a television, but they listened to the radio and enjoyed that.  Vernon Logan (who later became the husband of Phyllis) liked Phyllis and would come over often and bring his guitar.  Sometimes Phyllis would get mad at Vernon and leave, but Mom would stay and sing and play the ukulele with him.  She always loved music and dancing.  One song she remembered singing in her youth was “If I Had the Wings of an Angel.”

At the age of 17 Mom would go to dances with Dorothy (who was actually her niece, but about the same age as Mom).  They would hire a taxi (had no car) and go the Eagles Dance Hall in Idaho Falls where on a busy night the floor would actually bounce and Mom wondered if it would cave in.  There were not a lot of young men and often times girls would dance with girls and have a great time.  They loved to dance the jitterbug.  They would also go to the Wandamere Dance Hall outside of Idaho Falls.  That is where she met a young man by the name of James Quinton.  When she told this young man her name, he asked her if she had a brother named Jack Simmons.  James had worked with Jack in the sheep.

As they started courting, James would pick her up and take her home after the next few dances in his dad’s car.  They dated for about six months and one night after a dance when they were alone, James asked her to marry him.  She was dumbfounded and hesitated at first.  Mom was reluctant to even think about marriage because she had been told epilepsy was hereditary and doctors had told her to “Never get married or have any children.”  By then James, dad, knew about the seizures, but loved her and wanted to marry her just the way she was.  His accepting and giving nature only made him more attractive to her.

They married November 26, 2941 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Grandpa Quinton took both of them to Salt Lake.  Because of the long distance, they stayed in a hotel the night before the ceremony (in separate rooms) and then drove straight home after the wedding.

After they were married, she and Dad would go to dances whenever they could, dancing the jitterbug and square dancing late into the night.  Having acquired her father’s  musical talent Mother continued to love to sing and performed in many church and community programs.  While living in Lost River, even though she never did get a drivers license, she was a diligent driver of a John Deere tractor with a hand clutch doing field work alongside her husband where they raised potatoes and hay, as well as many horses, goats, pigs, chickens, and cattle.  Their most productive crop, however, was their six children which included: Joanne, Merlin, Verdene, Sandi, Pam and the bonus child, Brad.

Milking cows was an everyday chore, as was the task of washing the milk separator with all of those discs.  The “blue milk” or the equivalent of skim milk today, was given to the pigs. 

Another memory was all of the rattle snakes they encountered when running cattle out on the desert and the jack rabbit drives when they became so numerous they devoured all the crops.  In 1964 they sold 100 head of cattle, loaded all their worldly possessions and kids in 15 below zero temperatures, and embarked on their journey to Washington State to become some of the pioneer stock that would cultivate, till and toil new acreage in the Columbia Basin.  New farming techniques, irrigation systems and lots of field work to keep kids occupied.  It was not uncommon over the years  for neighboring farmers to drop in to “borrow” something around mealtime because  mom was an excellent cook and baker, and there was always plenty to eat.

While in the Columbia Basin Ward Mom joined with three other ladies to form The Mothers Four,  who sang and entertained at parties and programs.  She taught herself to crochet and it has been a lifelong blessing for herself in the sedentary years, and certainly for the hundreds of us who were the recipients of her beautiful handiwork. She also made a multitude of quilts and craft items and was a gifted artist. 

She has always loved to plant and take care of flowers, and worked vigorously in the gardens she and Dad planted.  There was always excess produce to give to friends and neighbors—and a reason to sit and visit with them. 

Mom always said that Dad took care of her and helped her in the early years and that in the later years she took care of him.   Between the beet harvester accident, heart surgeries and the cruel cancer that took him too early, she was always by his side and rendering tender care and companionship.  She was an example of loyalty, love, and  long suffering to each of us.   

After dad died in 1991, Mom stayed at their home on the top of the hill above Basin City, Washington until 1994 when she moved to the Royal Columbian Retirement Center, then into a beautiful apartment in Charbonneau Retirement Center, and a few years after that to Riverton Retirement Center (all in Kennewick, Washington).  In September of 2012, she suffered several strokes and after a stay in the hospital, was moved to Richland Rehabilitation Center in Richland, Washington.  Mom passed away there on March 23, 2015 after spending the day with many family members surrounding her.  She died of congestive heart failure which she had been diagnosed with many years previously. 

She leaves behind a loving posterity –Joanne and Reid Larsen, Merlin and Phyllis Quinton, Vard and Verdene Jenks, Sandi Dixon, Pam and Dave Blomquist, and Brad and Rhonda Quinton, plus 25 grandchildren and 55 great grandchildren.

Until we meet again...