Early Memories

 Some early memories that I have. The first memories that come to mind are of course in the Clinton house. I remember I got to sleep with Linda or Susan down in their room but I peed the bed and so I think I went back to the nursery. So that's a memory. [Linda Ann: I think every kid we had sleep with us peed the bed one night or another] I don't remember exactly but I remember their beds in the basement room. [LA Depends…..Susan and I shared a room all in pink, later I had a ‘private space’, large bed in the living room with a curtain for privacy. With younger siblings there is no privacy.]. 

I remember the nursery. I remember jumping from bunk bed to bed.  I don't remember who got the butterfly Band-Aid from hitting their head. [Linda Ann: It was Steven, we were playing – I was supposed to be tending – and he got a cut on a sharp corner when we were jumping off places we were not supposed to jump off. He got a gash in his forehead and the blood was everywhere! I am not surprised that this is a memory of Laura’s as it was dramatic. She probably had trauma as a kid from it.  Luckily the butterfly bandage I put on (because I remembered Grandmother Conover’s doctoring) was adequate because much later, when mom and dad took him to the emergency room, the doctor said that was the best thing I could have done. (big relief)]

I remember playing out in the backyard it's in the field (what was it called?) pasture. [We had three sections of land on ¾ acre. One section was the house and yard, one section was the garden – mostly weeds and fruit trees, and one section was the pasture or old car dumping ground.]  

I remember playing out there. We played war games. For a while I was the only girl, um and I think Linda played with us [LA: definitely] but then she was gone before I really remember a lot of playing out there. [LA: Being 10 years apart will do that.] But we would make Spears out of the weeds, and they grew way, way over our heads and when we threw them, if someone went oh ouch, we knew that we got someone on the other team.

 I remember playing on the old cars and trucks held back in the pasture.  I have a vague memory of…. I think it was Joe, the tall, tall horse. [Quarter horse] He was really, really gentle.  

I remember Alexander [Shetland pony] have memories of… I even remember… for some reason I got to go to the spook alley, because I remember grapes and being scared downstairs in the old red church. I remember it was scary down in the basement. [LA: Dad and mom had callings with the youth and set up a spook alley in the basement church for Mutual. Alexander, a friendly Shetland pony was included with glow paint around his eyes, etc. Hilarious for the macho young men who ran screaming out the door. The peeled grapes with drops of red food coloring were for eyeballs to feel.]

 I remember the first … it must have been when dad was made Bishop … because I remember going in the red church for sacrament meeting, it seemed like it was a tiny Chapel and there were two doors to go outside, anyway just little memories of that. [LA The old red church was built in 1910 and had stained glass windows. The two doors were at the back of the chapel behind the benches and went down seperate flight of stairs to the lawn.]

 Um let's see I remember that when we'd go on vacations or trips we'd go in the (I don't know exactly if we were in a station wagon at that time or what we what we rode in) but I remember being stacked in cars [LA: no seatbelts, just as many kids as would fit] to go, whether it was one or two cars I don't remember…..

 Um other things other memories…..I remember the white church. [Newly built kitty corner from the old red church across the street] I remember primary, we would walk to primary after school [LA: about a block above the church] because it was during the week on a Wednesday. I remember church, we would go for Sunday school I believe, and then we'd come back at night, (and this was at the white church), we'd come back at night and go to umm sacrament meeting -- probably wasn't night. [LA: Depends if it was summer or winter] but I remember Fast Sundays were very long because we waited till after sacrament meeting to eat. I just remember all us little kids thinking this is too much. 

Um I remember family trips. I don't know when this happened, but mom would take a slice of white bread and put baloney on top and another white bread and pass it back. [LA: happened almost every trip.] And um I remember as we would drive dad would tell gold mining stories. I would always look at the mountains. He'd love to tell stories as we drove about gold in the mountains, and different stories. I remember us asking him to tell us stories.

 

So those are some of my first memories. A lot to do with family. A lot of family and Christmas. I remember Christmas in Clinton home. [LA: I am glad as Laura’s birthday is a day before Christmas Eve.]

 Anyway, I remember feeling very loved.