Logan, Utah

I have very distinct memories of our couple of years spent in Logan. Yet, when I go to Logan now I don't ever remember it as someplace where I have lived. We didn't really choose to live in Logan--it was sort of a default move--nowhere else to really go to when the choice was made to leave Sugar City. We procured a house and moved in. It had a washing machine!!!! For the first time in ten years after three kids, I could do laundry in the privacy of my own home! I did the first couple of loads in tears. Not really, but it was big big big deal. Chris opted to work for a time in St. George teaching students. We LOVED living close to our Bothwell cousins and saw them as much as we could. We enrolled the kids in the "crayon school"--Woodruff. I started back into graduate school and could actually see the END! That semester I worked on a movie of a Dr. Seuss book, You're Only Old Once. I had the time of my life making it--such great fun. Shelly and I affiliated ourselves with a Brownie troop. Thomas still took naps everyday but not without a "Leonard, the Amazingly Green Llama" narrative that I added to each day. At night I read some of the Roald Dahl books to the kids.

Once Chris returned, he picked up a few students by word of mouth. He also later got connected to the music school at Utah State University for awhile and worked as an adjunct professor. He gave a public recital. One of his students was Spencer Taggart whom we had met at the public recital. Spencer was a second cousin of Dad's. Spencer and his wife Ila were great advocates for us and adopted us into their family. They were a class act. Spencer had been a member of the U.S. diplomatic corp in Prague at the time the communists took over. We shared many meals in that gracious home. We remained friends until he and Ila died.

Chris also taught a local pediatrician, Craig Armstrong. He and his wife invited us to attend the symphony concert series in Ogden on occasion. My most vivid memory of him was one summer day when Craig was there for a lesson.. I had been in the backyard in my swimming suit getting some sun. I thought that Craig had left, so I wrapped a towel around me and made a dramatic entrance into the living room letting the towel drop as I entered...That became a funny story...later on.

About this time I got a job at Gia's, a very upscale Italian restaurant that had actually been featured on David Letterman's show TWICE! Letterman used to like to find obscure places and just give them a call. I remember that he called a tap dance studio in Blackfoot once! Gia's was a pretty great chapter in my story. The upsides were the fun students I worked with, the fabulous food I sometimes came home with, and the fact that I could walk to this job AND the fact that it put money in my pocket--I could always buy food when we needed it. Sometimes the kids would walk me to work. The deli guy Mike from Maine was very generous with them, and they all had Gia's shirts to wear to bed. I actually like waitressing. I like the action and the constant new faces. I enjoy giving good service, and I seem to be particularly adept at schmoozing. I made great money there. The downside, of course, was that I was gone at night. I also had to work some Sunday brunches. I worked there until I graduated the following June. My graduate advisor, Dr. Brenda Broadbent (what a great great lady) insisted that I list my waitress experience on my resume! "Let them know you can work!" At that point our income shrunk. It got dramatic. I made some choices I regret.

Meanwhile the kids were losing teeth and growing new ones back in. Taggart was coming of age. He fancied himself a bit of a gentleman. One day he purchased flowers from the grocery store for his little girlfriend, Mindy. Apparently he let it slip out that he'd gotten them for her, but unfortunately he'd forgotten them--I don't think he was accustomed to remembering to stick flowers in his backpack! Mindy was my kind of gal. We heard a knock at the door, and there was Mindy to collect her flowers. Isn't love grand? We enjoyed the neighborhood. It was a pretty good place to be a kid. I believe Wuggie Norple joined our family here. Such a nice cat.

(Taggart with the scout troop at Jensen Historical Farm)

Shelly and I put our hearts into that little scout troop. We dove into cookie sales, but we didn't REALLY hit our stride on that for another year! That summer when we attended scout camp at Cub River, the police drove up and were looking for my co-leader, Jo Ann. Apparently she had helped herself to the cookie money, and the council had turned her name over to the police. It was a pathetic scene--all the little girl scouts standing around while their leader got into the back of the squad car. I'll never forget her words, "Does this mean I can't be a Brownie leader?"

That second semester back in graduate school I was working around the clock to finish my graduate project--a puppet package for elementary school libraries. I was doing research, writing a modified thesis and also constructing the project. I set up Mom's serger at the top of the stairs. From that command central I constructed three basic pod puppets, capes, costumes, wigs, hats, as well as eyes, beards, noses, and any props I could think of. I also designed a very large satchel/bag into which it all went. It was original, unique, and I was very proud of it. I defended that project the following spring and graduated from Utah State University with a masters in Education. Spencer and Ila attended my defense and graciously hosted a celebration afterwards It was a happy day.

(Dad with the Glen and Phyllis Taggart at my

defense party--Spencer's brother and former

president of U.S.U.)

(Graduation Day--everyone is happy--especially the

babysitters--my parents)

At this point Chris was annoyed (I think it was heating related) with the landlord over something, so we found another house across the street from the temple and moved. It was a good move, actually. At this point we had purchased a couple of business suits for me, and I was full-time job hunting. The job I landed was at the university in the Merrill Library as a cataloguer. It was a healthy walk away from our new home made even more pleasant by the daily accompaniment of Robin who lived in the downstairs apartment of our house with her husband Paul and daughter Asha. The kids changed schools, and Thomas began kindergarten. Chris took a stab at playing housespouse. He really had no aptitude for it. He had a few students. I remember he also took a class and made a fly fishing rod. That occupied the dining room table for a few weeks. He remained ever the avid fisherman.

It was at this point that we learned that we had been betrayed by a good friend whom we had met in Texas. That friend went to prison. Perhaps you can read that account somewhere else at a later time. It was devastating and damaging and continues to be.

The high point of our move to the new house was that we acquired a new ward, and with that ward came three families with whom we became best best best friends. Cline and Ann, Roger and Gail, and Nolan and Ruth and all of their crazy kids enveloped us in their lives--truly. We spent holidays with them, went out to eat regularly, gathered for videos, went on picnics, played games and sat together at church. It was such a gift from heaven! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! I have never repeated that experience since, nor do I ever anticipate that I will. Ann and Cline were the owners of the Honeymoon Inn--a classy bed and breakfast on Center Street just around the corner from us. We had a heck of a lot of fun helping them dream up new bedroom themes. Gail was a converted Jew--we enjoyed an awesome seder dinner with a Joseph Smith commentary added. Such creative wonderful people. Oh how we loved them all.

Shelly and I became the top Girl Scout cookie salesmen of Cache County that year and earned enough points to attend a week at Camp Cloud Rim in the Uintas for free! We had a superb time and enjoyed the week off from all of our responsibilities.

My job at the library was magnificent. I soon fit right in and enjoyed soooooo many wonderful relationships there. The woman on the right is Jan. Her husband was the head of the folklore department, and she and I became good good friends and enjoyed each other so much. Jan was intelligent and funny and had such a broad experience base. One day she said to me, "I can't believe that someone as bright as you actually believes that Mormon story." When we parted I went into the bathroom and privately sobbed. Later that day she had flowers delivered to me. She realized what a mistake she had made. I googled Jan's name a few years ago and discovered that she is now a dead pet psychic! I have tried unsuccessfully to contact her. Maybe she can get a message to Mugsy! Deleyne in the middle and I reconnected last winter after thirty years!! It was so wonderful to see her again. Geniel was perhaps my favorite. I'm sure she is in her golden years now. I should find her.

My job was to catalog new materials. I was in charge of the music books, the art books, the history books and all of the audio visual materials which included an extensive set of farm safety videos that had been donated. I spent countless hours in the AV center watching videos of arms and legs being severed in farm equipment! It was gory and awful, but I had to watch them to be able to write a content summary for the catalog. I had no idea that farms can be so treacherous. My co-workers got a kick out of my plight.

I obtained permission from the library head, Max Peterson (Virtue's son-in-law!) to organize a fitness month in the library--"INformed, IN shape, IN the Library!" We furnished some periodic healthy snacks, provided some walking and exercise incentives, and provided a few lectures. It was a great success!

When I left, the library was very gracious in hosting a farewell luncheon in the Taggart Center. My co-workers also generously gifted me some money for our AMTRAK trip. I missed them all so much and returned for several years to visit when I was in the west.

Sometimes reasons for things become obvious but not usually until some time after the fact. It became obvious to me immediately after we moved to the temple house in Logan that I was there to meet Mary Lou. She had been a nun for ten years, joined the church, and got married and had six kids. Our lives intersected in Logan, Utah, but our beginnings were long before that. That relationship continues.