Mom's Diary

Mom as a Baby

I had a chance to read some of my Mom's diary dated 1937-1940.  In reading it I realized that teenagers back then are basically the same as now. The only difference, they had no TV, no DVD player, cell phone, X Box, Wii or IPad etc. But when it came to boys and social activities, they are pretty much the same. They did have a lot more chores to do that's for sure. My mom had to clean the house, do the dishes and help with ironing and laundry before she could go out to play. She also had to curl her hair every night and her mother's hair as well. They lived in Fairview Utah where they knew everybody and were related to almost everybody.

She was a lot more popular than I was. She always had some activity going with friends and boyfriends. She said boys used to wink at her in church and school. She had one particular boy she really loved. His name was Spencer. Her dad told her that had to move to Price for his job and she said she bawled and bawled for days because she had to leave Spencer. She said it was not just Puppy Love either.

In Price, she found a new boyfriend and managed to get on with life. She said it was the worst day of her life when she had to move and leave Spencer. She went uptown a lot and went to a lot of movies. She listened to the radio. She also went to a lot of dances. She played paper dolls and every night she had to read or tell stories to her sister, Beverly who was 10 years younger than she was.

On a typical day she would write in her diary: Got up, fixed breakfast and did the dishes and then went to school. I liked my Spanish class. I could not stop looking at Spencer. He probably doesn't even know I am alive. I like him swell. The day turned out to be awful because he didn't look at me at all. My friend Helen treated me bad all day. I went home, helped with supper, did the dishes. listened to the radio and curled mine and Mother's hair. I played paper dolls and told Beverly stories and went to sleep.

Some other days she would write: I was sick today and could not get up. I fainted twice. Mother made me miss school because I was so sick. It's been the worst time in my life. Daddy came home and I was excited. He works nights and sleeps days and so we have to be quiet. He gets really cross when he is tired.  She did write that in 1937, her dad quit smoking and she was glad. Mother went off to her Relief Society meetings and I cooked for Dad, Duane Beverly.

It's hard to believe that after reading much of her diary, that her time here was so short. while reading it I realized that we are not here long on this earth and everybody should write a little bit about their life here so those who come after them can realize they are not just names or people we remember but they like us lived a life and had the same feelings we do today. I don't think we think much about our parents are grandparents of ever being young. Reading her diary was very bitter sweet. I now wish I had asked her more questions about her life as a child. There is a lot that I still wonder about like all the places she lived and people hung out with. I plan to write about and about my dad as well.


Happy Little Gril Fawn




Mom and her Sister Beverly






Little Girl Fawn

 



Mom, her Boyfriend and Helen



Mom with her Friend in the Snow

Mom with One of Her Boyfriends







    


Mom as a Little Girl

 
  



 

How We Entertained Ourselves in The Good Old Days

Me Swinging the front Gate
(Notice Geneva in the Background and no Freeway)

Some of the things I did in the good old days (the 50's) was swing on tree branches. We had a tree that had limbs going around in a perfect circle. So I would swing around all those branches just like the monkey bars. I had skinny arms but big muscles and callouses from all that swinging. Once I put my hand on a wasp on the branch and boy that was not fun! Got stung really bad. Kind of put my swinging off for a while.

We lived on a one acre lot and had all kinds of animals. We had a huge garden. When my dad irrigated, we would play in the ditches. I also pretended that the little furrows were rivers. I built miniature dirt houses and used sticks for people. The ditches would accumulate some foam which we called Indian soap.

We had a lot of red ants everywhere. I used to watch them for hours bringing food to their ant holes and fighting off enemies. Sometimes I put a few black ants in the red ant beds and there would be a fight. I know I was very bad for doing that.

Back then, summers seemed to last forever and had so much fun. We played hide and seek at night with the neighbors and even my parents played. We also played soft ball. My dad had put up an electric fence to keep the cows in and he put his hand on the fence and they we would hold hands with him and feel the electrical jolt. It wasn't painful just kind of a strange feeling.

I used to play marbles with my brother. I had a whole collection of them. I was always trying to win the prettiest ones. They were called cat eyes. Of course, my brother was much better at marbles than I was.


I always had a cat. It was usually an orange stripy one. I would dress them up in baby clothes and take them for a ride in the buggy. My favorite cat was Scrappy. He was a gray stripy. He was so gentle and he would let you do anything and be really mellow about it.  

There was a swamp west of our house where the freeway is now. We used to go down there and get pollywog's and frogs. I can't believe I got in the water. There were even leeches there and we let them get on us and then pulled them off. We loved the dragonfly's there. There were of toads back then. We could go out in the summer and hear them hopping all over. I was not afraid of them and I would even pick them up and hold them and they would pee on me. There were so many of them that a lot of times we saw them flat as pancakes in the driveway or road where somebody had run over them.

I loved to read and read every book I could get my hands on. My mother had read to me a great deal when I was a baby and she read me all the Mother Goose rhymes and I had all of them memorized. I also liked to look at pictures and make stories up from the pictures. When we did get a TV, there was only 3 stations. My favorite shows were: I Married Joan, Show of Shows, Milton Berle, It's a Great Life among a few. In the later 50's, there always a lot of westerns. Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Death Valley Days, The Rifleman and many other westerns. We liked Perry Mason and Lassie and Rin Tin Tin as well. Also the kids shows of Howdy Doodie and Kula, Fran and Ollie. I also enjoyed playing paper dolls and played with a dollhouse and miniature people.

In the winter when we could not go out, my dad put a basketball hoop on the door and we play basketball in the living room. He also liked to throw waded ups socks at us and we had to move fast to keep from being hit.  We played board games like Sorry and Touring and Old Maid.

These are just some of the fun things we did back then. We didn't have anything like the kids have today. But we didn't know and so of course we didn't care.

February and March Birthdays

I'm bad! Didn't get around to the February birthdays so I will do February and March both.

Sorry, I did not put any photos on this blog. So I know I am being lazy. Here is the February/March list.

February 13, 1969: Jennifer Carrillo
February 14, 2007: Jaden Carrillo
February 17, 1985: Andy Riehle
March 13, 1942: Randy Minor
March 14, 1962: Jay Riehle
March 22, 1942: Alex Carrillo (deceased)
March 28, 1982: Brian Featherstone
March 31, 1989: Michael Opfar

January Birthdays

Felicia Babb

Rita Carrillo Minor

Charlie Bennett

Savannah Bennett

Happy Birthday To:

Felicia Babb: January 1, 1981
Rita Carrillo, January 11. 1944
Charlie Bennett: January 25, 1969
Savannah Bennett: January 29, 2004

December Birthdays

Wishing a Happy Birthday To:

Alex Riehle: December 26, 1989
Monica Riehle: December 28, 1964
Sid Moulton: December 29, 1993

Photo Find!

I came across this picture the other day of my brothers Marty and Matt along with Kathy, John's wife. It is priceless. I wonder what they were talking about? Laughing about? Probably trucks. Pretty sure that was it.

I just love pictures.

Saying Goodbye to another Family Member

Nazario was such a fun person. His life was cut too short. I miss his jokes and his teasing.  I have not seen anyone in his family for a very long time.  It would have been his birthday on November 15. I can't belive he has been gone for almost 15 years.

Last week we lost his adopted daughter Callie Rae. She used to stay over night and she and Tammy would have a good time. I was sorry to hear that she died alone and had lost a loved one. I do not know the circumstances of her death, but my heart goes out to Patsy and Michael.  I do hope that she is with her dad now and is free from her pain. We never know how long we have on this earth, so we need to always be there for each other. I feel bad that I had not been in their lives for some time. I know the pain of an unexpected death. May their family find some comfort at this sad time.

November Birthdays, Sorry Late

I have been really slow in posting lately.

Here are the November Birthdays

Kathy Carrillo:
November 9, 1967
Cherise Carrillo:
November 9, 1968
J.J. Riehle:
November 19, 1983

Happy Birthday and Have a Great Year.

I will try to update my blogs more often. Just have not been into it lately.
I love all my family and wishing you all Happy Holidays.

1994 More Carrillo Chronicles

1994
From Tammy

Well my friend Pauline and I won the "most Original" prize for Halloween Costumes. She was Cousin "It" and I was Morticia.  Michael and Jake even took more than allowed out of people's candy dishes while they weren't looking.

 Jake likes the new toy he found at "Pa's" house. Now he can
 ride a 4-wheeler just like his Dad does.

1994
Matt is Crazy About Fixing Old Cars
In fact that's all he talks about. I hope that he can fix up Dad's old car. (And now 16 years later, he has!!!)

The Carrillo Chronicles

I don't know if anyone remembers, but from 1992-1995, the Carrillo's had a newsletter called :
THE CARRILLO CHRONICLES. 

I found them while I was cleaning out my photo albums and other items.  These chronicles have a goldmine of history in them.  Some of you may still have yours as I think Jennifer made copies for everyone. She, Tina and I were the ones who created them from information given to us from other family members.

Right now I will would like to enter just a few excerpts from them.  I hope to do this from time to time. If anyone cannot find theirs, feel free to come look through these.

From 1995
Jay vs the Bees

Jay just got back from California. He delivered some honey bees to Cohwchilla to pollinatee some almond trees. He had some hitch hiker bees that is--they are still hanging around his truck even though the bees are in California, He was only stung three times and no police or highway patrol men stopped him. I wonder why?

From 1994
Rob gets robbed
Robert got his bike seat and bike post stolen off his bicycle while it was parked at his work down town. When we first lived here he had a whole bike stolen. We have decided to get some insurance.

From 1995
Cherokee the Tease

Cherokee is a tease! She is finally growing out of the terrible twos. She likes to pretend she's the leading man from the Disney shows. John Smith is her favorite at the time. Cherokee likes braids in hair just like Pocahontas!

This is just a sample of what is in the chronicles. I hope to add a lot more soon.  enjoy!

John

I have been a little lax in profiling my family as I have planned to do. I would now like to profile John.  He was born August 10, 1967.

John is my oldest boy. He is a treasure. He is truly unique. Because he is different, he was picked on a lot at school. But he kept up his spirits and uplifted many others. When he was two years old, he wandered off and was gone for a while and scared us half to death. Another time I could not find him, he was asleep under a bunch of blankets on the floor.  He loves lights and tulips and electronic devices. When we took our Christmas tree down one year, he cried. He wanted the lights to shine all year. He used to change the lights on the tree over and over and we ended up having to nail the Christmas tree to the floor to keep it from tipping over because he was always rearranging things.

John is dependable. If he says he will do something, he will and will go the extra mile.  His memory is his outstanding asset. Especially dates. If you are trying to remember a date of something even as far back as 30 years ago, John is the one to ask. He may be a little OCD but because he is, you can bet that you will never have to worry about things when you are away from home and he is caring for the place.  He does not do well with stress though. It is best that he keep himself free from it as best as he can. John loves to eat and you don't have to worry if you can't eat all your food because John will take care of that.

John works in the grocery business and has for over 10 years. All the people he has worked for say he is the best worker they ever had. Even customers have sent letters of appreciation to him and his manager.

John has accomplished a lot in his life. An LDS mission, putting up with bullies, Jr College and his marriage to Kathy Jones. He is a wonderful son, a good and trustworthy boy and I love him very much.