ON THE JOB - Ilo Leslie Smith and Inez Player Smith

Ilo Leslie Smith, Les as he was known, bought a car during the summer after the 11th grade.
Cars were a big deal in the Smith family (more on that later).  It was stolen shortly after that and instead of going back to school, Les went to work.  Without a high school diploma or higher education he managed to maintain work during some tough economic times.  Probably needing money right away to pay off the stolen car, he got to work right away at the Murray Smelter, he had some connections there.  That is where he was working when he got married and had Beverly in the picture above.  His career covered a lot of interesting entrepreneurial endeavors.  The jobs changed a bit but one thing didn't, he was a hard worker.    A job he took after the smelter was working at a gas station.  We frequented that gas station when we would drive from Bountiful to Salt Lake to see Carol.  Then the depression hit.  He was able to get on with the WPA - Works Progression Administration - a New Deal program that President Roosevelt put into effect. (Not quite sure what he did though)  After that he started his own business.  It was a trucking business. It was called the B & O.  He would transport items, from warehouse to stores (stores like J. C. Penney).  My mom said she knew the back of every store in Sandy, Midvale and Murray.  The great thing about this job is that he could take Bev and Carol on the deliveries.  Things were a little bit different in those days.  Bev says he would leave the two girls in the truck while he would go make the delivery.  They would lay out their paper dolls all over the seat.  Then when Les would get back in the car they would have to gather things up until they arrived at the next store.  Carol got mad once and got out of the car and walked home!!! (Oh those were the days!)   Even though Les didn't graduate from high school he was whiz bang at math.  Bev said he could glance at a long list of large numbers and just add them in his head.  He was a human calculator.   After the trucking business he started another business.  They assembled custom screens and doors.  He worked the entire Salt Lake Valley selling screen and french doors and then even branched out to open a branch in Reno Nevada. 

In Reno.

Reno is where Inez became ill with a brain tumor and came back to Salt Lake where she passed away in 1960.  Les closed up his business and returned to Salt Lake.  He owned a few homes and managed those, but my favorite stories about Les and his work was when he was the janitor at the local LDS Chapel.  The picture below was attached to a thank you note from the primary children thanking him for cleaning the building.  My Aunt Carol attended the building where he did the cleaning.  Guy and Gordy would stop by and see him on their way home from school.  The story goes that they would often find him swimming in the baptismal font - didn't want to waste some nice warm water after a baptism.  Those were hard years to find, keep or start a business. 

Inez attending school through the eighth grade.  They lived on a farm far away from the schools and they felt like it would be too much of a burden to provide transportation to the high school so that is as much schooling as she got.   She found that she needed to also work to provide for their little family.  She worked in the Murray Cannery.  They canned all sorts of vegetables.  Bev remembers her coming home with tomato juice on her shoes so she knows they canned tomatoes. Bev has a vivid memory about her working at the cannery.  Here is a quote from her history:

"She wore a uniform that was blue.  I think she may have had a couple of them.  I don’t know if they canned tomatoes or what but I’m sure she had to wash them. She just had an old wringer washing machine.  I was going to help her.  I was going to iron her clothes. So I ironed them for her and I was so proud, and then,  I woke up one night and she was re-ironing them.  I don’t think I ever told her that I saw that she was re-ironing them."  Bev said she would sometimes work all night.  She was also a very hard worker.

After the cannery she  worked at the armament plant helping with the manufacturing of munitions for the war.  This was when Bev was in college.  When Les started the screen business she worked at the plant putting screens into the frames. 

Singing And Dancing In The Rain

The Arcadia Stake great musical of 2015 was put on last week. The video gives a flavor of the show it's many musical numbers and a few highlights of this all youth production.

Spooner Berry Farm

One of our favorite activities of this trip was going strawberry-picking at Spooner Farms. You can buy their fresh berries at various farm stands around Olympia, but they also have a little U-Pick farm where you can gather as many fresh berries as your heart desires. We were happy to be there during the last days of strawberry season. We tried to keep Wendy from eating all the strawberries as we filled our baskets. She was quite sticky by the end of our picking.

Hanging out in Olympia, WA

Olympia is a beautiful place with lots of character, quirks and evergreen trees. It is always so refreshing to be there, and to spend time in a place I still consider home. These are a few photos from around the city, mostly downtown near Capitol Lake and Percival Landing.

We spent a good amount of time at Grandma and Grandpa Tirrell's house, letting Wendy explore and enjoying a slower pace. She loved the singing Spiderman that has proven to be a hit with all the grandkids. Her favorite song is currently the Itsy Bitsy Spider, which this toy happens to sing. She would get so excited when it started to play and she would do the hand motions along with the song. Oftentimes we would find my parent's dog Cosmo at her side. They became good friends during our stay, and Wendy has since become obsessed with dogs. 

Wendy looking very regal in her Odwalla mustache. Jeff let her sample some of his green Odwalla drink. As is evidenced by her face, she was a big fan and kept going back to dad for another sip. 

It was fun to see Wendy exploring and familiarizing herself with a new space. She started walking just a week or so before we arrived, so it was nice that Wendy had a lot of open space to cruise around in. 

Wendy loved running (not walking) the halls, exploring every nook and corner. She has gotten fast and has turned into a little blur of a baby running every which way. Sidenote: Wendy biffed it right after this photo was taken.

Wendy's not the only one who loves bath time. We all have a little too much fun with this part of our nightly routine. Thanks to Jeff's original game of "Ducky on Your Head", Wendy loves trying to put everything on her head. Coming in a close second is splashing as hard as she can. Her new favorite bath time activity is trying to stand up in the tub. This is a treacherous and very slippery task, so it doesn't happen very often. But oh, she is so happy when she gets to stand and Dad loves it too. He's the one responsible for those big grins (and her hair). 

Pioneer Day 5K

With little else to do I decided to participate in the temple to temple 5K from the Provo temple to the Provo city center temple on pioneer day! It was a fun day and I was able to meet a few new people as I walked along!

Twelmeyer Ultrasound 2015

Spencer took this video at our 20 week ultrasound. Enjoy!

ultrasound2015 from Rachel 12meyer on Vimeo.

ON THE JOB - Melvin J. Hodgkinson

Melvin J. Hodgkinson graduated with a B.S. Degree in Marketing from Brigham Young University in June of 1951.  He had worked for the J. C. Penney Company in Vernal, Murray and in Provo.  I love the newspaper article above.  Sounds just like my dad - he has always been a "real eager beaver".  

After graduation he applied and was hired on at the Telephone Company in Salt Lake City. He worked for them for 35 years.  Assignments included moves from Salt Lake to Ogden in 1956, back to Salt Lake in 1957, to Denver in 1965 and back to Salt Lake City in 1976.  Job duties were spread over several departments:  Commercial, Accounting, Data Systems, Corporate Personnel and the Utah Business Staff.  Here is a quote from Mel's history "All my jobs have been associated, basically with the billing and collecting aspects of services provided to customers."  He never talked about work to me, never went to his office - NEVER.  (With being so intimately acquainted with Cornwall Associates, being there so much, even before the last six years, it seems strange to not to have gone  to my dad's work.)  I know he worked hard, I know he excelled, but his passion was his family and church work.  When someone asked Barb where her dad worked  she said "THE CHURCH!" 

I like the 1960's version of photo bomb.

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Pioneer Day from Years Gone By

 Shortly after we moved to Denver from Salt Lake City in 1965 my dad was made the Bishop.  I don't know if they had Pioneer Day Celebrations in the Denver 13th ward before that, but we sure did in 1968 when these pictures were taken. My mom made her beautiful pioneer dress for the occasion, pictured above.  It was bequeathed to me to use in Seminary Videos (IT IS ABOUT A SIZE 0!!!) I think she or my dad even sprang for the wig to help things look more authentic. Who had the idea of me and Barb being Indians?  I bet my dad wanted to think outside the box and thought of making a teepee on a wagon.  I am not sure of all the activities that went on that day, but I am really thrilled to have these pictures to capture the moment.

A Jaunt To New Hampshire

On the second to the last day on Grandma and Papa's trip to Boston we all piled in the van - Robb, Marybeth, 3 car seats and Grandma and Papa to take a 3 hour drive to New Hampshire.  New Hampshire is beautiful, wooded and mountainy.  The group spent the night in the resort town of Lincoln known for it's Indian Head rock formation. This was great place for a picnic.  Two nights a week the resort has a fireworks show out over the lake behind the lodge.  So, even tho' it was July 5th, it was fun, fireworks, up close and overhead.

Accommodations were at a quaint hotel well suited for kids.  In the morning the group traveled to the main destination of our journey - the Zeller cabin, under construction.  Marybeth's dad is building a cabin on land that Marybeth's mom has owned since she was a girl.  When it is said the Marybeth's dad is building a cabin, he is literally a one man construction crew with regular assistance from family members.  Grandpa and Robb put up a few posts while the girls and the kids went to get lunch.  The cabin is a in a most picturesque spot. Since the kids did not get a chance to swim in the motel pool, since the group left so early to go the cabin, they all stopped back at the motel (with special permission from management) to swim... in the indoor and/or the outdoor pool... and get in a little more play on the playground.  Then it was drive south down highway 3 through the stunning White Mountain National Forest back to Boston and an early flight home, back to L.A.

The two posts Robb and Papa erected are to Papa's left.