Whispers From The Past/Tales Told: Shortest day of the year 76 Years ago

Whispers From The Past/Tales Told: Shortest day of the year 76 Years ago: "Albion Campus, Wintertime (Just across the street from the Perrins Home) Fall of 1934 Mother is going to Albion State Normal Schoo..."

Shortest day of the year 76 Years ago

Albion Campus, Wintertime  (Just across the street from the Perrins Home)

Fall of 1934

• Mother is going to Albion State Normal School .

• Dad is in his second year of teaching at Almo.

December 1934, Verona had decided to give it one more try at becoming a teacher and enrolled in the Albion State Normal  School.  She was living in her parents home just across the street from the campus.
Vern, had received his "Life Certificate" in June of 1933 from Albion State Normal School  which qualified him to teach  in Idaho, grades one thru nine.  He was twenty years old when he got a teaching job in Almo, Idaho, thirty miles south of Albion earning $75.00 a month.  

School where Vern's first teaching job in Almo, Idaho.  Burned to the ground in 1945

Vern and Verona decided to get married during Christmas vacation.
But, there was a problem - Vern's mother, Ethel was not happy about 
Vern marrying Verona and went to Verona's house to talk her out of it. Verona told Ethel  that they were getting married in the Temple and since Ethel had never 'gone through the Temple' she  was invited to go with them to get her own endowments.  Then Verona told her if she disapproved with that plan then they would go to Twin Falls, a town about seventy miles away and be married by the judge.  Verona reminded her how they had gone together for several years and were ready to be married.  Ethel changed her mind and said she would go along with what Verona  and Vern had planned. 

They were to be married in the Logan Temple on Friday the 21st so the plan was to  pick up Vern on Thursday afternoon and drive to Logan that same day.   Verona, Ethel and Louise (Vern's sister, age 16) left Albion on Wednesday for Almo, Verona writes, " the  road to Almo was not very good in the summer, so in the winter the road was terrible, and there was lots of snow on the road."  Verona didn't know how to drive, and Ethel who's right leg was permanently stiff (another story to be told) Verona writes,  "Because of Ethel's stiff leg she wasn't the best driver, it was very hard for her to manage the  gas pedal, clutch, and brake.   (I just can't imagine!)    Verona really thought a few times they would not make it to Almo but, with a lot of praying and much encouragement from Louise and Verona, Ethel kept going.  They arrived in Almo safely, Vern was ready to go, so they continued their journey to Logan arriving there late but, in time for a late dinner with Vern's Uncle Fred and Aunt Lilly Kidgell, the relatives they were going to stay with.
After dinner, Uncle Fred and Aunt Lilly started gathering up  temple clothes for Vern.  Verona writes  "We could rent clothes at the Temple but, we had to save money where we could."  They couldn't find pants large enough for Vern so on Thursday, Ethel and Lilly put a V shaped piece of white  cloth in the back to make them large enough for him.
Verona's wedding dress was made from material of her mother's wedding dress.  Verona's sister Gladys and sister Kerma  and sister-in-law Ida all wore this dress when they were married.

Logan Temple in Winter

21 December 1934, 76 Years ago today

Verona and Vern entered the Logan Temple at seven  in the morning.  That V that was put in Vern's pants, Verona writes," Seems like that was all I could see all the way through the Temple when I would see Vern climb up the stairs going from room to room." 

(Oh my!  This is so typical of Mom.)

Verona writes "There was only one other couple married that day and they were an Indian couple.  I must say the sisters in the Temple were so kind and sweet to me.  One sister gave me a pink ribbon to tie around the marriage license.  She said she had picked Vern out as my husband because he was so handsome and she could just see what beautiful couple we would make."

Now husband and wife, they went back to Uncle Fred's house to get their  luggage for their 'honeymoon' to Salt Lake City.   While they were saying  their good byes to Ethel and  Louise, Ethel had a request, would they take Louise with them!  NO!

This would be Verona's first trip to a big city like Salt Lake.   It was raining hard and they had a flat tire!  Vern fixed it, and was completely soaked when he got back in the car. 

They stayed at the Temple Square Hotel, room 242 at $3.00 a night for the next three nights.    Saturday night they went dancing at the Rainbow Gardens.

Twice they were invited to dinner, once at Vern's cousin home, Pauline and husband Gorton Matson  and Vern's Aunt Mary's home.  

Vern & Verona 1935

Verona writes, "The three days went by very fast.  We left Salt Lake Monday morning, picked up Vern's mother and Louise in Logan then onto Albion to spend the rest of the Christmas Holidays with our families before taking up house keeping in Almo in a one room apartment."

Mother was 20 years old and Dad was 21.

Christmas Gifts for Verona

It was the era of the depression during Vern and Verona's teen years.  Mother remembers two gifts that Dad gave her for Christmas. "One year Vern came carrying a large box.  I unwrapped it only to find another box, then another!  The boxes kept getting smaller and smaller until it was the size of a ring box, only it wasn't a ring, it was a locket!  I was so thrilled and so happy.  Another Christmas he gave me a wine colored suede jacket.  I don't know where he got the money because they were about as poor as we were!" 

I have no idea if Mother is wearing the jacket she  refers to in this picture.   Maybe Gary knows?  Does it look like a suede jacket to you?

Verona Shriley Perrins

 Mother is sixteen years old in this picture.  I have looked at this picture a hundred times thinking "and she's only sixteen going on twenty-five."  Vern and Verona, what are the chances of two young people falling in love, living in a small town and their first names start with a V.

Mother loved to play basketball and yes, she is the one on the right top end wearing a necklace!
Mother always looked her best!  On the bottom row third from the  left is her sister Kerma.
Mother loved to remind me what a fast runner she was.  At a 4th of July celebration in Oakley (Idaho) she entered in as many foot races as she could winning them all and they politely asked her not to come back

I love this picture for the natural beauty of it.
In the background - the hills of Albion.

  Mother not only played basketball but, was a cheerleader.  She was president of her Sophomore class.

Verona graduated from Albion High School in 1932 and unlike her older brothers and sisters did not want to attend the Albion Normal School to  become a teacher so she went to Deer Park, Washington to live with her brother Melvin and his wife Ressa through the winter of '32, '33.    I believe she is holding the hand of her niece Mary Lou, oldest daughter of Melvin and Ressa.    This would be the first time ever to be away from home and she was VERY  home sick.

To keep her busy and her mind off being so homesick, her brother Melvin volunteered her to coach the girls basketball team.  Melvin Perrins taught school in Deer Park and coached every boys  sport that was offered!  Can you pick her out?

She returned to Albion in the Spring of 1933 and decided to attend Albion Normal School after all and  hated every minute of it.

This picture was taken on 28 October 1933
on the wedding day of her friend Margaret Bauman to Laurence Leroy Henry.
What's so special about this picture is that I have the dress she is wearing.  It was a prom dress she had, light green in color very thin material.
Mother came from poor circumstances but, she always could 'pull it off'.
 

Mother died 10 March 2006, age 91.  She always thought she would die in her 70's like her mother Edna.  (She was 70)  And that's why living over twenty years longer was so surprising to her.  When she was 87 years old  I asked her this question:  If you could go back in a time of your life where would it be?  Without hesitation she said;  "To be 16, riding a horse on a spring day, in the field behind my house! "  I thought about this answer a lot.   Of course, that was a time in her life when her body was active, she loved Albion High School, she was the class president, she played center on the girls basketball team, she was a cheer leader, she was dating the best looking boy in town ("Butch" was his nickname) Vern Tomlinson and she She lived in the beautiful Albion Valley she so dearly loved.

Dad died in 1991.  They are now together in Eternity.   Love you, Mom and Dad.

House that Sam built.

Because I am building Mothers life by doing 'New Posts' each time the story time-line is backwards.

So if you are just reading this for the first time,  scroll down  

to picture of 'Verona abt two years old'.

This house was built in the early 1900's by Grandfather Samuel Perrins.  The first location was about 300 yards west of this lot.  The house  was moved to make room for a new elementary school.  Across the street, to the east was the Albion Normal Training School.
Sam and Edna's first child was not born in this house but, the next seven children were born here.  When Mother grew up in this house she said it had a screened in front and back porch.


                                                                                 

This is what the house looks like today. Updated and still lived in.  In front of the house are thirteen of thirty-five  'Perrins cousins'  on Memorial Day 2005.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Verona Shriley Perrins

Verona abt. 2 years old

     Today, Mother would be 96 years old.  She lived to be 91 which was one of the biggest surprises of her life.  Mother was born in the house that Sam built.  Sam was her father, Edna Phippen was her mother.  5th December 1914, Albion, Cassia, Idaho, Verona Shirley Perrins was the seventh of eight children.  Her oldest sister, Ethel, was thirteen years old, brother Melvin was twelve, Gladys was nine, Estel was five, twins Kermit and Kerma were two, then her youngest sister Freda, was born when mother was five. In Mother's life history she wrote "I had a happy childhood.  My brothers and sisters spoiled me."

Verona abt. 5 years old.

          





When Mother was about 5 years old she could sing and new all the verses to "America". Her Aunt Flora and Uncle Charley  owned a mercantile store in Albion and Mother would stand on the counter and sing for the drummers (salesman) and customers and they would give her money.  It got so she wouldn't sing unless she was given money first.


   

Grandpa Sam PERRINS loved his beer!

This is a 'fun' story that was sent to me by cousin Barbara Gray Winkler.  Barbara's mother, Freda, was the youngest of eight children of our grandparents,  Sam and Edna Perrins who lived in Albion, Idaho.   In her younger years, Barbara and her older brother Gerald and younger sister Joyce lived  just 'through the block' from Gramma and Grandfather's house. 

"As long as I can remember our grandparents lived on the same street as the High School and Training School, as everyone called it.  [We know it as a Grade School]
Grandpa worked at the Normal School [college].  His favorite pass time was making home made beer.  My dad [Robert aka Bob Gray] told him, the way he was making it and tasting it, it was going to kill him!  Ha!  Grandpa had a cast iron stomach.  In the house, under the kitchen floor, there was a cellar.  You could access it through the kitchen.  Gramma kept her fruit and etc. there because it was cool and kept things from spoiling.  That was Grandpa's hide away for making beer.  It was against everything Gramma believed in.  One early evening after dinner, Grandpa went down in the cellar to check his beer and when he did this, of course, he always had to taste it, a number of times.  Gramma hated it when he did this, because he always smelled like beer.  He never, never abused drinking!  This particular evening, the visiting Home Teachers came by.  Gramma hurried and closed the cellar door which was on the floor and moved the wash stand over it, so grandpa couldn't get out.  She let the Home Teachers in.  Just as the Home Teachers were leaving, Grandpa decided he was through with his tasting and wanted to come back up the stairs and, of course he couldn't get out.  He called to Gramma but, Gramma ignored him, she was thanking the HomeTeachers for coming by and saying goodbye and that took a few minutes.  Finally, yelling wasn't doing any good, so he found a mop in the cellar and started banging on the cellar door, yelling 'Mother let me out' repeatedly.  Finally the Home Teachers left and Gramma let Grandpa out. As you know their marriage still survived. 
A few years after Gramma died Grandpa decided he was going to get baptized.  He told the Bishop that he drank just a taste of beer a day.  The Bishop told him about the Word of Wisdom, Grandpa replied, that just a little beer keeps his kidneys working and he had been doing it all his life. [as prescribed  by his Doctor] The Bishop agreed at his age, he was  81, it would be acceptable if it was just a taste. "

Thanks Barbara, for this memory.  More is yet to be posted!

2010 Venteran's Day in honor of Ralph H. Hepworth d1945

"Life without one who serves their country proud, freely, and valiantly would be a life void of love, dreams, freedom, a life void of the many treasurers so many of us call life.  To those of you who wear the uniform of our country with pride today, and  for those of you who wore the uniform in days past, these few words go our to you.  Thank You!"

"24 July 1945, two PBY4-2 airplane's took off from Yontan Field, Okinawa, for an anti- shipping sweep along the west coast of Korea.  Two message's were received, one that two planes had been attacked by enemy aircraft.  No position given.  Another, referred to a successful attack on a Japanese merchant ship.  The planes did not return to base the next morning and all available planes were sent out and an exhaustive search was made.  No trace was found of the missing plane's or its crew.  Among the missing was Ralph Huntington  Hepworth.

This is Dad's younger  first cousin.  There is more to the story which I will write 

about for the Memorial Day Celebration in May.

Dad the Clown

This picture is a result of being on Facebook!
So there is good reason in joining FB.  A friend Gina Kramm whose husband is my third cousin
posted this picture. Thank You Gina!! The fellow in the car window I am 99.9 % sure it is Dad.
Two of the girls are  his cousins, Pauline and Kate, girl's that dad has written about in his life history.   Notice how well dressed he is!!
Who of his descendants look's like him  at first glance?  I thought of my handsome nephew TAD.
Do you agree?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

These three ladies are ready to party
at the Cottonwood Cove entertainment
center.  Check out the two wearing their
Black Slips, could they get more daring?
Then Mother in her Hawaiian pants  with
matching sash!  Mother is 80 years old.
Bedtime; 9pm.
October 1994
Pocatello, Idaho

A thought!

Want to have Halloween everyday?

Join a band!

Why did the skeleton cross the road?  To go to a body shop!

(This would be a Verona joke for sure!)

Verona's first date with Dad.

Even a bad pix -you can recognize handsome Vern. 

      Mother's first impression of Dad happened on the first day of school, she was a Sophomore; Dad a Junior.  "Wow," she thought, "What a guy to have."  Vern opened the door for her then shut it in front of  her !"   Dad was a kidder.   Mother always thought the Hepworth's were so much better off than her family.  On there first date Mother was disturb  that the electricity was turned off at her house because her father didn't pay the bill.  She told Dad to come at a time that it would be light outside so he wouldn't know that the Perrins didn't have electricity.  Mother writes,"Vern came after dark, so I had to turn on the lantern.  I was so embarrassed and apologized.  Vern said not to worry about it, 'We are all in the same boat.' "  Dad was a genuine guy.  His family was 'better off' than the Perrins.  He didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. 
Mother writes about the day Dad was riding on top of a car.  The car swerved across the road and knocked Dad off the top.  He got up, ran caught up with the car and got in. 

That guy, I bet his mother didn't find out about it!

Today is Dad's Birthday

Here I go!  I have been fussing with this for the past several days.  As you see I am starting  with our dad only I write only of MY memories.  If Gary and Ted want to add a comment of their memories, Please do.  I am learning about how to blog as I go so this is pretty basic.

2 Aug 1913 baby boy born 12 lbs.

     This is my dad and me.  I always felt very secure very loved by my dad.  We are sitting on our porch at 512 E. 6th Ave. Jerome, Idaho. I'm about three years old so that would put the year 1945.  Do you see a resemblance?  He called me by the nickname of Smokey, like an Indian that would sit around a campfire. Dad was the one who read to me, especially the 'funny paper' cartoon Katzenjammer Kids.  He would use a different tone of voice for each kid and talk in the foreign  dialect of the kids. 
     When he was home in the evenings it was Dad that put me to bed and would make up bedtime stories.  If he wasn't home when it was my bedtime I would lay awake listening for him to return and the second I heard the front door open I would call to him to come and finish the story he had started the night before or repeat an old one.  No matter how tired he was he never refused my request. 
     When I was six and no longer believed in Santa, I wouldn't let on that I no longer 'believed' because it would take away the fun for Dad in our listening for Santa's Sleigh and his reindeer on Christmas Eve.
     Dad was my Principal when I was in the first and second grade at Lincoln School in our small town.  I would wait for him in his office after school until he was finished with his work and we would walk home together (our house was about 1 mile away)
 or I should say we would skip home.  Dad would say a ditty of "Skippity Hop to the barber shop to buy a stick of candy, one for you and one for me and one for sister Sandy."  As young as I was I always wondered what people thought when they would come to their door to watch this big man and a little girl skipping down the street (no sidewalks) hearing our singsongy voices of Skippity Hop.  I dearly loved my dad.





     Why or why didn't I ask my Grandmother TOMLINSON  what it was like giving birth to a 12 pound baby!  One thing, at least Dad was born in a hospital and not at home.  He was born in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City on 2 Aug 1913.  At the time his parents, Ethel and George, were living with Ethel's parents, James and Sarah HEPWORTH at 757 West 1st N. (today it's 2nd N).   The dress he is wearing is not the beautiful 'blessing dress' that many of us have used in blessing our children. 

He was given the name Vern Wherrett TOMLINSON.   On the 19 Nov. 1914 another child was born to Ethel and George.  She was named Katherine and sadly died 21 Nov 1914.   Then another sister was born 12 Feb 1918 she was given the name Louise Wherrett TOMLINSON.   


Once, I did ask Dad where the middle name came from.  All he said was he thought it was the the maiden name of a great- grandmother on his fathers side.(Not So, that's another story)  Aunt Louise had no idea where the name came from only stating "What an awful middle name to give to a child!"  However, Grandmother Ethel told my mother (Verona) the name was to be kept in the family in order to be eligible for any family money.  How amusing! 

I'm guessing that Dad was about four years of age when this picture was taken.  His HEPWORTH grandparents owned
a large square piece of land in the center of the same block where their house was located and where there was a  large horse barn that housed quite a number of horses.
Across the street was the Jackson School where Dad attended the first and second grade.  His parents moved to Ogden where he attended the third grade.  Then back to Salt Lake City for the fourth grade. His parents would move back and forth between Ogden and Salt Lake City for the next several years. 

This is the only picture I have of Dad with his dad George Wherrett TOMLINSON.  George's business was managing and/or (over the years) owning a live stock commission company.  He bought and sold cattle, sheep, and hogs

 
     Can you pick out Dad? The six footer in the middle!  Through the years Dad played football, basketball, baseball, tennis, was a wonderful swimmer. This is his freshman year,1928 at Central Jr. High School in Ogden, Utah in an opera comedy "Pickles" or "In Old Vienna"  11 March to be exact.  What a well rounded guy!! 

     The summer of 1928 Dad had appendicitis and spent two weeks in the hospital and "made splendid recovery."   Then his father sold out his business and the family moved to Stockton, California.  Less than a week  into his Sophomore year at Stockton High School  the football coach invited Dad to try out for the football team.  When he got home that afternoon and told his mother about it she immediately protested, "You just had an operation, that game is for Seniors, and the like".  So he had to give up the idea of playing football.  Dad did play basketball!  The team name - "THE TARZANS!"  I'm still chuckling!  

Don't you just love this picture?!!  If you look closely, Dad has his name 'Vern' etched in the grime of his right pant leg. 
I asked him about the dirty, dirty pants and he said it was the "fad" not to wash your pants!  Dad was so 'IN'.   Dad is 17 years old Mother is 16. The car is parked in front of Mother's house.  Dad is known by the nickname of "Butch" because his family owned the Butcher Shoppe in Albion.

It is now 1929/30.  Dad's mother and father separated and Dad his mother Ethel and sister Louise move to Albion and again live with Dads' grandparents who have moved to Albion from Salt Lake City.  


     This is 'Butch' age 17 washing the family car!  So typical!!
The is a new Buick that was given to Ethel in the separation agreement. The divorce is not final until 1936.
I was so pleased to get this photo sent to me just a  few years ago by a cousin of Dad's who lives in Cheney Washington.  The shed in the background still stands next to the 'HEPWORTH' house in Albion. 




I am going to end the tribute here.  Since this is my first blog on people who have gone to the other side (dead) I'll see just what the response will be to all you kin folk.  Besides, at this writing I don't know what I am doing (Blog wise)  If anyone wants a copy of Dad's autobiography just let me know, I can send it to you.