Happy New Year from the PETERSEN family.

     It's been a long time since we have had a 'baby' at the Petersen Family gathering on Christmas Eve. What a blessing to have our first Great-grandchild; he was born in February so that makes him ten months old, born to our oldest Granddaughter Cassidy and Grandson-in-law Nick.  
      He does the army crawl and walks when he feels like it.  I just could not resist posting about the new Twig on the Branch of our Family Tree.
     The captions were written by his Grandmother.

Before opening presents.......

New Sled.

Strapped into new Sled - Thanks Ggrandpa and Ggrandma Petersen.

Still new Sled.

"Pooh Bear...out of my new sled."

"OOOOH"

"Why is my sled not moving?"

"I want my sled to go!"

"Please, for the love of Pete make this sled go"

"Thanks Dad, carpet is as good as snow for now."

"All this excitement is making me tired but, I love this small piece of paper."

"Dad, I will be able to palm that ball in about three days..just you watch me."

"That's IT!"

"After opening presents NOT so fun anymore."

"Grandmother Nicole says even when I scream I am cute."

"Where's my sled?!"

A couple of days later........"This is more like it!"

Earl-Adrian-Maddison-Christopher-Nick-Knox-Cassidy-Renee-Nicole

The Petersen Family has so much to be grateful for.....
 And We Wish Everyone!








Thank You for stopping by.......

Oh Christmas Tree! Happy Christmas Memory.

      To me the Christmas tree, more than any other Christmas tradition has become to represent the very essence of the season.   A few years ago, about 2009 I wrote about the following Christmas tree memory. 

Icicles of the past!  I still have the 'story book '
doll my mother is putting under the tree. abt 1950.

     Even selecting the family Christmas Tree is different than what I remember as a young  girl.  This year Earl and I selected the first tree we saw, fresh to the touch, just the height we wanted, beautifully proportioned and the price was right.  The salesperson took an electric saw and made a fresh cut of the trunk then it was put through a cylinder that covered it with plastic netting.  Tied to the top of the car for the ride home my thoughts were of Christmas many years ago while living in a small town of Jerome, Idaho.  
     My first visual image of the most beautiful Christmas Tree in the world was when I was about five years old.  It was from a Coca-Cola commercial before the movie started at our local Voris movie theater.  This was the same advertisement for Coca-Cola every year, not in color film but, in black and white.  I would sit watching with excitement seeing a jolly round Santa holding the Coke bottle but my attention was on the brilliant, bright, dazzling Christmas Tree in the background.  It was decorated with the big lights (The ones you see as decoration on the outside of the house today,) long sparkling tinsel that went around and around from the top to the base of the tall tree, breathtaking round ball ornaments and gleaming long heavy icicles on every twig.  It was a tree my mother tried to emulate in our small modest home. 
     When I would go with Mom and Dad to find the perfect tree it was exhausting.  We would go from tree lot to tree lot but the choices of finding the symmetrical was non-existent.  Dad would grow tired and Mother would be frustrated with the choices.  One year when I was about nine or ten years old Mother sent just the two of us to buy the tree.  "Vern, you know what to look for, so take Renee, I'm busy getting the baking done."  Dad and I thought we did a pretty good job picking out our tree but, when Mother came outside to make the final approval of the tree, she was disappointed and burst into tears, "that's the best you can do?"  Dad calmly replied, "You know Verona, I will fix it to look better."  With that said, Dad would go to his tool chest and get his hand saw and hand drill.  He would saw branches off the bottom the the tree then drill a hole in the trunk of the tree where it visibly needed another branch.  He would would then carefully fit the sawed off branch into the hole.  He would do this in several spots, wherever Mother thought it needed an added branch.  Then Dad would put the tree on a box that had been wrapped in Christmas paper.  That made it easier to put the presents underneath the tree.  Dad would put on the big herky jeweled colored lights then the sparkling tinsel, next the breathtaking round ball ornaments, then Mother would spend what seemed to me hours putting on the gleaming long heavy icicles, many strands to a branch very straight and organized.  To me it was beautiful.  This is still my memory of the most beautiful tree, as a child waiting for Christmas Day. 

Taken at Aunt Louise and Grandmother's home.
About 1950

     This picture is of all the family I ever knew on my father's side.  Cousin Ardyth, Aunt Louise, cousin Lee, Grandmother Ethel Hepworth Tomlinson and my self. Only Ardyth and myself are still living today. 

     This is the year (abt 1951) I got a new Schwinn bike!
Dad was principal of Jerome Jr. High and earned a very, very modest salary.  During holiday seasons, Christmas and Easter on Saturday's and school vacation he worked in the men's clothing department called Tingwalls Department Store in Jerome.   This was extra cash for Christmas and always a new Easter outfit.  I can't think of anything I asked for that I didn't get at Christmas time.  I hope I expressed my gratitude for all they did for me.  
      Today, I have added another favorite tree symbol;  The Family Tree!
Merry Christmas to All!  

Great Grandmother enjoys swimming at Saltair.

Stella Lily?  Sadie  Lily Jane
Saltair, Utah

    It's a cold day today where I live to be thinking about swimming in the Great Salt Lake (aka Saltair) where these bathing beauties had their picture taken.       My father put together a family album years ago that I have looked at a hundred times and it wasn't until last week that I spotted this picture and finally realized who is in this picture. Dad had two of the women labeled right; He put 'unknown' for the lady on the left, in the middle is Great grandmother Sarah (Sadie) Kidgell Hepworth and on the right is Lily Jane Kidgell a sister-in-Law to Sadie.  I'm wondering if the 'Unknown' is a daughter of Lily Jane either Stella Lily or Melba and I'm leaning more toward Stella Lily.  I found this photo on Ancestry.com of Stella lily, even though the 'Salt Air' pic is not very clear I can see a resemblance in comparing this pic with the one below.  Wouldn't you agree?

Stella Lily Kidgell
b1895-1974

You will notice the bathing hat on Stella is more updated than the two more 'old fashion' style of bathing cap on Sadie and Lily Jane.

     Pictures of people bobbing around in the Great Salt Lake always looking like they were having a great time have always been an interest to me yet, I have never been there. Here are two links to learn more about the resort of Saltair that opened on Memorial Day 

1893.  http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/saltair.html  or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltair,_Utah

Verona would be Ninety Seven today.

   

     Today is Mother's birthday; 5 Dec 1914. She would be ninety seven. 

     While living in Jerome, Idaho Mother sang in a trio. That was how they were known, The Trio with Beverly Woolley singing alto, Opel Webster second soprano and Mother sang soprano. Mother didn't read music so Bev would play her part on the piano until she would have her part memorized. They enjoyed practicing and singing together so much that they became very good friends. They sang for everything in the Magic Valley, school events, church activities, weddings, funerals, granges etc. 

     Bev and Opal were farmers’ wives but, Mother lived in town; Dad was Principal of the Jerome Jr. High School. The three of them seemed more like sisters than just friends. The husbands often would go with them to many of their performances and they became good friends too. The six of them enjoyed going to shows and dances, or just visiting. The Woolley's and Webster's had children my age and our families would get together for picnic's, we celebrated birthday's together and always the Fourth of July. I have wonderful memories of fun times with the Woolley's and Webster's. It was a sad time when we moved from Jerome to Pocatello in 1954. 

     They sang popular songs of the time or would make up words to popular music that would fit whatever occasion, like a tribute to someone. 
     Christmas time brings a memory to me of when The Trio recorded a record at the KEEP Radio Station; Fred Waring's arrangement of 'Twas the night Before Christmas' with Keith Johansen as the soloist.  In about 1978 Dad took the scratchy old 78' vinyl record and recorded it on a cassette tape. I just played it, you can still hear their voices through the scratches. Oh my, if that doesn't take me back to a happy warm place of almost sixty years ago. I wonder with the new technology today if the cassette can be made like new again? 
     My very favorite Christmas Song that Bev, Opal and Verona sang was 'Winter Wonderland.'     

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER!

A Tribute to Fred Cashmore Kidgell

Fred Cashmore Kidgell b 20 Dec 1871
 d 25 Nov 1939 Age 67

     Great-Uncle Fred died at the early age of sixty seven.   I really like this man and from this picture I can see where my father got his ears.  He died before I was born however, my older brother was four.  Did the family attend his funeral?  Grandmother Ethel? Aunt Louise? My father?  As I remember, Fred was one person that was talked about in my family.

In my research of G-Uncle Fred this is what I found I love about him;

• A hard worker; someone who kept busy all the time. 
• Once he was baptized in the LDS Church he was very devoted. 
• Provided a fun loving home for his children, his children's friends and grandchildren
• Could Cook wonderful Sunday Meals!
• Was a gardener 
• Could sing and play a banjo
• A good neighbor

 This story is from Lily Jane's life history;

"...........Fred, played the banjo and sang bass.  After they were married Lily Jane took lessons on the guitar. She got so she could play and sing with her husband.  They used to sing and play the Gay Nineties songs, such as 'Bicycle Built for Two, After the Ball was Over, and Take me Out to the Ballgame .'"  Their son, Fred Charles, wouldn't leave his father's banjo alone and he kept loosening the keys.  It was so hard to get it tuned up that [Fred] gave up playing the banjo so Lily Jane gave up playing the guitar."


From the life history of Fred:
     "On Friday night, November 17, 1939, Fred Kidgell went ward teaching.  Before he left every body was kidding him because he looked so good. [while visiting in one of the homes] his companion said to [Fred] how he didn't look very good and they went outside for some fresh air.  He walked from the house to the gate and stood by a big tree.  He had a heart attack and they took him home.  He lived just one week after that and died on 25 November 1939."


     "One of his neighbors talked at his funeral.  [He] said what a wonderful neighbor he had been.  He called the path between his home and Fred Kidgell's a 'friendship path.'"  This 'friendship path' had been there for years, even before this neighbor had moved there.  An elderly lady, Mrs. Westerburg, had lived in this home and for years the Kidgell's had taken a hot dinner to her every Sunday and holiday. 

     
     I'm sure Lily Jane was heart broken when her beloveded, devoted husband died.  She was left a widow for twenty three years. 

    Great Uncle Fred I will always remember you.  


Next; The last years of Lily Jane Bullock Kidgell