Jeny Playing Catch Up

I think everyone is just pretty busy and that's why we didn't get any responses, but since I jsust sit around most afternoons trying to think of things to do to keep me busy, I'll give both of these a try.

The oldest relatives I remember are either Grandma Margie or Grandpa Black. I don't know which was older, they both were just super old.

I remember visiting Grandpa Black, but the memories are a bit fuzzy (since I was so young, not because I'm getting old!). He seemed really skinny, and was very kind. I remember playing hide and seek in his house. I think Lori and Kristi suggested this game so I would go hide and they wouldn't have to play with me anymore. I hid in a trunk at the end of a bed, and once inside I couldn't get out. I do remember feeling a lot of panic. I banged on the top, and I'm sure I was crying. It seemed like forever before someone came to rescue me, and that someone was grandpa Black. He was the only one that cared that I was stuck, because he loved me.

I went on a trip to Montana with Grandpa Breckenridge when I was a young teen to visit Grandma Margie. Supposedly I look a lot like her, but when I saw her I did not want to look like her. She was old and in the hospital with tubes everywhere. She had all these super old and crazy family people around her, and one of them kept telling Grandpa that I needed to leave because I would get Grandma sick. I think that was Aunt Ida. I wasn't sick, Ida was just a bit . . . eccentric. Grandma Margie didn't really say much, and died very soon after we got home from that trip.


I don't know what to say about how things have changed since I was a kid because everything has. We used to walk to school with our legs. The only time we got a ride was when Mom heard a siren and thought we were dead on the side of the road. We walked home from school and went to Primary on Wednesday after school. Sacrament Meeting was in the evening on Sundays, a few hours after Sunday School. We didn't have computers or video games - we actually played outside a lot. We even played outside when it was raining sometimes. I loved that! We used to sleep outside sometimes, and I don't know if parents now would even consider that. Too many weirdos. We had about 5 channels on the TV, and 2 of them were public television, so we didn't ever watch them. We changed the channels on the TV by getting up, going to the TV and turning the knob. The first time we had a remote, it came with a very long wire attached to the VCR. I remember for about the first 2 years of school I always wore a dress, and so did everyone else. We got chicken pox, Kristi got measles and I got the mumps, and we survived. Mom didn't work outside of the home, and neither did most other moms. That was very comforting to me. Swear words included "butt", "shut-up", and "stupid". I didn't really know there were other bad words until I hit junior high. We very rarely ate out. In fact, I remember visiting McDonalds as a family and being a little embarrassed because Dad made a bit of a fuss about how much it cost, but it was a real adventure!