Personal Journal of Barbara Jean Mellor

BARBARA’S LIFE STORY

I was born in Brigham City, Utah on December 27, 1925. My parents are Robert Wilson and Hilda Rhodes Forrest and I was their third child, I had a brother, Bob, who was five and a half years older than I and a sister, Lela, who was a year and a half older. My twin brothers, Dee and Don were born four years later.

I had a very happy childhood with loving parents. The people who lived in Brigham City were just like family to me - they had great love and respect for my parents and therefore they helped each member of our family as we grew up. I especially remember the Mathias, Robinette and Pathakis families who were our immediate neighbors.

I would like to tell about my earliest memories of my grandparents. My childhood home was about two blocks West from where my Father grew up and his parents were living there at the time I was born. My Grandfather Forrest died when I was about one year old so I don’t have any recollection of him but I know that he was a prominent musician in Brigham City and many of the people in Brigham City told me how they remembered him playing the “bugle” at the cemetery for Memorial Day Services and also in his yard at home during the early evening hours.

I have very vivid memories of my Grandmother Forrest even though I was only six years old when she died. I used to spend a lot of time at her home and the things I remember are quite unusual for a child my age. She had her washing machine in the back of their home and it was always fun to go visit her when she was doing her laundry because she would let me turn the “wringer” handle. I can also remember hearing stones about how some people would get their fingers caught in the wringer and I was frightened of it. Her home always smelled of furniture polish - I don’t know what kind of polish they had in those days but she must have polished her furniture often. She was an immaculate housekeeper and I could never “track” dirt into her home or touch things without her permission. I can still see her sitting by her “phonograph” listening to her records and in those days you had to wind the phonograph to get it to play and compared to the beautiful stereo sounds we have today it wasn’t very good but of course she didn’t have anything else.

I loved their home - they had a large front and side yard and good neighbors. I don’t know when my Aunt Luceil and Uncle Bill Smith moved there - they could have been living there when my grandparents were alive but I don’t remember. I continued to go there after my grandparents died to be with my Aunt Luceil who was my Father’s sister and her husband, Uncle Bill. Aunt Luceil was very ‘fussy” but my Uncle Bill was a wonderful and fun man to be around. He would ALWAYS spank me on my birthdays - one spank for each year of my age. They moved to Ogden when I was still a child.

There were other members of my Father‘s family who lived in Brigham City during my childhood and they were always very good to me: Uncle Cliff & Aunt Rene who divorced and he married Aunt Helen; Uncle John and Aunt Kathryn;, Aunt Mess and Uncle Steve, Aunt Hatt and Uncle Real.

My Father was a very ambitions man and was more prosperous than his brothers and sisters. My Mother was always very gracious and willing to prepare food for others so when the family got together which was oft en it was at our home. I don’t remember being very close to my cousins in Brigham City - there were some my age but I wasn‘t close to them and I don’t know why. I do remember one cousin who was in a high position with the Brigham City police force. His name was Jack Johnson and I could never “park” with my boyfriends because he was always watching me.

I have very fond memories of my other Grandparents as well. My mother was a real beauty from Lehi and because she was so pretty and also the youngest in her family she was quite spoiled My Father always made certain we went to Lehi to visit her parents at least once a month. I remember so well that it was 90 miles from our home in Brigham City to my Grandparents’ home in Lehi and it took us all day. We would always stay at least two or three days. Their farm home was far from the comforts as we know them today but our entire family loved to go there. My sister, Lela, and I would completely redecorate Grandmother Rhodes’ home. She had a lot of crocheted “doilies” and we would put them al/over and wash and iron all the curtains and scrub the floors and it was always beautiful and clean when we left.

I was 12 years old when Grandpa Rhodes died and I was 15 years old when Grandma Rhodes died They always seemed VERY old to me and I never remember seeing them dressed in anything but working clothes. My Grandmother made the most delicious biscuits but I believe my Mother did most of the cooking when we visited them. I have the most vivid memories of my Grandmother Rhodes feeling my bare legs when I would visit them and then she would scold me for not wearing long heavy stockings especially in the colder weather - she was almost blind They spent a lot of time “sitting” when we were in their home but I never remember them saying any cross words and we could do anything we wanted. My Uncles Hugh and Jesse lived at home with them and took care of the big farm and one day they butchered a pig and brought the bladder in for us to use for a balloon.

My Grandparents in Lehi didn’t have indoor plumbing and the “outhouse” was a long way from their home so we used a “bucket” a lot of the time. They had a we//just north of their kitchen and it was fixed so the water would fill a large cabinet type area where they kept their milk and other perishables. They also fed pigs close by that area and we would save all the food scraps for them. Their home didn’t have any kind of central heating either so we would spend most of our time at the big kitchen table where their cooking stove kept us warm. There was one bedroom on the main floor and then three bedrooms upstairs. Their living room had a radio in it and we used to listen to Amos and Andy and other programs. They had a fireplace in the living room but I don ‘t remember how the upstairs rooms were heated. This home is still standing in Lehi and is owned by the “Robinsons”. It used to have a wooden rail fence around the yard and as children we would try to see who could walk all around it without falling off

I remember my cousins on the Rhodes side very well. Alta Rhodes Munns was about my age and we used to spend a lot of time together either at my home in Brigham City or in Lehi. I don ‘t remember going to her home in Garland very often. Alta came from a very large family and it was such a hard time in my 4fe to try to keep al/her brothers and sisters straight. They had a very wonderful family.

I like to compare my life as a child with the lives of my grandchildren. We didn’t have television or any of the kinds of entertainment in our homes as they do now. One of my favorite games in the Summertime was playing “Hop Scotch” and I used to play it in the street in front of my home from sunrise until sunset with my neighbor friends or my brothers and sisters. We also used to play “Jacks”. My Father saw to it that we spent a lot of time with music. Lela and I took piano lessons and my Father would sit with us for hours tapping out the time - they didn‘t have “metronomes” in those days. Lela and I were pretty good singers also. We had good harmonizing voices and were asked to sing at different things all over the State. I remember singing at a large Legionnaires Convention in Salt Lake one evening and I was so frightened that I “ducked” my head during the entire song - my Father scolded me for that. I used to get the giggles” often too when we would perform - Lela was much more sophisticated than I was.

One of the highlights of my days when I was a child was walking to the corner to meet my Father as he came home from work. He was a postal clerk all his life and the post office was about three blocks West from our home. I couldn‘t go any further than the corner but I was thrilled to stand at the corner and watch him as he walked the three blocks to meet me. Lela was more studious than I and also did more things in the home - I loved being outside. Lela was an outstanding musician and one of the few oboists in the entire state. I played the French Horn and carried that huge instrument to school every day.

My Mother was an excellent seamstress and made all the clothing for Lela and me. I didn’t buy any clothes until I was married and I have always said my inability to choose clothing wisely was due to the fact that I didn‘t have any experience as a young person - actually it is because I just don ‘t have any fashion sense. My Mother was always “sought after “for leadership callings in the church and in the community. She was recognized churchwide for her thirty years as Primary President. She was also very active in the Civic Improvement Club in Brigham City. My Father supported her in everything she did -she often traveled far in her callings.

I spent a lot of time with my neighbor girlfriends; Marie Pathakis, Rhoda Nelson and Maxine Johnson. Marie ‘s parents were Greek and I believe she was adopted but I’m not certain. I believe her Father ran a little candy store and we used to go there to buy penny candy. Marie was very pretty and very popular with the boys. There were several boys at her home one day and they each wanted to impress Marie. One of them swallowed a live mouse whole and I will never forget that. I don’t remember what happened after that but he covered the mouse with some kind of oil or butter and swallowed it. It still makes me sick when I think about it. The Pathakis family lived next door north of our home.

The Robinettes lived in the home South from us and they raised Rhoda and Maxine from childhood but they were not their natural daughters - they were probably relatives. Rhoda was about 17 years old and she went on a date with her boyfriend They were driving between Logan and Brigham City and he lost control of his car someway and it hit a railing Rhoda was decapitated My parents were alerted in the middle of the night and since our bedroom was next to the Robinette ‘s home I heard all the commotion and Lela and I got up and went outside and I remember how everyone was hysterical. That was a very sad time in our neighborhood Maxine was younger than Rhoda and I don‘t remember much about her.

Asel Robinette was the Father in the home and his wife ‘s name was Cora. They had a daughter whose name was Shelly and she was quite a bit younger than I was. My Father had built Lela and I a “doll house” in the back of our home and it adjoined the Robinette’s property. Shelley and I spent many hours in my doll house.

I would like to write about the things I remember best about my sister Lela. I don’t write this because of any ill feelings I have towards my parents but I honestly felt all my life that Lela was the favored one. She was the prettiest, the smartest and the most talented. She was also very interested in everything my parents did - she loved to sew and crochet with my Mother and she loved to garden and play musical instruments with my Father. There is a lot written in psychology books about the plight of middle children and I fell into that category although my parents did everything they possibly could to make me feel equally loved

I remember the ear aches Lela used to have. Mother would put hydrogen peroxide in her ears and I liked to watch it “bubble “. Lela was diagnosed with leukemia when she was about 14 or 15 years old and since I was about 18 months younger I would have been about 12. This absolutely devastated my parents. Lela had not been feeling very well so Mother took her to our family doctor, Dr. Pearse and even though leukemia was a very rare disease at that lime he suspected that and took the necessary blood tests. They had to wait a long time to get the results and even though they didn’t ever discuss this problem with us I remember Mother being very downcast.

Mother and Daddy sought the very best medical care that was possible for Lela. I know they would have sold everything they had to provide this for her. Lela’s leukemia doctor was at the McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden and she had to go there at least once a week for treatments. The doctors at the hospital were able to get her an appointment with a very famous Dr. Schelm who was experimenting with radiation treatments for leukemia. His practice was in California. My parents took Lela and I to California so he could work with her. We had a lovely housekeeping apartment and Mother prepared all our meals while we stayed there. I remember how impressed we were with all the fresh vegetables that were available so it must have been during the Winter months - we had brussell sprouts almost every meal. Lela felt pretty good while we were there and we had a lot of fun on the beach. Mother and Daddy bought each one of us a gold watch for a souvenir of our trip and I still have that watch.

The treatments Lela received in California probably prolonged her life for a little while but they couldn‘t cure her disease. She had the lead in the senior class school play but they had an understudy for her in the event she wouldn‘t be able to perform. She died a couple weeks before she would have graduated and she couldn’t be in the play. There are many things I remember about her illness but one of the most significant was the way her spleen swelled at certain times. She was in the Bee File Club in high school and Mother fixed the skirt of her uniform so she could let it out during those times. I also remember the many kindnesses expressed to our family during Lela’s illness and death. Harold Nelson was our Bishop and he practically lived at our home giving our family his love and support. The doctors and nurses at McKay Dee Hospital adopted our family and did things for us that were unbelievable. I remember one nurse who went on a trip someplace and she brought Lela and I each a darling lapel mosaic pin back.

The kind of leukemia that Lila had is now curable, I believe. My Mother gave her a blood transfusion shortly before her death in the hopes that it would help but it didn‘t. One of the things they did in those days that they don’t do now is to have the body of the deceased put into their homes for viewing I will never forget the day they brought Lela ‘s casket to our home. My high school friends were all there and we stood around the casket crying and hugging each other. It was kinda’ eery thinking back on it because I believe it was there for several days.

The dearest friend that I will ever have stayed close by my side to give me support. Ellen Mae Munns tells me now that her Mother would always say to her “You must go he with Barbara Jean” and even though she didn’t want to she would be there to help me. I spent many, many hours at the Munns’ home playing with Ellen Mae, Gene and C.R. and they were very good to me.

Now, I want to tell about the things I remember about my oldest brother, Bob. He was always tall - I don’t remember him as a small boy. He was very sweet, shy and quiet. He spent most of his Summers at my Grandparents’ home in Lehi and he loved being on the farm and working with Uncle Jesse and Uncle Hugh. They gave him a horse to call his own and his name was Ginger. Bob was a good worker and they needed him so it was a good arrangement. He did things like thinning sugar beets, planting and digging potatoes and pitching hay. I believe they had cattle too but I’m not sure. My Grandparents had a lot of property in West Canyon and Bob liked to ride his horse there. He went to Weber State College in Ogden after his High School graduation and one of the things that made my Mother feel so sad about after his death was how he used to ask for a “nickel” so he could have a candy bar while at school. He rode the bus from Brigham City to Ogden each day.

World War II started in 1942 and Bob was called into service. He went into the aviation training for the Army and earned the status as Flight Officer for C-47 airplanes. The Army gave him a furlough to come home for Lela‘s funeral and I want to cry as I look at the pictures I have of him with my Mother after the funeral - it is SO sad We moved to a home on 6th East after Lela died and our home was on quite a large piece of property. When Bob left after the funeral he “buzzed” our home in his airplane and we all waved to him from the backyard We had a lot of time to talk while he was home for those few days and I remember him asking me to try to get “Neida to write to him”. Nelda Facer was a young woman who lived in Willard and she was beautiful - Bob really liked her although I don’t believe they ever dated He met a girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana while he was in the service whose name was Pat Decker. We found out later from her that they planned to marry after the war. She visited us quite often and would stay a long time. I remember her flawless complexion and I found out she washed her face with soap every night so I started doing that.

Bushnell General Hospital was a huge Army Hospital in Brigham City. It was built to care for the amputee patients from the war and had a very large impact on our small town. My Mother worked in the Post Exchange as a clerk and I worked in the office. My parents invited the patients to our home very often to have dinner and they stayed close to them even after they left the hospital. I will never forget one day looking out my office window and seeing my Father and Bishop Nelson walking down the hail. I kept watching them and saw them bring my Mother out of the Post Exchange (PX) and she was crying. They then came and asked me to join them. A telegram had been sent to our home that said, “Flight Officer Robert Forrest Missing In Action in the South Pacific”. I don’t remember how many days went by before they received another telegram saying he had been killed.

I don’t remember if they had a funeral for Bob at that time. They didn’t recover his body for several years and when they brought it home from the South Pacific I was married and living in Fort Collins. They had a Memorial Service for him when his body was returned and it was very emotional for my parents. I traveled by bus from Fort Collins to Brigham City to attend it.

I would now like to tell about my twin brothers, Dee and Don. They were four years younger than I but we had many wonderful times together. I always thought they were spoiled and they always thought I was spoiled Don was very precocious and excelled in sports, music and school. He also had a winning personality and therefore had a lot of friends - girls and boys. Dee was less talented and was somewhat awkward in sports and I’m sure it was hard for him to be compared to Don. Dee was very sweet, kind and sensitive but because he tried to cover up his shortcomings he often came across as gruff and boisterous. My Father always had them active in sports, particularly baseball and he also took them hunting and fishing a lot. I remember many times when they went “goose and duck hunting”. My family relied a lot on the food they received from hunting and fishing trips.

Don married Cheryl Evans who lived across the street from my parents’ home in Brigham City. She didn’t grow up there but moved there when she was in her teens and she and Don met and dated. She was from Tremonton. Cheryl was a beautiful young woman and she was very good to my mother. Don was a school teacher in Murray where they made their home and raised a family of four boys and one daughter. Don excelled in mathematics and his children inherited this from him - his daughter is a mathematician and his sons are engineers and accountants. Don and Cheryl are showing their “true colors” as they help their daughter rear her son who is autistic. He requires full time attention and they care for him whenever they can. They also help their other grandchildren and Cheryl prepares Sunday dinner for their family every Sunday.

Dee married Judy Jusche. They met while working at Thiokol. Judy was from Wisconsin and from German Ancestry. Judy was a disappointment to my parents. She was very demanding of Dee and he worked night and day to try to provide all the things she wanted. They raised a family of eight children in a home that was very close to my parents’ home. My Father gave each one of his children a piece of land so they could build a home by them but Dee was the only one who did Don and I sold our lots. My Mother became ill during the time when Dee & Judys’ children were young and I will always believe Judy’s behavior was a contributing factor to her illness. Their children spent a lot of time with Grandmother and Grandfather Forrest and I’m sure their influence was greatly felt in their lives. Dee passed away at the age of 66 from heart problems and Judy remarried soon after. Dee was always very, very sweet and understanding to Lynn and me and I was greatly saddened by his death.
Now I would like to tell about how Lynn and I met and our marriage. We were both in our Senior Years at Utah State University in Logan, Utah and we were very involved in student body activities. Lynn was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity and I was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. One of Lynn’s good friends, Bill Boyington, was married to one of my sorority sisters, Beverly Trripp. Bill and Bev decided they would get us together because they felt we were “meant for each Other”. Lynn called me and we arranged to meet in “Old Main” under the clock at a certain time. I will never forget meeting him and having him ask me for dates. I was dating several other young men at the time but I soon cancelled all my other dates and forgot my other boy friends. Lynn was serious about finishing school and really wasn’t dating a lot at that time. I remember thinking he was very “rich” because he would take me to Salt Lake to a dance and if it turned out to be too crowded or not much fun he would take me to another dancing place and the admission prices were expensive for those days. I was President of my Sorority during that time and the National President made a visit to our chapter - she could tell I had my mind on other things and I know she was quite disillusioned with me.

We dated sporadically through the rest of the year and I was madly in love. Lynn proposed to me in a very unromantic way. We were on the campus at night close by the amphitheatre and he held out his fraternity pin and said, “Do you want this”? He had already gone over to Brigham City to ask my Father’s permission and I had talked to both Mother and Daddy so I knew he was going to propose. This was just before graduation. I had definite ideas about what I wanted in an engagement ring but Lynn never did ask me. He chose a solitaire diamond in a gold setting and when he showed it to my Mother she said, “Oh Barbara won’t like that - she wants a diamond set in platinum with small diamonds on either side”. I know my Mother was looking after my best interests but it hurt Lynn’s feelings and he didn’t ever forget it. Lynn got the kind of ring for me that my Mother described to him and I have loved it.

Our graduation day was very special. Lynn’s parents came from Manti to attend it and my parents had a very nice garden party for us that afternoon in Brigham City. It was a good way for us to become acquainted. My folks always felt disappointed that I didn’t marry Del Holmgren from Bear River. We had dated all through High School but he married before I did and we could never have been happy together.

Shortly after graduation Lynn left to go to Fort Collins, Colorado where he had accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Agronomy at Colorado A & M College. This was a very high honor for Lynn and he was thrilled. We had set the date for our marriage for October 1St and I accepted a kindergarten teaching position in Tooele, Utah for the Summer. I still remember how very unhappy I was in Tooele and it would have been far better for us to get married right after graduation. I didn’t have much of a trousseau and Lynn didn’t have any money so we felt we needed to work and save some money. I lived in Tooele with another girl I had graduated with and we taught school together. We lived as boarders in some people’s home and my parents let me come home every weekend so I wouldn’t be so homesick. My kindergarten job didn’t last the entire Summer so when it was over I went home and worked in the cannery canning tomatoes and I hated that.

My Aunt Helen Forrest made my wedding dress and I thought it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was made of “Pan Satin” and had a long train. I didn’t know you couldn’t wear long trains in the temple and when I got there the workers started to pin it up and I looked like Humpty Dumpty’s wife all through the temple. I had beautiful clothes for my trousseau and felt very fashionable. The styles had been average length up to that time but then they changed to longer lengths. My mother’s friends who were in the retailing business saw to it that I had the very latest in fashion. When we moved to Fort Collins I felt really “classy” and loved going to the college staff functions with Lynn.

When we went to the temple we left my home in Brigham City about 5 o’clock in the morning to get to Logan early. I don’t remember where Lynn’s parents stayed that night but it was probably in Salt Lake with Ramona so they would have had to leave there much earlier than 5 o’clock. We were in the temple until about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and after that Lynn’s parents hosted a wedding luncheon for us at the “Bluebird Cafe” in Logan.

We got back in Brigham City later that afternoon and prepared for our reception to be held at my parent’s home. It was a beautiful reception and most of the residents in Brigham City came to it and my sorority sisters from Logan came to serenade us after it was over. My Aunt Helen and other relatives had prepared alot of food for everyone to eat before the reception but my Mother forgot to tell us about it so we were all very hungry. My home had an apartment in the downstairs and the food was all down there in the kitchen. We went to Ogden where Lynn had made reservations in a motel. His Uncle Winston Crawford had found out where the motel was and had it decorated properly with honey on the toilet seat, etc.

We received many lovely wedding gifts and I insisted on taking as many as we could with us when we left to go to Fort Collins. Lynn put my cedar chest on the floor of the back seat and it was filled with lovely things like hand knitted lace on sheets and pillow cases and many hand embroidered dish towels, vases, vases, vases and other impractical things. That cedar chest has followed us every place we have ever lived and has great sentimental value for me.

Lynn had an old Studebaker for a car. He always told the story about how his Father tried to get him to invest his Navy Savings in some cattle and practically promised him that he could double his money if he would do that. Lynn had his heart set on this old Studebaker so he used his money for that instead - he always regretted that decision. The weather driving to Colorado in October was very unpredictable and we ran into some cold storms going over the high, high mountains but we finally made it.

Lynn had rented an apartment for us in Fort Collins in an old maid’s home. This lady’s name was Alice Curtis and she was a former English professor at Colorado A & M but she was old and she cared for her sister who was mentally deranged. We had a living room, a bedroom and bath at the side of her living quarters and then Lynn had converted an old storage room in the basement into a kitchen. We didn’t have a refrigerator and the stove was more like a camping stove and we had a little shelf that pulled out from the wall that was our table. I tried to be a good wife but I was so homesick and the apartment was a far cry from what I had looked forward to. I cried a lot!!! The deranged woman scared me and Miss Curtis had made a bargain with Lynn that the rent would be cheap if he would shovel the snow from her corner lot and also weed her garden. He didn’t always have time to do this so I would have to do it and Miss Curtis didn’t like that. One time Lynn cut down all her holly hocks and she was very upset. Another time I let the car roll down and hit her garage door and Lynn worked like everything to fix it before she found out about it.

We lived in this apartment for over a year - it was on Locust Street. My parents and Dee & Don came to see us and when they found out we didn’t have a refrigerator they loaned us the money they had saved for their trip so we could buy one. I always felt bad about that because Dee & Don had planned to do other things like buying souvenirs but they loaned us their money instead. We had used an icebox and I thought I was in heaven to be able to buy ice cream and keep it frozen.

Ann was born on December 3,1948 in the Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. I had never been around little babies and I was absolutely terrified. My Mother came out to help me and I was so grateful. Ann cried a lot and didn’t gain weight like she was supposed to. The pediatrician we were taking her to said to let her cry and keep her on a schedule and not feed her in between times. I still remember sitting on the steps going down to the kitchen in that dumb apartment and covering my ears so I couldn’t hear her crying. She would cry for so long that when I went to feed her she was so exhausted she fell asleep. Miss Curtis had never been married and didn’t know anything about babies but she was very concerned that she might get too cold. The thermostat was in her side of the house - she would close all her heating vents and then turn the heat up to about 90 degrees. I awakened one morning and found Ann with about ten blankets on her and the temperature in our bedroom at 90. It was a miracle that Ann survived but she did and she was very, very precocious. She walked at 8 months and knew all the nursery rhymes by the time she was 18 months.

I was so thrilled when we were able to move into the Veteran’s Housing on the campus. We lived in half of a Quonset Hut - they cut them down the middle lengthwise so we could only stand up in half of it. Lynn was working on a Master’s Degree and we were with other students and their wives and families and it was a very happy situation. I had washed all Ann’s diapers and baby clothing in the bathtub in our apartment on Locust Street so it was a real “step up” to have washing machine facilities even though they were shared by everyone in the housing village and we had to wait our turn. We didn’t have dryers at that time so we had a little clothesline put up by our Quonset hut and it was wonderful. There was a little girl about five or six years older than Ann who lived across the street and she loved to play with Ann and she was a real help in keeping Ann out of the street.

Lynn received his Master’s Degree in 1950 and he decided to go on for his Ph.D. He applied to many different colleges and the one that was the most respected in his field of soil chemistry and plant physiology was North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. It seemed like we were going to outer space to go that far and as I think back on it we were very brave and probably very dumb. We packed up the few belongings we had and bought a “one-wheeler trailer” to put everything in. We left cool Colorado in the Summer and started on our journey to the South where there was unbearable heat. We didn’t know what a hazardous thing a one-wheeler trailer was - it hit everything in the middle of the roads and soon the wheel was wined. It broke down on a highway about 300 miles from Raleigh and it was on a Sunday. Lynn unhooked it from the car and we went to a service station. It was closed because it was Sunday but Lynn talked the owner into letting him use some of his tools and he finally fixed it and we went on our way. The owner of the shop charged us so much money that by the time we got to Raleigh we only had a few dollars.

We had some of our friends rent us an apartment in Raleigh so we would have a place to stay when we got there. We had paid on this apartment for many months but it was a real disgrace. It was just a bedroom in a lady’s home and we shared the kitchen with her. We found out after we had been there a few months that she was a prostitute. We didn’t have any money so I went to work as a “short order cook” at a truck stop in Raleigh and I worked all night. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t work all night and then take care of Ann during the day but this was short lived because I couldn’t do it. The manager of the truck stop came to our apartment and offered me all kinds of different hours if I would stay and work so I did for about two months. Lynn always said that I worked just long enough to pay for my uniforms. Lynn tried to work to make money by clearing some land for a man close to our apartment and he was just eaten up with chiggers – no one bothered to warn us about them.

We were thrilled when we finally were able to move into UK-8 on campus. These were little buildings that were used during the war and they had been bought from the United Kingdom. This was a very happy time in our lives. We had wonderful student neighbors and Ann had friends and a place to play. I decided to start a “Nursery School” for the children of the students. We arranged to rent a little building that was on a little hill apart from the student housing and another mother and I took care of 20 -25 children from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. We fixed and fed them lunch and taught them all kinds of things. I have never worked harder in my life and I made about $100 per month but it was fun and Ann loved it.

Jean was born in North Carolina on April 16,1952. We had a doctor who would take student’s wives and care for them if they didn’t gain too much weight. I was so frightened that I would gain too much that for several days before my appointment to see him I wouldn’t eat or drink anything and then after my appointment I would stop at a bakery and buy “cream horns” and eat about a dozen. When Jean’s permanent teeth came in she had a “popcorn” mark on one of them and I always attributed that to those cream horns. Jean was an absolutely delightful little baby - she never cried and was so easy to take care of.

Lynn won all kinds of academic honors while he was a student at North Carolina State including the E. G. Moss Fellowship. This fellowship had never been offered before because they couldn’t find a student they felt was qualified to receive it. His major professor was world-renowned in the field of plant physiology – Professor Anderson - and he was very complimentary about Lynn.

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