October 17, 1999 Farmington, Utah

The big news this week is about Russell! I know you have all heard that he broke his leg during football practice one day last week. I was just sick all over when I heard about it but ANNIE has been keeping me informed and he is doing really good and expects to play in the final games - I kinda' hope he changes his mind though. He is almost doing tricks on his crutches and I hope he doesn't break the other leg. I watched on the news Friday night and Timpview won their game that night so I'm sure they will be in the playoffs. What a disappointment Russ when you have practiced so much and YOU ARE SO GOOD!!! Annie - why do your messages come through with blue ink? IT IS SO GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU OFTEN. I REALLY want to come to your Young Women's fund raiser Christmas party at the Coleman's and bring Ellen Mae and Margaret but I will have to find out how work goes and if they are free. I hope you will tell Janet Lee that Jeannie and I LOVED her talk at my Stake Women's Conference yesterday. She was the keynote speaker and just did a fabulous job - using very few notes and she spoke for about an hour. We went up to say "hello" to her after it was over and we told her who we were and she said, "My Christie thinks Ann should have been her mother". I was surprised at how thin she is - as you say, SHE LOOKS GREAT!!!

JOHN - I hope you have had a WONDERFUL time in Moab this weekend. John's friend, Reid Folsom, came from Washington State where he is practicing dentistry, and they were going bicycling in Moab. Reid is a favorite of mine - he was a high school friend of Johns in Billings. I had an e-mail from David Taylor with some great news. He has just accepted a position with AT&T Broadband Services as their National Sales Manager and he starts this new job tomorrow. He will be involved with Internet/Cable Broadcast and Various Services from AT&T and is similar to the job he had with Fox many years ago. He is THRILLED.

The Weinerts had a wonderful time in New York last weekend - they got to see three Broadway Plays; Cats, Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King. JEANNIE said she had to stand in line for three hours to get tickets for The Lion King but it was worth it. They also got to go into the "Today" show broadcast and saw Katie Couric.

The Bob Mellors had a good time at Sun Valley. Bob and Michael only stayed one night but Claire and the others stayed all weekend. BOB came over last Sunday night and visited for awhile. He took tonsils out of my neighbor's granddaughter on Wednesday and I always hear such good reports about him. This morning in church a lady came up to me and said "there is a Dr. Mellor in the medical offices in Layton - do you know him?" I am missing Brett's soccer games because of my work and that makes me sad.

ROY AND PATRICE - John loves your home and he had such a good time with Emily, Timothy and Jesse. He said that Sammie is doing good and she has "her place" in their kitchen - sounds to me like they are doing a good training job. He didn't make connections with our church meetings and I wish Chris Jordin would have done a better job of getting the times for him. Joy called me and said she was disappointed to not see him - I haven't heard from Chris and I'll bet she is a bit embarrassed!!!

Chris and Wayne came on Monday morning and stayed until Wednesday. They are very sweet friends and I enjoyed their visit. They brought all the ingredients to make Wayne's famous "Gumbo" and he wanted the Utah families to have it because they make it for Roy and Patrice when they visit in Gulf Shores.- I have some for John and Ann in my freezer. It is DELICIOUS!!! They were on their way to Washington where Wayne will go pheasant hunting. They both look exactly the same as they did twenty years ago. They brought pictures of their family and it was SO good to see them - their granddaughter, Jamie, will get her occupational therapy degree this Spring. Their son, Rick and his wife Linda, came back from Florida to live in Conway and they have a sweet family. I took them to the "Willard Fruit and Vegetable" place and I have never seen so many different kinds of squash. - they really enjoyed that. We had beautiful weather while they were here. Bob came over to visit with them one night and that REALLY pleased them!!!

ZCMI has been sold to the May company as all of you in Utah already know. The Layton Hills Mall where I work won the competition for the big Anniversary Sale a couple weeks ago so they honored the employees with a breakfast at the Oakridge Country Club. I declined their invitation but I heard from other employees who went that the 'BIG WIG' Mr. Madsen was there and he announced the sale. The church wouldn't sell it unless they agreed to keep the big downtown store closed on Sundays and I believe it will also keep the name of ZCMI. I had heard that Pres. Hinckley wanted to keep the area around Temple Square as much the same as it has always been but the other stores in the ZCMI Center have been open on Sundays as well as Nordstroms and the other stores in that center so he is fighting a losing battle. I don't know how that will affect my job but it won't really matter to me. You all know that I don't have to work. I REALLY enjoy what I am doing but the new managers will have their own definite ideas and hiring a 74 year old woman might not be one of them. The church is very kind to old people but business is business!!!

I think it will be exciting to have the May Company come into Utah. It has been fun for me to see the trends that are going on in the world today - many, many women are buying their clothing from catalogs and on the internet and that has changed the department stores so much. I have heard they won't have a toy department anymore and I'm sure many other things will change. They have lost six million dollars so far this year and nine million last year. My neighbor, Margaret, has beautiful clothes and she told me that she shops through catalogs most of the time and I know that Ellen Mae does.

I'll have to tell you something funny that happened to me. Yesterday when I went to take my car keys out of the lock they just wouldn't come - I tried everything!!! Well - I said something to one of the women in my ward this morning so she got my neighbor, Ray Tenhoeve, to come to my condo to help me. I felt SO SILLY. It took him one minute to take them out and hand them to me - he said, "Barbara, you have to turn them to 'lock' before they will come out". I have taken them out at least a million times but I guess yesterday and this morning I just didn't turn them far enough. This ranks up with having to take my garage door opener to the electronic department at K-Mart to have him change the battery - since it had those little wires on it I thought it would be very difficult and he just unsnapped the battery and put a new one in. I'm just grateful I didn't drive to the Subaru place and the garage door opener place to have them work with me - Ha!!!