Staying Put

Saying goodbye to Marion and Evelyn was made easier by the fact that I would return to Preston at the end of the week.  Carma and Sylvan brought the entree for Sunday's lunch.  Evelyn's really green, sweet pickles added a bit of nostalgia to the table.  There was pie for dessert.  That made me laugh.  Evelyn had mentioned how much Marion was always wanting a piece of pie.  Worried about his nutrition, she asked his doctor about it.  "Let him have pie," the doctor said.  Then when the doctor went into the exam room to see Marion, she asked him how he was.  Marion answered, "I want to get the hell out of here and go home!"  She came out of the exam room, laughing and said to Evelyn, "Better give him two pieces of pie!"

It was a peaceful drive from Preston to Chubbuck with Carma at the wheel and Sylvan pointing out some of the sights and offering background information.  I didn't recognize much of downtown or even their neighborhood.  When I said that out loud, Carma reminded me that most of what I was seeing was not there the last time I was in town.  My plan for Jessi and I was to stay put at the Morgan's for most of the week.  When Jessica and her siblings were in elementary school, Carma and Sylvan took care of them at our house in Sparks while I recuperated from surgery.  Jessi wondered aloud, "Do you think Aunt Carma will be waking me up by singing 'Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning', like she use to?"

Monday morning, while Jess and I were in Chubbuck, Idaho, Max Bailie was getting ready for his first day of kindergarten, in Sparks, Nevada.  His brother, Gage, would spend his first day as a 5th grader.  I hadn't missed a 'First Day of School' event, ever.  Jess and I were up early to Skipe with those boys before they left for school.  Technology is awesome!

Sylvan's accomplished paintings hung on the walls.  Add to that Carma's beautiful crocheting and quilts and together, they had made their home comfortable and welcoming with their handiwork.  He ground fresh flour, mixing soft and hard grains, for Carma's whole wheat bread, something I really appreciated.  I ate that delicious bread toasted for breakfast every morning and plain or with butter any time I could find a reason to do so...or just because!  There was no resisting it or even being reasonable about the amounts consumed!

Throughout the week, some nieces and nephews and their kids came by.  Doug and Tessie were sanding Sylvan's deck but Doug took one night off to go fishing, then came walking in after sundown with a big grin, bringing fresh trout still wet from the fishing hole.  It had been so long since Jess or I had eaten fish that fresh that we had to have a little tutoring in how to fillet it on our plates!  One of his daughters included Jess in plans a couple of times during the week for movies and fun with friends.

Richard spent an afternoon sharing memories.  He's a hugger, that one!  His wife, Sandra and all the kids came by another evening so we could get acquainted.  His older daughters came by to keep the lawns mowed.

It was great to see Kay and meet her daughter.  Marion and his family were living at the farm when Kay was a teenager.  I usually packed my sewing machine along whenever I went to Weston to stay for a few days and sewed for Mother and for Kay.  I made most of her back-to-school wardrobe during a couple of those summer visits.  Remembering the story of helping her decorate her first apartment and driving her and a girl friend to California when my kids were young had us laughing all over again.

After supper, we gathered 'round the wide-screen TV to watch Olympic coverage or lingered at the kitchen table for a rousing Phase 10 competition.  I'm no good at games or cards but by some lucky happenstance, I won one game.  Jess and Syl got competitive.  Those chocolate chip cookies in the evening were the best!

Karen and Dale Rohner drove in from Malad early in the week for lunch, at Carma's invitation.   Karen and I met years ago while working for Elwood Heiner in his Salon in Salt Lake City.  We both married and continued to meet now and then with our husbands and families or to give each other a good hair cut.  Then life got in our way and we lost touch with each other.  She and Dale seemed genuinely delighted to see me.

Tom, Jenn, and their boys drove into the driveway Thursday evening, just about the time the lasagna was coming out of the oven.  Tom LOVES Carma's lasagna!  Jenn's boys met new cousins and played board games with Aunt Carma well into Friday.

Homemade Choke Cherry syrup came to the table to sweeten the sourdough pancakes for our final breakfast together.  I remembered driving Mother up Weston canyon to pick those wild fruits.  Sylvan had grown the fruit in his own back yard that was used for the syrup we enjoyed that morning.

We had plans to all drive back to Weston together for the Whitney reunion on Saturday.  Carma made her fabulous pasta salad to contribute to the pot luck in the park.  But Sylvan wasn't feeling well.  We knew already that Marion wasn't well enough to attend.  Jess and I had reached the turn-around spot in my search for 'Home'.  We were on the move again, the Bailies, Jess, and I ... and the pasta salad.

Our drive back to Weston took us along a different route past more farm land and through a beautiful, shallow canyon.   Soon, Tom was driving the West Side Highway.  Jenn and I both said as we came around the bend, "Slow down or you'll miss the town!"  Tom thought we were kidding!

Some of the Greenes had arrived at Weston's park, already--Janet, Rayola, Ross, Jarvis, Denton and his wife, Helen.  I met a couple of next-generation family members whose names I've misplaced temporarily.   My cousin, Leslie Shoupe--Aunt Flo's daughter--had copies of a photo pedigree chart for everyone that included pictures of Peg Leg Sam, his wife and all eleven of their children and their spouses.  This was a collection I'd not seen before.  Great to see my cousin, Arlene--Uncle Well's daughter--and her husband.  She and I found each other a few years ago on e-mail.  One of her granddaughters was named Miss Idaho a few months ago.  Must be that good Whitney DNA.  This was but a small group of my mother's relatives from the Whitney line but be there many or a few, it felt important to share handshakes, hugs, and family stories again.

The evening was lovely, as it can be when sun sets over farmland.  Big J's in Preston was a little less crowded with fewer rodeo folks in town.  Jess and I were curious about the building where the sign, "Scrapbooking", hung in the window.  That turned out to be just one, very small, room crammed with tons of amenities for a 'scrapper'.  I found a couple of 'Idaho' sticker pages to add to my collection, just in case I ever made time to complete a scrapbook in my lifetime.  In two steps, I was again in the hallway and ask a woman where I could pay for my purchase.  She looked like a TV sitcom character,   standing there behind what looked like a counter that had been built across another open doorway.  She took my cash while she was barking out a pizza order to someone unseen and calling out a pick-up name and number of a freshly, baked pie to the couple seated just inside yet another doorway, the unmistakable sights and smells of a pizza dive escaping through the opening--a couple of small tables covered with red-checkered cloths, cheese dripping and stringing, and a heavy scent of sauce, spice, and sausage.  What a combination in one tiny building!  Outside, a driveway separated this re-purposed red-brick home from Big J's.  As we stepped up to give our order at J's, the same woman who had just taken my money next door a few minutes before, was taking an order behind the J's counter, then came out to deliver a tray of  food to a customer.  We all did a double take!  Talk about multi-tasking!

Marion and Evelyn were both feeling poorly when the girls and I visited with them on our first pass through Preston.  He didn't acknowledge that he knew who I was or engage with any of us, at all.  What a surprise it was then when we came again, that he played with Jenn's boys as he sat in his chair, then stood and moved away from his chair, teasing and playing a bit more with them.  Evelyn was stunned, saying, "He hasn't moved out of his chair in five years, even to get himself a glass of water!"  He was very animated during the time we were there and had hugs for everyone when we left.

Vicki's familiar chocolate chip cookies awaited us, sitting on the small table just inside the entrance at the Rocky Mountain Red Brick Inn.  I think we were the only ones there that night since the rodeo crowds had come and gone.  The smell of breakfast had us up early on Sunday morning.  My visiting appointments were not scheduled to begin until just after noon so we had time to enjoy one more leisurely, home-cooked Vicki Peacock meal, served with much variety and finesse.  We said our final goodbyes to our new friend, and to our family.  The good news was that Marion had slept well and appeared none the worse after our visit.

Tom's impression of 'Small Farming Towns, USA' was a bit roughed up around the edges when, on Sunday morning, he could not get gas, leaving Preston.  It was Sunday morning.  Everything was closed.  This was not Nevada where something--almost everything--is always open 24-7!

To read the account of the final day of my grand adventure in search of 'Home', click on the blog entitled: Mountain Home .