Red Steer Drive-in

 Someone from my hometown posted this picture of a Red Steer cup, and boy, was it a blast from the past!  I loved the Red Steer drive in as a teenager.  After I got a drivers license (at age 14), my dad would often send me to the Red Steer to get food for dinner.  The finger steaks were out of this world good- always tender and delicious. 

 My friend, Janis and I would go there and always get the same thing: grilled hot dogs with mayonnaise, tomatoes, and ketchup on them.  They were so good.  I wonder if Red Steer is still in business?

I Think That's My Dad!

 Ken was reading the book Saints at War.  It is stories of Latter-Day Saints that have fought in wars.  He read about a special conference held for Latter-Day Saint soldiers in Okinawa in 1945.  The story was accompanied by a picture of the large gathering.  He looked at it and exclaimed, "I think that's my dad!"  His father, Lavar Hinton, was stationed on Ie Shima island at that time.  Latter-Day saint soldiers from the islands all around were transported by boat to this conference.  Ken vaguely remembered reading in his dad's journal about him attending this conference.

The drawn line points to who we think is Lavar.

Ken then went to Lavar's journal and found the entry.  A man named Jack Lemmon is mentioned in the journal.  Jack was also from Hurricane.  We now serve in the temple with Jack's son Jim, who is also a sealer.  We are so glad both men were preserved in this war.

Wizard of Oz

 

YES!  The yearly showing of the Wizard of Oz was a much-anticipated annual event.  We had a black and white television, but our neighbors, the Blackers owned a large furniture and appliance store.  They had one of the first color TVs.  They invited us to come over and watch it in color!  Oh, that was exciting.  I can so vividly remember gathering around their tv in their den and enjoying that great movie.

Man on the Moon

 

Hands Across America

 I remember this day.  Do you?

Blast from the Past

 This picture of a color wheel is certainly a blast from the past for me.  As I was growing up, at Christmastime we always put up an aluminum tree in the living room window and set up a color wheel just like this to shine on the tree and rotate the colors.  It looked so beautiful in the window and is a big part of my Christmas memories.

We had a live green tree in the back family room where we celebrated Christmas:

Reconnecting With Amanda

Years ago, when our kids were in Primary, a family moved in next door to us- the Pattersons.  Their only child was a girl named Amanda.  She was in age between our oldest and 2nd oldest daughters.  They were not members of our church.  The girls invited her to Primary and she started attending every week.  We also invited her to attend our Family Home Evenings on Monday nights.  She attended every week.  We worked her into our Family Home Evening chart rotation and she faithfully took her turn at saying the prayer, leading the singing, teaching the lesson, presenting a talent, and providing the treats.  Her favorite was to present a talent.  Soon, she wanted to have the missionary discussions, which she had in our home.  She asked Ken to baptize her.  It was a special day.

A couple of years later, her mother, Penny wanted to take the discussions and, again, she had them in our home, or we went to hers to sit in as the missionaries taught her.   Ken also baptized Penny a short time later.  

Not long after that, their family moved to Idaho.  We would hear from them occasionally.  We knew that Penny went to the temple and that Amanda graduated from high school and went to Boise State.  We got an announcement of her marriage in the Boise temple in 2006.  We planned to travel to Idaho to attend, but then Ken's mom worsened, and we could see she was going to pass away, so we cancelled our trip (she did pass away that weekend.)  But then we didn't hear from Amanda or her parents for quite some time.  

But recently we reconnected.  Amanda and her husband were coming here for a wedding and wanted to get together.  We had them over for an afternoon and had a delightful visit.  Her husband is a jovial, talkative guy and they are raising their four boys in the gospel.  It made us so very happy to know that.  Amanda is a schoolteacher and was the representative from her school to the district and president of the union.  She has done well and is happy.

The only things that would have made the visit better is if we had remembered to take a picture.  But this is Amanda's Facebook picture.  

It was lovely to reconnect with this special person in our life.  We hope we can keep better connected going forward.

More Blasts from the Past, 8

 

An important tradition in Caldwell is the annual Caldwell Night Rodeo.  Do I have memories of it?  No.  I never went to it.  But we nearly always went to the barbecue put on by the Rotary Club one of the nights and had delicious food, including all you can eat sweet corn.  There is NOT better sweet corn anywhere than in Caldwell, Idaho.  I remember hearing the cheering and seeing the lights in the arena from the rodeo every year.

I'm sure that this picture brings back memories for many people.  It is how I learned to read.

The cheerleaders threw out these balls during ballgames.  I can't remember whether I had one, or just saw them?

This is not a Caldwell memory, but is certainly part of my childhood.  My Grandma Peterson lived a few blocks from the Bluebird.  When we visited her we loved going there to order a cherry iron port and get a Merry Widow candy.  It is sad that the Bluebird is closed now.

More Blasts from the Past- 7

 Here are some more blasts from my past:

This is my dad's and Dr. Hubler's doctor clinic.  They built it just across from the hospital.  My uncle Alvin Gabrielsen, an architect, designed it.  This is the front, but that door was rarely used.  Patients entered the side door that connected to the parking lot.  The doctors and employees used the back entrance.  In the basement, was a laboratory.

This is Caldwell Memorial Hospital.  It is where I was born.

Thousands of sheep are herded through Caldwell, Idaho every year.  I remember going and watching it one year.  It was an amazing sight.

Seeing this picture brought back those memories.

This picture was very revealing to me.  Near Caldwell is a hill called Lizard Butte.  I never understood the name.  But this picture taken from far away explains it.  One memory of Lizard Butte is that every year an Easter service was held on the lizard's head.  A cross remains there year-round.  This picture shows how beautiful the area I am from is.

More Blasts from the Past-6

Caldwell had an unusual school system.  We attended grades 1-3 at Lincoln or Van Buren (you will notice all of the schools were named for presidents of the US), grades 4-5 at Washington elementary, grades 6-7 at Wilson, and 8th and 9th grade at Jefferson Junior High School, then Caldwell High School for 10th-12th.  This is a picture of Lincoln Elementary where I went to 1st - 3rd grade.  This is the front of the building, which honestly, I rarely saw.  Our home was toward the back side of the building, so I walked from that way.  The playground was in the back, only rarely was I in the front of the building.  But this picture brings back three specific memories of the front of the building:
1)  We nearly always played behind the building, hardly ever out front.  I don't think that it was that we weren't allowed to play in front; just that all of the playground equipment was in back.  But I remember playing tag in the front when I was in first grade.  Some of the older girls came up to us and pointed out a little girl, Cynthia who I now know had Down Syndrome.  Behind and to the side of Lincoln was a small white frame building which housed the school for the handicapped.  Cynthia attended school there.  The older girls said that Cynthia would catch us and then hug the breath out of us.  I was terrified.  I did not want to have the breath hugged out of me.  So when Cynthia came near, we would run away, screaming.  I now feel terrible about that.  Cynthia just wanted friends and love like anyone else.
2) On Joan's first day of first grade (I was in third grade), I told her to wait on the step for me at lunch time and we would walk home for lunch together.  I went out and sat on the back steps and waited and waited.  Finally, I walked home and told my mom she never came.  My dad, who was also home for lunch quickly drove to the school and found Joan on the front steps, crying.
3) On November 22, 1963, I was in 2nd grade.  I was at school.  But I got really sick.  I was nauseous and had a fever and aches and chills.  The school called my mom and my dad came to get me ( in the front of the building) as he was home for lunch.  I got in his car and huddled down on the floor where the heat came out in the car.  The radio was on and my dad told me that President Kennedy had been shot.  We listened to the news report as we drove home.  I will never forget where I was when I heard the tragic news.  Where were you?

 

This is Washington Elementary where I attended 4th and 5th grade.  My fourth-grade teacher was one of my favorite teachers from my whole lifetime: Mrs. Engle.  I loved her.  She lived just a block or so from me.  I loved to ride my bike by her house, hoping I would see her.

This is the Caldwell stockyards.  The smell emitted by these is the signature smell of Caldwell, Idaho.  I got used to it.  But visitors would often comment.  To me, it was the smell of home.

Missionary from the Grave

 My sister, Joan recently had an unexpected surprise.  She was kind enough to share it with her siblings.

Just out of the blue, she got a message from the son of Dr. Hubler.  Dr. Hubler was my dad's partner in their internist practice for years.  The Hublers are not members of our church, but the son, Tim, was perusing our church's family search website and found my dad's personal history on there and read it.  That prompted him to find Joan and write to her.  He was so touched by our dad's commitment to the church and his testimony.  Dad passed away in 2003, but his recorded history continues to inspire and bless lives.

Joan and Tim have corresponded a few times.  He has contacted his family members about this correspondence as Joan has hers.  So, we have all kind of reconnected. 

Who knew we could be missionaries from the grave simply by posting our histories on familysearch.com?   

Tim shared some pictures from the early years of our dads' practice.

This is Caldwell Memorial hospital.  It was less than a block from Caldwell Internal Medicine- Dr. Hubler and Dr. Gabrielsen's practice.

The young Dr. Hubler

This is the building Dr. Hubler and Dr. Gabrielsen built to house their practice.  My uncle who was an architect designed the building.

More Blast from the Past - 5

 

I kept hoping someone would post a picture of McCluskey's restaurant. But they just posted this ad.  McCluskey's has a very special place in my memories.  It was just 1/2 half a block up from Penny Wise Drug store.  The owner and chef was Mr. Harry McCluskey.  He was my dad's patient and he was the father of one my dad and mom's good friends- Eleanor Montgomery.  He was a friendly, gregarious guy.  If I remember correctly, he had served as mayor of Caldwell.   We went there often in my childhood and teenage years as my mother suffered from migraines and wasn't always able to cook dinner.  My standard order was a hot turkey sandwich.  Harry roasted a turkey every day.  The highlight at Mc Cluskey's was the French vanilla soft serve ice cream for dessert.  Man, that was such good ice cream.  Harry always came out, sat at our table with us and chatted with us- mostly my dad- while we ate.  I have so many happy memories of McCluskey's.

A popular eating spot for the junior high school students was Dairy Queen.  It was very close to Jefferson Junior High School.  My friend, Sue and I went there occasionally for lunch.

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We had an account with the Shell service station.  When I got my license, and later, my car, I just had to drive over to the Shell station and say, "Fill it with Ethyl."  That's not a term you hear every day now!  They would fill the car, wash my windshield and check my oil.  The owner was a friendly guy who knew me and knew to put it on my dad's bill.

The Idaho Department store or ID as everyone called it also holds many memories.  They had a wonderful fabric department.  As a teenager, I loved to look through the pattern books and then choose fabric, etc. to sew a dress.  I remember one time going there when they opened on Saturday morning and picking out fabric and pattern, taking it home and making that pink and white dress, then wearing it to the stake dance that evening! I don't think I could do that now!

Another time a friend and I walked to ID, picked out a pattern and material (it was very '70's material with colorful peace signs, and the words love and peace on it) and went home and sewed matching shirts.

My mom's dear friend, Phyllis worked at ID in the jewelry department.  I always visited her there when I went to that store. I loved Phyllis. She would often give us jewelry she purchased for us there.  I still have some earrings and a bracelet she gave me.

In this picture, you can also see George's Gyp Joint on this side of the front.  I talked about that in a previous post.

Yep, there will be more of these blasts from the past in coming weeks!  I'm sure I am enjoying them way more than you are.

More Blasts from the Past -4

 When I started posting these pictures from my hometown from the time when I was growing up, I didn't expect there to be so many.  This is my fourth post about them.  There are a lot more pictures posted on the Facebook page, but I'm only posting ones that trigger memories.  Here are some more:

This one certainly triggers memories.  This is Caldwell High School as it looked when I went there.  I have so many memories of course, as we all do of our high school years.  That dark rectangle on the left is the side door to the school.  As you walked in, the first door on the right was Mrs. Hooban's room.  She was the eccentric speech teacher.  So those first windows in the front were her classroom.  Speech was my first class of the day (after early morning Seminary.)  I really enjoyed this class and participating on the speech and forensics teams.  High school was a nice time for me.

Jefferson Junior High School was the old school where I attended 8th and 9th grade.  It had been a high school before that.  It was an old, three-story building and was right across the street from where I attended church.  It had no cafeteria, so you had to bring your own lunch, go to one of many fast food places nearby, or walk a block down to Lincoln Elementary School (where I attended 1st - 3rd grade) and eat lunch in their cafeteria.  

The building was very big.  My favorite class in that building was 8th grade English.  I loved reading the books from different genres in that class and enjoyed writing the papers.  I have always loved and done well in English.  I also enjoyed Home Ec- at least the cooking portion.   I learned to sew in that class, but my big project- a blue dress- didn't fit me properly, but it fit my mom, so she had to come to class and model it for me at the end of year fashion show.  She was a good sport.  Home Ec and choir were in the basement, and I had lots of classes on the main floor and upstairs.  My favorite place to go was the library.  I would go after school every Friday and check out a stack of books to read over the weekend.   I still remember the joy and anticipation as I walked home, carrying my heavy treasure.

Jefferson Junior High School had a huge auditorium.  It had old wooden chairs that squeaked.  When they built the high school, they didn't put an auditorium in it, and just kept using this one at the junior high school, so all of our high school musicals were performed here.  I was in three of them: South Pacific, The Music Man, and Oliver.  As a little girl I was also in Carousel.  All were performed on this stage.

The News Tribune was Caldwell's newspaper.  My dad's good friend, Pete Hackworth was the managing editor there.  Pete was a gregarious man with a long white beard.  My mom told  the story often of how horrified she was when she first took me to church as a tiny baby and Pete (Pete was a member of our church) came up to admire me and he kissed me right on the lips!  My first kiss, I guess!
The paper truly reflected the culture of the city.  I think most hometown newspapers in the olden days did that.  My picture frequently appeared in the newspaper as I participated in dance recitals, plays, performances, and received awards, etc.  And I wasn't the only one.  Everyone was in there a lot.  Every event was reported in The News Tribune.  I can remember going to this office to get my picture taken there more than once as I won an award or participated in a community event.



Watch for more blasts from my past!

This picture cracks me up.  In preparation for our annual dance recital at Marie Christensen's studio, Marie asked me and some other little girls to go to the News Tribune to have our picture taken.  I was probably in fourth grade when this picture was taken.

Ken's Sons of Mosiah Experience

 Ken has volunteered at the Red Cliffs temple open house.  He did shifts all day on the day our stake was in charge and has filled in for other stakes in the less desirable jobs that they had been unable to fill on several other days- Jobs like bathroom attendant, parking lot attendant, and language coordinator. 

One day, he was serving as the language coordinator when a brother from Montana came through.  He was with a friend who is also Ken's friend and introduced him as Brother Hinton.  The brother asked him if he knew any Hintons that served a mission in Japan.  Ken asked the years.  When he said 1973, Ken said " the Brother Hinton you are looking for is me."  They then recognized each other.  Later, when Ken was serving outside, they were able to visit and catch up a bit.  This Brother Winward was Ken's district leader when Ken was first on his mission in Kumamoto, Japan.  They lived in the same apartment.  He was a fine Elder and taught Ken a lot.  They rejoiced at seeing one another and, as the sons of Mosiah, that they were both still strong in their faith.

Lombard Street

 Is that our station wagon coming down Lombard street in San Francisco?  I saw this beautiful old picture online and it brought memories.  Our family went to San Francisco on a family vacation when I was a child.  I remember eating at a seafood restaraunt on wharf and ordering a hamburger (idiot!) and I remember drving down this beauitful and famous street.

More Blasts From the Past- 3

 Are you ready for more blasts from my past in Caldwell, Idaho?

Chalet amusement park was owned and operated by members of our church.  It was such a fun place to go.  We loved to ride the go karts and jump on the trampolines.  They had 8 trampolines buried ground level.  They were so fun to jump on.  I'm sure I played the miniature golf as well, but I don't remember it.  Inside, they had foosball tables.  I spent many an hour as a teenager playing on those tables.  Such happy memories!

Gem In and Out and Kwicurb Drive-in were across the street from each other.  I don't know when it started, but these two places became the hot teenage hangouts.  Especially on weekends, but really every night, teenagers could be seen "dragging the curb."  They would drive through one establishment, drive across the street and around that one, then do it over and over and over again. I know it was the tradition when my older sisters were growing up.  I remember one of my sister Patty's boyfriends had a red convertible.  He came to see Patty and invited Joan and I to come drag the curb with them.  We were SO excited to ride in the back of that convertible and drag the curb.  He stopped at Quick Curb and bought us both milkshakes. What a happy day and memory!

By the time I was a teenager, I don't remember doing it.  I do remember occasionally getting a hamburger at one of the places.  Maybe I just wasn't in the "in" crowd.

Penny- Wise Drug Store is a huge part of my growing up years.  Huge.  My dad set up an account there, so we could go there and buy stuff and charge it. We bought all of our prescription and over the counter drugs there. We bought most of our Christmas gifts there, toys, candy, etc.  We rode our bikes there very often in the summer.  I have such happy memories of Penny-Wise Drug Store.  The employees all knew us and knew to charge my dad's account.

Probably the best fast food place in town was the Red Steer Drive-in.  My dad certainly thought so.  After I could drive (age 14) he often sent me there to buy dinner for our family.  I LOVED two things there:

1) Their grilled hot dogs.  They were long and delicious. They would split that delicious hot dog in half, grill it until the edges were browned and crispy, and put it on the bun.  I would always get mine with mayonnaise, ketchup, and tomatoes.

2) Their finger steaks.  I didn't know until I was an adult and moved out of Idaho, but finger steaks are an Idaho-only thing.  And they are SO delicious.  Especially at the Red Steer.  That is what my dad always ordered.  They were like chicken fingers, but they were delicious, tender, breaded and seasoned beef.  They came with dipping sauce and fries and they were so good.  Oh, how I miss finger steaks!

There will be more blasts from the past.  I keep getting more nostalgic pictures.  

More Blasts from the Past-2

 I am part of a Facebook group about my hometown, Caldwell, Idaho in the years I was growing up there.  I don't know where they get them, but people post pictures from that era, bringing back many memories to me.  Here are some more blasts from my past.

R & B Market was our neighborhood market.  It was just a few blocks from my home.  We could easily walk there to buy candy or pick up something for my mom.  Most every morning, my mom would call my dad's nurse at the office and have her leave a grocery list for my dad on his desk.  He would stop and buy what she needed on his way home for lunch. Therefore, our ingredients for dinner were fresh.  We rarely ate meat that had been frozen.  

The Hi-Pop-Inn was right next to our old white church (you can see it on the right) and right across the street from the Jefferson Junior High School.  It was just a tiny little fast-food place with a cooking area and a counter that surrounded that area. It was run by one or two people and the menu was limited. Junior high school students (9th graders only!) crowded in there at lunch time to purchase hamburgers, green rivers, snacks, and candy.  In 9th grade, I attended seminary in the church next door.  Afterward, we would head to the Hi-Pop-Inn for fresh maple bar doughnuts.  Oh my, those were delicious.  Everyone who attended Jefferson Junior high school has stories to tell about the Hi Pop Inn.

This was a beautiful rose garden at the base of Canyon Hill.  It was always beautifully cared for and maintained.  Though I haven't been back to Caldwell for many years, I think it is still there.

Meet George.  George is an icon of Caldwell.  He was a genius.  He had cerebral palsy.  He couldn't speak or walk.  The community helped set him up in a little newspaper stand on the corner of a busy street in Caldwell.

It was called George's Gyp Joint.  He ran the store and could be found inside.  He could communicate by pointing with a pointer he held in his teeth to a board someone had made for him.  It had letters, but it also had phrases he commonly used on it.

As children we loved to go in there and look around and buy trinkets, toys, and candy from George.  I can remember my dad encouraged us to shop in George's Gyp Joint to support George.

Stay tuned for more blasts from my past.  People keep posting old pictures!

Blasts from the Past

 I recently joined a group on Facebook about Caldwell- my hometown- in my growing up years.  There have been many pictures posted on there that have elicited memories from my childhood.

This is a picture of Caldwell's public swimming pool back then.  I actually didn't swim here much as I had access to a neighbor's pool.    But I would occasionally come to swim with friends or with Joan.  I did join the swim team one summer and came here every day for a while.  You can see the high dive in this picture.  I remember working up courage to jump from there.

This radio station was on the corner of a very busy street in downtown Caldwell.  You could walk by and look in the windows and see the DJ or newscasters broadcasting.  A kind man in our ward was one of their main announcers- Dale Peterson. Their motto was "the corner where the world turns."  The globe on top of the building turned.  But because it turned the wrong direction, whenever they said their motto, someone would always add "backwards."  It was the big joke in Caldwell.

Ah.  This building elicits such fond memories.  This was the Carnegie library.  Joan and I always joined the summer reading program.  The children's library was downstairs.  We walked or rode our bikes there many days to turn in and check out more books.  I loved that place.  As I grew, I frequented the upstairs adult library.  I learned to love books in this old building.  Inside was a very distinctive old book smell.  I can almost smell it by looking at this picture.  Thank you, Mr. Carnegie, for helping me love books.

This was the theater in town.  This picture was taken earlier than I remember.  The name later changed to the Top theater.  Every summer they would sell books of tickets to children for matinee movies.  Kids would line up down the block to go inside and watch the movies.  It was an inexpensive way to entertain children all summer.  While I was waiting in line one summer day, an eclipse of the moon happened.  Adults went along the line warning us not to look at the sun. 

I also remember going to this theater with my family when I was in 2nd grade to see "Mary Poppins" when it first came out.  Later, when I was a teenager, our family went to "Camelot" here. I have so many memories at this old theater.

It is amazing what memories an old picture can elicit.  It truly is a blast from the past.