In Jeanne's own words, Part 5

We went swimming, often at a gravel pit out by the Airport. I remember how cold it was, even in the hot summer. You’d have to get in all at once, to be able to stand the cold, then you’d start to get warmer as you swam & kicked and (went numb) but we did enjoy it. We also swam a lot in a canal that was in back of Anderson’s place, about ½ mile from us in New Sweden area. It was awfully cold too and you felt like you would freeze, before you got used to the water. But it never stopped us from going. In the winter time we would go out to the old log building at Tautphous Park and skate (ice). How I loved to ice skate! The building has burned down since but how nice it was to go on a cold winters day and be out of that cold in that nice building, skating & skating. They since have built another new building out there for skating. We went a lot with our neighbors the Bishop boys. Lowell would drive us out there & patiently put up with all of us, about 6, until we were ready to come home. I went over to the Bishop’s a lot and one day I was singing and they ask me to sing something, so I sang a whole song and was surprised myself, because I was afraid to do anything in front of anybody. I remember how pleased Sister Bishop was, to have me sing for her, but I don’t remember what song I sang. Maybe it was “There’s an old spinning wheel in the parlor”. I used to sing that and Mother, when she and Dad traveled to the Worlds Fair brought me a small spinning wheel back to keep as a memento. I kept it until I went to college, then somehow it was lost. I had a lot of nice toys that were given to me as a child. I always tried to keep them nice for my children, but they were lost and broken by the nieces and nephews. But when I would cry about them, Mother would say to not mind, that was the chaf of life and to blow it away. As a result, I held no grudges and feel no animosity toward the young ones. I remember I had a Shirley Temple doll a Deone Quintuplet doll “Marie” and an electric stove I could cook toast & cocoa on. Some small furniture (doll house) and some tiny plates, dishes, bowls, glasses and silverware too. How I loved those miniature things. I still do, even at the age of (well old not quite young not any more) in between a lot of babies and problems to solve and tests have passed into the past & are getting to be ancient history.

In Jeanne's own words, Part 4

We moved from our home on 8th Street, when I was 9 yrs old. We moved onto a farm, out 1 mile west of Idaho Falls and there we grew hay, peas, apples, and a huge garden each year. We had chickens, pigs, cows & horses. After living in town, it seemed good to be out on our own, sort of self sufficient. We worked quite hard to harvest the things we grew & life seemed nice. Dad had been made Stake President (that was the reason for the move) and we were visited by many of the Brethren. Pres. George Albert Smith, Pres. Heber J. Grant, Pres. David O McKay (Father and Mother loved the man so much, they named my brother Kay after him. Fredrick McKay Smith.) but he was an apostle then, at the time he visited us. Brother Ezra Taft Benson, Pres. Kimbal (before he was president) Brother Romney (I can remember him as he sat in the kitchen at the table with Father and Mother, eating bread & milk & fruit & cheese which he said was his favorite supper meal. It also was my Fathers favorite supper. So they were both happy. But I remember our house had a lot of love in it and it always felt good to come home. But when the Brethren were in the house it had such a special feeling to it. It was like walking into a church or the temple. It was special!

We helped to haul hay. I remember I’d stand on the wagon and as they (Father & brothers) would lift the loose hay onto the wagon, I’d tramp on it so it would flatten down & we could get a bigger load. I felt important and loved to do this job. One day we had a big load on and were headed in from the field, to pile it in the barn. It tipped over and we were thrown off and the load of hay came down on us. It was a neighbors grandchild (a boy about my age or older) and I remember I wasn’t scared or anything, but I was glad when they got all the hay off us. They teased us for not paying attention to where we were going & letting the wheel of the wagon go off the bridge over the ditch and tipping us over.

We rode horses once in awhile. Father would always saddle them, then ride them for a few minutes to see that they weren’t rambunctious or fractious, and then he would let us ride as long as we wanted. But he would caution us not to run them, beat or abuse them or over tire them. He wouldn’t have allowed this. But we had many pleasant hours on the horses.

In Jeanne's own words, Part 3

I can remember our loving Mother would fix our cereal in a glass & call it gruel and make us drink it before we could leave the house for school. I remember too a dog we had that would follow us to school and the teacher would tell us to leave the dog home but he wouldn’t stay home & we would try to send him home all the way to school. But it was fun to see him there when we got out of school so we could walk home with him.

I had a very dear friend Harriet Price that lived through the alley and across from the High School. I would go to her house every chance I got. I was punished for going, when I hadn’t asked permission to go. And it worried my Mother to have me away from home & not know where I was.

I remember when we lived on 8th St In Idaho Falls, my brothers and some of us girls & boys dug a swimming pool in the garage. We found some bottles buried in the dirt. Mother called it de-natured alcohol, and told us to throw it away lest someone taste it and die. We were all thrilled about the pool even though it was almost straight mud. When Dad opened the door to put his car in the garage & found a swimming pool in it, he wasn’t thrilled. He told us to fill it in again. I know between snakes, rabbits, white mice and dogs and cats, it was never dull for either us children or our parents & our neighbors. D. F. Richards (the banker) lived next door to us. One day, he said his wife had been terrified by a large snake. It had gone under their porch and she wouldn’t either go out their door or come in until the snake was caught. So as I remember it Mr. Richards killed the thing. It was Harlands. Harland used to let the snake(a blow snake) wind itself around him and try to get us kids to hold it. I was always frightened of snakes and still am. I wouldn’t touch it.

I remember playing “Kick the can” , “Run sheep run”, and other games like “Mother may I”, “Steal the sticks”, outside at night with the neighbor kids. We had a lot of fun. I can remember Halloween nights, going out with a “Tic tac” (an empty thread holder with notches cut in it & tied with string) to make noise on windows. Mother didn’t like us to put wax on windows, as it caused so much work, so we made a little harmless noise, told each other Ghost stories and scared ourselves so much we hated to go up stairs to bed in the dark.

I remember going down our driveway on a sleigh & going on down 8th Street clear to the bottom & doing it again & again until we were quite exhausted. I remember doing exercises out on the lawn with some of the neighbor kids. Standing on our heads and doing Cartwheels & trying to walk on our hands. Carol was really good at teaching us to exercise.

I remember when we would be playing hide & seek, we would hide behind all the neighbor’s shrubbery and I remember eating Gooseberries as I hid there by the Gooseberry bush. I still remember how good they tasted. We took both dancing and acrobatics as kids. Lorraine played for Don Wilson and he taught us Tap dancing. A Mr. Larson, I believe, taught us to do acrobatics.