This was a handwritten essay we found with Marilyn's records.
Remembrances
of Glendive and School Days by Marilyn Anderson Smith
(written
in 10th grade of high school)
We had a big Tom cat and
we all loved him but when Carole was born he either ran away or some
people poisoned him. We all felt sad because we had really
loved him. I think he was jealous.
Jeanne and I also
had a favorite dress. It was red taffeta and I liked mine very much.
I have my picture taken a number of times in it.
When Carole was born we
needed a larger house so we moved to the heights where we still live.
It's on a hill all by itself so we call it "the house on the
hill".
The next morning after
we got the furniture there we went on a trip to Ogden. All we had in the
bedroom was the bed and it certainly looked funny. We left at two in the
morning so we didn't get much time to enjoy it.
We were only a half
block from the pool so when we got back we spent most of the time swimming. We
had hated to leave our friends but since we could still visit back and forth, it
wasn't so bad.
We went on a lot of
hikes, too. As we were just a little way from the hills.
The big event was when
we learned how to swim and could jump off the five and ten boards; we'd run to
the phone and call and tell Mom all about it.
I was one who loved to
dress up, and I didn't always use discretion. I liked to put a tight
belt on everything I wore. Once when we were going for a ride, I sat
nonchalantly with mother's good hat on. Another time it wasn't until we
were all in church that I was discovered wearing my mother's high heels.
I really must have been a trial.
One of the Christmas's I
remember was when I was about four and we three, Jeanne, Janet and I received
dolls and buggies. We had our picture taken with them. Pat and
Donna Schultz, who lived next door, got in it, too.
Our first trip back to
Utah was a great event. We met so many relatives that when we went to
Salt Lake and the ‘Pen’ was pointed out to us, Janet asked if we had any
relatives there. Of course, we didn't.
The high-light of the
trip was having our picture taken with my father's grandfather, who was then 93
years old.
Grade School
Days
I started the first grade in the
Lincoln School. The first thing I remember when I first stepped in the
room was a girl standing by the window crying. I don't know if she was
scared of us or just scared of starting school.
My first grade teacher's name was
Miss Strate. I liked her very much and just read where she was chosen out
of hundreds of teachers to go to Germany and teach. We had a double room
with the second grade, so some of the time when they had a class we didn't, we
went to Miss Russell's room. I remember the children in her room would
always be going to her desk and it seemed that their work was so much harder
than ours, but I guess it just seemed harder.
I had a lot of fun in that class.
It was the only time Norma got to be with me. I caused her a lot of
trouble by doing something to make her laugh and she would have to sit in the
corner or else in the baby chair the sixth grade had made for us. I never
did. I don't know why not. In fact I never did stand in the corner
except once for talking to a boy when the teacher had told us not to and that
didn't happen until second grade.
There were only two boys in our
first grade class, so naturally Norma liked one and I the other. I made a
big fool on Valentine's Day over him. Once I wanted to ask him something
and he ran away because he thought I was going to kiss him.
I went to the first three years in
the Lincoln School before we moved to the Heights.
My second grade teacher was Miss
Manning and she had had Dave and Jeanne before me so she alternated between
calling me all the names. Once we were skipping around the building with
her during recess and she fell and sprained her ankle. We didn't know
what to do, but we felt awfully sorry because we liked her so much.
In the Rhythm Band I played the
sticks and the triangle. I liked playing in it but I certainly got tired
of the sticks, da-da da, over and over.
I loved to take my lunch because then
we got to drink the milk from the school and play games.
The next year I had Miss Manning's
cousin, Miss Faltimeyer who is Mrs. Wing now. I liked her too and I see
her quite a bit now.
The time the river piled up cakes of
ice and flooded over was a new experience to us. We spent the day
watching it. Dick and Dave forgot to go to school after lunch and mother
made them scrub the basement steps as punishment.
I missed my best friend after we had
moved. Her name was Norma Fryslie and she still is my friend even though
she has moved away. I remember the first day she moved here, I sat on the
curbing across the street. It was a funny sight to see, she and her
brother got out of the car and the first thing they did was run around the
house, they went quite a number of times. Norma said later they hadn't
wanted to miss anything.
One fourth of July, Dad had a float
in the parade from the store and Janet and I got to ride on it. We
enjoyed it very much, especially since we got to carry a little paper umbrella,
we both took turns.
As I grew older, Mom let us go up to
the swimming pool by ourselves. Lots of time we'd take our lunch and stay
all day.
That summer we moved to the Heights
and when we got back from our trip to Utah I learned to ride the bike.
I'd start on the top of the hill and I couldn't work the brakes very well
so no matter which way I'd turn at the bottom I'd take a flop, straight over
the curbing. After quite a number of flops I finally made it.
In the fourth grade I had Miss
Livingston and as I remember it seems we argued almost all year. If it
wasn't this it was that, mostly just arguing about little things, like I said I
could see steam and she said it was not but it still looked like steam to me.
My fifth grade teacher was Miss
Stipick. I like her but not as well as some of the others. Once my
eye looked pink to her and she thought I was getting the pink eye, so at recess
she sent me home. I stayed home that day and the next I went to the
doctor and he said it wasn't anything. I hadn't felt sick at all so I
just had a little vacation.
That spring we were afraid that gas
rationing would come because of the war. That was the year 1941 so
terrible to many people. On Easter vacation we packed and left. We
planned to leave three days before but Carole got the three day measles so we
missed school after instead of before and we had our work all made up for
before, too.
During the summer I would swim, hike
and just enjoy myself. It was fun to look forward to school, but often
we'd go for a while it wasn't quite as much fun.
In the sixth grade I had a lot of
fun mostly because our teacher Miss Gudrun Kolberg made it that way. She
made the work fun and interesting, everyone liked her. In singing class Miss
Livingston chose six people to form a sextet and I was in it. We sang at
church and other places. That year there was an "Amateur Hour"
held at the high school and we sang for that; we didn't win and I certainly
felt foolish because the song was such a simple baby song but we got a few
claps.
Miss Kolberg got married about
Christmas time, so the rest of the year we had Mr. McDonald. I liked him
even though some of the kids that had had him before said he was little strict,
but he wasn't too much with us.
G. A. A. initiation (high school)
was quite awful. We had to wear a lot of funny clothes and anything
another member told us to do we had to do it. After school we had a
picnic across the bridge and we had to go through town with those clothes on.
I also joined Rainbow and the first
meeting I went to I was put in the bow.
I didn't buy an annual and at the
end of the first year I was very sore with myself because I hadn't. I
made it a point this year to get one.
A little after school was out we
went to Ogden for a short visit. We spent most of the time traveling
around visiting relatives. We did get to Salt Lake one day, but didn't
have time to do anything but go down one street and window shop because we had
to meet Dad, then we sat for an hour in the hotel waiting for him.
On the way back to Ogden we stopped
at Laguna, a fun resort. I was in a dress so I couldn't enjoy myself
thoroughly but I had a lot of fun. The main reason we wanted to go was to
ride on the roller coaster and it wasn't working. That was the first year
since the war that the resort was open at all.
