Beach Haven

Week of 18 July 1983

Aside from the normal list of things done during the week, There were three unique notes she shares. First, Dad hurt his wrist at work and when to the hospital. Nothing was broken. He recuperated throughout the week, but still went to work. Dan had been riding his bike to school regularly, but apparently some kids had been taking it apart while he was in class. He started to bring the bike into school. 

Despite the bad wrist, Dad had some positive news this week. He was informed that he made Chief Petty Officer in the Navy Reserve! They celebrated with a cake. Dad became BMC Beach. BMC stands for Bos'n's Mate Chief. 

Week of 10 July 1983

After the previous long travel week live settled back down. That Tuesday she took Dan into town for him to go to his driver’s ed class. There was a repair job for the VCR. Kids, you’ll have to ask your parents what that means. There was the usual long list of chores that week. For some reason Dan needed a trout stamp on his fishing license. Crystal and her friends baked a bunch of cookies, but left a mess behind. At one point Mom ‘fixed steaks in the microwave’. Not the best approach with steak (my editorial there). Mom had to ship a bunch of stuff that family bought on the vacation the previous week. They had too much to take on the plane back to PA.
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On Saturday, Mom, Lisa, and Crystal spend a good chunk of the day yard-saling. They were helping Lisa stock up on baby stuff. Of course, Mom wrote down the list of everything they managed to pick up. She notes they went to 13 yard sales. She drove Lisa back to Salt Lake on Sunday. They picked up a Cocker Spaniel named Sandy from a friend of Lisa’s. Mom said Sandy was a beautiful dog.

Week of 27 June 1983

This week continued with crochet work on an afghan. Looks like she did complete the one she had been working on the past few weeks. Crystal had a game and a loss. This seems to have been a pattern for her team, at least has Mom documented things. Dan killed some cat that was after one of Dad’s ducks. At least one of the ducks had disappeared, and Dad was upset because these particular ducks had been expensive to buy. A box arrived from me (Mike) in Spain with a birthday present for Crystal. It was a small statue of Flamenco dancers.

Mom was preparing for an upcoming vacation, including training another secretary at work how to do her tasks. There was a long list of preparatory home tasks as well. Lisa came up by bus to spend the weekend. On Saturday Mom picked up extended family members Martin and Barbara at the airport. It's not clear if Dad was with them. Maybe that will be more explicit in the next week's entries. The group visited a few local northern Utah sites like the Osmond studio, then began their first southward drive-leg of the trip that would last through the next week. I can get into the trip notes next time, but it will come as no surprise to anyone who knew her that there is an extensive detailed itinerary and cost estimate document taped to a page of the journal. She also documented over several pages all the individual expenses of the trip as they happened. That's so Mom.

Week of 13 June 1983

Most of Mom’s weekly chore list seemed to be around deep cleaning; walls, curtains, ceilings, carpets, couches, throw pillows, afghans. She also, of course, baked a cake for somebody that week. While moving the piano (yes, the piano!) she ran it over two of toes and cut them up. She also picked up some ducks to give to Dad for Father’s Day.

She did some yard sale visiting to help gather items for Lisa’s baby on the way, a jacket for Crystal, and red light bulbs for Dan. She didn’t mention what Dan needed red light bulbs for exactly, but noted “he was thrilled when he put them in his room.”

Dad worked overtime that week… again. That Sunday, Mom and Dan visited Lisa in Salt Lake City and enjoyed dinner with her. After dinner they walked around Temple Square and had some ice cream. She noted that she “brought Crystal home and left Dan,” so it sounds like the siblings took turns hanging out at Lisa’s apartment.
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Week of 23 May 1983

​Every week I have reviewed from her journal so far, Mom finds a day here and there to share a long list of chores that got done that particular day. The list usually includes a mix of shopping, house cleaning, church tasks, and running someone somewhere in the car. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knew her, but after making that sort of list one day this week, she notes how she finished the day at 11pm, “Tired but happy.” Right after noting that, she adds that Cris and Melody set up a Kool-Aid stand by Frank’s Gas Station. She says they “made a dollar and something in about 1 hour. They had fun.”

Lisa found an apartment in Salt Lake City and was excited. Mom was worried because the other apartments in the building were empty. Later in the week they loaded some of Lisa’s stuff in the car and drove it down to her. Over the weekend Mom and Lisa drove to Indiana to get what was left there of her things.

Several extended family from PA checked in with her as they were planning some vacation together in CA. One of those travelers was someone named Mary who was disappointed when Mom had to tell her they couldn’t afford to bring Cris along. Cris had a ball game (likely softball) in Corinne, UT this journal week. Mom drove and enjoyed watching, but lamented that Cris didn’t get to bat.
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Dan shocked her on Wednesday. When she got home from work, he had already prepared dinner and it was waiting on her. He must have been motivated because after dinner he went outside and did a bunch of unsolicited yard work. A group of women from town were out walking that evening and asked Mom to join them. They went about 3 miles.

Week of 16 May 1983

It’s Mike again, continuing with journal updates from Mom.

Although summer was just around the corner, Mom continually notes cold temperatures, typically with lows in the 30’s. They had planted some corn earlier and it was lost. Dad needed to replant the garden. Her carpool fellows were all on vacation this week and she had to go solo. Lisa called to let her know she liked her new job in Salt Lake City, but she was feeling under the weather. Mom finished up making a sweater, booties, and a hat for Lisa’s baby on the way.

This week was Cris’ birthday. Of course Mom went all out making a cake. Cris got a clock radio, two dolls, and a book of poetry. Dad was working swing shift that week so they got him out of bed before everyone else had to leave for the day so they could all sing Happy Birthday to Cris. Because Dad was on swing shift, Dan took Cris that week to the Primary Daddy-Daughter activity at the church. That week Cris sang at a school event for the long-time janitor and a teacher who were both retiring.

​Over the weekend Mom took Cris to a park in Brigham City so she could have a picnic birthday party with some of her friends. Afterwards, she went with Dan to Ogden where they joined others from the German club and put flyers on cars to raise money for a trip.

That Sunday, Mom and Dad went on a nice motorcycle ride after church. Later that day they visited with their friends, Dave and Mary, over hamburgers. 

Beach Family Conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
By Paulene Beach
Document Shared by Crystal Dunn

My daughter, Crystal Lee Dunn, has asked me to write the story of our conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will record this to the bet of my ability from my memory.

One day in late 1970, I went to my friend’s house to visit her. It seemed to be every Saturday we visited. Her name was Dorothy Fairchild Mowery. Her husband was the most evil person that I had ever met. Dot was a great person and I don’t know how she put up with him. He was a drunk and he beat her all the time. He even made her lose a baby because she wouldn’t come downstairs and make food for him and his buddy and two women in the middle of the night. He threw her down the stairs and she miscarried. I met her when I was 18 and we worked in the sewing factory together.

Anyway, while I was visiting (and her husband was out) the doorbell rang and there were two young missionaries there. They asked if they could talk to us. They explained they were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had a message for us. I had been raised Evangelical (Methodist now) but they could never answer my questions so I quit going in my teenage years. I had been thinking about looking for God in my life, but didn’t know where to look.

The missionaries taught us the first discussion and I knew IMMEDIATELY that this is what I believed also was looking for. They asked if they could come back next week but Dot was afraid her husband might be there and hurt them. My husband, Fred, had just thrown the Jehovah Witnesses out of our house the week before, but I decided I needed to hear them. They asked if I wanted to go to church next week. Fred was going to be gone with the military, so I decided to try it. The closest branch was 35 miles away (in Sunbury, PA). A lady from the branch picked me up (Louise Bredbender). It was really impressive.

When the missionaries came the next week to our house, I explained to Fred about them. He listened and so did the kids. We started to study with the missionaries and decided to join the church. I was so happy that the family chose to follow me into the church. Lisa and I were baptized in January 1971. Fred said he had to be able to quit drinking coffee and smoking before he would join. He became the longest investigator, but went to church every week.

In 1972, Fred decided he was ready. I was upstairs and picked up the hall phone to call someone and I heard Fred on the downstairs phone talking to the missionaries. He told them he wanted to be baptized. I was so excited that I started to cry and ran downstairs. He was baptized right after that. When Mike was eight, he was baptized also and the others followed when they turned eight.

We drove to Sunbury every week. It was before the block. We went down in the morning and took our lunch and then went back in the evening. We did that for about a year. Our town, Berwick, PA, was central to several towns around us. We were the only members in our town except Don and Alma Thrash, who moved to Utah not too long after. They followed their married kids out there. They were our parents in the branch.

After about a year, some of the members and us, asked if we could start a branch in Berwick, since it was central to the towns that members lived in. We were told to find a location for a building we could rent. Fred and I looked around Berwick and found we could rent a Justice of Peace’s office on the weekends. It was smelly from people smoking in the office. On Saturdays our family cleaned the building and aired out the smoke. We held Sunday School sitting on the floor in the hallway for the kids. We adults used the main entrance and one of the offices for our meeting room. The Justice’s office was our chapel.

There were about seven families and us who got it started. Richard Long was our first branch president. Richard and Lydia were our good friends from Bloomsburg, PA. They are still our best friends today [Note from Mike – Mom put no date on this document, but both she and Dad have since passed away as has Lydia Long]. I’m trying to remember the other families. There was Doyle and Betty Smethers from Mainville, PA and their kids. Also Doyle (chicken lips) and Diane Breech from Catawissa, PA along with Jean Bitner and her husband (can’t remember his name) and their kids from Catawissa also. Then there was Bill and Linda Schmidt and their family also from Mainville area. Nancy Zehner from Mainville (Nancy, Bill Schmidt and Betty Smethers were sisters and a brother). Cecil and Ann Turburville and their family were from Bloomsburg, PA. We became one big family and stayed that way ever since. Many of them have died now and the one’s left are old and ready to go.

We used that building for about a year and then bought an old school building outside of Berwick. We had a fund raising spaghetti dinner to raise money to remodel. At that time Fred (my husband) had his own country and western band and they played for a dance with a dinner. Fred must have eaten too much spaghetti because when he was playing his guitar his belt buckle came off and flew across the dance floor under everyone’s feet. He got teased about that for a long time.

We tore it all up and remodeled it ourselves as a branch. For money to remodel, Lydia and I made my recipe of chili and sold it at an auction that Lydia worked with. Some of the people said they followed the auction just for our chili. It was all donated to the building fund. It was a lot of fun working the auction and it helped a lot. We were still going to that building in 1977 when we sold our house and left for Utah. Now there is a new regular ward building there. We visit it every year when we go back. It’s great seeing our old family again.

When we moved here [to Utah], Alma and Don Thrash had a house all picked out for us. We lived in it 28 years. We buried them (at their request) in our grave plot at Calls Fort cemetery between Brigham City and Honeyville, Utah. Their two kids were nomads and moved around a lot and died out of state later. Dona and Alma were our parents in the church and great friends. Fred is already buried beside them and I will be also someday.

We enjoyed having the missionaries at our house on P day. They did their laundry there and ate supper with us often. They played with our kids and took Mike and Fred with them on splits often. We have kept in touch with Elder Drue Smith and his family over the years but have lost track of Elder Johnson [we have confirmed the other missionary was actually Steven Hardy Jackson].

My testimony has grown over the years and I am so happy to have found Jesus’s church. It is the best thing that has happened to me and our family in my life except for having my family beside me. Thank you Heavenly Father and Jesus and the Holy Ghost for finding us.
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Paulene Fay (Miller) Beach

Week of 9 May 1983

It’s Mike again, continuing with journal updates from Mom.

Dan was a pallbearer for the funeral of his friend Ilene Reeder. The circumstances were noted in previous entries. Lisa started working in SLC at the VA hospital. Now she would have to figure out where to stay. That weekend she was able to make arrangements with Newel Barlow, a long-time friend of our family.

​It snowed that week, but Mom started buying tomato plants to get ready for garden season. At work they had a ‘good luck’ party on Friday the 13th. Dan ran three and a half miles in a relay marathon on Saturday. 

Week of April 18, 1983

Some work continued from the previous week cutting up trees that had fallen in the yard of an elderly neighbor woman, Alice Booth. They were joined by neighbors, the McIntosh family, who were somewhat new to Honeyville. The McIntoshes also joined them for a Family Home Evening that week.

Later in the week a cannery trip yielded 62 gallon cans of dry foods. There was a planning meeting to attend for Dan’s school trip to California. Dad had to leave on a Navy Reserve trip to San Diego that weekend. There were some more difficulties over the way Lisa’s first husband was treating her. She decided to give up on waiting for him to come up with some money, and she started looking for work.
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