Beach Haven

​Week of 7 March 1983
 
Mom starts by wishing herself a happy 42nd birthday. It was a normal work day for her. The evening was about running Dan, Cris, and ‘3 Ellis kids’ to go skating. On Tuesday, Dad was supposed to return home from a navy training trip. He didn’t show and didn’t call. The next day she checked with the Navy Reserve Center. They didn’t seem to know anything either. By Wednesday afternoon they got word the ship had been held up and got back to port for a day late. Mom and Cris were really upset that there was not a phone call. It’s clear they did not understand what it meant to be on a military vessel at sea in the days before cell phones or the Internet. Even at that, exact ship movements are considered classified information. Dad finally arrived home in the middle of the night on Wednesday night after she had gone to bed.
 
She had a foot doctor appointment on Friday. The doctor was a no-show. Dad was back at work as well, including overtime as usual. She did her normal listing of the many chores accomplished. Dad fixed Cris’ bike. That weekend she had a mammogram. She had a few lumps. She didn’t believe them to be cancerous, but expressed some concern. She was also stressing over poor decisions of Lisa’s first husband. He seemed unable to support her no matter where she was, which put financial stress on everyone else. Mom speculated more that he was unwilling rather than unable. 

Week of 28 Feb 1983

Like usual, Mom lists out all sorts of chores done by her, Dan and Crystal. She sent a letter to me on my mission, and got one as well, also a letter from Grammy Beach. On Monday she notes watching the final episode of M*A*S*H, “2-1/2 hour special when the war’s over and they all go home. Watched with the kids. Quilted.”

That Monday evening she spent time talking on the phone with Lisa about her trials, stuck in PA with grandparents who were not really feeling able to support. Dad was away with the Navy so she was feeling overwhelmed without him. The stress caused Mom to snap at Dan.

Much of the rest of the week was about Relief Society events (she had to teach a lesson), getting Dan to events like play practices and a Sunday School skating party. On Saturday, Dan rode his bike all the way to Brigham City for his play practice, about 10 miles each way. No note about how he got home. Likely the same way. She wrote, “It was good exercise for him.” Crystal was getting into needlepoint while Mom kept quilting. Work seemed to be good that week as she felt a need to mention it several times.

Week beginning 21 Feb 1983

This is a continuance of summarizing journal entries from my mother, Paulene Beach.

She was happy with the results of a cake she made over the weekend. In an earlier entry I shared the bit about Dan damaging it and a middle-of-the-night repair. A letter came from me (Mike) while serving on my church mission in Spain. She noted they would be getting $2040 back from their tax return. Dad left for a two-week training exercise with the Navy reserves. She put in work on a baby quilt for Lisa.

This week she found out the new position she put in for at Thiokol went to someone else. That Wednesday evening, Dan went skating with the German club. Mom and Crystal played the card game War. The week was a never-ending list of chores. Crystal helped out Heather Hoffmeister serving food at someone’s wedding (she didn’t say who’s). Dan helped set up chairs and tables for at the church for a Boy Scout dinner. Dan and Crys each had a friend sleep over that week, while Mom stayed focused on a baby quilt for Lisa. Dan seems to have been active with the German club. Late in the week she ran him to a football game with the club. He was also in a play that week and went to a stake dance on Saturday. Picking him up in the evening made for several late nights that week.

Lisa was making plans to return to Indiana. She intended to take over management of a skating rink while her husband worked before entering the Army. She was feeling isolated enough to ask Mom if Dan could spend the summer with her running the skating rink while her husband went into boot camp. Mom was worried about her. Mom also had trouble shaking a headache most of the week. She also expressed missing Dad.

That Sunday was a missionary homecoming in the ward for Ron Seamons. It made her miss me while I was serving. She expressed missing Dad again as well. Dan was helpful in drawing a Goliath on butcher paper for her upcoming Relief Society meeting. It was ten feet tall. Crystal made 'stones' out of tin foil to use with Dan’s slingshot. To round out the week, she was asked to make a cake for the Relief Society birthday, continued on Lisa’s baby quilt, and wrote a letter to me on my mission.

Week beginning 14 Feb 1983

Happy Mother’s Day! Here is another take of me summarizing a week in the life of Paulene Beach based on her journals. We love you Mom! Hope you’re keeping busy in the spirit world.

After working on Monday, she ran kids to the skating rink in Ogden. While they skated she visited long-time friends the Fisher family. We knew them when they were temporarily stationed in Pennsylvania back in our early church membership. They eventually transferred to Hill AFB and were living in Roy, UT at the time of this entry.

Mom was interviewed for a new position she was up for at work. She was nervous because the boss she would be working for depended heavily on dictation and the increased demand for short-hand that would place on her. That Friday she took Crystal and a family friend, Heather Hoffmeister, to a “mother-daughter thing” at school.

That Saturday, Dad was back at a Navy Reserves event. He was also working a lot of overtime to keep up to all the family expenses, mostly for needs by us children such as sustaining me on my full-time church mission. Dad continued to go to work despite a bad cold. Mom was packing for him as after working the overnight he was leaving the next morning for a Navy training trip in the Caribbean.

​Among an endless list of tasks documented, she also notes receiving a letter from her step cousin, Martin Hartman. She notes how he and his wife Barbara have always been among her extended family favorites. They indicated a desire to visit in the summer. She wrote to them later that day.  That Sunday was an interview with the Stake President to renew her temple recommend. She quilted for about five hours and wrote to me on my church mission. Dan had woken her up at 11pm that evening. He had ‘accidentally’ put his hand in a cake she had made. So she got up and fixed the cake.
 

Week beginning 6 Feb 1983

​A snow storm caused Mom to be late getting home on Monday, making for a short Family Home Evening conducted by Crystal. She got letters that week from Mike on his church mission, and another from Lisa feeling sick from pregnancy. Lisa encouraged Dan and Crystal to visit over the summer. Perhaps she was feeling a bit homesick.

Crystal had to go to the orthodontist this week to get spacers put in. More interaction with Lisa made it clear she wanted to stay with our grandparents since her in-laws were not supportive. Our cousin, Jeff was asking to do the same thing so Grammy Miller called to chat with Mom about it. Seems Grammy wasn’t really in a position to take in either at that time. Despite that, Grammy Miller seems to have let Lisa go to PA from where she was living. PA was closer for her than UT. Mom was worried because of the heavy snow in the weather report, but Lisa made it safe at least. At issue was that her husband of that time, Vince, was in basic training in the military. They had no money until he got paid. The in-laws were very negative about everything which put Lisa in a bad place.

Spring-like weather that Friday. That week Mom put in for a job that came up within Thiokol. It was a “six” level job. She said she was sure not to get it since she was new to her current position, and so many would apply since that level job was rarely available. Her boss wasn’t happy to hear about it. Dad and Dan had valentines and candy waiting for her and Crystal when they got home. Dad was working overtime that week which meant leaving for work at 10p.

Saturday brought time at the temple, then a bunch of tasks. Don Thrash gave her a tunnel to go with the family Christmas miniature train set. While she was away and Crystal was with the Thrashes, Dan had decided to clean the house for her. He had even dusted! The evening was full of other house chores (laundry, dishes, etc.). Don Thrash had been working on their taxes for them, and was expecting them to get a return of about $2000, clearly much needed. The evening ended this way for Mom, “worked on embroidering and watched a movie, wrote letters.” Dad had a Navy Reserve weekend duty after working all night.

Sunday brought church, choir practice, more letter writing and embroidering. 

In her notes on the last week of January 1983, she notes an awful experience within a family close to our family. A young man in that family had been drinking and driving. He hit and killed another young man (only 29) who had stopped to help a woman whose car was stalled in the rode. “Her door was open and the man was behind the door.” The driver in question “hit the open door and threw the man up against his own car several feet ahead.” She noted in her journal how upset the young drunk driver’s family was.

In typical fashion, Mom focused her energy in the wake of the news. She spent much of Saturday cleaning house, then took food to the family of the drunk driver. It was a busy day for Dan as well. He helped his German teacher move, then went to a football game, then came home, cleaned up and on to go to a skating party. She also noted all the tasks Dad knocked out through the day around car repair and some crafts work.

​That Sunday (30 Jan) was Grammy Miller’s birthday so they spoke on the phone. Next came the list of tasks accomplished in her matter-of-fact style: “Went to church, had family scripture study, wrote to Mike and Lisa, made pepper steak and rice for supper, choir practice, gave the scripture and prayer in Relief Society today, rested.”

From her journal, the third week of January 1983 was full of after-Christmas activities like exchanging gifts, and shipping boxes off for Lisa. There was some snow, so she talked about work shoveling snow. She particularly notes how Dan was home that day (Saturday), and he took care of washing the dishes. I wonder if that was so rare an event for her to have noted it in her journal. What do you think, Dan? She also notes that Dan went to a stake dance later that evening. Were any of us actually that young? I guess we were, or at least in this case there is evidence that Dan was.

In church that week she notes the focus of one of the lessons was about Alma 16 and 17 in the Book of Mormon. Then she notes: “Talked to the kids about responsibility of choosing right from wrong in TV shows, music, books, etc.”

That Sunday she noted she went to welcome Mike Holland to Honeyville. He and his family moved to the town about this time. The reason she particularly looked to welcome him was that we knew him as a missionary. He had served in our little branch of the church in Pennsylvania while we still lived there.
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She wrapped up her week/Sunday entry in a definitive normal way for her: “Burritos for supper, went to choir practice, wrote to Mike."

Mid-January of 1983 included lots of tasks accomplished, like everything she writes. There was getting her parents off to Pennsylvania after attending Lisa's wedding, getting the newlyweds out the door and accounting for gifts. She also mentions Lisa selling her piano. On January 15 she mentions her and Dad picking up a Basset hound named Sadie, born November of 1981. About the dog she particularly notes, "Fred loves her."

Later that week, January 18, Dad picked up "our cut up cow". For many years they raised a few steers and kept a nice full freezer of beef. She noted that counting all costs they paid about $0.50 per pound. That included buying, feeding, and butchering the steer. Not a bad deal. That same day she notes that Dan got the braces taken off of his teeth, and mentions that his teeth "are beautiful." Really Dan? Are your teeth beautiful?

The next day a snow storm dropped 17 inches at their house.