Beach Haven

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 4 July 1983

The trip was in full swing this week. Mom chronicles stops in St. George, Utah and Las Vegas. Turns out Dad was with them on the trip as he won $25. They spent time at Circus-Circus and Silver Slipper. They crossed the Mojave Desert, then on to visit Dad’s uncle, Ted, in San Diego. They visited Ensenada, Mexico and were disappointed by the shops, so they went to Tijuana where they found things more to their liking. Mom lists out the stuff they bought and notes, “Don’t know if we have room to put it all in the car.” The next leg included a stop at Disneyland. She says Dad ate too many tacos in Tijuana and suffered for it at Disney. The next day they headed for Sequoia National Forest. Afterwards they spent the night in Reno, NV. From Reno they drove back to home to end the long circuit. 
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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 20 June 1983

Mom had been crocheting a baby afghan which she decided to pull apart and start over. Sound familiar Michelle Beach? She went to another of Crystal’s ball games. I’m not sure I understand this entry on 24 June (Friday). She says she got a terrarium “from everybody at work”. She and Crystal took it to Larry Dodd’s house. Whoever Larry is, he must have been recovering from something as Mom notes, “He is anxious to get back to work.”

On Saturday, Mom took the kids to Lagoon for Thiokol Day. Dad had worked all night so he stayed home. Crystal had been sick for a day or so, but refused to stay home. After getting them to Lagoon she left Lisa in charge of them and returned home. After Dad had gotten some sleep the two of them went on a long motorcycle ride. They got home about 10:30pm, and the kids got back from Lagoon about 11:30pm. Mom notes that she got a sunburn.

Crystal was feeling somewhat better on Sunday.

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 6 June 1983

Crystal had several ball games in this early summer time frame. So far whenever Mom mentions a game they seem to come out on the losing end, but with fun times nonetheless. This week was no exception. Several of Crys’ friends stayed over-night at the house, Stacy and Kristina. At least I assume they were friends of Crys. Lisa checked in, seems she was staying with our friends the Barlows temporarily. Mom notes time with Lisa shopping for furniture and housewares to get her started. Mom spent time going on walks with Irene Richan. She went on a diet and marked some of her weight-loss progress. This week, as always, contained a long list of inside and outside chores.

Dad had a Navy Reserve weekend that week which was followed by starting a round of graveyard shift that Sunday night. Mom spent Sunday at church, choir, doing genealogy, making supper, and watching a little TV. Looking over all Mom and Dad did on any given week I have to say I get exhausted just reading about it. On another day she mentions going for a brisk walk after some gardening, then stopping to visit with ‘Mary’ and another day visiting with Nedra. Someone else reading this will likely know who Mary is. I believe Nedra would be Nedra Green. This combination of working for a living, doing chores to make home-life better, then checking in on others is a pattern that will seem familiar to all of us who knows Mom. She has always been this way. We would do well to try to emulate her.
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Let us also not forget Dad who was handling work and chores as well. He put in extra work when he could to bring in a few overtime dollars. The way Thiokol handled things back then was through rotating shifts. Dad would work a month on days, a month on swing, and then a month on graveyard. This rotation went on for him for several decades. On top of that work he served in the Navy Reserve to bring in a few more bucks, and still managed to find some time for us in the family now and then. My time with Dad was usually associated with one work or church project or another. When I was younger  in Pennsylvania he would include me going fishing or hunting, though a busy work schedule kept him from that more than he wished. When I was older and we were in Utah I let myself get too distracted with my own life and didn’t go on those excursions like I should have. Missed opportunity.

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 April 25, 1983

Dad had some back trouble, but went to work anyway. They had some early fruit forming on their trees. Then snow hit that week and they lost most of it. As a secretary Mom reported to a number of the company leaders. They put some money together and bought her some flowers and a desk organizer for Secretary’s Day.

That Friday they had a party for Dad’s birthday. Lisa helped cook the food and run errands for Mom to get ready for it. The party was well attended with a lot of people filling the house. Dad wanted to go fishing on Saturday, but the weather was not cooperative. On Sunday it was announced that the Stake boundaries were changing and their ward would be split.