Beach Haven

Week of 5 September 1983

Don and Alma Thrash joined Mom, Dan and Crystal to the park for a picnic. Dad had to get three teeth filled that week. Dan applied for a social security number this week. There was a good harvest of tomatoes so plenty of canning to do (53 quarts of juice to be precise). Mom notes “ordered a helmet from Sears” but never mentions what sort of helmet or who it was for.

There was a Friday night trip to Salt Lake to see the Ice Capades. It was ‘Smurfs’ oriented. Saturday was filled with annual Peach Days activities. Lisa got sick and was not able to drive back to Salt Lake on Sunday.
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Week of 15 Aug 1983

Crystal had a bike crash on this week. She skinned up her arm and leg. Along with a plethora of tasks, Mom spent a bunch of time making a quilt for me (Mike). I was still on my mission in Spain at the time. Dan spend some time over the weekend riding horse on the mountain above Honeyville with Lance Maxwell. Lance has since died (much later than this time period). Lance’s older brother James was friends with me in high school. James and I also at times rode horses on the mountain above Honeyville. Both Lisa and Vangee were living in Salt Lake City. Mom noted that they were getting time together.

This week was difficult for Mom in a particular way. In past years my parents had almost divorced because of bad choices Dad had made. On this week, Mom had reason to worry he was making similar choices. 
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Week of 8 Aug 1983

A big storm blew through that week. It was a welcome relief from the heat, and the pasture really needed the water. Dad and Crystal visited the book mobile, a regular thing in the small town of Honeyville back in those days. I’m not sure if that is still true. It was Dan’s birthday that week, and Mom and Dad’s 21st wedding anniversary. Dan’s big surprise was a motorbike! Mom wrote, “It’s an old one, but it runs good.”

That weekend Dan got stopped by a cop. Not on the motorcycle, but while driving a truck. He took some of his buddies on a ride up to a mountain hideaway known as “Doc’s Flats” above the town of Mantua. On the way, one of his friends was goofing off by standing up in the back of the pickup truck. Dan got a ticket. I wonder if his friend offered to pay for it. This ticket came at a bad time for Dan. As Mom puts it, “He just barely got his permit on Thursday.” Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?...

​Mom and “the kids” (I assume that means Crystal and Dan), helped Lisa lay some carpet in her Salt Lake apartment. Dad put a crib together for her.

Week of 25 July 1983

There was a Primary Pioneer Picnic that Monday in Honeyville. Lisa was visiting that weekend and Mom took her back to Salt Lake City after the picnic. It must have been picnic week, because the next day was a softball league picnic. She was in a cleaning up mode. After listing a bunch of tasks knocked out, as usual, she mentions going through some of Crystal’s clothes and a box of letters from Mike.

Lisa got word that her soon-to-be ex was in a ‘mental institution’ for three weeks. She, Lisa, was torn on what to do.

​Mom was looking ahead to Christmas already, because that’s just how she would think. She reached out to friends Don and Alma Thrash to start building a dollhouse for Crystal. She went to help Lisa in SLC and while there “bought a small family” for the dollhouse. On Saturday she bought some contact paper for the dollhouse walls, then found some material for bedspreads, curtains, and rugs.
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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 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 30 May 1983

Mom describes a long trip to Indiana to figure out (settle up?) with Lisa’s first husband. As it turns out he sold all her stuff and pocketed the money. He told several obvious lies, and it was clear the relationship was over. From everything Mom wrote, and stories I’ve heard after the fact, this person is a real poor excuse for a human being. He said things that made it clear he was trying to evade responsibility to Lisa or her future baby. When the trip was over they had driven 3500 miles in three days. Mom summed up the experience by writing, “It was a hard and sad trip."

Upon return from Indiana, Mom found downtown Salt Lake City full of sandbags due to flooding. She and Lisa went to the home of our friends, the Barlow family, in Bountiful. To get there they went through water that got deeper than the top of their car hubcaps.

There was a ballgame for Crystal’s team that week Mom attended. She listed out a number of things she needed to buy for several of us children. She helped Lisa work with a lawyer friend named Ben Hadfield to deal with her marriage. They decided on divorce over annulment.
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The rest of her notes revolved around a long list of tasks (as she writes about most weeks). Much of the list involved helping Lisa move and getting her settled into her new apartment.