Beach Haven

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. 

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."