Birtcher Grandchildren memories 2000

Photo shows Grandma and Jess at Buckingham Palace on an earlier visit to England.

Memory of Jen Birtcher 2000

Because we all know that Grandma never asks for anything and she lives a very practical life, I was surprised, as I am sure you will be, when I heard her say she really wanted to go to Paris. About six years ago some of us Birtchers flew back to England for the Christmas holidays. Grandma came with us. While in England Grandma nonchalantly mentioned to me that she had never been to France but her sisters had. With almost an embarrassed smile she said it would be a dream of hers to go. Better yet, she said she had a cousin who lived in Paris who would show us around and possibly allow us to stay with her.

I was surprised to find that not only did Grandma and I have a dream in common but that Grandma was my connection to achieving it! So my sister, Megan, and I boarded the ferry with Grandma and left for a three day adventure in Paris. Upon arriving in Paris, no one would speak to us and we, of course, knew about one sentence in French. Grandma didn’t seem to be worried about this and so we pressed forward and boarded a train to find our cousin’s home. I don’t know how we found it but we did. There wasn’t room enough for all of us to stay in their house so Megan and I stayed in a youth hostel. What an experience that was! We went out to dinner that night with our cousins and Grandma. We stayed up so late with dinner that our hostel was locked. We were able to sneak back in with a small lecture in French. The next day we hit the museums and other sites.

We walked all over that city for the next two days, not missing a beat. Grandma was stalwart and I never heard her complain once. We were in awe with the Eiffel Tower though exhausted after the Louvre and amazed by the people. Although Megan and I were very conscientious about our money Grandma would not hear of it. She treated us to almost everything including McDonalds which was rather expensive in Paris. It is sort of pitiful to admit we ate at McDonalds in Paris but the point is Grandma insisted on even paying for that. We each had brought a small backpack with us and took turns carrying Grandmas. I am embarrassed to say that at one point Megan and I discussed ditching Grandmas bag because it was so heavy. We finally looked in her bag and found we were carrying a fancy long nightgown made of heavy cotton and a water bottle to keep her toes warm at night. Grandma sure knows how to travel in style!

Our last night before heading home Grandma decided to stay with us in the hostel. She said it was so we could all leave together early to catch the bus back to the ferry. However, knowing Grandma, I think she just felt sorry for us having to stay in a hostel while she stayed in our cousins' house. If you have ever seen a hostel you know that it is not a place for an older dignified woman. The bunkbed rooms are shared, the floors are filthy, and the community shower requires flipflops to avoid any diseases. Needless to say, Grandma smiled through the whole ordeal. After seeing her stay in the hostel with us, my admiration for Grandma grew leaps and bounds.

The next morning our adventures were over in Paris and we headed back to the ferry for England. I will never forget those three days in Paris with Grandma, an adventure of a lifetime. Thanks, Grandma, for sharing it with us.

Brian Birtcher memory 2000

My favorite memories of Grandma deal with her ceaseless concern for her grandchildren. I have always sensed that we are all very important to her. That has helped increase my self-worth. In particular, I remember that when Brian Haymore was staying at Bruce and Cindy Haymore’s, Grandma really wanted Brin and I to be friends. She constantly encouraged me to drive over there to the point of giving me money for gas and entertainment such as a movie rental.

All of the Birtcher grandchildren

I remember from the time I was little Grandma Haymore would sing her song after everyone sang Happy Birthday. Now I find myself singing her song at birthday parties. “As the years to by they seem to do the nicest things for you and every year you have one more you’re twelve months dearer than before. It might be just a silly song to some but when I think about the words, I realize the nice things she thinks about all her children and grandchildren.

Megan Birtcher memory 2000

One time while getting ready to eat dinner at Grandma Haymore’s, my husband at the time (Dan) wanted to help by removing the aluminum wrapped potatoes out of the oven. He picked up the first one and threw it back in looking around for a hotpad. Grandma skillfully removed the hot potatoes from the oven with her bare hands! Thereafter her name became Iron Hands. I have even told people I have a special genetic gift to hold hot things!

Jess Birtcher memories 2000

I loved going over to visit Grandma Haymore at her house when I was growing up because for me it was always such a safe warm environment. I used to work at a nearby greenhouse during the summer and I would come over to eat lunch. She wasn’t always there because of her job at the Church Office building but I was always welcome to come into the house (doors were never locked) and make myself a sandwich and watch a little TV until I had to ride my bike back to work. If she was home during that time I could always plan on a Snelgrove ice cream with frozen orange juice mixed in.

Mark and I always seemed to get in trouble. Sometimes Grandma took this very well and passed it off as just growing up. At times I think we pushed it a little too far. Early one morning after a sleepover with Mark, Grandma came down into the basement where we were sleeping and shook us out of bed. She was furious! Someone had toilet papered a neighbor’s house and they were not very happy about it. We were marched to the neighbor’s house and had to clean up all of the toilet paper. She walked around and helped us. How she knew it was us I never knew.

Grandma Haymore was incredibly supportive of my activities growing up. She was often there at my school performances, talks in Church, scouting awards. I don’t know how she ever found the time to be as involved as she was in our lives but it definitely was appreciated. It was always comforting to look out into an audience while sitting on the stand to give a talk to see Grandma there smiling away as proud as a peacock. After Mom and Dad she was undoubtedly the Grandkid’s best cheerleader.

Another fond memory I have was going over to her home on Sunday afternoons for dinner and afterwards, Mark and I would play outside, usually getting into some sort of trouble or another. She always seemed to understand that Mark and I getting into trouble was just part of life. She used to call us vinegar and soda because whenever those two ingredients got together you never knew what kind of chemical reaction you were going to get, just like us. She truly saw the bigger picture realizing it was more important for us to build character and memories by being together and having a lot of fun so therefore never came down too hard on us.

I remember Grandma walking to our house for Family Home Evening some Sundays. One such evening, she noticed I was reading a book. When I put it down, Henderson the Rain King, a reading assignment from English class fell out. She picked it up to see what I was reading. She later approached my mom to express her concern that the book addressed issues too mature for me. She was always concerned for our spiritual welfare. I also enjoyed spending the night at Grandmas. She didn’t have a working TV and she went to bed by nine! Picking her apricots was another fun activity.

Elaine and the rollerskates

Elaine and the Rollerskates

(as told to Caralee)

Elaine wanted rollerskates for her fifth birthday. Shiny new skates with ball-bearing wheels. When she woke up on her birthday, she didn’t see any skates. She waited all morning. Then it was time to take a nap. She saw her father go downtown alone. She cried and cried that no one remembered what she wanted. Finally she fell asleep. When she woke up, her daddy was home with new rollerskates! She put them on. It was hard to stand up. First she practiced wearing one. Then she put both of them on. She skated around and around the kitchen table while her mother was making bread. She had a warm and happy feeling with her new skates on.

Doug Haymore visit with Elaine

Elaine Holbrook Haymore 8-Mar.-2011

Conversation with Douglas H. Haymore

When I arrived at Mother’s house around 12:30 pm she asked if I was ready to eat and go to Provo to visit Jane Anderson Braithwaite who was in the Provo Hospital. We ate a nice Stouffer microwave roast beef, potatoes and vegetable lunch, and then I left voice messages for Jane and her daughter Joann who reside in Manti, Utah.

Jane later talked to mother and called me also. Jane had an infection and growth on her neck that she was being treated for in February. She is doing well and will require additional treatment. The Holbrook directory says Jane was born in 1930 but Mother said she is only 2 years younger than herself. Jane remembers Mother teaching her how to blow bubblegum. She has very fond feelings for mother and liked Dad a lot also.

Joann had written a letter to Mom on Valentine’s Day telling her about Jane being in the hospital and how much she thought of Elaine. I continue to meet extended relatives who are very fond of Mother.

Mother and I visited Grandma and Grandpa’s house at 1448 Browning Ave. SLC and took her picture in front. There is now a driveway on the right side leading to a garage in the rear and a short brick wall that lines the sidewalk which are new to my memory.

Next we visited Grandma and Grandpa Holbrook’s house on South Temple. The address there is 174 E. South Temple SLC. It is now a lawyer’s office and has a historic sign saying that it was originally President Grant’s house. Mom said that Grandpa Holbrook had bought it from President Grant. She remembered visiting her Grandpa Holbrook with her Mother one day when voices seemed strained and raised and her Grandpa saying to the effect” Well I guess you will just have to go home”. She and her mother left, walked to the bus station and returned to Provo. Arriving at their Provo home they found the furniture completely re-arraigned by mom’s older sisters; for which her mother was quite delighted.

Mother talked about Grandpa Brimhall and the tragedy of him committing suicide. She found out from one of her friends in Sunday school of the incident which had happened a couple of days earlier and to which her mother was still reeling. Some seemed confused that they had his funeral in the Provo Tabernacle but Mother and the family thought it was entirely appropriate, because of all the good he had done and the fact that he had been suffering for some time with something that she didn’t seem to know what it was. Mom was around 14 at this time. The funeral lauded his many good qualities.

Mother said his 2^nd wife Flora was very nice and that he had her at the same time his first wife was in the hospital. On the day the first wife died the hospital called to say it was the end so Grandpa brought her home to die there.

When Arnold and Elaine were married they first lived in Douglas at his mother’s house. Uncle Leonard lived in Los Angeles and said that was the place to be so they moved there and stayed about 3 years. Valerie was born in Los Angeles reportedly 2 weeks early and weighing 6 ½ pounds. Mother stayed in the hospital 10 days. It was customary at the time to spend 10-14 days in the hospital. Grandma Holbrook came for a time and helped the new mother and baby, and returned a month later when mom required an operation.

Dad went hunting to Arizona and was gone a long time. When he returned he announced he had bought a home in SLC and they were going to move there, where she would be happy and have a better environment for children. “I about flipped”, she said. She was not anticipating moving to Utah and figured that the draw for dad was the better hunting available in Utah. She was somewhat lonely, but had 3 sister’s living in Los Angeles who got together for dinner weekly. Elizabeth Berry, Ruth Brown, and Helen Dahlquist enjoyed being together and their husbands enjoyed talking about how they were going to conquer the world. For some reason Arnold and Elaine didn’t get together with the others. (Dad told me he had loaned his brother in-laws money in this time period). They did live further west, closer to the ocean and the war effort plant where dad worked. Mom was expecting Dan and had a nice buggy to push Valerie around in. They would go for walks a lot, clean the apartment and fix dinner. There were about 5 things difficult to get at the grocery store including bananas. Going wages at the time were about 90cents per hour.

When they moved to Utah dad apparently got the buggy into his 2 door car. When they arrived in Utah to their Highland drive home the owner said he was about to sell it to someone else. Dad had signed the papers but not left a down payment on the house.

Mom remembers going hunting in Utah with dad especially up the close canyons on day hunts. She didn’t give any details about how the children who loved to go hunting when very young actually endured the walking or how old they were.

March 15 2011

Elaine Haymore memory

Conversation with Douglas H Haymore 3/15/2011

When I was 15 or 16 I spent the school year in Idaho Falls with Jennie and Delbert Groberg. My Sister Vera was in Manti living with Rachael and Clair (Anderson?), while Helen was in Washington D. C. living with Ruth and Ray Brown. Mother and Father were in Washington D.C. also where father would attend congressional sessions and learn about the government.

I started school in Idaho that year 6 weeks late but my Provo school was probably academically ahead so I didn’t have any trouble keeping up. I was part way through high school. They wrote about me in their weekly letter saying what a bright student I was. Delbert was a friend of the Principal and talked to him on my behalf.

I slept in their unfinished basement. I would walk to and from school and remember it was very cold. I had a lot of friends but they seemed older than I, and were more serious about dating and marrying young. I had a non-LDS friend who had me over for dinner on a Sunday, after which Delbert picked me up. The students seemed to have a lot of secrets; many seemed to be planning on marriage out of high school. They were making marriage plans even though they were around 16 yrs old.

Alice, my non-LDS friend, and I didn’t have any dates or wedding plans.

The Church had encouraged them to read the scriptures at meal time, which they did, but Jennie felt like that left them without the conversation of what each other was doing.

Delbert worked at odd/extra-jobs to supplement the family income, including one where he kept statistics at the local movie theater. He kept track of how many youth there were and what shows they watched. I observed a lot of necking at the theater.

About April Father said Vera and I should leave the west and come to Washington D.C. Aunt Ginny Knight helped us get on the bus/train to the east. The tickets were made out and it wasn’t much of a problem to make the trip although I had no Idea at the time how to go about it.

Ruth and Ray Brown were in DC where Ray completed a law degree. Mary and Alva were also there but Alva did not like it and they returned to the west. Alva graduated from BYU and taught seminary. I would tend Alva and Mary’s small children in Provo when they went dancing which Alva loved to do.

Because World War 2 was over there were a lot of young men in the Washington area taking advantage of the free education provided to veterans. At the MIA parties there were flocks of boys. One of them wanted to marry Vera but she wasn’t ready and Mother and Dad said no. I believe he was quite broken hearted. Helen had a boyfriend and I wanted one but didn’t have one. I might have been a little too young to be dating. MIA activities would be at Rock Creek Park where there were swings and in one section animals. On one activity I lost my purse and someone said a girl was there around my things and must have taken it. I found the purse under a bush and was glad no one had taken it especially the mentioned girl because she was my friend. It was real foreign to me that someone would accuse someone else of taking their things. Spring was earlier than in Utah and the white blossoms were out on the trees.

Mother’s draw to DC was the Library where she did genealogy research. At the time there wasn’t a library in Utah. Mother would spend a lot of time in the library. (Later?) She got me to do research on the Haymore line.

I believe all three sisters’ we were spread out to have babies during the year- we were staying with them to help them. Mother never said anything negative about the family, only positive and I was of the belief that our family was quite amazing. Once in a while dad would mention something negative, but I didn’t realize till later that my sibling’s families had their own struggles.

Before we left DC we visited the military academies, I remember their rolling grassy hills. We spread out a nice picnic with watermelon and sandwiches on one of those manicured lawns and were soon asked, by the police, to leave.

We took the southern route returning home. Papa did all of the driving, we were tired but he seemed to not get tired at all. This was before the interstate roads so we saw every little town. It was a very long trip. I remember crossing the Mason-Dixon Line. Washington was on the north side of the line, there was blacks (Negros) there who were smart and worked hard and were well educated. On the south side of the line you would just see them sitting around on the porch in their small towns.

We would stay in houses at night that had rooms for travelers. I believe it was less expensive than motels. Father would stay up at night talking with the proprietors learning about them and their towns, the rest of us would go to bed. We followed along the ocean road and would see large expensive homes built right on the road overlooking the ocean. We went thru Phoenix on the way home. Father thought we ought to go visit the family that were in California on the way home so we did that.(( does anybody know about this part?)).

Elizabeth and Kay lived in California. Kay was running a gas station and Elizabeth would help him. Kay decided to become a dentist and did so.

A real funny thing happened to Elizabeth there. Elizabeth was real tired and her house was a mess. Ginny and Will knight drove up to her house and startled Elizabeth so that she hid in the closet. After a long time she decided to come out, she was trying to pretend no one was home because the house was such a mess and she didn’t want the Knights to think less of her. She apologized for hiding in the closet. Ginny was mother’s sister, uncle Will was Jesse Knight’s son. Uncle Will had a dream about a mine and it came true. He was really wealthy and willing to share his good fortune. BYU established a lot of scholarships because of his generosity. He started Utah Power and Light and other enterprises.

Some of the church leaders were of the opinion that BYU was too expensive for the church and that the institution should be merged with the University of Utah and taken out of Provo. The Provoan's were very set against losing their local university. (Elaine was very emotional about this and couldn’t verbalize a lot about this subject.)

Grandpa Brimhall became BYU president at the time the former president had left along with a lot of the staff who were exploring possible Book of Mormon mentioned sites. He may not have had his college degree at this time but finished it later. The Brimhall’s had 2 girls and 3 boys when Grandma lost her mind and was committed to the mental hospital.