Elaine Holbrook Haymore Childhood Memories
Recorded in 2004 by her daughter, Valerie
Brigham Young High School
School Memories
I loved being home with my mother and also father who was there quite a bit. I wasn’t real thrilled about going to school as I would prefer to play with my mother or go down to the store of Aunt Jenny and Uncle Will. I started school in the summer which was kindergarten and then in the fall I would start first grade. Brigham Young High was where I attended. It included gradesK-12. One day I skated to school and was late. The teacher was cross at me for being late and disturbing the class. She was an artist and had us do much of it but I was not very good. I think I enjoyed kindergarten but didn’t like being away from home. I think I learned to read in first grade and had the same teacher as in kindergarten. I have always loved writing things down and going back to read them.
I knew most of the children because they were in Provo Fifth Ward. Beth Bird, Shirley Brockbank, Grant Jacobson, Ross Merrill and Doug Jenkins. A lot of my friends had brothers and sisters who knew my sisters. Most of the time in kindergarten I went on my skates but then walked with my sisters the other years. In kindergarten we colored and learned about letters and the alphabet. Because I was scared through most of kindergarten I wasn’t sure if I had a nice teacher or not.
We had a band that would perform for a play which featured Beth Bird dancing around. All the band members were bears. We went to Salt Lake to perform in one of the theaters. Mother had made the band costume for me and we traveled together on the train to Salt Lake. We met at the theater and then put on the play for another school. The whole thing was absolutely thrilling. Beth and Shirley looked so pretty. I played bells for this. Later I played an instrument with my fingers that we had at home and was also played by Blaine. Like a banjo. Later I lost it on the way to school, called everybody we could think of. About two months later a woman called and said I think you left it on my lawn so we got it back. The band teacher’s son was in my class and he died later. On a cold winter day he dug down in the dirt, all day long, trying to get to China. When Louis went home that night he had caught a cold and died from it. Our band teacher always seemed sad after that. I learned to play the piano when I was older. Most of us were just good friends, not boyfriends and girlfriends. One day Dan Smoot came over and asked why I wasn’t going to a meeting at church. It turned out he had mixed me up with someone else.
I remember a teacher I had in the fourth grade. One day we were in gym and I was just fooling around and doing all the things I thought should be done in gym but some of them I did too hard and fell on the floor. When I got up I felt something was wrong and didn’t know what I was doing but did follow the other children back into the classroom. The teacher noticed when I sat in my seat that my eyes looked strange and didn’t do the things she asked us to do except sing a song. She finally decided I didn’t look quite normal so went into the sixth grade and got the teacher there to let Vera come and take me home. I remember walking home with her and every once in awhile wonder why I was walking along this street. It’s funny how I haven’t forgotten that. Vera just sort of looked at me and got me home to my mama who was very disturbed to find out that I wasn’t normal. I took a nap and when I woke up was just fine again. After that I didn’t try any more tricks in gym.
In sixth grade we had Miss Maughan who spent a lot of time the first day telling us what she was like. She said she liked the girls quite a bit but really loved the boys and for the girls to excuse her if she favored the boys and did she ever! The boys were kind of mean in the sixth grade but they weren’t mean with her and it took me a long time to see that because she favored the boys things went along quite smoothly. She knew the girls would be okay and the boys knew she had big hopes for them so they were okay too. She even told us that she had ears in the back of her head and while she was playing with the boys she could hear everything the girls were saying and I’m not sure why in sixth grade I sort of believed that.
In seventh grade in the high school building we had to really act just right then because we were in the building with the high school kids. Vera was two grades ahead of me and Helen three grades so she may have been in college. I did have a good time in high school. We had wonderful teachers. In all of the grades we had teacher trainers. Those were ladies from college who were trying to learn how to be teachers and they were such a nice group of people. We loved it when the trainers came. I remember we learned just as much as if we had had our regular teacher there. In fact, for a long time I thought the trainers were special people who had been sent there to teach us because we were so smart and they were too and needed to move along with us. I didn’t realize they were just making teachers.
I can remember some sad and good times in high school. I remember some friends of mine who got rheumatic fever and were out of school for months, two girls and their little sister. One of them came back to school one day and told us how awful it was to have rheumatic fever. They had to stay in bed for most of the school year. I also remember (something I have wanted to forget so I won’t tell that). The last year of high school was when I met your dad. He had one of his friends who was older call and ask me for a date. I said sure. He was going to BYU and would come over when the high school girls would be doing their marching and singing about BYU. No matter how well we did the program BY high didn’t ever win. He liked to watch us practice to see how committed we were and then how disappointed we were when we didn’t ever win. Somehow, Provo High and the other high schools had better teams than we did. It was like a pep club. I don’t remember seeing Arnold there but he came one night to see if I would like to go out. The lights all went out so mother came in with a big candle. She liked Arnold and said I could go. He knew he had to ask mother.
I did my geography homework each night. One day I came a little bit early to class and Beth Bird was there. She says, oh Elaine, let me take your homework and make a quick copy of it to turn in. So that’s what she did. She was a really cute girl. The next day we got our homework back and I got a C and she got an A. I have never quite gotten over that. I guess the teacher must have thought I copied hers. We would read a book, study, listen to the teacher, and then write an essay to answer questions. We did have math and another class I took because I had missed taking science earlier. Towards the end of the last year of high school they had me take a science class and it was full of boys. It was a hard class, how sweet the teacher was, and he gave me a B even though I never really knew what the class was about. I didn’t have enough background in it. I was a good speller. Drawing wasn’t easy for me. I would look at the other kids drawings and be surprised at how good they were. I got to thinking about that and realized I didn’t do much drawing at home. I am still terrible at that. We studied other countries with Miss Hollingshead. I had been to visit my sister, Rachel Anderson, and it was almost Christmas so they had bought me a lovely blue knit dress. I wore that to this teacher’s class. She started the class, looked over and saw me in my blue dress, had me stand up, and told the class what a pretty dress I had on. I felt kind of silly. I think she could tell how bashful I was. We had a lot of people in our high school who had had trouble in school, In fact, in some cases their folks would move the family up for the school year so a child could go to BY so we had some boys in particular who needed special help. It would take them longer.
English has probably been the most useful subject I studied in school because I have continued writing. It helped me write in all my classes. I thought sure I would be able to do a part on the graduation program but wasn’t asked and was disappointed. But I had been sick for awhile when I stopped having my periods and got quite thin and frail. I used to be quite plump but then I couldn’t eat much. I still don’t know what the trouble was. We went to the doctor quite a bit. I was actually glad to get thin because that was the style. I just didn’t seem to want to eat much. Mother had talked to my teachers and asked them to give me a lighter load. I was in quite a few plays which was a lot of fun. I think I was in about three plays the year before I graduated.
In high school I dated Jack Marshall who was a nice boy, I went to his home for supper one night. His mother was there and she fixed pears and biscuits and a glass of milk. She used to ride around town on a bicycle, really a cute lady. The dad taught in the college there, Dr. Marshall. One day at school a friend of mine, Sam Smoot, ( I never realized he was such a good Mormon) as he was trying to figure out why his friend Jack didn’t go to all his meetings, missing MIA. It had never dawned on me that maybe he wasn’t completely active but evidently that was the case. Sam asked me since I had dated Jack a few times if I knew why he didn’t go to MIA. I said I had no idea but that he should. There were a few other boys I dated. We might go to a party or school dance. I dated the boy who lived next door to me and we went to a school dance. He took me to the drugstore to buy some gum that was supposed to help your breath. I have wondered ever since if I had a problem since I had been too excited to eat dinner. I don’t remember of doing anything wrong on dates but I know some of the kids did. One of the girls got pregnant but I could never quite figure that out as the boy wasn’t very cute and she was. I don’t remember her ever having the baby.
At Home
Father did all the yardwork. Grandpa and Raymond would have fun with the chickens. One day when I was about in the fourth grade, I learned from some of my friends that if we dug holes in the backyard we could golf. Vera and I would bring friends home to golf and all the family would come out to play. Another thing we did outside was to make ice cream. We would invite people over to share it with us. Mother was actually a very good cook, being careful what we ate and mostly using home grown produce. She was health conscious. I got a little fat then but started to lose weight in my teen years. Mother learned a lot in Relief Society which she didn’t attend for a few years because it had stopped and then she was busy having children. After I was born she joined again. We girls all remember those Relief Society meals.
I didn’t worry much about my hair until I was in high school. We had a beauty parlor visited by my mother’s half sister. I went there sometimes to have my hair fixed and would be uncomfortable if this half-sister was there. I was aware that there was not a close relationship between my mother and this sister.
After I met Arnold we went together that summer and then he went home to Douglas. Then he went to I believe it was northern Idaho to work for one of his relatives but soon after he came to visit me in Provo so I guess that didn’t work out. Anyway, we had a good time. When I got in college I was appointed as one of the three people to be in charge of the class. There were two boys and me. One of them was from Arizona. When Arnold came back to school they could see that I wasn’t dating anybody else so he wanted to get married at Christmas time. He would be 21 and I would be 18 ½. That’s what we did. We went to school and then got married.
My sisters and I used to visit a lot and go for walks. I would spend most of my time listening to Helen who was in college and secretary of the studentbody. She had a lot of good information to tell us! We got accustomed to college this way. Helen had a boyfriend who went on a mission and dated a lot while he was gone. When Carlyle came back, she was a senior. I got quite a lot out of college because of two sisters who were there, Vera and Helen, who kept me up on what was going on.
I used to read a lot. I read Louisa May Alcotts books, Rebecca books, a book about a little girl whose parents had died so she had to learn to take care of herself. I read lots of good books. Later I read many of the Shakespeare stories which a teacher gave me as a gift. I was shocked by some of it. When I went to visit the Birtchers in England I enjoyed visiting his home there. In the summers I helped clean and make cookies and cakes for the older sisters’ boyfriends. I took cooking in high school and liked it. We had a garden which was mostly my dad’s job. We made our own clothes mostly. My first year in college I made about three dresses and had never sewed before that. The teacher always seemed a little disgusted at how much help I needed. One of the dresses was for summer and it had a big print which I had seen in a magazine. It zipped up the front and had little figures on it. The other one was white and pink and was my best dress. First of all we made aprons and wore them to class using the pockets for thread and things. Neither my friend nor I got ours completed when we were supposed to so we took them home to finish. I got married at Christmastime in that first year of college.
Arnold decided to leave school early and I thought it was because he wasn’t doing very well but he said it was because he wanted to get a job. He had received some money when he turned 21 as a result of insurance from the early death of his father and brother in an airplane crash. The children in the family all received this. Arnold wanted to look around for a motel or apartment and put this money down on it. He looked carefully. We met his Uncle Walter in Tucson and looked there but were discouraged. Uncle Millard wanted us to come to California and purchase some apartments he knew about there. Arnold seemed to have been waiting for something like this. I think it encouraged him that Uncle Millard, his father’s brother, had taken an interest in him. We did like these apartments and moved to California where we stayed in one of the units. Everything about it was nice and I was happy with that.
Baptism
What is so interesting about that baptism is that while some of it is a clear memory much of it isn’t. I went with my mother to a building on the west side of town. One of my sisters at least was with us. I remember it being a very important day but maybe not as much fun as they are today. We went and gave the clerk our paperwork, he asked us some questions and there were lots of people waiting to be baptized. The pool was quite large. After my baptism by someone who worked there, my mother helped me get dressed. It was done carefully but without all family members present as was the custom. My mother prepared me for it.
Memories of Grandparents
Arnold and I were married and listened to President Grant speak at conference, pounding his fist, “work by the job, the job, not by the hour.” Later on I remember reading about his life; his father died and his mother sewed to make enough money for young Heber. She made him a beautiful coat for Christmas, which he wore shouting with glee. Outside while walking around he saw one of his friends without a coat so he immediately took off this new coat and gave it to him. When Heber got home he began to wonder if his mother would feel the satisfaction he did. She cried when he told her about it because she had worked so hard and stayed up so many nights. The Grants came to my grandparent’s home and took them for rides on Sunday. I wonder now if my grandfather ever learned to drive a car though he was wonderful with horses. He would lend small amounts of money until friends could do better in business. President Grant was the first church president I really remember. Later on these Holbrook grandparents would come out to our place and bring things for Danny, enjoying him so much. I remember going with father and mother to Salt Lake to visit, traveling on the Orem (train from Provo to Salt Lake). We would visit with them for awhile and then go home the next day. They were always cheerful even though they were older. If I happened to wet the bed which was likely while visiting them, grandma would just smile about it. Once I brought a friend from Provo up to visit with these grandparents and attended a show. I visited grandma frequently after grandpa died. She got to have her sister’s granddaughter, Heidi, stay with her for awhile after her mother and grandmother moved to Paris for a music career.
While Valerie was living in England, I was able to travel to Wolverhampton and then Paris where I stayed with Heidi, being accompanied by Jen and Megan Birtcher who stayed in a hostel. It was nice to reacquaint myself with them. When we finished visiting we traveled all over Paris with our luggage. I traveled home from this trip with Julie.
Travel while young
My father and Uncle Will Knight used to sell winter coats for the Knight woolen mills. Father would pack the car full of coats and I would get in the front with mother and father and then go to southern Utah and knock on doors. The farmer wives would be glad to see us and let me warm my feet at their stoves. I was about four or five. We did that for one winter and maybe a summer. Cars were not heated and it was very cold. One night we stayed in a hotel. Mother and I went up to the room. I went back down to find dad. I saw a man speaking in another room which looked like my dad so I went in and pulled on him and told him to come. When I looked up it was a strange man and I was so embarrassed. He said out loud, “this little girl seems to have lost her father”. I slipped quietly back upstairs to the hotel room where we were sleeping.
We did go on lots of trips beginning before I went to school. Once we went to Long Beach, staying in a little cottage on the beach which had a few mouse tracks in it. When I was in junior high I stayed with the Grobergs in Idaho for one year of high school. Vera stayed with Rachel in Manti. Mother, dad and Helen went to Washington DC to live there. Helen was going to go there to stay with Ruth and Ray who lived there and needed help with children while Ray went to law school. Vera and I went back the next summer to join them. It was quite exciting. They had a large house and rented out some of their rooms. After spending the summer there we drove home, traveling all over the United States, almost every state. It was a long, long trip where we would stop occasionally to eat a watermelon. Father did all the driving and it took about a month to get home as we stopped in California to visit Elizabeth and Kay. They were the last ones married in our family. I remember how oh so glad we girls were to finally get home. I think mother was too. Father was too though he didn’t admit it. He taught us so much about the United States.
My mother rode horses but never learned to drive. Her children all learned though I didn’t do any until I was married. I was in Douglas, AZ and my husband was my teacher. He learned to drive when he was about 12 years old as his father died about that time and was the designated driver following that. I worked in an ice cream store in Los Angeles and drove all over there. I scooped the ice cream, made malts, until I found out Valerie was soon to be born. Chocolate and strawberry were the favorite flavors at Curries. After Valerie was born they started making ice cream that was softer. We used to buy that a lot to take home. I had a hard time saving any for Arnold! Later on we took Valerie and moved to Salt Lake where Danny was soon born on Highland Drive. Gloria was born there also. We moved then to 6400 South where we had a farm with big trees and a garden. Grandpa and Grandma came out to help us often. We had a cow who had a calf, maybe 1000 chickens and piggies who kept running away. The oldest kids would go with me to chase them down. We ate the chickens and eggs, and drank the milk, and had a wonderful garden. A couple of times we made dinner for Frank and Lela who would come to go to BYU games and then join us for dinner. Our church was on Highland Drive.
