MY MEMORIES OF MY SISTER FREDA

(I was cleaning off some 3 1/2 computer disk, since we still have an old working computer that has that drive in it. I came across this story on one of them)

By: Shirley Powell

I was about 12 years old when Freda died so I only remember her as a teenager. She was a very happy, bouncy person and was always singing and dancing . She was quite small and very pretty.

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There was always boys hanging around, one in particular I remember very clearly. His name was Orvill Judd. At the time he was very good looking and thought the world of Freda. Freda always had a mischievous way about her and was always playing tricks on Orvill; and making him the brunt of the joke. But as I remember she also thought a lot of him and would spend much of the time talking and flirting with him. He spent a lot of time in our home; and Freda would always get him to do things for her.
One time Orville told Nome that he would break a little wild horse that Nome had. The streets in Fredonia were deep sandy places. So the men including my Dad, roped the horse, and took him out on the road south of the house, Orville then proceeded to try to ride the horse. Freda got so angry with all of them that she started screaming and crying. Orville was thrown from the horse and broke his arm, and Freda wouldn’t talk to any of the men for a few days. Freda had quite a temper and would blow up quite rapidly, but she would get over it just the same.

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She was a very talented person. She was in most of the school plays that would be put on. Along with acting she was also an exceptionally good dancer.

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One Summer Freda put a store in one of the sheds Dad had out by the barn. A friend of hers, Isabel Brooksby, helped her gather up stuff from both homes to sell. In those days we used pop bottle caps for money, they hadn’t started using the cans for pop yet. One day when Freda was gone, I went into her store, opened it up to all my friends, and sold everything I could for just a few caps and pennies. Needless to say when Freda came back home I was in deep trouble. That was the end of her store.

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She loved to play tricks on people. One night Isabel came down to the house, mom had just baked a batch of bread. Isabel grabbed a loaf and pulled the end out and went to the cupboard for the butter. Us younger kids had the Chicken Pox, to stop the itch mom had mixed some dry sulfur with cream to rub on us. Freda had taken the bowl of sulfur and set it in the place of the butter, and never said a word to Isabel about it. Isabel lathered her hot bread with the sulfur mixture and bit into it. Freda stood and laughed at her. When Isabel got mad at Freda, all the Freda said was “Why didn’t you ask for the butter?”

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At the same time that she would pull jokes on people, she was also very loving. Some of my fondest memory of her was the long talks her and I would have, and the nights I slept with her and she would rub my back.
One time when she was still going with Orville Judd, he gave her a big tin box of candy(?) for Christmas. She was deathly afraid of mice. Orville had taken the candy out of the box and filled it with rocks, then right in the middle he placed a dead mouse. When Freda saw it she threw the box clear across the room and started to scream. I think as I looked back that was the beginning of the end between Freda and Orvill. Shortly after that she went to St. George to go to school. She was very popular and made many friends.

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I remember the dresses that mom made for her. Mom was an excellent seamstress and could make up her own patterns. Freda was very tiny, at eight years old I was as big as she was. Not as tall, but about the same around the hips and across the shoulders. The other places mom could expand the patterns as needed. In High School Freda was chosen to be in all of the stage productions and mom always made her costumes and dresses.

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While at college Freda met Walter Pace. I remember the night she called and told our folks she was married. Her and Walt had gone to Las Vegas, Nevada. They moved to Fredonia and lived in a little house back towards the creek that grandpa owned. Dad used to tell Freda that Walter was no good and she shouldn’t have married him. Freda would tell him that she would make a good man out of him if it killed her trying.

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Freda loved Joy when she was born. Freda was pregnant with Ralph shortly after Joy was born. She would cuddle Joy and sing to her. She was always saying, “I want a little girl just like Joy,” but when Ralph came she didn’t seem to awful disappointed because he was a boy.
Walt worked away from the home quit alot, when she was pregnant the last time. I would go with her and spend the night. I remember the two of us walking out through the corral and hurrying through the plowed ground to keep away from Johnny, the blind bull calf, when dad would forget to lock him up at night. Freda was very big and heavy with the baby she was caring. I was eleven years old and taller then she was. I would carry Ralph and try to help Freda. We must have been a funny sight.
When it came time for the baby to be born Freda was taken to a home in Kanab where a woman would take care of new mothers and babies for two weeks after the baby was born, Freda didn’t get along very good. Her appendices broke when the baby was born, and mom had the doctor bring Freda back to the home in Fredonia where mom took care of Freda for the next two weeks, but Freda was to ill and without any anti-biotic to take care of the infection our beloved sister died. The little girl she had, never knew how much her mother loved her.
I was very close to Freda and she always treated me like I was very special. She died in January, but before she had become so sick she had bought me a fancy jump rope. My mother gave it to me on my birthday and told me Freda had bought it for me.

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Many times through the years I have had dreams about Freda and it has always been when I was in need of some extra love or had problems that I couldn’t handle on my own. She has talked to me and brought me much comfort and peace.

There Is No Santa Clause

(I was cleaning off some 3 1/2 computer disk, since we still have an old working computer that has that drive in it. I came across this story on one of them)

One year Max told his mother, all year long, “I don’t believe in Santa Clause, I don’t believe in Santa Clause”. So Christmas morning when they got up there wasn’t any presents, no nothing.
Now the night before, just before everyone went to bed Max slipped over and locked the door because he was going to make sure that Santa Clause didn’t get in.
Because he didn’t believe in Santa Clause, in the morning, there was nothing there. When they got up the next morning the little kids were all crying and feeling bad Mother told Max to go outside and get some wood so they could make a fire. He opened the door and there in front of the door was a great big pile of presents and a note was pinned to the screen door, it said:

“Max locked the door so I couldn’t get in and I had to leave your Christmas out here”

and it was signed Santa Clause.

Pack Rats

(I was cleaning off some 3 1/2 computer disk, since we still have an old working computer that has that drive in it. I came across this story on one of them)

Told by Grandpa Powell (Max):

This happened in Bluff. We would asked mother what a pack rats was, because she would keep talking to us about pack rats in the house, and in the winter time they would take over in the house. We asked her what they were and she said they were big black rats, they were rats and big, but she didn’t say how big they were.
Either ourselves or mother and dad would go up to my granddad’s place and spend a little while in the evening and talk. One evening they went up there and left Gordon and I there at the house alone. We kept hearing the pots and pans beneath the stairway rattling, apparently was from the heat from the little wooden stove. (We would have to stoke up the fire in it to keep the place warm, and to heat up the water so we could take bathes and stuff, and it had a reservoir, that is a water reservoir). We decided maybe we would play some cards, but the noise kept coming from underneath the stairway, and in our minds it was the pack rats moving around in there, which was probably was, we didn’t know how big they were and we weren’t about to open the door and let them in. we kept getting scared so we put a chair on the table and started to look for enough stuff to put us to the ceiling in the 10 foot house. We were both holding on to what ever put us up that high. When mom and dad come back and came through the door it scared us so bad that we were both speechless and we didn’t dare cry because we were afraid the pack rats would get loose any time and come into the house.
Mother told us that pack rats would get into the house buy using there teeth to borrow holes in the wood. And we weren’t about to let them chew on us, but we were so high and dry. When they got home dad looked up and saw us clear up there on top of the “thing”, and both had tears in our eyes and we were scared to death, both of us about the color as the ceiling just as white as white could be. He about whirled on mama and just about whipped her, because he asked us what with us kids and we said it was the pack rats, they were over there in the closet, we were dead serious. He got us down to the table and then on to the floor, he then walked over to show us that there weren’t any pack rats in the closet. He opened the door and Gordon and I knocked mama down trying to get back on the table so that the pack rats if they got into the kitchen they wouldn’t get a hold of us.

Grandma: Their houses in Bluff didn’t have ceilings in them so they would take cloth and stretch it across, and that was what the ceiling was. They would see these mice and things run across on the this cloth, so Grandma would tell them that they were pack rats and if they weren’t good the pack rats would pack them off. This she used as a leverage with them all the time.

Grandpa: But she made us do what she wanted us to do and we did it because we didn’t want the pack rats to come and get us.

Mom and Her Flowers

Mom loved lilies and this picture was taken July 2008. We miss mom and her love of flowers.

This picture is from Marie

You Are My SunShine

So last Friday, May 8th, J, rented some movies and one of them was the
"Curious Case of Benjamin Button," It was an OK flick, not one I would buy,
or one that I want my children watching anytime soon. T wasn't going to bed
and A and D were already asleep. T stayed with us watching the movie (some
parts his face got covered). In the middle of the movie he sat up looked at
me, and starting sing, "You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine, You are my Sunshine, Don't take sunshine away." Later during his bath I worked with him to learn the while chorus. I asked him, "Do you sing that song in school?" "No." he said, "I just know it."
Well, I sing it a couple of time but it has been quite awhile since I have. Grandma Powell used to sing it to him all the time when we went up to see her. Needless to say bath time was a very emotional moment for me.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa;

Easter is coming up and I was thinking of going up to visit you. I want you to see the kids again. I wanted you to go with me to Wal-mart and help me pick out some Easter outfit for the boys. D has a really cute dress that I will have her wear, you would love it. It is yellow and has flowers on it. It has a mock jacket front, so cute.
There is a game that I know you would love to play, “Uno Spin,” I would bring it up, you would love it, maybe we could even get grandpa to play with us.
D is walking an jabbering up a storm. Poor little girl is getting her one-year old molars in. The boys, both love their sister, T plays with her and she loves playing with him. A is a watch dog over her. He won’t necessarily play with her, but he makes sure she is safe at all times.
A is growing up fast, I think being a prize fighter is in his blood. He would give Bud (your brother) a run for his money. It is a good thing Bud isn’t around to give him any pointers.
T will be starting Kindergarten this coming year. I have in enrolled in a good school, now I will be collecting school supplies and clothing. Every once in a while he will come and ask if he can play with Corky and Grandma Powell in Payson. I have to explain that you and grandpa both live with Jesus now, but if he is a good boy he can play with you again someday.
I know you will be having a great Easter. Tell everyone hi for me. Give Caroline a big bear hug for me too. Make sure to give grandpa a hug and kiss for me too, Tell him to behave himself.
I just wanted you to know how much I miss you both and wish you where still here.
Just remember, I LOVE YOU MORE!!
Rebekah

The Sleep Over

This Story is from Rachel (Max and Shirley's granddaughter)

I remember when I was about five or six I stayed the night with Grandma and Grandpa while my family went out. I had a lot of fun. Will earlier that day Grandma gave me a piece of gum and I did not want to get rid of it when I went to bed, so I stuck it on my pillow, in the morning I had gum every where, Grandma had to cut my hair and I felt horrible, because I ruined grandma's sheets.

German Pancakes

I was making German pancakes for my family for breakfast a very days ago. I was not as excited to do this as I normally am.
As I was making them up my mind keep going back to Grandpa Powell (Max). Every time I would go to Payson for a visit he would always request me to make them for breakfast the next morning. He loved my German pancakes. While grandma and I would have them with jelly, jam, or syrup, grandpa had to have his salsa and salt and pepper. It was pure joy for me to make them for him and watch him happily consume them.

Blessings and plane tickets

Toni sent me this e-mail yesterday, and I think this is just so very typical of Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you so much for sharing this story with the family.

IN 1973 Howard decided we were moving to Hawaii. The beginning of March he sent me and Jeremey (5 months old) ahead and he stayed in Holbrook to complete his teaching contract. He moved in to Mom and Dad's Holbrook Trailer.

Those few months were really difficult. Jeremey was sick and I was taking him to the doctor every other week. Nothing helped. He would wake up about 11 pm and cry for hours. I had to take him outside so he wouldn't wake anyone else up. I was really homesick and living with the inlaws alone was hard. I didn't know how they wanted things done and unlike my own family they were very critical. After a couple of months Howard sent me a ticket to come back to Holbrook. It wasn't until I reached Holbrook that I discovered that Mom and Dad were worried about me and the baby and they purchased the ticket and told Howard to bring me back. That meant a lot to me. I knew they didn't have much money and even though then you could fly for less than $200 round trip, wages were similarly low.

I took Jeremey to our doctor in Holbrook and after hearing how often he had been sick the doctor did some tests and discovered that the baby was low in iron. Probably caused by the original sickness. He put him on iron and he literally was never sick again until he was 3 or 4. Not even a cold. He slept well the whole night through too. We returned to Hawaii in June. In Hawaii the baby again woke up everynight and we had to take him outside for a couple of hours. He did it until we moved out of the Lua house. Then never again. I have always thought that strange. I am ever grateful to Mom and Dad for that plane ticket.