The Last Sleepover

July 2013. 

I might be crying by the time I finish this blog post....it's about memories and things that are near and dear to my heart.

 

My Grandparent's house sold yesterday. For 55 years, a Brinton has always called 125 N Fraser Drive East, home. I've written about that house before (What Do You Find at Grandma's House and Save the Pink Bathrooms, and Play Rug Town, and Dutch Oven Rolls and a Station Wagon, and my personal favorite, Ice Cream on a Sunday Afternoon ... or just look under the tag "Growing Up Brinton" on the side bar for all of my memories).

 

 

Still, it always seemed like this day would never come. That somehow always a Brinton would live in that house and keep things going and keep the memories alive. I'm thankful that Mom and Dad were able to live there over the course of this last year while their house was getting some much needed renovations. We stayed there twice with them over the course of the year. Once at Thanksgiving and then at Easter. It was important that my kids be part of the history of the house, that they have the chance to walk the halls and scoot on the floor, to run in the big back yard and to be part of the next generation of family that made memories there.

 

The last night I spent there was Easter Sunday night. I came to bed last, as is usually the case, after I had walked thru the house one last time. I took care to spend a few minutes in each room and to remember my memories there. I saw Christmases, family dinners, baths, games of hide and seek, talent shows, the last breaths of life being taken, blessings, births, and so many other things. I lay down and listened to my sleeping children and husband breathe. I looked at the closet door, slightly ajar, with the inside light on to give us just enough light to see, and so that no one would be scared, just like Grandma always used to do. I knew this would be the last time I slept at my Grandparents house -- my last sleepover. It was so different that the countless others I had been to at their house. Some in the bedrooms, some in the family room, some in the living room lined wall to wall with kid sleeping bags, and some even out on the trampoline, again lined with kids' sleeping bags from end to end. This time there were no endless piles of cousins and friends, just the four of us, on an air matress in Uncle Richard's room. 

Early the next morning, Easter Monday, I woke up early, the first one in the house. I wanted to see the sun rise thru the kitchen window one last time. Like Stonehenge on at the solstice, the sun streamed thru the kitchen window every morning, greeting us, greeting the day. I sat and remembered how my Grandma seemed to always be standing at the window or at least near by, and when we'd walk thru that back door she would look up at us, her expression would burst into happiness, just like the sun burst thru that window. She was always happy to see us, I was happy to see that sun come thru the window one last time for me.

January 2014...

And now it's almost 9 months later when I'm finishing this....yes, I'm crying, remembering, giving thanks, holding on to those great memories.  Dad said the new family has changed things quite a lot in the house.  They're making it their house now.  I'm just glad for 40 years and for this last year, my family and I were part of this house, that we grew up Brinton there, that most likely 125, will always be where the Brintons live in some way or another.

2013 Wrap Up!

It's 10:37 on a Monday night, and I am dead-dog tired, and decided to start my end of the year wrap up post, which I should have written 2 weeks ago, when the Christmas cards went out.

Anyway...it's that life eating me up again bit.

2013 ... it was a year of ...

 

 

  

Turning 40. For both of us. Joseph went first and I followed suit.

Jeffy turned ONE

 

 

 

James turned, FIVE.

 

 

 

And we've been married for TEN YEARS.

 

We traveled to Arizona and Utah (because really where else do we go?)

 

James started preschool in August and is doing quite well with his speech and physical therapy. He should be mostly caught up with his peers by the time kindergarten starts this coming August.

 

 

Our ward was also split this year as well. It's been nice having a smaller ward to attend, and we've seen the growth in our own family and our ward family as a result of this change. It's been good for everyone. Joseph even survived his first tithing settlement as the financial clerk. He's pretty much invincible now.  We call him the "Tithing Whisperer".

 

Joyce won the GRAND PRIZE at the County Fair this year. Feel free to make some of your own Grand Prize Rolls, which are really just Grandma's Ah-mazing Butter Crescent Rolls. Except if you are our friend Jim Langford, then I will make you some.

 

Of course we had lots of life with boys: HERE, HERE (and learn how to get dirt out of anything), HERE, and HERE.

 

For me personally it was a good year. I was able to reunite with The Wilhelminas and I survived a cancer scare, for which I am very thankful.

 

We're glad 2013 is over and we look forward to 2014. We're still here in The Atomic City, tell us when you're in town and drop by for some food and a laugh or two.

Who's Your Mommy?

You all remember the blog post, Who's Your Daddy?  We here at Atomic Soup would like to present the next installment of the series with a post titled, "Who's Your Mommy?"

Me at 18 months.  Mop top and favorite elephant coat.

 

 

 

Jeffy at 18 months.  Mop top and cookie faced.

 

 

It's been 18 months since Jeffy joined our family.  His birth should have been indicative of who he is.  Firecracker all the way, can't-go-fast-enough, never wants to miss a beat, type of a person.  He's funny, loud, helpful and adventurous when it comes to most everything.  And one day, I hope, he will even sleep in his own bed at night.  But despite that, he has made our lives infinitely better.  Thanks for coming to us Baby!

 



What do you find at Grandma's house?

Way back in November, yes, I'm just now writing about November two months later! We had the chance to stay over at my grandparents house. If you ever knew my Grandparents, and knew their house, you knew what a great house it was, and what great people they were. I did a lot of growing up in that house, and I feel like it's "my house" in a way, even though I still think of my parents house as "my house" too. In the last two years, I have become very interested in the mid-century modern period of design and style. That period is anything 1945 to the mid-1970s. The post war period, basically. It was a time when the people who grew up in the Great Depression and who fought WW2 had money and ideas to make their homes innovative, colorful and happy. Grandma and Grandpa were just those people. I looked at the house with new eyes this time and I loved every single minute of it!

This is the family about 1957 or 58. Aunt Ann is not born yet. I love this picture, but am kind of sad that my Dad is the only one still alive (he's the boy to the right of Grandpa in the back).  Sad thoughts over!

In the pantry Dad found a cache of old spice tins and boxes.  I just want to say that it was so fun to cook in Grandma's kitchen with my own kids this trip.  I had a blast digging the old pans and measuring cups out of the drawers and cupboards.  I'm sure Grandma might have even come down to help us.

Mapleine more than anything else in the kitchen reminds me of Grandma.  I think because she always had it, and knew how to make great home made syrup with it.

My grandparents grew up in the Great Depression.  They bought frugally and saved and put things away in cupboards.  Like MD toilet paper (remember that?!) and boxes and boxes of kleenex in closets.

Grandma always had a wet nap in her purse (always from KFC) and lots of little hotel soaps in the bathrooms to wash your hands, in the days before pump soap.  I found an entire jar full of them.  Remember Cashmere Bouquet?  How about Oil of Olay?  I remember Grandma used the Olay.  I thought that when you started using Oil of Olay you were a real lady. 

These next items, along with the NuTone ventilation system in the kids bathroom are my favorite MCM features of the house.  These were the "top of the line" of innovation and style to a 1950s house wife.   The Elkay Lustertone Drain Board Sink.  I get a bit sad thinking that whoever buys the house will take this sink out, not knowing what a treasure it is and just junk it.  Please don't junk the sink!

A Fridgidaire French Door Oven.  These were only made for about 10 years and you didn't see them after about 1959.  It's the same size as a regular oven, just oriented differently and with French doors.  It's funny, Mom and I had to figure out how to make this old thing work to bake Thanksgiving in.  Dad had rigged up a thermometer and display so we could tell how hot the oven was, and then you had to turn the knobs just right to keep it going.  It's still a great oven though.

This is the detail on the top of the oven door.  At one point Frigidaire was a division of General Motors -- the car company!

As I mentioned in the kids bathroom there is a NuTone ventilation system.  NuTone was THE innovator in kitchen and bathroom fixtures in the 1950s and 60s.  If you had NuTone in your home you were thinking ahead.  I also LOVED the tile.  The mint green 4x4 tile.  It was in the shower as well as on the window sills.  In fact Grandma had 4x4 tile on all the window sills in the kitchen and bathrooms.  4x4 tile is a timeless feature in bathrooms, no matter what the color.  However, this mint green along with the pink toilet and bathtub and the pink 4x4s in Mamie Pink in the master bathroom are totally MCM.   Save the Pink Bathrooms!!

 

Without geeking out too much about this, as we were there I just was really overcome with the beauty of this house, and the realization that these finishes were Grandma's choices, her style and it was nice to be surrounded by that, since she has been gone from us for so long.  How many baths did we take in that tub?  How many dishes have been washed in that sink?  Cakes and peacan pies baked in that oven?  Countless to be sure, but it was fun to all a few more on to the totals.

I just hope that when the house is sold and no longer belongs to us, the new family will love it and apprecaite the choices that still live in the house.  And seriously, if you get rid of the Lustertone, I'll buy it from you.

A Year Later

Fire licks the mountains above LANL

Today is the day I have been anticipating --- dreading --- waiting for --- looking forward to for weeks now.

(Read my account from last year here by searching my tag cloud under FIRE or just click HERE. See my Pinterest board about it HERE, and some posts I did for the M* HERE and HERE and HERE)

June 26, 2011 was just any old Sunday. We went to church, came home, ate, and hunkered down to wait out the heat of the day. Then it came. That end-of-days red haze in the sky and a pyro cloud that climbed thousands of feet into the sky. The Los Conchas Fire was burning (an acre per second) and our lives would be forever changed.

We packed, we left, and we wondered if we'd ever be back. We saw angry orange flames eating our forest and threatening our town. We were running on faith and fumes. We trusted the kindness of others to feed our bodies and trusted the Lord to feed our spirits. I still give thanks to Spencer and Renee Olson, Joseph's cousins who took us in, Ken and Tina Bond, my mission companion who took is in, and Shane and Dana Snedigar who fed us, entertained us, and let us use their washer/dryer. And a great big THANK YOU to family and friends who prayed for us, and countless strangers that prayed for us, gave us kind words and compassion while we were evacuated.

It's been quite a year since then. I didn't know it, but I was pregnant with Jeffrey when we left our home. The following 9 months were another kind of trial -- girls you know what I mean when I say there is sorrow in conception. Our home smelled like smoke for months and this weekend we finally washed the last of the soot and dust out of our house from the fire.

But this experience drew us together as a family, as a ward family and as a community. We talked about our experiences with each other and knew how much we all loved our town and our friends. We also determined to be more prepared, to be ready for the next emergency and to be willing to reach out to others in the same situation.

Aspens and oaks along NM4 near Los Alamos

The area is healing and growing again. You can still see the burn scars, but grass and small trees are sprouting. Bandiler is open again, and you can get there via shuttle bus now. We have a better emergency plan for our family and we know how to evacuate if we ever need to again.

I have to admit, all of the news about forest fires in the west have made me jumpy this year, and when I found out that my friend Jen's family was evacuated last week from their home in Utah I felt a flood of familiar and unwanted emotions come back.

So today, I'm praying for all of the wildlife firefighters that are currently working on the lines, and for all of the families and towns that have been evacuated and are waiting for news. This is what I know, that in crisis I can do most anything and have most things thrown at me and live to tell the tale.

I've been married for 9 years and all I got is Willow to show for it...

I've seen a lot of my friends post and comment on facebook that they've been married 20 years this year -- HOLY COW!! Today is my 9th wedding anniversary. I know that's not as long, and really, who ever thinks about the NINTH anniversary? No one that's who. In fact it's such an obscure anniversary even the traditional gifts are lame. Serioulsy, pottery and willow? I'm just waiting for the willow! Bring on the Willow:



But I've been thinking, nine years is a long time in our sound bite world, and these nine years have gone by fast. Faster than I can believe. I mean seriously right now I want to break out into a chorus of Sunrise, Sunset. It seemes like only yesterday that we were dating and listening to lots of music on our drives too and from airports and far away Queen Creek and the very far away Atomic City. And that's what this post is going to be about, music. Music that reminds me of nine years ago...


Sixpence None The Richer's Million Parachutes


Nora Jones' Come Away With Me


John Mayer's Back to You


And this one....by Duncan Sheik...

For you I want to sing a happier song
for you I'm gonna try to right all my wrongs
for you I'm gonna break my bad habits
there's a golden ring and I want you to have it
there's a golden ring and I want you...



For you I'm gonna sit and patiently wait
it's great if you're early but if its fine if you're late...



Here's to NINE more, and more Willow! :)

Mr Rogers Re-Mix

I saw this video today and it is wonderful.

I know we all made fun of Mr Rogers Neighborhood, but honestly was their a nicer adult on TV? Was there a person you trusted more on TV after Mr Hooper died? No there was not. I'll just say this, I still love you Mr Rogers and your little neighborhood.

The Middle of Nowhere, the Mall and the Orange Julius

There are things I really miss living in the middle of nowhere.

Orange Julius is one of those things. (Am I right Marie Cowgur?)

You know what I mean, creamy, orangy, smoothie goodness, only found at the mall.

OH THE MALL!

Can I tell you how much I loved Fiesta Mall as a child for the Orange Julius alone? We'd go, mom would always buy us OUR OWN Orange Julius to drink.

We were lucky kids.

Like I said, there are things that I miss. The mall being second and the Orange Julius being THE ONE. There are some OJ's in The Duke City, but that is some 100 miles yonder, and as much as my husband loves me, I don't think he'd love it if I just drove down to Albuquerque for an Orange Julius.

So what is a girl to do?

Turn to the internets and pintrest of course. For you can find all the information you seek and all of the good ideas you crave on the world wide web.

I found an Orange Julius recipe on pinterest, that was ok, but not THE SAME. So I tweeked it and came up with something that I think is about as close to the real-deal Orange Julius as you can get with your Osterizer.

My tribute to Orange Julius is as follows:

1 C milk
1 C water
6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate -- which is half a can, thawed a bit (I like the Old Orchard brand the best, it's a bit sweeter than Minute Maid or Donald Duck)
3 Tbs sugar (this is optional if you like it really sweet -- some recipes said powdered sugar was the best)
4-5 ice cubes

Blend it baby, blend it!

Now, I also made some modifications:

I used Old Orchard Orange/Pineapple juice and I added about a 1/4 cup of frozen strawberries in syrup (the kind you put on your Christmas waffles) in my Julius, and I omitted the sugar.

It was good.

It was VERY, VERY good. And now I can get my Orange Julius fix without having to drive to the mall, or 100 miles away, which ever comes first.

The Other Christmas Tree

This is the story of another Christmas Tree.

It's the story of last Christmas Tree my Grandma had at her house, before she moved into the Granny Hilton.

If recollect correctly, and who is to really say that I am remembering anything past my name right these days...I'm not, I assure you it's a passing phase -- but I digress. It was Christmas 2002 and one of the cousins had taken Grandma's last tree down and done away with it. No one really bothered to think about it, the tree was gone and that's all that was needed. As spring approached Mom, Aunt Jeanne and their brothers packed Grandma up to live with Sister Price in her assisted living home, which we dubbed the Granny Hilton. Grandma always did say she was living in the lap of luxury there -- and she did. The purge of her house began and we found all sorts of things. Thirty-five cans of Snow-drift shortening anyone? A case of pouring salt, family pictures, china, and the list went on.

And then someone noticed it. There in the front of the house, between the hedges was the Christmas tree. The last Christmas tree. Did I mention it was March too? There it was, that last Christmas tree, brown, scraggly, naked of needles and pitiful. No one gave it a second thought and was thrown on top of the garbage trailer waiting for a final ride to the dump.

No one gave it a second thought, until a few days later.

I was driving south on the Gilbert Road to work early one morning and a truck with a trailer loaded-over-the-top with debris was speeding the other way. In a brief second it was airborne, an old dead Christmas tree. It was a fine flight, reminiscent of the best of the Mercury missions, with the skeleton of a tree soaring off the top of the trailer and landing squarely in the middle of the road. There it lay, skinny and bare for the whole world to see.

At dinner that night, Mom asked, "Did you see that dead Christmas tree in the middle of the road this morning?" Yes, we all had. We started mocking and laughing, because who would still have a Christmas tree in March? Who did that tree belong to? What losers!

Then Dil walked in and piped up..."Ya, that was Grandma's Christmas tree."

AAAAHAHAH!! Even funnier.

Because we were the losers with a Christmas tree in March that landed in the middle of the road.

Before social media...

"You can learn all the truth from facebook."

"Oh, ya, I'll follow you on facebook."

"You don't follow on facebook. You follow on twitter and friend on facebook."

Or so say the kids in Sunday School...

But before, back when we were kids there was...

Shark infested hot lava on your family room floor
Aquanet bangs
Acid wash jeans
Pegged pants
Stirrup pants (oh the inhumanity!)
Combat Doc Martins worn by Gothy kids
Friendship pins
Friendship bracelets
Universal love of Duran Duran (ok maybe that was just me)
The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music on TV being big "events".

And we all knew about all of this, in Arizona and in Washington....without social media.

Take that 2011!

Pure Chip Bliss

The Piggly-Wiggly has had these retro taco Doritos on sale the past few weeks. It's been the siren song of my youth howling at me every time I'm in there. Just opening a bag is like opening childhood. And yes, I've opened a few bags these last few weeks. Pure, chip, bliss...

Now where's my aqua-net and sno-cone pink lipstick?

Growing Up in Mesa in the 1970s: Part 1, Main Street and Downtown

You know, because I don't have enough to do, and like the dust isn't piling up on the floorboards and because I'm just carefree and lollipops all the time, I've been looking thru some photos from a group I found on facebook.

"Growing up in Mesa in the 70s."

Now, granted, most of the people in the group are older than me by at least 10 years. But I did do some of my growing up in Mesa in the 70s, so I figure I can join, right? And as my family was one of the founding families I am in? Right? And since I lived for a good portion of my younger years in the original mile, I'm an expert as good as the rest?

So here's a trip down Main Street thru Mesa...


This was the Super Slide at Main and Dobson. I do remember seeing this but never going on it. Most of the comments following this picture had to do with how there is no more fun stuff allowed like this anymore. I have to agree. I am a survior of lawn darts, so I think a Super Slide would be just fine.

Let's talk TRI-CITY MALL! This was the first mall in Mesa. Sadly it's no longer there. (And the rant on how Mesa has let the west side die is something any native Mesapotamian can get behind). Tri-City had a Diamond's department store and a JC Pennys. My Aunt Ann used to work at JC Pennys. We'd go and visit her sometimes. In the main entrance of Tri-City was a fountain that came down out of the ceiling and little drops of oil dripped down on long strings. It was the most beautiful fountain in the world.


There were also groovy places to sit in Tri-City Mall. I loved these round benches. It was the place to shop and be.


Moving eastward on our trip, we come to Main and Center, the 0/0 point of Mesa. This is the intersection where all of the addresses start. Remember, Streets and Places north of Main and east of Center, Avenues and Drives south of Main and west of Center -- or something like that.

Guggy's Coffee Shop is picutred next to the Maricopa Inn. I remember it as Gabby's Coffee Shop. My friend from high school Valerie Tolman once went into Gabby's Coffee Shop. She said it was about as gnarly as you could get without being condemned. The old First Ward Building is right here on this corner as well, but not in this picture. We could walk to church from our house at Center and University (a 1/2 mile north) if we wanted. Now, this is all gone and the Mesa Arts Center is here in all of its post-modern glory. But talk of Guggy's spurred talk of other great places to eat: Sambos, Humpty Dumpty (a personal favorite), Cap't Heros Subs, Pete's Fish & Chips. Jack-in-the-Box, LJ's Pizza and Hobo Joes. For the record, as well, the original Dairy Queen still stands about 1/2 block east of the LDS Temple too! Some one also mentioned The Mezona, which our family loves. Grandpa Van and Grandma Vida ran the Mezona for years. Someone even mentioned loving the dinner rolls they served! I had to smile at that.


If you lived on Robson, Grand or Macdonald Streets in the middle of the Original Mile you knew about the wide medians and the orange trees. Every 2 weeks or so, they'd flood irrigate the medians. Of course, we all had flood irrigation in our yards as well and as you can imagine irrigation day was the day every kid looked forward to with a holy reverence that even the pope could not garner. We'd all splash out into the medians, each other's yards or where ever to play in the water. I'm sure we should have all died of cholera or typhoid, but we didn't. And yes, you paint orange tree trunks white to protect them from the sun. Everyone knows that.

Who didn't love going over to Pioneer Park and playing on the train? You can't play on the train anymore, and I'm not even sure the air plane is still there (they had a real WW2 fighter plane next to the train). I knew that train inside and out, under and above. We also looked forward to the times when the big kids would sneak and pour soap in the fountains. Everything was frothy and bubbly!


Right down the street from Main and Center, the 0/0 point of town was the Mesa Southwest Museum. In 1978, the school children of Mesa built the "Little Adobe SChool House" out of real adobe. You could go and pick straw out of the bricks. It was a replica of the first school house built in 1878, by the Mormon Pioneers that founded Mesa. We lived about 1/2 block down the street from this. I would frequently run down here to play. I would also always sneak in the back of Queen of Peace Catholic Church to watch the candles burn. I also always wondered why the nuns there did not sing like in the Sound of Music. Sadly, the Little Adobe School House was torn down by the short sighted leadership of Mesa. Yes, I'm talking to you city council! It seriously broke my heart when I found this out.


Moving a 1/2 mile north to University we find Mr Swiss just west of Gilbert Road (also at one time the end of the universe, right Mom?). I never knew this restaurant as Mr Swiss, but rather as Max's Cozy Kitchen. It was all yellow and cheery. My dad's current office is next door to this building. Now it's some sort of taco shop. And notice in the background is the U-Totem. These convenience stores were all over Mesa.


Coming back to downtown we have an aerial view. The old Valley Bank is at the top of the photo.
Looking east on Main at Macdonald St. Dad's first office was on the 4th floor of the Valley Bank Building. We would walk the 1/2 mile down from our house at 229 N Macdonald St., to see him and Grandpa sometimes. For whatever reason, my only memory of Grandpa before his stroke was in this building. He was wearing a maroon suit that day.



Downtown was full of old graceful churches with tall steeples. This is the First Methodist Church. We had a few MCC Choir concerts there. The acoustics are fantastic! The Mesa First Ward met kitty corner from this church. And the Mesa Second Ward Building, is also right on this corner.



OH Mattas! Best! Mexican! Food! EVER! My grandparents lived right behind Mattas on Main St. So if we wanted to eat there, all we had to do was park at their house and walk down. Sadly, Matta's is closed now. No more Sandy's Specials or Robert's Tacos...but lots of good memories.



Main Street looking west to Stapley Drive. Mervyns is out of business, but I can tell you, every summer, before the start of school, Mom took us all down here to get outfitted for the year. Rose-Mar Beauty school was just across the street on the other side and we used to go get our hair cut there sometimes.


Here is the Super X at Main and Lazona, just east of the Mervyns. Basha's grocery store was right next door and Skaggs Drugs was just on the other side of Lazona to the east. This was the place to shop in the day. Now it's a Goodwill and a Food City. My Uncle Robert used to work at this Bashas. I always wanted to work there too!

Main Street is also US 60, and although it was not as popular as Route 66, to the north, it was still a busy cross country highway. There are many motels, travel courts and places to stay the night on Main Street. One of the most famous was the Diving Lady at Lindsay and Main. Last year a storm blew her down, but money has been raised and she is being restored and put back up. This sign is actually on the National Historic Landmark list. Some kid figured she jumped about 6 times every 5 minutes and over the course of her life 60 or so years, it totaled over 15 million jumps! The Diving Lady is truly part of Mesa!

Then there is Buckhorn Baths. At one time this was truly the end of Mesa and the last real stop before Globe. You could go and take a hot, mineral spring bath there. I don't know if it's still open or not. The last time I drove by, about 2 years ago, it was looking very run down. I kind of regret that I never took a hot, mineral bath there.


So this is the end of our Main Street and Downtown tour of Mesa. There is more to come though, stay tuned!