Joyce, Robyn & Shelly

Here is a copy of a drawing that Dad and Mom kept on an end table in their living room.

This is a 3 Generation drawing of Joyce (Bigelow) Williams (Byron's sister), her daughter Robyn (Williams) Hall, and Robyn's daughter, Shelly Hall Huffman.

There was a note on the back of the drawing from Robyn saying she had a friend make it for her. I think this is beautiful -- 3 lovely ladies.

Silas Holt Bigelow (Post by Emma Lu Draper)

Copy of Post by Emma Lu Draper on 12/12/2016

A Spectacular Man - Silas Holt Bigelow

· 13 December 2016 ·

Silas Holt Bigelow Born: 7 April 1894 Cardston, Alberta, Canada Died: 23 April 1953 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Burial: 27 April 1953 Farmington, Davis, Utah Married Cecil Kennard 6 September 1922, Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Children: Byron James Bigelow 1928 – 2007 Joyce Bigelow 1929 - 1996 Dianna Kay Bigelow 1932 – 2008 You could describe him as a spectacular man of fatih, wisdom, and honorable deeds. Uncle Si, his nick name, was a true gentlman with a charismatic personally. He had class in all he did. He liked to dress well, have a clean home and gave care to his children and his loving wife though her battle with cancer. Uncel Si was a jolly man and the sound of his robust laughter, which was infectious, would tickle your funny bone, and he called the woman in his life, including me, Lady Bug. Among his talents was music. Many attendees enjoyed his meloic voice as he sang with the Swanne Singers for a good number of years, and he looked handsome in his formal attire. Another talent inclued a flare for cooking. His dinning table would be set with love and care whenever he pressnted a delicious meal. He could be called a professional chelf by his skill in presenting a mouth-watering meal for his hungry guests. The plates were warmed in the oven to insure a hot meal and he stood at the head of the table and carved the meat to the satifaction of his guests. The aroma of the side dishes filled the air with a pleasing scent. He also cooked a wonderful breakfact consisting of eggs, bacon and waffles along with all the trimmings to hungry girls, his own daughter, Dianna, and myself, who enjoyed being a overnight guest in his home. He cooked as if serving a royal army. It tasted so scrumptious. Whenever my family traveled from Nevada to Utah, one of the first stops my mother insisted on making was a surprise trip to the store where Uncel Si worked. He huged her, laughed, which was heard all over the store, and showed great affection to is beloved sister. He had concern for all of his family and honored each one of them. When life became a burrden to Mom, it was Uncle Si who traveled to Ogden to give a blessing and comfort to our family. We loved him dearly. As my family moved from Pioche, Nevada, to Ogden, Uncle Si and Mom became close brother and sister once again. After Aunt Cecil passed away, my mother, his sister Margaret, would take the Bamburger train to the big city of Salt Lake to help her brother with spring house cleaning; I would travel with her. Together they worked cleaning curtains, walls and the nooks and corners of his home on Emerson Avenue, Salt lake City, Utah Uncle Si had an urge to refurbish his home and called upon Mom to help with the decorating. The living room and dinning room took on a new fashion with fresh paint, plush carpet and curtains with their airy feeling. Uncle Si chose period style, classy, furniture complete with the Duncan Phyfe table and chairs for his dinning room; where he loved to entertain. It was Uncle Si and Aunt Cecil who introduced my mom, Margaret Bigelow, and my dad, Otto Kennard Nye, at a dinner party held in their honor. Well, that was the beginning of my family. It is interesting to note Margaret, my mom, was a sister to Uncle Si and Otto was an nephew to Aunt Cecil. Yes, Bryon, Joyce and Dianna and I were first and second cousins; always interesting. At the death of Uncle Si, Mother received a telephone call telling her he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away very quickly in his home. I was standing close to her and witness her deep grief at the shock of his passsing. I too experienced a sudden void; he is gone! The next weeks were saddened with grieving by his family and deovoted friends. Uncle Si’s funeral gave comfort as tributes were paid to him for his honable life of caring, sharing. and giving love to family and friends. Uncle Si may be relatively unknown to the world, but to me and those who were fortunate to know and understand him, recognized him as an exemplar of a spectacular man. Emma Lu Drpaer – 12/12/16

from:
https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/31652826?returnLabel=Silas%20Holt%20Bigelow%20(KWCH-J8M)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2FKWCH-J8M%2Fmemories

Yakima Memories

We lived in three different houses while in Yakima.  The first one had a coal furnace.  The second one was white.  The final house was the house we had built for us and was red brick.  It was a beautiful house with many levels.  The bottom level had a family room with a fireplace, a couple of bedrooms (Ron and Larry had one of these), a bathroom, and a door to the back yard.  The "ground level" had the living room and kitchen.  Then there were stairs up to Tom's blue bedroom, Linda and my aqua bedroom, Mom and Dad's bedroom, and a bathroom.

The elementary school we attended was Whitney Elementary.  There were train tracks running in front of the school yard and I got in trouble for putting rocks on the tracks.  To get to the school from our house, we had to walk next to a large apple orchard.  When it was cold out and the apple flowers were just blooming or apples weren't ready to harvest yet, smudge pots would be lit to keep the fruit and/or flowers warm so they wouldn't freeze.  This meant our noses would get quite black inside from breathing in the smoke.

We also lived next to a golf course and sometimes we would find golf balls outside of the course.  One time I got paid a dime (which was a lot of money to me then) for returning a golf ball from outside the fence to someone inside.

I remember a school fairs (at the junior high I believe) where they had a cake walk.

For Halloween one year, Mom sewed Tom a clown suit.  Dad would take us trick-or-treating when we were young.

Our church building was light pink on the outside and had stained glass windows.

Boise Memories

We moved to Boise from Pocatello the summer (August?) of 1971.

I was in choir from grades 7-12.

Mom harvested grapes off of a concord grape vine in the back yard and made grape juice from them. Some of them may have turned alcoholic as I remember she had to pour some out.

Mom and Dad harvested peaches off of a large peach tree we had in the back yard.  Canning all those peaches seemed to take days and days.  We all helped peel and slice those bushels of peaches while Mom canned them.

We also had a large willow tree in the back yard that was fun to climb.  Eventually, it had to be cut down as it was getting into the telephone wires.  There was a pine tree in the front yard that was considered to be Sharon's.  Eventually, it got so big that Mom and Dad donated it to the City and they replanted it in Ann Morrison park.

I learned to bake while living in Boise.  One time, I made sugar cookies, but didn't look at the recipe closely enough and thought the sugar ingredient was actually salt.  So I added about 2 cups of salt to those cookies.  I thought it seemed strange but was still new to baking so I went ahead and added the salt.  Wow those cookies were bad.

When I was older and was attending BSU, I also attended the church's Institute for religious classes and participated in their summer productions.  We did Now's The Time and Saturday's Warrior's at the Boise State Event Center,  Those were great times.

We enjoyed playing games as a family.  We played Scrabble quite a bit and Mom typically won those games.  We played Sorry too.  We also played a game of Tom's called Milles Bourne (sp?) that was a lot of fun.  The kids played Monopoly and Easy Money.

Mom sewed my dresses when I was a teenager until I learned how to sew.  Linda also learned how to sew and is quite the seamstress!

Pocatello Memories

While living in Pocatello, we took lots of day trips to visit various places nearby.  We went to Lava Hot Springs (Mom didn't know how to swim, but she wore a bright red swim suit and splashed around in the shallow end), Balancing Rock, Craters of the Moon, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Scout Mountain, Grand Targee, picnics by the creek, and probably more places that I just don't remember now.

I do remember seeing the water falls and climbing lots of stairs to get to the top of one of the falls.

Mom made sure we learned how to swim and signed us up for swimming lessons at Ross Park.  We carpooled with another family who had a daughter my age named Laura.  When Laura's mom drove, she would make the car dance to the music on the radio by slightly weaving back and forth or slightly applying the brakes to make the car "bounce" in time to the music.  It was a lot of fun and the swimming lessons were great too!

I remember playing hide-and-go-seek in the warm summer evenings, kick the can, red rover, and Truth or Dare during sleepovers in the back yard.  I remember catching lizards on hot summer days and Larry, Ron and Tom catching snakes.

We lived on a hill (1334 El Rancho Blvd) and Dad planted trees and strawberries just over the side of the back yard.  Tom had a bunny rabbit and a rooster in a hutch in the back yard (at separate times of course).  Across the street from us there was a vacant lot with a large billboard size sign.  I liked to climb the sign.

During the wintertime, we went sledding down the side of the hill behind our yard in what was kind of a valley.  One side was very steep and the other side not quite as steep.

I remember flying kites off the back yard over the back yard valley.  One time, I had a kite up so high that I tied it to a pole that formed the car port (we didn't have a garage) while I went inside to eat lunch.  When I was done with lunch, the kite was still high up in the sky.

Mom and Dad enjoyed music and we had a small record player that we could play our 78s on.  I remember listening to Christmas records, a record of Primary music, the Tijuana Brass, the carrot seed (see another post for a YouTube link to the carrot seed song), Snow White and others.

At the bottom of the hill we lived on, on the far side, there was a large canal with big trees growing next to it.  It was a cool place to go play when the summers got really hot.

We used to try to Trick-or-Treat the entire hill we lived on.  I believe Tom actually accomplished that one year.

There was a park on another side of the hill where we could go play.  One summer the city did crafts there.

Syringa was the name of the elementary school we attended.

We had Legos to play with and I liked to build houses with them.  For Christmas one year, I received a Sooper Gooper and Tom received a plastic Thing Maker.  They had metal pieces that we could cook our creations in.  Tom's created plastic spiders, etc., that we could then play with.  Mine created edible food in various shapes, although they were kind of rubbery and strange tasting.  One Christmas, I received a Feeley Mealey game where small plastic toy objects were placed inside a box, you reached in and tried to identify the items by touch.  Whoever had the most correct guesses would win.

Trip to DisneyLand

In 1975, we went to DisneyLand!  We saved for a long time to be able to afford that trip.  We drove from Boise to California and also visited Stanford where Ron was attending college.  While in the Bay Area, we visited San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf, and ate spaghetti at a fun restaurant (? the Spaghetti Factory??).

The Move From Yakima to Pocatello

We moved from Yakima to Pocatello the summer of (July?) 1967.  Dad had been living in Pocatello for a few months while we children finished the school year, he found a house, and we sold the red brick Yakima house.

On the way to Yakima, the tire blew out on the old green station wagon.  I believe Mom had been driving and she managed to safely and calmly bring the car to a stop.  Dad came back with the moving truck.  I seem to recall Dad complimenting how sensibly the car had been brought to a stop.