Update on Grandpa!

I just got an email from Brent about Grandpa, he went to see him recently and send me this update. I thought it would be good to put on here for all who visit to get the update. I'm hoping he took some pictures while there and will send them to me so I can post them too. I miss him and think about him so much!!

"The Chinook Lodge, where Dad is, was in quarantine for several weeks recently, due to sickness. Things are pretty much back to normal now. We visited Dad last weekend. Michael & Stephanie visited with him Saturday on there way to Lethbridge. The rest of us visited with him Saturday evening. We ate with him for the big meal on Sunday after going to church with him. He seemed in good spirits. Nathan always likes to play the piano for him when we are there. So he did that."

Thanks, Brent for the update!!

Lila...part 4

I know this is long, but I sure love to hear about her life, I hope you do too.

By now several of our children were going to the school on Adams road. Before we left we had some in Junior High and Central Valley High School. We went to the 5th ward which later became the 8th ward on 16th Avenue just off Evergreen Road. The next baby to come into our home was Brent Michael. He was born on March 17, 1961 at 11:18am in the Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. He weighed 6 lbs, 11 1/2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Dr. Knight was our LDS doctor now. I had to be induced with him, my ankles swelled and I was toxic. Because he was brought on it was harder and didn't seem like a natural birth, however we both survived and he wa a normal healthy baby. My mother came down to help when he was born and we got along fine. Shortly after this my mother went on a mission to the Southern States and was there when I became pregnant with another child. Since she had helped with several of our children after a birth I knew she couldn't be there for this one so I decided not to tell her because I didn't want to worry her on her mission. So I swore all who would tell her to secrecy and then sent her a birth announcement when the baby arrived. Well, when she got the word she was so shocked she was sick for 3 days. (She told me this in a letter she wrote right after she got the birth announcement, also reprimanded me for not telling her). I should have known better but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It took me a few years after I was having my own grandchildren before I got the full impact of what I had done to her. I have told my own children if they do anything like that to me I'll skin them alive. Anyway the baby in question was another boy who arrived April 18, 1962 (on his father's birthday) and we named him Douglas Lloyd. He weighed 7 lbs 3 1/2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. He came at 12:18 pm in the Deaconess Hospital attended by Dr. Knight. Since he was brought on early he was jaundiced so they kept him in the hospital a few days after I went home. The nurses got quite a kick out of it when we came in with 8 other children to bring their baby brother home from the hospital. Since Doug came a year a month and a day after Brent we now had a big baby and a little baby to care for. My youngest sister Colleen came down to help for awhile, but since she was now married and had one of her own we felt that this was too much for her. So we assured her that we would be fine and she'd better go back to her own home where she was needed more. We enlisted the help of our older children to pick up the slack and they were a great help. Shortly after this we moved to a home on Barker Road in Otis Orchards (owned by Lamont & Phyllis Leavitt who had moved back to Canada). The home had 3 bedrooms on the main floor and a large unfinished bedroom in the basement about the size of 2 bedrooms. It also had a bathroom down there as well as furnace room, storage room, laundry room etc. It had several acres so we were able to have a few horses to ride and several cows to milk. We sold milk also which helped our income considerably. Our grade shcool and Junior High kids went to Otis Orchards and our High School kids went to West Valley High School. I served as room mother for several of the grades my children were in, then went up the ranks in the PTA from secretary to Vice President to President. The church jobs where I served while in the Spokane Valley were in Primary, Star Class, Firelight Class, Sunday School Secretary, MIA attendance Secretary, Beehive Leader, Stake Attendance Secretay, Ward RS Secretary. Woody served a Stake mission with Dean Maughan, Ray Gibbons, Jock Walker, Mont Leavitt, Rae Lybbert & Ross Quick. He also served as executive Secretary to the Bishopric later on. Also Randy served a mission to Calgary Canada Mission right after he graduated from High School. Eldon was called into the service while living here in Spokane. We lived here until Eldon, Randy and Diana had graduated from High School. Woody had now retired from Kaiser Aluminum where he had worked for 18 years. Eldon was now in Minot, North Dakota. The summer before Randy went on his mission we built a camper and put it on a 1 ton extended wheel base truck. Woody had a ten week vacation coming from Kaiser. We got Russ Novak (who worked in a camper manufacturing business) to help us build it. It took 5 weeks to build, paint and equip, then we went on a 5 week vacation covering 7000 miles. We went down one group of States, a little way into Mexico, back up through another group of States (including Minot, N.D. where Eldon was stationed) then circled into Canada on one side and down the other side and back home to Spokane. There were 11 of us (Eldon wasn't there but Diana invited a girl friend to accompany us). It was a great trip that we'll never forget. Eldon was sent to Viet Nam to spend his last year in the military. My mother died in 1968 while we still lived in Otis Orchards. The year after this we moved back to Canada in June 1969. We moved to Travers & Belle Smith's ranch (Belle is Woody's sister) as they had gone into Simmental cattle business and had moved to town and built a home there. They needed someone to take care of the ranch.

I need to stop there for now.

It would be fun if we could get some of the memories and stories of this trip from all you kids. There really aren't many details about it, it sounds huge!!

Until next time!

Lila...Part 3

Our next move was to Greybull, Wyoming where Woody found a job in a gas station working for Lloyd Groseclose. He pumped gas but also worked on the docks loading and unloading freight. We lived in a train refrigerator car that was partitioned into two rooms, a kitchen in one half and a bedroom in the other half. It was located on the land that Lloyd Groseclose owned.

When it turned winter we moved into a basement apartment in Greybull which had two bedrooms, front room and kitchen and even a bathroom. From here we moved to Billings, Montana where he worked on the dock and drove truck for Birlington Truck Lines. He had a night run from Billings to Greybull, Basin, Worland and Casper, Wyoming. He left about the time we finished supper and returned about the time we were getting up in the morning.

It was here that our 3rd child was born on January 26, 1951, a little girl 6 lbs., 15 1/2 oz. that we named Diana Jean. Woody was on his night run so I made a quick trip to the hospital in a Taxi across town in a blizzard We arrived there at 11:00pm and she was born at 11:17. She came so fast I was in shock after, but we both survived. We went to church only once while there and that was to have her blessed. (She cried during the blessing) We lived in a mother-in-law house at the back yard of another house. We rented it from the people who owned it and we lived there till Diana was three months old. We got word from D.R. and Charles that they were again hiring at Kaiser Aluminum so he built a trailer to put our belongings in and we moved back to Spokane and went to work for Kaiser Aluminum. He worked there for the next 18 years. He was laid off twice but worked one of those times as an electrician for Claire & Rex Conrad and another time for George Wagstaff Metal Works. However he was always called back and worked in several areas (e.g. box shop building crates to ship metal, can line rolling metal for cans and later assistant foreman & shop steward.) He worked here till he retired in 1969. At first we rented a home on Park road in Dishman. It was a nice house but too far from his brothers to suit Woody so we rented a house on Montgomery road in Greenacres, from Virgil Quinton, just down the road and around the corner from D.R. & Alice who lived on Long Road. Charles & Thea also lived on Long Road but farther down. Our fourth child and second girl was born in the Sacred heart Hospital on May 18,1953 at 3:20pm. We named her Cheryl Kay. She weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz. and was 20 inches long. Dr. Ely was our doctor. She tried to come earlier in the morning but I was in the middle of my washing so with each contraction I would hold on to the clothes line or the washer until it passed, praying things would slow down till I could get my washing finished. My prayers were answered and I even had an hour or so after I got to the hospital. Cheryl was a tiny little girl, but seemed to be healthy and happy. Our fifth child and 3rd boy was also born while we were living in Greenacres and he was born in the same hospital. He arrived on April 17, 1955 and we named him Merlin David. The middle name was after D.R. because he came on D.R.'s birthday. He weighed 7 lbs., 13 1/2 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long and came at 9:19pm. Dr. Ely attended. He grew quite rapidly into a chubby little guy, quite healthy and happy. We fed him on cow's milk that we got from Monte & Tillie Leavitt, our neighbors and friends who lived on Barker road. When Merlin was only a few months old we had a fire in the basement caused by a faulty furnace. We were blessed that we detected it early and got everybody out. Also we got help to get the fire out and most of the damage was smoke damage. We moved out this time to a house on 4th Avenue in Veradale which we bought from Mr. & Mrs. Wiltse. It was a smaller house and we lived here almost 2 years. Another baby boy was born to us on November 17, 1956 at 9:19pm. He weighed 8lbs., 8 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long, and we named him Calvin Charles, middle name after Woody's brother Charles whose birthday was one day earlier. He was also born at the Sacred Heart Hospital and the Dr. was Dr. Ely. It was at this time that we had an emergency 2 days before Calvin was 3 months old, also Randy's 8th birthday dinner. I took very sick suddenly and asked Woody to take over while I went to lie down. when he came in after dinner was over I thought I was feeling better but had to go to the bathroom. I got up to do so and fainted. The next thing I knew I was on my way to the hospital in an ambulance. I don't remember much of what took place, except they told me after I had a blood clot in the ovarian tube (they called it a tubal pregnancy). An emergency operation followed as I was bleeding internally and it was a rather close call. They gave me blood transfusions etc., and told Woody in another half hour it would have been too late. So D.R. & Alice took our baby Calvin and had him for 2 or 3 months till I got help and could take him back. In the mean time several people took turns coming to help, first my mother, then Woody's mother, then we hired a live in lady till I was able to cope. In the interim we bought a new home large enough for our family and the people who were helping us. It was the second house from the corner of Adams on 5th Ave in Opportunity. We lived there for several years, long enough to build a garage, and fix a bedroom in the basement for Eldon & Randy. It took me a year or so to get my strength back and there was some speculation if I could have more children. But while they were speculating I got pregnant and our seventh child was born January 1, 1959 at 1:36am. He was the first New Year's baby in Spokane that year. We named him Gordon Howard, middle name after my father who died the fall before from Leukemia. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long. He was born in the Sacred Heart Hospital with Dr. Ely officiating. We didn't get gifts from businesses as they do in some areas but they came and took pictures of us and we were on the evening news and in the papers. He was a healthy happy baby as the others.

to be continued...

I need to stop there even though it's in the middle of the paragraph, it's a really long one!! I am amazed at all Grandma did. They lived in a train car, also taking a taxi to the hospital by herself to have a baby, I wonder who took care of the kids or did she take them with her??? I have a hard time thinking about having a baby without my hubby being there. But I guess they didn't let them in the delivery room back then, so going to the hospital alone must not have been such a crazy thing, since they would just wait in another room anyway. I also thought it was awesome that she would pray for the contractions to slow down so she could finish her laundry!! Which means she was praying for a longer labor??? Wow, Grandma you are one awesome lady!!!

I hope you are enjoying these not so little excerpts from Grandma's history. I hope more people are reading them than just Jenny, although even if you are, Jenny, it would still be worth it!! :)

Lila...Part 2

Here is the next little bit of Grandma's History...

When I was 12 years old we moved to a farm out of Cardston on the Beazer road. We traded places with a Bateman Family. This always seemed strange to me, I had seen trading horses, cattle, etc., but trading homes was different and it took me quite awhile to feel at home there. But soon we got acquainted with neighbors and found a few friends to replace our old ones. Some of our neighbors were the Alec & Mable Glenn family, Brigham & Antrice Low family and Ellsworth and Erma Bevans family. We didn't get together very often because we lived several miles apart so we were teenagers before we had any youth parties. The first boy I ever went with was Keith Bevans (everyone called him Casey) and it was kind of a family arrangement. My sister Ruth was dating Fulton Bevans, his brother who lived about five miles from us on a farm just out of Cardston. When Fulton came to pick up Ruth, Keith would come with him and I went with them so I guess you'd say we were double dating. I wasn't too excited about this arrangement because Keith was younger than I was, but it got me places and we did have a lot of fun. Then Gib Shafer, one of Fulton's good friends, joined our group and I went with him for awhile. Sometimes we double dated with Ruth & Fulton as well. By this time England was at war with Germany & Gib was called into the service. Also my brother, Eldon got his call and after training went to England as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He had been over there only a few months when Mom & Dad received word that he was missing in action and presumed dead. Six months later it was confirmed that his plane collided in mid-air with another aircraft and sank into the Severn River near Bedwin Sands England. Date of Death was January 26th 1943. This was especially hard on my mother and she never quite got over it. Eldon was given a blessing before he left that he would return home safely. sometime after this in an interview with the Bishop, Mom was told that he did return safely to his heavenly home. I'm sure this was a source of comfort to my mother.

Soon after this I started dating Charles Boradbent. He had a very nice singing voice and had received a lot of vocal training from Luella Smith, a Cardston music teacher. During the time I went with him he sang at many ward and stake functions and I accompanied him there. I became quite smitten with him and his singing voice and the acclaim he received wherever we went but he too was called into the service in the air force, and even though he gave me a diamond ring just before he went overseas, which meant we were engaged, it didn't work out and I sent his ring back. During this time I had met and fell in love with Woodrow Forsyth and knew he was Mr. Right. We were married in the Alberta Temple September 26, 1945. We had a reception at the Blue Room of the Grill in Carston with a catered dinner and a special program. There were 50 guests present. Then we had a wedding picture taken at Atterton Studio, after which we escaped some people who were out to shivaree us (This was an expression for a disgusting custom of the time to separate the bride and groom). Russel Kearl helped us get to Macleod and then on to Lethbridge where we borarded a plane for a wonderful one week honeymoon in Great Falls, Montana.

We lived in and around Cardston for a few years, moving to wherever he had a ranching job. Much of it was seasonal however and we were looking for stability. Our first son, James Eldon, was born on June 26, 1946 in the Cardston Hospital. He weighed 4lbs. and 9 oz., so they put him in an incubator and kept both of us in the hospital for 10 days til he weighed 5 lbs. He was very tiny so we carried him around on a pillow so we wouldn't drop him. I was nursing him but he wasn't doing very well, so at six weeks old I weaned him and put him on formula and bottle fed him and he grew quite rapidly after that and became a contented baby. Woody was working for a rancher and we lived in a one room cabin provided for us; they were milking several cows so there was lots of milk for the baby as well as ourselves. He worked for several ranchers in turn and then he got a job truck driving and did well at that & it was a year round job. He bought a truck and was hauling livestock for a couple of years. One of his brothers, D.R. as he was called (David Ronald) had moved to Spokane and had a steady job working for Kaiser Aluminum. Also another brother Charles wanted to move down there with the lure of steady work, so Woody decided we should move down there too. We had a truck which was big enough to haul our belongings and those of Charles & Thea as well, so we moved down to Spokane together in November 1948, Charles & Thea and their two children, us with one and expecting another one in three months.

I was due in February and we were on a doctor's contract in Cardston so I went on a train with Eldon, our two year old and a half year old son to Cardston to wait for the 2nd baby to arrive. He came about a week later on February 15th, 1949, my grandpa Caldwell's birthday. He weighed 6 lbs., 7 ozs. and was born in the Cardston Hospital and we named him Randall Woodrow and called him Randy. I stayed alternately with my folks and Woody's folks for about a month till I was able to travel with my two boys. My folks took me to the border where Woody met us and we went back to Spokane.

Woody hadn't found steady work but he contacted his uncle, Herb Bassett, who said he could use help lambing and herding sheep for the summer, so we left Spokane and moved to Cody, Wyoming where his Uncle lived. We were there for the summer and fall living in a one room sheep cabin in the "badlands". Our busy oldest son turned 3 that summer and loved to play outside. I had to watch him like a hawk because there were known to be rattle snakes in the area. Everyone wore western boots because of the rattle snakes so we had to buy Woody & I as well as Eldon, who fell down in his before we left the store. Other problems included no water or electricity so we couldn't use our washer because it was electric. We had to haul water from the river, make a fire in a woodstove to heat it, and wash the clothes on a washboard in a round tub. I boiled the baby's diapers in a boiler on the stove. Also with no refrigeration we couldn't have fresh milk, so we bought by the case little 5 oz cans of condensed milk. This I fixed into formula by adding boiled water with only one can at a time to feed the baby, Randy.

I guess that will do us for today. What an amazing summer for them. No electricity or running water, with babies. I really am grateful for my modern conveniences!!

Lila Fern Caldwell

I know I haven't done much with this blog in a while, I'm going to try to do more in hopes of sparking some interest in getting the rest of you to start posting, too. This really can be a great way to keep in touch with each other. It really doesn't have to take a lot of time. Just a little blurb on your family and how you are doing. I also want to get some stories and memories going about Grandma and Grandpa.

I wanted to start with their life histories. I know a lot of you probably have these but I thought it would be nice for those of you who don't. If you do have them it's fun to reread and reacquaint ourselves with them. I have come to love them, I guess mostly because they wrote them themselves.

Today I'm reading from Grandma Lila's...

"I, Lila Fern Caldwell Forsyth, was born to James Howard Caldwell and Mary Rosina Jensen Caldwell on April12, 1925 in the Cardston, Alberta Hospital. I was the first one of our family to be born in a hospital. Being the fourth child in the family, I was preceded by twin brothers, Melvin James & Eldon Howard on Nov. 12, 1920, and Ruth Mary my older sister on Nov 10 1922. My family lived in Aetna at the time, about 7 miles south east of Aetna. The house we lived in wasn't very big, but it seemed large to me as a child, because of the attic room which spanned the whole top of the house with no partitions in it. For the first few years Ruth and I slept in the same room as our parents, It being a large room with no divisions. Later it was divided into two bedrooms. The house had one other bedroom and a large kitchen and living room, but the room we liked to sleep in the most was the upstairs bedroom or the attic. We could look out the windows and see the whole countryside. We also liked to watch the lightning streak across the sky when we had thunder and lightning storms which were frequent and we knew no danger in this.

"We went to school in Taylorville and rode horses to school. We only had one horse at the time which the three oldest had ridden. But now there were four of us going to school which presented a problem. We tried riding four on a horse for a while, but if anything spooked the horse, the one on the back would fall off. So Dad decided it was time to get another horse, so each of us girls rode behind one of our brothers and it worked fine. It was a mile and a half to school around by the road, but in the winter when the snow built up high enough and became hard enough to cover the fences, we rode over the fences and cut through the fields making the way shorter. Of course we dressed warm for the cold winters, with warm coats and hats, long black stockings and leggings, bloomers and underwear, overshoes scarves and mittens. Our school was by a lake that froze over in the winter, so at noon & recess everyone enjoyed playing fox & geese, pop the whip and other ice games. When the weather was good in the spring and fall there were other games we played like run sheep run, kick the can, dare base, danish ball and soft ball. I was pretty good at these games because I could run faster than most of the girls my age and older. My girls friends I chummed with were Effie Lowry, Urada Little, and Ethel and Leah Henry.

"Another thing I remember about Taylorville was the well down the hill from our house. We carried water in buckets to the house for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning. We really conserved this water because it was hard to carry e.g. when it was bath time we each took turns having a bath in the old round tub. When everyone was done, we used the water to mop the floors before it was thrown out. My brother Donald Arthur was two years younger, born on May 8th 1927. He weighed over ten pounds at birth and had a strong voice; the nurses at the hospital called him Big Ben alarm clock. Evelyn Gladys came next on April 16 1930. When she was a year old we all got scarlet fever. Evelyn took sick on her birthday and died a week later on aunt Ethel's birthday, April 23 1931. Since most of us were still sick, Grandma Caldwell came and stayed with us during the funeral. This was a sad time in our lives, but a year later on Evelyn's birthday, Albert Clark was born April 16th 1932. It seemed like the Lord had given us a replacement to ease the blow. Then 3 years and a few months later Ellen Colleen was born July 30 1935, which constituted our family. Mom had a miscarriage a few years later, but it wasn't like losing a baby we had seen and loved.

"I was baptised in the Alberta Temple a short time after my ninth birthday. I was upset about this delay since I should have been baptised in my eighth year. In those days they had excursions once or twice a year, and I must have missed the first one. However it was special being baptised in the temple font with the 12 oxen surrounding it, which was the custom then."

I can see this will take some time. I'm going to stop there for now, but I will be back posting the next page or two in a few days, so stay tuned!!

And feel free to post about your families, you can see the happenings of my family by clicking on the link to the right.

Please leave comments to let me know you've been here and if you like what I am doing.

Have a Great Day!!

Grandpa & Justin's little ones

Lilo emailed me today and she sent me this picture. She took this picture last summer when they saw Grandpa walking around the temple in Cardston. I think it was sometime in August.

Surprise!!!

Thought I would add some information on the growing decedents of Grandpa and Grandma through their son Randy.
This year there has been several new additions. Lillian was born March 10th, followed by Tanner April 26th, Brinley joined us May 4th, and Stephen May 28th. Little Eve is scheduled to come sometime in September and we are excited about them all. It seems Mom, Dad, and Grandma are working overtime to increase their posterity. Since there are already pictures of Brinley and Tanner I will add pictures of the other two. If you want to see Eve at this point you will have to visit Rod and Jessica's site. You might catch a glimpse of her growth by looking at Jessica, but I doubt it. Jessica carries pregnancy well.
There will also be another addition to the family by way of marriage August 15th. Rhea has finally found a wonderful young man (or so we are told, I haven't met him yet, just heard many stories from varying sources) to spend the rest of her life with. His name is Jackson Jones and he has agreed to have his arm twisted and be married with her in the Cardston Alberta Temple.
I did some searching and found a picture of him so maybe I will post that. He would be the tall redhead in the picture.